Adrien Giggles.

Lucas huffs a humorless laugh.

"I was going out of my mind and trying to make a sprained ankle heal faster."

He looks down at said ankle, still aching, but more or less fine. He kicks some small rubble off the side of the road.

"Is there anything I can help you with? Leadership wants a list of repairs or supplies that people need."

"appreciate, yeah," she agrees with a nod. in this place, all she knew was to enjoy the day light. things came out at night and the day time was the only time they were safe, at least as safe as they could be here. she looked back at lucas, face blank as she takes in his question. "fine, it was just another night." only it wasn't, it lasted longer than any she's seen before but she wasn't one to talk about the things that go through her mind during the nights. "what about you?" she didn't particularly care, but she knows it's polite to return questions.

Lucas keeps holding her, knowing that once she's ready, she'll break the embrace.

He tries to think what to say that can help her. No flowery bullshit. Ana isn't like that.

"When my dad first got diagnosed, I refused to go to the hospital to visit him. I just couldn't handle it. There wasn't anything I could do to help. And it got worse when he got it again. The chemo just took this man I looked up to and whittled him down to a stranger."

He looks at the wall, running a hand up and down her back in a soothing gesture.

"There was a few months where I barely visited him at home even. Just felt pointless. I was scared that seeing him like that would ruin all the good memories I had of him."

More tears drop.

"But finally I went, and I realized that not going hurt me more than going ever would've."

He kisses the top of her head.

"I keep going because otherwise it is all pointless. Even if we never find a way out, we're still alive, and giving up means everything is pointless."

Anastasia tenses briefly in Lucas’s embrace—old reflexes, a habit of keeping people at arm's length. But then, something inside her lets go. Her shoulders sag as if she’s been carrying too much for far too long, and she leans into the hug, not for comfort exactly, but because standing upright suddenly feels too exhausting.

"I tried to hold the line, Luke," she murmurs, her voice brittle. "But it’s slipping through my hands. Every day, I wake up hoping today will feel different. That I’ll care, or find a reason to try... but mostly, I just feel numb. Like I’m already a ghost."

She stays still, not moving to pull away from him, but not clinging, either. Just resting, as if being in the same space with someone who understands makes things a little lighter, if only for a moment.

"How do you do it?" she asks, her voice quiet, almost desperate. "How do you keep going when it all feels... pointless?"

Lucas shuts the book so Cherry can't read his notes.

"Can anyone vouch for your whereabouts then? It would've been between 10:30–11."

Honestly, Lucas does have bigger fish to fry, but it's his job to help everyone feel safe. If someone is burglarizing other people, that will just make a bad situation worse.

He's not sure if Cherry is the actual culprit. She just has the most priors involving theft, and they did accuse her, so he has to be thorough.

CHERRY SIGHS AS SHE LEANS A HIP AGAINST THE DOORFRAME . her expression scrunches with it . " i mean, yeah, you prolly definitely got bigger fish to fry than me ." charlie would imagine so at least but what the hell does she know about being a cop ? all she's sure about is that someone will probably try to rope her into helping in some way today, and as reluctant as she usually was she knew she'd probably give in for at least a little bit . after all, they all got royally fucked by the storm . so when lucas shoots her an unimpressed look her expression only twists . " who the fuck said that ?" she moves as if to peer at his notebook . " i was workin' yesterday morning !"

Lucas swallows. He wants to read between the lines, search past the casual tone.

But he doesn't.

He kisses Rae's forehead, the last intimate gesture he'll allow himself today, then steps back.

"Stay safe tonight," he says, trying to keep the sad tremble out of his voice. "I'll pick you up in the morning."

He walks backward, keep their hands connected until he couldn't anymore.

as they approached his house, rae's steps slowed, mirroring lucas'. the weight of the day's events hung heavy in the air between them. he found himself reluctant to let go of his hand.

"i… i don't know," rae admitted, his voice soft. his breath caught in his throat. he wanted lucas to stay, desperately. but he also knew the complexities of their relationship, the raw emotions that still lingered.

"you don't have to stay," he said, trying to make his tone sound casual. "i'll be fine. just… it's been a long day. and… you know." he shrugged.

Lucas takes a deep breath before he starts talking.

"I mean, I was running around town, seeing what needed repairs, checking that people were okay and not trapped anywhere. Not to mention wrangling the deputies to do their jobs."

Lucas smiles. A lot of people say they're glad he's here, but it feels a little different — a bit better — coming from Bruna.

"He was a better hunter than me," he says. "And he was way funnier. Got him more dates in high school than I did, though coming out of the closet did change my odds slightly."

He chuckles.

"And he may have been younger, but he showed me how to be a good son to our parents. He seemed to always know what to do and helped me when I didn't."

He wipes some tears away and looks back to Bruna.

"What about your sister. What was she like?"

"We did miss you at dinner, now that you mention it. Had your hands full today, huh?" she gets up on her feet, preparing to makeshift a sandwich. "Tell me about it. Your day. It's what normal people do, right? Out in the real world. I forget sometimes how simple things used to be -- how we took such things for granted. Or, well, I did anyway..." she was often uncomfortable with silence when in company, so questions came almost naturally, as did the thoughts and loud observations. "Rae and Ana will be alright...don't even let your head go there. We have just enough worry in us for things that are real to also venture into those that aren't." it's something she learnt the hard way, even if she did worry daily about all the things that could possibly go wrong. She tried not to voice them -- for the most part. "I lost my sister too. In here. I'm sorry that happened to you -- but, in a weird fucked up way, I'm glad you're here. We're all better off with you around." words of comfort came almost natural to her these days, it's like nothing regarding loss was even surprising anymore. "What was he like? Your brother?"

"Well, unfortunately, I'm the sheriff, so yeah, I'm a cop."

He lowers his hands and gestures around his waist, where it's very clear he doesn't even have a holster. Hopefully, that lets her trust him more.

"I don't like carrying a gun around town unless I have to."

He steps closer, even stuffing his hand in his pockets to seem more casual.

"I understand that you need to be in control of yourself, and me dragging you away would do the opposite of that. So I'm just going to say this: if you want to risk your life against those monsters, we can't stop you. We can't protect people who don't want our protection. I just hope you decide that our protection is good enough for you as the others have."

— A scoff escapes her lips before she can stop it , her scowl only furthering at the words of the other . “ what're you , a cop ? ” she asks with a scrunch of her nose , tapping some ash from her smoke while disdain drips from her every word . “ being cautious is one thing , threatening people with physical restraint so they conform to your so - called safety standards , that's another thing entirely . very authoritarian of you all , i must say . ” there is something comforting , almost nostalgic , about being a smartass with authority ; a sense of warm familiarity , in a town that is entirely unknown to her .

Adrien is immediately interested in the little she'd said. He walks further into the room.

"You know, I was thinking we could probably make some decent windmills to generate power," he says, looking down at the book she was reading. "It's pretty windy here, and it'd be more reliable than solar power."

"It's cool," she said looking at the source from inside the notebook from where she was sitting on the floor. "I'm just trying to figure out new power source, but with limited- " she said before glancing up to see who was speaking to her before closing the book. "Do you need something?"

Adrien worries he said something wrong. Do El and this Muz guy not like each other?

"They just said you'd be around the shop a lot. You, them, Noah, some other people I think?"

He shrugs but nods at Muz's descriptions.

"Trust me, I'm not a glamorous type of guy. Grew up on a farm. And nothing is really junk. It just takes the right equipment to make some stuff more useful."

He starts to pick through a nearby pile, just to see what's in it.

'El did? Chatty bastard, spreading my name round like that.' That's a joke. He's not sure how but it tumbles clumsily from his brain to tongue and twists into a hard tone he doesn't quite mean. To compensate, Muz punctuates with a loose smile. 'Tell them I want a word.' He scratches the back of his neck, letting out a dry laugh as he then considers the question. 'Scavenger?' he mutters, like he's trying out the word for the first time. 'S'Not glamorous, that’s for sure,' he says. 'More like… picking through what everyone's left behind. Sometimes you find something worth keeping. Most times, it’s just junk, like old bolts or busted pieces of metal that won’t do anyone any good. I uh, I drop a lot stuff in here, to be fair. I think we'll see each other a bit.'

Lucas rubs his eyes.

"Good morning to you too, Muz. For your information, no. How about you?"

He nods to Muz's matching bags under his eyes. Then he sips his coffee.

open, town square

Muz squints up at the washed-out sky, the sun barely breaking through a layer of gray clouds, casting a pale light over the town square. The place looks almost normal in the daytime, like the night hadn’t clawed at it. He watches a few people drift while he leans against a bench, idly tracing a crack in the wood with his thumb, his gaze darting on occasion, wary glances.

A face crosses his line of sight, and Muz straightens, raising a hand in a lazy wave. ‘Hey,’ he calls out, his voice cutting through the quiet. ‘Get any sleep last night?’ He nods to the shadows under their eyes, a half-smile tugging at his mouth.

Adrien chuckles but also leans back so he's not aggressively in Charlie's face.

"I guess I just... I don't know." Adrien focuses back on taking the phone apart. "It's just easier to look on the bright side during the day. I mean, I always wanted to leave my home, but also the economy out there sucks. So I guess this place is an okay middle ground? At least for the time being."

He also found quiet empty rooms in the colony house to cry in at night but he's not going to admit that to a potential new friend yet.

"yeah, i'm pretty sure half the town is in love with them which is totally valid. they're great," she said with a chuckle. to his excitement, charlie's eyes widen in surprise for a second before settling back to easy going. "yeah, totally, anything to make it through the nights," she smiled. "you seem to be taking all of this really well, i need to know your secret."