Chapter Text
It was winter. More specifically it was the day that Mayor Lewis sent out the letters of who was going to be your secret giftee for Winter Star.
Of all Pelican Town’s traditions, this was one that Sebastian particularly disliked because he had to figure out what to give to some random person that he didn’t know. Or like. He didn’t really like people.
Sure if it was his mom or Sam he would know what they wanted but everyone else? No way. Last year he had to figure out what to get for that old granny in town? Evelyn? And he just gave her flowers because she tends the town gardens, right? And she crowed over how sweet he was and that she loved the flowers but really it was far more stressful than any holiday was supposed to be.
This year his “secret friend” was the new farmer who had just come to town. He supposed they hadn’t just come to town, as they’d been here for almost a year now. It could be worse, at least he liked the farmer. Fox. Fox was their name.
Sometimes late at night when he was having a smoke by the lake he’d see them come out of that old mine with a backpack full of ores. Sidenote: that backpack must be so heavy? How could they even carry it? They were smaller than him and didn’t look like much but they had to be super strong.
But anyway, they’d approach him with a quiet nod. Then rummage through that backpack and say, “Hey I found this cool rock down there that I think you’d like.”
He’d thank them and they would stand quiet with him for a moment, then, with a wave, turn and head down the mountain back towards their farm.
He looked at the small pile of gems that had accumulated on his nightstand: quartz; aquamarine; and his favorite, the translucent frozen tear. What to get the farmer for Winter Star?
They were incredibly self-sufficient (see: them mining their own ore to make their own equipment??)
Sebastian laid back on his bed to ponder some more. Before he got to know Fox very well, he didn’t think he’d like them at all. They had started coming over a lot in the fall to talk to his mom about construction projects. Every time they came over they brought a basket of blackberries, which his mom and Demetrius went gaga for, though he didn’t much care for fruit.
Sebastian just had to wonder why they were doing that, what were they angling for? By now he knows that they’re just like that; if they have something, they want to share it, no strings attached.
And even though they were visiting to talk to his mom about carpentry stuff, they always took the time to talk to Demetrius in his lab, and Maru if she was there. His room was right underneath, he could hear them.
He didn’t understand how Fox could get along with Demetrius. Demetrius was so often off in his little Demetrius world that he didn’t realize or think about other people’s feelings or experiences. Sebastian has this vast internal emotional world and it so often feels like Demetrius is just blundering into it without watching where he’s going.
But Fox isn’t like Demetrius, they get along with him because they’re interested in everything and they’re a good listener.
Yoba knows Sebastian has been on the other side of Fox’s patient, open face, with those big dark eyes. He distinctly remembers the first day that they were visiting and they dared to come downstairs to his room. How they timidly knocked on his door and waited for him to finish his line of code.
And he was so frustrated with his friends and the lack of respect towards his work and the lack of respect towards his needs for space that it just all came pouring out to Fox.
Afterwards he wondered how he could have shared that stuff with someone he felt he didn’t know that well. He didn’t feel embarrassed though. Fox seemed to invite it. Every time he saw them he felt a warm calm. He started to share other parts of himself with them, his motorcycle, his desires to leave.
He remembered asking them once why they would choose to move here. They answered slowly, as though trying to find the right words, “I needed to connect with life… living things… I guess? When I’m farming I’m making life happen… living things grow. I don’t know. I like farming.”
This gave Sebastian an idea. But also he sighed. He was going to have to talk to Demetrius.