Enough Room

...Hero couldn't sleep no matter how hard he tried. A sleepover sounded like a good idea at first, but even with everything packed up to move Mari's house was filled with memories. And he...couldn't shake this feeling. A feeling he was on a first name basis with how often he'd spent with it.
Guilt.
He'd only been in this house for a few hours and it was almost crushing. He looked around at every inch of her room. He remembers the long conversations about their future at that desk. When she'd lay on her bed and talk for some of the best hours of his life. Point at her calendar for a date they could go on a date. The few moments she'd talk about her little brother. The window to the backyard, where...
Hero shook his head and looked away. Deep breaths, in and out. One of Mari's old tips she told Sunny to help calm himself, and later him when she learned how terrified of spiders he was after leaving one on his desk. Spiders...Sunny had been scared of those too. Mari always tried to...
...He only felt worse and stepped out of the room to try and escape this swirl of memories. Sitting at at the top of the stairs, he stared at the inky blackness at the bottom and tried to clear his mind. He hadn't thought about Sunny that often these past few years. Usually it was only when he was remembering something else about Mari. Sunny...he'd been living in this house all this time.
...
Hero lifted his head. There was a faint, but familiar sound in the air.
Mari's piano.

...

...

"It's been hard for me, too. I still think about her every day."
Hero couldn't help but notice Sunny's blank face slowly faltering. He never knew how to read Sunny, not like Mari did.
"I just...don't understand why she chose to leave us...the way she did.
Maybe he wasn't saying the right thing to Sunny. But he still wanted to try.
"But I knew her as a person who would always want all of us to be happy, even if it was without her."
...Mari...
"You should really get some rest. Go upstairs. I'll come join you in a bit."
...
Sunny stared blankly at the ground. And the tiniest voice escaped him "h...hero...?"
Hero gave a smile. "Yes?"
...
"...i...want...to see mari..."
...
...Oh. That's why Sunny was in here.
...Hero closed his eyes for a moment, afraid he might start crying.
"...Sunny, back when..." Keep steady, Henry. You can do this. "I wanted nothing more than to see her again. "
Sunny shivered. Hero almost thought of taking a step forward, but didn't.
Did Sunny want to hear these kinds of things? Hero didn't. But...maybe he should talk about it.
"I had a few photos around my room...I thought about looking at the photo album...there was a few times where I really wanted to see her again..."
He didn't elaborate. He didn't want Sunny to think about anything like that.
"It was hard...I didn't want to believe it. Didn't want to accept it was real. That...I'd wake up, and she'd be there. Put a spider on my pillow, or call, or..."
Sunny's expression still hadn't changed, barely looking up. Did he want to hear about this? No...did he want to think about it anymore?
"...I didn't want to think about it anymore. I just threw myself into my studies and school. Anything to avoid thinking about it."
Hours after hours, sometimes he'd read his text books over and over. Something, anything to help him not picture her smiles and I love you's.
"That's why...I went to college, and..." Left you all behind? Didn't care about my own friends? Abandoned you?
He took a deep breath, and speaks "I-I know it must have been rough, and-"
Before shutting himself up. Why is he trying to make excuses after all this time? Why is this all coming back now?
Even Sunny must be noticing how much he's fumbling this conversation. He'd never...opened up about any of this before, so it was hard finding the words. Unfortunately, this resulted in Hero now standing there in silence, a breadth away from shedding tears and apologies.

Sunny finally looked up at him. That same blank stare, but now there was something. A profound look, one that felt so familiar. Something he'd seen a lot these last 4 years. The same look he saw whenever he looked in the mirror. Sunny didn't say a word, but for once Hero knew exactly what it was.
And he stepped forward, and gave Sunny a hug. He almost squeezed him, and felt surprised at the immediete sensation of bone. He tried not to think about it, about any of it while hugging this boy. He'd thought of him like a second brother at one point, and he left him behind just like that. In this house filled with inescapable memories of Mari. A window in his room to the worst nightmare of his life.
And he still couldn't say the two words he needed to say to him. To all their friends.

...

"If you want, you can rest next to Kel. There should be enough room."
And with that, Hero was now alone. That took a bit longer than he had hoped.
...
He looked back at her piano, faint moonlight shining off it's reflective surface. Not a single bit of dust.
...
One note. Two more notes. Notes he remembered hearing her play day in, and day out.
...
"...Oh...Mari..."
...

...
Hero found Sunny sleeping soundly next to his snoring brother, an arm even hugging Kel's waist. He barely had to do much to lay down next to them.
There was more than enough room for them.