BY SATURDAY, REMY WAS PRACTICALLY BOUNCING OFF THE WALLS. His fever completely gone and his homework already caught up on, the boy was ready for an adventurous weekend. With Birdie trying to catch up at work, needing to prepare for a case that would be taken to court, she didn't have much time to spare to appease her excitable eleven-year-old.

Which meant that Remy was going to get into some trouble.

"What's the plan for today, Remy?" BUDDY asked, his usual wake up call for whenever the boy asked him to be his alarm.

"We're gonna do something illegal!" Remy declared, his voice quiet and conspiratorial, "Stacey's as good as gone and mom's too busy, so I'm gonna do something."

If BUDDY were a person, he would be tugging at his shirt collar. "Are you sure that's a good idea? Illegal things have pretty heavy consequences."

"Don't be lame," Remy drawled, tugging out of the sweatshirt and sweatpants combo that had been his staple for the week, jumping into a pair of jeans and a polo shirt.

"It's cold outside," BUDDY said, and Remy grabbed a jacket, holding it until he got outside, "What are you planning?"

"I don't know," Remy hummed, sitting down and pulling on his socks, "But it's gonna be something illegal."

"Why do you want to break the law?" BUDDY asked, almost sighing; for an AI, he seemed to have a very broad range of emotions.

"Because only people who break the rules do anything interesting," he explained, grabbing his backpack and slinging it over his shoulders, "If I don't break some rules, then I'm not gonna be anything."

"That is only if the rules are unfair," BUDDY pointed out, but the boy had already stopped listening, calling a goodbye to the AI, already set on his goal for the day.

"Have fun, Remy," the AI said to the empty room before shutting down, waiting for him to return.

º º º

Remy wasn't sure where he was going, but he found himself in Times Square with no clear plan, but a very wide pool of opportunities.

"Well, I'm not stealing from someone..." he mumbled to himself, wondering just how angry his mother would be if she found out he was in one of the busiest places in New York all by himself; she would be very angry.

He didn't want to cause any real damage, but he wanted a rush. Some kind of thrill at the idea of being caught without actually doing anything bad. Like stealing something, but throwing it back into the store and letting the security guard just chase him out. That seemed like a fun plan, he liked that one. After all, he was small and it would be fun to bother some people without actually hurting them.

This was what most kids his age did for fun, they caused copious amounts of annoyance to the greater population. If anything, his mother should be thankful that he was trying to fit in.

The Disney store was two stories and most people cared about the top floor, so he couldn't do as much damage there. But the M&M's World was big and, while two stories, had a lot of room for a lot of damage.

That was how he found himself squeezing his way into the overcrowded and overpriced building that was filled to the brim with tourists and M&M merchandise. He made a beeline towards the merchandise, looking around for the security guards, trying to catch their eye; it wouldn't be any fun if they didn't try to catch him.

"Remy?"

The boy jumped, whirling around to find a taller boy looking at him, smiling brightly, glancing back towards his parents for a moment before walking towards him.

Remy's heart beat rapidly, for reasons that he didn't fully understand. "Hey, Gage."

"Are you feeling better, you weren't at school," the boy asked, coming to stand in front of him, and Remy had to wonder why all the kids his age seemed to grow much more attached to each other once they crossed paths outside of the classroom.

"Yeah, I'm feeling better now, I was just sick," he said, glancing over towards the security guards, then over to one of the pieces of merchandise, then back over to her, "What are you doing here?"

The boy motioned towards his parents and a few other adults nearby. "My cousins came to visit, they wanted to watch the big tournament game the team is having."

Remy nodded, pretending to understand even the basics of basketball, Gage being the star player. He continued to glance towards the security guards who, thankfully, had started to take a notice of him, shifting and trying to be discreet.

"I'd love to talk, but I need to do something," Remy said, interrupting what the boy was saying, "But good luck on your sports."

With that, he grabbed one of the boxes and took off running, shoving people aside, bumping into shelves and knocking things over. That hadn't been his plan, but it did cause a good deal of a stir.

Weaving in and out of people, he bumped into some who were holding bags filled with M&M's, the candies falling to the ground and the people shouting in shock and horror, the boy tossing the small box in favor of a larger item, which he knew would set off an alarm.

True to his hunch, the minute he and the larger item passed through the door, it set off the alarm. Tossing it back into the store, and right into Gage's arms, he took off running, ignoring the shouts from the security guards who figured that he was still clutching the smaller item, one of them continuing to chase him down, the others trying to help those who had slipped and fallen on the array of M&M's on the ground and the other various stands the boy had knocked over.

So much for innocent rule breaking.

He didn't stop running, unsure of whether or not they were still following. Just as he was about to slow, nearing Central Park, he heard a shout which shocked him back into action. He ran into traffic, just as the light turned, and as a car whizzed by, running a red, he shouted and pointed towards the light, raising his middle finger the way he had seen Mark do when he was younger.

As he burst into the park, legs moving much faster than the rest of his body could, he spared a glance behind him, only to find himself crashing into another body, immediately being steadied by a pair of large hands, spinning in the middle of the empty pathway.

"Sorry!" he cried, adjusting his backpack, "I just gotta go."

"What's the rush?" the man in front of him asked, glancing down at him as he peered around his legs towards the path he had come from, finding no one following him.

He shrugged, backing up so he could crane his neck to look up at him. "You wouldn't believe my life right now, mister, let me tell you." This was the most interesting, but his life recently had been incredibly odd.

The man laughed softly and Remy's eyes hardened, wondering just who this man thought he was. "You wouldn't believe mine, either," he said, bending over so Remy wouldn't have to crane his neck.

Remy took in the man's hat and glasses. There was something about him that was almost familiar, but he couldn't for the life of him place it. He couldn't help but smile at his comment and the way he had to bend himself nearly in half so he could look at him easier.

He glanced down at his watch before looking around, realizing that he had no clue where he was. "I should probably get home...I don't know how to do that."

"Here," the man said, walking towards one of the lamp posts along the pathway, pointing to four numbers on the pole, "The first two show you the street you're closest to and the last two tell you if you're closer to the east side or the west. Even numbers for east, odd for west."

"Cool!" he chirped, reaching over and running his finger over the numbers, "That's awesome. Thanks."

"Are you by yourself?" the man asked, looking around and back towards where Remy had come from.

"I'm always alone," he replied, figuring there was no harm in telling the truth, "For the most part, at least. Do you know how that's like?"

The man nodded almost numbly, as if he was no longer aware of what was currently occurring. "Yeah. Yeah, I do. You know, I'm just gonna walk you to the end of the park, okay?"

"You don't have to," he said, starting to walk, wondering if his comment about always being alone had caused the man to worry, "I do this all the time, I just got a little confused. I'm used to being alone."

"Me too, kid," the man said, continuing to walk with him, seemingly still elsewhere, "Me too..."

The two fell into a comfortable silence for a few moments, Remy happy to just walk and think, arms swinging by his sides, only pausing whenever he had to check the lamp posts to make sure he was still heading in the right direction.

Finally, he decided to speak, letting the man ignore him like he wanted; most people did. "I ran into a kid from my school a while earlier. It was weird, he never talks to me at school, but I guess when we see each other outside of school, everything just seems better."

He looked up towards the man who had turned his attention back to him, silently raising his eyebrows, signaling for him to continue.

"I'm not good at school, I'm kinda dumb. I try really hard, though, and I get all the stuff, I just can't focus on the homework or sitting down, it's too hard. My mom tries really hard all the time, so I think I'll be fine just trying really hard." He glanced down at his shoes, before back towards the man, narrowing his eyes, "And she's too good for you, don't even think about it."

The man laughed, throwing his head back and Remy couldn't even smile, shocked that the man was even laughing; he wasn't really funny, Mark never laughed at his jokes and his mom didn't laugh much at all these days.

"I feel kinda bad about being mean to BUDDY the last few days," he admitted, rubbing the back of his neck, "He's kind of my only friend and it's not really fair for me to call him stupid, because he's really smart and helps me on my homework and stuff, so I can't really be mean to him."

The man tilted his head, his expression somewhat sympathetic, and Remy figured he thought that BUDDY was a real person, which he might as well have been, he was really all Remy had. Even if he was just an AI, he was very advanced and seemed to shock Tony who always made a comment about him whenever he dropped by.

"I'm not so sure where I was going with my plan," he admitted, not letting the man have time to ask what his plan even was, "I didn't really have an idea of what I was gonna do when I actually got it. I had so many ideas of all the ways it could go wrong before I could reach it, but now that I got what I wanted, I don't know where else to go. I don't even really know what I want. Do you know how that feels?"

The man nodded carefully, clearing mulling over the question. "Yeah, I think I do. Maybe you know what you want, but you just don't want to admit it. Or you want so much you don't think you'll get it, so you don't even want to try."

Remy tried to think over that, only to find that he kept pushing away the rising thoughts, hurriedly searching for another course to take. "I think you're right. I can't even think about that for too long. That's really stupid, right?"

Before the man could agree or disagree, he continued, "I was sick for, like, a week and I think I said some pretty mean stuff to my mom, but I don't know. I feel really bad about it. I wanna do something, but I don't know what, so I'm just gonna stay out of her way, or I could call my aunt and ask for her to take her shopping or something. Who knows. I make way too many plans and not all of them work out. I'm still surprised that the one I had worked as well as it did. I don't even know what I want from it."

He continued to mumble about the plan, no longer having any cohesive thought, just mumbling, similar to how he did when he was sick, only this time it was much more confusing. When he was sick, he stayed on the same few words. When he was just thinking, he went around in circles.

Finally, they reached the exit closest to home, Remy's topic having been diverted to cupcakes and the man just nodding along; from his bewildered expression, Remy figured he either was really surprised at his change of topic, hadn't tried many odd themed cupcakes before, or some combination of the two.

"Thanks for listening, this was fun," he said, turning to face him as he stood just outside of the park's edge, the man still standing inside, "I never caught your name."

The man stared at him for a moment and Remy had to wonder if he was overstepping. He still hadn't been able to place just how familiar the man was, and figured that, maybe, if he knew his name, it would all make sense.

"Call me Steve," he finally said, and Remy blinked, watching as his brain pieced the puzzle pieces together. There was a discrepancy on his face, however, there was just something off about it, something in the eyes; it was something beyond the glasses, but he couldn't tell what.

"That's a plain name," he said, because that's what first came to mind after the initial shout of 'Captain America!'

"It's plain, but it's mine," Steve replied with a hint of a smile and Remy laughed.

"Well, cool," he said, beginning to walk away, "I'm Remy. Thanks for your help, Steve, have fun living your plain adult life."

As he walked off, he was just able to catch the man say, "Have fun being young. Hold onto it while you can."

That was where Remy had to shake his head. Because he was still young, but that didn't mean he knew what it was like.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

I don't know what this chapter was, but Remy is an agent of chaos and doesn't really know how to talk to perfectly respectable kids who are trying to be his friend, like, someone stop this kid, I have no idea why he's like this.

Also, if the scene in Central Park seemed familiar, that's because it's from my story Past Lives where Remy makes an appearance and chit chats with our favorite man with a plan, I just expanded on it so it wouldn't be boring and short.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!