He could ignore the attitude, the snide remarks through the closed door, the open defiance in the younger man's face as easily as he could swat a fly out of the way. What Ian couldn't ignore was the trill of fear and the hunched over terror that had the young man cowering in the corner of his shower like he was there to devour him whole. He felt his insides jerk as he lifted Daxon's face up like he did in order to look him in the eye. The doctor swallowed hard as he followed the motion of Daxon's dilated pupils, felt the tension in his body, heard the crack in his voice. It wasn't supposed to be this way. But Ian had been telling himself that for the last few days.<br/><br/>The fingers that dug into his jaw loosened as the tension eased out of him to be replaced by that searching curiosity. Ian's own jaw tightened as he dipped his head so that the hot fall of water cascaded down his back instead of flowed into his eyes and down his face. His short dark hair was plastered to the top of his head wetly and droplets clung to his lashes that spider webbed in the steaming confines. Something changed in Ian's eyes as he watched the shift in Daxon's demeanor; the hazel tones lightened, blinking into a vertical slant and turned to molten gold. Even as they dilated under the bathroom's light, the predator's quality only intensified rather than diminished; a lion stared down at the younger man, controlled only by Ian's sheer force of will. His lips parted after his eyes transformed, his mouth popping to hold the pair of elongated incisors that had dropped from his gums, sharp enough to rip Daxon's throat out if he were so inclined. He showed this part of himself intentionally now instead of in that blind, wild rage he had demonstrated back at Daxon's apartment. A show that he could hold on to some semblance of control.<br/><br/>Without saying anything, Ian slid his hand from Daxon's jaw to creep across the side of his face. His other hand released his former patient to join the first until he held his face in his hands. It still forced Daxon to meet his stare, but at least his touch was much less forceful than it had been. Strength resonated from the muscles that coiled through Ian's arms, demonstrative of the powerful build that was currently laid bare underneath the pounding pulse of the shower. Flexing his jaw and rolling his head on his neck, Daxon would be able to witness for himself the way his facial structure shifted right before his eyes, churning with a grinding pop as Ian once more altered himself. Gone was the feline cast, replaced once more by the man.<br/><br/>“What all do you remember, Daxon?” The doctor's eyes had that look again. That searching look as if he were trying to decide just what all he could reveal to the young man. Shaking his head, his fingers probed deep into the socket's of the other male's cheeks until he felt the engorged reptilian glands. With practiced precision, Ian massaged the spot in order to tease the glistening fangs back into place. Daxon might feel a tingling from the pressure when his fangs did retract from the pressure of Ian's fingers, followed shortly by a sharp twinge as his jaw popped into place. “You're going to learn to control this yourself eventually. It'll become like instinct – but it will also become a battle of what is human and what is<i>not </i>human. What we're going to do is focus on the human part so that you don't have to make a meal out of anything.. living and belongs in a cage. What just happened is the animal instinct took over; it was time for you to eat and in that moment, devouring what you did was your only choice. But in order for this to work, you're going to have to trust me.”<br/><br/>Which is why the next part of what he said made the corners of his eyes cringe. But with Daxon being this wired and with his beta still present in the condo, Ian wasn't prepared to reveal all of his secrets when his would-be date was prone to scream it out to the world. Closing his eyes, his hands slid away from where they massaged Daxon's jaw and cheeks to wrap around his head and pull him forward until he had his head against his shoulder. Wandering lower still, Ian's palms raked across Daxon's shoulders, down his back, so that he embraced the other in his grasp. “You are a snake, yes. Milo and myself are lions which... don't get along too well with the snake population, if you couldn't tell. You don't have to tell me how strange this is. How scary. So instead, I want you to think about<i>not </i>being a snake. What's something that comes to mind.. the very first thing?”<br/><br/>Ian drew away from the younger man once he was sure that Daxon wasn't going to try and burst out of the shower and flee into the world. Stepping away from the other man, he instead twisted around to pick up the bar of soap in its dish. It was almost clinical the way he lathered the bar and streaked the soap across the broad expanse of his chest, down the tight ridges of his abs. Then, lathering his hands, he dipped his hand lower to cup his own groin, stroking along its length before curving down to scrub his scrotum. Pay no mind to his semi-erect state; something that Ian kept in careful check with the blank canvas his expression had turned into as he continued to watch Daxon's face even while he finished lathering himself up under the spray.<br/><br/>He even remained stoic, brows drawn forward as if he were contemplating, when he lathered his hands with a fresh dose of the soap and stepped back into Daxon's space. Again, he was without words when he lay his hands first on Daxon's shoulders and dragged the bar of soap down, lathering as he went, to follow the same line across the other's chest and abdomen. His wandering hands stopped just short with the bar of soap to linger around his naval. The barest smirk curved Ian's mouth as he studied Daxon's face. Then, shaking his head, he reached out and snatched up his hand to bring it down to wrap around the bar of soap himself.<br/><br/>“Wash yourself then rinse off. Taking a shower was a good idea – for both of us. It's been a rough few days, don't you think? Do you need to call anyone to tell them you're all right? Because unfortunately.. you're not going anywhere any time soon until you can relax, close your eyes, concentrate on who you are and what<i>you </i>want, not the other thing inside of you. That I want you to push back, way back. Once you can push it back, everything else will become normal to you again. No more loud noises or bright lights.”<i>Until it came back. </i>But Daxon didn't need to hear the unspoken thought. Not right now.<br/><br/>Ian waited until the younger man had finished rinsing himself before he shifted around the other body and maneuvered himself under the direct spray of the shower. To show that he had relaxed his control, he even turned so that he presented his back. His muscles bunched as he lifted his arms up, hands knifing through his hair then dragging down his face when he turned his face up into the shower. He groaned internally at the sensation of the water sliding down his frame and indulged himself there for a few lingering minutes as he let the water wash the soap from his body with the help of his frisking hands down his front.