This is a fill for a prompt on the inception kink meme. The original prompt can be found here:

http : / / inception - kink . livejournal . com / 20092 . html?thread=48178556#t48178556

Summary: Arthur is...the Master! Instead of becoming Professor Yana to escape the Time War, the Master used the Chameleon Arch to become Arthur. Every time things get stressful (i.e. in the elevator for the kick in zero-G), Arthur hears the drums.

This will be Arthur/Eames in the beginning, then Arthur!Master/Doctor.

Rating may change to M.

Disclaimer: I don't own Inception or Doctor Who or any of their wonderful characters.

The drumming. He first heard it when he was 17 and ran away from home. It wasn't a particularly warm spring night but it wasn't warm either. It was the anniversary of his mother's death. He never met her. His stepfather was drinking, again. In his drunken stupor, he decided that it would be fun to use Arthur as a punching bag. "Beat some sense into that scrawny kid" he had said. He didn't like it very much when Arthur decided to fight back. He chased him out of the house with a baseball bat threating to throw Arthur into a home. So I guess it wasn't really running away, but he was going to leave anyways.

He had just lain down on a bench, hoping to maybe get an ounce of sleep. He lived in the city so it wasn't very hard to find one. Despite that fact that he was now reduced to sleeping on a bench he was very rich, or his family had been. Before being chased out he had managed to grab a few of the credit cards. His stepfather wouldn't notice any missing money, he was too drunk most of the time to notice anything, and it was Arthur's money anyways.

Being in a high end of the city it was very unusual to see someone sleeping on a bench. Some rich man or woman didn't really fancy looking out their window and seeing a teenager sleeping on a bench, they called the cops. The last thing that Arthur wanted to do was get mixed up with the cops.

Arthur got strait A's in all of his honors and AP classes, but he never really managed to stay on the right side of the law. He is good at gathering information, almost too good. Still hasn't managed to cover his tracks properly. He got caught a few times hacking into government materials, stealing military secrets, and random tidbits of information. They were never able to prove anything so he was never convicted. Now was not the time to start.

He ran. He ran faster than he ever has before. He ran right into central park. The cop quickly gave up on chasing him in the car and quickly started on foot. Arthur had expected one of the usual, fat, lackeys, but no; this one was fit, very fit. He was quickly on Arthur's tail. Being the younger one he had more of the advantage but not by much. That was when he first heard it.

It hit him all the sudden like a tidal wave. He fell to the ground. It was there. He could hear it. It was so loud.

"Make it stop! Please make it stop!" he yelled to no one in particular.

The cop grabbed his arm. "Son, I am afraid that you are going to have to come with me."

Arthur looked up to him with pleading eyes. "Please make it stop! Please!"

The cop seemed somewhat bewildered but still firm. "Make what stop son? I think you should stop talking such nonsense and make this easy for both of us and come with my quietly and calmly."

"Don't you hear it?" Arthur asked incredulously.

"Hear what?"

"The drumming." Arthur told him, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Okay son. You are going to come with me now have a little talk about doing drugs." The cop told him, pulling Arthur to his feet. "The rich ones can have anything they want yet they still use drugs, idiots" he muttered under his breath.

At that moment a young man, no older than 20, chose to run up behind the cop and bash him on the head with a metal bar. Later Arthur would learn that this British man's name was Eames. Arthur stared at him in shock.

"Looked like you could use a little help mate. You seem a little small and rich to be getting mixed up in a mess with the cops. Anyways, we should probably run."

Arthur was only able to nod and run after the mysterious stranger. When they got about a mile away, into the security of a small local pub, Arthur realized the drumming was gone. When Eames asked what had happened because it didn't look like a normal arrest Arthur just told him he got in trouble for running away from home. Eames laughed and asked why a rich boy would want to run away from home. Arthur had no answer for him.

He never told anyone about the drumming again.