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Ruben did not realize that Reya came through the doors while hearing him muttering to himself. He was too focused on turning off the heat, moving the pans over to the sink, and starting to wash them while talking under his breath.

"Err.. did you get the..."

Turning his head to look at Reya, who tried to speak up, he turned in the water to get the dishes ready for washing. Watching her peak out into the front of the house and come back to thank him for the help. Ruben allowed a small smile while glancing at the water running. "It is the least I can do," he said while adding dish soap.

Sighing at the thought, not too long ago, Ruben thought he would jump right to the conversation where it was interrupted since Reya had to go out and take orders and deliver food to the customers. She was in the kitchen with him now, and he didn't know how to bring it up. Reya thought she was intruding when she asked to get drinks, and it was because he overthinks everything.
Rubbing the back of his neck, he seemed to stare at the water for a minute before speaking up, "Reya, I didn't mean to make you feel like you were intruding..." trailing off, since he didn't know if he should bring up going out for the drinks. Would she even want to? Would she think he's weird if he said it was okay too?

Shutting down, he was horrible at talking to people - he started being bad at it after his parents divorced. Socializing was not his forte and probably never would be. Playing with the dishes a little, he was starting to wash them, and he didn't look at Reya the whole time while talking. "I mean. If you want to go out for drinks, it would be good to join you. It might be a need for both of us," he offered up his true thoughts on the matter even though he felt like his offer was to get rejected.

Starting to scrub the dishes, he didn't like to cook with them too much before washing them. He had a pet peeve when it came to switching foods in and out of the pan, especially foods that could contain allergies or cross-contaminate in some way.
Ruben decided to glance over to Reya and see her physical reaction if there was one to his words. He knew he wasn't the best at talking about what was on his mind and usually stayed to himself - a habit that was learned because of how his mother was. She was a strong woman, but she wasn't at the same time. Anything that could be perceived as stressful was shut down when Ruben talked about it; he sometimes couldn't even ask her about her day without a freakout.
This caused him to create bad habits of not talking but being talked to, causing a lot of one-sided conversations, and he was out of his comfort zone at this moment.

It wasn't even that much time between when he said it was fine, and now, his anxiety jumped, and he decided to offer her an out. "I mean if you don't want to anymore. It's okay. I wouldn't want to go to the bar with me either. I'm not any fun. I'm very boring - I don't have anything to talk about unless you want to hear about the story of when I broke my arm at summer camp years ago," he mentioned. Ruben thought that was one of his most exciting stories; him breaking his arm at 12 or 13 at summer camp. It was a story that most wouldn't judge him for; he didn't tend to get bad reactions from telling it. Reya probably heard the story once or twice already which is why he brought it up.

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"Is there any trouble, sir?"

"Hm? Oh no, no. It's fine. Just taking it all in." He shrugged and leaned back into his rickety old chair, thinking about Jacob's previous question about how Sanctuary was treating him. In truth, the town was treating him just fine. He hadn't had any real problems with anyone, at least not yet. He just felt so... out of place here. "Sanctuary has been good. I'm still... getting use to it, I guess. Beautiful views, though." Levi looked outside the window, watching the rain splatter against the glass. "Well, usually." He half smiled and turned his eyes back to Jake. "How long have you been on the force now? How are you liking it?"

Just then, their waitress hurried by their table and dropped off their drinks; water for Jake, coffee for Levi. "Thanks." Levi watched as the girl ran off, obviously in a hurry due to the rush of customers that were piling in on this rainy Tuesday morning. He grabbed a packet of sugar that sat out on a dish at the table and stirred it into his coffee as he awaited Jake's answer.

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"It's lovely to meet you, Aoki. That's a beautiful name!"

"So, what brings you here? Passing by? A vacation maybe. The nature? The quietness of a small town? Your past?"

Lily felt all the hair on her arms stand up as a cold shiver shot down her spine. Her eyes fixated on a spot on the table where the wood had been chipped on the edge. In her mind, an image flashed to remind her of her past. Staring at herself in the bathroom mirror, covered in blood that was not only her own, eyes terrified and wide, her body trembling as she tried to regain control of her breathing.

"I'm kidding, hun."

Heart racing, Lily blinked a few times and quickly looked back up to meet Aoki's eyes, mentally pulling herself away from her own memory and shoving it back down into the recesses of her mind. In an effort to appear normal, Lily laughed along with her new acquaintance and smiled.

"I suppose it's... a bit of everything that brought me here. I needed to get away." She shrugged, "I'll be sure to take you up on that tour of the town!"

"Alright, who's hungrier, I can take your order first."

"MEEEE! I'm starving!!" She sat up straight and grabbed her menu, grinning at the waitress. "I did walk here, after all. Take pity on me!" She gestured towards the ends of her hair which had gotten soaked from not being underneath her hoodie on the walk over, and then to her completely soaked through hoodie which laid atop her suitcase. "I'll have a cinnamon bagel, please! OH! And orange juice!"

---

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"Okay Cinnamon bagel, juice- do you want butter or cream cheese honey?" Emma asked with a smile as she glanced at Lily with a smile, jotting down her order swiftly as she cocked her hip to steady herself among the small throng of people in the diner. She was glad to have a busy morning and a lively bunch of faces in there today- beat some days when it was empty, raining, and anyone that walked in was cranky as all hell. This beat that for sure!

"Alright, and what about you two?" She turned to Beth and Aoki, more than ready to take down their orders as well to keep service moving along and everyone happy. But she had to admit- they were not the usual bunch of faces that she regularly sees in this joint. Maybe someone was stopping on the way through, that happened every so often. But not enough that it was....common? Yes, you could say common. That word would do until her brain would be able to come up with something else to placate it.

---

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Entering the Fox Hole Tavern, Sicily shook off a bit of rain from her coat before finally taking the hood down from her head and giving a sigh of relief to be indoors. Just the run from her car to the front door was terrible! But she couldn't help herself that she was a child of the sun, of a wonderful breeze and a unset to remember for years- not the rain, the snow, the cold. She knew that Emma was on shift today, but seeing the large amount of cars outside of the Diner made her too nervous to go in for a coffee so she went for the tavern instead. It wasn't nearly as crowded, which meant that she could go in, stay for ten or so minutes having her drink and maybe slink out without being noticed too much.

With her hands around her phone for something to do, she approached the counter by the baked goods display and quietly placed her wallet on the cool surface, taking a glance at the offerings that day whilst playing with her hair, wrapping the braids around her fingers one by one before letting them fall gently against her coat and starting up again- a self soothing gesture that has come up to become a habit since she started styling her hair this way a few years ago.

As her mind continued on with thoughts, she took a glance around before focusing on what she was going to order- a hazelnut cappuccino and a croissant. Easy enough for a quick breakfast since she had slept in today anyway. Honestly, she wanted to be with her class more than anything since the six year old's were less intimidating than the general public in this stupid town. Sicily didn't hate Sanctuary per say.... But she had certainly had her fair share of emotional battles with the citizens over the past few years. She was glad to see that was mostly over...

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About thirty minutes after getting home and the banter with his mother, Marcus heard light knocks on his door. Removing one of his earbuds, he stared at the door from where he lay in his bed, "Yes?" Marcus asked with a suspicious tone thinking it was his mother.

"Can I come in?" the soft voice of his younger brother barely reached through the processed white painted wood door. Marcus sighed while taking the other earbud out and pausing his music while throwing the device to the foot of the bed.
Getting up, he walked right over and opened the door, "Sure," he forced a smile, knowing that Louis needed to see it. Louis walked right under his brother's arm and went into the room, sitting on a chair that usually was never touched since it was Louis's chair, or at least that's what Marcus would tell his friends when they came over.

Closing his door, he walked over to his computer chair and plopped down while looking over to Louis, "What's up?" he asked while giving it one good spin.

Louis sat there on the chair, looking at the ground, and he didn't answer his older brother's question. This caused a furrowed brow look to come from Marcus, "Louie, what's up?" he asked again while watching his brother shrug his shoulders.
"I'm serious," he stated in a gruffer voice, "What's wrong?" he asked once more. Louis seemed to be reluctant on answering his older brother's questions.

Sighing, Louis seemed to be struggling, and clearly, the gears in his head were turning, "I don't know. I just..." trailing off, he began to chew on the inside of his cheek.

"Louis stop that," Marcus demanded, and Louis instantly stopped chewing on the inside of his cheek. This was a habit that Louis adopted because of the lack of attention at home and anxiety that the outside world gave him, so he expressed it in the way of chewing on his cheek or chewing a pack of gum in a single day.

"This kid is being mean to me at school, and now you and mom are fighting more," he finally released the words. Slowly, Louis decided to add on, "Plus, you and dad are too," Louis was showing that he was being affected by the negative energy between their parents and his older brother.

Marcus seemed to stop spinning or having the upbeat vibe to him while his brother expressed these worries and difficulties, "Hey, Lou," he said while getting up and going over to his little brother. Crouching down in front of him, he forced a half-awkward smile, "I know things are tough at home and school, but I got you. You have me too. You can always talk about these things with me. I know our family has been fighting, but I don't know how to stop it. I do right, I do wrong, I do nothing, and I get in trouble. It's because I'm the oldest," placing his hands on Louis's shoulders while he tried to get his little brother to look at him. Louis seemed to peak over to his older brother staring at him.

Marcus stuck out his tongue in a playful way, "now cheer up," he demanded, and Louis rolled his eyes. Louis began to push Marcus away, and this triggered a playful behavior in the eldest Dotson son.
Picking his younger brother up without an issue, he threw him onto the bed and began to tickle Louis. This caused an instant reaction of kicking and pushing away, "Marcus, stop it!"

"Not until I see that smile!" Marcus shouted back while trying to get a cheerful attitude from his little brother. He was trying to cheer him up in any way he could.
Louis was trying to fight his brother from this charade of playful behavior until a crash of shattering glass echoed in the room. Both of them stopped what they were doing while they stared over at the ground where the noise came from. A glass nicknack laid there on the hardwood ground of Marcus's room, shattered, and he looked over to Louis. They both began to chuckle at the breakage of the item, "Okay, okay, I'll stop," Marcus said while pushing Louis's head and ruffling his hair in a few seconds before going over to the broken item.

Louis sat up in the bed and watched while Marcus began to clean the item up that he knocked off the dresser he kicked while being tickled, "I'm sorry I broke that," he didn't know if it was important or not.

Marcus shrugged his shoulders, "Don't worry about it. Mom got it for me this Christmas. I can't even remember what it was," he admitted while being careful with the sharp pieces of glass.

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