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The door to Andrew's office banged open by a hard push from the other side. There wasn't the decency of knocking or even a question for permission. Lukas stormed into the room, dragging a reluctant Alec with him by the arm.

The boy had a developing black eye on his face and his clothes were scuffed and torn. It wasn't too much of a loss, at ten, he was starting his growth spurt and would likely out grow them within a few months.

He let Alec go and he stumbled a few feet.

"What," Lukas snapped, as always in Russian, "Have you been teaching the boy?"

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There's a suspicious look for a brief moment.

"That's very kind of you to offer. I doubt I'll be able to afford your doctors." It's only a slight jab.

Andrew waves his hand dismissively. "Please. Most doctors who charge an exorbitant fee do so because they know they'll not get any repeat business, and want to maximize their profit while providing the shoddiest work possible. I do not go to expensive doctors -- I go to good doctors."

"Snake oil sales men, yes. But still..."

Alec pipes up here. "Maybe you should, Lukas. It's been getting bad."

Lukas gives him a sharp and angry look and Alec flinches again.

"The boy is concerned about you," Andrew says smoothly, never above using someone else's concern for his own interest. "You should at least see someone. I see a doctor who never charges a fee unless he actually does something, which is far from the norm, I realize, but an excellent way of doing business, assuming one is a decent doctor, which he is."

Lukas grunts and coughs.

"Yes. Fine. Since Sasha asked."

"Good. I'll just write down the information for you, then..."

He shuffles in his desk and pulls out a small pad of paper and a pencil, then glances at his address book, jotting down an address, name, and telephone number. The conversation seems to have turned to this rather than Andrew's failed parenting, so he's happy to keep it going in that direction.

"And I hope that you're explaining to him that it's important to avoid getting arrested beyond the fact that it's an inconvince."

"But of course. I'd also like him to avoid having a criminal record."

That probably wasn't the answer Lukas was looking for. He slides the piece of paper across his desk to the other man.

He takes the piece of paper and folds it up to put in his pocket.

And no, it was not. "You keep on dancing around with these ideals and words of yours. I think they will lead nowhere but trouble."

"Do you?"

Andrew doesn't really sound like he cares what Lukas thinks. "I have founded several companies and become lucratively involved in many industries through, mostly, my ideals, and by utilizing my words effectively. That doesn't seem like trouble to me."

"And you haven't had anything to challenge them either."

"Haven't I? The economy is hardly what it once was. We're still in the grips of a serious economic downturn. That has certainly proved a challenge."

"That is business. That is not people."

"Do you really think people never challenge me?"

"Of course there are people who challenge you. But has there anyone really been a direct threat to you and your empire?"

"A gentleman never kisses and tells."

In romance, or in business, needless to say. Even if there had been, he wouldn't tell anyone.

"I thought it was a lady," Alec says. "And there was that blonde lady last week who came by with the photographs."

Lukas glances at him, confused.

Andrew raises an eyebrow at Alec, equally confused. "What are you talking about?" he asks, hoping Alec isn't going to find some way to embarrass him, but assuming that he probably is.

"Um. This blonde lady came by last week... with photographs... of you. At least, she said they were of you. They were in an envelope and it was sealed. You weren't home yet. And she said I should give them to you but I forgot."

Suddenly Alec wishes he never brought this up.

"Did she? And you didn't see fit to give them to me immediately? Where are they?"

Andrew doesn't like it when people forget to give him things. It makes him feel paranoid. Alec is not exempt from this paranoia.

"I forgot. I had to work on my reading and that's hard and so I got busy and then I got tired and went to bed. And you still weren't home." He says this snipishly.

"They're in my room."

Which isn't saying too much because Alec's room is a mess.

"In your room could mean literally anywhere, buried underneath a mountain of clothing and toys. Go and find them, please."

At least he says please sometimes. Sometimes.

Indeed.

He sighs. "Yes, sir."

Alec runs out of the room to go and find them.

"I don't think I will ever live to see Sasha organized," Lukas murmurs. "I don't think I will be around at all much longer."

He gives Andrew a sharp look as he says it. He's not mentioned it at all to Alec.

Edited 2012-09-08 05:43 (UTC)

"Your sickness is serious, then?" Andrew asks, having suspected as much, but not wanting to say it in front of Alec. The last thing Alec needed was to lose another family member.

He nods sharply.

Lukas doesn't want to die either, if only because he doesn't want to leave Alec alone with Andrew.