(( OOC: Set April 26th. ))

There was a fist pump. "Yes!" Only after the fist pump and the exclamation did the blond barista realize that happy hoot had happened out loud.

Sitting there in the coffee shop, leeching wifi on his silver laptop, Aurum glanced around self-consciously. "Uh."

His happy hoot had been heard.

Agnes sighed. She really did not know why she was here. It had been awhile since the whole incident at the museum and she really did want to remain on lockdown. Especially since the video of her had made it onto ViewTube.com. She was terrified of being recognized but apparently things were beginning to settle down. Few people outside the mansion recognized her and thank god those that did drew attention. They mainly averted their gaze, not wanting to get a face full of insects of something. Either way, she was always going to either be condemned or ignored for what she could do. She was glad that the majority of people were ignoring her.

That was why the young runaway found herself in a coffee shop. She had managed to gather a little bit of money ghost writing for some of the mansion kids. Was really honest, but then again, she was tired of leeching off the school’s good graces. It was time she actually earned a little money so she could do the things she wanted to.

Like by new clothes for instance.

Looking down as she stood in line at the coffee shop, Agnes sighed as she frowned a bit at the tear in her jeans. These were her last good ones from when she was living in the streets but even they were beginning to fade and tear. Thankfully, most people who saw her just assumed it was a trendy thing she was trying to pull off. After all, you couldn’t throw a cat in this city without hitting at least one tween with torn jeans.

With a shake of her head, thankful for feeling a little anonymous, she actually smiled a little to herself. It was a good smile, a warm hearted smile, a smile that made her want to jump for joy…

>> "Yes!...Uh."

“Okay, that was totally not me,” she muttered to herself as she looked around.

Apparently everyone was now turning their attentions on this very handsome man, sitting by himself, with his laptop computer on. He looked just as flabbergasted at having been caught. Agnes couldn’t blame him.

She smiled slightly as she nodded to him, really in too good of a mood to remember that she was supposed to be the closeted, quiet girl that never spoke to anyone.

“Congratulations…on…whatever.” she said to him, and waited for her turn at the counter.

The door of the coffee shop opened and closed with the customary jingle that indicated a new customer had arrived. Riley kind of hated those bells. In fact, she kind of hated lots of things about coffee shops, which was why it was such a surprise that she kept finding herself in them lately. Interesting things happened in coffee shops despite the stereotypes that usually went with the places. The dark haired woman supposed that was because nobody who perpetuated those stereotypes had ever gotten between a beatnik and their brew.

Or maybe they’d just never drank coffee in New York. New Yorkers were as serious about coffee as they were everything else. You just didn’t mess with it. Maybe that was why Riley was in coffee shops so much lately. It definitely didn’t have anything to do with her tastes changing because of a certain apprentice lawyer. Damn him.

As if her curse had been a summoning, a shout rang out in the coffee shop, and Riley’s head swiveled so her eyes landed on the very subject of her thoughts. ”Holy shit.”

A girl…a pretty girl struck up a conversation with Aurum, and suddenly Riley was on the move.

”Good god, accosting people in your own coffee shop isn’t enough? Now you have to bother strangers in their happy place too?” Riley was Riley, and that’s all she was. Hopefully Aurum would realize she wanted to know what he was so happy about.

A girl congratulated him, casually. Aurum turned, to thank her, maybe, or to explain. He was cut off by an audible, and very familiar, profane exclamation. He turned his head. Riley stalked over to his seat, like a jealous girlfriend who'd just caught him chatting up another girl. He opened his mouth. No words came out.

"..."

Wait. Was his comparison appropriate here? He certainly hadn't been chatting up the polite girl... and he certainly hadn't done anything to make Riley think they were dating, now had he? Except maybe telling her the coffee they'd had had been a date. She'd vetoed that.

Aurum looked from Riley to the polite girl, then back to Riley. What the hell ever. "I just got the results back from the New York State Bar Exam." He announced, to the both of them, and any interested parties who strained their ears to overhear. "I passed."

Riley was being Riley. Surely, there hadn't been jealousy influencing her mind. Or so, he thought.

>> ”Good god, accosting people in your own coffee shop isn’t enough? Now you have to bother strangers in their happy place too?”

The man was joyful, and he looked as if he were about to explain why when another voice suddenly cut in between them. Agnes had figured for a moment that it was just someone speaking too loud, but as she looked over, she watched as a very, very pretty young woman came directly towards the seated man. She was quick and she looked and sounded almost as if she were staking her claim on the jovial man. So much for innocent conversation.

>> I just got the results back from the New York State Bar Exam…I passed."[/color]

Agnes smiled and nodded in an impressed way. “Congratulations. That sounds like it was tough.” A glance up to the woman who was with him and Agnes immediately felt like she was intruding. Maybe it was better that she quit while she was ahead. The last thing she needed was a fight for no absolute reason in this place. “Anyways, congrats again.”

With that she turned and found that she was next in line. What good timing. She ushered herself forward, ordered a frappuccino and moved off to the side to wait for her order to be fulfilled. Today was a good day. She managed to go outside for awhile without being attacked by any sort of crippling fear. That had to be improvement of some type didn’t it? At least no seemed to remember the ViewTube video of her on the internet. That or simply no one recognized her. That definitely made her feel good.

Things were finally looking up. At least she hoped.

With a sigh she planted herself against a wall, watching for when her drink would be ready. She no longer paid any attention to any more cheering lawyers or possessive girlfriends. She was just happy to have avoided an altercation. Slowly she could feel that she was gaining some kind of control over her abilities. It was coming, slowly but surely.

The pretty girl congratulated Aurum and moved on her happy little way. Riley could tell, on closer inspection, that the girl really was just a girl, and suddenly she felt a little stupid about this whole thing. Marching into the coffee shop like she owned the place, and walking up to Aurum like she…gave a damn who he was talking to. That was ridiculous. Just because they’d had that coffee date, and just because Riley had sprinted out of that coffee date like someone had set her drawers on fire.

Oh man. That coffee date. Riley had almost succeeded in completely forgotting about that damn fiasco. Horrified at the blush creeping up her cheeks, Riley simply stared at Aurum for a moment after he’d given his news. He’d passed the Bar. He was a real lawyer now. Riley resorted to the only thing she could when her instincts kicked in.

Snark.

”Well congratulations.” she intoned, completely oblivious to why she was punishing him for several things that were definitely her fault.

” I won’t make you mingle with the common folk for too long. I’m sure you’ve got loads of important lawyer stuff to do. Just a small world I guess.” she said it with a smile, and somewhere inside she really was sincere about the congratulations.

Ah. There was the old familiar Riley snark. Amid a confusing blush, and mentions of 'commonfolk' that all seemed very suspicious... now, he was suspicious.

"Well, thanks..." He said slowly, watching the woman carefully. "It's nice to know you still... 'care'..." With intoned air quotes. Cautiously-added ones. "Are you feeling alright, Riley? Your face looks a bit fevered..." And he wouldn't even get started on her mood. Or the fact she had fled from him, the last time he'd paid her a kind of compliment.

Snark for snark. Riley almost smiled. Thank God he hadn’t been all nice to her. That would have been horrifying….just like it had been in the last coffee shop. He was glad she still ‘cared’. Riley could almost see the implied quotation marks…they were so well implied, and her smirk widened as she dropped her head in the barest nod of acknowledgement she could manage.

Then he had to go and mention the blush she was trying so hard to ignore.

Her jaw clenched. Her eyes narrowed.

”I was feeling fine. In fact, I was going to have a cup of coffee. Then someone….” …got excited because they passed one of the most difficult tests ever. Was happy because they’d managed to meet their initial career goals? Had randomly showed up when all she really wanted to do was avoid them for a long time? All of that even sounded stupid in her head.

Riley realized she’d been standing silent for a moment, then her shoulders sagged. This was stupid.

”A smug bastard pointed out the blush I was trying to hide.”

Riley stood there for another moment, pursing her lips, ”So you literally just found out?

>>”I was feeling fine. In fact, I was going to have a cup of coffee. Then someone….”

Dramatic pause.

>>”A smug bastard pointed out the blush I was trying to hide.”

My, but that had been a dramatic pause. And the concluding line differed from the beginning one. What other things was she hiding?

Aurum didn't smirk. Why would he?

She turned the subject away from the blush.

It would be pushing his luck to continue that line of questioning. "The fact that it was even there has me worried." Aurum pushed it. "The test results only came out today."

”Me too.” Riley admitted dryly, when Aurum went right ahead and commented on her uncontrolled schoolgirl blushing. ”It’s a wholly unnatural and unwelcome occurrence.” That much was true…Riley hated to blush, almost as much as she hated to admit she was wrong, or that her ire had been misplaced. Blushing was another sign of weakness, one that men took as a sign that they had the upper hand in a situation.

Apparently the test results had just gone live, and Riley nodded her head to show that she understood. Part of her wanted to offer legit congratulations, but the other (larger) part of her wanted to lapse back into the snark. Why was a mystery…Aurum hadn’t done a thing to deserve the attitude this time, but there it was trying to rise inside her anyway. Riley settled for another sigh.

”Well, now I guess all you have to worry about is finding somewhere to actually use that license.”

"Mhm," Aurum hmm'd passively. He changed the subject. "I don't suppose you want to sit down for a cup of coffee."

Last time, she'd ran. He'd had no idea why. He still didn't. All he knew was, maybe it had been because he'd said something he shouldn't. Truly weird, because up till that 'something', he'd thought they'd been having fun.

Quirky women were like that. They kept you on your toes. Aurum wasn't quite sure why he wanted to keep snarky Riley around. But, he did.

Did she want to sit and have a cup of coffee? Riley’s eyebrows rose so they disappeared into her bangs. How on Earth could he be asking her that question after the way she’d treated him? She smirked a bit, readying the snark that was surely stumbling to get out of her mouth.

”I could do coffee.” she said, and sat.

What. The. Hell.

Now that she’d sat, Riley realized she couldn’t get up and leave without looking like a complete and utter moron. This was absolutely incorrigible. Riley huffed a little, and looked across the table at Aurum like it was his fault.

“ So…” she said, wishing this wasn’t awkward to her...Riley never felt awkward and this was uncomfortable.

”I’ll let you pick…since you’re the aficionado here.”

Aurum didn't have bangs to hide his surprised eyebrows like her. They had to stay visible, as she sat down.

She actually sat down. Hadn't she been mad at him? Suddenly, he didn't understand anything. From the look on he face, neither did she. He got the impression she blamed him for it, too.

>>“ So…" She trailed.

Was this awkward? Yeah. For two friends sharing coffee, at least.

Aurum glanced towards the counter, where orders were placed, then turned back to his screen. He shut the laptop down, and folded it over, so there wouldn't be a screen separating them.

"Alright," He said. The legs of the chair squeaked as he scooted it away from the table and got to his feet. Aurum took a step towards the counter, then stopped, and turned to look at Riley. "Do you want anything else? Like a scone, or a sticky bun?"

Oh man, he was doing it again. Why did he insist on treating her so nice when she was usually so awful to him? Guys were supposed to give back the nastiness twice as bad as they got it. That’s how it always worked…at least in Riley’s experience. Hell, in Riley’s experience, usually she didn’t even have to be the one to initiate the confrontations. Guys weren’t supposed to be like Aurum, they weren’t supposed to handle her crap and move on and be…nice. It made Riley’s stomach twist a little with an unfamiliar feeling…guilt. Was all the drama hers?

Riley watched as Aurum took a step away from the table, and looked up at him when he turned back to ask her a question.

”Just the coffee…please.” she said, the mildest hint of contrition in her voice. She had been kind of rude…and unfair…and maybe, just maybe he didn’t deserve it. And maybe…maybe she’d admit it when he got back.

"Okay," Aurum shrugged.

He turned and left for the counter.

A couple minutes later, he came back. Aurum set Riley's coffee down for her, first, then set his down and cleared his laptop to its shoulder bag, so he had the space for it in front of him. He sat down.

"So..." He looked to Riley expectantly.