It had been hard to get the kid to get away from the library, reading everything he could get his hands on at the same time that he was being checked over by doctors Papa had come to the house. It was chaotic for all three of them and Remy knew he had to wait patiently for his chance to see what the kid could do on the training grounds. What he was able to do in the gas station wasn't something that could occur without previous training.

It made him feel angry that someone would do that and then drop the kid off in the middle of nowhere with no memory of who he was or what had happened. As if he wasn't worth their time. He clearly had the skill and from only knowing him a short time, Remy could say for certain that he was intelligent if perhaps shy at moments.

Remy sighed as the next doctor exited the room, going straight to Papa to talk to him. Pushing himself up, he went to see the kid sitting on his bed, already back to reading a book. He didn't even look up from it as Remy sat down on the bed next to him.

"You know, Papa might not need to get you tutors with the way you're reading oiseau. Just speeding through them like they're nothing."

It took the kid a moment to hear him. But he lifted his head to look at Remy, his green eyes showing confusion. "But I thought-"

"I was kidding, oiseau," Remy explained, cutting him off. "It just seems like every time I see you, you've got a new book in your hands."

"Just so many to choose from." The kid admitted softly. He shuffled slightly, the grip on the book tightening slightly. Remy spied that and looked to the rest of the room. Even with spending a few days here, there wasn't a single thing that could be seen, that could be picked up by anyone who entered the room.

It was more telling to him than it would be to others taking in such a kid.

"And you'll get time to read them all, repeatedly if you want to. Just don't take that kind of love for granted, not like I did." Remy said, carefully placing his hand on the kid's shoulder. When that wasn't rejected, Remy leaned closer to him, pulling him into a side hug. "Besides, I imagine that Papa would prefer someone who can appreciate such things to be hanging around me. A thief needs to be well rounded, non?"

"Oui, that's true." A small smile on his face that made Remy know the kid was fine. He leaned away from him, letting go of the hug, but stayed close enough that was still comfortable.

"Alright, that was the last doctor for now. Whatever this one says to Papa, you won't have to see them unless it's something serious. How about we go to the training grounds tomorrow? Would that be good, oiseau?" He says. He watches as the kid looks down at the book, still holding it open in his hands to the page where he last read it.

Quiet graces the room as he waited for an answer. Then he looked back up at Remy with something akin to calmness. "Yeah, that'll be good." There was a pause, as the kid looked to be in deep thought. It lasted long enough for Remy to be left confused when he asked hesitantly, "Can I say something to you, Remy?"

"Anything, oiseau, anything you want."

"I remembered my name. From before."

That perked Remy up. As best as he could, he calmly asked: "What did you remember?"

"I remember the name, Jason. Nothing beyond that, just flashes of stuff that I can't make sense of." The kid said ('Jason,' he berated himself mentally. 'His name is Jason.') All the hesitation from before was gone, leaving a teen who was clearly struggling with his memories.

"Well, Jason," Remy started, trying out the name. Oddly it felt like it fit the younger teen. "We don't have to worry about those memories for now. Just come to either Papa or me if anymore suddenly appear, little oiseau."

A firm nod from Jason was all he needed to lean against the teen again to do another side hug. The younger teen relaxed into the hold, just enough for Remy to do a quick ruffle of his hair. And then he quickly moved away from Jason to escape the swipe of the teen's hand.

"Gotta be quicker than that to get Remy, oiseau!" He yelled as he ran out of the room. There was the light sound of footsteps following him and the laughter of Papa as he watched the beginnings of their chase.

"You better be in training tomorrow, he's clear for it!" Was the last he heard from his Papa as he quickly turns the corner and rushed for the stairs.

________________________

The morning began with Jason dragging Remy out of bed.

Grumbling as he slowly made his way to the bathroom, he spied the uncontainable smile on the younger teen's face. The grumbling turned into a few swear words towards the awake youth, flicking the middle finger up for a few moments before dropping it. As he entered the bathroom, he heard the light sound of Jason's laughter, slightly hesitant and yet filled with amusement at Remy's current state.

Remy continued to grumble through his morning routine, even as they headed down towards the kitchen to grab something to eat. Papa was at the table, reading over another file.

Quietly he opened the french doors that lead outside from the kitchen. The Louisiana heat came at them full force, trying to grab every breath of air that they dared to take in. It still brought a smile to Remy's face as he took the kid towards the training grounds. The garden that had been around even longer than Jean-Luc looked beautiful and full of life as they passed them by.

Shortly they arrived at the training grounds, a building that was big enough for a single large room to hold and practice fighting and a small room off to the side for people to change in. Remy took out the key to it and unlocked the door. There was even a momentary bliss at the cool contact of the air conditioned training room as they trailed into it.

"Did Papa get you clothes so you could train?" Remy asked, moving towards one side of the room to grab the mats.

"Yeah, he did." Jason replied.

"Then get changed and warm up, so we can start practicing." He said, putting the mats down on the floor. He looked over to Jason disappearing into the changing room, the door closing by itself.

He continued to put the mats down, making sure to cover every possible area of the floor. Depending on how skilled Jason was and how far he was willing to fight the kid, Remy didn't want an accident on his hands that could have been prevented. It was after he put down the last mat and walked over to the bench that sat near the door that Jason came out of the changing room.

The clothes were form-fitting and seemed to make the step in Jason's walk a bit lighter, a bit more confident. His green eyes sparkled with excitement as he stood at Remy's side.

Remy didn't say anything, reaching up to one of the practice weapons to get down. The bo staff was balanced in his hands, his preferred set of weapon when he didn't have any playing cards on him to throw. A few swings to quickly familiarize himself with it again before he looked towards Jason.

"Alright, oiseau, I want to test your skills, see what we have to work on. So, for now, you're not gonna get a weapon unless you manage to get this away from me," He said, taking a playful swipe at Jason.

There was a moment of laughter as Jason quickly moved away with a backwards flip. Remy couldn't let the smile slip onto his face as he saw the younger teen looking happier than he had seen since bringing him home (besides when he read out loud to Remy of course.)

He waited for Jason to make the first move to start their practice fight. The boy was in the proper stance, didn't have to make Remy tell him to do so, which was covering any weak spots that he could exploit to take him down. There was also the look in those green eyes that told Remy that he wasn't going to attack first unless he was given reason to do so.

With an internal sigh, Remy moved forward with the bo staff, using it to make a jab at the younger teen. With the same level of fighting skills that Remy saw at the gas station, Jadon moved to block the staff, holding out his forearm to stop it while using his other arm to take a hit at Remy. Remy quickly blocked the attempted hit and used Jason's momentum from the attempted hit to flip him over and pin him to the mats.

"Good start, but always keep an eye on the enemy's movement when getting close like this." He said to the teen as he let him get up. "Now let's start again."

Jason once more got into position, waiting for Remy to do the same. Instead of Remy making the first move for the next fight, Jason moved first, making a strike towards Remy's torso. As Remy blocked the hit, he moved his bo staff to take a quick swipe at the kid and found Jason grabbing at it. His grip was tight enough that Remy couldn't pull it away like he usually would. With the staff in his grip, Jason yanked on it, forcing the momentum and used it to trip Remy up, smirking while doing so.

With no choice, but to let go, Remy used this moment to take a couple of big steps backwards. Taking a few precious moments to see what he could do next. Jason twirled the bo staff, continuing to smirk as he made the come hither motion at Remy. "What're you gonna do next, Remy?"

Remy said nothing, moving towards the kid with a flurry of hits and kicks. He watched as Jason blocked most of them, handling the force behind the few that managed to make through. As Remy slowed his movements for a few short seconds, Jason used the staff to make a few strikes of his own. Dodging the strikes while moving away from the kid, Remy took the defensive approach to the battle against Jason. As well to use it to study the kid's movements as he tried to get a hit on Remy.

Once more, he had to begrudgingly praise whoever taught the kid since he was calculating, but forceful enough in his strikes and blows to be a formidable opponent. He also knew how to protect the weaker areas of his body, leaving little room to get a clear hit on him without risking injury to whoever was fighting.

As Jason once more tried to land a hit on Remy, Remy decided it was time to test the kid on problem-solving. Reaching into his coat, Remy pulled out a few cards, charging them up with his power and waited to throw them as he took a few huge steps back. When far enough from the kid, he threw them towards Jason.

The reaction from the kid was a bit slow, clearly surprised at Remy pulling such a stunt. But he got over it quickly enough, dodge rolling out of the way to avoid most of the blast. As he stood up again, Remy could see a few areas on the kid's clothing that was signed, smoke rising from those spots. Still, what Remy saw from across the room was the look of excitement on the kid's face, his bright green eyes shining with the same emotion as he looked over at Remy.

"You're a mutant?" Came the exhale of a question, still more excited than Remy would ever expect from any human.

"Oui, I am oiseau," Remy replied, holding up the rest of the cards in his hand. There was a slight glow of pink to them, the only sign he was even using his power at all. "Would be hard to explain the glow and the eyes otherwise."

There was a moment of Jason's brow furrowing, almost as if he were momentarily struggling to remember something. "Don't know why it didn't occur to me earlier," He half mumbled, looking towards the mats.

"No need to apologize, oiseau. 'M just glad you're not freaking out about it like others have." Remy moved across the room, close enough to be next to the younger teen. He threw the rest of the cards to where he was before, the explosion strong enough to shake the room and damage some of the mats.

"Don't have to apologize to Remy like that," He said when he turned towards the younger teen. When placing a hand on the kid's shoulder, Remy was surprised to find himself suddenly on his back.

Blinking up at the ceiling and the gleeful face of Jason staring down at him, Remy was still connecting the dots as to what just happened.

"Got you, Rem!" Jason said, still pinning him to the mats. Remy couldn't resist chuckling and smiling at the kid's successful sneaky takedown.

"That you did, oiseau. That you did."

________________________

After hours of practice and a few hours of impromptu studying of old classics in the library, Remy found himself with a tired Jason leaning against him. He didn't move, letting the kid rest. He would report to Papa when the kid woke up from his nap.

Even with the warm afternoon air drifting in through the windows, Remy couldn't appreciate it with the thoughts that plagued him. Jason had been trained. The boy had been trained to fight and most likely saw some action with how he was able to change tactics as easily as he had when going against Remy.

It didn't settle well this new-found knowledge that he had witnessed today. It was one thing to have suspicions and another to have confirmation. It meant whoever had trained the kid had wiped part of his memory away and dumped him on the side of the road when he didn't have more use to them. This angered Remy. Who would be stupid enough to not see how sweet and kickass the kid was? How intelligent he was, how he could recite the classic literature and plays as if he were living them?

The questions swirled along with the angering thoughts as the afternoon passed over Remy. He wrapped an arm around the kid, doing his best to not disturb Jason's nap.

If his former trainers couldn't see how great Jason was, then it was up to Remy to do so. (Perhaps he had taken to his role as big brother much more quickly than either he or his Papa had ever expected.)

______________________

Sorry for taking so long to update. I first lost interest for a bit in this fic and then when I did finally get interested in the fic again, it was during my first semester in college, so there wasn't much room to do fics like this. I had to put it on the back burner, even if I did work on this chapter bit by bit over the semester.

However, I finally decided to finish up this chapter during the break between semesters, so that's why I'm finally updating. But I'm probably not gonna update anytime soon due to other writing projects and that I will have to figure out time for writing with the new semester, so don't be surprised at the long stretch of time.

But I do want to finish this so much, even if it takes a while to do so.

Anyway, hopefully, it was a fun chapter to read! :D