sometimes…
Image by Nata Luna
"This is gonna sound weird, cos they’re so cold and snarky, but when the Doctor’s with the other guy… who really needs a better nickname, seriously, does he expect people to call him “The Master”?… and he does something kind or helps the Doctor with something? They don’t stop bickering; that’s their background noise. But it’s like the Doctor just sort of relaxes, like he was holding himself together the whole time he was out ‘fixing the universe’, and now he just… I feel weird talking about it cos it’s their private lives, but, I guess by now they forget I’m around or maybe don’t mind anymore?
Sometimes, they’re sitting on the sofa or something, the Doctor will just let his head slump against the other guy’s shoulder and you know, for all the airs he puts on, he’s not too proper to put his arms around him… and he’s so gentle with the Doctor, you wouldn’t even know he was a robot. And it’s like the Doctor’s face ages about 100 years and you can see all the exhaustion and the sadness that he was hiding. I think it’s a kind of relief… And I don’t think he sleeps until he lets himself relax like that. Until he lets himself trust again."
(fic excerpt, Alison’s PoV)
