Nathan wiped his feet on the mat when he came in, and this time he removed his shoes before he hit carpet. With curfew, it wasn't like he could run out into the streets if anything went south. Plus, if Maggie planned to have dinner with them, he imagined his roommates would be on as good of behavior as they could manage. The only thing assaulting him at the moment was the scent of cooked fish. With his stomach yowling, it was an overpowering lure to a room that would be full of people who'd have no qualms about adding him to the menu.

Worse, he'd drank a quart of water and didn't know where a bathroom was. Well, he knew where Ian's was, and he sure as hell wasn't going up into his room to use it. On cue, the devil came down the stairs with his usual smile. It must take meticulous care to keep his teeth that white considering he smoked, but Nathan dropped the thought as he pressed against the wall to keep himself stable.

"Do you know where a bathroom is down here?" Nathan asked, wanting to avoid any awkwardness before he could use the facilities. If Ian scared him right now, he might just piss himself, and he did not need that as his first impression to the other people living here.

"Yeah, sure. It's out the back door to the kitchen." Ian waved him forward and slid through the swing door that Tanner had come from during the morning.

It was an unknown area of the house, and Nathan wasn't enthusiastic for the exploration, but he also had to pee so bad that it clouded reason. Maggie and Tanner were moving around the kitchen, but Nathan shuffled by quickly to keep up with Ian. All he visually registered was a granite countertop that extended around the back wall and the biggest double-doored fridge he'd ever seen.

The back door out of the kitchen was a hole without an actual hinged door attached, and it led to a dim hallway, but Ian opened the bathroom door to stream light on them. More than the threat of Ian alone with him in a dark hall and the sweet release of using the bathroom, an elevator dragged his attention to the opposite wall. Running lights on the floor led him there like a plane coming in for a landing, and eerie red arrows had him swallowing hard. The stick figure for the downward stairwell near it looked like he was running for his life.

"It goes to the downstairs facility," Ian said, sliding his hands in his pockets. "Can you find your way back to the kitchen if I leave you here?"

"It's three feet away." Nathan bristled, and Ian cackling in the dark was so sinister that Nathan threw himself into the bathroom for safety. He locked the door just to be sure Ian couldn't get in and barely made it to the toilet without whizzing himself.

As he washed his hands, he stopped to look at himself in the mirror. Playing basketball had him covered in a sheen of dried sweat that made it feel gross to move. A knock on the door made him jump, and he opened it to come face to face with Ian's bright eyes. He tried to close it again, but Ian grabbed it with a chuckle.

"Here." Ian handed him a stack of clothes, and Nathan had to let go of the door to catch them before something rolled off the top. "I saw how you were sweating when you came in. The antiperspirant, Maggie got for you, so don't get all creeped out thinking it was me or anything. I'll see ya in a few." Ian closed the door for him, and Nathan fingered his clothes.

He didn't need to be told twice that he smelled. It was embarrassing enough to know that Ian had noticed and brought him something. The new T shirt and jeans felt wonderful after he dabbed himself down with a damp towel from the sink and sprayed the deodorant under his arms. It was a bit strong for his tastes, but it was better than reeking.

He advanced slowly into the kitchen's back door when he was done and held onto the frame as he peeked in. There was food set on the table, still in pots, and Maggie reached up for one of the cabinets just as he stepped in. In what appeared to be a kind gesture, Tanner stood up from a counter stool and handed her the plates. Maggie thanked him, and Nathan wondered how much of what Tanner did was a façade and how much was his actual heeding of Maggie. It seemed suspicious, like everything else around here.

"Nathan," Maggie called out, noticing him. She was in a better mood than she'd been that afternoon, and Nathan smiled halfheartedly back.

Most of his being homed in on Ian sitting at the far end of the table. With his arms behind his head, Ian rocked his chair with a foot on the table leg, and even relaxing, the guy commanded the space around him like he owned it.

"It's going to be like a half of an hour on the fish. Mags tried to cook again, and she can't time two dishes for shit." Ian stood from the table, and the chair screamed on the tile to warn Nathan of the beast on the prowl. "You want to see if anything's on tv with me?"

No. Nathan tried his best not to offend him, but his silence was probably doing that.

"If you really want, you can stay here with Tanner. It's not like there's knives or anything in here, and you did kick his ha–"

Nathan bolted past Ian out through the swing door and near threw himself on the couch, where he crossed his arms half in frustration and half to keep them from trembling as Ian followed and sat right next to him.

"You're too easy, Nat." Ian brushed his shoulder against his as he turned the tv on with the remote. There was more than enough space for both of them on the couch, but the man had sat mere inches from him so that they touched when he moved.

"Sorry I'm not used to being manipulated." Nathan growled against his better judgement, and Ian's jaw dropped open as he met his eyes.

Lowering his eyebrows, Ian smirked and leaned into him, pushing Nathan all the way to the armrest. "You smell good." Ian inhaled next to him, and Nathan whitened as Ian trailed the outside of his hand over the side of his face. The touch was momentary, and Ian sat back up to channel surf on his side of the couch, but Nathan remained frozen in place.

"You gave me spray deodorant." Nathan's ego had him speaking when he knew he should just be quiet.

Ian flicked his eyes over, just barely turning his head from the screen, and a wide smile stretched his face. "I meant before that."

Nathan wasn't sure if heat could rush to a person's face in embarrassment at the same time it drained of color in horror, but his head sure as hell tried. It made him dizzy enough that he leaned back into the couch seat and counted his breaths.

"You are terrible at taking compliments." Ian lifted a cigarette out of his pocket and dropped it between his teeth, but he didn't light it.

Ian wasn't going to light it with Maggie around, so Nathan wasn't sure why he did it. Wondering if Ian just liked the feel of it between his lips took Nathan's mind to a dark place, but the front door slamming jumped him both metaphorically and physically out of it.

"Lovely," Ian said, gripping his cigarette so tight between his teeth that he almost cut it in half. Turning the tv off, Ian stood from the couch and groaned as the staunch odor of alcohol flooded the room.

It preceded a man by not seconds, and Nathan froze on the couch a foot behind Ian. Stumbling and muttering in a drunken haze, the guy wobbled into the living room and stabilized himself against the corner that turned to the stairs. With his shirt unbuttoned down to almost his navel, Nathan could see his chest almost to his groin, but he was too terrified to be embarrassed. The guy cursed as he turned a pair of bloodshot, grey eyes over to them and then focused on him. He ran his hand through his choppy brown hair and then rubbed his unshaven jaw before he squinted his eyes on Nathan like he was a hallucination.

"What the hell... Where did you get a kid?" he growled in a loud but low rumbling voice. It sent a chill down Nathan's spine as the man looked at him as if he were nothing more than something to break.

"Where do you think, Rick?" Ian answered with obvious distaste for the man. "I bought him on Amazon, you fuck."

Rick's eyes glazed over as he took in the words, lost in a haze of intoxication. "Shit, they sell anything on there nowadays."

How drunk was this guy?

Ian slapped a hand over his eyes just about the same time Maggie came down the hall into the living room. Taking in the man's condition, she flexed her hands at her side and her jaw stiffened as she faced him with steel-blue eyes.

Rick didn't give Maggie half a glance before he picked up a vase from the end table and hurled it at her. It shattered against the wall a foot past her, but Maggie didn't flinch. Nathan was stiff on the couch, but he couldn't miss the look of fear that passed through the drunken man's expression as he backed away from her. It was like Maggie was holding a gun to his head, but she was just standing there.

"Consuming alcohol is forbidden in and outside of the house, Rick." Maggie's voice raised in threat, and it tore away Rick's hesitation, hardening his stance. Perhaps it was the alcohol clouding and fighting with his better judgement, but Rick took a few steps to get directly in Maggie's face.

"You think I have to listen to your twisted set of rules, bitch?" Rick hissed in her face, leaning so close that she must smell nothing but his tainted breath. Grabbing the side table, Rick flung it across the room and it crashed against the living room wall near the window.

"Rick, get your ass in your room!" Maggie fumed, completely immune to the threat he posed.

"Make me... bitch." Rick leaned closer and smirked.

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Word count: 1779