Chapter Text
The door is open.
Felix inches towards it, eyes darting from side to side as he does so. The collar around his neck is heavy, etched with his identification number. Felix thinks there’s a tracker inside it, but he doesn’t dare smash it until he’s certain he can actually get out of this place. Usually, the scientists and the guards are efficient with the locks, but the door is cracked open. He can see sunlight through the crack. He’s meant to go through a new round of tests, he already has anti-magic serum flowing through his veins and pinning down his magic.
But the door is open.
Felix pushes it open further. Pauses. Nothing happens. He pushes it open completely; still nothing. He steps outside, bare feet against grass, and still nothing happens. He glances left and right — nobody is there. He can see various buildings, each identical, some labeled. He glances to the side of the door he’s stepped through, wincing at the words “testing facility” on a brass plate.
He isn’t sure how much time he has. There’s no gate around this complex. To the left is a sprawling field, and to the right is a forest. Felix hesitates, looks both ways. And then he takes off for the forest, running as fast as he can with anti-magic coursing through him. No sirens go off, no reaction to the test subject that’s made a break for freedom. Perhaps it’s because they’re too overconfident about their captives never daring to escape. Felix plunges into the woods, ignoring the pain of sticks and rocks against his feet. Disregards the branches that smack against his face and arms, likely breaking skin; it’s the smallest pain he’s had to endure. He just has to keep running.
The door was open.
Felix wants to laugh; he doesn’t remember the last time he did such a thing. Years and years of that miserable place, going through experiments and missions and things he’d qualify as torture, and one small slip has handed him an opportunity. He doesn’t know how long he has until someone notices he’s gone; what ends they’d go to in order to find him. Right now, he doesn’t care.
Trees upon trees pass him by, and Felix keeps running, even when he feels the familiar sensation of blood on his arms and face. He ignores the burning of his lungs and the ache in his feet and just keeps running. He has no idea where he’s going, or what to do next; he just needs to get away. Away from those people that took him as a child, the people that experimented with his magic, the people that put him through hell and left scars across his body.
At the thought of the experiments, Felix reaches a hand up and snaps the collar around his neck, leaving it to fall to the dirt behind him. If there was a tracker, it’ll lose him now. The anti-magic in his veins is weaker, now, giving Felix access to some of his magic. He takes it and uses it to keep himself going. He doesn’t know how long he’s been running for when he reaches a road, stumbling from uneven ground onto pavement. He takes a moment to pause, to look; he doesn’t recognize this area. The road is quiet, no cars passing by. A back road of some kind. Felix exhales slowly, his heartbeat rapid in his throat. A road means that somewhere there is civilization. Maybe somewhere that he can get help.
Or somewhere that he can get captured again.
Felix wrings his hands nervously, unsure of what to do from here. Chance walking along the road, or plunge back into the forest. The sun is sinking in the sky, he needs to figure something out before nightfall, and—
A distant rumble. Felix tenses, eyes darting around, and a beat-up van turns the corner on the road. It rolls to a stop next to him, and Felix backs away, terror already surging through his veins, and then the window rolls down to reveal two concerned looking men.
“Hey, are you alright?” One of them asks, the one at the wheel. His hair is blond, and somewhat curly, and Felix narrows his eyes at him. Felix is bloodstained, bruised, the white clothes the facility provided for him are certainly covered with blood and dirt and sweat. He looks rough, and he knows it, but does he dare take a chance?
“What happened? You look hurt,” the other cuts in, concern plastered across his face, leaning out the window some. Felix scans him over - brown hair, round cheeks, curious gaze. And then — there, a glint of magic in the stranger’s eyes. Just a quick blue spark, but Felix sees it. These people are like him. He can probably trust them.
“I ran,” he says, and winces at how rough his voice sounds. Broken from constant screams, hoarse from disuse outside cries of pain. “I ran away. Can you— help?”
The man at the wheel presses a button on the door of the van, and the back door slides open - Felix eyes the interior warily. He can see grocery bags, random abandoned jackets and hoodies. Mundane things.
“We have a medical room back home,” the driver explains. “One of us can get you patched up. I’m Bang Chan, born in ‘97.”
“My name’s Han Jisung,” the other stranger chirps. “I’m from ‘00.”
“Oh. We’re the same age.” Felix has seen the date written as his date of birth before, of course he has. He’s seen more, as well - his blood type, his magic type, his assessed level of danger. He pauses for just a moment more before climbing into the van, ignoring every instinct he has about this being a bad idea. “I’m— Lee Felix. Thank you for your help.”
“Of course,” Chan replies as the door slides shut and the van begins to move. Jisung snorts out a laugh.
“Channie-hyung likes to collect strays,” he says, almost teasing. “I was his first stray. There’s seven of us, but if you need somewhere to stay, I’m sure hyung wouldn’t mind another person.”
“Yah, Jisung, you make it sound like I kidnap people,” Chan scoffs, rolling his eyes. “Sung and I are mutants. We find others like us. Are you…?”
Felix panics. He is a mutant, and a very strong one, but he doesn’t trust these people yet. Even if they are like him. He worked for an organization that captured mutants, albeit against his will; what if these two are the same, and this is an elaborate trap? He can’t trust them yet. Not yet. His mind spins, catches on a snatch of a conversation he’d once heard from the scientists, and constructs his lie in a moment.
“They were trying to make me one,” Felix blurts out. It’s something that was done within the organization he’d escaped from. He never knew the name of it, only the symbol of it that was stitched onto the jackets of every scientist. Just a simple lotus flower. But so much trauma and pain behind it. “It— hurt.”
Chan’s face twists into sympathy, and Jisung looks mildly horrified.
“They were using you as an experiment? Who are they?” Jisung asks, and Felix shrugs helplessly.
“I don’t know. They took me when I was young. I just know the lotus flower symbol.”
“Huh. I’ve never heard of a lotus symbol,” Jisung muses, and Chan hums in agreement. “We can look into it, though. Were you the only one?”
Felix remembers the other screams, the sobbing, the haunted eyes and twitching shoulders. He shakes his head no, doesn’t trust his voice to say more. To divulge the hell that he lived in with countless other young mutants. All children; he may be in his twenties now, but every specimen was taken in as a child. He would know, being forced into going on collection missions. The collar around his neck kept him complacent, and the anti-magic in his veins was just enough to suppress most of his magic. He could use enough to be useful, but not enough to risk escaping.
“Okay. We’ll find them, okay?” Jisung looks so serious as he says it, so Felix gives him a small smile.
“Okay. How far is your home?” Felix asks, glancing out the window. The sun is properly setting, now, the sky alight with colors. Felix doesn’t remember the last time he saw a sunset.
“About ten more minutes,” Chan replies, tapping a finger against the GPS system in the car. “It’s a pretty big space. As Sung-ah said, there’s seven of us in total. We’ve got more rooms to spare, of course. You should at least stay while you recover. We can help you find any family you have, if you’d like.”
Felix shrugs a shoulder; he doesn’t really remember his parents. If he had any siblings. He thinks that the organization killed everyone but him, snatched him away due to his strong mutant traits. It wouldn’t be a shock if they did, with how much control they wanted over the lives of all the mutants living in the facilities.
Ten minutes pass with small talk, simple things to get to know each other. Chan pulls into a spacious garage next to a large house in the middle of seemingly nowhere, and Felix isn’t sure if he should relax or tense up. Jisung hops out of the car and grabs the grocery bags while Chan moves around to open the door for Felix, helping him out and supporting him when his knees shake. He supposes hours of running will do that - he can feel his adrenaline crashing. If these boys want him dead, he wouldn’t have much of a fight to give. If any at all. His magic feels weak, the remaining effects of the anti-magic he’d been injected with.
Chan leads Felix into the house, past several rooms and into what’s clearly a medical room. Beds line one wall, cabinets along the other, various medical supplies scattered around. Felix can feel the tension in his own shoulders, not really trusting rooms like this thanks to all the testing that was done on him, and then his eyes lock on another stranger. The man turns, examining Felix and tilting his head in what Felix would almost call a cat-like way.
“Ah. You’re the stranger that Jisung-ah came to find me about,” the man notes. “My name is Lee Minho. I’m the best of us at patching up injuries.”
“I’m Felix,” Felix introduces himself softly as Chan helps him sit down on one of the beds.
“Hm. Chan-hyung, go get him a change of clothes. Yours should fit, Hyunjin or Seungmin’s as well.” Minho glances at Chan, and the older man is off with a quick salute, leaving Felix alone with Minho.
“I can tell your feet and arms are banged up, and you have some scratches on your face,” Minho says as he walks over to Felix, bandages and cloth in his hands. “May I touch you, to get you patched up?”
Felix blinks at the question, surprise flickering across his face. Minho is… asking permission? The scientists never asked permission.
“Oh, um. Yeah. Thank you for your help, Minho-ssi,” Felix bows his head as he speaks, and Minho hums, getting to work with cleaning and patching Felix’s injuries.
“You can call me hyung. I have a feeling you’ll be sticking around for a little while,” Minho says simply, as if it’s a stone-set fact. Felix isn’t sure what to make of it, but nobody has made him uncomfortable here so far or pushed against his words. He wouldn’t mind at least recovering here, and the idea of trying to survive alone is nothing short of terrifying.
“I don’t want to intrude,” Felix protests, just on principle. Minho lifts an eyebrow, and Felix feels peeled apart by his gaze. As if Minho can see right through him, despite barely knowing him.
“You won’t be. We’re all people with nowhere else to go. Sung-ah mentioned you were put through experiments. You might have a lot of hidden injuries you don’t even know about,” Minho points out. Felix begs to differ; he remembers everything that’s ever been done to him. To his hybrid state. His back aches, phantom pains from wings he doesn’t have the strength to manifest anymore.
“If you’re sure,” Felix concedes, and he doesn’t miss the proud little grin on Minho’s face as the other finishes wrapping up Felix’s injuries. Minho pauses, stepping back for a moment.
“I’ve patched up your arms and your feet, but there might be injuries beneath your shirt. Are there?” He asks, and Felix shakes his head.
“No. I ran before they started for the day,” Felix explains, and Minho’s brow furrows slightly. He clearly doesn’t quite understand what Felix means, but he can probably make an educated guess as his face twists into something more sympathetic.
The door of the room opens, and Chan walks in, a bundle of clothes in his arms. He sets them down next to Felix, giving him a smile.
“Would you like to shower?” Chan asks, and Felix blinks at the question before looking at Minho.
“The bandages are water-proof,” Minho says when he notices Felix’s eyes on him. “And we can get you a stool to sit on, if you’d like.”
“That’d be nice,” Felix agrees, picking up the clothes and standing carefully. His feet ache, but it isn’t the end of the world. He’s been through worse, walked on broken bones and fought with sprained wrists. A bit of pain in his feet is nothing new.
Minho watches like a hawk as Chan leads Felix out of the room, but doesn’t follow. Felix relaxes minutely with the older man’s eyes off his back, and just follows Chan through the house and to the shower he’s being provided use of. Just as said, Chan finds a plastic stool and sets it inside the decently spacious shower, before hovering at the door as Felix sets the clothes down.
“Yell if you need anything, okay? When you’re done, just come find me. Down the stairs at the end of the hall, then a left into the kitchen,” Chan explains as Felix nods. “I’ll get Minho to make some food for you. It’s about dinner time for all of us, but if you want to eat alone, that’s alright.”
“Thank you,” Felix says softly. Chan smiles at him, wide and happy, and closes the door of the bathroom. Felix darts forward and clicks the lock into place, relaxing fully when he’s safe inside the room. He looks towards the vanity, takes careful steps to the mirror. He isn’t quite sure what he expected to see, but the sight is startling.
He has a rough idea of what he looked like as a child, but he hasn’t seen his reflection in ages. Freckles are scattered across his cheeks, his face thinner than it used to be. His hair is long, down near his shoulders, and he can see it tangled in some spots. He makes a small face at the black strands — he’s always wanted to dye his hair, someday. A silly little goal that he held onto. His eyes drift down, and he stares in abject horror at the ring of bruising around his neck, right where his collar used to be.
“Fuck,” Felix breathes out softly, running his fingers along the bruises as lightly as he can. His arm is banged up as well, bandages wrapped around parts of it, and he loses himself staring at himself for a little while before remembering where he is and turning towards the shower. It’s been a while since he had a proper shower, besides the cold water of the facility that they’d use to clean him off after experiments or missions. Even that felt like torture, his mutant genes shivering away from the cold.
Dragon, they called him. Felix vaguely remembers childhood stories of dragons and princesses. The shape of his wings, the way his scales shone golden. He isn’t made for the cold. Blessedly, the water heats up when he twists the shower knob, and a small smile flickers across his face.
As much as he’d like to stay beneath the warm water spray forever, Felix is quick and efficient with cleaning himself off from blood and dirt. He brushes through his hair with his fingers, fumbling through figuring out which products on the shelves are for hair, managing to make sense of it and using a shampoo that smells strongly of pine. He can’t say that he minds it, really. It’s quite nice.
After a while, he turns off the water and grabs a nearby towel, surprised at how soft it is to the touch. The ones at the facility were always rough against his skin, like sandpaper. These are soft. Felix could drown in this fabric and he wouldn’t mind it.
Still, he dries himself off and slips into the clothes Chan gave him. They’re slightly oversized, but Felix figures that he’s somewhat malnourished which contributes to that. It feels nice to wear casual clothes, a t-shirt, hoodie, and sweatpants rather than the somewhat thin garments provided by the facility. Felix eyes his old clothes before balling them up and decisively throwing them into the trash can. Fuck the facility. Fuck everyone who’s hurt him and the people who took him from his family when he was a child. He’s free now, and he thinks this place might be safe.
The concept of existing with seven other people in the house is a little daunting. Yet, Felix gathers his courage and opens the bathroom door, flicking the light off and following the smell of meat and the sound of voices towards a stairway at the end of the hall. He debates for a moment before taking a deep breath and walking down it. Nothing can be worse than the facility. Nothing.
Felix will be fine.
The door was open. He has a new beginning.