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Sebastian didn't know how he'd ended up at his childhood home in the mountains, staring at his mother’s (empty) desk, waiting for her to return so he could actually ask her for something that may end in him being suffocated by affection. His mother wasn't stupid, as soon as the words “extra room in the house” came out of his mouth he would be done for -- via hugs, of all things.
Actually, he did know how he got there -- Malia offered to go and ask herself, but she would've had to finish hours of work first, then wanted to go see Harvey for some lightheadedness she told him not to worry about, and since the task was dealing with Sebastian’s own mother, he insisted that he could handle it. He did this to himself.
There was always something...off when it came to Sebastian’s interactions with his family members now, because he wasn't “the guy in the basement” anymore, and hadn't been for some time. He had a wife, they had a house, and they were…
They were…
The words he'd said to Malia when he was trying to quit smoking, the ones that got them both through his nasty nicotine withdrawal, had been present in his head since the two had discussed...the thing.
I want to have a future together.
And it was true but, oh Yoba, it was happening. He couldn't do this--he should've just let Malia handle it like she wanted to--
“Sebastian?”
Of course the first person to speak to him was one of the last he wanted to talk to. He raised his head to look Maru -- who had approached the desk from the kitchen, a cup of tea in her hand -- in the eye, hoping some of that intelligence was enough to sense the waves of “please don't ask” he was sending off.
“What are you doing h--”
“Have you seen mom?” Sebastian actually hadn't meant to cut her off so abruptly. He was no longer the guy in the basement, in such close proximity, so the half-sister he already didn't like was becoming a stranger in her absence from his life, and he couldn't handle strangers--at least not such familiar ones.
“I think she went to see Clint about an axe...she should be back any minute,” Maru didn't seem upset with him, at least, though Sebastian knew that just meant he was behaving as she expected. “Did you need something? Malia’s not getting more cows, is she?”
“If Yoba has a conscience there will be no more cows on that farm, so no, no barns. I just need to...uh…”
“Is everything okay?” Maru could obviously sense something, because out of all of his family members, their mother was never someone Sebastian was worried about speaking to. The hesitation just wasn't adding up. For once, Maru could seem to tell this awkwardness wasn't about her being the one he was talking to.
“Yes, everything’s fine, great actually, that's uh...why I'm here...when did you say mom was coming back ag--”
“Sebby!” Robin’s voice was Sebastian's only warning of the incoming hug, and even with it he still wasn't ready. Years of carpentry left the woman stronger than she fully realized, so a casual hug could easily turn into a vice grip.
“Mom, you're killing him,” Maru said.
“Oh, goodness,” Robin set her son down and let him go, and Sebastian tried to make his gasp for breath as inconspicuous as possible. “Sorry, Sebby, it’s just been a while.”
“You saw me at Pierre’s two days ago.”
“I mean since you've come to visit, hon! It's been ages. And to see you two talking, it feels like my birthday--”
“Okay, okay, mom...I'm not actually here to visit,” he gently tapped the register on her desk, and she quickly went into business mode, as he was used to.
“Right! It's just that usually Mal handles the farm buildings--come to think of it, is there a reason you came instead of her?”
“She was just--she's busy and there's no reason I can't...uh…ask for the...um…”
“Sebby?”
“Weneedanotherroominthehouse.”
Robin turned to Maru, “you get any of that?”
“No.”
“Try again, Seb.”
“We need...or we’re thinking about needing...another bedroom...at our house.”
Sebastian went quiet, gauging both his mother and half-sister’s reactions, watching their faces go from confusion (why the hell did he have to say it like someone had a gun to his head??) to realization and then, for some reason, both of them looked really excited.
But his mother was more of the type to show it. Suddenly he was back in the maternal bear trap he had freed himself from just moments before, this time with added peals of delighted laughter.
When she let him down again, she couldn't seem to stop talking.
“Oh, Yoba, you're trying--wait, is that why she's not here, is she--”
“No!” Sebastian said, but then he couldn't help but remember the fairly...active last couple of months he and Malia had had, “at least, I don't think...agh, can you not make a big deal out of this?”
“My first grandchild, Sebby, and you expect me not to make a big deal out of it? Anyway, consider the expansion done as long as you have all the materials together, I'll start working on it tomorrow.”
Sebastian just nodded, not sure what else to say. And then, “oh, and if you tell anyone, Malia might actually kill you? Leave that to us, okay?”
“Lips are sealed,” Robin told him, already having taken out the blueprints for their house from a file and trying to figure out where the new addition would go. Sebastian looked over at Maru.
“Mine too,” she said, sipping her tea idly.
“Good,” Sebastian wanted to leave on a note of a finality but all he could think of was a hardened “bye.”
As the door to his old home closed, he could hear them giggling behind his back. Damn it.
--
“It's gonna rain all day tomorrow,” Malia said as soon as Sebastian landed next to her on the couch in their living room, “thank Yoba, no watering.”
“Malia celebrating no work? Could it be she's come under my influence at last?”
Instead of playfully shoving him like he would've expected, she turned to face him.
“Yes, I took care of the thing,” he said immediately. She looked so serious, maybe she was worried he'd weaseled out of it.
Malia’s expression softened, and she looked she wanted to say something. Sebastian gave her a few moments, but nothing came of it.
“So what’d Harvey tell you? Everything okay?” He asked.
“Yeah, everything’s fine. He just uh, basically said -- and I am absolutely paraphrasing -- that I should be really glad you did the thing. ‘Cause, uh...we’re gonna need it.”
She was waiting, waiting for the proper synapses in Sebastian’s brain to connect, and maybe some of them did, because his eyes widened significantly, but to be sure she grabbed one of his hands and placed it on her stomach.
Sebastian couldn't bring himself to move his hand, though there was no reason he shouldn't -- they'd only been trying for a couple of months, whatever was in there (oh Yoba there was something in there) couldn't possibly be big enough to feel, but he felt frozen in place.
It was happening. This was happening. This was real, it was in her, it was a real thing. It was real this was all real he used to just be the guy in the basement but now he and his wife -- they were gonna have--
“...Seb?”
“There's a baby in there??”
Malia couldn't help it, she laughed at her husband’s almost childlike amazement.
“Oh, that’s where I put it,” she said in false realization. Then, “I'm assuming I don't have to explain how it got there?”
“No, no, I got that, I just...whoa.”
Silence spread between them, the air around them charged with happiness and nervous energy, before Sebastian spoke again.
“...what do we do now?”
Malia paled.
“...I have no idea.”