My Savior - Suntan

Chapter Thirty-Six

Sunny stood in the dark bathroom by himself, the door cracked open slightly to let the early morning light in, a shaft of it sliding onto the floor and up the wall beside him. He controlled his breathing as he peeled off his bandages, listening to the wet noise of them as they fell into the sink, the pearly white of them tainted with the stark redness of his blood. Some of his cuts had reopened and were slowly dripping with blood, splattering on the floor occasionally and splashing on his bare feet, the others healing nicely and their bandages had more of a copper-y color to them. He continued to peel away the last of them, when he felt the breeze of the door swing open.

Kel stood there in the doorway, watching with a pained expression on his face the way Sunny was being so tender with his wounds, how he hid his arms automatically when he entered. Kel walked slowly over to Sunny, wrapping on of his arms around his shoulders and resting his head on the smaller boy's. Kel felt Sunny's body shake as silent tears fell, splashing on his shirt, dark stains left there in their wake.

"Let's get you cleaned up," murmured Kel, gently releasing Sunny, like if he did, the boy would crumble to dust. Sunny just nodded. He shoved the used bandages into a pile at the edge of the sink before grabbing the medical kit that had been sitting in the cupboard below the sink. Kel tossed the bandages into the bin, before watching Sunny pop open the lid to the kit and grab out the bandages.

"Need some help?"

Sunny nodded once more. Kel felt a small smile playing on his lips. Despite all that had happened, everything they've been through, everything he's been through, thought Kel, he's still the same. The same Sunny Kel fell in love with. The taller boy unraveled the roll of bandages, having no scissors on him, he roughly tore a strand of gauze from the rest of the roll, before wrapping it tenderly around Sunny's left arm. Sunny winced every now and then, and whenever he did, Kel would freeze and look immediately at Sunny's eyes, silently asking him if he was okay and if he should stop.

After a few minutes, Sunny rolled down his sleeves and tidied up the the medical kit, Kel hovering beside him, feeling awkward not doing anything.

Then the doorbell rang.

"Wanna come with?" Kel asked, automatically reaching for Sunny's hand. Sunny gripped Kel's hand in return, nodding slowly once more, and following him down the stairs.

By the time they reached the door, Kel peeked through the keyhole like he did as a child, making Sunny smile slightly, as Kel almost fell into the door as he was trying to figure out who it was.

"No way!" Kel exclaimed, before opening the door, "You're back!"

Sunny peeked round the door, seeing Hero silhouetted against the sunrise.

"I took some time off college," Hero admitted, "I thought I'd come back and see how everything's doing, just can't keep away."

As the two brothers chatted, Kel catching Hero up on what had happened in the past few weeks, Sunny stayed mostly behind Kel, peering past Hero and into the street. He could see the little black cat, Mewo, peeking out from beneath a bush, it's eyes dead set on Sunny's next door neighbours. Sunny followed the cat's line of sight, seeing Hector playing outside. He then watched Mewo dash out from beneath the bush, darting quickly into Kel's front yard and leaping up onto the top of the kennel. Hector noticed the cat almost immediately, before yapping happily as he trotted over to meet it.

"I was thinking we could all go visit Mari's grave together?" Hero offered, putting his hands in his pockets like it'd defend him from their responses.

Kel seemed stunned for a minute, but recovered quickly.

"Uh- yeah, sure! I don't think Sunny'd mind, right Sunny?"

Sunny didn't mind. In fact, he thought going to Mari's grave would be a nice idea. All of them, the five friends, all reunited after four years, finally visiting her grave for the first time. Sunny nodded eagerly.

"Oh! And we can bring Aubrey and Basil too!" Kel exclaimed, as if he was reading Sunny's thoughts.

"That'd be a great idea! Which should we get first, Aubrey or Basil?"

"Well, they're both in the same place now, so I don't think it'd matter which one we chose," Kel shrugged.

"Wait, what?" Hero said, pausing as he stood to the side to let Kel and Sunny leave the house.

"Oh right, we didn't tell you this bit yet!" Kel said, only just realising it as he shut the door.

"Pretty big thing you just happened to forget to tell me, Kel!" Hero cried, exasperated, eliciting a quiet giggle from Sunny. Kel heard it and grinned at him.

"I don't think it's my place to tell you, and if we're going to see her anyway, she can tell you," Kel concluded, taking Sunny's hand and walking down the path, leaving Hero to call after them and having to jog to catch up.

"So, they're living together now?" Hero inquired as the trio set off down the path.

"Yeah, Aubrey's crashing at Basil's for the time being," Kel said, nodding, "speaking of Aubrey - did you know she was dating Kim?"

"Oh, Kim? Yeah, I knew."

"What!? And she didn't tell me?"

"Well, before you two weren't really on speaking terms, so it's mainly surprising me that she's living with Basil and not Kim, to be honest," Hero admitted, stretching his arms out in front of them as they crossed the road, "she called me a few months after they started dating and told me - I'm proud of her."

Sunny could sense that he was trying to get Kel to say something. Kel, however, was oblivious

"Well, I had no clue! Which is kinda stupid since they hang out all the time," Kel said, mainly to himself.

"Well, you have a clue now," Sunny murmured, squeezing his hand gently.

Kel smiled at him, a patented Kel smile. Sunny smiled back.

"Oh, hey guys!"

(Author's Note: Sorry for having, like, a two week break- I wasn't really in the best headspace- [see what I did there?] promise I'll try to get more consistent with these chapters! I hope you enjoyed reading this one! :D)