Chapter Text
Five years ago
“What do you mean, it blew up? How did it blow up?” Those were the first words Sebastian heard when he came upstairs from his bedroom in the basement on his first day of seventh grade. It was his stepfather, Demetrius, most likely discussing something that had happened in the university lab where he worked when he wasn’t working in the lab at their home. Never a dull moment when you live with a scientist.
“I can’t come in; it’s my daughter’s first day of kindergarten…what do you mean, have someone else take her?! How would you react if someone had told you to skip taking your only child to their first day of school?!” Sebastian sighed as he walked past where Demetrius was yelling at his phone on the way to the kitchen. His only child. Biologically speaking, yes, Sebastian’s half-sister Maru was Demetrius’s only child. And Demetrius never let anyone forget it, despite the fact that he’d been married to Sebastian’s mom, Robin, since long before Sebastian's first day of kindergarten. An event that Demetrius had not been there for since Sebastian was not his child. Though, at least his mom had taken him. It looked like she’d be the one joining Maru on this rite of passage too.
"Oh, fine," Demetrius uttered in defeat. "Honey, can you....?"
“Honey, don’t you remember? I have to leave to repair that shed on the farm outside of town before the rain starts!” Sebastian sighed again as he listened to his mom explain why she couldn’t take Maru to school. Something about a meteorite hitting a shed with a bunch of equipment last night, and how the whole town was doomed if water got into the machinery there.
“Mommy, why do I have to go to school,” Maru asked, her voice already starting to shake. She was stressed easily, and started to cry at the slightest raise of her parents’ voices.
“Honey, you’ll have a lot of fun, and you’ll be a big kid, like Sebastian!” But she wasn’t very convincing when she was rushing to get her tools together and her coat on and clearly stressed about her upcoming work. She paused, a light bulb going off in her head. “Seb, can you take your sister to school?”
Sebastian groaned. Judging by how nervous Maru already was, she was going to be a wreck when he tried to leave her at school, and he wasn’t sure he’d be able to calm her down. He’d probably end up late to school himself. But before he could protest, his mom was out the door. He rolled his eyes and sighed.
“What’s with that attitude?” demanded Demetrius, who had finally gotten off the phone long enough to get on Sebastian’s case. “You want to be a part of this family, right? Then take some responsibility every once in a while.” Sebastian pretended to listen as Demetrius ranted about how Sebastian didn’t understand how hard he and his mom worked to put a roof over their head and how the least he could do was help take care of his sister. He didn’t, however, miss the part about how “you better make sure my little girl gets to school just fine!”
Sebastian wanted to shoot back “oh, like how you made sure I got to school just fine when I was her age? Oh, right, you slept in because it was your day off and I wasn’t important enough because I’m not your child!” But, he held his tongue for Maru’s sake. The girl already had tears forming in her eyes. He reached over and patted her head. “Hey, there’s nothing to be upset about, okay? School’s fun; you’ll see.” He gave her what he hoped was a reassuring smile. “Fun” might be a bit of a stretch, at least for him, but at least it got him out of the house.
He texted his best friend Sam, and told him he wouldn’t be able to walk to school with him like they’d planned.
~
Later that morning, Sebastian was walking toward the elementary school, hand-in-hand with his very nervous little sister. He wished he knew what to say to calm her down, but he wasn’t good with things like these. So, they walked in silence until finally, Maru spoke up in a shaky voice.
“Seb, what if the other kids don’t like me?” She looked up at him with eyes full of tears and clutched his hand tightly. Sebastian sighed and stopped walking to pat her head.
“Come on, Maru, that’s silly. Everyone likes you.” It was true; Maru was the opposite of Sebastian’s shy, awkward self; she was bright and energetic and curious, and everyone adored her. She may be nervous now, but he had no doubt that by the end of the day, she’d have a bunch of new friends.
“You don’t like me….” she said wistfully, almost in a whisper. Sebastian’s eyebrows flew up.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked nervously. When Maru didn’t answer, he knelt down in front of her and held her little hands gently in his. “It’s okay; you can tell me. Why don’t you think I like you?”
She looked down at her feet. “You always look so sad when you look at me….” She mumbled. Sebastian felt his heart clench. Maru was too perceptive for her own good. He was sad that his mom and stepdad didn’t like him the way they liked her, no matter how hard he tried. (And he had tried hard for years before finally giving up.) Maybe he was even a bit jealous of her. But that didn’t mean he didn’t like her. None of this was her fault.
Sebastian pulled her close and held her hands tighter. “Maru…I…I’m just a moody teenager, I don’t like anyone; it’s my job.” He laughed at himself, and even got a reluctant giggle out of Maru. “But, you’re my little sister and…I love you…” He cringed internally. It was true, but he wasn’t good at all this mushy stuff. He grinned and rubbed his knuckles playfully into her scalp. “But if you tell anyone, I’ll end you, got, it squirt?” They both laughed, and she nodded.
He stood up and took her hand again with a smile. “Trust me. Everyone’s going to love you. And if anyone doesn’t, they’ll have your dark, scary big brother to deal with for daring to upset you, got it?” She giggled and skipped along by his side. He squeezed her hand and made a mental note to try harder not to look so upset around her.
~
After he’d dropped her off, he heard the unmistakable sound of a skateboard rolling up behind him. He turned around and saw Sam, a stupid grin on his face. “Aw, that was so sweet!” he gushed in a teasing voice.
“Oh geez, how long were you watching?”
“Long enough!” He replied with a smirk. His expression softening, he added, “you handled that well, though.”
Sebastian sighed. “Tried to, at least. It’s not her fault she’s the beloved child and I’m the family blight.”
“Hey—”
“Okay, fine,” he corrected himself, noticing the scolding tone that Sam got whenever he deprecated himself. “It’s not her fault that her dad just thinks I’m the unfortunate extra to the perfect little family he built with our mom, or that our mom is scared to even look at me because I look just like my dad, the guy who beat and almost killed us.”
“Seb….” Sam sighed softly.
“Look, you and I both know it’s true.” When Sam didn’t argue, Sebastian continued. “I’ve accepted it already. There’s no point blaming Maru for what her parents think of me.” He rolled his eyes and walked a bit faster, a sign to Sam to drop it. He already had school to deal with; he didn’t want to think about his messed-up family dynamics too.
Before he could get lost in his thoughts, he heard what he could only describe as the voice of an angel. He couldn’t even make out the words at first, only the ethereal sound of the voice. He strained his ears to hear more.
“…ask me what I’m thinking about, I tell you that I’m thinking about….”
The voice was coming from the corner up ahead. Sebastian took off running to find the source. Sam followed, asking what the hell was going on, but Sebastian hissed at him to shut up and ran the rest of the way to the corner, following the tantalizing sound of the voice.
When he made it to the corner, he looked down the street and saw a girl with long, bright purple curls. She weaved seamlessly around anyone in her path on roller skates, stopping to spin in the street when she had the space, singing the entire time. Sebastian caught just a bit more of her song before she was too far away to be heard.
“…I’d run away and hide with you; I know that you got daddy issues, and I do too…”
Sebastian stood on the corner, watching her purple-topped form retreat in the distance. He could only stare in awe. He’d never seen anyone so shamelessly frolicking in the street like that before, so obviously indifferent to the indignation on the faces of those they passed by. It was like a level of freedom Sebastian, who’d lived his entire life bogged down by what others thought of him, never knew existed.
“Dude, what was that about?” asked Sam bewilderedly. But to Sebastian, what was baffling was how his friend could be any less entranced by what they’d just witnessed than he was.
“Dude…” Sebastian whispered in awe, still staring even though the girl was now too far ahead to see. “I think I’m in love.”