Archive of Our Own

It was just five guys on a night out.

Well, that was a lie. It was four guys and three girls. Gals? Guys and dolls? Sunny wasn’t sure. He was sure the female parts of the hooligans wouldn’t exactly appreciate being called ‘dolls’ so he kept his thoughts to himself. Plus it was still early afternoon, not night. The important part being, Sunny needs to update his playlist again.

Needless to say, when he invited Aubrey to get lunch in the city, what he didn’t expect was five additional guests observing at a distance. He pretended not to notice them, but the glares he could feel from Kim in the back of his head did nothing to quell his anxiety. Why? was the prevailing word running through his head. Aubrey was talking about something that happened with the gang some time prior, but it was in one ear out the other. He turned his head to the pink haired girl to try and gain some semblance of focus back.

“Then Kim fell in the fucking river, and ruined all the candy she just worked so hard to steal!” She punctuated that with a deep laugh. “We didn’t let her live that down for at least a week.”

Sunny smiled and lightly chuckled. ‘You have a lot of stories about Kim messing up her hauls,’ Sunny signed.

“Yeah well, if she wasn’t so clumsy she’d probably have more success with…. Well anything really,” Aubrey shrugged. Kim clearly took offense to that, as she yelped in frustration hearing her friend talk like that. She was immediately silenced by Angel who slapped a hand over her mouth. “The hell was that noise?”

‘Nothing!’ Sunny frantically signed. He really liked Aubrey’s company, and didn’t especially want the moment ruined by some well intentioned stalking. ‘So did you still eat it?’

“Nah, we tricked Mikhael into eating a bit of the chocolate though. If I’m remembering right, he described it as ‘chocolate that got too friendly with the underside of a toilet’.”

‘Gross,’ Sunny stuck his tongue out at that. Aubrey hummed in agreement. Sunny stuck his hands in his hoodie. He cleared his throat, then took a deep breath. “Thank you for joining me,” he struggled out.

“Hey, I’m not one to turn my nose up at free food,” Aubrey teased, giving him an elbow to the side. “Your speech therapy seems to be going well.”

“Wait he talks?” This seemingly innocent question posed by Vance was followed by a series of shushes. Sunny’s eyes widened slightly at the noise. How Aubrey didn’t notice this he had no idea.

“It’s hard, I can’t talk too loudly, or for too long,” He realized he had been silent for too long. “Mari’s teaching me how to sing, too.”

“Really? Now there’s something I wanna see!” Aubrey gave him a slightly impressed look. “What about the violin?”

“I still-” Sunny coughed, and sorta gave up on the sentence. ‘I still have it, this is mostly to help me talk. I sound bad though. Think if Kel were a dying ostrich.’ Aubrey’s eyes shot wide open as she keeled over in laughter.

“Holy shit!” She stopped moving, her laughs echoed down a nearby alley way. “Dude, dude, dude, I will pay you as much money as you want if you draw an ostrich with Kel’s head. I’m not even kidding, name your price!”

Sunny’s eyebrows raised at this. ‘That isn’t necessary. I already have an example.’ The young boy pulled out his cell phone, and fiddled with it for a moment. The sound of the pinkette’s laughter was music to his ears. Mostly at Kel’s expense. Eh, he wasn’t here, a little teasing wouldn’t hurt.

(￣▽￣*)ゞ

Aubrey was dying, she was sure. After Sunny showed her that incredible image of Kel, oh poor Kelsey, she doubled down on the sidewalk, her lungs struggled for air as tears dripped down her face. “I’ll take your entire stock!” she howled from the ground. Oh if only Kel could see it.

Speaking of Kel, Aubrey pointed at him, made direct eye contact, and kept laughing. Think you can stalk me and get away with it? Think again. Enjoy hell later, fucker! the girl thought. Somehow, she knew that Kel could hear it.

‘Are you okay?’ Sunny signed through his own chuckles. He reached out a hand to help the girl up.

“Yeah, whew boy, I’m great,” She dusted herself off, sure she got some dirt on her skirt. “I need you to send me that.”

‘You’re not going to send it to him, are you?’

“Nah, nah. I just wanna make it my phone background,” Aubrey dismissed his concerns with a hand wave. And with a swipe, the picture arrived on her phone, and like the liar she was, she sent it to Kel with an attached caption “EAT SHIT!”

“Why do you both hate me so?”

“That’s what you get for stalking me!”

“To be fair, Hero, Mari and Basil are here too.”

Seeing that infuriated the girl. Sunny thankfully was looking forward, rather than at her. Oh you’ve got to be fucking joking.

Down the alley, Mari, Hero, and Basil all poked their heads from behind trash cans. Each giving her a little wave. Aubrey could only put her head in her hands, feeling a blush creep up. This couldn’t get worse.

“Hey how far away from the place are we anyways?” She asked, trying to mask her frustration.

‘Pretty close, only about two more streets to go,’ Sunny signed. ‘Getting impatient?’

“Just a pain in the neck, don’t worry too much about it.”

‘I could rub your neck if you want.’ Aubrey raised her eyebrows at this, she could feel another blush coming on. ‘Sign language gave me pretty strong fingers if I do say so myself.’

“Uhhhh maybe later? Ahahahahahah.” an embarrassed smile creeped up on her face. She scratched the back of her head and averted her eyes as much as she could. Sunny merely looked at her, confused. He shrugged.

‘Let me know if you change your mind.’

A comfortable silence fell over the teens. Aubrey was sure it was at least comfortable for Sunny, who she was thankful hadn’t noticed their stalkers quite yet.

(￣▽￣*)ゞ

It was not at all comfortable for Sunny.

(￣▽￣*)ゞ

The pair finally arrived at Five Guys, the smell of burgers and peanuts flooded the noses of the teens. It was after noon, but not quite 2 pm yet, so the lunch rush was dying down for the poor overworked people behind the counter.

“Oh it’s literally just five guys.”

‘Yeah.’

“Is that why you keep coming here? Because of a stupid pun?”

Sunny did not respond, opting to whistle a tune instead.

“Don’t you fucking ignore me,” Aubrey pointed at his face, squinting her eyes.

‘It’s funny.’

Aubrey broke character, and chuckled. “You’d better be talking about the pun.”

The two approached the cashier, and started their orders.

“What’s she saying?” Kel whispered to his elder sibling.

“I can’t really tell. I’m not that good at reading lips.”

“Do we move in?”

“Are you kidding? It’s a miracle Aubrey didn’t tell Sunny we’re here,” Mari stage whispered to the brunette.

“Well it was your idea to follow them to begin with!” Kel stage whispered back, frustration mounting.

“I’m just so proud of him! His first date!” Mari said with a twinkle in her eye. “It feels like just yesterday they were both blushing messes around each other.”

“H-hey guys?” Basil tried to get the attention of the group. This, was a failure.

“To be fair, Kel, you did immediately say you were down to do this,” Hero countered.

“Guys?”

“Well yeah! It’s an opportunity to embarrass Aubrey! You know I can’t pass that up!”

“Guys?”

“And we’re parental supervision, Hero! We can’t just let them out on their own,” Mari offered, but the excuses were not landing on the man.

“Right, but this is a clear violation of their privacy-”

“GUYS!” Basil shouted, finally getting the attention of his peers. “Look!” He pointed across the street from the five guys, where who else but the remainders of the hooligans sat, wearing sunglasses, and big hats while they pretended to read the newspaper, except for Charlene, who stood completely still behind a light pole.

“Oh,” Kel, Hero, and Mari all collectively said. The group made eye contact with the hooligans. From a distance they could see eyebrows being raised.

“This is awkward,” Kel said, breaking the silence.

“I told you this was a bad idea,” Basil complained. “Why did I even follow you?”

“I offered you free fertilizer.”

“Let’s move in closer guys, then we can hear,” Basil started walking into the Five Guys.

“Wait no!”

(￣▽￣*)ゞ

“You didn’t have to pay, you know. I was joking earlier about the whole, free food thing.”

‘It’s okay, I got another job recently at a bookstore nearby,’ Sunny tried to wave off Aubrey’s concerns. ‘It pays shockingly well.’

Aubrey’s mouth formed a thin line. “Well still, I know it’s been hard... moving to the cities, I don’t want you to worry too much.”

‘I appreciate it, but don’t worry too much.’ Sunny signed with a smile. ‘Border’s is paying me the big bucks.’

“Didn’t they go out of business like, forever ago?”

‘No comment.’ The two share a laugh over their burgers. Sunny took this moment to trail his eyes out the window. This proved to be a mistake, as who did he see walking into the restaurant but Basil, Mari, Kel, and a shockingly disheveled Hero. Okay Sunny, stay calm. Stay calm. Everything is fine. Another look at the four, and Sunny realized they were all wearing fake glasses with little moustaches underneath. I’m doomed.

“Are you all right?” Aubrey’s face was ripe with concern. “You look a little stressed out there.” Sunny immediately nodded, and he tried to give her a confident smile. He failed.

Aubrey didn’t look convinced. And then, it happened.

“Oh Clyde!~ Do pass the ketchup!” a pompous voice called out, holding a hand up in feigned properness.

“Oh but of course Cassandra!” a much dirtier voice responded in the same airy tone.

Both teens looked at the source of the noise. Where they found top hats Sunny would never know or understand, but Mari and Kel were sitting as rigidly backed as they could, as if they were caricatures of british royalty. Basil and Hero sat next to them, heads both on the table out of sheer embarrassment.

To make matters worse, the hooligans had made their way inside, and were sitting in the large corner booth, hats, sunglasses, and newspapers in tow. Except for Charlene, who was still behind the light pole.

“What the fuck.”

(￣▽￣*)ゞ

Aubrey was pissed off. Not only had her friends completely interrupted her date, it seems that her gang was in on the joke. Which was a damn shame because for some shocking reason she wasn’t laughing.

“I’m going to kill all of them,” Aubrey started to stand up.

“Please don’t,” Sunny choked out, grabbing her arm.

“No Sunny, this is a matter of principle now,” Angrily she started walking to her gang. As she passed the other table she commented “I’ll get to you.” Mari merely smiled.

As Aubrey approached the hooligans, they all collectively flipped up their newspapers higher to try and hide from the pink demon. “Oh no you don’t!”

Kim dropped her newspaper, “Aubrey I-”

“Nope!”

Vance tried to get a word in for his sister “But we-”

“Nope!”

“Can I just-” Angel tried, but to no avail.

“No you cannot! And yes I can see you trying to hide away Mikhael! I can smell your shitty cologne from here!”

“The Maverick doesn’t appreciate-”

“You don’t get that title right now! Following me here is incredibly disrespectful to me, and to Sunny. He’s not only still uncomfortable with you all, this was also a complete violation of my privacy, and you all are lucky I don’t have my bat with me.”

The gang cowers a bit from the anger of their friend. “We’re sorry.” Kim looks down, shamefully. She is joined by the rest of the gang.

“Charlie you’re good, you don’t need to apologize,” Aubrey says to the large girl outside. All she gets in response is a thumbs up, and Charlene walks away.

“As for you four,” She turns around and walks towards a smiling Mari and Kel, and a ruined Basil and Hero. “I have no idea why any of you thought this was a good idea. And the same shit I said to the rest of them applies to you.”

“We only wanted to see you off! This is Sunny’s first date!” Kel tried to defend himself.

A silence falls over the fast food establishment.

“We’ve been dating for seven months.”

It shatters.

“You all didn’t know this!?” Aubrey shouts.

“No!” Her friends collectively shouted. Except for Basil, who was looking kind of nervous, and refusing to make eye contact.

“I.. uh… I knew,” he confessed. “I’ve been meaning to give you this but… I may or may not have seen the two of you at the hideout a few weeks back.” Aubrey froze. Darkness spreads across her face.

“Go on?”

“I didn’t stay very long!” He waved his hands in front of him.

“How much did you see?”

“I took a picture of you two kissing! I’m sorry!” Basil covers his face and closes his eyes. The intimidation worked.

Another silence. This was cut by Aubrey’s face turning so red she looked almost sunburnt. She stomped away, grabbed a completely mentally absent Sunny, and stormed out of the establishment.

(￣▽￣*)ゞ

‘I’m sorry.’

“What? No, that’s not your fault at all,” Aubrey looked fondly at Sunny.

‘They were following us for a while, I didn’t want to mention it,’ he signed, frowning.

“Who? Mari and the others? Yeah I know, they were there since I got off the bus.” Sunny looked shocked at her statement.

‘I meant your gang, I’m pretty sure they were on the bus with you,’

“Wait what?”

The two stared at one another for a moment.

“I’m gonna kill them.”

‘Please don’t.’

Aubrey sighs. “Fine. Only because you asked so nicely.”

‘Thank you,’ he gives her a small smile. ‘May I kiss you?’

Aubrey pretended to ponder this for a moment. “I suppose.” The two leaned in to meet in the middle. Their lips meet swiftly, the remnants of their food persisting in their embrace.

“You taste like onion,” Aubrey laughs.

“Your breath smells like bacon,” Sunny whispers with a smile.

“I love you, Sunny.”

“I love you too.”