Chapter Text
It was Christmas in Faraway. Normally, the Suzukis wouldn’t be celebrating it due to their demonic nature, but their friends had insisted on coming over to celebrate with them. So, they set up decorations and a tree to put the presents under while Mari and Sunny tried to focus on how happy they were to spend time with their friends rather than their distaste for celebrating the birth of their people’s greatest adversary. Still, they could admit the treats and presents were nice. Speaking of presents…
“Wow… A new basketball?” Kel breathed as he held up his gift. “Thanks, bro!”
“No problem, Kel,” Hero smiled. “You can thank me by doing a little better in school.”
“Uh-huh… You bet!” Kel agreed, his smile turning a bit strained. Sunny looked around at his friends with their gifts. He still hadn’t gotten any. Surely his turn was coming?
“Okay, Sunny, it’s time to open up your present,” Hero said, grinning. Finally! Sunny was directed to the coffee table, where an oddly-shaped package sat.
“This year, you just get one present…from all of us,” Mari explained.
“It probably doesn’t look like much…” Basil said, “but we all had to save up for it together.”
“Yeah!” Aubrey added. “Me and Basil even started selling cookies and lemonade in the summer.”
“And Mari and I took a job at the bakery for a while, if you remember,” Hero said. Sunny did remember. Mari would sometimes come home covered in flour and looking exhausted, to the point that she had a hard time keeping up her human appearance. (They were fortunate that no one ever noticed, especially the hyper-religious owners of the bakery.)
“And me? I had to deliver newspapers every morning for like three months,” Kel piped up. “And you know how much I hate mornings!” Sunny remembered that, too. Kel had always looked tired and complained more than usual. It made no sense to Sunny at the time. They were on summer vacation, so Kel should have been able to sleep in. Now he understood.
“We know this might be a lot of pressure, but…” Mari started, suddenly seeming a bit unsure.
“It’s been a while since you quit playing the violin,” Hero finished for her. Right. Sunny remembered that, shortly after Mari had taken up the piano, Sunny decided to take up an instrument of his own, settling on the violin. That hadn’t lasted long, though, as Sunny had quickly grown bored of playing music and had taken up drawing as a hobby instead.
“Mari told us about how you always sit in the room with her when she’s practicing the piano,” Basil explained. Sunny did do that. He wanted to spend as much time with his sister as possible, especially now that she was getting to be so busy with school.
“And there was even that one time I caught you trying to play your old mini violin, even though it was too small for you,” Kel added.
“Anyway…this was Basil’s idea…but we all decided to pitch in for a really nice one…so…yeah!” Aubrey wrapped up.
“We hope you like it, Sunny,” Mari smiled. “This is from all of us to you.” Sunny tore off the wrapping paper, revealing a violin case (not that he was surprised, since his friends practically already told him what his present was). He opened the case, revealing that, indeed, it was a very nice, somewhat expensive-looking violin. Sunny looked up at his friends’ beaming faces.
“TA-DA!” Kel exclaimed.
“It’s your very own violin!” Aubrey beamed.
“We hope you like it, Sunny,” Basil said. “Go on and try it out!” Sunny paused for only a moment. Then, with tingling fingers, Sunny set the violin in the crook of his neck and readied the bow to play. With an anxious feeling in his heart, he drew the bow across the strings, causing the instrument to let out a long, keening note. There was a click and a flash of light, and Sunny opened his eyes to see Basil lowering his new camera with a smile as the photo he just took slid out of the slot.
The surprise photo knocking him out of his stupor, Sunny looked around at his other friends, who were all smiling and cheering for him. They really believed in him. And right there and then, Sunny knew that, no matter what, he didn’t want to disappoint them.