Title: Home Now

Summary: The Master's feelings about the Doctor, set after EoT. AU.

This was home the Master decides as he lies in bed with the Doctor held tightly in his arms, the other's forehead resting against his. This is what he wants... This is what he needs. He's been through so much – they both have but now they've wound up together and it's just... it's just so right. He doesn't need anything else so long as he has the Doctor.

Quietly, he glances at the other, sound asleep in his arms. He gently moves a hand to the side of his face, tracing the line of his jaw with his thumb, just watching... Because sometime's he just likes to watch. He just likes to lie and watch him sleep, watch him breathe, feel his hearts beat... just to know he's alive.

He smiles a little as the Doctor snuffles in his sleep a little and subconsciously wraps his arms a little tighter around the Master's waist. The Master closes his eyes for a moment, just feeling their hearts beating together, against each other... This is perfect, he thinks. This is what he had wanted all along, even if he had been too stubborn to admit it at times. But this is definitely what he wanted...

"I love you, Theta," he whispers quietly, not caring that the other's asleep. He never feels like he says it enough, or seriously enough. He never feels he can make up for all the bad blood that's gone between them. He never feels he can make up for the things he's done to him for whatever reason. He became a monster and he knows it – he gave in to the drums and let them turn him into something he wasn't...

But now...? Now things are different. After the time war, he had nothing. Nothing but the knowledge that the only thing he really needed, the only person he needed was the Doctor...

He gently places a kiss on the Doctor's cheek and pulls him closer, reluctant to let him go. He never wants to let him go...

Yes, he concludes, this is what home is now.