my sunlight

...Morning.

Sunny opened his eyes. It was pretty dark out. He was laying on the floor, staring up at the sky. Trees clouded his view of the moon. He felt something drip onto his forehead and slowly trickle down the side of his face. Was it raining? Sunny wiped the water off of his face and sat up. "...Where am I?" He said to no one in particular. After no answer, he stood up and looked around. He was in what appeared to be the middle of a forest, an area he'd never seen before.

The rain started quickening its fall, glistening off the trees' wet leaves. Broken pieces of oak tree lay everywhere. The raven-haired boy reluctantly stepped forward, trudging though the beautiful forest, with a newfound confidence to leave this strange dream he'd found himself in.

In the middle of his walk through the forest, he heard a branch snap. He stopped mid-step and slowly put his foot down. Sunny wanted to ask, "Who's there?" But he knew it would be foolish to do so, as the thing that stepped on the branch could easily find his location. He paused, wondering what to do. I could hide. Or I could run. It'd be better to stay in the shadows. He hastily decided on slowly walking away while making sure not to be heard or seen. If worst came to worst, he'd use his skinny-boy stamina and race through the forest at top speed.

Slowly and carefully, he stepped through the forest, making sure not to touch crinkly leaves, sticks, or mud. He tried not to leave any tracks, and occasionally looked behind him to make sure the thing had not spotted him. He was doing good. The strange creature didn't see him.
Until it did.
It suddenly jolted its head in his direction, bolting towards him. Sunny stood frozen for a moment, petrified with fear, until he found his strength and forced his legs to start moving. I don't want to die. I don't want to die. He chanted in his head repeatedly. He'd already come so far, why would he want to end it now? What would everyone think? What would...she think?

Yet something urged him to turn around and let it get him. Something urged him...to die. To let himself free of this nightmare we call living. Peace called to him, the breath of nonexistence egging him on.
But he kept running.
Sunny was beginning to get a pain in his side. He was starting to slow down. It was coming faster, and faster, and faster, and faster, until...
someone grabbed his hand.
Her flowy dress blew in the wind. Her hand felt so cold, but familiar. He knew who she was. He knew that she'd come back for him. And he decided it'd be best to keep his eyes on the ground, to avoid looking up at her. It just felt right. Mari ran faster than he'd ever seen before, practically dragging him behind her. Her black hair flew in all directions, and he'd noticed it'd become...tangled. It wasn't perfect anymore. Her perfect white dress had multiple blood and dirt stains on them, and her perfect skin had cuts and bruises. However, she didn't seem to care.

She noticed him staring as they strayed farther away from the creature. "It's okay, you know. We all have our flaws. Nobody's perfect. Did you think I hadn't grown as a person? Silly. How else would I learn from my mistakes?" He didn't answer her, in awe of hearing her soft voice again. They drifted around broken pieces of log and tree, as the rainforest became brighter and the sun started to rise. It felt like they'd been running forever, but he didn't even seem out of breath.

The creature started to speed up, faster, until it tripped over a tree branch and flew forward, bashing its skull into a fallen log that had been...sharpened? But by whom? Mari started to slow down, her grip loosening until she came to a full stop. She turned her head back to face him. He got to see her face again. The face he'd wanted to see smile at him for so long. "I'm still with you, little brother. You have to live without me, but whenever you need me...I'll be here." She said gently. He held her hands in his own, feeling her become colder and colder until she faded once again. "I love you, Sunny."

Sunny woke up in a cold sweat, gasping for air. He deeply inhaled and then started choking, like a dumbass. "Oh, shit! Are you okay!?" a certain pink-haired girl yelled, rushing towards him from the kitchen. She climbed onto the couch, aggressively pounding on his back and repeating 'breathe, breathe' until he threw up into a bucket already set on the floor for him, about a fourth of it filled with puke. She looked at the bucket, and then back at him. "Dude, you've been throwing up all night. Are you okay?" Aubrey asked, a great amount of concern plastered on her face.

Sunny blinked in confusion. "Throwing up? I don't remember that..." Aubrey's concerned expression turned into an annoyed one. "Are you serious? You started looking sick in the middle of the night, so you got up to go to the bathroom and I could hear you fucking vomiting your guts out in there for a good 18 minutes. You flushed the toilet approximately six times. I counted."
"I....did?"
"Yeah, dumbass. Kel had to literally carry you princess-style back to the couch because you were to weak to stand up because of it. Who knew puking took so much energy?"
"He carried me?"
"Yeah, then he gave you his clothes because yours were puke-ified."

Sunny looked down, and indeed, he was wearing a bright orange hoodie with a cute dog on it. "..........Oh." Aubrey smirked at him, and mocked him in a sarcastic tone. "Oh." He looked up at her in pure embarrassment. "Why are you making that face?" She sighed. "Because you're both obliviously in love and it's making me sick, so I want you two to get together already so I don't have to hurl every five seconds." Sunny shook his head, panicking. "But I'm not-" Aubrey interrupted him. "-Gay? Yeah, I know, you're bi. You told me like thirty times." Sunny tried to speak again. "Yeah, but I don't-" "Just go to the kitchen and get your man. Polly's making breakfast. Follow me, loser."

Aubrey got up off of the couch and pulled Sunny with her. He hugged her while walking, as he used to do with Mari, and she let out a small "Aw," realizing he'd adopted her as his sister figure. Aubrey peeked into the kitchen with Sunny hanging on to her side. "Miss Polly?? Sunny's up." Polly paused her cooking to look at him. "Oh, hey, sweetheart! You're finally awake! Are you hungry?"