"La folie de deux provient de la complaisance de l'un."

Ashton's words seemed to have caught Atchinson off guard as he looked at him with a strange, confused look on his face. "What was that?"

Ashton chuckled lowly, a smirk adorning his face as he turned to face him. "It's hard for a person to not become accustomed to something that has become the routine of their life," he said without thinking, trying to bite his tongue but kept speaking anyway. "I figure my fucked up sense of humanity stems from the way my father treated me as a child. Before my mother left me, I didn't know what 'bad ' was. All I knew was positivity and happiness, but, now, I don't even remember the definition for the word 'happiness.'"

Atchinson kept silent, nodding his head as a sign for the younger man to continue speaking.

"After I had had Luke for a few days," he continued quietly, "he started to become content with the idea that he was going to die at my hands. Or just content at the fact that he was going to die, period. He seemed to understand that he didn't have a say in the matter, and he seemed to just.. give up after that."

Atchinson nodded his head again, preparing himself to speak as he looked up to Ashton. "So," he began slowly, "that phrase you used?"

The hazel eyed man smirked once again. "La folie de deux provient de la complaisance de l'un," he repeated, looking down at his nails as he spoke.

"The madness of two stems from the complacency of one."

* * *

"You're no fun anymore, kid," Ashton said in a bored tone as he shook my bruised knuckles, scowling at Luke's beaten and bloody face that held absolutely no emotion.

"What's the point of being upset at a situation you know you aren't going to escape from," Luke questioned in a broken voice that made Ashton roll his eyes.

"What," he asked in a mocking voice, coming down to level with his face, "afraid Daddy's not gonna come to your rescue? Or do you just want to die that badly?"

Luke lifted his head to look at him, a glare in his eyes that actually took him back just a bit before he chuckled humorlessly. "Dear ol' Dad never gave a shit about me before," he said in a venomous tone, "not like putting my life on the line is gonna make him start."

Ashtob clenched his jaw tightly, stepping away from the younger boy before bringing his fist back full force to the left side of his face. He groaned in pain, only slightly, before spitting out a mouthful of blood and laughing pathetically. "You should just go ahead and kill me," Luke said weakly, blood dripping from his bottom lip and onto his jean clad legs. "Save yourself a lot of trouble."

That instantly set Ashton off, his dominant and power hungry side ripping out as he launched forward, both of his hands on Luke's knees as he set himself only an inch from his face. "You don't get to fucking tell me what to do thinking I'm going to let you off easy," he spat through gritted teeth, watching the color drain from Luke's face in fear. "Trust me, pretty boy, if Daddy doesn't come through with our ransom, not only will I make sure that you die, but it'll be slow and agonizingly painful to the point where I'll have you begging me to kill you the whole time. Mark my words."

His face stayed completely colorless as Ashton stepped back and walked up the basement steps to the door leading to the main floor of the safe house. Once he slammed the door shut and locked it tightly, he trudged his way over to the fridge and pulled out a beer, popping the cap with the edge of the counter and almost chugging the whole damn bottle.

"Fuck," he breathed out to the empty room, rubbing his face with his hands just as his phone started ringing.

He pulled it out and answered without checking the caller again, bringing it to his ear and speaking quietly. "What is it, Andrew?"

"Not Andrew," Calum said in a gruff voice, making Ashton's eyes open as he took another drink of his beer. "Go a bit easier on the damn kid, Irwin. Remember the plan. He doesn't need to be in that bad of shape."

"Would be a lot easier to control how much I hurt him if he didn't have such a fucking mouth on him," he grumbled harshly, finishing his beer and tossing it to the trash can.

"He's doing what he's supposed to," Calum said in a hard voice that meant no arguing. "You just need to calm the fuck down. We don't need him dead."

Ashton rolled his eyes and nodded to himself, grabbing another beer and a bottle of water from the fridge before speaking again. "I'll work on it," he grumbled before hanging up and heading back down the basement.

Luke's head shot in his direction, which must've caused him extreme pain as he scrunched up his face and hissed loudly, making Ashton roll his eyes again as he walked over to him and uncapped the water bottle.

As he put it to his lips, Luke instinctively tilted his head back and swallowed the water he allowed him to have. After a moment, Ashton pulled the bottle away and popped open his beer, leaning against the table with the camera setup on it as he took a large gulp.

"You're doing alright, kid," he mumbled, only loud enough for Luke to hear.

"You're doing just fine."

* * *

"Why did you tell him he was doing 'just fine,'" Atchinson questioned with furrowed brows.

Ashton bit the inside of his cheek to keep from making a sarcastic - and very provocative - comment and answered him. "He was keeping himself alive through all of the shit I did to him," he said disinterestedly. "Which is good on my end, because if he had died any sooner than intended, I would've gotten the shit end of the stick and been reprimanded in his place."

Atchinson nodded his head, pursing his lips slightly before speaking. "Looks like you're already there, though, doesn't it?"

Ashton smirked softly, biting his lips as though an unspoken secret would slip through them.

"Looks like it."