..::Remember::.. ((Mature/Private for Icetrey))

Izzy didn't know how to quite take all of this, not yet at least. The one person she had given her everything to, couldn't even remember who she was now. The one person that she had given up her life of comfort for, didn't even know who she was. This meant that everything would need to be started over. All of those years of being friends and lovers, of learning everything about each other, was gone. Clean slate. It was disheartening, that was for sure, but she wouldn't give up, not yet. Not ever. Izzy was strong minded. Strong willed. And stubborn. She wouldn't walk away from Vincent, not now when he needed her the most. But the fear was there. The one that she couldn't help but to think about. What if Vincent never got his memory back? What if he never cared about her again, like he had before? Would she lose Vincent because of this?

"You're welcome Vincent. And please don't worry about it. There was nothing holding me down back home. There was nothing there for me." Izzy lied. She hated to do it to him, but she couldn't tell him the truth, not now anyways. What had Izzy left behind? College. Her father. Her mother who was going through therapy for cancer. There were so many things back at home that she should have stayed for, but Izzy wasn't one to be held down. She loved Vincent. She needed to be near him. She had missed him so much over the past few years and she needed to find him. But she had not been expecting this. Not at all. In fact she wasn't even expecting to find him so quickly, if even at all.

Izzy looked over at Vincent just as he started to speak, obviously shocked by her words just moments before. She couldn't help but to giggle when she saw him blush and rub the back of his head. Vincent really hadn't changed all that much. That had been the same look, the same actions that he had made, when he had kissed her for the first time. So there were still signs of the Vincent he had been in this empty shell of him. And that made Izzy fill with hope. Maybe, after some time and lots of work, Izzy would be able to make him remember, or at least get him to see how he used to be. Maybe this would be okay in the long run, but then maybe it wouldn't be.

Izzy smiled at Vincent and tilted her head. "I'm glad that you're willing to be so grateful to someone who you can't remember." She said, watching him. "I really do appreciate it, Vinny..." Izzy stopped herself and bit her bottom lip, looking down at her knees. He wouldn't remember that. But she had become so used to calling Vincent that name over all the past years that it was second nature to her. Why it had just now slipped out and not sooner, she didn't know, but it made her blush slightly that it had sudden come out now. Izzy sighed a bit and looked back at Vincent, smiling. "I don't want to over stay my welcome though, Vincent. I would hate to make you feel like you're running a half way house." She said, shrugging. "I don't like taking things from people if I can't return a favor anyways." But just as she said that, she smiled. She was returning the favor. She was going to help him remember his past. Izzy's eyes flicked upward when she heard Vincent move, watching him stand up. Izzy nodded and lifted her backpack, slipping it back on to her back. "Okay then. I'm ready when you are." And with that, Izzy returned the smile.

~*~

Izzy had sat quietly through the car ride to Vincent's apartment. Her eyes stayed focused to what they passed by them. This city was huge, much larger than anything she had ever seen. Vincent and Izzy had grown up in a small town, one with only one high school, one middle school, and one elementary school. And each school probably had a fourth of the students the entire high school here. It was completely different, and slightly overwhelming.

Izzy followed Vincent to his apartment quietly, now suddenly feeling nervous. She followed him into his apartment, her eyes searching the area around them. It seemed like Vincent. Cluttered desk but spotless apartment. Izzy smiled up at Vincent, clutching her bag to her chest now, nervously. "Okay." She said, walking past Vincent and dropping her bag just inside of Vincent's bedroom. "I really don't have to take the bedroom. The couch would be fine for me. You're already doing so much for me." But as Izzy came back from Vincent's bedroom, she blinked, hearing his question, and looked down. "I... Well I was moving here for you, like we had talked about doing so long ago. The deal was I would finish school and I would move here when I could." She said, biting her bottom lip. "I've worked for the past four years straight at the family restaurant in town back home. I was a waitress. And saved any penny I could for this."

Izzy didn't blame Vincent for what had happened, it was no way his fault. But it was still painful for her to know that everything she had fought so hard to keep together over the past five years was gone. But still, there was a sparkle of hope behind all of the pain that was there now. Izzy had heard of people who had amnesia remembering things, slowly, as if they were snippets of their past. She had heard that it took time, and patience, but that was what she was there for, right? Izzy smiled over at Vincent. "Well, you don't have anyone else helping you out, so I might as well do it. I mean, I still feel the same ways I always have for you, Vincent, even if you can't remember what those ways were. I'm going to do my best to help you, as best as I can. At the least, I'll help you remember who you really were." She said, her lips twitching up into a smile once again.

Izzy had watched Vincent carefully as he pulled out a pen and flipped the paper over, the pen dancing across the paper quickly as he wrote out the V for his own eyes. She knew it was him, but she knew that he would need to see things for himself, to see just how things had been for him with his own eyes. This was going to be hard, for the both of them. She was scared that when, if, he started to remember, the first thing he would remember was the fight they had had just days before he had stopped talking to her, apparently just days before his accident.

He had called her, like he normally did, but there had been some other girl with him. He had tried to tell her that it was simply a girl in his class, one he had a project he had to do with. But Izzy hadn't listened. He had told her about how her picture was still on his desk, how the girl had asked who she was and he had told her it was his girlfriend. But still, Izzy hadn't listened. The stubbornness and with how scared that Izzy was had ruined everything, made Vincent mad that she wouldn't trust him. She had felt bad afterwards, feeling as if she had acted foolishly, which she had. But she had already caused Vincent to become upset, having him actually raise his voice to her, which he rarely did. He had even hung up on her, and hadn't called her back until the next night. She had tried to apologize, but he kept saying he didn't want to talk about it, to just forget it ever happened, but Izzy knew it had bothered him deeply that she would think him, of all people, would do anything to betray her love for him.

Izzy blinked herself out of her thoughts as she heard Vincent speaking again. She smiled up at him, tilting her head to the side as she spoke. "Vincent, I'll do my best to try to help you remember anything you want, if you want me to that is. I only came here after you." She said, sighing. "I was worried about you. I hadn't heard from you in so long. So I saved up every penny that I could and left, traveled across the country to some city I know nothing about. All in hopes of finding one person among the thousands that live here." Izzy sighed and she too looked up at the quickly darkening sky. "I came all this way for you, Vincent. And be it you remember everything or nothing at all, I'm still here for you." She said, smiling over at him. "I haven't given up in you in five years. Why start now?"

Izzy blinked at Vincent's next words. He really wanted to know what he was like, who he was, and about his past. She could tell by the way he offered her a place to stay. "I wouldn't want to impose on your personal space, Vincent." She said, biting her bottom lip. "But I honestly have no clue where I am or what to do here. I'm flying blind in this city. I honestly just got here ten minutes before you walked into that pizza shop." She said, laughing lightly. "Tell you what. I'll take you up on your offer, but I promise to help you out in any way I can while I'm staying with you. And I swear as soon as I find a place to go, I'll leave."

Izzy nodded her head as Vincent told her they would take a walk and talk on the way. She went over to her table, reaching down and grabbing the backpack she had laid on the floor. She slung it over her shoulders then walked back to the front of the pizza shop. She wasn't hungry any more. She was cold, and suddenly felt completely alone. She walked out the door that Vincent held open for her, smiling a bit as she adverted her eyes from him to the ground beneath her feet. She then began walking with him down the sidewalk, listening as he spoke of the park. "That's fine." She said to him, taking a deep breath.

Izzy followed closely beside Vincent, eager to hear what it was that he had to say to her. They walked in complete silence for a long ways, Izzy feeling uncomfortable suddenly, as if this wasn't right for her to be doing. But then she heard Vincent mutter her name, and out of habit, she looked up at him. Izzy studied the profile of Vincent's face, sighing. This was her Vincent on the outside, but inside he was someone else, someone she had never met before. Izzy listened to his words as he spoke, things beginning to fall into place. But Izzy didn't speak, not yet, she simply listened to him as they walked towards the park. After he spoke for a long moments time, they were silent again, and Izzy began to think of things that she could tell him. She followed him into the park, over to the bench, and sat down beside him, her bag in her lap. "Don't apologize." She said, biting her bottom lip. "I had no idea what had happened to you." She started, staring out across the park. "Eighteen months ago, your phone calls stopped. I received one last letter a few days after the phone calls stopped, and that was the last time I had ever heard from you. I figured you were busy with school and studies. I had tried to call your phone a couple of times. No one ever answered. Then one day it was just shut off." Izzy took a deep breath and shook her head. "I had heard about your mother dying. I went to your house to find your dad, to talk to him, find out how you were doing. But the house was empty. Your father was gone."

Izzy looked up at Vincent and forced a smile. "It's funny how you say the park is soothing. We met at a park. I was six at the time. You were eight." She giggled a bit. "You came up to me and asked me to play catch with you." She shook her head, staring back out across the park. People were walking by, families playing out in the open fields. "We used to always go to the park together, just to get away. We would mostly go there at night, when it was quiet and no one was there. It was just us. It was the way we liked it."

Izzy looked down at her back and slowly opened it. She dove her hands down into it, pulling out an old looking piece of paper. "Here." She said, handing the paper to Vincent. "It's the letter I told you about." And there, in plain black and white, was Vincent's hand writting scrawled across paper. 'My dearest Izzy. I'm sorry it's been so long since I've written to you. I find it hard to sit down and write to you, feeling my words mean nothing without my presence. Just know that you are my one and only, and even though there is a great distance between us, it is you that I left my heart behind with. And even though it's hard, and I know you hurt without me, I promise that soon, I will come there and see you. I may even bring you back with me. This distance is unbearable. I love you Izzy. I'll talk to you soon. V.' Izzy shook her head. "We always signed our names like that. V. I. It was as if it was out own secret love, so if anyone saw the letters, they wouldn't know who wrote them." Izzy laughed. "Although my family knew it was a letter from you just from the way I would tackle the mailman in the mornings."

Izzy looked up at Vincent now, tilting her head as she watched him. "I'm here now, Vincent. You have someone. You may not remember anything about me, but there's always time. And it's on our side now. I"ll help you any way I can. Just please, forgive me if..." She took a deep breath and looked away from him. "It's going to be hard for me. I was always your Izzy. You used to always say to me. 'Without you, there is no I.'"

How could he not remember her? They were six and eight when they had first met. It had been at a park. Izzy had just moved in to the town and didn't know anyone. And there, while she was sitting on a swing set alone, the little boy walked up to her, smiling warmly, and asked her if she wanted to play catch. Izzy would never forget that day, she never had. She could still remember the hot June weather that was upon them. And the sound of the men cutting the grass across the street. There were other kids there, of course, but only Vincent noticed her. Only Vincent cared.

From that moment on they had become inseparable. Vincent's family loved Izzy, but Izzy's family hated Vincent. It wasn't even that they didn't like him. It was the fact that he was just that, a boy. They firmly believed that he would do no good for her as she was growing up, that she needed friends that were girls. People to go shopping with. People to gossip to. But Izzy never had any interests in malls or talking about boys. She just wanted to play football or have a tournament on PacMan at the mall. But her parent's never agreed.

Of course then they got older. By the time that Izzy was thirteen, she had developed a crush on the boy she had grown up with. Her first kiss happened with him only a few years prior to her thirteenth birthday, when they were eleven and thirteen. She remembered the day perfectly. It was Vincents thirteenth birthday and at his part they were teamed up for seven minutes in heaven. They had spent the first five minutes goofing around and making jokes of course, but it was at the end, right before their time was up, that Vincent had leaned across the closet and kissed her quickly. After that though, it was never talked about, and wasn't repeated.

That was until they were finally a couple. It was just after her thirteenth birthday, he was already fifteen, Vincent had come to her window after climbing her tree, a thing they did a lot late at night. Izzy had thought there had been something wrong, but he had leaned in through her window and kissed her, without saying a word. After that it was a simple. "You wanna be my girlfriend." All Izzy could do was nod her head. But that was the day they were finally a couple.

After that the years went by quickly. They grew older, and before she knew it, Vincent was applying for colleges, something his father was forcing him to do. At first Vincent wasn't happy about it, but then, Izzy remembered when he came to her with the papers for the perfect school. It was across the country, far away from their sleepy little town in a big city. "That's so far." She had said to him. But he reassured her and told her he doubted he would be accepted. But then, a few weeks later, the acceptance letter came. His father wrote the checks, and Vincent came to Izzy. She had begged him to take her with him, told him she would work and take care of things on her own. But Vincent refused to let her drop out of school. He told her that once she graduated, got a job, and saved up to move out there, she was more than welcome. So that was what she did, her mind on Vincent every day that she got closer.

But now, all of that was gone. Vincent for some reason was saying he didn't remember her. It had felt like everything had been a lie, something that never really happened. A trick or something. And Izzy was the kind of girl that when she was hurt, she would run away to hide, to lick the wounds clean and try again. But with this, she felt like nothing would make it better. Nothing would fix this. But then, the feeling of Vincent's hand on her arm, turning her around to face him took her off guard. She blinked, looking up at him. "Vincent..." She asked.

Izzy listened to his words, searching his face with her eyes as she did. So he didn't remember anything at all? Izzy's eyes narrowed as she thought. "I don't have a lot of time, Vincent. I have to try to find somewhere to stay." She said before sighing. "But let's go somewhere so we can talk."

Izzy's arms were wrapped tightly around Vincent. She stood there for what seemed like forever to her. It had been so long since she had seen him, touched him. She had missed him so much. She could remember in the past when they had just stood or laid around, their arms wrapped around each other like hers were wrapped around him now. There had been so many times that this had gone on between them, and each time was special to Izzy. All the times where it was just affection shown between the two of them. All the times that Izzy went to Vincent, wrapped in his arms crying. And all the affectionate hugs they shared after fighting. So many different occasions, and yet all of them were amazing to her. These were the moments she hung on to. These were the moments that had kept Izzy going for the past five years.

Five years. It had felt so much longer than that. It had seemed more like ten to Izzy. She had grown up since then. Her childish features were gone, now turned into beautiful features of a young woman. Her eyes were still wide, and that same sparkling blue they had always been, but the rest of her was lean now, no more childlike tones to her body. And him. He was so much different. He even carried himself in a different way. If Izzy wasn't so sure that it was him, she would have thought that this Vincent was just a look alike. A man who was there to tease her memories, but nothing more. But as Izzy stood there, waiting for the happy exclaims of Vincent to fall from his lips, showing that he was happy that she was there, she noticed something was off. Something wasn't right.

Izzy heard Vincent apologize. It caused her to blink, her long arms dropping from around Vincent, Izzy taking two steps back away from him. She looked up at him, studying his emotionless features. Was there someone else? Was he no longer in love with her? Had he grown out of her in the past five years. She had noticed that the phone calls had stopped. Letters had stopped coming to her as well. But she always told herself that it was because he was busy with school, that there was so many more things going on his his life that he just didn't have enough free time any more to write her a letter or even call her. It had been over a year since she had heard from him. It was as if the phone calls she received two r three times a day were just suddenly forgotten. The last time she heard from him was a letter she received shortly after the last phone call she got. It had spoken of his affection for her, and how he couldn't wait to see her again. Where was that Vincent now? Why was he acting so strangely?

Then she heard it. He didn't remember her? How could that be? She was his girlfriend. She had at one time been his entire life. Izzy blinked a few times, narrowing her eyes and shaking her head. "Vincent. You're jokes still aren't that funny." She said, praying that this was one of his jokes that he would always play on her. Like the time she had walked up to him in the mall and he had declared he didn't know her. She had been so upset, but when she was about to walk away in tears, Vincent had grabbed her hand and pulled her into a hug, laughing. This was just like something that Vincent would do.

But as Izzy watched Vincent carefully, the look on his face and the tones of his voice told her that he wasn't lying. He honestly didn't know who she was. Had she found the wrong Vincent? No.That couldn't be. There was no way that anyone could resemble Vincent this closely and have the same name. "Vincent..." She said, her words just barley above a whisper. "It's Izzy... How do you not remember me?" She asked, her face white, her eyes burning with the threat of tears. What was going on here? Why couldn't he remember her. "We've known each other since we were little." She said, biting her bottom lip. "Hell... We were together for three years before you left for college." She said, her eyes dropping to her feet. "I'm sorry... I just..." She said, her body turning away from him as she made her way back to her table. This had been a horrible idea. She should have never come out here.

Izzy didn't look up from her food when the door to the pizza shop opened. It had probably been the fourth or fifth time it had opened since she had sat down. She was too interested in staring down at the pizza, as if it were going to look up at her and talk. What had she been thinking when she had chosen to move to this place? She had little money and hardly any idea of where she was. Izzy hadn't even set up a place for her to move to. She knew that now she would have to go searching for some cheap apartment she could put her little bit of money towards. Anywhere that she could call home. And once that was done she knew that she would need to find a job. Something to keep money coming in for the bills and the rent for whatever run down place she managed to find.

Izzy sighed, a heavy and stressed sigh, her slender fingers raising up to drag lightly through her silvery hair. She stared at the hair that she held in her hands, her lips twitching up into a smile. The silver color had been his idea, so long ago. He had always joked around with her and told her she would look good with lighter hair. And she would always come back with the statement that she would make the lightest she could, just for him. And that would be this silvery color. Her naturally dark colored hair was too plain anyways. This gave her more character to her image. Made her more unique. And unique was one thing that Izzy always strived to be. She wanted to stand out, not blend in. She just wanted to be something more than all of the other girls around, something that her Vincent would remember and recognize. She always wanted to stand out in a crowd, just in case he was there, watching.

Izzy's eyebrows came together as she heard the owner of the pizza shop speak, sounding out a name that was all too familiar to her. Vincent... But how common was that name? She had known at least two others from her school alone. What was the chances that this Vincent was hers, the one that she had come looking for. That would make it too easy. That would mean that he was there, in front of her, and she had already found him, not even twenty minutes after stepping off the train.

Liquid blue eyes peered up through her hair, searching the faces that belonged to the people inside of the pizza shop. No one seemed familiar to her. No one she had ever seen before. But then, after watching a baby steal a slice of pizza of his mother's plate, her eyes fell on the man that stood up near the front of the pizza shop. The one who was standing there, watching her.

Flashbacks came in technicolored pieces. Blue eyes staring at her from across a crowded room. Lips that curved into the most perfect smile. Blonde hair that was so easy to run fingers through. A voice that was enough to melt even the coldest of souls. All these things belonged to him. The man that haunted her dreams. The man who haunted her memories. Vincent. The man who stood on the opposite side of the room from her, once again watching her from across the room full of people. Just like the day they had met.

Izzy's lips twitched up into a soft smile before turning itself into a full fledged look of complete happiness. Izzy was up, forgetting her pizza and her bags, and moving across the scattered room. She stopped in front of the man, staring up at him. "Vincent?" She asked, blinking as she stared into his eyes. "Oh dear god Vincent it is you!" She exclaimed, jumping forward and wrapping her arms around the man.

((OoC - It was great! Sorry it took me so long to post. I had a Ghostbusters take over -_-))

How long had it been? The girl on the train leaned back and stared up at the ceiling of the car she was in. Five years to this day. She had been fifteen when the male left. He was her best friend, her confidant.... He was her only true love. Whatever it was that had made him decide to leave five years ago, it must have been a good one. She could remember the day like it was yesterday. It had been raining. How cliche. Like it could have been a scene in the movies. They had been out, like they normally were on a Friday night. He was acting so normal. He offered the idea of getting pizza from her favorite pizza shop that night. It had made her smile that he had thought of her. And so they had eaten pizza. He had even taken her to some girly movie she knew he had no interest in.

"Why are you doing all these things for me babe?" She asked, smiling warmly as she clung to his left arm. "What things, Izzy?" He asked her, smiling down at her as they walked. Izzy. No one had called Elizabeth that since he had left. It had been his special name for her. Since that night, it's only been Liz. "The movie you didn't like. The pizza you think is too greasy. What is up with you tonight?" She asked, laughing lightly. "I don't think that pizza is too greasy!" He said, shaking his head. "You were dabbing it with a napkin." She said, laughing. The male sighed though, looking in front of him as he talked. "I wanted to make the last time I saw you for a while the night I made you smile the most." He said, closing his eyes as he stopped walking. Liz stopped and turned, facing the man she loved. "What are you talking about? You'll see me tomorrow, silly." She said smiling, but the male just shook his head. "No. I'm leaving tonight. I'm already packed. I just need to get on that train." He said, looking back at her finally. "I'm moving to the big city, Izzy." He said, smiling. But Izzy shook her head. "What about me? I want to go too!" She shouted, biting her bottom lip. "No Izzy. Stay here. Finish your schooling. Make something of yourself. I'll still be here for you when you're finished. I promise." He said, trying to give her a warm smile. But Izzy was already crying, shaking her head. "You promised you would never leave." She said, looking at her feet. "I know Izzy. But I have to. I love you though... I'll see you soon." And after that, he kissed her forehead, and was gone, leaving Izzy to the emptiness and the tears.

Izzy sat up in her seat, the feeling of the train stopping snapping her from her thoughts. "Here already?" She asked herself, looking out the window. But the sight that laid out in front of her scared her. Izzy stood quickly, grabbing her two bags and rushing off the train. And it was there, standing in the middle of the city, that Izzy realized just how much trouble she was in. The city was huge, buildings scanning as far as the eye could see. There were people, thousands of them, pushing through the streets. How was she supposed to find him? Hell how was she supposed to not get lost out here?

Izzy sighed and carried her bags, pushing through the train station. She looked around her. A few bars, a tattoo shop, and a pizza shop. The light that read 'Open' in the window made her smile. "I will find him. I don't care how long it takes." She said to herself as she waited to cross the busy street. Once she was across it, she pushed through the door into the Pizza shop, a smile raising to her face. The food smelt so good, and he hadn't eaten in a while. "Can I get a slice of cheese please?" She asked the older man behind the counter as she pulled out the money. "Anything else?" He asked her. "A drink?" She said, watching the man as he got her drink as well. She paid, then went to the corner of the pizza shop with her food and her bags. She was still uneasy about this place, and wanted to be able to keep an eye out, just in case.