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The sun was shining through the trees, barely risen up. A faint smell of beeches and alders hanged in the air. Ryo Yamada walked ahead the mountain trail, not slowing down or speeding up, trying to ignore Kita’s erratic movements behind her. Kita was stopping every few seconds, looking over every little flower she saw, violet, white, yellow, pink or pale blue, even though she couldn’t name most of them.
“A lot of new faces, but look at the sea of blooming dandelions!”, she shouted over to Ryo. “We came all this way, but they followed us along!”
“What a plant. The leaves are great in salads. Masking the bitterness isn’t as hard as it seems”, she responded without missing a beat. “And the dried flowers make for a killer syrup”.
“You’re finally noticing the world around you, huh?”, Kita smiled towards her girlfriend, “Even though it’s for such a prosaic reason...”
“And look over there...”, Ryo took the initiative in the conversation for the first time in a long time and pointed at a tall plant with pale, fragile flowers arranged in a ball, “That’s an alpine leek. Wonderful for flavouring.”
“I can’t sometimes with you, Ryo!”
“And there...”, she looked over with a mischievous grin towards a plant with very small, red, eggplant-shaped fruit, “This one is called the henbane bell. I’ll poison you with it and steal all your money.”
Kita ran over, catching up to her, only to smack her in the back of her head and make a hollow, cymbal-like sound.
“See? It’s empty!”, Kita laughed, “Now, there’s the only bell I care for”, she added grabbing her arm and finally deciding to walk besides her.
There’s a quality of spending time with Kita that Ryo wouldn’t trade for anything else. Her constant, energetic chatter made it weirdly easier for Yamada to enjoy being silent, and she just loved the timbre of her girlfriend’s voice. What’s more, Kita’s ability to notice and drive attention to every single beautiful completely changed her experience of the journey. She felt silly with how much of the world she’s been missing before, and is only discovering now, finally listening. At first she liked how, contrasting with Kita’s constant monologue, her rare words seemed important, how her temperance in speaking gave them weight. But with time, she stopped caring about how her musings seemed in contrast to those of her partner, and instead started following Kita in whatever engrossed her at the moment. It made the long way easier.
The narrow trail led mostly through the woods, the slope was gentle and forgiving for an inexperienced hiker. After half an hour of walking the trees gave way to a clearing, which were remnants, as Kita explained, of the sheep herders’ fields from hundreds of years ago. Now all that stood out from the wilderness was a log, placed to face the sight of endless green mountains, spilling through the whole horizon.
“Look to the west, Ryo”, Kita suddenly spoke much quieter, as if too not disturb something special, “the moon is setting.”
And as Ryo turned her head to where her girlfriend was pointing, she stopped moving for a while, stepped off the trail, walking slowly to the edge of the clearing.
“It really is…”, she whispered.
The moon was touching the surface of a distant, flattened by the passing years, green summit. It almost looked like it was melting in the air, growing larger and more hazy as it went down, almost as if being absorbed by the ground.
“And that’s why we rise early, see?”, Kita quickly joined her near the log, “that’s not something you see every day!”
The moon didn’t leave the stage as spectacularly as the sun. It slowly lowered itself and started hiding, not creating the beautiful show of orange and pink lights like the sun would, but simply checking off after a good day’s job, knowing it will be back soon. Kita felt Ryo getting closer, clearly wanting something, but not really wanting to articulate it. She smiled and rolled her eyes, only to take her hand and rest her face on Ryo’s shoulder, as the disappearing moon reflected itself in their eyes. A few minutes passed, and the sky became clear, as the planet’s closest companion faded below the horizon.
“Ah, well...”, the suddenly profusely blushing bassist tried to say, “shouldn’t we go forward now that it ended?”
“But whyy? I don’t want to!”, Kita suddenly teased, “it’s so nice here...”
“W-we have to be back by sunset. There’s a long way ahead”, Ryo tried to maintain her stoic expression, despite the warmth she felt on her cheeks.
Kita, in response, leaned in, gave her a quick kiss, turned around and started walking forward.
“Sure, then I won’t be stopping you anymore! We’re travelling all the way to the top now! You had your moment!”
“That’s not what I meant!”, Ryo whined, and started following her. “You’re so cruel...”
As Kita enthusiastically darted forward, Ryo, reversing back to her original, stable pace, trailed her girlfriend’s erratic movements, smiling lightly as she saw her travelling from side to side of the trail, peering through the window, constantly on the lookout for another amazing sight. As she looked at her, smiling, she remembered a time, it must have been a few years ago now, when they were all visiting the Enoshima shrine together. She shook her head as she recalled Kita’s insistence on climbing those daunting, endless stairs. To make the destination worth it. Ah, how that girl has changed her. Does she regret it? Not really. She would have looked tremendously uncool in Kita’s eyes if she had to crawl through those last few steps from exhaustion. But it was a funny feeling to admit it was the redhead singer who made a point, and not her. The fresh air filled her lungs. The morning was cold, but the sun shined through the trees, bringing a warmth she felt through her light jacket. Spring was just like her girlfriend. Lively, refreshing, intensely joyful. Beautiful.
The slope was gentle. Ryo remembered that, when they were planning this trip, Kita told her that she loved old mountains. They weren’t the highest, there really wasn’t even a true alpine layer to speak of. They were slowly withered away by time, becoming calmer and more welcoming. An alpinist wouldn’t brag about conquering such a summit. But they were teeming with life. The forest was vast, unending. The birds sang. Ryo knew, that once they broke through the dense greenery, and walk onto the expansive space of montane meadows above the trees they will see a wall of green stretching for miles of end. But for now the life was close, moving, breathing alongside them.
They walked for a few hours. Sometimes they stopped for a while, drank water, ate the sandwich they prepared before (Kita insisted on rye bread – she wanted them to grow old together healthy, but Ryo still couldn’t get used to the taste). They talked and laughed, but the farther they were from civilization, the quieter their voices became. Ryo thought that Kita’s laughter sounded sweet all the same. During the steeper ascends, the redhead was always first, quick to jump through the natural steps made of old, thick tree roots which were, as it seemed, holding the ground itself together. She would then extend her hand towards the bassist, who quite often couldn’t figure out the best path through those difficult parts. And as Ryo’s fingers linked with Kita's, it somehow always felt like the first time they’ve done this.
As the time passed, the forest became thinner, and glimpses of the large mountain panorama showed themselves more and more often. Ryo noticed as Kita walked out of the shadowed by the trees part of the trail, into the full sun.
“Look, look Ryo!”, she urged her to come along, “we made it to the meadows!”
Ryo walked a few steps forward, and the light blinded her for a few moments. Kita was right. The view was already forming. It wasn’t the view just yet – they still had a few kilometres to go before reaching the summit. But it was already beautiful. Without the trees, the shape of the mountain became more apparent. They trail led through a shelf, which while not being dangerously narrow, still offered a closeness to a long slope, going down hundreds of meters. But its softness, suggested by the vibrant grass covering it, and its relative mildness urged her to roll down all the way through it until something stops her.
Kita glanced back at her, wiping the sweat of her forehead, but still looking fresh and ready to go forward. Ryo for a while thought about in what state did she see her – slightly out of breath and tired, with her backpack hanging on just one of her arms, her sweater tied on her waist because it got sweaty to quickly, but her jacket still on because the cold air was getting to her – but then she realized she doesn’t care. There was something in Kita that made her persona obsolete, that took it away just with one look into her eyes. Ryo smiled back to her.
“I’m coming. It’s not my fault that you have the legs of a mountain goat, Ikuyo.”
Kita laughed softly, and suddenly some weird feelings over the nonchalant bassist. As she revelled in the sweet sound and watched the sunbeams washing over her girlfriend, tears suddenly swelled up in her eyes. She was so lucky, it’s almost dumb. To be able to look into her eyes every morning, make her coffee, miserably fail to make her breakfast and get to hear her warm chuckle. It was unbelievable. Unreal. Unprecedented. Yeah, she knew love is a pretty common thing, but she was sure no one else was feeling it quite like her. She was the luckiest woman in the world.
Ryo suddenly felt a sudden need to hold Kita in her arms. She locked eyes with the redhead with a fierce look and a determined smile, and her leg muscles tensed. But this was a grave mistake. Kita read her intentions in milliseconds, grinned at her mischievously (just as the bassist would always do before pulling a prank on her), and started sprinting up the trail with a frightening speed. Ryo gave chase. It was clear that she didn’t have the athleticism Kita gained while going on scenic walks, searching for perfect picture spots, but she had the power of her undying love. And that power allowed her to close the distance a bit, but she quickly realised it wouldn’t be enough. If she’ll let it drag on for too long, she’ll run out of stamina long before Kita.
And so she leaped. She knew that if she overestimated her ability, she would land face first on the ground. But it didn’t matter. A second of uncertainty stretched itself into minutes, as she travelled through the air with outstretched arms. She sighed with relief as she felt Kita’s back on her torso, and her arms enveloped her girlfriend. But maybe she felt relief a bit too soon. They tumbled together onto the soft, long grass which gently swayed in the warm wind. Ryo fell on top of Kita, out of breath, blushing, while the redhead was smiling and looking at her with amusement.
“Don’t you think it’s too soon?”, Kita asked, “we haven’t even really reached the summit.”
Everything she did suddenly started to hit Ryo. The unending confidence in her own abilities and personality was what defined her in her everyday conversations was starting to quickly vanish, as she did desperately thought what to do with herself. She scoured for ideas on how to somehow turn it all into a joke, ease the tension she felt, stop the embarrassment she felt so intensely.
She noticed a dandelion resting on Kita’s face. It must have gotten here as they were falling on the ground, disturbing the rich green of the meadow. She leaned close to her, with a blushing face, and softly touched her cheek with her lips, just to pick the plant off her and start chewing. At first, Kita was flabbergasted. But the smugness in Ryo’s face that she gained after a successful maneuvrer quickly dissipated as Kita moved up, pushing her onto the grass, and kissed her deeply. Bitterness of the dandelion was quickly masked by the sweetness of her girlfriend’s kiss. It really was easy.
When they were finished and slowly getting up the ground, brushing off all the plants covering their clothes, Ryo was even more out of breath than after the sprint. Vocalists. You really can’t get used to them. They continued slowly. For the last leg of the journey up to the summit, Kita decided not to run ahead, instead taking Ryo’s arm in her hands, and travelling forwards with her head leaning on her shoulder. The mountains seemed endless. Their view was clear, finally unobstructed by the dense forest. They could see the flow of all the different summits, rising and falling gently. They saw their goal was just one ascent ahead of them, and all the different places they could have gone to spilled to the west and the east of them. Little village huddled over in the deeper valleys, and if they looked well enough, they could also see old wooden buildings standing alone on all the other trails. Ryo somewhat regretted the fact they picked this one – she would kill for a nice stew in one of those mountain shelters. But seeing Kita enjoying their isolated path, where they could take their time and be as close to each other as they wanted made it worth every second off her grumbling stomach.
Slowly they made their way to the summit. It was flat and spacious, not really towering above all of the terrain below it. If it wasn't for the trail starting to descend after this point, they wouldn't really be able to tell they've reached their destination. It was like a mountain’s way of expressing it’s own tiredness from all the climbing. Ryo sat down and petted the ground with affection.
“I feel you, old pal”, she muttered.
Kita laid down her hoodie on the grass and sat down with her. They enjoyed a moment of quiet, as the wind rustled their hair. The sun was high in the sky. They still had the whole day before them. In a few moments they’ll have no choice but to walk on. But now, their hands found each other. They could enjoy the mountains stretching through the whole horizon, the clear air, the sea of dandelions. Themselves.