The Doctor sat down in the doorway of the TARDIS, feet resting on the street's black surface. It was close to midnight, and he was in the suburbs of a city somewhere on Earth. He didn't care where particularly – he just had an experiment he was hoping would work.
He paused, pulled the package out of his pocket and ripped it open, momentarily cursing human plastic as it tore apart and he was left with a small red laser pointer in his hands. He dropped the cardboard behind him on the TARDIS floor, leaned out, and flashed it on, letting the laser point dance in the street. He waited.
It only took a few minutes, to his surprise and delight. A young cat, white with calico and tabby markings, skated out on the street, eyes focused on the red dot that the Doctor sent flying over the asphalt.
A second, this time a large grey tabby, joined in, running from a garden and batting softly at the calico, claiming the dot as his own, but the laser predictably appeared on his paw instead of under when he attempted to pin it down.
The Doctor slowly led the light towards his feet, the two of them chasing after it, before reaching forward and greeting them with a soft miaow and releasing the button. The cats paused, sniffing his fingers, before allowing him to gently scratch behind their ears and stroke their glossy fur, calming their hearts.
He was only vaguely aware of the figure, leaning calmly on a fence, hidden by the shadows, as he used the laser to attract a further cat that had appeared on a fence across the street. The previous two curled around him, tails flicking, wandering into his TARDIS briefly and sniffing his jacket for the old biscuit scent from that morning. As the third cat (a white and elegant long-furred female) approached him and allowed him to comb its fur with his fingers, he looked up and towards the silhouette.
"I know you're there," he said quietly, so as not to disturb his clowder of fluffy creatures.
"I didn't realize you had a soft spot for cats – pardon the pun." The Scottish voice made his hearts leap into his throats as she emerged, arms swinging lightly, and came towards him. The Doctor shuffled to make room in his doorway. Missy sat down with a huff, the white she-cat immediately making a home for itself on her lap, and to the Doctor's surprise she just rearranged herself for its comfort.
"Horrible little furball," she told it. "White fur on dark clothes takes forever to get rid of." A corner of her lip curled in disgust but she gently stroked the feline, causing it to purr quietly. "Not that you would care, you ridiculous old man."
The Doctor couldn't help but snort, forcing himself to relax. "They like us because our heartbeats are faster, more like their own." He reached into his pocket and tossed her a small cloth packet. "And because I just happen to have a bit of catnip."
"You and your pets." The Mistress caught it one-handed, sniffed it, and lay it beside her, leaning contentedly against the Doctor, who at that point had a cat occupying his lap as well, purring softly.
The Doctor glanced across at her a little nervously, shoulders tense, as she reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out her silver device. His eyes widened in concern as she opened an app titled "Laser", but she held it up to the sky and pressed the one button on the screen - "On" - and a green beam flared from the back of the phone. Unlike his own laser, which was only visible where the light hit something, the line of it shone clear across the night sky. But it was harmless.
"Aquila, from this planet," she said simply, swinging the light to a sector of the sky, where the constellation of Aquila could be seen, green laser circling the area. "The other bird one, here." She pointed somewhere else.
"Cygnus."
"Yeah, that's the one." Missy smirked. "Honestly, I don't know why I ever bothered learning these Earth constellations. Must have picked them up somewhere. Ought to forget them sometime."
The Doctor reached up, wrapping his hand over hers around the device, and swept the beam around a specific star. "Vega, in the constellation Lyra. On Gallifrey, we called it Aria."
There was a pause, and the Doctor sensed her studying its location and the stars around it, memorizing it carefully. Remembering. She nodded slightly in agreement.
"I'm surprised you remember," he told her.
"I'm actually impressed that you do, considering how much you forget." She rested the device on his lap. He was hyper-aware that his hand was still over hers, but didn't want to let go, for some reason.
"I...found Gallifrey. Sort of."
"Oh?" Her voice was perfectly even.
"No thanks to you," he replied calmly, only allowing the slightest hint of disapproval in his voice that was unrepresentative of how he felt about it. "It was...eventful. But I had a lot of time to stare at the stars before I died billions of times."
"Dear, there's a lot there that needs context."
"I was trapped in my confession dial."
"Actually, on second thought, I don't care 'bout the context, hush. Back to Gallifrey." The response was quick, harsh. But there was some sort of gentleness behind it, like she understood without his explanation.
The Doctor opened his mouth, about to question her tone, when it occurred to him that he didn't want to know what happened on Gallifrey between his tenth incarnation's debacle with the Master and the cyberman army of their current regenerations.
"How was it? Enjoy yourself with the swoopy robes and our Lord President?" Her voice dripped with sarcasm and was not without a certain twist of hatred at the mention of the Time Lord President who she had attempted to murder many years ago. The cat she had had on her lap flounced away and she plucked at furs it had discarded on the soft fabric of her skirt.
"No, I don't think I enjoyed it." The Doctor lifted his arm to lightly rest around her waist, tentatively like she might turn and kill him any second, which to be fair was always a possibility. "Ah, anyway, the astronomy just came rushing back. I kicked Rassilon off the planet," he added.
"Ayy, good for you, Mister President," she cooed with a grin, looking up at him and slapping his thigh with her palm congratulatorily. "Finally doing some good for that planet, took ya long enough."
"Don't call me that."
"Then go get your medical degree," Missy replied, sounding almost exasperated.
"Point," he muttered reluctantly, staring up at the stars.
A small breeze picked up, and the Doctor would never admit it, but he held her a little bit closer.