My Savior - Suntan

Twenty-Eight

The memory was of Sunny kissing Kel.

Omori didn't remember this happening, though if he thought hard enough, he could vividly see a faded outline of Kel's cheek. Of course he'd see it from Sunny's perspective. He found it weird it wasn't looking on like the others, except now that he thought about it, the rest were almost all photos. This was coming straight from Sunny.

"Omori, look!" Called Kel, whooping happily, as the world rippled back together, whole again and like how it was before.

Omori turned round to see Kel running in circles, his arms flung out like wings, Aubrey quickly following suit, their argument forgotten.

Mari and Hero could be heard from a bit away, Basil standing on the worn pathway, calling out to them, waving. "Over here!"

Omori felt calm for the first time in ages. He gently slipped the rest of the memory shards out of his pocket, kneeling down on the coarse grass, and spreading them out before him. He carefully moved them around, into the order the memories were made.

"Hey, that's cool! Don't the edges look like they all fit together?" Kel asked, seemingly just appearing beside Omori, hands on his hips. "That's what you've been collecting?"

Omori realised Kel was right. He pushed each shard together, each of the jagged edges fitting together perfectly, each one as thin as paper. Once he finally slotted in the final memory, the shards seemed to dissolve into the ground. Omori watched in silence as the grass seemed to crawl over them, dragging it into the dirt below, before pushing it out again, the grassy fronds acting like the memories were now scorching hot, retreating back to the soil.

What laid there now was a photo album. A brand new photo album. The front had the engraved lettering on saying 'Basil's Memories', yet when Omori opened it and flicked through it, it had all the old memories, though now it had new ones too, though they all now had been Headspace-d.

Omori thumbed the book lovingly, feeling the crinkle of the paper between his fingers as he flicked through the pages quickly, the memories sitting there like nothing had ever happened.

"Hey, that's nice, little brother!" Mari exclaimed, kneeling down beside Omori, "Hey, I have an idea - how about we all go out and revisit our old memories?"

"What do you mean, Mari?" Aubrey asked, who was now sat beneath a tree, exhausted from the running.

"Let's recreate some old memories."

The group wandered their way back to the Playground, all their old friends back to playing as though nothing had ever happened. Mari and Hero led the way to the picnic blanket, Mari settling down first and adoringly flattening out the odd wrinkle in it.

"Memory time!" Kel cheered, jumping onto the checkered blanket and spreading himself out in a star shape, to complaining from Aubrey. Omori, however, sat down in a gap by the edge or the blanket beside Kel. Hero sighed, trying to calm everyone down, Mari laughing at the chaos of the situation. Basil was trying to coax Kel to sit up and make room for the others, which made Kel try to spread himself out more.

Omori patted Kel's arm, tilting his head, trying to tell him to sit up. Kel sighed, grumbling, sitting up, though still taking up more room than necessary.

"Can we make a flower crown first?" Aubrey asked excitedly, Basil eagerly nodding.

"Sure! Do you guys remember how I taught you?" Mari asked, picking some nearby flowers and handing them to Aubrey.

"Yes! And if I mess up, I'll ask Basil to help! He was really good last time!" Aubrey clapped, sitting down and quickly got to work.

"I wasn't that good," Basil muttered, his cheeks reddening from embarrassment, "I just did it how Mari did."

"Don't be so modest, you do amazing," Mari said, patting a corner of the picnic blanket, Basil taking it as an invitation to sit down.

"Uggghhhhh, againnn?" Kel whined, "I suck at thisss!"

Omori shrugged, picking some flowers, before separating a small orange one from the rest, placing it behind Kel's ear, before struggling to twine the rest together.

"Ha! Thanks, Omori!" Kel grinned, scrambling to his feet and wandering off.

"Wonder where he's off to now," Hero murmured worried, Mari grabbing his arm and dragging him down, placing her freshly made flower crown on his head.

"Kel won't go far, besides, he's probably just repaying the favor," Mari giggled, tilting her head in the direction of Omori, who was still determinedly trying to make a flower crown.

Sure enough, a few minutes later, Kel had skipped back to them, a quaint dark purple flower in his hand, that he earnestly presented to Omori. Omori smiled, taking it and placing it behind Kel's other ear.

"Hey, Omori, no! That was for you!" Kel laughed, taking it out from beside his ear and putting it in Omori's hair instead.

Omori shrugged, smiling, watching Mari, Aubrey and Basil easily complete their flower crowns, each of them looking over at Hero, who was still working away, who had also somehow managed to get a bunch of stray leaves nestled in his hair.

"Next step!" Mari called, jumping up from her spot, the rest following suit, "make way for the arm wrestling brothers!"

Aubrey giggled. "Kel will definitely lose again," She snickered from behind her hand, "but he might win if a bug flutters on by."

Kel confidently settled himself back down on the picnic blanket, Hero doing the same after some persuasion.

"I know I'm going to win this time!" Kel exclaimed, stifling a yawn, "You're going down, Hero!"

Hero chuckled. The brothers clasped hands together, Mari counting down and clapping her hands together.

"3... 2... 1..." Mari counted, before cheering, "Go!"

It was over in less than three seconds. Kel lost again.

"Awwhhhhh," Kel whined, "I felt for sure I'd win!"

Aubrey was squealing with laughter, rolling around on the grass, Basil chuckling.

Omori yawned, stretching.

"Well, final memory it is," Mari giggled, sitting herself back down on the picnic blanket.

"Wassat Mari?" Kel yawned, rubbing at his eyes.

He was asleep before she could answer.

The rest of the group settled down, Omori resting his head on Mari's legs as she chatted away happily to Basil and Hero. Aubrey was the second one to fall asleep, and as Omori laid there, about to fall asleep, he heard Mari mention his name.