A/N: Oh my storms this anime. This is something that...ugh. I literally made a comic to express my woe. This is a roller coaster. The first ten episodes are fine, and then...episode 12...I remember messaging my sister, barely able to talk, I was so in shock after that.

Anyway. This little ficlet was inspired by the anime, of course. This heavily features Okabe and Mayuri. Not as a couple! As friends, trying to comfort one another after they finally reached the Steins Gate world line.

I hope you enjoy this, anyway.

"O-okarin?"

He was holding her hand. In his other hand, he had his cell phone out.

"Wh…what are we doing?" she asked, innocent and confused. Her expression was open and trusting, as it always was.

He was the one confusing her, but she would have to forgive him later.

"Is something wrong?"

No, nothing was wrong. And, if what Suzuha had said was true, nothing would go wrong. For once. For the first time, after too many attempts.

He wanted to believe. He really did. But he wouldn't, not until the day had come and passed without incident.

"Okarin, you're kind of scaring me."

"Nothing to worry about, nothing at all," Rintarou Okabe said as reassuringly as he could. Even he knew his efforts to be comforting were futile at this stage. He whipped the cell phone up to his ear. "A plot by the Organization, you say? On today, of all days? We'll have to leave it to Steins Gate to decide…"

For once, his mumblings made a sort of sense. It was the choice of Steins Gate at this point. This was the Steins Gate world line, after all.

He just hoped he had done enough to make sure that this world line was the correct one. Suzuha had said, but…again, he wouldn't relax until all was said and done.

A voice interrupted his reminiscing. "What's happening today?"

Mayuri. Hers was the hand he was holding—at this point, it was closer to grasping or clinging, rather than merely holding. In her blue dress and black leggings, her eyes searching his face under her bonnet-like hat. Years ago, she had experimented wearing the customary white lab coat that he himself sported; that fashion had lasted a week for her, before she complained of overly long sleeves and too many pockets. How one could have too many pockets, Okabe wasn't quite sure, but she had simply folded the lab coat up again and stored it in a closet, declaring that one day, she would try it on again.

"Today? Why, nothing! Nothing at all! Your joyful convention is tomorrow, correct?"

She nodded once, smiling at the thought. "I'm so excited," she said; then a thought seemed to cross her mind and her eyes brightened. "You should come with me! I promise we can look at some of the science-fiction related areas…"

"We'll see, we'll see…"

"Really?" Somehow, although he would have thought it impossible, her expression grew even more hopeful.

Okabe feigned disinterest, scrolling through his collection of texts offhandedly. "Even a mad scientist, such as myself, must deign to view the common citizens and their ever-fluctuating interests."

"Really?" she asked again. She wasn't doubting him; she didn't doubt him. He had never noticed that before. She always believed him, or, at the very least, trusted him.

He didn't deserve that trust. She would never know how much he didn't deserve her as a friend.

"Are you sure nothing's wrong, Okarin," she said. It was a statement, rather than a question.

"Nothing's wrong; everything's wonderful." Okabe would have gone on to explain what was all wonderful, but Mayuri interrupted him.

"Then why are we sitting on the roof when everyone else is downstairs eating pizza? And," she added, looking down at their intertwined hands, "why are you holding on so tightly?" Before Okabe could respond, she continued, "Oh, I get it. It's because I'm your hostage, right?"

Only Mayuri could leave him speechless. Well, Kurisu as well, but that was a different matter entirely. "Y-yes. Hostage. You'll never escape my dastardly clutches."

"You can't keep me forever," she said. She had said that, or something similar, before, in a different world line.

"Yes, I can," he responded instantly. "Escape is futile."

"But everything leaves at some point. Right?"

"Not hostages."

At that, she smiled and closed her eyes. The sun was almost completely set, its light barely visible past the buildings rising up around them. Artificial light lit the rooftop, but the stars were still visible.

Everyone else was downstairs. Doru, probably shoving down the pizza and fiddling with his computer programs; Faris, who was probably teasing Ruka and begging him to help out at the maid café. Moeka, last he had seen her, was looking at the alpaca-man curiously; understandable, really, considering his special qualities. Kurisu was in the Future Gadget Lab as well, cooking something. He'd rather not think about that at the moment.

It was strange, having the lab so crowded. Strange in a good way, he admitted. Stranger still when one thought about how much had happened and then been erased, somehow still bringing them together. By any right, Moeka shouldn't be there. They should never have met; but, as Steins Gate had decided, she had taken the part-time job that Suzuha was no longer available for. Kurisu was more than he could have hoped for; her rejoining the lab had been so simple, he could have laughed.

And there they all were, sharing pizza! Okabe threw his head back and really did laugh, manically and wild and free. The lab had come a long way from its inception, when the only members were himself and Mayuri. And Doru, but he had taken a while to fully join their little band.

It had been Okabe and Mayuri from the very beginning, him talking about ideas and plots, her listening and helping out in any way she could. Okabe had lost track of the number of times Mayuri had fallen asleep on that musty old couch, the giant Upa enfolded in her arms, after a late night of little progress that had somehow left smiles on both of their faces. He had lost track of how many times he had walked her home, or gone to pick her up, or called her to see where she was.

Just like he had lost track of how many times he had world-leaped to find a way to save her.

"Okarin?"

He looked down from the stars. He itched to check his phone for the time, but he managed to still his fingers.

"Those dreams I have…they were real, weren't they?"

She thought they were dreams. Her past lives, mere dreams. "They aren't real any longer."

"But they were."

He didn't answer.

Last night, she had arrived at the Future Gadget Lab, around one in the morning. She had looked sheepish, but also tense, and had immediately apologized when Okabe had opened the door to find her standing there, shivering in her summer dress. She had called, but his phone was out of power without his realization. Stupid!, he thought to himself, anything could have happened and he would never have known because he had let his phone die on him…

But that hadn't explained why she was there so late at night. Mayuri had followed him inside, shivering still despite the relative heat of the building. She had had a nightmare; only it wasn't a nightmare, it was a memory, surpassing the world lines. And she knew it was more than a dream.

And, for some reason, she had come there, to see him. Her best friend. He had brought down some blankets, she had made hot chocolate, and she had fallen asleep on the couch, like she had used to. He had slept on the floor next to her; at least, he had tried to sleep. Sleep had evaded him. Between the hard floor and his overactive brain, reminding him what the next night was, rest hadn't come easy.

"I'm sorry," she said now, on the roof. "For making you sad. I know you're worried about something to do with me."

"As leader of the Future Gadget…" He stopped. She had taken out her little watch and was toying it in her free hand. Okabe cleared his throat and began again. "As your friend and captor, I'm entitled to worry as much, or as little, as I need to."

She sent him a reassuring smile—would that he could learn to give one out just as easily!—before looking back at her clock. It had come from her grandmother, bequeathed shortly before her death.

He wouldn't check the time. He wouldn't check the time. He wouldn't check the time. Trust. Trust in Steins Gate, like Mayuri trusted in him.

"Oh, no!" he heard, as if from a distance.

He closed his eyes.

In his mind, he could hear a dozen other Mayuri's saying the exact same thing.

"I just wound you! Don't tell me you're broken."

He had done everything.

"So not fair."

Every D-mail, intercepted so no changes were made. Faris was fatherless; Ruka was a dude; Moeka and the FB thing never happened. Suzuka hadn't found her father, but in her new world line, she wouldn't need to. Kurisu had been killed and was alive again.

"I've taken extra good care of you and everything."

He had. He had he had he had.

A second passed. Then another, then another.

"Okarin?"

An eye opened slowly. She was still sitting beside him. Somehow, something had switched; Mayuri was the one holding his hand tightly. She squeezed in comfort; he squeezed gently back.

"It's over. You don't need to worry anymore," Mayuri said. Okabe could only nod in shock and relief, releasing a breath he had barely been aware he had been holding.

Still grasping his hand, Mayuri stood up, pulling him behind her. She moved to the middle of the rooftop, with small, fluid steps.

She thrust her hand toward the endless sky.

The sun wasn't out anymore, her usual target gone. Instead, her hand seemed to hover over her face, in the direction of the moon. "It doesn't work as well, like this," she said, more to herself than to him. "But the moon just reflects the sun. That's what you told me." Her eyes were glowing under the stars. "A reflection isn't the same thing, but it's close. You can't just ignore it, or you're forgetting everything else it could be."

Later, Okabe followed her inside, listening to her cheerful 'tu-turu's as she greeted their friends. For the first time, he was completely unsure about the future. A future in which Mayuri and Kurisu were alive, in which there was no time machine or D-mails, but in which the lab was enlarged and bonds had been formed.

He was completely unsure about the future, and that was most hopeful thing in the world.