Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Hero nervously checked his watch. He was still five minutes early, but he had no idea when the person he was waiting for was going to come. He tapped his heel up and down in slight impatience, or rather, anxiety. He didn’t know this person. What would she think of him? Was he really the type of person anyone would want to date? He clearly wasn’t fit to be anyone’s partner, not after what happened with—

No.

That wasn’t his fault. There were no signs to see, and he was a great person, if what everyone around him says is true. He doesn’t need to worry about it.

That’s what he keeps telling himself.

But what if he really is a horrible person? He couldn’t keep their friends together, couldn’t see how everyone else was hurting, he was too absorbed in his own self-hate—

“Are you.. Hero?”

He looked up from where his gaze had rested on the ground to see a rather petite brunette, with shoulder-length hair that curled near the ends. She was cute, he guessed. She had a kind of charm that he would normally feel towards small animals or children. But her hair was shorter than he was used to, and she looked rather nervous rather than carrying a large grin filled with love. Too short, too messy, too shy...

She—

She wasn’t… Mari.

He realized with a start that he hadn’t responded yet, and covered up the awkward pause with a laugh and a grin, hoping he hadn’t been staring for too long.

“Y-Yeah, that’s… me. Robin, right? Sorry. Do you… wanna get going? There’s a nice place further back. I brought lunch!” He holds up a picnic basket reminiscent of Mari’s, as if in offering.

The park was luckily rather empty today, and he couldn’t see any of his childhood friends or his brother around. Thank god. He doesn’t think he can deal with them now. Not on top of this.

Robin gives a shy smile, covering her mouth with one of the sleeves of her sweater and grasping the strap of her purse with the other. Does she think that’s cute? Wearing a sweater that’s too big for her? He can’t imagine that it's fashionable. Or maybe it is? He certainly isn’t caught up on fashion trends with his own boring blue sweater and gray jeans. He doesn’t have any right to judge. Maybe because she’s so small, she can only find oversized things when she’s shopping for clothes. No, Hero, that’s stupid. There are always smaller sizes out there, larger are the ones hard to find.

Before he even noticed, they were in the back of the park by the lake. He gestures for her to sit at the picnic blanket that’s already laid out, settling himself down.

She smiles a bit more genuinely, and it’s cute, Hero thinks. Not in the same way, but he’ll take it for now.

“I’ve never been back here before. It’s beautiful.”

Hero can feel himself relaxing a bit. “Yeah, I used to come here all the time when I was a kid.”

“By yourself?” She blinks, curious.

He hurries to correct her, “No, with my friends. We all, uh, used to have picnics together.” He’s already panicking again. Oh no, he doesn’t want to talk about them now. He doesn’t want to dive into his trauma on his first meeting with this poor girl.

“Oh, that sounds fun!” She comments, before looking closer at how he has tensed back up and is starting to sweat slightly. “...You don’t have to talk about it, but I’d love to hear more sometime. Let’s talk about something else, what are you studying at college?”

He glances at her doubtfully, but she only smiles back reassuringly.

“...I’m studying to become a doctor.”

Her eyebrows raise in surprise, “Wow, cool. That’s definitely a lot of hard work! I’m an artist myself, definitely not anything quite so amazing.”

Hero finds himself chuckling a bit at the self-deprecating joke, “I get told that a lot. I don’t think I’m all that amazing either, but I guess if people keep telling me that then I should try to believe it, right? I’m sure your art is amazing.”

Unexpectedly, he opens his eyes to Robin frowning. He’s suddenly very nervous. Did he say something wrong? God, he’s already fucked this up. He was right all along, there’s no way he could have a proper relationship—

“That’s not right! You shouldn’t believe something just because other people told you so. You have to find your own self-worth!” She scoots a bit closer, adamantly holding her clenched hands forward and shaking them up and down excitedly, pouting, “Like, like! For example, what’s something you really like doing, even if no one else complimented you on it?”

He’s a bit taken aback by her energy, but takes a moment to think. What does he like to do? Even if it didn’t make others happy, even if it was the only thing he had left…

“...Cooking. I like… cooking.” He glanced back up at her nervously, as if there was a wrong answer. Somehow he felt he needed to justify himself to her, since she was getting so angry on his behalf.

She smiled, however. “See? And you think cooking is fun, right? Even when you have to work hard at it. You don’t have to be amazing at everything, as long as you have something you enjoy doing.”

He finds himself smiling. “Yeah. Even though cooking is best enjoyed when you get to see everyone’s reactions. Speaking of which, do you want to try some of what I brought? I… made it myself.”

She gives him a giga-watt smile, and her eyes almost seem to sparkle. “Food? You sure know how to win a girl’s heart!”

His smile weakens, her reaction reminding him of Mari. She would always get excited about his cooking as well, flirting with him as he brought it out. But the comparison… doesn’t hurt quite as much. Robin is nice. She understands. She doesn’t seem like she would judge him too much, even if he spilled his whole life story right now.

And that… makes him happy. Or at least… content.

And if he asks her for some of her own hobbies as he spreads out the parts of their meal, well…

Right now, they could just be content together.

---

From behind the trees near the entrance to the clearing, a pompadoured head pokes around to spy on the two, who seem to be enjoying themselves.

“Hey, that’s that nerd Kel’s brother, right? What’s he doing out here?” Angel complains quietly, turning to Charlie who looms behind him, “Do we gotta cancel our meetup today?”

Charlene sighs silently, nodding. “I don’t… think we should disturb them. They look… happy.”

Angel pouts up at her, before grinning and trying to make a break towards the two of them. Charlene grabs the back of his tank top, dragging him away with her to find the rest of their friends. Angel flops around uselessly in her grip, trying to get away.

“Hey! I was just gonna— ask them some questions!”

---

Kel was bothering her again, trying to convince her to go hang out at the treehouse with her new group of friends. She was listening half-heartedly, not really wanting to consider the idea. That was their old place, her new group of friends didn’t belong there. But… did she really want to place that kind of restriction on them? These were her friends. The treehouse was a place where she and her friends hung out, even if it was their old group.

“...We’d be trespassing to get there. Sunny’s already moved out.” Aubrey contributed half-heartedly, knowing full well it was a shit excuse.

“We don’t have to go through his backyard! We can take a different route!” Kel posited enthusiastically. “You know it’s not technically part of his house, right?” He added, trying to egg her on. She grunted, eyebrows furrowing.

“....Fine.” Aubrey closed her eyes in preparation for his response.

“YEAH!” Kel shouted, and she still winced at how loud he was. Could he be any more annoying? “Does that mean we can go today? I wanna go today!”

“Aubrey!” She turned to the voice barreling down the pavement towards the fountain they were near. “Aubrey Aubrey Aubrey!!!”

Angel skidded to a halt before them. She could see Charlene slowly making her way towards them in the distance. “GUESS WHAT! Kel’s brother is by the lake with his girlfriend or whatever! Let’s go prank ‘em!”

Aubrey froze in surprise. Hero… had a girlfriend?

Before she even had a chance to think of a response, Kel exclaimed, “WOAH! Hero got a girlfriend?! That’s… cool!”

She turned to him. He didn’t have any major signs of being distressed, except maybe a bit of sweat. Was he really okay with this? What about… Mari? Was Hero really over her completely? She felt a bit betrayed by how easily Kel seemed to just... accept this. Like he seemed to when Sunny told them the truth. No, she can’t use Kel as a bar of how to react to anything.

She felt… confused. Why would Hero suddenly go out and find someone, now of all times? They’re still adjusting to the truth, and to Sunny moving away right after. Why would he keep this a secret?

She felt… betrayed. Did Hero’s love for Mari only take him this far? Of course, she’s gone… but, she thought he had really loved her. Like, a lifetime commitment, or something.

She felt… relieved. Relieved that Hero was trying. He deserved to be happy.

She didn’t quite know what to do with these feelings yet. Closing her eyes, she refused Angel’s offer of pranking them, much to the boy’s disappointment. Hopefully she would get a chance to confront Hero about this later. At least he’s getting a chance to try having a relationship, unlike her lost opportunity. Not that she’d ever admit that out loud.

She tells them to tell everyone their meetup spot has changed. She’ll deal with this later.

---

Hero’s heart was pounding. He’d taken a leap of faith in asking one of his college friends if they knew someone who lived in Faraway who would be willing to blind date, and it had turned out well. Too well, actually. Suspiciously well. He had gotten Robin’s number and confirmed plans to meet up again while they were still in Faraway during break.

He had been telling himself he needed to move on.

He had been trying to convince himself that he couldn’t grieve for Mari forever, that even if it was an accident, there wasn’t any bringing her back. He had to be happy, for her sake.

He’d been forcing himself to try harder. To be healthier. To… he doesn’t know. Be like he used to be? Before everything?

Even just in their first meeting, Robin felt like a positive difference. He wasn’t sure how he really felt about her yet, but he thought he could make it work. She was enough like Mari— no. He needed to stop comparing them. It wasn’t fair to Mari, and it definitely wasn’t fair to Robin.

Robin had said he should base his self-worth off of his own words, not off of others. That was real. That felt like something he could work towards. He liked that.

When he got home that afternoon, Kel was still out. He greeted his parents, offered to start working on dinner after he did some homework, and went upstairs to focus.

Except he couldn’t focus. He was ecstatic. He couldn’t stop smiling. Was this how he used to feel? When he was with Mari? He couldn’t remember. Somehow, it didn’t matter.

His thoughts kept going in circles, and he spun in his desk chair. He was going to meet her again, and it was going to be great. He just knew that somehow, if he kept putting in more effort, everything would work out. It wasn’t like before. Robin didn’t have any mysterious younger siblings waiting in the wings to murder her and frame it as a suicide—

The doorknob suddenly twisted, and he couldn’t halt his momentum before Kel came bursting in, a grin on his face. He made another full turn before finally stopping to greet him, but Kel cut him off with, “Wow, I guess you really did get a girlfriend! Nice going, Hero!”

His heart sunk in his chest. He knew? How did he already know?

He scratched the back of his neck nervously. “Haha, y-yeah. Um, who else knows?”

If Kel’s grin grew any larger, Hero would think he was straining himself. “Oh, nobody. Just Aubrey, Angel, Charlene, Kim, Vance, M—”

“So all of Aubrey’s gang, then,” Hero sighed, dejected. Why did he ever think he could keep this a secret?

“And Basil! He’s chill with it, too. Dude seemed pretty happy for you! I am, too, if I’m being honest!” Kel seemed like he wanted to give him a hug, but stopped himself to give Hero space. He appreciated it. He was too nervous to receive a hug right now. He now knew Kel and Basil were okay with it, but he was most worried about Aubrey, and Sunny if he ended up finding out.

“Did… Aubrey say anything?” Hero asked, almost too scared to find out the answer.

“Uh… I don’t… think so. I can ask her?” Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck. Alright, Aubrey is definitely not okay with this. Why would she be? She cared about Mari the most after Sunny and him, and she definitely idolized her more than anyone. Of course she wouldn’t be okay with him trampling all over her memory by finding someone else.

“No, uh, you don’t have to say anything to her. That’s fine. I’ll just, um, talk to her myself.” Hero definitely didn’t want to talk to her himself. He was absolutely dreading doing just that. But he didn’t want to avoid talking to her altogether, that wasn’t fair to such a close friend.

“Okay, cool! You should probably do that soon, then. She was acting kind of weird the whole time we were hanging out, so.” Fuck. Hero should stop cursing in his head, he might let one slip around Sally. But what else perfectly embodies his emotions at this very moment?

“...Alright. Thanks.”

“No problem, bro! You can always count on me!” Kel flexed towards him as if to raise his spirits. He’s not really sure if it helped, but he appreciates the attempt. “I’ll let you finish your work, see ya!” Just as abruptly as he entered, Kel runs downstairs, leaving the door open behind him. Hero sighs, before realizing the time had already gotten so late that he should be heading down to work on dinner. So much for getting his homework done, he guesses.

---

Kel was… nervous. He hoped Hero hadn’t noticed how absolutely fake his smile was during some parts of his speech. He didn’t doubt that Basil’s response when he had told him was genuine, the kid would have been sweating buckets otherwise. But Kel had (self-proclaimed) mastery over the art of pretending that everything was okay, even when he had doubts about some things.

Kel was, admittedly, not the smartest, he knew. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t see the implications of Hero getting a girlfriend. He was happy for Hero, really. But mostly, he was worried about how fragile their friend group already was. He had spent so long trying to get everyone back together, and he had finally succeeded somewhat, so all he needs is for Hero to cause it to come crumbling down. Why now? Why couldn’t he have waited for a better time?

He didn’t want them to fall apart again. And he especially didn’t want Hero to be the reason.

He didn’t know what to do.

Chapter Text

Kel glanced over to Hero’s side of the room again, making sure Hero was fully asleep and facing away from him before he pulled his phone out under his covers. He texted Aubrey an update on what he knew, wanting to keep her in the loop.

[12:32 AM] Kel: hey, hero’s asleep now. he hasn’t contacted you yet?

He waited impatiently for her response, trying not to squirm in his sheets too much and wake Hero.

[12:34 AM] Aubrey: No.

[12:34 AM] Kel: huh. weird. he said he was gonna

[12:35 AM] Aubrey: Well, he hasn’t. Just shut up about it, I’ll talk to him tomorrow.

[12:36 AM] Kel: fine, i guess i’ll shut up

[12:36 AM] Kel: can you take me with u tho?

[12:38 AM] Aubrey: What part of shutting up don’t you understand

[12:40 AM] Aubrey: Fine, whatever. Why?

[12:41 AM] Kel: is that a fine to taking me with you or a fine you wanna know why

[12:42 AM] Aubrey: Bitch answer the question

[12:44 AM] Kel: um, i wanna ask him soem questions too

[12:44 AM] Kel: *some

[12:46 AM] Aubrey: And you can’t ask him on your own?

Kel didn’t want to respond. Because he’s too scared to face Hero? Because he doesn’t want it to go like last time he tried to help? Because Hero thinks he’s completely okay with everything and he’s not? It felt like putting his insecurities about everything into text form would make them real, even though he was already planning to talk about them with Hero. But he didn’t want to confess that to Aubrey, of all people.

[12:52 AM] Aubrey: Fine, I get it. You’re too much of a baby to talk to your own damn brother.

[12:52 AM] Kel: hey!!!

[12:54 AM] Aubrey: S’fine. You can come, I guess. Just don’t fuck this up for me.

[12:55 AM] Kel: ok, cool

[12:55 AM] Kel: gn

Aubrey didn’t respond to his last text, so he figured she went to sleep. He wanted to do so as well, but now he was too full of nervous energy. 

What was he supposed to do? Nothing? His one good ability was fucking things up. He was only good at poking his nose in where it doesn’t belong and getting yelled at.

He knew something was going to go wrong. He just hoped it didn’t go wrong too badly.

---

When Hero woke up, Kel was still asleep.

Good.

He didn’t want to talk to anyone right now, except Robin.

Quietly making his way down the stairs, he started on the simple meal he was planning to share with her later today. She had liked it last time. He’ll bring something similar this time, and ask about her favorite foods for the next.

He wanted to make her happy. She was the one thing in his life right now that didn’t give him anxiety to think about.

When he met up with her later, they were going to head to the station and hang out at the small cafe there. Then, they were going to take a train into town and explore together, before sharing the lunch he made together. He had no idea how it was going to go, but it definitely sounded exciting. Definitely better than dealing with his friend who was almost certainly looking down on him for trying to be happy.

He didn’t want to deal with Aubrey. He loved her, but he didn’t want to hear anything that would confirm how much she hated him for this. He didn’t want to stop loving her because of something so trivial.

...But it isn’t trivial, is it? This was important to him.

He hadn’t realized how much it hurt him that Aubrey might not accept him finding someone until this moment. He supported her so much, so why couldn’t she support him when it matters?

...He didn’t want to think about this. He wanted to forget everything for a day, and go have fun.

Can he please just have that?

---

When Kel woke up, Hero wasn’t there anymore. He panicked for a moment, kicking his bedsheets to the floor and checking the time on his phone.

Someone was knocking on his door.

Probably Aubrey, if the text notifications on his phone were anything to go by. He threw on his shoes and ran to the door, slamming it open with the force he would use to dunk.

“HeyAubIdon’tknowwhereHerowenthewasgonewhenIwokeup—”

Aubrey kicks him in the shin, and he shuts up in fear of the bat on her shoulder.

She squints at him. “Are you… wearing the same clothes as yesterday?”

“Heh… yeah…” He rubbed the back of his neck nervously. He didn’t want Aubrey to yell at him any more than needed.

“...Go get changed. Idiot.” She raised her foot as if in warning, and he pouted. He was already here! Why waste more time?

But even more time would be wasted if he didn’t just go change, so he did. He hoped Aubrey wouldn’t notice he didn’t change his socks, because he was getting impatient about leaving.

He raced back out his front door, where Aubrey was still waiting for him.

“Well? You said something about Hero?” She tapped her sneaker up and down idly.

“Uhh, yeah, he was gone when I woke up. I haven’t looked to see if he left a note yet.” Once he had a moment to think, he realized he was panicking for no reason. Hero always woke up before him, and he usually left some kind of note if he left without telling anyone.

“Well? Are you going to check?” She seemed so done with his shit already. Honestly, he’s only been awake for less than five minutes and he’s pretty done with himself, so he understands.

They walk into his house together, making a beeline for the kitchen. There they find, as expected, a note left on the fridge, mentioning how he was going out today and won’t be back until the afternoon. He also mentions the food he had prepped, but Kel was a bit preoccupied by the fact that he didn’t… say… where he was going.

“Uuuuugh, our plan is ruined… Hero’s gonna be gone all day and we have no idea where he went!” Kel has a mini meltdown on the floor. He can see Aubrey looking down at him in disgust.

“Get off of the floor, you’re dirty enough as it is.” He is hurt. If he continues to play dead, maybe Aubrey will take pity on him. She kicks him instead.

Aubrey sighs at his melodrama, before sharing her infinite wisdom. “It’s not that big a deal. We just have to wait until he comes home and talk to him then. Where do you wanna go to wait?”

“Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh……”

“....Figures. Alright, let’s go walk around or whatever. Maybe we’ll get some ideas.”

---

As Hero made his way back home, he didn’t think he could be any happier. His day so far had been great, there hadn’t been any complications in meeting up with Robin or during their date, and she seemed to like the lunch he made. Upon questioning her about her favorite foods, he found out she liked butter chicken and beef stew. Butter chicken was a little bit different than what he normally made, but he could go pick up the ingredients and spices he needed. Beef stew took a bit longer if you wanted to make it correctly, but he could make a bunch and share it with his family—

Right. Kel. And Aubrey.

He just knew, somehow, that he was going to get ambushed by Aubrey at some point. She was persistent if nothing else, and if she wanted answers then she was going to get them.

The problem was that he himself didn’t really know the answer.

What he did know is that he was happy at this moment, and he didn’t want them to ruin this for him.

He was surprised when he made it home safely, no surprise attacks involved. He made his way into his house, relieved that he had made it into his safe zone, where the most annoying things were Sally crying and Kel leaving his socks around—

He sees Aubrey sitting on his bed. He was stopped from immediately turning around and leaving his bedroom by Kel, who drags him through the door and closes it. Et tu, Kel?

“Haha, hey, guys. What’s all this about?” He tries to deflect, hoping that they would take it easy on him. Take what easy on him? He has nothing to be ashamed of.

What happened to one full day where he can forget everything?

“You know what I’m here about. Why have you been avoiding me?” Aubrey is definitely not enjoying his bullshit right now. Okay, cool. He wishes she would, though.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve just been busy.” He’s trying to play this off like it doesn’t matter, but it does. It does to him, and it does to Aubrey if her being here is any indication.

“Yeah, busy with… your girlfriend.” She sounded reluctant, like it was hard to say. He’s immediately unhappy with the implications.

He steels himself. “And what of it?”

He can tell Aubrey’s getting frustrated too, if her clenching fists are any indication. He doesn’t want to hear what she has to say. She doesn’t understand how important this is to him.

He hasn’t told her how important this is to him.

“Did you really think now is the best time?” She manages to growl out, her face starting to flush in anger, or maybe embarrassment. He doesn’t know, and he doesn’t care.

“And when would the best time be? When I’ve graduated? After you guys get a chance to think about it? Since when was there a good time?” Hero is trying to hold back his anger, but this conversation has already started to go where he thought it might. He’s not going to just take this lying down.

Aubrey also looks like she isn’t finished. “Look, I get it. We’re all dealing with this at our own pace. But what about… M—”

“You’re really going to bring Mari up right now?” He knows it’s relevant. He still doesn’t want to hear it.

“Of course I am! When else am I going to bring her up!?” Aubrey’s started to raise her voice, and he tenses in preparation to retort when he feels a hand brush his shoulder. He swings around at the contact, trying to calm himself when he sees how Kel has immediately backed up in fear.

“...What?” He figures if he was trying to get his attention, he should at least listen to what Kel has to say. Kel had already voiced his approval, so there wasn’t anything to fear in listening to him—

“I… kind of agree, bro. Why didn’t you tell anyone?”

...And the anger is back. Has… Kel been lying to him? What else has he been lying about?

“So I have to let you know everything I do now? I can’t have just one thing for myself?” Hero can feel his fury bubbling inside him. He needs to get out of this conversation. He doesn’t want to be here.

Kel actually seems annoyed at him for once. “Not if it’s something that affects all of us! Dude, come on ! You know how keeping secrets between us went before!”

He wants to leave. “You just don’t want to see me be happy! It’s not enough that the rest of you are miserable, you have to drag me down with you too!” He doesn’t know what he’s saying anymore, but he can see their expressions changing to hurt and something in him curls in satisfaction. “Why can’t I have something that’s just for me? I’ve spent my whole life picking up after you guys… well, that’s over.”

Hero pushes Kel out of his way, glaring darkly back at the two of them. “Get the fuck out of my life.”

---

Sunny is excited. Honestly more nervous than excited, but in a good way. He’s been trying to keep up with his friends since he moved, but it’s much harder when you don’t meet in person, and Sunny has enough trouble trying to vocalize his thoughts in person that his mental interpreter for thought to text is almost nonexistent. He hopes no one is too worried about him, but knows that they probably are anyways.

But, the most exciting thing he’s done recently is happening right now. His mother hadn’t changed their general practitioner yet, so he has a doctor’s appointment in Faraway. Which means, he’s back in Faraway. It hasn’t really been that long since he’s been gone, but the neighborhood feels nostalgic already, and the events of those three days felt like so long ago. 

He hasn’t told anyone yet, hoping to surprise them. He’s planning on dropping by Kel’s house first, so he can see if Hero wants to join them.

As he’s walking down the street from the park where his mother dropped him off, Sunny contemplates how surprised his friends might be, and what he wants to say first. Maybe he won’t say anything, and they can play 20 questions while he gestures. That might be fun. Maybe they won’t be surprised at all, since it hasn’t been that long since he left. That would be disappointing, but he wouldn’t be surprised.

He hasn’t had any real conversations with them since their last ones in the hospital. He hopes they haven’t gotten any more mad at him.

As Sunny approaches the door to Kel’s house, he hears muffled yelling from inside. He stops, not wanting to get any closer if there’s an argument happening.

Suddenly the door slams open, and Hero storms out, a furious look on his face. Sunny jumps a bit at Hero’s expression, but opens his mouth to try to speak.

Hero only pauses for a moment when Sunny blocks his path.

“I definitely don’t want to see you right now. Get out of my fucking way.” He shoulders his way past Sunny, who clams up immediately.

What?

What was that?

He didn’t understand why Hero was so angry. Did he do something? Well, other than accidentally murdering the love of his life—

Sunny didn’t know what the argument was about, but he knew he was at fault somehow. Why else would Hero practically spit at him upon seeing him? He had to make this right, he had to— he doesn’t know. He had to do something.

He turned to start following Hero, who had already made it a pretty good distance down the road from their house, before he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder.

Turning his head, he sees that it’s Kel, with Aubrey behind him. Kel squeezes his shoulder a bit before letting go, and Aubrey finally switches her attention from where Hero disappeared to Sunny, looking over him in concern.

He can feel himself heating in embarrassment at the attention of both of them. He’s still not quite used to being the center of their focus.

As they explain how Hero has found a girlfriend, Sunny finds himself smiling. Hero deserves this. He doesn’t need to lock himself away the way Sunny did. Sunny… doesn’t deserve happiness the same way Hero does.

He’s a bit… jealous, honestly.

Chapter Text

The house was quiet except for Kel's frantic pacing up and down the stairs. Aubrey and Sunny had already left to walk home together, and he saw them off with a forced smile. He felt more stressed than when Aubrey pushed Basil into the lake, though not from any kind of life-threatening fear. This was more the kind of stress that can only come from stomach-dropping dread, knowing that whatever happens is your fault. Why did he ever think that he could help? He already knew what had happened the last time he tried to confront Hero, and he still didn't know how to avoid pressing his buttons.

Hero was ignoring his messages. Kel thinks he might have turned his phone off, which was worrying since it was only getting later and their parents would soon be home asking questions. He didn't know where he had gone… he could only hope he would stay safe when it gets dark.

Maybe he would come home and Kel could apologize?

Who was he kidding, Hero didn't want to see him ever again. He'd fucked up. Hero is going to disown himself from their family and move across the country and he's never going to see him again–

The door was making suspicious noises like someone was opening it. He knew it was his parents, but he still panicked, sprinting up the stairs as quickly as possible so he could hide. He took a moment to reflect on how ridiculous hiding from his parents was for a high school student before his emotions won out as he locked the door to his bedroom, diving under the covers of his bed.

He could hear them moving about below, setting down their things and murmuring to each other so as not to wake Sally up. His heart was pounding nervously for no reason as they ascended the stairs and entered their own bedroom.

They moved outside his door, inviting Hero and him down to help with dinner. He didn't respond. They tried the doorknob. He still didn't respond, swallowing nervously. He didn't want to fuck up again somehow, but at the same time, he felt like he was currently fucking up. He broke into a nervous sweat while waiting for another question from them, but he didn't want to move from under his protective covering.

They finally called out that the two of them could come down when they want, before moving away. Kel felt a brief stab of guilt at deceiving them into thinking Hero was safe and at home, but mostly felt relieved that they weren't pushing for a verbal answer. He didn't think he could muster up enough courage to face them after driving his own brother out.

He felt tears prick at his eyes unwittingly. Why was he being like this? He suddenly appreciated the courage Sunny must have had in confessing to them his mistake. He wasn't sure what he would do if Hero ended up actually leaving, and that didn't even compare to what Sunny accidentally did.

He hugged his pillow closer to his face miserably.

----

Aubrey stubbornly kicked a rock down the sidewalk until it veered off into the grass, and then she was forced to actually pay attention to who she was walking with. Sunny resolutely stared downwards at his feet as they moved, seemingly ignoring her to the best of his ability. She knew she hadn't been the nicest to him when she last saw him, but come on! At least pretend to be interested when you're with someone else. She resolutely ignored the hypocrisy of that thought.

"Hey." She began, still forming her thoughts as she began to speak. At the noise, Sunny practically jumped backward three feet, spooked, and looked up at her in shock.

What?

“What? What’s wrong?”

He seemed to realize he was acting weird since he shook his hands in front of him in a dismissing movement. Aaand he was back to ignoring her, moving his face as far as he could away while still technically bodily facing her. She slouched in disgruntlement, wishing she had more of a chance to see his expression. It was hard to tell how he was feeling otherwise.

...Fuck it. She thought she wouldn’t get another chance to talk to him ever again, so she wasn’t wasting this one.

She grabbed his shoulder and forced him against the fence nearby, and he was coerced into looking up at her fully. She suddenly realized why he had been facing away from her, as his cheeks had a red tint to them that was spreading further along his face and ears the longer they held this position.

...Oh.

She felt her own cheeks heat up in response, immediately regretting her boldness. Well, she had gotten this far, might as well go all the way.

“Sunny, I… I know we’ve both fucked up, before. But I still want to… be… around you.” God, this was absolutely painful to listen to, and she was the one saying it. Why was she so incapable of conveying her thoughts? “So… stop ignoring me. I don’t want you to push me away anymore.”

Sunny looked like he wanted to be anywhere but here, which was fair. She figures he must also think she sounds stupid. “S-Sorry.” She sighed roughly in frustration, giving up on trying to get through to him this time, moving away from his personal space.

She was surprised when she was stopped by a small hand that weaved its fingers through hers. 

She paused, halfway turned towards him, unable to look anywhere but where his fingers met hers. He squeezed their palms together more firmly, bringing her hand closer to him and shifting her attention upwards. 

“I…” To her shock, he was even attempting to speak! His voice was quiet and raspy from disuse, but she could tell it was deeper from when she heard it last. “...I’m… not… ignoring you.”

His voice gave her shivers. Why couldn’t she control her hormones for one damn second? She was trying to have a serious conversation here.

“Then why won’t you look at me? You–” Sunny gave another gentle squeeze to their grasped hands, and she shut up immediately to hear what he had to say.

His mouth opened and closed a couple of times hesitatingly before he looked up and locked their gazes for a moment. His eye seemed to take in as much of her face as possible, looking more alive than ever. But as the moment grew longer, she could feel his palm grow sweaty in her hand and his face flushed redder as his eye shook from the effort. When his eye was finally forced to avert itself, he stumblingly explained, “You’re… pretty.”

She choked on the air. That was his big reason? Somehow her childhood crush seemed like nothing in comparison to the sweating mess that Sunny had now become in her presence.

Her mind raced. Is this… a confession? Or does he just get nervous around pretty people?

“You’re pretty… too.” Is what she choked out when her mouth finally opened. Was she an idiot? No, wait, this was fine. Sunny needs some positive reassurance too. Do guys get angry when they’re called pretty? Aubrey suddenly can’t remember. She feels like maybe The Maverick would accept the compliment, but Kel would be disgusted–

Stop that train of thought. Not right now.

Just when she thought Sunny’s face couldn’t get any redder, she was impressed once again. Yep, like she thought, he must be angry–

Alert. Alert. Sunny just smiled. Sunny just fucking smiled.

Her heart felt like it was going to explode, this was so cute. She wanted to just take his blushy red cheeks and smush them together lovingly.

“...Can I take this as a confession? Because I’m okay with this.” While she’s still embarrassed, she feels like this is the most honest thing she’s said all day.

Sunny looked up at her in surprise, before meekly nodding. She gave him her brightest smile in return.

They didn’t let go of each other's hands on the way home.

----

The streetlights were turning on when Hero finally decided he needed to stop wandering endlessly. He pulled out his phone and stared at its blank screen, dreading turning it back on. His desire to talk to Robin won out, and he hesitantly pressed the power button.

The screen lit up, going through its opening sequence as he slowly kept walking past more rows of houses. His phone began insistently buzzing as all of Kel's messages came in at once, and Hero irritatedly scrolled past all of his concern and Aubrey's apology to find the sole message from Robin, wishing him a good evening with a picture of her cat. He managed a smile at her consideration, his thumb hovering over the call button next to her name. Did he really want to bother her right now? It was getting late. He could just find a bench at the park to sleep on and that could be the end of it. Sure, he'd have to wait until tomorrow to hear her voice, but that wasn't such a bad situation.

He clicked the call button accidentally when his thumb strayed a little too far downwards in his contemplation.

His heart jumped for a moment in panic and excitement, suddenly not knowing what to do with his hands as his phone let out a quiet ringtone into the silent street. It rang a couple of times before he could hear Robin's sweet voice echoing a quiet greeting, and Hero realized with a start that he was supposed to have the phone by his ear.

"Y-yeah, hi." He trailed off, not quite knowing what else to say. He just wanted to hear her voice? Too cheesy. He only called her accidentally? No, that's rude.

Instead of asking why he called, she surprised him by responding with "Is something wrong?"

Her sudden concern caught him off guard. "...Why do you ask?"

"You sound upset. Did something happen?" Somehow, she already knew, just from his voice. It was simultaneously comforting and scary how much this reassured him. 

"I don't… I'm… angry, I guess." He pushed down the urge to try to deny being upset. He didn't want to lie to her, no matter how his irrational emotions felt.

She seemed to pause as if waiting for him to continue before thinking better of it. "Where are you right now? Let's go somewhere where we can talk."

He brightened at the idea of getting to see her sooner, but then hesitated at the idea of dragging her out somewhere at night. "Are you sure? I don't--"

"Where are you?"

He glanced up at the nearby street sign. "Baker Street at Skyview, but--"

"I'll be there in 10. Wait right there." Her tone brooked no arguments, and she cut off his protests by ending the call. He stared at his phone in disbelief, before a notification that he had another text from Kel made him turn his phone off again in frustration. He moved to lean against the nearby streetlight, wishing time would pass quickly so he could be free from his own thoughts. 

After what felt like an eternity of Hero blankly staring at a piece of gum melding together with the sidewalk, he could hear the tapping of small feet down the sidewalk facing opposite him. He twisted around eagerly as she walked under the light, her pensive face finally becoming illuminated.

She walked up and cupped his cheeks gently, rubbing her thumbs under his eyes as if to look for traces of tears. He felt the muscles in his face relaxing, and he realized that he had been unconsciously frowning that whole time. He leaned forward slowly and rested his head on top of hers as they wrapped their arms around each other. He hadn't realized he'd needed a hug so badly.

After a moment, Robin began to draw back, and Hero reluctantly acquiesced. He thought the moment was over, but she proceeded to grab his hand and start leading him down the street purposefully. 

"Where are we going?" He found his voice again, curious.

She turned back to him and smiled, mischievously. "You'll see. I think you already know, though."

Hero blinked in surprise, wondering at her meaning. Eventually he began to understand what she meant, as they drew closer to the park and the place where they had their first blind date. It felt like ages ago, but in reality it had been less than two days. The lake in the back was just as mysterious as before, but gave off an entirely different feeling at night with moonlight reflecting off of its tranquil surface and fireflies scattering the area. It drew him towards its depths with the contrast of abyssal darkness and serene light. Hero couldn't tear his eyes away, never having been here this late before.

He finally managed to pull his eyes to the side when he heard a soft sigh beside him. He was immediately struck by how the soft moonlight made Robin look like a fairy, ephemeral and glowing. She gazed at the spot he had just been observing with satisfied eyes, appreciating its beauty. She turned to look at him as well, giving him a beatific smile in response to his awed face.

"Here, let's sit down." She said, leading him further forward before gently tugging him down next to her. He followed along obediently, even as she weaved her fingers through his hair before bringing his head down onto her lap. As she continued to brush her nails against his scalp, he took a moment to appreciate how nice this was. He didn't have to think about anything, just enjoy her presence. He knew he wanted Robin to know what was bothering him. Maybe she could help him understand what he was feeling, but she would need to know everything in that case. He… thinks he's willing to try.

"Do you want to talk?" She asked, and he does.

He opened his mouth, and began to recount what happened four years ago until today.

Chapter Text

“I guess this whole time I’ve just been trying to come to terms with the fact that everything I thought was a lie. That, what I felt… all that worrying over having done something wrong, that it might have been my fault… none of it really mattered. My feelings didn’t matter, because none of it was real.”

Hero couldn’t see Robin’s expression above him through the water filling his eyes.

His cheeks felt simultaneously too dry and wet as some of his tears dried and left salty trails behind. He had started crying at some point during his speech, but he continued to ignore it in favor of his emotional release. As he finished speaking, the uncomfortable sensation of water in his ears became too much to bear. Disgusting. He felt disgusting, thinking about all this again and confronting the realization that he still hadn’t gotten over it.

He rubbed at his ears before turning his face away from Robin so that she couldn’t see his expression. He was already a disgrace, crying all over her lap. Just one more person to be disappointed in him.

Small hands scooped his face away from looking at the lake, and a shadow dropped across his vision as he found Robin’s face inches from his own. Her lips brushed closer to his, and his tear-stained eyes widened in surprise.

“Is this… okay? I won’t if you don’t want me to.” He could feel her breath this close. His mind was having trouble registering her words, but after a pause of consideration, he managed a small nod and a “Yeah. Okay.”

He closed his eyes in response to her leaning in further.

Her kiss was soft, and he found himself tearing up again at the onslaught of emotion he suddenly felt. It reminded him of the chaste kisses he would steal from Mari when they caught a moment to themselves, but only in the base sensation. His heart ached at comparing them again right after the soul-baring moment he had. He tried focusing on the present, at how Robin’s light honey-scented perfume swept over him and the ends of her hair brushed his cheeks. 

The moment ended too quickly, but a smile crossed his face when their eyes met. She smiled back, and he was filled with a sense of peace for a moment.

“I’m sorry… that you had to go through that. But I want you to know one thing before anything else.” Her hand caresses the side of his face as she readjusts their position, and her gaze becomes piercing. “Your feelings always matter. Just because you were under a false impression doesn’t make them any less real.”

She seemed to be waiting for him to respond as they continued locking eyes, so he uttered an affirmative without thinking properly.

“Good,” She responded happily, her expression softening once again. “And if you need me to repeat it, I’ll say it as many times as it takes for you to remember.”

He couldn’t think of a response while looking at her blissful expression, so he stayed silent while she gathered her thoughts. Soon, she began speaking again while looking out over the lake.

“So. What were you so upset about today?” She glanced down at him before resuming brushing through his hair. “I’m assuming there was something more?”

He sighed in frustration just thinking about it. “Mm, yeah. My friends tried to confront me about you.” She seemed surprised. Right? That’s the natural response, it’s absurd that they were against this at all.

Her brow furrowed for a minute before she turned to question him. “So, your friends are upset that you’re moving on too quickly?”

“Yeah, they said something about it not being the best time, and then they brought up Mari.” He could feel himself scowling, and he tried to transform it into a more neutral expression. He thinks he ends up pouting instead. How embarrassing. 

She scrutinizes him for a moment, pausing in her light grooming, and he spends a moment avoiding her gaze before he breaks into self-reflection. “...Fine. I was also avoiding them, and they knew it.”

She smiles down at him, brows still furrowed in mild concern. Resuming her hand movements, she ponders, “Well, at least you’re self-aware. From what you’ve said, it sounds like enough time has passed that you both should have gathered your thoughts. Are you sure you don’t want to hear them out completely?”

Hero can feel his face trying to tug itself back into a pout, and judging by how Robin quietly giggles at him and presses his cheeks, he isn’t doing a very good job of hiding it. At least she’s amused instead of anything else.

“I think an apology is in order for your friends. While they don’t have control over your relationships, they also don’t deserve the way you’ve been treating them. You’ve all been through a lot together, you shouldn’t let something like this tear you apart.” Her smile turns a little sad, and he hopes she doesn’t think too poorly of him. And that she doesn’t feel too left out, knowing she can’t fully understand their shared experience.

She’s still right, and he knows she’s right. Hero should apologize and hear them out, though he wants to do it alone.

He says as much, and her brilliant smile is enough to wipe away any doubts he had in mind. He thinks he might be willing to do anything to see her smile like this again. It’s an impulse Hero’s felt before, but not so strongly in the past few years. He finds himself absorbed in her emotions, and lets himself be pulled along by the heady rush of making someone happy.

Her round eyes with their long lashes blink open again, and he’s struck from his reverie. He feels apprehension towards facing his friends after what he told them, but Robin is still facing him with a content smile and he can’t say no.

His thoughts start to slip out of him suddenly. “I don’t want to go home, can I—” stay with you, and he finds himself startled by how much he means it despite not intending to say anything. “I mean, I—, uhm…”

Robin’s smile is still warm, and her eyes crinkle a bit in an effort not to laugh at him. He feels a bit of shame in the moment for not being able to control himself better, despite actively ignoring his self-control the past couple of days.

“It’s okay. I have a couch open at my place, if you need somewhere to stay tonight. You can always feel free to ask.” He knows he has trouble asking for things, and he doesn’t think that will change so easily, but he appreciates the thought behind her comment anyways. He watches her as her expression steels itself slightly, and she takes a preparatory deep breath. “You know, there’s something I want to let you know as well. It’s nothing so dramatic, I think, but you deserve to hear it anyways.”

His eyes stay fixed on hers, despite Robin looking out towards the lake a little blankly. He wants to give her story the same attention she gave his.

“When I went away to college, I was still unsure about myself and my choices, and I didn’t even know if I wanted to be an artist. I tried dating, because my mom always told me that the best way to find out more about yourself and what you like was to experience relationships with others. Then, once you know what you like, you can make better decisions to make yourself happy in the future.” Robin’s eyes wandered up towards the sky, and Hero can’t help but wonder what this is leading up to. Her mom sounds like a wonderful person, he thinks, certainly more open-minded than his own, as much as he loves her.

“I tried dating the first guy who said he was interested in me. He seemed nice enough, and I thought I could come to like him too. There wasn’t some amazing spark like you hear in stories, but he was handsome and friendly and seemed to have a lot of friends, so I gave it a shot.”

She was silent for a long moment, gathering her thoughts. Then she looked down at him and their gazes met, and he thought her smile looked incredibly sad. He wishes he could make her smile like she did before, but didn’t dare open his mouth to interrupt her.

“I won’t bore you with all the details, but long story short, it was a very one-sided relationship. He always wanted and wanted, and wasn’t willing to give anything in return. I found myself always feeling empty, and I didn’t know why. It took someone pointing it out to me for me to realize that it wasn’t healthy.”

He feels his face pinching in concern and self-reproval. Of course, this is what this is about. He’s being selfish again, asking and asking from this one person who’s already been emotionally exploited. He can feel himself spiraling in guilt again, it was his fault, his fault—

Her fingers gently smoothed out the creases between his brows and brushed along his clenched jaw. “That’s why I can say for sure that you are nothing like him. You’ve been nothing but kind, and helpful, and I can’t think of any moment where I’ve felt taken advantage of the way I did then.”

Hero’s eyes are fixed to the way her lips tremble to keep smiling, and the way her eyes gain a glassy look when they tear up. He doesn’t know how to comfort her, and defaults to the things she did for him. His hand reaches up to brush away a stray tear, and then hovers near her cheek, unsure.

Robin leans into his hand, letting out a small huff of a laugh. “Thank you. This is all to say, I want you to know that you are more than enough already. You’re doing great, so please don’t look down on yourself so much.”

He feels himself tearing up as well, but this time he’s smiling too. And he thinks that’s enough for now.

His friends can wait until tomorrow.

----

It’s a short trip for Sunny from Aubrey’s house to get to Basil’s, as originally planned. He feels bad leaving Aubrey at that house, knowing her mother now, but Aubrey insisted on staying at her own home for the night and that he should stay somewhere else instead. He understands, he doesn’t think that he could stand the smell. He wishes he had somewhere better to offer her to stay. Either way, they’ll see each other tomorrow.

For him, he’s hoping Basil won’t mind him staying over at his place since… Kel and Hero’s house seems a bit off-limits right now. He told his mom that one of his friends would definitely let him stay at theirs, after begging her to let him stay in Faraway for a while after his appointment. It took a lot of gesturing and note-arguing, but he won, and it’d be a waste if he ended up sleeping on a park bench. He’s kind of glad he has an excuse to stay at Basil’s instead, Kel’s mom kind of scares him, even though she says he’ll always have a place there.

Basil’s house is as comfy-looking as ever, and Polly answers the door when he knocks. He wonders momentarily about why she’s still here when Basil’s grandma has passed, and concludes that his parents must still be hiring her for Basil. If that’s the case, then they must still care. If it’s another reason, he doesn’t think he wants to know.

“Oh! If it isn’t Sunny. Are you here to visit Basil?” She seems happy to see him, which makes it easier for him to present his prewritten note on his phone asking to stay over until his mom comes by again. She takes her time, reading it intently, before she smiles back at him. “Of course, that’s fine with me! Let me ask Basil.” She hands his phone back preciously, and holds the door open for him to walk inside before heading further into the house. He heads over to the couch to wait, opening his flip phone and responding to his mom’s good night message.

He’s missed all of his friends, but Basil especially since he’d stopped repressing everything about him. Since the rest of his friends haven’t broken it off with the two of them because of what happened, he figures it’s okay that he still wants to be close to the timid boy. He’d only had time to talk to him briefly about his own mental state before, but they had been texting as much as possible to keep in touch. It ended up being mostly pictures of plants and cute animals, though.

His chin pops up from where it rested on his knees as Basil peeks around from behind the open door frame. His blank face managed a small smile at his arrival.

“Sunny! You didn’t tell me you were visiting,” Basil approached to sit next to him on the couch, and Sunny typed a quick [surprise] to flash at him. Basil chuckles in response, “That’s fine, haha! I’m so glad you’re here! It’s been a little weird in Faraway recently, between you leaving and everyone either telling me they’re sorry about my grandma or trying to talk in general… Ah, no, it’s fine! It’s not your fault or anything. It just gets a little overwhelming thinking about what to say. But anyway, did you hear about Hero?” He leans in a little in excitement, then seems to do a double-take and starts sweating. 

Sunny, unknowing, merely shakes his head. Basil, with a gulp, continues to explain. “Apparently he started dating someone! Kel came to me about it earlier, he seemed surprised. But I think as long as it makes him happy, it’s fine!” 

He’s clearly thinking I’ll be upset, Sunny thinks. Understandable, but upon thinking about it, he’s really not. He’s always looked up to Hero, and he doubts anything Hero did would make him disappointed. He thinks that out of anyone he knows, Hero definitely deserves better, especially after his own actions caused him so much distress. If this is what’s making him happy, then good.

Sunny takes his time writing a response to Basil’s thoughts, despite Basil’s increased fidgeting while he types. After reading it over one more time, he hands his phone over to Basil.

[I feel the same. Hero deserves to be happy. I hope she is a good person.]

Basil slumps a little with his sigh of relief. “Right!” Handing back his phone, he continues. “I don’t know anything about her yet. But Hero really needs to talk more about his feelings to someone, so I’m glad he’s trying.”

It occurs to Sunny that Basil doesn’t know about Hero’s outburst earlier, so he gestures to Basil to pause their conversation and speedily types out his thoughts. 

[i saw him earlier, kel and aubrey tried talking to him and he got angry]

Basil seems rightfully concerned, and his arms seem to hover in the air aimlessly, waving as he thinks. “I guess something they did upset him? Do you think we should try to talk to him ourselves? I’m not sure how much help I’ll be, though."

Sunny shakes his head slightly, typing quickly. [we should ask kel and aubrey first, hero seemed too angry.]

Basil nods happily along with Sunny’s judgment, relaxing a bit. “Okay! Let’s ask them to talk tomorrow then. It’s getting a bit late.” He glances around the room, first at the clock and then at the doorway. Just as he’s about to get up from the couch, “Let me—”

“Basil, Sunny! I set up an extra bed in Basil’s room because it’s just one person this time. Is that okay?” Polly appears in the doorway next to them, surprising Basil into sitting back down. The both of them looked up at her and then each other. Sunny gave him a shallow nod, he didn’t mind either way.

Basil turned back to Polly with a smile. “That’s fine! Sunny’s okay with it too.” 

“Oh, good! You both can head back there when you’re ready. Sunny? Did you want any dinner? Basil and I ate earlier, but we have some leftovers I could heat up if you’d like?” Polly was really too kind. Sunny was glad he came here. He’d been trying to eat better so he didn’t worry his friends, but it always felt like things he couldn’t control kept getting in the way.

He gave a decisive nod to Polly, before gesturing and adding on with his phone. [i might not be able to eat much in a serving, but i’ll do my best.]

Polly gave him a pleased look, adding her own thoughts. “I won’t give you too much to finish then. I’m sure Basil can help you with whatever’s left!” Her skirt fluttered prettily as she walked across the open space to the fridge. He looked at Basil who seemed to be lost in thought about something at her comment, face growing pink. Hmm. It matches his flower clip, how cute.

Basil turned to make eye contact once again, and Sunny was forced to look away towards his phone. Curse him and his inability to look at pretty people. Speaking of, Basil doesn’t know about that either.

[aubrey and i are… dating now, i think]  

Sunny looked at his own message in disbelief still, before turning it towards Basil whose face went through a series of emotions very quickly, before settling on approximately what Sunny was feeling towards the whole situation.

“Wow, that’s…” Surprise, and a little excitement. “I mean, I’m so happy for you! How did that happen?” …Was that a hint of disappointment he heard?

[i don’t really know either. i think i told her she was cute at some point, and she took it as a confession] Which… was really embarrassing in hindsight, he can feel his face growing red even now. He hopes Basil doesn’t comment, he still can’t look him in the eye.

“That’s… huh.” Basil doesn’t know what to say to that either. Fair. Basil turns away from him for a moment, mumbling to himself. “It’s that easy?” Sunny doesn’t think he was supposed to have heard, but makes note of it anyways. Thinking he might change the subject, he gets Basil to focus on another message.

[i wonder if kel will start dating someone next, he’s also very cute.] Sunny doesn’t see anything wrong with his own message, but it seems to send Basil into some kind of hysteria. “KEL TOO?!” He immediately slaps a hand over his mouth and glances nervously at Pollly, who just gives him a concerned glance. Whispering hushedly to Sunny, he questions, “Sunny, do you mean you have a crush on Kel too??”

Sunny isn’t sure how he reached that wild, albeit correct conclusion, but blushes deeply anyways. Basil seems to be going through some kind of existential crisis. Sunny doesn’t know how to fix this.

Desperately, he types [you’re cute too] and presents it to Basil before he can think better of it. He instantly regrets his lack of impulse control, but waits to see how Basil will respond instead of taking it back.

Basil appears to have short-circuited. Fair. “I-I-I—...I think you’re cute t-too! The cutest!”

What?

Oh.

Cool.

Polly walks back into the living room with his food, and stops before the two blushing teenagers. Neither of them can look at each other, or at her. Sunny silently reaches out for his food.

“Uhhh, okay. Well, if you need anything let me know! I’ll be in the back.” She makes a swift exit. Sunny really, really can’t blame her. He musters up his courage to write another message and save them both from talking more.

[we can talk more about this later]

“Yes! Um, yup! Yeah, sounds perfect!” Basil’s voice cracked in nervousness. “I’ll just, um, let you eat!” His movement to get away was aborted by Sunny grabbing his shirt.

[stay?] He probably needs more than that, Sunny. [i want to hear you talk.] That sounds a little weird, but it gets his intentions across well enough, he guesses. Basil seems to agree, since he settles back onto the couch next to him.

“Um, well, what should I talk about?” Basil fidgets in his seat. Maybe he’s trying to find a more comfortable position? The couch is super comfortable no matter what position he sits, though.

[didn’t you say you were thinking of growing your own tea?] He prompts Basil with something he remembers mentioning before. Hopefully this will distract him enough to go on a tangent.

“A-Ah, right! It’s way harder than I anticipated, but I really like the challenge! Once I get good enough, and have enough to share, I hope I can give some to everyone…” Sunny takes a bite of the simple noodle dish in front of him. It’s pretty good. Polly shouldn’t look down on her cooking so much.

He listens to Basil talk, and feels content. Hopefully tomorrow will go well.

----

Kel leans back onto the picnic blanket wearily. He wishes he didn’t have to talk to anyone today, and yet here he is. The whole gang is here, except Hero, and by that he meant Aubrey’s hooligang too. He was tired of having to put on a front for them so they wouldn’t ask questions. Aubrey would probably understand why he was upset, and Sunny and Basil too, he guessed, but knowing they hadn’t really seen him as anything but happy or angry recently was enough to make him hesitate about showing his nerves.

They finally had Sunny back in town for a bit! And Aubrey and Sunny were acting oddly cute around each other. Basil seemed to be sticking to Sunny more than usual as well. Was he missing something? Should he be jealous? He wanted his Sunny time too! They were best friends after all.

He ran around with Angel for a while to blow off some of his anxious steam, before leaving him with Charlie to go sneak in behind the group to latch onto Sunny for a hug. Ha! Just try moving him now. Sunny seemed caught off guard, but leaned back when he realized it was him. Oh, his ears are a bit red. Is he too warm?

“Ugh, get out of here, Kel. You stink,” Aubrey comments, covering her face dramatically.

“No way! You guys have been hogging Sunny all day, when am I gonna get a turn?” He pouts dramatically right back. “You don’t mind, right, Sunny?” He leans his head in further towards Sunny’s shoulder, grinning.

Sunny nods, grabbing both Aubrey and Basil’s hands to connect them all. “This… perfect.”

Oh? That’s so cute! Sunny must really like hugs and hand-holding. He’d have to do this more often.

Aubrey seems to sigh, but doesn’t outwardly complain, so he takes that as a positive. Basil seems like he got lost in his head, but he seems happy enough. Kel just enjoys the moment, forgetting what he was so anxious about in the first place.

His phone buzzes in his back pocket. Right! Hero!

He jerks back from Sunny to fumble with his phone for a moment, before lighting up at the message Hero sent him. He taps Aubrey, handing her the phone so she can see.

Turning back to Sunny, he apologizes, “Sorry Sunny! We’ll be back in just a minute, we need to talk to someone!” With that, he drags Aubrey away from the other two so they can call Hero.

Hero picks up after a single ring. Just like him to be so prompt. 

“Hello?”

“Hero! Hey,” Kel can’t help but be relieved at the sound of his brother’s voice. “What’s up? You said you wanted to talk?” Aubrey elbows him. “Oh, right, Aubrey’s here too by the way.”

“Right. Good. Uh, I want to talk in person if that’s okay? Can we meet up? Sunny, too, if he’s there.” Hero sounds about as nervous as Kel has been feeling today. He doesn’t know if he feels vindicated or concerned.

“Um, yeah! We can meet up. We’re all at the old hangout spot.” Kel stumbles as Aubrey grabs the phone towards her to pipe up, “My friends and Basil are here too. Is that okay?”

Hero takes a second to respond. “Basil is okay, but I don’t know if I want…so many people there when I apologize. Sorry, Aubrey.”

Aubrey nods, nonplussed. “Just checking. That’s fine, I’ll tell them to wait a bit somewhere else.”

Kel chances a look over at Sunny and Basil. Basil seems almost more blissful than before, if that were possible. They’re still holding hands, but Sunny is staring straight at Kel. He blinks, before focusing back on his conversation with Hero. “Alright, when are you coming over? We’ll wait for you.”

“Soon, if that’s okay. I’ll start heading over now,” There’s a pause like he’s checking something, “So like 10 minutes?”

“Okay!” Kel responds cheerfully, Aubrey already heading over to her friends to let them know, “We’ll be here. Love you, Hero.”

There’s another pause, before Hero shares back, “I love you too, Kel.”

----

Hero’s nerves grew to a peak as he passed the sign to Faraway Park. He knew what he wanted to say, but really, what a situation he’s put himself in. The one time he gets caught up in doing something for himself, he takes it way too far. This should teach him for being selfish.

He fidgets with the cat figurine Robin left with him. It was made of some kind of soft material white with gray stripes, and had a little fluffy tail that hung behind it freely. ‘So you can pretend I’m there,’ she said. He knows he said he wanted to do this by himself, but yet, he still wishes she were actually here to give him a pep talk. In reality he just doesn’t want to deal with both introducing her and apologizing at the same time.

He takes a couple of deep breaths, before walking through the treeline and the caution equipment at the edge of the clearing.

Kel spots him immediately, and waves to him excitedly from where he is hugging Sunny, who is… strangely nestled between the rest of them, and seems very content. Well, alright. As long as they’re having fun.

They left the other side of the picnic blanket free for him, so he settles down for their talk.

“Hi,” He starts, not knowing where to begin. 

“Hi!” Kel responds, smiling brightly. He instinctively smiles back. Basil giggles a little at Kel and at Sunny, who nods as much as he can from within Kel’s arms. He glances as Aubrey, who seems to be ignoring him for now. 

“Uh, well, I guess I’ll start by saying I’m sorry,” He looks down at the toy in his hand, rubbing the back of his neck. “I wasn’t… in the best place emotionally when you talked to me last time. And I didn’t bother listening to what you had to say because I was too focused on myself. I’m… really sorry.”

He stalls, gulping and rubbing the soft fur of the toy in his hands to gather his thoughts. “I guess when you… brought up Mari… no, even before you started talking. I was avoiding you, and I wasn’t ready to listen yet. But now I am, if you still want me to answer anything.”

He glances back up, and he can’t read most of their expressions. Basil seems a little pitying, maybe. But he doesn’t say anything. Kel’s face is a bit blank, like he’s thinking hard about something, or maybe remembering their conversation. Sunny is neutral, absentmindedly tapping into his phone.

Aubrey is staring intensely at him now. He starts sweating, barely able to meet her gaze.

She looks at the rest of them when they don’t speak, before sighing irritatedly. “...Fine. I’ll ask.” Her colored contacts make her gaze vividly uncomfortable. “I… don’t really want to, but I still want to know your thoughts. Why now? What about Mari?”

“...I…” He glances back down, thinking. “I guess I… I hadn’t thought about moving on in four years. And when I took a look at myself and realized how long it had been, and how much I’d grown since then…” He goes to scratch his neck again before stopping himself. “I… Once I thought about moving on, the only thing I could think of was trying to meet someone else. And once I had the idea in my head, I just… couldn’t let it go. I really… I’m really glad I didn’t. Because it feels like I’ve only just allowed myself to grieve.” He smiled up at Aubrey, only now noticing he had tears in his eyes. Her gaze had lost a lot of its intensity, now mostly replaced with understanding.

“As for Mari, I… don’t think I’ll ever truly be over her. But I don’t think that should hold me back from trying to… trying to make myself and others happy. I hope you’ll understand.” 

She looks away again, before opening her mouth to respond. “...I’m sorry too. I was insensitive, and even though I said I understood that we’re all going at our own pace, I didn’t really. I just said it to force you to listen.” She sighs aggrievedly. “That was wrong of me. You deserve to be happy, and you shouldn’t need to explain yourself every time you do something new.”

He smiles at her apology, knowing it probably wasn’t easy for her. He then turns to Kel, who has finally gained his focus back sometime during their conversation. 

“I also want to ask again. Why… Why did you try to keep it a secret? Shouldn’t we not keep secrets from each other?” Kel’s brows furrow in confusion, and he hugs Sunny tighter.

“I, uh, it was a bit of an impulse decision, I guess, and while at first I didn’t know how you would respond, since you found out accidentally, I… didn’t take it well. So I kept avoiding you because I was worried you, and Aubrey especially, would be angry.” His fingers scratch against the soft fur of the cat toy, and he finds himself still calm, thankfully. “That was wrong of me. I shouldn’t have kept it from you in the first place, but I just… I was so upset at the thought that Aubrey was judging me that I… when you cornered me it felt like all my worst thoughts were coming true.”

He glances up nervously at the group, and when he doesn’t find any negative emotions, he slumps in relief. Looking at Sunny specifically, he says, “I’m really sorry for bursting at you like that, too, Sunny. You didn’t deserve it, and I promise I’m not angry at you.” He smiles, hopefully supportively, at the smaller boy. Sunny just looked a little confused, but accepting. He finally presents to Hero his prewritten note.

[I’m happy for you. Is she nice?]

He snorts, chuckling. “Yeah! She’s really nice. I’ll take you all to meet her next time.” He feels so much relief he feels a bit shaky. 

“Ah, I’m um, I’m happy for you too!” Basil pipes in from the side. Aubrey and Kel make noises of agreement, and Hero loves them all so much.

“Group hug?”

----

End notes are going here bc I've got images instead of links!

Note to readers: Balancing your mental health when you have people-pleasing tendencies can be very hard, but just remember!! It’s alright in moderation, however, you should never force yourself to do something that makes you feel uncomfortable or in danger just because it would make someone else happy! Always strive for positive interactions/outcomes for both sides. <3 

Also, not me relating to Kel with my ace/panromantic headcanon of him and middle child syndrome. Welp.

I’ve been trying not to think too hard about the big scary snowball of everyone else’s feelings after canon so that I wouldn’t stress myself too much adding things to this fic. This is supposed to be hero-centric after all. Idk how well I kept to that, but I hope you all enjoy it anyways. If I decide to change anything it’ll be retconned in any future add-ons/sequels and you will know, haha.

Enjoy this fantastic fanart by the wonderful priska from the omori discord!!! Bless ur eyes! She is pillowpriscus on insta and tsundenials on twitter! Go follow her!!!!!!

And here is my own drawing of the lake scene. I love them.

If I forgot any fanart, please let me know in the comments!

Thank you all for reading! Merry Christmas and Happy Omori 1 year anniversary! <3