Black & Blue

Reaching Out

Giran's Perspective-

"Why do you even care anyway? Because your mommy told you to help me? Just because it's your 'morals' to protect people? No one cares." Grian snaps and Scar's eye twitched.

Scar huffed, "Fine! Go off and be alone. Don't accept help from people, see how well that goes. Not everyone is out to get you, Grian. Why can't you see that I'm genuinely trying to help you?"

"Because you're not!" Grian shouts.

"Is that really how low you think of me? You think I would actually mean to hurt you?" Scar argues and Grian starts to cry.

Scar's eyes widen as he's suddenly brought back to reality.

He sees Grian crying, and his hands shake.

"I- I'm sorry." He whispers.

Grian sniffs and wipes his eyes on his sleeve.

"I don't mean to push people away." He said shakily, "I'm just so tired of people telling me they care and then I end up getting tricked and lied too. I never really had any genuine friends in my old town. That was one of the reasons me and my dad moved."

Scar nods slowly.

"And then dad got placed here for his job, so then we decided to move to this town specifically. And I just went ahead and put on this mask that made me act like people should fear me and not mess with me."

Scar sighed, "Grian, people aren't out to get you."

"I- I just don't want what happened there to happen again." Grian said, tears forming in his eyes, "I can't take being lied too anymore."

"I understand..."

Grian nods and they stand in silence.

"Your parents are divorced, right? That's why you live with your dad?" Scar asked, and Grian's eyes widen.

"What? Where'd you hear that?"

Scar shrugs, "I just assumed...- "

"My parents aren't divorced."

Scar tilts his head and Grian starts to shake a bit.

"My mom...died."

Scar's eyes widen, "Oh my cod, Grian, I'm so sorry."

Scar hugs Grian and Grian blushes, hugging back and crying quietly.

"I just need my time here to be better than what happened there." He mumbled through the tears, "I just need someone I can trust."

"Well, you can always trust me." Scar said, smiling softly, "I won't lie to you."

Grian blushed and nodded.

"Thanks..."

-

Grian was stirring the soup when he heard the garage open, and he looked over at the door to see his father.

"I thought it was my turn to cook dinner." Andrew said, chuckling.

Grian smiled weakly, "Sorry."

Andrew kissed his son's forehead before smiling back and saying, "No need to apologize."

Grian nodded slowly, not making eye contact with Andrew, who frowned.

"Something on your mind?"

"I'm sorry, things are just...going really fast." Grian whispered.

Andrew put a comforting hand on his son's shoulder.

"I know there was a lot of drama that happened in the past year. And I know moving to a new place and going to a new school halfway through the year is going to be hard, but you got this." Andrew smiled, tears shimmering in his eyes, "I mean, look how much you've grown in the past couple months here, you've made new friends already! And you're not even too freaked out about the whole superhero thing, which I'm still confused about."

Grian giggled quietly before starting to cry.

"Hey, hey, it's okay. Deep breaths." Andrew said, and Grian hugged him.

Andrew hugged back, wanting to make sure his son was okay.

"Grian, I want you to know that I am so proud of you for doing this." Andrew said, feeling Grian's grip on him loosen a bit. "You are so strong for making it this far throughout all of the things that have happened."

"It's just..." Grian leaned back and wiped his eyes, "Sometimes it seems like you don't even care about mom's death."

Andrew felt a wave of sadness hit him and he sighed.

"I'm sorry if it seems like I don't care, because I do. I miss her so much." Andrew whispered, "And it's my job now to make sure that you're always happy and okay."

"But you need to be okay too."

Andrew smiled, "We will be, Grian. Things are going to be hard without her for a while, but I promise things will be okay."

Grian nodded and Andrew kissed his forehead.

"I love you." He said softly.

Grian smiled, "I love you too, dad."