Ricky walked down the sidewalk. A path he had taken so many times that his feet took him in the direction he wanted to go, leaving his mind to wander. Hands in his pockets, the breeze of the early June afternoon lightly grazing his bare arms, his muscles that he'd secretly been working on not quite big enough to bulge through the t-shirt he was wearing. Glancing at things in shop windows, watching people as they passed, listening to glimpses of their conversations; he had to keep from skipping as he took the all too familiar corner in front of a particular set of shops. The wave of freshly printed pages hit him as a familiar grin spread across his face. Comic-Cadia. Glancing up at the large letters scrawled across the window above the open doors as he crossed through the threshold, almost holding his breath. He took in the sight. It had been too long since he'd gotten a chance to make his way to this part of town. His mother frowned upon his love for comic books and his few friends just didn't understand why he wanted to go to this particular shop. This place was up river to a spawning salmon, you weren't a true comic book fan if you didn't know about this place. He made his way down the aisles, just taking in the colorful covers and bold titles, making a mental note of everything he had read, heard of or didn't recognize at all. The shop was quiet, it was that time of day where kids were running home to eat dinner and in the middle of the week adults were still at work. Two guys stood near the checkout in a heated discussion about the difference between flying and levitation. Ricky rounded the edge of an aisle and was about to make a comment in their direction when he spotted her. An all too familiar figure; A tall girl, dark brown hair billowing down her back. She had her back to the rest of the store with her nose deep in a comic book, but he knew it was her.

For the last several weeks Ricky had been involuntarily searching the crowds of people he saw everyday for her face. Every glimpse of brown hair made his heart race only to be disappointed every time as they turned out to be too short or too old. But this was her. It had to be. And in this very comic book shop, Ricky really couldn't believe his luck. He stood their staring at her. "Can I help you find something?" One of the guys near the counter shouted a little too loudly in his direction. He diverted his attention towards him long enough to give him a shake of his head, quickly turning towards the comics in front of him to make it seem like he was doing something. He'd pick up a comic book, look at the cover, look up at her, then put the comic back on the shelf. Venturing his way down the aisle he watched her as she kept reading the same comic book, barely even moving. He was about to think that she was a statue and that he wasn't all that lucky after all until she flipped a page of the book and bounced on the balls of her feet. Ricky could barely contain the smile that this little action brought to his face. He could feel the excitement of reading a new comic book pouring off of her and he was still a good ten feet away.

He didn't know what to do. His mind was freezing up and he stood in place, shuffling his feet back and forth with indecision. He turned away for a second towards the shelves of books behind him and tried to catch his breath that he didn't notice he'd been holding. Running his fingers through his hair he turned around and took a step towards her but his chest filled with panic as she started to walk away. He stumbled over his own feet feeling the need to race after her only for her to stop after two steps and pick up another book. He let out his breath. He was beginning to realize just how much time he had spent thinking about this girl. And just how much panic had rushed over him with the realization that he may never see her again. It took him hours of thinking about her just to admit defeat to himself that he didn't remember her name. He toyed with the idea of going back to the magic shop to ask the old man but had worried he might mention it to her and some part of him felt like it wasn't that big of a deal. It was obviously bigger than he realized.

For the act of finally seeing her after only a few weeks filled his heart with that feeling he had secretly been longing for since that day in the magic shop. This time the heat was starting at the tip of his fingers and he had to keep reminding himself to breathe. He quietly cleared his throat, fiddling with a comic book in front of him as he tried to divert his attention away from her. She put down the comic book she had been holding and glanced around. Ricky had to fight the urge to duck and hide, but she didn't notice him as she turned to walk to the other side of the store. He had to suppress some form of a chuckle as she approached his favorite section of the entire comic book shop - crime. He tried to as nonchalantly as possible make his way in that direction, diverting his attention to the books stacked on the new releases table. He panned through some of them, his attention catching on a few and he sat them aside. As he started to read the covers of some of them he kept glancing up at her. She was fluidly searching through the collection of Sin City comic books on the shelves, as she paused at one particular volume he quickly glanced down. He did not know what it was about this girl but he really did not want to get caught staring at her.

They both stood in the same spots for a good five minutes. She was engrossed in the wall of crime comic books as he pretended to be interested in the books covering the wall of the horror section as he carefully made his was closer to her. When he was about two feet away from her he took a deep breath and turned towards her.

"Um, excus- excuse me." He felt proud in himself that he managed to choke that much out. "you're- you're the girl from the magic shop, aren't you?" he had his hand raised halfway between them as if he was going to reach and tap her on her shoulder, but he froze as she swung around to meet his gaze. A grin spread across her face, her eyes lighting up. He had to blink because she had a pure look of recognition on her face, as if she actually recognized him.

"And you're that guy from the magic shop!" she said with so much enthusiasm in her voice he momentarily felt taken aback. He had built up this entire image in his head of this girl he had barely even talked to, and he was just now realizing that the image he had built up was probably entirely incorrect. His voice caught in his throat, the air between them quickly becoming awkward, to him anyways. She still had a grin spread across her face and looked at him, expecting him to speak. His hand was still stretched out between them awkwardly and as he looked down at it he spread open his fingers and offered it to her.

"Ricky." He said. "uh, Rogers. Ricky Rogers." She reached up, her thin fingers wrapping around his hand – he was shocked at how tight she actually gripped his hand as she shook it.

"Kate Beckett." She grinned at him. He still couldn't comprehend the meaning behind the grin that she was giving him, he felt so warm inside he couldn't speak. Her name rolled off her tongue and he felt a little cheesy for thinking that it was a beautiful name but he shrugged it off because he realized it was true. He realized he was still holding onto her hand and quickly jerked it away.

"Sorry" his hand had suddenly become sweaty, so he wiped it on his jeans, closing his eyes in despair of his stupidity. She just chuckled, which made him open his eyes to meet hers again as his heart felt like it was melting inside of him. She nodded down to the book in his other hand.

"Sin City, huh? That's a good one. My first comic book was Sin City. A Dame to Kill For. Bought it from this very shelf." She looked over at the shelf she had been standing in front of with an almost nostalgic look.

"How ol- how old were you when you got it?" Ricky had to keep clearing his through to get his words to come out loud enough for her to hear. He shifted his weight a little on his feet and the tension that he felt between the two of them instantly lifted.

"Fourteen. Seems like it was forever ago, but three years really isn't that long ago." Seventeen. Ricky shifted his weight some more. He was surprised that he was able to do that math as quickly as he did with so much fog going on inside his mind. She was only a year younger than he was. He cleared his throat, hoping it was the last time that he would need to.

"I was eleven. When I got mine. But I was thirteen when I discovered this place." He looked around the store, soaking it in even more. "It's heaven. Home away from home. When I can manage to get away from home that is." They chuckled together, sending shivers down his spine that he tried to hide as best he could.

"Do you live near here?" she asked, leaning against the bookshelf behind her, all her attention directed towards him.

"Uh, just a short subway ride uptown." He shrugged. "But I haven't had the chance to come down in the last couple of months. My school is on the other side of the city." She nodded.

"Ya I live pretty far from here. My mom isn't super into me reading comics, but my dad slips me some cash every now and then to make the trip down and pick up something new to read. You can only read Sin City so many times before practically memorizing the movements of the characters on each page." She laughed to herself again and Ricky nodded along with her.

"I have a pretty extensive collection. I just boxed up a whole bunch of older comics because I ran out of room on my book shelves after bringing back all my books from school. You don't by any chance like Iron Man do you? Because I just got a 1963 issue of Iron Man last week." He was almost jumping with excitement in getting to share this news with her, and he really didn't know why. Her mouth opened in awe but he could tell she quickly tried to hide it.

"A 1963 Iron Man? How did you manage that?" she was leaning closer to him now and he had to fight the pull he felt towards her. He shrugged.

"I know a guy." He smiled at her but she just laughed and shook her head.

"That is the most overused excuse in the book, Ricky." The way she said his name made him catch his breath for a moment but he let it roll off quickly.

"It's the truth!" that's all he could get out, with a shrug and a sort of smug smile on his face that he was pretty sure made her laugh even more. He watched her as she shuffled a few comic books on the shelf, picking out one and wrapping her arms around it.

"Listen, I'm done looking around." She glanced around the shop as she said this, bringing her eyes back to his. "I'm gonna go buy this but if you want, maybe we could go get a cup of coffee down the street? There's this amazing café-"

"Café Castle." They both said it at the same time, smiles spreading across their faces as they did. Ricky's smile grew bigger at the mention of this café, it was one of his favorites. He spent many summers venturing between Comic-Cadia and Café Castle with cups of coffee and comic books. He'd sit in the corner booth at the café and work on some writing. He liked to write hidden away in the corner because no one knew that he did it – he was worried people might laugh at the things he wrote about, so he kept it to himself. "Do you go there a lot?" He asked her, as they shuffled between shelves. He noticed just how tall she was, coming up above his shoulder, until he realized she was wearing some sort of biker's boots that he hadn't noticed before. It made him shift his attention to a motorbike parked on the curb, but he shrugged it off. That motorbike couldn't possibly be hers, could it?

"I've been there a few times, ya. They have amazing bear-claws." She smiled back at him as they approached the register. They both rung up their comic books and made their way out onto the street.

"I've been going there since I was old enough to take the subway by myself. Their coffee is delicious but I like their cozy booths. It's oddly quiet for a coffee shop and it's a nice place to sit and write."

"You write?" She asked as they stayed standing on the concrete just outside the shop, shuffling around people as they passed. He realized that had slipped out moments too late. He had never told anyone that before, not even his friend on the school paper. He tried to shrug it off.

"Ya, I dabble in it." He averted his attention up the street towards the café and they merged into the growing mass of people walking up and down the sidewalk. He started to walk towards the café but she moved in the other direction towards the curb. Rustling around in her pocket she pulled out a handful of quarters and put them into the parking meter in front of the motorbike. His draw dropped open. "That's yours?" he spat out. He was more shocked that his small prediction had actually come true than in the idea that she drove a motorbike, but he knew she didn't see his reaction like that.

"What, girls can't ride motorbikes?" He thought she was offended and he quickly started to take his statement back when she wheeled around and smiled into his face. "I'm joking with you." She laughed, and he let out a chuckle in relief. "Pretty cool, huh?" she patted the handle bars.

"t-ya!" he let his excitement escape through his words. "That's actually pretty badass."

"Ya," Kate nudged Ricky on the chest to get him to start walking towards the café. "I dabble in it." Ricky looked down at the smile on her face.

"Dabble in what?" He asked, catching the mock tone she had, playfully joking about his writing comment. He would have taken it personally if she hadn't looked up at that exact moment and locked eyes with him, her face becoming serious all of a sudden as she whispered near his ear.

"Badassery."

Authors Note:

I appreciate all the favorites and follows I got with Chapter One! Sorry it took me a while to write chapter two, it's probably going to be a while in between updates on this story and I'm sorry about that. But hopefully the wait is worth it! ;)

Thank you for all the kind comments, I really enjoyed writing the first chapter, and I enjoyed writing the second chapter even more. I may have officially become addicted to writing fanfiction. But I will warn you, the end of the school semester is fast approaching and with that comes finals. Hope I can continue this story as soon as possible!

in the mean time you can follow me on the ultimtate procrastination website, tumblr: nikki-rook dot tumblr dot com

thanks for all the love!