Chapter Text
Kel woke up to sunshine filtering into the room, gently casting a warm golden glow above the surface of the pillow fort they had fallen asleep under. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes with his palms while letting out a wide yawn and stretching his arms and legs up to the sky.
As his mind began to fully wake up and catch up to the fact he was at Sunny’s place and not on his bed back home, Kel felt his heart flutter and drum with excitement. He had fallen asleep last night before having finished their scary movie marathon after single handedly finishing the last refill of buttery popcorn, but nevertheless felt well rested and energized as he took in the early morning buzz of birds chirping outside and the sound of cars driving on asphalt and occasionally honking at each other.
Sunny was fast asleep a few inches away, nestled under the weight of several blankets, face-up and completely unmoving except for the steady rise and fall of the blankets that covered his torso. The sunlight drew shapes along his features and Kel admired how peaceful the scene was, with Sunny deep asleep and the sun’s rays shining through the blanket and bathing him in orange rays of light amidst shadows.
Sunny had always been a deep sleeper. Kel sighed contentedly as he smiled under the calm of the early morning. He only took a moment before he smiled deviously with a sudden mischievous urge that came over him.
Kel stood up, grinning to himself as he stared down at Sunny’s peacefully sleeping form.
Target locked, ready to launch .
He stepped a few steps back in the limited amount of space the pillow fort afforded him and counted down dramatically into an imaginary walkie talkie-- launching in 5...4...3...2...1… --
--Before taking a running start and bellyflopping right on top of Sunny’s blanket cocoon.
“ GOOD MORNING, SUNNY! ” Kel shouted while laughing playfully as Sunny woke up with a startled -- oof -- at the weight of his body falling on top of his.
Kel started giggling harder when Sunny responded by spinning himself around in his blanket cocoon like a rotisserie chicken, causing Kel to roll right off him with a thud that caused him to take the pillow fort down with him.
The whole thing came crashing down on top of them both until they were completely trapped under a fortress of blankets.
“AHH! Blanket attack! Don’t worry, I’ll save us!” Kel announced under the sheets before he began high-speed kicking his legs in the air in a flurry until he managed to get the blanket off of them with one final kick and a dramatic hee-yah!
Sunny sat upright-- finally awake, all according to plan. Mission successful , Kel imitated in his head. Sunny had tangled himself up in blankets while pushing Kel off of him, so his face was the only thing visible from his cocoon and made it look like the pit inside of an avocado.
“Good morning,” Sunny mumbled sleepily, letting out a quiet yawn.
Kel smiled brightly at him and offered a hand out. Sunny took it after wriggling his hand out from his blanket prison. As Kel lifted him up, Sunny shook out from his blanket cocoon and emerged at last.
“Evil has been defeated, Sunny. We have escaped the wrath of sleep’s tempting slumber.
“With the power of our forces combined,” Kel continued, throwing his hands up into fists and pausing for dramatic effect, “We will rue this city together!” The sun had shifted in the sky and filtered into the room casting light on Kel, like a spotlight.
Sunny didn’t seem at all phased by Kel’s early morning hijinks, even as Kel placed a foot on top of the heap in front of him as if he had slain a dragon below his feet and posed heroically. Instead, Sunny posed along with him, with one hand in front of his face and the other throwing his imaginary billowing cape to the side.
Kel’s eyes beamed with glee at Sunny playing along and he laughed as he did a spin and posed just like Captain Spaceboy, hand cocked in the air holding an invisible space gun.
Sunny always knew just how to make Kel laugh.
The two got ready for the day without delay, both of them eager to spend time together doing-- what exactly, Kel wasn’t sure, but he didn’t care, already happy and excited at just getting to hang out with Sunny. The details didn’t matter.
It’s only until Kel almost dropped his spoon full of Space Captain Crunch that Kel gasped in shock at what he had heard Sunny tell him-- he hadn’t had the will to explore the city except when accompanying his mom on grocery store trips ever since he began living there.
Obviously, that was going to change.
In that moment, Kel made the internal decision to find as many fun things to do together in the city as possible, not only for a single weekend but for as much as they could, and to make Sunny as happy as he could make him. It was his honorable duty as his bro to do so. Plus, if he could make him laugh, that would be an extra bonus, in Kel’s book.
And so, the two found themselves walking and walking through the city streets as tired men in suits passed them in a rush, and mothers pushed baby carriages while chatting loudly on their phones, and a young office worker ran and shouted while trying to stop the bus that had just left with a group of passengers.
“It sure is busy here, isn’t it?" Kel said as he navigated around a man who was walking back and forth trying to call a cab, "This atmosphere feels way different than back home.”
The boy nodded. Sunny had never liked being alone, but Kel was sure he probably felt the same way around large groups of people. A lot of stuff still went over his head, Hero would point out sometimes, but Kel thought he had learned how to pick up certain cues better over the years.
Like how Sunny pulled his scarf higher on his face because he felt uncomfortable around so many people, like how he used to bury his face on Basil’s shoulder or stand behind Hero when he was scared. Or how Sunny didn’t like it when it was too hot or when it was too cold, so he was dressed like he was going to the snow even though Kel didn’t think it was that cold. Or how he made sure to stand on the side Sunny could see out of so he could see that Kel was still there and hadn’t run off somewhere else.
Things like that.
“I know we don’t have a plan on what to do. But do you know where we’re going? We’ve been walking for like.. Ten minutes. Not that I mind, though. Just walking through the city is fun in itself.”
“I know where we’re going, but I’ve only been there a couple times and didn’t really look around much.”
Kel bumped his shoulder against Sunny’s--more like, he had to lean down a bit to bump his shoulder against Sunny’s.
“So you do know! Where are we going then?”
“That’s a secret.”
“Awwwww, man,” Kel pouted, “Now I really wanna know.”
“Soon… soon.” Sunny said in an almost ominous tone after a brief pause of silence.
They made it past the bustle of people and under a tunnel, where the sound of cars got loud before fading as they zoomed by in a chorus of noise. Kel couldn’t help cupping his hands and shouting ECHO--- ECHO--- and YOU’RE SO COOL, AW THANKS-- as the sound reverberated back around them.
Not long after, the streets they walked on turned from broken asphalt into brick and stone, green shrubbery with flowers surrounded a large sign that read Welcome to Cityline Shopping Center , and run-down lamp posts turned into fancy lanterns adorning every street.
On every corner as far as Kel could see were trendy cafes, mega supermarkets, antique thrift stores and toy stores, desert factories, expensive-looking restaurants, and many different lines of clothing stores he’d never even heard the names of.
Kel gaped as he turned his head from left to right, taking in the street filled with posh looking people strolling and groups of others taking pictures in front of statues of people he didn’t know, making the sight of the city seem bright and full of life.
“Woahhh. It’s like we just walked into Narnia. I don’t even know where to look.”
As if the wind heard him, the cool autumn breeze blew Kel’s hair in his face and completely blocked his view. Kel heard Sunny exhale through his nose in a silent laugh when he sputtered from the hair that went in his mouth and he pouted, retrieving a hairtie from the pocket of his orange hoodie and quickly tied his loose hair back in a low ponytail.
“What do you want to do first, Sunny? How about we walk around and you take the lead if there’s something that catches your eye? I’m happy doing anything since everything here is so cool to look at.”
Kel felt briefly surprised when he felt Sunny grab onto the sleeve of his arm before shooting him a bright smile as Sunny nodded while looking away, tugging him along as an indication to follow. He was getting better at communicating his wishes, plus overall way healthier than he was a year ago, which Kel felt happy about.
It felt like forever ago that Sunny had first opened that door, with deep circles under his eyes, sickly pale skin, and way, way skinnier than he was used to seeing. Sunny hadn’t spoken a single word the entire time and had a distant look in his eyes, as if he were there and not there at the same time, only leading the way as Kel followed through their childhood neighborhood.
As they perused the fancy streets, Kel felt happy and comforted by the weight of Sunny’s hand on his hoodie sleeve, proof enough that he was present and not just walking on autopilot, doing much better than last he’d seen him.
It was one step towards things going back to the way they were before, Kel hoped.
--
Sunny felt himself in desert heaven as he brought another spoonful of his banana split to his mouth.
Chocolate drizzle covered three scoops of ice cream topped with whipped cream and cherries in a bowl. Kel was talking to him through a spoonful of his own banana split with way more whipped cream on top he thought was possible to order. He seemed excited while he reenacted a serve he did at his most recent game with his team, but Sunny was lost at the sport-specific terminology he was using.
He listened anyway, nodding along obliviously, feeling comfortable and content just from hearing Kel’s happy rambling even though he didn’t fully understand, all while eating more of his ice cream. Probably not the best idea to eat something cold when the day was already cold though, he considered with a slight shiver after a particularly cold gust of wind blew.
Before Sunny could suggest getting something warm to drink as they both finished the last few spoonfuls of their banana split and threw away the empty bowls, Kel gasped and pointed at something in the distance, some nondescript clothing store.
“Look over there Sunny! No, behind that building, it's being hidden by it. I think that might be…. A Ferris wheel?”
Sunny finally spotted what he was pointing at-- it was indeed a Ferris wheel in the distance, behind the nondescript clothing store and standing taller than everything around it.
Sunny and Kel looked at eachother.
“Race you there!!--” Kel said before Sunny even had the chance to say anything, and sped off. He ran after him while feeling like he was fighting for his life trying to catch up with Kel’s inhuman speed, but was too stubborn to admit defeat to the challenge, even though it was physically impossible for him (or anyone, probably) to beat Kel in a race.
When he felt himself start to wheeze, he gave in and had to stop. Kel looked like he was 30 yards ahead of him, and his figure stopped getting smaller for a moment, then rapidly grew in size as he ran back to Sunny in the blink of an eye.
He looked like he was about to ask if he was alright, so Sunny gave him a thumbs up in the midst of his staggering, heavy breathing. He definitely didn’t feel cold anymore.
“Heh.. Sorry, Sunny. I didn’t mean to make you push yourself like that. I got a little excited. How abooout..” Kel squatted in front of him, his arms out behind him as he gave him his back, “I give you a ride there instead.”
Sunny felt like he would start wheezing again, but calmed his beating heart down before it came out of his chest. He felt a bit flustered but nodded, knowing it’d be fun to get a piggyback ride from Kel.
The only other time he ever got a piggyback ride was from Hero on days he got too tired from playing in the park with his friends as he and Mari walked back home together. He had always managed to fall asleep on his back, but he still vaguely remembered being brought up to his room and tucked in before hearing the sound of a kiss and I’ll see you tomorrow, Mari .
He climbed on Kel’s back and Kel grabbed onto his legs then stood up. “All aboard the Kel train-- We’re off!” Then Kel started running, somehow not at all slowed down by Sunny’s weight.
He felt like he was flying being more than six feet in the air and held onto Kel tighter despite not fearing heights anymore, simply out of habit. The cool breeze felt nice against his warmed cheeks and amidst the warmth from Kel’s steady back. The sharp sting in his heart subsided with the soft wind as the two rode closer to the festival ahead of them.