Random oneshots

(Random Stardew oneshot) "Brother/Sister bonding"

(Author's note: WARNING! Dead frog mentioned in "Attempt 2")

Ever since Maru was old enough to understand human emotion, she knew that there was something wrong with the relationship she had with her half-brother, Sebastian, but she had a hard time understanding why that was.

She hardly ever argued with him about anything, she didn't get into his space unless she absolutely needed him for something, which only happened once in a blue moon...

And she'd try her hardest to stay out of fights that Sebastian somehow started with Demetrius, unless there just had to be someone there to break up the fight.

So, Maru never really understood why her half-brother seemed to despise her so much.

She even tried asking him on multiple occasions, and the only answers she got were something along the lines of "Why do you need me to start singing your praises? Everyone else in the house already does. Isn't that enough for you?" Or "Listen. I'm not trying to be your friend. I didn't even wanna be your half-brother, and yet, here we are! All because Demetrius decided to get freaky with my mom."

Even though Sebastian said some mean things, and put a rather... Disturbing image... into her head, Maru just couldn't bring herself to leave him alone.

Something about her clearly... Deeply upset him, and she wanted to know what it was. She wanted to at least try to get on good terms with this sad boy.

And if she couldn't do that, she wanted to try to make it so he didn't feel the need to hate her anymore.

So, as she sat in her room, she spent a while thinking about ways to attempt to get her half-brother, her father, and herself to get along.

(Attempt 1: Coding trouble)

As she walked down the steps that led to the dark basement, she questioned if this idea was really as good as she thought it was.

She then took a deep breath, and knocked on the door.

And after a few seconds of what Maru could only assume was Sebastian arguing with himself on whether or not answering the door was a good idea, he opened it, looking about as done with her as one would expect, even though she hadn't even said anything yet.

After an awkward pause, she said "Hey, bro!" with a somewhat forced smile, before being interrupted by Sebastian, quickly saying "Don't call me that." with a deadpan look on his face.

"Great start, Maru." The girl thought, looking at the ground, just before Sebastian started to slowly close the door on her.

Luckily, she thought quick enough to put her foot in the way, and with a sigh, Sebastian asked "What could you possibly want? I'm busy, which is something no one in this house seems to understand."

Maru then backed away a bit, before speaking.

"Um...Listen, I... I was wondering if you could help me with something. I was working on coding something for one of my robots, and... Well, let's just say... Things aren't going well." Maru said, rubbing the back of her neck.

Sebastian then scoffed, before saying "You need my help? You, one of the 'smartest' people in this house... Need my help..? That's a good joke. Almost got a laugh out of me." with a slow clap.

"Seb, I'm serious! I need your help. Dad can't help because he's busy with something important, and-" Maru paused mid sentence, once she heard the words coming out of her mouth.

For a split second, Sebastian looked almost hurt, before going back to his usual expression, and saying "Yeah. Figured. You don't mind leaving him to do his 'important' work, but you come to bother me while I'm working. You say you need help with coding something, and yet, while I'm doing just that, you act like my job is less important than whatever Demetrius is doing."