Chapter Text
Chapter one: The kiss of life and honey
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One two, three four, one two, three four.
The Doctor's hearts raced as he heaved the limp body across the gravelly footing. With his arms wrapped tightly around The Master's upper torso, he dragged him into the supernal light of the TARDIS, muttering small urgencies to himself as he did so.
“Come on, come on, come on” The Doctor dragged him up the inclined walkway, taking his hand aside to quickly brush his watering eyes. He laid him gently on the grated TARDIS floor, wincing slightly as The Masters limp head hit the metal with a clang.
“Sorry” The Doctor mumbled quietly, as if the dead Timelord could hear him.
It had only been an hour since The Master had been shot by his wife, Lucy Saxon, and he was thankful to have been able to get him out so quickly. He had had the intention of giving him a discreet send-off, but he found when he inevitably got there, he couldn’t. He’d removed his confidant's body from the ornate firewood and set it alight, empty.
The TARDIS hummed with a mix of alarm and condescension. The Doctor ignored her, he knew he would need to do this quickly. The Doctor kneeled beside him, feeling a sudden throb of grief in his hearts when he looked down at The Master's devoid face. He brushed an escaping tear from his own cheek, sniffing and collecting himself in time to bring his mind to speed. He’d done this before, given regeneration energy to people in order to save them, but he wasn’t sure how well it would work under these circumstances. The Master had been dead for just over an hour, and he needed two hearts pumping in order to live. The Doctor wasn’t quite sure how much he would need to give, or if he would damage himself in the process, but he needed to do this, he needed to give Koschei another chance.
The Doctor kneeled at The Masters head and dipped forward, cupping his recreant's face gently but securely in his hands. It worked kind of like an automatic CPR, no chest compressions needed, the only necessary component was the renowned ‘kiss of life’, a mouth to mouth.
This needed to work. The Doctor took a breath before wilting downward, warm lips overlapping cold in a still minute. The Master's body was held in the embrace for a quiet moment.
The Master was the second last Timelord, they couldn’t leave each other. Not under any circumstances, their past didn’t matter at the moment. Nothing else did right now.
A distinguishable golden hue started to blaze around them. Flowing between their bodies like honey. The Doctor's figure trembled over him, his inside being drained like the willing victim to a vampire. He took a quivering breath through his nose and held the ‘kiss’, his eyes starting to run with tears, dripping onto the others cheek. His fingers pressed against The Master's throat in anticipation.
One two, three four, one two, three four.
He could feel his own hearts beating and momentarily understood something crucial.
One two, three four, one two, three four, one two ,three four, five, one two, three four, five six, seven eight.
Another four thrums beat against his hand, giving him permission to break their kiss. He slid a relieved hand to The Masters rising chest as he divided their lips, feeling the proper four heart beats of a Timelord. He sighed in exhaustion and kept his hand there, suddenly feeling dizzy from the mental exertion.
“You’re going to be the end of me one day, Master.”
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