Chapter Text
Mari is gone. She's been gone for 4 long and agonizing years. If only I had done something. If I had been a better brother. More attentive. More diligent. Just... More. Instead here I am. An only child too broken to leave my own home. I failed Mari and I've failed everyone else too. I should just...
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK
...who-
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK
"I KNOW YOU'RE FUCKING IN THERE SUNNY! OPEN THE DOOR BEFORE I BREAK IT DOWN MYSELF."
A both familiar and unfamiliar female voice sounded from the other side of the door. She sounded... angry... and dangerous. Sunny wasn't sure how to react. On one hand he didn't want to answer the door as he was afraid of whoever was on the opposing end of it. On the other hand though was the distinct possibility that she would make good on her threat to break the door down and he didn't want to have a broken front door, nor explain to his mother why the front door was broken... Whenever she decided to come back... So he steeled himself and approached the door. Slowly but steadily he reached forward and unlocked the door, his hands shaking. As soon as the door lock clicked the knocking stopped and he began to open the door.
As daylight peered through the crack that he'd opened to see outside, a figure came into focus. A girl with bubblegum pink hair and teal eyes stood at his door carrying a baseball bat, tip covered in nails. She looked familiar which only caused his confusion to intensify as he had never met anyone that looked like this before, but above all else he was still scared. She looked at his eye peeking out of the crack in the doorframe with a surprised look which slowly faded away as time dragged on. They both stood there staring through that rift between worlds. Two very different, but also not too dissimilar worlds. Eventually the silence was broken though.
"So... You gonna open the door so I can come in or are you gonna keep staring at me like I'm an alien." She seemed to joke, but there was a distinct edge to her voice that told him that he shouldn't let his guard down just yet.
He still didn't know who this girl was... Asking her could be dangerous, but letting an aggressive stranger into his home is even more so... He couldn't keep her waiting forever and he couldn't let her in without knowing, so he leapt from into the deep end and broached the topic.
"Who..." Her eyebrow raised. "W-Who are you...?" Sunny asked the question meekly. Her expression morphed into many emotions. Disbelief for a moment, anger in the very next, sorrow in the next, until it finally landed on one he couldn't quite read.
Her gaze shifted to the side. "It's... Aubrey. You... You still remember me right?"
Au... Aubrey? This girl... She... She couldn't be Aubrey... Right?
"A-Aubrey...?" Sunny asked tentatively.
"Yeah. Aubrey. You know... from..." Her eyes downcast, but there was a certain flame in her eyes when she said the next statement. "From four years ago? We used to be friends?"
Ah. Right. Used to be. He figured everyone didn't consider him a friend anymore after everything happened. After he... failed them.
He nodded from behind the door. "I... I remember..."
"Good... Now can you let me in? I'm getting tired of standing here." Aubrey at some point had begun leaning on her nail-bat while he was recollecting.
"O-Oh... Yeah... Come in..." Sunny slowly opened the door, but stayed behind the door out of the sunlight. Shortly after Aubrey walked in and looked around, not sparing Sunny a glance.
"Really nothing has changed in here huh..." Aubrey idly asked herself as she explored. "Why are all the lights out and the curtains shut? You that scared... of..." She slowly stopped her jab and finally noticed Sunny attempting to make himself as small as he can under her gaze. That wasn't the problem though. The problem was that in the past four years he had both changed drastically for the worst and not changed at all at the same time. He wore the same clothes, his height had barely changed, he was pale as a ghost, and he obviously has not been taking care of himself. "What... What happened to you...?"
She stared at him as he refused to even glance back. "What do you mean?"
"Don't you fucking 'what do you mean?' me!" She stomped towards him and grabbed him by his arms before he could step away, her nail-bat clattering to the ground. "You're basically skin and bones! You've barely grown and-" She came to an abrupt stop when she noticed there was something off about his arms. She immediately grabbed his wrists, he attempted to struggle out of her grasp in response. "STOP." She demanded as she looked angrily into his lightless eyes. He stopped struggling on the spot and his shoulders slumped in defeat.
She began to examine his arms only to find countless scars on them. Her expression was complicated and so were her emotions. She looked at him with hurt and anger in her eyes. "What the fuck is this, Sunny?" Sunny's lifeless eyes refused to look back. "SUNNY! WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!"
Sunny didn't look back at her but a tinge of anger seemed to flare in his eyes. "...What does it look like..."
Aubrey dropped his arms as he held them close to his body. She stared at him in disbelief. She didn't want to believe that this is what has become of Sunny. Sunny wasn't this. He was living in his own little bubble free of care for the rest of the world. He didn't come out because he didn't care about his friends or what Mari did to herself. Sunny wasn't this. He didn't come out to save her because he didn't care about her. He could care less about the people he used to know. Sunny wasn't this. Sunny wasn't this. This wasn't Sunny. It can't be. She refused to believe this. Sunny didn't. Sunny couldn't. Sunny wouldn't...
...
Sunny wouldn't leave them like Mari did... right?
She could feel a pit in her stomach but she strode forth despite this. She looked at Sunny as he continued refusing to look at her and suddenly he was enveloped in warmth. At first he didn't understand what was happening, but quickly realized that Aubrey was... hugging him. He... didn't know how to feel about it. He felt like he didn't deserve this warmth. This feeling of comfort. He only deserved to suffer for what he's done... but he also couldn't get enough of this... he loved the warmth of this embrace. He wanted to stay like this. He wanted to hug her back... and so he did despite what his other half wanted.
He hugged her back and as tears welled in his eyes he choked out a single question. "Why...?"
"Why? Sunny... if I had known this is what happened to you... if I had known that Mari's... decision... would affect you this much... I would have threatened to break down your door years ago." She held him tighter as she too began to tear up.
"It was all my fault..." He began, but almost immediately regretted it as Aubrey broke from their embrace and looked into his tear-filled eyes in disbelief. He so desperately wanted to be held more, but his other half was beginning to win over.
"Don't. Say that. It wasn't your fault. It was her decision. You can't control whether or not she decided to abandon us." She still held his arms firmly as she said this.
"You can't say that..." He croaked out "I was with her all the time... I was with her more than I was away from her... I saw all the signs. I saw her become more and more unhappy. How it became harder and harder for her to smile. I heard her cry at night sometimes and found the bloodstains she missed in the bathroom. I didn't understand, but I should of tried! I should have asked... I could have done SOMETHING, but NO. Instead I was left all alone with only myself to blame... I know you all hate me... that's why you came here right? To tell me how much of a useless coward I am..." Aubrey seemed about to refute his claim, but slowly shut her mouth as she realized that that is exactly why she had come here initially. "I didn't realize it at first because of how confused I was, but I can tell now from how you acted when you came in." His tone had subtly shifted to a mocking one until it became an accepting one. "I deserve it anyways. Every insult. Every angry look. Every punch, kick, and violation. I deserve every single one, because I failed Mari... and I failed all of you too." He finished unable to look at Aubrey.
They both stood in uncomfortable silence. Both of them soaking in everything that had and hadn't been said. But once again the silence was eventually broken, but by Sunny this time.
"Anyways... You should leave... It's... probably best if both of us forgot today happened... I'm sorry for not being there for you." Sunny walked back towards the door. Aubrey silently followed him. Sunny opened the door to let Aubrey ou-
SLAM
The door was quickly shoved back close as Aubrey's arms both pressed against the front door on either side of him, trapping him. "You really think that I'm just... just gonna walk away after all of that?" He couldn't read her expression as her hair was hiding her face. Her head hung low in front of him. Aubrey had a deadly tone in her voice. It wasn't quite anger, but something deeper. Before he could even attempt to get a grasp on it she continued. "If I had left just now... What would you have done?"
He was confused. "What do you mean?"
"DON'T PLAY DUMB WITH ME! WE KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO MARI WHEN WE ALL LOOKED AWAY. WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE DONE IF I LOOKED AWAY?" Aubrey had lifted her face now and there was unfiltered rage in her teal eyes. "WOULD YOU HAVE LEFT US JUST LIKE MARI DID?"
Sunny was at a loss for words. "I..."
The fire seemed to slowly die in her eyes as sorrow overwhelmed rage. "It was never you that abandoned me was it...?" She cupped his cheek in her hand as she examined his face with a pained expression.
Sunny blushed lightly at this contact. "A-Aubrey..." Sunny said quietly as his gaze averted.
"Huh?" She seemed to have almost broken out of a trance as she realized what she was doing. "O-Oh. Crap... I umm..." She took a step away from him as she covered the bottom half of her face with her hand. "S-Sorry..." She had also gained a blush, but it was only visible from her ears at the moment.
Crap... What am I doing? I'm supposed to be comforting him, not... Ughh... What's going on with me... I haven't felt like this since... Realization suddenly dawned on her. Shit. I... I'm still in love with him aren't I? Fuck I thought not feeling this way for anyone was a sign that I didn't have any love interests anymore. What do they call it? Aromantic? But this... She looked back up at Sunny seeing how he was still avoiding looking at her, a blush clearly visible on his face. It's the same way I felt about him four years ago... God damnit... There's nothing I want more Other than cuddling the shit out of him and kis- SHUT. There's nothing I want more than to tell him I'll come back tomorrow and leave right now, but I can't leave him alone right now... I don't trust him to be alone right now... Ok... Ok Aubergine you can do this.
"A-Anyways. Do you mind if I stay the night here? I don't really want to go back... home... right now. I'm... sure you remember why I don't want to go back there when I get the opportunity to right?"
Sunny seemed to break out of his deep thoughts and uncomfortably nod his head. "Yeah... I remember."
"Good... That's... That's good." Aubrey nodded. "So, can I?"
"Yeah... That's ok... It... It get's lonely around here anyways so I could use some company." Sunny finished with a tinge of sadness in his voice.
GOD IF YOU KEEP BEING SAD I'M GOING TO SMOTHER YOU IN KI- "Wait... Sunny where's your parents? Shouldn't one of them be home by now?"
Silence seemed to choke the air around them. "I..." Sunny began apprehensively. "I don't know..." he finished, his eyes downcast. "Mom usually only comes by every couple weeks, but hasn't been home in the past couple months and Dad... Dad left years ago and never came back..." That lifeless look in his eyes creeped back in as he continued to stare at the floor.
Aubrey stared at Sunny, her mouth hanging open. She couldn't believe what had just come out of Sunny's mouth. "What...?"
Sunny looked at Aubrey with those empty black eyes. "I always knew they loved Mari more, but..." He looked back down. "I guess it hurts more when it's so obvious now..."
Aubrey couldn't hold herself back anymore and lunged forth, embracing Sunny tightly. "Who cares what the fuck they think. If they want to abandon their only son then they can fuck off straight to hell where they belong." She ignored her blush as she held Sunny tightly in her arms as if she let him go right now he'd simply vanish. Sunny looked at Aubrey, unable to see her face past the curtain of bubblegum blocking his vision, and laughed softly.
"You curse a lot now, Aubrey." He slowly hugged her back and habitually rubbed circles into her back like Mari used to do for him.
"Yeah, yeah I know. Got a problem with it?" She asked defensively but never loosened her embrace.
"No. It's kind of cute." He said thoughtlessly.
Aubrey's blush flared till it covered her entire face. "Wh-Wh-Wha- E-Explain! What do you mean by that??"
"Hmm...? Mean by what?" Sunny asked blissfully unaware of what Aubrey was asking.
"Mmm..." She grumbled to herself. "Nothing... nerd..." She pushed her head deeper into the crook of his neck. If he was gonna be oblivious then she was going to take advantage of this hug as much as she could. They stood there by the doorway for what felt like hours, both equally unwilling to break the embrace that they both relished.