Morning glories - Sunflower/Sunny x Basil (OMORI)

happy birthday, BASIL.

February 18th, it's Basil's birthday. Basil woke up, not as late as he has been lately. It's 10:00A.M, he opened his eyes slowly, and the sunlight hurt. He felt his pupils contradict. He got out of bed today because he remembered it was his birthday, he sat on the edge of the bed while wearing an old T-shirt that he has been for the past 3 days, and he stared at the dried blood on his arms. He didn't want to be completely selfish like he thought he had been this week, he tried to get up but it was really hard. He got out of bed and slowly walked to his wardrobe, he picked out one of his favourite outfits. He grabbed a hairbrush and tried to brush his hair, but it was extremely knotted. He grabbed a piece of paper and began to write a note.
Mari woke up and got the cake she had made for Basil out of the fridge, so it would defrost a bit. She went to wake Sunny up, they both had slept in a bit today but she knew Sunny would like that. Sunny helped frost the cookies they had prepared the night before. They sat down at the dining table, but neither knew what to say. "Mari... Do you think Basil will see us today?" Sunny looked at the wooden table and was tracing the lines with his fingers. "Oh, I hope so. It's his birthday, and he loves spending time with his friends. I believe he would think just spending time with us would be a good birthday gift." Mari smiled at Sunny reasussringly. It made Sunny feel a bit better, but he was still worried.
Hero woke up before everyone else by accident. He's always been an early bird, but he didn't mean to wake up so early. He made breakfast for Kel and himself; the smell of bacon cooking got Kel up, and you could hear him running down stairs. "Oooh! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Kel began to serve himself, he grabbed several pieces of bacon and pancakes. He sat down as quickly as he could and devoured his food. Hero was patient and took his time choosing the perfect pancakes and only a few pieces of bacon. "Kel, slow down. You don't want to choke. Especially not on Basil's birthday!" Kel stopped eating, "Oh, yeah, his birthday! Do you think he'll make it? Do you think we can hang out with him today?" He said with his mouth full. He sprayed some pancake-bacon-spit out on the table, but Hero didn't mention it because he was worried. "Um.. Yeah I hope so. I don't think Basil will miss out on his own birthday." He rested his face on his arm as he kept it stable with his elbow. Kel nodded, and continued to eat. Although he doesn't show it, Kel is worried about Basil as-well.
Aubrey didn't have too much of a morning routine. She always woke up at about 8:00A.M, and never changed her schedule. She would usually visit Basil in the morning or see him outside watering his plants, but she didn't bother to go outside right away to see him; because of the slim chance of him even hanging out with them today. Let alone being outside. She ate a toasted bagel with jelly on it for breakfast, and she wore a light green bow today,  because Basil's favourite colour is green. She also wore a bracelet he had made her when they were 12. The beads were purple, green, pink and blue. Thinking of it, they kind of matched their friend group! She sat on the sidewalk as she waited till she thought it was about the right time for the group to start heading to the park.
Everyone got to the park, to lead themselves to the hide-out spot all a few minutes apart. It's surprising how on time everyone was, especially for surprising for Kel. Mari had the cookies and cake she had baked the night before in her picnic basket. She didn't lay the picnic blanket down for them to sit, because none of them planned on staying there. "So, I'm assuming we're going to go to Basil's house?" Aubrey wondered, just making sure she was on track. Sunny nodded, and Kel began to worry. Even though he's usually a little ignorant to this kind of stuff, he was very worried. "What if he doesn't answer the door?" Kel said. He felt bad for saying it, but everyone was thinking it. Mari tried to help them feel better, "Well, he loves us. He loves birthdays, I don't think he'll miss out today. Let's just give it a shot, we can't doubt it before even trying it, right?" Hero helped hold the cake from the picnic basket, because it didn't really fit and he was worried it would be too much to carry casually. Kel began to run to Basil's house, Aubrey right behind him. Sunny followed quickly behind too, as he was anxious to see if Basil was okay.
Basil knew they'd be coming over, he didn't really want them too, but he was glad they're trying. He finished up writing the note he had. He'd been writing it for 2 hours now. While it's front and back, it's not that long. He just tried to not say too much. It's mainly apologizing for everything. He heard a knock at the door, he recognized it was Kel's knock. He took a deep breath and went to answer it. Basil hesitated to turn the door-knob, but eventually he did. Everyone was surprised, and happy, Aubrey smiled at him and, and Basil gave her an asymmetric-smile back. "Basil! Are you okay?" Kel exclaimed. "Um.. Y-yeah. I-I'm okay." Basil said quietly, he tried to clear his throat to speak louder but it didn't help. "Basil, I hope it's not too much to ask, but is it okay if we come in?" Hero asked, he was worried Basil would say no because of his grandmother and all. Basil nodded and opened the door wide open. Everyone turned to each other a little surprised, but they nodded and welcomed themself in. Mari and Hero layed out the cake, and cookies all neatly. They grabbed plates and napkins prepared for when everyone is ready. Aubrey, Kel, Sunny and Basil all sat on the couch as they watched a few shows that was on the morning television. Basil was extremely tired, even though he got a good amount of sleep. He kept leaning on Sunny's shoulder, he was embarrassed but too tired to pick himself back up, and he liked it anyways. Sunny didn't really react, he flinched a little as it was unexpected but he doesn't react too much to anything. Kel and Aubrey argued over what shows they wanted to watch, when Mari announced everything was ready if they were. Kel jumped up, "Of course we are! C'mon guys!" he shouted, and ran to the table, almost knocking the chair down with how quickly he ran and sat in it. Sunny carefully got up to not startle Basil too much, as he was nearly asleep. Sunny poked him until he payed attention, and Sunny said quietly "Do you want cake? I helped." Basil got up, and so did Sunny and Aubrey. Mari and hero sat next to each other, Sunny and Basil sat on opposite ends also next to each other. And Kel and Aubrey sat in the two single chairs surrounding the edges of the table. Hero cut the cake and gave everyone a piece. Mari showed off the cookies, they were morning glories and sunflowers. Everything was perfect, so Basil felt horribly guilty for everything he did and planned on doing. But he thought it was for the best.  Kel destroyed two pieces of cake and three cookies, Sunny ate one slice and one cookie, Aubrey ate five cookies and half a slice of cake. Mari and Hero only ate one slice of cake, as they both wanted to save the cookies for Basil. Basil tried to finish one piece of cake at least. It was so good, but it was nearly painful to finish a bite. Basil got up to excuse himself. "I'm sorry, but may I go to the bathroom?" Mari shook her head, "Of course, you don't need to ask, this is your house!" He ran off to his bedroom. Everyone, again got worried. Kel said, genuinely confused, "Well, that's not the way to his bathroom." Aubrey got annoyed and sat back down on the couch.
Basil came back out and handed Sunny a note, before Sunny could respond, he said "Please read this." He did it subtly and quietly no one else noticed. Basil went back into his bedroom and Sunny began to read the note.

"Sunny, I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry for everything. I've been avoiding you. Specifically you. I feel awful, like a horrible person, because you're my best friend. But, it's not your fault. I can promise you it's not. It's my fault. It's all my fault, everything is my fault. It's because I love you. I couldn't stand to even face you. I couldn't handle this. I don't even know what to do or say around you. I'm so sorry. I'm worried it was obvious. I hope it wasn't, this is the most embarrassed thing I've ever admitted to. I didn't want to have these feelings, I tried to hard to not feel like this. But I'm just stupid, dumb, I'm sorry I'm so weak. I know you don't and won't love me back, so please don't feel bad. I just needed to tell you. I couldn't take it anymore, you needed to know. I love you. I have for years. But I only just realized. That's why I've been acting weird, I'm so sorry. It was selfish, I'm sorry. Please tell the others I'm okay. It's not their fault. And tell Aubrey and Mari  I did realize I loved him. Thank you for everything. I'm okay. I'm okay now."
...

It's been 15 minutes, Sunny had to process all of that and Mari, Aubrey, Hero and Kel had gotten distracted by the shows. They noticed that Sunny was crying. Hero immediately grabbed the controller to turn off the show, Mari leaned over and bugged him. Aubrey got up from the couch to go to his left side to hug him, and Kel just stood up from the couch not knowing what to do. "Sunny, what is this, what's wrong?" Mari asked quietly. "Where's Basil? Did he write that?" Kel looked around. Aubrey and Mari continued to hug him. Sunny couldn't say anything. He didn't even know what to say. Sunny got up to run to Basil's room, but..
There Basil was. Hanging from his ceiling light. His body was facing toward the window. The room was dark, there was two outfits on the floor with some blood on them, and his bed was just a mattress and a pillow. The blankets and plushies he owned had been kicked off the bed, or had just fallen off. His flowers were all wilting, the window was open so tulip petals were blowing around in the air. White tulip petals. The pair of garden shears he had used was on the floor, with lots of old blood, and fresh blood on them. Sunny dropped to the floor. Everyone followed behind Sunny. No one said a word. Aubrey walked in and started sobbing, she sat on his bed and couldn't say anything. Mari held Sunny close to her and Hero hugged them aswell. Kel stood behind Hero, Mari and Sunny and couldn't say anything. He was also crying, but he couldn't even make any noise. Aubrey was wailing so loud you could hear her down the road. Hero had dialed for the police the moment he saw it, but they all knew it was too late. They took Basil's body down and layed him gently in his bed. Jagged cuts were all over his arms, even vertically. So fresh, some blood was still leaking out. But he was cold. He was already pale enough, but how he was a grayish shade.
Sunny held his hand, and Aubrey and Mari sobbed to each other while hugging.
"Basil.. I love you. I loved you so much." Sunny began to sob even harder, his throat hurting and eyes burning.