Work Text:
Sunny idly turned the page of the photo album, vividly recalling each and every bit of time he had spent with his friends.
He traced a finger over to a picture of Kel, his hair tied back, his orange sleeves rolled up. A blue bowling ball was held up to his eye-level, his face hardened in intense concentration. In the background of the picture, a blurred pink shade can be seen reaching for her own purple ball.
It’s the bowling alley! Kel and Aubrey got really competitive. Kel looks so focused here!
In the very next photo, Sunny had a hand on the shoulder of an angry Aubrey, while Hero had a hand on an enraged Kel’s shoulder. Though, from what Sunny had remembered, the camera flash had immediately ended their argument.
They both scored exactly the same amount! Aubrey insists she won because she got three strikes at the end, but Kel insists he won because she didn’t beat his score despite that.
Sunny snickered to himself. Despite the argument ending, it was pretty clear both of them still felt they won. He flipped to the next page, the polaroids once again calling memories to the forefront of his mind.
Reliving his favourite moments like this brought a nostalgic smile to his face… despite most of the pictures here being of more recent events.
He flipped the page, and was once again drawn into a photo…
///////
Aubrey stretched, letting out a sigh. She gave the desk clock a quick glance, before dropping her head onto the table, her pen’s haphazard clattering across it loud in the otherwise-silent room. 9pm. “...Nngh… Sunny…” She mumbled, muffled in her jacketed arm.
Sunny looked over to his right, before continuing to work on his set of practice questions. “...You can… take a break… if you want…” He murmured.
“It’s the first time I did something so boring for so long… I’d rather try to sleep than continue.” Her still-muffled voice earned a snicker.
Her immediate retort was interrupted by the click of a camera shutter and a flash of light.
/////
The photograph had the back of Sunny and Aubrey in frame, sitting at Mari’s desk in Sunny’s room. Peeking into view were the pair of paper baskets set up for them, one filled with undone practice questions, and another for complete ones.
While Sunny was sitting straight, Aubrey clearly had her head on the table.
They’re working so hard… I feel a little guilty not inviting them to my study sessions. Was written in black pen next to the picture.
/////
In silence, the pair turned to face Basil. Neither of them had heard him enter the room.
The sound of a polaroid reeling out from his camera filled the room. “Hehe, you two’ve been working hard, haven’t you?" He removed the picture, giving it a once-over, pretending the tension in the room didn’t exist. "Looks good!” He smiled, a bright smile that contrasted harshly against the dark mood in the room. “Goodnight, guys! I’ll be going home now!”
”Wait, aren’t you going to study too?” Aubrey called out.
”Nope - I’ve already studied for this one weeks ago. Don’t sleep too late!” He responded, closing the door behind him.
Aubrey sighed, standing up. She walked across the room and collapsed onto Sunny’s bed.
”Ugh… this is tough…” she complained. Despite them specifically choosing a more isolated area (with the excuse that it would help them focus on their work better), Mari had somehow found out or caught them getting distracted by each other, and had constantly appeared at the worst times.
Essentially, they had been banned from being lovey-dovey with each other, and it was taking a toll on her.
My Sunny battery is completely empty… She thought, hugging Sunny’s pillow close. She inhaled deep, the faint scent of her significant other somewhat relieving, though it was a far cry from, well…
She turned her gaze over to Sunny, the quiet stillness of the room broken only by the ASMR-like sounds of pencil on paper.
She pursed her lips expectantly. ”Sunny? You stopping?”
”...bit longer…” came the response.
Aubrey continued to watch him. While it wasn’t uncommon for Sunny to be lost in his own world, he normally did so with a dreamy expression - in contrast, the slight furrow of his brow and the speed of which his eyes flickered around to various random items in the room displayed his clear and intense concentration. A rare look for him to have - one he had shown more often thanks to Mari’s enforced study-training, but one she wasn’t allowed to enjoy.
She shivered at the thought. It was her fault, after all, that time: Side-prods and forehead flicks aside, she would never forget Mari’s expression when she had attempted to ignore her attempts at discipline - her smile false, her eyes eclipsed in shadow, the fury in her look drowning out any possible back-talk… such a contrast with her normal expression immediately made her apologise and reflect. With Sunny’s fear written plainly on his face, they were forced to agree to stop getting so distracted by the other.
But right now, Mari wasn’t here, and she could enjoy Sunny’s look as much as she wanted! While his normal expression made her want to pet his head, to hug him, and to pamper him lots, she couldn’t get enough of the way it would sharpen to a point when he truly put his mind to something. She enjoyed the way his face seemed to get just that little bit more stern. She loved how it made her heart leap, how it felt like falling in love with him all over again. She loved it, loved him so much, she wanted to monopolize him and keep all his rare expressions to herself.
She hugged the pillow to herself once again, maintaining her stare.
A minute passed in the stillness of the room, before Sunny put his pencil down, his face softening. He stretched in the same manner Aubrey did.
Their eyes met, the eye contact sending a small jolt down his spine, making his eyes whip away, and his ears grow a twinge of red. In discomfort, and in an attempt to hide a small smile, he brought a finger up to scratch his cheek. How long have you been staring? The unspoken question floated over.
Ignoring it, Aubrey beckoned him to the bed, patting the empty spot next to her.
Sunny pursed his lips, the red spreading from his ears. He took a few steps, hesitantly walking towards his bed, before sitting at its side.
Aubrey put the pillow back to its original position, nudging him with her foot. ”Come on, Sunny… No need to hold back, Mari’s not back upstairs yet.” she cajoled him, putting her arms out.
Sunny bit his inner cheek, the consequence of getting caught by Mari not lost on him. Despite his fear, he shifted closer to her, foot by foot, his blush growing deeper and deeper the closer he got. And yet, Aubrey kept her arms open, resisting the urge to pull him into her, until he lay within her waiting limb-jaws, close enough for her to simply close her arms and complete the cuddle. “After all…" she began, leaning so, so close in to his face, her voice replaced with a soft whisper. "...didn’t you say you’d be my replacement cuddle-toy when I can't bring Mr Plantegg around?”
Sunny tensed at her sensual whisper, his smile breaking free from his pursed lips like the hatching of a chick, and embiggened by Aubrey kissing him on the nose.
Her touch-starvation and his adorably happy look made her unable to stop herself kissing him all over his face, his forehead, his cheek, his closed eyelids… he gave in to her loving, clingy affection, at least for a bit - after all, he too wasn’t getting as much physical affection as he would have liked, either.
However, as her affection continued, his flushing face grew brighter, eventually opting to dive into the safety of the crook of her neck, a safe haven from her desire-filled eyes and her mischievous grin. Even that didn’t help much, as her pecks on his hair showed him.
As she heaped more and more affection onto him, he felt his little heart beat faster and faster, and as he thought it was about to burst forth from his chest, Aubrey stopped kissing him, ruffled his hair, and rested her head on his..
”We did all we could, I think…” Aubrey mumbled, inhaling. All five of her senses were filled with him now, her thoughts of him replacing all her worries about the upcoming test. Her shoulders untensed, her arms relaxed, and they began their ritual of syncing their breathing to each other.
“Goodnight, Sun-bun.”
Those pet names… Sunny felt his face regain its blush. ”Love you, Auby…”
//////
”Heh, we really worked hard back then, huh?”
The familiar voice made Sunny whip around, a small smile on his face as his eyes met those of his girlfriend.
”Hey, Sunny!” Aubrey said. “Whatcha looking at?”
Sunny tilted the Photo Album as if to show her… though, as she bent over to have a closer look, he took the opportunity to steal a peck on her cheek. Chu~! The smooch almost echoed through the room.
“You cheeky little…” While Aubrey recoiled like she had been burnt, the smile on her face and the pink on her cheeks betrayed her faux-vexation. A hand on the cheek he kissed her on, she ruffled his hair with the other, sitting on the side of the bed.
She sighed in contentment, the memories returning to her. “I can’t believe we’ve already filled a few of these.” She said, flipping to the next page. Then the next. Her eyes glanced over each picture, one after the other, to the text written next to each one. With the energy of one twice her age, she muttered. “How nostalgic…”
The irony of the pictures mostly being taken that year wasn’t lost on her. It made the normally-unflappable Sunny let loose a short, loud, exhale, after all.
”Hey, wait!” Aubrey called out. Her gaze fell upon a picture she didn’t recognise, one that should have been impossible to be there. “Where, how did he get that?”
To say that she didn’t recognise the memory would be incorrect: the photo was unmistakably of her and Sunny each feeding the other pizza, after all. They were in semi-formal wear, each having the tell-tale pink tint of loving embarrassment in their cheeks, and a warm, bemused half-open smile. A pizza slice in each of their hands were being brought close to each others’ mouths.
Aubrey picked the album up, her jaw dropping in disbelief. “When? I thought- but how?”
/////
”Here it is, Sunny! I know it took a good half-hour to get here, but now…”
Aubrey took Sunny’s hand, pulling him towards the blocky, blue entrance of the pizza parlour. ”A half-decent pizza place in Faraway, furthest from where we live. No one will recognise us here!”
Sunny nodded in the affirmative. His ears bright red, his nearly-expressionless face somehow radiated a gleam of excitement, bright enough that Aubrey nearly saw sparkles forming around him.
The aged creak of the 80s-styled brown door, the frosted glass and door chimes would be enough to beckon them into what felt like another world… if it weren’t for the smell of fresh bread, cheese, and tomatoes hitting them square in the face, as if the building itself exhaled the fresh pizza smell upon them.
Aubrey squeezed Sunny’s hand. “Shall we?”
/////
“It was on the complete other side of town! How did they…?” She whirled her head to face Sunny, and her exasperation, her confusion melted away like butter in an oven. His sentimental stare at the photo, the way his jaw seemed to clench and unclench that almost imperceptible amount as if he were remembering and eating the food they had shared, the way his charcoal-black eyes seemed to repeatedly unfocus, yet refocus on the picture…
Sometimes, she was jealous about how strong his imagination was. So strong that he could spend minutes on a single page of the photo album, so vivid that he was able to draw it out or describe it in such great detail… and it tuned him out enough that telling what he was thinking would be so easy, it was almost effortless…
And, it becomes easier to fluster all those cute expressions out of him! She thought, throwing her arms around his neck.
Sunny snapped out of his Headspace, his soft inhale filling his mind with roses and the sweet smell of Aubrey, his face heating up an uncomfortable amount.
”You know, Sunny, there are so many things we won’t be able to do or play with anymore now that we’re grown up.” Aubrey said, hugging him tighter. “But, even small things like still being together, holding you like this for another year brings me great happiness, you know?”
Sunny broke the hug, his smile tiny, yet full of passion.
Aubrey returned his look with a grin of her own.
Their faces drew closer, and closer, their eyes drifting shut.
Their lips puckered slightly, their hearts connecting as they met, an affirmation of their love anew.
…….
Bonus
Mari stood at the door to the room, her back to the door.
”Something small like still being together with you for another year brings me great happiness, you know?” Aubrey’s voice filtered through the door.
I was wondering what was taking so long, but now I can’t enter the room… The food’s going to get cold at this rate…