Who: Leland and Kaden When: Wednesday Where: The kitchen Rating: We'll say PG-13 for a couple cuss words? I don't know.
Kaden holds Toby's hand while she walks into the kitchen. He's a little bit grumpy, mostly due to the fact that it's late and he's just woken up from his nap, and boy is he HUNGRY. She scoops him up and kisses his head. "Chill out, love," she says softly. She pushes the back door to the kitchen open and glances around.
Leland hadn't been working in the kitchen long but it was a job he didn't mind all that much. There were never a lot of people working when he was there and no one talked to him much, which was all fine with him. He was about to do a load of dishes and had just plunged his hands into the hot, soapy water when he heard the door open. Taking a very quick glance, he noticed the girl and immediately turned his gaze back to the water. He began to softly hum a tune from Phantom of the Opera, they always helped keep his mind off things which made him uncomfortable.
Kaden hears the tune and she can't help smiling at it. "That the Broadway version you're thinking of, or the Emmy-Rossum-is-SO-not-a-soprano movie version?" she asks, glancing over at him. She scoops Toby up, setting him down on top of the counter.
Lee froze and quit breathing for a moment, his gaze shifing very quickly to her and back again. Scalding hot water also helped with numbing his mind to the fact there was a girl right there, so he kept his hands right where they were. "Broadway," was his quick answer and he hoped to God she would just go away.
Kaden sees how utterly terrified he is, and she frowns. "Honey, it's okay, I'm not gunna bite you I swear." She steps up beside him, reaching into the fridge for a fresh turnip.
Lee flinched and shut his eyes, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly. "Please don't call me that," he said sofly, his British accent coming out a bit more clearly.
"What's your name, then, so I know what to call you?" she asks him very gently. The poor guy has probably had the crap scared out of him, what with recent ones.
"Leland," he said and went back to washing the dishes. Perhaps if he kept himself busy then her being there wouldn't bother him as much.
"My name's Kaden," she says, extending a hand toward him for a handshake. "This is my son Toby, by the way."
For the first time since Kaden walked through the door, Leland noticed that she wasn't alone. The child was staring at him and he wondered if Toby could tell something was different about him. Some people seemed to think they were more attuned to that sort of thing at such a young age, Lee always doubted it before. He wasn't so sure now. "I see," he said slowly and turned his head from the boy to concentrate on his dishes once again.
"Toby, can you say hi to Leland?" she asks, not taking the lack of handshake personally at all. This poor man seems frightened out of his wits right now. Toby watches the man for a moment before giving a smile and a wave hello. "Hi," he says softly, which is pretty odd for him since he's a loud one-year-old.... but children can pick up on emotions easily. "Say, me and Toby are gunna cook up some hotdogs. Would you like one, Leland?"
Leland looked back at Toby and gave him the smallest hint of a smile before it quickly faded into a frown at Kaden's proposal of a hot dog. "No actually, I'd rather just get my job done and go home."
"I make a mean hot dog and relish," she teases, going into the fridge to dig it out. Toby sees Leland's smile and smiles back at him, waving his chubby little fingers.
"No I...," he said quickly and looked away, picking up a plate and rinsing it. "I can't." He furrowed his eyebrows in frustration. It seemed he would never get over this obstacle
"Sure you can," she says softly with a shrug, deciding she'll make one for him anyway. She doesn't recognize him, which means he probably just got here, which means he could probably eat his weight in food at this point. Good food is scarce.
"I don't like hot dogs," he explained and continued to wash and rinse dishes. The faster he got done with them the faster he could get the Hell away from her. "I don't see how anyone can eat them."
"They're meat," she says with a shrug, glancing over at Toby. "And they're easier to cook while you're on the run from the undead. I'd rather eat a hot dog than die from lack of protein."
"Yes because clearly a hot dog has lit'rally loads of protein," Lee said in a slightly sarcastic tone. "Instead you'll die from colorectal cancer, especially if you eat those things every day so by all means...knock yourself out." He paused for a moment to recollect himself, having absolutely no idea how he finally found his mouth but that still didn't change the fact that she was, indeed, a girl. "Until those abominations become the last things on this world to eat, then I'd rather eat dirt."
"Colorectal cancer, huh?" she asks with a slight smirk. "Now there's something lovely to talk about over dinner. Ass cancer." She reaches into the freezer, and goes for the hotdogs... but she decides better of it. Instead, she goes back into the fridge and pulls out the broccoli, and some cheddar. "Do you like broccoli and cheddar soup?"
"I really don't need anything to eat," he said and huffed. His face had turned a light shade of pink from the embarrassment of his little outburst. He did feel a little better in that split second but he wouldn't exactly call it progress because the anxiety immediately overwhelmed him once again.
"You look like you could use somethin' hot to eat," she says with a shrug, setting to chopping up the broccoli. She reaches into the dishwater and pulls out a clean pot, wiping it off with a towel. "Anyway. What part'a England are you from? There's another boy from England here, too."
"Just because I look like I could eat something-" he began but was startled by her becoming much closer than was comfortable and hissed as his palm grazed the blade of a knife he had been cleaning. "Fuck." Lee dropped the knife back into the water and grabbed a towel to wrap around his hand. "Just bloody brilliant," he muttered and looked at his hand. The cut thankfully wasn't deep enough to require stitches but that didn't make it hurt any less.
Kaden gasps when she sees the blood on his hand, and quickly goes through her purse for... yep, a bottle of Purel. "Here, let me put this on it so it won't get infected," she says softly.
"No!" Lee panicked and backed away until he ran into the counter behind him. "I'll do it myself just stay away from me."
"Sweetie, I'm not gunna hurt you, okay?" she says softly, her eyes full of concern for him. "Are you alright?" She puts the Purel away and backs up a few steps so he won't freak.
"Sure that's what you all say," he rambled while he pressed the towel tightly around his hand and started at it. "But it ends up happening anyway doesn't it? You go on and on about love and being best friends but..." Realizing he had rambled off, Lee shut his eyes tightly and breathed a heavy sigh. He absolutely hated how his mind worked sometimes, or didn't work for that matter.
"Been hurt before, huh?" she asks softly, frowning at that. She holds her hand out for his, so she can help him with his cut. "Not all girls are like that, you know. We're not terrible..."
"Easy for you to say," Lee muttered and stared at her hand for a moment and shook his head. "Don't touch me," he warned.
"What reason do I have for hurting you?" she asks, looking up at his face for a moment. "You don't got anything that I want, unless you happen to carry a bunch of hot water and a showerhead with you at all times."
"You'll find one eventually," he said and removed the towel from his hand to look at the damage. It had quit bleeding some time ago but he was too busy keeping away from Kaden to notice. "They all do. I can't let that happen again."
"In this world, you ain't gunna make it long with that attitude," she says softly. She keeps her distance from him so she won't freak him out. For some reason, she wants to help this guy out. He sure seems like he could use a friend. "The world's startin' over from scratch, you know? We all need to depend on each other and shit. I figure I can depend on you not to wash the dishes me and my family are gunna eat off of in, like, rat poison, right?" She gives him an optimistic smile. "So I'd say it's pretty reasonable for you to trust that I got no reason to hurt you, either."
"You don't understand." He closed his hands into fists and began to tremble slightly, his anxiety raising a notch. "It's not something I can just turn off and on whenever I bloody well feel like it. Not even the end of the world as we know it can cure disorders." He began to inch his way along the counter, toward the door. "Girls scare me," he added in a whisper. "You scare me."
"Why do girls scare you?" She steps away from him when she sees Toby is about to take a tumble right off the counter. She scoops the little one up, resting him on her hip easily.
"I don't want to talk about it," he said and continued to move toward the door. He had to get out of there before he was going to go into a full-fledged panic attack.
"Alright," she says, looking a little bit... Dejected. "Go calm down, 'kay?"
Leland said nothing else to Kaden, he just scooted out the door and headed back home as quickly as possible without running.