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Basil Suzuki is an absolute phenomenon in British politics.

Some may claim that Jeremy Corbyn had a cult following. This is true, from a certain point of view. However, as it turned out, this was absolutely nothing when compared to his successor. Suzuki, known popularly simply as Basil much like former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, is an anomaly in more ways than one.

Born far, far away from Britain in Portland, Oregon in 1987 as Basil Miller, to parents that were apparently 'too busy' to take care of him, he moved to the picturesque town of Faraway when he was young to live with his grandmother. It was there as a boy that he met a group of people that he claims to this day changed his life, including his future husband, noted artist and violinist Sunny Suzuki. Basil claims to this day that it is this friend group that encouraged him to pursue photography and botany, and also inspired his signature flower hair accessories. At this time, he was also first acquainted with his grandmother's (and later for a time his own) caretaker, Polly Sherwin, who he currently employs as his secretary.

In 1999, tragedy befell his group as Sunny Suzuki's beloved sister took her own life. The group apparently fell apart after this, not reforming until 2003. Basil claims that this four-year period was by far the darkest years of his life, and he is clearly uncomfortable whenever journalists mention this period and especially the death of Sunny's sister. Basil mentions that he suffered rather vicious bullying during this time, and that he does not like to think about this period. He described this period further by saying that it was a time where he had truly little to no hope for the future. This dark period came to a crescendo with a reported mental breakdown, following the death of his grandmother after a period in intensive care. He and his husband have almost always strongly refused to answer questions on this dark period, with exception to one interview Basil gave shortly after being elected leader. Basil explained that Sunny saved him from committing suicide during this period, and that he would forever be grateful for what Sunny did then, and throughout his life. Reports suggest it was around the same time that Sunny Suzuki lost his right eye, giving rise to his signature eye patch.

In 2004, Basil came out as gay and entered a relationship with his future husband; he claims the day they mutually confessed to be one of the best days of his life. In 2005, Basil and Sunny moved to Llanarthne in Wales to start a new life and to facilitate both of their studies at university level, reportedly funded in part with the help of their friends in Oregon. Basil became moderately well known in the fields of both botany and photography for his advancements and innovations in both fields, and for his combination of both. Around this time Basil initially joined the Green Party of England of Wales; he claims he did so because of a lack of knowledge of any politics at the time, let alone British politics.

In 2007, during a rally he participated in as a member of the Greens, Basil was noticed by Swansea West MP and Father of the House Alan Williams, who immediately took a liking to the young man's clear and apparent desire for a better and cleaner world. Shortly after, Basil joined the Labour Party on Williams' urging. He immediately became very well liked in the Constituency Labour Party and his mannerisms endeared him to the many, not the few. Around this time, Basil dabbled in a bit of journalistic photography, periodically going to Labour, Conservative, and Liberal Democrat events. Gordon Brown, who had just succeeded Blair as Prime Minister, was reportedly impressed by his photography.

Alan Williams, who planned to retire at the next election slated for 2010, was looking for a successor, but until this point, he didn't really have anyone in mind. However, once he started training Basil in the ways of politics, he realised he had found a suitable heir, and pushed for Basil to be selected as the next Labour PPC for Swansea West. He was eventually selected, besting the efforts of an attempted parachute campaign from former Croydon MP Geraint Davies. Having been thrust into politics, his friends in Oregon were reportedly flabbergasted to hear that he was in line to become an MP. Apparently, even Basil himself was a bit astonished that the course of his life had thrust him into the world of politics. He was also shocked at the speed of his own rise, and also that Alan Williams wanted him as his successor after such a brief time in the first place. It is said that Williams thought that Basil very clearly loved his adoptive country of Wales, and he clearly had an affinity with Swansea as he did with Llanarthne. Sunny apparently strongly encouraged him to take this career step once the opportunity presented itself, this despite Sunny's reported deep apathy towards politics and general apoliticism.

At the age of 23, Basil Miller was elected MP for Swansea West with a larger than expected majority. Initially it was thought that the seat would be on the edge between Labour and the Liberal Democrats. However, in the end, Basil won the seat with a majority of over 2,300, which while being half the majority Williams achieved in 2005, was much better than expected. Following this surprisingly strong result, the runner-up, Liberal Democrat candidate Peter May, warmly congratulated Basil for the result. The election was also notable for havin the Father of the House be succeeded by the new Baby of the House. Basil was the youngest member of the House since Charles Kennedy in 1983. Basil and Kennedy apparently had a very warm relationship and, despite being from different parties, Kennedy was one of Basil's closest parliamentary friends. It is said that their senses of humour complimented each other.

With friends seemingly to be found at every corner, Basil's political career began in earnest with hope and optimism.

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Basil's speeches in the House of Commons were exceptionally well received from his fellow members of the House, with his speeches apparently making for hit viewing in his childhood home of Faraway.

Basil backed Ed Miliband in the 2010 Labour leadership election, saying that Labour needed a fresh break from the Blair and Brown years for the years that would follow in opposition. He had initially considered backing the candidacy of John McDonnell before he dropped out, and later Diane Abbott. However, after doing further research, he decided against it and publically declared his support for Ed Miliband. Miliband would go on to narrowly defeat his brother David in the final round of the leadership vote, the last to be held using the old rules of the Labour electoral college before reforms were passed in the latter years of Miliband's leadership. Basil welcomed the younger brother's victory and said that he was hopeful that Labour would return to power in 2015 with Miliband as Prime Minister. In these remarks, Basil also took the opportunity to thank Deputy, and outgoing Acting Leader, Harriet Harman, for her work leading a temporary shadow cabinet, and also thanked former Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

In February 2011, Basil and Sunny purchased a home in Mayals in Swansea to allow him to live in the constituency. His friends in Oregon also apparently arranged for Basil's childhood home to remain in their hands, and they take holidays there to visit their friends and old haunts to this day.

Basil backed Yes in the 2011 AV Referendum, stating that "Above a-all else, I want a better country, a-and a better society. And that... that starts with a better democracy!", said with his trademark, award winning smile. His remarks received a small amount of attention, mostly relegated to his local papers, but did not do much at all to shift the referendum, which resulted in a lopsided 68-32 vote against AV. In July 2011, Basil privately expressed his deep disappointment in Miliband for his words regarding the J30 protests and the strikes taken by public sector workers.

In October 2011, following Ed Miliband's first cabinet reshuffle, Basil was appointed Shadow Minister for Culture and Media, under Shadow Secretary Mary Creagh. Miliband had apparently taken Basil's criticisms into account and said that he would take soundings as to what the best course of action in regard to labour disputes would be in the future, though these words would not end up changing much of anything. This aoomade him what is believed to be the youngest Shadow Minister in British political history, at age 24. His particular strength in this junior portfolio was photography, which he studied at the University of South Wales. He was also able to fill the other parts of his brief immaculately. His performances were very well received by journalists and political junkies alike.

It was at this point when young Basil started receiving a cult following. The #Sunflowers movement on Twitter would grow to notable heights, the first in a series of popular British political internet movements that followed Cleggmania. The #Sunflowers would later be echoed by movements like the #Milifandom and some years later by Moggmentum, the latter proving considerably less successful. In fact, the #Sunflowers would almost start a so-called Twitter war with the Milifandom during the 2015 general election campaign, but this was averted by mutual tweets from their respective forebears.

Shortly after the October 2013 reshuffle, Basil voluntarily stepped down from the Shadow Cabinet in order to spend more time with his friends and family, near the anniversary of Sunny's sister's passing. He also privately cited increasing discomfort at the policies of Miliband's Labour Party and a wish to be able to further speak his mind on issues that he felt Labour were not offering an adequate alternative to. He in particular cited, privately in a conversation to Miliband before his resignation, the refusal to drop austerity policies as a compounding reason for his resignation. He also cited his deep discomfort at some of the language used in the immigration debate by Labour, saying that the party should not be capitulating the narrative to the Conservatives. The Labour leader disagreed with their opinions on these matter of course, but accepted their resignation and wished them the best of luck in the future. He was shortly thereafter elected to the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee.

On 18 February 2014, Basil Miller would wed his soulmate Sunny Suzuki in a private ceremony in his childhood hometown of Faraway, Oregon. This was Basil's twenty-seventh birthday and another day Basil claims was one of the best of his life. While the ceremony was held in Oregon, the marriage itself was registered in Wales for legal reasons.

Basil remained neutral in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, stating that it was a decision for the people of Scotland, and that it was far from his place to interfere in Scottish affairs.

Four days before Christmas in 2014, Basil's political mentor, Alan Williams, passed away following a stroke six months earlier. Basil immediately released a statement paying deep tribute to his political mentor, where he shared memories of him and expressed his deepest thanks to Williams and his family for all they had done for him. He was amongst the mourners at his funeral.

During the 2015 election campaign, Basil publicly expressed his "deepest horror" at the now-infamous Labour 'Controls on immigration' mug, saying that political topics like immigration really should not be reduced to "slogans on a mug, f-for goodness' sake!" At the 2015 election, the Conservatives won a shock majority and Labour lost thirty seats. This also saw the decimation of the Liberal Democrats in retaliation to the coalition and their abandoned pledge on tuition fees that deeply hurt their student vote. Basil was a strong beneficiary of this, increasing the Labour vote by almost 12% and amassing a majority of almost 11,000; considerably stronger than had been expected at the outset of the campaign.

Basil had seen a considerable boost in support that rendered his seat relatively safe. However, as it would happen, some of his friends would not be so lucky, including some of those from other parties...

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In Scotland, the Scottish National Party surged to stratospheric levels and won all but a few seats in Scotland, including that of Basil's friend Charles Kennedy. Kennedy, who had lost his father at the start of the campaign, died suddenly at the age of 55, a month after he lost his seat. Basil was very deeply affected and released an emotional statement paying tribute, attending both his thanksgiving service and funeral. Shortly after his death, Basil was uncharacteristically furious as he scorned new Ross, Skye and Lochaber MP Ian Blackford for his actions during the election campaign. Blackford had been accused of masterminding a campaign of harassment that had hounded what turned out to be Kennedy's final days. Blackford strongly refuted this but gave his sympathies both to the Kennedy family and to Basil.

Following the election result, leader Ed Miliband resigned immediately, triggering a leadership election, with Harriet Harman returning as acting leader for one last stint before her own resignation as Deputy Leader of the party at September conference that year. As the leadership election began, Basil, while privately expressing reluctance, backed the campaign of Jeremy Corbyn. In his endorsement message for Corbyn, who at this moment in time was nothing more than a fringe candidate, Basil said that "Jeremy i-is the only candidate in this contest who will end austerity politics in this country! An end to austerity... t-that's what we've needed from the y-year dot!" Privately, he was very concerned with the company Corbyn kept and his past statements, but endorsed him in the hopes that he would "clean up his act", as he put it to his husband Sunny shortly after making his endorsement.

In July 2015, Harman whipped Labour MPs to abstain on the Welfare Reform and Work Bill at second reading. This prompted a major rebellion from some sections of the party, as Basil was apparently horrified at the decision of the leadership to actively whip in this way along with many other of his colleagues. On the day of the vote, Basil joined 47 other Labour MPs in rebelling against the whip, along with candidate Corbyn. The other candidates; Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall, did not disobey the whip, which would prove fatal for their campaigns and provided a catalyst for Corbyn's.

In September 2015, Jeremy Corbyn was elected Leader of the Labour Party in a stunning upset considered impossible just a few months earlier. As Corbyn formed a new shadow cabinet, Basil returned to the shadow ministerial team, joining the frontbench as Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. This gave him remit over several issues important to him. At the age of twenty-eight, he was amongst the youngest frontbenchers in history and certainly the youngest in modern memory by far.

Basil's husband Sunny, and sometimes even their friends in Oregon, could be seen in the public galleries, providing moral support, during his performances at the frontbench, including his first appearance. Basil was (and is) soft by nature; reportedly this has always been the case, but sometimes it could be so much so that it became an active issue. Apparently, this occasional show of moral support did wonders for Basil's confidence, and while he still remained an overall very shy and docile person, it seemed to no longer spill out into active difficulties.

In his role as Shadow Environment Secretary, Basil stressed the need for a vast increase of planting trees, plants, and of course flowers, in order to save the planet from the crisis of global warming, and also to make Britain a more beautiful place to live in.

From shortly after he was appointed to the Shadow Cabinet, Basil was included in opinion polls of Labour figures' approvals. Basil was not initially too well known to the public, with heavy numbers of people answering 'I don't know' when queried about him. However, those that did answer approved overwhelmingly, some polls suggesting Gaddafi-esque margins.

In December 2015, Basil was a notable founding member of the internal Open Labour group which is regularly described as an grouping encompassing a broad range of the left opposed to inner party factionalism.

Basil was famously neutral on the issue of Britain in the European Union and declared that the referendum being held in the first place was not the best course of action and other avenues should have been explored before taking the country to an abrupt vote. He did however condemn some of the xenophobic language used by the forebears of the Vote Leave campaign, especially those of former London Mayor Boris Johnson and UKIP leader Nigel Farage. Basil said that these comments were "completely unbefitting of figures i-in public life!" Following the vote to leave the European Union, Basil welcomed the resignation of the Prime Minister, David Cameron, saying that he had caused "s-so much terrible damage to the country", though he later remarked that the election of Theresa May was "pretty much m-more of the same, really..."

Basil did not resign from the Shadow Cabinet during the revolt that ensued after the vote to leave the EU and refused to publicly reveal who he voted for in the leadership election that ensued; conflicting reports suggested Corbyn, and others suggested Smith. However, Basil privately told his husband Sunny that he voted for Owen Smith, caveating "I held my nose so hard I-I think I caused a b-bleed!" Despite the private vote for Smith, Basil continued to serve into and through the leadership contest, which was won by Corbyn by an increased vote from 2015.

Basil served as Shadow Environment Secretary until February 2017, when he resigned in the midst of a spate of cabinet revolts, following the apparent death of Basil's biological father. While Basil was said to be saddened by this, due to the fact that his parents were always apparently 'too busy' to take care of him, he was reportedly not too shaken up over it. Basil had long been cold towards his parents following his abandonment and most don't blame him for it. Basil apologised to Corbyn for the unfortunate timing of the resignation but felt that it would not be appropriate for him to continue in the circumstances.

Basil was concerned by the increasingly large lead held by the Prime Minister, Theresa May, in opinion polls. Nevertheless, he welcomed and voted for the calling of the 2017 snap general election. He campaigned vigorously, as if it was as tight a seat as it was in 2010. Following the election, which resulted in the Conservative Party sensationally losing their majority mere weeks after they were predicted to win a landslide, Basil was re-elected MP for Swansea West by an exceptionally increased majority. Basil increased the Labour vote to nearly 67 percent, an increase of almost 17%, resulting in a majority of almost 16,000. This represented a majority larger than the one achieved by Basil's mentor in the Labour landslide of 1997, and the largest majority in the history of the constituency. As ever, this was a larger than expected vote increase for Basil, something attributed to his personal popularity and the work of his loyal staff and friends. Basil felt incredibly honoured to be elected with such a mandate. He cherished each and every vote he won, and respected every single vote against him.

With his parliamentary friends encouraging a run for committee office, Basil's career looked to be on the up. However, the member for Hall Green may have had some unsavoury things to say about that...

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Shortly after parliament reconvened following the 2017 election, Basil was encouraged to run for the Chair of a Select Committee by one of his closest parliamentary colleagues, Wigan MP Lisa Nandy. Both members of the 2010 intake with broadly similar views, Nandy quickly became Basil's closest political ally. Following Nandy's encouragement, Basil decided to go for it and take the next leap in his career. In July 2017, Basil was unexpectedly elected Chair of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee, defeating incumbent chair, Conservative Neil Parish. He had previously served as a member of the committee from 2013 to 2015. 

Over the course of almost three years, Basil meticulously and forensically examined the government's record on the affairs of the department, and, in an increasingly partisan age, gained cross-party support for his actions in this role, including even from his ousted predecessor Parish. Basil's scrupulous scrutiny of the way taxpayer money was spent on this department drew widespread comparison to that of his mentor, the late Alan Williams. His inquisitorious questioning showed just how strong an influence his political mentor had on how he engaged in politics. 

Basil wasn't afraid to make controversial statements if it was in the name of what he thought was right. In May 2018, following reports that Speaker of the House John Bercow bullied his former private secretary, Angus Sinclair, Basil was one of the very first political figures to call for his resignation. Bercow is said to have scoffed at Basil's resignation call, reportedly saying that his words would have no sway. It attracted considerable buzz on Twitter, and unfortunately led to abuse directed at Basil from those who saw Bercow as a sainted saviour. There weren't any other major MPs that waded in at this point, as they did not want to escalate the situation.

This changed in October 2018 when a damning report was released into bullying in Westminster, which said that "Bullying was coming right from the top". This led to the Chair of the Women and Equalities Select Committee, Conservative MP Maria Miller, to join Basil's earlier call for Bercow to resign, which he repeated in light of the report. Miller's intervention provided a piece of cross-party unity at a time when such unity was becoming ever rarer. However, it was still not enough to force Bercow's resignation. 

As with any person in elected office, Basil's term in office was not without its criticisms. Like Corbyn, Basil was criticised by former Prime Minister David Cameron, and later Theresa May amongst others, for his choice of clothes in parliament. His demeanour has attracted the ire of people within his own party as well. Streatham MP Chuka Umunna, Wansbeck MP Ian Lavery, former Assistant General Secretary David Evans, and Hall Green MP Roger Godsiff in particular expressed their distaste towards the flower boy from the Beaver State. Most claimed that their demeanour was simply not right for someone in elected office, despite it being responsible for their great popularity and according to some, his impressive results in cross examination in the Commons. Evans claimed that 'popularity' was irrelevant if elections were not being won, comparing the situation to that of leader Jeremy Corbyn. Umunna said that while Basil was plainly a kind soul, parliament needed strong voices and minds, as did democracy. Lavery, in a rare piece of unity between him and figures like Umunna, echoed many similar sentiments, except from the side of the leadership. 

Godsiff, however, went way overboard. 

In April 2019, Godsiff was caught viciously making fun of Basil, secretly being filmed making fun of his loving nickname given to him by friends and parliamentary colleagues, 'The Flower Boy'. Godsiff opined that "Flower boy is right, the raging poof. He's just... utterly useless, worthless even, and we have enough of his ilk in parliament. There's SOMETHING behind that fella, I tell you, dark forces help him at every turn." Basil was said to be considerably shaken by the incredibly strong remarks from Godsiff. This led to an altercation between Godsiff and Basil's husband in Westminster's corridors, with Sunny reportedly violently threatening Godsiff, leading to the artist's removal from the parliamentary estate. 

The Hall Green MP's remarks were widely condemned within Labour and parliament as a whole, with Jeremy Corbyn immediately withdrawing the whip and Jennie Formby suspending his membership. Lavery, Evans and Umunna, the latter by this time having left Labour, all condemned the remarks as well. Godsiff, who defended his remarks by saying there was no offence intended and that he meant 'poof' as a term of endearment, was later expelled from the Labour Party for this incident and many others, his CLP reportedly having long tired of his backwards ways and words. The Prime Minister joined in with the condemnations and said Corbyn was right to withdraw the whip. Basil released a video message to the media and on Twitter thanking those who supported him, including Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer, Green MP Caroline Lucas, former Shadow Chief Secretary Rachel Reeves, Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, and International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt, amongst others. 

Basil was already moderately well known before this incident, but the incident made Basil a household name. In the aftermath of Poofgate, the incredibly unsurprising and stupid nickname the press gave the incident, opinion polling for Basil's popularity saw the 'I don't know' answers shrink to single digits, with Basil still seeing incredibly high approvals in the 70 to 80% region. Basil was pictured shortly thereafter in his childhood home in Faraway with his husband and their friends in Oregon, looking visibly upset and being comforted by them, though by the time he returned to parliament some days later he appeared to have mostly recovered. 

On his return, just before Prime Minister's Questions, he received a standing ovation, which appeared to make Basil emotional. The Prime Minister, in her opening remarks, welcomed Basil's return and repeated her earlier condemnation. The Leader of the Opposition did the same at the start of his remarks, as did many of the backbenchers who asked questions. Basil later sent another message expressing his gratitude following PMQs. 

When Theresa May announced her resignation as Prime Minister in May 2019, Basil expressed a degree of sympathy. He said that while a lot of her policies were abhorrent, "the way in which she has been made to leave the political stage... it's h-horrible! She didn't deserve such a humiliation." When former Foreign Secretary and former London Mayor Boris Johnson won the race to succeed May as Conservative leader and Prime Minister, Basil was very displeased. He said that "A man who talked of..." (Basil scoffs in disgust) "...gay people as tank-topped bumboys... Please forgive me if I a-am not pleased at him being elected our new Prime Minister by a selectorate of 180,000..." 

Basil sided with the rest of the Opposition in fighting Johnson's prorogation of parliament in September 2019, which was later rescinded by the courts. Basil welcomed John Bercow's announcement that he would resign on 31 October at the latest, saying that, especially in the face of further bullying allegations, he had long been unfit for the office. These comments led to major detractions from certain political figures, including those of the Corbynite wing, most notably from Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott. It also led to further abuse on Twitter. 

When Corbyn announced that the conditions had been met for Labour to back a snap general election near to the end of October 2019, Basil was extremely hesitant. He knew that this was not likely to end well, and was the highest profile Labour MP to vote against the snap election call. Basil supported the campaign of Chris Bryant for Speaker of the House of Commons, with Basil's enthusiastic support seen as a key reason why Bryant narrowly won over Deputy Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle. Hoyle was gracious in defeat and congratulated Bryant for his victory, who became the first openly gay Speaker of the House of Commons in history. Basil received criticism for his strong praise of Labour's Brexit policy, calling it "simple, modest and perfect... the policy rather reminds me of someone..."

Labour were demolished in the election of 2019, falling to their lowest number of seats since 1935. Amongst others, Sir Lindsay, who was seeking re-election as a Labour candidate, lost his Chorley seat to Conservative challenger Debra Platt. Basil was once again re-elected, but his vote share went down by 6%. Dropping to 60.6%, it still represented the second-largest majority in the history of constituency, with the percentage majority, 38.3%, being marginally above that received by Williams in 1997 and the raw vote majority, 14,254, being marginally under. The now-disgraced Roger Godsiff, who stood again in Birmingham Hall Green as an independent against the replacement Labour candidate Tahir Ali, heavily lost his seat. Sunny, on being told of these apparent results, is said to have uncharacteristically cackled. He lost his deposit as Labour retained the seat with over 70% of the vote, the fall in Labour vote share being considerably smaller than expected. 

Jeremy Corbyn immediately announced he would not lead the Labour Party into the next general election, which was in essence an announcement of his resignation pending the election of a successor. Thus began the next leadership election in earnest, with several figures who may have run having lost their seat. Basil was wondering what the next five years would have in store. 

Just like his predecessor in May 2015, he had no idea just what the next four months were going to bring...

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Basil was heartbroken to see Labour fall to their lowest ebb since 1935. Several Labour figures such as outgoing MP Caroline Flint attacked Basil for his fervent defence of Labour’s Brexit policy at the election. Basil would respond by reminding her that he had been neutral on the issue of Britain in the European Union at the 2016 referendum and that, for the most part, he had reclused himself from discussions on Britain’s place in Europe.

Basil was honoured to be re-elected once again but was sad to see the swing against him. In his victory speech, Basil apologised to those whose vote he had lost and said that he would try his hardest to win their votes back in the next election. He also said that Labour needed to regroup and reorganise following this “so very crushing defeat”, his voice slightly quaking as the gravity of the situation became clear to him.

Basil’s friend Lisa Nandy had hinted at a leadership during her own victory speech at her Wigan constituency. Shortly after the election result, Basil met with Nandy to confirm whether she was intending to stand and to give her some of his ideas. They shared views on many issues, including on how Labour had let down towns like Nandy’s and others in the north of England. During this conversation, Nandy could see Basil’s burning passion for the party and the country to have the best future possible. She noticed the deep care in Basil’s voice, and how his oratory seemed to improve ten-fold as he began to intricately detail the ideas that she might ought to consider.

Nandy began to ponder whether Basil should run for the leadership himself. He was very young, almost thirty-three, yes, but that could play in Basil’s favour. Nandy admitted to Basil that his passion was incredible and that he should consider running for the leadership himself. She said that if he chose to run, she would back him to the hilt, and would do whatever was necessary to help him win. It was not something that Basil had considered whatsoever. Little Basil Suzuki, the Flower Boy from Oregon, Leader of the Labour Party and Her Majesty’s Opposition? The thought had never crossed him. Wouldn’t people attack him for his Oregonian accent? Nandy insisted that it didn’t matter, and that he really should go for it. Basil said that he was flattered that she thought he was up for the job, but that he would have to think about it and consider the thoughts of his family and friends first.

Basil first asked his friends in Oregon over the internet. All his friends strongly encouraged him to run. Especially strong in their encouragement was Oregon State Senator and renowned cook Henry Díaz, brother of Kelvin, who had launched his own career some years earlier. He privately noted to Basil that he was planning to announce a campaign for Secretary of State of Oregon the following month. Basil wished him the best of luck and thanked his friends for the kind words and encouragement.

Basil went for his husband Sunny’s advise last; when making major decisions he tended to do so as he valued Sunny’s wisdom above all else and saved the best for last. Sunny said that while he still considered himself very apolitical, he thought that Basil really ought to run for the leadership. Sunny said that for the over 20 years he had known him, he always saw his desire for a better world shine through, no matter his mood. He added that “If you were leader… you could share the love you have shown to our friends and me over all this time… to the rest of the country and even the world. If you did that, even for just a few moments, I think we might be able to live in paradise...”

Basil knew Sunny had a habit of flattering him, but this was ridiculous. Basil tried to sputter out a repudiation as his faced turned into a beetroot, but the words didn’t come out. It made Sunny chuckle; Basil could be oh so very easy sometimes. Basil eventually managed to mutter his deepest gratitude, saying that he had made up his mind, pleasing Sunny immensely. Basil informed Nandy of his decision as soon as he could, and she began to prepare, gathering her staff and associated supporters and making appropriate briefs to the press.

Having received the strength of Sunny and the rest of his friends in Oregon, Basil announced his campaign for the leadership of the Labour Party on 3 January 2020, alongside Lisa Nandy, in Swansea. The media was quite surprised that Nandy herself had foregone a run; many considered her to be one of the strongest hypothetical candidates going into the leadership election. She immediately endorsed him and was the chair of his campaign. Nandy so enthusiastically chairing and endorsing Basil’s campaign led to speculation on who he voted for in the 2016 leadership election, given Nandy had been chair of Owen Smith’s unsuccessful campaign, though Basil continued to refuse to answer speculation on who he voted for, saying that he had very good reason for doing so.

The logo of his campaign was simple; a red background with his name in white above his slogan of the same colour. The logo was broadly the same as that originally planned by the nascent Nandy campaign; Basil had inherited a lot of her infrastructure including her graphic designers. The announcement of his campaign was met by the welcoming of his candidacy by the frontrunners Sir Keir Starmer and Rebecca Long-Bailey, as well as other candidates such as Emily Thornberry and Clive Lewis. It was also met with the very enthusiastic support of his #Sunflowers movement, who would very swiftly organise to help their candidate.

It came as no surprise that Open Labour, the group that Basil was a founding member of, moved to endorse him pretty much immediately after his campaign started, while they made further soundings on who to endorse in the deputy leadership race. Basil, privately, was inclined to support the candidacy of Angela Rayner but he decided against declaring in order to not interfere with a race that he was not running in himself.

Political pundits would comment on his immense approval ratings from those who knew of him, and would remind their audience of Basil’s ability to charm a room with seemingly little intentional effort. Though Basil was a household name and certainly had a big following, he was far from the immediate frontrunner. In fact, when he first entered, he wasn’t even polling in second place. Initially, polling suggested that Sir Keir Starmer, then the Shadow Brexit Secretary and considered the candidate of modernisers within the party, would win an outright majority in the first round. Shadow Business Secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey, who was considered the candidate of the Corbynite wing, usually polled a rather distant second. Basil himself, at the start of the race, was predicted an even more distant third hovering around the regions of 10% of the vote. This didn’t stop him from getting further in the contest, however.

Due to a deep sympathy within the Labour apparatus, there was an effort to get him on the ballot. Though this was the exact same situation that led to Corbyn’s victory, with non-supporters giving him a nomination to get him to the final stages before they all watched in horror as he walked away with the contest, most considered Basil’s campaign vastly less dangerous than Corbyn’s. Firm favourite Starmer was well ahead with 72 nominations, exactly 34% of the contingent, and far more than enough to reach the CLP and affiliates stage. Basil received the nominations of 42 Labour MPs and MEPs, comfortably above, and almost double, the 10% threshold required to go to the next stage. He actually received eight more nominations at this stage than second favourite Long-Bailey, who won 34. Jess Phillips, outspoken backbench Birmingham MP for Yardley considered the closest to the policies of Tony Blair, won 23 nominations, narrowly reaching the next stage. Emily Thornberry, the Shadow Foreign Secretary running as a candidate of the soft left, won 22 nominations, the smallest number required to reach the next stage. Clive Lewis, another candidate from the Socialist Campaign Group running a more libertarian campaign, won only 5 nominations before he dropped out, conceding that it wouldn’t be possible for his campaign to reach the next stage. He endorsed the candidacy of his fellow SCG member Rebecca Long-Bailey.

At the CLP and affiliates stage, Starmer once again came out on top. Starmer won the support of 335 CLPs, which albeit being a majority of all CLPs, was not as extensive a routing as was initially expected. Basil won the support of vastly more CLPs than was originally expected, receiving the second most at 201 nominations. Long-Bailey woefully underperformed expectations, receiving the support of only 73 CLPs. Emily Thornberry received the nominations of 32 CLPs, which was just one less than necessary to qualify for the final round, therefore eliminating her from the race. She expressed her deep disappointment that she would not be able to go any further in the leadership contest and went on to surprise many by endorsing Basil’s campaign for the leadership wholeheartedly. Basil warmly welcomed the endorsement and hinted that if he were to win, she would have a very strong role to play in the years to come. Jess Phillips received zero nominations at CLP or affiliate level before she withdrew, citing her inability to unite the party. Phillips very reluctantly endorsed Keir Starmer, saying that Long-Bailey would destroy the Labour Party and that Basil's “obsession with gender ideology” was “not what the Labour Party, the British people, or frankly anyone needs”. Starmer initially gave a half-hearted welcome of Phillips endorsement. With these numbers, the candidates going through to the final members ballot of the Labour Party would be Keir Starmer, Rebecca Long-Bailey, and Basil Suzuki.

Further to this, at the affiliate level, Starmer was endorsed by UNISON, USDAW, the Musician’s Union, Community, TSSA, the Labour Movement for Europe, Labour Business, the Socialist Health Association, the Labour Campaign for International Development, Christians on the Left, the Society of Labour Lawyers, BAME Labour, the Labour Housing Group, and the Jewish Labour Movement. Basil was endorsed by SERA, the Labour Party Irish Society, Scientists for Labour, Disability Labour, ASLEF, NUM, GMB and Chinese for Labour. Several of these, especially GMB and ASLEF, amongst others, were considered upsets in favour of Basil. He had curried the favour of the Labour Party Irish Society by sensationally pledging that he would back LPNI to stand in Northern Ireland for the first time, a pledge that made major headlines and caused consternation from figures from the SDLP, including leader Colum Eastwood. Long-Bailey was endorsed by Unite, BFAWU, FBU, CWU, and the Socialist Educational Association. The affiliate nominations themselves would also have been enough to get Starmer, Long-Bailey and Basil over the line.

As the membership ballot started, the real campaign was about to begin…

Chapter Text

Over the course of the hustings and the rest of the leadership campaign, Basil's speech style, demeanour, caring voice, and clear passion, won him mass praise. When he spoke, even when the others disagreed, his fellow candidates couldn't help but smile. Basil’s completely infectious optimism and charisma crossed both factional and party-political borders. It was almost as if Basil and his team cast a magic spell on all those who listened to him. Throughout his career, Basil championed unorthodox solutions and previously thought fringe positions as potential ways forward, and was always able to evidence that they would be effective.

The end of February 2020 saw Basil begin to surge in the polls. Very quickly, he became a serious contender, following his strong second place in the nominations stage. By the beginning of March 2020, Basil had overtaken Rebecca Long-Bailey in the polls to become the main challenger to Keir Starmer's campaign. Basil’s surge was not expected whatsoever from either the Long-Bailey or Starmer camps, and both camps struggled to respond. Starmer and his team had clear criticisms to give to the Long-Bailey camp, mainly revolving around how closely associated she was to Jeremy Corbyn and his leadership, and also how certain policies, like mandatory re-selection, would be far too much of a “pie-in-the-sky” policy that some would regard as “lefty loony”. Long-Bailey’s campaign also had clear criticisms for Starmer, including but not limited to his policy plank not going far enough, his leadership marking a potential return to the Blair years (though Long-Bailey herself would not hint this), and Starmer himself being too much of a boring personality (though not worded as such).

Starmer’s team’s comments regarding Long-Bailey as too close to Corbyn was a particularly potent line in light of her rating Corbyn’s leadership a 10 out of 10 when prompted. Emily Thornberry, who was still in the contest when the question was asked, said that she had to give Corbyn a 0 out of 10 because he lost the election and at the end of the day, leaders are meant to win elections. Starmer outright refused to answer the question, saying that Corbyn was “A colleague and a friend” and that he wouldn’t reduce the outgoing leader to such a ranking. Basil himself also declined to answer, but for a different and more detailed reason. Basil explained, “W-well, all things in this world of ours have positives and negatives. Rating J-Jeremy’s leadership out of ten with such a broad brush wouldn’t be helpful at all… We need to look at the last four years with more detail than that, and analyse the last few years of p-policy, discipline, media management and more. Most importantly, we n-need to make sure that we judge these separately and take different lessons from different metrics…” This explanation was received well by the Labour membership, who appreciated the detailed answer as to why he wasn’t going to answer the question, as opposed to Starmer’s tactic of basically dodging the question.

Starmer's team decided to focus on the fact that Basil had only just turned thirty-three years old, and how he was far, far too young to be leader. Though Starmer himself wouldn't say it, his friendly briefers would make comments along the lines of how "Politics should be left to the grown-ups" and the need for "the grown-ups to be back in charge". Basil would argue that his youth was irrelevant and, if anything, would provide a breath of fresh air to a party that needs fresh leadership. His own media briefers, mainly associated with Nandy, would also call Starmer's own briefers "condescending".

One of Starmer's main claims was that he would provide 'forensic' opposition to Boris Johnson and the Conservative Party. Basil was able to counter this claim by talking about his own forensic analysis, widely considered to be more in depth than Starmer's, in his roles related to the EFRA brief, and this counter is considered to have been quite successful. Media briefers associated with Lisa Nandy reiterated the point that Basil had been groomed for politics by the late Alan Williams, his constituency predecessor, and that it was clear that Williams’ skills had more than passed down to him.

Basil’s campaign, much in line with Open Labour itself, stressed the need to end factionalism. It also stressed a wish for all members of the Labour Party to work together in harmony, focusing their criticism on those in positions of power either abusing their positions or not doing enough to help those who are in need. He said that inner-party factionalism had lost them several elections in the past and that Labour needed to move on and not fight petty battles. In a similar vein, Basil expressed a wish that Labour work closer with the Liberal Democrats and his former party the Greens of England and Wales. He said that a formal pact would not be the best way forward, but that they should work together on certain things in order to better oppose the Conservative government. Acting Lib Dem leader Ed Davey said shortly after that he was open to such discussions, as did Green co-leaders Sian Berry and Jonathan Bartley.

On specific positions of policy, Basil had a very unique plank. His campaign, as you might expect, focused on the environment and the need to fight to mitigate and stop the climate emergency. This was in line with his lifelong love of plants and his degree in botany, as well as his experience as Shadow Environment Secretary and Chair of the EFRA Select Committee. His proposals for climate neutrality were very ambitious, considerably stronger action than that proposed by the GPEW and stronger than that contained in the 2019 Labour manifesto.

Basil's position on proportional representation softened during the leadership campaign, compared to his positions taken during the 2011 AV referendum. He said that while he personally still held the same views on PR, that he understood and, in some ways, empathised with the reservations and worries of many Labour members and figures about a move to such a system. With this, he stressed that he would not force or rush the Labour Party into changing their policy on PR, saying that he would simply take soundings within the party about whether it would be in their best interests to put forward this policy in the next general election manifesto. When he spoke about these issues, while he kept his usual passive demeanour, he spoke with a clear passion, clear to see for all now that he was on the campaign trail.

On the issue of the antisemitism scandal, Basil spoke with deeply remorseful tone as he said that Labour categorically failed to tackle the issue. He said that Labour's response to the crisis was completely inadequate and had left the Jewish community fearing a hypothetical Corbyn government. Critically, Basil claimed that at the end of the day the responsibility was at the leader's office and said that Corbyn had completely failed in this respect. This left him facing the ire of some elements of the left wing of the Labour Party, those who were committed to Corbyn personally, those who considered the well documented and evidenced allegations as being some kind of right-wing plot to undermine the leadership. However, a considerable number of the membership either accepted this or ignored it and continued to consider voting for Basil in the leadership election. Some however refused to accept this fact and committed themselves to the candidate closest to the Corbyn project. Basil said that eradicating antisemitism from within the party would be his main priority as leader and proposed strong action to tackle it. These policies were broadly similar to those proposed by Starmer's candidacy with some minor differences, mainly on precise details of the hierarchy involved in the independent complaints process. He confirmed that he supported, and would carry out, a series of proposals by the Board of Deputies of British Jews. He also agreed to a series of pledges made by the Labour Muslim Network.

The policies he proposed in the leadership election were generally of the soft left, but his policies contained a mix from the entire party, from the hard left, to the centre, to even Progress-affiliated proposals. During the leadership campaign, Basil would quietly say that on matters of nationalisation, he agreed with Corbyn’s policies during the 2019 election and would continue them, but stressed that focus would be elsewhere. This policy plank of his became very popular, much more so than Long-Bailey's, which had been decried by the media as borderline communist, or Starmer's, which was seen variably as too boring, a blast from the past of the 1990s, and even by some as too close to Corbyn and not different enough. That didn’t stop the media from attacking Basil for his pledges to continue the nationalisation policies from the last election, though he was mostly able to strongly rebuff their criticisms.

Though Basil said that he would continue a considerable portion of the policies of his predecessor, he did criticise the 2019 manifesto for being too “jam-packed with policy without much focus or clarity”, and although he claimed the manifesto was “a beacon of hope like none seen before in this country”, that a lot of people thought there was too much to believe. Basil stressed however that it wasn’t a matter of dropping these policies, but more that there was too much being presented at one time, and that the policies were more in line with goals following several terms in government, rather than just four or five years. Basil said that “p-people need hope… now more than ever… Goodness knows I’ve known hopelessness before, and believe me, I wouldn’t wish it o-on my worst enemy…” and that Labour need to retain a strong heart with courageous policy while making sure not to overload the electorate with too much policy within too short a time.

Basil’s pledge to allow LPNI candidates to stand in Northern Ireland, independent of the Fianna Fail-affiliated SDLP, was met with strong excitement from local branches, pushing to the forefront a situation that was previously only talked about by the fringe. Colum Eastwood, SDLP leader, repeated his condemnation of the proposal and said that partnerships with Labour would end if they attempted to push it forward. Basil also pledged to readmit members of the party expelled automatically after they ran under an independent Labour banner in the 2016 Northern Ireland Assembly elections. This policy plank was supported by, of all people, Kate Hoey, former Labour member for Vauxhall who had endorsed the Conservatives in Great Britain and the DUP in Northern Ireland. Hoey had previously expressed sympathies for LPNI running and Unite leader Len McCluskey said that he would have backed such a thing during a fringe event at 2018 conference.

Basil was steadfast in his support for his LGBTQ siblings, and made sure to stress that he would never sell any group out. But the combined forces of certain figures who opposed equal rights for all LGBTQ people would threaten to turn the leadership contest upside down…

Chapter Text

Interlude: Musings From An Ex-Hikikomori

Happy birthday, Basil!

Sunny had known Basil for almost twenty years now. In all that time they had seen so much, been through so much, and hurt so much together. But these days, the good times always seemed to rise above it all. 'It didn't always feek like that, though.'

It had been fourteen years since that Day. Since Mari... Of course it still hurt after all this time; he had long accepted that this would be a pain he would carry for the rest of his life. The therapy was a god send, and it significantly helped with his trauma and with his guilt to some extent, but there's only much that therapy can do. He could live with this; it was nothing like what he felt during those four years... Sunny used to call it 'the Dark Times' internally, by himself in his own head in the four years he spent as a hikikomori in his old house. His fears and anxieties during those years became exceptionally exacerbated, to the point where even going down the stairs or having a bath was incredibly arduous. 'It was a living torture. It's a miracle that I made it through.' 

It had been almost a decade since he told his friends in Oregon the truth of that dark day, what really happened to Mari. It took time, but his friends did forgive them eventually. That process wasn't without its kinks in the road; he still remembered how angry they were when they realised he had been keeping Basil's complicity a secret, which they only realised after Basil assumed Sunny had told the whole truth and cried from remorse for his actions to Kel. Basil was furious with him after that, in a way he never saw before or since. Basil's deep resentment in the wake of Sunny's withdrawl from the world did not help with that, but through some miracle, Sunny thought, they managed to work their way through it. Sunny was still shocked that they all forgave him at all, let alone at the pace at which he felt they did, especially after that attempt at a smokescreen. 'After all that happened... they still forgave me. I've never deserved friends like them.'

Naturally, he felt the worst for Hero. Hero and Mari were soulmates, simply destined to be together. Everyone could see that, from Kel, to Aubrey, to the passerby on the street. They were almost sickeningly sweet. He wasn't surprised when Hero was at first the most hostile following the relevation. His reaction, Sunny thought, was the least that he deserved. Through the intervention of Hero's younger brother Kel, Hero slowly began to process what had happened and eventually they cried for Mari together. The sun truly was brighter when Mari was there. The fact that Hero still remained a bachelor all these years after was just more evidence for that, if ever it was needed. Sunny considered himself exceptionally lucky that Hero, a friend he had always looked up to like an older brother, was still his friend after everything, even if he didn't think he deserved it. Hero was a natural born politician, he oozed charm like nobody's business, and so, unlike with Basil, Sunny was not surprised when in 2008 Hero was elected to the Oregon State House for the fifth district, which contained Faraway. On top of that, he was an accomplished chef, once his life's ambition, and an excellent qualified doctor. 'Is there nothing Hero can't do?'

Kel was always the life and soul of the group. Always so bubbly and warm, he could never forget a friend like him. The last thing Kel deserved was that Day. He still felt very guilty for not answering the door for all the many days Kel knocked. The days blended together so he never really knew first hand how many times he tried, but Kel later said it was almost every day for the four years in which Sunny recused himself from the world. Kel never seemed to blame Sunny, and he still remembered Kel's beaming smile when he finally opened the door. He would forever be grateful to Kel for not giving up on him. Opening that door was the best decision he had ever made in his life, a life in which he often felt he had little control. If it wasn't for Kel, he never would have rekindled his relationships with everyone, and Basil would have... well, it didn't bear thinking about. Kel was by far the most athletic of the group, and so, with his longtime love of basketball, Sunny was not surprised when the Portland Trail Blazers selected him as their first pick for the 2006 NBA Draft, beginning a career which saw Kel heralded as one of the greatest players of all time. Above all this, Kel was also one of the most prominent gay men in the major American leagues and the world. 'Keep reaching for the stars, Kel.'

When Sunny first knew Aubrey, she was a cheerful and lively girl who never failed to put a smile on everyone's face while staying true to herself and never being afraid to express her feelings. He had grown incredibly fond of her just before that Day. He still remembered his ears going red after Basil figured out that he had a crush on Aubrey. In the dying hours of his time as a hikikomori... it was one of the first memories he managed to unrepress, as his headspace was collapsing in on itself after he accepted the truth of what happened to Mari. When he first left his house after four years, by the time he laid eyes on her again, she had... changed. She had become angrier, more bitter, seemingly a totally different person. She was the leader of a group of Hooligans (they referred to themselves by this name). With her lead, they were bullying Basil, sometimes physically. Looking back, Sunny thought that this was probably the moment at which any remaining feelings he may have had for her dissipated. After he saw her push Basil to the ground, he felt an incredible, guttural anger that he was entirely unused to. For a long time he didn't realise why the anger he felt was so visceral. They came to blows a number of times before the situation came to a fever pitch. 'Never have I ever felt like that. I wanted to scream. She used to bicker all the time with Kel and with others sometimes but... when I saw her treating Basil like that... I saw red.'

After a particularly dangerous incident, Aubrey would reconcile with her old friends. Sunny confirmed his suspicions from before that Day that Aubrey's home life was quite neglectful, and felt guilty for the way they had come to blows in the preceding few days. Sunny could tell that her violent change in behaviour since his withdrawl must have stemmed from that Day, and came to learn that she thought that her friends were forgetting Mari. Sunny understood Aubrey a lot more now and after an apology to the group, they properly apologised to each other some time after his confession. This was only after the group began to forgive him, where initially she had a particularly violent initial reaction. Aubrey was always good at baseball, and so, with her life experiences and her long time love of the baseball bat, Sunny was not surprised when the Red Sox selected her in the first round of the 2006 MLB draft, the first woman ever to be drafted. More than holding her own against her opponents, she was well known as the hardest hitter in the league, and tended to quite literally run circles around her opponents. To top it all off, when she was not on the pitch, she was training to become a social worker to help children in poor living conditions, especially those with neglectful parents so that they do not have to suffer as she did as a child. She managed to do all this while also being a trailblazer for lesbian women in sports, with her long-standing and celebrated relationship with Kim Cevan, who Sunny first met after he opened the door for Kel almost a decade earlier. 'Always stay true to yourself, Aubrey. You don't need me to tell you that, though. I know you will.'

And then, of course, there was Basil, the flower boy himself. 

Sunny still remembered the day that Aubrey introduced Basil to the group when they were all so young. Despite being the final addition to the Faraway Fellowship, a term the press (initially UK, later US) coined for the group after they realised they all grew up together, Basil very quickly became Sunny's best and closest friend. Like two peas in a pod, Basil would often vent about his frustrations, worries and stresses to Sunny and he would listen attentively. Every one of his friends was special, and he cared about them all very much, but Basil was just... different. He didn't always know how or why, but Sunny was always the most comfortable around him. Basil ultimately knew him better than anyone else, and vice versa. Basil after all, immediately put together Sunny's crush on Aubrey all those years ago. 'He's always been amazing at reading people. He would have made a great psychologist, but you can't juggle that on top of being a master photographer, a master gardener, a master botanist, and a master politician!'

No one was quite the same after that Day. Basil's part to play on that Day made him essentially as culpable as Sunny though Basil would blame himself entirely and Sunny vice versa. Basil only wanted to protect his best friend, but... what they did together, and what they saw together, would haunt them both for years to come. As Sunny withdrew from the world in the aftermath, Basil did the same, every single day hoping that Sunny would return for him. With the Faraway Fellowship broken up following the events of that Day, Basil spent all of his days alone when he wasn't with his beloved grandmother, or his caretaker Polly. Even when he spoke to them, their conversations were increasingly fleeting. Every day at school, he would quietly while away the hours just doing schoolwork and sitting by himself both during breaks and lessons. All the while, his anxiety and depression would progressively get worse. Things stayed like this until, just before Sunny opened the door for Kel, Aubrey noticed that their photo album had been scribbled out, and immediately came to the conclusion that Basil had been the one to do the dirty deed. Basil took the fall for it, not wanting her to blame Sunny. As a result, Aubrey and her gang of Hooligans (actual name of the group) started to viciously bully him. The truth is that, as that Day ended, Basil tried to cheer up Sunny by showing the photos from the album, of all the Faraway Fellowship's memories together over the years. He tried to say that while the memories may be sad, but that they should be celebrated for happening in the first place. Both would admit that was not a very good idea, and after Basil left, Sunny couldn't handle looking at them any longer, and scribbled out the photographs with felt-tip pen. Basil himself initially didn't blame Sunny either, attributing it to something else. 'If I had never done that... Aubrey would never have bullied Basil. It should have been me... he never deserved any of that.'

Things began to unravel just as Sunny started re-entering the world. Basil was delighted to see his best friend again after such a long time keeping himself, and the overwhelming burdon he bore, to himself. However, after so long, Basil was no longer in a stable state of mind. After protecting Basil from Aubrey and her group of Hooligans (they referred to themselves by this name) and returning his photo album that they had stole, Kel and Sunny had dinner at Basil's house. Basil gifted Sunny his photo album, saying that "You could... probably use it more than me." After being told that Sunny was moving away from Faraway in two days, Basil had an extreme panic attack, which Sunny was woefully unprepared to deal with as a result of his own trauma. On top of everything, his grandmother, one of only two people who had been in his life over the prior four years of isolation, had fallen seriously ill. The next day, Kel and Sunny heard Basil shouting for help from their old stamping ground behind Faraway Park. Assuming that the Hooligans were attacking Basil again, they charged towards his shouts at once through the hidden path. Aubrey's group, after being confronted by Kel and Sunny, protested that they hadn't even touched Basil, and were merely encouraging him to leave the area as this was their place now. This led to another fight between Kel/Sunny and the Hooligans, after which the group get bored and leave Aubrey. After a heated argument, in a fit of anger, she accidentally pushes Basil into the lake who starts to drown. Sunny's heart dropped in terror as he scrambled to save Basil and dived into the lake himself. Having been saved by his sister from drowning in a very similar situation years earlier, from the same lake in fact, he fared little better this time and he started drowning again as well. Only this time, Sunny now had crippling thalassophobia. The pair were saved by Hero, who returned home from college for the first time in months at an extremely opportune time. Guided by Kel he swiftly dived into the lake and carried them both out. 'Mari had to save me the first time, and Hero the second time. It almost feels like fate. There was no other option than saving Basil though... it felt like I completely forgot about my fears as I saw him get pushed... I had to save him.'

Basil unfortunately did not have very long to rest. The very next day after he was saved from drowning, Basil's grandmother was rushed to hospital. Basil followed her in the ambulance, but she died in hospital in the afternoon. This was the final breaking point for Basil, who began suffering from a mental breakdown. His friends had slept the night in his house on the invitation from Polly, as a sign of solidarity for Basil whenever he came back. However, Basil went straight to his room with his garden shears. Sunny woke up in the night, with a gut feeling that he had to stop something terrible from happening. Sunny had just accepted the truth of what happened to Mari, and it appeared as if Basil had done similar. Neither were in very good mental states at all, and they had a serious physical altercation while neither of them were thinking rationally, during which Sunny also had a mental breakdown. By the end of it, both were unconscious, and Sunny was missing an eye. Woken by their shouting, after the altercation had ended, Hero called an ambulance and both were rushed to the local hospital. While he was unconscious, Sunny had one final inner conflict about what to do now that he had accepted the truth, and he elected to live, forbade himself from ever trying to repress in the way he had been doing ever again, and confess what truly happened on that terrible day to his friends. When he woke up, he noticed over a dozen sets of flowers had been given to him following the errands he had run over the prior few days. He immediately set out to find Basil's room, where once opening the door he noticed Basil hadn't been given a single one. His friends were all waiting at Basil's bed. While Basil was still unconscious, Sunny proceeded to confess what really happened on that Day. Well, his initial sanitised version that didn't involve Basil's involvement, at least. 'I... should have told the full truth. I know that now. But I didn't want them to hate Basil; he's had it hard enough already because of me.'

When Basil came to, Sunny was there, waiting. Utterly relieved to see that he was alright, Sunny smiled a genuine, warm and full smile for the first time in an eternity. Basil, naturally, returned the favour, even after everything that had happened. Firstly, Basil apologised for attacking him and was grievously remorseful that he had sheared his eye out. He remarked that if it was any consolation, the shears were intended for himself before events got ahead of him. Sunny was mortified at Basil's remark, and knew he wasn't joking. He immediately apologised for abandoning him and gave his cast iron promise that he would not abandon him ever again, as long as he still wanted to be friends. Basil replied strongly in the affirmative. Sunny then explained that he had "Told them what happened that Day" to which Basil immediately knew what he meant. Basil appeared a little fearful, but otherwise seemed calm. He asked Sunny how they took it, to which he explained that Aubrey had to be stopped by Kel from attacking him, while Hero just stood in shock. He continued by saying that Kel told him that they needed a lot of time to think, and that they probably shouldn't talk until he gave the word. Other than that, Kel wished them the best of luck as Hero followed meekly behind him, while Aubrey had already long stormed off. Kel said that the group won't say anything to authorities or otherwise as legal and police trouble would help no one at this stage, and he didn't want to put Sunny's mother under any more pain than she's already been through, amongst other things. Given the circumstances, Basil said that he was shocked that they reacted so well, sans Aubrey. He said that he deserved a lot worse, to which Sunny insisted that he didn't. Sunny then apologised for hitting him in his irrational state, to which Basil immediately accepted his apology. They both said to each other that they had reached an incredibly unhealthy state of mind, and that it was good that what happened on that Day was now in the open. They remained anxious about whether the rest of the surviving Faraway Fellowship would forgive them, but otherwise they both needed serious help. 'Basil was extremely mature the day I confessed the truth of that Day. He knew that we needed help, but that we didn't need to stop being friends... or even best friends... or... heh. He's always really cared about me, though I sometimes struggle to see why after what I've done.'

After they finished recovering in hospital, both started therapy, while Sunny's moving day was delayed by two months. As Polly was a trained therapist and psychologist, they decided to go with her. This would kill two birds with one stone as they would be able to reveal the truth of what happened on that Day without the weight of the law hanging over their head. They sometimes had joint sessions together, which continued even after Sunny moved to Eugene with his mother. These joint sessions helped reveal that Basil actually harboured a lot of resentment towards Sunny for insulating himself from the world in the aftermath of that Day, resentment that even Basil himself didn't realise he had. Kel messaged Basil shortly after this, after which they met and Basil cried to Kel about his immense remorse for what he did on that Day. It was at this point both parties realised that Sunny had obfuscated the whole truth from the group, which left them all feeling betrayed and hindered the group's reconciliation. Basil himself was incandescent, almost shouting to Sunny that he thought that they had an agreement not to repress things or lie to anyone again. Basil did not talk to Sunny for days after that but he could not keep that up for very long, and ended up forgiving him a week later, though their friendship was stunted for some time after that. Three months later, the rest of the surviving Faraway Fellowship began talking to the pair again, though it took Kel some insisting to get Hero to tag along. In time, they became the closest of friends again. At last, the Faraway Fellowship was back together again. 'And I will be eternally grateful for that. I couldn't ask for better friends if I asked a billion people at once. I wouldn't trade my friends for the world.'

Towards the end of their therapy sessions, Sunny came to a realisation. Why did he feel such visceral anger when he saw Basil being pushed over? Why did he (briefly) suspend his intense thalassophobia after Basil was pushed into the water? And even, why when they were younger, was he the most comfortable around Basil? Sunny hadn't ever seriously considered the possibility of liking boys as well as girls, but when he started to, after Polly broached the subject during a solo session, everything began to click into place. Sunny realised that he was bisexual, and had been in love with Basil for some time. Basil was, as you might imagine, totally unaware of this. Basil was well aware that he was gay and had known since time immemorial. He hadn't had the courage to come out of the closet though, and this was not helped by his earlier bullying (despite not being homophobic in nature it sapped what little confidence he had left, as much as he may have thought he deserved the treatment at the time.) Basil had also been hopelessly in love with Sunny for as long as he could remember and he knew this full well. In the beginning he didn't understand quite what it was but he always knew he wanted to spend every moment he had with Sunny. His whole world revolved around him, and he couldn't live without him. His therapy had helped him with his attachment issues when his feelings for Sunny took up his entire self but... that didn't mean stopping his devoted love for his best friend of many years. While hanging out in Sunny's house in Eugene, Basil finally plucked up the courage to tell Sunny about his feelings, and he didn't mince his words. He told Sunny that he had been in love with him for many years, and that he couldn't comprehend life without him. He described in detail many of the attributes that he loved so much about Sunny, all while the love of his life stared; slightly agog and stunned. When Basil finished speaking, he noticed that Sunny was sporting a rare, bright red blush all across his face, and his ears were red too. Basil knew this expression well. Even with all his anxieties about what people thought of him, and how he always thought that Sunny would never return the feelings he had, even he couldn't deny what he was seeing. As Sunny broke into that full smile Basil had last seen after Basil woke up in hospital, he leaned in for their first kiss. A kiss that Basil had been waiting for for years and years. As Sunny wrapped his arms around him, he felt totally and utterly complete. "One of the best days of my life. Basil... my beloved Basil... it could never be anyone else but you. It always was you, before we knew what all this meant. I'll always love you, beloved."