Ben was on his was home from the harbour, carrying a basket with two fish. He had managed to sell most of the catch, but not all. It didn't matter. At least they had something for dinner. They had one mouth less to feed, too, now that Alice was gone. That was something. As he was moving up a the steep street, he suddenly stopped, put the basket on the ground and leaned against the wall, coughing. He had been having a recurring cough and breathlessness ever since he had been sick, a few weeks back, and it would play up suddenly. Ben took a few deep breaths.

Anthony was just trying to get back home as quickly as possible, so that he can avoid more of the extremely shitty situations he's been going through a lot, as of recent. Of course, as always, there was something that stopped him from reaching his goal. He looked at whomever it was that was just leaning against the wall and coughing, in mild concern, and approached them. "Are you, like...okay?" Anthony asked, keeping his distance a bit. He hadn't recognized the person yet.

Ben coughed a few more times, closing his eyes, and only then did he stand up straight, sighing heavily, and turning to the stranger who had shown concern. "Ay-," he started, but then he recognized the young man. "Aye..." he said. Elijah's 'friend'. Ben looked at him suspiciously. "Thanks for asking..."

It took a moment for him to recognize who this man was. Anthony suddenly got very quiet. After a few short moments of just standing there and staring, he nodded quickly to show he had been listening. "Yeah. No– no problem. At all."

Ben stood there rather awkwardly, chewing the inside of his cheek. He would love to tell the man to stay the hell out of Elijah's life. But he had upset this man and Elijah last time. Ben had decided on a more conciliatory approach. And then that thing in the pub had happened. "Ye shouldn't hang out with the likes of Harry Longbottom," the old fisherman finally said quietly.

Anthony just looked at the ground and stood in place awkwardly. He looked up as the man finally addressed him. Anthony blinked rapidly as he tried to figure out what the hell this guy was talking about. "Who?" That name did not ring any bells for him.

"I saw ye hangin' out in t' pub," Ben said impatiently. "If ye're gonna be Elijah's friend, at least stay away from trouble like him."

Oh. He realized who they were talking about, now. Anthony frowned. It was good advice and he would've actually listened to it, but it was presented in such a way that made him want to do everything but heed it. Anthony defended himself: "I am staying away from him. He's an asshole."

"Oh..." Ben looked at him suspiciously. That wasn't what it had looked like, that evening in the pub, when Anthony had apparently felt the need to talk shit about him and his friends. "That's... good," he said vaguely.

Anthony clicked his tongue. "Yeah, I guess so," he shrugged and nodded. "it's not like I even wanted to 'hang out' with him or something." Yet again, he immediately went to defending himself.