Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction / Fan Fiction ❯ Where Angels Fear to Tread ❯ Lost and Alone: Kurt's Past ( Chapter 9 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Where Angels Fear to Tread
Part 9
Lost and Alone: Kurt's Past

Disclaimer: rolls eyes are you out of your mind? I'm a FEMALE!

Hope y'all like!
ENJOY!

When Kurt awoke, it was already late morning. He frowned in confusion, he hadn't been in bed last night, his Okassan must have put him there before his Otousan got home. Had Gohan even come home? Kurt gave a small cry. He didn't remember him coming in. He curled his knees to his chest and began to cry, sobs racking his thin frame. Heavy footsteps sounded in the halls. "Kurt?" The voice was deep and warm, the perfect pitch between a bass and a tenor.

Kurt gasped. He knew that voice. But he must be dreaming. Why would anyone want to come back to him once they'd left? No one had done it before. "Kurt?" The voice was higher in pitch this time, a female's voice. He knew that voice too. But why would she have put him in bed if not to leave him?

A hand touched his shoulder. "It's okay, Kurt. What's wrong?" Someone lifted him into their lap and held him, like a parent with their true blood-bonded child.

"Where's Otousan? He never came home! He promised!" The boy cried.

"What are you talking about, musuko? I'm right here?" The voice carried an undertone of amusement. Kurt looked up in shock.

"Otousan!" He cried, burying his head back into Gohan's chest. "I thought you'd gone for good!"

"I put you in bed last night. I thought you knew I was home." Gohan smiled.

Kurt smiled and then looked over at the clock. "Oh no! I didn't get up for school! I'm sorry- I won't do it again!" He cringed, waiting for the slap that never came.

"It's okay! I didn't wake you up. I thought we'd spend some time together as a family today." Gohan whispered.

"It was my idea." Videl confessed. "You were up so late yesterday and you were so upset that I figured we would spend the day together, you know, just have a little fun."

"You would do that...for me?" He looked up, eyes wide in astonishment.

"Of course." Videl leaned over to give him a kiss on the top of the head. "What bad parents we would be otherwise."

"My other parents never cared. They never took me away from the circus except that once...then they never came back. It was all my fault! It I had been better, not a freak, different, smarter-."

"It was not your fault." Gohan broke in gently. "It was nothing you did. They only made you think that so they didn't feel guilty about it. It was not your fault."

"I agree." Videl nodded. "You couldn't have done anything! You were only three! To little to be left alone in the first place." She took his hand. "Gohan and I aren't going to do that. We'll always be there for you. I swear."

"By Lunetra, Zukogo, Kyria, and Shistar." Gohan intoned, reminding the boy of the oath Gohan had taken a not long after he began to stay with them.

"I-I believe you." Kurt replied reluctantly.

"But do you trust us?" Gohan shifted slightly, settling against the wall, Kurt still on his lap.

"It's hard to trust anymore." Kurt looked down in shame. "I'm a freak. A thing. But here you are, telling me different. I don't know who to trust or what to believe anymore."

"It'll be hard. I was called a freak a lot...and a nerd, but what is important is that you follow your own heart to what is the truth. That you don't let anyone else tell you what you are, you have to decide that for yourself." Gohan told him.

"And you can't let people force you to believe as they do. Kurt, we may be new to parenting...hell, I've never even had a little brother, though Goten and Trunks more than make up for THAT..." Kurt giggled and Videl continued, "But we know that what's in your heart is that you are a person, not a freak, and I know that we feel, in our hearts, that you are our son."

"I guess." Kurt nodded. "But it's so hard to think that things have truly changed, and for better after them being bad for so long."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Hai...I don't know if I can, but I want to...I just, I just don't want to burden anyone." He looked at the floor.

"Kurt, if you were still with your true parents and they asked you what was wrong, why would you tell them?"

"Because they're my parents."

"Because they'd CARE, Kurt. Like we do." Videl told him softly.

"I understand, I think. So, you won't get mad at me for talking about it?"

"Not at you, Kurt. Maybe it will help."

"Do you think so?"

"I do."

"Well, all right...I'll try..."
Flashback

"Get it right, boy!" The ring master shouted, waving a whip around. "It's not that hard! Just walk across the wire!"

Kurt, only just two and hardly able to walk well on the ground, stared out over the vast expanse of space over the arena. "I'll fall." He protested softly, backing away from the edge.

"Do it, boy!" The woman he'd considered hi mother shoved him hard. Kurt cried out and fell forward, barely touching the wire. He wobbled wildly for a moment before toppling into space.

"Do it right!" The ring master barked, as Kurt fell, landing hard on the safety net. "You start earning your keep RIGHT NOW!" The boy whimpered as the whip cracked millimeters from his ear.

"Of course, sir." He had gotten back up onto the rope, only to fall again. It wasn't the first time he'd been hit, but it was the first time he'd been beaten.
End Flashback

Gohan's eyes widened at the tale and he hugged the child a little tighter. "You were only two? How dare they!" He breathed, eyes flashing turquoise for a moment. Videl put a hand on his shoulder and sat down next to them.

"No wonder you find it hard to trust. But, Kurt? That's never going to happen here." She told him, putting her arms around them both as best she could.

"Okay...I-I think I believe you..." He trailed off.

"Someday, you will truly believe that we mean that." Videl whispered as she and Gohan went to start breakfast, leaving Kurt to his thoughts while he dressed.

They weren't as happy as he'd have liked, his thoughts that morning, but he wasn't depressed either. It had been a month and a half of the mere six months he'd spend with his family. He knew they wouldn't take him on after, what young couple wanted to be burdened with a child that wasn't even theirs? None that he knew, granted, he didn't know that many, but it made no difference. It was mostly likely they wouldn't keep him and he'd be back where he started, lost, alone, and beaten.

Kurt sighed. Why did he have to be the freak? But he wouldn't wish it on any one else and there was no way to change it. The boy glanced in the mirror for a moment before lowering his head in shame. He was such a bother, so useless. He eyed the window for a moment, considering just jumping out of it, making it look like he'd fallen, but he couldn't do that...not here where he felt accepted and wanted. Not to them, Gohan and Videl. Not to Goten and Trunks, or to Bulma and Vegita or Goku and Chichi. He couldn't do it to any of them.

He could put the walls that they'd torn down back into place, but belonging felt so good, no matter how short the time would be. He closed his eyes, allowing his once unshed tears to fall. He shouldn't be weak like that, but here, where no one saw it as weakness, it didn't seem to matter as much.

Kurt sighed, shaking himself out of his reverie. He wasn't anything or anyone, but at the very least, he could enjoy this while he was here. With that thought, the child walked from his room, tears dry and head help high.

Thirty days went by like a breath of air on a windy day. Kurt still went to school with Goten and Trunks, still lived with Gohan and Videl, and he was still happy, most importantly. He smiled to himself as he and Videl went home from Bulma's one day.

"It's hard to believe that nearly three months have gone by since you came to live with Gohan and I, isn't it?" She remarked, off handedly.

"Yeah. Half of my time is nearly up." He nodded.

"At first it was strange to have a child to care for." She admitted. "Not because you're bad." She added hastily, "It was just odd since we'd never had a child before. But now, it's weird to think of NOT having you."

"Does this mean you'll adopt me?" The question was out before he could stop himself from asking it.

Videl looked at him, somewhat surprised, and shook her head. "You want to STAY? Geez...and here was me thinking we were doing a course on how to be a bad parent 101." She joked.

Kurt's face fell. "So you aren't?"

"Actually, Gohan's afraid to ask...and so am I. We were afraid you'd say no, and Gohan was looking into it. Us being able to adopt you doesn't look like it has great chances." She confessed.

"Why wouldn't I want to stay with you?"

"We're awfully young and rather new to this parent thing." Videl pointed out before falling silent again.

"But you're good at it." Kurt whispered, ducking her brief searching gaze. "But, it's hard to be worse than what I was used to."

"What were your last guardians like?" Videl could hardly believe how flippantly this boy spoke of it.

"They were nice at one point, I think, but I don't ever remember it. I remember them leaving me. I got really sick, and I remember them hitting me...they never took care of me like you do, or like Chichi-san does for Goten, or Bulma-san for Trunks."

"Well. If we can get the adoption to go through, I know Gohan and I would be thrilled." The woman smiled. "We'll see what happens."

"Yeah."

"Videl! I can't believe you never told him!" Gohan yelled, his voice thundering through the house. It was the first time Kurt had ever heard the two fight.

"Well, what did you want me to do? I didn't want to listen to him whine!" Videl yelled back. "Besides," She added in a more reasonable tone, "every time I brought it up, Daddy told me it'd have to wait."

"But he found out from ME! You know he's not that fond of me in the first place!" Gohan snapped.

"That's only because he thinks you're a geek that needs a haircut!" Videl shouted.

"I do not need a haircut!"

"That and he's always whining about your tail!"

"I don't care!"

"I know! That's why I didn't bring it up! He didn't want to hear about it!"

"Well then you get to finish explaining to him tomorrow why we have Kurt!"

"I know that already you doufus! Now would you shut UP?!" A sudden clang reverberated through the house and punctuated her words. "Thank you!" She sighed in exasperation.

Kurt padded softly to the doorway. "Why were you and Otousan fighting? Is it because of me?"

"Iie, Kurt-chan. Gohan was being hard-headed." Videl glared at him and he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"Gomen nasai, V-chan, but you know your father hurts my ears."

The woman waved off the excuse and sighed. "Right. Now what exactly happened that this came up?"

"He asked is we wanted to come over for dinner and I asked if he wanted us to bring Kurt...which got him asking who Kurt is." Gohan explained. "When I told him, he went nuts. Said something about forbidding you to take the class in the first place?"

"When was the last time I listened to my Otousama, Gohan?" Videl raised an eyebrow.

"Um...a while ago?"

"You learn." She rolled her eyes.

"Right..."

Kurt nervously eyed the house...mansion...that Videl had lived part of her life in. It was hard to believe that girl, so down to earth, was this rich. And that she'd fallen in love with a backwoods boy like Gohan. Kurt gulped this was where HURCULE lived! He had never met the man and was afraid to. Before he'd met Gohan and Videl, he once thought of Hurcule as his hero. The boy sighed. So many things had changed.

Nervously he clung to the couple's hands and walked to the door with them, simply walking in. She didn't even bother to ring the bell! But she was his daughter, of course. Why wait for that?

"Kassan?" Kurt whispered. "Is he going to like me?"

"We'll find out." She smiled softly. "C'mon."

"SWWET PEA!" Hurcule charged into the room and caught his daughter in a hug. "You came home! Did you leave..."

Videl cut him off quickly. "Daddy, you didn't say hello to Gohan. And the boy is Kurt."

"Gohan." Hurcule nodded stiffly.

"Hello, sir." Gohan smiled and gave a respectful bow.

"Kurt..." Hurcule's eyes widened. "Get that THING out of my house!"

"That's Kurt, Tousan! Get real!" Videl shouted, exasperated. "Get a hold of yourself!"

But the damage was done. Kurt lowered his eyes, backing slowly away from the man. "Goman nasai, sir." He whispered, then fled.

(A/N) It's a little earlier than expected, but I don't think I should apologize for that...anyway, I have the next chapter out. Hope you like!
Later!
Lady Foeseeker