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“Haha... Are you guys really picking a fight?”
The park itself seemed to go silent as Aubrey spoke. She pointed her bat at the two boys as her smile grew into a sinister grin.
“Sure, why not? The two of you against me! How’s that sound? Come at me! I’ll take on the both of you!”
Sunny and Kel stood side by side, hands clenching from the tension as Aubrey put her bat over her shoulder and stepped towards them with anger and the promise of violence in her eyes.
Sunny was stuck in an anxious, half-confused state as he tried to take in everything that he’d been dealing with in the last 15 minutes since he opened the door for Kel. How did everything end up like this? Who were all of these weirdos on scooters? What was going on with Basil? Why did that look on Aubrey’s face and the way that her hair swayed as she approached make him feel unusually warm?
That last thought brought everything else in Sunny’s head to a halt, his expression abruptly reaching a level of blankness that even Omori would be hard-pressed to imitate. His attempts to discern why he was experiencing feelings not-at-all appropriate to the current situation were interrupted when Kel spoke up.
“Fine, then! If that’s how you want to do things, then I’ll just have to make you stop! Take this!” Kel held his trusty basketball in front of him with an iron grip before throwing it forward with everything he had. The ball sailed through the air at a hazardous speed...
...Only for Aubrey to take a step to the side, letting it fly harmlessly past her. Everyone watched as Kel’s basketball sped away from them, getting one solid bounce off of the grass before disappearing into the bushes at the far end of the park.
The group turned back to see Kel still standing in his throwing pose, arms outstretched, with an awkward smile on his face as he stared at the spot where his ball vanished.
“Uh, hehe...” he mumbled before straightening up and scratching at the back of his head. “...Time out for a minute, I’ll be right back.” Kel proceeded to jog after his lost weapon as Sunny began pondering if he should’ve just kept his front door shut after all.
Aubrey watched Kel’s retreating form with a half-formed expression suggesting that she couldn’t decide whether to laugh or shake her head in disappointment. She turned to Sunny and gave him a once-over, seeming to pause for reasons that he couldn’t determine before speaking up.
“So, Sunny. My patience’s running low. Are you going to mind your own business now, or do I need to teach you a lesson?”
Hearing this, Sunny felt his earlier confusion and anxiety return in full force. He backed a step away, now struggling with a situation even further out of control than before. Before he could continue to mentally spiral, Sunny remembered the advice of his beloved sister, Mari.
“Take a deep breath... Don't be afraid. It's not as scary as you think.”
Sunny proceeded to do just that, feeling the raw emotions that were clouding his thoughts clump up as he inhaled, and imagining them flowing out with his exhale. With his newfound clarity, Sunny recalled another instance of Mari’s sage wisdom.
“Sunny, try to remember some of the basics of CQC.”
Sunny felt his face scrunch up momentarily as he tried to think of when exactly his sister said that, before memories of the months of hard training under Mari’s tutelage ran through his mind in an instant. The fact that all of this somehow slipped his mind was a bit concerning and raised the question of what else he might be forgetting, but there would be time to worry about that later. Right now, he remembered enough to face the threat in front of him, just as when he confronted his fear of heights the night before.
With another deep breath, Sunny shifted his left foot forward and raised his arms in front of him, one hand slightly ahead of the other, both tense but still open, as if ready to grab at something. He leveled a firm stare at Aubrey, allowing his expression to speak for him.
Aubrey frowned at this sudden change in Sunny’s demeanor before shrugging to herself. Some of the Hooligans chuckled among themselves, with Kim elbowing Vance with a smirk on her face and Mikhael muttering something about how “That scrawny kid’s pose is nothing compared to the intense, heart-throbbing battle energy of THE MAVERICK.”
Deciding that enough was enough, Aubrey flourished her bat and walked forward once more. She noted that Sunny’s stance and calm, determined air didn’t change at all as she got closer, but she wouldn’t be the leader of the Hooligans if she let something like that slow her down. Finally getting close enough, Aubrey drew back her unarmed fist, and struck.
In this moment, Sunny allowed his instincts and training to kick in. With a smack from his hand, he redirected Aubrey’s punch off the side. With his other hand, Sunny grabbed her outstretched arm, leaned forward and pulled.
Aubrey felt her balance slip as she stumbled forward. A sharp pain erupted in her abdomen as Sunny’s knee struck her, and his arm was around the back of her neck immediately after. Before she could react, Aubrey felt her arm and shoulder being tugged, and then her entire world turned as Sunny threw her head-over-heels to the ground, eliciting a cry from her that was some mixture of pain, surprise, and utter confusion.
As she stared up at the clouds, taking a moment to try and regain her bearings, Aubrey saw Sunny walk into her field of vision. Seeing him raise a clenched fist, Aubrey realized that the danger was still very present, and she quickly rolled aside as Sunny punched the earth where her face had been a second prior.
Aubrey got back to her feet as she watched Sunny stand upright again, shaking his hand to dispel the ache from striking the hard ground. The park had gone dead quiet as everyone tried to parse what they just witnessed. Kim’s jaw had gone slack. Mikhael’s usual grin had become frozen in a parody of itself. Charlene’s mouth had opened slightly, and her eyebrows had raised an entire half-inch – what would translate to “Holy shit, dude!” for a more emotive person. Even Basil was staring with an expression of utter bafflement.
Sunny paid attention to none of this, his concentration solely on his opponent for any tells as to what she might do next. Aubrey was panting slightly, her pupils dilated – a sign of adrenaline, maybe? Her long, pink hair was frazzled, and her letterman jacket now had a notable grass stain on it from her impact with the ground. She actually looked kind of hot like this-
Sunny blinked. Hard. Unfortunately, he wasn't scheduled to learn the “Focus” skill until the next night, and so he was having some difficulty with these stray thoughts. Thankfully, he had something relevant to pay attention to when Aubrey spoke up again.
“...I guess I was wrong. I thought your training would’ve faded after all of these years alone.” Aubrey smiled before continuing. “Mari really did an amazing job with you. I’m impressed.” Her smile grew menacing as she cracked her neck, saying, “But she did an amazing job with me too. Nobody in this town was good enough for me to bother pulling out her moves. Not Kel, and definitely not Basil, but you...” she trailed off.
Aubrey held her bat up in front of her. Thinking on it, Sunny was rather surprised that she managed to keep her grip on it when he’d used that judo flip on her. His musings were interrupted when she tossed her bat to the side and held her fists in front of her, adopting a stance not dissimilar to Sunny’s.
Aubrey’s eyes had a newfound intensity to them as she declared, “Let’s have a real fight, then! Show me what you’ve got, Sunny!” The Hooligans’ and Basil’s expressions grew even more confused at this turn of events, apparently not having any clue where this was coming from.
Aubrey rushed in close and let loose a series of precise jabs. Sunny found these to be significantly faster and less telegraphed than her initial punch, and so he could only block at first. After several of these, he finally managed to grab ahold of her arm, adjust his footing, and push forward such that Aubrey lost her balance and was knocked back to the ground again. As Sunny attempted to follow up, Aubrey braced herself against the ground and swept Sunny’s legs out from under him, sending him down as well. The two of them rolled away from each other and stood up again.
After a brief pause where the two of them stared each other down, Sunny took a quick step forward and jabbed at Aubrey. She blocked it with her forearm, only for Sunny to adjust by clipping her nose with his elbow. As Aubrey clutched at her face reflexively, Sunny grabbed her arm and spun her in place such that he was behind her, hyperextending her arm and delivering a punch to the back of her head. The sudden movements put much of Aubrey’s hair in direct contact with Sunny’s face.
'She smells nice...' he thought to himself, before his gut blossomed with pain. Though one of Aubrey’s arms was immobilized, the other was left unchecked while Sunny was being distracted by his hormones yet again, allowing her to elbow him in the stomach. Sunny was forced to let go and back up, an opportunity that Aubrey used to give him a taste of her right hook.
Sunny, for lack of other options in the moment, chose to catch Aubrey’s punch with his own hand, producing a loud smack of knuckle on palm before he closed his now-throbbing hand around her fist. Aubrey attempted a chop at his neck with her other hand, which he caught as well. With Aubrey’s hands preoccupied, Sunny planned his counterattack before a revelation hit him.
He was holding hands with Aubrey.
HE WAS HOLDING HANDS WITH AUBREY.
Sunny’s face erupted with heat as he realized the sinful situation that he was in. Mari’s training didn’t cover anything like this! What should he do? Apologize? Call a time-out like Kel had? Pretend that nothing was happening? The last option was tempting. Aubrey’s hands were warm. Calloused, but with a hidden smoothness interspersed between the rough patches. He’d be happy to hold them all day. Maybe if he held on for long enough, she’d give up and-
Sunny’s face now erupted in pain in addition to the prior blush. Ah, right. The headbutt. That thing that Aubrey is known for doing. Sunny mentally chastised himself for repeatedly not paying attention in the middle of a fight. Aubrey was being much more productive. Still, her hands were really pleasant to hold. Maybe he could still keep this going...
Ow, ow, that’s another headbutt. Sunny’s shriveled and neglected sense of self-preservation finally kicked in and encouraged him to let go of Aubrey’s hands. Freed from their hypnotic warmth and comfort, Sunny managed to focus on the fight again. He noticed that Aubrey was apparently committing hard with the headbutts, as she was currently winding up for a third one. As she stepped forward to follow through, Sunny twisted in place and delivered a heel kick to the side of her head.
Aubrey grunted and stepped back, clutching at her head. The two stopped to stare at each other momentarily, panting from their prior exertions. Sunny noticed that Aubrey had quite the red face herself. Had she caught onto his indecent behavior? Though, they were fighting pretty intensely, and it was summertime, so that might just be from the heat. She also seemed to be looking him up and down for some reason, though Sunny couldn’t figure out why.
A breeze informed Sunny that his shirt had bunched up slightly during the fight, leaving his midriff exposed. Ah, she must have been checking if her earlier hit there did any damage. With that mystery solved, Sunny adjusted his clothes and approached with a different avenue of attack. Given the success of his prior kick, perhaps some more would be effective?
“Hey, guys! I got my ball back!” Kel shouted as he ran back to the group. “Now we can actually get started, just don’t dodge...this...time?” he trailed off, as he observed what was happening in front of him.
Sunny kicked at Aubrey multiple times, testing different heights each time. Any time that Aubrey blocked kicks to the upper body with her arms, Sunny would immediately follow with another to her legs or abdomen. Aubrey tried retaliating with another jab, but Sunny powered through the pain to press his advantage. After a kick to Aubrey’s stomach sent her backwards with a wheeze, Sunny ran forward and jumped to deliver a kick that would knock her clean off of her feet.
This didn’t quite go to plan, though, as Aubrey recovered quicker than expected, dashed toward Sunny, and caught him in the early stage of his jump. 'Wow. She can carry me really easily,' he thought with a blush as Aubrey kept her momentum and rushed forward with him in her arms. Sunny’s awe and burgeoning down-bad status were interrupted as Aubrey adjusted her grip and transferred her momentum downward, throwing Sunny to the ground with a resounding thud.
Sunny shifted his weight to his upper back and kicked upward from his position on the ground, forcing Aubrey to back up. He used this reprieve to stand up, catch his breath, and observe her for anything that he might be able to use. He noticed that Aubrey’s face was still quite red, presumably from the heat. She was staring at Sunny’s legs rather intently, likely having taken notice of what a threat they posed and...
...Did she just lick her lips?
“So... what am I looking at?” Kel asked the nearest member of the onlookers, who happened to be Kim in this case.
“I have no goddamn clue,” she responded without taking her eyes off of the duel.
Kel turned to the one member of the audience whom he was actually close with. “Basil, any context here?”
Basil did not respond. When Kel turned to look, he could’ve sworn that question marks were visibly emanating off of the blond boy’s head as he seemed to be mouthing words to himself that were indecipherable for anyone else. The most that Basil provided was in briefly mumbling to himself, “...Sunny? When did you...”
“...Yeah, I guess I was hoping for too much,” Kel said to himself.
“Master,” Angel said, “could you teach me to do moves like those?”
Mikhael blanched. “Well, um, you see, my apprentice...” he paused in wise contemplation, absolutely not trying to scramble for an answer that wouldn’t shatter his persona. “Uh... such techniques... take a great deal of time and effort to learn, and... um... are incredibly hazardous to someone who... hasn’t been honing their bodies specifically to learn them. Yes. Right. You’ll need a few years before I can teach you,” Mikhael successfully pulled the explanation out of his ass.
Angel looked a bit downcast upon learning this, but accepted the answer nonetheless.
Sunny attempted to throw Aubrey to the ground again, only for her to twist mid-fall and turn it into a cartwheel, righting herself again. She responded with a spin kick that Sunny ducked under, with the boy rising back up to deliver a jab at her face. Aubrey had planned for a similar attack, and so the two struck each other at the same time before backing off to recover. Sunny rubbed at his cheek, while Aubrey massaged her jaw before spitting to the side.
“Haa... huh... hfff... you’re pretty good, Sunny,” Aubrey said while trying to catch her breath. Her face was a distinctive shade of red at this point. Sunny wondered if she handled the heat worse than he did, since most of the redness in his own face was due to how incredibly difficult it was to be around such a powerful and attractive girl.
As he had spoken very little in the past four years, Sunny could only manage a brief cough and a quiet response of “You too,” in response to Aubrey’s compliment. It seemed to be satisfactory, though, as a smile grew on her face, which resulted in a smile of his own. She assumed her fighting stance again and approached. Sunny returned to his own stance and went to meet her.
Sunny tried playing more defensively, focusing on elbow and knee strikes as retaliation to any punches or kicks that he was able to block. An elbow to Aubrey’s temple knocked her off balance, allowing Sunny to grab her by the bow and deliver a chop to her throat. Aubrey, though coughing from the hit, still managed to retaliate by striking her hands against Sunny’s ears. With the boy sufficiently discombobulated, Aubrey managed to catch her breath, and then tackled Sunny to the ground.
As the ringing in his inner ears subsided, Sunny found that Aubrey was holding his arms down and straddling him so that he couldn’t kick either. Her face was above his, her hair forming a curtain between them and the rest of the world. She was staring directly at him, face red, breathing heavily, with an almost glazed quality to her eyes. Sunny couldn’t really figure out how she planned to keep fighting with all of their limbs occupied like this. As he tried to determine where to go from here, Sunny noticed that Aubrey was leaning in closer. He was about to ask what she was doing, but was cut off as their lips met.
Oh.
Ohhhhhhh.
Oh.
'Tastes like Gino’s,' he thought before all words and concepts in Sunny’s head were overrun by variations of “Auby cute” and “Hold hand” and “Loooooove”. Aubrey released her grip on Sunny’s arms and practically melted onto him as he began reciprocating. One hand held hers while the other stroked her hair. Two tongues were very eager to become as familiar with each other as possible. The pair of teens were uncomfortably hot and sweaty, and neither of them gave a shit. This was a level of peaceful bliss that they hadn’t known was possible.
Whereas the onlookers had previously been watching with shock, awe, and a healthy dose of bafflement, now it had just been turned to confusion with a side of disgust.
“...What the fuck,” Kim muttered to herself, looking around to make sure that the world was still real. “This is... I don’t... Whatever. Come on, bro. Let’s go take some candy from Othermart. I want to put myself in a sugar coma and forget about all of this,” she said to Vance, who hadn’t even noticed that his sucker had fallen out of his mouth at this point. Kim started to ride her scooter away with her brother following, then paused to add, “Come on, Charlie. You look like you could use some too.” The silent girl continued to watch for a moment, subtle facial cues telling an entire story to the few who could recognize them, as her leader swapped spit with this boy who just showed up. Charlene then turned in an almost robotic manner and followed after Kim.
“...Master, I don’t think that I actually want to learn these techniques after all. They make people act gross,” Angel said. Mikhael, full of emotions that he had approximately zero names for, snapped out of his trance and turned to the younger boy.
“Uh, right. Right. These are the dangers of... of...” he trailed off, watching this random boy get to play tonsil hockey with a lady of power and esteem like Aubrey after five minutes, when he, THE MAVERICK, couldn’t get women to stick around even when he paid them. “You know what? Forget it. I’m just gonna go home and cry,” Mikhael said before turning and walking off, not even bothering to take his scooter with him.
“Master?!” Angel exclaimed. “Master, wait! Why are you going to cry?” he shouted while pursuing his mentor.
Kel watched the others leave before turning to his friend. “Well, that’s the bully problem dealt with. I think?” he said. “What was even going on in the first place, Basil?”
Kel’s attention was momentarily drawn away from the flower boy after hearing a pair of gasps for air. He saw that Aubrey’s and Sunny’s faces had momentarily separated. The two were staring at each other with what might’ve been the widest eyes that he’d ever seen, panting all the while. Kel could briefly hear a passionate murmuring of “S-Sunny~” and “Aubrey...” exchanged before the two of them dove into each other again.
Kel watched for a moment longer, trying to think of some input to provide on the situation. The best that he was able to do was say, “So... Mm. Yeah.” The boy decided that he wouldn’t think too hard on it and looked at Basil again. “Did you hear me earlier, Basil?”
The flower boy did not respond as he continued to stare at the resumed make out session between his best friend and his tormentor. He wore an expression that could only be described as that of someone who had long thought the Easter Bunny to be fake, only to find out that he was real by discovering his taxidermized body in a hunter’s cabin.
After a moment of waiting in silence (background kissing sounds and noises of approval excepted), Kel concluded that he wouldn’t be getting an answer. “Well, I guess I’ll just take you back to your house,” he said. He put his arm over Basil’s shoulder before taking a moment to address his other friend. “Hey, Sunny. Do you think that you could stop by my place when you’re... finished? We haven’t gotten to do much today.” No response (except aforementioned kissing sounds again). “You’ve still got that cookbook that I was going to give to Hero on you.” Still nothing (besides the obvious). “I’ll use that as an excuse to find you if you don’t show up. Don’t say anything if you’re okay with that.” Negative (smooch smooch).
Kel gave a thumbs up. “Alright, see you later, Sunny. Nice job... stopping Aubrey, or whatever this counts as.” The energetic boy walked away, Basil in tow.
And so Sunny and Aubrey were left to enjoy each other’s company to a degree beyond what is considered socially acceptable in public. It’s said that, if you were present in Faraway Park that day, you could hear a distant voice on the wind...
“WOOOO! GET IT, SUNNY! THAT’S WHAT I TRAINED YOU FOR, LITTLE BROTHER!”