Mending the Broken // Private RP // CLOSED

Sebastian realized with a jolt that this woman was around the same age as him— and cradling a toddler in her arms. Caught up in momentary stupor, he almost lost his grip on Ella again when she threw herself forward towards the other little girl, yelling "Layla! Layla!" at the top of her lungs. He stumbled again, quickly drawing back before he crashed straight into the stranger again.

Maybe once, he might have looked at her and considered her to be pretty, but he never noticed things like that anymore, so he merely stammered out another apology. "I'm sorry– I think they know each other—" Ella's bottom lip began to tremble as she reached for the other girl again, ready to burst into tears.

(I'll be back in like twenty minutes, sorry)

(nvm, I'm back now)

Sebastian could clearly tell that the woman was uncomfortable in his presence, which of course caused his brain to jump to conclusions that he quickly brushed away. He would have forced out an awkward 'goodbye' and turned away had Ella not burst into tears when she saw that her attempts were proving to be useless.
"Hey, shhh…" he murmured hastily, bouncing her up and down. "Don't worry, silly, you'll see your friend tomorrow." His voice softened drastically, but it was no good; Ella just stared up at him with tears eyes and continued to bawl.

Eventually, Sebastian managed to calm Ella down with promises of applesauce and her elephant plushie, bouncing her up and down and ruffling her head of blonde curls.

“Sorry,” he apologized once more, pulling another napkin from his pocket to gently wipe his daughter’s cheeks. “Anyways, it was nice meeting you.”

“Oh— I’m Sebastian.” He offered an awkward but genuinely friendly smile, as if he wasn’t quite sure what to do in social situations such as this, and balanced Ella precariously on his hip with one arm so he could extend a hand to shake.

Suddenly afraid that he’d made her uncomfortable, Sebastian slipped his free hand into his daughter’s hair as if to reassure the woman— Devon— that he wasn’t going to reach out again. “Yeah,” he answered, plopping a kiss on Ella’s nose when she began to get fidgety. “Unfortunately, I should probably get going. Um, have a nice day, I guess.”

“Thanks.” Sebastian raised a hand in farewell and took a few steps backwards before turning to sign Ella out. Nice going, idiot, he told himself, guilt twisting his stomach. He’d probably made the woman uncomfortable by offering his hand— what had he been thinking?

A few minutes later, he was out the door, swinging Ella up and down as he walked down the street. Giggles and delighted squeals tumbled from her lips, her eyes practically glowing as her father tossed her up into the air (only a centimetre or two above his fingers) and swung her back down. Her father’s grin faltered slightly, a spike of pain skewering his heart.

Elle…

While their daughter may have had his hair and faint freckles, her eyes were practically a carbon copy of her mother’s; large, breathtaking, and grey-green. Immediately picking up on the change in her father’s demeanour, baby Ella tugged lightly on his nose. “Dadda?”

It took Sebastian a few minutes to unlock his apartment door while keeping hold of Ella— the little girl did not want to be put down— but he finally managed and crossed over the threshold, the familiar sense of constricting shame washing over him as it always did when he entered his home. But in reality, his daughter was the only thing that made it a home and not just a house, he couldn’t imagine himself having any attachment to it if he was completely alone.

“Appa-sosh!” Ella clapped her little fists together in vigorous enthusiasm, repeating the word over and over again until it struck Sebastian that she was referring to ‘apple sauce’, the reward he’d promised her for settling down back at the daycare. “Right…” he murmured, blowing a raspberry against her cheek before setting her down in her highchair and beginning to get her snack ready.

Half an hour, one diaper change, and a tub of apple sauce later, Sebastian’s little miracle had dozed off on his chest. He shifted in the armchair, careful not to wake his daughter as he gazed lovingly down at her little head. Eventually, his eyes drifted to the coffee table, where a framed picture sat.

Elle….

Tears pricked his eyes, just as fresh and bitter as that day, only a year ago, where he’d broken down at her bedside with a tiny infant in his arms. Her death was his fault, for not making sure that she’d taken her pill, for not double-checking that she hadn’t forgotten. It was his fault, for wanting to try something new with her. All of it, his fault.

And now, their daughter would grow up without a mother. Without another woman to counsel and comfort her as she got older. Would she be confused when she first went to school and saw that everyone else had two parents?

Sebastian made sure that the tears rolling down his cheeks were silent, so as not to wake his precious daughter.

)):
same tho…..…… poor Devon )):

skip to what we had planned for the next day?)

(lol I deserved that
oof
alright give me a second)

(😭😭😭 My heart!)

)):

"Hey, hey, it's okay," Sebastian consoled his daughter, who was tugging on his finger and looking up at him with wide, watery eyes. Her bottom lip trembled, and his comforting smile faltered. She looked so much like her mother……

"I'll be back in the afternoon, after nap time– and, I'll bring you Mr. Tum." Why on Earth she had named the cutesy elephant stuffy 'Mr. Tum' was a mystery, but he was her favourite, and Sebastian could see her beginning to cave in.

"Come bah?" Ella asked him in a tiny, trembling voice that made him turn to mush. "Of course I'll come back, sweetheart, I always do. Has Daddy ever let you down?" The little girl pondered this, then shook her head. "See? I'll come back, I promise. Don't you like day care?"

Eventually, the little girl let Jodie, the head of the daycare, lead her over to a gaggle of other children. Sebastian sighed and leaned against the doorframe, watching them go before he turned around to exit the building.

(LEAVE DEVON ALONE YOU PIECE OF TURD.)

(SEB PUNCH THE GUY.)

(ONE PUNCH COMING RIGHT UP)

Sebastian, rather fascinated by the shifting clouds above his head, didn't notice that there was something severely amiss in the scene around him until a quiet conversation turned his head. It took him a moment or two to locate the source of the sound, which turned out to be a couple next to a car, just a few metres away. He looked away, then looked back again, frowning. Was that…. Devon? Turn away, you creep, he told himself harshly, and would have done so had he not caught a glimpse of the expression on the young woman's face.

Fear. No, not fear. Absolute terror. There was a man pressing her against a car– presumably her own– leaning closer and closer…. It took Sebastian about two seconds to act.

Rapidly approaching the two, he slipped one hand into his pocket and forced a cool, calculated expression onto his face. With his free hand, he reached out, grabbed the stranger's shoulder, and wrenched him back. "Is there a problem here?"

"I think you should go," Sebastian answered coldly, keeping a tight hold on the man's shoulders. He cast a glance towards Devon, who appeared to be in a lot of distress, eyes flooding with concern. But when he turned back to face the offender, they were hard and unyielding. If he tried anything, to punch or hurt either of them, he'd learn very quickly how good Sebastian was in a fight.