Blooming love

Chapter 3 (end for now)

She launched herself upwards and ran beside her friend, both of them grinning with anticipation. As his mind slipped away from its focus, his fingers fell into the crevices between hers, making them gently intertwined. The rush of wind ruffled the hair above their foreheads and made their kimonos flap behind them.

Zenistu's sudden stopping caused Nezuko to nearly slam into him. Her premature remark fizzled out once she caught sight of the landscape in front of her. Beyond vast, vibrant green grass stood tall peach trees; their sweet, succulent smell wafting through the air. A variety of daisies, buttercup flowers, and bellflowers bloomed beside prospering tree roots. The sun sank behind a forest in the distance, painting the colors of pink and orange into the sky. When Zenistu gave his friend a sideways glance, he found her eyes were wide with awe.

"Wow, this is amazing!" she marveled before turning around and punching him in the arm. "How come you didn't show me this place sooner?"

Zenitsu winced as the tender pain throbbed in his arm. Despite how innocent and sweet she was, there was no denying her strength. "I dunno!"

Nezuko raced towards a peach tree and stretched upwards to reach for its lowest hanging peach, her fingers straining as they barely grazed the bottom of its fuzz. Her heels fell to the ground and she huffed, blowing a strand of her black hair from her face.

Trying his best to conceal his laughter, but couldn't help smiling softly. He reached for a peach while barely struggling as much as she did, and handed it to her. "Here, I got you."

She swiped the peach from his hand, her eyes avoiding him. "Thank you."

He patted her head as he laughed at her struggle to take a peach. "There, there," he reassured her jokingly, "you'll get there someday."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever."

A few minutes later, Zenistu treaded up a hill to meet Nezuko again, a bouquet of flowers he had plucked from the fields below them held in his fist. She sat on the top of the hill beneath the peach tree, biting into the remains of her peach.

He sat beside her, the grass crinkling beneath him as he dropped the flowers onto his lap. In his peripheral vision, he caught Nezuko eyeing him curiously before asking him what he was doing.

"You'll see." He took some of the flowers and gently wove their long stems together between his fingers. He continued until every flower had been used, and his lap was completely empty.

"Look, Nezuko!" he announced sheepishly as he held a flower crown in his palms. Nezuko turned her head around and a look of astonishment infiltrated her expression, which caused Zenistu to beam proudly.

"Wow, it's beautiful!" she said.

He averted his eyes from her as a sudden nervousness rushed through him. He knew Nezuko only acknowledged him as her friend, and he eventually learned to hide his feelings for her over the past two years. Maintaining his smile, he placed the flower crown on her head, repressing the trembling from his fingers. He silently hoped she didn't find this gesture to be romantic, because it would make things awkward between them. He only wanted to show his appreciation toward her.

The gesture caught her off guard for a moment, but she smiled immediately after. "Oh my gosh, thank you so much, Zen!"

He fidgeted with an excess stem from a flower to tame how anxious he felt. "Um, yeah, of course!"

She pulled a flower from the crown and placed it in his sunny yellow hair. Surprise broke his expression as he stared at Nezuko, who was now laughing. He couldn't help but gently laugh along with her until she fell over onto her side from her own laughter, and his laughter accelerated to the same level as hers.