Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Sunny was panting, he had seriously underestimated the time it would take to walk from his city to Faraway, he ended up taking the bus, but that was after thirty minutes of walking slightly faster than usual. By his standards though, those thirty minutes of light jogging may as well been an hour of sprinting; he really needed to get in shape. 

But now was not the time to be dwindling on that, he had a mission at hand here.

Find his friends and meet up at Faraway Park.

Sunny started walking in the direction of his old home, still a bit tired out, but he still had time, it was only.. uh, what time was it?

He'd have to ask once he got there, but point was, it wasn't too dark, so, he had time.

It was peaceful, not listening to cars zoom past every second, and the lights of the city always felt too bright for him.

A car suddenly past -obviously not going the speed limit- and Sunny flinched as he felt the cold air ripple against him.

Okay, point taken, maybe there were some cars. But either way, the night was young, stars were just starting to appear, and.. Was it snowing as well?

Sunny smiled, it was nice out, beautiful even.

Sunny realized he had started walking again, closing in on his old house. He froze in place for a second, but soon regained his composure. Nothing to be afraid of anymore, nothing would hurt him in this town. Well, nothing but Omori, who seemed to be stirring in his head. He really wished he didn't have to deal with his shit right now, but being in Faraway always woke the fucker up.

Sunny stood at Kel's front door, noticing no lights were on in the house, he frowned, but knocked anyways.

No answer.

Rung the doorbell.

No answer.

Pounded on the door.

Still no answer.

"Ugh! What the fuck?"

He was talking to nobody in particular, but this quick jolt of anger seemed to be enough to wake Omori up.

break the window. that'll get their attention, and besides, it's what they deserve for ignoring you.

Sunny almost wanted to shout with how stupid that was, it was obvious that they weren't home, proven more so by the fact there was no Hector barking at the arrival of Sunny. 

"No, Omori, they aren't home, that's all, go back to bed."

but what if they are home? you never know, you know?

Sunny was already walking away, but Omori was already out, walking besides him, as a younger more transparent version of himself. When Omori was out like this it was really easy to see how much Sunny himself had grown in the past few years.

come on, don't be lame, just pick a rock up and smash their stupid windows. they would never even know it was you!

Sunny just ignored the gremlin boy instead of encouraging his anger, already on the way to Aubrey's house. 

He passed the park and stared at it for a moment, it looked creepy with no one there; but then he turned a corner and he stopped staring, instead deciding to look at the ground as he walked.

hey, i'd watch out if i were you-

Omori was interrupted by the loud sound that came from Sunny hitting his head on the stop sign at the bottom of the street.

Sunny was knocked flat on his ass, rubbing what was soon to be a bruise on his forehead.

Omori however was overcome with laughter, that always seemed to be the one thing that truly made Omori happy nowadays, Sunny in pain.

fucking idiot! i told you to watch out! you never listen to me.

Sunny reverted to flipping Omori off and standing up, he brushed himself off and continued on his way to Aubrey's house.

Omori was nagging him all the way there, but once they actually got to the door of the house, he disappeared, fucker didn't like being around any of Sunny's old friends, instead opting to bother him in his head.

Sunny knocked on the door, knowing the doorbell has been broken all his life, and actually has a small chance to shock whoever's dumb enough to press it, that person usually being Kel.

He heard some shouting from inside, along with someone stomping down a flight of stair, Aubrey opened the door a crack, not knowing who it was. Once she saw it was Sunny though, she opened the door a little bit more, not as a gesture of welcoming him inside, but instead as a gesture of "move the fuck out of the way im coming".

Soon they were both standing on the porch, Aubrey slammed the door shut behind her and started to talk.

"Uh, hi, Sunny. Why are you here?"

Sunny was dumbstruck, he didn't know what to say, he had called Basil and told him to tell everyone of his plans to meet up, he'd have to chew him out later for pussy-ing out. 

"I kinda thought we could hang out, all five of us again.. Basil was supposed to tell everyone, since I uh.. don't really have your numbers. I guess he.. forgot?"

Aubrey sighed, knowing full well Basil was terrified of talking to everyone after what happened, and well, he was right to. Aubrey was still pissed at both him and Sunny, but she thought she'd punished Basil enough for what he'd done in the four years Sunny was gone. That didn't make Basil any less terrified of her, but Aubrey understood.

"Oh yeah, he must've forgot, Basil, the most forgetful person we know, how could I forget about that?" Her voice was oozing with sarcasm, it's obvious she was still upset at Sunny. 

"No need to be a dick Aubrey. Can you come or not?" Sunny said, getting ready to plead if he had to.

"Ugh, I really don't want to, and don't take it the wrong way, it's not cause of you two.. Well, actually, it is. Also, aren't Kel and Hero at the beach with their parents? So it would just be us three?" It was obvious how much she would hate having to be around just them two. Which Sunny still couldn't blame her for, well, he could, but he wasn't going to, out loud at least.

i fucking hate her, i hate all of them, let's go home. now. now. n ow. now. now-

"SHUT THE FUCK UP." Sunny shouted, immediately regretting what he said, Aubrey totally thought he was talking to her. Fuck.

"Okay then, bye Sunny, have fun with your little murder buddy, I guess."

"No- Wait, Aubrey I was just- Well, it was.. Uh, it was.. an accident?"

Aubrey shut the door in his face, this led to Omori coming out again, laughing, of course.

holy shit, that was the funniest thing i've ever seen, you should have seen yourself. fucking loser, can't even talk to your "best friends" without having an episode, fucking freak. god, that was so funny, you were all 'SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!' holy shit, dude that was like so funny.

Omori was on his back laughing, while also floating in the air, Sunny wished he could hit him, he wanted to hit something, anything, so bad. So he started running back to the intersection where he hit his head and hit the stop sign as hard as he could.

Sunny thought he would get some random burst of strength and send the stop sign flying, but he ended up just making a loud rattle noise and hurting his knuckles really bad. He hit it again, really hard this time, and he kept hitting it over and over until he was satisfied by the small dents he made. 

After that adrenaline spike wore off he realized how much pain his hand was in, and noticed he was bleeding, like a lot

idiot. should have stopped. now look at you. you're so pathetic, gonna go crying to your mommy now? ooooh, or maybe you'll go crying to your wittle boyfriend, bet you want him to heal you and kiss you then tell you everything's okay. god, you're so weak, save yourself the time and kill yourself, go lay in the road, wait for a car to run you over. ooh, maybe we could do something more fun actually, we should find some train tracks! wait, are there any trains around here?

Sunny was crying, but softly, Omori was lost in thought, and wasn't paying attention, he rubbed at his eyes, immediately realizing how dumb that was, and that now there was blood on his face. 

He almost, ALMOST, considered going home, just calling his mom or taking the bus. But then again, Omori actually had a pretty good idea, maybe he should go visit Basil, he probably could heal him.. and tell him everything's okay.. and Sunny could tell him that he loved him.. and-

you're not actually thinking of going to visit him, are you? god, you two are both so weird, fucking fag!

Sunny didn't have the energy to argue that Omori was just a younger version of him, so any insult thrown at Sunny was also directed at Omori.

He started walking to Basil's house, much to the dismay of Omori, who once again retreated into his shell, proceeding to tell Sunny what a fucking loser he was.

Sunny was finally at Basil's door, and Omori was finally quiet. It seemed the amount of plants Basil used to have had increased by a large amount, there were too many for Sunny to count. Or maybe he was just being lazy.

He was just about to go knock on the door but before he could Basil opened it himself and ran out to hug Sunny, making the boy's face extremely red.

"Sunny! I missed you so much, how has everything been? How's your mom? How's school? Are you still daydreaming during classes like you used to?" Basil giggled to himself after that last one, remembering how cute he used to look when he daydreamt in class. And then let go of Sunny, wanting to see how he looked right now, but Sunny was staring at the ground with cheeks as red as they could be.

He talked slowly, not wanting to stutter, "Everything's been.. good. M-my mom is doing well, a-and I'm doing good in school; b-but yeah.. still daydreaming.. haha.." Sunny did a fist-pump in his head for being able to speak in front of Basil.

"Well, Sunny," Basil chirped, "it's cold out, we should go insi-"

Basil gasped as he looked at Sunny's knuckles which were covered in blood and seemed to be bruising.

Basil grabbed at Sunny's hand as he tried (and failed) to pull away from his grasp.

"What did you do, Sunny!?"

Sunny stammered as he tried to come up with an excuse, but decided telling the truth was the best option, "A-attacked a stop sign.."

Basil started ushering Sunny inside as he berated him for, as he says it, 'Being such an idiot!'.

The door closed behind them, and Omori was suddenly there, staring at the door from the outside, quietly sniffling to himself as snow fell around him; before he fell to the ground and started sobbing. With no one there to console him, he started crying for his big sister, for anyone.

m-mari, I'm so sorry, please come back, i'll be a good little brother, i promise.

Chapter Text

Basil and Sunny hurried inside away from the biting cold, and Sunny was immediately much warmer, in fact.. too much so.

He hurriedly took his layers off, leaving a pile of two sweatshirts, one jacket, and one extra pair of sweatpants, most of which were sopping wet, had he really been out there that long?

Nevertheless, now much more comfortable, Sunny hopped onto Basil's couch, staring at the dark TV.

Basil came over and leaned over to Sunny's eye level.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing? We need to get you cleaned up, silly."

Sunny stared back, confused, until he looked at his knuckles and remembered.

"Oh. Y-yeah, I guess we do need to fix that, don't we? Haha.." Sunny awkwardly said as he got himself up and headed for the bathroom.

"Do you have any.. band-aids?" 

Once Sunny asked this, he suddenly remembered the day when he had skinned his knee on the sidewalk after running, and Basil had brought him inside and cleaned him up. Sunny was such a crybaby back then, but Basil never seemed to mind, he always comforted Sunny. Sunny supposed that was just his way of paying Sunny back for listening to him ramble on and on about all his problems, even when he cried too.

"U-uhm.. Well, not really.." Basil said, embarrassed, "B-but, we have a first aid kit somewhere, we could put gauze over it?"

Sunny blinked, what was the difference between gauze and band-aids? They would both be fine, why was Basil being so awkward about it?

After the painful process of cleaning Sunny's knuckles up with some hydrogen peroxide, ("Owww! Basil! That hurt!") Basil took the first aid kit out, still stammering out apologies for not having band-aids.

Sunny was still confused until he saw the gauze, it was nothing but little kid designs, rainbows, cats, everything a 6 year old might like.

"No way am I putting those on. You couldn't pay me to do that."

"Sunny, please? It's gonna be good for you, besides, no one else is even here! It's just me." Basil said, trying to persuade Sunny.

"Ughh, seriously? This is all we have?" Sunny groaned.

"Y-yes, Sunny, and you're putting it on, o-or else!"

Sunny smirked at that.

"Or else what, Basil?"

"O-or else.. Or else I'll n-never hang out with you, ever again!" Basil said, looking everywhere except at Sunny.

Sunny was quick to call Basil's bluff.

"Okay, bye Basi-" 

"No! Wait! Come back, please." Basil pleaded.

Sunny laughed, it was too easy sometimes.

"I was only kidding, Basil, promise. But, I'll put the gauze on anyway, only cause it's for you~" Sunny said as he poked Basil on the nose, watching him freak out just from that.

After Basil's shaky hands wrapped Sunny's hands, Sunny had to admit, even with all the little designs, it looked kinda badass. Bloody gauze around your knuckles? People would know not to mess with him.

wow, big scary sunny huh? gonna protect your little boyfriend from anyone that dares to attack your little muffin?

Omori started laughing at his own joke, like absolute hysterics.

Sunny sighed, and started walking back towards the couch where he could maybe lie down for a bit, before Basil said something.

"Hey, Sunny, w-where is everyone.. else?"

Sunny suddenly remembered, he turned around very quickly, making Basil stumble a bit backwards.

"Why didn't you tell anyone, Basil?" Sunny said, maybe a bit more forceful than he meant to.

oooooh, basil boy is in for it now, isn't he sunny?

Basil started stammering, trying his hardest to come up with a good excuse, but Sunny interrupted his stuttering with a hand.

"It's okay, Basil, I get it, you were just.. afraid, huh?" Sunny said, trying to be as peaceful as he could be.

"Y-Yes! I was so afraid Sunny.. I thought they would all reject me, a-and that they would still hate me.."

Sunny sighed in consideration, he had wanted to chew Basil out, but he just had to be so damn cute..

"I'm really, really sorry Sunny, I swear. I'll never do something like that again..!" Basil pleaded, not wanting Sunny to be angry at him.

"..okay," Sunny said, "but it better not happen, ever again, okay, Basil? They don't hate us, well.. They don't hate you. There's no reason to be afraid of them, okay? They're our friends." Sunny finally finished and finished his walk to the couch, sitting down. He started patting the spot next to him for Basil to sit, they still had a few hours before midnight, so why not relax a bit?

Basil sat down with a sigh, he was relieved Sunny forgave him, he had been so worried about what Sunny might do or say when he found out Basil got too scared to tell their friends. Basil was getting really comfortable, too comfortable, and before he could stop himself, his head ended up on Sunny's shoulder. He almost fell asleep right there and then, but he then realized what he'd done, and with a red face immediately got off of Sunny's shoulder and scooched as far away as he could; muttering apologies under his breath as he moved.

Sunny's face was getting more and more red as he started scooching himself closer to Basil.

"I-it's alright.. you can lay down on my shoulder if you want, Basil."

Omori made a gagging noise and shoved mocked shoving a finger down his throat behind him.

Basil, who's face at this point was so hot you could cook in it, merely got closer to Sunny, and plopped his head down.

Sunny had a small smile growing on his face as he got more comfortable, putting his arm around Basil in the process.

ewww, you guys are so gross. god, get a room.

It seemed Omori had gotten comfortable enough to bug Sunny again, now sitting on his left, sticking his tongue out to show how "gross" he thought the two of them were.

Sunny responded by cuddling closer to Basil as he gave Omori the finger.

~

~

Sunny woke up at what seemed like the perfect time, though, he still couldn't tell. He almost got up to stretch and check the nearest clock, but then he realized who he was with, and his face seemed to go up in flames.

At some point in the night, they seemed to have somewhat switched places, Basil was leaning against the side of the couch, and Sunny realized he was laying down in his lap.. like a cat.

And he drooled too, ew, that's gonna be tough to explain.

Well, he ought to wake Basil up right about now, if they wanted to have any chance of making it to Faraway Park.

Sunny slowly sat up in place as he gently shook Basil awake.

"Hey.. hey, Basil! Wake up!"

Basil grumbled softly in a quiet anger as Sunny woke him up, and Sunny stopped for a moment..

wow, that was hot.

Sunny turned to his left to see Omori sitting cross legged in the air in front of him, Omori laughed.

NOT! hah, that wasn't hot at all, but i know youuu thought it was, fucking pervert. he's your friend, just wake him up, loser.

Sunny flushed, he almost thought Omori had some taste for a second, he looked back at Basil, gently stirring.

i thought it was sort of cute.

Sunny turned again, it was Stranger, of course it was, he sighed, he did not want to deal with this shit right now.

He finally decided it was time to wake Basil up, he shook him a final time and Basil finally woke up.

"Urgh.. Sunny.. what time is it?"

"Basil you have a watch on."

"I-I knew that! I was just kidding around!" Basil nervously stammered, obviously having forgotten he had the watch.

Basil glanced at his watch, his body immediately tensing.

"Fuck! Sunny! It's 11:50! Hurry get up, get up!"

Both he and Basil hurried up, Stranger and Omori disappearing once again as Sunny threw all his extra layers back on.

They both hurried out the door, already hearing fireworks somewhere in the distance.

Omori and Stranger both reappeared at the door of Basil's house, watching the two of them run off hand in hand.

you know, i saw you cryi-

shut the fuck up, bitch boy.

Chapter Text

"Look, Sunny!" Basil pointed out the fireworks in the distance as they closed in on Faraway Park.

While Basil was awestruck at the amazing firework show going on, Sunny took the time to study the boy's face; it was full of pure joy, the kind Sunny thought he would never see again in his eyes.

"Sunny, not me, the fireworks!" 

"O-oh, yeah, s-sorry.." Sunny looked towards the spot that had Basil mesmerized, and though he saw the fireworks, he frowned. He had much more fun looking into Basil's pretty eyes than he did at some stupid fireworks, even if they were beautiful. Nothing could compare to Basil.

wow, look at you, being all romantic in your head. you are such a wimp, you can't even tell someone how you feel about them? that's so easy to do. look!

Omori turned around to look at Stranger, who was watching everyone from afar.

hey! i fucking hate you!

Omori turned back around.

see? it's that easy, just hurry up and tell him so he can reject you, and we can go home.

Sunny sighed, he should, he really should. But he's too attached to how close he already is to Basil, the last thing he'd want to do is ruin that. What would he do if his only friend rejected him? He had no one else he was as close with as Basil. But then again.. it was worth a shot.

"Basil."

"Yeah, Sunny?" Basil asked curiously, staring at him somewhat like a dog would, tilted head and all.

"I-I was wondering if-"

"Sunny! Watch out!"

Ow. Seriously? He hit another stop sign.

pfft- holy shit dude, that was funny.

Sunny could even hear Stranger stifle a laugh from behind him, he rubbed his forehead again.

"Oh jeez Sunny, you should be more careful! I told you to watch out."

Basil reached out his hand, and Sunny grabbed onto it.

"Y-yeah.. Sorry for uh.. not paying attention." Sunny mumbled out as he stood up.

"It's alright, we should get going though, it's almost the new year, Sunny!"

Sunny looked at Basil's wrist, oh, it was 11:58.

"Well, c'mon dummy!" Basil grabbed Sunny by his hand and started running towards the park.

"Basil we're only a few feet away." Sunny said nonchalantly. 

It was true, they only had to get past a crosswalk and they were basically at the park.

"I know! But we need to get a good seat, c'mon, let's go to our hangout!"

Sunny gulped, the last thing he needed was to slip and fall into the water.

As far as he knew, they both still didn't know how to swim.

But he didn't want to make Basil unhappy.

"S-sure, Basil.." Sunny reluctantly agreed, what other choice did he have?

"Yay! Hurry, let's go!" Basil said as he started running once again with Sunny's hand in his own.

Sunny's face was on fire, so much so that a dip in the lake right now actually didn't sound too bad...

They finally got there, and it seemed that Basil had laid down a picnic blanket earlier today, but it was covered in snow and probably soaking wet. So they opted to go sit on the dock instead, after clearing off the few inches of snow that were there, it seemed dry enough to sit on.

The fireworks were really starting now, it was only a matter of seconds before it was officially the new year.

Sunny was hesitant to sit down at first, but Basil convinced him he'd be fine. The lake was frozen over anyways, and Sunny definitely didn't weigh enough to break it.

They both stared at Basil's watch expectantly, counting down the seconds.

. . .

. . .

. . .

"Happy 2004, Sunny!" Basil hugged Sunny as fireworks went off over their heads.

isn't this great, omori? it's a new year, it's a chance for change, a chance for-

jesus christ, i don't care. shut up, stop talking to me you're weird, go back to your weird home, you weirdo.

Sunny heard them in the distance talking but he didn't care. He was focused on the face in front of him, about what he had been planning to do.

hey, stranger, look at him, he's actually about to kiss that other freak. this is gonna be fun to watch.

Sunny didn't listen to him, he focused on Basil more, he was looking back at him, confused.

He lent forward quickly and gave him a peck on the lips, immediately backing away and staring extremely hard in any place that wasn't Basil's face.

"Hey, Sunny." Basil called from his side.

Sunny immediately turned around, bracing himself for whatever the flower boy had left to say.

Basil gave him a kiss back, and held his hand in his own, now blushing himself.

The two boys sat in silence for a while, not knowing what to say to the other, but being extremely happy nonetheless.

how the fuck did-

Omori was interrupted as Stranger gave him a kiss on the cheek.

happy new year, omori.

w-what the fuck is wrong with you!? s-stay away from me, you creep!

Omori was blushing profusely and immediately vanished back into Sunny's brain.

Stranger giggled as he himself vanished.

Sunny laid his head down on Basil's shoulder as Basil wrapped his arm around him, even with how cold it was, they both felt extremely warm.

A final firework goes off, ending the festivities.