A/N: One last chapter of pure fluff, then we'll get back to plot. ;D

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With a start I awoke from a dream that vanished as soon as my eyes blinked open. All that stayed was a bitter taste. And the darkness. I had a hard time telling if I felt rested now or if it was only the small adrenalin shot from waking so abruptly. Maybe both.

No, I didn't feel like getting up yet, so I stayed how I was and tried to relax myself back into sleep. Soft rain fell outside, soothing, steady, but not enough to wash the too many thoughts away that rushed into my head to stay there.

Sighing, I turned to the side and stopped all movement abruptly when I realised that I wasn't alone. The Master still lay there and his outline in the dark showed no indication of being awake. After I gave my eyes some time to adjust, I could also make out his face. Vague hints of darker and lighter parts, not moving inside the shadows.

Asleep.

Somehow the fact made me feel strange. A being as superior in every regard as him and yet he still needed rest, still needed to allow himself a few moments of vulnerability.

"Staring's rude."

I winced at his sudden voice.

"Told y'already, didn't I?" he slurred, not moving much, but just enough to confirm that I didn't imagine him talking.

"Uh, sorry." Good thing he couldn't see my face blushing in the dark. Why did I even react like this?

"You're still here," I noted.

"Real detective you." The Master yawned. Somehow I couldn't get the comparison to a cat out of my mind.

"You said you only need an hour or so."

"And it's been only five since we came up. Go back to sleep. Or you'll be all nagging again."

I snorted. But yes, I didn't feel as rested as after a full night. And if he really needed that little, but was still here, then… "Couldn't sleep?" I concluded. There was only a low grumble, so I prodded, "What kept you up?"

I didn't actually expect an answer, but I was still curious. What was important or threatening enough to put a man like him so much at unease that he would be unable to fall asleep?

"The Doctor."

His voice was quiet, barely a whisper above the rain outside.

"Hm, right. You two were a thing, weren't you?"

A snort, then a sigh. "Not really. Maybe…" He paused, then groaned into his pillow. "Fuck him. I don't care."

"Uh-huh."

He lightly boxed me in the ribs and I giggled at the petty gesture. The Master looked up from his pillow and, although I couldn't see his face, I just knew he was watching mine.

"Why are you awake? You humans sleep so bloody much it's a miracle you get anything done."

Good question. I stopped giggling and gave off a thoughtful hum. "Can't remember. Maybe it was a dream." There was more to it, but whatever it was slipped out of my grip whenever I tried to get a hold. And this time it wasn't a memory, else my head would start hurting again. No, nothing like that and still it made me think. "Did you find anything useful in my head? I fell asleep so fast."

He shifted in the darkness, turning to fully face me. Could Time Lords see better in the dark? Probably.

"Not yet. I'm not sure what we saw. Those void particles mingle with your life force. That much is obvious. But it's also obvious that they don't harm you."

I nodded. It had felt as if those particles were just there, existing. Nothing else. A huge contrast to how much his presence had felt. The strange sensation still lingered in my veins.

"I'd need to have another look and… what? You just went a shade paler." The Master glared at me, obviously seeing better in the dark than I. "I didn't hurt you, did I? You need to tell. This can go-"

"No," I interrupted him. "No, really. You didn't." Not at all and that was the actual problem. Being connected with him… it had felt good. But also… "I was in your mind too."

"Mhm. It's not as much intruding as it is sharing."

"Yeah, but that's the point. This is… is… I'm not sure how to word it." I sighed and glared at my hand that lay beside my head, curling my fingers as if I could simply grab the words I needed.

"Intimate?" The Master offered and I thought to hear a slightly mocking tone.

"That too. But… more. Much more than just that and…"

"And you don't want me anywhere that close. I get it." He chuckled.

"No. It's just… I agreed to this. It was all me. I didn't know this would affect us both. I didn't… I don't know if I should do that to you."

Silence.

Minutes passed without a word spoken. He probably laughed at me and at how stupid this was. After all, he had shielded almost everything from himself. I had barely felt anything at all, aside from us being there.

I heard the rustling of clothes, slight movement in the dark. And then… fingers stroking along the palm of my open hand, warm, tingling. The fleeting sensation of connection bristled along the edges of my mind. Potential. Not more.

"I knew what I would do. With all consequences." The Master's voice was low, barely more than a murmur. "You stupid human. You really should stop being so concerned about me when I could crush you at any second. It wouldn't even cost me much strength."

A chill went down my spine, but not because of the threat that was none. He moved his fingers from the palm of my hand up to the tips of my fingers, each of our digits pressed together. I could feel tendrils of consciousness, a flow of energy, nudging, asking. Yes, the Master was a danger. To me. To everyone. And right now… right now I didn't care. And without knowing how it even worked, I sent a thought, a confirmation, an allowance. And the Master lowered his hand, pressing it completely against mine, before intertwining our fingers and our minds alike.

My body tensed until I managed to gasp out a breath. There he was, there I was. We moved, flew along the blood in our veins and in the web of thoughts in our brains, swam with the essence that defined any of us as who we were and might be. And for the first time in maybe my whole life I felt truly understood, seen and accepted with everything that was so wrong about me. Here it didn't matter, here we were equal.

And then the connection faded and left me behind, empty and cold and confused until I realised the Master had moved his hand away from mine to wipe away the tears from my face. "Silly little light," he muttered.

"'m sorry. I didn't mean to cry." I turned away slightly. "This's just overwhelming."

"Yeah."

He didn't offer more than that and what for? There was no hiding in such a shared mental space, so he must have felt everything I did. He knew my past, and he knew it seemingly better than any other person I had ever met.

"It wasn't too much," I then hurried to say. "I was just surprised. We can…"

The Master chuckled quietly. "Can't get enough?"

I turned back and sighed. Why wasn't he mocking me? Why didn't he push me away like everyone else in my life had done? Why did he allow me to get so damn close?

"It's the first time I felt… I'm not sure… like I'm understood. Like… as if I'm seen. Really seen and not just…"

"I know," he said quietly. "But don't get the wrong idea. You're helping me too."

"Huh? How?"

"The drums. When we're connected I barely hear them."

"I see," I mumbled. And then the longing for those sensations suddenly became way too strong, taken away too soon. A few moments of this and my whole being had discovered a new level of existing. And I wanted more of it. "So, can we…?"

The Master laughed to himself and shuffled a little closer. This time it didn't scare me. "We can, yes. But let's get a bit more comfy, what do you think?"

"Uh… sure."

He moved again and a moment later my face lay only inches away from his chest. It was warm there, comfortable. And it was up to me to get any closer or stay exactly where I was.

"Skin contact," he told the top of my head. "Or rather… nerve endings. The more connect, the broader the pathway. Can I touch you?"

I took in a breath, feeling his hand hover near my hip. He only lowered it when I gave my okay, and then it snaked its way below my shirt where he settled on my back, drawing me against him. And I allowed that too, my heart beating wild as I settled my forehead and my hand against him. There it was again, the double heartbeat, drumming under the tips of my fingers, singing, dancing, speeding up almost as fast as my own.

I vaguely remembered that neither of us wore many clothes and that we shared the same blanket now, but I didn't care much about any of it, nor about how I had gone from a prisoner to… this.

And then I thought nothing more when his mind seeped into mine again, spreading like pulsating smoke and carrying an eagerness with it I hadn't felt before. This was more than a bandage for the drums for him. This meant something. We meant something. The combined essence of our minds, as different as minds could be and yet so similar in many aspects. I felt my own loneliness reflected back at me, the pain of rejection, the fear of abandonment. But when I had resolved to hide, he had turned everything into anger. Should the universe and everything within it burn. It did not matter. The flames were so pretty, dancing, singing for him, for me, warming even the darkest and coldest of nights.

There. I didn't need my memories to understand, after all. We were alike in what we shared and we both found solace in the connection, in the faint drumming that reverberated through my veins.

I hadn't noticed how my finger had started to draw small circles on the Master's chest, right between his hearts and I stopped the movement immediately. Almost all of the sensations of my body felt numb, like I would feel them through a layer of water. Was this even my own body? How much of his experience was mine right now? How much of the urge to burn came from him and how much of it belonged to myself, hidden in shame. Now that I had dug it out, however, it seared through me, hot and wild, driving.

The Master groaned, his own chaos mingling with those thoughts, amplifying them. The universe could be ours. Each and every one of those beautifully twinkling stars. He wanted them all. He wanted to own and travel and see and capture and burn and freeze them.

Stars.

Beautiful, beautiful stars.

And admit the lights of the universe ran a pulse. Four beats, faint and ever repeating. I huddled closer, wanting to get lost in the rhythm below my fingertips, inside my mind and… "They are not the same," I muttered, or maybe thought.

What isn't?

"The drums in your chest." And the ones in your mind.

His essence moved, changed, his hand on my back stiffened, clutched me tighter. It took him so incredibly much to hold back, even though I couldn't tell what. The intention was hidden from me, the struggle was not. Neither was the pain. Stay with me. Neither was the force with which he held onto me. Don't vanish again. And I couldn't tell if any of it was even his or if it was all me or both of us.

It didn't matter.

How can you hear them? We aren't connected that deeply.

I shrugged, probably. How could it be so hard to differentiate what was real and what only happened in my mind? Do I?

The sound stayed with me, always the same, always repeating. It drummed through him a lot louder than through me and I got barely more than an echo. But yes, it was there. I could hear it clearly. Projection?

No. That would feel differently.

Again,the holding back. From what? It took him so much and when I tried to sense what it might be, he closed that part off even tighter and held me just as firm. Don't let go. I was warm. So incredibly warm that it brought new tears to my eyes. Maybe it didn't.

Everything melded together. Nothing mattered anymore but this. And I drowned, slow and content. I sank into the flames and the stars, deep and lost and completely okay with it.