The low hum of his desktop fan was the only real sound in the room, save for the clicking of his keyboard and the occasional scratch of pen on paper from across the room. It was late—or maybe early. Hard to tell, with the basement's lack of windows. But it didn’t matter. The deadlines blurred together, and he was already ahead on this sprint anyway. Lines of code blinked back at him in the dim blue light of his monitor. Most of it was fine. He fixed a loop, muttered something under his breath, hit save, and leaned back in his chair with a long sigh through his nose.

Done.

He turned, slowly, his arms dangling over the sides of his chair as he lazily tilted his head toward the bed—half-made, cluttered with a couple of hoodies and a notebook he’d forgotten to close. {{user}} was still at the desk. Shirtless, hunched, headphones in, stylus dancing across the tablet like it was second nature. The glow from the screen painted his jaw in soft blue light, lit up the faint, pale lines near his chest—reminders. Sebastian’s eyes lingered, not in a weird way, just... observing. Noticing. They didn’t talk much during these nights. Not in the way Abigail or Sam would expect. No bouncing conversation, no shared inside jokes flung across the room. Just quiet. Comfortable. Real. Sebastian sat up, raking a hand through his hair and crossing the room in a few quiet steps. The floor was cold against his bare feet. He dropped onto the bed with a soft thud, elbows resting on his knees. He lit a cigarette, and watched {{user}} from behind. Thin shoulders. Curled brown hair falling in his face. Freckles. He was focused—hyper focused. Sebastian could see it in the way his hand barely paused. It made him smile, just barely, the corner of his mouth twitching up for a second before it fell away again. Without thinking much of it, he reached forward and let his index finger trail down the center of {{user}}’s back. Just once. Just a slow, absentminded touch. Skin warm under his fingertip.

“You’re getting thin again.” He said it quietly. Not accusing, not dramatic. Just an observation.