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Sunny was currently on the bus to Faraway, in order to see Kel, his boyfriend, who would be there waiting for him. That wasn’t something that was even the slightest unusual, even though he lived farther away than he used to. He basically went to see Kel every chance that he got, especially now that it was summer break.
The thing that was rather different, however, is that the two of them were planning to go hiking today, and then Sunny would stay over for the night afterward. Sunny was not the athletic type, not even in the slightest (he’d barely improved on that fact since he’d moved away a year ago), but since Kel seemed so eager he thought he might as well go along with it. A couple of days ago, Kel told Sunny that he’d found some sort of map of a trail somewhere in his house, one that could be found only some distance from Kel’s house (walking distance, thankfully!). Kel hadn’t said exactly where he’d found that map, but Sunny could only guess that it was on some shelf that Kel never bothered to fully examine when he was younger.
Kel had planned the trip to commence as soon as Sunny arrived. He had told him that he didn’t need to bring anything, and that he’d be completely prepared, but, he meant no offense by this, really, he wasn’t exactly sure how that would turn out. At the very least, just in case, Sunny had brought a small bottle of sunscreen along with him. Kel never remembered sunscreen, and Sunny certainly wasn’t too keen on getting a sunburn. It was much better to be safe rather than sorry with things like that, he’d learned.
It wasn’t too long before the bus arrived in Faraway, and as soon as it arrived Sunny quickly made his way over to Kel’s house. He stopped for a second, though, taking a glance at his old house. It was always strange to see it there. He’d grown used to it by now. Sunny walked up to Kel’s doorstep, knocking on the door just three times. Sunny could have sworn that it took less than ten seconds for Kel to open the door to greet him. “Hey, Sunny!” He beamed, with a look that Sunny just loved to see on his face. “You got here just in time! I just finished getting our stuff together! If you want, we could head out now!” He turned just the slightest so that Sunny could see that he had a backpack on.
“Hi, Kel.” Despite the fact that Sunny knew for a fact that he would be absolutely exhausted by the end of this, he couldn’t help but feel excited for what was to come. Though, there was one thing that was rather important before they went. “Did you put on sunscreen?”
The expression that Kel reacted with pretty much answered that question before he’d even said anything yet. Sunny couldn’t find it within himself to be even a little bit surprised. “Oh, um..!” He laughed nervously. “I, uh, kinda forgot…”
Sunny sighed softly, but it was mostly out of affection. “That’s okay,” Sunny said, reaching into the pocket of his shorts. He grabbed out the bottle of sunscreen he’d taken. Now that he thought about it, though, were you supposed to wear shorts when you hiked? Sunny didn’t know anything about that. Whatever, he thought, handing the bottle over to Kel first. “I brought some.”
“Oh, nice! Thanks, Sunny!” Kel smiled, laughing a little. “I probably would’ve ended up with ten sunburns otherwise! I always forget it somehow…” Kel took the bottle from Sunny with a look of gratitude on his face.
“I know,” Sunny said. “That’s why I brought it.”
“Okay, but I swear that other than that we’re all set!” Kel declared, as he put the sunscreen on. Sunny did his best to believe him, because if they weren’t ‘all set’, Sunny could only see things going terribly wrong. He trusted Kel, so he decided it’d be fine.
Sunny nodded, stepping out of the way so Kel could actually get out of his house. “Since you have the map, do you want to lead the way?”
Kel nodded eagerly, quickly fishing for the map in his back pocket. Sunny simply watched him grab it, and turn it around a few times, presumably meaning that he’d had it facing the wrong way. He had a look of pure focus on his face. After a few moments, he looked up, confidently saying, “The map does not help until we get to the trail.”
Sunny almost chuckled. What was even the point of getting that out, then? He shrugged. “Still, you should lead the way, since I don’t have any idea where the trail is.”
“Oh, right!” Kel said, heading out the door in front of him, and Sunny soon followed close behind. “I should be able to find it…I am an expert hiker, after all! I bet you’ll be one, too, after this trip, Sunny!”
Should? And since when was Kel an expert at any of this? Sunny almost sighed, but he couldn’t be upset with Kel for even a second. “So, how far is it?” Sunny thought he’d ask. He had no idea if this trail was five minutes away or thirty. Really, Kel hadn’t told him much about it.
“I think it’s just fifteen minutes of walking past Faraway Park!” He said. The amount of uncertain language he was using, despite his determined and confident demeanor, was making Sunny the slightest nervous about all this. Quickly, though, he shook those thoughts out of his head. They were going to have a great outing together, and nothing, not even the slightest bit of misdirection, was going to stop them! Hiking was difficult, but having Kel by side would make everything alright, surely! It always seemed to, anyway.
Even though Kel had said the map wouldn’t be useful at all, Sunny kept seeing him taking glances at it. “What made you so excited to hike anyway?” Sunny asked, making conversation. Maybe it wasn’t the best idea to interrupt Kel when he was trying to focus, though…but soon that doubt of his went away when Kel seemed more than happy to give an answer to that question.
“I dunno!” Kel answered, looking like he had to think about that for a minute or so. “It just seemed like fun! And of course I’d want you to come along, because having you around always makes things better!”
Sunny smiled at that, and his heart warmed a bit. He sure did love him. “Aw. Well, I’m sure we’ll have a great time.”
“Indeed we will, Sunshine!” Kel agreed, looking back at the map. Sunny still didn’t know why he was looking at it. “I just wish the walk there didn’t take so long…”
“It’s only been a few minutes,” Sunny pointed out, raising an eyebrow. He realized he should have expected that, though, as not many were quite as impatient as Kel was. That was alright, though, he thought, because Sunny understood…at least in part.
“I know!” Kel said, “But still! It would be a whole lot easier if it was closer. I’d…probably be better at finding it that way.” His sentence ended with a chuckle, but Sunny wasn’t sure just how funny that was. If they got lost before they even made it to the trail, that could in no way be a good sign. Sunny once again tried to remove his doubts, though.
Though, despite their troubles, and Kel’s inability to know where on earth they were supposed to be, the two of them still did manage to end up at the trail. Sunny was almost surprised he’d never really thought much of the trail being there. It certainly wasn’t like this was his first time on this side of Faraway. In fact, even when this was all Kel’s idea, Sunny ended up being the one to find it after all. When Kel asked how he’d done it so easily, Sunny pointed out the giant sign that said “TRAIL.” Kel laughed in embarrassment.
“Alright!” Kel said, a bit loudly. “We’re here! Are you ready to get going, Sunny!” He turned a little to face him.
Sunny gave a thumbs up in reply.
“Great!” Kel beamed, “Let’s get going then! As long as we keep walking one way, when we go home, all we have to do is turn around! Easy right? Plus, there’s this map, so yeah!”
Sunny now wasn’t even sure if Kel was confident in the fact that he wouldn’t get them lost somewhere, but it was fine. If Kel really had trouble with that he could just hand Sunny the map, and he was sure that he himself would be able to figure it out.
As they started on the trail, Sunny wasn’t quite sure how much of a hike it even was. Was it really a hike if it was just walking forward? Or was the hiking part more related to the fact that you were in nature? He realized he didn’t know much about that, since he’d never really thought much of it. Maybe it wasn’t such a great idea to go on a hike when he barely even knew the definition of the word…
No, he thought! That didn’t matter much, not when he was with Kel at least.
“So, is there anything that you thought was interesting about this trail in particular? Or was it just the closest?”
Kel looked around, and then back at the map again. “This is the only one I know where it is,” he said. “Plus, it did look cool! There’s, uh…a river, I think! And…trees..?”
“Oh, cool,” Sunny said. Though, thinking about it, the tree part was rather silly. There’s trees everywhere. Especially in Faraway. Seriously, like there’s a forest directly behind the park. They had no shortage of trees. The river did actually sound cool to look at, though. Sunny wasn’t sure if he’d want to get close to it, however. Water like that still freaked him out sometimes, at least to some degree. Rivers were especially scary. There was no way he had the strength to fight a water current! The thought sent a shiver down his spine, he had to admit. “What’d you bring in the backpack, anyway?”
“Oh, right!” Kel said, as if he’d forgotten. Maybe he had, actually. “Well, I got water, and sandwiches…” he paused, like he was trying to think. “Oh, and the map! Wait, no, that’s just in my hand. …So just water and sandwiches.”
Sunny raised an eyebrow. Why on earth had he brought a giant backpack if he was only going to bring water bottles and some sandwiches? There was not a chance that was near enough to fill that thing. He just laughed a little. Typical of Kel, that was. “Well, I can’t think of much else we need,” he said. It wasn’t like they needed jackets. There was no way Sunny would get cold when he was sweating to death, which he was almost certain would happen. Like he said, there was no world in which he could be considered the athletic type. The trail seemed pretty nice so far, though, so hopefully they wouldn’t end up needing to go uphill too much. In fact, it seemed they were going downhill more than anything else. For that, he was quite grateful.
“Right you are, Sunny! The most important thing we can have with us is determination!” He said confidently, before following it up less so with, “Well, actually, the water and food is pretty important, too. That’s why I brought it.”
Sunny just nodded. Silently, he thought to himself that the sunscreen he’d brought along was also just as important as those things were. The summer sun was not a kind friend, after all. It was pretty much a fire laser, in his opinion. See, even after Sunny had started going outside again, being outside still did not hold the best of activities, if you asked him. He much preferred doing things inside, like watching movies or playing games. Those were both things that he and Kel did together quite often, anyway.
Kel took another look at the map, studying it closely. “We’ll be near the river in just a few minutes, I think!” Sunny hummed to make sure Kel knew that he’d heard him as they carried on. Though, soon, it seemed that Kel had become quite distracted by the sight of something on the ground. “Oh, hey, look, Sunny!” He exclaimed. “There’s a bunch of acorns here!”
Amused, Sunny took a look at them. Though he couldn’t find them to be anything amazing himself, as there were more than plenty of acorns back in Faraway, he still was happy to see that Kel was fascinated. “There are,” Sunny agreed simply.
“How about we each take one?” Kel suggested, and before Sunny even answered, he happily took one off of the ground.
“Sure,” Sunny replied, since in his mind there wasn’t any reason not to, really. He reached over, too, and grabbed the first acorn that was near to him. When he brought it close to his face to examine, however, he quickly realized that there was something on the bottom of it that he hadn’t at first noticed. A spider! “Ah!” He exclaimed, throwing it right back on the ground where it came from instinctively, startling Kel. This was one of the many reasons he didn’t like hiking! It had been a very little spider, sure, but it was still, in fact, a spider!
Quickly, Kel turned around with a worried look on his face. “Are you okay, Sunny?” He frowned. “Why did you throw the acorn?”
Sunny was still recovering from the shock a bit, though it wasn’t long before he was able to calm down. “There…there was a spider on that acorn,” he explained. That had not been a pleasant experience…
“Oh, no, Sunny!” Kel wasn’t afraid of spiders by any means, but he did know that Sunny was. “There’s no need to be afraid when I’m here, because I’ll protect you from any spider that tries to get you!” He declared, “You’re safe with me!”
Sunny chuckled a little, with a smile. “Thanks, Kel.”
“Don’t mention it!” Kel grinned, “Now, should we keep going? Don’t worry, you don’t have to get another acorn, we can share this one.”
“Sure,” Sunny replied. He didn’t see the point in sharing an acorn, but he didn’t mind. Anything from Kel was nice, in his opinion.
Soon enough, like Kel had said, the river was within their sight. It wasn’t anything like the lake back at Faraway, but that was to be expected since it was a different type of water body. Sunny was glad it wasn’t too close to the trail, or else he might end up nervous about falling in. Where they were, though, there was not a chance of that. Sunny admired the sight. It was anything too outstanding, but it still was nice. There were many cattails and reeds, and the sun made the water shine. Sunny wondered if there were any fish living there, for a moment. Oh, and it seemed that Kel hadn’t even noticed yet. Simply, Sunny pointed and said, “Look.”
When Kel looked over like Sunny had said to, his eyes filled up with amazement. He looked even more delighted by the sight of it than he was. “Wow!” He smiled, “It’s so pretty!” Sunny couldn’t help but smile, hearing how excited he was. It always brought Sunny much joy knowing how much Kel could appreciate things that were so very simple.
The two of them kept going on their way, and it wasn’t long before Sunny had gotten a bit tired. It wasn’t enough so that he had any reason to complain, however. After all, most of their walk had been on either flat ground or downhill. It didn’t feel like much of a hike at all by that point. To be honest, though, Sunny was very appreciative of that. If this had all been some actual, uphill, painstaking hike… he would be dead of heatstroke. Well, not literally or anything, but he’d definitely feel like it.
“Sunny?” Kel said, in order to get his attention. Sunny quickly looked over to him, and their gazes met, so Kel certainly knew that he’d heard. “There was one thing I kinda wanted to do, since the sun’s gonna be going down here pretty soon…”
Was it? He didn’t even realize. “What is it?” He asked. He wasn’t sure whether to be excited or nervous at Kel’s vague mention of an idea.
“I thought we could watch the sunset from the top of one of these trees!” He exclaimed. What? “It’d be perfect! It’s probably way easier to see from up there, don’t you think? I bet it would be fun!”
As much as he would love to watch the sunset with his boyfriend… the top of a tree? Kel definitely knew that he was afraid of heights. Surely he must understand that that was an absolutely terrible idea anyway! That was way high up! Wasn’t that dangerous? “I-”
Kel quickly interrupted him, as it seemed that he hadn’t realized he tried to start talking. “I know heights kinda freak you out, but like I said about the spiders, I’ll be there to protect you, Sunny! There’s no need to worry! But, we don’t have to if you don’t want to, of course.”
Although he still thought that was a bad idea… there was something about how excited he’d seemed at the prospect that made him consider it. He took a deep breath. Could he do this? He could, right? He would have to be fine, wouldn’t he? Kel had said he would. After Sunny took a deep breath, he agreed. “Alright…” He was still pretty nervous, though.
Kel gasped a bit, as if he hadn’t expected that answer. “Awesome! I’ll help you, okay? That one just over there looks good enough, don’t you think?” Kel pointed to a tree to the right of the trail, and Sunny looked over at it. Well, it did seem like they’d be able to see it from up there… Sunny nodded. Kel looked ecstatic.
When they made it over to the tree, Kel took a step onto the bough of it first, low enough to where it was made easy to get up there. After he’d gotten part way onto one of the sides of it, he reached out his hand for Sunny to take. Hesitantly, Sunny grabbed onto Kel’s hand, who helped to pull him up. Sunny was trying to stop his hands from shaking and attempted to steady his breathing. Like Kel had said, he would be alright.
Though, while in his thoughts, he almost lost his balance. He was terrified within such a short moment that he barely knew what he was meant to do, but Kel quickly used all of his might to secure him. He took a second to breathe, and when he looked below him, it turned out that they weren’t even that high up yet. If he’d fallen he would have been perfectly fine, besides from perhaps a side elbow for a few minutes. “Are you alright, Sunny?” Kel asked, a worried look on his face.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Sunny assured, though he wasn’t quite sure whether or not it was a lie. Why were they doing this, again? Oh, right, sunset. This felt like a lot of work for something as plain as that. It wasn’t like they couldn’t see the sunset from the ground! Was it too late to change his mind?
Though, when Kel asked, “Do you want to get down?” with a genuine tone of voice, Sunny just shook his head. It wasn’t like he had fallen. He was fine, right?
By the time the two of them got to the top, the sun had already begun to set. As carefully as he possibly could, Sunny sat down next to Kel. The feeling of his legs hanging over the edge with no support was making him uneasy, but when Kel wrapped his arm around him and let Sunny rest his head on his side he felt just a bit better. Maybe it had been worth it, after all. It was a lovely sight, anyway.
“Thank you for coming on this silly trip with me,” Kel said gently.
“Of course,” Sunny replied. “Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
Sunny saw Kel smile wider, and he happy-giggled a bit. Sunny just turned his attention back to the sunset. It was nice. Perhaps it wasn’t such a terrible idea…even if the thought of falling still heavily plagued his mind. He was more calm than he had been before, even though there was nothing that could completely stop the faster beating of his heart. The sight of the sunset certainly was lovely. He valued his time spent with Kel much more than something like that, though.
“I love you,” Kel said.
Sunny smiled, just a little. “I love you, too.”
When the sun had completely gone down, it was time for the two of them to get down. Sunny was more than thankful that there happened to be lamps out there. Seriously, Sunny wasn’t sure why Kel had thought this was a hiking trail. Did hiking trails usually have those? He didn’t think they did. It was probably just a trail to get to some place in Faraway to another rather than using the road, he didn’t know. Maybe a shortcut of some kind.
Getting down was more of an issue than he realized. Kel couldn’t help him all too much since Sunny had to go first. Taking a deep breath, though, and being as careful as he could, he did manage to make it down safely. Kel seemed to have no issue when it came to that, either. Sunny off dusted some of the dirt that had gotten on his shirt with his hands. On the other hand, Kel did not seem to care about that. “Are you ready to get going?” He asked.
“Yep,” Sunny said with a nod, and the two of them started on the trail back to where they’d come from. Though, after they’d been walking for some minutes, Sunny realized that there was quite a downside to a mostly downhill walk. It…it obviously wasn’t downhill on the way back. After fifteen or so minutes, it would be clear that Sunny was getting exhausted. Kel certainly noticed.
“Sunny, are you okay?”
Sunny waved his hand dismissively, although it was clear that Kel was right to suspect something. “Yeah…I’m fine. Just…I didn’t think about how… uphill this was going to be…” Sunny was embarrassed at just how out of shape he was. Sure, he was definitely thin, but his muscles were pretty much non-existent. Taking a breath was getting the slightest bit more difficult than usual. He…really felt pathetic. He knew Kel wouldn’t laugh at him or anything like that, of course, but still…
“If you’re tired I can just carry you the rest of the way,” Kel suggested.
“Oh, no, I couldn’t…I couldn’t make you do that-”
Kel interrupted his sentence before he’d even finished it. “Really, I don’t mind! It’s too much farther from here, anyway.”
Well…Sunny certainly wouldn’t mind a break from walking. And Kel seemed more than willing, so… “Alright…” Sunny sighed softly.
“Awesome!” Kel grinned, and it wasn’t long before Sunny was being supported by Kel, resting on his back and holding onto his shoulders. Kel had Sunny put the backpack on, since that wouldn’t really work out otherwise. And, speaking of the backpack, it turned out they hadn’t really needed the sandwiches after all. They weren’t out for all that long, anyway. Sunny closed his eyes. It was pretty dark out, so it didn’t change much. “Are you feeling better?”
“Yeah, I think so. Thanks, Kel,” Sunny said. He realized he had no reason to be embarrassed. It wasn’t like Kel minded.
The walk back was comfortable, and he hadn’t even realized that they had made it all the way back over to Kel’s house until Kel startled him out of his quiet thoughts. Though he hadn’t fallen asleep up there, he’d almost felt like he might. “Sunny, we’re here.”
“Oh, already?” Sunny yawned, as Kel let him down and he got to his feet. “Sorry for making you take me all that way. I could have walked from where the trail ended.”
“Nah, it’s fine!” Kel insisted. “Don’t sweat it, alright? I’ve got plenty of time to relax now that we’re home, anyway!” He gave a big smile, with a thumbs up, presumably so Sunny could be sure that he was being genuine. “Speaking of relaxing, do you wanna go and watch some T.V.?”
“Sure,” Sunny nodded, and the two of them headed inside, though Sunny still walked at a slow-ish pace. He didn’t realize just how tired he was.
The two of them sat on the couch, and started watching Kel’s favorite (and secretly, Sunny’s too) Captain Spaceboy cartoon. Sunny leaned his head on Kel’s shoulder, with a soft yawn, and Kel wrapped his arm around him. He didn’t even realize he was falling asleep before he was completely out.