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riiwriting · 1 year

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Teenage Dirtbag | Sebastian (Stardew Valley)

cross-posted from my wattpad

prompt - in which the farmer's big move isn't necessarily entirely their choice, but they've made peace with it.

warnings - canon divergence

gender-neutral farmer (they/them pronouns used)

⦿ pelican town, winter year 1

IT HAD BEEN ALMOST A FULL YEAR SINCE I MOVED. This was a fleeting thought, one that hint me suddenly before being dismissed as not a big deal. I didn't really think about it again until Robin brought it up one day while I was there to talk to her about building a stable.

"I have to say, what you've done with that farm is really impressive. I know it wasn't necessarily your choice of life, but you've gotta admit you've done a lot in under a year, Farmer," she complimented sincerely. I knew that she meant it, and that she was probably right, but I had to bite my tongue from verbally refusing her praise.

I instead just offered a tight-lipped smile, and chose the only out I could think of. "A year already. That's crazy." I did my best to seem amazed, but my acting admittedly wasn't great. I'm sure Robin knew exactly what I was doing in avoiding the conversation. She let it rest though, and for that I would always be grateful.

We finished discussing the payment and materials for the stable and I bid her farewell, zipping my coat back up to my nose as I headed for the snow outside.

"Be careful out there, please," Robin hurriedly called just as I was reaching the front door. She caught me a bit by surprise, and when I turned to look at her, I'm sure my eyes betrayed that fact. Her face reddened, "I know you take the mountain path, and it gets extra icy up there."

Before I could say anything to wave off her concerns, another head appeared around the corner. Sebastian had apparently decided to come up from his room for the day, and upon hearing his mother talking, was curious to see who was in the entryway.

Our eyes met, and out of courtesy, I gave a small wave. It took him a moment to process, but he sent me a groggy half-smile in return. We admittedly didn't know each other well – not that I knew anyone in town well, really – but I did seem to always run into him when I came to visit his mom. We didn't really talk when we did see each other, partially because he seems to hate people, and partially because I don't know how to talk to people my own age.

I cleared my throat, quickly turning my attention from Sebastian to Robin. "I'll walk through town," I reassured her. I knew that I would most likely change my mind and take my usual route the minute she was out of sight, but sometimes white lies are okay if they help people sleep at night.

"You can walk with Sebastian, then," Robin hastily offered up, alarming both myself and her son.

Sebastian's eyebrows flew upwards. "They can?" he asked, his face blank. He had just rolled out of bed. Obviously, he was not anticipating going into town this early.

Robin, however, either didn't notice this, or didn't care. She instead just gave him an affirmative nod. "You told me yesterday you'd pick the stuff for dinner up from Pierre's for me. Remember?"

"Well yeah," He quickly covered. His eyes flickered to me for just a second, before frantically flashing back to his mother. "I wasn't planning on going, like, now."

A sour expression crossed Robin's face, and she looked like she was going to argue. I knew that she was trying to passively teach him something about manners, but I wasn't afraid of a little snow.

I spoke up before she had the chance. "I appreciate it, Robin, but the snow is a walk in the park compared to the mines," I explained lightly. She still looked uncertain, so I reassured her one more time, "I'll be fine. It's not snowing as hard now as it was earlier."

Robin sighed, apparently admitting defeat. "Alright. I'll come see you tomorrow morning about that stable."

I nodded thankfully, "Right, thank you. I'll see you then." This time, I dismissed thoughts of courtesy and avoided Sebastian's eyes entirely as I slipped out the front door.

I wanted nothing more than to run home to a bottle of wine and Queen of Sauce reruns, but after all of that, my conscience didn't let me take the short way home. Robin clearly cared a lot about me getting home safely – more than I cared about me getting home safely – and it felt wrong to lie to her.

I shoved my hands into my jacket pockets as I walked, my shoulders hunched against the lightly falling snowing. The cold air pinched my nose, and I sneezed, which was enough motivation to get me to pull jacket up even higher.

I didn't mind the snow or the cold too much, but walking in it would never be my favorite thing. As I trudged through town, I was reminded of my walks alone to school as a child on days when my mother worked early and couldn't drop me off. I sighed, as I typically did when I thought of her. I loved her dearly, and she was my hero growing up, but as a young adult, I could only seem to remember all the ways she did me wrong.

Like guilt tripping me into dropping everything and moving to my grandfather's farm, for example. I'm half convinced she's the one who coerced him to leave it to me in the will, if I'm honest. She apparently wasn't a fan of my life in the city.

By the time I got back to the farmhouse, my legs ached. I cursed Robin under my breath as I screwed the cork out of a new bottle of wine, but realistically, the extra walk was nice. I sighed to myself as I curled up under the wool blanket I kept draped over the couch. Whatever resentment I was harboring towards this town and the people in it, I needed to shake. For better or for worse, this was my life now. And it really wasn't all that bad.

⦿

I WAS BREWING A POT OF COFFEE WHEN SOMEONE KNOCKED ON MY DOOR THE NEXT MORNING. I knew that it had to be Robin, so I stepped away from the kitchen to answer it. I jumped a little bit when I discovered that it was not Robin, but rather her son.

My heart started racing. "Is your mom okay?" I blurted, forgetting all formalities. He raised his eyebrows at my comment, surprise flashing across his face. His awkward fidgeting suddenly reminded me that he was probably just as uncomfortable as I was. I cleared my throat, "Sorry."

"No, it's okay," he awkwardly said. "At least you... um, care... I guess." I nodded, and a brief silence overtook the conversation. Sebastian quickly explained the situation, "She sent me to tell you she's not coming today. I guess she woke up with a cold, I don't know. I always feel like shit when I wake up as early as she does, so."

His mention of the time got me thinking, and I glanced at my wrist watch. It was hardly 8. "Isn't this early for you?" I asked.

He nodded, a groggy scowl on his lips. "Trust me, I'm not here by choice," he grumbled. After a second, he added, "no offense."

I shrugged off his apology. "I didn't get up much before ten when I lived at home," I responded, hoping it would ease a bit of the odd tension in the air.

"I bet that change must've sucked," he said.

I nodded, "it did."

There was another awkward pause. Had socializing always been this difficult? Sebastian cleared his throat to say something – goodbye, I'm sure – but sneezed instead. A shiver seemed to run up his spine, and I realized that he was wearing pajama pants, slippers, and a hoodie. In the snow. At 8 am.

"Um, do you want a cup of coffee?" I found myself asking. The socialization was awkward, but I wasn't going to let him freeze to death. I guess I do have compassion for other people.

Take that, mom.

He took a moment to process my offer. "Ah," he started, awkwardly scratching at the back of his neck. I felt a refusal coming, which I was honestly fine with – at least I offered. But after a look around the snowy fields, and then a long assessment of my face, he sighed. "You don't mind?"

I shook my head, a tiny smile on my pursed lips. "I'm not gonna drink an entire pot of coffee by myself," I responded.

That seemed to be the right answer, as he actually smiled. "Thanks," he mumbled shyly. I just returned his smile and showed him to the kitchen.

The pot was just finishing up when I returned to the countertop, hoping that Sebastian would seat himself without instruction needed. The soft sound of wood scraping against wood told me my hopes were answered.

I poured two mugs of coffee and grabbed a bowl of cream before joining my guest at the table. I only really had two chairs, as I had been focused on other things, and I didn't typically entertain enough guests to need multiple chairs, anyway. I didn't typically entertain guests at all.

Sebastian muttered another "thank you" as he wrapped his hands around the warm mug. This time I actually told him he was welcome, mostly because I didn't know what to talk about, and it would be significantly harder to excuse awkward silence now that he was in my house. It didn't matter, though. The kitchen grew quiet anyway.

"I can't believe you left the city for this," Sebastian eventually blurted as his eyes traveled around the farmhouse. When I raised an eyebrow at him, his face reddened. "Sorry. Your farm is really nice, too, I just mean..." he trailed off, his embarrassment outweighing his desire to explain himself.

I fought back my extreme amusement to give him a relatively vague answer, hoping to push the subject away. "I can't believe it either, sometimes," was all I said. I figured he could interpret that however he liked.

To my dismay, my guest seemed more curious about my backstory that I would've predicted. "Why did you move out here? I mean, I know the farm was your grandfather's, or whatever, but you chose to move."

The sleep had more or less vanished from his face, and he instead sat in front of me bright-eyed, genuinely intrigued in my answer. It would've been endearing, possibly even flattering, if it wasn't such a sore subject. I quickly reminded myself that I had just promised that I would let my resentment go. I sighed, "It's a long story."

He glanced at my watch, wordlessly pointing out that we had time for a long story. Even passively, he managed to be a smartass.

"I didn't really choose to move," I prefaced. I watched as his face darkened, a similar embarrassment to earlier spreading across his expression. Before he made himself feel too bad, I told the story. "My mom more or less made that choice for me. She didn't really agree with the choices I made or the people I spent time with after I graduated high school. And I guess I can't blame her.

When my grandfather died last year, I had pretty much just turned twenty, and still pretty dependent on my parents in a lot of ways. My dad and I had this big argument one day, and then the next night my mom was more or less blackmailing me into moving out to the farm."

It was quiet for a second as Sebastian tried to decipher if I was done. When he decided that I was, he said, "I get it. You didn't like, want to come here. That makes sense."

I shrugged." I mean, I didn't hate my life in Zuzu. I got into trouble, made some mistakes here and there," I paused, my face dipped to hide my embarrassment. I reeled it back, "I was just starting to really try and figure my life out. And then all of a sudden I was just living an entirely new life. It's like I didn't get a break from feeling out of place."

He nodded like he understood the feeling, though I'd never ask if he did or not. The was a pause, and then he asked, "Do you plan on going back, then?"

It was a weird situation to be in. On one hand, this was the question that haunted me every night as I fell asleep. On the other, I never imagined that Robin's son, of all people, was going to be the one to finally make me face it.

"Not at the moment," I settled, He made a face, and I added, "I like it here, even if I don't like admitting it. I'm finally adjusting to it, and I don't want to just drop everything again."

He nodded pensively as he took a long sip from his mug, his shoulders relaxing. I half expected him to disagree with my opinion. He gave me the impression he wasn't exactly fond of his hometown. To my surprise, he instead conceded, "Living here is... nice."

I agreed, and then because I couldn't think of anything else to say, I resorted to finishing my coffee. The room fell back into silence, but it wasn't quite as uncomfortable this time around.

When both of our coffee mugs were empty, Sebastian wasted no time in excusing himself – something I appreciated. I was already prepared to tell him that I had to go check on the chickens, but he mentioned needing to go back to his mom before I have to use my excuse.

I walked him to the door, as any good host would, and suddenly found myself in the awkward place of not knowing how to say goodbye. I didn't think that we were exactly friends, but we certainly knew each other a lot better now than we did when he got here. I was able to admit to myself that having an acquaintance in town felt kind of nice.

"Tell your mom I hope she feels better, and to not worry about the stable," I requested. I watched as he nodded, his expression stoic. Sighing internally, I forced myself to swallow my pride. "It was also nice to talk to you, for a change."

It took a second for him to process my words, but once he did, an honest smile popped onto his face. "Yeah, you too," he returned meekly.

I gave him a small smile. After a brief pause, he scratched at the back of his neck, his expression suddenly covered with what looked like the desire to flee. I was almost expecting him to turn and leave without saying anything else, but he instead cleared his throat and said, "Thanks again for the coffee. Um, next time you're over to talk to my mom, you should come say hi."

His words caught me off guard, but I think I managed to smile and nod like a normal person. My reaction – though I don't remember it – seemed to be appropriate, as I received a smile in return. He sent me a small wave before pulling his hood up over his ears and trudging out into the snow.

An unfamiliar feeling thumped in my chest as I went back inside to clear the dishes from the table. My day would fall into a routine after that, just like every day seemed to in Pelican Town. I found that I didn't really mind.

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