Disclaimer: Not mine. Not mine at all.

Warning: implied slash.

Author's note: I was re-watching 'The Last of the Time Lords' and that was the result. Enjoy!

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Sound of Loneliness

The Master presses the Doctor's hand on his chest, over his two drumming hearts. He leans forward and breathes into the Doctor's ear: "Can you feel it? Can you hear it? The sound of drums, the sound of madness?"

The Doctor's breath hitches and underneath his fingers he can feel it. The steady rhythm of life and death and everything in between. He tries to push the Master away, tries to tell him to get away from him, but all that comes out is a harsh gasp and suddenly the Master is much closer than before.

The Doctor still feels the sound, hears it, not with his ears, but with his entire body. It grows louder with every passing second, engulfs him. The drumming of two hearts, intensified, because suddenly his own hearts are beating in the same rhythm.

This is when he loses it.

And suddenly there is nothing else. His entire world is just that, the sound of drums. He drowns in it, until he can't do anything more than beg for it to stop and beg for more. The Master is laughing breathlessly, maniacally, but gives him everything he needs and takes everything he wants in return.

The Doctor wakes up, not screaming, but eyes wide, his body unmoving as if bound to the bed he lies in.

Alone. Always alone.

The beating of his two hearts - the sound of the only Time Lord left, the sound the Time Vortex had put into the Master's mind – is the only sound he can hear.

The incessant sound of drums.

END

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Author's note: So this is what happens when I intend to write slash... I don't think I'll ever be good at it. Hope you enjoyed it anyway and as always: English is not my native language, so any constructive criticism is appreciated.