Chapter Text
Aubrey leans back as she feels the wind on her face. It’s pleasant, the type of breeze that you get between spring and summer. The park bench creaks a little under her as she shifts, looking over towards Basil next to her. Basil has his own eyes closed, not quite leaning into Aubrey, enjoying the breeze himself. Aubrey’s arm rests on top of the back of the bench, not quite touching Basil.
He looks pretty. That’s what always pops up into Aubrey’s mind nowadays. How pretty he looks. Basil always insists otherwise, usually saying something about his scars or his general demeanor, but to her at least, Basil always looks so pretty.
She glances downward, spotting his camera at his side. He’s been taking it out and about more often recently, after everything. She’s glad that he started taking pictures again. She always loved his photo album.
A wry smile glances across her lips as she reaches over and takes the camera for herself. She examines it a bit, looking it over as Basil’s eyes flutter open and he glances down to where the camera was. He then looks around wildly before seeing the camera in Aubrey’s hands, letting out a sigh of relief. “Aubrey! You should probably ask first!”
”Awwww, come on, I wanna take a picture of something!” Honestly she wanted to take a picture of Basil sleeping to tease him with it later. Curse him for waking up.
”Oh!” Basil gives a small smile. “W-well, what sort of thing do you wanna take a picture of?”
”Hmmmmmm.” She puts the camera in the pocket of her jacket. “Not sure yet. Gotta keep it on me so I can get that prime picture opportunity.”
”So you have a subject in mind? Oh, maybe you want to take a picture of Bun-bun?” Basil leans in curiously as she gets up, him getting up alongside her. She glances at him, then looks away, a bit flushed.
”Yeah, something like that.”
”Okay! Let’s go home then!” Basil starts walking along back to his house, Aubrey following close by. The walk isn’t all that long, and as they approach they see something of an…odd situation. They see Kel and Sunny outside Basil’ house, Kel balancing while holding multiple pots of plants in his arms, Sunny trying to carefully move a tall, tilted wooden shelf, also full of plant pots, off of him. Aubrey and Basil both rush to help the two, Basil quickly taking the plant pots while Aubrey helps with the shelf.
”Kel, you dumbass! What happened?!” She lets out a loud huff as she and Sunny right the shelf to its proper position, Basil letting out a sigh of relief as he and Kel put the pots back in their proper places.
Kel’s face opens in shock and offense. ”Wh-! it wasn’t-! I didn’t even-!”
”It was me.” Sunny raises his hand up as Kel and Aubrey turn towards him. “I leaned on the shelf too hard by accident while we were waiting for you two.”
Everyone is silent for a second, then Aubrey lets out an annoyed huff with her arms crossed. “Well, be careful next time. Me and Basil work hard on keeping those healthy!” Well, mostly Basil does. Honestly, Aubrey is kinda really bad at plant care, no matter how hard she tries to follow Basil’s instructions. Speaking of, she looks over towards Basil concernedly. She breathes a sigh of relief as he looks over the plants with a relieved sigh. He then smiles brightly as he examines the petals of some of the flowers to see if any are bruised or if any leaves are broken.
Pretty.
Aubrey’s hand reaches for the camera on its own, and before Sunny or Kel can question what she’s doing, she snaps a picture of Basil. Bail jumps at the sound of the shutter, looking over towards Aubrey, who’s wearing a smug grin as the photo starts coming out. “A-Aubrey!”
”Whaaat? You took pictures of us all the time! Hell, other people took pictures of you before.” She shakes the photo a bit to get the image to come out clearer as Basil blushes.
”Well, it’s just…i-it’s different when you do it…”
”Heh. Hey Sunny, Kel, take a look.” Basil whines as he comes along with Kel and Sunny to look at the photo. It came out pretty good considering Aubrey took little time to steady herself. Just a little blurry, but that face that Basil made while tending his flowers still comes through pretty well. “Your smile is real wide when you’re doin that stuff, Basil.”
”Yeah! You have a real nice smile Basil!” Kel puts his arm around Basil as Sunny nods. Basil hides his face in his hands, making a loud whining sound.
”This is hell. This is what hell is like.”
Sunny takes the photo out of Aubrey’s hand, Aubrey letting out an indignant “Hey!” as he does so. He makes an affirmative sound. “You know…” He intentionally pauses for dramatic effect, making sure that everyone is paying attention before he speaks. “This is how Basil looks at Aubrey sometimes.”
”WH-! HUH?!” Aubrey’s face rushes with heat as she practically stumbles back from the force of his words, Basil looking mortified towards Sunny. Kel gets closer to Sunny to take a closer look, hmming a bit before he lets out a gasp of recognition. ”Woah! You’re right! It’s almost the exact look!”
”S-Ssu-Ss-Su-!” Basil stutters hard as his face shifts to annoyed embarrassment, stepping closer threateningly to Sunny.
”Well would you look at the time gotta go.” Sunny quickly slips the photo in Aubrey’s pocket before running off in the opposite direction. As soon as he starts running, Aubrey dashes off after him, Basil running right after.
”Get your scrawny, bean-pole ass back here!!!!” Aubrey’s voice rings out across the neighborhood. Kel decides he should probably follow after, to make sure Sunny doesn’t die. Besides, there’s no way that he could outrun them.
- - - - - - -
”…and here’s the second medium.” Sunny nods at the cashier as he brings both pizzas to the table, sitting next to Kel as Aubrey and Basil sit opposite them.
”It’s so nice of you to pay for our pizzas Sunny.” Aubrey’s voice is filled with barely disguised venom, which Basil chuckles a bit at. He personally got over it quick, but he’s not gonna say no to free pizza.
As the group eats their pizzas, Kel of course devouring one entire medium before everyone else finished the other, Aubrey reaches into her pocket (after wiping her fingers clean of grease of course) to look at the photo.
Pretty.
This is…how he looks when he looks at her, huh? He looks this pretty?
She wants to see that with her own eyes.