Imaginary Worlds

"It's not fair." he grumbled. Because he still had problems with running around and whatnot. It was why he liked being able to do art related things. It was low energy enough. It truly was. But it meant less feeling happy toward Marnal.

Sighig, Koschei shifted to glance out the window with a pout. He could be at school by now. He really could be. Standing carefully, he headed for the bedroom door, blanket around his shoulders. He could make a sandwich or something, but he was admittedly hungry.

"What part of 'Koschei, stay in bed' are you not following?" the Master sighed and got up, gently prodding Koschei back towards his bed before crouching down in front of him so they could look eye to eye at one another.

"Here's my deal. You stay still all of today and tomorrow when Marnal goes to nursery and the Doctor goes to work, we can go out and do something. But no school though, you're too ill," the Master informed him, he didn't mind taking the boy for a quick walk but no sick seven year old needed to be out at school. "Just behave, please."

Koschei whined when he was pushed back into bed. He didn't want that! "'M hungry! I was going o make a sandwich." he grumbled. How was that bad? The Doctor made it clear that he was to leave the Master be and that the man was basically just going to be there to keep his out of trouble.

Speaking of last night's discussion..."Can't go. 'M grounded for the month." he grumbled. Considering the month just began? Yeah. That sucked. A lot. Apparently that's what Koschei got when he whacked his brother.

"Well great, that's why you don't hit your brother. Look, if you hate Marnal that much, ignore him. You can't hit your brother," the Master asserted, waiting for Koschei to get back into bed before locking the window just to make sure. "I'll get you your sandwich, just tell me what it is that you want?"

The Master refused to play nice quite openly, he wasn't giving the boy a chance to leave and he had no want to do so. Koschei kept bring his own suffering on himself and the Master wasn't sure if he could ever help him. "I'll ftch all your food and drink, you're not allow out of this room till you're recovered. If you get worse, you won't get back to school."

"I can get it! I don't need you." Koschei growled slowly. He could do it himself! He sat an the bed and glared before simply burrowing into his blankets to curl up again. It wasn't fair! He was going through this for hitting his so called brother? Fine! They'd see what happened when he did something serious.

Not like he wasn't in trouble already. "Go away. 'M fine. I can take care of myself. I will take care if myself." Koschei ground out firmly. He didn't want to deal with that. This. He didn't want to deal with any of it really.

"Koschei, watch your attitude," the Master warned, he didn't want to fight with the boy, especially not when he was sick but Koschei just kept yelling and having a sulk. He couldn't follow orders to save his life.

He was definitely the Masters son. Deep down inside, the true Master was very proud of his stubborn brat of a son. But the somewhat edited and remixed version was not impressed. He made Koschei a sandwich, the usual he had for school, and took it upstairs, setting it on his bedside table before getting back to work. no contact was needed, he just did his work and waited for the Doctor to get back.

The Doctoroon didn't return home until that afternoon with Marnal and bags of take out in his hold. "I'm home!" he called, starting to plate up in the kitchen. He didn't honestly expect the Master to listen to him and not play nice with Koschei.

Since when did the man listen to him and form a unified front? If Koschei seemed pathetic enough, then the Master typically has the soft spot. So he didn't really think Koschei had no real interaction throughout the day.

The Master grabbed his bills and headed downstairs, tossing them on the table as he was greeted by Marnal, who happily hugged his leg. The Master, of course, was far more interested in the food. He hadn't had any yet today.

"You are a saint. Oh and Koschei might need medicine, I was about to check but you're welcome to it," the Master dismissed as he took take out from the Doctor. It wasn't that he didn't care, he was just very hungry. And so was Marnal from the looks because he was trying his hardest to get a hold of the take out as well. "What did you get us?"

"Chicken, pork, rice, noodles...I figured that you could have some tomorrow as well." the Doctor offered as he made a plate to take up to Koschei. He checked the kid's temperature while there and administered the medicine before heading back down.

He figured that the Mastered would serve Marnal easy enough in his absence. "So. How was your day then? Koschei didn't give you any trouble did he ?" the Doctor asked lightly, sitting and getting some food for himself to eat.

Marnal and the Master hadn't waited, both were eating by the time the Doctor got down and despite the Master being a parent, he carelessly dismissed the fact that Marnal was eating with his fingers... even the rice.

"Koschei is annoying, he won't stay in bed, he tried to break out and go to school then because I wouldn't let him have his way, he sulked. And I ignored him," the Master summed up easily with a small shrug of his shoulders because that was pretty much it. Koschei had been a right pain in the arse all day long.

The Doctor gave Marnal a fork and sighed softly, nodding a bit. "Alright. Sorry. How about I stay home with him tomorrow then? That way you don't have to bother with him quite so much." he murmured softly. It was the least that he could do.

Mind, he didn't think that the Master would be too enthused by it. If only because, last he checked, the other liked spending time with Koschei. But who wanted to when the kid in question was being a right pain?

"You and him alone in the house might not end well," the Master mused before shrugging his shoulders, he didn't mind doing work and besides, his shifts were very short and very flexible.

He had to do at least 15 hours a week, usually he did it of a night while the doctor was playing with the boys or he'd do it in the day when everyone was out the house. Overtime earned him more money. "Look, Koschei is very ... awkward right now. You and Marnal are not the best people to be around him."

The Doctor sighed softly and shook his head a bit. "I assure you that I can take care of my own son. I'll deal with it. Easily. He stays in bed and I periodically check in on him." he murmured softly. Eh. Why not?

He didn't think it would be too difficult to take care of Koschei. "I assure you that this is fine. Go. Relax. I'll take care of everything." the Doctor assured. And, if not, it was easy enough to contact the Master.

"Fine, deal, I'll get up and drop Marnal off at school, you watch Kosch," the master offered with a small shrug of his shoulders. Marnal had finished his dinner, the fork discarded and his hands a mess. No mind, he wiped them on his shirt.

"Gonna go play!" Marnal declared, leaping off his chair and leaving the two grown ups to be boring as he dashed off upstairs. The Master sighed and shook his head, maybe Marnal was a bit too energic!

"Leave your brother alone!" the Doctor called after pointedly. No need to have that problem. Smiling softly, he took to cleaning up after their meal, humming softly. "It'll be fine. How hard can it be to take care of Koschei?" he asked lightly.

It wouldn't be the first time that he'd taken care of the kid. He woul even avoid snapping this fine around. "So. What do you think? Want to do something tonight? Or are you busy?" the Doctor asked, glancing toward the bills.

"I'm basically done but what can we do? Odds are one of the kids will interrupt us and we have to keep checking on Koschei. Want to play a very interrupted game of chess?" the Master joked because it was painfully awkward to get some things done these days without Marnal coming in or Koschei demanding their attention.

"I can set up. We'll have a good hour before Marnal gets bored," and hopefully Marnal would come to them and not try to get into his brothers room. He had a funny feeling that it would never ever go well.

"Alright. We can play chess. And if we get interrupted, then so be it." he murmured, finishing up and grinning as he gave the other a quick kiss. "Come on. We can play in the bedroom. That way we can hear if something's wrong." the Doctor stated lightly as he headed up.

He even bothered to heck on Koschei and Marnal. He didn't need to risk anything between those two taking place. That didn't stop Koschei from slippin into his brother's bedroom with a shark tooth grin. "So. Have a fun day?"

Marnal was happily playing with his dinosaur when Koschei came into his room. Koschei never came into his room which naturally sent alarm bells in his little head. However his young four old mind processed one thing - his big brother was talking to him!

"I'm okay! I went with the Doctor and we had cereal, he gave Froggie a home and we went to be scientics!" he proclaimed proudly to his brother, grinning brightly at their topic of discussion. "Are you better yet?"

"Scientists. And a little. Fever is down. Still sick though." Koschei said dismissively, carefully checking the door was closed. He didn't need to be caught. He didn't need to be interrupted. He moved to kneel before Marnal, the grin never faltering as he ruffled the brat's hair.

"You really love Doctor. Don't you?" he asked slowly, cocking his head a bit. "Want to see a trick?" Koschei asked softly. What? He was...Technically playing nice. If taking advantage of his brother's young age and developing mind was considered playing nice.

Affection from his big brother was like a special gift and Marnal loved it, he laughed and nodded his head enthusiastically. What a question to ask. "Dad? Course! I love dad. He's my dad and he got me a frog."

Smiling innocently, Marnal had no idea what he was getting himself in for. He didn't know that he couldn't trust his brother. Course he didn't move close enough to let himself get hit, a fear he harboured a lot now. "Sure! What is it? Is it magic?"

"Sort of. Just...Relax. 'M not gonna hurt you." Koschei chided, moving closer as he slipped a hypnotic note into his tone. This would be...Interesting. "Do you want me to love you? Because I could. I just can't when you love the Doctor." he murmured, keeping the same tone.

He'd said he would teach the kid a trick. What was a little hypnotic suggestion between brothers? But he was aiming to hurt on a large scale and since it was kill Marnal or make the child hate the Doctor. He'd gone along with the second option.

Marnal loved the Doctor, it was built inside him and to rebel against that was difficult. Marnal watched Koschei with a confused expression but despite his reserves, something made him just want to be with Koschei and do what he asked.

"I want you to love me, Koschei. I'm real good! I -- do-- I don't love him. I don't need dad, we can play together instead," Marnal asked with an innocent cock of his head, grabbing onto his older brothers t-shirt and doing the unforgivable. He hugged his brother.

Koschei tensed and growled, raising a hand to whack the other and pausing. Right. The kid just did exactly what he wanted. It was perfect. He gave Marnal a soft pat on the head before pullin away and making. A shushing motion.

"This is our secret, 'kay? 'Cause 'm not supposed to be out of my room. Remember. You want me to live you? Then all you need to do is one simple thing." Koschei murmured before slipping out carefully and going to find the Master, clinging to the man pathetically. "My chest hurts." he whined.

Marnal nodded and pulled back, feeling more content as he picked up his dinosaur and went right back to playing, happy enough to hate the Doctor. Just because. There was no logic in his little four year old head.

The Master looked up from the game of chess and frowned at Koschei before sighing and made a quick move. "All right, I'm going to sort Koschei out. You want to put Marnal to bed, Doctor? Get our dad duties out of the way so we can get back to play?" the Master joked as he got up and prompted Koschei along.

"Right. I'll go take care of that." the Doctor assured as he followed the two out, Koschei continuing to cling to the Master all the way. In the child's defense, his chest truly did hurt. He couldn't even lay down properly anymore.

Stepping into Marnal's room, he smiled lightly at the boy. "Hey, kiddo, it's time for bed. Hook have nursery school tomorrow and need to be fully rested." the Doctor said lightly, ruffling the child's hair affectionately.