Imaginary Worlds

It wasn't hard to make out what the pictures were of. The Doctor bristled automatically, taking a slow breath and offering Marnal a smile. He couldn't react poorly. "They're very nicely done." he assured.

They put him on edge. The Doctor particularly despised that specific set of dreams. And Marnal knew that.

"Koschei was kind of upset by discussions of it," the Master remarked with a small shrug of his shoulder. Marnal hung his head because he hadn't meant to upset Koschei.

He did like Koschei, Koschei just didn't like him. The Master offered the Doctor a smile. "Don't worry, we can ignore it."

"You assume that I'd do anything else." the Doctor said slowly, shrugging. Je didn't dwell on these things. He'd drive himself insane doing so.

"It's alright. I know you didn't mean to upset him. How about we just hear home and relax?" the Doctor offered.

Marnal nodded and grabbed his dads hand in his own, waving at the Master. He waved back and, because he knew the Doctor was waiting for him to do it one of these days, he gave the man a kiss.

"See you around," he offered before heading back inside the door. "Close the door on the way out, cheers!"

The Doctor had to smile at that one. It wasn't exactly like he expected the Master to show him affection like that. It wasn't what normally took place.

"So. How was your day then? Did you and Mr. Saxon have fun?" the Doctor asked as he closed the door gently and headed for the car.

"Kinda, Mr Saxon was busy but then he asked me to draw all my dreams, which was fun," Marnal liked drawing people picture and the Master had really manipulated that.

But he needed info, especially with Koschei as he was. "When we get home, do you want to draw together?"

They'd talked about that. Marnal had had too many of that 'Doctor has a psychotic episode' dream to be sharing them with people. Even his boyfriend.

"We can do that. Marnal, why did he have you draw your dreams?" the Doctor asked softly.

"Well he wanted a picture for his fridge and he said that cause Koschei had the same dreams, he'd like it too," clearly a lie but Marnal didn't notice, he was too proud.

He just liked that his wonderful picture got on someones wall, didn't happy often.

"Marnal, remember how we talked about keeping the dream to ourselves? Your father being a psychopath very rarely goes over well with his boyfriend." the Doctor reminded gently.

He wasn't yelling or even scolding. It was nothing more than a simple reminder to not talk about it to other people.

"I said you told me not too but Mr Saxon said that it was okay because he knew and he told me all about the dream," Marnal said with a confused frown on his face because this was very hard to understand.

"He said you and he spoke about it but it's not real so I shouldn't worry," Marnal shrugged his shoulders, not sure what to think.

"I never told him my role in those dreams. I'm not saying you're in trouble. I'm just reminding you." the Doctor assured as he started down the road.

The Doctor never said how he was the reason the world was like that or that he'd dreamt of killing the Master before they even met. He tried to avoid that discussion.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Marnal offered, not sure what the big issue was here, it was all very confusing. "Do people always share dreams? My teacher says dreams are for one person."

And everyone seemed to be in each others dreams. "... I dreamt of Koschei before I met him."

It was time to change the subject. Because he didn't want to get into this conversation with his son. He didn't want to accept the reality when he was happy.

"I'll be home late tomorrow. I have to go to the charity event again." the Doctor informed softly.

"Oh so you won't be there for bedtime?" Marnal asked with a frown before nodding his head, his dad was away a lot, it was better at night than it was in the day.

It was only horrible when he woke up without his dad for comfort. "What time will you be back?"

"Not until really late. But I'll be back by morning. And then I'll need to go and help out with the voting for the election." the Doctor admitted softly.

"But we'll do something together on Sunday. Promise." the Doctor assured firmly.

"Okay," Marnal offered, nodding his head, it really did upset him that his dad was never around but he knew his dad had a life and he was trying hard to realise that.

He was only 5 though and processing emotions on an adult level would take a few years. "What can we do?"

The Doctor hummed softly and shrugged a bit. "Well, we can alway go to the park. I haven't taken you there since the weather got too cold." he mused lightly.

It was nicer now. So long as it didn't rain, the Doctor has no problem taking his son out for a bit.

"Okay!" that sounded great, he hadn't been out for a while and he was winter ready, he had a bunch of jumpers and winter coats from last year that were still good.

"Can't Mr Saxon watch me again?" What? It was worth a try, at least he knew the man!

And now the tricky part. "Your grandfather wants you this weekend." the Doctor murmured softly as he pulled up outside their house. He knew Marnal wouldn't like the.

But it was his father! He couldn't just refuse the man. Especially not with Marnal.

Marnal turned his head to his dad, this was definitely a great betrayal, the Doctor didn't even like the man so why would Marnal? He gave the Doctor a look of disbelief.

"He hates me!" Marnal wailed because the man did, why did he want him to even go over? "He's horrible, I don't want to go there again."

"One of your cousins will be there and he wants you there to spend time with the kid. I'm sorry if you don't like that. He's picking you up tomorrow morning and bringing you back Saturday night." the Doctor asserted.

Marnal wasn't getting out of this. So the Doctor was still intimidated by his family. Who wouldn't be?

"I don't like my cousins, they just say I'm stupid compared to them and I already know that," Marnal grumbled, months of being told he was stupid by his grandfather had been drilled in.

And at this point, he sort of brought it frankly. It made sense to him that he was a bit dumb, it was probably why the other kids hated him and why Koschei always yelled at him.

"You are not. You're perfectly fine." the Doctor chided gently. He didn't need his son saying that.

Even if everybody else seemed to. "You're just...Very human like." the Doctor admitted with a cringe, letting them inside.

"Humans are stupid," Marnal pointed out, or he was told that every day, he didn't know if it was true but being human was apparently a bad thing to be.

They weren't as bright as Time Lords. "It's okay, I don't mind, I know I'm dumb."

"You are not! Period. You're fine. You're bright and you're just a bit energetic. People don't know how to handle you." the Doctor asserted.

This was another of those things he found issue with. The Doctor didn't want to have the child putting himself like that.