Late nights and coffee shops [open]

[second_son]

Demetri's only been back in the city for a day, but it feels like more. He's spent all of it in the makeshift town hall offices, getting the paperwork together for his proposal to the council the next night. The funding hadn't been easy to get, especially with the lack of strings that he had demanded. No oversight committee, no outside presence helping them dispense the grant money. Siren Cove business would stay just that, Siren Cove business.

There's more work to do, but he knows he should go home and get some sleep. But sleep is exactly what he doesn't want to do. With sleep comes dreams - nightmares more like it. Of all the things that have been happening in his town whilst he's been away, of everything that had happened in the months leading up to that. His brother being gone and the questions that had remained unanswered about Fabrice's attack.

He settles on setting up in a diner in the end. He has a beer at his elbow and a cooling plate of fries he's not really touched. Laptop open, he's playing with files without really making any changes or doing much work. It's a distraction more than anything, a reason to not go home.

Comments

[ofcatsandfate]

His aunt fleeing town has had many effects on his personal life, most notably, on his mother. Coming to the realization that her sister-in-law had been the one to kill her husband and her brother-in-law, had taken a toll on her. Sarah Coombs never was one for holing herself up in her room with a beer, yet every time Fabrice had been over to see her, that's exactly where he found her. To say he is worried is an understatement.

He's on his way to visit her when he finds himself inside one of the diners in town. Greasy, comfortingly bad diner food could definitely prove of assistance, both to him and his mother.

He makes his way over to the counter to order when he spots Demetri again. He can never resist the urge to stay away, especially once he catches sight of the other man's face, worn with stress as he nurses a beer and cold fries.

"Hey," he comes over to stand by him, resisting the urge to just slide in across the booth from him. "Are you alright?"

[second_son]

This sort of food is a weakness of Demetri's, of all the Thorntons. Never allowed in their house, they've always been drawn to it, the lure of the forbidden strong. Maybe that is part of why he has such a hard time in turning away from Fabrice. The other man is a Coombs, and a polar opposite to what his father wants for him.

Yet here he is, making himself smile, but shaking his head all the same. "Tired. Should probably give up an go home but-"

Demetri shrugs, not wanting to admit he can't sleep.

[ofcatsandfate]

"Would you mind some company?" He asks softly, only more concerned after hearing the other man's words. Demetri sounds weary, to him, and Fabrice knows the feeling of that weariness well from his own experiences. "It looks like tough work."

"Or you could come over to my mother's with me," he suggests, with a small shrug. It's an offer that he wouldn't make to just anyone; he's protective of his mother, especially in the recent weeks, and to make such a suggestion requires a serious level of trust, which, he realizes, he's given to the other man ever since they've gotten to know each other. And it's an innocent request, too, nothing that would raise questions. Fabrice could always tell anyone who might ask that there's more on Violet Coombs he wants the mayor's office to be aware of.

"There's decent beer and I was going to bring home some more greasy food. And there's better lighting," he makes a crack at a joke, gesturing to one of the swinging lights overhead.