Imaginary Worlds

Marnal was hard going, like any four year old. His attention span was dreadful, he dropped his milk and cereal all over the place, including his pyjamas and flickered between being very interested in the TV to wanting to crawl all over the Doctor and try to get him to play. Mostly because this was all so new to him and he was testing boundaries with the Doctor.

"Can I go in my pyjamas?" Marnal asked because he wanted to stay in what he was wearing, tomorrow he had to wear nice clothes because of nursery but why did he have to dress up today? "I'll wear slippers?"

The Doctor made sure to clean up as the messes were made and keep Marnal mostly stationary. But he didn't need the kid fussing for the Master. "No. You have them all dirty now. Maybe next time. But I'll make a deal. You can lick out the pants and shirt you wear today." he said simply.

What did it matter if any of it matched? The kid was four. Nobody was going to acorn a four year old child for wearing clashing clothes. Hell. The Doctor had done it when he'd been a few centuries old.

Marnal really didn't make much effort to co-ordinate. Which is why he returned in blue trousers and a backwards inside-out yellow shirt... and one of the Masters ties that the older man gave him after the seam split. How as the Master to know he'd try to wear it.

"Done! I'm ready to be scientic!" Marnal informed the Doctor as he rushed around the living room, grabbing his toy dinosaur so he could take it with him. It was a long day in a lab and he needed a toy.

The Doctor took the chance to get dressed himself, meeting the boy downstairs. "You look very nice." he said lightly, lifting Marnal and bouncing the kid a bit playfully. "Now let's get goig." he murmured, heading out with a but if a grin.

He didnt think anything of leaving Koschei alone with a sleeping Master. How was he meant to know the brat would quietly get up and try to sneak off to catch the school bus? It was a very Koschei thing to do, but that wasn't the point.

It was a shame that the Master wasn't really asleep, he was in and out every few minutes but the noise of Koschei moving around was not hard to mistake for the Doctor. Getting upright, the Master tugged on his trousers and grabbed a jumper from the cupboard, pulling the tatty old thing on with no regard for style. He was too tired to care.

"Koschei?" the Master asked as he headed out into the hallway and peered around because he definitely heard the boy moving around. "You should be in bed, not moving around. Go back to bed now."

Koschei looked to the other and glared. Seriously? The Master shouldn't have been up and about. That wasn't how this was meant to go. "Fine." he grumbled, turning and stepping back into his room, shutting the door firmly behind him.

Right. Time for plan b then. Koschei waited a minute or two before heading to the window to Ty and climb down from there. He had twenty minutes before the bus came. Easy enough to make it.

The Master, of course, was not an idiot. The moment that door shut, the Master sighed and instead of opening it, he simply went into the back garden with Sigma so he could make use of the ground. Because he wasn't an idiot, he knew what Koschei's game was. just as he entered the garden, he caught Koschei's eye and gave him a very firm look

"Try to make a break? With pneumonia, that's dangerous. Climb back in and go back to bed, understand!" the Master yelled up with an annoyed expression, shaking his head. This was getting beyond stupid. "If you go into school, all I have to do is ring them and tell them I need you home and they will eject you."

"You're not being fair! I have to turn in my project an' do my test. It's art! An' geography! I can't make those up." Koschei bemoaned, climbing back in with a sulk. Damn. He didn't want to deal with that one. At all.

He needed to go to school. Even on restriction. Even while sick. He needed to get those done if he didn't want to fail. How was this fair to him? If he didn't go and get those done then he could fail. And that was unacceptable!

"I'm being beyond fair with you!" the Master yelled, waiting for Sigma to catch up before the Master headed back instead. Letting the dog curl up on the sofa, the Master grabbed a chair and a handful of bills for his last commissions and headed upstairs.

And yes, he sat on Koschei's room. He couldn't risk the boy running off so he merely set his chair down and made use of the boys desk. "If you can't be trusted then I'm going to have to sit with you," the Master informed him and that was that, like the Doctor said, he wasn't here t be social and friendly. Koschei was pushing his patiences.

Oh. Oh. And then he got vicious. In a most innocent way. Pouting, he moved so that he lay at the end of his bed, regarding the Master a bit. "Why are you with him?" Koschei asked softly, cocking his head to the side a bit and humming lightly.

It was a normal question to ask. Just not a normal reasoning. "I mean, why do you love him? It doesn't make sense." Koschei pointed out softly. And could the Master deny him an answer when it was so important in a kid's life to understand?

{I gotta catch a bus soon.}

"Love has no logic," the Master answered simply because that was the truth, love happened and that was that, that was how like was from then onwards. And the Master couldn't answer that question any other way.

He didn't get into depth, sure he could answer it but why would he? He was a bit busy trying to do calculations and he didn't stop jotting till he added all his figures. Only then did he turn to Koschei. "Why do you love me?"

((Righto!))

"Because you're not Doctor. Because you actually care about me. Because you don't send me away." Koschei chirped, shrugging. Well. That was that then. "Why do you love him? What about him?" he asked again. He wouldn't let it go.

Because that would ruin the point. He never had played nice. PRticularly in this realm. And especially not when he was angry with the Doctor or the Master. It was a miracle he wasn't going after Marnal for the moment.

"I love you because you're my son and I see a lot of myself in you," the Master answered instead, just to point out that he loved the boy, not out of conditional reasons. Well, course there were some but people said love was 'unconditional'... which was impossible, of course.

"He's the Doctor, I love him," the Master answered simply, because he wasn't going to let himself get baited by Koschei, he could keep probing but the Master refused to let him get under his skin.

Alright. Different way to go about his then. "Does he love you? 'Cause it doesn't seem like it. He's always making you do things an' he doesn't ask you before making decisions. You're supposed to talk. Not control." Koschei pointed it softly.

Cocking his head, he hugged his knees to his chest and frowned softly. "I don't think Doctor loves much. Least not with us. An' I know he isn't fond of me. An' you're like me. So he isn't fond of you sn' if he isn't fond of you then he can't love you." Koschei rationalized.

"Koschei, you are a great many things but you're not very good at manipulating my opinions," the Master said bluntly, turning around and giving Koschei a somewhat bored look. He'd already done this trick, the Master learned his lesson and he wasn't ever going to be that stupid again. He did learn these things.

"Look, Koschei, the Doctor loves you. You don't love him. You've said flat outright that and it makes it hard for the Doctor because you broke his heart," the Master told him because how was the Doctor meant to love Koschei when he never stop hurting him. "You used to come into our room just to kick him while he slept, you never stop baiting him. Love works both ways. He loves you and you don't love him-- what do you expect? You need to give a little, Kosch. As for me? I love the Doctor, the Doctor loves me. That is that."

"Doctor did it first. He use to yell at me an' he wanted for redo me. He tried to make me do things I didn't wanna and took my books. Doctor use to keep me locked up. Doctor didn't love me. He deserved it." Koschei ground out levelly.

How he'd been treated those first weeks had cemented how he would forever feel toward the Doctor and the man didn't even know. Not really. Koschei still had nightmares about when the Doctor tried to change him like that!

"The Doctor was very ill then, he was wrong. But he got better and he tried to make it up to you. Look, Koschei, what the Doctor did to you? ... Its nothing compared to what he's done to me and what I've done to him. Do you know how these things get fixed? Forgiveness," After all, the Doctor sold him out to death and sealed him in a black hole and the Master got his fair share of revenge but ... they decided to make a family and that was all that mattered.

They survived even on Gallifrey, despite all their follies. They were happy. "Sometimes life sucks and adults make mistakes. You can't blame everything on the Doctor for the rest of your life. Rassilon knows! Maybe if you just... forgive him and let go then you might be able to move forward in your life."

"No. Yes. When he dies. I'll be happy when he dies." Kosher assured, laying back and coughing. Yeah. He didn't like laying down right now. It felt like he was drowning. Always unpleasant for him. Or anyone really.

Sighing, he rolled onto his stomach and picked at his blanket. "Can I go to school? Just to do my test an' project?" Koschei asked softly. He was at least trying. He really was. He was even trying to compromise with this issue.

((Off to bed))

"When I first met you, I called you a freak and tried to kill you. If the Doctor hadn't stopped me, I would of," the Master informed Koschei with a small sighed. "The Doctor just wanted me so he made you... And when I stopped being a bastard and spent time with you, I loved you because you're my son. The Doctor just needs a chance to be with you."

Turning his head, he watched the boy curl up and he sighed. Breaking away from his work, he sat on the edge of the boys bed and gave him a small smile. "No school, you're too ill. I'll ring up and you can probably do those later on, promise. You won't miss out."

"But you're not Doctor. You're not supposed to love me. He was. It's not fair." Koschei hissed coldly. He didn't care that the Master loved him. It was that the Master had loved him while the Doctor hadn't and all Koschei had wanted to do was please.

That changed very quickly. "An' no make ups. I can't do them over. An' I did well! I worked hard on my project Koschei lamented. And he had! He'd spent hours carefully drawing Pest and redrawing Pest before it was perfect.

{Pleasant dreaming!}

"Retakes or you don't do it. Koschei, you're sick. Get over it," the Master informed him point blank before getting to his feet and heading to the desk once more to finish doing all the finance for himself and Verica.

"You know sometimes people don't do exactly what you wish. You know brothers are meant to unconditionally love one another, you don't love Marnal despite him loving you. One day, when he looks back, you'll be just like the Doctor to him," the Master pointed out because life was life and sometimes it was a bitch.

"Marnal is too hyper. An' attention needy. I don't like him." Koschei stated simply. Which implied that he'd tolerate the kid a bit more if the other was calmer and less all over the place. And that was true. Half of his problem was that Marnal was too out of control to tolerate.

He shot the Master an expectant look before rolling his eyes and sitting up again. He took his temperature quick enough, followed by his medicine in the proper dose. No idea what that said about the kid that he doubted the Master's ability to take care of him, but Koschei had always been a bit independent.

"He's a normal four year old, Koschei. He's not out of control or anything, in fact considering normal kids his age? He's very well behaved," the only reason Koschei had been calmer was solely because Koschei was-- well, he lost energy when he moved and it made him sleepy.

It was hard for him to grow up very active, he had a lot more struggles than most kids. The Master left Koschei to it, he was independent and so had the Master been at his age. "When he's older, he'll be calmer. But by then... well, he'll probably hate you. How could you not hate the person that punches you for giving them a get well soon card and bouncing a little bit."

Koschei just scoffed and pointed to his nightstand where the card was still sitting. "I didn't hit him for that. I hit him for something else." he stated simply. And it was the truth. He hadn't even hit Marnal that hard. He'd hit Epsilon harder than that. Mind, Epsilon hit back and only when the other was being an idiot.

"I don't like it. He's too..." Koschei drifted off and shook his head. Marnal was too energetic for him to keep up with. The bouncing and running about only annoyed him. The Doctor's constant affection was the final nail in that coffin.

"He loves you. He thinks the world of you for whatever reason. The Doctor said we should send you away from treatment and Marnal got upset and insisted we didn't," the Master pointed out, pausing to do a quick calculation before turning his head to smile at the poorly made card that wasn't even folded properly.

"When I met the Doctor, he was loud, energetic and not as hard working as I. Needless to say we didn't always get along but after a while, you get used to it. Trust me," the Master reassured with a small shrug of his shoulders.