The whole show had relocated to Toronto. Envy's debut was creeping closer and closer, and with it, so was the opening of the Toronto edition of Gideon's Chaos Theatre. So, here they were. It was weird to be back here, in what had once been her university town, but Envy was working with it.

Even took a night of to go to a party thrown by a friend-of-a-friend. (An acquaintance-of-an-acquaintance. Whichever.) Figured she could try feeling like the old days, if only for a moment.

It didn't work. Everyone was staring at her as soon as she made it through the door. A distant sound chimed to display her score. ENVY ADAMS, THE PERFECT WOMAN, BUST: 999, WAIST: 999, HIPS: 999. Like anything was like the old days anymore. She made it to the bar, anyway, ignoring people and their staring.

Then a familiar voice piped up next to her: "Envy Adams? Partying with mere mortals?"

Her head whipped to face him. It was Scott. And while he'd been glefully being an ass with his opener, he immediately began to crumble. Hesitating, his voice turning more mumbly as he went on. "Why don't you go back to... To... Montrealhalla."

Good one.

Envy looked straight ahead again, just for a moment. Thinking it over. And, well, maybe this was as close to the old days as she was going to get. She looked over again. No bite in her voice, she replied, "Nice to see you again, Scott."

The crowd around them whispered and gasped. Scott turned bright red.

"Um... What are you drinking? Let me buy you a... Jeez... Um, I'm sorry, I..."

We'll spare you the embarrassment of witnessing the rest of this awful spectacle. (Scroll down.)

-----

The next day, she called him up and told him he could buy her coffee. Which he did, at one of the slightly more high-end places. But still within his budget, probably. He showed up looking like he'd just woken up. In fact, he looked like he'd just woken up from something like two hours of sleep, after a week of insomnia.

He looked like crap, and was about as responsive.

"How have you been?" she asked.

"Oh..." he started, groggily. "Uh... Y'know... Great..."

"Still living with Wallace Wells?"

"Nuh-uh."

There was a long pause. Seriously, that was it? "Oookay..." Envy replied, an eyebrow quirking up just slightly. "How's Ramona doing?"

"Hahahaha."

There was something bitter and sarcastic about that, under the blur of the grogginess.

"You're still with her, though?" Envy checked, sipping her latte.

Scott stared at her. More or less. "I'm still wha?"

Sigh. "Very mature, Scott."

"Like you actually care."

"Of course I care. Don't be a baby."

He pouted at her. Hard.

Envy sighed again. "You make me out to be some kind of villainess," she pointed out. "We were practically kids when we dated, Scott, and it's not like you were some paragon of virtue."

"I was such a paragon."

He was still pouting.

She already knew this was getting relayed to Wallace later. Complete with insisting he'd been a paragon. (She already knew Wallace would be over it, too.)

-----

They met up again the following day. Look, Envy didn't know a ton of people around here anymore. A lot of the few people she'd hung out with at the U of T had actually graduated and went on their way. And... maybe she still had some fondness left for Scott. Incredibly dumb as he could often be.

Also, he seemed to have actually slept this time. That helped. "Hey, uh, happy birthday," he said, as they were walking down the street. Away from another coffee date. She was meeting up with Gideon, he was going off to... do whatever the hell it was Scott did these days.

"Hm? Oh, yeah, it was a few weeks ago... Gideon threw this party..." And how well had that gone, on the personal front. "Do you remember my 21st?" she asked, brushing her bangs to the side, a little bit, though they still mostly covered one eye. "Now that was a party." Her lips quirked into a smile. "We went bowling at midnight. Julie and Stephen baked me a terrible cake. You got pretty drunk."

"I don't drink," Scott replied.

She countered with nothing more than an "Mm-hmm." She'd never really needed anything more to make her point, had she?

Then out of nowhere, he asked, "So do you think we're going to get back together?"

"Huh?" Envy asked, thrown for a loop. She stopped, raising her eyebrows once more. (Didn't even notice a few people taking her picture from afar.) "What, me and you?"

"Or maybe just have casual sex?" he suggested, although it sounded more like a declaration, like casual sex was a banner he was waving. Envy stared at him for a second in silence.

Then she shook her head, amused despite herself. "I see you finally got some sleep."

"What are you, psychic?"

She shook her head again, and looked over at him. "Scott, we dated for two years. I can read you like a book."

"Two years?"

Why did he sound so surprised? It was just a fact. "You don't even remember me," she said. "You're, like, one of the only ones who knew me before..."

"Before what?" Scott asked, seemingly genuinely confused.

Envy couldn't help the urge to rub the bridge of her nose like she had a headache coming on. "Scott, do you remember anything? Like, ever?"

"I remember... stuff," Scott said. "Some stuff. Lots." He was looking off into the middle distance, almost beaming. Probably seeing a half-false highlights reel of his greatest hits. "Lots of stuff."

"What about New Year's Eve?" she asked, tone just a little darker in the face of his expression. "Do you remember that? We had a fight."

"Like a fight fight?"

"A fight that you started."

He was quiet for a second before he was frowning at her. "Well, I remember you breaking my heart."

"The feeling is somewhat mutual," she told him evenly. She glanced down the street. She could already spot Gideon coming down the other end. She wasn't sure why it compelled her to say something else. "I know I'm changing," she said, quiet and mild. "We're all changing. Just... Don't forget me." Don't forget me. Maybe it was too complex for him to process, but at least she'd said it. She squared her shoulder. Gideon wasn't too many paces away. "This is the only me he knows... You need to face reality, Scott. He's not even a bad guy."

Scott finally spotted Gideon. His face set into a look of grim determination. Or at least he was gritting his teeth. The street seemed to open up until it was only the three of them on it. Gideon began to smile.

Scott –– Scott began looking like he couldn't handle it. He brought his hands up to shield his eyes. And made a sound like 'NNNN' and another like 'NNAAGH'.

And then Scott ran away to hide forever.

[ooc: NFB, but can be open for emails/calls/texts/whathaveyou. Taken and tweaked from Scott Pilgrim volume six!]