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“And the three adventurers ride off into the sunset…” Sebastian snapped close the guidebook for Solarion Chronicles and looked around the table, hoping to see the satisfied faces of his friends.
“Boo!” Sam crowed, snatching some dice up of the table and chucking them across the playing area. “They all become prostitutes and make their fortune while being madly in love with one another!”
Sebastian hung his head in his hands while Abigail cackled. Of course, Sam wanted them to be as ridiculous as possible. That’s the reason Sebastian became friends with him, they complimented each other. He looked up at the two of them in disbelief.
“We’re done! I’ll have to order the next book if you wanna keep playing but it’ll take a while to get here.”
Abigail looked at him in what seemed to be a knowing way before standing up.
“Well, I’ve gotta go, Dad’ll want me to help Mum with cooking, so that I can learn to be a good housewife.” She rolled her eyes and fake-stormed out of the room, leaving Sam and Sebastian on their own.
“You mind if I stay here a little while longer? Vincent’s doing a late-night excursion thing and Mum’ll want a quiet night to herself.” Sam looked over at Sebastian with an almost pleading look on his face, but he couldn’t keep it up, the façade broke within seconds and he fell onto the floor laughing.
“Dude, you’ve spent so much time here, I wouldn’t be surprised if Mum had already planned for you to have dinner with us, plus Maru’s out helping Penny with the kids.” Sebastian had to hand it to her, he’d told her to go talk to Penny and now they were inseparable. She hadn’t told him anything else, but he’d seen the looks they shared; if only he had the same courage.
“Earth to Sebby, you’ve spaced out a bit there,” Sam’s fingers click in front of his face, drawing him out of his thoughts. He shook his head a couple of times and looked down at Sam.
“So, what’d you wanna do?”
The two ended up laying on Sebastian’s bed, talking about nothing. It gave Sam a place to just rant about anything: Vincent, his dad’s absence, everything his mum expects him to do. Sebastian knew that Sam loved his family, it’s just he didn’t have many people to talk to. They had these conversations regularly to help them both destress. Sam seemed to be talking for longer than usual.
“Hey, is something wrong?”
Sam looked up quickly with an obviously guilty look on his face.
“What? No, nothing’s wrong, I just wanted to talk and spend time with you and maybe make sure you don’t go anywhere…?”
Sebastian stared at him in shock. Go anywhere? He’d told Sam before that he wanted to move to the city but that would be ages away; his work was nowhere near steady enough to do that yet.
“Sam… where would I go? I’m an unknown coder with a very small portfolio, I don’t have any way of supporting myself.” He lent closer to Sam, trying to catch his gaze again.
“Dad’s left us already and I can’t always be there for Mum and Vincent. I can’t do it alone.” Sam shakily spoke, the insecurities tumbling out.
“Hey, hey, it’s okay, I won’t leave you alone, ever," Sebastian moved to comfort him. As he embraced him, Sam broke down, sobbing out all of his worries. Sebastian let Sam cry on his shoulder. It pained him to see his friend hurt so much; often he wished he could fix it all. He rubbed circles on his back, hoping that it would give him some comfort. If Sebastian was being honest with himself, he would do anything for Sam. He loved cared a lot for him. Slowly, Sam’s sobs relaxed into slow breaths.
“Buddy, you doing alright?” Sebastian asked after Sam went quiet. He didn’t respond. It looked like he had fallen asleep. Sebastian made himself comfortable for the long run. He lightly placed a kiss on Sam’s forehead.
“I’d do anything for you.” He whispered, almost to himself.
That knowledge didn’t scare him as much as he would’ve thought.