Chapter Text
He was running late.
Sunny makes his way down the stairs to his apartment complex not wanting to wait and risk a crowded elevator. If only he didn’t take that fifteen-minute nap. Well, a nap that was supposed to be fifteen minutes but ended up turning into two and a half hours.
At this point in his life, staying up for an all-nighter was close to pushing him to his limit. It had hit that prime studying hour of 4 o’clock in the morning and he had had the brilliant idea to just rest his eyes, or singular eye in his case, for a few minutes. He set his alarm for fifteen minutes and another for twenty just in case he slept through the first or hit the snooze. It definitely didn’t end up like all the other times where he’d wake up an hour or two later and have to rush to class. No, definitely not.
Except, that’s exactly what happened. That’s the life of a college student though and it’s his last semester so he just needs to push through until summer hits and he could graduate.
Sunny exits the stairwell and soon after, his building altogether. When he steps outside, he’s greeted with cold raindrops landing on his face. Great, he’s tired and would soon also be wet and cold.
During his rush to get ready and pack all his school stuff together, he didn’t notice the light pitter-patter of rain softly hitting his window nor was he able to quickly check his phone for the daily forecast. He didn’t even have time to fix his morning coffee which was absolutely essential. Why would he waste more time looking for an umbrella of all things? Luckily, there was a Starbucks on his way to campus. He definitely had his priorities straight.
Usually, Sunny liked rain on a cold winter's day. He could imagine it now, snuggling up in a comfy blanket with a cozy sweater on, a warm coffee cup in one hand and a book in the other. However, he did not like to be outside in this weather. He already had a hard enough time navigating the world with one working eye while it was dry. He didn’t need the extra element of rain hindering him even more.
As he briskly walks along the sidewalk, he spots the Starbucks sign and picks up his pace before the crosswalk turns red. After making his way inside, he joins the queue of sleepy 9-5ers and drained college students alike. Maybe Basil could bring me an umbrella on his way to work, Sunny thinks as he pulls out his phone to check if he would even need one later. Scratch that, the weather would have already cleared up by the time he got through with his lectures.
“I can help the next customer over here!” Sunny looks up from his phone and notices a barista waving him over. As he steps forward, he grabs a Vanilla DoubleShot Energy and places it on the counter in front of the barista. He’d typically go for a hot black coffee but as he’s running a bit late already, he thought it best to not have to wait for the beverage to be made. Besides, all he really needs is the caffeine.
“Will this be all for you?” The barista asks with a smile. How she’s this happy so early in the morning eludes him.
“I’ll also have a blueberry muffin,” he finishes his order and opens his side satchel to dig out his wallet. He holds his debit card out for the barista to take as she tells him his total. She inserts the chip and leaves to grab the rest of his order.
“Here’s your muffin, card, and receipt. Thank you and have a good day!” She smiles and calls over the next customer as Sunny grabs his items after stuffing his wallet back in his bag.
“Thank you, you too.” Sunny turns and pops the coffee can open. Give me that sweet, sweet caffeine. He takes a long swig, bliss, and makes his way towards the door. He exits and starts turning right just as someone runs straight into him, spilling the contents of the can all over the other person.
“Ah-,” Sunny gasps in surprise as the man Sunny can now see lets out an audible oof.
“Oh dude, I’m so sorry! Are you alright?” The strange man in a white hoodie asks him. Sunny just stares, specifically at the large coffee stain that's forming on the front of said hoodie. This is all his fault, if only he had looked where he was going. He needs to say something; he needs to apologize!
“I’m sorry!” Sunny blurts out frantically, “It was my fault so please, let me compensate you for the stain.”
“No, seriously, dude. It’s no big deal,” the man waves his hand back and forth, trying to dismiss the thought. “If anything, I’m the one at fault seeing as I came at you from your-,” he winces but continues and gestures to Sunny’s eyepatch, “your right. Are you alright, though?” The man looks Sunny over to see if there’s anything noticeably out of place.
“I’m fine, but I insist that I compensate you,” Sunny practically pleads. The man looks hesitant, possibly thinking of a way to reassure Sunny that it, again, is no big deal. A shout is heard from somewhere behind the man who lets out a quiet shit.
“How about this then,” the stranger starts and looks around nervously, “Let’s go back inside, I’ll buy you another coffee and we can work out the details of how you can pay me back, okay?” Without waiting for a response, the man shuffles Sunny back into the Starbucks, leads him away from the exit, and turns around to start searching the pockets of his own jeans. He turns up with nothing it seems.
“Um, about what I just said…” The stranger hesitantly says, scratching his cheek with his index finger. “It looks like I don’t have my phone or wallet. I usually keep some business cards as well but I don’t have any on me right now either, heh.” He looks around, spots what he’s looking for, and comes back with a napkin. “Do you have a pen I could borrow?”
Sunny’s pulled out of his daze, quickly answers with a yes, and digs around in his bag until he finds one. “Thanks, dude!” The man flashes him a wide grin and turns to a table to write on the napkin.
Now that Sunny can actually just observe, he notices that the man is wearing a now stained white hoodie, jeans, and some orange converse. The hood is up which isn’t so strange as it’s still raining outside but the man also has sunglasses on. Interesting to say the least. The man turns back around and holds out the napkin for Sunny to take.
“This is my business number. You can call whenever you’re free, or if you change your mind, you don’t have to call at all.” He shrugs before adding, “don’t feel pressured to pay me back as I am for sure the one at fault here; but, if it makes you feel better, I won’t stop you.”
Sunny looks down at the napkin in his hands and reads the phone number with presumably the man’s company written in bold handwriting above it. Starlight Talents, huh, Sunny ponders, he must be someone pretty important. Sunny looks back up to see the man looking out the window, seemingly searching for something. After a few moments, he turns back around toward Sunny, looking satisfied with whatever he did or didn’t find.
The man puts a hand on Sunny’s shoulder but quickly retracts it after seeing the shorter boy’s look of unease. He coughs into his hand awkwardly and shuffles between his feet. “Well, I’m sure I’ve kept you here long enough, so I’m gonna head out, okay?” He announces as he throws a thumb over his shoulder, pointing toward the exit. Sunny just gives a small nod, still a little stunned by the chaos so early in the morning, as he watches the man wave and walk away.
Even after the man has already left, Sunny stands staring at the doors before a thought hits him; he should’ve asked for the man’s name. Well, too late now… And speaking of late, his lecture starts in less than ten minutes. Sunny lets out a quiet fuck as he chugs the remaining contents of his coffee and stashes his inadequate breakfast of a single muffin into his satchel. He takes one last look at the napkin, stuffs it in his back pocket, and rushes out the door toward campus.
He ends up being a few minutes late, but luckily, due to the rain, so is his professor. Since it’s a seniors lit class, it’s small enough where everyone already has their own seats they prefer; they are evolved, unlike those freshman 300 plus classes where you end up studying in the library before a test a little too close to class time and suddenly the seat you’ve sat in for the past month is now someone else’s. Completely barbaric.
Sunny’s able to quickly make his way over to his seat and set up his class materials just as the professor walks in and makes her way to the lectern. She dives headfirst into her lecture over the current readings the class is supposed to be analyzing for an upcoming essay due. Sunny sighs, already tired from his lack of caffeine; this is going to be a long day.
Sunny heads through the threshold of his apartment, dumping his bag and shoes by the front door. He drags himself over to the couch and promptly collapses on top of it. He closes his eye while taking a deep breath and releases it slowly, recounting his day and making a mental note of what he’ll need to work on tonight. First, he’ll need to finish the homework he has for his classes tomorrow and then he needs to at least start an outline for his paper. He already went through the readings again and has a pretty good idea of what he wants his thesis to be.
Right now though, he really wants to take a nap. He’s already down half his usual caffeine intake and it’s starting to take its toll on him. If only he didn’t sleep in, he would have had time to actually make his coffee instead of spilling it all over some stranger he had the misfortune of running straight into. Sunny sighs. That’s another thing he needs to do; make the dreaded phone call.
He still wants to pay for the damages he caused but he should’ve asked for the man’s business e-mail or something text-based instead. Sunny’s always been bad with making phone calls. He’s already bad at speaking to people in general but at least he’s able to see their expression and body language to be able to gauge how to proceed with the conversation. A phone call takes away that perceived safety net and leaves him overwhelmed. He needs to do this, though.
Sunny grabs a legal pad and pen off the coffee table; making a script always helped ease his anxiety a bit. He starts listing off things to talk about and mention: his name, the coffee stain, compensation, etc. He also grabs his wallet out of his bag and sets it on the coffee table in case they want him to pay immediately. Now, all he needs to do is actually make the call.
Sunny leans over and puts his head in his hands, dreading the phone call even after all the preparation. He was the one that asked to compensate the guy so he needs to, in the wise words of Shia LaBeouf, just do it. Sunny sits back up, making sure his back is straight and his feet are flat for grounding, and does a couple of box breaths; in 4, hold 4, out 4, hold 4. He types in the phone number and after more deep breathing, hits the call button. It’s now or never.
Sunny waits as the ring tone sounds once… twice… and they pick up.
“Hello, this is Starlight Talents, Mackenzie speaking. How can I help you?”
“Uh, hello,” he starts, looking down at the pad to read his notes, “my name is Sunny Suzuki and I’m calling because earlier today there was an accident involving coffee. You gave me this number after I asked to compensate you for the stain.”
“Right,” Sunny hears the shuffling of paper on the other side, “Kel mentioned something like that and said I might be receiving a phone call about it.”
Sunny freezes, having expected to be talking directly to the man he met. He takes a breath to release the already built-up tension in his back. After finding the words he’s looking for, he asks, “Sorry to interrupt but is Kel who I met this morning?”
“Oh, yes, that was Kel Rodriguez Garcia. Sorry for not introducing myself completely; I’m Mackenzie Iles, Kel’s manager.”
Sunny quickly scribbles down her name before adding, “No, it’s fine! I forgot to even ask Kel his name so it’s totally understandable.”
“Well, with that out of the way, the stain doesn’t seem too bad so we’ll probably just send it over to the dry cleaners. I’m not expecting the bill to be over $10. Would you like me to give you a phone call back when I have the actual total? Or if you’re in town, you can just stop by the office, that way you also don’t have to give out your info over the phone.”
“I think stopping by your office would be best,” Sunny responds as the front door opens, making him jump slightly. He turns to see Basil enter the apartment. Basil waves while Sunny waves back and points to the phone. Basil nods as he puts a finger to his mouth and walks to the kitchen. Sunny focuses back in on the call.
“Alright, I should have to total in about three days. I’ll also give you the address to the office; do you have a pen and paper?” She waits, not for long, though.
“Yes, go ahead,” Sunny confirms as Mackenzie starts listing off the numbers to the address. After confirming the address again, they give their goodbyes and Sunny hangs up the phone, letting out a sigh and flopping back to sink into the couch. He always feels silly for getting so worked up and expecting the worst with phone calls when in reality, it’s never as bad as he initially thinks.
Basil walks back out of the kitchen with a glass of water and plops down next to Sunny on the couch. “Who was that?” he asks while sipping on water.
“Oh, it’s sort of a long story but I was running late this morning so I had to stop to get coffee. I ended up running into someone and spilling it all over them. Even though it was a hoodie, it looked pretty expensive; it was one with the red box and supreme written on it.”
Basil winces and sucks the air between his teeth, “Ouch, how much are they asking for?”
“They said it shouldn’t be more than $10 so not bad at all.”
“Yeah, that’s not bad at all,” Basil responds as he downs the rest of the glass. He stands, “Well, I’m going to go take a shower, and then we can start on dinner, okay? Are you wanting anything specific?”
Sunny takes a moment to think before responding, “Hmm, I think we have everything for taco salad,” he pauses before adding, “if you’re okay with that.”
“Sure, I’m down for that. I’ll be back in a bit.” Basil turns and heads into his room, closing the door behind him.
Sunny takes a moment before standing and going to the door to retrieve his bag. As he walks to the kitchen table, he unbuckles the flap and grabs his laptop, setting it down on the table. He opens it up and turns it on. While he waits for it to boot up, he sets out the ingredients they’ll need for dinner on the counter and places the frozen ground beef in a bowl of warm water to let it thaw out. By the time he’s finished setting everything out, the laptop is fully booted. Sunny sits at the table, logs in, and opens up a sticky note to jot down the work he needs to complete tonight, just in case he forgets the mental note from earlier.
As Sunny scrolls through Twitter, Basil’s door opens and out walks a damp-haired Basil in fresh clothes. With his water glass from earlier filled again, he walks around the apartment watering all the inside plants before making his way out on the terrace to water the plants outside as well. He comes back inside and smiles before stopping in front of Sunny, placing a hand on his hip. “Ready?” he asks with a tilt of his head.
Sunny lets out a hum as he closes his laptop and stands to go wash his hands at the kitchen sink. Basil places his glass on the table and goes to put on a record before following Sunny and washing his own hands. They work in sync; Sunny’s at the stovetop cooking the ground beef and heating up the black beans while Basil slices the produce, grates the cheese, and breaks the tortilla chips up into smaller pieces. After seasoning everything thoroughly and putting their own bowls together, dinner is ready.
They set the table and Sunny grabs a glass of his own while Basil goes to get the water pitcher from the fridge. As they both take their seat and settle in for dinner, they take turns pouring water in their glasses and checking in, something Sunny picked up in treatment years ago and never stopped using. As a way to initially show his support for Sunny’s recovery, Basil also started to check in for meals and snacks. He also found it quite useful for himself so he continues to use it even now.
“So,” Basil starts after swallowing a bite of his food, “other than this morning’s mishaps, how was your day?”
Sunny responds after he finishes chewing, “It was okay.” He pauses to take a sip of water. “Classes were normal and yeah, besides this morning, nothing else really happened. What about you?” He asks.
“I had a pretty normal day as well customer wise but today was my first day training to take over the nursery. Grandma loves the store but it’s getting hard for her to handle all the heavy lifting and whatnot. I don’t want her pushing herself too hard. She deserves her retirement,” Basil exhales.
“That must be really exciting, Basil. You really love that store as well. I’m sure you’ll be a great owner.”
“Thanks, Sunny,” Basil smiles bashfully, “I appreciate it. Oh, by the way, about my birthday coming up next month, I know you said you wanted to plan the party yourself but I don’t want to make you handle all of that alone. I could-”
“Nuh-uh, no way,” Sunny interrupts him, emphasizing it by slicing the air in front of him with his fork. “I can handle it, you don’t need to worry about it.” Sunny looks at Basil who seems to be trying to come up with an excuse of why Sunny may need help. “Look, if I need any help, I’ll ask, okay?” Sunny adds as a way to pacify the upcoming birthday boy.
Basil purses his lips as though he’s about to say something. Instead, he lets out a sigh. “Fine. But,” he says as he raises his pointer finger quickly in between the two of them, “I want you to bring a guest of your own then.”
Sunny gapes at him before retaliating, “Basil, it’s your party. Why-”
It’s Basil’s turn to cut Sunny off, “At least think about it, okay? That’s all I’m asking for.” Basil looks at Sunny expectantly with borderline puppy dog eyes. How can Sunny turn him down with a face like that?
“Okay, I’ll think about it,” Sunny sighs out as Basil smiles and claps his hands together.
“Good, I look forward to the party you plan! Now, do you want to continue that tv show we were watching after dinner?” Basil asks as he takes another bite of his salad.
“Sounds good to me,” Sunny says as he also continues eating his meal.
Sunny makes his way down the sidewalk, glancing at his phone every now and then to make sure he’s still going the right way. It’s been exactly three days since Sunny called about the coffee stain and so, as they discussed on the phone, he’s now heading over to the office building the address leads to. The office of Starlight Talents isn’t that far from campus, or his apartment for that matter, so he decided to stop by after his classes for the day ended.
As he turns the corner, his phone notifies him that he’s reached his destination. He looks to his right to find a multi-level building with an assortment of tenets, mostly other businesses. Sunny enters through the front entrance and walks over to the directory. The address has suite 503 in it so it’s most likely on the fifth floor, but just in case, he looks for Starlight Talents listed on the directory.
After double-checking that he is, indeed, correct, he enters the elevator and presses the corresponding button to the floor he needs. With a loud ding announcing his arrival to the fifth floor, he exits the elevator and notices a sign telling him that suites 500-509 are down the hallway to his left. He adjusts his satchel and heads down the hallway before letting himself into the office.
Sunny is immediately greeted with a cheery welcome! by a woman behind a counter who he assumes is the receptionist. The woman continues speaking, “How can I help you?”
Sunny closes the distance between them before answering, “Yes, I’m Sunny Suzuki and I made a call to Mackenzie Iles the other day about paying for some damages I caused. We thought it best that I come in person to pay.”
Without saying anything else to Sunny who stands there clutching his bag’s strap with both hands, the receptionist presses a button on her business telephone and lifts the receiver to her ear before waiting a moment to say, “I have a Mr. Suzuki here to see you.” As the receptionist continues talking on the phone, Sunny takes this time to look around the office; pretty minimalist but not barren. It has a warm and welcoming vibe to it despite the white open space.
With a click of the receiver, the receptionist stands and leads Sunny down another hallway before stopping abruptly in front of a closed door with a plaque labeled Mackenzie Iles, Talent Agent. The receptionist knocks twice and Sunny hears a muffled come in before the door is opened. Sunny is briefly introduced by the receptionist who quickly takes her leave and closes the door behind her.
Mackenzie stands behind her desk and walks around to shake Sunny’s hand. “It’s good to meet you, Sunny. Let’s get this quickly settled so you can be on your way. I don’t want to take up too much of your time,” Mackenzie says as she ruffles through some papers on her desk after sitting back down. “Oh, you can take a seat as well,” she adds and motions towards a chair to Sunny’s left.
Sunny does as she says and patiently waits before she finds what she’s looking for, a dry cleaner’s receipt. “The total came out to be $7.98. What’s your preferred choice of payment?” She asks as she slides the receipt forward for Sunny to see.
After glancing briefly at the receipt, he asks, “Do you take debit?” He also opens his bag to get his wallet.
“Of course!” She responds as she reaches in a drawer to take out a card reader. Sunny hands over his card as he watches her input the total on a tablet. She then inserts his card chip-side first into the reader. It only takes a few seconds before she slides the tablet over to Sunny to confirm the total and his payment. He returns the tablet to Mackenzie as she asks, “Would you like a receipt?”
“Uh, sure.” Sunny continues to watch Mackenzie as she presses more buttons on the tablet. The printer behind her starts up and she turns to retrieve the freshly printed receipt.
As she hands over the paper to Sunny, she says, “Thanks so much for coming, Sunny. I hope you have a great rest of your day!” She smiles brightly before adding, “Do you need any help getting back to the lobby?”
Sunny stands, “It’s just down the hallway to the right, correct?” He points behind himself.
Mackenzie hums in conformation before standing herself and shaking Sunny’s hand one last time. As Sunny exits Mackenzie’s office, he closes the door behind himself and starts heading back to the reception area. He hears a door to his right open but before he can move out of the way or even look towards the door, someone runs straight into him. Again. Luckily, he didn’t have anything in his hands this time.
“Oh, geez,” the other person says as Sunny recovers from the collision and looks up to see a tall man with brown hair pulled back into a ponytail. The man seems to recognize Sunny first before he continues talking. “Oh, geez,” he repeats and sighs as he puts the palm of his hand on his forehead. “We must be magnets, huh? We can’t get enough of each other,” The man laughs as Sunny lets out a barely noticeable huff of air.
“Oh, right,” the man adds and pulls out his wallet from his jeans, “Here.” He hands Sunny a five-dollar bill. “For your spilled drink the other day.” Sunny stands confused for a moment before putting two and two together. Ah, this must be the man from the other day, Sunny thinks. What was his name again? Ken?
The man seems satisfied after Sunny hesitantly takes the bill from his hand; it’s only fair this man is able to pay him back as well since Sunny basically forced him to accept compensation. He’s not a hypocrite after all. “Well,” the man starts, “hopefully, we don’t run into each other again, literally.” The man winks.
As the man waves goodbye and turns to walk back down the hallway Sunny came from, Sunny reaches his hand out to grab the man’s shirt, “Wait-” Sunny suddenly realizes what he’s doing and retracts his hand back sharply as the man turns back around to look at Sunny questioningly. The small boy looks down at his hands in embarrassment, “Ah, sorry, I didn’t mean t-to do that.” He takes a breath before continuing, “Um, I wanted to ask your name, if you don’t mind.”
As he finishes speaking, Sunny looks up to see the man staring at him in bewilderment. It takes a few moments to realize it’s probably because he’s being rude by not introducing himself first. “Oh,” Sunny quickly speaks, “my name’s Sunny Suzuki. Sorry for not introducing myself the other day.” Sunny holds out his hand for Kel to shake but is left empty-handed.
Before Sunny can start over-analyzing everything he’s said and done to find something to apologize to the man for, the man raises his hand slowly to point toward himself and ask, “You really don’t know who I am?”
Sunny stops in his tracks and tilts his head, “No?” As the man gapes at Sunny even more, he tentatively adds, “Should I?”
This seems to bring the man a bit out of his shock. “Uh, I guess not necessarily,” he says as he scratches his cheek wearily before quickly standing up straight and thrusting his hand out. “The name’s Kelsey Rodriguez Garcia but you can call me Kel,” he says confidently with a grin on his face, seemingly completely recovered from his initial shock.
Sunny takes Kel’s hand after a beat and gives a small smile of his own, “It’s nice to meet you, Kel.” After they shake hands, they stand in place awkwardly, each not knowing what else to say to the new acquaintance.
“Well, I’m gonna head out now,” Sunny announces stiffly. He turns to leave and walk to the entrance, not noticing Kel watch him in fascination.