"sleeper-cell? oh- that type of sleeper-cell." Rinae cleared herself, looking at her little brother with the frozen rose petals as well.
Her curiousity piqued at the sight of them shattering upon touch and went towards ryxin as well.
"Wait, that's so cool!" A thought lit up her mind, her fingers grazing at the hard petals and breaking them with a minimal force between her fingers.
Alixis noticed this and also went up to her, just looking at their own little world. He smiled a bit, then spoke, "I think this is the first time we had talked so deeply."
Rinae froze, a tint of pink creeping at her cheek. She was starting to get flustered even by little comments from this guy.
"Y-yeah, it is..." She muttered, noticing the decreasing proximity.
Alixis was nearing close with each movement he made, even he wasn't conscious about it till ryxin noticed.
"You guys might end up kissing the next second."
The two of the frozen on spot without shifting themselves and turned away, rinae flustered as a cherry and alixis with a slight pink tint on his cheek. This was the first time he was left flustered in plain sight.
"S-shut up, kid!" He retorted, annoyance filling his tone with a hint of embarrassment. But the main haul was rinae who looked utterly speechless and red as a tomato again.
This caught alixis's attention again and made efforts in suppressing a laugh from his lips. "What are you cosplaying as, a red fruit?" He teased.
Rinae looked harmlessly annoyed and turned away with a huff, although the expression 'annoyance' doesn't seep through her. Ryxin stared at her sister with a sigh, yet feeling a sense of good feeling in this short banter between her and alixis.
A thought popped up in his mind, but it comes to be one of the most unexceptional ones, "I don't know your name." He asked the other guy.
"Alixis," he paused. "Common name for my appearance, right?" He asked although that wasn't necessary.
Ryxin sighed with the last sentence, feeling it was indeed unnecessary. "Not much. I'm ryxin."
"Ryxin?" He asked, "unique siblings with undoubtedly unique names. Your parents are genius picasso's."
"Not really," ryxin replied, "Our mother gave rinae's name and she herself gave me my name."
"I guess the 'like mother like daughter' saying is true." He shrugged.
"Hey, I thought you said you weren't packed with snarky comments up your sleeves." Rinae retorted.
"I did, but they just came out with a flow, what do I do about it?" Alixis shot an innocent look on his face, "besides, I got a little companion with the same level of sass as me, don't you think ryxie?"
Ryxin cringed. That nickname was enough for him to almost start throwing up.
"I'd be better off getting called a kid than this whatnot."
He cried in his mind. "Call me by that name again and I'll promise you that you would never get a happy ending with rinae."
"Really? Bet." Alixis challenged him with a smirk, when rinae came in middle to stop the tension.
"Enough you two. You guys bicker like little kids."
"'Little kids?' I mean you're not wrong but- this one's legally a kid! And I'm hitting puberty so- frankly speaking, A humble request for cutting off some slack."
"You sure plead too much to her for a small insult. Plus, We shared our names just a minute ago, old man."
Alixis clasped both hands in a pleading way as he said so, giving rinae the innocent face while getting offended again by the young boy at the same time.
Then she pulled this, "how about- uhh-"
She was definitely trying not to fool for that face, "how do I even scold you...." She muttered under a sigh, feeling defeated while alixis shot out a big grin in his face.
"Out of topic, how are we gonna get out?" Rinae asked, which snapped both of them back to their reality.
"Right. It's freezing outside, doubt this power supply would hold out long enough." Alixis spoke, thinking frantically.
Rinae started thinking again, her thoughts going back to when alixis said something that felt like a confession. She stared at him for a good few minutes before he felt a gaze staring and turned to her.
He stood up from his seat, watching the boy distracted by the window and snuck a chance. He walked closer to rinae and placed a peck on her cheek, then ran off to where the jar was to drink water.
Rinae froze again, taking her a minute to process what had happened. She turned to alixis who had a victory smile plastered in his face, and compressed her big reactions this time.
Her phone buzzed at the moment, and she picked it up.
"Hello?"
"Hey, is the shift over?" A female voice spoke over the phone. It was one of her co-workers.
"Mm, kinda. I got stuck inside cause' of the snowstorm."
"Really? That's harsh. It's settled down quite a bit, so want me to pick you up?"
A look of surprise crossed her face. "Seriously? I thought it would take a rigorous journey through this thick snow, are you sure?"
"I'm pretty sure. My car's durable."
"Alright. That would be really helpful."
"It'll take around 20 minutes, I'll be right there."
The phone hung up. Rinae kept the phone back in her pocket and regretted not taking this chance sooner.
"A co-worker of mine is gonna pick us up." She announced, turning both of their heads.
"Good grief. I wouldn't have to sleep over here." Ryxin leaned back, relief in his tone.
A car arrived in less than 10 minutes, it's headlights gleaming through the glass window. A short honk sounded in.
rinae perked up and checked outside, wondering how fast it had come than the promised time. She drew the curtains just by an inch enough to peek through.
The same man had come over, getting off from the car and walking towards the café, knocking on the door.
Rinae was confused. She doesn't know the person and looked at alixis while closing the curtain.
"I don't know this person. Can you come over?"
The words gave him a lush amount of happiness. She finally asked him to come to her, or so in that way.
He came over in a rushed way, then peeked through the curtain to see his father again.
His smile dropped like the freezing temperature, closing the curtain back and pulling her inside.
"This is my first time warning you. Don't open-"
The sound of the door handle clicked, and the door was open. The man entered inside with hands at the back, behind him was a lock pick.
Alixis raged inside him, gritting his teeth and patting her to move to ryxin.
"You'd never learn, don't you?" He was hostile.