Revery of Madness (Doctor Who)

II - Some past must not be told

"Doctor, please get out," Roka moaned. "Get a hotel room or something."

"What for?" The blond scurried around the room, collecting parts and tinkering them together, while the Master did the same, more or less. "I don't need sleep now. And probably not for another while either. If I'm good, and usually I'm brilliant, this might only take..."

"Doctor, out!" the Master growled and pointed to the door. He rolled his eyes at her dumbfound expression. "Seriously? Who is hanging around those apes all the time? I think that was you, am I wrong? No! And if even I can remember that she needs sleep, I'm sure so can you."

"Oh." The Doctor dropped a few cables onto the sofa. "Right. Sorry, Roka. But hey, I could just..."

"No." The Master glared at her, his gaze leaving no room for interpretation. "You're not staying for the night. And if you have to sleep in a beggars cardboard shelter, I don't care a scrap. Get lost for a few hours."

The Doctor pouted and stemmed both fists into her hips. This regeneration seemed to be as moody as she was fidgety. "Fiiiine," she let out, "be back in eight hours."

With that she hurled around and rumbled down the stairs, leaving a chirped goodbye towards the girls, before she left the house.

Roka chuckled. "Bet you always wanted to do that."

"Throw the Doctor out?" The Master huffed amused. "Have done that more times than you might think."

"Sounds like you used to live together." She poked out her tongue.

Slowly the Master looked up, his mind returning from his tinkering, only to wander farther way into the past. Absently he slid his specs further up his nose, an almost nostalgic half-smile appearing on his lips. "Of course we have."

It was then that she remembered, feeling a little stupid for having forgotten the obvious. "Oh, right. The academy."

He hummed confirming and quietly laughed to himself about something only he understood. "I once let him sleep in a tree for five nights in a row. Got a week detention for it, but that was worth it."

Roka laughed at the mere thought and also was happy to hear something about this time. He never told about it much, if at all. She strolled over to peek at what he was working on, but the small device didn't make much sense to her. As good as Roka was with tech, what those two put together always slipped her level of knowledge.

Her thoughts got interrupted anyway as the Master took her wrist and pulled her against him. She steadied herself with a hand against his shoulder to not fall, but then decided to be bold and simply straddled one of his legs.

"Wait... five nights? Do young Time Lords need more sleep?" she teased and hooked her finger into his half opened dress shirt. The tie was discarded on top of a pile of cables.

A mischievous smile spread on his face and in his eyes, but he didn't move an inch towards Roka. Only his hands snaked around her middle, folded in the small of her back, but not drawing her closer.

"They actually sleep even more than you lot. It was an annoying time, I can tell you. It's like... puberty in humans. Our bodies change, grow, but a lot slower than yours, still." Roka listened fascinated, always happy to learn more about his past and his race in general. "We spend most of our childhood and adolescence with learning how to control our bodies and minds. How we can exist with almost no food or sleep," his thumbs gently stroked over her skin through the cloth.

"Speaking of it... Is it better now? You sleep a lot more often."

She had noticed him slipping into bed almost every night by now.