best_enemies | **Will probably never stop being shy about posting** (Reply)

Hello again! I er...brought fic....It's probably horrible....

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Title: Of Plans and Pairs
Author: StalkedByChibis
Characters: Eighth!Doctor, young!Jacobi!Master, the Rani, Romana, mentions of Rassilon ((and there would have been a Braxiatel but he was busy))
Pairings: Doctor/Master, possible Rani/Romana if you'd like
Warnings: None
Notes: Hope this is alright....

Somewhere along the lines, someone thought it would be a good idea to add the Master to the list of soon-to-be-resurrected. Alright, so it was Rassilon, who knows how his mind works. Needless to say, for those who actually knew the Master, this was no small cause of concern, be they on the not-yet-entirely disbanded Council or the ones working on the resurrection/re-Looming process. Rassilon, as one might expect from him and his ilk, paid them as little attention as possible to still keep up the vestiges of supreame power.

All names on the list of already-had-been and soon-to-be resurrected Time Lords and Ladies were strictly confidential to the highest degree, and quite possibly beyond. No one outside the twelve remaining members of the Council and the fifteen Scientists working with the Looms knew that such activities. Fear of the mad Lord Rassilon kept this silence, a rather Machiavellian response in such once pround, strong beings. However, this decision was the proverbial straw that broke the camels back, as it were.

There is, even now, much debate over whether it was Romana who told him, or the Rani, or perhaps both working as one, but the Doctor happened to find out one day. As one might imagine, he was not entirely pleased. At all. However, whomever had divulged the information obviously kept the Doctor - long hair, clothes still capable of being called 'fancy' despite the frays and splotches, and all - from barging into the Council chambers and knocking the Lord President over the head with one of the empty, heavy, high-backed chairs, otherwise the Doctor as we know him would be no more.

It was almost directly after this, however, that the Rani/Romana/combination of the two had doubtlessly encountered frustraition: the Doctor refused to leave the area during the Master's re-Looming. Now, the process was only slightly dangerous to those who chose to remain in the circular room, but the worst that could occur would be a week-long buildup of what amounted to static electricity. This was mainly due to a certain Time Lady - who wishes to remain nameless - taking all the useless flair and gadgetry away and leaving only the bare essentials.

His safety, however, was not their concern. You see, the process of Looming, much like regeneration, resulted in a temporary jarring of all the neurons in the Time Persons brain. Their immediate environment for the next few hours would form one of the bases of the resulting personality. So, should the newly-regenerated Time Lord be exposed to, say, a certain eyeburningly colourful coat or to an improbably long scarf, then these will likely be picked up, absorbed, and accepted as part of the new persona. In short, she/they were already perfectly well aware of the Master's certain...affinity for all things Doctor-y, and the last thing she/they and the rest of the universe needed was for the Doctor to actually imprint on him.

Of course, 'best laid plans' and all. The Doctor adamently refused to leave the newly resurrected Time Lord, even for the sleep that their kind needed so little of. The two weeks the Master spent unconscious saw the Doctor in a chair at his bedside, either prattling on about one thing or another, or merely sitting there and watching his best enemy. Precisely two weeks to the day of the Master's re-Looming - which was worryingly long, in comparison with the others who had merely been out for a day at most - the Rani/Romana/both walked into the room to discover a scene that would leave the Rani shaking her head, Romana sighing, or both of them with a feeling that nothing would end well at all.

The Doctor had moved his chair closer, leaning forward onto the Master's chest, clutching his hand. For his part, the Master was almost absently trailing his free hand through the Doctor's hair, eyes half-open and gazing down at the other Gallifreyan. The Rani/Romana/both kept at a distance, in part not to inturrupt, and also to not be drawn into the the typical show the two would broadcast with others in the area which would become far worse should the two ever come together. The two Time Lords were speaking, voices low and soft, though from their place the Time Lady/Ladies were unable to hear what they were saying. Each time the Master's lips quirked up into something of a smile, the Doctor's eyes would become just a bit brighter, grin just a bit wider.

The Rani/Romana/Both turned away, frowning slightly, because she/they were perfectly aware that when it came to the Doctor and the Master, things seldom stayed calm and quiet for very long.