With all the care he could muster, Ian gingerly extracted the tooth from its former home in Kian's mouth, careful not to jar any part of his gums or teeth that were more than likely in white hot agony. He raised it up to the light, turning the pliers from side to side to examine his work.<span style="color: #80BFFF"><span style="font-weight: bold">"Kian..,"</span></span>he reprimanded softly, much the way a mother would if she were trying to teach an important lesson. Ian would have made a terrible mother, but that was beside the point. The tooth was brought down between them so that Ian could admire it and Kian could.. well, continue to be in pain, but also look at it.<span style="color: #80BFFF"><span style="font-weight: bold">"You're not flossing, Kian. Do you know how bad that is for you? This tooth had to go sooner or later. I just saved you from a medical bill."</span></span><br/><br/>Viscous copper poured out of Kian’s mouth, dripping from his chin to the basement floor and painting Ian’s face with a heavy spray as he was reminded of what a sick fuck he was. If he had rolled his eyes any further at that, he could have probably watched his own brain reeling from the absolute stupidity.<span style="color: #80BFFF"><span style="font-weight: bold">“Oh don’t give me that indignant bullshit, Kian, we both know you’re better than that."</span></span>His voice rose to match his temper, and also just so he could hear himself talk over Kian’s yells and groans and other miserable noises, like Lydia’s incessant sobbing. She cried over everything. It was a wonder he hadn’t just killed her yet.<span style="color: #80BFFF"><span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="font-style: italic">”You</span> did this. I tried to warn you, multiple times in fact. I didn’t want to hurt you, but you didn’t leave me much choice.”</span></span><br/><br/>For how much Ian enjoyed the man’s sarcasm, he was quickly beginning to realize that Kian was perhaps the densest person he’d brought home yet. What had he ever done to Kian, tooth extraction aside? When you ignored the chains, Ian had been a particularly grand host and prided himself heavily on his hospitality. He’d offered food, water and polite conversation, and that was it. He’d even apologized about hitting him too hard earlier. Maybe Kian would have some sort of epiphany because of this. Best case scenario dictated that he would realize his attitude was godawful and<span style="font-style: italic">behave</span>. Worst case scenario, this just made him worse, but Ian could remedy that with a little tender loving care and maybe a few more teeth.<br/><br/><span style="color: #80BFFF"><span style="font-weight: bold">“I think we have an understanding now. Am I right? So understand <span style="font-style: italic">this."</span></span></span>The pliers made a sudden descent to rest at the front of Kian’s jeans.<span style="color: #80BFFF"><span style="font-weight: bold">”The next time you decide that you want to point your cock at me, I’ll be taking that too.”</span></span><br/><br/>He tossed the pliers on the table to the threatening tune of metal scraping against plastic and walked away. He had half a mind, as he retreated up the staircase into the hallway, to not come back down tonight. It was late and he was agitated, and there was no fun in that for anyone. The heavy basement door closed with a soft<span style="font-style: italic">click</span>behind him, but he made no effort to lock it behind him. Kian was defeated for the moment, and the rest were too broken at this point to even attempt it. Because the others were smart; a trait Kian seemed to be sorely lacking.<br/><br/>Ian lazily wandered his way down the hallway, passing those family pictures and other annoying adornments for what felt like the hundredth time today, and crossing the foyeur to the staircase leading up to his room. He bounded up the stairs as he usually did, taking them two at a time and taking his first right at the top. His bedroom was slightly on the emptier side, mainly because he rarely spent any sort of time in here at all. More often than not he just slept on the couch in the living room. It was more than big enough, and Ian was generally too lazy to climb the steps to the second floor most of the time anyway. It had an attached bathroom though, and that was his target.<br/><br/>The gentle scraping of wood against wood was soothing compared to the sounds he was made to listen to in his basement and Ian found himself wanting more to just stand in his bedroom and open his dresser drawers all day than go back down to listen to the pandemonium of chains, screams and self-pity, but eventually he found what clothes he’d wanted to dress down for the night and had no valid excuse to keep fiddling with it. The bathroom was to the right and, clothes balled up in his hands, he crossed over and threw everything down on the floor.<br/><br/>Water splashed down in the basin of the sink when the tap was turned, and Ian let it run for a second before cupping his hands under the miniature waterfall to splash it against his face instead. The water that dripped back down off of his skin was the color of rust and it leisurely streaked down the side of the marble sink until it made its way to the drain where it would disappear forever. He looked up at the mirror only briefly to make sure that blood no longer marred his skin before turning the water off and changing down for the evening into loose-fitting black pajama bottoms and an even looser grayscale t-shirt. They made him look impossibly small for someone who stood a head taller than most people he associated with.<br/><br/>Just as he was making motions to leave, a little voice at the back of his mind nagged him. Swearing under his breath and opening the mirrored cabinet, Ian grabbed a few cotton balls, hurried down the stairs to pit stop in the kitchen, and - against all of his intentions - found himself climbing down the stairs to his captives with a handful of cotton and two water bottles in hand.<br/><br/><span style="color: #80BFFF"><span style="font-weight: bold">”Tilt your head back and try not to swallow,”</span></span>he ordered as he discarded all but one bottle on the table and twisted off the cap. His tone wasn’t rude, but it had definitely lost all of the previous hospitality that he had worked so hard to maintain.