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Carol’s been home for six months now and it’s everything she never dreamed she’d have on Hala. She knows once, in a time before her disappearance, before Yon-Rogg drained her of all that she was, she was this happy, but she can’t recall it. Her memories are still in shambles, and even though living with Maria and Monica is all she could ever hope for, it breaks her heart. Carol wishes more than anything that looking at Maria and Monica would give her more than an ache in her heart, knowing that they used to have something more, but she just couldn’t quite put her finger on it.
So even though she can’t remember everything, Carol spends her days trying to make up for the time she lost, because she knows there’s no where else she’d rather be. She helps Monica with her homework (because of course she can’t remember what it felt like to be Carol Danvers but she can remember sixth grade math), she does chores and aids in rebuilding planes and it helps. She begins to feel good about herself again, and the memories begin to form in her mind almost as if they’d never left.
The fact that Maria and Carol rarely spent a moment apart now, didn’t hinder her progress at all either. Nights with Monica playing monopoly, forcing Fury to babysit so they could have a night on the town, flying together, and even just lying on the couch nestled together have Carol feeling warm and bubbly and have her beginning to wonder if the softness in her heart are lingering remnants of a time before, or something she only just developed now.
It’s one night, lying on the couch, when the inquiry hits her. She knows she once lived in this house, with them, with her family, and yet she never had a room of her own. The house was a two bedroom, and Carol highly doubted that she had spent all her nights on the couch. She can’t help but wonder what that means, the fact that she lived here, but didn’t have a room of her own, and she wonders if her own current feelings are clouding how she’s seeing this predicament. She considers the possibility that Monica’s room had once been hers, and she considers, for a short time anyways, that perhaps her and Maria had twin beds or even bunk beds to simulate their time in the dorms at the academy. She can’t help but hope though, that they had slept together in the bed that she knows Maria is alone in now, that the room that is now Maria’s was once theirs.
When things really start to come together, it’s a Friday like any of the others they’ve experienced so far together. Monica had gone straight to a friend’s after school, leaving Carol and Maria alone until at least Saturday afternoon. They weren’t sure what they wanted to do with their free time this weekend, unsure if they should take advantage of Monica’s absence and go to a bar, or if they wanted to just stay home and cuddle up on the couch in front of the tv. Carol found that she couldn’t care less so long as they were close, so when Maria suggested they fly, she takes a risk, hoping it pays off. “I could take you flying, you know, with me,” Carol says, and she finds herself almost holding her breath awaiting Maria’s response.
“You sure I wouldn’t burn up against you, Danvers?” She asks, and they both laugh a little, the words putting Carol at ease.
“No, the suit regulates the heat, and even if it didn’t, I’d be able to keep my cool enough not to fry you,” Carol answers and Maria smiles.
Carol can’t help but notice how beautiful that smile is. “Alright then, put the suit on, I’ll meet you outside.”
•¥•
It takes Carol a moment longer than usually to put her suit on, because she has to come to terms with the fact that in less than ten minutes her and Maria Rambeau are going to be pressed together soaring through the clouds, and while flying feels good, Carol knows that being that close to Maria is better.
She finally gets herself together and runs down the stairs towards Maria, where she stands in the yard, staring up at the pinky orange sky, watching as the sun sets over Louisiana. Carol looks at her for a moment, and then reaches for her, wrapping an arm around her waist, pulling her in tight and taking a deep breath. “Ready for take-off, Photon?” She whispers.
Maria smirks, appreciating the use of her old callsign. She wraps an arm around Carol’s neck, knowing the more support the better in terms of holding her against Carol and keeping her from plummeting to the ground, and then she looks into those big brown eyes. “Higher, further, faster baby,” she says, and it’s all Carol needs to let go of her fear, break into a goofy smile and just fly.
Before they know it, they’re more than a hundred feet above the ground and Carol is dashing around the sky, showing off her superhuman tricks and definitely agreeing with her earlier statement that holding Maria against her was far better than any flying she’d ever done. The two things combined though, had Carol almost high on emotions. These were the two things she knew, from the pictures and the flickers of memories, she had wanted her whole life, to reach the clouds and to do it with someone she loved, and she was so excited that she was living that life with Maria both now, and six years prior. It has her heart pounding in her chest and her smile permanently fixed to her face.
They swoop and glide through the air for awhile, maneuvering in ways that both of them know they’d never be able to do in any plane they’ve ever flown, and they giggle like crazy. Carol imagines it’s something like how they felt the first time they’d actually got up in the air, and she desperately wishes she that she could remember it.
Carol lands as gently as possible, maybe twenty minutes after they took off, and as soon as their feet are on the ground, she can’t take her eyes off Maria. Flying had always filled her with adrenaline and pumping endorphins, but this time she had Maria held against her chest and now, on the ground, they were still standing that close, one of Carol’s arms around her waist, and one of Maria’s hands just below where Carol’s hair meets her back and she can’t help but know that this isn’t the first time that they’ve stood this close, or in this position. Like earlier, Carol decides it’s time to take a risk.
She looks down at Maria’s lips, and she knows she catches her. She smirks as cocky as she can hoping to pull strength from her regular self assuredness, and leans in half way. Maria looks her in the eyes, meets her lips and suddenly, something all changes.
It comes rushing back to Carol all at once, every memory, all her life through, with her lips still pressed to Maria’s. She remembers now their past, and all that they were, and that her feelings for Maria had always been founded in her memories. She remembers holding Maria at night, she remembers kissing her every morning, she remembers the rings they hung on their dog tags and she remembers Monica calling her mom. She remembers it all, all the love they shared, and it’s in that moment, she hears Maria’s voice. “Carol?” She asks, and Carol realizes as her memories had come rushing back, her kissing had probably become… a little unresponsive.
“Carol…” Maria starts, and she looks sheepish, “was that o—“
“Baby, I remember,” Carol interrupts, and she can feel the tears beginning to run down her face. She cannot believe that all it took was one kiss from Maria. How fucking fairytale.
“Carol, are you serious? You remember?” Maria asks, and Carol nods fiercely.
“I remember it all, the Air Force, Lawson, Monica, but this, this is what I remember best,” she finishes, immediately pulling Maria back in and kissing her soundly.
To Carol, this kiss felt just right, as had the one moments before, but this one was charged with memories, with not only Carol’s feelings now but with the unfleeting memory of everlasting love, of a family and of a lot of kisses prior to this one. She pulls away, after a moment though, and takes Maria in. “Oh god, I love you,” Carol whispers, “and I can’t believe I ever forgot all this.”
Maria laughs, pecking Carol on the lips one more time before saying, “It wasn’t your fault, baby, you didn’t choose it, but it’s okay now, because you remember and we’re here, together and I love you too. And most of all because Monica is absolutely going to love that you got your memories back by kissing me. That’s practically a Disney movie plot!”
Carol laughs and rolls her eyes a bit before pulling Maria into the next kiss, hopefully the next kiss in a long line of kisses to come.