He stood by the school's gate and watched the students and teachers on their way home. Some gave him an interested look, wondering whether he was someone's father wanting to pick up his child, but the Doctor paid no attention to them, his hand was curled around the fob watch in his pocket, it's faint whisperings angry in his head.
The school grounds were nearly empty when he saw him. He walked towards the exit with a group of teachers, a small suitcase in his hands.
There, you have seen him, now go away! He is fine just as you knew, there was no reason to come here at all!, aid a voice in his head, but the Doctor remained where he was, eyes fixed on the man's face. His expression was soft and healthy, not like pale and manic, as it had been when he let himself bleed to death in the Doctor's arms.
The Doctor pulled himself together and turned away. There really was no need to stay any longer, now that he had seen him.
His coat swirled as he walked down the street, towards the alley where he had left his TARDIS.
"Excuse me sir!" that familiar voice, the one that he had heard in so many variations over the last millennia, called out to him and the Doctor stopped dead in his tracks. He looked back and saw the human, who once had been his closes friend and enemy, walking towards him with a black . "I believe you dropped this."
The Doctor stared at him; the urge to throw himself at the Master was overwhelming; he wanted them to be friends, as they were before they left Gallifrey, he wanted to take him to his TARDIS, he was ready to forget everything as he had promised. But he just nodded and took it back. "Thank you."
He smiled and ignored the angry hissing of the fob watch, as it demanded to be returned to it's rightful owner.
"You're welcome", the Master smiled and a part of the Doctor hoped that he would recognise him, but that was foolish of course. Nevertheless his fingers clenched around the fob watch painfully, as the man turned around and walked away, not paying more attention the Doctor than to a stranger, for whom you picked up an object he had dropped.
It was a sickening feeling; after all this years in which he had wanted the Master to leave him alone, when he had wished that the Master would just stay away… Now that it had happened and the Master didn't even remember him.
The Doctor had hoped for them to be friends, or at least not to be enemies anymore. But now they were even less than that, they were complete strangers, one not even suspecting that the other existed.
He returned to the TARDIS, with a feeling as if someone had stabbed both of his hearts and set the coordinates at random.