Getting back to work, Irene shuffled about in a kind of happy daze, excited that Todd had agreed to go out with her - not that she had really given him much of a choice. He was younger than her, sure, but she thought that he was cute, and since he spent so much time here, he obviously liked comics too, so she knew that they had that much in common. Although they had really only half-spoken a handful of times, he seemed alright, but there was one set-back; Irene realized with a jolt that she didn't even know what his name was.

"Oi, are you just going to stand there all day?" Her boss pulled her from her reverie, pointing out a customer that had walked up to the counter while she was absorbed in her happy bubble. "Get to work."

While friendly with all of the customers, Irene had become especially close with this particular girl, if only because of her story. Dark-haired and looking like she had just rolled out of bed and pulled on a pair of paint-splattered jeans, the young artist reached into the pocket of the sable hoodie tied around her waist, extracting a piece of legal paper, hand-drawn with the images of bats and spiderwebs, a single name scrawled on top of the paper in an elaborate print. She handed it over to the barista, as well as the money for a small latte.

Counting the change for the beverage first, Irene took the slip carefully, digging beneath a stack of reserved comics for one particular order. Finding it almost at the very bottom, she put the message between the pages, gingerly so nothing was crinkled. "I think it's real sweet how you two keep doing this." For the last couple of months now, she would come in with a message for another customer, and he would leave his reply with the owner to give to her. It was really heartwarming to see that romance wasn't completely dead. "So, you think you'll ever meet each other?"

The girl bobbed her head. "I hope so. Maybe soon." Taking her drink, the artist smiled over at Irene, "Hey, when your shift is done, wanna hung out for a bit?"

"No can do, sorry." Irene nodded over at where Todd was sitting, "You see that guy over there? We're going out later."

Glancing over at the kid Irene had indicated, the younger girl was at a loss for her friend's tastes in men. Forgetting the fact that he looked like a high school freshman, she had overheard a number of conversations that he had gotten into with his friends, and to be blunt, she was a little shocked that any of them had girlfriends.

Much like Irene didn't have the heart to tell her that she thought that her relationship was already doomed (she had nothing against either of them, but being the son of that mobster guy, it just oozed disaster), the artist didn't feel as if they were quite good enough friends to stick her nose into her personal life. "That's... cool. I guess."

I don't get what happened - I had a chapter perfectly written out, and somehow, I lost it! Well, I guess it just wasn't meant to be... Anyways, now I can mention that this story may (or may not) cross over with another one I'm working on, called "Pulse" (which is about Chris D'Amico). Either way, these both take place in the movie-verse, but are still their own stories.

Kick-Ass is the property of Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. Irene Wallis is mine.