Locked to Vae
Aiden was still finding mud and debris in corners of his shop. He'd been able to salvage more than a lot of the shopkeepers, purely because a good portion of his goods were made of metal. But there was still a lot to make up for. He was trying to keep his prices low, to give the townspeople a chance to get back on their feet, but he was really just scraping enough to get by. Same as most.
Still he had a lot to be thankful for. He still had the roof over his head, and a lot of his personal possessions had been in his rooms above the shop. He also had his life, which a lot of poor unfortunates didn't, although he was finding he had an ongoing hacking cough that just wouldn't shift since the flood.
He was outside on a day that looked slightly better than it had mostly been since then. Tacks in his mouth, apron on and hammer in hand, he was busy replacing some timbers and signage on the front shelter of his building that had rotted away with the waters. It felt good to be fixing things again, physical work when the end was in sight did his heart good.
Someone caught his eye at the edge of his sight, and he instinctively turned to greet them, if only with a smile around the tacks and a nod.