Work Text:
October 28, 2000
“Hey, Sunny. It’s been a while.”
Aubrey shivered from the autumn chill as she stared at the familiar granite headstone.
Our Dearest Sunny
July 20, 1984 - October 26, 1996
Sunny Suzuki, her oldest friend. It never got any easier to stop by his grave. Four years was hardly enough to get past the death of a friend, especially a friend as close as Sunny was.
Aubrey didn’t even bother with reading the epitaph, she wasn’t so keen on crying today. Instead, she put both of her hands on top of the gravestone, feeling the rough texture of the granite while she gathered her thoughts.
“I’m sorry that I haven’t visited in a while. I got caught up in a few things.” Her lips stretched into a grimace. “It’s a shame, really. The last time I was here was when the whole gang got back together. I was so happy to hang out with Mari again, I bet Basil and Kel were too.”
“Hero didn’t come with us to the cemetery then. I didn’t think much of it when it happened, but…” She sucked in a breath. “...I guess I know now why.”
Aubrey winced at her own words. Finding out the truth about Sunny’s death was painful to say the least.
“I couldn’t believe Mari at first when she said she pushed you down the stairs.” Aubrey chuckled mirthlessly. “It sounded absolutely ridiculous. She loved you too much, she couldn’t have done that to you.”
Aubrey broke eye contact with the grave as her laughing abruptly stopped. “But her eyes, Sunny; I’d never seen them so…haunted, so…lifeless. That’s when I realized she wasn’t joking.”
She could remember that night like it was yesterday. Mari’s empty expression, Hero’s guilt-ridden one, the gasp that escaped her lips when the two finally revealed to them how Sunny died, Kel balling his fists to conceal his anger, and most surprisingly of all, Basil lashing out in fury at the two perpetrators, requiring the efforts of both her and Kel to keep him restrained. She had never seen Basil so angry before. His eyes burned with indignation and his words oozed with vitriol, it even snapped Kel out of his own angered stupor.
She remembered Basil and Kel storming out of the room, leaving her alone with her two older friends, if she could still call them that. She only looked at them for a second before leaving as well. She was conflicted to say the least. She didn’t know if she had it in her to forgive them, but she desperately wanted the group to stay together.
“God, it’s all so messed up!” She cried as she tightened her grip on the headstone, tears blurring her vision. “Why did everything have to be so complicated? I just wanted all of us to be friends again, and now Kel and Basil don’t even want to talk to Mari and Hero.”
The ground under her grew damp with her tears as she sobbed into the wind. The wind was bitingly cold, passing through her thin wraps and making her shake violently. She stayed there for a while, knelt down next to the gravestone. She thought back to all that Sunny had done for her, his patience in listening to her problems, his unending kindness, it left her with a curious thought.
What would Sunny want me to do?
Aubrey shook her head, the answer to that was clear to her a long time ago. She knew that Sunny would want nothing less than the group back together. She steadied her breathing, wiping the rest of her tears away as she set her sights back onto the headstone.
“I don’t really know what to do, but I’m gonna do my best to try to turn Kel and Basil around. It’s the least I can do; I’m sure you’d like that, right?”
She looked at the headstone, almost in anticipation of an answer. She shook her head when she realized how ridiculous that was. Sunny had been dead for four years, any hopes of physically interacting with him died alongside him that fateful autumn evening.
Aubrey sighed. “Sometimes, I wish I could actually talk to you. Hell, I wish I could’ve hugged you one last time before you passed. I bet you would’ve liked that even more.” She stood up and began to pace around, a small smirk growing on her face.
“Basil told me some time back about your crush on me. I thought he said that just to tease me at first, but…” She paused. “...wow. I…I never knew you liked me. I wish I felt the same way then, or noticed your signs. Maybe with time, we could’ve had a mutual crush.”
Aubrey rubbed the back of her head bashfully. “Now that I think about it, there were so many reasons for me to like you. You were so kind, so compassionate, you always knew how to cheer me up. You were pretty cute too.” She concluded with scarlet hues blooming on her face.
“I really do wish we had more time, Sunny.” She pursed her lips as a thought crossed her mind. “Maybe, in another world, we could’ve realized our feelings for each other and confessed. Who knows, we could’ve started dating.” She smiled at the thought, that certainly would’ve been nice.
Aubrey brushed a few stray hairs aside as she ran a hand over the headstone, heaving a sigh. “But I’m not in that world. You’re gone, and I’m…still here. I wish you were still alive, I wish you could still spend time with us, but I know now that that won’t ever come true. All I can do now is continue on, and hope I’m doing the right things.”
She smiled sweetly at the gravestone. “I really do hope I’m doing the right things, Sunny. I hope you’re proud of me, wherever you are. I hope it’s peaceful there, you deserve it.”
Aubrey gave the gravestone one last longing look before walking away. Sunny may not have been there in the flesh, but Aubrey knew that as long as she upheld all the good that Sunny brought to them, he would always be around. It gave her some measure of hope for the future, that things would finally be okay once again.
“Thank you, Sunny,” Aubrey whispered under her breath, “for everything.”