Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Henry had started to consider running away from home. The homeless guy outside the school is getting more food than him and his family isn't going to miss him. Henry had found an abandoned house at the edge of town, he was sure no one would mind since it's just sitting there.

After being sent to his room without food over forgetting to remind Peter he has homework he decided to go through with it.

Henry packed his things and snuck out through the window, something told him to take his shoes off. His toes gripped to the wall as if they were fingers, which made climbing down a breeze thankfully. Henry also found that he was silent barefoot so he kept the shoes off. He got to the house unnoticed thankfully. Henry had studied enough about camping to make the place liveable. He set up his make shift bed and started setting up traps, he hasn't found a job yet so he has to make sure the little money he has lasts.

Henry hadn't found much on how to prepare animals to be eaten so he decided to look for any other sources of food in the area.

Plus it would give time for the traps to do their job. Henry thankfully found a blackberry bush nearby. He used some rocks he found to make a trail to the bush so that it would be easier to find at night.

The night was cold and he was all alone but Henry felt safer there than before.

In the morning he found an opossum snuggled up to his stomach like a cat. Henry wasn't exactly mean to animals, he would just let them be, but they usually leave him alone. He carefully got up so he wouldn't wake the sleeping opossum. Henry then noticed something was off, the room he made into his bedroom seemed smaller than it was yesterday. At first he thought that he just wasn't used to the place till he put on some clothes and they were tighter on him. Has Henry grown bigger overnight?

He decided to worry about it later after school.

Though Henry found it hard to focus as his shoes seemed to be getting tighter by the hour, but that was impossible. At lunch he was so hungry he didn't care what was there he had to eat. Henry practically wolfed down three plates of food, he was glad there was a free lunch option here.

After school he was surprised to see Peter run to him.

Even more so when he hugged him tightly and started saying how sorry he was. He awkwardly hugged him back. Henry didn't think that his brother would miss him. He asked about their parents and Peter said that they just told people that he had gone to military school due to his behavior. Henry wasn't surprised at this point. They were probably so happy when they found out he had left.

He didn't tell him where he was staying just in case.

They always favored him, and Peter was always eager to please. Henry wondered if any of the teachers were told the same lies from his parents. Not that it would make a difference either way.

His brother then pointed out that his hands were bigger and had some hair on the back of them, Henry didn't even realize that his hands were different.

They parted ways and on his way to his new home he heard a loud rip and his shoes no longer felt tight on his feet. Henry looked down and gasped, his feet had grown even more, tearing his shoes open. He wiggled his toes and stared in disbelief. Henry quickly ran to the abandoned house and took off his ruined shoes. Just like his hands his feet had a bit of hair on them. Henry tried on the few pairs of shoes he had to see if any of them would fit.

None of them did.

Henry didn't know what to do so he went to Ralph's house. Thankfully Ralph was awake anyway. Henry told him everything and showed his destroyed shoes.

"My dad said I was a late bloomer, but I didn't think I was this late." Ralph said holding his hands.

Henry's hands made Ralph's own look like a child's, it didn't help that he was pretty sure that even more hair had grown.

"I think there's some spare shoes that will fit, come on." He said holding his hand and guiding him through the house.

They went past Ralph's dad and he gave him an odd look, probably because he was barefoot in his house. Ralph got out a box of old shoes for Henry to try on. Thankfully most of them fit and Ralph said that he could also have the ones that were too big in case he has another growth spurt. Henry hugged him and thanked him. He wasn't sure why he still talks to him but he's glad he does. On his way out Henry was stopped by Ralph's dad.

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He felt dread, as the man closed the door.

"Son, be honest." He said in a strangely calm voice. "Were you supposed to go to military school?"

"No sir." He answered.

Henry wasn't sure what would happen if he lied to him. The man looked shocked and horrified. Henry wondered why.

"Did you run away?" He asked.

Henry nodded and the man gently put his hand on his shoulder.

"There's a spare bedroom upstairs, you can get your things and move in tonight." He said. "You can stay as long as you like, there's plenty of room and food to go around."

He couldn't believe it. Ralph's dad knows how he is yet he's perfectly fine with Henry moving in with him. Though he may not get a chance this good again so he told him he'll be back with his things in a bit and went to the abandoned house to get his things. Henry packed his things and dismantled the traps, he hadn't caught anything anyway. He also grabbed a few blackberries as he left. Ralph was practically ecstatic when Henry came back with his things, hugging him tightly.

He went into the spare bedroom and was surprised by how big it was.

The bed alone seemed bigger than a queen and felt like a cloud, whereas his old one was small and the mattress felt like it had rocks inside. There was a nice desk, a window with a small balcony, a bathroom, a big closet, and even a computer. If there was a violin or cilo Henry would think that he was dreaming.

He was even given extra food during dinner with Ralph's and his family.

Henry thanked them and when he went to bed he had a smile on his face as he drifted off. He woke up and he realized that it was twelve in the morning. Henry got dressed in a panic and quickly brushed his teeth and hair. He went downstairs as fast as he could. Henry hoped he wouldn't be kicked out just as he was getting settled in. Hopefully he'll just not get breakfast.

"Sorry I woke up late!" He said to Ralph's mom.

"Why? It's Saturday." She said.

"I'm not in trouble?" He asked.

"You got in trouble for sleeping in on days off?" She asked, she sounded concerned.

"Yeah." He answered.

"That's not normal." She said, patting his shoulder.
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Thomas was shocked by what his wife, Elizabeth told him, not only did Henry's parents punish him for sleeping in on weekends when most of the time it's perfectly fine to sleep in but would do so by denying him meals.

He knew that Henry ran away for a reason but he didn't think it was this bad. Thomas himself had ran from home when he was a teen to get away from his abusive father and his beatings, so he decided to let Henry stay in their home cause he would rather enable him to leave a perfectly good home than have a kid experience being homeless. He decided to find out more than report Henry's poor excuses for parents to CPS, and anyone else that abused him.

A week later Thomas was out getting some bigger shoes for the kid as his feet seemed to be growing twice their size a day when Polly, his cousin walked up to him.

"Getting shoes for Ralph?" She asked.

"For Henry." He answered.

"You got the mailing address for his school? Simon said they didn't get it yet." She said.

"They didn't send him to military school, he ran from home and I don't blame him." He replied.

She looked shocked, seems like she didn't know either. They parted ways and he wondered if she'll tell anyone. He hopes she does. The more people that know about what Simon and Francesca did to their son the easier it'll be for Thomas to get CPS to step in. That afternoon Simon and Francesca came demanding him to tell their family that Henry didn't run away. Of course Thomas shut the door on them.

"Who's at the door?" Henry asked.

"No one important." He said. "Want to watch a movie?"

"Can I pick the movie?" He asked.

"Yes." He answered.

Henry cheered than ran to the living room to pick the movie.

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Peter decided to check on Henry and found him at the Purple Hand Gang fort that had been rebuilt in the woods away from prying eyes even though Henry wasn't exactly a fan of the outdoors. But he looked different. His ears were pointed and covered with thick hair that reminded him of fur that was long and wavy at the tips.

"Why are you staring like that?" His brother asked.

"Why are you wearing those ears?" He asked.

"What ears?" Henry asked.

He must be playing a joke on him again.

"These ones." Peter answered as he pulled on one of them from behind.

"Ow! That hurt!" Henry said.

The hair didn't feel like the fake kind used on costumes and the ear didn't feel cold like a costume one either, it felt warm like a real ear.

When his brother rubbed the pulled ear his expression went from irritated to shocked. Henry then started feeling around his ears in a panicked state. His brother then picked up a glass bottle from the ground and used it to look at his reflection. Henry looked horrified by what he saw and felt around his ears again. He had never seen his brother this scared before. Peter wasn't sure what to do, should he take his brother to the hospital or back to Ralph's?

Henry dropped the bottle and ran.

Peter ran after him but his brother seemed to be a lot faster than he normally was. Henry ran into Ralph's house and he had to sit down for a minute. Peter was out of breath from just trying to keep up with his brother.
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Thomas was about to go out when Henry ran in covering his ears and went upstairs closing the door behind him, he went up to check on him and could hear him crying in there.
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He went to the bathroom and stared at the mirror in horror as his bottom canines fell out and were replaced with tusks, the room started to spin and he had to hold on to the counter for support. Henry then felt the worst headache in his life and saw a pair of horns growing from under his hair. His hands felt as if they were on fire as they grew even bigger and thick fur sprouted. Henry lost his balance and fell to the floor, leaving scratches on the counter from trying to steady himself, his feet then started to burn too. His shoes tore open and nearly his entire body felt as if it was on fire, he screamed in pain. Henry then felt as if someone was trying to rip out his spine.
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Thomas ran in when he heard the scream, worried about the kid.

He rushed into the bathroom and found Henry on the floor clearly in pain. Thomas saw that he was changing, he was growing in size, had small horns, a pair of tusks, had hair nearly all over, and had a tail that was slowly growing. He didn't know what to do so he pulled Henry into a hug to comfort him.

The kid held on to him tightly as if his life depended on it.

"W-what's happening to me?!" Henry asked as he cried in his arms.

"I don't know." He answered as he wiped the tears away.

The boy's body grew to be bigger than most grown men and he passed out in his arms. Thomas couldn't blame him, the changes looked quite painful. He picked him up to the best of his ability and got the kid to the bed. Thomas then saw that Henry's face had changed a bit too. His brow ridge was more pronounced, making it look like he had a slight scowl, his nose was bigger, he had lines under his eyes, and the corners of his mouth went a little farther. Thomas wasn't sure if he should take him to the hospital, would they be able to help him?

He had only seen something like this in fairytales.

Thomas gently stroked his hair, at least he was sleeping peacefully. Though he is definitely going to have a rude awakening, he will probably think that his transformation was just a bad dream at first. Thomas wouldn't blame him of course.
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He pushed past his dad and gasped when he saw his friend.

His body had changed a lot but Ralph could tell that underneath all the fur and new muscle was the same boy that he had gone on adventures with since they were in grade school. He stayed by his side to make sure that he was okay. Ralph's parents went out to find a doctor for Henry so he was in charge. He was getting an ice pack for his friend as he was running a fever when he heard someone come in through the front door. Ralph went downstairs thinking that it was his parents and was shocked when Henry's parents shoved him out of the way. He tried to stop them when they dragged his friend out of the bed but he was maced.

Ralph screamed for them to stop as his eyes burned and his vision became blurry, but he could hear their car drive away.
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He woke up to his friend screaming and being shoved into his dad's car, he tried to get out but his mom hit him with a glass bottle. Henry screamed and cried in pain as they drove away. He could see his friend chase after the car, but was stopped by another car nearly hitting him.

Henry then saw his home.

He was dragged out of the car and into the house then essentially thrown into the living room. Where his entire family was. All eyes were on him. There was nowhere to hide. Everyone saw that he was different. Henry felt like he was a circus freak on display.

"SEE! HE'S A HORRIBLE PERSON! HE'S A EVIL FREAK OF NATURE!" His mother shouted as she yanked his hair so he was completely exposed.

His father then started taking off his clothes.

He squeezed his eyes shut as he cried, he was frozen in fear. Then someone pulled his dad off him and his mother let go of his hair, Henry was then gently pulled into someone's arms. He opened his eyes and saw that Paul was hugging him, and Polly slapped both his parents.

"All I see is two horrible people that have no idea how kids act making it an innocent boy's problem." She said sternly. "If he was so horrible why do his classmates parents have no problem with him staying over, why hasn't he been arrested, why do his friends come asking about him when he's not at school?!?"

His parents stared in shock as the rest of his family looked at them with shock and disdain.

They moved between them as if to shield him from them. Henry couldn't believe that they were defending him. He was horrid.