Chapter Text
“Are Mari and Hero parents?”
Aubrey blinked as she looked up from her picture of Cpt.Spaceboy. Although they had all made the transition from pre-teen to teen, a monumental jump in maturity, all did enjoy a good bit of doodling. They were all sprawled out in Basil’s living room, drawing with one of Sunny’s colored pencil sets. He always left extra stuff over here to practice drawing flowers.
Kel stopped drawing the…strange orange man that he had become obsessed with tracing. If Aubrey remembered correctly, it was some Orange Joe mascot from the turn of the century. It freaked her out, but she wasn't going to say anything. He was lying on his belly, happily kicking his feet up until this moment. With a look of confusion, he looked over to Basil. “Wha?”
“Are Mari and Hero parents?” Basil repeated. He always preferred to bare down on the hard surface of the coffee table, while Aubrey always took the overstuffed couch. It was the most comfortable damn thing, and she was not going to lay on something for the better part of an hour and not be comfortable.
They normally settled into some quiet activity after completing whatever homework they had. They would pick a house, and hang out until it started to get dark, then they would head home. Today was a bit of a lonely day, as Sunny and Mari had practice, and Hero was taking his driver's lessons. At least they were practicing less than they did when they were worried about that recital, but that was nearly a year ago and had almost exhausted Sunny to the bone. As November ground them into shivering dust, they took refuge at Basil’s warm house, and maybe even some warmer treats if his grandmother was feeling up to it.
“No, I heard you.” Kel shook his head as he sat up, splaying himself out as much as he could. “I just don’t get what you mean.”
“Are Mari and Hero parents!” Basil exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air. He acted like what he was saying made perfect sense without a lick of context behind it. To the two currently hanging out with him, it did not. “It's a simple question…”
“I hate to agree with Kel-”
“Hey!”
“But I’m confused too.” Aubrey started, propping up her head with an elbow. “What do you mean.”
“Oh.” Basil realized at that moment he had done the thing where he had carried out an entire discussion in his head again. An entire stream of nervous consciousness that tended to flow and ebb like a river, depending on his mood. “I mean…I wouldn’t really know what having parents is like, right?”
“I guess?” Kel questioned himself, before lighting up. “Oh! What about your grandma though?”
“She’s my grandmother, not a parent. It’s different I think?” Said grandmother was currently listening to this conversation intently. Martha had enjoyed many things in her long, long life, but what she knew more than anything was the unintentional hilarity of children.
Although she was Basil’s guardian, she had never tried to be his mother. Basil didn’t need that as much as he needed love and a guiding hand. He was already a better soul than she would ever be, sweet sensitive thing.
Sweeter than her, because she was going to let this play out and see where it went. Faraway is a slow town, after all, and good entertainment was hard to come by.
“I mean, I guess?” Aubrey joined the fray, just as perplexed as Kel for a change. “But why would Mari and Hero be parents? They don’t have a kid”
“Well, I was just thinking about parents, right?” Basil started, slowly going back to his crude drawing of Sunny as he spoke. “Cause sometimes parents have their own kid. But sometimes they're adopted like Charlie is.”
Aubrey nodded to this. That made sense. Their friend group had been slowly expanding with Aubrey’s new friends. They called themself a gang, but all of them were pretty nice, and they all liked Mari, so how bad could they be? The big, shy girl didn’t like to talk much, but she loved flowers, and you couldn’t help but talk to Basil. He was friend-shaped, after all. She had been worried about what they would all think. “Okay?”
“So sometimes, people can be parents without having their own kid. So people must be able to be parents with no kids.” Basil concluded, as his friends nodded along. Martha managed to hold in her snort as she peeled apples. Not the worst string of logic she had heard in her life. “Right?”
“Makes sense to me!” Kel exclaimed, before realizing he was still confused. He tended to throw himself behind his friends before really thinking about it. Supportive, but could end in disaster. “Wait, so what makes a parent then”
“Well, a lot of things.” Aubrey started, thinking really hard. “If you're a parent, you have to love the people you care about, right?”
“Wait. Don’t Hero and Mari constantly say they love us?” Kel interrupted. Normally, this would be met with violence of some sort. But Aubrey just looked at him with surprised eyes.
“SEE?!” Basil exclaimed, slamming his hands onto the coffee table as his voice cracked. “It's not a dumb question!”
“We didn’t say it was dumb basil, it was confusing!” Aubrey countered, her cheeks lighting up from being called out. She just deflected and continued. “That one thing, but there’s got to be more to it than just that right?”
“Hmm.” Basil hummed, flipping over the picture of his crush and scribbling “Things that parents do.” onto the back of the sheet. He put that at number one and tapped his pencil on the paper as his totally developed 13-year-old brain tried to come up with other things. “What else is a parent thing to do? We can ask questions to try and prove this uh…Hypnosis?”
“Hyphothsis Basil.” Aubrey chimed in, being the smarty pants she always was. Strange, seemed like she always had a chip on her shoulder these days. About what exactly, none of the others could find out.
“Okay, well, they feed you, right?”
“Kel!” Hero shouted, running his way to the bus stop. Recently, he had been driving to school to get some of his learner's hours in, so it was strange to see him running up to the bus stop. Not so strange to see that one block of jogging had worn him out, considering how hard he was panting. “You forgot your lunch.”
Kel, for his part, looked confused. “I did?” he checked his reminder notebook, flipping to this morning's section. He saw that he had checked off lunch and checked his bag. His brow furrowed more when he saw his Cpt. Spaceboy lunch bag tucked away. “I have my lunch.”
“You do?” Hero looked confused, then checked himself. “Huh. Well looks like I got confused and made an extra lunch.”
Aubrey just stared at the floor, her empty stomach twisting in knots. There had been no dinner, and no breakfast besides. All that rattled around in the brown paper bag in her beaten-up knapsack was an apple. Better to save it for later so she can focus in class. Nothing makes math harder than an empty stomach.
“Aubrey! Why don’t you take it?” Before she could say anything, a brand new Sweetheart bag was thrust into her empty palms. She nearly tipped over from the sudden weight. “Bye!”
And before she could protest, Hero was gone and the bus had arrived. By the time she had taken her seat, with Sunny dozing away on her shoulder, she had gotten curious enough to check the contents. She was not disappointed. It wasn’t just lunch. It had three sandwiches, multiple apples, a whole new water bottle, and even those brownies with the candies she liked so much. She stared at the contents for a good long while before grabbing an apple and going to town, it was only after she noticed the sticky note.
“We noticed that you’ve been skipping meals, Aubrey. Send this bag back with Kel and we’ll fill it up for you every day, no questions asked. You’re always welcome to come over to one of our houses if you need anything.”
Mari and Hero.
“They uh…do that a lot don’t they,” Aubrey muttered, thanking her lucky stars she didn’t have to worry about her mother cooking. Not like she did much anymore besides drink since Dad left, but food was sometimes an issue. Not anymore, and more importantly, they didn’t let the others know. Not like she would have taken a handout if asked, she still had her pride, even if misplaced.
“Yeah, they are always baking for us, Huh.” Kel supposed as Basil jotted it down. “Hero cooks the best.”
“Why Kelsey, you sound like you don’t want one of my apple fritters.” Martha chimed in, measuring out her dry ingredients. “I bet Hero’s are better hmm?”
“NO MA’AM I TAKE IT ALL BACK!” She covered her mouth at the sudden about-face. Kel was loyal to his stomach above all else, and it was bottomless. “I want one baaaaaad.”
“Fine, fine, I was just teasing” She waved him off as he relaxed. Besides, they were right. That boy could cook like nobody’s business.
“Focus Kel.” Aubrey admonished. She had to admit, she was curious about the answer now. “What else do parents do?”
“Hmm.” Kel thought, resting his chin in his hand as he stroked it. Aubrey swore she could smell burning rubber as he pondered and pondered. “They make you feel better when you are hurt or sad.”
“Oh hey Basil! What are you doing out here?” Mari asked, clutching her jacket a bit tighter to her person. The fall wind was blustery that afternoon, and the bitter wind just reminded her of her busy, tiring day. She was ready to curl up on the sofa with some warm tea, her cat, and her brother who acted like a cat before she spotted a mop of blonde hair. “All alone, I might add.”
Her concern grew as he didn’t respond, he just hugged his legs and clung tightly to himself, shrinking all the while. She walked over, about to ask what was wrong when she saw it.
It had been her that had encouraged the boy to try and reach out. He had been expressing a desire to know more about his parents, as his grandmother was rather mum on the subject. So, she had suggested he send a letter, to see how they would respond to that. Martha begrudgingly gave him an address to send one off to. He had been checking the mail nonstop since.
So it was heartbreaking to see his letter, stamped with thick red ink that simply read “Return to sender, unopened. Not only had they not read it, they went through the trouble of sending it back to the poor kid so he knew they didn’t care.
Like a shot, she wrapped her arms around him, not caring that she was ruining her nice skirt as Basil latched onto her and sobbed. She rubbed his back, trying to soothe the poor boy.
“It’s okay Basil, they don’t know what they're missing.” She crooned into his ear, holding him close. Basil quieted down a bit, sniffling as he tried to clear his thick throat.
“You think so?”
“Basil, I KNOW so. We all love you!” Mari admonished, not letting him think for a moment that he was unwanted. “Kel, Aubrey, Hero, me, and Sunny all think you're great! Maybe sunny a little more than most.” She grinned to herself but shook her head. Now wasn’t the time to ship.
“But they-”
“But nothing. If your no-good, rotten, neglectful parents are too blind to see what they're missing, that's their fault. If they weren't so selfish, they would have known what a kind, considerate, thoughtful son they had.”
“O-okay,” Basil muttered, but she could tell he had calmed down a bit. Poor thing, he didn’t deserve the cold cruel people that were his parents. Nobody did. Yet this sweet cinnamon roll of a boy was dealt two of them. No matter, she was not going to just leave him like this. He deserved better.
“Come on. Let's get you out of the cold, you’re turning red!” Mari helped him up, brushing off the worst of the dirt that stuck to him. After giving him a once over she nodded. “I’ll call your grandmother. What I think you need is a sleepover.”
“Huh? But it's Wednesday…” he muttered, trying to pretend like her words didn’t instantly hook him.
She just blew a raspberry and waved the thought off. “Oh shush. We’ll still get up and go to school, but there's plenty of time in the day before bedtime. Unless you would rather waste what time you could be spending with Sunny sitting in the di-” And there he went. That wasn’t too hard. She looked at the letter on the ground, slowly picking it up. It's a shame that someone so caring was stuck with people who didn’t care less. Oh well, their loss.
“They do that too,” Basil concluded, shaking his head as the memory slowly faded back into his head. Aubrey and Kel thought for a moment, before nodding along.
“Oh yeah, they do!” Kel concluded, driving his fist into his palm. “Hero and Mari are always patching us up after we get hurt.”
“You mean when you get hurt doing something stupid.” Aubrey accused, pointing at him.
“Hey! You were the one who dared me to do a backflip off the monkey bars!” Kel refuted, creeping closer to Aubrey. “And yet, when I cracked my head ran away, and let it look like I did it for no reason!”
“I think the concussion is making you dumber than you already are, cause I didn’t dare you squat.”
“Oh I’ll show you dumb-”
“Children.” Martha cut in, giving a stink eye rivaled by none over the kitchen counter. “I am not going to have another fistfight in my living room. If you wanna fistfight, you gotta go outside, and if you go outside, you’ll miss the fritters.”
That got them to sit down and pretend like they hadn’t just been at each other's throats. She rolled her eyes and went back to work, watching the oil pot’s thermometer as she stirred her batter. There was silence, for a time, but soon they started up yet again.
“Okay, that's three things. But I feel like we need like, one more to come to a conclusion.” Basil said, tapping his pencil against the paper. Aubrey and Kel nodded, this of course made sense. Three things could be dismissed. But four things? Well, that was an entirely different ballgame!
“Parents…uh…Parents show up to things you do to cheer you on!” Aubrey added after some hemming and hawing. Basil nodded along, but as soon as they had mentioned sports, Kel was already miles away.
Kel was nervous. This was very unusual, and Kel didn’t like it. Not one bit. He had joined basketball to just do something active! It was his mom and dad that suggested he join a school activity! Something about becoming a constructive member of the community, he didn’t exactly remember.
So he had gone out for the basketball team! In all honesty, he had just gone to tryouts to have a bit of fun before being cut from the team. Middle school basketball was a cut-throat world, after all. Imagine his shock when he made the cut.
So here he was, at his first game of the year, sweating buckets. Why was he so nervous? Most likely, he was going to benchwarm for most of the game. He knew how things tended to lean on the team. No, it was because he was doing this all alone.
His parents had been happy that he had found something to do after school besides just come home and eat all the food. But frustratingly, they still didn’t seem impressed. It wasn't chess team, or debate, or that nerdy other thing Hero did, so it was lesser. He grumbled a bit at that, but he had expected it. Nothing ever seemed to measure up these days to his older sibling. But he tried to ignore it.
It was a bit harder to ignore the lack of parents in the stands.
He sat on the bench, tapping his feat. They always sat with their back to the opposing team’s fans. It helped them keep focus on the people who came to see them, the coach said. But that didn’t give Kel any comfort.
There were no friendly faces in the stands, and he knew it. The gang were all working on their group project tonight, so they couldn’t come. He should be thankful that they had decided to take his part so he could go to the game. He couldn’t ask more than that.
Imagine his surprise when he saw two faces that he did recognize. No, that couldn’t be right. They should be cramming for their math test! But there they were, Hero and Mari, sitting in the stand, clad in their school colors. It was amazing, how fast the nerves melted away into something else. If they had bothered to show up, then he couldn’t let them down, could he?
“Ramirez.” his coach called, voice scratching under his mustache. “You’re up. Good luck out there son.”
“On it coach!” There was no way he would screw things up now.
In hindsight, it was hilarious how badly he screwed up that night. At the very last moment, at the very last moment, he had missed. He had expected the cold shoulder, maybe he would get kicked off the team. But to his surprise, his whole team came around and commemorated. Each shared some story of their own screw-ups at the last moment. Even the coach got in on it. His awful performance just led to a comforting bit of bonding.
Of course, Mari and Hero still took him out for ice cream after. Both were a bit hoarse from cheating their hearts out for Kel, but neither seemed to mind it too much. Even if Mari teased him that they had cheered for a missed basket. He just laughed and told them he would get it next time so they wouldn’t waste their breath. He still felt like a winner, though.
“Huh, they do that too!” Kel concluded with a dopey smile. Aubrey remembered her own softball games starting up and nodded along. “Put it on the list!”
“Okay,” Basil muttered as he wrote the fourth thing. Well damn. They had four whole reasons why Mari and Hero were parents. That wasn't a fluke, that's real, interesting proof. ‘Well, beans. They are parents.”
Aubrey and Kel both looked at the sheet and slowly nodded along. The proof was right there! Mari and Hero were parents. What would they do with all this information? How would they deal with the world-changing state of things? Just what would they-
“Here you go lovelies.” Martha placed a plate of hot, steaming apple fritters in front of them. They steamed as the glaze oozed, melting slightly from the heat of the lumpy pastry. “Fresh and hot out the frier! Now Kelsey, make sure to wait a moment before you bite in, or you’ll have a mouth of burned skin.
“Yes, granny!”
“And Aubrey, keep him from eating one until they’ve cooled a bit. I don’t need Hero here, fretting over his brother yet again. The poor boy is busy enough.”
“Yes Ma’am.”
Eh. Who cares about world-changing revelations when you have sweets to eat? They could talk about this later.
“Hero, do I look old?” Hero froze as Mari asked him this question. He had been warned about this by his father. Someday, sometime, he would be asked a question that would define his relationship. That everything would rely on how he answered her.
“Uh, why do you ask?” DAMN IT HERO! That was not the right way to ask that question. “Because of course, you don’t look old. You would have to be crazy to think that!.” Phew, perfect save.
Mari, taking her place next to him, just frowned a bit. She ran her dishcloth over the plate before putting it on the wire rack to dry. Both had decided a bit of couples cooking would be a good time, but the dishes that came after it were less so. Ah well, after they were done they could enjoy the fruits of their labor.
“Well, it's going to sound silly.” Mari started. “But I got called mom today.”
Hero blinked. Out of all the things that Mari could have said, somehow, she had said something that made no lick of sense to him. Mom? Who would mistake Mari for a mother? “Like….a kid or something called you that?”
“Well, A kid did. Basil, to be precise.” Mari continued, looking just as perplexed as he did. “I saw that he had missed the bus today, so I got Mom to pull over and pick him up, right?”
“Right.”
“And when we get to school, he gives me a hug and thanks me.”
“Sounds like normal Basil behavior to me. He’s a hugger.”
Mari giggled a bit at that. He wasn't exactly wrong. “Well he is, but afterwards he said thanks Mom, and ran away! I didn’t even get to ask anything else!” She looked flustered by this. “So do I look old or something?”
“Of course not.” Hero admonished, hugging her side. “You are a uh…picture of radiant youth! Or whatever Sweetheart says.”
“A picture of luminous youth.” Mari corrected, letting her hidden weeb shine for a moment. “Maybe it was just a slip of the tongue or something. I shouldn’t let it get to me.”
“Imagine how I felt when Aubrey called me dad.” Mari stared at him for a good long moment before bursting out laughing. “Hey! I didn’t laugh when you talked about Basil.”
“Dad?!” She said between wheezes. “How the heck could anyone mistake you for a dad? The only thing you got is jokes.”
“Hey!”
“Sorry, sorry.” Mari apologized, giving him a kiss on the cheek. From the way he lit up, it looked like that was enough to reassure him. “It just shocked me.”
“Uh-huh.” Hero responded, doubt dripping from his voice. “Sure.”
“Well, don’t keep me in the dark! What happened?”
“Nothing much. I was handing off the lunch box so she had something to eat, and she called me dad and ran away with this grin.” Hero shrugged, the event playing over in his mind. “I thought it was just a slip of the tongue or something, but maybe it's not?”
“Okay, saying it once is just chance, this happening twice is strange,” Mari muttered, stroking her chin. Both left the dishes forgotten as they considered this new reality “suspicious….”
Hero had always thought that the single-word sentence was a Sunny specialty. Lo and behold it turned out Sunny had inherited the old habit from Mari, of all people. “You think they are pranking us?”
“I don’t know. This doesn’t seem to be one of their pranks. If they were messing with us, it would be much more direct.” Memories of frogs in beds and hot sauce-stuffed drinks filled her memory. “They're not exactly subtle.”
“Fair enough, this would be a subdued approach, if that was what they are doing” Hero mused. Both just sat there, confused, as Kel walked in. The Suzuki household rarely locked their door, so Kel just wandered in as he pleased. Most likely to play with Sunny.
“Oh! Hey Ma, Hey Dad!” he poked his head into the kitchen, only to say that. He didn’t react to their stunned faces, and he just went upstairs. If he had any idea of the chaos he just caused within their minds, he would have gloated. Alas, he was oblivious.
“Hero what the Hell is going on?!” Mari asked, concern growing by the moment. Mari always knew what was going on. She prided herself in being aware and on the ball when it came to any information. It was how she was raised, after all. But not knowing something? Not being “in” on the joke? Oh, it bothered her. More than anything could bother a person.
“I uh…huh.” Hero’s reaction was more subdued. Although a know it all in his own right, he didn’t get ass upset at unknowns. In fact, he found himself mildly curious as to what this is all about. “Maybe their just confused?”
“Confused about what? They have…wait.” Mari paused, as it all began to click into place. “Uh,..Hero?”
“Yes?”
“How is uh…Aubrey’s home situation?” Mari asked. She tried not to know too much on purpose when it came to the girl. Not because she didn’t care, but because she cared a bit too much. Both of them knew if Mari got too close she would drag Aubrey out of that house and adopt her on the spot. And who knew how Aubrey would react to that? The little girl had pride and Mari was not going to take that away from her.
“Not good.” Hero hissed through his teeth. “I noticed she hasn’t changed into fall clothes yet. I’m worried she’ll get sick.”
“I’ll give her some of my old hand-me-downs.” Mari paused. “Wait how will we give them to her without insulting her.”
“Say it's for donation and you wanted to see if there was anything she wanted out of it?” Hero responded, checking the timer on the cookies, only for it to go off. He quickly took the baking sheet out of the oven and sat it on top of the stove.
“Mmm, that's why I love you,” Mari placed a peck on his cheek while his hands were still full. “Such a good head on your shoulders. And handsome too.”
“Only my second-best feature?” Hero managed to get out without stammer. Mari raised a brow. Trying to flirt back eh? Well too bad he was about as easy to fluster as Basil.
“Third. Right after being so easy to tease~’ She prodded his nose as he took off the oven mitts.
“What was your point earlier?” Hero asked, hoping to take some of the heat off himself.
“Oh right. Aubrey’s home life isn’t the best, and I KNOW that Basil’s parents are garbage.” Mari concluded, frustration marring her features. “What about Kel? Your parents still being hard on him.
The hiss through Hero’s teeth was all the answer she needed. “I mean…yea. I don’t get it. His grades are pretty good, and he even made the basketball team.”
“Yes, but he isn’t a mini you,” Mari grumbled. “So he's noooooot as good.”
“Your dad getting on Sunny again?” Hero asked, rubbing her shoulder.
“Less than he used to, but still. Their different people than us damn it.” Mari leaned onto him with a sigh. “But I think that's the problem.”
“What is?”
“Her, I think we act more like parents than their parents do,” Mari concluded. She watched realization spark in Hero’s eyes. He could be a bit slow to the draw sometimes.
“But…I…hmm.” He started and stopped, turning over the thought a few times before just letting it simmer. “I think you may be right.”
Both just looked down at the cooling cookies, taking in the quiet moment as they contemplated this thought. Somehow, two teenagers were doing a good enough job supporting their friends that they were comparable to their parents. The thought would be hilarious if the failure of adults didn’t make it so sad.
“I’m too young to be a mother,” Mari whispered, causing Hero to laugh. “What?!”
“Nothing, nothing.” Hero wiped his eye, grinning.
“It’s something alright. Now spill it.”
“Fine fine.” Hero grinned as she fixed her frown his way. “Aren’t you the one talking about having a family someday? Why are you surprised one appeared?”
He continued to laugh as she slapped his arm. “That's not what I meant and you know it, Hero!” She pouted a bit as he continued to lose it. “Besides, we skipped all the fun stuff. Forgive a lady for being surprised that she’s a mother of three all of a sudden.”
“Fair enough.” Hero added as he wiped his eyes. “We can correct them about it later. I don’t want my girlfriend feeling old hmm?”
‘You better if you know what's good for you.” Mari scolded, before laughing herself. She began to pick the cookies off of the baking tray and set them on a plate. “At least we know we’re doing good by them.” She paused, staring at the baked goods. “I worry about them sometimes.”
Hero sighed, and slowly hugged her from behind. “Me too. But hey, at least they know they can come to us if they need help. They may not have proper support at home, but they have us.”
Maro wiggled in his grasp enough that soon they were facing each other. Hero didn’t know what exactly he said, but from the way she was flushing, it had a nice effect. He watched, heart hammering as she began to lean in, closing her eyes. Oh my god, was this going to happen? Oh my, he had dreamed about this for years! He began to lean in as well, closing his eyes as he-
“Can I have a cookie?”
Both teenagers launched themselves away from each other as Sunny stared at them blankly. The short boy just stood there, those dark eyes staring into them. Both stammered a bit, trying to brush off the ruined moment.
“Sure Sunny! Why don’t you take a few extra for Kel?” Mari managed to get out, doing everything within her power not to throttle her little brother for ruining the moment.
Sunny nodded slowly. He took a few, putting them on a paper towel before scampering off. Both waited for a moment, before giving each other a disappointed look. The moment had passed.
“At least he didn-”
“Oh.” Sunny popped his head back in. “Thanks, mom. Thanks, Dad.”
Sunny waited at the top of the stairs, quietly. He counted the moments slowly in his head. Right about now, he would have reached his room. And as soon as that moment passed, he heard the frustrated scream of his sister as he quietly laughed to himself, taking a nice big bite of his cookie.
He had no idea what was going on, but he knew a good bit when he saw it. He was surprised they hadn’t noticed him sooner.