Giorno looked around the dark, cold, empty room in confusion. One moment he was at home doing paperwork at his desk, the next, the world was spinning all around him and fading to black. Then he wakes up here. Giorno is a very smart man. He could put two and two together. Clearly this is the work of an enemy stand. He could say that with confidence after all that he went through with his gang.
The trouble Giorno was having was coming to terms with *where* he was.
He knew this place well. Try as hard as he did to forget it.
It was *his* room.
The room that was the only place he ever saw for 3 years.
He was somehow back in his own childhood.
The only thing about this that scared more than him being a toddler again, having to relive his past, was the much smaller toddler that was fast asleep next to him in the shoddy second-hand crib. That was not supposed to be there.
It made what might have been a simple puzzle new pieces he didn't know what to do with. Giorno has no clue who's stand caused this, but as soon as he did, he planned to give them a fate worse than Diavolo.
It took Giorno a few days to fully understand where he was in his timeline and who the other child was. It was some time before his 3rd birthday in early spring. The child was his twin.
He honestly didn't expect that. He had hoped that it was someone else's child, a temporary thing that would be gone soon. The little girl did look exactly like he had when he was young, so he supposed he should not have been surprised.
Another shock was the discovery that his stand Golden Experience had been brought to this world with him. (And his hair had stayed the same gold that he was most accustomed to)
Gio was getting sick of this weak body. Being unable to move about freely or go outside and feel the hot sun on his face was making him stir crazy. His stand was the only thing keeping him sane. He would spend hours making things with his stand, much to the joy of the toddler (it was still odd to think of them as his sister, Trish being the closest he had had to one 'before') the small girl was in love with all the pretty flowers or fluffy animals he would create from their own ragged toys.
Giorno counted himself lucky his mother was neglectful enough she didn't seem to notice the change of color his hair had gone through, not that he particularly expected her to have noticed.
He had known the woman was a horrible parent, but reliving his childhood with his adult mind brought all of it under a new light. He honestly had no clue how he had not died the first time. Out of the week he had been here the woman fed them five times. Five fucking times.
Giorno grew sick of that real fast and began using his stand to make fruits and vegetables when the woman was not looking (which was often) to feed himself and the other toddler. By the end of the month Gio had managed to fix a little of his and his new twin's current malnutrition, but there was only so much he could do with what he had. Also by the end of the month he had finally learned his twin's name. She was called Ume.
Giorno had not wanted to get too close to the new figure in this version of his life, but after a full month of having to care for her (if he didn't he feared she would really die, she was so much smaller than he was), and only having her for company, he could feel himself giving in. New world or not, she shared his blood now.
In what felt like no time at all the twins turned 3 and were thrown into a preschool with no warning from the adult. There was a brief moment where Gio thought she was abandoning them. (He wished she did) The time spent at preschool was hell for Gio. It was loud, smelly and there was no way he could possibly relate to the other children.
His twin was not faring any better. She had yet to speak (and he was beginning to doubt she even knew how to) and would just hide behind Giorno the whole time. At least the staff were kind. Giorno counted that as a small blessing. The three women who ran the place fed and cleaned them. They would even spend time teaching Ume to read, which he was glad for one less thing for him to do. They seemed to accept Giorno's strange behavior without question, another blessing to be thankful for. He would try to emulate the children when watched, but it was harder than he thought it would be. To act so stupid and unaware was almost painful.
The only eventful things to really happen for him or his twin in the next year were a few visits from CPS. Giorno always felt disappointed (and he hated himself for ever getting his hopes up) when the social workers that came by bought his mother's act. She always put on a show of being a mother when they came by. (To the confusion of his twin, who had no clue why her mother changed behavior)
He often thought about just taking his twin and just leaving this place. But he knew it would be a bad idea, between the foster system children could get caught up in caring for his sister, he could never justify it. Perhaps if it was just him he could handle it, but with Ume. He couldn't do that to her.
Then *that* man came.
It all went downhill from there.
Something about there being two children made his stepfather so much worse than he had ever been in Gio's original timeline.
If Gio attempted to escape the man, he would just turn his fist on to Ume. So Giorno ended up going out of his way to draw the man's attention away from his sister. He couldn't bear letting her get hurt. Before waking up in the world, he had thought he had his PTSD handled, he really did. He had to learn how wrong he was the hard way.
It took all of his self control to keep Golden Experience from just destroying the man. He was not even sure why he tried so hard, often toying with the idea of just killing the man and being done with it. But sadly some instinct kept him from letting his stand loose on the man.
The man pulled them out of their current preschool and enrolled them in a much closer, cheaper and shittier one. Twice as many kids, less staff everything was worse. This school was his first time dealing with bullies in his new life. Thankfully he scared them off with ease. With his stand the poor children stood no chance. But this further isolated him and his sister from anyone but each other. Now they were never approached by anyone else.
A mixed blessing.
Three months before their 4th birthday a world shattering change to the timeline came, and Gio was floored by it. The man had been planning the wedding and move to Italy, something he was actually excited for, when it happened.
It must have been late at night, 1 am or so when a pounding on their door woke up the house. Giorno was quick to comfort his twin, trying to keep her quiet. There was soon shouting from the living room. The man seemed to be enraged, the woman however seemed to be happy? He carefully got off their small mattress (the crib was long gone) and looked through the cracked door.
His blood seemed to freeze in his veins.
It was DIO
Giorno could not understand why he was here. He had never even seen the man in the flesh in his past timeline. Why? Why?
All thoughts came to a sudden stop when DIO turned around and looked right at Giorno.
God, Giorno had thought he knew fear, but looking the man who was his father in the eye was the most terrifying thing he had ever been through.
"Is that my son?"
When DIO spoke, Gio could feel his hair stand on end. As weird as it was for him to acknowledge, the man's voice was pure sin. He understood now how so many women walked happily to their death.
"Yes Lord DIO!" His mother replied, good god the woman was falling over self to please him (much to the blind rage of his stepfather, was was being restrained by someone Giorno couldn't fully see)
"Boy, come here."
Giorno felt his legs moving to obey the command long before his mind even processed the words. Only a small hand grabbing his own broke the moment. He turned to see his sister holding his hand, her eyes still foggy with sleep and blinking up at him owlishly.
"Oh?" DIO's voice cut through the silence, he turned to the woman.
"Who is that?"
"I-I didn't mention? I had twins, she is yours too." His mother answered now nervous as she looked away from DIO. DIO just let out a hum.
"Come children I won't ask again." he spoke.
Giorno quickly made his way over to the man that was his father. Now that he could see the living room fully, half of it was trashed, presumably by his stepfather. The man holding his stepfather in a headlock was huge, almost as big as DIO. Had long brown hair and was wearing a strange get up. Lots of hearts. Giorno looked up at DIO as he held his twin close. His mind was looking for ways out in case things went south.
DIO, it seemed, picked up on his thoughts and let out a chuckle. He crouched and gripped Giorno's chin, turning his head side to side looking him over.
"What's your name boy." The vampire's eyes were piercing and it took Giorno a second to respond.
"G-" he caught himself quickly "Haruno." He corrected, hating the way the name felt on his tongue. "This is Ume, she can't talk yet." He forced himself to meet DIO's eyes. That seemed to satisfy him as he stood and turned to the others.
"Who laid hands on my son?" His voice was laced with ice. This was not at all what Giorno had expected DIO to stay and he looked up at him in surprise.
Blood drained from his mother's face, and his stepfather stopped struggling for a moment, but neither adults said a word. This was the wrong thing to do apparently. DIO suddenly appeared in front of his mother and gripped her by the neck (Giorno realized that DIO hadn't even used his stand, he was just that fast)
"I asked a question, woman."
"H-h-he d-did" she choked out. DIO he let the woman go..
"Vanilla Ice, take the children outside." His voice was empty of emotion.
The man holding their stepfather let him go, dropping him on the floor with a heavy thud.
The huge wall of living muscle picked up both Giorno and Ume (with surprising care and little effort) and with one child in each arm took them out of the apartment.
Not even the closed door could shield them from the sound of the screams.
AN:
Hello! Thank you all for following and liking this fic! I did not expect this much love. SO! I have gone back a re-edited the whole thing! I will hopefully have some new chapters up soon for you all. and thanks again for your support!
-Snake