Dear anon who requested a memory loss Aoko ficlet. Here it is. This is for you. I hope you like it :)

Smile for me

Bracing himself, Kaito opens the door silently.

She doesn't see him, doesn't notice how he enters her room, watching her longingly. Not until he shuts the door closed behind him again.

"Oh, hello." She says, her face bright and happy, her lips pushed into a smile. But he sees it, the strain, the pain, the frustration with not recognizing his face.

He tells her, day after day, who he is, who he is to her but the next day she can't remember anymore. It hurts her more than it hurts him and he wishes he could take the pain away from her.

"Aoko."

Schooling his expression into a soft one, smiling encouragingly at her, he walks up to her hospital bed and replaces the flowers first, before taking place on the seat that just as well may become his.

"Those are beautiful", she says, watching the flowers with a hint of yearning in her eyes. Sometimes, he wishes to be able to read her mind. "Thank you."

There it is again, the hesitation. She wants to say his name, she wants to remember his face, he can see it, clearly, but she can't. And though she seems to be remembering that this has been going on for a while now and he'd come visit her day after day after day, and he'd only stop when he is dead, but she wouldn't recognize him or remember his name.

It is worse for her father – and Kaito is angry at the man for abandoning his daughter in the hospital. He knows that her father blames himself, he knows that he drowns his sorrows in alcohol every night but it is no excuse for abandoning her and Kaito can't forgive that.

"I'm glad you like them, princess."

Her eyes light up again, reveling in the name he gave her such a long time ago.

"Can we go outside today?"

Today – she doesn't remember that he takes her out every day. They don't always leave for the outside, sometimes they stay inside but in the restaurant or just walk around in the hall. It's enough for him to hear her talk. And she seems happy enough whenever he can surprise her with a new trick he learned (even if the same trick would be a new one for her every day and his heart clenches at the thought) and she smiles and laughs happily, clinging to it.

"Of course." He says, and slowly helps her out of the bed.

She's not allowed to leave the room alone so whenever he comes to visit it's the highlight of her day as she sees something else, can stretch her legs and gets to socialize. Of course, the nurses talk to her regularly, too, and sometimes they take her out for a walk too but usually there is not enough time and Aoko has to stay holed up in her room.

It's another reason why Kaito can never abandon her, why there will not be a single day he doesn't visit her.

Putting on the shoes for her, he takes her hand and leads her outside.

Sometimes, Aoko gets so sick, she forgets how to walk.

Today, though, as he slowly pulls her along the halls, greeting the nurses with a polite but small smile, she seems fine and he feels confident to take her outside. It is a very warm May evening and it will do her good to have the sun touch her pale skin.

They're on the seventh level and the elevator is fully glassed with a view into the well-kept flower garden.

"Wow", she whispers, letting go of his hand to place them onto the glass, watching the outside world with glee in her eyes and her mouth open in wonder. "Can we go there?"

She turns around and looks up at him with that pleading look of hers and even if he wanted, he couldn't say no to her. Never. He smiles and nods. "Of course, princess."

"Thank you." She beams at him before turning around and watching the breathtaking place again.

The elevator stops on the ground floor and he takes her hand again before guiding her outside, nodding to the guard at the entrance and leaving the building.

Like every time he takes her outside, she observes everything with the attention span of a one year old but to him it makes her endearing. She looks up at the clouds, points out how that one looks quite like something she wants to remember but can't and he points out that it might be an elephant and she smiles brightly, repeating after him elephant elephant. Then she looks down and finds a bee or a fly or a lady bug and she looks up to him to tell her what names they have. He tells her only for her to forget in the next instant again.

After going one round around the whole garden, he sits down on one bench and makes her sit next to him.

"Ne, Aoko."

Her attention from the clouds breaks and not for the first time he wonders what she sees there, before she turns her head around to him, smiling brightly again, curiosity mirroring in her eyes.

"What is my name?"

Her nose scrunches up in concentration because she knows, she knows that she knows his name but she can't remember and when there is still nothing after a moment, her face falls and he hates himself every time more for it.

"Do you still have the wristband I gave you?"

She seems to think about it before her gaze falls on her right arm first where there is nothing but her pale skin and she frowns but after a moment her gaze falls on her other arm. She finds a leather band with red stitches and something engraved on it.

She beams up at him again. "Yes, here. It's this one, right?"

Kaito nods and smiles. "Yes. And what does it say?"

Aoko raises her hand to eye level and focuses on the characters. He loves her face when she is focused, when her nose scrunches up and when she pulls her lips into a cute pout and sometimes she frowns before she finds the solution to whatever task he gives her.

His name is written on the wristband, both in kanji and hiragana, because sometimes she doesn't remember kanji and sometimes she can't read at all.

"Ka-i-to. Kaito. Kaito."

She grins at him, proudly, and Kaito grins too because there is nothing else she needs but love and happiness.