It's picking up a little, I think. I'm writing this so fast, I'm surprising myself! So, as it turns out, I /will/ continue this. ;; Evenifno-onereads/likesit.

Ivan grabbed my wrist and led me out of the basement and up the stairs. When we got to the first floor of the house, he informed that I would be making dinner tonight instead of Toris.

"Why?" I asked. That was a mistake; I knew not to question him.

Ivan simply smiled and tightened his hold on my wrist. When we arrived at the kitchen, I saw that Toris and Eduard were sitting in the dining room to the side of the kitchen already. That was odd, normally they would stay in their rooms, wanting to be as far away from Ivan as they could get. So why were they down here…?

"Make whatever you want," Ivan called down at me, breaking me from my thoughts. I brought my gaze up to his face, searching in his expression for any small hint as to why I was the one cooking. Toris was so much better… Maybe he was setting me up so he could hurt me more? My shaking picked up slightly at that, and Ivan giggled when he noticed.

Ivan turned his back to me and walked into the dining room, shutting the door behind him. I could hear him say something to my brothers in a sweet voice, but I couldn't make out the words. I decided to shake that from my mind and go to wash my hands.

I then gathered all the ingredients for the only recipe I knew by heart and that I knew I wouldn't mess up – sorrel soup. By the time I was almost finished finding all the ingredients, the only thing I had left to find was the sorrel. It was always hard to find in Ivan's house. After searching around the cupboards a little, I eventually found it. I began to prepare the ingredients when the door opened that Ivan had closed just moments ago. I turned my head slightly (and carefully, just in case it was Ivan) to see that it was Eduard.

He walked right past me and to the closet. His eyes looked tired. Actually, his entire expression looked tired. Eduard opened the door and pulled out a small towel from it, quickly and quietly closing the door before he left the kitchen. He closed the door to the dining room with even less sound than he did with the closet door.

That was strange. Normally Eduard would smile at me if we saw each other. He hadn't even looked at me…

I had to shake it off quickly, though. I couldn't take any extra time cooking or I would get in trouble.

After twenty or so minutes had passed, the soup was finally finished. I had to carry the bowls out one at a time so that I wouldn't drop them or spill them. I brought Ivan's first and he examined it thoroughly while I went back to the kitchen to bring Toris his bowl. I brought Toris' second since he was the oldest and you're supposed to be respectful to people older than you. I noticed that Toris was shaking softly (not as much as I do normally), and I became worried, but I would have to ask him later. It was really strange, too, since he was the best at hiding his fear. When I reentered the dining room to place Eduard's bowl in front of him, I noticed that his eyes didn't appear so tired and empty anymore. He smiled to me before I turned to retrieve my bowl. I didn't see the towel anywhere.

I placed my bowl in front of my seat at the table – Toris was to me left and Eduard to my right with Ivan directly in front of me – and sat down. Ivan took the first bite of his food and we waited for him to allow us to eat. A tradition my brothers and I had quickly become used to. There had been times when Ivan refused to give us permission to eat and sent us to our rooms immediately after he was finished. But that was only when he was growing paranoid that we were formulating plans to leave him. I never understood how he thought treating us poorly would ever make us want to stay.

"It's not as bad as I had hoped it would be, Raivis," Ivan suddenly said. My brothers and I kept our eyes on him, remembering what happened last time just one of us hadn't looked at him as he spoke to us at dinner. We also all knew why he wanted it to taste bad. So that he could beat me more. "You two may eat," he said, his eyes going back and forth between my brothers. "But not you." His eyes rested on my face.