Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

For hundreds and hundreds of years, humanity has existed alongside a very peculiar creature, ones who make their homes within the vast ocean, far from the reaches of humans. While these creatures normally resemble seals, not looking any different from one a human would see out in the wild at first glance, these creatures possessed a special trait that set them apart from their seal relatives, or really anything within the average human’s understanding.

For these seals possessed the special ability to shed their seal skin and take on human form, after which they could walk on land and converse and mingle with regular humans, with many being none the wiser to their true nature. And then, with the magic of their seal-skin coat, they could just as easily return to seal form, and to their true home of the sea.

These creatures…are the selkies.

While many humans may have grown up being told tales of the selkies, especially those who live close to the ocean, far fewer of them have any idea that they truly exist, let alone have managed to meet with and interact with one…to their knowledge. Selkies are very elusive creatures, not often wanting to involve themselves with the affairs of those living on land, preferring the peace and quiet of their ocean lives.

To those selkies who have decided to venture on land in their human guise, however…many have met with terrible fates.

For a selkie who has taken human form, their seal-skin coat is their most valuable and protected possession. It is what allows them to return to seal form, and to the safety of their ocean home. Losing it would effectively keep them trapped; too much time spent in human form, away from their coat and the ocean, makes them feel incomplete, like they’ve lost a part of themselves, both emotionally and physically. It leaves them restless, and with a strong yearning for the sea that they can never return to.

And unfortunately, there are humans who have sought to take advantage of that fact. Human men who would steal and hide away the coats of unsuspecting selkie women, who are then forced to marry their captor, unable to escape without access to their coats; humans with selkie lovers who the selkie thought they could trust, until the human found out about their true nature, and stole their lover’s coat in a desperate attempt to keep them from ever leaving.

It was due to incidents like these that the already elusive selkies became even more determined to avoid the intertwining of their lives with those of humans. Those selkies who did take human form for one reason or another made sure to be extremely cautious with their coats, never letting them out of their sights unless they found a place to hide them that they deemed safe and hard to find.

Warnings about what humans would do if they found a selkie’s coat was passed down through generations, and one particular young selkie was no stranger to having heard them himself. He even had relatives who had once had their coats stolen from them, forced to marry and have children with a human. Some of these selkies were lucky enough to have eventually found their coats, sometimes years after they had already married, and had immediately fled to the ocean, leaving behind a human husband and children that they had never truly cared for. Worse, though, were those who still had never come back…

This young selkie heeded his family’s warnings, and for years was very careful to stay away from the nearby human residence, a coastal town from which he could hear the distant chatter of humans if he listened for it. Once this selkie became old enough to venture out on his own, however…a curiosity filled him, about what the lives of humans were really like, seeming so much more complex than that of the selkies, who simply swam and played through the ocean all day.

And one day, that curiosity finally won out. He shed his seal skin and stepped out on the beach as a human for the first time, ready to find out what it was about their complex society that had made him so interested in it. He was still sure to be careful, however, hiding his coat in places no human would think to look, determined to not face the same fate that many other selkies before him had.

As the days went on, the selkie would venture through the town as a human more and more, and it was on one of these days that he met a young auburn-haired woman, one who attended the nearby college. Her and the selkie would spend time with each other more and more each time he returned to the surface, and it wasn’t long before the two of them had fallen in love.

If the selkie’s lover had any questions about certain aspects of him and his behavior, such as why he didn’t quite seem to know about some parts of human life, or why he would always head in the direction of the beach once they parted, or why he seemed rather secretive and vague about parts of his own life, she didn’t ask them. If anything, it was perhaps the mystery about him that had initially drawn her to him in the first place.

It took years for her to learn the truth, long after the selkie had left his ocean home to live with her. Even though he felt he could trust her at that point, he still knew even those kinds of relationships could end in disaster for selkies. He ensured his coat was well hidden even now; if his lover reacted negatively in any way, then at least he knew he could take his coat and escape.

But…she took it well. Suddenly, so many things about her lover made sense, and not once did she ever think of stealing his coat and keeping him from the ocean. She loved him too much to ever think of restricting his freedom in that way…and besides, he had been with her for so long at that point, she felt assured that he would stay with her of his own choice, even if his selkie nature called him back to the ocean from time to time.

It was soon after that the two of them got married, and then they would proceed to move to another town together, one in which they could live in a house suitable to raise a family in. Of course, this new town was also one by the ocean; it was important that the selkie always have easy access to it. Faraway Town, this place was called, a quiet little coastal town that the selkie and his wife thought would be a perfect place to settle.

Their first child was a girl who they named Mari. Three years later, they’d have another one, a boy who they named Sunny.

Both of their children would end up inheriting their father’s selkie nature.

————

Swimming in the ocean is part of a selkie’s nature. It doesn’t matter how much they love their life on land, or, in the case of Mari and Sunny, if they were born and raised on land. A selkie will always start to yearn for the sea if they remain on land for too long, a desire that can only be satiated by taking on seal form and heading into the ocean, where they can finally feel the freedom that they had been missing. It didn’t take long for Mari, and then Sunny, to start feeling that yearning, looking out the window towards the sea and reaching their tiny hands out for it.

Their father will always look back fondly on the first time he brought his children to the ocean. Mari following behind him as the two of them waded deeper into the sea, her snow-white coat wrapped tightly around her small body; her dark eyes staring in wonder as her father suddenly dove under the water, before resurfacing as a silver seal; her eyes widening with some kind of realization, before she joined him in diving under the water, transforming into a small white seal and happily swimming around her father. He’ll always remember the excited gleam in her eyes, like she had finally realized what she had been missing all this time.

He remembers how scared Sunny had been initially to go into the water, watching as his father and sister waded further and further, but refusing to step past where the water reached his ankles, his tiny hands tightly gripping his coat. Their father had certainly heard of selkies who were too scared to go into the water at first…as he himself had apparently been one of them, a fact that his family would never let him forget about as he grew up.

It was only when Mari went back for him and held on tightly to his hand that Sunny could finally be coaxed into going deeper, following closely behind his older sister until they had gone far enough to go underwater. Sunny watched curiously as Mari transformed into a seal right in front of him, before he did the same, his white coat making his and his sister’s seal forms look identical to each other.

Once Sunny had grown more used to going into the water, family outings to the ocean became a common occurrence; when they could feel the ocean calling for them, Mari and Sunny’s father would take his children to the beach once the sun had gone down and less people were there. The three of them would then swim together in the sea, sometimes with their human mother joining them to watch them lovingly from the beach’s shore.

Outside of their outings to the ocean to spend time in seal form, the three of them led normal human lives, ones that didn’t seem out of the ordinary to an outside observer or those who knew them. Sunny and Mari went to school, became close friends with the children of their next-door neighbors, and later on, their small but close-knit friend group would grow as they met two other children who would join in on their activities. Even Sunny and Mari’s closest friends, however, knew nothing of the siblings’ true nature.

Ever since they were small children, their father would drill one word of advice into their heads: “Never, under any circumstance, let anyone know that you’re a selkie.”

“Not even our friends?” Mari had asked, eyes wide as she and Sunny stared up at their father, who stared back with a stern, yet worried look.

Their father shook his head. “Humans aren’t always kind to us selkies. There have been some who steal a selkie’s coat in order to keep them from going into the ocean, keeping them trapped on land for a long time. You wouldn’t want that to happen to you, would you?”

His children both shook their heads. Just the thought of not being able to go into the ocean made them feel queasy and anxious.

“That is why it is very important that you keep your coats safe,” their father continued. “You must keep them well-hidden when you are not wearing them, and you cannot let anyone see them, let alone know about them.” He clenched his fists at his sides. “If you are kept away from your coats for too long, it can become very bad for you, and I can’t let anything like that happen to you two. Do you understand?”

His children nodded solemnly, and Sunny quietly reached out for Mari’s hand, grasping it tightly.

Their father sighed. He didn’t want to scare them, but this was still something the two of them needed to know as soon as possible. He didn’t know what he’d do if either one of his children ended up meeting the same fate that many other selkies had before. So…it was better that no one knew, that it became their most heavily guarded secret. Then they’d both stay safe.

As the years went on and their father’s schedule became busier, he wasn’t able to accompany his children to the ocean as much as he used to. Still, the siblings made it a point to always go together, donning their coats and sneaking out to the beach together once the sun had set, and playing together as seals under the pale light of the moon.

Even that would have to come to an end, though, once Mari graduated high school and had to move away for college. Sunny really hated to see her go, after growing up side-by-side with her for the past 16 years of his life, but having to now go out into the ocean by himself was what had hurt most of all. It had been hard to even make himself go out there at first without Mari; he had never been swimming out in the ocean by himself before, and his selkie instincts fought with his human emotions to make him head out to the sea; he’d always hated being alone, after all.

He did, of course—it’s always hard to fight the selkie urge to go to the sea—but it just didn’t feel the same without his sister there with him. At least the other seals who lived out in the ocean could keep him company, though their clear confusion on why Mari wasn’t also there had stung a little.

There frequently came times where Sunny thought about telling his friends the truth. The secret was easier to bear when he had Mari to share it with, but with her gone, he couldn’t help but feel a little isolated among his friends, and he really felt that he could trust them enough for them to know.

But then his father’s warnings about humans who took selkies’ coats would ring within his mind, and Sunny would decide that it would be better if they didn’t know. He did trust them, and care about them, and love them…but he doesn’t know everything about them…

And so Sunny remained silent, continued spending time with his friends like he always had, went out to the sea alone, and patiently waited for when Mari would come home.

Chapter Text

Three days ago, Hero and Mari had come home from college, and Sunny’s friend group had become much more lively with those two now back. Not to say that things were boring without them, far from it; Sunny knew he could always count on Kel’s boundless energy, Aubrey’s brash playfulness, and Basil’s soft and quiet nature to keep him company, to keep him from feeling so hopelessly lonely after Mari had left.

Even though he had known what was coming, had tried to prepare himself for it, the first few weeks after Mari had moved away had been tough on him. Returning to their shared room after a rough and tiring school day just to see her empty bed beside his made him feel awful, but having to go out into the ocean by himself for the first time was what had hurt the most. It took him some time to get used to it, and even then it just didn’t feel the same without Mari there with him.

But now she was back, and Sunny couldn’t be happier that she was. The first thing he had done upon Mari arriving home was run up to her and hug her as tight as he could, as if she’d suddenly disappear if he let go. Mari had been caught by surprise for a second, before laughing and returning the hug.

“Hehe…hello little brother…” she’d said softly. “I really missed you…”

“I missed you too…” he’d replied, burying his face into her shoulder, feeling like a little kid all over again. “Welcome back, Mari…”

Since Mari and Hero had come back, Sunny and his friends had all been spending time together, excited that they were all back together again and wanting to be able to catch up on the time that they had missed. And though Sunny was really enjoying spending time with them all again, he could feel the urge to go into the ocean start creeping up on him once more, and this time, he was really hoping that Mari could join him. He was waiting for a good opportunity to ask her, but things kept coming up, such as his friends wanting to have a sleepover, or Mari feeling too tired by the time night had fallen, and going to bed early.

Tonight, he was planning to ask her. But he could feel the ocean’s call growing stronger and stronger, and he felt the need to satiate that desire now rather than later. However, he didn’t want to go out to the ocean right now; in the middle of a hot summer’s day, he imagined the beach would be crowded, and he worried about the possibility of anyone seeing him.

So he instead opted for another option, one that carried much less of a risk of anyone seeing him, as he was going to a secluded spot that, as far as he’s aware, only a few people knew of.

And so he left the house, his coat folded in his arms and held close to him, both to try and keep from calling attention to it, and to make sure that the wind blowing past didn’t rip it out of his arms. He cautiously made his way to the park while anxiously looking around him, worried that he would run into someone and be asked what he was carrying. Even though he could easily pretend it was just a regular coat, or a towel or something, and just move on, he would just rather no one see it at all.

Once he’d finally made it to the park, where he was relieved to see that there weren’t many other people there, he practically sprinted across the grass to reach the edge of the trees, where a hidden break in them concealed a spacious clearing. Sunny looked around himself one more time, before unfolding his white-furred coat and wrapping it around him, feeling it was now safe enough to do so. He pulled the hood over his head before pushing forward through the branches and warning signs, ones that he can’t recall have ever been enforced.

Once he made it into the quiet and somewhat overgrown clearing, a nostalgic feeling washing over him at the sight, Sunny made his way straight to the lake that sat in the middle of it, and stood on the edge of the pier, looking down into the deep blue water.

He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and dove into the water, coat and all. As he swam deeper, his human form became completely subsumed by the coat; hands and feet became flippers, and his entire body became covered in short white fur. Having completed his transformation into a white seal, he swam in circles around the lake, occasionally breaching the surface to leap out of the water before diving back under.

It didn’t feel quite the same as swimming in the ocean, but Sunny supposed it would do for now, until he could really go in the ocean later tonight. After Kel had found this place years ago, Sunny and Mari had both tried swimming here a couple of times, but they both agreed that it didn’t feel right compared to the ocean. The freshwater felt weird to breathe in, and it wasn’t as spacious as the vast waters of the sea, making Sunny feel a little cramped in comparison. He supposed it made sense; selkies were meant to live in the sea, not in freshwater lakes.

After Sunny felt like he had gotten his fill of swimming, he swam back up to the surface, returning to his human form as he climbed up onto the pier. Water dripped from his hair and clothes, staining the light wood underneath him with dark spots. He knew he was going to have to return home and change clothes after this; he had agreed to meet with Kel, Aubrey, and Basil at the park later, and he didn’t want to have to explain to them why he was soaking wet, like he’d just fallen into the lake.

As he walked away from the pier, taking off his coat and starting to once again fold it up in his arms, he froze as he heard something, a faint sound cutting into the once peaceful silence of the hangout spot. As he heard it getting louder, his eyes widened as he realized what the sound was.

Voices. And they were coming right towards him.

Confusion and panic set in. Why were there people here!? His friends weren’t supposed to get here until later, so who was coming over here!? They…hadn’t seen him as he walked in here, did he?

No, they couldn’t have seen him wearing his coat, could they? But what if they had, and that’s why they were coming over, to investigate? What if they saw Sunny holding his coat, and used the fact that he had clearly just been in the lake to figure out what he was? Then they could steal his coat, and then he’d never get to go to the sea, he’d never get to go there with Mari, and then finally he would—

Sunny took a deep breath, trying his best to calm himself, and looked desperately around the hangout spot. No, if he could just hide the coat somewhere, then no one would see it, and no one would suspect anything. He could come back for it later, and then everything would be fine.

His searching eyes stopped on the picnic blanket that had always been sitting by the lake since him and his friends found this spot. More specifically, the picnic basket.

Acting quickly, Sunny ran over to the basket, opening it and hastily stuffing his coat in there. The inside of the basket was a little dirty from how long it had been sitting out here, a place Sunny wouldn’t normally like to keep his coat in, but right now, it didn’t matter. He’d come back for it later today, anyway; it wouldn’t stay there long.

Finally, after closing the basket and giving it a quick look to make sure it didn’t look any different from how it normally did, Sunny sped off into the trees just as he felt like the voices were about to reach the clearing, before anyone could’ve seen him.

————

“I’m glad to hear your semester ended well, Mari! Sounds like all your professors were really impressed…but perhaps that shouldn’t surprise me coming from you, my clever little Mari!”

“Aw, mom…hehe…” Mari felt her face getting warmer at her mother’s praise, and she quickly turned her bashful face away from her and back to the vegetables she was cutting. Her mom had started on making dinner and, not wanting to simply sit around and do nothing, Mari had offered to help, to which her mom gratefully accepted. Mari’s father sat at the nearby table, reading some kind of document from work with a mug of coffee in his hand.

Mari sighed. “I’m so glad it’s finally over though…you wouldn’t believe how stressful it was…” she continued.

“Oh, I can only imagine,” her mom replied. “Well, now you’ve got the whole summer to relax now! And I’m sure Sunny sure is happy that you’re back home. I can tell he really missed you.”

Mari’s heart swelled. “I really missed him too…” she said softly.

Mari hadn’t anticipated just how much she would miss her dear little brother until she had already gotten all settled into her dorm room at her college. Living in a room without him for the first time in nearly her whole life had felt incredibly jarring, and she had never missed him as much as she did then.

Having to go into the ocean by herself was perhaps the most difficult part. She was lucky enough to get into a good college that also happened to be near the beach, so she didn’t have to worry about being separated from the ocean while she was away from home. However, the unfamiliarity of the ocean there, combined with having to swim there without Sunny, just didn’t feel right, and it took a lot of getting used to. Even after that, though, a loneliness still lingered every time Mari went to the ocean there.

“I was thinking, once Sunny gets back, I would ask him to go out swimming with me,” Mari said. She looked out the window, seeing the sky starting to turn a light purple as the sun set. Sunny had said that he was going out with Kel, Aubrey, and Basil earlier, and she imagined he would be back soon.

“That sounds wonderful,” her mom replied. “I’m sure he’d like that.”

Mari nodded, and the two of them continued to casually talk as they carried on with making dinner. A few minutes later, Mari heard the tell-tale sound of the front door opening and closing, and footsteps making their way over to the kitchen. Ah, perfect timing!

Mari looked up from the counter as she heard the footsteps come to a stop. “Welcome home, little brother! How was…”

Mari trailed off as Sunny came into view of the doorway and she could truly see his expression for the first time. He looked horrified, skin pale and eyes wide, and he was panting heavily as if he had ran all the way here.

“Sunny…is something wrong?” Mari asked. Their parents had also noticed his clear distress, and now they were also looking at him with concern.

It seemed to take Sunny some time to get his words out; he kept choking on them, and he sounded like he was on the verge of panic. “M–my coat…” he finally said, his voice quivering and barely above a whisper. “My coat is gone.”

Mari and their mom both gasped sharply, with Mari dropping the knife she was holding as her hand flew over her mouth. Their dad, meanwhile, flew out of his seat and ran up to Sunny, roughly putting his hands on his son’s shoulders.

“Where did you leave it!?” he demanded. Mari had never heard him so panicked before, and it was clearly not helping with Sunny’s emotional state, as the boy started breathing quicker.

“I–I hid it in our hangout spot, in the picnic basket…” Sunny stuttered. “I went swimming in the lake, a–and I thought I heard people coming, so I hid it so that they wouldn’t see it…and when I went back for it later, it…it was…” Sunny’s voice dissolved into hiccups and sniffles.

Their dad didn’t say anything more, he simply ran out of the room, and Mari heard the front door being flung open, and then slammed shut.

“I–I’ll go with him!” Mari said urgently, already starting to head out the kitchen herself. “I know that place better than he does!”

Their mom nodded. “I’ll stay here with Sunny…” she said softly, moving to wrap her arms around him. His whole body was shaking, and he laid his head on their mom’s shoulder.

Mari nodded, before running out the door after their dad.

Once the two of them met at the park, they split up as they searched relentlessly for Sunny’s coat, in the park, at the hangout spot itself, they even tried seeing if it had ended up in the lake somehow. Their search was fruitless, however, and maybe they should’ve known it would be. Sunny wasn’t the type to be that careless with something, especially with his coat. Mari imagined he would have ensured that nothing could have happened to his coat after he hid it, so he would’ve been careful.

One possibility stuck out in Mari’s mind, but she tried to push it out. She didn’t even want to think about it.

Once her and their father returned home after what must’ve been an hour of searching, they found their mom and Sunny sitting on the couch in the living room. Their mom turned her head back towards them, silently asking if they had managed to find it, but her face fell when she noticed how dejected the two of them looked, no coat in sight.

Mari and their dad joined them at the couch, where Mari could see how Sunny was holding up now. He seemed to have calmed down at least a little bit from when they had first left, but he was still trembling, and his eyes stared ahead, unfocused. He leaned up against their mom, whose arm was wrapped around him, soothingly rubbing his shoulder. Two empty bowls sat in front of them, what must’ve been the dinner their mom was making, so Mari was assured that Sunny was at least able to eat.

Sunny noticed Mari standing in front of him, and how her and their father had clearly not found his coat. His shaking got worse, and he looked down at his knees in shame, digging his nails into the skin of his legs.

“I’m sorry…” he choked. “I–I’m so sorry…I should never have gone swimming in that lake. I should’ve just waited…if only I’d just waited…! I’m so stupid…”

“Sunny…” Mari said softly, and she moved to hug her little brother, gently stroking his hair. “That’s not true at all, little brother. This wasn’t your fault. I know you would’ve made sure to hide it carefully.” She broke the embrace to look her little brother in the eyes, giving him a smile. “We’ll find it, okay? We’ll keep searching tomorrow, when the sun’s up. Everything will be okay…”

Sunny nodded slightly, though he still didn’t look convinced, and went back to looking at the floor. Even though their parents also gave him comforting expressions, Mari could tell that they were also very worried about being able to find his coat. She wondered if they had all come to the same conclusion she had.

It was a situation none of them had ever dreamed of happening to them. No matter what, though, they had to do everything they could to find Sunny’s coat. They just had to.

Chapter Text

While the search for Sunny’s coat commenced, him and Mari continued to spend time with their friends as if nothing had happened. They really didn’t want to call attention to what was happening, especially as they were determined to keep the very existence of the coat secret in the first place.

A few days after the initial shock of Sunny losing his coat, he wished he could say that he was feeling better, that he was calmer about the situation…but he wasn’t. He continued to outwardly act like he was feeling fine, but internally, he was incredibly anxious and paranoid. He didn’t know whether it was some kind of selkie instinct from not knowing where his coat was, or his own human emotion endlessly worrying about what would happen if they couldn’t find it. Perhaps it was a combination of both.

Him, Mari, and their parents had continued searching all around the park, though trying to do so in a way that didn’t call attention to the fact that they were looking for anything at all. Sunny had shown them exactly where he had hid his coat, the picnic basket still standing upright just as it had been when he’d left it. By the end of that first day, it seemed like they had exhausted every area around the hangout spot, but his coat still could not be found.

Sunny wasn’t stupid. If his coat had ended up out of the picnic basket due to the elements or some animal managing to get a hold of it, there’d be signs of that. The basket would have moved somehow, perhaps it would’ve gotten toppled over, but nothing of that sort seemed to have happened. Even the lid of the basket was still shut when he had returned to retrieve his coat.

His coat had been stolen. There was no getting around that, as much as Sunny had tried to at first.

And he’d left it in the hangout spot, of which he knew only a few people regularly went to. And of those people, one of them had been with Mari that entire day, so it couldn’t have been him. So that only left…

But…if it was one of them, then surely they didn’t do it with malicious intent! Sunny knows all of them well, and he knows that they wouldn’t just steal a selkie’s coat; maybe they didn’t even know what it was! Sunny trusts them, he loves them, so he knows they wouldn’t have wanted to hurt him.

That’s what one part of his mind was telling him, anyway; his human one. The other part of him, the one of a selkie who had just lost track of their coat, terrified of the consequences if they were unable to get it back, was telling him a different story. And that other part of him only got louder as the days went on.

Perhaps they did know. They had to have known what they were taking was valuable, even if they didn’t know it was a selkie skin. If they did know what it was, then…they had to know it was his, right?

Sunny knew there were only a few people who went to that hangout spot…and whoever stole his coat had to have known that too. They took it, knowing it must have belonged to one of their friends, knowing it would keep them from going to the sea.

They knew. They had to. They knew Sunny was a selkie, and that they were keeping him from the sea. Someone Sunny loved and trusted must have done this to him, knowing what would happen. It was just like his father had told him; he never knew who he could trust with the knowledge of his coat, lest they use it to keep him from leaving for the sea. But it was much worse than just that; he was too young to be away from his coat for too long before he’d—

“Sunny?”

Sunny jolted as he heard a voice saying his name, ripping him out of his own whirlwind of thoughts. He came back into focus to see Aubrey looking at him with concern, as she lightly swung back and forth on the swingset at the park.

That’s right…Sunny had come here by himself to conduct yet another search for his coat; even though he and his family had already looked everywhere here for it, anxiety was filling his body with constant adrenaline, and he just wanted to go out and do something. And then he had happened to run into Aubrey. Not wanting to simply leave her, he decided to stay with her for a bit, and they sat on the swings together, much like when they were younger, as Aubrey talked about whatever came to her mind.

Sunny would normally really enjoy these quiet moments with Aubrey, listening to her talk about her day or rant about something that had happened recently that was bothering her, all while not being expected to say much in return. He liked just listening to her…but he couldn’t find himself able to focus on what she was saying today, instead finding himself fixated on the ocean in the distance…and how he wasn’t able to swim in it anymore.

He found that it’d been harder to focus in general the past few days, ever since he lost his coat. His anxiety about what had happened to it and his yearning for the sea seemed to take up all the space in his head now.

He tried his best to focus back on Aubrey, her eyes shining with concern for him.

“Are you doing okay, Sun?” Aubrey continued. “You’ve seemed, like, really out of it lately. I could tell you weren’t focusing on me.”

Ah, so she noticed. Perhaps that wasn’t surprising. Sunny really hasn’t been feeling like himself lately; he felt he was on constant high alert, unable to relax, like someone was watching him, wanting to hurt him. And the feeling was only getting worse as time went on, as he spent more and more time away from his coat.

“I–I’m sorry, Aubrey…I’m fine,” he said. He couldn’t stop his voice from shaking a little, and it looked like Aubrey had noticed it.

“Are you sure?” she asked. “If something’s bothering you, you know you can talk to me about it, right? Even if I can’t help you…I think just talking about it would really help. Trust me, I’d know.”

Oh, but he couldn’t tell her. He couldn’t tell her about his coat, she wasn’t supposed to even know the existence of it, because then she could find it, and keep him trapped here on land.

She…she could’ve been the one who had stolen it. She’d found it, figured out who he was, and had stolen it to keep him from the ocean, to keep him from being able to leave. Maybe she knew that he was going to be here, looking for his coat, and that’s how they had happened to run into each other in the first place.

Could he really still call her his friend, after what she’s done? Was the girl he’d been friends with for so long really who she seemed? Sunny’s hands tightly gripped the chains on either side of him, shaking from the pressure.

“I said I’m fine,” he said, his voice coming out rough and irate. He quickly stood up from his seat on the swings, the chains it was attached to clanging loudly as he did. “I think I should head home now. Goodbye.”

And then he left at a brisk pace, not wanting to look back at Aubrey as he suddenly walked away from her, leaving her behind at the swings. He thought he heard her softly call after him as he left, but he could have been imagining it. After all, how could she possibly show concern for him if she was the one who was keeping his coat from him?

Sunny had broken out into a sprint by the time he made it back to his house. He returned home, slamming the door behind him much harder than he had intended to upon entering, and for a few seconds, simply stood in front of the door, trying to take deep breaths.

How was he supposed to trust any of them now, when any one of them could have been the one to steal his coat!? Could he even be safe around any of them now!? He didn’t know which one of them took it, so maybe it was better that he assume all of them did…

He shouldn’t give them the satisfaction of being able to spend time with him, so maybe it’d be better if he just kept himself hidden, away from them…

He heard footsteps approaching him, snapping him out of his spiraling thoughts, and he looked up to see Mari approaching him, looking at him with concern.

“Oh, I didn’t know you were home already, Sunny,” she said. “You went out looking for it again, right?”

Sunny nodded. He hung his head down, hands clenching into fists at his sides. “Still didn’t find it…” he said quietly.

He heard Mari sigh, and he could tell by her voice that she was trying to smile. “It’ll be okay, Sunny…I’m sure we’ll find it soon. We still have time, after all…”

Sunny looked up at her, meeting her eyes. “We’re not going to find it,” he said sternly. “Someone stole it. You figured that out too, didn’t you?”

Mari’s eyes widened. “S–Sunny…” she stuttered. “I–I don’t think we should jump to that conclusion just yet. I’m sure something else could’ve happened to it, like—”

“Don’t talk to me like I’m stupid!” Sunny interrupted her, raising his voice in frustration. “The picnic basket was still standing and closed when I went back for it! Nothing else could’ve happened to it; someone went there and took it! And you know exactly who it could’ve been!”

Mari just stood there, frozen in shock. She didn’t say anything, which Sunny could only take as an admission of guilt.

“One of them must know now…” Sunny continued. He started shaking, and he could feel tears brimming at his eyes. “I–I thought they were my friends, I thought I could trust them…but how can I after they did this to me…!? Did I ever really know them…were all of those years just a lie…? I…”

He started sobbing uncontrollably, his entire body trembling as tears fell from his eyes and to the floor. After a few moments, he felt someone, presumably Mari, gently wrap her arms around him, and he continued to sob, his voice coming out in hiccups as he buried his face into Mari’s shoulder. He could feel her gently stroke his back as she softly spoke to him with words of comfort and reassurance.

It took Sunny some time to finally feel like he had calmed down, regret filling him at how he had raised his voice at Mari, likely frightening her. He hated the type of person he was becoming in the wake of losing his coat; it was like the boy he was just a couple weeks ago, back when he’d been looking forward to Mari returning home and going to the ocean with him, was someone else entirely.

Mari released Sunny from the hug and looked up at him, gently wiping away stray tears from his face. “Sunny, I…I can understand how you feel about the three of them…” she said. “I know why you would be suspicious of them. Is there anything we can do to make you feel safer around them?”

Sunny shook his head, averting his gaze. “I just…don’t want to see them. I…I don’t know if I even want to go into Faraway anymore…I don’t feel safe there…” he murmured.

Mari sighed softly. She looked worried, yet sympathetic. “If that’s really what you want, then you can just stay here. I want what’s best for my little brother, and if this is what you feel like is best for you, then I’ll support you.” She smiled. “Just let your big sister take care of everything.”

Sunny nodded. If no one else…he had Mari. At least he knew he could always trust her.

Mari looked behind her at the backyard through the sliding glass door, seeing that it had started to become dark outside. She turned back to look at her brother. “I was thinking, Sunny…maybe going down to the ocean would help make you feel better? I know you wouldn’t be able to swim in it, without your coat, but…maybe at least seeing it would ease some of your tension. I see you looking at it all the time.”

Sunny thought about it, and decided that it was at least worth a try, even if, as Mari said, he wouldn’t actually be able to swim. He could feel the ocean calling for him ever since he had lost his coat; even now, there was that strong urge to go there. Maybe Mari was right, maybe even just going there would help to fill this gaping hole within his very being.

Sunny nodded. “Okay…” he said quietly. “I’ll try it.”

Mari smiled. “Alright!” she said, sounding a bit more like her usual self now, which also made Sunny feel a bit lighter himself. “I won’t bring my own coat, so we’ll be equal!”

That brought a smile to Sunny’s face. “Alright, then,” he said softly.

————

Under the pale moonlight, Sunny and Mari made their way over to the beach, cutting through the surrounding woods in lieu of walking through the neighborhoods, just as they always did. They usually did so in order to avoid people seeing them with their selkie coats, but for today, it also made Sunny feel a lot safer avoiding the town in general.

As the roar of the waves grew louder as they got closer to the beach, Sunny felt his heart racing…though strangely, it didn’t result from excitement, as he usually felt when going to the sea. It was more like…nervousness? But why would he feel nervous? The ocean usually calmed him, made him feel at home, made him feel safe. He thought about mentioning this to Mari, but decided against it. They were already so close, and he didn’t want to disrupt her with what could just be nothing.

But the feeling only seemed to get worse as they finally made it to the beach, and Sunny could finally see for himself the vast ocean, stretching for miles upon miles before them, glimmering with the light of the moon. As was usual, there weren’t many people here at this time of day; at the very least, Sunny couldn’t see anyone in the water. He supposed it didn’t really matter today, though, with him and Mari not having their coats with them this time.

Him and Mari set their shoes down and started to walk down through the cool sand, which had become a light silver color under the night sky, making it look as if they were walking on moondust. Sunny held onto Mari’s hand as they walked, and it seemed like Mari noticed just how tightly he was holding onto her as they got closer to the water, as she turned back to give him a reassuring smile.

Upon making it to the water’s edge, Sunny found himself starting to tremble, for reasons he still could not understand. What was making him so scared right now? Trying to fight through this fear he was feeling, he followed Mari as she started wading into the water, the sudden cold making Sunny jump a little, something he can’t recall has happened to him in recent memory.

Sunny looked out at the ocean looming before him…and he froze. The vast ocean in front of him suddenly looked…unfamiliar. Rather than seeing an entirely different world from the one on land, one that would welcome Sunny in with open arms, one that he saw almost as a second home, what greeted him was a dark abyss, cold and uncaring, a cacophony of loud crashing waves. The thought of going in any further had Sunny terrified, that this yawning abyss would pull him under, and drag him deeper and deeper into darkness, unable to scream as water filled his lungs and sapped away his strength, until he stopped struggling and floated helplessly to the bottom.

Sunny forcefully yanked his hand away from Mari’s grasp and shakily backed away, until his feet were no longer submerged in the cold salty water. He took short, ragged breaths, as if he had just resurfaced from underwater, trying to calm himself down. Turning away from the ocean seemed to help, though the sound of the waves still instilled fear within him.

“Sunny? What’s wrong?” He heard Mari’s voice from behind him; she must’ve followed him back to shore. She moved into his field of vision, dark eyes looking at him softly, meeting his, still wide with panic.

“I…I don’t know…” he rasped. “The ocean…it felt…different. I was…scared of it…I felt like I was going to drown…” What was wrong with him? What kind of selkie was afraid of drowning!?

Mari moved closer to him, wrapping an arm around him and soothingly rubbing circles on his back. “I–I’m sorry…” she said softly. “Maybe coming here was a bad idea…” She looked into his eyes. “You wanna go home?”

Sunny nodded wordlessly, and with that, him and his sister started making their way back home, Mari staying close to him, as he was clearly still trembling and not quite recovered from the experience.

It was only once the two of them had made it back home, Sunny immediately retreating to his room and burying himself under the covers of his bed, that the explanation for that strange and sudden fear of the ocean hit him.

Now having been separated from his coat for this long, his ties to the ocean were being severed as well. Not quite selkie, yet still not human, his own body and mind and the ocean were rejecting each other. He yearned for it, and yet feared it at the same time; he couldn’t recognize the ocean, and the ocean couldn’t recognize him.

He had nowhere to go now. Faraway Town wasn’t safe, and now the ocean wasn’t either. Both of his homes were hostile to him now. He wasn’t human nor selkie, he was just…something that wasn’t meant to exist anywhere.

He tightly shut his eyes as he felt tears starting to form, trying his best to stifle his sobs so that none of his family would hear him. They were already so worried about him; he didn’t need to concern them even more.

He hoped Mari was right when she said his coat would be found soon.

Chapter Text

Kel knocked on the door a few times, and then patiently waited as he faintly heard footsteps approaching it from the other side. The door opened to Sunny and Mari’s mom, who looked somewhat tired and stressed, as Kel swears she has always been for the last few days, though she still put on a smile as she looked on at Kel, as well as two of his other friends. Aubrey and Basil stood behind him; Aubrey with her arms folded across her chest, and Basil nervously playing with his hands.

“Hi, Mrs. Suzuki!” Kel greeted her cheerfully. “How’s Sunny doing? Has he been getting any better?”

Mrs. Suzuki sighed, and the strained smile on her face fell. “I’m afraid not, my dears. We’ve all been doing everything we can to help him feel better soon, so please try not to worry. I’m sure he’ll be back to normal in no time.”

“Can we see him…?” Basil asked meekly from behind Kel. “W–we’ll be safe, we promise…we’re just worried about him…”

Mrs. Suzuki shook her head sadly. “He’s still not well enough to see any of you, I’m afraid. It would be better if you all just stayed away from him for now. Please don’t think he or I have anything against you…it’s just what we feel is best for him right now.”

“Oh, th–that’s alright!” Kel replied, not able to hide the nervous falter in his voice. “Thank you, Mrs. Suzuki! And tell Sunny we hope he gets better soon!”

Mrs. Suzuki smiled again. “I sure will. I appreciate you all wanting to check up on him.”

Kel waved goodbye as she closed the door, putting on his best smile, but he let it fade the moment he heard the lock on the door click. Aubrey roughly sighed from behind him.

“Still the same shit…” she grumbled.

“Yeah…” Kel let out a sigh of his own.

Him and his friends haven’t seen Sunny at all for the past few days, as he had suddenly stopped leaving his house for what appeared to be no apparent reason. Ever since then, Kel, Aubrey, and Basil have all tried to visit him, or at the very least figure out what was going on with him, but all of Sunny’s family had been adamant about not letting them see him, including Mari.

Not only that, all of them seemed dead-set on not telling them what exactly was wrong with Sunny. It’d be one thing if he was just sick, and that was why his friends weren’t allowed to see him, but his family never elaborated further on Sunny’s condition besides that he wasn’t “feeling well,” which could really describe a lot of things, and Sunny’s family continued to be vague about it.

And after a few days of being left in the dark, Kel and his friends felt like they were starting to reach their wit’s end.

“Something about this is shady as hell…you two think so too, right?” Aubrey asked. “I mean, with how he was acting before all this…there has to be something going on that they’re not telling us…”

“Yeah…I agree with you,” Kel replied. Sunny had been acting…strange, in the days leading up to him being holed up inside his house, and it was clearly something that all three of them had noticed. He seemed unfocused, more than he usually was, and appeared tense and anxious, like he was scared of something watching him. When he was focused on something, it was usually the ocean; he would completely zone out of conversation in exchange for looking out at the beach in the distance, seeming entirely lost within his own thoughts.

If that had anything to do with why Sunny couldn’t leave his house, then Kel couldn’t even begin to guess just what the cause of it was. He so desperately wished he knew what was going on, and if he and his friends could do anything to help Sunny, but all of their attempts at reaching him had ended the same.

Kel looked up towards where the upper floor of the house would be, wondering what Sunny was doing right now. Was he in his room, spending all his days in bed, or was he still walking about within his house, just not leaving it? Did he think something was after him, and that was why he wasn’t leaving? Kel wondered if Sunny knew that his friends were all worried about him…surely he would want to see them, right? Could there be some kind of way that they could…?

Kel’s eyes suddenly widened as an idea struck him, and he turned around to face Aubrey and Basil fully. “Well, uh, since we’re done here, wh–why don’t we go over to the park!”

Aubrey and Basil looked at him weirdly at first, wondering where the sudden energy and desire to go to the park came from, but Aubrey’s eyebrows raised as she seemed to realize what Kel was getting at. He wanted to talk about something, and right in front of Sunny’s house was not the best place to do that.

“Yeah, sure, let’s go to the park, Basil,” Aubrey said, intentionally drawing out the syllables in her words to exaggerate them. Basil looked between the two of them, still seeming confused on what was going on, but he nodded before following Kel and Aubrey away from Sunny’s house.

They didn’t even fully make it to the park, Kel instead stopping at the crossroads just before it, before he turned around to face his friends. “Okay…so I was thinking…if Sunny’s family isn’t going to let us into the house…perhaps there’s some other way we can go and see Sunny…” he said mischievously.

Aubrey’s eyebrows raised with interest. “Go on…”

“Well, years ago, Sunny and I would sometimes sneak out at night to go to Hobbeez together…so let’s just say, I may know how to get into his room through the window…”

Aubrey smirked, eyes sparkling. “Heh, I see…You’re saying that we break into Sunny’s room so we can get answers about what’s going on from him directly?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying!”

“I like the sound of that…consider me on board! Also, wait, you and Sunny used to do that!?”

Kel put his hands up in front of him. “Hey, we grew out of it when we got older! And as far as I know, no one ever realized what we were doing!”

Aubrey shrugged. “Hey, I don’t have a problem with you guys sneaking out, I’m just more surprised that Sunny ever did something like that. Didn’t think he’d have it in him.”

“Guys!” Basil finally spoke up for the first time since they had all walked over here, and Kel and Aubrey looked over at him at the sound of him raising his voice. “Do you two hear yourselves? You guys are suggesting we break into Sunny’s house, we can’t just do something like that!”

“Would it be, though?” Aubrey replied. “I mean, we’d just be going into Sunny’s room, we wouldn’t be going anywhere else in the house.” Basil looked at her like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“Of course it would still be breaking in if it was just his room!” Basil retorted. “And I can’t let either of you guys go and do that!”

“Hey, Basil, if you really don’t want to be involved, you don’t have to be,” Kel said. “That way it’d be only me and Aubrey getting in trouble if we’re caught!”

Basil still did not look entirely reassured by Kel’s words. Aubrey’s voice grew a little softer as she spoke to him. “Besides, Basil, are you not just as curious about what’s going on with Sunny? We’re his friends, after all. Don’t you think we deserve to know what’s happening with him?”

Basil averted his gaze, but did not argue with Aubrey’s words. Kel wondered if that meant that he somewhat agreed with her.

Aubrey continued. “How ‘bout this, Basil: you tag along with Kel and I, and just stay back while the two of us do the actual breaking in? That way, you can run off and pretend you weren’t involved if things end up going wrong! How about it?”

“Um…I guess I can do that?” Basil said. He sighed. “I guess I really can’t stop you guys from wanting to do this, huh?”

“Sure can’t!” Kel said while roughly patting Basil on the shoulder, which made him jump a little. “Now come on; we should probably go around the house through the trees…”

————

Thankfully, the ladder that Kel and Sunny had always used to get in and out of his bedroom window was still laying around in the backyard when Kel and the others made it there, lying flat on the grass, looking like it hadn’t been used for some time. Kel grabbed it and carefully positioned it below Sunny’s bedroom window, just as he had when he was younger, making him feel nostalgic. Thankfully, the window was wide open as well, so everything was going according to plan!

Kel slowly climbed up the ladder, careful in case it shook under his weight, and soon found himself right at Sunny’s window. He hadn’t heard any voices, so he hoped that that meant that there was no one else in there, and looking inside the room, he found his suspicions had been correct.

There was only Sunny. He was laying down in his bed, facing away from where Kel could see him. Kel wasn’t sure whether or not he was sleeping…guess he only had one way to find out.

He turned around and gave Aubrey and Basil a thumbs up from where they still stood on the grass below him, and he slowly and carefully climbed in through the window, until he was standing on the floor of Sunny’s room. He waited while Aubrey climbed in after him…as well as Basil soon after her. Looks like he had somehow convinced himself to join them in their sneaking.

Once the two of them had made it inside Sunny’s room, Aubrey looked over at the seemingly-sleeping boy, laying down quietly in his bed. “Damn, is he asleep?” she asked, keeping her voice quiet.

“Looks like it…” Basil replied. “I wonder if he is actually sick…”

“I dunno…still seems like something weird is going on…”

The three of them all froze as Sunny suddenly moved, seeming to jolt at the sound of their voices. He suddenly sat up and looked in their direction, his brown eyes wide with surprise and…what looked to be terror.

“AH–!” He yelped and tried to back away from them, resulting in him falling off the side of his bed and onto the floor, the three of them flinching at the sound of the thud they heard. It didn’t appear to have hurt Sunny all that much, though; that, or the pain didn’t register, as he instead scrambled to press himself up against the wall, continuing to stare at the three of them with wide eyes.

“Hey, you’re awake, Sunny!” Kel said in his usual cheery tone as he got closer to his friend. “I know this is, uh, kinda unexpected, but—”

“Kel—all of you, wh–what are you doing here!?” Sunny said frantically, his voice trembling. “How did you get in here!?”

“We came in through the window!” Kel replied. Despite his outwardly cheery tone, he was confused…and concerned. He couldn’t say he was expecting Sunny to react quite like this. He was expecting surprise, of course, for the three of them just suddenly barging in here, but Sunny also just looked…terrified, for reasons Kel couldn’t really figure out. Sunny was looking at them, face pale and entire body shaking, as if they were all strangers out to hurt him, not the friends he’s known for years now.

Aubrey moved to stand next to Kel. “We just wanted to check up on you, Sun. Your family wasn’t letting us see you or telling us what was wrong, so we wanted to see you ourselves.”

“Wh–why would you want to do that…?” Sunny said quietly. “Why did you want to break in here!?”

It was Aubrey’s turn to look concerned. “Um…‘cause we’re your friends?” Her tone of voice came out more confused than sarcastic.

“It’s because we’re all worried about you, Sunny…” Basil said softly. He carefully tried to get closer to Sunny, who continued to look at Basil like some kind of scared animal, trying to press himself even harder against the wall. “We have no idea what’s been going on, and we want to make sure you’re doing alright.”

Sunny blinked, seeming like he was trying to comprehend Basil’s words. “Worried about me…?” he said softly.

“Of course…You haven’t left your house in a while, and none of us have been told anything about what’s going on…We wanted to know if there was any way we could help you, or something…”

Sunny’s shaking seemed to slow at hearing this, though he still looked rather tense, watching the three of them like a hawk.

“He’s right, Sunny…we want to help you!” Kel said. “We aren’t just gonna leave our friend alone without having any idea what’s wrong with him!”

“Do you really think we’d straight-up break into your room for any other reason?” Aubrey said with a smirk.

Sunny looked considerably calmer now, but he still remained in his spot on the floor. “I–I…I’m just scared…scared of how you guys will react…if I tell you…” he said, his voice quivering. “I’ve been told never to tell anyone, b–but…” Sunny hesitated, taking a deep breath before continuing.

“There’s a secret that…my family and I have kept for so long…Something happened recently and…I got scared about if you all found out…or that one of you had found out and…” He seemed to cut himself off. “I–I’m sorry…for worrying you…for just leaving you all without warning…I shouldn’t have doubted you all…”

“Sunny…” Aubrey said softly. The two of them exchanged eye contact for some time, which Kel felt there was more context behind that he didn’t know of.

“I think I speak for all of us when we say we forgive you, Sunny,” Basil said with a smile. He looked back at Aubrey and Kel, who both nodded, sending Sunny smiles of their own.

Sunny looked up at them, eyes wide, as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. All at once, the tension in his body seemed to fade; his shaking stopped, color returned to his face, the light in his eyes returned. He slowly stood up onto his feet, and faced Kel, Aubrey, and Basil with a determined look in his eyes.

“I…I think I’m ready,” he said. “I think I can tell you everything…I trust you all.”

Kel and the others didn’t say anything, only silently nodding as Sunny stood in front of them. He still seemed a little bit nervous, judging by the way his fists were clenched at his sides, his body shaking ever so slightly still, but he still seemed determined. He took a deep breath.

“The truth is…I’m…I’m a…”

Sunny’s words trailed off as suddenly, he started swaying, his eyes going half-lidded before he suddenly fell forward.

“Sunny!” Kel and the others cried out, and Kel quickly moved to catch his friend in his arms before he could fall to the ground. He seemed to have gone completely limp as he leaned against Kel, his body feeling…very cold, way colder than Kel thinks is supposed to be normal, especially for the middle of summer. Had he…always been like that, the moment Kel and the others had come into his room? What in the world was going on!?

From behind him, he could hear Aubrey and Basil let out horrified gasps simultaneously. “His hair…!” he heard Aubrey exclaim.

Trying to be quick yet still careful, Kel laid Sunny down on his bed, and once he had and could also get a look at Sunny’s face, he also couldn’t help but gasp at the sight.

A lock of Sunny’s hair had turned white, leaving a bright streak through his natural raven-black hair, as if someone had accidentally painted the wrong color on a canvas. His eyes were closed, his face had gone back to looking deeply pale, and he appeared to shiver slightly, despite the room’s warm temperature.

“Sunny!?” Kel tried to gently shake Sunny awake. No response.

“Wh–what the hell…!?” Aubrey said softly. “What just happened to him!?”

Before any of them could do or say anything else, they all froze as they heard the sound of the room’s door opening, Kel’s heart jumping into his throat. They all snapped their heads over to look at who was coming in, bracing themselves, as they knew their successful breaking into of Sunny’s room was about to be discovered.

It was Mari, who suddenly stopped in her tracks as she looked upon the three of them standing by Sunny’s bed, letting out a surprised yelp.

“Wh–what the—what are you three doing here!?” she cried. “How did you get in here!?”

“We may have, uh, snuck in through the window…” Kel said sheepishly.

“So…so you three broke in here!?” Mari said incredulously.

“So what if we did?” Aubrey said, taking a step towards Mari. “Something’s going on with Sunny, and you know it, don’t you? And you’re just not telling us…”

“I…” Mari trailed off, nervously grabbing her arm and averting her gaze.

“Mari…Sunny is…” Basil said quietly, and him and Kel moved apart so that Mari could now see Sunny laying down in his bed. Mari’s eyes widened in horror upon seeing her brother in that state.

“Sunny!” she cried as she quickly made her way to Sunny’s bedside, trying to wake him up much like Kel had, but he still didn’t respond, not seeming to have heard Mari’s voice as she cried out to him. “What happened to him!?”

“We—we were talking to him, and then he just…passed out…” Basil said meekly. “And we saw a part of his hair turn white…and now he’s…”

“Mari, what’s happening to him?” Kel demanded.

Mari, now sitting at Sunny’s bedside, faced all three of them as they looked at her with pleading looks in their eyes. She took a deep, shaky breath. “I–I’m sorry…” she said quietly. “I just…I just can’t tell you…”

“Why not!?” Aubrey said, her voice getting louder. “So you do know what’s wrong with him, so why can’t you tell us!?”

“It’s just—it’s complicated. Please believe me when I say that I just can’t tell you…”

“But we’re his friends, aren’t we?” Kel retorted. “Don’t you think we deserve to know as much as you do?”

Basil nodded in agreement. “We’ve been worried about him…”

Mari suddenly stood up, seeming to get a little more frustrated, if her expression was anything to go by. “We’re his family! We reserve the right to tell you as much as we want about him! We don’t have to tell you everything!”

“You may be his family, but we still care about him!” Basil replied. “We’re still his family in other ways!”

“Well, if you really cared about him, then you would’ve left him alone when we told you to!” Mari was yelling now, an angry expression on her face that Kel had never thought he would ever see on her. All his life, he’d never known Mari as someone who could get so angry, someone who could raise her voice at people, let alone her friends, but that perception of her was being shattered right before his eyes. “If you really were so worried about him, then you wouldn’t have broken into his room, god dammit! So why don’t you do him a favor and get out!! Now!!”

The silence in the room after Mari’s outburst was palpable, no one daring to say a single word to break it. It was Aubrey who finally moved first, letting out a growl through gritted teeth before quickly turning around to leave, storming out of the room without a word. Kel and Basil silently followed after her, Kel not daring to look back at Mari as he left. As they made their way down the stairs, he could hear the sound of Sunny’s room door being slammed shut.

Kel let out a frustrated sigh. There was no way any of them were letting this go now.

————

Mari leaned her hand against the wall as she closed her eyes and took in deep breaths, trying to calm herself after everything that had just happened. She just couldn’t believe those three…were they really so stupid to break into Sunny’s room after her and her family had made it clear that Sunny didn’t want to see them!? Just what were they thinking!?

She could feel herself calming down, the tension in her body fading slightly, and with that, her anger also started to dissipate. No…she shouldn’t think of her friends that way. They were doing it out of concern…even if how they chose to check up on Sunny wasn’t exactly the best or…arguably legal way to do it. She didn’t like that she couldn’t tell them what was going on, but…keeping their selkie nature a secret was the most important thing to do in this situation, no matter what.

Mari sighed and looked over at Sunny, still laying unmoving in his bed since she had come in here. She moved to stand by his side once again, being able to truly take in his state for the first time, having been too distracted by what her friends had done to really pay attention before.

His skin was concerningly pale, and when Mari reached out a hand to gently touch his forehead, she almost flinched from just how cold it was. He was also slightly shivering, despite the warm temperature in the room, and Mari reached over to pull Sunny’s blankets over him to hopefully try and help him.

But of course, there was the most notable thing…the streak of white in Sunny’s hair, harshly cutting through his inky-black locks. “Oh, Sunny…” Mari murmured as she reached out to stroke his hair. This meant they were on a time limit now; they had to find his coat soon, possibly within just a couple of days, before he…

Mari let out a shaky breath before slowly getting up, leaving the room to let her parents know what was going on.

She returned about an hour later to check up on her brother again, to find that he was now awake, though he really didn’t look any better than before. It looked he had to fight to even keep his eyes open.

“Hey, Sunny…” Mari said softly as she went to sit beside him once again.

“Mari…?” he said weakly, only barely loud enough for Mari to have heard him speaking. “What…happened…?”

Mari sighed, unable to hide her irritation. “You apparently passed out. Kel, Aubrey, and Basil were here; they apparently broke in through the window…I had to kick them out…” She didn’t say out loud what had caused Sunny to pass out or anything about the state he was now in, but she imagined she didn’t need to; he could probably tell just from how he felt.

“Oh…” Sunny’s eyes were already starting to close again. “I’m…tired…”

Mari gave him a warm smile. “Rest then, little brother…Dinner will be ready soon; Mom’s making your favorite!” Mari hoped that Sunny would even have the strength to eat; he hadn’t been eating well in general ever since he had stopped leaving their house.

Sunny didn’t reply, only closing his eyes once again before quickly falling back into sleep, his breathing soft and steady. Mari continued to sit with him for some time, and after a while, she started talking again, even though she knew Sunny was asleep and couldn’t hear her. She was effectively talking to herself.

“I’m sorry, Sunny, but…I still haven’t found your coat…I’ve looked in every place I felt it could have ended up, but…” At this point, Mari had felt she had well exhausted every possible place it could be, and had still turned up nothing. She felt like she only had one last option to turn to now…

“I…I know I didn’t want to believe that one of our friends would’ve stolen your coat, Sunny, but…at this point, I think I have to accept that it’s probably with one of them… I–I’m sure it wasn’t stolen with malicious intent, but…” It was something she had suspected all along, but she didn’t want to face that fact; she wanted to believe that something else had happened to Sunny’s coat first before concluding that someone—one of their friends, had stolen it.

Perhaps if Mari had just allowed herself to think this earlier, Sunny wouldn’t have gotten to this point…

“I think tomorrow…I’m going to try searching in each of their houses for it…or ask if they have some kind of coat like yours…” Oh how hypocritical of her, to be going and snooping around in their houses after Mari had just yelled at them for breaking into hers, just so they could see their friend…She really needed to apologize to them after all of this.

“Sunny…I promise I’ll do everything I can to find your coat…I have to.”

Chapter Text

Mari woke up the next morning feeling pretty well-rested, all things considered, which she chose to see as a small spot of hope among all of this. The events of the past couple weeks had left her feeling constantly stressed, as much as she tried to hide it, so getting a good night’s sleep was reassuring. After all, today was an important day.

She got up and looked over at her brother still sleeping in his bed, horrified to see that he seemed to have only gotten worse. Even more of his hair had become white; dark spots had grown under his eyes, standing out against his pale skin; and his shivering had returned with a vengeance, seeming to have gotten worse despite all the blankets Sunny was buried under.

“Oh, Sunny…” Mari murmured. She quickly moved all of the blankets off of her own bed and added them to the pile that Sunny was shaking under, and carefully moved them so that they were wrapped tightly around Sunny’s shivering frame. To Mari’s relief, his shaking seemed to become better after this, though it hadn’t gone away completely. She held a hand up to his forehead, finding that his skin was still ice-cold.

She let out a shaky sigh, fighting back tears that were starting to well up. At this point, she would have to find his coat within the day…

“I’m going out to look for it again, Sunny…” Mari whispered. “Just…please try to hold on. I will do everything I can to find it this time, I promise…I’ll be back later, little brother.”

With that, she started to get ready for the day. She had to act fast now.

————

Mari’s first stop of the day was right next door, at Kel and Hero’s house. She took a deep breath before gently rapping on the front door, and she waited until it opened to Mrs. Diaz, Kel and Hero’s mother, who beamed as she saw Mari standing at the door.

“Hello there, Mari!” she greeted brightly. “What’s brought you over here?”

Mari put on her best smile. “Good morning, Mrs. Diaz! Well, you see…” Here goes nothing. “I lost something fairly recently, and I’ve been looking around for it for a while, and I thought maybe I had left it here while I was visiting one time. So I was wondering if I could come in and have a look around for it?”

“Of course you can, Mari! Come in, come in…” Mrs. Diaz stepped back and opened the door wider to allow Mari to enter the household, to which Mari gratefully obliged.

“So, what was it that you lost, dear?” Mrs. Diaz asked once she had closed the door behind Mari. “Maybe I’ve seen it around here lately!”

Welp…Mari had hoped that she wouldn’t have been asked that, as even now, she would still rather that other people did not learn of the existence of the coat in the first place. But at this point, Mari couldn’t afford to keep being so tight-lipped about it anymore. Besides…she could trust that Mrs. Diaz wouldn’t have bad intentions even if she figured out what exactly Mari was looking for.

“It’s, um…a white fur coat,” Mari said, trying her best to not let her nervousness show in her voice. “Have you happened to see anything like that, anywhere around the house?”

Mrs. Diaz’s eyebrows furrowed as she thought. “Hmm…I feel like if I had seen something like that in this house, I would have remembered it…We certainly don’t own anything like that to my knowledge. Still, I’ll let you look around for it, Mari, and I’ll let you know if I see anything like it!”

Mari nodded. “Thank you, ma’am,” she said.

And with that, Mari proceeded with her search while Mrs. Diaz went off into another room to go do something else. Mari made sure to leave no stone unturned, checking under every piece of furniture, inside every cabinet and drawer, inside every room. If it truly was Kel who had stolen Sunny’s coat, perhaps all of this thorough searching wasn’t really necessary; that boy wasn’t exactly the best at hiding things, Mari knew. But she wasn’t taking any chances at this point.

Once Mari’s search had led her to the second floor of the house, she realized that it was very likely she could run into Kel, and that it would be very awkward to after the way she had blown up at him and the others yesterday. She still really regretted reacting the way she had back there, and perhaps if she did see him, then she could have the chance to apologize…she hoped that he—and the others—would forgive her…

“Mari?”

Mari let out a very undignified yelp at the sound of someone saying her name as she was looking under one of the grandfather clocks on the upper floor. She quickly whipped around to see who it was, berating herself for reacting the way she had—way to totally not make yourself look suspicious, Mari—and saw Hero standing in front of the brothers’ room door, seeming like he had just left it.

“Hero!” Mari exclaimed as she held a hand to her chest, trying to calm her racing heartbeat.

“Mari—Oh jeez, I didn’t mean to startle you like that…” Hero said, letting out a nervous chuckle. He moved to stand next to her. “I didn’t know you were coming here! What were you doing?”

“Oh, I was just, um…looking for something that I lost…and I thought maybe I could’ve left it here,” Mari replied.

“Oh? What is it, maybe I can help you look for it!”

Mari hesitated, a part of her wondering if she could tell Hero the whole truth; not just about the fact that she was looking for a coat, but what that coat really was. Because admittedly…for a long time now, she had felt like she could tell Hero the truth about her being a selkie. She had been dating him for years now, and she has come to know him as the kind, understanding young man who she felt like she could talk to about anything, who she knew she could be her true self around. If she was going to tell anyone the truth about her selkie nature, the first person to know would be him.

But then…there were her father’s stories, of the young selkie women who had become trapped on land and forced into loveless marriages, due to human men who stole and hid their coats. And these incidents would come as a sharp reminder to Mari whenever she felt like she could finally tell Hero the truth.

Hero knew so much about her now, and Mari knew so much about him…so it hurt that she still couldn’t tell him her biggest secret yet.

“It’s a coat…a white fur coat…” Mari said. “It’s…really valuable, so it’s really important that I find it. Have you seen anything like that around lately?”

“Hmm…sorry, I don’t think I have…” Hero replied with a shake of his head. “I don’t remember you owning anything like that…”

“Well, maybe your memory’s not as good as it used to be!” Mari said, trying to brush the issue aside in a playful manner. “I’ll be fine looking for it myself, don’t worry! You just go on with whatever you were going to do, alright?”

“Oh, alright…” Hero’s expression became concerned, and it looked like he was just about to head downstairs, as he was seemingly about to do before he saw Mari, but he quickly changed his mind as he looked back at her. “Actually, Mari, before I go…I just want to make sure you’re doing alright…” he said, his voice softer.

Mari blinked, caught off-guard by his sudden shift in tone. “O–of course I am, Hero!” she said.

Hero didn’t look all too convinced by her words; for better or worse, he could read her all too well by this point. “Well…I couldn’t help but notice how stressed you’ve looked lately. I mean, I guess I can understand it, considering everything that’s been going on with Sunny…”

The mention of Sunny hit Mari like a stab to the gut, and she felt her hands clench into fists at her sides without thinking. Hero now possibly knew the least about what was going on with Sunny out of everyone in the group, as he had been staying rather patient with Mari and her family in dealing with things, and didn’t try to pry much about what was going on with him.

“Y–Yeah…” Mari said, now unable to keep her voice from shaking. “He’s…really not getting any better…I’ve been trying everything I can to help him, anything at all, but…I’m starting to think that it’s going to be too late, that he’ll…” She knew by now that she was saying too much, but she couldn’t help it. The fact that she had been holding all of this in for so long now, and the fact that she was talking to Hero of all people, made everything she had been hiding spill out of her.

“Mari…” Hero said softly, and he slowly moved closer to her until he had his arms wrapped around her. After that, everything came crashing down, and Mari let herself sob in her boyfriend’s arms, tightly wrapping her arms around him in turn as her whole body shook.

“I…I don’t know what I’d do if I lost him!” Mari cried in between hiccups. “I promised him that I’d be able to help him, a–and I don’t know what I’d do if I failed him, if after everything I’ve done, I still couldn’t…!”

Mari continued to cry all of her feelings out until she felt her tears had all dried up, Hero providing her silent comfort all the while, soothingly rubbing her back. Once Mari was finally done, she looked up at Hero, who looked back down at her, eyes full of worry and sympathy.

“Mari…if there’s anything I can do to help you and Sunny, then I’d like for you to allow me to,” he said. “I don’t want you to have to shoulder this burden all by yourself; I can tell it’s really started to wear you out…” He smiled softly. “And I’m worried for Sunny just as much as you are…you know I see him like a little brother too, so if there’s anything I can do for him, I want to.”

Mari nodded, already starting to feel lighter just knowing that Hero wanted to help her. And he was right…he really did care for Sunny much like Mari does, so she felt it was only right that he be allowed to help him. And if that meant that he had to know the truth…well, at this point, Mari was pretty confident that that knowledge would be safe in his hands. Looking up into his brown eyes, soft with understanding and love, only assured her of that fact.

Mari took a deep breath.

“Okay…Hero, there’s something I have to tell you. It’s a secret that I’ve kept for so long, from you, from all our friends, but after all this time…I think I can trust you with it.” Her expression turned stern. “You just cannot tell anyone else about it. Promise?”

Hero nodded, a determined look in his eyes. “I promise,” he said. He then looked around. “Though maybe it’d be better if you told me somewhere else?” he said, cocking his head in the direction of his and Kel’s room.

“Oh, right…hehe.” Mari almost forgot that the both of them were out on the upper floor of Hero’s home this entire time, and she wondered if either of Hero’s parents had heard her sobbing for what must’ve been a couple minutes. She really hoped not… “Is Kel home?” she asked.

Hero shook his head. “He told me he was going out with Aubrey and Basil.”

Mari sighed with relief. “Alright…”

The two of them entered Hero and Kel’s room together, quietly closing the door behind them, and sat side-by-side on Hero’s bed. The two of them looked intensely into each other’s eyes, and Mari took a deep breath, bracing herself as she finally admitted her, and her family’s, deepest secret.

“The truth is…Sunny and I…are selkies.”

Hero’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “Selkies…you mean like…the seal people?”

Mari couldn’t help but laugh at Hero’s description. “A very basic way to describe them, but…yeah. Seals who can take human form by shedding their seal coats. Our father’s a selkie too, and our mother’s a human.”

“Wow…” Hero’s eyes became wide with wonder. “I thought they’d only existed in fairy tales and stuff…”

“I’m pretty sure a lot of people do,” Mari replied. “Our dad’s told us how they try to stay elusive, and don’t like to get close to humans. Sunny and I were born and raised on land, but we still go to the ocean in seal form all the time. It’s kind of in our nature…we get antsy if we stay on land for too long. And our coats…they’re what allows us to turn into seals…”

“I get it…you wouldn’t want anyone knowing about your coats, or even that you’re selkies at all, just in case they would…”

Mari nodded solemnly. She nervously fidgeted with the fabric of her skirt as she continued. “Our dad’s told us stories of selkies who had their coats stolen and hidden away by humans, and they’d become trapped on land, sometimes being forced into marriages with human men. Some of my dad’s own relatives were victims.” She smiled shamefully. “It’s, um…kind of why he doesn’t like you that much…”

Hero’s eyes widened with realization. “Oh…” he murmured.

From the moment Mari had started becoming closer with Hero, her dad had grilled into her head over and over the importance of not letting him know about her being a selkie, which only got worse when the two of them had actually started dating. Mari knew that her dad was just trying to keep her safe, and she understood why he didn’t have the best perception of human men, but she had to admit that at a certain point, his dislike of Hero had started to become kind of ridiculous.

Mari gently took both of Hero’s hands in hers, grasping them with a soft firmness. “My dad had warned me about what you would do if you found out the truth so many times,” she said, “but…at this point, I felt that I could trust you enough to know about all of this.” She looked into his eyes, giving him a warm smile. “After all of this time, I know the type of person you are, Hero, and I know you as the kind of person who will always let me be myself, no matter what.”

Hero returned her smile, a familiar warmth in his eyes. “Of course, Mari. I could never dream of restricting your freedom like that, to keep you trapped here. As long as you’re happy, then I’m happy too, my love.”

Mari laughed, feeling her heart fluttering in her chest. Oh, how lucky she was to have someone like him; she wondered how she ever could’ve doubted his love for her.

Soon after, Hero’s face became serious again. “So…about Sunny,” he said, “I’m assuming what’s going on with him has something to do with all of this?”

Mari felt her smile fall, and she nodded, letting out a deep sigh. “A couple weeks ago, he left his coat at our hangout spot when he went swimming in the lake. When he went back for it later…it was gone. At this point, it’s fair to say that someone must’ve taken it.”

“And if he left it in the hangout spot…”

Mari nodded. “I don’t want to believe that any of them meant any harm when taking it, if they even knew that it was a selkie coat at all…but that’s why I’ve been wanting to go through their houses, to see if they’ve hidden it somewhere.” Mari balled her hands into fists, her nails digging into her palms. “Sunny doesn’t have much time left…if a selkie of his age is kept from their coat for too long, then their health will start to decline dangerously, until they…” Even now, she couldn’t dare to speak it out loud.

Hero reached out to hold one of Mari’s hands. “I’ll help you find it, Mari,” he said, determination shining in his eyes. “Now that I know the truth, I want to help you. Anything to help Sunny.”

Mari smiled, returning Hero’s determined gaze, a feeling of hope growing within her. With her now having help, she was confident that they’d make better progress in finding Sunny’s coat…they had to.

Chapter Text

After a thorough search of Kel and Hero’s house, including the brothers’ room, had turned up nothing, Mari and Hero made their way over to Basil’s house…or, Basil and Aubrey’s house, as it had been ever since Aubrey had moved in. Aubrey’s rough home life hadn’t exactly been a secret to Mari, even though she knew Aubrey didn’t like talking about it or acknowledging it. Mari respected that, and supported Aubrey in more indirect ways, such as giving her some of her old clothes once Mari had outgrown them, and frequently offering for Aubrey to eat dinner with them and spend the night at their house.

At some point after Hero and Mari had left for college, Basil had offered for Aubrey to permanently stay at his house, which Aubrey accepted, seeming to have finally reached her limit with the way her mother treated her (or, more accurately, the lack of treatment from her) after her father had left.

Assured that Aubrey and Basil weren’t going to be home, Mari knocked on the front door, after which Polly, the caretaker for Basil’s grandmother, answered. Mari gave her the same explanation she had given to Mrs. Diaz, worried that Polly would be a little more suspicious of her, considering she didn’t know Mari as well. Thankfully, she was more than happy to allow Mari and Hero to have a look around the house, though she insisted on helping them look for the coat too. While Mari would prefer that no one else see the selkie coat before she does, she decided it was a risk she was willing to take, especially as the day drew closer to an end.

Unfortunately, their search ended with nothing to show for it, and as Mari and Hero bid Polly farewell and left the house, Mari tried to not let her stress about everything show. She looked out at the setting sun, which was turning the sky a dark shade of pink, with a grave feeling in her chest.

“It’ll be alright, Mari…” Hero said softly. “I’m sure we’ll find it in time.”

Mari nodded, trying to get herself to believe in those words. She looked over in the direction of her home. “I…I think I should go see Sunny…” she murmured. “I’ve been gone for a while now; he’s probably wondering about me.”

Hero nodded. “Would you like me to come with you?” he asked.

Mari thought about it for a few seconds, before silently nodding. With that, her and Hero started walking back to Mari’s house, Mari walking at a brisk pace to try and get there as quickly as she could, her heart pounding with anxiety just thinking about how Sunny must be faring right now.

Once the two of them made it to the house, they headed straight for Sunny and Mari’s room without a second to waste. Standing in front of the door, Mari took a deep breath.

The sight before her upon opening the door was…very familiar.

“Are you kidding me!?” she said, exasperated.

Standing at Sunny’s bedside were, once again, Kel, Aubrey, and Basil, all three of them turning around once Mari had entered. Dammit, she could’ve sworn she’d left the window closed this time—oh, who was she kidding, that wasn’t going to stop those three from finding some other way in. As the three of them all looked at Mari, their expressions were less those of surprise and more those of…concern. Wordlessly, they all stepped aside to allow Mari to see Sunny from where she was standing, and her heart spiked.

Even more of Sunny’s hair had become white; at this point, it had overtaken its original black color, making Sunny look almost unrecognizable. His skin had somehow paled even more, his deathly pallor making the bags under his eyes even more prominent, and his shivering had only gotten worse, despite the copious amount of blankets he was buried under.

“Sunny!!” Mari cried, running over to her brother’s side, reaching out to tightly grasp his cold hand in hers. If she’d thought he’d looked bad this morning, right now he looked absolutely miserable. Eyes closed and breathing slowly, he probably wasn’t even aware that Mari was here right now. “Oh, Sunny…” she whimpered, tears threatening to spill from her eyes.

“Mari…please, what’s happening to him?” she heard Basil plead. She turned around to look at the three who had once again found their way in here, while she sat at Sunny’s bedside. It was giving her a sense of déjà vu from yesterday, when she had first caught the three of them in here, though now they all looked mortified. She wondered how long the three of them had been here with Sunny.

“Can’t you take him to a doctor or something!?” Aubrey demanded. “He’s clearly dying!” Mari felt a stab in her heart at those words.

She shook her head sadly. “No doctor would be able to do anything to help him, Aubrey…” she said.

“So you know how to help him, then?” Kel asked.

“Yes, but…we can’t do anything for him if we don’t know where it is…”

“What are you talking about!?” Kel pleaded. “Please, tell us, Mari! We want to know how to help him!”

“Kel, calm down…” Hero had moved from his spot by the doorframe and stood next to his younger brother, giving him a stern look. Kel looked surprised at the fact that Hero was even here in the first place, but the look his brother gave him seemed to work in keeping him quiet. Instead, him and the others gave Mari desperate looks, all but telling her that they wanted to know what was happening to Sunny, and they wanted to know right this instant.

For a few seconds, Mari just stared at them, her body shaking. Sunny’s secret was now solely within her hands, its owner now unable to tell it himself, and yet she still didn’t know if he would even want them to know…

“Mari…” Basil said softly, cutting into the silence. “Before…Sunny passed out yesterday, he wanted to tell us something. Something about a secret that he—and your family—had been keeping for years. If it has anything to do with all of this, and with what you’re hiding…I think Sunny would want you to tell us.” Beside him, Kel and Aubrey nodded their agreement.

Mari was shocked, her eyes widening. Was that really true? Had Sunny really regained his trust in his friends, enough to want to tell them the truth about being a selkie?

She gasped as she felt the cold hand that she had been holding slowly move, its fingers gingerly curling themselves around her hand. She looked down at the hand’s owner, and saw that Sunny’s eyes were now open, even just barely; it seemed he had to put in a lot of effort to keep them that way.

“Please…tell them…”

The room was dead silent as he spoke, so everyone had heard him, despite how quiet his voice was, barely above a whisper. Mari could hear quiet gasps from behind her, her friends evidently being just as surprised as her.

“Sunny…” she said softly, her voice choking up. She gave her brother a determined look. “Okay. I’ll tell them.”

Sunny didn’t respond, only sighing before letting his eyes close once again, as Mari could feel his grasp on her hand loosening. His breathing, still soft and steady, assured Mari that he was still okay, still alive, for now.

Mari looked up at her friends, who were expectantly looking back at her, while Hero gave her a smile and a nod, silently assuring her that everything would be alright. With that, she took a deep breath…and told them.

She admitted to them everything, about her and Sunny being selkies, about their frequent trips to the ocean, the existence of their seal-skin coats, and why it was very important that they never tell anyone about their true nature, or even let the existence of their coats become known, lest that information end up in the wrong hands.

“The reason this is happening to Sunny is because he’s been away from his coat for too long,” Mari explained. “He left it at the hangout spot a couple weeks ago, and when he went back for it, it was gone. All this time, we’ve been trying to find it, but we haven’t been able to. So please, have any of you seen it or know where it is? Because right now, Sunny desperately needs it back…”

Kel, Aubrey, and Basil’s faces as Mari explained the situation with Sunny’s coat told Mari everything she needed to know; it appeared they all had the same horrifying realization at the exact same time. When Mari had finished all of her explaining, ending with her desperate plea for information on the whereabouts of Sunny’s coat, the three of them all looked at each other, seeming like they were silently asking each other who was going to speak up.

“Um…would Sunny’s coat happen to be white?” Kel asked with trepidation.

Mari nearly jumped up from where she was sitting at Sunny’s side. “Yes!! Yes, it is!! So you’ve seen it!?”

Once again, the three of them all silently looked at each other, nervously fidgeting in various ways, with looks of guilt and shame as they appeared to be desperately trying to avoid meeting Mari’s eyes. It was Basil who finally spoke up, hands trembling, clearly fighting to keep his voice steady.

“Um…you see, a couple weeks ago…”

————

In the middle of a hot, summer’s day, the bright sun shown down on the small town of Faraway, bathing all the town’s residents with the heat, with only a strong breeze blowing past serving as their relief from the sun’s rays. Basil and Aubrey walked alongside each other to the park, where they were planning to meet with Kel and Sunny later today. Mari and Hero had apparently wanted to spend time alone together today, which Basil understood, considering how much they had all been spending time together as a group since the two oldest had come home from college; Basil was sure the couple wanted some alone time.

While the plan was to meet with Kel and Sunny later than this, as Sunny had told them that he needed to take care of something first, Basil and Aubrey had decided to head over to the park earlier than that, as the two of them didn’t exactly have much to do anyway. They were fine waiting on Sunny and Kel either way.

Once they made it to the park, they noticed that Kel was already there, making some shots by himself at the basketball court. It really wasn’t surprising to Basil that Kel was here early too; he came here to the court on his own all the time, so perhaps he had also come here to kill time before they were all supposed to meet here.

Basil and Aubrey made their way to the edge of the court, where Aubrey called out to Kel to get his attention just as he was about to throw his basketball again. Kel perked up once he noticed the two of them were there, and he ran over to them, letting the ball fall out of his hands and roll a few feet away from where he’d dropped it.

“Hey guys!” he greeted cheerfully. “I didn’t know you guys were going to be here already!”

“Eh, we didn’t really have anything better to do, so we thought we may as well,” Aubrey said with a shrug of her shoulders. “Guess it means all three of us are waiting on Sunny, though, huh?”

“Yeah, I guess so…” Kel replied. He suddenly looked over his shoulder, in the direction of their secret hangout spot, and then turned back to them, a somewhat wary look on his face. “Actually…since we’re here early, you guys wanna come check out the hangout spot with me? I thought I saw something earlier…”

Aubrey raised an eyebrow. “You saw something? Like what?”

“I think I saw someone go back there…but I couldn’t tell who it was. Didn’t seem like it was any one of our friends…”

Basil and Aubrey exchanged a look. That was…a little weird. As far as they all knew, only a few people, including the three of them, knew about that hidden clearing behind the park, so to hear that someone unfamiliar had gone back there was a little strange, Basil had to admit.

“I guess it wouldn’t hurt to go and see,” Basil said. Who knows, maybe it was just someone cutting through the back woods, or maybe Kel was just seeing things. Basil imagined it probably wouldn’t be such a big deal.

“Yeah, I’m with Basil,” Aubrey said. “Let’s go.”

And so the three of them left the basketball court behind to head over to the back of the park, where the entrance to their hangout spot lay hidden behind some overgrown bushes and warning signs. They made quiet conversation while pushing through the thick foliage before them, theorizing if they were even going to find anything interesting upon coming back here.

Once they had all finally made their way to their familiar little refuge, they all found that there didn’t appear to be anyone else here. Nothing appeared out of the ordinary or out of place, just the same as this small clearing had always been.

“Doesn’t look like there’s anyone here…” Aubrey murmured as her and Kel went off in separate directions to look around, perhaps trying to find anything that could be amiss. Basil still wasn’t so sure that they were going to find anything, but he soon decided to join in their searching. After a couple minutes, though, he gave up on the expectation that there was anything going on here.

“I don’t think there’s anyone here, Kel…” Basil said. “Maybe it was just someone taking a shortcut through the woods or something.”

Kel sighed, awkwardly rubbing his nape. “Yeah, you’re probably right, Basil,” he said, sounding a little defeated. He seemed to recover quickly, though. “Let’s head back to the park, then! Who knows, maybe Sunny will be there soon!”

Aubrey and Basil nodded their agreement, and the three of them started to make their way back to the hangout spot’s entrance from where they had all separated to look around.

Just as Basil was walking past the picnic blanket, the one that the group had always left here since finding this place, a strong gust of wind suddenly blew past, Basil’s hand flying to the flower clip that sat in his hair to make sure it didn’t get untangled and blow away. As the wind continued its onslaught, Basil heard the sound of something falling over behind him, and he quickly whirled around to see that the picnic basket that sat upon the blanket had toppled over, causing the lid of it to open and for…something, to spill out of it.

“Huh?” Basil murmured as he ran back over to the basket, both to make it upright again and to see what had just fallen out of it. Basil always thought that that basket was left empty—it had almost become a mere decoration at this point, as it wasn’t the same basket that Mari used to put all their food inside for picnics—so he was a little confused that there appeared to actually be something inside it.

He kneeled down beside the basket to get a closer look at the mysterious object, his eyes staring in wonder. It appeared to be something made of a soft, light material, some kind of article of clothing, entirely white as snow. Basil carefully reached out to touch it, finding that it was just as soft as it looked, made of some kind of fur, and he couldn’t help but think that it was likely real fur as well…

“Hey, Basil! What’s the holdup over there?” Basil jumped as he heard Aubrey calling out to him from a distance. He turned around to see her and Kel standing at the entrance to the clearing, looking over at him with confused looks on their faces.

“S–Sorry!” Basil called back to them. “The picnic basket fell over and…there was something inside of it…!”

Kel and Aubrey ran over to Basil’s side, and the two of them gasped as they saw what he was holding in his hands, their eyes wide with curiosity.

“I–I think it’s a coat…” Basil said, holding up said coat out in front of him as he stood back up onto his feet, dusting off some of the dirt that had gotten onto it. “It was inside the picnic basket, and it almost just blew away when the basket fell over.”

“What the hell…?” Aubrey murmured. “What was that doing there? It…hasn’t always been there, has it?”

“I don’t think so…” Basil said. “It looks pretty clean for something that would’ve been there for a while; looks like it was put there recently.”

“It looks expensive…especially if that’s real fur…” Aubrey reached out to touch the coat’s soft white material. “Who in the world would think to just leave it here?”

“Lemme see!” Kel said excitedly as he reached out his hands. Basil complied, gently handing the coat off to Kel, who held it up against his tall frame. “It seems kind of cool, to be honest!”

“Looks a little small for you, though,” Aubrey said with a playful smirk. “Then again, you’re kind of a giant, so maybe that isn’t too surprising.”

Basil couldn’t help but agree with Aubrey’s statement about the coat looking too small for Kel. In general, the coat appeared to have been made in a very particular way, as if it had been tailor-made to fit one specific person. Could it have been made by hand? Though that only made Basil even more confused on why the coat would’ve just been left here if it was of great value, both materially and sentimentally.

“Um…as cool as it is, I think it’d be best to leave it here…” Basil said. “Maybe whoever left it here is planning to come back for it.”

“Hmm…I dunno, this is some weird place to leave something like this,” Aubrey said.

“Maybe they left it here on accident?” Kel suggested.

“The way it was placed in the basket really doesn’t seem accidental to me…” Basil said warily. How else could the coat have possibly ended up there any other way than having been placed in there deliberately?

“Yeah, but…if we just leave it here, what if something happens to it?” Kel asked. “An animal could get to it…and Basil, you did say that the wind almost just blew it away just now.”

“Yeah, it did…But we can’t just steal it!”

“It wouldn’t really be stealing if we’re just taking it to keep it from something happening to it, right?” Aubrey said, fingers tapping her arm as she thought.

“But how would the coat’s owner know that, Aubrey? We don’t even know who it belongs to!”

“We could always ask around later!” Kel said. “They have to be somewhere in Faraway Town, right? We’ll just take it to a safe place where nothing can happen to it and no one can steal it, then we can look for its owner later and give it back to them!”

Basil sighed. He still wasn’t really sure taking the coat away from here would be a good idea—he’d hate for its owner to come back for it just to find it gone—but Kel was correct in pointing out how the coat could’ve been picked up by the wind if Basil hadn’t noticed it there; then it could’ve been lost completely. Maybe…maybe this really was the right thing to do. They really weren’t intending on stealing it; they just wanted to keep it safe. Hopefully the coat’s owner, if they found them, would understand.

“Okay…” Basil said quietly. “Let’s take it somewhere else.”

“Alright!” Kel said, slinging the coat over his shoulder as he started walking off to the other side of the clearing. “And I think I know just the place to keep it…”

————

“That was his coat…” Basil said breathlessly, eyes wide with horror. “We stole his coat…” Kel and Aubrey looked as equally horrified as Basil did.

“Where did you take it!?” Mari demanded, now fully up onto her feet.

“We hid it in the treehouse…” Kel said shamefully, still unable to fully meet Mari’s eyes.

“Show me.”

Mari followed behind Kel as the two of them quickly ran out of the house and into the backyard, running past the trees until they made it to their old treehouse, still standing after having been built four years ago. The two of them climbed up the ladder into the small wooden house one after the other, and then Kel showed Mari inside one of the drawers, Mari’s breath catching inside her throat at what she saw inside.

Sure enough, there was Sunny’s coat, neatly folded within one of the small, wooden drawers; she’d know it from anywhere. Besides being a little dusty from presumably having been kept there for some time, it was perfectly safe and intact.

Mari and Kel raced back inside the house, Sunny’s coat held tightly within Mari’s arms, and soon the two of them had returned to her and Sunny’s bedroom within just a couple minutes, if even that. Everyone stepped away from Sunny’s bedside and stood by with bated breath as Mari approached Sunny and kneeled down at his side, hands shaking as they finally held on to her dear little brother’s coat.

“Sunny, we finally have it! I have your coat right here, little brother!” she said. She gingerly moved all of the blankets off of him, and then, slowly and gently, she wrapped his coat around him. It fit perfectly and snugly around his shivering body, as if it had been waiting to reunite with him.

Even after that, though, after finally having been reunited with his coat after all this time…Sunny didn’t react. His eyes remained closed; his breathing, once steady, had become shallow and shaky; his skin was still deathly pale as he continued shivering, despite his soft coat being wrapped around his body.

“Sunny? Sunny, wake up…” Mari said softly as she shook his shoulder to try and wake him, a sickening feeling growing within her stomach as he continued to not respond, despite him having been finally reunited with his coat. Her entire body tensed as, before her eyes, another lock of Sunny’s hair turned white, now leaving only a few streaks of his original black hair left.

“It…it’s not working…” Mari rasped as she stood up on trembling legs. “Even with his coat, he’s still…”

“I–Is there really nothing else we can do!?” Mari heard Aubrey exclaim from behind her, her voice sounding choked up. “Is he really just going to…?”

Mari took a deep breath, trying to calm down, to think rationally about what to do now. She…couldn’t let things end here, not after all that they’d done to help him, not after she had made a promise to him. She clenched her fists at her sides, a plan coming to mind. She couldn’t be sure if it would work, but…she had to try.

“I can think of only one other thing we can do,” Mari said, turning around to look at her friends determinedly. “Could I ask you all to leave the room for a minute?”

Her friends all silently looked at each other, before nodding, all four of them turning around and walking out of the room, closing the door behind them. As soon as they were out of sight, Mari rushed over to the desk, opening the drawer and feeling around the sides of it until she felt cold metal on her fingertips.

She pulled out a golden key from the drawer and then kneeled down beside her bed, pulling out an ornate chest painted in a deep purple color from underneath it, a gold lock in the front and center of it. Mari inserted the key into the lock and opened the chest, pulling out her own selkie coat from inside it and quickly putting it on.

After hiding away the chest and the key, Mari opened the door and faced her friends, who all stared at her in shock as they saw that she was wearing her own coat.

“I’m going to take Sunny to the ocean.”

Chapter Text

The moon had started making its way into the sky by the time Mari and her friends had left the house, all of them cutting through the forest surrounding their neighborhood, just as she and Sunny always had when heading out to the ocean throughout their lives. Unfortunately, Sunny wasn’t walking beside her this time; he was instead being held in Hero’s arms, laying limply with his coat still wrapped tightly around him like a warm blanket.

Thankfully, Mari had the path to the beach down by heart at this point, even after having spent a few months away at college, so she could easily lead her friends through the woods even in the dark. It made Mari feel nostalgic, her mind filling with memories of walking along this path with Sunny, the two of them frequently holding hands the entire way when Sunny became scared of running into spiders. As she returned to the present and was reminded of Sunny’s current state, she felt a deep cut in her heart.

While they all tried to move fast—they needed to get to the ocean as quickly as possible now—they were also being careful of Sunny, making sure he wasn’t being jostled around too much as they made their way there. Hero walked beside Mari so that she could keep an eye on her little brother, and she was constantly checking on him in the hopes that she would see that he had woken up, but his eyes remained closed everytime she checked. He didn’t seem at all aware of where he was or what was happening, and his health still wasn’t improving at all…

Once Mari could hear the sound of the ocean’s waves, she couldn’t help but instinctively quicken her pace, her selkie half being drawn to the ocean before her. As the group finally emerged from the trees and started walking on the cool sands of the beach, Mari could feel some of her nerves fading as she heard the loud crashing of the waves and breathed in the salty air, the selkie in her being comforted by the familiar senses of her second home. She really hoped Sunny was able to sense them too…

The group finally stopped walking once they reached the end of the shore, where the sand became dark and damp from the constant rhythm of the waves surging back and forth. Mari kicked off her shoes, leaving them behind in the sand, and turned to face her friends.

“I’m going to take Sunny with me into the water,” she explained, having to raise her voice a bit to be heard over the waves. “I hope that it’ll cause him to wake up, and make him healthy again.”

Her friends all nodded at her words, eyes shining with worry, and carefully, Hero placed Sunny’s limp body into Mari’s arms, where she realized how concerningly light her little brother was. She didn’t know whether it was from him not having been eating well, a side effect of the state he was currently in, or perhaps a combination of both.

“I guess all we can do now is wait here,” Hero said. He looked down at Sunny’s limp form. “I don’t know if you can hear us, Sunny, but…please know we’re all here for you. We all want you to be safe…”

“And Sunny…we’re all so sorry for what we did…” Kel said, his voice uncharacteristically soft. “We didn’t want for any of this to happen…we never should’ve taken your coat…”

“Whether you forgive us or not…please let us be able to apologize to you directly,” Aubrey said.

“Just…please be okay, Sunny…” Basil pleaded. “We can’t lose you…”

Mari couldn’t help but smile at her friends’ words, at hearing just how much they cared for Sunny, how much they all loved him; she could really see for herself why Sunny had felt like he could entrust Kel, Aubrey, and Basil with his secret. She really hoped that he was able to hear them, that he knew how much he meant to all of them, how worried they were for him.

Finally, Mari turned around to face the ocean, feeling its untamed waters calling out to her, beckoning her into its vast, underwater world. She recalled how she had wanted to ask Sunny to come with her to the ocean before all of this had happened; being in this situation now felt like a cruel twist of fate.

“Come on, Sunny,” Mari said softly. She pulled the hood of his coat over his head, and then started walking forward, holding on tightly to Sunny as she waded deeper and deeper into the sea. As she moved forward, her mind brought forth memories of all the times she had come here with Sunny, and her parents as well when the two of them were much younger. Even now, she could faintly remember the first time Sunny had been brought here, when he had been too scared to go into the water, and only did so when Mari was there with him, holding on tightly to his hand. Mari’s eyes started to water, but she shouldn’t let herself get emotional right now; that could wait for after Sunny got better.

Mari recalled when she had tried to bring Sunny here after he had lost his coat, how the ocean had frightened him, made him feel unsafe. It took some time for Mari to realize just what had happened on that day; without his coat, Sunny had lost his connection to the ocean, making it seem unrecognizable and dangerous to him. With him now reunited with his coat, Mari hoped that the ocean would now accept him again, and that it could heal him…

Finally, Mari had made it far enough out that her feet could no longer touch the ocean floor, and she had started to have to actually swim out further; thankfully, she was a good swimmer even in her human form, and soon had finally managed to bring her and Sunny out where the water would be deep enough.

Taking one final deep breath, she submerged herself completely within the cold ocean water, taking Sunny down with her, and once they were both under the surface, Mari transformed into a seal and pushed Sunny down further, until she let him simply float in the middle of the open waters.

Now…all she could do was wait. Wait here, swimming close by Sunny’s side as she hoped and prayed that he would wake up, that reconnecting with his selkie nature was what would finally heal him and return him to normal. She watched with a heavy feeling in her heart as Sunny floated motionlessly in the water, slowly sinking closer to the ocean floor, eyes still closed. Though Mari knew he was at no risk of drowning—selkies could breath underwater just as well as in fresh air—the sight still worried her.

Soon, seeing no other options left, and not wanting to simply wait here and do nothing, Mari started to sing. In the hopes that Sunny would hear her and be roused from his deep sleep, she let out long, high-pitched calls into the sea, her haunting cries disappearing into the looming void of the ocean before her. After a few moments…Mari started to hear her song being echoed back to her.

She watched as multiple gray seals started emerging from the dark corners of the surrounding ocean and started to swim over to her and Sunny, drawn in by the sound of Mari’s singing. Mari knew about these seals, as her and Sunny had met them many times over the course of their trips to the ocean. Even though they weren’t selkies like her and her brother, the seals still felt a kinship with the siblings nonetheless, and had grown familiar with the two of them.

Once the seals reached Sunny, they appeared to recognize the dire state that he was in, some of them stopping to gently nudge him in an attempt to wake him up. Soon after, all the seals joined in Mari’s song, making it swell to greater volume and filling Mari’s heart with hope, that this was what would finally manage to bring Sunny back from the dark recesses of his own mind.

Mari and the seals sang, and sang, and sang…

————

………………

Where…?

……………

Where…is he…?

………

Is he dreaming…?

…

He really couldn’t tell…he feels like he’s been in a constant dream for some time now. Never knowing whether or not he was awake, unable to distinguish dreams from reality, his mind smothered by a heavy fog. He was unable to think properly, his own memories out of reach, sinking into a black abyss whenever he tried to grasp them; he couldn’t even quite remember who he was right now. He felt trapped in his own body, unable to escape, yearning for freedom that he knew was out of his reach.

Slowly, he started to hear a peculiar sound; while muffled at first, it started to become more clear as he attempted to focus on it. Some kind of high-pitched call…no, a song? It…sounded familiar; has he heard it from somewhere before? He tried to recall where he may have heard this song before, but his own mind was still blocking him out.

He could feel himself start to become more aware of his surroundings. He was floating; his body felt weightless, as if he was submerged underwater—no, he was underwater. But…he wasn’t drowning; the sensation didn’t feel at all frightening. It was instead…comforting…

With some effort, he slowly opened his eyes, initially being met with nothing but a mishmash of dark colors, unable to make out what he was actually looking at or where he was. As his vision started to clear up, he noticed something that stood out against the dark and muddied canvas before his eyes: a spot of white, like a single speck of snow, in the center of it all. The song started to become easier to make out, where he became even more certain that he’d heard it before; not only that, but he thought he could recognize a particular voice amongst the chorus that was ringing in his ears.

He…he knows that voice…he has to know that voice! Who did it belong to? Who was here singing to him right now? Once more, he tried to pry into the dark, murky depths of his mind, trying to grab at something, anything, that would tell him who this voice belonged to.

…………

Mari!

Sunny inhaled sharply as his eyes flew wide open, and he realized that he was breathing in salt water. With his vision now clear, he finally realized where he was: the ocean. He…he was in the ocean! And this…this didn’t feel like a dream; he was really here, after all this time!

Floating in the middle of the ocean waters, soft beams of moonlight shining through from the surface, Sunny found himself surrounded by many gray seals, the ones who lived out here by the shore that he was familiar with. One seal stood out among them, one with a white coat, floating right in front of Sunny. It was Mari, her eyes wide with shock and disbelief.

Now having fully come back to his senses, Sunny realized there was something wrapped around his body; something soft, something…familiar. Gingerly lifting up a hand to touch it and being met with the familiar feeling of his seal-skin coat on his fingertips, he couldn’t help breaking out into a smile, the first genuine one he’s had on his face for some time. Mari…she’d actually found it! After all this time, Sunny finally had his coat back!

Unable to contain his excitement, Sunny transformed into a seal and happily swam in circles around Mari, the two of them letting out happy chirps, as did the other seals around them, all of them celebrating Sunny’s recovery. Sunny finally paused to nuzzle Mari’s face, before the two siblings swam off together, playfully dancing around each other as they flew through the water with seemingly boundless energy.

It almost felt unreal. After all those days of anxiety and paranoia after losing his coat, of hiding himself away in his room, of becoming too weak to even leave his bed, Sunny couldn’t believe he was finally here, in the ocean with his sister, just as he had wanted to for so long now. Now he couldn’t believe he had ever given up hope of his coat ever being found, and that he thought he’d never be able to return to the ocean again.

Mari suddenly stopped in her tracks, and when Sunny paused as well to look at her, she chirped while tilting her head up towards the ocean’s surface, a playful gleam in her eyes. Sunny returned the look, and then, in near perfect sync, the two swam back up to the surface together and leaped out of the water in mirroring arcs, before diving back into the sea with a satisfying splash. Afterward, the two of them returned to the surface and looked out towards the shore, where Sunny heard the sound of voices calling out to them. His eyes widened in surprise upon seeing who was standing at the shore.

It was all their friends—Kel, Aubrey, Basil, and Hero—waving excitedly to them from off in the distance, cheering and happily calling out their names. Ah, so that was why Mari had wanted to do that trick just now—though, knowing her, Sunny wouldn’t be surprised if being able to show off was another motivator. Sunny’s heart swelled at the sight of the people he cared about so much expressing their joy and relief that he was alright, that he was safe, and alive. So Mari really had told them the truth after all…

He…wanted to go and see them. He’d really missed them.

Sunny looked over at Mari, before diving back underwater and swimming back to shore, with Mari soon following close behind him. Upon reaching shallow waters, Sunny returned to his human form, rising to his full height from the waves crashing around him, and facing all of his friends with a warm smile.

“Everyone…I’m okay,” he said, his voice light. “I’m…glad to be back.”

His friends smiled back at him with tear-filled eyes and choked-out sobs, and Sunny could feel himself starting to tear up as well. They must have been worried to death for him…from what he can remember, he must’ve been in a very dire state, perhaps having been close to death. It’s no wonder they were so relieved that he was okay…he hated that he had worried them all so much.

Sunny nearly fell over as someone tackled him into a hug, wrapping their arms around his neck and holding him close to them. It was Mari, who had also returned to her human form, her body shaking as heavy sobs escaped her.

“Oh Sunny…!” she cried. “I’m so…glad you’re okay…I don’t know what I would’ve done if I’d…lost you back there…!”

Sunny laughed softly while wrapping his arms around his sister in turn. “It’s okay, Mari, I’m alright now…” he said comfortingly. “I really missed you…”

“And I missed you too, little brother…”

Sunny heard the sound of water splashing, getting louder as it got closer, and he looked up to see his friends running towards him and his sister, still standing within the shallow waters of the ocean. Him and Mari tearfully laughed as their friends all surrounded them, pulling them into a massive group hug, Sunny in the center of it. His friends spoke to him with choked-up voices.

“Thank god you’re okay, Sunny!”

“We were all so worried about you!”

“We’re so, so, sorry, Sunny…!”

At that point, Sunny could no longer hold back his tears, letting them flow freely as he was surrounded by the warmth of the people he cared about most, proving to him just how much they cared about him in turn. He wondered how he ever could have doubted their love for him, how he ever could have thought that they had wanted to hurt him. The period of time after he had lost his coat felt like another lifetime now.

Once the group finally broke up their embrace after what felt like minutes, sniffling and still wiping tears from their eyes, Kel turned to face Sunny. “How are you feeling now, man?” he asked.

Sunny smiled. “I’ve never felt better…I don’t think I’ve been this happy going to the ocean since I was little.”

Mari chuckled. “Same here, to be honest. I think I was well overdue for a trip to the ocean!”

Sunny turned his attention to his sister, and finally asked her the question that had been pressing on his mind ever since he got his coat back. “So, Mari…where did you end up finding my coat?”

Mari’s expression turned serious after this, and an uncomfortable tension seemed to permeate the air after he asked, if everyone’s sudden silence was any indication. She looked over at Kel, Aubrey, and Basil, and Sunny followed her gaze to find the three of them now looking incredibly guilty, seeming to find it hard to meet Sunny’s eyes. Hero gave the three of them a stern, yet gentle look, silently encouraging them to say something.

Kel took a deep breath. “Sunny…we were the ones who stole your coat…” he said shamefully. “After you hid it in the picnic basket, the basket toppled over, and we found your coat inside it. We were worried about just leaving it there, since it seemed really valuable, so we took it and hid it in the treehouse to keep anything from happening to it…We didn’t know what it really was, and we didn’t know it was yours, but…”

Aubrey sighed deeply. “It was really stupid of us to just take it like we did…even before all of this, we should’ve known not to take it.” She looked down at Basil. “Basil kept telling us how taking it was a bad idea, and we really should’ve listened to him…He really doesn’t have much fault in all this.”

Basil shook his head. “No, I should’ve tried harder to convince you guys not to take it. I just let myself believe that it would’ve been the right thing to do…” He looked up to meet Sunny in the eyes. “The important thing is…that we’re all so sorry, Sunny, for what we did to you. We didn’t want any of this to happen…we wouldn’t have wanted to keep you from the ocean. Even if you don’t forgive us…please just know that…” The three of them all looked at Sunny with pleading eyes, silently waiting for his response, for his judgement.

Sunny didn’t say anything for a few seconds, his mind swirling around everything he’d just been told, as he couldn’t help but feel a little…conflicted. Without sugarcoating it, it was their fault that Sunny had lost his coat, and that he had come so dangerously close to dying. In a way, his initial suspicions about who had stolen his coat had been correct from the very start.

However…he couldn’t find it in him to hate them, or to even be truly mad at them for what they did. He believed them when they said that they didn’t know what exactly it was they were taking, and he believed them when they said that they had just wanted to keep it safe. He recalls it being rather windy that day, and if that was what had caused the basket to topple over and for his coat to fall out of it, then it’s likely his coat could’ve been lost in a much different way. He understood that his friends had just wanted to keep from something happening to it…even if how they chose to do that wasn’t exactly the best option.

And besides all that…Sunny could tell that they were truly sorry for what they did. They couldn’t have known it would all lead to this, and he can only imagine how guilty they must feel about the fact that their actions had caused Sunny to nearly die. Even after knowing all this…Sunny still loved them.

“Well…I’ll admit that what you guys did was kind of stupid,” Sunny said. He had tried to say that lightheartedly, but his friends still flinched at his words.

“But,” Sunny continued, “I know you didn’t take it with malicious intent. And you couldn’t have known all this was going to happen.” He averted his gaze sheepishly. “And…maybe I didn’t pick the best place to hide it…” Once he had heard the voices approaching the hangout spot—which Sunny now realized with hindsight must have been his friends’ voices—in his panic, he had become fixated on hiding his coat, rather than simply taking it with him when he fled.

“And y’know…” Mari said, “all of this could’ve been avoided if we had just told you all the truth from the start. If we’d told you all what was going on, we could’ve gotten Sunny his coat back a lot sooner, and then all of…this…wouldn’t have happened.”

“Especially because…” Sunny smiled guiltily. “I…had suspected that it was one of you who had taken it from the start…”

“Wait…seriously?” Aubrey said, her eyes wide with shock.

Sunny nodded. “I mean, I left it in the hangout spot after all, and only a few people go there…and since Hero had been with Mari the whole day, well…that left only one of you as the one that could’ve taken it…” He sighed, his voice getting quieter. “That was why I was acting so weird around you all…because of the stories our dad has told us, I became scared that one of you had stolen it to try and keep me from the ocean…and that was also why I’d stopped leaving my house…to hide from you. I’m so sorry…”

“Sunny…” Basil murmured.

“But…you were trying to tell us you were a selkie right before you passed out, right?” Kel asked. “What made you want to tell us then?”

The warm smile returned to Sunny’s face. “When you all came to see me, and told me how worried you all were for me…it reminded me of how much I really cared for and trusted all of you, enough that I had been considering telling you all that I was a selkie even before all this had happened. I really had wanted to tell you all for a while, actually…”

“So did I…” Mari said. “I mean, earlier today I had finally told Hero.” She and Hero exchanged a look, and smiled at each other before reaching out their hands to intertwine them. “I know this really wasn’t the best way to find out, but…it really does feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders.”

Sunny nodded his agreement, and faced his friends once again. “So, as for your apologies…I forgive you all. You’re all still my friends, and nothing will change that.”

Kel, Aubrey, and Basil all stared at him with wide eyes, as if surprised that they were even getting forgiveness at all. Basil suddenly pulled Sunny into a hug, one that Kel and Aubrey soon also joined, all four of them laughing together.

“I think we still have a lot more to talk about, but I think it’d be best we head back home,” Mari said, as Sunny and his friends separated. “I mean, we still need to tell Mom and Dad that you’re okay, Sunny!”

Sunny nodded. “Wonder how Dad’s gonna feel about us telling them…” he said warily.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine! And if he doesn’t take it well at first, I’m sure I can convince him otherwise!”

“Hehe…I’m sure you will…”

With that, Sunny, Mari, and their friends started heading back to Sunny and Mari’s house, talking all the while about everything that had happened, and catching Sunny up on the events of the last day or so, as he was hardly conscious through most of it. It was after that that they all started to fall into more casual talk, Sunny contentedly listening to it as they walked, his steps feeling lighter than they ever have. He couldn’t be happier to be with them all right now, and that they didn’t see him and Mari differently for their secret.

In the end, everything had turned out okay.

————

“Kel, over here!”

Aubrey called out to her friend after the two of them had waded some ways into the sea, Kel holding on to a volleyball. Once he turned his head in the direction of Aubrey’s voice, he threw the ball into the air before putting his hands together and hitting it in Aubrey’s direction, who mirrored his motion as the two began hitting the ball between each other, back and forth. Around them, the cool ocean water made for a nice relief from the blistering summer heat, with the sun looking down upon them against a cloudless sky.

Several feet away, Basil sat on the edge of a small pier, his legs dangling over the edge of it and letting him lightly brisk the water with his toes. He watched Kel and Aubrey play volleyball with a content smile on his face, his blond hair whipping around him from the sea breeze. Because he couldn’t swim, he didn’t want to join his friends in their game, even if they were in shallow enough water to still be able to fully stand up. Still, he seemed just as happy to just watch them.

The three of them had asked Sunny if he wanted to come too, and he had agreed to, but said he had something to take care of first, and that he would meet them at a later time. It reminded Aubrey of when he had said something similar before going to meet with them at the park a few weeks ago. Aubrey and her friends now knew what he had been off to do at the time: going off to secretly swim in the hidden lake in his seal form…where he would end up hiding his coat for Aubrey and her friends to find and take from its original hiding place.

Aubrey and the others had now gotten used to the fact that two of their friends were selkies, and that the two of them frequently went down to the ocean to take on seal form, usually at night, when not many other people would see them. The fact that selkies were even real in the first place had come as a shock to Aubrey at first, and she would definitely still be skeptical if she hadn’t seen Sunny and Mari’s seamless transformations from human to seal herself. Now, though, the existence of selkies had started to feel normal to Aubrey.

Aubrey remembers how Sunny and Mari’s father, a selkie like his children, had initially been worried about the friend group knowing the truth about his children’s true nature, and Aubrey understood why. She’d heard the tales of selkies in passing, or from Basil’s books when they were younger, of those who would have their coats stolen by humans, kept from returning to their seal form and their true home. The fact that those stories had actual truth to them had horrified Aubrey.

But as time has gone on, he’s seemed to have come around to them knowing the truth, assured by the fact that Sunny and Mari themselves had entrusted them with the secret. “After all,” he’d said to them, “I’ve realized it’d be unfair of me to keep you from ever telling anyone, after everything I’d went through with your mother.”

“Oh shoot—” Too lost in her reminiscing, Aubrey hadn’t been prepared for the ball coming right towards her, and she’d ended up hitting it in a way that it went in a different direction, far from the one Aubrey had intended for it to go. As she watched the ball fly through the air, her and Kel gasped as something leaped up from under the water and knocked into the ball mid-air, intercepting its original path and making it fly back to Aubrey. The culprit, a white-furred seal, quickly dove back into the water, disappearing beneath the seafoam.

“Was that—” Kel started to say, before yelping in surprise as the seal suddenly popped up from under the water right next to him, letting out a playful-sounding bark. “Sunny!” Kel said excitedly. “There you are! I was starting to wonder when you’d get here!”

“Hey, Sunny!” Aubrey said. The seal—Sunny—looked over at her at his name being called, and he quickly swam over to her, his familiar brown eyes looking up at her with excitement. “That trick was sick as hell,” she said. She held up her hand, and Sunny slapped it with one of his flippers in the best approximation of a high-five.

“Hi, Sunny!” Basil called excitedly from his place at the pier. Sunny made his way over to him as well, and Basil giggled as he gently stroked Sunny on the head, Sunny letting out a high-pitched cooing sound.

“Say, Sunny, you said you had something to take care of, right?” Kel asked as Sunny swam back over to him and Aubrey. Sunny quickly dove back underwater, re-emerging soon after in his human form, his white seal coat wrapped around him. No matter how submerged that thing got, it never appeared to be weighed down or soggy, always appearing as light and pristine as it did on dry land.

“I may have said that so I could surprise you all…” Sunny said, a playful and sly look on his face that immediately brought Mari to mind. In general, being in the sea seemed to bring out a playfulness in Sunny that Aubrey has only witnessed in a much more suppressed form when he was on land. She couldn’t say she minded it at all; it was like getting to see a hidden part of him.

“Well, you came at just the right time; our game was only just getting started!” Kel said. Sunny chuckled, quickly returning to seal form and joining in on Kel and Aubrey’s game, hitting the ball towards them by ramming into it in midair.

While some things have certainly changed within Aubrey’s closest group of friends, in other ways, things have stayed exactly the same.