My Savior - Suntan

Chapter Twenty-Four

Sunny sifted the eggs from the pan onto one of the plates, stabbing a few sausages from a pan still on the stove and putting them on the plate before sliding it across the table in Kel's direction.

"Thanks, Sunshine!" Kel called to him, already eating, but staring at Sunny's back as he finished up cooking. He looked Sunny up and down from behind, tempted to go over and kiss him on the side of his neck, but shook his head. Slowly, Kel, slowly, he thought to himself.

Sunny brought his own plate beside Kel, eating slowly and carefully, looking up at Kel through his hair, admiring him. How can this angel, this fucking angel not hate me for what I've done?

Kel shoveled the last of his food in his mouth, chewing quickly. He felt his heartbeat speeding up as he decided to say something before he could back out.

"Sunny... we've been friends for over 5 years now and I want to tell you something.." Kel felt his stomach squirm, "so-"

But Kel couldn't get any further, since then the doorbell rang. Kel froze for a moment as Sunny looked at him, getting up slowly from the table, gently patting Kel's arm, before making his way to the front door.

Kel cursed. Why is it every time!? It's always something!

Sunny came back in the room with Basil, who was wearing a little satchel, carrying a suspicious tupperwear box under his right arm.

"Sorry for intruding on you guys again," Basil said awkwardly, "I just came with some things for you guys."

Basil then pulled out the new Photo album, placing it on the table with their plates, following suit by placing down the tupperwear box.

"As you know, Sunny, I asked you to do something special for the new Photo album, so I brought it over..." Basil started, handing Sunny the album, "any design ideas?"

Sunny nodded, placing the album down and going off in search of some paper and pens. Basil then turned to Kel, who was staring at the tupperware box.

"Oh! Yeah, Kel, I brought you something special," Basil stated, opening the tupperware box to reveal three little cacti nestled up against each other, "I decided to get you your own cacti to take care of! And I also got you a book on how to take care of them..."

Basil turned his head, opening his bag to grab out a book he had found a few days ago at Hobeez 'Cactus Care'. Then, there was a thud and the sound of breaking glass. Basil spun back round to face Kel, only Kel was no longer there. Sunny ran back into the room, panicked, and his face grew even paler as he looked down, running over to Basil and kneeled down. Basil then decided to look down, and saw that Kel had fallen over... and that he had managed to take the tupperware box with the cacti in off the table and down on the floor with him.

"God, Kel! Are you okay?" Sunny whispered to him, Kel laid flat on his stomach, with one of his cheeks close to the floor.

"Uhh... I feel prickly?" Kel said, trying to make it more light-hearted but was clearly in pain.

"Jesus.." Sunny uttered to himself, before clearing his throat, "can you get up?"

Kel shifted his weight to his side, getting into an awkward kneeling position.

"Only you could manage this," Basil said, face-palming and shaking his head slowly, kneeling down with his friends, wincing as he saw his injuries.

His right cheekbone had been cut with a shard of one of the cactus pots, and a thin trickle of blood was sliding down his cheek and dripping off his chin. His arm had landed on the cactus and the cactus prickles had stabbed into his arm and his hand.

"Do you think we could just clean this up here?" Kel asked, "I would literally die if Aubrey saw me like this."

Basil chuckled to himself, picking up the cacti carefully with his hands, placing them on the table.

"One minute," Sunny murmured, disappearing through the door, the two hearing his quiet footsteps trail up the stairs and fade away.

"One: Kel, I still trust you enough to take care of a cactus, even though I definitely shouldn't," Basil said, guiding Kel to a chair by the table, "and two: when are you going to confess to Sunny? It's so painfully obvious!"

"Well, I would have if you hadn't come round today," Kel muttered, rolling his eyes, "do you think Sunny thinks I'm stupid? Do you think he'll hate me because I'm causing him trouble? I don't want him to think I'm too stupid to do anything for myself!"

"Kel, calm the heck down," Basil sighed, pulling a chair opposite Kel for Sunny, "Sunny doesn't think you're stupid and he won't hate you, he's gone to get his medical kit to help you. Sunny's like that."

Kel kept tapping his foot on the floor anxiously, that was, until he heard Sunny's soft footsteps coming down the stairs. Sunny slipped into the kitchen, sitting on the chair Basil had placed opposite Kel.

"Hold still," Sunny muttered, pulling Kel's injured arm closer to him, getting out a pair of tweezers and gently pulliing out one of the cactus spikes, feeling Kel's arm tense beneath his hands.

"It might hurt a bit," Sunny murmured to him, looking Kel directly in the eyes, then smiling softly at him, in a reassuring way, "but I promise it'll be worth it. You won't be Prickly-Kel for the rest of your life."

The minutes went by slowly as Sunny took the cactus spikes out of his arm, hand and cheek as quickly and efficiently as possible, not wanting to accidentally snap one off half way and have it bury itself in his skin.

"And there... that's the last one," Sunny said, sitting back as he put the last spike on the pile that was steadily building on the table.

"Hey, Sunny?" Basil asked, suddenly realising something, "how come you're so good at getting out them cactus spikes?"

Sunny shrugged, getting up and scooping the cactus spikes and throwing them in the bin.

"We're low on bandages," Sunny stated, "I need to get some more to finish patching you up."

"Sure, we can head to Othermart!" Kel said, hopping up from the chair, wiping the blood off his cheek.

"Oh! Sorry, Kel," Sunny said, quickly rifling through the medical kit for a band-aid, "here."

Sunny gently placed it over the slice on his cheek, before packing up the medical kit and closing it.

"We should head out now," Sunny said, "or Othermart'll be closed by the time we get there."

Kel followed Sunny out the kitchen, Basil grinning at them as they talked by the door.

"Basil, you coming?" Kel called back.

"Coming!"