So You Might be Soulless

4|| Goldenbean

"What do you want now?"

"Can I sit here with you?"

"No."

"Please?"

"We're in a library."

"I'll be quiet!"

"No you won't," Diya sneered, her thin veneer of patience snapped and disappeared.

Sebastian sighed, his arms slacking. Diya thought he looked a bit like a sad puppy- she could even imagine his ears drooping down in disappointment.

For the last three days, Sebastian had asked to sit with Diya during lunch and break. Initially, Diya had graciously refused, convinced that he would get bored and leave once he realised she was not interested.

But he was a persistent little shit.

Diya was not one to be swayed by such antics. She saw it as a sign of desperation. In the past, some people befriended her in order to win a bet- what's to say that Sebastian isn't one of them?

Although, he usually left almost immediately after she refused. But today, it seemed like he had something to ask.

Diya was not one for beating around the bush. Already, this fool had kept her from diving into her favourite lunch. "Either tell me what you want, or leave."

Sebastian shifted from foot to foot, eyes darting around before settling on Diya. He opened his mouth, then closed it again, thought for sometime, then repeated the process.

Diya raised an eyebrow, drumming her fingers on the table. The shadows hummed in excitement, and it was depleting nearly all of her energy in keeping them back.

"Will you be attending the Crown Prince's birthday banquet?" Sebastian finally blurted out.

Out of all the questions he could ask, Diya was not expecting that. "Eh?"

"The banquet. Are you going?"

"Maybe," She answered evasively, brows pulled together in a frown, "Why?"

"Just- just curious." He shrugged, attempting to look nonchalant but failing miserably.

"If that's all–"

"Wait!" Sebastian's eyes lit up in excitement and he rummaged through his backpack, pulling out a plethora of strange items before extracting a gold object. "Here you go!"

To Diya's amazement and horror, he plopped a large bar of Goldenbean in her hands.

"What- what is this?" Diya gingerly placed it on the table, shuffling away as if it were a large poisonous spider.

Sebastian tilted his head to the right slightly, "Do you not like Goldenbean anymore?"

"No! I- I love it! But- how are you able to afford this?"

"Oh this is nothing," Sebastian waved a hand dismissively and a tiny spark shot between his fingers, "my family has an entire store of this."

"Your family has a what?" Diya's sharp tone caused Sebastian to flinch.

The pulleys and gears in Diya's mind started to whir and tugged on a long forgotten piece of information. His family has a store...Goldenbean is difficult to produce... the main families are Greishen, Redguard and-

"A-ah, I misspoke...not my family!" Sebastian laughed awkwardly, ruffling the back of his blue hair. The energy around him crackled and Diya nearly made a sigh of disappointment. Despite being the same age as her, it seemed he had not grasped proper hold of his powers.