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Ree tried to relax as he drove one of Mara's personal cars through the town with her permission for once. Her grudgingly given permission, tacked on with about a thousand threats and multiple ways in which she was going to string his feathers with his own entrails if he crashed it.

He barely glanced at his passenger the whole way, knowing where he was going though on his frequent fly bys or actual drives with his motorcycle. Once he parked he let out his breath and looked over at Kae. " Do you like Fusion food? " motioning with his hand toward the restaurant they were park across the street from. It didn't have a huge amount of people but was still busy with softer live music being played inside. If she didn't he had a few more good places he had tried that should be open by now.

Ree watched her both as she blunty stated her views then when she corrected herself. Preferring the bluntness only because it gave him ideas on what to order for them both, as for the apathy and reluctance he could sense he had no clue. Getting out of the car, he locked it and meet her gaze for a moment before she headed toward the restaurant.

He let out a soft sigh and followed not quite sure if he was bringing up bad memories of the last time she went out ..20 years? ...or if it was something else altogether. At this point treating her like Mara might be good, he could even splurge a little too now that his other job would be needing assistants after hitting their next phased. Maybe that will lighten her mood? Maybe? Or make it worse in which case......foooddd yummy food.

"Fusion is a combination of different traditional cuisine styles to make something new. Such as a spring roll having smoked salmon, crab meat lettuce and avocado, instead of the normal shrimp, mint, lettuce and soy sprouts. " he explained as they reached the entrance, garnering quite a few glances which he ignore. Doing a quick visual sweep of the area before moving inside with a smile. "Just two " slightly disappointed that he didn't see any of of the people he was used to, he know that one of them at least got out around this time oh well.

Looking back at Kae he motioned her to go ahead as he followed behind.

"I like to taste different foods from different places. The problem is when you find something you really like it's hard not to keep asking for it each time you come" he chuckled sitting down across her as he took a menu after thanking the hostess as he glanced down at it trying to figure out if he should pick something new or stay with something he already knew. Glancing up he blinked in confusion noticing that Kae was staring at him seriously. Was it a mistake bringing her here? Or was her not believing he could eat in a place like this. He looked back at her with a bit of confusion and worry as she looked back at the menu. Or .....she had no idea what to pick..20 years? That was about three times his age. He relaxed and reached out to tap the top of her menu playfully.

"Since you said you haven't been out for a long time... I was thinking we could order their buffet style ....plate ..things " he didn't think there was even a name but to him it was like a mini buffet, so he shrugged apologetically, feathers rustling behind him.

"Pick out the foods that you like or are curious about. Make sure to ask for spicy or not if you don't like it. I'll pick out three other plates. Once they bring them we can take samples from each one until your full. I'll bring back the rest for Tri and Mara " he looked back at her questioningly, in a good mood now that he thought he figured it out and now focused on trying to get her relax as well.

Ree watched her curiously as she seemed to blank out for moments at a time for no reason. Yet it looked the she did think the buffet idea a good one. He mentally picked one of his favorite plates that Mara and Tri also liked, then one of Tri's and one of Mara's more frequent ones. They actually had tastes in the opposite of the end of spectrum of nearly bland and firey hot.

"Hm... I am sometimes an intern with one of the SIU research teams " assumptions of being actually bring part of the SIU even allowed this ..which haven't been questioned yet. "Read, taking lessons from Tri and Mara ..other wise I like to travel. Of course to the more meta inclined cities mostly " he smiled, not going to tell her he had snuck though some of the others because he was curious.

Watching Kae keep her eyes closed he sent out a bit of healing energy trying to see if she was in physical pain for some reason. " How about you? What is bothering you? " he asked carefully, his smile fading to concern.

Ree looked confused for a moment as he thought Kae was comparing him to Mara. He did not act anything like her or at least he thought?

As Kae smiled and spoke of this person he reminded her of she looked...happy. It was not so as she moved to what she did in her spare time and mention of her sister didn't illicit the same response. Hmm, was she doing the research because of what happened to that person? She obviously wasn't happy right now...or maybe she was and was just tired of it. 20 years is long without a break ....assuming she never took one.

"Who was that person? " he asked curiously, wondering in what way they were alike but not asking that directly. He glanced up as the waitress came for them and he motioned to the plates he picked before letting Kae decide the others.

It was not hard to imagine that butter knife being a sharpen blade the way she was handling it with ease. He followed it with his eyes for a moment trying not to reach out and catch it before focusing up at her.

So they reminded her of her children? And he reminded her specifically of Alice? He knew her story or as much of it as Tri could share with him, Alice and Raziel... one "supposedly" killed the other in Aldas but had that been before or after Kae had disappeared? That he couldn't remember ....he actually never thought of her when he heard the reports and wonder if he shouldn't have. Maybe this was the reason she was helping Mara when it made no sense for her to do so.

"It is no problem. I did ask " he smiled faintly before moving on to something she had said " Self-lothing? " he asked very quietly "from what I heard there...was almost nothing that could have be done? " he said carefully as 20 years finally snapped into place ..20 years since Alice died..20 years since the School closed down ..and reopened.

Ree leaned forward slightly, looking more attentive but saying nothing until she was done. He didn't know he opened Pandora's box with that question, listening to ideas and views of herself that she had obviously thought over until arriving to that conclusions. Knowing herself, her weaknesses but not sure how to move forwards past what happened 20 years ago but still moving forward in a different way while dragging all that behind. He had ..no idea either.

"You can't change people easily. Powers aside, memories,events, genetics.." He raised his hand slightly to gesture while looking a bit sheepish. "They make up their personalities and views...the best that could be done is to try and convince them to be or act differently while still being themselves. Or there could also be other underlying causes.." He lowered his hand and paused. " I really can't say much but ...I don't think you should blame yourself over what someone else did..unless you told them to do it. You probably thought about it so I'm saying anything new, other than telling you someone else believes that view as well " he looked away a bit as well. "You could talk to Mara about that if you want.. She lost someone years ago in one of the renegade attacks. It is also part of the reason she pushed so hard to be where she is now ...." Hoping there might be more in common between them and that Mara could help.

Ree nodded quietly in agreement, he had been speaking of the time when the attack occurred but seems Kae had been speaking of even further back than that as being the problem between her and Rasiel and what eventually lead to that time. He nodded quietly, only a hint of discomfort because ...Kae must be aware that they were also tasked in finding Rasiel...and he wouldn't have the same option as Andy....Andy wouldn't have had the same option either other than it was a test which they had expected Kage to fail.

"Huh. Tri mentioned you both talked before on the phone a lot...none of it ever went past work related subjects? " he relaxed grasping at the change of subject and moving the conversation on to Kae and Mara's working relationship.