Fic: Family

[captainpegas.livejournal.com]

Title: Family. Once again, a bad title. But I simply couldn't think of anything better.
Characters: Six/Ainley!Master, Valeyard/Master
Wordcount: Approximately 1700, strangely enough.
Rating: PG.
Summary: I've seen that episode of Family Guy once, where Stewie meets his older self. Thus, an idea was born in the back of my mind and finally, I've written this fic. I just hope it's not as bad as I think it is.
Note: None of the characters belong to me.

The Doctor's arm was aching slightly. Maybe even not all that slightly, for due to the freezing wind he might not have quite felt the true pain. He could no longer feel his face anyway. He tried banging at the door of the Master's TARDIS for a thousandth time, holding no real hope any longer. Miraculously enough, this time he heard the lock click. The Master opened the door and let the Doctor in, turning away the moment he did so without as much as casting a fleeting glance at the visitor.

It took the Doctor a couple of moments to get his frosen lips move again and shake what seemed like tonns of snow out of his curls before he broke out with a tirade, his rightful anger seething in his every word.

"Now, what do you think you are playing at! First you ask me to come round for a chat, and then you keep me standing in the middle of Antarctica banging at your door for hours! Resistant to cold I might be, but that could have been enough to freeze me to regeneration! And I dread to think, what I might have become, having regenerated in an ice cube. I would have lost all my sunny charm at any rate. I don't know what you might be angry with me for, but in any case, that isn't a decent kind of vengeance! Where's your style?  Master? Won't you say anything?"

The Master was standing silently, leaning against the opposite wall, his eyes as if glued to a spot at the tips of his own shoes. It looked like he was totally ignoring the Doctor's colourful and loud presence.

"Oh, what's the matter with you? You've always been so talkative during our rare dates. So happy to be able to drop all the pretence, stop acting Prince of the Darkness and just have some fun. By the way, I like your T-shirt. It suites you much better than black velvet."

The Master looked at the Doctor with what was definitely meant to be contempt. But his eyes were far too red and swallen with tears. He tried turning away quickly, but the Doctor had already noticed. He came closer to the Master, all his self-admiration forgotten, and put his hands on the Master's shoulders softly, looking him in the face.

"Master?" he whispered tenderly, "What's happened to you?"

The Master broke out sobbing in stead of the answer. The Doctor pulled him close in a warm and cosy embrace, whispering all manners of senseless, but usually comforting words into his ear.

The Master came round quickly.

"How unexpectedly tender despite the looks you are, Doctor," he muttered embarrassedly, freeing himself from the Doctor's arms and making a feeble attempt to smile, "I believe it was highly appreciated by the delightful miss Brown."

The Doctor pulled a wry face at the last words.

"I was hoping that all those times we've been through this would have been enough not to bring up the matter ever again. How exactly jealous are you, Master? You are no holy man yourself. But look at me, I don't talk of the queen of Atlantis every time we meet, do I?"

The Master smirked sardonically.

"As a matter of fact, my dear Doctor, you do. But that's not your love affairs I wanted to talk to you and was so..." the Master paused blushing slightly, "Distressed about."

"Hopefully not. And would you kindly drop that cold and impassioned tone of yours? There's no one here for you to keep up your public image in front of. So, what were you going to talk to me about? By the way, since it is obviously important and gravely serious, can you feed me first? Please?"

The Master stared at the Doctor, most sincerely perplexed.

The Doctor blushed.

"Well," he mumbled, rubbing the back of his head, "You see, Mel thinks that her resemblance to a walking skeleton means that I am terribly fat. So she only lets me drink carrot juice. What's more, the TARDIS joined in the game on Mel's side and simply wouldn't let me sneak into the kitchen! Yes, you can laugh, Master, laugh as you like, but if I die of utter exhaustion, I might not even have enough energy to regenerate."

The Master chuckled and led the Doctor to the kitchen.

 

"Now," said the Doctor, putting the empty plate aside, "Back to business. Judging by the manner of how you've been smiling during my meal, and by how really delightful this meal was, you are not angry with me. Are you?"

The Doctor looked at the Master in a childishly inquiring way. The Master smiled, his blue eyes shining with the warmth only the Doctor had ever witnessed.

"No, Doctor, I'm not. I simply can't be, you know that. It's just... Well, it was hard for me to forget that Valeyard is you. I was blaming you for what he's done against my better judgement. Maybe I still am, but how can anyone be angry with you while you are present?"

"Well, in that case... Why don't you sit on my lap and tell me the story of why you had to ask me to kill myself?"

The Master accepted the invitation gladly, putting his arms around the Doctor's neck, and his story began.

"We met, as I thought, accidentally, me and the Valeyard, in one of those pubs in the outskirts of the galaxies, where you can always hire a bunch of assassins for any purposes. The plan I was thinking on required a couple of assistants. Imagine my surprise, when amongst all sorts of outlaws I saw you. I couldn't believe my senses. But then you, or I should better say he, came to me and said he'd been looking for me. Said he'd grown older and wiser, got tired of his wanderings and wished for nothing else, but to settle down with me. He said he decided to accept my proposal, the one I made lifetimes ago, to rule the Universe benevolently by my side. I knew then for sure he was not quite the Doctor I was used to, but since he was still you, what did I care? And so we started living together. We even had a honeymoon, and I have to admit, that was very close to being the happiest time of my life. I didn't even want to proceed with taking over the Universe. But he started moaning that my becoming the good guy would deprive the world of its excitement for him. And I was so much under his spell, like I've always been, I simply didn't have the hearts to deny him anything. So I decided to carry out that plan, remember, the one I was telling you in that bar you insisted on going to with Matt Groening? Or were you to busy getting your preposterous scarf on the telly to listen? Well never mind, I'm not telling it again. In return, I begged him into having a time baby. He was still pretending to be mostly the you I know, so he gave up soon enough. And we had a child, Stewart I called him, my sweet little time tot, with beautiful eyes filled to the brim with intelligence. I was happy. I was feeling young again. When I held our son in my arms for the first time, I seriously thought of having dramatic change of my career. Taking over the Universe was of no importance for me compared to this chance of starting a new life. This time, I thought, it was going to be different. This time my children would know me as their loving father, not as a monster who has got nothing to do with them, I thought. Then I was foolish enough to tell all this sentimental babble to the Valeyard. He got genuinely outraged. I can't remember having ever heard anything quite so humiliating and painful as what he said to me then. And he meant every word. He was more keen on taking over the world than I might ever think of becoming. And one morning, I woke up alone. Valeyard was gone with my son, leaving a mocking note, where he informed me that he had taken my son away from me, hoping I would get my senses back and my priorities right, that he, oh, I dread to think of it, that he had turned my time tot into a human and gave him to an American family consisting of a fat bottomed idiot, his daft wife, and two children, teenage copies of their parents, hypnotising them into believing Stewie was their real son. And in case I ever try to find my baby, he had of course taken the precaution of implanting the command to kill him into the foster parents' useless minds. What's more, in the end, with infernal mocking courtesy, he added that Stewie had not been left there on his own. He had a talking dog to look after him! The wretched man didn't even have the decency of not turning my tragedy into a farce! How can he be you, Doctor? Do you really have a monster sleeping somewhere deep inside?"

The Master was on the verge of tears again. The Doctor kissed his temple, tightening the embrace tenderly. He thought for a couple of moments and then said carefully

"Maybe... Maybe I can try and find your, well, our son? I mean..."

"No, Doctor," interrupted the Master firmly, "No. First, Valeyard is your future, so he knew I would tell you and what you might do in response. Secondly... I am no longer sure I can take back what had been taken away from me so cruelly. You are no God and I am no Iov, sorry. The matter is closed. I just needed to tell you, it hurts less now. In no time, I will forget. Everything will be as it used to be before I met Valeyard. Now, don't you have to go back to your new companion and have some carrot juice for dinner?"

The Doctor gave the Master a playful stern look at the last words.

"Next time you say something like this whilst sitting on my lap, Master," he said, "And you are bound to find yourself on the floor."

"And I am not leaving," he added, bringing the Master's face close to his own, "Until I am sure I've done everything I could to cheer you up."

And he gave the Master one of those deep and sweet kisses he was so very good at in this incarnation.