"Yep, this is your fault."
Hiro breathed out a sigh as yet another train sped past, hurling strands of long, pink hair in front of his face.
Zero Two stood beside him with an inquisitive look. The pair were on their way back home from a track and field competition. Or at least they should've been.
"Hey, I didn't make you get on the train with me." Zero Two stated apathetically as she turned away from the platform. "And I don't see what the big deal is, we'll only be two hours late."
"I TRUSTED you." Hiro followed behind her, groaning in protest. "And I'm not so keen on spending an hour stuck on a platform in the middle of nowhere."
"Then don't." Zero Two shrugged back. She strode toward the station stairs, and, steadying herself with both hands, leaped over the railing in one fluid motion.
"Come on!" She called out from beyond the entrance, "Let's go exploring!"
The low-lying fields surrounding the station quickly gave way to the surrounding mountains. Hiro followed behind Zero Two as she hopped and skipped excitedly, eyes darting about trying to catch each and every sight. Hiro had to admit that there was something soothing about the unfamiliar landscape. The mountainside was filled with trees and shrubs of all kinds, and the path they were following almost overgrown with wild grasses.
"It...kind of smells nice here, for some reason." Hiro proclaimed as he took in a breath. He thought it must've been from the tiny white flowers blooming on the trees all around them.
"Well, yeah. Look at all the trees and flowers! I don't think I've ever seen that one before!" Zero Two exclaimed excitedly, pointing her finger towards a large, slumping willow.
Hiro simply nodded, and the two continued on under the canopy above them, sunlight filtering through holes between the leaves as they moved forward. Soon they came upon an old, wooden gate. Standing over the path, it had clearly been battered by the elements. It was hard to tell, but by the few flakes of paint still clinging to the frame, the pair could see that it had once been painted red. Beyond it, large stones were arranged into a crude staircase, stretching further up the mountain and out of sight around a bend.
"Is this a shrine?" Zero Two puzzled as she walked around the gate, looking for a sign.
"Looks like it." Hiro replied, standing still and gazing up at the towering gate. "An old one, at that. It probably hasn't been used in decades."
"Cool!" Zero Two shouted back as she began running up the steps. She quickly turned the corner, and sped off without even turning to see whether Hiro was following her.
"Hey, slow down!" Hiro, of course, was right behind her. "There's moss on these rocks, you're going to slip and fall!"
Once he was caught up, Hiro grabbed Zero Two's arm to slow her down, and the two continued climbing at a leisurely pace. After about 20 minutes of steep terrain, the end was still nowhere in sight.
"Yeah, I can see why this shrine was abandoned." Hiro quipped as he struggled, having already spent a considerable amount of energy competing in the 200m dash earlier in the day, running 2 heats and then the semifinals.
"Can you imagine all the neighborhood grannies just wanting to pray for their family's good health having to climb this thing?" Zero Two muttered inbetween breaths.
"Hey, maybe we should go back, we're gonna miss the train." Hiro's voice now carried a hint of concern.
"Nah, it'll be faster going down." A dismissive reply from Zero Two.
As they rounded another corner, a gate matching the one they had passed previously came into view, and the pair emerged onto a treeless clearing. The shrine's staircase was, unusually, not at the opposite end from the deserted main building, which at first puzzled the pair. But as they walked onto the clearing, it became obvious why such an unusual design had been chosen. The clearing gave way to a steep cliff in front of the large hall, the view unobstructed by any branches.
"Uh, wow." That was all Zero Two could manage as she stared at the vista below. The fields below them stretched on far into the distance, and eventually the land met the sky in a near horizontal dividing line, the striking contrast between the nearly uniformly blue tint of the sky and the intense, earthy green of the vegetation was in full view from anywhere on the shrine grounds.
Hiro joined Zero Two in silence as the wind swept over them. Without looking down, their hands crept towards each other's, and each held the other in a firm grip. The pair glanced momentarily towards each other, then turned their gaze back to the scene in front of them, relishing fully the moment they now shared, taking in every color and hue, feeling every gust of air passing by their bodies, and reveling in every scent that was brought along with it, for what seemed like an eternity.
Until Hiro suddenly cried out, "Oh, shit! We're going to miss the train!"
"Oh god, you're right!" Already running across the grounds, Zero Two shouted, hand still glued to Hiro's, dragging him along as they sprinted down the steps. When they made it back to the platform, the train was also roaring into the station. Hastily jumping in, the pair nearly collapsed into their seats, exhausted.
"That was a good idea." Hiro tilted his head with a smile as the train drove off, his expression illuminated by the glow of the sunset passing through the window.
Disclaimer: I do not own Darling in the Franxx or any of the characters, this is a fan work.
Author's Note: This chapter may or may not just be me sperging about mountain parks around places I've lived in and visited.