Day Seven: Used as an Experiment (C3)
Read here on AO3
Summary: Ashton and Dorian are being held captive by a madman trying to tailor-make a drug to incapacitate the genasi. It's not going well.
They were learning.
Ashton had tried to ambush them at the door too many times, and now the guards just swung the door open and stood there, knife to Dorian's throat, until Ashton backed off. He waited, arms folded, while the biggest of the guards just glared at him. At least this time they were just escorting Dorian back, though the air genasi looked a little unsteady. Glassy-eyed, shaken, with the same mottled bruising up and down his arms that Ashton carried. Still better than the times they'd slung his unconscious body back into the cell.
The big guard showed his teeth with a feral smile, but Ashton just rolled his eyes. Guys like this could posture all they wanted, but he already knew their captor didn't want a scratch on them beyond what he himself inflicted. So the stare-down continued, with Ashton refusing to sit on the ground with his back to the wall while the guards approached, and the big guard refusing to shove Dorian into the cell until Ashton complied.