{o} Where Theres Music and Theres People

Hester

Tight hold on that hope

"Maybe if you stop drinking and working alone, your hands won't shake so much." It's such a simple connection in her mind, and she offers it up as that, a simple solution to a not at all simple problem.

She doesn't need pity, it's the very thing she's trying to escape, thank you very much, and there's something even worse about pity coming from the man before her, when clearly he needs it so much more than she does.

Hester lifts her empty glass, an equally empty toast offered up to a man neither of them knew. It was what you did, right? "May he burn brightly." She echoes, watching Korbin down his drink, something more serious infecting her. She'd been in such a good mood, riding so high on the giddiness of her first real performance, and now?

Clearly, comfort is not what she's looking for, as she shoves her glass forwards again, a silent request for a refill, the hope that another drink would lift her back up again riding on this cup.

Sometimes it could seem so cold

Do what you gotta do to cope

KORBIN

But what does it take to break you, to awake you?
To make you bow and spit it out?

"Maybe that's a reason to keep drinking and working alone," Korbin countered, his attempts to keep the bite out of his voice unsuccessful. Taking her glass, he refilled it for her, and set it back down before her, somehow managing not to slam it into the counter.

He felt the heavy weight too, encroaching in on them as if her music had been a spell that now slowly faded. With darkness returning and his mood blackening, he struggled to maintain that neutral mask of 'I'm perfectly fine, carry on'.

Was this his cue to ease away, find someone else's day to ruin? But that would be bad service, and maybe she would find somewhere else to take her fiddle and her songs. Bad for business. So he busied himself with preparing a snack instead, dried and cured meats sliced thin and arrayed neatly on a plate that he set out for her.

"On the house," he mumbled, before turning away to serve another customer.

He didn't have words, so... this was about the best he could manage as a pick me up.

Doesn't matter if I hate you or embrace you
Nothing makes you turn around

Hester

Tight hold on that hope

Pity fills Hester's eyes the moment Korbin snaps his answer, the tone not hurting her as much as the idea. She doesn't understand, can't understand the loss that would make his pain, his loneliness enough to give up parts of himself.

Her hands reach out to curl around the glass automatically, though she doesn't raise it to her lips, doesn't look away from him, as he suddenly grows busy. Hester watches, confusion slowly pulling her brows together, though she doesn't interrupt, doesn't raise her voice for that. The plate set in front of her is met much in the same way the glass had been, her eyes flicking down over it before returning to Korbin.

This seems to be the end of their conversation, the food a last piece of goodwill, or perhaps a bribe to keep her from talking more. A soft sigh heaves out of Hester, as she pulls the drink and the food close. "Thank you!" She calls to his back, though she means to say I'm sorry.

Maybe she'll get the chance later.

Done~

Sometimes it could seem so cold

Do what you gotta do to cope