After Leo witnesses how Hop Pop treats Anne compared to him, he demands respect from the frog and decides to help make the stand even better, leading to increasingly worse events unfolding, and more than wanted emotions spilling out.

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It was yet another day in Amphibia, with the same blazing heat pressuring its way over the valley and the town of Wartwood, it seemed to be on a much higher scale today. That only served to help out the furthering struggle of field work that had been prescribed to Leo from the so called "tyrant" of the Plantar farm.

Saying that, the title had come from spunky brother of the family Sprig Plantar so it was tough to judge how much truth was actually involved in that. Leo had been performing chores first hand underneath the leader, who clearly had much more years on him than everyone else.

He felt somewhat mixed on the quality of work that was placed upon him, mainly because of the fact that most of the work was solely his job, no matter how big, small or trivial the task was.

Not to say that Anne, Sprig or even Polly didn't pull their weight; they all did their fair share of work when needed, but it didn't change that he was the one responsible for the majority of work on the farm.

Leo didn't mind too much, in fact he felt fairly indifferent on it, what really bugged him was how Hop Pop treated the other residents inhabiting the farm. For his two grandchildren, even his stoically natured and usually misinformed mindset could understand why they might receive some form of special treatment.

Now, yes Anne had been there for a month longer than him, but in all honesty, he had done a much higher workload than she had around the farm and to help them all around. So, to him it just made logical sense that he deserved some level of respect.

Then again, maybe he was overthinking it all too much, maybe that was just what the shortened memory version of him was like.

Growing enamored in his own work, Leo had somehow still taken notice of Hop Pop quickly approaching him, he'd just chalked it down to the weird level of hunting prowess he displayed, "Leo! I was wondering if you could help me out on a more pressing chore," said Hop Pop in his usually southern esc accent.

"Mm?" Leo gave a short retort, trying to keep the exchange as brief as possible keeping up on the hoe he was using to turn the soil in the ground, "Ah, I guess I don't mind."

The still empty tone in his response made it almost impossible to tell whether or not it really bothered him. It did, but Hop Pop had no way of knowing that fact, "I was hoping you could deal with some of the worms starting to eat away at my crops, it's that time season you see."

"Right, I'll get on it," With the conversation seemingly over, he began walking over to the other side of the farm. Still, Leo's pettiness got the better of him as he stopped in his tracks, "What about Anne? Can't she help out," he said much darker than wanted.

Again though, Hop Pop didn't see anything difference in his voice, "I had her go out for some shopping, we've been running out a lot quicker lately...plenty of mouths to feed," he said with a matter-of-fact nature about him, almost stating it.

That was enough to satiate Leo for now, at least she was helping out.

Caught in his own rambling, Hop Pop's word only served to tick away at even more of Leo's nerves, "After all, I'm sure Anne would do a better job at getting the right kind of food than you," he saw no problem in what he'd said, but it had managed to grow the teenagers calmed anger.

He kept his mouth shut though; he wasn't the kind of person to want to start an argument, all there was to focus on were the chores, that was all he was seemingly tasked to do.


Now, Leo, Anne and the Plantars were all collectively stuck at the market, the orange frog being the only one excited for whatever was in store. With many wandering by and either purchasing a few of the produce that he was selling or choosing to ignore.

Even though Hop Pop had become a fairly popular pariah after he mayoral battle with Toadstool, it hadn't done all that much to help or change the still fairly low income they were earning from the stand. With the amount of people that needed to be fed, the money they were earning was just barely enough to keep it up, not to mention paying for taxes and other possibly needed items, all of it just wasn't sustainable.

Due to it, Leo thoughts were on nothing but helping, he was one of the other mouths that had to be fed after all; it only made sense to put in some extra income. Not only to make living better for everyone, but to also have the opportunity to earn Hop Pop's respect, just as everyone else already had, he could actually prove his worth to them all.

How he was going to was another question entirely-

"Leo, dude. You still there?" A sudden clicking up in his face got the white-haired teen to turn to Anne, who was glancing up at him with a skeptical yet concerned look on her face, he felt weird whenever he saw it, especially when it was directed at him.

"Yeah, you looked really serious for a second there," Sprig added in his own two sense, hopping up the countertop of the stand.

"Mm. Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," he didn't try all too hard to try and convince them, opting to moving closer towards the crowd of people – Hop Pop was currently too busy making small talk with one of the frogs buying from him.

Nevertheless, Leo had never felt like this before. The want and need to step out in front of everyone, he could hold a conversation with anyone just fine and get involved with their lives the right amount. He wasn't like Anne, Sprig or even Polly for that matter, they had some level of confidence about them. He was going to go through with it though, staying how he was wasn't going to earn him any respect from the no nonsense frog.

In all honesty, he didn't know why he wanted to, maybe he had changed a lot more than he actually thought, there was no way the him that had crawled out of forest would do anything close to something this stupid.

Sprig and Polly shared a look, having slight worry for what he was going to do, as much as they thought they knew Leo, his emotionless demeanor always left no room to guess what he was thinking. "Well, he's not Anne so I doubt he'll do something too stupid," Polly gave a short remarked, blatantly choosing to ignore the annoyed look Anne had on her face.

Sprig though the same, Leo was collected and serious most of the time, he wouldn't do anything that outlandish.

Their thoughts were shattered as the slightly dense Leo, began approaching the frogs at the market, whether it be the ones buying crops or selling them.

He wasn't originally planning to use the intimidation factor he'd been unfortunately gifted and held over the frogs, but with his piercing red eyes staring back at them, it was inevitable. Felicia and Ivy Sundew were the two frogs caught in the frontlines of him, becoming increasingly more nervous as they remained contact.

"Buy from Hop Pop's stand, he fought against the town mayor, right? There's no reason not to.." he said, with the same plain voice as always, although it only seemed to add level of fear he was creating.

After a few moments of standing stiff, Felicia eventually caved in, "S-Sure," she responded in bleakly frightened tone, taking Ivy by the hand and pulling her over to the stand, afraid of what would happen if they didn't.

"You know what, forget what I said. He's totally down to do something that stupid," Polly sighed, sounding a little disappointed that she'd been incorrect.

Leo had no time to apologize for his forwardness, actually realizing how forceful he probably seemed in front of the two, "Ah, I'll end up losing the towns small respect for me at this point...and I thought they were properly starting to get over how I looked."

Spotting this, Hop Pop marched over and shimmied the human to back behind the stand, "Leo, what are you doing! Felicia is one of my best customers, she was already going to buy from me. Why are you trying to scare her off!?" All Hopediah could was scold the boy, throwing his arms up as he did. The frog finished yelling and went back to working the stand, genially bewildered by the boy's actions. Leo seemed like the straight man compared to Anne, and yet it seemed like he was trying to sabotage him, which most likely wasn't his attempt.

Still, Hop Pop liked and knew him well enough, so he had full belief that it wasn't his intent.


Leo leant against a lone tree, not wanting the sun's aggressive waves to strike down upon him, he really was weak to any kind of weather, either hot or cold. Currently that didn't matter, he was too busy devising another idea for what he could do, something that was less hurtful and helped somewhat more.

Whilst he was, his sense kicked in hearing footsteps brushing against the grass. He was fully expecting to see Anne standing before him probably ready to ask about his actions earlier.

However, it was Sprig; awkwardly shuffling on his feet.

"You alright?" Leo queried, raising a brow to the frog.

Letting out a frail, short bit of laughter Sprig finally looked up at Leo, "Shouldn't I be asking you that? I mean with whatever just happened over there."

"Hehe...maybe. I guess I'm feeling left out, if that makes sense. Although I don't get why that frog got so scared, I thought they'd gotten over my appearance," Leo huffed, slouching a little as he did.

"It's a bit different when you stare at them a good 2ft from their face," Sprig chastised, emphasizing his point as he closed the distance with Leo.

"Point taken," Leo stated, pushing his face back away from him. He sounded almost like he had the day he arrived in Wartwood.

Kicking his feet up again, feeling the awkward tension yet again rising, "But, what I do know is that if you're trying to help the stand for whatever you're doing, you should try a better approach that's more like you Leo...one that doesn't involve you threatening people."

"Point taken," he repeated, only much more relaxed this time; patting that smaller frogs head, "Thanks though, even if I don't get why you came to give me some kind of pep talk."

"Why wouldn't I?" Sprig chatted away, "I said before, were the only boys so we've got to stick together, right?"

Pausing for a good few seconds, Leo quipped back the same way he'd done before, "Right."


The plan was much easier said than done however, with Leo's second attempt at helping out the stand turning out just as poorly.

Originally, he had wanted to prove he could see the best produce to possibly give the stand some kind of a better standing, especially with him being one of the people helping to sell food from it. Sounded swell enough on paper, didn't it?

Unfortunately, there was no way that Leo would have any given knowledge on that. He may have tended to the fields but that was about it on his knowledge on farming, he was a dense as anyone on what food correlated to what.

"Leo, are sure you know what you're doing? Or even what you're doing?" Anne asked, nervously holding her hands behind her bushy hair, he didn't feel as if he was being patronized but for some reason Leo felt that need to reply without much care.

"I'm...fine, really just need to work out which vegetable is best to sell, personally I don't see a difference," Despite the harsh response from him, Anne couldn't help but have brief moment of laughter.

Ignoring her for the time being, Leo finally came to the decision on what produce was best to sell. So, with some hesitation he went to hand it to Mrs. Croaker, only to be quickly stopped as the food was overdramatically slapped out of his grasp.

Of course, the perpetrator was Hop Pop now staring at the ground where a giant bull worm was sluggishly crawling out of the eggplant, "See, that's why you should just leave this to the professionals, just stick to what you do best, back in the old days people used to understand that."

For once, Leo actually had a distasteful expression, he wasn't used to such harsh treatment, or maybe he was but not the him that had lost his memories. Anne quickly came to his defense, "Woah, Hop Pop, don't you think that's a little far? Leo's only trying to help out."

"And it didn't work, look I don't mean to be harsh. But it clearly hasn't worked out for Leo just like it didn't when he went shopping, that's why I got you to do it. Everyone should stick to their own roles, that's what I think."

Having heard enough, Leo evidently snapped, his usually plain, stony face erupting into a fierce look, "Well, were not in the old days are we, I messed up once with the shopping and that was enough for you to relegate me to field work. Do you...do you even like me, see me as someone who actually lives with you, or am I an actual worker to you!"

Feeling self-conscious, Hop Pop stood to defend himself, "That's not it at all, I trust you and like you just as much as I do Anne, in fact I know that I can depend on you for the work hence why I give it to yah," He excused, albeit a little bit frightened due to Leo's heated demeanor.

"But do you respect me, am I a person to you or someone you can put a load of work on?" he said, seemingly much more subdued than beforehand, "Cause if you did than would I ever be allowed to leave the stable I'm sleeping in."

"Is that what this is about, the fact that you're sleeping in the stable!" Hop Pop fired back, as if he was trying to find the real problem.

"No, that's not the main issue. Look Hop Pop I'm asking if you see me as a person, like I'm someone who could actually be part of your household or the Plantars, that I'm not just someone who's meant to do work!"

Most of the market were now listening in on their dispute, and as Loggle strode past, struggling to carry a fairly large tub. During his yelling, Leo instinctively swung his arms back smacking them into the axolotl and sending him tumbling over as well as he tub.

"Noooo, my nectar. This is bad," Loggle face practically turned white as he spoke.

"Bad? Bad how, explain yourself woodman!" Polly intensely began to interrogate him, jumping out of her bucket and right in front of his face.

"What was just knocked over was Warping Willow, I kind of root that increasing tree growth. But, since it was just poured over some grass, they'll sporadically start growing," Loggle explained sheepishly, already catching sight of it beginning to spread.

"That's really not good," Anne brandished her tennis racket, getting ready for battle, "Loggle, how the heck do we stop it?"

Hurriedly whirring his head about, Loggle finally took notice of the spot the roots were mainly emerging out of, "If we get rid of the seed that the roots are spreading out of then it should deal with it."

Leo had decided to put the argument on the backburner for now, running over to the still sprouting roots, they had even managed to take out part of Hop Pop's stand, it was only a small wooden pole on the left side of it, but still, if left unkempt then the roots would properly take it out.

However, as they moved Hop Pop wasn't finished, "Do you really think I don't think of you as a person, I care about you as well Leo, you're just as much of a member of this family as anyone else."

"Then why...why do I feel like such an outcast, since last week every time you've gotten me to do work, I feel like it's just because that's all I can do," Leo said solemnly, stopping what he was doing for the time being, leaving Anne and Sprig to running ahead.

"Maybe that's partly my fault, I have been putting a lot on you, but that's just because I know that I can rely on you, and I didn't bother to think about how you might feel about all of it, so I'm sorry for that. But also, I think that you Leo, your scared that now that you care about all of us, you wonder what we all what we think with the you; and maybe that you aren't living up to who you were before you lost your memory. You're worried about what's going to happen when you do remember."

Well, there was definitely some truth to that. Part of him did just want to be treated properly, but he couldn't lie about the ongoing fear of what he was like before he lost his memory hadn't been apparent since his arrival in Wartwood. He was scared that he didn't have any real hobbies that mattered, scared that the way he acted was wrong to how he used to, scared of the people he'd grown to care about would truly treat him. For now, he was just an empty shell that was waiting for the real him to crawl back and reveal his real self.

The him now just didn't feel good enough compared to who might've have been.

"Maybe you're right, I just don't know what to. I like all of you and I want all of you to like me as well, the me right now, because what if the person I was really is a better person, I'm frightened of what'll happen when I remember, yet I want to keep trying to. It's probably why I got so upset about being given field work now I think about it, I got self-conscious on whether it was all anyone wanted me to do, and if it's what I could do." Leo further delved into, ducking under a swinging root.

"I think your thinking on it to much boy, the Leo who we all worry about, talk to and can rely on - that's who were with. Whether or not you change when you get your memory back, won't change what you've done and who you really are. Besides, you'll never know who you were until you get your memory back, why dwell it so much?"

It was fine suggestion, one the Leo didn't mind advising by.

The willow seemed to have died down crumbling into nothing more than ash, as Leo observed Sprig and Anne dealing with it, she had yet again come to his aid, helping him out of another situation he'd caused, she was always there.

A hand on his shoulder got him to jolt and turn around to see Hop Pop, "Listen, Leo. This might not mean much, but I truly do see you as someone who is part of this family, you've helped out me, Sprig and Polly, everyone here appreciates the you right now," There was no condescending tone in his voice, all Leo could hear was the genuine care he was speaking.

Sitting up from his kneeling position, Leo made his way over to stand, checking out all of the damaged spots, "Thanks Hop Pop really, it means a lot."

"Anytime Leo, I was glad to help."

"You two were a big help, couldn't have done it without you," Anne thanked sarcastically, pulling small pieces of bark from out of her rackets strings, she meant no ill intent however, laughing alongside Sprig.

"Sorry," said Leo, not paying too much attention to her, trying to work out the best way to fix the broken parts of the stand, tracing his hand along the edged and now splintered wood.

Hop Pop had already taken out his toolbox from the cart Bessie was attached to and was handing the red-eyed boy a hammer, "You've fixed one of these before I believe," he reminisced to the first day they'd met each other and Leo helped fix up the deformed barrel they were selling their crops in.

"That was a barely kicking wheelbarrow," Leo returned, placing the tool in his grasp and the box of slightly bent out of shape nails, banging them into the wood.


That night however, as Leo headed into the stable, now somewhat content with where he was staying, he found himself being ushered into the Plantar household by Anne, who was delighted to show him his knew living arrangement, it had all happened fairly quickly so the boy had no time to argue or stop the attempt.

"Are you sure, I'm not imposing, am I?" Leo questioned feeling the soft knew sleeping bag that had recently just been bought for him, he admired the room for a second as he did.

Not like he'd never been their before, no this was hardly his first time there. But, now that he was really taking the time to gloss his eyes over it, he noticed all of the posters that had been lazily taped up, the various oddities that Anne and brought over from Earth slung over almost every inch of it.

Each part of it just seemed to solidify even more that it was her room without a shadow of a doubt.

Leo was really concerned on whether Anne actually wanted someone else living in her room, and wasn't just letting him stay because of he comment previously over living in the stable. Unknown to him, she was starting to reconsider her idea, but for entirely embarrassing reasons.

'I wanted to be nice, but now I don't know how I feel about having a boy sleeping in the same room as me. Not to mention that it's Leo!'

She couldn't deny however, the look of small glee that Leo had as he took a better look at the pillow and sleeping bag did make it all seem worth it, "I'll try not to get in your way, Sprig told me about all of your 'makeup supplies' and how long you take," Leo quoted, thinking back on how morbidly the frog had described it, almost like a murder scene.

"It's fine, at least it should be. I tried bunking with Sprig but it didn't turn out that well," Anne awkwardly scratched her cheek, getting underneath the covers, "I don't mind if it's you though Leo, both of us are humans after all."

"Yeah, I guess. I just hope I won't be a burden to you, feel like I've been doing that a lot lately," he admitted with some temptation, shuffling about inside of the sleeping bag, he'd gotten a bit too used to sleeping on hay.

"I get it, you should see some of the stuff I got us all into before you got here. I almost gotten Sprig killed with a bug version of my cat, I lied about being sick and carried the Plantars up a mountain because I thought they were going to die and I broke Hop Pop's cane," The 16-year-old Thai girl began to list off just the beginning of her screw ups.

Dropping his emotionless facade, Leo stifled a laugh not wanting to annoy the girl, "Guess we're the same, can't help but get into trouble."

Sharing a laugh together the two of them properly tucked themselves in and began to drift off, "Night Leo."

He smiled into his pillow, feeling as if he somewhat belonged, "Night Anne."

...

I hope you enjoyed this chapter, on another read. It had so many grammatical errors and pieces I wanted to add, yet again thanks for the reviews, especially the one I got for this particular chapter, I really didn't realize how much spelling and weird sentence choices I had in several places, so forgive me, it was much sloppier than what I previously upload. As I said before Combat Camp is the next one, so until then, see yah!