Flesh & Bone (OMORI AU)

Chapter 11: Purple dye

Sunny rushed up the stairs, opened the bathroom door and closed it behind him, quickly. Aubrey looked back at him, and looked angry. That wasn't anything new. 

"Bro what the fuck are you doing in here??!"

"Aubrey, its okay." Mari looked at Aubrey, who then nodded and stopped talking. 

Mari looked at Sunny from the mirror. She couldn't exactly move because Aubrey was still applying bleach to her hair. "Sunny, what's the matter?"

Sunny was panting, trying to talk but nothing would come from his lips. He inhaled and eventually managed to get words out. "I kissed Kel."

"WHAT!?" Aubrey screeched, dropping the brush on the floor that she was using to apply bleach with. 

"Oh wow- I certainly wasn't expecting that." Mari snorted. "Why did you do it?"

"I-I just I  dont know.."

Aubrey laughed a bit. "So you don't know why you kissed your crush?"

"Wait how-"

"I'm not stupid, its so obvious." Aubrey rolled her eyes. 

"I didn't tell her anything." Mari was telling the truth.

Sunny sighed and slid on the floor, covering his face with his palms, groaning. He could feel his cheeks burning in embarrassment, and simply heard the girls laugh playfully. He looked up with a concerned expression. 

"Dude it's fine, I mean, did he seem to enjoy it at least?" Aubrey said as she applied more bleach in Mari's hair. It was easier than when she bleached her own hair, since Mari had cut it.

"Yeah.." Sunny looked away, rubbing his arm. 

"I wouldn't suggest just randomly kissing people in the future without asking though, little brother." Mari chuckled. "You never know if the other person is okay with it."

"Kel already told me he likes Sunny, so its fine." Aubrey smirked. 

"Wait really??" Sunny perked up, Aubrey nodding. 

"If you're too scared to go back, you can chill with us. Out of all of the guys you're the most chill in my opinion. Plus, maybe I could do something with your hair too."

"What exactly?" 

"I mean, I brought a new pack of hair dye for Mari. There might be leftovers. I also brought some of my leftover dye from home if she wanted to try that out too."

"I'm not sure if I want to dye my hair.." Sunny sat on the edge of the bathtub, looking at the tiles on the floor. 

"Oo wait, remember when we were kids and we got hair chalk? You put a white streak in your hair. It actually looked cool, even though Kel said you looked like a skunk." Aubrey laughed. 

Sunny thought about it. Of course, there was no way to make his hair white, but the bleach would take the melanin out of his hair and make it light enough. He also wasn't fond of how he looked, since it reminded him so much of Omori. Omori technically was his own self after all. He had never been too rebellious or out there like his friends, but he wanted to try giving it a shot.

"Yeah.. I'd like to try that."

"I think it'll look good on you!" Mari smiled, Aubrey wrapping her hair in tinfoil to let the bleach  do its thing. 

"Well if you wanna get your hair done come over here." Aubrey patted at the toilet seat.

Mari had been sitting on the bath stool that was in their bathroom already. Sunny had nowhere else to sit without it getting messy, since Aubrey was standing up while bleaching Mari's hair. Aubrey took her gloves off and threw them in the trash and looked at Sunny's hair. 

"Which side do you want it on? And how big should it be?"

"Um.. Maybe just a one inch streak. On my right."

"That actually might look cool considering you're a pirate now." Aubrey smirked. 

Sunny laughed a little, blushing in embarrassment. "Okay, if it burns your scalp a bit that's normal. So don't freak out. Also it'll smell weird. You can put conditioner in it later so it doesn't get too dry."

Sunny nodded, then kept his head straight, Aubrey getting another pair of gloves and grabbing the application brush. Dipping the brush into the container of bleach, she gently picked up a small chunk of Sunny's hair, just as he requested, and lightly applied bleach. She opted to not make the whole section of his hair bleached, since it might look odd. So a simple fade would look nice. So she hoped at least. At least she could kill time before Mari's hair was ready to be dyed. She continued to gently apply the bleach until she felt there was enough. Picking up more tin foil, she carefully wrapped it around the hair to let it cure. Then, she threw her gloves in the trash, putting a hand on her hip. 

"There. If you don't like it we can always just get more dye. Black dye is cheaper than colored dye, thank god." Aubrey smiled. "Don't mess with it though. You need to let it sit so the color is removed from the hair follicles."

"How do you know so much about this stuff?" Mari asked. 

"I've been dying my hair since after you passed. Of course, I prefer pink, but I've dyed my hair different colors, bleached it, one time I had a half shave. Now I have an undercut." Aubrey lifted the back of her hair to show Mari her undercut. 

"Ooohh that's cool!"

Aubrey put her hair down and let out a sigh. "I think we've got a few more minutes until your hair is done Mari. Let's just, I dont know, talk?"

Aubrey sat on the floor, adjusting her headband as she did so. 

"Well, thank you for doing this for me, Aubrey. I could never do it myself. " Mari smiled. 

"Honestly it isn't that hard. You just gotta get the right stuff. I can't always afford the dye and whatnot so Basil typically surprises me with dye at times. Mostly to make up for something in the past. But that isn't important right now." Aubrey picked at the nail polish on one of her fingernails. "Purple suits you, I'm sure it'll look good."

"Thank you... I hope so too."

Sunny looked up at the ceiling, careful to not move his head too much. He could admit that his scalp burned slightly, but it was only slightly irritating. He couldn't believe what he was doing. He then looked at Aubrey and Mari, listening to them chat about random things, mostly catching up on things Mari had missed. Aubrey had a girlfriend. She had started dating Kim shortly before Sunny went outside. He didn't know this until she spoke about it in the hospital, and Kim visited him. Despite still being a troublemaker, Kim was a nice person. She genuinely cared for her partner, and wanted to make sure her partner's friends were doing okay, since they also meant a lot to Aubrey. Kim and the hooligans donated a cactus when he was in intensive care. While confusing at first, since Sunny was in the hospital for a little over a month, a flower bloomed on the cactus. It was quite pretty. Sunny got lost in thought, snapping back into reality when he heard his name. 

"Yo, Earth to Sunny." Aubrey said. She had begun to apply Mari's hair dye and he didn't even realize. "You good?" 

Sunny nodded a bit. "Okay, since this is going to be difficult to do while putting in her hair dye, wash out the bleach in the tub. Use gloves, bleach burns, as I said earlier. And just use conditioner, no need for shampoo." Aubrey explained, passing Sunny a pair of rubber gloves and a bath towel. 

He stepped over to the bathtub. He wasn't sure if he wanted to use the showerhead or the faucet. The showerhead seemed easier, but he wasn't able to reach it to angle it properly. Typically he climbed on the side of the tub, but now that he couldn't see in one eye, his coordination was poor. He fell the last time he did it, thankfully to no injuries, but it still hurt nonetheless. Sunny squinted at the showerhead, getting into the bathtub and standing on the tips of his toes as he tried to reach for the top of the showerhead. He managed to get it! In reality he didn't. Mari pushed the showerhead down without him realizing. Her hair was wrapped in tinfoil once more. Sunny sighed, getting off the tips of his toes. 

"I'm honestly surprised you never shot up like Kel or Hero did." Mari said with a small chuckle. 

"Hell, even Basil is taller than him now.." Aubrey smirked. 

"Wait what-" Sunny looked at her. 

"You're five foot two, right?"

Sunny nodded, and Aubrey spoke once more. "Basil got a bit taller in the hospital. I know you hadn't seen him for a while before hand so maybe you didn't notice. I think he's at least five foot six."

"Dammit." Sunny groaned.