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Grian’s family was very rich.
Stupidly rich.
Now, Grian wasn’t unthankful for this. It was nice not having to worry about anything and getting whatever he wanted was an added bonus. When he was a kid, especially, he loved telling the house staff what to do and was honestly pretty spoiled when it came down to it.
Now that he was a bit older, he had realized that, while he had every toy he could ever want, he never really had his parents.
His parents were always busy. And now that Grian was 13, he could see that giving him what he wanted was their way to try and make up for that.
After he realized that, being rich had all but lost its appeal.
Grian sighed as he walked down the stairs and toward the kitchen. Today was his birthday but Grian wasn’t expecting anything but a big expensive present waiting for him.
Which is why, Grian was surprised when he entered the kitchen to see his mom cooking pancakes and his dad seated at the table. His eyes were wide as he went back and forth between both of his parents, wondering if this was even real.
His dad looked over and smiled at him. “Hey! Happy Birthday, Grian.” His dad came over and gave him a hug, which Grian reciprocated wholeheartedly. His mom, at his dad’s words, turned around and also gave him a smile.
“Happy Birthday Grian. Oh, I can’t believe my little boy is 13 already.” She briefly left her station to hug him as well before going back to cooking. It was strange, Grian hadn’t seen his mom cook in…well, he doesn’t think he’s ever seen his mom cook.
“I-I thought you two were going on a business trip today.” Grian said as he slowly took a seat next to his dad at the table.
“Oh, we still are.” His dad admitted. “But we had some time beforehand and we figured we would make you some breakfast and give you your present in person before we left.”
Ah, so they were still leaving. It dampened Grian’s mood a little but that was fine. Just this little bit of time with them was more than he had been expecting already. He decided to soak it up as much as he could.
“Yes, 13 is an important birthday! You’re practically an adult now.” His mom joked as she came over and put some pancakes on his plate. She let out a sigh. “Oh, I remember when you were just a baby. You were so small.”
“Mom…” Grian trailed off, acting embarrassed. But in his mind he was wondering how she could remember that if she was never around. He was pretty sure his nanny at the time had done most of the work in taking care of him back then.
He didn’t say anything though, wanting to continue the show as they were performing it. Acting, even for just a brief moment, that they were a normal family.
They ate and talked and it was the first time in a long time that he felt like his parents actually cared about him. It was nice. The best birthday gift he could have gotten, honestly.
But his parents being here with him was not his actual birthday gift. They all got up and his mom hugged him again as his dad went and fetched his present. He came back holding a small box with tiny holes poked in the top of it.
“This is a very special present, so we wanted to give it to you ourselves.” His dad said, holding it out to him. Grian frowned but took the box carefully, looking at it confused. This was unlike any present he had ever gotten before.
“There are some rules to this present as well.” His mom said, looking serious. “You must not show or tell anyone outside of this family about it and you must take care of it. It’s your responsibility now.”
Okay, his parents were starting to freak him out now. “I don’t understand.” He said.
“You will.” His dad said. “Go ahead and open it.”
Grian bit his lip, nerves spiked with how serious his parents were being all of a sudden. He took a deep breath and lifted the lid off the box and peered inside.
His brain short-circuited.
“What…?”
“Surprise!” His mom said with a grin. “We know it’s not great when we have to leave all the time, so we got you your very own little companion!”
Grian stared down at the tiny person sitting in the box. He was looking up at him with wide, terrified eyes and something in Grian’s heart broke. “This…this is a tiny person.” Grian said, still shocked.
His dad chuckled. “Well, person is going a bit far. They’re called borrowers and I got one when I was your age from my dad. And he got one from his dad and so on. It’s our family secret, so to say.” He winked a bit but Grian felt a bit sick on how his dad was talking about the little guy.
“Hmm, when your father told me about them, I thought it was perfect! Your own little pet.” His mom chimed in with a soft smile.
Pet . No, that was wrong . This guy was clearly a person, just…smaller.
His dad ruffled his hair with a hand. “You take good care of him now. He was quite the expensive purchase. I don’t want to come back and find it dead or gone.” His dad joked but with an undertone of seriousness that Grian could clearly make out. “Now, your mother and I have to leave. We’ll be back in a few weeks.”
His mother kissed the top of his head. “See you later. And happy birthday.”
And with that, Grian watched them leave through the front door.
And Grian was alone.
Well, no actually, he wasn’t.
He looked back down at the borrower in the box he was still holding. The guy couldn’t be much older than himself and he seemed to have scars across his face. Grian winced at that, wondering what could have caused those. But most importantly, he was still being looked at with a lot of fear.
Grian bit his lip and decided to head up to his room first. He didn’t want any of the house staff seeing the borrower after all.
He closed his door behind him and sat on his bed, looking back down at the borrower. “Hey…” He started off with, feeling awkward. The sound of his voice seemed to have startled the borrower, because he saw the little guy jump before his eyes were back up to looking at Grian. “Don’t listen to anything my parents said, I know you’re a person. Not a pet.” Grian decided to make things clear where he stood. Maybe then he would stop being looked at with so much fear.
The borrower’s eyes widened. “You…really?” He said, his voice quiet but filled with surprise. Grian nodded.
“Of course. I’m sorry they…um, gave you to me.” Grian said, looking away.
“Oh! You don’t have to be sorry, it wasn’t your fault.” The borrower said and Grian looked back down in his own surprise at how much the borrower was suddenly speaking. “Besides, if not you, I would have been bought and given to someone else. I’m glad it's someone who sees me as a person.” The borrower smiled a little.
Grian’s heart sank at the new information. “Oh…” He would have been in this situation no matter what, it seems like. And a lot worse off if his parents hadn’t been the ones to buy him. Did that mean there were other borrowers out there? Also caught and waiting to be sold and shipped to people who saw them as nothing but pets?
“Still, I’m sorry you even had to be…sold or caught in the first place.” Grian said, feeling sad for him.
The borrower was silent for a moment. “My name is Scar.” He said with a small smile. “I…was honestly expecting for you to change it but…it doesn’t seem like that’s where this is going?” The last bit was asked more as a question and Grian realized that Scar was still nervous and scared. It made sense though. Grian would also be scared if he found himself in the presence of someone so much larger than himself.
“No, definitely not.” Grian reassured him and returned the smile as best as he could. “I’m Grian.”
“Nice to meet you, Grian!” Surprisingly, Scar sounded genuine. “So…if I’m not going to be your pet…what happens now?”
Wasn’t that the question. Grian was trying to figure that out himself. “Well…unfortunately, I don’t think I can just…let you go.” He winced at his own words. He would love to set Scar free and maybe even help him find his family, but his dad’s words echoed in his head.
Grian was shocked to see Scar nodding his head. “I…I figured.” He didn’t seem happy about it but more resigned. “I heard what your dad said. About not wanting to find me gone.” Or dead, but nobody said that part out loud.
“Yeah…I’m sorry.” Grian said with another wince.
“It’s okay.” Scar said but Grian really didn’t think it was. Still, he was afraid of what his dad would do if his ‘very expensive gift’ and ‘family secret’ suddenly disappeared.
“Even if that’s out of the question though, I don’t want to treat you like a pet. Or like you belong to me.” Grian said firm on that idea at least. “Maybe we could…be friends?”
“Friends?” Scar said, eyes going wide.
Unknown to either of them, but both had never had any friends before. Scar, because he hadn’t met too many other borrowers, much less ones his own age. And after getting captured and sold, the only borrowers he saw were from a distance. Grian, because he did online school and was never really allowed out of the house. He had some cousins that would sometimes come over and play but he wouldn’t really consider them friends.
This would be the first time either of them had a real, true friend.
“Y-Yeah.” Grian said, rubbing the back of his head suddenly feeling nervous. “We could hang out and I could set up a little room for you in here. And you would have a say in everything! I would never do something that you didn’t want to do.” Grian knew how easy it would be for him to do whatever he wanted to Scar. But Grian didn’t want to be the kind of person who acted on that.
“That…that sounds really nice, actually.” Scar said with a small smile, tearing up a little. “I think the two of us could be great friends!” His smile widened.
Grian felt his nerves ease a bit and he felt…happy. He hated that this had to happen to Scar but…a selfish part of himself was happy he was able to meet Scar at all.
“I think so too.” Grian said. “Now, uh, we should probably get you out of that box…” He trailed off, knowing what he was suggesting and getting nervous about not only Scar’s reaction but doing it as well.
He watched Scar tense up a bit before trying to make himself relax. “Right, yeah, this box is a little stuffy.” Scar carefully stood up in the box, stretching his limbs and peered up at Grian. “I’m ready.” He steeled his nerves, preparing himself to be grabbed.
Grian’s mind went blank at the thought of grabbing Scar, just like that. Even though Scar didn’t say anything against it, he could tell the borrower wasn’t looking forward to it. And Grian had promised to not do anything Scar didn’t want to do. So there had to be another way.
Grian bit his lip and then lowered his hand. Scar flinched back but was confused when the hand simply laid flat in front of him, palm up. He looked at his hand for a moment before looking up at Grian. Grian looked at him with a nervous smile. “I…figured this would be better than grabbing you. You can hop on whenever you’re ready.”
Scar blinked and then looked back down at the hand. Nothing about all of this was going how he thought it was going to go. He thought he would be grabbed, given a new name, played with, and disregarded as nothing more than a pet.
Instead, Grian saw him as the person he was. And though he wasn’t going to be let go, Grian wanted to be friends . And if Grian continued to let him have a say in things and not do anything he didn’t want…well, then maybe this would be okay. More than okay even. Maybe Scar could even learn to like it here with Grian.
He was still scared of Grian and the future, but at least it was looking a bit brighter now.
With a deep breath, Scar stepped onto the hand.
Having an entire person fit in the palm of your hand was weird . Grian couldn’t help but think this as he watched Scar climb on and sit down in the center of his palm. Instinctively, Grian’s fingers curled inwards a bit, just enough so they hovered over Scar. But then Scar flinched and Grian made his fingers jump back into place.
“Sorry.” He apologized. “Um, ready?”
Scar nodded, ready as he would ever be. At least it was better than being grabbed. He had dealt with that more times than he would have liked already.
At Scar’s nod, Grian carefully lifted his hand up and out of the box. He discarded the box onto the floor as he lifted Scar to just about eye level. From here, he was able to make out more of the tinier details to Scar’s features. Like his green eyes.
“Wow…” Grian breathed out in awe and then caught himself, feeling his cheeks grow hot. “Um, sorry. I just…you’re so small.”
Scar couldn’t help but chuckle despite himself. “It’s okay, I get it.” He was having a similar feeling over how big Grian was. The first giant that didn’t seem to want to hurt or use him.
Grian was grateful Scar didn’t seem weirded out by his comment and quickly but gently moved over to his nightstand and let Scar off his hand. Scar was glad to finally be back on solid ground.
Scar stood up straight and turned to Grian. “Thanks.” Scar said, and it was meant for more than just the ride out of the box.
Grian picked up on this and nodded. “You’re welcome.” Again, he hated that this had to be Scar’s reality. But at least Grian could treat him the way he deserved. Like a person .
They still had a long road ahead of them. Full of exercises in trust, mistakes, and figuring this all out.
But they would get through it.
Together.