Apus is a simple constellation, just four bright stars glinting in the southern sky. A simple constellation named after the bird of paradise, a bird with no legs , a bird destined to soar through sky far above. A bird left out of the reach of mankind. The myth associated with that constellation was formed hundreds of years ago, the myth of two people who took flight to the stars. They were two people who belonged in flight but could only fly together, they were imperfect, but together they became something beautiful. The legend says that one day they'll return, one day they'll rest here before returning to the stars again. I wonder what that day might look like?
It all started in the Jian Park. The sakura flowers where blooming on the massive tree that stood at as the center piece of the natural haven housed in the center of a bustling city. Pink flowing hair floated aloof as a girl dragged her black haired companion toward their destination.
"Sakura slow it down a little!", the boy chuckled lightly as the over eager girl had seemingly failed to notice how much difficulty he was having keeping up with her.
She stopped for a moment, her hand still strongly gripping on to his, to examine his appearance. They were both still in their school uniforms, having just gotten out for the day, the raven haired boy had on his simple gray school jacket along with the matching gray pants. He was slightly out of breath as they had practically sprinted from the school yard to the pink haired girl on the other hand was practically glowing, her steady breath spoke for itself as to what kind of shape she was in. She had on her similarly colored blouse along with a longer skirt and leggings due to the warmer, but still fairly cool, spring weather.
"Eh? I though you said you were in 'better shape than ever', and you still can't keep up with me Hiro?" She joked, a smirk proudly worn across her face.
"That's not fair," Hiro asserted, still catching his breath, "you made me carry your bag and mine."
"Excuses!", she said as she turned herself to begin the walk up the hill towards the towering pink tree.
Hiro sighed in defeat, and Sakura caught him grinning in the corner of her eye as they began their journey to the the top of the hill side by side. Their hands were still intertwined and she was beginning to wonder if he was starting to take a hint as he showed no signs of letting go. A good sign considering what she had ambitiously planned for today.
"I heard they're planning on reopening that candy shop on June Street, Goro told me they'll be handing out some free samples until 5 to see how much public interest there is," Hiro said, "Maybe we should drop by and see how things look over there on the way back home."
"Hmm hmm," Sakura nodded approvingly, "I hope they some of the chocolate honey balls to try, how have I lived so long without them…"
She glanced over at him, still grinning, the glint in his eyes grew brighter as they continued to approach the base of the "Jian Tree". Sunlight brightened up the entire world around them and cherry blossoms glowed a beautiful pink, much like her hair. The grass around the stone path was a luscious green, the blades of which danced in the soft wind that occasionally blew around the pair of humans.
"It's still beautiful after all this time huh?", Hiro stated almost wistfully.
"Mm," she agreed, still keeping most of her attention on his face however.
She was having a hard time controlling herself as they stood at the bast of the tree, hands interlocked as Hiro looked up at the sakura blossoms floating softly down to the Earth. A gentle breeze flew through the air, causing the blossoms to tumble and circle around them as the sun began its decent behind the skyscrapers that stood in front of them. Sakura began to think about how they met by chance at this very same spot and how much they had grown from the two small innocent children they were on that day. However, she could still see a lot of the curious yet bashful child in the boy that stood beside her, she really did love his inquisitive and caring nature, it was part of what drew her to him.
This is bad, she thought to herself, now looking at his lips, but what better time than the present right?
"Sakura?", Hiro said in a concerned tone, finally noticing how hard she was staring.
She definitely caught him off-guard as she leaned to him and interlocked their lips. Her eyes were closed and she found herself feeling a bitty giddy after feeling the heat that radiated from Hiro's cheeks as she wore a slight blush of her. She felt a spark and a green wave of information in the form of memories clouded her mind, the familiar taste on her lips had triggered something beyond her wildest dreams as she dove into over a decades worth of of information in a little over a second. It was too much for her mind to comprehend at the moment, and after she broke away she immediately wrote it off as just some sort of side affect of the dopamine being released in her brain.
Sakura instead decided to focus on the dumbfounded expression Hiro had. She couldn't help but burst out laughing, still with a light blush of her own. They were definitely drawing unwanted attention of the other park-goers but she couldn't care less. Hiro seemed to notice the amount of attention she was drawing to them and the blush on his face deepened until he was practically glowing red.
"Your face, y-you should really see your face right now, it's too much," she said still laughing as Hiro came back to his senses.
"G-give me a break here, how the hell am I supposed to react to that", Hiro stammered out.
Sakura pouted a bit, obviously putting on a show, "Are you saying you didn't like it?"
"No!", Hiro said almost too quickly, which she appreciated, but then quickly added under his breath , "But I was kinda hoping to be the one to catch you be surprise."
It was never really a secret that they were into each other, it was just a matter of how long they were willing to play the game of being just friends. For some reason today was the day that felt the most right to her, a beautiful day in spring, under the tree they met at as children. In truth, there probably couldn't of been a better time for it, being second years in high school it was probably about time they decided to get things rolling for real.
"Maybe, you'll have a chance some other time Da-", she suddenly stopped her sentence.
Darling? Why does it feel so familiar to call him that?
She did occasionally call him "Darling", but most of the time it was just to get a cute reaction out of him since it always reminded him of the picture book they both loved as kids. Although, something about how the word rolled off her tongue felt too familiar, and she was hit with a wave of nausea as she tried to connect the dots in her head. How could one word be so important?
"Z-", Hiro stopped himself, and Sakura was too nauseated to notice the near slip up, "Sakura what's wrong?"
The boy grabbed onto her shoulder gently and steadied her out, trying to ensure that she wouldn't fall. She reached out in response and grabbed onto his arm, desperately trying to make the world stop spinning around her. After a few more seconds her vision cleared and the world around her steadied, her breath that had become short and rapid began to steady out as well.
"I'm fine, it's probably just because of something I had for lunch," she said, still feeling a bit queasy.
Hiro looked at her with a furrowed brow, "Maybe we should save the candy shop visit for another day, you really don't look so good."
Even in her weakened state she was still able to shoot Hiro a glare for even suggesting they miss out on free sweets for the sake of an upset stomach. Hiro recognized this and immediately raised his hands in defeat.
"I should know better huh?", He asked innocently.
"No kidding," Sakura said, releasing his arm and instead opting to grab his hand, "let's get a move on then, my mom will kill me if we miss the last train again."
She was still shaking slightly, but Hiro nodded instead of relenting, opting to keep an eye on her rather than kill the good mood. As they walked, Sakura's mind made the connections it had failed to earlier, the name "Darling" was only meant for the person most important to her in the entire universe. Someone who she loved and cherished above all else, someone who had given up his chances at a normal life to be with her, her Darling. Her mind continued to drift as the rest of the day passed in a blur, she hoped Hiro would understand her tired and lackadaisical responses as just being part of her ailment. She was able to work up a bit of excitement when she was able to grab a bag full of various flavors and types of candy from the kind vendor who was willing to bend the rules a bit for the sickly looking girl and the boy who accompanied her.
When they finally got on the train home she immediately passed out, leaning her head on Hiro's shoulder as her mind continued to wonder through the all too familiar passageways of her previous life.
"Sakura," he whispered softly, waking her up, "this is our stop."
"Mm," she mustered her confirmation as she stretched and stood up.
As they were walking out of the train station she paused for a moment hoping Hiro would notice and wait up too. She noticed he was still carrying her bag, which she felt somewhat guilty about, but she also knew that he would never be convinced to let her carry it after nearly passing out earlier.
Hero paused like she had hoped, "What's up?"
She looked downcast, "Sorry for being a bit of a mood killer today, I guess I-", she failed to notice how Hiro had quickly close the distance between them before he was able to lean in and catch her by surprise himself. She really didn't expect him to be so on board with all this so quickly.
She felt that same spark from earlier, it was significantly more clear this time. A boy in winter reaching out to a red horned girl, that same boy leading the girl through a wintery landscape, and finally a boy that look suspiciously like the Hiro she knew leaning in to kiss her in the cockpit of a Franxx.
Hero had a soft look in his eyes as they separated, "Don't worry about it," he had a wide grin on his face,"even if your first kiss with me nearly made you puke that means we can only go up from here, right?"
Her eyes widened and it was Hiro's turn to burst out laughing as she attempted to fix the misunderstanding. She was already feeling a bit fuzzy because of the first kiss, but now that he initiated one of his own so quickly after she just wasn't able to formulate thoughts properly.
"M-me feeling nauseous has nothing to do with you I swear," a partial lie she mumbled out, but she needed to say something in response to that incredulous joke, "besides if you really believed that you wouldn't of kissed me just now!"
"I know, I just figured I mess with you, you seemed to be thinking too hard about things today." Hiro explained.
"You're not wrong," she muttered under her breath.
"Let's get home already it's gonna be dark soon," he noted, not having heard the words she spoke to herself.
"Mm"
It was a short 5 minute walk to her house from the train station. Hiro dropped Sakura off with her bag and made sure to tell her to get some proper sleep, he also insisted she call him if she was feeling unwell again. She begrudgingly excepted his motherly affection on the her surface while being extremely thankful underneath. As they finally parted Sakura mentally confirmed to herself that what she had envisioned on that day was not simply some sort of fever dream, it was something far more important and meaningful than that. She wasn't just Sakura, she was also someone else, and that boy was Hiro, her Hiro, her Darling. He might not remember the past life he lived with her, but that didn't matter.
I don't know if you'll ever truly remember me, and I don't know if things will be the same between us , but even so, I don't think falling in love with you all over again is such a bad thing.
AN: You gotta know I couldn't pass up on that sappy line at the end, don't hate me for it. Hope you guys enjoyed so far, I liked the idea of Hiro and Zero Two suddenly regaining there memories and deciding to hide it from each-other rather than press the issue. A lot of this story is based on the head canon that klaxosapiens have memories based on physical things like taste or smell, rather than the typical human memories (credit to olcon, and Nearly On Red from youtube for giving me a fairly strong basis for believing this to be true). I know Hiro and Sakura aren't technically klaxosapiens anymore, but I'd like to think that the yellow blood cells incorporated into the parasites centuries ago are still present at a typically much lower level in the current society. In other words: humans are technically partially klaxosapien. Anyways feel free to leave a comment, it's been a really long time since I've written something like this and I'm hoping I didn't miss too many grammar errors and such.