Chapter Text
It had been a year.
One full year since he told the truth to his closest friends. One full year since he saved Basil and Himself.
That confession. That hellish confession. He remembered it so clearly in his dreams, how he felt his entire body shake and his stomach threatening to leap out of his throat. How he felt his lungs seize and his heart threaten to stop. He looked up through the one eye he cried through to see their expressions. Kel's confusion, his disbelief at such a thing being possible, the weight of reality not having yet dropped. Aubrey's despair, the sound of her knees hitting the hospital floor as she wept. Hero's denial, his clear understanding of what was being said and his refusal to accept it.
And yet they forgave him. Sunny may never fully understand why.
One full year since he moved away from Faraway. He lived now in a small city apartment. It was...nice. The size felt right for the smaller family, and no accursed history hung over it. Sunny enjoyed the kitchen of the apartment, it's white tiles and similarly bleached counters making him feel safe in ways his mother never fully understood. He was slowly learning how to cook. Cooking alongside his mother and with Hero over the phone or during the sparing visits to faraway. His room was small, perfectly so, snug and cozy. He purposefully left it without mirrors.
His sleep over the past year had been troubled. He had trouble falling asleep some nights. Other nights he was struck with nightmares. It wasn't entirely uncommon for his mother to find him awake far too early in the morning playing on his old computer or drawing what he had seen in his fitful dreams.
(His mother worried at times that his drawings were cries for help, but his therapist assured her that there is nothing wrong with a child drawing and enjoying creepy imagery.)
But some nights, he was able to fall asleep. And some nights, he didn't just dream. He returned home.
Welcome to White Space.
He has been living here for as long as you can remember...
Sunny would wake within White Space. His place of safety. No harm could come to him in here other than that he himself may inflict. No monsters can creep under the door.
He sat up, looking at the bright expanse. The faint outline of the bleached blanket on the floor. The white door that lead to Headspace. The wire that dangled from the seemingly nonexistent ceiling, now missing its light bulb. Some things never change.
He saw Mewo walk around where he sat, gently rubbing her head on his leg and purring. Sunny gently pet her, feeling her purr against his hand. It was after a moment of petting that Mewo decided to walk elsewhere, sitting on the black laptop and napping on the keyboard, uncaring of the line of text appearing on the screen as he enjoyed the warm seat. Some things never change.
He decided to stand then, turning to look around. Three things were missing. He wanted to ensure they were simply behind him. There's the tissue box, that's one. And there...
There stood Omori. That's two.
Omori looked at him with empty eyes. Sunny recalled hateful words, but now he rarely makes a noise whatsoever. His presence was oddly comforting now. Even within the blank spaces he had for eyes, he no longer felt hate within them. Sunny still hated himself, but Omori did not have to hold onto it for him. He didn't need him to hide away his feelings anymore. So why was he still here? Sunny was never entirely sure himself. Perhaps to protect him still from things that may hurt him.
That reminded him. Where's the final missing thing? He tilted his head and looked past Omori. It was there he spotted it.
Something was behind Omori.
Was Omori protecting Sunny from it? He sighed at the thought. He didn't need to do that anymore. Sunny walked past Omori, patting his shoulder in some strange form of gratitude before approaching Something.
His heart sank into his gut when he approached. It always did. Something looked at him.
It stopped hiding a year ago.
He gently reached out to it, and slowly put his hands around it. Its mass felt like clean if tangled hair. It was soft. Terribly soft. Painfully soft.
He hated how it felt, because it felt just like Mari's hair. He recalled feeling something similar when Mari carried him home on her back. How pleasant if felt as he leaned his head into her hair.
Sunny felt a few tears drop from his eye as his heart sank past his stomach. A few moments after he started, Something moved away. It gently lowered itself onto the floor, its mass spreading out like a mess of hair. Like her hair. Its eye looked up at nothing, at what amounts to the roof of White Space.
Sunny wiped his eye and collected himself. He still felt bad. He always did when he placated Something. Ever since that day, Something stopped hiding behind him and would wait in front of him. The more he tried to avoid it, the more it would start to hide away in his peripheral and behind objects. He worried what would happen if he let it hide behind him again, so he never gave it the chance.
Something loved him. It loved his attention and his touch. If he provided both, it would grow more content. If he did it enough, it would lie down and not bother him for a time.
Something will always rise back up eventually, however. Something will never go away. Something will always be there, forever.
But Sunny...Sunny can deal with it, how it is. He hates touching it, hates the feelings it brings from his gut, but compared to what it was before...this was manageable. Sunny coped with its presence.
Some days it was worse than others. Some days no amount of horrid contact would satisfy it. Some days Sunny breaks down into sobs as it stares at him. Some days it never rises from its spot on the floor. Some days its hair feels wet and rigid, disgusting and yet less distressing. But Sunny could continue living despite it.
Sunny would continue living despite it.
Omori watched as Sunny showed him how to play a new game on the laptop. Tetris, it was called. This version of different to the one in reality, all the blocks were made from blank white bricks, but it was still perfectly functional. Omori quickly picked up the basics and they took turns playing. Sunny saw Omori gasp at making a bad mistake. Sunny saw Omori smile at beating his old record.
Soon however, Omori got up and gently tugged at Sunny's clothes. He pointed at the White Door.
He wanted to see his friends.