Chapter Text
Eleven.
The Master’s eye twitched in utter annoyance. A motion he did rather often, lately.
This time, it was to the Doctor’s impatient twitches that started up again when his count hit eleven seconds.
Eleven. Just eleven.
Well, it was a new record, at least. Highest until now was nine, and that was two weeks ago, when the Master had flown and parked them in 1885, right above the Andromeda Nebula. It’s been a long, long while since he was free to fly and travel how he pleased and an even longer one since he’d last seen a proper supernova. The Doctor had joined him at the door and for the entirety of nine glorious seconds he was impossibly still, watching the star burn in a million colours as it died, silently and without any other fuss. It wasn’t even over yet when the Doctor started to laugh and basically flutter with joy next to him. It was cute. It was aggravating. It was, nonetheless, nine seconds of peace before that.
Otherwise, the Doctor was physically unable to hold still for more than nine, no eleven now, seconds. And it annoyed him to no end.
“For fucks sake, Doctor”, the Master hissed. “Stop squirming!”
It didn’t have the intended effect but quite the opposite and those ugly beige trainers tapped faster down on the floor. The Master felt the jumping muscles vibrate through the body he was currently straddling the lap of on the couch in the control room. He was already on a short fuse these days but the Doctor managed to test his patience to abnormal levels.
Eleven seconds. The Doctor tried, he had to give him that.
“I can’t-! It hurts!”
“Good!”
An ignored glare later he swapped the disinfectant gauze pad with the tweezers again, to pick the glass shards and splinters out of the next big wound on the left side of the freckled cheek. The Doctor eyed the medical tool warily as he moved it closer and the Master grabbed his face again, to hold that still, at least. The Doctor tried to lean away, but the back of the couch didn’t allow him to go far. That was the reason the Master had positioned himself in his lap in the first place.
“Nnnnn.”
The unhappy noise as he cleaned the gaping cut made him smile a bit.
“You know- none of this would be necessary if you would just pull that stick out your ass and give me back my laser screwdriver. It would make both of our lives a lot easier.”
“No.”
The answer came more determined and calm than the tapping and squirming beneath him would have let on. He leaned back a bit and turned the Doctor’s face forward, so that brown eyes could catch his. “Why? You just proved -again, I need to point out here- that you’re the most self-destructive bastard I’ve ever met and I’ve lost count how many times I had to save your sorry ass so far from getting killed. My laser would only benefit your constant struggle of simply staying alive. And it would save me from going insane, because I didn’t sign up to be your babysitter- but here I am and it’s a fucking hell of a job.”
“I’m not doing that on purpose, mind you. And it wasn’t that bad this time.”
“Doctor”, he hissed again, through clenched teeth and at least, the other Time Lord seemed to get the silent warning underneath.
“Okay, yeah, right. Maybe a little bit. Sorry. Still, you’re not getting it back.”
“Why?”, the Master said again, this time more out of pure frustration than teasing the Doctor for his morals.
“You know why. Same reason I didn’t let you keep the proton blaster or the mini-bombs or the square gun or the big sword or the-”
“Alright!” He cut in the sentence. “Shut up! I get the picture, thanks! Fuck. You’re the biggest killjoy in the entire universe.”
“Aw, don’t sulk. I know you like it that way.”
That felt like a low kick in the gut and the Master narrowed his eyes at him in an intimidating, dark grimace. It was another kick when he had to note that the Doctor didn’t look one bit intimidated by it. Amused, rather.
Bastard.
“…I hate you.”
“No, you don’t. Besides, I just saved the entire earth from getting incinerated in less than ten minutes. So- worth it, right?”
“You-”, he started, but it turned into a groan and then into a frustrated sigh, when the Doctor only looked back at him with those big, brown and pretty eyes that he hated so impossibly much. The Master closed his own for good measure and started to count again. At eleven, the Doctor started squirming and tapping. Eleven. Always eleven, now.
Tap- tap- tap- tap-
Yes, of course.
Of course, it was earth. Of course, that thing was on the edge of being destroyed. AGAIN. The everlasting curse of the Doctor’s favourite planet. And the Master’s curse now, too. The realisation of that still left his blood run cold like ice in his veins.
Tap- tap- tap- tap-
Of course, the Doctor had answered the call that had been caught and announced over the TARDIS’ speakers, broadcasting the warning of an escaped prisoner over his ship and the entire planet below. Of course, he rushed there. And of course, the Doctor saved them all, too. In ‘less than ten minutes’, as he stated. Ever the hero.
Of course, the Master stood by his side, less heroic but nowadays just as invested to keep the planet in one piece and running. The Doctor would be absolutely insufferable, if not and he had no plans to live through these miserable whines and cries if something major like complete annihilation happened to it.
And he hated everything about that whole arrangement. Everything. Absolutely everything.
The Doctor sometimes looked at his beloved earth, like that, like that, like that, and the Master wanted to burn the whole damn thing down to the very core himself. Didn’t the bastard know by now? He should know. Oh, he did. The Master was sure. Three words, right?
But from time to time it felt like the other Time Lord missed his part in the new game. He wasn’t allowed. The Doctor wasn’t allowed to look at anything else like that. Still, sometimes he did.
Unfair.
He’d chosen to stay but what he got for it was this. Not to mention the running around it took to follow the Doctor. Unfair. Unfair, unfair, all of it. And it was unfair, too, that the Master had to continue to save it (an unhealthy amount of times, too) when the Doctor would look at the planet like that as a reward. Anger and hate and something were making him boil and freeze at the same time as a result.
Counting, again. He hit eleven.
Tap- tap- tap-tap-
But yes, he stayed. He still wanted. Oh, how he wanted. More and more and more and more and more and MORE and MORE-
Of course. How couldn’t he, after all. The Doctor had already broken and reduced him to something utterly pathetic like that. And thoroughly, so.
Eleven.
Tap- tap- tap- tap-
Oh, sure. Enough. Fuck this- and yes, his fuse was really short these days. He opened his eyes again, shaking his head in a tired motion. At himself or the Doctor, he didn’t know.
“Worth it? Ha. Haha. Yeah. That fucking planet is worth everything to you, right? Even this.” His thumb moved in lazy circles over the soft cheek and the Master got lost in the motion.
“You-” The Doctor tilted his head the tiniest bit to watch him closely and the Master readjusted his hold on that face. “Oh. Oh! Don’t tell me- Noooooooo, no way. Are you- shut up! No. No you are! Oh! You totally are! You are jealous of a planet! Noooo- Yes? Well, either that or you’re just complaining because you have to patch me back up- Ouch!”
Oh, he pulled that shard out with maybe a bit too much force. It clinked as he let it fall onto the metal plate to his right.
“The latter, obviously, and maybe-”, the Master hissed through clenched teeth, curling his lip. He wasn’t even going to entertain that thought further. “Just maybe, Doctor, I wouldn’t complain as much if you wouldn’t be that fucking reckless while doing your shit! You stole a fire truck just to throw yourself through a window!”
Said Doctor snorted at that, and then yelped again as another tiny shard was pulled out without much care. “There was no other way to get in! I couldn’t find my psychic paper! And the multiform had already found you!”
“No, I found it. You ran away after that dumb nurse and didn’t listen to me! I could have gotten us into the hospital the normal way, you know, through the front door, but no-!” The Master let go of the Doctor’s face, ignoring how the other followed his hand a bit at the loss of contact and leaned up to search the back pocket of his pants. “You can have that back, by the way.”
The Doctor’s eyes went wide as he regarded the little black object. “What? When did you steal my psychic paper?!”
A shrug of shoulders was the only answer he got, and the Doctor shook his head, looking the tiniest bit amused now as he grabbed it and put the paper back inside the inner pocket of his pine-striped suit. “I’m impressed. Still, rude. Don’t do that again, please.”
“Wasn’t much fun anyway.”
“Thought so. You’re more one for the dramatics.”
“Fuck you.”
The Doctor giggled at that. Some of his messy, stupid hair kept falling into his eyes and the Master caught himself staring. His gaze went over every cut on that freckled face, mapping it and saving it to memory. The blood was smeared on the places he hadn’t yet cleaned and patched up, and the brown suit was rumpled and had some serious rips on it, too. He looked wild. And reckless. Stupidly reckless.
He counted again, and the Doctor stopped giggling at eleven, exactly. And then, he caught him staring at twelve. Fourteen, and the Master threw the tweezers back into the medical kit with a huff.
“So technically-”, the Doctor started and the Master felt the brush of fingers on his arm, as they wandered over the fabric of his black hoodie almost casually, drawing some kind of pattern. He hadn’t even made it to the cuts on the Doctor’s arms yet, he thought as his eyes followed the other’s movements. “Technically it’s your fault I look like this.”
The Master felt his eye twitch yet again.
“Hell no. Don’t pin this on me, Doctor, dare you.” An accusing finger was pointed at that stupid face and the Doctor had the audacity to continue with not being intimidated by his glare. “You’ve been like this for a while now. Reckless and stupid and I’m sick of it. You throw yourself into gunfire without thinking twice and I have to play your safeguard every time! And I’m not just talking about the fucking stunts! If I hadn’t written that virus on your phone to get the Atraxi’s attention while you were talking again-“
“Which I helped you spread with my sonic, thank you very much. We made a pretty good team there.”
“Yes, but then you called them back after they left! That’s what I was getting at, you sorry excuse for a Time Lord.”
“Oi. Leaving is good. Never returning is better.”
“Reckless, that’s what it was and it could have very much gotten you killed on the spot. And there would have been nothing I could have done, you fucking bastard.”
His voice sounded cold, and the Doctor deserved the little flinch that went through him at the icy harshness of the tone. He opened his mouth a few times, but didn’t find the right words to answer, apparently. It took him eleven seconds to look away from the Master’s equally cold stare, and eleven more to finally find the right ones. So much for the record of eleven.
“I- I can’t help it.” Nothing more than a whisper, but clear nonetheless. And when the Doctor looked back up- ah. The red flush spread fast on that cheeks. And there was a smile now, too. A big and bright and pretty one. The one that was like the sun, full of emotion. And full of that. It was the one the Master came to hate the most. “With you, I feel invincible.”
Oh. Oh, and that was just it.
The heat flared up in him immediately at the same time his hearts skipped a beat. Or two. Maybe even three. Hard to count that.
His left hand shot up before he even made the thought and grabbed a fistful of that stupid brown hair, pulling hard to yank the Doctor’s face to the side. His lips curled at the painful little gasp the other let out. Another tug, and with that one he moved his body forward on the Doctor’s lap, closer, closer, until their chests were touching, pressing against each other. Their height difference (still damn that one) didn’t matter in this position, and he was glad for that fact. The Doctor’s breath came a bit shorter now, he could feel that. That little, hasty heartsbeat that was pounding against his own.
It was with a dark grin that he brought his right hand up, tracing the big, bloody and still unclean cut on the Doctors left cheek. Oh, it felt good. He pressed is nails in the wound, relishing the whine and little tremors coming from the other Time Lord. Yes, this was a well deserved punishment. A little one, but still. He needed to be put back into his place.
The Master scratched some more, digging his nails in. The Doctor was squirming again, gasping at the pain it must send through him. The streak of blood that seeped out caught his eyes. It ran down, down, down the Doctor’s chin and throat and neck and then got lost in the collar of his shirt, tainting it deep. The Master wanted to rip that off, just to see it dripping further down that skinny body. He licked his lips, lidded eyes slowly coming back up to meet the Doctor’s, those pupils blown wide and glimmering now. Oh, Red was a pretty colour on the Doctor. The Master hummed.
Something cold licked at the bottom of his stomach. Something hot started to burn through his blood.
“Does this feel invincible, Doctor?”
Eleven, again.
The Doctor moved after eleven seconds.
Maybe, the Master thought, this was the reason the Doctor used to keep human pets- ah, friends around. Someone to keep him in check. Someone he has to look after. Someone weak and slow, like a weight chained to his feet, to make him stay on the ground. Someone to hold him back, so he doesn’t stray too far.
The Master didn’t hit any of the criteria.
Three words, but still.
And he just wondered if that was better or worse for the situation, but the Doctor’s tongue was hot and warm in his mouth and moving against his just right. The cut on the Doctor’s upper lip opened back up while he was kissing him and the deep, iron taste of blood made him moan. This has happened before, he remembered. Though, it hadn’t felt like that back then. Nowhere near close. His eyes fluttered shut without him thinking to do so and his grip on that mess of hair tightened as the Doctor’s own hands had found their way up, holding onto the back of his head and his neck, the nail of a thumb pressing into the soft skin behind his ear, scratching down in return. Oh-
The Master lost count after he hit eleven the fifth time and started over again. By the last number, the Doctor pulled away, breathless.
His eyes were still closed, and he felt the other’s forehead softly touching his.
“Yes.”
Again, nothing more than a whisper. The Doctor liked to do that. He liked to speak ever so silent, just for him to hear. Tsk. As if they weren’t alone, anyway.
“Yes, it does”, he added a bit louder after another five seconds.
The Master moved in to kiss him again before the Doctor could say even more stupid things.
“Isn’t this just brilliant?”
Passion, happiness and pure fascination lightened the Doctor’s voice as he spread his arms. He even did a little spin, brown coat flapping up behind him to follow the motion. “London Market! A new home on a giant starship! Oh, humans! They never fail to amaze me!”
The Master snorted as the other Time Lord almost got hit by a bicycle and had to jump out of the way in the last second. “Sorry!”
“Sure. It’s nice”, he answered, as the Doctor joined his side again. “I like it. Brilliant isn’t the word I would use, though. Obscure maybe. Wrong. Dire. Cold. Can’t you smell it in the air? The fear?”
“No. Is this… Are you still sulking and trying to spoil the fun for me?”
“I’m not sulking, you-” He was ready to shot a nice little insult back, but the Master closed his mouth after it had morphed into a mumble. The Doctor had caught his hand and worked his fingers between his and the boldness of it had made him lose his words as well as his train of thought. Just for a few seconds, though.
Eleven.
Ah, he really got caught up.
The Doctor pulled him along like that, shoulders bumping together from time to time. The Master took a deep breath and let his eyes roam down the busy street, nostrils flaring as he took in the scent. It still smelled wrong and cold and it was nice. Yeah, he liked that. He liked the wrongness that crawled deep into his bones. It was the kind that made him shiver with premonition and let the hairs on his neck stand up.
He glanced over to his right side and apparently, the Doctor hadn’t seemed to notice any of it yet. No, he looked content with the whole situation and everything about him radiated some sort of childlike wonder and happiness as he watched over the humans around them that were going on about their day. Oh, he looked rather cute like that, with his new, deep blue suit and black shirt and that old brown trench coat and his patched-up, happy face. Yeah. Cute. Inappropriately so. The contrast to the lingering fear in the air let the Master click his tongue and the sound made the other’s eyes search for his.
It all made for a beautiful contradiction. One he couldn’t just leave unattended.
So he stopped, and pulled on the Doctor’s hand.
“Hm? What’s wrong?”
Still, not a single worry on that face. “What’s wrong? Doctor, would you please get a clue and just look.”
Eleven seconds.
“I am looking.”
Yes, he was. But at the very wrong thing. And in the wrong way, too. The warm tickles didn’t care that he was entirely against that reaction and continued to spread on his face.
“Fuck, not at me! Look!” His free hand gestured down the street and the Doctor finally let his gaze wander around them.
It didn’t do any good, apparently and he rested his eyes on the Master again. “I don’t know what you mean.”
He looked so entirely lost, it made the Master chuckle. And once he started, he couldn’t stop and after a while he was seriously laughing. The Doctor continued to look at him equal parts in wonder and confusion. It only made him laugh more. Yes, this really was brilliant, to steal the Doctor’s words. It finally felt like being one step ahead and those moments were to be treasured.
“Oh, Doctor.” The Master said, after he finally calmed down and he was still smirking when he popped one finger up to tap on the Doctor’s forehead four times. Brown eyes narrowed the tiniest bit as he let his hand fall down again. “All that knowledge in there and you’re still bone-dead stupid.”
Oh, and that expression was nice. A good one. Almost as pretty as the red and the patched up cuts that still stood as a reminder of that particular favourite of his.
“You’re being rude again.”
“You’re being slow again. Look, Doctor.”
One last little affronted stare and the Doctor tore his eyes away to let them jump over their surroundings. This time, thankfully, with more determination. The Master tapped his fingers on his leg, at least those that weren’t still being held tight by a warm hand. He let the drums guide his rhythm as he waited for the Doctor to catch up.
Surprisingly, it didn’t even take him eleven this time. Only ten. The Master could pinpoint the exact moment he figured it out, by the way his eyes went wide when they stopped at the glass of water standing on the table nearby. Long fingers twitched around his hand.
And now, he could smell the Doctor’s fear, too.
“There you are.” He smiled at him. The Doctor did not. “Took you long enough.”
The engine room was just as wrong as everything else on Starship UK.
“That doesn’t make sense at all”, the Doctor said while shaking his head. “The power couplings aren’t even connected!”
He closed the lid with a huff, scanning the cables with his sonic. “Nothing! How can there be nothing?”
Of course there was nothing, and the Master hummed, knocking his finger on the wall on the other side. “These are hollow, too.”
“Hm”, The Doctor turned around and scratched the back of his head while closing one eye in a frown.
He had those ridiculous glasses back on and the Master squinted his eyes at the sight. Ah. No, ridiculous didn’t even capture it. He was sure the other didn’t even need them and the Master hadn’t yet figured out why he bothered with them at all. He couldn’t look away, though, felt his mind wander and tangle up in something and the Master had to bite his own tongue because a harsh mental kick at himself wasn’t enough for his eyes to look away.
Fuck.
The Master just made a note to throw the Doctor’s glasses out into space at the next opportunity. For now, he put his hands in the pouch of his hoodie and cleared his throat before talking again. “So- we have no vibrations on deck. Which is impossible on a ship this size.”
“And no real cables anywhere.”
“And hollow walls in an engine room that shouldn’t be hollow, if anything. If I didn’t know better…”
They looked at each other for a while. There was this cold feeling again, settling deep in the Master’s gut, when the realisation of what exactly was wrong here made itself clear.
“There’s no engine at all”, both Time Lords said at the same time. The Doctor smiled at him, but was back to a frown when he, too, realized the meaning of that.
“But then... Why are moving? It does, we saw it. It passed us. That’s just impossible.”
The Master sighed. “Well. Impossible is just a word, Doctor. We’re on a spaceship that shouldn’t be able to fly. The question isn’t why. It’s how.”
“It rather is.” They turned around, startled by the voice that belonged to neither of them. The woman walked towards them rather confident through the steam-filled corridor, red robe floating behind her, and the Master took a determined step to place himself between her and the Doctor. His hands were still in his hoodie, but they curled into fists either way.
“The fuck are you?”, he growled, and the woman stilled at the cold tone, raising her hands up in a defensive gesture.
“Not a threat, for sure. I saw you two coming down here, heard you make the same conclusions I did a few years back.”
“Do you know what’s going on here?”, the Doctor asked, and the Master felt the warm hand on his shoulder as he stood beside him.
“I do not. But there’s a darkness at the heart of this nation. It threatens every one of us. We need your help, Doctor.”
“Oh. You know who I am.”
A statement, not a question and the woman smiled at him. Beautiful and sweet and he saw the Doctor smile back from the corner of his eye. The Master scoffed and really, really, really wanted to scratch her eyes out. Or the Doctor’s.
“You’re a bit hard to miss, love. MO consistent with higher alien intelligence, hair of an idiot. I’ve been brought up on the stories. My whole family was. Though… they didn’t say anything about you.”
She looked at the Master now, dark eyes travelling slowly over his appearance and he felt his eye twitch at the nerve of that. “No, I would have remembered. That makes you the accomplice, then? The companion that helps along at his side? It is said the Doctor never travels alone.”
Oh, that was just what he needed, all right. Anger flared up in him, burning and paired with pure hate. God, he despised humans. Little pests, they were. All of them.
He let out a deep growl, though she didn’t deserve a warning and showed a flash of teeth where he pulled his lip up. And just to make himself crystal clear, and because he was utterly pissed, the Master raised his chin at the audacity he was met with. The Doctor must have felt his murderous intent, because the grip on his shoulder tightened the tiniest bit.
“Doctor?” His eyes never left the woman when he addressed the other Time Lord. “I remember the no-killing-rule, but I’m gonna break it real quick.”
“Nononono, you don’t.”
“Will do. She called me your pet.”
“She called you my friend, now behave.”
Yeah, the Doctor had it down to an art. There was tactical finesse in the way he managed to cool even the last bit of his burning anger that quick and without much effort. The Master looked at him, stunned for the moment (by the words itself or the way the Doctor said them wasn’t entirely clear to him) and it took him far too long to speak again. “That’s. That’s just as bad! No, worse! I’m not-!”
The Doctor bit his lip, expression turning into something unreadable. He still had those glasses on, and looked at him like that and the Master felt the cold shiver running down his spine. His breath hitched, too. Damn. Those brown eyes were still holding him down when the Master hit eleven for the second time. His mind drifted away and into dark, forbidden territory. Ah, how did he end up in this particular situation, again? He couldn’t really remember, but it was the Doctor’s fault. Always. Always the Doctor’s.
He hit the count of eleven for the third time.
“Oooooooookay”, he heard the woman’s voice and flinched a bit as it reached his ears, breaking out of whatever shit this was. He had already forgotten about her. “Husband then, my bad.”
And that broke the Doctor out, too. He already had his mouth open to correct her, but he didn’t get the chance to. Ah, well. The easy way doesn’t apply for the ones that got caught in a storm. If anything, the Master learned that.
So he wasn’t really that surprised when heavy steps started to echo through the steamy corridor, metal clicking on metal, and soon a whole army of dark figures with hideous, clown-like faces appeared from around the corner. The Master had seen them before, but they didn’t look quite that unhappy back then.
The woman acted first as she whirled around and started shooting with a wild grin on her face, shouting at them while the figures dropped down one after another. The Doctor used his grip on the Master’s shoulder to pull him back a few steps, only to stop again as he noticed them coming in from the other side, too.
He had to admit, that she fought well and had impressive aim. But these fuckers stood back up again and there were too many and soon, the three of them were circled in. Again, the Master wasn’t even surprised anymore. It was just that kind of day.
The woman must have had an identical thought, considering her expression as she dropped her weapons slowly and the Doctor looked the same, too while raising his hands in surrender. The Master only shrugged his shoulders.
“Laser screwdriver, just saying.”
He could basically hear the Doctor’s eye roll beside him.
“You could have killed everyone on this ship.”
Ah.
Yes. Nevermind the accusation that flickered in the air between them. He didn’t care about that. Never had.
That, on the other hand… That look on the patched-up face fitted him extraordinarily well.
The Doctor eyed him cautiously from the control panel after the Master had closed the door behind him and stopped with his hands in pouches, halfway to the other Time Lord, weight lazily put on one foot.
The Doctor wasn’t mad, really. He wanted to be, the Master could feel it seeping through the thread that bound them, but it was more like being torn between two emotions. Burned up and frozen. They were the same, anyway. It didn’t matter.
He waited for an answer, but didn’t get one and at eleven, the Doctor moved again, walking a few undecided steps towards him.
Oh, the Doctor had done well for him.
It was Pompeii all over again.
And the Master felt the flames twitching again as his mind drifted back.
“I can never just have a choice between good and bad, huh? It’s always two kinds of worse”, the Doctor had said in the dungeon, no, the torture chamber, with a tired, tired voice after they had seen the video tape. The Master watched him as he stood there, thin body bowed forward with his hands splayed out over the screen. He looked done and the Master loved it.
Eleven seconds and then, he slammed them down on it with a groan. The Master felt the woman next to him flinch at that. Oh. Oh. The picture of a burning city, flames dancing over that pretty face and ash raining from the sky played bevor his eyes and he could almost smell the death in the air right now, too.
He loved it. And the Master was sure he would never get enough of that.
Without any other word the Doctor went to work, hands moving determined and with cold precision over the electrical setup.
My pretty little soldier, the Master thought.
“What is he doing?”, the woman asked him, and he grinned, eyes never leaving the other Time Lord. Not once.
“Killing the Star Whale.”
He could hear her gasp. Oh, be affronted, he thought. Yes. He loved that, too. It must come as such a shock, that the good, heroic Doctor was able to do something that utterly cruel. A shock, sure, for someone that just glanced at him briefly. For someone that just got to touch the surface and not further behind that precious, untainted mask the Doctor had firmly in place. For someone that had yet to touch his fire. No, but the Master had. He knew. That woman clearly didn’t. It felt like a very special kind of ownership he had always desired and chased after.
“What? But- there must be something else we can do, some other way!” The Master didn’t bother to answer. Of course she wouldn’t understand the beauty in all of this. The Doctor, who worked so hard right now to lose his very name while the zapping of the laser played as a melody in the background. He wondered how the screams of the creature would sound like and his hearts speed up so so so fast, faster than the drums and-
“Hey, are you listening? I said we can’t let him do this!”
It was only when the woman grabbed his shoulder for attention that he snapped. He moved fast and tightened his fingers on that hand in an undoubtedly painful grip. She winced and tried to step back, but he didn’t let go.
“Shut up. You have nothing to say here.” His eyes never left the Doctor. Not even when he hissed the warning at her. The woman flinched at the cold, harsh tone and tried to free her hand, but her weak efforts were to no avail.
Eleven.
The glory and thrill of it went on for another eleven seconds.
After eleven seconds, a single tear made its way down the Doctor’s cheek.
And the Master felt his world freeze.
The icy grip of it pierced through his core and tore through him, unforgivable.
Just like that.
One lonely tear was all it took.
His hearts stilled for a moment before jumping back on.
It was unbearably cold. It was enough to bring him back.
Oh, and he damned the Doctor for that, too.
He damned himself more.
Another eleven seconds.
The Doctor had made his choice. The Master made his.
“Change of plan, Your Majesty. I’m going to need that hand.”
The TARDIS whooshed softly behind him, as if she was encouraging him to move on. He did. He was used to give in by now, anyway. Bad habit. And yes, he could have killed everyone. He didn’t care. Not like that. What he cared about was how the Doctor looked at him back then, those big eyes that went impossibly round after he had pushed the woman’s hand down on the button.
“Humans grow back. They are the cancer of this universe”, the Master said. Maybe a bit too cold, but he meant every word. “Star Whales don’t.” He looked to the floor then, unable to bear the Doctor’s staring anymore. “And you being mad at yourself is much more troublesome than you being mad at me. You can take that as my reason if you need one.”
A lie, yes. But whatever.
“Master-”
You cried, was his first thought. Don’t say my name like that, was his second.
Shit. The Master could have watched him kill a beautiful, ancient creature for a horde of humans. The very last of it, too. He could have been there to watch the Doctor break into tiny little pieces afterwards. He could have easily crushed the rest of him. Child’s play.
But he didn’t.
And yes, he hated himself for having turned into something that weak and pathetic in the worst kind of way. Three words. Oh, he cared, after all. And he loathed. So much, so much that he could almost feel the rotten taste of it heavy on his tongue.
Whatever, he made his choice a while ago. Had found his place next to this reckless bastard. It didn’t make it in any way easier, though.
“I know, shut up. ‘You had no right.’ That what you want to say? Sound familiar? Fuck that. You cried, Doctor, and I don’t give a single shit about a ship full of humans.”
It was like a flip had switched. And before he could form another thought, the Doctor had moved and already placed his fingers in a tight grip on his hoodie and pushed him back and back and back until the Master hit the TARDIS’ door (surprisingly careful on impact, considering the demanding drive of it). The next thing he noticed was the Doctor pressing him flat on it, and then those soft lips were on his own.
The Doctor bowed down to kiss him with force and caution and the contrast made his head spin. One hand lost its grip on the black fabric and held the side of his face not a second later in a warm touch. Oh, it felt nice. And it felt even nicer when the Doctor’s thumb started to rub over the stubble on his chin and the kisses started to trail down on his neck.
“Oh you’re terrible.” The Doctor’s breath ghosted over his skin with every word. “Gorgeous and terrible and awful and amazing and beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, you are-”
“I’m getting mixed signals here, Doctor.”
He had started to nib on his pulse point now and the Master felt his breath hitch. It was an exercise in self-control to keep still while his mind screamed for more and more and more and-
“Please, please tell me you knew.” The Doctor’s voice was so silent, he almost missed it.
“Hm. I can say I did if that makes it easier for you.”
The Doctor didn’t answer. Well, if you count a helpless little whine as not answering. At least, he didn’t say anything for eleven seconds.
“I can say my three words if that makes it easier for you, too.”
Oh, that little bastard.
The Master scoffed and moved quick, grabbing the dumb tie and using his grip on it to flip them around. The Doctor hit the door hard and yelped as another harsh tug pulled his face down.
So much for his self-control.
“Don’t you dare. Doctor.” The other already opened his mouth, but the Master was faster and didn’t leave the Doctor any chance at it. He moved in to capture those lips with his own. They cooperated rather eagerly and the Master could have laughed at how easy the Doctor turned into a whining mess under his hands.
Yes, that was way better, he thought pleasingly and moved his leg forward to work it between those skinny thighs. The other Time Lord moaned rather indecent in his mouth. More, more, more, he wanted more and every last one of those pretty sounds.
The Doctor’s hands had made it around his neck and shoulders to pull him closer and the Master bit down softly on the other’s tongue. Oh yes. He grinned when the shiver that ran down the Doctor’s body vibrated back on his own.
“Mmmnh-”
The Doctor had just started to grind down on the Master’s thigh, chasing friction and it earned him an approving little hum. The freckled face even flushed with a bit of colour at the encouragement to go on.
It was perfect.
The Master had already learned, though, that the Doctor’s TARDIS was a major bitch, if anything. And so, or, because of that, it was apparently the perfect moment for her to let her phone ring. Annoyingly loud and annoyingly unwelcome. He ignored it, because fuck- not right now, and focused on biting down on a mostly healed cut on the Doctors chin. The other Time Lord was perfectly still as he did and just as still when he licked over it after.
But then he hit eleven again.
“It’s- that’s not the mobile, that’s the TARDIS’ phone.”
“So?”
Oh, he was already fucking annoyed by Doctor’s drifting focus. “We- we really need to take that, it might be important.”
The Master ignored him. Moving his tight up against the Doctor’s half-had cock apparently did the trick to get his attention back and he got lost in the friction again.
The universe seemed to have at least a bit of decency and the phone stopped ringing after a while. He noticed the Doctor biting his lip and he chuckled at that. The TARDIS didn’t have as much decency and the damn thing started ringing again, twice as loud. His fingers twitched around that dumb tie and he breathed in through his nose. Short fuse and all, yes, and it made him move his head back, just enough to catch the Doctor’s gaze.
“Stay there.”
The deep, commanding tone of his voice send a little shiver through the Doctor and he licked slowly over the other’s bottom lip for good measure before separating himself. His cock had already started to express interest in the situation and that fact made walking over to the console a very annoying experience. The shrill ringing sound didn’t help, either.
“What?!”, he barked harsh and maybe a little bit too loud into the TARDIS’ phone. The other end was silent and his annoyance at the interruption reached the maximum level as the voice finally started speaking.
“Which one?”
The Master put the phone down, holding one hand over the speaker while turning to the Doctor. It filled him with deep satisfaction that the other Time Lord hadn’t moved an inch. He grinned.
“Doctor- how high is the chance that you would still let me fuck you against that door after I told Winston Churchill to shut his stupid mouth?”