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The bus screeches to a slow halt as they pull up to the Calico Desert stop. Pam waves at Sam and Sebastian as they descend the steps into the dry heat.
“I’m out of here by 5, boys, so don’t be late unless you plan on sleeping here.”
The doors close behind them, and Sam watches as she sits back in her chair and seemingly instantly falls asleep.
“You ever wonder what happens if two people want to come out here on the same day?” he asks as Sebastian leads them over to the desert trader’s stand before anything else. “Like, what if the farmer had plans to come out here today or something?”
“Huh,” Sebastian says. “I guess they’re shit out of luck.”
“Do you really think she’d just leave us out here?”
“Oh yeah,” Sebastian says with an amused huff. “Pam doesn’t strike me as the type to go above and beyond. I’m just glad she seemed sober enough to get us here in the first place.”
“Aw, come on, she’s not that—” Sebastian’s flat look cuts his sentence short. “Okay, yeah, true. Hey, a cactus fruit! Maybe mom can finally try out that long john recipe with the cactus fruit filling. Let’s get a bunch!”
“That’s the plan,” Sebastian answers, pulling his backpack forward and giving it a little smack for emphasis. “That’s why we brought the big bag.”
Sam grins widely, secretly pleased that Sebastian had thought about him. The main purpose of this trip, he knows, is to check out the caverns the farmer had mentioned. They hadn’t talked about the cactus fruit.
“Man, the prices in this place are a trip,” Sebastian whispers, looking intently at the listed offerings at the merchant stand. “A plate of spicy eel costs a ruby? But an entire bed is a pearl? Hey, maybe we should try fishing up some pearls. We’ll come back and buy a bunch of beds.”
Sam laughs. “And do what with them?”
“I dunno, lay them out in the middle of the town square? Block Mayor Lewis’ door? Put one in the graveyard for Abigail?”
“Ooh, I know! We’ll lay them out long-ways across the bridge, so any time someone wants to go to the library they have to roll across a bunch of beds to get there.”
“Perfect,” Sebastian agrees with a quiet laugh. He’s smiling, despite the sun and the heat, and Sam has to try very hard not to stare. God forbid he draw attention to Sebastian’s happiness—Sebastian would probably frown for the rest of the day just to be contrary.
More importantly, though, he doesn’t want Sebastian to catch him staring and see exactly what his smile does to Sam.
“Alright, grab all the cactus fruit you can find,” Sebastian instructs, looking around. He points to the northern ridge where they can see a creepy looking cave mouth. “Looks like that’s the cavern.” To the south, there’s another building. “And that must be where Emily’s ‘friend’ works.” The word “friend” is accompanied by air quotes.
“So let’s start down there and work our way up,” Sam suggests.
The dirt beneath their feet is a lot harder than Sam expected. The last time he was here was years ago when he was a kid, back when his dad was actually home for a couple years at a time. He doesn’t remember much about it, but for some reason he’d expected the sand to be soft and slippery like the beach.
“Weird sand,” he says, pocketing two more cactus fruits in quick succession.
Sebastian looks at him, puzzled for only a second, then rolls his eyes fondly. “Sometimes I wish I could live inside your head, Sammy.”
Sam’s heart gives a happy little flutter at the nickname—an increasingly frequent problem as of late. Sebastian is the only one allowed to call him Sammy. He’s strictly Sam to everyone else, even Abigail.
“Okay, come on,” Sebastian prompts. “The bag’s like half full and we still need to hit the caverns. Wanna check out the store first?”
“Nah,” Sam answers, dropping one last fruit into the bag before Sebastian zips it up. “Probably nothing interesting in there anyway. I wanna see what’s in the cave.”
The cave mouth gives way to a small, narrow enclave. At the back of the enclave is a very old door with a large keyhole, a giant skull shaped key sticking out conspicuously. Sebastian wastes no time turning the key until it clicks and pushes open the door.
At first, it looks pretty much like the mines in the mountains by Sebastian’s house, but as they take a few steps in, it becomes obvious that the ground here is different.
“Oh, holy fuck,” Sebastian says not five minutes into their adventure. “Is that iridium ore?”
Sam looks closely at the rock Sebastian is examining, not really sure what he’s looking for. “Um, maybe?”
“It’s either that or turquoise,” Sebastian says with confidence—another thing Sam loves about him. Sebastian is insanely smart and motivated, and when he has the chance to talk about his passions, his knowledge and confidence is very attractive. “Either way,” Sebastian continues, “It’s no wonder the farmer started making bank all of a sudden.”
“I wonder if Emily knows about all the gems down here,” Sam says.
With a sly smirk, Sebastian leans closer, and in a conspiratorial tone says, “I bet the farmer keeps that a closely guarded secret. Wouldn’t want everyone to know where the good loot is, right?”
Sam grins back. “Okay, so do we have something to smash it open?”
“Nope,” Sebastian sighs. “But next time we’ll borrow my mom’s pickaxe. I wonder how far down this place goes?”
“It’s said that nobody knows.”
“That’s crap,” Sebastian says with a shrug. “Someone must have made it.”
Sam is caught suddenly off guard as his foot catches on a rock, sending him tumbling to the ground with a loud racket and a grunt. “Ow, shit. Hey, watch your step.”
“Watch your step,” Sebastian laughs. He leans over quickly to offer him a hand up, but before Sam can get to his feet, he hears a sudden, very loud hissing, drawing his attention to some kind of crazy, flying snake-dragon thing coming up on them, and fast.
“Oh fuck, oh shit, oh fuck—”
Sebastian sees it, too, gripping his hand firmly and yanking him to his feet. “RUN!”
They take off together, hands still gripped tightly, but Sam can’t even appreciate the feeling of it, preoccupied as he is with the prospect of his premature death. The thing keeps after them, zipping through the air silently except for the occasional threatening hiss.
“What is that thing?!” Sam yells. His heart is pounding, his blood rushing in his ears as he tries to keep one foot moving in front of the other.
A massive boulder stops them in their tracks.
“Shit, fuck,” Sebastian hisses, looking around frantically for a way around. “Shit, we’re gonna have to go back the way he came.”
“We can’t,” Sam argues. The hissing snake monster is bearing down on them now. “Seb!” He squeezes the hand in his reflexively, his eyes shutting tightly as he prepares himself for his imminent demise.
“Come on, Sammy, keep running. Here.” Sebastian puts a dagger in Sam’s free hand and begins to pull him back the way they came. At some point, Sebastian had managed to pull a sword out of somewhere unbeknownst to Sam, and as he charges ahead, Sam can’t help the swooping sensation in his gut.
Sebastian swipes the creature on the side as they run past it, causing it to recoil and buying them a little bit of breathing room. “Keep going!” He swings blindly behind them, half running forward, half turned back to keep his eye on the creature. Once or twice, Sam hears the smacking sound of a sword colliding with scales and wonders again what the fuck kinds of eldritch horrors are living in this hellpit.
The door to the exit finally comes into sight as they round a different corner, and Sam finds the energy to sprint at full tilt the rest of the way, all but dragging Sebastian behind him as he continues to protect them both.
“I see it!” He calls. “Almost there!”
He practically skids to a halt, dropping the dagger in favor of wrenching the door open and yanking Sebastian through it. It slams behind them with a thud as the creature chasing them smacks against it, then hisses and disappears back into the depths of the cavern.
“Holy fuck,” Sebastian says, panting. “We have dragons in here?!”
“You’d think the farmer could have mentioned it!” Sam laments. “I can’t believe we almost just got eaten by a dragon.”
“Ugh, speak for yourself.” Sebastian takes his hand back gingerly, and now that they’re out of immediate danger, Sam has a chance to look Sebastian over and finds him worse for wear.
“Seb…”
“I’m fine, Sam. Just a few scratches.”
It’s definitely more than a few scratches—one particularly nasty gash on his sword-wielding arm alarms Sam the most. “We need to get you to the clinic.”
“It closes at 3, remember?”
“Fine, then we need to get you home and have Maru check you out.”
“Ugh, she’ll tell Demetrius,” Sebastian complains. “I seriously don’t wanna get any shit from him.”
Sam sighs. “She’d probably keep it a secret if you asked, you know. But fine, if you won’t go home then you can come stay at my place. I’ll tell my mom you fell off a cliff or something.”
“I hate that she’d believe that.”
“It’s not like it hasn’t happened before.”
“...True.”
There’s a moment of silence as the two of them continue to catch their breath. Sam finds himself missing the comfort of Sebastian’s hand, mourning the fact that he didn’t even get a chance to enjoy it. He takes Sebastian’s injured arm and gingerly checks it over, making sure there’s nothing else serious he needs to be aware of. After, he gives the rest of Sebastian a once-over just to be sure, despite Sebastian’s grumbling protests of, “I’m fine, Sam. Stop worrying.”
He relents, dusting himself off with a weary sigh. “Back to the bus, then, I guess. It’s not like we can get anywhere without some serious supplies. Better stock up before we come back.”
“You want to come back?” Sebastian asks. His dark eyes are bright with excitement. Sam lets himself look for just a second, taking him in and letting the pleasant feelings wind around his heart.
“Duh. You think I’d pass up on the chance to literally slay dragons and dig up buried treasure?”
“I knew there was a reason I kept you around.”
Sam grins. “I’ll be your knight in shining armor.”
“Not likely,” Sebastian laughs. “I heard you screaming for me back there. ‘Ah! Sebby! Help me!’” He mimics Sam in a high pitched, damsel-esque voice.
Sam barks out a laugh at the gross exaggeration. “I did not call you Sebby!”
With nothing left to fear, the adrenaline rush dissipates, and Sam is hit with a wave of lethargy, suddenly very eager to get home and spend the rest of the night hanging out with his favorite person.
“Man, I’m tired.”
“If you have an extra diamond lying around, I can get you an aggressively mediocre espresso shot from the trader,” Sebastian jokes.
“Yeah, totally. Fair trade. Oh, is that what that means?”
“Not at all.”
“What does it mean?”
“I’ll tell you on the ride home. Come on.” And just like that, Sebastian slips his hand inside Sam’s once more, not so much as an acknowledgement that this is not something normal for them.
Maybe, just maybe, Sam is Sebastian’s favorite person, too.
Sam gives his hand a squeeze, then, mustering all of his courage, laces their fingers together in an altogether more intimate hold.
Sebastian says nothing, but Sam can tell from the corner of his eye that he’s blushing. Hope blossoms in his chest, warm and liquid, and already he knows that he’ll be finding any excuse to hold Sebastian’s hand as often as possible.
The bus comes into view with the setting sun behind it, Pam standing and tapping her foot impatiently.
“Leaving in three, boys!”
They climb aboard and sit a few rows back, hands discreetly clasped between them despite Pam having clearly seen them already.
As the bus pulls away and heads down the winding road back to Pelican Town, Sam can’t help but wonder, “She’s not gonna like, make a weird thing out of this, right?” He doesn’t specify, but he doesn’t seem to need to.
“She’s headed straight to the saloon when we get back,” Sebastian mutters. “She’ll forget by the end of the night.”
Content with that answer and with the warm weight of Sebastian’s fingers between his own, Sam lets himself drift off.
And if his head lolls slightly to the side and lands on Sebastian’s shoulder while he naps, and if Sebastian doesn’t push him off but instead smiles warmly at him and does his best to make sure Sam is extra comfortable, well, Sam doesn’t need to know.