Scream, shout, get lost.

Soph panicked a little at being so far from home. Of course, Leon was behind the whole 'let's go to Sunshine Island for the day' idea-and of course, Soph's parents had to agree, happy that Soph would be spending time with her older cousin. Soph stopped, angry at...well everyone, then whirled around to face Leon.
"Nice idea genius, now I'm willing to bet we're lost!" Soph tried to sound patronising, but failed. Leon didn't seem to care either way. "Leon...I want to go HOME!" Soph yelled at him. Leon still didn't care. "Well, seeing as we're a million miles from anywhere, how about we talk?" Soph folded her arms. "I wanted to ask you something...what happened with your mom and dad? When I went to see them, they were sad...they're my family too," Soph whispered, feeling pained at the memory of her relative's anguish.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Leon felt chilled out as he strolled behind his cousin, who was almost up to boiling point for some reason. When Soph had stopped, Leon smiled-he found her very funny when she was angry. When Soph yelled at him about being lost, Leon rolled his eyes, still smiling. "Childish, Soph, cool it!" Leon laughed, his hands in his pockets. He continued laughing as Soph shouted about going home...but he stopped when she metioned talking. And he walked steadily over to Soph as she asked about his parents.
"Soph...that. Is. Nothing. To. Talk. About...okay?" Leon hissed at her. Soph flinched, but held a determined gaze.

Nearby Kitty was making her way to the pond in the forest. Her feet draged around on the rural path like the sound of a bike on a gravel road. It was unusual that she had come this far just to see a pond of all things, maybe she'd stop at the cafe or dinner on her way home to make the trip worth while. It would be a waste of the day otherwise, plus she forgot why she came over to this place in the first place. Only the words, 'Go see the pond' echoed in her head making her walk through the forest to it.

The woods seemed calm, so Kitty thought. A moment later she heard a girl scream loudly making it seem like they must have gotten lost. Kitty rushed to the scene to see two people glaring at eachother. "Hey, what's up?"

Soph turned to see a girl walking towards her and Leon. She quickly turned back to her cousin, feeling scared for turning away. She took a deep breath in. "I don't want to be here, Leon," Soph mumbled, her voice low. "I'm scared and I want to go home. Now. Please?" Soph glanced at Leon's eyes and away again. He appeared to be enjoying the taunting of her. "Leon...stop now. I'm scared. It's winter. It's cold..." Her bottom lip trembled slightly. Then she walked over to the other girl, holding out a hand. "H, h, hi," she said uncertainly to the girl. "I'm Soph and this is my cousin-" she said it with as much venom as possible"-Leon. I um...I..." Her eyes were filling with frightened tears.
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Leon laughed unkindly at Soph. "Stop being pathetic, alright? You're such a baby sometimes!" He could see her eyes distracted towards another girl coming towards them. Leon coughed and Soph turned back. A smug smile was on his face as Soph tried to argue a pointless case-that they were lost. Leon laughed again. "We're not lost. Why not go say hi to her?" He jabbed a finger towards the girl. "Maybe she'll to your stupid theories?"

The way Soph said her cousin's name was, well shocking at the very least. Clearly Kitty could tell that they had been fighting with eachother. Before Soph had walked up to her it seemed like her cousin had forced her to come to Kitty instead of himself, perhaps he was a coward. The sudden cut-off from Soph's words expressed worry, making Kitty naturally assume they were lost. She sighed a bit, not that noticably though and pointed in the direction she came from. "The path is about ten yards from the way I came," she said giving them directions. "If you go to the left you'll be heading to a three-way fork in the road. There are signs there explaining which way you want to go. If you go right you'll go back to town."

Soph smiled nervously. "Thank you very much, um..." Soph stopped as she didn't know the girl's name. She thought she'd seen her around somewhere, but who knew-her brain was feeling a little scrambled.
The tears were still sliding their way down her face. Soph sighed sadly, and that sigh was full of emotion-tiredness, sadness, anger...the list could've gone on forever...or maybe that was an over reaction. Deciding to use that emotion to a poison shot at Leon-which, was in a way, pretty imature-Soph looked over her shoulder. "See? Even though I'm being pathetic, someone has the manners and kindness to help me!"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Leon laughed out loud when he heard this other girl talking. "I knew it," he chortled, bending over as the laughter errupted through his body. "How immature and childish can you get, Soph? We weren't lost at all!"
So yes, even though it seemed a little horrid to be a complete jerk towards his younger cousin, Leon couldn't-or wouldn't?-stop it. The whole situation was very funny to him. As he was laughing, Soph was mumbling to the girl, then she appeared to be concentrating. Turning her head, she annouced somrthing about manners. Leon stopped laughing and stood up straight. He though of walking over to Soph and hitting her lightly on the arm, but that was going much too far. Instead, he placed a blank expression on his face, and spoke in his clodest voice. "Soph, stop it. You're so messed up!"

"Kitty," replied Kitty filling in Soph's blank sentence. Even though the girl was not lost anymore, she still was crying. Evidence said to Kitty that Leon was the cause of her tears, which naturally made Kitty angry at him. Quietly she whispered to the girl, "Do you expect that crying will suddenly make someone help you and take the pain away?" This was true in Kitty's mind, as she slowly regained her memory she saw a repeated pattern of her crying alone, and no one helping her. It could be that she didn't remember everything, but she didn't care. It was harsh for Kitty to say this, but Kitty had to learn to stand on her own two feet by herself, so Soph would have to too. Instinctivly she grabbed a tissue out of her pocket and handed it to the girl. In a reassuring tone, with a smile, Kitty said, "Here, dry your tears. I'll handle him."

Listening to Leon's words made Kitty feel sick. She gave him a killer glare and simply slapped him across the face. Normaly a person wouldn't go so far, but Kitty was far beyond normal. "How immature," Kitty said with a deadly ring in her voice. "I'm disgusted of people like you." Quickly she went back to Soph asking, "Are you okay?"

Soph smiled through her pain. "Thank you, Kitty. For the tissue and for that slap." She turned to Leon. "When I heard about what happened-or didn't happen, for that matter-to you, you...you don't know how I felt. It was awful. I was distant, I was afraid, I was ill...and it wasn't a whole lot of fun, I can tell you. And also, it made it worse that you're so unfeeling sometimes! I cannot have friends that are boys, you question people about me...don't you care, Leon? People will think of you as horrible and people will think of me as a very sad, silent, depessing person. Childish and attention seeking. I'm not like that anymore! I'm not a kid! So stop interfering in my life!" Soph breathed out and turned back to Kitty. "You have no idea how good that felt!"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leon snarled like an animal when Kitty slapped him. "What-was-the-point-of-that? I don't even know you! You can't tell me how to act! Okay, so I might be acting stupid, but seriously!" He glared at this girl, feeling numb slightly where he had been hit.
So he focused back on Soph again. She seemed slightly happier that somebody was being nice to her. She seemed braver too. He watched as she turned to him and began speaking. Her sadness was ebbing away, turning into anger.
He winced as she told him how she felt about everything that had happened before and after he arrived at the Valley. When she finished, she turned away again. Leon felt stupid now. He didn't know what to say. An insult? No, too bad tempered. So what to do...?

"Isn't that what you do when I child is misbehaves?" Kitty asked subtly insulting Leon. She probably could have been more blunt and directly said, 'You are such a immature child, that's why." She giggled a bit at him before speaking again to him, "Plus you seem to listen so great the the people around you, so why not use violence." After the words Soph had said Kitty smiled, "Probably you are on top of the world now." She quickly glanced at Leon and whispered to Soph so he couldn't hear, "If you ever have an issue with him call me. I'd be happy to smack him around for you again." Kitty turned her back for a moment to right her number on a piece of paper she was carrying in her bag and then slyly handed it to Soph. While she was handing the paper she couldn't help but notice the time on her watch and had a spaced out look on her face. Under her breath she muttered, "Great, now I'm stuck here until the next boat arrives."

Soph smiled. Leon appeared to have finally shut up. She took the paper from Kitty and grinned widely. "Thank you, Kitty. Hopefully I won't-" She broke off sudddenly. Her eyes closed tightly.
"Leon," Soph said in a wavering voice, trying to distract her cousin and her new found friend from her sudden strange movement. "Leon...Leon..." She kept repeating his name. "Oh my! I think...I think...It's not right...the bond between relatives, that must be it...Leon," Soph opened her eyes again, looking ever so slightly mad. "Whatever you, don't lock yourself away...I know what you're thinking."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Leon sat down on a nearby rock, his head in his hands. He felt humiliated. Who would dare let a girl slap them so hardly? Kitty seemed so...weak, in a way. She couldn't have done that!
She seemed to be goading him. He looked up and snarled again. "Listen, Kitty or whatever your name is, just be quiet, okay? We don't know each other properly, so maybe you should back off!"
He watched as the two girls spoke to each other, happy. But suddenly Soph broke off half way through her speech. Her eyes closed. Leon snorted. "Show off!"
But then she said his name. And again. And again. Over and over...and then she said she knew what he was thinking.
"Soph, I'm not thinking of anything other than to go home, and not speak to you properly ever again!" He stood up, shaking with anger and shock. He wanted to run, but he could move. Even though he was sure he...hated Soph, he wanted to help?

"Do you think I really care?" Kitty said confidently towards Leon who just told her to basically 'shut up', she could definatly tell that Leon was still a teenager and a very immature one too. At first she thought he was in his twenties too, but she now doubted it. She did like his guts however, he did have lots of determination by the looks of it. His rude behavior towards Soph and herself made her hate his modivation though.

"It's no problem at all," Kitty said glancing at her watch again. "Leon, you might want to try a different choice of words than 'not speak to you properly ever again.' It makes it seem that she's older and more mature than you. Try, 'it troubles me to speak with you' that way you're more subtle and mature sounding." Kitty pushed her hair back and dusted off her shirt, "I have to return to my smithery, so I'll be leaving. I hope I get to see you again." She turned around and started to walk towards the path.