Steins;Gate got me. But I didn’t like some things about the movie so I rewrote it. Some dialogue stolen, some dialogue original, may get wonky in places. In this chapter, you may be wondering what I changed and the answer is: not much. Changes come later. Also with lots of fluff because I like fluff! This website was useful for chapter names, ohohoho.
Chapter 1: Kymatological Barbecue
I braced myself nervously as the plane touched down on the runway, though there was hardly a bump this time. It still startled me and I almost yelped before I clapped my hands over my mouth.
This was silly. It wasn’t as if I hadn’t been to Japan before. I should be more at ease than last time I came.
But it was the first time since I’d met them. …Him.
Would he be waiting at the airport? I’d told Mayuri when I was coming, since I did want to visit with them while I was here and not just give my lectures, and I knew Mayuri told everyone at the Future Gadgets Lab everything. At the time, I’d considered the surprise of not knowing if he’d be there to be fun. Now I dreaded it, the butterflies in my stomach threatening to become dragons.
It took forever to clear customs and get my luggage, as usual, but once I entered the arrival lounge… “Kurisu-chaaaan!” Mayuri screamed, and launched herself at me. I managed to brace for impact, enough that she didn’t knock me over. “Tuturu! Welome back!”
“Hello, Mayuri!” I said, looking down at her. She hadn’t changed a bit, the same sparkling smile on her innocent face. “How are you? I’m so happy to see you again. Thank you for coming to meet me.”
“Mayushii is doing great! Mayushii brought Ruka-kun and Daru with me, too!” she chirped, waving behind her. There were Ruka and Daru, waving a little shyly. I disentangled myself from Mayuri’s hug and waved back to them as I approached. “We’re all so happy to see you, Kurisu-chan!”
“H-hello, Makise-san,” Ruka said softly.
“Did you have a good flight?” Daru asked, going for my luggage to carry it for me. Perhaps there was some gentleman to be cultivated in him yet.
“No shorter than usual,” I answered. “Hello, Hashida, Urushibara-san. It’s good to see you as well.” I looked around, my heart beating uncomfortably fast, a blush threatening to break out on my cheeks. “You didn’t bring…” Where Mayuri and Daru were, there he was always as well.
“Okarin had to do some shopping, he said,” Mayuri said. “I’m sure we’ll see him later!”
“Th-that’s fine!” I exclaimed. “It’s not like I was expecting to see him or anything, or that he’d even want to see me after a year without emailing me.” Daru muttered something that sounded like ‘tsundere’ to Ruka, and I glared at him as Ruka blushed.
“Okarin didn’t email you since you left?” Mayuri asked, grey eyes sad and concerned.
“No, he didn’t. You’re the only one I managed to keep in touch with, Mayuri.”
“That’s kind of rude of him,” Mayuri said to herself. “I know he felt shy about it, but I didn’t think he would do that…”
“Shy? Okabe? Ha!” I tossed my head and folded my arms. “It’s just as well, I’m sure he would have just emailed me nonsense about experiments and ‘Operation Jormungandr’ and ‘the Organization’ and whatever else is in his ridiculous head.”
“Oh, we did Operation Jormungandr ages ago,” Daru said. “We did that one when I first joined the lab as Member 003. Man, I haven’t thought about that in ages.”
“What was it?” I asked. Why was I not surprised that he’d already used that codename?
“Oh, er, something about finding a girl he’d once seen. It wasn’t so easy to just search for people online even two years ago, so we didn’t turn up the person he was looking for. He didn’t know her name or anything, he’d just met her one day years ago and wanted to know if she was still around. But…”
“Of course he was looking for a girl,” I sighed.
“Oh! That reminds me!” Mayuri cried. “Daru has a girlfriend!”
“Whaaaat!?” I exclaimed, and Daru actually blushed. “Like, a real actual human girlfriend, not some oversexualized twit from one of his games?”
“Yes, exactly!” Mayuri said. “They met on the internet. She’s very pretty!”
I looked disbelievingly at them all. “P-pretty!? Did Hashida win the lottery or something?”
Mayuri put a finger to her chin, thinking. “I don’t think so… Daru, you have a picture, right? Show, show!”
Daru reluctantly got out his phone. “Her name’s Amane Yuki, and she’s a cosplayer of some of the girls from some of those games, she likes them too. We haven’t met in person yet, but…” He showed me a picture of a fun-looking young woman dressed in a costume, making a peace sign.
“Does she know what you look like?” I whispered to him.
“Er, well… I sent her this picture…” He showed me another picture, one that basically showed only his eyes.
I sighed. “Photoshop… I might have guessed. Well, don’t terrify her with your pervertedness when you meet in real life, all right? She doesn’t need to be scarred for life.”
“Oh, she said she likes big bear-like guys, so it’s okay!” Mayuri said.
“Don’t assume that by ‘bear-like’ she means ‘fat’,” I scolded.
“You’re so mean, Makise-shi.”
We arrived at the lab a taxi-ride later, and the place was still messy and cluttered as I’d seen it last. Ruka got me some tea while Mayuri showed me all the little changes in the lab, including the computer where Alpaca-Man lived. Apparently he had a family now. “So cuuuute!” Mayuri cheered. I really didn’t know what to make of it. Was it one of Okabe’s insane experiments? Or, as I considered more likely, one of Daru’s games…?
The door opened and I heard a familiar deep voice complaining. “Damn that Mr. Braun! He chose a faraway store on purpose-”
I swung around, my heart in my mouth, just as his tall, skinny figure rounded the corner of the stairs. His amber eyes latched onto mine and brightened with a shyly happy expression, and he straightened under the load of his groceries and continued forward, his gaze still fixed on mine.
My mouth was dry, and I was sure I was blushing horribly. Why did he have to look so handsome with that gentle smile and that messy black hair? Wait, was- was he blushing, too?
“Ah, Okarin! Tuturu!”
Then he unceremoniously dumped his plastic bags on the floor beside the table where Feyris was showing Ruka some kind of cute nerd thing, his smile changed from gentle to maniacal, and he struck a pose, pointing dramatically at me. His lab coat swirled around him.
And this is what came out of his mouth: “Long time no see, Assistant! No, I mean Christina. No, I mean experiment-loving perverted girl. ‘Pervert’ for short.”
“There’s a limit to rudeness!” I exploded, clenching my fists. Any more of this nonsense and I was heading straight for the hotel! How could I have expected more from this complete and utter moron?
He did tell you he loved you a year ago… my inner voice told me. I told it to leave me and never come back.
“Ha! That reaction… it seems you are the real Christina. Christina!” He walked past me and flung his arms wide in a theatrical gesture. He certainly enjoyed saying that name that wasn’t mine.
“Get it right… there’s no ‘tina’ in my name! No ‘tina’!” I yelled at him.
“Christina…” he continued as if he hadn’t heard me. “The Future Gadgets Lab is a secret state organization.” No, it wasn’t, shut up, idiot. “It’s only proper that you have the proper authorization to get in!” What, by having a stupid nickname!?
“I’m a lab member too!” I protested. “You gave me that stupid badge last year, I have the right to come and go as I please!”
“Ha! You haven’t shown up for a year and dare make such a wild claim? And you call yourself my assistant!”
“I’m not Christina and I’m not your assistant!” I yelled as he began to laugh maniacally. Ugh! I was going to murder him!
“By the way, experiment-loving perverted genius girl…”
“No!”
“What are you doing in Japan, perverted girl? Did you come to apologize for not showing up at the lab?”
“No, you moron! There’s a conference I’m attending! And I wanted to see Mayuri too.” I shook my head. “You’re an annoying afterthought.”
“And what’s this? Tea?” He made a face at my glass on the second computer desk. “What happened to drinking the intellectual beverage of the chosen?”
“I like tea. Go get your Dr. Pepper and shut up.”
“But Dr. Pepper is far superior,” Hououin Kyouma drawled, prowling around me. “The perfect flavour, the perfect fizz, the perfect colour… Do you disagree, Celeb 17?”
“Shut up! That’s also a stupid name. Tea is the drink of intellectuals everywhere else in the world, except your apar- lab,” I said, taking a drink of my tea to prove it.
“That is the opinion of an unenlightened populace. This is why I must bring about a new world order, rife with chaos, so that all will acknowledge that I, the mad scientist Hououin Kyouma, have the best taste in drinks-!”
“Yes, yes, or just that you’re stark raving bonkers,” I interrupted him, sighing in exasperation. “Hello to you too, by the way, since you haven’t said it yet.”
Mayuri giggled. “Okarin and Kurisu-chan get along so well.”
“W-what? I suppose – I just-” I stammered, flustered by the implications.
I braced myself for more accusations of hentai tendencies from Kyouma, but they didn’t come. Instead, he turned away, putting his cell phone to his ear and muttering into it. “Yes. It’s me. The lab has been infiltrated by Organization lies. Even the most innocent among us have been affected. What!? The will of Steins;Gate? I suppose so. I’ll let you know the results. El. Psy. Kongroo.”
I ignored him and turned back to the others. “Ah, I brought gifts for you, Mayuri, Urushibara-san, Feyris-san,” I said as I remembered, and went for my suitcase, digging them out of the outside pocket. “I hope you like them.”
“Did you bring me anything uncensored?” Daru began.
I glared at him and Okabe. “Customs would arrest me. I didn’t bring anything for you two, because you’re a jerk and didn’t even write once,” I told Okabe, who had the decency to look embarrassed. Actually I’d gotten Daru something, but I’d give it to him later. “Sorry, I didn’t get you anything, Kiryuu-san. I didn’t really know you last year…”
“It’s fine…” she whispered, absorbed in her drink.
Okarin gave a wild evil laugh. “Don’t be ridiculous! I wasn’t expecting anything!” I ignored him. He was the tsundere one, not me.
“Oh, it’s so cute!” Mayuri exclaimed, already having opened her present, a sewing kit. “Thank you so much, Kurisu-chan!”
“You’re welcome,” I said. “I’m glad you like it. You have to show me the next cosplay you make with it!”
Never one to be kept down, Kyouma interrupted again smoothly. “The fact that all the lab members have been reunited here is Steins;Gate’s choice. Mayuri! Prepare for the round table meeting!”
“Okay!” Mayuri chirped, but didn’t move yet.
“Rukako, I didn’t hear you give the password when I came in…”
“Ah, um,” Ruka dithered. “El… Psy… K-kongree…?”
Even I knew that wasn’t right by now. “It’s El Psy Kongroo, Ruka-kun,” Mayuri corrected him. “You’re okay with staying for dinner, right, Kurisu-chan?”
“I… I suppose,” I said. “I hadn’t planned anything for dinner anyway…”
“Then no more being tsundere! You too, Okarin! I know you’re happy to see each other, so just be happy, okay?” I stole a glance at Kyouma, trying to hide my own blush; he was trying to maintain the mad scientist persona, but it was looking a bit awkward now. He never could be honest about his feelings, could he? Unless completely alone and taking the initiative, of course. Good gracious…
He cleared his throat. “Ah. Um. Well. What are you all standing around for? We must prepare for Operation Aegir!” he exclaimed. “Mayuri, Rukako, Feyris! Prepare the experiment materials!”
“Yes, sir!” Mayuri and Feyris cried, saluting enthusiastically, echoed shyly by Ruka. They’d planned something, apparently, because now the two girls and the androgynous boy went straight for the groceries.
“Daru, prepare Future Gadget 024, the molecular acceleration device! Shining Finger-”
I lobbed a bottle of Dr. Pepper at his head; he managed to catch it, though it was a close thing. Shining Finger was the stupidest nickname he had, and I was glad it wasn’t another of mine. “Fine, here’s your Dr. Pepper, now stop grandstanding and say hello like a normal person!”
He smirked. “Don’t mutiny on me, Assistant! I know these preparations excite you as well!”
“I’m just glad I know that Future Gadget 024 is a barbecue,” I retorted. “Mayuri told me.”
“Security breaches everywhere!” He turned to Moeka and dropped his voice into Kyouma’s smug drawl again. “Will Mr. Brauuuun be joining us, with his miniature minion?”
“I… think… so…” Moeka said, pausing from where she was retrieving plates from his cupboard.
“Well, I suppose if he must… Be on your guard, everyone! Do not speak lab secrets in front of him!”
“Uh-huh,” Daru said, heading towards the stairs. “Okarin, do you want me to start the grill now, or were we going to hang out a bit first?”
“Oh, uh…” Okabe shot a glance at me, looking suddenly shy. “I mean, you must be tired, from your plane flight and all…”
“No, we can start now,” I said, nodding at Daru. “I’m fine with that.”
“Well, then, Assistant, come with me! You can help with the most important part of this experiment!”
“Not your assistant,” I repeated impatiently, but I followed him anyway. He was full of energy, bounding up the stairs two at a time, and I had to jog to keep up with him.
The ‘most important part’ turned out to be setting up tables and chairs on the apartment’s roof, while Daru got the grill going. Moeka brought up plates and chopsticks, the bane of my culinary existence here in Japan, and after a while, Mayuri, Ruka, and Feyris brought up food to be cooked, and more drinks for all of us. After a short while, Tennouji-san, who managed the building, and his daughter Nae-chan came up and joined us, although the manager disappeared for a short while before coming back with additional drinks.
It was a lovely evening, with good food, and good company. Daru and Feyris were teasing each other madly, Mayuri was catching me up on all the news properly, Ruka was watching Moeka who was focusing on her food, and Okabe wasn’t a pain. Actually, where was he? He’d set up this whole party, and now he was- ah, brooding on the other side of the roof. What an idiot! I was going to go drag him back over-
“Oh, hey there, you need a new drink,” the manager said, handing me a can. “Here you are.”
“Ah, thank you,” I said, and cracked it open. It tasted a little different than the one I’d had before, but I knew Okabe had been careful to get non-alcoholic beer, since he and I and most of the others were under the age of 20.
But why was my head spinning when I got up to walk over to Okabe? It turned into more of a stagger, and I hit the railing a little harder than I’d expected. He was pressing a hand to his head and I grabbed that arm to steady myself. “Ooookaaaabeeee, I’m not convinced!”
“A-about what…?”
“The time machine!” I babbled. “Theoretically- theoretically, it’s impossible! Completely impossible!”
“You’re really close-” He couldn’t back up anymore, I had him trapped against the railing of the roof. That is, if I didn’t fall over drunk.
How had I gotten drunk?
Okabe was wondering as well, because he took the can out of my hands and turned it over, looking at it. He started, and looked over at the manager, and I woozily realized that he had brought real beer for himself and Moeka, and had mixed up the can he gave me. But that wasn’t important right now. “Hey, are you listening?”
“What are you talking about?” he asked slowly.
“Last year… I’m talking about before! What you told me when you came to America!” I said, rather loudly, but getting quieter and quieter as I got more and more embarrassed. “About another worldline, and that something happened to another me… Then you took advantage of the fact that I didn’t understand and in the confusion you even- even-”
“Even what?” He stared at me with wide, frightened eyes, and suddenly jumped, flailing his arms. “Wait! Why are you bringing that up now!?”
“What, is it that shameful to you now?” I felt my face collapse in disappointment. I’d only spent the last almost-year thinking about that time we spent on a highway in the California desert! Replacing the misty, half-memories of a dreamed other-life kiss with the solid memories of reality and then clinging to them… Not only was he more of an idiot than I remembered, he was heartless, too, to have forgotten so quickly, to not know what it meant to me! Oh, I was going to cry…
He actually squeaked. “Eh!? No, I-I didn’t mean-”
“It really… to me…” I wasn’t sure what I felt for him, but if he didn’t care for me anymore, before I’d even decided, that hurt-!
“Is everything okay?” Feyris called over to us.
“Everything’s fine!” Okabe squeaked back.
Everything was not fine! “This guy! He didn’t email me at all since last summer, and after- you told me you loved me in any worldline, and you even kissed me, several times, at length, and-” He was shushing me frantically, shooting terrified glances over at his friends. “And you didn’t write to me at all and I was-” Even drunk, I couldn’t say that I was lonely.
“Ooookaaaabeeeeeeeee-”
“Shh, shh, shh,” he shushed me again. “Let’s go inside and get you lying down.” He began to half-lead, half-drag me towards the stairwell.
I struggled, of course. He was pushing me around again! “Give it a break!” I finally broke free from him inside the door of the stairs and pushed, and he staggered a couple of steps down the stairs.
“That’s dangerous!” he stammered, recovering his balance a couple of steps down. “Ku-” He looked up at me and gulped.
I giggled. We were alone finally! Maybe he would talk to me normally now. “Okabe…”
“W-what?”
“Hold me.” I fell forward into his arms, his lovely lanky arms. “Mmmm, scratchy scratchy,” I mumbled, rubbing my cheek against his cheek, feeling the scraggly half-shaven beard growth there. “Scratchy scratch. Eheheheh.” Standing two steps above him meant I could finally reach his face without standing on my toes. His skin was warm under the scratchiness, his hair was soft where it brushed against my forehead. He couldn’t really hate me, could he? He was holding me, wasn’t he? This was so nice…
“Kurisu…?” His voice was so much higher when he wasn’t in Kyouma mode. And when he was panicky, it seemed. “Wh-what if someone comes in?”
“What?” I demanded, pulling my face away from his. “You don’t want to be seen?” Maybe he was ashamed of me. Maybe I would have to kick his butt down the stairs. If I could manage the balance and dexterity required, that is.
“Well it’s not that-”
“Then it’s fine, right?” I chirped sweetly.
“Well, but-”
“Yes or no!? Which is the choice of Steins;Gate!?” If I played into his delusions, would he give me a straight answer?
“Um-”
Ugh. I wasn’t going to get anything out of him. Abruptly I let go of him and leaned back, and he stumbled a few steps farther down the stairs, looking up at me where I clung to the railing at the top. “Thankssss for the party, Okaaabeeee. It’s goooood to see everyone!”
“Y-you’re welcome,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly, but smiling in relief.
“Neh, Okabe.”
“Hm?”
“Catch me!”
“Uwaaahh!”