During a battle with the Marauders, Cyclops get's injected with something strange and is transformed back into a child. While Hank works to find a cure, the others deal with a very different version of their fearless leader than they're used to and a newly eight year old Scott struggles to understand his place in a very strange new family.
It had been a blitzkrieg. The Marauders had come upon them when they were out shopping and Scott, Jean and Bobby had been hopelessly out numbered. In the confusion caused by Vertigo one of the Marauders had injected Scott with something. Jean only barely registered it and sent the syringe flying but it had been too late, whatever had been inside the syringe had been emptied into Scott's veins. There was a moment where it looked as though Scott was seizing up and then he collapsed. Jean let out a gasp and ran for him, only to be stopped by Scalphunter.
Furiously she launched a psychic attack and sent him flying. Bobby cleared several others out of the way and they hurried to Scott's side. He was convulsing painfully on the ground. Jean reached out and touched his forehead. "Scott honey, can you hear me?" She called. He remained silent. Behind her Bobby fought off Harpoon and Arclight.
"Little help!" He called.
Still worried about Scott she wheeled around and sent Vertigo crashing to the ground, successfully knocked out by a psychic blast. Arclight let out an angry cry and sent Bobby toppling off of his ice wall. He saved himself just in time before he hit the ground and froze Scalphunter's feet mid step.
In the moment she had, Jean sent a telepathic message to the school for help, then aligned herself back to back with Bobby, standing over Scott who's convulsions were growing worse. "What did you do to him?!" She cried furiously, worry and anger muddling her voice.
Arclight thrust her shoulders back and jutted out her chin. "Get away from him." She spat. "He's ours now. Only Sinister knows how to fix him."
"Fix him?!" Jean looked down at Scott and was frightened by what she saw. Scott was shrinking, he was growing smaller and changing fast as lighting and there was nothing she could do. She dropped to her knees and held his face, feeling his cheeks lose their chiseled edges and definition. "Oh God, what did you do to him?"
Next to her, Bobby was sweating. He was being closed in on by Riptide and Scalphunter. "Give him to us and we'll let you go." Scalphunter said darkly.
"Maybe. . ." Riptide said with a nasty grin.
A shadow loomed overhead and with relief Jean looked up to see the Blackbird. Scalphunter's eyes narrowed and he glanced from the jet to Scott. "Retreat." He said loudly.
Diving down Storm came to rest next to Jean. She looked with worry at Scott who's convulsions had reached a peak. "Scott, honey please hear me. It's going to be okay!" Jean tried to sooth his mind but found it blocked. Pulling his head onto her lap she held him. "Get Hank, I can't get him to-" She broke off as the shaking began to stop. Storm looked stunned. With relief Jean looked down but stopped short. In her arms lay not the mans he loved but a boy. A boy no more than seven or eight years old. He lay with his eyes closed and his face held between her hands, still as death. "Scott-?" She whispered.
Near by she registered Wolverine and Rogue joining Bobby in his chase after the fleeing Marauders. That didn't matter. The boy in her lap was still and cold. She reached out and felt his chest, it was rising and falling slowly. She felt his pulse. It was strong. "Scott?" She said again. He remained still and silent. Next to his head Scott's visor lay on the ground, it had slipped off the boy's face when he was convulsing. It was an odd mess, Scott's clothes were too if for the child but he was still inside of the suit. Jean picked him up and carried him in her arms to the Blackbird. "Lets get back to the mansion." She said hoarsely, holding the boy tightly. "See if Hank can figure out what they did to him."
The ride back was silent. Psylocke flew the plane and Storm sat next to Jean, keeping watch. They touched down and raced the boy down to the lab. "Hank!" Jean panted, depositing her load on a table. "Hank, something happened to Scott. The Marauders, they injected him with something. I don't know what happened. He won't wake up and he's. . . they changed him!"
Hank came bounding into the lab from his office and stopped. "Oh my stars and garters!" He cried. "He's just a child!"
She nodded. "And he won't wake up." Her voice was near sobbing.
Hank looked at the child for a solid moment before launching into action. "Jean, I know this is upsetting but I need your help. I'm going to have to draw blood. Could you go and get some phials? Hurry, I don't want whatever they put in his system to dissolve."
The request grounded her and she did as she was asked, returning with several test tubes. "Excellent. Now I'm going to have to cut away his uniform, could you help me with that?" Once the boy was out he lay still on the table with the adult Scott's shorts still covering him. Beast began taking his temperature and blood pressure. "Perhaps we could get someone up stairs to go and buy him some clothes." He mused, timing Scott's pulse. Jean telepathically contacted Storm who said she would hurry out.
"What do you need me to do?" She asked. "Write down hid vitals, if you would. Pulse is eighty-five beats per minute. Temperature: ninety-eight point six, blood pressure normal. Pupils reacting normally to light. He appears to be merely unconscious. All reflexes normal." Hank settled heavily onto a stool. "Why don't you tell me what happened now."
Jean nodded and placed a blanket over Scott who had not moved an inch. The only sign he was alive was the steady rise and fall of his chest. "We were out shopping, Scott, Bobby and I; when we headed for lunch. We were going to the pizza place down the street. Anyway, half way there the Marauders showed up and Vertigo hit us with her powers. In the confusion Arclight injected Scott with something. I wasn't able to get the syringe, one of them grabbed it as they retreated." She reached over and touched Scott's hand. It was so little in her own, just the opposite of what it should be. "She said something about Sinister being the only one who could fix him. I don't know what that meant but I guess he's behind this."
"That's troubling but it explains where the Marauders got a chemical that could alter Scott's age." Hank looked down at the boy. "I'll start trying to isolate the chemical immediately. In the mean time we should think about what we're going to tell him when he wakes up. I'm sure he'll be frightened and confused."
Jean brushed Scott's hair back. "He's so young, he's probably still living in the orphanage. We can tell him that he's been enrolled in boarding school here."
"If you think that would be best. I only hope he's not too shocked."
She nodded, feeling deeply troubled but Scott slept on, face immobile and body still. "He looks so thin." She sighed.
"Well, we can get a good meal in him when he wakes up. He's going to want to eat something anyway, I drew a lot of blood."
She nodded and checked the office fridge for orange juice, finding a little left after shaking a paper jug and setting it aside. "I'll keep and eye on him the rest of the night, Hank." She said.
He looked down for a moment and then at her. "Make sure you get some sleep yourself, Jean. It's been a long day and I imagine this will take an emotional toll on you in the morning also."
"I will." She said, smiling gently and looking back down. There was nowhere else she'd rather have been than here. "You too."
He left then and it was just her and Scott in the dark room. He looked fragile to her in bed and she felt her heart hammer in her chest at the sight.
She slowly sank into a chair by his bead and watched him, gently brushing his hair back from his forehead. It was cut short and uneven, as though someone had used dull kitchen scissors to get the job done. How unlike the man she loved who was a perfectionist and kept himself neat as a pin. The boy remained unnaturally still despite her gentle touch. His face was relaxed and expressionless, his body still as death. She wished he would roll onto his side or throw an arm over his head, anything not to look so deathlike.
She settled back then and slowly, despite everything sleep found her as well and eventually she had her head on the bed next to him, both of them breathing silently in the dark.
If you enjoyed reading, the rest is in the link below and all 14 chapters are posted! Thanks for reading!
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
Aaaarrrgghhh!!! I like your YQY and SQH deaged fic so much!!! I'm so excited to know more of this au!
thank you so much!!! it had fallen by the wayside for a long time but now im determined to finish and post the whole thing ❀(ง'̀-'́)ง yall are so kind and motivate me jhkhkjl
Luo Binghe, heavenly demon lord with three hundred plus wives, wakes up fourteen-years-old again. He quickly realizes that the man who looks like Shen Qingqiu is not the real deal. He is really contemplating putting everything behind him and leaving the sect to raise sheep.
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Sooooo cute and fluffy!!! ... I am a sucker for happy Binghe okay? okay.
Aaron considered himself to be a morning person. Being in pre-med like he was, most of his classes were early, or at least before noon, so he had had to get used to waking up early pretty quickly. Plus, there had been a little extra motivation in it to see Katelyn before class, to walk her to the building whenever he could.
Still, he had his limits. One of which happened to be waking up to screaming just after the sun had come up.
“What the fuck is going on?” He pulled on a clean shirt and scrubbed his face with his hand, walking out into the main room and then stopping dead, blinking.
In the middle of the room, two children were standing back to back, and there was a distressed looking Nicky hovering near them. On Aaron’s approach, the older man’s eyes filled with tears and the two children turned to face him too.
Oh fuck. There were two little boys, one slightly taller than the other but both wearing similar expressions of confusion and fear. The taller boy had a shock of auburn hair that stood up in tangled curls on his head, and bright blue eyes that were hard and observant. The other boy was as familiar to Aaron as his own reflection though, because, well-
“Andrew.” Aaron let out a slow breath, and the blond kid immediately looked slightly freaked out.
“How do you know my name?” His little voice was dripping with suspicion, and Aaron still couldn’t bring himself to do much else than stare at him.
“Nicky, what the fuck?”
Nicky swallowed and sniffed wetly. “I-I came out and found them like this, they- Neil, he-”
Aaron finally tore his gaze away from his brother, and saw what Nicky was talking about. Neil- Nathaniel, Aaron supposed, was bleeding from his right hand, and it had dripped a little onto the floor.
Medical instincts kicking in, Aaron took a step forward and sank down to their level. “Hey, uh… What’s your name, kid?”
Neil, skittish even as an adult, looked apprehensive before finally giving in. “Nathaniel.”
Aaron nodded. “Okay, Nathaniel, I’m Aaron. Can I see your hand?”
Nathaniel narrowed his eyes, but held out his small hand nonetheless. Aaron inspected it, and he hissed slightly though his teeth. Shards of glass were embedded in the boy’s hand, and causing blood to pump out.
“Shit, Nicky get a first aid kit, and a brush. Did you drop a glass?”
Neil- no, Nathaniel nodded, and Aaron sighed, before starting to pull the pieces of glass out of him. The boy’s bottom lip wobbled threateningly, and Andrew bristled beside him as if Aaron were hurting him on purpose.
Even as kids, they were fucking ridiculous.
Once Nicky got the first aid kit, Aaron cleaned out the cut as gently as he could, wrapping it in clean, white bandage and tying it firmly. Nathaniel thanked him, almost too quiet to hear, and Aaron, despite himself, felt his heart sink a little.
He wondered if anyone had ever patched Neil up so gently before.
Pushing that thought away, he helped Nicky to clean up the rest of the broken glass in the kitchen, and threw it away. Nicky had calmed down by then, now that no one was bleeding, and they were both more level headed by the time they made their way out to the boys again.
When they re-emerged, Andrew and Nathaniel had both moved to the couch, and were watching television. Nathaniel’s choice, clearly, as they were watching one of Kevin’s Exy DVD’s and Andrew looked bored out of his mind. He wasn’t complaining though, and if the way he glanced at Nathaniel every couple of seconds was anything to go by, he would have been too distracted to watch anything else too. It would have been sweet, if it weren’t his brother and Josten.
When he and Nicky walked in though, both pairs of eyes locked onto them and Aaron went to a chair across the room to sit down, not wanting to freak them out. Nicky followed him, sitting down on the couch beside him.
Nathaniel looked at Andrew, and they did their creepy silent conversation thing- apparently they could still do that- before Nathaniel looked at them again.
“Is Andrew staying with you now? And where’s my mom?”
Aaron didn’t really know what to say to either of those. Nicky looked as nervous as he felt, as he opened his mouth and then closed it again.
“Both of you are going to be staying here for a while. Andrew’s family needed someone to watch him and Nathaniel, your mom asked us to look after you.”
Neil looked highly sceptical. “You don’t know my mom.”
Aaron racked his brain, before shaking his head. “Her name is Mary Hatford, she asked us to look out for you while she… went to find her brother?”
Nathaniel frowned, then. “She went to find Uncle Stuart?”
That seemed to appease him though, and he settled down again, his leg pressing into Andrew’s. Aaron rubbed his face and groaned. He had never been good with normal children, never mind these two.
Nicky seemed to find his voice then, smiling and looking over at them. “What age are you both?”
Andrew fixed his gaze on the older man, whereas Nathaniel merely glanced at him before returning his attention to the game on the screen. “Six.”
Aaron let out a breath that he hadn’t realised he’d been holding. Six years old, and he could already see the scars that were peeking out from under Nathaniel’s shirt, reaching up towards his collarbones. He hadn’t thought it possible, but he felt an irrational urge to protect the little shit.
He pulled out his phone and held it in his hands, debating his options. He knew that everyone would come if he told them it was an emergency, but he was pretty sure that it wasn’t the best idea to swarm Andrew and Neil- fuck, Nathaniel, with lots of new faces at once. They didn’t like that as adults, they would probably hate it as scared, confused kids.
He made his decision quicker than he thought he would, and texted Renee and Katelyn, telling them both to come to the dorm. The other foxes could be dealt with later, the priority now was to figure out what the hell had happened, and to stop the kids from bolting as soon as they had the chance to.
********************
Renee widened her eyes as she took in the scene in front of her.
“I see what you meant by an emergency, Aaron.”
Neil and Andrew looked up at her in faint annoyance and slight apprehensiveness, as if she was going to hurt them somehow. Although, based on both of their prior experiences, she supposed that it wasn’t exactly that much of an overreaction for them. The thought made her heart hurt. She grabbed her bag, and then took out the supplies she had brought with her. Aaron had mentioned that the emergency had involved both Andrew and Neil, so she had come prepared for both, bringing a box of strawberries as well as a bag of fun-sized candy bars.
She opened the bag and took out a handful of bars, holding them out to Andrew who took them immediately, suspicious but never one to turn down free sweets. Neil, on the other hand, was harder to crack, although eventually he took the fruit and tore it open around the edges gently.
Both happier than they had been when she arrived, they seemed a lot more relaxed and open to strangers talking to them.
“My name is Renee, I’m a friend of Aaron’s.”
Aaron nodded from the doorway. “This is Andrew and Nathaniel. Guys, Renee is going to be watching you for a few hours.” He checked his phone again, and then grabbed his coat. “Katelyn is outside, we’re going to run and get some groceries for these little monsters. Do you need anything?”
Renee thanked him but declined, instead focusing on helping Neil to take the stems out of his strawberries, to make them easier to eat. Neil gave her a small, grateful smile, and murmured his thanks to her, so she beamed at him. “You’re very welcome, Nathaniel.”
Andrew stared at her, before turning his gaze downwards. “What are those?”
Renee followed his gaze to the scars on her knuckles and the backs of her hands, and she smiled softly. Of course Andrew would notice those first. Now that she thought of it, Neil had been looking at her hands a lot too.
“When I was younger, I had some bad people around me, and I got hurt sometimes. I’m safe now though, just like you’re safe now.”
She watched them both swallow that information down, and saw the grim recognition in both of their eyes. She hated it, but she supposed that there was nothing that she could do for them, no way for her to make the past better for either of them, other than making the present better.
Andrew, surprisingly, reacted first, frowning endearingly. “I won’t let them hurt you again.”
Renee’s heart broke just a little bit. The higher pitch of his voice took the threat clean out of the words, but she had no doubts that he meant every bit of it, that he wouldn’t allow anyone to hurt her without his intervention. Slowly, she held out her hand to him. Slower, he took it.
She smiled softly, and squeezed his fingers. “It won’t come to that, Andrew.”
He frowned deeper, but then nodded. “Okay.”
“Will you watch Exy with us?” Neil’s voice had a slight whistle in it due to a missing tooth, and good Lord, those boys were going to be the death of her. Andrew let out a long, tortured sigh beside him, and Renee laughed.
“Of course, but how about some ice cream first?”
Andrew immediately perked up a bit, and Renee stood up to walk with them to the kitchen, Andrew’s hand still tightly clasped in hers.
Was he panicking? Maybe, but who wouldn’t panic at the sight of your right hand man (emphasis on the man part) shrunk down to the size of an eight year old. And maybe with the mind of an eight year old.
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ive been seeing a lot of kid wild aus and i needed a kid twilight fic so i made one
