Chapter Text
“Do you have to do that, honey?” Sebastian's mother asked, sounding disappointed.
“It smells gross,” added Maru.
Sebastian rolled his eyes and pulled his vest off the wall hook. “Don’t smell me, then.” He took a step outside into the night and let his eyes adjust while he inhaled deeply into his diaphragm (as best he could with his poor lungs). The peaceful white noise of the mountain wind swept the edge of his nerves away. He really needed to take a break from listening to his mother’s incessant chattering. He didn’t want to rain on her parade, because she was pretty excited- but man. All day. Hopefully Maru won’t mind that he left her to it for a few minutes. He had, however, learned a couple interesting and curiously vague details about the new neighbors. Two young brothers from the city- Mouse and Moth- had “abandoned their previous life,” and supposedly one of them was… “elusive.” His mother had been vague on purpose, of course. She was one of the first to meet these people, and the risk of setting a precedent in the rumor mill weighed heavily on her.
Turning down the dark path that led to the lake, Sebastian listened to the distant croaking toad and the sound of his own shoes crunching gravel. At least the mountain was peaceful tonight. As he approached the lake, though, he was surprised to find a figure in the dark. Looking closely, it became apparent he did not know this person. Process of elimination dictated: probably one of those new farmers. The figure was squatted over, rummaging through something in the earth. His dark hair was unkempt and wild. He stooped his head and held it at a crooked angle, intent on something embedded in the ground. He was wearing a torn, baggy shirt in pastel colors, with a black long sleeve mesh top underneath pushed up to the elbows. Mud caked over his hands, ankles, and- notably- bare feet.
So, the weird one, then.
“Oh,” Sebastian blurted out. He reminded himself to be nice- and that it wasn’t this guy’s fault everybody was talking about him all damn day. The farmer turned his head slightly to look at who was speaking to him. The moonlight now caught some of his face, revealing huge, sunken, ochre eyes that peered up at Sebastian. The farmer’s gaze was wide and shocked, but it thinly veiled something mournful.
Woah. Cool.
“Uh- Hey. Moth, right?” Sebastian asked. The farmer nodded politely at him and stood from the ground, wiping off some of the mud. Sebastian could see now that this man was easily a foot shorter than him- maybe 5’3” at the most. The top of his head reached approximately the center of Sebastian's sternum. “I’m Sebastian.” He caught a glimpse of Moth silently mouthing the name back to himself. “And your brother’s Mouse, yeah?” Another nod. “So, like, is there a third one of you called Mole, or…?”
Oh shit, I’m not doing very good at ‘being nice’, am I, he worried, but he could barely make out a thin smile creeping across the farmer’s face in the shadows- and then Moth shook his head.
“Wow, they weren’t kidding. You really don’t talk much,” Sebastian said. Moth shook his head again, still smiling- but something that Sebastian didn’t recognize flickered behind his expression. “That’s cool. Well, I usually take breaks over here by the lake where it’s quiet and dark. It’s peaceful. You want to come?” Moth’s face fell in surprise, then he nodded and moved to follow behind. Sebastian led the way toward his usual spot and tried not to let his own surprise at himself show. It can’t hurt to spend a couple minutes meeting someone who was guaranteed to be quiet, at least.
“So. What the hell are you doing all the way up here?” He asked. Moth unzipped a satchel he was carrying and showed the contents of it. Despite the darkness, Sebastian could make out seeds, bits of clay, and all manner of little plants. It also smelled very strongly of peppermint, he suddenly realized. “Why is it like a pack of gum in here?” he asked. Moth just giggled mischievously and shrugged. “Foraging, then,” Sebastian surmised. “Makes sense. I’m guessing at Pierre’s it’s, like, half a million and your first born for a box of fertilizer.” Moth snickered and nodded.
Sebastian felt his head spinning and pulled out the cigarette pack stuffed in his vest pocket. He fished what he needed from it and shoved the pack back in the pocket. When he looked back up, Moth was standing very close and glaring disapprovingly at his hands. Sebastian’s heart jumped in his chest. “… What?” He asked hesitantly, fearing he knew the answer. Moth folded his arms and pouted, still glaring at the cigarette. “Right. Listen," Sebastian floundered, "I know, okay? I know.” Moth unfolded his arms only to place his fists on his hips dramatically and scrunch his face up at Sebastian.
Ugh. He wished he could be annoyed by this. Unfortunately, not only was he now thinking about what Maru said about him smelling bad, but the farmer was also definitely right. Lately, he’d been trying to convince himself to smoke less (as was everyone else)- but that was easier said than done. Some days he debated throwing the cigarettes away altogether, but he knew it would just be a waste of money when he inevitably caved, and he was trying to save up to move out of the basement.
Moth held one hand out expectantly, and a new light twinkled in his eye. Sebastian sighed, then went to hand over his cigarette. Moth stopped him with a gesture that he didn’t want that one, then pointed to Sebastian’s pocket and pushed his extended hand out even further. “You can’t be serious,” Sebastian protested. “No way.” Moth grinned impishly and his hair fluttered in the night breeze. He looked around and grabbed a stick, then traced something into the dirt with the end of it.
LAST 1 TIL TMRW.
He just doesn't want me to have any more? Why does he care how much I smoke? “You know what? Fine. I’m up for a challenge, I guess.” he relented, shrugging. “Whatever.” He tossed the pack to Moth, who immediately snatched it from the air and did a celebratory wiggle. “I really gotta make this one count, then, huh,” Sebastian mused. Moth, clearly pleased, nodded vehemently. Sebastian considered his predicament. “All right.” Moth beamed up at him eerily. Sebastian lit his one cigarette, took a long drag from it, and then put it out on his shoe. “Got me fuckin’ budgeting my resources over here,” he mumbled, and delicately tucked the rest of the extinguished cig into his vest pocket.
He heard a muffled noise and turned to see that Moth had toppled over. “Um. Are you good, dude.” The farmer nodded pathetically and coughed into the dirt. “You don’t look good.” Oh, great going, Sebastian, you insulted the new farmer, he scolded himself. “I mean- you look kinda sick, actually. But you also look, like… sick…” My god, man. Seriously. Sebastian knelt down in the dirt next to Moth, who wiped something off of his face and then waved his hands apologetically.
They sat together for a few moments while Moth caught his breath. Moonlight sparkled off the rippling surface of the mountain lake. Moth picked up a worm from the dirt and held it in his hand, watching it wriggle around in his palm. Sebastian tried to remember everything his mother had said about the farmers earlier. “Hey, you two moved here from the city, right?” He asked. Moth nodded. “Why? Why Pelican Town?” He tried to mask his disdain for the town, if only halfheartedly. Moth looked off into the distance and thought briefly. He pulled a wallet from his pocket and took out a picture of a kindly old man. “Oh, I kinda remember him," Sebastian recounted. "He gave us free vegetables sometimes. That’s your grandfather?”
Moth nodded, sighed listlessly, and stood. Sebastian stood as well and was instantly confronted by their height difference once again. “You got a phone?” He asked. The farmer looked completely befuddled for a moment, then nodded and pulled a Nokia phone from his pocket and handed it over. “A flip. Nice,” Sebastian said as he flicked open the phone and navigated to the contacts. He opened a new contact and typed his name in. “I’m not letting you run off with my cigarettes unless I can track you down later to get them back,” he half-teased. “You promised.” Sebastian pointed to the message in the dirt. Then he typed something into the phone, sent it, and handed the phone back.
Moth hesitated, then briskly waved and strutted away. Sebastian watched Moth disappear down the path, leaving him behind in the dark with his swirling thoughts.
What just happened.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Maru smiled and nodded politely as many times as she could muster while her mother rambled on about the exciting new opportunities available now that the farmers were in town. Once Robin had sufficiently exhausted carpentry based talking points, she had moved on to excitedly listing other people in town whose businesses might be seeing new customers. Maru wished her brother would come back and free her from doing this by herself, but she knew it was best to let him get air. Sometimes he’s gone a while, though, Maru thought. She crossed to the window absent-mindedly where she could just make out the dark path to the lake. If the night was clear and the moonlight strong, sometimes she could just make out Sebastian’s silhouette by the water. Tonight, the waning moon shone down on two figures by the lake.
“… Is Seb with someone? Wait- Hang on, mom. Let me get something.” Maru sprinted to her room to fetch her spyglass and ran right back into the kitchen.
“Maru, what is that fo-“ Robin started to ask, watching her daughter take the spyglass to the window. “Oh, I know you’re not spying on your brother right in front of me!”
Maru motioned for her mom to come join her at the window. “Oh, he knows we can see him. Don’t you want to know who he’s talking to?” She looked through the spyglass and, plain as day, there was Sebastian next to one of the new farmers. Talking. Willingly.
Robin thought briefly and then conceded. “Yeah, okay, I’ll bite.” She crossed to look. “Oh, it’s Moth!”
“I only met the other one I guess,” Maru said, realizing. “Why on earth is Seb talking to a complete stranger? He hates talking. And strangers. And especially talking to strangers.”
“I would say that he probably got trapped in conversation, but that’s not very likely with the one person who doesn’t talk,” Robin mused, going back to her spot.
“So he really doesn’t talk at all? I’m dying to know what’s going on over there.” Maru moved away from the window. If she learned too much, she wouldn’t be able to help herself but ask Sebastian about it- and he was always more open if you let him think it was his idea to talk.
Maru followed Robin back into the entryway where her carpentry paperwork was as they went back to discussing the minutia of the business and of how the town’s economy had changed in the past when new neighbors moved in. Maru tried her best to pay attention, but it had been a long day. She wished to go back to her projects in peace. Truthfully, she was just as excited as her mother, but Maru didn’t have the same stamina for it. She hoped her fatigue didn’t read on her face too much.
“I think Penny’s hoping that more people in town will mean more demand for the bus route,” she thought aloud. “She hasn’t said anything directly though- I don’t think she wants to get her hopes up too high.”
Robin paused her train of thought for a moment and looked somber. “That would be really nice.”
The front door opened and Sebastian walked in, wearing a look on his face that Maru had come to learn meant he would retreat to his room as soon as humanly possible. To her surprise though, he locked eyes with her first, looking desperate. Oh shit. He wants to talk to me. This is not a drill, she thought as Sebastian hurried down the stairs and closed the door to his room.
Robin yawned. “I’m tuckered. Goodnight, Maru. Love you. Make sure the boys go to bed before daylight hours,” she teased.
“You know they never listen. Goodnight, Mom. Love you.”
Robin strolled down the hallway and called loudly behind her, “Night Sebby! Love you!” before retreating into the master bedroom.
Maru let her head fall onto the counter and enjoyed the quiet. She could only rest for a moment, though. Curiosity bit at her heels. She wondered what her brother wanted, and she was always raring for the opportunity that he allowed her to really act like a sister. She went to her room momentarily to fetch a fanny pack she kept for emergencies, and then headed downstairs.
When she knocked gently on the door, she heard a muffled “come in” from inside. She opened it and saw her brother slumped over with his head face down on his desk.
“Hey, Seb. What’s goin’ on, man?” Maru sat in the spare seat at his desk that he kept for when Sam visited. Sebastian just groaned into the oak. “You look like me a second ago, when Mom finally tired herself out,” joked Maru.
Sebastian finally picked up his head to look. “You too, huh?”
Maru shrugged. “Love her. Bless her. She talks a lot.”
Sebastian hung his head again. “I don’t know what came over me, Ru.”
“What happened out there, anyways?” She asked. “I mean-" she feigned sincerity- "what are we talking about? I don’t know anything.”
“Oh my god,” Sebastian mumbled into the desk. “It was mortifying.”
Maru glanced around the room and found the fan she was looking for. She ticked it on and returned to the desk. She unzipped her emergency fanny pack, rummaging through it for something. She pulled out a small sandwich bag with a handful of weed in it, and a grinder.
Sebastian picked up his head and stared at her, bewildered. “Have you been cool this entire time?” He wondered confoundedly.
Maru shrugged again. “You never asked.” She started grinding. “How would you know.”
“That’s fair,” he conceded quietly.
“Don’t tell my dad if you value your life,” Maru threatened flatly. Sebastian didn’t react, and Maru wondered where his mind was. She had rarely seen Sebastian like this. She always hoped he’d let her hang out, but typically when he wanted to talk was just to ask her for something. Sometimes, he’d show her a song he thought she might like- and then promptly implied for her to leave. For some reason, tonight, he actually wanted to talk. “So, it didn’t go well, then,” she presumed.
Sebastian’s gaze unfocused like he was remembering something. “That’s the thing. I think it went too well, despite that I made a complete ass of myself, of course. I think I insulted him by accident.” He winced. “Shit, I think I might have insulted him twice, actually.”
Maru snorted. “That sounds like you.” She pulled out some small rolling papers from her fanny pack and started rolling a joint.
Seb stared intensely right through Maru. “Mom talked about these people all day and she couldn’t have warned me about the hypnotic eyes?!” He pulled at his cheeks to make his eyes look wider.
“What are you talking about?” It’s no wonder he’s finally letting me in here for once- he’s totally lost his marbles, she thought.
Sebastian focused his gaze at her again. “His eyes are yellow.”
“Contacts?” Maru suggested.
“Maybe…” Seb was lost in his thoughts again. “He took my cigarettes.”
“He what?!”
Sebastian looked exasperated and spoke rapidly. “He was just kinda there on my way to the lake, and I introduced myself to be polite I guess, and the next thing I knew he was smiling at me and his curly hair was all flowing around everywhere and I had only one cigarette left.”
Maru paused what she was doing and processed this information. “Hypnotic eyes, huh?” She quickly finished crafting her joint and stood up. “All right, let’s go, fruitcake.” Sebastian glared at her. “Sorry, that was a joke,” she clarified. “You do know I’m dating Penny, yes?”
Sebastian blinked at Maru a few times, then shook it off and followed her outside. “Oh, I guess that does explain some things,” he said. “Then why’s she always hanging out with Sam?”
Maru pretended not to notice the artificial lilt painted onto Sebastian’s question. She tipped her head nonchalantly. “He’s nice to her. She needs friends. Gives me time for my projects.”
“That sounds nice,” he responded wistfully.
Maru headed to the stairway where they could see over Pelican Town and sat on one of the top steps, lighting the joint in her hand. “So how in the world did you get all the way from ‘Hello, my name is Sebastian’ to ‘Sure, here’s my greatest vice that half the town has been trying to claw out of my desperate clutches for the last ten years’ in, like, four minutes?”
“I really don’t know why I gave them to him,” he tried to explain. “He just… told me to. It’s like he knew I wanted to stop. Plus, he left me one.” Sebastian pulled a half smoked cigarette out of his vest pocket.
Interesting. I wonder if there’s an abstract way in which I could ask Doctor K about this. I don’t know much about dealing with addicts, to be honest, Maru thought. “So he just wanted you not to have more than one?” She handed him the joint.
“I guess so.” He took a long, cathartic hit from it and placed the old cigarette back in his vest pocket. “I can’t understand why he cared so much. As soon as he saw one in my hand, it was the only thing on his mind to get the pack from me. And why didn’t he want the first one?”
“He probably did. He must have dealt with smokers before, though,” Maru theorized. “It sounds like he knows that if he didn’t leave you one, you’d just replace the pack as soon as he left.”
Sebastian pulled his banged up cell phone from his pocket. He looked unsurprised to find a text waiting for him. He sat there staring at it for a moment, taking another long hit from the joint. Maru’s nosiness piqued and she looked over to the phone. There was a single text from an unknown number that simply read: “moth phone.”
“You got his number? Way to bury the lead!” Maru gripped his shoulders tight and shook him excitedly.
Sebastian blushed and groaned. “Oh my god, stop,” he protested.
“No way, mister. This is huge,” Maru said- but she let him go and took the joint back from him.
“Look, obviously I’m gonna get his phone number when he took my cigarettes! You think I’m just letting him walk off after that?”
Maru chuckled. “I wonder if that was his plan.”
Sebastian shook his head contemplatively. “Except he looked like that was the last thing he expected me to ask.”
“So, why are you talking to me? Why aren’t you just calling Sam right now? Brag about your accomplishments.”
He was quiet for a long moment, looking out over the town. “I don’t know,” he finally said.
Maru didn’t need him to say it. Her brother may not have spoken to her that frequently, but she was not oblivious. She pondered how direct she could get away with being. She settled for.. not. “You remember all those nerd camps they sent me on?”
Sebastian nodded.
Maru finished the joint and tucked the filter into her fanny pack. “One time, I fell in love with a girl there. She was straight, so I knew it was never to be. We hung out a lot, though, and she was really sweet and cool. After a while, the weight of it became too much for me to bear. I had to tell her, even if I knew what the result would be. I just needed to. I asked her to meet me, and I told her how I felt and that I knew she didn’t see girls that way. I told her I just wanted to be honest, especially since the summer was ending soon.” She took a slow breath. “I think she had known already, and it was good for both of us not to dance around it. She told me we would always be friends, and I think she meant it. I still get letters from her sometimes. It’s nice.” She looked over to her brother and saw how still he had gotten. “Point is, once I had finally opened up the truth, it was easier to move on. It was still hard, but I felt… Lighter. Free. Then, after a while, I had the space in my heart for someone who would love me back, and I found a love in Penny that made the previous feelings seem inconsequential by comparison.”
“Do you still think about her?” he wondered softly.
“Sometimes I think fondly on our time studying together that summer,” she replied. “Sometimes I wonder if Penny and her would get along. I think they’d be friends, too.” Sebastian was swimming in his thoughts. Maru placed her hand on his shoulder. “Just think about it, okay? -and you should talk to him, too.” She pointed at the phone. “I’ve never seen you so animated- and you need more friends. What was he like, anyways? Besides persistent about your addiction. I only met his brother.”
“He was short. Fiery. Barefoot. I think he likes worms,” he listed. “His outfit was cool, too,” he added hesitantly, blushing. “When I encountered him, he was just scrounging around in the dirt like Gollum. Then he… I dunno, he got hurt or something. It was weird. I’m pretty sure nothing happened while I was standing there with him.”
“Something from earlier in the day perhaps,” Maru suggested.
“Must be.” Sebastian blinked quickly, like his thoughts were catching up with him. “I think his phone was new. His brother was his only contact.”
Maru considered this. “Huh, not even a parent or an old coworker?”
Sebastian gazed into the distance, his mind far away. “Hey, M?”
“Yeah?”
“Mom and Demetrius- do they…?”
Maru studied the way her brother’s brow reflexively creased to hide the anxiety behind his eyes. “‘Do they know about Penny?’” She guessed. His silence was answer enough. “I think so,” she replied. “We haven’t talked about it directly, but they hint all the time. To be honest, I don’t think they care much who I’m with, as long as they’re a good influence. Dad can be kind of… a lot, but that’s just because he’s protective of my future.” Maru peppered her last couple words with dark sarcasm. She stood up and patted Sebastian’s head. “I gotta go to bed, old man. You text back your… new bug friend… and maybe call Sam. He’ll get a real kick out of you being such a pushover.” She turned, went inside, and left her brother to his thoughts.