Charlie wasn't really thinking as she walked the path towards town. She just felt this sudden urgency to leave the house—nowhere in particular in mind, just as long as she put as much distance between herself and whatever had just happened as possible. Tal's shop came and went, Charlie passing by without so much as an upward glance. Snapping back, she realized just where she had wandered: Astrals-damned JaeCo Films.

She did promise to drop by and speak to Griff, but was now really a good time? Reluctantly she trudged up to the doors.

Unlike the places in the city that were an instant assault on her senses the moment she walked in the door, this place had more of that small-town vibe she loved so much. Framed posters of current and upcoming films lined the walls, complimented by life-size cutouts of all the top actors and actresses. The double doors to the only viewing room had a marquis showing which movies played at which times. And at the concession stand, changing out the available snacks and drinks on the neon pricing boards was…

"Hey, Charlie!"

Griff descended the stepladder and turned towards her, stashing the leftover letters in the drawer with one hand and tugging out his earbuds with the other. He had a wide grin on his face, like seeing her was the best thing to happen all day. Though judging from the fact he was stuck behind a counter all day in a dead movie theater did seem pretty dismal.

Charlie forced a smile in return, looking anywhere but his eyes. She didn't want him to see how red hers most likely were. Instead, she flicked her gaze to the current list of playing movies. "Hey, back. Bossman know you're listening to music on the clock? Pretty sure he'd shit a brick if not."

Griff shrugged. "Eh, he can blow me. The same shitty music through the fifty-year-old speakers every night can drive even the strongest guys crazy. Didn't you work for Jaeger at some point?"

She immediately recoiled at having to recall the memories for a second time in one night. "No, but I might as well have. It was Jorgen Chase HQ. I worked as secretary to the CEO," she said, jabbing a thumb back at herself. "So basically, when someone pissed the Big Lady off, shit would roll down hill and I'd get the brunt of her attitude."

"That sounds…incredibly shitty."

"It was right next door to the JaeMart HQ and it was enough to make me never want to set foot inside one of their places again, regardless of what it was."

"Girl, same," he replied, rolling his eyes towards the neon JAECO FILMS sign on the nearby wall. "So, you finally feeling up to reminiscing a bit? I'm hitting the saloon tonight because someone ditched me in favor of his shitty girlfriend."

Charlie thought about it a moment. She didn't really want to go home—not right now. And without the sass and glares from the rest of the posse, it sounded like the perfect opportunity to settle her nerves. She'd been wanting so badly to talk to him, and this was the perfect time to let things go without worrying about catty remarks or cold stares.

"I'd love to, Griff."

He grinned. "Hell yeah! Meet up at six, my girl!"

"It's a date," Charlie said with some friendly flirting, and Griff grinned back.

 

‡ † ‡

 

While not a real 'date', Charlie felt it would have been the best one she'd ever been on. The beer was ice cold, Cal's pizza was absolute perfection, and Griff was everything Charlie feared he wouldn't be. In the span of an hour, they'd caught up and things were like no time at all had passed between them.

Well…save for the absence of Ignis. Whatever. He didn't seem to care that she'd come back, and if he was going to be that way, then why should Charlie even spare him a passing thought?

It was like Charlie had never left the town and had instead grown up side-by-side with the goofball. Nothing but Griff's carefree smiles and unapologetic sense of self that completely set her at ease. Any apprehensions Charlie had about reconnecting melted away in the light of his complete authenticity.

Though he had given her flack about ordering pineapple on her half of the pizza.

"Way to choose the only topping that can make pizza bad," he recoiled.

"Pineapple is the only topping worth getting, Fro Boy. Fight me," Charlie shot back through a mouthful of cheesy, fruity goodness.

But no one was perfect. At least he didn't comment on how she killed her entire half, or that she ate it almost as fast as he did. Orchard work built up one hell of an appetite, and there was no way in the nine hells she going to pretend to come off as another person by picking at a salad in a misguided attempt to impress.

The conversation flowed smoothly through dinner, and afterwards they moved to the arcade machines at the back room. He asked about Charlie's life after moving to the big city, what school she went to, what her new place looked like, any friends she made, and—her least favorite—about her job at Jorgen Chase HQ. They bantered about the bad and relished in the good, and their conjoined casual sensitivity made Charlie feel so at ease.

He gave her the rundown of Miner's Cove since her disappearance, pointing out things she had yet to discover. Things like how the seasonal festivals had changed since George became mayor, how the mines were still a death trap, and how the past few years strange noises had been coming up anytime it rained. That interested Charlie a lot more than hearing about how boring George was during events, but the topic Griff kept coming back to was his childhood dream of attending the Airdeis Annual Tournament. She could immediately tell he still had the same fervor for the event as he had as a child and was too young to go.

"You have to go with me!" Griff said, abandoning his digital knight as he turned away from the arcade cabinet. "We can be a team! 'Defenders of Moonfall'!" he added with a dramatic flourish.

Charlie laughed as he spun her stool around to face him, bumping her knees against his in the tight space. "Tempting, but I'm going to have to decline."

"Whyyy? I can't compete by myself! It's a memory to make with friends, and I already have costumes planned!"

His single-minded enthusiasm made her smile, even as she shook her head. "I don't even know how to use a sword yet, and you're wanting me to jump right into a world-renowned battle event? No thanks. Too much can happen. Besides, I think I prefer the smaller, local events."

Griff opened his mouth to argue his case but was cut short.

"Harassing her already?"

Charlie turned to see Ignis enter the game room, a mildly amused smirk on his face as he leaned against the pool table across from them. Griff turned to his friend with a grin.

"Oh, come on, Iggy! I'm not harassing. Tell her she needs to join us! She'd have some great ideas."

"We don't need ideas, which is why I told you to ask Gabby."

"I was talking about the tournament, not the costumes, ass," Griff replied.

"You're joking, right?"

Griff groaned. "Fine, fine. Buzzkill. But Gabby never shows up to brainstorm, and whatever we come up with is straight cringemare fuel from the shittiest mobile rip-off games." He looked to Charlie. "You didn't learn to sew by any chance, did you?"

"Nope."

"Ugh, fine," he said, hanging his head in defeat. "I'll ask Gabby. But you should still think about the tournament. 'Guardian of Moonfall' has some awesome fighter potential."

"Hey, I'm not there yet," Charlie laughed.

Though she was curious about Griff's reaction—despite realizing how shitty a person Gabriela was not just from Griff's prior talk of her but also of her first impression, why would he ask her to help design something over someone who was supposed to be his friend? It wasn't really any of her business, though, so she decided not to mention it.

"Eh, I'll think about it," she promised. "But my answer is probably going to stay no. I can come over and help sometime though, if you want."

That seemed to satisfy him, and he brightened up as he started talking about what he'd already envisioned for the Airdeis event. Charlie smiled and nodded when appropriate.

"So, what do you think our group theme be? Nottica Hill, Tibagodad, Nordica, or Venetzi?"

"Oh. Hmm…" She thought for a moment. "Well, all four of those are some of the world's biggest carnivals, and their styles are all well-known… If you're gonna make your costumes, then you gotta go with the style that started it all: Venetzi. Maybe throw in some Nordica?"

"Told you, dude," Griff said with a triumphant grin. "We should definitely do Venetzi."

Ignis rolled his eyes. "I wasn't debating the theme. You were arguing with yourself. And you know those jesters freak me out."

"Sure, sure. You know you can handle it if you're wearing the same kinda face." Griff looked down at his phone and grumbled under his breath. "Sorry guys, I gotta bolt. Dad's got some more late shipments that need to be out ASAP. Later!"

Griff left in a hurry, leaving Charlie and Ignis alone in the game room. Without the high energy of their mutual friend to keep the conversation going, Charlie felt the coldness from before return as she found herself once again under that blue gaze. An uncomfortable silence fell between them. She debated making up some excuse to leave as well, but she decided she give Ignis the benefit of the doubt and try to rekindle their lost friendship.

"It's good to see you again," she said, cringing inwardly as soon as the cliché opener left her mouth.

"You, too. Nine years is quite a while."

"Well, I couldn't exactly help it."

"That's how family works. No one can make their own choices." He stuck his hands in his hoodie pockets and glanced at her indifferently. "That's why you're the talk of the town. The next Guardian in a five-hundred-year tradition."

Charlie gave him a sad smile. "I see you're totally unaffected by that."

He shrugged but didn't comment further, and the silence resumed again. This time, Ignis was the one to break it.

"Your grandmother passing isn't the only reason you came back," he said, catching Charlie immediately off-guard. "Haven't spoken to me or Griff in years. Not so much as a call, or even a text, and then suddenly you come back and try to pick up like nothing happened? Guardian or not, that's pretty shitty of you."

Her eyebrows shot up as she gaped at him. "That's a lot to infer on someone you used to be best friends with, don't you think?"

He shrugged again but didn't look away. "That's all you seem to be now. Just someone I used to know."

Charlie's smile faded subconsciously. She felt her defenses break down under his steady gaze, and it unnerved her. She didn't like how transparent he made her feel, nor how his dead tone crawled all over her.

Charlie broke eye contact first, looking out the window to where she could see the stars twinkling just right in the inky darkness. She sighed.

"Think what you want, then. Yeah, I came home because I have a job to do. But I also came home because I had nothing left. I was just some ant crawling among millions."

She saw Ignis nod from the corner of her eye, but she didn't look back to him. Saying it out loud brought a lot of compressed emotion back to the surface—the grief, the rejection, the betrayal. And admitting it to someone else, someone she hardly knew and could make her feel so vulnerable with a single glance, was not a good thing. She needed to leave. Now.

"Anyway, I have to get home and fill out some ledgers before it gets too late," she said abruptly, hopping off her stool.

Before Ignis had a chance to respond, Charlie turned on her heel and left the saloon as quickly as she could without causing a scene. The tears finally started to roll as she turned down the road and saw the lights of her house twinkling through the leaves of the apple trees.