Chapter Text
“You have any ideas, Hero?” Mari asks.
Both Hero and Mari were standing in the kitchen, washing dishes at the sink. For the past couple of minutes, Hero wasn’t exactly counting, Mari had been ranting to him about her worries. Specifically, how her brother made her worry, and what it do about. He rarely spoke anymore, always had a sort of neutral look on his face, and kind of shuffled around. The first thing that came to Hero’s mind was depression. It would’ve fit a lot of the boxes, if not for Sunny’s other behaviors.
According to Mari, he still loved to draw, played his violin frequently, and got straight As in all his classes. Hero racked his brain for what this could mean, but he had nothing. His own brother was closer to the exact opposite of Sunny, a pure socialite with a bit more to wish for on the grades side. While it got less rambly with age and turned into friendliness and approachability, Kel always was a talkative kid.
His brain kickstarts, and he remembers he is in fact in the middle of a conversation, “Uh… maybe he’s depressed?”
Mari sighs, “I’ve thought about that, but-“
”He still has his hobbies and has good grades, I know,” Hero interrupts, “But this stuff isn’t always concrete. Maybe he just has different responses?”
While his studies were in the more physical matters of the body, rather than the psychological, he still had a base understanding of depression.
”What do I do then?” Mari asks, “Take him over to a pediatrician, make an appointment with a therapist? I’m worried but I don’t know exactly I can do about it. If he lies to a doctor, there’s nothing we can do.”
”You think he would lie?” Hero was quite shocked, he didn’t even know Sunny could lie. Honesty, and bluntness, were probably his shining qualities.
”Of course he would lie, Hero. That’s what teenage boys do. All teenagers, actually,” Mari says.
”To their parents, not their siblings.”
Mari scoffs, “And so Sunny is gonna hold a random doctor and I to the same trust level?”
Hero looks down at the sink. Has he been scrubbing this one dish the whole conversation? He puts it away, and gets to work on the next one. As long as he’s cleaning, he won’t have to tell Mari she’s right.
”I could talk to him?” Hero reluctantly offers. And like him, Mari knows exactly how much that would do.
”He does like you, but I don’t think he’ll open up. He’s always been… aloof, I guess. And God knows my parents aren’t making things any better,” Mari adds.
Her parents. Even since last summer break, he had noticed something was off. When he got out of his car, he could feel it in the air. He thought he was tired from the trip, but it stayed with him, and what exactly it was alluded him until Mari came back and he went over for dinner.
It was the feeling of an unhappy marriage. Mari was understandably iffy for most of the summer. They didn’t spend much time in their house as they usually did. Hero, in a strange bout of superstition, was worried the aura of relationship problems would spread to him and Mari, or maybe his own parents. Like Mari’s house was too close his own, and contaminate it.
He was always too worried to ask about it, as divorce was, and always will be, a sensitive topic. But now, the opportunity had presented itself.
”Your parents?” Hero hesitantly asks.
She lets out a shy smile, “Yes, Hero, you can ask about my parents. Not hard to see they’re not really in love anymore.”
”I’m sorry,” Hero says.
”Bah, it’s not too hard on me. I’m twenty in college, poor Sunny’s fifteen in high school. Sixteen soon, geez.” Mari’s hand waving of her own parent’s divorce worried Hero.
”Are you sure?”
”The only part that really sucks, is they’re too busy focusing on each other. They’re trying their best to salvage it, but I think they’re not focusing on Sunny enough,” Mari admits.
She turns away from him and starts putting the dishes away. Hero thinks, about how he could help Sunny. He does love him, but isn’t really in a position to help him. Has Mari been feeling this trapped?
”I know,” Hero says, “How about we take him out to do something? He never turns you down, and it’d be fun.”
She stops putting the dishes away, and turns to him with a smile. She puts her arms over his shoulders, and gives him a quick kiss.
”This is why I keep you around,” she tells him.
Hero smiles, “Glad to help.”
They stare at each other a bit longer, and lean in for another kiss. This time, it’s longer, and a bit more passionate. Another kiss later, it turned into making out. They were quickly cut short by the sound of a door opening. They pull away, and Mari leans her head against Hero’s chest.
“Sunny’s at school, and your parents are at lunch, who is that?” Hero asks her.
“I don’t know!”
Sunny steps in the kitchen doorway, and waves, “Hey Mari, hey Hero.”
Mari detaches from Hero, and goes back to the dishes. Hero turns around to look out the window above the sink, trying to hide his embarrassingly red cheeks. Too close to caught in the act.
While he pretends to do something at the sink, he hears Mari talking to Sunny.
”Someone’s home early, you get in trouble young man?”
”No, it was a half day. I guess you guys didn’t know,” Sunny responds, monotone as ever.
Hero has to stop his body from flinching. Passive aggressive remark or innocent observation?
Mari hums, “Well, anything interesting happen at school today?”
He pauses, before answering, “No, not really.”
Silence. Then Sunny’s footsteps echo through the house, and then the familiar sound of his door closing. Mari sighs.
Happy birthday, Aubergine. She didn’t feel too different when she woke up, though. Didn’t feel like sixteen. Still felt like Aubrey, same as every other day. As a gift from the universe, her birthday landed on a Friday. On top of that, it was a half day, which made her feel happy. That happiness disappeared when she remembered that it was time to get ready for school.
She went through her normal routine, eating breakfast, brushing teeth, brushing hair, putting in her contacts, putting in deodorant, putting on an outfit, packing her bag, and waiting to be picked up. It was a routine that had been perfected with time, and one she didn’t really register. Morning before school was a daze to her.
She sat outside on the stairs to her house, absently staring out at the street. As her other birthdays were, today was warm. Not too hot, not cold at all, and unlikely to rise or fall. This was a part of her routine she could not find a way to fill. She didn’t want to risk waking up to late and missing a ride from Kim, but time to think wasn’t always a fun time of her day.
Thankfully, she saw a familiar looking van approaching her house, and she was back in the game. She walked over as it parked in front of her house, barely missing her mailbox. She opens the door to her whole gang shouting “Happy birthday Aubrey!” In the distance, birds fly away.
She clambers into the back, asking Vance, “Did you really pick everyone else up first just to do that?”
”Yup,” he responds proudly.
”And because of that, we might be late,” Kim huffs.
”You agreed to it, and we won’t be late if we hurry,” Vance says.
”Mom’s gonna kill us,” Kim says. After that, Vance starts driving, and they descend into typical sibling bickering. Aubrey tunes them out, and turns towards the other three in the car. Charlie, Mav, and Angel.
”Thanks for the nice birthday surprise, didn’t mean to sound like a dick,” Aubrey tells them.
“Anytime Aubrey, we’re only the greatest friends on Earth,” Mav says with a shrug.
Angel excitedly puts a card into her hand. Inside, is a cheesy joke and twenty bucks.
Quietly, Charlie says, “Angel, we were supposed to wait for the party…” Aubrey packs the money back into the card and hands it off to Angel.
The car ride there is filled with chatter, and all of them shift to one side as Vance pulls into the school parking lot. By the time they get out and to the door, students are being let in, and they all go their separate ways.
Aubrey’s first class is history. She hates this, having it first thing in the morning. She’s learned how to listen just enough so that she can answer when called on, without actually retaining everything. The sound of her teacher, whatever his name is, is nearly enough to put her to sleep.
Her next class did not bore her like history. She despised this one, and she had never held such hatred for a class like this one. Public Speaking was a requirement to graduate, and Aubrey got stuck with it for the end of sophomore year.
Ms. Cooper, in Aubrey’s honest to God opinion, was a bitch. She assigned so many projects, gave little time to do them in class, and scrutinized everything any student did. Aubrey sat in the back corner of the class, and was passing with an eighty. Her inability to be enthusiastic about presenting meant points were taken away, but Aubrey always made sure to make the content itself perfect. This was not a class she wanted to retake.
Today, their assignment was to simply read a short children’s book, of which there was one book for every two students. The books would be handed out randomly, which didn’t really bother Aubrey. What did bother Aubrey, was that everyone would be working in groups of two. Like the books, the groups would be random, which made little difference as Aubrey knew no one in the class.
She was assigned to be the partner of one Sunny Suzuki. The name was familiar enough, meaning she’s either heard of him or he went to the elementary school in town. Aubrey didn’t really care enough to spend any more time thinking about it.
She looked for and eventually spotted him, and they stared at each other. They kept staring at each other, until Sunny looked down, and started dragging his desk over to her. Yeah, that’s what I thought, bitch.
For the next couple minutes, they went through the book, designating who would read what, and rehearsing it. Once they were called up, both of them read, and Aubrey felt they did well enough. The bell rung, and Aubrey left the class.
The joys of block scheduling meant that after two classes, she was already at lunch, back with her friends. After last year, the school deemed it fit for all of them to be separated, but the administration couldn’t do anything about lunch. As usual, they bitched and moaned about the various things they had to deal with during their day.
When Aubrey mentioned a group project, the others immediately asked who it was. They were all pretty disappointed to find out it wasn’t someone with a lot of gossip on them, but instead Sunny, no one they had ever heard of. The most anyone mentioned was Vance, who revealed Kim thought he was cute in the fifth grade. Kim was unhappy with Vance’s remark.
The rest of the classes, personal finance in chemistry, went by considerably slowly for a half day. But eventually, they were all let out, and Aubrey met up with her friends. They all stacked into Vance’s car, and drove off from the school. On the way back, Aubrey saw Sunny walking home. For a short while, this would be the last time she thought about Sunny Suzuki.
The day before Friday, Kelsey was playing for his varsity basketball team. The game was fifty three to forty seven, and was close to ending. There was no way the enemy team could win.
Yet Kel couldn’t resist. He passed the ball to one of his team mates, and ran up the court. He got the ball back, and standing on the three point line, threw the ball. It bounced off the backboard, and went into the hoop. Time was up, the game was won, fifty six to forty seven. He looks over towards one of the cameras, and specifically at the camera man. Basil. He shoots him a wink, and Basil sheepishly smiles back at him.
In the locker room, the typical celebrations are had, and Kel takes a shower. He jokes with his friends Once he feels sufficiently clean, he exits the school, and meets Basil outside. In the dark, the two of them sit next to each other, alone. Kel puts his arm over Basil.
Basil scrunches his nose, “You stink.”
”Do not!” Kel yells, “I took a shower!”
”Did you use soap or just stand there?” Basil ribs.
”I used soap, and shampoo, and I cleaned throughly,” Kel pouts.
”Maybe you’re just naturally smelly,” Basil says.
Kel looks at him, and Basil looks away from him. Basil’s body is shaking, and a strange noise is escaping his mouth. Then, Basil laughs.
”That’s not funny at all Basil,” Kel says, trying to hide a smile, “Not funny at all.”
Basil rolls his eyes, “Yeah, yeah.”
His body tone shifts. Basil tenses up, and looks around.
“What exactly are you doing?” Kel asks him.
”Just checking to see if there are people around,” Basil says, now casual.
”May I ask why?” Kel asks again, intrigued.
”So I can do this,” Basil answers again, before giving him a quick peck. Kel gives one back, and they giggle together. They’re cut short when they see Hero pulling in to the parking lot.
”Sorry,” Hero apologized, “Lost track of time, hopefully you guys didn’t mind waiting.”
Kel gives Basil a look, “Ah, y’know, we filled the time.” Basil focuses on buckling his seatbelt, trying to hide his blushing face.
“Hey, uhm, Kel, I was wondering if you wanted to hang out tomorrow? We can work on gardening, and stuff…”
”Yeah, I’d love to!”
Basil sweetly smiles, and Kel smiles back at him. Kel looks forward to see Hero’s eyes looking at them in the rear view mirror. Once Basil is dropped off, and Kel has waved goodbye, they start the short trip back to Kel’s.
”So…” Hero leads, “Are you and Basil?” It’s not a complete question, but Kel gets the gist.
”What?” Kel asks with fake shock, “No, we’re not dating.”
Hero parks the car, but neither of them leave. “There’s nothing wrong with being gay, if you are Kel.”
”I know, I just… don’t swing that way, y’know?”
Hero turns off the car, and they head inside.
On Friday, Kel and Basil spent half their time gardening and the other half cuddling.
Friday night, Sunny sat in his room, alone. Headphones in, volume up, drawing in his journal. The soft scratching of pencil on paper was drowned out by his music, and he was focused in on perfecting this drawing. He looked out his window, and for a split second he swore he saw something in the woods. Past his treehouse, deep in the dark, it look like an eye. But in an instant it was gone, leaving only a feeling in the pit of his stomach.
Aubrey’s birthday was held at Kim’s house, as it had been the last few years. A movie, snacks, cake, cards filled with cash, a familiar joke, and fun. It was a nice night for Aubrey, and made her forget about home for a while. What she didn’t know about was when Vance went out for a smoke, he saw something. In the woods, and while he didn’t know it, that thing was the same thing Sunny saw. Except that Vance got a closer look.
Staring into it, he felt like nothing. A nobody. Someone destined to live through a failed life, live in a dead end town, become a total deadbeat, and eventually be dead himself. It made his eyes water, his throat close, and all of a sudden he found himself choking on smoke. He doubled over, unable to breathe, and coughed. He coughed and he coughed, and eventually the smoke cleared. When he looked back up, the thing was gone. Vance didn’t waste time looking for it, and joined back with the party. He felt uneasy for the rest of the night.
Hero felt quite good, especially after his idea of taking Sunny for a day out. He offered Kel an invitation, but he declined as he already had plans with Basil. Hero had his suspicions about them dating, but as long as they were safe he didn’t care too much. Besides, pushing a subject like that wasn’t wise. He’d wait for Kel to bring it up first.
Mari loved the idea of the arcade. Of course, he let Sunny think she thought of the idea, and Hero was just being dragged along. He didn’t want Sunny thinking he was a third wheel. When they did arrive at the arcade, Hero bought them all wrist bands, and Sunny led the way. He forced Mari to play a fighting game with him, and Hero stood back to watch.
None of this made sense to him. The combos, the buttons, any of it. It was like a dance, that only Mari and Sunny knew. Truth be told, he was awful at most games, especially the arcade kind. So this display impressed Hero. Sunny barely pulled through, and after a couple more matches, they moved on.
Hero got a chance to play in a shooter cabinet, playing as a secret agent trying to stop a nuke launch. Sunny went for headshots, trying to get a perfect score, while Hero just did what he could. After that, they went to a different game, and more after that. Hero and Mari took turns playing with Sunny.
Once Sunny was finished, they got some food and sat down to eat. Hot dog and fries was a classic lunch, and one all three of them decided to have. Music, sound effects, and buttons blared in the background.
”So,” Mari speaks, in between bites, “How is school going?”
”It’s good,” Sunny responds, “As in every class, just some projects I have to work on.”
Mari nods along as he speaks.
”Any clubs you thought about joining? Maybe art?” Mari continues asking questions.
He shakes his head, and takes another bite.
”Come on Sunny, you should join a club. Even if it’s not art, there’s a lot of good ones! I’m sure I could give you some recommendations.”
He nods his head, but doesn’t agree. Hero thinks Mari is coming across as too scolding.
“Well then,” Mari goes on, “Any big plans for the summer?”
At this, Sunny shrinks in on himself. Mari has made him feel bad. All the work they’ve put in has now come to ruin.
”Mari, you know I don’t have any friends,” Sunny says, rather bluntly. It catches Mari off guard, and she can’t find anything to say.
“Is that what this was? A pity party for your lame brother?” He looks ahead at her. Hero swears he can see Sunny’s eyes begin to tear up. He’s never seen Sunny cry.
”I wanna go home,” Sunny says. “Can you just bring me home?”
Quietly, and shamefully, Mari whispers, “Yes. Let’s go.” And so, Hero drove them home, but left them alone. He went into his own house, and sat down in the couch, trying to relax.
Sunny went to his room as soon as he could. Mari wanted to go after him, but she decided against it. She just couldn’t face him, not now. So she busied herself with piano. Playing a tune to try and think of anything else than how she failed Sunny. But she did fail Sunny. It would only take a day before he left his room, and they began talking again, but it was strained. And Mari couldn’t find a new way to get him to open up.
About two weeks later, a heavy fog would roll into Faraway Town, and would not leave for some time.