New Years || Sebastian Stan x Reader

2021

Sebastian sits on the bed, tucking the covers around his waist as he adjusts to the light of the room. It's still cold here, but nowhere near the temperatures of the city in winter.

The sun almost makes it to the bed through the gap in the curtains, a bright strip of white stopping short of the headboard as he sits back against it.

Not really sure what to do with himself or the day ahead.

Cleo, his therapist, had warned of it. He'd described that he felt as if he was bobbing in water, just drifting with no real place to go. Sometimes his head would go under and he felt as if he was drowning but he'd always catch his breath in the end. Someone helping to pull him out of the darkness and towards the light of the surface.

And it always struck at the weirdest of times, like when he was folding laundry or putting away the groceries. Suddenly aware of the emptiness of everything around him.

That's until the anniversary, Cleo had said. Worked with his metaphor and described it as the biggest wave. The hardest one to fight.

And she wasn't wrong.

He'd not slept, staring at the ceiling even though he couldn't see it. The black of the room was better than the darkness behind the lids of his eyes.

There was a knock at the door now, and he's not surprised by it even if it's a little earlier than yesterday.

"You up?"

"I'm up," Sebastian says without moving.

"You're gonna get out of bed today right?"

And he's back at his loft suddenly. Asking you the exact same question. Coming upstairs and finding you hiding under the covers.

If he'd only let you stay there.

"Yeah, just... I will..." He says, blowing out his cheeks with a stuttered breath. Hand shaking as he runs his fingers through his hair, clamping at brown strands as he waits for the grief to pass.

"I'm not leaving until you do," Chace says and he hears the man fall back against the wood and sliding down to the floor as he waits. "I found a boat, by the way. They said they'll take us out to see the stars."

"You did?" Sebastian is surprised now, if not a little excited. "How'd you manage that?"

"You're famous in Spain too, you know?"

"Chace..."

"And you know I played the card." There's sadness in his voice, one that Sebastian had come to recognise over the last year.

"Fuck, Chace."

"But it worked. Jeff is getting breakfast and then we can go."

"Did Emma come?" Sebastian asks, a little hopeful, wanting you to be remembered by your friends, but just happy that Chace had managed to find a way to the stars.

"No. No Emma. David's here though."

"What?!"

"I'm joking. Just, please, get out of bed."

"Okay, I'm out." He lies without moving. 

"Prove it. Five... four..."

"I'm naked," Sebastian says, straight-faced. 

"And forgotten who you're speaking to apparently... I've already seen it all before. Three..."

Sebastian jumps from the bed, the covers still tight at his waist, his hand grasping at a ball of it at the small of his back as he walks towards the voice of his friend. The sheets soft against his feet, tickling at his ankles. He unlocks the door, pulling it open and Chace falls backwards with a smile.