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"There you go, officers," Ryan landed down in front of the Timely Bank and Trust, the two would-be bank-robbers encased in hard-to-break coils of cosmic energy. He'd been there to grab some cash for a haircut when the two dunderheads had decided to try and rob the place.

Seriously, who even robs banks in New York anymore? Between all of the various superhero groups - and they were on their third generation of heroes now, really - it was one of the stupidest things to do.

"Thank you...Lucent Lad?" The officer looked up at Ryan, raising an eyebrow.

"Stellar, actually," Ryan replied with a grin. It was designed to hold back a grimace."Lucent Lad was too...dorky." That had been the name he'd chosen for himself back when he and his brother Jacob had first moved back to New York and...no. He'd changed the codename soon thereafter. Sadly, though, some people still remembered it. "Anyway, though! Money's back in the safe. They're all checking to make sure things balance. I gotta jet but, you know. You might wanna tell these knuckleheads that robbing banks in New York is so eighteen-hundreds."

With a wave, he flew back up into the air, relishing the feel of the rushing wind against his face. When he was high enough, he turned away from midtown and headed towards his stylists' place, lost in thought.

A lot had happened in the last couple of weeks, it felt like. Remi and Alexa had given birth to their baby. The Pier had been attacked by a group of villains. He'd had some auditions that had gone really well, and others that had gone less so. (But he was doing a small thing off-Broadway, so that was nice.)

He sometimes wondered what it'd be like to settle down and start a family of his own but, realistically, he was far from ready for that. There was so much he still had to do, so much he still had to experience. So much growing he still had left to do. It worked for people like Remi and Alexa, but for people like Ryan...

Not yet.

He landed in front of his stylist's realized he still had an hour to kill before he went in.

Heh. Oops. He flew over the street and landed in front of the coffee shop that was directly opposite the salon. Coffee and a muffin couldn't hurt...

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"Usually pretty busy around this time, honestly." There was a three to four hour block where it was generally crazily busy here, but Ryan had a standing appointment with his stylist.

Well, when the world wasn't in danger from one thing or another. Honestly, he was surprised he hadn't been dropped as a client. Granted, he ensured that his stylist was paid for when Ryan didn't show up, tip and everything. It was only fair.

"Though I get it. Their coffee's never over-roasted." He nodded, but he didn't take a seat. Not yet, anyway. "Things are, you know, good. The same as always." He smiled thinly. "Not much to talk about. How about you?"

"Things are going kind of well on my end." She had a thin smile herself. She took a sip of her latte before speaking again. "I am busier than ever with work."

Alisa thought for a moment, before looking back up at Ryan.

"How is Mary doing? How are the others? I heard about what happened and... I was worried about all of you. And on a friendly level, mind you." She did show a bit of concern on her face.

"Well, that's good," Ryan said. "We're okay," he added. "I mean, we're heroes. That kind of thing is bound to happen," he shrugged. He had, after all, moved to New York to try and build up that life of being a superhero. It was a family legacy, and even though he may not have been related to Franklin, Valeria, and Mary by blood, they were bound by the relationship that their parents had shared. "Everyone's okay, though." Because if anything, the Imaginauts were a capable group. Maybe not all the way there, but capable nonetheless.

"That's good to hear." She gave a nod of her head, feeling much better with the knowledge that everyone was okay. "I can sleep a little better knowing that everyone is alright."

She sipped her latte, placing the empty mug on the table before sitting back some.

"You do not want to talk to me, do you?"

"Glad to hear you're so concerned," he said. He knew that she had hit it off pretty well with Mary, and he'd have to pass on that he'd run into her.

Ryan's lips twitched. "Let's be honest, Alisa. Did you want to talk to me when I walked in? I'm doing the polite, sociable thing. Meet an ex, say hello, politely catch up. It's how things work." It was true. He could have just pretended he hadn't seen her, ignored her, and moved on, but Ryan wasn't that sort of guy. Or if he was, things hadn't gotten to the line where he no longer felt the need to be a nice, sociable person.

"Actually, I had planned on ignoring you given the last "chat" you gave me." Alisa frowned some, running a hand through her hair. "I was merely being polite once you started to talk to me. But I was concerned for the others at the Pier, truly."

Her eyes narrowed for a moment before she stood up, placing her bag over her shoulder.

"You always claimed we were "friends" after we broke up. But never did you want to hang out with me. I always had to ask or invite you over, and it made me feel awful. Like I was not worth your time! It was like you were ashamed to know me or something!"

Ryan raised an eyebrow.

He also sat down.

Alisa standing up and picking up her purse meant that she was likely going to abdicate the table. He wanted it before anyone else there tried to lay claim to it.

"Alisa," he said calmly. "Before either I or Alistaire had entered your life, had you had any serious romantic relationships?"

"No. Alistaire was my first sexual relationship. You were my first ever boyfriend. Fuck, you two were also the first friends I ever made." Her arms folded across her chest. "What does this have to do with anything, Ryan?"

She hated to admit all of that, especially in public.

"Oh hey. Language. There are kids with their nannies about," he said. "Look. The staying friends thing? It's something all people who are about to become exes say to each other. It's really just code for lets-be-civil-if-we-run-into-each-other-in-public-places-or-social-situations. Like, you know, this." He indicated the two of them in that moment.

"Think about it, Alisa. I tried to date you, but I was also constantly being interrupted by the first guy to ever turn your cherry out." That was an ambiguous enough, family friendly turn of phrase, wasn't it? "And he wasn't letting go of the stem to that cherry. It wasn't exactly a situation I wanted any connection to. When you called, when you needed a friend, I came. Because that's what friends do. But I also didn't want to give you any mixed signals about where we stood, because you did do a lot of flip-flopping between Alistaire and myself and I didn't want to make things any more complicated. It wasn't healthy, and I wanted out of the equation. I mean, I bet the next guy you date is going to have to deal with his overly pampered shadow as well."

Ryan shrugged. "I'm sorry that I hurt you, Alisa. But when I said we'd be friends, I didn't mean that we'd become besties for life. It...rarely works that way. And not in the triangle that we were in."

"I thought you wanted to be my friend. An actual friend." Alisa fought to keep her composure. She was shaking, and her hands were balled up into fists at her side. "You would not have given me any mixed signals. You told me flat out you were interested in someone else and I got that! I am not stupid enough to try and get you back! You did not have to..."

Her hands were shaking, now.

"You know what's sad, Ryan? You are an actor, you play various roles from day to day. And the one role I needed from you, was to be my hero. And you could not even do that. Instead, when the role became too difficult for you, so you bailed without a fight."

She reached her hand up to wipe a tear from her eye.

"And in the role of my "friend", again... it was easier for you to runaway then take on the full role. You treated me like I was something to be pitied, and never had any real interest in talking or doing the things friends did. Instead of telling me the truth you lead me on to believe I had a FRIEND. And then... when I was hurt, you decided it was a GREAT time to break me down, instead of building me back up!"

Alisa shook her head.

"It's like you never grew up. Real men do not run from problems, lead other people on with false friendships, or kick people when they are down! You are not a man, Ryan Grimm. You are a little boy trying to play the role of one. And you suck at it!"

Ryan, for his part, managed to keep his composure. Mostly, all Alisa got at this point was a tired roll of the eyes. "I think you already had your hero in Alistaire Shaw, Alisa. Your employer, your lover, your...everything, really." He sighed, then. "This isn't about him, though. This is...honestly, this is about you not seeing the situation as it really is."

He shook his head. "Alisa, I came to see you when you were injured. Anytime you needed help - like needing your car, for instance - and you reached out to me, I was there. Friends do that. I never actually bailed on you. Sure, I broke up with you because our romantic entanglement became too complicated, and it's not fair for you to lay that on me when you couldn't decide who you actually wanted do be with. Besides, friendship? There's many different kinds. Maybe you're trying to stick me into the wrong friend slot."

He shrugged. "Believe whatever you want, Alisa, but I never lied to you, I never played you, I never set out to ruin your life. I dated you despite my family disagreeing with my decision on it. I've been there for you as much as would be reasonably possible, but come on. There, at the Pier, you're the one who brought up how you wished you could have told me that you loved me. You're the one who told me that you changed the color of your eyes for my brother. Do you have any idea how bizarre all of that was? Any reasonable person would have stepped away."

He took a deep breath. "I admit that I'm generally a pretty immature guy. I still spend my Saturday mornings in my Pokemon pajamas eating cereal and watching cartoons on Netflix. But I never once ran away from you, as you put it. I stepped away because you were being uncomfortably clingy and indecisive. Remember how you wanted to be an actress for five minutes there? Oh, you'll find some way to justify it, but that felt like you trying to get back into my world somehow. Like you'd lucked out with Alistaire so you were running back to me." He shook his head. "Whatever soap opera life you've got running on in your head, Alisa, snap out of it. I mean, listen to yourself, right now. I'm not the one who sounds like a lovescorned teenager."

"I wanted to be with you, not him! I was willing to give up everything to just be with you, but it never mattered. You were never going to come back in that way! I was just happy to have you as a friend, though!" Alisa's fists were shaking more. "And what other friend slots are there? There are friends, and there are enemies!"

She took a deep breath, trying desperately to calm down. Ryan hit her everywhere that hurt. Every part of her inside that was open and festering took a blow. She looked flustered when he brought up how she changed her eyes and wanted to be an actress.

"Fine, Ryan. You got me. I'm an emotionally stunted teenager. I cannot do anything "nice", just wrong. Really wrong." There was no frown on her face, no smile. "I am incapable of seeing things the way you do. I hurt easily, and when I do I act like a wounded beast. EVERYTHING is black and white with no shades of grey in between!"

This was all just humiliating and she realized she made a total ass out of herself, making that hurt inside of her even worse.

"I DID want to be an actress, I always have. I gave up after I received some sage advice that I should go back to doing what I do best. To stop being something I am obviously not and can never be." Her voice was low, now. "Apparently what I am good at is screwing everything up and being the embodiment of chaos in someone's life, much less my own."

Edited 2014-11-24 17:38 (UTC)

"I mean, there are associates-slash-acquaintances, useful contacts, favour friends, fun friends, helpmates, confidantes, work friends, Facebook friends, frenemies, best friends...there's a whole list out there. It's not just friend-or-enemy, and if that's how you think the world works, Alisa, then I'm kind of glad we did break up. You clearly can't see beyond extremes, and I'm glad you're starting to realize that. It's all kinds of unhealthy."

He hadn't really glanced at the laptop when she'd pulled it out to show the file to him. As he'd said earlier, he knew that she'd find some way of justifying her actions, and no matter how rooted in truth they may or may not have been, Alisa had never been one to back down and really see the error of her ways.

"Anyone ever tell you that you're zero to sixty when it goes from being passive-aggressive to just straight up aggressive?" he asked. "Honestly, I don't care that you were in school plays or that you wanted to be an actress. That past of yours was something that we had never discussed - something that literally just came up right now, with a file that you just somehow happened to have oh-so-handily. You have to understand that, where I was coming from, and from the conversation we'd been having that day in the Pier, it just seemed really weird and clingy to me. I mean, you still don't get how weird the fact that you changed your eyes for my brother - who you'd never even met - was, do you?"

"Seriously, Alisa." Ryan stood up. "Stop always playing the victim and stop flip-flopping around between everything in your life. Grow up, make some decisions, and stand by them, otherwise the next guy you get involved with might get fed up and walk out on you as well."

Edited 2014-11-25 03:31 (UTC)

Ryan was right, she went from zero to sixty rather quickly. Now she was zero to one twenty, having to listen to him comment without understanding her. Without wanting to hear her reasoning... because then it would just be an excuse to him. Her composure started to crack as she let go.

She allowed herself to take in more anger and rage around her than usual. It was the only real emotion she understood, anyway. She feared it, it made her want to change who she was, but now she just accepted it. It was strange, but in doing so, she felt more in control and felt like her composure was being patched back up.

"Thanks, Ryan. Now if you will excuse me, I have to go. I have things to do."

As much as she wanted to punch him in the face, she refrained. No, she would do something about that later this eve. Instead, she turned her back to him and started to walk out.

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