four; for best_served_hot

[rude_not_ginger]

Follows this.

He was quite pleased with the Master's development. He'd learned how to behave, for the most part. Oh, he was hardly the most agreeable of companions, but he wouldn't want the Master to be agreeable. He wanted him to be the Master. He wanted him to be there, part of his world.

Over the week that followed, the quiet drumming in his mind that insisted that the Master had to live at all costs had quieted, the part of him that was the Doctor apparently sated with the Master's presence. The Valeyard was pleased with it, too. He remembered why he was so fond of his old enemy. He posed a challenge.

He was challenged with frustration and irritation and glorious success. Things were going better than planned, and now with the traitor out of the way, he'd be able to do so much more.

The week went by wonderfully. He felt the first tremor of exhaustion run through him and he believed that he might sleep well for the first time since the Master came back into his life.

Comments

[best-served-hot.livejournal.com]

"Without knowing what it is that he's planning I'll have to wait until the actual moment he's doing something to try and manipulate it. As much as I would love for you to believe, I think we're each far too old to think I conjure illusions out of hats for my schemes."

He was quiet a moment, mulling over recent events in his mind. "If I can keep him from using that weapon he used on Work Planet 7, it would be a start. Or does he only save that for special occasions?"

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Have him use it to save someone," the Doctor replied, just a shade of desperately. "The Sontarans are working on destroying a nearby system. If he can stop the Sontarans, he'll save all of those people. It's not much, but it's a start."

It's almost nothing, though. The Valeyard will do it selfishly, to gain power. The Doctor would do it just to help people.

"You're clever, Master. You'll work out a way to get him there. You'll manipulate it."

[best-served-hot.livejournal.com]

The Master hummed thoughtfully a moment. "He did mention it in passing before, I know of their advances in the system, but not much else. I'll see what I can do once he's out and about later."

Hearing that sort belief tinged with desperation directed at him was new and wholly different from the desperate pleas he had heard from the Doctor during the Year. He wasn't sure how to react to it.

"We will, Doctor. Together."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"I won't be as much help to you as you'd hope for. All I can do is plan." He took a breath. "And wait."

He'd done so much waiting, a little more wouldn't kill him. He could only hope it wouldn't kill the Master, either.

He gave the Master a small, tight smile. "Bit like old times, then? Working together against a common foe?"

[best-served-hot.livejournal.com]

"At least one of us can, the most I can do at the moment is stay out of his way." Which was maddening to say the very least.

"It is," he said, chuckling softly. "Somehow, despite everything, that keeps happening." How often had they ended up doing this in the past? "Almost like-" he stopped himself, averting his gaze momentarily.

He pushed back the memories of childhood conversations, under the stars of the home world, deep into his mind. He couldn't afford to dwell on that. The Doctor might thrive off of that sort of thing, but he didn't. Being around the Valeyard, though, it threw him off balance. He found himself almost craving the simple, childhood dreams that had once been untainted by reality.

But even that was tainted now, the Valeyard would use anything to his advantage, even the memories of two long dead children, swallowed up by the harsh truths of the universe. The Master hated the Valeyard with ever fiber of his being, and hate would be enough for him. He would bide his time and wait until the right moment, then it would be over.

Things could return to what they had once been.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The Doctor raised his hand to the Master's face and brushed his fingertips across his cheek in a purely sentimental touch. It was so brief. It was so simple. It was all they had. The brevity of it was tragic.

"I should be awake longer next time."

[best-served-hot.livejournal.com]

The Master tensed, briefly, much like a spring wound too tight at the touch. It wasn't something he was familiar with, something he expected at all, and yet he found himself reaching up, after a moment, to place his hand over the Doctor's.

"Good," he said, voice rough with an emotion he couldn't quite put a name to. He had spent so long simply trying to pull a reaction from the Doctor during that year, just trying to get his attention, or a simple acknowledgment, now that he had it, he wasn't certain what to do with it.

"Just focus on regaining your strength where you can. I'm not going anywhere."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Don't let him leave you anywhere," the Doctor said. "If I'm resting, he won't have me to beg him to release you."

[best-served-hot.livejournal.com]

"I told you, I stay well out of his way. Unless he's having a fit, we shouldn't have a problem," " said the Master. "I'll keep my manipulations subtle when I have to use them."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"He's as clever as I am," he warned. "But infinitely more ruthless."

He yawned. It was an embarrassing gesture, but necessary.

"I think---I have to lay down. Conserve energy."

[best-served-hot.livejournal.com]

He nodded mutely a moment. He did know how ruthless he could be. He'd seen him in action, more or less.

"Probably for the best that you do. You don't want to utterly exhaust yourself by doing too much, too quickly."

It wouldn't help either of them. The Master shifted closer to the end of the bed so the Doctor, who was much taller than he was, would have enough room to lay back down.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

He all but fell back onto the bed, the energy going out of him quickly. He channeled it away from his muscles and to his brain, to stay himself as long as he could.

He sighed. This hurt. All this brevity, all the uncertainty. It hurt. And it was almost more frightening because now the Master was in danger. If only the Master had any idea of how much danger he was in.

"Find that room," he said. "Things will be clearer then."

[best-served-hot.livejournal.com]

He watched him for a few long seconds, before reaching out in order to straighten the Doctor up on the bed. It was an oddly caring gesture, of course, but many things he had found himself prone to doing as of late in regards to the other Time Lord were considered odd by some definition or the other.

"I will, Doctor," said the Master, and remembered at once when he had used his own satellites against him, how the chanting from the throngs of people on earth had risen up like a cresting wave. Perhaps a part of him foolishly hoped that saying the name would dispel the monster waiting to awaken inside the Doctor, who grew weaker with each passing second.

"Besides, one of us has to set all of this right. I'm the only one who gets the pleasure of destroying you once and for all, you know that." It was said with something of a smirk coming to his lips, even a glint of humor in his eyes, that usually would not be there.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

While the Doctor was loathe to admit it, hearing the Master say his name brought a thrill down his spine. It was something in the way the Master said it, like he knew the Doctor. Knew him, knew what his name meant and who he was. He let out a slight, pleasured sigh.

The Master's next words bring a small smile to the Doctor's lips.

"Yes," he agreed. "Only you."

[best-served-hot.livejournal.com]

The Master knew that he should go. The Doctor would be asleep soon and he would be left with little time to roam the corridors unsupervised. He should really go already.

Instead he found himself doing yet another odd thing. He shifted on the bed, batting carelessly at the Doctor's legs, and giving a put upon sigh.

"You're taking up the entire bed with those ridiculously long, skinny legs of yours. I barely have any room at all; shift."

Not that he expected him to have the energy to, but the banter made it easier. It made their situation more tolerable at the very least. Without another word, he settled into the space on the bed next to the Doctor, back against the headboard as their shoulders touched lightly.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The Doctor didn't have the energy to, and if he was honest with himself, he was more than a little surprised to find the Master moving close to him. It reminded him of their youth, of when one of them would become frightened during his sleep (usually the Doctor) and the other would come and lie down with him to comfort him (usually the Master).

It was as if the Doctor were in the middle of a horrible nightmare and the Master had come to comfort him again.

There was no warmth from the Master's shoulders, the naturally low body temperature of a Gallifreyan sparing them from that cliche, but there was the presence of the Master's energy, melding into the Doctor's.

"Have you ever seen the Medronica cluster?" he asked. It was something he might've said when they were young and staring up at the stars.

[best-served-hot.livejournal.com]

The Master let the quiet of the room change his perceptions momentarily. He let himself drift into the past to times when they found themselves sharing their bed with the other. While it had usually been the Master as a boy comforting the Doctor, there was a span of cold nights, after a day they did not speak of, where the Master would cling tightly to the other boy.

The joke of a universe they found themselves in reminded him of what he had been afraid of then, even though it could no longer harm him, and he found himself tense at the mere memory. He allowed the Doctor's voice to pull him free of it, and he relaxed as he thought before answering.

"No, I haven't," he answered. "Have you?"

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

He could feel the Master tense, and he didn't know why. It was frustrating and lonely, actually, to know that he could feel the tension and not know the cause. There used to be a time where he knew the Master completely. But that was oh, so very long ago.

"I haven't," he replied. "I've heard it's beautiful."

He turned his head to face the Master. "Take him there."

[best-served-hot.livejournal.com]

The Master turned his head slightly, watching him. "What reason would he have for a field trip of that sort?"

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"I don't know," the Doctor said. "But you'll figure something out."

He sighed. "He needs to remember why he loves the universe. Why I love the universe."

[best-served-hot.livejournal.com]

"You can never make it easy, can you?"

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"If I could make it easy, Master, we'd already have been away from here," he said.

[best-served-hot.livejournal.com]

"You're very lucky that I'm patient."

He pulls in a breath, letting it out as a sigh once again. "The Medronica cluster, hm? I'll get us there. I'll get him there."

He just had to work out how. A shift, and his shoulder knocked against the Doctor's again; resting there.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"I know you will," the Doctor replied. The Master would help him. The Master would save him.

"We'll make it right," he promised. He felt his eyelids start to droop.

[best-served-hot.livejournal.com]

He hummed his agreement to the promise, tempted for a moment, by the memories of a child, to wrap an arm around the Doctor as if he could ward off what was coming.

As if he could ward off the nightmare.

"We ran first, do you remember? We ran when no one else did," he said, finding himself speaking without any real reason other than to fill up the silence. To offer something that would help his best friend and oldest enemy hold on just a little bit longer. Steal a few more moments.

Just a few.

"All through the fields of my father's land. We'd run ourselves out of breath, fall into the grass, and stare up at the stars. Point and say which one we'd go see first, that was before we knew most of their names."

He grew quiet then, a memory stilling his voice, a memory that brought an old ache into his hearts. Their first star, which was actually a binary system though they didn't know at the time, they never went there. The Master wasn't completely certain he could even remember the name.