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Lethe stared uncomfortably at the shopping list in one hand, pushing a rattling cart along with the other. Finally she turned the slip of paper over to see if it maybe came with helpful illustrations. It didn't.

Squashing the urge to crumple it up and violently litter in a fit of pre-adolescent rage, the River Fa'e sighed and briefly took her hand away from the handle of the cart long enough to allow the other to shove the list into a readily available pocket. She knew a few of the things she was supposed to get, at least: bread, milk, lettuce, apples, and cheese.

The fruit bins were closer, so she wandered towards their general direction and stopped mid-aisle, forcing any oncomers to squeeze their way around her (secretly she enjoyed the attention, just a little.) Leaving her cart there, she approached the section devoted to round colorful things that vaguely resembled apples.

She was not expecting such a variety of them. She was normally only acquainted with green, but sometimes they ate red too -- what kind did her guardian want? Or what about those interesting looking ones with splotches of red and yellow? Were those even apples?

Finally, after a moment's careful consideration, the young child picked up a particularly lopsided apple (that was, in reality, a pear) and carefully weighed it in her hand. She had no idea what this was supposed to accomplish, but she saw people do it on television and did not wish to defy social conventions. Perhaps it was some kind of ritual to claim this apple as hers.

After 'claiming' several more pieces of fruit (only two were actually apples, most were pears and a few were plums), Lethe tossed the products of her harvest into her cart and rattled away to the bakery to get the next item on her mental list.

Thankfully she had no trouble recognizing the kind of bread she ought to get -- there was only one bin, among many stacked up against a wall, filled with anything even vaguely resembling what she ate at home. Her approach quickly revealed that it would be just as challenging to get her hands on it, however -- the closer she drew to the display of bread, the farther the bin seemed to rise out of her easy reach.

Finally reaching it, the River Fa'e grunted and swung herself up on tiptoes, fingers wriggling in futility at the bin mere inches away from her outstretched hands. Even tiny, furtive hops refused to boost her up enough to allow her to lay her hands on her prize.

Sighing loudly, she retreated a few feet and, taking a running jump, launched herself at the bread bins. This failed too -- she managed to hook her hands around the edge of the bin she wanted and dangled there for a moment, but the entire wooden stand gave a rather threatening creak and, stuck, she was forced to give up and drop to the floor again.

She had no choice. Taking a quick look around at the other people occupying the store for what was perhaps the first time, her gaze settled on an unfamiliar figure just a few feet away at the cakes.

"Hullo, miss," Lethe called out, effortlessly making her voice as sweet as possible. She tried her best to look lost and helpless, nervously yanking at the ends of her curls. "I was just wondering -- could you help me, maybe? I can't reach the bread I need..."

It took Lethe the entire length of the other woman's speech (only half-heartedly but stiffly correcting, "Lethe," at the appropriate time) to remember who she was and how it was that she knew her so badly.

Of course, of course -- Keir! But she looked so different now, so.. so unattractive. Obviously Dusty had not only inherited but stolen many of her better traits. Lethe pondered this bewilderedly as the cat Fa'e dumped the bin of bread onto the ground and began storming away.

And then she realized she was being insulted.

"Hey -- hey!" She protested a little too late, starting after Keir before remembering her cart and halting on her feet. Twisting on her heels, she grabbed for her cart and promptly turned it a 180 on its wheels before rattling after the elder Fa'e, swooping down only briefly to toss some bread into the cart as she passed it.

"Hey Kay! Why are you so mean now?! It is not enough that I don't get to see you for a long time, but now you come back all.. all zombie-like?! Has your brain been eaten?!"

"I am not going to be infected with babies," Lethe said slowly, and with the certain tone one would adopt when talking to very small children and crazy bag ladies, "I don't do the jumping-on-the-bed thing with other boys and using them as chairs and things."

"Anyway, you used to be pretty!" She began again after a pause, having some difficulty navigating through the aisles with her cart. "I don't know, maybe if you didn't eat so much. What man anyway? Yani? What happened?"

Always had too much to say? What kind of accusation was that? How could anyone have 'too much' to say? Lethe wrinkled her nose but didn't comment on the 'observation'.

"Why wouldn't you want to be, then?" Lethe finally had the courage to take a step back and give the other woman a full head-to-toe lookover, and what she observed was not flattering. "Hades, are you looking to be an extra on an episode of Oprah? You know, where the fat lady in the audience stands up and says 'Yes, you tell him he can't hit you like that no more, girl!'"

Quite frankly, this game of insulting one another was quite exhilirating now that she had Keir on the defensive. She did not comment on the catgirl's shoplifting, not knowing what shoplifting was, nor the mess she made in dumping most of her groceries out on the shelves. It was unfortunate Keir did not pick up any of the things she had been sent here for, else her life would've been made so much easier.

Squeakily she continued to wheel after Keir, finding their joined conversation far more interesting than her own shopping trip.

"Thank you," Lethe said brightly, basking in the compliments and was either choosing to ignore the less-than-positive context or was simply trying to set Keir's fur on edge even further. "And no, now that you ask me, I am not happy. You don't even look at all like the Keir I knew, you're all.. not-so-furry and.. by now you would have set my hair on fire. And possibly your own as well, the way you are acting."

She still clearly expected the other woman to lunge at her and strangle her, and perhaps would have even happily accepted it. Then again, in retrospect, all this trouble started when Keir got all fat with babies and crazy in the head, and she missed non-crazy Keir an awful lot--

Leffy the pesty? "That doesn't even rhyme!" Lethe screeched to a stop and howled behind her as Keir zoomed away, once again betraying her young age. Hnf. Hnf! Clearly her efforts would be better spent looking for celery to dress up or something -- if Keir didn't want to listen to her, that wasn't her fault at all, she could go on being miserable.