Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Sunny shook his hand and took the briefcase, several men in tow, he huffed as he threw it over into the trunk of his car, he entered the car and pulled out of the car park from this commended building, He lit a cigarette and exhaled, 10K worth of fat stacks in that briefcase, he took off his blood covered eyepatch and replaced it with a more sterile one, Blood had been shed.

What has Sunny’s life become? Why did a sweet, selfless boy become a ruthless criminal who does anything to make money while leading a gang? Well, it all began with his old life… It all started with Mari, his former sister, man, that was one pickle to get out of, Sunny didn’t have time to reminiscence because he was already outside his gang's hideout, an old Orange Joe factory, luckily with some money they were able to tear off the branding and refurbish some of the rooms, Becky, their technician was going to install cables into the building with the money they got, Sunny stood in front of the commended place and opened the front doors, being greeted by James, his current best friend, who handed him a can of Orange Joe, Sunny didn’t like it, it was repulsive, but it was the only drink they had, for some reason, the previous owners of the factory had left several crates of Orange joe, and so they brought some mini-fridges to store it in, Sunny pulled out and saw a text from one of his recon members, John, who was stationed in the general area of FARAWAY and OVERTHERE town’s.

John >>>> Sunny

3:22 John > Hey Sunny.

3:24 John > I and Zane were doing surveillance in faraway and we may have a rival gang in the area.

3:25 Sunny > Can I have exact details? The number of members, appearance, and more?

3:27 John > 6 Sir, they are all different heights, they all look like high schoolers, one of them wears a blonde wig, one has pink hair, and there is this one kid who is tall as fuck, probably as tall as you.

3:28 Sunny > What danger do they pose? They are just some scrawny wannabe kids, one of us could easily ruff them up.

3:29 John > I can see your point, but when we were spying on them, we found out they had an alliance with the Rouge gang. Do you want to know how much of a threat they pose?

3:32 Sunny > I see.

3:35 Sunny > I know faraway very well, we should head there tomorrow, I’ll see you tomorrow, let Zane know, Also, make sure to tie those red and white sneakers onto the powerlines, we’ll need them as patrol routes.’’

3:36 John > Got it, sir!

—

Sunny thought about the times before he adopted his lifestyle, now and then, he would question what his friends were doing, Sunny suspected that Mari and Hero are in college, hopefully not in this city, now and then, he saw a MISSING PERSON poster of himself on the brick walls of the city apartments, it was in close proximity from Faraway, he went into his room, which only consisted of a desk and dirty mattress with a pillow, he laid in bed while he had flashbacks from his old life.

‘’I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU WOULD DO THAT!’’ Mari screamed at Sunny, veins bulging on her forehead.

‘’DO YOU WANT TO KNOW HOW MUCH MONEY THAT COST TO BUY?’’

‘’1600 DOLLARS, AND NOW IT'S ALL GONE!’’

Mari screamed at Sunny, he didn’t care, but one word that was muttered made him break.

‘’DO YOU EVEN LOVE ME?!’’

Something inside of Sunny snapped, He felt absolute hatred, but couldn’t act on it, He took Mari’s words into deep thought.

It would be better if he ran away, it was absolutely better
Sunny stared at Mari funny, and walked to their room, he grabbed a backpack and began stuffing his back with objects, A first aid kit, a small flip-phone, and sweets from his drawer, he began packing it all into his backpack while Mari watched silently, confused on what he was doing.

‘’What are you doing sunny?’’ Mari asked, confused, hoping that he wasn’t doing what she think he was doing.

‘’Going.’’ He said in his usual monotone voice, and left the room, not looking back at Mari who had just understood what he was doing.

‘’Sunny, I didn’t mean it,’’ Mari said a little bit depsrately

Sunny did not respond, grabbing fruit from the kitchen.

‘’Don’t go… please…’’ Mari started to plead, while Sunny didn’t respond, as if he was oblivious to his sisters begging to stay.

Basil peeked from around the corner, a scared and worried expression painted across his face. ‘’Sunny… what are you doing?’’

Sunny once again stared at them, with nothing on his mind but to just get out of the house, then he snarled. ‘’Leaving, isn’t that what you want?’’

‘’L-look sunny... Please. Please don’t go….’’ Mari whimpered out, tears swelling in her eyes.

‘’You hate me, you said it yourself,’’ Sunny said coldly, staring at Mari with the void in his eyes.

‘’L-Look sunny… I-I take it back… okay?’’ Mari was crying now, he packed everything and started to walk out of the house, while Mari and Basil chased.

Basil felt scared, Sunny was going away! Get back here right now.. Sunny.

but Sunny disappeared behind trees, disappearing for 5 years. Not a trace of where had gone, gone… from the face of the earth.

Sunny got a ping on his phone from John, there was an attachment with the faces of the rival gang, 2 small kids, one with pompadour hair and the blonde hair kid, he then inspected the blue hoodie girl, her hair was half-shaven and wore red glasses, next to her was a big chubby guy with what looked like devil horns made out of hair sticking out, he saw the tall girl whose head was half shadowed, he then inspected the pink haired girl, she wore a crop top with cyan contacts… Familiar, he shut off the phone and walked into the main room of the building, and gathered all of the members.

Becky is a tall girl with blonde hair, and she sported a British accent, her backstory was an abusive life by her rich father back in England, he fled to the states after her father was arrested on charges of money laundering. Despite the circumstances, she was an outgoing and cheerful girl, she had a knack for messing around with wires, she joined Sunny’s gang after both having similar stories (abusive parents)

All of Sunny’s gang minus Josh and Zane were at this one large table, with him standing up.

‘’Hello,’’ Sunny said

‘’I have some very important news.’’ Sunny turned to look at his gang, dubbed ‘’SUZUKI CLUB’’, After his last name, most people would have just thought about the car brand first, so it made tracking efforts harder.

‘’Recently, with the thanks of John and Zane, we detected a rival gang in FARAWAY.’’

‘’They look like your normal run-of-the-mill delinquents but we recently found out that they have an alliance with the Rouge gang.’’

‘’And therefore, our turf is threatened if the Rouge gang has influence faraway.’’

‘’So, tomorrow, we are heading out to FARAWAY to patrol the area, Becky, you’ll stay here for maintaining the building.’’

‘’Got it, boss!’’ Becky shouted out.

‘’Our patrol routes should be marked out with red and white sneakers tied to the powerline, you should see them unless some Samaritan took them down or whatever.’’

‘’Am I understood?’’

All of the gang nodded, and sunny had a smile, it was rare, surprising everybody.

‘’Alright, let's go steal some food, we’ll need lots of it.’’ Sunny grabbed the bat and pistol with him, he only uses the gun if he needs to, and he sighed, pulling out a portrait of Basil he took with him.

‘’You’d probably understand.’’

Chapter Text

Aubrey’s life has never been the same after Sunny ran away, There was nobody to vent to, Kel wouldn’t even understand, Basil was too timid and Hero and Mari were off the charts because they were in college, but that all ended when she found Kim, her best friend, and is later introduced to her gang and got her hair dyed and she eventually became the leader, she stood in front of Sunny’s Missing poster, stuck to her wall, pointing her bat at his image.

‘’Sunny. Why did you leave?’’ Aubrey whimpered out

‘’4 long years… and I'm still waiting for you to come back.’’

‘’I’ll never understand you, hopefully, you found happiness or something like that.’’ She got changed, putting on trousers instead of her usual skirt but keeping her crop top, she then went downstairs, ignoring her mother's angry yelling, and stepped out of the door, narrowly avoiding a glass bottle smashing into the wall, Kim was outside, looking a bit scared, but quickly brightened up when she saw Aubrey.

‘’Hey, girl! We are having a special meeting at the secret hangout, The Mav and Charlie are already there, and Angel and Vance are on their way.’’ Aubrey nodded and the 2 began to walk towards the secret hangout, thoughts of that black-haired boy still in her mind, and she found herself at the park, she must of went on auto-pilot, anyways, she waved to Kel playing basketball who also waved back, slam dunking the ball into the net, making the court erupted in cheers, Aubrey turned around and walked towards the secret hangout, Aubrey and Kel’s relations were complicated, He was cool with the Hooligans sharing the secret hangout spot, and their bond tightened when Sunny left,

He managed to get with Cris, meanwhile, Kim had feelings for Basil, coming now and then to collect flowers from the park, it was s if sunny had never existed, but there comes Mari, she was heartbroken, she claimed to not know where Sunny went, while Basil changed the topic most of the time, at least Mari was at college, Life was going well in Sunny’s absence, but the 5 friends all knew it doesn’t feel the same when Sunny isn’t there, as if a vital part of the group was missing, Kel was the glue, he always pulled everybody out their houses to hang out, Hero was the person you could go to ask something, he knew how to do everything, also he had good cooking. Basil was a supportive and reasonable friend, he always had fun facts and intrigued everybody. Sunny was the life of the group, he was the one you could just talk to and he would listen to every aspect, maybe that's how he got along greatly with Sunny, since he had so many things to talk about and Sunny would always listen, she felt the same way with Sunny. Mari was perfect, she was all of her friends combined into one deity, but she quickly toppled over, at least she is having better days.

Aubrey was now in the secret hangout with all the hooligans, and they began to discuss.

‘’So you know about the rouge gang, right?’’ Kim asked Aubrey.

‘’Yeah, the same gang in the city who supplies us with candy?’’

‘’Apparently, they have bad blood with this other gang, also stationed in the city.’’ Aubrey blinked funnily at Kim.

‘’Kim, we are only in the alliance for candy and all of that.’’ Vance sounded concerned

‘’Yeah, but wouldn’t our relations go down? That means no more candy, oh and we would probably get our asses kicked by them.’’ Kim pointed out that Vance did not attempt to discourage her.

‘’Alright, so what is this gang called?’’

‘’Uh… it's called The Suzuki Club, they are pretty infamous, but their goals are different to the Rouge Gang and ours.’’ Aubrey thought about the name, Suzuki. That was the last name of Mari, but then again it could just be based on the brand of cars.

‘’THE SUZUKI CLUB? HPMH, THE HOOLIGANS EXCEED IN WHATEVER THEY CAN DO!’’

‘’Shut up Mikhael, you don’t even know what we are dealing with.’’ Kim snarled.

‘’IT'S THE MA-’’ Kim smacked Mikhael before he could continue

‘’Remind me, what is our goal again?’’ Angel asked.

‘’To get candy, the Rouge Gang's goal is getting revenge on the Suzuki Club for something they did 2 or 3 years ago.’’

‘’Hm, please fill me in.’’ Aubrey sat on the grass.

‘’So basically, while I was being a diplomat, they told me that the Suzuki Club raided one of their outposts, stealing a load of shit, and then they put their leader into a coma.’’

‘’Jesus, well, what do they want us to do about it?’’

‘’They were talking about fighting alongside them.’’ Kim huffed out, slightly shaking.

‘’They ask us to fight somebody who was able to put their leader into a coma?’’ Aubrey practically laughed.

‘’That's what I was thinking, but then again this alliance is doing wonders for us, your home situation isn’t getting that much better, and I can’t let my girl starve in her house all day long.’’ Kim wrapped an arm around Aubrey, sighing.

Aubrey thought about it, ‘Suzuki Club’? That was a Japanese car brand, and the only Japanese people that lived or used to live in the town were Sunny and Mari, Originally, she passed it off as some car meetup group, but the dots connected, She would talk about this to Mari once she got back home from college in 3 days for the autumn break, Aubrey tried to feel happy at first, the fact that there is a chance that Sunny is out there, but Happiness switched to anger, Sunny left her for 5 years, and now he might just show back up as nothing has ever happened? Whatever, she thought, The Aubrey he knew was long-gone, she is now a tough gal that can stand up for herself instead of her snot-whiney 12-year-old self. She wouldn’t mind fighting Sunny, but she wondered how gang life would have changed Sunny, but also Anger gave way to the yearning of why Sunny left all those years ago, she further speculated, it was right before the recital, Had sunny run away from Mari? No, he loved Mari more than anybody else on the planet, he would fight through hell to hug Mari again, and she would bring this up with Mari later, such a touchy subject wouldn’t invoke a nice response from Mari, considering that she still devotes her life into finding Sunny, she didn’t realize that she zoned out form the talk, while the others were arguing about the strength of the Suzuki Club.

‘’Who owns the Suzuki Club?’’ Angel asked while Kim and Mikhael were arguing over if it was Yakuza or not, while Kim argued that they were in America while Mikhael said that it was named after the Japanese car brand, but was shut up by Aubrey who told them that she was going home, on the way out, she noticed that there were an unusual pair of shoes hanging from the powerline, the only people who shoe tossed was the hooligans and they had their codes, could this be the Suzuki Club? Aubrey didn’t want to think it was, so she made her way to Kim’s house, who did some more research on the Suzuki Club.

‘’Nope, there's only some old news article from 2 years ago.’’ Kim sighed.

‘’Check it out,’’ Aubrey said as Kim clicked the news article.

‘’LOCAL GANG STEALS 5000$ WORTH OF COPPER FROM WIRES.’’

‘’This evening, the local supermarket had suffered from several power cuts, once electrical technicians investigated, it had been found that almost all of the wires had been stolen, Witnesses say that the thief descended the building by climbing a small ladder, ‘’SUZUKI CLUB’’ being written on the suspect's shirt, Several other stores in the area had reported the same occurs if you see a person associated with the ‘’SUZUKI CLUB’’, Please call 911.’’

‘’Update on 2/20/01 at 2:32 PM: This investigation has now been closed.’’

‘’Heh, petty thieves just like us..’’ Aubrey concluded.

‘’Why wires? If I was them, I’d probably ransack all of the candy in that store.’’

‘’We have different goals.’’ Aubrey reminded Kim.

‘’Well. Considering that we don’t have a choice when it comes to fighting the SUZUKI CLUB, we’ll probably get our answers soon.’’.

‘’Have I ever told you about Sunny?’’ Aubrey asked Kim.

‘’Yeah… the same guy who went missing 5 years ago?’’

‘’Well, his last name is Suzuki.. So.’’

‘’Holy. Shit.’’ Kim realized what she was saying.

‘’Heh, we have the same conclusions.’’ Aubrey chuckled, rather forcefully.

‘’But why? You told me about… how kind he was to you!’’ Kim shouted out.

‘’That's what I'm trying to question.’’

‘’We should tell his sister.’’ Aubrey hushed Kim.

‘’Mari… is still shaken up, if you mention Sunny, she will break down on the spot.’’ Aubrey shut up Kim, who nodded in agreement.

‘’Anyways, I'm gonna head home, all this talk about Suzuki and shit makes me tired, see ya later.’’ Aubrey walked out of Kim’s house, who waved back as Aubrey walked home.

Aubrey kept thinking about it. Could sunny come back? She started to reminisce about the day after Sunny ran away.

Aubrey sat crying on Suzuki’s couch with Kel and Basil, Hero was too busy comforting Mari and her parents were calling the local police department. The 3 were left to weep in Sunny’s absence.

‘’W-Why d-did he leaves?’’ Kel choked out.

‘’P-promise that we’ll stick together… okay?’’

‘’O-Okay..’’ Aubrey whimpered while Basil nodded.

‘’S-Sunny will c-come back…’’ Basil whimpered out, and Kel shakingly nodded, just then, the tired-looking mother of Sunny walked into the room

‘’We’ve called the police, but we ask you if you can leave. We need to discuss some personal things with my husband…’’ Hero came walking out of the room, tear marks on his cheeks, and held the 3 hands, not muttering a single word as Kel and Hero walked home, leaving Aubrey and Basil. Basil quickly returned home while Aubrey walked towards the park, she collapsed onto the swingset before crying her eyes out, begging for Sunny to come back.

She imagined that Sunny was swinging on the opposite swing, talking about her problems to him, and she would be comforted by Sunny’s presence, now it was just an empty swing, slightly swaying in the wind. Kel walked into the park and saw Aubrey crying, he immediately rushed to her and patted her on the back, while she turned over to see who was behind her.

‘’Hey, Kel….’’

‘’Can I sit on the other swing?’’

‘’Sure.’’

Kel walked over to the other swing and sat down on it, and kicking on the ground to move, Kel began to speak.

‘’Aubrey… you should head home.’’

‘’Whys that?

‘’I-I think we all need a rest, we’ll deal with Sunny later.’’

‘’Did Hero send you out here?’’

‘’Yep.’’

‘’Then go away,’’ Aubrey said coldly, while Kel got off the swings and faced Aubrey, who was looking at the ground.

‘’Huh? I'm trying to help!’’

‘’And you're not… Please go away…’’

Kel silently walked out of the park, while Aubrey sat, the sun started to set and it was awfully quiet in the park now that sunny isn’t here.

‘’Sunny, please come back.’’



A request that would never come true, after 4 long years.

Aubrey was interrupted when she got a message from Kim.

Kim >>>> Aubrey

5:50 Kim > I asked if the rouge gang knows about sunny Suzuki and they don’t know jackshit… it just might be a car brand after all.

5:52 Aubrey > oh ok…

Aubrey shut off the phone and stared at Sunny’s missing poster.

‘’Why on earth did you leave?’’



Meanwhile, a green-haired boy and a purple-haired boy were slinging shoes onto the powerline.

‘’Alright. We got the power lines done.’’ The green-haired person speaks to the receiver.

‘’Good job Zane, I’ve rallied the gang and we’ll set out at 10 tomorrow, meet up at OTHERMART, then we’ll start patrols soon after..’’ The voice from the other phone sounds out.

‘’Got it, boss, see you later.’’ 

Chapter Text

Sunny exited the warehouse with bags full of food, he took off his ski mask and gloves before hopping back into the car, Eris greeted him, she was 1 of the 2 who had driving licenses in the gang, Sunny was glad that the state law allowed 17-year-olds to drive, Eris put the keys into the car, starting it up and pulled out of the car park, she took a quiet road into another alleyway before removing the cloth hiding the number-plate to avoid state-of-the-art police tracking technology, Sunny checked his watch, 5:23, in a couple of hours, he is heading back to faraway, Eris started to hit up conservation with Sunny.

‘’Hey, boss.’’

‘’...’’ Sunny ignored her, opting to stare out of the window, watching the lights of the buildings speed by.

‘’Not one to talk, are you?’’

Eris had purple hair just like John, except she had streaks of it mixed with blue, she wore green contacts and large piercings on her ears, she came from Australia but her accent was almost non-existent, Her story was a lot more traumatic, and she developed an attitude to the other members of the gang, Apart from Sunny, of course, In Australia, her mother was a terrorist who had bombed the town center, killing her father in the process, she moved to the United States since she had relatives living there, she managed to get a driving license at 16 but was soon kicked out of her home and adopting a life to the streets, joining Sunny’s gang for refugee, she was great at sneaking and smuggling things around, taught by her mother as she smuggled bombs to sell abroad and covering her tracks, she made an excellent thief.

‘’Let's go to faraway earlier, John and Zane are already there, and we have the food.’’ Eris nodded and turned onto the other road, he got on the phone to alert the other gang members and they were all heading to FARAWAY to deal with the wannabes.

–
4 HOURS LATER
–

Sunny and Eris pulled onto the sidewalk next to the church, all of the other gang members were currently at Gino’s refueling, Eris thought he had a lost loved one but he only wanted to see how things changed in his 4-year absence.

‘’5 years…’’ Sunny sighed, standing in front of the church, he began to walk down the street, Passing Aubrey’s house which has degraded significantly since he was gone, the house had a torn-down road and he noted the absence of her father's car, either he left (can't blame him) or is at work, neither considering the 2 because he wasn’t here… Just a simple operation, rough up the rival gang, that's what he needed to do, he and Eris walked through the streets, admiring the town, well, Eris was the one admiring, Sunny still had bad memories, he doubted that his friends could recognize him, Sure.. he still had his black hair, but he had an eyepatch, 6''3 feet tall, has muscle, basically an upgraded version of his 12-year-old self, not to mention that he talked a lot more and developed a different personality ever since. He was different now, he walked to OTHERMART, narrowly avoiding the eyes of the park, and entered Gino’s, on one table he saw all of his gang members who greeted him and Eris, and the 2 ate whatever pizza was left, they were talking about the usual before rounding up the gang once more, getting a few eyes on him. The gang wanted to check out the place so they all marched into the park, getting a few scared glances from the children, Sunny just plopped himself onto the bench before an orange-wearing jock walked towards him.

Oh.. it was Kel.

Sunny decided to pretend he didn’t know him, Kel was at least a foot smaller than him, but had the same haircut and had some muscle as him, Sunny shooed away the others, who experimented with the park equipment with child-like wonder, as if they had never touched a park in their entire life, which could be true, considering that they lived in the darkest parts of a city.

‘’Hey! You look new! What's your name?’’

Sunny realized that his name would be a dead giveaway, so he went with the name Dela.

‘’The name Dela.’’

‘’Cool, you wanna play ball?’’

‘’Nah,’’ Dela said coldly, Kel pouted before returning to the court, he looked familiar but he was tall as hell, Kel thought.

Sunny then looked around the park, and he saw that Pink haired girl, it was time to strike, he silently called his gang to follow the pink-haired girl, and followed her to the secret hangout, where the rest of the rival gang was, Sunny accidentally alerted them by stepping on a stick, muttering a swear word as he did so.

‘’WHO ARE YOU?’’ The blonde-haired kid shouted out, which startled the pink-haired girl and stood back, clearly intimated at Sunny’s height and the more punkish gang members standing behind him.

‘’And who the hell are you?’’ Sunny spoke in his usual deep voice.

‘’Are you. The Suzuki Club?’’ Kim asked while Sunny did not answer.

‘’We have learned that you have affiliations with the Rouge gang!’’ Eris shouted out, Another gang member, called Eric, stood out and backed up the claims, Eric was the brain of the group, very intelligent, there were at least 5 important members, and the other 6 were just expendable soldiers. (we will introduce those folk later on in the story)

‘’Aubrey, is this the Suzuki club?’’ Angel whimpered out, obviously scared.

‘’Maybe… hey… wait… is that…’’ Aubrey looked at Sunny closer, taking into his height, and facial features, and concluded that in fact, this was Sunny, tears welled up in her eyes but was disturbed when Mikhael tried to jab Sunny, but he grabbed Mikhael's head and threw him down onto the ground, blankly staring at him.

‘’Sunny?’’ Aubrey whimpered.

‘’Heh, took you long enough.’’ Sunny let out a chuckle.

‘’I-Its have been 4 y-years!’’ Aubrey leaped towards Sunny, not before being knocked back by his fist.

‘’Unfortunately, we have to put our little reunion to a side.’’ Eris stood beside Sunny, menacingly glaring at the Hooligans

‘’S-Sunny… explain… w-why are you like this?’’

‘’You out of all people should know that we do anything to live on the streets.’’

‘’W-why did y-you run away?’’

‘’So.. Did Mari not explain it to you herself?’’ Sunny laid a finger on his chin.

‘’Don’t you blame Mari!’’

‘’Mari was scared, maybe with the fact that you all lost hope of me coming back, she was fine with keeping a secret.’’ Sunny sighed.

‘’I had a feeling you were in the Suzuki Club.’’

‘’Heh, took you long enough.’’

‘’I’ve only learned about your gang's existence a day ago and I already knew that you were in the Suzuki Club, for christ's sake, it's your last name!’’ Aubrey shouted out, while Sunny sighed for the 20th time in this story.

‘’What does it change?’’

‘’The fact you just left us without giving a reason!’’

‘’You won’t understand my p-’’

‘’YOU'RE PAIN? YOUR THE ONE WHO COMFORTED ME ON THOSE SWINGS HOW DO YOU THINK I FEEL?’’ Aubrey shouted out, tears in her eyes, The other gang members stood back at the argument.

‘’Explain this then.’’ Sunny rather dramatically rolled out his shirt, revealing 2 bullet hole scars in his stomach, something that even Eris and John didn’t know about, Everybody stood agape at his scars, muttering ‘’holy shit’’ as he stared expectantly at Aubrey, who looked mortified.

‘’Oh. My. God..’’ Aubrey whimpered.

‘’Now, what was I saying about ‘’not understanding my pain.’’ ‘’ Sunny smirked at Aubrey, who looked very angry.

‘’SHUT UP FOR FUCKSAKE!’’ Aubrey screamed out, and lunged towards sunny, who managed to dodge one of Aubrey’s strikes, but was jabbed by The Maverick, in response to this, Eric pulled out his switchblade and pointed it at Kim’s chest, which brought the attention of everybody, minus Sunny as he backhanded Mikhael in the jaw, causing him to stumble and fall, blood gushing out of his busted lip.

‘’Don’t you dare hurt Kim!’’ Aubrey shouted out. ‘’Seriously, a Knife?’’ Eric scoffed as he approached Kim, who was sweating, Vance could only watch in shock.

‘’You have a nail-bat…’’ Sunny pointed out.

‘’I use it to scare people!’’

‘’Who’s to say we can't with a knife? You could easily strike me with that bat before I even got to stab you.’’ Sunny added on, The hooligans stood back, seemingly afraid of Aubrey, while the members of the Suzuki Club had menacing grins, obviously unfazed.

‘’W-We, B-But! You're actually in a gang! W-we are just some teenagers that want candy and shit!’’ Kim stammered out, and Aubrey nodded.

‘’Rouge gang, eh? Unfortunately, an ally of the Rouge gang is an enemy of ours, now get out of here.’’ Eris said, stepping closer.

Aubrey let a few words slip that she would learn to regret later.

‘’WHAT WOULD MARI THINK ABOUT THIS?’’

Sunny’s gaze snapped towards Aubrey’s, he told the other gang members to stand down and started to approach Aubrey, cracking his knuckles as he did so. His bangs started to shadow his face as his stoic expression coldly glared at Aubrey.

‘’Aubrey. Have you ever learned to shut your mouth when it's for your good?’’

‘’Of course, you're distraught about me leaving, but have you ever decided to think about the others around you rather than yourself?’’ Sunny remarked.

‘’H-Huh?’’

‘’Oh please, shut up, you decided to tell me your side of the story, but you refuse to listen to the boss!!’’ Eris shouted out, behind sunny with Eric standing back., while Zane and John kept the hooligans at bay.

‘’Talking about Mari, where the hell even is she?’’ Sunny demands.

‘’W-What does it mean to you? H-huh?’’

‘’Not much, still need to catch up in my 4-year absence.’’ Sunny smirks at Aubrey.

‘’Y-Your heartless!’’ Aubrey desperately shouts at Sunny.

‘’Oh, believe me, there's a reason for everything.’’

‘’E-explain!’’ Aubrey screams out, while Sunny gestures to Eris who has a rope in her hand, and she was tied up against the tree along with the other hooligans, Sunny came by and squatted in front of Aubrey.

‘’Is an explanation you want? Then you're getting one.’’ Sunny punches Aubrey in the face, causing her to spit blood on the floor.

‘’You tell yourself that I'm still Sunny, Oh yeah, maybe in the flesh, but in the head, you're probably thinking of a sweet, innocent little boy who was so considerate of other people, but no, that isn’t me.’’ Aubrey is at a loss for words.

‘’This is pretty cheesy as hell, but the streets have changed me, for the better, or the worst, I don’t care, me and my gang and just try to survive, and whatever you have going on with the Rouge gang isn’t helping.’’ Sunny sighs, huffing slightly.

Sunny gets a call from Becky, disturbing him but he picked up

‘’..spy….rouge gang…power out…’’ Aubrey could hear from the phone, Sunny puts down the phone and frowns a little.

‘’Now, since you are a sweet little girl, how about you send this message to the rouge clan for me?’’ Sunny grins, almost madly.

‘’Tell them that their leader is as brain-dead as you will be if you decide to try and eat the bigger fish.’’ Aubrey gasped, was he referring to the leader of the Rouge gang’s comatose state? Sunny gestured to the other gang members to untie the hooligans, not before being punched in the face by Aubrey, it didn’t really hurt, Sunny just grunted, and walked out of the bushes, Aubrey chased Sunny but he was already out of the park, Kel pulled by Aubrey, concerned at the multiple wounds on her body.

‘’What happened?’’ Kel speaks to a bruised and battled Aubrey.



..

..

‘’Sunny is back in Faraway.’’

Chapter Text

‘’Tell them that their leader is as brain-dead as you will be if you decide to try and eat the bigger fish.’’ Aubrey gasped, was he referring to the leader of the Rouge gang’s comatose state? Sunny gestured to the other gang members to untie the hooligans, not before being punched in the face by Aubrey, it didn’t really hurt, Sunny just grunted, and walked out of the bushes, Aubrey chased Sunny but he was already out of the park, Kel pulled by Aubrey, concerned at the multiple wounds on her body.

‘’What happened?’’ Kel speaks to a bruised and battled Aubrey.

..

..

‘’Sunny is back in Faraway.’’

‘’Huh?!’’ Kel was in disbelief.

‘’That dude was SUNNY!’’ Aubrey yelled out.

‘’His name is Dela, Aubrey, Sunny’s long gone.’’ Kel sighed.

‘’HE LOOKS LIKE SUNNY!’’

‘’Hmm, now that I think about it, he did kind of look like Sunny.’’ Aubrey became hopeful.

‘’Buuuut…. The last time I remember, Sunny wasn’t 6’5.’’

‘’Oh my god, he admitted to me that he is Sunny.’’

‘’Well, let's follow him!’’ Aubrey and Kel started following Sunny, eavesdropping on him, he was on the phone.

‘’The Rouge gang is coming too far away?’’ Sunny said, a bit desperately.

‘’Yes, they are coming too far away… I saw their cars drive down the road, I can recognize any of their number plates.’’ A voice from the phone could be barely heard.

‘’Oh shit… alrighty then, but I have some old acquaintances which are getting in the way of my mission.’’

‘’Take your time boss, I managed to buy reservations at a hotel for 12 nights, we don’t have a lot of money left, so be careful.’’

Sunny put down the phone, before abruptly entering a bush with the other gang members, Aubrey and Kel attempted to follow them but didn’t get that far, mainly because the thorns were ripping Kel’s jersey and Aubrey’s crop top (don’t get any funny ideas friends.).

‘’Man, we aren’t gonna find Sunny anytime soon.’’ Kel huffed out, while Aubrey was on the verge of tears. Not even after half an hour, Sunny was already gone.

‘’N-Not again…’’ Aubrey choked out, not knowing that Sunny’s gang was in front of them, heading to the flats on the outskirts of FARAWAY.

‘’Cheer up Au-’’

‘’CHEER UP? i'm NOT GOING TO CHEER UP!’’ Aubrey roared at a mortified Kel.

‘’SUNNY CAME AND BEAT MY ASS UP, THEN LEFT AGAIN, DO YOU NOT REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENED 5 YEARS AGO?’’

Memories started to play in his head, the week when he was gloomy, missing Sunny, and crying himself to sleep before he found new friends.

‘’AND THEN YOU GOT NEW FRIENDS LIKE IT WAS NOTHING!’’ Aubrey continued to yell, but Kel’s eyebrows furrowed.

‘’And why do you have a problem now? I'm pretty sure just an hour ago you were fine.’’ Aubrey saw no flaws in his logic, surprisingly coming from Kel out of all people, she deflated.

‘’Well, lets let Mari know that Sunny’s back in faraway, how long is he staying, 12 days?’’

‘’Aubrey, I want to ask, who and what is the Rouge gang?’’

‘’Let's explain at Gino’s all that fighting has made me tired.’’ Kel and Aubrey walked towards Ginos before sitting down at an empty table, where Aubrey began.

‘’So, you know how I own a gang?’’ Kel nodded. ‘’Man, Aubrey… Mari and Hero would be disappointed in you.’’

‘’I know I know, but we only steal candy and that's it!’’

‘’Andddddd you destroyed my mailbox.’’ Kel pointed at Aubrey.

‘’Only because you called me by my XBOX Gamertag in the middle of class.’’ Aubrey pouted.

‘’Sorry, BunnyLover22.’’ Kel had a shit-eating grin on his face.

‘’Blame Hero, he was the one who gave me that name when Sunny let me play on his Xbox 360.’’ Aubrey chuckled, lightening the mood a little, but she cleared her throat.

‘’Remember when all of us played Minecraft together?’’

It was an evening after school, Sunny recently managed to get his hands on an XBOX 360 will many games like Minecraft and much to Mari’s dismay, Call of duty and the Halo franchise, Sunny decided to make a Minecraft world, since Kel had an Xbox too, they all decided to play, Hero and Kel played at their own house while Mari, Sunny, Aubrey and Basil all played on Sunny’s, they talked via Xbox party chat.

Sunny was creating a new world and sooner or later, everybody joined the world, All of them apart from Kel and Hero were experimenting with the controls until finally breaking trees, Mari took notice of this.

‘’Hey! Deforestation is bad!’’ Mari exclaimed while Hero chuckled.

‘’This is a survival game Mari unless you want to be killed by zombies!’’

‘’Z-ZOMBIES?’’ Aubrey stuttered in fear, obviously too afraid.

‘’And giant spiders too!’’ Hero turned pale at Kel, Mari and the others felt how he was feeling, but sunny was too busy gathering materials and managed to make a crude shelter, a combination of dirt and wooden blocks, Kel added on by adding a 2nd floor and Hero cleaned up the house, Aubrey and Basil took to gathering seeds and Mari was too busy killing animals, Sunny went into the menu and clicked on a random button, and out of nowhere, everybody was flying, Sunny pressed a button and went into the creative menu, and an idea popped up.


In an hour, a massive mansion was made, making Aubrey’s and everybody's jaws fall.

‘’Holy… Sunny… you just got the game! How?’’

‘’..it just came I guess.’’...

Mari chuckled when she found Aubrey’s and Sunny's beds joined together.

Aubrey felt sad that she would never be able to go back to that, but he had to explain to Kel about the rouge gang.

‘’Alright, so the rouge gang and my gang are in an alliance of some sort, and you know the Suzuki Club?’’ Kel shook his name.

‘’Wow. You are that dense, well, if it wasn’t obvious, Sunny owns a gang too.’’ Kel had his jaw agape, while Aubrey gave him an understanding look.

‘’So, the Suzuki Club is like our’s they steal shit, but they are violent.’’ Aubrey continued.

‘’Says the one who has a nail bat.’’ Kel chuckled.

‘’I-I only use it to scare people….’’ Aubrey quieted down, not letting anybody else in the shop hear.

‘’Anyways, Long story short, Sunny put their leader into a coma, and the Rouge clan hates his guts.’’

Kel couldn’t believe this, was sunny that… violent? He’ll find out later.

‘’What else did he say?’’ Kel asked, and Aubrey began once again.

‘’...When I tried to hug him, he… punched me.’’ Aubrey pointed to the dry blood on her nose

‘’Also, he has gun scars, it's really bad..’’

Kel felt worried for Sunny, has gang life affected his physicality?

‘’Jesus… W-Why did he run away in the first place?’’

‘’I-I don’t know… if you mention Mari… h-he gets pissed, d-do you think its because of h-her?’’

‘’Hm, probably, we should probably ask her.’’

‘’Okay? So why did Sunny beat you up?’’

‘’Because I have an alliance with the rouge gang, if it wasn’t obvious that was the reason why Sunny decided to assault me.’’ Aubrey awkwardly chuckled.

Aubrey and Kel decided to chat on their day, before leaving… but certain vehicles pulled into FARAWAY, their target? Sunny Siko Suzuki, Age 17.

Chapter Text

/>

Sunny was far from having a good day, Aubrey knew his identity, and Kel too, and then now, the Rouge gang
was in Faraway, quickly, he turned into a bush, causing Kel and Aubrey to be confused and tried to follow him, Sunny smirked, Walking alone down the streets at night allows you to detect stalkers more easily, especially in the more run-down parts of the city, he quickly pulled Eris and the others out of the hedge, and walked the other direction, ignoring Kel and Aubrey, Eris was the first one to speak.

‘’Sooooo… do you know that girl?’’ Eris asked.

‘’A old friend.’’ Sunny replied while Eris huffed.

‘’I just wanted to ask, do you miss your old life?’’ Eris flinched when she said that, but Luckily, she wasn’t met with Sunny’s death stare, but she was met with one of Sunny’s deep-in-thought expressions, Sunny pondered about it, His old life was way more relaxing than what it was now, but at the same time, it felt good to be his person, not a shadow of Mari, his demanding former sister, sometimes, he wouldn’t be surprised if she forgot about Sunny’s existence, completely oblivious to the tears spilled on that night

‘No… Not really.’’ Sunny concluded.

‘’Wow, To be honest, I have nothing left, I haven’t said it before… but… Thank you.’’ Eris looked down at the floor.

‘’Thank you for making me feel useful, even if it makes me a criminal in the process.’’ Eris gazed up at Sunny, while Eric, Zane, and John all gave sympathetic looks to her.

‘’Hey. Me too!’’ Zane shouted.

Zane was an interesting person, he came from Texas, and being in an entirely different gang, they ended up killing his father and his mother was blamed, she eventually got arrested and Zane was quick to realize this was his gang work, after being betrayed, Zane managed to get into California and eventually join Sunny’s gang, his slim body and fast legs made him a perfect spy and important recon member.

Sunny couldn’t help but smile, these weren’t just gang members, they were his friends, friends he could relate to, just a group of teenagers doing whatever it takes to survive the unforgiving and harsh life in a city, where at every corner, there could be a murderer who claimed the lives of innocent children or a deranged cultist, Luckily for Sunny, no-one of that criteria had ever approached him during the days before he made the Suzuki Club, but sooner or later, he was at the hotel.

‘’Okay, we have 12 days here, let's make the most of it, we got a rival gang to destroy.’’

Sunny couldn’t help but flinch, Even if he didn’t want to admit it, he felt ashamed of himself, for being so insensitive to Aubrey, but he couldn’t help it! Aubrey doesn’t understand what it's like to live on the streets, well, if you don’t classify a run-down house as ‘’the streets’’. Despite all of this though, Sunny had no intentions to repair friendships, after all, in 12 day’s he’ll be forced to get out of Faraway, he has an entire factory to maintain, The residents of Faraway wouldn’t want to let a load of gang members sleep over at their house and even if he had already shown his face to Aubrey and possibly Kel, it’d all be for naught,
Another thing he never thought about in his 4-year-long absence was Hero, despite being an almost older brother to him, Sunny entirely forgot that Hero existed, maybe it was seeing Kel in the flesh that was the reason why his memories were awakened.

Sunny entered the hotel and booked in, getting suspicious eyes from the small crowd following him around, eventually, they were all crammed into a small elevator, Eris took the stairwell, because why would she want to be cramped into an elevator full of boys?

Shoving that thought out of Sunny’s brain, he entered the room. It was okayish, it had 3 bunk beds and a small old TV with a worn-down couch in the middle of the room. The TV in question which was playing a weather report was suffering from interference. Nothing too shabby, Eris practically belly-flopped onto the couch, sighing loudly as she claimed her new fortress, Sunny shuffled onto the floor, while Eric came in with a rack of grape soda.

‘’Ah, finally, actually edible drinks…’’ Zane muttered in relief.

‘’Yeah, I have no idea how we haven’t become like… radioactive mutants yet…’’ Eris added on, who was still lounging on the couch. She ended up switching the channels to an old re-airing of a movie that Sunny recognized from his childhood, but couldn’t put his finger on it.

Sunny felt something vibrating in his pocket, the caller was Becky, he answered the phone while heavy breathing emitted from the other side and Becky meekly spoke.

‘’T-the Rouge Gang! T-Their in F-farway…’’ Becky stuttered while Sunny’s eyes shot open at this revealment.

‘’W-WHAT?’’

‘’I-Its true… T-They b-broke I-In… a-and they h-had guns! I-'m sorry boss….’’ Becky sighed, while Sunny ended the call and put the phone down, holding his head.

‘’Shit shit shit shit whatthefuckdowedo?’’ Sunny’s identity was already revealed by Aubrey and probably Kel, and now the Rouge Gang is here? Sunny was seriously shoo- No… Sunny got rid of that thought.

‘’Boss?’’ Zane snapped Sunny out, who quickly turned his head towards his fellow gang member. ‘’Yo… you kinda zoned out there…’’ Sunny didn’t respond, but Zane tried to pry further.

‘’What happened?’’

‘’The Rouge Gang… they are in Faraway.’’

‘’W-WHAT?!’’ Everybody shouted out.

‘’C-Cmon! W-we gotta go!’’ Eric hastily responded.

‘’What about the apartment!’’

‘’We can always come back later!’’ Eric responded, opening the door.

‘’Eric is right, We need to deal with the Rouge gang, they are on our turf...’’ Eris sighed, fiddling with her hand.

John and Sunny nodded, they checked out of the hotel before turning onto the street towards Othermart, where an orange figure and pink figure stood. As they were about to run out of the area, the pink figure took a step forward, blocking the way. Sunny tumbled over her, he was quick to shuffle off her and continue the run, he had other matters to attend to, but was yanked back by Aubrey, he was about to slap her but the orange figure shouted something.

‘’SUNNY!’’ Kel yelled, about to hug him, Sunny awkwardly stood there, while Aubrey looked at Sunny funny.

“‘B-Bro! A-Aubrey told me about you! I GOT SO MUCH TO TELL YOU!’’ Tears ran down Kels cheek in relief, his best bro is back! He was not expecting Sunny to push him off, he was expecting him to reciprocate the hug.

‘’I think you got the wrong guy-’’

‘’DON’T EVEN TRY TO PLAY THAT CARD!’’ Aubrey suddenly yelled.

‘’Yeah, Sunny! Stop lying!’’ Kel gave a disapproving look, while Sunny huffed, he turned towards his gang members.

‘’You guys, go deal with the Rouge Gang, I'll deal with these… acquaintances’’ He murmured as the SUZUKI CLUB nodded, running down the street, Sunny turned towards Kel and Aubrey.

‘’What do you want?’’ Sunny sighed.

‘’T-TO COME BACK TO US!’’ Aubrey yelled, tears running down her cheek as she choked back another sob, shaking her head. ‘’Y-YOU JUST… P-Please. T-tell us w-why!’’

‘’I-'m s-sorry a-about w-when I s-said Mari… A-About c-calling you heartless… I-I just… please… don’t leave us!’’ Aubrey begged, pleaded, and got on her knees, while Sunny shook his head.

‘’I can’t.’’

Aubrey’s right eye twitched. ‘’What?’’

‘’I can’t return to a normal life.’’  Aubrey cried even harder.

‘’Y-YES YOU FUCKING CAN!’’ She cried out, her lip trembling and her eyes shining because of the tears accumulating around her eyes, her heart wrenched as she saw no change to Sunny’s face, only his cold one, Suddenly, Kel stepped in.

‘’Aubrey is right! Y-your still our S-Sunny!’’

Sunny shook his head.

‘’I'm not the Sunny you used to know.’’ Sunny responded, turning around, but Kel grabbed his shoulder.

‘’Su-’’ Kel was hit by Sunny’s fist, he fell onto the ground and his nose began to bleed

‘’OUCH!’’ Kel yelled as Aubrey took a step back.

‘’Don't. Touch. Me.’’ Sunny said 3  words that scared the shit out of the 2, but Kel powered through.

‘’What the heck man? What the hell was that for!’’ He yelled, wiping the blood away from his nose.

‘’Do you want another fight?’’’ Sunny cracked his knuckles, and Kel shook his head.

‘’No! I-I just want to be friends!’’

‘’Too b-’’ Aubrey punched Sunny in the face, again, her skinny form didn’t do that much to Sunny’s taller and more muscular form, Sunny looks unphased, and Aubrey punches again, but Kel stops her. ‘’Let me deal with this.’’

Kel walks up to Sunny. ‘’C’mon man! I don’t want to fight!’’

‘’Then what will you do?’’

‘’Uh-’’

‘’WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?’’ Sunny yelled, startling Kel and making Aubrey freeze.

‘’P-Please!’’ Kel yelled desperately, while Sunny shook his head.

Meanwhile, 5 teenagers were walking down the sidewalk, catching onto an argument on the street, their leader… and the Suzuki Club leader, the 5 were about to run but The Maverick saw his fine future wife in distress! This foe shall be stopped, No peasant shall be defeated by The Maverick himself!

‘’STOP RIGHT THERE!’’ He called out with all of his might, trying to scare the 6,3 giant into submission, yet he didn’t budge.

‘’Fucking hell…’’ Aubry facepalmed, while Kel stood there dumbfounded at The Maverick's attempt to defeat this slender beast. Sunny did not budge, his face remaining cold, The Maverick wasn’t expecting this foe to be this powerful! Hmph, The Maverick shall not show weakness.

‘’I’LL PROTECT YOU! FINE LADY!’’ The Maverick yelled out to Aubrey, hitting a pose that matched the definition of Cool in his eyes.

‘’Goddammit Mi-’’ It was too late, The Maverick had already just struck the beast!

‘’Do not worry, my duchess, This vile creature shall no longer har-’’

The Maverick fell onto the floor on his back as Sunny’s fist struck his face.

‘Argh! I underestimated the power of this foe!’ He thought to himself, as Sunny put the boot of his shoe onto his chest, he leaned closer to the Maverick.

‘’Listen here, Do not interfere with what I'm trying to do. Also, is that a wig?’’ Sunny spoke, while The Maverick struggled to remove the boot off his chest, a futile attempt at freeing himself.

‘’N-No! I-Its my natural hair!’’ His persona was in shambles, as Sunny effortlessly shattered through it, Sunny grabbed his ‘’hair’’ and revealed his natural brown hair, Kel looked shocked while Aubrey didn’t pay much attention but only to Sunny.

‘’H-Hey! Give that back!’’ The Maverick’s small arms reached for the wig in Sunny’s hand, who simply held it farther from his hand, he threw it onto the road where a car ran over it, ruining the blonde wig, now covered with tire marks and a bald spot after the hair was ripped out, The Maverick cried out in agony, as his wig flew away.

‘’No! The Maverick can’t be seen like this!’’ He yelled, while Kel chuckled, Sunny released his hold on Mikhael, who instead of trying to hit him, ran away, covering his natural hair with his hands, Sunny turned to Kel and Aubrey.

‘’What were we fighting about again?’’ Kel scratched his chin, and Sunny shrugged, while Aubrey slapped Kel.

‘’WE ARE STOPPING SUNNY FROM RUNNING AWAY AGAIN!’’

‘’Eh?-’’

‘’BOSS!’’ Eric shouted, the rest of the SUZUKI CLUB following, they looked badly beaten! Zane ran towards Sunny.

‘’T-The Rouge gang! T-They h-have new members!’’ Zane said between breaths, cuts on his body, Sunny nodded.

‘’Return to our apartment, quickly!’’ Sunny shouted, as the gang ran down the sidewalk, meanwhile, a group of people walked down the street that Aubrey recognized, it was the Rouge gang, one of its members stood out and walked towards Aubrey.

‘’Hello, Aubrey.’’ He said.

‘’Hey, Wyatt.’’ Aubrey extended an arm out and the 2 did a handshake.

‘’It seems you were talking to the SUZUKI CLUB leader, mind giving a few little…. Details?’’ Wyatt pried forward, while Aubrey was put in a tense situation, Aubrey gestured for Kel to go away, and he did, running to the park while she thought of an excuse.

‘’U-Uhm, I-I beat his ass!’’ Aubrey told him, but he wasn’t easily fooled, his smile turned into a frown.

‘’Tell me the truth.’’

‘’Okay okay! I-I talked to him! He called me a b-bitch…’’ Sorry Sunny, she thought.

‘’Now, that's not very good.’’ Wyatt cracked his knuckles. ‘’Where did he go?’’

‘’T-The others ran off, N-no idea, sir..’’ Aubrey seriously hoped the stutter didn’t hint at any dishonesty.

‘’Oh well, here is the candy we promised.’’ Wyatt gestured to one of his gang members with a bag full of candy, probably stolen, Aubrey happily took it.

‘’Nice doing business with you,’’ Aubrey said, while Wyatt chuckled.

‘’Just want to ask, w-whats the sudden trip to Faraway?’’

‘’Well, It has to do with the SUZUKI CLUB… they have turf here.’’ Aubrey’s eyes widened! What the hell? Sunny had already been in faraway before? She shouldn’t have just stayed in the outskirts of faraway, she should of went inner into the city!

‘’And well, if we want to continue our deal, we need to… remove them, and send them back to Nearby City,’’ Wyatt concluded, Aubrey hesitantly nodded.

‘’Well, mates, I guess we are out for a hunt!’’ Wyatt turned towards the Rouge Gang, a  smile painted across his face, ready to use his devious tactics, He pulled out a broken pipe, and blew the dust off it, he held it behind his back in a similar fashion to Aubrey’s bat.

‘’Well, what are we waiting for?’’

Chapter Text

Wyatt and his comrades walked down the street on the hunt for Sunny. Aubrey and Kel stood there, dumbfounded, Aubrey felt a little bad at her core, but Kel practically shat himself.

‘’A-Aubrey… S-Should we let B-Basil know?’’

‘’Yeah..’’ Basil deserved to know, the poor flower boy, for the most part, had already moved on from Sunny leaving, although both teenagers knew that relighting that rainbow torch would open some bad wounds, The duo made their way to FIx-It, Basil had always been a worker there as soon as they offered job positions, he loved it for he was able to work with flowers. As soon as Basil saw the duo, he greeted them warmly. ‘’Hey, you two! How’s it going?’’

Aubrey nervously shuffled up to the counter,  while Kel just casually walked up to the counter to talk with Basil.

‘’S-Sunny. H-He’s back.’’ Basil couldn’t believe his eyes, his face was painted a manic smile, quickly he mounted over the counter and attempted to run towards the outside world, but Kel grabbed his shoulder before he was able to leave the building, his hand was cold.

‘’S-Sunny...He isn’t the same.’’

Basil’s left eye twitched in confusion and turned towards Kel. ‘’What do you mean?’’

‘’Sunny. H-He.. owns a gang..’’ Kel nervously stuttered out, as a defeated Aubrey glanced on to the two boys with envy for their communication of the situation, while she was stuck there, seemingly unable to move.

Basil was for the most part, shocked and relieved, Sunny was finally back! After 5 years of separation! He was back! He could return to Basil, rightfully! But he was deeply saddened by Sunny’s apparent gang ownership; Though the feeling was quickly put out by Basil’s sudden spike in positive emotion.

Aubrey turned towards Kel. ‘’Are w-we gonna tell M-Mari and H-Hero?’’

‘’OF COURSE! Sunny is Mari's little brother!’’

“N-Not so little now..” Aubrey muttered, half-joking.

Basil turned over to Aubrey, with a deadpan. “Aubrey now is no time to be joking! We need to find Sunny so I can finally tell him about how I’d let-” Basil was quickly shut up by Kel placing his hand over Basil’s mouth.

“Basil is right, sorta. We need to find Sunny.” Kel confirmed Basil’s first point, shuddering at what the 2nd one was implying.

Meanwhile, Sunny and his gang were walking down the pavement, the other gang members eyed Sunny's unusual behavior, and Zane was the first one to provoke conservation.

‘’Something on your mind?’’ Zane attempted to pry into Sunny’s thoughts.

‘’Is it  just me… or do you wish that you can go back to your normal life?’’  Sunny questioned, while Zane blinked.

‘’Honestly, B-Before my mom died, I wouldn’t mind returning to my normal life, if I'm being honest..’’ Zane confessed while Sunny let out a sigh.

“Yeah, I’m not sure if I could even return to my life though.” Sunny murmured, narrowing his eyes as he approached the building he was looking for; the empty church.

‘’Wow, I’ve never taken you for a religious person,’’ Eris said, eyeing the church.

“I’m not, but it beats me to whether I should pray for my old life back, or pray that my friends don’t murder me for owning a gang.” Sunny joked, cracking a grin. The gang has rarely seen Sunny grin.

‘’What's the sudden shift in attitude? I thought you hated your friends for ignoring you during those violin shenanigans?’’ Zane inquired.

Sunny stopped in his tracks, deadpanning to Zane; using a cold tone only used to scare the shit out of rival gangs, it seems that Zane struck a nerve. “Don’t bring that up.” If Zane wasn’t in the Suzuki Club, he would just be another person on Sunny’s kill list just for bringing that up.

Zane gulped, before quickly apologizing, or at least trying to. “S-Sorry, B-Boss-”

Before Zane could finish his apology, the former blonde now black-haired boy jumped in front of Sunny, ending Zane’s apology. “You again, Vile beast?! Heh,  this time, you are no match for The Maverick! how about we have a rematch?’’

Sunny turned around only to be met with The Maverick’s fist, though it didn’t do very much.
The Maverick recoiled his hand, quietly yelping in pain due to not expecting Sunny’s face to be so damn hard.

‘OUCH, this beast has only-” Before The Maverick could finish, Sunny nailed him in the face, causing The Maverick to instantly pass out, and be kicked aside by Zane, earning a chuckle from Sunny.

Sunny had decided, even if his old life was more appealing, his new gang mem- No. Friends were more understanding. Even if his story was just your run-of-the-mill runaway backstory, he could vent his trauma to like-minded individuals, Kel was dense as a rock, and wouldn’t understand, Hero would just give basic advice, Aubrey was off the charts, Basil is just timid one with no special traits, not to mention, he is just a soft flower boy who doesn’t understand gang life; and Mari… She was just an idiot who only tolerated him because he was her brother.

His violent and angry thoughts were stopped as he came face-to-face with the church doors, judging from the silence, he deemed the church empty, well, not empty, as the priest stood at the back, who smiled at Sunny.

‘’Ah, you seem to be new? Wait.. your Sunny Suzuki? Ah, your sister told me about you!.’’ Sunny gave a dirty glance,  but his gang took their seats. Sunny began to pray, there was this cold, bitter feeling, telling himself that this was his new life, and he couldn’t change it without serious time and effort.

His gang, of course, was shocked by Sunny praying. They didn’t take him as the religious type, despite his denial. He felt like there was hope, but whatever came into his gritty mind was only replaced with negativity, Who was he kidding, things can’t ever go back to no-

*SLAM*

The church doors flew open, startling everybody, the Priest made an attempt to give a happy smile, but the sweat and his slightly twitching eye betrayed his calmness, intimidated and fearful of Wyatt's pipe, and his gang that followed after.

‘’AHAH!’’ Rose shouted out, her true origins were from the lower regions of France! Her backstory was… not as tragic, but she could make a name for herself with her basic military training via her father's attempts to get her into the army.

‘’Found you!’’ Wyatt donned a sadistic smile, the pipe he was wielding resting in between his 2 hands slightly dented due to his grip, as Wyatt intended on getting revenge, for the old leader of the Rouge Gang would be finally getting their external revenge.

‘’Thought you could run away?’’ Wyatt chuckled to himself. ‘’Man, I love being the leader, it’d be a shame if Joey ever woke up from his coma, don’t you think?’’

A dark memory awakened in Sunny’s mind, he wasn’t trying to kill him or put him into a coma for that matter, Rough him up, that's what he said.

Yet, he didn’t feel remorse, after all, he had to do anything to survive on the streets, and eventually, he would have to resort to drastic measures.

‘’Gonna say anything?’’ Wyatt's grin turned into a confused stare, as the Priest ducked, seemingly aware of what was going to happen, as another scuffle was about to unfold.

Meanwhile, 3 teenagers made their way to the jock's house, and rushed for the phone, dialing the big brother of the group, the caller picked up.

‘’Hey, Kel!’’ Hero’s voice emitted from the phone.

‘’Hey, Hero! You won’t believe who we saw today!’’

‘’Huh? Please don’t be calling me for no reason-’’ Hero was cut off.

‘’SUNNY IS BACK!’’ Kel yelled at the phone, while Hero took a few seconds to process this new information.

‘’No Kel, this is the 10th time you mistook a black-haired boy for Sunn-’’

‘’I SAW HIM TOO!’’ Aubrey butted into the call, and an audible gasp emitted from the other side.

‘’Okay Kel, I'm gonna call you later. Stay at home.’’ Hero’s voice sounded.. different, with a tone of urgency underlying it.

‘’Alright then? See you later bro.’’ Kel ended the call, the atmosphere was tense, until Aubrey yelled.

‘’WHAT? Hero’s not even letting us go outside?! Why?’’ Aubrey shouted at nobody in particular.

‘’A-Aubrey, M-Maybe Hero is Informing the.. police station? Yeah! He’s doing that!’’ Basil grinned and put his thumbs up.

Aubrey’s face paled, while Kel had a supportive grin.

‘’Yeah!’’ Kel agreed with Basil, but Aubrey was sweating buckets.

‘’YOU GUYS DO REALIZE SUNNY IS IN A GANG, RIGHT?!’’ Aubrey grabbed Basil by the collar, shaking at him for suggesting a such stupid idea. ‘’HE’S GONNA GET ARRESTED!’’ Basil seemed to understand, and his face paled at the revelation. Kel, for the most part, looked unphased.

‘’C'mon, Hero isn’t that big of a snitch! Right?”
‘’KEL! He has hurt people, Including me and you!’’ Aubrey shut Kel up, who also paled; his 2 brain cells processed the fact.

The 3 were forced to wait, the tense heat was trapped inside like a greenhouse, accumulating more and more, what could happen? Could Sunny get arrested? Has he killed people before? Aubrey was mostly concerned with the last part.

Over in CLOSEBY, Hero was breathing heavily, No way. He thought Sunny was dead long ago! It only seemed that Kel, Basil, and Hero were the only ones who could move on. Basil; was able to easily forgive Sunny for another reason.

Hero would instantly tell Mari, but if it wasn’t for her stupid business classes going on; maybe he could call her, or something like that. He checked the time; 2:59 PM. Ah, Mari should be returning to the dorm any second now. The door slowly crept open, revealing a very tired Mari, who flopped onto the couch as she sighed. Hero would often greet her like normal, but he didn’t choose to, no, it wasn’t Mari’s exhaustion, but rather, the topic of her little brother.

‘She deserves to know.’ Hero thought to himself, as he prodded on Mari’s back, she groggily turned around to see a deep-in-thought Hero.

‘’M-Mari.  I-I have something to tell you.’’ Hero said while Mari rubbed her eyes.

‘’ Mrrnggghhhh, What is it, Hero?’’ She groaned out.

‘’I-Its about Sunny…’’ Mari’s eyes shot open, any signs of fatigue evaporating at the mention of his name.

“Well? What about him?!’’ She said again, while Hero took a deep breath and exhaled.

‘’S-Sunny… A-Aubrey and Kel! T-They found him!’’

Wyatt walked towards Sunny, who didn’t look scared at all, he attempted to grab the pipe but Wyatt smacked his hand away.

Sunny snarled and readied his fists as he threw the first attack, hitting Wyatt in the right cheek, and sending him stumbling due to the power behind the punch. Marie quickly drew her switchblade and launched herself towards Sunny, but he managed to throw himself behind one of the pew chairs, narrowly avoiding a knife to his cheek.

Eris quickly drew a switchblade of her own and ran towards Marie, both of the switchblade users hacking away at each other. Sunny picked himself up from the floor as Wyatt approached him, Fists wouldn't’ work when he had a FUCKING PIPE.

Sunny looked around for something to defend with, ending up with the choice of a chair leg; by ripping one out from one of the Pew chairs. He grabbed the sharpest end of the chair leg and slashed it against Wyatt, who got a cut on his abdomen. But nothing too major; he clenched his teeth because of the pain, and his eyes looked pained. He raised the pipe up and before he was able to turn Sunny’s head into chunks, he shuffled over, narrowly avoiding the pipe.

‘’C'mon, Stay still!’’ Wyatt grunted as Sunny dodged his attacks, but he accidentally rolled toward where Wyatt was smashing the pipe and got hit in the stomach.

He spits some blood out and makes a pained gasp, clenching his stomach, leaving him defenseless, Wyatt grabbed the chair leg and pointed the sharp end towards his throat.

Though before Sunny’s early death could be done with, everybody in the fight heard Police Sirens. “Shit! Everybody scatter! The police are here!” Wyatt announced to his gang, and by extension; Sunny’s gang as well.

Everybody quickly scattered off, as Sunny got up and bolted out one of the back doors. Ironically Marie was running next to him. but they didn’t have time to fight; as they would all be caught if there was any more conflict.

Sunny jumped into a bush, as police officers approached the church with Mari and Hero following on the road, on instinct, Hero and Mari pulled over as a teenager was yelling ‘’DAMN YOU SUZUKI!’’ Said boy disappeared.

Did she just hear that correctly? SUZUKI? Sunny? Sunny Suzuki? Otherwise, she stepped into the church, as many police officers were writing something down on a notepad.

‘’Hmm. Did I hear that right? Black-haired boy... White eyepatch. Asian heritage…’’ The police officer noted down while the Priest nodded his head.

Sunny. No… H-He was h-here? No. it couldn’t be possible.

Hero was quick to talk to the police officers as Mari wandered towards the backdoors, he got a glimpse of 2 figures running into the bushes… She instinctively ran towards the 2.

‘’HEY STOP!’’ She yelled, as one of the silhouettes came to a halt, and turned around.

What she saw was a tall male, with black hair, an eyepatch and-

The teen was dragged into the bushes, yeah, probably a hallucination, Mari slumped down, well, Could it be a possibility that it was Sunny? After all, Aubrey and Kel confirmed that he was back, along with Hero.

She figured it was time to head back to Hero, she stepped back into the church and got stopped by the priest. “Mari, Ah. How are you today?’’

‘’I'm fine..’’ She responded in a downcast mood.

‘’That’s good to hear Mari, I wanted to ask you something; wasn’t that Sunny? He went missing 5 years ago-’’ Mari instantly ran out of the church, no… he isn’t back, it's been 5 years… 

Hero returned to the car in silence and ignited the ignition, and the 2 began to drive back home, as they pulled into the driveway Kel’s silhouette was seen standing at the front door.

He seemed to be playing basketball by himself, obviously because he was stressed out, As he stepped out of the car, Kel rushed towards Hero and hugged him. Hero would usually feel all cuddly and warm, but this feeling was cold… like a slab of stone.

‘’We need to talk about Sunny.’’ Hero sternly said, an unusually copious amount of tension in his tone.

Chapter Text

Kel nodded and the 3 walked into the house, Aubrey lunged at Mari, hugging her.

‘’It's been so long!’’ She rejoiced, but the same applied to Mari, she felt like a stone brick. Aubrey instantly understood and made their way to the couch in relative silence; Basil was sitting there twiddling his fingers, The 4 made it into their seats as Hero began speaking.

‘’So, what happened to Sunny?’’

Aubrey glanced down, while Kel hugged his arm while he spoke.

‘’H-He’s changed..’’ He said, as Mari approached Kel.

‘’How?’’ She demanded.

‘’He’s… He’s in a gang now.’’ Kel finished his previous sentence as a guilty look splashed across Mari’s face, She did this to Sunny; yet he was actually back!

‘’Oh..’’ Hero had a look of disappointment. ‘’When did you see him?’’

‘’Today.’’ Aubrey said, while Hero yawned; tired from the car ride.

‘’O-Oh okay… What was he doing?’’
u
Kel and Aubrey began to retell the events of the day, all the way from Sunny’s fake name and Kel meeting, and then to Aubrey reciting the fight she had between Sunny and then the final confrontation between Sunny, Kel and Aubrey.

By the end of the tale, Hero had an unrecognizable expression painted across his face, then a thought appeared in his head.

‘’Why did Sunny even fight you two in the beginning?’’ Aubrey flinched.

‘’I-I have something to tell you.’’ Aubrey took a deep breath and exhaled. ‘’I-Im in a gang… sorta…’’

‘’Aubrey…’’ Hero had a very stern expression. ‘’Don’t tell m-’’

‘’I-It's not a proper gang! W-We…’’ This was a bad situation, the words failed to come out of her mouth as Aubrey made weird hand movements, trying to get words but failing.

‘’Aubrey… Stop it.’’ Hero used his stern tone, Aubrey gulped and nodded. ‘’When we talk to Sunny, we’ll get to the bottom of this.’’ Mari flinched at this, it was only a matter of time.

‘’Well, this is not alot for a homecoming party!’’ Hero’s stern persona changed into his usual charismatic and cheerful self, Kel and Basil cheered, while Mari hung her head.

‘’ Well, maybe it’s because of- ‘’ Aubrey was cut off by a yawn, as Hero’s expression shifted into a more relaxed one.

‘’Maybe you should get some sleep, Aubr-’’ Basil suggested.. Before getting cut off by a yawn himself.

Before Aubrey could respond to Basil’s suggestion, Kel fell onto the floor, utterly and completely unconscious. Basil seemingly followed, but on the couch.

‘Wow…They’re asleep already? What a bunch of lightweigh-’ That was Aubrey’s last thought before also visiting dreamland, sinking back into the couch.

Mari and Hero chuckled, yet Hero fell asleep first, his head falling onto the end piece of the couch as Mari decided to go outside for a bit.

The 4 slept, tired from their overly eventful day.

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sunny was about to mount the fence into the forest, but a fenimine voice called out to him, he stopped, and turned around, a purple haired figure stood a few feet away from him, before he could say anything, a pair of arms yanked him over the fence into the bush, he thrashed around.

‘’H-HUH? WHO THE FUC-’’

‘’Calm down Boss.’’ John soothed Sunny. ‘’We couldn’t risk the feds catching us.’’

Sunny exhaled, and looked around, he found himself in a small area with no trees. The sun shone through the leafless sections onto a tree stump making it as if an angel was about to be summoned, Sunny and John approached the tree stump. Sunny sat on it while John laid on the soft grass.

‘’What are we waiting for?’’ John tilted his head towards Sunny.

‘’Don’t know.’’ Sunny replied, John took out his phone.

‘’We should re-group with the rest of the gan-’’

‘’YOU AGAIN!?’’ A familiar voice boasted out, The Maverick was back to fight again! This time, he had his blonde wig back, but it was crudely sewed back together and was disheveled, as if he just got struck by lightning and lived to tell the tale, for the most part, he looked like a lunatic.

Sunny facepalmed while John chuckled at the wig.

‘’S-SERIOUSLY?!’’ John continued to laugh.

‘’HEY! NOBODY DARES LAUGH AT THE MAVERICK!’’ The Maverick yelled, veins bulging on his forehead. John took this as an initiative to laugh harder while Sunny was seriously considering grabbing the broken chair leg from back in the church and ending The Mavericks life.

‘’STOP IT!’’ The Maverick whined, while John laughed his head off while The Maverick lunged at Sunny; John stopped chuckling. The Maverick made a seemingly decent hit on Sunny, yet Sunny didn’t budge..

‘’WHY WON'T YOU JUST PASS OUT ALREADY!?’’ The Maverick shouted, already exhausted, yet he kept going.

For the Maverick, the odds were not in his favor, he went for another hit, but Sunny parried The Maverick, falling onto his back,  TIME TO UNLEASH HIS FINAL ATTACK!

He swiftly got up, and punched with haste at Sunny’s chest, making thudding noises as his fist collided with the stone, he punched more and more, but Sunny didn't budge as the Maverick sent a flurry of punches towards Sunny.

As he punched, his fists became sore while Sunny’s chest was only receiving a slight itch, his hands were red from the beatings he was giving and his punches got more sloppy.

‘’Why pant…. Won’t…pant.. You…pant.. Go…pant.. Down.’’ The Maverick panted out, exhausted as Sunny just glared at him.

John stood there, jaw agape at the scuffle (more like a one-sided fight), well to be honest; he knew this ‘Maverick’ kid was a bunny rabbit compared to this mammoth.

The Maverick felt his arms give in and he fell onto the floor, snoring quietly; Sunny looked confused, when John turned to look at him.

He simply shrugged, the 2 made their way out of the bushes back onto the street, ready to regroup up with the rest of the Suzuki Club.

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hero arose from his nap as looked around, he noticed the lack of Mari; And Basil for whatever reason.. Who knows, maybe he was gardening.

He rubbed his eyes and sat up as he slightly nudged Kel’s shoulder.

‘’Kel, wake up!’’ Hero whispered to Kel, trying not to scare Kel’s socks off

‘’Mghrrnnn… i’ll do my homework in a minute…’’ He groaned and rolled onto his side, thus falling off the couch; letting out a quiet yelp as he hit the soft carpet.

Finally, Kel stood up and stretched, looking at Hero. “Oh, morning Hero! What’d ya need?”

‘’Nothing.’’ Hero checked his watch, 7:24 AM.

‘’Wow… and you didn’t even bake me a cake?’’ Hero fake pouted.

‘’Sorry bro, I was too busy with Sunny..’’ He explained himself while Hero chuckled.

‘’That's the reason why me and Mari came here..’’’’ Hero said as he also got up, stretching.~

Aubrey and Basil stirred awake; greeting the 2 brothers as Hero waved back and walked into the kitchen, making Chocolate Pancakes.

Mari sat outside the porch, deep in thought, envisioning Sunny in various forms.

Gang member, Not Gang member, the 2 forms flashed in Mari’s head; the differences were apparent.

Old Sunny was small and skinny, and had no eyepatch.

This Sunny was tall, slightly having muscle on him, his face wasn’t the shy, cute, non-expressive, now just a cold reminder of his new ‘persona’.

Mari felt like this was all her fault, yet she reminded herself of the task at hand; getting Sunny back.

She stretched a bit as she began thinking of a plan to find Sunny, not realizing that she was heavily breathing

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sunny and John returned to the temporary hideout that Sunny picked out for the entire gang (though John didn’t like it too much, being a ran-down corner store), as the other members were just doing their own thing, Eris noticed Sunny, and walked up to him.

‘’Welcome back, Boss!’’ Eris was the first to welcome Sunny back, as the rest of the gang followed. Sunny nodded.

‘’Man, that was quite the fight you put up!’’ Zane exclaimed, examining the rips on his shirt, slightly showing his red, sore skin from the punches. ‘’What the hell happened?’’ He exclaimed.

‘’Had a fight with Mikhael.’’ Sunny replied, deadpan.

‘’Him again?’’ Eris facepalmed, while Sunny slightly nodded his head.

‘’I’ll try not to get off track, we need to track WHERE the Rouge gang goes next.’’ Sunny had a very tense expression. ‘’I thought this would just be a 1 day operation to rough up those ‘’Hooligans’’ or whatever they call themselves, but since the Rouge gang is here, i feel like we will be here for a while.’’ Sunny looked off into the distance, putting his hands behind his back.

The rest of the Suzuki Club had nothing else to say as Sunny’s expression stayed stoic.

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hero was looking for Mari as he called her name ‘’Mari?’’ But to no avail, continuing the search.

He figured that she would be outside and.. He was right as he found her as soon as he opened the front door, revealing a heavily breathing Mari.

‘’Mari..?’’ Hero poked her on the shoulder, making her flinch and stop breathing so heavily, her neck basically snapped back (not really) to Hero.

‘’Oh! You need anything, Hero?’’ Mari said a little bit too quickly, awakening a suspicion in Hero’s mind.

‘’Uh.. You look stressed.’’  Hero pointed out, as Mari’s false smile faltered.

‘’Nonono, I'm fine!’’ Mari exclaimed trying to pour as much cheerfulness in her tone, but to no avail; just sounding stressed and tense.

‘’It's about Sunny… right?’’ Hero asked.

Mari lost her false smile and cheeriness in her voice, as her cover was blown. ‘’Yeah.. I’m just worried about him, that’s all.’’

‘’I think we all are, Mari.’’ Hero replied, having a stressed, yet calm face.

Mari’s face sterned as she exhaled. ‘’Hero, I need to find him.. I can’t just let my little brother operate a gang like this; I have to reach out to him.’’

Hero’s face sterned up as well, but not as much as Mari’s. ‘’Yeah, I know.. I may have an idea where he is, though.’’

Mari’s face softened, turning into more of a confused one. ‘’What do you have in mind..?’’

Hero grinned, as he responded. ‘’Follow me.’’ Trying to soothe Mari

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wyatt bolted out of the church doors and down the street, the police sirens approaching him and his gang, he diverged from the others as he hopped into a nearby bush, the blue and red lights slowly fading out as he deeply exhaled, relaxing his posture.

‘Phew, close call. Should probably catch Sunny in an ambush.’ Wyatt thought, as he went through the bushes for a bit before exiting back onto the street; nobody followed.

‘’Damn.. Oh well, I’ll find him on my own.’’ Wyatt spoke to himself, as he began searching for Sunny.

Yet, he didn’t notice a certain flowerboy following him..

Or that’s what Basil thought for a couple seconds before Wyatt turned around, glaring at him. ‘’Why are you following me?’’ Wyatt spoke to Basil, confused.

‘’O-Oh! I was just going this way and-’’ Basil responded before getting cut off by Wyatt.

‘’Stop that bullshit, and tell me why your following me.’’ Basil gulped.

‘’A-Alright fine, I just thought you knew where Sunny was! I’ve been looking for him ever since Kel’s house- I even had to fake sleep just to sneak out!’’ Basil admitted.

‘’Well.. Maybe we can find him together, since I’m also looking for him!’’ Wyatt suggested with a grin, putting up a cheerful act.

Wyatt could swear that Basil’s eyes lit up like a christmas tree. ‘’Really!? Are you sure?’’ Basil asked to confirm, as Wyatt nodded.

‘’Oh, thankyouthankyouthankyou!’’ Basil said, grabbing Wyatt and nearly shaking him as Wyatt just chuckled, not seeing Basil as much of a threat, more of a twink; (not like he minded, Basil seemed nice enough.).

‘’Yeah, you can thank me later once we find him..’’ Wyatt said, as Basil let go of him as he quickly walked past, excited to find Sunny! His Sunny! The Sunny he’d let- Okay, maybe not that part..

‘’Come on than- ..Uh, what’s your name?’’ Basil stopped, realizing he didn’t know his name.

‘’Oh, it’s Wyatt. You?’’ Wyatt introduced himself.

‘’Basil!’’ Basil cheerfully introduced himself, smiling, a face of pure innocence.

‘’..Basil? Like the topping?’’ Wyatt snickered at Basil’s name, he hasn’t had pizza ever since childhood.

‘’Yeah! I guess my parents really liked pizza.’’ Basil joked while grinning; followed soon after with Wyatt’s grin.. Yeah, Wyatt could have a friend like Basil.

Yet Basil’s smile was seemingly shining at the chance to find Sunny..

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sunny and his gang walked down the sidewalk onto his own street, walking by his old house when he saw a new car in the driveway.

He was reminded of his childhood when he asked his parents if Kel or Aubrey could stay over,  yet the car was purple.. He also remembered when Mari was going to dye her hair purple, curse his good memory.

Faraway was a small town! In the midst of contemplating the identity of this new person, footsteps were behind him.

‘’Sunny?’’ A familiar voice asked as his gang turned around only to be greeted by a familiar foe and a blonde haired twink.

‘Who the hell is this blonde-haired freak?’ Zane thought, looking at the twig. Eris thought the same, but liked his blonde-hair on her part.

‘’We aren’t done yet!’’ Wyatt shouted, earning a confused gaze from Basil.

‘’Boss!’’ Another voice called out, Sunny and Wyatt’s head snapped toward the source, a group of people running towards them, The Rouge Gang.

The 2 gangs were reunited; Basil was frightened, obviously afraid of the scuffle, he quickly ran over to Kel’s house as the gangs began to fight.

Sunny was almost cut on his arm by Marie’s switchblade; he retaliated by using his fists, knocking the blade onto the sidewalk. Before Sunny could finish Marie off, Wyatt punched Sunny in the face, causing him to knock back onto the floor, Wyatt considered pulling out his pipe, No.. he’s going to make this beating painful.

Sunny was effectively pinned down by Wyatt as he began to beat Sunny down, clearly trying to make it hurt.

It hurt a lot as Sunny tried to remain stoic, yet his expression pained.

He tried to shield his body but Wyatt would just throw his hands back onto the concrete, stamping his shoes on his hands.

Sunny didn’t want to do this, he really didn’t want to..

Yet Sunny removed his pistol, aiming it at Wyatt’s face

‘’OH HELL NO!’’

Wyat yelled out, the 2 gang's jaws all collectively agape at this new predicament.

Sunny grinned; but before he could pull the trigger, the gun was shoved to the side by Wyatt’s own hand.

Sunny’s finger flinched, pressing down on the trigger; as a familiar feminine voice screamed in pain.

‘’OW, FUCK!’’

Sunny’s gun smoked, as his eyes widened due to looking at who he shot.

Chapter Text

The 2 gangs snapped their heads toward the voice, and nobody flinched, as this was a normal predicament back in the city, but Sunny was a stone brick, standing there, facing his actions.

‘’MARI?!’’ Somebody yelled out, rushing to the girl's side.

The opposite gang bunked from the scene, but the Suzuki Club stayed, waiting for their boss.

He saw a person he didn’t ever want to see.

Mari.

Sunny lowered his pistol which he just grabbed off the ground, and stared at his poor sister.

‘’Uh, Boss.. it’d be a REALLY great time to get out of here!’’ Eric tensed up, being more scared of law enforcement rather than the girl. Sunny examined the figures; Kel, Aubrey, Basil.. and Hero?

Aubrey looked back towards Sunny with his pistol and Mari, her leg bleeding.

She decided to do what she’s done for the past 5 years; resorted to anger.

Hero felt a lot of things, yet mostly agreed with Aubrey’s line of thoughts, he could literally kill Sun- No.. this wasn’t the Sunny he knew, but like the responsible adult he was; he didn’t act on his anger, rather restoring to treating his beloved's wounds.

Kel and Basil just stood there dumbfounded and shocked; unable to move.

Aubrey began to hit Sunny, hard, he didn’t move.

‘W-WHY!?’’ 

‘’WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!’’ She yelled amidst her sobs.
‘’YOU JUST COME BACK O-OUT OF NO-NOWHERE! JUST TO D-DO THIS!?’’ Her emotion slowly got the better of her, as her punches got weaker and less put together.

‘’I-I DON’T UNDERSTAND YOU!’’
‘’WHY DID Y-YOU LEAVE!?’’
‘’DO YOU HATE US?! JUST SAY IT!’’

While Aubrey was mentally breaking down, Basil was the one to call medical services.

Sunny didn’t respond, his stoic face staying in a place like an iron engraving, Sunny shook his head though.

‘’LIES!’’ She yelled, before she could strike Sunny again, Mari grabbed her leg, a pleading look in her eyes, she said something in a strained tone, the pain coursing through her legs as she gritted her teeth.

‘’P-Please... S-Stop... Hurting H-Him- Sunny... I-I'm Sor-’’ Mari was cut off as she passed out, hitting the floor face-first.

The wails of an ambulance came closer to the area; and so he was forced to leave, as he was about to jump into the bushes as he always did.

Yet, he paused for a second due to the feeling of holes being burned through the back of his head by Hero.

Sunny’s heartfelt colder by the minute as Kel yanked him by the shoulder. ‘’Where do you think your going, Sunny!?’’

Sunny’s gaze turned towards Kel, showing a pained expression.

‘’I-I…’’ Sunny tried to speak, yet the words stopped coming out; Kel’s expression softened a bit, yet he was still mostly stern.

A few seconds later, Sunny felt a couple of tears begin rolling down his face as his legs gave in, as Basil caught him.

His gang all had shocked expressions, as they had rarely seen Sunny cry, hell, they were shocked when he shed a tear.

Basil, on his part, obviously was the first one to hug Sunny; whether it was due to his thoughts, or to comfort Sunny... That was a different discussion for later.

Sunny began sobbing yet no sounds came out, letting his expressions tell words.

‘I should just head back to the city, Who could care about this monster, the same one who shot his fucking sister!?’ Sunny thought.

He held much malice towards his sister, but realizing how much pain was in her friend's eyes, came to regret his actions, she simply got in the way of his activities.

If he stayed away, everybody would be safe, he thought about it before shaking his head, pushing Basil off him much to his confusion.

Due to this, Sunny fell; yet Kel caught him, Kel himself having a softened expression as he pulled Sunny back up…

His rather wobbly legs became more sturdy, and he got up, lifting himself off Kel, he turned back to his gang, their faces painted with shock as Sunny’s expression turned into one of regret.

‘’Guys..we need to go back to Near-’’ Sunny was cut mid-sentence as Hero grabbed his shoulder.

‘’You aren’t going anywhere, we want answers.’’

Sunny wanted to fight back, do anything... Yet he couldn’t. Curse his merciful side, but he had to patch things up here; he turned towards his gang.

‘’Everybody, Go back to Nearby, Let Becky know about this.’’

The gangs' faces were agape, but as the sirens started to approach, they had no choice but to run.

‘’SEE YOU LATER BOSS!’’ They all yelled, disappearing into the bushes, Sunny turned around and saw his friends, Hero went back to aiding Mari who was out cold, Aubrey was too busy crying beside Hero, and Kel and his best friend Basil had unrecognizable expressions.

Hero pointed towards his house and he walked in there, unsure of why he would let him stay there, but he appreciated it at most. Sunny saw the lights of an ambulance outside the house and glanced down at his pistol, he would have to dispose of this later.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hero watched as the ambulance rolled onto the street, and Mari was put on a stretcher and put into the ambulance; Feeling immense guilt for leaving Mari alone, he yelled out for a paramedic, and one went up to him.

‘’Can I get in?’’ He asked

‘’Who are you?’’ The paramedic responded, confused about Hero’s identity.

‘’I'm her boyfriend, please, let me on!’’ He desperately begged.

The nurse nodded and he hopped into the back, Hero watched the various paramedics tend to Mari’s wounds.

Mari awoke once enough blood was in her body, her head turned towards Hero, tears still rolling down her cheek not due to the pain, but because of leaving Sunny once again; he was just in her grasp but... She had lost her chance, and it was her fault.

Mari was reduced to a depressive state as the ambulance left the rest of Sunny’s friends, and his gang, to their own devices.

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Aubrey, Kel, and Basil all walked into the house, just to find an extremely deep-in-thought Sunny on the couch, tensed up.

Kel tapped Sunny’s shoulder, which snapped him out of his trance, Sunny held up his pistol, making the 3 flinch, luckily, he only put it on the counter.

‘’S-Sunny?’’ Basil was the first one to talk.

‘’..Yes, Basil?’’ Sunny said with a little bit of frustration in his tone.

‘’Y-Your back!’’ He cheered.

‘’Basil, don’t talk to him. Not now.’’ Aubrey warned, shaking her head slightly.

Despite her warning, Basil rushed over to Sunny and gave him a tight hug; Sunny could’ve sworn he heard a couple of ribs break by how tight the hug was.

Sunny didn’t reciprocate the hug; only awkwardly sat there as Basil made himself more and more comfortable.

‘’Huh?’’ Basil hummed in confusion... Before realizing he was getting too close for comfort.

It took Sunny slightly pushing him to get him off; he apologized immediately.

‘’Sunny, What happened?’’ Kel asked while Sunny gave a confused glance.

‘’ He’s talking about what you’ve been doing these past 5 years ,’’ Aubrey replied, looking away from Sunny.

‘’Ah... That. I hate talking about it, but you guys have a right to know what this bastard has been doing.’’ Sunny replied as Basil flinched at the word ‘Bastard’.

‘’S-Sunny, don’t talk about yourself like that!’’ Basil tried to argue, yet was ignored by Sunny.

‘’So.. Let me explain the time I lost my eye.’’ Sunny coldly stated, before beginning his story-telling, much to the amazement of Basil... Of course, he liked Sunny talking.

========================================================

Sunny traversed the dark streets of Nearby city, Also known for its gang violence, ‘The Detroit of California’ The newspapers read, The cold air tickled his skin.

1 year on the streets, and he was able to live much to his surprise. Living off rotten food worked long-term despite the hazards. What a fucking rat, he thought to himself, slightly chuckling at his joke, he walked up to a nearby vending machine, covered in dirt and glass cracks.

He started shaking it aggressively, trying to get a drink, the rattling of the vending machine attracting somebody.

‘’HEY!’’ The person yelled, Sunny turned around, revealing a figure with something in his hands.

‘’OVER HERE!’’

‘Nuisance’ Sunny thought, cracking his knuckles to deal with this thug, The figure took this as a threat, and rushed towards Sunny, they cut his arm.

Sunny hissed in pain, watching the blood rapidly draw from his arm, he glanced back to the figure. The lamppost in the alleyway illuminated the figure.

A blue-haired teenager stood there, a menacing scowl on his fac-

Before Sunny could get too good of a look, the teenager managed to stab Sunny’s eye out.

He hissed in pain and fell to the floor, clutching his head as the pain seared his eye. The figure snickered.

The figure thought about ending the poor boy’s life, before deciding against it, rather just to teach him a lesson; a lesson that he would never forget, and a lesson that the figure would have regretted giving for years to come.

======================================================================

‘’And that's how I met Wyatt and lost my eye.’’ Sunny finished his story, much to the shock of everybody.

‘’Whoa... Does it hurt?’’ Kel poked the eyepatch, curious.

‘’No, not anymore. It still has some stinging now and then, but that’s about it.’’ Sunny replied.

‘’Uh... Why do you have a gun again?’’ Kel pried further.

Sunny deadpanned. ‘’I don’t know, why would I have a gun, Kel?’’

Kel exhaled. ‘’Point taken... I’m just glad your back, Sunny.’’

‘’Yeah, me too!’’ Basil joined in on Kel’s comment, and Aubrey finally snapped.

‘’He just shot Mari in the FUCKING LEG!’’ Aubrey yelled out, earning a couple of glances from Basil and Kel, Sunny didn’t flinch.

‘’Hey, it wasn’t his fault! Wyatt shoved the gun towards Mari, so it’s Wyatt’s fault!’’ Basil was the first one to defend Sunny.

‘’Yeah Aubrey, he just got back, don’t start now!’’ Kel defended Sunny as well...

Aubrey was at her boiling point, why do these knuckleheads even try to defend Sunny?

‘’HE FUCKI-’’ Aubrey was cut off by an iron-tight grip on her shoulder.

‘’I suggest you calm down, Aubrey.’’ Sunny calmly suggested, despite Aubrey being mad, another emotion was slowly rising; Fear. The gun only being on the counter next to Sunny if she wasn’t careful, she’d be shot! Or that’s what she thought anyways.

Aubrey found it better to just shut up as Sunny let go of her shoulder.

‘’L-Listen.. I don’t forgive you for Mari OR running away.’’ Aubrey huffed, crossing her arms together.

Sunny kept his stoic expression. ‘’That’s fine, I don’t expect you to forgive a monster like m-’’

Sunny was cut off by Basil. ‘’Sunny! Don’t say that about yourself!’’ Basil seemed quite sensitive whenever Sunny talked shit about himself, despite just arriving back in Faraway, not painting himself in a good light.

Basil then gave Sunny another hug... Of course, the twink did.

Kel just snickered at this, as Aubrey spoke up.

‘’Basil, for the love of all that’s holy, shut the fuck up.’’

Kel’s snickering only got more intense, as a stupidly wide grin was plastered across his face.

‘’Huh?- Why!? Sunny, am I annoying you?’’ Basil asked.

‘’Not really.’’ Sunny replied with a grin.

‘’ARE YOU GUYS TRYING TO PISS ME OFF!?’’ Aubrey’s anger only made the group’s grins grow.

‘’Aubrey, don’t tell me you already have another crush on Sunny!’’ Kel teased Aubrey, while Basil rolled his eyes.

‘’W-What!? I told you that in complete confidence Kel! Shut up!’’ Aubrey went over, and next thing everybody knew; Kel was on the floor knocked out from Aubrey’s headbutt.

The landline phone began to ring, as Kel shot up and ran towards the phone, he answered it.

‘’Hey Kel.’’ As soon as everybody heard Hero’s voice, their grins vanished; replaced with neutral looks.

‘’O-Oh.. Hey Hero!’’

‘’I'm at the hospital right now, how is Sunny?’’

‘’He’s.. Adjusting, I don’t think I should be saying this, but we were just teasing Aubrey for maybe having a crush on Sunn-’’

‘’I TOLD YOU TO SHUT UP, KEL!’ Aubrey’s voice was heard over the line, as Hero let out a dry laugh, no actual emotion behind it, only coldness.

‘’Well, Mari is currently in the hospital, so I’ll be staying with her until she gets out.’’ Hero stated.

‘’Oh.. I hope she’s alright.’’ Kel responded.

‘’She is. Don’t worry about her for now, she’ll be alright; besides, I’ve gotta go do some boring paperwork.’’ Hero reassured Kel, cursing Mari’s negligent parents in his head.

‘’Oh- Have fun, Hero!’’ Kel said.

‘’You too.’’ Hero said, hanging up the phone call.

Kel set the landline back into the dock.

‘’Oh! Sunny, I just remembered, I got you a gift!’’ Basil spoke up, earning a confused glance from Kel and Aubrey.

‘’What is it, Basil?’’ Sunny asked, curious.

‘’I’ll go get it!’’ Basil let go of Sunny, rushing into another room to grab it.

A bit of awkward silence ensued, before Basil returned with his hands behind his back, hiding something.

‘’Ready, Sunny?’’ Basil asked, earning a grin from Kel and an annoyed glance from Aubrey due to both of them being able to see what it was.

‘’I guess?’’ Sunny agreed, still confused.

Basil smiled, handing Sunny a.. Plushie of Sunny.

Kel’s grin evolved into laughter, as Aubrey couldn’t help but smirk at how stupidly childish the gift was, seriously? Sunny was practically a man in a teenager's body

‘’..Basil. Is this a plushie of me?’’ Sunny asked.

‘’Yep! I made it last night!’’ Basil beamed, proud of his gift, Earning a confused glance from Kel and Aubrey.

‘’O-Oh yeah, I made it in the middle of the night!’’ Basil explained.

‘’Simp,’’ Kel whispered to Aubrey, his grin expanding.

Aubrey started grinning, a bit weaker than Kel’s due to being annoyed at Basil’s antics.‘’Yeah, he totally is.’’ She whispered back.

‘’W-What are you two talking about?’’ Basil questioned.

‘’They’re calling you a simp.’’ Sunny replied.

‘’W-What?!’’ Basil glared at the two, Kel’s grin expanded, even more, a nearly-manic one at this point.

‘’Guys! I’m not!’’ Basil tried to argue.

‘’You kinda are, Basil.’’ Sunny replied, finally cracking a small grin, making Kel a little happy that his coldhearted old friend could express some emotions.

‘’Wh- You too?! Damn it!’’ Basil started to get flustered, before running off to the other room again; Aubrey assumed it was to calm down.

Sunny just looked at the plushie in his hands while sitting down on the couch, as he noticed the level of detail on it, just in such a short time.

The black eye of the plushie stared back at him, as if it was challenging him in a fight... Was that how he always looked?

How did he find out about Sunny’s appearance? Sunny threw that thought out of the window, assuming that the previous fights had brought a lot of attention to him.

Aubrey glanced at the small plushie.. It looked cute, Basil did a good jo-

What was she thinking?! Aubrey quickly cleared her head of any thoughts of.. that.

Aubrey wanted to hate Sunny for what he had done! Except, there was a piece missing in the puzzle. Why would Sunny run away? He had a perfectly good life.. What could convince him to run away!?

Despite feeling resentful towards Sunny for leaving, she found it hard to truly hate him.

How dare Sunny shoot Mari even if it was an accident! He should have been more careful.. She found it even harder to hate Sunny.

Aubrey decided that he shouldn’t get full forgiveness right now, she wants to see Mari’s side of the story, and an idea popped into her head.

‘’How about we visit Mari tomorrow?’’ She asked, Kel nodded his head while Basil peeked through the doorway, also nodding.

Sunny felt tense, he didn’t want to see Mari yet, not after what he’s done, why would anybody forgive a monster like h-

His train of thoughts was cut off by Basil. ‘’Guys, we should get some sleep.’’

‘’For once, I agree with Basil.’’ Aubrey agreed, sitting next to Sunny on the couch, as Kel jumped onto one part of the couch, stretching himself out.

Sunny reminded himself of Mari’s sins; the argument, everything.

Sunny felt like it was justice to make Mari feel a fraction of his pain, for she only had to go through some pain for a measly few minutes, Sunny was suffering for years .

Yet his train of thought was cut off by Kel falling asleep, snoring.

Basil walked over to the couch, sitting on the other side of Sunny and making himself comfortable as he fell asleep.

And Aubrey falling asleep on his shoulder.

Sunny didn’t pay attention, as he felt tired himself.

Sunny’s vision faltered, as he relaxed his head, entering his usual dreamscape, the one he has been used to for these couple of years.

He awoke to a gray room, covered in dust as he adjusted his vision, a rundown sign was above him.

Chapter Text

Welcome to GREYSPACE
The city has been waiting for you.

The fluorescent lights shined, flickering in and out of life, Sunny stood up, dusting himself off before observing the room.

His laptop no longer worked, as moss and vines grew around it.

‘Eugh..’ Sunny thought, not showing much interest in the remains of his laptop, based on the one he was gifted when he turned 11, most of the time, Mari had it;  but he didn’t mind since he was too young, and a caring brother.

But when he did have access to it, he used it for art; he always enjoyed drawing, and even to this day, he drew on whatever he could find, whenever he had the time.

Hell, he once used a rock to carve a drawing into a tree.. He really enjoyed art, yet never could find time for it in his line of work.

One time, however, Eris caught him drawing, and a couple of days later his gang surprised him with a (probably stolen now that Sunny thought back on it) drawing kit.

In fact, it was in this very room with him.. He opened the book carefully, as it was in top condition despite the seemingly abandoned state of the room and its objects.

The drawings were faded, but he could just see them. They all consisted of… portraits of his various gang members.. Was that Aubry in the sketchbo-

Before he could pry further into the art book, the door connected to the outside world started to rattle, signaling that it was time for Sunny to leave.

Sunny exhaled, closing the sketchbook and setting it back on the ground.

Finally, he walked to the gray door, there was dust and vines strewn across it; Sunny peaked his head to the side of the door, revealing that it seemingly lead to nowhere, yet he knew better; moving his head back.

Sunny moved a vine and some dust off the handle, gripping it as he twisted the handle; the door opened, slightly creaking as it did so.

What Sunny was revealed to wasn’t a big surprise, for this had been the dreamscape he had inhabited for a while, 5 years to be exact.

The sky was a dark gray as if ash rushed into the cityscape, its buildings being illuminated by the weak lights, the buildings, for that matter, were in a state of disarray, sometimes, the top half would be seemingly cut clean in half, the atmosphere felt cold, he memorized some of the buildings combined with the cityscape.

The Space Pirates HQ was unrecognizable, soot-covered the otherwise pastel blue building, he found it a little hard to breathe and see amidst the smog.

He felt a cold presence behind him, and once he turned around, it revealed a black, shadowy figure with an elongated neck, a mouth replacing a majority of the neck, it emitted horrible choking sounds, yet some of its speech was coherent.

‘’ Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?’’

‘IT WAS SELF DEFENSE, IT WAS SELF DEFENSE, IT WAS SELF DEFENSE, IT WAS SELF DEFENSE, IT WAS SELF DEFENSE, IT WAS SELF DEFENSE’ He repeated to himself, closing his eyes as he mouthed it out, he opened his eyes to reveal that the figure was no longer there.

Sunny walked further down the ash-covered street, slightly coughing, he found himself outside a building that looked more clean and intact than the rest of the buildings, sparking an interest, he walked into the building, revealing a black and white figure, it turned around and Sunny’s eyes widened.

‘’Sunny?’’ It said, as Sunny broke into a coughing fit, his lungs tightening, his vision started to blur and darken, the whirlwind sounds slowly being drowned out in fuzziness, The gray palette of the interiors making way to a more colorful area.

Sunny shot right up, breathing in and out heavily, Aubrey who was using Sunny’s shoulder as a head rest, slightly fell; yet not completely falling off.

Sunny quickly calmed his breathing as he let his body relax, looking over at Aubrey who had the Sunny plushie in her hands, practically hugging it while she slept.

12-year-old Sunny would blush; But he just felt a bit odd, confused about why Aubrey would hug his plushie despite the events of yesterday... And the 5 years of running.

The time read 7:22 AM on the DVD Player underneath the TV, Sunny looked around for Basil and Kel, they were nowhere to be seen, but an aroma filled the air, one of.. Pancakes?

‘Finally, real food for once...’ Sunny thought as he entered the kitchen, revealing Basil with a pan full of pancake batter.

‘’Oh! Good morning Sunny!’’ Basil greeted him, Sunny nodded as he continued. ‘‘Hero gave me his pancake recipes, so I’m making breakfast for y- Us!’’

Ignoring Basi’s stutter, he went to the fridge to grab a carton of milk, and poured it into a glass cup, he drank it, clearing any tightness in his throat, the cold fluid soothing his irritated throat.

Sunny closed the carton of milk as he placed it back into the fridge, closing the fridge door as he leaned on the counter; watching Basil cook.

Aubrey, who had just awakened and attracted to the smell, walked into the kitchen still hugging the Plushie, her mouth slightly watering at the sight of pancakes, just like Sunny.

‘Finally, real fucking food.’ Aubrey thought, as she also watched Basil cook.

A couple of minutes later, Basil was done cooking the pancakes and put them onto some plates as everybody sat down.

Kel entered the room, just in time to hear Basil talk about him.

‘’Kel ate all of the pancakes, so I had to prepare more pancake batter.’’ Basil gave an annoyed glance.

‘’Couldn’t help myself!’’ Kel responded, grinning.

‘’C’mon Kel... I'm hungry!’’ Aubrey slurred out, while Basil shoved a plate of pancakes in front of her.

‘’Here!’’ Basil said, giving Aubrey a small smile while she carefully set the plushie on the table, so she could focus on eating without messing the plushie up.

Aubrey and Sunny started to dig into their pancakes, slicing and dicing them into smaller pieces as they consumed the pancakes.

Basil was proud of his handiwork, Hero would be proud of him.. But, looking at Sunny; it had happy and dark memories, but he couldn’t put his finger on the reason why.

In the midst of chewing, Aubrey brought up something. ‘’Aren’t we visiting Mari in the hospital?’’ 

Basil and Kel nodded affirmatively, as Kel finished his pancakes; ahead of the others already.

Soon after, Aubrey finished her pancakes; she quickly picked up the plushie as she stood up, stretching with her free arm.

Then finally, Sunny finished his as he collected the plates, prompting Basil to ask a question.

‘’Sunny, why are you collecting the dishes? I could’ve-’’

‘’It’s the least I could do.’’ Basil was cut off by Sunny, who used a neutral tone.

Aubrey only groaned, despite carrying a life-like plushie of the ‘villain’ in her arms.

‘Seriously? Make up your mind, Aubrey!’ She thought to herself.

The expected phone call rang throughout the house, prompting Kel to rush to the phone; he expected it to be Hero, but.. It wasn’t Hero, it was Mari, Kels jaw gaped as Aubrey and Basil looked in confusion.

‘’Kel?’’ Mari said from the other line, her voice also shocking the other 2, Sunny looked disinterested in the voice.

‘’Y-Yes Mari?’’ Kel stuttered.

‘’How is Sunny?’’ Mari asked, Kel turned towards Aubrey and Basil, making hand gestures that silenty told them ‘whatthefuckdoido?’

Aubrey rushed in to save the day. ‘’He is doing JUST fine..’’

Mari huffed through the phone speaker, and then a desperate voice emitted from Mari. ‘’P-Please, Let me talk to Sunny..’’

Basil nervously chuckled. ‘’H-He’s not here right n-’’

‘’Stop lying.’’ Mari tiredly said. ‘’I’ve been waiting for this for the past, oh I don’t know, 4 FUCKING YEARS!’’

Basil and Aubrey flinched, while Kel gritted his teeth, Sunny didn’t pay attention, for he was already used to her sisters shouting, unbeknownst to the others, a dark truth they would find out later.

‘’H-Hero, you said Sunny was at your house, right?’’ Mari talked to Hero.

A slight mumble of affirmation could barely be heard.

‘’Alright.. Thanks, Hero.’’ Mari said, her attention going back to the phone.

‘’So.. Can you please hand the phone to Sunny, Kel?’’ Mari requested; going back to her soft, yet tired voice.

Kel looked towards Sunny, while Aubrey and Basil nodded, he tip-toed over to Sunny, and gestured the phone to him.

‘’M-Mari wants to talk to you, S-Sunny.’’

‘Hell no, I'm not hurting anybody ever again.’ Sunny thought to himself, groaning loudly, He stood up and exited the room, much to the other's protests.

Mari wasn’t having a good time, as she started to break down on the other line.

‘’S-Sunny, p-please.. I-I just w-wanna talk..’’ Sunny could hear Mari’s pleading from the other room, as he pondered what to do.

Many emotions swirled through the teenager's body, Anger, Sadness, Regret, but mostly; Frustration at himself, the phone was SO GODDAM close to him, yet he couldn’t bring himself to accept it-

‘You promised not to leave, you don’t want to break another promise, don’t you?’ His inner mind reminded him.

He exhaled, walking back into the room as he snatched the phone from Kel’s hand; to the shock of the others, he put it up to his ear.

‘’Hello?’’ He spoke, Mari could barely recognize the voice, being way different to what he sounded like as a 12-year-old.

‘’S-S-Sunny? Y-Your back!’’

‘’SAVE IT!’’ He suddenly shouted, earning a couple of confusing glances from Kel and Aubrey, and an unknown one from Basil.

‘’H-Huh?’’ Mari jumped, still bound to the hospital bed.

‘’Why? WHY?’’ He shouted.

‘’S-Sunny.. I..’’

‘’Do you not remember? The night of the Recital? 5 Years ago, Mari? DOES THAT RING A FUCKING BELL!? ’’

Aubrey was silently crying to herself now, Recital? What was going on!

Kel was just confused, as he didn’t remember anything about a Recital.

Basil, for himself, started to remember a piece of information lost to his bad memory, a Recital 5 years ago, coincidentally the same time he ran away from home..

Despite this new information, one piece of the puzzle was still missing.

Basil snapped out of it, just for now, to comfort Aubrey.

Kel quickly picked up on this, doing the same.

‘’Well!?’’ Sunny asked, demanding a response.

Hero, who had just realized that there was yelling from the phone, snatched it from Mari’s hands.

‘’WHAT THE HELL SUNNY?’’ He yelled, not out of anger, but of confusion, Sunny must have a very good reason to yell at Mari.

‘’YOU DON’T FUCKING KNOW HERO? 5 YEARS AGO, DURING THE NIGHT OF THE RECITAL, SH-’’ The phone hung up.

‘Fuck you, Hero.’ Sunny thought to himself, fucking furious.

Sunny tossed the landline onto the ground, causing no damage to it since it was a Nokia 3310, and also because the floor was soft fabric.

He then spun around and sent his fist through the wall; causing a hole through the wall, the size of his fist..

Kel died inside, while Basil trembled in fear.

‘’What the fuck was that, Sunny!?’’ Aubrey yelled out, and Sunny retorted, still pissed.

‘’SHUT THE FU-’’ Sunny stopped himself, realizing how Aubrey was on the verge of tears, he merely relaxed his shoulders and sighed, wiping some sweat from his forehead.

‘’Basil, tell them.’’ Sunny coldly stated, going to the couch and sitting down.

‘’U-Uh.. I-I don’t remember what your referring to, S-Sunny..’’ He stuttered as Sunny groaned.

‘’ A-are we still going to the hospital?’’ Kel asked.

‘’YOU'RE GODDAMN RIGHT WE ARE!’’ Aubrey shouted out, causing Basil to jump.

‘’We shouldn’t go until we’re calm.’’ Sunny suggested, as Aubrey turned to him.

‘’YOU HAVE NO ROOM TO TAL-’’ Aubrey noticed the burning glare that Sunny was giving her, needless to say the fear overpowered the anger.

Basil was just terrified, and Kel was comforting him.

‘’We don’t go until we all calm down, that’s a damn order.’’ Sunny commanded, and Aubrey had no choice but to agree, sitting down on the couch; soon followed by Kel leading Basil to the couch as well.

They all took a couple of minutes of silence, as Aubrey was still holding the plushie; nobody knew why, not even her.

Finally, Basil yawned; followed by Kel.

This seemed to lighten the mood a bit, as Sunny fully relaxed his body; followed by Aubrey who eased her grip on the plushie.

Sunny didn’t feel quite tired, just only being mellowed out as he struggled to find any exhaustion to amplify in order to sleep.

Though Basil and Kel seemed perfectly fine sleeping after this morning’s events, the mental strain tiring them out.

Aubrey seemed just like Sunny in this regard, unable to find any exhaustion either.

‘’You too, Sunny?’’ Aubrey asked, keeping her tone down as to not wake the two sleeping teenagers next to them; Small bits of spite and mental exhaustion in her voice, upset at Sunny for making her cry.

‘’..Yeah, sorry for making you cry.’’ Sunny responded, also keeping his tone down.

‘Maybe the high-and-mighty gang leader could show some signs of caring..’ Aubrey jokingly thought to herself.

‘’..I guess it’s fine, you must’ve had a good reason to yell at Mari.. You never yelled at her when you were a kid.’’ Aubrey exhaled, glancing down.

There was a couple of seconds of silence before Sunny spoke up.

‘’I must ask though.’’ He said, earning a confused stare from Aubrey. ‘’Why do you still talk to me as if nothing happened?’’

‘’W-Well…’’ Aubrey slightly blushed. ‘’I-I don’t know, m-maybe i have a soft spot or something.’’ She huffed, crossing her arms.

‘’Well yeah, I can see that..’’ Sunny grinned, referring to the plushie.

‘’H-Huh?-’’ Aubrey paused, noticing she still had the plushie in her arms, hugging it.

Sunny only chuckled. ‘’You always gave me hugs back then.’’

‘’O-Oh yeah..’’ Aubrey asked, getting flustered.

‘’Thinking about it, I thought you were more interested in Kel.’’ Sunny asked, his good memory leading him.

‘’..H-Huh?.’’ Aubrey asked, embarrassed.

‘’Well..’’ Sunny huffed. ‘’He was better than me at everything back then.’’

‘’Ew! I would never get with Kel! He is always sweaty and smells like shit!’’ Aubrey defended herself.

‘’Well, I saw you hugging the plush when I woke up.’’ Sunny said, chuckling.

Aubrey glowed like Christmas lights. ‘’You saw me?’’

‘’Yeah…’’

Aubrey mumbled something, as she continued to hug the plushie.

‘I still have a crush?!’ Aubrey mentally thought to herself. ‘After all, he has done, I still have feelings? Curse my younger self...’ 

After a couple of minutes of silence, Aubrey spoke up; now calm, as Sunny had a neutral expression.

‘’S-Sunny..’’ Aubrey stuttered. ‘’D-Do you hate Mari?’’

‘’Mari should say it herself.’’ Sunny added an unusual amount of hostility in his tone as his eye twitched, showing obvious discomfort.

‘’S-Sorry for bringing it up..’’ Aubrey mumbled, glaring down again.

‘’Don’t apologize, you don’t even have any idea what happened that night.’’ Sunny tried comforting her. 

‘’But I want to know!’’ Aubrey blurted out, a bit upset.

Sunny exhaled. ‘’I know you do Aubrey, but it’d be best if Mari said it in front of everybody.’’

‘’..Y-Your right, s-sorr-’’ Aubrey tried to apologize again.

‘’Don’t. You don’t need to apologize, Aubrey.’’ Sunny said, placing one of his arms around her to calm her down.

‘’..A-Alright, thanks Sunny..’’ Aubrey said, exhaling; still hugging the plushie, a replacement to Mr. Plantegg at this point.

‘’You should get some rest for the hospital visit later today.’’ Sunny suggested as Aubrey nodded.

‘’Make sure Kel doesn’t wake up before I do..’’ Aubrey jokingly mumbled, before falling asleep on Sunny’s shoulder... Again.

Sunny only let out a grunt of affirmation at this, deciding to stay awake; so nothing bad happened while they were all asleep, softly snoring.

Sunny felt weird, a foreign emotion plagued his mind; as if he wasn’t whole at all, an empty feeling was in him. Longing for something to return, Sunny decided to block these thoughts and waited for the dreaded hospital visit.

Chapter Text

Sunny sat on the couch, letting Aubrey rest on his shoulder until the phone started to ring again, relatively intact despite its almost destruction of the Nokia.

Despite the exhaustion, he picked it up; Hero was on the phone, and he sounded exhausted.

‘’Who is it?’’ Sunny asked.

‘’Me, Sunny.’’ Hero replied, before continuing.

‘’Where are the others?.. You guys should go to the hospital today, besides; visiting hours are open again.’’ Hero sighed on the other end, informing Sunny.

‘’They’re asleep, but I’ll let them know. ’’ Sunny responded.

Hero ended the call and Sunny took this as a signal to wake up the others, yet he couldn’t bring himself to disturb Aubrey’s sleep.

He decided to wake up Kel first by tossing a ball made out of paper that was on the ground at his head, who jumped out almost punching Sunny who was still sitting on the couch in surprise, once he found out it was Sunny, he gulped in fear...

‘’Keep it down, Kel,’’ Sunny warned, keeping his tone hushed.

Kel nodded, as he gently shook Basil awake.

Basil slowly sat up, rubbing his eyes; deciding to check the time via a clock on the wall.

12:30, it read, how he managed to fall asleep was beyond his knowledge.

Aubrey woke up a couple of minutes later, though after realizing her head was on Sunny’s shoulder, and not the armrest; her brain quickly woke her up.

‘Shit..’ She thought, ashamed of what Sunny might say about her... Yet, none of them seemed to notice Aubrey waking up.

‘’You should wake Aubrey up, Sunny,’’ Basil suggested, keeping his tone down.

Sunny nodded, as he gently began shaking Aubrey’s shoulder.

Aubrey, who was still drowsy from waking up not even 30 seconds ago; played the part of somebody who woke up just 5 seconds ago perfectly, slowly looking at Sunny.

Acting like nothing was wrong, she lifted her head from his shoulder, the only thing betraying her was her beet-red blushing.

‘’Well, everybody is up..’’ Sunny began, before asking Basil something. ‘’Basil, could you make breakfast again?’’

‘’Actually Sunny, it’s 12... So I’ll make you guys lunch.’’ Basil corrected Sunny, yet went to the kitchen as he began preparing lunch for the group of teenagers.

Sunny just nodded, despite Basil being unable to see said nod.

Meanwhile, Aubrey picked up her Sunny plushie, hugging it like she has been for a while now; her hair was a mess, guess bedhead really kicked in...

Kel just patiently waited for Basil to finish cooking lunch, as he didn’t have much else to do.

‘’Just so you know, we all have to go visit Mari in the hospital.’’ Sunny reminded everybody as Aubrey gritted her teeth.

‘’I think you should stay here, Sunny..’’ Aubrey admitted.

‘’No, I have to go, I’d just be breaking another promise if I didn’t,’’ Sunny responded, already having made up his mind. ‘’I want to talk to Mari, personally..’’

Aubrey was about to protest, but she realized that Sunny was way stronger than her, not to mention the fact that she didn’t want to hurt him.

Aubrey decided to shut up, Basil and Kel walked in, a pile of 3 half-burnt cheese sandwiches on a plate.

Aubrey made the grave mistake of biting into one, the burnt flavor making her spit it out.

‘’E-Ew… Is this… burnt?’’ She sputtered out, while Sunny chuckled, safe to say she became flustered.

‘’By the way, I heard the phone call, I can ask Polly to drive us to the hospital,’’ Basil said with a smile, fixing Kel’s attempt at a cheese sandwich. ‘’Let me go call her actually.’’

Basil left the scene to go dial Polly, who was more than happy to drive them, eventually; the 4 hopped in the car and began driving down the highway, the sun still beating down on the tarmac, the skyline of CLOSEBY became closer, and closer, until they crossed the first bridge over, passing over a massive river which circled around CLOSEBY as if it was an island.

The massive skyscrapers of CLOSEBY looming over the car, and a pristine white building with glass panes appeared in their vision. ‘’CLOSEBY HOSPITAL’’ engraved at the front.

Polly pulled into a parking space, and waved at the 4 friends.

‘’Basil, I need to go do some stuff in CLOSEBY actually, Give me a phone call once your done visiting, and I’ll drive you all back!’’ Polly informed the 4.

‘’Alright, thanks Polly.’’ Basil responded, nodding.

They all turned towards the hospital building, Sunny was the first one to approach the doors, revealing that they were actually automatic sliding doors.

‘Neat.’ Sunny thought, considering the infrastructure of NEARBY CITY, this was something new.

They all signed in with the receptionist and the 4 went up the stairs, approaching the floor that Mari was currently resting on.

ROOM 304, That was the room that Mari is in, okay.. 301, 302, 303. Ah. 304, Mari’s room.

Sunny was about to open the door, but it felt as if he was forbidden from entering the room.

It was now or never, Mari would be able to see her little brother up and close, and the damage she had inflicted.

Aubrey, who could sense how tense Sunny was, poked him on the shoulder.

‘’Let me do this..’’ She said, Sunny made room as she gently pushed open the door, revealing a sleeping Mari, she had dried tear marks running down her cheek, and Hero was sitting next to her, not realizing the 4 teenagers who had entered the room.

Though, when the group entered the room, Hero glanced over; his soft expression when looking at Mari quickly turned sour at the sight of Sunny.

‘’Oh.. Hey Kel, Aubrey, Basil.’’ Hero greeted all of them, except Sunny.

Basil was going to go off on Hero about ignoring Sunny, but watching the rising and falling chest of Mari, told him to stay quiet.

Hero, who in fact had noticed Sunny, turned to look at him, he placed a hand on Sunny’s shoulder.

‘’Listen, I-I don’t know on what to say..’’ Hero began, as Sunny listened intently.

‘’I should be mad at you for sho… hurting Mari, but.. I feel like there is something missing..’’

Sunny exhaled, as he knew where this was going.

‘’I want to know why you ran away..’’ Hero tried to pry.

‘’Mari can tell you that.’’ Sunny shot Hero’s attempt down, responding coldly.

Mari seemed to stir from her slumber.. Speak of the devil.

What she didn’t expect was 2 familiar figures standing in the room, near her bed with unrecognizable expressions.

Hero turned around to Mari, noticing that she was awake.

She was greeted not with being hugged, like usual, but a confused and solemn expression from Hero.

Paying attention to the other figure, it had black hair, 1 singular bang and 2 smaller hairs poking out of his hair.

‘’S-Sunny?’’ She stuttered.

‘’Tell them everything.’’ Sunny snapped once again, but with not too much bark.

Mari tensed up, what was he referring to again?

‘’The recital, Tell them.’’

Mari felt tears reform in her eyes.

‘’G-Guy’s… I-I got something to tell you.’’

That sent bad vibes throughout the suddenly reunited gang.

‘’I-I know why S-Sunny ran away…’’ Aubrey’s face moved closer to Mari’s all of a sudden. ‘’Say it then.’’ She demanded.

‘’I-It was me... I-It was my fault!’’ Aubrey’s right eye twitched slightly in confusion, Hero cut in.

‘’M-Mari.. Don’t blame yoursel-’’

‘’Shut up, Hero! let Mari talk.’’ Aubrey shut up Hero, as he defeatedly sighed.

‘’O-On the night of the re-recital.. I and Sunny were practicing the recital.. B-But.. H-He kept getting it wrong.’’ She retold, her heart wrenching every time she glanced at the very agitated but at the same time relieved Sunny. ‘’I-I shouted at him, I-I called him n-names..’’

‘’Your kidding right?’’ Kel tried to fake a chuckle, yet it was obviously fake, nope, the happy mask wasn’t going to work today.

‘’I-Im not d-done…’’

There was silence, the air was tense, choking even.

‘’S-Sunny, H-He smashed the violin, packed his things, and he... He left..’’ She finished, Aubrey’s head snapped towards Sunny, who had a triumphant look on his face.

Sunny couldn’t help but smile, finally, after 4 fucking years! They finally acknowledged his suffering! Still disappointed that Mari hadn't spilled her guts about the recital yet, but was still content with the ending he had.

‘’I-I need to think about this…’’ Hero said, walking out of the room, Kel soon followed. ‘’M-Mari, we are still friends.. I-I just need to.. Make sure Hero is okay..’’ He left the room, leaving Sunny, Mari, Basil and Aubrey.

Aubrey started to cry, wail even.

‘A fucking lie!’ She mentally screamed. ‘Why Mari? Why!’

Sunny couldn’t help but flinch at Aubrey’s sobs, she soon left the room, small droplets of salty tears on the floor, laced with betrayal..

Basil for the most part, was absolutely pissed.

He forgot about it, He was pissed off at himself not being able to remember what happened.

‘So much for a best friend.’ He thought, yet his anger slowly got the better of him as he began thinking more.

How dare Mari make Sunny leave, for 5 years no less! Mari ripped Sunny from his life! The only thing that was stopping him from punching Mari right then and there, was Sunny himself; who would without a doubt stop Basil from doing that.. More intent on himself being the person to do it.

Basil could feel steam pour out of his ears, fuming he was, Maybe this was how Aubrey felt, he quickly left the room before he killed anybody, leaving Mari and Sunny to talk alone.

‘’I hope your happy, sis.’’ Sunny spoke with a level of anger that she’s never seen in him before, as he leaned on the wall next to her bed.

Guilt started to topple over her, and she began to cry pretty hard. Her tears were out of regret, complete sincerity with her apology, yet, Sunny couldn’t find it in himself to accept this.

‘’S-Sunny.. I am so sorry.. for everything.. The recital… Please.. Just let me be your sister again, like before the Recital!’ She pleaded.

What was this new feeling inside Sunny’s chest? Sadness, of course.

‘I’ll let it slide this once.’ Sunny thought, exhaling.

‘’The ones you should be saying sorry to are the others, Mari,’’ Sunny informed her.

Mari nodded.

‘’I'm going to go now.. I need to check on the others.’’ He said, glancing towards the door, Mari was about to protest, but she didn't want to hurt anybody else..

Sunny exited the room, and heard faint sobbing, slowly approaching, he recognized it as… Aubrey? Tentatively, he stepped onto where the balcony was, luckily, she wasn’t going to... Do that... But she leaned on the railing, crying in her hands.

‘’A fucking lie..’’ She muttered.

‘’A FUCKING LIE!’’ She screamed out, and she finally realized that Sunny was standing there, by the sliding door.

‘’D-Don’t worry, I-I wasn’t going to-’’ Aubrey instantly tried to reassure Sunny, yet he cut her off by walking over and giving her a hug.

It lacked warmth, but it was a shoulder to cry on, and so she cried.

After what felt like forever, she finally lifted her head up to see a very pained expression painted across Sunny’s face.

‘’I-I'm sorry..’’ was all he said, as Aubrey saw he was buried in guilt too. ‘’I-I.. I cant return back to this life..’’ He says.

‘’Wha- Huh?’’ Aubrey shouts out.

‘’Im a gang member… I can’t stick around, you know.’’ Sunny sighs defeatedly.

‘’You come back, and then you're going to leave… AGAIN?’’ She shouts out, tears dropping again.

‘’I'm in a gang war, Honestly, my first goal was to beat the shit out of you because, well, you have an alliance with the Rouge gang, I only spared you because I realized that you were my old friend,’’ Sunny admits.

‘’I only punched you, to try and keep you away from my fights, hoping that you were going to be scared of me…’’

Aubrey cry’s again, Sunny not being able to comfort her. Awkwardly stood there, until Hero walks and goes onto the hospital balcony, a very gloomy expression on his face, he taps Sunny’s shoulder.

‘’I-I thought about what M-Mari admitted.. A-And.. I'm sorry..’’ Hero said, much to the confusion of Sunny.

‘’Why are you sorry?’’ Sunny says, scratching his chin.

‘’F-For ignoring your suffering during the recital, I should have noticed how… you became sad, I could see it in your expression.’’

Sunny was about to say something, but Hero was not finished. ‘’I just chose to ignore all of it, I don’t know why, I’m sorry, Sunny.’’

Sunny looked tense, as he started speaking. ‘’Don’t apologize for what my sister has done.’’

‘’Using your logic, I could hold everybody accountable here..’’ Sunny continued.

‘’But I chose not to, do you want to know why?’’ Sunny asked, Hero, scratched his hair, and nodded.

‘’You were all 12, and you were 15, I don’t think you could even realize the gravity of what was happening.’’

‘’But, couldn’t you use the same… argument for Mari?’’ Hero asked.

‘’She was the closest towards me, she should of seen on how I felt, yet she didn’t give a damn. ’’ Sunny gritted his teeth, looking down at his scarred fingers.

Aubrey took notice of this and grabbed his hands, instead of being flustered, she looked shocked, looking at the scars all across his hands, along with his hands being coarse and calloused.

She couldn’t tell between the knife slashes of the gang life or the violin bow cuts, but this was all she needed to see.

‘’O-Oh my god, Sunny..’’ The only thing she could say was that, shocked.

‘’B-But.. You plan to leave… again?’’ Hero looked shocked, Sunny wasn’t going to leave so soon.

‘’Listen here Sunny, I know you want to go back to your.. Gang life .. but we are your friends!’’

‘’ ..Used to be my friends. ’’ Sunny coldly said, narrowing his eyes and looking down.

‘’W-What do you mean Sunny?’’ Aubrey asked, still in shock.

‘’I'm a gang member, Aubrey.. I couldn’t even return to my old life even if I wanted to.. And I don’t. ’’ Sunny answered.

‘’No.. We are friends! Come on, Sunny..’’ Aubrey said, in denial. 

Sunny exhaled, knowing this won’t end well..

‘’Okay.. .Let me think about this.’’ Sunny sent the 2 out, entering back into the corridor, watching Sunny standing by the balcony, looking at the sun bouncing off the various buildings planted throughout the skyline, taking in the breathtaking view of CLOSEBY city.. Yet, Sunny found it nothing compared to Faraway.. He wasn’t sure why, but he couldn’t get it out of his head that Faraway was right for him, despite being in such a rough city for 5 years straight..

Turning to his left, he could barely see the buildings of NEARBY, his home for the past 5 years.

Thinking about it heavily, he finished his train of thought.

‘’I can’t leave them,’’ Sunny said to himself, his heart felt heavy. ‘’They deserve to know everything... I can’t run forever.’’ Sunny turned around to a scared Aubrey and Hero, he walked towards the sliding door.

‘’I’ve made up my mind.’’ Sunny said.

Chapter Text

Aubrey heard Sunny’s words, and she felt two emotions; Excitement and Dread, Will Sunny stay? Or will he pursue a living as a gang member and have a lifestyle of inflicting violence? Once again? She can’t lose him again..

‘’I’ll stay at Faraway.’’ He said... Aubrey felt relieved.

‘’BUT!’’ Sunny suddenly shouted.

‘’I need to deal with the Rouge Gang, and from what I’ve heard, The Hooligans are allied with them.. So that means, you're allied with the enemy. ’’ Sunny said.

Aubrey felt conflicted.. And obviously terrified, This was serious gang affairs, who knew what a teenager with a pipe bat could do to her! Despite having a bat, she barely had any fighting experience with it, only using her head and fists to send a message, which only worked on frail people like ‘The Maverick’ who was awfully thin for somebody whose siblings own a bakery.

‘’S-Sunny… I got on-one question… Why are you.. enemies with them?’’

‘’I’ve heard of these Rouge Gang fellows in NEARBY CITY.’’ Hero enquired. ‘’It’d be nice to know too.’’

‘’I think Mari needs to hear this, Hero,’’ Aubrey said, much to her anger directed at her, Mari should get to know.

‘’A-Aubrey.. I don’t think that’s a good ide-’’

2 familiar people walked down the corridor, spotting the 3, Kel and Basil ran up to them. ‘’Sunny! I'm so sorry for forgetting what happened that night! P-Please! Forgive me!’’ Basil begged, tears streaming down his cheek.

Sunny shook his head. ‘’Don’t worry about it, Basil. It was a while ago, I’m the only one with such a good memory here.’’ He effectively soothed Basil, who significantly calmed down, but was still angry at Mari.

‘’Let us go back into Mari’s room, we need to talk about… Sunny’s activities …’’ Hero said as Aubrey agreed; not wanting to accidentally kill Mari out of rage, she sighed and relaxed her shoulders.

‘’Fine, only because I want to know more about Sunny…’’ She said while faintly blushing, thankfully the perceptive Basil and Hero failed to notice.

The 5 nodded and entered the hospital room, while Mari looked at them with the deadest eyes, the souls effectively stripped out of her eyes.

‘’So, what was I going on abou- Ah, yeah... Me and the Rouge Gang’s rivalry and history.’’ Sunny plopped himself onto the nearby chair, adjusting his eyepatch.

‘’Let me begin.’’

===============================================

15-year-old Sunny entered the small apartment complex, having a gun in his pocket.

He and the original 5 members of the SUZUKI CLUB stood behind him, Eris, Zane, John, Eric, and Becky, weapons of their own in their hands.

Sunny walked through the damp and humid apartment, the walls were torn down and the windows were cracked, probably the result of bored teenage students from CLOSEBY with nothing else to do. Nearby wasn’t really a city on its own, it was more a part of a district, with FARAWAY being the outskirts of the seemingly large city. From a map, the cities were loosely separated by a highway, river, and multiple forests, separated enough to be classified by the residents as other cities.

For the most part, NEARBY was the economic center of the region despite being a city filled with crime, CLOSEBY had all of the essential emergency and public transport and FARWAY was the commercial district, the region itself was called CLOS REGION, loosely in the middle of California.

Heavy breathing could be heard from a door, Sunny recognized that somebody was behind the door. Sunny aggressively kicked the door open as he raised his pistol, quickly looking around for anybody.

‘’Nowhere to hide.’’ Sunny smirked as the old leader of the Rouge Gang, Joey, was laying in a corner.

‘’You really thought you could get away with stealing those shipments, did you?’’ Eric laughed, before pulling out a shovel.

‘’I could just kill you now and here, but I think somebody needs to learn a lesson,’’ Sunny said as he went out of the room, to snap a chair leg, much to the confusion of the others.

‘Simple to use, Easy to obtain, Effective on flesh, The perfect weapon.’ Sunny thought, explaining his reasons for his weapon of choice in an internal monologue.

Sunny entered the room and sent the chair leg flying at Joey, who grunted in pain.

The 5 began to beat Joey without mercy, but footsteps could be heard, and Sunny turned from the unconscious and beat Joey to a group of gang members, The Rouge Gang. Sunny ran away with his gang, Joey was taught a lesson, now to retreat, except, 2 gunshots rang out and Sunny screamed his pain, clenching his teeth as tears formed in his eyes.

He fell onto the floor as his vision became blurry, there was shouting, and he felt himself being hauled off somewhere else.


A couple of hours later, he awoke to a massive pain in his abdomen, clutching it tightly, he could smell blood, after his vision fixed itself, he glanced around the room, A makeshift hospital room, to his side, 2 bloodied bullets stood proudly, the worst came to his mind as he glanced down, revealing that he was shirtless, looking down, he saw some… 2 stitches on his stomach and a pile of clothing were in the corner of the room, coated in blood, he felt light-headed and passed out.

========================================================================

‘’That’s what happened.’’ Sunny finished the story, exhaling.

The faces of the 5 were horrified, mainly at the violence and not the gunshots.

‘’Geez…’’ Kel said, yet Hero looked curious. ‘’Sunny, roll up your shirt.’’

Sunny shrugged and did so, revealing his stomach, it wasn’t stone but he was in good shape, near his navel, 2 scars could be seen, this is all everybody needed to see, Aubrey for the most part, she looked unphased, for she had already seen it, but was still uneasy about the reason why. Basil looked like he was about to faint, and Mari had a guilty face. Kel and Hero winced.

‘’Rude to stare, you know?’’ Sunny joked, rolling down his t-shirt, which calmed Basil down.. Yet Mari looked really sad.

‘’S-Sunny… I'm so sorr-’’ She said in a shaky tone, only to be interrupted by Basil.

‘’SHUT UP!’’ Basil shouted at Mari, startling everybody.

‘’Basil!’’ Hero glared at Basil, confused about why he’d yell at Mari.

‘’ YOU ARE THE REASON HE LEFT! ’’ Basil shouted, pissed.

‘’Hey.. We shouldn’t play the blame gam-’’ Hero tried to keep calm.

‘’ HERO! YOU NOT INNOCENT EITHER! ’’ Basil snapped his head towards Hero, who was sweating.

‘’ IF YOU DIDN’T YELL AT SUNNY, HE WOULDN'T HAVE RUN AWAY! EVEN BETTER! HE WOULDN'T BEEN SH- ’’ Basil was cut off by Hero slapping him across the face, quickly shutting him up. Surprising everybody, even Sunny, You’ve messed up if you made Hero slap you.

‘’Listen, Basil. I know you're upset, even if it was Mari’s fault, this was all in the past, and we can’t change that. Yelling at Mari won’t fix everything.’’ Hero sternly said as Basil’s pupils shrank, shaking like a jackhammer in the ground.

Of course, Sunny was the first one to stand up to Hero. ‘’That gives you no right to slap him across the face, Hero.’’

Hero calmed down and had a guilty expression. ‘’Sorry… I didn’t know what came over me… I should have been the responsible one he-’’ Hero was interrupted by Basil who decided to continue the yell-fest.

‘’Aubrey? Why on earth did you try and attack Sunny as soon as he came back to Faraway!?’’ Basil decided to target Aubrey this time who looked down and began to shed tears.

Sunny decided to step in. ‘’Basil, you don’t need to be mad on my behalf. I can handle myself.’’

‘’B-But… They hur-!’’ Basil was cut off by a slap from Sunny, yet it was softer than the slap that Hero gave to Basil, more of a light tap.

Sunny felt odd, he felt… compassion? A desire to help others? It coursed throughout his brain, an emotion that parted long ago had returned to his senses.. Yet despite the feeling, Sunny cast it aside for now; to deal with the problem at hand.

‘’Basil, Be quiet.’’ He said a little too coldly, and with a tinge of hostility in his tone, Basil squeaked a little and began whimpering.. Basil upset Sunny, his Sunny! How could he..

Sunny realized that he just fucked up and hurt his best friend, this wasn’t some thug that wanted whatever was in his pockets, it was his BEST friend, who shared the bond of being quiet and shy, well, those traits disappeared from Sunny, but nonetheless, he hurt his best friend.

‘’..Sorry.’’ Sunny mumbled, as he didn’t mean to slap Basil so hard, or that’s what he thought.

Despite it only being a gentle slap; putting a hand on Basil’s shoulder to soothe him, it scared him.

Aubrey calmed down, glared at Basil, but also looked at Mari too, who had the guts to actually speak despite the yelling that had occurred.

‘’I-I know I screwed up.. Y-You, don’t need to forgive me... it's what I deserve.’’

‘’No,’’ Hero said, putting a hand on her shoulder. ‘’I forgive you, Mari.’’ Mari looked shocked, her eyes began to shimmer.

‘’N-NO!’’ Mari cried out. ‘’I-I DON’T DESERVE FORGIVENESS!’’

‘’That's enough, Mari.’’ Hero said.

‘’I forgave you because.. I messed up too.’’ Hero confessed

‘’Of course, you forgave her, Hero,’’ Basil mumbled, still upset about the yelling match.. Sadly, Basil was ignored, apart from a cold glance from Sunny that made him shut up.

‘’I wasn’t there to help you, Mari... If I reached out, you could have stopped yelling at Sunny, and then he wouldn’t have become... This.. ’’ Hero said... Earning a cold glance from Sunny.

‘It isn’t that bad..’ Sunny thought to himself.

Mari began to break down into tears, relieved that her boyfriend could forgive her despite the circumstances. ‘’T-Thank y-you so much Hero...’’ Mari quietly whispered to Hero, clinging onto Hero for dear life.. Her Hero.. who flushed brightly.

Mari retraced from the hug and turned to look at Kel, her looks demanded a response.

‘’U-Uh… I-I don’t know.. But, if Hero forgave you, I can too!’’ He yelled out, giving a toothy grin. Mari sighed and sank into the stiff hospital mattress.

She turned to look at Aubrey, Basil, and Sunny, she looked like a scared cat.

Sunny shook his head, which shattered Mari’s heart, as she broke into a heartful sob.

‘’Sorry Mari, but you ruined my normal life , you nearly forced me to practice violin for a month straight. You nearly made me lose feeling in my hands even today.. They’re still a bit numb.’’ Sunny concluded, shunning Mari.

What hurts even more? The fact that he wasn’t referring to her as ’Sis’, or the fact that he walked out of the room.

Basil simply gave her a ‘’No.’’ Turning to follow Sunny out of the room, Aubrey had a cold look.

‘’I hurt Sunny too.. But, you being the reason he ran away? I can’t forgive that.. Not yet.’’ Aubrey declines Mari, walking out of the room, following Basil and Sunny.. Leaving Kel, Hero, and Mari in the hospital room.

Hero, Kel, and Mari were left in the hospital room, thinking to themselves.

‘ What has happened to their Sunny?’

Meanwhile, outside the hospital room, an argument was devolving between Basil and Aubrey.

‘’What the hell was that, Aubrey!?’’ Basil asked.

‘’I-I don’t hate M-Mari… I-I just can’t forgive her for… making Sunny runaway.’’ Aubrey explained.

‘’ DO YOU EVEN CARE ABOUT SUNNY, AUBREY!? MARI WAS THE REASON HE RAN AWAY! ’’ Basil yelled.

‘He has quite a temper.’ Sunny thought to himself, as the 2 yelled... He didn’t feel like getting involved.

‘’I do care, Basil ! ’’ Aubrey was on the verge of tears, trying to defend herself.

‘’Yeah? Prove it ! ’’

‘’Well, for starters..Mari got shot in the leg by him, and I still stayed by his side, as a friend!’’ (not for long)

‘’And, second off.. You were the one who forgot about what happened! ’’

‘’Hey! Sunny was able to forgive me for that! Why can’t you’’ Basil retaliated.

‘Now that I think about it… Sunny seems to care for a tough gang member. ’ Aubrey thought to herself, smiling which agitated Basil.

‘’What are you smiling at? Huh?’’

‘’Nothing.’’ Aubrey’s face returned neutral.

‘’Hey Sunny! Do you not like Aubrey?’’ Basil turned to Sunny, crossing his arms.

‘’No, she’s fine.’’  Aubrey sighed in relief while Basil just shrank down. ‘Calm down Basil, if Sunny can respect Aubrey, then you can too.’

‘’Why are you even asking me? I wasn’t apart of your argument.’’ Sunny inquired, as Basil exhaled.

‘’Just wanted to know.. Since It’s pretty obvious she still has that crush on you.’’ Basil responded.

Aubrey froze. ‘’Basil, shut up!’’

‘’Make me!’’ Basil responded, his grin was quickly cut short by Aubrey headbutting him.

Basil was sent to the floor, groaning in pain..

Sunny was just standing there, finding it pretty funny, he didn’t catch onto the crush part because Basil was angry still.

Sunny walked down the corridor, amidst the confusion of the others, he just needed fresh air, a break from the gang violence, Basil and Aubrey followed in suit, wondering where Sunny would go.

Back in the hospital room, Hero and Kel were busy soothing Mari, still crushed by Sunny’s response, completely inconsolable.

Soon, Mari’s tears ran dry, which only left hoarse breathing sounds.

‘’W-Why did I do that!?’’ Mari asked, to nobody in the room.

‘’I-It would just be better if I just di-’’ Mari continued, before being cut off by Hero.

‘’Stop it.’’ Hero shut up Mari again. ‘’I'm sure the others can forgive you, just give it time.’’

‘Aubrey and Basil were the closest to Sunny, so it would make sense why they wouldn’t forgive her.’ Hero thought to himself.

‘’Maybe you should rest up Mari! Try again tomorrow.’’ Kel suggested.

Mari nodded. ‘’Yeah.. Sounds like a plan, you guys should go home, I’ll manage here alone.’’

‘’But Mari-’’ Hero tried to argue but was cut off by Mari.

‘’No. I’ll be fine, Hero! Just get some rest, and make sure Kel doesn’t do anything dumb.’’ Mari joked a bit at the end, Kel pouted in response. ‘’Hey! I’m not that dumb!’’

Both Hero and Mari looked at Kel, who relaxed his face and went back to grinning.

‘’Alright, you got it, Mari..’’ Hero responded as he walked out, not before flashing her with a charming smile. Kel followed soon behind, saying goodbye with Hero as she was left in the cold and sterile room, just like her soul, Empty.

Mari was all alone again, yet she didn’t feel as sad.. Upset sure, but she didn’t feel like sobbing anymore, mainly because she couldn’t cry any more tears, and felt worn out. All she needed was time.

Mari felt like she didn’t deserve forgiveness, but maybe with the help of Hero and Kel, she would be able to.

Chapter Text

12


He had just run away, Sunny thought to himself.


He really did.. Hasn’t he?


No worries then, Mari probably would move on, did she really even care at all?


Sunny was currently in a forest, eating an apple as the sun began to set, the chilly winds of October tickled his arms and legs as he figured out what to do next, the 12-year old wasn’t used to being alone, as Mari would be with him, but deep down, this is what is best for the others.

As the sun was setting over the horizon, Sunny made his way up a hill that overlooked FARAWAY and the nearby areas of midland California. The mountains of the Eldorado national forest could be seen, and the skyline of the surrounding cities was visible, the lights flickered on inside the city buildings, allowing Sunny to roughly see where the buildings were on the ground, the distant wails of police cars could be heard and Sunny, for the most part, was becoming cold. with December coming its way, it would be so long until he freezes to death.

Sunny descended the hill at a fast rate, not wanting to be lost in the forest before sunset, but unfortunately, he tripped and scraped his leg on a jagged rock: causing him to cry.

As he softly cried, he instinctively called out for Mari, but the only thing his small ears could hear was the breeze rustling the green leaves of the evergreen trees and his sniffs.

Every part in his mind told him to return to Mari, talk to Aubrey ANYTHING!

Yet, a small slither of hatred slipped into his thoughts. ‘ Mari did this to you.’ or ‘What a baby, he needs his big sister to take care of him!’

Sunny shook his head as he made up his mind and tended to his wounds, learning it from his sister, he cleaned out his wound and put antiseptic cream onto it before putting a plaster on it. After cleaning the wound and planting a plaster on it, Sunny walked around the forest, shivering as he did so.

After a short while, he saw headlights which were a good and bad thing: He was near the main road, but it was blindingly dark. Tentatively, he moved into the hedge and popped out the other side, luckily, the road had guard railings, so he wasn’t walking into his death.

The reflective lights planted into the road guided him, as unfortunately, no more cars went down the road. Walking beside the railing he found himself near an intersection as the horn of a train sounded throughout the night as it rumbled ever so loudly in the distance.

When Sunny stepped onto the sidewalk, a reflective road sign told him everything he needed to know. The direction he was walking in was towards NEARBY CITY, behind the road sign, the nearest town he was walking from was CLOSEBY, and the dreaded Faraway.

Sunny chose NEARBY, walking down the cold road, shivering with great intensity. A car passed by him now and then, the skyscrapers becoming bigger as he walked closer to the city, the guard rails eventually ended at one point as pavement met with the soles of Sunny’s feet and the suburban homes appeared in his path.

The street lights made wonders for navigation, but the coldness remained. taking out the 10 dollars he took with him, he entered a nearby convenience store, the warm air rushing towards his body warmed him up, as he walked around the shop.

Looking at the drinks made his mouth water, but unfortunately, they were all refrigerated and cold, nothing suitable for a cold autumn night. Sunny gulped as he turned around to the coffee machine, inserting some coins he had on his person alongside the 10 dollar note, the screen prompted him with multiple choices. Taking a cup, he placed it below the dispensers, he made his choice as the machine started to brew his coffee.

Sunny never really liked coffee, it was… too bitter and his dad wouldn’t allow such a drink to enter his esophagus, but the biting cold would ensure that he would become an ice cube without a hot drink.

‘Why is there no tea?’ Sunny thought to himself, as tea was a little bit more manageable for Sunny. He was interrupted by the abrupt stopping of mechanical whirring coming from the coffee machine, signaling that his coffee was done, taking it into his hand, the warmth of the coffee traveled up his arms and into other parts of his body.

His arm trembled as he rose the cup towards his mouth, he licked it with his tongue, recoiling because of the heat and the bitterness; Taking a lid from a nearby rack, he planted it on top of the cup and leaned back onto a nearby wall.

The nearby cashier did not like this, as he approached Sunny.

‘’Hey, kid! Get outta here unless you not gonna be a freeloader!’’ He yelled, startling the boy who drooped his head down and walked out of the store with his cup of coffee. letting the cold air brush against his skin again.

Sunny walked around the suburban area as he saw the first flats of NEARBY CITY approach his vision, picking an alleyway, he went into one and started to softly cry.

The man was right, he leeches off people like his friends, what on earth did he do for them?

As he wept, a boy, who looked around his age approached him, as Sunny cried, he was tapped on the arm by the mystery boy.

‘’Hey… are you alright?’’ He spoke in a soft voice, and Sunny looked up to see a boy that looked around his age.

He had blonde hair and a vest, a long-sleeved shirt behind it, and he had cargo shorts, just like Sunny.

‘’My name is John . What is yours?’’ John spoke to him, Sunny looked scared but gave him an answer.

‘’S-Sunny! Sunny Suzuki!’’

‘’Like the car brand?’’

‘’Y-yeah…’’

‘’Neat.’’ John smiled, he lent out his arm and Sunny hesitantly grabbed onto it, lifting himself up, Sunny dusted himself as John looked at the cup of coffee he left behind.

‘’Is that you’re coffee?’’ John asked as Sunny nodded.

‘’I-I don’t want to be a beggar… but… can we share? It is cold out here.’’ John shivered, as Sunny shrugged, grabbing the cup and handing it out to John. who ripped off the lid and started drinking it quite quickly, despite it being very hot.

After a couple of gulps, he was done, leaving only half of the coffee in there.

Sunny found it gross to be drinking from the same cup, but there were bigger issues than that.

Sunny dipped his tongue into the coffee and found it utterly disgusting, but he really didn’t want to freeze to death so he just drank out of it just like a cat. John was having a good laugh at it as Sunny continued to dip his tongue into the forbidden drink.

‘’Welcome to NEARBY! Where do you come from?’’ John greeted Sunny.

‘’I-I come from FARAWAY…’’ John looked surprised.

‘’Hey! Aren’t you that kid who was gonna perform that recital?’’ John looked in awe, wondering why somebody this posh would be in NEARBY CITY.

‘’Y-yeah…’’ Sunny said, as John’s jaw dropped.

‘’Did you play anything? What was the recital like?’’ John asked.

‘’I-I didn’t perform…’’ Sunny looked disappointed in himself, on the verge of tears once again, John’s smile faltered a little.

‘’H-Huh?’’ John’s eye twitched in confusion

‘’I-I ran away..’’ Sunny confessed, falling onto the floor and crying into his knees, as John related to him.

‘’I ran away too when I was just 10..’’ He sat next to Sunny, putting a hand on his back.

‘’W-Why?’’ he choked out, disappointed in himself and feeling as if he was an utter failure, He could just return right now! But what would Mari say? What would his parents say? Will his friends feel betrayed and hate him for leaving them?

Simply, there was no way for him to return without getting in serious trouble...

‘’W-well.. I didn’t have the best h-homelife..’’

‘’My mom... Drank a lot…’’ John nervously said, despite being around Sunny’s age he still had 2 years of the NEARBY experience.

‘’One day… I came back from school  and… My mom wasn’t moving.’’

‘Dang it... Uh... I have to keep him in the dark for now.’ John thought internally.

Realizing that this was a scared 12-year-old he was encountering, the mention of death would probably make this Suzuki dude have a heart attack.

‘’M-My mom woke up... And well... She wasn’t in a good mood, so I ran away after… that.’’ John carefully chose his words, to not traumatize poor Sunny Suzuki.

‘That hit close to home.’ Sunny thought, thinking about Aubrey, knowing what John was implying.

‘’W-Well.. S-should I tell you why I ran away?’’ Sunny meekly responded

‘’Uhhh.. sure..’’ John felt weird listening to other people speaking about their issues, but this was some actual company for once.

‘’W-well. You know Mari?’’

‘’Yeah… Mari Suzuki? She is everywhere here! There are so many posters, even at the city council!’’

‘’W-Well. She was mean…’’ Sunny started, as John stared expectantly.

‘’B-Before the recital, we used to practice a lot and well… if I played a note wrong... She would yell at...,me..’’

John had an unrecognizable expression, as he was processing this info.

‘’I-IT WASN’T ALWAYS LIKE THIS!’’ Sunny corrected himself.

‘’T-The stress was too much and I ended up breaking my violin... And… my friends saved up on that violin.’’ Sunny looked down.

‘’U-Understandably… s-she got mad..’’ Sunny wasn’t used to talking this much to a Stranger, but this John fellow looked like a nice dude.

‘’S-She called me really mean things… and I just couldn’t handle it anymore… it was too much for me.’’ Sunny sank his shoulders as he sighed, disappointed in himself.

‘Wow.’ John thought, She didn’t know this Mari person, but she and Sunny on the poster… looked close.

‘’Where do you live now?’’ Sunny asked as John shrugged.

‘’There are some guys that can help us near uh…. The Interstate 80 freeway!.’’

‘’W-Whats that?’’

‘’Do you seriously not know Interstate 80?’’ John said with a blank face. ‘’Don’t worry, posh boy, become one with us hobos!’’ John joked while Sunny had an unamused expression. ‘’Not. Funny.’’

Ignoring Sunny’s comment, he grabbed his hand and he guided him across the city, probably stepping into gang territory, the irrational part of his mind thought, as he was being dragged deeper into the city.

‘’I'm surprised you don’t know what that freeway is, it runs from California ALL the way to New Jersey. Isn’t that insane!’’ John enquired,

He took into notice how… rundown some of the streets were, Brick walls were covered with moss and overgrowth, and some street lights were dimmer than others.

As they reached the busier roads of the bustling city, an elevated highway was spotted as the 2 made their way down the pavement, sneaking past the constant flow of traffic, they found themselves in a rather dusty and dark area under the freeway. The rumbling of cars could be heard as the only illumination under the freeway was a small fire in the distance, the 2 slowly approached until they reached their destination.

There were multiple oil drums with fires emitting from them, around the fire, multiple people of various ages and gender stood with their hands held out over the fires, warming their hands in the otherwise cold city.

‘’Welcome to the Hobo hideout! Posh boy!’’ John attempted to please Sunny, who looked scared, an older boy approached, eyeing the boy and back at John.

‘’Hey! Don’t call us that!’’ He said, pinching John’s ear.

‘’O-OUCH!’’ John yelled. ‘’Sorry.’’ John apologized as soon as he was let go, and the older boy greeted himself properly to Sunny.

‘’The name is Alex, aren’t you that guy who’s doing the rectial?!’’

‘’Yeah, unfortunately, the Posh boy ran away from home.’’

Sunny started to cry again at that name. ‘S-stop..’ Sunny thought internally, ready to run off.

‘’Hey! Stay!’’ Alex called out for Sunny, as he stood dead in his tracks.

‘’You haven’t introduced yourself yet!’’ Sunny turned around and dejectedly lowered his head, approaching the 2.

John still snickered at the nickname ‘Posh boy’ but didn’t want his new friend to run off so quickly.

‘’Hey, you haven’t told me your name yet!’’

‘’S-Sunny Suzuki…’’

‘’Ah... Welcome!’’

Sunny turned back towards the refugee area, and he made up his mind. ‘’I guess I'm a hobo then.’’

‘’Ought To call you Hobo Boy instead of the posh boy now, don’t I?’’ John snickered.

‘’JOHN!’’ Alex yelled.

Chapter Text

Credits to Spocki for the idea, check him out. https://archiveofourown.info/users/StSpocki

——————————————————————————————————————————-

Sunny snapped out of thought, being tapped on the shoulder by a meek Basil.

‘’H-Hey Sunny, can we get moving now?’’ Basil asked.

Sunny nodded, as the 3 walked back into the building, the cold air becoming slightly less colder than the outside, Aubrey shivered as she was wearing a t-shirt, for an October day, it was pretty cold, maybe she should've packed a hoodie before arriving at the hospital.

Basil went down to the cafeteria of the hospital, which had Garlic Bread and Tea.

The cafeteria provided these options.. Who in their right mind would even try tea and bread at the same time?

Basil picked British tea, and added his own calming herbs to it.. He took a sip, how refreshing. 

Sunny just picked out a Garlic Bread loaf, Aubrey didn’t have enough time to grab anything sadly.. Yet Sunny offered her some Garlic Bread.

‘’Thanks, Sunny.’’ Aubrey said to Sunny, as Sunny nodded.

The three walked out of the hospital after Sunny had paid for the hospital food, of course, and they hung out for a couple of hours until visiting times came to a close, well, Sunny rather preferred to go outside, away from the others.

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A doctor walked into the room, with a clipboard in hand, he examined the 3 into the room and 2 adults were following behind, they instantly rejoiced at the sight, stepping aside the doctors and rushing to Mari, they were revealed to be… Mari’s parents?

‘’MARI! I'm so glad your safe…’’ Mari’s mom, also known as Rina Suzuki cried in relief at the safety of her daughter.

‘’Who did this to you?’’ Sunny’s dad, also known as Jouji Suzuki enquired with hostility.

‘’It was-’’ Kel yelled out, being cut by Hero putting his hand on his shoulder, whispering in his ear, this shut up Kel, who fixed his sentence. ‘’-Wyatt!’’

‘’Who’s Wyatt?’’ Jouji asked sternly, cracking his knuckles.

‘’Uh… Its some guy that Sunny mentioned!’’ Kel said.

Mari looked at Kel with an expression painted as ’whatthehellhaveyoudone’.

Hero was a mirror of that expression.

‘’Sunny?’’ Rina blinked funnily, eyes wide like a deer caught in headlights.

Jouji’s breath hitched in surprise. ‘’Say that name again.’’

‘’Sunny? What's so surpis- Ohhhhh.. Shit.’’ Kel swore under his breath, Hero would make him put a dollar in the swear jar, but there was no jar to shove the dollar in, only the burning glares of the 2 Japanese-American parents, questions armed at the hispanic boy.

‘’Sunny is back?’’ Jouji asked, in disbelief.

‘’Yeah..’’ Mari spoke up.

‘’Your lying..’’ Rina rubbed her eyes to make sure she wasn’t dreaming.

‘’He left 5 years ago, Mari.’’ Rina stated, still in disbelief.

‘’Why would I lie about that? Sunny is back, he’s in Faraway.’’ Mari stated right back.

Kel was about to say something stupid. ‘’There is bad news, Sunny is in a ga-’’ Hero pinched Kel on the arm, signaling to him that he was about to do a major fuck-up. ‘’-I mean he has an eyepatch!’’

‘’WHAT!?’’ Jouji shouted, confused.

Kel never really knew on how to keep his thoughts to himself, so he sent Kel out of the room, under the disguise of ’Adult conversations’

‘’Ewww! I'm only 17!’’ Kel whined, walking out of the room, to keep away from such unholy descriptions of taboo topics to enter the cavity of his ear, triggering the nervous system to send the information into the brain forever embedding the forbidden knowledge in his head.

No thanks, Kel thought as he walked out of the room to grab a (probably) stale burger from the cafeteria.

The 4 adults now no longer in the presence of (essentially) a teenager who hasn’t mentally matured past the age of 12, only actually physically evolving, on the outside, he looked like a complete hunk, but inside, he would essentially be on what you could call a man-child, that is what Aubrey thought over the years at least began to converse.

Jouji straightened his collar. ‘’When did you see Sunny?’’ Jouji’s glare could burn a hole through wood, and probably even melt metal, it seemed that way anyways.. He wanted an explanation.

‘’A-A day ago..’’ Mari started.

‘’Go on?’’ Rina inquired.

‘’I-I was coming home from college a day earlier… I-I just wanted to see Sunny when Henry told me he was back…’’ Mari explained.

‘’Okay.. That is all I need to know… Where is Sunny right now?’’ Rina sighed out in relief.

‘’I-I think he left the hospital, I-I told everybody about what I-I did to Sunny…’’ Mari said.

‘’Oh.. my sweet little girl.. I'm so proud of you.’’ Rina hugged Mari, while her father gave approving looks.

‘’I knew that all of that guilt was building up inside you, it was a good thing you told the truth…’’

‘’M-Mom, D-Dad?’’ Mari stuttered.

‘’Yes?’’

‘’Did you truly forgive me?’’ Mari asked.

‘’Well, we were pretty mad… but we knew you were just stressed, and you really regretted it, didn’t you?’’ Rina gave Mari reassuring back rubs, while her father nodded.

‘’Same with your mother, I-I was really disappointed in you.’’ His tone went down. ‘’But, I could see your suffering, how you were a shut-in for a year, it was great that Henry could get you out.’’

A bad memory awakened in her mind.

‘ She looked at her body, it was horribly thin, maybe even a skeleton, her face was pale from the lack of sunlight, the moment Hero looked at her, horror spread across his face.’

‘’We came as soon as we got the news.’’

‘’I-I don’t know what to say!’’ Mari shouted, tears shimmering in her eyes.

‘’Apart from that dear, the doctors said you should be able to leave in 2 days, we need for you to rest after the surgery!’’ Rina finished as she squeaked in surprise.

‘’Oh dear! It's.. October 30th!’’

‘’Yeah? Halloween.. not like i could go..’’ Mari sighed, sinking into the otherwise stiff mattress.

‘’Come on! You always have to look up! This isn’t the daughter I had always known!’’ Rina cheered, as her father nodded, the doctor who was at the back of the room tapped on Jouji’s shoulder.

‘’Im sorry sir, but visiting times are over, as we have to let the patient rest if we want a speedy recovery, closing times are also up.’’

‘’Ah, we shall be on our way then.’’ Jouji replied, as he  picked up a suitcase nearby, acquired to transport his and Rina’s possessions for returning from a abruptly cut business trip, which may have been longer with the re-appearance from Sunny.

Understandably, they had their doubts despite the confirmation from the 3 children, but it could just be some black-haired kid, at least that's what the irrational part of their minds thought.

Hero and Kel walked out of the room, not before saying goodbye to Mari, and the 2 left, regrouping with the 2 before leaving.

Sunny was outside when 2 familiar people were walking down the street, and with the other 4. Sunny froze up, as his friends were calling for him.

His parents.

It never occurred to him how they hadn’t found him in the hospital yet?

Ringing engulfed his ears, as the harsh scolding of his dad came into his mind.

‘’Ruin this recital, And you’ll be a disgrace to the bloodline!’’ Jouji shouted, as Sunny kept his hands behind his back.

Sunny shook his head as the 4 were rapidly approaching where he was, he ran away, again.

‘Sorry guys, but not now.’ Sunny thought.

‘’You're breaking another promise? Again?’ A harsh tone spoke in his mind, disappointed.

‘Not ready yet..’

Sunny ducked into nearby bushes,  as Aubrey looked aghast and distressed, so did Basil.

They had just lost Sunny.. Again.

The brown autumn trees swayed in the wind, as the shattered friends stared at the bush where their recently reunited friends just left, in a sort of twisted way, it was the same way he originally left.

Aubrey let out a whimper, Basil looked empty. Hero noticed Rina and Jouji looking confused at the 4.

‘’What’s happening?’’ Rina shuffled towards the 4.

‘’S-Sunny… h-he ran away! Again!’’ Aubrey shouted out, while Jouji and Rina looked conflicted.

‘It can’t be.’ They both thought, as Polly pulled into the hospital to pick up the 4, since most of the space in the Suzuki’s car was filled with cargo for some reason.

Sunny scrambled through the bushes, intent on trying to find a way back onto the street, breaking a nearby teeline. He found himself on the pavement when the same car he arrived in drove down the street, diving back down into the bush, he ran through more trees until he found himself on a long road, and the small skyscrapers of Faraway off to the distance, their bottom halves being hidden by trees.

Sunny walked down the road, making sure to check out for a green car, but wasn’t considering what color his parents car was, nonetheless, he made his trek back to Faraway, being coated in all of the filth and grime of nature, embracing the smoke in open arms.

As the pavements of Faraway appeared, he stepped onto the urban greatness, and went throughout the city, looking at the places he had never been to before since he never explored outside his neighborhood.

The same green car was seen driving down the street, how many green cars were Sunny going to see today?

Luckily, it sped right past down the tarmac, not letting Sunny stop it from his mere appearance, disregarding him as the car maneuvered its way back to the Suzuki Household with Sunny’s parents in suit.

Sunny eventually, after a few minutes of exploring, decided to return back home, and hopefully to make up for the mess he has caused. The familiar trees of his neighborhood swayed in the autumn wind, its once green leaves a few months ago reduced to rotting leaves with shades of Red, yellow and orange, slowly rotting away to make way for Winter, Sunny’s favorite month before he ran off the streets. The winter often caused him to go hungry for a few minutes of warmth from the oil drums, often sacrificing his time in the day to look for wood rather than to buy, or rather, steal food in Sunny’s case.

Making his way to the front of the house, a black car stood proudly in front of the garage. Not paying attention to the mysterious vehicle, he knocked on the door.

It began to rattle, as a tired Hero appeared, his eyes widened at the sight, and immediately went into a hug with Sunny.

‘’Don’t you do that again Sunny!’’ Hero sighed a breath of relief. ‘’We all thought you got hurt…’’

‘’I can take care of myself.’’ Sunny barked. Hero took himself out of the hug, before looking behind him into the living room, Sunny saw a pink-blob and when Hero shuffled out of the way, it was revealed to be Aubrey.

She instantly leaped towards Sunny, tackling him onto the ground before wrapping him in a tight hug, he hissed in pain.

Upon hearing Sunny’s discomfort, she instantly broke the hug, but sniffled a little before punching Sunny in the stomach.

‘’That's what you get for scaring me!’’

‘Jeesh, calm down.’ Sunny thought internally, rolling his eyes. ‘’You’ve lost me for 4 years, I thought you would be used to this.’’ Sunny said, half-joking. Luckily, Aubrey didn’t seem to notice because she was in the process of strangling Kel after he touched a single molecule of various pieces of candy stuffed into a bucket.

‘’Oh right…’’ Aubrey said. ‘’Mari’s not gonna be able to go trick or treating… because of…. That ..’’ She said in a cold and distant tone, not wanting to go in depth with that last part, mainly because she didn’t want to drive Sunny away. As wrong as it was to shoot Mari, it was just an accident, but what Mari did… She didn’t want to forgive.

‘’Hero didn’t want Mari to miss halloween, so he insisted on buying candy for Mari.’’

‘’I don’t know Aubrey, you should forgive Mari, Hero is the wisest here, so you should kn-’’

‘’Shut up Kel.’’ Aubrey interrupted Kel by headbutting him, he became woozy as he rubbed the struck parts of his forehead.

‘’Ouch..’’ Kel sighed.

Basil walked into the room with cinnamon apples in a bowl, cut up into little pieces intending for Polly to hand them out, upon seeing the slender 17 year old with black hair, he almost dropped the bowl, rushing towards Sunny. Basil’s rather skinny frame did not allow for him to be tackled but his hugs could suck the life-force out of Sunny.

Sunny tried to wriggle off Basil due to the discomfort, it was like trying to detach a facehugger, the more you tried to pull, the tighter it got. Resigning to his fate, he wrapped his arms around Basil, his dirty t-shirt being soaked in tears of relief.

Eventually, the awkward stares of everybody caused him to pull out of the hug, looking ashamed. ‘’Sorry…’’ Basil scratched his arm.

Sunny was about to say something, but the clacking of wood approaching the room, 2 familiar figures.

‘’Hi kids, we just wanted to let you know that dinn-’’

Rina’s eyes snapped towards Sunny, as did Jouji.

‘S-Sunny?’’ Rina blinked funnily, his taller frame and eyepatch could have fooled anyone, or rather, Kel, Rina and Jouji, since they were oblivious.. It was in their nature to be sort of airheads, at least it doesn’t get passed on in blood, otherwise Sunny would have been dead a long time ago, probably rotting in some dumpster waiting to be discovered by an unfortunate person.

Rina went to hug Sunny tightly, crying for a bit before retracting, caressing his hair gently, despite Suny towering over her, a few other click and clacks of wood emitted from the hallway, it was nobody else then Jouji.

Jouji went to look around, and his eyes widened at the sight before him, a… thief!

‘’Stay away! Thief!’’ Jouji yelled, getting into an attack stance, he was about to strike the mystery man but Rina grabbed his fist.

‘’What's gotten into you! That’s Sunny!’’ Rina scolded, Jouji looked ashamed in himself, but then realized the name Sunny.

Taking another look at the man, or rather, teenager by everybody else (his appearance could deceive.) he looked at the jet-black hair, similar to his, the eyepatch and the eye color that they shared.

Grabbing a nearby picture of Sunny and Mari posing for the front of the recital, he looked at the 2 differences while Sunny was tense, complementing if he should run away or not, but the voice insisting him to stay.

The differences were vastly different, all traces of baby fat removed, his jaw-line was weak but his forehead looked hard, his eyebrows were down as if he was in an agitated expression at all times. His face looked confused.

‘’S-Sunny? Ah.. so he was righ t . ’’ Jouji glanced back at Kel, and then back to Sunny.

‘’I-Im so sorry..’’ Jouji adjusted his glasses and looked down in shame. ‘’I'm sorry for letting Mari do that to you, I didn’t realize how much we all cared about you until you were gone.’’

Sunny went into a sour mood. ‘’You decided to notice right after I ran away?’’

‘’Yeah..’’ Jouji replied.

Rina piped up. ‘’We didn’t mean to, Sunny! We were just busy and..’’ Rina exhaled. ‘’..Oh who am I kidding, we had no good reason to ignore the problem.’’

‘’Whatever, I guess Mari was the root of the problem.’’ Sunny barked.

Everybody looked around the room, and Sunny felt drowsy, running away again tired him out despite his physique, or it could just be the mental strain of seeing his 2 parents, he didn’t care.

Sunny pushed Aubrey and Kel aside, who were sitting on the couch, to make room for himself, and instantly passed out before he could even touch the couch. His body sank into it as Kel and Aubrey shuffled the unconscious teenager so that his face wasn’t planted into the sofa so he didn’t suffocate in his sleep.

Kel laughed a lot, before being jabbed by Aubrey and Basil, who didn’t take kindly to his mockery. Basil pulled out the Sunny plushie and sat it on Sunny’s lap, innocently looking at Basil and Aubrey, who had gotten up to get the Plushie. the plushie in almost danger of being thrown across the room by Sunny if he was disturbed, something that would make Aubrey and Basil faint.

On the topic of the 2, Aubrey looked confused while Basil had a sly grin.

‘’Couldn’t get enough vitamin D, I suppose?’’ Basil joked, noticing Aubrey staring at the Plushie.

‘Oh this little..’ Aubrey thought internally, before she could cuss Basil out, the Plush fell from Sunny’s lap into Kel’s hands after he was jolted.

‘’Oh my HAHAHAHAH-’’ Kel laughed at the Plushie, while Aubrey could kill him at the spot, Basil was slightly agitated, knowing Kel, he would leave it in its house and the poor Plushie wouldn’t be spared from Hector’s jaws.

Jouji grabbed the Plushie out of Kel’s hands and looked at it. ‘’Who did this?’’ Jouji asked, a stern glare after having his son mocked.

Aubrey tried to grab the plushie out of Jouji’s hands, but he kept it behind his back.

Basil, being a twig, slipped past Jouji, and snatched the Plushie, in turn, Aubrey grabbed onto the Plushie and the 2 began to play tug-of-war with it.

A couple of rips was all it took for them to back off and drop the Plush, which didn’t have any limbs ripped off but a few pieces of cotton could be seen.

‘’NOOOO!’’ Basil yelled, falling to his knees as the Plushes eyes gazed up at the light.

‘’Ohmygosh…’’ Aubrey rushed towards Plushie. Scooping up bits of cotton back into its body, Basil punched Aubrey in the gut for harming it, she took it with shame, a crime against the state she internally thought.

Sunny slept, oblivious, maybe the previous statement a few words up contradicted him not being an air-head.

Aubrey felt tears building up in her eyes, for Kel, his eyes were wide open.

The delinquent of the town, the tough, strong and rough.. Reduced to a crying mess over a plushie of all things.. What an embarrassment. Basil thought.

Hero who was out of the room, walked in to see multiple things, an unconscious Sunny, a crying Basil and Aubrey, 2 confused parents, who went upstairs to sleep; and Kel who had something on his mind, not burgers, but Candy.

‘’Uh.. alright.. I'm not gonna ask anything, but we should go to sleep.’’ Hero checked the clock, it was 10:25 PM.

‘’O-Ok..’’ Aubrey whimpered, wiping her tears with her sleeve, watching as the replacement to Mr.Plantegg was taken away from her hands by Hero.

Kel got comfy on the couch, as he was exhausted either way; almost instantly falling asleep.

Aubrey exhaled, climbing up the couch, right next to Sunny, as Basil was on the other side of Sunny.

Both of them shared a death stare to each other, as both wanted to sleep on the couch because it was comfy

(Or so that's what Kel and hero thought.)

‘

‘’Get off the couch, Aubrey.. This is my spot, i got it first.’’ Basil hissed, leaping towards the couch which reverbated.

‘’No way, flowerboy.’’ Aubrey hissed back, as it was a battle to see who gained the spot on the couch.

Both of them narrowed their eyes, as Basil tackled Aubrey, beginning the fight.

The ruckus made Sunny slightly rustle, but he still remained asleep, leaning towards Kel.

‘Don’t want you to drool over him, Kel...’Hero panicked, knowing what the boy did to him once at a sleepover, hoping that he wouldn’t be the next victim, and so adjusted him so that he was leaning back on the couch rather then towards Kel.

Sunny who shifted over to the edge laid on his side, his upper half resting on the armest.

‘Oh god, that looks uncomfortable.’Hero thought internally, not paying attention to the 2 squabbling simps.

Aubrey was about to drag Basil off the couch from his legs but he began to kick at Aubrey,  she grunted in pain but grabbed his legs again, trying to keep a steady grip on the twigs legs.

‘’Cut it out, you two.’’ Hero scolded. ‘’Otherwise, Kel gets all of the sweets!’’ He threatened, hoping to get a reaction.

‘’You wouldn’t dare’’ Aubrey barked back.

‘’Eh, I'm on a diet.’’ Basil shrugged.

‘’Basil, you are literally a twig, you don’t need to be on a diet.’’ Aubrey responded.

‘’Am not!’’ Basil narrowed his eyes.

‘’Are too!’’ Aubrey narrowed her eyes.

‘They’re both 17 year olds, for christ's sake.’ Hero facepalmed. ‘’Both of you keep it down, you’ll end up waking Sunny at this rate.’’

‘’I want to sleep on the couch though!’’ Aubrey turned to Hero, pleading with puppy eyes, but it didn’t work since she still looked like a delinquent.

Noticing this, Aubrey took off her contacts, revealing her brown natural eyes, trying to play off as innocent, but her crop top and mini-skirt didn’t help.

Aubrey turned towards Basil. ‘’Lets make a deal…’’

‘’Hmm, go on?’’ Basil narrowed his eyes, putting his fingers together like an evil villain

‘’Rock. Paper. Scissors!’’ Aubrey yelled, punching Basil in the face. ‘’Rock!’’.

‘’No fair!’’

‘’Alright alright… Aubrey won, get off the couch Basil.’’ Hero looked tired.

‘’Alright, fine.’’ Basil stood up and walked up stairs, sleeping in Mari’s bed since Sunny’s bed was gone due to his disappearance those years ago.

‘Would be better with Sunny..’ Basil thought as he laid in Mari’s bed.

Meanwhile, Aubrey had a tired smirk as she sat on the couch, next to the sleeping Snuy.

Before she could celebrate, the couch momentarily became even more comfier, either the warmth from Sunny or the soft fabric of the Sunny Plushie that rested in one of her arms, as said arm was lightly hugging the plushie, meanwhile the other other one was resting on the top of the couch.

Sleep made way, as Hero went onto the couch

Sunny woke up with the worst feeling in his ribs, he groaned loudly with pain.

‘Oh fuck.. Shouldn’t have leaned like that on the couch.’ Sunny tried to click his back, but it did not work.

Sunny yelped (in pain) at nobody in particular after clicking his ribs, unfortunately, the yelp was loud enough to wake up Aubrey who jumped.

Sunny felt a phantom itch in his back, no matter what angle he could get in, his back was stiff like a metal pole.

‘’Sunny? Is everything alright?’’ Aubrey kept her tone down to a whisper as she still hugged the Plushie with one arm, worried.

‘’My back hurts.’’ Sunny grunted, going into weird angles, it looked like dancing.

Sunny grabbed his hands together and turned them so that his palms were facing the front, tensing his shoulders, he pushed. At Least some clicking did happen, but they could only be felt in his arms.

Sunny groaned in discomfort, as he flopped and moved around like a goldfish out of water or really sped up dancing, all the while Aubrey was watching the entire thing go down, her eyes wide.

‘’Uhhh.. Sunny?’’ Aubrey said, trying to gather the teenagers attention.

‘’Wait.. Give me a minute okay?’’

‘’I-I think I know somethin-’’ Aubrey tried to help, but was cut off by Sunny.

‘’Ah.. I got an idea.’’

Sunny stood up and turned to Aubrey.

‘’Hold me.’’

‘’HUH?’’ Aubrey silently shouted.

‘’Don’t get any funny ideas… my back is too soft, can you crack it for me?’’ Sunny sighed.

‘’Alright, uh, stay still.’’ Aubrey wrapped her arms around Sunny, and tried lifting him up.

Unfortunately, she still lived off dollar meals in Othermart, so just to say, her physique did not allow for such heavy lifting, she ended up dropping Sunny on the floor.

‘’Damn it.. Whatever, What are we doing today?’’ Sunny still attempted to click his back.

‘’Oh! It's halloween!’’

‘’Huh?’’ Sunny paused and looked at Aubrey.

‘I should probably wake up the others….’ Aubrey thought to herself, going up to Hero and Kel who were still sleeping on the couch.

Chapter Text

Aubrey went up to the 2 boys as Sunny watched, tapping them on the shoulders to awaken them. Hero arises at the touch, flexing his arms to make them less stiff as he yawns, rubbing his eyes before smiling when seeing Aubrey and Sunny.

‘’Oh, hey Sunny.. what time is it?’’ Hero tiredly asked, as Sunny went to read the clock.

‘’It's 8:20 in the morning.’’ Sunny replied.

‘’Ah.. Got it- Wait a minute…’’ Hero put his fingers on his chin, as if he was thinking about something.

‘’We need to visit Mari!’’ Hero exclaimed. Sunny was the only one to hear him, scoffing as he turned away. Hero frowned at this, but knew Sunny had a valid reason for it. The only thing Hero ever wanted was for everything to return to normal. He wished for Sunny and Mari to get along, the various sleepovers they had.. It felt like a reachable goal, but glancing at Sunny only made it feel farther away.

After October, it would turn into winter, and then to the glorious spring, the season of flowers and easter, and then into the nice hot and long days of summer. (in my case, the weather was 40 degrees celsius here last summer, imagine writing in that heat.. - PxDor5)

For the most part, life was a rocky road for Hero, the sudden disappearance of Sunny, caring for Mari who was grieving for a person who was still alive, college and the sudden reappearance of his friend. Hero was snapped out of his internal thoughts when Kel kicked Hero in the head by accident, being startled by Aubrey’s fist when Kel never responded to her shaking.

‘’OUCH!’’ Hero yelled, rubbing the part which had been struck by Kel’s foot.  ‘’Why did you do that Kel?’’ Hero whined;

‘’Oh crap.. Sorry bro’’ Kel sheepishly rubbed his back, while Hero merely sighed. ‘’Alright Kel, pack it up; We need to visit Mari!’’

‘’Wait Wait Wait…. Hero… isn’t it the 31st?!’’ Kel asked, while Hero nodded

‘’Bro.. That’s Halloween.. We haven’t even decided on our costumes because Sunny came back a couple days ago!’’ Kel whined.

Sunny felt hurt and it seemed his reappearance had ruined the current flow that the others had, or so he thought. Aubrey gave Kel a glare. ‘’How could you say that?’’ Aubrey questioned, while Hero had the same disappointed gaze. 

‘’Kelsey.’’ Hero said. ‘’We should prioritize our friends rather than Halloween first.’’ Kel seemed to learn from his mistake, shrinking down. ‘’Alright, Alright.. What time are we visiting?’’

‘’We haven’t had breakfast yet, and we should probably take a bath, especially you, Sunny.’’ Hero said.

‘’Really, Henry?’’ Sunny crossed his arms, his cold tone was more than enough to force an apology.

‘’Alright! I'm sorry!’’ Hero exclaimed, the gang should really rework their word choices if they want Sunny to stay long term.

‘’Anyways, as I was saying,’’ Hero continued, ‘’We’ll visit Mari in.. Half an hour, are you fine with that?’’ Hero asked the 3, their reactions were expected.

Sunny looked mad and turned away, walking out of the room to find better things to do, aka, waking up Basil.

Aubrey had an angry look in her eyes. ‘’A-Alright… fine, but I won’t forgive her unless Sunny does.’’ Aubrey huffed, crossing her arms.

‘’What about you? Kel?’’ Hero asked. Kel gave a thumbs up accompanied by a grin. ‘’Alright!’’

Hero didn’t bother asking Basil, knowing his reaction from Mari’s confession, it would be like throwing a gorilla into a room with a goldfish. His biggest fear was that Mari’s hospital stay would increase with an angry Basil in the same room. On the topic of Mari, after today, she should be able to come back home, but Hero took into concern the tense living situation tomorrow.


Meanwhile, Sunny stepped up the stairs to reveal a sleeping Basil, it seemed that none of them wore pajamas when they all fell asleep, or rather unconscious in Sunny’s state.

A funny thought appeared in Sunny’s head, he was gonna prank Basil. As he entered the room, a wave of nostalgia hit him like a truck. In his head.

He saw his bed, grabbing a cup of water before sitting down next to the sleeping Basil.

He held the cup above Basil before turning the cup upside down, sending the water flying onto Basil’s sleeping form.

‘’WAHH!’’ Basil yelled, flying up and frantically looked around for the culprit. Sunny snickered a little as Basil’s adrenaline went away. Rubbing his eyes, he saw Sunny looming over him,  who was snickering to himself.

‘Grrr… you-’ Basil realized that it was Sunny, and instead, looked betrayed. ‘’Why did you do that Sunny?’’

‘’Just messing with ya.’’ Sunny returned to his usual stoic and cold expression. ‘’The others are waiting for you.’’.

‘’Thanks alot, I need new clothes now…’’ Basil muttered, who lifted himself off the soaking bed. ‘’Don’t do that Sunny! You almost gave me a heart attack!’’ Basil exclaimed, for Sunny, he didn’t show the slightest amount of sympathy or regret. 

‘’Eh, we need to take a bath anyway.’’ Sunny shrugged as Basil nodded. ‘’You should go downstairs fir-’’

Sunny was cut off by the sound of the bath tap depositing water emitted throughout the entire house.

‘’HEY SUNNY! YOU CAN TAKE THE BATH AFTER ME!’’ Hero’s voice could be heard from the bathroom.

Sunny covered Basil’s ears before responding, as he didn’t want his best friend’s ears to be deaf. ‘’GOT IT!’’ Sunny yelled back.

Basil and Sunny went out into the hallway and went over to the bathroom door, grabbing a towel that hangs off a hook attached to the top of the bathroom door, and rubbed the towel on his wet spots, sooner or later, he was dry and descended the stair-case into the living room.

‘’Hey Basil!’’ Kel shouted out, while Aubrey waved at him. ‘’Me and Aubrey were just talking about the best soda!’’ 

‘’It's obviously Dr. Pepper!’’ Aubrey yelled.

‘’Nuh-uh! Orange Joe is the best!’’ Kel fought back.

‘’I like Grape Soda the most..’’ Sunny muttered, expressing his own opinion quietly, or so that was what he thought.

Aubrey quickly rethought her opinion. ‘’W-Well, Grape Soda is my favorite too!’’ Aubrey yelled with a smile.

Kel looked un-amused. ‘’You're only saying that because it's Sunny’s favorite.’’

Kel crossed his arms. ‘’And, Orange Joe is still better than Grape Soda!’’ Kel shouted with pride.

Before your classic Kel and Aubrey fight happened, Hero descended the stairs on cue, a new change of clothes lended by the Suzuki parents.

Talking about them, the 2 also followed Hero down the stairs, joining the rest of the gang who admired the house.

‘’Wow, and I thought this house would all be dusty without Mari here.’’ Jouji muttered, while Rina chuckled. ‘’At least we didn’t move 2 years back, I don’t know what would of happened if Mari didn’t convince us…’’ Rina spoke in a distant tone, glancing at Sunny who looked bored.

The morning went by smoothly, The gang got washed and had breakfast, only 5 getting ready for the hospital trip. Basil and Sunny opted for adventuring together.

Sunny wanted to teach his best friend some skills from gang life, and so he expressed this by tapping Basil on the shoulder.

‘’Oh.. Hey Sunny!’’ Basil smiled. ‘’What do you need?’’

‘’Come with me.’’ Sunny said, pointing towards the front door. ‘’Uhhhh.. Okay?’’ Basil questioned it, but regardless, the 2 went outside onto the street, Basil waved goodbye at Kel who shut the door behind the 2.

The cold wind brushed past Basil's exposed arms and legs, making Basil shiver, but Sunny didn’t really care. ‘’Wanna get warm?’’

‘’Y-Ye-eah.’’ Basil stuttered due the freezing cold, hugging himself, he thought of himself as stupid for wearing such clothing, a goddam T-shirt and cargo shorts?

Sunny was wearing a brown jacket and a blue t-shirt underneath, and he wore a gray tracksuit with some worn out logo which was now indecipherable. Regardless, he was warm already, he glanced at the shivering Basil and at his jacket.

He was only doing this for Basil.

‘Best friend privileges.’, Sunny thought as he took off his jacket, handing it to Basil.

Of course, Basil quickly put this on. ‘’Thanks, S-Sunny..’’

Sunny lent out his hand, and Basil grinned, grabbing it and the 2 strolled down the sidewalk, Basil not questioning where they were going but rather just enjoying the moment.

After the small skyline of Faraway was revealed, Basil looked scared, he has never been to the big city before!

‘’H-Hey Sunny! Weeee really shouldn’t go into the city, y’kno-’’ Basil was cut off by Sunny flicking him. ‘’Grow up.’’ Sunny responded, as Basil trembled in fear.

‘’S-Sunny, please..’’ Basil pleaded, yet Sunny merely rolled his eyes.

‘’Basil, grow up.. Besides, I’ll be here to protect you.’’ Sunny said, confidently and without a doubt.

Basil blushed a little, nodding. ‘’A-Alright, fine.. W-We can go..’’

After walking around the city. The 2 spotted some cranes and Sunny, being an ex-homeless teenager prior to a few days ago, broke into the construction site, much to Basil’s fear.

‘’S-SUNNY! WE SH-SHOULDN'T BE DOING THIS!’’ Basil yelled out in fear, what if he was caught?! Would him and Sunny be sent to jail? Executed? These thoughts ran through his head and as he was about to pass out in fear, Sunny tightly gripped Basil’s shoulders and looked him directly in the eye.

‘’Basil.’’ He began, he grabbed Basil’s head and somehow snapped it towards a fence with multiple warning symbols and signs attached to it, they were covered in moss and were rusty.

‘’You see those signs?’’ Basil’s eyes were glued to the signs now, inspecting the fence and the overgrowth of the elements that battered the old construction site. ‘’This place is abandoned, since like.. 2007?’’ Sunny tried to remember a memory that one of his gang members told him about the old construction site, unable to find a memory, he just shrugged.

‘’I don’t know, but this was like, a couple year ago.’’ Sunny turned back to Basil. ‘’Nobody is here.’’

Basil was somewhat calmed down, but the dread of being caught lingered in his mind and gut. The 2 walked around the construction site before Sunny set his eyes on some rusty oil drums with dried paint and ripped stickers stacked on top of eachother, a grin spread across his face.

Preparing his foot, he sent it into one of the main oil drums that was holding up the others, and they began to tumble down onto the dusty and sandy floor. It made a loud ruckus and Basil had to cover his ears.

After the avalanche of oil barrels were over, Sunny grabbed a blue one, holding it on his back with 2 arms wrapped around it.

‘’Woah… hey, Sunny.. Isn’t that heavy for you to lift? Let me help!’’’ Basil exclaimed, while Sunny only hushed him away.

‘’It’s empty.’’ Sunny responded, causing Basil to deflate, he only wanted to help.

‘’What are inside those things anyways?’’ Basil enquired, while Sunny chuckled.

‘’Probably old oil for the machinery or all of this sand, probably.’’ Sunny said while bringing the oil drum to a relatively spacious area, standing upright.

The lid was already somehow loose, probably the rust or rain weakening it and could be taken off with relative ease.

Basil covered his nose, as a foul stench from the oil drum emitted. Seemingly, Sunny was disgusted too and tried to resist gagging for now. Peering into the oil drum, it was filled with garbage, the flies were released and were probably trapped there since 2007 or whenever the oil drums were brought into the construction site.

‘’Alright, stand back.’’ Basil did as he was told, as Sunny pulled out a lighter.

‘’Basil, grab me some wood.’’ Sunny said, not questioning why Sunny had a lighter in possession, he quickly achieved the task of giving Sunny some wood.

Sunny opened the cap of the lighter and clicked on a button, causing a small flame and tentatively, he brought it closer to the wood, causing one end of it, the farthest to his hand, to alight in flames.

‘’BE CAREFU-’’ Basil was cut off by hearing a thud in the oil barrel. Sunny leaped back as the fire expanded way farther than it should have, probably 3 feet away from the barrel and 5 feet up from the barrel.

‘’SUNNY! BE MORE CAREFUL!’’ Basil yelled, as the flame decreased to a small fire.

‘’*Cough* *Cough* Fuck! I should of thought about *Cough* *Cough* being more careful..’’ Sunny swore and coughed.

‘’W-Why did it do that anyways?’’ Sunny turned to Basil.

‘Ah, yeah, he’s probably missed out on loads of education.’ Basil smiled, not at what had happened but for being able to help Sunny.

‘’That was garbage, you know that? There was probably fumes which caused it to ‘explode’.’’

Sunny showed some actual surprise, but the now extinguished lighter was still in Sunny’s hands.

‘’Sunny, don’t tell me you smok-’’

‘’Its for warmth.’’ Sunny cut in as Basil did a shaky sigh.

‘’Right.. What’s the point of even being out here? We could be with the others and..’’ Basil hesitated a little, before speaking in a cold tone.

‘’ Mar- ’’ Basil’s mouth was covered by Sunny’s hand.

‘’I don’t want to talk to her right now.’’ Sunny responded, as Basil nodded.. Sunny released his grip on Basil.

‘’Anyways, I’m showing you how I survived for these 5 years.”

‘’O-Oh!’’ Basil’s face slightly lit up with joy, he was always curious on how the hell Sunny managed for those 5 painful years.

“Wanna know self defense?” Sunny asked, his tone more calm.

‘’W-Wait, why do I need to learn self defense? I-I don’t get into any fights!’’ Basil was mortified.

“You never know, you might need it, Basil.’’ Sunny spoke as Basil exhaled.

‘’I-I guess..’’ Basil finally agreed.

Sunny acted like a test dummy while Basil got into a somewhat hostile stance.

“Punch me.” Sunny said, as he let Basil get a free punch in.

Basil took a couple seconds, but threw a punch at Sunny’s stomach.. Sunny didn’t even flinch, infact.. He chuckled.

“D-Did that hurt?” Basil asked, his fist slightly sore from the weak punch.

‘’Oh Basil.. Your gonna need a lot more practice than that.’’ Sunny responded.

‘’A-Alright.. Just explain it to me.’’ Basil exhaled.

‘’Right, so.. Your basic stance should be crouched down with your dominant hand open and in front of your other, keep your fingers loose for both hands and keep your back straight, but it's alright if your hunched a little bit, and keep your head forward.’’

Basil inhaled, and exhaled, as he crouched down a bit, keeping his back straight, though his body couldn’t help but hunch a bit.. He put his left hand infront of his right, keeping his fingers loose and his head was a bit forward.

‘’Good.’’ Sunny got in the same position, standing infront of Basil.

‘’One of the most basic throws is a hand counter takedown, you use it to counter a punch, as your opponent punches at you, grab their fist with your opposite arm and push your shoulder forward to use as leverage and fling them to the ground.’’ Sunny instructed as Basil nodded.

‘’Got it, Sunny..’’ Basil spoke, he was still nervous, but atleast it wasn’t an actual combat situation.

Sunny threw a punch, as Basil tried to catch it, failing miserably as Sunny accidentally hit Basil across the face.

“Shit.’’ Sunny mumbled as he looked at Basil

‘’I-It’s ok, I-I’m fine!’’ Basil tried to reassure him, yet Basil’s head hurt pretty badly.

‘’No, I shouldn’t have thrown a punch that hard.’’ Sunny shook his head as he removed an icepack from the jacket that Basil had, gently grabbing Basil’s face and pressing the ice pack against the bruise.

Basil’s face blushed a bit from the touch, as he just let Sunny do so.

(credit for the CQC dialog https://www.instructables.com/CQC-Tutorial/ )

‘’Alright, I think you need a little more practice, but uh, I don’t have that much to show you, uh.. I showed you how to get warm at night, a failed attempt at combat training...’’

Basil felt disappointed in himself, but let Sunny continue.

‘’I think we’ve done everything here… can you call the rest of the group? I don’t have their numbers.’’ Sunny said, scrolling through his contacts.

‘’No problem.’’ Basil pulled out a phone of his own, and began dialing Hero’s number.

*RING* *RING* *RING*

‘’Hello?’’ Hero’s voice said through the phone. ‘’What do ya need Basil?’’ Hero asked.

Basil handed the phone to Sunny as he cleared his throat.

‘’It's me, Sunny.’’

A fenimine gasp could be heard from the other side of the phone, Sunny knew who this was, but didn’t bother questioning it.

‘’When are you coming home?’’ Sunny asked. ‘’Me and Basil are about to head back.’’

‘’Ah,’’ Hero said. ‘’Yeah, give us like an hour and a half, We just gave Mari some candy since she couldn’t go trick or treating.’’

====
40 MINUTES AGO
====

Hero, Aubrey and Kel all hopped into the car with Rina and Jouji, ready to go to the hospital, Jouji started the ignition and the car was running, and the 5 pulled out of the driveway onto the main street.

They drove through Faraway to reach Closeby, watching Basil and Sunny walk down the street together. Aubrey took into notice how Basil was wearing Sunny’s jacket, but the car sped right past the 2. Aubrey watched as the 2 figures slowly became little dots in the rear mirror until they turned a corner.

‘’Hey kids.’’ Rina said.

‘’It is the 31st of october, Sooooo… What does that mean?!’’ Rina said with a grin.

‘’Halloween?’’

‘’YES!’’  Rina shouted, trying to act cheerful, but everybody's faces were stone cold, apart from Kel who was cheering.

‘’Sorry miss, but I think we should focus on Mari and Sunny, especially around this time..’’ Hero said as RIna came to her senses.

‘’Oh yes, you are right.’’ Rina sank a little, disappointed that she wasn’t able to invoke a cheerful mood. ‘’Well… that doesn’t mean we can't celebrate it!’’

‘’Actually, Hero brought some candy for Mari since we can’t go trick or treating this year!’’

‘’Not like there are any people out offering candy in Faraway…’’ Aubrey murmured 

‘’Awww… you're so sweet to Mari! Aren’t you..?’’ Rina cooed, while Jouji had no comment

‘’Hehehehe..’’ Hero chuckled, an arm behind his head scratching it. ‘’It's my duty as her boyfr-’’

‘’So, what are your plans Kelsey?’’ Jouji cut Hero off.

‘’People call me Kel actually, but to be honest, I don’t know.’’ Kel said. ‘’I think I might just hang out with the others this year.’’ Kel sighed.

‘’Honestly, I gotta agree with Kel..’’ Aubrey said, as Hero nodded.

‘’Our parents are out for some halloween party in the city, and they got Sally a babysitter since they didn’t want me to miss out on halloween! So im free.’’ Hero concluded, all 3 answers satisfied Rina.

‘’Wanna watch some horror movies?’’ Rina cheered as everybody nodded.

‘’Basil might mind.’’ Aubrey chuckled to herself, unaware of the tomfoolery that Sunny and Basil were getting up to back in Faraway.

‘’Actually! I can buy you all snacks! Me and Jouji won’t be able to stay tonight since we need to go to the police station to tell them that Sunny returned! And the paperwork..’’ Rina looked like she could faint at that moment, at least Jouji was driving.

They passed the bridge and officially entered Closeby, the hospital building could be seen in the skyline.

The cars sped past as they pulled over into the hospital parking lot, after stepping out and checking in, the group went into the hospital, checked in and took the elevator up to Mari’s floor as usual.

Hero went towards Mari’s room, and slowly opened it.

Mari was asleep right now, snoring in her hospital gown.

‘’Ah, Mari’s asleep.’’ Hero said, before he could do anything, Kel ran up towards Mari and accidentally bumped into the bed, causing it to vibrate with great intensity. Kel ended up on the floor, a dazed expression on his face.

Mari woke up, making a yelp, adjusting to the hospital room; she made out the 5 figures that were in the room with her at the moment, her parents and friends. She was glad that Basil wasn’t here but was sad that Sunny wasn’t.

This came as urgent and she made it quick to ask about his whereabouts.

‘’W-Where's Sunny?’’ She asked, as Rina looked less cold the last time Mari asked this. ‘’He’s out with Basil right now, they didn’t want to come.’’

Mari’s heart stung, but maybe this is what she deserved at the end, it was the end of the line for her estranged siblingship with Sunny.

‘’Well, Hero has a gift for you!’’ Kel spoke with a grin. Hero had his hands behind his back. Mari blinked in confusion.

Hero took out a tub filled with various assortments of candy and such. Mari had tears in her eyes.

‘’I-I don’t deserve this..’’ Mari said, turning away. ‘’Not after..’’ She choked down a sob. ‘’N-Not after what I did to Sunny..’’

Hero rather forcefully shoved the sweets towards Mari, who couldn’t help but prod at the candy with her finger.

‘’B-But.. i'm supposed to eat healthy...’’ Mari mumbled, trying to get out of eating candy which she didn’t deserve.

‘’W-Well, I’ll leave the sweets her-’’

*RING* *RING* *RING*

‘’Ah, it’s Basil.’’ Hero took out his phone to see who was dialing, and accepted the call.

‘’Hello?’’ Hero’s said. ‘’What do ya need Basil?’’ Hero asked.

There was ruckus from the other side as if wind was blowing directly in.

‘’It's me, Sunny.’’

Mari gasped at Sunny’s voice, Kel, Aubrey and the elder Suzuki’s eyed with interest.

‘’When are you coming home?’’ Sunny asked. ‘’Me and Basil are about to head back.’’

‘’Ah,’’ Hero said. ‘’Yeah, give us like an hour and a half, We just gave Mari some candy since she couldn’t go trick or treating.’’

‘’Alright then, me and Basil are gonna head home now, see you..’’

Sunny ended the call, as Hero sighed.

‘’Right, we need to buy some stuff for ourselves..’’ Hero said.

‘’Like what?’’ Kel asked.

‘’Well, since we aren’t trick or treating, we should buy some horror movies, some popcorn.. Maybe candy..’’ Hero began to list multiple things, the hospital visit drew to an end as the 4 waved goodbye, Aubrey didn’t bother talking to Mari.

=========================

Basil and Sunny were sitting on the couch, watching a news report that was going on in Nearby.

‘’3 people have been killed during a stabbing in Nearby City, reporting officers are treating it as another act of gang violence.’’ The reporter said on the TV.

Basil whimpered, and glanced at Sunny. He was staring at the tv with a bare hint of emotion.

Sunny glanced down, but knocking erupted from the door.

‘’WE’RE HOME!’’ Hero yelled out, startling Basil.. Sunny seemed unphased though as he got up off the couch and walked to the door, opening it for the group.

The group got popcorn and the movies set up, and soon they were binging, laying on the couch while Hero and Kel sat on the floor.

The group decided to watch several halloween movies, such as:

-  Halloween. (1978)
- The Mist (2007)
- Chainsaw texas massacre. (1974)

- IT (1990)

- The Exorcist (1973)

- The Conjuring (2013)

- The Ring (2002)

Every time there was a scare, Basil or Aubrey would leap into Sunny’s arms, who didn’t look phased at all.

Though.. Sunny seemed to dislike The Ring because it looked.. Familiar, though he couldn’t place the exact reason why.

After the movies, Sunny began to doze off.. He had a long day, maybe he just needed a quick, nice nap.

—-------------------

WELCOME TO GREYSPACE, DREAMER.

THE CITY HAS BEEN WAITING FOR YOU .

Chapter Text

WELCOME TO GREYSPACE, DREAMER.

THE CITY HAS BEEN WAITING FOR YOU.


Sunny groggily got up, now standing in the dusty room. The sign flickered in and out of light, illuminating the various floating dust particles.

Sunny coughed a little, and observed the room, checking for any changes, most notably, the vines surrounding the exit to GREYSPACE have thickened in length.

Wordlessy, he withdrew a blade from his pocket, and walked up to the door covered in overgrowth and began slashing. Sooner or later, all of the veins keeping the doors barricaded were effectively removed, now allowing easy access to the City.

Turning back, he wanted to look at his, seemingly unscathed, sketchbook and flipped it open. Flipping a couple pages forward, he found new drawings which were not faded unlike the other drawings.

It depicted a girl with black hair, blood spewing down legs, and on another page, it showed 2 teenagers near an oil drum, yellow and orange colors drawn to show the fire.

‘Familiar’ Sunny thought. Exhaling, he shut the artbook down and put it beside the laptop. He turned around to the door and walked up to it. Grabbing the cold door handle, he slowly opened it as it creaked, Sunny cringed a little.

Sunny was greeted with the same landscape, the sky being covered in an ash-like cloud, hovering over the run-down city.

Stepping outside the door, he could feel the dirty wind brush past his skin, tainting it in the smog that blanketed his dreamscape.

Wielding his M1911, a gun he got from mur- STEALING IT, multiple shadow apparitions started to form around Sunny.

‘’W-Why?’’ The Shadow apparitions murmured. ‘’I-I surrendered!’’ They continued. ‘’P-Please… I got a wife and kids!’’

Sunny fired his weapon, causing the apparitions to have their heads blown off. Good thing that they didn’t have flesh, otherwise this place would be even worse, he has seen enough gore and grime of the real world in his life-time. Their shadow bodies began to dissipate like mist retreating from the land.

Sunny glanced at the pistol, his reflection in it. Shaking his head, he put it back in his pocket before navigating the landscape.

‘Why do I always have to go here?’ Sunny thought. In his 5 years, this place never really served a purpose but to mimic and bastardize his life, the life he lived to ‘’survive’’. This place was just mocking him for his crimes, the ones he was forced to commit.

He felt like the 2nd one was true prior to his return, or well, they never knew about the violin until Mari split her guts.

Regardless, Sunny continued to walk down the streets, looking at the destruction.

A shadow formed in front of Sunny, sighing to himself, he took out his pistol and pointed it at the shadowy figure.

Except, this figure was different, it looked.. humanoid at best, long black hair drooping down the figure and 2 pale eyes stood out from the general black palette of the shadow.

Sunny fired his gun, again.

Before the bullet hit it, the shadow teleported at least a foot away from where it originally was.

Sunny growled, shooting the shadow once again, but it merely teleported further back, well… not teleported.. more like fastly maneuvered away from the bullet so it looked like ash being blown through a fan.

‘’Stop.’’ Its shadowy voice was.. familiar to say the least.

‘’W-Who are you?’’

‘’I am known as.. Stranger.’’

‘’Bullshit.’’ Sunny said, trying to fire once again. ‘’Who are you?’’

‘’I am Stranger.’’

‘’Heh, nah, your just another one of those shadow guys again.’’ Sunny chuckled.

‘’Say my name..’’ The shadow moved up to Sunny and its shadowy arms grabbed him by the neck.

‘’..Stranger?’’

‘’Your right.’’ Stranger retracted, and turned to look at Sunny, the shadow itself was way smaller than Sunny, he could probably kick it into the sky if it didn’t teleport every time he tried to attack.

Stranger noticed Sunny’s gun and shook its head. ‘’Put down the gun, it won’t do anything, to me atleast.’’

‘’Why can’t I shoot you? Your not like the others!’’

‘’That isn’t the point, Dreamer.’’ The Stranger’s echoey voice entered his ears. ‘’You are not whole.’’ The Stranger said.

‘’Uh, do you mind.. Elaborating or something?’’ Sunny asked, scratching his chin with the muzzle of the gun.

‘’I cannot, it is up for you to find out for yourself, I can help though.’’

‘’Come on, stop making me wait, explain already!’’

‘’Silence, Dreamer!’’ Stranger yelled. ‘’I cannot let you know right now, it would be too catastrophic for you to process.’’ The Stranger's echoey voice slightly went down as it finished its sentence

‘’Then what do you want? What the hell do you want!’’ Sunny yelled.

‘’To make you become, whole.’’

‘’Screw off, i'm already whole, I have been for as long as I have ran away, I got to be my own person, without being held down by.. her. ’’

‘’Yes, Mari’s actions were not the best, but you knew she was stressed.’’ The Stranger brought up the girl. ‘’You knew she didn’t mean any of that, Mari loves you.’’ The Stranger tried to reason.

‘’I can’t forgive her.’’ Sunny snarled. ‘’I could never forgive her.’’

‘’That's what this side of yourself says.’’

‘’ARGH! JUST GET THE HELL OUT OF MY HEAD!’’ Sunny shouted, and started firing at the shadow without mercy.

As expected, Stranger was able to dodge all of the bullets, moving around quickly to avoid them.

‘’WHY WON’T YOU JUST DIE!?’’ Sunny yelled, showing anger he had probably never revealed to anyone, not even Mari, he just gave her the silent treatment.

‘’Good, at least some part of you can still express emotion, atleast, on this side of you. Even if it's not a good emotion.’’

‘’I do what I want, I am perfectly fine.’’ Sunny repeated to himself, hoping that he was still sane.

‘’Dreamer, it has been 5 years.. Do you really want to know what goes down here?’’

Sunny paused, and turned to look at Stranger. ‘’Like.. Escape?’’

Stranger looked around quizzically, maybe, he can.. Trick Sunny!

‘’Mhm.’’ Stranger nodded, hopefully this would go to plan, the plan to liberate the Dreamer.

Sunny retracted his pistol, and gave Stranger a very in thought look.

‘’Wait, why the hell should I trust you?! For all I know, you could just be one of those creepy ass shadow monsters!’’ Sunny yelled as Stranger merely sighed.

‘’Have I tried to kill you yet?’’

‘’..No, but..’’ Sunny took a small breath, as this situation was quite stressful.

‘’You could be tricking me.’’

‘This guy is getting on my nerves.’ Stranger thought. ‘’Dreamer, Do i look like any one of your vic-’’

‘’’Fine.’’ Sunny sighed, still slightly suspicious about Stranger, yet he had nothing else to do.

Wordlessy, Stranger began to walk down the street as Sunny followed closely behind, the 2 not muttering any words apart from the heavy breathing from Sunny considering the ash that floated into his dreamscape.

The 2 approached a building, which was for the most part, in a better state, and actually had functional lights that didn’t flicker on and off.

‘’It is your turn to go forward.’’ Stranger told Sunny, as he approached the door. Sunny pushed and the 2 doors were open, revealing a monochro-

Sunny began to cough, suddenly feeling a weight on his back as he was forced to the ground.

All he could do was cough and roll around, desperate to get even a sliver of oxygen in his lungs.

‘’Oh no you don’t.’’ Stranger said, as it held Sunny up.

As Stranger’s grip got tighter, Sunny felt a bit better, like his mind was trying to force him out of the hostile environment, but Stranger was having none of it, forcing him to stay.

Sunny’s eyes began to clear up, slowly lighting up to find himself still near Stranger and…. Who the hell was he?

Sunny began to sweat and breath heavily. ‘Why am I not awake?..’ Sunny thought rapidly.

The Monochrome person who was standing looked with confusion and awe, blinking his eyes, he saw Sunny.

Glee rushed up his heart, as he practically leaped towards Sunny just like a cat.

‘’Ohmygosh Ohmygosh Ohmygosh! It's really you! Sunny!’’ He gave Sunny a deep hug, while he stood there dumbfounded.

‘’Uh.. Do I know you?’’ Sunny asked, while the monochrome copy chuckled. ‘’Did you forget? Its Omori!’’

Omori, huh, when was the last time he heard that name? ‘’Argh… C-Can you stop hugging me?’’ Sunny asked, as Omori got off him and brushed himself off.

‘’Man, I’ve been waiting for you for a while!’’ Omori chuckled. ‘’Actually, well.. 4 years to be exact.’’ Omori’s tone drooped lower, and turned to Sunny.

‘’Everytime you come.. you just.. disappear.’’ Omori said. ‘’Why?’’

‘’Uh.. alright buddy, I don’t know who you are, but.. Stranger.’’ Sunny turned towards the Stranger.

‘’What now?’’

‘’Simple, you just accept him.’’

‘’Oh.. WAIT..’’

Sunny snarled. ‘’You tried to trick me!’’ Sunny pointed a finger at Stranger, their expression faltered a little, going into a panic.

‘’D-Dreamer.. This is for your own good.’’ The Stranger tried to beckon one more time

‘’Well, I'm going to make sure Omori doesn’t do anything!’’ Sunny pulled out his pistol, and aimed it at Omori, who was petrified.

‘’Goodbye.’’

====
REAL WORLD
====

Aubrey groggily got up, sweets still stuffed in her stomach. She felt like she was going to be sick.

‘’Oh, good morning!’’ Hero said, peeking out from the corner, the aroma of bacon and eggs entered her nostrils.

‘’Ah, I see Sunny is still asleep, can you wake him up for me? By the way.. It's the day that Mari gets discharged today.. just so you know.’’

Aubrey’s mood instantly turned sour, as she looked away towards Sunny.

‘’I’ll wake Sunny up.’’ She said, as she nudged Sunny a little.

There was no response, only the rising and falling of Sunny’s chest.

Aubrey nudged Sunny’s shoulder again, a bit more aggressive this time. Sunny fell on his side onto the couch.

‘’Heh, Sunny must be a heavy sleeper, eh?’’ Hero chuckled, and shuffled over to Aubrey’s side to assist her.

Hero started to tickle Sunny in the armpit, but there was nothing but a slight jostle.

‘’Aubrey, i'm getting pretty concerned..’’ Hero said, growing more and more concerned.

‘’Well, Sunny was always the heavy sleeper, we should just give him a couple more minutes..’’ Aubrey said, a little bit scared. Hero nodded.

‘’Kel is already awake and in the kitchen, I’ll sort you and Basil some good breakfast!’’

‘’Ah, nice.’’ Aubrey looked up with a smile, yet being full, who could resist a good breakfast?

Or, for a ‘Basil(brit) translation’ as Aubrey called them, A good ol’ British banger from London mate!

‘’Basil told me about it when he went to London to visit his parents!’’ Hero cheered.

‘’Wait.. Basil has parents?’’ Aubrey’s jaw fell open.

‘’Aubrey.. You know better.’’ Hero said, disappointed.

‘’Alright, Alright.’’ Aubrey pushed her arms out to signify she was sorry.

Hero nodded as Aubrey went to wake up Basil, who was on the other side of the couch, asleep like Sunny.

Aubrey pushed Basil off the couch, who landed on the carpet. Basil woke up and felt a pain reverberate through his back.

‘’W-Why am I on the floor?’’ Basil groggily asked, as Aubrey deadpanned. ‘’You fell on the floor.’’ She replied.

Basil groaned and got up, turning towards Sunny, he was still asleep.

‘’Are you gonna wake Sunny up or..’’ Basil asked.

‘’I’ve already tried.’’ Aubrey sighed, sinking her shoulders.

‘’Have you tried, y’know, pushing him off the couch?’’ Basil glared at Aubrey, the latter sweated a little.

‘’N-No?’’ She sheepishly said, as Basil sighed.

Hero walked into the room, 2 plates of food in both of his arms, his signature grin went down a little as he saw Sunny still asleep but nonetheless, kept smiling.

‘’Breakfast is ready!’’ Hero cheered.

Aubrey and Basil walked away from the living room and into the Suzuki’s dining room, Kel, Rina and Jouji were sat on the table. The parents greeted the kids as Kel ate like a feral animal that found its prey, only giving the 3 a glance.

Basil and Aubrey found a place to sit as Hero gave them their food. Basil got tea with his own calming herbs which he wasn’t going to classify if they were legal or not and Aubrey got a glass of milk like the others.

She held the glass cup to her mouth, and let the milk enter her mouth. She liked the taste, despite its odd flavor.

Aubrey ate her sausages and eggs as everybody gradually finished with their dishes of food. As Basil sipped his tea, he enquired some things.

‘’Does anybody else know about.. S-Sunny’s survival skills?’’ Basil asked in between sips of the tea.

‘’No, but dude’s gots insane fighting skills though!’’ Kel said, who had already finished 10 minutes ago, now poking the plate with his fork, making slight banging sounds.

‘’W-Well, He led me to a construction site in Farawa-’’

‘’The Eastminster Offices?’’ Hero said, his face turning stern. ‘’Don’t tell me you and Sunny went ther-’’

‘’H-Hey! I-It was Sunny’s idea!’’ Basil defended himself.

‘’Well, what were you gonna say?’’ Hero asked, while Basil nervously scratched his back.

‘’O-Oh, well. Sunny tried to teach me martial arts..’’ Basil confessed, as everybody's eyes went wide at the revealment. Basil? Martial Arts? Not even in a million, or even, billion yea-

‘’I tried…’’ Basil sank his shoulders, disappointed in himself.

‘’Woah! That's like, actually super cool!’’ Kel smiled, and ran up to Basil.

‘’Teach me! Teach me!’’ Kel jumped up and down.

‘’O-Oh… U-Uhm… S-Sorry, I can’t teach you..’’

‘’Ah, I understand.’’ Kel scratched his chin. ‘’I should get the master himself to tutor me!’’

Kel ran off into the living room, and much to everyone’s dismay, he was still asleep. Kel didn’t think anything of it and started shaking his shoulders to try and awake him.

Nothing happened, as he just simply fell down back onto the couch. Everyone had fearful looks.

‘’What happened to Jouji and Rina?’’ Aubrey asked, while Hero chuckled.

‘’They are fetching Mari from the hospital, but well… they offered to do it themselves.’’ Hero said, as Aubrey nodded.

‘’What time?’’ Kel asked, on the couch with the sleeping Sunny.

‘’4 in the afternoon, They need to do some tests and paperwork for Mari.’’

‘’Alright then.’’ Aubrey sighed out, turning to Sunny. A massive wave of concern washed over her mind.

‘’So, are we gonna wake him up or?’’

Hero shrugged his shoulders, the 4 oblivious to the battle in his mindscape

=====================

Sunny had his finger on the trigger, he donned an emotionless gaze as he realized it was jammed. He angrily threw it at Omori but was able to dodge the gun in a fit of fear. Sunny angrily shouted as he turned towards Stranger.


TO BE CONTINUED

Chapter Text

before i get ur hopes up, naw, suzuki club isn't happening again, and for some reasons i'll get in to.

Before i explain everything else, this main fact will make everything else make more sense. After chapter 5 i wrote this with a friend who was a sort of ghostwriter in a sense. We worked together on a lot of the central plot, theme and characters while I kind of wrote the main story myself and posted it.

The main cause for the cancellation was kind of a mix of things, like a mix of burnout and infighting and the lack of interest i was growing for Omori (this was around November 2022), basically, we had our own ideas for the story which often clashed with other plot points i had set in place before, and it started a rift between us and things got sour like, really quickly. It's not anything worth going into detail and im keeping it mostly vague for privacy reasons but yeah. Another thing to note is the writing in this fic isn't too good, that being that when I wrote this i was still relatively new to the fic scene and writing in general. If i was to ever continue this again, it would most likely just be a rewrite of sorts instead of continuing this

anyways, back to the infighting bit, while there were lots of factors into it, this rift between us became bigger and bigger, and well, it exploded in a sense? but what resulted in it was Suzuki Club being put on hold for a few months, then in June 2023, we decided to finalise the descision to post this chapter as a kind of loose nail in the coffin. We would envision that we would keep it wraps until a indefintie point in the future where it was deemed to be a hiatus, it was meant to be 'put on rest for now' at the time but after its been so long and other stuff happening this fic is cancelled basically.

I don't know if I will ever continue this again... hell, going back to Omori at all. Again, as I said, if i was to continue this, it would probably be in a rewrite, or maybe i'll just get a new idea. The guy who I worked on with this has disappered off the internet for reasons that I cannot disclose obviously due to privacy reasons, so yeah, any possible rewrite (again unlikely) will just be done by me alone.

Anyways, if you stuck around long enough to bear my less then 'quality' writing, thanks for reading. If this inspired you to make your own story, then thats nice. If anyone wants to continue this from where I last left off then well feel free to do so.

Anyways, this is where I head off now, if you did enjoy this fic after all, a kudos would be appreciated.

Contacts are in my profile if you need to contact me for any reason.

- PxDor5