Chrysanthemums

Chapter 29

Kurt laughed as he went out back to dump the trash bin. "You're ridiculous."

"I'm serious!" Blaine said, laughing as well.

"There is no way!"

"Yes, there is! Look it up!"

"That's not even possible!" He opened the back door.

"It is! Look it up, it will explain everything!" Kurt didn't respond, and Blaine got up, following where he'd gone. "Kurt?"

He found him frozen outside the door, having dropped the trash bin.

"Oh my god, Kurt!" Blaine rushed to catch him as he fell, pulling him back inside and shutting the door. "What happened? What's wrong?"

"No," Kurt mumbled, stirring. "No. No!"

He got up, appearing to try to brush something off of him. "No! Get off! No!"

Blaine noticed he kept trying to get something off of his shoulder with the butterfly tattoo. Was he having a flashback of how he'd gotten the scars?

"Get off me, get off me."

Tracy ran over, and before Blaine got say anything, she reached up and pressed a bag in her hand to Kurt's shoulder.

To Blaine's shock, Kurt snapped back into reality, not seeming in pain. He looked behind him. "Tracy?"

She handed him the bag, which Blaine realized was an ice pack. Kurt's eyes went wide. "How do you...?"

She pointed to Kurt's shoulder. "Put ice on it."

Kurt did. "How did you know what these are?"

"Daddy used to take Papa's thingys and push them on him, it looked like those," Tracy told him. "Papa's thingys were hot and ice helps hot stuff."

Blaine was horrified for multiple reasons. "Those are cigarette burns?"

He nodded.

"You– you never told me that!"

"I didn't really want to talk about it when you asked and then I didn't really have an opportunity to. You smoke?"

"I– I used to, a lot, but then I cut down and now I only do it a little when I get a nightmare and need to calm down." Then Blaine turned to his daughter. "Trace, when did you see your daddy do that?"

"Out the window," she responded, frowning. "You'd be sitting and he'd take it and poke you."

Blaine sat down on the ground, looking distressed. "What else did you see him do, honey?"

She sat down as well. "I heard you coughing and got real worried and he always told me to stay in my room so I went to the kitchen to see if you were okay. Daddy was grabbing your hair, and you were real wet, and he shoved your head into the water. He pulled you back up and you were coughing and I ran because I got scared."

He had a hand covering his mouth, eyes watering. She'd seen that?

Kurt sat down too. "Blaine..." he said quietly.

"What else did you see?" he asked. He needed to know.

"He didn' let you eat sometimes," she said. "An' he held your hand too tight. An' he was just mean."

It was clear she was finished, and he pulled her into a hug. "I'm so sorry you had to see that, honey. How come you didn't say anything?"

"It made you sad when we talked about him."

"Is there anything else you haven't told me?"

There was a pause, and she looked up at him with a smile. "I wanna stay here."