(aka the Mistress sings a Kate Bush song fanfic because I love them both)

Originally written as an entry for a very exciting thing I'm working on but I realised I hadn't posted it anywhere and since it was such a challenge to keep in one tense I might as well post it and see what people think, haha!

Also as an irony because I really just don't like song fics, haha!


It was late at night in the vault. The highly trained senses of Time Lords and Ladies could never forget something so small even when confined to somewhere like the vault where time could be changed with only a press of a button.

Night-time beside a river, a morning beneath the trees, lunch high in the sky and an evening spent amid the stars themselves. There are hundreds of thousands of settings for the windows.

At that moment it had been set on the morning light through the silver-leaved trees of Gallifrey.

Still both occupants of the room knew it was in fact night, each second passing through their fingers as if they were hourglasses themselves.

The Mistress shifted, placed the book down on the table beside her and stood in a fluid movement, flowed over to the piano.

"I rather feel like playing." She explained briefly, gaze drifting over to the Doctor as she spoke. He lowered his book to watch her.

The Time Lady gently gripped at her skirts, easily clearing the steps into her 'enclosure'.

"Any requests?" Missy asked, head tilted backwards as she lifted the lid and brushed at an unseen speck of dust on one of the keys.

The Doctor waited for a moment.

"No. Not today." He said, eyes already refocusing on his book.

The Mistress shrugged, sighed a little.

"Very well." She allowed.

The Time Lady began to play, slow and simple notes trembled in the air. Soft music like an awakening.

She let the last notes disappear completely before she continued, a very basic piece of music compared to her usual yet more lively than the last.

The Mistress began to sing, voice pitched upwards towards the original.

"1979- the one with the hair and the eyes. Goes into hiding." He commented, watching again as the Mistress crooned. The Doctor caught her brief nod easily.

"Didn't know you were a fan." The Time Lord admitted.

"The meek He seeks, the beast He calms." Missy replied, turned towards him and eyes fixed on his as her fingers kept moving over the keys.

The Doctor watched, hands rested on the closed book in his lap.

The Time Lady sang, voice clear and tone light but words heavy with meanings only he could understand.

Eventually he found himself standing, hands gentle on the Mistress' shoulders as she moved with song. He opened his mouth at her mention of the fear of dying, quickly closed it as she continued to sing.

Her hands seemed to float over the keys, moving her like the tide.

The Doctor listened, content to stay behind her. To listen to her voice climb up and down and watch elegant fingers pull music from strings.

He had forgotten the rest of the song.

The Mistress leaned back into him, one hand remaining on the piano to play both parts as the other wound around him.

"The more I think about sex, the better it gets." She crooned, head tipped to his chest to look up, eyes wide with a coquettish smile.

"Here we have a purpose in life." The Mistress sang, hand having trailed to the back of his neck.

The Doctor stilled. His grip tightened, slipped down slightly.

He said nothing.

"Good for the blood circulation," The Time Lady teased, rhythm tapped out against his neck as on the piano, "Good for releasing the tension," She said with a grin. Her foot flicked beneath the stool to caress his ankle even as she let her hand stroke down his back.

"The root of our reincarnations." Missy finished the verse cheekily, shoulders rolling under the Doctor's palms.

"I see myself- suddenly- on the piano as a melody." She sang, both hands returned to the piano.

"My terrible fear of dying no longer plays with me!" The Time Lady declared, "For now I know that I'm needed." Her voice echoed in the vault, the last word prolonged further by it.

"For the symphony." The Mistress crooned out.

"I spent a lot of my time looking at blue. No wonder that I blew it." She finished sweetly, leant back into the Doctor's arms.

He stared down at her face, turned towards him in adoration. His palms slipped down her arms until she is wrapped in them, his chin at her shoulder height.

"You know- I can't stop thinking about you on the piano now." The Doctor admitted.

"Hm- I wonder why?" The Time Lady teased, voice lowered to its usual pitch, "Maybe that was my aim all along?" She whispered, voice pitched lower again.

"So be a good boy and help me up there, would you?" The Mistress asked, eyebrow raised and a smirk on her lips.