Work Text:
Sunny felt the calm, grounding presence leaving his side to join the chorus of loud arguing before them. From that point on, he could no longer pick out the individual words being tossed among the small crowd. He could have sworn he heard a few words in Spanish thrown into the gradual crescendo of squabbling, but he wasn’t too sure.
What he was sure about was that it was all too loud. Before he had the time to consider how he appeared to the others, Sunny’s hands shot to cover his ears in a desperate effort to drown out all of the bad noise. He squeezed his eyes shut, suddenly craving the sterile silence of White Space or the comfort of his own dreams. Of course, his efforts were futile as he had already committed to brave reality, even if for just the rest of the day.
Reluctantly, Sunny pried his eyes open. His gaze darted between his friends, studying them each with equal concern: first Kel, then Aubrey, then Kel again, and once more to Aubrey… and finally on Basil.
With Kel now briefly occupying his place at the forefront of Aubrey’s rage, Basil had to think, and quickly as his backwards steps inched him closer and closer to the end of the dock. Sunny watched him with urgent curiosity as he patted the pockets of his shorts. Then, with shaking hands, he reached into his vest, and…
The group briefly silenced at the sound of something clattering on the dock, and as Basil bent down to pick it back up, they just as quickly jumped away from him.
Kel stood a few feet in front of Sunny, obstructing his view and not allowing him to see what could have possibly escalated the commotion so quickly. He noticed some of Aubrey’s friends with wide-eyed, shocked expressions.
Kim was the first to exclaim: “Ohmygodhehasagun!”
Sunny wasn’t sure what he thought he heard, but nothing could have prepared him for what he saw. He poked his head out from behind Kel and saw Aubrey, kneeling on one leg.
Inches from her nose was the end of a pistol, shaking violently with the pale hands that grasped it.
Frantically, Basil swung the weapon around, pointing it first at Kim, then Kel, then back to Aubrey. “D- don’t any of you f- fucking move, or I’ll… I’ll…”
Kel glanced down at Sunny and discreetly repositioned himself to form a wall between him and the lunatic standing on the dock.
“A- Aubrey…” One of her ruffians stammered.
Basil’s eyes slowly moved from Kel and rested back down on Aubrey. “T- tell them to go away. Make them stop… m- make them stop hurting me,” he demanded.
Without taking her eyes off Basil, Aubrey warned them. “You guys might want to get out of here.”
Kim didn’t take this very well. “Are you kidding? You seriously think we’re going to leave you here with this lunatic—”
“I said back off, okay?” Aubrey snapped. “This is between Basil and I. No one else needs to get involved.”
One of the others tried once more to protest. “But Aubrey, we didn’t even—!”
“GO!”
Carefully and reluctantly, the hooligans scampered off. Sunny seriously doubted they’d go too far, though. He wondered if it occurred to any of them to send for help.
“Basil.” Kel opened his hand and approached slowly as if to calm a wild animal. “Basil, they’re gone now. No one’s going to hurt you. You can put the gun down… It’s just us, now.”
Basil reinforced his shaky grip on the gun. “Liar. You LIAR! They’re still here, I can… I can hear them. I can see… make them go away, damnit!”
“Kel, grab Sunny and leave,” Aubrey pleaded. “I’ll be fine, I promise, I…!” She jumped to her feet, and Basil snatched her by the shoulder. He had her in a headlock now.
Not knowing what else to do, Kel figured he could at least try to turn Sunny away. He grabbed Sunny by the wrist and tried to pull him towards the trees.
Basil’s eyes locked on Sunny. Still holding Aubrey, he turned the gun on his new target. He forced a laugh. “Oh… there you are!” He forced a laugh. “You must be here to tie up all your loose ends before you go, huh? I can’t let you do that… not after everything I’ve accomplished. Not after all I did to make everything okay.”
Sunny dug his feet into the ground. He couldn’t move.
Kel tugged his wrist a little harder. “Sunny. Sunny, we need to get out of here. Don’t let it get to your head, he… he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” His pulling became more frantic, but it was to little avail.
“He doesn’t know what he’s talking about!” Basil echoed as if it were the most ridiculous thing he’d ever heard. “He’s right, Sunny. He doesn’t know. And I’d suggest you do your best to keep it that way.”
Aubrey squirmed under his loosening grip. “Basil, Sunny hasn’t been out for four years. How could he have possibly—”
“SHUT UP, MARI!” Basil shouted at the top of his lungs, breaking eye contact with Sunny only long enough to point the gun back to a pale-faced Aubrey. She seemed just as shocked as Sunny when she heard the name. It seemed to finally occur to her that this wasn’t about how she had treated Basil recently.
“You haven’t told them yet, have you? Of course not.” Basil shook his head as he continued his nonsensical rambling. “Y- you don’t want me to tell them what you did. Then, they’d see you for the monster you are. You wouldn’t want to burden us with that, would you? Not just before you leave us… Not if I have anything to do about it…”
For the last time, Basil slowly yet decisively turned the gun on Sunny. With a jerk of his thumb, he cocked it, and…
Kel pulling on Sunny’s arm. Aubrey trying to wrench herself free from Basil’s grip. None of the four noticed the blur clad in khaki and blue as it rushed the small crowd. Not until it was too late, at least. Not until after it hit its mark, wrapping its arms around Basil’s waist, pushing him and his hostage off the end of the dock and into the lake.
The sound of gunfire marked the split second before they hit the water. Sunny covered his ears and shut his eyes once more, before realizing it was too late to protect his ears from the ringing sound. He’d braced himself for the pain, but it never came. He looked to Kel, who also stood on his feet, fortunately unscathed.
The quiet moment following the gunshot didn’t last long, though, as when Kel realized what had happened, he gasped. “Oh, crap! They’re going to drown each other!” he exclaimed before taking off in a running swan dive from the end of the dock.
Sunny followed, collapsing to his hands and knees as he stared into the water. He couldn’t see anything save for the flailing and splashing of water disturbing the surface, and he didn’t have the courage to—
A pale hand broke from the water’s surface and grabbed at Sunny’s face, feeling its way down to his neck and digging sharp nails into sensitive flesh. It pulled, and Sunny was given very little time to breathe before the torrential struggle took him, too.
Crazed currents of long, blonde hair and icy blue eyes filled Sunny’s vision through the filter of muddy brown water. Almost immediately, he felt his lungs lurch and let the last few bubbles of much-needed air escape through his mouth.
He felt Basil’s grip tighten around his neck, and for a moment, he was at peace with it. If it was Sunny that he wanted, it would be Sunny that he got. Kel and Aubrey wouldn’t have to get hurt, and Basil… Basil was a good kid. He could pass it off as an accident and no one would be the wiser… And wasn’t this what Sunny had spent the last four years wishing for? An excuse to slip away from the world…
Perhaps his prayers were being answered, he thought, as dark stars are at the edges of his vision…
He took one last look up at the sun just as a shadow passed over it. It almost seemed to reach out for him. Sunny was suddenly very aware that he was sinking further and further away from it. The water got colder the deeper they went. He’d never reach it. Sunny felt a lump forming in his throat as the shadow was eaten up by the very stars that he tried desperately to blink away…
The next thing he knew, his back was hitting what felt like mud, briefly knocking out what little air he had left in them before he took a few gasping breaths. Positioned over him was a kind, familiar face… one he almost couldn’t put a name to at first. A face he thought he had only ever seen in photos…
Hero.
“Hey, there, killer.” His voice was deeper and gentler than Sunny remembered, something that put him at ease (though he couldn’t help but wince at the word choice). “Are you feeling alright? You took quite the dive there.”
Sunny sat up and nodded. Truth be known, he was far more worried about the others.
His gaze fixed apprehensively on Basil, whose current unconscious state wildly juxtaposed the side of him Sunny had seen just seconds ago. He seemed to be breathing fine, but he remained otherwise cold and still. The flower-shaped clip that had previously decorated his hair seemed to have fallen out, as Sunny noticed it was nowhere to be found in the soaked halo of blonde hair.
A few feet away, Kel was bent over Aubrey, shaking her shoulders and searching for any kind of response. “C’mon…” he urged her through gritted teeth. “Aubreyyyyy, wake up…” He started lightly slapping the sides of her face.
Hero stood up and walked over to instruct his younger brother. “If she’s not breathing, you might have to…”
“Dude, no way,” Kel answered prematurely. As a last resort, he picked her up by the shoulders and dropped her on the ground.
Thankfully for everyone involved, this invoked a coughing fit from their previously unconscious friend. Kel breathed a sigh of relief as Aubrey slowly blinked her eyes open.
“Mnnnn…” Aubrey groaned weakly. “Did I die? Kel?” She laughed as if it were some kind of sick joke. “Am I… in hell?”
Kel scoffed, offended. “Oh, shut up. At least I didn’t have to give you mouth-to-mouth.”
“You’re right,” Aubrey grumbled. “Hell would never be so merciful as to spare me from that.” She sat up and rudely pushed him away. “Get off me,” she snapped.
That didn’t take long at all.