He hadn't asked Hobbes to repeat it, but hearing the word slip out like that from between his lips makes him shiver. He can't help it. There's power in the room, buzzing around them like stray electricity, almost crackling in the air.

"Stand up," he says, leans over to the table and his hand finds the short length of rope without him needing to look for it. "Hold out your arms. Wrists together."

The orders just come. Once he gave them for a living. It's easy to fall back into that, use it again.

Turn it into something new.