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“Where’s that damn fourth Chaos Emerald?”
“Woah, is he allowed to say that? What’s this game rated? I thought it was for like… little kids?” Aubrey asked in response to the black-and-red hedgehog on the screen’s sentence coming through the television’s speakers, sitting next to Sunny on the couch, who had the controller in his hand as he controlled said black-and-red hedgehog on the screen.
“I’m pretty sure it's rated for ages ten and up for mild language.”
“Huh. Is that really a word they want ten-year-olds to be repeating?”
“Shadow… is not meant to be a role-model. At least… I don’t think he’s meant to be.”
Silence fell between the two of them once more with the only sound being Sunny clicking buttons as he played through the level as the hedgehog that looked straight out of Hot Topic and whose name was on the box of the game, Shadow the Hedgehog. Although Aubrey only seemed to be half-paying attention to the game if that question was anything to go off of.
In all honesty, Sunny hadn’t been expecting Aubrey to pop on by at seven o’clock in the evening. Especially considering he lived in Nearby City and she lived in Faraway Town, which was about a three hours drive away from each other, but yet here she was, having knocked on the door and asking to stay the night with him. And since his mother was out as per usual, Sunny didn’t really have anyone to tell him no.
Not that he was about to miss out on a chance to have his girlfriend over, even if it did raise a number of questions, like how she got here or why she decided to come over in the first place. She wouldn’t bother with a three hour drive if she didn’t have a specific reason outside of her just wanting to see her boyfriend, right? Maybe that was the reason and he was just overthinking it? He couldn’t be sure.
So for now, he just kept his focus on the game, although he was currently in a cutscene.
“Hey, isn’t that… Tails?”
The character in question came in on a blue plane that he was piloting himself, the camera eventually moving to focus on him where he would look around and then deliver another piece of dialogue.
“Look at that! It’s Eggman’s theme park. He made it out of the Rings he’s taken from around the world.”
But Sunny looked away for a moment and then looked back to see Tails and his plan going down as it crashed somewhere in the level, the two-tailed fox screaming in panic the whole way through. He watched Shadow do some quick gloating and then run into the level itself, a fade to black transitioning into gameplay and allowing Sunny to begin controlling Shadow himself.
“…Did the fox just fucking die– Oh, nevermind,” Aubrey murmured as she watched the cutscene play out herself, cutting herself off as Sunny quickly encountered said two-tailed fox as he greeted Shadow enthusiastically. “Why does he have two tails?”
“…Uh, I think he was just born like that.”
“Like… he’s double-tailed instead of double-jointed?”
“I… guess so.”
Once again the two went silent after their brief exchange and they listened to Tails tell Shadow to help him to collect a bunch of rings. Four hundred of them to be in fact. The two of them took a ramp and then landed on a platform, where Sunny then had Shadow jump into a robot and retrieve a gun from it that he then used to wipe out the rest of the nearby robots.
“That’s kind of badass.”
“Mm.”
Sunny continued to play the level, going with Tails’ request and beginning to collect as many rings as he possibly could even after he was told otherwise by Eggman, until he suddenly felt Aubrey sitting a lot closer to him. Like… a lot closer, in fact. As in, their thighs were in the middle ground between brushing against each other and being pressed together.
It wasn’t new in their relationship or anything, he just hadn’t been expecting it from her, especially since she’d been quiet this whole time. She generally didn’t make such actions without asking him first. After all, they were both rather inexperienced in all of this and Sunny lacked the ability to even ask, so she was making bigger strides than he was, that was for damn sure.
“You know… I’m surprised you haven’t asked me how the hell I got here. Not that it’s exciting or anything, Hero drove me here after I asked him. Never told him to come and pick me up in the morning now that I think about it… I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
“…I doubt my mom would mind.”
“Yeah, I guess that’s true. And it’s not like my mom gives a flying fuck. If she did, maybe she would’ve gotten eyes off the television and her ass off the couch years ago.” Aubrey murmured in response as she leaned back on the couch, the spite in her tone being evident and for good reason. Her mother was a piece of shit after all. Her dad was decent, but rarely visited. Sunny was pretty sure he’d only met the man maybe two or three times. Still better than his dad was these days.
“I’m… less interested in how you got here as to… why you’re here…” Sunny muttered quietly while briefly glancing towards her and then looking back towards the screen so as to not lose track of what Shadow was doing so he didn’t accidentally run off of an edge and fall into a bottomless pit. “I mean, I’m not complaining, but you don’t usually just… drop by unannounced. You usually tell me in advance with a call.”
Aubrey didn’t respond initially, but it wasn’t like Sunny was about to press her for information.
He’d be a massive hypocrite if he did something like that, given how little he often speaks.
“I dunno… I guess I just figured the three hours would be worth getting to crash at your place instead of mine. I’m practically an adult already with how much I’ve been taking care of myself, especially in these past few years. I go where I god damn please.”
“I’m not gonna argue with that.”
“Course you won’t, dummy, you’re too nice to care about something like that. Plus, I’d kick your ass if you tried.” Unfortunately, Sunny wasn’t able to tell if she was being genuine about that last part or not. Although it didn’t really matter given that she was probably correct about that first part.
“Hey, can I…” Aubrey gestured vaguely to her lips. Sunny gave a slight nod in response before she closed the remaining distance between them and pressed a quick kiss to his cheeks, then settled directly next to him with her head tilted onto his shoulder. Unfortunately, their moment together was abruptly interrupted by Mewo suddenly strolling onto the scene and casually hopping onto the couch.
“Aw… I should’ve brought Bun-Bun with me…” Aubrey mumbled in response as she lifted her head off of his shoulder to address the cat begging for attention as the feline stretched her body out to be on both of their laps simultaneously, the pink-haired girl reaching a hand down to gently stroke a finger between Mewo’s ears, earning a small mewl from the cat.
It didn’t take long before the black cat was curled up on Sunny’s lap while Aubrey continued petting her. It was a tad awkward, but Sunny would take Mewo getting clingy over, say, Aubrey getting clingy. Aubrey headbutted when she got clingy. And her headbutts somehow hurt more than her nail bat. Maybe Kel was onto something whenever he called her hardheaded.
“How come the cat gets to be on your lap freely?”
“Uh. Fuck. Um… Sunny, think of something already!”
“…I don’t think I could handle you sitting on my lap… for reasons I’d rather not say outloud.”
“…Well, at least you’re upfront about your dirty-mindedness,” Aubrey teased while giggling and sitting back in her seat, clearly amused by his response. “I’ll restrain myself in that case. Don’t want your mom to accidentally walk in on us doing something we shouldn’t be doing on the couch. I’d still like cuddles though.”
Sunny nodded in response as he made sure his progress was saved and then beginning to shut off the game along with the television, although he couldn’t stand up to turn off the Gamecube he had been playing the game on yet since he had both a cat making herself comfortable on his lap and a playful girlfriend gently headbutting his arm affectionately, which seemed to at least sting regardless of how soft she hit him. Maybe that said more about him than her…
At least it wasn’t an angry headbutt. He’d seen Kel get knocked out cold with one of those before.
Once Sunny had set the controller down on the side table next to the sofa, Aubrey casually picked the feline off of his lap and set her down on the carpeted floor below, then pulled him down onto his side behind her on the couch. It was then that Sunny inferred Aubrey likely hadn’t had a great day.
“You’ve had your time with him, Mewo. It’s my turn now.”
The system they had for their cuddles was that whoever had the worse day, decided via silent mutual agreement or whoever acted first, would be the little spoon while the other would be the big spoon, regardless of their cuddling position. Therefore it made it easy to tell for the big spoon if the little spoon was upset or having a hard time or something else.
Not that either of them ever really capitalized on that information. Both of them knew that pressing an issue like that wasn’t always the smartest decision. It could lead to emotional outbursts and overall negative impacts. Instead they would often wait for one another to open up, assuming that happened in the first place, although that wasn’t something they’d get huffy about, as they both had the patience to wait.
Even before they’d properly gotten together, the dynamic of their relationship had always been that of Aubrey talking and Sunny listening, memories of their shared “conversations” on the swingsets, gently swinging back and forth while their feet brushed against the sand beneath them, coming to mind. To this day, Sunny struggled with properly opening up to people, but he’d been getting better at it.
Aubrey eventually broke the silence that had settled onto them.
“There were some assholes at our hangout spot today. New to town if I had to guess. Tried reasoning with them to leave with Kim and the others, but they weren’t having none of it. Things got messy and one of ‘em left a scrape on my arm. It’s patched up, but… something about it all put me in a bad mood.”
Sunny hummed in acknowledgment as his arms snaked around her waist and pulled her closer towards him while nuzzling his face into her neck, taking in the scent of something he couldn’t quite identify, but was uniquely hers. He stayed silent until he formulated an answer in his head and muttered it out loud.
“Makes sense. You’ve always been protective of what you care about.”
“Mm, I guess so,” Aubrey mumbled in response, clearly trying to downplay her response to what he said and then going silent for several seconds, leading to the two to just lay there in silence, Sunny feeling his eyelids beginning to close, until she broke the silence again. “Do you know if we have any hangouts planned tomorrow?”
“…Nothing until next week.”
“Great. I’m staying over tomorrow by the way.”
“Oh… okay…” Sunny mumbled while stifling a nod. He kept his eyes open for a little longer in case Aubrey had anything else to ask or say, but when nothing more was said, he let his eyes close and the two of them drifted into unconsciousness while his arms were wrapped around her body and pulled against his.
-
When Sunny woke up the next morning, the first thing he noticed was a lack of Aubrey in his arms. Instead Mewo was curled up in front of him while he could hear a distinct sound of sizzling coming from somewhere else in the house, logic dictating that it was coming from the kitchen. Eventually, he forced himself to get up off of the couch with a quiet groan.
As he moved from the living room to the kitchen, Sunny was immediately hit by two different things. The first was a rather domestic sight of Aubrey making pancakes with a side of bacon and the second was the fact that she was wearing one of his oversized hoodies. It didn’t take long until the pink-haired girl noticed him standing in the doorway of the kitchen.
“…Morning,” Aubrey greeted before noticing how much he was staring, then seemingly realizing it was the hoodie that was mostly throwing him off. “Oh, right, when I started making breakfast for us, I accidentally spilled bacon grease on my jacket, so I took it off. But that just left me in a crop top and I couldn’t find the thermostat. So I borrowed a hoodie from the back of your closet. It’s pretty comfy. Don’t know why you don’t wear it more instead of the constant formal attire.”
“…You didn’t need to make breakfast. My mom probably would’ve done it. Is she here?”
“Oh, yeah, she got here like fifteen minutes ago. I’m assuming she was out working late because I’m pretty sure she went straight to bed after an exhausted-sounding hello to me. As for breakfast… I dunno, I guess I just wanted to try my hand at making this. And it’s going… at least somewhat successful. It’s not Hero-level, but it’s… passable, right?”
Sunny’s gaze moved from her wearing his hoodie to the plate of pancakes that she was beginning to slowly amass on the counter, which had about five total pancakes sitting on it with a sixth one sizzling away in the pan she was using. They were a tad misshapen, but had a generally-rounded shape. Like said, they weren’t Hero-level, as no-one was on Hero-level, but they were still pancakes.
So after giving Aubrey a thumbs-up, Sunny moved to the pantry and retrieved a bottle of syrup, setting on the table and then looking towards her as she carefully raised the pan and flipped the pancake in the pan, a smirk crossing her face and chuckling as she successfully landed it and set it back down on the oven.
“Hell yeah. That’s twelve flips in a god-damned row.”
It was endearing how little things like successfully flipping pancakes could seem so… exciting to her. Just one of many things that had originally caused the development of Sunny’s crush on her, with him being someone much more… reserved, low-brow, and sometimes found it difficult to get as energized about something like that. At least in comparison.
Soon enough, the sixth pancake was completed. They each took two with the remaining two being left for Sunny’s mother, then began eating them at the table, with Aubrey being rather… generous for lack of a better term with how much syrup she was putting on her pancakes in particular. And as they ate, Sunny noticed something else about Aubrey that he hadn’t before, an admittedly rather small detail.
“You’re not wearing your contacts.”
“Huh? Oh, yeah, I accidentally fell asleep with them still in. Hurt like hell when I woke up, so I opted to take ‘em out,” Aubrey murmured after taking a bite of pancake, looking up at him briefly with her much darker eyes compared to the teal contacts. “Don’t have any spares on me either, so everyone gets the privileged view of my natural eye color until I get back home.”
“You look nice.”
“…Th–Thanks, Sunny,” Aubrey replied to his compliment as her face flushed a slight shade of red, her free hand reaching up to brush loose strands of pink hair out of her face and tuck them behind her ear, before letting out a sigh. “You know… someone once told me that I had my mother’s eyes. Made me immediately want to change that somehow. The teal contacts look better on me anyways.”
“I don’t think you have your mother’s eyes. Yours have… more life in them.”
Aubrey’s face turned up a shade of red after she registered what he had said.
“Sh… Shut up. Quit being so… nice and sweet to me. It’s not fair.”
Sunny chuckled quietly in response as Aubrey dragged a hand down her face as if attempting to smear away the blush that covered her cheeks. While Aubrey was the more teasing of the two, she was also probably easier to fluster of them, although it was a rather close call to make, given how traitorous his ears could be whenever he got flustered and turned to a bright red color.
“A–Anyways, your evil compliments aside, what do you want to do today? Hero isn’t picking me up to take me back home until like… I think I told him around seven? Something like that. And I’m asking you before you ask me because I’ve never been to a city like this before.”
He didn’t like the validity of her point. But failing to think of a counter-response that wasn’t a cheap cop-out, Sunny tried to think of something to answer her question, all while taking a bite of his remaining pancake. He wondered briefly if staying home was a potential option, but eventually figured that Aubrey would probably want something a tad more exciting. Therefore, he needed to recall what was in the city.
“In the city itself? There’s a couple museums. Some restaurants. Maybe an art gallery or two?”
“I could go for a museum trip. Maybe a restaurant afterwards. Not sure about the art gallery.”
“We’d have to walk there.”
“Yeah, so?”
“…Been a little worried lately about drawing unnecessary attention. Like with the eyepatch.” Sunny mumbled as he vaguely gestured to the white cloth covering his eyes and attached to his face by two straps that wrapped around his head, but Aubrey just stared at him for a few seconds blankly until suddenly giving a response while setting her fork down.
“If you don’t want to draw attention, you are dating the wrong person. My hair has been dyed a bright pink. I might as well be waving around a sign asking for attention. And something tells me it’s going to draw more attention than the eyepatch, Sunny. You’re fine.”
Sunny couldn’t help but giggle at her rather… dramatic reasoning.
“I… suppose that’s true.”
The rest of their pancakes were eaten in mostly silence until they eventually finished, putting the silverware they used by the sink for the time being and then prepared to head on out by Sunny quickly running off to get a fresh change of clothes. He was willing to offer some to Aubrey, but she insisted she was fine. She also mentioned that, outside of the oversized hoodie of his she was wearing, his other clothing was likely too small for him. Plus, she wouldn’t be caught dead wearing formal attire in public.
Once he had (along with leaving a note for his mother if she woke up while they were still out), the two of them set out of their apartment and took the elevator down to the building’s lobby, before exiting through the front door out onto the city’s streets.
“Lead the way.” Aubrey gestured with one hand while taking his in hers with the other one, the two of them interlacing their hands together as they began to walk down the sidewalk with Sunny leading them. He could feel himself blushing for a moment before his attention was taken by trying to remember what way it was to the nearest museum. He recalled passing it a few times, but…
“It’s just a few blocks away.” Sunny murmured as he led her around a corner… and another… and then another… then a wrong turn… then a double-back on themselves… and then finally making it to the museum, stepping inside through the rather large doors that led in.
-
“Ugh, I’m glad that’s over with.” Aubrey mumbled as the two of them exited through the door they had entered through onto the sidewalk. The trip through the museum wasn’t boring per se, but it became clear that both of them were beginning to lose interest over time. Hard to get excited about ancient bits and baubles after getting past the dinosaur section.
But alas, as she had just stated, it was now over nonetheless.
“What was the plan from here? A restaurant, was it? You know where a good one is?” She asked while turning towards him, prompting him to think about locations he and his mother had visited during their time here, whenever his mother wasn’t feeling up to making dinner, eventually nodding and feeling Aubrey’s hand clasp around his own.
Without further ado, Sunny began leading his pink-haired girlfriend back up the road towards a burger place that he remembered liking when he last visited it. When they reached it, they entered inside and quickly got themselves a table for two. The place was cozy enough with a rather simplistic but homelike interior with its walls being decorated by a few signs with amusing messages.
“It’s no Gino’s, but it’ll suffice for lunch, I guess.”
“Hm.” Sunny hummed in acknowledgement.
“I’ve been meaning to ask you, how have you been enjoying the city so far? Because I can certainly see the merits it has over Faraway Town. More variety and everything feels much… closer together. That beats having to sprint between our houses, Gino’s, the park, and the other places scattered around Faraway Town…” Aubrey trailed off for a moment before shaking her head. “Sorry, I’m rambling now.”
“Don’t be. I like listening to you ramble.”
“…Hm,” Aubrey’s face turned a slight shade of red from the comment. “Answer the question.”
Sunny took a moment to gather his thoughts about his time spent here in the city so far. Aubrey raised a fair point about how close everything felt, proven by the fact they could’ve made it from his apartment to the museum in less than five minutes had Sunny had properly remembered the path that led to it, and that they’d made it to the restaurant in just under two minutes.
In comparison, it took quite a hike just to visit each of his friend’s houses when he lived in Faraway Town, especially since Aubrey and Basil’s houses may as well have been across the entire neighborhood, and then heading over to the park, Hobbeez, or Gino’s, all taking usually around ten minutes or longer most of the time. But on the other hand…
“It’s a bit crowded… almost claustrophobic… and I can’t see my friends as often anymore.”
“Fair enough, I suppose. The others have been missing you as well, but they’ve been improving. Especially Basil, he’s been doing a lot better than before. Eating more, smiling more, taking care of his plants more, even starting taking some photos again. It’s… relieving to see honestly. Especially after what I did to him.”
“I doubt he holds it against you.”
“Yeah, he’s said something like that. A few times now actually. Still, I can't help but feel bad about it.” Aubrey murmured quietly with her arms folded on top of each other, laid onto the table, but their conversation was put on hold by a waiter approaching them and asking for their orders. They both ordered the same thing - burger and fries with a soft drink - with the only thing differing being the brand of soda.
“That feeling might never leave you for good, but it’ll eventually… improve. At least I hope so.”
“I hope so too, Sunny.” Aubrey responded to his attempt at an affirmation while they both sat waiting for their food to be prepared and then delivered to their table. The two of them sat in silence for a short time until Aubrey eventually broke it as per usual, resting her head on her folded arms on the table’s surface.
“This has been fun. Once I pass my driver's test, I’ll be sure to visit more often. But for now, I’ll just stick to group gatherings after this. Don’t want to keep asking Hero for constant car rides back and forth between the city and Faraway Town. I have no doubts he’d be willing to do it, but still, I’d not like to rely on him too much. I can handle myself; I’ve been doing it for years now.”
Sunny didn’t interrupt her as she continued rambling and talking out-loud, barely ever acknowledging him outside of a few select moments, which was standard for their usual hang-outs. Again, it brought to mind memories of those ‘conversations’ they’d had on the swingset in Faraway Park, with her just speaking and occasionally venting while he listened and silently sympathized.
Sometimes it felt like being a listener was all he brought to the friend group–
Oop, that was too self-destructive of a thought. Sunny quickly blocked it out before returning his focus to what Aubrey was saying, practically absorbing every word that came from her lips. At least until she stopped when their food was inevitably served. The two ate in almost complete silence as they focused on their food and drink for the moment.
It was good for a random restaurant in the middle of the city, one that gave off a more ‘homemade food’ vibe than your standard fast-food place that also happened to be closer than a lot of more popular alternatives. So it was worth it in the end. And by the time they finished, they agreed to split the bill fifty-fifty between the two of them. Thankfully, Aubrey actually did have her wallet on her, unlike how a certain other friend of theirs would often forget his wallet at times.
-
The rest of the day wasn’t spent on anything really meaningful, heading back home and relaxing on the couch, cuddling for what was likely a couple hours straight. This became evident to both of them when Aubrey’s phone suddenly buzzed and she pulled it out to check, Sunny noticing that the time was a bit past seven, with a text from Hero saying that he was outside waiting for her.
“Oh. That’s disappointing.” Aubrey mumbled with a tone that matched the word she had just used to describe the situation, both of them standing up and heading towards the front door, only for Sunny’s mother to appear from around the corner with a smile on her face.
“Thanks for visiting Sunny, Aubrey! Come visit again soon!”
“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure I do. I’m too fond of this dork after all,” Aubrey replied playfully while elbowing Sunny’s arm, earning a quiet chuckle from him and one from his mother that had her clasping her hand over her mouth from sheer amusement. “See you later, miss!” And with those parting words, the two of them made their way down to the front entrance.
“Is your plan to hold the door open for me like the chivalrous knight you are?”
Sunny’s ears turned a red color. He shook his head in response, although he had a feeling she could tell he was just plain lying. Aubrey’s amusement persisted all the way down the elevator ride and Sunny himself had to admit that it was rather funny. When they made it past the front doors, Hero’s car was there with its owner sitting behind the driving wheel, giving the two a wave as soon as he noticed them.
“Well, I guess this is where we part ways for now,” Aubrey said while turning towards him with a smirk on her face, a comment on how much they both enjoyed their day together being entirely unspoken. It didn’t need to be. But just to seal the deal, Sunny supposed, Aubrey leaned forward for a quick peck on the lips. “Talk to you soon, loser.”
And with those parting words, Aubrey got into the car next to Hero and the two proceeded to drive off towards the city’s exit, where Sunny watched them until they rounded the corner and disappeared out of sight. His gaze lingered for a bit longer as his fingers were slowly raised and brushed against his own lips until he eventually smiled to himself and then turned back into the apartment.