Chapter Text
Today was recital day.
They were gonna be performing in front of a lot of people today.
They had been practicing for a good few months now.
It needed to be perfect.
Everything needed to be perfect, she said.
They needed to get everything right, she said.
They couldn’t mess up, she said
They needed to be perfect , she said.
And he wanted to be perfect for her.
At least… At first.
But with time, the strive to reach her level of “ perfection ” would only become more stressful.
Whenever he messed up, she would get mad at him and start complaining about how they needed to be perfect .
And with each passing day, it would only get worse.
For every mistake he made, she would get angrier and angrier.
Whenever they got done practicing, his fingers would ache from holding down those strings for so long.
Overtime, cuts and bruises were beginning to show.
It hurt.
He was tired.
Mentally, and physically.
He had been trying so hard to live up to his sister’s standards…
But no matter how hard he tried, he would always screw it up.
It just wasn’t good enough.
He wasn’t good enough.
Why wasn’t he good enough?
Why couldn’t he just be perfect?
All the yelling, the stress, the pain, the anger inside of him…
He couldn’t take it anymore.
He just couldn’t take it anymore.
As Mari continued to press on the piano keys, she stopped when she realized her brother had suddenly stopped playing his violin.
“Huh? Sunny, why did you stop playing? We still have time to practice before the recital starts!”
But… He didn’t say anything.
He just stood there… Quiet, looking down at the floor as the violin dangled in his hands.
Mari was… Confused.
Why did he just stop playing all of a sudden when they still had time to practice?
“Sunny? Are you okay? What’s wrong?”
Mari tilted her head in confusion as she asked that question, but Sunny still wasn’t responding.
Before she could do anything else, though, Sunny had suddenly bolted it out of the room without any warning.
“H-hey, Sunny, where are you going?!”
Sunny didn’t stop until he made it to the staircase.
He stared down as his grip on the violin began to tighten.
His vision was beginning to grow clouded.
He was angry.
He was tired.
All he wanted was to spend time with his sister.
All of this was just too much.
And… He thought he heard someone yelling at him from the side, maybe it was Mari, but his hearing was too blurry to care about that right now.
What was it he was holding again?
Whatever, that didn’t matter right now.
He didn’t care anymore.
Without any second thoughts, he wound up and threw whatever it was in his hands down the staircase with all his might.
As he stood there, he was snapped out of his trance when he heard a loud crash, along with a few snaps.
…
When he came to, he had noticed his violin had been shattered to pieces, with a few strings cut loose.
…
Wait, he didn’t mean to do that… Did he?
It must’ve been an accident… Right?
When he turned to his right, he saw his sister Mari staring down at the violin, her face one of astonishment.
“Sunny…”
…
Then, she turned to face him, her face contorting to one of anger.
“How… HOW COULD YOU DO THAT?! DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD WE WORKED TO GET YOU THAT VIOLIN?! WE WON’T EVEN BE ABLE TO FIX IT BEFORE THE RECITAL STARTS!! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!”
Sunny took a step back in fear as Mari began stepping towards her in rage, her words echoing throughout the empty house.
He was scared.
Why was she so mad at him?
He didn’t mean to do that…
Sunny tried to run past her down the stairs, but she had simply gotten his way, blocking his only exit.
“HEY- WHERE DO YOU THINK YOUR GOING, YOUNG MAN?! I’M NOT FINISHED TALKING TO YOU!”
As she continued to yell further, Sunny was beginning to grow more overwhelmed.
He hated this.
He hated this so much.
He just wanted all of this to stop.
He just wanted all of this to stop.
Kel could barely contain his excitement.
Today would be the day he and his family would get to see Mari and Sunny perform at the recital today.
His mother wanted them to look presentable before they went, though, so she tasked his father with taking Kel to get a haircut while she took Hero out to go shopping for clothes.
He was so excited to see what Mari and Sunny could do after a whole month’s worth of practice!
“Kel, start finishing up, champ, we’re about to leave soon!”
“YES DAD!”
Kel was just finishing putting his pants on when a thought had suddenly popped into his head.
What if… He could go over to his friends’ house so he could give him some encouragement before their big day?
Yeah, he knew they were gonna have to go soon, but… It wouldn’t hurt anyone to do something like that, right?
…
Yeah, that sounds like a good game plan!
…
Juuust as long as his dad was okay with it at least.
When Kel finished up everything he needed to get done, he rushed downstairs before asking his dad a question he hoped wouldn’t end up getting turned down.
“Wait, dad, before we go, could I please go and visit Sunny and Mari, please??”
“Hm? Ehhh, weeell…”
Kel’s dad scratched his chin as he thought of an answer for Kel’s question.
“Please dad, pleeeaaaaaase, pretty please?? I promise I’ll try and be quick about it, just pleeeaaaase, pretty pretty pleeeaaaaase??”
Kel’s dad hesitated for a moment, before ultimately giving a sigh of defeat.
“Well… Ah, alright, go ahead and knock yourself out champ.”
“YES!! THANKS DAD, YOUR THE BEST!”
Kel promptly hugged his dad in response before bolting out the front door in a flash.
“TRY NOT TO LOSE TRACK OF TIME, SON! I’LL COME OVER AND PICK YOU UP WHEN IT’S TIME TO GO IF YOUR NOT HOME IN TIME!”
“YES DAAAAD!!”
Kel happily skipped along the sidewalk as he thought to himself how great of a day this was going to be.
Not only was he gonna see Sunny and Mari perform at the recital today, but he’d even get a chance to see how well they’ve been practicing before then too!
Man, today was gonna be awesome.
It felt like no time at all before Kel eventually made it to the Suzuki household.
Kel knocked on the door and shouted out to catch the attention of anyone who could’ve been inside.
“HELLOOOOOOO! SUNNY, MARI, YOU IN THERE? IT’S ME, KEL! I CAME TO SEE YOU GUYS BEFORE THE RECITAL!”
With that, Kel giddily awaited a response.
And waited.
And waited.
And waited…
…
…
Huh.. It sure was taking a while for someone to answer.
Were they still practicing?
…
Ah, yeah, they must’ve still been practicing before Kel came around and just loudly announced himself without them knowing.
Kel nervously chuckled to himself as he rubbed the back of his neck at this thought.
“Err… HEY, I’M NOT INTERRUPTING OR ANYTHING, AM I? YOU GUYS WON’T MIND IF I COME IN, RIGHT??”
Once more, Kel awaited a response from inside the house.
And waited.
And… Waited…
…
Man, they must’ve been pretty busy in there, huh?
They must’ve been, considering no one was answering the door for him since he got here!
But… Kel didn’t want to miss his chance to see Sunny and Mari before he had to go.
He did not come all the way here in the hopes to see his friends just to be ignored by them, gosh darn it!
So, Kel raised his hand up and prepared to knock on the door again, when suddenly…
…
He could just about make out the sound of someone shouting from inside the house.
Huh, that’s weird… What was going on in there?
Curious, he pressed his ear on the door to see what they were yelling about.
The more he listened in on it, the more he realized it kind of sounded like… Mari?
…
Now that definitely couldn’t have been right…
What could possibly cause Mari to shout like that?
The last time Kel ever heard Mari raise her voice to such a loud tone was when he accidentally spilled his juice box on the carpet, but even then, he doesn't think he heard Mari yelling at this extent before...
Was everything alright in there?
…
Should he go inside and check it out for himself?
…
Well, he knew he couldn’t just invite himself into someone’s house without their explicit permission, but hearing Mari yelling like that was definitely enough of a reason to head inside and see what was going on.
With that, Kel reached out for the doorknob and twisted it…
And the door opened up.
…
Huh, now that he thought of it, he wasn’t actually expecting the door to be open for him like that…
But back to the main focus, the very first thing that caught his attention was how really loud all that shouting was.
Turns out.. It really was Mari after all… And she did not sound happy.
When he looked up to the top floor, the source of the yelling, he could see Mari standing in front of the staircase, and it looked like she was scolding Sunny.
…
Why was she so angry?
And why was she mad at Sunny?
Kel did recall a few times where they did fight, as all siblings normally do, heck, even he and Hero tended to bicker with each other at times, but it was never anywhere near this extent.
He thought about stepping in and seeing what was going on, but seeing Mari this mad over something he didn’t even understand as of yet made him feel a little nervous about it..
…
No, he couldn’t be like that.
Even if the thought of having to confront Mari at a time like this was pretty scary, he couldn’t just stand around and let her yell at Sunny like this.
He needed to go up there and stop them from fighting.
He needed to help Sunny.
With that, he began walking to the staircase in an attempt to interject.
“WAIT, MARI, SUNNY, HOLD ON A SECOND! WHY ARE YOU GUYS–”
He didn’t get to finish that sentence.
He couldn’t even make it to the very first step of the stairs before he saw Sunny shove Mari aside.
Kel could only watch as Mari tripped over the staircase, yelping as she tried to grab onto the railing to stop herself from falling, but it was no use.
As she tumbled down the stairs, Kel audibly cried out “CRAP!” as he immediately rushed to the stairs in an attempt to try and catch her, but he was too late .
He was only a few steps away from Mari when she landed on the floor with a very loud CRACK .
Kel froze at the sight for a bit, before tending to Mari to see if she was okay.
“MARI! Shoot, are you okay?! Man, that looked like it hurt!”
He began inspecting her body for any injuries, but… She didn’t respond to his question.
She just laid there, her eyes unopened, as if she were asleep.
“Err… Mari? M-Mari, get up! Come on, please just say something!”
As he tried to shake her awake, he had suddenly noticed that she had also landed on the violin they had bought for Sunny.
Pieces of wood were embedded in her hair, and a few were piercing into her skin.
…
How did Sunny’s violin end up down here?
Why did it end up down here?
Was it the reason she was so mad at Sunny before she got here?
As he picked up and inspected the broken violin, Sunny was beginning to head down the stairs to check up on his sister.
“ Mari…? ”
He called out to her as he knelt down and began brushing off the pieces of wood digging into her hair and skin, her body being covered in scratches and scars.
He began calling out to her once more as he held her still unmoving body, all the while Kel could only watch on.
“ Mari… Wake up… I… I’m sorry… I-I didn’t mean to…”
As he continued to caress her, Kel shakily put his hands on his shoulders, to which Sunny looked up to face him.
“Sunny… Wh-what happened? Why were you guys fighting? A-and how did your violin end up like this?!”
Sunny only stared at him for a few moments before looking down at Mari again, tears beginning to well in his eyes.
“ I… I-I didn’t… Mean to…”
Sunny struggled to come up with a valid response as he began choking on his words through tears, prompting Kel to try and comfort him.
“H-hey, it’s okay, I promise I’m not mad at you! I-I just wanna know what happened, th-that’s all!”
Kel tried to give Sunny a reassuring smile as he finished that sentence, but unlike his usual smile that was full of life and energy, this one looked to be pretty shaky and almost unsure.
“L-look, I-I’m sure Mari’s fine, she’s just knocked out r-right now! W-we just gotta give her a b-bit of time until she w-wakes up is all, heheh..!”
Sunny looked back up to Kel once more, tears streaming down his cheeks.
Yeah… Maybe Kel was right, maybe she was just knocked out right now and needed some time to rest.
Sunny nodded silently.
Truthfully, though, Kel wasn’t sure if he could even believe what he was saying.
Mari wasn’t showing any signs of waking up yet.
And she felt pretty cold to the touch.
Could that mean…
No, no, there’s no way, he was just overthinking it, Mari was okay, she just needed to rest a bit, she’ll be fine.
There was really no need to freak out over this, they would be able to fix this.
But… Then again… How would the others react to seeing Mari like this?
How would they react if they found out Sunny was the one that pushed Mari?
…
How would Hero react if he found out Sunny had pushed Mari?
He and Mari did love each other very much, so if he found out that Sunny ended up hurting Mari…
He might get pretty mad at him for that…
That was not even to mention his parents either.
If they figured out Sunny had pushed Mari, he could get in really big trouble…
But… Kel didn’t want Sunny to get in trouble.
Kel didn’t want Sunny to get yelled at.
He didn’t want anyone to get mad at Sunny over this.
Kel knew Sunny would never intentionally hurt his sister like this.
But everyone else might not see it that way.
They might think that Sunny was trying to hurt Mari on purpose.
And Kel didn’t want that.
Kel didn’t want anyone to get mad at Sunny.
He wanted to keep Sunny safe.
But… What was he gonna do—
“WAIT, SUNNY, D-DON’T DO THAT!! Y-YOUR GONNA M-MAKE HER FEEL WORSE!!”
Kel, in a panic-driven state, was snapped out of his thoughts when he saw Sunny trying to pull Mari up the stairs, afterwards Kel had instinctively tried pulling her out of his arms, taking Sunny by surprise.
“ But… I-I thought…”
“Sunny, just… Just leave her right here, sh-she’ll be fine right there, w-we can’t drag her anywhere, or else sh-she’s gonna feel worse wh-when she wakes up!”
Upon hearing this, Sunny appeared to have a look of pure guilt on his face, as if he had realized his mistake.
“Look, j-just follow my lead, okay? I-I promise everything’s gonna be okay, I-I just… I just gotta figure out what to do, just w-watch Mari right now!”
Sunny sat silent for a bit, looking down at Mari’s still unmoving body, before timidly nodding as he fiddled with his fingers.
Now that he got that taken care of, Kel really needed to think of something to do…
He really wanted to go off and tell someone that Mari was hurt, but… He just couldn’t shake off lingering fear of Sunny getting in trouble, and everyone getting mad at him.
But if that was out of the question… What was he going to do?
…
Kel was getting stressed.
Mari still hasn’t woken up yet, and his dad was going to come by to pick him up soon.
If he saw what happened to Mari, things could get pretty bad…
Kel desperately tried to think of something, anything that could keep Sunny out of trouble…
But… What was it they could possibly do?
…
…
But then…
He thought of a little idea.
An idea that maybe, just maybe…
It could end up working in their favor.
…
…
Run away.
Run away with Sunny.
Run away from the scene.
Run away from Mari.
…
That was it.
Kel figured out what he needed to do to keep Sunny safe.
He would run away with Sunny, keep him out of danger, and someone would eventually find Mari and get her help.
Yes, yes, that’s it, that’s exactly what he needed to do!
Fueled with resolution, Kel walked back to Sunny’s position.
“Sunny… I know what to do.”
He offered him his hand as Sunny looked on.
“Come on, we’re getting out of here.”
Sunny hesitated for a few moments.
Were they… going somewhere?
But what about Mari?
“Sunny, please… We need to go.”
…
Sunny wanted to stay with Mari, he wanted to stay with her when she woke up, to see if she was okay…
But… Kel promised that he’d help Sunny in anyway he could.
And Sunny trusted Kel.
He trusted that Kel would fix this.
So, with that, Sunny slowly reached his hand out and grabbed held it around Kel’s.
Kel smiled.
“Come on, we’re gonna go somewhere safe.”
Kel, with Sunny in tow, bolted outside of the house, leaving the front door open on his way out.
In his mind, there was no going back now.
He didn’t know where they were gonna go yet, but he knew he needed to keep Sunny away from Mari right now.
He just needed to keep Sunny away from everyone right now.
He needed to keep Sunny safe.
Even if they found out that Sunny had pushed Mari, Kel would be there to keep him safe.
He was going to be okay.
Someone would eventually find Mari and get her help.
They would be able to wake her up, somehow, someway.
And when everything cooled down, Kel and Sunny would come back for everyone.
But they couldn’t do that now.
They needed to be somewhere nobody would find them.
It was just for the time being, though.
They weren’t going to be gone forever.
They would come back soon.
It was going to be okay.
Everything was going to be okay.
Everything was going to be okay.
Everything was going to be okay.