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Grumbling, Kim kicks a few errant rocks on her small jaunt. She forgot her stupid lunch at home and she doesn’t want to be around everyone else when they’re eating. Not because she’s not hungry or they’d make fun of her, they’d just offer all their damn food and give it to her. And she’s not about to eat the Maverick’s damn ham sandwich again.
Plus the walk helps her get her mind off the stupid stuff. School’s been layering on test after test and she’s sick of it. Kim doesn’t do bad, in fact she does quite damn good if you ask her. But putting in all the effort to get on the cusp of an A is starting to wear her thin.
The day is rather nice, spring finally came around... well not really. Still snowing sometimes when it’s supposed to be temperate. But today is temperate and the sleet is melting so that’s all that matters to her. Which is odd when she turns the corner around the school dumpster and sees Basil of all people. She would maybe make a joke about the resident plant person taking advantage of the small heat they’re getting, but her mind is more caught by something else. “What the fuck man?!”
Basil looked like a deer in headlights and didn’t even react to Kim swiping a needle right from his hand! “Wh-What are you doing here??”
“I should be asking why the hell you’re injecting heroin!” Although Kim thought heroin was black or something. This stuff is a little clear if yellow. “Or whatever drug this is. Aubrey thought you were acting off recently, why are you on this shit?!”
Basil looks absolutely mortified, stammering and trying to do something with his hands. “Wait! I-It’s not what it looks like! I need it!”
Shit, shit what the hell do people do when someone they sort of know is on drugs?? Cold turkey is bad because their hearts stop or something, are there like anti drugs you can take to counteract it? Damn it, Kim doesn’t know this stuff! “Okay.” She calms down a little, one of her acquaintances is doing drugs, she needs to handle this smartly or he gets hurt. “What’s it like then? Relax a little.”
A second passes where Basil wrings his wrists, seemingly looking everywhere but Kim. “It’s... medication.”
“...For?”
“For... my body.” ...Okay? That’s usually what meds are for, but wouldn’t a druggie say that? Basil sighs and looks completely defeated. “Don’t tell anyone... but my body sort of hates me. My lungs are trying to kill me.” He says it with a level of humour as if Kim would laugh along, instead she’s just confused. “Autoimmune disorder, my uh... immune system thinks my lungs are bad and it tries to uh... fight it like a sickness. If I don’t take that then my body will start to do that again.”
Holy hell, Kim gives the needle back right away. “Sorry man, I didn’t think...” The thought doesn’t get finished.
Basil just shrugs as he points the thing at his stomach. “I should’ve remembered to take it this morning.” He mutters something about a Polly bringing it. Okay, Kim is now looking away because Basil is about to stab himself. “Sorry for freaking you out.”
“It’s uh fine... I won’t tell anyone.”
“Thank you.” ...Alright now Kim feels like a dick. Damn it.
“See you later.” Kim stalks away real quick after that. Not only did she jump to a conclusion, she also... Aubrey told her to back off from him after some sort of fight they had. Now she’s totally screwed that up, not like she wanted to but...
Kicking another rock, Kim tries to think of some way to fix this thing. If Aubrey trusts him Kim’s gonna too. They already screwed him over before, she doesn’t want to start that again.
Well fucking hell when Basil said his body was trying to kill him he wasn’t lying! Granted, most of this stuff comes from internet doctors which are famously catastrophizers if that’s a word. But there’s enough research papers produced by Harvard and Oxford that she can’t really turn her head at.
Now problem is, there’s like 100 of these damn things, and a lot of them affect the lungs. She can’t really narrow it down, but that doesn’t matter when there’s a lot of through-line with them. Extreme fatigue, lung scarring, shortness of breath, and if you take an injection your body sucks at fighting sicknesses because you’re suppressing it.
Now that she’s read all that over the course of a few days on the family computer (fuck you Vance for stealing it after school, dick), Kim is... more unsure of what to do. Because there isn’t a magic cure, and it fucking sucks to live with. Makes a lot of moments where they kicked dirt in his eyes even worse in retrospect. And he got it real young too, was he born with it?
Too many questions and she’s not gonna get any answers. So it’s boots on the ground time, he didn’t want her to go yapping about it so she won’t. Probably means that Aubrey and Kel don’t know about it so she’s not gonna test her luck. At first she just... observes him. Not in a weirdo stalker way, but if he’s close then Kim’s eyes are on him like a hawk.
Gym is the obvious first choice, and she never really thought about it before, but Basil tuckers out real fast. After a couple of laps he looks like he’s about to die. Well... not really, he has a decently brave face (or is it just that he’s used to it?) but his posture and running changes where it looks like he has to put in effort to not fall over. Afterwards he’s not wheezing or panting or anything, but when he sits on the benches while the teachers go on about whatever he doesn’t look focused at all. As if he’s having to put effort in to not pass out.
Then when they cross paths out of school Basil looks attracted to whatever bench is closest. Or if he’s running with Kel and Aubrey then he’s more open with his tiredness afterwards. Kel seemingly thinks that Basil’s stamina is crap, and Aubrey says that he hasn’t been eating well. Maybe both of those things are true but... how is no one actually seeing this? How was Kim not seeing this before? She just thought he was weak, maybe a little sickly sometimes and...
Huh, Basil always ducks when flu season hits at school.
One of the times where she’s around Aubrey naturally and Basil comes to talk to her, something seems... different. He actually seems energized for once, like he isn’t smiling for smilings sake. “You’re looking good today, good sleep?” Aubrey asks, completely clueless. But even she notices the symptoms... not the cause.
Basil chuckles and scratches his neck. “I wish. Kel was bugging me about orange joe again and I said I didn’t want any caffeine.” Ugh, Kel’s dumb obsession with a brand that’s barely lugging it’s own dead weight around. “One thing led to another and his mom made me some spicy coffee, it’s actually pretty good.”
The only time he feels energized is when he downs coffee? “Gonna start drinking it more then?” Basil glances to Kim nervously, they don’t really... talk, so it makes sense. “Hey, I’m with Aubrey on this, you look like you have the sun in your eyes.”
“Ahah...” Basil laughs nervously and clears his throat. “Well that’s nice for you to say. I don’t know... I don’t want to stunt my growth with caffeine.”
Aubrey snorts and tilts her head to the side. “I’m pretty sure Kel downs enough coffee to make an elephant go nutty and he’s a giant.”
Yeah, sure, Kel is super cool and freakish. Seriously, Kel is a force of nature in sports, it actually makes Kim concerned that he’s going to go pro instantly. “What about tea?” Once again, Kim brings attention to herself. Even Aubrey seems a little confused by her addition, Kim just adjusts her glasses a few times. “What? I drink the stuff and it has a nice kick to it, keeps me awake when I have to study late.”
“You... drink tea?” Basil asks more out of bafflement, which makes sense given her sweet tooth.
Kim grumbles and curses her mom for a second. “Mom. She’s super fancy with all that. It’s better than downing a soda every hour.”
“Yeah, every time I come over she’s making something crazy.” Aubrey smiles fondly, and well Kim isn’t exactly gonna have her go hungry. She still isn’t sure if Aubrey has caught onto her little scheme. “Kim’s right though. I can’t get that sort of thing often, but it’s nice. Besides, you can probably grow some of that stuff at home right?”
“Growing tea is way different than flowers. Do you know how much effort goes into it?” Basil then goes into all the effort that goes into it, really gets those details in, like enough to make Kim’s head spin. Aubrey seems to follow along easily enough somehow, asking questions and prodding where Kim would be lost.
But a little goes a long way with him... Kim grumbles yet again, cutting off something about ‘optimal pruning’. “Actually, you know what? I’m gonna give you some of mine.”
Another pause, but this time Basil seems suspicious. “...Why?”
Aubrey nudges Basil lightly, something that causes him to shock back a little. “Don’t take it personally. Kim’s mom has way too much. She offloads stuff on all of us all the time.”
“Yeah, and even then half the stuff goes bad in the cupboards and stuff. Don’t really like it going bad.” If there has been a single leaf that’s gone bad then Kim has never seen it.
If Basil is at all suspicious he doesn’t show it. “Well in that case, I’ll take some.” He says it with a halfway friendly smile. Right, they aren’t exactly... well they don’t know each other, and Kim did make an ass of herself. Still, maybe this will help him with his passing out thing.
Kim doesn’t exactly mean to go out of her way to help out Basil. But even she knows this is a bit much. She was walking to the candy store that she swears she’ll stop stealing from next time when she sees Basil walking out with a bag of soil over his shoulder and a few other miscellaneous items in a bag. First of all, what the fuck he’s strong? Second, he looks like he’s sweating up a storm, which in this cold is an issue.
“Yo!” So she walks up without a care in the world with an eyebrow cocked. “You lift?”
“Uh...” Basil keeps on walking, and Kim starts to trail. “Well I lift some heavy stuff I guess. I don’t go out of my way to do anything like that.” From what he’s saying... it makes sense, but he’s wheezing ever so slightly. “You’re following me because...?”
Well if there’s one thing that Kim is thankful for, it’s that Basil is seemingly gaining a backbone. Confident in a way, not a pushover. “Look, I’m trying to be a little nicer.” This time Basil cocks an eyebrow while slowing to look for cars before crossing the road. “Realized that stealing was stupid. Cool when you’re a kid cause you’re getting away with something. But when you’re an adult that gets you in jail.”
“Bettering yourself.” Basil simplifies, in a way where he sounds like he wasn’t stammering at Kim a couple of weeks ago when this whole thing started. Granted, he hasn’t been stammering as much in general. Kim just nods. “...I know Aubrey feels like she needs to... ‘make up’ for all that was done. You don’t need to do the same thing.”
And yet the familiar edge of self deprecation seeps into his voice. It skeeves Kim out a little. “Bit of a loaded thing to throw at me.”
“S-Sorry. I shouldn’t assume.” They continue on, a little more silent from the awkwardness. Kim eventually gets tired of it and nudges him, slightly in the same way that Aubrey did. “Huh? W-What’s up?”
“You’re standing and walking strange. That bag and uh... bag of dirt is making you lopsided.”
“Er... okay?”
“Give me one before you fall over on some ice under the snow. You’ll break your ass.” They stop, and Basil seems to get the message. After a second, he hands over the bag of- “Jesus, what the hell did you get?!” Kim nearly loses her damn arm from grabbing onto it nonchalantly.
“Sorry! Sorry.” Kim catches herself before she breaks her face on the pavement. “I had to stock up on a lot of different fertilizers for the plants. They’re delicate like that.” Yeah that explains how the weight is all over the damn place!
Kim collects herself and doesn’t let it show, grabbing onto the bag that honestly isn’t that bad when she respects it. “Are they all made up of different chemicals or something? I thought that fertilizer was just cow sh-”
“No not really!” Basil cuts her off with a quick glance to see if anyone is around. “I don’t get that stuff, it reeks. This stuff stinks too but it isn’t that bad.” He starts to walk off and Kim quickly follows. “It’s different compositions of the same chemicals. It’s like how certain fish need different salt levels.”
Huh, Kim takes out one of the bottles, it says that it’s good for ferns. Then the next is good for late budding flowers. “Huh, I knew that different plants needed special stuff. Like some plants just die if you put them in the sun, but if they’re in the shade they grow better.”
“Do you do some plant care?” At the very least his breathing and talking doesn’t actively sound bad.
Kim adjusts her glasses while checking if a car will start to slam into them. “Mom has some plants, dad does too. I dunno, I try sometimes.” She knows that Basil is probably just asking to make some bridge between the two of them. Because Kim has been trying to talk to him a little more, but she can’t let him do all the work. “You just do plant care? Your house is all... planty.”
She can feel his eyes on her, gauging why the hell she would ask that. Guy is deceptively smart when it comes to people from what she can gather. Able to read moods or whatever... although that may just be with Aubrey and Kel... and well Sunny, but she hasn’t seen him much. “I have other stuff, I mean you aren’t just all about candy right?”
Not an answer, not a deflection, smart. Still... Kim guesses that he’s curious about what she’s even doing. “Scrapbooking sometimes. Dad likes to grill so I do it whenever I feel like it. Read some nerd shit sometimes.” Although her ‘scrapbooking’ with Angel has been put on indefinite hiatus when his sister thought his enemy log was a hit list. “So yeah, not just candy.”
“Nerd crap? What kind?” Kim chuckles at the censor, he’s still Basil even if he’s matured.
“I dunno, what do you do besides plant stuff?”
“I don’t know.” Fair. They make it to Basil’s house shortly after. He seems to be... well he looks tired at the very least. Not winded though, Kim doesn’t know if she exactly helped. But still, at least she knows a little more about the plant guy. “Thank you for the help.” He still doesn’t meet her eyes, she hands back the bag. And well job done, time to go legally pay for candy. “Hey. ...I don’t hate you or anything for what you did.”
“...Either way, sorry.” Off Kim goes, a little faster than she should. Is some of this from guilt? Sure. Is some of it because he’s Aubrey’s friend after all that? Yeah. Is it because she doesn’t want him to fall over dead? Definitely. Is it something else? ...She’s gonna think about that later.
Next time anything happens is a day later. Kel starts some shit with the gang like he’s all tough... and by that she means that he was coming to talk to Aubrey and made fun of the Maverick’s hair. “Look, I’m sorry, you don’t have to do all this.” Kel looks absolutely regretful over every decision he’s ever made.
“Oh, and you assume that I shall bow to such a pitiful display my eternal rival? How sad that you think I am so easily fooled! You shall rue the day where you disgraced my pride and honour.” If anyone is impressed by this pitiful display, it’s Angel, who is also posing at Kel. “My dear leader does not need to talk to a knave such as yourself, why not scamper away with your tail between your legs? Save a little sense of your own self respect!”
Everyone is looking for an out, everyone has attempted to intervene, everyone has failed. Well that is until Basil alongside Sunny comes by. Basil running up and Sunny taking his sweet time. “Kel! Aubrey! Guess who’s here!”
“Sunny!” Kel ignores the Maverick entirely.
“Holy-warn us next time you pop out of nowhere.” And Aubrey lightens up a little.
Sunny finally finishes making his way over and nods his head slowly. “It was sudden.” Yeah no shit. His tone is still as dry as ever, but he... doesn’t seem as haunted like last time, as if there was a ghost behind him constantly. “Mom wanted to... talk to someone.” He coughs into his hand, voice still sounding scratchy.
“Sunny told me she was staying the night with some friends. So he’ll be here too.” Sunny nods at Basil’s addition, seemingly happy.
“Woah, we can have a sleepover!” The Maverick wilts at Kel’s lack of attention, Kim gives him a pity pat on the shoulder. “Oh, I should see if Hero can swing over! Like old times!” Kel whips out his new phone and dials in his brother’s number, walking off as if that was a good enough ending to the conversation.
“As if we would let you induct Aubrey into a glorified men’s night out.” The Maverick, in a bid to bring the attention back to himself, says something completely stupid. So stupid that Kim retracts her arm pat with an arm punch. “See, Kim agrees with my assessment! One girl for four men-”
“I’m a girl.” Sunny cuts the Maverick off with something... what the hell? Everyone else, even Basil, seems caught off guard. Sunny slowly looks between everyone with his... her one eye and eye patch. “You can just do that, I learned about it in the big city.”
“Yeah Mav, now shut up about this before I make you eat dirt.” Whatever, Sunny’s a girl, cool. “I swear if you start stuff with them again we’re going into a civil war.”
“No!” Angel stamps back in shock, because Kim’s threat of a first civil war was that devastating. “Master, we can’t have our group splinter like that!”
The Maverick winces but still tries, oh lord he tries. “Two on three!” Kim is seriously going to make him-
“Well Aubrey if your... friend thinks it’s an issue, then I think I have an idea.” Basil spares the Maverick from a horrid death.
And Aubrey looks at least a little interested in Basil’s suggestion. “Want to shut him down? Can’t miss this one, what is it?”
Basil smiles all innocently. “Why not just invite one of your own friends? I brought Sunny, Kel is getting Hero. You should be able to bring someone too.” Basil... what? Kim glances at Charlie who has been trying not to get involved in all this. And from the looks of it her anxiety is spiking from the mere idea.
“Y’now Kim, I think he’s actually inviting you.” Aubrey states the obvious, and well she has been at the very least being more cordial around him. Still... they’re barely on the level of friends. “I’m cool with it, Kel will probably flip though.”
Kim grumbles and adjusts her glasses before relenting. “Yeah that’s cool with me. Besides... I think I know the real reason Basil invited us.” No the fuck she doesn’t, but she lifts her glasses enough to where it reflects light just right. “Since Sunny is a girl now... it’s our duty to induct her.”
Immediately Aubrey is on board, flashing a shark like smile at Sunny. “Oh, so that’s how it is eh?” Sunny ducks behind Basil real quick, a slight twinge of fear on her face. “Sunny Sunny Sunny, you picked the exact right time to come around again.”
Well Kim’s attempts to get the attention off herself worked, Basil’s distracted too, trying to reveal Sunny from behind him. He also seems to be doing slightly better from yesterday. Or maybe he’s just excited that the gang is back together or whatever.
Kim goes to say something like neener neener to the Maverick when she catches sight of Vance for the first time since all this bull started. And he has the largest shit eating grin behind the root beer he’s drinking. Great now he has actual ammo for his conspiracy theory of her whatever towards Basil.
Whatever, it’s just a sleepover.
Yup, just a sleepover. Went over to Kel’s place because Kim’s is firmly off limits due to Vance. Aubrey is... and Basil’s is apparently haunted with how hard everyone suggested against it when Kim brought it up. His house isn’t the worst, but she gives more credit to his parents seeming well adjusted without being insane.
They fucked around, watched Kel get his ass kicked by Sunny at Smash. Then Aubrey lost... then Basil... then Hero. Kim only put up a halfway decent fight herself, but Sunny knows how to dash dance even though that isn’t in this version. Everyone got revenge by getting Sunny out of a boring pretending to be a boy fit, she’s now in... well a boring prepper girl fit. Girl has a style if Kim is gonna give credit. Basil took a photo of the ordeal... and well a few other things actually. She sort of knew he did photography, but he seems really happy when he does it.
Everything died down after Kel tried to initiate a tongue twister competition, Hero tried to get everyone hyped for board games but Sunny was way too tired for that. As in, she fell asleep the second she laid down to make a joke. Everyone packed up soon after, Basil was also dead tired... and Kim doesn’t know if that was legit or not. He got a little spacey right after food so...
And Kim woke up in the middle of the damn night because she didn’t have her glass of water to drink. She despises dry mouth, especially around this season. She’s about to go grab some water from the hopefully not lead pipes downstairs when she hears dry heaving from the upstairs bathroom. Nothing new to Kim, she’s done this for Aubrey enough to know what to do.
But she didn’t take stock of who was actually asleep in her sleep deprived state, because it’s Basil. Of course. And she just barged in and... his eyes are glowing. Okay not literally, but whatever light is in this room is just reflecting off his eyes which are looking right at her because of course she walked into something weird again. “One sec.” Kim walks right up and carefully grabs Basil’s hair. “You’ll regret puking into your hair.”
“Thanks...” A short while later another heave, and an actual puke. “Sorry.”
“Look, you’re cool.” Kim has gotten thoroughly desensitized to people puking anyways. “Get whatever you need out, keeping it in will cause your stomach to be more upset.” Basil nods again and then immediately throws up again. “Was there something wrong with the food?”
“No... no there wasn’t.” Weakly, Basil flushes the toilet and wipes his face. “Just... couldn’t handle the supper. I thought I could but...” He turns and rests his back against the sink. “Guess I can’t handle anything at all after a shot.”
It takes a moment for Kim to get it. “Oh uh... that sucks. Sorry to hear.” So he can’t even eat basically at all on the day he stabs himself? Kim grumbles and sits down on her butt. “Y’now what? If you can’t do it today I’m sure Kel would be okay giving some leftovers.”
“But Kel eats basically all the leftovers the next day.”
“Well I’m sure I can persuade him.” Maybe she can’t, guy could eat a horse and then some. “And if I can’t I’ll grab you a pizza or something, I dunno.”
Basil just stares at Kim for a while and then nods. “That sounds nice, thank you.” Yeah whatever, if Kim had to puke her guts out... well she doesn’t know how often he needs to use that stuff, but even if it was monthly that would suck. “Hey Sunny.”
“Jesus!” Kim just sees the edge of Sunny’s pants in her peripheral when Basil said that. “You sneaky fuck. Might want to become an assassin with silent ass footsteps like that.”
Instead of saying something, Sunny kneels down a few paces away. And... really seems like a standoff, both of them seem stressed in some way. “Here.” Instead of a gun, Sunny pulls a carrot.
Instead of a gun, Basil pulls nothing and just takes the carrot. “Thank you.” And then he starts to eat it while trying to not look at Sunny. ...Or say anything at all.
Okay, Basil was happy to see Sunny and now they’re both acting strange. “Alright Sunny, you’re invited for pizza.”
Sunny slowly blinks at Kim, as if she was judging something fiercely. Then she looks to Basil, then back, then back. “I can’t.” Okay, what weirdo excuse is she going to give this time? “Before I came... I had an extra large pizza with mom.”
...That actually sounds real, Sunny bought like 40 pizzas right before she moved. “You’re,” Kim points right at Basil. “Gonna tell me what your limits are on this shit. Because I don’t want to give you another episode.”
Basil sighs but laughs a little. “Fair. I’ve already told Sunny so it’s not that big of a deal. Still... you’ve... well...” He doesn’t finish the thought, instead just looking at her as if she was a puzzle or something.
“I’m gonna get some water, dry mouth sucks. Don’t brush your teeth for a while and gargle some water. Actually, I’ll be back with a second glass.” So she gets up and goes. Of course this stuff flares up and goes, maybe she’s thinking a bit too much about it... but apparently Sunny knows and she lives god knows where. It’s like if someone had a broken arm, you don’t expect them to lift with it. Courteous, that’s what it is.
Yeah, totally just being courteous. She’s not a stupid character in one of those romcom shows that fail to figure out their feelings for a million episodes. Still... doesn’t feel exactly right to be... well wanting to date someone she bullied and then stumbled ass backwards into finding a secret of. But what the hell, that’s just another one of those stupid things on those shows so who knows!
Either way, Kim kept good on her word and Sunny is running distraction, something no one asked for. Kim now considers her tight for it though. After the obligatory what he can’t eat right now, Kim got him a New York style. “You know you can have a slice right?” Basil has been tempting Kim into eating completely mid pizza for a couple slices now. “I don’t think I can have it all right now.”
And well Kim has been leaning back in the uncomfortable chair. “That’s cool, pack it up and have it later at home.” And thus their cold war continues. Now Kim isn’t batty, she got herself one of those hero sandwiches... hold on. “Is Hero his actual name?”
Basil snickers as Kim takes a look at the overfilled sandwich. “Not his birth name, that’s just what he goes by. And yes it was a sandwich, he really likes the things.” Huh, weird but if someone wants to call themselves by a sandwich then who’s Kim to deny. “Name for a name, why the Maverick?”
Ugh, Kim groans as she considers snapping the back of her neck on the chair. “He thinks it makes him sound like an ‘alpha’. He’s not a bad guy just...”
“Bit much?”
“You can say that again.” Personally Kim does get the whole reinventing yourself thing. She didn’t shave off half her head because that’s what all the nice girls at church were doing. ...Or well the nice girls at church were dyeing their hair pink, bad example. “Known them for long?”
Basil pauses his pizza eating for just a second before leaning back himself. “Ah well... yes.” She at the bare minimum knows that they were... not talking for a bit. “I was the last addition to the group back then, I spent as much time as I could with them.”
“Sounds nice.” Kim isn’t a dick, so she doesn’t ask any further questions about any of that.
“It was.” Another simple response. Well if anything she’s getting to know him quite well. “What about your friends? How did that happen?”
Oh lord, Kim adjusts her glasses and looks away. “Met Aubrey after I punted a tether ball away.”
“...You... managed to snap a ball off a tether?”
“In my defence that rope was already flaying. But I asked the nearest person for help to get it back, skipped right into the street then rolled all the way over to the other side. Scary stuff as a kid.” And that’s not getting into how she accidentally smacked Aubrey in the head... with her head after. “Vance was already friends with Charlie at that point, older kid stuff y’now. The Maverick... well he was sort of a boring guy with his family and all, my mom’s sort of boring so our parents talked a bit. Kinda got to know each other, got him into his whole shtick.”
Basil tries to not choke on his soda. “Regret that one?”
“Every day.” Eh Kim may bust his balls, but the Maverick isn’t that bad. The bell at the front rings as it has been today, place is busy for a Friday. And in walks all of Basil’s friends, wonderful. “Do good times ever last?”
“You consider this a good time?” Basil says with a knowing look of knowing.
“You’re not bad conversation.” And that’s all Kim can get out before-
“Basil, there you are!” Kel rushes over with a confused ass look. “Hanging out with Kim? I thought you’d be all over Sunny being here.”
“She stole me for pizza.” You DAMN TRAITOR BASIL!
Kim juts a finger at Basil. “I didn’t steal you, I offered pizza after you looked at me with your sad eyes.” That seems like enough for Kel, not Aubrey, oh no not her. She has her arms crossed and face scrunched in a way where she just wants to call bullshit, but isn’t because some other people are around. “I also offered Sunny, but she inhales pizzas like they’re grown on trees.”
“Did Sunny also look with sad eyes?” Hero asks with... well Kim isn’t exactly sure how to clock him. He’s a weirdo like his brother, but he’s more cool and more likely to lose his breath after a short run.
“If Sunny showed any emotion I would say yes.” That pulls a laugh out of Hero, but more of a forced one while he looks over at Sunny with a concerned notch of the eyebrow. “You all here for pizza too? Might not get one, people have been running in here since we got here.”
“We aren’t getting any.” Sunny says as dry as the sandwich she’s eating. She turns with a glint in her eye. “We’re getting rid of them.”
“...Sunny that’s just us buying a pizza.” Yeah Kim is with Hero on this one... unless she really is losing it. “We’re not going to buy a pizza just to immediately throw it on the ground. Remember that gatchya machine you played then tossed away what you won.” Sunny did what now?
A large stack of pizzas get put on the counter and she just lied to them. “We’re delivering pizzas, I signed us all up for a job, chop chop.” Oh... oh Kim really has to hold in her laughter as Sunny makes a run for it to the door. Especially how Hero and Kel run after her and yell about how she can’t drive a scooter with one eye. Aubrey joins slowly, after shooting Kim yet another look, whatever.
“Your friends... are something else you know that right?”
Basil laughs and bonks his head on the table. “They’re fun to be around don’t lie.” Well she would object to Kel, but Sunny is a hoot. Basil looks back up with a similar dangerous glint in his eyes that Sunny just had. “So... since you didn’t steal me away from them... is it safe to assume that your offer was just you asking me out?”
“You-” Kim cuts herself off before she goes immediately on the defensive, something that Basil looks like he’s anticipating, the bastard. Fuck it, Kim grabs a slice of pizza, might as well at this point. “Sure, but you’re the one who agreed to it so don’t get your pants in a twist.” Ugh, Kim eats the pizza Basil picked out... damn, it isn’t that bad actually.
“I wasn't complaining.” Basil’s smug ass smile is something she wouldn’t have even thought he could manage a year ago. “So... did you get feelings before or after finding me at school.”
Kim leans back, well ain’t that a question she doesn’t have an answer to. Probably before, but feelings are hard so who the hell knows. “I dunno, was yours before or after you and Aubrey made up?”
“I don’t know.” Heh, cheeky fuck. Well fine, he wants to make this a whole discovery thing then Kim is gonna make it one. “You got a look on your face.”
Well Kim can’t deny that she has a big ass smile on her face. “I do, don’t worry about it.”
Basil takes a sip of his soda but doesn’t seem deterred at all. “Ominous, what could possibly go wrong?” Heh, outside the worst case scenario? Probably nothing.
Well the worst case scenario hit, or at least Kim would figure that it’s pretty bad. Basil hasn’t been around school for some reason, then she finds out from Aubrey offhandedly mentioning (and by asking the woman he lives with (she still isn’t sure if she’s Basil’s mom or something), Polly) that he got sick. Which would probably suck really hard given he takes something that suppresses the immune system.
So Kim has been doing the sensible thing, taking stupidly complicated notes at school (something she already does) and then marching up to give them to Basil. Perfect plan, and something that people normally do anyhow so.
Heading over to Basil’s house, Kim puts a normal amount of force behind her knocks. She doesn’t want to scare the shit out of Polly, speaking of, the woman of the hour opens the door. “Hello Kim, come in.” She steps to the side and Kim steps in, they’ve gotten acquainted since Kim has been coming around every day. Granted, she can’t just barge in to see Basil, he does way worse some days. “At this point I’m going to think that Basil’s other friends aren’t coming to see him enough.”
Right, they haven’t uh... told anyone. Not even when Aubrey grilled the hell out of Kim, she has an iron will and nerves of steel. “I just want to make sure he doesn’t end up dead. He’s like a plant, but for attention.”
Something flashes on Polly’s face for half of a second before she slowly nods. “Yes... that is true.” Before it can get awkward or something, Polly coughs and points to Kim’s rather large duo-tang. “What do you have there? You usually just come with your backpack.”
“Right... I made Basil notes from our classes. If he starts falling behind because our math teacher is going on the fritz then he’ll never catch up.” Kim grumbles some more about the asshole introducing shit that they’ll apparently be learning in uni just so they’re prepared or whatever. Not even giving breathing room. “I got it separated into subjects with dividers and stuff, make it easy for him to follow if his half baked brain can’t follow right now.”
“Well that’s really nice of you actually.” Polly smiles with a sort of genuine appreciation. Yeah well she would do the same thing for Aubrey. ...Would she highlight important parts. For her...? most likely yeah. “He’s doing a little better today if you want to see him. You could show him all the work you put into it, he would appreciate the effort.”
That’s probably true, Aubrey made a flower crown for him and he cried. “Yeah, I’ll go talk to him now.” Kim almost rushes past before pausing, she hasn’t really, honestly talked to Polly about stuff. And knowing Basil he probably has a lot he wants to say that he never does, just seems like the type. “Uh... just so you know, Basil really appreciates you. He doesn’t really talk about it directly. When he comes and babbles, he talks about how you help out a lot and how it makes stuff easy, y’now?”
Before she can dip, Polly adds on. “that’s nice of you to say, but the same goes for you, you know?” What now? “Basil is really enjoying the tea you shared with him, I can tell that it helps wake him up a lot easier. He talks about you a lot... almost as much as Sunny recently.” Polly laughs and Kim definitely doesn’t want to disengage to save face immediately. “It’s a really nice change from before... so thank you Kim.”
Kim grumbles out a no problem and leaves before Polly catches on. Even though she probably has already, woman is a damn lie detector. Jumping into Basil’s room, the guy nearly jumps out of his bed. “Really... keeping me on my toes.” Basil coughs a few times as he tries to laugh, his voice is at the very least getting back to normal. “What’s new at school?”
Good question, because Kim has been just relaying and showing him her notes previously. So she takes out the doomsday weapon and drops it on his end table. “Here’s all the notes I could muster from the previous few days. So there’s no excuse for falling behind.”
Basil tries to laugh again but coughs again. “Drill Sargent Kim... you’re so scary.” Damn right she is, when it comes to this bullshit you’re either on top or tumbling down the mountain. “Thank you, I know... that I’ve been falling behind.”
“Relax, it’s been a week.” Regardless, Basil is beaming even though his face is a little more red than it should be. And it’s not even from some half baked flirting, no he’s just sick. “I know you probably get sicker than most people, so just take the time and get back up when you feel like you can.”
Kim pulls up Basil’s desk chair and sits next to him, prepared to hit him with the daily facts about whatever catches her mind- “What do you mean sicker...?”
“Come on, I don’t know what autoimmune thing you have specifically, but that shot you take probably makes your immune system weaker.” Basil tilts his head as he sits up more properly. “Look, I dunno what meds you take specifically but some of that shit sounds intense, you’re a damn trooper y’now?”
“How do you know all that...?” Basil’s curious gaze is almost enough to take Kim off foot.
“Because I looked it up? I mean I don’t know what you got but a lot of it doesn’t sound good. It’s... kind of why I was trying to help out with your plant shopping runs and stuff.” For some strange reason that Kim probably knows, Basil seems to get a little skittish. “Come on, I learn that someone I like has a condition, I’m gonna research it. Simple as.”
“Oh wow...” Basil... starts to tear up?? “I don’t know why I’m surprised... that sounds just like you...” He smiles with a level of sincerity that would melt Kim’s heart if she was a little weaker... and damn it that look kind of is. “Now I’m going to be... second guessing everything that you do...”
“Tch, second guessing me being nice? Don’t fall backwards now you hear.” Basil’s smile falls a little but it comes back up after a second. “Friends or otherwise, being nice is nice. Think of it however you want.” Kim grumbles and fiddles with her glasses, Basil is acting like Sunny hasn’t done the same damn thing.
“I wish I wasn’t sick...”
“Why’s that?” Well besides not wanting to feel like dogshit.
Basil’s smile turns a little sly again. “We can’t get any closer without you getting sick.”
...Seriously? Well if Basil wants to play the cheeky game then Kim is gonna blow his damn socks off. Getting up, Kim gets real close to Basil, his face gets more red strangely enough. “That so?” And she not so subtly plants a kiss on his forehead, it is uncomfortably warm. “I’ll tough the damn sickness then.”
“Wow, so cool...” Basil tries to cover his face all slickly, and Kim lets him. Sometimes you just gotta recollect yourself. “I guess I really am lucky then...” Heh, damn right. After Basil gets his ass up they’re gonna do a lot. They’ll just need to avoid everyone’s already knowing gazes. Easy peasy, and if it doesn’t work well then why the hell would Kim care?