This feisty verbal bandying is a new development of their maturing, strengthening reconciliation. It invigorates Koschei, and he grows louder and more boisterous by the minute.
“Oh, very well, you pedantic bastard! See if I let you spoon me again for the next fortnight! No, no, don’t coom a drop closer, you can’t seduce me into compliance again!”
“Oh?Can’t I?”
The Doctor does as he’s told and does not come a drop closer, feet staying fixed on the floor exactly where they are. Instead, he kisses his own hand, and reaches out to press that same hand to the Master’s cheek, ‘transferring’ the kiss.
He beams then, pleased with himself. “Kissed you, and I didn’t even have to take another step! You don’t stand a chance.”
“That is … . . absolutely out of bounds, you rule-breaking heathen!”
That the Doctor would regularly surmount his insecurities to display stubborn affection for the Master … oh dear. It delights the jealous Time Lord down to the marrow.
He turns and leaps indelicately into his lover’s arms.
“I’ll show YOU,” and he bites his nose, far from gently.
A cat, and guess who is this notorious, evil genius’s catnip.
“ … . I honestly don’t know, Sis. I’ve come to a point where that’s not even my modus operandi anymore. But I do know it would have taken me a far shorter mourning period for the … certainty that I at least had myself. That at least I would never betray me. Even for my best friend’s sake. I’ve always known … . I have only myself. Madly as we may love the Doctor … . we can’t rely upon them. Not if we wish to be our own master.”
“I know that we only have ourselves. I know that. Don’t think it won’t get worse after you regenerate, because it will. But even after all that he had done, even after everything, all the fighting, all… this, you’ll figure out that this time. This time, he really wants to help and he will. He did help, believe me or not.”
Missy sighed and looked away. “I just hope that at this point you won’t hate me for this. Because I know that if you were the one doing it, I wouldn’t blame you, Junior. Because that’s who we are. So dangerous, even to ourselves.”
“But we’re SELF-PRESERVING too! We SURVIVE, Missy! That’s our badge of honor! I’m not asking that you reject the Doctor, I’m asking WHY you felt the need to try and kill ME!”
“Was I really so disgusting to you?”
You should not have had to choose between the Doctor and your own dignity.
“ … . I honestly don’t know, Sis. I’ve come to a point where that’s not even my modus operandi anymore. But I do know it would have taken me a far shorter mourning period for the … certainty that I at least had myself. That at least I would never betray me. Even for my best friend’s sake. I’ve always known … . I have only myself. Madly as we may love the Doctor … . we can’t rely upon them. Not if we wish to be our own master.”
Jack’s engaged his husband’s most feline tendencies. They’re always in evidence when Koschei is affectionate, never more so than when his eyes are closed, and he’s bunting his forehead against Jack’s devastatingly beautiful features, and rubbing his cheeks against his jaw, and warmly, bodily clinging.
Icarus 