Chapter Text
Sebastian had known, of course, about the day that the new resident would move into town – he just hadn’t registered that it was today. The arrival had been all that anyone would talk about since early winter, and he was frankly bored of it. Yes, it was intriguing enough that a newcomer would choose their sleepy little town to move to out of nowhere, but there had been nothing to say aside from Lewis’ acknowledgment that they were the grandchild of his late friend. All knowledge and therefore gossip fodder had stopped there. So Sebastian hadn’t given it a second thought.
It had been the first day of spring – a time when his mother prompted him into doing some spring cleaning under the guise of the new year turning him into a fully functioning adult rather than semi-competent manchild, so by evening, he was tired and grouchy. All the dust kicked up in the scouring of his basement room had made his face itchy, and the smell of all the bleach was making his head hurt too. That much amounted to him making even poorer company than usually at the mandated family mealtime. Mom served up the vegetable stir-fry (still she insisted on using their last stored produce from the previous fall) and slowly coaxed him into talking about his day.
“Fine,” was his ever-eloquent answer between rubbery bites. “Room is clean now.”
“Thank you Sebby, I appreciate you going along with me,” she smiled indulgently, offering a half-wink of appreciation that did make him grimace back fondly. “Much nicer being down there when it’s not so cluttered, hm?”
Sebastian nodded, hoping that his end of the conversation was now fulfilled and he could just work on clearing his plate.
“Did you find anything you want me to get rid of?” she asked. “Old comics, games, toys, anything?”
“Nope.” Another mouthful.
“Are you sure? There seemed rather a lot of stuff you don’t use anymore the last time I was down there.”
“I’m sure.” A sip of water.
“Well, no worries then. I was going to be dropping off some old clothes of Maru’s to Marnie sometime soon and figured any of your old things could go to Vincent. How is their family? Seen much of Sam recently?”
“Yeah.” He shrugged non-committally. “He’s good.”
“Could you possibly offer some more descriptive words?” Mom teased, and Demetrius put a calming hand on the back of hers. “What?” she responded in an undertone.
“Seb clearly doesn’t want to talk,” he said in his ever-level tone. “Maru, how was your day?”
Maru looked up from her plate with bright, interested eyes. “I met the new farmer.”
“Oh really?” Her father smiled. “I haven’t met them yet. What are they like?”
“Not a big talker,” Maru said slyly, kicking Seb under the table. He kicked back, a little too hard. “I said it’s exciting to have a new face in town, that August’s bound to shake things up, and they seemed a bit nervous about it, but they were pleasant enough.”
“I’m not surprised they didn’t want to talk, that old farm is a mess!” Mom shook her head. “They’ve got their work cut out for them if they want it back in working condition any time in the next planting season.”
“Go help them, then,” Maru grinned back, and Mom wrinkled her nose in response. “Have you seen them yet, Seb?”
“Nope.” And he didn’t much want to. Elliott had been here a year already, and all he’d manage to do was make the library a little busier. And even then, Sebastian only really knew about him through Penny, through Sam. It was safe to say that he wasn’t social, and this farmer was unlikely to change that. Maybe he’d meet them someday, but it certainly wouldn’t be through his own efforts.
“August seems to be doing the rounds,” Mom continued, tilting her head as she considered it. “They’ve managed to meet Caroline and Jodi’s families already, and you said they’d even been into the clinic in order to say hi, right hun?” Maru nodded confirmation.
Sebastian just hoped this new farmer wouldn’t make Pelican Town even more unbearable for his final period of isolation there. Soon he’d be gone, and then agricultural revivals would mean nothing to him.
***
Two days later, and Sebastian was back at work. Another day, another client with some easy software bug that needed fixing. He was more than happy to keep taking these simple tasks that barely took an hour of his time rather than try to take on bigger projects that required his actual computing skills for the time being. There would be plenty of opportunities to program and code more complexly once he was in the city and working for an actual tech start-up.
This one was still giving him a headache, though. The man who had asked for his help reconfiguring some of the coding on his homemade website had sent over the wrong files, then some duplicates, and then wasn’t responding to Sebastian’s messages asking about the formatting, and he needed a break. Sebastian got up from his chair and stretched out, hearing his spine complain as it reverted to a straight line. Adjusting the neck of his hoodie, Sebastian slumped to the kitchen for some water.
He could hear Demetrius in his lab, clattering away with some boiling tubes, and the laughter of Maru suggested she was helping. Mom was clearly elsewhere, or she would be joining in with the chatter. Sebastian grabbed a glass and filled it up at the sink, pulling open cupboards to see what snacking materials were around. Not much – Pierre’s stock was limited, and Mom insisted that as a local business-owner herself, they should be supporting his store rather than going to Joja, even though it was closer, cheaper, and actually offered the brand of chips Sebastian liked.
Settling on a packet of peanuts, he leaned back on the counter, poking at one of the dining chairs with his foot. There was time yet to get the coding work done today – that asshole client just needed to actually pay attention to what he, the tech guy, needed in order to do the job.
Sebastian was so caught up in muttering and eye-rolling to himself that it took a moment before he registered the person in the doorway. Ah. This was August, the farmer that had gotten everyone in town talking to each other again. They looked exactly as he’d expected – muddy overalls, leather work boots, brown curly hair pushed back with dirt and a little sweat. But to be honest, nothing much else registered to him. They were kinda cute, he could see that much – presumably Haley would be very pleased to have someone dateable around if she’d finally gotten bored of playing with Alex. But it was an average, ordinary cuteness. They were pleasant on the eyes, trustable in a way he hadn’t expected to feel just from seeing them.
The one thing that truly took him aback was the expectant smile on their face. August looked at him like they were both in on something – that there was a secret between them. Sebastian offered a half smile of acknowledgement and went back to eating peanuts. There were no more in the packet. Fuck.
He sighed and pushed the wrapper away from him. “Hi.”
“Hi there.” Their voice was breathless, full of anticipation. Sebastian felt like he’d missed some part of what was going on.
“You just moved in, right?” He certainly didn’t recognise them from anywhere, but then again, he wouldn’t be able to tell you the names of the people he went to highschool with. August nodded slowly, their eyes not leaving his. Brown and gentle, intense. Sebastian mirrored their nod, looking at the floor. He stopped slouching, moved his foot away from the chair. “Cool.”
This was so weird. And awkward. If they could have not come into his house, into his kitchen (Sebastian could hear Mom in his head saying “It’s my house baby boy, you’re just living here”), then maybe this interaction would feel a little more normal. Did Mom tell August she lived on the mountains when she helped them move in? How did they know anyone would be home? Yeah, they were an odd one all right.
He was so bad at conversation with people he knew well, let alone with some stranger who walked in out of nowhere and watched him act like a teenager as he got snacks. There might be a message from the client by now. He should go.
But August was in the doorway, with that expectant look on their face, and Sebastian wasn’t quite rude enough to shove past them and camp out in his basement again.
He tried to converse. “Out of all the places you could live, you chose Pelican Town?” Cringing internally, he turned away to refill his water. That was possibly the most dismissive first thing he could have said. Plus, he knew full well that they had inherited the farm from their grandfather – you don’t point out a stranger’s dead relative. Even if he never had anything to do with August again, even if he saved up enough to move away any time soon, they would still be in town, where his family lived. The last thing he wanted was more people to avoid.
Fortunately, when he turned back, August’s smile hadn’t diminished. Maybe that was weirder, if anything. He would have been put off by himself, in any case.
“I got a good feeling about this place,” they said. There was something in their tone that made Sebastian feel just a little unnerved.
He nodded, hoping that that was enough. It seemed to be – August ducked their head and offered a little wave before wandering back down the hallway. Sebastian waited until he heard the front door close, then made his own way towards the door. He took a left and went down the steps to his basement.
The bleach smell had worn off since his cleaning spree, and it was feeling like his regular cave again. Sebastian put his glass on the desk and checked his screen – five messages had come through from the client. Three of them were demands for Sebastian to call him immediately. Just fantastic. This was going to be delightful. At least he would be occupied again.
***
Sebastian started the following day with a very strong mug of coffee. After being blustered at on the phone by the client for an hour or two, he hadn’t been able to get the job finished yesterday. Now he was behind, and not particularly enthused to be delivering work to someone so uncooperative. His computer was being slow to load the files needed, so he leaned back and pulled a back-issue of Cave Saga X from his bookshelf. Settling himself with his feet up on the desk, Sebastian resigned himself to reading until his computer allowed him to actually get some work done. Of course that meant Mom walking in and seeing him supposedly slacking. She was also in a bad mood, and they were unfortunately well-matched with their poor tempers.
“Seb, I don’t let you stay here just so you can lie about all day,” she snapped. “One day you’re going to have a place of your own, and other landlords don’t take too kindly when you can’t afford to pay rent because you’ve spent all day reading comics.”
“I’m waiting for my work to load,” he replied stubbornly. Mom glared at him and rounded the desk, jabbing at the monitor.
“Well, that looks like a scripting program to me.” Of course it had loaded just in time for her to see. “Get to working, mister.”
“I’m an adult,” he gritted out.
“Act like one, then.”
It took everything in him not to yell at her. He was better than screaming at his mom nowadays, but his teenage years weren’t that far behind him, and there had been plenty of raised voices in their house then. He stared back at her, hoping his vehemence could be felt if not heard.
Mom shook her head and shut the door behind her none too gently, and Sebastian kicked the desk in frustration. There wasn’t anything worth doing about it. He had his Mom’s temper, and it flared as quickly as it disappeared. When their individual moods butted up against each other, it was never pleasant, and Sebastian had nobody to vent to. Demetrius always took his mother’s side, of course, and he wasn’t about to talk to his stepfather about the issues between himself and his only remaining family member. He and Maru were not close, and he scoffed to himself even thinking about complaining to her about Mom. She was too rational – he was too emotional.
Sam might lend an ear, or Abigail, but Sebastian didn’t like to rely on them like that. Childhood friends who he had only ever been vulnerable with over message were not the people to suddenly involve in your parental issues. And he was adamant that he wouldn’t get more attached to them than he already was; putting down roots in a place you’ll leave would only mean ripping them up later.
He settled for giving his desk another sturdy kick and sending a light-on-the-passive, heavy-on-the-aggressive message to his client about cooperativeness moving forward with the job. The comic was replaced, and Sebastian finally got to working.
The rest of the day was the usual repetitive bullshit. Coding, tweaking aforementioned coding, another coffee break, and grabbing some leftovers from the fridge for lunch. Greens did not reheat well. He had to pour a significant amount of hot sauce over the stir-fry before he could will himself to eat it.
When the blue light filter clicked on on his monitor, Sebastian took that as the end of his working day. He unfolded himself from over the keyboard and stretched out, pulling his shirt down as it lifted to expose his stomach. Taking a second to adjust his eyes to a distance beyond his screen, Sebastian took in the room that he’d inhabited for the last fifteen years. The layers of posters on the wall proved just how long he’d lived here – right at the base, there were still hints of his favourite characters from a TV show he’d enjoyed as a toddler, and a few scribbly hand-coloured drawings too. Most recently, there was Cave Saga X, the band Sam had gotten him into when they were just leaving highschool, and some nerdy software-related pun posters that Demetrius and Maru had gotten him at the last Winter Star festival. He almost hadn’t put them up – why make a home out of a temporary place? – but he knew they’d say something if he didn’t. Spilling from his dresser were two identical black hoodies, with a suggestion of purple coming from a shirt he’d picked up at the last comic expo he and Abigail had gone to dangling precariously from the top drawer.
It was all so dark – literally. There was no sunlight in here, no colour. Everything mirrored his feelings of exhaustion and general disgruntlement. Sebastian sighed, and grabbed a packet of cigarettes. He could go and wallow outside, at least.
Nobody was in the hallway as he left, but as he rounded the front of the house, Sebastian heard his mom and Demetrius talking. He didn’t want to hear what they said. Pushing on, he made it past the thin line of trees between him and the lake, and found the little patch of scuffed dirt that betrayed his favourite smoking spot.
The sky was turning orange, casting a glow over the lake’s surface, and he spotted the faintest movement of fish deeper in. Sebastian lit a cigarette and inhaled luxuriously. There was comfort in the repetitive action, in having something to regulate his breathing, and he savoured the few minutes of quiet process that smoking gave him. Perhaps he’d have a second afterwards.
A squirrel ambled at the bottom of a tree on the adjacent bank, presumably collecting acorns, but it turned and startled at the footsteps behind him. Sebastian looked around, and saw August. Immediately he thought to stub out his cigarette – it wasn’t a habit he liked advertising – but he took in August’s appearance before the notion had taken hold. They had a pickaxe in hand and were sporting a bandage around their knee. Sebastian wished he had some hobby to make his body as athletic as theirs – then again, he definitely wasn’t interested in farm work. The cigarette warmed his hand, and Sebastian leaned down to put it out on a rock.
“You alright?” he asked, gesturing to the injury as he straightened up. August looked down as if to remind themselves, then laughed.
“Just mining. Don’t worry, I’ve done it before.”
“The landslide only got removed last night,” he clarified, curious. There was only one route to the mines that he knew about – and Sebastian liked the mines – but that had been blocked for the last two weeks after another of Joja’s useless clearing operations. Had August managed to get across the lake in a boat or something?
“Oh, yeah.” They looked offput. It was unsettling. “I’ve been twice today, trying to get the old elevator back down to level forty. There’s some nice gemstones around there.”
Sebastian offered a smile. “Yeah, I’m a fan of that zone. Been there a couple times myself.”
August nodded understandingly. “I’m sure. Here – I got this for you.”
They reached into their pocket – Sebastian had a fleeting concern for the level of mud being introduced to their overalls – and pulled out a gorgeous ice-blue gem. August looked at it with pride for a second before holding it out to Sebastian. He looked between them and the gift a few times, mouth open. They gestured the gem towards him once more, and Sebastian finally took it.
Frozen tears weren’t exactly rare, but it was very rare for Sebastian to be gifted anything on days that weren’t his birthday, least of all to be given one of his favourite things by a complete stranger.
“I… really love this.” He cradled it gently, watching the flares of opal-like rainbows that shimmered under the surface in the fleeting evening sunlight. It was like it held all the brightness of day in that tiny tear-shaped crystal. Sebastian had tried researching how they formed such perfect droplet shapes, but Pelican Town’s knowledge was still steeped in mythology and he had never learned anything beyond the stories of sorrowful yetis leaving their tears to crystallise.
August was still there, watching with a pleased grin. He shook his head slowly. “How did you know?”
They shrugged and looked over his shoulder. “You seemed like the kind of person that would appreciate frozen tears.”
“Well, I am.” Sebastian was so taken aback. Nobody knew how much he loved them – he kept a box under his bed full of the crystals and other oddities he collected on his brief trips into the mines, but at this point it was mostly frozen tears in varying sizes and colourations. This was a perfect specimen. “Thank you August.”
“My pleasure, Sebastian. Have a nice evening.” They gave another quick wave, and stepped off into the gathering night.
He looked again at the crystal, and at the dead cigarette still between his fingers. How did August manage to get him his favourite thing? And also, how did they know his name? He was positive he hadn’t told them before – presumably his mom had mentioned her beloved disappointment of a son while she helped them move in. That was less of a mystery.
Sebastian went back to the house, binning the cigarette butt as soon as he got back in his room, and retrieving his treasure chest from under the bed. It remained mercifully clean for the time being, and he opened the cardboard lid without the usual shifting of dust to reveal his clutch of gemstones and rarities. He slipped the frozen tear in beside one of his favourites – a flawed gem with a chasm of almost purple sheen cascading from top to curved bottom – and looked at them all glowing faintly in the light of his room.
August was becoming interesting to him. He didn’t know how they had managed to guess so well at the gemstones he adored, but it was certainly a valuable quality. He’d talk to Sam and Abigail about it the next time they met at the Saloon. Maybe they would have some idea about August’s incredible intuition.