Chapter Text
“I have to tell you something.”
The weight of those words still permeated deeply within Sunny’s mind, and it was obvious that whether they forgave him or not for what really happened to Mari that fateful, horrible day, the words that escaped his lips in that hospital room were going to be a memory for him, for better or for worse.
The group was rightfully stunned, horrified, and confused with the revelation.
Kel was the first to forgive Sunny, only fitting as he was the first to even get Sunny out the door of his house in the first place. “H-Hey… it’s okay, Sunny… we’re here…” He remembered Kel’s reassurance as Sunny wept on the tile in Basil’s room that day.
Hero took a bit of time at first. He felt the shock of knowing that Sunny killed the love of his life constrict around his thoughts, ranging from a slight relapse of anger like when he snapped at Kel, to remembering the facts. Sunny and Basil… they were just kids. He knew Sunny didn’t mean to do it, that he was just a scared young boy who may have done something really bad (to put it lightly) but was still as much of a victim as Mari was. He would never intentionally maim his sister like that. Hero swallowed his grief for his love and came up next to Sunny, consoling him silently, forlorn but knowing there was someone who needed him dearly. It’s what Mari would’ve wanted.
Aubrey stood there, motionless, and visibly struck by the revelation as it felt like sensory overload. How could he do this? She thought, rancidly staring at the display of Sunny’s despair as she tried to assemble her thoughts. How dare he take Mari away from me? From us?! She was like a sister to me, and he… Like Hero, there was a haunting sting of unbridled rage bellowing up inside her. The thought that Sunny not only was the true culprit behind the photo album fiasco but was also the impetus for her despair when Mari di – no – was taken from her. For a moment, she felt her hands morph into a fist. She could see herself landing a blow so hard on Sunny that it could knock him out cold, making Basil’s injuries look like mere child’s play.
But then she stopped for a second, and then remembered when she shoved Basil into the lake. How he could’ve drowned if it weren’t for Sunny swooping into the water to try and get him out.
What if he didn’t make it? She thought to herself, seeing the imagery of a lifeless Basil floating to the top of the water, a husk that would never move. His grandmother would’ve died knowing she’d outlive her grandson, even by a day. Polly would’ve been crumpled in grief that she couldn’t have done something. The gang she was with would’ve probably never been able to speak to her again, much less the group she’s known for years since her childhood. Sunny would’ve probably secluded more, and this time, it would be her fault. She would’ve been the monster she thought Sunny was in that moment in time.
It came to her then, in that moment, what Sunny was going through. Feelings of shame, desperation for forgiveness, fury at himself for cutting the life of someone close to him unintentionally. She realized just how much Sunny suffered, and how she was as blind as ever to it since Sunny left his house for the first time in four years three days ago. She then looked at Basil, who was suffering just as equally as Sunny was, given how he was the one who came up with the idea to frame Mari’s death as a suicide by hanging.
She couldn’t find it in her to be mad at the two of them, much less Sunny.
After the fist faded, she slowly approached Sunny, tears obviously slithering down her face. She knelt down to him and embraced him. Tightly. Replicating Mari’s hugs as best as she could while both of their tears dropped in unison. “Sunny… I-it’s okay…” She whimpered, no doubt trying to believe those words herself as well, as their foreheads gently touched one another.
All Sunny could do in that moment was cry. Despite the promises that were made in the depths of his mind that they’d forgive him for what he did, he had a hard time trying to take that as truth. He was bracing himself for the cold, empty company of rejection. He was sure that that’s what was going to happen. Realistically, how does someone even stay in good graces of people when he murdered someone they deeply cared about, accident or no accident?
He felt Something loom over him as he was hugged, like the figments of Mari’s hair were coiling itself around his very soul and strangling his lungs like a vice, always probing itself at Sunny’s most vulnerable moments like this one. Its single eye staring at him with intentions unknown. It was just… there.
Something did nothing but just stare at the tormented boy who wept alongside his friends.
Sunny just proceeded to weep softly into his friends’ embrace for a second longer, before Aubrey broke the silence, her voice strained but still gentle as she cupped her hand under Sunny’s chin, looking deeply into his eyes. Before Sunny could apologize any further, she put a finger to his lips. “Shhh… We know… We forgive you…”
Sunny mustered a scratched whisper, clearly in teary-eyed disbelief. “…But why? I took everything away from you all… I don’t deserve your forgiveness…”
“Yes, you do.” Aubrey countered; her hands snug against Sunny’s back.
Hero chimed in, gently massaging Sunny’s hair as if he were a third brother. “It’s like what I said before, Sunny… I made the mistake of not being there when everyone else needed it the most. And now I realize I should’ve been there for you and Basil especially.” He leaned in close, like a father would to their saddened child. “You’re not a monster. I know that…” He stops for a moment, but then continues. “Mari knows that too.”
Kel being Kel, smiled warmly at Sunny, wrapping his arm around his shoulder like a teammate at a basketball game. “Trust us, Sunny, you’re a greater person than you think you are. And just because you did something bad, doesn’t mean you’re a bad person.” Sunny recognized those words immediately from before his fight with Omori. He felt his tears slow down, if only for a moment.
Aubrey brought the moment full circle, cupping his cheeks sympathetically, wiping any remaining tears from his eyes. “We’re a family, we stick together. It’s what we do.”
Without Kel’s usual announcement of such this time around, the group hugged Sunny sincerely, in what was a role reversal of the group hug they gave Aubrey yesterday near the tree stump, with Sunny this time being the main subject as tears once again left his eyes in a flurry. He didn’t say a word of protest, as he finally took a deep breath in and out, cathartically giving himself the release from the pain that had tormented him for years. He began to feel Something’s presence waning, almost as if it were fading into nothingness.
After what Sunny wished would feel like an eternity, he rose up with the group following suit. He approached Basil’s bed as he observed Basil’s bruised and damaged face. A pang of guilt hit Sunny for a moment, seeing such a sweet hearted boy in such physical duress that he caused, whether it was Something’s machinations or presence stressing the two out dearly to the point of not thinking clearly amidst Basil’s panic-induced paranoia, or their guilt over what they’d done driving the two momentarily to madness. But he once again CALMED DOWN and reassembled himself. He knew Basil was going to be okay. Those bruises on his face would disappear with time as Basil would resume to look as doe-eyed and as pure as he always was. Sunny gently touched the patch on his eye, he couldn't feel his eyeball there in his socket, and he felt a visible scrape lining up to the edges of the patch. He would be wearing the patch for some time before he would probably end up with a prosthetic. But what came next would blissfully have him forget his wound.
Basil stirred himself awake, the tendrils of Something still cocooning him as his eyes began to open. He saw Sunny right near him at the end of his bed, but also Something around the face of the door. But once Sunny curled his lips into a smile, a smile that he hasn’t seen Sunny show in years, the very smile that Basil fell in love with even if his feelings were reciprocated or not, caused Something to vanish into the air.
Basil smiled back.
Basil was HAPPY.