"You ready for this?"
"Ready as I'll ever be."
Haruto took L-elf's, no Mikhail's hand, and jumped.
They went into a free fall speeding towards the ground below. Haruto was beaming, thrilled from the rush. He looked over to Mikhail to see his expression, which still held its usual sterness. At the right moment, they opened their parachutes to float safely back to Earth soil.
"That was amazing!", Haruto exclaimed.
One would wonder why a young man who had fought in a giant robot would be so excited about this kind of activity, but Haruto had never done such a thing. At least, not to his recollection. After the final battle, Haruto's memories had been completely awake. He had laid comatose for about a week and when he woke up, he recognized no one.
Everyone had been distraught, yet relieved. After some rehabilitation, they found that he was still the same Haruto they knew, just wiped clean of his past. Sometimes they tried jogging his memory, but there was nothing left. L-elf figured it was for the best. Haruto didn't need to be burdened with that. The first time someone suggested he start piloting again, he shot them down, along with Shoko.
For all intents and purposes, Haruto was retired. Shoko took up piloting Unit I and it became her task to collect runes. L-elf had offered himself but she found that sort of intimacy between them a bit much.
"You and Haruto used to do it this way?", she'd asked, to which he had nodded. L-elf hadn't thought much of it. They were of similar height and biting into his neck meant neither had to readjust themselves too much. Through a series of conversations, Shoko ended up taking her runes through an injection of donated runes volunteered by some of the remaining students.
And Haruto lived his days, under the supervision of L-elf, who had re-christened himself as Mikhail when Haruto woke up. Mikhail had his hands full in the aftermath of everything that had happened, but like all government employees was entitled to some vacation time. And he was spending it with Haruto. Haruto had been given the gist of his situation, that he had been in an accident that gave him amnesia.
He still had questions about his past, but a bigger part of him felt he should focus on the future. And to that end, he had made a bucket list. It was kind of hard making a 'things to do before I die' list when Haruto didn't know what he'd already done. He edited the list with the help of his friends who were able to tell him things he'd already done before.
And that brought them to today.
Mikhail took his vacation and it was the perfect opportunity to scratch some things off Haruto's list. Mikhail only knew of a few things on it. He really hadn't expected skydiving to be on there. But with memories of being the pilot of a giant robot in an interstellar war gone, Haruto was just a normal boy. And skydiving was exciting to normal people.
It wasn't the first thing on his list, thankfully. They had started with tame things first. His list had been, in this order:
1. Horse riding
2. Go camping
3. Hot air balloon ride
4. Skydiving
The list went on after that but Mikhail couldn't be on vacation forever. When they landed and removed their gear, Haruto's face was pink from the rush. Mikhail smiled. He looked the way he should. The way he deserved.
"I'm really glad you came with me", Haruto said.
Even if he couldn't remember their past together, he just knew deep in his heart that Mikhail was a very important person to him. And it meant the world to him that he could share in adventures like this.