(This is also being posted for con.)

“What? Late?”

This was bad. So bad.

“Maybe I just won’t go then. You know I don’t know anyone there! You can’t just ditch me!”

What was he going to do? He knew how work was; sometimes they just wouldn’t let you off easy. It had to be that flaky one causing the issue, the one with the too-fake smile, always complaining about the job whenever they got a rush, always calling in with a new excuse on the longest days.

“Look, I know it’s not your fault, but we were supposed to go together, remember? … Yeah. Yeah I know, you wanted to go too. Yeah, I know it’s fun to meet new people but I just …”

Sebastian sighed dejectedly as he clicked the speaker button, set the phone down atop his desk, and leaned back in his seat, tenderly pressing claw to temple as multiple sets of eyes lowered in disgust. There was no way he’d go alone, he barely wanted to go at all!

“Alright, look, work’s already frustrating enough, let’s just wait until you get off and we’ll both go then. It doesn’t look as bad if we’re late together anyway, right? I mean, it’s not really … yeah. It’s not that late anyway. We’ll go, have some fun, get some dinner … right?”

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to go, after all. Even if he didn’t have a particular interest in kids, he’d never been asked to make one before, and curious as he was about everything, he couldn’t really pass up the opportunity, could he?

Besides, even he agreed he needed to get out more. How many days (and nights) did he stay locked behind a blurry screen, drumming up essays on one subject or another, crafting stories, watching videos, and – heh – weaving fan-fiction to share with his online communities? He liked it – why wouldn’t he? They did, always asking for more.

So he’d given them more, and pretty soon he had barely any left for himself, enough for Inziel to notice, he guessed, as the invitations to do more and more things away grew. He supposed he’d resisted enough, but being late?

Really? It figured.