Author's note: Thanks for all your reviews, though some of you really need to get accounts. The amount of guest reviews I haven't been able to reply to makes me really sad. I hope I can make it up to you with another chapter :). Sorry it's a bit short but I had to chop the last one in two. Hope you enjoy.

To say that Poppy's mood had not improved over the next few days would be an understatement. Instead of calming down with time, she seemed to be winding herself up as she stalked around like a storm cloud, brooding over her current dilemma.

She knew her dad thought she was being stubborn and childish but in her mind, her mood was completely justified. After all, it was bad enough that she had to put up with furry pest every day walking home from school but now he'd even invaded her home. And her dad had encouraged him! Somehow he'd lost his mind, missed all her warning signs and invited the nuisance to keep pestering her. And he thought she was being childish? After everything she'd been through she should get an award for acting so mature; for being patient and not punching the kit in the face like she really wanted to. Her fists twitched at the thought. It was tempting. Oh so tempting, especially with this unnatural silence aggravating her to no end.

Silence? The thought pulled her up short. Taking in her surroundings, the blue yordling narrowed her eyes. It's too quiet.

Ever since she's met the boy he hadn't missed a single day of making her life miserable by walking with her. And yet, here she was heading home for the day and no Kennen. So where was the pest?

She looked around warily, in no mood for his tricks. If he jumped out at her in a childish (yet successful) attempt to scare her again she was going to punch him so hard he'd be unconscious for a week. A small part of her hoped he would. Not only would she have an excuse to hit him but she'd finally have some peace for a while.

Even as she thought this however, she spotted his pointed ears and messy brown hair amoungst the other students. Catching sight of him her eyes narrowed further, but for a completely different reason. Something was wrong. His mouth was shut and his movements subdued, two characteristics she'd never seen from the kit. She looked on, noticing what she thought might be a grimace of pain surface every now and then on his face. His pinned back ears only confirmed this suspicion and as the yordle approached Poppy could see him cradling his left arm.

"Hey Poppy," he mumbled upon reaching her, trying to keep his voice light.

"What's wrong?" she asked, disregarding the pleasantry.

"Nothing's wrong," he grimaced, going to move past her.

Poppy blocked his path, her blue eyes narrowing. "Don't lie to me. I can see that something's wrong. Now let me see your arm." She reached for the arm in question but before she could grab it Kennen jumped back with a yelp of pain.

"I didn't even touch it you big baby," she said in exasperation. "Now stay still."

Reluctantly he complied. Poppy took his wrist lightly, before running a finger gently along his forearm. About halfway up a lump protruded and when the girl's finger ran over it, it moved just slightly. Instinctively Kennen pulled back with a hiss of pain, cradling the arm close to himself again.

"Definitely broken," Poppy informed him. "What did you do?"

His cheeks flushed with embarrassment before he looked away mumbling under his breath.

"What?"

"I said," Kennen started again louder. "I fell out of a tree."

Poppy stared at him for a full minute before she tilted her head back and burst out laughing. Her white pigtails shook from her mirth as the sunlight glinted off of her eyes.

Kennen's ears to rose and fell in surprise. He'd never heard her laugh before: honestly he kinda liked it, though he wasn't all that thrilled about her laughing at him. "Hey, it's not that funny."

She shook her head as she tried to subdue her laughter. "Sorry," she chuckled, "but only you would end up breaking your arm that way." Finally she got her laughter under control, leaving only a smile on her face. "Come on. Let's get you to the hospital."

At her words, the boy's ears pinned down again as he drew back. "We don't have to go to the hospital do we?"

Poppy paused thoughtfully, "Well, we don't have to. We can go to my dad's forge and have him cut the arm off instead if you want."

"The hospital's fine," he replied quickly.

The two of them were silently sitting in the emergency department waiting for the doctor to see Kennen's broken arm. Covertly, Poppy watched him from the corner of her eyes. He had been silent for most of the walk to the hospital. Silent and lethargic. Even now he hadn't said a word and only the occasional fidget belayed his usually energetic nature.

It made the girl slightly disconcerted seeing the lively yordle so subdued. She realised with sudden insight that he must be in a great deal of pain to be so quiet. This revelation surprised Poppy. While most of the yordlings their age would still cry and scream in anguish from such an occurrence, Kennen hadn't made any fuss, instead acting with a degree of rationality about the situation. Honestly, it stunned her considering how immature he acted normally. With a tinge of regret she admitted to herself that she might have misjudged him. However, Poppy didn't dwell on the thought long. Despite how well he was handling the situation, any distraction would help take his mind off the pain. And so she talked to him.

Kennen was naturally a talker; one did not need to know him long to realise that and Poppy had been putting up with his chatter for seven days straight. Despite how much effort Poppy had put into ignoring him, she had retained most of what he'd said. As a result she knew almost everything there was to know about the boy. She knew he was in the seventh grade same as her and that he had turned eleven in February. She knew he was an only child who lived with his mum and dad at the edge of Bandle City. That his mum worked as an ICU nurse in this very hospital and that his dad was in the Bandle City Scouts; they'd met when the scout had been recovering at the hospital from a mission twenty or so years ago. She also knew the hazel coloured kit was fast, energetic, loved to play pranks, run and talk and that he was prone to breaking the rules (not that he'd been caught). She knew he often got distracted in school and wasn't great at his work – mainly due to a lack of attention; and yet, despite his short attention span, he was a quick learner and, when he wanted to, and could pick up on and retain a good deal of information. She also knew that the only subjects he really enjoyed were geography and sport.

Poppy however, was not a talker. She liked her privacy and enjoyed spending her time in silence. And due to her perpetual annoyance at his chatter she'd been even less inclined to talk to Kennen. So despite everything she knew about him, Poppy had never told Kennen much about herself. So now she did.

She told him about her dad and about the forge: of all the things she'd been taught to do so far and of the things she was looking forward to doing herself. She told him about her other hobbies, how she enjoyed reading in the evenings and watching league matches with her dad on their crystal screen. She even told him about her mum. She talked to him about what she was like (that she could remember) and how she'd died when she was quite young. Confessing the things she missed about her despite how close she was to her dad. And about how she didn't really talk about it because she knew her dad missed her a great deal too and that it hurt to see him so sad every time she was mentioned.

Kennen hung on to her words, thankful for the distraction and curious to learn more about the serious girl that was opening up to him. He was smarter than most gave him credit for: he knew that his energetic and talkative nature could put yordles off; that most found it tiresome to try and keep up with him. It was why, while he got along well with most of his classmates, he didn't really have any permanent friends. But that was just the way he was, and trying to supress his speed didn't work out for anyone. So he'd gotten over it. But the pale blue girl had intrigued him. She was different to all his other classmates. She didn't seem interested in the things the other yordling girls were into and she was the only other yordle in their grade to really keep to herself. Then there was the fact she never really smiled. Like never. And Kennen had been watching her for a while. So he'd approached her. His curiosity pushing him to stubbornly ignore her attempts to push him away.

I didn't think it would take falling out of a tree and breaking my arm to get her to open up a bit more though, he thought ruefully, before both his and Poppy's attention were drawn to the approaching nurse. They followed her through to the back room to get an x-ray of his arm, where Poppy once again picked up her story: this time telling him about the time her dad had decided to teach her blacksmithing.

Kennen's eyes widened in fear when the doctor held his arm ready to set the bone, but Poppy simply raised her voice, dragging his attention back to her. The kit cried out once before relaxing again, the relief from the pain obvious on his face and in his finally upright ears.

He chuckled weakly upon hearing about her disastrous first attempt. "I can't believe that actually happened to you. It kinda reminds me of that joke about the Minotaur in the china shop. Have you heard it?"

Poppy shook her head looking a little sheepish. "I actually don't know any jokes," she admitted.

Kennen stared at her in disbelief before exclaiming, "No way! Really? Not one? Well I've got to fix that! Knock knock...You're supposed to say who's there."

From that point on, Kennen's jokes continued for the majority of the afternoon. Most of them were pretty basic and even more Poppy didn't find funny. But for once the girl didn't mind the chatter. Once Kennen's mum got off work she picked them up, offering to drop Poppy home in thanks for all her help.

"So, are you coming to school tomorrow?" Poppy asked once they reached her house.

"Probably," Kennen nodded. He paused briefly, "I'll see you on the walk home?"

Poppy smiled, "Yeah, see you then."

Thank you all for your continued support :)