Imaginary Worlds

"Yes." Koschei murmured, setting her down gently. He'd shut the door as well. Seriously! This kitten was smarter than the Master was giving her credit for.

"I fed her when I got up. Then I closed my door so that she wouldn't wander off an' I came down to eat." Koschei informed, shrugging as he turned back to his food, leaving Salem to work out another way to get up.

"Good, good," the Master offered as he sat down and made cereal, Sigma sat beside the Master, waiting for some sort of food to be offered, he was always a good dog.

The Master tossed him a handful of cereal before he got stuck into breakfast. "Sleep well last night?"

"I did." Koschei admitted lightly, offering a smile. It was about that point that Salem managed to get back up, using the table to get closer before jumping at the fridge and clinging to the door handle.

"Not that smart?'' Koschei asked slowly, raising an eyebrow as he smirked to his father. Had she been bigger, she might have managed to open the thing. And what then?

"Nope, cats are climbers, that's not intelligence, that's nature," the Master complained as he got up and pulled the cat away from the fridge, setting it on the floor and giving Koschei a stern look.

"She's scratched the fridge and she could do worse. You better train her not too or you're in trouble," he informed him, he was not having a cat trashing his house all day.

Koschei regarded his father for a moment before putting his bowl in the sink and simply heading back to his room, Salem giving a soft huff as she followed along after. He needed to train her? Fine. But telling him he'd be the one in trouble if she did what the Master claimed was in her nature really did nothing but turn the kid off of having the cat.

As such, there wasn't much to do until she learned better than to lock himself away in his room with her. Then again? Koschei sort of preferred the company of his pet to the company of people.

The Master didn't mean to snap, it was just that his fridge was pretty scratched up and he wasn't amused at that. He forgot just how much damage the bloody creatures could cause. Sigma didn't scratch and jump around the house.

The Master left the boy to it for an hour or so but then he headed up, knocking on his sons door. "Koschei, what are you up too?"

It took a moment for him to bother with cracking the door open, eyes narrowing as he peered out. Nope. Still not the happiest child about. But he really couldn't be blamed for that one.

"'M training Salem, so go away. You're distracting her." he chided, closing his door once more and returning to his task. What? the Master was the one who told him to train her.

The Master rolled his eyes and pushed the door open with ease because he was not being kicked out by an eight year old. "Don't talk to me like that Koschei, I'm your father, not a pest."

Exhaling in annoyance, he shrugged his shoulders. "I'm sorry I snapped at you but she did scratch up the fridge and any deep, it would of cost us. Just keep an eye on her, you don't have to overly train her," the Master informed him, just putting it right a bit.

Koschei just raised an eyebrow, blindly reaching out and spraying the kitten with a water bottle when she tried to climb up onto his bed. An action that had her puffing up and spitting, darting beneath of the bed. He was just doing as he'd been told.

"I don't care. You snapped. It's not the first time." Koschei dismissed, sitting on his floor and watching the kitten closely, poised to squirt the critter again should she do something wrong.

The Master snatched the bottle off the boy with a groan. "Just a little advise, you don't use negative reinforcement to train pets, you reward them for doing what's right, they learn to do that instead of the bad thing. This? Not working."

He sighed, knowing this was all one big over-reaction to him snapping. "You snap at me too, you know? You did it last night because I wouldn't let you have your way. Doesn't mean you can be a jerk to someone else because you're unhappy."

The Master just missed the point all together. Koschei moved and picked up one of the books he had on animals, showing the other the page he was on. Because it proved he was doing it right.

"I know I do. An' I know you snap. I don't care. 'M use to it." Koschei said slowly, frowning as Salem once again took to climbing up onto his bed now that he no longer had the spray bottle.

The Master sighed, he did say it was the boys cat and it would take a lot of time to keep the cat down... he wasn't doing it so he had to let Koschei make this mistake for him.

He passed the bottle to the boy with a small roll of his eyes. "She'll like you more if you put the effort in and just gently remove her. She'll get fed up. And I don't always snap, that's over exaggerated."

"Didn't say you always do it. I said that 'm use to it." Koschei chided, shooting the Master a pointed look. That simple. He wasn't saying anything wrong.

"Salem, no!" he chided as she pawed at his pillow, spraying her again. It made her stop at least. And it wasn't like that was the only thing he was doing! He praised her when she behaved.

"But you shouldn't be used to it like it happens every day, which it doesn't, it's pretty rare," he only does it when the kid misbehaves or things just go very badly for him.

Usually he apologised afterwards. Koschei never apologised to him when he was a little brat. "Sorry I snapped but don't act like it's all I do, you say that to people and they'll think I'm a terrible dad."

"But you aren't. It happens. So 'm not surprised by it. You don't need to apologize when you snap." Koschei said simply, shrugging a bit.

And really? It wasn't just the Master anymore. He dealt with it at home when things got stressed out, and he dealt with it while he was at his mother's house. Koschei was bound to get use to it.

"Good cause you know I love you and I don't want to upset you... and when I do, it's usually because you did something wrong," the Master explained in his own useless way.

But it was true and that wasn't his fault, was it? He wasn't here to make the lad cocky, just settle the score. "Try to behave, I'll be doing work downstairs, okay?"

Koschei sighed softly and nodded, looking to the Master with a small frown. "He doesn't like me...My mom's boyfriend." he informed softly.

And he would leave it at that. If the other wished to pursue it, then so be it. But other than that, he wasn't about to elaborate further.

"He doesn't-- you said he was cool, you went fishing together," the Master said with a baffled expression, was he really not that happy with the man? maybe he was just doing it for Lucy?

Well, either way, if he was a jerk to Koschei then he'd be in trouble. "How do you even know he hates you?"

"He took me fishing an' hunting. Said that I needed to do more like that." Koschei reminded. They'd had the discussion where he had done it because ti had been pushed, not because he liked it.

"He said I should be in a boarding school where kids belong. He likes Isadora, but he doesn't like me." Koschei mumbled softly, shrugging.

"Well he's not your dad, is he? And she has no say in your education," he was the one with full custody, full parental decisions and she was still under sanction to see the kid.

She only got to see him because the Master let her, she couldn't force his son to do something so rubbish. "You have a tutor and you're doing fine, ignore him, he's clearly an idiot."

"She doesn't know." Koschei said softly, shaking his head. Lucy wasn't aware of the situation and he was trying to keep it that way.

He was just telling his father the situation. "He snaps a lot. But she doesn't know! I want to keep seeing her." Koschei asserted.

"I can't make her leave him but I'll her he's a jerk for you," the Master offered, marrying a jerk who was verbally abusive to his son worked for him in an odd and weird way.

He had a way to use that against Lucy and get koschei back. "I can't do anything more than to tell her, I can't start a fight, sorry."

"I don't want her to know." Koschei asserted firmly. He was just telling the Master. It made it clear why he was accustomed to the snapping. He didn't have much else to say on the matter.

"If you tell her, then 'm not gonna be allowed over anymore, an' then he's gonna yell as Isadora. I don't want her to be yelled out." Koschei asserted firmly.

"Fine, I won't say anything but there's a vast difference between me accidentally snapping compared to that man, got it?" he was nothing near that, he was just telling the kid off or expressing frustration.

He could sense the link here and he really hated that. "If he keeps being a jerk or crosses that line, I'm having words though. Got it?"

Koschei nodded softly to show he understood. It was...Strange. Koschei wasn't use to having to deal with people quite like this and it was unsettling for him.

"I don't want you to talk to her. 'M fine. He hasn't hurt me." Koschei assured lightly. There was that at least. Because he wasn't about to fuss when he wasn't being hurt.