Chapter Text
Sebek is scared of going back home.
He has gotten so used to being with his friends at every waking moment, that the thought of being apart from them for two months makes his heart race. This time last year, he hadn’t known who any of them were—this time last year, Yuu didn’t even exist to this world—but they had survived so much together, he felt as though it made up for all the years they hadn’t known each other.
On the last day of their freshman year, he says his goodbyes curtly, but they know him well enough to know what a baby he is. When they all hug, because Yuu is touchy-feely like that (not because he likes hugs), he swallows back tears. Silver gives him a knowing smile. He simply purses his lips, half-heartedly fussing when Lilia ruffles his hair. Malleus is quieter than usual; pensive, but of course he is. Sebek has heard whispers of his plans for the senate.
Briar Valley is as ethereally breath-taking as he remembers, he thinks once he passes through the mirror, a sight for sore eyes with its natural beauty and olden flora. Yet, he remembers the dreamscape he had survived with Yuu, Silver, and Grim, and wishes the two others were with him as well to hold his hand (again, not because he wants that! Yuu would just force him to).
“Bekky!” His mother is the first to welcome him, squashing him with a bone-crushing hug. He leans into it, perhaps for too long, because she pulls back with her hands on his shoulders and concern laced into her expression. “Are you feeling alright?”
“I’m fine,” he manages to say evenly enough, though her sharp gaze lingers on him for a second longer before releasing him.
He turns his attention to his grandfather, who has been standing next to his mother, and he recalls biting insults about humans sitting prettily on his tongue four hundred years ago. Baur makes a joke about how he’s glad to have his favorite grandson back with that stoic visage of his, and Sebek feels like the worst halfling in the world for how abruptly he cuts off their embrace and moves on to his father. Thankfully, Malleus, Lilia, and Silver engage his mother and grandfather in conversation so they can’t linger on the action long enough to flag it as something being wrong.
“Father,” he greets, clearing his throat. His father holds out his arms, smiling as he always does when he offers the hug that Sebek always rejects. But years of hating humanity wash away, and he melts into his father’s embrace, whispering, “I’m sorry.”
And his father, in all his graciousness despite being human—or perhaps because he is a human—whispers back, “It’s okay, Sebek.”
“Is it really?” His father’s expression clouds with worry, just like his mother’s had, and he notices them exchange a glance that makes him nervously chew the inside of his cheek. Yet, he nods, still smiling, and Sebek feels like a weight is lifted from his shoulders.
If Sebek was trying to be subtle about how much the school year had changed him, the way he simply bows to Malleus and peacefully lets him, Lilia, and Silver go absolutely shatters that image. Most of the time, whenever Malleus has to leave, Sebek waxes poetic about him with tears in his eyes.
“Are Harsiesis and Rosetta home?” He asks after his siblings before anyone can ask him what has happened, if he is traumatized from Malleus’ overblot or if it’s something else entirely. He really doesn’t want to explain.
Sebek just wants his friends.
His mother is the one to answer. “Rosie is, and Harsie should be coming back from a business trip sometime today.”
He nods, making a mental note to visit his sister after he drops his bag back into his room. “Very well, then. I will go settle in.”
They all exchange glances at how he is not regaling them with tales about Malleus and occasional anecdotes about the funny little humans in his year as he had done during spring break, and he waits a moment to see if anyone will say anything. When they don’t, he gives them a tight-lipped smile before entering his home.
The first thing he notices is that his home has an earthy, mildly smoky scent, intermingled with a subtle sweetness. Just like Yuu had said he smelled like.
Mentally swatting away the thought before he wallows in the absence of his friends for too long—it hasn’t even been half an hour yet—he proceeds through the familiar hallways adorned with elegant classical woodland decor before finding his room, name engraved in Ancient Fae in his younger self’s fragmentary writing. He pushes it open, finding it as neat and tidy as he left it, and beelines for the one thing he swore he would never rely on more than necessary because of its humanity.
The outlet in his wall.
For probably the first time, he is grateful his father is a human and that his parents had three children because it means that they have these installed not just in his father’s home office, but sprinkled throughout the house. He finds his phone charger in his bag, plugs it into his wall, and connects his dead phone. When it is charged, he intends to lecture Grim about the rudeness of using all of someone’s battery to watch sensory videos.
In the meantime, he makes his way to his sister’s room the next door down, knocking before pushing it open. She looks up from her laptop, myrtle hair cascading over her shoulders and bangs shrouding her eyebrows. Her expression splits into a grin when she sees him, and she shuts the laptop, beckoning him over before hugging him.
“Sorry I couldn’t come out to see you, I was just finishing a project.” He nods understandingly, and she looks him up and down. “You had a growth spurt.”
“Have I?” Amidst everything, he hadn’t bothered to pay attention to something so insignificant. “I hadn’t noticed.”
“How was school?” She crawls back onto her bed, patting the spot next to her until he sits. “You seem sad.”
“I’m not.” He says it fluidly, practiced, quickly—though that only serves to make her raise an eyebrow. “Not… about what everyone thinks, at least.”
“So it’s not about his highness or Lilia?” Her sharp nails soothingly scrape across his scalp as he shakes his head. “What happened?”
“I…” It sounds pathetic. When compared to how he almost died several times, or to losing his mentor, it sounds so pathetic. But his sister, mild-mannered and quiet yet always there for him, gently strokes his head, and he mumbles, “I miss my friends.”
She’s quiet for a moment, likely in stunned silence, before a soft laugh escapes her nose. “That’s normal,” she tells him. He knows it is, but he’s so used to being, well, not normal. “What are they like? You never talk about them much.”
“Obnoxious,” is the first word that slips out of his mouth before he can think about it, but he doesn’t rescind it. It’s apt. “Poorly mannered. Very obstinate in their individual beliefs. The group of us hardly have anything in common.” He hesitates, swallowing hard. “…We survived together.”
His sister hums knowingly, all too aware of the events of the year her baby brother has been forced to go through, and the two linger in silence as Sebek’s mind drifts off to all of the memories he has been blessed to experience. Big memories, like the panic of the magift tournament, Malleus’ overblot, Yuu’s sickness. Smaller memories, like studying together, practicing magic, countless sleepovers. All are memories Sebek holds dear.
The door clicks open, revealing their brother, Harsiesis. His toothy grin is as wide as ever, and when he sees his siblings seated next to each other, he tosses himself on the bed and squeezes them both in his strong arms. “Welcome back, lil’ man!”
Sebek finds the nickname he has spent years trying to get his brother to drop comforting, and he doesn’t protest it. “Hello.”
“Bekky was telling me about how he misses his friends,” Rosetta says somewhat teasingly, and he looks askance as a blush rises to his cheeks.
“Bekky has friends?” Harsiesis exclaims incredulously, earning a smack from Rosetta. “Hey! He knows I’m joking!” He turns to Sebek. “Found a Malleus Draconia fanclub?”
“If only,” Sebek sighs. “Most of them are humans and hardly any of them appreciate the greatness of Briar Valley, let alone Master Malleus himself.”
“You’re actually friends with humans?” This time, his shock is not teasing. “What about your whole hating humanity shtick?”
“He’s gotten over it, it looks like,” Rosetta fondly chuckles. A deep-seated instinct tells Sebek to refute her, but she is right. It is the very thing his friends have been working with him on since they became friends in the first place.
Harsiesis lets out an impressed hum as he ruffles his hair. “Look at you, growing up.”
Sebek huffs but allows his siblings to continue to tease him, and he feels as though he is slowly but surely floating back into normalcy. Briar Valley is home, but he’s found a home outside of it as well. Perhaps that is what Lilia was trying to teach all of them. He allows a small smile to sneak onto his face as he recounts silly anecdotes with his friends of waking up later after a slumber party and rushing to class, getting sidetracked by who can balance on their head the longest while attempting to study, grinning hard despite no mention of Malleus to be found.
Things are different now, but maybe different is good.