Construction had a lot of teamwork involved for larger projects. A team made the workload easier, faster and manageable. A team was there for one another. Being part of a team meant being part of something bigger than oneself.
      Leo was proud to be following his Ma to her team. To be a part of the construction team for once instead of the kid watching from the side. Ma had said she had a task for him to do today, that's why he got to come instead of staying home with Mum.
        “Ah, Amber,” one of the adult nyulop greeted Leo’s Ma with a smile. “You brought your little one.” the brown nyulop gave a wave to Leo.
       Leo tried to not seem too proud as he straightened his posture letting the elder inspect him. He was ready for this, he could be helpful.
       “Yup, he's here to play with Kliffs Girl” Amber ruffled her son’s leaf hair.
       Play?
       Play?
       He was here to play?
       Leo furrowed his brow opening his mouth to interject but closed it quickly to not seem like a whiney youngling. He was not going to prove his Ma’s opinion correct by throwing some tantrum.
       “Where is your daughter anyway Kliff?” Amber asked, turning to an ashy red fire draken who was going over blueprints with a green earth draken.
        The fire draken, Kliff, shrugged barely glancing their way before back at the blueprints. “Aren't you concerned the frog will get out, Acalies?” Kliff asked, talking over the stable plans the earth draken was presenting.
        “Ah I saw Kliffs girl head off about that way.” A grey nyulop gestured towards some bushes.
         Amber squatted besides Leo. “Play nice with her alright. I can count on you can't I?” She gave a smile.
         It was so condescending. Leo was perfectly capable of helping now. He helped Mum so much crafting, why was he tricked into coming along now when he would've accepted helping Ma babysit if she only told him. Instead she insisted on tricking him like he was some kid that would cry about not getting what he wanted.
           “Yeah Ma” he mumbled, biting back every defense he had in favor of not appearing like childish complaining.
           “That's my boy, don't wander too far now.” Amber patted his head again and went to go check the blueprints that a small discussion was happening about.
            Reluctantly Leo headed past the treehouse home of Acalies and through the bushes. It wasn't thick like the forest but it was still the outskirts of whistler crest so Leo decided caution was the best play, and remained quiet instead of shouting to find the girl.
             It was a few moments of wandering nearby the treehouse before he stumbled upon a monstrosity. Mud clung to the messy fur that mattered and stuck out. Her grin as she squished the mud between her paws was disturbing and when her eyes fell on him the blank stare made Leo tense.
             “Hey” She grinned before looking back at the mud far too occupied with how it moved between her paw pads.
             “You're disgusting” Leo scrunched up his nose not meaning to say the hurtful words out loud but it wasn’t like it was a lie. The unlucky nyulop’s brows raised and she looked back at him surprised but not insulted.               Then she smirked and let out a slight chuckle “yeah I guess I'm pretty gross huh?” Looking back down at her paws finally bringing them out of the mud pit to inspect how it clung to her.
              “You're- not Kliffs daughter are you?” Leo asked ready to sprint as far away from her as possible if the answer was no. There wasn't a need to dirty himself if this wasn't who he should babysit.
              “Oh? Yeah that's me” the girl looked at him and grinned again “Name’s Uma. You Tika? Acalies mentioned you.”
              “I don't know a Tika” Leo furrowed his brow. If this Tika girl was anything like Uma, he did not want to meet her. “I'm Leo, my Ma is on the construction team”
             “ah so you're stuck here too” Uma hummed before splatting a bit of mud Leo's way that landed far too close to his feet.
             Leo grimaced. No wonder his Ma hadn't warned him of Uma. She was awful.

        Paint globs splattered across Leo's face and half of the table. The tablecloth had done little to spare the poor table from Uma's wrath. Leo grimaced, grabbing a rag to wipe it off.
       “Watch it!” He grit.
       “Woops,” Uma shrugged, sticking out her tongue a tiny bit. Different color paint splatters littered her fur showing the evidence of her disaster.
        “I don't think I've ever seen someone have more paint on them than their canvas” Mum chuckled, bending down to try and wipe Uma's face clean. She was always so nice to Uma no matter how messy and clumsy she was.
         Uma paused, getting that weird stare as Mum washed her off the best she could in a quick wipe. Her nose twitched watching Mum's face as the rag went over her face, before she let her usual smirk cross her face.
         “What even is that supposed to be?” Leo judged the messy canvas Uma had splattered odd colors of dark blue and yellow and a hint of red in some places but nothing coherent.
         “It's abstract Leo” Mum hummed, shifting the painting cloth to be down neatly again. “it looks lovely Uma”
Uma inspected her own art and her ear twitched slightly before “it's me” she stated
         “Doesn't look anything like-” Leo started but a glare from Mum made him look off to the side “looks good.” he covered up hoping his Mum wouldn't scold him over something as small as being honest.
           Uma rotated her canvas around a bit examining it from different angles “....It's…hard to explain?” She said before putting the canvas down, noticing the smear in the painting from where her paw had sat. She looked down at her paw to double check the paint was indeed on her pad.
          The front door opening made Leo's head snap to see his Ma and Uma’s father walking in. Leo hopped down quickly to sprint to his Ma giving her a big hug.
         “Hey now it wasn't that bad without me was it?”Ma chuckled, patting his head and breaking the hug to head to her wife.
         As his mother gave cheek kisses he turned away, noticing Uma was just staring at her father before slowly getting off the stool and heading over to him. She stood in front of him a few minutes as her father glanced at the mess of paint before down at Uma.
         “Time to go.” her father gestured with his head giving a wave to Mum and Ma “Thanks for watching her”
         “Anytime” Mum chimed giving a wave to both Uma and her father.
          It felt odd watching the door close. A strange peace as the mess of Uma was gone now only the drops of paint on the floor and walls, evidence she had been there at all.
          Leo turned to his mum and ma. “Can we stop having her over?”

         They did not stop having her over. In fact, everytime Leo tried to complain about having Uma over either his Mum would lecture him or Ma scolded him. The last time he tried to ask why they had to babysit Uma it was dismissed with a quick. “I don’t want to hear another complaint about this, Leo.” from his Ma.
         So Leo stopped whining. He knew it was childish to complain about this anyway. He was old enough by now he should’ve known better and just accepted that occasionally- far to often- they had to have Uma over. If only Uma’s father would quit the construction team so perhaps someone else would end up on babysitting duty.
         However, everytime Leo tried to shove down the bitter feelings, Uma somehow found a way to be a bigger menace than before. From Mud, to paint, to simply not wiping her paws on the welcome mat, or how she insisted on shaking to get the rain water off, Leo just couldn’t find any neutral ground with the monstrous child at all. The only time she seemed to know peace was after wearing herself out to physical exhaustion.
         Today it was much the same. Uma had jumped from painting, to hopscotch, to gardening, to rolling in the mud, then back to painting, and eventually being forced to bath by Mum, before she ended up laying on the living room floor in the sun from the window staring at the ceiling.
        Usually Leo enjoyed the peace while it lasted and stayed as far from the nyulop as possible when she was this quiet.However this time his Mum walked by the living room entry way raising a disapproving brow his way.          He wasn’t in the mood for another lecture so he forced himself to find a spot to lay on the floor next to Uma, which seemed to do the trick as his Mum went back to cooking dinner.
       There was a good gap of silence Leo usually found comforting but now laying next to the nyulop it felt awkward. So Leo did a very stupid thing. He decided to talk.
      “I can’t wait for you to stop coming over.” Leo stated quietly realizing too late that was probably much too honest. He cringed glancing Umas' way but she was staring at the ceiling with that blank stare she sometimes got when things caught her off guard, or were too nice, or just simply at what seemed to be random.
      It made Leo feel uneasy seeing it, making him miss that sinister smirk she should have. He decided looking at her was just not necessary and instead fixed his own eyes to the ceiling.
      “I didn’t mean it” Leo lied trying to ease that sick feeling in his chest. “I just don’t like your mess.” which was somewhat honest.
       Uma made a small hum of acknowledgement but those words she usually had so much of just weren’t coming.
       Leo let out a quiet sigh. “Ma and your pa will likely be back soon.” He mumbled fidgeting with his hands a bit as he spoke. “I know I miss Ma a lot when she works on big projects for days, I bet you miss your pa.”
      “It’s not much different from when he’s around,” Uma stated quietly.
      “What’s that mean? It’s so different, don’t you miss him?”
       “I guess,” Uma exhaled “But he doesn’t miss me.”
       Leo furrowed his brow unsure how she could think that. “Parents have to miss their kids, it's in the parent rulebook or something.”
       “Parent rulebook?” Uma smirked, slightly glancing to meet his eye. “I don’t think there’s a book”
        “I don’t know, I’m not a parent.” Leo grumbled, breaking eye contact and finding an opposite wall to stare at.
        “Your moms always hug you when they get home.” Uma stated, back to staring at the ceiling once again.
        “Your dad doesn’t.” Leo stated back, pointing out the obvious thing he’s noticed the countless times shes been over now. “Why doesn’t he?”
         Uma was quiet for a moment before shrugging slightly. “Maybe I’m not good enough for hugs.”
         “Even bad guys get hugs,” Leo scoffed. “He should hug you cause he loves you.”
         “How do you know he does?” Uma met his eyes with that cold stare, and even if she tried to not show worry, Leo could feel it radiating off of her.
         “Well have you asked him if he doesn’t?” Leo argued.
        “I don’t want to” Uma pushed herself up to be sitting.
        Leo hesitated before sitting up besides her and scooting slightly closer. She was staring at the floor now as if she didn’t even want to be here.
        “Well- when you’re ready you should ask him so you can get that silly thought out of your head.” Leo stated. “An-and if you need a hug- I know how to give the best hugs.”
         Uma let out a snicker and smirked his way. “really? the best hugs?”
        “Yeah, if there was a championship for it, I’d win.” Leo puffed up his chest which caused her to cackle. “Don’t believe me?” He scoffed dramatically before holding his arms out. “Then I’ll prove it.”
          Uma hesitated before tackling him in the hug causing them both to roll around on the floor and bump into the coffee table with a loud thud. Uma pulled away holding her head where she had bumped it.
          “oooow! Why’d you do that!” Leo complained, rubbing his back.
         “hahaha I thought you were world champion. Can’t take tackle hugs?” Uma snickered
          “Well not when you don’t warn me!” Leo shouted, tackling the nyulop.
         The hug turned out to be more of wrestling, which resulted in them getting scolded by Mum for rough housing inside.
          The next time Uma came over Leo found himself smiling a lot more often, despite her mess.