It was pouring it down when the Master finally found the TARDIS. She had sent him on a wild goose chase, probably in punishment for his past deeds and caused him to get soaked though, down to the bone.
soaked enough that he was now shivering, despite his time-lord genetics, and had to concentrate when he knocked on the ships door.
He hoped to omega that Theta wouldn’t take too long… Otherwise the idiot would have to look after him ill as well.
The Doctor had been entirely oblivious to his ship’s choice to evade the Master for a little while, so the knock came as a surprise to him. He opened the doors and leaned forward, poking his head out.
“Master? Why are you-” No, that wasn’t right; questions later. The Master was shivering. The Doctor might have trouble with detecting emotional discomfort sometimes, but he was just fine with physical. Shivering and being drenched wasn’t a good thing.
“Never mind. Come inside. I’ve got dry clothes you can borrow.”
He stepped aside to grant him entrance to the TARDIS.
“Th-thanks…” He muttered as he walked into the box. He stripped his jacket as soon as he could, sighing as he felt the warmth of the room and toes off his shoes, putting them to the side.
“Wasn’t sure she would let you, let me in… Ive been tracking you down for hours, but your signal kept jumping about the city…” he told him leaning against the console.
“No, no…. no, i’m not here to do that either.” He told him putting his hands up.
“Im… here to… well, if i was to put it plainly… surrender.” Koschei confessed.
“Yeah, right. You expect me to believe that? Why would you surrender? Not that you need to — I never wanted to fight you.”
Koschei shoved his hands into his pockets and shrugged. “What? I suddenly cant decided to surrender, hmm? Im not allowed to grow tired of all this fighting, or just want to spend time with you?” He raised an eyebrow.
“Because this, is the only way i can think of that you just might accept… I mean you were gonna do it once, what was it… 2 faces back? You wanted to keep me on the Tardis… of course, i was a bit childish back then, but it might have worked out if i had gave it a chance… and the second time you asked me to travel… Or was that just words? words to stop me from what i was doing? Words with no truth behind them?”
His eyes squint, ever so slightly, having been wanting to keep that hidden. He had been and then he fixed himself up, as best as he could.
He had managed to stop the bleeding and wrapped a bandage around himself, which was probably the only thing he managed to get done properly.
Sadly, he was still healing. He was positive it was going to scar.
He licked his lips. “Maybe… but Im Alive… I mean, I got out the ship.” Yes. Of course he was, Missy was trying to get him to regenerate. Did Theta even know about that little bit? Was he going to have to tell her about what he had done in retaliation?
“Oh NO ya don’t. No. You. DON’T. If I didn’t get to quit, neither do you, an’ I’ll thank ya to be forthright, for once. ”
Keep moving. Keep talking. Stay perpetually kinetic. The pain never catches up that way. The realization that this is the person you crafted from your own follies and flaws. The knowledge that anyone he has ever butchered, anything he has ever ruined or burned or cut or poisoned, connects back to your cowardice, and your fickleness.
Don’t let him know that seeing him makes you think immediately of all the reasons why you are often a little too happy in this “fresh, new, start-again” face.
Don’t bury him further beneath your feet.
The Doctor seizes onto the Master and roughly examines him. She tears his coat clear off him. She hisses at the sight of his back wound. Strips off her brand new coat, and drapes it across his shoulders.
“You’re coomin’ with me. No vaults. No conditions. But you don’t get t’say no. Not until I’ve patched you oop. Master, I love ya.”
The last bit flies straight out quaking lips. The Doctor bites down hard. She shows love in a thousand and one ways but rarely does she feel comfortable articulating it in such a mundane, unadorned way.
But maybe that’s exactly what he needs.
“You’ll believe it in time, coom on. In ya go.”
He grimaces at her calling out, not that he WAS quitting, just not wanting to be a bother.
Koschei sucked in a breath as Theta pulls his coat off, The wound stretching at the rough movement, making it flair in pain. He Grits his teeth, trying to keep himself from making a sound.
The Words distract him and he’s practically gaping at her. LOVE? Oh that was something that he had wanted to hear for a VERY long time. And Gosh that really was what he needed.
Because it was an EXCUSE. An excuse to CONTINUE, to carry on forwards. As long as he knew that she loved HIM… He would continue onwards for her.
And perhaps she was right, that he would believe it one day that he was worth loving.. But for now, he would just trust her, for a little while, because apparently loving him made her happy.
“Lead the way Sunshine, I believe i’ve got a Doctor’s appointment to get too.” He winks. He Take her hand in his, needing something to show that this was real.
The Master laughed bitterly. He was cold, wet, shaking and in pain… and he knew that if he didn’t get dry he would probably get ill… or the wound infected….
But the only place he could go to… Was the torchwood hub… But he would probably be killed on sight by jack…. So he sent a message to the man’s wrist strap.
“Look, stop, before you switch me off… hear me out… Please… i know… i know i’m a bastard…. that what i did while insane and under the drumsinfluence was inhuman… I know what i did was wrong in SO many ways, okay, i get it… Im not here to make excuses or ask for forgiveness for something that could never be forgiven… but i- i cant exactly change for them if i’m dead… and i will be dead… if you don’t help me…”
“look this is me, wet, cold, weak and injured, on yourdoorstep… i would deserve it if you said no, i wont come back if you turn me away… Ill slink off to die in a corner or something… but you are literally the only other person on this planet that knows about a time lords body and how to help…” he takes a deep breath allowing the time agent to see behind the stone walls, the fear he was feeling and the longing to change.
“and i don’t think i have any regenerations left and that scaresme SO much…”
Jack nearly closes his wrist strap again once he sees who this message is from. It’s a kind of morbid curiosity that stays his hand, interested as to what his one-time nemesis has to say to him.
Despite everything, despite all the torture and the deaths and the destruction on the Valiant, Jack feels bad for him. He knows how that feels, to have absolutely no one in the entire universe, and to be so scared that you’re permanently dying. It’s enough to drive anyone to extremes, and that could include the last person in the world who wants to see you.
His mind made up, his jaw sets as he speaks. “Where are you?”
Some one up there must have decided to Pity him. Closing his eyes in relief, he lent his head against the wall.
“Im… Im outside the tourist office… didnt risk coming in…” he laughed slightly. “Had a hunch it would have been safer contacting you before hand.”
He bit back a groan of pain as he shifted slightly, his back flaring up. “So if you see a black hoodied Hobo, that me…”
His eyes water in relief, but he makes the effort to not show just howmuch this effects him.
“Good. It means that you are mine and only mine as well…” and with that he finally caves and kisses her.
There was nothing to hold her back. No reason that she would have to hesitate kissing back. Needless to say, she kissed back, granted a bit more rougher than she thought she would. Perhaps this was the effect that he had on her, especially in her state.
The Doctor wrapped her arms around him, closing any amount of space that would have been between them. Closer than they had ever been before.
‘I love you.’ It was a thought. She wasn’t sure if he could hear it but it was how she felt.
Oh he heard it, had the Master been a weaker telepath, he might have thought it was just him thinking it, but he was not.
So as he kissed her back, just as passionately, he proceeded to send her the same message back, stroking – caressing her mind with his.
“Love you as well Love.” he repeated out loud, pressing his forehead against hers.
