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To him, this felt like just another day. In spite of his friends telling him valiantly about how much of a special day Valentine’s Day was, he wasn’t really convinced that there should really be a whole day dedicated to your lover. Like, why can’t you just dedicate every day to them? Isn’t that… kind of the whole point? Regardless, Sunny couldn’t help but admit either way that he would often garner an overwhelming and lingering sense of loneliness during this day. Ever since he met Aubrey a couple years ago, he had began to witness a tingling sensation whenever he was even within her presence. When it started, he didn’t know what to make of it or what it meant. It wasn’t until a particularly rainy day when Sunny wanted to snag a look at a photo that Basil had taken of Aubrey in her new, bright-pink raincoat, that Basil spilled the beans to him. He even remembered the childish mocking that Basil had instilled onto Sunny as he spoke playfully, “Do I, perhaps… sense a little crush?”
The moment Basil had ushered that to him was when Sunny could feel his ears flare up, unable to prevent them from reverting back to their pale, beige color. It was, however, in that exact moment Sunny finally discovered what that feeling he’d been gathering around Aubrey for so long was. At first, he didn’t know what to make of it. He figured this might be something that would pass, since he didn’t exactly see himself fit to be with someone as cute and pretty as her… but at the same time, he really, really wanted to be in a relationship with her. Even now, he still wasn’t entirely sure what it fully meant and what all went down. He’d considered asking Mari regarding the matter, but knowing his cheeky big sister, she would absolutely demolish him with humiliation lest she suspected for even a second that Sunny had a crush on Aubrey.
Little did the raven-haired boy know that not only did she suspect it, she was already fully aware of her little brother’s feelings for Aubrey, as was Basil, of course.
Mari had sniffed out that Sunny had a crush on Aubrey even before Basil had caught on during that fateful April day. In fact, Mari had discovered approximately a year beforehand, and when she initially did, she was remarkably back-and-forth on whether or not to confront her brother about it. She had a whole mental war in her head about whether to tease the ever-loving hell out of Sunny about it, or whether to leave it alone, especially considering that he didn’t even seem to be aware of his feelings for the girl. After a long and arduous argument within her psyche, she indefinitely decided to refute bringing it up to him.
Which was a monumental mistake.
To say Mari didn’t get a little annoyed seeing Sunny dismiss his feelings for her, as impeccable and strong-willed as they were in his heart would be an understatement. Mari could feel the strings of her hair being peeled away from her skin whenever she would see Sunny and Aubrey both together, her younger brother’s face slowly morphing into a literal tomato just looking at her direction, but despite Aubrey being very close to Sunny, he still hasn’t gotten the gull to open up his feelings to her! Even after all this time, nearly two years worth of time, the means in which he keeps to himself, despite how blatantly obvious it is that he loves her tore Mari from the inside out.
Oh, and then there’s Aubrey’s side of the spectrum… holy Jesus, if Sunny was in denial that he and Aubrey would work in a relationship, in spite of wanting it to happen to such a wide degree, then Aubrey had to be the most oblivious living specimen to ever grace the planet! She had seen, with her own two, chocolate brown eyes the mess Sunny turns into just looking at her, and she hasn’t even guessed that he likes her in that way!
Mari had to stop for a second as she sat down on her bed, fiddling her thumbs nervously as her brain replayed all of the thoughts over to her again. When she and Hero had met, it was somewhat of a similar situation, but at the least there was a reason behind it. Mari’s dad was very uptight about Mari being in a relationship with someone, a sentiment he didn’t seem to really care for regarding Sunny (bias much?) and that was really what kept them from dating for so long. It wasn’t until Mari literally had to stamp her foot down in frustration and pull the trigger, in spite of her dad’s wishes, to just date the cutie already!-
Knock knock.
Ah. Someone was at her door. Surely it wasn’t Sunny, he had gone with Kel to hang out at the park, so either it was her mom or somebody had made themselves at home at her house. Saving the rest of her thoughts in her head for now, she slowly shuffled out of her bed and reached for the door handle, opening it slowly to find a somewhat shy Aubrey standing just outside her door, hands behind her back and looking to the side with a look of… guilt, strangely.
Well, speak of the devil, Mari thought to herself before she properly greeted the young girl with her iconic warm smile. “Hi, Aubrey! This is, well… a surprise to see you here! What brings you here?”
“Hi, Mari…” Aubrey waved slightly as her voice wavered, indicating a clear sense of nervousness from the girl. Mari questioned inside her head what could be troubling her.
Wasting no time, Mari sidestepped from her current spot to allow Aubrey space to enter her room. “Come in, it’s just me here right now…” As Aubrey obliged, slowly dragging her legs restlessly across the carpet, they both took a seat at the side of Mari’s bed, the two of them looking at one another for a split second before Mari steadily pushed things along.
“So… how are you doing? Anything new going on?” Mari asked, to which Aubrey simply hummed to herself before responding,
“Well, uh… I’m fine… it’s just… I, uh… wanted to tell you something, and it’s just… it has to do with… someone…” As Aubrey struggled to find the words to properly tell Mari, the older of the girls simply looked at her with a curious look, though part of her was still wondering vastly what Aubrey could be-
“There’s, um… someone that I like, and… I… I want you to keep it a secret if I tell you, please!” As Aubrey finished her sentence, Mari’s face was nothing short of surprised, though she did realize this might be pretty bad. If Aubrey liked somebody, then Sunny would definitely NOT take that news well. Even if she’d keep a secret, it’d only be a matter of time before it was made known to him, for sure.
With a swift nod, Mari obliged without ushering another word as Aubrey took a deep breath, with the eldest Suzuki awaiting Aubrey to confess who she had feelings for. “Alright… I think… no… I know… I… I-I like…” Aubrey paused for a brief moment, her face turning beet red from the pressure of telling the sister of the boy who she had been gushing to be with ever since they had properly met. Finally, after some muffled noises that came from her closed mouth, Aubrey sputtered out and barked out, “It’s Sunny!” As the name came out, Aubrey simply wavered her head downwards, not sure what to think now that somebody aside from herself knew who she was head over heels for.
…
… Are you FUCKING KIDDING ME?! Mari screamed inside of her head. So not ONLY was Aubrey completely oblivious to the fact that Sunny has a crush the size of Jupiter on her, but she also loves him BACK?! And she STILL hasn’t caught on that maybe, just maybe, her feelings weren’t just one-sided?! Mari couldn’t believe it, but before her face could reflect that, a devious idea suddenly hatched inside her head. Valentine’s Day was coming up just tomorrow, so this was for sure the catalyst behind Aubrey coming to Mari now. Any of the angry thoughts that Mari even had before had been stripped away and replaced by the perfect master plan to get the two unknowing lovers together.
As Mari obtained a smug expression, she looked at Aubrey confidently as she responded, “Really? Aubrey, that sounds great!” Mari shifted her eyes to the sides before continuing, “I think… you should let him know how you feel!”
The very idea that Mari had just projected brought Aubrey into a completely cluttered, flushed mess, the tips of her ears and cheeks radiating a bright red as she sputtered about, trying to grasp words to actually speak rather than just random gibberish, when she finally did catch some and stuttering out, “Wh-what?! I-I can’t just… tell him! I-I need to-”
“Aubrey…” Mari spoke softly as she placed a hand atop Aubrey’s shoulder, effectively reducing Aubrey’s sporadic movements tremendously. “You never know… it’s worth giving it a shot.”
As Mari’s words laid atop Aubrey’s ears like a soft butter, the pink-bowed girl found herself getting a lot more calm and collected, though still obviously flustered by the idea Mari was proposing. But who knows… with a good dose of luck and proper execution, she would be willing to get together with Sunny! That idea in of itself just sounded like a dream come true for her… but sometimes, you gotta dream big in life.
“Anyways, I’d say meet up at our treehouse tomorrow… I can get Sunny over there by, urm… probably twelve!” Mari winked to Aubrey as she was pushed out of the older Suzuki’s room, with Aubrey having limited time to react as Mari remained on the other side of the door, with Aubrey looking onward with confusion as Mari finished off her sentence saying, “You should probably get going… tomorrow sounds like it’ll be a big day…” Mari smiled warmly at Aubrey before closing the door, leaving her with no other choice but to aimlessly walk back to her home from the Suzuki household.
Once Mari was sure that Aubrey was entirely out of the house, she reached instantly for her pocket, pulling out her phone and pressing a specific contact who she knew would aid her in such a cause. As the constant ringing came to a head, she heard a soft, yet iconic voice chime in on the other side, greeting, “Hey Mari!”
“Hi, Basil… so, I got news for you…”
***
“No way! Are you serious?!”
Basil now found himself standing just by his bedroom with Mari lingering about. She had traversed to Basil’s house to speak to him in-person regarding the matter that was Sunny and Aubrey in love with each other. The challenge was going to be to get them to see that for themselves. Basil knew Mari’s ever-extending pain of having to watch Sunny be dismissal of pursuing Aubrey in a relationship, and now with the knowledge that Aubrey had been gushing for the raven-haired boy all this time now as well… oh lord, that just made things even worse.
But regardless, Mari hummed to herself as she responded, “Yup, she came to me just a bit ago and told me. I already told her that I’d get her and Sunny to go to the treehouse so that she could confess to him!”
“But what if Sunny doesn’t show up?” Basil questioned, though he should’ve suspected that Mari had already prepped up an answer to such a simple question.
“Sunny won’t be doing anything of note tomorrow… since we won’t have school, he’ll have all of Valentine’s Day to spend with Aubrey… though, Kel may want to hang out with him during the day, as usual…”
Basil thought to himself as he looked downwards in thought. Mari brought a pretty exceptional point up. Sunny was looking forward to tomorrow being another Valentine’s Day without a lover by his side, and so he may want to turn to someone to hang out with to keep his mind off of things, with Kel being the obvious first pick on that notation. Both he and Mari would need to find a way to keep Kel from Sunny so that his plans wouldn’t be filled up. Plus, if Aubrey was expecting Sunny, and he ended up being a no-show… oof, that would be REALLY bad for everything they were trying to accomplish here.
In the flicker of a moment, Basil hatched an idea in his head as he whispered to Mari, “Ooh, I got it! You just let me worry about Kel. You tell Sunny that Aubrey will be at the treehouse tomorrow.” Basil had now garnered a pretty cheeky grin, one that only a confident Basil would hold. With that knowledge in mind, Mari nodded simply to the flower-wearing boy, and they both departed, hoping that tomorrow would go remarkably smoothly.
***
Before any of the kids in Faraway Town knew it, it was already Valentine’s Day. Though Mari had promised to spend her sweet time with Hero this faithful day, she opted that her little brother’s feelings finally be opened up today, no buts or what-ifs about it. She would need to work quickly, though. She promised to meet with Hero at 10 sharp, and she gazed at her alarm clock shortly after waking up to find the time to be around 8. Alright, just under two hours to get this procedure underway!
Mari hopped onto her little brother’s bed and shook Sunny a bit, forcing him to wake up as he murmured Mari’s name in confusion and irritation, likely because she had just interrupted whatever dream he was having. Wonder if it was about Aubrey?... Mari joked to herself as she took a deep breath out and proclaimed cheerfully, “Hello, little brother! How did you sleep?”
“Missed… Aubrey… was about… to…” Sunny muttered as he remained half-awake, the words coming out of his mouth surprising Mari a tad bit, since she had only joked about Sunny dreaming about the girl for a gag. With even more revitalized motivation to get him and his crush together now, Mari looked to the side with a smug expression as she responded. “I wanted to tell you something important… it’s about Aubrey.”
The name of the young girl being ushered forced Sunny’s eyes to swing wide open and for his upper body to heave upwards, his full attention clearly having been grabbed by his older sister. Oh, Sunny… Mari hummed in her head before she glanced at the shocked expression of her younger brother. “She wants to meet you at the treehouse by noon… she wanted me to tell you beforehand, so…” Mari lingered the last word of her sentence as she snuck in another cheeky look towards Sunny, whose face could only be described as a mushy combination of a flushing red, a remarkably surprised expression, and frozen in time, with no telling if it would ever be thawed free.
As Mari hopped off of Sunny’s bed, still persisting the devious look on her face, she finished off saying, “Well, I have to go get ready, since I’ll be seeing Hero in a bit… I’d suggest you do the same, little brother.” Mari slowly exited out of the room as the sight of her closing the door behind her, signalling her leave of the bedroom caused Sunny to shoot up from his own bed, scurrying about his wardrobe to find a proper outfit. He instinctively thought about wearing a neatly buttoned-up short-sleeved shirt, along with his usual grey-tinted shorts. However, the longer the black-hairer boy pondered on it, the more he realized that Aubrey might be meeting him there for a reason. On Valentine’s Day, no less. Maybe… this was a sign. A sign for finally push his feelings for her closer to the surface, and maybe… just maybe… confess his feelings for her? Surely the worst that could happen was say no, right?
As Sunny pulled out a nicer, darker vest that he could wear underneath a white undershirt, he also caught eye of the pair of beige shorts that he wore to the recital with Mari. As the boy thought on the recital, remembering the excited and proud faces that they all wore as he and his sister got off the stage after a rather marvelous performance, his mind soon shifted to darker thoughts. What if she stops being friends because of my confession?... Is that really worth it? I don’t want to lose anyone… especially her, because of my selfish thoughts? But… are my thoughts really selfish? Who can really say?
Sunny spent a solid few minutes standing in his room, having a mental debate in his head on whether to follow through with confessing to the pink-bowed girl or not. Thinking of all the potential ways things could go wrong in his head, he was initially deterred from doing so. However, he soon came to the realization that Aubrey simply wasn’t the kind of person to end a friendship for a reason such as that. Besides, even if things went awry today, it didn’t mean that he couldn’t ever remend his friendship with her. Then, of course, there’s the off-chance that she actually accepts, but he didn’t want to overshoot. That happening was like winning the lottery in his head.
After properly getting dressed and getting ready, ensuring he was fresh and clean for his crush, Sunny eagerly awaited until around 10:30 in the morning. Normally, he’d just be spending the day sitting around the house, playing video games or just lounging around without much to do, as with any Valentine’s Day. However, this day he spent watching the minutes go by, until he had decided that perhaps some fresh air was necessary. The young boy opened his front door and stepped outward, taking in the sweet smell of Faraway Town nature. True to its name, Faraway was far from any kind of major town, meaning it was very, very quiet. Quite a marvelous prospect for Sunny, who enjoyed his environment on the quieter side. Sure, Kel would sometimes like to be a bit… grating, to put it lightly, Sunny never gave Kel a hard time over it, and knew he was just trying his best to set an upbeat mood, which he succeeded more often than not.
Speaking of which, he was wondering if the young boy would be coming to see if he would like to hang out. Sunny, as much as he’d hate to turn down a positive smile like Kel’s would have to reject Kel’s offer today. There were much more important things for him to take care of, like watching the majestically pretty girl with a pink bow and long, black hair strolling over towards his house…
…wait, what?
Sure enough, Sunny looked with widened eyes as he saw Aubrey steadily approach the Suzuki household. Ensuring Sunny looked presentable in his current attire, he made whatever attempts to straighten out his clothes, make his hair as tidy as he could… even though there was no making it tidier than it already was, safe for the cowlick that remained on his side, but there absolutely NO SHOT that was gonna be fixed. Plus, the others always thought it gave Sunny a more unique visual trait, so he’ll take it for what it’s worth.
Finally, the young girl noticed Sunny standing just outside his house as she turned a corner on the street it resided on, with her face quickly turning as she saw him in such fancy attire. She had also dressed up for the occasion, having acquired a light purple dress with a collar that was folded onto Aubrey’s shoulders and back, along with pink heels that complimented her already warm color palette. Sunny wondered amidst his head why she was dressing up so fancily for just… meeting up at the treehouse?
Once Aubrey approached the boy, she waved with a bright smile, greeting, “Hey, Sunny! How are you doing?”
Sunny took a second to respond as he was still observing Aubrey in her current attire, fiddling in his head still as to why she was dressing up like this. He quickly readjusted his thought process, though, opting to answer her question and hoping she hadn’t noticed his split second of staring. “Oh, uh, I-I’m doing fine… you?”
“I’m doing good too!” Aubrey clasped her hands together as she presented a toothless smile to the boy. Sunny felt his cheeks flush just a hair from the sight. Wow, she is so cute. Sunny thought to himself, making damn sure that the words remained in his head, though he wanted to at least try to move things along a bit.
The raven-haired boy glanced to his house as he questioned, “Hey, um… Mari told me you wanted to meet me at the treehouse?...”
Aubrey made a quiet gasp as she responded, “O-oh, yeah… but, I mean… guess we’re already here, huh?...” Aubrey rubbed the back of her head as her eyes fell onto the grass on Sunny’s front yard.
“Well, we can still go there if you want…” Sunny told the young girl. Aubrey energetically nodded as the two then silently entered back inside the house and made their way through the home, before eventually treading upon the backyard grounds, not a word ushering through either of them.
The two took a rather long stroll across the field as they inched closer to the wooden treehouse having been constructed just last summer. Sunny really hoped that he and his friends could use this treehouse more next summer. Today was relatively warm, though it would only be like this until mid-afternoon, as the weather would severely plummet by then. After all, it was still February, after all. They were within winter territory as was.
Sunny climbed the treehouse’s ladder first before Aubrey followed suit, both kids entering inside and making themselves comfortable, the both of them thinking to themselves on whether or not they wanted to speak first, and especially regarding confessing, though both didn’t know the either had that in mind as well.
It took a good minute from inside the treehouse for Aubrey to speak up, as she proclaimed, “Hey, um… Sunny… I, uh… just wanted to… tell y-you something…” Aubrey could feel her nerves flare up as she readied to confess her true feelings for the boy, her hands quivering at the prospect of her actually letting out about her crush on him. She didn’t need to specify that it had begun basically since she had met him, just that she… has feelings for him. Surely it can’t be that bad, right?”
“Um, actually, Aubrey, there’s… something I wanna t-tell you, too…” Sunny spoke out, a hint of red starting to beet up in his ears now too, though Aubrey didn’t catch on that. She was too busy having a debacle in her psyche on how to approach this. She couldn’t exactly just butt out, now. She had already committed to wanting to share something with him, and he always listened, no matter what. The train was moving at good speed now, and she couldn’t stop it.
However, that didn’t prevent her from at least trying to delay the inevitable. “Here, why don’t you go first?” Aubrey wavered her hand as she looked to the side with closed eyes, her blush only growing stronger by the second of being around this cute boy’s presence.
Sunny could feel his growing stronger too, as he refuted Aubrey’s offer. “N-no, no, you do. You always talk to me whenever you’re feeling down, y-you should start.”
“Hm… that would be more reason for you to go first, you always let me vent to y-you, wh-why don’t you go first for a start?” Aubrey’s means of convincing did very little to deter an already adamant Sunny, to which the boy merely responded with, “No, Aubrey, it’s okay. You go first.”
“No, you do, silly!”
“No, go first Aubrey, I-I mean it…”
Then the two stopped. That’s when they realized this back and forth was treading nowhere fast. A decision had to be made soon, but the two kids unknowingly in love with one another couldn’t decide on who would go first amidst the bunch.
Then, Aubrey hatched up a rather… quaint idea. “Here, um… since we can’t pick who to go first, u-um… why don’t we go at once?” Aubrey’s voice raised higher as her questioned concluded, with a rather quizzical Sunny eventually opting to just go for it, indicating that the banter they just had was gonna lead them no closer to whatever Aubrey had in mind, and Sunny’s… confession.
On the count of three, Aubrey counted down as Sunny’s head nodded to the beat. Though, in his mind, his brain was panicking, completely running all over his skull and knowing full-well he was about to confess his crush on her. Whether her reaction would be neutral, unsure, negative… and maybe even positive, and the very, very off-chance, he was ready for whatever would happen when the time came.
As Aubrey finished off the countdown, her voice quavered just a hair as her brain just now came to the realization that this was the moment that he’d finally be known of her feelings towards him. Thinking on it, she had no idea how he would react. She would just hope that even if he did reject her feelings of love for him, that they would remain as friends. That much she was hoping she could entrust onto the boy.
Finally, as Aubrey ushered a loud “One!”, she and Sunny took a sharp inhale and said in perfect unison,
“I have a crush on you!”
Then, utter silence for a few second’s time. Both parties could do nothing but stare into the other’s eyes, filled with wondrous surprise and shock as they tried to take into what each other just said. At once, both Sunny and Aubrey thought to their already overworked and anxious brains, Did… I just hear… say… had a crush… on?...
Aubrey was the first to actually speak amidst the sudden shock, though her sentence came out an absolutely cluttered and fluked mess as she spoke out, “D-d-did you just… d-did I hear that right, Sunny?... Did you say… you had a c-c-crush on?...”
Sunny could do nothing but nod incessantly as Aubrey’s face flashed as red as a freshly plucked tomato in a heartbeat. As with Sunny, the entire diameter of his cheek flesh and more was surrounded in a beating red, and his ears covered entirely with a fiery sensation. Did I also mention that his ears were red from being flushed? Sunny’s turn to speak was also en route, though his stuttering also made it difficult for him to form a coherent sentence. “Did… confess… you… I-I… m-me… crush?”
Uh oh, the way Sunny fluked his sentence horribly in his cute way sent Aubrey into an even more flushing mess than she already was. Sunny didn’t think it was possible for anyone to become this flustered, let alone Aubrey. Finally, as the two realized that their feelings of deep-rooted love for one another was not, in fact, isolated, euphoria took over the both of them, though its true grasp reached Aubrey first as she suddenly lunged towards Sunny with open arms, as did Sunny, though without the whole jumping and lunging onto another human being part.
There, the sound of Aubrey’s upbeat laughing and Sunny’s soft, yet contagious giggles was heard by nobody but themselves. Aubrey fell right on top of Sunny as they both collapsed onto the treehouse floor, both parties rolling around as their laughter only continued. After a decent chunk of time had passed, the two managed to contain themselves, they both sat upwards on the floor, their faces smiling, flushing messes.
“I-I can’t believe it! I’m… I’m not dreaming, am I?” Aubrey asked out of breath from the constant giggling she had just partaken in, questioning in-between breaths, as Sunny, too, was breathing harshly from a dose of his voice he usually wasn’t used to taking.
Sunny looked into Aubrey’s dazzling eyes as he responded, “I-I don’t think… I’m dreaming… this feels… too real t-to be a dream…” Sunny looked at his hands, which were quivering from sheer, utmost joy from knowing that the girl he’s had a crush on for so long has had feelings for him as well. He could scream with the highest-pitched voice anyone has heard, though he wasn’t about to do that, especially not when it could make for a terrible first impression for his crush.
However, a somewhat similarly-pitched “YELP!” came out of Sunny’s voice as he found his chest being tackled once again, though this time he managed to prevent his entire body from collapsing onto the hard floor of the treehouse. As Sunny looked down, he witnessed Aubrey grappling around his upper waist, a look of utmost positivity radiating from her very being, as Sunny could do nothing for the first few seconds except watch this girl wrap around him. Eventually, Sunny found enough energy in his arms to move them around Aubrey, reciprocating the hug as well.
The bow-wearing girl giggled in response as she softly questioned, “Hey, Sunny… I have a question?” The raven-haired boy simply hummed in response, all ears open to whatever Aubrey had to prosper. “Do you like cuddles?” Although the question by itself wouldn’t have seemed so weird, the context being the scenario he was currently in gave Sunny a whole other layer of nervousness to the question, and yet, he wasn’t even sure why. As Aubrey looked up to him with sparkles in her eyes, she witnessed as Sunny slowly nodded his head, the furious flush on his cheeks and ears remaining just as beet red as they were the moment he and Aubrey confessed their love for one another at exactly the same time.
Giggling a bit, Aubrey suddenly heaved herself upward as her arms removed ahold of Sunny’s upper waist and proceeded to grapple around his back, the sudden force being ushered onto Sunny’s upper body doing him in and causing him to once again be sent crashing onto the treehouse floor. Aubrey snuggled her cheek just underneath Sunny’s chin as she responded, “Well, than will you mind if we stay here for a little bit?”
Despite laying flat on the ground, Aubrey could just barely catch the sight of Sunny nodding his head profusely, his cute, flustered face sending goosebumps down Aubrey’s skin, though they were the kind that gave her a burning sensation. As she felt Sunny’s breathing steady after the sudden collapse he had just taken, she was witness to her own devious smirk as Sunny’s arms more firmly wrapped around Aubrey’s back as the two became more and more comfortable within each other’s embrace.
For a solid minute, they both found themselves in perfect solidarity, being warmed by each other’s presence and that alone. Afterwards, Aubrey decided to strike up light conversation with the boy she’d been crushing on for so long, even if only for a bit. “Um… S-Sunny, i-if you don’t mind… I, uh… have another question… o-only if you’re okay with it.”
Her head was laying on Sunny’s neck, with her hair being a soft, fuzzy sensation for Sunny’s hands as the two remained laying on the floor of the treehouse. The normally stoic-faced boy, whose face couldn’t be any more content, came out with a quiet, “Of course, Aubrey. A-anything…” Any time she heard him talk, she could feel butterflies bursting from within her stomach. Hopefully he didn’t feel them too.
“How, uh… how long have you had a crush on me, for? Th-that’s only if yo-you’re, um… comfortable with answering, obviously!” Aubrey felt herself chuckle a slight bit as she noticed she may have just made the aura uncomfortable for him, something she was fretting would happen when she met him up here.
However, Sunny’s face, in spite of peering towards the young girl with surprise at first, initially found more content as he lay his head back flatly onto the ground, his breathing still remaining steady as it heaved Aubrey’s body upwards ever so slightly as she remained on top of the boy. “Not long after I met you… with the others.” Sunny plainly replied, though the sound of his voice was like a soothing aloe vera to the tips of her ears as the substance of his response slowly came to her.
…WHAT?!
Aubrey could do nothing but jitter up from shock, but it was a kind that only filled her with even more happiness, but also slight regret in having not pursued this relationship with him sooner. Had she known, had she even had the slightest clue, she could have done this so much sooner! She wouldn’t have had to pretend that Mr. Plantegg was Sunny whenever she wanted to feel like she was cuddling Sunny. Though, she had to admit that the embrace of the young boy was more comfortable and warming than that of her stuffed plushie.
As Aubrey felt herself become more comfortable within Sunny again after her initial reaction to Sunny’s answer, her muffled giggles only signifying the girls’ comfortableness within the raven-haired boy, she heard him follow up, replying, “You?” Aubrey’s face widened if just by a hair as her head shifted so that the side of her face was nudging against Sunny’s chest, taking a small inhale as she responded, “Um… kinda same here. I dunno when it started exactly, but… it wasn’t long after I met you… that day when you guys helped me find my lost shoe… that was one of the most important days of my life, you know?” Aubrey’s question was met with a singular nod by the boy, which made her exhale slowly as her arms crept up along Sunny’s back higher and higher until they met the back of his shoulders.
Afterwards, the two remained up there for an unprecedented amount of time, both of them perfectly content with each other’s embrace and warmth. Though they weren’t up there for any more than an hour and a half, it felt like so much longer for them, to the point where when they did finally break apart from their position inside of the tree house (much to their dismay) they were shocked to find it hadn’t even struck noon yet. Better for them both, since that meant they could spend the rest of the day together-
Sunny’s phone vibrated suddenly, and as inconvenienced by this as he was, he pulled the phone from his pocket as Aubrey looked onward, only to see that Hero was calling for him. That’s odd… weren’t Hero and Mari going to be hanging out today? After all… it is Valentine’s. As Sunny held the phone up to his ear, he could hear Hero’s somewhat concerned voice as he heard,
“Hey, um… Sunny… so, I’m with Mari right now, and… we can’t find Kel anywhere.”
***
The two groups of lovers had rejoined just as noon striked. Sunny and Aubrey filled both Hero and Mari in on what had happened in the treehouse, and though Hero was exceptionally surprised (and also proud) of the two of them, Mari made an active effort to appear shocked at the (not-so) revelation, though her smugness eventually was caught by the tall boy standing just beside her. However, he snuck in the decision to confront her about potential involvement with Sunny and Aubrey’s get-togethering for later. For now, he needed to find where his brother ran off to.
The gang had checked all over the place for the Orange Joe-loving kid; the park, back at his house, their hideout spot, and even Basil’s house. The last one was especially concerning, since Mari remembered that Basil had promised he’d keep Kel occupied whilst Sunny and Aubrey were out doing their thing. Not only was Kel missing, but Basil was also absent.
They were out for nearly an hour before Mari suddenly felt her own phone buzzing. She called out, “One second, guys, gotta check who’s-” She was expecting for one of her parents to be the culprit of her calling, however, she was astonished to see the name of a familiar blonde-haired boy who was attempting to reach out to her.
She immediately pressed ‘Accept’ and held the phone closely to her ear as she called out worryingly, “Basil, where are you?! Me and the others have been trying to search for you and Kel for ages!”
“Sorry, Mari, I, uh… wait, you aren’t on speaker, are you?” Basil questioned to the girl as she facepalmed and responded somewhat angrily, “Basil, you being on speaker or not isn’t the important factor right now, but no, I’m not.”
Basil giggled as he responded. “Good, good, I just know you wanted me to occupy Kel while Sunny and Aubrey confessed, and I snuck him out of Faraway so that he’d have no opportunity to snag Sunny away from her. I’m, uh… also keeping him hostage…”
…
“Basil… seriously?” Mari muttered aggressively, immediately being followed by an overtly loud voice that she could hear from across the room on the other line, shouting, “Oh, so THAT’S why you tied my arms and legs to a chair!”
Mari’s eyes widened significantly as her face filled with both fury and concern. She was gonna need to have a talk with Basil about all of this later, he had gone way too far this time! For now, though, the gang had to figure out where the hell Basil had taken Kel and get them back.
***
As it turned out, the hunt for the two of them lasted longer than they could’ve expected. Basil was keeping Kel hostage in a goddamn abandoned storage facility located on the outskirts of Faraway Town, a maneuver Mari was remarkably concerned about, knowing full-well she’d need to have a very long and lengthy conversation with the boy about this after they get back into town. For now, the gang all walked back, the lot of them all tired from their continuous efforts to find Basil and Kel. The only two who weren’t tired beyond recognition were Basil and Kel themselves, who had about as much energy as grains of sand at a beach. Considering they didn’t have to search for nearly four hours straight, it made perfect sense why that ended up being the case.
As the group approached the intersection that went over to Aubrey and Basil’s house, Mari tirelessly moaned, “Alright, Basil, I think it’s time for you to head home. You’d better… yawn … get ready for tomorrow, because we’re gonna have a very long informa-talk about why what you did today was outrageously dumb.”
“Hey, I was just doing what you asked,” Basil shrugged his shoulders as Mari’s eyes widened extravagantly towards the flower-wearing boy.
“I DIDN’T TELL YOU TO KIDNAP KEL AND HOLD HIM HOSTAGE!!” Mari screeched towards him, which ushered Basil to sprint at lightning speed towards his house in fear, the others being jostled awake by Mari’s roaring voice. Mari was always a very calm and passionate person, so whenever her passion was put into yelling at someone angrily, all eyes focused on her and the tone of the air turned into one out of true primal fear.
“Ugh… anyways, I think you should head home too, Aubrey…” Hero rubbed his right eye as he felt himself on the verge of falling asleep. Though none of them had any dinner, they really weren’t feeling hungry to begin with. For starters, they had lunch somewhat late because of their prolonged hunt for Basil and Kel, and although it was already evening, their digestion over their lunches hadn’t fully set in yet, leading to a situation of sleepiness over hunger.
Aubrey yawned sheepishly as she murmured half-awakedly, “U-um, actually… Mari, Sunny… can I sleep over at your guys’ house tonight?” Aubrey’s eyes were fluttering downwards, though she was by no means about to fall asleep standing up like this. She’d save the moment of letting the sleepy take over her body when she was in the house, laying down with the boy of her dreams.
Sighing both out of exhaustion, but also out of awareness of Aubrey’s plans to spend more time with her lover, Mari uttered lowly, “Sure, Aubrey. Hero, Kel, you’re free to join us too…”
Kel made a gagging sound as he replied, “I don’t wanna sleep with Aubrey, she’ll give me cooties!”
“I won’t be sleeping with you, idiot!” Aubrey tirelessly yelled at him before Hero swiftly cut off any further tensions between the bickering duo.
“Relax, you two,” Hero calmly responded boldly, despite his exhaustion. “How’s about I take Kel home, and I’ll meet up with you later, Mari…” Hero proposed, a plan to which the rest of the gang agreed to in a heartbeat. After Hero and Kel split up with the others, Mari, Aubrey and Sunny made their way towards their house, with a wrung-out Mari having to explain to both her parents where she and her brother have been all day…
***
Before they all knew it, the time for resting was at hand. The sleepover didn’t last long into the night at all. In fact, they all went to bet in-between 8 and 9 PM, only because the gang was already so fruitlessly tired at that point, so getting some good rest was paramount for them at that point.
Hero and Mari (supposedly) had already fallen asleep on Mari’s bed together when Sunny and Aubrey had crawled on top of the raven-haired boy’s bed together, quickly laying down on their sides, facing each other and wrapping their arms around the tops of their backs. As the two lay for a second, fighting with what little strength they had to keep the tiredness from forcing their eyes shut for just a bit to conclude the night, Sunny heard Aubrey whisper out,
“Sunny… thank you so much for today. I… had fun, despite everything.” As Sunny felt the soothing voice of the bow-wearing girl bestow itself onto his eardrums, he smiled slightly as he nodded in response. The two, with quickly flurrying eyes, looked at their pupils, starry from their love-stricken feelings for one another, feeling the grasps of sleep growing closer and closer.
But before the two drifted off, Aubrey’s grasp on Sunny tightened by just a hair, with Sunny reciprocating the action as the two firmly held one another in their arms, pushing themselves closer together. Finally, with one final notion of her mouth, Aubrey whispered out, “Good night, Sunny… I love you…”
Aubrey heard onto her ears just before she lost all sense of herself, her mind slipping away into dream world, “G’night Aub… love you too…” Then, the sound of the two’s faint breathing came in as the shuffling of someone on the bed next to Sunny’s came forward. A sleeping Hero remained undeterred from his current dream, whatever that may be, but Mari, with a very, VERY tired and exhausted expression, yet still pertaining that smug-ass grin on her face, looked with absolute content and confidence at her little brother and his girlfriend. She chuckled ever-so-quietly as to not wake any of the others currently resting in the room up as her head slowly fell down onto her pillow, her head shifting to turn towards Hero.
Her eyes closed swiftly as she accumulated a few finishing thoughts from within her head before she concluded her night with a good rest. Everything went according to plan… well, aside from maybe Basil being a sociopath, but Sunny and Aubrey finally confessed to one another, and I couldn’t be happier.
Now, they can be content and happy with one another. I cannot wait to see what fond memories they will make together now that they have become more than just friends.
I am so proud of you, little brother…