| Date: 14 January 2008
Characters: The Tenth Doctor, The Master Location: hotel lobby, hotel bar Link to IJ: thread #36141 |
 He was beginning to think that this nexus was just a natural phenomenon, although a very weird one. In which case, he probably would just have to sit tight and wait until he was sent home. Waiting was never his strong suit. He always fidgeted too much. Being stuck in one place and time made it worse. He'd think too much about what he could be missing. And what could be going wrong elsewhere while he waited.The Master was the one who could stay in one place for months on end, all in anticipation of the grand finale of his latest scheme. Although, the Master was prone to taking short cuts without considering the consequences he didn't intend. The Master was probably doing that back in 2007 right now because he wasn't there to tell him what an idiot he is, the Doctor thought with a mixture of fondness and worry. Oh, he was starting in on the worrying already wasn't he? Well, the easiest way to distract himself was to find someone else interesting to talk to. There was no telling who he would run into next, here! Maybe he should head towards the hotel down the street? There was bound to be people there, and, somehow, sleeping in the TARDIS didn't seem very appealing this evening. |
 The Master looked up from the couch in the lobby where he'd sat down for a minute while he wondered what to do next - and partly to see if anyone interesting came along.He grinned when he saw that the new arrival was the Doctor. Then he frowned. Something was different. "What on earth have you done to your hair?" |
| The Doctor lit up when saw the Master. "Oh, you're here, too! That's wonderful. Well, actually, that could bad. No one back home to mind the store, so to speak, if we can't get back the same time we left. We can worry about that later. I've been meaning to drag you off Earth for a bit of holiday for a while, and here we are. Anways, have you been here long? What do you think?" Then what the Master actually said caught up with him, and he touched his hair. "What wrong with my hair? Ooh, it is sticking up a bit, isn't it?" He smoothed it back down a bit, trying to ignore the creeping feeling something wasn't right here. The Master was here - they'd have a bit of fun in this strange place. What could be wrong? |
| The Master leaned back on the couch, crossing his legs, arms stretched out along the back cushions. He raised amused eyebrows. "Just a little bit more than usual, yes. Have you been drinking?" |
| The Doctor shook his head. "Just some tea. With, ah, Susan actually. You remember Susan? Course you do. That was...odd. I think she's not from our universe. There's an alternate me around, I'm told, although I don't like to think about what I've been told about him. Drinks could be nice, though." He looked at the Master expectantly. Surely he'd chime in with what he'd been up to. Although the Master seemed oddly closed off, even though he was smiling. Huh. Had he run into something that had upset him? Like the alternate Doctor? That might do it. |
| "I've seen Susan, yes. Dear little thing she's turned out to be." The Master regarded the Doctor a moment longer, definitely amused, and intrigued, because this really wasn't his Doctor. This was a Doctor who appeared to be on rather more friendly terms with the Master, presumably because he hadn't been kept prisoner for a year and aged by a hundred years and, well, generally used as entertainment by a bored Master. From before the Valiant? Or something far more different? He stretched languidly and stood up. "Drinks could be nice," he agreed, offering the Doctor his arm with a smile. He was a bit bored with the hotel bar, to be honest, but it was nice and handy. |
| The Doctor's sense of vertigo increased as he felt the Master studying him. He almost said, "No, really, it's me." Or, "What happened?" But instead he just beamed when the Master offered his arm, and took it, letting himself be steered. "So, you must have been here longer then me, because I haven't been here long, and Susan is the second person I ran into. I also met this girl, who seems have traveled with the alternate me. Rose Tyler. Sweet girl, but she may be in a bit over her head dealing with that me. Gives me the creeps just thinking about it. What have you been up to?" |
| "Oh, I've been here a while," the Master said casually, escorting the Doctor through to the bar. "Wandering about, chatting to people, amusing myself as best I can. It's been very dull without you here, though. I'm glad you're here." He wasn't joking. This version of the Doctor looked like being far more fun than his own. He smiled at the Doctor, as they came up against the bar. He ordered his usual whisky and glanced at the Doctor for his order. |
| "Ooh, banana daiquiri, for me. I'll never understand your fascination with straight liquor. Well, never say never. I might pick it up next regeneration - these things happen. The look on your face when I came wandering out of the wardrobe room all in black the regeneration before this one. That was priceless. And you were so irritated that we were both fond of vests and velvet coats there for a while. Why didn't I tease you more about that again? Oh yes, I was trying so hard to be nice." The Doctor stopped to take a breath, and grinned at the Master a bit wickedly. "So, met anyone interesting?" |
| The Master listened as the Doctor nattered on, smiling affectionately. He missed the times when the Doctor would forget they were enemies and just talk to him. When their drinks arrived, he handed over the banana daiquiri with a delicate wrinkling of his nose and a raised eyebrow. "This is you not trying to be nice?" he asked mildly. Because it seemed pretty nice. He'd get to the matter of who he'd met in a minute. |
| "I'm not trying be anything right now," the Doctor said affably. He leaned forward a little bit, still grinning. "Were you hoping for less nice? I can try for that." |
| "Oooh, promises, promises," the Master pretty much leered, enjoying himself very much indeed. He jerked his head at a booth in the far corner. "Shall we sit down? I've done rather a lot of standing at this bar the last week or two." |
| "If you like. You've been here for an entire week? Now I feel like I've missed out on quite a lot of fun," the Doctor pouted. He knew he wasn't being quite fair. He tended to wander off on his own in the TARDIS quite a lot, and she was the only TARDIS in the universe still, although they were working on that. But that only made sense. Someone needed to take care of the fall out from the War. The Master was better at staying in one place, and making sure the boring bits of their plan happened. Why was he so jealous that the Master had been pulled here without him? And he still had this nagging feeling of something being off, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. |
| "You haven't missed that much," the Master told him, leading the way to the seats. "There's not much one can actually do here." He settled into the corner of the benchseat, with a good commanding view of the room, and smiled at the Doctor. "What have you been upto while I've been getting bored here, then?" |
| The Doctor settled in the seat directly across from the Master. He leaned forward across his drink a bit as he talked. "Well, last place I stopped was sort of boring, and particularly so by your standards. Picked up strange energy signature. Ended up in London, 1953. Turns out a nasty energy being was trying to use television broadcasts to gather enough energy to become corporal and make havoc. I thought, can't have London in ruins before we even show up! So long story short, she's trapped on a Betamax tape. All we need to do is tape over her and - poof. Haven't done it yet, because I thought you might get a little thrill at pressing the button." |
| "That's really very thoughtful of you, Doctor," the Master crooned, turning the pitying expression he'd been wearing at the tale of a very boring escapade into an appreciative smile. "You're so very good to me." He sipped at his whisky, then regarded the Doctor lazily over his glass. "I met another version of you here," he murmured. "He wasn't nearly so friendly." |
| "I did hear there was at least one other me running around. Rose Tyler told me about him." The Doctor bit his lip. He hadn't been planning on talking about that version, because he still hated the very thought of what he'd heard. But since the Master brought it up... Lowering his voice nearly to a whisper he said, "She said he had to fight the Time War alone. That he's the only one that survived. I got the impression he's...not quite right." The Doctor took and sip of his drink and shuddered. "Did he even realize you were you? New set of regenerations and all. The High Council must not have brought you back in his universe. That must be the difference, yeah?" |
| The Master took another sip while he absorbed this information and considered how to answer. Not that it really mattered if the Doctor cottoned on that he wasn't the version of the Master he thought he was - but he was enjoying his little game, and the friendly attitude, which might not survive exposure. He said, finally, "He recognised me. They brought me back in that reality too. But something happened - I don't know - he wasn't expecting me to be alive. Which was kind of fun." Well, it would have been, if it had happened. "Being alone has definitely affected him. Even crazier than usual," he added, with an affectionate grin. |
| The Doctor frowned a bit, studying the Master, as he drank a bit more. The Master didn't seem upset at all at the idea that somewhere he hadn't made it through the War, and the Doctor had been left alone. Sure, they both knew that theoretically every possibility was played out in a universe somewhere, but he wasn't expecting the Master to seem happy about a seeing a version of him that was so broken. "He wasn't pleased to see you, I take it? Was he violent? Should I worry about my doppelganger attacking us on the street?" He tried to keep his voice light, but he was remembering the madness that had crept up on him during the long nightmare that was the Fall of Arcadia. He's not sure how he could have made it out without the Master's fierce determination to survive. Or his stubborn insistence that if anyone was going to do the Doctor in for good it would be him. That had been a bad time for both of them. |
| "Actually, he was pleased to see me, at first. He thought I was dead, remember. Though I've gathered since then that I had a back-up plan so I'm not really dead, or at least I'll come back. I just fooled him into thinking I'd died as the only way to win against him." He smirked. "Not a bad plan, as a matter of fact." He leaned forward with a gentle smile and traced a fond finger down the Doctor's angular cheek. Testing the water, as it were. "It seems they fight a lot more than we do, though. Always snarking and prodding, never letting each other close. It was fun, for a while, but I missed you. "But no, I don't think he's likely to go attacking you. I didn't let on that I was me - I let him think I was his Master, back from the dead. He doesn't know about you." |
| A universe were they were still enemies. How incredibly depressing. The Master's hand on his cheek was vaguely surprising, though, until a cheering thought occurred to him... "Of course, " he murmured, "no one here knows us as Mr. Harold Saxon and Dr. John Smith. No public persona to steer clear of the social hangups of the time. Now I remember part of why I thought we needed a holiday. So I could do this." He took the Master's hand, leaned forward, and gave him a not at all tentative kiss. |
| Oh, this was more like it! After a heartbeat's surprised stillness, the Master started to return the Doctor's kiss, tongue delving into the Doctor's willingly open mouth, taking control, his free hand coming up to cup the back of his head and draw him closer. After a minute, though, he got frustrated by them both having to half-stand up to reach properly across the table, and pulled away again to sit down with a grunt. "There's too much table in the way," he said irritably and patted the cushioned bench seat beside him. "Come and sit round here. No-one's going to mind. Two blokes can snog to their hearts' content in here and no-one bats an eyelid." |
| The Doctor noticed the Master's hesitation and abrupt switch to taking charge. His sense of vertigo during most of their conversation bloomed into niggling suspicion. He leaned back for a moment, still grinning, considering whether to jump to the Master's orders. Aw, what the hell . . .if this was a game, he might as well have fun, too. He went around to other side, scooting as close as possible to the Master, took hold of the Master's tie, and kissed him even more aggressively then before - effectively pinning the Master into the booth corner. |
| The Master smiled happily when the Doctor actually decided to go with his suggestion. He was pretty sure his own Doctor would have needed a lot more persuasion than that, at least away from the Valiant. When he ended up not only being allowed to continue kissing but being pressed into the corner and kissed to within an inch of his life, he couldn't help but give back as hungrily as the Doctor, and to hell with the game, because this - the Doctor wanting him and taking him and damn near dominatnig him - was worth a lot more than the satisfaction of winning another little game. |
| He'd half expected the Master would lash out, because he was getting increasingly certain wherever this Master was from, they hadn't done this in a long time. Not this particular dance of give and take. But the response he got was so exactly what wanted, he couldn't bring himself to stop right this moment. He finally came up for breath, and rested his forehead against the Master's for a second before asking, "So, I never asked. What date did you pop in from?" Still holding the Master's tie, he leaned back just enough to look directly into the Master's eyes, smirking. |
| The Master was having a hard time not giving way to sheer lust, his breath shallow and fast, and the Doctor's hold on his tie really not helping. He stared into the Doctor's eyes for a moment with eyes that were still glazed. Then he blinked, and flung his head back and laughed. He knew the game was up, but he wasn't going to stop playing. "January 2009," he replied, with complete honesty, and quirked an eyebrow. "You?" |
| Hmm, that glazed look never got old. "Oh, May 2007," the Doctor answered back. Truth for truth, after all. |
| Which meant - the Master squinted a bit - he ought to have known about the 1950s television thing. If he was supposed to be from this Doctor's future. Probably. Assuming this Doctor was living as linearly as his own. He looked deliberately down at his tie, still imprisoned in the Doctor's slim fist, lowered his own hands to his sides in a parody of surrender, and met the Doctor's eyes with a smile and a challenge. "Well?" Over to you, Doctor. |
| "You know, I could be wrong, but I rarely am - I don't think you're even from my universe," the Doctor shook his head in mock regret. "Yet you want me to think so, don't you? What do you want from me? Just this?" He let go of the tie to slip his hands under the lapels of the Master's jacket, and over his hearts. He leaned forward again for a slower kiss, full of all the warm regard and affection he held for his friend. He knew he was pushing it a bit, in his own way - his own Master had his bad days where he was brittle and would resist accepting anything that resembled the weakness of love. Would this one accept it at all? |
| The Master's breath caught as the Doctor moved in on him again and he went motionless for a second, not quite sure what to expect. When the Doctor started to kiss him with all the warmth and fondness he'd been hankering after, there was absolutely no question that he was going to get that back in kind. He put one arm round the Doctor's shoulders, hugging him, and returned the other to the back of his head, stroking the short hair there before settling at the base of his skull. He moaned into the Doctor's mouth, and sucked on that lovely, long, agile tongue till the Doctor moaned back, a sound that went straight to his cock and made his hands tighten round the Doctor as if he'd never let him go. Very deliberately, he pulled back and did let him go. It would never do to seem too desperate. Though it was probably a bit late for that. It'd been a long couple of weeks. He met the Doctor's eyes, grinned, and said breathlessly, "This'll do nicely." |
| "Excellent. And here I was afraid you less then nice plans, and I might have to whip out my laser screwdriver on you," the Doctor quipped. He was joking...mostly. "I don't think your Doctor kisses you like that, does he? He's clearly an idiot." He leaning for another kiss. |
| "You can whip out your screwdriver any time you like," the Master murmured, smiling against the Doctor's lips. Then he pulled back smoothly and raised an indolent eyebrow. "You have a laser screwdriver?" |
| The Doctor shrugged, "Laser can do almost everything a sonic can, and more besides. You, I mean, my Master, made it for me. Mostly it's a tool, but if I need a weapon there's less running and trying to find one. Much more efficient." |
| The Master rolled his eyes. "I know what a laser screwdriver is! I've got one myself. I just didn't expect you to have one. You're obviously on much better terms with your Master than my Doctor is with me." He smiled faintly, his hand sweeping back up to the Doctor's neck and drawing him in again for another quick but possessive kiss. "Well, that much is obvious. But you wouldn't see me gifting him with a laser screwdriver." |
| "No? We had a bit of a running argument during the War about me throwing away weapons between battles. He won - I got a laser screwdriver." |
| The Master laughed. "Tell me more about your reality," he said persuasively. "How did you two end up working together?" |
| "I was thinking I was probably being to much of a motor mouth, but I guess we have all the time in the world to not talk....later. Got into a sticky situation during the war, in the same place, at the same time. Needed two brains to both get out alive without being exterminated. It just...I dunno. I remember being so shocked to see him, alive, I couldn't even be angry. And he was...well, we both thought this was the end of the everything." The Doctor swallowed, and then smiled, glowing. "But it was wasn't. Not in the slightest." |
| The Master smirked. "We will definitely be doing a lot of not-talking later. I won't be taking no for an answer on that one." He ran a finger thoughtfully down the Doctor's lapel, then dipped his hand beneath his jacket and round to rest at his back, a little possessive, yes, but mainly just wanting to touch. He hadn't been allowed to touch the Doctor this freely since... hell, it seemed like forever. "So you combined forces. What happened? Were the Daleks destroyed? Was Gallifrey saved?" |
| The Doctor simply relaxed into the Master's touch, because, after all his Master touched him like this all the time. "Oh, yes, we destroyed the Daleks." The Doctor's eyes went a little distant. "But I had to use the Eye of Harmony to do it. There wasn't any other way," he said with conviction. |
| The Master sagged a bit. For one glorious moment there he'd thought that together they might have achieved the impossible. He leaned the side of his head against the Doctor's. "So your Gallifrey is gone as much as mine is. Even together, we couldn't save it." His hand rubbed little circles on the Doctor's back. "What happened after that? You just... stayed together?" He looked, and sounded, pretty incredulous. Working together to get out of one particular situation, yes - they'd done that before - but the Doctor staying with him? Hard to imagine. |
| The Doctor, for his part, wasn't sure why the Master seemed to not believe him. "Why wouldn't we? All we had was each other. It was like a whole new universe was handed to us. No Daleks destroying everything in their path. No high and mighty counsel of the Time Lords using us to meddle whenever they want, but refusing to really take responsibility for the well-being of the younger species. Don't you see, we're going to make it better," he said fiercely, focused more on the image in his head of what could be, than on the Master. He blinked and looked back at the Master. "None of this happened in you universe at all, did it?" |
| "None of it." The Master closed his eyes briefly, imagining what might have been, and his arm slid further round the Doctor, pulling him close. "We weren't together during the war, so we weren't together afterwards either." Then he drew back again abruptly to look at the Doctor with a slightly sick expression, as a thought occurred to him. "I'm not all goody-goody in your universe, am I? Because if I am, this stops right now. I'm not having you spending time with me because you think I'm good now." |
| A thought clicked into place in the Doctor's head as well. He shoved it away as not useful right this moment. He let go of the Master, pulled away, and leaned his head back on the booth, sighing. "How should I answer that question? I remember, oh so long ago, you asking me to rule the universe with you. You told me that one must rule or serve, so I might as well rule - for good. I turned you down. 'Power is evil,' I said. I've made so many short-sighted choices because I was afraid of my own power. I could have destroyed the Daleks before they even started, but I hesitated, and couldn't bring myself to finish the job." He turned and looked sideways at the Master, smiling rufelly "I'm not laboring under the delusion you're motivated by altruism, if that's what you mean. Are we doing things differently then you probably would have chosen without my input? God, yes. But it's working. We're going to unite the Earth and take humanity to the stars. And they'll love us for it. Doesn't that sound good?" He studied the Master's face anxiously. |
| "It sounds incredible," the Master said, his heart aching because he wanted to go with this Doctor when he left here, not back to his lonely existence on the Valiant. Yes, he had the Doctor at his beck and call there, but the longer he was here, the more he was starting to wonder just how much his own Doctor had just been playing along, acting desire he hadn't really felt. He was fairly sure his Doctor wasn't acting. "Seriously, you're going to take over the Earth?" |
| It was such a relief, to see this Master agreeing so ardently. He'd always told himself that by taking the the drums away, he'd been been simply relieving his Master of a crippling illness. But he'd always been a little afraid he'd stolen something essential. Surely this showed it wasn't so? "Well," The Doctor drawled, "Great Britain first. The Earth is going to take a little time, to do it properly. But Pax Britannia, that's already starting. That was my idea, by the way. I think he thought I'd gone around the bend for a minute, when I asked him what he thought of being Prime Minister." |
| The Master grinned a long, slow grin. If he'd needed any confirmation that this Doctor was coming over to his Master's side far more than the other way round, this was it. "I was Prime Minister myself, a little while ago," he said airily. "Before going the whole hog and making myself Overlord of the whole Earth." |
| The Doctor carefully schooled his face not to betray the anger and disappointment he felt. The Master calling himself "Overlord" smelled of short cuts. Dangerous, unnecessary, wrong short cuts. The kind that didn't change anything, but just destroyed. He would not lash out - that wasn't useful. "You know fear won't work in the long term, don't you?" the Doctor commented, trying to sound neutral. |
| "I didn't use fear, I used hypnotic suggestion." A lone remaining strand of common sense kept the Master from mentioning his decimation. He didn't think the Doctor would react too well to that. "I used the mobile phone networks to amplify the signal, and everyone fell in love with me." He smiled happily. "I didn't need fear. "Mind you, if I'd had my Doctor working at my side, I probably wouldn't have needed even that. With the two of us working together, I'm sure we'd have been as successful as you were." |
| The Doctor contemplated that tactic for a moment. Then he smiled, like he'd never been angry at all. "That's clever. Not entirely sure about the possible long term effects on a population. Would that stifle creativity? But that's not your usual style. Ok, on an individual level, but not against a large population. What sparked that idea?" |
| The Master raised his eyebrows sardonically. "Oh, come now, Doctor. Don't say you've forgotten my hypnotic powers. I haven't lost them completely since the drums got so much worse!" |
| Well, that answered that question. Not that he'd had much doubt that the this Master still heard the drums. "I remember," he rolled him eyes, "It's just...you've never tried hypnosis on a mass scale before, that I know of. It's a new twist." He paused, and asked a little hesitantly, "Do the drums hurt you?" |
| "People didn't have mobile phones before." He shrugged. "The drums aren't too bad. They're worse than they used to be, since the destruction of Gallifrey, but - I don't know, I'm used to them, I suppose." He cocked his head to one side. "Actually, they've been a bit better while I've been sitting here with you. Wonder why that is?" |
| The Doctor scrunched up his face, thinking hard about things that used to trigger the drums or ease them. No matter what this Master might be doing with his Earth, the Doctor could help ease the pain he knew the drums caused, that would be worth it. "It's not my physical presence, I'm quite sure. Or anything I'm actively doing, I promise. You're pretty calm? Pleased, even? As opposed to upset. Angry. Scared. They were very, very bad near the end of the war, I remember. Incapacitating, sometimes. Does that sound right?" |
| The Master thought about it. "You're right," he admitted. "They are better when I'm calm. It's when I'm feeling strong emotions they get worse. Good, or bad. They... drive me to do whatever it takes to feel more of that emotion." He gave the Doctor a slow, almost sleepy smile and laid a hand on the Doctor's thigh, wanting contact again. "This is the calmest I've been in a long time. The most relaxed I've been. Always got a front to keep up, a charade to keep going. With the Doctor, with Jack, even with Lucy. But I feel I can relax with you." |
| The Doctor wasn't sure why the Master's admission made him blurt out, "I fixed his. They're gone. I begged him to let me help, but the choice was his," he hurried to finish before the Master could react. The Doctor had a feeling he may have ruined the Master's calm, and probably that promise of good sex later. But he could do that any day, as soon as he got home. The chance to give this Master full control of his faculties again, he couldn't pass up. |
| The Master rolled his eyes. "Is there another me anywhere who hasn't let you get rid of the bloody drums?" he said rather plaintively. And yes, the drums were starting up again in his head. He tapped out the rhythm on the Doctor's thigh. They didn't bother him all that much. He wasn't angry. A little frustrated at the weakness of the versions of himself who'd given in to the Doctor's pleading, but not angry. And the Doctor needn't have worried about the sex. The Master hadn't had sex since leaving the Valiant. He was pretty desperate. |
| The Doctor shrugged in confusion, not knowing what the Master was talking about. He'd laid the option out, let the Master know it wasn't just a pipe dream, but he didn't think it could be done without the Master cooperation. He also didn't think it wouldn't help to press further right now - so he just leaned forward for another kiss. |
| The Master grinned as the Doctor leaned in. "I could get used to this," he said in a low voice, accepting the Doctor's proffered mouth and claiming it with his own. His arms came round the Doctor again, hard and possessive, drawing him close. The drums pounded out a victory roll. Really, he didn't care much about anything if he could just have his Doctor. |
| The Doctor still wasn't sure he understood what had happened in this Master's universe. Gallifrey was gone, and the two of them left, and the other him hadn't realized that changed everything? Was he really that stupidly sanctimonious? Was Jack the Jack he knew? Who was Lucy? Didn't matter. This Master was clearly lonely, and he could help, just a little bit. He kept kissing the Master, as possessively as he had before, not holding back. "This evening is all yours, I promise" he murmured against the Master's mouth, "Would you like to fuck me, knowing I really want it? Or...would you let me fuck you, I wonder? Would you ask me to?." |
| The Master laughed, exultantly and a little bit hysterically. "Use my name, on top of talking dirty like that," he whispered, eyes closed, forehead against the Doctor's, lips against his lips, "and you'll find you can do pretty much anything you want to me." |
| There was really only one possible response to that, wasn't there? "Yes, Master." |