[Y/n] glanced over to Laion as he shut his door behind them. The many plants on the outskirts of the rather large room gave the place a particular fragrance; it was pleasant, though it definitely made her eyes water. She noticed that it had been changed a little - a section of flowers had been removed and tiled over, making way for a table covered in covered in equipment akin to what she would've found in a chemistry lab at school.

The plants in the room had changed slightly, too. Some of the more showcase-oriented flowers had disappeared and been replaced by more boring looking plants, though [Y/n] assumed they were probably medicinal.

"I missed you," Laion broke the silence finally, wandering over to his bed and perching himself on the side of it, holding his head in his hands as though something terrible had happened. "Being without you was like torture."

[Y/n] had to fight herself into not responding with 'being with you was torture,' though that was hard. Still, her pride wouldn't get her anywhere now. She realised she'd been pretty spoiled up until this point. Abducted, sure, but how many people can say they've been abducted and then treated with care and respect throughout? [Y/n] had pushed things, she knew that, and she couldn't help but fear all of this was her fault.

"Please say something," Laion sighed, looking up at [Y/n], his big eyes pleading and searching [Y/n]'s [e/c] ones, trying to find an answer. Anything.

"...I'm sorry," [Y/n] whispered quietly.

"You're not, but it's okay," Laion sighed, tilting his head back. "I must look pretty strange to you right now, hey? I mean, I don't want to hurt you, and I really care for you— I'm probably the only one here who feels that way," he hummed, before allowing himself to fall back on his bed. "But you left me, too... and that really hurt."

"I'm sorry," [Y/n] said again, though there was little emotion in her voice. Laion stared at her with a pitying look, before standing up and walking over to her. He took her hands in his.

"We never had that dance," he said quietly. [Y/n] looked away, not speaking. Though it was hard to tell, Laion was fighting back a glare. Was he trying to hurt her? No, no he wasn't- he wasn't now and he never would. He loved [Y/n]. Why couldn't she see that?

"Please, [Y/n]?" he tilted his head.

"I can't dance," she said quietly.

"I'll teach you," he said immediately, placing his hands on her shoulders, a small smile touching his unusually somber expression. [Y/n] looked away, clearly not fond of the idea, which caused Laion's smile to drop once more. "Come on [Y/n], it's fun, give it a go." [Y/n] stayed still, not meeting his gaze.

"Say, do you hate all of us, [Y/n]?" he asked, his voice slightly hurt as he removed his hands from her shoulders. She hesitantly turned to face him again, her expression of apology yet anger at the same time. He sighed. "I don't understand, [Y/n]."

"You don't understand?" [Y/n] echoed, her eyes narrowing. She took a small step back and Laion's brows knitted together in concern that he'd said something he shouldn't have. "You don't understand?" she repeated, her tone colder this time. Her inwardly directed blame from before, her self-depreciation, seemed t0 have faded out to anger after hearing those words. Her pride came back in waves. "You guys locked me in my room for days on end, physically tortured me, killed the one person I could trust and now I'm locked up again," she spat, "and you tell me you don't understand?!"

"I didn't do any of that, [Y/n]," Laion said quietly.

"I don't care. I hate you. I hate all of you," [Y/n] hissed out. Anger momentarily flashed in Laion's eyes; he pushed his dirty blonde hair back with a sigh, before taking a deep breath to try and calm himself down. [Y/n] hoped she hadn't said anything she'd regret.

"Even if you hate me, I'm here for you," Laion smiled. "When no one else will help, my arms are always open for you," he added, tilting his head. The smile he'd forced in an attempt to look forgiving only seemed unstable in [Y/n]'s eyes, causing her to take another step back from him.

"You're lying. You're just like them," [Y/n] muttered.

"[Y/n], what did they do to you?" Laion asked suddenly, his voice seeming to have a longing quality to it. "This sourness isn't like you. This isn't like you at all." He paused. "I blame Nyais for this—"

"Don't blame him for anything!" [Y/n] spat, "you haven't the first clue about him!" This sort of anger wasn't like her at all, and it was clear to Laion that she was putting on a front so she didn't look like she was completely torn up inside. The mention of Nyais had definitely made that more apparent as he now spotted the tears in her eyes. The good thing about witnessing so many of Rayne's experiments was that he had a much better understanding of human psychology now.

"I know more about him than you do," Laion said gently, "and I'm afraid, had we not got rid of him when we did, you would've been hurt by what you found, too." [Y/n] shook her head, beginning to pace around the room, occasionally glancing to the door.

Laion wandered over to his little table and swirled some liquid in a bottle, before pouring it into a small cup and passing it to [Y/n]. She stared at it and shook her head.

"It's nothing weird, I swear," Laion sighed, shaking his head, "just something that will take the edge off the anxiety you're feeling right now," he explained. [Y/n] passed it back to him and he huffed. "Fine, fine, come here, I'll show you exactly what went into it—"

"I don't care," [Y/n] cut him off. "I don't want it."

"Don't be so childish, [Y/n]," he frowned.

"I'm not being childish," [Y/n] retorted. He shrugged and placed the cup on the side, before showing her the ingredients that had gone into it. Tea leaves, lavender, honey, rosemary and coconut oil. Oh, and water of course. Nothing weird, as he'd promised, but she still didn't trust him. What if he'd put something else in there? There was no way she could be sure and, after what Mitzu did, her trust had hit rock bottom.

"Fine, so you won't dance and you won't let me help you," Laion concluded. No response. He huffed at this but continued anyway. "Then what do you want to do?" She opened her mouth and he held one finger up to stop her. "If you say go home then I'll be mad." Her mouth shut again and Laion rolled his eyes. "[Y/n], how many times do we have to tell you? This is your home."

"No, this is your home. This is where you were raised, this is where you've spent almost all of your life. That's why this is home to you. My home is where I was raised- where I've spent almost all of my life," [Y/n] said, her voice a little calmer and quieter now. "Stop trying to tell me this is where I belong, because it's not... I really appreciate you trying to make me feel safer or whatever, but how the hell am I supposed to feel safe if I don't even know whether I'm going to be in one piece in an hour or so?"

"We'd never do that, [Y/n]," Laion said sternly.

"No, you wouldn't, but who's to say Kori or Seishin wouldn't? Even Mitzu and Aytsa are unstable. You and Draka seem relatively sane, but that's two out of six, Laion." Laion had to try and hide how elated he was at the fact that [Y/n] was talking to him like an equal again, and that she put him above Seishin, Kori, Mitzu and Aytsa.

"If they try anything, call for me," Laion said sternly.

"But I can't do that without being more at risk," she said quietly, looking away. "You know how Kori and Seishin like to play games, and Aytsa's prone to completely losing his mind... and I can't imagine Mitzu would be too pleased with me asking for help." Laion sighed. He could almost see her point, but he did remain intentionally blinkered to the whole truth.

He stood up and walked over to a cactus plant, sitting in front of it and staring at it for a moment before looking back at [Y/n]. "You know, this cactus is supposed to flower once every four years under a full moon," he explained. [Y/n] gave him a slightly confused expression.

"You're not gonna have much luck with it here then, are you?" she hummed.

"No, I'm not," he sighed, standing up. "The flowers are priceless. The rarest in the world."

"Then how come you have one of the cacti?" [Y/n] questioned, a little perplexed. Laion chuckled at her question.

"As soon as they bloom, they start to wither. There has to be special conditions for them to bloom as well— conditions which I, sadly, cannot provide it with. So the cacti themselves aren't the priceless part - its the flowers they grow, which can't be sold."

"Right," [Y/n] hummed, rubbing her neck.

"You don't really care, do you?" Laion laughed dryly, to which [Y/n] shrugged. She wasn't going to be sweet and kind like she had been when they were growing up. There was no point anymore.

"Fine," Laion sighed, looking over at his door. "Do you want to go?"

"Sure," [Y/n] responded plainly. There was clearly a look of hurt on Laion's face, despite the fact that he'd asked the question in the first place. He hung his head and sighed.

"Kori's waiting for you, then," he huffed.

"Kori?" [Y/n] echoed, a clear sense of dread in her voice that almost lifted Laion's spirits a little, "d-does it have to be him?"

"Yes," Laion responded simply.

"Why are you passing me around like some doll?" she muttered, her eyes narrowed. Laion rolled his eyes at her words, shaking his head.

"[Y/n], we have to work," he explained, "it's a compromise enough trying to get people to understand that our hours need to be flexible, especially when we're technically only of the lower classes. There's usually only one or two of us in the house at a time," he said, "and the second you leave I have to go finish up something at Rayne's."

"Why can't I just go to my room?" [Y/n] pressed.

"You forget that we do want to spend time with you, [Y/n]," Laion mumbled, before walking over to his desk of strange bottles and plants and putting a few things back in jars, before shoving them in a small bag. "I'm off. You can stay in here for as long as you want, but I'm sure Kori wouldn't be happy if he noticed you'd avoided going to see him," Laion explained, wandering over to his door. He seemed slightly upset. Was is because [Y/n] had openly expressed her distaste towards him? Why did she care? She rubbed her neck.

"Alright... thanks," she sighed, waving the boy off. It was a sight that delighted Laion, though he didn't show it. He opened the door and left without another word.

* * *

"What are we gonna do about this stench?" Aytsa sighed, glancing over at Rayne. Rayne looked around curiously before shrugging.

"Get used to it. That's how it usually smells in here anyway," he hummed. He couldn't help but laugh when Aytsa scrunched up his nose a little. "That's the price you have to pay for experiments. Decay has a particular smell," he explained.

"Yes, I can tell," Aytsa huffed, wandering over to the now-empty cage which a young male had resided in. "Hey," he began, looking back over to Rayne, who raised an eyebrow, "I didn't know you'd already met [Y/n]," he muttered. Rayne didn't miss the venom in his tone.

"Hmm? Yes, I have," he laughed plainly, picking up a small bottle of acid and walking over to Aytsa, passing it to him, "clean the floor in there, would you?"

"I'm not your housekeeper," Aytsa muttered.

"But you are my apprentice, which is basically the same thing," Rayne waved him off. Aytsa groaned in annoyance and opened the cage door, before stepping inside after grabbing an old cloth. The acid was hydrogen peroxide, so it wasn't necessarily corrosive to skin- well, not his skin anyway. He wasn't entirely sure about human skin. It would clean up the blood everywhere, though.

It caught Aytsa by surprise when the cage door slammed shut and the click of a lock sounded. Aytsa's eyes narrowed at the man who held the key.

"The fuck do you think you're doing?" he spat. It wasn't the first time Rayne had done stuff like this to him. Never to Laion, only him. Though Aytsa had a lot of respect for the insane doctor, said doctor seemed to have it in for Aytsa. Rayne stared over at him with a look that radiated confusion, as though he was saying 'what have I done wrong?'

"Oh, the cage?" he laughed, waving the key tauntingly, "well, you spoke to me in a way I didn't like." Aytsa looked confused. "About [Y/n]," he added, crossing his arms over his chest.

"What's going on in here?" a voice sounded from the door. Laion peered in, his bag slung over his shoulder. "Do you want me to leave?" he questioned.

"Oh, no. It's quite alright. Come in, come in," Rayne smiled, to which Laion nodded, though he was clearly apprehensive. "He's not an experiment, I assure you, I'm just keeping him in there until he finishes cleaning the floor. You know, to minimise distractions."

"You mentioned [Y/n]," Laion said absentmindedly as though the subject wasn't irking him at all.

"Yes, we were talking about [Y/n]," Rayne responded, staring over at him with a warning look that told him to drop the subject. Laion met his gaze with a curious, yet falsely absentminded one, before shrugging and going over to a bottle of opaque silver liquid that he'd been working on before.

"Nice. Is this the right consistency now, Rayne?" Laion questioned, glancing over to Aytsa in the cage again. He held up the cloth and then looked at his hands, which were now bleeding for a reason he didn't understand. Laion seemed surprised at this, though didn't care all that much. If it wasn't [Y/n], it didn't matter.

"Yes, perfect, thank you," Rayne smiled, taking it from Laion's hands and holding it, "for a first attempt, this is spot on. Well done."

"What's it for, if you don't mind me asking?" Laion questioned.

"It helps wounds heal, in a fashion," Rayne hummed. Laion was confused as to why he'd needed it so urgently- who was he healing? Though he didn't question it, and watched curiously as Rayne took it over to Aytsa. "You finished?"

Aytsa glared up at him. He'd finished, but his hands were burning - they felt like someone had just poured molten rock all over them. White and yellowish bubbling wounds covered them; his flesh cracked and itched, causing him to rub the corroding skin away. He was clearly keeping tears back, it hurt that much. "Yes," he hissed, which brought a smile to Rayne's lips. Rayne unlocked the cage door and beckoned for him to follow, gesturing to a small wooden stool. Aytsa hesitantly sat on it, and Rayne grabbed one of his wrists to take a look at his hands.

"Hydrofluoric acid," Rayne said nonchalantly, "pretty impressive, isn't it?" He paused. "You've been itching the burns," he said, shaking his head. "It probably hurts more because of all those open wounds." Despite saying that, he didn't seem to do much about it. He then glanced to Laion. "There should be some hexafluorine on the shelf over there," he said.

Laion walked to the shelf and scanned the many bottles there, though couldn't find the chemical he was looking for. He shook his head. "Hmm, alright, calcium gluconate?" Rayne questioned. Laion paused before nodding and picking up the bottle of said base, taking it to Rayne.

"This will hurt," was all Rayne said before pouring the base over Aytsa's hand. He had to keep himself from screaming; beads of sweat ran down his forehead. His neck strained and his eyes squeezed shut. "Bring me some water, Laion," Rayne instructed, before grabbing Aytsa's other hand and doing the same thing again. This time a groan of agony did escape the raven haired male, who was clearly trying to keep a brave face despite feeling like his hands were melting away.

"Good. This won't hurt nearly as much," Rayne said as he took the small bucket of cold water and rinsed Aytsa's hands off. Laion glanced over to the silver liquid, his brow furrowing.

"Would that not have helped?" he asked.

"Oh, yes, it would've done," Rayne laughed dryly, "but that's for someone else. On that subject, would you finish off treating Aytsa's wounds? They need wrapping. You can put ointment on them if you want but it probably won't do much," he mumbled, pulling his white lab coat over his shoulders and picking up the bottle of liquid. "Also if you can make me another one of these when you're done with him, that'd be brilliant," Rayne smiled. The smile didn't reach his eyes, however. It never did.