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When the expendable was done with what they’d come for, they shuffled away, before crouching to crawl through the vent. “Bye,” Sebastian said as they disappeared into the duct.
Sebastian’s eyes flicked to the table near him. He placed the classified documents and files he’d received from the expendable on the table on top of the ones they’d given him already earlier. The stack was starting to get messy, and he quickly straightened it. He wasn’t a perfectionist, but he preferred being organized. He couldn’t afford to lose any blackmail that he would later use against Urbanshade.
He was tempted to sift through the stack to read everything again, but there was something more important for him to do right now.
Now that the expendable was gone, it was time for Sebastian to do his daily restocking of his shop.
He sighed as he took note of what needed to be restocked. Geez, why did the expendable buy so many bandages each time? If the fool actually listened to my advice for once, maybe they wouldn’t be getting injured or dying this much. Tch.
As Sebastian was busy restocking, his ears picked up on a small sound. It was very faint, something that the average human would’ve missed, so at first he thought he must’ve been imagining things.
But then he heard it again. It sounded like it was coming from the vent that led into his shop.
Was the expendable back already? So soon?
His confused expression changed into an irritated one. He stopped what he was doing to cross his arms, ready to tell the expendable to come back later.
But his eyes widened slightly in surprise when he saw that it wasn’t a human that entered his shop.
It was a…
…sea bunny?
Sebastian was unsure what to do. Telling it to leave didn’t really seem necessary as he doubted it’d bother him.
He cautiously approached the sea bunny so as not to scare it off.
“Hey,” he said, in a voice quieter than usual, trying to seem gentle to the small creature. “Do you need something? If not, that’s fine. You can just stay here if you want. I won’t mind.”
The sea bunny’s lavender kelp-like ears twitched, and it looked up at him. It moved his head as if it were nodding, so Sebastian took that as a yes.
He realized then that the sea bunny reminded him of an old childhood pet he’d had. When he was about seven or eight, his mom had surprised him with a brown-and-white rabbit named Coffee for his birthday. And for the next five years until she passed away, Coffee had meant a lot to him. He remembered when she was still around, when he came home from school, his mom would give him a bowl of carrot slices she had cut so he could feed Coffee—
Snap out of it. Now isn’t a time for me to take a trip down memory lane. Not when the further I’ll go, the more it’ll hurt.
“So, uh… what do you need?” Sebastian asked.
The sea bunny then turned its head to look at the vent it’d emerged from. Sebastian followed its gaze in time to see another sea bunny appear from the duct.
“Oh! You brought a friend?”
The second sea bunny seemed to be carrying some objects, and as it got closer, Sebastian saw that the objects were a flashlight and a medkit. “...These are for me?”
The first bunny nodded.
“Gracias—” But as he moved to grab the items, the second sea bunny holding them backed away. He turned to the first one to ask what was going on— Hold on, I really should come up with actual names for them instead of referring to them as “the first” and “the second” over and over. Hmm… the first one that showed up is Metallica and the second is Slipknot. There, that should do.
He turned to Metallica to ask what was going on, just to see the sea bunny had gone over to a bin of toxic waste in the corner of the room. Metallica was pawing at the bin and making little noises as if it wanted something from it, and Sebastian was able to piece together what the sea bunnies were trying to tell him.
“Ohhh. You want to trade. Toxic sponges for the flashlight and medkit, right?”
Metallica and Slipknot made happy noises, which he took as a yes from them.
Sebastian grabbed a pair of latex gloves from a storage compartment, wincing when they didn’t quite work for his non-human hands (but they were good enough that he didn’t die as he made contact with the toxic bin), before giving Metallica and Slipknot what they wanted.
After the exchange, Sebastian removed his gloves, disposed of them, and then placed the flashlight and medkit on his tail while the two sea bunnies ate the toxic sponges.
“Pleasure doing business with you,” he told the little creatures, almost fondly. He had to admit that sea bunnies really were adorable animals, and they were growing on him fast. A shame that they were the only normal ones in all of the Hadal Blacksite.
When Metallica and Slipknot were done with their meal, they scurried over to him and did a little bounce. Almost like they wanted him to…
“Are you sure?” Sebastian asked hesitantly. He didn’t trust himself enough to be certain that he wouldn’t hurt them. That was the last thing he wanted to do when it came to these little guys.
Metallica and Slipknot nodded in a way that seemed eager.
He lowered himself to their level, and held out both hands. They climbed on almost immediately, and they felt light in his grasp as he rose back up. He moved Metallica closer to his face so that he could get a better look at it, and Metallica reached out a leg to swat at him. “Whoa— don’t do that again, please,” Sebastian said, stiffening.
Slipknot squirmed in his other hand, and he watched as it suddenly traveled up his arm to rest on his shoulder. “Yeah, that’s fine,” he muttered. It squeaked in delight.
And then while Metallica and Slipknot were chilling with him, more sea bunnies showed up.
It was a few at a time, entering in through the vent. Finally, when no more came, he counted about thirty with him in his shop now.
A small, genuine smile appeared on Sebastian’s face. “I guess this is a party now, huh?” He scoffed, but it was affectionate.
Metallica moved to climb onto the top of his head, and Sebastian used his free hand to scoop up another sea bunny. “I’ll name you… System Of A Down.” He instantly cringed. “Nah, that’s a mouthful. Let’s go with System.”
He looked at all the sea bunnies in his hideout. All of them were just doing their own thing, and he didn’t mind. He appreciated the company of these weird little critters.
Sebastian realized then that his eyelids felt heavy, like he was about to pass out. Guess it’s that time again. Maybe someday I’ll actually want to sleep instead of this hellish cycle of pushing myself until I black out. Maybe.
“Hey, uh… you guys wouldn’t mind watching over me while I’m out, would ya? If an expendable shows up, just… I don’t know. Try to wake me up or something. Metallica, you have permission to nudge me repeatedly if that’ll help.” He heard the sea bunny perched on his head respond with squeaks.
“Alright… I’ll…” He yawned. “...see ya on the other side…” He quickly made a mental reminder to himself to continue restocking the shop as soon as he was up and running again.
Sebastian closed his glowing blue eyes, falling asleep with a crowd of sea bunnies by his side.
For the first time in a while, he was glad he wasn’t alone.