A/N: Dedicated to two of my rp partners, who portray these two characters amazingly. One of them gave me the prompt for this. I can't hope to make such an incredible job with these two as them, but I hope this is enjoyable.
From all the places where Sunny had lived in her short life, the island was probably the most peaceful she could remember. Her memories from before the fire were blurry, she vaguely remembered how it was to be carried by her mother and her father's jokes but not their voices, and if it wasn't for the picture Klaus kept she wouldn't even know what they looked like. Life on the island was in many aspects like life had always been after the fire: she was always with her siblings, who took care of her (and she sometimes took care of them too); the three of them did what they could to survive, with no one else they could rely on; and they knew Olaf was not far.
It was very different from what it had been in some other aspects: their family had grown with the addition of little Beatrice, and now Sunny wasn't the youngest anymore; there was no Mr. Poe with his coughing and his bad decisions, nor any of the other people who made such an impact in their lives during the short time they knew them, many of those people long gone; their questions were answered at last and, though they knew the world wouldn't change, the children for once didn't feel like their lives were controlled by some sinister conspiracy. Also, they felt safe, because even if Olaf was around, he was not a threat anymore. He hadn't been for a long time.
The man had been saved from the Mycelium by the apples made by the people he hated the most, and that together with all he lost seemed to be a big punishment of sorts. The Baudelaires knew he remained in the island but he never sought shelter in the arboretum, not even during the harshest of storms, and never caused any trouble. Sometimes they wouldn't see him for weeks, and he rarely said any words. He was usually either near Kit Snicket's grave, or at the beach, always drinking coconut cordial or some liquor from a bottle that survived one shipwreck or another. Always drunk.
Violet and Klaus didn't like that Olaf was still there. They hated that they couldn't just kick him out of the island, but deep down neither of them wished to do him any harm. Not because he didn't deserve it, after everything he surely did deserve it, but because they weren't this sort of people. They had done terrible things before. They didn't want to add any more to the list. The eldest Baudelaires instead just avoided Olaf, and did all to keep Sunny and Beatrice away from him as well.
Beatrice knew things, but not the whole story, she would probably not know the whole story anytime soon. She obeyed her adopted siblings, but who knew what her own opinion of the strange man that lurked around was. Sunny, on the other hand, knew the whole story, as she had been there, and maybe her memories were not as clear as Violet's or Klaus's, but she considered herself mature enough to understand it and to make up her own mind about it all.
As she saw it, Olaf was someone who hurt her and her family a lot, but also someone who was hurting a lot. Someone who was hurt by her parents before she was even born, who were also hurt by other people, who in turn had been hurt by other people, and so on since before the first entry in A Series of Unfortunate Events was written. As she saw it, everyone in the world had been hurt by someone and had hurt someone else, in a cycle that went on and on. Some things were too hard to forgive, some things were impossible to forgive, like taking the life of someone dear to you, or tormenting and abusing you and your family in all sorts of ways. But no one could go on if they clung to old wounds, and people would keep hurting and hurting, until they ended up in an almost deserted island, without any friendly shoulder, alone and sad and drunk all the time.
The youngest Baudelaire still had nightmares about Olaf, and she didn't think she could ever be able to look back at what he did and not feel hurt, but when she looked at his current self she was sure of two things: that she didn't want to end up like that, and that she didn't want ever to be the reason someone ended up like that.
For that reason, she didn't run straight back to the arboretum when she saw Olaf on the beach that morning, drinking cordial. She sat down, at a good distance from him, and glanced at him curiously.
"It has been more than three years. How haven't you run out of it yet?" She asked.
Olaf just shrugged.
"Have you been eating well?" She couldn't help but ask. Food was her passion and talent, and she noticed how skinny he looked. Though the fact he managed to stay alive showed he was doing enough, or close to.
He shrugged again, and sighed.
"You know you don't need to be nice to me, right, orphan?" He said, and his voice sounded much less intimidating than Sunny remembered.
"I know." She nodded.
"Then why are you still here?"
It was Sunny's turn to shrug.
"You Baude-brats are so annoying," Olaf mumbled. "Why don't you go be 'nice and kind and noble' somewhere else and leave me alone?"
"Why are you still here?" Sunny asked back.
He let out a low laugh, but there was nothing funny or cheerful about the sound.
"Why would I not?" He said with a sincerity that was very rare for him, before taking a long sip of his drink.
Sunny thought about it, so hard that her head started hurting. Despite his complaining, Olaf didn't make a move to leave.
"I'm making lunch." Sunny finally said. "I can bring some for you if you stay around." He sighed again. "And dessert too. I want to try something with the jelly Klaus found. We have raspberry."
Olaf raised his head, and for the first time in that morning (and maybe a long time) looked at Sunny, really looked at her.
"Shouldn't a little... baby stay away from the kitchen?"
Sunny sighed. That was a perfect chance to throw at his face some of the things he had done to her. Too perfect for it to be a coincidence. Sunny wouldn't fall for his bait.
"I am not a baby." She simply said.
"Yeah, yeah, sure."
"I will really bring you food." She said, making it sound like a threat.
"I am not a stray dog, that you can tame with food to have a pet." He mumbled.
"Of course not. Dogs are cute. And they usually don't smell like alcohol."
Sunny was surprised to see Olaf actually taking a good sniff at his arm.
"I don't smell like alcohol."
She giggled.
"You do stink though."
"I don't-", another sniff, "stink!"
"Yeah, yeah, sure." She said, giggling more.
"Go away, orphan," Olaf said, but he sounded a little less serious, or just a little less sad.
"I will come back with food," Sunny said, as she stood up.
Olaf dramatically rolled his eyes.
"Do whatever you want."
Sunny turned to the arboretum, but gave him one last look. It didn't seem like he was going anywhere. He would probably still be there when she finished making lunch and dessert. Her siblings would probably not approve of her feeding the villain (or former villain), but they had plenty of food, and she saw no harm in sharing.
She knew she alone couldn't change the ways of the world, but she was mature enough to know what sort of person she was, and what sort of person she wanted to be.