Moments, that’s what flicker past in her mind. Just bits and pieces of her memories here and there. Usually, they appear because something as simple as an object or a smell will trigger a memory. She never gets the full picture. Just moments. This time she hears laughter and turns her head toward the sound. She sees herself sitting at a table in what looks like a cafeteria. It’s always as if she’s watching a movie. She can only observe, and in a way, it makes her feel more disconnected from her memories than if she had never remembered anything.
Y/N observes her body language and it’s obvious she’s comfortable and happy. She’d give anything for this version of her to feel that way. Ever since she awakened, everything in her head has been a jungle. Instead of those happy and comfortable feelings, she feels anxious and depressed. Her therapist reassures her that this is normal, but she longs for a day when she can feel like the person, she used to be rather than this person who is insecure and unsure about everything around her.
Continuing to watch she notices that she is also sitting beside the redhead named Kirishima. Her back leans against him while his arm drapes down her side. His hand stays on her hip. She takes note of the way his thumb caresses the fabric of her skirt. Her focus shifts up to the face of the redhead behind her. He also looks happy. That was common for him though. She had noticed over the last week that he is generally a ray of sunshine. At first, she wasn’t sure it was legitimate. Maybe he was giving her the appearance of happiness as a type of pity. The more time she spends with him though she learns that is not the case. He’s just a positive person. As she continues to observe she takes note that there is something different in the look he’s giving her. This look was his typical smile but as she examines his expression, she can see the softness in his eyes. It was obvious from the scene that they had dated. We’re dating? She’s not entirely sure. She hasn’t been told everything about her past. They don’t want to overwhelm her with information. There’s an understanding that if she remembers something she will ask about it, and then more details will be given. This is primarily so her over-enthusiastic friends don’t overload her and cause a panic attack. As the memory plays out, she knows that she likes this look that seems to be just for her, and it makes her chest beat a little faster.
Her surroundings start to darken, and she knows that this is all she gets for this memory. She internally sighs as her disassociation ceases, and she takes a moment to look around her. Her dorm room surrounds her as she is sitting on her bed with her back against the wall. Looking around she finds the clock that sits at her desk and takes in the time. She had been dazed out for about an hour this time, and it was almost time for dinner. She sighs as she moves from the bed. Losing time was always frustrating and was starting to happen more frequently. A mental note is made to talk with Denki. He has experience with losing time because of his quirk, and this gives her someone who understands a little bit about what she’s going through. He also seems to appreciate having someone he can relate to as well.
As she takes a seat at her desk, she grabs a pen and opens a journal. She immediately starts scribbling down the events of the memory. Once she has finished, she grabs a post-it note and writes a reminder to check her journals from her pre-amnesia. She was highly inconsistent with journaling, but sometimes she can grab context. The annoying part was how she only wrote about her feelings instead of the actual events themselves. She assumes because of the inconsistency and lack of details the journaling was more for venting and expressing her emotions than to document her life and what was happening around her. She looks at the clock once again and decides that she needs to head to the common room. Mina would be beating down her door any minute if she was any longer. She smiles at the thought of her friend.
Y/N makes her way to the door and grabs a hoodie that lies on a chair. She pulls it overhead and stops for a second lingering in the scent. There’s something familiar about it, and she can’t figure out what. All she can say is that it smells like caramel. She brings the fabric closer to her face again and breathes in. Her body relaxes as she exhales. She’s unsure why, but this scent in particular makes her feel at ease. She pushes the frustration of not knowing the scent and moves to leave her room.
Making her way down the hallway and she can hear voices coming from the common room. She recognizes Kaminari and Sero’s voices. They were playing a video game on the tv, and she hears Kaminari yell in protest. Something didn’t go in his favor. Then the smell of food hits the air and she can feel her stomach grumble, realizing how hungry she was. Someone who knew what they were doing was cooking. She makes her way toward a stool at the kitchen island and sits down. She observes the loud blonde she knows as Bakugo. He was concentrating hard on the cooking and assumes that he doesn’t notice her presence.
“Are you just going to sit there or are you going to get plates, Princess?”
She wrinkles her face in response.
“Do you mean me?” she asks, tilting her head slightly.
Bakugo doesn’t say a word but gives her a look. He takes a deep breath and sighs.
“Yes. I mean you.” He responds in what could be perceived as harsh, but Y/N simply nods her head and moves from the stool.
She doesn’t know why his harsh demeanor doesn’t rattle her, but she’s noticed that he tends to be short with most. Maybe it was because of the relationship she had with him before her memory loss. She’s been told they were close, but she has made note that Bakugo had seemingly been avoiding her over the past week. It made her feel as though she had done something wrong. So, in turn, she has also limited communication with him, not wanting to further upset him.
She grabs some plates from the cabinets and brings them next to the blonde.
“Is that an Omurice?” she asks curiously as she peers from around Bakugo’s shoulder.
“It is. You like this still, don’t you?”
She looks at him and gives him a half smile.
“I do. Did you make this just because you know I like it?” She asks stretching her smile into a full one.
The ash blonde looks at the grin on her face and his chest fill with hope and grief at the same time. He loves to be able to make her smile, but he hates how she doesn’t know who he is. Not like she should. Not like his girlfriend would.
“I did. I thought it might help your memory or some shit. I don’t fucking know.”
She plates some of the rice from the cooker and he then moves the omelet to the rice. He grabs another pan and ladles some sauce over the top. She can smell the food and it smells wonderfully perfect. She reaches for the plate and sits it on the counter. She then starts filling the next plate with rice. The pair carry on their process until they plated food for everyone that was in the common area. Bakugo finishes the last two ladling the sauce and sits the pan down. He grabs both plates and moves towards a table as he motions for Y/N to follow him. He sits the plates next to each other and Y/N takes a seat next to him. She smiles at him, and he can feel his heart sink into his chest once again. The feeling made him want to push it down. Making him want to walk away like he had done the other times this past week when the feelings became too much, but he decided that today he was no longer going to do that. Instead, he was going to try to help her remember who she was. Help her remember how she feels about…. him.
As they sit and eat Y/N sees Kirishima walk over to the table. She feels her face begin to redden as she remembers the memory from earlier that had flickered past. She looks away from the toothy redhead and brings the sleeve of the hoodie to her nose, taking in the comforting scent to try and settle her nerves.
Bakugo notices her reaction and he can feel his chest tighten once again. Memories start to fill his mind of when she used to look at shitty hair like that all the time. When she was dating the redhead and not him. He grimaces and looks down at his plate trying to ignore her response. This wasn’t her fault to feel this way, especially since he had consciously been avoiding her. He looks back up when he feels a finger poking his arm.
“Are you okay?” Y/N asks. She noticed that he was seemingly more aggravated than normal.
He looks at her and nods his head then decides to take a chance.
“After we’re done here. Come with me. We should go check out the rock wall they installed in the training area.”
Y/N tilts her head once again and thinks about his words.
“Did we use to do that? Climb”
Bakugo notices the wrinkle between her eyes. He knows that she’s trying hard to make herself remember. He sighs again and flicks her forehead with his fingers.
“Stop trying to cause an aneurysm. Yes, we used to climb together. I taught you how. Now finish up so we can leave these extras.”
She looks over to the blonde and smiles.
“Yeah, Okay. Let’s go.”
Y/N let out an internal sigh at the change of behavior from Bakugo. It was nice to see him wanting to spend time with her. She wasn’t sure why but a tightness in her chest released knowing that the evening is going so well with him.
They finish their dinner and rise from the table taking their dishes to the sink. They pass them off to Jiro and Sero as they start to walk to their respective dorms to change into gym clothes. She hears Bakugo call out to her.
“I’ll meet you back in the common room in 10 minutes. Don’t be fucking late, Princess.”
She gives him a smirk and nods her head. A thought crosses her mind, and she stops to ask a question before she fully changes.
“Why do you call me that?”
Bakugo freezes in place of the question. His heart once again squeezes at the feeling of her not knowing their relationship. He pushes the feeling back down as he responds.
“Later, I’ll tell you when we’re climbing and answer any other of your stupid questions. Just go get changed.”
Y/N looks at him with a confused expression but nods her head in understanding. She continues to her room and thinks about his words. She felt nervous but excited to climb with him. Especially, given the opportunity to ask questions. She takes a deep breath and inhales the scent of the caramel from the hoodie. It helps to settle her nerves.
She wonders what exactly he means to her as she steps through the door to get ready. Guess she’ll be able to find that out sooner than later.