Rini was starting to realise that her uncle not showing up or showing up late was becoming a pretty bad habit. As she sat on her own at one of the tables and was doing her best to look like she was sitting on her own. That she didn't mind but she didn't really like the idea of having to go back home on her own.
Sure the evenings were light and it wasn't that far away but still, with everything that'd been going on lately it just didn't seem safe.

She took a few more sips of her tea, wondering just how long she could stretch out drinking it before her uncle showed up, despite the fact she really did want some dinner. She noticed the sound of the door opening and had looked up expectantly only to realise it wasn't her uncle.

Reina looked up just in time to see Riku waving at her. She looked over her shoulder and noticed that he was waving at Dharini as well. Reina stood up and gave him a warm smile as she walked over to him. "Riku!" She exclaimed. "What a nice surprise. Come sit with me, perhaps Dharini can join us as well." Reina placed a hand on his upper arm and took another look at his eyes. She still had no idea why they were black. He was clearly a Water Bender but black eyes made no sense. Maybe tonight would be the night she would find out.

As she waited for Riku's response to her invitation Reina looked back over her shoulder and gave a pleasant smile and wave to Dharini. She hadn't planned on eating with anyone tonight but it would be a welcome distraction from all of the work she doing to get a job at the police station. Her stomach gave a subtle growl as she noticed a waiter setting out a decadent meal for a young couple. She blushed a little before looking back at Riku and putting her hand over her stomach. Perhaps it was just her imagination but Reina thought that she saw the same discomfort that she was feeling in Riku's eyes. Perhaps he was just as nervous about making friends as her?

She'd looked up when she'd heard the sound of the door opening.
Nope, she had thought with a mental sigh, still not him. Although she did recognise who came through the door and that he recognised her due to the fact he did wave in her direction. She did so in response, wondering if she should invite him over to her table or if he was here to meet someone else.

Then she heard that, Reina was there. Somehow Rini hadn't noticed her when she'd come in, but she waved warmly in response. Rini stood up, "Oh hi, I wasn't expecting to see you here."

"I'm having the roast duck too! It looks like we are all full of coincidences tonight!" She said with a small laugh. Reina couldn't help but notice that Riku was looking at anything but her and Dharini. Perhaps they had upset him? Or had they made things awkward at the last dinner? To distract herself Reina nudged Riku in the shoulder. "Hey, you never did finish telling us about where you grew up." Reina looked over just in time to see her waitress setting her plate down and her stomach let out another faint growl. As Riku continued talking Reina couldn't help but feel a little bit better about her own awkwardness. 
Reina smiled at Riku's normal chattiness. "It's no intrusion for me at all, I'm just working on those pesky applications again," Reina replied trying to make it sound like she wasn't too upset about not having a job yet. She looked back over at Dharini and the thought crossed her mind that perhaps she was waiting on her uncle again. "What about you Dharini?" She asked politely trying to make sure she didn't just pull her into something uncomfortable. 

Rini tried not to pay too much attention to the smell of roast duck as she saw the plate being put down. She'd wished she'd ordered some for herself but she didn't quite have enough yauns of her own to do so... And so she'd gone with ordering noodles again.
"Yeah, I'd like to hear the rest of that story," Because honestly, she was still no closer to finding out about his unusual eye colour and she really wanted to know.

She was still standing, feeling as if she shouldn't take a seat just yet as that would seem somewhat rude she shifted for a moment at Reina's question, Rini couldn't think of a convincing excuse to cover up her being here alone "No, I'd love to eat with you again... since my uncle seems to be running late... again."

Reina's eyes grew wide at Riku's admission. She had to contain her look of shock as she scooted her way into the booth. "So they weren't just stories?.. I mean about the swampenders," Reina said in astonishment. She had never met a real swampbender. She had just heard the stories her people occasionally told to entertain children in her tribe. She was overflowing with questions but she held her tongue. Riku had already told her a lot more than he ever had. She didn't want to make him more uncomfortable than he already must be with two girls interrogating him. Reina looked back at Riku's eyes and she now knew why they were black, he wasn't like the rest of the waterbenders in the world. She slowly cut into her roast duck, not taking her eyes from Riku.
"If you want to share more I'm interested." She stated before taking a bite. "I've never met a swamobender." Reina took another small bite of her roast duck. Her stomach began to feel normal again and she was glad that it wouldn't be rumbling anymore. Her mind was racing a million miles a minute with curiosity about Riku. Were there more people like him? Did he intend to visit the swamp his ancestors came from? Had he actually used swampbending in a fight? She had to stop herself from bouncing like a little girl as she waited to hear some more about him. Reina took a sip of her tea and a deep breath so she could avoid getting ahead of herself and embarrassing poor Riku.

When he went to wash his hands, Rini had a bad feeling that maybe she shouldn't have asked him to tell more. It seemed like it was something he wasn't comfortable talking about.

She really needed to think more before she spoke. And she thought about shutting up for the rest of the meal and just looking at her noodles, although really that wasn't a good idea she guessed.

But he came back, and he started to speak, and it seemed like he was as worried about their reactions to what he had to say.

swampbender... She thought, she racked her brain a little bit. She was pretty sure she'd never heard of that before. Maybe she'd ask her grandparents later.

"Oh," Rini said, hoping that her 'Oh' didn't sound rude. She wanted to know more, but she also really did notice he didn't want to talk more about it.

Reina looked into Riku's eyes and saw his discomfort. She placed her hand on his shoulder and gave him a kind smile. "We won't judge you," She stated. "We all have things that we wish weren't a part of us." Reina moved her hand and began to slice her duck. She was taking small bites and glanced from Rini to Riku. She wondered what Rini thought about his admission. Reina asn't in any position to judge. The Northern and Southern tribes didn't banish her but they didn't like her. She had broken every tradition possible and ruffled a lot of feathers, her family's included. She picked up her tea and took a small sip before taking a bite of her duck.

She felt bad for making Riku so uncomfortable, but she was genuinely interested in who he was. She had always been interested in swampbenders. Reina couldn't help but think about when her parents used to tell her about them when she a little girl. She had never heard anything about them being unsavory. She had mostly heard about them bending the swamp into monstrous shapes to protect their homes. She had always thought that it sounded amazing, that she wished she could do things likes that. But what did she know? All she had to base her knowledge off of was childhood stories.  

Rini was still trying to think of the best way to speak. And did realise that she had probably been stirring her noodles a bit too long and so she ended up picking up her tea and taking a few sips.

She did rack her brain a bit, trying to think if she'd heard anything about swampbenders but she was still pretty sure she didn't. She had to admit she didn't know a lot in the way of legends and other old tales, what she did tend to know was a bit fragmented since she did have three cultures to deal with. She probably guessed her Grandfather could tell her something if she asked him later.

And she wasn't sure how to react to all that talk about gangs either. Sure she knew about criminals she remembered a lot of urging to be careful in certain parts of the City and there were some opportunists back home, especially since it was a trading hub and so it was quite easy to disappear if you had a mind to do so.

But Lykka, he seemed nice and so she was pretty sure whatever background he had really didn't matter in the long run.

"My grandad always says it doesn't really matter where you're from, it's what you do." She piped up, hoping that would help.

(Whoops my bad)

A florist?That really is a big change Rini thought at Riku finishing up his story. as she started to eat some of her noodles, realising that they'd probably be getting cold before too long, and that would've been a waste of the little yaun she had to hand at the moment.

She tried not to pay too much attention to how he ate that bowl of rice, yet again feeling just a bit out of place on how to react.


"Oh," She began, after finishing a mouthful of noodles. "He worked as a healer for quite a while, then he ended up moving to the City where he ended up meeting my Grandmother, her side of the family is where I get the earthbending from." She said with a slight smile. "And then he retired from the healing side of things, well mostly retired, he still sometimes helps people out.... ten years ago?" She said, trying to remember what she had been told since of course, this had happend when she was quite young, "And since then he's been helping my grandmother with her pet shop," She wondered about mentioning her dad and by extension her Fire Nation ancestry too, but that would probably come up later.

Reina flashed a large smile at Rini. "Your grandfather was a healer? That's so cool. Not many men take on that job." Reina began sipping her tea again as she glanced around the restaurant. A lot of the people had cleared out, probably because it was getting so cold out since the sun had gone down. Reina was glad to be inside and sipping warm tea with her friends. She turned her eyes back to Rini. "So, what do you do?" She asked Rini before taking a bite of her roast duck. Reina had eaten dinner with Rini before but she realized that she had never really had a chance to get to know her.
Reina hadn't really gotten to know many people in the city. She was bad at making friends, but she knew that things were better so far in Republic City. She hadn't tried to push anyone away or run into any trouble other than a couple of anti-bender sympathizers. Reina moved her plate away and rested her head on the palm of her hand. She hadn't felt this relaxed in a very long time. She was glad to finally have some time away from the stress of finding a job and getting settled in.

"Yeah, so I heard.... my mother can't bend but he taught her some non bending based healing." She'd remembered her mother trying to pass the skills onto Rini, but it hadn't gone too well. She found she got muddled easily and forgot the names of things or formulas and she dropped things and couldn't remember things and so trying to teach her had stopped pretty early.

"Oh, I mostly help out in the petshop, and train with my uncle" She said after taking a sip of her tea, which thankfully was still pretty warm. She'd never really hung around with people older than her before, and this was the second time she'd ended up being out quite late, or at least late for her and she was actually quite pleased with the fact that Reina and Riku found her interesting enough to talk too and hadn't just brushed her off as some dumb kid.
But then, she guessed out in The City people tended to grow up quicker than where she'd come from.

"What about you Reina?" She asked, interested in what the older girl had to say. Before she took some more of her noodles.