Chapter Text
The view on the window, with the trees rapidly passing by, was hypnotising for Sunny, who was resting his head in his hand, a bit nervous, to be honest. He was visiting Faraway Town for the summer, since he wanted to see how his... friends?... were doing and just..., fix things. He felt like moving out after telling the truth was probably something quite shocking for them, and he still felt like he had to redeem himself. Still, he didn't know how they would react, which was giving him a lump in the throat.
It wasn't like there was zero contact, Kel made sure to keep him updated, and send him funny things to distract him. Apparently Basil seemed to be doing very well lately, or at least in the week Sunny was going to arrive, Kel was saying that he was surprised with the sudden progress of the flower boy. Sunny hoped that his visit wouldn't mess things up, and when he was thinking this, he touched his right eye, which had an eyepatch on top of it. Yeah... Things would be better no matter what.
They finally parked, in front of a hotel, and Sunny put on his backpack and got out of the car, with his suitcase in his hand, taking a deep breath. Summer breeze was definitely a blessing.
"Are you ready, Sunny?" his mom said, stepping out as well "I bet Kel wants to see you. You can go talk to him" she tried to take his suitcase, but Sunny refused. He wanted to sit and rest a bit before that.
They entered the hotel, searching for their rooms. The hallways were so white, a yellow-ish white... Sunny didn't know how to feel about the lights either. Even when he entered his hotel room, it was... still yellow-ish, and white. He sat in his white bed, and sighed, placing the suitcase on the floor, and interlocking his hands over his forehead, with his elbows placed on his legs. His sight wasn't focused on anything, he could only feel the heavy feeling in his head, the apathy, and the butterflies in his stomach. He hated those butterflies.
Sunny decided to unpack his things, just to make Kel wait longer. He was nauseous, and didn't want to see his friend in that state.
Sunny didn't go to therapy in all the time he was away, even though he tried. He couldn't talk about his problems, it just made him have a breakdown, and hurt him even more. Also, he hated mental professionals in general, they treated him... like he was crazy. Was he? Maybe, but... he was also a person. So... he was just trying to improve by himself, and he was doing fine in his opinion. He was resigned to live, so his suicidal thoughts were very low, and he was too tired and bored to attempt. He was going outside more, he even started studying at one point, and it was going alright. He was handling his hygiene quite well, as well. His mother was working a lot to get money, so she didn't see his progress enough, but she said that she was proud of him.
He was thinking this, when his mom opened the door.
'Speak of the devil', he thought.
"Hey, honey. Kel is outside of the hotel"
"W-what?" Sunny said, frowning, confused. He didn't tell Kel they were in that hotel. He tilted his head, knowing that his mom probably told his friend about it. He wasn't ready yet though, that was unfair...
"He's waiting for you, dear. You should go and see him. Don't be rude"
Sunny sighed, upset, and got out of the room to exit the hotel.
He got down reluctantly, and saw Kel against the wall of the hotel, outside, happy and with his arms crossed.
"Sunny!!" he exclaimed, as soon as he saw his friend "I missed you so much, dude. I was... Oh my, I have so many things to tell you!" he patted his arm, affectionately.
Sunny didn't understand why did that guy still love him after all that happened, how he could consider him his friend, but he was too tired to overthink that.
"Come on! Let's go eat some ice cream! We should hang out a bit" Kel added, smiling warmly at him.
The 17 year old was looking taller than last time, and he was probably not going to grow any taller. Sunny was happy with that, having a tree as a friend would be disturbing. At least Kel was taller than Hero. Hero... Sunny felt a chill running down his spine.
While he was having all kinds of thoughts about Hero and hatred and trauma, Kel was tilting his head, still smiling. Kel pulled him by the hand, making him flinch, and started running, carrying him. Kel was still a ray of sunshine...
"What flavour do you want, Sunny?" the tall boy asked, looking at Sunny.
"Um... Vanilla?"
"Vanilla it is!!" Kel looked ecstatic.
They ordered their ice cream.
"You know?" Kel said, devouring his chocolate ice cream "There's many things that I didn't tell you about. Like, Aubrey got less stupid, you know? And she told me I was less stupid myself! We are... getting along at least. She got bored of being a bully, which is something... She dyed her hair again, you have to see her! And I already told you about Basil, he's super smiley and he spends so much time doing his hobbies! He sees us sometimes, two days ago he showed us his new flowers. He planted some new lilies, he says he plans to make the garden even bigger with new flowers each time! He doesn't know you arrived today... You have to visit him, Sunny" he looked his friend in the eye, with his whole mouth full of chocolate. Sunny was already wanting him to shut up, he was feeling dizzy "Hey, you barely touched your ice cream. You're nervous, right? Hey" he put a hand on his shoulder, smiling brightly at him "We all want to see you, even if Hero was a bit... upset last time. He's accepting it pretty well. Same with Aubrey. She may be angry, but if she can see Basil, she can totally see you" he said all this so gently that Sunny couldn't help but smile a little "Your ice cream is melting right here. Hurry!"
Sunny obeyed him, licking the melting ice cream, although his hands got dirty anyways. He hated the sticky texture of dry ice cream in his hands, he hated it. He didn't hate Kel though, this whole interaction was making his heart warm. Still, he was scared to see Basil.
Obviously, Kel's ice cream disappeared within seconds, and he took out a water bottle out of the little bag he was carrying. After drinking, he cleaned his hands with it, and offered to clean Sunny's hands after that. Sunny's ice cream got wrapped in tissues to avoid the sticky surface.
"Let's go look for Aubrey, she has to be somewhere near" Kel said, happy, and grabbed him by the arm again to run, excited.
Kel still had that playful energy Sunny liked, that positivity and brightness, that... thing that made him Kel. He would never change.
They looked everywhere, while Sunny was finishing his ice cream, until they found her on the beach, hanging out with her friends. Sunny's heart skipped a beat when he saw her purple hair, and heard her laugh. Purple? Purple...
"Heeeey, Aubreyyyyy!!" Kel exclaimed, shaking his hand in the air "Look who's hereeee~!!"
"Sunny!" Aubrey ran towards the boy, shocked. She stared at him for a bit, unsure of what to do "Sunny"
"Yeah, we know his name"
"Oh, shut up, Kel!" Aubrey looked at him reproachfully, before facing Sunny again "Well, um... Hi. I hope you're doing... better and stuff"
Sunny nodded. The greeting was good enough.
"We just ate ice cream together, talking about what happened during all this time" Kel said.
"Oh. Well, I'm..."
"Is that the skinny nerd?" Kim said, interrupting Aubrey.
"Oh, hell yeah he is!" Angel exclaimed, getting up "Oh my God, he's less pale!!"
"I'm... I'm busy guys" Aubrey mustered, looking at Kel and then at Sunny "We can see each other later. I am... glad you're okay, Sunny" she smiled softly at him, still with a sad facial expression, before turning around to return to her friends.
"Cool to see you are alive and all! I was conspiring about you being-"
"Angel, please..."
Sunny and Kel stared at the group for a sec.
"Well, we can hang out tomorrow, eh, Sunny?" he looked at him with a smile, tilting his head.
"Y-yeah..."
Sunny was still looking at Aubrey, or, more like... Aubrey's hair. He wanted to ask her about it, but he was a bit scared.
"Looking at Aubrey's hair?" assumed Kel, and sighed, turning around. Sunny followed him "It helps her with the whole... Mari thing. She kind of wants to... become Mari now, I guess?" he chuckled "Girls like to do things to their hair when they're going through something, for some reason... One day her hair will fall out if she keeps bleaching it so much! Anyways, should we go see Basil now?"
"W-why??" Sunny looked at him, frowning in desperation. He was already dealing with his guilt and thoughts about his sister, naming Basil just made it worse. He didn't want to have a breakdown.
"Well, I mean... He's your friend, right?" Friend? "He misses you a lot, he wants to talk with you. He talks about you very often"
"... fine" Sunny sighed. He was feeling like slamming his own head on the wall.
"Hey, it'll be okay. He loves you a lot. And... I'm pretty sure that you're at least fond of him, like, you were interested in his well-being, so..." Kel patted his back "If you both break the ice, we can hang out perfectly tomorrow! All of us! Right?"
'No.', Sunny thought, but didn't say a thing.
"Did you know that Hero got a job?" the subject change was so big and sudden that Sunny almost flinched "He's a barista, for the moment. It's not impressive, or at least not for mom, but he's still studying so it's okay for her. They love him very much at his job... He's been kind of gloomy, but he's himself, which is all that matters, right? Oh, and he gets all the girls that's for sure, hehe... He's... not as happy about it as he would be, but I'm sure he’s having fun" he stopped by Basil's house, and then looked at Sunny, who suddenly froze "You are going to make Basil super happy, Sunny! Go ahead! I'll leave" Kel literally hid behind a bush. Sunny looked at him, confused "Go ahead!!" his friend insisted "I don't want to make you both more nervous with my presence. I will be here when you're done talking. Promise"
Sunny stared at him for a sec, then stared at the door. He was almost frozen by his fear, but Kel looked like he wasn't going to leave any soon, so he sighed and knocked on the door. Then he waited, feeling his heart beating out of his chest.
After hearing some quick steps, the door opened and he saw Basil, wearing a light sepia sweater. That surprised him, since it was august, but didn't think much of it, specially because the sweater looked very thin. Still, he hadn't changed a bit, he was just a bit taller.
"S-Sunny?" His old friend said, opening his eyes a lot. It also looked like he had stopped breathing. "Sunny, you're here!!" he hugged him suddenly, but apparently panicked because he let go of him "Sorry, I just really missed you" he chuckled nervously "Come on in, I... I... Yeah" he went inside.
Sunny looked at Kel (who gave him a thumbs up) and decided to enter Basil's house. The house was looking pretty clean and neat, just as expected. As soon as Sunny closed the door, Polly came out of the kitchen. She was probably cooking lunch.
"Oh, Sunny! We didn't expect you here!" she said, looking very happy "Basil wanted to see you so badly... Do you want something to eat? Drink?" Sunny shook his head "No? Alright. I'm here if you need anything"
Sunny went upstairs, since Basil wasn't in the living room. He saw him in his room, fidgeting with his fingers, sitting in his bed. Sunny entered and sat on the floor, which made Basil sit on the floor as well, next to him. They stayed in silence, avoiding each other's gaze.
"Do you hate me, Sunny?" Basil said then, with a somber look in the eyes.
It was a weird, sudden question, but Sunny expected anything from him. He felt that he had to talk for once.
"I don't".
That seemed to be enough for Basil, since he smiled at him. Sunny wondered how the hell could Basil keep smiling after all that had happened.
"It's fine if you do, though"
Sunny just stared at him, before sighing. He looked at the wall, although he really wasn't paying attention to it.
"I hurt you too" Sunny said "It's fair. We were scared"
"Still, I'm sorry for what happened. You were braver than me. I'm just... Mm..." he looked away "D-did you make new friends in the new neighbourhood?" he added, with a shaky voice.
"Not really. I was focused on other things... Mostly my thoughts"
"Do you still have the photo album?"
Sunny noded, and got up. He opened his backpack and quickly showed him the cover of the album.
"I made sure to take it with me"
"We should see everyone else" Basil smiled, looking at him again. Sunny looked back, gloomy "I bet they would be happy to see it"
"Mm"
"Do... Do you want to see my garden?" Basil looked desperate to reconnect with Sunny. Sunny thought that it was fair, nodding. "Sweet!"
Basil quickly got out of his room and rushed through the stairs. Sunny followed him until they both reached the garden. Basil immediately guided him to the lilies.
"They bloomed a few days ago"
"Kel told me"
Basil sighed, gently putting his hand under the petals of the flower.
"It's interesting... That you arrived today... a bit after these flowers bloomed... Since they mean rebirth and all that... And obviously other things but... Yeah" he smiled warmly at him. Sunny didn't doubt Kel's words: Basil did love him a lot. "I plan to plant more flowers... Maybe you can help me pick the next one, Sunny"
Sunny thought for a moment. He didn't know that much about flowers.
"Well, as you can see," Basil continued saying "I made sure each one of my flowers were safe. I hope the sun treats them well... Summer must be scary for all of them" he sighed "You know? For a moment, I thought I'd never see you again... Silly, right? Heh..."
"Why? I thought you knew that I was in good terms with you"
"You can forgive someone, but still don't want to see them again..."
"Fair"
"Mhm... Where are you located right now?" Basil looked at him again.
"I'm in a hotel, a little far away from here. It's not like we can't go on foot, but..." he didn't continue.
"Maybe... You can... No" Basil shook his head, fearing messing it up.
"We plan to hang out tomorrow"
"Huh?"
"Kel wants to"
"Well, then... Maybe we could all go and buy the seeds" Basil kept looking at his flowers "Are you going to see Hero today as well?"
"Yeah. Because… Kel."
Basil chuckled.
"He's excited. He wants things to be like they used to..." his face looked incredibly sad for a second "I... Let's not lose more time. You should go back with Kel, pretty sure he's waiting. Also, I have to water my babies... I mean, flowers..." he blushed.
"Okay, then. Bye" said Sunny, with his monotone voice, and turned around to leave.
"Wait, Sunny!" Basil suddenly said, grabbing his arm.
Sunny turned and looked at him, which made Basil feel stupid and small.
"... Be safe"