Title: The Princess and the Snake

Pairing: Doctor/Master from Doctor Who

Warnings: Doctor Who doesn't belong to me, this fiction contains slash and is basically a rewritten fairy tale

Once upon a time, in a Terran Kingdom, there stood a castle in which the king lived. This king was known for his unique clock collection with the newest time measurement techniques. But what made him famous even beyond the borders of his kingdom was a different thing entirely.

In the castle, there lived a princess, the sweetest and prettiest princess the world had ever seen. He had dreamy blue eyes and soft honey coloured curls. Many a man and woman had wished to have this sweet two-hearted princess as their queen, but the princess had no interest in anything that went beyond kissing.

To the sadness of everyone in the castle, the princess had a terrible curse upon him. He was bright and clever and he knew so much more than all the scholars of the kingdom but he was so forgetful about everything personal. The princess sometimes even forgot that his name was 'the Doctor' or who he was entirely. (He had scared the maids so often, locking himself out of the castle and returning freezing and covered only with his favourite blanket.) The Doctor enjoyed music and his favourite toy was blue musical box.

One beautiful day (it looked like a storm was coming up but the Doctor didn't care) he took a bag of sweets and the box and went to play by the forest near the castle. He sat on a rock, ate his jelly babies, listened to the music, turned the box in his hands and tried to remember why he had a double heartbeat.

Suddenly it slipped from his fingers and fell into a crack between the rocks. The doctor tried to get it but the crack was very slim, dark and deep.

"Oh no…" he sighed and looked down sadly. Then there was a soft hiss and a glistering transparent snake emerged from the shadows.

"Why are you sad, princess?" hissed the snake.

"You are pretty!" said the Doctor, who had a rather short attention span.

"Is that your box down there?"

"Oh yes it is. I can't reach it, but maybe you can. Will you get it for me, please?"

"I could" said the snake "But what will I get in return?"

"Everything you want!" said the princess sincerely. If the snake had had a proper face it would have smiled smugly.

"I want all of your life. I want you to take me to the castle, I want to be treated your equal and I want to be considered a prince, no, king even!"

The princess agreed, as no one had bothered to tell him how dangerous snakes were (they had assumed that he already knew). The snake crawled back into the crack and re-emerged with the blue box.

The Doctor snatched it back delightedly, checked whether it was broken and ran back towards the castle.

You should not think that the Doctor was a bad person, who broke his promises, he had simply forgotten about the snake already.

That evening the castle's inhabitants were dinning and the storm was raging outside when the hall's doors opened and the snake entered. It had crawled all the way up and was dripping wet.

The King was surprised but as he was the king, he had to treat all of his subjects with respect so he asked the snake why it had come.

"I am here for the princess has promised me to take me to live in the castle."

"Is that true, princess?" asked the king and looked as if he'd bitten in a lemon.

"I don't remember", said the princess wide eyed. "But if the snake said so it must be true."

And so the maids brought the snake food and towels and it was allowed to dine beside the princess. The king himself explained about the Doctor's amnesia curse.

At night the princess carried the snake to his bedroom. While he got ready for the night the Doctor asked the snake "how is it possible that you speak out language?" for the Doctor understood that snakes weren't supposed to do that.

The snake watched speechlessly as the Doctor climbed under the bed sheets beside it. That evening the snake learned that princesses could indeed develop habits like sleeping naked.

"I have not always been like this. Once I was a prince. But a curse made me loose my original body and then demons turned me into a snake. But they said a kiss of someone royal would return my human appearance."

The Doctor smiled the sweetest of his smiles.

"Then I will help you."

He kissed the snake on the mouth. Immediately it disappeared in a halo of with light and a young man with sunglasses appeared beside the bed.

The princess looked at him in awe. He hadn't imagined a prince to look like that; his snake looked more like a knight. The man laughed and looked down at the body he had missed for ages.

"I have a body again!" he turned to the princess, who was staring openly. "But it's not like the one I had before. Foolish princess, I have lied! I am no prince, I am a dark magician! I once had two hearts, too, and I want a body like that again. I will steal yours!"

And this would have been the end of the princess, if not for his pretty smile. The magician had already climbed onto the bed but as he saw those sweet blue eyes and the cute smile he stopped. He felt an unfamiliar tingle in his single heart. Could he really do harm to the princess?

"Do you want to be a prince?" asked the Doctor.

"Yes~"

"Then marry me and you will become one" suggested the princess, pulled his snake towards him and smiled even sweeter and brighter.

(What happened next will not be written, as the narrator doesn't want to increase this story's rating. Let's just say that the princess decided that there are better things than just kissing)

The next day the Doctor and his snake, the Master, got wed in the castle's chapel. The king was delighted to see his princess' wedding and he was happy to hear that the amnesia curse was broken, too.

The same day the prince and the princess packed their things and drove off to have a honeymoon. As they sat in the carriage the Master heard metal rattling in the package area.

"What is that sound?" he asked his princess, who was studying mechanical plans.

"Oh that?" said the princess and kissed him. "You complained about your human body. So I though I might build you an android-body instead."

The Master decided not to ask again and kissed the Doctor back.

And so they rode of to explore new worlds and lived happily ever after.

The End

A/N: I'm planning to do a series of DW fan fictions with different fairy tales. If you have favourite fairy tales, tell me and I'll try to work it to a part of this series.