Suit... Too dressy.

T-shirt... Too cheap.

Button down... Too "Dad".

Where the hell did he keep his casual dating clothes?

He tried the next drawer, he found some nice jeans, and eventually found a T-shirt and button up combo that looked... fashionable? As Fashionable as he was going to get for a casual stroll.

Wallet, keys, phone, sunglasses, yep, he was packed. A moment of hair grooming later Cafas was strolling out his door feeling kind of silly. Really were they fooling anyone with this dating charade? It didn't even seem like anyone at the mansion was fooled. Maybe he was just not paying enough attention.

Speaking of not enough attention had that girl been staring at him? Who knew, kids at the mansion were wacky creatures. Gargoyle? Man lizard? Pish, normal day. Guy with pink hair, whoa that's really weird! Maybe she recognised him as an X-man or something, a few of the kids had that hero worship thing going on...

Out the door, down the lane.

It wasn't a very long walk, but he took his time, he was running a little early. He rounded the final corner, and there she was. "Hey, how you doing? Shall we? I could use a coffee."

Allison’s (enforced) fashion had developed a bit from the first pretend date. She had not at all appreciated getting attacked while wearing a skirt, and while there had been no more attacks (on publicity dates, anyway), she didn’t particularly want to be wearing any more skirts on them either. Really, skirts in general she was becoming a bit less fond of.

The PR peoples’ first suggestion to that had been to wear tights. Allison’s first response had been to stare, since she couldn’t reach to slap them. Fortunately they had regained ears after enough arguing, so Allison was wearing soft, brown pants, in some material she didn’t know, and a brown shirt, orange and gold threads woven through it, and for once, nothing in black or pink, though she still had vine-like ink growing from her wrists over her hands and up her arms, disappearing beneath the sleeves. Similar, smaller patterns spun out from one eye, ending in a crescent of orange flowers.

No one could say that Allison’s fashion wasn’t distinctive, anyway.

She smiled as Cafas arrived, automatically, and grinned at his questions; as if this wasn’t pre-planned, as if he was nervous, as if there was anything genuine at all going on. Allison wasn’t really sure what he was aiming for, but it amused her anyway. “Coffee sounds good.” Possibly actual coffee this time, for that matter, instead of smoothies and hot chocolate and anything but caffeine. She didn’t used to caffeine enough for it not to affect her thoughts, and normally Allison’s thoughts were scattered enough anyway. Recently, though, thinking was not really on her list of favorite things to do. So maybe she would actually get coffee. “Do you think they have banana bread?”

This coffee store wasn’t one Allison was familiar with; for that matter, the entire area wasn’t one she was familiar with. Not in its current form, anyway; she kept seeing buildings that looked quite similar to wrecks she knew in the dream, which made her much more comfortable than it ought to have been.

The amount of people nearby were less reassuring, even if she wasn’t totally sure any of them were looking at her, and was sure that most weren’t. Really, even if the dream was of something real… as much as the future can be, anyway… it should not have had that much impact on her. This wasn’t an unusual crowd for New York, and wouldn’t have bothered her at all a month ago. Some part of her had gotten used to emptiness, though, even with only a dream to learn it in.

Coffee definitely sounded good.

"Week two, day six. Cafas, a.k.a. my soulmate (er...omit that from the transcript), has exited the mansion. He is dressed to impress—and looks quite dapper, I might add. It looks like he is ready for a day in the public eye," Alice whispered into a secondhand tape recorder, eyes squinting in concentration, "This investigator will follow the subject closely." She crept along the mansion's wrought-iron gate, careful to be as sneaky and silent as possible. The pink-haired celebrity had already noticed her staring at him earlier at school, and she could not risk him seeing her again and blowing her cover. And no, she was not stalking. She was investigating. It was her job as Xavier's lead gossip and pop culture columnist to inform her audience what was going on in their favorite celebrities' lives! It was for the good of the public!

...Ahem. In the middle of her journalistic reverie, the fourteen-year-old had failed to notice Cafas turn a corner and disappear from her view. Crud! Her eyes swiveled around wildly, trying to refocus on the object of her affection investigation. She could not lose him now! Her readers depended on her!

Alice hurriedly ran around the corner and nearly bumped into Cafas' oblivious back, stopping herself before she made contact. With a barely audible squeak, she backtracked and hid behind the side of the building, clutching her mouth with her hands. She could not make any sudden noises lest he discover her! She counted ten Mississippis before peeking back around, spying the X-Man conversing with...

"Allison, a.k.a. my mortal enemy (omit that as well). It seems they are meeting for another, ugh, date today..." she spoke into her sleeve, the recorder hidden inside it. The girl made sure to pay extra attention after that, picking up on every nuance, every subtle motion, trying (and failing) to read their lips when she could. After all, she didn't know what that crazy succubus would do to her dear Cafas.

In the crowded coffee shop, however, it was substantially more difficult to spy on the couple. Not only was it hard to hear them above the din of the chattering caffeine-drinkers, but Alice looked painfully childish and out of place amongst the more mature customers. It was obvious she did not belong in such an establishment with her uncaffeinated hot cocoa and lack of adult presence. Nonetheless, she sneaked into a quiet, inconspicuous corner of the cafe and tried to melt into the scenery. She sipped her drink and pretended to play with her cell phone, itching her nose every now and then to whisper things into her sleeve, snapping pictures of the couple with her phone when the timing seemed right. After a bit, she leaned back against the couch. It seemed she would be there for a while...maybe she should've brought some homework...

Banana... Bread? What self respecting Cafe did not stock banana bread? Not that Cafas at the stuff, but still. "Probably, don't know the last coffee place I went to that didn't." Cafas' line of conversation rolled into work, a bit of movie set gossip, that sort of thing. It was only a short walk luckily, because he would run out of work related topics pretty quickly, given that they worked together. Pretty soon they were at the door. "So anyway the illusionist lost focus and he started projecting the girl as he was imagining her... It was kind of funny, kind of messed up,oh hey here we are," Cafas pulled open the door, "After you."

The coffee shop was crowded, apparently it had featured on a TV show that was relatively famous. Cafas hadn't payed much attention, he'd just picked the nearest place that had good reviews and was considered trendy. A few minutes later they were at their table, sipping coffee. Cafas glanced down to check his X-communicator was still in pocket and noticed that his shirt and jeans were a bit... furry. Not noticeable really, as it was black and white on black and white, but still a bit annoying. He brushed what he could off discreetly, trying not to break conversation.

Is that the girl from the mansion earlier? Huh, they really aught to put some rules on where people can wander into place for the kids.

"So, Allison, you think the media buys it? They sure seem to care more since that little mishap in the park, but I don't know, should we really be hanging out more if we're meant to be a couple?"

Not that you and Calley seem to. Shut your face. Shan't.

The cafe did in fact have banana bread. Banana bread with lots of chocolate chips mixed in, even, which was more than enough to distract Allison into a good mood. Temporarily, sure, but everything was; she could find another distraction later. The caffeine should help with that.

It also helped with making everything amusing. Such as Cafas’s not so subtle attempts to defur his clothes. They weren’t that obvious, but that made it obvious that he was trying not to make it obvious, and Allison noticed anyway, so she was amused. “Duct tape can fix that problem, you know.”

She shrugged, fingers running over the edges of the plate the banana bread had been on. “The media is infamous for declaring people are dating on the basis of them being seen together once. Mostly because a lot of people prefer to keep all the drama away from the media, so the media takes any inaccurate hint they can.” Her eyes flicked over the shop, looking for anyone paying attention to them. No one seemed to be. “Unless they decide one of us is dating someone else and get into cheating scandals, I doubt they’ll notice. Spending time out of sight on dates might be good, though, so they’ll assume we’re together out of their sight at other times.” She did not comment on the park. That, in theory, had nothing to do with their relationship… but Allison had learned very, very early never to pay attention to the theory if she could see the reality, and she hadn’t missed the gossip magazines calling Cafas a knight and her a damsel.

Allison was pretty sure that damsels didn’t generally throw themselves in front of bullets to try and protect the knight, but she wasn’t very inclined to tell the media that detail. The more people underestimated her, and the more they focused on Cafas, the more pleased she’d be. And, assuming they didn’t focus exclusively on that little drama, the happier Cafas would probably be too; she had yet to meet anyone who dyed their hair that bright a color and didn’t like attention.

…And Allison was also pretty sure that the fact she was actually reading, and paying attention to, gossip magazines ought to terrify her. Seeing as she was in them, though, it was justified, if still horrifying for entirely new reasons. “Well, anyway. I doubt they’ll figure it out, but there’s no reason not to encourage them. …And probably not mention pretending in public.”

Duct tape what? Oh... "Yeah well if Calley would just stop sleeping on the clothes the minute I take them out of the drier, it wouldn't be an issue to start with." Cafas did not like having fur on his clothes.

Poor choice of boyfriend then...

Topic shifted to the media, Cafas at least had some opinions that didn't mostly involve him staring into the middle distance and smiling. "Yeah well, I didn't quite realise how much it sucks until this. Still, judging by how much interest they're taking now I'd say the movie aught to do well. Clearly we sell magazines too, I've seen our pictures every time I've walked to the store. I can't imagine what it'll be like if the movie's a hit." Or if they caught wind of the whole Calley thing. That might be messy...

Calley hates mess. Not that kind of mess idiot. I'm fairly sure he would hate any mess at all. Well... fair call.

The point about mentioning the falseness of their relationship was a bit lost on Cafas. He really couldn't see any reason not to when he was struggling to hear the conversation one table over because of the volume of chatter in the place. "I suppose we should act more couplish. I mean, what do normal couples do? Kinda new to the whole concept to be honest." Though he had some idea, pet names and holding hands, most of the rest was kept in private. Most.

“Calley?” That name sounded familiar…. Allison tilted her head, biting her lip as she tried to remember. Her eyes drifted away as she thought, and she absently pulled them back to Cafas. Perhaps a bit lower than his eyes, but oh well; that was the point of dates for most people anyway, wasn’t it? “That sounds familiar….”

Because, it clicked, it was familiar. Allison immediately choked, and coughed, before regaining speech. “Caleb? The puppy menace? Naked--” actually maybe she shouldn’t repeat that name in public. “You know him?”

“Ugh.” Allison wrinkled her nose and suppressed a shudder. “Yeah. I’ve read the magazines. Nothing to unusually extreme in them… apparently I am pregnant with a time-traveling baby, but that one also had alien Satanists, so I hope it’s not taken seriously. Just… don’t go online. The book has a fandom….” A truly, truly scary fandom. Allison hoped the post about getting Allison’s (constantly, inherently removable) tattoos (permanently) recreated on the poster was a joke.

Allison… had to think about what couples did, actually. She’d seen plenty of high school relationships, and parts of college ones, and she’d been on formalized business dates, but an actual relationship… well, she had with Aura, but that wasn’t exactly normal either. “I… kind of am too. I guess… dates. Movies, restaurants, kissing. Maybe other stuff that’s more… unique.” She grinned. “I should probably drag you shopping at some point.” And sex, but… that wasn’t happening, so Allison wasn’t mentioning it. “Disappear into the same place for a while. Possibly overnight. We could go camping.”

Oh, Allison knew Calley? He supposed he shouldn't be surprised, the mutant community was pretty tight knit. She didn't seem to approve of him... "Know him? Heck, let's just say the media would have a field day with that one." Or more, which was scary. These people really had nothing better to report.

Wait, they said she was pregnant? Just showed the kind of people that believed in aliens. "Ha, yeah well, we'd have to, well, that's just out of the question." For one, Cafas liked guys, something which had only just sunk in to start with, no need to go messing with it.

Wow... I mean, wow, man if only this was all I had to tell my parents... It's be easy compared to mutant.

Wait, online? Why not? What was a fandom? Should he be worried. Because he was. Man he needed to keep up with the whole internet thing, he just didn't have time. Last he remembered bachelor frog was a new thing. He didn't even have a computer, he used the mansion's. "Um, what does that mean? I haven't had that much time to sit down lately."

Bit of an understatement.

Kissing? Shopping? Wow his relationship with Calley must have been pretty messed up. Disappear overnight? that one seemed particularly suggestive. "Shopping seems like it would be okay, it's coming up on the time of year I actually need to do that, and I'm always up for a spot of camping. I wouldn't say no to some fishing either, haven't gone in ages." was an understatement yet again. Kissing may be an issue, but he wasn't about to mention it. "I'd say for a pair of people new to this we're doing pretty damn well. I think the obvious one is out of the question though, right? I mean, that's... Especially in public."

Yeah also you'd be killed by Calley.

Cafas' coffee was empty. That told him two things. One, he needed another coffee, two, they should likely move out. "I think it's time to grab a coffee for the road and stretch the old legs, what about you?"

“Caleb? He’s your--” Allison cut herself off again, glanced around, and lowered her voice. “You’re friends with that… asshole?” Allison… had trouble believing that. Either Caleb-the-puppy-menace behaved very, very differently when around other people (or possibly just Cafas), or Cafas was stupid… or Cafas was just kind of a masochist.

(“I seem to be getting beaten up every second day….”)

…Okay, maybe this made more sense than she originally thought. Still, him? There must be better options than that.

Allison shook her head and let the topic shift. Cafas could be as crazy as he wanted; as long as he kept the puppy menace away from her, she wouldn’t complain. Even if she didn’t comprehend it. She smirked at his reaction to the ‘pregnant’ rumor; not that she disagreed with him at all, but she at least didn’t eye the idea and back away two steps slowly before sprinting. “To be fair, most of the article was debating if it was yours or not. And something about aliens and Mayans; my brain kind of shut down before I finished.”

She coughed at the next question, which turned into giggling. “It means you really, really don’t want to know.” It also meant now that she kind of wanted him to look, just so she could see his reaction. That was kind of cruel though, so she would only encourage it if he insisted or she could do so very subtly.

“I… don’t think I’ve ever been fishing. Or, well, not actually fished.” She’d been on boats, a few of which were on fishing trips, but she hadn’t done any actual fishing; that had been left to the men (boys) who owned the boat. Really, how injuring, catching, and either releasing or killing a wild, stupid animal was supposed to be attractive…. Not that Allison had any particularly huge objections to it, either, but she didn’t consider it particularly romantic. Apparently many people did, though, so she grinned. “You could teach me.”

The grin stayed. Cafas’s hesitation was so amusing. “No, especially not in public. There would be something very wrong if the media ever saw enough to confirm that anyway. And it’s not like they need confirmation to think it….”

Old legs? Allison was pretty sure her legs weren’t old; not unless she was, anyway. And she was fairly sure she wasn’t. Stretching, however, sounded good. “Sure, sounds good.” Her own coffee was nearly gone, but she didn’t particularly want any more either, so she could just bring that with her and finish it as they walked.

Cafas decided to leave the Calley topic, clearly they weren't really going to have the same opinion on him. Cafas wasn't entirely sure he understood why he loved Calley, or why he put up with all the crap. The pregnant thing hurt his brain, and apparently the fandom or whatever was something he would be happier not knowing. Well that certainly narrowed it down. Fishing was now the topic at hand.

Odd topic at the best of times.

Cafas grabbed another coffee each from the counter before they kept walking and talking. "Not sure there's much I can teach about fishing, I've been twice. I know I think, two notes, and I'm not much at lure fishing. Bait fishing is way more relaxing anyway. I went with my dad back in Australia, bout as involved as he got with my life before he tried to kill me. I bet we can find a nice spot upstate though, calm weekend. Or we can skip that and mostly get drunk and hang out."

Alcohol plus fire, good idea, you're so smart! Shut your face, it's what you do, and I'm young, let me live it up a bit.

Cafas wandered toward a park, smiling. He figured hand in hand was probably the way to go, so he offered his free hand. What he knew about this park was limited to it had some playground and was generally considered safe. Voted least likely to get shot in. Great title for convincing Cafas to go there.

“Notes?” Allison had a vague idea of what lure and bait fishing meant, though she wasn’t sure why one would be more relaxing than the others. What Cafas meant by notes, though, she had no idea. The only notes Allison knew of were either written, musical, or an order to pay attention. Unless Cafas had actually written down notes about fishing…. “I wasn’t aware that fishing prevented anyone from drinking.” The humor in that comment might have been shooed away from Allison’s expression, but it was certainly audible. “Or much of anything else, really.”

Holding Cafas’ hand was kind of nice, in a mischievous friendly let’s-confuse-everyone-and-laugh-at-them way. Walking, unfortunately, made it a bit difficult to lean on him, which would have been a bit more romantic… well, something to make a point of later, then.

The park was, fortunately, not the one they’d gone to on the first “date;” Allison had a feeling that they’d be avoiding that one for a while. She certainly was, anyway, though it wasn’t one she’d gone to often to begin with.

This one, it turned out, was completely unfamiliar; small, with a few nicely-groomed trees scattered around, mowed grass, gentle enough slopes not to bother anyone climbing them, and a playground.

…Huh. Maybe Allison could think of more cliche romantic things. She grinned when she saw the playground, glanced at Cafas, and immediately did her best to drag him over toward the swings with her. Once she reached them, she dropped onto a swing and turned enough to grin at Cafas. “Push me!”

The couple did not seem particularly...couple-ish while at the coffee shop. They seemed quite nonchalant, though friendly. Alice did not see any behavior that irked her too badly...other than Allison's mere presence at such a proximity to Cafas. Hmph.

If anything, the girl quickly grew bored, nothing outstanding happening to sate her fleeting attention span. One could only play "Whale Trail" for so many rounds. It was an immense relief, therefore, when the couple rose to grab more coffee and leave. Finally, some action! Alice tried to stay hidden between the crowd as she surreptitiously followed her targets, catching snippets of their conversation.

"...upstate...weekend...skip that...drunk...hang out."
"I wasn’t...fishing...from drinking.”

Eep! She gasped in shock as she heard them discuss inappropriate weekend plans. Fishing must be some code word...! She deduced that Allison was a bad influence on Cafas, getting him to participate in deviant activities! Not that she really knew anything about alcohol or getting drunk. But she at least knew that it wasn't good! Or at least that's what her eighth-grade health teacher had told her...

The teenager quietly ducked out of the cafe, continuing to follow the couple as they headed to a new destination. She tried very hard not to grind her teeth at the sight of them holding hands and acting all lovey-dovey and...grrr. She pulled her hood up in an effort to further conceal herself as the number of busy-bodies on the street diminished. She noticed a few paparazzi cameramen also pursuing the movie stars, hidden behind trees and bushes and in suspicious white vans.

They descended upon a quaint, quiet park, only a few children scattered around here and there, their watchful parents perched on the benches. There weren't many places for Alice to hide, she realized.

...Man, she was getting kind of stalker-ish, wasn't she? Before she could further ponder the concern, she heard a shrill "Push me!", the voice distinctly belonging to Allison. Oh. Heck. No! The girl whipped around and saw her mortal enemy the young woman seated on a swing, selfishly waiting for her pink-haired boyfriend to give her some momentum. She was a grown adult! She could swing by herself! And...yeah! She was an adult! She was too old for swingsets! Alice pouted.

Cafas was fairly sure that drinking and fishing pretty much went hand in hand, but he was really only interested in one of those. "I suppose it doesn't."

They walked in silence for a short while, making their way to the completely nonthreatening park with its gentle slopes and almost disturbingly perfect trees. There seemed to be few enough people around the place. Cafas couldn't say he liked being quite as obvious as they were, but then, He had pink hair, so he kind of stood out everywhere.

Well, no-one shooting at us ye- GAK!

He was not expecting the sudden change in pace, Allison dragging him along by the hand like an excited child (or an excited girlfriend, though why she was so excited confused him.) towards the playground in the park. "Whoa!" It was all he could do to stay balanced, his legs yet to catch up with what was happening.

He soon found out exactly where he was being dragged, and why Allison seemed so excited. She sat herself in a swing, and left absolutely no question as to what she expected Cafas to do. "Push you? Really?" He was fairly sure she was serious however, and as such commenced with the pushing. Her weight versus his strength was never going to be a challenge. The difficult part was making sure not to send her into orbit.

Is that the same girl? And would these media guys please not show up everywhere we go.