Chapter 14: Childish bickering

Fifteen years ago 

" Ouch!" She shouted in pain as she fell on top of him after jumping down a tree, making him lose his balance. Leo's head forcefully hit the bare ground and instantly felt a splitting headache from the head bash. He lifted his head a little to get a better look at the girl who had knocked him over, and she was still on top of him with her long black hair falling forward, covering her entire face. Her breathing came out rough with her chest heaving franticly, looking very frightened. Leo saw how shaky she looked, he raised his hand and gently patted her on the head.

" It's ok, you didn't die." Were the words he said to calm her down and it felt awkward because he didn't know how to calm people down as he had never done it before. Why did she climb up a tree if she was so scared in the first place?

She clung onto him as her small hands clutched his shirt and he could feel how fast her heart was pounding in her chest. Leo decided to let her stay on top of him until she got over her shock and her heart rate returned to normal. Taking another look at her, he saw how small and adorable she was with her hair scattered all over her face.

While looking at her, he brushed away the hair that fall on her face with his heart rapidly slammed against his ribcage as he kept gazing at her. She looked like a frightened kitten and her emerald green eyes were way too beautiful not to look at that he found himself wanting to stare at them forever. He felt like himself being hypnotized like her eyes were sucking him into an abyss, one he wasn't sure he could ever return from.

But then again he didn't even care about returning and just wanted to get lost in her beautiful eyes.

Really, how did she get up there in the first place?

What was she even doing up a tree?

She soon stopped trembling, slowly getting back her consciousness after experiencing the fright of her life and when she saw a stranger's body had broken her fall, she tried to get up but felt his arms wrapped around her, hugging her tightly. She frown at the sight of his hands curled around her and started struggling to free herself from his grip.

'What a strange boy he was ' she thought. Like who the heck even hugs a stranger? Was he afraid that she would have died from the fall? was that why he was hugging her like a constricting snake?

And the only reason she even climbed up the stupid tree in the first place was that she was dared to do so by some kids when she tried to play with them and now look where it has gotten her, in the hands of a life constricting snake.

He might kill her if he kept holding her like that. Was he even aware of how tightly he was hugging her?

Perhaps she might have to smack some sense into him and her hands started growing itchy with the thought of hitting someone as she had always been a little too violent for her good but looking at the boy who saved her from actually breaking her legs, she couldn't help feeling remorseful. The boy used his own body to cushion her fall from a very high distance and here she was thinking about smacking some sense into him.

How ungrateful of her!

Leo who laid on the ground on his back with the little Daredevil still on top of him and didn't even realize how tightly he was embracing her as it just kinda happened but felt so right.

" Are you alright?" Becca asked with a worried look on her face and he groaned in pain as she tried to touch his head. Seeing him in pain like that, she started feeling bad for landing on him like that, he looked like he was in bad shape and perhaps even broke a bone.

" I'm okay." He answered almost immediately, trying to hide the throbbing pain he was feeling and the act that he was dazed by her. He looked down at his hands and saw them holding her securely to him. For some reason it felt right, really nice, he didn't want to let go but he looked at her face and saw that she was uncomfortable so he reluctantly let her go. Once Becca saw that he finally freed her from his clutches, she hurriedly stood up from him, dusted off her clothes and Leo did the same.

" I'm good, your body broke my fall, sorry about that by the way." She said and scratched the back of her neck. He hummed in response, trying to seem as uninterested in what she was saying as possible but in reality, it was the exact opposite, he liked hearing her speak. Her voice sounded like angelic Melody being played to his ears.

They were now on their feet and he stared at her from head to toe, she was so small, looking not more than eight years old and her head could barely reach his shoulders.

" What were you doing up there?" He asked and she began to rack her brain on what she would tell him. She didn't want to say that she did it because she was dared to as it would make her look irresponsible, so she thought of something else.

" I wanted to count the birds in the tree." She lied, making him raise a brow.

" And you couldn't have done that from the ground?" He asked skeptically, thinking she was weird for climbing a tree just to count birds.

" I wouldn't get an accurate value if I did it from the ground." She said to support her lie and he just stared at her, obviously not believing a word she was saying as he knew quite well that she was lying but decided not to probe her with many more questions.

Becca shifted her gaze to a different direction, away from him but not without peeking occasionally at him. Her behavior made her look like a little shy rabbit. As she stood there silent, no longer looking his way, Leo took it as his cue to leave.

She was uncomfortable with having him around her so why should he stay?

He turned his back to her and started walking away before he heard her calling out to him. Leo didn't even know when a smile graced his lips with its presence as he heard her calling him back, perhaps she wanted to prolong their time together.

It was truly silly how much he wanted to hang out with someone he had just met a few minutes ago and to think he didn't even know her name.

" Wait!" She shouted from the distance they stood apart from each other and he stopped in his tracks but stayed fixed on his spot, not even turning to look her way. Waiting for her to approach him on her own while trying to hide how eager he was for her to come to him and the smile that kept creeping its way onto his face no matter how much he tried to suppress it. You could say he wanted to play hard to get as he had heard that the method was very effective in getting the other party enticed and interested.

Hehehe....f you know what It means?

When she saw that he had stopped walking but wasn't walking back to her so she called out again; " Hey there!" she shouted and Leo who stood the like a statue suddenly felt the urge to tease the hell out of her. He started moving again, further away, just to watch her briskly chase after him with her short legs.

" What?!" He asked, still not turning to look at her, ignoring her attempts to keep him from walking any further. She was now running out of breath and starting to slow down a bit but when she saw that he wasn't planning on slowing down, she picked up her pace.

" How rude!" She said under her breath, probably thinking he wouldn't hear her which amused him even more because he did.

" Can you at least stop walking away with those long logs you call legs?" She asked in a frustrated tone but he kept ignoring her like she was wind and it was starting to piss her off.

" Hey!" She yelled, trying to match his speed but failed miserably and it only widen the smile on Leo's face even more as he thought all these were very entertaining.

" You know that's not my name, right?" He asked teasingly.

" You never told me your name." She huffed.

" You never asked." He said, making her halt and he happily did so as well, seeing that he already had her where he wanted, there was no need to keep chasing each other anymore.

" Okay, may I know your name then?" She asked and he turned his head to look at her.

" Why?"

" I Beg your pardon?"

" Why do you want to know my name?" He asked and his lips tilted up into a smirk while Becca felt her urge to smack his face renewed but this time the urge felt ten times stronger than it did before.

" I don't actually." She deadpanned and took fa ew steps towards him.

" Then why ask?" He countered and a deep scowl formed on her face.

" You!" She snarled

" Me!" He couldn't help chuckling, she was just too cute for her good especially when she looked like she was going to strangle him to death any minute now.

" Oh, grow up!" She rolled her eyes when she saw him grinning at her.

" But I am already grown up." He defended.

" As if, what are you? Thirteen?"

" And what are you? Nine?"

" I'm eight, genius." She corrected.

" Now," Leo asked sarcastically, earning himself a glare from her. Becca folded her arms over her chest like an offended old lady and replied him with an angry 'hmph'.

" You lack manners." Becca spat out and Leo grinned, she didn't even realize that this was his plan to keep her talking to him and it was working. Even at such a young age, Leo had already started honing his skills in tactically thinking, manipulating people without them even knowing about it and he was exceptionally good at it, a prodigy even.

" Is that so?"

" Yes", She answered, looking like she was going to explode any second with annoyance. How could someone be this annoying? Really, how?!

" Teach me some then." He said and Becca shot him another glare. Who would've thought teasing a little girl would be so much fun?

" Never!" She instantly refused with a frown.

" Now look who's being rude."

" I am not!" Becca angrily denied.

" You are"

" You are such a child." Becca rolled her eyes at his childishness.

" I am a child." He answered honestly.

" Well, you act like one." She snapped, still viciously glaring daggers at him, and was still oblivious of the fact that he was intentionally prolonging their conversation by arguing with her.

" Are you telling me your name or not?" She asked again, already growing tired of their childish bickering but he wasn't.

" Well, since you asked so nicely, I'm Leo, Leo Kane." He stretched out his hand for her to shake. " What's yours?" He asked.

" Becca Ramus" She shook his outstretched hand. " I had no idea you could be civilized." She added.

" I am civilized." He declared and she shook her head lightly.

" Yeah, and monkeys can talk." She rolled her eyes so hard that they almost fell out of its socket.

" They probably don't talk to you because of your attitude." He mocked, only for her frown to deepen.

" Whatever!"

Then as they walked side by side around the park, she became silent, completely forgetting that he was just the weird stranger she fell on and started treating him somewhat like a friend. Leo had a bright smile on his face all through their peaceful stroll, thinking of how good it would be to have this daredevil as a friend since he didn't have any and the thought of having her as his friend warmed his heart, making him feel kinda tingly inside. He turned to look at her and saw there was a little smile playing on her lips but she frowned again when she saw him staring at her.

" You're quiet, have you finally run out of insults in your head?" He cheekily asked.

" No, I still have a lot in stock, I'm even cursing you in my head right now." She replied and he laughed at how feisty she was with her words, like the cute grumpy kitten she was.

" I'm not doubting it." He said and his indifferent replies were pissing Becca off, like why can't he just behave like a normal boy of his age. How annoying of him! But despite wanting to push him off a bridge right now, she had to admit that it was kinda fun talking to him. At least he wanted to talk to her, not like the other older kids who wouldn't even look to her and were only interested in playing with their age mates. No, this one was nice to her, he never tried to bully her, plus he was funny, so why not?

" Idiot!" She huffed. Looking at how angry her face was, he couldn't seem to hold it in anymore and he let out a loud laugh. Like seriously, who was this girl? How could someone be so cute?

" You are so cute when you pretend to be angry." He stated and she whipped her head to him.

" Me? Pretending?" She asked, touching her chest and looking like she was being wrongly accused.

" Yes, you are and you look good doing it" Leo answered and slight blush appeared on her face.

" Yeah, that's rich coming from you." She said as Leo held her small hand and started swinging it side to side. She didn't reject or feel repulsed by him holding her hand and even liked it, his hand felt warm on hers.

" Meaning?" He asked feigning a slight confusion.

" I mean have you seen yourself in a mirror, if I'm cute then you're..., wait! No, you don't need to hear that part." She refused to finish her sentence as she didn't want to stroke his ego and complimenting him would do exactly that.

" What am I?" He asked even though he already knew what she was about to say, he still chose to ask, to tease her further and watch her face turn red like a ripe cherry tomato. Who would have thought teasing a little girl would become his greatest accomplishment.

" Nevermind." She said and started walking ahead of him, only for him to follow closely behind her