𝙾𝙼𝙾𝚁𝙸 ~ 𝟷𝟶 𝚈𝙴𝙰𝚁𝚂

thursday (part 1)

TW: Course language, hospitals, mentions of death and violence, buttloads of angst (but don't worry there's some fluff too i'm not that mean (most of the time))

I pulled my car into the driveway of Basil's house, my heart pounding fast in my chest as I unbuckled my seatbelt, got out of the car and knocked on the front door. I glanced around the yard while waiting for an answer. There were plants everywhere, and they all appeared to be healthy and growing. Basil hadn't changed a bit, neither had his home. The roof was still green, the walls were still white, and the old picket fence's paint was still chipping. There wasn't a response, so I knocked again.

"I'm coming, gimme a second!" A tired response spoke from the other side of the door as Basil opened it. He smiled to see me, face going red. He seemingly only woke up recently, because he still appeared to be in his pyjamas. "Sunny! W-what are you doing here?"

"I was told to come get you. Hero's apparently waking up."

"O-oh, geez, really? Okay, I'll get dressed and we can go. You can come in, make yourself a drink or something while waiting."

"Alright."

He led me inside, and hundreds of memories rushed into my head at once. Yep, it was the same old room, but there was new furniture, new paintings, and a small cage in the corner. Basil ran upstairs, whereas I wandered over to the cage. There were a couple of mini lop bunnies snuffling around. The top of the hutch was open, and there were some half-chopped vegetables on the kitchen counter. Basil was probably feeding them when I knocked. Not wanting the two to starve, I wandered over to the kitchen and finished off the chopping of the vegetables.

As I was wandering over to place the vegetables in the cage, Basil jogged up behind me. "Oh yeah, this is Rosemary and Dill. S-so sorry, I was in the middle of-" He stopped when he noticed the chopped vegetables in my hands and sighed in a hint of relief that his pets were being fed.

"Are you ready to go now?"

"Y-yeah, let's go."

We both sat in tense silence the whole drive. Maybe it was the fact I was arriving at his house when we hadn't seen each other in years? Maybe it was the fact that we were both nervous to see Hero again? We didn't really know. But, I know that I was at least waiting in fearful anticipation. As soon as I got a park, we got out of the car and began to wander over to the door of the hospital. He took my hand gently as we walked, and his face had a gentle blush when I looked back. I let the corners of my lips twitch into a slight smile, but then returned to my normal stoic expression as we burst through the doors.

The nurse pointed us to Hero's room, where Aubrey and Kel were already standing. "We're here. Is he awake?" Kel and Aubrey looked at us in surprise at first, but when they realized it was us, Kel nodded with teary eyes.

Hero was sitting up, being asked a bunch of questions by different doctors. His brown eyes were half-closed, his voice was groggy, and he kept his hand on where he had hit his head. He didn't seem to notice Basil and I arriving. But, when he did, his eyes widened in surprise. "K-Kel, Aubrey, Basil... Sunny. What- What're you doing here?"

"Hero," Kel sighed, a small smile appearing on his face. Then, he laughed and gently wrapped his arms around his brother, who was startled by the sudden embrace, but reciprocated the hug. "You've missed so much, you asshole. I'm gonna rock your shit when you get outta hospital."

"You've grown so much since I last saw you. Maybe you're finally taller than me."

"I've always been the taller one, shut up. I-I'm just glad you're back, no matter how mad I am that you left us. I mean, Sally's growing up and she's got a lil' crush on this girl at school, Sunny's back for the week and he's famous, I got married and you're gonna be an uncle, Ma and Pa-"