Just Like That

by CalicoCas

Travelling with the Doctor was one thing. Travelling with the Master... another. Still, an explanation of why you were buying cheeky underwear for the man would be in place. Bit of selfindulgent self insert fluff, angst and smut. angst is not that angsty though, the Master is just emotionally constipated.

Travelling with the Master was, well, a lot. He wasn't like the Doctor, who tended to pick out places to visit that superficially seemed fun and potentially relaxing, the trouble she'd run into was always accidental. Whereas the Master would go to the same places, with every intent of ruining the fun, which he considered as fun, and destroy any possibility of relaxation. You wish you could say that you were highly disapproving of the havoc he has wreaked across the years of travelling together, and undoubtedly before then too, but you didn't. In fact, you kind of enjoyed it. Not necessarily the killing part that inevitable seemed to go hand in hand with the Master's activities, but enjoyed it, nonetheless.

At age 22 you had been fresh out of college, looking for a job, but failing thus far. It was exhausting and you continuously were wondering if you'd made the right choices concerning your future. Then you'd met her. The Doctor. She was a breath of fresh air in your life. One of adventure, chaos, love and happiness. When she explained to you that she could travel through time and space, your head spun. When she asked you to come with her and her 'fam', you swore your heart stopped. A dream you didn't know you had, came true. This was what you needed and for almost a year you lived this dream. The Doctor insisted on you still going home sometimes so you wouldn't completely fall out of touch with your old life and that's how you ended up spending one week with the doctor, followed by one week at home.

After a year though, the fighting to save lives, running for your own life and always being good and careful started getting, well, a little bit repetitive? Not to say that you didn't enjoy yourself anymore, because between dealing with some rogue Sontaran soldiers, flesh-eating luminescent butterflies from some far away planet, to a rogue AI system that somehow had gained the ability to project itself into the planets inhabitants' brains, making them lose control with anarchy as a result, there was enough to keep you busy and satisfied, but something started tingling in the back of your mind. You purposefully pushed any and all thoughts relating to this subject buried deep inside, for not wanting to seem ungrateful or rude, but never fully able to forget about them.

It was then that you met him. The Master. In all his raging glory. Well, you didn't know that right away, of course, as he was still posing as O. Funnily enough, during this very short period of time, the MI6 agent had managed to catch your eye and seemed to have also noticed you in return. A few awkward smiles and glances later, you found yourself on the plane, trying to figure out what the light beings were and who controlled them. When he finally revealed his true identity to you and the rest of the fam, you felt betrayed by your own mind and body. Reacting in this way to a man who turned out to be evil through and through. Or was he?

It was in the hangar where you, Ryan, Yaz and graham had ended up being reunited with the Master and, fortunately, also with the Doctor. The entire time there, you could see how broken this man was, in his eyes, the way he moved and spoke. In a weird way you pitied him. It was clear to you that he'd seen that was so shocking, that it completely broke him. Of course, you had no time to register this emotion as he was in the midst of trying to kill about 99% of the earth's population, but it was in the back of your mind, lingering, waiting for a moment to strike.

Then he was gone and no longer a problem for you to deal with. Or so you thought.

The Doctor had been able to pull some strings for you a while back, speeding up your process of getting a job. After the events with the Master you'd told the Doctor that you needed a short break. Noting permanent, just some time to just be human, nothing more, nothing less. So, there you were, making your way over to the fruits and vegetables isle in the grocery store, when you were shook out of your haze by a loud explosion not too far away. At this point crazy things happening in London wasn't too unheard of and sent a quick prayer for this to be a minor thing so you could just get on with your day. After all, you were home to get away from all that, you'd get enough of trouble when you were with the Doctor again.

You quickly got what you needed and made your way over to the checkout.

"What do you reckon made that bang, huh?" the cashier asked you with a scoff, as no one was too shocked by this sort of thing anymore.

"My bet's on aliens." You joked back, despite your words being honest. Your bet was actually on aliens. One alien, that is.

As you climbed up the flight of stairs to your apartment, you feel around in your pocket for your keys, only to notice your front door opened a few inches. An alarm rang through your head, before you calmed down. It wouldn't have been the first time for the Doctor to sonic her way into your place, only to leave the door open in her characteristic forgetfulness and chaos.

"Doctor?" you called out into the quiet apartment, "Is that you? Cause I thought I told you to close the door so the neighbour's cat won't-" You came to a halt as you realised the individual sitting in your lazy chair was definitely not the Doctor.

It had turned out that the bang you'd heard that day was indeed caused by an alien. It just wasn't the one you thought it would have been. Whereas you had been told by the Doctor that the Master would no longer be a concern, because he was trapped in the Kasaavin dimension, the opposite turned out to be true. He did get sent there, but unfortunately for you found a way out with relative ease. He might not have known a lot about the Kasaavin, but enough to figure a way out of their own dimension.

It was then that he had ended up on some remote planet, that you already forgot the name of, and was met with some old familiars. Suffice it to say it wasn't a happy reunion. He stole a ship and managed to have crashed it in the heart of London. Lucky you. Thankfully the ship had been equipped with an invisibility shield, that had kept it hidden from any curious eyes. As far as the people of London knew, it was a bang caused by some teens with loud fireworks, or some aircraft flying too low. It didn't matter anyways, because you were still stuck with a grumpy, wounded, immortal asshole in your living room.

Your first instinct had been to slap him and you didn't feel guilty about it in the slightest, even if he was hurt badly. For some reason though, you hadn't kicked him out. Maybe it was the fact that he looked like a dog that kicked by their owner and was now looking for shelter by a stranger.

"What are you doing here?" you ordered from him, as you held your face level to his, trying to get him to look you in the eye. He refused to do so though, refusing to answer you. "Let me make this clear. You tried to kill me, my friends and almost everyone on this planet. Now you come into my house, without permission, looking for what? Help? A toy to play with?" You stood up straight and threw your hands in the air desperately. You stepped away and walked in a small circle, to come right back around and face him again, arms crossed.

He was looking at you now. And grimacing, he forced himself to sit up straight, holding one arm around his stomach. You only now noticed how botched up he looked, as his face came into the warm orange light streaming in from the living room window. You had quickly put two and two together of the bang earlier and him sitting in your living room.

"You're the one who causes that bang, aren't you?"

"Yes." His answer was reluctant, and he grunted lightly. You nodded shortly.

You thought about it for a second, "So, what now? Because its taking everything I've got not to throw you out right now." This earned you a twitch of the corner of the Master's mouth. He seemed to be amused by the idea of you threatening him.

"In that case…" He said with a devious little smile, as he lifted his arm from around his chest, revealing his Tissue Compressor in his hand. "Maybe you need some incentive."

You felt your body tense up, as you realised you didn't have a choice but to listen to him.

"What can I do for you then, Master." As you finally surrendered to him, the Master grinned broadly, while still looking like he was in pain, but more triumphant now.

After that, the Master had forced you to fix him up. Apparently, he thought you had any sort of medical knowledge, after he had watched you check if Barton's mother was still alive. The way you had handled the situation, caused him to judge you as the most 'competent' one of the fam, based on your supposed medical knowledge, for some reason. You had tried to argue with him, that you had simply just done what you saw the Doctor do all the time, but he'd raised the Tissue Compressor convincing you to shut up. Apparently, that was good enough for him.

For about a week, you had to deal with a literal immortal alien in your apartment. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, but since this immortal was a stuck-up brat, you had the longest week of your life. Not to mention that you were still angry with him for pretending to be O and turning out to be a homicidal psychopath. All pity you might have felt for him had been pushed away. Mostly.

When he'd order you to prepare him breakfast, you had no choice but to do it. You'd practically throw it in his lap though. Sadly enough the Master still had an iron grip on you with the Tissue Compressor and that's how you ended up on your knees beside him in your chair, asking him if everything was as he liked, through gritted teeth.

"Well, as long as you'll be this nice, I can't make any complaints, now can I." He smiled sweetly at you, turning your stomach. "I never expected to have as much fun with a human as I'm having with you right now. Such a good pet."

Inside your head something snapped. In an instance you had thrown the Master out of the chair with a roar, making sure to store away the face he made in surprise, for later. Somehow you actually managed to make him let go of the Tissue Compressor, that was now lying a few feet away on the floor.

One of your hands was around his throat, as the other was pressed into the largest wound he had, just below his ribs.

You bared his teeth at him, applying pressure with your fingers to the wound on his ribs. "You call me pet again; I will make sure you'll regret ever coming to me." To your disappointment, but not surprise, the Master smiled and started laughing. You rolled your eyes and felt him let the tension flow out of his body.

"I won't lie, you actually managed to surprise me with that one! Too bad you don't actually have what it takes to follow up on that promise." He pushed himself up with his lower arms and in response you sat up on your heels, so you were more or less straddling him. Without the sentiment usually associated with the action.

"You don't know anything about me." You bit back, as you let yourself fall back to sit on his knees.

"I know you travel with the Doctor, which says enough about you by itself. But, I must admit, you've got some spunk, love."

"Don't call me that ever again."

"Love."

You kicked your foot forwards to land roughly against his chest, managing to knock the wind out of him. Yes, he healed faster than the average human male, but that doesn't mean that he can't feel any pain. Especially if he still had an unhealed wound. You smirked. "Like I said, don't."

It was a couple of days later, when the Master decided he had enough of residing in your small apartment. How much it may have been to order you around and watch you do his bidding, he could stay in one place only so long, before going even more insane. So that's when he told you to take him to where his TARDIS was parked.

"I am not taking you to Australia! I'm not bonkers!" You exclaimed loudly as the Master finally told you where he expected you to take him.

"You're not?" the Master raised an eyebrow to feign wonder while also giving you a smile with a hint of sass, as he knew full well you would refuse at first.

"Consider this, I have a job to show up to, I don't have the money to just hop on over to Australia with you and maybe I just don't want to spend that much time with you."

The Master started laughing at you. The laugh was genuine, but even then, he couldn't help the slight maniacal edge it had to it. Somehow, it put the slightest smile on your lips.

"You can point your little device at me all you want, but this is one thing I'm not doing. Don't even bother trying to change my mind. I helped you," You thought for a second about how you were going to phrase this, "not die, I guess. But that's it."

You held his eyes as he thought about his next move in this unusual game you had been playing the past week and a half. While remaining the eye contact, you could see he was considering what to do next and were almost distracted by his tongue peeking out to wet his lips.

You were sitting on your old couch, as the Master sat in your lazy chair, which was diagonally next to you. Sometime during your conversation both of you had sat upright, where he had also leaned forwards in his seat. Suddenly you noticed this and became very aware of everything that was happening, while still waiting for what the Master would say next.

"Alright."

Your eyebrows furrowed as the confusion and disbelief you felt so intensely, must have been obvious on your face. Looking intensely, you found no sort of reasoning in the Master's face, leaving you just as clueless as before.

"You're just going to give up?"

He huffed at you, as he stood up from the chair, "Please, it's called a strategic retreat. Not that you would know what that means. I know when something is more trouble than its worth."

The Master walked through the room to pick up his purple coat and opened up your laptop. "So, you're just going to leave? After being the single worst guest, I've ever had and the biggest nuisance I've had to face in my life? What can I say, I expected more of you."

"Keep resisting like this, I might start thinking you don't actually want to stay here?" his voice had suddenly appeared beside your ear. You nearly jumped and when you whipped your head around, he was already on his way out of the apartment.

Hurling yourself off the couch you raced after him. This prat had spent nearly two weeks making your life a living hell, not to forget the constant threat of ending your life. Psychopath or not, he had no right to just leave like this. As the Master pulled the front door open, you reached around him to slam it back shut. Amused, he turned his head at you.

"No! You don't just get to leave like that. I mean no thank you? No compensation for my troubles? I could really do with a little financial support." Your hand is still next to the Master's head, on the door. So that when he turns his entire body to face you, you were close enough to him to feel his breath on your face as he speaks.

"I just let you off the hook and you're making demands?" You shrug at the Master's question. He brings his face even closer to yours, daring you in a way. Just like that you were very aware of everything that's happening again. You look in his eyes and swallow deeply. Yes, you might be the one having him against a wall, but he still held the upper hand. Fuck him, you cursed inwardly. Then you realised you were never one to back down from dare.

"Fuck you."

"Careful love. Those who play with fire usually burn their fingers."

Before even he, with all his Timelord abilities, could register, your knee had made contact in the most painful of ways with his groin. You used your arm to push him aside, which was made possible by the fact that the was now doubled over, clutching at himself. With your other hand, you opened your front door and quickly pushed the Master through the doorframe, watching him stumble over the threshold.

As he fell, a flat black object dropped out of his pocket, which you quickly recognised as your phone. Having missed it for the past week, you quickly put two and two together, that he had been the who made it vanish. You ducked down to quickly take it back and stuck it in your back pocket, where it was supposed to be.

"That's low even for you. I'm not stupid enough to have tried to call the Doctor. Now please let me get back to my life and don't bother me ever again, will you?"

And on that note, you slammed the door in his with surprise and spite filled face.

After the Master had left, you needed a few days to catch your breath. His constant presence had done a bigger number on you than you were ever going to admit. Not only because it would fuel his ego, but it would have also been a great way for him to degrade you even further, which was definitely not something you wanted.

Then there was the matter of the Doctor. You spent quite some time considering whether you were going to tell her about this little run in you had with her lifelong enemy slash friend. Shortly after you had kicked out said alien, you had selected her contact, wanting to call her. Then you remembered what you and Yaz had discussed the last time you had seen each other.

The Doctor was constantly worrying about the Master. She wouldn't tell them, but they could still see she was convinced he was out there again, having miraculously escaped from the Kasaavin dimension. Whenever you and the fam weren't with her, or asleep, she would sneak off to go look for the Master. Telling her you'd seen him recently, would only fuel the fire of restlessness and worry that was already raging inside her, even if it was slightly smaller than a few months ago. So you had ended up clicking away and wallowed by yourself.

Everything had been going surprisingly well for you after the Master left. You were keeping yourself busy at work and felt grateful for the normalcy of your otherwise ordinary life. This stayed the same for long enough, that you started looking around street corners for a blue box. Every strange sound you heard coming from outside, made you perk up and turn off your music. So far you had had no luck.

Then one morning, on your way to work, you were walking on the sidewalk and looked into a small alley between two stores, absentmindedly, and barely noticed the flash of blue at the corner of your vision. You halted and took a step back to peer into the alley. You face erupted into a broad smile as you sped down the alley. With your fingers crossed, you pushed the door that gave in with the loud, familiar creaking noise. Fortunately, someone was in, so you could walk right in. With glee, you bounced into the TARDIS, ready to shout for your friends, as the stark contrast of your expectation and the inside of the TARDIS hit you.

"Back so soon?"

You go to bolt right back out of the door but crash into a hard body. The body belonging to the person who had just spoken and whose voice had become way too familiar. His hands land on your upper arms, tight enough to make sure you wouldn't fall over. You force your eyes to look up into the deep brown eyes of the one person you weren't hoping on seeing today.

Before anything else, you tore yourself away from him and took a few steps back, deeper into the TARDIS.

"I thought I told you to leave me alone."

"Don't worry, that message came across just fine." You couldn't help the small huff that escaped you, as you saw the Master wince slightly at the memory. Rightly so.

"Then what are you doing here and why am I in here?"

"I'm not abducting you, if that's what you're thinking, don't flatter yourself."

"Trust me, if I had known what I would find on the inside, I wouldn't have gone in."

The Master sucked in air through his teeth, "See I don't think that's necessarily true. You came through those doors with quite a lot of 'pep' in your step." As he said the word pep he waved his hands through the air, with a little bounce as he started walking towards you slowly, "and I don't think you knew what you were going to find on the other side of the door, but you didn't care. It wasn't necessarily the people you were excited for. It was the adventure." He was getting very close to you now.

You got slightly irritated, were you that see through? It's not as if you didn't care about the fam altogether, but he was right in you just wanting to take off right now.

You stuck your chin up and looked the Master straight in the eye, showing him you're still not one to back down from a challenge, even when intimidated6. "Say you're right, what's it to you?"

He steps to the side and walks over to the control panel in the middle of the room. He shrugged and carelessly waved a hand through the air, pointing his gaze at the various levers and buttons in front of him. "Well, in that case, you were basically only there for the TARDIS." He turns his head to look at you, a glint in his eye. A smile he was trying to repress shimmering through.

"In a way, maybe, yes." You answered hesitantly, not really sure what he was implying yet.

He averted his gaze again, "I've got a TARDIS." He flicked a switch, the motion drawn out longer than necessary, before daring to throw a glance at you. He finds you staring at him in disbelief, a small smile tempting to break through.

"What are you suggesting?"

"I think you know very well."

You shook your head and shrugged, "No, no, I really don't get it."

"You need me to spell it out for you?" he said with a scoff.

"Yeah, I'm afraid so. With my stupid human brain and all that." You pointed your finger at your temple and had to bite your lower lip to stop yourself from giggling.

The master stepped into your personal space and looked at you so intensely, you swore you would have died right there if you had any less balls. "Travel with me."

Okay so maybe hearing it out loud was a very different than thinking it. Your brain erupted into a full out war. One part of you is telling you to say yes, to see the universe with him. To experience chaos and danger, to see that side of people and places, the Doctor would have never let you, at least not on purpose, bless her. The other part of you screamed no, because this was not just any person, this was the Master. Legendary across the universe as one of the most dangerous individuals ever. Mortal enemy and best friend to the Doctor, the saviour of the universe. This man, who was more unpredictable than the roll of a dice, who revels in bringing down civilisations and killing entire armies. And that's probably just a Tuesday afternoon.

Your heart was thundering in your chest, your smile having faded, and your mouth never having felt so dry before. Even when being completely honest with yourself, you realised you didn't know what to do. Your mouth opened, to say something and you were able to see the genuine question in the Master's eyes, and stuttered, "I-I don't know."

The Master shook his head, causing a few strands of hair to fall in his eyes, which he pushed away quickly. The movement almost made it seem like he didn't want anything to stop him from experiencing this moment in its entirety. "I don't care. Answer me."

"I don't know!" you shouted at him, "Okay?! It was funny, but now I actually don't know what I want, alright." You struggled not to break eye contact and used one arm to hug yourself. Shocked at how timid you had become all of a sudden, you dropped your arm and placed both of your hands on your hips. You refused to show any sort of weakness to him.

"I'm sure we can come to some sort of an agreement or compromise about this." He simply said. You raised an eyebrow at him, "In which I get what I want, of course." You sighed at him and then did a double take, releasing what his words implied.

"You WANT me to come with you?" A flash of panic replaced the twinkle in his eyes as he realised his mistake, but before he could undo the damage, you'd already latched onto his slipup. "You do! You said you wouldn't go through more trouble than something's worth, and you're going through quite some trouble right now, so-"

The Master attempted to talk over you, as he pushed down your accusing fingers that you'd thrown at him in excitement, "I don't, I'm just, I don't want you to come necessarily, it's just that..."

You cross your arms, "What?"

He sighs deeply and closes his eyes as he rakes a hand through his hair. "Just come with me."

"No."

"What about one trip."

You held you chin as you pretended to think about it really hard, teasing him, then shook your head. "Nah, I don't think so."

"Argh! What will make you change your mind? What else are you going to do, just live your boring little human life, not admitting to yourself you're just waiting around for the Doctor. Telling yourself you're not unbelievably bored and are just looking for a bit of excitement and adventure?"

"I think there's one thing you could do."

"What."

You smiled slyly. "Say please."

"No." He said defiantly.

"Alright, then that concludes this, and I'm going home and pretend you didn't say all those rude things just now."

While you were already on your way to the doors, you heard the Master grunt loudly and you could only imagine him facepalming, or pulling his hair out, or silently screaming, something like that.

"Fine."

You twirled around.

"Please."

"I'm sorry what? I'm afraid I didn't quite catch that. Could you say that again, sir?"

He took a few large strides until he was in front of you and leant in close to your face, his breath hitting your face, as his chest moved heavily up and down. The whole situation made you reminisce of your previous interaction with the man, not too long ago.

"Please." His voice was low and not quite soft, and the hint of dismay convinced you. He hated saying it, but he meant it.

"Then what are waiting for, Master." The Master's face erupted in a broad smile, mirrored by your own, as you threw you bag aside, where it would stay for about a week, before you'd remember it.

Just like that, you were travelling with no one less than the Master. It was chaos and it was danger. But it was also beautiful and secrets. It was running and it was fighting. And it was so much fun.

Your fingers absentmindedly ran over the delicate fabric in your hands as your teeth worked on your bottom lip. You felt so out of place in Victoria's secret, never really being the kind of person to go out of their way to wear fancy undergarments. Then again, you were never really the kind of person who had anyone to show them to, except for maybe yourself. But not anymore.

Well, strictly speaking you still didn't, but it was worth a shot. When you first joined the Master on his travels it had been awkward. During the very first trip with him, you'd both have been high on the excitement of travelling together, in some sort of way. It was later, when you got back, lightly scorched and exhausted, the realer part of the ordeal took effect. The Master was mostly unbothered, maybe a bit tired, but if you were to give him half an hour, he'd be up and about again. You really needed some food and rest, though. He knew this was going to be a problem, but it had been a problem for later.

Eventually he had shown you the most important rooms in a hurry, telling you the TARDIS would probably help you out if you got lost, or not. You now knew the kitchen, your room and a hallway with various recreational themed rooms. Then came the question that neither of you were excited to bring up, a bedroom. Was it needed? You had had one when you were with the Doctor, retreating there at the end of the day while the Doctor would go off and do whatever she did. With the Master you weren't sure if you'd be staying on his TARDIS after a day but seeing as he hadn't dropped you off at home yet, it seemed like the probable thing.

Eventually the Master broke the silence that had fallen over you, as you stood in a hallway with a massive library.

"There'll be a room for you around the corner from here. The TARDIS will set it up for you."

"Alright thank you." The silence returned and didn't think anyone had ever avoided eye contact as much as the two of you then. You weren't sure why, but it somehow felt like a weird thing to talk about.

After that it hadn't just been smooth sailing for the two of you. You were getting along more so than expected, but you would definitely get into arguments or get annoyed with the others' antics. One time you insisted on pulling a young woman out from the path of an arrow, fired by a mostly broken robot bowman, that had gotten stranded in the Middle Ages. By doing so you had risked being noticed by the other robots, which would have been catastrophic. The moment you were out of danger, the Master had stood in front of you, yelling at you. You'd endangered yourself and him for some little girl, as he put it. He didn't care if people died, he only cared about the fact that he could die then, because he had calculated the two of you wouldn't have been able to make it out alive, would you have to fight.

"I can't believe you almost got us killed, because of some stupid young brat!"

You fumed as you practically pushed yourself against him, showing him you were not backing down. "Screw you, that girl could have easily been me, I think I'd appreciate someone saving me."

He pinched the bridge of his nose as he tried to not completely loose it, "What if the bowman had seen you, huh? What then?! He would have rebooted himself, going after us and calling his buddies, resulting in our deaths!" His words were forced between his teeth and slow, every single word seeping in anger and frustration.

"Does it really matter? It went alright, we're alive and so is that girl." You could see why he was this angry about it. Still, he had no right to go off at you like this.

Before you had a chance of yelling back at him, he interrupted you. "Just forget about it, we're going back to the TARDIS."

You huffed, "Way to run away from your problems." That made him stop in his tracks. He slowly turned himself toward you, where he found you staring at him with arms crossed, having no intent of coming with him.

He groaned loudly as he made his way over to you. His hand wrapped around your wrist and just like that, you were being dragged along against your will.

"Let me go." You urged him. When he gave no reply, you started trying to break free. You tried to ground yourself, so he couldn't pull you, you twisted your arm around roughly in the hopes of breaking free, but all to no avail. Then you tried to walk just a bit faster than he was, losing the tension on your arms, and used the slightest softening of his grip to yank yourself free.

Immediately the Master turned around, ready to chase after you, surprised to see you hadn't run away. "What is it? No wait, don't answer that, I don't care. Just get your arse moving, alright."

You rolled your eyes and scoffed at him, "You're a prat, you know that?"

"I do, but I prefer calling it intellectually superior."

"So, intellect equals ignorance in your dictionary? I'm pretty sure intellectual people had long ago determined that it is more profitable for an individual to cooperate with other individuals, because surviving in a pack lengthens the life expectancy. Therefore, your argument of intellect is invalid."

He stared at you. It almost made you uncomfortable, but you kept your chin up for so long, you weren't going to give in now.

"You're making a good point, but you forget the fact that that theory applies to humans. I'm not human. My life expectancy is already far higher than yours, so there's no need for me to save one pathetic little girl for my own gain." Having said that, the Master started walking away and this time, you followed him. At least you'd gotten him to discuss his motivations and had an argument with you that wasn't just screaming.

It was progress, if anything.

You suppressed a small smile as you skipped to walk just behind him, "I suppose you're right. Though, your life would have an ever-higher expectancy if you weren't so busy trying to stay alone forever. At some point you won't be able to save yourself and there will be no one there to do it for you." You peeked to see the Master face, to see his reaction, but found it unchanged. "Of course, you don't care about that, being so impeccable and all."

You quickened your step, until you were walking in front of him. Because of this you missed the small reluctant smile that crept onto his face.

It was about a week later, at least for you it was, and you had just spent three days at home. The Master had dropped you off at the exact time and place he had picked you up. It was definitely weird. As far as the world was concerned, you didn't just spend two weeks travelling through time and space with genocidal maniac, with sociopathic tendencies.

As you walked into your office, you felt the weight of time for the first time since you started travelling with the Doctor. While you had been gone, nothing had changed. You had done so much, seen so much, yet you couldn't tell anyone, or just simply complain to anyone.

It was a price you were willing to pay. To always feel out of place in your daily life. Still you liked coming back. It did really ground you, so every time you went to the stars, you'd be as humble as the first time you saw them.

You had started wondering when he would show up again, when you heard the sound, you had intently been listening for, not too long ago. The familiar whooshing sound was loud outside of your flat, making you wonder how there weren't more people who knew about the Doctor, she wasn't exactly the king of subtlety.

A wave of doubt hit you. What were you going to say? Would you tell her about the Master? Would you refuse her offer to come with her? You did want to go with her, but you also wanted to go with the Master.

Before you knew it the Doctor and the fam had whirl winded into your apartment and practically abducted you to see the eclipse of two moons of some planet, X17-Z3 you vaguely recalled. It didn't matter, because before you knew it, you had been there, and your troubles forgotten.

During the time you were with the Doctor you were glad she couldn't read your thoughts without consent. The entire time your head was swimming with worry. You realised you would have to make the decision between travelling with the Master or the Doctor eventually but pushed it far down for now. You were very aware of the fact you couldn't keep it hidden from the other for too long, where hiding it from the Doctor was your biggest worry, since she had no idea the Master had escaped. For now, you chose to ignore it altogether. It would be a problem for later and for now you'd make the best of it. Also, you'd probably have more arguments to support a decision in the future, probably, making it easier to choose.

But another much more important choice was at hand right now. The fate of a planet probably depended on it. You could either make the Master immensely happy, or upset him greatly, causing him to lash out. You could not, under any circumstances get this wrong.

So, there you were stood in Victoria's Secret of all places, holding to sets of lingerie. One set a deep purple and a lot of lace, the other red with a lot of straps and some metal accents.

The Master did wear a lot of purple. You knew this already, but you'd been able to catch even more purple than you'd bargained for. On one specific trip to a planet that functioned as a greenhouse for a plethora of planets, with genetically engineered plants and trees, you had had to run from guards, for the planet was completely of limits for any sort of visitors. The two of you had gone there for the sights, because according to the Master, without continuously being trampled by hordes of people, the planet really had the chance to bloom. Views that would make your draw drop to your toes and smells that could get you high.

Of course, he had forgotten to mention the part where you were not allowed to go there unless you were part of the working crew. You had ended up running away and falling down a natural cave, that was luckily filled with the cleanest water you'd ever seen. As you sat on the edge of the water, trying to squeeze some water out of your clothes and hair, you looked at each other, you erupted in fits of laughter that were quickly complemented by the Master's genuine laughter.

With sopping wet clothes, climbing out of the cave was rather tricky, but eventually you managed. Only to be incarcerated by the guards. Within minutes the two of you, still soaked to the bone, found yourself in one of the many staff buildings on the planet. As you were brought before the local manager, the Master took no time to assert his dominance, in his own special way.

"Who the hell are you and what do you think you're doing on this planet?" The bald man behind the desk, which was the only functional piece of furniture in the room, ordered. You kept silent, as you already saw in his eyes, that the Master had a plan ready.

"Well first of all I'm utterly disgusted by the way me and my companion over here were treated." The Master started, "We came here for the routine inspections and were promptly attacked by your guards, who are, pardon my French, highly incompetent."

The manager's eyes grew big and he promptly stood up, his chair skidding backwards. "I beg your pardon sir, who do you think you are to barge in unannounced and to criticise the way I run-"

"I'll tell you who I am." As he said that, the Master started taking off his shoes, tossing them besides him. You furrowed your brows at him, but decided that, since he had kept you alive so far, you might as well follow his example. "Now I'll give you a hint." He took off his jacket and laid it on top of his shoes. "I am the person who is going to make sure that you and every single person who has dared to wrong us today, will be fired immediately, for disrespecting not only a superior, but also a highly respected superior." Next his waistcoat joined the small, but growing pile of clothes on the floor.

The manager seemed confused and tried to form some words to say.

"Oh, we'll explain, don't worry." You said suavely, earning yourself a wink.

The Master reached inside his pocket as he fished out a psychic paper. It was possible this was the exact same one the Doctor used and that he had stolen it from her at some point. He showed it to the manager, whose face grew unbelievably pale in mere seconds. His words came out jumbled and stuttered as he tried to comprehend the mistake he had made just now.

Despite the man's obvious turmoil, the Master calmly took his psychic paper back and started taking off his dress shirt. At this point you doubted if you were to follow him. With one brief moment of eye contact, you knew to follow him and not to worry about feeling ashamed. You didn't know who the manager thought you were, but it must be good, given his reaction. So there went your shirt.

The wet clothes on the floor had started forming a wet stain on the floor, which made you feel bad for whoever was going to have to clean it up. Then you remembered you didn't want to go to prison and that seemed like a bit more of a pressing matter than a little water stain.

"Now that that's out of the way, do you mind?" he gestures at the wet clothes, "Your guards got us wet and it's becoming quite uncomfortable I must say, don't you agree?"

You realised the question was aimed at you without a hitch, "Yes, I must say I'm not enjoying this in the slightest." Your voice was sweet but aimed to hurt. Quickly you undressed all the way until you were left in nothing but your underwear. Nothing fancy and comfortable enough for the kind of situations you seemed to get into with the Master.

The Master snapped his fingers, pointing at the piles of clothes, and whistled at the manager, who had just called for some people to come get your wet clothing. He hurried over to you as he waited for the rest of the order.

"Mind giving the lady something to cover herself. You don't want me to tell the press you left her standing her, cold, wet, almost naked!" The manager flinched as he quickly shrugged off his suit jacket and helped it over your shoulders. "Now get us some dry clothes will you." As the manager scuttled away out of the room, you and the Master were left in the enormous office by yourself.

The moment the door clicked shut, he raced over to desk and started going through the drawers and cabinets. You rolled your eyes at him as you went to stand across from him, on the other side of the desk. "So, who exactly did they think we were? Must have been some pretty high up folks."

He pulled a face, "Genuinely have no idea, probably some prince and princess of the home planet. Don't worry about them really, this entire civilisation is corrupt and sick." You looked at him curiously. "Planet gets too crowded, so they inhabit more planets. People get hungry, they need more food, so they start conquering more planets, killing the natives and using them for their own gain. Also don't forget the racism."

"I didn't know you cared about that stuff. "

"What can I say, I'm a man of many faces."

"Yeah, about you surprising me." You started, "Even the underwear?" You gestured to the deep purple boxers he was wearing, exactly matching the colour of his coat.

"Shut it." He bit at you. You smiled triumphantly at him.

The doors crashed open and in walked the manager, accompanied by two servants, holding your clothes and the Masters', folded in neat piles. Both of you were handed your respective clothes. You made everyone turn around as you quickly got dressed yourself in your clothes, that are now, thankfully, dry and still kind of warm.

"Now, would you be so kind as to show us to the machinery departments?" The Master asked coyly.

An elevator brings the two of you and the manager to a lower level of the building, where apparently all the tools and machinery they use are kept. Having been travelling with the Master for a few months now, you felt like you could figure out what he was planning on doing, without having to ask him.

No sooner did you step out of the elevator, was the Master asking for specific materials. He seemed to be in a good mood today. Not only did he take you somewhere, partially, for the pretty sights. But he was also scavenging the parts he was going to use to blow this place up, instead of using some ready to go weapons. The Master used his Tissue Compressor, that you found out could do way more than just tissue compression, to call the manager away and quickly got to work. Sometimes you really felt like you were an eight-year-old kid holding a torch for their father, which was supposed to be helping him. That's a universal experience, right? Nonetheless, you were able to help here and there, after having seen him do this a lot of times already.

"3, 2, 1." The Master counted down and you pushed the button on the remote detonator in your hand. Nothing happened.

With a grunt he took the detonator from your hand, as suddenly far down below you the explosions went off. Sitting with your legs over the edge of the TARDIS's porch, with the Master, you stared down at the various factories, shipping centres and launch areas were blown up, in silence. Despite all the destruction you'd seen, it never ceased to amaze you.

Unknowingly you sighed softly, smiling. Next to you the Master turned to look at you. It took you a while, but eventually you felt his stare. "What? Explosions weren't big enough for you?"

The Master shook his head and moved his head to look down on the planet again. "Thank you." You carefully put aside the bag of crisps that you had been eating from.

"For what?"

He didn't answer you, but he didn't have to. Not really. Despite your constant bickering and arguing, you were somehow enjoying each other's presence. He might not admit it, but he did want you to come with him back then. He had been on his own for a bit, trying to deal with his recently acquired knowledge, trying to decide what to do with it. Cruising around, wreaking havoc everywhere he set foot, trying to distract his mind. Then he'd met you and for some reason unbeknownst to him, he could not get you out of his head. And he tried.

A random girl from earth. A stupid bloody human of all, and she'd been the first person he'd met in a long time, that he seemed to tolerate. Maybe it was just that he was desperate. After all, the Doctor was never going to really be his friend, since she was so much better than him. That stupid Doctor with her stupid little humans.

A pang in his chest told him he wasn't completely alright with thinking that, but he ignored it, seeing as it was highly irrelevant.

You watched him discreetly as he was thinking. The thoughts were raging through his head, as his eyes were darting around in front of him. This was a person you could genuinely like. When he was not defying every single word you said. You didn't mind the opposition, it kept you sharp, but most of the time it wasn't genuine coming from him. It was a mask. And sitting there, watching a world burn together in silence, you could really see him.

With a sigh you let the side of your head fall onto his shoulder and sneaked one of your arms through the crook of his. Although aware that you might be overstepping some boundaries, you couldn't bring yourself to stop. You were becoming friends and you wanted to make sure he felt it too, even in just the slightest degree.

He wasn't going to admit it, but it was kind of nice.

As you looked at the two different sets in front of you, you had to remind yourself of how exactly you got here and why you were doing this. If anyone were to ask you, you knew you had no real answer. It had all happened so naturally, that neither of you had the chance of recognising it, before it was too late.

"Who am I kidding." And with that you hung back the red set, knowing the Master would love the purple one so much more. Then again, you could get the red one for another time, God only knew if this set was going to survive the night. But you didn't even know if your plan was going to go according to your plan. You decided against it and moved to the checkout area, where you paid for the set and stepped out of the store.

Your entire life, you had been the kind of person to stand up for yourself, being shy wasn't something you did very often. Walking into a lingerie store was something that still managed to make you nervous. It really felt like everyone in the store, employees and other customers, knew exactly what you came there for, and it felt invading. It wasn't like you cared people knew what you were planning but, considering this was the first time it had come up in your life, you were unsure about every step you took.

You thought back to when the Master had managed to crash land the TARDIS on a cybermen outpost. The Master had kicked the console, earning himself a loud and hoarse hum of the ship.

"You really expect her to do her best for you if you keep yelling and kicking at her?"

He looked around frantically, hurrying to grab onto one of the railings that were around the edges of the platform in the middle of the console room. "I do it to you all the time and you're still her. Grab onto something." The room shook violently as you barely managed to grab onto a pillar. "I've tried to set her on a course, but I'm afraid it's going to be to no avail."

The moment he said that, the TARDIS crashed. The room shook again, and small explosions erupted from the main console, causing you to cover your face with your arms. The Master jumped towards you and threw his arms around you to shield you from the sparks and bits that flew off the console.

His fist found its way to the back of your jacket and you could feel him tugging at you. Letting him lead you, you made your way to doors and stepped outside, where you found yourself stepping on solid brown earth. Your lungs were glad to get some fresh air, after they had inevitably been filled with the thick grey smoke that was now streaming out of the opened TARDIS doors.

"What the hell was all that about?!" you exclaimed as you let yourself fall onto the ground, letting out a few good coughs. As you felt your lungs clean out, you fell backwards, breathing heavily.

The Master let himself drop down beside you and scrunched his face as he wracked out some coughs, "I'm not sure."

You blew a raspberry, "I thought you were an expert on TARDIS stuff."

He turned his head to look at you annoyedly, "Excuse me, that I didn't really get a good look at her while we were crash landing. Be glad you're alive. Malfunctioning TARDIS have the potential of destroying whole galaxies, with all the energy they harness."

"Yeah, yeah, time and space travel, complicated, blah blah, I got it." You said as you waved a hand dismissively at him. You exhaled loudly as you sat upright again, looking around you properly for the first time since you landed. "Wait, where are we, anyways?"

The Master stuck a finger in the soil you were sitting on and sniffed the air a few times. "My guess is, Crocotus 16. Maybe 17. I would have to check the salt levels of the soil."

"You mean lick it."

"Yes."

You scrunched your nose up at the thought and brought your attention to the plains that stretched as far as you could see in every direction.

A crash behind you got your attention. Both of you jumped up and ran to look around the corner of the TARDIS, making sure you couldn't be seen.

Your heart sank as you heard the hydraulic crashes, accompanied by jarring, distorted voices. "Cybermen, right." The Master nodded. "I saw an exhibition about them on this museum planet with the Doctor once."

You stood up and faced the Master, who grunted and raked his hand down his face, his annoyance evident. His eyes were darting all around, visibly looking for a way out of the situation.

"This is bad. I mean I could kill them all, but it's too bothersome." He dared a look around the corner again. "7, 8, 9, there's at least 10 of them here right now. Too much." He was thinking out loud now. "TARDIS down, can't hide inside, nowhere else to hide. Goddammit!" He exclaimed and suddenly bolted away, pulling you along by your hand. "Just follow my lead." He whispered to you.

Soon you found out, well the Master had done the talking, that Crocotus had been colonised by cybermen. They were using it as a factory site, to which they'd transport people to be upgraded, after which they'd be stored in silos all over the planet's surface. The Cybermen threatened you with an upgrade, when they were finally told who they were looking at. Promptly you were being led, like royalty but more feared, to the cyberleader.

The next hours were an absolute frenzy. The Master had proceeded to provoke the cyberleader, resulting in a testosterone fuelled threatening match. Having had enough of the entire ordeal, you stepped in, somehow feeling brave enough to defy the Master, while he was doing his thing. The cyberleader laughed in your face and started degrading you, not letting you get your point across. All you wanted was to try and reason him into letting you go and return to the TARDIS, leaving them unbothered, but it had become personal.

You slowly walked up the steps of the platform the cyberleader was seated upon, wires plugged in all over his suit, probably feeding a constant transmission of information and orders into the minds of all the other cybermen under his command. All the while, you kept talking slowly, distracting him with words, as you got closer and closer. Then, like a wild animal jumping its prey, you grabbed the handles of the leader's head and yanked it off, with all the power you had.

From behind you, you could hear the Master yelling in glee. In no time his yell had been replaced by the screams of millions of cybermen, who had lost contact with their leader.

"Cyberleader has been deleted. Proceed enabling cyberleader two. Delete the rogues." Was the message the cybermen started yelling at each other. A group of cybermen gathered to choose the new cyberleader, while the rest turned to face you and the Master, arming their gun and aiming to you.

The Master took your hand and before you knew it you were lost in the enormous building, running as fast as possible. "Do you realise you might have just killed us both?" The Master huffed at you as you came to a halt in front of a locked door, that he opened with the help of the Tissue Compressor.

"Yeah totally." You laughed as you turned to go through the door that just slid open. The Master brought his hands up to your head and presses a rough kiss to your forehead.

"Perfect." He ignored your stunned face and takes your hand once again, pulling you along with him.

"There it is!" you exclaimed excitedly as you finally spotted the TARDIS after looking for it for 30 minutes "And, good thing for us, it doesn't seem to be smoking anymore." The Master reached out his arm, causing you to halt. "What? Let's get out of here!"

He lifted a finger up against his lips, signing for you to shut up. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the Tissue Compressor, aiming it towards the TARDIS and pushing one of the many buttons on the side. Promptly, a series of explosions went off all around the ship.

"They didn't want to waste manpower on guarding it, but they were too cautious not to secure it in some other way." The Master said, as he smiled at you and you smiled back at his cleverness. Of course, you would never admit you were impressed by his intelligence, it would only blow up his already too big ego. You felt even less inclined to tell him that you thought it was kind of, well, attractive.

Shaking your head internally, you focussed on the situation at hand once more, seeing the Master reach out to you, urging you to take his hand.

"Didn't the explosions damage the Tardis?"

The Master shook his head as he walked just in front of you, "They weren't made to cause enough damage and the TARDIS' shields are very dense." You nodded.

As the two of you stepped inside of the ship, the lights in the console room came to life, basking the large area in yellow and purple light. As you took in the room, you furrowed your eyebrows in confusion.

"I see you've redecorated." The Master walked around the brand-new console room, eyeing the different controls. "I like it."

The walls were lined with white arching pillars that reached up to the ceiling and converged in the centre, where they dived down to end just above the centre console. The console itself was the same dark colour as the walls, the buttons, levers and other controls on it, were in their white colour a stark contrast to the dark base. Despite the changes the ship had made to repair itself, it still felt and smelled exactly like you remembered, making you feel right at home once again.

The familiar air caused the built-up stress from the day, to pour right out of you, as you let yourself sink into one of the two lazy chairs in the room. You patted the arms of the chair affectionately, glad that they had survived the revamping. They were identical to the one you had at home and thanks to you whining enough about missing them, the Master had gotten you one. Then he ended up sitting in it more often than you did, so in no time a second chair had found its way onto the ship.

The Master stood with his hands on his hips, taking everything in, his back towards you. Sitting up straight, you thought for a second, "What now? Are we just going to let the cybermen continue doing their thing here?"

"No." He suddenly spun on his heels to face you, "That's why I just told the TARDIS to locate the biggest explosive I have, so we can drop it on the factory." With one hand he pulled a screen close, that was attached to the cylinder-shaped body in the middle of the console. The screen showed circular shapes, that you had reasoned to be the Master's native language. You still had no clue how to read it, having seen it here and there around the TARDIS was no help.

The Master flipped some switches and the ship lurched, causing you to nearly fall out of the chair with a shriek. "Whoops, still need to get to know her again." He smirked as he pushed another button and the familiar vworping noise filled the room. Without a word he ran off into the hallway that was connected to the room.

You rolled your eyes as you got comfortable, ready to wait for the Master to return.

About fifteen minutes later, the two of you stood in the doorframe, a big square box at your feet. The Master explained to you in a mad ramble, that the box contained small drones that were equipped to look for anything specific you told it to. Then, when having found a target, it would blow up, therefore being quite pricey, but very accurate.

"I didn't think you'd actually bother to stop them." The Master looked at you with a blank face, "You're more the type to just get out of here and let others handle this problem."

"You want me to do that? Cause I can, and I frankly wouldn't mind."

You lightly whacked him in the head, "Shut up and just release these bad boys." You grinned at each other as you took a hold of a side each, tipping it over the edge and watched as the millions of mini drones spilled out, falling to the planet below. Within minutes the surface below you was covered with millions of explosions, telling you your job was done.

As you stood up, a loud yawn escaped you, telling you something else. "I think I'll head up to bed, if I can find it, that is."

The Master eyed you as he closed the doors, before sauntering over to the console. From behind the cylinder in the middle of the console he studied you as stretched, ducking his head down reflexively when your head turned his way.

"Hey."

"What?" He grunted, not looking up and pretending to press some buttons.

"Thank you for blowing them up and all that. Maybe even thanks for saving my life, a bunch of times."

"I thought you had it under control."

You snorted lightly, "I'm not just talking about today." This made the Master look up at you. Both of you looked at the other in silence for a moment, before the Master ducked his head again.

"We don't even know if we ended all of them. Not to mention the hundreds of other production colonies they've got."

You shrugged, "It's a start. Goodnight."

The moment you had left the room the Master let himself sink into one of the lazy chairs, raking a hand down his face. "Shit." He continued to mumble to himself, trying to convince himself he wasn't going soft, that the only reason he had for being nice to her, was that she wasn't as annoying as others, so that he could sometimes reward her. Like a pet. Nothing more.

The first thing you saw as you walked into the console room, hair still wet from your shower, was the Master's feet, sticking out from under the console. You giggled and threw your towel over one of the railings in the room.

Before you could say good morning, the TARDIS hums loudly. The Master starts talking back, annoyance evident in his voice. Apparently, someone wasn't too happy about having to figure out how to fly his ship from square one.

"You don't get to whine." Another hum. "You know I hate it when you put the stabilisers next to the handbrake!" the next hum was deeper than the previous one, making it obvious that the ship was arguing back as hard as the pilot was.

"I would say I'm surprised that you don't just argue with people, but also with your spaceship. But my mom always told me lying is bad." A crash came from under the console panel and suddenly the master leapt out from under it, showing his face being covered in luminescent dust. You giggled right in his face, which went from severely annoyed, to murderously annoyed. He looked away, refocussing his attention on his work.

Sighing, you dropped into your chair and curled up, deciding you would be satisfied with watching the Master at work. A day of rest would actually not be too bad. Yesterday had been very intense and you still had some weird facemasks you wanted to try. Oh, and don't forget the book you bought that was too expensive to not be read. That reminded you of something.

"Hey, did you empty my bank account?"

The Master shrugged. "How else was I going to get to Australia?"

"Asshole."

"Affirmative."

"Even though you did pay me back twice the original amount."

"Did I? Must have been an accident." He hadn't looked away from tinkering on the TARDIS console and you stepped right into his personal space, forcing him to look at you.

"Not an accident, is what I think." You smile and wiggle your eyebrows at him.

"No, we're not doing this again."

"Except, that we are." The Master groaned very loudly. "You wanted me to come with you and gave me money, just to make sure I couldn't hold that against you. Or maybe even to make me like you more?" you tried.

"I will shrink you if you don't shut up about it." He said as he bent over the console again.

"No can do."

He used his foot to shove you away from him and continued to work on the console. You pretended to walk away, before you circled back and approached him from behind. You snuck your hands around his waist and put your chin in the crook of his neck, putting your mouth right next to his ear. "Just admit you like me."

He turned his head to look you in the eye and held you there for a few seconds. Then he threw the tools in his hands aside and pulled on one of your arms roughly, so you swirled around, ending up chest to chest with him.

"Never." He says lowly, his warm breath hitting your face. Your own breathing gets heavier and you know he can feel how your just heartbeat increased significantly.

"Wuss." You knew very well you were playing a very dangerous game. Was it flirting? Not quite, you told yourself.

"I'm not."

"Then don't act like it."

He stared into your eyes for another moment and let his hands fall down to your waist, the heat of his palms burning through your clothes. You squirm a bit under his burning gaze and start doubting yourself. For some reason the biggest concern that pops into your mind is your breath. You were so close to him.

The muscles in your neck were starting to hurt from holding your head at a weird angle, forcing you to bring your face forward. The proximity was killing you, the way he was looking at you playing with your emotions. You tried to figure out what the Master was thinking, searching for a clue in his eyes, but finding nothing you could use. Your eyes darted down at his lips, staring at them against your will.

It's when his tongue darts out to wet his lips, that you realise he is considering the same thing you are. Experimentally you inch your head closer, noting he starts doing the same thing. It felt as if time stood still but was also racing faster than the speed of light, if that made sense.

Your eyes fluttered close as you slightly angled your head, so your noses won't collide.

And just like that your lips connected with his. Staying like that for a while, you try moving against him and are immediately rewarded by the Master pressing himself closer to you, your lips nearly melting together in the heat you felt. Your stomach did summersaults at the realisation of how soft the Master's lips were.

Your lips moved slowly against his, still unsure, but with every passing second more confident. A soft sigh escaped your throat as you felt the Master's hands on your waist squeeze slightly, pulling you tighter against him.

Tentatively, your hands crept up to wrap around his neck, causing a bubble in your chest to grow at the excitement of the situation.

A few moments later, you start to feel your body beg for air, for you to break away and possibly break the spell. Scrunching your eyebrows, you willed your body to keep going, despite the lack of air, but it was a fight lost before starting. You reluctantly broke away from the Master's lips and took a deep breath, your eyes still closed as you pressed your forehead to his.

You slowly opened your eyes as you breathed heavily, chest rapidly moving up and down. You were surprised by how your body was reacting, not having realised how intense the kiss had gotten in such a short time. The Master's eyes were still closed as you opened yours, but soon he also opened them.

You bit your bottom lip shyly, afraid to speak and to break the spell.

The Master's chest was also heaving as he stared into your eyes, something glimmering in his eyes you couldn't identify in time. Before you knew it, his hands were gone from your waist and the Master was moving away from you.

Your arms felt empty and your lips were slightly sore as you stared at the Master. He had just been right there with you and was now flipping switches, pulling and pressing various controls, seemingly unbothered by what just happened. Staring at him, your mouth fell slightly agape in confusion.

"Alright, so, Earth, England, London, Whitechapel, 1888. Jack the Ripper. One of Earth's most well-known serial killers. Now the area might not be the fanciest, but he is one of the few humans that could interest me. Let's have a chat with him, now shall we." He spoke with feigned excitement and you doubted he was as unbothered as he was masquerading to be. You felt too unsure about the whole situation to confront him and played along with his act. Quickly collecting your bearings you did your hair up, now dry, and walked over to him. The duality of this man would most likely never cease to surprise you.

With the flip of a switch by the hand of the Master, you were off. Various tools rolled around the room, which shook violently as it wasn't exactly ready to make a trip yet but was forced to obey the Master's whimsical plan.

Eventually you, both you and the Master had somewhat managed to fall into your usual routine and the banter was back on. You had managed to track down Mr. The Ripper, who was just what you'd expect, a fucking creep. Neither of you were very surprised, but the Master was pretty disappointed that the man had not being an evil genius, like himself.

So, when the two of you arrived back at the TARDIS, the Master now wearing a stolen top hat, that would definitely go into his collection of stolen things, you had a good laugh at him.

Then the reality of the moment sank in on both of you and you started picking at one of the many skirts you were wearing. After all, you could hardly parade around the streets of 1888 London in a pair of jeans. At least, that's what the Master had insisted. Now, given the situation you were in, it had been more than awkward when you had to ask him for help with putting on your corset, which was "an essential part of the outfit and no proper lady would go out without wearing one".

Now, the funny part had begun the wear off and you were left awkwardly standing in the console room.

"I have a proposition."

You looked up curiously at the Master's voice.

"I thought it'd might be time for you to visit home for a few days."

Your face fell abruptly. "I see. Perhaps it is a good idea." Wordlessly, you went to your room to get changed, as the Master flew the TARDIS to your home.

When you stepped outside, a part of you was convinced this was going to be the last time you were ever going to see the Master, making you sad. While another part told you not to worry, that he was a very unpredictable and changeable person, and that he could never resist coming back to mess with someone in one way or another.

When the TARDIS dematerialised, a hot tear rolled down your cheek. You cursed as you turned to walk to your apartment, not sure what to do now.

"Y/n? Y/n?! Are you home? It's me! The Doctor! Remember me?!"

You sat up groggily in your bed and saw your clock read 09:37. You sighed as you dragged yourself to your front door, unlocking and opening it, revealing the Doctor in all her bright and bubbly glory.

With a smile you let yourself fall into her arms, her immediately engulfing you in a big hug. As you pulled away from her, she looked at you curiously.

"Alright, I know it's been a while, had some TARDIS troubles, but I checked and I'm pretty sure no major disasters happened to make you sad and you seem sad. Are you sad? I'm not sure, might be hangover." You laughed lightly, realising you had missed her more than you thought.

"Come in, I'll make you a cuppa." The Doctor scrunched her nose in a smile and happily followed you inside.

"So, what is it. Be honest, I need to make sure you're okay." She immediately ordered from you as you sat down in your living room, you sitting in your lazy chair.

You considered your answer for a minute. Obviously, you couldn't go and just tell her about everything you'd gone through with the Master, which was all your own fault. Right now, you really regretted the choice your past self had made, because the Doctor was probably the only you could have talked to about this in all honesty.

"It's about a guy." The Doctor sipped at her tea, obviously burning with questions, but she didn't interrupt you. "We had a sort of, thing, going, but it wasn't really anything defined. So then at some point, we, erm," you paused briefly, "kissed." The Doctor's eyes went big over the edge of her mug, but still let you talk.

You swallowed hard at the memory, "And now I kind of haven't heard of him in a while after he subtly asked me to leave. And I don't know if I read the situation wrong or if he changed his mind and quite frankly it's driving me insane!" You huffed as you looked at the Doctor.

"What's his name?" the Doctor looked at you with a dead-serious face.

"Uhm, john. Does it matter?"

"Yes. Because if I know his name, I can have the TARDIS find him and go to have a lovely conversation with him."

You gave her a stern look.

"What? I'll just talk with him and convince him that he's wrong to dump you and that he maybe has to compensate for your troubles in some way." She shrugged and raised her eyebrows to give the statement less weight.

"Doctor! Now I'm definitely not giving you his last name." On the inside you thanked yourself for your clever excuse, because if you were to make a name up right on the spot, you wouldn't get very far without giving yourself away.

You and the Doctor talked for a few hours about everything and nothing, carefully avoiding the subject of what you had been doing recently. Then the moment came when the Doctor had run out of her sitting down time.

"So, you wanna come with me for a bit?" Her smile was genuine and excited, making you feel guilty.

"I'm so sorry doc, but I really need some time at home. Just be human and all that."

The Doctor repeatedly had reassured you she understood while you repeatedly apologised to her for wanting to stay back. Truth is, you did want to come with her, badly, but you didn't want to risk it. What if the Master were to come back, right when you weren't there? And considering the fact that the Doctor wasn't the best with landing when she wanted to land, it was too risky.

After about a week a co-worker of yours managed to pull the story out of you, once again a generalised version of it, and had decided you couldn't give up. You'd try to argue with him, but he insisted that the Master was just incredibly emotionally constipated, and needed you to reassure him that you in fact did like him, so he could feel confident enough to show his feelings. While you weren't sure if the advice was the most accurate, he got you worked up about the situation.

A million different plans raged through your head for a few days. Until you stumbled upon one that you felt might work. It was risky and bold, but it also felt like something that could still be forgotten and forgiven if necessary.