Thank you lynnwiley and MaevyH for your reviews on the last chapter!

I started to say "here's a little fun piece" and then I thought about it and it occurred to me that maybe I have a slightly warped idea of what constitutes fun...

Explosive

It was bound to happen eventually.

He stayed out of the family squabbles, generally waiting until the parties had yelled themselves out and had time to cool off before he offered his opinion, if he needed to give one. The family deferred to him almost unconsciously, a fact that made him a little uncomfortable, but it helped settle a lot of the smaller arguments that popped up day to day.

Truth be told, Guy hated conflict. Years of living alone left him unprepared for the viciousness that could erupt from what seemed to be a petty argument. Simply put, he didn't know how to fight. He could and did put forth a logical argument, but the devolution of a conversation into a shouting match was pretty far outside of his experience.

So when he found himself toe to toe and nose to nose with Eep, shouting at the top of his lungs, he really had no idea how they got there.

He didn't see the warning signs, didn't notice the hurt look on her face when he laughed at her, didn't understand the edge in her voice when she insisted it was his fault she misunderstood, and it wasn't until she shoved him and raised her voice that he realized something was wrong. She had never yelled at him before, and he defended himself without thinking, and before he understood what was happening they were fighting, and he was dredging up every petty annoyance, every aggravating habit, every ridiculous thing she'd ever done, and throwing them in her face.

He was at a disadvantage, though, because Eep DID know how to fight, knew how to exact the maximum amount of pain with her words, knew how to hit below the belt and smile like she enjoyed it.

Worse, she knew when to walk away, leaving him standing alone in the jungle, open-mouthed, stuttering, and utterly gutted. He couldn't remember everything he'd said but he remembered with absolute clarity every word she'd turned against him.

He didn't know what to do, so he walked. He put his back to the path that led home and he walked blindly, numbly. Belt whistled timidly from his waist.

"Anywhere," he answered grimly. "Anywhere that's not here."

Words floated in his head, words like smug and superior and clumsy and stubborn, as if she had anybody business calling anybody stubborn. and he did not scream like a girl, which was doubly true because Eep was the only girl he knew and she didn't scream at all, except, apparently, at him, and yeah, okay, there were things he didn't know about living with other people but he never claimed to know everything, contrary to what she seemed to think, and on that subject—

He kept walking with no concept of where he were going or how long he'd been out here. He didn't know he was crying until he tripped. Great, he thought, standing up and wiping his face, because one thing he had picked up on was that men weren't supposed to cry, only he'd missed that lesson, on account of his parents dying a gruesome death when he was too young to have learned how to do things like swallow his tears and fight with his—whatever she was.

If she still was. He sat down on a fallen tree and put his head between his knees, feeling sick. Belt climbed up to cling to his arm, and stroke his neck, warbling concern. Guy tried to focus on breathing. He'd said some pretty awful things on his side, too – what did her eating habits have to do with what they were fighting about, anyway, and there was no need to bring up her snoring – they all snored, and for all he knew, he did too—

—and he really shouldn't have laughed at her in the first place. He'd gotten better at watching his words because sometimes she took things so literally, and it was really a sign of how intelligent she really was that she picked up on every little inconsistency in his phrasing and...

He was such an idiot. He put his face in his hands. Eep was the best thing that had ever happened to him. Because of her he had a family and a home and he really wasn't sure what love was or how it was supposed to feel, but up until this morning he'd been nearly convinced he was in love with her.

Maybe he really was. Maybe that was why this hurt so much.

Where was he going, anyway? Was anything he said really so bad that he had to leave? Because there was nothing out here for him, he knew that now. He thought of a future with no Croods, with no Gran teasing him and joking with him, no Thunk trying gamely to please everybody, no Ugga to fuss over him and worry and solve other people's problems with a surprising amount of insight, no Grug to huff and grumble and be weirdly happy in his worrying, no Sandy growing by the day and learning as fast as anyone could teach her, and no Eep to sit by him and ask questions and make him use all the words he made up so carefully, to touch his hand and snuggle up against his shoulder.

His throat closed up and his eyes stung again and suddenly the jungle, with all its natural noise and life, seemed oppressively quiet and empty and for an instant, he thought he'd rather die than go back to living alone. There had to be some way to fix this, but he didn't know how. Everyone thought he was so smart but he really was just stupid and pathetic, the weird outsider who never quite knew what was going on.

Something touched his shoulder and he jumped, reflexively pulling his knife as he lurched to his feet and stumbled back, nearly throwing Belt off his arm. The sloth squeaked and dropped to wrap back around Guy's waist.

"Woah!" Eep put her hands out. "Guy, it's just me."

He stared at her, heart pounding, chest heaving. Her eyes flicked from his face to the knife in his shaking hand. He jumped and lowered it.

"Sorry," he said, his voice ragged. "You startled me." He put his knife back in its sheath in his waistband and cleared his throat.

"You didn't come back," Eep said, lowering her hands and easing into a more casual stance. "I was worried."

"Um..." was all he could manage to say. He sounded awful and he cleared his throat again, trying to swallow the lump that was choking him. He swiped at his eyes again self-consciously.

"Were you leaving?" Eep asked, a slight tremor in her voice.

"I—" he shrugged slumped shoulders, unable to meet her eyes. "I don't know. I thought—I mean I didn't think—"

"It was just a stupid fight," she said softly. "It happens all the time. I—I didn't realize you'd be so upset." She took a tentative step towards him. He flinched away from her. She stopped, looking hurt, and his heart suddenly stopped because he needed to make it better and he was just making it worse and that was not what he wanted—

"I'm sorry," he blurted.

She looked at him. "I'm sorry," he went on, words tumbling one over another. "I'm really sorry about all those things I said – I really don't care about all that stuff, it's just—you were yelling at me and I was just so angry and I don't remember it all but I know I said some really mean things and I'm—I'm—I'm really, really sor—"

Eep grabbed his arm and clamped a hand over his mouth. "Guy, slow down." She let go of him. "I'm sorry too."

He felt like his bones had turned to water, and all he could do was stare at her numbly when she turned slightly away from him, tucking back that lock of hair that always fell in her eyes. "I was just—I know I'm not smart and I'm trying to get better, but sometimes when you laugh at me, you just make me feel so—stupid." She blushed, biting her lip. "And I hate it and you hurt my feelings and that's why I got angry."

Guy's mouth worked soundlessly.

"But that doesn't mean that you have to leave," she said, a slight tremor in her voice. "Just because you fight with someone doesn't mean you don't care about them. Or that they don't care about you," she added, looking back at him.

"I didn't mean to laugh," he said. "I just—I wasn't really thinking and I didn't mean to make you feel bad. I'm sorry. I just—I want to make this better, and I—tell me what to do, Eep, I swear I'll fix it."

She smiled affectionately. "You're so weird," she muttered, stepping close to him. She reached up and put her arms around his neck and hugged him so tightly his vision started to black out.

"Air," he squeaked, and she loosened up immediately.

"Sorry, sorry," she said, but she didn't let go.

He took a long, shaky breath, and folded his arms around her, closing his eyes. She was warm and firm and solid and he never wanted to let go. "Let's not do this again anytime soon," he mumbled into her hair. "I don't like it."

Eep sighed. "Fights happen. It's just part of being around each other so much. You fight and then you cool off and you make up. It's normal. Just—don't go running off by yourself into the jungle next time." She smiled. "Make sure I can find you the next time I'm ready to say I'm sorry." She paused. "I am, by the way. Sorry. I shouldn't have said those things to you too. I didn't mean it."

"Really?" he asked, his spirits finally lifting slightly.

"Well. Most of it. You do scream like a girl, but it wasn't nice of me to bing it up." She paused. "Do I really snore that badly?"

Guy choked on a laugh. "No. I mean, sort of. Gran's worse."

"That doesn't make me feel better," Eep grumbled.

"You're not stupid," Guy mumbled, his face pressed into her hair again.

"What?" Eep said.

Guy raised his head. "I said you're not stupid. You're really smart, Eep, it's amazing how fast you learn. You never stop surprising me."

She pulled back and looked at him at that, her expression somewhere between shocked and hurt. For a moment, he panicked, trying to figure out what he had said wrong, and then suddenly, he got it. "Eep," he smiled, touching her face. "I love surprises."

"You do?" she asked, her expression relaxing slightly.

"Yeah," Guy nodded, and pressed his forehead to hers. "I really, really do."

"You didn't seem to like surprises all that much a moment ago," she teased, and he chuckled weakly.

"You scared me a little, but it was still a good surprise. There definitely wasn't anything I wanted to see more right then."

She smiled and pressed forward to rub her nose against his. "Are we good now?"

"Yeah," Guy said, returning the gesture. "I think so. Right?"

"Yeah." She rose up on her toes slightly and kissed him. He didn't feel in the best shape for kissing right then with his wet face and stuffy nose, but he kissed her back anyway, the sensation sparking a comfortable warmth that spread to the tips of his fingers and toes, releasing tension he didn't know he'd been carrying.

Suddenly he felt exhausted.

"Can we go home now?" he asked with a lopsided smile.

Eep smiled and linked her arm through his, turning him towards home.