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Chapter Text

The pure euphoria and excitement invigorating her system couldn’t begin to be calculated among the prospect that her brother was asking her to play the recital with her.

Throughout the entirety of her practice sessions, the expert piano player had longed for an opportunity to play such an exquisite song with her little brother, but having been denied such a sensation for months on end. Various weeks went by with not so much as a word on even the possibility of her beloved brother questioning the potential to perform the piece alongside his big sister. And thus, the journey to perfect the recital all on her lonesome had ensued within her mind and body, and she spent monotonous days after prolonged school sessions before she was finally granted the opportunity to play on her beloved piano once more.

But even this grew dull and repetitive to the young girl known as Mari Suzuki. The long-haired girl had been itching such a kickstarter to make these sessions rather interesting again, instead of having to endure playing the same nearly two minute song on repeat until it was time for dinner. Afterwards she would simply repeat that cycle again until time came for her to call it a night and wait for the very next day, where it would all come full circle. She didn’t even have time to be with her best friends whom she cared so adamantly about, not to mention the spectacle amidst her eyes that was Hero Rodriguez, whom she had convinced herself was the guy for her. Having to withstand the countless hours of school that would further her extracurricular, yet still feel so bland and pointless at the same time, and incessantly practice on her piano once again became like a cursed chore for the eldest Suzuki sibling.

And then finally… Sunny, the long-haired girl’s brother, came into the music room one day, rather on a whim, and questioned in his hushed and soft tone of voice, if he could play the recital alongside Mari. This… this is what Mari had been anticipating for months on end! She had tried convincing the younger Suzuki sibling to play with her, seeing as the piece she was playing was meant to be a duet amidst both a piano and a violin, and it just so happened that the group of friends had all bought him a brand new violin just the year prior during Christmas. But alas, Mari’s initial insistence of him playing along fell ultimately in vain, and she had given up hope that that dream would come to prosper… until the quiet boy walked into that room and asked the fateful question.

“C-Could… I practice with you for… th-the recital?”

The older sister’s joy could never be overstated as her smile of optimism and cheeriness made even her younger brother, who was notorious amidst his friend group for not smiling often, to give off even the smallest of grins in reaction to his big sister. Throughout that day, both Mari and Sunny would continuously practice the piece as the younger of the siblings would instinctively attempt to get a handle of the song. In spite of only being around 2 minutes in length, it wasn’t a particularly easy song to master. However, the young boy didn’t particularly care for the extent of difficulty this song would entail. Because at the end of the day, what he wanted ever since the school year had begun once more for them all was to be with his dear sister.

Not only was Sunny often home alone after having to endure the perils of school five out of seven days of the week, but even when his sister had finally returned home from all of her extra classes, she was always in such a hurry to get right back into practicing for her big recital. The only times that Sunny would even catch a glimpse of the older Suzuki child was whenever they were both getting ready for school in the mornings, during dinner, or right before the two of them went off to bed. As for the weekends, Mari spent the majority of her time (once again) practicing for the big recital that was still a month away. He had thought to himself with all of the playing that she was doing that she wouldn’t need to be practicing so much and could actually spend some time with her friends again.

It began to dawn on him that his initial answer of now playing with Mari at her recital may have been a mistake in disguise. In retrospect, Sunny denied the opportunity to play because he was still very much a beginner at the violin and figured that with his skill level, now wasn’t the time for him to actually be taking on recitals like he was an expert. He sure as hell didn’t have Mari’s skill of playing an instrument, let alone one like the violin. But ultimately, as the days of being devoid without his older sister passed on, something flickered within the young boy’s soul, and Sunny simply couldn’t take the ache of having to spend so much time alone. If there was something the youngest Suzuki hated, it was spending long durations of time alone.

So the contemplation within his mind was finally set in stone, and Sunny had officially joined Mari’s sessions of practicing. At first, it took a long while for Sunny to get the hang of the violin itself. For as long as he had it, the boy very rarely utilized the instrument at all. Once he was playing it consistently enough, though, was when he finally got down to practicing the song that he and his sister were out to perform.

This was when the issues started.

It became clear to Sunny that these sessions of practicing that he was to undergo were not going to be as pleasant as he had initially thought. Not only was playing the violin hard enough on him, but Mari herself was a rather strict teacher, as fate would have it. The elder sibling would completely cease playing the song if Sunny made even so much as one wrong note, and would go on to thoroughly explain or berate the boy on how he needed to fix his mistake or do better next time. And that cycle would only prosper as the month of October treaded onwards.

That whole month felt like an eternity to the boy. Every day after school, he waited for the dreaded hour that Mari returned, and as soon as he saw her wavy, long hair cross through that doorway at the front of the house, they were both condemned to the music room. And for the next few hours, it was the same exact thing. Sunny would attempt to play the song, but fail more often than not, usually at just a select few parts that were proving to be particularly difficult for the young Suzuki. The weekends were even more intolerable for the young boy, because that only meant more time to practice for the recital… only meaning more time to endure Mari’s constant bickering and critiquing of her brother’s violin playing skills. And all the while, Mari would perfectly perform her segment of the piece without fail. Every. Single. Time. It had finally dawned onto Sunny that practicing for many months for a piece like this was much more efficient than only having just one month to get it down pat. And speaking of which, before the young boy even knew it, the day of the recital was finally here.

It should have been a time of excitement. A time that all members of the friend group were readily awaiting for the moment that they all sat on that stage and watched as Mari and Sunny, two of their best friends in the whole, wide world, performed a piece they oh-so diligently practiced for. It was meant to be a period of time where both performers were to be on route to delivering a spectacular show, their bodies and postures filled to the brim with confidence and joy, knowing that this night was to be a great one. Most of that premonition was true for the most part, except for one aspect.

The weekend had just started and the moment that Sunny lifted his eyes open, a sincere sense of dread overtook his system. This was it. The day everyone had been looking forward to for ages. Everyone was getting hyped for this day. His sister, parents, friends… they were all readying for the big show that was to be set in the late evening.

All except for himself.

As Sunny dragged his feet towards the music room, knowing full well what was to come, the realization that it was really happening today was slowly creeping on him. And Sunny was getting particularly nervous on to prospect that Mari would likely be even more strict and demanding of him during this last session. But Sunny couldn’t have predicted how severe it was going to get.

At first, it started off as normal. The usual mistakes and oversights, which was followers up by Mari’s annoyed and upset bickering towards the boy. But as the day progressed, it only got worse and worse. Mari’s mannerisms and tone became more shaky… more aggressive. She was no longer even trying to help Sunny get better at the piece. Her patience on him had finally fizzled out completely. She instead opted on just yelling at the boy and insulting him for still not being able to play the song perfectly like her. Made even worse by the fact his parents were both gone from the house, either at work or getting ready for the recital. Kel and Basil had both gone to get haircuts for the occasion, and Hero had gone with his parents to get snacks and other accommodations for the event. Aubrey was getting herself ready at home, but did mention that she was wanting to visit the Suzuki household later to see how they were doing. She hadn’t seen either of them in such a long time outside of school, especially Mari, given how occupied she had been with the upcoming recital.

Still, though, in spite of that reassurance, he felt trapped. Trapped by his own big sister whom he had looked up to for so long. He had been enduring all of this pain for so long for her, yet she didn’t seem to care one bit. Not just the pain of each scoff and insult she threw at him now. His fingers felt like they were being cut with metal wire. Excessive playing of the violin was really starting to get to his hands now, to the point that small cuts began forming and he even began bleeding a bit later. But Mari dismissed it all. She wasn’t having it. All she did was continue to antagonize Sunny for his inability to play a song with perfection, the way she had learnt to do long ago. He couldn’t have imagined his own sister treating him in such a manner, but yet, here he was.

Guess there really is a first time for everything, huh?

And before he even knew it… the session had passed on for many hours, and only a few remained before it was time for the big show. The moment clicked to Sunny, and as his mindset seemed to fully snap open to the sounds of Mari continuing to yell at him over how he was still just failing over and over, and how they didn’t have much time left before their moment… Sunny felt it all with such intensity that he almost collapsed on the spot.

The ringing in his ears from the same, repetitive noises playing out around him - not just the piano and violin creating that same, damn tune that he had memorized so viciously in his head, but of his sister’s roaring tone every time that it wasn’t echoing over him. The mental stress that he felt inside his skull; it felt like his brain was being pushed down into a pancake, and the slicing pain that he was feeling in his fingers. He looked down in horror as he observed the current state of his own two hands. There was no doubt about it now, there were trickles of blood oozing down from cuts across his fingers, weakly falling down his palms, the sight was almost overwhelming for him to bear. He felt himself almost slip away for a moment before a familiar voice broke him out of it.

“Sunny! Are you even listening?! I don’t have time for you to zone out like this! We only have three hours until the recital! Now, we’re gonna play it again, and this time, you’re gonna play it right! ”

Mari’s yelling at him was only worsening more and more as Sunny’s breathing sped up. He could hardly feel any of his limbs anymore from the stress that he was undergoing, how was she going to expect him to play? He couldn’t take this anymore. He had to get out of here. Forget the recital, forget everything . If this kept up, there was no telling what would happen to him.

Suddenly, in an instant, Sunny felt his legs dart out of the room on their own. Hearing his sister’s shocked gasp behind him, Sunny’s hyperventilated gasps were heard as he blazed up the stairs and stopped just after he had made it up all the way. He heaved repeatedly as his vision became blurry, dryness in his mouth overwhelming his other senses. He was losing it, and it was all because of this damn recital that he had condemned himself to a month ago. It felt like a decade of this torment, not just one month.

“ Sunny! Get back down here!”

The sound of Mari calling for him rang across the house, but Sunny didn’t respond. He didn’t do anything except continue to rapidly breathe at the top of the stairs. Suddenly, a flurry of furious steps filled his ears, and in one moment, Mari had been at the bottom of the stairs, while in the next, she had made it to the same height as him, and stood right before him, an angry glare meeting his eyes.

The long-haired girl leaned down towards the youngest Suzuki sibling as she boomed, “What do you think you’re doing?! Are you seriously giving up?! Now?! ” Mari’s voice was beginning to reach levels of ferocity Sunny didn’t think were possible. Truth be told, he had seen Mari mad before, but this was taking it to an entirely new plane that Sunny never thought Mari was capable of reaching. He was swiftly becoming terrified of what was to happen next; he was scared of his own sister. He didn’t want to be, but all she did was keep glaring at him with the biggest evil eye that he had ever witnessed in his life. “We spent so long practicing for this! And you’re just gonna throw it all away because you were too lazy to just play the damn song right! ”

Amidst his terror, Sunny could only stutter out sheepishly a couple words, “M-Mari… I-”

The older sibling didn’t even give him a chance to finish, though, let alone continue for even just a word longer, as she called out, “No, I don’t want to hear any of your lousy excuses, Sunny! You’re going back down there and we’re going to play that recital perfectly! Or are you going to ruin it all for me and your friends?! ”

“Please! Stop!”

A high-pitched cry suddenly filled the halls of the house, stopping both Mari and Sunny in their tracks. The former flicked her head downwards toward the direction of the pleading voice. As Mari looked on in surprise, she saw the sight of a familiar bowtied girl standing just at the bottom of the stairs, fear and shock filling every square inch of her face. Her eyes glistened of upcoming tears as she looked with a saddened expression towards the Suzuki siblings. Soon enough, Sunny too looked onward to find Aubrey peering upwards at the sibling’s ever-rising fight, with such tension now being put on hold as per the young girl’s request, though not intentionally from the eldest sister.

Mari, not anticipating for Aubrey to have arrived at their house so soon, could only croak out an astonished, “A-Aubrey?” In her voice before the sight of the girl rapidly dashing up the stairs was witnessed by both her and her brother. Aubrey swiftly stepped in front of Mari and behind Sunny, spreading her arms out and glaring the older Suzuki sibling down as a tear-stricken look awaited her from the other side.

Now feeling her patience dwindling again, Mari questioned, “Aubrey? What are you doing?...”

Instead of giving a response to such a question, though, the bowtied girl simply choked out with a vigorous volume in her voice, “Stop… please, just… stop fighting!...” Though Aubrey’s tone reeked of defeat and solemness, Mari didn’t allow for that facade to stop her from her ambitions. She was dead set on continuing her session with her brother, and she wasn’t about to let a detour stop out of Aubrey’s choice to cease that goal.

“We wouldn’t need to fight if Sunny would just stop being such a baby and play the song right, like he should have been!” Mari’s rage was now clearly blocking her sense of judgement adamantly, a notion that Aubrey now saw as Sunny simply sniffled and leaned his head down as Aubrey turned her head around to look at Sunny’s rather depressing state. Her eyes widened as she observed the boy’s shaking body for herself, ensuring that the rest of her body didn’t move in the case that Mari tried to apprehend the boy.

Aubrey found her head jerking right back towards Mari, but this time, her face was less apathetic and reeked more of betrayal, uneasiness and uncertainty wracked in her tone as she shakily uttered, “What are you doing to Sunny?”

With a scoff of offense, Mari answered, “Buh- I’m not doing anything to him! He’s the one who’s about to sabotage the recital we worked so hard for!” Mari made a vast attempt to allow Aubrey to see her way and allow for Mari and Sunny to prolong their playing of the recital, but the bowtied girl’s sense of uneasiness continued to ring across the room just as abundantly. By this point, Aubrey was unsure what to do. While she saw Mari as the sister that she never had and eternally respected her for all that she had done for her, along with the rest of the friend group, she also identified that Sunny was in distress and that she didn’t want to see him in this state. As much as it pained her to do so, she inched herself closer towards the boy as she maintained eye contact with the older Suzuki sibling.

With a quivering voice, Aubrey sputtered out, “Please, just… stop… you guys are siblings… you shouldn’t be fighting… I-I…” Aubrey was quickly losing her composure in this situation. She had been attempting to be somewhat of a diffuser, but at this point, trying to break apart a fight between some of her best friends in the world was weighing her down in a way that she wasn’t anticipating. As much as she hated seeing them fight, talking down to either one of them was something she never saw herself doing, and soon she felt the tears that had been bubbling up from her system for some time finally begin to trickle down her cheeks.

Mari, meanwhile, remained stunned in place as she was pondering what was happening. Was she actually serious? Doesn’t she know how important this recital has been for all of them? Sunny was the issue here! He’s the one who hasn’t been taking this seriously, and he is about to ruin it all for everyone! She wasn’t about to enable this kind of behavior from her brother! She needed to somehow get Sunny and his stupid violin back downstairs and get this all straightened up…

The sounds of Sunny grunting in pain were heard, and as soon as that happened, Aubrey swiftly turned towards the boy and called out anxiously towards him, “Sunny, what’s wrong?! What is it?” The girl’s eyes eventually a glimmer just below where she was looking. As Aubrey’s eyes lingered themselves downward, she eventually noticed the origin of the glistening light. Being clenched in Sunny’s hands was the sight of blood oozing out from all the various cuts that had collected atop his fingers. With panicked breaths, Aubrey grabbed Sunny’s wrists and rotated his hands to face her, and as Sunny reluctantly lost grip of his fists, he revealed the entourage of cuts and the nasty scene of blood that had been dripping from the majority of them.

“Sunny… your hands… why are they-” Aubrey could only croak out as her eyes remained fixated on Sunny’s quivering hands, all the while the boy’s sister merely watched as her patience was tested once more. Aubrey watched as the stains of red that only continued to reproduce themselves were filling many crevasses of his palms. Aubrey’s expression of utmost fear and uncertainty quickly turned to betrayal, having only been exemplified as soon as Mari croaked out,

“Aubrey, please, let me handle this! We’re wasting time! If you keep at this, then he won’t be able to be ready for the recital-”

Aubrey flicked her head right back towards Mari, her eyes now dawning a sense of betrayal from the long-haired piano player. For Mari to witness Sunny in this state and for her to simply walk it off as him being lazy? Not taking his practicing seriously? The young girl was heartbroken from the sight that was being bestowed onto her. With a voice that could only be defined as true fear and horror, Aubrey screamed out, “ How could you do this to him?! He just wanted to be with you… why would you do this ?!”

***

“Thanks for joining me here, Sunny… I, uh… appreciate it.”

Sunny had been thinking about something for a long time. School only started around two weeks ago and the ever growing sense of loneliness was beginning to take its toll onto the boy. While he had begun to hang out with Basil more to try and keep himself company, Sunny still felt that an entire piece of himself was missing ever since the start of school. A piece that he so desperately wanted to reclaim. The piece of him that was his sister.

Sunny and Mari were inseparable ever since the former of the siblings were brought into this world. They had done so much together, more that they even know, and everyone had always seen them as being two peas in a pod wherever they went. But times changed, and as fate would have it, Mari got caught up in her own things. Extracurriculars, practice sessions for her upcoming recital which was stated to be a big hit when it premiered, a lot of stuff was going on for her. And as a result, she simply didn’t have time to be around her friends like she did anymore. Not even for her younger brother whom she loved with all her heart.

Sunny continued to think on this as he and Aubrey sat next to one another on the swing sets that they always frequented whenever Aubrey wanted to talk to Sunny about something. Usually a vent about something going on in her home life or at school, the young girl just couldn’t catch a break lately. Her friend group was almost the only thing that she could turn to if she was feeling down. Her home didn’t feel quite like home as she was wanting it to, and it showed. Throughout the next few minutes, Aubrey was ranting on the continuous, worsening arguments her mother and father were being involved in, constantly getting at each other’s throats at the slightest of inconveniences, and even worrying for the very condition of her house. Once Aubrey was finished, she gave the shy and quiet boy a warm smile for his willingness to hear her out on whatever topic she had decided to talk to him about.

“Thanks, Sunny… you know, I can always turn to you whenever I need to talk about something…”

She had said that every time she was finished venting. It was basically her way of saying that she couldn’t say thank you enough. However, in spite of Aubrey’s constant willingness of wanting to talk to him about the issues and prospects going on in her life, Sunny wanted to try his hand at it for this occasion, and quite the occasion it was. “U-Um… Aubrey, uh… I…”

Surprised to see the stoic-faced boy decide to strike up a line for himself, Aubrey looked curiously towards him and asked, “Hm? What is it, Sunny?”

“I-If… you don’t… mind… uh, can I… ask something of you?”

This was making Aubrey rather quizzical. Sunny wasn’t often one to ask people for things. He typically just allowed for things to go with the flow and didn’t interfere with many decisions and ideas of life. That was the thing Aubrey liked about Sunny in particular; he was flexible and willing to see things through, yet he would still speak his mind on things when the opportunity bestowed itself. He was quiet and considerate, yet he changed his general demeanor when the time felt right. It was something that she couldn’t see in Kel, who unlike Sunny, had to butt into everything and try to make it all about himself. Not to mention how annoying and generally rude Aubrey thought Kel was to begin with, which only made her appreciation towards Sunny that much more valiant.

So with all that in mind, it was a no-brainer that when the black-haired kid asked for something from the bowtie-wearing girl, that she immediately indulged and responded, “Of course, Sunny, anything! What do you need?”

With a smidge of nervousness stroking his throat, he gulped silently and continued, “U-Uh, well… it’s… not a favor, I was just, uh… wanting some advice…” Sunny took a deep breath and proceeded, “Y-You know how Mari’s been practicing for her… recital, right?”

A smile beaming across her face, Aubrey answered, “Of course! Mari's been practicing it for a while now! We’re all gonna see her play!”

Sunny could feel a droplet of sweat slowly crawling down the side of his forehead now. “R-Right, well… I-I was just… wondering, since Mari doesn’t really… see anyone after school now with her… practice, uh… do you think it’d be a bad idea if I… asked to play with her for the recital? I was, uh… wanting to spend some time with her, was all… hoping that’s not selfish…”

With a rather surprised look on her face, Aubrey pondered on the thought for a moment. She knew that Mari’s piece was technically meant to be a duet between two people, one playing a piano and one playing a violin. In retrospect, Mari had really wanted to get Sunny a violin for last Christmas because he had been caught playing with his tiny, toy violin around that time, and Mari pictured both her and Sunny playing together, maybe even at a recital or some sort of other show where they could show off their skills. The idea had excited Mari so much that she spent the next few months after Christmas planning out a piece she had written herself and eventually got into practicing it, but not before pestering Sunny about joining her on it first. Naturally, Sunny declined, and the elder sibling was left to play all on her lonesome.

Aubrey then pictured how happy Mari would be to finally see Sunny taking initiative on playing with his sister at the recital, knowing ultimately that had been Mari’s dream, and if Sunny wanted it too, she didn’t see any reason for him not to go for such a question. With a rather soft and happy inhale, Aubrey replied, “Yeah, I would go for it! Seeing you both play at the recital would be a lot of fun!”

As Sunny continued to look into Aubrey’s eyes, he felt himself getting a bit hotter as he gulped once more and merely replied, “Okay… I, uh… I’ll do that. Thanks Aubrey.”

With one more smile that could brighten anyone’s day, Aubrey responded saying, “Of course, Sunny… I’m happy to help anytime.”

***

Seeing Aubrey break down like that suddenly made Mari stop. As she witnessed the bowtied girl staring at her with betrayal being spelled all across her face, it made her step back. Why was Aubrey so scared? She understood that it was likely a bit much to watch both her and her brother fight like this, but it was for an important reason. And Aubrey wasn’t exactly contributing to her cause in the way she was hoping she would. Aubrey was only seeping away more precious time that Sunny could be spending to perfect this piece they’d been valiantly working on for so long …

So why then could Mari not come up with anything to say? She had been stunned from Aubrey’s portrayal of fear towards her that the Suzuki sister hadn’t managed to come up with another way to approach the girl. All of it was made worse by the fact that she had somehow done a pristine job at separating both Mari and Sunny away from one another. As much as Mari wanted to be frustrated at the predicament in front of her, she just couldn’t for some reason. Maybe it had to do with Aubrey’s panicked state as she stared Mari down with the quivering eyes, or maybe it was simply her instinct of wanting to try and comfort Aubrey whenever she was like this that prevented her true emotions from bubbling out.

Or were those feelings of anger and fury her true emotions right now? Either way, Mari felt like she needed to do something if she wanted to save this recital…

Chapter Text

The chilling and vibrating sensation of ringing was being pushed into everybody’s ears as the staredown only commenced between both Aubrey and Mari. Sunny, while definitely being rather involved in the equation, was too concentrated on shakily looking down towards the ground and observing the state of his cut and bloodied hands, to the point that he didn’t exactly care about what was occurring right in front of him at the moment. The older Suzuki sibling lowered her eyebrows as she thought to herself how she was going to approach this. She was wanting to take some sort of measure to get Sunny back down the stairs and continue practicing, that was number one priority in her mind at this time. 

The issue is if she tried to approach the boy, that could lead to some adverse consequences, seeing as Aubrey is there to spectate on the matter, and she didn’t want the girl to get the wrong idea, thinking that she’s being harmful to him. That’s not even mentioning the possibility that Aubrey may not even allow her to approach Sunny at all. Sure, the girl knew that she saw her as a sort of sister figure, but that didn’t mean that she was willing to let that get in the way of what she believed was right and allow her to act true to her heart. As a matter of fact, Mari had garnered a notable tinge of suspicion that Aubrey had begun to take quite the liking to Sunny, even more than she initially realized, and if that theory was correct, then Aubrey was more than likely to protect Mari’s younger brother. After all, it was safe for her to assume that she had enabled Sunny’s meltdown to occur, and seeing as Aubrey was essentially acting as a meatshield for the boy at this point, an actual confrontation may not end as well as the older Suzuki was hoping.

With all this in mind, she grunted in disbelief as she realized there may not be a good time for Sunny to perfect his part of the piece anymore. This was just great . The whole point of their last month of practicing was for him to get this right, and Aubrey had just unintentionally screwed that over for her. But it wasn’t like Mari saw her forcing Sunny and his sorry excuse for an instrument down the stairs to be much of an option, lest the boy and bowtied girl speak of it to their friends, and then what? Plus, did Mari really want to resort to that ? Sure, she wanted this recital to be perfect, but she didn’t want to drag Sunny into that room by force. She was perfectly okay with giving him a serious talk down, but unless it was to keep him in one spot for her to continue to speak to him, genuine force against her brother was not something she had on her mind.

Mari was in an obscenely tough position to make decisions off of, but as she continued to ponder on the matter, she came up with an idea that would at the least allow for even just the slightest bit of ample time for both her and Sunny to finish practicing for the recital. As Mari felt the grip on her knuckles let loose, her breathing slowing down and becoming less rapid and inconsistent, she finally bowed her head down as she simply uttered towards her younger brother, still remaining just behind Aubrey, “You really can’t go on anymore right now, Sunny?”

With a tinge of surprise now enveloping his face, the shy boy slowly peaked towards his sister as he leaned to the side to gain a better view of her expressions. Considering what he had seen in her just moments before, the fumes quite literally exiting from her ears as she had been consistently berating the boy on his performances, he was astonished to see her demeanor return to a format he was much more familiar with. Though, of course, it was clear she was still likely frustrated, at best, and at worst, still furious towards him, just hiding those emotions deep within her stomach. However, he still heeded caution as he had no idea what she was to do next, so as he merely nodded once, slowly, but surely, he muffled out a simple, “Mhm.”

The eldest Suzuki looked down towards the boy as he awaited her response. Her eyes were laced with fierce disappointment, but that seemed to merely be the extent of it. No doubt her anger was still hiding within her system, but at the very least she was pulling it back, seeing now that her previous plan had faltered. “Alright, then… since you refuse to play now… we will take a short break. Just this one…” Sunny looked onward towards Mari as a small, yet just audible sigh of relief left his mouth, though not to his choosing. Regardless of the relief that he felt in this moment, the tension of the cuts still prevalent on his hands kept his awareness in check. Still feeling the slivers of pain embedding within his flesh, he mustered up what little was left of his strength for the time being to stand up on his own feet. Aubrey hurriedly stood herself up as she kept her eyes wrapped onto Sunny’s face, the face of worry still being pushed onto her head.

“But… we’re not finished with practicing yet, Sunny… right before we leave for the recital… we’re both going to practice just for a bit longer…” Mari shuffled her feet away from her brother as her head faced down towards the stairs, the gateway to the room that she was sincerely hoping she and her brother would have ended up in by now. But regardless, she felt as if this situation had been orchestrated, and she simply kept her head down as she walked slowly down the stairs with disappointed breaths.

Both Sunny and Aubrey could do nothing but watch on for a few moments of time as the boy’s breathing, which had been soft, yet fast-paced and all over the place, was just now getting its proper footing. Sunny put one of his bloodied hands over his head, simply uttering towards the girl beside him, “I’m sorry… this… th-this is all my fault…”

Out of surprise, Aubrey jerked her direction towards Sunny now and she valiantly responded anxiously, “N-No it’s not, Sunny… you… you seem like you’re under a lot of stress…”

For a split moment in time, the young boy contemplated on whether he would tell Aubrey about the events that transpired down into that room. The constant ruckus of that same song still fills his head. The mental and physical pain both intentionally, yet unintentionally caused by his older sister. The hopelessness that he felt even just hours before he was forced to walk into that forsaken room, knowing full well what was awaiting him in there before he had even picked up his violin. Yet, in spite of that, he felt the urge to hold back his sorrows. Hold back the begrudging pain that he had been caused as a result of the practice he, himself, put onto himself. He felt at this moment that there was simply nobody else to blame but himself. Was this his punishment for being selfish? Or was this simply what was fated to have happened to him? Who knows?

Either way, he wasn’t about to spill all of that onto Aubrey. Not to mention that telling the bowtied girl all this now could likely sour her views on Mari as a whole. He didn’t want to do that to them. Aubrey saw Mari as the sister she never had, and the older Suzuki was like a role model to her. Showing that Mari had been doing all of this to him for nearly a month straight could break apart their relationship between one another. It didn’t matter what kind of torment he had to suffer through, he wasn’t about to do that to his best friend and his beloved big sister. Because, in spite of the pain that he had been caused by her practices, he knew, deep down, she still cared about him. Mari got rather obsessed with these things, so it makes sense why her views started to get a bit warped when he simply ran out of the room and nearly bailed on their big performance. Yet, in spite of that, Sunny hadn’t the slightest idea what would’ve happened if Aubrey didn’t show up when she did? What would have been of him? Of Mari? Would they have reached a conclusion such as this on their own, or would something worse have happened? He simply had no idea what he would've done…

That’s a train of thought that Sunny quickly dissolved from his head before he pondered on it any further.

For now, though, the boy simply walked down the stairs in a slow, tireless manner as he awaited to see his sister somewhere on the lower level, wherever she might be. For all he knew, she was getting ready to play on her piano once again, thinking to himself, how he should be the one getting ready for this event that his sister had been setting up so vigorously for almost a year by this point. As much as Sunny wanted to be spiteful towards Mari for all of this, his gut refused to let him. He was wanting to prove himself that he could be worthy of something, and when he asked Mari on that fateful day if he could play the recital with her, he had believed this was the perfect time to do it.

Whether or not he’ll succeed in his ambitions… Sunny was left in the dark on that idea.

***

An hour and a half remained until the recital. It had been nearly an hour since Sunny and Mari’s explosive argument, and since then, both the siblings had simply been sitting idly in the living room, neither of them speaking to one another. Aubrey had also met them downstairs, but was just as silent, seeing as the tension amidst the two siblings was beginning to get to her as well. Aubrey was wracking up some kind of conversation to strike up between the two in an attempt to somehow get them back into being at least mutual with one another, but the girl was too afraid to strike any kind of conversation starter in fear she may unintentionally make things worse. As much as she wanted to help, her unwillingness to see the two Suzukis fight was keeping her from fulfilling that goal. She already knew how she reacted the first time she saw them fight. How she had garnered that much will initially, she wasn’t all that sure. The overabundance of silence continued to fill the air as Sunny and Mari simply sat just next to each other, occasionally peering over at each other without the other noticing.

The silent torture continued on for quite some time until the sound of the front door opening finally broke the lengthy muteness, and Aubrey almost let out a sigh of relief as she saw Sunny and Mari’s parents walk in from the living room. Just behind them both was the sight of Kel and Hero, both of whom were rather eagerly awaiting to enter inside, until they noticed the sight of a gloomy Sunny and Mari between the barriers that were Sunny and Mari’s parents.

As the adults walked into the room, with the father of the bunch joyfully announcing, “Heya kids, we’re back!” However, as he made his grand entrance inside of his own home, he shortly realized that things were most certainly not as he had left them. Quickly noticing the quiet and hushed demeanor of the kids, he watched on as his daughter looked onward with a slight, though certainly not very passionate smile, weakly waving towards her father as she softly responded, “Hi dad…”

Now that both of the Suzuki parents were present and well aware of the tension between the two children of the family was when Mr. Suzuki sighed to himself and crossed his arms before slowly asking, “Is everything alright, you two? I thought you were going to finish practicing for your big show.”

Sunny’s head had remained down the entire time that the others all walked in, and although his eyes did glance over to them all, to which the remaining members of the Suzuki family didn’t not acknowledge, his head remained in a stagnant position for the whole duration of the awkward exchange. The youngest Suzuki didn’t do so much as even make a sigh or audible noise underneath his breath, and Mari merely fiddled with her thumbs nervously as her eyelids lowered and she gave off a rather annoyed sigh.

“Oh, we were… it’s just… Sunny and I got into an argument over the recital… he, um…” Mari paused for a second as she found herself directing her stare towards Sunny, and he merely proceeded to keep his head down as his eyes closed. With a bit of hesitance and reluctance, Mari continued in a quiet voice, “...he’s still having a bit of a hard time getting his part of the song down…”

The black-haired boy was making a desperate effort to submerge his palms and side of his fingers that contained the several cuts and bloodmarks into the top of his legs and prevent them from being seen. As Sunny merely nodded in addition to Mari’s explanation, Aubrey looked onward to Mari with a tinge of nervousness. The mother of the Suzuki family looked towards her son with a worried expression, and then over to Mari, before proceeding to flicker her eyes back and forth between her two children, all the while her husband gave off a rather unamused scoff towards the news. “Well… that’s not good, kids. Your recital is in just over an hour, and we’re leaving in around 30 minutes.”

Mr. Suzuki slowly made his way in-between both Mari and Sunny, and eventually gave them both serious glares as he proceeded, “So… I would suggest that you two finish practicing before we leave so that you can get this wrapped up, son…” As Mr. Suzuki gave Sunny a bit of a glare, Sunny felt his heart tense up a bit as the father of the family walked past the living room and made his way upstairs. The normally stoic boy attempted to mask his sheer nervousness from Hero and Kel, who were just now walking in as Mrs. Suzuki had stepped forward from the doorway, allowing for them both to enter. In spite of Sunny’s attempts to try not to draw attention to himself, Hero caught a quick glimpse of the raven-haired boy’s nervous expression before it altered.

As Sunny slowly got up from his seat on the couch and dragged his feet across the ground, knowing that inevitably he was going to have to give in one final bout of practice for this show, Hero watched him as Mari, too, stood upwards and was readying to follow her brother. Aubrey only looked on as she burrowed most of her face behind the sofa, though it seemed that Kel and Hero weren’t paying much attention to her. Instead, Hero insisted on approaching a frustrated, though noticeably exhausted Mari before she went out to join her brother in recital practice.

Clearing his throat cautiously, Hero questioned her, “Hey, Mari, um… is it fine if we just… chatted, for a minute?” With much hesitance, and not wanting to waste more time than she already has, Mari puffed silently before responding, “Sure…”

As the two eldest of the Faraway friend group walked out of the living room, though with mildly concerned faces to boot, only Kel, Aubrey, and Mrs. Suzuki remained there. The mother of the household had noted the expressions being held onto Mari and Sunny’s faces, and initially thought about having said something, but as soon as her husband chimed in about wrapping up their recital practice, she saw it fit to simply remain out of the situation. But what she was equally as nervous about was Aubrey in particular. Seeing as the bowtied girl was in a bit of a funk, whatever had occurred between her children had been leaving her in a mood. As much as she wanted to discuss it with the poor girl, she was afraid of inadvertently making matters worse, so for the time being, she insisted in her mind to wait things out.

As Mari and Hero made their way into the kitchen, in an attempt to get a bit of privacy where nobody else would be able to hear them, Mari crossed her arms as she groaned, “I’m sorry, Hero, but we really can’t do this long… I need to be practicing right now…”

Rubbing the back of his head, Hero replied, “Yeah, I know… I just… noticed you and Sunny seem to be in a bad mood. Would you wanna tell me what happened?” Hero paused for a brief moment, only to see Mari’s eyes faltering downwards, and the grip on her arms as they remained crossed loosening. Taking a deep breath, the oldest Reodriguez added, “I had overheard that there was some… argument… about Sunny not being able to play his part?...”

Mari shook her head as her grunting became only more apparent to Hero. “It’s just… I feel like Sunny’s not taking this seriously… I’ve been trying to help him not play poorly so that he doesn’t look bad when we play… a-and he runs away and…” Mari stopped mid-sentence as she pushed her hands to her face, walking backwards until she lightly hit the kitchen wall behind her, groaning to herself in mental frustration all the while.

“H-Hey, it’s fine, Mari… sometimes… siblings just get into fights… I’m sure you know how it is,” Hero responded, but it became clear to him very quickly that his words were doing very little to get through the skull of the long-haired girl. Sighing to himself, Hero stated, “Do you… want me to tell you something?”

The mush that was Mari’s brain throughout this entire ordeal was eating at her sanity. All that she wanted to do was to strengthen Sunny’s skills at playing the violin and make sure he did a great job at their recital. It wasn’t her fault if he wasn’t going to try really hard for that goal to be accomplished; sometimes, that’s just what needs to happen for goals to be met. And she felt that, though she didn’t always necessarily agree with it, that tough love was necessary for measures such as this. And it wasn’t like she forced Sunny to be a part of this. He asked her to play with her. And he decided to try and bail on her on the night of their recital… the worst time he could’ve attempted to do something like this.

Yet, in spite of her tattered and broken patience, she had the endurance to hear out whatever that cute boy standing right beside her had to say. She didn’t want to just shoo him away. Not like they had that much time for her and Sunny to practice… maybe he had some advice on how she could make him play better? As long as it didn’t take any longer than just a minute. With a single iota of hesitance, Mari nodded and Hero went on, “I know that… Sunny had mostly been telling Aubrey this, but… he mentioned it to me once, too, after school one day…” Hero looked upward at the ceiling as he continued, “He had told me that he really missed being with you and that… he was thinking about maybe asking you to join your recital… seeing as that would’ve been a good way to spend some time with his sister.”

Mari looked onward at Hero, taking in all of what he had to say in stride. Mari’s expression began to quiver as she holstered herself up, much to Hero’s surprise. Mari merely rubbed her forehead as she explained, “I… I just…” Mari paused again and again, failing to grasp whatever words that she was wanting to give out to him. Ugh, she hated when her brain failed her like this. It wasn’t a moment of her sometimes getting lost in Hero’s presence or simply stuttering to make a response she considered clever or inordinate enough for her to make. She just hadn’t the slightest idea how to go about all of this. While she knew in a way Sunny was wanting to spend time with her, he should have understood how important that this was to her, and she didn't take kindly to the possibility of him butchering her show… the show she was about to make perfect.

Speaking of which, at this point, she was actively wasting time being in this kitchen. She needed to get over to the music room and fix up the mistake Sunny was about to make now .

With a disgruntled mutter, Mari replied, “I-I’m sorry, Hero, but… I-I really need to go… I promise, we’ll talk after the recital.” Mari speed-walked out of the kitchen and right into the music room, where her little brother was not-so-eagerly awaiting her. Hero rushed his hand towards her and was ready to make a declaration towards her about staying and talking more, but he fully understood the kind of pressure she was going under, and knew that sometimes, if Mari was frustrated or upset like this, the best thing to do is to merely let it slide and wait for her to get better. Moods like these were a blue moon for Mari… something would have had to make her really upset in order to get her this riled up, but that means that she’d likely be back to her normal self with due time.

Though, of course, what got her this way in the first place was the bit that made Hero worry. And considering it had to do with an argument that she allegedly had with Sunny … Hero would need to find out about this later. For now, he opted to let the Suzuki children handle the boat for the time being.

As Sunny simply stood in defeat, awaiting for the rapid pain to once again peel at his fingers throughout this final session of their recital, he watched as a frustrated Mari hurriedly entered the room, and without even looking towards him, plopped herself on the seat just in front of the piano. Holding her hands up just above the keys, Mari monotonously stated, “Alright, get ready Sunny.”

This expression was… a bit different. Mari usually started all their sessions with a sense of optimism, which of course only slowly submerged into bitter disappointment and anger towards him, or with flat out irritation, depending on her mindset upon getting started. But Mari never seemed so… empty and dull like this, at least not when they were just getting started. Granted, you could cough it all up to their prior argument just an hour earlier, but Sunny didn’t actually believe that was what instated this. He had noticed that Mari and Hero entered the kitchen to talk alone. Was it possible that whatever brief conversation those two had instituted this agitated mindset onto his sister? That he was not too sure of, but Sunny wasn’t about to let that stop him from making a final stand and maybe… just maybe… he could finally play this right.

But it hurt… so much. He didn’t have this issue beforehand. His fingers were initially so nimble and free, and when he was first trying to get the violin down on the first of many sessions he and his sister would have together, nothing felt off or out of the ordinary. But… something changed, as his progression of playing the violin proceeded. His fingers started to ache, and he eventually noticed that they began to get cuts of the sort. Sunny initially ignored it, not seriously allowing himself for some measly cuts to get in the way of quality time with his sister. But as he kept going and going, for hours upon hours, every single day, they became more frequent. The pain was no longer so easily ignored. The intensity of these splits was becoming rather worrisome. Yet, in spite of all that, he endured. He persisted through the pain it caused him, no matter how much it bothered him. He was willing to cast all that aside of himself if it meant doing this for her.

But there was one problem. Not only did this make Sunny prone to a mass entourage of pain for time to come, it actually hindered his ability to play the violin itself, even before he could fully master the basics of playing this instrument. Every time that he flexed his fingers too far, a surge of pain would seep into his nerves, and there was simply a fine line where stretching his fingers too far was too much pain for him to endure. And of course, the more he played, the more that both the cuts and his pain stacked. Every day, he was feeling a new layer of pain with each stretch of his fingers having to play whatever high or low notes the song demanded. Yet… he never quite felt pain outside of a few specific… problematic sections of the song that were remarkably high and that tested the limits of how far his twelve-year-old fingers could stretch. But more often than not… he wasn’t able to reach those, since the pain was too much for him that he instinctively retracted his fingers, hence resulting in the deadly wrong notes that would often get him scolded by his big sister.

Mari was well-aware of this issue, however, but instead of making an active attempt to figure out a means for Sunny to play them more efficiently, she simply… had no plan. Or rather her plan was essentially just to keep making remarks at him in hopes that he would magically start getting better. Because in spite of the pain, Sunny could withstand it, even if it was torturous. It was just those few segments where the notes became too high for his pain resistance to take that were holding him back… that were holding them both back.

But then suddenly… in his mind, Sunny devised a plan within his mind. He didn’t make any remark of it to Mari, seeing as speaking out of line could get her in a rage at this point, but as the two began to rev up their final practice session together for this song, Sunny felt somewhat of a double-edged sword filled with determination overflowing his body. The sword in question not only kept his state of mind in check and allowed him to keep trying, over and over, knowing full well what he had to do when it was time for them to actually play the recital, but it did keep instilling a constant pain throughout his body with each attempt. But, the mistakes were less noticeable. Those high and low notes that were giving him such a hard time were beginning to become closer to him in his grasp, though with an obvious tradeoff of slicing pain in his hands. But nevertheless… it finally felt like after weeks, with a new means of thinking to himself how he can make this all work in the end, he was making progress.

Though he still continued to make mistakes, and though Mari would still cut their performances short and berate him, Sunny no longer paid mind to it. His mind was set on getting that recital done with… the thing that was causing him this level of pain for so long. And he was willing to do it all for Mari. Anything… that would finally make this loop cease for him…

But how much could he take for her?

***

Standing just behind the dark purple curtain was the signal for both Sunny and Mari’s moment. The two Suzukis had spent so much precious time working up to this moment. Everyone would be here to judge their performance. Their mom and dad, Aubrey, Basil, and the Rodriguez’s. Everybody was anticipating a great performance from the two. They had both been monotonously and repeatedly practicing for this singular moment. And now… both Sunny and Mari were hellbent on delivering a powerful performance at this show.

The only difference was that one sibling was stiff as a board, calm and collected, but hiding within herself a storm of anxiety and stress, that the other would ruin her moment. Then there was the other, who amidst the shakiness and worrisome attributes that were quivering his entire body, his mind was set on one thing. Laying this recital to rest. And he was going to do anything that he could to get that done.

But of course, Sunny was scared beyond all belief. He was merely doing an impeccable job at hiding it. He didn’t want any of his friends or family to see him in a state such as that now, especially not when both he and Mari were about to play in front of everybody in town. As much as Sunny didn’t want to repress this feeling of dread and terror within himself anymore, a swirl of emotions that had been bubbling up within his system for around a month at this point, he couldn’t let himself give up now.

He already did that once tonight, and he almost lost himself. He wasn’t about to try a stunt like that again.

“And now, ladies and gentlemen… we proudly present to you all… a duet performed by Mari and Sunny Suzuki… give a round of applause!”

The moment had finally arrived for them both. It was time. The dark curtains swayed slowly to the side, opening a view of a thousand different seats, all home to many different spectators that went on to cheer and clap valiantly for the two Suzuki children. As Mari slowly approached her violin, no doubt about the fact that she, too, couldn’t help the uneasy feeling she was getting from having to play the piece in front of all these people, Sunny looked amidst the crowd in search of a pair of familiar faces. After a short, thorough investigation, he finally picked them apart in the crowd, seeing the faces of his parents and friends, ceasing their cheering as soon as the continuous noise that the crowd made for both him and his sister finally died off.

Sunny’s arms, in an instinctive manner, heaved the heavy instrument up to his chest, and his body hoisted itself in a position it saw fit as being ready to play. In spite of the intense sensation of sheer nervousness and mental suffering ingrained within the boy, he didn’t allow even a droplet of that pain to leak out of him. The only thing that he was showing to anyone on that stage was confidence and determination. A notion that Mari saw as being quite relieving. Seeing as how badly Sunny had been expressing himself when he was practicing with her earlier, this was quite the switch up… a switch up Mari very much appreciated.

Finally, Mari lingered her fingers just above the piano as she started to play the first sets of keys on her instrument. Everything was now set into motion. There was no turning back; Sunny had to go into this with full stride… lest he do the very thing his family and friends were fearing that he would commit on this stage. As Sunny felt his opening become closer and closer, he took a deep breath, not allowing for the internal stress and anxiety to ooze out of his system. He just had to contain this for a bit longer. He could do this.

As soon as Sunny was required to play his part of the duet, his fingers flexed and reached around the strings as his other hand swirled around and moved in an almost hypnotic momentum, letting the beautiful and soothing vibration of the violin’s song play out to all. This was just the beginning. The real challenge was just ahead for young Sunny. Going further and further through the song, Sunny’s hands were beginning to cramp, ache, and cut really badly. He felt a sense of pressure implanting itself into his skull as he held back a normal feeling of gritting his teeth in response to the pain, but he didn’t do that. Even as he slowly approached the first set of the truly problematic sections of this song approach - the ones that would test how well his fingers could reach across in such a condition, Sunny persevered amidst it all.

A few strings of high notes approached all at once, and with all of his might, Sunny used his will to flex his fingers to reach the notes perfectly. But even with the unfathomable amount of pain the raven-haired kid was enduring, he kept himself composed, and kept his fingers on that note, not faltering in the slightest. His performance, his execution… in spite of his body feeling it was being torn apart and sliced off, was perfect. Just… perfect… just the way Mari was wanting it. Enduring the wrath of pain that was still booting itself onto his hands, Sunny would not allow for this to be ruined. And before he knew it… the next set of those god-forsaken high notes that went on and on had caught up to the boy. But still, he refused to give up.

This set hurt even more than the first. His hands felt like they were being torched. The pain that he felt inside of himself was indescribable, even more so that he had to keep a stoic face through the whole thing. And yet… Sunny did not succumb. The song was almost over. This was going to be perfect… just as Mari intended…

…just as she was wanting from him… right?

Amidst the cuts and intensity of pain that Sunny had to endure, he had neared the end. The last strings of notes that he was forced to produce gave him a fashion of pain that nearly made him break onto the floor and cry in a massive fit of agony. As the song finally came to a close, he could feel his senses begin to give out on him. Everywhere was starting to feel numb. His mouth tasted like sandpaper. His vision was undoubtedly beginning to grow weary and blurry. He couldn’t even quite make out whose voices were cheering both him and his sister on as he let the violin drop from his chest. His chest… was it hurting this badly during the performance? He wasn’t all too sure… he had been so focused on this recital, he was failing to acknowledge the abundance of mental and physical pain being implanted into his body right now.

And as Sunny clumsily walked off the stage, stumbling behind the curtains and lifting his hands up with the last fraction of power that was still left in him, all that he could see was the gushing sight of blood that was close to spilling itself all over the floor.

Mari was overwhelmed by this point. She couldn’t believe what was happening. They… they had done it. They really did! It was perfect! Whatever Sunny had up his sleeve specifically for this recital paid off! Everyone was ecstatic, and as Mari got up and looked with a bright, upbeat smile towards the crowd, she whispered to herself, “We… we did it! Sunny, we did it!” The piano playing girl was too caught up in the euphoria of finally pulling off the performance of her dreams that she didn’t even notice her two parents glancing past her, and then hurriedly getting off their seats and dashing for the entrance of the backstage area, where Sunny was currently residing in, unbeknownst to Mari.

“Sunny… I’m so proud of you, you did it! You did amazing out there, little brother!” Mari could feel the tears of joy wrapping onto her cheeks, her valiant eyes still taking in the sound of everyone cheering for her. “When we get home… we’ll all celebrate! We can have a big sleepover with everyone, it’ll be fun! Just like we…” Mari finally garnered the sense to turn around to where Sunny had been standing on the stage before, only to see that her brother was no longer present. As Mari’s face of joy slowly morphed into that of simpleminded confusion, she questioned softly, “Sunny?” before making her way to the backstage area, right behind the curtains. As the older Suzuki child looked around curiously, she witnessed her younger brother facing the other way, his hands shivering uncontrollably as his rapid hyperventilated breathing became more noticeable to her. As she saw him slowly fall to his knees, finally catching wind of small trickles of blood oozing from out his hands finally landing on the pristine wood, was when Mari’s eyes widened in total shock of what he was witnessing.

As Mari heard Sunny’s panicked sputters and breaths as his body faintly lost all senses, slowly but surely, Mari thought to herself in a distressed tone, ‘Was… was this what he did to himself to perform that well?’ And before she could do anything more, Sunny’s entire body fell completely limp, and he heaved downwards and toppled unconsciously on the floor.

“Sunny! Oh my god!” Both of the Suzuki parents rushed into the backstage in a frenzy, and the father picked his son up, paying no mind to the blood that was splattering on his shirt. “Honey, call the ambulance! We need to get him to the hospital now! ”

By this point, Mari’s mind was spiraling more than she could have ever been prepared for. A state of total shock within the girl was instated into her very being, so much so that she didn’t even respond to her mother grabbing her hand haphazardly and dragging her outside. Her legs moved automatically as her gaze didn’t leave the sight of Sunny’s body being carried by her father, watching his arms and legs dangle like that made Mari’s eyes grow even wider than they had before. Her expression was more than just pure shock or fear… it was a mixture of emotions that were so intense, she didn’t even know how to describe it. Her world was rotating so fast, her ears ringing about over and over again, her sense of perspective becoming so blurred that she didn’t even know where she was being dragged.

And then, before she knew it, she was sitting right next to her family in the waiting room at the hospital… minus one notable member.

Chapter Text

It took hours before Mari’s trance was finally broken. She had no idea how long she had spent sitting in that chair, her soul in complete limbo. She was stripped of all her senses for god knows how long, simply staring into space as her mind remained the only thing she had control over, and her body refused to let itself share requests to her brain. And throughout that entire process, Mari’s mind was venturing off wide and far, contemplating the fabrics of the experiences that she just underwent.

So… where to start? She had to start with the thing that kick started this whole debacle, she supposed. Sunny had asked her just shy of a month ago, rather nervously, if she would be willing to let him practice with her and let him perform the recital with her. She initially assumed Sunny’s anxious mood throughout that conversation was more a result of him being doubtful of his violin playing skills and being a beginner. However, the girl thought back to the conversation she had with Hero earlier tonight…

“He had told me that he really missed being with you and that… he was thinking about maybe asking you to join your recital… seeing as that would’ve been a good way to spend some time with his sister.”

The more Mari looped that sentence over and over in her head, the hesitance in Sunny’s voice when he had questioned her on such a concept was made more clear as to why he had asked in a way that he did. She had gotten so busy… but not only that, but her inability to focus on much aside from schoolwork and the recital had also made her a bit more irritable too. Nobody really realized because no one was ever around her since school revved back up again. The Suzuki sister realized that her brother’s presence of nervousness was more to do with him being afraid of barging in on whatever she was busy on…

Then, there were the sessions themselves. Mari had been so comfortable playing the piano at this point that her only ambition throughout the sessions she spent with Sunny was to ensure he was good enough at his part before time came to perform in front of an audience. She had Sunny’s progression and skills in mind from start to finish… nothing else remained on her mind. Which was what made her realize how much she had truly neglected Sunny’s state of being as those sessions went on. She paid no mind to whatever mental or physical exhaustion that his body was going through during any of them… I mean, why else would she not have paid any notice to the fact that his hands were likely getting cut up and bleeding more and more as the recital crept closer? That gruesome scene after their performance couldn’t have been done with just one two minute performance… it had been built up for days, likely even weeks, before Sunny was forced onto that stage. And Mari didn’t even realize that it was all happening.

But… should she really be downplaying herself like this? If Sunny was really hurting that badly… why didn’t he speak up about it? Why didn’t he just… say that it hurt, that his hands were getting to such a point. She… would have helped him, right? He was her brother, she wouldn’t do that to him willingly… right?

The argument they both had after Sunny ran off was what struck her mind next. That all felt like a fever dream to her. She rarely ever got mad at anyone, and even when she did, it was nothing ever explosive or dramatic. But her argument with Sunny… it defied everything that she thought she knew about herself. Looking back at it, she didn’t know what came over her to make her lash at him like that. Pondering on some of the things that she said made her stomach churn.

“We spent so long practicing for this! And you’re just gonna throw it all away because you were too lazy to just play the damn song right! I don’t want to hear any of your lousy excuses, Sunny! You’re going back down there and we’re going to play that recital perfectly!”

Those lines kept ringing in her head repeatedly as she continued to stare into space, not reacting to any of the events going on around the hospital. Her mind was fixated so harshly on these prospects that nothing else sounded like a good idea to think about. She needed to let herself take all this in. Not doing so felt almost vile to her… like she had to do this, lest she be stricken down where she sat.

Finally, there was witnessing Sunny’s condition after their performance. The burning sight of Sunny’s twitching arms as he slowly fell onto his knees weakly was still embedded into her brain. There was nothing that she could do to wash that image out of her subconscious. And yet… Mari felt empathetic towards both of them. She of course felt terrible towards Sunny for what had happened, knowing that she, at least, could have noticed his condition sooner before all of this had occurred, but she also felt as if she too was a victim. In that moment, before she had walked in on her brother in that state, she felt truly proud of him. She was so happy that this recital had gone as well as it had. It was thanks to both of them… and now they’re both suffering from it. Was it selfish for her to think this way? She didn’t know.

Was this the price that perfection cost? Sunny… did perform perfectly, after all. Just like his big sister had asked him to do. Mari felt like dirt thinking about that.

As if time itself had stopped for her throughout that entire duration of her thinking to herself, the sudden sound of a door being opened made it feel like time was finally moving forward once more. The long-haired girl sheepishly looked towards a doctor, who remarked towards the Suzuki family, “It appears that his hands are in rather dire conditions, but he is expected to make a full recovery… he will likely need to spend the next day or two in his hospital room, but afterwards he should be in a good enough state to be sent home.”

With a passionate sigh of relief, Mrs. Suzuki responded, “Oh, thank you so much, doctor! That makes me so glad to hear… so he will be okay?”

Nodding slightly, the doctor uttered, “Although his hands will need to be kept in bandages for some weeks time, so long as he lets them heal properly, there should be no further complications.”

“That’s a relief… Sunny hasn’t woken up yet by any chance, has he?” Mr. Suzuki remarked, and the family sat on edge in their seats, awaiting a response from the doctor.

“Currently, he is still unconscious… though when he does awaken, we will let you know if it is okay for you to enter, if you so desire…” The doctor answered with a serious glare towards the Suzuki family.

Mrs. Suzuki nodded her head and stated, “Understood… thank you once again, doctor.”

“Of course…” The man in teal blue clothing stated nonchalantly as he turned around and walked towards another room, away from Mari and her parents. Although the news was in clear good fortune, Mari still felt uneasy hearing about the condition of his hands. Was… was Sunny really going to be okay? Even after all that? Mari didn’t get to see in good detail the effects that the violin playing had on her brother, though she was certain that if she did, she may have passed out herself. Sunny’s hands were bleeding quite a bit, so the cuts would have had to have been rather severe, at least some of them, for that to have occurred. Mari still couldn’t believe all this was really happening to him. How would he react to seeing her when he woke up? She didn’t even know what she would say to him in response regarding all of this…

Despite all of these lingering thoughts munching on the sides of Mari’s skull, she knew that time hadn’t arrived just yet… she would have to wait for when they did all see her brother again.

***

The blistering pain of his two hands was the first thing to greet the raven-haired boy as his eyes slowly and weakly opened. His barely audible grunting was heard by the one nurse that was present in the room with him when he finally woke up from a hefty rest. He didn’t catch a good glimpse of her, but he heard shuffling to his side, an indication that she was dropping whatever she was doing in order to check on his condition. Something that he would have preferred to have been done earlier, but he couldn’t really complain about it right now.

Sunny witnessed the nurse look towards him from a distance as she muttered softly, “Oh, you’re awake… hi there, Sunny… how are you feeling?”

Did he want to be honest with her about that? If he really felt like responding to her, no filter and all… he’d say that his hands felt like hell. Where there wasn’t outright pain there was numbness and an uncomfortable one at that. But Sunny wasn’t really about to describe that to a nurse who was just doing her job.

With a muffled breath, Sunny replied simply, “O-Okay… hurt…”

Nodding apathetically, the masked woman commented, “You’re at the hospital, Sunny. You passed out at the end of your recital performance… thankfully, your parents got you in here right after you collapsed… if they had been a bit later, who knows what would have happened to you.”

That’s a rather interesting thing to say. Is she implying that he would have bled out or something if he wasn’t taken in so soon? That was odd in itself; though his memories were a bit fuzzy between now and the recital, he did recall the sight of his hands right before he felt himself losing his wits, and he knew that he wasn’t bleeding that badly. Though perhaps she was just referring to him possibly getting infections in his wounds, which would have led to an entourage of other problems.

Sunny’s eyes clicked towards the nurse as he muffled out, “Is… my family here?”

“Yes, they’re in the waiting room right now…” The nurse responded calmly as Sunny’s eyes looked upwards at the blank ceiling in front of him. So they were waiting for him after all… hopefully he wasn’t out for so long. He couldn’t find a clock inside the room that was within his range of view, so he couldn’t tell what the time was. But regardless, he felt a smidge of relief that at least his family wanted to be here for him. Hopefully that didn’t make him selfish… perhaps this was just another thing dragging them all down because of him. “I can tell them that you’re awake and that they can see you, but that’s only if you’d like them to…”

Sunny thought about it for a second before concocting his answer. Though he did want to see his parents again to clarify for them that he was doing fine (safe for the burning hell that was his hands at this moment) he was so tired that he felt like his eyes could give out on him at any moment and he’d drift right back into sleep. So if they were gonna see him, it’d have to be fast. And the aching that his hands were causing them didn’t matter; he had other things on his mind to be worrying about that.

In a hushed manner, Sunny responded, “Yeah… but… o-only for a minute… I-I feel… tired…”

The nurse once more nodded her head as she said, “Understood… I’ll have them out here in a minute to see you…” As she turned around to leave the room and headed for the door, Sunny felt the weight of his exhaustion catching up to him. Less physical exhaustion, which was a bit surprising seeing how much strain it took to not break down on that recital, but mental exhaustion after… everything. He had rested up physically speaking, but his mentality needed a bit more time than what he was given thus far. Hopefully that would change with his next bout of rest.

The nurse made her way towards the other members of the Suzuki bloodline. Once her presence was detected by the other members, more specifically the parents, she stated, “Good news, Sunny has just woken up, and he thinks he’ll be able to see all of you, but only for a minute… he says he will need more time to rest, so if you can, it would be appreciated if you could make your visit quick…”

The information that was taken from the members of the family was taken in a few different ways. Mr. Suzuki took it all plain and simple, merely nodding his head as he responded monotonously, “Alright… come on, dear.” He reached his hand out to his wife as they both stood up. The latter of the two parents, on the contrary, was a bit worried about the prospect of not having much time to see her own kid. But her fears were quelled by knowing that regardless of the duration of their visit with Sunny. Knowing that he was doing okay and would be able to recover was all that she needed in this current moment.

The sister of the hospitalized boy, however, didn’t seem to have much of a reaction at all. Her mind was still taking up most of her senses as she continued to rapidly process all of what was occurring. Did she even want to see him right now? Would he get upset or mad? She sure hope he wouldn’t… maybe if she-

“Mari! Come on, honey…”

The sudden sound of her father calling out for her was the catalyst that the piano playing girl needed to be jerked away from her draining mindset that she was hogging to herself. Her eyes widened as she swiftly got ahold of all her senses again, hurriedly responding, “Y-Y-Yeah, right… sorry…” Mari got up swiftly as she, along with her parents, made their way towards Sunny’s room, and as the door was creaked open, more and more of the pale environment being pronounced onto them all, their eyes scurried for only one thing, until they finally caught wind of who they were looking for.

Laying on a bed beside one of the room’s many walls was the youngest member of the family. As everyone slowly approached him, it didn’t take long for the boy to notice their presence, and upon veering his eyes towards his parents and sister, he witnessed their solemn expressions as his mother readied to make a statement.

“Hello there, sweetie… how are you feeling?” Sunny’s mother asked in a compassionate tone. In spite of her welcoming demeanor Sunny was a tad frustrated of being asked that question again; his hands felt like they were split apart in five different directions and he was exhausted beyond belief. Though again, that tiredness was what was keeping him from giving out any kind of sassy or snarky remark. Not like he wanted to do that towards his own mother anyways. Especially since his father was also there. It didn’t matter if he was hospitalized, that kind of attitude wouldn’t fly by him any day of the week.

“‘M fine…” Sunny muttered out in a low tone. His eyes drifted away momentarily from his family to observe the slightly agape door they had just walked out from.

Next to speak was Sunny and Mari’s father, who leaned himself down towards the boy as he spoke, “Just hang in there, sport. Dunno if any of the staff told you yet, but you’ll be able to make a full recovery. You may have to be here for a day or two, but it shouldn’t get in the way of your school or life that much.” As the boy heard his father relay that bit of information onto him, Sunny felt almost… conflicted. On one hand, he was happy to hear that whatever cesspool that he had delved himself into for the sake of that recital was at least not going to cause anything drastic to him, at least not permanently, and that he’d be able to be back at school and home… whatever that may mean. But on the other hand… something about the wording his father used was putting Sunny off a bit. He knew that it wasn’t intentional, his father sometimes just worded things a certain way and it could be interpreted in a few different ways. But Sunny couldn’t help but get the feeling that simply specifying school and life in particular meant that he could just… spring back into action and get himself busy again. Perhaps he was overcomplicating things in his mind, but… isn’t that better than oversimplifying his situations?

Finally, the last one to speak to the boy was his dear sister. At first, nothing came from her mouth, and she simply stared towards Sunny with a face that couldn’t be described as anything more than confusion. It was clear her mind was still trying to process things; process all of what had occurred to her on that night, and maybe even process the machinations of the events leading up to the recital. But in spite of all that uncertainty laying awake in her head, she still made an attempt to give Sunny an endearing greeting all the while.

“H-Hello, little brother… I…” Mari paused as her eyes dashed towards the ground swiftly before retracting back onto Sunny. “...I just… wanted to say that… I-I’m… so proud of you… for…” The long-haired girl was biding her time, trying to figure out what exactly she should be saying to him. Was congratulating him for his performance really the best thing to do? How else was she going to make it feel like this condition that he was in wasn’t in vain? “...sticking… through everything… you played amazingly at the recital…” A pair of warm smiles accompanied Mari’s statements as she kept staring towards her brother. Sunny’s face, initially seeming devoid of any true emotion, was beginning to pick up on a distinct feeling bubbling up from his dormant heart.

That feeling was uncertainty.

Was this really the kind of thing that he wished to hear from his sister? A congrats and some words of encouragement from the person who was, in large part, responsible for putting him in this state? Was this truly the means that he felt was justifiable for the dedication he put into that performance? Sure, he would be fine, but his feelings over that experience and that night couldn’t be overwritten. They’d be with him forever now… nothing could remove that. But similarly, he knew Mari would have never wanted this from him. She would have never wished for him to be put into this predicament. Even if it may seem miniscule for him, he could tell that his family was genuinely worried sick. And his sister’s words… they weren’t a facade to mask some ego trip that she was plunging herself down to because of the euphoria she garnered finally playing on that stage. Her statement was genuine, he could tell it from her tone. The slight glistening just underneath her eyes and shaking of her irises was only proof of that sentiment. So… what did the boy want to do? What was the appropriate response for all this? His mind was being flattened at the seams, his decision making was being warped and twisted as he only struggled to say anything back to his big sister.

“If… there’s anything that I… can do for you… please… tell me…” Mari whispered softly towards him. By this point, Sunny’s consciousness was beginning to slip. He still had a few moments embedded for him to last without being drifted off into sleep again, but he didn’t want to keep his family waiting on his tired self if he could help it.

After a few moments of Sunny inhaling and exhaling slightly, just barely noticeable by the slow and subtle rises and descents of his chest, he spoke out in a quiet demeanor, “I just… want to be alone… please…”

The boy understood that this could have come out in a much different way than he was anticipating. But the sentence in of itself had a double meaning behind it. He not only requested for the peace to be residing within this room on his own for the time being, but he was also asking for the dismissal of Mari specifically. After everything that had happened, seeing her at this point of time just felt… wrong. Even he wasn’t entirely sure what the feeling inside of him was or how to describe it, but after the way that she had failed to notice his state, even though he was willing to let it all slide for her sake… the aftermath of it all made having her be there with him make him feel uneasy. He was hoping that he had made his request clear in a respectful way, and as he anxiously awaited for any of his family members to make a response, he saw as Mari’s eyes seemed to dawn a sort of shimmer.

With a high-pitched sniffle, Mari croaked out, “Okay… I’ll do that…” And as Sunny watched with slight regret as his sister turned away from him and began to make her exit from his room, both of his parents looking on with worrisome expressions, his father turned to look at him with an apathetic look.

After observing his son’s facial features for a moment, he closed his eyes and stated right after a disgruntled sigh, “Come on, honey… we should be going too.”

A bit astonished at her husband’s decision, Mrs. Suzuki hopped up and questioned with a flustered tone, “W-Wait, dear, what about-”

“Sunny said he wants to be alone, and we should let him be… he needs his rest…” Though the mother of the Suzuki household wanted to be adamant on arguing about this, she swiftly changed her demeanor as she glanced back towards her son, noting the tired expression underneath his eyes and his eyelids slightly lowering at the seams. With hesitation in her movements, Sunny’s mother eventually nodded towards her husband and the two exited out of Sunny’s room alongside their daughter. Now with nobody else to keep the boy company, he found the time to allow himself to drift off back into a state of peace. Sunny denied fighting his restless state and found his eyes being closed on their own, and within moments, Sunny drifted away from consciousness and fell back into a quiet sleep, allowing for his mind to soothe for the days to come.

Just what would come of those days remained up in the air.

***

Before the raven-haired boy could even make another breath, his mind was back in the real world, and as he slowly lifted his eyes up once more, he glanced around his room, noticing the astoundingly brighter backdrop on the walls. It seemed being in this place during the night made it seem a lot more doom and gloom than if you were residing here during daytime. The sun beaming through the windows made the previously dull and bland walls stand out in a much more optimistic manner, though the young boy couldn’t be bothered to care for that for long. He could still feel the residual pain of his hands from that performance of his last night, though they were, admittedly, less intense than before. But now that Sunny was wide awake and couldn’t let his tiredness nullify the pain seeping into his bandaged wounds, the fraction of pain that was taken away from when he was awake last was exchanged for his inability to shrug the pain off as much as before. But Sunny didn’t really wanna complain about it; he knew it’d grate on everyone very quickly if that was all that he’d talk about.

For the next half an hour, the boy couldn’t do much except for just lay on his bed and stare off into space. He was still a bit too weak from his collapse to move around freely, and plus, the bed was at least comfortable, so it wasn’t like he necessarily wanted to get off of it yet. Not to mention he had no idea if his family was even still at the hospital. He assumed not, seeing as although they were likely worried about him, they didn’t want to sleep in the waiting room or something. Besides, the drive to the hospital was anywhere between five to ten minutes, depending on the traffic, so his home was relatively close in distance to where Sunny was positioned now. So for a good while, he simply remained in his room, relaxing in bed and waiting for the aching in his hands to subside, though that may be too much to ask for in one day… his hands may honestly be hurting for weeks, but that was a bigger hypothetical… he would just have to see.

Then, all of a sudden, the boy heard a voice that he could’ve sworn he’d heard somewhere before.

“Please… -see him… -know him…”

Whatever the boy was hearing, he was only picking up on some of the things that were being said. Whoever it was seemed to be rather concerned for his well being, if they were wanting to see him right now. Sunny didn’t know what time it was, but he had a rather quaint guess it was still somewhere in morning time. Whoever it was that was coming to visit him had gotten up at an early hour just for him. Was it Mari? Maybe even his parents again? No, that couldn’t be right… the voice he was hearing was… higher pitched. Mari didn't exactly have a low-speaking voice, but her voice didn’t sound like that. Only one person made sense to him…

The sight of the door being creaked open, followed by a doctor entering Sunny’s room with a bit of a nervous expression to boot, was seen by Sunny as the man kept his eyes to the floor as he slipped on inside and shut the door behind him. Once his eyes heaved upwards to look at the black-haired boy was when his face shifted from a tad anxious to surprised.

“Oh, you’re up… that’s good, actually…” The strange proclamation towards Sunny made the hospitalized boy raise an eyebrow in confusion, though this would quickly be taken from him. “There’s, uh… someone outside who actually wants to see you. I understand you just woke up, so… if you’d like for us to tell them you don’t wish to see anyone, then we will accommodate.”

Sunny’s eyes furrowed down as he contemplated what to say in response, until finally, he simply questioned, “Who is it?”

“Oh, she says that she’s a friend of yours… says her name is Aubrey…” The doctor’s answer only confirmed Sunny’s suspicion on who may have been prodding the staff to see him. He felt that it was Aubrey’s voice, but the separation between him and her made it a bit hard to make out.

Without hesitation, Sunny leaned himself to the doctor’s direction and sputtered out, “L-Let her in… u-um… if… please…” Sunny’s eyes retracted backwards as he scooched himself back to the position he was in beforehand, feeling a tinge of red enveloping the tops of his ears. For a few seconds, the doctor looked towards the raven-haired boy with a stunned expression before rapidly blinking, before nodding and announcing, “Oh, yes, of course… I’ll have her here in just a moment.”

With that, the doctor walked away from Sunny’s room and the boy was left to wait for an indefinite amount of time for them to tell Aubrey she was allowed in. Sunny felt a bit embarrassed to have given out a reaction like that; he knew that he had a crush on Aubrey for a good while, hell, maybe even starting from when he met her, but he didn’t want to act like a fool just because she was within range. And what were the chances of her liking him back? He hated in a way that just knowing she was around made him feel all fuzzy, like he wasn’t supposed to feel that way anytime she was closeby. But in a way, it made him feel good, but was that too selfish?

Either way, Sunny ultimately didn’t have to wait very long at all because before ten seconds could even pass, the door to Sunny’s room was flung open and on the other side of the room was Aubrey, her eyes locked onto Sunny’s as she made a relieved gasp. Dashing towards him in a frenzy, she stopped just as she was beside his bed and croaked out, “Sunny, thank goodness! I wanted to come over to see how you were doing!...” Aubrey’s slight pants were ceased as she glanced down towards Sunny’s hands to observe the bandages wrapping his palms and fingers. As she did this, the young boy took a moment to think about how grateful he was to have friends like Aubrey. “Sunny, your hands…”

As Sunny blinked to get himself out of his train of thought about thinking about Aubrey, he lifted one up and took a moment to observe the status of his bandaged hands himself. He hadn’t really paid it much mind before, since he already noticed the bandages there and therefore considered the situation wrapped up, in a way, though obviously he’d need these to be kept on for quite some time. But now that Aubrey pointed it out, something about her tone made him ponder on if he should be taking this matter more seriously than he has been. His hands don’t just look pristine underneath; they probably look gnarly and busted, just that the bandages are covering up all the ugly bits.

“Y-Yeah…” Sunny stuttered as his eyes remained fixated on his palms and fingers. The pain was still rather bothersome, though Sunny was willing to at least try to put that aside to be able to be here with Aubrey right now. “‘S fine… just… hurts… a bit…” Sunny kept pausing for long durations of time, only to slowly add one or two more words to his sentence. It was a nod that Aubrey found kind of silly, if not a bit cute, but now wasn’t the time for her to be thinking about that. She needed to be putting Sunny’s health first.

With a quizzical head tilt, Aubrey asked, “How are you feeling? I know last night was…” She paused as she took a moment to glance to her side before returning her gaze towards Sunny. “...hard. You… seemed like you were hurting a lot.”

This really wasn’t the kind of thing Sunny wanted to be talking about right now. Especially not with Aubrey. She was already going through her own plethora of problems back at home, the last thing she needed was for Sunny to be dumping his problems onto her . He was supposed to be Aubrey’s shoulder to lean on whenever she was suffering, he wasn’t about to amplify that onto her.

He shook his head and muttered, “N-No, it… it was my fault… I-I tried to bail on… the recital.”

But it quickly became clear that the bowtied girl wasn’t buying into any of it. Her worried expression directed towards him hadn’t faltered in even the slightest, and she was hellbent on getting some answers from the black-haired boy. “Sunny… please, tell me… what happened? I-I don’t just mean… before you guys started arguing last night…” Aubrey’s head lowered as Sunny made a rather shocked gasp, albeit light, to signify his worrying over the girl’s reaction to him shrugging off this situation at large for her sake. “There was more to it. Something else happened before the night of the recital, I can… I can just tell. Please, tell me.”

Now this was escalating a bit faster than Sunny would like. He really didn’t want to explain to her that her big sister, essentially, had been neglecting Sunny’s mental and physical needs for around a month for the sake of their performance, though at least in Sunny’s mind, part of it was still his fault. He should have spoken up to her about it, then maybe it wouldn’t have ultimately come down to this. And even ignoring that, it was selfish of him to bail out on their recital at the last minute; that, to Sunny, was still a cowardly move, no matter how much his mind wanted to tell him that it wasn’t.

His heart overridden his brain at this moment. “Aubrey…” Sunny coughed out in a raspy, yet soft and quiet tone, but he didn’t even have time to say anything else before Aubrey cut him off.

“Sunny, please! I don’t care what it is! I… maybe I can help… m-maybe there’s… something I can do… I don’t know…” Aubrey rubbed the sides of her head as she began to lean downwards, racking her brain on what to say next. She knew that Sunny didn’t like to pry onto his own personal problems, especially if it was to her. Considering the dynamic they had with her venting to him about all of her struggles at times at the playground, he was a shoulder for her to lean on. She felt like for once, she could be his shoulder now. “J-Just… please… I-I know you don’t want to tell me, but let me… let me help you… like you always helped me…”

Now the black-haired boy was feeling guilty. Although his mind was still adamant about not wanting to tell Aubrey, seeing as this could potentially put a strain on her relationship with Mari, maybe telling her was for the best. After all, if Sunny trusted Aubrey as a friend, which he absolutely did, would it be so bad for him to tell her about the truth of this situation just this one time? And besides, he didn’t have to make Mari look like the bad one… again, Sunny’s downfall was somewhat his own doing… he should have done some things differently, and he shouldn’t have… other things. As long as he makes that clear to Aubrey, her view on Mari likely won’t be altered because of himself.

With slight reluctance, Sunny nodded slowly and whispered, “Okay… I-I’ll tell you, but… what happened was… my fault…” Sunny’s head shifted downwards as he began to recite the events leading up to that fateful night, starting with when he and Mari had their first sessions together. “Wh-When… Mari and I started to… practice together… it was fine at first. I was trying to learn the… violin, and… once I got good enough, M-Mari and I began to… play the song.” Sunny took a long breath in before exhaling slowly, and then continued on, “But… I-I just… wasn’t… playing it right, and Mari sometimes…” Sunny held his breath right after saying that. He really hated to have to say anything ill about his sister, especially when he still ultimately believed the events of his situation to be his own fault, but he promised he’d tell Aubrey the truth, so with regret, he went on after a lengthy pause, saying, “W-Would… lecture me on… playing better or that… I w-wasn’t… taking things seriously… but sometimes she’d… she’d yell at me, sh-she would… get a bit angrier if I kept… messing up.”

As Aubrey took all this in, part of her just wanted to say no. She wanted to correct Mari’s brother and explain that Mari simply wouldn’t… do some of that. She wouldn’t yell at her brother, she wouldn’t berate him in such an undignified manner, she wouldn’t have done some of that stuff! But she already knew better than that. She witnessed first hand the height of Mari’s actions towards Sunny throughout this whole ordeal. She was well aware of the behavior that Mari had been using against him, so no denying would be able to save her. This should have been a surprise to her, but now that she was being given this information, combined with what she already knew and experienced… it sadly wasn’t.

Simply nodding with a much more solemn expression on her face, she questioned with a quiet tone, “Wh-What about your hands? They… didn’t just… turn up like that last night… did they?” Although Aubrey likely most certainly knew the answer to the question that she was setting upon the raven-haired boy, she wanted to hear it from Sunny himself. Even if it was some kind of affirmation that it wasn’t what she was thinking it is and what had happened to him at the recital and the argument between him and Mari beforehand truly was some sort of freak accident. But of course, she couldn’t allow herself to believe in a lie such as that.

Sunny, after a few seconds of hesitation, finally began to nod his head slowly right before proclaiming, “My hands… a-after about… a week of playing, I… noticed that they started to get… cuts from how much I was playing…” Sunny lifted his two hands up again for him and Aubrey to both inspect their condition. Neither of them knew what exactly it was about seeing them in this state, but it kept enthralling them to keep glancing at the sight, like there was some sort of cryptic message embedded beneath all those bandages. “It… wasn’t so bad at first… I didn’t say anything to Mari about it cause… I-I was thinking… could get by if it meant… being with her during this…” Sunny’s head slumped down as his mind pulled out the fabrics of those memories from his subconscious. “But… after a while… i-it got worse… the cuts, I mean… they, um… got bigger, and sometimes, i-if I played for… too long… they… would bleed a bit. B-But I was too afraid to tell Mari anything cause… sh-she was getting… really strict about me not… playing well enough…” The boy could feel the tears beginning to rise up and constantly attempting to push up past the bottom of his eyes, but he relented their ability to do so. “...s-so I… just… kept going… I, uh… d-don’t think she… ever noticed until…”

The subtle sounds of Aubrey’s surprise caught Sunny off-guard, causing him to cease the end of his sentence and making him stare towards the bowtied girl. Witnessing her face curl downwards into a saddened frown as she merely stared at the bed told the normally stoic-faced boy everything that he needed to understand about how Aubrey was taking this. Her judgement of this situation, warped as it was already, was beginning to contort into matters she couldn’t even recognize. Sunny hated seeing her like this, fearful that his wording of this situation may have begun to plague her view on his older sister.

To mitigate this, Sunny quickly leaned a bit towards Aubrey’s direction, as much as it hurt his hands and some of his upper body to do so, croaking out with a despaired voice, “B-But it was all my fault! I-I should have said something… just because Mari didn’t know d-doesn’t mean… that I… a-and I shouldn’t have… tried to run away from… practicing… I was asking for-”

“It doesn’t matter!”

The outburst from Aubrey immediately silenced Sunny, making him look with wide, shocked eyes as Aubrey made a large sniffle before proceeding. “She should have noticed you were hurting… I… I know that recital meant a lot to her but… but it didn’t give her a reason to…” Aubrey’s initially loud volume slowly decreased as her eyes fell right back onto Sunny’s decrepit hands. Whatever it was, seeing them in such a crippled fashion made Aubrey’s heart sink into her stomach. “...to make you hurt… I…” Aubrey finally leaned onto the side of the bed as small tears began to flow down from her eyes to her cheeks. “...I just… don’t know… what to do…”

Sounds of Aubrey inhaling and exhaling slowly, yet with an inconsistent tone and volume was heard as Sunny could only watch the girl that he cared so much for nearly break down in front of him. This was the reason Sunny was afraid of telling Aubrey what had happened. She was already confused and scared seeing the two Suzuki siblings fight on that night, and now that Aubrey was clued in on more context, it seemed her mind couldn’t take the information being displayed to her. Sunny was scared Aubrey would be hurt by the way Mari treated him, and he didn’t want that for her. He never would have wanted any of them to suffer because of him. And yet, here he was, the bowtied girl sniffling and breathing in a somewhat uncontrollable manner due to his retelling of events.

Yet, in spite of this hopeless feeling that Sunny was gathering in his heart, in his guts, a tinge of reassurance bubbled up seamlessly within his throat. It was small, at first, but eventually, the young boy found it breaking out from in his mouth as he scooched closer towards the sobbing girl, eventually leaning in a bit, although his chest and upper back, once again, didn’t like that. Those were likely hurting from whatever fall he had taken when he lost consciousness; though yet again, he was too focused on his current objective to care about that right now.

And that objective was to reassure Aubrey to not let herself get down because of this predicament, to which he achieved by ushering a few select words.

“Let’s… let’s be here for each other, Aubrey…”

In some nonsensical way, those few words made Aubrey slowly raise her head up and look at Sunny with tear marks etching the top half of her cheeks. The two could only stare at each other as Sunny’s eyebrows lowered, another wave of tiredness seeming to immediately hit his senses now, but it wasn’t enough for him to leave Aubrey by her lonesome. As Aubrey got herself up from her knees, both of their eyes locking onto each other, Aubrey’s depressed frown slowly upturned into a bit of a hopeful smile as she chuckled nervously towards Sunny. Before any other actions were conceived or pondered upon, Aubrey leaned towards the black-haired boy and wrapped her arms around his upper back, and embraced Sunny as he reciprocated the action.

His hands lightly pushed onto Aubrey’s back, the hissing pain from the pressure repeatedly beckoned him to retract his action and to undo what he had just ushered forth upon himself. But to that, Sunny mentally barked back at his brain to let him be. The pain that flourished his nerves and veins was no longer relevant. He was willing to endure it if it meant comforting one of his best friends. He would be willing to endure that pain if it meant giving them the assurance they so needed.

And he’d be willing to do it several more times over.

Chapter Text

There was a lot of complication going on around right now. Not only did Sunny get sent to the hospital after his recital with Mari, but he hadn’t heard of anyone from next door ever since it all went down. Hero Rodriguez looked towards himself in the mirror with a cold expression as he pondered on what he could do to perhaps help the family in need. He knew that with Sunny momentarily out of the household to heal, that some assistance from his side may be of use, but he didn’t want to be pushy. After all, the last thing he wanted was for him to lend his aid, only for him to inadvertently make things worse. But he would be hard pressed to not at least try to do so, and besides, this was especially for Mari’s sake. While it is true he wasn’t there to experience what had happened firsthand, he got information from the Suzuki parents on what happened after the show was over. But still, not being able to even go with them to the hospital from his own parents was a bit of a low blow, considering he caught a glimpse of Mari’s reaction to the whole ordeal before the Suzuki family hopped into the ambulance truck just as it had pulled right into the parking lot of the recital building.

Her expression was… bleak, to put it lightly.

Hero hated seeing her like that. It made him feel even worse about himself knowing he could be out there helping, but again, he didn’t want to be pushy and make things worse. He figured that he could at least make an attempt to visit the Suzuki house later in the day and ask if there was anything he could offer to assist. Surely there was nothing wrong in that train of thought, but he decided to play it purely by ear and see what came of today. As the older Rodriguez brother finished up in the bathroom, he sat on the edge of his bed with a neutral face, still wondering if he was taking this approach the wrong way.

Before he could let his mind wander further, the doorbell’s echo chimed across the house, making Hero jerk his head up curiously. Interesting, he wasn’t expecting anyone to visit today. It could be some stupid telemarketers, they have been getting more persistent ones as of late. He initially contemplated on just letting his mother and father handle whoever was at the door, his mind raced to the fact that it could be Basil or even Aubrey. Sometimes they liked to visit their house on the weekends, usually the former, but if Aubrey could wedge any opportunity to get out of her house at times like these, she’d do it in a heartbeat. Slowly, Hero pushed himself off his bed and trekked his way down the stairs to see who was waiting at the other side of the door.

“Hero, dear, you got down just in time… there’s someone who wants to see you…” His mother greeted the boy with a passionate smile. But… someone to see him? That was rather odd, since again, Hero wasn’t anticipating anyone coming by the house to see him, let alone anybody else in his family. As the ruffle-haired boy glanced towards the door, peeking past his parents slightly blocking the way, he got a clearer view of the visitor standing just outside the house. Who was, in fact, not a visitor by traditional standards, but was in fact, a neighbor.

Oh, of course it was her. Who else would be wanting to see him specifically around this town? Hero chuckled nervously as he internally repeated the word ‘stupid’ over and over in his noggin as he greeted the long-haired girl in front of him, “Oh, h-hey Mari… what brings you here?”

“Hi Hero…” Mari said with a bit of hesitation in her voice. Her eyes were flaring downwards and her head remained slumped and her body was oddly stiff and uptight. All characteristics that didn’t match the Suzuki sister’s usual demeanor. So clearly the incident at the recital was still getting to her. “I-I was just… ugh… wondering if you were busy today?”

Shaking his head, Hero replied, “Nope, I’m not doing anything in particular.” His eyes darted to the side for a split second before locking back onto Mari. “Did you wanna… hang out?”

“I was… hoping we could, but…” Mari took a step back as one of her legs swayed in the air loosely. “I-If not… no big deal.”

As his parents looked towards him with a bit of a worried expression, Hero answered, “Well sure, I’d be up to spend some time with you! I’ll just need to finish getting ready is all.”

The girl nodded her head slowly as she brushed some lingering hair that was limping just over her face. “‘Kay… I’ll… see you in a little bit.” Then, as Mari turned around and slowly walked away from the Rodriguez establishment, the door being closed by Hero’s father, the old man turned to his son with a concerned look.

“I think Mari will need some company, kid…” The father of the household looked back towards the door. “She doesn’t seem like… herself.”

“Y-Yeah… I know…” Hero’s tone dropped as he slowly shuffled himself back up the stairs. “Well, i-in any case, I’m gonna finish getting ready. I’ll say bye once I’m done.”

With a grin, Hero’s mother responded, “Sounds good, honey… make sure to have fun.”

***

“So… did you wanna talk about… what happened?”

The entire walk to Faraway Park was nearly silent for both parties involved. Mari didn’t mean to make this so awkward for them both, but her mind just couldn’t think about anything else. She could only think about what she had done and the kind of situation Sunny was in now. Even if she tried to argue in her head that Sunny should have spoken up about his condition, or heck, said anything at all that wasn’t just ‘Sorry’ after he made mistake after mistake during practice, she just couldn’t let herself accept that. No matter what route her mind drove on, she always landed to the conclusion that his position was at least, somewhat, her fault. And just repeating that statement in her head was like mental torture for Mari. Throughout her life, she never once wanted to imagine hurting her little brother in such a way, whether directly or indirectly. But now that she was in a position where she felt she was responsible for Sunny’s pain, even if only part of it was her accidental doing, she felt broken and gross. Like she had done something on the same level of potential murder.

And now that Hero was asking her that question, every fiber of her being wanted to immediately interject and just yell out ‘No.’ There wasn’t a single iota of logic in Mari’s head that wished for her to willingly discuss the specifics of how Sunny’s practice went and how it all led up to that tragic scene behind closed curtains. But at the same time, Mari didn’t want to ignore the topic altogether. She knew, as much as it would pain her to explain this all to Hero, it was something she likely needed to do. And if there was anyone who she felt she could rely on to talk this through with her, it was the guy who seemed to always make time for her. God, that was just one of many things she loved about Hero.

Swiftly changing her perspective of thinking, Mari leaned over as the two prolonged their seat at one of the park’s many benches. “I-I just… I don’t know where to start… um… i-it’s just-”

“Hey, it’s fine, we can take it slow…” Hero glanced to the side as he tried to think of a good addition to his previous sentence. “Um… I-I know I don’t know much about… what happened before the recital, so… maybe you can start with… telling me about, uh… when you two were doing your practice sessions?”

Even that was going a bit too fast for Mari’s liking, though she supposed that was the best way to start her confession of essentially neglecting her brother’s mental and physical health, leading to his hospitalization. “W-Well… at first, Sunny and I were doing, um… okay. I-I had already gotten my part down perfectly, it was Sunny who still needed to practice the violin, and then…” Mari paused for a brief second as she stared at her twiddling thumbs. “Well, practice his portion of the song.”

“Mhm…” Hero nodded as he allowed her to go on.

“...I just feel like… when he was finally starting to play the song, th-that was the point where he was good enough to play it without making… mistakes…” Mari slowed down as she began to breathe more rapidly as her sentence proceeded further and further. Hero looked on anxiously as some things started to make more sense to him. So, Mari was instilling her perfectionist viewing onto Sunny? Well… that would certainly explain the tidbit about them potentially getting into an argument the night of the recital. With the show being so close and Sunny allegedly still making mistakes under Mari’s watch, with that kind of ideology embedded onto Mari, that could surely cause some ruckus amidst the siblings. But obviously, that wasn’t all that had to do with Sunny’s accident after they performed. Pure exhaustion didn’t do him in; it was a combination of that, plus Hero had heard about Sunny’s hands being in horrible condition by the time he had finished playing. Unless he was mistaken, that was probably due to the excess level of violin playing Sunny had been subjected to, and that wasn’t something that merely happened over the course of just one day. This was probably an ongoing thing that somehow slipped under Mari’s radar.

“Well…” Hero started before looking towards Mari. “I, uh… heard that Sunny’s hands had to be bandaged when he… went to the hospital.”

Hearing him say that made Mari squirm in her spot on the bench. Judging from her reaction to that statement, Hero could only garner one of two possibilities from her reaction; either that prospect of things really did bother her that much, or maybe she did know for some time, though he didn’t want to jump on the bandwagon that was the latter possibility just yet. After all, Hero only wanted to understand the situation at large and use that knowledge to help Mari out.

“Mari… did… you know about, um… Sunny’s… condition? While you were playing?” Hero asked that question slowly and cautiously, though with his valiant effort, it still wasn’t enough to stop the waterfalls that were Mari’s eyes from suddenly flooding out.

With hushed croaks, Mari coughed out, “N-No! I… I don’t know how or why I never noticed! S-Sunny… never said anything about it, but I was in the same room as him almost every… single… day since we started practicing! There was… there was no reason for me not to have seen it!”

Hero looked on nervously towards the sobbing Mari and he holstered her up carefully as he answered, “Hey, hey, it’s okay… it was… a complicated situation, it seems. I mean…” Hero looked ahead of him as he continued, “If he never complained about it to you, it must not have been that bad at the time, right?”

The long-haired girl wiped the plethora of tears still lingering on her cheeks. As much as she would like to take that theory into stride, she couldn’t just for the simple fact that she knew Sunny. She knew that, even if it was causing him a load of pain and agony, that he would endure it for his friends and for his big sister. And she was so caught up in trying to get him to play well for the recital that she never even took notice of the fact that his hands were getting redder and redder by the day.

Regardless of her train of thought, he knew now, and she didn’t know how much of this conversation her brain could handle before malfunctioning and shutting down right before Hero, and god forbid that happened to them both right now. With a sniffle, Mari simply replied quietly, “Yeah… m-maybe…” Though regret was still plastered on her face, it was one Hero still didn’t wish to see on the girl of his dreams. “I just… don’t think I wanna talk about it anymore… I’m sorry.”

Nervously laughing, Hero said, “N-No, no, don’t be sorry, Mari!” Though the messy-haired boy’s initial plan of comforting Mari was initially in vain, judging from her rather disgruntled reaction as he ushered that, she couldn’t help herself to be even the slightest upset towards him. After all, if she started being begrudgingly mad towards people now, she wouldn’t hear the end of it. Hero then added, “U-Um, let’s focus on, uh… something else. Like…” Hero’s eyes found themselves hurriedly scurrying the outskirts of the park, looking for anything that could serve as a potential distraction for their minds. After a few seconds of frantic searching, Hero locked onto the sight of the plaza in the distance. In all honesty, the park was the kind of place to put yourself in to let your mind roam free, but the Faraway Plaza? If you needed a few hours to get your mind off of things there, that was the place to go. “Um… how about we go to the plaza instead, Mari? Take some time to decompress from things… we can go to Hobbeez and then maybe we can go to Gino’s for lunch in a little while?

As much as Mari didn’t want to just… ignore the elephant in the room, there was a biting force behind her neck that was enthralling her to go for it. She never wanted to waste opportunities to spend time with Hero, and plus, she hadn’t been to the plaza in a good while, perhaps she could use this time to catch up to what has been happening around the area and chat to some of the folk around. Although large chunks of her soul felt guilty about not pondering on this for long, a little distraction wouldn’t hurt too much, right? She’d only be here for a few hours, that’s all.

“Okay…” Mari softly replied as her head nodded slowly. She looked over towards Hero as she gave him a warm smile. The kind that made the boy flare up in an instant. However, Mari was too interested in thinking about the matters of what she was to do to realize the red swelling up at the tips of Hero’s ears. The older Rodriguez brother thought constantly to himself, ‘ Man… what would I be able to do to get together with Mari once and for all?... If only… ’

***

After a lengthy session of comfort amidst one another, both Sunny and Aubrey had finally let go of their embrace and sat beside each other for a while. No thinking about the consequences of the actions that were made over the course of the past month, no overbearing revelations or considerations to take into effect on their minds, just the two of them letting their minds be free of the stresses that were plaguing their subconscious. And the two couldn’t be happier with that outcome… especially since they were together to do this.

In spite of their silent joy being near each other, the bowtied girl couldn’t help herself but to lean towards the stoic-faced boy and ask, “Hey, Sunny… are you feeling better now?” Then, as soon as she made her question known, in a way, she immediately felt a bit guilty. Obviously, she had hoped that her discussing this to Sunny made his nerves drop a little. After all, she always felt better just talking about her problems to him whenever she did. But she had never actually been Sunny’s shoulder to lean on before, so the same way that she could be calmed down didn’t instantly apply to Sunny as well.

“Huh? O-Oh…” Sunny stammered as he looked towards her with a surprised expression. It seemed perhaps amidst his tranquil he had begun to daydream or just zone out a bit. He tends to do that whenever there isn’t much going around or when his brain isn’t very preoccupied, so… pretty much anytime during school. Aubrey was one of the few people who didn’t mind it though; Kel thought it was weird and both Hero and Mari thought it was a bit worrying how, in spite of the raven-haired boy’s clear intelligence, how he was distracted so easily if his attention wasn’t being constantly used. And Basil… well, usually he was the one to snap Sunny out of it whenever it was time to leave the classroom (sometimes he would miss the bell and keep daydreaming even after everyone had left). But Aubrey never made any mention of it to him, mostly because she thought it was kinda cute whenever he did that. She honestly had no idea why, but seeing him sit there and let his mind run rampant, knowing that he was concocting some sort of grand system in his mind was, in a way, inspiring to her. She thought it was weird for her to think that, if anything.

Sunny looked onward into Aubrey’s eyes as he continued, “Uh, yeah… I’m, uh… doing fine now. And… you?” Sunny reciprocated the question onto Aubrey, which she really shouldn’t be surprised by, but it seemed to for whatever reason. Maybe all of her thinking of the black-haired boy was starting to get to her mental training.

“Oh, um… yeah! I’m… doing okay…” Aubrey glanced towards the side, trying with all her might not to fluster up a rose of red on her cheeks, though she wasn’t sure how good of a job she was doing. It must have been a decent enough job seeing as Sunny didn’t mind mentioning it to the girl.

As if on cue, the sudden knocking of Sunny’s room door filled the room, causing the two kids to jerk their heads to the door’s direction. As Sunny listened on, he heard a voice calling out, “Sunny, it’s your father! Just wanted to drop by and see how you were doing! Can we come in, kid?”

Oh, looks like Sunny’s dad had arrived. He was a bit too distracted by Aubrey’s presence that he had ignored the possibility of his parents coming over to visit him. Though they may think it strange to come in here and see Aubrey in there with him, Sunny figured that since they already knew of him having talk sessions with Aubrey at the playground that he could just say Aubrey came to visit him and that he was just catching the bowtied girl on all that had happened.

With a small inhale, Sunny responded with a louder voice than before, “Y-Yeah, dad, that’s fine.”

The white, chalky door was opened wide open, and inside came both Mr. Suzuki and Mrs. Suzuki respectively. As the two waltzed inside, they immediately noticed the sight of Aubrey sitting on the bed just beside Sunny. Though the mother’s initial thoughts could only be that of just commenting on how cute the two looked together, her mentality fought off every urge to say that, and she wasn’t about to embarrass her son now. That was, perhaps, the very last thing he needed right now.

“Oh, hello Aubrey,” The mother of the household instead opted on saying. “I wasn’t expecting you to be here.”

“Hi Mrs. Suzuki…” Aubrey greeted with a passionate smile. “Sorry, I just wanted to come visit Sunny and make sure he was doing fine…” She looked towards Sunny as he gave a small nod in confirmation. Looks like his train of thought on needing to explain what Aubrey was doing in his room wasn’t required after all. Aubrey was likely to do all the explaining for him. Which honestly was a good thing; from all the talk he was ensuing telling Aubrey about the practicing he and Mari did together leading up to the recital, his voice still needed time to recover from that. He wasn’t used to talking so consistently and adamantly, even if just for a few minutes.

Nodding his head, the father of the Suzuki family responded, “I see. Well, it was very nice of you to drop by and see your friend, kid.” He approached the two kids as they both looked onward towards Sunny’s dad. He then turned towards his son as he added, “Unfortunately, son, your mother and I can’t stay long. We need to go to OtherMart and get groceries. Normally, your sister would come with us, but… as I’m sure you know, she wasn’t feeling up to it today…”

So it seemed that Mari’s solemness towards her brother last night was not an isolated incident. Although Sunny still felt like he wouldn’t be able to come to terms with Mari over all of this for a bit longer yet, he still felt a bit bad that his reaction towards her may have caused some self-rooted sadness into her being, which wasn’t inherently what Sunny was trying to cause.

The boy looked downward as he sighed slowly, “I-I’m sorry… I… wasn’t… trying to make Mari… feel bad yesterday…” Sunny remained quiet for some time so as to not use his voice too much after having utilized it to great effect when he was talking with Aubrey just a few minutes ago. As the other individuals residing within the room continued to look onwards at Sunny, he felt an almost tense pressure fill up the air. Whether it was really there or if it was just his mind trying to fill in the gaps remained unknown to him for now, but it was a feeling he really didn’t like.

Sighing heavily, his father answered, “Don’t stress about it, Sunny… Mari probably thinks that she’s responsible for all this… it’s just her looking out for you, you know?” As Sunny’s dad made his answer, he felt something twist in his heart. Sunny kept repeating this mantra in his head that he didn’t want to make it feel like Mari was solely to blame, that he was also responsible for what had happened to him. All he had to do was speak up, have done anything , and maybe things wouldn’t have quite turned out this way? So why was it whenever he was told differently did one of his nerves just get pulled out? It bothered him to such a severe degree, but he had no idea why. But nonetheless, Sunny subsided those feelings for now. He didn’t want to relinquish that side of himself in front of his parents.

“But in any case, we can’t hover here for much longer. We oughta get back into town and get these errands done.” Mr. Suzuki explained to his son as he slowly approached him. As soon as he leaned towards him, his tone lowered a hair as he added, “Just hang in there, kid… you did great out there.” Hearing that from his father made Sunny, for even just a split second, feel a bit of accomplishment within himself. He understood that although that recital put him into this spot, it wasn’t all fruitless. He not only showed himself that he would be able to persevere through trial, even if it meant pushing himself to his limit, much as it hurt, but it also accomplished something Mari had been nagging at him about ever since their first practice session. They made their friends and family proud through their performance, even if the outcome wasn’t as pleasant.

But seeing that both of their visions had been completed almost made it worth it.

Mrs. Suzuki glanced towards Aubrey, who was mostly just observing the conversation as a bystander at this point. “Aubrey, dear, would you like us to drop you off at home?” Her question was like a smooth butter on Aubrey’s ears, though that didn’t stop the girl from flicking her head to the direction of Sunny’s mother with a bit of a shocked face to boot. “If Sunny needs to spend some time alone and get rested, we’d have no problem dropping you off at your house before we go off.”

The bowtied girl took a quick look towards the raven-haired boy with somewhat of a disappointed face. Initially, she didn’t want to seem like she’d be upset to be leaving Sunny; if he needed his space, she was more than happy to give him that. But she also didn’t want to give off the impression that she was itching to get away from his presence, especially if he actually did still want her around. So after a couple seconds of staring, she slowly approached Sunny and glanced towards him.

“I-I’m not sure… Sunny, do… you need me to leave now? I’ve… got no problem if you wanna be alone for right now…” Aubrey questioned him, making sure to watch her wording to ensure she wasn’t wanting to hover over him like some kind of hawk, whilst also not giving the illusion that she was trying to get away. As Aubrey eagerly awaited an answer, all of them looked on towards the boy as he sat down in thought, pondering on what he really wanted to do for himself at this moment. After a bit of time, he finally lifted his head up a smidge and laid his eyes onto Aubrey’s.

With a soft sigh, he responded, “I, uh… i-if you’d like to, Aubrey… I would… want you to hang out for… just a lil’ bit…” Sunny’s voice seemed a bit dry and soft, though once more, that was mostly to due with the fact that he just wasn’t used to utilizing it to the extent that he did when he was talking to Aubrey with such vigor beforehand. After Sunny made his response, Aubrey’s somewhat solemn expression warped into a more cheerful smile as she gave a swift nod towards Sunny.

“Sure! I don’t mind…” Aubrey’s optimistic view on even rather gloomy predicaments such as this at times was what made her a joy to have around. Both of the Suzuki parents looked onward, both expressing some warm stares at the two before the husband of the group chimed in.

“Uh, Aubrey, will you be okay when you do leave? Will you have a ride to get back home?” As Mr. Suzuki asked his question, Aubrey turned her head to face him curiously. When he finished, the upbeat girl merely presented another grin towards the two parents and she found her whole body facing them both.

“Oh, I’ll be fine! I got here by walking, and I don’t have a problem walking back! My house is a bit closer to the hospital after all, so it’ll be good!”

With a conclusive puff in his midst, Mr. Suzuki proclaimed proudly, “Well, I’m glad we got to see you again, kid. It looks like at this rate, you may be able to come back home tomorrow, but let’s not hold our breath! We’ll see what the doctor says later.”

His wife added, “Make sure to take care, sweetie, and don’t move around too much. And get plenty of rest!” As Sunny’s mother began to ramble on on rather simplistic requests to instill onto the boy, he thought about rolling his eyes at her remarks before refusing to initiate on those actions within his mind.

He simply gave out a silent sigh before responding, “Okay, mom… see you later.”

As his parents left the room, a swift wind of quietness suddenly invigorated the room. Noticing this shortly, Aubrey cleared her throat adamantly and announced, “Well, it was nice to see your parents again! I’m glad that they care about you…” Aubrey’s remark was initially intended to be a well-meaning message for Sunny, but her mind eventually trailed off into the hellscape that was Aubrey’s home life. Aubrey had… a very, very rough relationship with her parents back home. Both of them were rather neglectful, and she often found herself doing things to her own accord that she usually thought her parents were supposed to be responsible for. Not to mention that her father was almost never home and that he was always busy with his robotics and engineering. Very rarely was he seen by anyone outside of his work. And then her mother, who was… a whole other beast.

Aubrey’s mother was very neglectful in her own special way. When she wasn’t getting herself into alcohol like a giant mole, she was very rash and rude towards Aubrey, even if unintentionally so at times. It wasn’t always this way with her mother, though; it was mostly her father’s fault, and it had to do with his sudden infatuation with constantly being at his job all the time . Since then, which happened about a few years ago, the relationship between her two parents was hanging on by a loose thread, if any at all, and this only extended to their relationship between their daughter too. At the very, very least, Aubrey would overhear some specifics on her father’s engineering work in the rare instances he did show himself at home. Though some of it wasn’t all that fascinating and a good chunk of it just seemed like mumbo jumbo to Aubrey. She did collect a few interesting things about his work, but she never saw herself using it to great effect.

Before her mind could go on any further, she felt a soft voice call out her name, courtesy to that of the black-haired boy sitting just beside her on the bed. Suddenly flustered, Aubrey quickly quelled the rapidly growing redness that was swarming across her cheeks as she looked towards Sunny with a surprised expression. Looks like she was the one daydreaming this time… normally she didn’t get caught with her guard down like this, but that just goes to show how much she trusts acting like, well… herself, around Sunny. And not hiding stuff in her own life around him. She really did feel like he was the only one she could trust with anything. Sure, Mari was a great sister figure to her, but something about Sunny’s relationship with her just felt… unique, and dynamic. Like what they had was one of a kind. It maybe, potentially, could have something to do with the fact that she has a crush on him but seeing as Sunny plays along with it, that couldn’t be the only logical explanation, right?

Regardless, Aubrey swiftly gathered her bearings and responded, “Oh, sorry Sunny, I was just… thinking about… stuff…” Aubrey lowered her head down again as she thought about another potential sentence to add to the one she just put out. Sunny himself was pondering on what he could respond with, but decided not to say anything else for the time being. Finally, Aubrey decided to switch topics on the matter, knowing that a venting session about her home life was probably not what the boy needed right now. She heaved herself up and said, “Sorry that there really isn’t anything for us to do in here… I didn’t bring anything with me. I, urh… wasn’t really expecting to be staying here all that long.”

“‘S fine…” Sunny monotonously stated as his eyes danced around the blank, white room, thinking of something that he or Aubrey could do for a bit to pass the time before she returned to her home. As he thought to himself what the two could do to spend their time, Aubrey suddenly made a loud gasp as she hopped up excitedly and turned towards Sunny.

She almost lunged towards the raven-haired boy and she cried out, “Wait, I know! The newest edition of Captain Spaceboy came out last week! I-I’m… assuming that with your recital practice you didn’t get a chance to read it, but I bought it and maybe I could… bring it over and we could read it together?” Aubrey’s suggestion was rather enticing, if not a bit startling given how quickly she turned towards Sunny on the prospect. But was she really willing to go all the way back home and then come back all the way here just so they had something to do? Maybe there was something else that they could do around the room. Man, if only this hospital room had a television… that's just cruel.

“U-Um… are you… really okay with that, Aubrey? Going back home and… getting that just… for me?” Sunny questioned in a shy, yet still soft and smooth voice. It seems that not using his voice as frequently this time is beginning to benefit his vocal chords.

“Yeah! Of course I don’t mind! It’s not like I’m doing anything else anyways, hehe…” Aubrey giggled in response as Sunny looked around the room one last time to see if there was anything else they could use to entertain themselves. And after a swift, yet thorough investigation of the premises, it would appear that any signs of such turned up negative for the boy. Well, at least with him being truly alone for around half an hour or so, waiting for Aubrey to get back, there’d be no real need to use his voice for anything, so he’d let it recover to an even greater extent than before.

Though, thinking on that, his voice becoming dry and croaky that quickly is probably something he should work on in the future.

Nodding slowly, Sunny responded, “Okay… you can do that.”

“Alright, be back in a jiffy!” The bowtied girl hopped out of the room and sped her way through the building as fast as she could in order to get back home, though not before a member of staff commanded the girl not to run in the hospital in such a hurried demeanor.

Now that the waiting game began, Sunny let his head rest atop the comfortable pillow below him and let his mind run rampant on whatever crazy scenario he could come up with. One of the good things about being hospitalized like this is that nobody can interrupt your wacky daydreaming… not to say being hospitalized in of itself was good, but it was an unintended benefit, nonetheless…

***

“Wow… turns out Hobbeez hasn’t really changed much since last time I came in here…”

It had been months since the piano playing girl had visited the indie shop known only by name as Hobbeez. Their catalogue of merch was always changing, yet somehow the place never really felt like it was… different, even after all of its years of business. Though a few new sets of vintage books, CDs and figurines were all notable changes, that was about the extent of it, and plus, none of those really struck Mari’s hyperfixation. Where her interests lay was in a particular subsection of the shop that Mari always frequented whenever she was inside…

As she slid herself towards the comic book aisle, hurriedly scurrying her eyes throughout all the different titles, it was when she caught her vision on a particular name that she had grown to love and adore. The only unfortunate thing was that all of the Captain Spaceboy comics that were in this collection were all editions she had already read several times. With a groan of disappointment, she slumped herself on the comfortable floor of the building as her eyes slowly crept across the remaining books on the far left side of the stand…

Until she found a book she hadn’t read yet.

Instantly snatching it from its spot, her eyes flickered across the title page as she witnessed an edition of the beloved Captain Spaceboy series that she hadn’t actually seen yet. No doubt about it; this was new and unmarked territory for the girl. She had been waiting for a new edition of the series for quite some time, and getting her hands on such a thing was like euphoria for her.

“They made a new edition! Finally!” Mari screeched with excitement as Hero ran over to see what Mari was getting herself into. Unsurprisingly, Mari was hyperfixating over a new edition of Captain Spaceboy at the comic books section of Hobbeez. In spite of him not being a fan of comics himself, he did like that even Mari, who seemed to be as busy and studious as she was, could have interests as, well… let’s just say nonchalant to him as that. Though it didn’t exactly strike him as privy that the Captain Spaceboy editions were the only thing that people were talking about at school since it started. Guess Basil was right in his premonition after all.

“Yeah, they made a new one last week, I think…” Hero pointed out as Mari investigated every detail on just the front page itself. Was it safe for her eyes to be that close to the paper? “I’d know since Kel told me… obviously, you know how he’s big on that stuff as well…”

Suddenly, Mari’s hands slumped down as her invigorated and enticed face slowly crouched into a look of retrospection and pondering. “Wow… is there anything else I missed since school started?” Mari felt the idea to be a bit silly to her, but this was something that hadn’t quite hit her until now. She was missing out on so much, and how was she to know on what those things were? She had hardly seen any of her friends since school revved back up and recital practice and extracurricular classes had only dragged her attention away from them for nearly a month and a half straight. Not to mention getting Sunny involved in the recital practically negated any chance of him updating her on what was happening outside of, well… school and work, essentially. Seeing as the only thing that was on their mind was that performance when they were practicing together, there was never a good time to get Mari caught up. So that’s now making her think… she didn’t miss out on a slew of things outside of just… a new issue for a comic book series she had been actively anticipating for beforehand, right?

Hero was seen stuffing his hands into his pockets as he answered, “Not too much… especially not around the plaza. It’s all kinda the same, you know?” Hero’s nonchalant comment on the matter made Mari’s heart rise just a tad, though the thought of missing out on other things remained ringing in her head. “Anyways, are you just gonna look around the comics section?” Hero’s attempt at a tease would have maybe gotten Mari a couple of years back when she was younger, but her mindset had since grown to become immune to such remarks. The long-haired girl slowly turned her head to face the messy-haired boy, a mischievous smile growing on her face.

“At least I have something to look at… you don’t look at anything around here. That’s kinda boring, dontcha think?” Mari’s snarky comment was met with a nervous laugh from Hero as he glanced to the side in an attempt to divert eye contact with the girl he was in love with.

“W-Well, uh… I’m just not into the same kinds of things you guys are… I’m just messing, there’s nothing wrong with that…” Hero directed his vision right back towards the piano playing girl quickly, though, insisting upon himself that he couldn’t be denied access to looking at her for very long. “I… was genuinely curious, though. I’m just… starting to get a bit hungry is all.”

Mari looked over towards Hero with a startled face as she frantically replied, “Aha, yes. I won’t take too much longer to look around. I usually only look through the comics anyway…” As Mari made her response, Hero nodded nonchalantly and allowed for her to wrap up on her spectating of the new issue. After a few minutes, Mari made the ultimate (though certainly not surprising) decision of purchasing the copy of the issue for herself. The two teenagers strolled towards the desk of the shopkeeper as they witnessed him slide on over to the both of them with a polished grin to fare.

“Hey there, Hero… how’s it been lately?” The Shopkeep greeted with an upbeat tone. Hero waved slowly as he made his signature smile towards the shop owner.

“Hi Shopkeep… long time no see. Sorry that we haven’t visited lately… we’ve all been kinda getting busy with our own things…” Hero’s eyes drifted to the side. Mari wasn’t the only one who had decided to take extracurricular classes in preparation for college. It just so happened that the other elder member of the friend group decided to take part in such courses as well. Since Hero was, naturally, no longer home as much, that meant that a lot of the chores and favors that he often was asked to help with around the home eventually landed on Kel. And though the young boy initially despised the sudden lift of work he needed to depart, he soon found himself going through it without as much as a complaint being befuddled out of his mouth. Though that was in most part because it gave him something to do. Hero did see that as a good thing, though; with that kind of experience under Kel’s belt, he’ll hopefully start to become a more civilized member of society in no time, seeing as, well… with the way his attitude bumped heads with others around town beforehand, he wasn’t exactly a very classy individual.

The Shopkeep nodded right before responding, “It’s no problem at all. Life stuff happens, you know?” As Hero laughed nervously in agreement, the Shopkeep’s head tilted a bit just beside Hero, where he noticed Mari standing with a smile in tow. “Oh, hey there, uh… Mari’s the name, right? Been a long time since I’ve seen your face around!”

“Yeah, I’ve been busy ever since school started… Hero and I have both been taking extra classes for college and then…” Mari’s head shifted to the side as her eyes diverted away from the Shopkeep for a bit. “U-Um… my brother and I practiced for a recital for, uh… some time.”

Snapping his fingers, the Shopkeep bursted out, “Oh, that’s right! That was your guys’ recital!” He exclaimed proudly as he scratched the back of his neck. “I wasn’t there myself, but I had some buddies who attended it and told me that it was quite the stellar performance…” The Shopkeep cracked his knuckles as he scanned Mari’s Captain Spaceboy edition before going on, “Alright, that will be two ninety nine! Captain Spaceboy is a classic pick, if I do say so myself.”

After the transaction was completed and both Hero and Mari waved to the Shopkeep farewell, the two went on their way over to Gino’s for some lunch. Although the overall visit to the establishment was peaceful enough, and the two were able to enjoy the eatery without any major conversations regarding the recital or any of the circumstances relating to Sunny and his sister… Mari still couldn’t shake that nagging feeling that being here right now and trying to run away from the mess that was the aftermath of the recital was cruel of her. She didn’t want to make herself feel miserable, especially not when Hero was around, but what of her brother’s feelings and what he was going through? Didn’t his pain matter to her? Those were the questions that Mari had been nudging within her head as she and Hero ate at Gino’s, and though Hero knew that Mari was still feeling awful about the whole ordeal, he made an active attempt to drive her thought process away from the situation.

Of course, all of his efforts pretty much fell flat.

Once the two were done with their meal was when Mari made a suggestion for the two to head back to the Faraway Park. Although she and Hero had both spotted the former’s parents walking into OtherMart just after they exited Gino’s, Mari made a statement towards him stating she wanted to spend time with him alone and not get intervened by the potentially pesky parents. Though Hero was originally convinced, he soon started to doubt her initial judgement as the two came rather eerily close to a particular area of the park that Mari had long since ceased heading towards after a certain incident arose there.

After the two drifted away from the general crowd in the park was when Hero made a deep sigh and questioned the long-haired girl, “Alright, Mari… fess up, what are we doing… around here?” Hero asked the girl, who now seemed to dawn a rather guilty face. But with the way things were currently going, she felt like a true sense of being apart from everybody else may be what’s good for her. She’s accepted that she can’t truly run away from this predicament and be peaceful for the day… her heart would not allow that for her. But what she could do is try to come to terms with what had happened if she went against it in a more direct means in her mind. And she had a plan on how she could do that.

“I want us to head over to the hangout spot.”

Hero’s face dropped instantaneously as soon as Mari ushered that phrase. Hero took a cautious step back as he whispered out, “What? Mari, what… what are you talking about?” Hero shuddered to even let Mari take one step into their old hangout spot, and that was for one very good reason. Many, many months ago, while the gang was all hanging around the area, both Kel and Hero had decided to partake in some harmless fun. Taking advantage of the lake area at the spot, and using the small statue located at its center as a diving board, the Rodriguez brothers took turns jumping into the water and repeating the cycle.

That was, until the two suddenly decided to ask Sunny if they wanted to join them both.

After much begging, the young boy eventually agreed to join Hero and Kel. As Sunny made his way onto the top of the statue, he was eventually startled by a small spider that had crawled onto him. After losing all sense of self, Sunny fell right into the lake, much to the horror of both Kel and Hero, and as they stood for a second to watch the boy flail his arms and swiftly sink down, the two were stunned for a moment on what they had just witnessed. Once revitalization had struck them both, the older Rodriguez brother was about to hop in to save the drowning Sunny, but a swift entity suddenly dove into the water at lightspeed before he could even get into the water. As it hopped right in front of him and Hero was left stunned, he and Kel both looked on as they witnessed Mari pop her head up from the water, taking a giant breath of air as she hurriedly swam back onto land, carrying in her arms a barely conscious Sunny. After some time, the boy was able to lift his eyes and see that, in spite of the near-death experience that he had just gone through, that it was not yet his time. Not so soon.

Mari could only wrap her brother in her arms and sob on the boy, grateful that she was not too late to have saved him from such a cruel fate. And from that day onward, she had sworn to herself, and the other friends, that they weren’t to return to this place ever again. Not after the tragedy that had occurred.

“After what happened… I-I thought you-”

“I know…” Mari said coldly as her head was fixated onto the direction of their old hangout spot. She hadn’t been there in roughly half a year, but she was certain with how well-hidden it was (she was quizzical on how Kel even found out about it in the first place) that it likely wasn’t much different than it was last time she was there. And frankly, that could either be a blessing or a curse. Either way, Mari believed that engulfing herself in that environment would allow her to garner her feelings in full. “But… I think it would be good for me to… reflect in another place where Sunny was… badly hurt.”

Hero didn’t quite like the idea, however. He hurriedly ran to Mari before crying out, “Wait, Mari, hold on! I don’t know about this… won’t being there… do more harm than good? Y-You know that Sunny almost drow-”

“Yes, I know!” Mari’s tone and volume clicked up a few antes before she retracted herself from Hero’s presence and immediately quieted herself down. “I’m sorry… but… I-I think… I need to… let myself… think about this… I-I tried distracting myself, but it’s just not working… I’m sorry…” Mari’s sentence that was ushered in-between gasps of tear-jerked wallows made Hero look down onto Mari with a heavy heart. As much as he hated to admit it, it did seem that his initial plan of just distracting her simply wasn’t working. She cared about Sunny’s well-being too much to put this to rest, even if just for a little while. It kept bubbling back into her system, even if it seemed to finally have quelled down. Well, if Mari was going to do this, Hero wanted to be sure that she didn’t do it alone.

As he made a cautious exhale, Hero stated, “Alright… but I’m staying with you… I think I should… be there too…” As Hero made a slight nod towards the girl, she reciprocated the action as the two of them looked onward onto the slim entrance of the hangout spot. As they both bypassed a maraud of trees, they entered upon a line of traffic cones sloppily attempting to block their way, which they waltzed by with no issue, and gazed upon their old hangout spot. Just as Mari had predicted, it hadn’t changed much, if any at all.

She observed onwards as the trees perfectly caught enough sun to not be within the confines of this place a heated nightmare, but just enough so that the bright yellow orb could still dawn its light onto the area below it. The lake was as pristine and mystifying to observe as ever, even in spite of it being the sight of the sole reason why Mari and her friends stopped coming here. And of course, the lavish mass of green where picnics were spent here luxuring about and enjoying the simplicities of life without a care in the world. With all that had gone down here, it was a rather beautiful spot to be at. Had it not been for that tragic day here, then there was a good chance that the friend group would still frequent this spot.

However, Mari didn’t have time to be relishing on the good old times. She could daydream about all of that on another date. Instead, the Suzuki sister slowly waltzed over to the bridge that laid just above the body of water that almost took her brother’s life. If she could, Mari would have struck the water with all the power she could muster in her body, but seeing as it was a liquid and therefore could not have been dealt any damage from Mari’s attack, she refused to do such. Her eyes remained fixated on the wavy texture of the teal blue water, vividly recalling the sight of her young brother being swiftly pushed into the encompass of the lake. The moment she noticed his presence, she instantly made her move and ran like hell. Her knee, in spite of pleading her to stop, had to endure her rapid speed as she lunged upward and made her maneuver to save Sunny. In spite of the aching pain that was her knee, it was worth it to have her little brother safe in her arms at the end of the day.

She would never forget that day. Not now, not in a year, not ever. It was an important memory to her, because it was a testament that, in spite of all this time, she was willing to make true of the promise she made to Sunny years and years ago. That she would protect him no matter what, that regardless of what came their way, she’d be there to see it through with him, and to keep him safe. Which only made his current situation that much more of a heavy hitter to Mari now.

It was true that this was likely just another weight of many being added to Mari’s chest. This was likely a means to Mari only feeling more guilt over the incident that occurred at the recital. Mari had caused much unintentional harm, but just because she didn’t mean to didn’t mean that she was devoid of consequence. She was Sunny’s sister, and it should have been her duty to watch over him and ensure that he was safe and healthy, as any sister should.

But she did anything but this past month.

She regretted looking back at it now. How did she never notice any of the signs of Sunny’s fatigue? Of his health deteriorating? Not once throughout all that time of them performing together did she even make an effort to even gaze at Sunny for him as a person. The only thing that Mari had seen in him throughout that time of them practicing was… a tool. A tool that she believed for so long would be the thing to get in her way and ruin her perfect moment. That mentality that she had instilled into her brain for such a prolonged period of time had now sickened Mari to her core. How could she have let herself be submerged into such a nasty set of mind when she was letting Sunny suffer? And yes, it’s true he never spoke up. It would have been so easy for him to have stated something on the matter; that his hands had enough, that he was just so tired. Had he done that sooner, Mari would have realized then… right?

But… would she have really done that? It was, in a way, clear that Sunny was beginning to grow weary of the constant playing. His mood was stoic, if not depressing, and that wasn’t something she needed to see him to understand. It filled the very air they breathe whenever they practiced during their sessions. But she never batted an eye. If she was willing to let him sit there and be upset throughout the entire session without so much as acknowledging his mental well-being… who’s to say she would have stopped at Sunny making remarks of his hands suddenly aching in pain. Would she really have pulled the plug then? Or would she have kept the show going with that knowledge in mind?

It’s done now, though. There’s nothing that Mari can do that can change that. She enabled this cycle of misery for Sunny to perpetuate, and now this was forever going to be part of their history. But… in spite of all of that, she knew she wasn’t destined to be defined by this. This very lake that she was standing in front of was proof that she could do better. She was better than the neglectful piano player that she had so nonchalantly transformed into over the course of that month and a half. Remembering the memory of the day Sunny nearly lost his life was indeed tragic, and painful for her to remember, but it was also a slicing reminder that the mistake she made now did not define who she was. And it was proof that she was capable of making it up to her brother and everyone else.

And that was what she was content with doing. Though she didn’t feel much better over knowing that she was still responsible for Sunny being hospitalized for the time being, she had a new goal in mind. And that was to do whatever she could to make things right with her brother. No matter what.

It seemed as if Mari wasn’t the only one who was taking some moments of self-reflection at the old hangout spot. Hero found himself staring at the water’s smooth, almost hypnotic momentum as he too contemplated the events of the day where things nearly went horribly awry here. “I, uh… I don’t know if I’ve ever said this, but… I’m sorry, Mari. I really am.” Hero’s head shuffled down as he kept his eyes staring only at the water, and his head never even paid any mind towards Mari as the girl walked over to Hero.

“What do you mean? What are you sorry for, Hero?” Mari’s concerned tone struck a rather painful nerve within Hero’s skin, but in spite of the internal cut that he was beginning to investigate after such a long duration of having sealed it shut, he took a deep breath and finally gathered the will to look back at Mari’s face.

With a saddened expression, Hero replied, “I-It was my fault that Sunny fell into that lake… Kel and I… we were both pressuring him to join, we… we just wanted him to join in on the fun we were having… we… we had no idea that was going to…” Hero began to feel the tears coming up from beneath his eyes, though amidst his dire attempts to keep them concealed, he suddenly felt the embrace of someone wrapping their arms around his body, and as the person who he believed to have been in love with for so long tightened her grip on him, Hero couldn’t prevent those tears from dancing down his face any longer.

“It’s just like you said, Hero… you didn’t know. Sometimes… accidents just happen…” Mari could feel herself getting a bit teary-eyed as well, though it was clear of the two that were at the hangout spot currently, she was the one who had more self-control in that moment. “And… we can’t do anything to stop them. So… it’s okay. I forgive you, Hero…” As both Hero and Mari remained in each other’s embrace, not making a move to separate from the other, the thought of never leaving this position was all that the two had embedded in their minds. As it turned out, coming back to this area even after all this time was quite the correct decision on Mari’s part, as Hero had inevitably ended up grappling in his head after his and Mari’s hugging session which lasted for who knows how long.

Then, she caught it for a split second. A flickering afar from where they both stood. Mari’s soft and relaxed eyes suddenly got taken aback and were on alert. Then, she saw it again. It was a rather faint, violet light that she would have definitely noticed before had she not been paying so much attention to both the lake and the cute boy just beside her. Mari’s face dropped from a solemn, yet content smile, to a quizzical and confused look as she tried to observe the precise location of whatever her eyes were picking up on.

Mari slowly pulled herself away from Hero as her head remained focused on whatever glowing light was being emanated far off in the distance. Hero quickly noticed Mari’s action, and after noticing the expression on the girl changing, he questioned towards her, “Uh, Mari… is everything okay?”

“Hero… look over there…” Mari pointed to the direction of the faint glow that her eyes were being positioned towards. Curiously, Hero obliged and turned his head to where Mari was pointing, and he too witnessed the bright purple illuminating faintly. Both Hero and Mari didn’t know what to think of it; what could be producing a light that precariously powerful, yet faint all at once? Glass of some sort? Maybe an item that has since been lost by someone? Who could really say? With a hushed tone, Hero uttered towards the girl right next to him,

“What… is that?”

Chapter Text

It felt like more than just a few seconds to the two. As if time itself had slowed itself down exponentially, both Mari and Hero were left staring at the ominous light for what felt like minutes at a time, unsure of what move to make towards the glimmering. What if something nefarious was lurking down there that was producing such a flare? Was it wise to snoop about the hill in search of the light’s purpose?

At first, Mari was hesitant on descending herself away from this hangout spot and adventuring into uncharted territory. The woods, while being rather calm in the sleepy town of Faraway, were still woods in their own right. There was no telling within the depths of the trees what could be lurking about, and part of her body was stagnating to simply leave it be and not ponder on it any longer.

But something about heading down towards the glimmer felt right to her. She hadn’t the slightest clue why that was, or why her body was constantly conflicting towards itself, but Mari ultimately gave in to the side that ushered her to investigate further. A notion that would not go unsurprised by the boy beside her.

As Mari whispered just beside Hero, “I’m going to check it out,” it was almost immediately met with objection from the messy-haired boy.

“W-Wait, Mari, hold on… do you even know what-” But before Hero was even granted the chance of finishing his sentence, Mari swiftly walked towards the purple light overhead. Hero’s eyes flickered between Mari and her graceful long hair swaying in the wind, and the ominous, yet magnetizing light off in the distance. Hero grunted to himself as he pushed his palm onto his face. Why did something strange have to happen now ? Of all times that an anomaly could’ve stricken them both.

Following Mari now, Hero hurriedly caught up as she slowly descended down the hill, inching closer towards the glistening presence. The source of the strange light became a bit more clear now. Its brightening presence was dwindling with closing distance, and in its place, remained a violet gemstone partially embedded into the ground. Around its clean and crystallic array of purple colors and hues was a dark maroon encasing that seemed to be made of a durable plastic.

Cautiously, Mari reached over to pick up the mysterious piece, much to Hero’s dismay. As Mari’s hand and the gem made contact, around half of the shiny object was burrowed into the ground. However, given the relative cleanliness of the other half sticking up, it must not have been here for that long. Mari lightly pulled up as she grappled her hands around it and successfully plucked it out from the grass from which it was contained in.

Mari slowly lifted the crystalline into the air to gain a better view of the object. Its shine was invigorating and embedded deep into its substance was a maraud of countless hues and mixes of indigos, purples, and pinks.

It enthralled Mari, though she didn’t keep her curiosity up for long. “It seems to be some kind of gemstone… what do you think, Hero?” She questioned as Hero shuffled himself closer towards Mari and kept his gaze fixed onto the gem with all his will.

“I’m, uh… not too sure, Mari. What if this belongs to someone? Maybe they… left it here and will come back later for it?” Hero’s tone was that of utmost uncertainty. He wanted nothing to do to engage with the intriguing object, and part of him was considering snagging it from Mari’s hand and just setting it right back where they found it.

However, curiosity persisted in intriguing Mari as she responded, “Or… maybe it’s down here because someone didn’t want it anymore…” She proceeded to glance over towards Hero, causing him to give her a look of slight confusion before her head flickered back towards the stone and she proceeded, “I mean, think about it… this was just outside of our secret hangout spot, in a coned off area of the woods which we’re technically not even supposed to be in, and, well…” Mari’s logic began to dawn onto Hero, and he couldn’t wrap his head around a counter argument to it. “You really think that someone who lost a shiny, glowing crystal out here wouldn’t have been able to find it like we did?”

It did add up to him. Why else would a gem that seems to have been crafted as a sort of collectible be doing in a place that is very clearly blocked off from the rest of the public eye. It’d be a perfect place to leave an item without throwing it in the trash, seeing as the gem itself appeared to be rather valuable from the looks of things.

But on the other end of the spectrum, something within Hero’s system was just… not clicking about this. He had no idea what it was about this gemstone that was making his gut sink, but he just didn’t like the idea of finding an object like this in the outskirts of the forest. Not so much that he didn’t think that Mari’s logistics were flawed ; her points were valid enough for him when it came to why something like this was where it was. But the source of his uncertainty boiled down to why. It just didn’t make sense for it to be here of all places… unintentional or not.

Nervously, Hero chuckled and ushered, “Uh… l-look, Mari, I do think it's… neat, but…” Hero paused just as Mari gave him a quizzical look. He began to scratch the back of his neck as he seethed to himself before continuing, “...we don’t know what this is. This might be… I dunno… wh-what if it’s dangerous?”

Of course Mari thought of that. It wasn’t like it was every day you find an ordinary gem laying around in your local forest. But there were the ideas of what she could do with it that was what was drawing her in. The minute she laid eyes on it, she was wracking in her head just how much money this thing could possibly be worth. Thousands… tens of thousands. That number could even go up into the hundreds. The possibilities of how she could use money of that amount were overwhelming her senses. She was hard-pressed not to at least figure out how valuable this could be! But she sure as hell knew she wouldn’t find that out by standing around here.

“Listen, Hero…” Mari ushered towards him as he leaned a bit closer. “I know you probably won’t like me saying this, but… I think we should see how much this gem is worth.”

Oh boy, if Hero’s shocked face and sputtering wasn’t an indication of his response, she didn’t know what was. “Mari, I… get… where you’re coming from… okay? But… I really don’t think it’s a good idea bringing some random gemstone that we found in the middle of the woods back with us.” Hero’s eyes dropped lower across the stone as he contemplated the next set of words that he was to usher. “It’s just… what’s ticking me off is… judging by that covering around the edges of it… I think someone modified it.”

Mari looked towards Hero with a confused glare. “Modified it? Like how?”

“Well, it’s just… maybe they just put some covering on it for… extra flare or… something, I-I dunno, but…” Hero cautiously approached Mari a bit closer again, making sure his eyes remained glued to that stone. “...I just don’t know if I trust it… that’s all. That… not knowing what it really is is… not sitting right with me.”

In front of him, he was met with Mari giving him a pensive glare, if not a bit apprehensive. “But Hero… don’t you think this could help us out? This is a huge gem, it’s probably worth at least thousands of dollars. I’m not familiar with the scaling on that but what I do know is that if we use the money that can come from this wisely… we could use it for college, or maybe even put it into savings. Think of it, Hero… we could be set with this.”

“But, Mari-”

“Hero, please … I understand, i-it’s… a random stone that we found in the middle of the woods, but… do you really want to pass this chance up? ”

“Mari, it’s not that I don’t see its value… but we have no idea who left it there. I’m not sure if you should even be touching it.” Hero’s voice was starting to get more intense as his opposition against the odd gemstone was upped.

In response, Mari sighed heavily as she shook her head. Hero could tell, though, in spite of her initial hesitance, that she wasn’t going to try and give it up that easily. Maybe after all that was happening with Sunny, Mari had felt like she found something she could use to help her family, or maybe make it up to them? Even though he felt like that was a bit silly for her to be thinking that way, it wasn’t far-fetched for Mari. If she saw the opportunity to help out, she’d be adamant on going through with it.

Just then, Hero’s mind clicked with an idea that would hopefully get Mari’s back off of the gem for the time being, at least until they knew more about it.

Quickly, Hero choked up, “H-Hold on, Mari, I’ve got an idea… it may sound counterintuitive at first, but… let’s come back to this a bit… later.” Mari initially looked apprehensive to the idea, but then she saw Hero take a slight breath in and allowed for him to continue. “We can… ask my dad about it. Maybe in a few days, but… I would just be more safe knowing that this is… well, safe , you know? And my dad would be able to confirm that for us.”

Mari’s head wavered down as she looked towards the gemstone again. A part of her was telling her that she didn’t want that. What if someone else came before they were able to return here and then nab this for themselves? This could be her only opportunity to grasp a saving like this, and she really didn’t want that to slip from her.

“I know that leaving it here may seem… not ideal, but Mari, think about where we did find it…” Hero raised a curious eyebrow towards her as Mari’s head flicked back towards the boy speaking to her. “You said it yourself… it’s in a closed-off part of the woods, outside of the rest of the park, and if we’re away from it for just a few days… do you really think somebody else would come all the way out here and find it in such a short time?”

Crap nuggets, Hero was starting to make some really good points. Him using her own words against her was something she was starting to spite him for, but then she remembered the boy she’d be fuming over if she kept that mentality up. Nevertheless, the only reason why Mari and Hero even found this thing was because it was an old spot that the friend group used to visit a while back. It wasn’t like she and Hero were trying to be sneaky. They already had history with this place. It was possible that they were the only ones in town who even knew of its existence.

Not only that, but Mari didn’t even consider the possibility that the gem was there for longer than she initially thought. After all, none of them have been to the hangout spot ever since she stopped taking everyone here months and months ago, at least to her knowledge. So this could have wound up here a good while back after the friend group had ceased frequently stopping by here. And seeing as the gem was in pristine condition, safe for the flakes of grass and leaves that were inevitably going to wind up sticking to its exterior, it was safe to assume that it had remained untouched for however long it was seated here for.

And finally, as much as she hated to admit it, Hero did make a point. As much as she just wanted to dismiss the item being a potential hazard, the details of its whereabouts simply didn’t line up at all. Even if someone no longer wanted a valuable and expensive gemstone, which was already very unlikely, why would they just dump it somewhere in the middle of the woods? It didn’t make sense.

She was willing to dismiss that if it meant having a chance to help her family out (the hospital bill for Sunny would definitely not help with her father trying to sustain the household) so she was getting blind-sided by her feeling like she could, in a way, make up for inadvertently causing her brother’s hospitalization in the first place. But with everything else in line, it did just make more sense to wait for a bit and get an adult’s opinion on the matter. It wasn’t like they were gonna lose the house tomorrow if they didn’t nab some serious money immediately.

After a bit more mental contemplation, Mari looked towards Hero with a serious face and nodded, before responding, “Okay, Hero… I’ll do that. But…” She paused right before setting the stone just beside a tree down the hill, near where the two had found it originally. “I do want to come back for this. If it’s possible we can use this to help either of our families in any way, I want to take it.”

“I appreciate that, Mari. But I think we should just make sure it’s okay to bring with us first. I can ask my dad tomorrow and see if we can set up a good time,” Hero responded with a reassuring grin towards Mari. The girl felt her heart warm up a bit as the two locked eyes with one another. She had nearly forgotten why they were here in the first place, getting wrapped up in something as silly as this. Maybe this was a good distraction for just a little while. Especially if it meant getting to be around Hero more. How she missed that feeling of having him by her side.

But the time for distractions was over. She needed to think about how she was going to help Sunny out when he was out of the hospital… whenever that would be.

***

To say that Sunny was content right now would be a major understatement. Although his hands were still barking out in pain from time to time, he was too caught up in Aubrey’s company to pay it any mind. She had brought her copy of the recent Captain Spaceboy issue over to Sunny’s hospital room, and as the two sat down to read it, he couldn’t help himself but to retract his concentration from the book at times.

Sunny always felt a bit… different, whenever he was around Aubrey. At first, his mind wasn’t sure what it was. He believed that it was just because of the way that he and the others found her on the day that they all became friends. However, it wasn’t until that day in the rain when Basil dropped the shell onto Sunny that he figured out what made him feel so warm and content being in Aubrey’s presence.

Yet, in spite of that, Sunny didn’t feel all too much different after coming to terms with the fact that he had been having a crush with one of his friends.

Maybe it was just that Aubrey was unaware, and ignorance is bliss, as they always say, right? Not to insinuate that Sunny never thought about telling her, but he was, in a way, afraid that any mention on the matter could create a disruption in their friendship. If not breach through the kind of relationship that they already had. What they had with one another was already special to him. He did not want to ruin that because of his own selfish feelings.

Meanwhile, Aubrey was having a blast going through the new issue with Sunny. She was enjoying discussing all of the different plot events, relationships, and twists that the creators put into the new chapter. Sunny wasn’t paying attention as much to the details, seeing as he had a lot on his mind already, but he maintained his attention span enough to get a basic idea of all that was going on. Nonetheless, he made an effort to at least be engaging so as to not disappoint her.

Once they were both finished reading, Aubrey swiftly closed the book and gave Sunny a cheery smile. “That was a really good chapter, wasn’t it? I think my favorite part was when Captain Spaceboy flew across that asteroid belt in order to save the Octopus King!...” Aubrey suddenly leaned backward as she let out an excited, yet soft squeal right before finishing, “It was just so cool!”

Nodding slightly towards her, Sunny responded, “Mhm… yeah. I… liked it too.”

Aubrey gave the quiet boy a warm grin as she replied, “I’m really glad you liked it too, Sunny… usually I talk with Mari about this stuff since she really likes Captain Spaceboy, but…” Aubrey had pondered on whether to finish her sentence or not, but seeing as Sunny’s view of Mari was a bit estranged for the time being, she left it alone. “And, well… Kel likes Captain Spaceboy too, but… you probably already know how I feel about him.”

That couldn’t help but give out a slight chuckle from Sunny as Aubrey only continued to look onward towards him. She couldn’t believe that even in spite of all that had transpired to him, that he could give off even a faint smile… especially for her sake. In a way, she felt honored, but she also felt a tad bit guilty for wiping his precious time from resting in favor of letting herself be entertained. Hopefully Sunny wasn’t feeling too down on losing rest.

“Well, a-anyways… thanks for humoring me, Sunny… I really do appreciate it. I know you’re not that big into Captain Spaceboy as I am, but…” Aubrey’s face softened a bit as she averted her gaze away from Sunny for a few seconds. She brushed the side of her hair as she began to sense a layer of red beginning to grow on her face. With all her internal will, she silently beckoned it back into her system, though that didn’t come before Sunny made a response of his own.

“Y-Yeah… ‘course. I… always like hanging out with you.” Sunny now found himself looking away from his crush as his smile went away. But not because he wasn’t happy, but because he, too, needed to consult some of his own willpower to forsake the tinge of blush forming at the top of his ears.

Before long, the two found themselves simply sitting on the bed quietly and peacefully. All the while, Aubrey’s thoughts were beginning to creep onto a particular subject that she had forgotten ever since she had heard what became of Sunny after the recital. “Should I tell him now?... Would it… really be a good idea? No, Aubrey, don’t be stupid! If you tell him now, that could make things weird! And… I think that he still needs time to recover. Maybe another time…”

Aubrey began to feel a bit of nervousness creeping into her heart, so before long, she cleared her throat to garner Sunny’s attention and she announced, “Hey, Sunny, sorry but… I should probably get going now.” Aubrey hopped off the bed gracefully and looked back towards Sunny’s curious face. “Gosh, he’s so cute,” Aubrey sneaked into her thoughts before continuing. “I’ve already been gone from home for a while, so I should… head back now, I think…”

As Aubrey was ready to walk towards the door, she suddenly stopped herself as her mind whispered into her subconscious that there was something that she was forgetting. Before long, Aubrey’s head clicked and she suddenly ran back towards Sunny, hopping back onto the bed, right in front of Sunny, much to the boy’s surprise.

Her movements slowing to a crawl now, Aubrey slowly wrapped her arms around Sunny, another notion that he wasn’t anticipating from her. He then heard just beside his head, a voice whispering out from on top of his right shoulder, “Get better soon. I’ll… I’ll see you later.” After a bit of hesitation, mostly from the shock he received of Aubrey’s sudden affection, he reciprocated the hug towards her, where they remained for several seconds before Aubrey begrudgingly let go of Sunny and hopped back off the bed.

And out the door Aubrey went, as she hurriedly jogged out of Sunny’s room and through the rest of the hospital, where she was seen taking her departure for the second time that day.

There, Sunny couldn’t help but think to himself just how lucky he really was to have Aubrey by his side. She took precious time out of her day to see him, check on his well being, and be ensured of his safety. And for her to remain with him after the fact… Sunny could only rest peacefully as his eyes closed and his mind drifted back into the world of dreams.

***

How she hated to return to this… okay, she couldn’t call this a house . It was more like a barely-held-together dwelling that could very well blow over at any moment. But Aubrey simply felt like she had no choice. She couldn’t remain gone for much longer, lest she face her mother’s unbridled force for that. And her father, while absent, didn’t exactly have his daughter’s best interests in mind. There’s a reason Aubrey snuck off towards the Suzuki’s house last night.

To spend time away from her parents and be with people who she felt actually cared about her.

But this was the present, and Aubrey was already standing just in front of the door leading into the inner machinations of what is known by outsiders as her house. Slowly, yet methodically, Aubrey pushed it open and heard the creaks of pain that the door bellowed, her eyes lingering around the house as she scurried for any new marks or holes in the house. Every other week a new one seemed to pop up, whether it be from her parents’ arguing or their negligence to take proper care of their own home.

A disgruntled groan was heard from Aubrey’s mom, startling the girl as she jerked her head towards the sight of her mother sitting on the couch just as she frequently does. Aubrey slowly approached the woman, being careful not to make any sudden movements or noises like she was readying to handle a wild animal needing to be captured.

“Hi, mom… how are you doing?” Aubrey began with a soft whisper, and then eased her volume so that the woman just in front of her could hear her well.

Grumbling in response, the dirty-haired woman croaked out, “Where have you been, Aubergine? It’s already almost afternoon!” The woman’s voice was coarse, yet the tone reeked of ferocity that Aubrey couldn’t quite decipher. She wasn’t sure what it was that made her so afraid, yet that fear persisted as Aubrey gulped nervously.

“U-Um… I was just… visiting my friend… Sunny… at the hospital… I-I thought I had brought it up this morning before… I left…” Aubrey’s volume faltered once again as her eyes followed the sight of her mother slowly holstering herself up from the rugged couch. That couch may as well be a confinement for the wife of the Miller household. It was hard for her not to be contained within the sofa’s grasp.

“Mmh… whatever…” Aubrey’s mom puffed towards her daughter in response, causing Aubrey to shiver just a hair in response. She continued to stare towards her mother before a quizzical question dawned onto her, though she surely knew the answer yet.

“Where’s… where’s dad?”

“Out at his office… ignoring his family as always…”

A tinge of bitterness and spite was felt across the room as Aubrey’s mother ushered her answer. That, however, was a mindset Aubrey could not fully fault her mother for. Her father always had weekends off from his work; time that he should be spending with his family, but it seemed as if even that was too much a task to ask of the man. He always seemed to be in a hurry to get into his office or to be off at some meeting. Other times, he hadn’t even specified where he was going or what he was doing. Just that it was important .

Aubrey hadn’t the slightest clue what he could be up to with so much time being washed down the drain like that, but she ultimately decided never to ponder on it for long.

Instead, Aubrey merely sighed in response right before adding, “O-Okay… I’ll be up in my room for a bit…”

The sound of scurrying footsteps was heard Aubrey dashed up the stairs and beelined it for her room at the top floor. Well, the top top floor, that is. Aubrey’s old room had been boarded up and practically turned into a disaster area some time ago, so all of her belongings were transported into a space in the attic. At first, Aubrey held disdain towards the idea, but ultimately came to the conclusion that she liked this area better after getting adjusted to it first. It was a happy accident, in a way.

Aubrey found herself once again laying atop her bed and staring at the wooden ceiling above her, only her mind preoccupying her. Except this time, she actually had something to think about and kill time with.

She thought about Sunny often, but she felt like this trip that she made was… special. Truth be told, she saw him often, and whenever they had their talks at the swings (talks is often a codename for her venting about her stresses towards him) it still felt special to her. But something about her visit to see Sunny at the hospital was… unique, in some capacity. Perhaps it was that for once, Sunny laid on his problems towards Aubrey, a burden she was willing to bear, or just seeing him hospitalized, even if not all that intensely, caused that click to her.

Regardless, she kept thinking about what she didn’t say towards him on that trip. Her initial plan, a rather foolish one now that she thought about it, and one that was definitely certainly not concocted on a whim, was to confess her feelings towards him after the recital had concluded. Her true feelings, about how she believed that she wanted for him and her to be more than just friends. Then, of course… fate decided to run up and change her plans.

And Aubrey didn’t even really understand how all that worked. Like this feeling that Aubrey kept getting about Sunny… was it really so detrimental to make known to him? What if he reacted negatively to it? What if, as a result of him now knowing of her actual feelings about him, would this possibly cease their friendship? It wasn’t just about how Sunny would react to that information either; what would they do if he found out Aubrey was crushing on him? What did people like that even do? Aubrey knew Hero and Mari have a close relationship together, but… that’s about all the experience with this sort of thing she has in tow as of now.

After a while of simply laying down and thinking about all this, Aubrey simply sighed and decided to call it a day with her mentality working hard to keep wheeling her thoughts up. Thus, she simply accepted that the time for Sunny to know was not going to come today. But perhaps, it’d come some other time. She just needed to give him the time he deserved to settle on his own quarrels.

Only then would a more fitting opportunity arise for her to finally spill the beans.

***

The day without Aubrey felt almost non-existent. He wasn’t sure if it was because he maybe fell asleep shortly after she left and had gotten some much-needed shut eye, or if time decided to not let himself wallow in loneliness after all. Whatever the case, Sunny was feeling in another realm of better when he woke up the next morning. Granted, his hands were still aching a bit, and occasionally, it’d feel like there was a good dosing of pain within one of his cuts, but it was a massive improvement from what he was feeling the last couple of days.

As soon as he was up, the doctor came into his room to let him in on the good news. Sunny was doing well enough that he’d be able to head out of the hospital as early as this morning. Although the boy wished he could have been given this tidbit of information before the day he was leaving, Sunny had to accept it for what it is. He was told by the staff it was merely a matter of seeing how his physical wellbeing would hold up from the kind of collapse he had.

Thankfully, it seemed that ignoring his hands, Sunny was practically back to the way he was before. He was only instructed to ensure he continued to get at least eight hours of sleep per night, if not more, which was hardly even an issue for the boy anyways. One of his hobbies might as well be sleeping. Additionally, he was told that the bandages would need to be replaced after around two weeks of being on in change of new ones. After a month, or maybe even less, he’d finally be able to get those wraps off.

After Sunny’s parents showed up and greeted their son, it was out of the hospital for the raven-haired boy. He’d almost missed the shine of the sun beaming down onto his head until he remembered that he’d probably have to go to school today. Although his hands were definitely still a bug, it usually didn’t amount to anything more by this point.

The constant pressure of the bandages on his cuts meant that he had grown used to the feeling that was embedded onto those wounds, so any additional pressure would, at worst, make that pain just a bit more noticeable and agitating . But aside from that, Sunny was feeling completely fine. He didn’t break, sprain, or even hurt anything when he fell at the recital. He had merely collapsed out of exhaustion, but no other injuries or bruises came from it. But then he had to ask himself… what was better? Being cooped up in a hospital room for who knows how many days, or being at school and at least knowing he’ll get to see all his friends again?

Speaking of which, Sunny realized that Kel and Basil both likely haven’t been getting caught into the loop of things. Of course, Aubrey saw him yesterday morning, and essentially knows everything, and knowing Hero, there’s a good chance that he went to visit Mari and she at least kept him updated on the status of her brother. Sunny didn’t quite know how to feel about Hero knowing what went down, even if it was Mari who was telling him. Even just instilling a negative picture of Mari to anyone could be considered blasphemy to the highest degree; something like that was practically unheard of in their friend group.

But Kel and Basil knowing about what was going on seemed far fetched. Kel wasn’t like Sunny or Aubrey; he could keep himself occupied or entertained without being with the others. He was very much his own person and wasn’t afraid to utilize that skill when he needed to. And Basil had both his gardening and photography hobbies to keep himself by. While he knew Basil did care a lot for everyone, he was more… hobby-focused than the rest of the group. And it wasn’t like Mari where he could get hyper fixated. He just happened to know how to be preoccupied with his own interests.

Not helping with Basil’s case was the fact that he was the only one who never even came by the house either during or after Sunny and Mari’s big fight at the night of the recital. Even if Kel was there, he at least understood something happened, even if he didn’t know what. Basil likely was oblivious to it all and just heard that Sunny was at the hospital now. He probably believed that it was purely due to stress and nothing else.

Sunny really didn’t know how he was gonna spill the beans to Kel and Basil on what was happening behind the scenes. Maybe he didn’t need to? This was probably a conundrum Sunny just had to sit down and pay by ear, much as he hated doing that.

Nevertheless, Sunny did ultimately end up having to return to the forbidden realm known only by name as school. If only he didn’t have to follow up a relaxing and carefree day being kept company by Aubrey with having to sit down and endure schoolwork. With some cut-up hands. Although bandaged, Sunny already knew that he was gonna have to withstand the headache that would be writing with his hands now.

But thinking about being able to see his friends there, especially Aubrey, allowed Sunny to put his mind to rest on that predicament for the time being.

This was also helped by the fact that Sunny was going into the building around when lunch started. He couldn’t get out of the hospital and start any sooner, but at least this way, he’d get an easy start to the day. Though he still didn’t know if he should let Kel and Basil in on any of the mess that’s been going on the last couple of days. Perhaps that conversation could be left on the back burner for now… he wanted to show them all that he was doing fine.

As soon as the quiet boy made his way by the school, making sure to say goodbye to his parents after he was dropped off, his eyes scavenged for the sight of his friends. Within seconds, he locked onto Aubrey, Kel and Basil congregating on one of the many benches located just in front of the school. Without hurrying himself too much, Sunny speed walked towards the direction of the three kids, and before long, a particular girl noticed his presence and dawned a bright smile his way.

“Wait… that’s Sunny!” Aubrey shouted out in excitement, alerting both Kel and Basil and ushering them to look towards where Aubrey’s gaze was fixated. Sure enough, the two witnessed Sunny steadily making his way towards them both, though with a noticeable set of bandages wrapped around his hands and wrists. Basil raised a curious eyebrow towards that and knew exactly what one of his first questions towards Sunny was going to be.

“Yo, Sunny! Sit down with us!” Kel yelled out with a cheery tone. Sunny merely thought to himself in his head, “Yeah, that’s… sort of the whole reason I’m coming over, Kel…” As soon as Sunny reached the wooden table and plopped himself just beside Aubrey on the bench, her smile only being more prominent than ever, it was immediately met with Kel adding, “Where’ve you been? I heard you were at the hospital after your recital…”

Groaning, Aubrey muttered, “Yes, Basil, that’s exactly where he’s been… he was there the whole day yesterday…” Aubrey’s annoyed tone seemed to strike a nerve with Kel, as the optimistic boy suddenly grew a sneer towards her.

“Well, excuse me… I just wanted to check up on my friend , Aubrey…” Kel’s disdain was like an airborne fume. It was felt by everyone near him.

“H-Hey, hey… calm down, y-you guys…” Basil stuttered nervously as he attempted to defuse the increasingly angry kids. “Let’s, uh… l-let’s just make sure Sunny is… doing fine.” Basil looked ahead of him towards the boy in question and wore a soft smile, though it was clear to him that Basil was just wearing a facade.

“I-I’m, uh… doing okay, Basil…” Sunny responded quietly as his eyes wavered past both Basil and Kel, and towards nowhere in particular. In spite of that answer, the blonde wasn’t quite convinced. His blue eyes wavered down towards the sight of Sunny’s wrapped-up hands, with Basil making a small puff before marking his question.

“What happened to your hands, Sunny? Why are they all bandaged?” As soon as that question came out of Basil’s mouth, Sunny held his breath and just looked to the side. What was he going to tell them? He couldn’t just say that it was from playing the violin. Otherwise, they would grow suspicious of Mari and consider the possibility that she let this happen to him, which isn’t what he wanted to instill. He needed an excuse and-

“Basil, come on…” Aubrey suddenly piped in, which startled Basil and caused him to flicker his head in Aubrey’s direction. “Let’s give him some time… he just got out of the hospital…” She gave Sunny a solemn expression as he returned a similar look of nervousness right back towards her.

Kel, however, didn’t seem as empathetic, and instead decided to give Aubrey another glare. “What’s your deal, Aubrey? Sunny can speak for himself, you know? You don’t need to act like some sort of bodyguard.”

“Kel, it’s not like-” Aubrey began before promptly being interrupted by the boy across the bench from her.

“We just wanna know what happened… and you’re acting like we’re insulting him…” Kel’s face went from an agitated expression at first to a more solemn look as his eyes drifted from Aubrey over to Sunny.

With a sigh, Aubrey explained, “Yeah, I know, Kel… but…” She directed her gaze back towards Sunny, who had been trying hard not to speak up and interrupt the incoming quarrel between Aubrey and Kel. However, he gave out a quiet sigh as he put his hands down onto the table, seething a bit from the added pain onto his bandaged wounds.

“I, um… m-my hands just got… a-a bit cut up from playing during… the recital… a-and after I passed out was when…” Sunny rotated his wrists and laid his palms upwards so that Kel and Basil could see the extent of the work put into wrapping up his hands.

With concerned looks, Kel and Basil’s eyes repeatedly jittered back and forth between Sunny’s face and the sight of his hands. The latter of whom said, “They just… got cut up after you played?”

Sunny nodded slowly as he relieved his hands from atop the table. He slowly rotated them back towards him so that he himself could get a closer look at them and stare at the damage he had done to himself.

Of course, Aubrey knew Sunny was only telling part of the truth. He was intentionally leaving out any detail regarding Mari’s unintentional involvement with his condition. Which, unfortunately, she shouldn’t have been so surprised to see coming. In spite of all that had happened between the Suzuki siblings, Sunny didn’t want anyone to see Mari in a bad light because of an incident like this. But… was she okay with him doing this? She didn’t want Sunny to be pressured into talking as soon as he got out of the hospital, but if he was gonna tell the others what happened, he should be telling the whole truth. Him doing that just didn’t strike right with her, even if he had good intentions. Maybe she could bring this up to him later? Even then, she didn’t want to strike a nerve at him. She may just have to play this by ear…

“Well dude, you didn’t have to do… whatever you did, for us. If you ask me… even if you played horribly, I wouldn’t have cared! It was still fun to just… hang around and watch you and Mari play up there!” Kel enthusiastically responded as both Basil and Aubrey gave Kel concerned looks. As much as the two recognized the weary weight of this situation, they could at least admire Kel’s sense of always being optimistic. Regardless of the circumstance, he at least put in a good strike to be encouraging in his own unique way.

Basil slightly shook his head as he directed back towards Sunny. “Maybe, um… we should talk about something else…” Basil’s suggestion was met immediately with praise from both Sunny and Aubrey. Neither of whom really wanted to tread on the details of Sunny’s hospitalization or the recital any more than they already have. Talking about anything else to get their minds off of this situation was a welcome much appreciated.

“Oh yeah, Sunny, did you read the new Captain Spaceboy issue yet? It’s awesome, isn’t it?” Kel grinned cheerfully towards the stoic-faced boy, to which all he did was make a simple nod, followed by an “Mhm” sound that just barely left his lips. “Wasn’t it awesome? I really liked the action sequences in this new chapter. I think the writers are getting better at drawing them out and making them look cool !” The excitement slipping out of Kel’s being was almost starting to become a bit much, especially for Basil, who was sitting just beside him.

“Yeah, Kel, everyone at school has read it. We all did…” Aubrey groaned as she rolled her eyes towards him.

“Yeah, everyone except Hero… I need to get him into it one of these days.”

Nervously, Basil chimed in, announcing softly, “I, um… I haven’t read the new issue yet… or the past… few…”

“Well you’re missing out, Bas!” Kel proclaimed proudly as he wrapped Basil around his arm, causing him to express A shocked face in response. “I need to get you into the world of Captain Spaceboy! Everyone in school loves him!”

“Do… do I really have to, though?”

Kel looked towards the flower-wielding boy with a stunned face, stuttering for a split second before bursting out, “ Yes! You do! ” He swiftly cleared his throat before continuing, “It’s only one of the most epic, story-driven and hilarious comics on the planet ! If you don’t like Captain Spaceboy, well… can you even be considered human? You sure won’t make any friends at school if you-”

“Kel, that’s enough! You’re overwhelming him!” Aubrey interrupted the back-and-forth banter between Kel and Basil, lunging halfway across the table so that Kel would definitely notice her amidst his ecstatic rambling.

“No I’m not!... Basil’s just fine…” Kel squeezed the shy Basil with the arm he was still tangling around Basil, ushering him to chuckle nervously at the situation he had been wrapped up in.

Aubrey merely puffed at Kel’s response before she retracted herself from atop the table and sat herself back in her spot. Afterwards, everybody ate in quiet peace before the lunch bell commenced and it was time for everyone to head back to their respective classes. And for Sunny… the first of likely many obnoxious ones to sit through.

“Hey, Sunny…” Basil called out towards him as Sunny and the other members of the friend group all got up from their seats and were ready to drag themselves back into the confines of the building. Basil approached the boy as he stated, “I just… wanted you to know that I’m… glad you’re feeling okay. I was… worried that I hadn’t been seeing you lately after, well…” As soon as Basil’s sentence stopped midway, Sunny couldn’t help but look down towards the concrete ground.

As much as he didn’t want to tell anyone else the rest of the story, he figured that the madness with the recital was in the past now. There was no sense in lingering about it when it was clear Sunny was in a refined enough state of mind after the fact. Not to mention that he likely wasn’t going to be touching violin at least for some time, seeing the condition his hands were put under. Hopefully Mari wouldn’t try to force another kind of duet while they were still bandaged , though he doubted she’d do that. And even so, when his hands healed, hopefully they’d be ready to be put under that same kind of pressure again.

Somewhere in Sunny’s train of thought, Basil hummed to himself, his face slowly creeping into more of a disappointed look until he finally mentioned, “You’re not… telling me everything, are you Sunny?” The announcement surprised Sunny in a way that ushered him to shoot his head right back to Basil’s direction, with his face suddenly dawning a new layer of surprise. With hurried eyes, Sunny merely nodded, as he often likes to do, towards him, with Basil sighing as a result.

“Okay, well… you don’t have to tell me right now or anything, I-I’m not gonna force you. But…” Basil took a couple more steps towards Sunny as the two looked at each other with somewhat concerned eyes. “I’d like to know what happened at some point. I’m just… worried about you, is all.”

Slowly, but surely, Sunny bowed his head down as he stated, “Okay.” And with that, Sunny and Basil, along with the other members of the friend group, parted ways for the time being and headed back inside for the rest of the school day to commence. Thankfully for Sunny, he only had to endure two classes for today, since he missed over half of the day getting home from the hospital and getting ready at home. However, that wasn’t to say that those two classes weren’t already an indicator of what was to come.

If his fingers weren’t constantly being put under pressure of having to hold a pencil and meticulously write down things throughout the entirety of said classes, then he’d have kids look over at the bandages on his hands. It was pretty damn frustrating, to put it in one way. Hearing some of the other kids look over and make wondrous noises at… his hands being wrapped up, was not only a tad worrying, but also increasingly frustrating . Sunny wished he could just tell these buffoons to screw off, but of course that would go just swimmingly for him.

For now, he had to make do with what he had as Sunny prevailed through the classes he had to take, and mentally prepared himself for a full day that would probably go down just like this tomorrow, and then repeat that three more times. Yep, he certainly was back.

Chapter Text

This was not the way she was wanting today to pan out. Her brain couldn’t think, it couldn’t work. It was madness just trying to get herself to even write anything down for her studies.

But her body and mind were misaligned at the seams. No matter how Mari attempted to divert her attention away from the obvious, the outcome remained the same. All that she could end up thinking about was her brother.

Throughout the entire duration of their practicing together, she should have picked up on any sign that he was being physically strained by her incessant tactics. It didn’t matter if she was being blinded by her obsession with the recital; she should have noticed at some point the cuts that were forming on his hands. She was being oblivious to it all. She would say that she hated herself for it, but she did realize something else too…

She wasn’t the only one who hadn’t noticed it.

Mari slowly realized in that moment that although she had been ignorant to the fact, it was not isolated to herself. Why did nobody else ever say anything to her? Did they know and just decide not to bring it up to her? Or were they just as oblivious to it as she was? Well… whatever the case was, it didn’t excuse the fact that she hurt him. Even if he was fine with that. Even if he did all of that for her…

It never gave her permission to prolong the pain he had to go through.

Her brain still felt confused after all of this. She felt exactly the same as when she did when she was being driven to that hospital and when she was sitting in that waiting room, waiting for something to happen that would break her train of thought. It was a similar boat here, except this time, she was constantly trying to shatter it. And yet, those thoughts were kept deep in her head. There wasn’t anything she could do to make them depart.

The rest of her class periods followed a similar trend. Sure, she wrote enough in her notes and completed the work she needed to, but her judgement and thinking were both just so clouded with uncertainty. She hated this feeling so much. She didn’t want to feel it. And yet, in a way, she figured that this was what she deserved for having neglected her brother’s needs for as long as she did. Even if he decided to hide it in some way, she should’ve suspected something else was bewildering Sunny in such a way.

At least she was finally done with school. She never wanted to get out of that building as much as she did today. Obviously, she didn’t love school, but she saw it as an important part of her life. Of her future. Even if at times, it really, really got on her nerves, she always saw it fit into her being. However, today was not one of those days. If the manifestation of school were a person, she’d kick its face in and cram it into the ground before telling it to beat it.

Why was she even this sullen at the fact, though? Maybe she felt like she was avoiding her family? She supposed that it worked out in a way, seeing as her extracurriculars were a good excuse to get her parents off her back regarding her education. However, this time she felt guilty for being away from home for this long. For Christ’s sake, it was already four in the afternoon. Dinner was in just under an hour and a half. And considering what she had inadvertently done… to say that her arriving home really late at a time like this was not what Mari was wishing upon herself.

Throughout that whole trip home, her walk was hastened in a hurried manner. Her eyes were locked onto the streets as she maneuvered her way through the neighborhood and finally made her way towards her house. It was both refreshing to witness, as well as not. Of course, she’d get to see her parents and help them out in whatever way she could, getting dinner set up or doing whatever chores they may have left over for her. But… at the same time… would all that be enough? After what she’s done? Would her parents even be mad at her?

That uncertainty only plunged deeper into Mari’s subconscious as she slowly creaked the front door open and peered through the house. Neither her mother nor father greeted her at the door, or were seen in range when she entered. Perhaps they were both preparing dinner already? If it’s a recipe that requires a lot of setup beforehand, that would certainly explain it. But she didn’t smell anything… so it seemed they’re both busy doing something else within the home-

“Mari, is that you?” She heard her father call out to her. She sighed silently before she responded loudly,

“Yes, dad! I’m home…” Her volume started off strong, but it quickly crawled down to being a softer roar. Her eyes wavered straight ahead as Mr. Suzuki swiftly approached his daughter with a smile plastered on his face. At least he was happy to see her… he couldn’t be that mad at her then, right?

“Welcome home, sweetie… how was school?”

Shrugging, Mari answered softly, “It was fine… I just… had a lot on my mind… was all…”

Raising a quizzical eyebrow, Mari’s father curiously questioned, “About what? …Unless…”

So much for asking for what her mind was on about. But seriously, how could she not be thinking about Sunny? He’s been involved in her life ever since she was four, and she always held him near and dear. To even consider that she wasn’t pondering on the actions that inadvertently sent him to the hospital every waking moment of the day would be a crime against her name.

“Well, Mari… we can talk about that later, I promise. For now, though… I want you to come to the kitchen…”

Suddenly, Mari’s hand had been nabbed by her father, startling her greatly. Ugh, she knew he didn’t mean any harm by doing this, but being dragged by him was, to put it lightly, not comfortable. At times, he doesn’t realize his own strength and force that he puts onto his family. But that’s just how the father of the Suzuki household rolls.

As Mari’s legs kept up with her father dragging her into the kitchen, she finally felt them stop as soon as he did, too. Then, as Mari’s eyes lifted upwards to observe just what he had essentially pulled her into the room for, her face widened in shock as she laid eyes upon a face that she wasn’t expecting to see for quite some time.

Right as Mari’s eyes connected with his, she felt her heartbeat slow down exponentially. It was bad enough that she had to think about him all day during school and how she had enabled him to undergo nearly a month of torment. But now after all of that mental strain, she was being pitted right in front of him, and so soon too.

Not to get herself confused with wishing that he was still in the hospital or anything. Mari was very happy to see that Sunny was able to get released and come back home so soon. It hadn’t even been two days, and yet, her little brother had already pushed through nearly a month’s worth of strangulation on her behalf.

But that was just it . It was all so soon. She wasn’t ready to see Sunny yet. Not after all that she had done to him, and his request upon seeing her at the hospital the night of the recital. She needed more time than this. And now she had to do or say anything to not plummet out a gas of awkwardness that was already quickly enveloping the room at the seams. She was mustering her entire being not to sputter into a panicking mess right in front of her whole family, and just that was already taking up most of her willpower.

Before Mari could even say anything to the situation in front of her, she heard her mother quietly speak, “Sunny got out of the hospital this morning after you had left for school… he’ll need to have the bandages around his hands on for at least a few more weeks, but otherwise, he should be okay!”

This was fabulous news. Somehow, after what Mari had seen, all that he would have to sacrifice was the lasting pain in his hands and wearing some bandages for a few weeks. If that was all that Sunny had to withstand, then this was nothing short of great news…

…so why wasn’t Mari excited about this?

Maybe she was, but her body didn’t feel like exasperating that energy out yet, because of her inner turmoil over Sunny’s current situation. Or was she not the caring and sweet sister that everyone always saw her to be? Did her ambitions over that goddamn recital really plunge her connection with Sunny this much?

No matter the case, Mari had to at least play the part somehow, in whatever way she could. That way, her parents wouldn’t get on her case, and so that way she may have a chance of showing Sunny that she did care. She didn’t want to pretend to be happy because it wasn’t how she truly felt…

It was because her brain was so emotionally detached that she couldn’t truly feel anything in this current moment.

With a slight nod, Mari mustered up a smile towards her brother before ushering, “I’m… I’m so glad to hear that…” Mari took a very cautious step towards him, so as to not startle the just-discharged boy. He might still be a bit jumpy after, well… everything. Not just the recital and practices he had with her, but also with that last conversation that they both had at the hospital. “Sunny… I’m happy to see you…”

Sunny remained quiet for a few seconds. He could only gaze towards Mari in a way that nobody else in the room could decipher. Perhaps there wasn’t anything to decipher? His look felt almost… alien. Like he was staring at someone or something that he didn’t recognize. There wasn’t any emotion to pocket from his vacant eyes. Something about that stare… it nearly tore Mari’s heart out of her body.

“Mhm… me too…” Sunny kept looking onward, still keeping up the blank stare that he’d been at for a good while by this point. Maybe Sunny caught on that the smile Mari was giving wasn’t being driven from her heart. Not like she could help that… her body was on complete lockdown as it was. She couldn’t show any true emotion right now. She wasn’t capable to.

How was she supposed to continue this conversation further? She couldn’t possibly talk about the recital or bring up any of what had happened; not if she wanted to re-open the wounds that Sunny had closed up from his time at the hospital. The fact that her parents were quite literally looming over her was not helping matters! Mari gulped nervously before she internally tickled her throat in an attempt to get anything out of her voice.

Her internal plight to attempt to make any sort of meaningful conversation with Sunny didn’t go unnoticed by her parents, much to her disdain. The mother of the household glanced slightly towards her husband, who seemed to share an equally nervous expression.

‘Ah, of course…’ Mr. Suzuki thought to himself as the silence penetrated deeper and deeper into the crevasses of this house. ‘Maybe it was a tad foolish of me to try and have them see each other so soon…’ Then, another thought sprouted up into his subconscious. Something that he hadn’t even thought about while they all sat there, idly waiting for somebody else to take the helm of conversation forward.

As both Suzuki parents suddenly found themselves looking back at one another once more, the father found his wife giving him a very subtle, yet clear nod to his direction. It would seem as if the two had a shared thought just now.

After clearing his throat, he announced calmly, “Well, kids… I think that your mother and I should start on dinner. Why don’t you two take a few minutes to talk for a bit…”

‘Oh, thank god…’ Mari felt her entire body loosen from that sentence. The amount of nervousness culminating in her system from her parents just being in that room was swiftly plunged from Mari’s throat and thrown to the wayside.

“Sounds good, dad…” Mari nodded with another soft smile, finally finding it in her to actually make that face again. Both her and Sunny watched quietly as their parents departed from the room, alleviating their presence from the two children. With a mental sigh of relief, Mari’s eyes fixated back onto Sunny, feeling a bit more comfortable now that her parents weren’t right beside the two of them.

This was exactly what Mari needed. A moment of just the two of them. She needed to make sure that he was doing alright… truly alright. For some reason, she felt nervous asking questions like that when her parents were around. Mostly because they had this pretense that Sunny was already okay, but Mari didn’t want to be quick to make assumptions, especially considering what she saw that night.

“Sunny…” Mari finally spoke, giving out a bit of a croaking as she did so. Wow, she had been silent for longer than she had realized. “I… I-I wanted… mom and dad to be, um… not in the room when I-”

“Y-Yeah… I know… m-me too…” Sunny’s eyes did not meet his sister’s, but it was clear that he was more conscious than he was when they were being watched over. Mari could do nothing but continue to stare at Sunny’s raven-black, sheen hair as his head remained down. Mari continued to question over and over in her head how she could have allowed Sunny to have gotten placed in the position that he did…

“Little brother…” Mari finally replied softly, which ushered Sunny to lift his head up just a bit, though he still didn’t make eye contact with his sister. “I… I know that you said you just… wanted to be left alone when… you and I saw each other at the hospital…” Oh, great, that sounded worse than it did in her head. Mari’s face dropped a bit as Sunny’s head finally gazed towards her, a look of worry being flooded around him.

This wasn’t going as she planned at all. He was looking scared now. She didn’t want to cause any more damage than she already did. But this was the only way that she was gonna be able to have this conversation with him. To know how she could make it up to him. To know just what needed to be done. What he needed from her. Knowing that this could be her only chance… she reluctantly forced it out of her voice and let it out onto the bandaged boy.

“...but… I-I need to know… i-is there… anything else that I can do? At all?...” Mari’s voice was wavering forcefully now, but Sunny only remained quiet. “Just… if there is… I want to know… please…”

After she had finished, Sunny took a few moments to look towards the side, his mind becoming fuzzy from having been sitting like this for so long. He could see in her eyes that she was being profuse. Genuine. She truly felt bad that she had allowed for what had happened to him to come to fruition.

So why, then, did a part of him want to run away from her?

He knew it wasn’t right. She was his sister. He shouldn’t be having these temptations, but yet… he did. And a part of him simply didn’t want to be having this conversation right now. Just talking about his condition and his predicament was putting him on edge. He didn’t want to confront this. He just wanted to let it pass. Give it time…

“...what?” Mari suddenly questioned. Her brain was running about so quickly at this point that half of what she could be hearing was a blur to her. From the shuffling of whatever utensils, pots and pans her parents were fiddling with in the kitchen, to even the response that her brother had just given to her.

“...time. I just… need time… to heal…” Sunny repeated with a bleak tone in his voice. His eyes had gone back to looking downwards and repenting from looking in Mari's direction. The boy could do nothing but maintain that posture as Mari looked at him with a blank expression.

Of all the answers that she was wanting to hear from him, that was one that she was wholeheartedly hoping that he wouldn’t give to her. She could barely hold back the shock that was swiftly exiting out of her mouth before she forced it closed and looked down with closed eyes.

She didn’t want to do that. She didn’t want to just do… nothing . She wanted to help him. Do something that would show that she still cared about him. What had she done that even slightly suggested anything of the sort the past month? All she did was glue him to that room and made him play until he passed out on that stage. How was she ever going to take that back? Especially if he didn’t even want to have anything to do with her anymore?

But… as much as she hated it, she knew she had no other choice. This was the only thing she could do now. If she tried to pry at him about it, she may very well cause something unprecedented that would only make this situation worse. That was the last thing she wanted to do at this point.

With every fiber of her being, she reluctantly choked out, “Alright… I understand… I promise… I do, this time…”

***

“Come on, Basil! It’s been a while since we’ve hanged out together, just you and me!”

How did he allow Kel to convince him into this? What should have been a day of Basil getting a sudden cesspool of homework piled onto him done, suddenly turned into Kel dragging him into the park. Not to get the wrong idea; Basil liked Kel’s company. A lot, actually. There was a certain inept charm to the Orange Joe loving kid that couldn’t quite be beaten.

But still, to say Basil wasn’t a tad annoyed by him distracting him from getting a plethora of schoolwork done would be a big, fat lie. Basil tried telling Kel that he just couldn’t hang out today… he got assigned a myriad of assignment papers from his science class that needed extra focus and attention to get done. Christ, just imagine what it’ll look like when he gets to high school…

Kel wasn’t having any of that, though. He told Basil that he saw something cool by their old hangout spot and that they should go check it out. Much to Basil’s denial, a part of him didn’t want to keep his best friend waiting, so with the knowledge that his homework would eat him alive when he got back, he hesitantly agreed on joining the joyous boy on a trip to the park.

As soon as the two drifted off of the main foundation of the park was when Kel put on what could only best be described as his ‘detective face.’ Sometimes, Kel would pretend to act like he was looking for treasure in the park, and while it was innocent enough, it’s gotten him into trouble more times than anybody was comfortable with. Hell, there was even a time Kel nearly got hit by a car because the ‘X’ was in the middle of the road.

“Kel… I don’t think we’re even supposed to be around here…” Basil looked around nervously as he slowly trailed behind Kel. He wasn’t there to witness what had gone down that day, but he had been told the story of the event that led the group to never embark to this spot again. In a way, he wished he could have been there so that he could grasp a better idea on why it was as horrible as it was, but that would be wedging himself too deeply into the Suzuki’s personal lives. And Basil didn’t exactly need to know the specifics.

“Psh, don’t be such a wet towel, Basil!” Kel proudly proclaimed, earning him a rather disappointing look from the blonde. “Besides, I’ve been down here many times since we stopped coming!” Kel’s smile dissipated a bit before continuing, “But… it’s never any fun if nobody is around with me when I go… that’s what made it, well… fun, you know?”

With a more solemn glance, Basil’s eyes drifted back towards Kel as he responded softly, “Yeah… I… get that…” As much as Basil didn’t really want to be here, he had to take pity on Kel’s situation for the time being. Everyone was just doing their own thing right now, and Kel didn’t have anybody to spend time with. There was a good chance he was starting to become lonely and that he just wanted someone to keep him company.

It just felt weird that Kel had to turn their hangout session into a treasure hunt , of all things.

In spite of that, Basil simply allowed for Kel to lead them past the trees and bushes that gave them entrance to the spot. Upon entering, Kel beelined past all of the abandoned construction equipment, to which Basil pondered on why that was all still there in the first place, even after all this time. He remained standing in that same spot by its entrance, looking around the areas where he and the others used to picnic, the lake, the statue located at the heart of their since abandoned area.

Basil didn’t know why, but being here felt… wrong. Like he was forbidden from seeing this place again, ever since the others stopped coming here. Clearly that never stopped Kel if he was telling the truth about sneaking off here every once in a while, but naturally, Basil was different than that. He didn’t want to be rebellious or cool like some of the stuff Kel did.

“Yo, Bas! I found it!” Kel suddenly screeched towards him at the top of his lungs like a crazed baboon. Basil jittered out of his headspace and flickered his head towards the grinning boy in a frenzy. With a hearty sigh, Basil slowly approached Kel and the two looked downward to see something that he surely wasn’t expecting.

Just below lay a sort of shimmering which seemed to be illuminating from the sun’s reflection off of… something down there. What exactly it was, Basil had no idea. Should he even go look down there? They weren’t even supposed to be by the lake, let alone down the hill where one of them could get hurt.

“Let’s go check it out!” Before he could think any more on the matter, Kel was already on the prowl and hopped down to give the phenomenon a closer observation. In a surprised state of shock again, Basil instinctively called out towards Kel, crying out, “Kel, wait !” But alas, his best attempts were in vain, and with another disgruntled sigh, Basil begrudgingly descended after him.

As he and Kel finished their journey down the hill, and inched much closer to the source of the strange light, was when Kel’s face dropped as he stared with wondrous eyes at the object resting below. Curiously, Kel circled the item in disbelief as his sounds of shock only amplified the admittedly obvious reaction Kel was trying to milk.

“Basil, Basil! You’re not gonna believe this!” Basil ran up towards Kel, but stopped short as soon as his eyes picked up on what Kel was looking at. Just in front of both of them was a purple gemstone that was resting just behind one of the many trees at the bottom edge of the hill. A darker-tinted purple plastic encased the edges and corners of the gem.

Whispering quietly, Basil spoke, “A… gem? …What’s it doing all the way out here?” Basil’s curiosity fell on deaf ears, however, as the one who was sitting right beside him immediately threw any and all hesitance or question that Basil had about the strange item right out the window.

“Who cares?! It’s a diamond, Basil! W-We could make a lot of money with this thing!” Kel hastily ran towards the item and nabbed it from its current resting spot. Basil gave him a worried look as he hopped up and made an effort to speak his mind.

“Wait, Kel, we don’t know what this… is!”

“It’s a gemstone, Basil. What else could it be?”

“But why is it over here? This could be, I dunno… ancient , or… something! Maybe we shouldn’t mess with it Kel!”

However, Basil’s pleas were clearly still not getting through to Kel. “If it’s ancient, that’s even better! And trust me, this thing wasn’t here a couple weeks ago! I would’ve noticed it otherwise!”

Basil’s head was beginning to spin on what to do at this moment. How could he really be sure about finding a random gem in the woods? By their secret hangout spot, no less? He wanted to be supportive of Kel and his games , but the thought of this maybe belonging to someone prevented him from being onboard with the idea. Especially with that casing around the edges. Perhaps it was a symbol of belonging? Maybe by looking into it, they could find out who it belonged to.

With that, Basil had an idea, but he knew Kel wouldn’t like the idea of it at first. “Hey, Kel, listen… I-I just thought of something…”

Kel raised a quizzical eyebrow as he let out a simple “Hm?”

“I was just thinking… what if this belongs to someone? Should we really be taking it for ourselves? What if they come back looking for it?”

Kel squinted towards Basil before answering, “Well then maybe they should’ve kept better track of it! Like, we were able to find this thing in, like, two seconds! If we found it, I’m sure whoever this belonged to would’ve found it in no time at all!”

“But we don’t know that… Kel, I… have an idea.” Basil stopped for a second so that Kel could take a short moment to put on his attention ears so that he could follow what was about to be told to him. “That covering around the gem…” Basil pointed towards the item in Kel’s hand, ushering him to look down and observe the plastic encasing in question. “It could be a way for us to return the gem to its owner.”

Kel’s face soured at the idea of just returning a valuable gem to somebody. Especially considering he found it. “I dunno, Basil… are you sure about this?”

“It’s the right thing to do. W-We’ll see if we can find anything online who’s looking for a gem like this. And if we don’t find anyone, or if anybody who we do find doesn’t want it anymore-”

A gasp rang across the air before Kel cried out, “Then I can keep it?!”

Basil hesitated on responding for a couple of seconds before he let out a simple, “Yes… I-I suppose.”

Kel looked back down toward the intricate gem before his head sprung back towards Basil’s direction. “Oh, let’s go to your house, Basil! I-It’s been a while since I’ve been there!”

“H-Huh? M-My house? …Uh… why not your house, Kel?”

Basil saw Kel swiftly jerk his head away from Basil with a defiant look plastered on his face. “And show the gem to Hero ?! He’s gonna be all like ‘Ugh, Kel, you brought a gem that you found outside home?!’ I don’t wanna deal with that! I want to think long and hard about what I can use this for!”

Basil looked to the side for a moment before he glanced back towards Kel, reiterating, “...if it doesn’t belong to someone. Which it might.”

“Heh, well I’m hoping not… hm, hey, does your grandma know anything about gems, Basil? Maybe she’d be able to help us with this!”

Pondering on the matter, Basil glanced just next to him again as he responded, “Well, um… I don’t know, actually… I mean… I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to ask her.”

Kel gave him an upbeat smile as he giggled out, “Hehehe, yeah! Well, come on, Basil! Let’s go before it gets too late!”

“W-Wait, we’re going right now?” Before he got a response, Basil’s arm was grabbed by the ecstatic Kel and he was pulled out of the hangout spot, and before either of them could make another breath, they were already out of the park’s reach and on their way towards Basil’s house.

The blonde looked down just in front of his dashing feet, feeling his breath begin to intensify from the running as he thought to himself, ‘ Nngh… I can’t keep up with Kel when he’s so… excited like this… this better be worth the trouble…’

***

To say that Hero was rather nervous about mentioning something like this to his father would be an understatement. He was probably sweating his balls off knowing that the location in which he and Mari had found that gemstone was somewhere they weren’t supposed to be in. He was wracking his brain on how he was going to present all of this to him.

Maybe there was a chance that he could just forget that it even happened at all. Sure, Mari would be upset, but was this strange scenario worth going through so much trouble over? He wasn’t sure. Regardless, his brain had been working overtime since yesterday. Contemplating what he was going to do and how he would be doing it, and it felt like he was in the same square that he started in.

“You doin’ alright there, kiddo?”

The sound of Father Rodriguez calling out to Hero made the boy jump from surprise. ‘ Guess I was a little too entranced in my thoughts there… so much for the idea of forgetting about it altogether…’ After properly readjusting himself, Hero responded calmly, “I-I’m fine, dad… I was just… thinking, is all…”

“Is this about Mari? I heard about what happened at the recital from Mr. and Mrs. Suzuki the other day…” Hero’s father sat down next to Hero on the living room couch, now dawning a look of concern.

‘Ah, so he’s thinking about that… well, I’m sure Mari is worried a lot about Sunny, but this is sort of another ballpark.’ Hero’s thought trailed off again before he managed to grasp it back into his control, not allowing for himself to slip away again.

“Y-Yeah, I am, but… there’s… something else, too.” As Hero added, his dad leaned a bit closer as Hero gulped the frog down his throat. “Um… y-yesterday, when… Mari and I went to hang out… we went to the park, and… w-we found something… strange…”

His father raised an eyebrow as he gave Hero a quizzical look. “Strange how?”

Hero exhaled slowly before continuing, “We, uh… found this gem just outside of the park… i-it was kind of buried in the ground, but… we noticed it as, uh… as we were walking around…”

“A gemstone? That’s strange indeed, kid. So what happened afterwards?”

“Mari wanted to take it with her… sh-she thought that it’d be worth a lot of money.”

Chuckling, Mr. Rodriguez responded, “Well, she sure is right. How big was it?”

“Heh, well, I didn’t get an exact measurement when I was there, but… i-it seemed to be maybe, uh… around twice the size of my hand?

Hero’s father leaned back on the couch, letting out a huge sigh as he followed up with, “I know that the value of a gemstone is dependent on a lot of different things, it’s not just size. Its color, cut, hardness, and that’s just what I can come up with in my head. Hm… did you see anyone else by it?”

Feeling a trickle of sweat fall down the side of his head, Hero replied, “N-No, only Mari and I were around the area where we saw it. It’s probably still at the outskirts of the park.”

Hero’s father raised a curious eyebrow towards his son. “So… what is it exactly that’s making you nervous about this gem thing?”

“Well, uh… I-I just think that it’s… weird… I was thinking since maybe you’d know more than me on this sort of thing, uh… if maybe you could come with me and take a look at it? Just before Mari or I decide to bring it with us…”

The father of the Rodriguez household scratched the bottom of his chin just before he proclaimed, “Alright kid, here’s the deal. I’m gonna have my hands full for the next couple of days being in the next town over for work. After I get back, we can schedule a time for us to look at this gem, if it’s still even there.”

“Alright, dad… I-I don’t think anyone is going to find it. Mari’s the only other one who knows that it’s there. I’ll let her know about what’s going on.” Hero’s eyes drifted a little to the side as his mind began to flurry on this prospect. He couldn’t believe that his father was actually somewhat on board with helping him with this.

If it was true that this gem… as much of an anomaly as it was, could truly be theirs for the taking, it could be worth a ton of money. Obviously, Hero wouldn’t even begin to know how to start calculating that, so he’d need to get an expert on the matter and figure that out himself. What his dad said about its value being variable on a lot of things did make him a bit nervous, but he just needed to hold out hope.

“Sounds good, son…” And with that, Hero watched as his father departed from the living room, allowing Hero to be left alone with his thoughts. In a way, he was rather excited that being able to convince his father about this, admittedly, strange request came through even easier than he was expecting. But from another angle… something about it all simply was irking him the wrong way.

Hero himself didn’t even know what they’d do with the gem when, or if, they got ahold of it. There was a good chance that, especially since Mari found it first, that she’d ultimately claim possession of it. But what about explaining it to her parents? Hero’s family may be less strict on something like that, but it didn’t mean that hers would share the same sentiment. In particular her father.

Whatever the case, Hero had some spare room to think. After all, he had some time before he’d even set up a time for him and his father to go down there and check it out. He had plenty of time to think about what to do from here…

***

No time at all had passed, or at least that’s what it felt like. It’s funny how Mari believed that she had so much time for herself to be doing things in her life. She had this undertone that she was only fifteen… she still had so much ahead of her life! But now, with all that had happened with Sunny, and with the recital being over at last… something just clicked with her.

She didn’t know what exactly it was that was making her moody like this, or at least… she couldn’t pinpoint it down to just one cause. It was a lot of things. Mostly with the aftermath of her strict recital sessions with Sunny, but also, for the first time, she finally took everything ahead of her and viewed it all at the same time.

The amount of classes and time that she’s had to devote for college, and will need to keep devoting towards… the amount of time it’s eaten up is just now starting to dawn on her. She hardly even sees any of her other friends anymore, safe for Hero, of course. She’s always at school for her extracurriculars now, or at home. At least now that the recital was over, she could find time to wedge in sessions where she’d be able to see the others again. They probably missed her as much as she missed them…

But above all else, Mari felt weak and vulnerable. It was the first time ever since Sunny had come into her life that she felt hopeless to protect him. And all because of a burden that she, herself, had instilled into him. It made her gut ooze of guilt and regret. She wished she could go back and do things differently. Not be as harsh. Actually notice the degrading quality of Sunny’s hands that she had neglected for so much time.

But alas, she would never be granted that opportunity. And she didn’t even know if she’d ever be able to make it up to him again. That last conversation that she had with Sunny made the strain on their relationship as enforced as ever.

Mari’s train of thought was cut off short by the sound of footsteps approaching her location. Alright, maybe sitting in limbo in the music room after the big recital wasn’t such a good idea. And footsteps of that magnitude could belong only to one man.

“Mari, dear… are you doing alright in here?”

“...I’m fine, dad… I’m just… thinking…” Mari’s voice remained quiet and calm. But it didn’t sound tranquil and peaceful as it always did at other times. There was a tone of defeat and despair that intertwined with her voice now.

With a heavy sigh, her father approached the girl before answering, “I know what you’re probably thinking… but Sunny is going to be fine, alright? He’s a tough kid…”

Mari shook her head to that response. “But I… I hurt him a lot, dad… it was all my fault.”

“None of us realized what was happening, Mari… you weren’t the only one…” Mr. Suzuki’s head lifted itself away from Mari’s general direction for a moment as his eyes laid out towards the giant glass panes in the music room. “Sunny seemed pretty excited to get to play with you when he asked you about the recital… I don’t think he wanted anyone to know… now, obviously, that wasn’t smart, but… you can’t beat yourself up over this.”

Mari lay her hand over her forehead as she sighed with a depressed tone. “I can’t do that… I spent my whole life protecting him… so that stuff like that wouldn’t happen!”

“Listen, Mari…” Her father put his hand on one of her shoulders, which ushered Mari to look at him head on. “I came in here because I wanted to tell you something… the Suzuki bloodline… we’ve been there for each other for generations… always and forever, we’ve had our love for each other to keep us going. We protect each other, and we look out for each other.”

Mari’s eyes flickered across the man in front of her as he continued, “So even in times where we have to give those who we care for and love space… that love will never diminish. It will remain… that’s what my father always told me. And I want you to know that, my daughter.”

She could feel tears flooding in her eyes, but she didn’t want her father to see that. So, with a simple nod, Mari responded with a faint, “Thanks, dad… I’ll-… I’ll think on that.”

Mari’s father gave her a slight smile before he trailed off back upstairs, heading off to whatever destination he needed to seek next. Whatever that may be wasn’t what was important right now. Mari’s mind was on far more deprecating matters.

She certainly thought about what he had told her. She thought long and hard about a particular sentence that he said. ‘ We protect each other, and we look out for each other.’ Mari hadn’t done either of those things. At all. Not once in the past month did she ever check on Sunny to make sure he was okay. Not even the bare minimum. It was all work, work, work. Recital, recital, recital. And of course, the negative remarks she’d always nonchalantly make towards him.

All of it snowballed into a giant mess that she was directly responsible for.

Before Mari could depart herself from that room as well, she felt the tears swelling down her cheek before her head caved in on top of her arm, and the sounds of her own chokes could be heard by only her in that moment.

***

“Hey, sport… mind if I come in?”

It was pretty early for him to be going to bed this early, but considering how he was still trying to mentally recover from having been putting his all into those recital sessions, it made sense that he was still rather tired from it all. Regardless, Sunny wasn’t really about to reject his father from coming into his room.

With a noise that could be described as a mixture of a mutter and a sigh, Sunny nodded towards the man on the other side of the room, signalling for his entrance.

After Sunny’s dad entered the room, he sat down at the side of his bed, waited a moment or two before, and then finally questioned, “How’re you holding up there, kid?”

Shrugging, Sunny said, “Bit tired, but… ‘m fine.”

“Uh-huh…” Mr. Suzuki nodded slightly before his head flickered back towards the door, having left it slightly agape after he had entered. “Hey, son, uh… think I should just… let you know, but… next time that you start to have any injuries, or… anything , at all, happening to your body… you tell us, okay? We were all really worried about you back there.”

He supposed he should’ve seen this coming. After all, if there was one man that you wouldn’t be able to slip a secret past, if any, it was his father. Sunny just didn’t want to put Mari on the spot after willingly putting himself in that position. He had believed that it wouldn’t make him look good; joining his sister at the recital and suddenly whining about how it hurt to play? It sounded more childish in his head, in spite of how real and treacherous that pain was.

All in all, though, he didn’t want to make Mari look bad. While sure, she may have unintentionally allowed for his condition to prosper, she wasn’t aware of it in the first place. If she was, it likely would’ve been taken care of before it got worse. It’s another reason why, in spite of Sunny’s will wanting to avoid his sister for now, he still couldn’t convince himself to fully blame her for what happened to him.

Well, time to snap back into the present before his mind trailed off too far. Sunny looked towards his father and nodded with a monotone expression, though usually that was just his content face.

“Hey kid, listen… you’re a tough nut, alright? I saw your hands after the recital… it looked like it must’ve been really painful for you, but… you endured it regardless… I just want you to know that you are capable out there.” Hearing his father say all of that made Sunny suddenly look with wider eyes towards him, a sort of child-like wonder flooding his face now.

Sunny’s father cleared his throat before adding, “And also, uh… don’t worry about your sister. I think… maybe some time alone may be for the best, you know? Perhaps it’s finally about time that you start to be independent. She has been with you for as long as you’ve been around.”

Well, yeah. He wasn’t about to argue against that. In fact, everything that he just said was right to Sunny. He just needed some time to be alone from Mari. Only a bit. And with that time, maybe he can finally learn a few things on his own. Having Mari essentially care for him ever since he popped into existence has been nice for as long as it’s lasted. But now, having some time apart from Mari sounded as good a time as any.

Sunny merely responded to his father’s suggestion with another nod, with this one being quicker and more defined. It was truly a wonder just how much you could grasp out of Sunny through just his body language alone. With how many hours he and Aubrey have spent on the swings, she’s probably got him read like a book by now.

Afterwards was when Mr. Suzuki finally relieved himself from the side of Sunny’s bed. “Alright, kiddo… you should get some rest.” He lay a rough hand on Sunny’s head, and much to Sunny’s dismay, the scratching ensued, ruffling his hair up that was already probably looking like a mess as it was. In the morning, he was gonna look like a holy terror. One of the aspects of not having Mari taking care of him like a baby was not having her fix his hair up so well. Well, y’know… except for the cowlick. That cowlick was eternal.

“Good night, Sunny! Sleep well…” His father called to him as he was seen leaving Sunny’s room, closing the door behind him to ensure that Sunny, likely, had the night to himself now-

“Hm…”

Ah, right. For whatever reason, Sunny had completely forgotten that Mari wasn't here yet. Normally she went to bed before him, so having her be the one to follow up going to bed after he was in for the night was a once in a blue moon event. It hardly ever happened.

The plight of Mari going from across the room to her bed remained mostly silent, with neither party saying a word to one another. The only set of words that were ushered to anyone was when Mari quietly spoke to her brother,

“Good night, Sunny.”

After a long moment of hesitation, the boy decided to respond with a simple, “G’night…”

Chapter Text

Even after a couple days ran by, it was hard for Kel not to be thinking about that gemstone that he found by the hangout spot. What he was going to use it for, he honestly wasn’t sure, but the thing had to be worth thousands of dollars, at least. That was like a steal .

“I’m just saying, Basil, do you know how many action figures you can buy with that kind of money?! And that’s just what we think it’s worth! I-It could be worth even more than that!” Kel’s optimism was nearly infectious, however, Basil attempted to keep a level head on the situation. While the prospect of all this did indeed sound good, he was still intent on making sure the item didn’t have a previous owner who was looking for it first.

“Well, I haven’t been able to find anything on the internet so far, but I still think we should keep looking just in case…” Basil mentioned. The two were currently at their lunch period, and whilst Basil grabbed the sandwich from his bag, Kel just groaned as he clapped his hands onto his forehead like he was having a top-tier migraine.

“But Basil … we’ve looked everywhere and it hasn’t said anywhere about someone having a weird gem with a… plastic thingamajig on it.” The despair in Kel’s voice would be sort of funny if it wasn’t for the fact that Basil found Kel’s pleaing to just take the very expensive gem and run off to be aggravating.

Sighing, Basil said, “Look, Kel, I’m sorry, but this is very valuable. Do you wanna know what’ll happen if we keep it and it really belongs to somebody else?”

“We, uh… we just keep it?”

“We’ll be stealing it, Kel. And if we don’t give it back, we could get into trouble for it…”

“Whatcha guys talking’ about over here?”

Kel’s face suddenly dropped as soon as he heard the voice being directed towards the two of them. Oh, great, he recognized that high-pitched, yet somehow miraculously annoying voice anywhere. It was Aubrey ! And she was trying to wedge her way into the conversation just like she always does.

Sunny was with her too, still fitted with the copious bandages wrapping around his hands and arms, and the two sat down just ahead of both Kel and Basil, with Aubrey giving the two boys a quizzical stare.

Quickly, Kel rubbed the back of his neck before he nervously answered, “Uh, n-nothing! Just… dumb, boring, guy stuff. Nothing that y-you would be interested in, Aubrey!”

“Hmph. Liar…” Aubrey puffed towards Kel as his face instantaneously dropped at the seams. “Did anyone ever tell you that you’re terrible at lying, Kel? Cause I sure will.”

“Aubrey, shut up! You’re always getting under my skin!”

Eyebrows furrowing, Aubrey grumbled, “Then just tell me what you and Basil are talking about. It doesn’t need to be some kind of big secret…”

Sunny watched from the comfort of his spot both Aubrey and Kel going ham on each other… again. He doesn’t know how those two can even consider each other friends with all the bickering and arguing they always seem to get themselves intertwined with. And judging from the condescending look Basil was giving them both as they pursued their pointless verbal war, it was clear he thought the same.

“Can you two get off each other’s throats for once?!” Basil suddenly cried out before he immediately retracted himself from his sudden outburst. It seemed to have worked for the time being, however, as both Aubrey and Kel fell completely silent and gave Basil concerned looks as they observed his ashamed stature.

“Basil? Are you okay?... I’m sorry, I wasn’t trying to make you mad…” Aubrey apologized towards the boy as Basil only rubbed the sides of his head in embarrassment.

Still in a nervous position, Kel added, “Y-Yeah, Bas…”

Aubrey looked down as her body turned away from Kel and Basil, right before she said softly, “I’ll leave you guys alone. I’ll just… sit by myself.” Before anyone could say anything else, Aubrey hopped from her seat and started migrating towards an empty bench. Sunny’s expression turned into that of panic as his eyes looked towards Aubrey and he soon followed her.

With a breath of relief, Kel sighed, “Phew, that was close… are you doing alright, Basil?” Kel looked over towards the blonde, but instead of a proper response to his question, all Kel received was a disappointed look from him.

“Seriously, Kel? Why can’t you or Aubrey ever get along? And why does this gem have to be so much of a secret between just us two? Don’t the others deserve to know… seeing as they’re your friends ?”

“It’s not so much that I don’t trust them… well, okay, I don’t trust Aubrey, but I just know what’s gonna happen! They’ll find out about it, and then they’ll want to use it for whatever they want!” Kel plopped his chin onto the table as he glanced towards Basil. “Like, it’s ours… we were the ones who found it! Why should they have to share what we can do with it?”

Basil could probably lay that sentence out on a table and dissect at least ten different things wrong with what Kel just said, given the context. However, lunch was going to end soon, and he really didn’t feel like continuing to argue with him about this right now. So with a simple sigh, Basil said bluntly, “Let’s just see… maybe you should actually figure out what you wanna do before you use it.”

Right across from Kel and Basil were a couple of other kids eavesdropping on the current conversation. “They do realize we can hear everything they’re saying, right?”

Aubrey’s disappointed question made Sunny him to himself as he simply watched on and listened to whatever Basil and Kel were discussing. Something about a gem that they found, and judging from the looks of it, a rather valuable and expensive one too. Looks like all of Kel’s treasure hunting games actually did pay off after all.

“Hm… what is this gem that Kel is talking about?” Aubrey questioned herself as she continued to peer towards both Kel and Basil in their ongoing conversation. To her side, Sunny seemed to be letting his interest in the matter fade out of his head, something that didn’t go unnoticed by Aubrey. “Sunny, are you feeling okay?”

Nodding, Sunny responded plainly, “Mhm. Just tired…” Sunny’s chin landed on the edge of the table as he expressed a rather bored face.

Aubrey giggled a bit as she looked toward Sunny. She always thought it was cute whenever he wasn’t fully there and talked like that. She knew that some of the others, especially Mari, didn't particularly like it, but to Aubrey, she just… didn’t mind it. She didn’t know why that was the case for herself. Maybe she had just been around Sunny for long enough to learn to accept that about him.

Or… maybe she thought of it that way because of her-

“Aubrey?”

Whoops, looks like she zoned out a bit there letting her thoughts trail. Swiftly shaking her head to knock herself back into reality, she anxiously asked, “Um… y-yes, Sunny?”

“I-I was, um… just wondering… would you… wanna go to the park sometime after school today?”

With a surprised reaction, Aubrey flickered her eyes around before answering, “O-Oh, um… yeah, sure! Uh, I just gotta make sure that it’s… okay with my parents first…” She hated saying that. She hated that it was something that even needed to occur in the first place. Any time she needed to go anywhere, it always needed to be given the okay from her mom or dad first, the latter of which usually wasn’t around.

Sunny quickly caught on the discontent that was flourishing within Aubrey’s face after she responded, so with a simple nod, Sunny announced calmly, “It’s okay… don’t worry about it. If you can’t make it, I won’t mind.”

It was quite peculiar… even in times when Aubrey was down, just having Sunny be by her made her even just the slightest bit better. It was an effect only Sunny had on her and that she never shared with anyone else. Regardless, the school bell was about to ring and Aubrey was about to look like a doofus if she didn’t do or say anything fast.

“Um… yeah, of course, Sunny! I’ll, uh… I-I’ll see what I can do!” Aubrey exchanged a cheery, yet nervous smile towards Sunny right before the sound of the bells echoed through everyone’s ears. The time for monotonous learning was about to pick up once more.

As Sunny and Aubrey bidded farewell for the time being and went their separate ways, Aubrey’s head was spinning. Ugh, why couldn’t she just maintain a normal conversation with him without stuttering or feeling like she had said something stupid ! She could do it with Kel and Basil just fine, but whenever it was a conversation that was just her and Sunny and it didn’t involve venting her heart out about her home life, her posture just failed. It was so embarrassing for her.

However, that didn’t matter right now. She would have to endure the rest of the school day before she would see him or any of the others again.

***

The pattern did nothing but continue on and on for Mari. The room which once had a vibrant simplicity to its walls now seemed dull and monotonous. She could only lay motionless as she continued to think about what had led her down this path. She felt selfish for taking so long on something that she was sure her parents and maybe even Sunny, at this point, had all gotten over.

But she just couldn’t help but get this continuous sinking feeling in her gut that kept weighing her down. Like she wasn’t allowed to just… ignore it , and move on from her actions. It made her feel like she was a sick individual for doing so.

Even with school to aid her in taking her mind off of things, it wasn’t enough. She had gotten home and she didn’t feel any better than when she had left. It was all the same. That same decadent hole that was piercing through her stomach that prevented her from feeling anything. She felt like she failed him, and for that, she wouldn’t be allowed to move on from where she lay. How she wished she could get away from it all, but wouldn’t that only make her worse?

Suddenly, the sound of the telephone blasted around the house from Mari’s nightstand. Someone must be trying to call her. Either that or it was another shameless telemarketer trying to pry off of whomever they could get their grimy hands on. Whatever the case, Mari was looking for any excuse to divert even the slightest attention away from Sunny’s condition.

As she picked up the phone and held it to her ear, a low and simple, “Hello?” left her mouth before she heard who was on the other line.

“Hey there, Mari. How are you doing?”

Ah, of course. Who else’s voice would that be? “Hi Hero… I’m doing… alright, I suppose. How about you?”

Hero seemed to hesitate with his answer. “Um… I’m doing good. But… you don’t… sound good, Mari? Are you sure everything is alright?”

Sighing heavily, Mari responded with, “I don’t know. I’ve just been thinking a lot about Sunny lately… I feel bad, Hero. I feel really bad. About what I did.” Mari felt her voice begin to croak the longer she spoke. She tried with all her might to keep that form of weakness concealed within her.

“Well, Mari… try not to let it get to you too much. I hate seeing you upset like this.”

“I-I know, but just… what are you doing right now? Is everything going okay?”

Clearing his throat, Hero answered, “Yes, well… you see, I got my dad on board with taking a look at that gemstone that we had found the other day. I wanted to see if maybe you wanted to come with me in about half an hour down to the park?”

Mari’s head was vibrating from having the phone be so close to her ear. Or maybe that was just her mind forming a headache for later. Wonderful. Either way, Mari hummed a bit with a monotone voice to boot before responding, “Sure… but I can’t stay for long. I have homework to do later.”

“Of course. Meet me at the park at 4:30. I’ll see you then.”

Forcing a chuckle out of her system, Mari responded, “Sounds good, Hero. See you.”

“Bye.”

The clicking that rang across her ear indicated that the connection between him and her had been lost. It was a bit silly for him to call her when they were right next door to each other, but at the same time, she really couldn’t care less. Speaking of not caring less, should she really be doing this? Wasn’t this going against her belief that she shouldn’t be allowed to run away and ignore all of this?

But at the same time, Mari did remember about the gemstone, but only after Hero had mentioned it to her again. She still felt like she could help if she brought it home with her. In a way, being able to help her family financially might be even just part of the way she could make it up to Sunny for having put him under performance hell for a month. Perhaps this was an opportunity that was waiting for her, and this might be her only one.

Trying as hard as she could to change up her mindset and her tune, Mari grunted to herself as she whispered, “Okay, it’s fine, Mari… it’s for mom, dad, and Sunny. If you can help them… you… you might be able to fix things.” Mari’s voice quivered as she went on, so she quickly ceased talking as she looked up at the alarm clock on her nightstand. 4:05 PM. Well, she had some time to get ready. Better get on that.

Dad had to work today up in the big city and mom is currently in OtherMart doing her grocery shopping, and then she’ll be meeting a couple of friends before returning home, so she should be granted plenty of time to do this with Hero. Regarding Sunny, he said that he was going to be meeting Aubrey at the park, so they should-

Wait… oh…

That could be bad. If Sunny and Aubrey would both be at the park whenever she and Hero were there, they might catch them sneaking off into the old hangout spot, and then what? She didn’t exactly need to worry about keeping this a secret from anyone since nobody was aware of the gem’s existence, but now? If those two caught her and Hero back at that spot again, what would be their reactions? Confusion? Anger? That’s not even mentioning the gem itself. It did seem greedy for Mari to try and be hogging this for herself, even if she would be using it for a good purpose.

No, Mari, this was fine! All that she had to do was prevent being seen going into the hangout spot. Besides, Sunny and Aubrey would probably be too preoccupied to even notice them there. She wasn’t fully aware of what they’d do, but she did know that Aubrey liked talking her ear off to Sunny, so that might just be enough for this to work.

Regardless, Mari took a deep breath in as she pondered on Hero and what would be awaiting her there when she got to the park.

***

“Thanks again for helping me out with this, dad.”

That was really how Hero felt about taking his dad to the site in which he and Mari had found the gemstone just a few days prior. But there was, of course, something else that was putting him on edge, and that was the fact that he was taking him to the location of their old hangout spot. Nobody else, aside from everyone in their friend group, was even aware of its existence. So for Hero to be granting access of its whereabouts to his father, of all people, was making him a little nervous, to put it lightly.

Additionally, Mari still hadn’t shown up to act as backup for him. Maybe she was still getting ready, or perhaps she just couldn’t find it in her to go this time because of her thinking so arduously about her brother…

Oh, Mari. How he wished he could help her out more than he was able to currently. Seeing her in a funk like this made his heart sink, and he was hoping that somewhere out there was an answer that he needed to do something else. But maybe he’d wait for that when he did see her.

“Alright, kid… where did you say this was located, again?”

Yeah, right. He was kind of in the middle of a mission. Hurriedly, Hero called out to his father, “It’s down further by the park. Mari and I were walking around here when we noticed something shining down there. I don’t think you’ll be able to see it because we moved it behind a tree before we left when we found it the first time.”

Hero was starting to pick up on a rather stern glare resonating from his father’s face, but he continued onward, knowing full well that they were quickly trailing off the normal park grounds. “This is quite far from the park, kid… Hero, are you sure about this?”

Nodding, Hero replied, “Yeah, I am.” Hero found his eyes wavering a bit towards the normal entrance towards the hangout spot. He was not about to lead his dad down there. Instead, he opted to take a side route, which mostly just involved going through the plethora of trees until they made it to the hill where he and Mari found the gem. A perfectly normal and stabilized plan indeed.

As the two members of the Rodriguez family made their way down the hill, finally entering on a clearing that had the mass of trees in a much lower number, Hero squinted his eyes and looked around to see if he could remember where he and Mari placed it. Huh… that’s strange. He should’ve been able to see it reflecting off of the sun by now. Maybe the sun was too low now and the gem wasn’t reflecting off of it this time? It would make sense, he was here later than the previous time he had come down here-

“Hero, uh… are you sure it was around here? Maybe this… isn’t such a good idea.”

That was more of what he was expecting from his dad whenever he told him about this excavation, but the two of them had come this far. He wasn’t going to turn back from it now, not when they were right here. “Yes, I’m sure. I just need to remember where Mari and I placed it. I-It was… behind one of these trees.” Carefully, Hero attempted to backtrack where he had maneuvered previously so that he could locate the precarious gem. With a bit of a begrudging sigh, his father followed suit to see if maybe there really was a sort of sacred gem around here.

It was around now when Hero’s dad began to catch glimpses of the hangout spot himself. Hero knew that this could be bad for the future, but he didn’t let that get to him right now. He was on a mission, or at least, that’s how he saw it in his head. But Mr. Rodriguez was more intrigued with the area that lay above them, rather than the gemstone hunt itself. He saw the stone statue, the lake, and likely the one thing Hero wasn’t hoping he would notice… the various abandoned construction equipment left by its entrance.

With a nervous expression now, he ushered to his son, “Hero… you do realize that this is supposed to be blocked off, right?”

Uh oh, that didn’t sound good. Hero needed to find that gemstone, and fast . But no matter where he looked, it was nowhere to be seen. He could’ve sworn he had seen it placed next to this tree… or maybe it was that tree? Crap, now he didn’t even know where to find it. Drat, if only Mari had shown up, she would’ve known where to-

“Hero, where are you?”

Oh, perfect timing. Hero immediately beelined it towards the direction of Mari’s voice as his father merely looked onwards at his son in total confusion. Aye aye aye, he was too old for these kinds of shenanigans. Maybe he shouldn’t have agreed to this after all.

“Mari, there you are!” Hero stopped just a foot away from Mari’s face, startling her and nearly causing her to fall over in the process. This was then followed by several frantic sorries by Hero, who had forgotten about her bad knee from his excitement to see her.

“N-No, it’s fine, Hero… thank you. You seem… nervous. What’s going on?”

Rubbing the back of his neck, Hero glanced behind him where his father stood there, staring at the two with a quizzical eyebrow before Hero ushered both of them down the hill whilst answering, “Well, I was trying to find the gem but I can’t seem to find it again. I thought it was by the tree next to where we found it originally.”

Truth be told, it was hard for Mari to keep her mind straight, even with this objective in tow. Still, though, she attempted to push those condescending thoughts aside and focus on what was happening in front of her. She swiftly pinpointed the area in which they had pulled the gem out from where they first found it, being signified by a giant crevasse in the grass, to which Mari’s gaze flickered over towards a particular tree.

“I remember… it was over there.” Mari slowly walked over there as Hero and his father exchanged looks with one another before shortly following behind Mari. As the girl made her way to the other side of the tree caught in her stare, she soon found that there was nothing resting there.

With a shocked expression, Mari proclaimed, “What?! But… it was here when I left it! M-Maybe it got blown off somewhere…”

“It hasn’t really been windy the past few days, kid…” Hero’s dad responded towards Mari, and as she frantically continued to look around for it, her mind suddenly thought of something that didn’t even strike her, nor Hero’s brains up until this point. “Oh no… Hero, I think that somebody took that gem!”

Hero expressed a confused look towards Mari as he said, “No, Mari, that can’t be. Wh-Who else would come over here?” Then that was when Hero realized that his father was literally right next to him, and before his face dropped, his dad made a comment towards his son.

“Maybe somebody else in the park found it after you two had left. If they have it, I don’t think that there’s anything that we can do, kid.”

Then, Mari’s mind was pulled back to something else that had long since been condensed into her subconscious. Sunny and Aubrey were at the park. She didn’t see them on her way over, which meant that maybe, just maybe… they had found the gem and took it from the old hangout spot. It would make sense, since they were some of the only other members of the friend group who even knew about the spot anyways.

“Wait a second, Hero… Sunny and Aubrey were here at the park earlier… maybe they found the gem and took it!” As Mari expressed her theory towards Hero in a rather frantic fashion, he looked downwards and hummed to himself in thought.

“I mean, it’s certainly possible… but if he has it, we’d have to go over to your house, right Mari?”

Hero’s father looked down towards the two teenagers as he simply sighed to the situation being unveiled in front of him. “Well, just don’t get into any trouble, you two. And if somebody else has it, I’d prefer you to let it be. I appreciate you trying to find this to help our families out, but we’re not thieves. Understand?”

Hero nodded as he replied, “Of course, dad. We will.” A sudden, awkward duration of silence pierced the air as Hero sensed himself looking at Mari’s direction, who was waiting for somebody to say or do something else. As Mari noticed Hero’s stance, her face poofed with surprise and she looked towards the Rodriguez father and added, “O-Oh, yes! Of course, Mr. Rodriguez… I’ll make sure to be careful too.”

Nodding in response, Hero’s father then remarked, “Alright, I’m going to head back to the house, you two. Like I said, stay out of trouble. And Hero… if you do find that gem, I’d like you to bring it over to my house. I want to take a look at it and go from there.”

“Sure, dad…” Hero said plainly, and as the three of them made their way out of that shady, yet rather relaxing part of the park, Mari and Hero watched as the old man departed from the two teenagers and made his way out of the park and back towards his house.

Once he was out of sight, Hero sighed swiftly before explaining, “Alright, so the first plan of action is to find Sunny and Aubrey?”

Mari’s face clicked towards Hero as she nervously answered, “Oh, uh, yeah, o-of course…” She was practically praying from the edge of her seat that she wouldn’t have to run into Aubrey or Sunny during this trip, but now it was practically a necessity . Obviously if they were the ones that had the gem, than that would probably be the best case scenario. But just with not really talking or, heck, even seeing Sunny hardly at all these past couple of days, it was so weird to try and approach him now.

Ugh, she hated this. She hated everything about what had led her down this trail. She wish she could just have her brother back. She was so tired of it all. Her mind was all flaky and deflated from her constant space-keeping to the point that at times, she really couldn’t think clearly at all.

Such as when Hero was calling for her name over and over again, eventually having to resort to grabbing her shoulders and shaking her a bit to get her to snap back to reality.

As Mari was thrown right out of her train of thought, she heard Hero call to her with a loud, yet concerned tone in his voice, proclaiming, “Mari, are you there? I need you to be with me here…”

Her face had a boat of surprise and withdrawn self-resentment fluctuating its very form. She sighed deeply as she rubbed her upper arm, stating, “Yeah, I’m… fine. I just keep thinking about… you know…”

Hero gave a solemn expression towards her as he mentioned, “It’s alright. But try not to think about that. And hey, if Sunny and Aubrey do have it, then maybe it’d be a good idea to just-”

However, Hero’s suggestion was swiftly interrupted when he was rudely shoved to the side by a blur who just barely caught the eye of the two of them. A very snarky and taunting, “Outta the way, nerds !” was heard just as soon as Hero was pushed aside.

In a heartbeat, nearly all of Mari’s inner deprecation and turmoil had been plunged out of her system as she found herself eying towards the kid responsible for pushing Hero over. With a light gasp, her eyebrows furrowed slowly as she whispered to herself, “Who is?…”

Finally, the perfectionist allowed her sullenness to consume her gut for the time being as she said with an agitated tone, “Hold on, Hero. That kid needs to get back here and apologize to you!”

Suddenly, before Hero was even back up on his feet, Mari had made a mad dash towards whomever was responsible for pushing him. After a prolonged duration of time of Hero slowly getting back on his feet and breathing heavily from a simple fall, he looked bleakly towards Mari as he shook his head.

Before he gave chase after her, he simply commented to himself, “Mari… I don’t think this is a good idea.”

***

A gleaming crystalline sat dormant by the bedroom of a boy who thought that its inclusion as part of his house was rather off-putting. The only reason that he even kept it with him was because the boy who had found the item insisted over his dead body on residing it over there. Instead of, you know… keeping it as his own house.

But unfortunately, Kel was already obnoxiously adamant towards Basil about not having anyone else in his family see it. His fear is that such a valuable gem could cause a ruckus amongst the friend group over who will be allowed to use it for what. Kel’s logic is that if they both keep it in secret, they’ll be able to keep the group stabilized.

Now, of course, Basil thinks that all of that is just a bunch of malarkey, but nobody knows about its existence, and it doesn’t hurt Kel to be playing this little game of his. Though, if Basil is being honest to himself, Kel is just lucky that he’s so nice .

“Man, Aubrey is just so cheeky … she never knows when to keep things to herself!” Kel bashing about his other friends didn’t help matters though, that’s for sure. If this kept up, he wasn’t sure if there would be a house for the two of them to remain under. Kel’s antics got rather extreme sometimes. And Basil’s grandmother wasn’t exactly acutely attentive towards the others in the same way that Hero and Mari were, or heck… literally any other parent in the town. In a way, Hero and Mari were practically their parents whenever they were all together in the same area.

Basil simply sighed to himself as he laid his thoughts on the back burner for a few seconds. “All that I’m saying, Kel, is that I think you’re overreacting on this. And besides, do you even know what you’re going to use that money for?”

Kel suddenly hopped up in excitement as he ecstatically responded, “Oh, yes, yes! I thought about it during our way back to your house! I could get so many action figures with this! And, and … maybe that new console that just came out! I’d be the coolest kid in school!”

Basil simply shook his head amidst Kel’s laughter before he commented, “But… don’t you think that you could use that money for, you know… more responsible things? Oh, like maybe saving it up for when you go to college! You would be able to save a lot of your other money that way!”

To that response, Kel simply gave Basil a disgusted look. “You wanna spend your money on… school? ” Kel chuckled to himself for a bit, only earning him a disappointed glare from the blonde before he added, “That’s boring, Basil. You don’t wanna spend it on something cool ? Like, at all?”

Basil merely shrugged before saying, “I-I already have everything I could want. My photo album and my camera are my most treasured belongings, and… I have all of you guys. I don’t really think that there’s anything that I could use that gem for.”

Kel raised a quizzical eyebrow towards Basil as he questioned, “Really, you don’t?” After Basil nodded his head, Kel glanced back towards the glistening gemstone before a devious smile slowly crossed across Kel’s face before he added, “Well, in that case, that just means that there’s more for me, hehe! Hm, I wonder if I could also put a bit of the money in for, um… hm… nah, not really for that-”

Kel’s voice trailed off as Basil looked away from him with a heavy sigh. He had tried to instill some form of lesson onto him, but it was clear that Kel was a bit more dense than he had anticipated. With this in mind, he tried to think of what to do from here. Sure, Kel did find the gem first, but it was probably a good idea to keep it in store for later in case something happens. And preferably not use it on something like action figures .

Now with a goal in mind, Basil shuffled his head back to where Kel was, seeing that he was still preoccupied thinking on what he was going to spend that gem on. He was probably going to be there for a while, so this game gave Basil some time to sneak out and see if he could find somebody who actually knew how they could use that kind of money. Preferable Hero or Mari.

Yes, Basil had initially insinuated the idea of playing along with Kel’s game. But at this point, it had just grown out of him, and Kel was just keeping a gem hostage from the rest of the friend group. There ultimately wasn’t much fun to be had in that, at least to him. Even if Kel was enjoying himself concocting whatever wacky things he could purchase for himself with the gem, he could still go on about that for a little while before Basil returned.

So while the toothy-grinned boy was preoccupied, Basil slowly made his way out of his own home and made a mad dash towards Hero and Mari’s places. His mind scurried a bit before finally settling down, knowing that he had left Kel of all people alone in a confined space. But Basil had to rest himself assured that he would be fine. He wouldn’t be gone for that long, right?

Shaking those thoughts out of his head, Basil turned his attention to the reason he was running across the streets like a mad man anyways. He wanted to find Hero and Mari.

***

“Thanks for coming with me to the park, Sunny! I’m… sorry if it was a bit of a hassle.”

Those words left Aubrey’s lips as she and the boy next to her remained sitting on the two idle swing seats. Both of them swayed themselves back and forth slowly, yet rhythmically. For some time, Sunny hadn’t even been thinking back on his situation or about Mari. He was, for lack of a better term, happy to just have Aubrey to keep him company. He considered himself quite lucky to even be here with her right now. After all, she was usually the one to set these kinds of sessions up. He had never asked for her to take up her time for his sake.

Although Sunny’s mind had been wavering away from those worries for a little while, that wasn’t fated to last for long. He felt his brain suddenly cloud itself once more with feelings of guilt and uncertainty. A large lump formed at the bottom of his throat as his breathing intensified from the newfound emotions that were swelling through his chin. All of said thoughts linked back to that dreaded stage where his vision went numb and his senses lost all functionality.

Of course, he still felt sullen towards his sister for that. She had been the proprietor for that series of events to unfold, but those feelings and thoughts were not of his own accord. It was almost like his brain was being forced into targeting his big sister in such a spiteful way. Whatever the cause may be, it didn’t make the internal struggle any more bearable.

He just wished that he could move past it. Sure, it had only been a few days, but it wasn’t like he was still being hospitalized. The bandages and cuts underneath were annoying and sometimes rather painful, but that was about as far as it would get.

Sunny’s turmoil didn’t go by unnoticed by Aubrey, however. “What’s wrong, Sunny?” A few moments of silence of Aubrey looking towards him, whilst Sunny slowly gave her a desolate glance in response. That spoke more to her than whatever verbal answer he could have given her. “Oh… it’s… about Mari, huh? About what happened…” Aubrey’s tone shuffled deeper into being concerned as her expression only soured more by the second.

She nodded towards the quiet boy before she stopped her swaying of the swing set and turned herself to better face Sunny. “I’m really sorry about what happened, Sunny… I wish that there was more I could’ve done to help.” Aubrey brushed the top of her hair as she let out a heavy sigh. “Maybe… maybe there was.”

Before she could say anymore, an abrupt hiccup was heard from Sunny before he questioned slowly, “Aubrey, can… c-can I… talk to you… for once?”

Aubrey’s eyes widened with surprise as her eyes locked onto Sunny’s face. He seemed a bit less saddened now, but considering the question in mind, it likely wouldn’t last that way for very long. Regardless, she’d be willing to do whatever it took to help him out in this situation, whether to vent his heart out for a change, or to simply be by his side during the trip. She’d make that happen for him.

“Sure, Sunny…” She responded simply as she attempted to make a reassuring smile towards him, but all that did was cause a very faint blush to form over his cheeks, ones that Aubrey probably didn’t notice.

Sunny sat himself more upright as he released a long sigh himself. Right after, he began, “I don’t want to be mad at Mari for this… at all… I just want to move past this.” Sunny paused before his head lingered at a downward angle. “But… I just can’t … I… I don’t know why I keep feeling so angry at her after all of this, I-I just-”

The boy’s rambling came to a halt as he felt a slight sensation hovering just on his shoulder. Sunny ceased his sentence as he found himself looking at Aubrey, who had laid her hand atop his shoulder. With a solemn glance, she responded, “I feel a bit… conflicted, myself. I’ve been thinking about what happened too. I still can’t… get that out of my head… when… you two were fighting that night. I hated to see it. I just wanted her to stop it.”

Aubrey felt a sudden flow of tears within her system, and there was a good amount of resistance to hold them back. But that didn’t stop her body from sniffling in that moment before she continued, “I never wanted to see you guys fight, a-and that whole, I just… I don’t know, I guess… I just wanted her to realize what she was doing, but… I don’t think she ever did.”

Sunny looked with wide eyes towards Aubrey, who at this point, could very well be on the verge of tears. Sunny rubbed his forehead lightly, knowing full well that his hands would begin hissing at him for such. “I-I… I think she did. When I came home from the hospital a… c-couple days ago, she seemed like she… felt bad for what she did.” Sunny paused for a few moments as he waited for Aubrey to look towards him, still with that saddened face plastered over her. That was one of the Aubrey faces that he really didn’t like, but it was a face he had seen often on her before.

“B-but it’s because of that that I… don’t know why I can’t seem to forgive her for… what she did. I’m just… so confused …” Finally, Sunny slouched himself down on the swing set as he felt a sudden influx of tears begin to weigh in on him. Before he could properly begin, however, was when he felt himself being forcefully upholstered by someone close to him.

Sunny’s expression warped to that of shock, though his overwhelming sadness was still apparent, as Aubrey wrapped him around her arms as another sniffle was heard coming from her nose just beside him. “Sunny… I’m sorry… I know that you were expecting me to say something to h-help you, but… I just don’t .”

A couple seconds of silence pierced the air as Sunny felt his head shaking by itself. With his voice croaking drastically from his withdrawal to shed any tears, he choked out, “N-No, Aubrey… I wasn’t. Just… having someone to talk to is… enough for me.” Sunny chuckled, and then coughed a little before he felt his head drop down again, no longer being able to prevent his tears from falling down his reddened cheeks.

Aubrey soon followed suit on the boulevard of sobbing as she too felt herself begin to break down with Sunny still in her embrace. He, too, had grappled his arms around her, allowing for them both, in spite of being on different swings, to let themselves have this moment together. It didn’t even matter if anyone else was watching them. Nothing else was important right now.

“I want to be here for you, Sunny…” Aubrey spoke quietly, her voice acting as an angelic presence on Sunny’s ear as the two persisted in their embrace of one another. “I promise… I’ll do whatever it takes to help you.”

At that moment, Sunny felt so lucky. He not only had a caring family and lived in a quiet, peaceful town, but he also had some of the best friends that he could have ever asked for. All of the hardships and misery that he had to endure for the past month, what with the recital and brief hospitalization, not to mention his damn hands… it all felt worth the trouble now. Because this moment made him so happy. And that happiness overpowered all of the other emotions he had since felt for the past month.

Neither of them knew how long they had done that for. Minutes, maybe? The time felt like such a nuanced aspect of life that it mattered not to them both. The only thing that made them eventually drift apart was when Sunny made the brave decision of opening his eyes slightly, only to see a pair that immediately snapped him away from his drifting state of mind.

Approaching the two of them, away from where their old hangout spot used to reside, were Hero and Mari.

In a heartbeat, Sunny felt his breathing quicken, to which Aubrey immediately caught notice of. It took her a few seconds for her to accept having to break away from the boy’s embrace, but she quickly realized that something wasn’t right.

“Sunny, what’s wrong?” She asked in a concerned tone. When she, too, turned to observe whatever Sunny had seen, his worry had already been justified to her mind. Hero and Mari were both walking at a steady pace, but their gaze didn’t seem to be fixated on them specifically. Although they were walking towards their general direction, it would seem that their minds were elsewhere. And Mari seemed a bit… distressed?

Right away, Aubrey was curious about what they were both doing at the park. And… had they both just come back from the old hangout spot? Nobody had been there for nearly half a year ever since… no. She didn’t want to think about that right now. Especially not while Sunny was sitting right next to her.

Before another thought could enter her head, the loud screaming of a zooming kid calling out, “Outta the way, nerds! ” vibrated across the park as someone around her and Sunny’s age dashed past the two teenagers, pushing Hero out of the way quite rudely, and also witnessing Mari becoming flustered at the sight.

Which swiftly turned to an angry expression. Uh oh, this won’t end well.

Mari swiftly gave chase to the kid as Hero, after taking his sweet ass time recovering from his fall, made his way after Mari.

It became clear soon that Sunny was full witness to the entire scene as well, so with a hurried pace, Aubrey whispered to him, “Stay here while I see what’s going on. I’ll come back, I promise.” Before Sunny could make a response of his own, Aubrey had jumped off the swings and blitzed after Hero, Mari, and the mad child who apparently couldn’t keep their hands to themselves.

The chase eventually led the group outside of the park, where they took off on the sidewalk. As Mari slowly, yet surely, gained distance onto the kid, she noticed that they had a giant felt bag in their grasp. Mari thought to herself, ‘Maybe that’s why they’re running like that… they’re stealing something!’

Shortly after those thoughts crossed Mari’s mind, though, she suddenly felt a slight tinge coming from one of her knees. In nearly an instant, her eyes widened as she fully anticipated what was to come next.

Suddenly, a sharp pain spiked up through Mari’s knee and fluctuated across her entire upper leg as the girl ceased all movement and heaved downward, seething in pain over the array of hurt that she was experiencing. Of all the times that she could have let this happen, how could she just now forget about her bad knee?

Embarrassment now filled her face layered on top of the pain she had to endure, and she overheard the kid making a mocking laugh towards her as she began to lose distance on them. Just as quickly, however, they suddenly tripped on the sidewalk and fell ahead as the giant bag that they were carrying flung across the air and eventually landed harshly on the pavement, releasing an entourage of various tiny items that nobody could quite make out at the distance they were at.

Hero had only just now caught up to the others, and was ready to question the kid on why they had run into the two of them so carelessly until he noticed Mari’s condition. Once she was in his sight, he completely disregarded whoever was ahead and ran to Mari’s aid. He helped her up as he asked softly, yet in a worried tone, “Mari, are you okay?”

Still seething in pain, Mari answered, “Y-Yeah… I’m okay… I just forgot about my knee…”

With a quiet sigh, Hero shook his head lightly and asked, “Will you need help standing? I’m here for you if you need me.”

Mari opted on giving Hero a slight smile before answering, “N-No, I’ll be fine. Thanks, Hero…” That smile of hers soon faded as her attention was brought right back to the kid who was shortly ahead of her. Hero also turned his attention towards them, watching as they were in the process of stuffing whatever it was that had fallen out of their bag right back inside.

With a panicked expression, the girl looked towards Hero and Mari before jerking her head away from them and proceeding with her stowing.

As if right on cue, a particular bow-wearing girl suddenly dashed right past Hero and Mari and stopped short in front of the girl who was almost done stuffing her stolen items back into her bag. As Aubrey curiously picked up one, she observed its contents and concluded what it was meant to be. “Candy?”

With a grunt, the short-haired girl swiped the piece away from Aubrey’s fingers before dropping it inside her bag. Aubrey then looked down and soon identified the girl’s identity. “Hey, wait a second… aren’t you Kim from school?”

Grumbling, Kim responded, “Yeah. What’s it to ya?”

Aubrey gave a sullen expression towards her before answering, “Hey, I think that you should apologize to my friend for pushing him over!”

Just as Kim finished up her candy collecting was when she flopped the bag over her shoulder and gave Aubrey a sneering expression before proclaiming, “You think I’ve got time for that? Because of you nerds , I’ve got to hurry before I get-”

“I finally found you! Smiley smiley! ” A voice that was both acutely high-pitched, yet deathly aggressive at the same time suddenly boomed right behind Kim. Before she could react, her wrist was grappled by the one responsible for producing such a distinctly threatening voice. The bag that Kim had in her grip dropped once again, spilling the plethora of junk food that was being taken captive in that bag all over the concrete floor again.

Kim’s face looked on with dread as she struggled to break free of the young lady’s grasp. “It’s about time that I turn you in to the police! You have stolen from my shop too many times!” The lady proceeded to stormily walk back the way that Kim was running from as she desperately attempted to get her wrist free whilst everyone watched with either stunned or concerned faces.

Hero was the first to speak up, questioning, “Wait, isn’t that Miss Candice? She runs the candy shop in OtherMart…”

“Wait, please! I-I promise, I won’t steal anything from your shop again!” Kim cried out in anguish as her pleas only proved to be futile in her objective of being set free.

“You should have thought of that before you became a thief . And now, you will get to think of it while you spend your time in a prison cell! Smiley smiley! ”

Kim’s cries only began to sound more desperate as she called out, “No, I-I don’t want to go to prison! It was just some candy…”

“I’m glad she’s learned her lesson, but… I think prison might be a bit too far?!” Hero’s voice heightened in volume as he struggled to think of what to do. If it were somebody else, he may have been more willing to talk them out of something like this, but Miss Candice was notorious in town for being ruthless and unrelenting to people whom she saw as problematic in her store. Especially people who stole from it.

Hero jerked his head to Mari as she was frozen in sight observing the scene. “Mari, what do we do? We have to talk her out of this somehow!”

But asking Mari at a time like this soon became out of the equation as she merely stuttered in reaction to his question. It was bad enough that she had her quarrels with Sunny in mind, but now with everything happening at once, her brain felt like it could very well overheat. “I-I… I don’t know… I just…” She nearly broke down on her knees before a peculiar boy suddenly called out from behind the group, signalling the attention of the merciless Miss Candice.

“Wait a minute! Miss Candice, I-I need you to wait!”

The aggressive woman stomped her foot as her walking ceased upon the boy’s request. She swiftly jerked her body towards the source of the voice. Within mere seconds, Basil was seen running towards Miss Candice as he breathed heavily all the while.

Right after, he proclaimed with heavy pants, “Miss Candice, wait. I-I understand that you’re… mad about her stealing from your shop-”

“More than you could ever imagine… smiley smiley! ” She abruptly cut off Basil with a deafening tone before she swiftly turned back into using her cutesy voice, before her gaze reverted back to its original terrifying self.

“...but please, Kim isn’t even a teenager yet. She can’t go to prison . I’ll admit, stealing is not right, but I don’t think it’s something that she should have to spend her life behind bars over.”

Still firmly grasping Kim’s wrist, Miss Candice crossed her arms as she puffed defiantly, “Well then, what would you like to have happen, young man ?” She squinted her eyes and gave Basil a glare that he was certain could be used as some sort of government weapon.

With a nervous gulp, Basil answered, “Well, first off… Kim, why don’t we return the candy that you took from the shop?”

That instantly didn’t sit right with her as she sputtered out, “Wh-I can’t do that! I worked really hard to get all of it!”

Basil gave her a disappointed look before replying, “And that’s the problem.”

Hero then approached the group before adding, “If you’re going to want to make up for what you did, you should return it. All of it.”

The grumpy Kim gave a pouty face before remembering that her wrist was being ensnared in the grip of another woman whom she was convinced ranked in some of the strongest people on the planet. “Or… you could go to jail. It’s up to you, though.”

And that was the final nail in the coffin for Kim. With a feisty grumble, she croaked out, “Fine. You can give her the bag.”

After Aubrey put all of the candy back into the felt bag Kim was scurrying around with, she slowly handed it to Miss Candice, the latter of whom snatched it in a speed that nobody could even see.

“Now that we returned the candy, would you be willing to let Kim go?” Aubrey asked, with Hero and Basil giving the woman optimistic looks on the situation.

Unfortunately, Miss Candice seemed to still not be budging much from the exchange. “How do I know that she’s learned her lesson? I may have gotten my items back, but I want this thief to understand that what she has done will land her in prison.”

Kim quickly took great offense to the comment. “Excuse me, thief ?! I am not a thief!”

“H-Hold on, Kim, just… calm down…” Hero calmly stated towards the girl, and after a few moments of regrettable hesitation, she reluctantly loosened her body and allowed for somebody else to speak.

Basil thought for a moment before he suggested, “Hm, what if we told her parents what happened? I’m sure she’ll learn her lesson after that.”

Kim’s face instantly dropped from the idea. “M-My parents?! No, no, you can’t tell mom! She will kill me if she finds out what I’ve been doing.”

The others gave Miss Candice a curious look on her opinions on the matter as the woman rubbed her chin observing Kim’s reaction to the suggestion Basil gave out. “Hm… I suppose that will do. Fine, kid, I won’t turn you into the police.”

Before anybody else could make a proper response, Miss Candice was already walking away from the group, until a few seconds later, when she stopped in her tracks, jerked her head towards Kim, and gave her a death-defying glare once more before announcing dreadfully,

“Oh, and one more thing. If I see you in my shop again… I will call the cops on you.”

Then, she was back on her way over to the direction of the plaza. After she was out of sight, the entire group breathed out a sigh of relief, with Kim grasping her stomach and contemplating how her life flashed before her eyes in that moment.

Basil slowly approached her before she noticed his creeping presence and gave him a stinky eye. “What, nerd?”

“You do know that I’m gonna have to make sure your mom finds out about this, right?”

Kim jerked herself away from Basil as she sputtered out, “Oh, come on, you can’t be serious! I-I can… tell mom myself!”

Basil nodded with an unconvinced face to boot as he added, “How do we know that once you leave you won’t just go home, pretending like nothing happened?”

“You take me for a liar ?!” Kim yelled out towards the blonde.

“Well, you did steal from a candy store, so…” Hero started before Kim began to give him a death glare of her own, swiftly shutting him up into silence.

With a heavy sigh, Basil mentioned, “Listen, Kim, it’s best for you to stop stealing from places. Once you get older, you really will go to jail for that kind of stuff.”

“Pff, you really think that would happen to me ?” Kim mocked Basil’s idea before the others gave her a condescending stare, which finally made her give up on the spot. “Alright, fine… I’ll tell my mom. But just know that I will remember this, uh… what was your name again?”

With a bit of a stunned face, Basil looked around for a split second before saying, “Oh, um… my name is Basil.”

“Basil… I’ll see you at school, nerd !” And with that, Kim took off towards her house, leaving the others in the dust as they contemplated everything that just happened.

“Well… now that that’s dealt with… I, um… actually was looking for you guys,” Basil announced as he faced towards Hero and Mari, the former of whom took a step towards the flower-wielding boy.

“What’s up, Basil? Did you need something?” Hero questioned.

With slight hesitance resonating in his voice, Basil responded, “Well, um… you see, it’s about… Kel. Or rather… something about Kel.”

Uh… that didn’t sound good at all. Hero’s face immediately went from neutral to pretty fucking concerned in a heartbeat. “Kel? What’s wrong? Is he okay?”

Whoops, maybe he should have worded that better. He felt bad about snitching Kel for this, but at least it’d be better than whatever Hero just thought up of that was wrong with his brother. “O-Oh, yeah, sorry. I… didn’t word that right.” Basil rubbed the back of his neck as Hero just sighed tiredly in response. “Just… yesterday, Kel and I were at the park, and… he found something that was near our old hangout spot. You know… where we used to go and have picnics?”

Right away, the looks on Hero and especially Mari lit up. This was going exactly where they thought it was going, wasn’t it? “We went there just to see what it was, and Kel found some… gem there. We took it to my house, although it was mostly Kel’s idea. I just decided to play along cause, well, honestly… he wouldn’t really leave me alone about it.”

“So that’s where it went!” Mari blurted out, although she realized her mistake rather quickly as Basil gave her a confused look.

“Wait, so… you knew about it?” Basil questioned with a quizzical eyebrow.

Hero gave out another sigh before proclaiming, “Mari and I found it a few days ago while we were out. We didn’t take it with us when we did because we just… weren’t sure what to make of it. Frankly, I’m… a bit disappointed in Kel for taking it with him when we never even got a chance to look at it yet.”

Aubrey made an attempt to pretend like she didn’t know what any of them were talking about, though she was interested in learning that it was by their old hangout spot. So that was why Hero and Mari were there earlier while she and Sunny were hanging out at the swings.

Speaking of Sunny, she should probably go back for him at the park now. After all, she promised she’d come back for him once things settled. “Hey, Mari, if you don’t mind… I’m going to go back to the park now. Sunny is still there, and I told him I’d meet back with him.”

Somehow, Mari had totally forgotten that Sunny was even around the park to begin with. She had been so caught up with first the gem, then chasing Kim down, and then again with the gem, that she had hardly even had time to think about her little brother. Perhaps that was the best for the time being. Regardless, Mari nodded her head and answered softly, “Of course, Aubrey. I don’t mind.”

Aubrey gave the big sibling of the Suzuki household an upbeat, yet assuring smile right before she dashed back to the park in order to meet back up with the raven-haired boy once more.

Basil looked towards Hero and Mari, then asked, “So… what did you two want to do?”

Mari rested her head down and thought for only a moment, before a final answer approached her mind. The instant that her head raised itself up again, Hero knew right away what the answer that would leave her lips would be. However, as was to be expected, he didn’t have any objections to it.

“Let’s go back to your house, Basil.”

***

A maraud of pacing and self-mumbling ensued before Kel had finally reached the answer on what he would spend the money from the gem on.

“Okay, okay, I think I’ve finally got it! So first, I’ll buy myself the new console that came out last month, a-and then, I gotta get myself Super Sprout Mole Bros, Captain Spaceboy: The Dwarf Force, and then that one cool sports game… uh, I-I forgot its name, but I’ll remember when I see it!”

How he didn’t catch Basil’s grandmother’s attention was beyond any explainable science. “Then, I’ll finally be able to finish my action figure collection! It’s been months since I’ve been able to get any more, but with this, I’ll finally be able to finish it off! And then… after all is said and done, I think I’ll get myself some of the games Sunny has on his GameBoy! They all look fun, and Hero never lets me be able to get them! There’ll probably be some left over after that, but I-I can always just save it up for more fun stuff later!”

Kel stopped himself to let himself breathe actual oxygen for a minute before he gave out a victory cheer. “Woohoo, I did it! My planning is complete!” Then, the boy looked around the room before noticing the absence of a particular somebody who was previously with him. “Basil? Basil?”

After getting no response, Kel muttered to himself, “Huh, he must’ve left while I was planning.” He stopped for a couple of seconds before simply commenting, “Oh well! I can always tell him later. Now, let’s see if anyone is at the park-”

Right as Kel was getting ready to exit Basil’s house was when the door suddenly flung open right in front of him, scaring him to the other side of the room. Who stood behind the open doorway was none other than Hero, his nefarious older brother who had come to foil his plots once again! Oh, and Mari and Basil were there too.

Wait a second, Basil?! With Hero and Mari?! Oh crap!

“Wha-uh, hey guys… what’s up?” Kel asked with a nervous tone ringing across the room.

Hero’s face had a disappointed aura swirled around it. “Kel… is it true that you snuck into the hangout spot to get that gem by Basil’s window?”

The younger Rodriguez brother glanced towards the gem, immediately presenting an expression that could only be described as a combination of shit-your-pants scared and absolute panic. However, Kel’s mind surprisingly came up with an idea quickly.

As best as he could muster, he said with a rather unconvincing impression in his voice, “Oh, uh… wha?! There was a gem in here?! I didn’t even notice…”

Hero just shook his head in disbelief as he snagged it from its current resting place. “Listen, Kel, you don’t understand how much this could help us. We need to take it to an expert to know how much it’s worth. Then, we keep it in storage until we find a good time to use it.”

“No, Hero, I found it first! I’m the one who gets to decide how to use it!” Kel had enough trying to bypass his brother and his tactics. He would have to get that gemstone back by force if he had to!... Okay, maybe not that, but he’d still be really mad about it, and darn it, he was gonna show it!

Hero just gave Kel a stoic glance before questioning, “And what were you gonna spend it on, Kel?”

Kel just froze in place as he realized that at this point, he was probably royally screwed. “Uh… a-action figures?”

A squinted stare was met towards Kel as Hero simply kept it in his hands before saying, “Well, in any case, we should probably all head home. Sorry that Kel dragged you into this, Basil.”

“O-Oh, don’t worry, it’s fine…” However, the moment of peace was swiftly shattered as Kel suddenly began to act dramatic once more.

“Basil… my compadre. I trusted you, and you… ratted me out?! ”

Basil rolled his eyes before saying, “I didn’t rat you out, Kel! Hero and Mari found it first! They only left it where we found it because they didn’t wanna take it home with them yet!”

To that, Kel gave the two a confused look. “Wait, so you just… left a gem that you found in the middle of the woods instead of taking it with you?... That’s weird…”

It took a few moments of the others staring at Kel and for him to think on his own sentence for him to realize why maybe that wasn’t as weird as he had initially suggested. “Okay, fine, you got me. But I still think that I should be the one who decides how to spend it!”

As Mari waved goodbye to Basil, the sound of Hero mentioning, “Well, Kel, dad did mention that a gem’s worth is quite variable.”

“Variable? What’s that mean?” Kel questioned simply, to which Hero mentally sighed in his head before continuing.

“Well… when we take it in to see how much it’s worth, it… may not be worth all that much at all, as it turns out. Heck, it may not even be worth anything at all!”

“ What?! Seriously ?!”

***

The walk home for the trio was rather uneventful, as Kel mostly just spent the entire time mumbling agitatedly about how his ‘plan’ was all gonna be ruined because of what Hero said about the gem. Well… maybe this would deter him from wanting to be so clingy to that item.

In any case, once they all got to Hero’s house, Kel immediately rushed inside, though for whatever reason befuddled Hero. Before the older brother followed suit, however, he turned his head towards Mari and caught wind of the same sorrowful expression that had been taunting her when he first saw her earlier today. Well, great. He was hoping that this adventure would have helped soothe her mind over things, but it seemed this would be a beast more persistent than that.

Hero turned back towards the door and shouted after Kel, “I’ll meet you inside in a minute, Kel!” Afterwards, the door closed swiftly behind him, and now he could have another one-to-one conversation with Mari. Hopefully this time he'll have better luck.

“Hey, Mari… are you doing alright?”

Mari silently shook her head before she let in a soft breath, proclaiming, “I feel horrible, Hero… today has been a disaster…”

He simply gave Mari a saddened look before commenting, “Okay, sure, today might have been a bit… rough, but we got a lot done! We got the gem back, and we even stopped Miss Candice!” Mari gave Hero a strange look before he added, “Okay, that… didn’t sound as cool as it did in my head. Look, the point is, Mari, is that even if today didn’t go smoothly, it still turned out well, didn’t it?”

“But I was… useless! B-Back there, I… I couldn’t do anything !”

Hero raised his eyebrow towards Mari before asking, “When? At Basil’s house? Sorry, I… felt like I had to steer that boat since I was talking to Kel…”

Sighing, Mari corrected, “No, before that. When… w-we all saw Kim being taken away.

Oh, so that’s what she was talking about.

Mari put her head right on her forehead as she choked out, “I just… don’t know what happened. I just… froze! I’m… failing, Hero! First, I failed as a sister, now I’m failing as a friend! I haven’t been able to do anything right since the recital!”

“Hey, don’t say that!” Hero put his hand on Mari’s shoulder, but she simply slumped her body down as she made another heavy sigh in response. “Look, Mari… I know that things are hard right now, and… it’s not really in my judgement to say anything about what you’re going through, but I do know this.”

Hero gave Mari a more stern expression this time, even if what he was about to say was meant to be more soothing and reassuring. “You are one of the most talented, caring, and capable people I’ve ever met in my life. Just because you’re going through a rough spot in life doesn’t mean that you won’t make it out. You can do this. I believe in you.”

The look Mari shared to Hero was that of surprise, even though it was clear her solemness was still breaking through her face. Regardless, Mari simply placed her hand on Hero’s upper arm before saying, “Thanks, Hero… I really appreciate that. Really, I do.”

A nod was presented by Hero as he answered, “Anytime, Mari. Let’s talk more tomorrow, okay? It’s starting to get late, and I think mom’s gonna be mad at me for missing dinner time.”

Mari chuckled with a bit of hope remaining in her voice as she saw Hero head into his house and waving her farewell. As the sight of the boy who she wanted to be with faded away, all that she was left was a reminder that, regardless of all that has happened in her life, and even if she may not be the perfect sister and friend that she is unanimously known for right now, she still has someone to look up to.

Even without her little brother by her side, she needed to keep going. At least… until things changed. And hopefully for the better.

Chapter Text

Why wasn’t Mari feeling more excited about this?

It was Halloween… one of her favorite holidays! Sure, her mind was a bit preoccupied for around the past week, but that didn’t mean that the thought of this day wasn’t ever lingering in the back of her mind. But something within her system was preventing herself from being readily happy about it this time.

Mari sighed as she continued to lay dormant on her bed. She and Hero had both already figured out their respective outfits for the night. They were both going to be cosplaying as Captain Spaceboy characters. Mari understood that Hero wasn’t big on the series like she was, but he was willing to do this for her, and it would’ve been rude to turn down the offer. Besides, Mari had to admit that he looked pretty good in the outfit that he had purchased.

Still, though, this should be exciting for her! And yet, Mari didn’t feel much of anything at all. The void that was her stomach was still sucking up most of the joy in anything that made her happy. Her feelings towards Sunny have, in spite of her best efforts, now been denounced to neutral, as well as her being able to play the piano in conjunction to that. And now, her simple hobbies were being affected as well.

Just as Mari’s thoughts seemed to be leading to a head, the light, yet methodic sound of knocking vibrated through her room. Perhaps this was good, she thought to herself. This could snap her out of her funk for a bit. Uttering a simple, “Come in,” she heard the door behind her creak open before ultimately deciding to see who was waltzing into her room.

Surprising nobody in particular, it was Hero who patrolled on in. A simple, yet welcoming smile exited from his face as it landed onto Mari, who didn’t seem to be much too affected by it right now. He waved lightly as he ushered, “Hey, Mari… I wanted to drop by to see how you were doing.”

Humming to herself, Mari replied, “Hm… hey Hero. I’m just… still a bit distracted from everything that’s happened. I should be getting excited but… my body won’t let me.”

Hero let out a simple sigh as he approached closer towards Mari. “That’s okay, Mari… you shouldn’t force yourself to be happy if it isn’t how you really feel… maybe… maybe you can sit this year out. It has been a hectic week after all, but that’s only if you want to.”

That idea was immediately squandered to the ground as Mari holstered herself up and darted her eyes in Hero’s direction. “Nuh uh, no way. I’m not sitting out Halloween! We even came up with a set of outfits together!”

Smiling faintly again, Hero merely replied, “Well, uh… is there… anything specific from… all that’s occurred lately that’s keeping you from being excited this year?”

All Mari could do was linger her eyes onto the floor and give out a very long and hefty sigh. “Sunny and I have gone trick-or-treating together every year ever since he was a baby. I just… don’t know if he’ll want to do it with me this year after what happened. It’s just… it’s tradition! It would be so weird to not have him around!”

“I think you two having your own plans might be good for you, sweetie.”

The sound of a peculiar, croaking voice rang out across the room as both Mari and Hero jumped back from surprise. Standing just at the doorway was none other than the former’s father, who merely stared at the two who were being rather close with one another, much to Mr. Suzuki’s displeasure. Hero recognized this right away as he scooched himself a few inches from Mari’s presence.

Sighing, Mari explained, “But dad… Sunny and I have done this every year. And who knows when he’ll be too old to do trick-or-treating anymore… I’m starting to get too old for it. This could be one of our last years for this! I want to make each one of them count!”

“But you do understand that Sunny needs some time to readjust, right?” Her father approached her and lay a soft hand on her shoulder. Her look of despair didn’t seem to wane, but that didn’t stop the man in front of her from continuing. “I talked about this with him last week, but… Sunny is growing up, Mari. He’s going to be a teenager next year. He needs to have some kind of independence… some time where he isn’t with you will help with that…”

Mari wanted to object to this notation on the spot. She didn’t want to feel like she was letting her brother drift away from her. But something in her system kept her silent. Her throat closed up before her voice could break through. All that came out was a croak before her body worked against her, preventing her from protesting any further.

Then, Hero looked towards Mari with a worrisome expression before commenting, “I think your dad may be right, Mari. Sunny… Sunny has had you with him for his whole life. It would be good for him to start defining himself a bit more. Not to say that you have to be out of his life entirely or anything, but… I think giving him some independence will help him in the long run.”

Hero’s head turned to face Mari’s father as he was seen giving a simple nod towards the boy. Afterwards, Mari could feel her throat loosen up once more, no longer feeling the urge to struggle. But after that release, her will to protest was no more. The mental energy in her brain had been drained after she listened to what Hero had to say. She would just have to accept this, as much as she didn’t want to.

“Okay…” Mari said plainly. Her eyes were wavering across the edge of her bed as she felt her body feel fuzzy. Was she just tired, or did the idea of just letting Sunny no longer be around her really take that much out of her? Perhaps it would be a good idea to do something else.

Then, an idea came to Hero’s mind, who somehow seemed to sense Mari’s current train of thought. “Maybe we can check up on Sunny and Aubrey to see how they’re doing. What do you think, Mari?”

It was pretty silly to ask her on the matter, especially seeing as her father was standing right there. Did she really have a choice? Nevertheless, she nodded slowly as she quietly ushered, “Yeah, that sounds good to me.”

The swirling of purples and reds from the setting sun ripped across the blinds in front of Mari’s windows as the two left the sight of their room shortly after Mari’s father was about to hussle downstairs.

“Now just remember, you two… make sure to stay within town, no funny business, and Mari…” He paused after his daughter’s name, waiting for her to turn her head to him. Once she did so, he added slowly, “Make sure that you and your brother get home by eleven.”

Without a question present in her mind, Mari nodded slowly and responded, “Yes, dad. I will.”

A warm smile protruded from the man’s face before he turned away from his daughter and the boy next to her before responding, “Alright, kids. Have fun!” And off he was, descending himself further and further to the lower floor until he was no longer within sight.

Creating a short exhale, Hero spoke, “Well, Mari… let’s go check on Sunny and Aubrey. Then… we should be good to get ready.”

Mari formed a smile that was half genuine, whilst the other half of it seemed forced. As much as she wanted to be happy right now, knowing what this night was to provide, she was being mentally prevented from doing that to herself.

Regardless, she responded, “Sounds good, Hero.”

Hero thought for a moment on if he wanted to comment on the expression Mari was making, but figured that could wait until later. Playing along a bit as the two slowly approached the bathroom, Hero lowered his volume to a hush as he whispered, “Also, uh, have I ever told you that your dad scares me sometimes?”

The girl followed suit as her voice also creaked down to a whisper as she replied, “Yeah, he has that effect on people.”

Hero was the first to approach the bathroom door. That was where Sunny and Aubrey were getting ready for the night of Halloween themselves. They all would have stayed in Sunny and Mari’s bedroom, but seeing as the stoic-faced boy wanted to have some time apart from his sister, Aubrey opted that she and Sunny use the bathroom instead. From outside, Hero made a few slow and quiet knocks before the sound of a cheery Aubrey announcing, “Come in!” was heard by all.

Both Mari and Hero steadily entered as Aubrey smiled upon the two. “Hey, guys!” Aubrey’s tone could be described as nothing other than cheery and upbeat. At least she was more excited about Halloween than Mari was.

“Hi Aubrey, hi Sunny,” Hero responded, looking onward to the two of them. Their respective outfits for the night were sprawled across the floor, so it was indiscernible to either Hero or Mari what they were meant to depict. “So, um… what are you guys dressing up as this year?”

As Sunny heard the duo of teenagers patrolling inside, he looked with a neutral expression towards Hero, and then to his sister. The feeling of uneasiness was still tempered in his system as he continued to stare for another few seconds. Afterwards, Sunny’s gaze was interrupted as Aubrey giggled just beside him before responding to Hero’s question.

“Oh, oh! I’ll go first! So, some kids were talking about this cartoon at school, and, um…” Aubrey suddenly paused as she hummed to herself, attempting to get her statement back on track. The others merely looked at her, waiting for her to continue. “I don’t really remember what the show was about, but I remember them talking about this one character in it who was like a rabbit! And he turned people into carrots by touching them!”

The idea made Hero and Mari raise a quizzical eyebrow. Whatever the kids younger than them were getting into these days must have sounded really bizarre. Sunny didn’t seem to mind, though, as he just kept gazing towards Aubrey as she went on with her explanation, a notion that did not go by unnoticed by his sister.

“So anyways, I decided that I was gonna dress up as him!” Aubrey reached for the floor and pulled out one of the scattered costumes and held it up to Hero and Mari for them to see. The outfit itself consisted of a large green dress with a violet long-sleeved shirt and pants. In her other hand was a pair of stylistic sunglasses and a headband with two fluffy rabbit ears sprouting from the top.

Everyone looked on toward the scattered array of apparel, all with differing reactions. Mari couldn’t help but giggle, primarily towards the bunny ears that Aubrey was grasping. Hero’s face still had a puzzled, yet attentive stare to it. But Sunny had a more nuanced reaction. He found his eyes treading further away from the outfit Aubrey was holding up and realized that he kept looking at Aubrey herself.

Sunny quickly got ahold of his head and shook it ferociously before Aubrey would notice. He wasn’t entirely certain if anyone else caught wind of it. Finally, Mari responded saying, “Well, it’s a cute outfit, Aubrey. I’m sure you’ll look great in it!”

Aubrey made a small hop as she cheered, “I know, isn’t it adorable?! I showed it to Sunny earlier and he said that he thought it was a good costume!”

The timid-faced boy lowered his head just a tad before Mari looked over, catching a subtle hue of red arousing at the top of his ears. As much as she wanted to right now, she refuted making any kind of remarks, especially not with both Hero and Aubrey right there. Besides, the passion wasn’t there in the moment for her, seeing as her relationship with Sunny was estranged enough as is.

Hero was able to break the prolonged silence, and just as Hero’s voice broke through across the room, Mari flickered her eyes to his direction. “Well, anyways, Sunny, what were you going to dress up as this year?”

Caught off guard by the sudden question, Sunny’s head lifted up quickly once more and he walked toward the pile of clothing on the floor. As his hands lifted up the outfit that he would be adorning for the night. A bit sheepishly, he gazed to the side as his left arm held up both a fuzzy black shirt and pants. In his right hand was a headband with two pointy cat ears etched at the top, along with a clip-on tail. At first, both Hero and Mari weren’t entirely sure what to make of it, until Aubrey chimed in all of a sudden and spoke out on behalf of Sunny.

“Sunny was having a bit of a hard time deciding what he wanted to wear this year, so I thought that since I was dressing up as a rabbit, he could dress up as another animal!” Aubrey’s eccentric tone elated the tone as Sunny took a deep breath, allowing for her to finish her sentence. “So we decided that Sunny could be a cat for Halloween!”

His sister looked on towards Sunny with a heartfelt smile. For a split second, she had forgotten all about the quarrels that were festering between the two of them. Hero put a finger over his mouth, nodding before replying, “Well that’s neat, you two. Mari and I are pairing costumes this year as well.” Hero’s eyes swayed towards Mari as her gaze broke from her brother.

“Oh, yeah… Hero and I are dressing up as Captain Spaceboy and Comet Girl,” Mari explained. “I really wanted to be Captain Spaceboy, but then… Hero would have had to be Comet Girl.” She turned to face Hero as she giggled a bit. Hero’s face quickly lit up a flashy red as he rubbed the back of his head nervously.

Chuckling, he responded, “W-Well, uh… yeah. I kinda had to talk her out of that idea…”

“I’m just saying, you would have looked really good in it…” Mari began to tease towards Hero as both Sunny and Aubrey looked on with uncomfortable looks.

Before the teasing could get to an even more exceedingly uncomfortable level, Aubrey switched her face around and announced, “Well, anyways, Sunny and I are gonna finish getting ready, so we’ll see you guys in a bit!”

Although puzzled a bit, both Hero and Mari quickly got the memo. The latter of whom said, with an optimistic smile, “Alright then, you two. We’ll see you in a few.” They both exited the room and left the bow-haired and stoic-faced kids to themselves.

Hero paced himself around a bit before commenting, “Yeah, maybe doing that wasn’t such a good idea after all, huh…” a chuckle came out from his being as the sound of Mari sighing to herself was just barely heard. Hero’s face slowly formed into a solemn frown as he approached her. “Hey, I know that letting Sunny be out there without you is going to be hard, but… to be honest, Mari, I think he needs this.”

What position was Mari in to refute a statement like that? She knew that the sinking pit interfering with their bond was going to take time to fill back up. Hero was right, whether Mari wanted that to be the case or not. Besides, hopefully spending some time with Aubrey will help lighten Sunny’s mood after all that’s happened the past week. Especially considering his-

Before Mari’s thought could finish itself, the sound of the doorbell echoed across the house. The sudden approach caught Hero and Mari off-guard, and the elder Suzuki sibling was the first to walk towards the door and greet whomever was there. Could it be a trick-or-treater already? The sun hadn’t quite set all the way yet, but some parents with little kids liked to get the Halloween festivities done early so that their ‘precious angels’ wouldn’t be holy terrors later in the night.

Mari opened the door slowly as she looked down to see who was there. She wasn’t exactly dressed for the off-chance that it was someone who was out collecting candy already. To her surprise, however, not only was the catalyst for the doorbell not a trick-or-treater at all, but it was someone who she already knew.

Standing on the other side of the door was Basil, who appeared to already be dressed and ready to go for the night. He had a standard jack-o-lantern themed bin in his hands and a soft smile indicating that he was likely not here to be receiving candy. His outfit consisted of a plastic pair of pointed elf ears, a giant styrofoam wizard’s hat atop his head, and a felt violet drape that covered nearly his entire body. There was only one logical conclusion to the theme Basil had picked for his outfit this year.

As the door fully opened and Basil got to see who was waiting for him from inside the house, he asked, “Hey there, Mari. How are you doing?”

Still a bit surprised at Basil suddenly turning up at the house, she responded, “Oh, hi Basil. I’m doing… fine, thanks. Come in.” As the blonde entered, Mari’s eyes flickered towards his pointy hat as she added, “So, what brings you here?”

Basil turned around and answered, “Oh, yeah. I’m going to meet up with Sunny and Aubrey. They asked if I could come trick-or-treating with them this year.” As the two went on through the house, he whispered to himself. “Before last year, I always went trick-or-treating by myself. I’m so glad I have friends to do that with now.”

Mari dawned a more sour expression as she and Basil walked through the living room and looked up to the stairs. Quizzically, Basil questioned, “Where are Sunny and Aubrey anyways?”

“Oh, they’re upstairs in the bathroom getting ready. I would wait until they’re finished though,” Mari softly answered. The longer she stood there, the longer her mind began rummaging through territory she did not wish to revisit. Picturing the stance of both herself and Sunny at the top of the stairs on that fateful day, she could only imagine the confusion and heartbreak that Aubrey felt as she watched two of her close friends fighting over what was likely, in her eyes, just a really fun event.

Truth be told, Mari knew that the others weren’t as hellbent on the show being as perfect as she was. But the fact of the matter remained that Mari saw it deserving for them if the recital was perfect. They had already done so much for them. All of the time that everyone would chip in order to spend time with the children of the Suzuki household. That’s not even mentioning how much everybody, in particular Hero, helped vastly with the creation of the treehouse. It made sense that, after all that her friends have done for her and her brother, they’d both put on a fantastic show for them to remember.

And they did. But now it’s an event remembered not from enjoyment, but for much darker reasons.

“Hey, Mari, you there?”

The sudden chirp of Basil’s voice broke Mari out of her melancholic train of thought. She shook her head out of the spiral it was enveloping itself in and responded nervously, “Oh, yes, I’m fine. Sorry, I just… zoned out a bit.”

This was concerning. Basil had never seen Mari act like this before. What was it about looking atop the stairs that was making Mari zone out like this? Whatever it was, Basil decided it was best fit to drop it and approach it later. Hopefully the night ahead would help her clear her mind. Besides, he wasn’t exactly qualified to talk about it with her anyways. That was more up Hero’s alley.

Speaking of whom, he was seen casually strolling by around the corner and saw the two standing idly by. “Oh, hey Basil.” Hero waved as Basil reciprocated the action. “What’s going on?”

“Just waiting for Sunny and Aubrey. Once they get out, we’ll pick up Kel and we’ll all be ready to go!” Basil’s optimistic tone on the matter indicated that he seemed to be less in the know than everyone else. It seemed someone was gonna have to drop the news on him.

With a reluctant glance, Mari spoke, “Basil, uh… Sunny and Aubrey are going to be going by themselves this year.”

Basil’s face switched from a joyous smile to a confused and puzzled look. He raised an eyebrow concerningly as he asked, “Wait, what? Why?!”

“We just thought… since Sunny is going to be turning thirteen next year, now is a good time to start letting him be on his own,” Hero attempted to carve up an excuse in order to deter Basil from being alarmed at what really happened at the night of the recital. This was a rather surprising move, considering that Mari didn’t exactly plan for him to be doing this.

However, though it would have worked on a hypothetical level, Basil was able to tear the lie Hero just crafted into pieces. “Go alone? But he’s going with Aubrey. And even then, why on Halloween? It isn’t a time where you trick-or-treat by yourself because you’re getting older. You do it together. You… you guys taught me that.”

Well, shit. Maybe a lie like that would’ve worked on Kel. But Basil is just too astute for his own good. It looks like they were gonna have to start unravelling some of the wound, but it’d be best not to let him in too much too quickly. It could spoil the whole night, after all.

“Okay, Basil… the truth is that… after the recital… Sunny and I haven’t been on very good terms with each other.” Mari started as Basil’s eyes widened with surprise. To say Basil didn’t see that coming was an understatement. “So… until we’re able to work things out, we both just think that… for the time being, I should start being a bit less involved in his life. And I want him to have fun tonight. I’m afraid if I go with him… it could ruin Halloween for him this year.”

Basil was remarkably astonished at this information. Ever since he joined the friend group, Sunny and Mari were thought to be practically inseparable. They were always seen with each other. There wasn’t ever a moment where they weren’t there for each other. To hear that something happened, especially after the recital-

Oh. The pieces of the puzzle were beginning to click now. Ever since Sunny came out of the hospital, those bandages were a burning reminder of what had happened to his hands. Was it possible that after Sunny was hospitalized, that he and Mari had a falling out? Did she enable this to happen?

Regardless, Basil felt like he now had clear enough an answer to drop the topic. But now the question remaining was this; who was Basil going to be going with? He didn’t want to abandon his plans of trick-or-treating with Sunny and Aubrey, but he also doesn’t want to feel like he’s abandoning Mari out of spite because of what she just told him. And Hero, knowing him, was likely to go with Mari for the night.

“I see… but then… who should I go with? I don’t want to leave you two alone, but… I don’t want to go without Sunny and Aubrey either!” Basil was beginning to panic now. This was not what Mari was trying to do. Thankfully, as with anything that Basil tends to freak over, the problem at hand is relatively small and easily fixable. With that in mind, Mari quickly, yet softly and elegantly, rested her hands on Basil’s shoulder and reassured the boy.

“Hey, Basil, it’s okay… you go hang out with Sunny and Aubrey. Hero and I will pick up Kel and we’ll go by ourselves.” Mari’s soothing voice helped significantly with relieving Basil of his frenzied status, but it was clear that concern in his system did not go away in full.

Looking around nervously, he questioned, “Are you sure? I just-”

Before Basil could finish his sentence, Mari replied, “Yes, I’m sure. We’ll go in groups of three, it’s fine. And Hero, Kel and I will all have fun on our own. I promise.”

It became clear very quickly that a tinge of guilt began to encompass Basil’s being. While feeling bad about leaving one half of the group alone in favor of going along with the other half, it did seem to stack in favor of him going with Sunny and Aubrey instead. They asked him to go along first, and Mari insisted that her and the Rodriguez siblings would be fine without him this year.

With a deep breath, Basil reluctantly agreed, “Okay. I’m sorry, Mari, I really didn’t know.”

“It’s not your fault, Basil. We didn’t let you know beforehand. I don’t want to talk about it right now, but… maybe another day, I can tell you the full story.” Mari assured Basil, and as he looked down with a solemn, yet content expression, he made a heavy sigh just before the sound of a door flinging open was heard from above.

This caught the attention of Hero, Mari and Basil. As their heads jolted up to see what caused the sound, they saw a couple of kids emerge from the bathroom’s vicinity and walk towards the top of the stairs. Standing above the others were Sunny and Aubrey, fully dressed in their respective Halloween costumes.

Aubrey, true to what she had described to Hero and Mari, was fitting herself with the sunglasses and headband adjourned with the fluffy pair of bunny ears up top, along with the rest of the apparel that went with her outfit. At a glance, it was a bit standard, but it wasn’t all too important. For Sunny, however, his visual aesthetic with his outfit was much more abundant than Aubrey’s. Almost all of Sunny’s body was covered with a fuzzy coating of black fur, safe for some of his lower arms and his head. On the top of his head was the same headband that Hero and Mari had seen prior, and the clip-on tail was connected on Sunny’s lower back, likely sticking onto the fuzzy shirt he was wearing.

As the two stared down, looking down on the three spectators just below them, Aubrey announced proudly, “Alright, we are ready to go!”

***

A cheery night echoed down the streets of Faraway as the hours slowly trekked along. All that was seen was the constant proclaiming of one of Halloween’s most recognizable catchphrases, along with the scurrying of dozens of kids across several neighborhoods and streets. The daunting and spooky lights and props did much to alleviate the aesthetic that was the night of Halloween.

Among the array of countless children, some of whom accompanied by parents or caretakers, were a group of three. One dressed as a great wizard, one as a black cat, and one as a bunny… though exactly who she was meant to raised quite a few eyebrows as onlookers observed the group trudging along.

The avenue of candy collecting had just begun, and Basil, Sunny and Aubrey already managed to collect quite a handful of sweets. As the three continued to walk steadily along the street, they approached a house that was littered from every single inch with all kinds of scary props. As Aubrey looked on eagerly, she suddenly noticed that her footsteps were not being followed, and thus turned around to see Basil and Sunny standing afar, with hesitance in their soles.

With a peppy tone, Aubrey declared, “Come on, guys! I know it looks scary, but we’ll be quick with this one!” Aubrey’s fearlessness proved to be a double-edged sword, as it would turn out. Though it was a hearty factor for herself, the pressure being put onto Sunny and Basil was proving to be a bit much. But the two didn’t want to disappoint their friend, and thus, carefully stepped up towards the daunting house.

By the time the two had made their way to the front door, Aubrey already rang the doorbell and was eagerly awaiting for whichever patron would arrive at the door to deliver them candy. The hurried sound of footsteps echoed from the other side of the door as Aubrey’s expression switched to a joyous smile.

However, the steps slowed in speed and as the door slowly opened, the three kids were met with a tall and menacing figure. Aubrey’s smile slowly wore off as her expression changed to a look of mere confusion as she stared up at the unidentified individual. Sunny and Basil, on the other hand, were immediately thrown off by the mask that the person was wearing and were ready to snag Aubrey and hightail it out of the house.

Before they could do that, though, Aubrey simply sighed and said, “Okay, Miss Candice, you can drop the act now.”

Suddenly, the figure stomped her foot down and took off the mask that was tightly hugging their face. Unveiling the face of whoever owned the house was, indeed, the candy shop owner whom both Aubrey and Basil had run into several days prior.

Miss Candice puffed defiantly as she croaked out, “You kids are no fun.”

The blonde-haired boy blinked rapidly as he stuttered out, “W-Wait… M-M-Miss Candice?”

“Oh, it’s you again…” Miss Candice scratched the back of her neck, likely itchy due to her having to wear the uncomfortable-looking mask. “What was your name again… Bagel?”

“Basil,” Basil rephrased in a monotonous and unimpressed tone.

“Anyways, have you been keeping an eye on that little thief ?” Miss Candice’s tone skyrocketed to a scarily sharp degree, which made Basil jump from his spot. The shop owner eyed him with a nasty look as Basil simply chuckled in response.

Clearly noting that Miss Candice was more invested in interrogating random ass children than giving out any candy, Aubrey merely groaned and answered for Basil, stating, “Anyways, I think we’ll be going now. Thank you, Miss Candice.” As she practically dragged Basil off the front porch of the house, Sunny hurriedly followed suit, feeling exceedingly nervous about being so close to all of the terrifying props Miss Candice had laced all over the joint. It was more likely that they served the purpose of deterring kids from her house rather than luring them in.

Aubrey simply shook her head as she faced Basil. “Sorry, you guys… it seems like Miss Candice is even more mean than last Halloween…”

Adjusting the hat on his head, Basil simply commented, “I wonder sometimes why she runs a candy store if she hates kids this much… it feels a bit, uh… arbitrary.” Basil looked to face Sunny’s direction, only to see that he had his gaze fixated towards Aubrey.

Would this be a good time to bring up, well, that ? Basil’s mind wandered on the prospect as a response that Aubrey was announcing towards him went through one ear and out the other. Nah, probably not. At least not now. Maybe later in the night when the three of them had gotten finished with their trick-or-treating, he could let Sunny and Aubrey have some time together, without his interference. But for now, they still had a lot more work to-

“Hello, Earth to Basil?”

The sudden shift in volume arising from Aubrey’s voice made Basil jump again. Ack, he hated how jumpy he was. Maybe that was something he could work on later down the road. “Ah, sorry Aubrey, I was, uh… j-just zoning! A-Anyways, let’s keep going! We can knock out a lot of houses down this road!”

Basil hurriedly went ahead of the others as Aubrey glanced towards Sunny’s direction. As soon as he noticed that she was peering towards him, he shook his head and flickered his eyes away from her as he sensed a subtle fluster overcome the tips of his ears. He was really hoping that Aubrey didn’t notice. He shouldn’t even be doing this right now. They’re all supposed to be out trick-or-treating and he’s just standing there awkwardly and looking at Aubrey.

Thankfully, she didn’t appear to notice his shy expression, or at least she wasn’t letting in on the fact that she noticed if she did. She just ecstatically waved towards Sunny, shouting towards him, “Come on, Sunny! Let’s go!”

Sunny simply nodded as they both followed Basil’s track. As they moved along, Sunny’s mind allowed for itself to wander again for a short time. He was able to appreciate the way that Aubrey could let herself be happy, even though there was a lot going on right now, especially with her home life. He wished he could be more like her; let his emotions flow more freely and wistfully.

He wished that he wouldn’t be tied to this chain of being mad at Mari. But he was.

***

“So why didn’t Sunny, Aubrey and Basil come with us again?”

Ugh, this had to have been, like, the third time tonight that Kel asked this question, and they had just started. Mari and Hero didn’t have to try very hard to lie to Kel about why they were all separated like this, but christ, he made up for his gullibleness for being persistent as fuck about asking the same question over and over.

This time, Hero audibly groaned and simply restated, “Kel, we already told you. Sunny, Aubrey and Basil had their own plans for trick-or-treating, and any of the three of us being there would have gotten in the way.”

Kel simply puffed defiantly as he commented, “Okay… I’m just sad that they didn’t get to join us.”

“I am too, Kel, but… when we ask them, I’m sure they’ll have a good reason for it.” Mari tried her best to reassure Kel softly, and it seemed to work for the most part. The boy in question had scurried through his closet and recovered his old pumpkin costume from last year. Surprisingly, it still fit him. Kel was definitely going to need a growth spurt soon. If he was still as short as he is now as a teenager, then something was horribly wrong.

As Hero, Mari and Kel walked down just one of the many streets waiting for their arrival, the former of whom made a sigh before announcing, “Well, anyways, where should we go first, you guys?”

The boy in orange brushed his fingers beneath his chin as he contemplated on the question before he beamed and exclaimed, “Oh! Oh! Why don’t we go to that house by the cemetery? I’ve heard from the kids at school that it has the coolest decorations!” Kel pointed down the road to nothing and nobody in particular.

Hero initially grimaced at the idea, mostly from the idea of having to endure such a prolonged walk. For starters, the kinds of things that kids Kel’s age often found ‘cool’ were things Hero himself was not into at all. And the primary downside that Hero had with the idea was that it would mean much more walking for him, and he was certainly one to get tired quickly.

“By the cemetery? Uh, Kel, that’s a long walk away,” Hero started as he shifted his head towards Mari, peering as she crossed her arms and gave him a rather stone-cold glare. It would appear that Mari was willing to play along with Kel, much to the dismay of the elder Rodriguez. Although Hero contemplated in his mind the prospect of wiggling out of this situation, Mari’s unamused look shut that idea down quickly. If there was one thing you didn’t want to do in your lifetime, it was anger a Suzuki. They could petrify almost everyone from their looks alone, it was surprising that it didn’t turn them into stone.

Although hesitant at first, Hero merely croaked out with a sigh, “Why don’t we drop by some of the other houses first before we go all the way out of town?”

It became apparent quickly that communication was not Kel’s strong suit, as he seemed to entirely dodge the suggestion Hero had made and yelled out, “Oh, you never let me go anywhere fun, Hero!” Hero questioned whether or not Kel even heard the second part of his previous statement, or if he just heard ‘That’s a long walk away’ and assumed the worst.

Hero simply gave out a disgruntled sigh as he approached Kel and responded, “Hey, Kel, come on. I didn’t say we couldn’t go at all,” Hero changed the tone of his voice to put emphasis on the ‘at all’ part. Kel looked up towards Hero with a half-heartedly disappointed look still present on his face. “Let’s just knock out some of these closer houses first, okay?”

Thankfully, Kel seemed to be more willing to take the input Hero was exchanging towards him, as Kel merely nodded and weakly muttered, “Well… alright…”

That also appeared to be enough for Mari, as she, too, approached the Rodriguez boys with a warm smile. “Looks like we’ve got a plan then…” Mari’s eyes wavered towards Hero as she lowered her eyebrows and gave Hero a smug expression, effectively translating to a job well done to him.

Hero looked to the side so that he could have a chance to not be in awe of his crush right in front of him. “Yeah, I suppose so.” As Hero’s gaze fixated properly on some of their target destinations ahead of them, he cleared his throat and announced, “Alright, Kel, let’s go.”

And off the three went, strolling nonchalantly towards just one of many houses that they would be stopping by on their travels. Hero and Mari’s were calm and smooth, a far cry from Kel’s sporadic, energetic and bombastic hops and dashes as he hurriedly sprang in action to beat the elder kids from getting to the next house first. From the looks of things, Hero and Mari had the exact same collective thought; it was going to be a long night. But you know what? Maybe that’s not a bad thing…

***

On the other side of town, another group of three particular children were going around various houses in an attempt to gain more treats. A common theme would play out as they all proceeded to each house, however. Aubrey, whom hardly paid any mind to the details of the things around her, was typically the one to nonchalantly and gleefully skip to the house’s front door and gain her share of candy. Meanwhile, both Sunny and Basil were getting more and more spooked by the entourage of decorations plastered on every house. Neither of them knew what was wrong; they had never had this problem in prior years. But somehow, it seemed like the scariness game of all the house’s decorations had been amplified by a lot.

As time progressed, Aubrey began to grow noticeable of this trend, and soon, even her demeanor was beginning to falter. This all came to a head when she approached a rather unassuming house, though with one major detail. Right on the deck, just next to the front door, lay a giant, wrapped box. Although a particularly weird notion, both Sunny and Basil realized that this one may be okay to step foot in.

And that’s what they thought until a giant jack-in-the-box suddenly sprung from the top of the box and lunged itself towards the unassuming kids.

Nearly slamming at their heads, the two boys cried out in surprise and stumbled down the short flight of stairs as Aubrey jerked over in astonishment. With a panicked look in her eyes, she heard the door open up slightly, and much to her dismay, the house’s owner peered over and caught notice of both Sunny and Basil laying dizzily at the bottom of the stairs.

Aubrey swiftly turned to face the man with an angry glare, one that immediately seemed to seep right into his skin as his expression changed from that of slight surprise to one of utmost fear. Right away, he stuttered out, “R-Right, sorry… I’ll take that one out… it was a bit too much.”

The girl didn’t even bother staying for any more candy, as it was clear she had her priorities straight. She bolted away from the porch and made her way towards both Sunny and Basil as they slowly got up, trying to recuperate from their fall.

“Are you two alright?!” Aubrey asked out in a panicked tone. Basil groaned as he rubbed the back of his neck.

“O-Oh, yeah, we’re okay… how about you, Sunny?” Basil replied as he and Aubrey glanced over towards the boy.

Sunny seethed in pain as he stood up methodically, trying his hardest to hopefully not ache any more of his body. His right hand was scorching with pain, most likely because he hit it on the ground as he was falling. That was not going to help with the healing process.

Basil too stood up and he gave Aubrey a warm look as he added, “I promise, w-we’re okay! I guess me and Sunny are just, well… surprised, by everything.” Basil looked back to the house with the giant jack-in-the-box, thankfully finding that the man from earlier was hastily taking it off of the porch. “The neighbors all really upped their decoration game from last year. A lot of these props are getting me a bit worked up.”

Well, that was about what Aubrey figured. So it became abundantly clear that something in their cycle of the night needed to change. Sure, she may be having fun, but it was clear that Sunny and Basil were just too on edge right now to properly enjoy the night. Especially Sunny… though Sunny, to be fair, looked less fearful and more… depressed. Sure, she could catch glimmers of fright in his eyes from the countless houses they just visited, but Sunny had a more hopeless look on his face. Aubrey suspected that it wasn’t just the decorations on all these houses that was preventing Sunny from being happy. Something else was getting in the way, and Aubrey had a sneaking suspicion of what that might be.

Quickly, Aubrey looked around the rest of the houses, realizing that the trick-or-treating situation was not going to get any better from here, seeing as the rest of the houses were absolutely littered with realistic props and gorey imagery. Some of this stuff should frankly be taken down, there has to be some kind of regulations for some of the stuff these people were hanging up.

Nonetheless, Aubrey merely hummed to herself as she suggested, “Why don’t we take a break from trick-or-treating for a bit? Let’s just… relax, a bit, before we keep going?”

Judging from the swift shift in Basil and Sunny’s expressions, it was clear that they really liked the sounds of that idea. Basil chuckled nervously as he responded, “Yeah, that sounds good to me. How about you, Sunny?”

However, Sunny didn’t respond right away. He had found himself staring off at the distance towards… nothing. Nothing and nobody in particular. It seems like he was zoning off again. But… his expression was a bit more focused than when he normally does this. His mind was preoccupied with something. However, as soon as Sunny realized that Basil was talking to him, he instantly snapped out of his trance and flickered his eyes back towards Basil’s direction, before nodding incessantly in response.

Though Basil was satisfied with that answer and chucked Sunny’s zoning as his typical behavior, Aubrey was much more astute than that. Her look towards the boy hadn’t changed a bit. If anything, she only garnered more concern over him. That wasn’t just any focused look. She had seen that specific expression that he’d made before. Yeah, taking a break from trick-or-treating by itself was not going to fix the problem that was running rampant in Sunny’s head. Basil might have been more easily appeased from the solution, Sunny would need further intervention. And she knew exactly how to do it.

Aubrey cleared her throat as she approached Sunny. As soon as she was in range, his eyes immediately locked onto her, which she found kind of cute, but she didn’t let that drift away from the mission at hand. “Actually, Sunny, um… can I talk to you for a bit… um… alone, please?”

Without much hesitation or second thought, Sunny agreed to Aubrey’s request by nodding subtly. Aubrey exchanged a smile with him before adding, “Thanks.” She turned around to face Basil, who may or may not have been sneakily peering at their exchange while a slight grin was forming on his face. However, the moment Aubrey turned towards him, he tried his best to make it look like he wasn’t absolutely eating up this moment of theirs with a shit eating grin. “Hey, Basil, we’re gonna go over by the hill, okay?”

Aubrey needn’t say anymore, as Basil knew full well what the intention of their departure was. He merely replied with, “Alright, sounds good, you two!” And just like that, they both ran up towards the hill nearby. Basil wore yet another cheeky grin as he snickered to himself, commenting in private and with a hushed tone, “Don’t want to ruin the moment. I should probably leave them alone for now.”

As soon as Sunny and Aubrey made it towards the top of the hill, though not quite all the way up, the two sat down right next to each other. She wished that she and Sunny could just lay on this hill and look at all of the night stars together. It’d be the perfect way for them to cap off their Halloween, and just the idea was beginning to make Aubrey feel fuzzy inside. But alas, she wasn’t here for that. There was something much more serious for them to discuss.

It didn’t take very long for Aubrey to kickstart the conversation. “Hey, Sunny… what’s wrong?”

Her concerned look clearly affected Sunny as his face began to panic a little. Although she didn’t like to see him like this, she knew that him talking to her about this would help him out in the long run.

“H-Huh? Um… n-nothing’s wrong…” Sunny pushed his chin snugly towards his knees as his arms wrapped around them, a look of shame clearly enveloping over him.

“Sunny, don’t lie. I can tell that something’s bugging you…” Aubrey was beginning to become a bit more unrelenting about this now. He really wanted to just drop this for tonight. If anyone else had asked to talk to him, he probably would’ve refused, but he was willing to give Aubrey a chance. Now he was pondering on if that in of itself was a mistake.

Sighing, Sunny commented, “I don’t want you to worry. I’m fine.”

Aubrey paused for a brief moment before she crafted a response of her own. “You know… you always let me talk to you about what’s going wrong in my life. You always find time for me, and… it’s really sweet.” Sunny didn’t really know why, but just Aubrey commenting how sweet it was made his heart nullify, like a massive weight was being extracted from his chest. “So… I want to return the favor. I want to let you talk to me for once. Please, Sunny, I don’t want to see you upset like this.”

Although it was still prominent that Sunny wanted to simply dodge the question and ignore talking about it entirely, as he typically liked to, Aubrey wasn’t budging. And one of the things about Aubrey that really didn’t benefit him at a time like this was how incessant she was. If she thought something was wrong with something or someone, she would stop at nothing to make things right. Her heart was too pure to let it go. And considering that he doesn’t think that Aubrey’s shifted from her position on the hill even once since they got up here, it was clear that Aubrey was not about to give up on this either.

With a solemn look, Sunny lowered his eyes for a few seconds before lifting them back up and looking back towards Aubrey. “I guess… I’m still just upset about what happened at the recital… I-I mean…” Sunny lifted his right hand up and softly touched his palm, twinging in pain as he did so. The aching from his previous fall at the house was still waning on him, a notion that Aubrey seemed to have picked up on. “I don’t… want to be mad at Mari, but… no matter how hard I try… I still am.” Sunny leaned over as a sniffle was picked up by the girl beside him. “I just… I just want to move on…”

Aubrey couldn’t say that she was really surprised to hear this, but it did make her sad about how much internal turmoil Sunny seemed to be holding within himself. It was almost a little alarming, to be frank; Sunny should have every right to be mad at Mari over what she inadvertently did to him. She neglected her brother’s needs and didn’t even acknowledge that he was going through so much pain just for her. Even if Aubrey didn’t feel quite the same way about the situation as Sunny did, she wholeheartedly understood where the rage came from.

What concerned her was how much Sunny said he didn’t want to be mad at her. For as much as she didn’t want Sunny and Mari to be estranged with one another, she felt like Sunny’s emotions against her were something he should freely feel and let out. The last thing he needs is to bottle them up and claim that they’re insignificant or that he ‘shouldn’t be feeling them in the first place.’ Aubrey had a whole boat full of emotional baggage from her home life, but she tried to let them out in a healthy way however she could. She recognized an unhealthy habit when she saw it.

With a deep sigh, she finally responded, “Oh, Sunny… I’m sorry to hear that. I know how hard it must be for you.” Aubrey found her eyes trailing across the grassy ground, the slightest breeze allowing for the grass hairs to sway from side to side. The perfect backdrop to let her and Sunny be engulfed in the wind of the night and to take time to relax over what was supposed to be an exciting and eventful night. “I think it’ll be good for you to spend some time away from Mari, though. It’ll give you a chance to feel whatever you need to feel.”

Sunny looked with a nervous expression towards Aubrey. “But… I don’t want to be away from her. Dad wants me to, and I’ve been told it’ll be good for me, but… but I miss her. I want to stay with her, but… i-if I do that, it makes me feel… weird, right now. I’m just… conflicted.”

This didn’t go quite how Aubrey was planning. It seems Sunny delving further into the topic only intensified his confliction with his emotions, instead of loosening them. Aubrey wasn’t sure where to go from here. If she kept trying to tell the same thing to Sunny, it would probably lead them to getting nowhere.

After a few seconds of thinking, Aubrey finally concocted something to say. “Well… even if you don’t know what to do or think… that’s okay.” Aubrey’s head shifted back towards Sunny as she gave her best impression of a smile she could muster up right now. She couldn’t tell if it lightened the mood at all, though. “I learned that from talking to you. I want to love my parents, and I mean… I do…” An awkward pause resonated in the air as Aubrey leaned forward a bit as she nearly hiccuped before continuing. “But… at the same time, it doesn’t feel right. Like… I don’t know if I… have a reason to love them, even though they’re my parents. I’m confused.”

Aubrey’s eyelids lowered a tad as Sunny continued peering towards her. The two must have been sitting on that hill for at least five minutes by now. Hopefully Basil wouldn’t be mad at them for taking too long when they get back. “But being confused isn’t always bad. I think… you’re just going through that too…” She gave Sunny another smile, this time the expression that she exchanged him with felt more sincere and comforting.

Sunny couldn’t help but shed a slight smile, though it wasn’t for very long. Aubrey didn’t see Sunny smile too much. He was always told that he should smile more. Everyone said that they like it when he does it, that he has a nice smile. Aubrey couldn’t seem to agree more. There was a distinct pitch of harmony remaining in the air whenever she saw him smile. So she was willing to take the brief moment that he did and cherish it within her. Just after he returned back to a more monotonous expression, Sunny hushed out, “Hey, um… Aubrey… thanks.”

“Well, of course!” Aubrey answered with a peppy tone. “I’d do anything for you, Sunny! Really!” The enthusiasm in her tone made Sunny feel like he was being lifted up. It was always a blessing to see Aubrey being cheery like this. Any previous doubts of him having insinuated this conversation with her had long since dissipated. “And hey, let’s try to have fun tonight, okay? Even if you’re still upset about what happened, we should try to enjoy ourselves!”

For a moment, Sunny couldn’t tell what Aubrey meant when she said ‘about what happened,’ whether it be about the jack-in-the-box or about the recital, it didn’t really matter. Sunny was feeling much better than when he had left the house. And dammit, he was going to try and make this night count. For both his, and also Aubrey’s sakes.

Immediately after Aubrey got up from her spot, Sunny followed suit, though with noticeably less haste and more leisure. After a second of gathering his bearings from having been seated for so long, Sunny replied with a simple, “Yeah… you’re right, Aubrey.”

Then, the two shuffled down the hill as they made their way back towards the direction of the road in which they came from, with Aubrey commenting, “Come on, let’s go find Basil.”

Chapter Text

The sensation of the cool wind brushed across Basil as he took a moment to look up at the starry sky. For a moment, there was nothing else laying dormant on his mind. He was still waiting for Sunny and Aubrey to finish their conversation so that they could get going and wrap up the night. While he was waiting, though, he decided to relax for a moment and block out anything else around him, just letting his gaze remain fixated onto the stars above him.

“Well, well, well… look who it is!”

The sudden voice just beside him broke whatever trance Basil had instilled onto himself. Whatever, it was nice while it lasted… hold on, that voice sounded familiar to him.

He looked over to the direction that the voice came from, and noticed somebody jogging towards him. It wasn’t until they got closer that Basil recognized who they were.

“Huh?” Basil uttered at first before his eyes forced him to gaze closer at the face of whoever was approaching him. The red glasses in front of her eyes immediately gave away who was wearing the funny looking costume. “Oh, hey Kim! Nice outfit!” Kim stopped short as soon as he said that, and the blonde looked up and then back down, observing her costume in all its glory. “What are you? Some kind of bird?”

Basil’s innocent, yet foolish question caught Kim entirely off guard. She stumbled on her words before finally coming up with “Y-you nerd! I’m a dinosaur!” Basil squinted his eyes as Kim just grumbled at the seams continuously. The similarities didn’t quite match up for Basil, but who was he to judge? “Whatever. And don’t think that I forgot about what happened last week!”

Oh yeah, he should’ve known that’d get brought up again. “O-Oh yeah, of course, of course!” Basil could feel a small trickle of sweat falling down the side of his head. “Sorry that things got really… stressful.” Looking back, Basil was glad that he and Kim didn’t bump heads while they were standing in front of Miss Candice’s house. Then things would’ve gotten really awkward. If not potentially dangerous.

“Eh, I suppose it could’ve ended worse for me,” Kim glanced down as she swayed her left leg just above the ground, as Basil nodded in agreement. After all, Miss Candice was about to get Kim thrown in prison. “So, what are you doin’ out here all alone?”

“Oh, uh, I’m not alone. I’m just waiting for my friends,” Basil responded swiftly. Kim nodded as she gave Basil another peculiar look. He didn’t know why, but Kim just always seemed to have this… bothered look on her face whenever she was talking to anyone.

Regardless, she shifted her glasses upwards ever so slightly and replied, “Gotcha.” Kim glanced behind her, almost like somebody was looking to surprise her. Basil leaned over to see if anybody was indeed where Kim was looking. Sure enough, a boy in a dracula outfit with a lollipop stick edged in his mouth slowly shambled over towards the two of them.

As he got closer, Kim ushered out, “Oh, here comes my bro.” She cleared her throat just as he stopped right beside the dinosaur-wearing girl. “This is my brother, Vance.”

Vance gave Basil a chill smile as he said, “Hey there. So, you must be Bagel.”

“Basil. It’s Basil,” The teal-eyed boy glared unimpressively towards Vance, the latter of whom rubbed the back of his head and chuckled.

“Yeah, right,” He glanced to the side before he diverted his eyes right back towards Basil’s general direction. “My sis told me about ya. How you stood up to that candy shop owner down the street.” Considering that Vance had a sweet in his mouth as they stood, it probably wasn’t a stretch to say that he likely partook in the same candy stealing shenanigans that Kim did, unless he was just leeching off her supplies. “Although… she did tell me that you made her fess up to our mom, which… not cool.”

Suddenly, Basil felt a pit enter his stomach. Vance’s rather tough posture and taller size suddenly put Basil on edge a bit after that last comment. He was really hoping that Vance didn’t come around the corner to start trouble. Nervously, Basil choked out, “W-Well… it was necessary. I-I mean, she was… gonna put you in prison, so I just thought… it’d get her off your case.”

The look that Kim was insinuating onto Basil made it clear to him that she still wasn’t happy about the order of events that day had led her down, but it wasn’t like she was in a position to complain about it now. After all, he was right. If he hadn’t interfered, Miss Candice may have actually gotten the gremlin thrown into jail, somehow. At the very least, some time in juvy, which didn’t sound that much better in Kim’s case.

Kim simply just puffed before glancing at Basil for a second. Then her entire body turned away from him as she responded, “Whatever. I’ve got more houses to stop by.” She began trotting off as her brother followed behind her as she called out, “Smell ya later, nerd!”

Basil wasn’t really expecting Kim to leave so unexpectedly, but he supposed it was for the best. The last thing he wanted to talk about was how some crazy shop owner nearly got her arrested. Before the two siblings were out of sight, Basil called out, “Oh, um, bye Kim! It was nice to meet you, Vance!” Whether or not they heard him was in the air, though that didn’t matter much to him right now. Now that Basil was no longer preoccupied with Kim and Vance’s presence, he could shift his focus to something else.

“Alright, I should probably check up on Sunny and Aubrey.” He retreated back up the hill where they went up to in order to have a discussion in private. Basil figured it had already been a while since they went up there, they probably had the time they needed to talk things out.

***

“Trick or treat! Hehe!”

Those were the words heard all across various towns as Kel, Hero and Mari were making their way across as many houses as they could. Kel was mostly joining in on the barrage of cheers and giggles as kids of all ages made their way across the various streets and sidewalks, their candy bags slowly filling more and more with their favorite delicacies. Kel was no exception, and it was believed by many kids that he was the golden standard for how to act during Halloween; upbeat, giddy, and enthusiastic.

Unfortunately, the two elder kids of Kel’s group were not having as much of a stellar time. Though Kel didn’t let it get to him too much, Hero and Mari were mute for most of the night. The only sounds that bothered to enter their eardrums were the constant footsteps of energetic little kids dashing to get to the next house, and the ringing of their arrivals to the houses.

“Oh, hello there! That’s a very cute costume you’ve got there!” A woman who had answered the door for Kel warmly greeted the boy. In spite of Kel being a troublemaker, he had a reputation around town for being a cute kid. It was what often got him away with some of the antics that he would cause. Thankfully, when there was so much attention on the streets, there wasn’t much room for Kel to wreak much havoc. However, Halloween’s spirits still granted him the ability to run around and be jovial nonetheless. It was a perfect balance for him, all things considered.

Hero sighed calmly as he watched his little brother be given a few pieces of candy of his choosing. “I’m glad Kel’s having fun. It’s a bit empty not having the others with us, though,” Hero solemnly stated. He could hear a very faint exhale coming from just next to him. His head turned slowly as he peered towards Mari, who was looking down at the concrete beneath her, her face bowing down as if she were worshipping someone.

“Yeah… it is…” That was all Mari muttered out underneath her breath.

“Hey, Mari… are you doing okay?” Hero poised his body towards her direction now. Perhaps he had overlooked the turmoil Mari was keeping within herself a tad much. Bringing her out on a chaotic night like this may have been a bad idea after all. “Is… tonight a bit too much?”

Mari’s eyes flickered back towards Hero before she promptly responded, “No, it’s just… I don’t know. I should be over this, but… I still can’t stop thinking about Sunny.”

That was about on par for the course when it came to Mari. She was always looking after someone, and it was usually somebody really close to her. Even after what had happened, there was no doubt that there was care and affection for her brother, but those feelings became complicated as of late. Hopefully the others were having fun on their own. Maybe they were feeling lonely that they all couldn’t be with each other as well? Who could really say?

Kel’s clattering and energetic feet were heard rapidly approaching the two as Hero diverted his gaze from Mari for a second so that he could observe his brother. “Alright, that’s the last house on this block!” Kel’s skipping came to a halt right before he added, “Now, can we please go to that house by the cemetery? Please, please, please?!”

The idea of going there was sounding less inviting to Hero as more time passed by. What with Mari being in a funk as is, and the more he pondered on the idea, visiting an isolated house in a cemetery sounded like a horror movie plot. He didn’t know what to say to Kel, but he needed to get a brief moment in time to comfort Mari, at least. So all that he responded towards Kel was, “Alright, Kel, just give us a second.”

He and Mari faced away from the boy as Hero whispered quietly towards Mari, “Listen, Mari. Just try to enjoy tonight. I know Kel and I aren’t the most exciting crowd to be around, but… it might help to focus on what’s in front of you than what’s further down the road. I want you to have fun and let loose for a little bit.” Hero rubbed the back of his neck as Mari gloomily hovered her eyes towards him. He made a slow, methodic exhale before concluding, “Can you do that?”

Mari simply crossed her arms tempidly before she ushered out, “Yeah… sounds good.”

Interrupting the quiet flow that the two were attempting to brew, Kel hopped right in front of them both and cheered out, “Alright, let’s go!” He then happily blitzed off as Mari grabbed the part of her shirt near her chest in utter shock. If he had been any closer to her when he jumpscared her, she probably would’ve gotten a heart attack right then and there.

Regardless, the trio pressed on and headed towards the town’s cemetery. It was relatively far in distance compared to the rest of the town, but not so much that they couldn’t get there by walking distance alone. It was just that nobody wanted to build houses near the cemetery. Well, except for whoever decided to construct the one that the three were heading towards. After eventually ending up on a dirt road path, they finally saw the countless protruding heads of gravestones, listing various individuals whose existence had long predated any of the children’s.

Hero and Mari tried their best to divert their gaze from any of the tombstones, instead pushing their full attention onto finding the house that Kel was vigilantly looking for so that they could stop by, either to get creeped out or receive no response at all, and then dip. Kel himself didn’t seem too bothered by the overwhelming presence of gravestones, though. In fact, he seemed to relish in the spooky vibe they were giving off on him, a gesture not appreciated by his brother and Mari.

After a solid minute of waltzing, they finally peered towards what appeared to be an old, decrepit house. A two-story building with countless cracks along its blocky exterior. If anyone lived here, they certainly didn’t want the vibe of the cemetery to be killed by a clean-looking house. Already, Hero and Mari didn’t like the looks of this. They doubted the house’s deteriorating look wasn’t an added Halloween decoration, but was instead just the result of old aging on the building’s part.

Right before Hero was about to protest the group continuing any further and suggest turning back, Kel hopped up gleefully and shouted quite possibly as loud as he possibly could, “Oh yeah, this place looks sick!” Hero flinched from Kel’s shrieking volume. They’d be lucky if they didn’t awaken any spirits just from that display alone. Hero slowly tried to approach Kel whilst he ran off towards the front porch of the house, and he swiftly pushed on the doorbell. Surprisingly, a faint, yet eerie sounding ring echoed across the inside of the house, just barely audible from outside.

Hero finally caught up to Kel and he whispered, “Kel, this isn’t a good idea. Let’s just leave.”

However, the younger Rodriguez brother simply shrugged Hero off and said, “No way, this is really cool.”

Right after Kel’s brief protest, the sound of flurrying footsteps was heard from the inside, quickly getting louder and louder, until the wooden, greyish-blue door swung open, nearly missing Kel in the face, much to his surprise. On the other side was a disheveled, middle-aged man with rounded glasses and messy hair that Hero would be jealous of… if Hero didn’t already dislike how messy his hair already was. He panted heavily and looked around haphazardly as he yelled out, “Who’s there?! Who sent you?! How did you find us?!”

Then, the man stopped his maniacal head-twitching and slowly looked downward with a face of confusion. Kel returned the expression as he slowly looked around and said, “Uh… trick or treat!”

Blinking rapidly for a split second, the man then rubbed in-between his eyes and groaned, “Oh, it’s just some kid… uh, listen, bud… I didn’t have any candy out for ya.”

With a sigh of disappointment, Kel whined, “ What? But it’s Hallowee-”

Before another word could be ushered by Kel, though, Hero swiftly approached his brother and covered his mouth. “I’m very sorry, sir, we really shouldn’t be out here. Come on, Kel, let’s go.”

Still holding Kel, Hero dragged him away from the front porch as the unknown man simply looked puzzlingly at the two before he simply shaked his head and whammed the door closed behind him.

After the two Rodriguez siblings were far enough away from the house, Kel swiped his arm away from Hero and barked out, “Hey, I had it under control, dude!”

Hero simply responded after groaning, “It doesn’t matter, Kel… it was a really bad idea to go all the way out here. All we did was disturb some random guy… though… why is someone living in a decrepit place like that?”

“Well, whatever, that place was boring anyways. So much for all the rumors at school about it being haunted…” Kel meandered in front of the two teenagers with a disappointed groan. Hero was about to roll his eyes in response towards Kel’s comment, but ultimately decided against it. Frankly, Hero was glad any rumors about the place being haunted were false. In spite of that, Hero couldn’t help but keep presenting his gaze towards Mari, who hadn’t said a single word this whole time. She was just staring off. There was a good chance that she wasn’t fully there right now. Hero thought it was cute whenever she would fixate on something, but this was entirely different. And he knew in the circumstances that she was going through, he couldn’t feel anything other than worried about her.

“Sorry, Mari… I guess trick or treating’s kind of a bust for us this year,” Hero looked downward as he spoke. Even though his eyes were fixed towards the ground, he could somehow sense Mari peering back at him in response. Once she did, he turned his head back around and looked towards her direction, awaiting a response from her.

Mari simply brushed a stray strand of hair hanging in front of her face and ushered, “No, Hero, it’s fine. I’m just dragging everyone down with my mood right now,” Just as Hero did prior, Mari’s head tilted downwards as her gaze now focused on the grass beneath her. “You and Kel go on without me, I’ll… I’ll just go home.”

Without any hesitation, Hero took a hasty step towards her, somewhat alarming her before Hero croaked out, “N-No, Mari, I’m not leaving you behind… I want to spend Halloween with you… if you’re alright with that.”

Mari’s head flickered towards Hero’s direction, and all that she could do was sigh deeply and make a simple nodding motion. She looked ahead, likely in an attempt to peer towards where Kel ran off to. He was far ahead of them, and possibly already out of the cemetery by now. In fact, pondering on it, both Hero and Mari were itching to find an excuse to get out of here, so they sped out of there before eventually catching up to Kel.

***

“Wow, I can’t believe how much candy we got. This might be one of our best years!”

Basil’s optimistic bellow invoked a contagious sense of glee within Aubrey and Sunny as they walked across town, just about wrapping up their trick or treating session. Basil wasn’t usually one to be very giddy, but when he did, it was hard to not let it take influence. And with someone as easily excitable as Aubrey was, Sunny was bound to let some of the overwhelming happiness rub off on him too. He smiled, even if slightly, as the three approached Aubrey and Basil’s house.

“Yeah! It was fun! Thanks for coming with me, guys!” Aubrey chirped cheerfully as Basil and Sunny both nodded in response.

Basil’s walking slowed down over the course of a few seconds, before it stopped entirely and he spoke again, this time much softer, “Hey, Aubrey, sorry for being kind of a scaredy cat earlier. Uh, once I took my mind off it all…” As Basil continued, he awkwardly scratched the back of his neck, watching nervously as Aubrey twirled around curiously, and Sunny simply stared towards the blonde. Basil capped off his sentence by uttering, “ …I ended up having a lot of fun.”

At first, Aubrey’s expression washed away with curiosity as to what Basil was about to say. As soon as he was finished, she pepped up once again and delivered a bright smile his way. “It’s alright, Basil! I’m just glad you’re doing alright.”

Basil chuckled a bit before responding with a simple, “Yeah.” Then, the three’s strut along town came to a close when they were just next to Aubrey and Basil’s homes. “Well, it’s time for me to head home. I don’t want to worry my grandma.” Basil took a few cautious footsteps towards the vicinity of his house. That was, until he stopped short, turned around and mentioned, “We can, uh… hang out tomorrow, you guys… i-if you want.”

“Yeah, I’d love to!” Aubrey exclaimed as she turned to look towards Sunny. All that he did was look towards Basil for a second, with the same uninterested look that he’s always carried with him ever since he and Basil met. This time, however, Basil could make out the slightest grin protruding across Sunny’s face.

Afterwards, Sunny ushered a quiet, yet audible, “Yeah… I would too.”

Basil returned a passionate smile to both him and Aubrey as he waved goodbye to his two friends. “See you around.” Then, Basil twirled back towards his front door and let himself in. Once the wooden door closed him out from the nightly environment, Aubrey’s attention instantly turned back towards Sunny.

“Hey, Sunny…” She spoke with very little hesitation present in her execution. “Thanks for talking to me. I hope I didn’t come off, urm… wrong.” Almost instantly, though, Aubrey could feel her eyes retreating from his presence, especially after he returned eye contact towards her. “I just… want to look out for you.”

For a moment, Sunny didn’t really respond, but his mind was whirling with what exactly to say. A lot of the time, Sunny wanted to make a response, but he was often very self-conscious about what he actually did end up saying. So much so that many times, he would second-guess himself and not say anything at all. He was typically seen as a quiet kid, but he didn’t always want to be that way. He let himself be dug into that corner, though.

But this time, coming up with a response was easy. It only took him a couple seconds before he let the words spill out of his mouth seamlessly. It was a warm feeling, one that he hoped he’d be able to replicate again down the road. “Yeah… hey, did… you want to come by my house tomorrow? You, me and Basil could hang out there.”

The answer Sunny gave took Aubrey by surprise. She presented a shocked expression over Sunny’s suggestion. Not so much in what it entailed, so to speak, but just the fact that he even gave much of a suggestion at all. Normally, Sunny was just an entourage of ‘yeahs’ ‘mhms’ and nodding. Lots and lots of nodding. He always went with the flow of whatever was happening around him and barely ever derived from any kind of route that people had planned ahead of them. When it came to speaking his mind about what he wanted to do, that aspect of him never really came to fruition. But now, he was inviting Aubrey over to his place himself ? Normally, Mari or one of Sunny’s parents are the ones to do that.

It wasn’t like Aubrey was going to let this opportunity pass up, however. And any moment that she could spend with Sunny was almost guaranteed to make her feel all the more better. So after she gathered her bearings and grasped her breath from the shock of what he had said, she immediately responded with, “O-Oh! Yes, of course! I’d love to.”

Sunny made another simple nod in response, though the gesture that he made with this one felt more genuine than many of the others ones he had delivered in his lifetime. “Alright. Well… I need to go.” Sunny’s eyes now moved away from Aubrey a bit and instead gazed right past her, facing down the road in the direction where his house lay. “Don’t want to be out too long, or else… mom and dad might get mad.”

A chuckle came out of Aubrey as she replied, “Yeah, same here.” Begrudgingly at first, she skipped slowly towards her house before twirling again to face Sunny’s direction. The two looked towards one another as Aubrey waved happily towards Sunny, yelling out to him, “Well, I’ll see you around, Sunny!”

The boy returned the wave, raising his slower and not quite as high, and softly spoke, “Bye, Aubrey…”

After Aubrey slowly entered her house, Sunny was left all alone. Normally, he would be a bit more timid about being all alone, especially in the cold, bleak night. However, knowing that he just had some of the most fun that he’s had in recent times, and knowing that he would be seeing his friends, and Aubrey, tomorrow… made him more confident.

As he walked down the road back towards his house, he felt more independent than he ever had in his entire life.

***

The walk away from the cemetery and back into Faraway was highly uneventful and silent. Many of the kids had packed up and were either walking back to their homes or had arrived back by now. As a result, the town was much quieter and peaceful than it was when the trio was present beforehand. However, all that the silence did was make the aura around the three more uncomfortable. The constant cheering and noise bickering about the town would at least keep themselves awake and alert, but now? Even Kel didn’t dare make a chirp, clearly sensing the awkward tension between both Hero and Mari. Kel may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but when push comes to shove, he can read a room if need be.

It was like that the entire walk through Faraway. Before any of them knew it, Hero’s house was in view, and by extension, Mari’s house was too. She could see the light in her bedroom lit up even though she knew prior that it had been turned off. It would appear that Sunny had arrived at home before her. Quite surprising from her point of view, seeing as Sunny was always the one who liked to hang out at late hours rather than Mari. Maybe that’s why she felt so off. She never stays up for this long normally. While she makes exceptions for Halloween, that’s always when she’s had an energetic mindset. This year, that mindset has shifted to a different hue, so it’s not surprising that she feels pretty tired right now.

The group approached the Rodriguez household, with a selection of sour and uncomfortable faces plastering them all. Hero was the first to act, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck as he tended to do under stress, and announced, “Listen, I’m gonna go grab some things from back at my house.” Hero’s eyes flickered towards Mari for a moment. “You stay here and keep an eye on Kel, okay?”

As soon as Hero ran towards his house, Kel stomped his foot and pouted, “Hey, I’m not two!” His cry was left on deaf ears, and Kel simply crossed his arms defiantly and stared the house down like it was his sworn enemy. “Ugh… siblings, right Mari? Hero’s so lucky that he’s the older child…” Kel wavered his arms around as Mari took a good glance towards Kel. Something inside of him changed for a split second. All of a sudden, Mari was seeing a brief glimpse of Kel’s emotions that she hadn’t ever witnessed before. “He’s always getting attention from mom and dad while I’m-”

However, as soon as Kel’s tangent had begun, he pulled the cord and swiftly shut himself up. He zipped his mouth and kept it closed, but not before having a split-second eye-to-eye exchange with Mari. “...Kel?” That was all that came out of Mari’s lips before Kel just shook his head.

“No, uh… s-sorry, I wasn’t trying to… I just get mad when my family treats me like a baby,” Kel muttered to himself. He didn’t seem visibly agitated or sad, but there was a clear tone of disdain exiting Kel’s voice.

Mari nodded her head slowly before she spoke softly, “It’s okay, Kel… I’m sure they look after you the way they do because they love you.”

Sighing, Kel replied, “Yeah, I know. I just… don’t wanna talk about it right now, it just… slipped out.” Kel slipping things out was very common for him, Mari and everybody else close to him knew that well. However, it was always very benign or mundane things that nobody ever paid much mind to. Kel never made mention of him struggling with any internal thoughts or feelings. That was a part of him nobody ever thought existed in him.

Whatever the case, Mari wanted to respect Kel’s wishes, and at least he didn’t seem to be that troubled by it. The last thing she wanted was to pry the information out of Kel. He was probably the least closest to her, and Hero or heck, even somebody like Sunny or Basil would be more applicable to talk to Kel on the matter, seeing as they’re a lot closer than she is to him.

In spite of that, Mari still wanted to make something known to him. “Well, you can talk to me about anything Kel,” Her quiet voice was always successful in soothing anyone who was listening to her, and Kel was no exception. His slight tension swiftly retreated back to his usual laid-back and chill self.

However, his attitude didn’t seem to alter all that much, and it had mostly to do with what he said next. “Okay…” He paused for a split second before continuing, “...what’s going on with you and Sunny?”

To say that question caught Mari off guard would be quite the understatement. A surprised, “Huh?” was all that escaped Mari’s mouth before her head locked towards Kel’s direction, her face riddled with shock. For him to so casually ask that was not only unprecedented from him, seeing as Kel tends to let things flow, but it did nothing to quell the sharpening turmoil she has within herself regarding her relationship with Sunny.

Kel made another frustrated sigh before adding, “You know… you two have been all quiet with each other ever since the recital.” Kel looped himself to face away from Mari, and he kicked a small pebble in range. “Nobody has told me anything…” His volume began lowering a bit as his head shifted ever-so-slightly downwards. “I feel like I’m being left out… I want to know what happened too… and I’m… I’m worried about you guys.”

Well, this was an unprecedented turn of events. Mari thinking that to herself seemed a bit cruel, however. Sure, she knew Kel cared about the others, but not quite in such an intensive way. And not once did the idea of him feeling left out of the equation ever strike her, considering he was never really involved in the equation to begin with. Despite that, Mari could see that although she and the others thought it fit to leave Kel out of the recital mess, it may have been a mistake. He was still a part of the friend group, so he deserved to know. And it wasn’t worth it to create anxiety for him. It wasn’t easy to do that to Kel , she would know.

With a softened exhale, Mari looked down towards Kel and responded, “Alright, Kel, listen. I’ll tell you… but I need you to listen closely, okay? This is serious.”

“Oh, yeah! No problem.” Kel’s enlightened tone from finally being let in on the conversation did little to uplift Mari’s spirits, though she appreciated his enthusiasm.

She sighed audibly, a troublesome look befuddled on her face as she began, “Alright… the truth is, Kel… I was pushing Sunny very hard for the recital.” Mari’s thumbs twiddled as her eyes now lay low, looking at nothing but her hands and the concrete and street resting just underneath her. “He went through a lot of pain for me, and it all bubbled up when we went on stage to perform at the recital.”

Mari had to pause for a brief moment as she swallowed nervously. If she didn’t know better, she would’ve mistaken the giant lump forming in her throat for an oversized toad. She snuck a quick glance at Kel, who appeared to be paying attention. She did have to admire his attention span whenever he actually cared to listen to something. Normally, he’d just zone out anything he found boring, but when it came to things that he actually wanted to hear about? Kel’s attention span was nearly unrivaled.

Shaking her head a bit, she thought to herself, ‘ I’m getting sidetracked…’ She made another silent exhale, trying to calm herself down before retelling the rest of the story to Kel. “After we were done… Sunny passed out from being so… exhausted a-and tired from… me pushing him so hard. H-He was sent to the hospital, his… his hands… they were all cut up from playing the violin so much.” Mari began trembling noticeably as the dreaded image of Sunny’s motionless body laying on the stage floor pierced through Mari’s retina. Whenever it came crawling back into her mind, it was difficult to erase it.

“I never even… noticed how much he was hurting… I was too… caught up in doing well…” Mari stopped so that she could let herself catch her breath. She didn’t even know how Kel was reacting to any of this. She didn’t bother looking over. All she could do was finish speaking what was on her mind. “It was… it was all my fault… I-I should have never-”

Before Mari’s ramblings could reach a tipping point, Kel suddenly rushed in front of Mari and grabbed her shoulders, a concerned look sprawled across his face. “Woah, woah, Mari, chill out! Calm down.” Kel’s intervention appeared to be successful, as Mari’s trembling presence slowly wavered, and her increasingly rapid breathing slowed down and she was able to take deep, slow breaths again after a few moments. Kel slowly shuffled back to his spot right beside Mari on the sidewalk as he just stared on, waiting for her to finish decompressing from her recounting of the events that led to Sunny’s hospitalization.

Once Mari had fully gotten control of herself again, she just breathed sharply and stared up in the sky, the countless stars likely looking down at her, judging her for her actions. She still couldn’t believe that she could have done that to one of the most important people in her life. If only her parents were there to witness it, they wouldn’t have let her off so easily. They didn’t understand how severe Sunny’s anguish was. None of them did. And she doesn’t think they ever will.

Kel fiddled his thumbs and finally responded, “I… didn’t realize all that happened… I’m sorry, Mari.” Kel glanced towards her, but she didn’t return eye contact. However, a subtle change in her head direction, shifting slightly downwards, though her eyes still remained locked upwards, indicated that she was still paying attention to him. “But… you guys will work it out. You’re siblings. You always do.”

This caused Mari to lean forward before answering, “This is different, Kel. Sunny and I… we’ve always been close with each other.” Mari’s head rotated a bit so that it could face Kel, and so that they could both actually look at each other. “We’ve never had something like this happen before. We’ve never had… a disagreement like this. It just feels so… alien to me.” Mari wavered her hands in front of her before dropping them in defeat.

Instead of responding in a sympathetic or saddening tone, Kel stood up hastily and said, “Disagreement? Uh, Mari, that’s what siblings do!” The idea that Kel had brought up made Mari glance back towards him before he continued, “Hero and I disagree with stuff all the time! He’s always at my throat, telling me I gotta be more responsible, and I’m always telling him I’m just trying to have fun!” Kel’s nonchalant and casual method of approaching this argument made Mari cease the streak of thoughts entering her subconscious and hear him out.

“I mean… we’ve never had anything big like what you and Sunny are going through, but we disagree and argue about stuff constantly! ” Kel flickered his arms in the air as he tumbled backwards a bit. After recuperating, Kel added, “But… we always make up. We never let that affect our relationship, even if we need to figure out how to fix things between us.”

Mari crossed her arms, a tinge of doubt still fluctuating through her head. “I guess, but-”

“Hey, Mari…” Kel plopped back down right next to her with an encouraging grin to boot. “You always do so much for my bro, so… lemme try to give you some advice.” Right before clearing his throat, Kel went on, “This always works with Hero whenever he and I argue. We just back off for a little while and don’t bring it up. Then, after some time has passed, we talk about it when he’s feeling better.” This advice wasn’t really too earth shattering for Mari, all things considered. Wasn’t this what she was already doing for Sunny?

So why did hearing this from Kel seem to resonate with her in a way that she hadn’t felt prior? Maybe because it was coming from Kel, it just felt like he really understood what he was talking about. Her dad had given her advice like this, but he was an only child. He wasn’t a sibling to actually have the experience to give advice like that. So if Kel was saying the same thing, then that only solidified that this was still the best course of action.

Kel finished off by saying, “I-I know Sunny is different,  but… it’s worth trying out for him.”

What Kel was really saying comforted Mari’s heart, not truly because of what he said, but given how much he looks after Hero, she feels more confident in letting her little brother be left alone and have time to adjust to what happened. Even if they can’t talk about it right now, they will eventually. And this sounded like it was ultimately the best thing for him. Even if she couldn’t be there with him, just knowing he was doing better as he was recovering is putting her more at ease now.

Chuckling, Mari responded after a prolonged moment of silence, ushering, “Thanks, Kel. I really appreciate it.” She rubbed her upper arm before adding, “You’re a great brother to Hero.”

“Aw, shucks!” Kel exclaimed, swaying one of his feet just above ground in the process.

The sound of a door swinging open became just barely audible to the two. Both Mari and Kel glanced over to the general vicinity of the sound’s source, and saw Hero approaching the two from  his house. Judging from his neutral expression, it was safe to assume that he didn’t overhear any of the conversation that they were having. “Alright… if nobody else is in the mood for trick or treating… I was thinking about maybe a sleepover at my place?”

Suddenly, the idea of a sleepover sounded really pleasant for Mari. If it was at Hero’s house, that would cover any awkward tensions being present between her and Sunny. And she was always down to spend more time with Hero, even overnight. “I asked mom and dad and they said it would be okay,” Hero mentioned right before he reached Mari and Kel, no longer needing to have his volume at such a high level from so far away.

The more that she thought about it, perhaps going over to Hero’s place would be a good idea for another reason. His parents still had that gem that they found, maybe they’ve finally found some information on it? But right now, that was just an excuse to be with Hero some more. There was only one problem with that plan, though.

“Aw man… Hero, we didn’t even go to any of the other neighborhoods!” Kel whined as Hero simply looked at his brother with a monotonous expression.

Even if Mari was disdainful of Kel’s whiney voice as much as the next person, she couldn’t help but feel even a little bad about calling the night off so abruptly. It was only so tiresome because she was making it tiresome, and Kel was clearly dissatisfied with the results of all their efforts. And now that she was in a better headspace, having Hero call the whole night off did seem like a bit of an unjust decision.

“Look, I’m sorry, Kel, but Mari’s just… not feeling up to it right now, that’s all,” Hero responded. Not really helping with making her feel any less bad about the situation. “I don’t want to pressure her into doing this if she doesn’t want to.”

Now was probably the time to pitch in. After thinking for a split second on what to say, Mari breathed sharply before commenting, “Actually… I’m feeling a little better after we stopped for a few minutes. I think I just needed some time to stop and let myself relax.” With a somewhat stunned face, Hero’s head turned to face Mari as she went on, “Why don’t we go trick or treating for a little while longer?” Mari finished her sentence off by glancing at Kel and providing a heartfelt smile his way, with his eyes being filled with stars and his toothy grin being the only thing that she witnessed in that moment.

Still a tad shocked, Hero questioned Mari as he approached her, “Oh, really? You’re sure?” Mari made a simple, confident nod, which only further pushed Hero away from the idea of backing out so soon. “Alright then. Come on, Kel, let’s go.”

“Heck yeah! Haha… race you guys to the next house!”

Reaching out weakly, Hero proclaimed, “Kel wait!” Before realizing it was hardly worth the energy. The amount of ample energy stored in Kel’s body at all times far exceeded any amount of energy that either of them had after a full night’s worth of sleep. Containing Kel’s excitement and enthusiasm was a very needlessly difficult task, one that wasn’t worth pursuing.

Clearing her throat, Mari whispered, “Hey, um, Hero… Kel talked to me about what happened at the recital.”

Hero turned to her surprised. However, noticing how Mari’s overall attitude had seemingly shifted over the course of just a few minutes, this information shouldn’t have been too shocking. Still, though, he carried a bit of that surprise when he asked, “Wait, you told him?”

Nodding slightly, Mari replied, “He… sort of approached me. And he gave me some advice that, in hindsight, I was already told by everyone else, but…” Mari paused as she took a moment’s notice to look up at the stars. She knew that they should both probably get a move on to catch up to Kel, but she wanted to relish in this moment with Hero for just a moment longer. “Him telling me made me have more faith that it’s the right thing to do. And that Sunny will be alright… I just need to give him time to recover.” Pausing once more, Mari’s head shifted from up to the sky and right back besides her towards Hero. “I… also told him that you’re lucky to have him as a brother.”

All Hero did was stare with a stargazing look before rubbing his eyes, chuckling slightly before saying, “Yeah, I am… he may be a pain sometimes, but that’s kind of a sibling’s job.”

“Really?” Mari asked curiously.

“Well, yeah,” Hero answered. “I mean, doesn’t Sunny ever do that to you?”

Mari glanced back with a smidge of guilt on her face before responding, “No. Sunny’s… never disagreed or argued with me… at that hospital… I felt so hurt.”

A soft hand was felt on Mari’s shoulder, and her eyes retracted back towards Hero. “Even if that’s how you feel, that doesn’t mean Sunny hates you. Everyone makes mistakes and unknowingly hurts people all the time. We just have to live with it. And knowing you… I’m sure you can do that too.”

Reminiscing of that moment at the hospital where Sunny told her off, deflected her help, will haunt Mari for a long time still. However, she also remembered the faces and expressions of everyone involved whenever Sunny was let out. None of them ever seemed to feel true disdain over her on the matter. Well, except for Sunny, of course, but he was the one affected by it, so that should be a given. Mari was the only one being this hard on herself about what happened to him. Maybe trying to release that added weight onto her shoulders will not only help her, but help the people who are still around her right now.

“Yo guys!” Kel shouted from afar. Both Hero and Mari glanced over and saw Kel a few houses down, just standing by and waiting for them to drag their feet and catch up to him. “I, uh… don’t wanna interrupt, but… are you guys coming?”

A slight snicker was heard from Hero’s vicinity as he whispered to Mari, “Well, he is getting better about reading a room.” Then, he raised his voice significantly so that Kel could properly hear his next sentence. “Yeah, Kel! We’ll be there in just a second!” Then his volume shifted again, this time directed towards Mari again. “Come on, let’s not keep him waiting.”

Then Hero departed towards Kel’s direction, and although Mari stood in silence for a few seconds, she gave out a slight smile before her legs began walking on their own, and next thing she knew, she was traversing around houses, nabbing candy from all kinds of joints, and building up an army’s worth of treats like she was twelve again.

***

Even for Halloween, this was unusual. Mari was always home before ten, regardless of the events. And it was already creeping close to eleven. Whatever Mari’s cause for her being out so late was, he had to make sure that she was okay, first and foremost. If she was just trick or treating, something had to have come up that extended Mari’s duration out there. If he didn’t see his daughter’s face walking out that door soon, he would probably have to start looking around out there himself-

The sound of a doorknob being tilted, and then the wooden, creaking door pushed open, alerted the father of the Suzuki household at once, and there he saw his eldest child strut slowly, yet with a certain sense of passion to her step.

The moment that Mari stepped foot into the house, she heard the booming voice of her father proclaim, “Mari, there you are! Why were you gone so late?” Not only was she surprised by him being right in front of the door being the first thing that greeted her upon walking in, but the sheer volume of his voice was probably going to wake up the entire neighborhood. “Your brother got home an hour ago!”

Not like that was new information to her. She already noticed their room’s light on when she and the others took a pit stop to Hero’s house. “Hi dad… I’m sorry, Kel and Hero wanted to keep going and I didn’t want to leave them behind,” Mari soothingly responded, trying to not let the slight bit of agitation that was being built up in her system slip through in her voice. And she wasn’t really going to tell her dad that she wasn’t sure if she and Sunny wanted to see each other right now.

Sighing loudly, Mr. Suzuki responded, “Well, you’ve got school tomorrow, and last that I checked, you’ve got a test coming up in a few days!”

Okay, this was starting to get under her skin a little now. Not only did she not need reminding of school during Halloween , but she had a previous conversation with her father about stalking her grades and assignments. It would appear that old habits of his came back to haunt her after all. Still, though, bubbling up the frustration in her chest, she simply replied with, “Mhm, I know dad.”

A second of silence suddenly quelled across the house, likely as a result of Mari’s father not realizing how loud he was being in that moment. After a moment, he took a more solemn look towards her. She wasn’t sure if it was to seem more empathetic or to try and take pity on his daughter for once. “Get some rest, dear. You’ll need to get up early in the morning.” That was all that came out of her dad’s mouth as Mari glanced up towards him, understanding the request in full.

She nodded slowly before responding, “Sounds good, dad.” Then, she took the fabric eyepatch that had been over her eye throughout the night just before she began ascending the flight of stairs. Even just looking at the top of those steps gave her chills. Once she was around a third of the way up, she added, “Good night.”

“Good night, Mari,” Her father reciprocated, and before he knew it, Mari was out of sight.

Mari was really fortunate that she had an excuse to go into the bathroom right now. Once she was sure that dad could no longer see her, she hastily slipped inside and pounced onto the counter. She stared at the mirror for a few seconds, a souring lump forming just over her chest. She grabbed her head and groaned and growled angrily, albeit quietly, to ensure that nobody could actually hear her in there.

Once she got that out of her system, she began whispering to herself, “Can’t I have just one night to let loose without dad getting on my case?” She shut her eyes and sulked her head down onto the counter, it’s metallic cold feel piercing through her nerves. After a moment to contemplate her current situation, her mind treaded elsewhere. Something that she dreaded even thinking about ever since she and Hero stumbled into that area of the woods near their old hangout spot.

“Should I even tell dad about the gem? What will he think?” As things were, she was already on somewhat thin ice with her recent behavior and actions. What would happen if he discovered she had been hiding some weird gem from his knowledge? Was it even a big deal? That was the problem with her dad. He was unpredictable when it came to how he would react with certain things. Sometimes, his response would be collected and understanding over something that would seem to be a big deal, while other times, he’d lash out and make a scene when you tell him something that seems mundane.

That unpredictability over his reactions was what made him scary to talk to. Not that she didn’t want to, but she had no idea how it would go. She would only tell him things that she knew full well would go over well. It was also often why she tended not to go looking for trouble or go anywhere that might lead to trouble. She frankly had no idea what even made her go down that hill looking for that gem in the first place. She had buried herself several yards into the ground and now she had to climb her way out.

“No…” Mari’s head suddenly blocked her from thinking about it any further. She was a bit stunned at first, but then realized this was for the better. He didn’t know now. She could tell him when she was ready. Besides, she has more important things to worry about right now, according to him… like tests . Denying the thought any more attention, she swiftly got herself ready for bed and left the bathroom after what felt like an eternity.

She slowly treaded towards her bedroom door, though. Knowing Sunny was in there made her hesitate, but if she didn’t act soon, she’d be standing in front of that door forever. And she knew full well that wouldn’t go over well with her father.

Her hand slowly turned the doorknob and she pushed against the door ever-so-slightly. As the door creaked open to let her see more of the room, she found Sunny sitting just on the foot of his bed, notebook in hand. It looks like he was drawing. He was in his pajamas, though, so there was a good chance he was getting ready to call it a night pretty soon.

Once he saw her, though, his wrist stopped rotating. He just looked up at her with a blank expression. Normally, she wouldn’t mind much of it, that’s just normally how he looks in a neutral emotional state, but with the context of what went down at the recital, that empty slate of a face was more daunting onto Mari than it should have the right to be.

She knew one thing, though, and it was that standing around and being silent wasn’t going to get them anywhere. So she cleared her throat and finally spoke, “Hey, Sunny.”

At first, he didn’t respond. His eyes lowered back to his notebook, and he simply exhaled quietly. But then, he made a reply.

“Hi.”

It had been the first time that he had really talked to her since the hospital. Though it was only one word, it was a start. Mari made her way towards her own bed and sat down slowly. Placing her hands neatly on the tops of her thighs, she glanced towards her little brother and asked, “So… how was tonight?” It was impossible to judge how his experience without her went from his current emotional expression, though she wouldn’t be blamed for believing it went better than how it would have if she was there with him.

Sunny hesitated again. He seemed to be thinking intently about what he wanted to say. “Was fine,” was all that came out when he did finally decide to speak, though.

“Oh, good…” Mari ushered in response. Well, this wasn’t going quite in the direction that she was hoping. “D-Did you have fun?”

Sunny took even longer to respond this time. What he said wasn’t even a word, though. All he did was nod and mumble out a generic, “Mhm.”

Alright, well at least she tried. But it was evident beyond belief that he wanted nothing to do with her right now, and still didn’t want to talk. Whatever happened to that advice that Kel and literally everybody else gave you, Mari? She just wanted to see if maybe he’d at least be willing to talk to her.

And he did, but begrudgingly so.

With that, Mari laid down and draped the blankets over her body. Before turning herself away from him, not wanting to be reminded of the cold slate on his face likely caused by her, she whispered, “Good night, Sunny.”

She expected nothing in return as her figure rotated from his direction. And for a few moments, no other noises were heard in that room.

Except for one.

“...Night.”

The lights turned off, ceasing all vision from either Sunny or Mari’s part. As well as their conversation.

Chapter Text

Hey everyone. So uh, sorry for the radio silence for everyone who is still reading this thing. If you haven't already seen from the title, Raptured Strings has officially been discontinued. Big surprise there. It's been that way for months, I just never got around to making a proper announcement/explanation for such. So allow me to go over why this happened and what to expect going forward.

So firstly, why did I cancel Raptured Strings? Well, the big reason is simply lack of motivation. I've had college and work eating up a lot of my free time, not to mention me trying to keep up with my game dev work and YouTube account, so in the time that I could have spent writing for this fic, I just didn't have the same energy as I did when I started it. There is, however, a more deeper reason as to why I feel this fic, in retrospect, was doomed to fail from the start. I never had a proper story fully thought out going into it. Now of course, a lot of people came to this for the Sunburn, which makes a lot of sense; it is a Sunburn story at heart. But I also wanted to write an actual story beyond just making Mari Lives AU Sunburn fluff. I just didn't know what I wanted that story to be.

I had a half-assed idea (this was mostly involving the gem that Mari and Hero find in Chapter 5) but I kept bouncing ideas in my head about how I'd make it work narratively-speaking. That was discouraging me from writing more of this fic than what I had - I just didn't know how to build up to it. It honestly made me wonder at one point if just writing Sunburn oneshots would be more effective, like how I did with Wondrous Bliss a while back, but I've always wanted to make a genuine story as a fic. I just didn't have a good foundation with this attempt.

Now, what to expect coming out of this? Well, obviously, Raptured Strings won't be worked on moving forward. The only chance that it has of being revived is if I suddenly have a "URETHRA!" moment one day and randomly figure out a story for this fic. Otherwise, I'm sorry for anyone that I've disappointed with this announcement. I know that quite a few people enjoyed this fic and seemed like it had promise, but I think it's better to make this announcement now than wait in the off chance that I actually do wind up gaining an idea on how to proceed with this fic.

Does this mean that I'm done writing fics here in general? Well... that depends. First off, I wanna know if anyone who's following me would be interested in seeing me write anything that's non-Omori related? I just want to know what you guys think about the prospect of me writing about smth non-Omori related at all. It's not to say it's definite, but if there's support for me to continue writing at all... then it's a maybe. Again, I'm sorry that the fic had to be put down unceremoniously like this, but my motivation's shot, I've got other things going on in life, and frankly, I want to see if branching into other ideas for writing stories would work out for me. We'll have to see. In any case, I'll see you all down the road. Take care.