Rumors | Sebastian Stan

1.6

Teigan takes her seat on the floor at the side of the room with her back against the wall just as the houselights over the audience dim and the spotlights over stage provide a majority of the light in the room, other than the one light that is pointing to the microphone the fans will use to ask questions. She's sitting against the wall not far from the door that leads to the behind the scenes area just for the guests the fans have come to see. The event staff actually recognised her and that is probably the only reason she's being allowed to sit here instead of having to join the actual audience on the seats. But there is a member of staff hovering nearby to take her backstage if she wants to leave at any point.

Teigan claps as each of the guys is introduced by the host of the panel, smiling when she notices Sebastian subtly looking around for her since she told him earlier that she was going to watch the panel with everyone. He knows that she's not in the main audience but the lights on the stage make it hard for them to see the edges of the room. She waits until he's looking in the general direction of her before flashing the light on her phone to gain his attention and show him while the other two are distracted. The host goes through everything he wants to say, as well as asking the guys how they are and all the other niceties, before moving on to allow the fans to ask their questions.

As far as she can tell, the panel goes along like all of the others she's seen on YouTube, with the exception of Anthony, Seb and Chris eating plums at one point and the latter two jumping off the stage at different points to hug a couple of fans who were really nervous about asking their questions or asked for a hug. Anthony does the same but less than the other two, and he's a lot more chill about it too.

Teigan takes a couple pictures, muffling laughter when Sebastian intentionally pulls a face at her when he notices the flash of her camera to get his attention. She sends him a copy of one of the funnier ones during the panel, seeing him roll his eyes to himself when he subtly pulls his phone out to see why it went off and getting confronted with a picture of himself.

The questions have been pretty general so far, about themselves or their characters, so the guys are pretty relaxed and joking around when answering questions to make everyone laugh. Occasionally someone asks something that they haven't prepared for and have to take a moment to think about but otherwise it seems pretty standard for the most part.

"Hi, guys," The shy voice of the next fan to step up to the microphone turns the guys attention back from the bag of plums they're still sharing to greet the girl. "My question is about your filming schedules. Does the long shooting schedules affect your personal relationships?"

There is a murmur across the audience from those who are wondering how the guys are going to approach this question, while the guys seem to be thinking over the question.

Anthony sits up as he decides to be the first of the trio to offer an answer. "It can put a strain on things but I think my kids are just used to it."

Chris nods, "It can be difficult sometimes. Any kind of relationship, whether it's a family kind or otherwise, can be put under pressure by busy schedules but I think we'd all agree that we're lucky enough to have time scheduled in to relax and keep in contact with everyone we need to."

It looks as if the question is going to be moved on, Sebastian just having been agreeing with the other two and making no move to jump in or answer, but then he raises his own microphone to speak. Teigan listens intently, wondering what he wants to add since he usually avoids answering questions about relationships.

"I'd agree. Putting in effort to stay in contact is pretty much the answer to any strain filming puts on our personal relationships. Having Facetime, texting, calling and all that at our fingertips helps, one hundred percent."

The crowd and Teigan clap as the fan thanks them for answering her question before the next fan steps up and brings up a new topic. However, Teigan noticed the surprise and suspicion on Anthony and Chris' faces when Sebastian jumped in to answer.

When she starts to get too warm, she stands up and motions to the staff member that she wants to go backstage to cool off. She knows Sebastian notices her pass by the side of the stage to go backstage so she waves to him before ducking behind the door and thanking the staff member when he offers her a cold bottle of water from a mini-fridge on hand for those coming off stage to grab. She decides to hangout in the room the guys have backstage to chill in between events.

-

She looks up from her phone when she hears voices, shortly before the door is swung open and the guys enter one by one - Chris then Anthony and, finally, Sebastian. Teigan smiles, tucking her phone into her pocket as she stands, waving when Chris notices her, drawing Anthony and Sebastian's attention to her too.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" Chris smiles as he steps over and hugs her in greeting.

"I was watching your panel for a while." She hugs him back briefly before smiling to Seb when he moves to hug her tightly. "Did you save me any plums?"

Sebastian lets go as he starts laughing. "They took them off us, sorry."

Teigan pretends to be disappointed before nudging Sebastian gently as he places an arm around her waist, keeping her close as she turns her attention away from him to the last member of the group.

"You're Anthony, right? Seb talks about you a lot too." She holds out her hand to shake his. "I'm Te-"

Anthony cuts her off as he steps forward and shakes her hand. "Teigan Butler - yeah, I recognised you as soon as I saw you. That must mean you're the Teigan that's staying with Seb - Sebastian, you lucky bastard."

She confirms that she's staying with Sebastian before making a face as she shrugs. "I suppose I should have expected that someone would recognise me."

"What do you mean?" Chris frowns.

"This girl right here is popular on Instagram. I'd say half of Instagram wants her and the other half want to be her." Anthony explains to Chris as they all take a seat on the couches.

Sebastian sits with her while the other two sit on the other couch, his arm lying along the top of the couch behind her head.

"Chris is behind on the whole social media thing." Sebastian whispers to her, smiling as she laughs. He nudges her temple with his nose before turning his attention back to the guys.

Teigan tips her head back against his arm as the pair listen to Anthony and Chris who have gone off topic and are now joking around. After a while, filled with laughter and friendly banter between the guys, Anthony brings up the panel.

"That question about personal relationships, though. I was like, how do I answer this without giving away my private life?" The other three laugh before he sits up, pointing to Sebastian. "Mr avoid-relationship-questions, where did that answer come from?"

Sebastian shrugs, his thumb rubbing circles against her shoulder. "I just answered the question. What's wrong with that?"

Chris shakes his head. "Nothing. Just, like Mackie said, you usually avoid those questions so we were surprised when you jumped in."

"He made a good point, though." Teigan speaks up. "Communication helps when distance becomes an issue."

"Sounds like you have experience." Anthony comments.

Teigan shrugs, answering with some vagueness. "Some."

Sebastian gets her attention before either of the other two can continue the conversation, showing her something from Instagram on his phone which distracts the other two who then start asking about the posts he's scrolling through.

The guys next event is half an hour later, so they spend the time in between just talking and joking around together. Teigan can tell that Anthony and Chris are at least a little curious about the easy closeness and near-constant contact between herself and Sebastian but they reframe from commenting. Though, she has no doubt that Sebastian is likely to be asked or teased about it later on.