Dave re-adjusted his glasses. He wondered why he even wore them anymore, after all he owned contacts. It wasn't as if the ladies flocked towards him when he sported his geeky specs; wearing them actually seemed to repel chicks. Still, he kept wearing the dumb things. It was sort of like an extension to keeping his identity as a superhero a secret, or not really if you thought about it. Dave shook his head, dismissing the distracting thoughts filtering around in his mind. He had work to do, more specifically, comics to read.

He eventually made it to his destination, Atomic Comics. He would have arrived there earlier if his bike hadn't been jacked the night before. Dave was still pretty pissed about it, but he didn't let it dampen his mood. He pushed the door open to the shop and immediately surfed through the many assortments of comics lining the store, stopping only when he came to his favorite genre.

Chris D'Amico took another long drag of the weed as he sped down the streets of Staten Island towards his favorite place in the world: Atomic Comics. Not exactly your stereotypical bottle-cap glasses wearing, skinny, socially awkward, virgin-type comic book nerd (well maybe except for one of those things, which he would never admit to of course), but there was truly no other place in the world he'd rather be. Comic books and his drugs were really the only things in life he actually found comfort in. And only a small percentage of the things that dear old dad didn't approve of. Not that he really approved of the kid in the first place. A lot seemed to change after his mother took off. But not shit that he wanted to think of right now as he pulled into a free parking spot along the street; a hint of a smile crossing his face as he glanced up at the sign of the storefront. This was more of a home to him than anywhere else.

Most of his days were spent at the comic book store. He could be himself here; getting lost in his favorite superhero stories. No worries, no bullshit, just - fuck. His smile quickly faded; instead replaced by his usual smug smirk as he spotted his high school rival through the large glass door. It had been, what, four, maybe five years since he had seen the guy, but the hatred for him certainly remained. Well this was his fuckin' territory.

"Lizewski." He nodded to the older boy as he headed for - god damn-it! - the same section Dave was in: super heroes.

Dave's hand stopped short, letting the comic he had been lifting slip back into the rack. Dave knew that voice. "Chris?" The name left his lips before he even lifted his head to check and see who it was. And now the shorter boy was making his way towards him. "What are you doing here?" He asked stupidly in his surprise, forgetting momentarily that Chris was just as much of a comic-fanatic as him, possibly even more so. "I mean hey, I haven't seen you in a while." Dave said not unkindly. Four or so years passed already and he didn't even think to consider it an option that Chris would still be mad with him. It had been a long time after all, no one holds grudges that long... right?

Chris' eyes widened; like himself, Dave had certainly changed over the years…a lot. Not that it mattered. He was still the pathetic attractive loser that he had always - wait, attractive? Chris shook his head of this confusing or, more so, fucked up thought and approached his sworn enemy.

He never actually had a reason for hating the guy. I mean, he barely knew him really. Only meeting him for the first time in the eleventh grade when his parents finally allowed him to go to a real school instead of continuing to home school him. There was just something about Dave fucking Lizewski that made his blood boil…

"The fuck it look like I'm doing here?" responding only with his usual tone as he not-so-accidentally shoved by his peer. "Playing fucking chess, obviously." Dumb-ass.

The growing smile on Dave's face fell as Chris spoke. He swayed at the boys rather forceful nudge, quickly retaining his balance before he moved over to give Chris the space he obviously wanted. "You haven't changed much." Dave commented. "I was just trying to make conversation..." He said in a much quieter voice.

Dave picked up the comic he had dropped and re-examined it. It was interesting looking, the characters displayed on the cover looked bad-ass and from what he could tell, it seemed to have a pretty amazing plot as well. He tucked the comic under his arm and made the short trip to the booth beside the window where he regularly sat. Usually Marty and Todd would hang out with him, but the guys were slowly drifting apart and seeing each other less and less.

Reaching for a Batman comic, Chris casually flipped through the pages while smirking. "Changed a lot more than you think, asshole," glancing up from his comic, "can see you're still a loser though." Normally Dave had his little buddies following him around everywhere he went. Looks like they finally realized it as well.

Dave ignored the other boy's snide remark easily. Those long years he spent in high school had made him nearly impervious to petty insults. And then there was the fact that this was Chris, and he always saw him assort of a kid, despite them being around the same age. Except now he couldn't really look at him that way because he had facial hair, and it made him look more... well, less like a child. But even though he matured aesthetically, Dave couldn't tell the difference between the Chris he knew in high school, to the man that he was now.

Chris glanced back to his comic and suddenly realizing he didn't even like Batman, he dropped the book back in with the other comics and searched through for something a little more his style; something where the villain always wins. Yeah, right. Not exactly easy to find. But his mind was somewhere else at the moment anyways.

It frustrated him to no end that Dave could get to him like this. The way he walked, talked, that ridiculous lopsided smile he constantly wore, the way his unkempt mess of hair would fall over those deep blue eyes hidden beneath those dorky glasses. 'Would look so much better with contacts…' Whoa. Yeah, he hated him alright.

"You're distracting me. Fuck off." Chris said as he stormed over to Dave's booth and slid in across from him.

"What's your problem? I'm just sitting here."

"Dude, just you being here is fuckin' annoying me." Giving probably the most immature response possible as he glared bitterly across the table; his voice rising. "There are tons of comic book stores in this city. Can't you go somewhere else?" Before Dave could reply, Chris leaned over the table and quickly snatched the others' comic book from him. "What's this crap you're reading anyways?" quickly glancing through the pages, before carelessly tossing the book back across the table.

"What the hell's goin' on over here?" Apparently the owner had been watching the two the whole time, worried a fight might just break lose in his store. And tossing precious, rare comic books around was definitely grounds for removal. Not that it wasn't obvious to everyone around them; you could practically feel the hatred radiating off of the two boys. "You two take it outside." The owner hurried over to the booth to retrieve the comic book before more damage could be done to it as he shooed the boys away. "Go on!"

Dave glared at Chris before casting an apologetic look towards the owner. He didn't want to cause anymore trouble for the man who was just trying to protect his buisness. Dave stood up, preparing to leave, but it seemed Chris had other ideas.

"Are you fucking kidding me? Do you even know who I am?" Chris jumped from his seat as he got in the owners' face. With a crime lord for a father it was all too easy for Chris to get away with whatever he wanted and he constantly took advantage of that fact.

"Chris, come on. Let's just go."

The comic store owner did his best to hold back a hint of fear as Chris barked at him. He knew exactly who the kid was and the power that his father held, but there was no way that he was going allow this punk to disrespect him in his own store. "I don't give a shit who you are, boy. I'm sure your father wouldn't be too pleased to hear about the way you're acting right now." This wasn't the first time Chris had caused trouble in his shop, but it will be the last.

The last thing Chris needed was his dad hearing about this. "Well, fine. Fuck you. See how well your business does when my father hears about the way you're treating me." He knew his father would be more angry with him then the owner, but the threat of it never failed.

Storming past Dave, he flung open the door to the shop and headed for his car. He searching his pockets for his car keys, barely noticing that Dave had followed him out the door, clearly looking to fight, or so he thought.

"What the hell, man? You got me kicked out."

"Oh, I got us kicked out?" balling his hands into fists and turning from his car to face his accuser. "You just fucking got us kicked out! I go there all the damn time and have never had a problem till you decided to show up." He knew it was all his fault. He knew it, though he'd never admit to it. "And by the way, I was handling it perfectly fine till you fuckin' stepped in." In fact, he was rather thankful for Dave's interruption. Intimidation usually worked for him, but this guy didn't seem to be falling for it. Taking Dave's advice and leaving was probably for the better.

Dave rolled his eye's as Chris managed to turn the whole thing around and make it his fault. He sighed, getting tired pretty quickly over Chris's theatrics. "If I knew you were going to act like this I wouldn't have tried to talk to you in the first place."

The guy obviously didn't like him for whatever reason. But Dave had a feeling that he just treated everybody like that. Having nothing else to go on, he decided Chris was a bit of an asshole. "Why don't you like me anyway? I don't remember doing anything to you."

Chris knew he was being completely ridiculous over this. They were no longer in high school. Their childish bickering needed to stop. And Dave did make a good point: what did he ever do to him? Confusion set in as he tried to figure this out. He was always an asshole to everyone, but it never crossed his mind to ask himself why.

Why didn't he like him? Why didn't he like anybody? It was impossible to get close to him and only now was he beginning to realize this. He had no friends, at least not true friends anyways. The few that that he did have were either rich, stuck-up, spoiled little brats who he could not stand (much like himself), or they were so afraid of him that they figured they'd be much better off to just stay on his good side. But to have somebody actually want to talk to him just because; that was rare.

"I…I don't know…" he quickly responded before turning away; nervously fidgeting with his car keys.

But he did know. He was flat-out terrified of another person getting close to him; possibly wanting to be his friend. It practically had been beaten into him not to associate with those of, well, lesser worth and by his fathers' standards that meant basically everyone.

Dave studied Chris' reactions closely. The guy seemed to have calmed down considerably since they had been asked to leave the shop. That was a good thing. He preferred him like this. Still, it didn't make him look anymore approachable. The man just appeared more reserved than before.

Dave couldn't help but feel the conversation was a lost cause, Chris looked like he didn't want to talk to him anymore, and he didn't even seem to know why he hated him. What kind of person hates someone else without knowing the reason why? What was his problem? Dave just didn't understand this guy.

"I thought that maybe we could be friends for once. You know, it's what normal people do." He said truthfully, with emphasis on the normal as a small jab back at the boy for getting him kicked out.

Chris shoved his hands in the pockets of his designer jeans and stared hard at the ground; he was still very much on edge over the quarrel in the comic book shop and angry at Dave for, again, who knows why. This guy just wanted to be his friend. And not out of fear or to use him for his money or anything else like that, but by choice. Dave was a decent person, anyone could see that, but trusting another person was not something he was used to. He wasn't about to let his guard down.

"Friends? With you?" Chris scoffed at this, attempting to keep up his tough-guy facade. Sure, he'd love nothing more than to be able to just hang out with this guy; from what he could tell, they had a lot in common, more so than his snobby, rich 'friends' that were chosen for him. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to just give Dave a chance. He considered the idea as he leaned against the driver's side door of his old, beat-up, barely-drivable black Mercedes; the last thing his mother had given him for his sixteenth birthday before she took off with the butler and, even after five years now, Chris just couldn't bear to get rid of it.

Dave stared at the others turned back. He thought the guy would've leaped into his car by now. It had to amount to something that he was still standing there talking to him. If there was even a remote chance he was interested in being friends, Dave wanted to take advantage of that. He no ulterior motives, all he wanted was to be able to be on friendly terms with the other. Ever since he had first met him in high school he noticed how the boys father had never really attended any of the school functions, and how Chris was escorted around by his chauffeur, but never seen with his parents. Dave thought living like that must be pretty lonely, and he felt bad for him.

"Yeah, would that be so terrible?" Dave said.

"I don't know. I mean, no. No, it wouldn't be terrible. Whatever you want." Chris brushed the other's question off; he didn't quite know how to reply to this considering most people went out of their way just to avoid him. "Look, man, I really should get going. I'm in enough shit as it is just being out here without security…" He rolled his eyes at the statement as he pressed the unlock button on his key fob. He could barely go anywhere without an escort and on the occasional days when he was able to sneak out by himself (such as today) he made it worth it. But it was getting late and no doubt it's been noticed that he wasn't home. In fact, he was quite surprised his father's goons weren't waiting for him outside the comic book store already.

'Well... it's progress?' A hopeful smiled crossed Dave's features."Ok. See you around." He stuffed his hands into his hoodie pockets and checked out the others 'sweet ride', except that it wasn't so sweet as it was trashy looking. Wasn't Chris rich? Then why didn't he have a fancy, flashy one to show off in? That sort of thing sounded more his style. Still, It was more than Dave owned. Hell, he didn't even have a bike to his name anymore.

Chris studied Dave's reaction as he eyed his Mercedes. It was the same as everyone else's: questioning why he wasn't sporting the latest model as opposed to this junky piece of crap.

"My mom gave it to me for my sixteenth birthday and I just haven't replaced it yet," he shrugged. That was really all anyone needed to know.

Dave gawked at Chris as he seemed to read his mind, answering his question without him even asking. Unsure of how to reply, he instead opted for letting the other know he was serious about wanting to get to know him.

"Hey, I work at that big theater nearby, just so you know. Maybe we could talk sometime."

"Yeah, maybe I'll stop by. Been meaning to see the newest Avengers movie anyways," Chris couldn't help but grin back when he saw Dave smiling at him. He ran his fingers through his hair (an unconscious action of his when he was nervous) as he realized he was staring a little longer than he planned before quickly looking away.

"I've seen that one, it's really good." Dave commented.

"Are you, uh, workin' soon? Like, tonight?" Chris asked, though more to the ground rather than directly at Dave.

"Yeah, actually. I sometimes hang out in the comic store before work. It's like my routine."

"I could, ya know, give you a lift before I head home," slightly baffled by this sudden confidence, "come on, man." Chris smiled, hopping into his car and motioning towards the passenger's side. He was in trouble anyways; it wasn't going to make much of a difference how late he came home now.

"Really? That'd be awesome." The lanky man smiled brightly as he strode around the front of the parked park. He pulled open the passengers door, and dropped into the seat, closing the door behind him. "Thanks."


A.N. - This is a roleplay between me and Jayden Blake. I play as Dave and Mindy. My amazingly talented partner acts as Chris, Frank, and Damon. Once again I'd like to point out that this is a slight AU. That means most of the events that occurred in both Kick-Ass 1 and 2 don't pertain to this plot. And be sure not to make any assumptions about the characters, and their back stories. In this fic, Chris doesn't know Dave is actually Kick Ass and the boys are 21.

Disclaimer: I do not own Kick-Ass nor do I make a profit from any of my stories.