Page 81 of Hurt

Kurt finished his taco and then took the remaining half of Grant’s, eating it to save him from himself.

“Your turn,” Kurt said with a mouthful of tortilla and spiced meat. “You had your minion stalk me, so now you get to tell me about you.”

“You don’t have a minion to do it for you?” Grant teased.

“I do,” he answered. “But she dances in scary tall heels and never shuts up.”

Grant thought Willow might smack Kurt if she heard him call her a minion, but he didn’t say that.

“I’m afraid it’s a pretty boring life. Wallace raised us on the Weaver Estate. We spent our childhood in classrooms and in training. Roland took boxing lessons once he discovered he could pack a hit, and I learned how to fence.” Saying it out loud, he realized he didn’t have very many memories of his childhood. They all just blended together into a series of classrooms, tutors, and instructors.

“Roland and I never had friends. The kids in town knew who we were, and while they were learning long division, I was becoming fluent in Japanese so I could speak to the head of the Yakuza. Our recess was figuring out how to beat lie detectors and the best way to get rid of a body.”

Kurt raised his eyebrow. “I thought you were terrible at lying?”

“I am,” he admitted with his lips quirking up into a smile. “But lying and beating a lie detector are two different things.”

Two dark eyes were staring at him. “Sometimes, I think I understand you. Then you say something like that.”

“Good,” Grant said, raising his eyebrows. “I would hate to be predictable.”

“I like that about you,” Kurt said quickly. The moment the words left his mouth, he recoiled, looking down at his feet and scowling.

“That I’m boring?”

“I didn’t say boring,” he snapped. “I…just…you’re dependable and safe.”

Grant thought about the knife hidden in his jacket or the mountain of bodies he had left in his wake. Safe wasn’t quite the right word.

But to Kurt? He would be his safety. He would be his anything.

“What about your parents?” Kurt changed the subject.

“My mom was a prostitute who belonged to a Chinese gang,” Grant said simply. He had lost any emotion toward his parents a long time ago. Now they were just in history. Like an old president or general in a textbook, he didn’t have any particularly strong feelings about either.

“My dad fell in love with her and risked the entire gang to be with her. Eventually, Wallace was able to buy her freedom, and they could be together. It went all right, but she was damaged. Right after Roland was born, she accused Dad of cheating on her and killed some random woman. Walked right into a restaurant and shot her. Dad could have swept that under the rug, but she was the woman of her old gang leader.”

Kurt was staring at him, and he realized how cold he sounded talking about it. He had spoken about his siblings with such warmth, and even when he talked about his parents, there was an undercurrent of emotion. Grant just felt nothing.

“It was going to start a war, so my dad killed them both to appease the rival gang. It didn’t work. They still tried to rise up.” They had not even buried his parents when Wallace pulled Grant and Roland into his office and had them strategize the best way to destroy the gang. Grant had been thirteen.

“That’s…”

“Yeah.”

“Parents.” Kurt sighed.

Kurt sat back and looked up at the sky. It was turning the prettiest shade of sorbet from the sun dipping. A mix of dark and light as their beginnings and ends blended.

“I can’t even blame them,” Kurt said suddenly. “Because I think I would still be fucked up even if they were alive.”

Grant wanted to ask him what he meant, but he was too distracted by the way his lips were curling up into the faintest smile as he looked up at the sky.

“Do me a favor?” Kurt asked suddenly. “Take back that promise you made.”

Stunned, he wasn’t sure what he meant. “To make it right?”

“Yeah.” Clasping his hands in front of him, he didn’t look like he was going to explain, but then he started to speak. “I’m a lost cause, Grant. Born under a bad sign with tragedy in my blood. My only goal at this point is not to take anyone with me.”