Pets
Title: Pets
Rating: G
Word Count: 550
Characters: Missy, Twelfth Doctor, Thirteenth Doctor, mentions of companions
Warnings: N/A
Summary: Alone in the vault, Missy wonders why the Doctor gathers so many pets.
Pets. The Doctor had gathered so many. Missy, in her solitude within the vault, had begun to count them in her head. Jo, Nyssa, Tegan, Ace, and all the rest. All sorts of different breeds, with different shapes and sixes. He fawned over them, coddling them, like coddling a mayfly.
At first, the Master had thought it a passing obsession. Then he began to think it was a neurotic focus, perhaps as an unhealthy coping mechanism for not seeing any of his Gallifreyan family. Even the thoughts that maybe it was some misplaced mating urge. But now, after all this time, Missy realized that it wasn’t that. He respected these pets. Almost saw them as his equal.
That disturbed her. She considered the Doctor a peer, perhaps her only peer. And yet, he respected these...apes? These gloopy, filthy, spitting, creatures who had barely moved from the primitive muck of a petri dish? She could not understand it. If he thought these pets were worthy of respect, more worthy than her, what did he think of her? Insulting.
Peri. Rose. Martha.
Missy had collected a pet too. Just to try it. Lucy was nice to play with. She somehow enjoyed working with his games, helping his schemes. But she eventually tried to stop Missy, and so Lucy had to go. Bah. The Doctor was better with his pets.
Clara. Nardole. Bill.
Bill. Missy had tried to take this opportunity to observe this newest pet. Was there anything special about her? Was it the fact she prefered her same gender? No, no. Clara had occasionally shown to like her own gender as well. Was it her skin color? No, the Doctor had never been picky about the color.
What made these pets special?
Missy tried asking him. He had shook his head, and stated “The fact you had to ask shows why you need to stay in this vault.”
The answer was probably something insipid, like “curiousity” or “good-heartedness.”
And yet.
Missy even tried skipping through the Doctor’s timeline. She observed the Doctor’s future pet, Yasmin. Tried to see if there was anything unusual.
“You’re not supposed to be here,” said the future Doctor behind her. Her Yorkshire voice was playful, but her eyes seemed sad.
“I can be everywhere. I like the new form. Stealing from me, I see,” said Missy.
“I thought you’d like it,” said the Doctor softly.
“New pet?”
“Three,” said the Doctor, smiling wistfully.
“Got tired of the old pet? What was her name? Bill? Mind you, she wasn’t very--”
“Stop talking,” growled the Doctor. “And they’re not my pets. They’ve never been my pets. They are my friends. Ya get that?”
Missy was taken aback. “My, my, you’ve got fire this time.”
“Get back to the vault. You don’t understand, and you never will. GO!”
So Missy went back like a good little girl. Nardole and the Doctor never even notic
ed that she left. Missy thought about the future Doctor’s reaction...something bad would happen to Bill at the end. Only way
to explain that anger. Missy waited for that day, as amusement.
(When the day came, Missy would see Bill as a friend, and regret what she had said. But it would be too late.)