Sun was high in the sky as the Ranger made his way about the streets of New York City. Having been up since sunrise he was beginning to drag and figured some coffee would work as a pick me up. Although it would not be his preferred Colombian coffee.

Thus going to a shop being the way of receiving the less preferred form of coffee he cared not much for what place he went. The nearest would do. As luck would have it, or just the fact this is New York City, a shop was on the corner down and across the street, in no way far from where he was.

A couple of minutes later and he was approaching the shop. As he neared he noticed a woman who was also headed to the coffee shop. Being the gentleman he is, when they were both close he slid ahead of her and opened the door to hold it for her.

Early morning shoots were not something Riley was fond of. Her lifestyle and money making methods since she’d graduated from high school had made her a dedicated night owl, and getting up before 10 was sometimes more difficult than it had any right to be. Still…Riley liked paying her rent, and loved the new rep she was getting. Photographers wanted to work with her now and she was slowly working her way into the crème de le crème of the pin-up industry. Granted, they were still the sleaze of the modeling industry…but it was the best Riley could do.

At least until she got some coffee.

Damn Aurum and his good taste in the stuff. His snobbish, high browed coffee taste was starting to rub off. It didn’t matter that they’d really only drank coffee together three times (Once being in a police station)…Riley knew that she’d never been this interested in the stuff before…and Aurum was the only variable.

The little coffee shop Riley was heading for wasn’t out of her way at all, and the warm spring day made Riley smile, her rare good mood permeating everything. Maybe she’d get an iced coffee today instead of the usual warm fare. She approached the door, just lifting her arm to grab the handle…when someone slipped ahead of her and grabbed it instead.

About to pitch a fit about how rude it was to cut someone off at a door, Riley swallowed her comment when the door opened and stayed that way. The person she'd thought was cutting her off was holding the door.

For her?

The dark haired woman dropped her head a bit and peered over her shades at the man who was holding the door for her. Slowly, a dark eyebrow rose and she regarded him seriously before letting out a little snort of laughter and moving through the portal and into the coffee shop. ”Cute.” she mused, making her way to the counter. Yeah…iced coffee. Yum.

The door opened the woman looked at the Ranger. Then with a snort she made her way into the shop and the Ranger could hear comment on it with the word cute. Just, cute.

Is saying thank you that hard? Two words of common courtesy. Normally this would not have been too big of an issue, but normally when people don't say thank you they don't say anything. This woman went out of her way to scoff at his effort.

"Yer welcome." The Ranger called out to her, a blend of confusion from her reaction and irritation at it in his voice.

He then entered the establishment himself letting the door close behind him. Shaking his head, New York City... these Yanks just can't ever behave like human beings.

He actually called after her, and Riley had look over her shoulder at him to chuckle. The whole thing was just so darn silly. Who did things like that without an ulterior motive? No matter what he said or did, or how much of an affronted persona he took on, there was no way Riley was going to believe that he’d actually intended to simply be a gentleman.

Gentlemen didn’t exist in the modern day, at least not the way that Riley expected them to in order to earn the name. Nope, even if the gesture had been genuine and polite, Riley didn’t buy the whole deal. If he was the ‘gentleman’ he professed, he’d leave her be and there wouldn’t be a problem.

The line wasn’t long, non-existant in fact, which suited Riley just fine. She succinctly ordered her iced coffee with chocolate sauce and caramel, got it, and moved to find a seat where she could relax and write down the next week of bookings in her agenda.

Riley sipped the coffee. It was good, really good. She sighed, good days were good. Even if they involved cornball men who apparently didn’t know they were living in New York.

The woman looked back at him and laughed. Teaching manners to this city just wasn't worth it sometimes. He just followed her into line and didn't say anything further.

She ordered her coffee, got it, and left to find a seat. The Ranger then ordered his coffee, black. After a few years out on missions where supplies were limited black coffee was about the only thing you could have. His coffee in hand he made his way to a vacant table not far away from the counter. He then whipped out his phone to check email and various other online things. It seemed most New Yorkers would do such things as they made their way about the sidewalks. The Ranger avoided doing such as when engrossed in your phone you are not fully aware of your surroundings especially when your surroundings are constantly changing.

He hadn't had his coffee long when another customer entered and was ordering his coffee. It was evident by his voice he was already irritated to say the least. When he was eventually handed his coffee he took a sip and then slammed it down demanding another that one was wrong. At this point he was berating the young people behind the counter.

The Ranger took a gulp of his coffee, slid his phone into a pocket, and rose to his feet. This wasn't his business but someone needed to straighten this guy out, letting someone know your order is wrong is one thing but he was crossing the line.

"Sir, I think ya need t' calm down."

The man wheeled around to find who had addressed him. Spotting the Ranger he fired back, "This doesn't involve you pal, you had best just back off!" As he said that he moved forward and pushed the Ranger back.

The Ranger rotated at his hips and struck the man with his right palm in the chest sending him back. The guy hunched over and the Ranger took his coffee and made his way for the door. Most likely the man would not take kindly to the Ranger's retaliation so he would attempt to draw him out of the shop.

Problem was the man was down shorter than the Ranger thought he would. The man grabbed Ranger by the arm, the Ranger turned to face him, rotated his arm to break it free, and then drove him down onto the nearest table.

"I told ya, t' calm down." He barked at the man before looking up to see that the table had been occupied, by that woman no less. "My apologies miss."

Riley had finished writing out her schedule for the next week, and had just settled in to read her book for a while when a bit of a commotion broke out. Some jerk , mad about his coffee order, started giving the people behind the coffee bar a hard time. Riley rolled her eyes, she hadn’t come to this place to listen to this sort of thing, and it put a mental check in the ‘negative’ column she kept running in her head. If this was the sort of thing that happened in this shop, Riley didn’t want to be a part of it.

The argument escalated and for the first time, Riley picked her head up from her book. What she saw made her roll her eyes…again. The dude who’d held the door for her was apparently trying to be the customer service police now. The dark haired woman watched as the disturbance escalated until finally one of the scrufflers was on his back in the middle of her table.

Coffee was spilled everywhere, including all over her jeans, and from the looks of things, her appointment book was soaked. Riley stared for a second, chewing over what had just happened, then slowly rose, dropping her hands on her hips.

”If the cops don’t drag your sorry ass off to jail. You owe me a new coffee…and a new appointment book.” she said, fixing Mr. Chivalry with a haughty stare, completely ignoring the groaning man who’d just been tossed.

The man down the woman rose. She then addressed him claiming were he not drug off to jail that he owed her a new coffee and appointment book. Jail would be excessive, all violent acts the Ranger committed were following him being assaulted by the other individual. The coffee and appointment book? Yes, he'd by her another of each.

"Of course. It'd only be right fer me to. Though as fer jail, he assaulted me, twice." The Ranger hauled back up the man, who was now covered in coffee and would most likely have a bruise covering his entire chest very soon, and shoved him toward the door.

The lesson in behavior distributed and the student sent away, the Ranger reached into his back pocket and removed his wallet. "How much?"

Riley watched…waited…hands on her hips and ready to launch into a righteous tirade the moment the guy decided he was going to be all high and mighty and not replace her things.

But then…he agreed with her.

A look of surprise crossed Riley’s features that had never graced her face before. He’d actually agreed. ”You…what?” she said incredulously, watching as the jerk was hauled up and sent towards the door.

A wallet was produced, and Riley blinked in her surprise, unsure exactly how to respond. Surprise faded from her features, only to be replaced by narrow-eyed suspicion, ”What’s your game buddy? “ she said, crossing arms over her chest and looking at his wallet like it was going to bite her. Things just weren’t adding up.

The woman was surprised by him agreeing to pay for her destroyed things. The Ranger was surprised by her surprise, but nowhere near as obviously so. He reasoned he shouldn't be so surprised, owning up to what you've done and paying your debts seems to be something people in cities just don't always do. They tend to try to place blame on everyone but themselves.

"I'll pay fer a new coffee and planner. How much?"

From there her surprise became suspicion, and she asked him what his game was. The Ranger looked at her like she had lost it. "No game, I wrecked yer stuff an' it's only right I pay fer it." He stated it matter-of-factly. still holding the wallet waiting for her to tell him how much.

Riley’s eyes stayed narrow, and her arms stayed crossed, this guy seemed pretty insistent that he was only trying to do the right thing. But…who did that?

Riley stared at the guy, waiting for the other shoe to drop…but it never did. He was really offering to replace the things that he’d ruined.

More surprise. Riley was speechless. Well that had never happened.

Bending at the knees, Riley picked up the agenda from the ground and looked at it. There really wasn’t all that much coffee splattered on it….and the pages would dry.

”Actually…” Riley said, mild contrition creeping into her voice, ”I think this will be okay…” That said, she glanced woefully at the spilled drink, ”I will take you up on the coffee though….”

”And really…who throws someone into a table?”

The woman stared at him for a while through narrowed eyes. Clearly she was unaccustomed to common courtesy and was expecting him to do something. Eventually the woman bent down and reclaimed her planner. She then changed her tune a little and decided the planner was okay, but she would take another coffee. Then, she asked who throws someone into a table.

"Someone who doesn't have the room t' hit 'em with a chair." The Ranger shrugged, slamming the guy into the table was just the easiest way to hurt the guy enough to make him stop. "What kinda coffee do you want?"

”Ice mocha with caramel.” Riley said, trying to digest the rest of what the guy had said about not wanting to use a chair. If she hadn’t known better by this point, she’d have thought he was being sarcastic. Somehow…someway…Riley knew that he meant every word he said. It was a little beyond strange.

The workers behind the coffee bar were still staring at the scene in shock, one of them with a cordless phone dangling from their hand. Riley almost laughed again. ”Something tells me they’re probably not going to be in the mood to serve you.”

Sure enough, almost as soon as the words were out of her mouth, the youth holding the phone raised it to begin dialing. Now Riley did laugh.

”Whether you think it was your fault or not…the police are going to be looking for someone to pay for the damage to the table, and you’re going to be out a lot more than a coffee if you don’t hit the road. “

They'd see just how squeaky morally clean the guy was now...and Riley would have put money on him running for the door. People who could throw a guy around like that simply didn't like to talk to cops.

She told him what her order was, but as she pointed out the staff at the shop didn't look like they would be willing to serve him. He looked down at the table, ot was bent down on the side which the man had been slammed down on. It wasn't bent bad, but was noticeable.

Police response time in New York City being just over seven minutes gave him time to act. The table may have been structurally weak but was bolted to the ground, the Ranger took hold of the depressed side and a heave later had it tipped back up. "There we are, good as new. Now let's see if I can't get them t' stop callin' the police."

He turned and approached the counter, the person with the phone backed off away from him and the other guy moved closer, the Ranger assumed him to be the one in charge at the moment. "Please leave, we are already calling the police."

"C'mon, that guy assaulted me, an' look I fixed the table." The Ranger gestured to the table which was no longer bent. "An' besides I jus' want to pay fer another drink for that young lady over there, her's found itself all over the...well everywhere." He spoke in a calm voice trying to bring the guy to at least make the drink even if they still called the cops. He could pay for it and leave if he had to.

The young man wasn't sure what he should do, but when Ranger opened up his wallet and produced the money saying, "”Ice mocha with caramel, fer her.” he took the money, and nodded saying,

"Fine, but then get the hell out of here."

"Of course, and thank you." The Ranger reasoned he probably still had around 5 minutes until any police would arrive, and even then what officer could keep up with him should he need to flee on the off chance the officer decides to arrest him for defending himself.

Riley gaped, just a bit, when the man leaned down and righted the table, then declared it good as new. It most certainly wasn’t good as new, Riley wanted to contest, but the guy had already turned around to see what he could do about stopping a call to the cops.

The conversation was a quick one, and Riley had to admit she was a little surprised that he managed to walk away with her coffee, and curious as to whether or not they’d actually called the police. She supposed they probably should have…the other guy had been belligerent and started a fight. There had been property damage, and her jeans were probably ruined, but Riley sighed…this was simply how things went when she ventured out in public. They were just jeans. Cheap ones too.

The guy, and more importantly her coffee, approached and Riley took the cup with a mild frown on her face. It was frustrating when a healthy dose of righteous indignation had to go to waste. ”Thank you.” she said, still unsure how to react beyond that.

”Do you really think they’re going to call the cops?”

The coffee was brought to the Ranger and he took it over and handed it to the woman. She took it and thanked him. Then, she asked him if he thought they'd really call the cops.

"I can never tell what yanks'll do... Either way leavin's in my best interest. Either they already called the cops and he had only minutes left, or they would call the cops if he didn't soon leave.

The Ranger held out his hand, "Michael Hunter." It would have been rude of him to leave without first introducing himself.