The Radical Reds (Elyss/Alex)

"Hey, monkey, watch your language. What if there's kids around, eh?"

Alex gave his little sister a gentle flick to the back of the head as he approached, before unceremoniously taking a seat at the chair on the other side of her table. His grin suggested he wasn't actually terribly concerned about her behavior, and if anything, he thought it was kind of funny watching her act like such a savage to just order another one so unceremoniously.

Not that he could say much. He'd have done the exact same thing.

"Can't say I expected to run into you around these parts. Then again, guess I should've with everything that's been going on. Been doing alright?"

While he'd have actually liked to ask about the more serious side of things, see what she knew about Ichigo and all that, the reality was that Alex cared more about the well-being of the woman he'd come to see as a younger sister. The professional stuff could wait.

"Busy, guess you'd say. Alex moved out here, me n' Nel are letting some other people handle the bakery. Taking some time to trevel again, all that. 'Course, then all this happens, put a little damper in our plans."

That was one hell of an understatement, of course. Alex knew that, but he wasn't going to go rambling about how fucked the situation actually was, and he certainly wasn't going to start talking about Nel's side of things. He just lit a cigarette, glancing out at the city before returning his attention to Elyss.

"Figure I probably ought to get back to doing the whole hero thing, huh? Can't exactly sit around doing nothing."

He'd enjoyed retirement, admittedly. Those quiet days when he hadn't needed to worry about much. But Alex wasn't the sort who was surprised when everything came crashing down, either, so he could only shrug and keep on moving. Nothing else to be done about it, really.

"Psh, I'd never get in the way. But I've got plenty of reasons to be getting involved. Lotta people I'd like to keep safe, and some orange-haired fag isn't gonna scare me off just because he's supposed to be some big guy."

Alex had certainly walked away from the 'hero' life for a while now, but it seemed like life really wanted him back in it. Well, that honestly wasn't the worst thing. Wasn't like the world was exactly going in a way he could say he liked, and even if he didn't like doing shit out of obligation, this was all a little too close to home for him. You put his girls in danger, your ass was grass.

"You probably oughta, yeah. She asks about Aunt Elyss pretty often. 'Course, you might not even recognize that kid this days. No shit, Alex is practically as tall as Nel now, it's nuts."

Then again, he couldn't say that was too surprising, either. He was a tall guy, after all, and while he didn't exactly like to think about the woman, Alex remembered his daughter's mother being pretty tall, too.

"Maybe he did for now, but whatever he wants from here on, I'm gonna make sure he doesn't fuckin' get it."

Sure, the guy was probably up to no good. Nobody who was willing to just waltz in and destroy so much was gonna be on the up and up, after all. But the truth was that Alex didn't actually need to know what the guy's aims were at this point. After everything that'd happened, Alex wanted to fuck him over just on sheer principle.

"I'm not planning on getting caught in any situations like that. I always tell Nel where I'm going, she's ready to come get me in a flash. And I make a point not to go anywhere I don't think I'll be coming back from."

After all, Alex had finally found something actually worth living for. It'd been pretty easy to just toss himself into danger when the only person in his life had been himself, but that wasn't gonna fly now.