Perfect

No matter how broken you think you are, you're still perfect to me. 10/Master

Availible in Polish (Polskie tłumaczenie tego fica można znaleźć tutaj)courtesy of u/2581079/colirya

The Master was crying, since he'd brought the other man onto the TARDIS the Doctor had learned one thing, bad was relative. Bad was the broken timelord's mood swings, his night terrors, his inability to construct a sentence without the use of a dozen expletives. Bad were the constant bruises, the cuts and the scrapes that came from wrestling the stubborn man into his room at night and the arguments to get him to eat in the morning. Still - tonight was bad. Definitely bad. Because the Master was crying and the Master never cried. Shouted definitely, screamed, bit and punched yes but he never cried.

As he got closer the sobs got louder until he came to a halt outside his study and saw through the open door the wretched broken man in a ball on the rug.

"What can I do?" Martha had been right when she'd told him he wasn't ready. He could deal with the Master's insanity and he could deal with the older man trying to kill him at every turn but this man, lying broken on the floor was too much like the child he had known and the Doctor didn't know what to do, it had been too long and he was so far out of his depth.

"Theta" in the Master's mind he could no longer see the difference between the man he used to love and the man in front of him, they were so different it hurt but he needed someone – anyone right now that it didn't matter.

"I'm here" The Doctor took the Master into his arms and it was like no time had passed, he felt the other man relax as his wrong, different hands remembered the way to rub soothing patterns on a back that wasn't the same but the same words to bring the Master back out of his head where the Doctor could try to help.

"I'm sorry" after he had regained some measure of control the Master found himself too exhausted to run away like he wanted to- like he should do – so he continued to lean against the Doctor with his fingers holding as tight as he dared to the man's shirt. God he was pathetic.

'Stop that' the Doctor had felt that last thought, the one which circled angrily around the master's mind cutting away at his self esteem while he lay helpless on the floor.

'you are not pathetic.' he pressed a kiss to the timelord's forehead 'you are beautiful. You are stronger than this and as far as I'm concerned you are perfect'

"But?"

"you're not what you've seen, or what you've done or what other people think of you. You are Koschei, my best friend and so much more, you may have changed a lot since I last saw you like this but that doesn't mean you're any less the man you were, or any less perfect"

That was too much, and the master began to cry, but not the heart wrenching sobs from earlier, silent happy tears celebrating the first time he had felt safe and accepted in longer than he could remember.

AN/ For Seren, reposted 30/12/13 in my big ol' crazy rewrite and also posted to my Ao3. Drop us a review if you like always good to hear from people.