My Savior - Suntan

Chapter One

The first thing Sunny heard when he awoke was arguing. His head still spun, and he was struggling to decipher the words that were being thrown about so viciously. As his head cleared slowly, he started to hear the words more distinctively and recognised who was speaking.

"I say he's being an attention seeker," A voice yelled, sounding feminine, "we've just learned that Mari didn't kill herself, then he decides to go jump off the roof!"

"Aubrey, calm down," A reasonable voice said, "he's obviously upset about it, if he wasn't then he wouldn't have..."

His voice trailed off, clearly not wanting to mention the fact that Sunny tried to end it all.

"I don't care," Aubrey snapped again, "Mari never should have died."

"We all believe that, it was an accident," A different boy's voice sounded, Kel's, "but taking your anger our on Sunny isn't going to bring her back!"

"Whatever..." Aubrey muttered, then Sunny heard footsteps and a door opening then closing.

Sunny then decided to open his eyes then, hearing that everything went quiet and sensed that the scary part had passed. As soon as his eyes opened, he was hit with a bright light above him, making him shift his arm to cover his eyes. He could see clearly through one, but the other was blurry, bordering on being unable to see from it. In just that motion, Sunny remembered the fight with Basil, then the consequences. He heard a rushing movement, then felt someone hug him. He shifted his arm away from his eyes, to see dark hair in his face and felt something wet on his neck. They then stood up and Sunny then saw that Kel was crying.

"Sunny..." Kel started, wiping his eyes as Hero, who Sunny guessed was the reasonable voice he had heard earlier, stood at the foot of the hospital bed, staring determinedly at the floor, "I'm so glad you're okay!"

Kel reached for Sunny's hand, holding onto it tightly as he hid his face behind his other arm, still sniffling. Sunny squeezed Kel's hand back gently, wanting to say something, anything to him, but his voice seemed to be gone. Tears ran down his face, but a small smile formed on his lips.

"I'm so sorry," Sunny managed to croak,"I never wanted any of this to happen..."

Kel uncovered his face, just smiling and nodding, laughing slightly as tears still ran down his face.

"I'm just so happy you survived," Kel smiled, closing his other hand around Sunny's, "I don't know what I would've done of you hadn't.."

Hero then cleared his throat, making both of them look over at him.

"I don't know what to think about... Mari..." Hero started, managing to look up at Sunny, who noticed that Hero's eyes looked red and puffy, "but I do know that you regret it. We don't really know how to react, so, just... bare with us. We'll all work through this together, alright?"

Sunny laid there and stared at the ceiling, letting this wash over him. Hero was obviously struggling about the news of Mari's death, but he had also set aside his own feelings to forgive Sunny, which he knew must be hard for him. Kel looked at the two anxiously, for once setting aside his goofy attitude, which surprised Sunny slightly, but even Kel must know that it wasn't the time for half-assed jokes.
Sunny nodded, showing Hero that he was acknowledging his opinion, and was secretly relieved that he didn't have loathing towards him about Mari and... what he had done. Sunny himself had finally managed to face it after four years, and the relief he feels for finally telling them did feel nice, but he also had to face the people he told.

"Also, your mom called," Hero said, clearing hid throat and standing up straight, "she's decided that she isn't going to sell the house and you're not going to move."

This time, it was Kel's turn to be surprised, tensing his hand so much so that it made Sunny squint in pain. Kel realised and let go, not wanting to injure Sunny more, but still refused to look at Sunny, instead looking directly at Hero. Sunny was confused what was going on, though wasn't stupid enough to brush it off - Kel was starting to act weird. Hero tilted his head towards the door, indicating to Kel that he wanted to talk outside. Kel nodded, but before he left, he turned and gave Sunny a hug.

"The doctor said you can be discharged in a few weeks," Kel whispered in Sunny's ear, "since your body handled the... fall well."

Then Kel let go, following Hero out the door, but before he closed it, he turned his head to Sunny, smiling sadly at him before he closed the door quietly behind himself. Sunny found himself laid there quietly, his heart beating a little faster than usual and a very weird feeling happening in his chest.

Over the next few weeks, Kel kept staying at the hospital, sleeping in the same room as Sunny and kept him company. After the day where Sunny woke up, he had not seen anyone except for doctors, nurses and Kel, who refused to leave Sunny's side, not even for a second. Sunny enjoyed Kel's company and definitely got closer to him in them few days that they spent together in the hospital.

Discharge day...

"How does it feel to be discharged now?" Kel asked Sunny, both of them walking together back to Sunny's house, "freeing?"

Sunny didn't know how to answer the question. He could make Kel happy by saying that he was excited to be outside of the hospital for once, being able to do things like going to Faraway Park or going to Hobeez with Kel. In truth, Sunny felt daunted and anxious, not really wanting the option of free will, since he really didn't trust himself and didn't feel safe. Kel noticed the long pause after the question and knew Sunny was thinking about it, but didn't know how to say the words he wanted to, so he just stayed silent and waited.

"I suppose I'm sort of happy to be away from there," Sunny started, though was struggling how to continue it, "just... anxious of seeing the others, that's all."

Kel could sense Sunny wasn't telling the whole truth, so he stopped walking and grabbed both of Sunny's hands, making Sunny look at him.

"Listen, Sunny," Kel said, keeping eye contact with him, being honest with himself and Sunny as he said it, though he felt butterflies in his stomach as he held Sunny's pale hands, though ignored it, "no matter what, you can talk to me, you know? I may be stupid all of the time and probably seem like I don't care about people, but I really do care! I'll listen to you forever, no matter what you want to talk about, I'll always be here, got that?"

Sunny just silently nodded, feeling his cheeks grow hot, so he gently let go of Kel's hands and continued walking with him. After such a long time, Sunny finally found himself a real friend, someone he felt comfortable around, someone he could feel happy around and won't be laughed at for a weird smile or awkward silence. After such a long time, Sunny felt content and safe with someone.