A month passed since Sunny confronted his dad, and life was better than ever now. He smiled more frequently, he talked more comfortably, and let himself be loved more.
It was all better than ever.
But of course, he did feel guilty but he never let that guilt consume him.
"Sunny, what do you plan on doing at the water park today?" A melodious voice sang. It was Dew, his mom. She, with the experience of an expert, set the table while dancing across to set the dishes up.
Across the table, she sat down with elegant grace. Red and Jet's meetings with their colleagues definitely helped.
Of course, it was more likely because of his and Jet's etiquette training—which Rain would soon have.
Oh was he going to enjoy watching her suffer, the same way she watched him!
"I am thinking of... say, a drop capsule and slides? Stuff like that," rubbing his chin, he added, "Oh, and a lazy river." What were the odds that he would meet an old friend at the Drop Capsule?
'He should be like eleven or something?'
Around then, anyways.
"What about you guys?"
Just as he said that, he realised something...
'RAIN IS LIKE 5!'
"Especially you Rain, what can you even do as a child?"
Red stared at him, and so did Jet and Dew...
"Sunny... You do realise that you're eight right? You, too, can't do half the rides-"
"Talk about a backfire." She slapped her hands on the table, while bursting into giggles... without realising she almost fell from the chair. Quickly, pretending nothing happened and being glad that no one saw her, she resumed her breakfast.
"Say, dad, can you use a Memory on me so I can pretend that I am old enough? I mean suuuurely it's not against the rules riiiiight?"
Surely not.
"Hey! No fair." Rain's eyebrows rose.
"Hmmm... Sure."
"No."
"Absolutely not!"
Red, Jet and Dew replied at the same time, starting with Red ofcourse. Since he knew about Sunny's regression.
Then, everyone turned to face him.
"I think Sunny can handle that, I mean he should know how hard things are if he wants to become a Saint and walk further on the path of Ascension. Plus, he already trained quite a bit."
"Dad, that's not fair!" Rain retorted, turning towards him with a look of betrayal in her eyes.
"Life is unfair. Especially if you are the younger sibling." Sunny replied with a calm and innocent face.
He wasn't exactly wrong, the older siblings always had a more preferential treatment...
But that was the best part!
"Hashtag justice for Younger siblings..." Rain sighed as her palm met her forehead.
---
A figure with black hair and skin as pale as a porcelain doll, with eyes as dark as onyx looked at the park.
It was Sunny, with the body he had back in the Forgotten Shore, except healthier because he wouldn't want to get kicked out as a trespasser! He turned to look at his family, and smiled, "Let's go."
"Still mad that you get to do this." Rain pouted.
"Ah... One day you'll get older." Sunny stuck his tongue out.
"Catch." Jet flicked a switch, yes—it was a literal switch—and threw something towards Sunny.
Just as Sunny reached for the thing, he felt himself shriking and then fell on his ass.
"Pfft-" Rain burst into laughter, and then caught her stomach.
"You were saying?" Jet chuckled, "You didn't grow, you just used a Memory. Also, you're short and I'm the older sister."
"Ughhh" Sunny groaned in pain, then, almost dramatically, jumped up on his legs, "C'mon, lemme have some fun."
"No."
"Nope."
Jet and Rain replied, with the latter making a cross with her hands.
"Jet... You know better than that, right? We work for the Government, and we can't be caught allowing Sunny to enter like this." Red replied in a very serious tone, not moving his gaze away from Jet, "I mean if you want to bully him, do it at home."
Ouch.
"Alright, now get ready. Oh right, Jet, give that Memory to me... I don't want you spending your essence right now." Red continued while summoning another Memory. It was, of course, to conceal their identities.
The government did send Awakened people to guard, but Red had a pass to enter with disguises.
"Stop ganging up on Sunny! We need to win the event held by the House of Night today, so save your energy for that," Dew said with an air of authority, spreading her arms wide for grander emphasis.
'She sure is motivated... and she didn't betray me!'
"After winning we can go have some waffles with honey on it." Dew continued.
He just had to say that—
---
'What are the odds that I come across him?'
Sunny thought as he climbed the ladder of Drop Capsule. It was a water ride where one got inside a capsule which was then dropped in water.
It was sort of like being trapped in a well. Just sort of.
'Ah, those were the good days.' Sunny sighed, reminiscing about the days he spent on Forgotten Shore, how he met Kai, and their trip to have the next Shard Memory.
Climbing the ladders, he started to realise how much he missed this body. The fit mature one... well, despite the relatively malnourished body it was still of a Sleeper with a whole saturated core.
'Come to think of it, if I was the same person as the one in the outskirts, I would probably be arrested.' he thought while looking around, a slight blush starting to bloom on his face.
And right as he finished this thought he saw a figure with dark auburn hair and mesmerising green eyes...
'Damn beautiful.'
Wait, that was Kai!
'That—that dashing bastard!'
He was just as handsome when he was, 'Uh, is it eleven?'
And tall!
'S—such injustice!'
"You might have to wait here for a bit, he seems to be stuck here..."
A man suddenly spoke, getting him out of thoughts.
"It was working just fine a minute ago..." Another sighed.
'Well, some things never change, I guess?'
No really, how did one end up getting stuck so frequently!
Well, it was only once before but that wasn't the point!
"Yo, you alright in there?" Sunny asked, changing his speech pattern a tad bit.
"The colors of this place look all ugly and smudgy, and the glass feels weird. No really! Couldn't they have made this smoother and you know, feel a bit better?"
'He is still the same...'
"Oh, you're quite the cute guy!" Kai added, looking at Sunny with a smile as he tilted his head a little.
'No wonder The Spell glazes his looks...' Sunny thought letting none of his thoughts show by hiding them with a smile, "You too. Anyways, don't be scared, I'm here now."
Just then, the capsule fell with a hiss.
'This guy...' Sunny let his palm hit his face with a sigh.
"Hey, if you are going to stand there let me go." A short petite girl with black hair reaching till her shoulders looked at him without blinking.
'Huh, she feels strangely familiar?'
"Oh, sorry." Sunny started walking towards the capsule, entered and dropped...
But just as he did, a voice resounded in his ears, "I am Miru, by the way, not so nice to meet you!"
'What?'
And then he landed in the water, the capsule releasing him when he touched the water. Suddenly, he realised he had to hold his breath, desperately trying to surface again. This wasn't how it was supposed to go...?
Well, it wasn't like he read the instructions, so he couldn't exactly blame anyone—
Just as he surfaced, he noticed a man with Auburn hair standing there with his gaze down and eyes wide.
"I am fine, Kai, don't worry,' Sunny violently coughed some water out on the ground, which was when he realised something...
"Did I ever tell you my name?"
Kai never gave his name to Sunny.
"You definitely did, remember? You called me cute and told me your name, just that I never got to tell you my name... I am Sunless, by the way!"
"Sunless," Kai looked away, "what a strange name. Almost like a Nightmare Creatu—I am kidding," Kai yelped as Sunny flicked his legs.
"Hmmm, you know you might not be wrong about me being a Nightmare Creature, but I must have you know that I am not as corrupted as those things! I mean I am a Noble Creature at best. I mean I was blessed by Shadow and then turned into one myself. A divine Shadow, at that! Oh, I even killed a Great Devil as a Dormant and spat on the ground to kill an Awakened Tyrant in my Nightmare, so you know?"
Suddenly, Kai burst into laughter and patted him, "You have some nice humor!"
'I am going to repeat this when I find you trapped under that well, damnation. It's no fun to bully him without his Flaw! Wait... That came out wrong. Ah, whatever.'
And just like that, Sunny convinced Kai to hang out with him for the rest of the trip, at least until the event. Yep, he ditched his family for this—
Well, to not make this awkward Sunny did show his real age in secret to not make things weird between them...
Of course, he was shocked so he did mention his dad being an Awakened. Somehow that naive fool wasn't even questioning it.
---
"What do you think is the worst thing in this world?"
Sunny asked, relaxing on top of a wheel like thing to help himself stay afloat on the river, putting his hands below his head to relax.
"Huh?" The man with Auburn hair beside him turned towards him, and slightly tilted his head.
All around, some nice music was playing as the wind rustled, and a slight smell of nature entered his nostrils. Sunny could even see the wind blowing on Kai's hai, not making him look any worse—in fact, that bastard looked cooler now!
"What I mean is... What do you think would be the worst thing to happen to you?" Sunny turned towards him.
"Me?" Kai relaxed on the wheel again, "I would say failing my career, or well being an idol. But I doubt that's what you were asking about, so I would say the worst thing can be the truth..."
"What if people's compliments were always fake? What if they were just cheering me on and motivating me with lies? But, at the same time, I know that isn't the case..."
Kai raised his hands, opening his palm, "will be the best idol," then he seemed to have grabbed something that didn't really exist.
"That is my goal, Sunny."
What cringe did he just witness—
Just then, Sunny noticed himself reaching the edge.
"And wearing black. Not even the dead gods will catch me wearing those. Oh right, you should change your style too, emo 'Shadow' boy."
...
It definitely was time to ditch him for now. In a cool way, of course. He even had his number by now so that wouldn't be a problem!
Climbing out of the 'river,' Sunny reached down to pull him. "You were right about one thing, truth is the most painful thing in the world... I hope you don't realise this the hard way," he said as he fully pulled Kai up.
Turning around, he started to walk away,
"Oh right, don't bother going for the first place in the race, it's mine." Sunny pumped his fist to already declare victory.
Well, he didn't say the second place wasn't an option.
And he was right... Sunny's family was first, next was Kai and his team and third was the strange girl Miru...
---
Sunny and his family were going back home, and Sunny—satisfied with having Kai's contact—was definitely not going to flex that he had it added to Rain and Jet.
Absolutely not, why would someone even think that!?
Rain handed him a juice box. He took a sip while staring out the window, definitely not imagining her reaction when she found out. Of course, he would reveal it after Kai became famous, while adding the fact that he was practically his childhood friend!
"—the Immortal Flame clan has resumed public activities after years of silence," the radio announced. "Clan representatives were spotted conducting charity work at multiple hospitals—"
Sunny spat juice all over the front seat.
'What?!'
Red's eyes met his in the rearview mirror. "You better clean that up later."
Authors note: and the chapter is finally done. Not sure if I can do another until mid sems end so uh yeah. But after the term ends, I'll post 3 or so chapters. No promises. And hopefully there will be another one soon. I took this break to practice my descriptive so I hope to include what I can in my next chapter... Which will have some lore! Or lore like thing. Anyways the promised re write of chapter one should be coming out with this. Chapter 2's rewrite will definitely include what I learned.
Oh right, the event isn't forgotten but it's going to be a seperate one shot.
goals: 10 more kudos and a cumilative of 20 comments on ao3 and webnovel. cumilative. also 3 hearts on the discord server :D