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acacia-may · 1 year ago

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There Is Happiness (OMORI Kelbrey Fanfiction)

Description: Aubrey hadn’t always been this way. She could still remember a younger, less jaded version of herself who was actually excited about the idea of prom. A happier Aubrey who had used to giggle with Mari over the gowns in store catalogs and dream about all of her friends getting dressed up and going dancing together one day. A more innocent Aubrey who used to spend hours making plans for a future that would never get to happen. Her friends never got to go to a prom, and neither did she…Until now that is...

Nearly a decade after the bad ending of OMORI, Kel and Hero plan a fake "prom" to surprise Sally, drudging up bittersweet memories for Aubrey about her friends--both the ones she had lost and, especially, the ones, who like her, had been left behind to pick up the pieces. Will confronting the past lead her to a brighter future?

Kelbrey Slow Burn, Hurt/Comfort, & How Their (Functional) Relationship Developed Over Time After the Bad Ending of OMORI. (Note: This is a standalone one shot that is a completely different bad end AU than my other really angsty bad end AU fic).

Relationships: KELBREY (Romantic Kel x Aubrey) CENTRIC (Functional, Healthy, Slow Burn Kelbrey). There are also important platonic friendships discussed & depicted in flashbacks: Aubrey & Hero & Kel friendship, Aubrey & Kel & Sally friendship, Aubrey & Mari friendship, Aubrey & Kel & Sunny & Basil & Hero & Mari friendship [Aubrey & Kel's friendships with Basil, Sunny, & Mari are a recurring & important theme]. Past Romantic Hero x Mari is referenced/heavily implied.

Characters: Aubrey (POV Character), Kel, Hero, Sally, and Mari (Sunny & Basil also appear briefly and are mentioned).

Genre: Slow Burn Romance, Friends to Lovers, Hurt/Comfort, Developing Romance Through the Years, Angst With A Hopeful Ending, Post-Bad Ending, Many Flashback Sequences, Prom

Word Count: 12,748

Rating: T for some heavy themes and thematic elements (i.e. grief & healing from grief and trauma. Implied/Referenced Canonical Character Death & Implied/Referenced Mental Health Issues including depression & suicide).

Warnings: Major Spoilers for OMORI! Heavy themes and thematic elements (i.e. grief & healing from grief and trauma. Implied/Referenced Canonical Character Death & Implied/Referenced Mental Health Issues including depression & suicide). Kissing.

Link to original post on AO3. Please do not repost to another website.

A/N: Unfortunately, I missed Kelbrey Week because I did not know the ship even existed at the time (and had never played OMORI back in the dark ages of a couple of months ago), but I saw the prompts on Tumblr and was really inspired by the Prom prompt. Not only did the idea of "Kelbrey Prom" get a bunch of wheels turning in my brain, it also just so happened to be the prompt on my birthday, so I felt like it was it was just meant to be and I needed to write this story as soon as I had the idea. So I just wanted to offer a word of many, many thanks to @kelbreyweek for the prompt & inspiration for this story. 💕

Story below the cut. Thank you for reading!

Aubrey slammed her foot on the brake. She had lived in Faraway Town her whole life and still forgot about that stop sign. She probably always would.

The intersection was bustling today, and there was far more traffic than usual for a Saturday night. Aubrey supposed that was to be expected seeing as it was their local high school’s prom tonight, and the streets and sidewalks were filled with gussied-up teenagers in suits and poofy, colorful dresses. Aubrey rolled her eyes, conveniently ignoring the fact that she was in a pink prom dress herself—but at the very least it wasn’t that poofy.

Aubrey didn’t understand all the prom hype, especially now that she was trying to drive with teens darting in and out of the road and the straps of her dress uncomfortably digging into her arms whenever she tried to turn her steering wheel. She sighed. She sounded like such a grouchy old woman.

She hadn’t always been like that. The memories were hazy now, but she could still remember a younger less weathered, less jaded version of herself who was actually excited about the idea of prom.

*-*-*

“They’re so lucky,” sighed Aubrey glancing up from her pizza to watch the group of teenagers who had just walked into Gino’s dressed up in their finest suits and prettiest dresses for the prom.

Mari chuckled but patted her shoulder. “Don’t worry. That’ll be you too soon enough.”

“It’ll be you sooner,” Aubrey insisted with a widening smile. “You’ll get to go in just a couple of years, right?” She paused, then giggled teasingly. “With Hero.”

Hero’s face flushed, and he grew suddenly interested in his piece of pizza. Mari’s expression softened—something affectionate passing over her eyes as she chuckled at him behind her hand. She shrugged her shoulders then teased, “I don’t know. I might have to think about it,” but she winked at him and the blush in his cheeks deepened.

“Why do you even need a date to the prom anyway? Can’t you just go with your friends?” asked Kel as he practically shoveled pizza into his mouth.

Aubrey rolled her eyes and huffed. “Don’t talk with food in your mouth. It’s so gross.”

“You’re gross,” bantered Kel, sticking his tongue out at her before shoving the rest of his piece of pizza into his mouth.

Aubrey huffed again, but Hero gently interrupted changing the subject. “I think people do go to prom in groups with their friends. You don’t have to take a date like in the movies.” He paused before turning to his brother with a dry, bantering smile. “But if you want someone to take you, I’m sure Kel can.”

“No way! I’m not going to the prom with her. Basil can take her.”

“Wha—what? Why me?” stumbled Basil, bright red in the face.

“Because they always have those flower bracelets at the prom in the movies and you know all about flowers and stuff.”

“That’s called a corsage, moron,” bantered Aubrey. “And don’t worry, I’d rather go to prom with Hector than you.”

With a confused tilt of his head, Kel blinked at her. “Can we take dogs to prom? Awesome!” Kel beamed, and Aubrey rolled her eyes. “I’ll take Hector then, and Basil can take Aubrey.”

Basil’s blush deepened as he twisted his hands. “Well…um…I mean…” He paused, swallowing hard. “Well…maybe Sunny can take you…? He’s probably better at dancing.”

“Sunny will take you,” agreed Mari with a warm smile. “Won’t you, Sunny?”

Sunny pursued his lips together and pensively stared at his hands. Aubrey wasn’t sure but his face seemed a little more flushed than usual. He finally nodded briskly and quietly said, “Okay” though he wouldn’t look up from his plate.

Mari’s smile widened, and she chuckled. “See, problem solved.”

“I don’t understand why we can’t just all go to prom together,” sighed Kel. “You, me, Sunny, Basil, and Hector, and Hero and Mari too even though they’ll be older. We can all just go as friends.”

“That sounds nice,” said Sunny so quietly he was difficult to hear over the low roar and ruckus of the restaurant patrons.

“See!” exclaimed Kel triumphantly. “Sunny agrees with me. We should all just plan to go together as friends.”

“You might change your mind when you get older, Kel,” teased Hero with a dry but affectionate smile. Kel grimaced, sticking his tongue out at his older brother.

“No way!” He huffed then turned to Basil. “You think this sounds like a good idea, right Basil?”

“Wha—what? Oh…uh…yeah okay…” he stammered unsurely.

“Aubrey?”

Kel crossed his arms and glared at her, but Aubrey sighed and conceded, “Alright, but only because Sunny likes the idea. It might be nice for all of us to go as friends, but if I get a date, he’s coming with us too, okay?”

Mari started laughing behind her hand as Kel exaggeratedly rolled his eyes and huffed, “Whatever.”

*-*-*

A bittersweet smile tugged at Aubrey’s mouth. How silly they were then—how innocent. There was a pang in her chest, even now, so many years later as she remembered how they had spent hours together talking and laughing—making plans for a future that would never get to happen. She remembered how she used to giggle with Mari over the evening gowns in department store catalogs, sighing wistfully at the billboards advertising that year’s prom theme at the local high school, and dreaming of the day they’d get to go to one themselves. Aubrey’s chest ached as she sighed. Mari never got to go to a prom, and neither did she…

*-*-*

Tears prickled in Aubrey’s eyes as she glanced over the unworn prom dress still hanging up on the back of the closet door. She would probably feel better if she just shoved it into the back of her closet, but she couldn’t bring herself to. She had worked so hard for that dress—picking up extra shifts at Gino’s to afford such a luxury. She had justified it by reminding herself it was probably the only time in her life that she would get to wear such a dress, and this one was exactly what she had always dreamed: deep pink, floor-length chiffon. As soon as she saw it in the department store, a real, genuine smile had tugged at her mouth for the first time in so long that the sensation had felt almost foreign to her. And when she had finally bought the dress and tried it on for her friends to see, Charlene had quietly said she looked happy in it. She didn’t need to add that Aubrey hadn’t looked happy for a very long time.

A tear streamed down Aubrey’s cheek. She had wanted to wear that dress and go to the prom, but she just couldn’t—not today. Not now. Not without them.

Aubrey sniffled—rubbing her hand across her throbbing forehead. Her headache was so severe that she was actually starting to hear the pounding of her head. Or at least she thought she was until her mother called in a slurred, irritated voice,

“Aubrey! Get the door.”

Aubrey quickly wiped her eyes and scurried downstairs.

“Tell them whatever they’re selling we don’t want it,” her mother added with a dismissive wave of her hand as Aubrey walked by the couch carefully tiptoeing around the empty liquor bottles which littered the ground.

Aubrey wasn’t sure who was at their front door, but she doubted a salesman would be bothering them at this time of night. Still she mumbled, “Okay” as she turned the bolts of the lock and opened the door.

“Hey, Aubrey,” said Kel with a slight wave of his hand and a friendly smile. “How’s it going?”

Aubrey could only blink at him. He was dressed in a nice, dark suit with an unexpected bright pink tie. If she had been feeling better, she probably would’ve thought of a dry quip to tease him about it but instead she just sighed, ushering him out onto the porch before her mother got irritated by the noise.

“Kel, what are you doing here?” she asked through her teeth. “Aren’t you supposed to be at prom?”

Kel shrugged. “I was there for a while, but you weren’t there so I thought I’d come check on you.”

“Sorry…”—Aubrey’s face flushed—“I tried to call you…”

“I know,” he interrupted. “I got your message. Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. It’s just…I…uh…wasn’t feeling up to it.” Aubrey sighed, hoping that Kel wouldn’t read too much into it.

“Oh…are you feeling sick? The pharmacy should still be open. I can run down to—”

“No, Kel,” she cut him off, placing her hand on his arm. “That is…uh…I’m fine. You should go back to the prom. I don’t want to ruin your night.”

Kel’s expression softened, and he smiled at her. “Don’t worry about it. The prom was kind of boring without you anyway.” He paused. “You sure you don’t want to—?”

“Yeah,” she cut him off just a little too forcefully, trying her best to frown despite her flushed face.

“Okay…” he said quietly. “Then…do you mind if I hang out here for a little while?”

Aubrey’s face grew warm with guilt and embarrassment. Just because she had ruined her own night didn’t mean she had to ruin Kel’s as well. “You really don’t have to do that.”

“Nah. I want to. I’d rather spend tonight with you than at the dumb prom anyway.”

“Kel, I can’t let you do that,” she insisted, but he smiled at her.

“It’s just a bunch of people dancing and stuff—and sure that’s fun and all but it’s not as cool as everyone acts like it is.” He shrugged his shoulders. “They did hang all these Christmas lights from the ceiling though and that was kinda cool—since the theme is ‘A Night Under the Stars.’” Sighing, Kel took a seat on the porch—leaning back on his hands and looking up at the sky. “But there are real stars out here which are better anyway.”

“Kel…” Aubrey began to argue, but she wasn’t sure what to say. “You can’t just miss your prom.”

“Sure I can,” he shrugged with matter-of-fact nonchalance. “You are, aren’t you? And the prom always mattered way more to you. You were really looking forward to it…” Kel’s brow furrowed thoughtfully. “Did someone break your heart or something so you didn’t want to come anymore?”

Aubrey stifled a breathy chuckle but shook her head. “No. Nothing like that. I wasn’t even planning on going with a date.” She paused, glancing over at Kel’s pink tie. “Won’t your date be upset that you left?”

“Oh uh…” chuckled Kel awkwardly, fidgeting with his tie. “I didn’t go with one.”

“Really?” The question slipped out before Aubrey could think to stop it, but Kel just shrugged his shoulders.

“Yep.” He paused and sheepishly scratched the back of his neck. “To tell you the truth, I—I kind of wanted to ask this one girl, but it didn’t work out. Oh well…”

Aubrey paused. While he was one of her best friends, they never really discussed their love lives or lack thereof. She didn’t even know Kel was romantically interested in anyone and couldn’t even begin to guess who it was. She supposed it was none of her business, but if Kel had left prom early because of this girl rather than just to check on her, it would certainly help her feel better about things.

“Is she the reason you left?” asked Aubrey taking a seat next to him on the porch.

Kel froze, and his cheeks flushed. “Wha—what?” he stumbled, more awkward than she ever would’ve expected from the happy-go-lucky Kel. He chuckled lightly but didn’t say no.

“It’s okay if she is. I wasn’t going to tease you or anything. I just—” She stopped. “I just don’t want to you miss out,” she said in a shaky voice. “Especially not because of me.”

“I already said don’t worry about it. I’d rather spend prom night with you, even if we don’t actually go to the prom.” Aubrey’s mouth twitched, she could almost hear the smile in his voice, but she frowned with a heavy sigh.

“But you already missed the last one…”

“Because Basil—” Kel’s voice cracked. He didn’t finish that statement, but he didn’t have to. Basil had died just a few weeks before their Junior Prom and the last thing either of them had wanted to do was go to some big party, especially one that Basil should have been attending himself, and instead they had spent prom night at the spot in the park where they had always had picnics with their friends, then sitting around Kel’s kitchen table looking through Basil’s old photo albums.

Aubrey had never told Kel that she had been considering skipping prom months before Basil’s death anyway, too saddened by the idea of having to go without Sunny and of Mari having never been able to go to hers. Basil’s death and the note he left behind for them was the final straw. She wouldn’t have blamed Kel if he had still wanted to go himself, but he had told her he was just too sad. She could understand that. Back then, it really felt like neither of them would ever be happy again.

But this year… she had been so determined, so set on going and trying to have to good time because she knew her friends wouldn’t want her to miss out on it on their account. Aubrey’s insides twisted, and her eyes burned, tears prickling behind them again.

“Aubrey?” When she turned to look at him, the faint flush of red had faded from his cheeks and his expression had softened but a look of concern quickly passed over his eyes. “Have you been crying?”

Aubrey’s face grew hot, and she swallowed hard as she frantically swiped at her eyes again. How red and puffy were they that Kel had noticed? “You can’t just ask someone that, Kel,” she replied with a shaky, bantering huff, but Kel only blinked at her.

“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked, and Aubrey bit her lip. She couldn’t believe him—skipping over the ‘are you sure you’re okay?’ questions and straight to the ‘do you want to talk?’ Aubrey sighed though she felt a blush fill her cheeks and she fidgeted. She should probably expect it by now, given how many deep conversations she and Kel had been having over the past two years ever since Sunny and Basil had passed away. Her chest ached at the thought. Kel was giving her that look now—like he could see right through her, knew something was wrong and knew she was hurting even if she didn’t have the words to say it. She could see his pain too—that hollowness that crept into his smiles, that bittersweet sadness in his eyes. Kel’s eyes reflected the same pain that ached in her chest whenever she thought of Mari or Sunny or Basil. She was sure he could see his own grief in her as well, and perhaps that’s what had led them to find each other in the first place, in the wake of the loss of their friends—clinging to each other like two lost souls, sharing things with each other they could never even begin to tell anyone else.

“You can talk to me,” he gently encouraged her, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder.

Aubrey took a deep breath. She didn’t know if she wanted to unpack this, and she certainly didn’t want to dump it all onto Kel. She already felt guilty enough that he had left the prom to check up on her. But the look on Kel’s face was so warm and so kind, and the words, the painful truth was eating away at her waiting to be told to someone.

“You remember how we’d all promised we’d go to prom together someday?”

Kel’s brow furrowed. “Not really, but my memories of everyone are getting fuzzy…” There was a painful sadness cutting through his words as he said them.

“It’s okay. It wasn’t a big moment or anything. We were just at Gino’s joking around about it once, after a group of teenagers dressed for prom came in.” She paused. “You said you wanted to bring your dog.”

“Oh yeah…” said Kel with the slight twitch of a smile. “I remember that now. Mari was teasing Hero about taking her someday, and Sunny agreed with me that it would be nice if all of us could go together as friends.” Sighing, Kel paused—something bittersweet passing over his eyes. “You’re sad you couldn’t go with them, aren’t you?”

It wasn’t really a question.

Aubrey sniffled and nodded, and Kel cut her off reaching out to her. “Oh Aubrey, I…”

“It’s not just that. I was actually planning on going. I wanted to go. I bought a dress and everything. I knew it was going to be a hard day, but I was determined to do this. I knew they wouldn’t want me to miss out—would’ve wanted to me to go, even if I was sad they couldn’t be there with me.” Her voice cracked, and Kel nodded solemnly, understandingly.

“But…but…” she stumbled over her words as her eyes burned. “I was out of hairspray and knew I needed some for tonight, so I was riding my bike down to The Other Mart, and I saw there was a group of kids in the park and…” The tears started to pool in Aubrey’s eyes, and she took a deep, shaky breath, barely managing to choke out, “They were making flower crowns…”

She swiped at the tears that began to splash down her cheeks as she stumbled in the bits and pieces of sentences she could manage despite the panging ache in her chest, “I just—I just froze. I…I couldn’t stop thinking about…I turned around and came straight home and I just haven’t been able to stop crying…” She sniffled, wiping her eyes. “I know it’s so silly…to let something like that ruin my whole day, especially when it’s the prom, but I just started thinking about them and how they never got to go to prom and all the things they never got to do and will never get to do and…” Her voice trailed, as her words got choked by a sob in the back of her throat.

“I know,” sighed Kel quietly, giving her a reassuring pat on the back and pulling her into a hug. Aubrey took a few deep shaky breaths as she pressed her chin to Kel’s shoulder.

“It’s so stupid…” she mumbled, angry with herself as she pulled away from him.

“It’s not stupid at all.” He sighed heavily. “You know the other day I was supposed to be picking up a couple of groceries for my mom, and I was in that aisle in The Other Mart where they keep all the soups and sauces and stuff, and there was this lady there with her kids and the one kid dropped this big jar of spaghetti sauce—made a huge mess”—he paused as his breath hitched—”And I remembered that time we all tried to make spaghetti to surprise Hero, and I dropped the jar on the counter and the sauce splattered everywhere—it got in Basil’s hair and… Sunny was blinking at me with sauce all over his face and you were so mad but Mari just laughed…” He paused, swallowing hard. “It was like I couldn’t breathe. I ran out of there—totally forgot about the groceries.”

“Kel…” Aubrey began as she hugged him more tightly.

“I guess the moral of the story is neither one of us should be going shopping at the Other Mart, huh?” Kel chuckled lightly, but he sniffled and Aubrey could feel his shoulders trembling like he was trying not to cry.

They just sat there holding each other for a long time. No words were spoken, but they didn’t have to be. They understood—shared this pain of being the ones left behind. Kel sniffled, and Aubrey wondered if he was crying. It wouldn’t be the first time he had cried in front of her, and she knew—they both probably knew—that it wouldn’t be the last.

“You know, sometimes I think, I’m okay,” Kel managed in a wavering voice. “I still miss them, of course, but I’m not going to just start crying in the grocery store…but then…something like that happens and I just…I don’t know if I’m ever going to be okay. Like there was this whole life that I had before, but it’s all over and now I have this new life and even if things get better and it doesn’t hurt as much all the time, that sadness is always going to be there. There’s always going to be something missing, and I’m never going to not miss them.”

Aubrey sniffled and pulled away from him to look in his face, but that deep, indescribable pain in his misty eyes made her forget her words. She supposed it didn’t really matter. There was nothing she could possibly say that would make him feel better—she knew that better than anyone.

“Sorry,” he said hurriedly as he wiped his tears away. “I didn’t mean to make this about me. I feel really bad for dumping all that on you, especially when you were already upset.”

“No. I’m…I’m glad you told me, Kel,” she said hugging him again. “It’s…nice to know I’m not the only one…”

“You’re definitely not the only one—but it really does feel like you and me against the world sometimes, right?”

A kind, bittersweet smile pulled at the corners of Aubrey’s mouth as Kel wrapped an arm around her and she leaned her head on his shoulder. “Sometimes.”

“Hero too, but…” Kel paused, fidgeting. Aubrey nodded in understanding. He didn’t have to explain. She knew Hero worried especially about his younger brother which made it more difficult to open up to him about all of this sometimes, plus he was away at school and neither one of them wanted to bother him, especially when he was suffering a lot on his own.

“He missed his prom, too, didn’t he?” asked Aubrey quietly, changing the subject. Kel hummed, and she could feel him nod in response.

“But it’s overrated anyway…”

*-*-*

Kel was probably right, and the prom was overrated. That didn’t mean that she didn’t have the occasional regret about not going to hers, however. It wasn’t something she ever really talked about, but if she didn’t know better she would have thought that the fact she had skipped out on hers was part of the reason that Kel had invited her over tonight for the “prom” he and Hero had been putting together to surprise their younger sister, Sally.

Even though Sally was far too young to go to a prom, she was fairly vocal about the fact that she desperately wanted to. Though Aubrey thought it was a little odd to throw a prom for a little kid, she supposed there was no harm to it, and it was sweet that Hero and Kel were always trying to do such nice things for their little sister. She had also offered to help put it all together though she reminded Kel that she had never actually been to a prom so what would she possibly know about it? He said it wasn’t anything too fancy, but still insisted they should all dress up nicely. Just luckily Aubrey had had her unused prom dress from her own senior prom still hanging up in the back of her closet collecting dust. She supposed it was nice to finally get the chance to wear it, even if that meant getting stuck in stop-and-go traffic for half an hour.

Aubrey sighed. There was never any traffic on the way to prom in the movies. The people just got into their car—or their limo—and whipped right to the school without another car on the road. It was more than little unfair. Though she supposed she should know better than thinking of movies, especially teen rom coms, as real life.

*-*-*

“Okay, okay. I know we watch this movie every year, but I still don’t understand: can everybody at this school afford a limo? And where do the limos go when they’re all at prom?” asked Kel between bites of what had to be his third or fourth piece of birthday cake. Hero had been apologizing profusely for the fact it was store bought this year, but they understood he was extremely busy in medical school. They tried to reassure him that Mari would understand too, but Aubrey wasn’t sure if he had believed them. “How do all the limos even fit in the parking lot?”

“I don’t know, Kel,” Aubrey sighed, setting her piece of cake on the coffee table. “Just don’t think about it too much.”

“Listen, I went to prom—well part of it, and nobody came in a limo. Nobody,” Kel insisted forcefully, gesturing emphatically at her with his fork and flinging cake and frosting onto her face.

Aubrey huffed. “Kel!”

“Oh, you’ve got something on your nose,” he teased before playing poking at it with his finger.

“Here’s some napkins,” said Hero, handing her a stack of napkins with that said ‘Happy Birthday’ surrounded by balloons.

“Thank you.” Aubrey nodded at Hero then rolled her eyes at Kel shaking her head, but his attention was transfixed on the movie again, probably still wondering about the limos.

Aubrey sighed. Every year they watched Mari’s favorite movie for her birthday, and every year Kel found something else about it that didn’t make sense to him. Last year, it was how nobody in the school had worn anything even close to the same outfit. The year before that it was how the main character who was supposed to be smart hadn’t ever questioned her love interest’s obviously complicated motivations in asking her to the prom in the first place. This year it was the limos.

Aubrey sometimes wondered if Kel had only started this tradition of chattering away during the movie in the hopes that it would keep her and Hero’s spirits up and prevent them from being too sad that Mari wasn’t there to celebrate her birthday with them. But other times—like now, when she watched him pick up his piece of cake with his hands and shove it into his mouth as the icing squished into his face, she thought it was probably more likely that it was just Kel being Kel.

A smile tugged her lips in spite of herself, but she pushed the thought away. She’d never admit that she was glad Kel was around to ask dumb questions about the movie, and as she watched the small smile in the corners of Hero’s mouth, she was sure he felt the same way.

When the credits began to roll, Hero started cleaning up the cake, plates, and napkins, and Kel started prattling away again. “Why do movies make prom into such a big deal, anyway? They act like it’s the most important thing that will ever happen to you.”

“Well…” Hero sighed, his brow furrowing thoughtfully. “I think they need a climatic moment for the story, and when the characters are teenagers, they can’t have a wedding or something like that so they use the prom.”

“It’s really not as cool as all that though. I was honestly kind of let down.” Kel’s mouth curved into a teasing, lopsided grin before he chuckled, seemingly getting distracted once again by his cake. “This cake was great, by the way!”

“You can thank Aubrey for that. She picked it up from Nona’s.”

Aubrey shrugged. “It’s no big deal. I was in there anyway.” She stopped, not quite ready to admit that she was in that bakery a lot. It was one of her favorite places in their college town, and she liked to treat herself with a pastry every now and again after exams, if she did well on them of course.

“Sorry I couldn’t make one this year…” Hero apologized again with red, apologetic cheeks. “Neuroanatomy is just kicking my tushie.”

Aubrey and Kel broke into raucous laughter. “Your tushie? Really, Hero?” teased Kel.

“What are you—five?” Aubrey bantered.

“You know what I mean,” sighed Hero. Though his cheeks were flushed, he was smiling in spite of himself. “Medical school is hard.” He sighed again. “I’m sure Aubrey understands being in nursing and all.”

“I’m glad I’m going to be a nurse and not a doctor—there’s too much memorizing. I’m not smart enough for that.”

“Don’t say that, Aubrey,” chimed Kel. “You and Hero are both super smart—you know all kinds of medical stuff. I could never do what you do.”

“Well I’m sure neither of us could ever do what you do either, Kel,” Aubrey insisted, and Hero nodded in agreement. “You can fix anything, and I wouldn’t even know what to do with a welding torch if my life depended on it.”

Kel chuckled his face brightening. “I can show you sometime if you want. It’s really not that hard.”

“Says the ‘Welder of the Year,’” bantered Aubrey.

“It was only ‘of the month,’ and…”

“I still have the newsletter hanging up on our refrigerator,” interjected Hero with a proud smile. Kel scratched the back of his neck as his face flushed.

“You can take that down, you know? It’s really not that big of a deal…” He sighed. “I only fix engines and stuff. I don’t save lives or anything like you guys.”

Aubrey sighed, shaking her head. “I’ve never saved a life.”

“I’ve barely even left my classroom,” said Hero. “So you’ve at least got one up on me. You’re in clinicals now, aren’t you?”

Aubrey nodded. “Yeah. I’m trying to get a job as a student nurse too. I just interviewed in behavioral health and psychiatry.”

She stopped abruptly as Kel and Hero’s eyes widened, a certain sadness in them that Aubrey had used to see all the time but which hadn’t been in their expressions in a while. A silence spread through the room, and Aubrey sighed, wishing she hadn’t mentioned it. She was about to apologize for bringing it up and ruining the mood of everyone’s evening, but then she felt an arm wrap around her shoulders and a gentle hand patting her back.

“That’s great, Aubrey,” said Kel with a kind smile and soft expression. “I hope you get it and help a lot of people.”

“Me too,” said Hero. “I think you’ll be great at that.”

“Thanks,” Aubrey mumbled, her face feeling suddenly warm.

“Well, I think this deserves a toast.” Kel stood up from his seat and poured some cups of coffee from the coffee maker for them.

Aubrey quirked an eyebrow at him. “We’re toasting coffee?”

“Yes,” he answered, completely unphased as if it was the most natural thing in the world. He held up his coffee cup. “To Aubrey, soon to be ‘World’s Greatest Nurse.’”

He winked at her, and Aubrey shook her head but bantered, holding up her own cup, “And to Kel—Welder of the Year,”

“Would you stop it with that?” he teased under his breath as a flush of red filled his cheeks. He shook his head and turned to Hero. “And to Hero—who can do anything!”

“And everything,” added Aubrey as Hero turned away from them blushing a bright red.

“You guys…” he mumbled.

“And let’s toast Mari too,” said Kel. “Happy Birthday, Mari!”

“Happy Birthday, Mari,” Hero and Aubrey replied with kind, bittersweet smiles.

As they took sips of their coffee, Aubrey’s lips puckered, and her face contorted as she resisted the urge to spit hers out. Even Hero grimaced.

“What in the world is this, Kel?” She reached for her water to try to rinse out the taste.

“Oh you’re never gonna believe it, but Orange Joe makes ground coffee now.”

“Why?” groaned Aubrey.

“You really should warn us first,” Hero quipped dryly with a slight smile, but Kel just shrugged.

“What? I thought it was pretty good.”

“I don’t know how you drink this garbage. It tastes like rotten oranges,” Aubrey bantered. “It would’ve been better if we toasted with broccoli juice or something.”

“I have some soda in the pantry. Let’s just use that.” Hero, always the peace-maker, got up from his seat and made his way to the kitchen with a gentle smile. Once he was gone, Kel finished off his cup of coffee and turned to her with a soft expression in his eyes.

“Hey Aubrey?”

“Yeah?” she asked, her brow furrowing.

“I think it’s really great that you want to be a psych nurse and everything.”

Aubrey sighed. “I don’t know if it’ll work out, Kel. I mean I just interviewed so…”

“It’ll work out,” he cut her off with a reassuring smile. “I know it will, and when it does, I know you’re gonna be great. I…”—he paused and glanced away from her—"I think you’re really great—at everything.”

Aubrey’s cheeks grew warm from the compliment. “Thank you, Kel. I think you’re—”

She didn’t get to finish that thought, however, as Kel wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into an unexpected but welcomed hug. Aubrey pressed her chin to his shoulder and gave him a pat on the back. She waited for him to let go of her, but he held her far longer than usual.

Finally, he whispered so quietly she almost couldn’t hear him. “Do a good job, okay? For all of us…”

Aubrey nodded. She contemplated pulling away from him, but he ran his hand through the ends of her long hair mumbling, “And Aubrey…Uh…I was wondering…”

“Yeah?” she shivered, in spite of herself.

“Uh…” he began again, and she could feel his hands begin to shake as they gently held onto her.

“Do you want diet or regular? I also have a few cherry—” Hero’s voice stopped abruptly. “Oh sorry… I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

Kel and Aubrey quickly pulled away from each other. Aubrey could only hope she wasn’t blushing as much as she feared. Her cheeks burned, but she and Kel hurriedly talked over each other, reassuring Hero it was fine, and he wasn’t interrupting anything. Aubrey’s head reeled, but Kel seemed completely unphased, politely declining Hero’s soda and pouring himself another cup of Orange Joe.

As Kel stood up from his seat beside her on the sofa, Aubrey could have sworn that Hero shot her a knowing, somewhat teasing smile that made her stomach twist. She bit her lip and tried her best to push the thought away—nervously, reaching for her coffee cup in an attempt at nonchalance and unfortunately failing to remembered it was still full of Orange Joe until she had actually taken a sip. Aubrey grimaced at the bitter taste, but her cheeks burned as she watched Hero’s mouth twitched in the corners at her.

*-*-*

Aubrey wished she could say that was the last time she ever accidentally tried Orange Joe. It wasn’t, but both her and Hero did get much better at predicting whether or not Kel was trying to pawn the drink off onto them. It had a distinctively putrid citrusy odor that, eventually, made it much easier to identify. If she knew Kel, there would probably be a whole pitcher full of it at the “prom” he was putting together even though Hero had insisted multiple times that Sally was much too young for coffee.

It was nice to hear that Hero was going to get to come tonight, too. He had been so busy with his residency that they didn’t get to see too much of them these days. Even Kel who was his roommate said he was lucky if he occasionally managed to catch Hero as he was heading to the hospital when Kel himself was getting home from his third shift at the manufacturing plant where he worked. Hero promised them that he was happy, just very busy, and they respected his need for rest, even if it was starting to feel a little bit like her and Kel against the world again.

That reminded her, she ought to give him a call about the traffic—letting him know she was going to be late.

“Hey Kel,” she began, but his voice, muffled and staticky from what Aubrey presumed was a bad connection, cut her off.

“Hi Aubrey. What’s up?”

“Well, I’m on my way, but I’m stuck in traffic. You would not believe how many cars are out here right now.” Aubrey sighed wearily. “On their way to prom probably”

“Have you seen any limos?”

Aubrey laughed. “No, Kel. No limos. I really don’t think we even have those in Faraway Town.”

“That’s probably true.” He chuckled before changing the subject. “It’s no big deal if you’re late or anything. Just drive safely, and you can let yourself in through the fence to the backyard.”

“Oh, are you having it outside?”

Kel hummed. “Yeah, it was such a nice night that I thought it would be fun to dance out on the porch and stuff. I’ve been practicing my dancing, and I think I’m a lot better than the last time you danced with me so…”

Aubrey’s face grew suddenly hot, but she took a deep breath, trying and failing not to think of the last night Kel had danced with her…

*-*-*

“Okay, explain to me again how you came to win dancing lessons?” quipped Aubrey, quirking an eyebrow at Kel, but he merely shrugged at her.

“Well I bought a bunch of raffle tickets because I wanted this ceramic chicken.” He paused before adding hurriedly with a sheepish smile, “And, you know, to support the hospital and everything too.”

Aubrey sighed and shook her head, but Kel didn’t seem to notice. It was very nice of Kel to come with her to her hospital’s charity benefit. They were raising money to build a new wing which would mean more beds in the juvenile behavioral health ward where she worked as a nurse. She had told Kel that the gala was mostly for the really big donors, and she was just inviting him for his company so he shouldn’t feel obligated to donate anything. Even so, it was sweet of him to try to buy some raffle tickets for some of the less expensive items.

A smile twitched in the corners of her mouth. It was just like Kel to do something thoughtful like that—especially for a dumb reason like wanting a ceramic chicken he could probably buy for himself half-as-cheap at a local home goods store.

“I was going to put all the tickets in the drawing for the basket with the chicken,” Kel prattled on. “But then some of the other people were giving me these weird looks, so I started to put them in the drawing for some of the other raffle baskets too, and I guess I won the one with the dancing lessons.” With a slight shrug of his shoulders, Kel frowned disappointedly. “Didn’t win the chicken though. I was pretty bummed about that.”

“What would you even do with a ceramic chicken?” Aubrey teased dryly.

“I don’t know, but I’d probably get more use out of it than dance lessons.”

A chuckle escaped Aubrey’s mouth as she barely stifled a laugh—turning back to the stove where she was frying some potatoes as they waited for the lasagna they were making for dinner to be finished cooking in the oven. It wouldn’t be nearly as good as Hero’s, but he was far too busy with his residency to cook for even himself these days. They were making this meal to surprise him when he got home and to celebrate his first weekend off in months.

“Do you want to take them with me?” asked Kel as he absent-mindedly stirred the pudding they were making for dessert.

Aubrey tilted her head at him. “The dance lessons?”

“Yeah. It’s for two people, and I didn’t really know who else to bring.”

“What about Hero?” She didn’t realize how silly that suggestion sounded until Kel laughed.

“Hero is a great dancer already, and he’s super busy right now anyway.”

With a conceding shrug of her shoulders, Aubrey sighed. “Isn’t there someone else you’d rather bring, Kel?”

“Nope,” he replied immediately, clearly not understanding the meaning behind her words. “Why would there be?”

“Well…you know…some people think that dancing can have a more romantic connotation, so I was just thinking that if you were interested in someone you might want to bring…” Her voice trailed as she tilted her head confused and inquisitively at the unreadable expression on Kel’s face.

“Oh…uh…well…” Kel chuckled though he rubbed his hand sheepishly across the back of his neck. “Actually, I’d rather take you, but if you don’t want to come, you can just say...”

“It’s fine, Kel.” With a shrug, Aubrey stared down at the potatoes, put the lid over the pan, and turned the stove down to low heat so they could simmer. Her mouth twitched into a bantering smile. “I just meant, you should probably be careful going around asking other girls to go dancing with you. They might get the wrong idea.”

“Is it really that much of a romantic thing?” asked Kel blinking at her.

Aubrey shrugged again. “It is in the movies.”

“But that’s just the movies. They make everything romantic, especially when it doesn’t have to be. Like how they always make it seem like prom is the best night of your life or when the couple dances together there one time, they’re suddenly desperately in love forever.” Kel laughed, but Aubrey frowned.

“I didn’t mean it like—” She huffed, shaking her head. “And what would you know about prom anyway, you barely even went to ours?”

“I went to enough of it to know that it wasn’t super magical or anything, and yeah, I danced with a few girls, but it’s not like I’m just pining for them forever now.” Kel paused, chuckling to himself, and Aubrey’s face flushed but her brow furrowed. Was he making fun of her?

“That’s not the same thing. For some girls it’s different. They romanticize it in their heads”—she sighed—“not me but…”

“That’s because you’re a cynic,” teased Kel.

“And you’re a moron—especially if you think that another girl wouldn’t take your invitation to dancing lessons in a romantic way.”

Kel just shrugged and admitted, “I don’t get it.”

“Well…what if you had danced with that girl, the one you actually wanted to take as your prom date? Don’t you think that would’ve been special?”

“I didn’t get to dance with her—ever actually, but I don’t think it would’ve changed anything. A dance is just dance, isn’t it?” He tilted his head as a bantering smile tugged at his lips. “You’re acting like if I just started dancing with you right now, you’d—?”

“K—Kel?” Aubrey’s breath hitched as he slipped his arms around her waist. “What are you doing?”

“Proving a point,” he insisted with a shrug.

Aubrey huffed. “There isn’t even any music.”

“Oh.” Kel absentmindedly tilted his head before pulling out his phone, presumably choosing a song to play. As the song’s intro began to play, he set his phone on the counter and held out his hand to her.

“Can I have this dance?” he asked with a playfully melodramatic bow, and Aubrey sighed with a somewhat affectionate roll of her eyes.

“Fine,” she sighed. “Whatever will get you to focus on cooking again.”

Kel smiled brightly as he wrapped his arms around her waist again. As he met her eyes, she looked away abruptly—clearing her throat as she snaked her arms around his neck. He was so close to her. Her cheeks felt warm, and she swallowed hard, pushing the thought away. ‘It’s just Kel,’ she reminded herself.

He began swaying—Aubrey shook her head—off tempo with the music. “You really can use those dance lessons,” she teased though there was a certain, uncharacteristic shakiness that seeped into her words. She pursed her lips and mentally kicked herself. What was wrong with her all of a sudden?

She could almost feel Kel’s chuckle reverberating in his chest. “Yeah, well I guess it’s good I won them then.” He smiled at her, and as he met her eyes, Aubrey shuddered in spite of herself.

Kel pulled her closer to him—almost pressing his cheek against hers and began to quietly sing along to the music. Aubrey’s face flushed. Knowing Kel he probably wasn’t even aware that he was singing, but she could feel his warm breath, those affectionate words almost whispered in her ear. For the life of her she couldn’t even begin to guess why Kel had picked what was probably one of the most romantic songs in the universe. The slow crooning of the melody alone screamed romance, but there was so much devotion, so much longing in the lyrics—and to hear them in Kel’s voice... Aubrey inhaled sharply—hoping her face wasn’t nearly as red as she feared.

“How”—her voice hitched, and she pulled away from him—“How do you even know this song?”

Kel just shrugged. “Hero showed it to me. He likes all those old songs, you know? And I thought it would be good for this.” He paused. “Why? Do you like it?”

“It’s fine,” shrugged Aubrey though she found she couldn’t look at Kel for some reason.

When she finally met his gaze again, there was something so warm, so gentle in his expression, and his dark eyes seemed to glisten with an emotion that she couldn’t begin to describe but which made her heart pound all the same. He lifted his hand from her waist and gently pressed his palm to her cheek.

“If this was a movie, this is probably the point when I’d say something corny like…” Kel paused, blinking at her with heavy-lidded eyes before he continued with a gentle sincerity that made her breath catch in her throat, ”‘You are so beautiful.’” He stroked her cheek with his thumb, and as his eyes fluttered closed, he sighed, “‘I’ve wanted this for a long time.’”

Aubrey swallowed hard. She tried to frown even though she was sure her face was bright red from that…that pining underscoring his voice. ‘This is just a game,’ she reminded herself—one that Kel seemed to be getting extremely into, but a game all the same. Still... the way his voice faltered, the earnestness in his eyes made it easy to forget.

“You’ve been watching too many romance movies with Hero…” she quipped, but her voice wavered.

Kel chuckled lightly. “Maybe…”

His hand softly stroked the side of her cheek until the tips of his long fingers began to tangle in her hair. She shivered as she took a long, shaky breath. His lips parted slightly as his mouth relaxed. She bit her lip and watched as Kel did the same.

“Aubrey…” he whispered as she tangled her trembling hand in the hair at the nape of his neck and gently pulled him towards her in slow, deliberate movements that didn’t feel like her own. His long, dark eyelashes fluttered. He was close enough to her now that she could almost feel them against her skin.

Her heart pounded. Her hands shook. He hovered in front of her mere inches away from her face. When he whispered her name again, she realized they had stopped dancing.

As Kel’s eyes fluttered closed, he tilted his head and cupped her face with his hands. His breath was warm against her skin, so close Aubrey could almost taste the coffee and citrus lingering from that awful Orange Joe he loved so much. As she began to lean closer to him, her hand curled around the unruly strands of his hair, and she pressed her palm to the back of his head—pulling him in. Closer. Closer.

He began to lean forward. That space between them was almost non-existent now. Aubrey froze—unable to move, unable to breath. Her heartbeat raced, and she could almost feel Kel’s heart pounding as he stopped, a breath away from her. She gripped the soft fabric of his shirt and shut her eyes tightly. Waiting. Waiting until…

BEEP! BEEP! The sound of the oven timer rang through the living room. Aubrey exhaled deeply though her cheeks flushed. What had just happened?

Kel startled, pulling away from her abruptly. “Oh! The lasagna!” he exclaimed with a bright smile, seemingly, completely unphased by what had just happened, by the fact that they had almost…

Aubrey inhaled sharply, then took a few deep breaths to calm herself down. She bit down hard on her lip. It was just a game to him. Of course it was.

“Alright fine, Kel…” she laughed it off with as much of a frown as she could muster as the music stopped. Her racing heartbeat and wavering tone of voice didn’t seemed to get the memo, however. “You’re right.”

His face beamed. “Seriously?” He chuckled, playfully poking her in the arm. “See, I told you that you didn’t miss out on anything at the prom.”

Aubrey sighed—willing that blush she could still feel in her face away. “Yeah… It’s just a dance—nothing necessarily romantic about that. But you know I agreed with you from the beginning, right? So don’t get too excited about it. I just meant a lot of other girls might get the wrong impression.” ‘Especially if you dance with them like that,’ she mentally added, barely managing to stop herself before the words tumbled out of her mouth.

“Yeah, alright. You know, honestly, I actually kinda see your point now too.” Kel tilted his head and chuckled breathily though his expression was unreadable. Aubrey’s heart raced in spite of herself as she tried to push these thoughts, these feelings, whatever they were away for good.

*-*-*

Aubrey let out a long and heavy sigh. She could feel the blush in her cheeks even now just thinking about it. She hadn’t done a very good job of pushing the memory away. Even though they had never talked about that dance, about that almost-kiss ever again, Aubrey had mulled it over in her mind more times than she could count, until she could almost believe that she had been imagining things, that she had just gotten caught up in the music and dancing and that nothing had actually almost happened. But…—Aubrey sighed—the way he had looked at her…

She swallowed hard and pushed the thought away. This was Kel. Kel—dopey, happy-go-lucky Kel who used to eat spray cheese directly out of the can until she and Hero staged an intervention to ask him to stop and who once got a popsicle stick stuck up his nose because he wanted to see if he could touch his brain with it. Granted he was seven at the time, but still… this was Kel, and Kel was…was…

Aubrey sighed. Kel was sweet and thoughtful. He’d do anything to make his friends and family happy, and he loved making people laugh. He could make friends anywhere he went, and he always found things to smile about. And yeah, he could be awkward sometimes, airheaded, oblivious, and occasionally stubborn, but he had a big heart and even if his words didn’t always come out the way he wanted them to, she never doubted how much he cared. He was a great friend—her best friend, probably if she was being honest, but she wasn’t about to waste another minute of her life sitting around analyzing whether she may or may not have almost kissed him once. And she especially wasn’t going to sit around analyzing whether or not she should have or, worst of all, whether she had wanted to.

“You will dance with me again, won’t you?” asked Kel’s voice through the phone. “I gave those dancing lessons to my parents as a gift, but Hero was helping me practice a little bit, so I think I’ve gotten a lot better.”

“Uh…yeah…sure Kel…” stumbled Aubrey trying her best not to think anything of it.

“Okay, great! I’ve got to go now, but I’ll see you soon, okay? Bye.”

“…Bye…” mumbled Aubrey. She let out a long and heavy sigh, shaking her head and mentally kicking herself for getting so flustered about Kel of all people. It was nothing, clearly…given the way he could mention it so nonchalantly like that. She should just stop thinking about it and worrying that it was something that it wasn’t.

She pushed the thought away—trying her best to think about something else, anything else. What was everyone going to wear tonight? Sally would probably look adorable all dressed up in party dress or a costume if she wanted to be an actual princess—though Aubrey supposed Kel had specifically used the word “prom” rather than “ball” so Sally might not want a princess dress. Would Kel and Hero go all out and rent tuxes or just wear nice suits? Maybe Kel would bring back that bright pink tie from their prom…

Aubrey stopped. That tie. She hadn’t thought about it in years until it got brought up a couple of weeks ago when she and Kel were going shopping at the outlet mall with Sally.

*-*-*

“They’re so pretty,” Sally sighed wistfully with a little twirl as they passed some of the clothing racks filled with sparkly prom dresses. “I can’t wait ‘til I’m old enough to go to the prom.” She giggled and squeezed Aubrey’s hand. “What was it like? Did you get to wear a pretty dress like that, Aubbie?”

Aubrey smiled. Sally had given her that nickname years ago when she was a little toddler who struggled with her “r”s, and it made it happy to think that it had somehow stuck all these years. Her smile quickly faded however, as she awkwardly replied, “Well…Sally…I didn’t actually go to my prom.”

“Oh…” Sally’s eyes widened sadly, and she tilted her head. “I’m sorry.”

“That’s okay,” she reassured her, giving her a gentle smile and a reassuring pat on the head. “Your brother went though—to part of it. He wore this bright pink tie.”

Kel laughed and playfully poked her in the arm. “You remember my tie?”

Aubrey’s face flushed, but she bantered. “It was kind of hard to forget. Why’d you pick a color like that anyway?”

“Oh uh…” Chuckling, he scratched the back of his neck. “I never told you?”

“No…” Aubrey quirked an eyebrow at him, but Sally giggled.

“I wanna hear about it.”

“Well, okay, just for you Sally,” Kel’s expression softened, but he shrugged his shoulders. “But I’m warning you, it’s…kind of silly now that I’m thinking about it…” He sighed. “There was this girl…She was really amazing. I wanted to ask her to prom, but I was really afraid she would say ‘no’ so I kind of chickened out. But she really liked pink so…I thought maybe she’d like that pink tie. Kind of silly, right?” He laughed it off, but his cheeks flushed.

“Did she like it?” asked Sally, curiously blinking up at her older brother.

Kel’s mouth curved into a smile, and—Aubrey blushed—she could have almost sworn he glanced over at her when he said, “Yeah. I think she did…”

“You know, you never told me—that girl, did she go with someone else?” The question slipped out before Aubrey could stop it. She had spent years wondering, worrying if she had ruined Kel’s prom with her own problems or if he was nursing a broken heart of his own that had nothing to do with her grief. It was probably selfish to be bringing it up now after all these years, but she couldn’t give up the opportunity to find out for sure if Kel would have left the prom early anyway, even if she had been there.

“Nope,” Kel shook his head with a sigh, and Aubrey swallowed hard.

“Did you get to dance with her, then?”

A smile twitched in the corners of Kel’s mouth—something unreadable but undeniably affectionate flashing across his eyes. “Eventually…”

“Was she a good dancer?” giggled Sally.

“Better than me.” Kel shrugged, but he reached out to take Sally’s hand and gave his sister a little twirl. “But I am getting better.”

He flashed Aubrey a teasing smile, and she shook her head at him as she stifled a laugh. She knew it was a sign that this conversation was over, but it nagged at the back of her brain for the rest of the day as they absentmindedly wandered from store to store, eventually stopping for soft pretzels at the food court and surprising Sally with a bright yellow bow for her hair. There was no more talk of prom.

When it started storming, they decided to call it a day and headed back to Faraway Town. It wasn’t long before Sally fell asleep in the back seat of her car, exhausted from the long and exciting day of shopping. Aubrey dreaded the silence left by the absence of Sally and Kel’s cheerful prattling, but she was grateful for the opportunity to focus on driving rather than on mulling Kel’s words over in her head. That guilt she had been feeling ever since he had had to skip out on their prom on her account was suddenly fresh again, gnawing at her, getting harder and harder to push away.

“Hey…uh…Aubrey? Are you okay?” asked Kel quietly enough so as not to wake up the napping Sally. “You’ve been kind of quiet…”

“Well Sally’s asleep Kel,” she replied with a tilt of her head as she glanced in her rearview mirror.

“Yeah, but I meant before that…Ever since we were in that department store…”

Aubrey took a deep breath and tried to muster a, “Yeah…I’m just…”

She stopped abruptly. Even if she didn’t take her eyes off the road, she could almost picture Kel’s reassuring smile, encouraging her that she could tell him anything. Maybe it would be best to ask him now when she didn’t have to look in his face...

Before she could decide, however, she pulled into the driveway of Kel’s parents’ house. Grabbing a nearby umbrella, Kel got out of the car and gently lifted a sleeping Sally, draping his jacket over her head so her face wouldn’t get wet from his attempts to carry her and the umbrella.

Kel fidgeted until he was shielding Sally completely with the umbrella, getting himself soaked in the process. Aubrey sighed and shook her head with a somewhat affectionate smile. He was going to be sopping wet by the time he got back to the car, but if Aubrey was being honest, she didn’t mind. It was sweet how much Kel cared about his sister. Aubrey supposed that was really just Kel—he always thought about everybody else and how to make them happy. He’d give a stranger his umbrella if they needed it, even if that meant he’d get himself soaked. It was something Aubrey admired most about him.

Her face felt suddenly warm, and she pushed the thought away, watching as Kel handed Sally off to his mom on the porch. She gave Aubrey a bright smile and a cheerful wave as Kel rushed back across yard. Aubrey waved back.

Sure enough, when Kel got back inside the car, he was dripping water. He ran his hand through his sopping hair.

“Sorry, Aubrey. I’ll clean it up when you drop me off,” he insisted with a sheepish smile, but Aubrey waved her hand.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s just water.”

Chuckling, Kel’s mouth twitched into a lopsided grin, and he shrugged his shoulders, “Okay, now that Sally’s inside…what’s up? Something’s bugging you.”

“I’m fine,” Aubrey said, but she knew Kel knew her too well to believe that.

He sighed, a look of concern passing over his eyes. “Are you sure? Is it something I said…?”

“No…” She bit her lip. “It’s not you. It’s just…”

“You’ll feel better if you just tell me. I know you will,” he teased with a kind smile.

Aubrey huffed. He was right, of course, but she didn’t really want to admit that.

“Why did you leave our prom?”

Kel’s brow furrowed, and his eyes widened in confusion. “What?”

“You know…was it for that girl you wanted to take but didn’t end up asking or was it for…?” She stopped and cleared her throat.

“Well…actually…” Kel stumbled, his face flushing. Aubrey sighed guiltily. She didn’t mean to fluster him like this—it wasn’t fair.

“I just…I know it’s none of my business, and I feel bad asking but I just don’t want to be reason that you had to skip out on our prom, you know? So if you left because you were heartbroken or…”

“Oh,” Kel interrupted. Clearing his throat, he rubbed his hand across the nape of his neck. “Uh…I wasn’t heartbroken or anything, but…yeah, I did leave because of that girl—the one I wanted to ask…”

Aubrey sighed. She didn’t feel as relieved to hear this as she had always imagined she would. She felt almost…sad…

“Do you regret it?” she asked quietly, staring at her hands. “Leaving her there at the prom?”

“What?”

“You know, you could’ve stayed. You didn’t have to miss out on it, especially not to just waste the whole night sitting on my porch…” She cleared her throat though she twisted her hands around the steering wheel, staring intently at the swaying windshield wipers. “Do you ever wish that…things had been different?”

“I mean…I guess sometimes, maybe, but only to wish that you had been there and that everyone had been there to come with us.” Sighing bittersweetly, Kel paused. “Why? Do you?”

Aubrey sighed, adjusting her grip on the steering wheel even though the car was still parked. “Sometimes…” she admitted. “But for the same reason as you, I guess, and…” Her voice trailed, and she could feel Kel shift next to her.

“And what?”

“I’ve just…” Her face flushed as she took a deep breath. “I always felt guilty for making you miss it. I really am sorry about that.”

Kel chuckled lightly and placed his hand on her shoulder until she turned to look at him. “Aubrey, don’t worry about it. I already told you. I wanted to spend it with you.”

His smile was warm, and the look in his eyes was so tender that Aubrey’s hands began to shake as her cheeks blushed rose. She turned away from him, and he shrugged his shoulders and admitted, “I think about that night a lot, actually…in a good way. I don’t have regrets.”

He gently pushed a piece of hair out of her face, and Aubrey shivered but not from the cold and wet of the rain on his fingers. “Aubrey, I…There’s actually…” He stopped and pulled his hand away from her abruptly as water began to drip into her face. “Oh shoot. I’m sorry,” he stumbled, panicking over the damp streaks in her hair.

“It’s okay, Kel…” Aubrey sighed—politely failing to mention that his panicking over dripping water everywhere was just spraying water and making everything wetter. “Let’s just…get you home.”

“Okay…” Kel nodded, but his face was flushed. Aubrey was sure hers was bright red. She could only hope he wouldn’t notice.

*-*-*

Taking a deep breath, Aubrey parked her car on the street in front of Kel’s house. This was probably the worst possible thing she could have been thinking of right now. Why did she do this to herself?

She sighed heavily, burying her face in her hands before she composed herself, pushing all those thoughts away. She didn’t even know where they were coming from, and even if she did, now was definitely not the time to be thinking about any of that. She could almost guarantee that Kel certainly wasn’t. There was no way he was sitting around wondering what would have happened if the timer hadn’t gone off when they were dancing or if water hadn’t started to drip into her face when he was running his hand through her hair. These were just things Kel did without thinking—it didn’t mean anything more to him than that they were just friends, so why should it mean anything more to her? And…perhaps more importantly, why would she even want it to? Why would she want affection for him that would never be returned?

Her shoes clicked across the pavement as she made her way down the sidewalk and up the driveway to the house where Kel lived with his brother, at least until Hero finished his final year of residency and paid off enough student loans to afford his own place. There was the faint sound of music echoing from the backyard and lights shimmering from what she assumed was probably their decorated porch. As soon as she walked through the gate to the yard, however, she realized she was wrong. There was a beautiful trellis canopy covered in Christmas lights with twinkling icicle lights hanging from the ceiling—underneath it was Hero’s record player, playing classic love songs.

Aubrey froze just staring at it—how it beautiful it was. She didn’t even notice Kel until he chuckled beside her.

“Aubrey, you made it!” He paused, his expression softening. “You look beautiful. I’m glad I finally got to see your prom dress.”

Aubrey’s face flushed, and she curled her toes in her shoes both at the compliment, and at the fact that Kel didn’t look too shabby himself dressed in his dark suit with combed hair and shiny dress shoes. “You look nice too, Kel. I see you’re wearing that tie—” she tried to tease him, but her voice cracked. Kel, however, just chuckled lightly.

“Oh yeah…well, you know…” With a slight shrug of his shoulders, he paused fidgeting with the bright pink tie around his neck. “Do you like it?”

Aubrey somehow managed a playful roll of her eyes. “It’s great, Kel.”

“I got you this,” he exclaimed excitedly, holding out a plastic container with a corsage inside.

“Wow, thank you,” she stumbled as he helped her slip it onto her wrist. “You really did go all out, huh?”

Kel hummed and nodded enthusiastically, but Aubrey’s brow furrowed as she glanced around. “So, uh…where are Hero and Sally?”

A faint flush of rose filled Kel’s cheeks. “Oh. Uh…well…about that. They’re not here.”

“Why not?”

“It wasn’t really a lie,” he tripped over his words. “I was just trying to surprise you, but I…I didn’t do this for Sally…”

As he met her eyes, Aubrey shivered and swallowed hard. Kel chuckled sheepishly. “I knew you were kind of upset that you missed your prom, and so I thought I’d make you your own prom. Surprise!”

Aubrey looked around the yard—at the twinkling lights, the trellis, Hero’s record player, then at Kel, all dressed up in his best suit with his pink tie, the kindest look in his eyes and the brightest, beaming smile on his face.

“You...”—she inhaled sharply—“You did all this…for me?”

“Yeah…Is it overboard? I was worried it might be a little overboard.”

Aubrey could scarcely put coherent sentences together—her head was spinning. Kel…Kel had done all of this…for her…? “Why?”

“Why?” Kel repeated with wide eyes. “Well…because it’s a lot…with the music and the fancy clothes and the decorations…”

“No, uh—” she stumbled. “Why did you do this for me, Kel?”

“Oh…well I thought you were upset about our prom ever since we went to the outlet mall, and I thought maybe a ‘do-over’ prom would make you happy.”

Aubrey’s blush deepened as she stared down at her feet. “You…you really didn’t have to do this Kel. Especially since I’m the one who basically ruined your prom in the first place.”

“Aubrey…” He pressed his palm to her cheek—smiling, waiting until she finally looked up at him. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you this whole time. You didn’t ruin my prom—not at all. I wanted to spend it with you. I know I probably should’ve just asked you, but I don’t know, I was just…I had never felt so close to anybody in my whole life, and I thought you were so amazing, I didn’t know what to do with myself…” He paused, chuckling awkwardly with a sheepish shrug of his shoulders.

“Wait…you…you…” she stammered trying to make sense of what she was hearing. He couldn’t have possibly just said…? “You wanted to take me to our prom? I’m the girl?”

Kel’s cheeks blushed red, but he nodded. “You’re the girl.” Aubrey could only blink at him as he chuckled lightly, awkwardly again and joked as he fidgeted with his hands, “You know…if this was a movie, this is probably the part where I’d say something really corny like ‘You’ve always been the girl.’”

As he met her eyes, Aubrey froze. His words may have been corny, but the look in his eyes was so sincere, so…affectionate. She swallowed hard—sure her face must be bright red by now, but she couldn’t move, couldn’t think. She tried her best to take a deep breath and shakily tease him but her voice was wavering, breathy—it almost didn’t sound like her. “Yeah…that’s—that’s really corny…”

“Yeah, I’m no Hero…” Kel chuckled self-deprecatingly. “I’m really not good at any of this stuff…” He bit his lip and looked back up at her with a gaze that made her shiver. “But I really do think you’re great—probably the most amazing person I’ve ever met. I’m sorry for not saying it before.”

“Kel, I…” Her voice hitched. “I had no idea you felt this way…”

“That’s okay,” shrugged Kel. “To be honest, I didn’t even know I felt this way for a long time. It took me a while to figure it out…I was just kind of dense, I guess.” He laughed with a sheepish grin. “When I finally mentioned it to Hero, he gave me this look like ‘it’s about time…’ Then he was the one who was really encouraging me to tell you, but I just never really could figure out how and…then I was worried I was going to mess up our friendship and I didn’t want to make things awkward…But I guess this is kinda awkward, huh? All the movies make it look so easy…”

Aubrey blushed. If one of them should be feeling dense right now, it really should be her. Kel was…Was he really…?

“Listen, uh…you’re really quiet right now. You don’t have to say anything. We can just pretend that I never said anything,” he began to ramble quickly, nervously. “I didn’t want to put you on the spot, I just—I thought that was something you should probably know about me, er, about you, er how I feel about you because I—I really like you and I think you are really great and if you ever talk to me again after this, I would really like to take you to dinner and…”

Aubrey could only blink at him, unable to get a word in edgewise as he let out a long heavy sigh. “And I am totally messing this up…” Sighing heavily again, he ran his hand through his hair, before he met her eyes. “Aubrey…I’m sorry—”

“Don’t be…” Aubrey interrupted, reaching up to stroke Kel’s cheek with her hand. “I know it’s not an easy thing to say…”

“No, but you don’t understand. I tried to practice and everything. I was going to say all kinds of really nice stuff like that you’re probably the most important person in the world to me, and I don’t know what I’d do without you. After Mari and Sunny and Basil…”—his voice hitched—”Things were so dark and so sad…it was probably one of the worst times in my life, and I felt so alone, but then, you found me…and you showed me that even if this world without them is always going to be a little sadder than it was, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t still good things in it too. And a lot of those good things were because of you—when we tease each other and we’re throwing popcorn at each other or I’m wiping frosting on your nose or splashing water at you at the beach—when we laugh about corny movies or dance in the kitchen or when we just talk for hours and completely forget about the time…or when your face turns all red when you’re trying not to smile or the way your nose wrinkles when you laugh. And you”—he cupped her face in his hands—“You’re the best thing.”

“Kel—I…I…” Aubrey began to trip over her words, unsure what she even wanted to say.

Kel sighed, his face blushing red as he pulled his hands away from her, and mumbled, “I don’t even know if that makes sense…”

“No, it…it does,” Aubrey said with a reassuring smile. “I…I completely…” She stopped. “Back then, I…I never thought I could ever be happy again, but you showed me I could be, that there’s still…happiness…” Her voice trailed, but Kel wrapped his arms around her and pulled into a tight hug.

“Aubrey…I’m…I’m so glad…I…”—Kel’s voice hitched—“I just want you to be happy. I want you to be so, so happy. I just never thought I’d ever be lucky enough that you could be happy with me.”

“I am happy, Kel,” Aubrey whispered, unable to think, unable to breath. Something she couldn’t even begin to describe seemed to propel her forward—her whole body almost moving on its own as she pulled back from him just enough to close her eyes and brush her lips against his.

“A—Aubrey?” stumbled Kel with a look more akin to having been whacked on the back of the head rather than kissed.

“Kel, uh…sorry…” she began staring off over his shoulder. “I just um…”

“No, I’m sorry, I just…I wasn’t ready.” Aubrey’s eyes widened, but Kel hurriedly added, “Ready as in prepared not as in ready like I—I didn’t want…because I—I do…”

A playful smile tugged at Aubrey’s lips, but she was blushing too much to actually tease him.

“I—I…” Kel began to stumble again, and Aubrey could have sworn she heard him mumble, “Oh forget it…” under his breath before he finally just threw his arms around her neck and kissed her. His hands tangled in her hair as hers gripped the collar of his suit pulling him even closer to her. She could taste that sickeningly sweet Orange Joe on his breath, but she didn’t even care.

When they finally broke apart from each other, red-faced and breathless. Kel chuckled teasingly, “I guess I should probably ask you to dance now, huh?”

As that familiar song began to play, Kel wrapped his arms around her, and Aubrey slipped her hands around his neck. They swayed in time to the music, and neither one of them could hold back their smiles.

As Aubrey nestled into Kel’s chest, she could feel him chuckling lightly to himself.

“What?” she asked quietly.

“Nothing it’s just…” Kel pulled away just enough to look at her and meet her eyes as his mouth twitched into a soft, playful smile. “Maybe it really is true what everyone says about prom after all…”

#kelbrey #omori baseball bat #omori baseball #baseball omori #omori kelbrey #cries about kelbrey #kelbrey prom #i want out of kelbrey hell #send help #can acacia actually write romance? let's see...#i can't believe i wrote this #omori spoilers #my omori fanfiction #thank you so much for reading

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acacia-may · 1 year ago

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Hearts In Tune (Holiday Kelbrey (OMORI) Fic)

Description: Big and exciting changes in the lives of her friends and the fast-approaching holidays force Aubrey to confront her own dreams for the future and her feelings for a certain someone that she had long tried to run away from. After years of insisting she was happy being alone, she never expected it would be Sunny who ultimately called her bluff.

When she decides to take his advice and be more open about her feelings for Kel, however, she ends up with more misunderstandings and more problems than she would have anticipated…

Relationships: KELBREY (Romantic Kel x Aubrey) CENTRIC. Sunny and Aubrey Platonic Friendship is also included as well as Sunny, Aubrey, Hero & Kel Friendship. Mentioned Relationships: Sunny is engaged to be married in this fic, but it doesn't specify to whom, and Hero finding love again & having a girlfriend is also mentioned but it doesn't specify who he's in a relationship with. Past Romantic Hero x Mari is referenced.

Characters: Aubrey (POV Character), Kel, and Sunny. (Hero is mentioned quite a bit but doesn't have any dialogue, and Basil decorates as proof of life).

Genre: Romance, Slice of Life, Friends to Lovers, Some Hurt/Comfort, Developing Relationship, Misunderstandings, A little Attempt at Humor, Holiday Fluff, and Warm & Fuzzies

Word Count: 7,000

Rating: T for a brief sequence of legal drinking. This story takes place several years after the Good Ending of OMORI so the characters are all aged up. There are no other warnings and aside from a brief moment of Aubrey's insecurities, only lighthearted fluff & fuzzy feelings here.

Warnings: Major Spoilers for OMORI! A brief sequence of legal drinking. Some misunderstandings. Kissing.

Link to original post on AO3.

A/N: The title of this fic is a reference to the song "Aubrey" by Bread which is also referenced in this fic. 💖

Full text of the story is below the cut. Thank you for reading!

With a heavy sigh, Aubrey stared down at the earrings Kel had just given to her. If she hadn’t had too much spiked eggnog at their annual holiday party, she would probably have had a better appreciation for them. She had never seen earrings in the shape of baseball bats before, and Kel had been so excited to give them to her. But… Aubrey sighed. Looking at them now made her chest grow tight and a lump form in the back of her throat. Even after all these years, was that really how Kel saw her? Was she always just going to be “bat girl”?

Aubrey supposed that there were certain things in life that a person could never really come back from and, if she had to guess, picking a fight with somebody in church with a nail bat was one of them. It was a wonder that she and Kel were even still friends after that, but it had been over a decade since then. She had changed. Her feelings towards Kel had also changed, but maybe she had been wrong to think that his feelings towards her had changed too. They still bickered and teased each other, but at the end of the day, she knew they cared about each other—at least as friends. It seemed wrong to hope for anything more than that, but that didn’t stop Aubrey from hoping, as much as she didn’t want to admit it… And that made it her fault—her fault she was irrationally upset over a pair of earrings, tipsy from too many glasses of spiked eggnog, and sitting alone in the cold on the deck watching the blinking icicle lights wondering if she’d be alone like this forever.

The idea of being alone had never used to bother her—or least she had pretended it didn’t, but then Sunny had gotten engaged, and, surprising as it was, it had gotten her wondering: would that ever happen for her and did she even want it to? She knew she wasn’t the only one. As happy as everyone was for Sunny, these big life events of friends had a way of making a person take a step back and wonder “what am I doing with my life?”

If Aubrey had to guess, Hero was likely the most affected. With the exception of possibly Sunny who was much more quiet about such things, Hero had the most domestic dreams of anyone in their group…or at least he had had them before Mari had passed away. In a rare moment of vulnerability, Hero had once told Aubrey that all of his dreams of settling down and having a family had died with Mari and he couldn’t even imagine that life for himself anymore, but Aubrey wasn’t sure that was entirely true—and not just because he had been sleep deprived and a little inebriated at the time he had told her.

Even so, he didn’t talk about it, and she certainly never brought it up, but it had been “the year of weddings” for Hero as many of his friends from college had all started settling down and it was clear it had taken its toll on him. Aubrey was sure that Hero had to be wondering “what am I doing with my life?” and “will this ever happen for me and do I even want it to?” more so than even she was. Perhaps he was completely desensitized to it by the time Sunny had announced his own engagement, but Aubrey doubted it. Hero had done what he always did—congratulate Sunny with a hug, pop a big bottle of champagne, enthusiastically tell him how happy, excited, and proud he was of him, and celebrate with him for hours. Then, he picked up multiple extra, extremely long shifts at the hospital in the following days. No one had seen him in two weeks—not even Kel.

Aubrey could tell Kel was a little worried about his brother, but he had been so busy himself that Aubrey wondered if he was just letting it go by necessity. Aubrey couldn’t be sure, but she wondered if Kel was also going through some sort of existential crisis or introspective evaluation of his life and his dreams for the future thanks to Sunny’s big news. Up until this point, she had never known if Kel even wanted to settle down one day. It was something they just never talked about, but ever since Sunny had gotten engaged, Kel had started saying things like “when I get married, I want to have a huge wedding with tons of people” or “when I get married, I want to have a buffet so people can just eat whenever they want” or “when I get married, I want to give everybody bubbles instead of rice because I think it’ll kinda hurt to get hit by rice.”

It was strange to hear Kel talk so nonchalantly about getting married one day. Aubrey supposed she should have expected it or at least expected that it was something he wanted, but what surprised even more was how it stung a little to imagine it, to imagine Kel settling down and spending the rest of his life with someone that wasn’t her. Aubrey sighed. But it wouldn’t be her…She was “bat girl.” She would always be “bat girl.”

Aubrey’s attempts to resign herself to this fact and pretend it didn’t bother her had all been complete and utter failures. It seemed that every time she even got close to a relationship with somebody else, she always found herself reaching for the phone to call Kel or thinking of a silly story he had told her recently or wishing he was there with her instead. Needless to say, none of these “almost-relationships” had gone anywhere, and after a certain point, Aubrey had to admit that she didn’t want them to. Kel was the person she wanted to call with happy news, the person she turned to whenever she was sad, the person she wanted to share everything with. She knew—no, she had known for a long time, that Kel was the one person she wanted to be with. Sunny’s engagement had just been the final nail in the coffin, forcing her to realize that not only did she want a relationship, but she wanted a relationship with Kel.

Letting out a heavy sigh, Aubrey bit her lip and stared down at the bat earrings. She knew that was never going to happen. She was too cold, too harsh with him—too “bat girl.”

She sighed again, shaking her head and burying her face in her hands. “What is wrong with me?”

Aubrey hadn’t realized she had said those words aloud until she heard a voice humming beside her. She jumped—practically dropping the earrings and the cup of eggnog she was holding. Calming herself with a deep breath, she turned to find Sunny taking a seat next to her on the deck with a twitch of a smile.

“Sunny, you can’t sneak up on people like that,” she sighed. Sunny nodded apologetically. Aubrey wondered how long he had been standing there, but she decided not to ask.

“Are you okay?” Sunny asked quietly with a slight tilt of his head. Aubrey’s face flushed, but she nodded, shrugging her shoulders.

“Yeah…I just needed some fresh air for a minute.”

Sunny blinked at her, and Aubrey fidgeted. He was always so unreadable, but if she had to guess, he probably saw through her lie. He was one of her best friends after all. Shifting uncomfortably in her seat, Aubrey decided to change the subject. “Congratulations again.”

Sunny’s face seemed to light up as he quietly mumbled with a bright smile, “Thank you.”

“Do the holidays feel any different now that you’re engaged?”

Sunny pursed his lips thoughtfully but shook his head. “Not really.”

“You’ve got a big year ahead of you though. Lots to look forward to with the wedding and everything. Must be nice…” Aubrey’s voice trailed, and she felt Sunny’s gentle hand on her shoulder.

“It’ll be you someday…” He paused, then quickly added. “If you want.”

Aubrey chuckled, but her face felt warm. Was she really so transparent? “I don’t know, Sunny. I’m not sure all that domestic stuff is for me.” Despite her attempts at a shaky laugh, she could tell from the look in Sunny’s face that it had not completely masked the twinge of sadness in her voice. “Can you imagine ‘nailbat girl’ settling down?”

“Yes.”

“Don’t be silly,” Aubrey snorted a shaky laugh, but she swallowed hard as she caught sight of those earrings. It seemed that Sunny had also caught sight of them—tilting his head curiously before he asked in his quiet and matter-of-fact way.

“Is this about Kel?”

With flushing cheeks, Aubrey choked, “What? No. Why would it be about—?”

She stopped abruptly, met with Sunny’s blinking eyes. There was no way he was going to believe anything she said except the truth, so she merely sighed—tightening her grip around those earrings. She swallowed hard, then quietly asked, “Does everybody know?”

“Kel doesn’t.”

Aubrey sighed. She supposed that was something at least—a small comfort given the circumstances, though she suspected that was only because Kel was oblivious or just didn’t want to see it.

“Good,” Aubrey mumbled. “I’ll try to be more subtle.”

“No.”

Aubrey’s brow furrowed, and she whipped around towards Sunny in surprise. It wasn’t like Sunny to argue or really even talk much at all. She tilted her head. “What do you mean ‘no’?”

“You should tell him.”

“Sunny,” Aubrey groaned with a somewhat affectionate sigh. “I know you mean well, but it’s never going to happen, so…” Her voice trailed off, and she ran her hand through her hair. Her head was starting to ache from the haze of alcohol reminding her exactly why she never drank. As her blurred vision came back into focus, she caught sight of the earrings again, and her insides twisted. “I’m just ‘bat girl,’ remember?”

“No,” Sunny repeated a little more forcefully though the look on his face was kind and gentle. He, somewhat awkwardly, patted her shoulder with his hand, making Aubrey chuckle breathily in spite of herself before Sunny’s mouth twitched into a slight, affectionate smile.

“You’re strong, but you’re soft too—kind. You really care about your friends, even if you don’t show it all the time…but you have shown it to me and to Hero too. You’re even soft with Basil sometimes.” He let out two heavier breaths which Aubrey knew meant he was chuckling lightly at the thought before he sighed. “But with Kel… I know you care about him, but…you don’t really show him that part of yourself as much.”

Aubrey could only blink at him. It was one of the longest speeches Sunny had ever spoken to her in one sitting, but even more than that, she knew it was all true. She loved her friends, but it had never been easy for her to be vulnerable—to be soft with them and with Kel most of all.

Sunny was right. She was more openly kind and affectionate with him or Hero or even Basil than she ever could be with Kel. Perhaps, she scared of opening up to him most of all because she knew that he was the one who could hurt her the most, because he was the one that she cared about the most. He was also the one who had left her behind.

Even all these years and all these apologies later, the weight of him leaving her alone and their friendship falling apart after Mari’s death hung heavily like a dark cloud over their relationship. She knew it wasn’t entirely Kel’s fault, and she wasn’t blameless herself. They had apologized to each other and tried to make amends for everything that had happened a very long time ago, and she didn’t hold it against him anymore. Still…she could feel herself gripping tightly onto the walls she built around her heart so she would never be hurt like that again. And even now when what she wanted more than anything else in the world was to open up to Kel and let him in, she couldn’t bring herself to do it.

“You really think I’m too cold to him…?” she asked quietly though she was sure she already knew the answer. “There’s not really anything I can do about that now, is there? I hit him with a nail bat in a church—there’s no coming back from that.”

“If Kel can forgive me and Basil, he can forgive you too.” Sunny paused with a slight smile. “But…that’s not really what I meant. I just meant…he’s probably afraid that if he asks you out, you’re going to say ‘no’… You’re one of his best friends…He wouldn’t want to risk messing that up unless he was sure you were interested.”

Aubrey scoffed with a snorted laugh. “You think Kel actually wants to date me?”

Sunny shrugged. “He thinks about you all the time.”

“You’re a mind reader now, Sunny?” Aubrey teased with the twitch of an affectionate smile, but Sunny just shrugged again and took a deep breath before he started singing, a little monotone but it got the point across.

“‘And Aubrey was her name…’”

As Sunny started humming what Aubrey could only presume was the rest of the song, her brow furrowed. “What?”

“Kel listens to this song all the time… Hero lent him the record. It’s a love song to a girl named Aubrey...” He paused then added, “It’s sad.”

“Sad?”

Sunny nodded and started singing quietly again, “‘For a love that wouldn't bloom…For the hearts that never played in tune.’”

Something panged in Aubrey’s chest. There was something hauntingly beautiful about it. The hearts that never played in tune…was that really her and Kel?

“It’s sad,” Sunny repeated, his face falling. “Whenever Kel would listen to it, I’d feel guilty for being so happy.”

“Oh Sunny…” Aubrey wrapped her arm around his shoulder and gave him a side hug. “You don’t have to feel guilty about that. We’re all really happy for you—Kel especially. He wouldn’t want you to feel guilty for being happy. Nobody wants that.” Aubrey sighed, staring down at her hands. “And you know, Kel might just like this song. It might not mean anything. I mean locking himself in his room and listening to sad music is kind of Hero’s thing, isn’t it?”

Sunny shrugged, but Aubrey was sure that having been both of their roommates he’d have to concede that she was right. “Hero has been listening to this one song recently too… It goes ‘She’s got a way about her…’”

Aubrey’s brow furrowed. “Is it love song?”

Sunny nodded. “A really pretty one.”

“Do you think…?”—she stopped—“Do you think he’s still thinking about Mari?”

With a tilt of his head, Sunny thoughtfully pursed his lips—his brow furrowing in concentration before he finally admitted, “I don’t know.”

“You know he has that one friend of his…” Aubrey tilted her head at Sunny with a knowing smile, sure he would know exactly who she was talking about. “I know it’s probably not ever going to happen, but I always thought they’d be really good together.” Aubrey paused as Sunny shot her a pointed look. “What? You don’t think so?”

Sunny blinked at her. “No, I think so… She’s wonderful. I’ve had multiple recurring dreams about their wedding… and only some of them were in Headspace.” He paused. “I added her there, and they’re married with three kids now.”

“What?”

“It was a beautiful wedding,” Sunny continued. He either didn’t hear her or didn’t acknowledge that he did. “Captain Spaceboy cried… so did Basil… He did all the flowers. And the ghost of Mari was there…She was really happy.” He paused and turned to look her squarely in the face. “But you just changed the subject. This isn’t about Hero.”

Aubrey huffed but affectionately rolled her eyes. “I don’t want to talk about me and Kel, Sunny. It’s not going to happen.”

“But that song…” Sunny began to protest, but Aubrey caught him off with another huff.

“I don’t care what songs Kel is listening to. It’s just a song. It doesn’t mean anything.” She tried her best to shrug it off, but even without that knowing look on Sunny’s face, she knew it didn’t sound convincing. “I mean…by that logic, Hero would have a girlfriend or want one, and as I much as I wish he did, I think that’s just about as likely as Kel wanting to date me.”

When Sunny didn’t respond, Aubrey’s eyes narrowed. Curiously, she tilted her head at him. Sunny, it seemed, had completely zoned out—staring intently at something over Aubrey’s shoulder.

“Do you hear that?” he asked. With a deep breath, Aubrey tried her best to focus. There was a low roar of chattering and the clanging of dishes coming from inside the house and some holiday music playing in the background. Before she could ask Sunny what specifically he was talking about he added, “The piano.”

Aubrey whipped around to follow Sunny’s line of vision through the window into the house. She couldn’t hold back her gasp or the breath that got caught in her throat as she stumbled in disbelief, “Hero?”

They hadn’t been expecting him. After all, he had told them a week ago that he had to work late tonight and likely wouldn’t be able to make it to the party, but there he was seated at the old piano in the living room which had been thoughtfully decorated by Basil with evergreen garlands and holly. His hands were gently gliding up and down the keys playing Christmas music for the first time in years.

While Hero had often played carols for them when they were younger, Aubrey couldn’t remember the last time she had heard him play piano at all. She had always just assumed it was one of those things he couldn’t bring himself to do without Mari. Sunny had told her that he knew Hero still played sometimes, particularly if he was asked or just to keep up a little bit of practice, but Aubrey couldn’t remember the last time she had actually seen Hero sit down at a piano and start playing on his own. More shocking than that, however, was the look on his face as he played. He kept glancing up over the top of the piano at something in the corner of the room that wasn’t visible from the window with a bright, beaming smile across his face. For the past decade, his smiles had been tight, metered, and bittersweet. They hadn’t ever reached his eyes, but now…Now he…

“He looks happy,” mumbled Sunny with an expression almost as stunned as Aubrey felt. As they glanced at each other, she knew they were thinking the same thing. Neither of them could remember the last time they had seen Hero look that happy. Something ached in Aubrey’s chest. She hadn’t realized how much she had missed his smile until she had seen it again after all these years. The look on Sunny’s face said he felt the same way.

“What do you think he’s…?” Aubrey began to ask though she wasn’t entirely sure how to word her question as she tilted her head, shifting and fidgeting trying to get a glimpse of whatever it was Hero was smiling at.

Her attention was suddenly pulled away from Hero to Kel who came bursting through the sliding door onto the deck with a bright smile on his face. Aubrey felt her face flush and a swooping sensation in the pit of her stomach as he met her eyes. Did his smile widen just a little when he did?

Despite her best attempts to convince herself she was just seeing things, her mind suddenly went blank—empty except for a wistful, lovesick ‘Oh…’ she felt deep in her bones. He had such a lovely smile, and his dark eyes were so warm and so kind…

When she heard Sunny somewhat playfully hum beside her, her blush deepened. She realized she was staring. With a sigh, her mind filled with a string of curses, mentally kicking herself. What was wrong with her today?

Swallowing hard, she looked away abruptly before Kel could see that embarrassing redness in her cheeks. Luckily it seemed he didn’t notice as he practically bounced up and down in excitement.

“Hey guys, guess what,” he exclaimed exuberantly. “Hero’s here, and he brought a girl with him!”

Sunny gasped, covering his gaping mouth with his hand as Aubrey’s eyes widened, blinking in disbelief. “No way…” she mumbled, but Kel nodded.

“No seriously. It’s…pretty unbelievable. I mean he called first and asked if it was okay and I said ‘sure’, but I guess I didn��t really get it until he walked through the door with her and…”

“Someone we know?” interrupted Sunny, seemingly startling Kel. Sunny glanced at Aubrey who offered him a pensive but knowing smile. They both had someone specific in mind, and the toothy, lopsided grin that curved across Kel’s face as he nodded in response seemed to imply that he had been thinking of the same person.

“Yes,” he answered practically beaming at them, and it was all Aubrey could do not to race for the doorway back into the house. She took a few deep breaths to calm herself—gently reminding herself that they needed to play it cool and not make a big deal out of it. Unfortunately, it seemed Kel did not get the memo on this point and sped through the sliding doors.

As Aubrey turned to do the same, she felt Sunny’s hand reach out to stop her. It clutched onto hers with a gentle squeeze, and she turned to look at him perplexed. He didn’t say anything but the look on his face—the smile tugging at his lips said more than enough. Aubrey fidgeted, knowing exactly what Sunny was thinking, knowing how her words had so immediately come back to bite her.

“This doesn’t mean anything,” she huffed, but the bright red blush on her face implied otherwise.

*-*-*

Despite her continued insistence to the contrary, the truth was it did mean something. No, she didn’t think it was a sign from the universe that she needed to actively pursue Kel or confess to him, but she did decide that she should probably take Sunny’s advice and be a little softer and a little more openly affection with him. Over the next week, she made a conscious effort to treat Kel more like she might treat Sunny or Hero or even Basil. She tried her best to be more openly supportive and didn’t tease him for the stupid things that he did. That last one was growing increasingly difficult as Kel seemed to be doing more and more outlandishly ridiculous things as the week went on to the point where Aubrey almost wondered if he was acting that way on purpose. The thought made her insides twist. Had Sunny told him about their conversation?

Aubrey swallowed hard—pushing the thought away as she tried her best to focus on what Kel was saying now.

“Gosh, I can’t believe I had my sweater on backwards the whole time,” he laughed. “I am such a scatterbrain sometimes.”

Aubrey sighed, but she bit her lip and shrugged her shoulders, trying her best to reassure him. “That happens sometimes. It’s okay.”

She could have almost sworn she watched his brow furrow just barely before he mumbled, “Uh…okay, I guess.”

After a few moments of awkward silence, Kel asked, “So uh…you looking forward to the holidays?”

Aubrey nodded. “Yeah. It’ll be the first year I don’t have to work on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. I finally have some seniority around the hospital.”

“That’s awesome,” Kel replied with a smile. “Hero has to work Christmas Eve this year, but I think he has Christmas Day off. That’ll be the first time he’s off on a holiday, I think. It makes sense that doctors and nurses have to work on all the holidays, but it kind of stinks sometimes.”

Aubrey sighed. Kel did not have to say that again. While she loved her job as a nurse and found it very meaningful and rewarding, it was a bummer to have to work holidays. Up until a week ago, however, she would have almost sworn Hero felt the exact opposite. He was often purposefully picking up shifts on major holidays if he wasn’t working already, but now that he was bringing someone home for Christmas, Aubrey was sure he felt differently and was grateful to be off work on Christmas Day for the first time ever.

“You should stop by on Christmas, you know? Our extended family won’t in town until Día de Reyes this year, so it’ll just be us and you know my mom is going to make way too much food.” With a bright smile, Kel chuckled, but Aubrey sighed.

“I don’t know… I don’t want to impose.”

“You wouldn’t be imposing. Besides, Hero is bringing a girl home—don’t you want to see that?”

Aubrey sighed again. The honest answer was yes, but she didn’t think it was her place to barge into their family’s holiday celebrations.

“It’s all anybody’s been talking about. Heck, it’s all I’ve been talking about,” laughed Kel. “I mean it’s really big, right? Hero putting himself back out there.”

“Has he said anything to you about it or just…?” Aubrey’s voice trailed. She was trying her best not to pry.

“No. He’s really secretive or just—I dunno—shy or something, but she’s really great. I’ve…”—he paused, fidgeting with his hands—“honestly been hoping for this for a long time.”

“Me too,” Aubrey admitted. “So has Sunny. We used to talk about it all the time when we were away at college—hoping that the two of them would eventually go out. Sunny said he has actually had dreams about their wedding.”

Kel laughed, and the way his face lit up—bright and warm, made Aubrey’s face flush. She could only hope he didn’t notice. “That’s awesome! Too bad Sunny’ll be out of town this year and miss it. But that just means you have to come for Christmas now. Then you can tell Sunny all about it and how happy they are.”

“I…I don’t know…” Aubrey stumbled. Yes, she had been trying to be much nicer to Kel but agreeing to spend Christmas with him and his family, especially for the main purpose of prying into Hero’s business, seemed like a step too far. Kel, however, seemed determined, and he suddenly took her hands. Even though they were gloved, she was still so shocked by the gesture that she practically jumped backward in surprise.

“Please…” he whined, dragging the word out far longer than it needed to be.

Aubrey’s face blushed a deep red, but luckily, before she could say anything, it was their turn to order at the Burger Boys’ food truck they had been waiting in line at for the last twenty minutes. Aubrey sighed. She had not expected this walkthrough Christmas light display to be so busy, but she had to admit she was glad there were so many food vendors there. They had been waiting to eat until the rest of their friends arrived, but after Sunny, Basil, and Hero all had to cancel at the last minute, they decided to just eat without them.

“Yes, uh…hi!” Kel began to order. “I’d like two fish tacos, a spicy chicken burrito, and a chimichanga. And…whatever she wants.” As he turned towards Aubrey, she resisted the urge to press her palm to her forehead.

“Uh…” stumbled the food truck worker. “This is a Burger Boys. We only sell…uh…burgers here…”

“Wait…what? No way. I thought this was a Taco Time.” Kel laughed before motioning over his shoulder. “Oh that’s over there…my bad.”

Aubrey gritted her teeth. She had known Kel for most of her life. There was no way he was this stupid. Had her affection for him really blinded her this much?

Kel blinked as if waiting for her to tell him off for making them wait for twenty minutes in the wrong line or for her to tease him about getting the lines mixed up in the first place. And, sure, on another day she might have motioned to the big, glowing, neon sign that said “BURGERS” in bright red letters directly above their heads, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that that was the problem—that she had been too harsh with him all this time so instead she just shrugged her shoulders as Kel asked her, “Hey Aubrey, do you want burgers or tacos?”

Aubrey’s stomach rumbled, but she managed a tight smile. “Whatever you want, Kel.”

Kel blinked at her but ultimately, thankfully, decided, “Burgers are fine. We’re already here.”

When they got their order and finally sat down at one of the folding picnic tables to eat, Aubrey caught Kel staring at her with a curious expression. “Hey…Aubrey…is everything okay?”

“Yeah, everything’s fine,” she quickly replied. “Why?”

“No reason…” Kel mumbled turning his attention back to a packet of mustard he was trying to open on his hamburger. It quickly exploded all over his coat, sweater, and the table. “Shoot!” he muttered as he quickly tried to clean it up. Aubrey huffed—reaching up to wipe off the mustard that had splashed onto her cheek, but she held her tongue. “Sorry,” said Kel with an apologetic shrug of his shoulders.

“Don’t worry about it.”

Kel stopped wiping up the table and stared right at her. Keeping his eyes transfixed on her, he reached for his soda, took off the lid, and poured the whole thing directly onto his coat.

What the heck?

Unable to even process what had just happened, Aubrey could only blink at him in astonishment. Quite without thinking, she immediately reached out to hand him some napkins, but Kel swatted them away with his hands.

“Oh come on!” he exclaimed in exasperation. “What is wrong with you?”

“What’s wrong with me?” Aubrey shot back—the words tumbling out of her mouth before she could even think to stop them. “You just poured a whole soda on yourself.”

“Yes, I did, and you didn’t tell me off or laugh or tease me or say, ‘Gosh Kel you’re such a moron’ or ‘Why in the world would you do that?’ You’ve been acting weird all week. It’s freaking me out. I’ve been trying to do more and more ridiculous things hoping that I’d get some sort of normal response from you, but you’ve been acting…” He paused as if he couldn’t think of the right word before finally deciding on, “really weird.”

“Hold on…” interjected Aubrey. “You’ve been doing these things on purpose? So your backwards sweater and making us wait in the wrong line and trying to order tacos at a burger truck…and that thing with the mustard—?”

“Oh that was an accident, but the other ones were on purpose,” Kel admitted. Then, he sighed. “Look, Aubrey, are we fighting or something? ‘Cause whatever I did, I’m really sorry. Could we just hash it out like normal? You’ve been really quiet, and—I dunno—it just feels wrong.”

“You think we’re fighting? You think I’m mad at you?” Aubrey shook her head in disbelief. “I’ve been trying to be nice to you, you goofball.”

“Thank you! Yes!” exclaimed Kel, throwing up his hands. “I’m a goofball. It feels really good to hear you say that again.”

Aubrey sighed. Kel was unbelievable.

She shook her head and buried her face in her hands. “Kel…” her voice trailed. She didn’t know what she wanted to say. “This…isn’t a joke.”

Kel’s expression softened, and he reached across the table to take her hand. “So something is bothering you…” he said in a quiet voice.

With a sigh, Aubrey shrugged her shoulders.

“You want to talk about it?”

No, thought Aubrey, but she knew she didn’t get that option, so she took a deep breath. “I…I’ve just been really worried that I’m too harsh with you. We bicker and tease each other, but that doesn’t mean I don’t—”

She stopped abruptly. A flush of rose filled her cheeks as she pursed her lips. She thought of Sunny, engaged to be married and happier than she had seen him in a very long time, and she thought Hero putting himself back out there after all this time, even when they had all thought it was impossible. But mostly she thought of Kel—his warm kindness, his unwavering loyalty to his friends, the way he always tried to make her laugh whenever she was feeling down, and how he’d stop the world to make someone happy again, even if that someone was her. Maybe Sunny was right after all. He deserved to know.

“Kel…you’re one of the nicest people I know. You’re kind and cheerful and you always choose to see the best in people…and you go out of your way to try to make them happy—to make them laugh or smile, because that’s when you’re happiest too. You…have a really big heart and have been such an incredible friend to me. I feel like I don’t show that—or say that enough.”

As he tilted his head at her, Kel’s dark eyes widened in surprise. His jaw fell slack, but he somehow managed a breathy chuckle and a teasing, “Wow…tell me what you really think of me.”

Despite the blush in her cheeks, Aubrey let out a breathy chuckle before she somehow mustered the strength to look him in the eyes. “I think you’re really great, and I don’t want the fact that we bicker or tease each other sometimes to hide that. You’re…”—she paused and stared down at her hands again—“really important to me. I just wanted you to know.”

The next few, silent moments were some of the longest of Aubrey’s entire life. She couldn’t bring herself to look at Kel, let alone even begin to imagine what he must be thinking, but after what felt like an eternity, she felt the picnic table shift as Kel got up from his seat, walked over to her, and pulled her into a tight hug.

“Thank you,” he said. “That’s one of the nicest things you’ve ever said to me.”

“Not the nicest?” she quipped, her voice shaking as he pulled her against his chest. He didn’t answer that—just held her for a long time.

Even so, it wasn’t long enough before he let out a long and heavy sigh and whispered in a quiet, serious voice, “You know, don’t you?”

As he pulled away from her, Aubrey tilted her head at him in confusion. He looked flustered—almost guilty.

“This is exactly why I wasn’t going to tell you,” he began sheepishly rambling. “I didn’t want to make things weird, but I guess it was pretty obvious, huh?” He paused, chuckling as he rubbed the nape of his neck. “Look, I appreciate all of this Aubrey, but you don’t have to use the kid gloves with me. I’m okay. Like I said, I wasn’t even going to mention it. I mean, I know it’s not going to happen, and I didn’t want to make things awkward for you or anything so—”

“Kel.” Aubrey bit her lip. He looked almost relieved when she interrupted him. “I don’t…what do you think that I know?”

Kel paused and audibly swallowed, but he shrugged. “How I feel about you.”

The sincere look in his eyes made Aubrey’s face burn—her stomach erupting with butterflies, but somehow she still couldn’t believe it. “What? What do you mean?”

Unexpectedly, Kel’s face fell, and Aubrey’s insides twisted at the pained look in his eyes. The helplessness of his stumbling, “Please, Aubrey…That’s…not fair…just forget it,” was enough to make her heart ache.

Still, she somehow managed to say what was probably the worst possible thing she could have said at the moment, “No.”

“No?” choked Kel, and Aubrey’s face flushed.

“Sorry. I…I didn’t mean it like that,” she quickly added. “I just…I know I’m not hearing you. I…I can’t be. You’re…you’re the one that doesn’t…” She stopped. “I—I’m…just ‘bat girl.’ That’s why you got me those earrings, right? Because I’m the girl who picked a fight with you with a bat in a church, and there is no coming back from that.”

“Aubrey…” Kel sighed, almost as if he didn’t know what to say. “Yeah…you’re right—you are the girl who picked a fight with me with a bat in a church…and also in the park and at our secret hangout spot by the lake…”

His voice trailed, but he expression softened. “But you’re also the girl who sat out by that lake with me for hours the summer after we learned the truth and several years after that. The girl I could talk to about anything, even things that were too difficult to say to anyone else because I knew you’d never judge me. You’re the girl who I always want to make laugh because even though you don’t smile all that much, whenever you do, it feels like everything is going to be okay. You’re the girl who always teases me but I know you’ll always be there if I need you. The girl I always want to call if I have good news or bad news or any kind of news at all—the girl who is one of the best friends I’ve ever had, who I think about all the time—when I’m at work or on a run or listening to this song that makes me think of you…even when Basil drags me to some craft fair in the middle of nowhere and I find those earrings…”

Kel sighed. “That’s why I bought them—because I was thinking about you, because I’m always thinking about you…And not because you’re ‘bat girl’ but…because you’re Aubrey…and I…I uh…”

He stopped, but the light flush of red in his cheeks said everything that he couldn’t say. Aubrey swallowed hard. Her hands began to tremble. She had no idea what to say—what she even could say to follow up all of that.

“I’m pretty sure I’m the moron, here,” she teased with a light, self-deprecating chuckle. “I honestly had no idea you felt that way. This whole time I thought I was… that you were… that after everything…” She sighed heavily. She was completely butchering this, but thankfully, Kel cut her off with a playful laugh.

“Seriously? It was pretty obvious. Everybody knew about it. Heck, even Basil called me out on it at the Christmas party.”

“Really? Sunny called me out then too. Do you think they planned that?”

Kel shrugged. “Dunno. I mean, Hero mentioned it a couple of times too, so maybe they’re all in cahoots.”

“Well they didn’t show up today, so it wouldn’t surprise me.” Aubrey paused with an affectionate roll of her eyes. “Though to be fair, I think they were exaggerating…I mean I don’t think we were that obvious…” She twisted her mouth to one side. “I mean, you didn’t know how I felt about you either.”

“And how’s that?” teased Kel with a lopsided grin.

Aubrey’s face flushed, but when she looked up into Kel’s eyes, they were so kind, so affectionate, and so sincere that she realized… “You…you really don’t know?”

With a helpless shrug of his shoulders, Kel smiled just slightly at her, and she reached up to gently cup his face in her hands, then leaned forward and kissed him. It was a brush of their lips—they were in a public place after all, but it was enough to make Aubrey blush bright red.

When she pulled away from him, she mumbled, “Does…uh…that make it clear enough?”

“I’m not sure I really got that,” he quipped with a bright, bantering smile. “You wanna try again?”

“Not here,” she laughed, playfully patting his cheek as he leaned towards her again.

“How about when you come for Christmas?”

Aubrey stopped. “That was a real invitation? I thought it was one of your purposefully ridiculous things.”

“No, that was real, and the offer still stands if you want it.”

As Aubrey met Kel’s eyes, a smile spread across her face. She reached out and took his hand, giving it a gentle, affectionate squeeze. “I’d love to.”

Kel laughed before he playfully poked her in the arm. “But just one thing…you’re gonna have to leave your bat in the car.”

As Aubrey laughed in spite of herself and tried her best to stifle it, Kel winked at her. With an affectionate roll of her eyes, she playfully tapped him on the back of the head. He really could be such a moron sometimes, but he could also be a confidant, a pick-me-up on the worst day, her best friend, and the person that meant most to her in the world. She supposed Kel could be a lot of things, and as he had pointed out, she could be a lot of things too. But as Kel’s face softened into a warm, affection smile and he intertwined their fingers as they began to walk together through the Christmas lights, Aubrey knew there was one thing that she would never be again...and that was alone.

#kelbrey #omori kelbrey #baseball omori #omori baseball #omori baseball bat #kelbrey fanfiction #my omori fanfiction #omori spoilers #thank you so much for reading

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