Irreplaceable || Sebastian & Richard
gamblingtigersniper:
Those days were almost nice. Almost. The hours spent teaching Richard to cook, showing him how to take care of himself, how to be capable. But then Sebastian remembered that all of this was just preparation for his own obsoleteness. He was simply getting Richard ready to not need him. That had come to be one of the things he feared most about his life with Jim. They ruled their empire with an iron fist, and the only thing that threatened to tear them apart was if Sebastian ever became obsolete, due to injury or age. He hadn’t imagined the injury wouldn’t be his own, or that it would come so soon.
And then, those days were over, and Sebastian packed a proper bag, and he was gone. He only took a few things, far from what would qualify as ‘necessities’. Instead, he took what little he had that qualified as ‘sentimental’. Jim would have laughed at him. The sniper’s old shirt, which he never wore anymore, because Jim was the last to wear it. A mug Jim had bought him. Things of that nature. Most of his clothes he left behind, for Richard to do whatever he pleased with, or nothing at all.
For the first few weeks, he was on the roof across the street every day, just as he had been the first time he left. He watched Richard get into all sorts of little accidents, but he managed to right himself without any serious injury. It was a strange thing, how Sebastian was simultaneously proud of him for doing so well, and gutted by how utterly unnecessary the sniper himself had become.
After those first weeks, he only went to the rooftop every other day. Then three times a week. Then twice, once, and not at all. Instead, he spent more and more nights at the pub, getting in brawls just to make his blood rush and taking home blokes only to call them by the wrong name and throw them out of his flat the instant he was through with them.
Tonight was one such night, and he was buried deep in some twinky brunette, his mobile on the charger by his bed. Meanwhile, a man in a black hoodie was jimmying open the door to Richard’s flat, intent on taking whatever he could and running. He hadn’t seen the big guy who used to live there coming and going anymore, so he assumed that he and his roommate must have had a fight and he moved out. Whatever had happened, it didn’t matter. Now was his time to strike. He shuffled his card through the door lock and chuckled as it finally released, and he began to open the door and walk into the flat.
Richard started to feel panic rise up in his chest as he stepped back, realising the flat was being broken into and there was no way of protecting himself. If he ran back to get his phone, he’d probably be blocked by the burglar to get to the bathroom and lock himself in there for safety, and if he went to the bathroom first, he’d have no way of contacting Sebastian until the burglar was gone. And even then, there’d be a high chance his phone would be taken as well, and Richard didn’t know Sebastian’s number off by heart.
The lock clicked, and Richard made his decision: he didn’t want to get hurt. He scrambled off to the bathroom and locked himself in, abandoning his phone on the table and any chance of communicating with Sebastian. He’d leave the robber to take what he wanted and go with no scuffle, no danger of having the police phoned or having to defend himself against the owner.
He could hear shuffling around and drawers being pulled open and shoved shut again, the thief probably deciding it was easier to take expensive watches, Richard’s wallet with the debit cards Sebastian had given him, his laptop, and as Richard predicted: his phone. The man was in and out in no less than five minutes, leaving before any neighbours would notice anything suspicious, and through that time, Richard was curled up in the furthest corner of the bathroom, feeling the panic taking hold and crying quietly to himself, praying that the thief wouldn’t come after him in an attempt to get rid of the one and only witness.
Even after he heard the front door shut, Richard stayed in his spot, terrified the burglar would come back for more and unable to calm himself down for a long while. The only way he could tell the time was thanks to the window in the bathroom, and Rich was content with letting the night go on until dawn, when he finally emerged from his hiding spot to assess the damage.
