Imaginary Worlds

The Dotor the side of the pool and sighed softly. "It's fine. I'll go in with you. Of course I will." he assured gently, stepping into the shallow end and tugging his son in carefully.

He made sure to support the lad. He wasn't that stupid. The last thing he needed was to traumatized his son. The Doctor generally tried to avoid that as a rule.

The Master watched Marnal hold onto his father with amusement, swimming up closer to them. "Me and Kosch both had bad intros to water, you know? He fell into an aquarium and my brothers tackled me into a river, I almost drowned as well."

He had a lot of bad experience in water, from his schoolmates shoving him in, holding his head under and chasing him through a stream to his brothers roughhousing in the pool. "You've got it lucky, Marnal. We can start easy. All you have to do is float," The Master held out his arms and did it by example, waiting for the boy to follow. Marnal gave his dad a questioning look before breaking away a bit to try. Even as he floated, he kept a death grip on his dads arm.

The Doctor kept the other close, smiling softly at the lad. At least Marnal was trying. "My brother taught me to swim. He figured it would help me out." he admitted softly.

And it had. Just not the way that his brother had expected it to. "And you're doing very good, Marnal." he murmured softly.

"In a way my eldest brought taught me. And by teach, I mean he accidentally knocked me off a boat while we were on holiday then proceeded to yell 'kick your legs, runt' down at me," course it had been freezing and the waves were mad so it hadn't worked out well.

Marnal finally let go of the Doctor as if to test and there he was, floating in the water. He laughed in amusement and beamed at the two men. The Master grinned slightly. "Natural, he is. Not like Kosch, he can't even float."

"I never had a lot of bad experiences with water. One involving a river, but I don't talk about that. Can't say you're much of a runt though." the Doctor mused. Then again? He didn't know the Master's family.

Smiling softly as he watched Marnal, the Doctor hovered a bit, figuring he'd rather be safe than sorry. The kid definitely took to water betterthan he had. That was probably a good thing.

"It was a --- nickname. And then my brothers told the kids and school and--" Well, it spoke for itself. The Master had been short, bookish and smug as hell, no wonder he got bullied. He never stopped taunting people and insulting them.

Smiling at Marnal, he pushed away from the kid and gestured t make he was doing. "Okay, you -- kick your legs," Okay, he was a bad teacher but he learned falling overboard, but him some slack. Marnal tried to mimic, his hands flailing and his legs kicking as he did an odd sort of doggie paddle.

The Doctor had to laugh. He really did. Shaking his head gently, he carefully fixed Marnal's position. The poor kid. He wouldn't get it with simple verbal communication.

This wasn't something that he could manage alone though. The Doctor hadn't done well with his own lesson. But he had learned. He hadn't been allowed out of the water until he had.

The Master assisted and soon Marnal found the right way to do it and was careful to take off at first but soon he was awkwardly half swimming and half paddling with a proud expression.

"I can swim! Look! Dad, are you looking?" Marnal called as he splashed around, laughing happy. The Master shook his head in amusement before offering the Doctor a small raise of his eyebrow. It was nice to get out with the man and do something fun for once.

"Don't worry, I'm watching you and you're doing very well." he assured firmly. And the child was. Better than he'd expected at least.

The Doctor smiled softly to the Master. "Thank you." he murmured, keeping a close watch over his son. He wasn't use to not worrying.

"No problem, I just thought if we did something fun then for once, we wouldn't over think," the Master smiled before playfully splashed the Doctor in the face, just for laughs.

"I bet I'm faster swimmer than you," the Master remarked, pushing off from the side and doing a rather slow back stroke so he could watch the Doctor as he swam about.

The Doctor scrunched up his nose and paused. Because now he was faced with a new issue. He could go ahead and swim about himself, but that would mean losing track of Marnal. A thing he wasn't sure he wanted.

He'd admitted to being over protective. With a soft sigh, the Doctor glanced to his son splashing about, worrying his lip a bit before simply giving in and started a rather slow pace. He never claimed to actually enjoy swimming. He much preferred hot tubs where he could just sit and relax.

Marnal was fine, the Master made sure to keep an eye on him as he did laps around the pool, occasionally splashing the Doctor whenever the man got closer, just to tease him.

"What do you like to do then? Anything outdoory or active?" the Master asked before smirking. "Book type? If you are then I can recommend so much for you read."

And wasn't that the question of the hour? "I like driving. It's why I enjoy my motorcycle. It lets me get out and about. I like to cook and to read. I also like to work." the Doctor explained softly.

It explained his habit of defaulting back to that topic at least. It was something that the Doctor honestly enjoyed. It was honestly just a bit on the stranger side of things.

"I always liked reading, my dad used to say knowledge was power, the more you know. See, I like my work, I just don't like that I have to do," the Master joked, somewhat amused by it. "Doesn't matter what it is, if its a job then I bored."

But out of all of his jobs, he liked his current one the best. "I like to travel, really. I never get too any more but when I didn't have Koschei, I went all over the place."

The Doctor just smiled at that. "I still do it. I'll get up in the middle of the night, grab Marnal, and drive. Poor kid sometimes wakes up in a different city because of it." he admitted.

It was relatively interesting watching the way his son reacted. Though Marnal was mostly accustomed to it by now. Which definitely made things easier for him.

"I did that with Koschei once, he was so shocked we had to go home. He was never big on randomly leaving home," Koschei liked adventure but as a boy, he had never liked such surprises.

He wasn't sure if the boy was shell shocked or scared but waking up in a car had not been idle. Though he did love to ride around town. "He's more of a train kid, so am I actually. I get bored of driving."

"Driving can be fun. In fact, going on a trip in about a week. I was thinking of heading up to my cabin. You can go if you want to?" the Doctor offered softly.

What? It only made sense for him to ask? The Master was dating him. Though the Doctor wasn't expecting much in terms to the Master agreeing to tag along.

"Sure, that'd be great," the master offered, it seemed like an all right deal and why should he pass it up? It seemed like a good idea and it would be nice to do as a date.

"With kids or without?" he had to ask though if it was a weekend then it was out of his hands anyway.

The Doctor smiled softly at that one. It was pleasant enough. "We'll go then. Kids of course. Don't want to leave them on their own for such a chunk o time. Oh...Right. Koschei goes with his mother." he murmured softly.

No matter. "Try asking for him for a weekend? Or we can just go a different day in the week." the Doctor offered. At least he was trying here.

"I'll ask today and if I have no luck then we can go in the week and I'll just tutor him myself," which meant he wouldn't at all. After all, they couldn't leave their kids behind, Marnal had been left alone enough cause of him.

He was starting to feel sorry for the kid. Turning his head, he frowned slightly as he watched Marnal cling to the side and take a breath. "He is kind of tired."

"He is. Not often I manage to find an activity that tires him out. He's always been so energetic. But I think I should call it quits for today." the Doctor admitted as he moved to where his son was.

"Come on, kiddo, let's get out. We can come back another time." the Doctor assured lightly. Eh why not? Marnal enjoyed it enough.

Marnal nodded and grabbed onto his dad, obviously a bit warn out from swimming so much and that was because of how fast he was trying to make himself move, though it didn't go brilliantly.

"Can we? I still wanna swim but I'm hungry," Marnal mumbled. The Master hauled himself out of the pool and hurried after the other man with an amused look on his face.

The Doctor carried Marnal back the the changing rooms, helping the lad get dried off and dressed. "We're going to go get lunch right now." he assured lightly.

Once they were both presentable, he carried the kid back out, smiling softly. It really was something else to have Marnal so calm. Almost made swimming worth it.

"It had definitely zapped the energy from hi,, he clung to his dad, quite and tired out, not really sleepy just exhausted from what he'd done. And pretty hungry. "Can we get pizza?"

The Master caught up with them and shoved his hands into his pockets, smiling in amusement. "You can pay for dinner, Johnny. And, if you me milkshake, I'll let you drive my car?"

"Don't call me Johnny." the Doctor asserted softly. He would not let that one go. At all. As for the car? "You can drive. But I am paying for the food." he informed simply as he got Marnal into the car and dealt with their things so that he could get in himself. Eh. He wasn't complaining.

"It's just a bit odd. I'm not use to not driving. I don't mind it. It's jus not something that has happened since I could drive. So. Pizza and milkshakes. Sounds easy enough." the Doctor said lightly.