Mari flashed a light smile when he seemed to zone in again, and sort of shrugged. "Hmm, that's fine," she chirped, and her grin seemed to light up her face when mentioned the kids. "Good. Lizzie is on an adventure somewhere, and Silas is out fussing the horses," she hummed before going to help him empty everything out into the cupboards. She kind of looked him over after a moment before cocking her head. "You okay?" She asked curiously as she noted his hair and how... rough he was looking.

Sage chuckled lightly in response to her comment, a light smile forming on his face when she mentioned the kids. "Good," he mused lightly, moving over slightly to give her room to help. At her comment though, he sort of grunted and nodded in response. "guess it was just a long day after all this doing nothing," he lied, figuring it was a valid enough excuse.

Mari sort of hummed at his comment before moving to press a light kiss to his cheek. "Go get some rest before dinner then. It won't be long," she chirped to him once everything was packed away. She supposed it would have been long, especially after the last week where they had a lot of time to themselves. She'd keep the kids quiet and he could go get some peace. She soon went back to the sauce boiling... she was making some sort of stew out of the duck, and was kind of hoping it would turn out alright.

Sage have her a thin smile and nodded, humming lightly in response to her peck. "Thanks babe," he hummed lightly, throwing the basket back where it was normally kept and then wandering off to the bathroom. The word babe tasted almost bitter though....and he couldn't help but feel like it felt a bit empty to him now. The peck, the pet names....did he really deserve it? He felt incredibly guilty about everything that had happened, enough so that by the time he made it upstairs he went into the bathroom and slid down the wall to sit rather than laying down on the bed, not trusting himself to keep any food still in his stomach down. He sort of just curled up into a sort of ball, drawing his knees up to his chest and wrapping his arms around them and placing his head on them with a sort of heavy sigh.

Mari gave him a grin and went to finish everything up. Sage seemed a bit shook when he came in, but didn't really think to much about it... it would have been, like he said, a long old day, especially since the last few days had been so quiet. She gathered the kids into the kitchen after a moment or two and sort of played around with them until dinner was ready. She eventually called Sage down and went to clear everything up with a light smile before setting the kids their their chairs, pouring some waters and went to plop down in her own chair as they waited for her husband.

Sage stayed in the bathroom like that until he dimly heard Mari call him down for dinner. He sighed slightly, the thought of food, making his stomach start churning again. He had to go eat something though, he knew that. He just didn't want to. He didn't feel like he was worthy enough to go interact with the family. How could he tell this to Mari? What if she got mad? And he didn't want to upset her. He sighed in frustration before shaking his head to try and clear his mind up of all the thoughts before stiffly forcing himself up off the floor with a slight groan. He forced himself to walk into the kitchen as normally as possible, plopping down next to Mari as he always did, forcing a smile on his face as he greeted the kids.

Mari flashed a smile at Sage when he came down, and went start munching happily. Sage still seemed tired, so she had the kids start chatting about their day to him... they were happy little thinks, Liz babbling about... something, she couldn't quite figure it out, but Silas was definitely chatting about the ponies in the fields he was playing with that day. Soon enough, everyone was done, but Sage had a bit left on his plate... she figured it was just a bit of an odd meal to stomach, so that was completely fine, and went to clear everything up for him before going to start the washing, sort of humming a quiet tune as she did so.

Sage did feel a bit better as the meal went on....the kids babbling happily were always enough to lift his spirits a bit. He still felt bad about the whole thing, and didn't feel great forcing the food down his throat...but the kids did help. He supposed it was a good thing he often didn't eat his whole meal...he didn't want Mari to worry too much, because then she'd start asking questions and he didn't want to have to tell her what had happened. It wasn't fair to her. And what if she got mad at him? He could have fought and gotten away....but he hadn't been able to. What was wrong with him? He was broken out of his thoughts by Mari taking his plate and moving to wash up, so he scooped Liz up and ushered the kids over to the bathroom to wash up and get ready for bed, since they had an hour or so more to stay up.

Mari sighed gently after a moment or two when he padded off. She'd noticed him being sort of quiet, but he seemed happier when the kids started to babble about things. That was good, she thought. She felt a yawn escape her after a moment or two... it was still early, but it felt like it had been a busy day. She was normally sleepy when she got bored. Sage came back about half an hour later, and she gave a light smile to him. "If you'd like an early night that's more than fine with me," she mused to him lightly. "I'll pop the children to bed in a bit," she added softly.

Sage got the kids all washed up and ready, and then wandered back to the kitchen after that. He didn't want to seem too abnormal, so he wandered over to peer over Maris shoulder with a light hum, nodding in response to her comment about getting to bed. He mumbled some kind of thanks before wandering off to wash himself off in the shower and all. He doubted he'd sleep very well, if at all, and he honestly sort of dreaded trying to sleep. He stood under the warm water for a bit, sort of just staring at the bruises that had formed on his body before eventually sighing and getting out of the bath and getting dried and dressed before getting in the bed. He sort of rolled over to face the wall, not able to fall asleep and honestly feeling really bad now that he was thinking of sleeping with Mari.