He used to like red.
Red meant fields, which then meant freedom and relaxing and running (He will love/loves/loved the running)
Red was home.
Red was the grass and the sky and the Lord President.
But then the Red was devoured by red, spilled red and pained screams and explosions of gold everywhere.
He ended the spilled red by ending the Home Red.
He envied the red his whole life - "Am I ginger?" "No, just sort of brown." "I wanted to be ginger." - his remnants of home swallowed by the red and orange he caused as he's swallowed by the gold - "And still not ginger!"
His best mates were red, the fiery ginger matching their personalities perfectly.
But then he lost them both, too.
("But I was going to be with you forever."
Standing over the grave and seeing her name written next to her husband.
His hearts shatter again and again whenever he thinks of it, so he tries not to.
It doesn't work.)
He's bathed in the red; it sits in his skin and mind and hearts.
An ancient creature, drenched in the blood of the innocent.
He's destroyed planets and families and people - How many have died in your name? - Katarina, Sara, Adric, Kamelion, Astrid, Adelaide, River, Lorna.
He sees the red, all the red, when he closes his eyes. Hears the screaming, smells the irony-coppery redredred. He says he needs less sleep than a human, which is true, but the truth is he's scared of what he dreams about.
He finds a scarf while look for his favorite bow tie - red - and breaks down. It's red like the girl who wore it, when they added to a brilliant man's unfortunately small pile of good things.
Clara finds him hours later and brings him a mug of tea and lets him cry on her shoulder.
Clara leaves, many leave, some by choice, some in the redredred.
One day, centuries and nights of red later, on a blissfully green and purple planet, his companion, a doe-eyed girl from America, holds up what looks like a medieval tunic and says, "What about this one, Doctor? To replace the one that got ripped while we were running from the Huritals?"
"I don't really like red," he tells her with a forced smile, grabbing her hand and letting her pull him through the remainder of the market.