A glint of light lies ahead in the infinite blackness that surround him. He notes how cold he feels and clings to his naked self, desperate to keep any more from heat from escaping his body as he works toward the light. With every step he takes he feels the air around him grow colder, the ground clings to his feet, trying to hold him in place like some tar-like substance. He presses forward, determined to continue on.
One step.
Two steps.
He stumbles, and the darkness moves to engulf him. The boy fights to keep his head above the tar like substance, and reaches his hand out desperately toward the light. Warmth that blasts away the darkness reaches out and envelopes him in a gentle embrace, a red figure stands before him in the distance. Two alluring horns and flowing pink hair accompany her emerald eyes as she look curiously at him. She tilts her head slightly, a questioning look in her eyes as the boy stares back at her. He doesn't know this girl, he has never once seen her in his life, and yet something in his heart and mind churns with emotions just by looking at her. He moves toward her now, the source of radiating warmth and light.
One step.
Two steps.
To his sides appear several other figures, all encouraging him forward, all with a similar feeling a familiarity even though he'd never truly seen them before. His body begins moving faster, he needs to reach her. Just before he closes the distance between them, arm outstretched to grab her hand, she smiles and a spark passes through his mind jolting him awake. Looking over at his alarm clock he took note of the time : 2:02 AM. What an ungodly hour to be awake at on a school night. Sighing, he noticed that his room was a bit colder than normal and the culprit was an open window next to his night stand. With his mind now fully awake he moved away the sheets of his bed to approach the window, gently pulling down on it until it clasped into place closed. He then returned to sit on his bed side to collecting his thoughts after a dream that he'd been having repeatedly since falling extremely ill as a child. He recollected that time where he was too weak to even move, his mind strained with thoughts he couldn't possibly understand, but through it all there was a small gentle hand firmly clasped around his. A voice of encouragement and comfort had been his only anchor to the world he was living in.
It had been a long time since then, and in the several years following he'd slowly regained memories of a previous life, a far more complicated life than the one he'd been living up until now. There was pain, there were tears, but above all that was a feeling of love, happiness, and adventure. And there was always a girl with flowing pink hair and a smile that made his heart dance in his chest. A girl named Zero Two, a girl that looked exactly like Sakura. The Sakura he'd grown close to over the course of the course of many years, someone he'd been entranced by since the first time he saw her.
Yesterday… he thought to himself, is it possible?
He shook his head and his mind returned to the thing he'd promised himself years ago, that even if she never remembered him, even if she never realized how deep their connection truly ran, he would always love her. Looking at Sakura, he was constantly reminded of all the reasons he fell so far for Zero Two in the first place. Her courageous and overly affectionate character, her massive sweet tooth, a softer, more vulnerable part of herself she that managed to keep very well hidden from the people around her. Well, the people around her except for Hiro of course, who she couldn't seem to hide much of anything from.
He had a hunch that what truly caused her nausea from the previous day was likely similar to what he had already experienced seven years ago. A type of physical and mental trauma that eventually brought his memories back to an extent, albeit slowly. It certainly wasn't out of the question that she had began her own journey to retrieving her memories. However, he decided to dismiss his thoughts as being too optimistic. Maybe she really was just feeling sick to her stomach, not too unlikely because of the absurd amount of honey she decided to put on her rice balls, of all things, at lunch.
Hiro took note of the time again, it was just before 2:30 in the morning, he'd been thinking to himself for nearly half an hour and his brain was finally starting to wear out. Before letting himself fall back into bed he glanced toward the top of the mostly empty bookshelf, at the colorful old picture book that stood on the top shelf. He grinned to himself slightly as he closed his eyes, trying to let sleep wash over him again.
Even if things were to stay like this, as long as I'm with you I'll be alright.
Hiro woke up to the annoying buzz of a vibrating phone on his nightstand. Without opening his eyes his hands felt around on the wooden surface until his ring finger finally caught a piece of what he was lazily reaching for. Shutting off the phone alarm for what was probably the fourth time and slightly cracking open his eyes he peered at one of many notifications that had popped up on his screen.
Sakaru: You overslept again didn't you?
Sent at 9:05 in the morning… Well, she wasn't wrong. He groaned to himself, his parents absolutely refused to wake him up in the morning and were always gone by 7 AM sharp anyways. Instead of rushing to get dressed he decided to take his time, accepting that he was going to miss first period and that showing up late in the middle of class would garner too much unwanted attention for his tastes. He looked through the remaining notifications, including several from the group chat his friends had created. Most of the people in that group felt all too familiar him, but he could never quite connect that dots between them and those same people from his past life unlike Sakura.
The first thing he noticed sent was an image, an image of two people standing in the Jian Park under the ancient Sakura tree and… His attention snapped back to the people under the tree. That was him, and a certain pink haired girl leaning in far to close for it to be mistaken as anything else. He rubbed his eyes a little after taking note of the person who had made the decision to spy on Hiro at the worst possible moment. Who other than Zorome to stick his nose where it didn't belong.
Zorome : Look at what we have here…
Miku : You actually disgust me
Zorome : Ah, c'mon it's not my fault they decided to do it out in the open at a public park
Ikuno : And I'm sure it's not your fault that you decided to take a picture of it…
Sakura : Cute picture!
Mitsuru: …
While he was still groaning internally about the violation of their privacy, he couldn't help but chuckle a bit to himself after seeing the responses. He set his phone back on his nightstand and forced himself to rise from his comfortable position. The sunlight gently seeped through curtains at his bedside.
What a beautiful day.
"It was just a harmless picture guys! This is a bit too much, don't you think?", Futoshi reasoned.
The other girls were having none of it, there was a fire flickering in their eyes as the approached a cornered Zorome.
"Do you have any concept of privacy?", Miku said yelled yanking the boy up by his collar.
Zorome gave a pleading toward where Goro,Sakura, and Hiro were sitting. Goro gave an apologetic smile as the other two completely ignored his existence, caught up in their own idle chit-chat.
"If you keep missing homeroom to wait up for me you're going to get in trouble too you know," Hiro said slightly concerned.
"It's fine as long as I show up to my other classes isn't it? Besides, homeroom is painfully boring without you," she dismissed, still doodling in her notebook as they sat on a bench in the central courtyard of the school, plenty of time to spare before their train arrived.
The distant cries of Zorome could be heard as the Ikuno,Ichigo, and Miku continued with whatever gratuitous torture they had brought upon him. Mitsuru and Kokoro sat beside each other, leaning against the tree beside the park bench the other three were resting at as Futoshi continued to plea for mercy on Zorome.
"Honestly, sensei doesn't even seem to mind you guys walking in late anymore anyways," Goro said, seemingly encouraging Sakura's behavior with a grin.
Hiro sighed, knowing that his oversleeping was also partially to blame for this anyways.
"Are you all going to the Apus festival next weekend?" Kokomo interjected, changing the subject of conversation.
The festival was only held once every four years in Japan, it was a celebration of the lives of those who had passed on a millennia ago in order for humanity to reach the times of peace they took for granted now. He knew she was particularly referencing himself and Sakura, after all it didn't seem like the worst idea for a date. As a result Sakura, who had been previously been absorbed in her numerous bird doodles, now looked toward Hiro with an excited look.
"We're going," She stated matter of factly, not giving him an option it seemed.
"I guess we're going," Hiro parroted.
"If everyone else is planning on going, I'll be there, I heard the fireworks will be extra extravagant this year," Goro said.
"I'm sure there will be lots of sweets and good food," Sakura said, practically swooning at the thought of all the delicious treats she'd find. "And, it's also supposed to have a bit of a romantic atmosphere, do you know what that means Darling~?" Now looking mischievously at Hiro.
He scratched his cheek and laughed nervously at her statement. He took note of the name she used to call him internally, but didn't think too much of it because of her teasing nature.
"It has the name of the Apus constellation in it after all," Mitsuru who didn't have much to add up until this point finally put in his own input.
Kokoro clasped her hands together and smiled gently, "I'm glad! I definitely hope to see you all there."
"Yeah, if we're going to make this happen I want you four to promise you'll at least spend a little time with the group before running off to do your own thing," Goro chastised.
"O-of course!" Mitsuru stammered out as cheeks created a light blush red.
"Fineeeeee," Sakura regrettably agreed to spend at least a little time with her other friends.
Hiro found himself chuckling at the entire situation, it just felt so wonderful to be able to enjoy moments like these. He'd found himself so caught up in the moment that he failed to notice the Ichigo and Miku dragging a mostly lifeless Zorome towards them, with Ikuno in the lead and Futoshi following behind.
"Apologize," Ichigo stated.
Hiro took note of the writing on his forehead that read 'I'm an asshole'. He hoped it was washable marker, if it was sharpie his punishment might of been a bit overboard indeed.
"I'm sorry alright, sheesh, you guys act like I killed your dog or something," Zorome grumbled.
"You're forgiven," Hiro and Sakura said nonchalantly in unison. Neither of them phased by how in sync they were.
"I'm actually kinda glad you did, now I have a new screensaver," Sakura added, fishing out her phone and turned it towards the group.
"Eh?" Everyone except for Hiro was in shock.
She'd already shown him the screen saver earlier in the day, and even then he wasn't very surprised. It just seemed like something she would do.
"T-then why did you let them do this to me!?" Zorome asked looking for answers.
"Hmmm, well Miku did say that what you did was fairly rude so I agreed to let her do as she pleased with you." Sakura stated.
"You guys are too cruel!" Zorome yelled comedically.
"You have to admit it's a bit funny Zorome…" Ikuno added holding in her laughter.
"Shut it four-eyes!"
With that the group burst out laughing, the situation was too much to handle.
"You know we can't keep having close calls like that one," Hiro stated as he walked together with Sakura through the quiet neighborhood they lived in.
"We made it didn't we?"
"If I hadn't dragged you from that arcade we wouldn't of."
"I almost had the high score," she pouted.
Hiro laughed and turned his head up towards the millions and billions of twinkling lights in the sky above them. He recalled learning in his history class about the light pollution that had previously made a lot of the constellations of the night sky disappear, and how humanity was now working to prevent those previous mistakes. It had payed off big time, the sky above him looked fantastical in nature as the radiant lights shone down toward Earth.
"There!" She pointed somewhere far above, "Apus!"
Following Sakura's gaze he was able to find the Apus constellation himself in the night sky. Four twinkling little stars the glowed red in the sky arranged in an absurdly ambiguous shape. His heart twisted looking at those stars and numerous feelings washed over him, he couldn't explain it in the moment. Looking back, he realized it must of been the memories etched into his soul crying out. He glanced over at Sakura, examining her face that was still full of wonder as she gazed at the night sky, the soft kiss of moonlight made her practically glow. It wasn't long before she found him practically staring at her.
"Darling you couldn't possibly be thinking perverted things about me right now could you?", Sakura said teasingly.
He smiled, "And if I am?"
His response caught her off-guard for a moment, and then she began laughing.
"I always knew you had a dirty mind deep down." She said as she leaned in to kiss him.
The stars above seemed to shine a little brighter in that moment, reaching out to surround them in an ethereal light. Two pairs of glowing red and blue pinpricks glinted slightly in the hair of star-crossed lovers, unbeknownst to either of them.
AN: This chapter was a bit harder to write, although I have a generally idea of where I want to go with this story, I still need to fill in a lot of details and I apologize if that makes the story feel a bit slow. I appreciated the feedback from your comments on the last chapter and I intend to do the best I can with the remainder of this story. I'm thinking of also writing another story that diverges completely from the canon ending, but I'm going to try and make sure I can finish this one before I get started on anything. Writing this has been therapeutic for me after the ending we got so I'm gladly so many of you liked it! I hope to keep updates weekly, with chapters being ~2k words or more,so I'll do my best to manage my time appropriately with all the other stuff I have going on. Thanks for reading!