A/N: I've been obsessed with this game ever since it came out over a year ago. But I've especially been obsessed over my precious flower boys. ^.^
I've seen a lot of fanart of the gang when they're older, and often Sunny is shown to have more of a punk/goth style, sometimes even with black nail polish (which is my weakness). So this fic was inspired by me wondering how Basil would react to his best friend growing from a neat, good little boy to more of an edgy teenager.
Time-wise, this is probably roughly a year or so after the truth. The gang has more or less recovered from the aftermath, so there won't be much angst, only pure fluffy Sunflower goodness. Because let's face it, these two boys deserve a bit of happiness again. ;)
There won't be any hardcore spoilers, but still read with caution if you haven't finished the game.
Painted Black
"By the way, when did you start wearing nail polish, Sunny?"
"Hmm?" Sunny paused the video game they had been playing and glanced down at his fingers.
"A-ah, sorry for asking a random question. I just noticed it is all," Basil stammered nervously, flushing hot.
But that was a lie. Basil had noticed the nail polish from the moment Sunny walked in the door that day. The jet black polish stood out in stark contrast from Sunny's (still) too pale skin and demanded Basil's attention. Every time Sunny moved his hands even slightly, it was like it had caught Basil in a trance.
Basil had no idea how he was going to survive this sleepover with his sanity intact.
After moving away, Sunny had tried to visit when he had the chance. Usually it was only once every few months. The routine was the same each time. Sunny would drive up on Saturday and stay for the weekend. Since Sunny didn't have a home in Faraway town anymore, Basil always offered to host Sunny. Sunday was reserved as the day where the whole gang got together and did whatever they liked. But Saturday, that was a special day for Basil. Because Sunny would often complain that he was too tired from driving to do any major socializing on the first day. So he would just stay at home . . . at Basil's home. Just relaxing and enjoying each other's quiet company.
Over the many visits, Basil had noticed that his friend's fashion sense was slowly changing. Gone were the nice sweater vests and shorts of that good little boy that used to be his best friend. Now it was all about ripped, dark skinny jeans and ironic, punk t-shirts. Once, Basil could have even sworn Sunny was wearing eyeliner. And now the nail polish . . .
That wasn't to say that Basil didn't like the changes. On the contrary, the new edge to Sunny's style really seemed to suit his brooding friend. It's just that . . . the new look had Basil feeling all sorts of dangerous feelings. And so today, for the past hour or so of playing video games, Basil kept sneaking glances at Sunny's hands until he couldn't take it anymore.
"Is it your first time wearing nail polish?" Basil continued, praying that Sunny couldn't see his flushed face in the semi-dark room. "I don't think I've seen you wearing it before."
Sunny shrugged and resumed playing the game. "Aubrey did my nails once as a dare. But . . . I don't know. I kind of liked it."
"Ah . . ." At Aubrey's name, Basil's face cooled, and he felt his heart sink a bit. Basil peaked a glance at Sunny's direction again. Was that why his style had been changing? Originally Basil had just assumed Sunny was adapting to whatever the cool, hip trends were in the city, but now that Basil thought of it, Sunny's new look was a bit more on the punk side like Aubrey. Maybe his friend was trying to make some changes to appeal to her more?
"Of course, when Aubrey did it, the nail polish was bright pink," Sunny remarked.
Basil chuckled weakly. "Yeah, that sounds like Aubrey. She's all about pink." Basil paused a moment, and then muttered quietly, "The black nail polish suits you though."
Basil was not prepared when Sunny flashed him a wicked side grin that nearly made him choke.
"Cool right?" Sunny said, splaying his fingers. "Black, like my soul."
Oh god oh god oh god oh god.
"Th-that was kind of cringe, Sunny," Basil stammered with a smile, trying to ignore just how loud his heart was thumping in his chest.
Sunny just laughed unapologetically and finished the level he was on, smoothly setting a new record. Sunny was always better at video games than Basil.
Of course, the sole reason why Basil had video games to begin with was because he knew how much Sunny liked them, even though his mother wouldn't let him buy games. Basil only really played when Sunny was around.
"Congrats on the new record," Basil said as Sunny leaned back on the sofa to take a break. "Why don't I get some snacks and drinks to celebrate?" Sunny nodded with a smile and then fished out his phone to check the notifications and play some chill music in the background.
Basil slowly walked out of the room, and then as soon as his bedroom door was shut he raced into the kitchen. Ahhhh, my face is so hot, Basil thought to himself, cradling his burning cheeks in his hands. He hadn't been too obvious in front of Sunny, had he? Basil used the kitchen break to splash some cool water on his face before grabbing some bags of chips and two glasses of iced oolong tea, Sunny's favorite. Basil carried it back to his room on a tray, and as Basil set the snacks down, he noticed that Sunny's expression had gone soft at his phone.
What is he looking at? Basil wondered. He isn't texting Aubrey, is he? Would he rather be hanging out with her? I know he always spends the night at my place when he visits, but maybe he would be happier alone with her instead? Basil tried to shake the intrusive, insecure thoughts out of his head.
"Here ya go, buddy!" Basil said a little too cheerfully as he forced a glass of tea in Sunny's hand, making Sunny drop his phone. If Sunny was surprised, he didn't show it. He merely hummed in appreciation and starting sipping his tea. Basil's eyes were drawn back to Sunny's fingernails. The condensation from the glass dripped onto his fingers and make the black nail polish gleam. Basil swallowed deeply.
"D-do you mind if I take a closer look?" Basil asked before he knew what he was doing, and then he fought the urge to kick himself. To his credit, Sunny simply shrugged and obediently held out his right hand. Basil flushed hot, and then he gently, delicately took Sunny's hand in both of his.
Basil's skin burned at the contact.
"Wow," Basil said, paying no mind to the flush that was creeping back on his face. "Did you do it by yourself?"
"Uh huh."
"You did such a good job," Basil admired. "It looks very neat and perfect."
"I've gotten a fair bit of practice," Sunny explained nonchalantly.
Basil was acutely aware of the fact that Sunny hadn't pulled his hand away, but Basil didn't want to let go either.
"Maybe I should paint my nails sometime too," Basil joked.
His stomach flipped when he saw Sunny peer at him curiously. "Do you want to?" Sunny asked, totally serious.
"Ah, um, w-well," Basil stammered nervously, finally letting go of Sunny's hand. "It'd p-probably be a waste on me. My nails are so ugly from, um . . . all the nail biting." While Basil wasn't nearly as much of the nervous wreck he used to be during their younger years, there were still some habits that were hard to quit. Basil's constant nail biting whenever he was anxious was something that always got on Polly's nerves, but Basil had never been able to control it.
Sunny raised his eyebrows questioningly. "Really?"
And then Basil stopped breathing when Sunny grabbed his hand and lifted it up so his friend could take a closer look.
"Hmm . . . I guess they are a little short and stubby," Sunny observed, and when Sunny spoke, Basil swore he could feel his breath tickle his fingertips. "But we can still paint them if you want. Maybe the nail polish will even help you to stop the nail biting."
"Y-you think so?" Basil responded meekly.
Sunny nodded emphatically, and then started rummaging through his duffle bag he had brought with him.
"W-wait, did you mean you wanted to paint them now?" Basil said, hating how his voice came out like a squeak at the end.
Sunny revealed the bottle of black nail polish and then cocked his head at Basil. "Why not?" Sunny said casually. Noting Basil's hesitance, Sunny lowered the bottle. "Unless you'd prefer a different color? I only have the black, but we could always call up Aubrey and ask her for some of her colors. We could go with pink . . . or maybe green would suit you better?"
"N-no, it's fine," Basil replied. "Black is . . . fine." Basil would rather die than give Aubrey the satisfaction of getting two of her guy friends to play around with nail polish. Besides, Basil didn't want Aubrey to invade his private time with Sunny. Tomorrow they would be spending the whole day together with their friends. Basil only had tonight to spend with Sunny alone.
And black was Sunny's color . . .
"O-kay," Sunny said in a monotone, and he opened the bottle of nail polish. Sunny sat down closer to the coffee table and meaningfully tapped the surface where he wanted Basil to place his hand.
Basil sighed in surrender, splaying out his fingers wide on the coffee table.
For a while, they were both silent, nothing but Sunny's acoustic playlist in the background. Usually, Basil was very used to the periodic moments of silence between them. He knew Sunny always felt more comfortable when he didn't have to talk. But now Basil felt himself drowning in the awkward silence. Sunny didn't seem to notice though. His friend was too absorbed in the task at hand, focusing so as to make it perfect. One by one, Sunny painted the nails on Basil's left hand, and once he was satisfied, he blew gently on them.
Basil shivered despite himself.
"One down," Sunny declared, switching to the other hand. Basil watched Sunny's brow furrow in total concentration.
God, his friend was so cute. No, cute was the wrong word. Basil had always felt that his best friend was very cute, ever since the day they first met. But Sunny was different now. He was taller, more grown up, more . . .
Totally, utterly hot, Basil thought with a blush.
Sunny finished the second hand, but before he could give it a blow, Basil snatched both of his hands away. He tried to laugh it off and wave his hands in the air to fan them dry. "Wow, so cool. Thanks Sunny, it looks great."
Sunny smiled quietly and capped the nail polish again.
"So um, how long does it take to dry," Basil asked, keeping his hands hanging awkwardly in the air.
"About 10 minutes or so," Sunny said, putting the nail polish back in his back.
"Ahh, so long," Basil sighed dramatically. "Of course the minute I'm not allowed to touch anything is the minute I get an itch."
"Where?"
"Oh, just on my shoulder-bwahaha!" Basil suddenly broke into laughter and then immediately choked it off again in mortification. Sunny had frozen, his hand in mid-air after he had attempted to scratch Basil's shoulder.
"What was that?" Sunny asked, raising his eyebrows.
Now Basil was sure that Sunny could see how flushed he really was. "Ah, sorry!" Basil gushed, wanting to curl up in a ball and turn invisible. "When you tried to scratch me, your fingers grazed my neck."
Sunny raised his eyebrows even further.
"I-I've got a really sensitive neck," Basil explained. "I get really ticklish super easily there."
For a moment, Sunny just stared at Basil blankly. Then, as if to test it, Sunny reached out and barely gazed Basil's neck. Basil started to laugh again, squirming away from Sunny. Sunny tried it again, stopping just an inch before Basil's neck, but it still sent Basil in a laughing fit.
"I didn't even touch you that time," Sunny said, starting to crack a smile at Basil's laughter.
"I told you I'm sensitive. Now c-cut it out!" Basil protested through his giggling, but if anything that just egged Sunny on. Again and again, Sunny managed to land tickle attacks. Basil tried to squirm away, but with his drying nail polish preventing him from using his hands, he only found himself falling backward. Without missing a beat, Sunny pinned him down and unleashed more tickle attacks at Basil's neck.
"Okay! Okay! You win!" Basil cried, his belly starting to hurt from all of the laughter.
Sunny smugly poked Basil in the cheek. He still hadn't moved away. "I should paint your nails more often. It leaves you vulnerable to attack."
Basil chuckled in response, but then felt the laughter sour inside of him. "You probably shouldn't," Basil said, avoiding Sunny's eyes. "Maybe you should do this sort of thing with Aubrey instead."
"Huh?" The smile vanished from Sunny's face. He looked visibly confused. "Aubrey? Why Aubrey?"
"She's the one who originally made you start to paint your nails, right? And apparently you borrow nail polish from her all the time."
"Not really," Sunny remarked, still puzzled at Basil's reaction. "Wait, did you not actually want me to paint your nails? I'm sorry."
"N-no, I . . ." Basil sighed in resignation. "Sunny, do you think you can get off of me?"
Sunny obeyed without a word and helped Basil back up to a sitting position. Basil could feel Sunny's eyes staring at him, but he tried to ignore it for the time being.
Basil gave his hands another experimental wave and forced a smile on his face. "I think the nail polish is dried now. Thanks again, Sunny."
"Really? Let me see." Sunny took Basil's hand once more while Basil tried to look at anywhere but Sunny. His best friend peered closely at the black nails, and carefully tested each one. "Yep, all dried and ready to go." Sunny hesitated, and then he interlocked his fingers with Basil's, which made Basil's head whip around to face Sunny.
"U-uh!" Basil stammered, radiating heat from every inch of his skin. Stupid, stupid. Basil didn't know why he was making such a big deal of it. They used to hold hands all the time when they were little. It didn't mean anything.
"Look," Sunny said, lifting their intertwined hands at Basil. "Now we're like a matching set."
Basil swallowed slowly. "People might look at us and think we're a couple," Basil said, keeping his tone light, but he snuck a glance at Sunny's face. Sunny was smiling gently back at him.
"Would that bother you if other people thought that?" Sunny asked.
"Y-yes, I mean no, uh-" Basil's eyes darted around nervously. How could Sunny ask him such an unfair question? "I don't know," Basil admittedly lamely.
There was a long pause. Sunny's smile disappeared, leaving only a neutral, unreadable expression. Basil hated that, hated when he couldn't read his best friends thoughts.
"Would it bother you if our friends thought that?" Sunny continued.
Basil squeezed his eyes shut. "I don't know."
"Would it bother you if . . . I wanted them to think that?"
Basil hesitated, and then shyly opened his eyes again to look at Sunny's face. It was much closer than he remembered. "I . . . uh," Basil replied, his gaze lowering towards Sunny's lips.
"Would . . . you go out with me?" Sunny said.
Instead of answering, Basil kissed him.
It was just a quick peck. Almost as soon as Basil realized what he had done, he pulled away and checked Sunny's expression, wordlessly asking if it was okay. Sunny just lifted the corner of his mouth in a half smile and pulled Basil in again. Deeper. Hungrier. Basil felt Sunny's fingers tangle in his hair and grab tight, trapping him. Basil did the same, pulling Sunny in closer and never wanting to let him go.
Eventually, Sunny broke from the kiss and started trailing kisses down Basil's cheek, under his jaw, his throat.
"Hey," Sunny murmured curiously, his breath hot on Basil's neck and sending shivers down Basil's spine. "You're not ticklish anymore."
Basil chuckled back, feeling dazed. "M-maybe it's different when I'm feeling-" but then Basil broke off with an involuntary moan as Sunny sucked down hard in the crook between Basil's neck and shoulder.
Sunny pulled away just enough so that Basil could see his victorious smirk. "Never mind. I guess you're still pretty sensitive there. Just in a different way."
"Ahhh!" Basil cried out in mortification, burying his face in his hands and trying to hide from Sunny. "Just pretend like you didn't hear that!"
"No way. It was cute."
Basil pouted at Sunny miserably. "What's even happening?" Basil mumbled. "I thought you liked Aubrey."
"Really?" Sunny asked. "I thought I was being obvious. Why do you think I spend so much more time with you?"
Because we were just best friends, Basil thought weakly to himself. The blond persisted. "But I know you liked her! You told me before."
Sunny rolled his eyes. "Yeah, when we were 10. That was like 7 years ago already."
Basil gaped incredulously. "Then why have you been changing the way you dress and copying her style?"
Now it was Sunny's turn to look faintly embarrassed. He scratched the back of his neck, and Basil could swear there was the faintest blush spreading across his cheeks.
"She was just giving me advice," Sunny replied.
"Advice?!"
Sunny through Basil a sheepish look. "Well, things weren't really going anywhere with us, so Aubrey told me that it might help catch your attention if I had more of a 'bad boy' vibe."
Okay, now Basil was really dying of mortification. Aubrey had read him like a book. How did she know that Basil wouldn't be able to resist this sexy, new version of Sunny?
While Basil was spiraling in embarrassment, Sunny grabbed Basil's hand and drew closer again. "Okay? I don't like Aubrey. I like you. I have for a while." With his free hand, Sunny gently turned Basil's face back to his. "Any other questions? Or can we get back to making out?"
Oh, Basil had plenty of questions. Like "When?!" and "Why?!" and "How dare she?" But before he could manage to get any of those questions out, Basil felt Sunny's thumb brush against his lips, the black nail polish still gleaming, and Basil sighed.
"Yeah alright," Basil said. "Let's make out."
The next morning, when they met up with their friends their usual reunion picnic brunch, the friends didn't notice the matching black nail polish at first, or even the conspicuous trail of hickeys on Basil's neck. They only had to take one look at Sunny and Basil's goofy smiles and intertwined hands to know immediately what had happened. They immediately broke out into excited cheers of "I knew it!" and "Congrats!" before enveloping them both in a group hug. Basil just giggled shyly while it happened, but after a moment Sunny got a little jealous and pushed everyone else away from his new boyfriend.
The picnic brunch had never tasted so sweet to Basil.