Godspeed Sucrose

Content warning: Contains Animal Death

Ronaldo found himself checking his phone for the third time that morning, wondering if Lars had since responded to his invitation of seeing the special feature of the whole Galaxy Wars saga at the theater that evening, and wanted somewhat of a quick response so he could plan ahead on hiding snacks for the theater.

Granted, considering it was mid morning, it was possible Lars was just busy at the Big Donut, though he doubted he would be so busy he wouldn't check his phone. Ronaldo knew as well as anyone how much that guy slacked off at work, and was usually texting or napping.

He could just very well be asleep, either at work, or in bed, not hearing his alarm going off at him, that was another possibility. He was the type of person to oversleep.

He was about to dial the number of the Big Donut when he received an incoming text message from Lars, and huffed, "Finally," and opened it, expecting a short yes or no.

Sugar is dead.

Ronaldo's breath stopped a second as he stared at the message in shock, feeling a sense of dread going up his spine as he instantly sensed the mood behind the text, and the reason for such the silence.

"Oh no," he groaned softly under his breath, knowing how dearly Lars cared about his pet snake, how devastated he was whenever she was sick, lost, or stolen by bullies, and he could only imagine the emotional turmoil happening right now.

I'll be right over, Ronaldo had texted without much thought. If it were anything else, he might have allowed Lars a little more space to grieve, but this was Sugar he was talking about. He'd been there when Lars had adopted her, and he figured it would only be fair to say farewell. The movies could wait.

Taking a well paced walk from the lighthouse to his friend's house, he found the door was unlocked, and invited himself in, knowing Lars' family was usually never home. Heading up the stairs, it was eerily quiet. He'd expected to at least hear some sniffling.

Lars' door was open, and Ronaldo peeked in, seeing his friend sat upright on his bed, staring at the wall ahead of him, strangely calm. When he turned his head to look at Ronaldo, the teen could see the drained emotion in Lars' eyes. Lars didn't say anything, and went back to staring at the wall after a second.

"Um...", Ronaldo began, and glanced over, seeing a bath towel was draped over Sugar's tank, covering it completely.

"I didn't want to look at her," Lars mumbled, voice cracked in his throat, "I just-"

"Can I look?" Ronaldo asked. Granted, it was probably a rude question, but after a short expression of confusion, Lars just rolled his shoulders, giving a consenting hum, averting his gaze completely away from the tank.

Ronaldo lifted the towel, seeing the white snake laying in her tank like he would normally see her. She wasn't moving at all, but she didn't look dead. If anything, it looked nothing different than if she were to be asleep or sunning. It was only really obvious when he saw her eyes, and the lack of life in them, and the complete absence of her tongue flickering excitably like she always did.

Poor Lars must have found her like that this morning, not suspecting a thing.

"I'm...sure she didn't suffer-" Ronaldo began.

"I dunno," Lars spoke quietly, sounding empty, "She stopped eating. Guess she was sick or something." He then lay on the bed, curling on his side, facing away from the tank.

"You're not insinuating that you think it's your fault, are you?", Ronaldo looked at him.

"I don't know," Lars murmured, not even turning to look back.

Sighing, Ronaldo looked in the tank again at the lifeless animal, "...Are you going to bury her?"

"I don't want to think about it right now. I don't want to-" he began, voice going softer, "I don't want to have to touch her."

"...I see," Ronaldo nodded, and rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "...Want me to do it?"

"N-No, don't bury her, just-"

"How about I get her all prepared so you don't have to touch her?", he compromised.

"...OK," Lars mumbled.

"Do you have a shoebox?"

"No. No shoeboxes, I don't want her all coiled up and looking funny," he spoke, almost sounding worried.

Ronaldo sucked in his cheeks a moment as he thought, and looked around the room before getting an idea, "Be right back," he mumbled, and headed downstairs, rooting through the garage where a large stack of cardboard had been kept, and after a short bit of looking, managed to find a large poster tube. It was definitely long enough for Lars' snake to fit nose to tail, and Ronaldo had to wonder when on earth Lars' family would have used this poster tube in the first place.

Carrying it back upstairs, he grabbed a box cutter, and with careful precision, sliced it lengthwise to open like a coffin. He tested opening and closing it a few times, and looked at Lars, "Do you mind if I use some old rags to line this thing?"

Lars looked over for a split second, seeing the makeshift coffin Ronaldo had created, then shook his head, laying back on his side, "Go ahead," he mumbled, "But use the softest ones you find. Sugar likes soft stuff."

"Got it," Ronaldo assured, and after several minutes had the interior lined. At least she would have something comfortable.

Getting an idea, Ronaldo assured Lars that he'd be back, and hurried back to the lighthouse. He began to rifle through his drawers, looking for all of his jossed 'sneople' research, and looked for the piece that started it all, back to when he held his grudge against Sugar for what he believed was driving a wedge between himself and Lars. It seemed fitting that he honor her for sparking his continued interest in the paranormal happenings of their city. He found some old Polaroids he took of her when they were kids, and decided to take those too, figuring that if they weren't buried, Lars might like to keep them.

When he got back to Lars' house, the teen was still laying on his bed, eerily calm and quiet, so Ronaldo continued preparing for the burial. Ever so carefully, he lifted Sugar out of her cage, even telling Lars out loud that he was doing so. She was impossibly light in his hands, no instant coiling or squirming, hanging limp. He felt a little uneasy holding her for this long, but swallowed, and asked, "Want to pet her one more time before I put her in?"

"No," Lars mumbled, "Just do your thing."

Laying her in the coffin, he was careful to make sure she was not crooked, and set the research piece he did regarding her inside, tucking it under her gently.

He walked over, holding out the Polaroids, "Do you want to keep these, or do you want these buried?"

Peeking up, Lars looked at them, and took them, "I'll keep 'em."

"Alright," Ronaldo responded softly, and looked at the coffin, "I think that's about as much as I can offer to do. Is there anything you want to do?", he asked Lars.

Slowly, the teen got up, and walked over stiffly, looking at the modified poster tube with his snake resting inside, a little viewing window cut by her head. He paused in thought, then spoke up, "Flowers. She's gotta have flowers."

"Really?"

"She was sweet as pie, she would totally dig flowers," Lars insisted, and was heading downstairs towards the backdoor to his yard where some floral trees were situated, dangling over the fence of the rear neighbors.

Lars picked a multitude of brightly colored rhododendrons, hibiscus, and some other flowers he couldn't put a name too, along with cutting some potted geraniums his family grew, a few daisies, and some roses. He picked so many, he was using the bottom of his shirt as a pouch for them, walking past Ronaldo who had come down to see what he was doing, and went straight into his room.

Slowly, he began to systematically place the flowers inside the casket, going from below her head to the tip of her tail, and back again.

"While you're doing that, want me to dig?", Ronaldo offered.

"No, I'll do it," Lars mumbled, "I can do it by the rhododendrons or something."

"Alright," Ronaldo sighed, watching Lars work diligently on filling Sugar's resting place with flowers.

When he finished, and everything but her head was covered, Lars looked into her tank, and pulled out one of the little wooden toys he'd placed in there to crawl on, and placed it in the casket.

"Aight, I'm done," Lars spoke up, and Ronaldo came over to look, impressed at how elegantly Lars had situated everything, and how peaceful the little reptile looked.

"Alright, should we carry her down?"

"Yeah," he sighed, and hastily closed the casket lid over her, making sure he and Ronaldo lifted it at the same time to avoid anything sliding or getting jostled. Carefully carrying it downstairs, they took it out to the backyard, and gently set it in the grass near the rhododendron bushes, and Lars grabbed a trowel, starting to dig, not saying much.

"This sort of reminds me of when we gave my pet goldfish that viking funeral," Ronaldo piped up after a minute.

"Oh yeah," Lars spoke softly with a nod, "That was...a disaster."

"Yeah," Ronaldo laughed, "It smelled bad."

"No kidding," Lars muttered, carefully taking note of how deep he was digging, and how long the hole was, wanting to make sure Sugar's casket would fit without trouble.

After a little more silence, Lars got up, taking a step back, and dusting off his hands, "OK," and looked at the poster tube, face unreadable. Slowly, he sat down crosslegged next to it, and opened the lid, staying silent.

Sugar hadn't moved whatsoever in the time that they had brought her down and dug the hole. An errant daisy had jostled during the procession downstairs, and landed on her snout, and she hadn't reacted in the slightest.

Lars' eyes suddenly filled with tears, much to Ronaldo's surprise, and the blond sat down next to his friend whose face had crumpled as he held back a sob.

Gently putting a hand on Lars' shoulder, Ronaldo spoke up, "Hey."

"This is really it," he croaked, shuddering as a small sob came out of his throat, and he continued staring at Sugar, who lay peacefully in the flowerbed he'd made for her. "She's really gone."

"Yeah, I guess it really is," Ronaldo sighed, rubbing his friend's back, "It was a pretty good run for her though, wouldn't you say?"

Lars didn't respond, giving another sob as he let his tears fall on his cheeks, and off his nose and chin, his pent up grief coming out painfully.

After a minute of silence, Ronaldo then spoke again, "I did some fact finding earlier. Corn snakes' lifespans in captivity average about 6 years."

"Yeah?", Lars mumbled, giving a wet sniffle.

"Sugar was nearly thirteen," Ronaldo spoke with genuine amazement, "And even then, we don't know how old she was when you got her...so she could be at least fourteen..."

Lars was blinking away tears as Ronaldo continued, "You took that much amazing care of her, she had two lifetimes. She survived three attempted stompings, getting lost in the school, nearly getting sliced by a lawnmower, that emergency surgery to remove that marble...", he began to list, "And not once did she show complaint. She knew you loved her that much, she probably stayed until she knew she couldn't anymore." He hoped that this piece of information would make Lars feel less responsible for her passing.

Breath hitching, Lars shakily adjusted the daisy on Sugar's snout, and gently let his finger pet her head one more time, silently saying goodbye to her, thanking her for being a constant source of comfort and companionship.

"R-remember we always used to take her up into our treehouse?", Lars spoke, voice shaking as he tried not to cry again, "And we made her her own fortress?"

"Yeah," Ronaldo nodded, "I remember."

"And she always sat on your laptop if you left it in my room?"

"Yeah."

"And how she liked to try and reach for you if she was on my shoulders?"

"I remember that quite well," Ronaldo gave a small laugh, "She was quite antagonistic towards me."

"N-nah," Lars sniffled, "She loved you. She loved everybody."

"You're right," Ronaldo nodded, "She didn't have much of a mean bone in her body, did she?"

"No," Lars cried, "She was a good snake. The best snake ever."

"Indeed she was."

After a few minutes of silent tears being shed, Lars quietly closed the lid on the casket for the last time, and with Ronaldo's help, carefully set it in the ground, and began to bury it. He pat the dirt down gently, and paused in thought before he got up, and picked a few more flowers, putting them on the mound of earth. He stared at it for a bit, then gave a weak smile to Ronaldo.

"Thanks," he mumbled, and wiped his hands off on his pants, looking at his feet, "...I...think I'll be OK now."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah," he smiled weakly, then slowly headed back to the house, and glanced back, "...you still wanna go to the movies? I'm down for it, I guess. I could use a little mindless sci-fi."

"Well one, it's not mindless," Ronaldo listed, "And two, we don't have time to sneak snacks, so are you willing to get overpriced movie theater food?"

"I'm cool with it," he shrugged, wiping his eyes again, and gave one last glance to the resting place of his dear scaly friend.

Thanks for sticking around so long. Lord knows I needed you then.

It would be several weeks after that afternoon when Lars went back out to visit her, on his birthday, speaking with the excitement of a proud pet parent as he held a new snake companion gifted to him by Ronaldo; Spice.