Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Mari closed her eyes and took a deep breath, taking in the fresh morning air of Faraway. Even though she was in a hurry, she couldn't help but spare a moment to absorb all of the sensations of her hometown. It was a nice spring day, late enough in the morning that the sun was able to warm up the cold April weather to something reasonably warm. There was a faint wind blowing, carrying the sounds of children playing from the nearby park. It was just another day for the sleepy town in the middle of nowhere.

She smiled. It had been five years since she was last able to enjoy any of this.

Of course, it had also been five years since she was last alive.

Exhaling, Mari continued down the sidewalk, moving a little faster than she had been before. No more dawdling; she had somewhere to be.

Having a body again was taking some getting used to. It wasn't like it felt unnatural to her; after all, it was her body. Except it wasn't, at least not as she remembered it. This was the body of a hypothetical Mari, a Mari that hadn't died half a decade ago and was able to keep growing and maturing. She wasn't sure if she would have turned out precisely like this - there was a distinct lack of purple in her hair, for starters - but she wasn't going to complain.

She was, however, going to complain about her wardrobe. She stuck out like a sore thumb in the long white dress she was wearing, and everyone she had passed on the sidewalk since she left the church had either stared at her like she had three heads or walked to the other side of the street to avoid her. She needed to get home as soon as possible to get something normal to wear.

Well, she needed to get home as soon as possible to see Sunny. But getting a change of clothes was nearly as important.

Turning onto her street, Mari quickened her pace as her house came into view. Her mind was racing, trying to figure out exactly what to say to Sunny when she saw him again. That she forgave him of course, that much was obvious, but beyond that, she had no idea. She also imagined that seeing her again would be a bit of a shock, so she would need to make sure he stayed calm somehow.

Mari paused in front of the familiar off-white home. A small voice in the back of her mind told her that she wasn't ready for this, that she needed to leave and plan out exactly what she was going to say and do, but she managed to silence it. Sunny had been strong enough to face something far more difficult than this, the least she could do was match that strength.

Bracing herself, she marched down the walkway to her front door, taking a second to examine the new and unfamiliar car in the driveway-

...Oh. Right.

She stopped mid-step as she remembered.

Sunny doesn't live here anymore. He moved away a year ago.

This wasn't his home anymore, and it wasn't hers either.

Mari groaned, covering her face with her hand. She really shouldn't have forgotten that. Then again, her memories of when she was a spirit were hazy and jumbled; she only had a vague recollection of what had happened for those four years. The clearest memories were of when she was able to actually reach out to Sunny, and those were few and far between. Trying to recall anything else from that time was like trying to read a story that had been translated into another language, then another one, and then another one before finally being translated back into something she could allegedly understand. Which is to say it wasn't understandable at all and trying to make sense of anything just made her upset.

Sighing, Mari went back to the sidewalk, thankful that whoever now lived in her old house didn't open the door to ask the strange girl in the white dress why she was sulking on their front lawn. All of the resolve she had built up for this moment had vanished in a second, replaced with a feeling of frustration. She had no idea where Sunny and their mom had moved to, and no way of getting there herself even if she knew, since she didn't have any possessions besides the clothes on her back. She was effectively stranded here in Faraway.

...Mari looked down the street at the other familiar home right next to hers. The one with the orange roof.

Hero and Kel's house.

She had really wanted Sunny to be the first person she spoke to, but since that wasn't possible anymore, she would need a Plan B. She tried not to be bothered too much by that.

Things rarely went perfectly. She should be well aware of that by now.

Starting towards the house next door, Mari began weighing her options. It really depended on who answered when she knocked; Mr. or Mrs. Rodriguez would definitely not believe her if she told the truth, so she would need to come up with some sort of plausible cover story. As for Kel... she really wanted to tell him, but she wasn't sure how he would take it. It would probably be best to see how he reacted at first and then go from there. Either way, the plan was to ask for help locating the rest of her family and hopefully get a place to stay for now.

She knocked on the front door of the house.

Let's see... she could say she was extended family of the Suzukis that came by for a surprise visit and hadn't heard that they moved. As for her lack of belongings, she... got mugged? No, they wouldn't believe that, the closest thing Faraway had to crime was loitering teenagers. She... came here on a bus, and forgot to take her suitcase before the bus drove away? That seemed more plausible, if only barely. It still didn't explain her outfit, but hopefully they wouldn't ask too many questions.

Mari looked up as the door opened, ready to greet whoever it was-

-Only for the words to die in her throat as she came face to face with Hero, who looked just as shocked as she was, if not more.

Several thoughts rapidly piled up in her head, such as "Why is he here!?", and "WOW he got tall.", along with "No really, why is he here, I thought he was at college, I'm not ready for this oh god-" before they all got shoved aside with a final mental command of "Say something already!"

Mari started at Hero's slack-jawed expression, trying to think of what to say. The flimsy lie she had cooked up had already been forgotten, and judging from the expression on Hero's face he definitely recognized her so it probably wouldn't have worked anyway. She tried to think of a replacement but her short-circuiting brain wasn't producing anything useful. With no other ideas, she went for the default response to seeing Hero.

"H-hey there." Mari said in a shaky voice, waving a hand as she smiled. "What's cookin', good-"

The front door slammed in Mari's face.

Her hand dropped as quickly as her smile.

Okay, well. That wasn't the reaction she was hoping for.

After taking a few deep breaths to center herself, Mari knocked on the door once again.

There was a considerable wait before the door opened. On the one hand, Hero looked much calmer as he peeked outside for the second time. On the other hand, he seemed to be doing everything he could to not look at Mari, his eyes only meeting hers for the barest fraction of a second before flicking away and looking up and down the street.

"I'm sorry, that was probably a little too much after being gone for so long." Mari apologized. "Let me try again." She cleared her throat. "Hi, Hero! How have you b-"

The front door closed again. This time Mari heard the deadbolt click into place.

Scowling, Mari pounded on the door with her fist, her initial nervousness replaced with irritation.

After nearly half a minute of banging on the door, it started to open again. Mari quickly wedged herself in the doorway, forcing her way inside before Hero had a chance to shut her out again.

"Seriously Henry, you are being very rude right now."

Hero stepped back into the entryway, watching Mari's every move as she stared at him waiting for a response. Eventually, he slumped over with a sigh, staring at the floor. When glanced back up at her, he looked utterly defeated.

"Listen," He said in a tired voice. "Can you please just go away?"

Mari paled. "Wh-what?"

"Please?" Hero asked again. "I'm home visiting my family for spring break, and I really don't want this to happen right now. They already worry enough about me as it is."

"This?" Mari blinked. "This what?"

"This!" Hero shouted, waving his hand at her before continuing in a lower voice. "This. You." He walked out of the entryway and began pacing as he spoke. "I can't believe this. I've been eating properly, getting more sleep, talking to a counselor at school, I'm doing everything I'm supposed to do to get better. So why am I starting to see you again?"

Suddenly everything clicked in Mari's mind.

"You don't think I'm real." It was a statement, not a question.

Hero let out a single hollow laugh. "Of course you're not real. Mari's dead." He shook his head. "I've accepted that. Or at least, I thought I had. Obviously not if I'm starting to hallucinate again."

Mari's heart twisted into a knot. The proud, selfish part of her had always resented the idea of her friends and family eventually moving on and forgetting her, but if this was the alternative...

More than anything she just wanted to give him a hug and tell him she was back, she was real, but that didn't seem like a great idea at the moment; if anything, it might make him deny her even more. She would need to unravel this slowly and carefully.

She took a step forward. "Do you see me often?"

Hero looked at her before quickly turning away. "I used to. I would imagine Mari was with me right after she died, and then it happened again for a little while after I found out she didn't-" He paused, shaking his head. "After I found out what really happened."

"And how did it usually go when you saw me?" Mari tilted her head.

"It used to be that she would tell me about all the things I missed, all the chances I had to turn things around and help her that I ignored." Hero wrapped his arms around himself. "It was different after I found out the truth. When I saw her after that, I just imagined that she was... here." He shook his head again. "Like she didn't die."

"How did those end?" Mari took another step forward.

His face darkened. "I would remember that she was gone, and then she would just... not be there anymore."

"So why hasn't that happened this time, Hero?" Mari urged, spreading her arms out to each side. "If you've figured me out, why aren't I disappearing in a puff of smoke like I'm supposed to?"

Hero tightened his grip on himself like he was trying to hold something in. "I-I don't know. Maybe it's different now. Maybe I'm worse off than I thought."

"And do your hallucinations usually argue with you?" Mari continued. "Can they hold doors open like I did?"

"Tactile hallucinations are rare, but not unheard of." Hero said. "A small number of schizophrenic disorders have them along with visual and aural hallucinations." It sounded like he was reciting from a medical textbook. "Maybe I just held the door open myself."

Mari rubbed her hand across her eyes in frustration. The worst part about this was she couldn't exactly blame Hero. If she was on the other side of this argument and had to choose between "Your significant other is back from the dead" and "You're having a mental breakdown", she would be making the same choice he was because the other option was too unbelievable. She was dueling against Occam's razor, and right now she was unarmed.

She brightened slightly as an idea came to her. "You think you're the only one that can see me, right?"

Hero nodded.

"Just making sure. I'll be right back." Mari turned toward the door before looking over her shoulder. "And please note that I'm leaving through the front door, like a person that exists, and not vanishing into thin air, like a figment of your imagination." She maintained eye contact with Hero as she stepped backward out the door and closed it behind her.

Hero flipped through to another channel. He wasn't even paying attention to what was on the television, he just needed the noise so he could focus on something besides his own thoughts.

Being home alone was both a blessing and a curse right now; his parents wanted to go shopping in the city with Kel and Sally, and since he arrived home so late last night they decided to let him sleep in. It was a blessing because it meant that no one was around to see him having his... episode. It was a curse because he had a feeling that being alone was what was caused the episode in the first place.

After all, he was here only a few months ago for the holidays, and he was just fine then. He even spoke to Sunny and Basil, and while that conversation was still very awkward it was a friendly one all the same. The big difference between then and now, he supposed, was that he was able to keep himself busy, moving from Christmas to New Year's Eve to his birthday with very little downtime. He had enough on his plate that he was able to keep his mind off of Mari.

Mostly, of course. A little part of him was always thinking about Mari, especially when he visited Faraway. He couldn't help it.

Ugh, and his friends at college wondered why he was still single. He was doing any prospective partners a favor by staying away from them. No one wants to be in a relationship with someone who can't get over their ex.

And they definitely don't want to be with someone who sees visions of their ex banging on their front door and then calling them rude for not playing along. That was a new one if nothing else.

Whatever, this was just something to talk about with the counselor when he got back to college, and no one else. Least of all Kel, he didn't want his little brother to start worrying about him again. That was the other reason seeing Mari again was painful for him; it reminded him of how utterly destroyed he had been when she died, and how horrible he had been to Kel for just trying to help him. Especially that one night... Kel said it didn't bother him, that he didn't even remember what was said, but Kel was also almost as bad at lying as Hero was.

A loud knock on the door pulled Hero out of his thoughts. After a pause, the knock came again.

Hero clenched his teeth and forced himself to sit still. He wasn't going to get up. He wasn't going to trick himself again, he was going to have a normal vacation at home, he was-

"PIZZA- ahem, I mean- SANDWICH DELIVERY!"

Sandwich delivery?

Hero paused. He wouldn't imagine something like that, right?

His curiosity getting the best of him, he slipped off of the couch and went to the front door. He pulled the door open slightly, and sure enough, there was an annoyed-looking man in a Gino's uniform standing on his doorstep holding a plastic bag.

Hero opened the door all the way. "Uh... can I help you?"

"Got a delivery of two hero sandwiches and a grape soda for a Henry Rodriguez." The deliveryman droned in a bored voice.

"That's me, but..." Hero shook his head. "Sorry, I didn't order anything."

"I know you didn't." The man said, jerking his thumb to the side. "She did."

Hero tried his best not to have a visible reaction as Mari the girl from before stepped out from behind the open door.

"She also gave me this to read." The deliveryman held up a piece of paper. Clearing his throat, he began reading out loud in the same dull tone. "I, the Gino's deliveryman, do hereby state that I can see the girl with the long black hair in the white dress standing next to me. She also spoke to the manager at Gino's, who would be more than happy to recall this memory if reached by telephone. Hopefully, this is sufficient proof that she is not a figment of your or anyone else's imagination."

Hero gawked at the girl, who only smirked back at him and raised her eyebrows, just like she always did when she won an argument.

The deliveryman held out a hand. "That'll be fifteen dollars even, please."

Hero blinked. "Huh?"

"Sorry, I couldn't pay for it myself. I don't have any money on me at the moment." Mari Mari?! She said with a shrug.

Hero sighed and took out his wallet, taking out a few bills.

"Make sure you give him a nice tip, Hero."

Hero grumbled to himself and took out a couple more.

Mari sat at the kitchen table, sipping at her can of grape soda. Hero sat next to her, glaring at the two styrofoam containers stacked on top of each other in front of him.

"Are you going to eat anything?" Mari asked, breaking the silence. "I made sure they went light on the mayo, just how you like it."

"I'm not hungry." Hero muttered, not turning to look at her.

Mari took another sip of her soda.

"Are you here all by yourself? I didn't see your parent's car in the driveway or the garage."

"They went shopping in the next town over." Hero said. "They took Kel and Sally with them."

"Sally?" Mari asked before remembering. "Oh, that's right! You're an even bigger brother now. Congratulations, Hero!"

Hero didn't respond.

Mari took another long drink.

"So." She put the can down, making sure to use a coaster. "I'm getting the feeling that you still don't believe me."

"...I believe that you're actually physically here." Hero relented after a moment.

"But?" Mari asked with a tilt of her head.

"But you're not Mari. You just can't be."

"Okay." Mari leaned back in her chair, glancing at him. "So who am I?"

"You're..." He floundered for an answer. "You're one of those people that obsess over murders or tragedies that happen in small towns. You heard about what happened to Mari and you latched onto it, learning everything you could about her and her friends. You're even trying to look like her."

Mari frowned. "Do you really believe that, Hero?"

"It doesn't matter what I believe." Hero said with a grimace. "That's what it has to be."

Mari sighed. She was making progress, but she wasn't sure where to go from here. It sounded like Hero was trying his hardest not to believe that it was really her, putting a wall up between the two of them so he wouldn't be hurt by what he assumed to be a lie.

Well, he was fine with her sitting and talking to him, at least. Maybe that's what she needed to do right now. The question was, what to talk about? She tried to think of some shared secret from their past that she could use as proof of who she was, but it was harder to come up with than she was expecting. So many of their memories together were shared with the rest of their group, and if he really believed (or was trying to believe) she was some crime fanatic he would just say she learned about it from one of them. Besides that, there was the chance that it was something she remembered but he didn't.

She needed to come up with something important and personal to the both of them, something she could put her feelings into in a way that Hero couldn't possibly refute.

When she thought about it that way, there was really only one option.

"Hero," Mari began slowly. "Do you remember when we first became a couple? Officially, I mean."

Hero tensed up beside her.

"I have to specify 'officially' because I feel like we were together long before that." Mari continued. "Somewhere along the line we just quietly changed from next-door neighbors to friends to boyfriend and girlfriend, but neither of us wanted to say it out loud for some reason. But I think we both knew." She grinned. "The others certainly did. I remember Kel always making faces when we sat together, and even Sunny started getting annoyed with me when I would tease you. Aubrey and Basil ate it all up, of course."

"But we didn't call ourselves a couple. At least not until my fifteenth birthday. I remember you bringing over cupcakes for the party. When things were winding down, you asked me if we could step outside for a bit. We went out to the backyard, and then you took a deep breath, and just... said it. Said that you loved me. Just hearing it said plainly like that..." Mari shook her head. "I couldn't have been happier."

"And then," She huffed, annoyed at herself. "I started crying. You freaked out and were worried you said something wrong, but I was just so overwhelmed I couldn't help myself. I still feel kind of bad about that."

She glanced over at Hero, who was now looking back at her, unblinking.

"When things calmed down," She said, grin fading, "You told me that the reason you were so worried was because you had never seen me cry before." She looked away. "And I thought about it, I really did, but I couldn't come up with any other times I cried in front of you. I couldn't think of any other times I cried in front of anyone that wasn't my immediate family. Even when I busted my knee, I didn't let myself cry for some reason. Looking back, I can't even remember why, exactly. I think... I think I was worried about being vulnerable in front of others. I don't know if that's something I was taught or something I decided on my own, or what. But after you told me that, I decided I was being foolish. I would let myself cry in front of others if I felt like it."

She frowned. "I got my chance a few months later. And it wasn't a good cry that time."

"The lake." Hero's voice was faint.

Mari looked at him in surprise before nodding. "After we got Sunny home and dried off, I remember you apologizing to me. You told me you should have saved him because you were closer, you should have stopped Kel from egging him on, you should have done any number of things. But you had no reason to apologize." She shrugged. "After all, it was just an accident."

Hero roughly pushed his chair away from the table at the word 'accident', his eyes wide as saucers. Mari hated seeing him like this, but she could tell that the wall he had built up was starting to crack.

"But you kept saying how sorry you were, and eventually I told you how you could make it up to me." She pushed her own chair back. "I told you that if anything ever happened to me, I wanted you to take care of Sunny. I didn't really think anything of it at the time; of course you would take care of him! You were as much his big brother as I was Kel's big sister."

Mari stood up, followed by Hero a few seconds later. The rest of what she planned to say was something that she had been wanting to tell him for a long time. After a few deep breaths, she turned to look at Hero; despite towering over her, he had never looked as small as he did right now.

"I know that it's been hard for you, dealing with what happened." She started, her eyes already starting to water. "Sometimes when I think about how much you were hurt, I wish I didn't mean so much to you, to any of you. But you were able to pick yourself up. You were able to keep your promise to me." She took his trembling hands in hers. "I'm proud of you, Henry." She smiled through the tears. "I'm proud of you, and I love you."

The wall crumbled.

And so did Hero.

Mari staggered slightly as Hero fell forward, wrapping his arms tightly around her and burying his face in her shoulder as he leaned on her. His body shook with sobs, and Mari could already feel the top of her dress becoming wet with tears.

"I'm s-sorry." Hero stammered, hiccuping. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry-"

"Shhh, Hero, it's fine," Mari said, hugging him. "Really, I would've had a hard time believing me too."

"Not that." Hero pulled back, shaking his head. "I didn't... I didn't keep my promise to you at all." He swallowed hard before continuing.  "When you died, I just ran away. I ran away and hid for a year and didn't even think about anyone but myself. And when Kel tried to help me..." Fresh tears started falling down his cheeks. "A-and then I ran away again! I ran away to school and let everything get worse! I wasn't there for Sunny. I wasn't there for anyone!"

"That's not true, Hero." Mari said. "You were there for Sunny at the lake. You were there at Basil's house. And you were there at the hospital. You were there when it mattered the most."

"But if I had been there sooner, it wouldn't have gotten as bad as they did." Hero looked at the ground. "It's all my fault!"

"Hero, please." Mari pulled him back into the hug. "Everyone was suffering, and it's true you could have helped that, but you were suffering yourself. I can't blame you for that, and you shouldn't blame yourself either."

"But-"

"No buts!" Mari shook Hero, causing him to look up at her. "Nobody's perfect, Henry." She gave a self-deprecating smile. "Take it from someone who learned that the hard way."

For a moment Hero looked like he was trying to come up with some sort of rebuttal. Then he just tightened his hug on Mari and planted his face back in her hair once again.

"I missed you, Mari." He said, voice cracking.

Mari grinned. "That's the first time you called me by my name since I got here."

A long period of quiet followed. The two of them stayed wrapped in their hug for several minutes longer as they calmed down. Eventually, Mari wriggled out of Hero's arms.

"So, do you believe me now?" She asked.

"I don't really have much of a choice." Hero said, a faint smile on his face.

"Good." She said with a final nod.

Another brief period of silence.

"So, uh... what now?" Hero asked.

Mari pondered. "I don't suppose you have anything else for me to wear? I'm kind of sick of this dress."

Hero shook his head. "Sorry, I don't think I have anything that would fit you."

"Well, it doesn't have to be a perfect fit. If you have something I can wear over it, that'd be enough." She smiled. "Besides, girls like wearing their boyfriend's clothes every now and again."

Hero blushed. "B-boyfriend?"

Mari started to nod before catching herself. "Oh, uh... sorry, I just kind of assumed that..." She looked away. "I mean, are you seeing anyone else right now?"

Hero shook his head, blush deepening. "Well, no. I didn't want to do that until I was able to move past you, and I guess I... never did."

"Good," Mari said without thinking, before immediately waving her hands in front of her face. "I-I mean, it's good that you're not seeing anyone, not that it's good that you never got over me. I mean, it's good for me, but it wasn't good for you since..." She sighed. "You know what I mean."

"I got it, don't worry." Hero chuckled a bit before frowning. "But being together with you again... I really want to, Mari, but I'm not sure how to pick something like that up again."

"Well, maybe we just have to start all over, then." Mari shrugged.

"Start all over?" Hero asked.

"Like this." Mari cleared her throat. "Hi there!" She said in a cheerful voice, holding out her hand. "My name's Mari. What's your name?"

Hero stared at her hand. Then, a bright smile spread across his face as he took her hand and shook it. "Hi, Mari. My name's Henry, but everyone calls me Hero."

Mari smiled back and squeezed his hand.

...His nice, large, strong hand.

"...Say, Hero?" Mari began in a low voice. "Maybe since we've done all this before, we can move a little faster than we did last time."

"Sure? I guess so." Hero said. "How much faster did you have in-"

Mari yanked Hero down by his hand and pulled him into a kiss.

Hero flipped through to another channel. He wasn't really paying attention to anything, but after the events of the past hour he needed something to help him decompress.

He looked down at his lap, where the top of Mari's curled-up form rested. She was wearing one of his college sweatshirts over her white dress, and while she was practically swimming in it she didn't seem to mind at all.

He smiled. Well, he certainly didn't mind either.

Putting the remote down, he returned to his task of playing with her hair, running his hands through it in the way he remembered her liking it.

"You know," He said. "We said we were going to move just a little faster than we did last time, but I'd say we've already more or less caught up with where we were five years ago."

"Gzrmnf." Mari concurred, mumbling against his chest.

Hero sighed and shook his head, smile growing even wider. He turned his attention back to the television.

"...It's still hard for me to believe you're actually here." He said after a little while. "I think I'm still worried this is all just another dream."

Mari sat up and looked at him, raising an eyebrow. "Do I need to order you another sandwich? Because I will."

"Please don't." Hero shook his head. "I can't afford another one, I'm a broke college student."

"Sorry," Mari said. "I'll pay you back whenever I can. You're used to being owed money anyway, right? I remember Kel borrowing money from you all the time."

"Kel!" Hero startled, sitting up. "I completely forgot, my family is going to be home in a couple hours. What are we going to tell them? What are we going to tell everyone?!" His mind started racing. "And you're still legally dead! We have to figure out how to change that! And then you're going to need to go back to school somehow, or get a job, or-"

His train of thought was derailed by another kiss from Mari.

"Hero." She said, looking him in the eyes. "You're absolutely right, those are all very important things that we need to get taken care of as soon as possible. But I think we can take a few minutes to ourselves and just not think about them for a little while." Curling up in his lap again, she grabbed his arm by the wrist and plopped his hand back down on her head. "Because I really need this right now. And I think you do too."

Hero relented and went back to massaging her scalp. "I suppose you're right."

Mari murmured something in response.

"...Hey, Mari?" Hero asked after another period of quiet.

"Mmmnf?"

"This is probably a weird question, but... you're not, uh." He frowned. "You're not a monster or anything now, are you?"

Mari propped herself up on an elbow. "It's not that weird of a question, seeing as I came back from the dead and all that. But no, I'm a normal human girl."

"Okay. In that case, I think I'm ready to ask this." Hero took a deep breath. "How did you come back from the dead? And why did you come back now?"

Mari hummed in thought. "Well to answer your second question first, I was actually planning on moving on after Sunny accepted the truth of what happened. I just wish it didn't take him four years to do so."

"Move on?" Hero asked. "So you were...?"

"A ghost." Mari frowned. "I wanted to check up on you, but I was bound to Sunny, and he never left the house, so I never had the chance."

"So that one time last year I thought I heard the piano...?"

Mari nodded. "Sorry I didn't talk to you then, but the way things were going I was worried I would ruin them if I interfered too much. Anyway, I really was planning on moving on after Sunny remembered the truth, but it turned out I had a chance at coming back, so I figured I would give it a try. I had to wait almost a year for my turn, though."

"Your turn?" Hero looked at her, confused. "Your turn for what?"

"Did you ever hear that old story about challenging Death to a game for your soul?"

Sounds of despair were not uncommon in Purgatory. Wails of denial from the recently deceased who have not yet come to terms with the end of their lives, sobs of grief from those who have left loved ones behind, screams of anger from those unwilling to accept their final judgment. In this gray and sterile plane of existence, all sensation is muffled, and so these sounds are reduced to little more than pitiful whimpers.

Despite this, one voice is so saturated with agony, so loud with misery, that even the shades that would normally be deaf to all but their own sorrow cannot help but listen. These howls of torment may have lasted for half an hour, or perhaps half a millennia, but they were now reaching a fever pitch. None dared attempt to quell the owner of this voice, for it belonged to the ruler of this realm.

"Are you kidding me! Chance Time again?!"

The Grim Reaper was competing with another for their soul. And they were losing.

In a suitably dark and foreboding domain, sitting at a suitably dark and foreboding couch, in front of a suitably dark and foreboding television playing an unsuitably bright and cheerful video game, Death watched through skeletal hands as their challenger decided both their fates.

"Don't you dare." Death muttered.

Sitting beside them, Mari tapped a button on her controller. On the screen, Sweetheart leapt up and struck one of three spinning blocks from below, stopping it on a cutesy representation of her own face.

"Don't you dare!" Death raged.

Mari maneuvered Sweetheart to the other side of the screen and struck another block, stopping it on the face of a grinning shark in sunglasses.

"Don't you fucking dare!" Death screamed, throwing their controller down.

Mari placed Sweetheart below the final block, now spinning so fast that it was a blur. After a short pause, she tapped the button to strike the center block, stopping on an arrow pointing from right to left, with two white cubes surrounding the arrow.

A monochrome sprout mole waddled onto the screen.

"The resulbts are in!" The creature said in a text box. "Two of MR. JAWSUM's Tofu go to SWEETHEART!"

The numbers on the screen changed to reflect the results of this event. With an effective four-Tofu deficit, Death had fallen from a trailing second to a distant third. Meanwhile, alongside her significant stash of Clams, Mari's lead had turned from impressive to insurmountable, especially with so few turns left.

The entire plane of Purgatory seemed to fall into a deep, uncomfortable silence. Then, with a frustrated yell, the Grim Reaper leapt up and slammed their scythe into the television, then did it again, and again, and again, until there was nothing left but a sparking pile of glass and plastic.

Mari batted her eyelashes innocently. "Does that mean I win?"

"You." Death whirled on their challenger, hollow eyesockets burning with cold fire. "You get the hell out of my afterlife. And you better stay out for a good, long time." They shook a bony finger at her so hard that it rattled. "I promise, if you're back here in less than a century, I'm going to take this controller, turn it sideways, and SHOVE IT DOWN YOUR-"

"Yeah, I think so." Hero nodded. "Is that a real thing?"

"It is!" Mari nodded back. "Although, there are probably going to be some restrictions to the selection of games going forward."

Chapter Text

Hero yawned, blinking the sleep out of his eyes as he slowly woke up. Turning his head to the side, it took him a moment to realize he wasn't in his bedroom, and then a moment more to realize that he was laying on the couch in the living room. He didn't remember falling asleep; the trip back home must have taken more out of him than he thought. Stretching, he propped himself up onto his elbows and began to sit up when he felt an unfamiliar weight on his chest. He looked down, only for his breath to catch in his throat as he realized he was covered in a blanket of black hair.

For a few seconds, Hero's mind rapidly cycled between panic and confusion before finally calming down as the events of that morning caught up with him. Reaching down, he gently lifted a handful of the hair, revealing Mari's sleeping face.

Hero let out a sigh of relief and leaned back onto the couch, letting his girlfriend's hair drop back down.

Part of Hero still didn't believe that Mari was actually alive again, despite the evidence to the contrary that was currently drooling on his shirt. That didn't mean he wasn't over the moon with happiness right now, but getting used to having her around again had taken quite a bit out of him. That was probably why he had fallen asleep on the couch, come to think of it.

...Wait, how long had he been asleep for?!

Craning his neck, he looked over the back of the couch at the clock near the front door. After reading the time, his breath caught for the second time in so many minutes.

"Mari, wake up." Hero nudged her.

"Mrgh..." The mass of black hair shifted slightly. "Hero, please. I haven't slept this good in years."

Hero sighed. Mari always was slow to wake up; he supposed this was just more proof that this was really her. Still, they didn't have time for this.

"Mari, we need to get up. My parents are going to be home soon."

"I'm up, I'm up." Mari yawned, rolling off of Hero and sitting up. She sat still for a few moments longer before snapping to attention, eyes wide. "How soon?"

"I don't know." Hero said as he sat up as well. "They said they would be back around this time, so as far as I know they could be back any-"

He was cut off by the sound of the garage door opening.

Of course. Of course this was happening right now.

The two of them jumped up from the couch, staring at the front door.

"What are we going to say?" Mari asked. doing her best to fix her hair.

"You're asking me?" Hero looked at her. "You're the one that knocked on our door, what were you planning on saying to my family then?"

"I was going to pretend to be my own cousin, but I don't think that's going to work anymore."

"You were what?"

"But maybe if..." Mari trailed off, rubbing her chin in thought. "Okay, I've got an idea. Just follow my lead, alright?"

"What do you mean, follow your-"

"Hero, we're back!" Kel burst through the front door, bags hanging off of each arm.

"H-hey, Kel!" Hero stammered, trying to act normal. "How was the shopping trip?"

"Boring." Kel put the bags down and shrugged out of his jacket. "I had to try on like twenty dress shirts. You lucked out getting to stay home." Tossing his jacket into the nearby closet, Kel turned back towards Hero. "So, how were things-"

Hero winced as he watched Kel's face go pale and his jaw drop; he imagined this was more or less how he looked the first time he saw Mari as well, and he could also imagine the sort of things going through his brother's mind right now.

"Kel." Hero said, swallowing. "It's not... this isn't..."

"Kel, can you go get Sally's stroller out of the car?" As if on cue, Hero's mother stepped through the open front door with a dozing Sally in her arms, followed closely by his father. The two adults quickly noticed Mari as well, and their expressions just as quickly turned to shock, although Hero assumed that the shock was more due to the fact there was a stranger in their house and less at who the stranger looked like.

"Hero," His mother said. "Who is this?"

Hero's heart jackhammered in his chest. "Well, she's..." He turned to Mari for some sort of guidance, only to watch her walk past him and approach his family.

"Hello, Mrs. Rodriguez. I'm very sorry to show up unannounced like this. My name is Lily Smith." Mari smiled politely. "I'm Hero's girlfriend. It's nice to finally meet you all."

Hero's parents exchanged glances, eyebrows raised. When they turned back they looked more skeptical than shocked.

"His girlfriend?" Hero's father repeated.

"Yes?" Mari nodded. After a beat, she turned to Hero with an air of indignation. "Hero, you have mentioned me to your parents, haven't you?"

"I mean," Hero looked between Mari and his family, slowly catching on. "I guess I never got around to it?"

Mari pouted. "Oh Hero, you're not embarrassed of me, are you?"

"N-no! Of course not!" Hero stepped forward and put an arm around her. "Mom, Dad, this is Lily. We met at college."

Hero's words seemed to satisfy his parents' suspicions; meanwhile, Kel was still glaring daggers at Mari, although his expression had changed ever so slightly.

"It's nice to meet you too, Lily." His mother said with a smile before giving Hero a glare of her own. "Although it would have been nicer if we were told you were going to be visiting."

"That's my fault, actually." Mari bowed her head slightly. "Let me explain..."

After some hasty thinking, Mari had decided to go with a modified version of her original cover story. With a few mental edits, she had gone from Lily Suzuki, a relative of Sunny's that had come by for a surprise visit, to Lily Smith, Hero's girlfriend from college that had come by for a surprise visit. Otherwise, everything else was the same; she had come to Farway on a bus, she forgot to take her belongings off before it left, and now she was stranded here.

"It really was a spur of the moment thing." Mari said, sitting at the dining room table with a cup of coffee. "When I saw that Faraway was one of the stops on the route I just had this urge to stop by. I'm usually not this spontaneous. Right, Hero?" She reached over and took his free hand in hers.

"Yes, I can honestly say that she's usually nothing like this." Hero said, squeezing her hand just a little too hard.

The main advantage of this change was that she had Hero to back her up. Which mostly meant that every now and again she would ask him something and he would nod, but that was plenty. On the other hand, it was harder to pretend to be a college student than Mari assumed it would be. As someone who technically dropped out of high school during her sophomore year, Mari never had the chance to visit any colleges, much less attend them. She knew a little bit about what they were like from the prep courses she had started to take, but that was it. Thankfully, Hero's parents weren't asking her any questions that were too specific.

"And what's your major, Lily?" Hero's mother asked. "Are you doing a pre-med track like Hero is?"

For the most part, at least.

"My major?" Mari froze. "Oh, um... I haven't picked one yet. I've been taking all the classes I can to figure out which ones I like."

"Well, I suppose that's one way to do it." Mr. Rodriguez said. "Just as long as you decide eventually, It can be expensive to jump between majors."

"Y-yeah, my mom tells me the same thing all the time." Mari said with a weak laugh.

"Speaking of your parents, will they be able to pick you up?" Mrs. Rodriguez asked. "I'm sure they were expecting to see you."

"Yes, well." Mari's mind raced for an excuse. "Unfortunately, they're both overseas on a business trip. That's why I had to take the bus in the first place, otherwise they would have picked me up from college themselves. I'm not sure when they'll be back."

"You were going to spend your vacation all alone at home?" Mari could hear the skepticism creeping back into Mrs. Rodriguez's voice.

"I mean, it's no big deal." She waved her hand dismissively. "It wouldn't be the first time."

Mari felt Mrs. Rodriguez study her for a few seconds before she shook her head sympathetically.

"Well, I suppose I can understand why you wanted to come and visit Hero if that was the alternative." Mrs. Rodriguez said with a sigh. "Until you hear from your parents, you can stay here with us, and if you don't hear from them you can drive back to college with Hero."

"Are you sure?" Mari asked, mentally cheering. "I don't want to be a burden."

"Please don't worry about it, dear." Mrs. Rodriguez shook her head. "You're having some bad luck right now, and it's the least we could do. Besides, you came to introduce yourself to us, and I wouldn't want to leave a bad first impression."

"Well, if you insist." Mari bowed her head. "Thank you very much, both of you."

Mrs. Rodriguez nodded with a smile. "Now, I assume you don't have anything else to wear?" She raised an eyebrow. "Besides Hero's sweatshirt, of course."

Mari felt her face flush. "W-well, not really."

"I thought not." Mrs. Rodriguez turned to her husband. "I'm going to head back into the city to pick up a few things for Lily." She glanced across the table. "Hero, you'd better come with me to help pick things out."

"Yes, Mom." Hero nodded with a smile.

"Good!" Mrs. Rodriguez smiled and gathered up the coffee cups. "We'll get going in a few minutes. Hero, you should go get ready." Standing up, she headed into the kitchen, followed by Mr. Rodriguez. The sound of the kitchen sink running came through the door a few seconds later, and once it was clear they weren't going to come back Hero immediately slumped forward onto the table and covered his head with his arms.

"I'd say that went better than expected, don't you think?" Mari asked.

"Says you," Hero said, voice muffled against the table. "I'm not crazy about lying to my parents."

"It's just for now, Hero." Mari rubbed his back. "We'll figure out some way to break the news to them."

Hero's shoulders sagged, and he looked up at her. "Okay."

Mari smiled. "Good. Now, you'd better get ready too." She stood up, followed by Hero.

"By the way," Hero started. "Where did 'Lily' come from?"

"Hm?" Mari blinked. "Oh, my mom told me once that was the name her and Dad were planning to give me. It almost happened, too."

"Why didn't it?"

"Because I was born a few minutes after midnight on the first of March, and my mom got inspired." Mari said with a sigh. "Did I never mention that? I swear I told you this story before."

"Oh, yeah." Hero said. "You did. I always assumed that was a joke."

"Believe me, I wish it was."

The two of them passed through the living room on their way to the stairwell. Kel glanced up at them as they walked by, staring at Mari for a few seconds before looking away and going back to bouncing Sally on his knee as he watched television.

"So what should we do about Kel?" Hero asked, dropping his voice to barely above a whisper as they climbed the stairs.

"I think we should tell him," Mari said. "But I'm not sure how. It was hard enough to convince you."

"We'll figure something out after I get back from the store, I guess." Hero shrugged. "Speaking of which, any preferences for clothes?"

"At this point, I'll take anything that isn't a long white dress." Mari said. "It's up to you."

"Are you sure?" Hero turned to her at the top of the stairs. "You're putting a lot of faith in me, here."

"Well." Mari grinned, stepping forward and wrapping her arms around him. "You haven't steered me wrong yet."

Amelia finished scrubbing one of the coffee mugs. Rinsing the soap out, she passed it off to her husband to dry and put away.

"She seems nice." It was the first thing she said after leaving the dining room.

"Hm." Joel nodded.

"Maybe a little scatterbrained."

"I'm sure it's just nerves." Joel said. "I was a little scared when I met your parents too."

Amelia side-eyed him as she handed him another mug.

"More than a little scared." Joel relented.

She started scrubbing another one, a little more roughly.

"I don't understand why Henry never mentioned her to us."

"Henry's an adult now, Amelia." Joel said. "He doesn't need to tell us everything that's going on in his life."

"He does when his life decides to show up at our house uninvited." Amelia said with a huff.

Joel let out a small grunt, signaling that he wasn't going to press the issue further.

"But she is nice." Amelia said, rinsing the mug.

"Very nice." Joel agreed.

The two of them worked in relative silence. Amelia looked at Joel, wondering if he was going to address the elephant in the room. When it became clear he wasn't, she let out a small sigh and decided to do it herself.

"She certainly looks a lot like Mari, though."

"So Henry has a type." Joel shrugged. "Nothing wrong with that."

Amelia rolled her eyes. "Well I hope things work out between the two of them, because I can't imagine there's another girl out there that matches his 'type' so perfectly."

Joel grunted again.

"Okay, I'm off to the city again." Amelia handed him the last mug and started to leave, only to stop. "...She said her last name was Smith, right?"

"I think so, yes." Joel nodded. "Why?"

"No reason, really. It's just... I'm pretty sure June mentioned once that her maiden name was Smith."

"It has to be a coincidence." Joel said. "Think about how many Smiths there are in the world. Heck, there are plenty of Rodriguezes out there too."

Amelia sighed. "You have a point."

"And hey," Joel grinned and nudged her with his elbow. "If things really work between the two of them, maybe there'll be a couple more."

"Honestly, Joel..."

Kel watched from the couch as Hero and his mom got ready to leave. Mostly he was watching his brother; specifically, his brother and his new girlfriend.

He watched as Hero leaned down towards Lily as she whispered something in his ear. He watched as Hero's face flushed as red as a tomato as he stood back up again while Lily smirked at him. And he watched his brother break into a smile and give her a quick peck on the lips.

Kel studied his brother for any evidence that this was all just a facade; it's not what he was hoping for, certainly, but it was something he was afraid of.

When Hero finally started going outside again, he did his best to act like everything was back to normal. He smiled, he started cooking again, he would help Kel with his homework, he would do everything that he used to do. But there was something forced about it like he was trying his hardest to convince everyone that nothing was wrong. Kel wasn't sure if his parents noticed, but Kel certainly did.

It takes one to know one, after all.

The worst part was, Kel wasn't sure he couldn't do anything to help him. He had already done his best to help Hero, and the night Hero exploded on him made Kel very aware of how easily something like that could go wrong. If he tried to talk to Hero again and failed, would things go back to the way they were when Mari died? Would they be even worse? Kel didn't know, and he didn't want to know. So he decided things were good enough. And they were! For another three years, things honestly did get better, at least between Kel and Hero. Kel had lost everyone else, but as long as he had his brother he would be fine.

And then Sunny came back and turned everything upside down again.

After Sunny finished telling them what had really happened to Mari, he had turned and left without giving anyone a chance to react. Aubrey ran after him a second later, and Kel should have been right behind her, but at that moment he was more worried about Hero and how he was going to react. It's not something he was proud of, but his biggest fear was that Hero was going to explode again.

In some ways, Hero's reaction to the truth was exactly what Kel was afraid of, and in other ways it was totally different. Hero didn't explode so much as implode, crumpling in on himself instead of lashing out at anyone else, including Basil and Sunny. He even spoke to them in private, and from what little Kel could make out from his ear pressed to the door the conversation was a positive one. But Kel knew Hero was barely holding together, and when Sunny moved away he finally let himself fall apart.

At first it was just like things used to be, with Hero bedridden and unresponsive. Little by little, however, Hero pulled himself back together again. By the end of the summer he was making dinner for the family, playing basketball with Kel, and laughing with their friends, and this time Kel knew it wasn't an act. Hero was still hurt, just like they all were, but thanks to Sunny everyone would be able to heal properly. It would just take some time.

Or so Kel thought. Apparently, Hero needed less time than he expected.

Kel wasn't suspicious of his brother because that would imply that he thought Hero was being intentionally deceitful. He was just worried; worried that his brother was overextending himself again and that this was going to end poorly. But despite how hard he looked, Kel couldn't find any evidence that this was the case. Hero was just... happy with his girlfriend. Kel supposed he should be happy too.

So why wasn't he?

After putting Sally down for her nap, Kel lay spread-eagle on his bed, staring at nothing in particular as he tried to figure out what was wrong. This wasn't the first time he had felt like this, but it was the first time he had felt like this around Hero, and he wanted to know why.

Was it because Hero had a new girlfriend? He didn't think that was it. Sometimes Hero would mention, in an annoyed sort of way, the occasional classmate that tried to make a move on him. It was probably inevitable that he would eventually hook up with one of them.

Was it because Hero had a new girlfriend and then didn't tell him? He didn't think it was that either. Hero didn't tell him everything; there was that one summer he came home with his ears pierced, for example. Kel didn't even notice until their mom yelled at him about it.

Was it because Hero had a new girlfriend and she looked just like

No, that definitely wasn't it.

Hearing the bedroom door open, Kel quickly sat up to see if his dad needed him for something, only to see Lily walk in instead.

"Hi there." She said with a smile. "Kel, right?"

Kel nodded.

"I'm going to be sleeping on the couch downstairs, and your father said you had a sleeping bag I could use."

"I think it's in the closet over there." Kel pointed to the door on Hero's side of the room. "Want me to get it for you?"

"No, I should be fine." Lily shook her head.

"'Kay." Kel flopped back down on his bed.

Lily started to head for the closet, only to stop mid-turn. After a few seconds, she walked over to the foot of Kel's bed. "Is everything okay?"

"Huh?" Kel looked up. "Yeah, I guess so."

That didn't seem to satisfy her, based on the expression on her face. "Do you want to talk about it?"

He really didn't. "I'm okay, I promise. I'm just thinking."

Lily sighed. "I'm sorry, I know dealing with me showing up out of the blue was probably not how you expected to spend your break from school."

"No, I'm not upset that you're here or anything like that!" Kel said defensively, sitting up. "It's just..." He tried to stop himself from saying anything more, but his response had all but confirmed something was bothering him. He considered brushing her off, but maybe talking about his problems with someone besides Hero would help. Besides, she seemed like she actually wanted to hear him out. Even so...

"I don't know if I should talk to you about it. It's kind of personal, both for me and Hero."

"Personal like how?" Lily sat on the edge of the bed.

Kel took a deep breath. "Did Hero ever talk about Mari with you?"

A strange expression appeared on Lily's face for a split second before it went blank. "She was his old girlfriend, right? He told me that she died a few years ago."

She clearly knew more than that; Kel didn't know how he felt about Hero talking about Mari with people who weren't already familiar with her, but at least it meant he wasn't going to scare her off by talking about this.

"She was more than just his girlfriend. Hero and I had this whole group of friends, and Mari was really important to all of us." Kel swung his legs off the side of the bed. "When she passed away, none of us took it very well. I did my best to keep living my life because I thought that's what she would have wanted for me. But some of my friends thought I was just forgetting about her." He decided to leave out the fact that one of those friends had been Hero.

Lily nodded, watching him.

"Things were rough between all of us for a long time, but recently we were all able to get together again. I should be happy about it, and I am, but sometimes when I see the others enjoying themselves I feel like there's something off about me." Kel frowned. "I don't know how to describe it, but it makes me feel horrible that seeing them happy makes me upset."

Lily hummed to herself. "I think I know what it might be."

Kel blinked. "You do?"

"Your friends were upset with you because they thought you had moved on from Mari too quickly," She said. "But for you, it feels like you're the only one that hasn't moved on."

Kel stared at Lily. He didn't know what was weirder; the fact he was talking about Mari with a stranger, or the fact that she seemed to understand how he was feeling.

"That... yeah, that makes sense." He nodded. "Everyone else is making all these big changes in their life, and I just feel like I'm the same I've always been."

"That's not true, Kel." Lily said, before suddenly shaking her head quickly. "I-I mean, that can't be true. I'm sure you've changed plenty, it's just harder to tell when it's you're comparing yourself to others."

 "How are you so sure?" Kel asked.

Lily cleared her throat and looked aside. "Well, it's been years, right? No one is the same person they were years ago. That can be for better or for worse, but from what you've said it sounds like things have changed for the better, at least recently."

Kel thought of Sunny, Basil, and Aubrey.

"I guess you're right," Kel said. "But I'm still not sure where that leaves me."

"Have you talked to your brother about this?" Lily asked. "I bet he would be able to tell you exactly how much you've grown."

Kel shook his head. "I don't want to bother him with something dumb like this."

Lily gave him a flat look. "You two really are brothers." She sighed and leaned back. "Hero does the same thing; whenever there's something wrong with him, he'll do everything he can to solve it except ask for help."

Kel winced at how easily he had been read.

"Promise me you'll give it a try." Lily said, looking at him. "Trust me, a little communication now can prevent a lot of problems later."

"...Okay." Kel said, before smiling. "I promise. Thanks, Lily. And... I'm sorry about how I acted earlier."

"Oh, there's nothing to apologize for." Lily waved her hand. "Like I said, I'm sure having a complete stranger in your house probably wasn't what you expected to see when you came home."

It wasn't, but that wasn't the main reason Kel acted the way he did. But there was no way he was going to tell Lily about that. Just because she looked like a certain someone, sounded like a certain someone, and even kind of acted like a certain someone, didn't mean they were the same person. 

It was just a coincidence.

"Now, about that sleeping bag." Lily slid off the bed and walked toward the closet again.

"You'll probably want Hero's instead of mine, his is in much better shape." Kel said. "It's the blue one up on the top shelf."

"Blue one on the top shelf, got it." Lily repeated, opening the closet. She stretched up to reach for the sleeping bag-

"Ngh!"

-Before suddenly letting out a gasp of pain and falling to the ground.

"God damn it that hurts!"

"Lily?!" Kel jumped off the bed and ran over to her. "What's wrong?" Leaning down, he helped her into a sitting position.

"Sorry, I'm okay." Lily hissed through her teeth, clutching her right knee. "It's just an old... sports injury. It hasn't acted up in a while, so I guess I forgot about it. I should have been more careful."

Kel nodded slowly, guiding her onto Hero's bed so she could elevate her leg. He tried not to think about who else he knew that hurt their right knee playing sports.

Just another coincidence. Nothing to freak out over.

Lily rubbed her leg as her breathing became more regular. "I think I'll be okay. Thanks, Kel." She gave him an embarrassed smile. "Sorry you had to see me like that."

Kel stared at her.

Lily's smile dipped ever so slightly. "Kel?"

He could handle that she looked like her. He could handle that she sounded like her. He could even handle that she was injured in the same way as her. But seeing that smile was too much.

It wasn't a smile that Kel saw very often, but it was something he remembered very clearly because it was the embarrassed smile of a person used to carrying themselves a certain way caught with their guard down. It was the smile of someone that Kel accidentally walked in on during what was supposed to be a private moment with his brother. It was the smile of someone who made an imperceptible mistake while playing the piano for their friends.

And it was the smile of someone who was caught swearing. Something they only ever did when their knee was acting up.

"Kel? Say something, please."

There was definitely a perfectly mundane explanation for all of these similarities. And if Kel took the time to think about it, he was sure he could come up with that explanation. But Kel's mind was currently on autopilot, and so was his mouth.

"Mari?"

He immediately realized what he had just said and opened his mouth again to apologize, but the apology died on his lips as he watched the girl in front of him. She wasn't confused, or angry, or any other reaction he would have expected from someone confused for a dead woman. Instead, she looked surprised for a second, before looking... guilty? Like she had been caught in a lie.

As she looked up at him, Kel felt like he was looking at her for the very first time. She didn't pull a mask off, there wasn't any trick of the light or anything like that, he was just... seeing her differently.

Mari held up her hands in defeat. "Surprise?"

Kel dropped to the ground as his legs gave out from under him.

"Whoa, easy Kel." Mari leaned forward, concern plain on her face. "Take a deep breath for me, okay?"

"Th-this isn't..." Kel said, nearly hyperventilating. "You're not... you can't..."

"I am, Kel." Mari said. "It's me."

"That's... you're..." He shook his head. "How?!"

Mari sighed. "You should probably stay sitting down for this."

"...And then I woke up sitting on my own grave." Mari continued. "After that, I went back to my home to see Sunny, except I forgot that he moved out. So I went next door to see you or your family, only to run into Hero instead. And then you came home." She splayed her hands towards Kel. "And that's what happened."

Mari watched Kel as he sat cross-legged on the floor. He had managed to calm down during Mari's story, and was now looking at her with a completely blank expression.

"You came back to life by beating the Grim Reaper at a video game." He said in a flat tone.

"Okay, so when you say it like that I can understand if it's a little hard to swallow." Mari said. "But I promise you that-"

"That's awesome!" Kel jumped to his feet with a shout. "I didn't even think you played any video games, Mari!"

"O-oh, well, not really." Mari said, thankful for Kel being Kel. "I mostly only played them with Sunny when you guys weren't around. He'd beat me in just about anything we played. Except that one." She smiled at the memory. "Speaking of Sunny..." 

Mari slid off the bed. After testing her leg, she stepped forward and pulled Kel into a tight hug.

"Thank you so much for everything you did for him, Kel." She gave him a squeeze for good measure. "You were the one that finally got him out of that house. Thank you, thank you, thank you."

"You're welcome?" Kel said, squirming a bit. "I really didn't do that much. I mean, I should have tried harder to get him out earlier. If I had done that-"

"Kel, no." Mari leaned back and glared at him. "Absolutely not. I didn't take this from your brother, I'm not going to take this from you. You saved Sunny, and it doesn't matter to me how long it took. I don't want to think about what would have happened if it weren't for you. Okay?"

Kel blinked. "Okay."

"Alright." Mari pulled him back into the hug, where they stayed for a few more seconds.

"...He'd probably still have both his eyes."

Mari froze. "Huh?"

"I'm just saying," Kel said. "If he didn't come out and go to Basil's house, he wouldn't have gotten stabbed in the eye."

Mari tried to think of a way to refute that but couldn't come up with anything. "Well, if that's what it took for everyone to get back together, that's what it took, I guess."

"I still feel kind of bad about it, though. Do you think it's possible to give him one of mine?"

Mari stared at Kel. "Excuse me?!"

"Not, like, in a jar." Kel shook his head. "I mean like an organ transplant. Do you think that's a thing for eyeballs?"

"I don't..." Mari started before shaking her head. "You know what? That's a conversation to have with Sunny, not me."

"Okay!" Kel said with a nod. "I'll ask him next time he visits."

Mari sat back down on Hero's bed. "Sunny still visits Faraway?"

"Yeah, every now and again." Kel said. "He was here for a little while around Christmas. I was actually thinking of inviting him this week since we all have school off."

That was good luck for Mari; it would have probably been better luck if he was already here, but beggars can't be choosers.

Her musings were interrupted by the bedroom door opening, revealing Hero carrying a bag of clothes. He immediately sensed the atmosphere in the room and stopped in the doorway.

"Kel? Lily?" Hero asked, looking between the two of them. "Is everything okay?"

"It's alright, Hero." Mari sighed. "He knows."

"He knows!?" Hero shook his head. "You said we were going to tell him together later."

"I figured it out all by myself!" Kel said, puffing his chest out.

"I might have tipped my hand a bit too much." Mari admitted. "But he was moping in his room, and I couldn't just leave him alone"

"Hey! I wasn't moping." Kel folded his arms.

"Sure you weren't." Mari walked over to Hero and took the bag from him. "I'll go try these on. In the meantime, you two have some things to talk about."

Hero looked at Kel. "We do?"

"No!" Kel shook his head quickly. "I mean, not really. We don't have to if you're busy."

"Kel." Mari shot him a look. "You promised."

"Yeah, well." Kel stammered. "I promised Lily, not you. That promise was made under false pretenses."

"Kelsey."

"Fiiine." Kel groaned.

Mari spread out the blue sleeping bag on the couch, finishing her makeshift bed. Laying down on top of it, she kicked her feet slightly in her new fuzzy purple pajamas. Hero definitely knew what she liked.

"All set down here?"

She looked up to see Hero exiting the hallway.

"All set." Mari said with a nod. "How did it go with Kel?" She grinned. "Did you two hug it out?"

"A little." Hero said, sitting down beside her as Mari made room on the couch. "It wasn't that hard to convince him that he had changed just as much as any of us; he didn't even realize how much of a big brother he's been to Sally. But really, it sounded like you did a lot of the heavy lifting earlier."

"I can't take too much credit." Mari shrugged. "You guys are the ones that did the maturing, not me."

"Even so." Hero wrapped an arm around her. "You're not even back a full day and you're already helping like you used to."

Mari smiled, snuggling up against him. "I guess I'm just making up for lost time."

"So what do you want to catch up on next?" Hero asked.

"Kel was saying he was planning on having Sunny visit this week." Mari said. "How does he usually get here?"

"The first couple times your mom dropped him off." Hero explained. "Once he got more comfortable here he started taking the bus."

"Do you think you can convince my mom to visit with him somehow? I want to talk to both of them at the same time, if I can."

"I'll try." Hero said with a nod. "I'll call her tomorrow evening."

"Thanks. In the meantime, how about we go around town? You can show me everything that's changed, and maybe we can find Aubrey and Basil."

"Mari, this is Faraway. Nothing changes around here." Hero said. "But sure, it sounds like fun."

"Then it's a date!" Mari grinned. "We'd better get to bed so we're up bright and early."

Mari slipped out from under Hero's arm and expected him to get up; instead, he stayed sitting on the couch.

"Hero?"

"I..." Hero sighed. "Is it okay if I stay down here with you?"

Mari's grin widened. "Why Hero, what will your parents think when they see us down here together? We aren't even married yet."

Hero coughed. "It's not like that. I'll be on the floor, and you're on the couch."

"And you really think your parents will believe you stayed on the floor the whole night?" Mari teased.

"Well-"

The sound of someone clearing their throat caused the two of them to look up. Standing in front of the couch was Kel, holding his sleeping bag.

"Can I sleep down here too?" Kel asked. "Please? They won't think you two did anything if I'm here."

Mari shared a look with Hero before turning back to Kel with a smile. "Of course Kel, the more the merrier."

The three of them quickly got things set up around the couch, with Hero using his comforter from his bed upstairs as a substitute sleeping bag.

"Almost like old times, isn't it?" Mari asked, settling in.

"Almost." Hero said. "Except we're missing a few people. And I don't think they show Captain Spaceboy on TV anymore."

"They do."

Mari and Hero looked over at Kel.

"I watch it with Sally every Saturday." He said defensively. "Have to get her started on the classics early."

Mari grinned, before suddenly remembering something. "Can I ask you two something serious?"

"Yeah, sure." Hero said.

"You said Sunny is visiting, and that's good." She said slowly. "But I just wanted to know. How do you guys feel about him after... everything that happened?"

Hero and Kel looked at each other like they were begging one another to speak first. Eventually, Kel took the initiative.

"It was... really hard to hear the truth." He started. "But it was even harder to realize that he had hidden it from us. It felt like he didn't trust us." Kel shook his head. "I don't want to speak for Hero, but I think that made me more upset than hearing what he did to you. No offense."

"None taken." Mari said, mouth turning upward slightly.

"I was upset with him too." Hero admitted. "Maybe more than upset. The way he covered it up, it made me think there was something wrong with you that I missed. That I failed you, somehow."

"Oh, Hero." Mari shook her head. "You could never fail me like that."

"I know." Hero said. "I know that now. But that doesn't change what Sunny did." He exhaled. "But, what I can change is how I react to it. He was young and scared, and he still is. He needed me before, and I wasn't there for him. So the least I can do is be there for him now. So I guess to answer your question, I'm still upset about what he did, but he's still my friend."

"Same here." Kel grinned.

Mari smiled. "That's all I can ask for."

"How about you, Mari?" Kel asked. "How do you feel about Sunny?"

Mari rolled onto her side. "It's a little complicated. I'm not upset with him, if that's what you're wondering. But it's something I want to talk about with him first if that's okay."

"I guess so." Kel said with a shrug.

"Alright, that's enough heavy stuff for tonight." Hero said, laying down. "I think it's time for bed."

"Okay, okay." Kel flopped down beside him. "Good night, Hero. Good night, Mari."

"Good night, you two."

"Night."

The three of them closed their eyes and began to drift off to sleep.

"...Hey, Hero?"

"Yes, Kel?"

"Do you know how to do an eyeball transplant?"

Chapter Text

"Cesar, I'm back from my break!" Aubrey called out, adjusting the red visor on her head as she stepped out of the back room of the Gino's.

Cesar turned around slowly, a sullen look on his face. "Aubrey. Welcome back." He turned back towards the register with a sigh.

Aubrey rolled her eyes. There was only one thing that got her boss sulking like this.

"Someone order a hero sandwich?" She asked.

"Two of them." Cesar said with a shudder.

Aubrey had asked Cesar once why he didn't just take the sandwich off the menu if he hated it so much, but the only answer she got was that it had to stay due to 'legal reasons'. When she tried to press further, he said he couldn't say any more, also due to 'legal reasons'.

"It was for the same family as always, the Rodríguezes." Cesar scowled. "I didn't recognize the person that placed the order, though. Must be a relative or something."

"What did they look like?"

"Some girl with long black hair, maybe a little older than you. Ring any bells?"

Aubrey racked her brain to try and remember anyone in particular from Kel and Hero's massive extended family, but it had been so long since she had actually seen any of them that no faces came to mind.

"Nope, no clue."

"She was a weird one, too." Cesar frowned. "Once the order was finished she asked for a pencil and paper, wrote something down and gave it to Guy, then followed him out the door like she didn't trust him to make the delivery on his own."

"What did she write?" Aubrey asked.

"Dunno, you can ask Guy when he gets back." Cesar headed for the back. "I'm going to go prep the ingredients, you handle the register."

"Got it." Aubrey gave a mock salute as Cesar disappeared into the back.

Someone who wasn't Kel and Hero's immediate family ordering food to be delivered to their house... she had to admit she was curious. Too bad she was working an extended shift today, otherwise she'd invite herself over for dinner just to satisfy her curiosity.

Oh well, there was always tomorrow.

"You're sure your knee is okay?" Hero asked.

Mari let out an annoyed huff. "Hero, for the hundredth time, yes, my knee is fine now."

As planned, the two of them had headed into town that morning, with Kel tagging along. They weren't exactly in a hurry, but she wanted to move faster than this. Apparently, Kel had told Hero about how Mari's knee had acted up the day before, and now he was doting on her just a little too much. Not that she didn't enjoy his attention, but the frequent stops meant that they hadn't even made it to the plaza yet despite leaving Hero's house half an hour ago; right now they were sitting on a picnic bench in the park while Kel was practicing his free throws.

"Honestly, it didn't even hurt that much yesterday." Mari said. "I hadn't felt anything in half a decade, so it surprised me more than anything else."

"Even so, you should be more careful." Hero shook his head.

Mari sighed. "Listen, I appreciate the concern, but I'm not that fragile. I mean, I walked from your house to Gino's and back all by myself yesterday." She raised her eyebrows. "No thanks to somebody."

Hero coughed and turned away.

"You know, I don't remember you coddling me this much after I had my surgery."

"That was different." Hero said, turning back to her. "It didn't even cross my mind that I might... lose you."

"Well, I'm back now." Mari leaned against him. "And you're not going to lose me again." She smiled up at him, expecting him to smile back, or at least blush. Instead, Hero's face hardened further.

"You can't promise that." He shook his head. "Not after what happened."

Mari frowned. "So what, you're going to keep me preserved under glass for the rest of my life so I don't have another accident?"

"That's not-" Hero slumped against her. "When Kel told me about your knee, it made me realize that you being back might not be... permanent. I know this sounds pathetic, but if I lost you again after getting you back..." He pulled her tightly against his side. "I don't think I could recover from that."

"I disagree." Mari leaned against him. "You're stronger than you think, Henry."

Hero didn't respond, but Mari felt his body tense up against hers.

"I won't pretend that this whole... everything hasn't made me more aware of my own mortality." Mari said carefully. "But I didn't come back just to hide away somewhere. I came back because I wanted to be with the people I love." She looked up at Hero's obscured face. "You're right, I can't promise that you won't lose me again, but I can at least promise that I'll do my best to make sure neither of us has any regrets when... if... that time comes." Mari nuzzled against him. "But to do that, you're going to have to actually let me live, okay?"

Hero looked back at her for a few moments before nodding. "Okay. Just... be a little more careful, please?"

Mari smirked. "I'll hold the handrail extra tight when I'm on the stairs. Deal?"

"Deal." Hero smiled and kissed the top of her head.

"GET A ROOM!" Kel yelled from the basketball court.

"IT'D BE YOUR ROOM TOO, YOU KNOW!" Hero yelled back. 

"THEN GET A DIFFERENT ONE!"

"JUST GET READY TO GO, OKAY?!"

"LET ME TAKE A FEW MORE SHOTS!"

Mari chuckled to herself and snuggled against Hero as she waited for Kel to finish. As she waited, she looked around the park; while the playground was fairly populated, they had the basketball court entirely to themselves.

Well, mostly to themselves. Mari's eyes fell on another person on the other side of the court she had somehow overlooked, a person with short black hair hunched over a notepad that was dividing their time equally between staring at Kel and scribbling away furiously.

"Okay, let's head out." Kel walked over to the two of them, basketball tucked under his arm. He looked at Mari and noticed her staring. "...Mari? Everything okay?"

"Kel, did you know someone was drawing you just now?"

"Huh?" Kel followed Mari's gaze. "Oh! That's just Mincy. She's a friend of mine." He turned around and cupped his hands around his mouth. "HI MINCY!"

'Mincy' jumped to her feet at Kel's shout, fumbling with her notepad and pencil. She stared at them for a few seconds before making her way across the asphalt, art supplies clutched to her chest.

"H-hi Kel." She stammered out. "Nice to see you. I was just..." She looked between the three of them as though she were on trial. "...practicing."

"Me too!" Kel grinned. "So, did you get my good side?"

"Yes." Mincy nodded before hastily shaking her head. "I-I mean no, not exactly. I wanted to practice doing quick gesture sketches, and since you were doing the same thing over and over, I figured I could practice off of that." She flipped to an earlier page in the notepad and held it out, revealing dozens of abstract boxy figures at different stages of shooting a basketball.

"Wow, you did all of these today?" Kel asked. "That's amazing!"

"It's just sketches." Mincy took the paper back. "It's nothing special."

"If you say so. Here, let me introduce you!" Kel stepped aside. "Guys, this is Mincy. Mincy, this is my older brother Hero, and his girlfriend-"

"Lily." Mari said with a nod. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mincy."

"Nice to meet you too." Mincy looked between her and Hero before fixing her gaze on Mari. Mari couldn't help but feel like she was being scrutinized as Mincy leaned in closer. Suddenly she shrank back. "Ah! I-I'm sorry, it's just that you reminded me of someone."

"I do?" Mari asked.

"Yes. This is a weird request, but... can you hold your thumb up like this?" Mincy gave a lackadaisical thumbs-up.

Shrugging, Mari mimicked her.

"That's it!" Mincy's eyes widened. After a second, she recovered from her outburst. "Um, if it's okay to ask.. do you happen to be related to Sunny, by any chance?"

"I... yes." Mari said, disarmed. "You know Sunny?"

"Sunny and I met Mincy when we were hanging out right before he moved." Kel explained. "She was here in the park drawing, and it looked really good!"

"It really wasn't." Mincy hid her face behind her notepad. "I can't believe I put it in my portfolio. My old art is terrible."

"I think it was great!" Kel countered. "And I know Sunny would agree with me. After all, he still has that picture of us that you drew."

Mincy made a strangled squeaking noise and buried her face even more.

"And I bet you're even better now." Kel said before brightening up. "I know! How about you draw Hero and Lily?"

"Now Kel, if she doesn't want to-" Hero started to say.

"N-no, I'll do it." Mincy peeked over the top of the pad. "It's the least I can do for using Kel as a reference. I need more practice drawing multiple figures, anyway. So, um." She flipped to a fresh sheet of paper. "Just pose together however you'd like."

Mari grinned, slipping her hands around Hero's waist and leaning against him as he raised his arms up in surprise. "How's this?"

"Good! That's good. Hold just like that." Mincy took out her pencil and started sketching away.

"Hey, hang on a second!" Hero protested, arms still above his head.

Mincy didn't respond, completely engrossed in her work.

Hero let out a sigh as he and Mari stayed as still as they could. Eventually, Mincy leaned back with a sigh of her own.

"Okay, I have everything I need down." She said. "I just need to clean this up later." She looked up. "Oh, you don't need to pose anymore."

Hero slumped over. "I can't feel my arms."

"Can we see?" Kel asked, leaning over before Mincy even answered.

"No, not yet." Mincy clutched the pad to her chest. "If this is a gift, I don't want you to see it until I'm done. Can I give it to you tomorrow?"

"That sounds just fine." Hero said, rubbing his forearms. "In that case, we should get going. It was nice meeting you, Mincy." Saying their goodbyes, the three of them left the park and headed toward the plaza.

"It's good to know you and Sunny made some new friends, Kel." Mari said as they walked.

"Yeah, Mincy's pretty neat." Kel said. "Oh, that reminds me. If we're going to be looking for Aubrey, we'll probably run into her new friends, too."

"Oh? What are they like?"

Kel made a face. "Uh, well... Mari, you said you remember a few things from when you were... you know. Do you remember anything about Aubrey?"

Mari stopped in her tracks. The clearest memories she had as a spirit were the few times she was able to reach Sunny, and out of those memories, the one that had Aubrey in it was at the lake.

It wasn't a good memory. Most of the times she got through to Sunny were when he was at his lowest, but this one was especially bad. If Hero hadn't shown up in time...

"I know she's had a rough time of it." Mari said diplomatically. "Just like all of you have."

"Right." Kel nodded. "Well, Aubrey dealt with her rough time by joining a gang."

"A gang?!"

"They barely qualify as a gang." Hero held up a placating hand. "They're just a bunch of bored teenagers. I've run into a couple of them a few times when I visit home and they seem nice enough. Really, now that they aren't bullying Basil anymore they're harmless."

"They're not harmless," Kel said. "I still see them stealing all the time!"

"Stealing?" Mari couldn't believe her ears. "From who?"

"From the candy store in Othermart!"

Mari frowned. "The candy store..."

"Another pie ready for the oven!" Mari called out, holding up the filled tin. "How does it look?"

Daphne and Bowen leaned in close, examining the lattice of the pastry's crust. After a few seconds of scrutiny, they gave two simultaneous nods of approval.

"Well done, Mari." Daphne said.

"It is hard to believe you have only been working here for a month." Bowen added.

Mari grinned, pleased with herself. "Well, I did a fair bit of baking on my own before I started here."

Bowen frowned. "Our little brother lacks that experience, and yet he is expected to start learning the family business next year."

"Perhaps we should arrange some time to go over the basics with him so he is not overwhelmed." Daphne mused.

"That's a great idea!" Mari nodded. "I'm sure he'll love it!"

Mari, like the rest of her friend group, had been doing what they could to earn the money necessary for Sunny's Christmas present. In Mari's case, she asked around in town to see if she could get a part-time job. Despite being only fifteen years old, she managed to get a job in Othermart's bakery.

As it turned out, she wasn't the only teenager working there; the owner was also currently training their eldest children, Daphne and Bowen, and they in turn were training her. Mari only had a passing familiarity with the twins from school, but thankfully they turned out to be very good-natured people, if a little eccentric.

"Okay, I'll put this in the oven and get started on the next one." Mari turned to leave, only to be held back by a hand on each shoulder.

"We will put this in the oven." Daphne said.

"You will take a break." Bowen said. "You have been here since seven in the morning."

"Oh, I'm fine." Mari shook her head. "Really, I can keep going until-"

The twins dragged her toward the front of the store.

"Mari, please."

"Take a break."

"We insist." The two of them deposited her in front of the bakery storefront and went back inside.

"...Well, if they insist." Mari untied her apron, rolling it up and tucking it under her arm as she headed for the front exit of Othermart. Walking around the perimeter of the grocery, she looked down the hallway towards the adjacent candy store, only to stop in her tracks as she saw a new promotional display of a girl with long pink pigtails.

Was there some sort of new Sweetheart candy? Mari supposed that made sense from a merchandising standpoint. She also supposed that she could use just a little bit of the money she was setting aside for Sunny's Christmas present to get some.

To give to Aubrey, of course.

...To share with Aubrey.

Crossing through to the candy store, Mari went up to the display. Immediately, her face fell; this wasn't Sweetheart at all! The cardboard cutout was done in a moderately faithful recreation of the style used in the anime, but the person they were depicting wasn't its main character. The clothes were wrong, the eye color wasn't anywhere close, and the hair wasn't nearly the right shade of pink. Honestly, Mari was ashamed of herself for mistaking this pretender for the real thing, albeit from across the store.

She examined the legally-distinct cut out a little more. Now that she saw it up close, she supposed it was meant to look like-

"EXCUSE me!" A sharp voice came from over the counter.

Mari snapped out of her thoughts, turning towards the source of the yell and coming face-to-face with Miss Candice, the owner of the candy store. The anger on the woman's face was a far cry from the cutesy expression of her cardboard counterpart.

"You are tracking flour all over my freshly cleaned floor!" Miss Candice said, gesturing downward.

Mari looked down. There was certainly some flour on her shoes, but she couldn't really see any on the floor. Even so, she didn't want to be rude.

"I'm sorry, Miss Candice."

"I'll bet you are." Miss Candice walked out from behind the counter holding a broom. "If you're really sorry, clean up the mess you made." She held it out to Mari.

"Huh?" Mari looked between the broom and Miss Candice. "B-but I don't-"

"Work here?" Miss Candice finished her sentence. "You work for Othermart, don't you? I would think you'd want the whole store looking its best." She sneered. "Or maybe I should have a word with the bakers about your continued employment."

"No, please don't!" Mari shook her head quickly. "I really need this job!"

"Then get to sweeping." Miss Candice forced the broom into Mari's hands. "And you might as well sweep the whole floor, otherwise it'll look strange if one spot is cleaner than the other." 

"Yes, Miss Candice." Mari said despondently.

"Hop to it, then." With a haughty smile, Miss Candice went back behind the counter. "Smiley smiley!"

"Oh, is that all?" Mari shrugged. "That's no big deal."

Kel gawked at her. "It's not?"

Mari cleared her throat. "Yes, well, you know what they say, shoplifting is a victimless crime and all that." She began walking again before Hero or Kel could question her further. "Anyway, it sounds like you're not crazy about Aubrey's friends, Kel."

"I mean, they're okay." Kel said as they approached the plaza. "Charlene is really nice, and so are Kim and Vance in their own way. Really, the only one of them I can't stand is-"

"Well well!" A loud voice came from the nearby fountain. "If it isn't my eternal rival!"

"Uhgggggh." Kel groaned.

Three boys stood in front of the fountain, and Mari quickly surmised that the source of the shout came from the one in the middle that was pointing dramatically at Kel. Not satisfied with standing out with his loud words and louder behavior, the boy was also wearing the most obvious wig Mari had seen in her entire life.

"You may have eluded me for most of our spring break, but there is not a person alive that can escape from..." The boy paused for dramatic effect. "THE MAVERICK!"

"I really don't have time for this, Mikhael." Kel sighed. "And I haven't been hiding from you! You make it sound like I'm scared of you or something."

"Oh, but you are scared." Mikhael taunted. "Scared that today will finally be the day that you taste defeat at my hand!"

"You tell him, Master!" One of the other boys, slightly younger than the first, chimed in.

"Yeah, sure." Kel said. "Listen, have you guys seen Aubrey around? We need to talk to her."

"Maybe we have, and maybe we haven't." Mikhael folded his arms. "If you really want to know, then we will have to settle our score once and for all!"

Kel turned to the third boy, this one older than the others. "Vance, you know where Aubrey is, right? Can't you just tell me?"

"I could," Vance said with a grin. "But this is way funnier."

Kel groaned again. "I'm not even going to try asking Angel."

"As if I would ever betray Master!" The younger boy said, glowering at Kel.

"Now then!" Mikhael pointed at Kel again. "Assuming you will not humble yourself before me and call me by my proper title of THE MAVERICK-"

"I would rather choke." Kel muttered.

"-The only way you shall gain the information you seek is to pit your honor against mine! We may have tried to keep our competitions civil in recent times - foot races, Pet Rocks, trivia contests - but no longer! Our feud shall end how it started... with our fists!" Mikhael raised his arms into a boxer's stance. "Let's fight like gentlemen!"

"Mikhael, I'm not going to fight you again!" Kel protested.

"Again?" Hero asked. "Kel, you got into a fight?"

"I, well." Kel stammered. "It wasn't really a fight. Sunny and I were trying to find Aubrey, and so we-"

"We?" Mari asked. "Kel, you and Sunny got into a fight?!"

"There was a perfectly good reason for it, I promise." Kel said. "And besides, I did most of the fighting, Sunny just watched."

"Okay, I'm going to have to step in here." Hero moved between Kel and the other boys. "I'm sorry, no fighting allowed."

"I agree." Mari stepped forward. "Isn't there something else that we can do, The Maverick?"

"I demand satisfaction!" Mikhael shouted. "If Kel will not agree to our duel, then he is naught but a..." He paused and turned to Mari. "What did you say?"

"I said please, The Maverick, can't we solve this another way?"

"Y-you..." Mikhael trailed off. When he spoke again, his voice was quiet. "You called me The Maverick?"

"Well of course I did." Mari smiled. "That's your name, isn't it?"

Mikhael staggered backward like he had been struck, leaning against the side of the fountain for support. After a moment, he slumped forward, falling onto his hands and knees.

"Master?! Master!" Angel crouched down next to Mikhael, who didn't respond except for a slight quivering.

"There, duel over." Kel looked at Vance. "Will you tell us where Aubrey is now?"

"Sure, whatever." Vance jerked his thumb over his shoulder. "The boss is working a shift at Gino's."

"Aubrey has a job?" Kel glanced at the restaurant. "Never would have guessed. Well, let's go say hi." He started to walk away, only to be held back by Hero.

"Hang on, Kel. If Aubrey's in the middle of something, we should probably wait until she's free."

"I'm with Hero." Mari said with a nod. "If she reacts anything like how you two did, we shouldn't surprise her while she's on the job. I wouldn't want to get her in trouble."

"I reacted just fine, thank you." Kel pouted.

"That's not how I remember it." Mari said with a teasing smile.

"Uh, I'm not really sure what you guys are talking about." Vance cut in. "But Aubrey will be done in a few hours, so you can just come back then."

"Sure, that works." Hero said. "We'll just kill some time."

"Thank you very much," Mari said with a slight bow of her head. "It was a pleasure meeting you three!" She walked off towards the rest of the plaza, followed by Kel and Hero.

"Ugh, why did you have to play along with Mikhael like that?" Kel said in a low voice. "He's going to be even more insufferable now!"

"I don't see any problem with it." Mari said. "Besides," She smirked at Kel. "I remember a certain someone demanding everyone call them by their cool new name back in the day. What was it? Orange-something?"

"Orangebeard." Hero said. "I remember because he started doing it after the new season of Spaceboy that introduced Pinkbeard aired on TV."

"Okay, first of all, I was nine." Kel argued. "And second of all, I didn't wear a wig like Mikhael does."

"No, you didn't." Hero matched Mari's smirk. "But the only reason you stopped making us call you that was because Mom yelled at you after you drew an orange beard on your face with-"

"Hey look!" Kel said loudly. "Hobbeez is having a sale! Let's go check it out!" He ran off toward the store, pulling Hero and Mari behind him.

Aubrey walked across the plaza, pushing her bike along with one hand and balancing a stack of pizza boxes in the other.

"Hey, here's your order." She slid a box off the stack and placed it on the bench beside the fountain. "I have some deliveries to make so I figured I'd run yours out since you guys were only fifty feet..." She stared at Mikhael's prone form. "...away." She turned to Vance. "Is he okay?"

"A goddess." Mikhael blubbered. "A goddess has descended from on high to purify this blighted, forsaken land."

Vance opened the pizza box and took out a slice. "Is he ever?"

"Good point."

"Alas! My raven-haired angel of mercy!" Mikhael cried out, clutching at the sides of his wig and yanking them down.

"Dude, no." Vance shook his head. "She's obviously with Kel's brother. Don't even try it."

"Hero was here?" Aubrey asked.

"Yeah, him and Kel and Mikhael's newest crush. They were looking for you." Vance said, taking a bite of pizza. "Is everything okay? I know you guys are friends again, but-"

"I'm sure it's fine." Aubrey cut him off. "If it's not, you guys'll be the first to know." Securing the rest of the boxes to the back of her bike, she kicked off and pedaled away.

Stopping at an intersection, Aubrey reached into her coat pocket to pull out Cesar's directions to the first house. Unfolding the paper, she quickly realized she had taken out the wrong message by mistake. She read over the note again, but it made about as much sense now as it did yesterday.

"'...Hopefully, this is sufficient proof she is not a figment of your or anyone else's imagination.'" Aubrey finished reading out loud. "And then what happened?" She asked, looking up at Guy.

"Then he paid for the food." Guy shrugged. "He looked pretty pale, though."

Aubrey started to hand the paper back to Guy, who only held his hand up.

"Keep it. And tell your friend that if this is some kind of roleplaying thing between him and his girlfriend that he should leave other people out of it. I don't care how good of a tipper he is."

Aubrey stared at the message again, trying not to think about why Hero would need to read a message like this.

Just like she tried not to think about how familiar the handwriting was; it looked like the same effortlessly neat script that she remembered trying and failing to emulate over and over in her youth in another childish attempt to be just like the older girl she idolized.

Used to idolize.

Jamming the paper back into her pocket, Aubrey retrieved the directions for her first order. 

Whatever the source of that mystery letter was, now wasn't the time to think about it; she had pizzas to deliver. She was almost grateful for the work if only so it would distract her; with all the brainpower she spent on deciphering Cesar's horrible excuse for penmanship, she wouldn't have any room to think about anything else.

As it turned out, she had no trouble locating the houses for the deliveries. She wasn't sure if she had gotten lucky or if she was actually getting better at reading her boss's chicken scratch, but both deliveries were done with plenty of time to spare and now she was heading back to Gino's. Pedaling as hard as she could, she made the split-second decision to save some time and cut through the park. Swerving, she made a tight turn onto the park's nearby sidewalk-

"Eep!"

-And nearly plowed into some poor girl who had to throw herself into the grass to avoid getting hit.

Aubrey skidded to a halt and jumped off her bike.

"Sorry! I'm really sorry!" She ran over and helped the girl up. "Are you okay?"

"I think so." The girl adjusted her glasses. She patted herself down and, apparently not finding what she was looking for, started looking around frantically. "Wh-where's my sketchpad?"

Aubrey started looking around as well. Her eyes quickly fell on a black notebook laying open face-down behind her bike.

"Found it." Aubrey reached around her bike and picked up the pad. Twisting her hand around as she pulled it back, she couldn't help but examine the drawing on the top page. It was a fairly well-done sketch of someone holding their arms up in shock, most likely because they were being hugged from behind. There was enough detail that both of the figures on the page looked familiar.

Handing the pad to the other girl, Aubrey studied her for a few seconds. "...You're Mincy, right? I think Kel mentioned you a few times."

The other girl looked surprised for a moment and then relaxed as she realized she was dealing with a friend of a friend. "Yes, that's right. Nice to meet you..."

"Aubrey." Aubrey grinned. "So, is the gift for Kel?"

"Partially." Mincy said. "It's also for his older brother and his girlfriend."

"I thought I recognized Hero in the picture." Aubrey neglected to mention that she might have also recognized the other person in the picture, but it's not like she could tell for sure who it was.

"Yes. I just met them today, but they seem like very nice people." Mincy gave a small smile. "I can see a little bit of my friends in both of them."

Aubrey's grin vanished. "What do you mean, both of them?"

"Oh, well I can see plenty of Kel in his older brother," Mincy explained. "And even though I'm not sure how she's related to him, I can see some of my other friend Sunny in his brother's girlfriend."

Aubrey's bike slipped out of her hands, and she scrambled to keep it upright. "S-Sunny?"

"Yes, he's another friend of mine. I haven't gotten to see much of him since he moved away, though." Mincy looked at Aubrey curiously. "Why, do you know him too?"

"Gotta go nice meeting you bye." Aubrey sputtered out before getting on her bike and speeding off before Mincy could say anything else.

Aubrey hated jumping to conclusions. Jumping to conclusions was what caused her to terrorize one of her best and closest friends, cut ties with her other best and closest friends, and generally make an already terrible situation even worse. To make sure she never made that same mistake again, whenever Aubrey caught herself assuming the worst she would stop, take a deep breath, and try to think about what was actually happening.

In this case, what was actually happening was either that she was going insane, or the rest of the world was.

The strange letter in her coat pocket suddenly felt incredibly heavy. She wanted to take it out and tear it to pieces, but she knew that wouldn't help anything.

She knew what would help, though; she needed to give herself a quick taste of reality. It meant she would be going back to work a little late, but Cesar would just have to deal with it.

Taking another quick swerve, Aubrey headed for the church.

"Ah, Aubrey. Good afternoon." The pastor greeted her with a smile. "I wasn't expecting to see you today."

"Afternoon, Father." Aubrey said, closing the large wooden doors behind her. "I'm just here to... check on something."

It wasn't a great excuse, but it certainly beat the hell out of 'I'm just here to look at my dead friend's grave so I can convince myself she hasn't burst out of it like some kind of zombie.'

The pastor raised an eyebrow but didn't question her further as she made her way through the thankfully empty church. Heading into the cemetery, it didn't take long to reach her destination.

OUR DEAREST MARI

THE SUN SHINED BRIGHTER WHEN SHE WAS HERE

Aubrey knew it would never be easy for her to come here, but after she came to terms with the truth it had at least become easier. In the first year or so after her death, she used to hate Mari for leaving everyone - leaving her - behind, just because she was sad. Aubrey was eventually able to forgive Mari, convincing herself that things were probably more complicated than she realized.

She was certainly right about that one.

Aubrey took in the quiet scene. No shattered headstone, no upturned dirt, no night of the living dead. Everything was just as it had been for the past five years.

Letting out an exhausted sigh, Aubrey slumped over.

And then she frowned.

The flowers that had been planted on top of Mari's grave were completely crushed. Leaning down and examining them further, it looked like someone had either fallen on them or had been sitting on top of them. What kind of asshole would-

Aubrey caught herself and took a deep breath. This wasn't a big deal; flowers could be replaced. Still, she wanted to know who did this. Pulling herself together, she headed back into the church, the preacher looking up at her arrival.

"Everything in order out there?" He asked with a wry grin.

"Yes." Aubrey said, before thinking better of it. "Actually, not entirely. Can you tell me if anyone has visited the graveyard recently?"

The preacher rubbed his chin. "Not since Sunday, no. Well, there was one person but..."

"But what?"

"It was the strangest thing. Yesterday I ran into a young woman coming back from the entrance to the graveyard. I asked if she needed anything, but she just waved me off and said she was fine. She seemed to be in a bit of a hurry." The preacher frowned. "The strange thing was, I had been in here cleaning all that morning, and I never saw anyone come in through the front door, so I have no idea where she came from. I suppose she could have jumped the fence or something like that, but she didn't seem to be dressed for that sort of thing."

Aubrey swallowed hard, remembering the message from yesterday. "...Was she wearing a long white dress?"

"Why yes, she was." The preacher blinked. "How did you know?"

"Lucky guess. Thanks for everything Father, I'll see you later." Aubrey tried to keep herself together as she turned and left the church, but she knew she probably looked as haggard as she felt.

She was going to get on her bike, she was going to go back to Gino's and ask for the rest of the day off, and then she was going to go home and lay down.

"Please?"

"No."

"Pretty please?"

"No!"

"Pretty please with sugar on top?"

"I am not buying that for you, and that's final." Hero folded his arms.

"It's just one little thing!" Mari held up the Sweetheart figurine.

"One little thing that costs thirty dollars!" Hero argued.

"It's on sale! Now's the time to get it." Mari said.

Coming in here was a mistake.

Hero had somehow forgotten about Mari's long-running nerdy obsessions. To his credit, Mari hid that side of herself remarkably well. Perhaps too well, if Hero was being honest with himself, especially once she started getting more serious about school and the piano. Nevertheless, those obsessions were still there, except Mari would frame them as something she lowered herself to do as a way to spend time with their friends. 

The complete season of Sweetheart VHS tapes she owned were to watch with Aubrey - never mind the fact that they sat safe and secure in Mari's bureau, dutifully rewound after every viewing. The limited release Spaceboy action figures were gifts for Sunny - never mind the fact that she was the one that kept them clean and posed on the shared shelves in their room. Mari could fool a lot of people, but she couldn't fool Hero.

Mari didn't seem to care about hiding her interests anymore; Hero wasn't sure if that went back to what she was saying earlier about living without regrets or not. What he was sure about was that Mari was currently still broke, and that meant she had been spending the better part of an hour trying to wheedle him into buying something for her.

"Don't worry, Lily." Kel patted Mari's shoulder. "Hero will come around. Just say you'll pay him back! That always works for me."

"That's because I keep convincing myself that you will, somehow." Hero sighed. "You owe me so much I think I need to put you on a payment plan."

"Oh come on, it's not that much." Kel said with an uneasy laugh.

"You currently owe me nine hundred and thirty-three dollars." Hero rattled off. "And forty-five cents."

"Nine...!" Kel blanched. "I-Isn't there some sort of family discount?"

"That is with the family discount." Hero said. "You don't want to know how much it is otherwise. It could actually be more than that, I've only been keeping track since I was twelve."

"Lily, can you believe this?" Kel said with an air of mock indignation. "My own brother has been keeping track of every single time I asked him for money for almost a decade! Isn't that just the pettiest thing you've ever heard?"

"The absolute pettiest." Mari gave a disapproving shake of her head. "Is this going be a running theme for our relationship, Hero? When we finally move in together, are we going to live in some hovel under the railroad tracks and eat nothing but gruel, all in the name of pinching a few pennies?"

Hero groaned. Walking up to Mari, he took the figurine from her hands.

"You promise you'll pay me back?" He asked as he went towards the register.

"With interest." Mari said with a wink.

Thirty dollars poorer, Hero headed for the door. He needed to get out of there before Mari found something else. Stepping out into the plaza, he happened to see the back of a familiar head of pink hair making its way out of Gino's.

"Aubrey!" Hero called out, smiling. The smile vanished as Aubrey turned around, however; she looked like death warmed over.

"Oh, hey Hero." Aubrey said, clearly forcing a smile. "Back in town?"

"Yeah, for the week." Hero frowned. "Aubrey, are you okay? You look awful."

"Just a little tired from work. You know how it is."

"If you say so." Hero said, unconvinced. "Listen, I have something important to talk to you about. Is this a bad time?"

Aubrey's smile tightened even as what little color was left in her cheeks drained away. "No, yeah, I'm good. What's up?"

Hero took a deep breath. "Okay, before I start let me just say that I understand how crazy this is going to sound, but please hear me out. Yesterday morning, someone knocked on my door. When I opened it-"

There was a jingle as the door to Hobbeez opened behind Hero. 

"Hey Hero, Lily wants to know what we're doing for lunch." Kel said. "Oh, hey Aubrey."

Aubrey raised her hand and opened her mouth to greet Kel over Hero's shoulder. As she did so, however, her eyes widened and her jaw went slack.

Hero didn't need to turn around to know what - or who - she was staring at.

Mari silently stepped out from behind Hero, matching Aubrey's gaze. Slowly, she gave a small wave.

"H-"

Aubrey turned and ran.

"Wh- Aubrey! Please wait!" Mari started to run after her. "Aubr-" She made it about three steps before falling flat on her face.

"Mari!" Hero was by her side instantly, forgetting about her fake name as he helped her sit up.

"I'm fine," Mari said, wincing. "Never mind me, we need to run after her!"

"Not on that knee, you're not." Hero shook his head before looking up at his little brother. "Kel, go after her. We'll be right behind you."

"On it!" Kel sprinted off.

Aubrey stumbled and shoved her way through the bushes as she ran. Her brain was operating entirely on fight or flight instincts at this point, but she had a vague idea of where her body was taking her.

She was dreaming, right? She had to be dreaming. Except she could feel the occasional stinging scrape of a branch as she stomped through the forest, so that meant she wasn't dreaming. Maybe whoever said you can't get hurt in a dream was full of it. What about coma patients? Was she in a coma? Did she slip and bump her head coming down the ladder this morning all of this was her life flashing before her eyes?

Aubrey's internal ramblings came to a merciful end as she burst through the foliage into the old hideout spot. Between her and her two groups of friends, it had seen much more use over the last year, but it still looked more or less the same as it always had, including the same checkered picnic blanket, threadbare after years left out in the elements. Even though this place had some bad memories associated with it, there were many more good ones, and so this place had remained a sanctuary for her.

As her heartbeat started to return to normal, Aubrey realized how badly she had screwed up. She had no idea what she was going to tell Kel and Hero the next time she saw them. They were going to think she was crazy.

"Aubrey!"

Aubrey turned around as Kel stumbled into the clearing behind her.

"I figured you'd come here." He said, panting slightly.

"Kel." Aubrey frowned. She wasn't ready to deal with them yet. "I'm sorry about running off like that. I just-"

"Hey, it's okay." Kel gave a small smile. "I understand."

"You understand?" Aubrey glared at him. "You don't need to patronize me, Kel."

"No really, I do!" Kel shook his head. "I almost lost it when I saw her too."

Aubrey froze. "Her?"

Kel sighed. "Hero would have been better at telling you this. I know this is going to sound crazy, but-"

"Mari's back, right?" Aubrey said. "That's what you're about to try and tell me, and that's what Hero was about to tell me earlier."

"I... yeah." Kel blinked. "Wow, you figured it out even faster than I did."

"Don't bullshit me." Aubrey tried to sound stern, hoping Kel didn't hear the waver in her voice. "People don't come back from the dead!"

"Right, yeah, I get that." Kel nodded. "But what if, hypothetically, they did?"

Aubrey stared at him. "If they did... if Mari was back..." She looked away from him, towards the lake. "Then I couldn't bring myself to see her. Not after what I did."

"What you did?" Kel asked. "Aubrey, I thought we all talked about this. None of us handled losing Mari well."

"It's different for me, Kel." Aubrey said. "All you did was try and make new friends. All Hero did was grieve his dead girlfriend. And even though Sunny and Basil did something horrible, it was something they did once and then spent the rest of their lives regretting. But me? I hurt you guys. And I hurt you again and again, just because I thought you all forgot about Mari."

Kel tried to butt in, but Aubrey kept going.

"And the best part? When you called me out on it and told me Mari wouldn't want me acting like that? I said it didn't matter because she was dead!" She let out a weak laugh. "What a fucking hypocrite, right?"

"Aubrey..." Kel sighed.

"I know you all forgave me. And I know if Mari were here she'd forgive me too because that's how she was. But I can't accept that. How could I, after what I did to you guys? After what I did to her own brother?!"

"I can think of a couple reasons."

Aubrey and Kel turned toward the entrance to the clearing as the girl Aubrey saw at Hobbeez limped through the shrubs, leaning on Hero for support.

"First off, I would forgive you because you're my friend, and I know you well enough to know that you're actually sorry for what you did." The girl gave Aubrey a patient smile.

Aubrey only stared at the newcomer. She even spoke like Mari.

"Second off, and more importantly..." The girl's face darkened. "It'd be hypocritical of me if I didn't forgive you, because I hurt Sunny just as much as you did. Even worse, actually."

Aubrey stared at her in shock; as it turned out, she wasn't alone.

"What do you mean, you hurt Sunny?" Hero asked.

"He told you three what really happened, right?" The girl looked between the three of them. "What happened right before the recital."

It was clear no one wanted to say it.

"...He said you two fought after he threw his violin down the stairs, and then he pushed you. He said he couldn't handle practice anymore." Aubrey said finally.

The girl sighed. "Sunny wouldn't just throw a temper tantrum like that out of the blue. You all know that, right?"

"Well, I mean." Kel started. "He said he was frustrated."

The girl gave a sad smile. "And who do you think was the source of that frustration?"

Hero shook his head. "Just because you were hard on him-"

"That's putting it lightly." She let out a bark of a laugh. "When we started practicing for the recital, Sunny had only been serious about the violin for a few months. I had been playing seriously for a few years, and I was trying to force him to catch up to me despite that. I kept him away from the rest of you, I kept increasing the time we practiced, I would purposefully not spend time with him unless we were in the music room... I was just awful."

Aubrey listened in silence. It's not like she didn't believe Sunny when he told them the truth, but hearing it from Mari - and it was Mari, somehow, Aubrey had given up on trying to deny it - was something else entirely. Looking at Kel and Hero, she could tell that this was the first time they were hearing this too, and their expressions seemed to match hers.

"I didn't hit him, I didn't insult him." Mari continued. "I didn't even raise my voice until the very end. That doesn't mean I wasn't hurting him. And that doesn't mean I didn't know I was hurting him. I just... felt this urge to keep pushing him. Once he got past that part, once the calluses finally formed on his fingers, then everything would be just as perfect as I knew it could be." She shook her head. "I told myself he would thank me later."

"S-so what," Aubrey said, her voice cracking. "You pushed him too hard, and you deserved what happened?"

"Of course not, Aubrey." Mari said, approaching her. "There were a hundred different ways that night could have gone, and unfortunately for all of us, it went one of the worst. But I definitely have more than my share of the blame for what happened."

Reaching up, Mari brushed away a tear Aubrey didn't realize she had shed.

"I forgive you, Aubrey, on one condition." Mari gave her a grim expression. "You have to forgive me first."

Aubrey stared at her. "I... Of course I forgive you, Mari."

"Even though I hurt Sunny? Even though I kept hurting Sunny?" 

Aubrey thought about her answer. "...I never thought I would hear more about what happened that night. What Sunny did was terrible, but it was an accident, and he was twelve. And you were fifteen. You were a smart fifteen year old, but still only a kid."

Mari gave a slight smirk. "That's only two years younger than you are, you know."

"The point is, even if you knew you were being hard on him, I don't think you were being... malicious." Aubrey shook her head. "And anyway, if you'd be a hypocrite not to forgive me, then I'd be a hypocrite not to forgive you." She looked at Mari expectantly. "...Is that a good answer?"

"It's your answer, and that's all that matters." Mari smiled before turning around. "How about you two? Do you guys forgive me?"

"I think Aubrey speaks for all of us." Hero said.

"Yeah, same." Kel nodded.

"Good!" Mari instantly brightened up. "Everyone forgives each other. Isn't that great, Aubrey?"

"Y-yeah." Aubrey nodded slowly as everything started to catch up with her. "M-Mari, how the fuck are you-"

"I'll explain later." Mari interrupted her, holding her arms out. "Right now, I think you need to give your big sister a hug."

Aubrey stared at her. "But-"

"No buts! Talk later, hug now." Mari grinned. "Unless you're too cool for that sort of thing, now that you're all grown-"

The rest of whatever Mari was going to say came out as a wheeze of air as Aubrey tackled her to the ground in a bear hug.

"How's your knee now?" Hero asked.

"It's still fine, Hero." Mari sighed. "The grass broke my fall."

"Sorry again." Aubrey said, staring at the ground in embarrassment.

"There's nothing to apologize for!" Mari patted her shoulder. "You just caught up in the moment, that's all."

Now that their emotional confrontation had finished, the four of them were relaxing on the picnic blanket. Mari was concerned about taking Aubrey away from her work, but apparently Aubrey had already asked for the rest of the day off, so they were going to spend it together.

"I was surprised to see you working at Gino's, Aubrey." Hero said.

Aubrey looked up at them. "Well, I'm trying to save up money to fix up the house. It's not much, but every little bit helps."

Mari gave a bittersweet smile. She had known a little bit about Aubrey's family situation five years ago, and it sounded like things had gotten worse over time.

"If you need any help, Aubrey-"

"I don't want a handout from you guys or anything." She sighed. "But I'll remember you guys if I need a hand."

Mari smiled. "You've grown into a very responsible young lady, Aubrey."

Aubrey looked at her for a second before looking at the ground again. "...You're not disappointed in me?"

"Aubrey, I already told you I forgive you."

"Not that." Aubrey shook her head. "I mean... I'm nothing like the Aubrey you knew five years ago, right?"

"Five years is a long time, Aubrey. Not to mention you were twelve; I would have been more surprised if you didn't grow up into a completely different person. That said, I do still see plenty of the younger Aubrey in you." Mari smirked. "Your hugs still hurt just as much, for one thing."

Aubrey stared at Mari for a few seconds before breaking into a wide smile.

"You really are Mari." She said, holding back a laugh. "You were always able to say the sappiest things like that. But you always meant them."

"Of course I meant them!" Mari pouted. "I mean everything I say."

"What about that time you told me I could grow an Orange Joe tree by burying coffee beans and pouring orange juice on them?" Kel asked from his corner of the blanket.

"Almost everything."

"...What about when you said you would dye your hair with me?" Aubrey asked in a timid voice.

Mari smiled. "That one I meant, one hundred percent. Once I've figured things out with my family, we'll dye our hair together. That reminds me," She sat up. "Hero, you said you'd make a call for me..."

June picked up the phone on the second ring. "Hello? Suzuki residence."

"Hi, Ms. Suzuki." The voice on the line was that of a familiar young man. "It's Henry."

"Henry!" June said with a smile. "It's nice to hear from you. How is everything?"

"Everything's just fine, thanks. I'm back in Farway for spring break right now."

"Glad to hear it. I hope you're taking it easy for a change."

"Don't worry, I am. This break was exactly what I needed. Anyway, Kel and I were wondering if Sunny could visit sometime this week."

"You'd like Sunny to come down to Faraway?" June repeated the question out loud and looked over to the kitchen table, where her son was sitting and had been watching her.

Sunny gave a quick nod.

"Sure, that's no problem." June said, holding up the phone again. "Just let me know when you want him there and I'll figure out what bus to get him on."

"Actually..." Henry sounded cautious. "Would it be possible for you to come to visit as well?"

June paused. "I suppose I could. Any particular reason why?"

There was the sound of a hand covering the phone, and muffled voices conversing with each other.

"Well, my parents mentioned you the other day." Henry said finally. "It's been a while since you last visited, and they've been wanting to see you again."

June nodded to herself; it had been a while. She spoke to Amelia at least once a month on the phone, but that hardly compared to being there face-to-face.

Not to mention she had promised herself that she would visit Mari more.

"Okay, I'll be there." June said. "I'll need to request the time off at work, so the soonest we can visit is the day after tomorrow. Is that okay?"

"The day after tomorrow is perfect. Thanks, Ms. Suzuki."

"You're welcome, Henry. See you then!" June hung up the receiver and walked back into the kitchen, where Sunny was regarding her curiously.

June smiled at him. "It looks like the both of us are heading back to Faraway."

Chapter Text

"Good morning, Polly."

Polly looked up from her crossword as Basil shuffled into the living room. Aside from his untamed mane of blonde bedhead, he was looking much better than he had been in the last few days.

"Good morning, Basil!" She said with a smile, standing up from the couch. "I suppose the fact you're up and about all by yourself means you're feeling better." Crossing the room, she placed a hand against his forehead. "Your fever feels like it's gone, too. Maybe now you can finally start enjoying your vacation."

"I hope so." Basil sighed. "I still can't believe I got the flu outside of flu season."

"Oh, it probably wasn't actually the flu." Polly started to explain. "Rhinoviruses like the flu only stick around in cooler weather. It's more likely this was an enterovirus of some sort, which has the same sort of symptoms but are differentiated by..." She trailed off, noticing Basil's eyes start to glaze over. "...Well, all that matters is that you're well again."

"Even so," Basil shook his head. "Getting sick the day spring break starts... That's only something I would manage to do."

"Basil, we've been over this." Polly took on a slightly scolding tone. "No putting yourself down in the house. Don't make me get the jar."

Basil winced. "I'll stop."

"Good choice." Polly said, her smile returning. "Now, you should go take your temperature just to make sure your fever is really gone. If it is, I want you cleaned up and outside so you can get some fresh air."

"Yes, Polly." Basil turned to head back into the hallway.

"You should see what your friends are up to." Polly offered. "I'm sure they've been missing you these past few days."

Basil froze in the doorway.

"Oh. Um..." He started. "M-maybe I should stay inside just for one more day. I just got better, b-but I might still be contagious. I wouldn't want to spread it to the others."

Polly frowned. "Are you sure?"

"Better safe than sorry, right?" Basil said with a weak laugh.

She examined him for a few seconds more before relenting. "If that's what you want." She went back over to the couch and picked up the newspaper. "I have to head into town for groceries, so you're going to be here all by yourself for a little while. Is that okay?"

Basil nodded.

"Alright." She sat back down. "I do want you to clean yourself up and get dressed, at least. No walking around in your pajamas all day, you can do that all you want when you're in college."

"I will." Basil said. "Thanks, M- ...Polly." He vanished through the door to the hallway.

Polly waited for the sound of the bathtub starting to fill before she picked up her pencil and tried to go back to her crossword. After a few futile seconds, she clucked her tongue and tossed the newspaper aside in irritation.

She had taken a gamble by mentioning his friends, and unfortunately this time she lost. Sometimes Basil would want to visit Kel or Aubrey without any goading on her part, and then sometimes he acted like he would rather throw all of his flowers into a wood chipper than spend any time with another human being. She wished she could just chalk it up to him just needing some alone time, but after everything that happened, she had promised herself to be more attentive to how Basil was actually feeling, instead of only what he was telling her.

Well, she just had to give him some space for now. More attentive or not, Polly couldn't bring herself to try and force Basil to do something he didn't want to unless it was necessary. She was a caretaker, not a prison warden.

Although, that did remind her of something else Basil said in the conversation. Or rather, something he almost said. She thought about it, wondering if it counted or not...

...Eh, close enough.

Picking up her pencil again, Polly reached down beside her and rummaged around in her messenger bag, pulling out a small hardcover notebook. It was something she had been working on for a while now; a present she was planning to give to Basil on his twenty-first birthday. A small grin crossed her lips as she ran a finger over the cover of the notebook:

NUMBER OF TIMES BASIL ACCIDENTALLY CALLED ME MOM

Flipping through several pages filled with tally marks, Polly reached the most recent page and added another one.

Kel looked up from his seat on the front stoop at the sound of Hector's excited barking. The dog would bark at just about everything, but when it wasn't a squirrel, a bird, or a stray cat, it was usually a person; in this case, it was Aubrey walking down the driveway towards him.

"Aubrey?" Kel asked. "What are you doing here?"

"Nice to see you too, Kel." Aubrey said in a flat tone. "I'm here to see Mari, what do you think I'm doing here?"

"Right, sorry." Kel slumped back. "Anyway, Mari's not here right now. She's out working."

"Working?" Aubrey raised an eyebrow. "When did she have time to get a job?"

"It's just an odd job." Kel explained. "After we left the lake yesterday, we went to Othermart and she grabbed a bunch of 'Help Wanted' flyers. She said she wanted to pay Hero back as soon as she could." He gave a small shrug. "I don't get it, myself."

"You wouldn't." Aubrey rolled her eyes. "I'm guessing Hero's with her?"

"Naturally." Kel nodded. "I don't think you could separate those two with a crowbar. I'm just waiting for them to get back." He scooted to the side of the stoop. "Wanna join me? They should be back soon."

"Yeah, sure." Aubrey sat down beside him.

The two of them sat for a little while as Hector finally wound himself down.

"...Hey, Kel?" Aubrey asked, breaking the silence. "How are you handling... everything?" She waved a hand forward in a vague, sweeping motion.

"Which part of everything?" Kel deadpanned. "The part where Mari is alive again, the part where there's definitely an afterlife, or the part where the Grim Reaper is apparently a sore loser?"

"All of that, I guess?" Aubrey sighed. "But mostly the first part."

"It's great, of course! But..." Kel leaned forward, hugging his knees. "I mean, I wish I could say 'it's like she never left', but that would be a lie."

"I'm with you." Aubrey nodded. "It feels... weird. It's like finding a million dollars under a rock and then getting to keep it. Something amazing happened, but you didn't do anything to deserve it."

"Well, bad things happen to people that don't deserve them all the time." Kel said. "Who's to say good things can't happen to people that don't deserve them?"

"I guess so." Aubrey stared down the street. She didn't sound convinced.

"Maybe we're thinking about this the wrong way." Kel continued. "We said before that it felt like Mari was still with us, right? It turns out she was! Instead of thinking about if we deserve it or not, I say we just roll with it."

"Yeah..." Aubrey nodded, before breaking into a grin. "Yeah, you're right. Thanks, Kel. I should have guessed you'd be able to deal with things the best."

"You don't have to sound so surprised when you say that, you know." Kel chided.

Aubrey leaned back, stretching her arms. "...She's seriously taking odd jobs two days after coming back?"

"Sunny did the same thing the day he finally left his house." Kel said. "I think hustling just runs in their family or something."

"Jeez, I didn't even think about Sunny." Aubrey suddenly sat up straight. "How do you suppose he's going to deal with seeing her?"

"How's Sunny going to deal with seeing who?"

Kel and Aubrey looked up to see Kim approaching them, accompanied by another flurry of barks from Hector.

"Sorry, didn't mean to eavesdrop." Kim said. "Hey Aubs, hey nerd."

"I'm, like, the farthest you can possibly get from being a nerd." Kel grumbled.

"That's exactly what a nerd would say." Kim countered. "Anyway, I'm not here for a debate, I'm here for answers." She pointed at Kel. "You."

Kel shrank back. "Me?"

"Yes, you." Kim took on a serious expression. "You need to tell me what the hell you and your friends did to Mikhael yesterday."

Mari furrowed her brows, going over the math worksheet a second time. Once she was done double-checking it, she looked up at Brent's expectant face.

"You almost got them all right," Mari said, handing the sheet back and tapping one of the problems. "You just made a small mistake with your order of operations on this one. Division can come before multiplication if it shows up first in the equation." Watching the young boy's face fall, she tried to put on her most encouraging smile. "Don't worry, it's a common mistake. Just give it one more try, okay?"

"Okay, Miss Lily." Brent took the sheet and started to work on it again, while Mari leaned back in her chair, trying and failing to stay focused on the task at hand.

It wasn't lost on Mari that she was, once again, spending her time teaching someone how to do something they definitely did not want to do. At least this time she was getting paid for it.

Besides, there was a world of difference between tutoring music and tutoring math. Math was objective, and the correct answer was the same every time. Brent couldn't just decide that two plus two equaled five because he felt like it, because he'd be going against the rules that everyone else followed. Music, on the other hand, was subjective. It had rules, yes, best practices to create melodies and harmonies that were considered 'good', but it had more nuance and complexity behind those rules, and more room for personal taste. Music was not something you could pass or fail.

Of course, that didn't stop Mari from trying to force her own arbitrary rules on Sunny, did it? She had turned their waltz into an equation that needed to be solved, needed to be correct, and had the gall to berate Sunny for not following her rules.

She grimaced and tried to push those thoughts away. With Sunny and her mother set to visit tomorrow, her nerves were starting to get the better of her. She needed to focus, not just on what was important, but on what was important right now.

For example, Sunny and Mom weren't in Faraway right now, but Basil was.

She knew talking to him was going to be difficult, no matter what. Unlike Hero and the others, Basil had been directly involved in what happened that day, and that came with no small amount of baggage. Mari had thought before about what the best way to deal with that baggage would be and had eventually decided that the only thing to do would just be to attack it directly by telling Basil her feelings.

Now if she could just figure out how she felt.

"Miss Lily?"

Brent's voice cut through Mari's thoughts. Sitting up, she saw him holding the worksheet toward her.

"I think I have it right this time."

Mari took the sheet and quickly scanned the problem again. Satisfied, she gave a quick nod.

"Looks like you do! Good job, Brent. Let's go show your mother."

"You did a splendid job, young lady." Mrs. Lehrer handed Mari a few bills. "Here's your pay, with a little extra."

"Thank you very much, ma'am." Mari said with a polite smile.

"The pleasure was all mine." Mrs. Lehrer smiled back. "As a principal, there's nothing that makes me happier than seeing our school's alumni returning home and helping out their community."

"I'm afraid you're mistaken, ma'am." Mari added hastily. "I didn't go to school around here."

"Hm?" Mrs. Lehrer paused for a moment, then shook her head with a frown. "No, I suppose you didn't. My apologies. Well, thank you all the same." She turned to Hero. "And thank you for stopping by as well, Henry. It was nice catching up with you."

"You're welcome, Mrs. Lehrer. Have a nice afternoon." Hero gave a short wave before heading out the door, with Mari trailing behind.

Once they got onto the sidewalk, Mari gave a short sigh. "That was close. I didn't think there would be anyone around town that might recognize me."

"Well, you always did stand out a bit at school." Hero said. "It probably doesn't help that you were the class representative back in the day."

"I guess." Mari sighed again, taking his hand in hers as the two of them headed along the crosswalk towards their street. "Sorry you had to spend so long talking to her, by the way."

"It wasn't that bad." Hero shrugged. "It was mostly just hearing her talk about problems at the high school in a passive-aggressive sort of way. Did you know they're finally going to finish putting in new bleachers in the gym?"

"It's taken them this long?!" Mari cried out. "They were working on that back when we were freshmen!"

"She said they kept running into problems with the budget each year." Hero explained.

"I'm sure Kel will be happy, at least. Oh, that reminds me." Mari handed Hero the money she had received from Mrs. Lehrer. "That should cover about half of what I owe you."

"You don't actually need to pay me back, Mari." Hero said, taking the bills all the same.

"It's the right thing to do. Besides," Mari smirked. "I wouldn't want you to have to start keeping a ledger of everything I owe you like you do with your own brother."

"I don't keep a ledger." Hero insisted. "I can keep track of what Kel owes me in my head just fine."

"You know that doesn't make it any better, right?"

"I wasn't trying to-"

"For the last time Kim, all she did to Mikhael was use that stupid nickname of his!"

Mari and Hero looked up at the sound of Kel's raised voice.

"There has to be more to it than that." Another voice Mari didn't recognize argued back. "All he's been doing since yesterday evening is sighing and writing poetry!"

As Hero's house came into view, Mari saw Kel and Aubrey crowded in front of its front door, alongside a girl with short brown hair.

"I didn't know Mikhael could write poetry." Aubrey said.

"He can't." The girl replied. "It's the most nauseating crap I've ever had the misfortune of reading, but that's not the point. The point is, even if it's Mikhael, no one messes with the Hooligans and gets away with it. Right, Aubrey?"

"I mean, yeah, but-"

"Okay you three, what seems to be the problem?" Hero called out as he and Mari walked down the driveway to his home.

Kel looked up, relief plain on his face. "Hero, Lily, back me up, here! We didn't do anything to Mikhael, right?"

Mari grinned. "You mean The Maverick?"

Kel let out a groan.

"I can vouch for them, Kim." Aubrey said. "Besides, even if they did do something to Mikhael, you know it's because he started it."

Kim looked between the four of them for a few seconds before shaking her head with a huff. "Fine, whatever. I'll just go knock some sense into him later."

"I'll join you. Oh, but before that!" Aubrey jumped up. "I need to introduce you! Kim, this is M- Lily, an old friend of mine. Lily, this is my friend Kim. I told you about her yesterday."

Kim eyed Mari suspiciously like she was sizing her up. "What'd you hear?"

"She only had nice things to say, I promise." Mari smiled at Kim, opting to leave out the bits and pieces she remembered of the incident at the lake. It technically wasn't a lie, since Aubrey didn't tell her about that.

"What are you all doing sitting outside, anyway?" Hero asked.

"Waiting for you two." Kel said, standing up. "Are you done working, Lily?"

"Almost," Mari replied. "I just need a little more to pay back Hero, so I was going to head back into town to see what else I can do."

"Well, let's go. The sooner you're done with that, the sooner we can do something else." Aubrey started to walk down the driveway. "Kim, you wanna come?"

"Nah, I probably shouldn't show my face around Othermart for a little while." Kim shook her head. "You guys have fun doing manual labor, though."

"Don't worry, we will!" Kel ran past Aubrey towards the sidewalk, prompting her to chase after him.

Hero gave a quick wave to Kim and went to catch up with the others. Mari turned to follow, only to pause and turn back around towards Kim, who was heading in the other direction.

"Kim, can I talk to you for a moment?"

The younger girl paused and looked over her shoulder. "What's up?"

"Aubrey was telling me about how you were the one who found her when she was all by herself." Mari started carefully. "Does that mean you were the one that had her join your gang?"

"I didn't 'have her' join anything." Kim said defensively. "I wanted to be friends with her, and then she started hanging around with my friends. That's all. What's it to you, anyway?"

"I just wanted to make sure you weren't pressuring her or anything like that. I'm not crazy about the gang thing, but..." Mari smiled. "...Aubrey needed a friend. Thank you for being there for her, and I hope you can continue to be there for her."

"I..." Kim blinked, clearly not expecting the confrontation to go this way. "Y-yeah, no problem. Like you even have to ask."

"That's all I wanted to say. See you around, Kim." Mari started to leave, only to stop herself again. "Oh, actually, there's one more thing." She leaned towards her and took on a conspirational tone. "Assuming she still makes them herself, if you ask Miss Candice for walnuts on your candy apple she'll have to go into the back room to prepare it. Use this knowledge as you see fit."

"H-Huh?!" Kim gawked at her. "How do you-"

"Lily, what's the holdup?" Hero's voice came from down the street.

"Coming!" Mari called back cheerfully. Winking at Kim, she hurried after her friends.

Polly examined the shelf of gardening supplies again, hoping that she had somehow overlooked what she was searching for the previous three times she checked. She had finished shopping at Othermart and was planning on getting a few things Basil needed from Fix-It in an attempt to cheer him up, but that was easier said than done. Basil was harder to buy gifts for than she would have expected, at least when it came to his hobby; for someone that was such a pushover about everything else in his life he was very stubborn about what went into his garden. At this point, Polly had become just as discerning as he was, if only so she didn't get stuck having to lug another sack of fertilizer back to the store to exchange it.

Unable to find what she was looking for, Polly went back into Fix-It's main interior. As much as it pained her to do so, she would need to ask someone for help. She and Basil frequented the store enough that the owner knew them by name, so she went looking for him first. Unfortunately, as she reached the front of the store she found him slumped over the cash register, fast asleep. Scanning the store for anyone else, Polly found a young woman with a Fix-It apron tied around her waist diligently organizing the tools on the shelves.

"Excuse me," Polly started, walking up to her. "Do you know if you have any potting soil in stock? The one that comes in the blue bag."

"I'm very sorry, Miss, but I wouldn't be able to tell you." The employee said. "I just started working here today. You'll have to ask the manager."

Polly sighed to herself; she wasn't having much luck today. "I'd hoped it wouldn't come to that. He's always so cranky when I disturb his beauty sleep."

"I can wake him up for you if you'd like." The employee offered.

"I wouldn't want to trouble you-" Polly started to say, but the girl was already tapping the manager on the shoulder.

"Bwuh..." The manager stirred. Suddenly, he jolted upright, eyes wide. "Welcome to Fix-It! How can I..." He trailed off, staring at his employee. "Oh, it's you. Are you done with the shelves?"

"Almost, sir." She said, gesturing towards Polly. "This lady has a question about something from the gardening section."

The manager glanced over. "Ah. Sorry, Polly, the gardening supplies are delivered once a month, and the delivery isn't due 'til next week. Whatever Basil is looking for, he'll have to wait until then." With that, he put his head back down and promptly went back to sleep.

"I suppose it can't be helped." Polly shrugged. "Thanks anyway." She gave the employee a polite smile.

The girl didn't respond; instead, she seemed to be stuck with a look of surprise on her face, hand still hovering over the manager's back.

"Is everything okay?" Polly leaned in.

"Hm?" The employee startled. "Yes, everything's fine. It's just..." She pressed her lips together into a thin line before continuing. "Is it true that you were trying to get something for Basil?"

Now it was Polly's turn to look surprised. "You know Basil?"

"I do! Or, I did. I... used to live here in Faraway, years ago, and we were friends then." The girl held out her hand. "My name's Lily."

"Polly." Polly shook the offered hand. "...I don't think Basil has ever mentioned a Lily before."

"Other than the flower, I'm sure." Lily cracked a smile. "I'm not surprised, it has been a while. How's he been these days?"

That was certainly a loaded question if Polly had ever heard one.

"Things have been hard for him these past few years. His grandmother's health started failing - I was her caretaker, originally - and then she passed last year. He's doing better these days, at least."

"I'm sorry to hear about his grandmother," Lily said, smile fading. "I knew Hazel too, and she was a wonderful person."

Polly nodded, examining the girl in front of her. Lily acted sincere enough, and she seemed like a nice person, but there was something off about this whole exchange. Maybe she was just being overly protective of Basil, but if Lily really was a friend of his wouldn't she have heard about her at least once?

She did look familiar, however. She just wasn't sure where she had seen her before.

"How's the job going, Lily?"

Polly turned towards the front of the shop as Henry approached the two of them, the door jingling shut behind him.

"Oh, Polly! Good afternoon. How's Basil doing?"

"Good afternoon, Henry. Basil was a bit under the weather recently, but he's fine now." She looked between Henry and Lily. "I was just speaking with Lily about Basil as well. I wasn't aware you two knew each other." She gave a slight smile. Having someone trustworthy like Henry familiar with Lily made her seem much less suspicious.

"We do," Henry said with a nod. "Lily's my girlfriend from college."

Then again, maybe not.

Polly raised an eyebrow at Lily. "...I thought you said you used to live here in Faraway."

"I did!" Lily said. nodding. "I used to live here, and then I moved away, and then I met Hero again at college. Just a happy little bit of serendipity. Right, Hero?"

"Y-yeah, it's a small world sometimes." Henry nodded as well.

"I suppose that makes sense." Polly said, despite the doubt that was starting to take root in her mind. "Well, if I can't get anything for Basil, I might as well just go home. He's probably waiting for me. It was nice meeting you, Lily."

"Actually..." Lily held up a hand. "I know this is a lot to ask of you since we just met, but would it be okay if we hitched a ride over to see Basil? I need to speak with him, and it's kind of important." 

Polly weighed her options. On one hand, there was absolutely something strange going on with Lily. On the other hand, even if she was strange, Polly doubted that she was dangerous, otherwise she wouldn't be in a relationship with someone like Henry. And, even if Basil didn't want to go out to see his friends, Polly figured there was nothing wrong with having them come by to see him, at least for a little while.

"Yes, that would be fine." Polly nodded.

"Great! Thank you, Polly." Henry smiled. "Oh, is it okay if Aubrey and Kel come too?"

"As long as they're fine with squeezing into the back of my car. There's not a lot of room."

"They'll be on their best behavior, I promise." Henry said. "I'll go let them know."

As Polly watched Henry exit Fix-It and Lily hurry to finish up putting the tools on the shelves, she said a silent apology to Basil. Surely he could handle a quick visit from his friends, right?

It was hard for Basil to pick the lowest point of his life. Certainly, it was much harder than it should have been for someone his age. Some very obvious choices jockeyed for first place, like the time his fear-addled mind decided that framing Mari's death as a suicide was a good idea, or the time his fear-addled mind decided that stabbing at a hallucination directly in front of Sunny's eye was a good idea. Other than those, however, everything else was Basil dealing with the consequences of his own mistakes, which made them all run together into a gray smear of misery. If there was one period of time he would have to pick out as uniquely miserable, however, it would have to be the time right after Mari's funeral.

Basil was still being treated as an innocent bystander, another unfortunate soul harmed by a tragedy he had nothing to do with and couldn't have predicted. His teachers pitied him, his friends kept saying they were there for him, and his grandmother doted on him even more... it was maddening. No one was treating him like the monster he was, because no one knew what he had done. And the worst part was, he couldn't even tell them, because that would mean betraying Sunny. In a way, Aubrey bullying him for the ruined photos was almost cathartic; he could finally get the treatment he deserved, the treatment he needed, while still protecting Sunny. It was a win-win situation!

That's what he told himself at the time, anyway. He tried his best to avoid putting himself into that old mindset, but sometimes it was difficult not to.

Especially when his current situation felt so similar to how things used to be.

Once again, he had done something horrible, and once again, people were treating him with kindness he didn't deserve. The only difference was that this time they knew. They knew everything, and still they chose to be around him instead of abandoning him. He didn't understand it, and he wasn't sure if he ever would, but he welcomed it all the same.

He welcomed it because just like before, he was certain it wasn't going to last.

It's not that he didn't believe them when they said they still wanted to be his friend; Kel and Aubrey were too honest with their feelings to lie about something like that, and Sunny always made sure to spend time with him when he visited. Even Hero made an effort to check up on him when he visited from college, despite how thorny things still were, and probably always will be, between the two of them. Eventually, however, everyone would realize the mistakes they were making, and leave him for dead. That was why he needed to enjoy his time with them to the fullest while they still tolerated him.

So if that's how he felt, why was he spending his afternoon holed up in his room, staring at the ceiling? He wasn't entirely sure himself. Maybe he was afraid that spending too much time with his friends would be the catalyst that drove them away. Maybe he would say or do the wrong thing and remind them of what he had done to Mari. Or maybe he was just scared, like always. Whatever it was, it was something he needed to overcome. And he would!

Tomorrow.

Basil rolled onto his stomach, burying his face into his pillow.

"Basil, I'm home!" Polly's voice came from the front door. "Your friends stopped by to visit, come say hello!"

With a muffled groan, Basil pushed himself upright. He supposed he should be happy that they wanted to see him. Either way, he had to at least make an appearance; he didn't want to be rude, after all.

Basil slid off of his bed, mentally preparing himself for dealing with his friends.

"Are you going to be okay?" Hero asked, worry plain on his face.

"I'm going to have to be." Mari leaned against him as the four of them waited in front of the door to Basil's house.

"We can always come back later." Kel offered.

"No, it needs to be now." Mari shook her head. "Besides, if I can't speak to Basil, how am I going to be able to handle talking to Sunny?"

"That's fair." Kel nodded. "What are you going to say to him?"

Before Mari could reply, the door opened halfway, revealing Basil with Polly standing behind him.

"Hello, everyone." He said with a small smile. "It's nice to see all of you. Sorry I haven't been out, I was sick recently." His gaze traveled over each person in turn. "Oh, Hero! It's especially nice to see you. It's been a while. And..."

Mari braced herself as her eyes met Basil's. Time seemed to slow down as his face contorted into a look of absolute horror. Then, in an instant, his expression was plastered over with a wide smile.

"Mari! What a pleasant surprise!"

Polly leaned over in concern. "Basil?"

"Please, come in! I'll make us all some tea." Basil all but shoved past Polly, vanishing into the kitchen.

"Basil, that's not-" Polly started, watching after Basil for a second before looking back. "I-I'm so sorry about that. I'm not sure what's gotten into him."

"No, this is our fault, Polly. We probably should have warned him. And you." Hero sighed, stepping forward. "Mari, go make sure he's okay. I'll try to explain everything to Polly."

"Explain what to me?" Polly asked.

"Got it. Thanks, Hero." Mari said as she slipped past Polly into the house, followed by Kel and Aubrey.

"Explain what to me?" Polly asked again, raising her voice as Hero took her aside. "Henry, what in the world is..."

The rest of whatever she was saying faded out as Aubrey closed the door behind them.

Mari did a quick check of the main room, briefly noting how little any of it had changed since she had last been here. Basil, true to his word, was in the kitchen busily setting up a kettle and mugs.

"Aubrey, you didn't tell Basil anything yesterday, did you?" Kel whispered.

"Of course not." Aubrey hissed back. "I didn't even see him until today."

Mari took a deep breath. "Basil-"

"It'll be ready in a minute!" Basil chirped, not turning around. "You guys just take a seat, okay?"

The three of them exchanged worried glances before sitting down at the kitchen table to wait.

Eventually, Basil brought the kettle over, still smiling.

"Don't worry Aubrey, we've got plenty of sugar." He said, setting the table. "I remember you like your tea extra sweet. Same with you, Kel! I guess that's one thing you guys can agree on, right?" He chuckled.

"So, Mari!" He continued before anyone had a chance to speak. "How long have you been back in town?"

"Me? A couple of days, I suppose." Mari tried to hide her concern while she thought about how he would have known she was back.

"Good! That's good." Basil's smile widened. "As nice as Faraway is, it's always a little nicer when you and Hero are back from college."

Oh.

"Basil." Mari kept her voice level. "Please sit down. We need to talk."

The corners of Basil's mouth twitched.

"I... yes, okay. J-just let me get the tea ready first."

Methodically, he went around the table, pouring hot water into everyone else's mug. Eventually, he circled back to his cup, tilted the kettle... and stopped. For a few seconds, the house was completely silent, except for the kettle's lid rattling against itself in Basil's shaking hand.

Mari slowly reached out towards him, only for Basil to recoil away.

"Don't." He snapped. "Please don't. Let's just... g-get this over with."

"Get what over with?" Mari asked. "What do you think is happening?"

Basil's smile tightened into a rictus grin. "This isn't real. I'm asleep, or I still have a fever, or... I don't know. All I know is that once I sit down, you're going to tell me exactly what I deserve."

"And what's that, Basil?"

"That everyone hates me for what I did." He said simply. "What I did to you."

"Basil, come on." Kel shook his head. "You know that's not-"

"Do you think that little of us?"

Everyone turned towards Aubrey, who was scowling at Basil.

"Is this what's going through your head every time we're hanging out together?" She kept going. "That when we said we were your friends that it was some big practical joke? After everything that happened do you seriously think we would lie to you about that?"

"I think you're lying to yourselves." Basil said, trying and failing to meet her gaze. "Once you realize you don't have to associate with me, you'll all drop me."

"If being your friend is so painful, why do we keep trying to do it?" Aubrey asked.

"Because you're convinced that not being my friend would feel worse."

For a second Aubrey looked like she was going to scream, but she closed her eyes and took a deep breath."

"Basil, listen to me." She began in a calmer tone. "I know what it's like to think everyone hates you. I tried to convince myself that I hated you guys because then it wouldn't hurt as much that you all hated me back. But no one hated me. It wasn't true for me, and it's not true for you."

Basil silently stared at the floor, hands balled into tight fists.

Aubrey let out a small sigh. "I don't know what else we can do to convince you, other than keep saying that we want to be your friend, and that you mean-"

"Shut up."

Aubrey recoiled at Basil's sudden outburst.

"Nothing you say matters. It's not going to make me feel better because none of this is real." He looked up, face hardened. "This is... I can't believe I would try to make up something like this."

"Basil, please," Kel said quietly like he was trying to talk him down. "We're all here for you." He looked over at Mari. "All of us."

"Stop it!" Basil shouted. "Stop lying to me! I don't need this! I don't want this!" He pushed back from the table, glowering at each of them in turn before fixing his gaze on Mari.

"How about you, Mari? Are you going to try and say what you think I want to hear? That you forgive me for stringing up your corpse and making everyone think you killed yourself?! Go ahead, say it! Look me in the eye and say you forgive me!"

Everyone was quiet, except for Basil's near-hyperventilation. Eventually, Mari turned away.

"...I thought I did." She said finally. "I thought spending five years doing nothing but thinking about what happened would've helped me get over it. But I don't think I have, yet."

Basil faltered. "Yet?"

"It's still hard to think about, even now." Mari continued. "I know you as Basil, the boy that taught us how to make flower crowns, the boy that wasn't afraid of bugs crawling up his arms, and the boy that's face lit up when he got his camera. But when I try to connect that Basil with the one that hung my body, my mind just... shuts down. Like it rejects the idea that they're both the same person." She looked up at him, eyes watering. "But they are. No matter how hard it is for me to accept, you're both of those Basils. But because of that, I know you weren't trying to do something malicious."

"I desecrated you." Basil said, voice wavering. "I made everyone think you were suicidal."

"I know you did." Mari nodded. "I don't know what was going through your head when you decided to do that, and I don't want to know. But I don't think you know what was going through your head, either. I mean, you watched me die right in front of you. You weren't in your right mind any more than Sunny was. You were a scared twelve-year-old boy afraid that your friend was going to get taken away. If I was in your shoes and had to protect Sunny from something that awful... I honestly don't know if I would have done any better."

Basil toppled backward, thankfully landing on his chair with a thump.

Standing up, Mari walked around the table and put her hands on Basil's shoulders. He flinched at her touch but otherwise didn't try to push her away.

"It's still hard for me to accept what you did, but even if I never fully will, I don't want to shut you out of my life. So while I haven't forgiven you yet..." Mari smiled. "I don't hate you, Basil."

Basil stared up at Mari in disbelief as tears started to fall from his eyes. Then, just before he completely broke down, he wrapped his arms around Mari and buried his face in her stomach like a child, sobbing.

Mari wrapped her arms around Basil's shoulders. Getting the hint, Kel and Aubrey jumped up and ran over, joining the others in a group hug.

"Feel better?" Mari asked once Basil had quieted down.

Basil's head bobbed up and down.

"...Ah!" Suddenly he looked up, wriggling out of the embrace. "Aubrey, I'm so sorry!"

Aubrey looked confused, "Sorry about what?"

"You were upset at me for thinking that you all hated me, and then we argued and then you said all those nice things and then I yelled at you and-"

"Deep breath, Basil." Mari said.

Basil let out something between a groan and a whimper, bowing his head again.

"You've got nothing to apologize for, Basil." Aubrey insisted. "In light of... certain things, that was an understandable response."

"It's still not right!" Basil shook his head.

"Fine, if you want to make it up to me, just hold still."

Basil froze. "Why?"

Aubrey leaned over and whispered something to Kel.

"What?" Kel looked at her. "Why me?"

"Just do it, Kel." Aubrey said.

"Fine, fine." Kel sighed. "Sorry, Basil."

"Sorry for-" Basil started to reply, only to be cut off by a sharp flick on the side of the head from Kel. "Ow!"

Aubrey gave a small grin. "Just making sure you know this isn't a dream or anything."

"O-okay." Basil managed a grin of his own, rubbing his head. He looked up at Mari, finally meeting her gaze without any sort of fear or anger. "Mari... is this real? Are you actually here?"

"I am." Mari nodded, tightening the hug. "Now, I'm sure you've got a lot of questions, and I'll be happy to answer them," She stepped back carefully, breaking out of the embrace. "But I really should check on Hero and Polly first. Just give me a minute." Mari started to head over to the front door, when she heard faint sniffling coming from behind her. Turning back around in worry, she saw that Basil had collapsed onto the table, burying his head in his arms while Aubrey and Kel were doing their best to console him. She started to head back over, only for Aubrey to hold up an arm.

"Don't worry, we've got this."

"Yeah, do what you gotta do." Kel agreed.

Feeling a little better, Mari turned back towards the front door, opening it and peeking outside.

"Over here, Mari."

Looking to the side, she found Hero waving at her next to Polly, who was slumped against the side of the house with a thousand-yard stare focused on nothing in particular.

"Is everything okay in there?" Hero asked. "We heard shouting."

"It got a little heated." Mari admitted. "But he's taking it pretty well. How's Polly?"

"I'm fine, thank you." Polly said unconvincingly. "I'm questioning a lot of long-held beliefs I've had about how the world works right now, but other than that I'm just peachy." She looked up at Mari. "...You look just like you did in Basil's photos. That's where I thought I recognized you from back at Fix-It."

Mari winced at yet another crack in her increasingly dubious disguise but quickly recovered at the mention of Basil. "I hate to impose on you anymore, but would it be okay if we all slept over at Basil's house? We're going to need a lot of time to talk about things."

"Be my guest." Polly nodded. "I think I need it too, frankly."

"Great. Then I'm just going to need one more small favor." Mari said. "I need to borrow your kitchen."

Reverently, Hero opened the oven's front door and carefully retrieved the second most amazing thing that had come back into his life this week; a tray of cookies.

Specifically, a tray of Mari's cookies. It was taking every ounce of willpower he had not to grab one and shove it in his mouth right now.

"You'd better let them cool," Mari said, reading him like a book. "I don't want you burning your tongue off."

"It'd be worth it."

Mari smirked at his reply, checking the tray over. "I hope they're okay. It has been a while since I've made them."

"Trust me, Mari, they look delicious." Hero said with a smile, wrapping an arm around her waist.

"Well, that's only because I had the best assistant baker in the world." Mari slipped her own arm under his, pulling herself closer."It's going to be a shame to lose your talent to the medical world."

Hero's smile faltered. "Yeah, I suppose."

"You know, I was a little surprised when I learned that you were going to be a doctor, but I can totally see it." Mari continued. "Doctor Rodriguez, M.D.. Or are you going to let people call you Doctor Hero?"

Hero exhaled. "Actually... I've been thinking of changing majors for a while now."

Mari raised her eyebrows. "Really? For how long?"

"About a year now, since a little after Sunny told us the truth." Hero said. "I've been wrestling with the idea on and off since then, but what you said yesterday about living without regrets is making me think about it some more."

"Well, as easy as it is for me to say so, I think you should live your dream." Mari gave him a light squeeze.

"But what if I don't know what my dream is anymore?" Hero asked. "I mean, I love cooking and baking, but I don't know if I want to do that professionally anymore."

"Do you have any ideas of what you might want to do instead?"

"Nothing concrete."

Mari hummed in thought. "Well, if you haven't spoken about it with anyone else yet, you definitely should. I mean, you can't be the first college student who ever second-guessed their major, right?"

"Right." Hero nodded. "I'll make sure I do that. And don't worry," He smiled. "Whatever I decide on, you'll always have me as your personal chef."

"Aww, Hero." Mari stretched up to kiss his cheek. "That's sweet of you. But you know that's-"

"'Not what you like about me', right?" Hero said. "It's been a while since I've heard that one."

Mari pursed her lips together in a pout. After a second, she let out a sigh. "Hero, I have a confession to make."

"Okay?" Hero started to feel a bit of concern.

"Every time you tried to act all smooth and flirty and I said that's not what I liked about you? I was bluffing."

Hero blinked. "You were?"

"Of course I was!" Mari grinned. "If anyone else tried those lines on me it would have been insufferable, but because you're such a huge dork I always knew you meant them. Incidentally," Her grin widened. "The fact that you never figured that out and kept trying to do it anyway is also what I like about you."

Hero started to splutter, only to be cut off by another kiss on the lips from Mari.

"Alright, let's get these cookies on a plate." She said, pulling back. "I'm sure the others can smell them by now, and they're probably getting ravenous. After that..." Her grin faded. "We need to figure out how we're going to handle tomorrow."

Chapter Text

Basil lay on the floor of his living room, swaddled in both his blanket and the golden glow of early morning coming through the windows, and did his best not to make a sound. He was being as quiet as possible for two reasons. First off, two of his friends were still asleep beside him, and he didn't want to disturb them; admittedly, he was more worried about Aubrey than Kel in that regard. Second off, he was spying on two of his other friends, and he didn't want to disturb them.

Cautiously, he tilted his head up and looked across the large main room of his house towards the kitchen. At the table sat Polly, drinking her morning cup of tea and talking to the two young adults at the kitchen sink. On one side of the sink was Hero, still in his pajamas as he scrubbed away at the dishes and pans that had been dirtied during yesterday's sleepover. And standing on the other side of the sink helping him, also in her pajamas, was-

Basil screwed his eyes shut and clenched his hands into fists, digging his fingernails into his palms as hard as he could. After a few painful seconds, he relaxed and opened his eyes.

-And standing on the other side of the sink helping him, also in her pajamas, was... Mari.

She was still there, just as she had still been there the other dozen or so times Basil had discreetly done this test the previous evening. At this point, Basil had to accept that she was actually back, despite his best efforts to convince himself otherwise.

He should just be happy to see her. More than happy, he should be ecstatic. One of his dearest friends, someone who meant so much to him and all of his other friends, someone who had been tragically killed far too young in an unlucky twist of fate, was alive again.

Even for purely selfish reasons, he should be leaping for joy right now. After all, he was the one that had turned that unlucky twist of fate into something far more horrible, taking Mari's accidental death and framing it as a suicide in a desperate attempt to save Sunny. It was the worst mistake Basil had ever made, and now it had been undone.

Except that it hadn't, not really. Mari being back was amazing; a miracle, even. But it didn't remove what he had done to her, and it didn't remove what he had done to all of his friends by making them think she had killed herself. Just like how Sunny's new prosthetic eye didn't change the fact that Basil had stabbed out his original one. Even in an extraordinary situation such as this, he had no choice but to face reality.

His focus returned to the other side of the room; he couldn't make out what they were talking about, but whatever Polly had just said made Hero turn around from the sink and look at her, wide-eyed. Mari grinned, saying something else as she bumped her hip against Hero's, causing him to stumble forward and forcing Polly to stifle a laugh.

Basil's lips curled upward slightly as he eavesdropped on the three of them. While he couldn't be happy for himself, at least he was able to be happy for the others. From their talks last night, it sounds like he hadn't been the only one who had a rough start with Mari. Once the dust had settled, however, Aubrey, Kel, and especially Hero accepted her return without any further issue. It was refreshing to see them all smile so easily, even if it was just another confirmation that he was, once again, the outlier of the group.

He wondered if Sunny would be an outlier too. He hoped he wouldn't be.

He continued to watch Hero and Mari work together at the sink. It was nostalgic, seeing the two of them like that again. It almost reminded him of one of his old-

"It almost reminds you of one of your old photos, doesn't it?"

Basil bit back a yelp at the unexpected whisper from beside him. Turning his head, he found Aubrey wide awake, propped up on her elbows and looking across the room, wearing a small smile of her own.

"Somehow I forgot how lovey-dovey they acted all the time." She continued in a low voice. "I definitely didn't remember it being this bad."

Basil gave a noncommittal shrug; internally, it was taking a considerable amount of effort not to mention how Aubrey used to adore how 'lovey-dovey' Hero and Mari were towards each other when she was younger.

"But really," Aubrey said. "There's a picture of them at a sink, right? Washing dishes?"

"I think so, yes." Basil whispered back.

"I thought so." Aubrey flopped down. "I wish you still had your album. I'd like to see some of those photos right now."

Basil thought about it. "...I do still have some photos from back then."

Aubrey snapped upright again. "You have another album?"

"Not quite. Follow me." Standing up, he stepped over Kel's catatonic form and headed towards the hallway, sparing one last glance towards the kitchen before he went into his room, followed by Aubrey.

"So, you know I was always really choosy about the photos that I put in the album." He said, stepping inside. "Well, I did still like some of those photos, even if they weren't album material. So I put them up in here." He pointed to the back wall of the room at some homemade garlands hanging above his bed and shelves; interspersed between dangling bunches of dried herbs were several sun-faded photographs.

"What was the matter with them?" Aubrey approached the wall.

"A lot of different things, really." Basil explained. "Mostly the sort of problems you run into when trying to take candid photos. For example, if you don't tell people to pose, they're just going to keep moving. And if they move too fast..." He pointed to one of the pictures, depicting a young Sunny and Aubrey sitting on the curb in front of Hobbeez sharing a comic book. It was a cute picture, even if the scene was marred slightly by the blurry orange ghost looming in the background.

Aubrey chuckled. "I bet Kel was responsible for screwing up a lot of these, wasn't he?"

"Not a lot of them." Basil said. "Most of the time it was my fault. I'd try to take a picture when it was too dark, or it'd be overexposed, or I forgot to turn the flash on..."

"How about this one?" Aubrey pointed to a picture that seemed to consist almost entirely of a fuzzy pink spot, with a sliver of Basil's shocked face peeking out from behind it.

"Ah." Basil's cheeks flushed. "That's the first picture I ever took, right after I got my camera. I was turning it around in my hands and looking it over, and I accidentally hit the shutter button while my finger was over the lens." He leaned in beside her. "See, you can barely make out the lights from the Christmas tree through the edge of my hair."

"Oh yeah, you totally can!"

Basil took a sidelong glance at Aubrey's bright expression as she went over the photos. Other than perhaps Sunny, Aubrey was the one out of his friend group that most loved going through the photo album back in the day. He wasn't sure why she loved looking at the pictures so much, but he wondered if her reason was similar to his, wanting proof that the good things in their life had actually happened.

Maybe that's why she stayed friends with him despite everything he had done. He was a reminder of happier times for her, albeit a flawed reminder. It made him think of his accidental photo; it was, objectively speaking, a terrible picture, and yet it had a heightened level of sentimentality in his eyes because it was his very first. Aubrey had admitted to Basil early on in their friendship that he had been her first 'real' friend, so it was an even more apt comparison. In that context, it made perfect sense to him why she went through so much effort.

But now Aubrey had Mari again. She didn't have to put up with him for the sake of holding onto the past anymore, not when the past was alive and well. He wasn't needed anymore. Even if Aubrey didn't think about it that way consciously, he was sure this was the beginning of the end. And if it was, he wanted it to be as clean a break as possible.

"I'm still a little upset with you, you know." Aubrey said in a soft tone, still facing the photos.

Basil frowned. It was bad enough he had taken her time, but it was even worse that he had her concern. "If this is about yesterday-"

"It's not just yesterday." Aubrey looked at him. "All those things you said... that's how you've been feeling for a while, right?"

"I... yes, it was." Basil admitted. "B-but I'm fine now."

Aubrey's look turned into a glare.

"Really, I'm fine." Basil insisted. "And I'll be fine. Even when..." He tried to find a delicate way to phrase his thoughts, and when he couldn't find one he was satisfied with decided on "When this is all over."

The sudden panic on Aubrey's face told him that was absolutely the wrong way to phrase it. "Y-you're not planning on-"

"No!" Basil shook his head frantically. "No no no, that's not what I meant!" Not anymore, he didn't add. "I meant that I'll be fine after we stop being friends."

"Basil, why are you so convinced that we aren't going to be friends anymore?" Aubrey asked, anger creeping into her voice.

"Because it happened once before." Basil gestured to the pictures on the wall. "We were friends, and then we weren't. Because of me."

"But what about now?" Aubrey countered. "We all want to be with you! Me, Kel, Hero, Mari, none of us hate you!"

"I understand that," Basil said calmly. "But even if you don't hate someone, that doesn't mean you want to be around them."

"Basil-"

"I'm just being realistic." He continued over her. "I'm happy that all of you are with me, I really am. It means so much to me that you still try so hard. But it's not going to last forever. I just want to you know that if you ever change your mind, if you ever can't stand being near me anymore..." He looked away. "You don't have to keep trying. I'll understand."

Basil braced himself for Aubrey to get angry and snap at him. When the shouting didn't come, he dared to look up at her again.

Aubrey did look angry, but more than that, she looked hurt. Even as she scowled at him, he could see tears forming at the corners of her eyes.

Regret immediately bubbled up in Basil's chest. Reaching out, he tried to speak to her again, but before he could get so much as a syllable out she stormed past him and out of the room. With a groan, Basil leaned back against the wall, looking along the strings of polaroids.

This was just proof that they needed to let him go. He couldn't be trusted with anything as precious as his friends again, not when he could ruin things so easily. Leaving him behind would be the best solution for everyone.

No matter how much it hurt.

The sound of the ringing telephone caught Amelia by surprise. Bristling at the thought of dealing with a telemarketer before she even had a chance to have breakfast, she muted the morning news and then reached over to pick up the receiver.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Ames."

"Oh, June! Good morning!" Amelia's imminent bad mood immediately vanished at the sound of her friend's voice. "How is everything? I wasn't expecting to hear from you."

"Well, I have some bad news and some good news." June said. "The bad news is there was an emergency at work and they had to call me in to fix it, so Sunny and I aren't going to make it to Faraway until this evening at the earliest. The good news is I was able to browbeat my boss into giving me the next two days off as compensation, so we'll be able to stay for a little longer than we intended if you'd like."

Amelia's brow furrowed. "You're coming to visit? Today?"

"You didn't know? The way Henry talked about it I figured it was your idea." June sounded as confused as Amelia was. "...Oh no, this wasn't supposed to be a surprise, was it? I hope I didn't just spoil something."

"No, of course not!" Amelia lied, trying to save face. "Sorry, things have been so hectic around here with all the kids home for vacation that it must have slipped my mind. Senior moment, you know."

"Don't you dare start using that excuse until you're a grandmother." June chided.

"Well, I'm not holding my breath for that to happen." Amelia said with a sigh. "Although..."

"Although?"

"Apparently, Henry has a girlfriend now." Amelia was admittedly a little worried about mentioning this to June, since she was the mother of Henry's first girlfriend. Technically speaking, Henry and Mari never told their families that they were a couple, but they didn't really need to with how obvious they made it. As clever as those two were, they weren't as clever as they thought.

It really was a shame, what had happened to Mari. It tore the Suzukis apart; Daichi just gave up and ran away to who knows where, June closed herself off emotionally, throwing herself into late hours at her job, and Sunny closed himself off emotionally and physically, not leaving the house for years.

They were better now, thankfully. June and Sunny were better anyways, Amelia had no idea how Dai was doing and frankly she didn't care. But even though she missed having them as next-door neighbors, she did have to admit that the move to the city seemed to have done the two of them plenty of good. Even so, Amelia was still wary of mentioning Mari around June, so much so that she was even worried about indirectly alluding to her like this.

"No kidding! Since when?" Thankfully, June didn't seem to be bothered by the news. Or if she was, it didn't come through in her voice.

"That's a good question." Amelia mused. "All I know is they met at college. She's actually visiting right now, so you'll get a chance to meet her." She decided to leave out the details of how Lily's visit came to be, at least for now.

"Sounds like I have something else to look forward to. Speaking of, the sooner I get to work, the sooner I can leave. See you tonight! Tell Joel I said hi!"

"Bye, June."

Amelia stared at the phone in her hand as it played a dial tone, gathering her thoughts.

So. The Suzukis were coming to Faraway. And Henry had arranged the visit, didn't mention it to her, and then went off with Kel to spend the night at a friend's house.

Gently, she placed the phone's receiver back down onto its cradle.

Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and started to slowly count backward from ten.

She made it to six before she snatched the phone back up again.

"I'm with Mari on this one, Henry." Polly put her now-empty mug down on the table. "The road to med school is a long one, and if it's not where your heart is then it's going to be a miserable road, too."

"It sounds like you're speaking from experience." Mari said.

She and Hero had spent most of their morning so far cleaning up from the mess they made last night. Polly was initially against the idea of having her guests do any chores, but between lying to her and commandeering Basil's house yesterday, Mari felt like she owed her at least that much. Now that the dishes were done, the three of them were sitting at the kitchen table making small talk, and the subject had wandered over to Hero's plans, or lack thereof, for college.

"Sort of." Polly leaned back in her chair. "I was on a premed track too, and just like Henry, I started second-guessing myself. I took some time to figure out what I wanted out of a job in health care, and it turned out that what I wanted was to actually work with people. So I changed tracks and got my Associate's in Nursing, and here I am."

Hero sighed. "I'm not even sure if there is anything I'd want out of being a doctor."

"All the more reason to change majors, if you ask me." Mari nudged her elbow against his.

"What about you, Mari?" Polly asked. "Any college ideas?"

Mari paused to think. "Not at the moment. I still need to figure out how I'm going to finish High School, first."

"Oh." Polly's face fell. "Right, sorry. Somehow I forgot about the whole 'came back to life two days ago' thing."

"That's understandable. She does look pretty good for a dead girl." Hero chimed in, taking the opportunity to nudge Mari back.

"I'll take both of those statements as a compliment." Mari said with a smirk. "Anyway, I used to have some college plans. Let me think..." She tapped her chin. "I know I wanted to do something with music, but I hadn't decided on exactly what. Other than that, it's all a blur." That wasn't entirely true; there was one idea for a job Mari remembered, to be a music teacher of all things. She'd call that a disaster waiting to happen, except in this case the disaster already had. She decided against bringing that particular career up so as not to sour the mood.

Unfortunately, her own mood had already soured. Talking about college reminded her about the past, but it was making her think about the future, too. Specifically, it was making her think about how unprepared she was for it. When she was younger, Mari had nearly every part of her life set in stone. If she didn't plan it out herself, then it was planned out for her by her parents. Sometimes it felt like she had entire years planned in advance. Now, however, she didn't even have a plan past the end of today.

Admittedly, her lack of planning was because any further plans she could have made hinged on how things went with her mother and Sunny. She was hoping that everything would work out and she could live with them, but then what? All of the questions she remembered shrugging off her first day back were now looming over her, and she still didn't have an answer for them.

Would she go back to school? Get a job to help her mom support having two children again? Could she get a job? She didn't have a high school diploma. Technically speaking, she didn't even have a birth certificate. She wanted to believe that everything would work out no matter what, but it was hard to do that when there were so many unknowns.

"Mari?"

Mari looked to her side at Hero's concerned expression, then down at his hand on top of hers.

"I'm fine." She smiled, lacing her fingers between his. "Just thinking about what's coming up."

At least there was one constant she knew she could rely on.

The sound of the hallway door slamming open caught her by surprise. Looking over her shoulder, she saw Aubrey heading over to the couch and folding up the blanket she had been using the night before.

"Aubrey?" Polly called out as she stood up. "Is everything all right?"

"Yes, Miss Polly." Aubrey turned around to look at them. Even though she sounded calm, her eyes were red and puffy. "I just need to go home and change and feed Bun-Bun. Thank you for letting me stay over." After taking a second to place her blanket down on the couch, she headed for the front door.

Mari stood up as well. "Aubrey, are you sure-"

"Bye. I'll see you all at Kel and Hero's house." Aubrey closed the door behind her, leaving an awkward silence in her wake.

Mari glanced at Hero and Polly, frowning. "I should go after her."

"Not just yet." Hero said, pushing away from the table. "If something's bothering her, some alone time to cool down might not be a bad idea. And besides," He tugged at the collar of his nightshirt. "We're not exactly dressed for going outside."

"Oh, right." Mari wilted.

"I'll ask Basil if he knows anything." Polly offered. "Hopefully they didn't have a fight or anything like that."

"Do they fight often?" Mari asked.

"Not recently, no." Polly shook her head. "I can't think of the last time I heard them raise their voices at each other, never mind fight. Other than yesterday, I suppose."

Mari sighed. "I hope this isn't my fault. I feel responsible for yesterday, too."

"Mari, please don't say that." Hero insisted. "You aren't causing problems for anyone, I promise."

The conversation was interrupted again by the phone ringing on the nearby wall, which Polly quickly answered.

"Hello? ...Yes, he's right here." She held the receiver toward Hero. "It's your mother, Henry. She sounds a little agitated."

Hero looked at the phone like Polly was offering him a live tarantula. After a beat, he took it from her.

"Hi Mom, good morning!" He said warily. "How is everyth-"

Mari could barely make out the sharp voice of Mrs. Rodriguez on the other side of the line.

"Wh- Yes, I did invite Sunny and his mother over to visit. I just thought it would be nice to-"

Mrs. Rodriguez cut him off, loud enough to make the phone's speaker buzz.

"I'm sorry that I- No, I wasn't-" Hero tried to get a word in edgewise, but it was clearly a losing battle. "I'm sure they wouldn't- It's not a big- The house looks fine, Mom-"

He cringed and held the phone away from his ear as the buzzing exploded in both volume and anger, to the point where Mari could hear what Mrs. Rodriguez was saying. It had been forever since Mari last took a Spanish class so her grip on the language was rather shaky, and right now she was very thankful for that.

"Right. Yes. Yes, okay." Hero replied meekly as he held the receiver close again, withering away more with each reply. "I understand. Yes. Yes, I'll be right there. Right. Yes. I love you too. Bye, Mom." He ended the call, handing the phone back to Polly and collapsing into one of the chairs at the kitchen table.

Mari gave him an appraising look.

"That doesn't count." He muttered. "I caused that problem, not you."

"What doesn't count?"

Everyone at the kitchen table glanced over as a groggy Kel staggered towards them.

"G'morning." He yawned, rubbing his eyes. "Was that Mom? I could hear her from across the room."

"Yeah, it was." Hero said with a cough. "I might have forgotten to tell her about Sunny and Ms. Suzuki visiting today. With everything going on, I guess it just slipped my mind."

"She didn't make us cancel the visit, did she?"

"No, but she does want the house 'presentable' before they arrive, so I need to go help clean." Hero sat up again. "I'm going to go get dressed and head back home. You two can take your time, though."

"Nah, I'll go give you a hand." Kel said, now fully awake.

Hero frowned. "Are you sure? This is my fault, you don't need to help."

"Sure I'm sure." Kel nodded. "I want to make sure everything goes as smoothly as possible tonight, just as much as you do."

"Well, okay." Hero's frown turned into a grateful smile. "Thanks, Kel."

"Plus," Kel added. "It's not often that I get to see Mom angry at you when she's not angry at me, too."

Hero's smile twitched. "Thanks, Kel."

Kel smirked back. "What are brothers for?"

Mari had gotten used to dealing with awkward situations over the past few days. First there was trudging across Faraway in her burial dress three times over; once to get to her old house, and then two more times to get to Gino's and back so she could convince Hero she wasn't some trauma-induced delusion of his. Then there was keeping up her Lily facade, and the unexpected difficulties of talking to people when you know them but they don't know you, or at least think they don't know you.

Mari had taken all of these hurdles in stride because she believed they were necessary, but also because she believed they were temporary setbacks that would go away with time. As she reconnected with her old friends again, as she spent more time in Faraway, as she got used to being alive again, things would get easier. And for the most part, that was true.

As it turned out, however, being alone with Basil was proving to be a hundred times more awkward than everything else she had experienced put together. And she couldn't blame this one on him not knowing who she was.

It wasn't that she didn't want to be Basil's friend again. She wouldn't have spent the night at his house if that was true. But that previous evening had been spent with the rest of their friends, friends who had served as a sort of buffer between the two of them to keep things from getting too heavy. And right now, with everyone else out of the house, the only buffer between them was Polly, currently acting as both a metaphorical buffer as well as an actual one as she sat between Mari and Basil on the living room couch.

As uncomfortable as she was, she needed to be here. Even if Hero hadn't insisted she stay behind while he and Kel went back to their house, she would have done so on her own. She needed to speak with Basil about Aubrey, but more than that, she need to speak to him at all. She told him that she didn't hate him; now she needed to figure out how to prove it to him.

First things first, however, she needed to break the silence somehow. She wasn't sure how to approach things with Basil yet, so she decided to start with Polly instead.

"I know it's a little late for this," Mari said, turning to her. "But I still feel a little bad about ruining our introductions yesterday." She held her hand out. "Mari Suzuki."

Polly hesitated, then gave a small grin and clasped Mari's hand. "Polly Campbell."

Mari glanced past Polly to gauge Basil's reaction, only to find him doing his best to look everywhere else in the room except at her.

"...So, Polly." She continued. "When Hero explained things to you yesterday, did he explain what had happened five years ago?" Before she got into any serious discussions with Basil, she figured she would need to know how much Polly knew. That said, she was dreading having to fill her in on any potential missing details. She wanted to handle it as delicately as possible, but she had no idea how to explain something like-

"You mean, did Henry explain to me that your brother accidentally killed you by pushing you down the stairs, which lead to Basil panicking and framing your death as a suicide by hanging?" Polly asked matter-of-factly.

Mari's posture sagged, partially from relief and partially from being floored by Polly's straightforwardness. So much for the kid gloves.

"Yes, that."

"No, actually. He didn't have to." Polly said. "Basil already told me everything months ago."

"Basil did?" Mari looked past Polly again, eyebrows raised in surprise; this time, Basil was staring back.

"It was a little while after they released him from the hospital." Polly looked between Basil and Mari as she spoke. "He had to stay a little while longer to be kept under observation, and while that was happening I was arranging things with his parents to continue on as his caretaker. One night we were having dinner and I told him the news, and then he just blurted everything out on the spot."

"You needed to know." Basil said the first words he had uttered since Mari sat down. "If you were going to be stuck with me, I wanted to make sure you knew what I did."

"Basil." Polly's casual tone hardened. "I'm not stuck with you. I chose to be here. You weren't tricking me into feeling sorry for you or anything like that, so don't make it sound like I'm trapped here."

"But you were feeling sorry for me." Basil insisted, looking down at the floor.

"I was," Polly admitted. "And I do. But there's more to me staying here than pity."

"If you don't mind me asking." Mari cut in. "When you heard about what happened, how did you take it?" As far as she knew, Polly was one of the few people not directly affected by the incident to know the truth, maybe even the only one.

"It was... a lot." Polly admitted. "If you asked me the day before yesterday, I would have said it was the most shocking thing anyone had ever told me. Once the truth had settled in, however, it made a lot of things from the last few years make sense." She sat up straight again, looking at Mari. "If you're asking me if I forgive Basil for what he did, that's not something for me to give. After all, this all happened before I had ever even come to Faraway. But if you're asking me if it changed my decision to stay on as his caretaker, it didn't. If anything, it made me want to stay on even more."

Mari nodded along as Polly spoke. It had already been surreal enough hearing people talk about her death, but Polly's layer of detachment brought it to another level entirely.

"If there was someone I had to forgive, it was Aubrey." Polly frowned. "I had always guessed that someone was giving Basil a hard time, but I never did anything about it at the time because I wasn't sure if it was my place to step in. But after he told the truth, and I learned who it was, and why..." Her frown deepened into a grimace. "It was difficult for me to let her come anywhere near Basil again."

"You seemed fine with her yesterday and today." Mari said.

"That's because I am fine with her, now." Polly turned to her other side. "She has Basil to thank for that. He was the one that insisted that she deserved another chance."

"It wasn't her fault." Basil murmured, still staring at the carpet.

"We'll just have to agree to disagree on that one." There was a certain tone in Polly's voice that suggested to Mari that this had been a sticking point for the both of them. "With all of that said," She continued, the harsh expression on her face fading, "I am very glad that he convinced me. It was a little stressful at first to have her visit, but she's proven to me that she's doing her best to change. I'm proud of Basil for giving her that chance." She put an arm around Basil. "Things like that are why I'm 'stuck' here. Because you're doing your best too, and I want to make sure you get the same sort of chance you gave her."

Basil managed a small smile, flushing slightly. "Thank you, Pol-"

"With all of that said," Polly interrupted him. "Are you ready to tell us about this morning?"

Basil's smile vanished. "Th-this morning?"

"Aubrey all but ran out of here right after you two left the main room," Mari said, tagging in. "It looked like she had been crying. What happened up there?"

"Nothing." Basil had regressed back to averting his gaze. "Nothing happened."

"Did you say anything to her?" Mari urged. She could tell she was on the mark when Basil closed his eyes and sighed.

"I told her that..." Basil started reluctantly. "That she didn't have to be my friend if she didn't want to."

"And you didn't think about how she might have taken that?" Mari said with a frown. "Basil, you're making it sound like you're trying to get rid of her."

"No!" Basil shook his head. "I didn't mean it like that. I just-"

"You just what?" Mari asked, not noticing the sharp tone creeping into her voice until it was too late. As soon as Basil seized up, however, she realized her mistake.

The small amount of irritation Mari was feeling was immediately smothered by a wave of shame. Even though she hadn't really 'grown up' in the traditional sense, she had thought herself to be more mature than she used to be. And yet all it took was one setback from her friends to send her right back to how she was when she was fifteen, when she would talk down to Sunny when he made a mistake during their practices. Basil's fearful reaction might have seemed extreme to an outsider, but Mari couldn't blame him for it. It just meant that they were both thinking the same thing.

Mari had done her best to explain to her friends how unreasonable she had been to Sunny, and while she was sure they believed her it was hard to tell if they believed how bad things had truly gotten. Basil, on the other hand, didn't need any convincing; after all, he had seen everything fall apart firsthand, and that included seeing her at her absolute lowest, all but throwing a temper tantrum over a broken violin.

She wasn't going to shout at Basil. Or at least, she wasn't planning to. But the threat of it had been enough to suck the air out of the room.

"Okay." Polly held up her hands like she was a referee for a boxing match. "Let's all just take a step back. We're here to talk, not to argue."

Mari nodded, feeling embarrassed that she had to be chastised, however lightly, for losing her composure. She had considered herself the group's mediator back in the day, but seeing how Polly handled things compared to her was making her realize that might not have been as true as she thought.

"Basil, we just want to help you, so please tell us how you really feel," Polly said. "And Mari and I won't raise our voices or interrupt you."

"That's right. I'm sorry, Basil." Mari said quietly. "I don't want you to be afraid of me."

Basil's expression softened slightly. "I-I'm not."

Mari wasn't sure if she believed him, but she at least had an idea for another, less forceful angle she could take. "How about Aubrey? Are you afraid of her?"

"No." Basil said, and then after a beat, added "Well, I used to be, but that's not why I told her that this morning. I just want what's best for everyone." His expression darkened. "Even if that means living without me."

"And what about what's best for you?" Mari pressed on.

Basil wrapped his arms around himself. "I don't... deserve that sort of consideration."

"Basil." Polly tightened her grip on his shoulder ever so slightly as she came dangerously close to breaking the rule she had set for herself less than thirty seconds ago.

"R-right, sorry." Basil stammered.

Polly must have sensed Mari's confusion because she turned back toward her and cleared her throat. "I make him put a quarter in a jar every time he puts himself down."

"Ooh, I like that." Mari brightened up.

Basil let out a small groan.

"So if you want what's best for everyone," Mari said, trying to take advantage of the levity to regain some momentum, "What if we've all decided that being your friend is what's best for us?"

"I still don't think that's right." Basil shook his head.

"And so that's why you're pushing everyone away?" Mari asked.

"I'm not trying to push everyone away."

"Aren't you?" Mari leaned forward to look at him. "You're convinced that everyone is going to leave you, so you're trying to make them leave on your own terms instead of at some unknown time in the future. You're sabotaging yourself."

Basil sat up roughly, seemingly preparing himself for some sort of outburst. Then, after staring at Mari for a few seconds, he slumped back in resignation.

"Listen, Basil." Mari kept her tone level so as not to repeat what happened earlier. "I'm not going to pretend that everything is definitely going to work out. I've already gotten in trouble for trying to promise that."

Basil sat up again, regarding her curiously.

"I'll explain later," Mari said dismissively before continuing. "The point I'm trying to make is, you told Aubrey that she didn't need to try so hard, but you aren't trying at all. Polly said she wished you'd give yourself a chance, and I agree with her. So I need to ask, and I need you to be truthful." Mari took a breath. "Do you want us all to be together? I'm not asking if you think you deserve it, or to tell me what you think would be best for everyone. I want you to be as selfish as possible."

"Th-the last time I let myself be that selfish," Basil stammered. "Was when I tried to keep Sunny from getting in trouble by hanging you."

"Well, I don't see any jump ropes around here." Mari deadpanned. "So I don't think we have anything to worry about."

Basil, to her surprise, let out a small snort of a laugh, mouth twitching upwards into a smile for a split second.

"I do." He admitted with a resigned sigh. "Of course I do. Why wouldn't I want to be with everyone? You all mean so much to me."

"Then we'll make it work." Mari nodded. "I'm not going to let any of us be defined by our worst moments, and that includes you."

"Y-you asked if I was afraid of you earlier," Basil said warily. "Are you... afraid of me? Afraid I'll hurt you again?"

Mari gave herself the slightest amount of time to think about her answer. Just to make sure she meant it.

"No, I'm not. I think you're in better shape there than I am, actually. I can't promise that I'll never get angry, but... I know you'll never hurt me like that again. I trust you, Basil."

Basil nodded to himself, and Mari could see the start of tears forming in his eyes. Standing up, she stepped in front of him and pulled him into a hug, which he quickly reciprocated. It was considerably less emotional than the hug that ended yesterday's confrontation, but somehow she felt a little better about this one.

"Okay then," Polly said after the two of them broke apart. "I'm glad to hear that you worked out your feelings, Basil. And I'm sure Aubrey will be even happier. What do you say we go pick her up, and then I'll drive all of us over to Henry and Kel's house?"

"I'll go get ready." Basil wiped his eyes one more time, already looking much better than he had a few minutes ago. With a quick nod to the both of them, he vanished through the hallway door, leaving Mari and Polly alone.

Mari coughed. "Thanks for stepping in earlier. I'm sorry you had to do that."

"Oh, it was no big deal." Polly waved her off. "Honestly, I've handled worse."

"From your job as a nurse, you mean?"

"No, from growing up with one older brother and two younger ones." Polly sighed. "Circumstances aside, this was perfectly civil compared to what I'm used to. At least with you two there wasn't any biting involved."

Mari couldn't help but quirk an eyebrow. "Your brothers bit each other that much?"

Polly flashed a toothy smile. "I never said it was them."

While most of Mari's clearer memories from her time as a spirit involved Sunny, that wasn't true for all of them. Not directly, at least; being bound to Sunny meant he was part of everything she experienced in some capacity, but sometimes the sights and sounds she experienced alongside her little brother were profound enough to stick with her, even now. The most significant of these memories were easily seeing each of her old friends again for the first time in years, alongside the bittersweet confirmation of how much they had changed, how much they had grown without her.

Then there was when Sunny and the others went into Aubrey's house for the first time. The change in its exterior had also come as a shock to her, and unlike seeing her friends again there was nothing sweet about it.

She had been to Aubrey's house a few times in the past. Or rather, she had been to Aubrey's front door a few times in the past, usually to walk her home after a visit. Her image of the house back then was benign enough; sure, it was a smaller house than hers, but so was Basil's, and his home always felt warm and cozy, so she assumed Aubrey's was similar.

It wasn't until she overheard her parents and their gossip that she started to understand why Aubrey never let anyone else inside when they stopped by. She also started to understand why her parents weren't friends with Mr. and Mrs. Williams like they were with Mr. and Mrs. Rodriguez. Even then, however, it was only the barest glimmer of an understanding, since she lacked the frame of reference to really comprehend 'family troubles'. After all, her family was just fine!

It took the combined stares of Polly and Basil for Mari to realize she had let out an involuntary chuckle, which probably seemed very inappropriate considering that they were standing on Aubrey's front lawn.

"Sorry." She said hastily. "Just remembered something funny, that's all."

Looking at Aubrey's house now roused the same emotions in Mari as they did a year ago; shock at how much things had deteriorated, anger at Aubrey's family, and most of all, guilt. Her guilt wasn't from the idea that her death had any sort of impact on Aubrey's parents getting divorced - even she wasn't that conceited - but from the idea that her death had left no one around to help Aubrey pick herself back up in its aftermath.

She knew it was, on some level, still an unreasonable thing to feel guilty about. Everyone had made their own choices in how they grieved her death, and unfortunately, everyone decided to split up. But she was still the impetus for what happened. The butterfly never sees the hurricane caused by the flap of its wings, but in this case it was impossible to ignore its aftermath.

Mari cut her musings short. She can feel as guilty as she wants later. Right now, she considered herself lucky that she had a chance to fix things. She had no idea where to even begin with helping Aubrey with her living situation, but she could at least help smooth things over between her and Basil.

Walking past Basil and Polly, Mari went up to the front door and gave a few short knocks. A short while later, she heard movement, not from behind the door, but from above it. Taking a few steps back, she looked into what she assumed was the attic window to see Aubrey looking back. She seemed better than she did this morning, but it was hard to tell from the look of surprise that was on her face at the moment.

Aubrey pushed the window open. "What are you all doing here?"

"We were worried, so we came to check up on you." Mari called.

Aubrey's expression clouded as she looked between Mari and the others. "Don't worry about me, I'll see you all later."

"Aubrey-"

"Seriously, I-I'm okay!" Aubrey insisted again, even as her voice wavered. Things were going about how Mari had expected them to, so she went for a compromise.

"How about I come up and we can talk about it? Just the two of us, I promise."

Aubrey didn't answer for a moment. Then, she gave a small sigh. "...Okay. The door's open."

Mari turned back to Polly and Basil. "I'll be right back, hopefully."

"We'll wait right here." Polly replied.

Mari waited to see if Basil would chime in as well; instead, he seemed to be fixated on Aubrey's house. She supposed she couldn't blame him.

Stepping into the house, Mari was pleasantly surprised to find that it didn't look as bad as the version from her memories. Some things hadn't changed, such as the cracked and peeling walls and the boarded-up windows. Other than that, however, it was a noticeable improvement; the trash bag towers were gone, and the floor was significantly cleaner, save for some newly-started piles of bottles around the couch.

And the most probable culprit for those piles was currently sprawled on that very same couch, snoring lightly.

Mari managed to resist the urge to grab Aubrey's mother by her shoulders and shake her until her fillings fell out. One problem at a time.

Besides, it didn't feel right to start drama with someone else's mother until she had a chance to deal with her own.

Taking care not to disturb the sleeping woman, Mari made her way through the main room and headed into the hallway, relieved to see the ladder to the attic already lowered for her.

Aubrey peeked down from the hatch. "Will you be okay coming up?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" Mari put her hands on the bottom rungs.

"Your knee."

"My knee is fine." Mari said firmly. Honestly, you fall down one flight of stairs and suddenly everyone treats you like you're made of porcelain. "Besides, this is nothing. I climbed the ladder to the treehouse all the time, even after my injury." Out of spite, she clambered her way up the ladder as quickly as she could, reaching the top in record time.

"See?" Mari began to stand up. "Nothing to worry ab-"

Naturally, her knee chose that moment to fold like an accordion, resulting in an undignified belly-flop onto Aubrey's thankfully clean floor.

Aubrey leaned over her. "You good?"

"Nothing hurt but my pride." Mari mumbled against the ground. "Not a word about this to Hero, by the way."

A loud thump caught Mari's attention. Concerned that she had accidentally knocked something over from her fall, she looked to her side to find a white rabbit giving her what she could only interpret as a suspicious glare through the gaps of its pen. After a few quiet seconds, it leaned forward and thumped with its hind legs again, creating a very big noise for such a small movement.

"Bun-Bun, no." Aubrey scolded the rabbit lightly as she reached down into the pen to rub its nose. "Mari is a friend." She gave Mari an apologetic look. "Sorry, he's almost over the hill, so he's starting to get a little cranky."

Mari hoisted herself onto the bed and dusted herself off. "So, about this morning..."

"It wasn't a big deal." Aubrey sat down beside her. "You really didn't need to check up on me. Basil needs the help more than I did."

"Aubrey," Mari frowned. "I already spoke to Basil about what happened."

"And what did he say?"

"A lot, surprisingly. But I want to know what you think first."

Aubrey looked away sullenly. "What's there to talk about? It's my fault."

Once again, this was more or less what Mari expected. Indeed, this was all starting to sound painfully familiar to her. Thankfully, she had a better handle on how to deal with Aubrey compared to Basil. She just needed a certain something, and scanning the room she quickly found what she was looking for.

"Tell you what, you go ahead and get your thoughts together. And while you're doing that," Mari reached across the desk beside Aubrey's television and picked up a hairbrush. "I'll comb out your hair."

Aubrey turned back towards Mari so quickly that she didn't have enough time to hide her eager expression behind one of casual indifference. "S-sure, okay. If you really want to."

Mari smirked as she positioned herself behind Aubrey and got to work. Pink really did look good on her; she hoped purple would look half as good on her hair whenever she got around to dyeing it. Maybe a really dark purple...

After a minute or so Aubrey let out a contented sigh, evidently giving up on any sort of pretense. "You have no idea how much I missed this."

"You don't have anyone else to brush your hair?" Mari asked.

"Not really. Kim helps me when I need to re-dye it, but that's just because dyeing is a two-person job. And anyway, the only person who was ever as good at brushing as you were was..." Aubrey trailed off.

"Basil?" Mari finished for her.

Aubrey let out a small affirmative hum as Mari continued brushing.

"...When it finally sank in that you were alive again," Aubrey started again after a minute. "Part of me really hoped that everything would be just like how it used to be, and we could all be together again. But I don't think it's possible for me." Her shoulders stooped. "And it's not going to be like that for Basil either. I ruined that for him."

Mari remained quiet as she let Aubrey work her thoughts out.

"I mean, I get it." Her voice cracked. "Why would he want anything to do with me after how shitty I was to him? Over some pictures that he didn't even ruin?" She shook her head. "I just wish the others didn't get roped into it too."

"He does want something to do with you, though." Mari said. "And the others. Basil was just trying to convince himself that it'd be better for everyone if he kept his distance."

"Yeah? And I'm the reason he's thinking like that." Aubrey countered. "If I hadn't made his life miserable for so long he wouldn't be the way he is now."

Mari wasn't entirely sure about that one. Even without the bullying, the guilt over what Basil had done would have most likely eaten away at him, just like it had with Sunny. Even so, she had to admit that Aubrey's bullying probably didn't help.

"I remember telling the others that the old me was gone for good," Aubrey said. "I guess I was right. We can't just go back to how we used to be."

A few moments passed by as Mari finished combing Aubrey's hair. When she was done, she placed the brush down and took a breath.

"You're right. We can't go back to how we used to be. Not just you and Basil, but any of us. And that's a good thing. You shouldn't settle for that."

"Settle?" Aubrey twisted around sharply. "What do you mean, settle?"

"Exactly what it sounds like. You're a much better person than you used to be, Aubrey. Why would you want to go back to that?"

"You don't need to sugarcoat things for me anymore." Aubrey scoffed. "How is any part of me better than how I used to be?"

"For starters, you're taking much better care of your hair." Mari mused, lifting a handful of pink locks. "I didn't run into a single snarl."

"I'm serious, Mari." Aubrey glared at her over her shoulder. "All those horrible things I did-"

"So you admit they were horrible?" Mari cut her off.

"Of course I do!"

"And you're sorry about it?"

"Of course I am!"

"And you're making up for what you did?"

"I mean, I'm trying, but-"

"That sounds like a better person to me." Mari folded her arms. "Better than the person who did all of those things in the first place, certainly."

"I, that's..." Aubrey stammered. "...Fine. But I still don't think it's possible for us to be as close as we used to be."

"Are you sure?" Mari asked. "Kel telling me about how often you come over for dinner, Sunny visiting Farway..."

"That's all just little things."

"So were all the things we used to do." Mari continued. "Listen, if I had come back and you all hated each other and were avoiding each other like the plague, sure, I'd agree with you. But from my point of view, you're all doing just fine."

Aubrey gave Mari a flat look. "Even though you had to come here to talk to me about Basil?"

"Well, no one's perfect." Mari shrugged. "But even with Basil, I bet you all would have worked things out on your own. I'm just... nudging things along." She grinned. "That's what a big sister is supposed to do, after all."

Aubrey's expression softened as she gave a relenting nod.

"Honestly, seeing how much all of you have matured is making me feel a little self-conscious." Mari sighed, thinking back to how things went with Basil. "It feels like everyone's grown except me."

"You're different than you used to be too, Mari." Aubrey said. "In a good way, of course. You're more... open, I guess."

Mari blinked. "Open?"

"Well, when I think back to how you were before, you always seemed kind of guarded. Like even when we were relaxing, you were trying to present yourself a certain way. You don't seem to be like that anymore."

Mari tried to think back to how things were back then. Did she really put up appearances that much, even around her friends? It was hard to recall, but she had to admit it seemed likely. She spent so much time needing to be the model student, model daughter, model everything, that it probably just became as natural as breathing for her. If she managed to break out of that habit, she'd have to consider it a good thing. If only her wake-up call hadn't been quite so severe.

"Plus," Aubrey's tone turned more amused. "I don't think the old Mari would have let anyone see her faceplant in front of them. Twice."

"Once again, not a word of that to Hero."

The smirk on Aubrey's face gave Mari's a run for its money.

"Well, it looks like you're feeling better now, at least." Mari put her hands on her hips in mock offense.

"I guess." Aubrey admitted. "I don't know, it still feels like we've lost so much."

"You haven't lost as much as you think," Mari said. "Otherwise you wouldn't care about it. And what's left is definitely stronger than it was before. Using it as a foundation, I bet you-" She stopped herself. "I bet we can build something even better than before."

Aubrey's head bobbed up and down in a nod.

"Are you ready to go see Basil and Polly?" Mari asked after a moment.

"J-just give me a minute." Aubrey said, sniffling.

"Of course." Mari leaned forward and wrapped Aubrey in a hug.

Eventually, Aubrey picked herself up off the bed. "Ugh, I gotta go blow my nose now. Be right back." Lifting up the hatch, Aubrey went downstairs, leaving Mari in the attic.

"How about you?" Mari looked over at Bun-Bun. "Any deep personal issues you want to talk about?"

Thump.

"Fine, forget I asked."

Whatever, cats are better anyway.

Mari followed Aubrey out her front door onto the lawn. Basil and Polly, apparently mid-conversation, looked up at their arrival.

"H-hey Basil, Miss Polly." Aubrey gave a sheepish wave. "Sorry for running out like that earlier."

"I'm sorry, too." Basil said. "And, I..." He looked over at Polly. "You're sure it's okay?"

"That's up to you, Basil." Polly put a hand on his shoulder.

"Alright." Basil took a deep breath. "Aubrey... w-would you like a key to my house?"

Aubrey looked about as shocked as Mari was. "What?"

"I-I'm not asking you to move in or anything." Basil waved his hands in front of his face. "But if you ever need to, like if it's too cold, or wet, or if you're lonely, or... or anything. You don't even need a reason!"

Aubrey blinked rapidly as she looked between everyone else before finally settling on glowering at Mari. Despite her expression, Mari could tell there was no heat behind it.

"Don't look at me," Mari said. "I didn't put him up to that."

"Uh-huh." Aubrey didn't seem convinced.

"It's the truth, Aubrey." Polly offered. "Basil first mentioned the idea to me while you two were talking. I'm fine with it myself, but it's up to you."

"I mean, yeah, I'd be grateful." Aubrey stared at the ground. "But it's your house, Basil. If you're just doing this because you think you have to-"

"I'm not!"

Just like yesterday, Basil had cut off Aubrey with a sudden outburst. This time, however, his outburst wasn't accompanied by a cold glare.

"I-I mean-" Basil continued in a more normal tone. "I'm sorry that I kept pushing you all away, but I'm not just doing this because I want to make that up to you. I'm doing it because I want it, too. I mean," His momentum started to peter out, but he powered through. "It'll be nice to know you always have somewhere safe to be."

Aubrey stared at him as he finished, then went back to staring at the ground, her hair covering her face.

"J-jeez, you guys..." She said in a shaky voice. "Trying to make me cry so much in a single day..."

"Hey, you wanted things to be like how they used to, right?" Mari teased. "You always were a bit of a crybaby."

"And you always dressed like a mom." Aubrey shot back, a mischievous glint visible in her eyes through the curtain of pink. "So I guess I'm not the only one that hasn't changed."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Mari pouted. "I happen to think these clothes look good on me." She looked at the others. "Don't they?"

"They do," Polly said emphatically. "...But I have to admit you dress like someone heading to her book club after dropping the kids off at soccer practice."

Mari recoiled like she had been slapped. "Wh-"

Basil nodded slowly. "Yeah, I can see that."

"Wh-"

"Anyway." Aubrey flipped her hair back and rubbed her eyes with her sleeve, clearly refreshed from her revenge on Mari. "Basil?"

Basil straightened up. "Yeah?"

"I'll take that key." She smiled. "You're right, it sounds great. Kind of like how I used to come over after school sometimes."

Basil seemed to collapse slightly in relief.

"One question, though." Aubrey said, walking past Mari. "Can I bring Bun-Bun over, too?"

"Sure, of course." Basil nodded, walking alongside her. "As long as he doesn't eat my plants."

"I hadn't thought of that." Aubrey rubbed her chin. "Some of your plants might be poisonous, too. We'll have to set someplace aside for him."

"Do you know what sort of plants are poisonous to rabbits?"

"Well, they don't like onions. Other than that, anything else with a bulb. Tulips, daffodils..."

Mari stared after Aubrey and Basil as they walked down the street. If nothing else, it was good to see them getting along.

Polly approached her. "For what it's worth, I don't think there's anything wrong with your outfit."

"Oh, no, I'm not upset about that," Mari said dismissively, mostly telling the truth. "I was actually thinking about something else. You said it was hard for you to forgive Aubrey at first. What about Sunny?"

"Mari, I told you, that's not something for me to give."

"No, I mean..." Mari shook her head. "About what came after that. Between him and Basil." It was a question that stemmed partially from curiosity, but mostly from concern for how people saw her brother. The coverup, the photos, the isolation, the fight... If the situation between Basil and Aubrey had been tangled, things between Basil and Sunny were a Gordian knot.

"Mari," Polly said plainly. "Sunny saved Basil's life. I will always be thankful for your brother, no matter what."

And just like before, somehow Polly managed to cut through it effortlessly.

"I..." Mari started, then shook her head again with a smile. "Thank you. Me too."

Polly gave a small nod. "C'mon, they're leaving without us."

Mari followed behind Polly, thinking to herself about each of her friends. She was proud of them for how far they had come since her death, but she was even prouder of Sunny. She might have nudged things along with everyone since coming back, but Sunny was the one that gave them the initial shove. If anything, she was just coasting off of his inertia.

On her first day back, after the initial adrenaline wore off and she got over her disappointment of not being able to see Sunny right away, she actually felt a bit of relief that she didn't have to see him so soon. She had been unsure of what to say, afraid of what he'll think of her. Now, however, all of the anxiousness she felt over seeing him again was gone. Well, she still felt anxious, but it wasn't from nervousness anymore. It was from anticipation.

She was ready to see her brother now.

Chapter Text

Sunny leaned his head against the passenger side window, watching as the buildings in the distance became sparser and smaller. His mom had turned down their exit a few minutes ago, so he knew they were getting close to their destination.

Right on cue, a familiar sign zipped past the window:

WELCOME TO FARAWAY TOWN

A gateway to a better life.

Passing that sign in either direction always conjured up mixed feelings in Sunny. Even though it had been a year since he had moved away, he still considered Faraway his home, at least partially. It probably would for as long as his friends lived there, and maybe even once they were all gone. Although, that would never really happen; there would always be at least one person waiting for him in Faraway.

Mentally chastising himself, Sunny tried to push away his more maudlin thoughts. He had been invited here by his friends, and he wanted to put his best foot forward when they saw him again for the first time in months. Mostly because he wanted everyone to have a good time, but also because he didn't want his friends to worry about him. Part of him still felt like these visits to Faraway weren't just to see him, but to check up on him. Either out of honest care or obligation, his friends were keeping tabs on him to make sure he didn't slip away like he did before, or perhaps even worse than before. His friends had refuted this claim, of course, some of them more aggressively than others, but he still felt like a burden sometimes.

Thankfully, Sunny wasn't slipping. He wasn't what he would consider 'fine' just yet, the physical and mental wounds caused by his four years spent as a hermit weren't going to be entirely healed in one, but at least he was on his way. He was still short and wiry, and probably always would be, but he had more color to his skin, and could now climb the stairs leading up to his apartment without collapsing into a panting, sweaty heap. He was still quiet, but he was more comfortable speaking his mind than he was before, especially if it involved speaking his mind about something he didn't want to do. He still didn't have any real friends outside of the original group, but he was at least on a first-name basis with everyone else on the floor of his apartment and helped them with errands and tasks. He had found that he liked keeping himself busy, and making himself useful to others.

And he still dreamt, but...

Well, that hadn't changed much, or at least not as much as he wanted. He still had dreams of his imaginary worlds, both the good and the bad, and there probably wasn't anything he could do about that. But there were three significant changes to his dreams. First, he didn't just dream about Headspace anymore. He also had what he assumed were perfectly normal dreams; mishmashes of what he had encountered or thought of that day, dreams of flying and falling, dreams that were just shapes and colors. Second, even when he did dream of Headspace, it was just a normal dream. He wasn't in control of things like he used to be, acting through a monochrome proxy.

Third, and most bittersweet, he was seeing Mari in his dreams less and less.

He knew that was just time taking its toll, but it still hurt that it was getting harder and harder to remember what she was actually like. Basil's album helped remember her at her best, but putting Mari on a pedestal like that was what Sunny had been doing in his dreams, and it felt like he was doing his sister a disservice. He still had snippets of how she truly was, not as some faultless saint or cruel taskmaster, but as an actual human being, and he wished he could immortalize them somehow like Basil had done with his album. Maybe he would just have to write them down as best he could.

It still felt... wrong going on without her. That was something else that there wasn't anything he could do about. But she would have wanted him to do his best, and so he would.

"Oh, I just remembered." Sunny's mom spoke up. "Henry is seeing someone new. We're going to meet her when we visit, so if there's anyone you don't recognize, it's probably her."

Hero was seeing someone? Sunny... wasn't sure how to feel about that. Even though everyone from his old friend group eventually started reaching out to him again, Hero took the longest amount of time to do so, and he did it the least frequently. Of course, even if things were understandably delicate between the two of them, that didn't mean Sunny couldn't be happy for him. Still, it just made him feel more self-conscious. If Hero was able to pull himself up and move on, what did that say about Sunny?

Sunny mentally took that thought and shoved it away for later with the others. They were getting too close to Kel's house, and he didn't want to start sulking before everyone got a chance to see him again, including this new person.

He took a deep breath and calmed himself down just in time to see more familiar streets come into view.

It wouldn't be long now.

"I finished dusting everything in the living room!" Mari held up the rag.

"Thank you again, Lily." Mrs. Rodriguez took the cleaning implements from her with a smile. "Really, you didn't need to do this."

"Like I said, I was the one that insisted on the sleepover." Mari said. "I didn't mean for Hero to get in trouble, so I think it's only right for me to take some of the blame."

"That reminds me," Mrs. Rodriguez opened the door to the kitchen. "How is everything, Henry?"

"All set!" Hero called. "Dinner is staying warm in the oven, it should still be hot when Sunny and Ms. Suzuki get here."

"Okay, you're free to go then." Mrs. Rodriguez closed the door. "Although," She turned back to the group of people idly milling about the main room. "I'm not sure if we'll have enough to go around."

Polly stepped forward, clearing her throat. "I don't think most of us are staying for dinner, Amelia. We're just here to..." She looked around for a moment. "Say hello to Sunny and his mother. Then we'll get out of your hair."

"Fair enough. Well, I'm going to get ready, they should be here soon."

Mari watched Mrs. Rodriguez head through the door to the hallway. A few seconds later, Hero stepped out of the kitchen.

"How are you doing?"

"Nervous." Mari admitted. "But it's the good kind of nervous! I think."

"Do you need anything?" Polly asked.

"No, there's really nothing else we can do." Mari shook her head. "I just need to... talk to him."

"You'll be fine, Mari." Aubrey said, leaning over the side of the couch.

"Yeah!" Kel leaned over the other side. "I mean, you two are siblings, so I don't know if you're going to have to convince him like you did the rest of us. He'll probably recognize you right away!"

"You think so?" Mari rubbed her chin.

"Sure!" Kel nodded enthusiastically. "Right, Basil?"

"Huh?" Basil looked over from his spot near the window. "Y-yes, I'm sure he'll recognize Mari no problem. It's just..."

"Just what?"

"...No, nothing." Basil turned away.

Mari frowned. Even if he didn't say it, she knew what he was getting at; that recognizing her was only part of the battle. The other part was convincing him that she was real. Hopefully having everyone here would help with that. If not...

Well, it was too late to worry about that. She took a deep breath and calmed herself down, and joined Basil by the window.

It wouldn't be long now.

It was early evening by the time Sunny's mother pulled the car into the driveway. Closing the passenger-side door behind him, Sunny rounded the front of the car and was briefly surprised to see Hero standing by their front door, waving.

"Hi Sunny, Ms. Suzuki. I'm glad you both could make it."

"It's good to see you, Henry." Sunny's mother said with a polite smile. "How's college been?"

"Oh, it's been fine. Are there any bags you need help with?"

As Hero and his mother made small talk, Sunny examined his old friend. He seemed okay on the surface, but he had a tense sort of energy to him at the moment. Sunny was used to having awkward conversations with Hero at this point, but this seemed different. Like he was hiding something.

Possibly sensing Sunny's gaze, Hero looked over at him. "How about you, Sunny? How's life in Closeby?"

"Same as before." Sunny shrugged. "How's everyone doing?"

Hero paused. "Well, we've been..." He trailed off. "We've all had..." He fizzled out again. Eventually, he just shook his head, smile fading. "Sunny, I'll be honest. I have no idea how I can describe what happened a few days ago."

Sunny frowned, hefting his suitcase. "Is everyone okay?"

"Yes." Hero nodded. "Better than okay, really. That's actually why we invited you over. We have a... surprise? I guess? It's nothing bad, I promise, but..." He suddenly looked very serious. "You need to try to stay calm when you see them."

Sunny blinked. Them?

"Henry?" Sunny's mother sounded cautious. "What's going on here? What surprise?"

"Let's just get inside." Hero opened the front door, ushering Sunny in.

Sunny stepped into the Rodriguez living room and was treated to his second surprise in so many minutes when he saw all of his friends huddled around the couch, watching him expectantly like they were afraid he was going to explode. He at least expected Kel to come over and give him a big bear hug, but instead he stayed by Aubrey and Basil and gave a weak wave.

Sunny waved back, starting to get a little concerned.

The three of them looked like they were all trying to come up with something to say. Just like Hero, they weren't upset or angry, just skittish. Finally, they all just looked at each other, then stepped aside.

And there was someone behind them.

It was a girl, about Hero's age from the looks of things, with long black hair and dark eyes. Sunny assumed that she was Hero's new girlfriend, but found it strange how much she was watching him; he had his prosthetic put in recently, so he no longer had an eyepatch for people to stare at. But stare at him she did, with a cautious smile just like everyone else. Unlike everyone else, however, it looked like she was holding back tears.

She was familiar. Sunny knew he should recognize her, but the synapses in his brain weren't firing. It almost felt like before, when his brain was trying to censor the world around him, and it was doing just poor enough a job of it that Sunny could tell it was happening.

Then she spoke.

"Sunny..."

And everything flooded in all at once.

The color and light in the room drained away, hiding his friends in the shadows and leaving him alone with the thing that loomed before him. Long matted strands of tar-black hair, moving like there was a faint breeze, all surrounding a single vertical slit of an eye.

Something that was at the bottom of the stairs.

Something that was in his sister's bed.

Something that was hanging from a tree.

Something that was suspended before him right now.

"Sunny?"

Sunny began to hyperventilate.

"P-Please, relax. This isn't... I'm really here, Sunny."

He could barely make out the words of its choking rasp. It was lying. It wasn't really here, this wasn't really happening.

Taking in lungfuls of air, Sunny inched back towards the front door. There were murmurs from the darkness as Something crept closer. Sunny turned to run-

"Oof!"

-And collided with his mother halfway through the door.

"Sunny!" His mother looked down at him, exasperated. "My goodness, what's gotten into you? You're shaking like a leaf!"

Sunny looked back at his mother, hoping to use her as an anchor back to reality.

Instead, he watched her face turn from shock to horror to something like rage as she stared behind him.

She could see it too.

Sunny shoved past her, running out the door.

"Sunny, wait! Please come back!"

Sunny nearly tripped over himself as he ran down the sidewalk, ignoring the din of noise coming from the still-open door. He wasn't registering anything other than the fact that he needed to be anywhere but here right now.

Unable to think, he let his body move on autopilot, taking him away from danger.

"Sunny!" Mari yelled one more time, running for the open front door. She could sense movement behind her from the others but couldn't bother to check; she needed to get outside!

Then, ten paces from the door, it slammed shut.

"None of you are going anywhere near my son until I know what's going on here." Her mother growled, hand still on the door.

"Mom, please-"

"Don't 'Mom, please' me. I don't know who you are, but you're not my daughter."

"Ms. Suzuki, I can understand how shocking this is for you." Hero said quickly, stepping beside Mari. "If you'll calm down, I promise we'll explain everything."

"So this was your idea, then?" Mari's mother turned her glare onto him. "Is this why you asked me to drive Sunny here? Wanted to make sure I had a front-row seat to your sick joke?"

"This isn't a joke!" Kel insisted.

"Well, I'm certainly not laughing." Mari's mother narrowed her eyes. "You know, I'd understand if none of you wanted anything to do with Sunny after he told you the truth. I'd even understand it if you hated him. But this?" She jabbed a finger at Mari. "This is beyond hatred. This is disgusting. You should be ashamed of yourselves, all of you." She glanced over the small crowd of silent, shocked faces before zeroing in on one of them.

"Especially you, Basil."

Basil shrunk back, white as a sheet.

"Do you have any idea how much Sunny stood up for you?" Mari's mother approached him, face twisted in anger. "He swore up and down to me that you were a good person and a good friend, and I believed him. Was all of that lie? Was stabbing him in the eye not enough, you had to stab him in the back too?"

"I-I didn't..." Basil stammered.

"That's enough, Mom." Mari stood between the two of them. "You don't get to talk to him like that."

"I think I've earned the right, after everything he's done to my children." Her mother said. "I don't know what they told you when they hired you, but-"

"They didn't tell me anything." Mari clenched her fists. "I know what Basil did, just like I know what Sunny did. I was there for it."

"Of course you were. That's why you're here, alive and well, defending him."

"And what's wrong with that? You're defending Sunny after what he did."

"I-" Her mother faltered for a moment before going on the offensive again. "Don't you dare compare those two. What Sunny did was an accident. It was a terrible, horrible accident, but it was still an accident. There was nothing accidental about what Basil did to Mari's body. There is nothing comparable between those things."

Mari tried to keep herself calm. She tried to tell herself that it was understandable, even expected that her mother of all people would still hold a grudge towards Basil. But when she looked back at Basil's form huddled between Kel and Aubrey and saw how quickly everything that had been built up this afternoon was torn down with a few strong words, something snapped inside her.

"You're wrong." She turned back to her mother. "They're plenty comparable. Maybe what he did wasn't an accident, but it was still the result of a panicked, frightened child, just like Sunny. And then he spent four years living in fear and guilt over his actions, just like Sunny. And he wishes he could take back what he did, every day, just like Sunny. If I can forgive Sunny, then..." Her sharp expression softened. "It's only fair I forgive Basil, too."

"Mari?!"

Basil's sudden cry wheeled Mari around again. He stared at her, wide-eyed.

"Y-you don't have to-"

"You're right, Basil, I don't. But I do anyway." Mari said firmly. "I'm sorry that it took my Mom yelling at you to make me say it, but I really do forgive you for what you did. Just like I forgave Sunny." She stared down her mother. "And just like how I forgive you for what you did, Mom. Both to Sunny and to me."

"Oh, is that what's going on here?" Mari's mother scowled. "If you're going to put me on trial for being a bad parent, save your breath. There's nothing you can say to me that I haven't already told myself a hundred times over."

"That's not what I'm talking about." Mari shook her head again. "I'm referring to one specific thing." She really wanted this to be a conversation she had with her mother in private, but she didn't have much of a choice at this point. If her mother wanted proof, she was going to get it.

"I forgive you for covering up how I died."

All of the eyes in the room, previously looking nervously between Mari and her mother, were now fixated squarely on the latter.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about." Her mother's voice had a waver to it now. "You're making it sound like I knew what had happened. I didn't believe that Mari killed herself, but that was just a suspicion."

"You didn't know everything." Mari conceded. "But you probably had a good guess. And you definitely knew that it had already been covered up."

"No..." Mari's mother shook her head, even as she reeled from Mari's accusations. "No, you're wrong. I told you, all I had was a suspicion."

"You had something much stronger than a suspicion." Mari marched across the room toward her retreating mother. "You had evidence. Evidence that two panicking twelve-year-olds weren't able to completely hide on their own. And once you realized who that evidence would point to, you helped finish what they started."

The defiant look in her mother's eyes faded as she backed up against the wall. "And how do you know all of that?"

"Like I said. I was there for it."

In some part of her mind, she understood how morbid it was for her to be sitting on the stairs she had died on, watching the boy that killed her. Being so close to the scene of her death should have horrified her, angered her, depressed her, made her feel something. Instead, everything felt... detached. Floaty. She would have written it off as shock, if not for the fact that she hadn't felt much of anything in the past couple of hours. Just a general sense of apathy as she drifted behind the boy and watched him.

Leaning down in front of him, she looked into his eyes, inches away from his face. He didn't flinch or acknowledge her presence, instead remaining transfixed on that spot on the floor, the spot where her body had come to rest, with a completely blank expression. She had remembered being able to read his expressions, once. Her friends all could do it to varying degrees of success, but she had prided herself on being the best at it, able to interpret every crinkle of his eyes or twitch of his lips into the complex thoughts behind them. 

Now, however, she saw nothing. She didn't know if that meant the boy's face really was expressionless, or if she was simply no longer able to decipher it. Maybe there never was anything to decipher; he really was as blank as everyone else said, and she had wasted her time over the past decade imagining signals in the noise. Or maybe she would have to finally admit to herself that she wasn't as good at understanding her little brother as she thought and that this was the culmination of all of her mistakes.

She looked up as the door to the stairwell opened, while the boy's eyes remained transfixed to that spot on the floor.

A woman staggered into the hallway, not bothering to close the door behind her. Despite the fresh tears on her cheeks, her face was a mask of brittle calmness. The mask slipped, however, when she saw the boy at the foot of the stairs.

"Sunny." The woman all but gasped his name out, crossing the hall in a few long strides and snatching him up into a desperate hug, as though he might disappear if she let go of him.

The boy didn't respond, continuing to stare at the floor with his arms slack at his sides even as the woman buried her head in his shoulder and began shaking with sobs again.

She watched from the sidelines as the woman and the boy stayed like this for a few minutes more, wrapped in a one-sided embrace that she both thought he didn't deserve and wished she could give herself.

Eventually, the woman's crying subsided, although she still sniffled as she let go of the boy and stepped back. Suddenly, she hissed through her teeth in pain. Raising her foot, she examined the floor beneath her to see what she had stepped on and then crouched down to pick it up.

From her perch on the stairs, she watched the woman twist her hand around, examining the thin shard of wood on her hand, flat but sharp, with a single polished side.

She watched the woman examine the floor more closely, able to find not only a few more splinters of wood but a series of fresh scratches in the otherwise immaculate floor situated around the foot of the stairs, more visible in the fading sunset.

She watched the woman turn back toward the boy, who was now looking, not at her, but at the shard in her hand. She watched as an awful, horrifying idea formed in the woman's mind, and she stifled another choking sob.

And she watched as the woman took a deep breath and masked her feelings yet again, wrapping her arms around the boy for a second time.

"There there, Sunny." The woman patted his back. "We'll protect you. Everything will be okay."

The boy flinched at her words, the most reaction he had to anything since he had sat down on the stairs.

"Where..." The woman swallowed before continuing. "Where is your violin?"

The boy didn't respond, but his eyes betrayed him, flicking toward the hallway closet.

"Okay..." The woman sniffled again and hoisted the boy to his feet. "Okay." She repeated the word, her voice completely devoid of emotion now. "You go upstairs and clean yourself up. Your father and I will take care of this."

She watched the boy shuffle up the stairs, and as he reached the top she suddenly felt a pulling sensation in her center, as though she were on a leash. She tried to strain against it and stay downstairs, but as he vanished into what used to be their shared room she felt the pull get stronger and stronger. The last thing she saw before she was yanked up to the second floor was the woman walking toward the closet, broom in hand.

"I didn't get to see what happened after that," Mari continued, "But I'm assuming you opened the toy box. If you had any doubts before, they were probably gone after seeing the rest of the violin."

"This..." Mari's mom stammered, her back against the wall. "Basil. Basil must have told you-"

"Told us what?" Mari interrupted her. "That you helped him hide things? He probably had no idea. It's not like you two were on speaking terms."

"S-Sunny." Desperation crept into her mother's voice. "He must have known I covered it up. He told his friends, and they told you."

"You're right, Sunny probably assumed you helped him. But even if he told them, would he have known what had happened after he left?"

"Daichi?" Her mother struggled. "I told him everything. He must have arranged this somehow."

"Do you really think Dad would be vindictive enough to try and hurt you and Sunny like this?" Mari was nearly yelling now. "Why are you so convinced that this has to be a cruel prank?"

"Because it has to be!" Mari's mother snapped back. "I saw my daughter's body! I watched it get put in the ground! You're not her!" She pushed herself forward, staring Mari down. "This can't be..."

Mari met her gaze with a hard glare of her own.

"Y-you can't be..."

The fire behind her eyes went dark, and with a whimper, she crumpled onto the floor.

"Oh, Mari..."

As Mari watched her mother break down, she realized she had let her anger get the better of her again. Even if she still thought it was justified to defend Basil, all she had done was match her mother's aggression with her own, and this was the worst possible time for that.

"Mom, listen." She said softly, crouching down next to her. "Once we're all together again, I'll do whatever it takes to prove I'm telling the truth to you. Answer any questions, air out all of our family's dirty laundry, you name it. But right now, we have to go find Sunny." She held out a hand to her mother. "Will you please help us?"

The distrust on her mother's face as she looked up didn't fill Mari with much confidence. Neither did her refusal to take the offered hand, instead choosing to push herself upright on her own. Nevertheless, her mother closed her eyes, took a deep breath and opened them again with a curt nod.

"Fine. But we're going to have a long talk later."

June was having a very difficult day.

It began with getting called into work on her day off, a day off she hadn't been able to take for months due to tax season, because of an 'emergency'. Said emergency turned out to be some missing documents that needed to be located and sent in to avoid an audit. An already tedious morning was made even worse after they finally figured out which accountant in the company was supposed to actually have the papers, only for said accountant to claim that he had misplaced them. Upon further interrogation, 'misplaced' turned out to only be partially true, as he knew exactly where they were; somewhere in the big pile of papers he was hiding in his filing cabinet in an attempt to look tidy.

And so June's day off was postponed so she could dig through and organize a small mountain of someone else's paperwork like she was an intern again. It wasn't a great way for things to start out, to be sure. As difficult as that situation was, however, she could at least appreciate it for how mundane it was.

"SUNNY!" Henry yelled through cupped hands. "ARE YOU AROUND HERE?!"

Or rather, she could appreciate how mundane it was now, after being subjected to something far less mundane, but far more difficult.

She was still a little upset with Sunny's friends for the 'surprise' they had set up for him, but as poorly as she had taken it Sunny had taken it even worse, running off to who knows where. Everyone had split up to search for him, focusing on checking anywhere that had any sort of significance to him or his friends. Joel was even driving along the streets to make sure he hadn't tried to run for the edge of town; June had offered to drive instead, but they were worried that if Sunny came back to the Rodriguez's home and saw her car missing he might leave again. Instead, Amelia stayed behind at the house, and June was searching on foot with the kids. 

Specifically, she was searching on foot with Henry and-

"SUNNY! I'M SORRY, I DIDN'T MEAN TO SCARE YOU!"

...The girl claiming to be her daughter.

June side-eyed the girl as they hurried down the street toward the plaza. Admittedly, she was very close to Mari in appearance; if it weren't for the age difference, she'd practically be her mirror image. Of course, mathematically speaking everyone had a doppelganger or two running around. Meeting Mari's was extraordinary, but it was far from impossible.

That's what June tried to tell herself, anyway. It would have been one thing if this girl just looked like Mari, but she sounded and moved like her too, and none of it felt forced. If she was an actor, she was very dedicated to the role.

Then there was what she knew about the accident. She remembered the day she visited Sunny in the hospital, and he finally told her the full story of what had happened, and what he and Basil had done. He didn't mention anything about her covering things up; did he not know, or did he just not want to say it to her? As for Daichi, he had made it very clear when he left that he was washing his hands of everything, so it wouldn't make sense for him to talk about it, especially to a stranger. So how did this girl learn about it?

There were several questions of 'how', but even more pressing was the one singular question of 'why'. Why would Sunny's friends do this? Arranging something like this for Sunny for the purpose of hurting him was a plan that bordered on sociopathy, and June didn't think his friends were those sort of people, not even Basil. Which left... what, exactly? That they thought he would be happy to see someone pretending to be his dead sister?

Unless they didn't think she was pretending.

A sudden yelp brought June back to her senses, and she looked up just in time to see the girl stagger to the side, her right knee buckling. Despite herself, June moved quickly to catch her, but Henry was quicker, slipping an arm around her waist and holding her upright.

"Mari, please take it easy."

"I'll take it easy when we find my brother." The girl muttered, not turning to look at either of them.

Henry sighed. "Here, you take a load off while I go check and see if anyone in Hobbeez has seen him." He guided her over to the bench in front of the plaza's fountain. When the girl didn't sit down right away, his tone turned more chiding. "Just for a minute. Doctor's orders."

The girl's shoulders slumped, and the ghost of a grin appeared on her face. "I thought you didn't want to be a doctor anymore."

"I haven't changed my major yet." Henry replied. "Don't worry, I'll be right back." Nodding to June, he walked off towards the row of buildings.

June began to follow him, then stopped. Turning around, she went back towards the fountain, where the girl was massaging her leg. Sensing June's approach, the girl looked up at her warily.

"Yes?"

"I just wanted to make sure you were okay." June said, holding her hands up in a show of peace.

The girl relaxed again. "I'll be fine in a little bit. I shouldn't have been pushing myself so much."

June looked down at the knee. "Your leg acts up?"

"From my softball injury." The girl said, then raised an eyebrow. "Do you need me to tell you about when we had to get rushed to the hospital from the game?"

"No, I don't think that's necessary right now."  June sat down beside her.

The girl nodded, then looked away.

"...I still don't believe that you're Mari, just so you know."

"That's fine." The girl shook her head. "I wouldn't have believed me either, at first. Neither did anyone else."

"What do you mean?" June asked.

"Let's just say I've had an eventful last few days. Hero, Kel, Aubrey, Basil..." The girl counted off on her fingers. "None of them took me showing up again very well. I guess I should have expected it would have been the same for you and Sunny. Even so, I wasn't really expecting a fight."

June grimaced. "I'm sorry."

"If there's anyone you should be apologizing to, it's Basil."

The grimace soured further. "...I don't know if I can. I know I should be the adult here, and I won't hate him, but... I can't forgive him for what he did to Sunny. And I can't forgive him for what he did to Mari, either."

"Basil was scared." The girl said. "He wanted to protect his friend."

"Mari was his friend too!" June said, trying and failing to keep her voice level. "They were all friends, and he..." She stopped herself, not wanting to make a scene in public, even if the plaza was currently deserted.

The girl shook her head. "I'm not asking you to forgive him, just try to understand him a little. He had just lost me, and if people found out about what Sunny did, he was scared he was going to lose him too. You can relate to that. right?"

She sat on her living room couch, still dressed in black funeral garb. Her husband had already gone upstairs, making the excuse that he wanted to change out of his suit as soon as possible. The inert form of her son sat beside her, as unresponsive and lifeless as he had been for the past week, one of his limp hands clasped in both of hers.

Try as she might, she was unable to look anywhere in the room except for the large family portrait on the wall across from her. The picture had been meant to celebrate having a family that she and her husband felt was a family they could be proud of, a family that was finally 'complete'. Now, however, one of the people in that picture was lost, and the other three broken, leaving the portrait's sheer size feeling like little more than a mockery.

She had thought that the reality of what had happened had hit her by now, but looking at the face of her child in the portrait, the same face that had just been buried, brought everything into even sharper clarity.

"My only daughter is gone."

She didn't realize she had said it out loud until she felt her son's hand ball up into a trembling fist. Looking down at him, he seemed to be transfixed by the picture as much as she was.

"And you're my only son." She wrapped an arm around his shoulders and leaned him against her side. "I can't..." Her breathing hitched. "Lose you as well."

Feeling no resistance or movement as he slumped against her, she couldn't help but think that she already had. Even so, she would do everything she could to save what was left of him. She would rather he stay like this than not stay at all.

"Please be a good boy, Sunny."

"...I suppose I can." June said under her breath.

The girl gave her a small nod. "Thank you. I'm sure Sunny would appreciate it as well."

"I'm sure he would. He's always able to see the best in others." She let out a small huff. "I'm not sure who he got that from, because it certainly wasn't me."

"You don't think that's just how you raised us?" The girl asked.

"Everything good about Sunny is there in spite of me, not because of me."

"Mom, don't be so melodramatic."

"Then don't try and downplay things." A harsh edge crept back into June's voice. "If you really know as much as you claim about what happened, then you probably also know about how I treated him for those four years."

"You stayed with him." The girl offered. "That's more than Dad did."

"Sometimes I think the only reason I didn't leave is because Daichi did first." June admitted after a moment. "And sometimes I don't think Sunny was much better off with me there. I saw the unfinished meals, I saw the drawings in his sketchbook when I cleaned the room, and I just... let it happen. All I cared about was that he still had a pulse." She looked down at the ground, wringing her hands. "I'm a terrible mother. I always have been."

"You're not a terrible mother." The girl said in a tone that forced June to listen. "A terrible mother wouldn't acknowledge that she made a mistake. And a terrible mother wouldn't try to fix those mistakes, either."

"I can't fix what I did to Sunny and Mari."

"What you did to us?" The girl let out another huff. "What, you think you and Dad being strict on us caused the accident?"

"It probably didn't help." June countered. "It still would have been my fault that you two-" June caught herself. "That Sunny and Mari were at each other's throats like that. Daichi and I were adults, and we should have intervened. Or we could have stopped the fight if one of us stayed home instead of going to the recital hall. Or we could have postponed the recital, or..."

The girl regarded her icily. "Fine. The accident is your fault, if that's what you want to hear. But only as much as it is Sunny's fault. And mine, too."

June didn't reply.

"You know, if there's one bad habit you taught us," The girl continued. "It's to only blame yourself for anything bad that happens. That's something the three of us are going to have to work on, I suppose."

June nodded to herself as she thought about everything the girl had said. She had to admit, airing out her feelings about the accident felt good. It was an unfamiliar feeling, since she didn't have any real options to do so at home. It was too heavy a topic to drop on someone unrelated to it, which meant that her only option was Sunny, someone even more hurt about what happened than she was. Having a stranger to commiserate with was relieving, even if the stranger kept insisting that they were anything but.

As for how she felt about that, she wasn't exactly sure anymore.

Mari had never spoken to June like this before; her daughter had been smart for her age, but she was still a child, and never really talked back to her parents. Even if Mari had grown up to be a young adult like Henry, June couldn't imagine arguing with her, at least not in such a heated way.

Despite all of that, when she thought about every time the girl referred to herself as Mari, or referred to June as Mom...

...She minded it a little less each time.

"You know, since we're talking about the recital..." The girl shifted in her seat awkwardly. "Whatever happened to the piano?"

"Still in the old house, as far as I know." June shrugged. "The family that moved in seemed to like it, so I told them they could have it for free. It was cheaper than trying to move it again."

"That's good, I guess." The girl sighed. "It's a shame we can't go in there, it would have really helped me prove things to you."

"Oh?" June tilted her head. "Why's that?"

"Because I used to live there, of course. Even with our furniture gone, I bet I still know that place inside and-"

The girl froze, wide-eyed.

"...Out."

She stayed like that long enough for June to get uncomfortable. "...Are you-"

"I'm back." Henry called out. "I checked in Othermart for good measure. They said they haven't seen Sunny, but they'll keep an eye out for him." His pace slowed as he reached the fountain. "Mari? What's wrong?"

"I know where Sunny is."

"Wh-"

"You do?!"

June and Henry tripped over themselves with their exclamations.

The girl stood up. "We need to get back, right now."

"Back?" Henry asked. "You think he went back home?"

"Not to your house." She was already walking away. "Next door."

"Our old house?" June frowned. "If the new owners saw him trying to get in the house, I'm sure we would have heard about it before we left."

"He didn't go inside. He went somewhere else. A place he knew would still be there where he could feel safe." The girl insisted. "Hopefully the neighbors won't mind if we do some trespassing."

Sunny hugged his knees to his chest, sitting against the wall of the treehouse. It was nearly nighttime now, with the last bits of daylight vanishing through the holes in the roof and the surrounding foliage. Despite being even more broken down than it was a year ago, it was still the same old treehouse he remembered. Being somewhere familiar was helping Sunny out immensely; his heartbeat had settled down, his breathing had steadied, and he was finally calm enough to think. Unfortunately, all he could think about was how ashamed he was.

He hadn't even said a word to his friends before he had a full-blown panic attack. All that time he spent trying to look presentable, to look better to his friends, and it was gone in an instant.

But he had been getting better! He really had! Even now, he was doing better; he had only briefly considered stabbing himself in the chest to try and wake himself up from a nightmare he may or may not be having. He had managed to convince himself that he wasn't dreaming, which should have been a relief, except it left the question of what he had really seen, and what his mom had seen.

A fresh wave of shame washed over him; he had left his mom and gone running off into the woods. She must be worried sick about them. He could hear yelling in the distance for a little while now; was that for him? He should be relieved to know that his friends cared that much about him, but right now it was just validating his feelings of being a burden.

Well, there was nothing to do but get it over with. He would head back over to Kel and Hero's house to see what had happened. If he was lucky, his mom wouldn't immediately drive them back to Closeby, and would at least wait until tomorrow morning.

Sunny stood up and crossed over to the entrance to the treehouse. Before he could start climbing down, however, he heard the sounds of someone climbing up. He peeked over the edge-

-And saw a mass of hair slowly pulling itself up the tree.

Stifling a cry, Sunny fell back onto his rear. Scrambling back into the corner, he tried to take deep breaths.

"Sunny?"

Something clambered into view, wrapping dark tendrils around the corners of the door to keep itself in place as the treehouse turned a stark monochrome. Somehow, it seemed even bigger and more imposing than it had before.

"There you are! I knew you'd be here."

Under its gurgles, it almost sounded relieved.

It began pulling itself into the treehouse, but stopped, its eye piercing into his own. After a moment, it settled back down, releasing a hissing noise that might have been a sigh.

"Seeing me again must be a big shock for you, isn't it?"

Sunny wasn't sure when his hallucination got a sense of humor, but he didn't like it.

"I guess I shouldn't be so surprised. It's not like I treated you the best, both before and..." Something bobbed down slightly. "We can talk about that later. Won't you please come down? I'm sorry, Sunny."

Sunny flinched as the harsh sounds gave way to a voice resembling his sister. It had done this before in his dreams, repeating words he had wanted to hear from her before it was too late. In a fantasy world made up entirely of childish wish fulfillment, yearning to hear an apology from his sister was somehow the most pathetic of his desires. Especially because it was never her fault. It was all...

No. He clutched at his head. It was an accident. It was an accident! It was-

"Sunny, please! I'm sorry! I-I'm sorry for everything! I'm sorry for being so hard on you when we were practicing. I'm sorry for the things I said to you and ignoring you outside of practice and making you think you weren't good enough! I'm sorry for all of it! So please..."

It toppled forward, burying its mass against the floorboards.

"Please stop looking at me like that..."

Sunny watched as the clump of hair shuddered. Was it... crying? And its voice was sounding more and more like her. He had never heard it apologize so much, or so earnestly.

And how it was crying...

Sunny seldom heard his sister cry. Even when she accidentally cut herself preparing food, it was barely a sniffle and a few tears. But he had heard his sister cry openly, once. It was at the lake, after he almost drowned.

It sounded like she did then.

"I know what I did to you was awful." Something continued in her voice. "Even at the time, I knew it was awful. I knew you were suffering, but you went along with it because you wanted to be with me, and wanted me to be proud of you. The truth was, I was already proud of you, Sunny. I always was! I couldn't have asked for a better little brother. And then I used that against you... I really am the worst."

Color slowly returned to the treehouse.

"You were able to forgive yourself for what happened, I know you were. I'm even more proud of you for that."

The bulk of hair began to dwindle, its tendrils melting away into pale, slender arms.

"I just hope you can forgive me, too."

Its bulk finally shrank into the form of a person hanging off of the ladder, staring at the floor. And when that person looked up...

It was her face. Not colored purple like his dreams, or black and white like his visions, but a flesh and blood face. She was older, somehow, and her eyes were puffy from crying, but any questions Sunny had about 'how' or 'why' were immediately discarded by the need to confirm 'who'.

Sunny leaned forward. "Mari?"

Mari blinked, then broke into a bright smile as she began to hoist herself up into the treehouse. "Sun-"

There was a dull snap, and Mari's smile suddenly changed to a look of alarm as she flopped down. Behind her, Sunny could barely make out the ladder falling away from the tree, finally breaking after years of disrepair. There was nothing keeping Mari from a twelve foot drop except for her desperate clinging to the wood of the treehouse.

Mari scrabbled against the floor, trying to find some purchase, but she began to slide back.

Everything moved very slowly for Sunny. He had been here before; not here specifically, but in this situation, seeing his sister fall, and feeling helpless to stop it.

Never again. He didn't know if this was a dream or a hallucination, but he was never going to see his sister fall again if he had the power to stop it.

Lunging forward onto his stomach, Sunny grabbed Mari's arms just as she began to lose her grip, pulling as hard as he could. Through the strain, he could just make out her eyes looking up at him in surprise.

Unfortunately, inertia was against her, and with nothing to brace himself against, it was against Sunny as well. But he didn't let go. He wouldn't.

Not even as the two of them tumbled out of the treehouse.

Chapter Text

"Mari, wait up!"

Mari stopped in her tracks at Hero's harsh whisper. Not wanting to stand out in the open of the backyard, she doubled back to the cover of the bushes beside her old house, where her boyfriend and mother were still hiding.

"I'm not waiting, Hero." Mari hissed back. "We need to find Sunny, and we need to find him now."

"I know, I know." Hero held up his hands plaintively. "But we still need to be careful. Remember, we're kind of sort of trespassing right now."

"There's nothing 'kind of sort of' about it." Mari's mother corrected him. "I know everyone in Faraway is used to letting their neighbors go wherever they want on their property, but I'm not sure if these people are accustomed to that yet."

"We can worry about that if they catch us." Mari peered up at the second floor of the house. The only room that had its lights on was the master bedroom, on the other side of the building. After waiting a few seconds longer for any sign of activity, Mari slipped out of her hiding spot and resumed her trek across the backyard, this time accompanied by the others.

As they crept along the lawn, Mari couldn't help but notice how much smaller it seemed to be. More accurately, she couldn't help but notice how much smaller the trimmed part of the lawn seemed to be; whoever the new owners were, they obviously weren't as diligent with the yardwork as her father had been, with nature reclaiming much of the grass near the treeline and turning it tall and coarse. In the fading light she thought she could make out a fresh path through the growth heading toward the opening in the trees, but that could have just been wishful thinking.

Growing impatient, her pace quickened again, earning the start of another protest from Hero.

Then she grew still, and he grew silent, at what stood beside the opening in the trees.

It wasn't much of an obstacle in the physical sense; a small mossy stump with a weatherworn pinwheel jammed into the top. The memories attached to it, however, made it feel far more imposing.

This was where her favorite tree once stood. This was where she would sit in its shade on warm days and read, sometimes to herself and sometimes to her brother. This was where she would spread her blanket out and have a picnic with her friends. This was where her best friend had dragged her to on her birthday and finally admitted something out loud that both of them had known all along.

This was where her body had been taken and-

"Mari." Hero's voice broke through to her, alongside the feeling of his hand around hers.

"I-I'm fine." Mari cleared her throat. "I'll be fine." She tried to sound more convincing, giving Hero's hand a squeeze of appreciation. She looked at the stump for a few seconds more, then marched past it into the trees without looking back.

She could break down later. Right now she had to make things right.

It was only a short trek through the trees before the foliage opened up again. On the other side of the clearing was their destination, a dilapidated treehouse nestled in the branches of one of the larger trees.

"Up there." Mari pointed to the treehouse. "I'm sure of it."

Mari's mother leaned back to get a better look. "I had nearly forgotten about this old thing."

"I remember sometimes when we'd come out here to visit, Sunny would already be up there by himself." Hero mused. "We never asked him why, but I think he just liked being there to relax. It makes sense to me that he would come back here to- Mari!"

Mari looked down at Hero's frantic expression from her perch on the ladder; while he and her mother were talking, she had already made her way halfway up its rungs. "I told you, Hero, I'm not going to wait. If Sunny is up there, I need to talk to him."

"Fine. Just... Just be careful, okay?"

Before Mari had a chance to reassure him that she would be on her best behavior, a noise from the treehouse caught her attention. Looking up, she was just barely able to catch a familiar tuft of black hair vanishing through the doorway.

"Sunny?" Mari's eyes widened. Heaving herself up the ladder, she looked inside the dusty room. Sure enough, huddled in the far corner was her little brother, staring at her from over his knees.

"There you are! I knew you'd be here."

She smiled as she began to pull herself into the treehouse, both from relief that Sunny was safe and from the satisfaction she felt from still knowing him well enough to guess where he would be. The smile vanished when Sunny recoiled away, scuttling back further into the corner, still not taking his eye off of her.

Right, of course. Sunny had come here because he was stressed out. And he was stressed out because of her.

She kicked herself mentally for how naive she had been. She had spent so much time preparing herself for this meeting, she hadn't even thought of how unprepared Sunny was. Even after all this time, she was still making the same old mistakes with her brother.

It was too late to regret things. All she could do now was see it through.

"Seeing me again must be a big shock for you, isn't it?" She took on a lighter tone, hoping he would respond to that. "I guess I shouldn't be so surprised. It's not like I treated you the best, both before and..."

Mari stopped herself. If Sunny was having a hard time believing she was alive now, mentioning that probably wasn't a good idea.

"We can talk about that later. Won't you please come down? I'm sorry, Sunny."

She thought she was doing well; his expression softened as she spoke, and he seemed to light up ever so slightly at her apology. Then his breathing picked up again as he clutched at his throat, then at the sides of his head. And the look on his face...

"Sunny, please! I'm sorry!" Desperation crept into Mari's voice. "I-I'm sorry for everything! I'm sorry for being so hard on you when we were practicing. I'm sorry for the things I said to you and ignoring you outside of practice and making you think you weren't good enough! I'm sorry for all of it! So please..."

She felt her eyes start to water, but she didn't care. All that mattered to her was the look of terror on her brother's face. Seeing his gentle features twisted into something so awful, and having it directed at her, again, finally brought her to her limit.

"Please stop looking at me like that..."

Mari crumpled to the floor of the treehouse. Emotions from the day she died that she had thought had been long overcome were now back with a vengeance.

"I know what I did to you was awful. Even at the time, I knew it was awful. I knew you were suffering, but you went along with it because you wanted to be with me, and wanted me to be proud of you. The truth was, I was already proud of you, Sunny." Mari stared at the floor, shaking her head. "I always was! I couldn't have asked for a better little brother. And then I used that against you... I really am the worst."

All of the frustration and anger and shame and regret was too much for her, but as unbearable as it was, she knew that Sunny had it far worse, and for far longer. And despite that...

"You were able to forgive yourself for what happened, I know you were." She felt a glimmer of admiration as her lips curled upward ever so slightly. "I'm even more proud of you for that."

She let out one final sigh, bringing her head down against the floor.

"I just hope you can forgive me, too."

Mari lay there for a few silent seconds, emotionally spent. It took a few seconds more for her to realize that it really was silent; she couldn't hear Sunny's panicked breathing anymore. Daring to look up again, she blinked away her tears to find him staring at her again, not with an expression of horror, but wonder.

"Mari?"

It was the first proper word he had said to her, and it was her name.

Letting herself be hopeful, she started climbing into the treehouse again.

"Sun-"

snap

As her footing vanished and her jaw banged against the floor, Mari's perception of the next few seconds fragmented into a series of emotions and sensations.

The brief moment of alarm as her body started sliding out of the treehouse.

The feeling of two hands gripping her arms, arresting her slide.

The determined visage of her brother, trying his hardest to keep her with him.

The slow but inevitable inching backward.

The fall.

The landing.

The fact that Mari was in pain meant that she probably wasn't dead.

The fact that Mari wasn't in a lot of pain meant that she probably wasn't dying. Probably. Despite having first-hand experience with death, she wasn't exactly an expert on it.

Still dazed from the impact, Mari carefully tested each of her limbs, relieved to find them all responsive. She was even more relieved to find that her neck was unharmed as she turned her head skyward. She opened her eyes to a blurry, spinning mess, but she could just barely make out a blob in the shape of a person in front of her.

"--ri?" The blob's voice battled against the ringing in her ears.

Mari closed her eyes and shook her head a few times, and when she opened them again, the world was back in focus, confirming that she was laying on her back under the treehouse with a familiar boy hunched over with a look of desperation on his face.

"Mari?!" Sunny repeated, clearly distraught.

Mari's initial response was another slow blink.

This was the moment she had been waiting for ever since she had come back to life; actually, she had probably been wishing for a chance like this even before that, wanting to get a chance to speak to her brother again, not as a ghost or vision, but in a way where he knew it was really her. She had thought about what she would tell him - that she forgave him, that she was proud of him, that she loved him - and now that the moment was finally here, all of her practiced words were failing her. Maybe it was because she had already screwed up their first meeting, maybe it was because she was scared he still doubted her, or maybe it was because she was still a little rattled from the fall, but she couldn't think of anything meaningful to say. 

Realizing she needed to say something, she managed an awkward smile.

"Hi, little brother."

Sunny froze, and for a moment Mari was afraid he was going to run away again. Then he threw himself at her, wrapping her in a forceful hug that wrung a wheeze of surprise out of her and knocked her flat onto her back against the ground.

Or it would have, except there was something between her and the dirt. Mari looked back to see what she had fallen onto, then did a double take when she saw what, or who, it was.

"Mom?!"

"Ungh..." Mari's mother groaned. "That definitely took a year or two out of me."

Realizing she had been all but sitting on her mother, Mari quickly stood up, dragging Sunny with her. "Mom, are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Her mother propped herself up on her elbows. "Just a little bruised. I think Henry got hit harder than I did, though."

"Wh-"

A second, deeper groan made Mari look down again. 

"Hero?!"

"I'm fine too." Hero murmured, still sprawled out on the ground. "I think."

"I..." Mari looked between the two of them, putting the pieces together. "Did you two break my fall?"

"We were trying to catch you." Mari's mother huffed as she stood up and dusted herself off. "As soon as the ladder broke Henry was right under you. We weren't expecting Sunny to fall too, though."

Mari wilted slightly, realizing that this had been her fault. "I'm sorry. I probably should have let someone else go first."

"Then someone else would have been falling out of that tree. And if it was Henry, I'm not sure if the two of us could have caught him, never mind him and Sunny. I hate to say it, but it was probably better you than him."

Hero let out a weak grunt of what Mari assumed was agreement.

"Still, I probably could have convinced Sunny to come down without going up there." Mari continued. "Maybe he would have been light enough to-"

"Mari." Her mother said. "It's fine. Everyone is safe, and that's all that matters."

"Yeah, I guess you're..." She trailed off, eyes wide. "...You called me Mari."

"Yes," Mari's mother smiled. "I did."

"Does that mean you believe me?"

"It means I'd like to. Everyone else seems to, after all."

Her mother looked down, and Mari followed her gaze to Sunny, who throughout all of this had been clinging to her in a vise-like hug. "Sunny?"

"'m sorry." Sunny mumbled against her.

Mari might have been at a loss for words before, but right now she knew exactly what to say.

"I'm sorry, too."

Sunny didn't respond verbally, instead choosing to tighten his grip and bury his face further against Mari's side. As she wrapped her arms around her brother, she could feel her shirt starting to get damp, but she didn't care. She was finally able to do what she should have done five years ago; apologize to her brother and give him a hug.

Eventually, she felt a light touch on her shoulder.

"I think it's about time we found the others." Mari's mother said, just as lightly.

"...Alright." Reluctantly, Mari pulled away from her brother. It probably wasn't a good idea to spend too much time back here anyway.

She began to head back toward the path back to the street when a sharp cry of pain came from behind her.

"Ghk-!"

Whirling around, she found Hero collapsed on the ground, face contorted as he clutched at his arm.

"M-my shoulder..." He managed to force out, breathing heavily.

Before Mari had a chance to call out to him, she was interrupted yet again by a bright light shining into her eyes.

"What the hell is going on back here?!" A gruff, unfamiliar voice demanded.

The light moved aside, revealing a man with greying hair and a sour expression holding a flashlight. A woman about the same age stood slightly behind him, looking a little less angry but no less cautious.

Mari's mother quickly stepped forward. "Mr. and Mrs. Birtwhistle! Hello!" She took on a congenial tone. "I don't know if you remember me, but I'm-"

"The person we bought our house from, yes." The man Mari assumed was Mr. Birtwhistle cut her off impatiently. "Would you mind explaining all of this? We've been hearing shouting, then a crash, then another yell!"

"We thought there was a bear loose back here." The woman Mari assumed was Mrs. Birtwhistle added, peering over her husband's shoulder with an air of indignation.

"No, no bears, just a little family drama." Mari's mother assured them with a patronizing smile. "I can explain if you'd like, but before that, can you go let Mrs. Rodriguez know she needs to bring her son to the hospital?"

For the second time in his memory, Sunny found himself in the emergency room of the Faraway Regional Medical Center. Actually, it was the second time he had been in the waiting area of the emergency room; there was the time he wound up in the emergency room itself the previous summer, but he had been too busy going into shock from the gardening shears stuck in his eye to remember much from that particular experience.

The first time he had been here was for Mari and her softball injury, about seven years ago. His memories of the injury itself were hazy, with the only clear image in his mind being his sister collapsed on the field. Everything that immediately followed was a blur as well, from the coaches rushing to the field to check on her, to the frantic ride in his parent's car following after the ambulance. But he could clearly recall sitting here, in this exact same waiting room with the exact same harsh lighting and exact same antiseptic smell.

He had been inconsolable, barely holding his tears back through the whole car ride to the hospital. By the time they had gotten there, Mari was already undergoing treatment, but to Sunny's young mind that just meant she had been taken away and he was never going to see her again, and suddenly the floodgates were thrown open. No amount of assurances or explanations from his parents could stop his bawling until a nurse finally came by and told them that yes, Mari was fine, and yes, they could go see her now.

"You must really love your sister to cry this much over her." The nurse told him as she led them down the hall. She had meant to tease him, he was sure.

Seeing Mari sitting up in her hospital bed, exhausted but alive, had filled Sunny with so much relief that he nearly started crying again. Even as the doctor began to explain the lengths of her injury to their parents, the physical therapy she would have to do, and the limitations on her life going forward, all Sunny could think about was how happy he was that Mari was fine, and how scared he was that he had nearly lost her. A bittersweet memory, turned all the more bitter by his own actions.

Compared to the noise and chaos of Mari's trip to the hospital, Hero's was much more subdued. It probably helped that Hero was able to speak, albeit through clenched teeth, and move everything except his left arm. He had even insisted that he didn't need to go to the emergency room, for all the good that did at convincing his parents, who promptly put him in the back of Mr. Rodriguez's car and sped off toward the hospital.

It also probably helped that it was nighttime by the time they finally arrived at their destination. There was no one else in the waiting room except for Hero's parents - Kel had stayed behind to watch Sally - and Sunny and his family. Part of Sunny didn't want to be here, not because he didn't care about Hero, but because he wanted to be back with the others so he could apologize for running off and ruining what was supposed to be a good time. As much as he needed to speak with his friends, however, there was someone else he needed to speak with even more.

Sunny stole a glance at the person sitting beside him. They sat, unmoving, in the same position they had been in for nearly an hour, head tilted toward the doors to the examination room Hero had vanished through. Long black hair hid their face from view, but Sunny didn't need to see their expression to know how they were feeling.

Wanting to comfort them, but not wanting to break the silence, Sunny reached up and put a hand on their shoulder. The person jolted in their seat, turning to face him.

For a moment, a single eye stared back.

Then they reached their hand up and swept the rest of their hair out of the way.

Mari gawked at Sunny for another long second, like she had forgotten he was there. It looked like she wanted to say something, but all she did was give him a grateful nod and a pat on his hand before turning away to her previous position, albeit with a slightly more relaxed posture.

Sunny put his arm down and continued watching his sister.

His living, breathing, not-dead, definitely-actually-there-because-everyone-else-can-see-her-too-including-the-nurses-and-doctor sister.

There were a multitude of emotions Sunny thought he should be feeling right now, emotions that he had been feeling at the treehouse, but after recovering from the initial bombshell he was left feeling oddly numb. It was, in a poetically morbid sort of way, similar to how he had been right after Mari died; an initial surge of grief and denial that gave way to a dreamlike fugue state that convinced him that it was all a bad dream, something that he, and Mari, would wake up from.

That feeling lasted right up until he was about to leave his backyard and made the mistake of looking behind him at the tree. After that, the spell was broken; all of his sins burned themselves into his mind, to the point where four years of repression couldn't fully hide them.

And now, once again, he had that same feeling of being disconnected from reality. The difference here was that he had no idea why. This wasn't some horrible tragedy, this was his sister. This was Mari. And he was treating her like she was some well-liked but distant family member he was seeing for the first time in a while, someone to smile at and make clumsy small talk with but ultimately keep at arm's length.

He'd feel worse if Mari wasn't equally disengaged right now. Hero's injury most likely played a big part in that, but it wasn't the whole story. She had barely said a word to him after they got in his - their - mother's car to follow the Rodriguezes, so Sunny could only go off of what she had said to him before in the treehouse.

After all this time, it still felt selfish of Sunny to want an apology from his sister for how she treated him. Even accepting that what happened was an accident, it was still an accident that he was responsible for, or at the very least more responsible than she was. Mari might have been strict, and she might have been cold to him in the final weeks leading up to the recital, but that was nothing compared to what he had done. So why did she need him to forgive her so badly? Did she blame herself for what had happened afterward?

Wanting to take his mind off of things, Sunny looked across the row of chairs at the adults, wondering how they were faring. His mom was staring at the wall, hands wrung together. Mr. Rodriguez seemed restless, one of his knees bouncing slightly as he sat next to his wife. As for Mrs. Rodriguez, she was...

...Watching Mari? Sunny waited to see if she was just looking around the room, but no, Mrs. Rodriguez was staring at Mari almost as intently as Mari was staring at the door. She must have felt Sunny's eyes on her, because her gaze swiftly turned on him, then just as swiftly turned away.

Before he could get a chance to process what had just happened, the white double doors in front of them swung open as a nurse walked through, followed by an apologetic-looking Hero with his arm in a sling.

"Hero!"

Sunny braced himself to make sure Mari didn't bowl him over as she rocketed out of her seat to join Hero's parents in crowding around him and the nurse.

"Are you okay?" She asked. "How's your shoulder?"

"It's just a sprain." Hero said petulantly. He certainly sounded better. "I told you all there was nothing to worry about."

"A sprained shoulder and some bruised ribs." The nurse stepped in front of him. "And even if that's all it was, you were right to be brought here. Any injury that results in that much pain and swelling needs to be looked at under an x-ray to make sure it's not something worse."

Sunny expected some sort of 'I told you so' from Mrs. Rodriguez, but instead she merely nodded silently as the nurse spoke.

"Speaking of the pain and swelling, they're still going to be around for the next week or so." The nurse turned to Hero's parents. "He should be fine with over-the-counter medicine for the pain, but you'll need to make sure he ices his shoulder a few times a day until the swelling goes away. Unless he gets a fever or unexplained nausea, he should be right as rain in a few weeks. Once we finish some paperwork, you can all go home and have some well-deserved rest."

"Thank goodness." Mr. Rodriguez rose to his feet. "June, we can finish things up here. How about the three of you go back to-"

"I have a question." Mrs. Rodriguez spoke up. "Is there somewhere in the hospital where we can go to have a private conversation?"

Everyone turned to look at her.

"A private conversation?" The nurse repeated, furrowing her brows.

"Just a small room would be fine." Mrs. Rodriguez replied. "Somewhere we won't worry about causing a scene."

"Mom?" Hero's nervous tone didn't seem to bother his mother, who stayed focused on the nurse with the same polite expression.

The nurse hummed in thought for a moment. "The chapel should still be open right now, and I doubt anyone would be there at this hour." She pointed toward another pair of doors. "Head through there to go to the hospital's main lobby, then follow the signs."

"Thank you." Mrs. Rodriguez bobbed her head. "We'll head there right after this."

"Amelia," Sunny's mother started. "Whatever this is about, I'm sure it can wait until-"

"I don't think it can, June." Mrs. Rodriguez said in the same calm tone.

Sunny felt a chill. Even though she sounded placid enough, it was impossible to miss the threat behind her words. He had heard Mrs. Rodriguez use this tone a few times before in his childhood, usually directed at Kel when he was in trouble. Hearing it directed at another adult, and at his mom for that matter...

"Well, if you insist." His mother gave in almost immediately "Lead the way."

Sunny had never heard of a chapel inside of a hospital before, but it made sense. In a place where people constantly dealt with difficult situations or were forced to make hard choices, having a quiet place set aside to reflect was useful, and probably saw a lot of use.

The dark, intrusive part of his mind wondered if his parents had visited there for Mari after her body had been taken down and brought to the hospital. He doubted it, and he knew better than to ask his mom right now as he trailed behind her and everyone else as they made their way through the first floor of the hospital. The lobby area was much warmer and more inviting than the sterile, utilitarian environment of the emergency room, but the change in atmosphere didn't help alleviate Sunny from his all-too-familiar sense of foreboding. He wasn't sure what Mrs. Rodriguez wanted to talk about, but he knew where the topic would end up; onto him. Putting it like that made him seem self-centered, but he had been the one who instigated all of this years ago. And now he would need to admit to that once again.

The first time Sunny told the truth about what had happened to Mari had been to his friends, and it had been one of the hardest things he had ever done. The second time, speaking with his mother, was comparatively easy, partially because he had an inkling that Mom knew at least part of the truth, and partially because he was so mentally and physically worn down from the first confession that he was too exhausted to be afraid of the consequences. Now, however, his mind swarmed with worst-case scenarios, each worse than the last. What would Hero and Kel's parents think of him once they knew what he did? Would he not be welcome at their house anymore? Would they go further and tell everyone else in town, turning him into a pariah? Would they go even further and get him arrested?

The small procession finally stopped in front of the chapel doors, freeing Sunny from the increasingly grim pictures his mind was creating. Wordlessly, Mrs. Rodriguez opened them and stepped inside.

The chapel itself seemed barely furnished to live up to its intended purpose; besides the same pleasant lighting and carpet of the rest of the hospital's first floor, it had a nondescript wooden altar on one side of the room and a few rows of padded chairs on the other. The six of them wordlessly sat down, shuffling the chairs to make a small circle.

"So." Mrs. Rodriguez broke the silence. "I think I'm owed an explanation, here."

No one else seemed willing to speak.

"Nothing? Then I'll go ahead and start." Again, it was impossible to miss the undercurrent beneath her nominally civil words. "Mari?"

Mari flinched. "Yes?"

"I had thought that the story you fed us was a little odd. Not one of your best lies, dear." Mrs. Rodriguez said with a glare. Then, in an ever-so-slightly lighter tone, "It's good to see you again."

Mari nodded haltingly. "Y-yes. I'm sorry about that. I wasn't sure if you'd even believe me if I told you who I was."

Sunny side-eyed his sister. What had she told them, exactly?

"To be honest, I don't think we would have." Mr. Rodriguez shrugged. "At least not without some sort of proof. But everyone else seems to be convinced of who you are." He put a hand on Hero's non-bandaged shoulder.

Hero didn't respond, and instead continued to stare at the floor, just as he had since sitting down, save for the occasional not-so-subtle glance at Mari. Sunny couldn't help but felt nostalgic.

"Proof aside," Mrs. Rodriguez tagged back in. "The last time we saw you was at your funeral." Her eyes narrowed. "Unless that was a lie, too."

"No." Mari shook her head. "No, that actually happened. I really was..." She trailed off.

Dead? Sunny mentally finished her sentence. Killed? Murdered?

"...I was there." Mari eventually mumbled.

"Which leads to my next question." Mrs. Rodriguez turned to Sunny's mother. "June."

His mother's face tightened. "Amelia."

"That was quite an outburst back at the house. Do you mind telling me what that was all about?"

Sunny had no idea what outburst they were talking about, but from the look in his mom's eyes as they darted in his direction he knew it had something to do with him.

"That was..." She stumbled over her words. "That is, it's not my place to say..."

Was she trying to protect him again? Was she ashamed of him? Was she just not sure how to talk about one of her children killing the other? Whatever it was, he wasn't going to make anyone else speak for him. Not for this.

"June." Mrs. Rodriguez wasn't pretending to be polite anymore. "You were practically yelling at my children, accusing them of hurting your son. I'm going to need a better excuse than that."

"It's my fault."

Sunny felt everyone's eyes on him.

"What's your fault, Sunny?" Mrs. Rodriguez was sounding patient again now that she was speaking to him. He appreciated it, but wondered how long it would last.

"A-All of it." Sunny forced the words out before his nerves had a chance to paralyze his vocal cords. "It's my fault that Mari... that Mari died."

"Sunny." His mother gripped his arm.

"It is." Sunny insisted. "And don't blame Basil. The only reason he did anything was because of me."

"Then what about me?"

Sunny looked to his side to find Mari glaring daggers at him.

"If it's not Basil's fault, what about me? Are you going to try and say that it's all your fault?"

"Wh..." Sunny stammered. He had expected some aggression, but not right away, and not from Mari of all places. "Then it's mostly my fault."

"Sunny... You need to give me some credit, here." Mari sighed, frowning. "If I hadn't been so strict on you, you wouldn't have done that."

"Just because you were hurting me and didn't realize it-"

"But I did! I knew exactly what I was doing to you, and I didn't care! I thought you just needed to power through it."

"That's still..." Sunny shook his head. "Why are you trying to make it seem like it's less of my fault?"

"You were twelve, Sunny." Mari snapped. "You were a child. I know I liked calling you cliff-faced, but you aren't made of stone. Why are you trying to act like it would have been so easy for you to just bottle up your feelings?"

"Because you were fifteen! You were a child too!" Sunny snapped back. "You were a child, and you could handle all the pressure just fine!"

"Do you call screaming in your face over a broken violin 'just fine'?!" Mari's pitch raised to match his.

"Better screaming in someone's face than pushing them down the stairs!"

Sunny regretted the words as soon as they left his mouth. Mr. and Mrs. Rodriguez looked ashen-faced, Hero looked nauseous, his mother looked miserable, and Mari...

Mari looked crushed. "I thought you had forgiven yourself."

Sunny had to look away in shame. "...Not entirely."

Before the two of them could start their argument back up again, someone cleared their throat.

"Alright... Alright." Mr. Rodriguez sounded somewhere between bewildered and exasperated. "One of you... explain please."

With Sunny's anger depleted, fear took its place once again. Swallowing hard, he gave a single nod. "I will."

"I will, too." Mari declared, sweeping her hair back out of her face.

Sunny blinked. "Mari-"

"Sunny." Mari ended his objection before it could start. "If you're going to tell them what happened, they need to know why it happened too. And anyway," She managed a smile. "It's only fair that I get to tell my side of the story."

Sunny slumped back in resignation. That's what he got for thinking he could win against her. "Fine."

"Fine," Mari repeated, almost sounding pleased. "We'll tell them together."

It all started with a piano.

Actually, it would be more accurate to say it started with a broken knee.

Up until that point, she had excelled at just about everything she tried; she was a good student, a good athlete, a good musician... That didn't mean she wasn't putting in any effort, of course, but it all seemed to come so naturally to her, and she was praised by friends and family alike. When they told her there was nothing she couldn't do, she believed it.

That all changed with the softball injury. Now she had limits. No more softball, no more sports, she couldn't even run for more than a few seconds without pain shooting up her leg. Having something she loved to do taken away from her hurt, more than her knee ever did, but what hurt the most was how differently she was treated.

She had been used to looks of admiration and pride, but after she was released from the hospital in crutches those looks changed to pity. It made her feel fragile, like she was a disappointment, and she hated it. All her life, she had been praised. Praised for scoring high on a test, praised for her ability to bake cookies, and praised for her skill in playing the piano at school. She had no idea how much that praise meant to her until she lost it, but now that she knew how that loss felt she would do anything to keep from suffering it again.

So she decided that being good wasn't enough anymore. She had to be better. She wouldn't just be a straight-A student, she would be at the top of the class. She wouldn't just be a good daughter, she would be a model child. And she wouldn't just be a great pianist, but a perfect one.

Her efforts paid off. The praise returned. She had to sacrifice some interests and pastimes along the way, and she had to spend a little less time with the people most important to her, but these were acceptable losses. Her closest friend told her once that he was worried she might be pushing herself too hard, but his caution was superficial at best; he knew just as well as she did how difficult it was to stay on top and be the golden child. Maybe that was why he was able to see through her so easily, but no one else did. As far as she knew, her teachers and family saw exactly what they wanted to see, which was exactly what she wanted them to see. There would be no more pitying looks.

Then, when she and her brother had gone away for a weekend under the pretense of visiting family, the two of them came home to a surprise from her parents. Leading her into the spare room on the first floor, they revealed that what had once been a nursery, and then for a small while a conservatory, and then for a smaller while an office, was now a music room.

Her music room, with her very own piano. A brand new Omori, far nicer than the one she monopolized in her school's auditorium.

As she fawned over it, she looked at her parents smiling faces and her brother's awestruck one. She felt so much gratitude for them at that point. Despite her warm feelings, even then she could see meaning behind their smiles.

"We expect great things from you."

And behind that,

"Don't let us down."

It all started with a violin.

Actually, it would be more accurate to say it started with a broken knee. Not his, though.

Even though she hid it well, he knew how poorly his sister handled the injury. She was used to leading the way wherever they went, setting the pace that he and his friends followed, but with the cast around her leg, she was suddenly the one that had to be planned around. Despite her polite words and assurances, he could see how much she sulked on the picnic blanket while everyone else played. Even so, there was little he could do to help her, at least in a way that matched how she had always helped him.

Her demeanor improved after she didn't need the crutches anymore, but the changes lingered. Thanks to her insomnia, she used to stay up late into the night reading. Now she stayed up even later, so late that he couldn't wake up to shut off her light for her, studying for college, after spending all day at cram school. Her smiles returned, but there was something less genuine about them, at least in his eyes. Even her playful, sometimes capricious nature seemed diluted into something more controlled and safe. Everything she did felt like a performance, and though she played her part well it didn't change the feeling that it was being forced.

If his friends noticed her change in behavior, they didn't mention it. All they did was make disappointed remarks every time she excused herself mid-picnic or waved off an invite to a sleepover so she could study or practice. They accepted it as part of life; he could not. Maybe he was being childish, or selfish, or irrational, but he wasn't able to accept a world where all six of them weren't together.

The arrival of the piano was a double-edged sword. It meant she spent more time at home, and she often let him sit and listen to her play. When she played, however, it seemed like she was at her most untouchable, shedding all humanity in an attempt to reach perfection. Nothing else demonstrated the distance between the two of them more than her music, and the chasm was growing wider by the day. When she first started acting more distant, he had told himself he wanted to help support her and cheer her up, bringing her back to 'normal'. Now that he had realized that this was going to be 'normal' from now on, he could be more honest with himself and admit that he wanted to help support her just so he wouldn't be left behind.

He had always worried about being discarded, not just by his sister but by his friends as well. He was the youngest, albeit only by months; they called him the baby of the group, and while he was sure it was only meant in jest, sometimes he wondered how far the joke went. He didn't have any real talents because he dropped his hobbies when they bored him. He wasn't smart, or creative, or someone who could inspire others or be relied on, no matter how often his friends tried to convince him otherwise. In short, he was nothing like his sister. So where did that leave him? 

As usual, his friends wound up solving his problems for him, this time without even knowing it. For Christmas, they all pooled their money together for a single present; a violin. He had played a little when he was younger, and even though he eventually lost interest those that heard him play said he was very good.

Including his sister.

This was his chance. This was how he could support her. This was how he could earn her attention again.

He drew his bow across the strings and played as best as he could remember. The song, a little rusty in his mind, eventually echoed through his home. In the warm holiday lights, he looked at all his friends and felt truly grateful to have them. In this moment, his pessimism was able to dissipate, and he could see their true feelings in their expressions.

"You're very important to us."

When he later looked back on this scene, his memory would warp it, inserting another message beneath the first.

"Don't let us down."

She didn't remember where the suggestion for a recital with her brother came from, but before she knew it they were practicing for it. She wished she could say that she accepted the duet just so she could spend more time with her brother, and maybe that was still part of it, but the truth was she saw it as a chance for her, and her brother to gain prestige. A pair of talented siblings performing together? It seemed like the perfect idea!

If only it were so. She had no experience practicing for a duet, and the difficulties they encountered blindsided her. They would stop and start after every mistake; she would miss her timing, which threw him off completely, or he would play a note wrong and bring everything to a halt. They tried to take these mistakes in stride, but as the weeks turned to months, it was harder to laugh them off.

Eventually, she could manage to play her part on her own without any problems. Meanwhile, he could play it almost perfectly, save for one final part that he couldn't seem to master. More time with the tutor didn't help, longer practices didn't help, her own harsh words definitely didn't help, but that didn't stop her from using them against him as her frustration grew.

Why couldn't he take this seriously? Why couldn't he just play his part the way they needed?

She was tempted to talk to her parents about it a few times; ask them to reschedule the recital so they had more time, change it to a solo piano piece, or even cancel the performance outright. But then she would think of their reaction. There most likely wouldn't be any punishment, but the thought of their faces, not just filled with pity but disappointment, was too much to bear. She would have another limit enforced on her, and she couldn't even blame this one on a sports injury.

So she stayed quiet. She would see this through to the end, no matter what.

This had been a mistake.

If the gap between him and his sister felt wide before, it was even wider while they were practicing. While she mastered her part, he couldn't seem to improve fast enough for her, not even when he played until his fingers bled and calloused over. Their relationship suffered, and her words became terse and spiteful. She never openly insulted him, but he almost would have preferred if she had. Instead, her favorite tactic was to guilt trip him, emphasizing how this recital wasn't just important to the two of them, but to everyone.

As if he didn't know that. As if he didn't think about how much work his friends put into giving him this gift every time he opened its case. As if he didn't imagine the look on their faces if he ever told them what he really thought about this stupid violin.

As if he couldn't hear his friends sitting in his living room being together and enjoying themselves while he was stuck practicing for a recital he didn't want to do anymore. It wasn't bad enough that he had been seeing his sister less, now he was seeing his friends less too. The one silver lining from having less time with his friends was that he learned to cherish the time he did get to spend with them even more. Because when it was finally time to go home and practice, he would step into the room with his sister, and her smile would vanish, and she would begin to berate him again.

Why couldn't she see he was trying? Why did she have to hurt him like that?

He thought about giving up so many times. It wouldn't be the first time he had given up on the violin. But her words worked; he didn't want to disappoint his friends. More than that, he didn't want to disappoint her. Maybe if he got his part perfect, maybe if he could just shine as bright as she did, things could go back to normal between them.

So he stayed quiet. He would see this through to the end, no matter what.

The day of the recital came, and she was at her limit. Not that anyone knew that, other than her brother. She was thankful that her parents had already gone ahead to prepare the venue, so they couldn't see the stress finally breaking through her decorum.

At this point, she had heard the song wrong so many times she wasn't sure if she could even recognize what it was supposed to sound like. In retrospect, the mistake was something so minor that the average person probably wouldn't notice, but she didn't care. All she could think about was what a disaster this was going to be.

Wanting to keep herself from doing something she would regret, she excused herself to go wash her face.

He didn't know how he had gotten to the top of the stairs. For the last few minutes, his thoughts had been an angry red haze. His sister hated him, his friends didn't care about him, and he was going to ruin the recital. At least, that's what was going through his mind at the time. If he had taken a moment to think maybe he would have had the moment of clarity needed to avoid everything, but the past few months had worn him down.

He was stressed, he was angry, and he needed to direct his feelings somewhere.

He couldn't blame his sister, because he knew she was right to be mad at him. He couldn't blame his friends, because despite how distant they had started to feel they had been nothing but kind to him, far more than he had ever deserved. He blamed himself, but that was nothing new. He needed something else.

His hand tightened around the neck of his violin.

The violin that his friends had gifted to him. The violin that he had put all of his hopes into. The violin that let him be close to his sister.

If only it didn't exist.

As he raised it over his head and threw it, he felt a surge of vindication.

That feeling lasted until the violin was halfway down the stairs.

The sound of the crash brought her running. Surveying the scene, her expression changed from concern to shock to anger.

Before he even had a moment to realize what he had done, she was already bearing down on him.

She screamed at him, demanding an explanation.

He screamed back, unable to give one that satisfied her.

He needed to get away. Somewhere, anywhere but here.

He tried to run.

She put a hand on him, still yelling.

Without thinking, he pushed her away.

It felt like all of the sound and color in the world died as she did.

He stayed at the top of the stairs for a few seconds as his mind caught up to his body. Then, he ran down the stairs, flailing onto his sister's crumpled form.

He called for her, shook her, tried to look for any signs of life, but there was nothing.

With his mind addled from grief, he dragged her body back up the stairs to their bedroom, laying her down in her bed. She was fine. She was asleep. So was he. This was all just a bad dream. She just needed to rest, and then she would wake up and he could apologize and she could yell at him all she wanted because he deserved that, but he didn't deserve this. She didn't deserve this.

He barely registered someone next to him, whispering in his ear, telling him that they could fix this. That no one needed to know what happened. He resisted at first, but in the red haze, it felt like their voice was the only thing that was grounding him. So he gave in, losing himself in their words as they told him what they need to do.

As they dragged his sister back down the stairs.

As they carried her outside.

As he curled up into a ball at the bottom of the tree.

Finally, his friend said that they were done, and that everything was going to be okay now. As he followed them back inside, however, they suddenly stopped, looking behind them in horror.

Turning back, he looked up at her b

It had been a few weeks. Or maybe it had been a few months. It was hard to tell the passage of time when he didn't leave his room.

His father was gone. After all of the arguments and shouting he heard from beyond his door, his exit had turned out to be quiet and unremarkable, save for the fading sound of his car driving away. He didn't even say goodbye. He didn't blame them.

His mother was gone, if not in body than in spirit. She always looked so tired when he saw her, even as she feigned happiness during her attempts to coddle him. She had to work longer and longer hours now to support both of them, meaning she was home less and less. He wondered if she thought that being away from him so much was a blessing in disguise. He didn't blame her either.

His sister was gone, but he still saw her. Like a negative painting, everything surrounding her absence defined her shape. When he was in his room, he saw her in the empty space that once held her bed. When his mom was able to coax him downstairs to eat, he saw her in the empty chair next to his at the kitchen table. 

And when he looked outside, he saw her hanging above the stump in the backyard that once held their tree, judging him with her single visible eye. He blamed her least of all.

He couldn't bear to be awake, because what he saw in the house forced him to remember what he had done. He couldn't bear to be asleep, because what he saw in his nightmares forced him to remember what he had done. Remembering was his punishment, and even though he deserved it the weight of his memories was slowly crushing him until he knew that one day he would break and finally follow his sister to the grave.

So he forgot.

Just like with the remains of his violin, he took all of his memories, both the good and the bad, put them in a box, locked it, and threw away the key. His waking life was now a gray, soporific parade going through the motions of living, but it was preferable to what had come before. And when he slept, he could live through an idealized, edited version of his childhood, one untarnished by his hands.

It wasn't ideal, and it wasn't perfect. The truth still slipped through the cracks again and again, forcing him to seal it away again and again, and each time he did so he lost a little bit more of himself until he felt truly disconnected from everything but his dreams.

It was no way to live. But it was a way to survive.

For now.

Sunny trailed off as he finished talking. His throat burned, he felt sick to his stomach, and his body seemed convinced he was about to die based off of his current heart rate, but he had managed to tell them everything without crying, so overall he was proud of himself. He couldn't claim the victory entirely as his own, of course; Mari had helped shoulder the burden, both the burden of the confession and the burden of what had happened five years ago. He still thought she was taking too much of the blame, but he knew it would be hard to convince her of that, especially since she seemed almost as drained as he was, slumped back in her seat.

Mrs. Rodriguez's hands, which had been covering her mouth in shock for most of Sunny's recounting, finally came down.

"I-I can't..." She sputtered. "All this time... It wasn't..." She wheeled on Sunny's mother. "Did you know all of this?"

"Like I said, I knew my daughter didn't kill herself." His mother replied cooly, even as her hands dug into the fabric of her jacket. "And I also knew my son wouldn't hurt her on purpose. Whatever happened, it was an accident."

"But you knew there was a cover-up, right?" Mr. Rodriguez asked

His mother's expression darkened. "I didn't want to accept that Sunny was capable of something like that, but I couldn't ignore it. I hate to say it, but when I finally learned it wasn't his idea it was almost a relief."

Sunny squirmed in his seat. He knew how much his mom didn't like Basil.

"Despite that..." His mom, for whatever reason, cast a sidelong glance at Mari. "Even if I'll never understand why they chose to cover it up in the way they did, I can at least understand why they felt the need to."

"And when did you finally learn all of that?" Mr. Rodriguez asked.

"Sunny told me everything last year, when he was in the hospital for his eye."

Mrs. Rodriguez's eyes widened in realization. "Henry."

Hero looked like he was trying to will himself to sink through the floor. "Yes, Mom?"

"You visited Sunny at the hospital last year."

"Yes, Mom."

"And then you spent the better part of a month cooped up in your room, like you did after Mari died."

He closed his eyes in defeat. "Y-yes, Mom. He told me too. Me and Kel and Aubrey."

"So your father and I are the only ones in here who didn't know." She wasn't asking.

Hero didn't answer.

"Fine." Mrs. Rodriguez scrubbed a hand over her eyes. "Then I want to know what you think about all of this. You've invited Sunny over before, and you've spent time with him and the others."

"And?" Hero said. If he was trying to sound defiant, he was failing.

"And," Mrs. Rodriguez put as much heat behind the word as she could. "You are the kind of person that will put everyone else's wellbeing before his own, including suffering in silence while being forced to do something you don't want to do - don't look at me like that, you know I'm right. I need you to tell me, right now, if you are truly okay with this."

That was a fair question. All of Sunny's old friends had somehow managed to forgive him, eventually, but with Hero he was never able to fully convince himself that it wasn't out of some sense of obligation. Whether it was an obligation to Kel to keep things civil between everyone, an obligation to Mari to honor her somehow, or some combination of the two, he didn't know, and asking felt like tempting fate.

Hero pressed his lips together in a thin line for a few seconds before he finally spoke. "I don't think I'll ever be truly okay with what happened." Sunny resisted the urge to look away as Hero stared at him. "Sunny, when you told me what happened, I'll admit it, I was mad. I still am, a little. And I wasn't just mad at you for killing her. I was at Basil for covering it up. I was mad at myself for not noticing how much you were hurting..."

"Hero-" Mari began, sounding like she was about to scold him.

"And I was mad at you too, Mari."

Mari balked. "Me?"

"Mari, the two of us always said we were best friends before we were a couple. We were supposed to be able to rely on each other. But you never told me how upset Sunny and the recital were making you."

"Well, that was the idea." Mari looked guilty. "I didn't want you to worry about me."

"You didn't want me to worry about you?" Hero sounded incredulous. "You couldn't have done a worse job! You were absentminded in class, you'd get irritated so easily, and then when I asked you if you were okay you would just play it off like nothing was wrong! That's why I was so sure you had killed yourself! I thought you were hiding something from me! And in a way, it turned out I was right!"

Sunny listened intently. He had been so sure he was the only one that knew Mari was acting differently; he really should have given his friends more credit, especially Hero.

While he was musing to himself, Mari had taken on an indignant tone of her own. "And what, you think me telling you I was struggling with the recital would have helped?"

"I don't know!" Hero shouted. "I don't know if I could have convinced you to be easier on Sunny, I don't know if I could have encouraged Sunny enough to calm him down, I don't know if I could have mediated things between you two somehow, and I never will because you took that chance away from us! It hurt that Sunny thought he had to hide everything from me, but you were supposed to be different! We..." He faltered, running out of steam. "We were supposed to be different."

The fight left Mari's eyes as quickly as it had entered.

"I... never even considered that it was a bad idea. I was so worried about disappointing you and the others..."

"Mari, the only way you ever disappointed me was when you wouldn't talk to me." 

"I know. I know that now, Henry." She sniffled. "I'm sorry."

"No, I'm sorry too." He sighed again. "It's not fair to dump all of the blame onto you. It's just that it was all so... avoidable. Everything was so easily avoidable, and that's what made me so angry. I had lost so much of my life to an accident." He closed his eyes, shaking his head. "So I told myself I wasn't going to lose any more of it."

"Sunny," It was a little harder for him to look Hero in the eye after all of that, but Sunny still managed. "Do you remember what I said to you and Basil the first time you visited after the hospital?"

"'I don't know if I can forgive you two, but I do know I don't want to lose you again'." Sunny recited from memory.

"I stand by that. If you're not going to run away again, then I'm not going to either. And it's not just because of the promise we all made. It's because I really want you to stick around." He smiled. "And I'm glad you did. Having you visit, spending time with everyone again, it made me realize that maybe I hadn't lost as much as I thought." The smile clouded over. "Like I said, I do still get angry sometimes, thinking about what happened. But it's a little harder to get angry each time it happens. I know things are still not fully patched up between us, but I'm sure someday we'll get there. Especially with Mari's help."

Sunny nodded slowly, and the tears he had been so proud of not shedding during his confession almost forced their way out. Hearing exactly how Hero thought of him was reassuring, but it almost made him feel incredibly guilty for assuming the worst of him. Even though the loss of his sister was unquantifiable, it wouldn't have been a stretch to say it had hurt Hero severely. If he never wanted to see Sunny again, Sunny would have accepted it without argument. And yet he was putting in the same effort as his other friends to keep him around. Maybe even more!

"Just to make sure." Mr. Rodriguez chimed in. "Did you forgive him, or is that still...?"

"I did. One of the other times he visited I took him aside and we talked about it while trying to remake Mari's cookies." Hero gave a wavering gesture with his good hand. "They didn't quite match up to the original."

"Well then." Mr. Rodriguez sat back. "It sounds like that settles that."

"Settled?!" Mrs. Rodriguez said, her voice going up an octave. "What about this is settled?"

"Actually, it seems to be like it's been settled for almost a year now."

"Joel." Mrs. Rodriguez growled.

"Amelia." Mr. Rodriguez didn't flinch. "I don't appreciate being kept out of the loop any more than you do, but Henry and Kel have been handling this all on their own for a year now. If they didn't want to be friends with Sunny anymore, he wouldn't be here. As for what he did..."

Sunny's breath hitched as Mr. Rodriguez looked him over.

"I've never felt threatened or afraid for my kids when he was with them. Have you?"

"Well no, of course I didn't." Mrs. Rodriguez shook her head.

"Do you think it'll be any different now, knowing what he did?"

Mrs. Rodriguez studied him as well. After a few seconds, she shook her head again with a sigh. "No, I don't."

"Neither do I. I don't know if I would have always felt that way, but it helps that we got the full story." He looked over at Mari. "And, I have to admit, it would feel a little silly to hate him for what he did to his sister when she's alive and well."

"I suppose." Mrs. Rodriguez relented, even though Sunny could tell she wasn't happy about it.

"So there you are, Sunny. You're safe with us."

Sunny couldn't help but push his luck. "And... Basil?"

Mr. Rodriguez frowned. "Yes, Basil too. That's a harder pill to swallow, but if our boys are staying friends with him, then we'll do our best as well."

"Good luck with that." Sunny's mother muttered under her breath, earning her a dirty look from Mari.

"Alright, with that rough business out of the way." Mr. Rodriguez brightened. "Mari, not that we aren't happy to see you, but how are you here, exactly? Have you been here all along?"

Mari pursed her lips for a moment before answering. "Sort of. I have no idea how to really explain this, but it turns out that ghosts and the afterlife are real after all. I can't tell you much more than that, not because I don't want to, but because I can't remember much between dying and coming back to life. There are bits and pieces, but most of it is just... static. I remember I couldn't get too far away from Sunny, though. I think the reason I was able to linger around was because I had unfinished business."

All of the relief Sunny had felt from the talk with Mr. and Mrs. Rodriguez promptly vanished down the pit in his stomach that opened up. Knowing that Mari had been with him all that time made his words about seeing her everywhere he looked seem like more than just a metaphor. Images of his sister, her form stretched and distorted into something monstrous, intruded into his mind. Then there were those fleeting moments with a translucent, monochrome Mari, encouraging him and giving him the strength to break out of his isolation. Were any of those actually his sister? Were all of them?

"After Sunny told Hero and the others what really happened, I was able to move on. Or at least, that was the idea. I was able to get a chance to come back if you beat Death at a game." Mari grinned, clearly pleased with herself. "I couldn't pass that up. Against all odds, I came back to life at the church, sitting on my own grave." She turned to Sunny, and the grin faded a bit. "I actually wanted you to be the first person I spoke to, Sunny, but I had forgotten that you and Mom had moved. So, I went to see if Kel was home, and it turns out Hero was there instead. Not too bad for a consolation prize."

"Gosh, thanks Mari." Hero tried to sound hurt, but he couldn't hide his smile.

"So you can try and get your life back?" Mr. Rodriguez almost sounded amused. "I guess I'll keep that in mind if I wind up dying before I'm eighty."

"Don't even joke." Mrs. Rodriguez swatted him on the arm.

"So, what was the game?" Mr. Rodriguez leaned forward. "I don't remember you playing much chess, but it wouldn't surprise me."

The remnants of Mari's grin vanished. "Oh. Um. It was... well..." She turned away. "Spaceboy Party 3."

Sunny paused. Wait, what?

"What was that, again?" Mrs. Rodriguez frowned.

"Spaceboy Party 3." Mari said louder, cheeks flushed.

"What's a Spaceboy Party 3?" Mr. Rodriguez scratched his head.

"It's a video game." Sunny's mother explained. "I remember her and Sunny used to play it all the time on rainy days. I think I had to get rid of it for some reason."

Mari looked away. "R-right, that one."

"You got your life back by playing a video game?" Mr. Rodriguez sounded more confused. "That's-"

"That's impossible."

For the second time since they entered the room, Sunny's abrupt words brought everyone's attention upon him.

"Sunny..." Mari looked puzzled. "I know it's hard to believe I'm alive again, but-"

"No, I believe that part." Sunny shook his head. "I just don't believe you won against Death at Spaceboy Party 3. You suck at that game."

"Wh..." Mari sputtered. "I beg your pardon?! That's rich, coming from the person who was never able to beat me!"

"I beat you all the time." Sunny scoffed, folding his arms.

"Sure, in the minigames! Too bad that didn't help you win where it counted!"

"Because you always got lucky."

"You can't call it luck when it keeps happening!" Mari argued.

"What else am I supposed to call it when you bumble your way onto two hidden Tofu in a single game?!" Sunny argued back. "If it wasn't for those, I would have won."

"One time!" Mari held up a finger. "That happened one time and you still hold it against me! Do you think I planned that?"

"Wouldn't surprise me!"

"You know, for their sake I hope no one else can ever beat you at a video game so no one else has to know what a sore loser you are!"

"I wouldn't be a sore loser if you didn't rub it in every time you stole clams from me!"

"I just remembered why I got rid of that goddamn game." Sunny's mother groused, rubbing her temples.

The shouting match finally reached a stalemate. 

Sunny glared at his sister.

Mari glowered back, scowling.

"...Pff." 

She snickered, her scowl wobbling.

Sunny chuckled, breaking into a grin.

The dam broke, and her snickers gave way to laughter. Not the reserved, covered laugh she tried to do in public, but the open-mouthed snorting laugh she did at home with Sunny, and sometimes at him. It was infectious, and Sunny found himself laughing harder than he had in years. As he did so, the last lingering bits of doubt fell away, and he realized why he had been so cautious around Mari. 

He hadn't been sure how to act around her. Even if she forgave him, even if she was kind to him again, there was a fear that things would never be the same between the two of them, that things could never go back to how they used to be between the two of them. After talking, arguing, and laughing with her, that fear was gone.

This was the sister he remembered, in all her petty, loving, smug, selfless, imperfect glory.

The chapel door opened, and the disgruntled face of an orderly leaned inside. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but can you all please keep it down? It's quiet hours right now."

Mari coughed, cheeks turning red. "Y-yes, sorry."

Sunny's mother looked at her watch. "I should probably get going anyway, I need to check in at the motel before the front desk closes." She stood up. "Sunny, Mari, I think you two should come with me for tonight."

"Will they have enough space to sleep over there?" Mrs. Rodriguez asked.

"Oh, I always get a double bed when I visit, just in case Sunny needs it. I'm sure I can get a room for Mari as well, even this late at night. There'll be a vacancy, Faraway isn't exactly a tourist destination. Let's get going, you two."

"We'll let Kel and the others know that everything is fine." Mr. Rodriguez said. "Right now, though, I think we've spent enough time at a hospital for one day."

"Um." Hero shuffled in his seat. "Actually, there's one more thing I want to talk about. Just the three of us."

"Henry." Mrs. Rodriguez's voice had an edge to it. "If there's something else you've been hiding from us-"

"No!" Hero shook his head quickly. "No, nothing like that. This is unrelated to everything else."

Mari perked up. "Hero, are you sure you don't want some help?"

"I'm sure. You and Polly already helped enough. I need to see everything else through myself."

"Okay. Good luck."

Before Sunny could ask what they were talking about, Mari and his mother ushered him out the door. As it shut, he could just make out Hero beginning to speak.

"So, about college..."

"What was the school you went to before we moved?" Mari's mother asked. 

"Effinger Memorial Elementary." Mari answered.

Her mother nodded in approval. "The name of our flower arrangement teacher?"

"Ms. Momose. And she'd tear into you if she heard you calling it 'flower arrangement'. It's ikebana."

"Of course." Mari's mother grinned. "Okay, one more. Where did we go for vacation the summer you graduated from 7th grade?"

"Ooh, trick question." Mari smirked. "That was the year I busted my knee, so we didn't get to go anywhere. I think we were going to go camping, though."

Her mother held up her hands in defeat. "Alright, you convinced me."

"I thought you were convinced already."

"I just want to make sure." Mari's mother reclined back on the small chair by the bed. "Are you sure this room is okay for you?"

"It'll be fine. I've been sleeping on couches the past few days, so having a bed all to myself sounds like a dream." She patted the mattress she was sitting on in appreciation.

"Well, alright." Mari's stood up and went towards the door. "I know it's a little late, but I wanted to get something to drink from the vending machine in the hall. Do you want anything?"

"If they have something good." Mari shrugged.

"Sunny, how about you?"

Sunny startled, looking at their mother in surprise. He had been staring at the corner of the room since they got here. "N-no, I'm fine."

Mari frowned. Was there still something bothering him?

Waiting for her mother to leave, she slid off the bed and sat down next to him. "Sunny?"

"Mari..." He looked at her pensively. "Do you remember where you died?"

Mari winced. She had a feeling it was going to be something heavy like this.

"I-I mean." Sunny continued when she didn't answer, mistaking her silence for confusion. "Did you die after I pushed you, or did you die after Basil and I..." He trailed off.

Mari thought about it for a few moments.

"...I don't know. After you pushed me, the next thing I knew I was at the bottom of the stairs. That could mean that's where I died, but I can't say for sure."

Sunny's face darkened. "...I'm sorry."

"Sunny." Mari sighed. "I thought we were past this."

He let out a weak cough of a laugh. "I-I don't think we'll ever be 'past' this. I still killed you."

"And I still forgive you."

"How?" Sunny asked. "How can you just forgive me for that?"

Mari tapped her chin. "Well, because it was partially my fault, and I know you're sorry, and you're my brother, and I love you. That's all I need."

Sunny looked away. "It still doesn't feel right."

"Sunny-"

"And!" He looked back up suddenly. "And it turns out you were with me all along! Knowing that you were watching over me, it just makes me ashamed of myself." Sunny went on, unaware of the troubled look that was growing on Mari's face. "I don't know if I could have sensed you, but if I did, maybe I could have..." He stopped, looking at her. "Mari?"

She had been wondering when she would have to bring this up with Sunny. He had just gotten used to being around her again, and talking about this could ruin the trust between the two of them. Still, she couldn't avoid it forever. Maybe it was best to do it now when it was just the two of them.

"Sunny." Mari sighed. "I have a confession to make. I wasn't just watching over your that whole time. I did reach out, and you did see me."

Sunny's face contorted in thought for a moment. "That night at the piano...?"

"I wish that was all it was. But no, before that as well."

He frowned. "When?"

"Very early on. Right after I died." Mari closed her eyes. "And right before I forgave you."

He crept into the bathroom, doing his best not to make any noise. Part of his silence was on behalf of his mother, currently sleeping in her bedroom after a long day. The other part, however, was out of a futile hope that he wouldn't encounter...

He pushed the thoughts from his mind, something that was becoming easier each time he did so. He needed to brush his teeth, one of the few bits of hygiene he still did with any regularity. Just brush his teeth and leave. Don't turn the lights on. Don't look in the mirror.

His hand shook as he messily applied toothpaste to his brush. He wasn't sure why he was trying so hard to keep this habit, out of all of the ones he had abandoned. Maybe it's because it was easy enough to keep doing that even he could manage to do it. Maybe he just preferred having clean teeth. Or maybe it's because he remembered being pestered about it so much by M-

His judgment lapsed as he thought of her, and before he could stop himself he looked in the mirror.

She stared back, the rage on her face visible even through the tangle of black hair obscuring it.

A strangled cry escaped his throat, and he reflexively threw his toothbrush at her image in the mirror. Stumbling from the exertion, he fell to the ground, knocking things over as he went, before landing in a whimpering heap.

The pounding in his ears barely covered up the sound of his mother bursting into the room.

"Sunny?!" She crouched down next to him. "Sweetie, what's wrong?"

He looked up, glancing pensively over her concerned face at the mirror. No one was there, not anymore, but he knew they would be back.

"Sunny..." His mother pleaded. "Please, just talk to me. I can't help you if you won't talk to me."

She couldn't help him. Not with this.

When Mari dared to open her eyes again, the expression on Sunny's face told her that he was reliving something from five years ago. It hurt her to see him like this again, but just like him she needed to make sure he knew the truth.

"I never tried to speak to you or anything like that." Mari continued slowly. "I just wanted to make sure you knew I was there, and that I was angry. It was hard for me to feel anything, so maybe staying angry like that was a way for me to hold onto something." She balled her hands into fists. "But that's just an excuse. All I did was make you as miserable as I was, like you weren't miserable enough already."

Sunny recovered from whatever he was recalling and was now silently watching her.

"Then one day, I finally looked you in the eye. Maybe I wanted to see the look on your face to admire my handiwork. But the expression you had..." She dug her nails into her palms. "It was like you didn't recognize me. And that made me remember our fight at the top of the stairs. I had held onto a recollection of that fight, as a way to keep myself mad, and it wasn't a fair recollection. It made you out worse than you really were. Like you had wanted to hurt me. But seeing you then forced me to remember how it had really happened, and how scared you were. How scared you were of me."

"In the treehouse," Sunny said, his eye shining with realization. "You said 'Please stop looking at me like that'. Was I...?"

"Yeah." Mari nodded. "Exactly the same. That was what it took for me to realize I hadn't learned anything after I fell, and I was still hurting you for no good reason. It also made me realize how much I missed you, and how lonely I was. I tried to leave you alone after that, but you were still so frightened all the time. You would react to things I couldn't see, like you were seeing... something."

Sunny flinched at the word 'something'. "Those weren't you?"

"Whatever you saw, Sunny, it wasn't me. Not after the first year or so. But that doesn't mean I'm not responsible for it. If I hadn't been so cruel to you, you wouldn't have been hallucinating... what did you see, anyway?"

Sunny went pale. "I-I'll tell you later."

Mari wasn't sure she actually wanted to know. "Anyway, I didn't trust myself not to make things worse, so all I did was watch you. You stopped looking so scared all the time, but that was just because you stopped expressing yourself at all. That's what I did for years. Time didn't seem to move the same way for me, so it wasn't as bad as it sounded, but it still wasn't great. Finally, when Mom sold the house, I knew I had to try again, but by that time it was almost too late." She let out a despondent sigh. "So that's it. I was able to help you a few times, but that doesn't outweigh everything else. You were going to say that things might have been better if you could see me, but really, if it hadn't been for me, maybe you wouldn't have shut yourself away for so long."

Mari had less than a second to feel sorry for herself before Sunny leaned over and wrapped his arms around her.

"I forgive you."

Mari goggled at him. "Just like that?"

"Mhm."

"But... I was really terrible to you, Sunny. And don't you say you deserved it, because you didn't."

Sunny pulled away from the hug and sat down next to her. "I mean, I did kill you. I'd be more upset if you weren't angry."

"It doesn't justify terrorizing you like I did."

"You helped me when it mattered."

"Sunny, by the time I worked up the courage to speak to you again you didn't need my help. You were going outside again, trying to get everyone together, working odd jobs... Kel did more to help you than I did."

Sunny's face scrunched up like he used to do when he was forced to speak and had to choose his words carefully.

"When I was in the hospital last year," He finally said, "I was fighting with myself over if I should tell the truth or not. It felt like it was my last chance. If I couldn't tell my friends the truth now, I probably wouldn't ever. And if I didn't tell them, I don't think I would have been able to hide it from myself anymore. I would have just... given up."

"What are you saying?" She knew exactly what he was saying, but was hoping he would at least deny it.

When he didn't, Mari yanked him back into a hug. "Don't you ever think like that-"

"I won't." Sunny sounded confident, even muffled against Mari's shoulder. "I promise. Because I know I have everyone encouraging me, including you, the person who had the most reason to hate me. So don't you say that you didn't help me, because you did."

"But if I had done more-"

"Doesn't matter. I forgive you."

"I..." Mari stopped her protest and shrugged. "Okay, fine." She chuckled in spite of herself. "Now I know how you feel about me forgiving you. It's hard to feel like you deserve it, and harder to forgive yourself."

Sunny's lips twitched up slightly. "Pretty much."

"Then let's work on forgiving ourselves together. Maybe someday we can get there."

"Worth a try."

"Glad we agree." Mari smiled, giving her little brother a pat on the head.

Sunny eyed her warily. "...Are you still mad at me? Even a little, like Hero is?"

"No." Mari said firmly. "Are you still scared of me?"

"No." Sunny said, just as firmly.

"Then I think we'll be okay."

Sunny nodded, then frowned. "...It still feels like I didn't earn this."

"Well, think about it this way." Mari held up a finger. "You're the one that asked for Spaceboy Party 3, and you're the one that made me play it with you so much. If it wasn't for that, I probably wouldn't have even known that game existed, meaning I wouldn't have used it in my challenge, which means I probably wouldn't have come back to life. So you might have accidentally killed me, but you accidentally saved me too. So it balances out!"

Sunny stared at her like she had grown another head.

She narrowed her eyes in challenge. "Tell me I'm wrong."

Sunny's mouth worked silently for a few seconds. Eventually, he let out a sigh. "You win."

"As usual." Mari nodded curtly, giving him another pat.

The two of them looked up as the door swung open. Mari's mother paused in the threshold, a purple soda can in each hand. "Am I interrupting something?"

"Just a little family drama." Mari replied innocently.

"Sure." Her mother held up the cans. "Sorry it took so long, all they had was grape soda. Hopefully that's fine with you."

"Mom, you know grape is my favorite."

Her mother grinned. "Just one final test. Sorry about that." She crossed the room and sat down across from them on the bed. "But I suppose I need to apologize for more than that."

"What do you mean?" Mari asked.

"When you were talking about the recital, and how important it was for you not to disappoint anyone... I can't help but feel responsible for that. I know I was a little strict, but you're my daughter, and I love you no matter what. And," She let out a huff. "Even though I don't want to speak for your father, if he were here I'm sure he'd say the same thing."

Mari tried to ignore her mother's dour expression; it was a reminder that, despite everything that had been fixed over the past few days, there were still going to be some things that stayed broken.

Her thoughts must have been obvious because her mother cleared her throat. "Sorry, I didn't want to bring the mood down. Let's do our best to enjoy the rest of the time here in Faraway, and we can worry about the serious stuff once we get home."

"Home?" Mari tried not to sound too hopeful.

"Yes, home. You're coming back with me and Sunny, of course." She quirked an eyebrow. "Unless you already have some arrangement with Henry to live in his dorm room."

"Mom!" Mari shook her head, red-faced. She had been so used to teasing others that she had forgotten about where she had learned it from. "No, of course I want to come live with you and Sunny."

"I thought so." Her mother's smirk turned back into a more earnest smile. "We have a spare room at the apartment that I was planning on turning into a guest room. I suppose it'll be your room instead."

Mari smiled as well. "Thanks, Mom."

Her mother held her arms out for a hug, which she and Sunny quickly accepted.

She wasn't going to cry. Even though she had finally reunited with all of her family and friends, and even though she was feeling an overwhelming amount of relief that she finally had a place to call home again, and even though part of the harsh lesson she had learned over the last five years had been that it was okay to show weakness, Mari was not going to cry. She had done that enough for today, thank you very much, and she was finished with it.

There was a sniffle, but it didn't come from her.

"Mom?" Sunny asked cautiously.

"I-It's fine. I'm fine." Their mother's voice cracked as she pulled both her and Sunny closer. "I just never thought I'd get the chance to hold both of my babies again."

It turned out Mari hadn't finished crying after all.