Stardew Valley - Start - (Sebastian x Alex)

Zuzu City

(Heyyy, so yeah here's cool guy I love. He is so silly and shit idk man, I just think he's awesome. I draw him way too much.) 

Sebastian Woods stood on the bus, his hand holding the handlebar tightly. The bus had been late that day, and the bus stop had no place for cover. His clothes were soddened from the rain, which left him no choice but to stand instead of sit. He held his keyboard fixed to his waist, afraid that if he did not, he'd hit the poor old lady in front of him.

She sat calmly in a window seat, holding a red leather purse in her lap. Her hair was kept upright in a bun, leaving no gray strands awry. She smiled pleasantly out the window, watching as the city lapsed by. He felt as if he recognized her, but he could not remember where. He skimmed his memory, and a name appeared.

"Evelyn?" Sebastian muttered.

She looked at him promptly, a delighted smile forming on her face. "Oh, why, you're Robin's boy!" He nodded. "Isn't this a coincidence! I haven't seen you in..." she counted two of her fingers, "two years, I reckon!"

He gave her a weak smile and held his keyboard closer. He had never expected to see her here, let alone anyone from Stardew Valley, and he wanted it to stay that way. The valley was his home, always had been, but in a spur of the moment he moved to Zuzu City, a place for opportunity and change. Yeah, right, more like a place for lost opportunity and shame, he thought. I should have never moved here, but now I can't just pack up and leave. I've got a whole thing going on here now; I've got a house.

"So, what brings you here?" He said.

She grinned brightly at him as if she had been waiting for someone to ask her that exact question. She said, "gridball, that's what brings me here. My boy, Alex-- do you remember Alex? Brown hair, green eyes-- yes?" He nodded, "I'm going to one of his games; he's a professional gridball player now! Can you believe it? I could hardly start to believe it myself, but he made it! And at 24, no less."

He looked at her incredulously. He couldn't believe it.

 Sebastian had no clue why it was so hard to accept that Alex was a professional at gridball; he was hardworking, dedicated, and most of all strict with himself. Sebastian saw it with his own eyes in the valley. Almost constantly he was training, be it soccer, gridball, track, he was involved in all of them.

The last time Sebastian saw him, Alex ran up to him and told him he wished they had talked more often, because he knew that Sebastian would have needed a cool person like himself to be around. He smiled warily at him and said he wished so as well, keeping it illicit that he thought he was a bit arrogant. All sports guys were arrogant, anyway. But for some reason, Alex seemed a little nicer than the sports guy's Sebastian saw around.

"Impressive. What team?" Sebastian asked.

"I hear it's called the... the Tunnelers? I can never quite remember, but I'm pretty sure it's named that." She said.

Sebastian looked at the empty seat beside her. He said, "you're going alone? What about George; I would have thought he would have wanted to come."

Evelyn sighed and shook her head. "He couldn't. The game is not wheelchair friendly, you know, and neither is this bus. If I brought him, I wouldn't have been able to push him around anywhere."

He didn't know what to reply with. Evelyn did it for him: "It's unfortunate; Alex would have loved to see him there."

"Yeah, he would." He said.

-- -- -- --

Sebastian lay on his bed, looking up towards the ceiling listlessly. He turned on his side and grabbed his phone.

"Alex... Mullner... Tunnelers..." he muttered.

He tapped on the first article he saw. The first thing he noticed was how much Alex had changed; he looked older, stronger, more handsome. Sebastian guessed that was why the article said he had a huge following: strong, handsome, and one of the leading players? There was no way he wouldn't have a big following. Sebastian wished that he had even a third of the following Alex had.

He was a freelancer– it was what he always wanted to do– but he felt as if something was missing. Just that day he showed a friend his keyboard, and they begged him to play it. At that moment he felt happier than he had in a long while and played a few songs for them. It reminded him of when he was in the valley, when he had a band with Sam and Abigail, his two best friends. By now he forgot what the band was even named, and which instruments Abigail and Sam played.

The three of them stayed in touch after Sebastian moved, albeit after only one year they grew apart. If only I had talked to them more, he thought. I didn't realize that they were just looking out for me. But it's too late to dwell on it now. Isn't it time to get my life together? Looking forward is better than looking backwards... but what even is forward for me?

He sat up and stared out his window, the hum of traffic below him. He felt a sense of giddiness in his stomach, but there was a creeping dread along with it. He knew what he had to do.