Chapter 1: Winter 2, Day 10
Chapter Text
“This - is - stu - pid - this - is - stu - pid…” Amii whispered each syllable to herself in time with her footsteps as she crunched through the snow, fumbling with the small box in her pocket. “He’s going - to think - it’s stu - pid - and that - you’re - dumb.”
She began to chant a little louder in a singsong voice as she walked down the forest path. “This - is - stu - pid - this - is - stu - pid…” Picking up speed and volume, she stomped her boots to the rhythm of her song like a snowy metronome. “He’s going - to think - it’s stu - pid - and that - you’re - DUMB!”
A flock of birds erupted from a nearby tree, startled by the young woman suddenly shouting in the woods and Amii froze, realizing just how loud she had been. She looked around nervously for anyone that could have overheard her. She had just finally won over Linus with a steady supply of blackberry jam, and even though she knew he was an accepting sort of fellow, well… surely even he had his limits.
Amii had been in Pelican Town for nearly two years now, but she sometimes felt like she was still barely scraping by. The rundown farm her grandfather had left her came with a list of chores that seemed to grow with each passing day. Her first year was nearly an unmitigated disaster, seeing as she had absolutely no experience with agriculture or livestock, but with the help of a very handy almanac and the lessons learned from lots (and lots) of mistakes, she started to find her footing the following spring.
All through this year’s growing season, she had gotten up with the sun and planted and weeded and watered and chopped until long after it went down, but despite the progress she made, something else always needed to be done. Now that winter was here again, at least most of the gardening chores were over, but somehow she still went to bed with more things added to her list than crossed off.
Shit, she thought to herself, as she watched the birds fly over the treetops. I should really clean out the chicken coop again. The hens had taken one offended look at the first snowfall of the season, and had since refused to leave the comfort of their coop. “Wimps,” she mumbled to herself. “Stupid wimpy birds with their stupid stinky poop.”
She shook her head in frustration and stomped her feet as she tried to warm them up, then started walking again. And after the coop is done, she thought, I should really start on mucking out the goat barn before rutting season. And the manure pile from the last clean out needs to be turned again if I have any hope of it being ready to spread in the spring. Ugh… she lamented to herself for about the hundredth time. Why didn’t anyone warn me about all the animal shit?!
Still, this past fall had been the first time she had felt comfortable putting away some money for herself, instead of spending it all on seeds, equipment and livestock. The barn and goats had been a huge investment in the early summer, and came with a seemingly insurmountable list of new chores, but the added income from fresh goat’s milk and cheese had nearly tripled her earnings. And so, here she was making her way to Robin’s shop with enough coin in her pocket to pay for something she’d been dreaming of for the last two years.
A kitchen, she thought. A real kitchen, with an actual stove instead of a fireplace that burned nearly everything she tried to cook over it, and room for a table and chairs. And a refrigerator, and a working sink instead of the bucket of cold well water she hauled up every morning. She sighed, hoping she actually could afford all of that, and wondered if dreaming about running water was really exciting or really sad. She hadn’t given a single thought about the sink in her apartment in Zuzu City (unless it was clogged), and now she was fantasizing about hot water on demand. Oh well, she thought. I’d take bucket water over that shithole any day.
As she turned the corner and started to make her way out of the forest, Amii saw chimney smoke rising above the treeline. Her heart jumped in her throat, and she realized she’d stopped breathing. She sighed and shook her head in weary self-reproach, her exhale clouding in front of her in the cold, late-morning air. She tried to push the anxious feelings back down as she continued towards the house.
Just stop it, she thought to herself, pulling her hood tighter around her head. You are 25 years old, and still acting like a stupid teenager with a crush. Snap out of it! He’s just a guy. A really, reeeally cute guy. A really, really cute guy with eyes as deep as pools and a sad kind of smile that made her stomach do backflips whenever she’d been able to coax one out of him. Besides, she told herself sternly, why would he even like you…
Her heavy boots thudded almost as loudly as her own heart sounded in her ears as she made her way up the steps of Robin’s shop. She pushed open the door just as a heavy gust of wind swirled past her, blowing a small mountain of snowflakes across the beautiful hardwood floor. She looked down in horror, and quickly slammed the door behind her, stammering an apology.
“Oh…oh my god, Robin, I’m so sorry!” She tried to scrape the mess back towards the door with her foot, but it only made things worse as more snow fell from her boots. “Um, do you have a broom or mop or something I can use to…” she looked up to see the woman beaming at her from across the desk.
“It’s Farmer Amii!!!” Robin practically bellowed her name, startling her into silence. “Please, don’t worry about it! Take off your coat! Come in, come in! It’s freezing outside!”
“Uh, okay…” Amii smiled sheepishly and obeyed, embarrassed by the unexpectedly loud greeting. “Uh, yeah! Hi!”
The carpenter got up and came around her desk for a hug, then held Amii by the shoulders and looked at her approvingly.
“How are you, dear?” she asked. “Staying warm? Is the new barn holding up okay in all this bad weather?”
Amii choked back a laugh. The barn that Robin had built would hold up in an earthquake, and they both knew it. “Yeah, definitely! Everybody’s nice and cozy.”
A bespeckled face popped out from behind the wall of the next room, as Maru pushed herself back in an office chair with her feet. “Amii!! Hi!” Behind her, Demetrius stood at the lab counter, staring into a microscope, and taking notes.
“Hello, Amy,” he said, without looking up. “Good to see you.”
“Daaad, it’s ‘Amii,’ Maru scolded. “Ahhh-me! Like that. Not ‘Ayy-me.’ Come on,” she rolled her eyes. “She’s been living here for like, forever.”
Demetrius turned around and stared at the farmer like he was trying to catalog a new species. “Are you sure?” he asked, furrowing his brow in thought. “‘Amii?’ I don’t think I’ve ever heard that name anywhere else before… "
Amii stared back at him, wide eyed, and for a split second, she wasn’t sure.
“Dad!! Seriously??” Maru spun around in the chair to face him and threw up her hands in disbelief. “Are you really asking her if she knows how to pronounce her own name right now??”
Demetrius shook his head and laughed, clapping his daughter on the back affectionately. “You’re right.” He looked back up at the young farmer, who was still standing there a bit stunned. “I apologize, Amii . Apparently, I’ve been staring at protein strands for too long. But it is good to see you.”
Finally able to speak, Amii rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. “It’s okay, it happens a lot. My mom wanted me to have a unique name, but instead it just messes people up.”
Unbidden memories of the rhyme her mother used to sing to her flooded into her mind, threatening to spill over into tears. “Moooommy and Aaaaaamii…” She quickly pushed the thoughts from her head. Ugh, don’t start, she admonished herself.
“Actually…” she said, brightening almost violently and grabbing her enormous backpack. She rummaged around in its depths. “I have something for you.”
From deep inside her bag, she carefully pulled out a lumpy, medium-sized package, wrapped up tightly in layers of thick cloth. She set it on Robin’s desk and began to open it, first untying the cloth, then carefully removing the bundles of straw she had used as insulation from the cold. Bits of debris fell to the floor, floating on the puddles of now-melted snow. She looked up at Robin apologetically, but the woman didn’t notice - she was instead staring with fascination at the funny little face that was looking back up at her from inside a jam jar.
Amii turned and held it up proudly. “Tada!! It’s the pufferfish you asked for! Remember? Back in the summer?” She walked towards the scientist, humming a jaunty march while holding out the jar, like she was presenting him with an award. A very sloshy award, to a very confused-looking recipient.
Demetrius took the jar in his hands, and stared at the fish paddling in place, its mouth opening and closing as it took in its new surroundings. “You… you caught this yourself? Recently? The pufferfish is usually only found during the summer months, but perhaps…” He trailed off, turning the jar in his hands as he tried to get a better look. The fish managed to stay in the exact same position, staring up at the man with its cartoonish eyes no matter which way he turned it.
Amii looked down at the floor, cheeks growing red with embarrassment. “Well, not ‘caught it myself,’” she said, laughing a little. “More like ‘bought it myself!’ The traveling cart merchant had it last week for a really good price, and since I’m not that great at fishing, I figured this might work for you?”
Demetrius started to say something that sounded doubtful, but Maru quickly stood up and took the jar from his hands. “It’s perfect, Amii. Thank you so much for going to all that trouble.” She pressed her nose up against the jar and peered at the fish. “I’m going to call you Spike.” Amii had the distinct impression that the fish had just been promoted from research subject to pet.
“I’ve actually got something for you, Maru!” Amii grinned, as she undid a small pocket on the outside of her pack. “I kind of, uh, overheard you talking to Gunther about the thermal conductivity of different minerals last month, and when I was in the mines later, I found this!” She held up a black rock about the size of a child’s fist, with a small clear crystal embedded in its side. It caught the light and reflected it back with dazzling brilliance.
Maru’s jaw dropped open in amazement. After half a second she started backing away, the hand not holding the fish’s jar held up in protest. “Amii, that’s… that’s an actual diamond!!” She looked from the rock to the farmer. “I can’t take that!! Are you kidding? It’s got to be worth, I don’t know… a lot!”
Amii chuckled softly and stepped forward, taking the younger woman’s hand and placing the stone in her palm. She gently closed Maru’s fingers around it and stepped back again. “It’s not a big deal,” she said. “I doubt it’s gem quality, and once you know where to look, they aren’t too hard to find. I’m excited to see what you’ll do with it.” The young scientist stared at the diamond in her hand, stunned.
Sure, she thought to herself as she turned away. Not hard to find at all. They just mostly happen to show up in the deepest levels of the mine, where dark things reach out from the shadows with sharp claws and… She quickly shook her head to clear her thoughts, and smiled at Robin, who had been looking at her incredulously.
“Don’t worry,” Amii laughed. “I didn’t forget about my favorite carpenter, who loooves to give me discounts on everything she builds for me!” She reached into her bag and pulled out a large package wrapped in waxed paper, placing it on the desk. “I think I’ve nearly got it perfect. Tell me what you think.”
Robin looked at her with a mischievous grin that belied her age, and peeled back a corner of the paper. The aroma of fresh goat’s cheese filled the room, and the carpenter put the back of her hand to her brow and swayed like she was about to swoon. “Amii, you absolutely spoil me,” she said, then straightened and tried to look at her sternly. “What the heck do you want me to build? Coming in here and buttering us all up like this.” But her eyes sparkled, and despite the effort she was making, she couldn't keep the corners of her mouth from curling up into a grin.
“A kiiiiiitchen?” Amii asked innocently, looking up at the woman with wide eyes that would put the world’s cutest puppy to shame.
Robin threw back her head and laughed. Then she sat back down at her desk, and picked off a small bit of cheese, chewing thoughtfully. “Alright,” she said after a dramatic pause. “Mmmm, wow that is really good… Let me take a look at the plans. ”
Amii whooped in delight, and pulled out the blueprints she had been working on for months. Robin looked at them for a moment, then raised her eyebrows as she sat back in her seat. “I’ll do what I can for you,” she said, real concern in her voice. “But this is a pretty big project. Are you sure you can manage this?”
With all the bravado and flourish of a fine magician, Amii pulled a worn sack from her coat pocket. Every single cent she could scrape together was in that bag - every chilly day without a hot meal from the tavern, every bruised and bloody finger from chopping firewood in the dark, her every waking moment spent trying to be productive until she literally collapsed at night from exhaustion. It was all there. And it would be, she hoped, enough.
Robin smiled with palatable relief. She took the bag, hefted its weight with a practiced hand, and untied the cord to peer into it. “No rocks in here, right?” she teased, then put it down onto her desk and folded her hands together. “Okay. Tell you what. If you can help me source the lumber and stone, it’s a deal. You’ll get your kitchen by the Feast of the Winter Star.”
Amii practically squealed with joy. “Thank you!! Thank you thank you!! Oh my god, I’m gonna have a SINK AGAIN.” She slumped against the wall, exhausted after so much excitement, and felt something hard pressing against her hip. The box, she thought. Oh my god, you idiot, you almost forgot.
She cleared her throat and tried to sound casual. “I, uh, I’ve got something for Sebastian, too. I can just leave it with you, though. I’m sure he’s busy.” She pulled a small black box from her pant’s pocket and pushed it across the desk towards Robin.
The older woman raised her eyebrows again. “You do?” she purred. “Well, that’s very thoughtful of you, Amii. And what good timing! Today’s his birthday… did you know that?”
“Oh, um, no… I mean,” she chewed her lip. This sounded so very, very unconvincing. “I… thought it might be. But… you know, I -I wasn’t sure.”
Robin pushed the box back across the desk, grinning like a fox that was just handed keys to the henhouse. “You should really give it to him, Amii. He’d like that.”
Amii stared at the small box as if she’d never seen it before, her arms clasped together nervously across her stomach. “Uh, yeah… Well, I’m not sure when I’ll see him next, so…” She froze in terror as she heard the click of a door opening behind her.
“And there he is now! I was wondering what was taking him so long…” Robin winked at Amii, clearly enjoying this. “Good morning, Sebby! Happy Birthday!” she called, as Amii heard footsteps coming up the stairs from the bedroom in the basement. “Where have you been? Look who’s here!”
***
Author's Note: Please enjoy a photo of my some of my actual chickens acting like wimps and refusing to go out into the snow. Chicken Wimps
Chapter Text
Amii could barely breathe as Sebastian walked down the short hallway and into the shop.
“Oh hey,” he said with perfect ease. “How’s it going?” He started to raise his arms up in a stretch. “Thanks, Ma… Sorry, I literally just rolled outta bed. I was up late finishing a project.” The bottom of his dark shirt was getting dangerously close to revealing a sliver of pale skin, and Amii quickly looked away, suddenly choking on nothing.
He HAS to be doing that on purpose, she thought as she pounded on her chest, trying to regain her composure.
“Are you okay?” Sebastian stepped forward with an urgency she wasn’t used to seeing in him, but she waved him off.
“Yeah… uh, I’m… I’m okay,” she sputtered, turning away. “I’m fine! I just, uh, swallowed… wrong.”
She felt her face growing hot, and she looked up at Robin in desperation. The older woman’s eyes were practically brimming with happy tears. From the other room, Amii was sure she could hear Maru snort in amusement.
This was going horribly.
“Hey, uh, I’m gonna go grab a coffee… Do you want one?” Sebastian’s voice was soft, concern poking through his usual casual tone.
Amii never went anywhere without an enormous thermos of strong, black coffee in her bag, but that was now a secret she would take to the grave. She swallowed and nodded without looking at him, still not trusting her voice.
“Okay, I’ll be right back. Uh, black okay?”
A thousand bad pick-up lines involving her preference of dark-haired lovers and coffee raced through her mind, but she managed to only squeak out a “Yup!” He gave a quick nod, and left the room, sauntering down the hallway towards the kitchen.
Amii practically collapsed into the chair that Robin had pulled up to the side of the desk for her. The farmer looked up gratefully, and the older woman finally took pity on her, smoothing out the blueprints on her desk.
“Alright, if we put the waterline in here -” she pointed to a small area to the left of the sketched-in sink “- you could potentially run it all the way through here.” She traced her finger along the outer wall, tapping when she got to the end. “In case you ever want to expand again.”
Amii looked up at her, grinning. She knew it wouldn’t be possible for at least a few years, but the fact that Robin believed in her enough to warrant planning ahead for future additions meant more to her than she could express.
“Yeah!” she nodded, sitting up and feeling a bit less nervous. “Yeah, that would be great!”
After a few more minutes of discussion, Sebastian walked back into the shop and placed a cup of steaming coffee on the desk in front of Amii, the mug decorated with an illustration of a little junimo dangling from a branch, the words ‘Hang in There!’ printed along the bottom.
“Thanks!” Amii said, offering him a small smile and finally taking a good look at the person that inspired all of these… feelings.
He had the darkest grey-blue eyes she had ever seen. They looked like the sea during a storm, and she could already feel herself being pulled into them like an undertow. She looked down at her cup for half a moment, trying not to stare, but couldn’t help sneaking another glance up. He met her gaze and smiled back a little self-consciously, running a hand through his thick, dark hair. His absolutely perfectly rumpled hair. She sighed quietly. No one should ever wake up looking that good…
Suddenly, it all clicked.
Amii looked away and took a sip of her drink, trying to hide her grin as she pieced everything together. Robin’s strangely loud greeting. Sebastian’s incredible timing and suspiciously perfect ‘bedhead’. She glanced back at him over her mug, and…
Gotcha! Not a single wrinkle on the clothes he had supposedly just rolled out of bed in. Of course he doesn’t look like he just woke up, she thought. He was warned! He’s probably been getting ready since I got here. She wasn’t sure what to do with this information, but it made her stomach do another flip. She stifled another little chuckle - at least his mother obviously approved.
“Sebby!” As if on cue, Robin spoke, interrupting the silence. “Why don’t you show Amii that new Solaris expansion you just got! You play that game, too, right?”
“Oh, um… Solarion Chronicles?” Amii hadn’t picked up a scenario card since before she’d moved, but she nodded eagerly. How on earth did Robin know that? “Yeah, I love it! I used to play with a whole group… uh, back in the city.”
Sebastian might’ve winced a little at that, but he quickly shook it off and motioned towards his bedroom door with his mug. “Um, yeah! You want me to go get it, or…?”
Robin began rolling up the blueprints. “Oh, we’re done for now, Amii. You can just go down.” That mischievous smile was back.
“We…we are?” Amii asked, looking at the carpenter with a little more panic than she would have liked.
“Sure are! I’ll let you know when you should have the supplies ready for me, but until then, we’re alllll set.”
“Oh… Um, yeah okay!” Amii jumped up from her chair, nearly spilling her coffee in the process. She mentally tried to steady herself. Come on, she thought. You always do this. Just… try to act like a normal human being for once. Go talk to him for a minute, then you can make up an excuse to leave, and it will be all over.
Except, do I really want it to be over that quickly?
Amii turned towards Sebastian and tried to give him a casual smile. “Lead the way, good sir!” she said instead, much too dramatically. She groaned at herself in her head, but he just grinned and headed down the steps. She started to follow.
“Oh, Amii…” Robin’s voice behind her sounded like it was dripping with honey.
The farmer turned around again, and the older woman took her hand and set the small black box in it. “Don’t forget that, dear…” she said softly. Amii couldn’t decide if she wanted to kiss the woman, or punch her in the nose.
“Oh. Uh, yeah. Thanks…”
Robin smiled and squeezed her hand in what seemed like a gesture of solidarity. Then the carpenter turned and strode towards the kitchen like she was ten feet tall.
Amii quickly shoved the box back into her pant’s pocket as she hurried down the steps, hoping Sebastian hadn’t noticed anything, and stepped into his bedroom.
“Sorry about my mom,” he said as he closed the door. “She can be kinda weird sometimes… especially about my social life.” He let out a little sigh, and Amii could tell there was a lifetime of frustration buried in it.
Setting her mug down on a dresser next to his, she adjusted her backpack nervously. “Oh, no worries! Umm… I like your bedroom!” She glanced around the windowless room, hoping to recognize a book or poster to find some kind of conversational foothold, but came up empty. Finally, she pointed at a framed print. “That’s a… cool picture!” Oh my god, she thought to herself. Do you even know how stupid you sound right now?
“Oh, thanks.” He leaned against the wall, looking for all the world like he was waiting for a bus. “It’s been there so long, I don’t even really notice it anymore.”
“Umm, so… the new expansion set? You got it?” Amii tried to keep her voice from sounding too eager, but she hadn’t played Solarion Chronicles in such a long time and really did love the game. “I remember when they first announced it - this is the one with all the creepy underground areas, right?” She waggled her fingers menacingly and deepened her voice. “‘The Caaaaves of Evernight!’”
“Oh! No, that one actually came out a year ago.” He grabbed a box off of a shelf and started to spread cards out on a gorgeous handmade gaming table she’d somehow missed, his face more animated than she’d ever seen before. “This is ‘The Reaching Green.’ It has a giant forest with enormous walking trees and poisonous plants, and these huge vine monsters that are basically overpowered - you gotta see their stat block. But they drop the best loot.”
“Oh cooool!” Amii sat down at the table, tucking her bag next to her on the floor and began to look at the cards, marveling at the artwork. “I guess I’m a little out of the loop,” she chuckled in embarrassment.
Sebastian looked up at her and smiled so broadly, she almost didn’t recognize him. “Eh, you’ve been busy,” he said, as she tried to slow her racing heart. He looked back down at the cards in his hands, continuing to lay them out. “How’s everything going at… uh, at your place?”
“Um, good!” she chirped. Don’t start blabbering about your new crop rotation schedule and the many incredible uses of chicken manure, she warned herself. He doesn’t care. He’s just being polite. She picked up a card and peered at the tiny print. “Oh my god, they really are overpowered!”
He laughed. “Yeah, Sam and I had to replay that guy at least a dozen times before we beat him.” He passed her another card. “Check out the geckenfolk - fighting just one isn’t too hard, but if he makes it to round 3, he’ll call in reinforcements and then you’re totally screwed.”
Amii smiled and took it, examining the scaly goblin-like lizard. “Man, I have missed this game…” she murmured.
“Did you really play with a whole group before?” He sounds kind of jealous, she thought.
“Um, yeah! For a while, a bunch of us got together every Thursday and made a whole night of it. It was pretty great!” Until it wasn’t… Until I was left with empty promises of ‘get together soon’ and ‘we’ll start our own night.’ Amii realized she’d gone quiet and continued. “But you know, things change. People move on.” She tried to appear cheery again. “You play with Sam? That’s fun!”
Sebastian slouched a little, slipping back into his cool demeanor. “Yeah, when we can. You’d like playing with Sam… he likes to do all the voices - like you always do.”
Amii felt her face start to redden. “Oh,” she said, picking up another card and staring right through it, embarrassed. “Yeah, I do do that, huh? Sorry, I know it’s kind of annoying.”
He frowned and shook his head in friendly dismissal. “Nah, it’s cool. Makes the game more interesting.”
She looked up at him, smiling gratefully, then quickly put her head back down and tried to think of something, anything to keep the conversation going.
“Um… I’m surprised that your mom knew I played! I don’t think we’ve talked about it at all.”
He shrugged. “Yeah,” he said. “She had mentioned that she saw the starter set in your stuff when she helped you move in.”
Wait a minute… she thought, heart leaping. They were talking about me? She made a mental note to bring Robin the biggest hunk of cheese she could carry, if she didn’t kill her first.
Amii glanced up. Sebastian’s face had looked momentarily pained, but he had composed himself so quickly she wasn’t sure if she was just seeing things. He shrugged again, non-committal, then started shuffling through the cards. She sat there, not sure of what to do next.
The box in her pocket felt like it weighed a hundred pounds.
“Hey,” he said, brightening a little. “Do you want to see some of the concept art for the one they’re working on now? They just released a teaser. It’s supposed to be all underwater, but I have no idea how they’re going to pull it off.”
“Oh cool!” She pushed up from the table excitedly, almost cracking her knee. “Sure!”
“Okay hold on, I’ll pull it up.” He led her over to his computer desk, sitting down in the chair and typing for a moment on the keyboard. A second later, bright coral-covered monsters and prehistoric fish with teeth the size of steak knives appeared on the screen. He scrolled down to a scene of a barbarian wrestling with a giant squid, a shimmering bubble engulfing the warrior’s head. “It looks like they’ve got a new permanent water-breathing spell, see? Except I can’t figure out how they’re going to make it available to all the classes.”
“Oh, huh…” she leaned down and peered at the screen. “Yeah, if you don’t have a wizard with you, you’re screwed.” She chewed on a fingernail, running through the possible solutions. “Oh wait! What if they made it a potion? Then you could probably craft it, or even just buy it off of a merchant.”
Sebastian barked out a laugh. “Holy shit! Yeah, that would totally work!”
Amii grinned widely, emboldened. She noticed a little ceramic frog sitting next to his monitor, its oversized head spouting a pair of friendly yellow eyes over a wide smile. She tapped it lightly, and the mottled green head began to bobble, looking around as if it were tracking a very energetic fly.
“This is cute!” she said. “Is it vintage?”
Sebastian turned his head and looked at the frog before reaching out a finger and gently slowing its movement to a halt. “Um, yeah…” he said quietly. Then he quickly sat up and brushed his hair back out of his face, looking unconcerned about whatever had just happened.
“Hey, you should come and play with us one of these days.” he said casually. “That’d be cool. But, uh, I should really get to work. Thanks for hanging out!”
Amii straightened up, backing away from the desk awkwardly. “Oh, totally! Yeah, I’d love that!” She took a breath, heart racing. It’s now or never - don’t be a fucking coward.
“Um, hey… before I go…” She unceremoniously tossed the small black box onto the computer desk. “Um, I made you something. Happy Birthday!” She turned and rushed towards the table to retrieve her bag, wishing she could teleport away in real life. Hands trembling as she quickly pulled on the pack, she glanced up at Sebastian, almost too afraid to see his reaction.
He sat with the empty box in one hand, staring transfixed at the pendant that hung on a thin black leather cord from the other. It was a dark glassy stone about the size and shape of Amii’s thumb, impossibly black except for the hints of purple that shimmered in the bright light of the monitor. Delicate silver wires wrapped and twisted their way in soft waves around it, holding the stone in place just enough to keep it secure, while still allowing for a little movement.
Amii almost winced seeing it again - after all this time, all she could see were the flaws. She remembered how she had wrapped and unwrapped the stone over and over, unsatisfied with the design, fingertips bleeding from where she caught them on the ends of the sharp wire.
“Oh my god, is this obsidian?” Sebastian said quietly. He pulled his gaze away from the necklace and looked at her stunned, as she nodded. “I love obsidian. How did you know?”
Amii shrugged apologetically. “Um, your mom, actually. When she was working on my barn, we talked about some of the cool things I had found in the mines, and… she mentioned that you liked it.”
He looked back at the pendant. “And you actually made this for me?” he said, voice incredulous.
“Um, yeah.” She shifted the bag on her shoulders, trying not to bolt. “I had a little help from the Dw… um, a friend,” she quickly corrected, “But yeah, I did. I, uh… I hope you like it.”
“Amii, this is amazing… thank you…” He spoke so softly as he looked at it that she could barely hear his voice, but her insides burned with happiness and relief.
“You're welcome! I, uh… I think that… you’re amazing…ly cool!! Okay, I gotta go, BYE!” She dashed across the room, pulled open the door, and ran up the stairs. “Bye Demetrius bye Maru bye Robin thankyousomuchgoodbye!!” she yelled as she raced through the shop and grabbed her coat, nearly slipping on the wet floor.
“Bye, dear!” – “Goodbye, Amy!” – “DAD!! COME ON!!!”
Then the shop door slammed shut, and Amii began to quickly walk home, hoping that the compost heap was large enough for her to hide in for the rest of her life.
Notes:
I included a little easter egg for listeners of World's Beyond Number, because if I'm going to make up my own Solarion Chronicles scenarios, I'm going to steal from the best. 😅 Chapters will be updated weekly, so be sure to pop back in next Saturday if you're enjoying it!
Thanks for the kudos and for your lovely reading eyes! 💖
Chapter Text
Amii stood in the town square, peering at the Help Wanted board and trying to decide just how much frustration 125 gold was really worth. She felt bad just ignoring Willy’s frequent requests to ‘keep the art o’ fishing alive,’ but she really, truly hated it. She sighed in resignation as she wrote her name in small letters at the bottom of the posting. Why doesn’t anyone else ever take these damn jobs? she thought for the thousandth time.
“Yo, Amii!! Wait up!!”
She turned as Sam bounded over to her from across the square with all the exuberance and zeal of a golden retriever. His shock of blonde hair was as wild as always, although she never could quite figure out if that was intentional, or if he was just the victim of a very intense cowlick.
“Hey!!” he panted when he reached her. “What’s up? You busy right now?” He looked so enthusiastic that even though her mental chore list was frantically blaring in alarm, she didn’t have the heart to disappoint him.
“Um, I was just about to pop into Pierre’s, but then I could probably spare an hour or so?” She hefted the heavy pack on her shoulders, and Sam immediately lunged to grab it.
“Can I carry your bag for you?” he asked, trying to slip it off of her shoulders before she could answer him. Parsnips and heads of garlic tumbled to the cobblestone, along with all of the beautiful, delicate apricots she had carefully packed on top.
“Aww shit, I’m sorry…” Sam said, dropping to the ground and gathering up the wayward fruit and vegetables in his arms. He dumped them unceremoniously back into her bag, and Amii tried not to cringe at the wet, squishy sound the apricots made.
“Oh, it’s not a big deal!” she chirped, attempting to not sound as devastated at the loss as she actually was. “Umm, give me a couple minutes and I’ll be right back!
“Okay, cool!! I’ll wait out here… Pierre always tries to get me to talk about work, even though I’ve told him a million times I basically just sweep the floor there.”
“Um, okay! I’ll be back out in a bit!” Amii gave Sam a little wave before pushing open the small grocery store’s door. The bell made a friendly tinkling sound and she walked inside, nodding at Elliott in greeting as he stood in an aisle comparing shampoos.
“Hello, Amii!” Pierre called out as she approached the counter. “How’s the farming life?”
“Hi! Um, good!!” she answered. She pointed to her bag. “I’ve got the first harvest of the season, if you’re interested?”
“Hmmm, possibly, if the price is right… Let’s take a look!” The shopkeeper took off his glasses and polished them on his shirt, like a knight sharpening his sword before battle. Pierre had a capitalistic streak a mile wide, but with Joja Mart nipping at his heels, Amii really couldn’t blame him.
Amii put her bag on the floor and carefully laid out the produce she had brought. Parsnips, potatoes and garlic rolled gently on the glass countertop, fenced in by large bunches of deep emerald green kale. She started to pull out the apricots, but then thought better of it, tucking them into a side pocket where the sticky juice would cause less of a mess. Her high quality fruits and vegetables were a great source of pride, and she didn’t want Pierre to think her standards were slipping.
He bent over and peered closely at her offerings, picking up a potato and turning it around in his hand as if it could have a hidden blemish somewhere. Amii smiled, thinking back to the first time she had had the courage to bring her harvest in. In the beginning, she had been slightly offended that Pierre insisted on inspecting everything so thoroughly, thinking he thought she was trying to get away with selling him a poor quality product, but now she understood it for the theatrical dance that it was. He enjoyed playing the part of the discerning and frugal shopkeeper, even if he almost always took everything she was willing to sell, and she in turn took pleasure in pointing out the exceptional results of her hard work that warranted premium prices.
“The kale has been especially tender so far this year,” she said, carefully pulling one of the bundles open to show him the soft inner leaves. “I’ve been experimenting with a new blood meal fertilizer, and the results so far are very encouraging.”
“Hmmm… yes, those look very nice, Amii. An excellent selection, as always.” He straightened back up, arms akimbo like a wealthy renaissance-era merchant posing for his portrait. “I’ll take the lot!”
She nodded in affirmation, ready for the next stage to begin. Pierre took a pad of paper out from beneath the counter and wrote a number on it, then slid it across the counter towards Amii and raised his eyebrows. She smirked at him, crossed off the number and wrote another below it, sliding the pad back in front of him and fixing him with her best steely gaze. He frowned and wrinkled his brow, crossing off the number Amii had written, then made a conciliatory face and wrote a final number below that. He smiled warmly as he pushed the pad back over and she smiled back, nodding in agreement, and the dance was concluded. Amii had already basically known the amount her harvest would fetch when she walked in the door, but the extra few minutes ‘haggling’ were more than worth being the highlight of the man’s day.
Pierre handed her a bag of jingling coins and began to fastidiously arrange the produce in some empty display baskets in front of the counter. A large sign proclaimed them Homegrown!, although whose ‘home’ they had been grown in was suspiciously absent. She chuckled to herself, wondering if anyone actually fell for that.
“Any seeds today?” he asked hopefully.
“Not today, I’m afraid,” she answered, putting the coin purse into her backpack and shouldering it again, grateful for how light it now felt. “But come midseason, I’ll be banging down your door for all the cauliflower seeds you can sell me!”
“You never know,” he winked. “The market might be hot for those in a couple of weeks. I can’t guarantee I’ll still have them in stock!”
Amii laughed at his gentle teasing. Some of the folks in town kept a backyard garden, but Amii knew she was the only one who regularly bought his seeds in bulk. “I guess I’m just going to have to take that chance. I’ll see you later!” She waved and walked towards the door.
“Oh! One more thing!” she said, turning around before she pushed it open. “Be sure to save me a dozen packets of strawberry seeds at the Egg Festival!”
“But the market, Amii!” he called after her. “I have to obey the will of the market!”
She laughed and waved him off, knowing full well he’d have what she asked for waiting at his booth, neatly tied up in a festive ribbon. Then she stepped through the door, and back into the town square, a little richer than before.
***
Sam must’ve run home while Amii was in the shop, because he was now skateboarding around the cobblestones, practicing kick flips, 180s and other tricks she didn’t know the name of. Once he was certain she was watching, he took off racing towards the center of the square. Crouching down as he approached it, he suddenly launched the board up into the air and over the decorative stone circle in the middle, his back wheels landing just inches inside its edge. He swerved back around and pushed the board towards her, grinning.
Amii clapped awkwardly as he approached, not quite sure if that was what she was supposed to do. “That was great!” she said, as he slid to a stop in front of her.
“Eh, so close. I’m gonna jump the whole thing one of these days,” he said, as he hopped from one foot to the other on the board. Amii felt like she might fall over just watching him - balancing was never one of her strong suits.
“Just don’t let Mayor Lewis catch you!” she teased. “He’ll have you picking up trash for weeks!” Amii reached into her pack and tossed him one of the damaged apricots. “Um. Was there something you wanted me to do?”
Sam caught it without even looking. “Hey, thanks!” He took a bite of the small fruit, the juice dribbling from his chin and onto the board. “Aww, man,” he said, trying to scuff it off with his shoe.
“Eh, there’s just a little extra sticky grippy spot on there now,” she joked. “Um, so… what is it?”
Sam looked up from his skateboard in momentary confusion, before remembering what they had been talking about. “Oh! Yeah!” he said as he wiped at his chin. “I’m heading up to Seb’s for a game of Solarion Chronicles and you’re coming with me!”
Shit shit shit, she groaned in her head. Ugh, why are you so fucking lazy? In an effort to get a head start on harvesting this morning, Amii had skipped her usual shower, and the old trucker’s cap she had thrown on before heading into town to hide her greasy hair wasn’t doing her any favors.
“Oh man, I’d really love to, but…” she began.
“No buts!!” Sam interrupted, wagging a finger at her in mock seriousness. “You made the mistake of letting it slip that you played and now you must face the terrible consequences!”
Technically, Sebastian had been the one to mention it, during one of the rare evenings she had the spare time to join him, Abby, and Sam at the saloon, but she knew that argument wasn't going to work. Sam had practically jumped up onto the pool table in excitement when he heard, and spent the rest of the evening peppering her with questions about her favorite scenarios and monsters. Amii liked Sam a lot and enjoyed his enthusiasm in small doses, but she knew that by the end of today’s excursion with him she would be utterly exhausted. However, she had to admit that the thought of finally getting to play her favorite game - with Sebastian, no less - was too enticing to pass up, even in her current less-than-fresh state.
“Umm… all right, I guess,” she conceded. “That would be pretty fun. But just a short game, okay? Like, five encounters, tops - including the boss! Otherwise, I’ll have a bunch of hostile creatures waiting for me at home if their dinner is late.”
Sam laughed and did something she didn’t catch with his foot on the board, launching it up into his waiting hand. “Deal! Come on, I’m supposed to be there in 10 minutes…”
“What??” Amii exclaimed as he ran up the steps past Pierre’s shop. “Sam, it takes like, a half hour to get there from here!”
“Nah, we can make it!” he laughed as she scrambled up behind him. “Besides, Seb knows I’m always late. He’s probably counting on it, honestly!”
Shaking her head at him, Amii followed Sam along the trail up the mountain. Every few minutes he threw down his board and skated ahead, somehow able to navigate around the roots and rocks that littered the footpath, but he always stopped after a moment for her to catch up. Holy shit, she thought. He probably would’ve made it if he didn’t have to wait for me.
Digging through her pack as she walked, she pulled out two more smooshed apricots, chucking one at the back of Sam’s head while shouting “Think fast!” as he skated ahead. He did a sort of kick-flip-turn maneuver that seemed to Amii to deny the laws of physics, and caught the fruit effortlessly out of the air while skating backwards to a halt. She laughed as she bit into hers, the initial sticky sweetness balanced out by a sharp tart finish she could feel in her jaw.
“I will never get tired of throwing stuff at you,” she said as she chewed. “Your ability to catch things is honestly kind of unnerving.” She thought back to later that same night at the saloon when Sam had the three of them chucking ketchup packets and creamer pods at him nonstop, until Gus had to come over and take the whole condiments tray away from their table, muttering something about ‘kids these days.’ Despite their constant barrage, he hadn’t missed catching a single one.
“You haven’t even seen all my other skills yet,” he teased back, a little suggestively.
Amii could feel the heat rising to her cheeks, and she quickly looked down at the path, hoping he wouldn’t take her embarrassed blush as one of interest.
Sam didn’t seem to notice either way, taking a bite of the apricot and humming in appreciation. “This one’s kinda bruised, but it still tastes really good!”
“Gee, I wonder how that happened,” she deadpanned, and he guffawed loudly, finishing the fruit in three big bites and tossing the pit into the brush.
“Sorry about that again,” he said sheepishly as she caught up with him.
“No worries, really. I hadn’t even tried one yet this spring, so it was a good excuse.” She tried to think of a safe topic of conversation, hoping to steer clear of any more possible innuendos. “Um, how’s your dad doing?”
“Oh, um… he’s okay.” Sam answered, falling in step beside her. “He's been home over a year, but it seems like he's still settling in, honestly. He doesn’t ever want to talk about the war, but it’s like he’s thinking about it all the time anyway. I guess that’s not too surprising, though. Most of what I’ve heard is pretty bad…” he trailed off, lost in thoughts of his own.
Well, bravo on that brilliant conversation choice, she chided herself. You basically just kicked a puppy.
“What’s Vincent been up to?” she asked, hoping to lighten the mood. Sam’s brother was a great kid, and he looked up to his older brother as if he were a comic book superhero come to life, but the little guy was always getting himself into some sort of ridiculous situation.
Sam immediately burst into laughter, bending over nearly double. “Oh my GOD. You’re never going to believe this. So, last week my mom kept noticing a bad smell in his room again - he had a weird phase before where he kept putting leftover food in his Jack-in-the-Box for some reason and it got so rancid we had to throw the whole thing out when we finally found it - but he swore over and over that he didn’t have any food hidden anywhere. So yesterday she goes into his room to put away his laundry when he’s at school, and she finds a LIVE SNAIL right on his dresser. She thinks, ‘Well that’s weird,’ but he’s a kid who likes snails, so not too surprising, right? But then she STEPS ON another one that was on his floor, and sees TWO MORE on his window and realizes… that his room is absolutely… crawling… with snails…”
Amii could barely understand Sam’s words through his laughter, and she was nearly in tears herself at this point, cackling as he dramatically reenacted his mother’s reaction at the discovery.
“So… so then,” he gasped, trying to catch his breath. “So then, she looked under his bed, and this ABSOLUTE MANIAC of a kid had built a goddamn snail sanctuary under there!! There were, like, fifty snails in this… like…” He had to stop for a minute to breathe again, tears of laughter streaming down his face. “This half-completed town he made out of clay!! Clay buildings, little clay cars, I think even a slide? He had made clay walls around the whole thing, but OF COURSE the snails just kept crawling out of it. Mom made me put it all in the backyard, but holy shit, that kid. He told me later that he had to spend, like, an hour every night looking around his room for escapees so Mom didn’t see them when she put him to bed. Ohhhh my god,” he wheezed. “I fucking love him so much.”
Their laughter was just finally winding down as the beautiful mountain lodge came into view, peeking out from between the tall fir trees. Amii could feel her heartbeat quicken, and she wiped at her face, hoping she looked somewhat presentable.
Sam tossed his skateboard to the ground and bounded up the steps to the carpenter’s shop, bursting through the front door and yelling a cheerful "Hiya!" to Robin at her desk before rushing down the stairs to Sebastian’s room with all the grace of an avalanche. The poor woman sat clutching her chest as Amii stepped into the room, the look of panic on her face fading into one of long-suffering resignation.
“Good lord,” she said in a pained voice. “I will never get used to him doing that.”
Amii smiled in sympathy, softly closing the door behind her as if that would somehow help. “I’m pretty sure Sam could be classified as a tornado,” she said as she offered Robin a slightly crushed apricot. “Maybe we could ask the weather channel to keep tabs on him?”
The older woman laughed and accepted the fruit, giving the split skin a momentary evaluation before biting into it. “Mmmm, thank you… Should I even ask what happened to this?” she asked, grinning.
The farmer shrugged her shoulders, the corner of her mouth pulled up in a playful smirk. “I never got a tornado warning!”
Robin chortled and took another bite, then returned her attention to the woodworking plans on her desk, gesturing for Amii to go down.
Amii took a steadying breath, straightened her shoulders and descended the stairs, hoping she was ready for whatever awaited her below.
Notes:
Thanks so much for reading! Tune in next week for my attempt at game designing a Solarian Chronicles play-through!
Chapter Text
The sounds of laughter echoed up the staircase as Amii walked down towards Sebastian’s bedroom and into a familiar conversation.
“Seriously, there must’ve been, like, a hundred snails under there!!” she could hear Sam wheeze. “Just -just slime trails everywhere, and his whole room smelled like a rotten fish tank…”
Amii held up her hand in a small awkward wave as she entered and walked towards them, catching Sebastian’s eyes as they widened momentarily in surprise and feeling a bit like she was intruding on the two friends. Sam immediately bounded over, throwing out his arms towards her as if he was a magician revealing his grand finale.
“Look who I brought!” he announced with a flourish. “The incredibly incredible, yet elusively elusive Local Farmer!”
Despite the absolute anvil of embarrassment that Amii felt plummeting through her stomach, she closed her eyes and bowed graciously, playing into Sam’s dramatic introduction.
“Thank you, thank you! I’ll be here all season! Be sure to tip your cows!”
Sam guffawed loudly at that, and Amii grinned at him as she straightened, enjoying his reaction to her dumb joke. He might be a bit of a walking disaster zone, but she had to admit that Sam was a great audience.
She glanced over towards Sebastian, who was sitting back in his chair at the gaming table, arms folded and his face a careful study of cool, wry amusement. He had a day or two’s worth of stubble and his black sweatshirt looked old and worn, but Amii could feel her breath quicken as she looked at him. Somehow, these slight imperfections made him seem even more alluring. A small tuft of dark hair stuck up from the rest, and all she wanted in the world was to run her fingers through it to smooth it back down. She wondered how soft it would feel.
“Hey Amii, what’s up?” he said, shaking her from her thoughts. His words were friendly enough, but his tone sounded a little detached, and a flash of something that looked almost like disappointment crossed his face as Sam pulled out the chair across from him, gesturing for Amii to sit at the table. Her stomach twisted. Shit, he’s upset that I’m crashing their game.
“Um, not much?” she answered as she sat down, tucking her bag next to her feet and trying to take up as little room at the table as possible. “Sam invited me to come play with you guys, but I’m happy to just watch.”
“Are you fucking crazy?” Sam snorted as he plopped down onto the chair to her left. “You think I dragged you all the way here to just watch? No way, Ms Big City Player. I wanna see what you’ve got!”
Amii offered Sebastian a small, apologetic smile. “No, I don’t want to interrupt…” she started to say, but he cut her off.
“Nah, it’ll be fun,” he said nonchalantly. “We haven’t gotten to play with three people in a while.”
“Well, that’s all your fault, Seb,” Sam said as he fished a handful of dice out of his pocket and tossed them onto the table. “Ever since you and Na-”
Sebastian shot him a glare and Sam immediately stopped speaking, bugging his eyes out at his friend and mouthing a silent ‘What?’ as the slight tension in the room suddenly tripled.
Sebastian took a deep breath and ran both of his hands through his hair, then exhaled and shot Amii his own apologetic smile, rolling his eyes as if acknowledging the silliness of the charged atmosphere. Just like that the tension subsided, and she smiled back, relieved.
“Hold on,” Sebastian said as he stood up from the table, walking to his bookshelf and pulling out the Solarian Chronicles Player’s Manual. “There are some pre-made characters in the back of the SC book here. You can use any one of these if you want - they’re pretty easy to start with.”
“Not the warrior!” Sam interjected quickly. “I always play as a warrior.” He thrust this hand into the air in front of him as if demonstrating his skill with a sword, letting out an enthusiastic “Hu-wha!” to punctuate his movement.
“That’s because you can’t remember how any spells work, dude.” Sebastian countered.
“Damn right!” Sam agreed as he continued sparring with an invisible enemy. “Sam smash monster with sword! No need big Sebby wizard brain!”
Sebastian groaned out a chuckle at his friend’s antics, sitting back down at the table and pushing the book over towards Amii. “I usually pull double duty as my wizard and the Game Guide, but unlike some people, I don’t need to play the same damn thing all the time. If you want wizard, I’ll just play as a different pre-made character, too.”
Amii ran a hand softly over the book’s familiar cover. “Um, do you mind if I play as my old character? She’s a Druid, so both healer and support, along with being a decent secondary frontline. That way Sam can tank more effectively, and your wizard can hang back and cast in relative safety. ”
Sebastian and Sam shot each other a look, and she could see both of their eyes gleaming with excitement. Oh yes, my friends… she thought in self-satisfaction. I absolutely know my shit.
“Uh, yeah! Definitely!” Sebastian said, pulling back the book and flipping to the end. “I’ve got a couple blank character sheets here… There you go!” he said, passing her the book and sheet back. “Oh wait, let me get you a pencil.” He hopped off of his chair and made his way to his computer desk.
“Ooo, druids shapeshift, right? Can you turn into a bear?” Sam asked eagerly, waggling his eyebrows at her. “I want to ride you!”
Amii nearly choked on her embarrassed laugh, not quite sure if Sam meant that suggestively. Knowing him, he might just actually want to ride a bear into battle.
“Come on dude, don’t be gross!” Sebastian called from the computer desk, and Sam turned and gave him an innocent look.
“What? You saying you wouldn’t want to ride her if you could? You know, as a bear…” he shot back, turning again and winking at Amii in a decidedly non-innocent way. She felt a wave of heat creep over her face, and knew even the tips of her ears were burning red. Well, there goes that stupid assumption, she thought. He definitely meant it… like that.
Amii pushed her discomfort deep down and forced out a laugh. She’d played at enough SC tables to know what it sometimes brought out in people, and that her best defense against this type of talk was a witty offense.
“I’m so, so sorry Sam, but she’s not that kind of druid,” she crooned. “But she is very interested in meeting… ” she paused, letting an air of anticipation build as she smiled at Sam wickedly. “...fun guys,” she finished, the words sounding thick on her tongue.
Sam snorted a laugh, a bit confused at her retort and she thought that would be the end of it for now, but Sebastian gave Sam a disappointed look as he sat back down.
“Hey,” he said firmly to Sam as he handed Amii a pencil. “Don’t be like that. You sound like all the horny, sexist, SC assholes from high school.”
Sam held up his hands in surrender, looking genuinely chagrined. “Okay, okay! I’m sorry! You’re right, it was a terrible joke!”
A wave of relief washed over Amii, and she felt her body relax. Her eyes met Sebastian’s and she gave him a thankful smile, hoping he could see how much that swift rebuke meant to her. It was amazing how just one disapproving comment from a fellow male player could curb the onslaught of humiliating ‘jokes’ made at a female player's expense.
“Okay!” she said brightly, putting pencil to paper. “This’ll just take me a minute…”
Amii began filling in the sheet with the ease of someone writing down their home address. She spoke casually as she filled in her stats, pencil flying across the page. “My character actually really does love fungi,” she explained. “Echo is a half-elf Toadstool Druid, so… wait, hold on.” She looked up at the two of them, ignoring their bewildered expressions. “What level are you guys?”
Sam looked over the character sheet that Sebastian had just handed him, then answered. “Um, seven?”
“Oh, okay,” she said as she erased and changed a few stats, then crossed out a couple of spells from her spell list. “Here, check it out.” She turned her sheet around so they could both read it. “Like I said, Echo is a half-elf Toadstool Druid with proficiencies in potion making and wilderness survival. I’m not porting any of my legendary weapons because that’s kind of shitty to do, but she’s still pretty decent with a basic quarterstaff. Do you guys start with a full pack, or are we rawdogging this bad boy and going survival mode?” She winked at Sebastian, who looked slightly stunned.
“You play in survival mode?” Sam asked, eyes wide in amazement. “No healing or mana potions at all?”
“Well, just nothing when you’re first starting out,” she corrected. “That’s where the potion proficiency comes in - Echo can make them on the fly once we start finding the components in the loot drops. The first few rounds are definitely tricky, though, especially if you don’t find a merchant for a while. And we didn’t play like that all the time, but it’s a really fun challenge!”
Sebastian rubbed the back of his head, grinning at her wider than she’d seen in a while. “Yeah, we start with full packs - not that Sam remembers to use his health potions or anything…”
“Dude, that was ONE TIME!” Sam growled, but he couldn’t stop his own grin from peeking through. “You’re making me look bad in front of the master player here!”
“Hey man, I’m not the one that got one-shotted by a fucking walking shrub because I forgot I had 3 hit points left. At least you finally learned your lesson.”
“Yeah yeah yeah,” Sam grumbled. “‘Don’t flip a card until Sebby says to.’ Thanks, Mom.”
Amii beamed at her friends as they playfully bickered, her chest feeling like it could burst with happiness. She had known that she missed playing, but she had forgotten how much she loved the feeling of starting out on a fresh adventure. “Okay, cool!” she said, taking back her sheet. “Oh, any house rules I should know about?”
“Um… no, not really.” Sebastian said. “We do randomized enemy attacks, but that’s pretty standard when one of the players is also the Guide, so we aren’t accused of pulling our punches when it’s our turn.” He had aimed the last part of his sentence directly at Sam, who raised his eyebrows in response.
“Yeah! Exactly!” he said smugly, but he thankfully didn’t take the argument any further.
“You want to play the new Reaching Green expansion?” Sebastian asked, clearing the table so he could begin setting up the game. “It’s pretty cool!”
“Ooooo, yes please!” Amii immediately answered, hands squeezed beneath her chin. “Oh, but wait - I want to get a better look at this amazing table!”
Now that the book and papers were gone, she could see what an incredible work of art Sebastian’s gaming table was. The wood of the table frame was warm and rich, its edges smoothed to soft curves that seemed to invite her to lean in on them, but the true masterpiece was the hand-painted map that adorned its surface. It was a perfect one-to-one match of the large fold-out map that came with every starter set, but painted in exquisite detail. The generic green forest she remembered now had each individual tree, bush and rotting log meticulously crafted, the grey mountains had tiny caves and crevices worked into their rocky cliffs, and the wide river that ran along the rightmost edge now grew from the smaller tributaries that crisscrossed their way through the entire map, interlacing all the areas together. She ran a finger down one of the snowy mountain peaks, and was sure that if she wanted to, she could follow the snowmelt all the way to where the river met the smallest hint of ocean. Across the map, thin rectangles of shimmering gold paint outlined where each encounter card was to be placed, and more thin gold lines connected them into what most players affectionately called the Spider Web. The larger silhouette for the final boss card at the center of the web was framed in thicker lines of ornate swirls and filigree, giving whatever card that had the good fortune to end up there even more grandeur and gravitas.
“Sebastian, this is just… it’s absolutely breathtaking!” she said. “I’ve never seen anything like it before. I’m almost afraid to touch it.”
He chuckled as he sat back down with the expansion box he had grabbed as she was marveling over the map and waved away her concerns. “Do you know how many times Sam’s spilled Joja Cola on this thing? It’s got so many layers of sealant, it’s almost indestructible. But thank you. My mom obviously built the table, but she commissioned Leah to do the map. Did you find any of the little guys yet?”
Amii looked back down at the map, peering closer at the tiniest hint of red among the green trees in front of her. “Holy shit, is that a little redcap? Oh my god, it’s like the size of a flea. How did Leah do this?”
“No clue,” Sebastian laughed, “But I’m glad she did! It was a birthday gift two years ago, and we’re still finding new things.”
“My favorite’s the dueling bullywugs!” Sam chimed in, reaching across the table and pointing out a spot near the river in front of Sebastian. She stood and took a couple of steps so she could lean closer towards it and found the two tiny frogmen in musketeer-style boots and feathered hats, rapier’s locked together in eternal combat.
“Those are the fanciest bullywugs I’ve ever seen!” she chuckled, then realized her head was inches away from butting against Sebastian’s chest. “Oh! Sorry!” she said as she quickly sat back down. “Um, thank you for indulging me!”
“No worries,” he said casually. “Do you want to use the map from the expansion, or stick with this one? The Spider Web is the same on both, so it’s really just for the jungle aesthetics.”
“Bull-y-wugs! Bull-y-wugs!” Sam chanted as he pounded lightly on the table.
Amii laughed, and joined in the chant until Sebastian held up the folded paper map from the box and quirked an eyebrow, then tossed it behind his back like an applecore. “Goodbye Reaching Green jungle! Bullywugs it is!”
“BULLYWUGS!” they both cheered, and Amii settled back into her seat, beaming with joy. She didn’t see this playful side of Sebastian very often, and watching him enjoy himself this much was intoxicating.
“Okay,” he said, pulling out a stack of multicolored cards and shuffling them, “Let’s get this party started! I’m playing as Thaydon Everspark, elf wizard and fireball enthusiast. Sam?”
“Well met, mushroom adventurer!” Sam boomed. “I am Bjorn Bjornson the human warrior, and I hit things on the head until they fall down!”
Amii burst out laughing. “Oh my god, you really DO need a bear to ride.”
“Wait, why?" Sam asked, tilting his head in confusion.
“Bjorn means bear! Your character’s name is literally Bear, son of Bear. You know, if you dual-class as a ranger, you can get one at level 3.”
Sam looked down at his sheet, his face now gleaming with the promise of new possibilities. “Holy shit…” he whispered.
Sebastian chuckled, and gave Amii an impressed smile. “Look at you, making the game better before we ever start.”
Her face once again began to burn with heat, but this time it was accompanied by a warm feeling of giddiness at his compliment. She smiled back at him, and he held her gaze until she finally looked away, heart pounding.
“Okay,” Sebastian said as he began to lay out the encounter cards on the map, each one placed facedown in its respective golden frame. “All we need now is to pick our Scenario card. Amii, would you do the honors?”
She nodded, almost too excited to speak. Sebastian finished filling in the Spider Web, minus the center, and shuffled the small stack of oversized golden Scenario cards, fanning them out facedown in front of Amii so even he couldn’t see them. She smiled widely and picked one of the ornate cards, then handed it back without looking at it. He took it from her and shot her a grin after reading it to himself, then took a deep breath.
“All right, Intrepid Heroes… Let’s begin!”
Notes:
Well, just like in real life, pregame prep took longer than I anticipated and actual gameplay will have its own chapter next week. My headcanon version of Solarian Chronicals is me taking D&D, BG3, Skyrim, MTG and Maps of Misterra, throwing them all into a bag of holding, shaking them all up and dumping out the inevitably broken contents onto Leah's pretty map. Oh, and this Sebastian has the gaming table of my dreams, because he deserves nice things.
Amii's SC character is based on my BG3 tav, but since I named her Amii in the game (I have very little imagination), I've renamed her Echo in honor of a fellow Circle of Spores half-elf druid and the main original character from one of my favorite BG3 fics, Witch Ways. Seriously, check it out. It's amazing, especially for fans of the Rizzard of Waterdeep.
As always, thanks so much for your reading eyes and kudos! I didn't realize how much of a thrill seeing the hits counter going up would be, and I want to express my gratitude for you taking the time to exist in this little space with me. See you next week!
Chapter Text
“The Kingdom is in chaos…” Sebastian read from the Reaching Green booklet after flipping to the appropriate page. Curiously, he hadn’t yet placed the card she had drawn in the center of the Spider Web, and it lay facedown in front of him, practically blaring out an alarm that she didn’t understand. Amii could see Sam peering at him, mouth drawn up in suspicion.
“The king and queen have come to you, adventurers, grief-stricken at the loss of their newborn babe, ripped from their -”
“Nope! Fuck that.” Sam interrupted, leaning back in his chair with his arms crossed stubbornly in front of his chest. “Mulligan, skip, redraw, whatever. I’m NOT doing this one again.”
Amii stared at him, dumbfounded by Sam’s blatant sacrilege. Redrawing the scenario card went against the entire spirit of the game. If a table started doing that, what was to stop them from swapping out enemy encounters that were too difficult, or substituting them with merchants or other neutral cards. Hell, you might as well just keep rerolling the dice until you got a number you liked better.
“Dude, come on…” Sebastian scolded. “You know that’s not how -”
Sam cut him off. “Seb, it is LITERALLY impossible. We tried this one how many times in a row before we finally gave up? Fifteen? Twenty? I’m not gonna work our way through the entire fucking Web for a fucking impossible scenario.”
Amii quickly looked from her one friend to the other as they argued, before finally catching Sebastian’s eye. She pointed at the card in quiet inquiry, and he passed it over to her as Sam huffed out a breath, clearly not happy that he was doing so.
The card was stunningly beautiful. A tall, striking woman in a dangerous-looking spiky green dress stood in its center, an arm raised to stroke one of the gaping maws of an enormous Venus flytrap monstrosity. Its dark reddish-green vines weaved and twisted around her, filling in the negative space with a thicket of thorns, and each of its three mouth-like traps dripped black poison from razor sharp teeth. At the base of the monster was a soft green peapod the size of a cradle with a newborn nestled inside, peacefully sleeping and oblivious to the danger that surrounded it. At the bottom of the card, golden calligraphy spelled out ‘The Queen of Thorns.’
“It’s. Impossible.” Sam hissed at her. She had never seen him this upset - it was like hearing a sunflower growl.
“It’s not impossible,” Sebastian countered, exasperated. “They obviously wouldn’t include it if -”
“Fine,” Sam spat back. “It’s impossible for us. Maybe with a full fucking party of six it’s somehow doable, but three fucking people?? Especially when our brilliant wizard’s best solution was to flame-broil the fucking baby.”
A burst of laughter escaped Amii’s lips, and she immediately tried to cover her wildly inappropriate smile with her hand. “I’m sorry… you did what?”
Sebastian sighed heavily, rubbing his face in his hands as Sam looked at him expectantly.
“Go on, Seb. Tell her what happened on our best attempt.”
“Sooo, this is obviously a spoiler, but whatever at this point,” he began, hands still covering his face. “The Queen of Thorns is super powerful, but the tricky part…”
“I’m sorry, the tricky part?” Sam scoffed, leaning forward. “The tricky part??!”
“Yeah, asshole, the fucking tricky part,” he snapped back, “is that you can’t use spells with areas of effect that include the pod, because then, well…”
“Seb barbecued the fucking baby,” Sam finished for him flatly. “Fireball. Right to the face.”
Amii lost it. Tears of laughter streamed down her cheeks and she doubled over, clutching at her stomach and nearly toppling off the chair. At first, Sam and Sebastian stared at her wordlessly, but then started to chuckle as their anger faded, and soon all three of them were roaring with laughter.
“I’m sorry… I’m sorry,” Amii gasped between giggles. “That’s… that’s just… quite the image.” Another peal of laughter tried to escape her lips, and she snorted loudly trying to contain it, which immediately set them off again.
When they all could finally breathe, Amii wiped at her eyes, grinning. “Well, that certainly does sound tricky,” she said, eliciting another chortle from Sam. “Sebastian, can I see your spell list?”
“Yeah,” he chuckled, passing it over.
“You're gonna make us do this, aren’t you?” Sam asked, grinning from ear to ear.
“Nope,” she said, handing the sheet back to Sebastian. “I’m gonna make you win this.”
***
They made it through the first few encounters with relative ease. The outermost ring of 24 cards in the Spider Web had green backs, signifying that they were of a lower difficulty, although a bad roll or two could still put your party in a dangerous situation. Twelve yellow cards made up the next ring in, indicating the higher difficulty, and six even more difficult red cards surrounded the larger scenario, or ‘boss’ card, each connected to it by golden lines like spokes on a wheel. Each red card connected to the red cards on either side, forming a circle, as well as to two yellow cards. Each yellow connected to its neighbors in the same manner and branched off into two green, which were all linked together in an enormous final ring of cards.
The overall effect was the titular spider web of connected cards that players worked their way through from the outside to the center, fighting monsters, bartering with merchants, or exploring hidden caves and ruins. Always following along the lines of the web, players could move inward and then double back, they could choose to flip over and deal with every card of each circle or they could just plow through from the edge to the center and hope for the best. Each encounter meant a chance at helpful supplies and loot, or it could bring a devastating loss of hit points and mana. If a member of the party was killed, players would have two more attempts to retry the encounter, though it would affect the overall rating, loot and experience points gained, but failing after that meant having to completely start the game over. The final boss could be retried as many times as necessary until the players either finally prevailed, or they admitted defeat and lost everything they had gained that game. It was a balancing act, a game of chance and of strategy, and Amii loved it more than almost anything.
It wasn’t until it was her first turn that she realized she didn’t have any dice. She had carried some around with her everywhere before she moved to the valley, and it felt like she had just discovered that a part of her body was missing. Sebastian had grinned when she asked to borrow his, and told her to push on the side of the table in front of her. She did as he instructed and a hidden felt-lined drawer suddenly popped open, complete with a set of colorful dice. She had squealed in delight, wondering to herself how much goat cheese she would have to produce to be able to commission a table like this of her own from the two women. The number was probably staggering.
Now she worked at her adventure sheet, ready to mark down the ingredient components she was harvesting from the small party of Geckenfolk they had just defeated.
“Okaaaay, so I rolled a 1d6 and got a 5, plus my survival proficiency bonus, so Echo was able to harvest all the possible ingredients on this one. Sebastian, can you read those off for me?”
“Uh, yeah… hold on,” he said as he flipped to the Geckenfolk entry. “Okay, so Echo gathered both eyes, the tongue,” he grimaced. “The heart and… all eight toes.
Sam made a face at her, clearly horrified.
“What?” she asked sweetly, wide-eyed and innocent. “You guys don’t collect potion ingredients at all?”
“Not really…” Sebastian admitted, looking slightly green.
“You, my friends, are missing out,” she said as she wrote everything down. “These are going to come in very handy later.”
“Taking stuff from the wolf and the snakes was one thing,” Sam said. “But these are like, I dunno… little dudes! They probably had families. Names, even!”
“Okay, what were their names?” she asked him, pencil ready. “We need three.”
“Ummm… Lizard-Boy!” Sam grinned.
“Okay, that’s one…” she chuckled, writing it down.
“Scales,” Sebastian offered, starting to smile.
“Ha! Okay, and the last one?”
“Uh… McStuffins!” Sam shot out, before wrinkling his nose up in embarrassment. “Sorry, I panicked.”
“No! Those are perfect,” Amii laughed. “Okay, Echo walks over to the three fallen Geckenfolk, kneels down and places her hand on one of them.” Her pitch dropped slightly, and she spoke in a somber voice as soft and rich as loam.
“Lizard-Boy. Scales. Mc…” she trailed off, glancing back down at her sheet.
“Stuffins,” Sam whispered reverently.
“... McStuffins. You fought bravely and brought great honor to your families. I thank you for these precious gifts of bone and flesh, though I know they were not freely given. They will greatly aid us, and your strength and courage will live on through us as we journey to destroy the evil that plagues this land. Your noble sacrifice will help us free your people from the brutal chains of oppression that now bind them to the Queen of Thorns and her cruel machinations. I pray that this knowledge will bring you some comfort in the afterlife. Rest well, mighty Gecken warriors. We will not let your deaths be in vain.”
Sam and Sebastian stared at the humble Geckenfolk card on the table as if it were a holy relic.
“Holy fucking shit…” Sam whispered.
“Did you just come up with that?” Sebastian asked, lifting his eyes to hers. “Amii, that was… incredible..”
She smiled softly, giving him a little shrug. “I had a good teacher…” she said quietly, but left it there, curling herself around the unexpected stab of heartache like a dragon around its hoard.
“Okay!” she chirped as she sat up suddenly, startling them out of their reverie. “I’m gonna roll to see what I get off the other guys. Who wants to draw for loot?”
“Here, how about you just hold onto this for now,” Sebastian said, starting to pass Amii the expansion Guide booklet. “I’ll draw for loot.”
“Are you sure?” she asked, reaching out but not yet taking it. “I’m not going to poach Guide from you.”
“Yeah, it’s cool,” he said. “Now I don’t have to read you all the body parts you're chopping off and stuffing into your pack.” He flashed her a sly grin as she took it, then looked down at the Geckenfolk card that would probably never be the same again. “Okay, three bronze coming up.”
He reached over to the first pile of loot cards, lined up on the side of the table next to the stacks of their silver and gold counterparts for the yellow and red cards, and grabbed the top three.
“What’d we get?” Sam asked, pencil poised above his sheet.
“Looks like 35 gold,” he said as flipped through them in his hand. “Oh nice, a plus one short sword…”
“Dibs!!” Sam yelled, already writing it on his page.
“Oh, and what’s this?” he said, the corner of his mouth twitching. “Weird. It looks like… a child’s drawing of a smiling Geckenfolk family? Oh, and at the bottom it says, ‘We love you, Daddy McStuffins!’”
“You MONSTER!!” Amii cackled, throwing a d20 directly at Sebastian’s chest, where it bounced off and rolled back across the table towards her.
“Wait, what?!” Sam asked, looking up from his paper and obviously only half paying attention. “Really?”
“Nah, it’s just some dumb calipers,” he said, flipping the final card over to show them. “Don’t tell me these are handy, too.”
Amii laughed, deciding to save the story of the infamous all-calipers challenge run for another day. “Nah, those things suck. And they look like tongs, anyway. It drives me crazy.”
“Okay, now are we ready to head to yellow?” Sam asked, practically vibrating in his seat.
Sebastian looked at his sheet, biting at his lower lip absentmindedly, and it took every ounce of Amii’s willpower to not whimper a little at the sight. She tore her eyes away, flipping to the potions section of the expansion booklet, but she was unable to read a single word. Instead, flashes of what she wanted to do to those lips, what she wanted those lips to do to her, assailed her mind. God, he’s so beautiful… she thought, trying to ignore the ache that was starting to grow inside her.
“…Amii?”
She glanced up to find them both looking at her expectantly.
“Oh, sorry,” she said, pointing to the booklet as if that answered whatever question they had asked. “Um, I was looking at potions?” Technically, it wasn’t a lie.
“Do you want to do another green or move onto yellow?”
She looked at the table, trying to clear her head and back down to her adventure sheet. “Honestly, we should start on yellow. We’re in good shape, and I think I’ve gotten all the components I need from this ring.”
“Ha! That’s exactly what I said,” Sam exclaimed happily.
Sebastian rolled his eyes at his friend. “No, you just kept repeating ‘Yellow!’ like a child. Whatever… everybody got their starting stats ready?”
“Ready!” Amii and Sam eagerly answered in unison.
Sebastian nodded, then reached out and flipped the yellow card next to them. “Goddamn it,” he said, sitting back in his chair with a sour expression. “It’s an Undre…”
Sam groaned. “NO! Ugh, why didn’t we do another greeeen?”
Ignoring Sam’s ironic complaint, she picked up the card. “‘These beings are made of wood and vine, and hold the shapes of people,’” she read aloud. “‘For the bodies that fell here in this place were taken over, and the plants that most ate and drank of their life’s nectar, when called to awaken, bare a form of similar size and shape to that which nurtured their roots.’” Above the text, thick green vines twisted themselves into a terrifying humanoid figure, the hint of a skull peeking through the topmost leaves. “Oh my god, they’re so cool.”
“They’re evil vine zombies!” Sam wailed.
“Not zombies… plants, right?” she asked, squinting at the card.
“You can see the bones, though!” Sam countered. “And they’re way too strong…”
“Yeah, they’re considered plant creatures. But they’re well-armored,” Sebastian explained, “so even if you manage a hit, if you don’t roll at least 10 damage, it doesn’t count… wait, why are you smiling like that?”
Amii couldn’t help it, though she tried not to look quite so pleased with herself. “Just everyone roll for turn order,” she said as she tossed a die. “I got a 2, so unless this thing gets a 1, one of us should be up first.”
“Yes!” Sebastian clenched his fist in triumph as his player and the enemy’s die both settled. “I'm up first and the Undre got a 4.”
“I got a six so I’m last… again,” Sam pouted.
“Okay,” Sebastian began. “I’m going to blast it with a fire-”
“No!” Amii shouted, interrupting him. “Don't blast it! Hit it with Slow - I just need you to keep it out of melee range for a few minutes.”
He looked at her like she was asking him to scratch a rabid dog behind the ears. “Fireball is like, the only thing we have that’s guaranteed to hurt this thing…”
“It’s the only thing you had,” Amii said, smiling as she met his eyes. “But now you’ve got me.” It came out a little softer than she meant it too, and she quickly flipped to a spell’s page in the Player’s Handbook, clearing her throat as she passed it to Sebastian to read. “Check it out.”
“Holy shit…” he said as he skimmed the text, then looked back at the table. “Yeah, I’ll cast Slow on it for… 20 mana,” he finished, marking the deduction on his page.
“Perfect. Echo’s eyes roll back in her head as she taps into the raw energy of the jungle that surrounds them - a swirling eddy of life and death, growth and decay. Suddenly, she whips her arms forward, and a black bolt of necrotic energy bursts from her hands as she casts Blight on the Undre. Plant creatures roll with disadvantage against it, sooo…” She rolled her die, looking to Sebastion to roll for the enemy, which he did without speaking a word. “That’s a hit! And plants take max damage, which will be…” she pretended to check her sheet, even though she already knew the answer. “Sixty eight points of damage. So just six left to go!”
“FUCK yeah!” Sam shouted.
Sebastian smiled, shaking his head a little. “Alright, this thing is not looking great. It’s going to try to go after you, Sam…”
“Bjorn!”
“Sorry, Bjorn,” he corrected himself. “But with its movement halved, it’s not going to reach you. What do you do?”
“Bjorn is gonna stand there and scratch his ass,” Sam grinned. “Because it seems like our druid is gonna take it down pretty much by herself.”
“Don't make me waste my mana!” she laughed, “I’ve got something awesome planned, but I’m going to need a lot for it to work.”
“Fine, Bjorn is going to rush in and try to stab it in the ugly face with Lizard-Boy’s plus one shortsword.” He rolled his die as Sebastian rolled for the Undre, whooping in delight at the outcome. “It’s a hit! Okay, be good for Papa, we just need at least ten in total,” he whispered to the dice in his hand before casting them onto the table. “YES!! ELEVEN!!”
Grinning widely at Amii, Sebastian motioned towards the Undre card. “It’s definitely dead. Echo, start chopping!”
She gave him a little smirk, then turned to Sam. “You’re right, you know,” she told him cryptically. “We’re never going to beat the Queen of Thorns with just the three of us…”
“Wait, what?” he said, but she had already turned back to the table.
“Echo reaches into a small pouch at her side as she kneels next to the slain Undre,” she said, ignoring him. “She pulls out what looks like a pinch of fine dust and gently sprinkles it along the creature’s body. As she begins to softly chant in a low voice, small pinpricks of white, orange and tan start to grow amongst the green and brown vines of the Undre. It jerks and spasms as the tiny spots become larger, first button sized, then rising on thick stalks and opening like umbrellas into large flat mushrooms the size of dinner plates, pushing up through and around the wood of the creature’s body. Echo reaches out her hand to help it to its feet, and it rises, docile as a lamb, smelling of rich earth and sweet decay. ‘Welcome, friend,’ she says to it. ‘We have much work to do.’”
Amii knew they were both staring at her again. “Okay, who’s drawing for loot?” she asked as she wrote on her page, afraid that if she looked up she would start blushing yet again. You can’t hide a damn thing, can you? she thought to herself.
“The FUCK??” Sam exclaimed. “You can make MUSHROOM ZOMBIES?? Wait, can we go back for the Geckenboys??”
“Can plants even become zombies?” Sebastian asked, thumbing through the Player’s Manual.
“I mean, from a gameplay mechanics viewpoint, fungally infested creatures are technically classified as zombies,” she admitted. “But really, Echo has created a living network of mycelium and fungi using the Undre’s corpse as a structural support for her spores, so it's no more undead than mushrooms that grow on a stump in the forest. I’d even argue that a framework made of wood is more appropriate than one of flesh, seeing as there are far more types of mushrooms that grow on rotting trees than on rotting animals...”
Sebastian was looking at her, arms lazily crossed in front of him and the corners of his mouth hinting at the grin he was trying unsuccessfully to hide. “A rules lawyer, huh?”
Amii offered him a sheepish smile, caught in the act. “More like… rules defense attorney? I mean, I could find something else instead. I honestly just really liked the image of a weird mushroom-plant hybrid thing. Maybe... Rule of Cool?” she asked hopefully. She decided to wait for his decision before putting forth the idea that since it hadn’t been burned or even structurally damaged very much, the Undre’s well-armored status might still be applicable.
“Rule of Cool we can do,” he said, finally letting the grin spread across his face. “You are something, Amii.”
She beamed at him, then clapped her hands and rubbed them together. “Okay, guys,” she said. “Let's go grow a fucking army.”
Notes:
Oh my god, this chapter turned into a bloated monster of inane D&D podcast references that made me cackle and I am so so sorry to everyone but the grand total of two people who might get them - myself included. Originally, the whole game was supposed to be played in this chapter, but I had to break it apart before it got so big it ate Chicago.
The Undre and their description was blatantly stolen from my favorite D&D podcast, Worlds Beyond Number It's an incredible work of art, made by some of my favorite people and I can't recommend it enough.
If life stops lifeing so hard, I'll post the remainder of the game later this week and Saturday will be a completely new scene, because I can't subject you to this twice in a row.
Thanks again for your lovely reading eyes, and I'll see you again soon!
Chapter 6: Spring 3, Day 7 (cont. 3)
Notes:
Here's a pro tip! Don't ever write out your hopes for a calmer week, because holy hell, you guys. Anyway, thanks for your patience. Next week we'll back to regular Saturday updates, she said, and then the universe laughed and laughed...
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
It hadn’t taken long. Between the advantages that Amii’s potion-making had given them and some very lucky rolls, they stood at the precipice of what they hoped would be their penultimate encounter, taking an account of their inventory and stats. Any veteran player knew that this card flip would more than likely determine the final outcome of the game. The boss at the center could be attempted over and over, but a difficult red card before that could wipe out their chance at success before they even got there.
“Okay,” she said, ticking items off on her sheet. “I’m pretty good on HP, and I have two mana potions ready for each of us, Sebastian, plus a couple others that might come in handy. The ‘Fun Guy Army,’ as you so wonderfully named them, Sam, is looking good; all four are above half health, but I can use Wither and Bloom again to heal them before the boss fight if I need to. How are you looking, Master Everspark?”
“Eh, not too bad,” Sebastion answered as he looked over his paper. “I’d feel better if my staff enchantment was boosted a little more, but it should be good enough. Health is great, thanks to the generous Geckenboys’ contributions…”
“Geckenbooooys!” Sam called out, a hand to his mouth.
“... so I think I'm good to go. Sam?”
“I’m good, I’m good! Can I flip it already?!”
Sebastian and Amii both sighed wearily at him, their eyes meeting as they silently chuckled at their shared reaction to his question. She felt her stomach give a little lurch as he held her gaze for just a moment longer than necessary, and she bit her lips together to keep her smile from spreading any wider. Sebastian shot her a crooked grin in return, brushing his hair out of his face only for it to fall back in front of one eye in a way that made her breathing go fast and shallow. Oh my god, she thought as her heart pounded in her chest. What is happening?
“Okay okay, I’ll look it up…” Sam conceded as he looked over his sheet, oblivious to whatever was happening at the table between them. “Bjorn is at 45 HP and I still have two more health potions, plus whatever this one does…”
“Which one?” Amii asked, attempting to compose herself as she tried to decipher Sam’s handwriting. “Oh, you get another action, you go further…” she started to explain, then stopped. “How about I just tell you if you need to use it.”
“Fine with me! Can I flip the fucking card?!”
“Yup, go ahead.” Sebastian said, taking a deep breath. “Here we go…” he mumbled as Sam reached out and turned the red card over. A Cheshire cat smile grinned up at them from beneath a dark purple hood covered in golden stars.
“GARFIELD THE DEALS WARLOCK!!” All three of them shouted at once, overjoyed at finding the most potentially beneficial card in the game. There was always the possibility of finding a generic merchant when flipping green cards and ones with slightly better stock in yellow, but there was only one Deals Warlock… kind of. He had become such a beloved character that now he was included in each expansion set, not just the original game. Still, he could only be found in the red ring, and the chances of placing his card on the table and then actually selecting him were so low, that some very unlucky players could go for years without finding him.
Sebastian turned to the page in the Reaching Green booklet where the Warlock’s available stock would be determined. “Okay, everybody roll the d100 twice to see what he’s got,’ he instructed as he put the massive die on the table. “If you get a repeat number, reroll for a new one.”
“Seb,” Sam reprimanded. “You have to do the voice.”
Amii wasn’t going to say anything, but she was thinking the same thing. No one knew where it first came from, but by some anthropological miracle (or curse, according to others) the strange voice for the merchant had spread from table to table, and now nearly everyone she had ever played with knew about and did The Voice.
“Oh my god, it’s so stupid,” Sebastian groaned into his hands.
Amii looked at Sebastian as he covered his eyes with his palms, his fingers knotting his dark hair. Immediately, her mind was invaded by thoughts of what he might do if it were her hands tugging on it instead, and she found herself desperately trying to ignore the heat pooling in her belly.
“Come on,” Sam encouraged, “It’s tradition! Plus Amii hasn’t heard yours yet… It’s the fucking best, man. Seriously.”
“Please?” she asked, hoping to thread the needle between a playful joke and an earnest request. Instead, the word fell from her lips as a breathy plea, sounding more than a little indecent to her ears. Oh my god, would you calm the fuck down already? she thought harshly to herself, hoping no one else noticed.
She thought she heard Sebastian’s breath hitch momentarily, but then he heaved a massive sigh, and lowered his hands. His dark brows were furrowed in mock annoyance, but below them she saw his eyes flash with humor as he drew in a dramatic breath.
“Behold!” he loudly proclaimed, arms thrown wide. “You stand before me, Garfield the Deals Warlock! Come and test yourself in a battle of mercantile wits!” His voice was a broken falsetto with an indeterminable accent, the words somehow both lilting and rough. It was perfect, and Amii couldn’t help the giggle of delight that escaped her.
“Happy now?” he drawled as he sat back in his chair and cocked an eyebrow at her, but he was obviously more than a little pleased with himself at her reaction.
“Oh yes!” she grinned back at him as Sam chortled loudly next to her. “Very!”
“Told you! Seb’s is the best,” he said. “Okay, what’s this guy got for us?”
After a few rolls, the Deals Warlock’s inventory was determined, each rare item more powerful than the last. They looked at the list Sebastian had placed in the middle of the table, trying to figure out their next move.
“Guys, we HAVE to get the Sword of Doom,” Sam said, pointing to the last item. “Look at that thing. It’s a plus three longsword with fire damage, poison damage and a rage token? It’s a no brainer!”
“You realize that if we get that, we’ll have no gold left over for anything else, right?” Sebastian countered. “And I’m sure the fact that it’s a legendary item you’ll get to keep has nothing to do with it, right?”
“The Master Player can haggle for it! What else is there that you’d want, anyway?”
Amii raised her eyebrows at Sam. “Echo runs around the forest with a bunch of mushroom infested corpses. What part of that screams ‘people skills’ to you? My charisma is even less than yours, so Echo doing any deal-making is off the table.”
“The Ring of Recall could potentially be really helpful,” Sebastian suggested. “Listen - ‘Once per day, the wearer of this ring may recover the mana used on a failed spell.’ That’s a game changer if you blow a huge spell.”
“Well, just don’t fuck up your rolls and you won’t need it,” Sam parried. “The ring is potentially helpful. The sword is a sure thing. Plus three, Seb. Plus three. ”
Amii hated to admit it, but Sam had a point. “Um, do you want to maybe try and haggle, Sebastian? You’ve got the best shot at it. We might be able to get both if you roll really well. But, I think Sam’s probably… ” she trailed off, not wanting to actually say the words.
Sebastian sighed and shook his head as he picked up the list and tucked it into the booklet. “Nah, I don’t want to risk not getting anything. It’s fine, I’ll just do my very best not to fuck up any rolls.” He slouched down into his chair, his last words aimed at Sam like acerbic bolts.
Sam whooped, ignoring his friend’s obvious disappointment as he added the Legendary weapon to his inventory. Amii couldn’t help feeling like she had somehow let Sebastian down as she crossed off the gold on hers, even though she knew it was the right choice to make. Her stomach twisted as she glanced up at him, but the despondency she was still expecting to find had been cleanly wiped from his face as he sat in perfect neutrality, waiting for them both to be done.
“You… good?” she asked, trying to push the strange guilt away. He was just upset he didn't get the ring, she told herself. It has nothing to do with you.
He gave her a tight smile before quickly looking back down at the booklet. “Yup, all good. You ready?”
Amii tried to meet his eyes again, but they remained firmly glued to the pages. “Um, yeah!” she brightly chirped, attempting to bury the growing discomfort in her stomach. “Let’s fucking do this!”
“For Lizard-Boy! For Scales! For MCSTUFFINS!!” Sam cried, punching his fist into the air with each name as Amii laughed. Even Sebastian couldn’t hold back a smile at the ridiculous battlecry, and he seemed to relax a little as he put the Queen of Thorns’ stat card on the table, signifying the beginning of the final round.
“Okay, Echo,” he said, finally finding Amii’s eyes again and offering her a small smile. “How the hell are we going save that fucking baby?”
Relief flooded her system and she grinned back at him. “I have an idea. Can I show you a spell?” She pointed at the Player Manual sitting off to the side and he handed it to her. “If you can distract the Queen and her Venus flytrap with Hypnotic Pattern so they can’t move or react,” she said as she flipped pages. “I can use this without her being able to follow. Then you and Sam– ”
“Bjorn!”
“Sorry, you and Bjorn can blast and stab them both to high heaven.”
She held up the book for Sebastian to inspect. He took it, quietly reading over the page before looking back up at her apologetically. “It’s a cool idea, but I don’t think that’ll work, Amii… the Transport via Plants spell specifically says you can only use it on inanimate plants, and that flytrap thing is anything but…”
“I know,” she reassured him with a grin. “I’m not talking about using it on the flytrap. I’m going to use it on that. ” She pointed to the peapod cradle below that nestled the sleeping infant. “It’s a completely different color, and doesn’t look connected in any way to the monster plant, so it’s got to be a different inanimate plant. I’ll link the pod to a tree right behind us, dash in when they’re distracted, snag the kid and then pop right back out. Then you guys can focus on the Queen and I can hit the flytrap with Blight and clean up. Easy peasy.”
“Fuck yeah!” Sam whooped. “You're going down, Thorn Bitch!”
“Yeah,” Sebastian said, slowly nodding his head. “Yeah, I think that might actually work. Okay, let’s roll for turn order!”
***
It worked like a charm. Despite having the first turn, the Queen of Thorns and her plant monstrosity weren’t able to push past their unified mushroom-zombie front, and once Amii had successfully rescued the infant, Sebastian and Sam had wasted no time as they began to slash and blast like a well-oiled death machine. Amii had to admire their tactics - she had always played with at least 3 other people, and the pair’s deceptively simple play style was a wonderfully efficient way to make up for the lack of support. Sam’s fighter danced right along the edge of Sebastian’s spell’s range, close enough to run in and do some serious damage before disengaging again and leaving the wizard enough room to rain fireball after fireball down on their enemies. Amii had leapt to her feet when the first flytrap succumbed to her Blight spell and stayed there, even when she nearly got herself roasted trying to land a blow with her quarterstaff on the Queen.
It all became a blur - the sound of the dice rolling against the table as numbers and spells were yelled out, the triumphant cheers and disappointed groans as spells and attacks hit or missed. She called for Sam to take this potion, for Sebastian to take that, and they obeyed without hesitation. She felt so alive, like she was finally doing something she knew she was good at.
When Sam struck the fatal blow to the Queen, Amii had cheered wildly, holding up her hand to him for an enthusiastic high five. Instead, Sam jumped to his feet and wrapped his arms around her, picking her up entirely as she froze at the unexpected contact.
“We fucking did it!! Holy shit, I could kiss you right now!” he yelled as he spun her around wildly. She clung to him with her free arm, terrified that they might both topple over, and her foot slammed against the side of the table, sending an eruption of cards and papers tumbling to the ground. She sucked in a sharp intake of breath as pain shot up her leg, tears welling in her eyes as Sam immediately dropped her into her seat.
“Oh my god, I’m so sorry!” he said, trying to take her injured foot in his hand. “Are you okay?”
Amii pulled away, quickly wiping her eyes and tugging her pant leg down in an attempt to hide her rapidly swelling ankle. She tried to laugh it off, but the sound came out wrong. “Yeah, I’m okay,” she finally managed to say, only choking a little on the lie. “It’s not a big deal. I just wasn’t expecting you to, um–”
“Be so strong?” Sam answered for her with a little wink.
“Um, I guess?” she replied before quickly turning her back to him as she bent down to help Sebastian pick up the fallen cards beside her. Anything to hide from that look Sam was giving her.
“Sorry about the mess, Sebastian,” she said quietly as she gathered up some papers.
“Not your fault.”
She froze mid-reach, his icy tone sending shivers down her spine. “Um, good game, though!” she squeaked, forcing herself to continue despite the tightening in her throat. “I’m glad the plan worked out! You two make a great team, you know!”
He let out a harsh bark of a laugh at that, hands grabbing at the cards angrily. “Oh, definitely… Sam always gets what he wants and then I’m left cleaning up the mess. Go us.”
“Dude, I said I was sorry!” Sam protested, although Amii was pretty sure he had only apologized to her. “Why are you being such an ass? You looking to chase away another player?”
“Fuck you, asshole.” Sebastian spat back, sitting up and slamming the cards on the table. “You know what? You’re right! I’m just being an ass for no reason,” he continued, the enigmatic words coated in a thick layer of sarcasm. “No fucking reason at all.”
By this point, the pressure in Amii’s chest was making it hard for her to breath, and the pinprick of tears was way past the point of no return. This wasn’t like the fun bickering from earlier, or even the more intense argument about the scenario card. This was something deeply personal, and she couldn’t help but feel like it was somehow all her fault. She quickly gathered her bag into her arms and stood up awkwardly, wobbling a little as her sore ankle flared with the movement.
“I have to go! Um, thanks for…” Amii sucked in a breath, wishing that her voice wouldn’t tremble so much. “Just… thanks.” She turned and ran for the door, ignoring the burst of pain that came with every other step.
“Do you want me to walk you home?” Sam called out, but her only response was the slamming of the bedroom door behind her as she ran up the stairs. Tears streamed from her eyes as she rushed past Robin’s thankfully empty desk and into the cool evening air, and she didn’t stop running until the smoke from the house’s chimney was blotted out by the trees.
She collapsed against the trunk of an old pine tree, the bark scraping harshly at her back through her shirt as she slid down its trunk. Sobs wracked her body as she sat clutching her knees to her chest. She didn’t know why it was her fault, but she knew, she knew, that she had done something wrong. Why else would they have fought like that?
You always have to shove your way into things and fuck them up, don’t you? Things were just fine before you showed up… but no, you always have to interrupt everyone with your incessant need to be the center of attention, the need to be fucking special. Well, you’re NOT.
The words ripped through her, carving out the place where her heart used to be in rough, jagged strokes. She clutched her hands to her ears, as if trying to block the memory of them being spoken from taking up residence in her mind, even though she knew it was pointless. It hadn’t worked the first time, either.
NO ONE LIKES YOU, AMII… Fucking NO ONE.
Especially NOT ME.
She wept under the branches of the old pine tree as the last of the sun's light faded, until all she had left was one final gasping wail. Then she slowly stood up, took a ragged breath and limped her way home.
Notes:
Oh, these poor angsty babies...
For those who might be looking for a little palate cleanser, may I offer you The Voice of Garfield the Deals Warlock from The Adventure Zone podcast, or for a more robust fare, the origin of the very same from a truly unhinged ad read from the McElroy's other podcast, My Brother My Brother and Me. And while we're at it, here's the moment of Lizard-Boy Scales McStuffins' birth on Dungeons & Daddies (not a BDSM podcast), because heaven forbid I not include MORE CONTEXT! 😝
Thanks as always for taking the time to read my little brain monster! I'm really excited to share some of the stuff coming up (the Dwaaaaarf! {not next week, but sooooon}), and I'll see you next week!!
Chapter 7: Summer 3, Day 27
Notes:
It's finally a new day! We're starting to venture further into headcanon territory, so prepare yourselves accordingly...
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Why do you always have to wait until the last minute to do everything? You’d think you’d have learned your lesson by now. But nooooooo…
Amii stomped angrily across the stone bridge out of town and onto the beach. Tonight was the Dance of the Moonlight Jellies, and Willy had asked her three days ago to pull up the crab traps she had tied to the dock, so that none of the visiting creatures would be injured. But one distraction after another kept her from making the long trip down to the shore, and now she had no choice but to do it this afternoon, despite the rain.
She glowered at the path from under her big yellow rain hat, thinking of all the dry things she could be doing right now. Little rivulets of water broke apart and fused back together in the sand, running past shells and bits of sea glass as the rain finally made its way back home to the ocean.
Amii had always liked the sound of her boots on the docks, so she stepped a little heavier than usual onto the main pier, trying to cheer herself up. The susurrus of the waves mixed with the soft hiss of the rain hitting the water’s surface, punctuated only by her echoey steps and the rhythmic knocking of the traps against the wooden dock. She stood quietly for a moment, eyes closed and face turned upwards into the warm summer drizzle. Maybe this isn’t so bad after all, she thought.
“Hey, stranger…”
Her eyes shot open. Oh my god, she thought miserably, as she saw Sebastian casually holding up a hand in greeting just a little ways down the pier. Why now?! Ugh, I look like the stupid guy on the fishsticks box.
“Oh, hi!” Amii had to tilt her head back a little and hold up the floppy brim of her hat to meet his eyes. “Sorry, it’s hard to see anything in this dumb thing.”
“How’s it going? I haven’t really talked to you much since…” He paused for a second and looked away, as if not quite sure how to continue.
Since I completely ruined your game and ran away? she thought bitterly. She had seen Sebastian around town a few times since then, but had managed to escape each encounter with nothing more than a wave or a very quick ‘Hello,’ if she hadn’t been able to avoid his notice entirely.
“…since you kicked absolute ass at the table,” he finished, glancing back at her through the soft rain, just a hint of a smile on his face.
Amii looked at him like he’d sprung a second head and shot out a laugh. “You mean when I was a complete show-off and ridiculous game hog?”
Sebastian actually looked offended at that. “Are you kidding?” he scoffed. “That was hands down the best game I’ve ever played. The portal thing with the peapod, and all the mushroom zombies? The Geckenboy’s eulogy?! You were amazing!”
“What?! Wait… r-really?” she stammered. She tried to fold the brim of her sou’wester into place, but it kept flopping back down, sending tiny waterfalls tumbling in front of her face. “I kinda thought you were mad at me. You seemed, um… a little upset at the end of it.”
“Oh, yeah…” He looked back down at the dock, but not before Amii could see the redness starting to creep over his cheeks. “Sorry, I probably stayed up too late the night before or something,” he said, his tone once again slipping into apathy. “So… what have you been up to?”
“Um, a lot, actually!” she said. “It was my first kidding season, and things got kinda crazy.” The yellow oilskin fell in front of her eyes, and she grumbled as she folded the hat back up yet again. “Oh my god, this stupid hat…”
Sebastian squinted at her with barely perceptible curiosity, the rain softly dripping off of his somehow still-perfect hair. “Kidding season? Like jokes?” he asked.
“Ha!” she laughed, too sharp for her ears. “No, not that kind of kidding. Baby goats! Goats can only be milked after they’ve given birth, so in the middle of winter Marnie sent over her billy goat, and then late this spring my girls had babies! When I bought them last year they were already producing — um, meaning I could milk them, but they usually have to be freshened every spring. Two of my does had triplets, which is usually too many for the mama to feed, so I had a couple of bottle babies that had to be fed every few hours. Didn’t leave much time for anything else.”
Amii finally gave up wrestling with the hat and ripped it off, stuffing it into her back pocket. “There, much better,” she said as she smiled at him, awkwardly trying to fluff up her hair with her hand.
Oh yes, she thought sarcastically. Wet hat-head is definitely much better.
“Huh,” he said. “I guess I thought cows and goats always had milk, but that makes sense. What will you do with the babies?”
“Well, I’m keeping the doelings to add to my herd, and Marnie found a buyer for the little bucks, so they’re already gone.”
“Wasn’t it hard for you to sell them?” he asked. His tone sounded so indifferent, she couldn’t tell if he was actually interested, or just following the path of the conversation.
“Like, emotionally? Um, yeah, a little,” she shrugged. “They were all really cute, but the boys started to get stinky as they got older, so that definitely made it easier.”
She scratched at her nose, staring into the choppy water and remembering all those little tails wagging at her in greeting. Without really thinking, she went on.
“The hardest part was when one of them was stillborn. One of my goats had her babies a little early and the first one came out okay, but she had a twin that didn’t make it. I was so afraid that it was my fault, and that I’d done something wrong. But Marnie said sometimes that just happens. That it’s all part of being a farmer.”
She suddenly realized what she was saying and looked back up at Sebastian, who was staring at the weathered boards of the dock, his brows furrowed a little.
“I’m sorry, you don’t want to hear about that!” she said, trying to sound cheerful. “Um, I saw a cool tree frog on the chicken coop this morning! I didn’t know any of those lived around here - I thought they were all in the jungle. It made me think of the little frog on your desk. What are you doing out here in the rain, anyway?”
“It was my dad’s…”
Oh no.
“The frog on my desk,” he said. “It was my dad’s. He died when I was a little kid.” Sebastian didn’t look at her as he spoke, playing with something in his hands.
Oh nononono…
“Drunk driver ran right up onto the sidewalk,” he continued. “He went out one night to walk the dog and never came home.” His voice sounded completely neutral, like he was reading off of a menu. One tragic backstory, please. Hold the mayo.
“Oh my god, I -I had no idea,” Amii stammered. It felt like the dock was starting to spin. Stop it! she yelled at herself from a million miles away. Don’t make this about you. Not everything always has to be about you!! She suddenly didn’t know what to do with her hands.
“I’m so… sorry for your loss.” Her own voice sounded distant and she couldn’t think, but she recited the words she knew was supposed to say.
Still not looking at her, Sebastian made a dismissive face, like she had just apologized for accidentally stepping on his foot. “Nah, it’s not a big deal. It happened a long time ago.” He turned and threw the flat stone he had been holding across the surface of the water. It probably would’ve skipped, if the waves weren’t so choppy.
“We actually lived in Zuzu City back then.” He pulled another stone out of his sweatshirt pocket and threw it out after the first. “But then Mom met Demetrius and we moved way out here and she got to start a new little family,” he finished bitterly. He turned around to face her again.
“Oh.”
Amii had tried so very hard not to cry. She was grateful that the weather had picked up from a shower to a downpour, so he couldn’t really tell where the rain stopped and her tears began, but she knew he could tell that her reaction was more than just friendly sympathy.
“I’m sorry…” Her chin quivered, and she had to pause and look up at the clouds to keep from letting out a sob, but she took a shaky breath and pressed on. “My mom died, um, about three years ago? Right before I moved here. She was, uh… she wasn’t doing well, so… it wasn’t completely unexpected, but… um, it’s still… it’s still kinda… hard? I’m so sorry, sometimes I just… I didn’t mean to…” she trailed off, not sure exactly what she was apologizing for. She fell back on an old, familiar standard. “I'm… I’m sorry for hijacking the conversation.”
Sebastian looked at her for a moment like he wasn’t sure how to react to that, but then he took a few steps forward, slowly put his arms around her and gave Amii a hug.
It was wet and it was awkward, but it was still a hug. She was so surprised by it, she didn’t even really keep crying. She could still feel tears falling from her eyes, but the world had come back into focus and she finally felt like she could breathe again.
He released her and stepped back. “We’re getting soaked,” he said. “Come on, you want to go sit?”
She nodded, still not trusting herself to speak. They walked to the end of the pier and sat down on the edge despite its wetness, dangling their legs above the spray. Sebastian pulled a compact umbrella from his hoodie pocket and pressed a little button on its side. It blossomed dramatically, the canopy striped red and white like a circus tent, and he held it between them. It wasn’t quite big enough to cover them both completely, but at least the rain wasn’t in their faces anymore.
“Tell me something about her,” he said. It sounded casual, but it seemed to Amii that he had needed to work at it.
She quickly rubbed her nose on her sleeve and sniffed. “What do you mean?” she asked.
“Your mom. Tell me something about her. If you want.” He paused and looked out at the clouds. Amii followed his eyes to the horizon, where the dark water met an even darker sky. It was hard to tell if the storm was blowing in or out.
“People are always saying that they’re sorry that someone died,” he continued. “Sometimes it's just nice to talk about when they lived.”
Amii laughed a small, sad laugh. “As soon as I learn how to sew,” she said, “I’m going to stitch that onto a pillow.”
His eyes flickered over to hers for a moment and he gave a little chuckle. “How do you know that's not where I got it?”
She smiled shyly. “Okay… Umm, she loved to bake cakes! She had a huge collection of cake pans and tins in all sorts of different shapes. Animals, flowers, little antique cars - anything you could think of. Each year on my birthday, I could pick whatever I wanted my cake to be, and if she didn’t have the right pan or mold, she’d have an excuse to go buy a new one.” Amii laughed, brushing one last tear from her cheek.
“As I got older, we kind of made it into a challenge? I’d try to pick the strangest, most random thing, and she’d knock it out of the park every time. I was probably the only kid in the world who wanted a garbage can for a birthday cake. But it was amazing — little flies made out of chocolate with rice paper wings, and a taffy banana peel… Sometimes I think the only reason half the people came to my parties was to see what she had made that year.” Amii sighed, the happy memory now turned bittersweet. “She wasn’t always easy to get along with, but I miss her a lot…”
After a moment, Sebastian smiled a little to himself, then cleared his throat and began to speak. “My dad really liked frogs. I was pretty young when… it happened, so I don’t have a lot of memories of him, but I do remember he liked to take me to the park in the city with the big pond in it? I don’t remember the name.”
Amii pursed her lips and wrinkled her brow in thought. “Oh, the one on Gilbert Street? I think that’s Pretchley Park.”
“Yeah, that sounds right. Anyway,” he continued. “One day, I guess I wouldn’t leave until I caught a frog for him, and I ended up somehow losing one of my boots in the pond. He had to walk back home with me on his shoulders, just absolutely covered in mud. My mom was so mad, but I mostly remember how proud of me he was, because I actually got one.”
Amii laughed softly. “Aww, he sounds like a nice guy.”
Sebastian quickly rubbed an eye. “Uh, yeah. Yeah he was.”
They sat for a moment, in a mostly-comfortable silence.
“I’ve actually got his old motorcycle.” Sebastian had slipped back in his casual demeanor, but Amii could start to see the edges of his mask. “And his leather jacket.”
“Oh wow, really?” she said. “That’s so cool.” She had seen him working on the bike a few times when headed towards the mine, but she had always been too nervous to interrupt.
“Yeah, my dad’s brother had held onto them, and he gave them to me for my 21st birthday. Mom was not happy about the bike. But Uncle Max somehow convinced her to let me keep it. Despite it being an ‘unnecessarily risky mode of transportation.’” He sounded exactly like Demetrius.
The rain was letting up. Thin beams of sun broke through the gray like spotlights and then disappeared moments later, as the wind shepherded the clouds across the sky.
“Hey,” Sebastian said as he sadly watched them go, his voice so low she could barely hear him over the sound of the waves. “I’m sorry for how shitty I was being when you came over. It was really cool playing with you.”
“Oh, it’s no big deal!” Amii replied brightly, pushing away the memory of how devastated she had been. “It was awesome playing with you guys! Well, until Sam’s sneak attack. I was limping for like a week!”
He huffed a little at that — not quite a laugh, not quite a scoff. Then he began to fold up the umbrella, shaking the last of the raindrops out over the ocean.
“I should head back,” he said as he stood up and tucked it under his arm, then waited for Amii to stand beside him. She thought for a moment that he was about to reach out to help her up, but his hands stayed buried deep in his pocket.
“Are you coming back tonight for the festival?” she asked as she clambered to her feet. “It looks like it might actually turn into a nice night.”
“Nah,” he said, looking down and kicking his toe at a knot in one of the boards. “Too crowded. That’s why I usually only come to the beach when it’s raining. Being around people makes me anxious.” He glanced up, catching her eyes for a minute before looking back down, the corner of his mouth pulled up in a small grin. “I don’t feel that way around you, though. You’re pretty awesome.”
“Oh!” Amii said, repeating his words in her mind over and over to make sure she heard him correctly. “Um, thanks!”
“Sam’ll probably be here, though.” His smile faded as Sebastian quickly turned and tossed a final rock from his pocket, watching the ripples break apart in the waves. “He likes that sort of thing.”
“Oh. Um, okay!” she said cheerfully, trying not to sound disappointed. “I guess I’ll see you around?”
“Yeah, probably. Bye.” He started to make his way off the dock, shoulders slumping a little.
“Bye…” Amii repeated quietly, watching him go as her heart sank lower with every step.
Suddenly, she realized this was not how this conversation had to end. He was almost to the sand when she called out to him, her voice nearly drowned out by the surf. “Hey!” she yelled. “I’m sorry I haven’t been around much lately. It was really good to see you! We should hang out sometime, maybe?”
He turned, and despite the distance between them, she could see the beginnings of a smile curl his lips. “Yeah, it was good seeing you, too!” he called back. “You should stop by the house again! Maybe I’ll take you for a ride?”
“Um, yeah!! Yeah, that’d be fun!” she shouted back, heart leaping.
“Okay, cool. See ya!” He held up his hand in a wave, then turned and made his way up the beach and out of sight.
Amii sighed wistfully as she watched him go. Then she bent down and pulled up the first of her traps, picking at the knot. Willy had shown her how to tie a crabber’s knot at least a dozen times, but she still didn’t think she was doing it right.
A moment later, she screamed out in frustration, and threw the whole thing back into the water, drenching her already soggy pants.
THANK YOU??? she mentally berated herself. He smiled and said “You’re pretty awesome” and instead of saying it back, you just said THANK YOU??!! What kind of fucking idiot ARE you??
She let out another angry growl and yanked up the trap again, wondering how she could be so stupid, and who the hell was losing all these glasses.
Notes:
Every year in game, I swear that I'll remember to pull up those damn crab traps before the Dance of the Moonlight Jellies, and every year the whole town gets to see my impressive haul of garbage instead...
Thanks again for reading, and for leaving kudos if you felt inspired to do so. This chapter marks the halfway point in this little story, and from here on out, the spice level will start to reflect a, um, growing intimacy. Real ghost pepper nonsense isn't until Chapter 10, but I hope it will be worth the wait.😉 See you next week!
Chapter 8: Fall 3, Day 19
Notes:
Content Warning: Very, very mildly NSFW towards the end.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“Human Friend Amii, you should really be more careful…” The Dwarf spoke slowly and deliberately in their strange, high voice as they handed her a bottle, even though Amii had been speaking their language for over a year.
“I know, I know…” she replied, clutching her side as a thin line of blood trickled from between her fingers. She passed them some coin and pulled out the bottle’s stopper, gulping the thick liquid down. It tasted absolutely foul, but she could feel the edges of her torn flesh immediately start to stitch back together. Thank god for Dwarven medicine, she thought. Her jacket would never be the same, though - the left sleeve and half of the back were in tatters.
“Ugh, thank you. I got distracted by a huge gold deposit, and didn’t see the stupid… uh, wet… round… thing…” she trailed off, searching her mind for the right word in Dwarvish.
“Slime?” the Dwarf suggested.
“That’s it, slime. Slllliiiimme.” She practiced the sounds, trying to twist her tongue into the unfamiliar shapes. Okay, so maybe I’m not quite as fluent as I thought. “Thank you,” Amii continued. “Anyway, it snuck up behind me, and those red fuckers are nasty.”
The Dwarf laughed, a high chittering sound that reminded her of a bat. “Yes, they certainly are. And I must say, your pronunciations of Dwarven curse words are nearly flawless.”
Amii raised the empty bottle in a toast and bowed, waggling her eyebrows. “Thank you, thank you… cursing has always been a talent of mine, and —” A low rumble in the distance interrupted her. “Oh my god, is that a cave in?” she asked. She had never considered the structural integrity of the mine before, but that would certainly make sense - it had been abandoned for god knows how long.
“Ugh, no. The mine is strong. It’s that pale human’s infernal riding machine.” The Dwarf spat on the floor in disgust, orange eyes blazing from beneath their dark hood. “I have tried to silence it numerous times, but he keeps repairing it.”
“Wait, what?” Amii dropped her heavy pack and ran to the entrance of the mine, peering out into the night. From across the lake, she could see a flood of light coming from the open garage door.
“I know!” they called after her. “It is most infuriating. I believe the young female that lives there has been helping him replicate the parts I have taken.”
Amii ran back into the Dwarf’s small room and threw open her pack. The night was still early enough that she had planned on returning to the lower floors once she had recovered, but her bag was already nearly overflowing with heavy ores. Shit. I’ll never make it there in time lugging all of this, she thought. She flipped the backpack over and began dumping it out, glittering stones, crystals and coal rolling across the floor.
“I gotta run… That is not a gift!!” she shouted, hoisting the near-empty bag back onto her shoulders. “I need those!! I’m coming back!!” She ran out of the Dwarf’s chamber, then returned half a moment later, just in time to see the small figure hovering over her treasures with greedy fingers. They immediately jumped back with a squeak, and sat down on their stool as if nothing had happened.
“I saw that!!” she yelled, pointing a finger at them. “And STOP messing with Sebastian’s bike!”
***
Amii slowed from a sprint to a jog as she rounded the bend that led down into the foothills. She could still hear the rumbling of Sebastian’s motorcycle as he revved the engine.
Please let me make it this time, she thought. Please, pleeeeease let me make it…
She had thrown her ruined jacket behind a bush as she ran, and her bare arms prickled with gooseflesh in the cold, mountain air. The end of fall was a little over a week away, but winter was waiting impatiently in the wings.
Quickly making her way down the path towards the garage, she paused for a moment and took a deep breath before she finally stepped into the light that streamed from the open door. “Hey, Sebastian!” she shouted over the engine as casually as she could manage, considering she had just run down a mountain. “Um, how’s it going?”
He looked up at her with happy surprise that quickly cooled to relaxed nonchalance. How does he DO that? she thought. He must be incredible at poker.
“Oh hi, Amii,” he said, turning off the bike so they could speak. “Not bad, I guess?
It was a beautiful machine, all classic curves and streamlined chrome. The glossy black paint glistened with a deep purplish hue in the light. Like obsidian, she thought. It looked meticulously maintained.
Sebastian dismounted from the seat and took a step forward to greet her. “This thing’s been giving me some trouble lately, but I think I’ve got it working now.”
“That little fucker…” she murmured under her breath. “Well, that’s good!” Oh my god, what do I do now? “Um, I really love your bike!”
“Oh, thanks! Hey, uh… I was just gonna go for a ride. Do you want to maybe come with me?” he asked, looking down at the ground before glancing up at her, one eye hidden beneath his dark hair. “I’d… I’d like to show you something. If you want…”
Amii’s stomach flipped so hard, she was sure it must’ve been visible through her shirt. “Yes!” she squeaked. She cleared her throat, trying to match his casual tone. “Yeah, um… that’d be cool. Uh, what do I do?”
“Hold on…” He turned and walked into the garage, rummaging around for a moment, before returning with a bright purple helmet in his outstretched hand. “Here, you can borrow Maru’s - she won’t care.”
“Thanks!” Amii said, as she took the helmet and fastened it onto her head, fingers shaking a little from what she told herself was the cold. Sebastian stepped back as he put on his own, swung his leg over the bike and walked it out of the garage towards her. Then he flipped down the kickstand and sat back on the black leather seat.
“Uh, if you can just kinda swing your leg over… yeah, and your feet go there on the footrests,” he said, as she followed his instructions. “Okay, then you can just, uh…” Amii swore she heard his voice break a little before he cleared his throat. “You can just grab around my waist, I guess?”
“Um, like this?” she asked. Her hands barely touched him above his hips as if she was at her first middle school dance, and yet her stomach felt like it was the star performer in a daring trapeze circus act.
“Uh, yeah, I guess. Okay… Hold on!”
After flipping the kickstand back up, Sebastian started the engine and the bike lurched forward. Amii felt herself begin to fall backwards, and instinctively she grabbed him tighter around the waist. “You good?” he shouted over the engine as he put out a foot, stopping and leaning the bike over a little.
“Um, yeah! Sorry, I just lost my balance,” she yelled back. She released her vice-like grip a bit. “I’m okay!”
“Okay, here we go!” He eased the bike forward, gentler this time, then began to pick up speed as they headed out into the night.
***
They drove for either 30 minutes or three hours - Amii couldn’t tell. Her bare arms were chilly in the cold air, but otherwise she was surprisingly comfortable; Sebastian gave off a remarkable amount of heat. She leaned against his back as much as she dared, trying to take in his scent without being obvious. He smelled of spice, and leather, and…
Stop being weird! she mentally scolded herself, and leaned back a little, turning her head and looking at the trees rushing past. He had taken a road over the mountains that she was unfamiliar with, but now she thought she recognized this highway as the one from her first drive into the valley. That had been so long ago, though, and it was so dark out now that she couldn't really be sure.
She glanced down as an amber light started flashing, and she realized Sebastian had put on his blinker. Amii looked around in confusion - there wasn’t anything out here except trees and the road.
Then she saw it - a small rest stop exit off the highway with a sign that she could just barely make out in the dark: Scenic Overlook/Picnic Area - No Bathrooms.
Sebastian slowed the bike as he pulled off of the highway, steering it towards a large wooden board that held a map of the surrounding areas of interest and parked at the edge of a small lot. Behind it, a scattering of picnic tables dotted the lawn, and beyond that…
Amii gasped as she slid off the bike, pulling the helmet off and clutching it in her arms. The lights of Zuzu City glittered in the distance, and she walked towards it like a proverbial moth to a flame, barely registering the low guardrail that lined the cliff’s edge.
Sebastian jogged quickly after her, and grabbed her elbow in alarm. “Watch out!” he said. “It’s steep! And a really long way down.”
She turned away from the city and towards him, the spell broken. “Oh, sorry,” she said, embarrassed. “I’ve just… never seen it like this before.” Amii turned back to gaze at the lights that shimmered in the darkness like an impossibly huge cluster of diamonds. “It looks so beautiful.”
“Yeah,” she heard Sebastian say softly. “It’s really something.”
A metallic click drew her attention, and she turned around again as Sebastian lit a cigarette, pulling a drag and blowing smoke off to the side. Amii smiled at him shyly, then climbed up onto the closest picnic table, setting the helmet on the bench between her feet and patting a spot next to her when she caught his gaze again. He smiled a little, and obeyed, sitting just close enough for her elbow to brush the sleeve of his jacket.
Don’t blow this, she thought to herself. Please, please don’t blow this…
“Soooo…” As if it had a mind of its own, she heard her voice dropping into the low, smarmy tone of a bad pickup artist. “Come here often?” She inwardly cringed, bracing for his reaction. Oh my god, why do you have to make everything a stupid joke?
But to her delight, Sebastian laughed. A real, honest, genuine laugh.
“Yeah, actually…” he said, giving her a crooked smile. “It’s a good place to just… think.” He looked down at the cigarette in his hand and sighed. “Ugh. I should quit smoking.”
“Probably,” agreed Amii amicably. “Can I steal a drag first?”
He looked over at her, surprised. And for once, she noticed that he didn’t immediately smooth his expression into one of indifference. “You smoke?” he said, passing her the cigarette. “I had no idea.”
“Not in a few years,” she said, putting it to her lips. “Doesn’t go well with chopping wood.” She inhaled deeply, clove and tobacco smoke filling her lungs, and exhaled, her mouth held open as a series of small rings floated out. “But! I am a woman of maaany mysteries.”
Another real laugh. Amii’s heart leapt, and she passed the cigarette back.
“Like what?” Sebastian asked. He sounded… not cool, not apathetic. Actually curious.
“Well…” she tried to think of something about her former life he might actually find interesting. “I was in a band once. A long time ago.”
He took another drag and chuckled. “Oh really? What did you play?”
Amii stole back the cigarette. “Bass guitar, if you can believe it. And back up vocals. We actually weren't that terrible.” She took another small puff and handed it back.
Sebastian’s face hardened a little. He took one final drag of the spent cigarette and flicked the butt away, watching it spark against the ground. “Don’t tell Sam that… he’ll want to start up a band with you.”
Sam again, she thought. Why does he always have to keep bringing him up?
“He likes you, you know. A lot.” Sebastian’s voice was soft, without any hint of jealousy or anger. He sounded almost helpful, like…
Like he’s offering me an out, she realized. He thinks that if I knew that Sam liked me, I’d want to be with him instead. Oh, you poor sad boy… who hurt you?
“I know. And Sam’s a really good guy,” she said, and from the corner of her eye she saw him crumple a little as he exhaled a breath. “But… I don’t like him like that. I do like somebody else, though…” She leaned over and bumped Sebastian’s shoulder.
He sat up a bit at her touch. “Oh…” he said, the corner of his mouth curling up slightly. “Really? You do?”
She bumped into his shoulder again, this time not pulling away. “Yeah, I do.” She looked up at him, offering him a small grin. “I don’t make ridiculously intricate obsidian jewelry for just anybody.”
Sebastian moved his hand slightly towards his chest. Oh my god, she thought. Is he wearing it right now? No, that would be too much…
“I still can’t believe you made that for me,” he said softly. “It’s amazing.”
“I’m really glad you like it,” Amii said. She looked down, kicking the bench of the picnic table with the back of her foot. “I wasn’t sure you would. Some guys are kinda… weird about that stuff.”
Sebastian laughed softly. “Yeah, I guess. But those guys suck.”
“You have no idea,” Amii groaned. “I haven’t had the best luck with guys…” She swallowed around the lump in her throat that had suddenly appeared. Best to just get it out, she thought. “Or …” she paused, gathering her courage. “Or girls, either.”
She glanced up at him, searching his face for any reaction of disgust, or worse, arousal. But he just chuckled a little, and picked at the table with a fingernail.
“Are you… okay with that?” she asked, as if apologizing for some unintended offense.
“Oh! Yeah, of course!” He answered back without any hesitation, but a sly smile was still on his lips.
She playfully shoved him with her shoulder again, relieved. “What? Why are you smiling like that?” she asked. She believed him, but something else was definitely going on.
Sebastian flicked a bit of wood from his finger, and ran a hand through his hair, still grinning. “Nothing. Abby just owes me 25 gold.”
She gasped dramatically and punched him in the shoulder, probably too hard.
“Ow!” he winced, but he smiled a little wider as he rubbed his arm. “God, you’re strong!”
“You were betting on my sexual preferences?!” she said in mock indignation. “The nerve!”
He laughed, leaning his shoulder back into hers and keeping it there. “Hey, man,” he said. “It’s a small town. What else is there to do?”
“Good point,” she laughed. She thought back to the night with the spirit board in Abigail’s room, a little embarrassed but glad she’d escaped without hurting her feelings too much. The farmer actually did have a crush on the fiery young woman when she first moved into town, but Abigail marched through life with something to prove, and Amii preferred less… Well, less conflict , she supposed.
She leaned away, peering at Sebastian with squinted eyes. “How did you know, anyway?”
“I dunno…” he shrugged, catching her gaze for just a moment before glancing away again. “Same recognizes same, I guess.”
Amii's jaw dropped open. “Wait, what? You’re bi, too? Really?!” Her face broke out into a wide smile as he slowly nodded.
“Are… you okay with that?” He didn’t meet her gaze as he asked, instead looking out towards the city lights.
“Yes! Absolutely!” Oh my god, maybe he actually understands, she thought. No jealous conversations over and over about who really are ‘just friends,’ no stupid arguments about who should or shouldn’t be ‘approved’ of…
She beamed up at him, but he was still staring at the horizon and the city she had left behind. “Why’d you leave it?” he asked quietly.
Amii sighed, and tried to organize her racing thoughts. “Lots of reasons, I guess,” she finally answered. “It’s loud. And crowded. But too small at the same time, you know?” She laughed bitterly. “Five million people, but somehow you still always run into your horrible ex.”
Sebastian snorted in amusement, but didn’t say anything. He just sat, listening.
Amii took a deep breath. “Right before my mom died, I had finally gotten out of a really terrible relationship. He was pissed that I was spending so much time with her at the end, and I guess it helped me realize how bad it really had become. I mean, who does that? Who demands that you possibly let your mother die all alone, just because they’re feeling jealous?”
She could feel the hot sting of tears starting to form, but she didn’t care. “Then when she was finally gone, I just… didn’t have any reason to stay. My dad left us a long time ago. I hated my job, my apartment sucked, I didn’t have any real friends anymore, everywhere I looked were painful memories, and I just… I couldn’t do it.” She sighed wearily. “I was really lucky, though. I honestly don’t know what I would’ve done without Grandpa’s gift. I guess I’d still be there if it weren’t for him. Trapped...”
She leaned back on her arms and gazed up at the sky as a tear traced a path down her cheek. She didn’t bother to wipe it away. “Besides, you can’t see the stars when you’re in the city. The lights blot them all out, you know.”
Galaxies of stars swirled above her, a million billion gems scattered across the dark sky like bright pebbles on a beach. She closed her eyes and felt her heart swell - for her mother, her grandfather, for all the things she’d lost, the things she’d found, and for this moment that she was living right now.
“I used to be drawn to the city.” Sebastian’s voice was so quiet, she could barely hear him. “I never felt like I belonged anywhere after… after I lost my dad. And as I got older, I thought maybe if I moved back there, I’d feel… I dunno, more connected to him somehow? And I’d find my place.”
He paused, then continued, shame now starting to color his tone. “I almost did, once. Kind of. Maybe a year before you moved here? I was… seeing someone in the next town over. That’s who Sam was talking about before, at the table. We had all played SC together since high school, and Nate and I started… being with each other, sometimes, after Sam left. And then we’d lay there and talk about moving to the city - what we’d do, what our apartment would be like… that kind of stuff. I thought he was serious. I even saved up enough for a security deposit, but… I was just stupid.” He spat the word, as if it stung in his mouth.
“He didn’t want anyone to know about our relationship,” he went on. “So I don’t know why I thought he’d suddenly be okay with us moving in together. He freaked out and took off when I told him I actually wanted to start looking for an apartment together, and then later he lied to Sam and said I came onto him, and that’s why he wouldn’t keep playing with us.”
Sebastian sighed heavily, the weight of it sounding nearly impossible for him to carry. “I don’t know why I didn’t tell Sam the truth - I just told him I didn’t want to talk about it. At first, I think I was still trying to protect Nate from anyone knowing he was queer. And then… it just felt like it was too late.”
“That was horrible of him,” Amii said softly, though righteous anger bubbled beneath it. “I’m so sorry he did that to you. And for what it's worth, I think Sam would believe you, even now.”
He smiled a sad thanks, then leaned back against his arms and looked up at the stars with her. “I was so… mad at you, I guess. When you first moved here. I was too afraid to move away by myself, and then on top of that, I couldn’t understand why anyone would want to leave the city and come to a stupid little town in the middle of nowhere. But, I think I’m starting to come around to it now.” He turned and looked at her, smiling softly. “I’m sorry I was a jerk to you at first.”
“Compared to Shane,” she chuckled, “you were downright delightful.” But she remembered Sebastian’s cold demeanor towards her those first couple of months, and how crushed she’d felt when he repeatedly brushed off her attempts at friendship. “But thank you. I appreciate the apology.”
A gust of cold autumn wind blew past them, swirling dried leaves around the grass. Amii shivered and sat up, crossing her arms and rubbing them in an effort to produce a little warmth.
“Oh my god, you’re freezing!” Sebastian cried. “Why don’t you have a coat?”
Amii winced a little. “I kinda… lost it.” She thought of the torn and bloody jacket she’d tossed into the brush. If Linus finds that, she thought, he’s going to think I was eaten by a bear. She made a mental note to go back and retrieve it so the poor man didn’t have a heart attack.
Sebastian immediately leapt down from where he was sitting and pulled off his leather jacket. Amii swung her legs over the end of the table as he came around to her and wrapped it over her shivering frame.
“I’m really okay…” she protested. “It was just a little wind. I don’t want you to be cold instead.” But he wouldn’t let go of the jacket until she had pushed her arms through the sleeves, and he had turned up the collar to shield her from the wind.
She looked at him, his face inches from hers as he tugged up the zipper, biting his lower lip as he carefully navigated over her breasts. Before she could think twice, she leaned forward and grabbed him by the shirt, pulled him towards her and kissed him square on the mouth.
Sebastian froze for a moment, eyes wide, before he slowly closed them, cupping his hands around her face. She could feel her pulse racing beneath his fingertips as he started to kiss her back, his lips soft and warm. She gently ended the kiss, eyes still closed, and rested her forehead against his.
“I’ve wanted to do that for a long, long, looong time…” she quietly admitted.
His breath hitched. “Me, too…” he whispered back.
“Well, let’s not stop now…” she softly teased, and he smiled and pressed his mouth against hers again. She flicked his lips with her tongue and he deepened the kiss, gentleness giving way to desire. She returned in kind, her tongue pushing forward to meet his and they clung to each other, bodies heaving.
It was a delicious mess of a kiss. Noses bumping, teeth and tongues fighting for position, neither of them wanting to be the first one to have to stop for breath. When she thought she might burst, Amii pulled away and began planting kisses along the stubble of his jaw, as he clutched her even tighter to himself.
“Do you want to know what else I’ve wanted to do?” she breathed as she made her way to his ear, taking the tip of the lobe into her mouth.
Sebastian groaned, low and deep, and shuddered as she followed its curve upwards with her tongue. “Mmmm… what?” he gasped.
“This.” Her insides burned as she traced her hand up along the back of his neck and into his thick, dark hair, wrapping it around her fingers. Then she gave it a firm tug, pulling his head back and to the side as she licked and sucked at his exposed neck.
The noise Sebastian made was the filthiest thing she had ever heard, and he bucked his hips into her involuntarily. She could feel his bulge pressing into her groin, and she nearly cried out as her arousal flared. But he froze, face wide in terror and he looked down at her like he expected her to push him away. “I’m so sorry…” he mumbled, starting to back up.
She wrapped her legs around him, preventing him from moving away. “I’m not…” she whispered in a low, husky voice, putting her arms around his neck and pulling him back down to her lips. She reared back slightly “… unless, you know. If you want to stop, that's okay.”
Sebastian fell back against her. “Never…” he breathed, taking her mouth into his and wrapping his arms around her waist. He hoisted her up until she was barely on the table, kissing her greedily, as if he was drowning and she was oxygen.
When his arms finally began to shake from the strain, Sebastian gently set her back down. He cupped her chin in his hand and smiled at her, tracing an arc across her cheek with his thumb. Amii looked back up at him, trying to memorize everything about this moment. His eyes, shockingly bright in the starlight. His dazed smile. His somehow-always-perfect hair. Then she closed her eyes and embraced him, whispering hoarsely into his ear as her body blazed with heat. “‘Bastian… I think I need you to take me home now.”
She hoped he understood what she meant.
Notes:
God, FINALLY, you two! 😆 Seriously though, in this writer's opinion, the build up is the best part. Most of my favorite fics don't have the first kiss until like, Chapter 35, so we're speed running this bad boy.
Before anyone comes at me, I completely messed up the color of Sebastian's bike when I first wrote this, but then I liked it better that way because (jazz hands) story threads.
Thanks as always for taking the time to read my silly story, and thanks again if you felt like leaving kudos. The world is a stupid, scary place right now, and I hope reading this brought you a little flicker of joy in all of the darkness, even for just a moment. I know that sharing it with you has become a very-much-needed highlight of my week. I'll see you next Saturday, m'dears!
Chapter 9: Fall 3, Day 19 (cont.)
Summary:
“As your lover describes you, so you are.”
― Jeanette Winterson, Sexing the Cherry
Notes:
Content Warning: Middling NSFW/🌶🌶 & 1/2 spice level at the end.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
He did not.
“Oh, sure…” Sebastian said as he backed away slightly, sounding confused and a little disappointed. “Yeah, I should probably get home, too.” He had steadied his voice, but he looked at the ground awkwardly, not meeting her eyes.
Amii leaned forward, taking his face in her hands and pulling him down into another kiss. She smiled against his lips as he melted back into her. “I didn’t say anything about you going home,” she whispered wickedly.
She could feel the grin spread across his face. “I guess you didn’t, did you?”
“Nooope, I definitely did not,” she said coyly. “No pressure or anything,” she added. “But I’d love to introduce you to my pride and joy…”
Sebastian squinted his eyes with playful skepticism. “What…is that, like…one of…your goats?” he asked around her avalanche of kisses.
But she just laughed and slid off of the picnic table into him. Still holding his face in her hands and her lips now firmly planted on his, Amii turned and began to walk backwards, gently pulling him towards the motorcycle. He tried to break the kiss to pick up her borrowed helmet but she refused to release him, giggling as he grabbed for it blindly.
His hand finally found it and he playfully growled, his lips vibrating against hers. “You are…” he trailed off.
“Maddening? Ridiculous? Completely insane?” she suggested wryly between kisses.
“Absolutely breathtaking.”
Amii stopped mid-step, momentarily stunned, then quickly looked down as her cheeks began to flush. “Wow… um, thanks? No one’s ever called me that before.”
He looked down at her, finally catching her gaze again. “Really?” he asked with an incredulous half-grin.
She shook her head, smiling ruefully. Ugh, you’re making this weird…
“Ha! No way!” she sneered, trying not to sound as vulnerable as she suddenly felt. “I should probably warn you, ‘Bastian,” she purred. “I’m fucking craaaazy.”
“No one’s ever called me that before, either.”
“What, crazy?” she sniggered. “Eh, it’s not so bad. You get used to it.”
“No… wait, what? That’s horrible.” He quickly shook his head, as if trying to dislodge the thought. “I mean, no one’s ever called me ‘‘Bastian’ before.”
“Oh.” Amii’s voice went soft, bordering on apologetic. “Is… that okay? I can stop. If you like Seb better or –” He silenced her by pressing his lips to hers again, and she felt herself relax.
“Don’t stop,” he said when he pulled away. “I like it. A lot, actually.”
She beamed up at him, basking in the warmth of his smile.
“And you’re not crazy… or ridiculous, or insane or whatever else that asshole called you.” He tucked a wayward strand of hair behind her ear, looking at her with open wonder. “You’re Amii.”
Tears welled up out of nowhere, and she pressed her face against his chest before he could see how much her chin was quivering. He kissed the top of her head, and stroked her hair as she suddenly struggled not to cry.
“Come on,” he whispered. “Let’s get you home.”
***
If the ride to the rest stop had felt like hours, the one back to her house felt like a lifetime. Amii clung to Sebastian’s waist as he sped down the highway, her thoughts tumbling over each other and breaking apart like waves against the rocks.
She had desperately wanted to sleep with him - his reaction to her hair tug had lit a fire that still refused to be quenched - but this was careening dangerously past just intense physical desire. His words were so intimate, so incredibly sincere, that the confident seductress persona she had instinctively built around herself had crumbled and fallen away, leaving her feeling naked and insecure.
“... you’re not crazy… or ridiculous, or insane or whatever else that asshole called you…
You’re Amii.”
She tried to understand why Sebastian’s kind words hurt so much. They felt like a jeweled dagger held to her chest - something beautiful she could admire before it was plunged into her heart.
She knew why, really. It was because she believed that she was all of those terrible things. Of course she was. All of her life, she had been told that she was too loud, too talkative, too forgetful, too clumsy, just… too much. And she knew it was true.
So when someone that she had loved told her over and over that she was crazy, of course she believed him.
Some people liked being around crazy, she had learned. They wanted to see what crazy would think or do next, and then they would sigh and shake their heads at crazy’s ridiculous antics, or be justified in ignoring crazy’s emotional outbursts. Oh, you know her… she’s just crazy.
They could be forgiven for what crazy had made them do.
And as strange as it might sound, crazy was comforting. It was an explanation, the story she whispered to herself when she woke up alone at night, an itchy woolen blanket that she could wrap herself up in to keep out the chill of her loneliness. She had already known that no one actually ever really loves crazy back.
Sebastian’s words had gently stolen that cruel comfort from her. If it wasn't true, she wouldn’t have a reason she could cling to anymore to help her make sense of her past. And she wouldn’t have something else to blame if she still wasn’t enough for him - or if she was too much.
Right now, it felt like she was standing before him completely exposed, with that beautiful dagger inches from her heart.
And god help her, but she was going to lean into it.
Amii took a deep breath to try and steady herself, and nuzzled her face into the back of Sebastian’s t-shirt. He had refused her attempts to return his jacket, saying he didn’t mind the cold, but he seemed to be shivering now. She tried to think her warmest thoughts, and pressed her body closer to him. Not much longer, now.
After a few more miles, she saw the tunnel that led into the valley emerging from the darkness up ahead. It loomed impossibly and infinitely black, and somehow felt even more threatening than when she first drove through it nearly three years ago.
She had never liked tunnels. She hated the way they would suddenly plunge the world into darkness, and how everything was too bright when they finally ended. Back then, it had seemed like this one was the last barrier between her old life and her new one, and that everything and everyone she had ever known would magically disappear when she entered it, and she would reemerge on the other side completely and utterly alone. Now, stripped down to her barest self, she felt as if they were racing towards a bottomless whirlpool of darkness that would swallow her up entirely and then somehow keep swallowing, until there was nothing of her left in the world to be remembered.
Tears blurred her vision and she squeezed her eyes shut. Ugh, why are you even crying right now? she thought. God, why do you always have to be so dramatic, it’s just a fucking tunnel—
No.
It will end, she told herself softly. I know it will. It can’t go on forever. It’s going to be okay.
She felt the air grow clammier, and the sound of the bike echoed against the stone walls, growing louder and louder until it drowned out all of her other senses and filled her mind so completely that she had no more room for anything except the roar of the engine as it reverberated around them, enveloping them and engulfing in on itself as if they were riding on a wave of rolling thunder.
And then it ended - just like she knew it would.
She opened her eyes and let out a long breath as Sebastian slowed, steering his motorcycle off the main road and past the abandoned bus station. Then he turned the corner and slowly drove down the dirt road that took her home.
***
By the time Sebastian finally pulled into her driveway and turned off the engine, Amii could feel him shaking with the cold. She jumped off the bike, and flung his jacket around him, rubbing his arms and shoulders to try and warm him up. He smiled and reached up, putting a hand on hers in thanks, and she immediately squeaked and pulled it away as if burned.
“Oh my GOD,” she laughed. “Don’t touch me! You’re absolutely frozen!”
“N-n-n-nah,” he shivered. “I’m okay…” He shifted on his bike and for a moment, it looked as if he wanted to start the engine and drive straight off through the fence, but she smiled apologetically at him, and he relaxed a little.
“I’m sorry, that was rude. Here, give me those…” Amii cupped his icy hands in her own, breathing warm air across his knuckles. “Come inside,” she said, not looking up. “Even if it’s just to warm up a little before you go.”
Sebastian nodded and dismounted from the bike, fumbling with the buckle on his helmet. His reddening fingers were stiff with cold, and he furrowed his brows in frustration as he tried to squeeze the sides to open it. Amii fought the urge to reach up and do it for him, but that seemed wrong — patronizing, really, and instead she unsnapped and removed her own. After another moment he triumphed, and took back Maru’s helmet from her outstretched hand, slinging them both onto the handlebars of the bike.
He tucked his hands into his armpits and gave her a small, nervous smile. “Lead the way…” he said.
They walked across the front yard and onto the porch, as Amii dug into her bag for her keys. “Sorry,” she mumbled as they stood in front of the door. “These stupid things always fall right to the bottom. Ah ha!”
She unlocked it with a click and pushed open the door, the old hinges letting out a long, low creak. She stepped inside the small farmhouse and kicked off her shoes as she turned on a light, and immediately began gathering letters and other items that lay strewn across the table of the modest kitchen.
“Sorry, it’s kind of a mess,” she apologized as she carefully dumped an armful of jars and milk bottles into the sink. “Um, come in!”
Sebastian stepped inside as she bustled about, closing the door behind himself. He instinctively began to remove his jacket, but then stopped and chuckled quietly. “For some strange reason,” he said, as he pulled the jacket tighter and rubbed his arms briskly. “I didn’t think it would be colder inside than it is outside.”
Amii immediately stopped tidying, and looked at him from the other side of the kitchen like a deer in headlights. Sebastian opened his mouth, exhaling a long, slow breath and a cloud of misty vapor appeared and hung in the air in front of him, until it broke apart as he began to laugh. The sound was warm and reassuring and Amii couldn’t help but join in from across the table, until they were both nearly in tears over the absurdity of it.
She walked back over to him, offering a sheepish grin, and he looked down at her, smiling wide. “I really like your place,” he said. “It feels… cozy.”
Amii smiled and took his hand. “It’s definitely cozier when it’s warmer. Come sit, I’ll get a fire going.”
She led him towards an enormous blue couch that sat in front of an old stone fireplace, its mantle completely crammed end to end with treasures. There were antique glass bottles sprouting bouquets of feathers, while fossils and unusually shaped rocks sat stacked on top of each other in tiny cairns. One jar was filled nearly to the brim with arrowheads and another held fragments of crystal geodes that glittered even in the low light. Ancient cogs and spurs bright with rust formed a reverent semi-circle around a small chicken statue, lovingly crafted by some long-forgotten artisan. Every square inch held something beautiful.
Sebastian slowly walked down the length of the mantle as she began to gather up kindling from the woodpile. “These are incredible, Amii,” he said, reaching out and running his finger across the bumpy arm of a dried starfish. “Did you find all of this around here?”
She nodded, pride shining bright in her eyes. “Yeah! Most I found buried here on my farm, and some from around town. Well, that starfish is obviously from the beach.” She looked down again, dumping the wood onto the firebox. “I’m kind of a pack rat.”
Sebastian shook his head. “Magpie.”
“What?” she asked, as she knelt down on the hearth, arranging the small bits of wood in a pyramid around a few balls of newspaper that had been soaked in sunflower oil.
“Pack rats hoard junk. You’re more like a magpie. They collect shiny, interesting things.” He tapped his finger on a small ceramic bowl of pale green sea glass that was nestled into a crook of driftwood. “Some stupid people think they’re pests, but they’re actually very intelligent and curious. And… I think they’re beautiful.”
Amii’s hands stilled for a moment, and her cheeks burned even before she struck the match in her hand. She smiled softly as she touched the flame to the paper, letting each bit catch before moving to the next. The twigs began to crackle, and she carefully fed the burgeoning fire until it was burning merrily, eagerly jumping from the smaller pieces to some of the larger branches she had arranged on top. Heat began to radiate into the room, and she started to get to her feet.
Something moved in her periphery, and she looked up to find Sebastian holding out his hand to help her up. She took it, gasping at how icy it still was as she stood.
“How are you still this cold?” she laughed, rubbing it with her own. “I think this calls for drastic measures.”
She firmly sat him down on the couch, wrapping a thick blanket around his shoulders and draping another across his lap, despite his halfhearted protests that he was okay.
“You’re not okay, you're practically an ice cube!” she said. “Stay here and warm up by the fire. I’ll get something that’ll help. I’ll just be a minute. Oh, do you want to watch something?” She gestured to the ancient television nearby. “It’s pretty old, but it still works okay. No cable, though. Or remote,” she added, embarrassed.
“That’s okay,” Sebastian said, his shrug barely perceptible in the mound of blankets. “Try channel 5. They sometimes play old movies at night.”
Amii clicked the ancient dial and tinny screams erupted from the set. Black and white images flashed across the screen as a crowd of shoppers ran in terror from the dark, menacing shape that was emerging from an open backroom door.
“Revenge of the Shadow People!” they both shouted in unison.
“Oh my god, I love this one,” Amii laughed. “It’s soooo bad.”
“Ha! Me too.” Sebastian snorted as the monster waved its arms and then just awkwardly fell onto a woman who was sprawled out on the floor, screaming in horror. “It looks like they just stuck the actors in a garbage bag and called it a day. They don’t look scary at all.”
Amii laughed as she made her way into the kitchen, pulling a small silver appliance from her cupboard. “They never get the eyes right. It’s hard, because real Shadow People’s eyes and mouths are transparent. It’s pretty cool! You can actually see right through them…” she trailed off a little self-consciously as she filled the bottom with water, then scooped something from a jar into a funnel fitted into the pot. She screwed on the top chamber and set it on the stove, lighting the burner and pulling two small teacups from the shelf.
She glanced over at Sebastian. He had been looking at her with a small, curious smile, but said nothing. He turned back to the television as flames danced around the creature, its arms raised high and its inaccurate mouth open wide in hideous laughter.
“I never understood why they were the bad guys in this,” he said. “It’s not their fault those idiots built a supermarket on top of their home. They probably just wanted to be left alone.”
Amii laughed as she leaned against the counter, waiting for the water in the pot to boil. “Right? I have a friend who would wholeheartedly agree with you.”
Sebastian turned to her again, eyeing her playfully. “Oh? And just who is this ‘friend’ of yours?”
Amii froze as a reflexive panic slammed into her. She had heard those words so many times before, spoken with anger, with jealousy, with contempt so strong that it stung like a blow.
But Sebastian’s voice held none of those things. She looked at him, confusion and guilt from her reaction starting to cloud his face, and despite the shock, she felt the glimmer of a smile begin to appear on hers. Amii took a deep breath and waggled her fingers slowly as the grin spread. “Maaaaaaaany mysteries. Remember?”
He chuckled with obvious relief, just as a small, ancient tabby cat jumped up onto the couch to inspect him.
“Oh, hello… Where’d you come from?” He held out his hand for the cat to sniff. “Is this who you wanted me to meet?” he called out to the kitchen, as the aroma of fresh brewed coffee filled the air.
Amii laughed as she poured out the steaming liquid from the Moka pot and shook her head. “No, that’s just MeeMaw. She came with the place.”
“MeeMaw?” Sebastian asked, eyebrows raised in amused disbelief.
Amii walked back to the couch and handed him a small cup of dark coffee. “You’ll see…” she said, then stroked the cat’s head.
“Mmmeeeee!!!” chirped the cat happily in a croaky voice. “Mmmmaaaaw!!”
Sebastian laughed loudly, and the cat glared at him with annoyance, then jumped down and curled up on the rug close to the fire.
“I tried to name her Stella,” Amii said, adding some logs to the fire before she settled in close beside him. “She had other ideas.”
He took a sip from his cup and let out a soft moan that set Amii’s pulse racing and her mind wandering down sinful paths. “Oh wow,” he breathed. “This is amazing…”
She smiled shyly and lifted her cup in a small salute, then took a sip. The taste was rich and complex, the liquid smooth and almost buttery on her tongue. She nodded in satisfaction, and then grinned at him.
“This is my pride and joy. Well,” she corrected, pointing behind the couch to a large bushy plant near the front window. “That is. It’s a very special cold-tolerant miniature coffee tree. I bought it as a sapling the first year I was here, and I’ve managed to keep it alive and happy long enough for it to start bearing fruit. It’s not good outside in the late fall or winter, but it doesn’t need a regular coffee tree’s tropical environment to thrive. Someday when I fix up the greenhouse, I’ll be able to grow more of these and become a regular coffee baron.”
Sebastian laughed and drained his cup, whimpering sadly at its emptiness, and then set it on a nearby end table. “It’s seriously the best coffee I’ve ever had. I’d ask for another, but then I’ll be up all night.”
Amii choked on her drink at his unintended double entendre, nearly spilling it all over herself. “I’m so sorry,” she coughed, putting a hand to her mouth. “You, ah… you just caught me off guard.”
“Sorry…” He smiled at her, not quite meeting her eyes, then began to rearrange the blankets she had given him so both of them were covered. “I’m happy to just watch the movie with you, you know,” he said as he picked at a loose thread. “We don’t have to… to do anything, if you don’t want to.”
Despite her slight nervousness, she felt her heart sink in disappointment as she handed him her now empty cup to join his on the table. “Well, that’s okay if that’s what you want. But, we don’t have to… not do anything…”
Suddenly, Sebastian’s hand was on her cheek and his lips were rushing into hers as if a dam had broken. Amii startled a little before relaxing into the kiss, her hand coming up to cover his. He pulled back for a moment, checking her reaction a little sheepishly.
“Sorry, is this okay—” she cut him off with another kiss, entwining her fingers in his.
“Yes…” she murmured into his mouth, and they fell into one another.
He kissed her, long and languid, filling her mouth with his tongue and then drawing in hers over and over in a slow, sensual rhythm. It was a kiss without expectation, without an objective to rush towards. It was one of pure sensation, and the pleasure that existed fully in this moment. And it was driving her wild.
Amii reached towards him, fingers itching for more. She needed more of him - the ache of it burrowing somewhere deep inside, ripping a hollow into her that was begging to be filled. She pressed her body against his, her hands exploring his sides, his back, his stomach, until she brushed against bare skin. She traced her finger along the bottom edge of his shirt in a quiet plea for his consent, and Sebastian moaned into her, nodding. The floodgates of her desire somehow burst wider apart, and she ran her hand up under the fabric, his skin warm and soft over the tension of his muscles.
Her fingers brushed something solid that hung against his chest, and she gasped as a shockwave erupted from her very center that was so strong, it felt like it had knocked the wind out of her. She pulled her mouth away from his, his lips following after hers momentarily before he was able to restrain himself.
“You’re wearing it…” Amii said quietly, unsure if she wanted to laugh or cry. Instead, she let out a sound that was a mix of both, and ran her fingers over the familiar shape of the obsidian pendant.
Sebastian buried his face in her neck, softly nipping and kissing her skin as he slowly made his way to her ear. “Since the day you gave it to me…” he whispered.
It was too much. This desperation hurt, and she cried out his name as she dove back into him, hands and mouth frantically claiming every inch of bare skin that she could reach. He shrugged out of his jacket, then slowly reached behind himself and grabbed the back of his shirt, pulling it up and over his head until she had to release him. She clawed at her own, ripping it off and unclasping her bra without hesitation, pulling the straps from her shoulders and letting it fall to the floor in a heap.
They stared at each other in the firelight, both transfixed. Sebastian was long and lean, and the shadows played across the ridges and valleys of his arms and torso, his body as toned as a dancer’s. The pendant lay dark against his pale skin, like a keyhole in an ivory door. She reached out and ran the fingers of one hand through the dark hairs that were scattered across his chest, following the path that trailed downward with her eyes. His hand ran slowly up her side, the thumb barely brushing her breast, as if still unsure. She took his hand in her own, gently guiding him until he covered it entirely, his thumb tracing soft circles around her tightening nipple.
“You are so beautiful…” he whispered, dark eyes sparkling as the fire crackled brightly in the hearth.
“So are you…” she answered, and pulled him down on top of her.
Notes:
Amii's kitty Stella/MeeMaw is inspired by a sweet elderly cat we adopted some years ago, who was spoiled rotten until she passed away a few years later. She also was originally named Stella, but would croak out "Meee! Maww!" whenever we pet her, and the name stuck. When she passed, our then three year old loudly announced to her preschool classroom that "MeeMaw died and we buried her in the backyard." Fun times.
We've had the fluff. We've had (lots of) the angst.
So, the next two chapters are gonna be... um... kinda spicy.
Yeah. 😅
ANYWAY, thanks as always for your reading eyes, kudos if you felt like leaving them, and for being absolutely breathtaking, no matter what anyone else says. ❤️
Chapter 10: Fall 3, Day 19 (cont. 2)
Notes:
Content Warning: definitely NSFW and holy hell you guys... writing smut is fun!!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
There were too many blankets. Amii needed his bare skin on hers, needed it like she needed air to breathe. She tugged at the flannel barrier, trying to shift her weight to free it from where it was pinned beneath them. It was her favorite blanket, impossibly soft and warm, and right now she would rip it to pieces with her bare teeth if she had to because it was in the way. It finally broke free and she threw it over her head off the arm of the couch, burying her hands in his hair as they came back down.
Sebastian was kissing her neck now, both hands massaging her chest as he lay pressed against her. Half-words tumbled from her mouth as he squeezed and soothed the sensitive skin, licking and sucking a trail down her neck and across her collarbone.
“Fuuuck… Bastian… oh god,” she moaned as his mouth encircled her nipple, his tongue swirling and pressing against the tight peak. She rolled her hips and cried out, fingers knotted in his hair as he suckled her, sure that she wouldn’t be able to take much more before she would burst apart entirely. He released her, burying his face between her breasts for a moment before moving to the other side, taking it into his mouth and repeating the same spiraling motion before sucking firmly on the now-tingling flesh. She cried out again, repeating his name until she was lost in the sounds, and her body shook with her hunger for him.
Sebastian gave her breast one final deep pull with his mouth before moving downward, sowing her ribs and stomach with kisses. The air against her nipples suddenly made her think of peppermint - cool and sharp and sweet. She writhed in frustration, the loss of his heat and weight against her upper body almost intolerable.
When his path became blocked by her pants, he hooked his thumb and grazed it along the inside of her waistband, the tickling sensation invoking another thrust of her hips. He looked up at her as she squirmed and twisted beneath him, hands clutching at whatever she could grab hold of.
“Amii…” his voice was low, his breathing fast and shallow. “Amii, tell me what you want.”
A whine escaped her throat, her mind wrestling with what she wanted and what she hadn’t allowed herself to want for so long. She tried to slow her breathing, but the moment she caught sight of him positioned there between her legs, the fire within her blazed even hotter. She closed her eyes, trying to regain some sort of power over herself again.
“You don’t…” her voice was strained, and she ground her hips against him despite her attempt at self-control. “You don’t have to… do that. If you don’t want…”
Sebastian nuzzled her inner thigh with his nose, and her legs instantly blossomed open wider for him like a flower. “Ohhhh I do,” he hummed in light admonishment as his lips followed her down, the vibrations maddening even through the denim. “But that’s not what I asked. What… do you want?”
Amii sucked in a breath and felt herself clenching around emptiness, the ache throbbing deep within her. “I want -I want you!!” she gasped. “I need you… your mouth! Please… I need to feel you inside me so much that it fucking hurts!”
He looked down at her, his face serious and sincere. “The moment you say stop, I stop. Okay?” He waited for her until she nodded and managed to squeak out an enthusiastic “Yes!”
In an instant, Sebastian popped the button of her pants and lifted her legs, pulling her pants and underwear off in one fluid motion. He looked down at her as she spread herself out again before him, and she stiffened, momentarily afraid to read his expression. But he groaned greedily and reached out, cupping her soft curls in his hand as if he needed to make sure this was real. His touch sent shivers racing across her skin, and she bucked into him, pressing her wetness against his palm. She heard his breath catch, and he let out a low moan as he bent down, wrapped his arms under her hips, and slowly ran his tongue through her folds.
A guttural cry burst from her lips as a wave of sensation coursed through her body. He licked her, long and slow, over and over, as if she were ice cream melting on a hot summer day and he didn't want to miss a single delicious drop of her. Her hips rose and fell like crashing waves, until Sebastian had to put an arm across her lower belly to keep her in place.
“Oh fuck… oh GOD! Fuck fuck…oh, Sebastian,” she whined as he sucked gently on her clit. “God, yes… oh fucking fuck that feels sooo goooood!!”
She could feel him hum in satisfaction at her words, the buzz of it another layer of sensation. He pulled away and paused for a moment, asking slowly, “Do you want… more?”
Amii squirmed against his arm, trying to find his mouth again and moaning in response. He held her fast and repeated the question, and she felt one of his fingers circling gently around her opening. “Amii…” He spoke her name softly, his voice tantalizingly smooth. “Tell me, Amii… do you want more?”
“YES!!” she bawled. “Oh god yes, I want more!! I want YOU!!”
Sebastian plunged his tongue back into her, ripping a scream of pleasure from her throat. He moved faster now, pressing and licking and sucking as his finger slowly entered her. He worked it back and forth, curling it slightly and pressing against her inner walls, while his tongue mirrored the same steady motion against her clit.
She wailed his name, weaving it around obscenities and holy words until it was laced with both. “Fucking hell, Bastian… oh sweet god… holy fuck, Bastian… oh fuuuck, oh FUCKING HOLY GOD!!!!”
She cried out as he filled her with another finger, sinking them both deep into her and pulling them out over and over in an unwavering rhythm as he sucked and rolled her clit with his tongue. She felt herself clenching around him, a flood of tension and fire building within her until it burst over her body like a hot wave of pleasure and she screamed his name, clutching at the arm of the couch behind her as she bucked wildly. He hummed that same satisfied hum as he eased her through the aftershocks of her orgasm, her body spasming with each soft motion of his mouth and fingers.
While she lay there, shaking and spent, he released her, wiping his mouth on his arm and crawling up to lay beside her. Sebastian nestled himself between her and the back of the couch, his head in the crook of her neck and his fingers tracing loops across her bare belly. She could feel his erection pressing against her leg, but he made no other motion except the swirl of his fingertips, his breathing slow and steady.
Amii lay with her eyes closed, her body still tingling and her mind deliciously empty. She felt like words were still too far away to find, so instead she hummed a low, satisfied note, stroking the side of his head where hair met stubble. Finally, she turned and opened her eyes to gaze down at him. He looked like he was about to fall asleep, a soft smile on his lips and his closed eyelashes dark against his skin.
She wriggled downwards until her face met his, hooking one bare leg over his hip. She touched his cheek gently, and he automatically raised his chin in response, eyes still closed. Amii softly kissed him, tasting herself on his lips, and he responded with a quiet moan.
“That was amazing,” she whispered softly, as if reluctant to disturb him. His lips curled in a small smile as he answered with a pleased-sounding mumble.
“What?” she giggled, running her fingers through the hair that had partially fallen over his face. It was so incredibly soft.
Sebastian took a deep breath and smiled a little wider, although with his eyes closed he still looked only half awake. “I said, ‘I had a good teacher.’”
“Well, I wish I could personally thank them for their most excellent instruction,” she teased, twirling a strand around her finger.
“You can,” he mumbled dreamily. “Abby’ll probably be at the saloon on Friday…”
Suddenly his eyes shot open. “Oh my god,” he said, starting to try and sit up. “I’m sorry. That… that was so stupid. We used to hook up, but it didn’t ever mean anything…” His arm kept slipping into the abyss between the back of the sofa and the bottom cushion, unable to find anything to brace onto as he spoke. “I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have…”
Ami’s hand gently touched his face as he struggled. “Hey, stop that. Come back,” she softly chided, and he barely met her eyes as he sunk back into the couch, arm still pinned.
“Hold on…” she said as she helped him extract the wayward limb. She wrapped it around herself as she scooted over so he could lay more comfortably, then grabbed a blanket from the floor. “There,” she said as she pulled it over them both and snuggled into him. “That’s much better.”
The nervous tension in his body felt like a rope about to snap. She looked up at him from the crook of his arm and offered a soft, reassuring smile. “It’s really okay. I already thought you guys might’ve been a thing at some point, and I never expected that you were celibate before. You don’t owe me anything anyway, Bastian. I’m not upset, I promise.”
Sebastian looked down at her, still obviously mad at himself. “Yeah, but I don’t want things to be weird between you two. I swear, we’re just friends now. We were both just… horny and bored. That’s it.”
“I believe you,” she said, smiling up at him. “Abby and I get along great already, so why would it be weird?”
“I don’t know… Like, what if Abby and I hang out together or something when you’re not around? We haven’t, um, done anything in… well,” he smiled a little, blushing slightly. “Since, um… since before my birthday… but we still sometimes play video games or shoot pool or whatever. Wouldn’t that… make you feel kinda jealous?”
Amii smiled coyly at him, reaching up and fingering the pendant that had slipped down the cord and behind his neck. She pulled it toward the center of his chest, twisting it in her fingers and watching it glimmer in the fading firelight. “Not since your birthday, hmm…?” she asked knowingly. “That’s sooo interesting…”
Sebastian chuckled softly, his body starting to relax. He squeezed her a little tighter. “Yeah,” he said. “I kinda… just put that together.”
Even though the fire was starting to die down, Amii felt surrounded by warmth. She traced doodles with her fingers across his chest, leaving hidden trails in the dark hair. She took a deep breath and held it for just a moment before speaking.
“I’m not… very good at being jealous. Half the time I’m just trying to figure out what people really mean and if they’re mad at me or not. I dunno, it sounds so stupid when I say it out loud.” Amii sighed and continued, her fingers now tapping out the rhythm to some secret song. “I don’t always pick up on things I’m supposed to, so a lot of the time I just end up trusting people to do what they say they’ll do. Not surprisingly, that has created some… problems in past relationships. And ironically, not being jealous enough can also somehow cause a lot of jealousy in some people. Because, obviously that must mean I don’t care enough, or that I’m trying to hide something or…” She felt herself starting to get upset, as if a dark cloud was trying to wrap around her and squeeze out all of the joy and light, until she was nothing but a quiet, docile shadow.
A loud pop from the fireplace jolted her back to reality, and she giggled a little at how much it made her jump. “But I don’t want to talk about that anymore…” she said, her voice lightening. “What I really want to talk about is this rockin’ bod, dude.” She ran her hand up and down his chest and stomach, fingers lightly teasing the edges of his abdominal muscles. “What is going on here, hmmm? You don’t look like any other programmers I’ve known, that’s for damn sure.”
Sebastian laughed, trying half-heartedly to catch her hand. “Hey! That tickles!”
She entwined her fingers with his, bringing his hand to her mouth for a quick kiss and looked up expectantly.
“I do a lot of yoga, actually,” he admitted. “I’ve done it for a while - it really helps when I’m stuck on a coding problem. But this last year or so, I’ve had some… excess energy, so I’ve been focusing it into that.”
“‘Excess energy,’ hmmm?” She grinned up at him, eyes dancing. “Since, oh… maybe around your birthday?”
“Yeah yeah yeah,” he laughed softly, pulling her even tighter to his chest. “You caught me… It’s a good distraction!”
“Well, now that I think I can walk again…” she lifted one foot out from beneath the blanket, wiggling her toes as if proving her point. “How about we take some of that excess energy into the bedroom?”
Her words and tone left no room for doubt, yet he still furrowed his brow slightly. “Are you… sure?” Sebastian sounded almost confused, as if he’d assumed his part was already over and done.
“You asked me what I wanted,” she whispered, slowly working her hand down his front. “And I told you that I wanted you. I meant ALL of you.” She cupped him against her palm, softly rubbing back and forth along the zipper of his pants. “So… You. Me. Bed. Now.” She hesitated a minute, suddenly realizing that he might not share the same desire. “Unless… you’re done,” she added, starting to withdraw her hand. “I’m sorry. That’s okay, too.”
Now it was Sebastian’s turn to catch and guide her hand, gently pushing it back down again. She massaged his length through his jeans, her desire flaring again at the touch. He slowly rolled his hips and groaned, the sound of it rumbling in his chest against her ear, then suddenly he went still.
“Shit,” he sighed. “I wasn’t expecting to see you tonight. I didn’t bring any protection with me…”
Amii awkwardly stuck her left arm up into the air, nearly hitting him in the face with her elbow. “Ooh, sorry! Check it out…” she said, poking at a small cylinder underneath the skin of her inner bicep. “I’m bad at remembering to take pills, so I got this at my last checkup. It’s a birth control implant!” She silently thanked Dr. Harvey for his gentle reminder that sexual activity was not a requirement for a birth control prescription. The man was going to be drowning in pickles later. “Oh, and I got a clean bill of health, too. So, if you’re okay…”
Sebastian looked at her in amazement. “Uh, yeah! Yeah, I’m all good. Wow. That was… weirdly not awkward at all.”
Amii laughed, standing up from the couch and wrapping the blanket around her naked frame. “Oh, on the contrary, good sir! Once in a while I am so incredibly awkward that it circles around and cancels itself out entirely!”
After switching off the long forgotten TV, she tossed a few more split logs into the fire, carefully keeping her distance from the sparks that the embers kicked up in response, and gathered up their discarded clothes, laying hers over her arm. She handed him his shirt and jacket as he sat up.
“It can get pretty chilly when the fire goes out,” she warned. “You are NOT going to want to have to go get these later when you leave.” It may have been a trick of the light, but it seemed like a shadow fell across his face for the briefest of moments.
Taking his hand in hers, Amii gently pulled Sebastian off the couch, her mouth splitting into a grin that was part mischief, part very obvious desire. Lifting up her blanket-covered arms, she gave him an alluringly wicked snarl and wiggled her fingers menacingly before wrapping her arms around him and nipping playfully at his neck.
“I’ve come to seek my revenge…” she whispered low into his ear. He laughed and lifted her up for a moment as she clung to him, her devilish nibbles becoming more passionate as the flames grew. As he set her back down, his mouth met hers, and she softly led him away from the couch and the fireplace and the old stone mantle, filled with beautiful things.
Notes:
This is me running away now in near-death embarrassment after yeeting my first attempt at smut into the universe, but know that I'm yelling so many thank yous for your reading eyes and good god, get ready for round two next chapter!!!
If you need me, I'll be hiding in the compost heap.
Chapter 11: Fall 3, Day 19 (cont. 3)
Notes:
This is 99.9% NSFW smutty smutty smut.
There's a little bit of plot in all of this spice if you squint just right, I swear...
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Amii was no stranger to sex. She had fucked, and she had been fucked. She’d had perfectly enjoyable sexual encounters, some disappointing ones, and some she preferred not to think about for too long. She had used sex to relieve boredom or frustration, to sate her physical needs, and sometimes just to end an argument, if she had to be honest. She even thought she had made love, but that had been a long time ago.
This, though. This felt like something was different.
The living room opened directly into her bedroom, with no door to block the heat from the fireplace, but the air tingled with something more than just the slight remaining chill. She couldn’t tell if she was pulling him back towards the bed or if he was gently pushing her forward, their mouths and hands endlessly roaming over each other, but whatever nervousness she had felt earlier that night had long faded, replaced by her deep need for him. She had lost the blanket somewhere along the way, but it didn’t matter. Her body felt like it was on fire anyway.
The back of her legs hit the side of her bed and she sat down on the mattress roughly, unable to counter the unexpected pull of gravity. She giggled, looking up at Sebastian through her lashes and running her hands down the sides of his bare torso, the bulge of his pants almost directly at her eye level. He tried to follow her down, reaching to put his arms on the bed on either side of her, but she placed a hand on his chest, halting his movement.
“This is exactly where I want you to be…” she murmured, gently pushing him back up and tracing the edge of his waistband with her fingers, reveling in the ragged sound he made in response. “May I?” she asked, low and slow when she reached his button, and he nodded, parting his lips in hungry anticipation.
She unfastened it at a glacial pace, smiling coyly as she stretched her fingers to brush against the patch of dark hair hidden below the fabric. He stood motionless as she slowly pulled down the zipper and pushed his jeans to his knees, pausing for a moment to ghost her fingers over the tented fabric of his boxer briefs. She giggled as he sucked in a sharp breath at her teasing, then finally took pity on him and slipped her hands under the waistband, following the curve of his ass as she slid his underwear down to join his pants. His cock sprang free, the tip already glistening, and she breathed out a soft sigh at the sight of him. At the sight of… so much of him. She licked her lips, aching to know his taste.
“You don’t… have to do that,” he groaned, eyes closed as if he was wrestling with the same mental struggle she’d had earlier on the couch. “If you don’t want to…”
“Oh, but I do…” She purred his own words back at him, lightly stroking the top of his length with a finger and smiling as his cock jerked upwards at the touch. She had just realized that she really did desperately want him in her mouth; not out of obligation or even reciprocation for what he had done for her, but because she wanted to watch him fall apart as she wrung every last drop of pleasure from his body in every way she knew how.
Sebastian pushed out a low, fast breath as she wrapped her lips around him, sounding as if he had just lost half of the air in his lungs. The taste of musky-sweet saltwater flooded her tongue as she swirled it around the thick head of his cock and she hummed greedily, working herself a little further down the shaft before pulling back and releasing him. When he opened his eyes, she was staring up at him, cradling the softest, warmest part of him in one hand, and gripping his base with the other. As their eyes locked together, she held his cock firmly and slowly licked up one side while gently rolling and squeezing him in her hand below, as if testing the ripeness of twin plums. He groaned deeply, and she repeated the motion on the other side, smiling as she drank in his expression of stunned bliss. Then she took him into her mouth again and slowly began to move her head back and forth, moving further and further down his shaft until her eyes watered.
She had never felt so powerful. Her every move had him gasping, his breaths jagged and raw as if he had to fight for each one. She carefully bobbed her head slowly, steadily, still staring up at him through the tears that now filled her eyes, but her gaze never wavered. She wanted to see his face as she made his body sing, as she did her best to make him forget every word in the world but her name.
Amii let go of his cock for a moment, reaching for his hand and placing it on the back of her head before returning hers to his base, working it back and forth in tandem with her mouth. She wasn’t sure what she expected him to do, but it certainly wasn’t this soft caress as he slowly ran his fingers through her hair, staring down at her with pupils blown so wide, his eyes seemed nearly black. His tenderness only spurred her on and she moved a little faster now, taking him deeper still as she pushed herself past the breaking point. Her body heaved a little in response and as she reflexively closed her eyes, she felt him stiffen and attempt to back away, as if he had done something wrong. She hummed as she gently shook her head and tightened her grip a little, hoping he understood. She wanted this, needed it even. She had been so desperately empty for so long, that the thought of a moment without a part of him inside her was almost intolerable. But soon enough, the throbbing between her legs was more than she could endure, and she gave him one final deep pull with her mouth before releasing him and moving backwards to lie on the bed.
“I need you, Bastian,” she breathed as she flung open the blankets, her heart pounding in her ears. “I want you so much.” She could feel herself trembling, every inch of her thrumming in eager anticipation for his touch.
He tried to scramble up onto the bed to follow, but his pants shackled his legs together and he fell forward, catching himself with a frustrated curse. Amii laughed, sitting up and running her hands along the contours of his back as he turned and sat on the edge of the bed, frantically working at his laces. She heard one boot fall to the floor with a thump, then the other, and he ripped off his jeans and underwear as if they were on fire. Then he turned and was beside her on the bed, his mouth finding hers and claiming it again with all the desperation of a starving man being given his first real meal in years.
“I want you, Bastian,” she moaned over and over as she hooked her leg across him, molding her body to his. “I want you, I want you, I want you…”
“I’m yours…” he whispered as he clung to her, rocking his hips into hers. “I don’t know how, but… I’ve always belonged with y–”
Amii cut him off, swallowing the rest of his words as she kissed him with an almost frantic passion, and swung herself on top of him. She could feel his cock below her ass as she ground herself against his pelvis, and she inched downward until she could glide her wetness over him, moaning as her clit rubbed against the swell of his head. He groaned into her mouth as she briefly notched him to her entrance before sliding herself back down the underside of his shaft, and he slowly rolled his hips, his cock skimming through her folds.
“Please, Bastian,” she gasped as she lifted herself again, finding the head of his cock and positioning it against her opening. “Please, I’m ready… Are you?”
“God, yes…” he moaned, and she cried out as he pressed the tip of himself into her, her warmth welcoming him with a shudder.
She lowered herself further down his thickness, lifted, then lowered herself further still. His cock was slick from her attentions, but she felt it catch against her edges as she was pushed apart wider than she’d ever experienced. She rose again, moaning at the sensation of withdrawal before working herself slowly back down, gasping as she finally immersed him completely, and the rest of the world fell away.
He was all she could see, all she could taste, all she could hear and smell and feel. The entirety of her body felt like it was being filled to overflowing with all the beautiful sensations of him.
Sebastian had barely moved as she took him inside of herself, but his eyes roamed over her face, her figure, then down to where his cock disappeared into her mound, his hands tightly gripping her hips as if they were the only thing tethering him to reality. She leaned forward, pressing her chest against his, filling his mouth with her tongue and began to work her hips, moaning into him as the throbbing ache of emptiness finally receded.
Suddenly, she understood why this felt so different. She wasn’t chasing after her own pleasure, desperate for her own needs to be met - she was chasing after his. She ground her hips into him because she wanted him to feel how deep he was inside of her, how he filled her up completely. Her nails left white trails in their wake, because he would moan whenever she criss-crossed them against his skin, and she wanted to hear him make that beautiful sound over and over again. She gently tugged a fistful of dark hair as she clenched around his cock, because he would shudder at the dual sensation every time, making the heat and pressure in her body flare up even hotter, bringing her closer and closer to the edge.
She didn’t worry about finding whatever scraps of pleasure she could get for herself while someone else took theirs from her body. She didn’t need to, because he was finding it all for her.
He was steadily thrusting inside her in the way he had discovered would make her gasp and shake, he was rubbing her clit with his thumb in small circles of delicious sensation that ripped moan after moan from her lips, he was sucking at the tender skin of her neck and leaving behind a trail of small pink flowers, not to claim her, but because she couldn’t help but cry out as each one blossomed.
He found it all and he gave it to her, just as she wanted to find and give it all to him.
She felt herself begin to come apart, the sensation growing from a place deeper than she had ever known it could, and she opened her mouth in a silent scream as it erupted up through her, her back arching as it rocketed through her body, pulling wave after wave of heat and pleasure through her to the tip of every nerve. Sebastian relaxed the movements as she crumpled onto him, though she could still feel his hardened cock inside her as she pulsed around its thickness.
“Oh my god… Oh my god…” she repeated as she clung to him, as if only the divine could express how she felt at this moment.
She rolled to her side and he followed her motion, still buried deep within her, but it wasn’t enough. She squeezed him to herself with her arms and leg, wanting more - she wanted to burrow into him, or be burrowed further into by him. Their two separate bodies were somehow not close enough for what she felt at this moment, despite his bare skin pressed against hers. The only place that felt right was where she still held him inside her, firm and unyielding, yet now completely still.
Despite the tsunami of an orgasm she had just ridden, she wanted to feel him moving again, wanted to coax back the flames of her passion from the glowing embers that still remained. She shifted to lay under him and he rolled on top of her, his face buried in her neck as he gently crushed her with his body in a way she never knew she needed.
She started to roll her hips again, gasping a little at the overstimulation, but hungry for it all the same. “You feel incredible,” she murmured.
Sebastian turned his head into her ear and moaned softly. “So do you,” he answered, kissing her neck as he pushed back into her by the tiniest fraction.
The sensation was overwhelming. It wasn’t the same as the deep pressure she felt in her core, although that, too, was beginning to rise again. This felt as if her chest was about to burst open, and she cried out as he did the same, their voices intertwined.
“Do you feel that?” she whispered, clutching him to herself. She didn’t know if she could describe it, this trembling of her heart that made each tiny movement feel like an earthquake in her soul. It was all she could do to keep breathing.
“I do…” he gasped, and took her mouth into his. She kissed him back, and they fell into the same slow rhythm of that first kiss on the couch, their hips now joining in and rocking slowly together in gentle waves. The overwhelming feeling in her chest never faded, but she felt as if she was growing into it now, instead of almost drowning. She began to push back harder against him with each thrust, her head swimming with the sensation and her mouth full of his taste. He met her with a slight jerk of force that had her gasping, but then she felt him pull himself back, returning to a slower pace. She thrust her hips forward again, willing him to reciprocate with the same, but he hesitated as if unsure.
“Why are you holding back?” she asked into his mouth, and he turned away from her to bury his face back into her neck, his motion stilled.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” he whispered. “It’s… happened before.”
Amii gently pulled him from her and looked deep into his eyes, lost for just a moment in their grey-blue depths. Finally, she spoke, both sincerity and humor shimmering in her words.
“Bastian, you’re not going to break me… I mean, yesterday morning I mud-wrestled a goat for what seemed like an hour because she got her head stuck in a bucket and was too panicked to get it back out. The day before that, I chopped down a fucking oak tree so I can expand the west field next year. I promise to tell you if it’s too much, but I know my body and I know what I like in bed.”
He looked down at her, and her heart broke for him as she saw the fear and uncertainty on his face as he tried to believe her.
She jerked her hips up again hard, as if daring him, and although his breath hitched in obvious pleasure, he still didn’t move. “You won’t hurt me,” she said, firmer this time. “Please… I want this. I want you to take me as hard as you want to, as hard as you need to...”
“Are you sure?” he asked softly, as if he didn’t think she could possibly mean it, as if his own needs were just an afterthought in his mind.
“I am,” she said, brushing back the hair that framed his face as he looked down at her. “I trust you, Sebastian. You can trust me, too.”
“Tell me if you want me to stop,” he said. “I will… I always do. I just…”
She gently shushed him, putting a finger to his lips. “I’ll tell you. Now, no more talking. Fucking take me.”
He slowly smiled at her, the hunger in his eyes growing as he took her finger into his mouth, sucking firmly at the tip and suddenly he snapped his hips into her, hard. She sucked in a gasp, eyes wide as he bottomed out inside her, her hands suddenly grasping at his neck and shoulders in desperation for more.
“Fuck, again!” she begged, and she started to whimper as she felt him slowly pull back out of her, but another quick thrust of his hips had her crying out once more. “Again, Bastian! Oh, please!! Oh my god, yes!”
He growled low, suddenly sitting up on his knees, pulling up her ass and grasping her thighs for leverage as he buried himself fully again and again, hard and rough and fast. She cried out his name, hands now pushing against the headboard above her as she tried to brace herself as he pounded into her. “More!” she demanded, her voice now rising to a thin whine. “Harder! Oh my god, please Sebastian! Don’t stop!! Give me more!!”
She didn’t know what happened. One minute she was writhing in pleasure on her back as he drove his cock into her in a furious rhythm, then suddenly it was gone, and his hands were on her hips and he was flipping her over and pulling her ass up until it was level to his groin. Then he plunged his cock back into her wet slit and she screamed into her pillow as he grabbed her by the hips and finally took her.
She was right. It didn’t hurt, but she danced along the edge that pain shared with pleasure as she felt herself being filled and stretched in ways she’d never known before. He was relentless, frantically rutting into her as she moaned in ecstasy, and her fingers barely brushed against her clit before she felt herself ready to explode apart yet again. A moment later and sweet electricity shot through her, blooming from her center and setting her body aflame with waves of tingling warmth. She heard him cry out as her walls clenched tightly around his cock, and he jerked and trembled as he finally followed her over the edge, both of them gasping and shaking like newborn lambs. He slumped onto her back and she collapsed, putting her hand back and entwining her fingers in his hair as he lay panting on top of her.
“Are you…” Sebastian gasped, “are you okay?” Because, of course he wanted to check in on her, even when he could barely move.
“I’m okay,” Amii chuckled breathlessly as she stroked his hair. “Actually, I am so, so much better than okay. That was incredible.”
“Yeah,” he softly laughed, his breath tickling the back of her ear. “Yeah it really was.”
He slowly pulled out of her and she whimpered a little at the loss. Rolling onto her back underneath him, she clasped her hands around his neck as he tried to push off.
“I’m crushing you!” he laughed, trying to brace himself up with his arms despite how wobbly she knew he must be. Her own body felt like putty, and she knew if he pushed away any harder, she would lose her grip.
“I know, silly,” she replied, eyes half-closed in pure rapture. “That’s the point. I like it.”
Sebastian slowly eased back down onto her, but she could tell he was still trying to hold some of his own weight. “Give me those,” she laughed, pulling at his hands until he finally relented and settled his body fully onto hers, burying his face in her hair as their fingers entwined.
She hummed in satisfaction as he covered her, grounding her with his weight, and her entire being seemed to vibrate with the sound. He hummed back, and she could feel his chest rumbling against hers as her heartbeat slowed and her breathing steadied, matching his.
It all felt so… right.
After a few more moments, she gently tapped his arm, indicating that she was releasing him from his duty as her living weighted blanket. He flopped onto his side with a groan, his arm draped lazily across her stomach, and she turned her head to look at him, even though sleep was calling to her.
“Stay with me, Bastian,” she whispered, stroking the side of his face, and marveling at him.
“Of course I will, Amii,” he whispered back, and he stretched his neck towards her for one final soft kiss. Then they closed their eyes, their foreheads still lightly pressed together, and she was falling into the darkness, a small smile on both of their lips.
Notes:
"Cradling the softest, warmest part..." is a line from the Ani DiFranco song Swan Dive that my subconscious dredged up after not hearing it for god knows how many years, but I guess as an elder millennial queer/Riot Grrrl, I should've expected my brain to bring up her influence up sooner or later. I think I listened to this song/album on repeat for days at a time, and I'm so happy that now I am again.
Next chapter is a bit of a shift, but I hope you enjoyed this, ahem, intimate moment with our two beautiful idiots - and I call them that with all the love in my own idiot heart.
Thanks as ever for reading, for kudos if you felt inspired to leave them, and I'll see you next week! ❤️
Chapter 12: Interlude
Notes:
For those reading week to week, please note the new tag added to this work. I'm including more specific TWs for this chapter here behind a spoiler tag, for those who might prefer to know exact details before reading or choosing to passing on it entirely. Although this depiction is fairly mild, CA is a difficult topic for some, and I would rather be overly cautious in the name of empathy than callous for the sake of "plot."
Click to show
Child Neglect, parent with a mental disorder (bipolar), near drowning of a child, dissociative disorder, CPTSD
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
That night, Amii dreamt of the sea.
Once, when she was very young, her mother had woken her up just before the sun was rising, her eyes bright and glistening, a finger pressed to her lips. They had snuck out of the house and driven three hours to the ocean, spending the whole day there together - just the two of them. It had been the morning after a particularly brutal fight between her parents, but she didn’t remember the insults or the dishes they had thrown at each other that night. It was honestly hard to differentiate one of their arguments from another in her memories.
She had been a clumsy child, all boney elbows and skinned knees, and it often seemed like she didn’t know where she ended and the world began. She had been told to be more careful, to watch where she was going, to just pay attention, but it was as effective as trying to scold a fish into climbing a tree. She didn’t want to keep upsetting people, so instead she learned to ignore the sting of a scraped palm on the pavement or the bite of a cracked hip against the edge of a table. If no one noticed that she was hurt, no one would look at her like she had done something wrong again, and her bruises would simply blossom and fade in anonymity, like dandelions in an empty city lot.
When the car had finally stopped and her mother pulled her from the back seat, still half asleep from the long drive, little Amii had looked out at the horizon in wonder. She had seen the ocean in picture books, but nothing had prepared her for the overwhelming expanse of sky and sea that she now saw before her. She had wiggled out of her mother’s arms and grabbed her hand, whooping and laughing in delight as she pulled her over the dunes towards the waves. Her mother hadn’t brought any suits or towels, so Amii had simply rushed into the surf in her nightgown, the water warm and welcoming. Her mother followed, at first attempting to roll up her pants, then laughing and surrendering them to the waves. She held Amii’s hands and sang a silly song about a sailor who fell in love with a seagull, pulling her up and down in time with the rolling rhythm of the ocean. Then her mother had held her tightly in her arms, and walked deeper into the water.
“Aaaaaamii,” she had sang, “Amii, hold out your arms and legs straight like a starfish! Can you do that for Mommy?”
Amii had half obeyed, still clinging to her mother’s neck with one arm as the woman stood chest deep in the water. The waves were calmer out here, but she could still feel their pull. She had been scared, but she had also wanted to make her mother proud of her for listening so well. And more than anything, she had desperately wanted to trust her mother.
So, she did. She had loosened her grip and held out her little limbs stick-straight, scrunching up her face until her eyes and mouth were tight lines that framed her tiny nose.
Carefully, gently, her mother had placed her on her back in the water, her palms cradling her head and bottom. “Pull your tummy up to the sky, Amii!” she sang. “Stretch out your arms! You’re doing it, baby girl! Look, you’re a starfish!”
Then her mother’s hands were gone.
For a moment, she could feel her body. The water cupped and lapped at her edges, the sun warmed her face, even her hair had a border she could trace in her mind as she floated on the surface. Her eyes were still closed, but she hadn’t needed them to understand just how enormous the sky and the sea truly were. They seemed so impossibly big, that Amii had had no choice but to become impossibly big along with them. She stretched her fingers and they brushed against continents. Her toes buried mountains in their shadows. Her laughter rattled the stars.
Then a wave a little stronger than the others broke across her face, and she had sputtered and jackknifed, her small body sinking down into the water like a stone. She had felt her mother’s hands scrambling for her for what seemed like hours as her lungs filled with water and her vision dimmed, the swirling fabric of her nightgown twisting through her fingers until the woman was finally able to find purchase on her tiny frame and the world heaved back into being, painfully bright.
Her mother’s laughter had rung harsh in her ears as she surfaced, and her eyes were wide and wild. “Where were you going, little starfish?” she had trilled over Amii’s choking coughs. “Did you see a mermaid?”
Amii couldn’t answer her. Her own eyes were burning and her lungs spasmed as they tried to find the air, and she had felt like her coughs would shake her apart to be washed away again by the waves. But as she clung to her mother, she had felt something bubbling beneath the surface of her, and she lifted up her head and retched out a laugh.
Her mother had waded back towards the shallows, laughing and singing another silly song and Amii had heard herself laughing along with her from far, far away. They had laid down on the shore together, still giggling, and had fallen asleep in the warm sand as the tide kissed their toes one final time.
Amii didn’t remember the terrible sunburn she had gotten that day, or how hungry she had been, or the awful screaming match that her parents had when her mother finally pulled back into their driveway late that night. She didn’t even remember that she didn’t see her mother for a few days afterwards.
No, what Amii remembered, what she dreamt of that night, was the feeling of her body as vast and deep as the ocean itself as she floated weightless on the water. For a few fleeting moments, she had felt like she was whole, and good, and right.
And although she would say that she loved the ocean, she never really thought about why she didn’t like to swim.
Notes:
💙 Thank you as always.
Chapter 13: Fall 3, Day 20
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Dawn had barely touched the windowsill the next day, when an exuberant and wildly tone-deaf cock-a-doodle-doo ripped through the quiet morning air.
“Errrrr-errrookk!! Errrrrr-erreerrooookkk!” The noise ended like the poor creature was being strangled to death, but each subsequent crow started with the boisterous confidence that this one was going to be perfect.
Amii groaned, unwrapping her arm from around Sebastian’s chest and shoulder. She had spent most of the night with her face buried in the side of his neck, but now she grabbed blindly for her pillow, pulling it over her exposed ear and half of his face in the process.
“Uuuuuuuugggggghh… Martha!!!” she whined. “Not yet…”
Sebastian pushed the pillow up and away from his face, turning his head to try to look at Amii with a bleary, confused smile. “Martha?” he said. “You named your rooster Martha?”
“Ugh. Nooooo…” She pulled herself closer to him again and buried her face deeper into his neck, his hair moving with her breath and tickling her nose. “I specifically didn’t buy a rooster because I didn’t want to deal with all the crowing.” She sighed dramatically, and rolled onto her back to look at him, pillow still clenched to the side of her head. “But apparently if you don’t have a rooster, sometimes the hen at the top of the pecking order will decide that somebody ought to be doing it, and… ” she trailed off, waving a hand in the air as another mangled crow interrupted her explanation with exquisite timing.
“Martha?” Sebastian asked, dark eyebrows raised in amusement.
“Martha,” she grumbled. “Marnie thought it was hilaaaarious when I told her.” Amii sat up and half-heartedly flung the pillow at the window. “Go back to bed you stupid bird!! You don’t need anything!!!”
She flopped back onto the bed, arms outstretched in defeat. She saw Sebastian’s eyes dart down, then back up to her face, then down again as he tried not to stare at her bare breasts. He was failing miserably.
“The chickens have food and water in the coop already,” she continued, pretending not to notice. “And the door is even on an automatic timer. But I got into the habit of bringing them table scraps and any damaged crops I couldn’t sell in the mornings, and now she’s become a monster. If she wasn’t my best layer, she’d be getting a one-way ticket to freezer camp.”
Sebastian turned onto his side, propping his head on his hand, and gave her an amused look that said, ‘I know that you know that I don’t know what that means, but I’m going play along anyway’ as she peeked up at him. “Freezer camp?” he asked dutifully.
Amii grinned wickedly, and drew a thumb across her neck. “Gkkkkkk!!” she croaked, then closed her eyes and stuck out her tongue in a grim mockery of death. He laughed and poked her exposed side playfully, not quite tickling, but definitely not not tickling. She squirmed away giggling, pulling at the blankets in an attempt to block his access and gain one of her own for a counter assault.
Sunlight now splashed across the room through the curtains, and Amii could finally see what Sebastian’s real, honest-to-god bedhead looked like. It was glorious. His thick, dark hair stuck up in all directions, defying both gravity and basic logic.
She paused for a moment, distracted as she tried to figure out just how it did that, and he took the opportunity to plant a quick kiss on her lips, pulling back and grinning like he’d just gotten away with something. Amii laughed, and reached out with both of her hands, burying her fingers in his tangle of hair and pulling him back towards her, returning his kiss with one of her own. She could feel his smile as he melted into her, his hand running down the side of her face, then onto her shoulder, and across the front of her upper arm towards...
“ERRRRRR EEEERR REEOOOOOOKKKKK!!!” The sound was definitely getting closer.
Sebastian laughed softly, pressing his forehead to hers. “She’s not going to give up, is she?”
Amii huffed in amused exasperation. “Noooope.” She gave him another quick peck, and looked into his eyes with the pang of fond regret that comes with being the owner of a terribly clever animal. “She’s the absolute worst… But!”
She hopped out of the bed with astounding speed, pulling on a pair of underwear from seemingly thin air and dashed across the chilly room towards her dresser. She dug through the drawers, grabbing clothes as she spoke.
“You stay here. I just have to take care of the chickens and then maybe I can make you breakfast!” She wrestled her way into a bulky sweater, and started hopping on one foot, then the other as she pulled on her socks. “I won’t be long, really. Well, not too long. Hopefully, I mean… ugh, I really should milk the goats, or they’ll be really mad, and angry goats are even worse than angry chickens… um, hold on… maybe it’d be better if…” she trailed off, mentally going through her morning chore checklist, and trying to decide what could be put off or skipped entirely. She turned towards Sebastian, and saw a flash of fear move across his face before he settled it into one of practiced nonchalance.
Her heart began to pound in her chest. You idiot! she thought. Shit, he thinks I’m trying to get rid of him! Fuck fuck fuck, I need to fix this. I need him to know this wasn’t just a quick fuck, that I want to be with him, because he still somehow doesn’t believe me.
“Umm, Bastian?” She looked down, unable to meet his eyes and played with the hem of her sweater as she spoke, twisting it in her hands nervously. “Umm. About… last night. I don’t normally, um, do that. I mean, I’m not like a nun or anything, but it’s just that I usually don’t jump into bed with people right away like that. Even after a really good kiss, and the one at the rest stop was definitely a really good kiss, and then on the couch and then when you…” She gulped, and continued plummeting downhill like a car with cut brakes. “…but I just thought maybe you should know that -that -that I’m not… because it’s not like I think… I mean, you shouldn’t think–” She squeezed her eyes shut as she heard herself continue to chatter away, all the while screaming from inside her head to stop. What are you doing?? Shut up shut up you are MAKING THIS WORSE!!
“Nope, I get it,” he interrupted. “It’s all good. You’re good. We’re… good.” She looked up warily and saw Sebastian sitting on the edge of the bed facing away from her, somehow nearly dressed himself. “I should go, anyway. I’m not really a fan of breakfast. And if my mom wakes up and I’m still not there after going out for a late ride, she’ll think I’m dead in a ditch somewhere.” His voice was cool, relaxed. Detached. Like they hadn’t just been lovers, like they hadn’t fallen into each other's arms last night as easy as breathing. He started to pull on his boots.
“No, please wait...” she rushed towards him, but stumbled as she cracked her shin on the corner of the bed frame. Pain erupted across her bare leg, and she grabbed at the bedpost to keep from falling, embarrassed and holding back tears. She sucked a breath in between her teeth as she clutched at her leg. “Fuck! No, listen, it’s just… I don’t want you to-”
She heard him inhale sharply at her words and she froze again. She couldn’t think. Between the pain and the panic, she just couldn’t find the words to make things right.
Sebastian didn’t look at her as he stood up from the bed, fumbling with something on the nightstand. She honestly didn’t think he had noticed that she’d injured herself - he’d been doing up the laces of his boots with such a look of concentration that it probably didn’t even register.
She stood helplessly on one leg, holding her shin as he hurried out of the bedroom and towards the front door. He stood for a moment with his coat thrown over his shoulder and a hand on the knob, still not looking up. “Thanks for the coffee,” he said, in that same horrible, casual tone. “It was really good.”
“Um, thanks!” She shuddered internally at the now cheery sound of her own voice responding like a reflex to his words of praise. “Have… have a great day!”
He furrowed his brow and tilted his head ever so slightly at that, like he couldn’t believe what she’d just said. She didn’t blame him - she couldn’t believe it either.
For the briefest of moments, she saw that hurt look cross his face again, mixed with something that looked almost like… relief. As if he was welcoming her unintentional rejection like an old, expected friend.
He slipped back into his apathetic expression and mumbled, “See you around, Amii.” Then he turned the knob, pushed opened the door and stepped into the cold morning air.
Notes:
I promise you, this has a happy ending.😅 Start mining that copper, folks, because you're gonna need all the tappers you can get to handle the final chapter's sappiness.
Yes, it's true that the dominant hen in a rooster-free flock will sometimes start crowing, and yes, believe me when I tell you it sounds god-awful. Sometimes in even rarer circumstances, a hen will spontaneously develop rooster physical characteristics like a bigger comb and waddle, longer feathers and spurs. Science!
Thanks as always for reading, for leaving kudos and for your comments! This has been such a joy to share, and I'm so grateful for your support. See you next Saturday for the FINAL CHAPTER OH MY GAWD???!!! 😱
Chapter 14: Fall 3, Day 20 (cont.)
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
It took Amii over two hours to leave her bedroom - an eternity on a farm. She had collapsed onto her bed as soon as Sebastian left, burying her face in the pillow that still smelled of him and had sobbed until she thought she had run out of tears. She lay there completely numb, until MeeMaw jumped onto the bed and began to knead her back with her small, sharp paws.
“Owww… god, how are you so heavy.”
She rolled onto her side to dislodge the cat and as she faced the bedside table, and her heart came crashing down around her again. A new wellspring of tears erupted as she carefully gathered the obsidian pendant and cord that Sebastian had left, clutching it to her chest.
You just can’t help it, can you. You always have to fuck everything up…
“I tried to stop him,” she whispered as she stroked the cat's fur. “I really did. I didn’t know what else to do… He wouldn’t listen. Why wouldn’t he just listen?”
By this point, she could hear the goats bleating from the barn in annoyance that bordered on distress, and she finally managed to heave herself off the bed and pulled on her overalls, slipping the pendant around her neck and tucking it into her sweater. She might be the biggest moron in the entire world, but she wasn’t going to make her animals pay for it. Amii shoved her feet into her muck boots, pulled on her heavy corduroy barn jacket and opened the door to a very upset-looking bird.
“Errrrrrrrooooookkk!!!” Martha scolded, eyeing the farmer with a withering look that only a chicken can give.
“YOU!!” Amii stomped down the porch stairs, pointing at the bird in fury. “YOU… RUINED… EVERYTHING!!”
Martha hopped backwards and looked up at her, slightly alarmed. Amii had never raised her voice to her animals like that before. Sure, she’d complain about them right to their faces, and had loudly shooed them away from a freshly planted field before, sometimes even accompanied by a well-aimed clump of soil, but nothing like this. The hen tilted her head to the side and gave Amii a soft “churrup?” that immediately sent her back into tears.
“Ugh,” she said, sniffling and sitting down on the cold steps. “I’m sorry. It’s not your fault.” She wiped her eyes on the back of her hand and watched as the hen pecked at the bottom of her boot. “Come on, Martha,” she sighed, as she picked herself back up. “Let’s go see the goats, and I’ll toss you some of their grain. Then when I’m done milking I’ll get you your table scraps.”
The goats were not amused by her tardiness. They had managed to kick over their entire water trough, and now stood in the wet muck, stomping and glaring at her as she entered the barn. “Oh my god, I’m so so sorry, girls.” Amii winced as she looked at their full udders, milk dripping from the teats. “Come on, Curry. You’re up first.”
She poured a cup full of grain into the milking station feed bucket, tossing some behind her for Martha, and fastened the head catch once the animal had clambered up into place. She hadn’t thought to heat up any water before she left the house, and Curry kicked and bleated angrily when she began washing down her udder with cold, soapy water. “I know, I know,” Amii soothed, stroking the animal’s side. “I’m the worst. I’m sorry, I promise I’ll make it up to you. I’ll plant a whole field of amaranth, just for you.” The goat nickered quietly, and continued eating, content.
Once all of the goats had been taken care of and the barn floor around the trough scraped clean, Amii hefted the buckets full of warm, fresh milk and made her way carefully out the gate. She began going through her mental checklist.
Okay , she thought to herself. Strain the milk, set some aside for cheese making, pour the rest into the bottles I never seem to have enough of… oh wait, I need to refill the stupid water trough first. Okay, bring the milk into the house, get the chicken scraps, gather eggs, fill the water buckets up at the well and haul them back down to the goats, then go back to the kitchen…
She slipped easily back into her routine, grateful for once for the never-ending chore list that kept her mind occupied, and not thinking about…
“Nope!” she said out loud, her voice quivering slightly. “I’m not thinking about that at all.”
Thunder rumbled in the distance.
Amii looked up at the sky, brow furrowed. Yesterday’s forecast hadn’t called for rain, and they were usually uncannily accurate. A few clouds floated by in the distance, but didn’t look very threatening. She sighed and made her way back into the house, setting the steel milk buckets onto the kitchen table to strain later.
She picked up the ceramic bowl that held the cooking scraps she’d collected yesterday, and peered into the fridge, looking for anything else she could add as an apology. The last of the blackberries she had gathered were starting to go soft, so she tossed them in, then turned and walked back outside.
She heard the sound again - a low rumbling that didn’t seem to end, that seemed to be getting louder.
Closer.
Amii’s eyes filled with tears as she ran down the steps, flinging the entire bowl onto the ground. It hit the hard earth and cracked into pieces, sending berries, tomato bits, and the browned ends of lettuce flying across the grass to the utter delight of her flock, who swarmed around the broken crockery like feathery piranhas.
Sebastian’s motorcycle pulled into the driveway and had barely stopped before he kicked out the stand and slid off. He tore off his helmet and dropped it to the ground as he strode towards her, his eyes fixed on hers.
“Sebastian!!” she cried as she ran towards him, tears leaving streaks down her dirty cheeks. “I’m sorry!! I’m so so sorry, I…” she buried her face in his chest as he embraced her and continued to sob, clinging to his jacket. “I’m such an idiot. I didn’t mean to make you leave!”
Sebastian looked down at her, his own eyes bright with tears. He took her face in his hands, and gently lifted it up toward his.
“No, Amii. No, you didn’t do anything wrong.” He kissed her, their lips crashing into one another like waves. He pulled away, and looked back down at her in disbelief. “You’re not an idiot. I’m an idiot. I ran away from the best thing that’s ever happened to me because I was afraid. I thought you were trying to let me down easy, and I thought that… that if I left before you could actually say it, it wouldn’t hurt as much.”
“I’m sorry you felt like I didn’t want you to stay,” Amii continued, still not convinced he understood. “I wasn’t trying to get rid of you! I really do have a lot to do in the mornings…” She sniffled, rubbing her nose on her sleeve. “Being a farmer kind of sucks.”
Sebastian looked down at her with a soft, skeptical smile. “Do you really think that?” he asked.
Amii chuckled and wiped at her eyes. “No,” she admitted. “I really love it.”
He laughed softly, embracing her. “Then I’ll just have to get used to it. If... you'll still have me.”
She held him close, breathing him in, then released him. Catching his hand, Amii led him to the porch steps and sat down, the old wood creaking a little with her weight. He followed, sitting beside her and rubbing her thumb with his.
Then she slowly leaned over and kissed him, soft but unusually long, as if she was afraid to lose him again when it was over. His eyes were closed, so he didn’t notice as Amii pulled the pendant from beneath her sweater, looping the cord over her head as she finally pulled away.
“You left this.” She looked down as she held the necklace to her chest, not yet offering it back to him. Her words were soft and unaccusing, but she knew he could feel the pain in them.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I… I wasn’t thinking right.”
“Don’t do it again,” she whispered, still not looking up at him. “Don’t give it back again unless you really, truly mean it. I deserve better than that.”
“You do,” he said softly. He took her hands gently in his own, and when she didn’t resist, he guided them and the cord over his head. He settled her palms on his shoulders, softly rubbing her fingers with his thumbs. “I won’t do that to you. I promise.”
She nodded, then finally looked up into his eyes and gave him a smile as warm as the summer sun.
“Okay,” she said, as if firmly deciding on something for herself. Then she settled her body against his, her fingers running up and down his arm like waves gently lapping at the beach.
“What made you come back?” she asked softly, as they watched the chickens fight over the last of the berries like tiny dinosaurs.
“Maru yelled at me.” He shuddered a little. “A lot.”
Amii laughed sympathetically. “Oh noooo… are you gonna be okay?” she teased. As much as Maru took after her dad, she definitely had their mother’s spitfire.
He chuckled and scratched the back of his head. “Barely. She heard my bike pull in this morning, saw that I had borrowed her helmet and wouldn’t leave me alone until I told her everything.”
“Oh my god,” Amii buried her face against his shoulder. “I’m never going to be able to look at her again.”
He laughed softly. “Nah… she was a really big help. She told me to repeat exactly what you said when you told me you wanted me to leave… And when you said last night didn’t mean anything to you.”
Amii looked up at him, distraught. “But… but I never said any of those things!” she sputtered, tears once more welling up.
“That’s exactly what I finally had to admit to her… and then she tried to punch me.”
Amii choked out a laugh, wiping at her eyes again. “At first, I was trying to figure out what chores I could skip,” she sniffed. “And then I could see that you thought I was trying to get rid of you, so I was trying to tell you how special being with you last night was. Because it really, really was! But it was just coming out all wrong, and you left before I could fix it. I wish…” she took a deep breath, as if bracing for something. “I wish you had listened to me when I asked you to wait. I could’ve made it okay. I could’ve calmed down and said it right, if you had just stopped for a minute and listened.”
“You’re right. I’m really sorry.” He took both of her hands in his, and looked deeply into her eyes. “I can be…” he winced, “kind of dramatic. But I promise I’ll try to do better.”
Amii stared at him, as if she was having trouble comprehending his words. Suddenly her eyes widened, then squinted in embarrassment. “Wait, did you tell Maru… everything everything? Even…” she buried her face in her hands. “Even the ‘Have a great day’ part?”
He laughed a little, and took her hand back, wrapping it in his and giving it a kiss. “Ohhh, yes. I was especially clear about the ‘Have a great day’ part.”
“Oh my god,” Amii groaned. “I still don’t know what the fuck that was…”
“Well, do you want to know what else she said?” he asked.
“Ugh. I guess…”
Sebastian smiled down at her. “She said…” his face and voice took on her mannerisms as easily as flipping a switch. “Sebby, you know how you walk around all cool and act like you don’t care about anything, so that no one can tell how much you actually really do?” He kissed the top of her head. “Which,” he admitted in his own voice, “I totally do.”
Amii sniffled again, turning and looking up into his face. “I guess…”
“Well, she said you do the same kind of thing. Except instead of pretending like you don’t care, you act all cheerful or hide behind jokes, so no one can see that you’re actually really upset.”
Amii sat up, stunned. “Oh my god. Oh my god…” She stared at the ground as she remembered every stupid joke, every goofy voice, every painfully bright smile she instinctively used to try to shield herself from the world. She looked back up at him. “Holy shit. She’s right! That’s… exactly what happened.”
Sebastian smiled softly. “She said she first noticed you doing it at the Feast of the Winter Star last year. Shane was your secret gift-giver, and he gave you a frozen pizza.”
Amii shook her head and groaned. “An expired frozen pizza…”
He chuckled at that and continued. “She said she saw for a split second how disappointed you were… but then you suddenly acted like it was the best gift you’d ever gotten. And then later in the spring, she overheard Haley say something rude to you about your clothes, and you just laughed and joked about letting the goats pick out your outfit. But once she had turned the corner and walked away, you looked really hurt. After that, she said the pattern was pretty obvious.”
“Oh. Yeah.” Amii leaned back against him. “Haley can be kinda mean.”
“You should’ve seen her in high school.”
She shuddered. “Noooo thank you.” Then she chuckled softly. “Maru really is a genius, huh?”
He grinned at her, proudly. “She sure is.” He paused, then continued. “She likes you, too, you know…” This time his voice was warm and confiding, like he was sharing a secret. “She said if I didn’t come back and apologize, she was going to come here herself and make you forget allll about me.”
“Oh my god, she’s like nineteen!!” Amii groaned. “Why does everybody like me like that??”
Sebastian turned towards her, and took her face in his hands. “Because you’re kind…” he kissed her cheek. “… And you’re funny,” he kissed her other cheek. “...And you’re beautiful…” he kissed her forehead. “And you literally gave her a diamond.” He looked down at her, grinning.
Amii flushed red with embarrassment and pulled away, hands working at the hems of her sleeves. “I’m sorry... I don’t mean to make people think I’m flirting with them, or that I like like them.” She laughed ruefully. “You’ve seen me actually try to flirt. It’s a disaster. I just… I want people to think I’m useful. That I’m worth having around. So I find out what they want or need, and I try to give it to them.” She sighed, looking back out across the fields and picking at the edge of her fingernail. “I want people to like me. And I don’t know how else to do it.”
Sebastian looked down at her, and gently lifted her chin up towards his face. He kissed her, soft as summer rain, and looked at her with such warmth, she started to cry again. “You are worth having around. Even without all the little gifts and favors.” He brushed her hair back from her face and gazed intently into her eyes. “And you don’t need to apologize for anything. You are not responsible for how people feel about you, no matter what. They are.”
Something inside Amii finally snapped. She clung to him as sobs wracked through her body. It felt like she couldn’t breathe, and that all the guilt and shame and regret over things she didn’t mean or didn’t understand for so long would overwhelm her. But Sebastian held her, murmuring soft reassurances into her hair, until all of her self-hatred fell away, powerless, and she knew that for now, the storm had passed.
She sniffled and laid her head against his chest. “Thank you,” she whispered. “I didn’t know I needed to hear that.” She looked down at his shirt as she wiped her eyes on her ruined sleeves. “I’m getting you all wet and snotty.”
“I don’t mind,” he said, his voice rumbling softly against her ear. “I like holding you, even when you’re wet and snotty.”
“Bastian, I think I’m falling in love with you.” The words tumbled out of her before she could stop them. She gasped, covering her mouth with her hand as if that would somehow force them back in.
Sebastian’s chest suddenly went still, and Amii could hear the quickened beating of his heart pounding in her ear. Then he squeezed her so tightly to himself that she thought she might burst.
“I think I’m in love with you, too,” he whispered as he relaxed his arms a little, still holding her close.
“You are?” she asked breathlessly, sitting up and looking into his eyes.
“I am,” he repeated, and she met his mouth with hers, the salty taste of her tears bright on her lips. Then she settled her head against his chest again, and they each let the declaration of the other wash over them like a warm tide as they sat together on her porch in a beautiful, comfortable silence.
Finally, Sebastian kissed the top of her head again, breaking the spell. “Did you eat breakfast yet?” he asked.
Amii huffed mournfully. “No. I still have too much to do…” She laughed a little. “I got a bit of a late start.”
“Well, can I help you?”
She looked up at him in quiet amazement. “You really want to?”
“Of course!” He smiled at her, his dark blue-grey eyes dancing, and she could see everything that he was feeling - relief, joy, love - right there on his face. “You’re always helping everyone else out. It’s about time somebody returned the favor.”
Amii kissed him with such a sudden velocity, that they both almost tumbled from their seat on the steps. She pulled back, grinning, then jumped up and slapped the front of her pants.
“Okay, we’ve got to bring the buckets over to the well and fill them up, because the stupid goats knocked over their whole water thing… oh but wait, we should get the eggs first because somebody keeps breaking them - did you know hens will eat their own eggs if they can get away with it? I’m telling you, chickens are just the worst. Once I figure out who it is…”
Sebastian laughed and stood up, following her as she dashed around the yard, pointing out random things of interest. “… And did you know that you can’t plant pumpkins and squash too close together, because even though they’ll look and taste okay, if you try to plant the seeds from that crop, you’ll grow these weird, inedible hybrids? Believe me, I learned THAT the hard way. Oh! You’re going to love the goats. But watch out, Biryani really likes to chew on hoodie strings…”
A flock of birds flew by overhead, their shadows skimming across sun-drenched fields of wheat that rippled in the wind like the waves of an ocean. They raced across the autumn sky towards warmer shores, and were gone.
The End
Epilogue:
Fall 4, Day 15
Sebastian stood in the front yard in his robe and green froggy slippers, looking down at the strange wooden crate sitting on the ground next to the mailbox. It had no address or return address, and no postage. It wasn't even closed.
“Babe?” he called. “Why is there an open crate by our mailbox with, like, all of my missing motorcycle parts in it? And a note in a… a weird code? Amii…? Why are you laughing?! Do you know what this is? Babe, I am SO confused…”
Notes:
Holy hell, I FINISHED A THING!!! 😱
Thank you sooo much for riding shotgun with me as I attempted to jumpstart this jalopy of a brain back into writer's mode. This story has been such a blast to work on, and considering how long it's been since I've done any creative writing, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out - bloated D&D scenes and all. 😅 That being said, I would love to read any comments or constructive criticisms you might want to leave! Just because a story is finished doesn't mean it's done, if you know what I mean...
Headcanon stuff that didn't fit but I want to share anyway for a couple final heartstabs before I go:
Sebastian hates beer/wine for obvious reasons in this, but in my mind the reason he hates breakfast foods is because he was asleep when his father was killed, and woke up to his grandmother (Robin's mother) stress-cooking a huge breakfast for him while his mother was dealing with his death. Now the smell of breakfast foods trigger the memory of being told what had happened. Stab!
The bobblehead frog that sits on his desk acts as his "rubber duck" when he's having a coding issue. This comes from a story about a programmer who debugs their code by explaining it out loud, line-by-line, to a rubber duck he carries around, and it's actually a really, really good way to figure out solutions to all of kinds of problems. Try it yourself! Instead of just talking to the frog, though, he talks to his dad. Stab stab!!
Finally, have you ever had a quote punch you in the face? I have...
"The way you talk to your child becomes their inner voice."
If your own inner voice is cruel, or unforgiving, or even just a little mean sometimes, try to imagine yourself as a child. Would you want to speak to a child the way you're speaking to yourself right now?
And if you do have a child, do you want their inner voice to sound like the way you're speaking to them now?
I think our inner voice is made up of a chorus of people - parents, lovers, friends, the random man who said something really weird to you at the grocery store that you can't stop yourself from thinking about... but we can try not to listen to them all.
Maybe you're part of someone's inner voice.
So, remember to try to be kind. Especially to yourself.
❤️
HadariYao on Chapter 1 Tue 07 Jan 2025 06:17PM UTC
Last Edited Tue 07 Jan 2025 06:19PM UTC
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AmbergrisAndEggs on Chapter 1 Wed 08 Jan 2025 05:18PM UTC
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faithisbrokenn on Chapter 1 Mon 26 May 2025 04:40AM UTC
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AmbergrisAndEggs on Chapter 1 Mon 26 May 2025 07:25PM UTC
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HadariYao on Chapter 2 Sun 12 Jan 2025 12:00AM UTC
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AmbergrisAndEggs on Chapter 2 Mon 13 Jan 2025 12:48AM UTC
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dovahgriin on Chapter 4 Sun 26 Jan 2025 08:15AM UTC
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AmbergrisAndEggs on Chapter 4 Sun 26 Jan 2025 02:42PM UTC
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AmbergrisAndEggs on Chapter 4 Sun 02 Feb 2025 10:29PM UTC
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HadariYao on Chapter 5 Sun 02 Feb 2025 08:45AM UTC
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AmbergrisAndEggs on Chapter 5 Mon 10 Feb 2025 05:47AM UTC
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AmbergrisAndEggs on Chapter 5 Wed 25 Jun 2025 12:00PM UTC
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HadariYao on Chapter 6 Mon 10 Feb 2025 08:26AM UTC
Last Edited Mon 10 Feb 2025 08:27AM UTC
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AmbergrisAndEggs on Chapter 6 Sat 15 Feb 2025 11:18PM UTC
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HadariYao on Chapter 6 Sun 16 Feb 2025 04:12AM UTC
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AmbergrisAndEggs on Chapter 6 Thu 08 May 2025 04:41PM UTC
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HadariYao on Chapter 8 Mon 24 Feb 2025 09:11PM UTC
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AmbergrisAndEggs on Chapter 8 Sat 01 Mar 2025 10:47PM UTC
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HadariYao on Chapter 10 Mon 10 Mar 2025 02:16AM UTC
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AmbergrisAndEggs on Chapter 10 Sat 15 Mar 2025 11:24PM UTC
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AmbergrisAndEggs on Chapter 11 Sun 23 Mar 2025 04:55AM UTC
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AmbergrisAndEggs on Chapter 12 Sun 30 Mar 2025 05:04AM UTC
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HadariYao on Chapter 12 Sun 30 Mar 2025 06:12AM UTC
Last Edited Sun 30 Mar 2025 06:13AM UTC
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AmbergrisAndEggs on Chapter 12 Sun 06 Apr 2025 12:51AM UTC
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HadariYao on Chapter 13 Sun 30 Mar 2025 06:18AM UTC
Last Edited Sun 30 Mar 2025 06:18AM UTC
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AmbergrisAndEggs on Chapter 13 Sun 06 Apr 2025 12:50AM UTC
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