Neo!
Neo woke up in an unfamiliar place. The walls were decorated with red and gold. The bed, an actual bed, was soft and had maroon and white bed sheets. Two adults raced into the room, oh yeah. These were the wizard police that he had done a background check on and came to. Oh thank God. He really didn't want this whole thing to have been a dream only for him to wake up in some weird experimentation room. One or two experiments with enough for an entire three lifetimes.
Neo got out of bed and immediately checked the bottom bunk. His sibling was not yet awake. But that was okay, Storm hadn't slept or eaten anything in the past week. And some awful shit has happened. Best to keep the child asleep while they can. Mr. Black made a beckoning motion for Neo to follow him into the kitchen. "How you holding up?" Mr. Black said. "I don't know, I woke up and forgot where I was. But that was stupid, obviously I'm not in the labs anymore. Whatever." Mr. Lupin looked like he wanted to say something, but kept his mouth shut.
Then, a thought occurred to him. "What's going to happen to us?" He asked. "Please tell me you're not sending us back to those people! I seriously did not escape all those magical personnel just to go back there." The adults looked absolutely horrified at the notion. "Of course not! You are never going back there. Never ever not in a million years!" Neo's face scrunched in confusion. "Then where are we going?" There was a long pause and the adults shared a glance.
Mr. Black spoke first. "Would you be opposed to staying with us? We doubt, if you are put into the foster care system, that you will be able to stay with your brother. And I don't think people will treat former assassins very kindly. So, if you wouldn't mind it, you could stay with us. Although you would probably be enrolled in Hogwarts." Neo mulled over the information. It wouldn't be a horrible idea. He hadn't been to a magical school since, well it had been a long time. He seriously doubted that Storm had ever been taught wand magic with a wand of their own, so it could be a good opportunity for them. The only problem would be convincing Storm of this.
"You guys haven't given me any reason to oppose this idea, but Storm? Bollocks- I don't think they're at a place where they can trust adults. Maybe just you guys? Cuz' you guys helped and I vouched for you? I don't know, maybe. My answer for you guys, is yes. We'd love to stay with you. As long as you are okay with dealing with the baggage that comes along with this shite show." Neo did jazz hands as an alarm rang out, before realizing he couldn't put his hands down. Neo was aware, but not able to move. And, from the looks of it, the adults weren't able to move.
Time. Bloody hell! Storm was awake, and likely panicking. Neo heard whimpers coming from the bedroom with the bunk beds. Neo almost forgot how much pain Storm was usually in after an experiment. Almost. Storm was taught not to cry. Because of this, Neo had only seen them cry once. In the entire two years that they had known each other, only once.
The day before they had made their grand escape, Storm had freshly come out of the experimentation room. Every time Storm moved, they screamed, actually it came out as more of a strangled gasp because their mouth was sewn shut but whatever. Neo didn't know how many pain receptors were in someone's back, but there must have been a lot. Storm was a quiet kid, they didn't make noise unless they were told to. The worst part was, one of the scientists had taken Storm's necklace. The necklace was given to them by Leto, Leah, and Neo.
Leto had made the necklace out of different rocks or metals ze found on missions, and gave them the necklace so that everyone was aware of what pronouns to use. Storm is gender fluid, so the necklace would change color almost daily. Each one of the assassins, including Neo himself, put their own special enchantment on it. One to keep it from breaking from Leah, another to keep the colors from fading from Leto, and a simple charm that made it smell like strawberries. Storm had never had strawberries, but they really liked the smell.
It wasn't the agony that caused the kid to cry, but Neo was sure that was a contributing factor. No, the kid screamed and sobbed for hours as the necklace was ripped from their neck and taken from them, or at least tried to. The only gift they had ever received, gone and broken. Two of the people who helped make the necklace and gave it to them, gone and broken. And now, both Storm and Neo were too. Gone and broken
Storm stumbled out of the bedroom, wings dragging behind them. Their eyes were red rimmed, one of them had that bright green that seemed to shock people in it, and in the other was a more lime green color (with a scar that sliced through the eye in a lightning pattern) that if it was used in the intention it was given, could kill. But for now, storm just couldn't see any color or anything not super close out of that eye. Eyes just didn't come in those shades of green, and even though their hair was matted and tangled in knots so thick that you couldn't even put it in a ponytail, it was still a raven black with a streak of white in the very front draped over his lime green eye and very long. Their hair came down to the middle of their back, although Neo was almost positive their hair was longer. Tears were streaking down their maimed face as they slinked over to Neo, looking for any familiarity or comfort.
This is how a person could tell that this child, was in fact a child. Storm had immediately panicked, just like Neo had done. But this time, there was no other people racing into the room. Storm had Frozen time too quickly for that. The only reason Neo was still aware of his surroundings, it was because of the stupid experiments. He hadn't been through many, but he could now communicate with merfolk and magical personnel/creatures that didn't speak a human language. A useful skill but one they had to change his brain for. At the same time they gave him the ability to heal his own body easily.
And it hurt. It hurt a lot. Neo remembered screaming for hours until his throat was so raw that the other assassins had to forcibly close his mouth to get him to stop making himself cough up blood. That's when he learned that screaming meant nothing in that hell. If the captors wanted anything, they would get it. Whether it was someone's head on a platter, or toast with preserves, they would get it.
Storm tentatively tapped Neo's shoulder, effectively releasing him from the time pause. Neo immediately wrapped his arms around his little sibling, carefully avoiding the new wings. It took Storm a second, but they eventually hugged Neo back. Their voice was rough, rougher than it usually was after an experiment, and they sounded like 60 year old chain-smoker. "We... Safe... Hurts... Where... Now?" They talked so quickly and quietly Neo almost didn't hear anything at all.
"Hey, hey... Everything's going to be alright, I'm safe and you are safe. These are adults that are different, they're the ones I told you about." Neo motions towards the adults before turning back to his sibling. "Can you turn time back on? You're straining your magic, and we can't have that." Neo said, trying to keep the anxiety from his voice. Storm was compliant with the request, and turned off the magic making their eyes glow. The adults turned to look at the child in Neo's grasp, they weren't as shocked as Neo thought they would be. Did they have magic that didn't belong too?
Mr. Lupin knelt so he was on Storm's level of height. "Hello." Storm looked at the man briefly before burying their head back in Neo's shirt. Mr. Lupin chuckled a little. "My name is Remus and my husband over there is Sirius. How are you feeling?" Storm was shaking and just squeezed Neo harder instead of responding. Neo looked at the scared child. "It's okay... You can talk to him, these ones won't sew your mouth shut." Storm looked skeptical at that, and Neo didn't blame them one bit.
It was then that he noticed the threads were still poking out on either side of his lips. He had almost forgotten how the threads had to be crudely cut in order to get Storm to cough up the blood from their lungs while they went on the run. Fun times, he thought as he bent down to pick the strong threads from the outside of his kid sibling's mouth. And if he burned the threads in his palm with a hatred not yet known to man, then that was nobodies business.
"I promise. I wouldn't lie to you, and you know that." Neo tapped the tip of Storm's nose, and smiled- making sure Storm had a clear view of his expression. Storm did their best to copy the shape of Neo's mouth, but their version of a smile looked crooked and far too forced. Much better than it was a year ago. Storm wanted to learn how to smile a while back, and asked Neo teach them. Neo was taken aback a little. The other two assassins had lived there much longer than him, but then again that made sense. The other two were adults, Leto being in zir early '40s and Leah being in her mid thirties. He was a teenager. Of course Storm would take to him quickly compared to the other two.
Neo hadn't known what to do, so he had just told Storm to mimic his face. Every 7 or so days when they had time off they would spend an hour just smiling at each other, or trying to. It was a start, considering they had never seen anyone smile until they were sent out into the field at the ripe old age of five and strongly discouraged from utilizing his face muscles in that specific way from then on as well. "I'm not kidding! I bet they would even let you have real breakfast with real strawberries!" Storm's eyes widened. "R-really?" They said with a weird sort of awe that Neo would never get used to. "Yeah! And, I bet it would actually taste like something!" Neo new this would get storm excited. All the food given in that horrible place was literally flavorless. Maybe pavement flavored. The elders in the room looked baffled by the entire exchange.
"A good something?" Storm asked. This time Mr. Lupin answered for Neo. "Absolutely! Do you have something in mind?" Storm's surprise radiated off of their face. "Me?" Mr. Lupin nodded. "Anything you want, and we can make it for you!" Storm looked confused when they turned their eyes to Neo for confirmation. Neo nodded and smiled. Storm did their best to copy.
"Forgot the name..." Mr. Lupin smiled as encouragement. "Maybe you could just describe it?" Storm thought for a second. "Round'n sweet?" Neo went through every food he had ever encountered that was round and sweet. There were so many... Neo decided he needed more information. "Keep going. There's quite a bit of round and sweet foods out there, so they might need more info." Neo said, ruffling Storm's hair. Storm nodded with a determined expression on their face.
They cleared their throat. "It was *cough* fluffy... And umm light brown? Something 'bout syrup?" Oh shite, Neo was pretty sure he knew what the food was. "Pancakes maybe?" Storm lit up. "Uh-huh that's the thing! Can we maybe do that? I can help if you'd like!" Mr. Lupin looked at Neo, as if searching for what to do or say next. Neo simply nodded. He was fairly confident that Storm's skill with potions would easily translate to the kitchen. "Only if you really want to. If that's the case, then I'd be happy to teach you how to make pancakes." Mr. Lupin beamed.
Mr. Lupin and storm started getting out the necessary ingredients. Mr. Black tapped him on the shoulder. You don't have to use our last names as a formality or anything you can just call me Sirius and him Remus. I promise." Mr. Black, no Sirius held his pinky finger out. "Thank you but what are you doing?" Mr. Bl- Sirius grinned like a wolf. "This is called a pinky promise. In this household, it is the most high and honored promises ever." Neo rolled his eyes, but took part in the pinky promise nonetheless. Horrific trauma or not, it was nice being silly once in awhile.