nobody's son.

Kennedy nodded quickly. “Oh, yeah, totally, I didn’t mean to assume that we were getting into all that today, right now. Sorry,” she said, taking a sip of her coffee to ineffectively hide the pink in her cheeks. “I’d like this to work out, too. And I know I said I needed time, but you can take as much time as you need, too. I don’t want you to feel like it’s now or never.”

Grant nodded. “Thanks Kennedy, it really means a lot,” he replied.

“I don’t want to impose, buuut since you’re inviting me… talk to Leslie and get back to me on what she thinks about it? As long as she’s cool with it, and I’m definitely not gonna feel like a third wheel, then what the hell.”

Grant laughed, shaking his head slightly at Silvia. “I’ll talk to Leslie.”

Michaela shrugged, “I always do,” she smiled at him. “So what happened?” she wondered, passing him a cup of coffee.

“I kissed Kennedy while she still thought me and Leslie were together,” Grant replied. “And then I was a horrible friend because I nearly ended up drinking, but Leslie walked in on me and took it away before I could.”

Kennedy wanted to assure him that nothing he told her could ever make her want to cut him out of her life, but she couldn’t make a promise like that. What if he said something that did? She was better off hearing him out first. The way he’d set it up didn’t sound promising at all, however, and she was kind of nervous to hear it. “We all have baggage. I mean, obviously not all the same caliber, and that doesn’t- I’m gonna stop talking now so you can go ahead and get whatever you want off your chest, and I’ll just listen.”

“I should probably save my messy life for another day,” Grant replied. “Not ruin this whole moment. I really want to make this work Kennedy. It’s not that I don’t want to, I just need to figure out how to open up more”

“I guess.” Leslie shrugged. “I want to be.”

“Well then let’s get you out there again, yeah?” Grant said, putting his hands on her shoulders. 

“You should invite Kennedy.” Leslie blurted. “Once things are less…messy. Which they will be.”

Grant let out a small laugh at Leslie. “Thank you, Les. For everything.”

“Rude, I’m rude apparently,” she laughed awkwardly, tucking her hair back behind her ear self consciously. “Sorry, I don’t always think before I speak, bad habit, I know. Indira Porter, I went to school with a Grant, Bradshaw or something, I think his name was. That’s not you is it? I should really stop talking, shouldn’t I, I’m sorry.”

Grant let out a small airy laugh through his nose. “I did go to school for the first five years with an Indira Porter. It’s uh, Grant Bannister.”

“Wait, I know your face. Who are you?”

@grantbannister

“Hello to you two,” Grant replied sarcastically. “Grant. And you are?”

“Fine. What do you want to do then?”

“Anything but get pizza.”

“This is why I hate coming into the MACUSA, it’s all just bureaucratic bullshit.”

“Welcome to my life,” Grant replied, looking through his hands for the file about the troll. Once he got to it, he pulled it out. “That’s all you need to know about the troll that we found out.”

Kennedy shook her head. “No, you don’t have to be sorry, it’s okay,” she told him. “Nothing worthwhile is ever easy,” she shrugged. When he offered for them to get better acquainted with one another, she smiled, “I’d like that. And maybe it’ll help me with all this. Somehow.” After a beat, she continued, “But I don’t want you to feel like you have to tell me everything. Just what you want to, what you’re comfortable with.”

Grant nodded. “I really appreciate that, Kennedy. And you don’t have to tell me anything you’re not comfortable with either” Grant sighed, rubbing the back of my neck. “Can I just,” he paused. “I, there’s a lot about me that’s really complicated, and I have a lot of baggage. I don’t mean to, but it just happened. So, at any point, you just never want to speak to me again, or something, just tell me. I’ll respect that and leave you alone.” 

Listening to him, Kennedy’s heart ached. “I never thought you lied about the Davenports, or-” she stopped herself there. She hadn’t thought he lied about any of it. She trusted him entirely, and maybe some of that was broken now, but it was on the mend. She didn’t resent him for it. He was doing something for someone he saw as family, helping her keep a secret she hadn’t been ready to share with anyone else. Kennedy couldn’t hold that against either of them. She’d do anything for her own family. She still couldn’t believe his parents had kicked him out, and now hearing the reason he did this come from him- she wanted to reach across the table and hug him. “Okay,” she began, adjusting in her seat so she was sitting up even straighter. “Laying all my cards on the table here. Is that the saying? Doesn’t matter. Leslie said that nothing needed to change and I should just go for it with you. She also said that you’d give me time if I needed it, and you have, you gave me a lot. Which I appreciate, I didn’t say that before but I do.” She took another deep breath, exhaling shakily. If she hadn’t been anxious before, she certainly was now. “I think that maybe I need a little more. If that’s okay, I- it’s-” she found it difficult to explain, the words just not coming to her. Frustrated, she scratched the side of her head. “I don’t know, I feel like it’s a lot to ask, I guess?”

Grant listened intently to everything that Kennedy was saying and by the end he was nodding. “It’s okay if you need time, honestly I kind of expected it.” He shrugged. “It’s complicated, and I know that, I’m really sorry that you kind of got dragged into the most complicated part of my life.” He scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. “But if you still want, I would love to get to know you more, and you get to know me more. Like I said before, there’s a lot people don’t know about me. It’s a lot for me to open up, but I really do want to try.”

“Does she know?” Leslie asked. “I mean yeah I’m interested, at least I know Silvia is sane. Just…does she know it’s a setup?”

“That would require me telling her that you are very gay, so no,” Grant replied. “If you don’t want to, we can just basically say it’s a friend hangout.”

“Seriously? It’s pizza! How can you not like it?”

“It’s greasy and gross,” Grant replied.

“I mean yeah. I am. She’s going back to England and I want to experience the world of love.” Leslie said with a twinge of nervousness. “I’ll be fine.”

“And you’re ready for that?” Grant asked.

“Then you’ll apologize and make it right.” Leslie nodded. “That’s how grown-ups deal with the real world.”

“You can only do that so many times, Les,” Grant replied. “That’s not really a great solution.”

Kennedy took a deep breath and set down her coffee, sitting across from him. She listened to him talk, shaking her head slowly as he spoke. “Leslie told me everything,” she admitted, speaking softly. For a moment she felt like she was telling someone’s secret, but then remembered that Grant was in on it. She didn’t want him to feel like he had to keep this up in front of her. “She told me about her and about what you’re doing for her. It’s very sweet of you. And I’m glad she found me and told me, because to be honest, I was really upset up until then. But, uh, yeah, I know.” She paused before adding on, “I mean, I understand why you didn’t tell me, of course. I just- I didn’t want you to feel like you still had to watch what you say to me. Or be worried that I was still upset.”

Grant nodded his head when she told him about Leslie, though he still felt bad even though she said she wasn’t upset anymore. “I’m sorry,” he apologized again. He couldn’t remember the last time that he apologized so much. “I wish I didn’t lie to you. If I could’ve I would’ve told you everything from the beginning. It’s just, Leslie is my best friend, one of the most important people in my life, and I could never betray someone that I love. You deserve better. I understand if you can’t trust me, but know that the only thing that I ever lied about was my relationship with Leslie. Everything else I ever told you was true, from the Davenports basically being my family, to what happened with my family and my sexuality. All of that, it was true.” He ran a shaky hand through his hair. “I was really messed up after that happened, and I agreed to help Leslie because I didn’t want her to ever feel like how I felt after my parents kicked me out.”