Fic: Coming Home
This is mostly me playing with the tenth Doctor's Serious Voice, so concrit on that score is welcome.
Title: Coming Home
Rating: PG
Pairing: Doctor/Master
Summary: Some time after Last of the Time Lords, the Doctor and the Master visit the space where Gallifrey once was.
Length: 629 words
Prompt: un_love_you prompt #1, "You were right about me".
He stood with his back to me, looking up. Above him, the thin atmosphere, and then space. Fewer stars here than there used to be. Fewer than last time I was here.
"What is this rock?" he said, kicking the dust with his shiny shoe.
I followed his gaze, tried to name each star, but the structure of the galaxy was gone, and I had no reference point. This was a diseased place. The entire volume of space, radiating from where we stood to beyond the furthest point of light visible, was palsied and decaying.
"This," I said, quietly, "is a moon. Was a moon."
"Ours?"
"I can't be certain. Possibly. Probably."
He nodded. Rocked back and forth on his heels. A faint smile tugged at the corner of his lip, but he didn't find this any funnier than I did. That was an old smile, one I hadn't seen in centuries. The nervous grin of a scared boy who had no idea how else to react. So many layers blown away by the cosmic winds to reveal, just for a moment, someone I recognised.
And then his cold sneer was back. He looked round at me.
"Well done, Doctor," he said. "Your legacy to the universe!"
"Yes," I said. Breathed in slowly, lifted my chin. "It's still here."
The grin returned once more, this time darker, and he took a step closer. He hooked one arm around my waist, gave me a little squeeze. "Oh, Doctor. That - that - was pride! Just a hint. But pride, definitely pride. Trust me, I know it when I see it."
"I'm sure you do."
"And I know you. The lives you ended here, the worlds you destroyed, all etched into your conscience for the rest of time. But you're a man of honesty, and a man of truth. And you know you did a good thing here. Part of you won't forget that, not ever."
I shut my eyes, and he pulled me against him. Oh, but he shouldn't have bothered. As though mere physical contact could bring us any closer! But part of me... the part that wouldn't forget, perhaps... part of me wanted to be held by him. Only safe place in the universe, right there in his arms. And I remembered the sound of his voice on the telephone.
You must have been like a god. With all the power, and all of the guilt.
He pouted, like a parent soothing a sulking child. Kissed my hair, as I tried to feel something beyond numbness and a faint - but growing - unidentifiable, hot glow, right in the centre of my stomach.
"Have you seen enough?" I said, perhaps a moment later, perhaps an hour.
His hands held me tight, his body still but tense. He nodded slowly.
"I suspect," he said, "I've seen everything."
I could think of one or two things, but I didn't say so. Things I hoped he would never see, things I was capable of, things that I...
"We should go," I said. "Now."
We walked back to the TARDIS, under the graveyard sky. He looked older than ever, and I felt tired. Time was growing short. And sooner or later, I would have to stop believing in the gulf between us, the imaginary void between good and evil. I was one neurosis away from being him, and he knew it. Always had.
I shut the door, and put my back to it. Watched him touch the controls of my ship, fingers light and gentle, a genuine smile on his face as we took off. I wondered how much more he would take from me without needing to ask, and I wondered, as the ship grew darker and he held out his hand, if he was only one kindness away from being me.
Title: Coming Home
Rating: PG
Pairing: Doctor/Master
Summary: Some time after Last of the Time Lords, the Doctor and the Master visit the space where Gallifrey once was.
Length: 629 words
Prompt: un_love_you prompt #1, "You were right about me".
He stood with his back to me, looking up. Above him, the thin atmosphere, and then space. Fewer stars here than there used to be. Fewer than last time I was here.
"What is this rock?" he said, kicking the dust with his shiny shoe.
I followed his gaze, tried to name each star, but the structure of the galaxy was gone, and I had no reference point. This was a diseased place. The entire volume of space, radiating from where we stood to beyond the furthest point of light visible, was palsied and decaying.
"This," I said, quietly, "is a moon. Was a moon."
"Ours?"
"I can't be certain. Possibly. Probably."
He nodded. Rocked back and forth on his heels. A faint smile tugged at the corner of his lip, but he didn't find this any funnier than I did. That was an old smile, one I hadn't seen in centuries. The nervous grin of a scared boy who had no idea how else to react. So many layers blown away by the cosmic winds to reveal, just for a moment, someone I recognised.
And then his cold sneer was back. He looked round at me.
"Well done, Doctor," he said. "Your legacy to the universe!"
"Yes," I said. Breathed in slowly, lifted my chin. "It's still here."
The grin returned once more, this time darker, and he took a step closer. He hooked one arm around my waist, gave me a little squeeze. "Oh, Doctor. That - that - was pride! Just a hint. But pride, definitely pride. Trust me, I know it when I see it."
"I'm sure you do."
"And I know you. The lives you ended here, the worlds you destroyed, all etched into your conscience for the rest of time. But you're a man of honesty, and a man of truth. And you know you did a good thing here. Part of you won't forget that, not ever."
I shut my eyes, and he pulled me against him. Oh, but he shouldn't have bothered. As though mere physical contact could bring us any closer! But part of me... the part that wouldn't forget, perhaps... part of me wanted to be held by him. Only safe place in the universe, right there in his arms. And I remembered the sound of his voice on the telephone.
You must have been like a god. With all the power, and all of the guilt.
He pouted, like a parent soothing a sulking child. Kissed my hair, as I tried to feel something beyond numbness and a faint - but growing - unidentifiable, hot glow, right in the centre of my stomach.
"Have you seen enough?" I said, perhaps a moment later, perhaps an hour.
His hands held me tight, his body still but tense. He nodded slowly.
"I suspect," he said, "I've seen everything."
I could think of one or two things, but I didn't say so. Things I hoped he would never see, things I was capable of, things that I...
"We should go," I said. "Now."
We walked back to the TARDIS, under the graveyard sky. He looked older than ever, and I felt tired. Time was growing short. And sooner or later, I would have to stop believing in the gulf between us, the imaginary void between good and evil. I was one neurosis away from being him, and he knew it. Always had.
I shut the door, and put my back to it. Watched him touch the controls of my ship, fingers light and gentle, a genuine smile on his face as we took off. I wondered how much more he would take from me without needing to ask, and I wondered, as the ship grew darker and he held out his hand, if he was only one kindness away from being me.