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Sunny comes to a stop in the middle of the sidewalk. A few paces ahead of him and caught up in the story he’s recounting of something that happened to him in class today, Basil doesn’t notice immediately, continuing to walk a few paces until he suddenly seems to become aware of Sunny’s absence at his side. It is of little concern to Sunny, who stopped hearing him about thirty seconds back, staring up at the tree they were passing under.
“Sunny?” Basil tips his head to the side and rocks on his feet as if considering backtracking. “What’s the matter?”
Sunny points wordlessly at the branches. It’s a little difficult to see between the grey fur and the crowded leaves, but tucked up in the foliage and trembling like a baby branch is a little kitten, no longer than the length of Sunny’s forearm. Basil lets out an ah of realisation, then, as Sunny approaches the trunk, scratches the back of his neck.
“I mean… we should obviously help, but don’t you think we should um,” Basil eyes Sunny warily as he sizes up the tree trunk, “grab our parents, maybe find a ladder or something?”
Ignoring him, Sunny shrugs off his backpack, and then his jacket, leaving them in a pile at the base of the trunk. Then he leaps for the lowest hanging branch, catching it on the second jump and kicking his legs to hoist himself up. The bark is rough and cold, scratchy beneath his palms in the early autumn chill, but Sunny pays it no mind, using his knees to get enough leverage to pull himself over the branch. Then up to the next, which are significantly closer.
“Sunny,” says Basil, from the ground. “Those branches don’t look very—uh, stable.”
Sunny flashes Basil a thumbs up. This he knows. Which means the sooner he gets this cat out of the tree, the better. He’s not the most athletic out there, but he likes to explore, and it’s easy enough with his mind set on something to scale the rest of the branches, stopping with his knees braced against the thinnest branch he can afford to rest on and extending a hand to the kitten.
The kitten is obviously wary, but responds well when Sunny clicks his tongue, and sniffs curiously at his fingertips. With a cautious meow, the cat sticks out a paw and carefully clambers into Sunny’s arms. It’s usually not good to coddle a shy animal right away, but Sunny isn’t exactly working under ideal circumstances right now, so all he can really do is do his best to be gentle as he tucks the kitten in against his collar. It earns him a little meow of dissatisfaction, but the kitten relaxes quickly, tail flicking against his back.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Sunny flexes one of his hands against the cold wood. He might’ve gotten a splinter, but it’s fine, since the kitty is secured now. He readjusts his hold on the branch he’s gripping, looking down to plan his path back to the ground, and—
A wave of dizziness hits him, abruptly. Oh, he is so much higher than he thought he was.
Beneath him, Basil watches with transparent anxiety, pacing back and forth, his hands fluttering at his pockets. “Sunny, you okay up there? Did you get the cat? I can’t really see you…” He rambles when he gets nervous, Basil does. Sunny doesn’t usually mind this, but his breaths are beginning to come in quick and short, hot against the inside of his cheek, so it’s really not ideal, having to worry about Basil’s nerves. He extends his hand far enough to flash a thumbs up, then lets out a startled, squeaking breath when it knocks him off balance; he has to quickly adjust so he won’t topple right out of the tree.
Basil clearly notices, and flinches.
“Gee, you look a bit unsteady up there.”
You think?! Sunny would say, if he could speak, but his throat has closed up. He can usually talk aloud when it’s just Basil, but his heart is pounding way too hard to even consider trying that right now. Sign is out of the question too with his hands busy keeping him stable. All he can really do is shoot Basil an unimpressed look and hope it gets across what he’s thinking. Thankfully, Basil’s always been pretty good at reading his mind.
“Okay, I’m sorry, um…” Basil looks around. “There’s got to be a ladder somewhere nearby, maybe…” His hands flutter at his sides, and then he gasps. “Oh! I have an idea! Sunny, stay there, okay? I’ll be right back!”
Stay there, he says. Where would Sunny go? But Basil is already running off before Sunny can give him another stink eye. It’s difficult with his legs shaking so badly, but seeing as he’ll be here for a while, Sunny shifts to lean his ass against the tree trunk, looking up rather than down, hoping that will help with the queasiness a little.
It’s surreal, a little bit, being up here. Sunny can’t remember being up this high since his fear of heights developed, would never have climbed the tree consciously if it hadn’t been for the cat. His fingers tremble and his heart flutters as he pries them off the branch near him, but it’s somewhat comforting to scratch his nails through the fur on the kitten’s neck, so this is at least a consolation. The cat is also decently warm, enough that Sunny isn’t trembling from the cold, which would only make the current precarious situation worse.
His legs feel a bit weak. He can only assume that’s the adrenaline ebb. It’s as if every sensation in his body kicked in at once: sore palms, sweaty neck, aching chest. The ground seems to swell every time Sunny’s eyes so much as glance in that direction, and Sunny can feel every little shift of the branches. He finds himself wishing it was hotter out, if only so there would be less wind, but of course he wouldn’t get so lucky.
It’s hard to tell how much time has passed by the time Basil returns, calling his name. He’s not alone. At one of his shoulders is Hero, looking significantly more stressed out than Basil—though he smiles quickly when Sunny catches him looking—and at the other shoulder is—
“Sunny!” Kel echoes Basil’s call, running up to the tree trunk and stopping with his hands against it. He eyes the lowest branch—which is, it must be said, much closer to his head than it had been to Sunny’s—then looks back up at him. Kel is a little funny. You can always tell exactly what’s running through his head. It’s just the kind of person he is. Sunny is able to watch, even from up above, as he runs through the logistics of climbing up the tree and bringing Sunny down himself—able to see in real time as Kel decides that probably isn’t feasible. A bracing smile is on his face when he next looks up. “Wow, you’re really up there.”
“You okay, Sun?” Hero asks, coming to a stop behind his brother. He’s leaned back onto his heels, his gaze more assessing now than stressed out. Hero leans anxious, but he’s good at working under pressure, will probably hold it together pretty well until Sunny is safely on the ground. “Didn’t hurt anything?”
Sunny considers it. Actually, a lot of his body hurts, but it’s not like he’s injured. It would be difficult to communicate that through body language without actual sign though, so he just shrugs vaguely and hopes Hero understands it’s a question with a complicated answer.
“...I’ll check you out when you’re down here,” Hero decides. “Listen, Sunny, I’m going to walk you through climbing back down here, okay?”
Hm. See, Basil had absolutely had the right idea in grabbing the Montoyas—outside of Mari, there’s nobody Sunny trusts more to bail him out of a shitty situation—but the idea of actively climbing down this tree is heart attack inducing. Sunny tightens his grip on his life-saving branch and shakes his head, can only see out of the corner of his eye when Hero smiles at him.
“Come on, buddy, you’ve got this,” Hero insists. “We’re all right here, nothing’s going to go wrong. You just have to take it slow and steady.”
Hero does not, in fact, know that nothing will go wrong, but there’s a part of Sunny—maybe the twelve year old part of him that’d crushed on Hero a little bit—that can’t help believing him a little. It’s enough to at least loosen his grip on the branch again, shaking his hand slightly to dislodge any prospective splinters. When Hero speaks again, Sunny ends up listening.
“I want you to move your feet first, okay? Hold onto that branch there and just bring your foot down to the branch right below it, on your left. Face the trunk, too, and don’t look down at us—just focus on what you’re doing.”
“You’ve got this, Sunny,” Kel adds, in a lowered voice, and it’s that more than Hero’s careful instruction that gets Sunny to listen, taking in a deep breath and using one hand to brace the kitten while he slides his foot down to the lower branch. There’s a moment of weightlessness, particularly because he isn’t watching to see where his foot is going, but the moment the ball of his foot hits the wood, all the tension rushes out of him. His head slumps against the trunk.
It’s easy to hear the smile in Hero’s voice when he speaks again. “Good! You’re gonna keep moving like that. Slow and steady, just one foot after the other, and then your hands. Don’t think about where you are, just focus on the branches. You’re not gonna fall, Sunny.”
Again with the temptation to snark at him. There is literally no possible way that Hero could know that, but Sunny acquiesces, in part because the kitten chooses that moment to shuffle and remind him of its presence, and well, he’s got to get the kitten down to the ground. It’d defeat the purpose of coming up here otherwise.
It has to be said, too, that Hero’s method is effective. Sunny follows it out of a lack of other options, guided along by Kel and occasionally Basil’s encouragement, taking the branches one after another until he reaches that first one he started with. What happens after that is a little embarrassing: still moving on autopilot and used to not looking for where he’s putting his feet, Sunny slides his foot along the trunk and lands on nothing, which causes him to lose his balance and stumble backwards, arms windmilling in an attempt at catching him.
It’s not his arms that catch him, however, but Kel.
The change in environment is abrupt, and a little jarring. The feeling of grappling for stability and finding nothing is suddenly replaced with the warmth and stability of Kel’s chest, and his arms, which wrap tightly around Sunny’s torso, hugging him in close. Sunny gasps—and maybe it comes out a bit strangled—and only barely has the presence of mind to foist the kitten off onto Basil before he grasps onto Kel’s shoulders.
“Hey, hey,” Kel is already starting to mumble to him, one arm secured under his legs while the other wraps tight around his back. “You’re okay, Sunny, you made it, I got you, you’re okay.”
This, Sunny knows, but the verbal affirmation is welcome anyway. He presses his nose hard against Kel’s neck, breathing him in (and admittedly, he smells a little gross, like sweat even despite the cold weather) and feeling shudders run through his body. His legs and arms feel somewhat numb, his shoulders throbbing with this suddenly persistent ache, but the relief of being on the ground is so overwhelming his eyes are starting to prickle. Sunny kicks his legs so his knees hook around Kel’s side, digging his fingers into the fabric of his coat.
“Really good work, Sunny,” Hero says, from somewhere behind him. A hand drops on the top of his head, ruffling his hair lightly, and Sunny doesn’t even have the energy to fake indignant about it. He leans into Hero’s hand, and a little childishly lets out a whine when Hero starts to move away.
A little closer than Hero, Basil murmurs, “You okay, Sunny? I’m sorry I took so long to come back after leaving you alone up there.”
Truly, Sunny could not have asked for Basil to have handled that any differently. He will say as much later. For now he just goes to the trouble of disentangling his hand from Kel’s shirt and flashing Basil a thumbs up. That will have to be enough until he finds his voice again.
“Geez, you’re shivering,” Kel comments. He shuffles Sunny away from his chest—unfortunately—and tugs his own sweatshirt over his head, draping it around Sunny’s shoulders. It’s large enough that it practically engulfs him, and Sunny feels the warmth shoot through him, heady enough that it almost stops the shivers in their tracks. He’s able, then, to pick his head up and look at Kel’s face, the little crease between his eyebrows, the way he tries to smile when their eyes meet.
He is, unfortunately, ridiculously handsome when he’s worried, and Sunny pulls his hands away to tell him as much.
“I—huh?” Kel laughs. He lopes an arm under Sunny’s back again, squeezing him in close. “Okay, we’d better bring you home. And that cat… uh, what should we do with it?”
“Mm…” Basil considers it. The cat has taken to him as well it seems, lounging now in his hair. Basil winces occasionally at the kitten’s paw motions, it seems to be making biscuits. “Well, he can’t come home with me with all the plants…”
Mewo gets a little territorial—something about girl cats—so Sunny shakes his head too. Hero looks between the two of them, gaze lingering for a moment on Sunny, then offers another smile.
“Don’t worry about it, I’ll take over from here,” Hero decides. He reaches his hands to the kitten and all but scoops it out of Basil’s curls, his lip twitching with fondness when the kitten lets out a little mew in protest. “You’ll get Sunny home safe, right, Kel?”
Kel beams, adjusting his hold on Sunny somewhat so he can sit with his chin over Kel’s shoulder, one of his hands coming to rest against the middle of his back. “You got it!”
It is entirely possible that more is said after that. If you asked Sunny, he might not be able to tell you. At some point Kel starts moving him, and he thinks his belongings are taken care of too—frankly, Sunny is pretty sure he doses off, too comfortable against Kel’s shoulder to focus on keeping his head upright. It’s a lot, the adrenaline crash. Sunny hadn’t realised how brutal it was.
He comes to at some point after they’ve parted ways—not back in his house, but seated outside of Kel’s. Or, well, Kel is seated. Sunny has to take some time to orient himself, because when his eyes open again it’s to a faceful of cloudy grey sky and also Kel and his big brown eyes. As Sunny’s senses return to him, he becomes aware of the feeling of grass beneath his arms, the warmth of Kel’s thighs beneath his head, the hand stroking through his hair. He’s laid out in Kel’s lap.
This, indeed, is not so bad, so Sunny closes his eyes back up and rolls onto his side. Kel’s laugh floats down from somewhere above him.
“You might be more comfortable if you went to sleep inside y’know,” Kel points out, and his hand threads through Sunny’s hair again. “Just didn’t go in ‘cause you said you didn’t want me to leave yet.”
Did Sunny say that? That sounds like something he would say, though maybe not out loud. He feels needy right now, kind of always does when Kel is around, but especially so right now, so maybe that’s why he says it. His voice works well enough again that he can grumble about it, pressing his face in against Kel’s stomach.
“Okay, okay.” Kel is still laughing, but it doesn’t feel demeaning or mocking in any way—the laughter is soft, a little affectionate. Sunny mostly just likes how Kel’s eyes squint when he laughs. “You know, you were really brave back there. Not just climbing down, I mean going up for the cat in the first place and stuff.”
Sunny hums. He barely remembers it. It’s just hard not to forget everything else when there’s an animal involved. He’s not sure he’d call that brave.
“Well, anyways, I was really impressed. I thought that was cool.” Kel’s hand stills in Sunny’s hair. “I wanted you to know. Doesn’t make it less cool that you were scared. More like… It’s kinda more impressive, that you were so scared but did it anyway.”
Kel, Sunny is beginning to realise, is rambling. Sunny adjusts so he can peek up with Kel with one eye, realises there are wrinkles in his forehead, enough that he can count. Sloppily, lacking much coordination, Sunny reaches up and tries to smooth those out, sticks his tongue out of the corner of his mouth.
It earns him a smile, albeit one that’s slightly nervous. “Sorry, sorry. I’m not lying, you know?”
“Didn’t think you were,” Sunny mumbles, and flattens his thumb between Kel’s eyebrows.
“I know. But… yeah. I guess—” Kel swallows, his gaze flickering away, then back to Sunny’s face. He only makes expressions like that when he’s really not sure of himself. “I know Hero kinda took over back there, and it was good, but—I’m sorry I didn’t help you more. I didn’t want it to seem like—I mean, I just wanted you to know I thought it was cool what you did and—and so you didn’t like, get the idea that I thought—I mean, I dunno.”
What is this boy talking about? Sunny drags his hand down to press his thumb against Kel’s lips. They’re soft, which is something to revisit later, but more importantly the gesture is very effective at making Kel shut up, which is kind of needed here. Not that Sunny doesn’t like to hear him talk, but also…
“You helped me,” Sunny says. “I knew you would catch me the second I saw you.” He taps Kel’s lips with his thumb again, then drops his arm. Closes his eyes and listens to the little punched out exhale Kel gives at that.
“Okay,” Kel says, then lets out a sheepish-sounding laugh. “Okay. I mean, yeah, I would have—I mean, I did catch you, but—I was gonna all along, so.”
Sunny smiles. He doesn’t like that Kel is nervous about this, obviously, but yeah, the rambling is a little cute. Significantly cuter than what Basil was doing earlier.
“Uh-huh,” Sunny murmurs. Kel’s hand finds its way back to his hair, and Sunny feels his thumb toying with the strands at the back of his neck, the ones that are a little sweaty. Maybe they’re both kind of gross.
Whatever. Like Sunny is going to complain with the earth at his back. Maybe he’ll find something to gripe about later, but for now, he’s got his head in a pretty boy’s lap and he saved a cat and he didn’t break all his bones for it, so hey. A win’s a win’s a win, or whatever they say.