Chapter Text
Two weeks ago, if you had asked Sebastian to name the three events least likely to happen in rapid succession in Pelican Town, his list would have looked something like this:
First, someone dying a gruesome death. It was Pelican Town, for fuck's sake: everyone was doomed to die of old age or alcohol poisoning, whichever happened first. Sebastian had lived in the sleepy town the entirety of his waking memory, and the only unexpected death he could even think of was from a freak car crash off the highway outside of town. Bloody deaths, unsolved murders, any crimes in general involving the people of Pelican town… it simply didn't happen.
Second would be anyone in town putting any kind of trust in Sebastian, Sam, and/or Abigail to act like level-headed adults. They were the famously brash and childish 'big kids' of the town — whether they deserved that reputation or not — and, even being halfway through their twenties, they were treated exactly as such. The thought that they would be the go-to's for any serious matters was laughable at best.
And third, any of them moving out of their parents' houses. Abigail and Sam were broke, full stop: everything Abby made from the meager wage her dad paid her went towards her online classes, and everything Sam made from his job at the warehouse went right into savings for college — or got spent at the music store in Zuzu. And while Sebastian had a job, he also had a step-dad that thought he should pay rent for the drafty, half-finished basement that they "let" him stay in. Between bills and saving up to get to Zuzu himself some day, there wasn't anything left over for an on-the-whim move.
And yet, in three colder-than-average early spring days, every single one of those unlikely events happened. One after another, like a fucked up clock where bad things happened every other time the hour hand made it around.
It had all started on a Tuesday evening. Sam had dropped by to poach off of Sebastian's console, sitting cross-legged on the ground way too close to his TV with Junimo Kart running, while Sebastian worked at his PC. He had his stereo on low, the same CD playing for the umpteenth time, the melodies weaving in and out of those from the game on the TV. They had been doing this a lot more lately, ever since Kent came home after New Year's. Sam wasn't ready to talk about why he didn't want to spend time at home, though, and Sebastian wasn't about to push him about it.
Talking about feelings wasn't really their thing.
It wasn't hard to hear the front door bang open over their dueling music: the heavy hardwood door rattled the walls as it slammed into the wall, shaking the house down to the foundation where they were.
Sam jumped in surprise and shot a wide-eyed glance towards the door, but neither of them moved.
At least, not until the yelling started.
"Maru! I need help! Maru?! Fuck, Robin? Seb? Anyone?!"
"Is that Abby?" Sam said incredulously, already up on his knees, the controller abandoned on the carpet. The Game Over screen sent the TV black as Sam lost his last life, the Junimo tumbling to its death off the edge of the mine cart railing.
They took the stairs two steps at a time.
When they burst onto the landing, one after another, a tear-streaked Abigail was hauling a horribly familiar limp body.
"Seb, please, I don't- I- help her, please, pleasepleaseplease-"
Ryan was the new farmer in town — though it wasn't fair to call her new anymore, he supposed, having lived on the farm out west for at least a year now — and, more recently, was Abigail's girlfriend. They'd gotten together in the fall, around Abigail's birthday, and were disgustingly, tooth-rottingly adorable together: even Sebastian, of all people, had to admit that.
It helped that she had also fit perfectly into their already rock-solid group, the fourth piece that they hadn't known was missing. She played bass, she'd left behind a Solarion Chronicles campaign in Zuzu City and was more than excited to join Sebastian's, she shit-talked Joja and played pranks on Mayor Lewis and was ready to join in on spur of the moment hijinks at the drop of a hat. And sure, maybe sometimes she'd talk about forest spirits and enchanted woods and talking bears, but hey, everyone had their quirks. She made Abigail happy, and that was the end of the story in Sebastian's books. Anyone who made Abby smile like that couldn't be that bad of a person.
Abigail was anything but smiling now as she cradled Ryan's body, her eyes blank and unseeing, her blue hair streaked through with the same blood that was rapidly pooling on the wood floors and soaking into Sebastian's socks, running freely from a series of claw marks marring her chest.
The planet's orbit could have screeched to a stop, and Sebastian wouldn't have noticed.
The next hours moved both too fast and too slow.
He and Sam had been alone in the house, his mom and Demetrius out on their nightly walk around the Mountain Lake, Maru hanging out with Penny in town after her shift at the clinic: of course, he didn't realize that until the worst possible moment. With no other help available, he shoved his feet into the first pair of shoes he found at the door, kicked Sam's shoes towards him, and took Ryan from Abigail's arms, just barely keeping from staggering under the dead weight. Ryan wasn't tall by any means, but it had also been a long time since Sebastian did anything that could be perceived as physical.
"Clinic," he gasped, already halfway to being out of breath as they started down Mountain Road. "Get Harvey."
Sam took off at a sprint, easily outpacing Sebastian and Abby and disappearing into the dark.
With Ryan's head lolling on his shoulder as they slowly made their way to town, he could now hear her weak, rasping breaths. Despite the fatigue rapidly setting into his arms and legs, despite the burn in his lungs, he pushed himself faster, breaking into a jog.
He could hear Abigail's choked sobs a few steps behind him. He wanted to extend a hand out to her, throw an arm over her shoulder like he had when they were teenagers on the bus and tell her that it'd be okay, they'd get through this like they had everything else: together.
Not a single word came to mind.
"Hold on," he panted instead, sparing a glance down at Ryan but speaking to both her and Abigail. Her face was deathly pale, eyes having slipped half closed. She had managed to get one hand around the drawstring of his hoodie, holding on weakly. He tightened his arms around her body. "We're almost there, just hold on a bit longer."
Sebastian all but kicked the door to the clinic open, the bright lights disorienting after the cold darkness of Mountain Road. Sam — still panting from his run — and Harvey were waiting with a gurney in the lobby. The doctor's grim face dropped further at the sight of them.
"Quickly, put her here. Is anyone else as seriously injured?"
Sebastian laid her down as gently as he could. His hands stained the white sheets with red.
"No, just her," Abigail said. "Please, please help her."
As soon as Sebastian stepped back from the gurney, they were moving again, deeper into the clinic to a room he'd never seen before, where the lights were even brighter, harsh and cold and sterile. Abby stayed right beside the gurney, clutching Ryan's hand as Harvey cut away the rest of her ruined shirt, taking stock of the situation. Sam had tried to follow and join her, but at the sight of the pale expanse of Ryan's ruined skin, he pivoted to retch in the trashcan by the door.
Sebastian couldn't make it past the doorway. It was as if his feet were suddenly glued to the floor, locking him in place with his hands still out in front of him. It took too long to realize that it wasn't just his hands that were coated in blood — Ryan's blood — but also his hoodie, soaked through to his undershirt, spilling down his sweatpants. Like he'd been the surprise victim of a bucket of red paint, comical in its coverage.
"What made these wounds?" Harvey asked as he worked, pressing a wad of gauze into the deepest of the cuts, the one across the top of her chest. It cut straight through her breast, garish and gory. "There are gloves beside you. Can you hold this here? Press down hard, please."
Sebastian knew he should look away. He knew he should turn around and walk out, drag the still gagging Sam out with him, go find Maru, do something helpful. Something other than standing like a statue, useless in the doorway with blood on his hands.
"A wilderness golem," Abigail choked out, moving with robotic motions to yank on gloves and press her hands into Ryan's chest. "We'd just gotten back from the mines, but she'd forgotten something in the chest she has there, so she went to go grab it before it got too late… I told her to leave it until tomorrow, but she was so insistent… there are monsters on her farm. It had to have been one of them that got out and followed her. When she didn't come back after a while, I went to go check on her and… and…" She turned to press her face into her shoulder, eyes squeezing shut. "Yoba, I was too late, I was too late…"
"She's still alive," Harvey said sharply. "It's never too late. You got her here alive."
By the time Harvey got an IV into her arm, Maru burst in, still shrugging into a scrub top and tying her braids back. She moved Sebastian out of the way none too gently, sparing him nothing more than an apologetic glance, sidestepped Sam, then joined the fight on Abigail's side of the bed.
"Go stand with Seb and Sam," she told her, covering Abby's hands with her own atop the rapidly reddening gauze. "You don't need to see this."
"I need to stay with her-"
"Let us do what we need to do," Maru insisted. "You'll be right outside. She knows you're here, but she wouldn't want you to put yourself through this."
It took more arguing from both sides, but Abigail finally relented and let herself be ushered out of the room. The three of them ended up sitting side by side on a clean bed in the next room, Abby in the middle, their shoulders touching, silent. Sam was less green now, but his usually tan face was still pale and sweaty. Sebastian's hands in his lap were rapidly drying, red flaking off every time he bent his fingers. Abigail still wore the bright blue gloves.
They waited. And waited.
And waited.
At some point, word made it out to the parts of Pelican Town that were still awake. Caroline joined them silently, kissing Abigail, then Sam, and finally Sebastian on the top of their heads in turn. She snooped through the clinic's drawers and returned with a stack of gauze and a bin of water and set to work cleaning their hands of the dried blood, gently wiping away the tear tracks that Sebastian hadn't even known were there. There wasn't much to be done about their clothes, but Sebastian was grateful nonetheless, even if she hadn't been able to get what was stuck under his fingernails, under his rings.
A few hours later, a different type of silence came over the clinic. It took a long moment for Sebastian to notice the change, as subtle as it was.
One by one, the beeping and whirring of machines that had quickly faded into the background upon their arrival faded all together. A heavy blanket of dead air settled over the room as they all held their breath at the first change in hours.
Harvey was the first to emerge from the bright room, his eyes on the ground. He looked to Abigail first, an apology already on his face.
—
Ryan's sudden death shook Pelican Town to its core. There wasn't a single person that next day whose eyes weren't red, who spoke at anything above a murmur.
There was no question about Sam and Sebastian joining Abigail in her room next door to the clinic. Her twin bed was far too small for the three of them, but it wasn't like anyone was sleeping anyway. Sebastian was just glad that she'd stolen enough of their clothes over the years that both he and Sam had clean clothes to put on without having to go home, leaving a pile of bloody clothes to sit in the corner and leak onto the carpet.
It was there that Mayor Lewis found them some indeterminate amount of time later: Abigail back in the middle again, curled up into the smallest ball she could manage, Sam's leg hooked over Sebastian's with his arm over Abby's shoulders, Sebastian's head resting against Abby's. Breathing in tandem, staring at nothing.
"I'm sorry to disturb," Lewis started, looking not at all sorry. "I've been trying to get into contact with any next of kin for Ms. Ryan, but I'm not able to get a hold of anyone. I know that you all were close: do any of you know who I might be able to find?"
Abigail gave no indication that she'd even heard Lewis at all.
Sam answered for them, barely above a whisper. "She doesn't have any. She moved out here when her dad died, that was the whole reason she came at all."
One would think that, being the mayor of such a tiny town, Lewis would have already known that. Ryan hadn't kept it a secret.
"I… see. That is… troublesome. You see, she had filed a will with me over the winter, and I hadn't had a chance to process it yet. I read it this morning and was hoping to review it with her next of kin, as there are some requests that are… unconventional, let's say."
"Well there isn't anyone," Sebastian snapped. Lewis' voice was grating on his already frayed nerves. "We were all she had. Abigail was all she had."
"Just do what the will says, man," Sam added.
Lewis pressed his lips into a thin line. It was no secret, the tension between the mayor and Sam specifically. They hadn't seen eye to eye in… ever.
"Very well," Lewis finally relented. "Then, there will be some paperwork that the three of you will need to complete at your earliest convenience, back at my house. The deed and bank account will need to be transferred to joint ownership, and you'll need to retrieve the keys and the rest of her belongings with Dr. Harvey-"
Lewis continued speaking, but the words were lost on Sebastian. It was funny, because for a moment, it sounded like Ryan had named them in her will.
Which was preposterous, of course. Abigail, he could almost understand: Sebastian had been expecting her to propose before the end of the summer, if Abby didn't beat her to it. But Sam and Sebastian? That made no sense whatsoever.
"Hold on, hold on," Sam interrupted, halting both Lewis' ongoing words and Sebastian's train of thought. "What exactly does this will say?"
Lewis cleared his throat, then reached into his back pocket and produced a letter in an official looking envelope. He held it out to them silently.
To all of their surprise, Abigail unfurled and reached out to take the thick envelope, the first indication that she was with them. She ran her fingers over the messy script on the face of the envelope: the last will and testment testamant of Ryan Rose.
"She's absolutely garbage at spelling," she said simply in a voice that shook.
Inside the envelope was another smaller, older letter, creased at the seams from being opened over and over again. Sam and Sebastian read over Abby's shoulders: it was addressed to Ryan, from her grandfather, leaving the family farm to her. They'd heard about this letter from Ryan herself, her explanation for why she'd come to Pelican Town, of all places, after her dad died.
They moved on from the familiar letter quickly. The next pages that Abigail pulled out were back in that same scrawled ballpoint pen on simple sheets of lined notebook paper. She held them side by side, and they read.
—
My Will
I realized after Linus dragged me out of those fucking mines that I should probably have one of these, just in case. I've never read a will, so I'm gonna just wing it.
If I die on this stupid fucking farm, or because of this stupid fucking farm, or just in general in this fucking town, I don't want the property to go to Joja — I know they'll bid for the land and I'd rather die (again) than give them another ounce of gold. Fuck Joja, and fuck Morris, and fuck every person in this country that rolls over for them.
I want Rosewood Farm to go to Abigail Mercer, Samson Baker, and Sebastian Yui. An even split in equity, equal ownership, but Abigail gets final say in bussiness decisions. They don't have to keep the farm, but if they want to sell it, then it's Abigail's call where it goes (NOT Joja).
The farm is fully paid off already. The monthly bills are for electricity and HOA fees (thanks Lewis). There's well water. The septic tank is out by that weird cave that Sebastian's step-dad put bats in for some fucking reason. There's at least a kitchen and a big bedroom on the farm house, maybe more, I don't know what I'll have gotten done before I die.
There are more instructions and directions for Abby, Seb, and Sam attached here. If they have any questions or problems, they should go talk to the Wizard first. He knows what's up.
I hope none of you ever have to read this. I love you all, but Abs especially. There's a letter for you specifically in here too.
Bon voyage. RIP to me.
love,
Ryan Amelia Rose
—
When Sebastian reached the bottom of the second page, his eyes went back to the top of the first automatically to re-skim the messy handwriting, certain that he'd misread. For a moment he wondered if it was faked, if only it didn't sound so exactly like Ryan: brash, foul-mouthed, and unapologetic in its sincerity. The reason that she and Sebastian had gotten along so well from the beginning, leeching from every swooping letter and scratched out, misspelled word.
His eyes kept snagging on his own name in the text. Sebastian Yui. He couldn't recall ever giving Ryan his last name. Everyone always assumed it was the same as the rest of his family's, the same as Demetrius': Banks. Even his mother did a double take at his mail from time to time, catching on the last name that had been hers too, once upon a time. He supposed Abigail must have told her at some point.
Then there were the underlines under each of their names, the way they were all written more carefully, more neatly penned than the rest of the letter. Like she'd wanted to make sure there was no doubt about what — who — she'd written, leaving nothing up to chance. She'd even used Sam's legal first name, the one that Sebastian had only ever heard Jodi speak aloud, usually in a scolding shout.
They had surely all finished reading the two pages — twice over for at least Sebastian — and yet, no one spoke. What was there even to say?
The thought of the three of them suddenly being in charge of an entire farm, the largest business outside of JojaMart in all of Pelican Town… it was laughable in its absurdity. Sebastian didn't know the first thing about farming, let alone all the other mysterious tasks that Ryan seemed to constantly be undertaking, running around town at all hours with a manic grin and a full backpack. He knew Sam and Abby weren't any more knowledgeable than he was. They were, hands down, the single worst group of people that Ryan could have picked for the future of her farm.
What was she thinking?
"What the fuck is she thinking?" Sam echoed aloud, nervous laughter following. He ran a hand through his hair, pushing it back from his forehead. It stayed spiked up even after he moved his hands, defying gravity worse than usual.
"Language, young man," Lewis said sharply.
"No but like, what the hell is this? Is this even real?"
Lewis sighed, looking to the ceiling. "Unfortunately. Ms. Ryan delivered it herself the week before the Winter Star: it has been locked in my desk since. No tampering would have been possible. This is why I have been looking for a family member. The will was not notarized, so it could be overwritten by a legal next of kin. With their agreement, the farm can be turned over to town ownership, and-"
"No." Abigail abruptly dropped the letters, sitting further upright. "If this is what she wanted, then this is what's going to happen. I'll run the place myself if I have to."
"Abs, the farm is huge," Sam said slowly. "There's no way that-"
"I can't… I won't lose that part of her too. I'll figure it out."
Sebastian was at a crossroad.
To one side was the tentative, poorly thought out plan he had for how his life was supposed to go. Get enough money saved up and get the hell out — that was admittedly about as far as he'd gotten. Maybe do something with music, maybe do something with Sam. He was mostly over the school-boy crush he'd had on his best friend: enough that he was content with whatever relationship it was that kept Sam around, even if it was a far cry from what Sebastian wanted. But, in the months since knowing Ryan, he'd learned a lot about himself. She talked endlessly about Zuzu City, about the hustle and bustle of it all, about how easy it was to disappear there. It had sounded like exactly what Sebastian had hoped it would be, until it didn't. Because, while not being perceived was great, the idea of no one around him caring whether he lived or died was a tad bit more depressing than he'd thought. It was, at the very least, clear that Ryan had a complicated relationship with the city, and that it might not have been as black and white as Sebastian had been dreaming of.
While his dreams of moving away were murky at best, the other side stretched out into a wide expanse of the unknown — not just murky, but completely invisible. He'd have to move onto the farm, that was a given: his basement was entirely too far up the mountain to make that walk twice a day, every day. And then there was his freelance work: he could take his computer with him, probably — was the house even wired for internet? The last time he'd been in the cottage at all was when his mom was fixing it up for Ryan's arrival a year ago. But most importantly of all, there was Abby.
She was his best friend. Sam was… something more, but Abigail had been his very first friend in this town. They'd seen each other through every single core memory, every recital and birthday and high school heartbreak. In another life, if Sebastian wasn't stuck on Sam and Ryan hadn't moved to town, he could see them ending up together, traveling together, best friends and partners. Even in this life, where that wasn't how their story ended, he still loved her more than he loved himself, that was for certain. There were only a handful of things that Sebastian wouldn't do for her.
Was this one of them?
Abigail, their ride or die, their steady drum beat, their supplier of snacks on Solarion nights, their yearly Egg Hunt victor, their hairdresser and stylist all in one, their sister in everything but blood. Abigail, with her lower lip quivering and tear tracks dried onto her cheeks, looking entirely too determined for her own good.
No. No it wasn't.
"I'm in," he said. "For Ryan." For Abby, he amended.
"Well, I'm not letting you two have all the fun alone," Sam grinned. It didn't quite reach his eyes, but it was a step in the right direction. "For Ryan. Let's be farmers!"
"Slow down, now," Lewis said quickly, splaying his hands out. "There's no need to make a brash decision-"
"You said there was paperwork for us to do?" Sebastian interrupted with a raised eyebrow. He could see the wheels turning behind Lewis' eyes, undoubtedly thinking of ways to prevent them from going forward with things. The mayor wasn't a bad person, Sebastian knew. But he also knew that the mayor wasn't always right, despite what he might've thought about himself.
Abigail grabbed one of Sam's and Sebastian's hands in each of her own as Lewis spluttered, squeezing them both tight, an unspoken word of thanks. Sebastian squeezed back, exchanging a glance with Sam over her head.
He wasn't sure exactly what they'd gotten themselves into, but Sebastian had a feeling they were very quickly going to find out.
—
The next day, Sebastian packed his essentials up into the biggest suitcase he owned. He was just going down the street, after all, so he didn't bother clearing out his entire room. A few pairs of jeans, a few hoodies, a stack of t-shirts and boxers and socks, and everything from his bathroom. He only had the one pair of boots, and he was already wearing them. He'd come back for his PC later, once he knew what the internet situation was. He'd already emailed a few other freelancers that were willing to take over his current projects, then emailed his clients about the change. He changed the status on his website to not accepting work at this time, unsure when he'd next be able to take on projects. Beyond that, there wasn't much else to do.
Robin was waiting at the top of the steps for him, her face pinched with worry even before he'd finally heaved the suitcase up the last step onto the landing. The blood had been cleaned up already by the time he had gotten home the night before, but Sebastian could still feel it under his shoes, under his fingernails.
"Are you sure about this?" she asked again. "Everyone would understand if you changed your mind…"
"I have to do this, mom," he said firmly. "Abby and Sam need me."
Robin sighed, pursing her lips. She gently pushed his hair out of his eyes, the way she always did. For once, he let her, refraining from shaking his fringe back right away.
"If you need anything, anything, call me, okay? That farm isn't very safe, Sebby. Promise me you'll be careful."
"I will."
The thought of it had kept him up all night, despite how bone-tired he was from spending the previous night in the clinic, then the rest of the day in Abigail's room, not quite sleeping. Ryan had been adamant about no one visiting the farm, though Sebastian hadn't learned why until she'd been there several months. The property had sat unused and uninhabited for so long between her grandfather's death — Sebastian had been five at the time, the hazy image of a funeral service held in the center of town serving as his only memory of the old farmer — and her arrival that other things had moved in, reclaiming the abandoned land. Monsters crawled the farm every night, she'd told him, contained to the boundaries of the property, but going after everything that moved. It had only been very recently that she'd begun to let Abigail visit at all, and only after they'd spent time in the mines out past the lake together. Abby could hold her own, Sebastian knew. He and Sam, on the other hand… well, they were going to have to be fast learners.
After fretting over him for another few minutes, Robin finally let him leave, dragging his suitcase behind him. He was meeting Abigail and Sam in town, in front of the clinic. They were going to pick up Ryan's belongings, then head to the farm together.
It was a sunny spring day. Still cold, but warmer than the previous few days had been. The world was still that tentative bright green, trees still filling in from the long winter, catching up to the already booming undergrowth. The chorus of frogs — spring peepers, he knew — that called the Mountain Lake home faded as he got closer to town, walking past the Community Center and the playground, following the same path they'd taken some thirty six hours prior.
Sam was already there, a backpack slung over one shoulder, a guitar case over the other, and a suitcase at his feet. He gave a two fingered salute at Sebastian's arrival, smile subdued.
"Can't believe we actually agreed to this," he said by way of greeting.
"Oh, we're totally fucked," Sebastian said flatly. "But I wasn't going to let Abby do it on her own."
"Yeah." Sam looked out over the town center, worrying his lip ring. "I just hope that we… I don't know, man. I don't want to let Ryan down. She's trusting this place to us, I don't want to fuck it up, you know?"
Sebastian knew entirely too well.
A few minutes later, Abigail emerged from Pierre's General Store hauling David Jr. in his cage, a duffel bag, and a… golf club bag? When Sebastian looked closer, he realized that it wasn't full of clubs at all, but rather swords.
"Do we… need that many?" Sam choked out, eyeing the bag.
"Doesn't hurt to be prepared." She looked down at her feet: her voice was small when she spoke again. "Thank you both for..."
"Of course," Sam said gently.
"It's what friends are for," Sebastian agreed.
Sam darted into the clinic to get Ryan's things, returning quickly with a neatly tied plastic bag and a ring of keys. He handed Abby the bag, keeping the keys for himself. She held it like it was something precious. Sebastian supposed it was.
Keys in hand, new bank cards in their pockets, the ink of their signatures on the deed to the land still drying in Lewis' office, they set out for Rosewood Farm as one.