Sunny slumped her way into the house. Work had been shit, as usual- Jian hadn't been there to glare customers into submission and someone had knocked over an entire display of duct tape with their stupid fucking orange cart. She had barely had the energy to park her bike in front of the mansion by the time she made it down the tree-lined driveway. It was only the fact that technically the bike also belonged to Jenny that had kept her from abandoning it in a hedgerow. But now she was home, and she could lay directly down on her bed and not get up for at least a week.
She passed the entrance to the kitchen. Something caught her eye and she stopped, rocked back on her foot to see inside. Kat was in there, faced away from her, talking to Noah. When Noah caught sight of her over Kat's shoulder, his eyes widened and he coughed to get her attention. Kat jumped and looked around with- was that guilt on her face? What was going on?
Kat forced a smile at her. "Hey, Sunny! You, uh- how was work?" Sunny squinted at her. Something was off about her voice. It had that quaver that she used when she said she was fine, how are you? There was no way she wasn't hiding something.
Sunny's shoulders hunched up almost to her ears. She'd been going to therapy for months now. She should be over this already. But it was hard, when she saw Kat and Noah so clearly having a conversation that they didn't want her to be a part of, to not feel rejected. After all, they'd officially exchanged "I love you"s not too long ago. And in a really romantic moment- singing songs to each other in front of everyone! Sunny had been on trial for war crimes when she'd confessed to Kat. What a joke. Maybe they'd finally wised up and decided to kick her out of the relationship. It wouldn't be the first time she'd been replaced.
Kat was still looking at her with that weird frozen smile. Too late, Sunny realized that she hadn't responded, had just been staring at Kat and her perfect boyfriend. Well, not perfect. Noah was very clearly wearing his sweatpants tucked into his socks. But perfect for her. Kat deserved someone who wasn't a total fuckup like Sunny was. Noah coughed again. Right. Responding.
"It was fine," Sunny managed, her voice rough from using her customer service voice all day. She looked away from the two of them. "Probably gonna go to my room now."
"Oh, okay!" Kat said, sounding not at all disappointed. Great. Of course she was glad to get rid of Sunny. "Um, do you think maybe in an hour you'd want to come out for dinner? The others should be back by then!"
Sunny looked back up to her. Kat's eyes were wide and hopeful. Sunny wanted nothing more than to go to her room and burrow under the covers until she died of Feeling Really Bad, but… she could never say no to Kat. Not after what she'd done to her last year. Not after all the bullshit she still made Kat put up with. So she nodded and made her way to her room.
An hour later, Sunny hadn't even managed to fall asleep. She had laid down, promising herself that she'd get up in a second and change out of her sweaty clothes. And then, rudely, time had passed. The only way she knew that it had been an hour was the gentle knock of someone at the door. Great. What absolute asshole-
"Hey, Sunny?" Oh, fuck, it was Kat. "Not sure if you lost track of time, but dinner's almost ready if you wanna head to the kitchen!"
Oh fuck, oh fuck, Sunny was such an asshole. Had Kat been waiting on her? God she was the worst, what kind of dick- "Be out soon!" she managed to yell through the door. She struggled to pull her shirt off as quickly as she could, got it tangled in her horns, thrashed around in a panic, and fell off the bed with an audible thump. She could hear Kat wince through the door. "I'm okay! Gimme five minutes!"
It was apparently convincing enough for Kat to walk away and leave her to suffer in peace. Sunny stifled the urge to yell. She couldn't even get her shirt off correctly. Kat didn't need someone like her weighing her down. But apparently she wanted her to come to dinner enough to remind her, so it was the least Sunny could do to show up.
Sunny was a Fairest, so there wasn't a lot she had to do to look halfway presentable. She just shucked off her sweaty work clothes, threw on the same shorts and hoodie she'd been wearing all week, and ran a hand through her hair. It cascaded down her shoulders in a silky wave. She really needed to get Amelia to shave it off for her sometime. Ugh. Okay. At least it was just dinner. Maybe her body would do that weird thing where it felt better after she ate? Sunny shook her head. Nah, that was wishful thinking. There was no way that would work for a second time that day.
She slumped down the hallway. Sunny was so engrossed in picking at the frayed edge of one of her hoodie sleeves that she almost missed the sound of chatter from the kitchen. Sunny froze, startled, at the same time as she heard shushing noises. A hissed "She's coming!" cut the chatter off completely.
Sunny balled her hands into fists, nails digging into her palms. More whispering, more secrets- what were they hiding from her? The worst possible scenarios flashed through her mind. It had sounded like a bunch of voices from the hallway, more people than the ones that lived in the house. And Kat had been so insistent that she come to dinner. Were they kicking her out of the freehold? That had to have been it- she was pretty sure she'd heard Susanna Lee's voice in the chatter, and she was the Queen of Spring right now. Why would the reigning monarch want to hang out with Sunny if she wasn't in trouble? There was absolutely no other explanation.
Sunny took a deep breath. Well, they'd already spotted her. She might as well face her fate. She took one, two, three dragging steps towards the dining room. You'd think after everything she'd been through, after everything she'd done, she'd be able to face the end of her happiness with dignity. The most she could manage was a slow shuffle into the dining room. Eyes downcast, she managed a "Hey," and braced herself for the worst.
"SURPRISE!"
Sunny flinched at the sudden noise. She blinked in the bright light and finally looked up and around her. She had been right about one thing- this was definitely an ambush. But why was there a cake on the dining room table? And why was everyone grinning? Then she looked up and felt her stomach drop into her feet. Oh no.
"Happy Hedgiversary!!!" proclaimed the painted banner that was hanging crooked from the chandelier. The room was packed- was everyone in town here? There was a church buffet's worth of food stacked on the sideboards, a pile of brightly-wrapped boxes dominating the end of the table, and honest-to-god streamers taped up all over the walls. And there was Kat, smiling her radiant smile,
"Surprise!" she beamed, bouncing up to Sunny. "It's the one year anniversary of you coming to LeKay!"
Sunny wanted to run, to turn on her heel and get the hell out of this house, to leave the town and never have to see any of these people again. But before she could reel back, Kat got up on her tiptoes and kissed her cheek, then twined her fingers with Sunny's.
"You look really nice!" she chirped. Sunny wished that this was a lie, but she knew she looked amazing. It was awful. She wished she could crawl out of her skin and let SJ take her place. "Come on, there's presents."
By the grace of Kat's hand in hers, Sunny made it through the gauntlet of people who wanted to greet her. Noah was posted up at the present table. He raised his red Solo cup like a salute.
"Hey, you made it to your own party!" Her girlfriend's boyfriend winked at her. "Thought you were gonna be too cool to hang."
Sunny mumbled a response, and his brows knitted together. "You good? I can stage a distaction if you want."
Kat squeezed Sunny's hand. "A distraction?"
"Yeah, I can always start rolling around on the floor. and pretend like I'm being attacked by ghosts." Sunny snorted despite herself, and he took that as encouragement. "Spill all the drinks, hit Lewis in the face on accident, claim the cake is haunted and the only way to exorcise it is for me to eat it all myself! I've done it before at a wedding. Knocked over the chuppah and everything. I was like, thirteen?"
Sunny rolled her eyes at him. "That tracks. No, I'm good, just… caught off guard. I didn't even know it'd been a year." She tugged at the bottom of her hoodie with the hand not still holding Kat's. "Why is everyone here?"
"It's a party, jackass!" Kat aimed a light kick at Noah, which he made no attempt to dodge. "Fine, fine, no rude words for the guest of honor. My secondary present will be not cussing at my step-partner."
Kat pulled a face. "There has to be a better word than step-partner."
"Partner-in-law?" Noah offered. "Partner squared? Point is, they're here because they're your friends and they want to party with you."
Sunny looked at him skeptically. "They're probably just here for Kat."
"They're here for you!" Kat bumped Sunny with her shoulder. "You're a part of this community, Sunny. They're celebrating that."
"And I am celebrating this sick deal I got on screenprinting, so you have to open my present first." Noah pointed to a lumpy box sitting crookedly on top of the pile. "Hedgiversary parties are pretty informal, so do presents whenever, but I'm warning you now that you will be the center of attention for it."
Sunny took a deep breath. She squared her shoulders and looked down at Kat, who smiled. "If this is a sting to make sure I'm not still working with my Keeper, you have to tell me."
Kat leaned up for another kiss. "Sunny, I promise I'm not a cop."
Sunny returned the kiss. She managed a genuine smile at the two of them. "Okay. Let's do it."
Author's Notes:
Written 9/30/2021. This one took me about a year to finish. Sunny has PROBLEMS!