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It had been a few years since that fateful summer when Sunny finally stepped out of his house and helped to reunite his group of friends. Though their relationships had faced several difficulties, all of them chose to stick together and support one another. There had been many significant and joyous events since they made that commitment, and another was meant to be revealed this evening.
Hero parked outside of the apartment building that housed two of his close friends, Sunny and Aubrey Suzuki. As he stepped out of his car, Hero heard his name being called. Looking around, he was able to identify the source. His younger brother, Kel, was standing near the apartment entrance, his tall and athletic frame standing out. Accompanying him was their other friend, Basil, as well as Kel’s girlfriend, Cris, who had practically become a member of the friend group in her own right.
With everyone gathered, the group went inside and knocked on the door to the Suzukis’ apartment. They were answered by a familiar young man with dark hair and a stoic expression that briefly gave way to a smile upon seeing who had arrived. “Good to see all of you,” he said as he stepped aside for them to come in. Kel insisted on a high-five before making himself comfortable in the living room.
“Aubrey’ll be a minute. Wanted to finish folding the laundry,” Sunny explained as he closed the door. The group began making conversation to catch up on things. “Is that a new prosthetic?” Basil asked, indicating Sunny’s right eye, which was currently a piercing light gray color. “Wanted to try something different. People think it’s stylish, apparently,” Sunny confirmed.
“Hi, everyone!” a voice spoke up from the hallway. The group turned to see the lady of the household, Aubrey, standing at the edge of the room with her one-year old daughter, Anna, in her arms. She walked over and gave Sunny a kiss before continuing, “Hope I haven’t missed anything important.”
“Nothing much,” Hero assured, “just catching up. Sorry again that Rena couldn’t make it. Those exams are trying to kill us, I swear,” he said, referring to his own fiance.
Aubrey smiled, saying, “It’s okay, we all understand. She’s a lovely lady. I bet she’ll pass just fine.” She greeted the rest of her friends in turn, hugging Basil, teasing Kel, and exchanging compliments with Cris over hairstyle choices. “I think minimalism suits me a bit better. Your hair is great, but I prefer just having the single pink highlight these days. I think that Sunny prefers it too,” she added with a smirk at her husband, who glanced at her with a light blush.
“You’ve been pretty affectionate with him this evening,“ Basil noted. “Is that related to what you wanted to tell all of us?”
“It is!” Aubrey exclaimed. “We’ve learned some very important things recently, and we think that all of you ought to know.” When the rest of the group leaned in, Aubrey proudly proclaimed, “We’re having a second kid! It’s about a month in, apparently.” The group let out a gasp before starting to congratulate Aubrey and Sunny. Cris outright squealed at first.
“What else did you want to tell us?” Kel asked. Sunny cleared his throat at this, waiting for his friends’ attention. When all eyes were on him and the room had gone quiet, he spoke up.
“Aubrey and I realized that we like each other. Romantically.”
Contrary to Sunny’s expectations, the room stayed quiet when he revealed this vital truth. The only noises were from Anna making sounds of entertainment as Aubrey played with the child’s hair.
“Um, of course you did?” Basil said/asked. “That’s why you started dating in the first place,” he said with a look of confusion.
Now it was Sunny’s turn to look confused. “No, I mean we figured it out just recently. We never dated,” he refuted. Multiple faces scrunched up at this point.
“I don’t... What?” Cris asked. “Didn’t you guys go on dates and have dinner together and stuff?”
“We were just having fun together,” Sunny explained. “Did similar stuff with other friends too.”
The conversation quickly devolved into a series of baffled questions and straightforward answers between Sunny and his friends, with Aubrey periodically chiming in to confirm.
“You held hands, though?”
“Hands were cold.”
“And the times you kissed before?”
“Lips were cold.”
“Why did you move in together?”
“You guys do remember the shitty attic that I used to live in, right?”
Hero could feel pressure building behind his eyes as this went on, and so he chose to be more direct. “So you’re telling us that you just did all of these things without thinking that there was anything romantic going on?” he asked them.
The husband and wife shifted in place uncomfortably, their child wondrously ignorant of what was going on. “I mean, I think we had some suspicions occasionally,” Aubrey conceded, “but we weren’t sure enough to really ask.” “Didn’t want to risk being turned down by the other,” Sunny helpfully added.
“Wha- Sunny,” Hero started, his mouth opening and closing multiple times as he desperately tried to figure out how to turn his thoughts into words. He gestured between the stoic young man and his wife several times. “Sunny. You literally impregnated her twice. How in God’s name does that happen without the two of you realizing that you like each other?!”
“There’s no need to shout, Hero,” Aubrey spoke up, nodding her head to the child in her arms. “Sunny and I spoke about the topic several times during a couple of weeks back before Anna. After careful consideration, we decided that it would basically be a crime not to have kids, as any that combined our traits would be the cutest things on the planet,” she said in the most matter-of-fact tone. Then, her expression abruptly brightened as she held Anna up to her cheek, saying, “And we were absolutely right! Weren’t we, sweetie? You are the most adorable thing that ever was, aren’t you?”
Anna gave a coo of affirmation as her mother continued to sway and fuss over her. Sunny looked at the two of them with a smile that, while small, could melt the coldest of hearts. After a moment, he turned back to his friends to continue, saying, “That’s the summary, yeah. Was around the same time we found out about the second kid that we realized how we felt about each other too. Not going into details. It’s bad form to kiss and tell.”
Hero shut his eyes and briefly massaged his temples. “It’s not like I was asking you to-” he cut himself off, deciding that he’d rather just avoid that train of conversation. He looked to his younger brother, hoping for some kind of support. “Kel, you can see how absurd this is, right? Please tell me that you do,” he said.
Kel had been looking at the Suzukis up and down, an expression of deep thought and some uncertainty on his face. Having been spoken to, he looked at his older brother and responded, “I mean, I can’t say I’ve ever heard of anyone having kids just for that before, so I guess it is pretty unusual.” Hero felt himself relax a bit, but stopped as his brother continued. “I think that they do actually have a point, though,” Kel said, before pointing at Anna. “Look at her. I’m not even ashamed to say that Aubrey’s totally right. Anna is like the cutest baby I’ve ever seen.” He briefly paused, a look of concern flashing across his face, before adding, “Don’t tell Sally.”
Hero didn’t even register that last sentence, being too busy putting his face in his hands with a groan. Nor did he notice Aubrey holding up her infant daughter to bask in the fact that even Kel recognizes Anna’s supremacy, with Cris politely clapping at the display. “That’s not the point...” Hero muttered to himself, before looking at Basil expectantly.
The flower boy was smiling at the family, though there was a layer of unmistakeable confusion to it as well. He made eye contact with Hero and shrugged. “It’s definitely a strange thing,” he conceded. “But they do love Anna and have wanted to be there for her from the very start. They’ll all be even closer now that Sunny and Aubrey have figured themselves out,” Basil gestured to where the two parents had shared a brief kiss before Sunny took his turn to hold his daughter up triumphantly. Basil looked back at Hero and asked, “I’d say that that’s more important than the weird circumstances that led to this, wouldn't you?”
Hero took a moment to consider his friend’s words, especially with the context of Basil’s own parentage and childhood. He decided that there really wasn’t anything that he could say, or would want to say, in argument. With a sigh of defeat, he replied, “Yeah. When you put it that way, I suppose it is,” before deciding to sit in the nearby recliner. The young doctor pondered about how it really wasn’t fair for conversations to be able to exhaust people.
A couple of hours later, the group had all sat down in the various furniture in the living room while making conversation about their recent lives and their hosts’ unusual romantic history. Anna had grown tired and been taken to bed in the meantime.
“So I guess I can make sense of the part with you having children,” Cris said from her spot on the couch, “but how did you two end up getting married in the first place if it wasn’t for love?” She twirled a strand of her hair absentmindedly while following up, “I’m not much for history, but I’m pretty sure that political marriages aren’t a thing anymore.”
“Taxes,” Sunny responded. “Filing jointly has benefits over being single.” Seeing her friends’ inquisitive looks, Aubrey jumped in with further details. “Sunny was making a good chunk of money from his odd jobs early on. It actually put us in a better tax bracket to claim that money for two people instead of just one since we already lived together.” The young man nodded at her explanation and added further, “Workplace benefits usually get better too. Haven’t gotten that far yet, though.”
Hero nodded absently, taking a sip from his glass of Limited-Edition Sweetheart Strawberry Jelly Wine™ that Sunny and Aubrey had brought out to celebrate their relationship. As the two of them had told it, the beverage was apparently part of a promotion for the Sweetheart’s Heartfelt Adventure 10 movie that had released last year, which was apparently meant to draw in original fans of the franchise from years ago.
The drink honestly wasn’t very good, in Hero’s opinion.
“Stop.”
Everyone in the room did just that, turning to stare at the one who had just cut through the mood with that sudden command. Kel’s face had lost all trace of enjoyment or humor. He had stood up now and was staring intensely at Sunny before speaking again. “You married Aubrey so that you wouldn’t have to pay as much in taxes?” he asked.
Sunny blinked. “Yeah. Just said as much,” he answered his friend.
Kel’s brow furrowed and his frown grew deeper before responding, “You married your friend without any romantic intent. You did it so that you could save money on taxes?” The air in the room had grown distinctly uncomfortable at this point. Nobody was really sure where this had come from.
Aubrey stepped up to Kel at this point. “We’ve already explained that, Kel. What’s your deal, huh?” Some of the familiar anger of her teenage years was beginning to bleed into her posture, tone, and expression at this point. Cris was looking back and forth between them with concern written on her face. Basil was much the same as he sat near Hero, who looked ready to stand up and intervene.
This did not come to pass, though, as Sunny put a hand on his wife’s shoulder. When she turned her head to look back at him, he reassured her, “It’s fine. I can talk to him. Don’t need to get worked up.” After receiving a peck on her cheek and a squeeze on her shoulder, Aubrey seemed to calm down and let Sunny pull her a few feet away.
Sunny looked to Kel again, whose stern expression hadn’t changed at all. After a moment of staring between the two, Sunny spoke up. “Yeah. Originally married for tax benefits. What’s the problem?” he asked with a tilt of his head. Kel seemed to grow even more angry, gritting his teeth and clenching his fists before speaking his mind.
“What’s the problem? It’s unbelievable! You didn’t let any of us know what was really going on with you two! Never mentioned that you were just marrying as friends!” Kel shook his head in apparent disgust before explaining the source of his anger. “You and me, we were super close! We could’ve been tax buddies! Two pals in a legal relationship to save money while finding actual relationships on their own time! Where are my tax benefits? Was I not a good enough friend? Why couldn’t you marry me too? What the fuck, Sunny?!” Kel stopped to take a deep breath and let some of his anger clear as the rest of the room reacted to his tirade.
Basil made a noise that was somewhere between a lawnmower and a balloon that was letting all of its air out. Hero decided that he could use the rest of the bottle of Sweetheart wine and power-walked to the kitchen. Aubrey stared with a mix of anger and befuddlement over how Kel was exponentionally more upset over something stupid like this than when he learned what actually happened to Mari. Cris, showing that she was an absolutely perfect match for this ridiculous, Joe-fueled being, gave Sunny an expectant look as if this was a perfectly reasonable thing for her boyfriend to ask and for Sunny to answer.
Sunny watched his old friend try and compose himself. He thought on the questions that had been posed to him for a moment before looking Kel in the eyes and answering. “Thought about it at the time. Can’t have multiple marriage licenses. Illegal. Had to pick one person.” When Kel pointed at himself in a wordless question, Sunny responded, “Never paid me back the $20 for Hero’s cookbook.”
Kel seemed to visibly deflate at this, the anger dissipating out of him. He stared at the floor, unmoving. The apartment had gone entirely quiet aside from the sound of Hero chugging alcohol in the kitchen. Aubrey shook her head with a sigh and went to make sure that the shouting hadn’t caused Anna to wake up. After a few seconds that seemed to last for hours, Cris started to reach out and make sure that Kel was okay. Before she could, the young man in question raised his head to look at Sunny again. Kel shrugged his shoulders, gave one of his usual smiles, and spoke.
“Alright, fair enough.”