Imaginary Worlds

"I do. I don't like him." Koschei informed simply. What? The Master was the one who said something. And he didn't like the kid. That simple.

"Why invite him over? He's a pest." Koschei grumbled softly. It just didn't make sense to him.

"Because the Doctor could use a babysitter and I offered. Marnal doesn't exactly get many breaks, I'm giving him one," it was another one of those things he couldn't explain.

He couldn't explain why but he felt responsible for the kid and almost guilty for his misery... it was one of those odd things. "He's not that bad, you don't even have to acknowledge him."

"I won't." Koschei assured as they stepped inside. He didn't have to deal with the little freak and he wasn't about to willingly.

Koschei calmly headed up the stairs, humming softly as he settled in to do his new puzzle. Being 3D meant a challenge.

"Well that could of gone worse. The Master went to heat up the soup before pouring it into a bowl and quickly making Sigma a snack as well. He wasn't hungry himself, he had some catching up paperwork wise yet.

He took the boy his soup and placed it on his desk. "If you need me, I'll be in my room."

Koschei had been right abou the challenge. Frowning softly, he picked his way through the puzzle carefully. It was going to take a while.

"'Kay. Thank you." Koschei murmured, not moving to take his food or even lookin away. He was determined to figure the puzzle out.

The Master left him too it and got to work, it took a few hours but when he finally emailed it all off, he got to his feet and headed in to check on Koschei and see how he was.

"Kosch, it's getting late, you need a bath and then bed," the Master called as he leaned in the doorway.

He was getting nowhere on his puzzle. He hadn't even eaten his dinner yet. It wasn't exactly pleasant for him in the end. But he was determined.

"In a minute." Koschei mumbled as he worked on getting a few pieces put together. It was enough to drive him absolutely insane.

"I see the soup went to waste," sighing, the Master knew he had to play bad cop ere, it was already past the boys bedtime and he had allowed an extra half an hour because of the holidays.

"Sorry kiddo, it's bedtime, you have all of tomorrow to try. Now go get in the bath," he ordered, not wanting to make an issue of this.

Frowning, Koschei got up and gathered his things for the bath. He was beyond unhappy. And how could he be anything but?

"The puzzle is hard." Koschei grumbled bitterly. And it was. How could he even be blamed for obsessing over it.

"What if we work at it together tomorrow?" the Master asked, a tiny bit worried as to what would happen if he couldn't get it sorted, the kid could get very stressed.

"It's a tough one, at least it'll keep you busy," he tried, just to cheer him up.

That just earned a glare. "He did this on purpose." Koschei griped. He would figure it out on his own.

That would show the Doctor. He wouldn't give in quite so easily. Koschei was determined.

"I doubt that greatly, he probably saw it and thought you might like it," sometimes that lad was a tiny bit paranoid but luckily it just seemed to be with the Doctor.

"Come on you, stop grumbling and get into bed," he prompted, hoping the lad would be in bed shortly. He didn't need him tired tomorrow.

"Fine. 'M gonna go take my bath." Koschei murmured softly, shrugging as he headed to the bathroom.

He made quick work of getting clean, dressing and letting the water out before heading off to bed. Why not? He figured he'd be up early come morning for his dad to go to work.

The Master came in to make sure he was okay and ready for bed, it was just to make sure he was all right, especially with all of these nightmares he'd been having lately.

"Okay, I'll get you up tomorrow but you can sleep in the car if you want. Do you want a story or are you fine?" the Master asked with a small frown, not sure what he wanted.

Koschei had a sinking feeling that he would be up again soon. That's sort of how this went as of late. He hated it.

"'M fine. I'll see you in the morning." Koschei murmured, giving the Master a hug before crawling into bed.

"Night then," the Master offered. He was hoping this would be the only day this week that would require an early morning for Koschei. And hopefully next week as well. Most of his word was night based.

Which meant when they finally got the go-ahead for their projects, he was going to need a sitter or let Koschei sleep in the car.

Funny thing was that the Doctor honestly wouldn't mind watching Koschei at night. The Master watched Marnal for him. What was the big deal returning the favor?

Morning saw Koschei waking himself bright and early to get ready. He understood his father needed him to cooperate and be up. Didn't mean he liked it.

The Master was dressed, ready and made some cereal up for the other of them. He swiftly put it all together before offering it to the other boy when he came down the stairs.

"What do you want with your cereal? Juice?" the Master asked as he downed his own glass of orange juice.

"Sure. That's fine." Koschei murmured softly. He couldn't ask for much else. Especially not when he was just waking up.

He just pulled his food close and dug in. He would probably just sleep again when they got home.

And the Master would let him, they just worked this way, Koschei got tired fast and the Master understood that, he usually did something himself and woke the kid up again for dinner.

Putting on his shoes, he grabbed his briefcase off the sofa and sat on the edge of the arm as he waited for the lad to finish.

Koshei was lucky his dad got it. Most kids in his situation and with his condition would have been screwed over. It meant he was definitely grateful.

"'M ready." Koschei anniunced, rinsing his dish and heading into the living room. Tired, but ready.

"Come on then," the Master got the boy into the car before he set off, he was determined to get this done as swift as possible, he was aiming for two hours but it could last a bit longer.

Either way, he knew Koschei wanted to get some sleep in. "Do you want to stay in my office?"

"I do. I wanna sleep." Koschei admitted softly. And he really did. That couldn't be helped too much.

He was nodding off just being in the car. Koschei wasn't able to stop himself from doing so.

The Master let the kid off this once and when they got to work, he picked the boy up to spare him walking. Well, he was tired, he couldn't help it. He felt kind of bad.

"You can sleep in my chair, hows that?"

The kid mumbled under his breath softly as he took to clinging to the man. He wasn't going to sleep at all come that night at this rate. He didn't particularly care.

"Kay...Thank you." he offered softly. And that was all Koschei had to say on the matter, content to curl up wherever he was placed.