𝐍𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐆 ;; 𝒶𝓊𝒷𝓇𝑒𝓎 𝓍 𝓀𝑒𝓁 𝑜𝓃𝑒 𝓈𝒽𝑜𝓉𝓈

↳ 𝕥𝕣𝕖𝕤𝕡𝕒𝕤𝕤𝕚𝕟𝕘 ( 𝕣𝕖𝕢𝕦𝕖𝕤𝕥 ) ・❥・: ̗̀➛

"You didn't tell me why you wanted to come here," Aubrey said as they successfully made it into Kel's new neighbours' backyard.

"It's for old-time's sake, Aubrey!" He put an arm around her shoulders, feeling grateful when she didn't move away. "You don't wanna hang out at the treehouse? Actually, don't answer that," he added when she opened her mouth.

He was happy to see that the treehouse was still there. For a second, he was worried that the couple would've taken it down, getting rid of all their weeks of hard work and making their totally-not-trespassing worthless. When they entered, however, it was empty.

The treehouse had a lot of their old stuff, so Sunny gave everyone what they wanted back. The rest was donated. Kel didn't want anything, but he did know that Aubrey took Mister Plantegg back. He found it adorable that she still cared about her old stuffed toy. He could easily remember cute little Aubrey carrying a much cleaner and newer version of it around...and he could see current-Aubrey with it too, but differently from younger-Aubrey. With younger-Aubrey, he could see her carrying Mister Plantegg everywhere since she actually did that, but with current-Aubrey, he saw her laying on her bed with a calm expression as she slept. Her soft, pink hair that had her natural dark brown hair colour starting to show was spread out around her, making her look even softer. Her forehead was pressed against Mister Plantegg as she held him in a loose hold, and Kel really wanted to be Mister Plantegg.

He forced those thoughts away. Recently, he was having a lot of similar thoughts like that, and they were always about Aubrey, but he ignored them and never told anyone. They didn't mean anything anyway, and if they did, it was nothing important.

Aubrey sat on the window seat, so Kel sat there too. He made sure to keep space between them and to look out the window instead of her in case she could tell that something was off. But nothing was off. Obviously.

Aubrey sighed, resting her head against the wall. "I can almost smell Mari's cookies. I could go for them right now..."

He risked a glance at her and took in how she didn't look angry or sad when talking about Mari. It had been a few years since Mari died, but he knew Aubrey was still hurting even after all these years, getting upset whenever Mari was brought up. Lately, though, he noticed that she looked calmer whenever Mari was in a conversation, and she was relaxed when she herself included Mari in a conversation. Seeing that always put a small smile on his face. He was proud of her.

His smile fell when she looked at him, frowned, and asked, "Why are you staring at me like that?"

Thinking fast, he said, "Because I'm remembering Basil taking a picture when we first finished making the treehouse, and you looked weird in the photo!"

She sighed and rolled her eyes. "It's been, what, four years, and you still think I smiled weirdly in the photo? I looked fine."

"Whatever makes you sleep at night." Kel laughed at her glare. That could work on other people in Faraway Town, but that would never work on him. He couldn't be scared when he knew she was nothing but a sweet girl! He saw it too often to believe anything but!

Like when he and Hero were having an arm-wrestling contest and Kel lost—Basil deserved all of his thanks for taking a picture of Hero winning. Not—and Aubrey patted his shoulder when he was upset about losing. Even though he was wearing a t-shirt, he could remember feeling some short of shock that apparently only went to him when feeling her hand. And she kept it on his shoulder for a while too. He knew her hand hardened over the years from wielding her baseball bat, but he would still like her to touch him. More skin-to-skin contact like holding hands would be nice, but he was fine with clothes being a barrier. Hero just left, but the next time he came back from college, maybe he should lose to Hero in an arm wrestling competition again so she could comfort him. More than just her patting his shoulder. Maybe she could—