Gelato?

Like it was even a question! Noel was excited to see Stephen again. She didn't specifically remember much, but just he put her so at ease. She had a hodgepodge of other people's childhood memories floating around filling in her own personal memory shortcomings. Some of them were his. Maybe that was the difference. People who shared their history with her?

Grom. 20 min.

At least... she tried to send that. Maybe it did. Did it? The memorymancer went into her contacts to check and when thumbing around somehow managed to delete him as a contact. Her stomach dropped down to the soles of her feet. Wait. She hadn't even double checked his picture yet!

Hyperventilating, Noel threw on some clothes and rushed out to Grom without even taking the time to braid her hair.

If she got there first, surely Stephen would recognize her...

Gelato! Nothing better than a food eaten from a paper cup with a plastic spoon as a person who infrequently launches metal objects at mach 3 in random directions! Also, who doesn't like gelato?

Why did he have 2 cups? Mind your own damn business that's why! What are you, the healthy eating police? Just because the man's 6 pack is fading does not mean you get to judge him!

Ahem

I really need to find a way to control those random outbursts...

Cafas sat, gazing around, a rare moment of tuning everything out and simply relaxing.

Hark! A female looking at him with a vaguely questioning look! Perhaps trying to figure out if he was, in fact, that one guy from the Dusk movies. Brief eye contact, a smile, a wave. As the publicists constantly told him, he couldn't afford the jerk image. Apparently he had to be the nice guy because it was the image they'd picked for him.

I bet it's the pink hair. Well it is hard to appear bad-ass when your hair is radiantly pink. I LITERALLY fight crimes as my day job! Yeah, with pink hair.

Noel put one hand on her hip to sort of add an air of casualness to her scanning of the crowd. It also helped her get her breath back after running the whole way here. Apparently her new place was a tad further from Grom than her old one. She had thought it was just down the street.

Ah. Eye contact, a smile, AND a small wave? Yeah. That'd be him. Clearly Noel needed to work on her PT if he beat her here.

The memormancer smiled back and tried to put that spark of remembrance into her eyes. Dang. He'd even bought her gelato too? He must have been waiting a while and didn't want to wait for her to get through the line too. Noel shimmied between tables and pulled her loose hair to the side in order not to sit on it as she joined the pink-haired Stephen at his table.

Dang, but that pink was tacky. Who was he was pretending to be this time? Prince Gumball?

"Okay. Tell me everything because I've got some catching up to do." Gelato catching up, that is. Because it was getting a tad melty. Noel scooped up what he'd chosen for her and took a bite. There was no such thing as bad Gelato. The look on her face was pure sugar bliss.

A short scrape of metal on concrete was most of the warning Cafas got to snap back to reality. He looked toward the sound to find the cause. He needn't have bothered, he had already guessed by the time he'd thought to look around.

"Okay. Tell me everything because I've got some catching up to do."

"Bu... Err..."

Screw it let's just go with it.

"Okay so I I've actually had a pretty uneventful time, if you don't count an unexpected trip to Korea. That was pretty eventful, though you really don't want to hear about it. Calley and I are fine still, I think. Hard to tell with him sometimes, but hey, I love him so I put up with it. A few publicity events around the place. Comic Con this year! Pretty pumped. So! How are you?"

Yeah he probably didn't need the second cup of gelato anyway... Those abs don't maintain themselves, and frankly if he didn't have the body he wasn't entirely sure he'd be able to keep up the whole superhero gig.

Korea? Oh. well that would explain why she couldn't get a hold of him for so long. She figured he was running some long game.

Oh. Okay. Kailey sounded like a sweet gir- guy!? Noel would have gasped, but her mouth was full. That meant she wasted precious gelato by inhaling it.

Noel coughed and sputtered through the rest of Stephen's explaination. "I thought you were dating a ginger?" She wheezed.

"And what, uh... what's the publicity for?" She pounded her fist against her collar bones and tried to clear her throat to get the last of the gelato out of her air passage. What the heck had he gotten himself into this time? Conartists were weird, man. Flexible morals and personalities. She just didn't get that.

For saftey's sake she set her gelato cup down before updating her friend on her goings on. "I'm fine. Finally saving up money with a steady job in the private sector. Living with a roommate that isn't a butt helps on that front, you know? And, uh, a complete lack of soacial life." Wow. Had she really been that boring this whole time? Noel frowned.

A ginger? More of a black and white Moggie really... Oh wait she meant Allison. "Nah that wasn't real. More a contractual obligation than anything else. Still, people wanted it to be true so it didn't take much convincing really." Really, how anyone could have missed them telling people it was fake was kind of beyond Cafas. The choking came as no surprise however. He was utterly used to the Reaction by now. Omigosh you date a BOY!?! It was the sputtering of shattered dreams, or so his friends liked to inform him.

What was the publicity for? Seriously? "Uh, you know, Dusk, those movies I'm in?" Seriously who was this girl? and why did she seem vaguely familiar? Maybe he'd seen her at a convention before of something. He never could quite tell, he saw so many faces and only had so much head storage.

"I'm fine. Finally saving up money with a steady job in the private sector. Living with a roommate that isn't a butt helps on that front, you know? And, uh, a complete lack of social life."

"Steady money and growing savings, in NYC? Wow, well done, seriously. And what's living with someone who's not a butt like? It must be nice." No offence Calley. The social life was barely worth commenting on it was so average for his fans.

Dusk? Noel tapped her chin. Oh!

"Is Dusk that one about vampires? I think I got beat up by a hulking red lady in front of one of... Ah- Don't worry." He might have looked a bit worried there. "I led her away from the crowd until she got hit by a cop car. Wrapped that one up nicely." And topped it with a self-satisfied smile. "Didn't even have to use a gun."

Really. The hate people had for stupid fictional characters... which reminded her... "Oh. So. You were in that?" Noel picked up her gelato cup and scraped around the edges for any morsel that may be left.

Why the heck would Stephen be in it? Wouldn't he have told her about that? Wouldn't that be the absolute worst thing for a conman to have a recognizable face?

If she had the wrong guy now, wouldn't that be awkward?

Cafas was almost impressed. He could do with more people in New York who could actually look out for themselves, especially without resorting to firearms. He really hated when people missed, too much chance of collateral. Not that he could really talk...

"Nice. The city could use more people like you. Resourcefulness like that isn't exactly commonplace."

"Oh. So. You were in that?"

...

Either this girl was better at acting than Cafas (Which was not difficult, though he liked to think he'd improved a lot over the course of the movies) or she really didn't know who he was. The former seemed unlikely based on the average Dusk fan. the latter raised the question, who the heck had she mistaken him for? Or did she simply sit down with a total stranger and start talking to them like an old friend?

"Yeah, I was. Though I'm not sure it was the smartest move. The money was great, but it's making my job just that little bit harder."

Undercover work was next to impossible, balancing the publicity tours with the X-men was tricky, and every criminal he came across had some witty thing or other to say. Fairy King Pinky was not a title he had ever hoped to have.

I wish I could do this more often. I feel like I never really get to talk to people properly any more...

> "Nice. The city could use more people like you. Resourcefulness like that isn't exactly commonplace."

Noel flushed with pride but would never be bashful enough to deny such a claim. "Well. Not exactly like me." That could be a disaster. But, maybe just one or two so she could start a support group.

And cue awkward. Noel set the gelato cup down and frowned at the stranger she'd been merrily conversing with. "So your given name is not, in fact, Stephen." She made a disgusted sound and put her hands over her face. "I am such an idiot."

How was she going to explain this one without making things worse? "Did I just eat someone else's...? I am so, so sorry. I can pay for that. I was meeting someone and... he changes appearance a lot and I have sort of this memory thing and I messed up my... yeah. Uhm. I can go. If you want?"

There were lots of placating hand motions and pointing, and less and less eye contact as she fumbled along through her explaination. Oh. Sure. She could wipe a stranger's memory, but then she'd be right back here looking for Stephen and maybe making the same mistake with someone who was far less pleasant.

Stephen hey? "Nope, name's Cafas, and I don't think this qualifies you for idiocy." On a blind date maybe? Hopefully no guy around thinking he's been stood up.

Cafas sat smiling and trying not to laugh at the ludicrousness of the situation as the girl tripped over herself trying to apologise and explain. She seemed really flustered. Probably something to do with the memory thing. He could imagine how memory loss issues could make this sort of thing twice as bad.

"Please don't worry about the gelato, you just saved me several hours in the gym. As for leaving I'd honestly rather you didn't, though if you have to meet this Stephen I get it. I honestly don't get much of a chance to just chat to someone new these days, let alone attractive women."

It likely said a lot about the life of an X-man movie star that this was probably the most normal interaction he'd had with a stranger in months... Maybe even a year. No fight, no arrests, no screaming, no autographs or photos or random interview question.

Then again, X-man movie star...

Yellow eyes (formerly blue) tried their best to make contact with the hazel eyes across from them, a look of reassurance (or as best as he could muster) on his face. "Seriously though it's absolutely fine."

So... this was what famous people were like? Noel never imagined they were forgiving and social. Charismatic, sure, but... "You really bought two gelato cups for yourself." That wasn't a question, she knew he'd spoken the truth. Amusement was creeping in on the embarrassment now.

Her bum had been hovering just above her chair, ready to vacate it at a moments notice, but now she sat right back down. Okay. So she didn't really get out much, but this was still nice. This could be a funny story to tell her roomie later.

As for the real Stephen, Noel rolled her lips in on each other and checked her phone. Did her text even go out? She didn't have his number anymore... Should she make a note or something...?

Best to put it out of her mind for now. Noel pocketed the phone.

"Well, when you find an attractive woman, let me know." She teased. "Hey, aren't you...?" Noel gave a little shrug and an eyebrow raise rather than outright saying it. He had just allowed her to steal his gelato and share a table. She was trying to be sensitive... or something.

"You really bought two gelato cups for yourself." Sounded like a statement, or rhetorical question, still, Cafas answered. "Yeah, I have this problem where I have money for the first time in my life and a whole life of childish desires to fulfil." His face read as slightly embarrassed by the lack of self control.

"Well, when you find an attractive woman, let me know." Eyebrow arched, a smile, a slight shake of the head. He knew this game, he was bad at it. "I suppose it's true, you found me, not vice versa." Calley wouldn't approve, but cats are jealous creatures by nature. Maybe he would approve? Cafas hadn't been game to compliment anyone in front of him.

"Hey, aren't you...?" she left it, but Cafas felt he could guess. "Having a boyfriend, it would seem that way, wouldn't it? But no, I'm straight, with a single exception." Granted so long as the exception would have him Cafas wouldn't be exercising that straightness. He didn't even begin to mind.

Childish desires? "Did you buy a ball pit yet? Or rent a hot tub limo with DJ?" Hmm. She tapped her lips. What other childish fantasies would she fulfill if she had gobs of money? "Ohh! Roll around in a pile of it? Maybe bills instead of coins. Coins seems like a bad idea, actually." There was something about Cafas that made Noel want to babble on. She shut her yap in an attempt to give the movie star an opportunity to speak.

And really, the whole not gay but liking a dude thing was off the deep end for Noel's mental health. "That makes my brain hurt." But God hadn't yet smitted... smitten? smote? him yet. So he was probably okay.

But... beard stubble touching! Noel shook her head to get that thought right on out of it. Ick. "Yeah. I don't think that's for me." Luckily, that would probably never come up. "I pretty much gave up on the whole dating thing anyway. It gets messy."

"... I need a ball pit. The limo was provided for me to go to red carpets, and I filled a tub with $100s and pretended to bathe in it. Mostly now I'm just on the "eat as much ice cream as physically possible" phase." The tub thing had been anti climatic. Looked impressive though. He felt like a total tool after.

Hurts her brain? How's she think I felt...

As for not being for her, it wasn't really for the majority of people, and it was a confusing situation to find himself in.

"I pretty much gave up on the whole dating thing anyway. It gets messy."

"No kidding, it only gets messier when your day job is 'super hero'. You're already an emotional wreck from the constant exposure to messed up stuff and messed up people and then add a break up onto it, or worse, a new relationship." That and the guy being homophobic, rejecting you, coming to you, rejecting you, a couple of minor injuries, jealousy and a defenestration... Still, all's well that ends well.

I am insane... There is no other explanation...

Nod. Nod. Wow. He really had hit the highlights. "And then hit the gym and get shamed by your personal trainer, no doubt. Yeah. That's pretty common even among ye of little cash except with dark chocolate, jogging trails, and self-doubt." Gelato was for special occasions only and mandated extra helpings of self-punishment in the jogging department.

Snort. "Super hero movie star? You actually believe all the things coming out of your mouth. I'm totally impressed. It's like you're from another planet." But really, she did not envy his celebrity (assuming he actually had any) at all.

"I get that messed up stuff throws your emotions out of whack. I work security and people are stupid. The stereotype of being cynical and jaded has a decent basis in reality. Cops and, uh, super heroes fall in that same vein, I guess."

But what she didn't get was why a new relationship would be worse than ending an old one. "Aren't new relationships supposed to be all warm fuzzies and walking on air?"