What Ever Happened to Mr. Fun?

Johnny wasn't really sure what he was doing as he approached the door to the apartment. He wasn't even really sure if he HAD to be doing this. Taylor had asked him to go talk to Charlie after he came up in conversation. He guessed it was probably a throwaway comment, but he still felt like he should do it, even if Taylor probably wouldn't even give it another thought if he didn't.

Johnny tugged on his black Misfits tee and shrugged his shoulders as he lifted up his hand and knocked on the door. He had thought to bring some beer to lighten the mood, but after giving it a moment, he decided that might not be a good idea if the guy was emotional. After that, he really didn't have a clue and felt kind of weird. He didn't even really know the guy and he knew Alaina, but that was pretty awkward for him too. He felt like he was always put in these kind of positions, forced to smooth things out.

Well, Johnny WAS smooth and he was a man, so he wasn't going to shrink from it, no matter how weird or awkward it got! If he had to set this dude straight, then he'd do it!

Today had been as good of a day as Charlie had in a long time. He woke up early to train, actually enjoyed training and felt back on track so to speak. Ever since Alaina snapped him out of it, and he realized his drinking wasn't only hurting himself he'd enrolled in AA. He kept his 30-day coin he received at his last meeting in his pocket at all times.

Thats when he heard someone at the door. Charlie wasn't used to visitors catching him off guard. He didn't have a roommate or girlfriend living with him, and his pal LC wasn't around to act as an ever-vigilant watchdog always on the lookout for more people to pet him.

Charlie assumed it was Alaina stopping by for a visit, walking to the door in an old Ironman t-shirt and white gym shorts. He was beyond surprised to see Johnny. "Uh, hey Johnny how've you been? Come on in!" Charlie said, trying to sound as friendly as possible. He never got a warm vibe from the Higurashi brothers, although he did find Johnny's laid back outlook on life to his liking.

"Yo, dude."

Johnny said and turned his head. He smiled awkwardly but came in. "I've been pretty cool lately, man." He said as he slipped off his shoes and looked at Charlie. "How about you, dude? Have you been cool?" He asked. He wasn't even sure how to approach this situation, but that seemed like as good a start as any.

As Charlie brought Johnny in he listened to his question. Seeing him here was unusual enough, and the question itself was a bit odd. However, Charlie did recall that Johnny did have a very unique way with words. Charlie knew that "cool" "dude" and "junk" seemed to comprise one third of Johnnys vocabulary but understood the question. "I've always been a dork, never was a cool guy like you Johnny." Charlie said with with a shrug.

He didn't know Johnny well enough to be comfortable discussing the past few train wreck months of his life. But Charlie did sigh and wanted to give Johnny something of an honest answer. "....In all seriousness I am doing fine now, thanks for asking. What brings you to this neck of the woods? We're a good distance from either arena and the dojo..."

"Ah, it's all good, dude." Johnny said, blushing a bit at Charlie's response. This was kind of weird. Still, it didn't seem like that was going to go away anytime soon. "Uhhh, yeah, I sorta just dropped by. Like, it's cool you're doing good and junk, but I know there's been some issues, man. So, like, I just wanted to know if everything really was cool, ok? I'm not tryin ta butt into your business and junk, but, like... I gotta look out for my friends and family and the Dojo is part of that. I know what's going on so I gotta make sure that everything's cool with them. Which means I gotta make sure things are cool with you."

Johnny hoped he wasn't coming off as a dick and he didn't want to bring up the name Talia, but it was probably going to be implied.

Charlie listened as Johnny spoke. He figured this was about Alaina and Talia. Up until he got himself sorted out he didn't realize the effect his actions were having on his former roommate and current dojo trainee. Realizing the reason for the visit, Charlie was somewhat surprised Taylor didn't come and flip out at him. Johnny being here may have been to keep things civil. Charlie appreciated that. "Yeah, I am good now. I am done with Talia and done with alcohol." He said, pulling his coin out of his pocket and flipping it towards Johnny.

Charlie wasn't sure if he should go into the specifics of why things ended up the way they did, or if Johnny even cared about that. Would Johnny even understand? Johnny had a different upbringing than Charlie. Charlie quite simply had never had a family life at all. The first time he ever felt any unconditional love in his life was when he adopted LC, then again during his year together with Talia. Thats why the abandonment hurt him so much, why he stopped caring about everything.

Johnny caught the coin and gave it a glance. He gave Charlie the thumbs up with his other hand and smiled. "That's great dude." He said. "I know shit like that can be rough." He tossed the coin back. "I guess if you're gettin your shit together, that you don't really need me here, but, ah..." He said, pausing. He might as well dot every I and cross every T.

"Like, Talia ain't really done with us though, dude." He said. "I'm sorry shit happened and junk, but, like... I hope you saw what she did to my wife. Like, that's the real Talia, man." He paused. "But, that shit ain't your problem. I ain't askin you ta worry about that, I just want ya to have some perspective and junk." He paused for a second. "But, like, Alaina and you are close, right? I think she's takin yer break up worse than you did, man. Are you two... together or somethin?" he asked. "Cause, it's cool and it ain't my business and junk, but it would definitely explain a lot."

Charlie appreciated the concern, but Johnny did seem a bit confused about some things.  Charlie was far from upset about it, but he was doubtful that Johnny would understand where he was coming from.  Charlie closed his eyes and took a deep breath.  "Listen... I see now what Talia is all about but I am goint to try to tell you how exactly everything started.  It is what it is, and if you don't understand it I am cool with that."

Charlie rubbed his eyes and sighed.  This was going to be a long story, but he opted to shorten it up by leaving out certain specifics about his family.  Johnny didn't need to know any of that.  "All right, Alaina is my best friend but we aren't a thing.  I took the breakup harder than I should have because I've never been loved like that before, and we had one good year together.  I turned into an alcoholic and thats what has been bugging Al.  I stopped caring and she helped me get my head out of my ass, showing me that I wasn't just hurting myself.  Hearing things from her just carried more weight because she is the first person who was ever like actual, real family to me."  Charlie paused and shook his head.  "I wish Taylor never had to put up with Talia attacking her, what she did was totally messed up.  She's going to get hers someday, and she's going to deserve what she gets as far as I can tell."

"She already got hers, dude."

Johnny said as she furrowed her brow. "Shorty kicked her butt all around the arena and she's gone and Talia ain't. That's pretty fucked up. It's like she knew or somethin." Johnny missed Cassie pretty badly but thinking about it and saying what he just did pissed him off even more.

"Just... Alaina's been takin it pretty badly, this Talia stuff. Like, I dunno man." He said. "Has she always been like that? Because I'd say gettin all frothy like that might be a bit more than just lookin our for a bro, man. I thought she was chill, like, totally mellow and junk."

Charlie nodded along as Johnny spoke. He recalled Shorty being a nickname for Cassie that he was known to use, and knew of the Cassie vs. Dark Angel matches.

"Alaina's best trait and biggest flaw are that she cares. Too much oftentimes. Like, once she considers you "in" she is protective of her inner circle of friends. Talia dropped me like a bad habit leading to my problems. Granted, most of what I got caught up in was my own doing and no one else is to blame. Still Talia did that and then went after Taylor when she was around. Its a double whammy." Charlie said as he sat back. He partially felt responsible for everything that happened. Despite what Talia did, their time together felt like it was with a different person than the one everyone warned him about. By reacting the way he did, it seemingly caused a chain reaction.

"I used to have a thing for Alaina, but she had Mamouru and was happy. Thats when I found my own relationship. We still went to each other and neither of us ever had siblings. We sort of became the brother and sister that each never had growing up."