Tiqah sat alone in her old spot near the edge of a cliff in the Ash Wood, she had first found this place two years since she was adopted into the Hayles family and had decided it was the perfect hideout on the spot. She usually goes to this spot when she wanted to have fun when the others were unavailable or to vent her anger but this time she's not here to have fun or vent her anger. She's just, upset, upset and confused; she wants some alone time for herself to organize her thoughts.
She heard the rustling of bushes behind her, she knew who it is, there's only one person that could find her no matter what even if she doesn't want to be found. Without even turning she addressed him gloomily.
"What do you want, Kuro? Didn't I say that I wanted to be alone earlier?"
Kuro just smiled slightly at her question as he proceeded to sit next to her, not too close and not too far away, just like she remembered he liked to do even when she said that he can sit closer if he wanted to her indignation at the time. Now though? The memory only brought her grief and more confusion.
"You really had remembered, hadn't you? You called me Kuro instead of Hisen-san or Hisen-kun just now."
Tiqah hadn't even realized that she had called him that; just another side-effect to take note of, she dismissed her worry, she was too exhausted now to care for anything much other than the one that's already and still occupying her mind.
"Only some of it, most are still missing."
"Oh."
With that short exchange ending, both now sat together in awkward silence with the two of them desperately trying to find another topic to talk about just so that they can break the current atmosphere. Eventually though, Tiqah found her mind wandering to other topics, namely the person next to her.
'Usually, he's a lot more sarcastic, ruder too. I guess even he has a kinder side to him too, just wish he would let it out a lot more often.'
It was one of the few things that seemed to remain constant in both sets of her memories and so she took solace in it when she heard Kuro speak again.
"You know, amnesia or not, you never did change, did you? You always liked to hang out in the forest, near the edge of a cliff like this."
Tiqah narrowed her eyes at him as she gave him a challenging look.
"Oh yeah? What made you so sure that I didn't just come to this place randomly after regaining my memories because of a feeling of familiarity this place brings?"
Kuro wasn't someone that is easily fooled though as evidently seen with how he was giving Tiqah a look that practically screams 'Are you seriously asking me that question?'.
"Are you dumb? I mean I'm pretty sure you're not dumb but just checking since it's obvious this place had been frequented a lot before, likely by you. Not only that, even an idiot can see when you ran away before you had a clear destination already in your mind. Other than that, there's-"
"Alright, alright, that's enough! I get it already!"
That is as far as he could get before he was interrupted by a red-faced Tiqah who's flailing her arms at him in sheer embarrassment. They continued their antics for a few more moments before they both burst out laughing.
"Ahahaha, thanks Kuro, I needed more than I thought."
Tiqah wiped the tears away from the edge of her eyes as she sees Kuro doing the same before he for some reason looked at her with a solemn look in his eyes. The Titania automatically tensed her body at seeing that look in his eyes, knowing that whatever he's about to say from now on would be something important.
"Tiqah, why did you run away earlier? You know that Kunou, Yuki, Raven, and Luna are worried about you right now."
The girl flinched at the question directed at her and looked away from Kuro. She rubbed her right arm for comfort, feeling the nanites that even now stayed dormant under her skin, ready to go active whenever she wished for it, even as she finally answered him after staying silent for a moment or two.
"It's, complicated okay, I just need some time alone to organize my thoughts and I'll be better in no ti-"
"It's the memory isn't it?"
The words were said softly, not meant to interrupt her and more of him asking himself about a suspicion he had but it managed cut her off all the same as she looked at him, shocked.
"I'm right, aren't I?"
Tiqah stared at him, at a loss for words. She then looked down as she rubbed her arm again. Her answer this time came in the forms of a whisper instead of the confident, even if a little bit uncertain tone that she had used earlier.
"Yes... It's because of that."
Kuro sighed, pinching his head for a moment before he looked back at the Titania.
"Tiqah, it's okay you kno-"
"No, it's not okay!"
He was interrupted by an angry outburst from Tiqah, who had hit her breaking point and doesn't care anymore; although, she seems to be more angry at herself than him.
"Everything's changed now because of that piece of memory I've just gotten back! I forgot about you Kuro! I forgot about my best friend! Not only that, I've always known that my entire birth family had already died but only now I just realized that I can't remember the names of my mom and dad! I can't even remember their faces! I don't remember if I'm an only child or I had siblings before this, what else did I forget?! Who else did I forget?! I, I-"
Tiqah was cut off when Kuro decided to cup her face in his hands, letting their foreheads touch gently. Startled, she didn't do anything else as she just stayed frozen in that position until Kuro released his grip and took a step back.
"Have you calmed down now?"
Face bright red, Tiqah could only nod wordlessly at Kuro, not trusting her mouth to say anything at the moment. Looking at her, Kuro nodded to himself, satisfied.
"Continuing on from where I had been before you so rudely cut me off, which I don't appreciate since being rude is supposed to be my schtick, it's okay. I don't blame you for forgetting and I don't think your family would blame you either. At least you had started regaining them, so when you had remembered all of them you could go to each person you had forgotten about and apologize to every one of them."
"Besides, you had always said it yourself, didn't you? You may not have your memories but that's just all the more reason to look forward to the future rather than trying to find the past, what's so different now that you have it?"
Tiqah opened her mouth before she closed it again, pondering what he had said last. She smiled softly after attaining her conclusion.
"In the end, nothing had really changed after all. I was being an idiot just now aren't I, Kuro?"
"Yep, you had been acting like an idiot. Speaking of..."
After recovering from the unexpected insult, she looked curiously at Kuro to see him searching for something in his bag.
"Aha! This is it. Here we go."
Saying so, he brought out to things from the bag and passed them swiftly at Tiqah. She looked to see what it is he had given her and gasped.
He had brought with him her favorite food, waffles, still hot in it's plastic, and an unopened box in beautiful wrappings. She looked inquisitively at him, opening her mouth to ask yet he beat her to the punch by answering before she could even ask him.
"I don't know if you had remembered it yet but, I'll just say it. Today is 29 of December and so, happy birthday, Tiqah. Go on, open the box."
Turning her gaze back to the unopened box, she slowly unwrapped it and opened the box. She gasped again at seeing what's inside.
Inside the box was a simple picture frame, but what made her gasp was the picture inside it. On the picture is the picture of a family of five, with one of them being a small her. She looked back at Kuro who fidgeted around a bit.
"It's one of the only things that I managed to save from your house. I know it's not much but-"
He was cut off by Tiqah suddenly hugging him.
"Thank you Kuro, and, can you please tell me about stories of the time before I lost my memory?"
Kuro relaxed a bit at that question before he hugged her back.
"Yeah, yeah, okay but how about we get a seat first before anything."
After they separated from each other and got seated properly Kuro began his tales.
"Before all this, you used to have a brother and sister, both younger than you. Usually, we would..."
It's not perfect by any means, it could be better, there are still many more memories to be regained and there is sure to be more dangerous things that they would have to face in the future but for now, they are resting, they are together and they are healing, from wounds physical and mental; that's all that matters right now.