Imaginary Worlds

"I don't want the light off," Marnal yelled, he wasn't tall enough to reach it himself and he always did hate the dark, being shut away in it didn't sit well with him. It was clear how frustrated he was by how red in the face he was and how disarrayed his clothes were. He had tried to take his jacket off while he was overheating.

"Why do you always have to send me away? It's not fair!" Marnal yelled, knocking over his toys and turning away from his dad. Whenever he did something the Doctor disapproved of, he just got sent off. It made him miserable to always be packed off like that.

"Because you don't listen. Taking things from you doesn't work. So making you spend time with others does get through. You don't like it or don't want it? Then listen." the Doctor asserted, making sure to keep his voice soft and level.

"You were never like this when Iros was around. Or even before that. I don't know of you acting up has to do with age or that I left him. But I'm not letting you get away with it." the Doctor said slowly.

Bring up Iros was a low blow and the boy felt his stomach twist as he wiped away frustrated tears. This was really unfair, he couldn't help not liking a food and he was being punished for it.

"Leave me alone, I don't want you any more, go away!" Marnal informed his father bitterly as he clambered onto his bed and lay down to face the other way. He did everything to make sure his dad was happy but this was beyond unfair, he didn't want to eat celery, he hated it, why should he have to eat what he hated? Iros always forced him to do that and he thought all of that was over now.

"Don't. Don't do that. You know better. I'm just trying to work this out. You eat celery. You eat it every time I make a soup. So what is the problem this time?" the Doctor asked. He needed to know at least that much.

And it wasn't as though he were bringing up Iros for the hell of it. There was truth in his statement. The man had left and that's when Marnal started to act up more often. What else was he meant to associate that with?

"I kept telling you, you never listened," Marnal mumbled sadly because he really did, he had before Iros came in and then the man scared most the confidence out of him, he didn't protest before because he couldn't. But now, things were better and the Doctor was listening more... or so he liked to think.

"I never liked it," he muttered unhappily, all he'd thought was that with things going so well, he could just turn it down and maybe, just maybe, the Doctor would listen for once. "Go 'way."

"You don't get to tell me to go away. You get to listen. You need to eat it. It's good for you. You have to eat what's good for you in order to get sweets and the like. You're going to be expected to eat a lo of things that you don't like." the Doctor stated.

It didn't matter how good things got. The Doctor was still going to make the kid eat certain foods regardless. "I let you pick and choose a lot of things. Food isn't one of them."

"I never get to chose anything. I never get to spend time with you, I never get to touch anything at work or at home or anywhere but my room, I never get to come on holidays most the time and I'm always with someone else and they're mean to me anyway! But you never tell them off, you only ever tell me off," if it was up to Marnal, he would of been with his dad ll the time, not relatives who insulted him.

But whenever he was with his dad, he was either standing around waiting for him, not touching anything or watching him work. It was only lately they really spent time together. "If you can send me away then I can send you away! I don't want you so ... so go to granddads and leave me alone!"

"Fine. You want to spend more time with me? Then you'll get more time. I'll make sure to eliminate any and all distractions that take up my attention. We're going home tomorrow morning, so I suggest a good night sleep." the Doctor said simply, shutting the door behind him and simply headin to his own room.

This was another of those moments that the Doctor just felt drained. As if he were just losing energy. Never a good situation to be in. He just wanted to sleep.

The frustrating thing was that the Doctor never got it, he always went to the extremes. All Marnal wanted was a little attention, to be listened to and at least brought into the situation.

But, sadly, he'd long since learned that his dad would always take everything the wrong way and like Iros always said, he just had to shut up and put up with it. He was good at that. The Master was sitting with Kosch, they were watching TV and trying to lay low a bit. This was rather awkward.

It didn't take long for Koschei to give his dad a bit of a smirk. "Your boyfriend isn't so nice." he chirped lightly. Yeah...He went there.

But really! Even he knew that the man was going about this all wrong. At least the Master actually took him into account.

"He's not bad, he's just ... screwed up and misguided," the master knew the Doctor was being a bit of a prick to his son but what could he say? He didn't want to push the man further.

Sadly, he was guilting his son and making him so miserable that one day, he'd probably just run off. Sooner rather than later. But what else could he do. "Marnal is not my son, I can't do anything."

"But Mr. Smith is your boyfriend. An' he's screwing up." Koschei murmured softly. And really? That all there was to it. The Doctor didn't even realize he was screwing up.

He was simply unaware about how to deal with this. Koschei thought it was hilarious. Well, on a twisted sense. Marnal was probably miserable.

"I know that but I can't really tell him he's an awful dad," tilting his head back, he exhaled loudly before turning his head to his son. "Starting to feel pretty grateful for your childhood yet?"

shaking his head, he couldn't imagine how horrible that poor little bastards short life must of been. "Look, I'm going to go talk to the Doctor. If you want to be helpful, go talk to Marnal and be nice. If you don't, go to bed and try to get plenty of rest."

((Off to bed))

Talking to Marnal would be the opposite of helpful. He simply headed up to bed. It was better than dealing with the current situation.

The Master was going to be in for a rude awakening. Because the Master was stuck dealing with a man who simply couldn't do it. Not really. The Doctor just constantly put his foot in his mouth where Marnal was involved.

The Master headed into the room and dropped down on the bed beside the Doctor, sighing slightly. Oh the Doctor was not really the best at this sort of thing, it was obvious.

"You okay?" He had to be gentle with this, not launch into how stupid the Doctor was, he could do that in great detail after some pleasantries to soften the blow.

"I'm a horrible father and my son hates me. All because I had to try and make him eat his vegetables. None of this would have been a problem had I let the kid pick and choose." he murmured.

And it was honestly that simple. The Doctor screwed up and he knew he did. Because the Doctor couldn't punish the lad for anything. He was horrid at it and ended up feeling guilty in the end.

"He doesn't hate you and you're not horrible... you're different," the Master offered, he didn't say good but that was nothing personal, he didn't think good parents existed. Just very capable ones.

"Kids hate certain things, you're just meant to roll with it, if they do it all the time? Yeah, start being stricter but I usually give Koschei at least two choices," the Master remarked, shrugging his shoulders. "And to be fair, Marnal doesn't usually deny your food."

The Doctor sighed softly and shook his head. "No. Marnal eats that all the time this is the first time he's complained over that dish. I use to eat stuff I didn't like all the time." he murmured softly.

He hadn't had choices as a kid. He didn't need to offer choices. The fact that Marnal was having a tantrum was beyond unacceptable to him. "I'm sorry. This was meant to be a nice little getaway." the Doctor murmured.

"Remember when I advised you to seek mental help? No offence but ... you could use it," And this was coming from the loon with drumming in his heard and a lack of luck or social skills. But the Doctor seriously needed help.

"You can't force people to eat stuff they don't like and if your parents did it, they were wrong. A lot of what your parents did is wrong, you're meant to break the cycle, not keep it going," the Master pointed out, rubbing at his eyes in frustration. "Be the sort of dad you wanted your father to be with you instead of becoming him yourself."

The Doctor sighed softly and nodded. Right. "I know. I did screw up. I know I screwed up." he murmured. Not much he could do about it now.

He couldn't quite help himself. He just wanted to curl up and go to sleep for a few hours. Being up and about obviously wasn't working out for him.

The wisest thing to do was for the Doctor to go apologise and show his son that things were okay but the Master knew it would probably go down badly with the Doctor so worked up.

"I say we have an early night, you make it up to the kid tomorrow and then we can get back to having a good time?" the Master suggested with a half smile before lying back.

The Doctor nodded softly at that. "That's what I was thinking. Trying now will only make it worse." he murmured softly. At least he could recognize that much.

"Sometimes I wonder what my life would have been like had I had a friend like you growin up." the Doctor admitted sheepishly. He couldn't help himself with those thoughts.

"I wouldn't imagine it would of changed much. I had no friends as a child but I was well informed that I was a selfish jerk," he was but he did have a kindness to him... it was just hard to tap into.

"I think with your dad and Iros having such an influence that you've forgotten a lot of things about kids," the Master pointed out and the more he was around the man, the more obvious it was.

"I know. But I think that it might have been different. Maybe even better. I had friends, but not many, and not who I could really call honest friends." he admitted softly.

More people that were curious about him and who were outcasts like him. Sighing softly, the Doctor just shrugged. "An early night then? I'll take care of Marnal in the morning."

The Master lay back and nodded, kicking off his socks and settling beside the Doctor. "I don't even have that. I remember spending my first year avoiding people and my second I was in and out of the doctors place and then onwards I just never made friends."

Being mentally ill and struggling to play the social game, he often falters and refused to bother. He knew it as his own fault but being a friend was horrible, he wanted to his own thing, not what they wanted!