The Stranger You Know

Things end, but memories last forever.

The first thing she saw was white.

But how did she know it was... white? It was something she instantly knew despite the fact that she didn't remember anyone telling her this specific colour was named white. She just knew it was white.

Her eyes moved down and she lifted her head a little higher to see what the sudden commotion was about. People were crowding around her bed and repeating their chants of happiness she didn't comprehend, but their eyes displayed more emotions than that; relief, concerns and longing. Things she didn't understand why they would have for her either.

She quietly looked from one face to another. There was this older looking man with a moustache, a blonde man, a very pretty lady and another lady who wore spectacles...

Something was missing.

"Where am I?" She spoke and realized her voice was delicate, but she didn't recognize it.

She recognized nothing

A man she didn't notice in the crowd suddenly loomed over the head of her bed. His eyes carried no similar emotions like the rest, but something deeper. So deep till she couldn't understand at all.

"In the hospital." He replied for her.

She stared at him, her brows furrowed.

"Who are you?"

Ah. She finally understood something.

This was the face of a broken man.

.o.

"What year is it today?"

"I don't know."

"When is your birthday?"

"I don't know."

"Where do you live?"

"I don't know."

After much questioning, it was her turn.

So her name was Nakamori Aoko, which was what her father, Nakamori Ginzo, told her.

She stared into the mirror of the hospital bathroom and watched her own blue eyes in mystery, inwardly hoping her reflection would suddenly come to life and answer all the question she had in mind. At least there was one thing she knew without having the need for anyone to tell her; she'd probably inherited her looks from her mother.

"Are you alright, Aoko?" A muffled voice came from outside.

It was Momoi Keiko, her best friend since high school, something she was told about as well. She glanced back at the mirror again, hoping to remember her own face one last time before departing out of the bathroom with a meek smile.

"Sorry I've took so long."

"Oh it's fine." Keiko took her hand and gave a reassuring squeeze. "I'm just worried, that's all."

She had showered and changed into her new clothes, something she was finally happy about in her whole life (which was exactly four hours if it begins from the time she woke up to this new world). Apparently during the time she was washing up, Saguru Hakuba, Koizumi Akako and her father had left her ward for somewhere else, leaving only the two of them and...

Kuroba Kaito.

The last time Aoko saw him, he was standing by the window with his back facing her when the doctor broke the news about her amnesic case. There was so much more about his presence to her, yet now, he had changed his position and sat on a stool at the far corner of the room, seeming like he was trying to blend into the white walls.

"I'll inform the nurse that you're done and prepare some food." Keiko took her arm and led her back to the bed. "Have a rest. I'll be back."

"Okay."

Keiko cast a glance over at Kaito, like a silent warning or some sort before she departed out of the ward. Pretending to ignore whatever she had saw, Aoko properly laid herself down on the flat bed and stared at the white ceiling before deciding she was sick of the colour. She sat up again and propped the pillow upright to lean on it instead. While she was halfway doing her job, the head of the bed suddenly tilted up, like some kind of magic.

She turned towards the humming noise and blinked when she saw Kaito at the end of her bed and pressing a remote in his hand. He dumped it aside after he was done and helped to set her pillows at a good angle for her sitting position.

"Better?" He asked.

Her back fell onto the soft comfort to test it all out and she sighed in satisfaction. It couldn't have been any better.

"Thanks."

This was the first time he was so near to her and she took the chance to observe him at this distance. His cheekbones and jawlines were sharp, his eye colour was the best shade of blue, and despite how his hair was messy and uncombed, she thought it would be soft to the touch.

She could almost feel it.

An unshakable feeling started creeping across her chest, something she wasn't familiar with. "Who are you?" Aoko whispered.

He stepped a few feet back and slotted his hands into his pockets. She could sense him trying to diminish his own presence again, like a phantom. "I'm Kuroba Kaito."

"Everyone introduced themselves to me, and who they are to me." She tried to explain her meaning again. "But you didn't."

"I'm anything you wish for me to be." He offered nothing in his expression to tell her what he was thinking or feeling.

She frowned. "What?"

The conversation was over when the door opened, revealing Keiko and the nurse who was carrying a tray of food in, the first meal Aoko would remember having in this life.

.o.

"This is your room." Her father opened the door and swung it open, revealing a furnished bedroom. The wallpapers was pleasing to the eye, and something about the placement of the furniture made Aoko happy. She liked how the bed was beside the window. She liked how the rows of photographs were placed on a long shelf above the desk. She liked how the cabinet was in front of the bed, convenient and easy. She liked everything here.

She perched on the edge of the bed and smoothed the soft sheets with her hand. But she felt nothing else. There was nothing for her to think or reflect about. This was just a room she liked, that was all. She couldn't imagine herself sleeping in here since she was old enough to have a room on her own. She couldn't think of any reason why she would want her photographs to be placed at such a high level where she had to tilt up her head for her height to see them properly. She couldn't comprehend why she would want her bed to be beside the window when the sun would disrupt her sleep. Although she liked all of it, she didn't understand.

Nothing made sense to her.

"Do you... remember anything?" Her father gently asked by the door.

The same old question she heard almost every single hour, and every single second, she questioned the same thing to herself. She looked away, her throat twisted and she couldn't get any words out of her system.

"Sorry, I shouldn't push you."

"No, it's fine. I mean, I should be sorry." Aoko lifted herself off the bed, unable to hide the dejection in her voice.

"Don't be sorry, it's not your fault." He said, his own voice tainted with similar disappointment, but he managed to tone it down much better than her. "Do you want me to be somewhere else?"

"It's fine. You can stay. Maybe it'll help."

Her father nodded and stayed at where he was standing since the beginning.

She trudged around her room and decided to start on the photographs. It would be the best source for information. Like what she thought she needed, she tilted her head and glimpsed through the photographs.

There was a picture of her and Keiko and other people with the same school uniform. It was a graduation ceremony, perhaps, with all the confetti on the floors and the certificate in their hands. The next photo was a place strikingly similar to a bar environment and Aoko, Hakuba and several other men were holding a billiard cue stick. They all looked pretty buffed and physically trained, a few looked equally as handsome as Hakuba too. Then a couple of photos later, she found one she had took with Akako, a crown was on top of the latter's head and a sash around her body that said "Miss Universe". The last one was a photo of a little girl with a younger version of her father and a lady standing beside him. It wasn't difficult to guess.

"That's Mom?" Aoko pointed at the frame.

"Yeah." He smiled.

She looked back again.

Nothing.

Everything was... nothing.

It wasn't the memory that brought her pain, but the fact that so many important people in her life were here, and she felt nothing about them. She couldn't picture herself smiling in the camera when there was no reason for her to be happy at that moment, because nothing was there. And this thought hurt her so much because the Aoko she was now and the Aoko that was in the photographs... why wasn't there any connection? Why couldn't she bloody remember?!

Aoko winced at the sharp pain in her head and her father was instantly by her side, cradling her like a baby she once used to be. He gave her a few comforting pats on her shoulder and calmed her down. It worked like wonders, even though she still wasn't even sure if her heart deemed him as her father. She chided herself inwardly and swore these thoughts must only be spoken in her mind. She didn't have the rights to hurt anyone who loved her.

And then suddenly, something sparked.

"What about Kuroba Kaito?"

They parted the awkward hug and her father stared down at her with a raised eyebrow.

"What about him?"

"He isn't in the photographs."

"I've asked you once before." He sucked a bundle of air through clenched teeth. "You weren't very happy about it. And I didn't get an answer too."

"Oh."

"I'm actually surprised he's there, in the hospital." Her father scratched his head, sounding as puzzled as he looked right now. "It was Hakuba-kun who asked him to come."

"Why would it be surprising?"

"You both seemed to have lost contact for a period of time, something like that."

Great, another complicated information to add on her list of things to remember.

"Anyway, he lived there."

Lived? Aoko followed the pointed finger, through the window and at the lone house just a few minutes' walk away from hers. She blinked. "That's pretty close."

"Yeah. But he moved away last year and it's empty ever since."

"I'm anything you wish for me to be."

In the end, nothing still made sense to her.

.o.

It was her job that caused her memory loss. Or the criminal she was chasing. Or the driver that didn't step on the brakes on time. Or because it was her stupid brain's fault.

She had been told of the story of her accident when she woke up, but she didn't question about why she was chasing a criminal in the first place. That thought somehow didn't get into her head at that point of time since everything was in a mess, but now that she had the time to think through all the information, she finally got it, even if it was still quite hard to believe.

Her jaws dropped after the reveal. "I'm a... detective?"

"Yeah." Hakuba chortled. "Why? Unexpected?"

"Sort of, not like I'm in any position to judge when I don't even know myself." Aoko tried for a laugh and all Hakuba returned was a small smile. Darn it, her stupid words got to ruin a moment again. But the almost invisible tension was gone like the wind.

They were sitting in a cafe located in the middle of a busy street in town. She didn't wear anything nice to complement to Hakuba's usual proper suit wear, but somehow, it didn't make her any less comfortable or conscious about their difference.

She was given a menu when they settled themselves in a booth by the window, but she couldn't decide on anything. Hakuba helped and ordered a chocolate parfait for her, much to her surprise.

"I like chocolate parfait?"

"That's what you always get when you're here."

Hakuba began telling her the stories of their working life and how they'd solved crimes with the other members on the team. He showed her a picture in his phone, and she was right when the faces of the people matched with the bar photograph in her room, not like it helped her with remembering anything at all.

"You brought the team here on the first day you joined our Division." He smiled at the memory and Aoko wished she could have done the same. "You'd ordered the whole menu for us."

She gaped. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah. You treated this place as close to your home. You're friendly to everyone here." Hakuba gestured around. "Remember?"

Nothing.

"Sorry, I-"

"No pressure." He raised his cup of tea. "What could be any more important than you being well? Take it slow. You have all the time in the world."

If only she could truly feel that way.

She dug into her parfait and savoured the ice cream and chocolates biscuits from the bottom. It was nice, maybe a little too sweet for her taste, but she enjoyed everything about it. Her lips tugged, not until when she realized something was wrong.

"I don't eat the cherry."

"You don't?" Hakuba raised an eyebrow before realization dawned upon him. "Wait. You remembered you don't eat the cherry?"

"No I-" Aoko squirmed in her seat, uncomfortable. She really didn't want to raise hers or anyone's hope up high and let it crumble down. She needed to choose her words carefully to prevent any more damage. "I don't know why I've said that, but I just did. I somehow know that I don't eat the cherry."

"Now that you've said it," he looked thoughtful as he was recollecting his own memory. "You've always leave the cherry aside after you ate the parfait." His amber eyes suddenly grew wide with anticipation. "This is a good sign. You've remembered something, even if it's a little information like not liking to eat the cherry. It's an improvement-"

"But Kuroba Kaito does." Her mouth moved on its own as she perfectly interrupted Hakuba without a care. "He always helps to eat the cherry from my parfait."

There was no memory of it, no conversations and no images playing in her head to prove her words. But she said it, and the words left her mouth almost as sour as the cherry she didn't even eat. She stared at her parfait, suddenly loss of appetite.

She glanced up at Hakuba when she noted how quiet he suddenly was. He afforded a pained smile when they made eye contact.

"Yes, perhaps." He slowly nodded. "You've told me before, long time ago, that Kuroba was the one who introduced this place to you."

"Hakuba." Aoko squeezed her hands shut to prevent them from shaking. "Who is Kuroba Kaito? I mean, who is he to me?"

"I don't think I have the rights to say." Hakuba softly murmured. "It's better if one day, you can truly remember it yourself."

.o.

Aoko had noted there was something in particular about clock towers that intrigued her. She was hoping to find some secret diary she had written in her teens to know more about herself and her personality, but she couldn't find it. Instead, she found several poorly illustrated clock towers occasionally as she was looking through her old study notes and it just made her feel... weird. Conflicted was the best word to describe, perhaps.

It had been a month since she woke up, a month since literally nothing had happened. She was still on medical leave from work, and she had been postponing meet ups with her friends because she was tired. Not tired from going out, but tired of disappointing people. She really hated to see their downhearted face when their efforts were all gone to waste. She had gave her all in trying to remember, but everything was a blank no matter how hard she tried. There was nothing to do but to be disappointed, so she might as well be disappointed in herself alone than dragging other people to be like her.

She wasn't allowed to leave the house without company for the first two weeks, but her father had slowly let her go bit by bit and allowing some freedom and independence. She spent her free time roaming at the markets, returning smiles when someone smiled at her even if she didn't know who the person was. She was still inside the safer territory, but there was this urge that made her desperate to know more about the clock tower.

"The clock tower? Go straight and turn left. You'll be at the parade square." A passer-by answered Aoko when she asked for the direction. She occasionally heard the chimes and bell from afar, but she could never find it, for some weird reason or another.

"Thank you." She bowed.

"Are you touring the city?" The man winked. "The clock tower is a great place to visit."

Aoko didn't have the energy to tell him she wasn't a tourist and that she had lived here for all of her life but an accident had caused her memory loss issues and now she was on a quest to find out all the truth. It was too much work to explain, so she simply agreed. "Yeah."

"Fun fact. Many people didn't know that the clock tower was supposed to be demolished." He puffed up his chest, looking proud at his knowledge. "To think that it'll stand till this day... Kaitou Kid really helped to make it a hot spot for the city."

K-Kaitou Kid?

She felt a sharp pain at the back of her neck, throbbing faster and faster as if someone just put a speaker in her head and blasting loud rock music. Aoko tried to swallow the pain down and excuse herself before the man could continue his story. It was sad that she couldn't stay to hear the nice man talk, but she had to move along. Move on. Move along.

Move on.

"I'll leave."

"Please move on."

"I'm sorry."

"Shit." Aoko cursed out loud, feeling her head about to split open. After walking only a short distance away, she squatted down with both hands covering the back of her neck, her breaths raspy and short. There was a crowd gathering around her, faint voices asking if she was alright, but none of them truly checked on her.

Kaitou Kid.

"Excuse me, let me through." The shout was coming closer and closer...

She felt a sudden jolt on her shoulders and she raised her head wearily to see the man she had recently been dreaming about was kneeling next to her, his face etched with concern.

"Are you alright?" Kaito spat, his tone totally didn't match his soft features.

"Painful." It was barely a whisper.

And then his beautiful blue eyes were gone and everything turned black.

.o.

"It could be more than the physical injuries that caused her memory loss." The doctor whispered a few feet away from Aoko's bed, though she could hear the conversation as clear as day. "Her mind may have treated the accident as a chance to block out the memories and build walls between them."

"So incidents that happened before the accident may also be the cause of her memory loss too?" Kaito rubbed a hand down his face. If one could sigh and speak at the same time, he did it. "Like a pile of stress or something?"

"It's possible."

He nodded, his mind obviously distracted.

"Although it's helpful for her recovery by bringing her to places or spending time with familiar people, it can still create an opposite effect if she happens to come across a particular event she didn't want to remember." The doctor further explained. "It's all about healing and time."

"Understood."

The doctor cast a glance over to Aoko's bed and gave a warm smile. He then departed out of the ward with a clipboard underneath his arm, leaving the quietness for either Kaito or her to break. She didn't know what to say, as of now, and he didn't seem like he wanted to say anything either.

He stood in the middle of the room, his hands were back into his pockets and he stared into the space for a couple of seconds. She was just as curious at what he was staring when he turned to her with an unreadable look before trudging towards the plastic stool beside her bed. He took a seat.

"Are you feeling better?"

"Yeah." She forced herself to nod. The pain had went away ever since she fainted.

"Do you need me to adjust your bed?" He stood up, preparing to take the remote.

"It's fine. I prefer it like this." She reached out for his arm to stop him and he visibly flinched under her touch. She retracted back her hand and was almost sure for a second that her hand was made of fire. "Sorry." She muttered.

"No. I'm sorry." He licked his dry lips and sat back down. "I'm overreacting a little. I'm alright. You're alright. I'm alright that you're alright. I-"

"I get it." Aoko managed a smile. That was the longest sentence she ever heard him say to her, and for some reason, it made her a little happy.

"I've called your dad." He was back to his quiet and calm shell. "He'll be here soon."

"Thanks." Was that it? She stared at him before giving a defeated sigh. "Aren't you going to say something?"

He blinked. "Say something?"

"Everyone had told me many stories about my life and theirs. Even if I don't remember, at least I enjoyed them." Aoko smiled, feeling a little stiff on her face. "Don't we have any past memories, or things you can share with me?"

His jaws tightened. He looked like he had to use the same energy to lift an elephant to speak as well. "We have." A whisper.

Something in Aoko realized this quiet demeanour didn't fit Kaito. All she could do was to inwardly shrug at her thoughts. "Tell me."

It didn't take him long to speak as compared to previously. "You love ice skating, not competitively, but more of a hobby." He grinned, his eyes crinkled in a way that caught her breath for a second. "Whereas I don't. In fact, I suck at it. But you've always pulled me along to the local ice rink and spent half of the day laughing at me as I slipped every single time I moved a muscle."

"I'm such an asshole." Aoko couldn't help but beam. "But I like the thought of it."

"You love it, actually." His smile faltered for a bit before he cleared his throat and corrected himself. "You loved it, I mean."

His voice was soft and she could feel the air of melancholy that surrounded him. There was something more to his words, as if he wasn't simply saying it just because of her memory loss, but she couldn't put a finger on it.

"Anything else?" She asked, hoping to dispel the thoughts.

"You cook, a lot." He paused and shifted in his seats to cover the little hesitancy he was showing. "For me."

"I can cook?"

"Yeah. But there were times when you can't."

She rolled her eyes. "At least you're still alive now. It means my cooking isn't that bad."

He winced in a joking manner. "You'd wish for death instead if you're the one who had diarrhea for three days straight."

Aoko lifted a fist and gave his shoulder a light punch. He took the attack with a curled up smile that she didn't think he would ever show to her. As far as she knew, Kuroba Kaito was a brooding man, and this expression was something new.

And much more familiar than anything else.

"So we're good friends?" She answered her own, long overdue question.

There was a few emotions flickering across his face at the same time, so fast that she couldn't catch any of it and he decisively settled on a plain expression instead. "More than that."

"More than good friends?"

If his mouth didn't move, she would have thought she'd imagined hearing the words. "Yeah."

"Did something happen between us?" Aoko bit her lower lips, a feeling of dread suddenly filled her chest. It was a close second to the pain in her head, but this was a different kind of pain. Not physically, but it was like all the emotions within her were twisting and wrenching, as if her feelings had materialized and grew hands to strangle each other.

He slouched a little in his sitting posture, but it was enough for Aoko to visibly see a mountain weighing over his shoulders. He then exhaled a shuddering breath and she thought it was the most pitiful sound she could ever hear a human make. Every little thing he did was telling her the fives words that slipped out of her mouth had done too much damage, but his face showed nothing, almost as empty as her memory bank, if she could compare it that way.

"Many things." He murmured.

"Can you... tell me?" She wasn't sure if she would regret it.

"I can't," he clenched his teeth, letting some seconds passed. "Not now."

"Why?" Her head was practically lifted up. "What do you mean?"

"I don't want to leave yet." Kaito clawed his jeans. "If I tell you, I'll have to disappear, again. And I can't do it. Not when you're like this."

"Why would you need to disappear?" Aoko was sitting up, both of her arms supporting her posture. Even though her questions came out that way, she was honestly more interested in him staying rather than knowing the reason why he had to go. This was the first time she wanted something else rather than answers to her ever-puzzling life.

"You wouldn't want to see me."

How can that be possible?

At the very worst moment, the door suddenly slid open with a loud bang and their attention was briefly moved towards her father. He stomped towards the bed and Kaito stood aside, giving him more space to inspect Aoko. His large hands took hold of her shoulder and gave a squeeze that wasn't hard enough to hurt her.

"Are you alright? Are you still hurt? What happened? Where were you going? Why did your head-"

"One question at a time," Aoko gently took her father's hand. "I'll answer the first one. Yes, I'm fine now."

"I was worried sick." He straightened his posture and ruffled his spiky hair.

"Kaito was there." She glanced at the said man. "He helped me."

He had went back to his brooding reserve, as if the other version of Kaito; the smiling, joking one she'd seen for the first time, was all just a collective hallucination. Kaito shook his head, disregarding the credit.

"Thank you, Kaito-kun." Her father went forward and gave a few pat behind Kaito's back.

"It's what I should do." He slipped his hands into his pockets again. "I've got to go first, there's some matters I need to settle."

Without even sparing her one glance, without even staying for a second to hear what she had to say, he turned away and left the ward, his broad back disappeared when the door slid shut behind him.

.o.

Aoko was too afraid to look up the word Kaitou Kid.

The aching feeling would start to spread across the back of her head just by thinking of the name, and she couldn't imagine what would happen if she understood what Kaitou Kid meant. It would close a lot of distance between her and the truth and everything she wanted to remember, but she wasn't sure if the pain would be worth it. Besides, she couldn't guarantee that the answers would help with her memories at all.

She wasn't allowed to leave home for the week after the incident and so here she was, sitting on her bed with her sheets wrapping around her body and staring at the streets from her window. She wasn't sure if the old Aoko thought the same way, but she understood the beauty of having her bed set next to the window. It was the best place for her to see Kaito's house comfortably.

There was a knock on her door.

Akako was standing there with a box in her hand, her smile was wry and almost cynical, but she knew the beauty queen more than her appearance. Akako had this weird sense of humour that only Aoko seemed to understand.

"Hello." Akako quirked an eyebrow. "I'm not disturbing your beauty sleep, am I?"

"Nope. It's still far from bedtime."

"You're an adult." Her long legs sashayed professionally towards her bed as she plopped next to Aoko. "Adults don't say bedtime."

Aoko chuckled before she got to the question. "What brings you here? Wait, how did you get into my house? Dad isn't at home to open the door."

"It's a long story. Will save it for next time." She waved her perfectly manicured hands and dumped the box onto the white sheets. "I want to return this back to you."

The box looked exactly like the ones when workers stuffed their belongings when they were fired. It was impossible to ever see Akako carry this box, ever, but Aoko was privileged enough. She stared at the box with a raised eyebrow. "What is it?"

"Open it."

She obeyed and placed the lid aside, peeking into the content.

Photographs. Many, many photographs. Aoko grabbed as much pictures her hands could fit and took it out to have a better view.

All of it were just Kaito and her.

He looked adorable when he was child, with the brightest smile she thought everyone deserved to have at a point of their life. She wouldn't admit it out loud, but she liked her own pig tails and the pink dress she wore too. There were many photos of their childhood, from building sandcastles and going to the same elementary school... It was like a flip-book of everything they had done together for all their life. She could see how his hair was getting messier and messier and how her hair became longer and longer. She could see that his smile wasn't as big as they grew older, but he still showed it, even in this photo where he got several band aids and bruises on his face and arms and was standing beside her outside an ice rink. What Kaito said was true. This was a memory they shared.

She never once felt something just from looking at photos, and this was the first time something inside her responded. Her eyes stung and tears began welling up, instantly blurring her sight.

"Nakamori?" Akako placed a hand on her shoulder. "Are you alright? Did you remember something?"

"No. No I didn't." She swallowed hard and sniffed, but the tears still fell. "And that's the weirdest part. I didn't remember anything, but it hurts. Why does it hurts? I should be happy. I looked so happy in all these photos."

"You were happy." Akako pursed her lips. "You were truly the happiest girl in the world, to the point even I was jealous about it. Can you imagine?" She scoffed before she returned to her duty of giving comforting pats on Aoko's back.

"I was happy?" Aoko blinked, her sight was back. "Why aren't I happy now?"

"Akako."

Their heads spun towards the sound of the emotionless voice that Aoko never thought a human could possess. Kaito was holding onto the door frame, his eyes were as blue and cold as a lake in winter.

Why is everyone appearing in my house like it's the easiest thing to do? Is there some kind of secret passage from the outside? Aoko would have asked if she wasn't busy trying to stop her heart from thumping so hard at the sight of Kaito. The stranger she thought she couldn't understand, the brooding man who happened to know how to smile, the friend she had spent all her life with... It was all Kuroba Kaito.

Akako rolled her eyes and looked back at Aoko. "I can help you to rem-"

"Stop it." He stomped across the room and pulled her off the bed. "I've told you not to bother."

"I can't stand seeing you broken every single second of your life, alright?" Akako shrugged his grip off her arm with a snarl. "You've never looked so pathetic before."

"Even if I'm pathetic," Kaito's lips were dangerously curled down. "It's none of your business."

"I don't understand why you can't tell her. Kaitou Kid is already gone. You've already stopped being him. Why are you still hiding? What are you scared of?"

"Stop talking. Stop talking."

Kaitou Kid.

White.

She hated white.

In the dark sky.

Monocle. Hiding his blue eye.

Tall hat. Hiding his messy hair.

Hiding.

"I'm sorry."

"What are you hiding? Why can't you tell me?!"

"I'm really sorry."

Aoko gave a piercing scream.

.o.

The first thing she saw was blue.

She now understood why she had chosen this colour as her wallpaper for her room. It was the same blue both Kaito and her once saw when they were sitting at the park and watching the clear sky with ice creams in their hands. The sky was specifically this shade of blue when she remembered how Kaito placed his lips on hers before he merrily told her he would like to try the peppermint flavoured ice cream the next time. Everything suddenly hit her, just as hard as the truck that flung her across the street and scattered all the memories everywhere but its place in her memory bank.

Her fingers twitched and she glimpsed to the side of her bed, where she felt something was resting and weighing on the sheets to make her arm slant a little to its side. Kaito's head was resting beside her hand while the rest of his body was curled up closed to the bed like a magnet on a fridge. Stuck and strong. Akako, however, was nowhere to be found.

She wished she could stare at his peaceful face a bit longer when he stirred in his sleep and his eyes fluttered open. The first thing he looked out for was her, and once his mind managed to register, he straightened his posture in alert and showed no sign that he just slept two seconds before.

"You're awake." He breathed.

There wasn't a need to beat around the bush. "I remembered." Her voice cracked, the pain in her throat was too hard to swallow.

Kaito widened his eyes and she had to be blind if she couldn't see the raw shock on his face. "Y-You remembered?" He carefully phrased. "What did you remember?"

She could remember more than the photographs she had. She could remember all the ugly parts of her life that wasn't taken by the camera. The stress from her constant studying to graduate from high school with flying colours, the embarrassment she had to face at work the next day because she got a little over-tipsy at the bar, the awkward phase she had to go through for a short period of time with Akako after she realized she was actually a witch...

And then everything about Kaitou Kid. All the hatred, the tears and blood shed. All the choices Kaitou Kid had to make and all sacrifices Kuroba Kaito had to make was all about her. That was why he left.

"Everything." Aoko closed her eyes to confirm. "I've remembered everything."

He flinched. "I'm-"

"I also remembered something during the car accident." She cut him off, knowing the words he had to say were not necessary until he heard what she wanted to say. "I remembered regretting in the pool of my blood that I shouldn't have pushed you away because I want you by my side. You're the last thing I remembered before everything left my head and you're the first thing I remembered when I got back everything." She crooked a smile as she watched him fumbling with the things he couldn't say like a goldfish in a tank. "And I'm not the only asshole. You've brought me to the ski resort and laughed all day about my misfortune too."

Kaito gave up with attempting the find any more words and laughed. She recognized it and loved it more than anything else in the world. He laid his forehead on her arm and held her hand like it was made of glass, his chuckling breaths tickling her skin. "Thank you. Thank you for coming back, Aoko. Thank you."

"Thank you for coming back too." She shifted her body and wrapped her arms around his head. She knew she was right at the start; his hair was soft. "We can do this together. You don't have to leave. I won't ask you to leave anymore, so please stay."

"I'll stay as long as you want me to."

As if things couldn't get any better, they shared a kiss under the shade of blue they both secretly loved and remembered in their heart.

end

A/N: I'm stuck in my other multi-chap fic and I have zero motivation to touch it currently, so here I am, being an idiot with my priorities and wrote this. Could have done much more angst, but I'm so lazy these days, hence the quick ending too opps. Hope you liked it (or not lol) but reviews always make me happy hehe