Disillusion - Leaf & Silver
Parents sucked.
Silver had been kicking that thought around for a long while now. Parents really, really sucked. Not just his parents either. He had plenty of complains about his father and his questionably extant mother, but when he came to the conclusion that parents sucked, he meant all parents.
Even the best of parents screw up from time to time, Silver reflected. And sure, he realized that everyone makes mistakes, but when those mistakes are made by someone in charge of a child, Silver thought those mistakes were a heck of a lot bigger. A parent was like someone who was constantly handling a glass ball. Drop it or bump it or even treat it too roughly one time and that ball would carry the scratches and the chips and the cracks forever.
Silver could tell that Leaf had some scratches. He didn't know exactly where they came from, but he could guess well enough. An absent father, a mother who didn't understand how bad Leaf was hurting. Silver couldn't forget the shadow that had crossed over Leaf's face that night as they talked about her father. Leaf's mother might not have understood how deeply Leaf was wounded by the absence of her father, but Silver understood.
So he sent Leaf a letter. I have something I need to talk to you about in person. Meet me at the Lake of Rage. And he set up his camp and waited for her to come.
