Matthew stared off at the balcony of his apartment complex. His home was modest compared to what he could afford. While he had the option to be more extravagant, he lacked the desire or will to decorate his home in any sort of impressive way.

His dog had somewhat changed that. He was setting up accommodations for it. Making sure it was nurtured and well provided despite having a minimalistic attitude.

It seemed, in Lisa's eyes, Matthew had no problem in taking care of others, but lacked any reason to take care of himself. She pulled up a picnic chair next to him, and sat on the balcony as they looks down at the city.

"Did you really watch the transit get built since day one?" Lisa asked.

"History in the making," Matthew said smiling. "First trans-dimensional railway in human history, took them three months and a lot of setbacks to make. I can honestly say I watched every day of it."

It was a dull experience to most, but it was things like that which made it serene. If he could watch something so easily for hours a day at a time, listening to people was second nature to him.

Lisa asked, "have you ever tried people watching?"

"People what?"

"It's where you stare into crowds of people, and make up ideas on what their personal lives are like."

"Like… Your job?"

"Er, I don't have to use my powers on it. It's just guessing people's lives based off their looks."

Matthew rubbed his chin, "that sounds kind of creepy."

"It surprisingly isn't."

Matthew looked down at the people on the ground level from the apartment. He never, technically, thought about what their personal lives were like. Matthew asked, "how do you play?"

"Pick a person walking, and guess something about them." Lisa pointed to a teenager on the boardwalk, "five bucks says she's skipping school."

"If I betted money on this, I'd have to work overtime for you to pay it off."

"I'd be alright with that," Lisa said casually. "Come on Mat, take a guess. I'd love to know if you're right or not."

Matthew stared at one of the construction workers. "That Guy looks like a Kevin."

"Kevin?"

"Kevins are trouble…"

"That's judgemental."

"Isn't this literally just people judging?"

Lis raised an eyebrow, "no, I mean, it's like we're doing anything beyond just guessing about people."

"Yeah, but it's literally assuming what people's lives are based on their looks."

Lisa bit her lip, "it's not."

"Think about it though, we're playing a game trying to read people off of looks. If we play too much, we get used to the idea of judging people based off looks alone. It becomes easier and second nature, and we might end up judging people outside the game purely out of habit."

"Its not people judging," Lisa emphasized.

"It feels like judging people." Matthew argued. "I wouldn't do this to a friend, doing it to a stranger feels worse because I'm not even talking to the person I'm spying to."

"It's not spying," Lisa grumbled.

"Staring from a rooftop is kind of spying."

"It's not a crime to look."

"It is wrong to make assumptions."

Lisa glared at him, "fine, I'll do people watching and you do bird watching or something."

"I'm fine with that," Matthew said backing off the topic. He stared down at a nearby lamppost and noticed a grey bird making a landing. For the sake of getting a point across, Matthew pointed to the bird and said, "do you think that pigeon knows it's gay?"

XXX

"So you slapped him?"

Lily and Sabah were drinking their milkshakes with Lisa at a downtown dairy shop. Lisa opted to drink some coffee while the other two girls treated it more like a date.

Lisa said, "I don't know," she rubbed at her temples, "it just annoyed the hell out of me that he was calling me judgemental."

"You kind of are," Lily argued.

Sabah pinched Lily on the rib. She shuddered at the contact. Sabah said, "hold on, Lisa. Did he actually call you judgemental, or was he talking about the game?"

"He was talking about the game," Lisa said honestly. "But he does think I'm judgemental, and I guess it's just weird to hear his thoughts finally come out of his mouth."

Lily said, "wait, has he said you're judgemental?"

"No, but he is the type to admit it I brought up."

Sabah said, "so you both know you're judgemental, but you finally hearing it from him made you slap him?"

"Pretty much," Lisa said stirring her coffee. "Thing is, I like Matthew because of how steep his honesty goes. Sometimes I just don't like hearing it aloud." Especially when it was directed to herself. Lisa never liked confronting the inner cracks of her personality, having an honest person like Matthew bring that up for her, it was nerve wracking.

"He's kind of like you, though," Lily commented. Lisa raised an eyebrow at her, but Lily quickly explained herself. "I mean, you always use what you know about others to break them down, so when honesty hits you like how you do it with others, you just don't know how to take it."

"Yeah," Sabah said, "and it's not that he was trying to break you down. It sounds to me like he hit a subject you took personally, and took it out on him."

Lisa fell quieter, "Yeah… I know I can come off as a liar sometimes, but I don't like… Being treated like one. At least not from people I like."

XXX

Matthew drank coffee at the store he and Lisa typically met at. He was drinking tea alone. Reading a book the store provided without really concerning himself about the topics within the words.

Matthew knew better than to call Lisa over something so mundane. She had a city to run. He could respect her being upset at him, and he wasn't going to pester her into more pressure than she needed.

Lisa walked to the coffee store and glanced at Matthew. It had been two days since they talked. They both knew it was moreso because of Lisa's work then the argument they had, yet Matthew still waited for her there each day, hoping she'd talk to him.

Lisa took a seat across Matthew at the table. "Hey," Lisa said.

"Hey," Matthew said looking up. "Are we okay?"

"Yeah, we are." Lisa said. There was a bit of silence between them. Lisa was itching to use her powers, but she made a personal promise to not use her powers to fix any problems that might come up. The last thing she wanted was a one sided relationship where it was just her manipulating Matthew for her own satisfaction.

Matthew said, "Did I… offend you last time?"

"No, or, at least not directly. I mean… I think I was overthinking what you said, and I took it out on you when I shouldn't have."

Matthew wasn't sure what to say to that. "Hmmm…"

Lisa tapped her finger against the table. Again, there was that urge to use her powers. Lisa said, "you know, I'm actually pretty surprised. Normally when a girl gets mad, the guy is supposed to apologize even if it's not his fault."

Matthew looked up for a moment, "that's the thing, I don't know why you got mad. If I had offended you, yeah I would say I'm sorry. But otherwise, I'm not going to give you an apology I don't actually mean. That would be a fake apology that doesn't mean anything, and you don't deserve that."

Lisa smiled a bit at that. Matthew really did care about her, and he didn't want to add layers of pressure to her already hectic life. "I'm sorry, Matthew. I thought you were making fun of me, that's why I took it so personally. I don't like being thought less of, and I thought you were… Calling me judgemental..."

Maybe I said too much, Lisa instantly regretted her own words.

"Judgemental?" Matthew asked with an eyebrow.

Lisa stayed quiet. She didn't want him to think of her that way. She'd used her powers on him occasionally, and she knew he'd thought of her that way. But for some reason, hearing him call her judgemental aloud genuinely scared her. Probably because you're honest, and you saying it would mean it were true, Lisa thought to herself.

"Lisa, judgemental-"

Matthew paused. He was quick to realize that this was a subject she was sensitive about, but he didn't want her to think less of herself. Matthew said, "Lisa, I know you might think you're judgemental, but I know by now that you know everyone is judgemental to a certain degree. Whether it's big or small, how you read people doesn't make you any worst as a person."

Lisa didn't say anything. Matthew added, "and your powers don't make you any less judgemental than anyone else. Your powers are a tool, and how you use it doesn't reflect onto you as a bad person."

"I'm a villain, Matthew."

"You're a good person, you know this. We both know this. How you view people doesn't change that."

Lisa was quieter than usual, "you really believe that, don't you?"

Matthew nodded, "you might not, but I do."

Lisa let his words sink in. He'd just admitted she was judgemental, but framed it in a way where it wasn't a bad trait. It was like Matthew was so accepting of people, that what the rest of the world saw as manipulative, Matthew saw it as the casual reality of things.

Matthew said, "you can use your powers to check if believe that."

Lisa smiled, "I'll take your word on that."