Imaginary Worlds

Koschei grinned and put his bowl into the sink. That hadn't taken too long in the least. "Yup! 'M ready to go." he agreed brightly. It was fair enough in his mind.

Tugging his shoes on, he headed out to get into the car, honestly quite pleased at the moment. He couldn't help it. He was having a decent enough day.

Well at least someone was, the Master was pretty blue right now. He drove swiftly and pulled up outside the lab, giving the boy a pat on the soldier. "I'll see you at the end of the day. Have a good one."

Once Koschei was out the car,the Master drove to the case and parked outside. This was stupid, he didn't eve know why he was doing this. He didn't want to. Getting out of the car after a few minutes of sulking, he headed inside.

Koschei couldn't help it. He didn't see things the same way that the Master did. He just saw it as being a positive moment and nothing more. It was pleasant enough to him.

When the Master arrived, she smirked and waved the man down. She'd dressed to impress and was purposefully making a show of what she could afford from her shoes to fur coat. Life had been very kind to her. "So. Shall we order first? Or get straight to the point?"

The Master dropped down and dropped his head in his hands. "Straight to the point," the Master said bluntly as he gave her a bored expression. It was always so clear when he was not interested.

"Take him on the Friday night, keep him till Monday. That would be the best you could hope for if you went to court anyway. Trial period, six months and then maybe expansions depending on Koschei," the Master summarised, his face unreadable. He was just reciting facts, like any good professor could.

"I've worked with social workers with Isadora. Same jurisdiction between us, either way you look at it, which eliminates the issue of having to go through your courts simply because I live down in the valley. Any questions of neglect or abandonment can be dealt with swiftly and carefully." she said slowly, eying the Master.

Leaning on the table, she offered a rather coy smirk. "I'm looking at it this way. We can get into a legal battle and I don't play fair. I don't want to take him from you, but I want joint custody. Period. Nothing less than equal with you. I know I gave him up before, but that doesn't mean I don't want him now. So. What do you say, Harold? Shall we try joint custody? Or shall we drag one another, as well as our son, through hell before some agreement is forced upon us?" she asked simply.

"I hate you. You don't deserve him, you're pathetic in every way and knowing you actually exist makes me physically sick," the Master said to her bluntly in response. What? Everything said was true, a horrible part of him wanted to kill her, the drums were pounding. He didn't want to be equal with such scum.

"I'm not doing this for you, I don't fear you even slightly. Deep down, you're fickle. You'll tire of him, be it in six months or a few years," the Master told her before a small smirk came to his own face. "I'm doing this because I love my son. And he loves me, as I told you. I wouldn't get on his bad side. See, he's seven so people underestimate him but there's something there, a darkness in his eyes. You told me he had my eyes when you brought him to me," he leaned over and looked her in the eye, a storm brewing behind his own. The danger was there. "I wonder... did that scare you? Hmm, guess we'll never know."

She shook her head slowly and pulled a card out of her purse, writing down a time and address for this weekend. "Like I said. Same jurisdiction. All is fair in this little game. I spend the night on the phone, talking with various people. I tried this the civil way. I'll see you Saturday." she informed softly, setting the card down as she stood, shrugging on her coat.

"Oh! And it might be suggestible to not have contact until we meet in the valley. Show up and it's on a record. Koschei will learn and understand you are the one preventing me from having him equally. I suggest a good lawyer. Mine is known for having never lost a case in family related cases." she purred, patting the Master's shoulder in a patronizing manner as she passed. She wasn't the scared thing that ran about in the past. No. She had gotten much better at the game since.

The Master sat there for a while afterwards. Yes, he knew he had blown it but he didn't care. It was right that this should be happening to him when he'[d never done anything wrong. You couldn't just walk out of someones life then one day come back decide you want him. It was impossible anyway, one three hours meeting wouldn't get her custody. No matter how bent they were or how many she blackmailed.

It would take one journalist, a complaint to the officials and the police and, eventually, he'd win. He just didn't want to play this game at all. He knew there were only a handful of ways to solve this. But the Master had never been a rational man. He got to his feet ad headed outside, getting back into his car and taking off. Not to work, he just ... well, he didn't know where he was going. Just not work.

It was amazing the sort of domino effect that could happen. Mostly in regards to having the Master out for longer than intended. Because Koschei chose that specific time to cause more than just a little trouble. By accident or intentionally, he didn't have any idea.

It meant that the Doctor had the little demon sitting in a corner of his office opposite Marnal while he tried to get his own work done. Pay day was coming about and he needed to get it taken care of. He had at least left a note for whenever the Master arrived.

The Master drove around till he ran out of petrol, filled it back up and finally went back to work. What he said was an hour ended up lasting till 2.30. When he came back in, he went straight to his office and looked at the note.

Great. Heading into the other room where Koschei was sitting and Marnal was playing with a toy car, the Master turned his head and gave his son a look. "What did you do now?"

"Ruined an experiment." Koschei said simply, shrugging. And that was that. Well...Sort of. It might have been an extremely important experiment meant for medical research. But that wasn't the point.

"He destroyed an experiment worth two-point-five thousand that was almost completed in aiding in mental illnesses. Don't know if it was intentional or accidental. He won't give that up." the Doctor informed softly, not looking up as he signed and held out a strip of paper. "Paycheck, by the way." he informed softly. And maybe he was overpaying the Master. So what?

The Master stuffed it into his pocket without looking and gave the boy a disappointed look. "Koschei, you can't just do that. Okay? You're here to be tutored, not to ruin other peoples things! You have no right to even be in the fucking lab messing with their things!"

The Master snapped without thinking. Wincing, he ran his fingers through his hair before retreating from the room swiftly and heading into his office. He locked the door behind him and took a few deeps breaths. He really couldn't do this.

Oh damn...Oh hell! Now he was stuck with a kid that hated him that was crying. Lovely. The Doctor sighed softly and took to trying to comfort the brat. It wasn't easy to have a child that didn't like him to comfort.

He also wasn't stupid. He'd seen the Master with the kid. It meant that that was out of character. It took ten minutes to calm Koschei down, leaving Marnal to the watch of another as he carried Koschei to the Master's office, knocking softly.

The Master gripped his head and took several deep breaths. The drums were going mad, he could feel his life falling apart around him and he just yelled at his son. Great way to drive him into his moms arms.

The Master couldn't bring himself to open the door for a while, he did though, because he knew he had to. He took the boy from the Doctors arms soundlessly and pulled him into a crushing hug. "I'm really sorry Koschei."

Koschei instinctively pushed from the other before simply going limp, making a soft sound in annoyance. He never did take well to this sort of thing. He didn't take well to being yelled at. Especially from his father.

"Could this have anything to do with why you called out this morning?" he asked softly, frowning a bit. "How about...Do you want to talk about it? If there's any way that I can help, just say so and I'll do whatever I can." the Doctor assured with a worried frown. Not a charity case. Simply...A worried friend.

"I just want to be with my son," the Master insisted as he wrapped his arms around the boy and pulled him close, stroking his head. He might lose him soon, of course he was teetering on the edge. Koschei was everything to him.

"Koschei? Dads not very well right now, I have a very nasty pain in my head," the Master whispered to the boy as if it was a big secret. "I acted out, I'm sorry. Forgive me?"

The Doctor sighed softly and shrugged. "Come see me before you leave. Nothing personal. Just need to talk business and the like." he assured, heading out to take care of his own thing. He saw no reason not to.

Koschei nodded slowly and pulled away, swiping at his eyes pointedly. He was beyond confused at the moment. "Mr. Smith told me I could make up the experiment for him." he murmured softly.

"We could do it together tomorrow? Want to make some life saving experiments?" the Master asked as he gently bounced the boy up and down in a soothing manner. He hated himself for snapping, he obviously wasn't coping well.

He just needed to play dad properly and be a good man, that was all. "Me and you, I have time and we should. You can see your dad at work," the Master offered, kissing the boy on the forehead. Not something he did often at all.

"It was Mr. Smith's experiment I ruined...He was going to have me help him redo it. I could do it with you though." Koschei assured softly. It was definitely preferable.

He didn't even know why that man was still offering to do things with him. Was probably the tears. "I can do it with you." Koschei assured firmly. "I still have work to do an' Mr. Smith wanted to talk." he grumbled.

The Master closed is eyes, knowing the boy was pushing him aside. He was upset and the Master had fucked up. He picked the boy up and set him in his chair, ruffling the boys hair awkwardly.

"Don't move, yeah? I'll be right back," the Master gritted his teeth, rolled his neck and exited the room. He took several deep breaths, trying hard to keep everything that was happening inside as he went into the office "You wanted to see me?"

"I'm not even going to ask what's going on. If you wanted to tell me, then you would tell me." the Doctor said softly, looking up and frowning a bit. He wasn't going to try and push.

"However, I do have an issue. I have to go down into the valley to meet with a business associate and I need somebody to go with. Mainly somebody who has no problem with tearing into them in such a way that they say thank you.My hands are tied there." the Doctor murmured.

He didn't know where he stood going into there but he highly doubted he'd run into anyone he shouldn't so he simply nodded his head. "Yeah, yeah, that'll be fine. Tomorrow?"

He wasn't going now, surely. His son was in tears in the other room because of him and his hands were trembling in anger. Unless the Doctor wanted him to yell furiously at people who didn't deserve it, it wouldn't be much help.

"This weekend, actually." the Doctor informed softly. The universe really hated the Master. "Look. I get it. We aren't together. Fine. That doesn't change the fact that I actually care for you." he stated softly.

In other words? "Tell me what's going on or what I can do to help you. Do you need more time off? Do you need advice? Do you need somebody to watch your son? Do you just need to let out steam? Help me out here so that I can help you." the Doctor murmured softly. And really? What more could he do?

The Master felt like a ton of bricks had hit him. Great. He had to go up there this weekend and what was he doing with his son? Did this mean he'd lost, he had to give him over. The Master took another deep breath, this just kept getting worse.

And why him? He hadn't done anything that bad and what he did do bad, he thought he'd made up for it by taking care of his little boy. Now he had to lose him. "I can't talk now," the Master said as he took off out the room and headed back to his son. He just couldn't show weakness in front of someone he was calling pathetic the other day. Heading back into his office, he smiled at koschei and lifted the boy up. "I really fancy just going home. What do you say?"

The sad part? The Doctor could honestly help this time. He could help more than the Master probably knew. The fact was simple. The Master was too focused on what could happen in doing it on his own.

When the Master returned, Koschei sighed softly and shrugged. "'Kay..." he murmured softly, wrapping his arms around the man's neck. "We can go home." he mumbled. He had a feeling asking about going to his mother's was a bad thing at this point.