AN: This one is based on another tumblr prompt- trying to finish up all the ones I've got in my inbox now. It took me awhile to decide which one of them should lose their memories, since the prompt didn't specify, and in the end, I tossed a coin. Fate, perhaps unsurprisingly, chose Heiji.

Well then, until next time!

Forget Me Not

Characters: Kazuha Toyama, Heiji Hattori

Summary: She'd always known his luck was bad- but she had vastly underestimated by just how much.

In the blink of an eye, the best day of her life had become the worst.

She should have known, given his luck, that it wouldn't have lasted. But still, she never could have imagined that it would have ended up like this. She'd known his luck was bad, and that he had quite the knack for getting himself into trouble- but she'd underestimated just how bad it really was, right up until he'd been strangled within an inch of his life.

If she had gotten there even a second later... she shuddered to think what might have happened. Perhaps this wasn't quite the worst day of her life after all. Because at the very least, Heiji was still alive.

He just didn't remember her- or anyone else for that matter.

If it was just going to end up like this, she wished that he hadn't confessed in the first place. At the time, she felt as if she had been floating on air, as if she could hardly believe her ears, wondering if this was some kind of tasteless joke on his part. When she had realized he was being completely serious, she'd found herself blurting out something to the effect of what took ya so long, idiot, instead of what she really wanted to say.

He seemed to get the message anyways.

And now he had forgotten. The whole situation was bad, really- but it was that extra icing on the cake that had just made it so much more for her. She had all these feelings bundled up inside of her, that she didn't know what to do with now, that had no place to go.

"Ah, that's right, Heiji!" Fighting to keep a smile on her face, even as he didn't immediately respond to his own name, Kazuha swallowed such feelings deep inside of her. "Today, Ran-chan an' Conan-kun are comin' over, all the way from Tokyo ta see ya! Won't that be fun?"

Heiji's brow furrowed as he tried to bring up anything that was connected to those two names- an attempt which looked as if it failed, judging by the expression on his face. She'd hoped to stir something by mentioning Conan, given how close the two of them had been, but apparently she was striking out there too.

They were either lost, or he simply couldn't access them- the doctor had explained it to her, alongside his parents, in depth, but frankly, she hadn't been in the mood to listen, and had largely tuned him out. She already knew, long before they got to the hospital, that something had gone wrong with Heiji's memories. When he had opened his eyes back there, she had been so relieved just to see him breathing, that perhaps the words that came out next struck her all the harder.

"Who are you?"

The doctors had told them that he would gradually regain his memories over time- and though she was sure that they knew what they were talking about, the anxiety nevertheless remained. What if he didn't remember? What if their entire history with each other was now something that only she carried with her?

Would things still be the same, between the two of them, if something like that happened?

But fretting endlessly over something like this wasn't like her- and the fact remained that Heiji was also still recovering from his injuries, on top of everything else. He probably wasn't having an easy time of it either, so the best thing she could do, as his childhood friend, was put a smile on her face, and act as normal as possible.

"Ya know, Ran-chan, an' Conan-kun! They're good friends of ours!" Kazuha told him. "Especially Conan-kun. The two of ya were so close, ya might even say that you were like brothers!"

"Brothers?" Heiji asked, a slightly uncertain look on his face. There was a rising frustration in him as he tried to dig up anything, only to find nothing. Even if she told them that they were close, this Conan person and him, he just couldn't... "Sorry, Kazuha-san, I can't seem ta remember."

It wasn't the first time she had heard it, but hearing him address her in such an unfamiliar way... it still managed to sting just as much, every time. She wanted to shout at the top of her lungs that it was wrong, that it was just Kazuha, but she couldn't do something like that to someone who was still in recovery, even if that someone was Heiji. "It's alright, Heiji, ya don't have ta worry about somethin' like that! I'm sure they'll understand!"

She'd told Ran, of course she had. If it was having this kind of impact on her, she couldn't imagine what kind of impact it would have on poor Conan. He was rather mature for a child, but was sure that he would still feel as if he'd lost a friend. If they didn't brace him for it properly, then...

"Well, ya'd probably know the best." Casting a curious glance at the girl before him, the one that he had been told was his childhood friend, Heiji couldn't help but frown a little. She was struggling, that much was clear to him even in this state- but he didn't know what he could do to make her struggles easier.

Well, that wasn't quite true. He did know, but it wasn't something he could just do like that, no matter how much he might want to. The faces of those who had been in and out of his hospital room, aside from those of the doctors, had appeared almost vaguely familiar to him- but he just couldn't recall when, where, or what kind of relationship that he might have had with them.

And he was trying, rather hard at that. Maybe it was just because his head injury still lingered, but it always felt like when he got close, everything would slip away from him again.

"That's right!" Kazuha said, giving him a nod of her head. "Just listen ta me, Heiji, an' everythin' will be okay! We've known each other since we were babies after all, so if there's anyone better ta tell ya all about yerself, I'd like ta see 'em try!"

It was a proclamation that gave her a bit of spirit, however slight. There was no point in dwelling on the negative would-be's, when she could instead focus on her energy on what she could do instead. If the doctors said that they would return with time, then what reason did she have to doubt them?

Other than the knot of anxiety, that had found a home in the pit of her stomach.

"All you have ta do is concentrate on gettin' better, Heiji, startin' with yer injuries." Kazuha told him. "We can worry about everythin' else after that."

He didn't need any memories to realize that he was causing others pain.

It was written in their faces, even those who guarded themselves better than others. They had felt as if they had lost something, something that was important to them. These people who came in and out of his hospital room, to visit him, and to give him good wishes. All of them faces that he felt as if he should know, if only because he was told that much, yet couldn't recall.

He'd even needed to be introduced to his own parents.

Some took it harder than others.

Though she tried to mask it behind a smile, he knew that the girl who had been introduced to him as Toyama Kazuha was one of them. He'd been told that she had been the one who had saved him back there, though he couldn't remember that much- nor he could he remember even being in danger in the first place. He'd also been told that they were childhood friends- but he couldn't remember that either.

He didn't think it was a lie, though. He couldn't imagine any other reason as to why she would be spending so much time with him, nor why else she would be suffering this much. It hurt to see her that way, for reasons that he couldn't understand- for the reasons had doubtlessly been formed from the memories that he could no longer access.

There were others too, of course- like his mother, and that slightly strange boy who had been introduced to him as Edogawa Conan. All he had done was say his name, and yet for all the world, it had seemed as if he'd punched him the gut, taking the wind out of his sails with it.

He'd been told that in time, he would start to naturally remember things. He hoped that was the case- because he didn't enjoy the way that this made him feel. Empty, devoid of something that should otherwise be there. Empty, and causing pain to people that he knew should be important to him, but who he just...

...didn't know anymore.

"Okay, okay, give him some space already!"

Drowning out the complaints of her classmates, Kazuha folded her arms in front of her chest, the stern expression on her face making it crystal clear that she was serious. Honestly, what were they thinking, clustering around Heiji like that? Couldn't they tell that they were bothering him?

She supposed that to them, the idea of one of their classmates having amnesia might be almost novel. Though it would be difficult to find any of their classmates that Heiji wasn't on friendly terms with, it would be a stretch to say that he was really friends with any of them. Friendly acquaintances, was the term for it, and that much was made clear today.

There was some worry, of course, but most of it had been an endless barrage of questions. Do you remember me? Do you remember them? Do you remember this, do you remember that? It had taken everything in her not to blurt out that of course he didn't remember, that was kind of how amnesia worked.

Honestly, Heiji was here for the sake of his recovery, not for their own amusement! Some normalcy in his life might help him remember things faster than just lying around in the house all day would. Since the doctors had said that there shouldn't be anything that would prevent him from leading a normal life, and since he'd been released from the hospital that previous week, there was really nothing stopping him from going back to school.

She was starting to wonder if that would be a mistake. Maybe after the first day, it wouldn't be so bad, but seeing Heiji with such an overwhelmed expression on his face was not a sight she'd ever expected to see. It wasn't as if he had become any less of the person he was before he had lost his memories, but she would be lying if she tried to claim that it didn't affect him at all.

Normally he would have snapped and told them off himself, but today was different. He'd certainly looked as if he had been considering it, but found himself biting his tongue instead.

"Ya okay, Heiji?" Kazuha asked, grabbing a chair and pulling it up next to his desk. "I told ya we could have waited a little bit longer."

"It's fine, Kazuha-san." At the smile he flashed her, Kazuha could feel some of the gathered tension washing out of her shoulders. Not quite so much that she didn't hear the way her classmates muttered at the change in the way he was addressing her, as if it had just somehow only now struck them that this was the real deal. "I can't just play hooky forever, right? I get the feelin' that father of mine probably wouldn't let me."

"Well, ya'd be right about that." Kazuha told him. "So? Anythin' seem familiar?"

"I want ta say yes, but..." Trailing off a little, Heiji scratched his cheek, glancing around the classroom. "Nothing's really joggin' my memory that much. Sorry, I know ya were hopin' fer it to."

"It's fine, it's fine." Kazuha told him. "I said it before, but just take yer time, Heiji. I don't think anythin' good would happen if we rushed it."

She could say that, sure enough- but her true feelings couldn't be any different. Hurry up an' remember me, ya idiot! She wanted to shout it loud, to give him a good shake while doing so, to tell him to hurry up and remember her- to hurry up and remember what he had said to her on that day, before any of this had ever happened.

The doctor had told her that there was a chance that he might never recall anything from the time leading up to the incident. Still, as long as he remembered, maybe she could manage with that. She already knew his feelings full well now- if those hadn't changed, then maybe this time, she would be the one to gather up her courage, and confess to him.

But Heiji's recovery came first. Besides, there was definitely hope!

That said, it wasn't as if he had recalled anything concrete yet. But there were bits and pieces here and there that showed promise. When they had taken him out to eat at one of his favorite restaurants, alongside Heiji's family in order to celebrate his release from the hospital, he'd claimed that it felt as if he had eaten there before. There had been other things, small things, that gave her hope.

Not enough to entirely wash away the knot of anxiety that still rested in her stomach.

One step at a time, she told herself.

In hindsight, she really should have expected that something like this would have happened. There was no reason for her to believe that whatever it was that drew Heiji to murder scenes would simply disappear due to his missing memories. Somehow though, the first time they ended up getting involved in a case, it had still managed to take her by surprise.

That said, pretty much anyone would be surprised to have a person hit the ground right in front of them, no matter how unfortunately used they had become to such things. In Heiji's case, the response had become so deeply rooted into him, that he found himself carrying out the motions without fully understanding as to why.

It was only after the police arrived, that Kazuha realized that nobody had told Heiji that he used to do detective work before. To her, it was almost comforting to see him once more in his element, the gears in his head still working as they should, to unravel the mystery that had appeared before him.

But usually, such a process was accompanied by a deeply thoughtful look, followed up by that slightly smug grin of his, when he had uncovered the truth. They didn't usually come hand in hand with a deeply troubled look, and it only took Kazuha a few moments of mulling over it to figure out the possible reason why.

"Ya did this before, ya know." Kazuha spoke up, catching his attention right away- and at the alarm that crossed through his eyes, she realized she had probably chosen the wrong choice of words. "No, no, not like that! What yer doin' right now, I mean. Ya solved the case, haven't ya?"

"Y-yeah, I think." Heiji told her, slowly nodding his head. He was almost confident that he had the answer- the only problem was, that he didn't quite understand how it was that he had gotten there. This wasn't the sort of knowledge that he felt a normal person should have, after all. "What do ya mean I've done this before, then?"

"Detective work." Kazuha said. "Yer famous around here fer it, in fact. The high school detective of the west, they called ya. Sound familiar?"

"The high school detective of the west?" Heiji asked, folding his arms in front of his chest, thinking it over for awhile. "It does sound a bit familiar, when ya say it like that, but..."

"If I'm the west, was there an' east?"

"That's right!" Perking up right away at the question, Kazuha nodded her head. "The east is Kudo Shinichi, Ran-chan's boyfriend! Ya've worked with him a few times before, an' the two of ya are good friends!"

Maybe not that good, Kazuha mentally noted. Ran had told her that she had called Shinichi, and told him about Heiji's amnesia, but even though he knew about it, he had never come to visit them even once. Elusive as he was, one would think that he would show himself at least once after hearing about something like that, to check up on him! When that guy finally showed up, she would give him a piece of her mind if he didn't have a good excuse.

Come to think of it though, Conan had been calling a lot more often lately. Briefly, she couldn't help but wonder why she had mentally linked those two things, but decided to put it aside for the moment.

"Kudo?" Tilting his head a little, Heiji's frown deepened. "That sounds familiar too, but..."

There was a long moment of silence following his words, one that Kazuha allowed him to have. If he managed to remember Shinichi before her, she'd be undeniably annoyed- but honestly, beggars couldn't be choosers. Once he started to remember things, the rest would probably eventually come naturally- it didn't really matter that much what the gateway memory was, so to speak.

"This Kudo guy," Heiji spoke up again, an almost uncertain expression on his face. "...does he look kinda like that Conan-kun kid?"

"He does, he does!" Kazuha told him, nodding her head. "They have that same stupid cowlick an' everythin'! But why do ya ask? Did ya remember somethin' about him?"

"Well that's..." Rubbing the back of his neck, a rather confused expression crossed Heiji's face as he seemed to think it over. There was something there, to be sure, but somehow... it didn't seem quite right.

After all, as if by instinct, he found himself mentally linking together the name Kudo Shinichi with that Edogawa Conan kid. It appeared to be a rather strong connection at that, and the more he tried to dwell on it, the more baffling it got.

"Ah, forget about it. I'm probably just confused." Heiji told her after a moment, giving her a small smile. "Then, if ya say I've done this sort of thing before, maybe I should go tell that Inspector over there what I'm thinkin'?"

"That's the idea!" Kazuha said, nodding her head. "I'm sure Otaki-han would be more than happy ta hear ya out, Heiji!"

He'd done it without thinking, really.

Telling him that they were childhood friends was one thing- but with no memories to back it up, he'd found himself putting some distance between the two of them. He hadn't meant it, not really- but he hadn't fully understood just how much it was bothering her until he let her name slip out, without the honorific he'd come to attach to it.

But from the way her face lit up at it, he was starting to wonder why he hadn't been doing so sooner.

"Hey, say that again, Heiji!" Kazuha told him, a bright smile on her face, the lies of which he hadn't actually seen before. For a moment, he felt something rise within his chest, a certain heat just touching his cheeks. He didn't think it was a fever, but...

"K-Kazuha." Heiji repeated, the strange feeling in his chest growing as her smile grew all the brighter. What was that, exactly? Whatever it was, it wasn't really anything that he could call unpleasant... if anything, he found himself wondering how it was that he hadn't managed to notice how cute she was before this point. "Is that really alright, ta call ya like that?"

"Well of course it is!" Kazuha told him. "Haven't I been callin' ya just Heiji all this time?"

"Now that ya mention it..." Trailing off a little, Heiji found himself nervously scratching his cheek. "Ya just never said anythin', so I just thought..."

"Geez, some detective ya are, not even being able ta figure out that much!" Kazuha said, planting her hands on her hips. Even as she narrowed her eyes, she couldn't keep the giddy tone out of her voice, her heart singing at the sound of her name, by itself, once more on his lips.

"Well sorry fer that!" Heiji shot back, narrowing his own eyes in response. "I only just learned I was one last week! I thought you were the one in charge of tellin' me stuff in the first place, idiot!"

"Who's the idiot, ya idiot!" Kazuha shot right back, even as she watched Heiji visibly flinch at what he had just said. Come to think of it, they hadn't fought like this ever since then- no wonder it took him by surprise. "I'm not the one who went an' lost their memories!"

Though he hesitated at first, wondering if fighting with his childhood friend like this was really okay, Heiji couldn't keep the retort bubbling up in him at bay for very long. "It wasn't like I meant ta lose my memories, idiot! It's causin' me a lot of problems, ya know!"

"It's causin' me a bunch of problems too, ya know!" Kazuha retorted. "Ya even went an' forgot what ya finally managed ta tell me that day!"

Ah, crap! She hadn't meant to say that!

"What I told ya?" As he watched the anger vanish from Kazuha's face in an instant, Heiji found himself, trying to catch up. From the sound of it, she had blurted out something that she hadn't meant to tell him, but what could it...?

Oh. Oh.

He was going to take a wild guess that the redness of her cheeks wasn't due to the fact that she had a fever. As for the heat he was feeling in his own cheeks, and the strange way that he sometimes felt around her.

"I didn't... maybe..." Unable to quite find his words, Heiji left them hanging, watching as Kazuha turned her gaze away from his own, clearly trying to cover her own embarrassment. "Sorry, Kazuha."

"Well ya should be sorry, ya idiot!" Kazuha blurted out, turning sharply on her heel, now facing entirely away from him. She hadn't expected to hear such a sincere apology from him, and it had thrown her more off guard than she was willing to admit. "Ya got my hopes up like that, an' then ya went an' forget everythin' about me! Honestly, what an inconsiderate guy ya are!"

"Then, I'll remember!" The words came out of him before he knew what he was saying, but once they left him, he felt no need to take them back. "I'll definitely remember ya again, Kazuha, so just give me a little while longer!"

For a moment, she didn't respond. In reality, she wasn't angry at him- such feelings had vanished the moment he'd apologized. Letting her shoulders slump, gathered tension washing out of them, Kazuha turned back on her heel, a small smile on her face. "Ya promise?"

"Yeah, I promise." Heiji told her, meeting her smile with one of his own. "Even if I don't remember anythin' else, I'll definitely remember ya, Kazuha."

"Then I'm holdin' ya to that promise, Heiji." Kazuha told him. "Ya'd better keep this one, this time."

"...from the sound of that, I get the feelin' I'm not all that great at keepin' promises, am I?"

"Should I tell ya about the time ya left me waitin' fer several hours cause ya flaked off ta Tokyo, an' got mixed up with a murder case?"

"This is gonna sound like a weird question if I'm wrong, Kazuha, but did we ever accidentally cuff ourselves together?"