Chapter four - Birthday

"Knock, knock."

'Come in,' Sebastian said as he pulled a shirt on and started to do up the buttons, he already knew who it was as the door wasn't opened instantly after the knocking. It was lucky that he was already half dressed having just gotten out the shower.

'Sebastian?' Came Rina's voice. 'I'm not disturbing you or anything? I know it's late,' she said as she slowly opened the door.

'Of course not, you know you can come in at any time,' he said honestly. Rina had been in Pelican town for almost a year and their friendship had blossomed. They had exchanged numbers and often called or texted each other. When Rina had her red-light generator installed, Sebastian had taken the liberty of upgrading her house electronics at the same time. She had a voice activated speaker and video system in her home and around her farm to make things easier for her. She could make notes, order things, even call people and dock her phone for charging.

Rina walked into his room and closed the door. She smiled as she saw him and after he had finished buttoning up his shirt, she gave him a hug. 'Sorry, I know it's been a few days since I popped over,' she said in apology.

Sebastian gave her a look, 'Tyrell, we spoke about this, you know it's fine. Remember? We had a long in-depth conversation about expectations and boundaries,' he pointed out. When they first started to make an effort to hang out there were a few hiccups, missed meetings on both ends, due to his work or her efforts in the mine. 'What did you say to me?' He asked.

Rina pouted, 'a good friend will understand that you have a life.'

'Also, they will always say if they need a social break and no contact,' he added making her roll her eyes. It had come up as he had called a few too many times one day and then spent the next week ignoring her. Rina had asked what was going on and found out that he had been worrying about being, "annoying" or "suffocating". To which Rina assured him that if she was feeling that way, she would just tell him. 'So, don't give me that sorry shit, I don't need to hear it,' he teased.

She stuck out her tongue at him and looked at him properly. 'You're going out?' She asked. 'Is it a date? Oooh, who's the lucky one?'

Sebastian laughed and shook his head as he looked in his mirror and attempted to brush his hair the right way. 'A group of us are going into the city for a gig, remember? Abi said she asked you, that you said you were busy,' he said as he watched her reaction in the mirror. Rina clearly thought he couldn't see her as confusion crossed her face followed by annoyance.

'Oh… oh yeah! Duh! Silly me!' She said in a fake tone of remembrance. 'Yeah, it's not that I didn't want to, it's just that there's so much on the farm to do,' she blagged. Sebastian mentally shook his head. Again, Abigail was lying to him and Rina. It was annoying. He didn't know why Rina didn't just tell the truth to him though. Perhaps she didn't want to start an argument between himself and Abigail. That made sense, knowing Rina. 'I don't want to hold you up,' she said honestly.

'Don't worry, I wouldn't be leaving for another hour at least,' he said looking at the time and brushing his annoyance to one side. 'We can hang out till then if you want,' he said smiling.

'I'd like that,' she admitted. Rina began to undo her cloak; she had made it herself from wool that she had gathered from her sheep. She said it was easier than wearing a thick coat. More mobility. Sebastian took it from her and hung it up on one of his wardrobe doors, she was wearing a rather thin looking dress underneath, a light blue number that was form fitting. It was a halter neck that covered her breasts and left a window of her stomach visible as it crossed at her back before becoming a soft flowing skirt. Rina tended to wear colours that matched the season.

'That looks like what you wore for the flower dance,' Sebastian said out of interest. It suited her and he would loathe to admit, ignited the small embers of desire that he had attempted to smother when it came to his best friend.

Rina nodded and her cheeks went a little pink, 'well, I remembered that you said that the white one suited me and you liked it, so I made one in blue for Winter,' she revealed. 'It's normal to want to look nice for someone's birthday,' she mumbled as she held her hands together.

Sebastian looked at her in surprise. 'My birthday? You knew it was today?' He said. Rina nodded and then unbuckled her sword belt handing it over to him. Long gone were the days where she carried a shabby, knocked blade, she had a fiery katana now, upgraded as soon as she could afford it. Rina knew she wasn't very good at combat and so a quality weapon gave her an edge. Sebastian hung up her sword and then turned back to her, 'I've got to say, Tyrell, you don't look nice,' he said as he took her hand and gave her a playful spin. 'Nice doesn't do you justice,' he said honestly. 'I would say that you look beautiful.'

Rina giggled and rolled her eyes as she came to a tottering stop. 'Sebastian! You had me going there! I thought for a moment I had really mucked up, that I was looking like a prat being overdressed or something,' she said scolding him lightly.

'That's why it was fun,' he teased making her huff.

'I don't think I should give you your present now,' she said giving him a look.

Sebastian sat on the edge of his sofa and looked at her curiously, 'you didn't have to get me anything,' he said, pleasantly surprised.

Rina sat next to him and looked into her bag, which Sebastian would swear was gifted from that nanny, Mary Boppins, or whatever her name was. It seemed to hold much more than it possibly should. 'I wish you had told me that before I spent the last three days in the mines looking for it,' Rina teased back before pulling out a small wrapped gift. 'In fact, I only found it today and then I had to run home and get changed because I was literally covered in bat shit and slime,' she revealed, making him laugh.

'You really didn't need to,' he reiterated but he couldn't deny his curiosity and eagerness to discover what it was. She handed over the box which was wrapped in dark paper and had a silver bow on top. He took his time and gently tore the paper away at the seams, once the wrapping had fallen away, he could see it. A beautifully polished chunk of obsidian, swirling with black and a glittering purple. Encased in a glass box, on a wooden stand which had a small engraving.

"Happy Birthday"

'Wow… this is… exquisite,' he said truthfully as he held it up to the light.

'Sorry it took so long; I had made the casing a while ago and I was going to put something else in there but it was more of a backup idea. I really wanted the obsidian and I had to take an hour to polish it and so it's not perfect,' Rina babbled, which Sebastian knew she did when she was nervous.

'Stop,' he said softly as he placed it on the side and turned his body to face her. 'It's perfect and… I couldn't have asked for anything more,' he said as he hugged her softly. He pressed a chaste kiss against her temple. Rina didn't rush the embrace and allowed him to pull her weight against his chest. The intimacy was nice and comfortable, Sebastian rubbed her back lightly and his fingers wandered up to the nape of her neck where he felt something sticky. Her hair was down and he hadn't seen anything when he twirled her. 'Tyrell,' he said in concern as he pulled away and looked at his hand.

Blood.

'Oh Yoba,' Rina said as she reached around to touch the base of head. Blood covered her hand. 'Fuck!' She swore.

'You're bleeding! How?' Sebastian said as they both stood up. He turned her around in panic and lifted her hair out the way to see what was going on. 'You've got a gash on your scalp; how did you not know?'

'I got briefly attacked by some bat thing on the way here. My head hurt but it hurt earlier because I smacked it on a low beam in the mines, I just thought it was that, not that I was bleeding!' Rina panicked. 'Oh, shit, I'm such an idiot. I'm sorry, Sebastian, I'll go home and get it seen to in the morning-'

'You're not going home with a head injury,' Sebastian said firmly. 'I'll get Maru and she can tell us what's going on. There's a lot of blood hidden by your hair, it could be a lot worse than it looks,' he pointed out as he grabbed his phone to call his sister.

Rina shook her head, 'no, come on, you're supposed to be going out. Besides there can't be that much blood if I didn't get any on my cloak or dress-'

'Your cloak is black,' Sebastian said bluntly and grabbed a relatively clean top; that had been on the end of his sofa, pressing it against her scalp making her swear in pain. 'Don't move, we need to put pressure on it,' he said as he used his other hand to pull out his phone and call Maru. 'Yeah, can you come down to my room and bring a medical kit?' He said simply before hanging up. Rina pouted from where he had forced her to sit with her head forward so he could keep pressure applied easily.

She grumbled, 'this is not what I wanted to happen on your birthday.'

'Shut up,' he said without malice. 'It's technically my fault you got hurt in the first place,' Sebastian said quietly. Rina tried to protest and move his hand but he moved around her so that she was in between his legs and he could keep her in place. 'Try it again and I'll pin you to the floor,' he stated.

'Asshole,' she muttered.

'I'm okay with it,' he said with a smirk making her snort.

Maru charged into Sebastian's room with her mother in tow. 'What the hell is going on?' She exclaimed when she saw Rina wedged on the edge of the sofa, with Sebastian behind her, his hand pressed firmly against her head, making her bow.

'I got hurt,' Rina said honestly. 'There's a lot of blood.'

'Did he flip you off the bed or something? Bang your head against that Yoba-awful headboard, or bedside table?' Maru asked.

'Maru!' Scolded Robin. Maru rolled her eyes and handed her mother the first aid kit as she walked over.

Both Rina and Sebastian were used to everyone's teasing, they didn't seem to get that a man could literally just be friends with a woman. 'I got hurt in the mines, or walking over here. I'm not sure,' Rina explained. 'We only just found the bleeding.'

Robin ran upstairs to get some clean cloths while Maru gingerly moved her brother away and began to part Rina's hair to see the wound. 'Head wounds bleed a lot and it can look worse than it is,' she said honestly. 'Your hair is very thick so that seems to have disguised the blood a fair bit. Does it hurt a lot?'

'Honestly more like an ache- Ow! Unless you go poking it!' Rina swore as Maru found the fair-sized cut. 'Yoba damn it! Maru!' She complained.

'It'll need staples, but I can do stitches instead, though its going to hurt like the blazes. I would suggest that you stay over in case you start to feel dizzy or sick,' she explained. 'You should definitely have it washed out and have Dr Harvey check you over in the morning,' Maru said as her mother returned with clean cloths and water.

Sebastian watched nervously; a fear he hadn't experienced before felt like it was suffocating him. The idea of Rina being seriously hurt was stifling him. 'She can stay here, I'll be up working,' he said simply.

'What?!' Rina said trying to turn her head and getting told off by both Robin and Maru for moving. 'No! Sebastian, you're going out for your birthday. No way are you staying at home just because I was stupid enough to get hurt!' There was a lot of hushing and in the end, Maru had to send Sebastian upstairs as his argument with Rina was causing her to get distracted and move around.

He sighed as he sat at the kitchen table and looked at his hands, he hadn't washed them yet and her blood had dried in the creases of his hands. 'Fuck,' he muttered as he stood up and walked over to the sink to wash. It was only a few minutes later when he heard the front door and Sam walked in with Abigail in tow.

'Hey! Hey! You ready?' Sam asked happily holding up some alcohol.

Sebastian sighed, 'I'm not going.'