TWENTY-THREE

Scarlet Sapphira sat down to enjoy the view when children ran to her and began braiding flowers into her hair as women also carried baskets full of fruit which weighed at least twice as much as her and insisted she took some.

After trying a dried persimmon, her eyes lighted up as they took her into a room and she came out wearing a traditional Japanese women's ' michiyuki ' robe, and looked at Amane as he leaned on a Mongolian oak tree while whistling a tune.

She walked to him and was about to ask him something when one of the women went to say the most well understood Japanese phrase of them all...' Domo arigato '...

She walked towards him and asked,"You paid them to do it?"

"I'm sorry if I..."

She hugged him and said,"I loved it..."

She was close, but didn't say the words yet.

He smiled slightly and she knew he was hurt, but felt this glass wall blocking her tongue from saying them, he then brightened up and turned her to face the mountain while hugging her tightly and said,"Our last stop for the day..."

Every person had to take a second look at the two as they passed by to the Rockies of the mountain, not because they weren't in climbing gear, but because they looked just that stunning together...

They began overlooking a high rock wall then Amane was about to kiss Scarlet Sapphira again when she spontaneously said,"Race you to the top!"

She jumped and held a ledge then swung her legs in the hollow below her to do a muscle up, rotating them afterwards in a handstand like fashion and locking her legs on a ledge far above her.

Amane grinned then tic tacked from rock to rock on the wall, but the moment he got to where she was, like a flash of black, red and blue lightning, she was gone.

Halfway up, Amane began losing his breath, but Scarlet Sapphira, who was several meters above him, dangled over by only one arm and said,"Keep up."

Locking her legs and securing her other hand, she thrusted herself up then caught the top ledge of the cliff, and rolled over onto it.

After several seconds, Amane caught up and said between breaths,"Wow, you're fast."

She looked into the dark forest before them both as he spoke,"It was believed that these forests were so thick no one was ever heard from after they went in..."

"Tag!"She yelled and fled.

He smiled then chased after her and if she was fast before, now she was basically the Scarlet speedster, with the forest giving her every type of obstacle to overcome and use to her advantage.

She slipped from his grip every time he made an attempt to catch her, flipping, diving, jumping and side stepping, even when he pounced on her from within.

She then began to jump sideways from tree to tree, then jumped over a river, stepping on the waters as if she was running on water using the momentum and Amane crossed over soon after, skidding over the waters' surface like it was an inch deep, till Scarlet Sapphira began running over the rocks of the rapids of another appearance of the river, doing the most daring acts of the acrobat till she got to the jhh cascade, where she took a deep breath, standing on one of the landmasses separating the silk strand like waters.

Suddenly, she was lifted from behind and looked back as Amane slowly placed her down, then kissed her forehead once they were both sitting down...

***

"Could I ask you something?"Amane asked.

"Sure..."

"When's your birthday?"

"It's not a time to be worried about, it's pretty far."

"Okay, what about you?"

"...how long have we dated for, wise dad impressor?"

"... exactly ten days, twelve hours, fifty six minutes and twenty three seconds and counting."

She looked at him, surprised till he confessed,"I made it up."

She punched his shoulder as he laughed then asked,"So, did you make any more stuff up? Like back home?"

"No, no, that was legit...most of it."

She rolled her eyes as he asked,"Hey, why don't we go back to the lake and adopt one of those kids then show it to your dad when we got home?"

"Ha,ha, really funny."She spoke.

"Had your dad always been this..."

"This what?!"She almost yelled.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you or anything but..."

"I'm just kidding, I usually don't get bothered by this kind of thing, my dad hasn't always been like this, but he has been for most of his life...when he was a kid, his biological parents never treated him with much love and affection..."

"I can relate..."

"So when his mother committed suicide, taking his father along, he was obviously devastated as they were the only adults he truly knew, till his little brother came along..."

"Little brother?"

"He was actually in his twenties by then but was born on the 29th of February...*

"Oh, a leapling..."

"His brother allowed him to express himself much more which led him to leaving the inner child he had for so long buried to run free, but he WAS actually quite good in martial arts, not only did his brother teach him seven different styles, but he was actually able to take down an entire fleet of police officers and law enforcement personnel who were responsible for his brother's untimely but planned out demise..."

"What?"

She knew he meant it by mainly the planned death, but said,"It's a long story, but jumping ahead, he became a lot more serious and responsible, I was never the most... obedient child, so he tried being nice to me in every way he could manage, which included playing like a kid, but I never budged, so he did it till it became a habit for him to act like whomever he was speaking with, especially with people younger than him."

"... I'm sorry."

"No, it's okay... it's my fault anyway, I literally broke my dad..."

"But you've changed now, you can right that wrong...only if YOU want to."He spoke.

She smiled as he began humming the same tune from earlier and she asked,"What song is that?"

"It doesn't actually have any lyrics, I've just been humming it to myself for years, ever since I was separated from my mother..."

She fell silent, then crouched herself to her hunkers making him feel like he had offended her.

He was going to ask when she spontaneously spoke,"23rd of March."

"What?"

"You asked for my birthday, it's the 23rd of March."

He smiled then said,"That's amazing..."

He then reclined on his hands till it began to get late, then Scarlet Sapphira stood up and spontaneously fell down the cascade, till Amane pulled her back by the collar and asked,"What are you doing?"

"We're falling down."She said and pulled him along.

He yelled for a second before there were two splashes in quick succession...