Second Chances [BxB]

twenty eight

"Yeah?" Declan chuckled, "Alright; tell me about yourself."

"I work in construction." Sebastian said, "I live with my best friend. I...I like puzzles."

Declan rose his brows, "You like puzzles?"

"Love 'em."

"How do I not know this about you?"

"Because we've only just met." Sebastian grinned, "This is a first date, remember?"

"Right." Declan laughed, "How could I forget?"

They paused when a waiter appeared to take their orders. When he left again a moment later, Sebastian hooked his foot around Declan's ankle under the table; a quiet act of intimacy that no one else could see. "So," Sebastian smiled at him, "Your turn."

"My turn." Declan echoed, sighing in realisation, "Right. Okay. Yeah." He searched his brain for the right words; he didn't want to get this wrong. "I work at a diner. I'm moving in with my best friend soon. I...I don't like puzzles. I hate them actually."

"How dare you." Sebastian gasped, clutching at his chest dramatically.

"I don't have the patience for them." Declan protested, "They're too... I don't know...frustrating?"

Sebastian shook his head disapprovingly, "I'm not sure this is gonna work out." He gestured between the two of them, but under the table, his foot continued to tug at Declan's ankle affectionately.

Declan rolled his eyes, "I didn't know you had such strong opinions about..." He couldn't help but laugh, "Puzzles."

"Maybe we should move on." Sebastian waved him off, "Next question." He paused, apparently contemplating his next words carefully, "In the movies, they always ask their date about their childhood, but we can skip that-"

"No, don't." Declan urged him, and when Sebastian shot him a curious glance, he sighed, "I know about Alex, and boarding school, and...well, everything else, but..." He smiled bashfully, "You've never told me much about your life before all of that - when you were a kid."

"Oh." Sebastian slouched back in his chair, running a hand through his hair, and mindlessly pulling his curls out of place, "My childhood was good, actually. Normal." He said.

"Yeah?" Declan pressed.

Sebastian nodded, "My parents, they...they loved me, and they loved each other, and...everything was...it was okay." He shrugged, "My Dad would take me to football practice every Saturday, and afterwards, we used to go to this little cafe, and my Mum would join us there for lunch." He said, smiling fondly, "Things didn't...they didn't stay like that - that good - but for a while, y'know, everything was alright."

Declan hated that he was jealous, hated that he didn't have a single story about his parents that he was proud of, hated that everyone else got the childhood he was robbed of.

"Things with my Mum went downhill pretty quickly." Sebastian continued, "It wasn't the drugs that made her look at me differently. It was Alex." He gulped, "She never said anything awful to me, she wasn't..." He sighed, "She just never really accepted it - still doesn't."

Declan's gaze softened, "I'm sorry." He murmured.

Sebastian waved him off, "It's no tragedy." He assured him, "My Dad's never really cared. He's just worried I'm gonna end up alone."

"You won't." Declan promised.

Sebastian watched him carefully, and there was something unbearably warm about his gaze, "I'm starting to believe that now."

Declan looked down at the tablecloth, his heart hammering in his chest, his cheeks feeling uncomfortably warm. He cleared his throat, "My parents don't know." He announced in an attempt to redirect Sebastian's attention, "I never told them."