warmth (sunny & basil)

primrose

It was Basil's birthday. Two days before Sunny leaves. He would never admit it, but he actually made sure that he stayed long enough to catch his birthday.

The plan was:

Kel would try to 'lure' Basil out of his house for an hour – maybe half an hour if the others get it done fast enough. Polly and Hero would bake a strawberry cake, decorated with small candy flowers (and one plant) that Basil associated with them: A sunflower, lily of the valley, gladiolus, cactus, rose, and in the middle: A tulip. Hero was the one who came up with that idea.

Aubrey and Sunny will be the ones who decorate the living room. They put up a big "Happy Birthday Basil" sign just above the couch and set up multiple balloons around the room; all having different colors. Aubrey made a handcrafted confetti popper – but instead of confetti, it had very short notes that everyone had written. 'Your awesome' was one of them. She knew it was Kel's handwriting.

Everything was almost done, but Kel and Basil were still together.

"Kel..." he said, "You do know that I've already realised why we're out here, right?"

They probably shouldn't have made Kel done this. Sunny would have, though, and it'd be more unsuspicious if it was him – but he also had other plans. They had no choice.

Kel tried to remain his cool. But he could not do it. "Now you did, huh? W-well—! That is unfortunate, indeed. Mhm, mhm. Now, what ever shall we do?"

"Why do you suddenly sound so formal?" Basil chuckled. They've been walking in circles around the park for a while now.

"Aw, man...I'm really sorry, Basil...I couldn't keep it from you, and now you won't get surprised...Aubrey's gonna smack me again!"

"Hey, don't beat yourself up for that – I can always pretend."

"Don't! Don't ever do that! There's a lot of things you can do but faking your feelings is not one of them!"

Basil was taken aback by his friend's words for a moment, but he smiled at the thought of Kel being genuine about things like that.

"You're right. I should never fake my feelings," he looked at the sunny sky, then back at Kel. "But we've been here for a while. We should probably head back."

"Oh, yeah! Let's go! We better not keep them waiting!"

When they arrived at his house, Kel urged him to go in first. Basil already knew they had something planned, but he was nervous. Well – he might just be excitedly nervous. If he wasn't wrong, this was the first birthday celebration they've ever had since Mari's passing. Things were slowly falling into place. The guilt and trauma he's held on for four years were fading. Though they're still in his head, and sometimes they become a little unbearable to live with, at least he knows that they'll continue to fade until they can't harm him anymore. Both him and Sunny.

He opened the door slowly. Everything was dark. When he stepped in, someone turned on the lights. Aubrey popped the confetti popper – each note falling onto the floor for him to maybe pick up later and read. There were just so many. But one of the notes that his eyes caught was 'My dearest primrose.'

He knew what that meant.

In the language of flowers, primroses meant 'I can't live without you,' and also... 'Our love is eternal.' Did Sunny do some research, perhaps...? That made his heart flutter.

Hero had taken a picture of him with his camera. The film slid out, taking a few minutes for the picture to appear.

Sunny was in the middle of a room, holding the cake. He smiled at the birthday boy warmly, lovingly. His eyes were full of adoration. He was in love.