Sunny stopped and put his hands on his knees, catching his breath. Running was a lot harder than he remembered.
He looked behind himself to see how far he had gotten. Approximately 2 meters off the property line. Sunny exhaled loudly.
Sunny switched his pace to a less exhausting speed. He continued to amble toward Basil's home. He felt his face muscles twitch with happiness as he excitedly speed-walked to his friend's house. It also seemed the farther he got away from his own home, the happier he felt.
Maybe he had just been inside for too much of the summer. He never liked the heat much. He didn't like watermelon either, but he'd choose watermelon over the sun scorching him any day. Cucumber tasted better, though.
Sunny proceeded to entertain himself by thinking of innuendos involving cucumbers. He snickered a bit as he thought of "my second favourite long hard food" before spotting Basil outside his house.
He was bent over by the soil, seeming to be planting something new. "Hey, Basil." Sunny greeted him from behind, "What are you doing?" He looked at the seed packet in his hand, but he couldn't quite see what it was.
"Oh, I'm trying out growing vegetables!" Basil stood up and faced Sunny. "M-Mostly because these ones grow flowers too..."
"Huh. What vegetable is that?" Sunny inquired.
Basil paused, "It's umm... zucchini!" Quite a mouthful in Chinese. Sunny couldn't help but break a smile at the acknowledgement of the cucumber-like plant being called a "mouthful".
"What's so funny..?" Basil asked shyly. Sunny hid his smile.
"Sorry, I was just thinking about something..."
Sunny glanced to Basil's garden patch. Around 30 white tulips, 2 red tulips, a yellow tulip, and a blue tulip. At first, he hadn't seen it, but there was also a strange black tulip. He had never seen one like it before. It was far darker than any flower he had seen in the past.
"Where'd you get that, Basil?" Sunny asked, pointing at the slightly smaller black tulip in the front of all of the tulips.
Basil looked over at where Sunny pointed, "Ah, it was in the seed packet with all the white tulips. I'm not sure where it came from or what kind of flower it is, but it does look like a tulip..."
"Maybe it's some kind of omen..." Sunny said jokingly.
"Stop, don't make me think about that! I just thought it was a pretty flower..." Basil pouted, making his cute little fake-mad face.
"Oooo, the flower has an evil spirit in it! The ghost of a dead witch!" Sunny wiggled his fingers for dramatic effect.
"A ghost witch? Sounds scary!" Basil giggled at the notion.
"You should be scared! The witch was also a vampire and only became a ghost because she died in the sun!" Sunny and Basil crouched next to the flower, laughing to each other. Sunny one-upping himself each time.
Basil and Sunny walked inside of Basil's house together. "So let me see, she was a ghost werevampire witch who had an immortal evil dragon as a pet, who was also a vampire, but turned into a witch during the day."
"No, no, no, the dragon became a witch at *night*" Sunny corrected, "He was a reverse werewitch vampire dragon, remember?"
"Who knew a little black flower would have so much backstory?" Basil laughed. Sunny loved hearing Basil's laugh. It made his heart feel warm.
"Thanks for being my friend, Sunny." Basil said warmly, "You really give me a sense of purpose." Basil paused before his face grew flushed, and he hastily added, "And so do all the others!"
Sunny didn't seem to notice the anxiety behind this sudden addition and nodded. "It's kinda like that for me, too. I hope we can all be friends for, like, forever." Sunny said, feeling a bit awkward for saying something so cheesy.
"Yeah! Friends!" Basil agreed and then muttered something under his breath.
"What'd you say?" Sunny asked and was met with the expected response.
Basil shook his head, "It's nothing, don't worry about it!"
Sunny wondered what was with all the muttering lately. He didn't really push to ask what he said any further. He sometimes spoke his thoughts aloud very quietly and would sometimes have to use the "nothing" excuse as well.
He'd ask a question, then let it go. If he wasn't answered, he'd never need to know. Sunny didn't like to waste time holding a string. He already knew that he could trust Basil's word.
Sunny walked inside behind Basil, headed towards his room. Sunny wasn't really paying much attention to where he was going and accidentally hit his head on the corner of a doorway.
"Oh, look out, hon! Are you okay?" Polly asked in a soft voice.
"I'm fine, just wasn't looking where I was going..." Sunny held his face with one hand. He hit his head right above his right eye. "Jesus." Sunny mumbled.
Basil returned from wherever he was going, most likely his room, and held Sunny's arm in an attempt to comfort him. "I'm sorry, Sunny, I shouldn't have just went in without saying a word of what I was doing."
"It's not your fault I walked into a wall, Basil." Sunny half-smiled at Basil, trying to reassure him. Sunny put down his hand and looked at it. A small splotch of blood.
Sunny internally shrugged at the red fluid and wiped it off on his arm. Basil was far more worried. "Sunny! You hurt your head, are you okay?!"
"I'm alright, it's barely even bleeding." Sunny excused. Basil opened his mouth to speak, but some previously inaudible music began to come into hearing distance.
A cacophonous howling of some sort of steam pipe instrument came from the distance. The music had a vague pattern to it, but the melody sounded like it was made by a child who was pressing random buttons on a keyboard.
Sunny and Basil silently understood each other and simultaneously walked back towards the front door to go back outside.
--hiii sorry for taking so long with this chapter!!! Been having some issuuuuues but now we're good I think--
YOU ARE READING
A Cage with No Key
Fanfiction- AU - Sunny has been making his way through school as Mari has started her success as a pianist, playing for national events and concerts. throughout it all, she hasn't moved out, though. She says it's for Sunny, but it couldn't be for him alone, o...
