hh_mirror | [RP for Ten and the Master]

"It helps that there's a good match in terms of appearance and texture," he said smugly. "I needed something to start with."

Oh he was being smug again. Couldn't have that.

"Come on, show me how to do it. I want to know! "This opened up so many possibilities. So many new ways to preserve old memories.

"Oh, no. Not that one. Never that one." His smile was wistful and almost sad as he reached out and stroked the line of the Doctor's jaw, trailing his fingertips down his neck. Such a lovely neck this time. "That's something you need to come back to me for."

He watches the Master's face, taking in every little nuance of his expression before replying with a smile.

"Thought you'd know by now- coming back's what I'm best at."

Part of him raged bitterly at that, but he stifled it. Too much promise in this moment; he wanted as long a memory to keep as possible before the inevitable going all to hell. He left his hand where it was, feeling the Doctor's pulse under his hand.

"Is it? I thought that was my specialty."

"Well" he conceded, tilting his head to the side and looking thoughtful. "Certainly in terms of dramatic entrances. Right, fine you win. What's my specialty then? Make it a good one."

He fought back the first thing that sprang to mind; it's true, but it's also ugly and cruel, something to use when he needed a weapon. "Your will," he says, and it's just as true. You might die, you might do mad, but you don't break."

He leaned into the Master's touch absently as he considered this. It sounded like a second thought to him which made him curious about the first but he didn't push it.

"Good thing too. I'd be awfully dull if I did."

"I'd have lost interest long ago if you were that ordinary." The reaction was good, and he traced little half-circles on the nape of the Doctor's neck. "Of course, you'd probably never have left, either."

He was quit for a moment as he leaned against the Master, staring at the bowl of pretzel like snacks.

"It wasn't you you know. It wasn't anything you could have helped."

"That's really not an improvement." But he kept as much of the bitterness from his voice as possible without shutting himself away. The responses to his initial, testing caress were promising and he longed to pull the Doctor into his lap, but he'd have had to put away his wand, which would call attention to the fact that why yes, they had been in the middle of something.

"I should have told you, I know I should have....But at the time everything was so panicked and there just wasn't time. But that doesn't change the fact that I should have contacted you. I just..." How could he explain that it hadn't been safe without it sounding like an excuse?

"The council never said why I left? Or Brax?"

"I'd rather not discuss it." He could feel himself tensing, feel the empty silent places in his head ring with the echo of his beating hearts. "I'm more interested in avoiding a repeat performance."

"Well unless there are some angry politicians here who want my head on a plate, 'm fairly certain you haven't got much to worry about."

He fell back on the bed again with a quiet thump, his neck still warm where the Master's hand had been.

"Like what you've done with the place."

"I've done opulence, I've done squalor, now I'm going for simple and practical." He grinned down at the Doctor. "I'm sure you'll have your own ideas and it'll start with some unlikely-looking desk. I'll try to be tolerant."

"Oh you're too kind!" He laughed and tried to reach for another pretzel without sitting up. "But I doub't we'll be spending much time in here. Too much to see!"

"Well, maybe some time." Smirking, he grabbed the bowl and held it out of reach, grabbing a few of what had at one point been ordinary pretzels and holding them to the Doctor's mouth, in easy nibbling range. It was simple, innocent playfulness; things they hadn't shared in centuries. He had no serious hope that it would last, but he was certainly going to try and make sure it did.

The Doctor glanced up at the master in mild amusement before opening his mouth and snatching the pretzel away with his teeth.

"Cheeky."

"At least it's not in the Great Hall." Setting the bowl between them, he lay down as well, stretching out on his side. "I'm not planning on any public humiliation." Unless you leave me again, of course, in which case you'd have brought it on yourself. But he didn't want that subtext hovering, didn't want to be anything but learning together, delighting in the workings of each other's minds. And other parts, perhaps.

Not this year at least The Doctor thought. The Master wasn't the only one hiding a little bitterness.

But he pushed that thought away and smiled, pulling his long legs up onto the bed.

"Just private humiliation then? That sounds much better."

"Doesn't sound like a good use of energy to me. But then, I'm feeling a little more direct than usual right now." He cupped the back of the Doctor's head, burying his fingers with a smile. "If I'd said yes when you asked if we'd kissed, what would you have done?"

"Dunno." It was an honest answer and the Doctor looked thoughtfully at the ceiling, enjoying the supportive hand. "Be a bit shocked. Happy though, I think. I don't think kissing you would have been dreadful." A smirk there.

"Proper one though. Know what I mean? "

Oh, he certainly did, and it was more than time to demonstrate. The hand cradling the Doctor's head became less a caress than a support as he leaned in for a kiss that started light, almost delicate, but rapidly progressed to something much more urgent and needy.

It wasn't long before the Doctor was kissing him back, pulling the Master closer and responding with equal need. Almost desperation.

It was like a switch being thrown; the Master abandoned his poise and wrapped his free arm around the Doctor's waist and writhed against him with an eagerness that outstripped all attempts at conscious control. The kiss became a bit loud and sloppy as he insistently sucked and nibbled the Doctor's tongue.

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