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Chuuya and his identical twin had been living with Rimbaud and Verlaine for a while. When they’d woken up in a small house, Chuuya had freaked out, ripping open his stitches, and he was told to stay still while he got fixed up. He didn’t remember anything that had happened recently, all that was left of his memory from the traumatic experience was pain. Nothing concrete, or put together, just little snippets of agony.
There had been some back and forth on trying to find a way to bring his memories back. Along with seeing if the other boy, who lacked a name, had any hidden memories. He’d told them that he didn’t care what they called him, and he was given the name Chiharu, at least until they could see if he had just forgotten his name. Then he could choose what to go by.
After a week of living with their new care takers, the boys were informed of a visit they would be taking to someone who could recover their memories. Chuuya was scared, and didn’t really want to go at first, knowing that something bad happened, while Chiharu wondered what he might have forgotten.
The drive out to the facility that the person was living in was a long one, and both boys played with the toys they’d been given in the backseat. Chuuya had a couple plushies, and dolls that he’d picked out during a brief excursion before the trip, as two children are hard to keep distracted. They were also dressed in outfits of their own choosing.
Chiharu had been the only one to go shopping for clothes, having dragged Rimbaud around the store while Chuuya was resting with Verlaine. The injuries that the older twin had were only half healed, and they were still hoping that stitches wouldn’t reopen again. He was very good at handling the pain, which they were glad for, but they had him on pain medications to make it more bearable.
Rimbaud glanced back occasionally and smiled at the sight of the boys quietly playing. Verlaine was driving them so that his partner could handle anything the kids needed. However, neither of them expected the boys to be so well-behaved, and quiet. Like they didn’t want to anger their guardians, with a fear of getting hurt that neither fully understood.
Despite not getting very bad treatment, Chiharu still instinctively flinched at the sound of yelling, and would hide if needles were out. It had made it hard to stitch up Chuuya and keep Chiharu calm, Rimbaud had to reassure the child for nearly an hour that it would be okay. After that, they tried to dance around possible triggers for the kids. Chuuya was a lot harder to scare, but when he was scared, it was way worse.
The night before their drive, he saw lightning come down, and he screamed. It had been a storm, so they couldn’t do anything to take away what he was scared of. So, Chuuya ended up curled up in the bed between Rimbaud and Verlaine, crying and shaking until the storm died down. In the morning, they found out Chiharu had come in to join the cuddle pile.
In the distance a small building appeared, and the adults were glad that they were going to be able to stand up soon. While the children went from calm, to terrified, seeing that the building looked similar to the one they spent so long in. Even without memories, they just knew what it looked like.
“Hey, we’re almost there. I hope you’re ready, since we should be able to recover your memories today,” Rimbaud turned to the kids, and realized that they had stopped playing.
“Is something wrong?” Verlaine asked, knowing that his partner had just gotten very quiet.
He turned to the blonde, “They’re both shaking, and looked terrified. I’m not sure if this is a good idea anymore.”
Sighing, he glanced back quickly. “This will help them, we need to know what happened to them. Then we can get revenge for them, knowing the targets.”
“Yeah,” he mumbled, turning back to the kids, trying to use a cheerful voice. “We’re just going here to have them see if they can return your memories. Nobody is going to hurt you. It’ll be okay.”
“I don’t wanna…” Chuuya muttered, squeezing the plushy in his arms.
Chiharu leaned over, grabbing his brother’s arm. “It’s okay, the scary people won’t hurt you.”
Trembling, he grabbed on, and hugged him, crying out, “I’m scared, I don’t wanna go there. Don’t take me back!”
“Chuuya, look at me.” Rimbaud reached back and ruffled the boy’s hair. “We aren’t going to take you back, we just need to do this quickly, then we can go home.”
The tears started spilling over, but he nodded. Chuuya hoped that they wouldn’t hand him over, but his hopes were low. When the car stopped, Rimbaud came over and opened his door, picking him up, and carried him over to the front door of the building. Chiharu was holding Verlaine’s hand and walking beside him.
Opening the door, they walked in, and made their way down a hall. At the end, there was a desk, where they spoke to someone about the appointment. Then they went further down another hall, where a doctor stood.
“Hello, are you the ones that called me about the memory loss problem?” the man asked.
“Yes, the boys we’ve just adopted have severe memory problems, and we wanted to see if you could help,” Rimbaud informed the man, still holding a shaking Chuuya in his arms.
Nodding, he opened a door. “Come in, I’ll explain how this works for you all, and then we can get down to it.”
The group stepped into the room, and it was dark inside. Only a little bit of light was coming from the ceiling, where the light had been put to dim. Verlaine and Rimbaud sat down, Chiharu climbing up into the blonde’s lap. He seemed nervous, but nowhere near as scared as his brother.
Chuuya wanted to leave as quickly as possible, but knew that he couldn’t get far on foot with his still healing injuries. So, he just clung onto Rimbaud, and hoped he wasn’t given away. The man they came to meet took a seat across from them, noticing the terrified child trying to hide from him.
“I can restore the memories of the boys with my ability, but that does mean that I will see all of their memories,” he explained.
“That’s fine, how about Chiharu up first, since Chuuya doesn’t seem to want to let go,” Verlaine offered, knowing that if the less scared twin went first, then Chuuya might be more willing.
Chiharu watched, confused, as a hand rested on his head, and an ability was activated. Only a few things from the lab got dragged up, and it was mostly just little things he’d forgotten about. Another attempt with the ability was made, but nothing else came forward.
“It’s like his memories start suddenly, about a year ago. There is nothing I can do to reach further back with this one,” the man expressed disappointment in his tone.
“That’s alright, I know why I won’t remember now… I don’t even deserve the right to be called Chuuya’s brother…” Chiharu started tearing up, and without thinking about it, Verlaine hugged him.
Sitting on the floor with the child, he rocked him back and forth, “You shouldn’t say stuff like that. You are worthy of having a brother, and being cared about.”
Chiharu just cried, his emotions overwhelming him. While, just to the side of them, the man was approaching Chuuya. Rimbaud kept a close eye on him, as the boy in his arms started to shake far worse than before. They had expected to bring back some bad memories, given the place they were found in, but not something so traumatic that neither child could handle it.
“His memories are horrific, but I’ve returned them. There are a couple nice ones from when he was really little, but most of them are not,” the man explained, stepping back. “You all can leave now.”
The pair each carried a shaking and sobbing kid to the exit. Knowing that this may have just made caring for them even harder. But, they wouldn’t just give up on them, since they were the ones who saved them from the monstrous scientists who would harm children.