"I trust you…"

Sayori whispered into Jin's ear. The two of them slowly released each other from their embraces and stared into each other's' eyes a little longer. Jin's thoughts began to race. Something didn't seem right to him either. It was as if something was nagging at his brain that shouldn't be there. Like some external force was feeding him information of utmost importance. A strange sense of déjà vu overcame him.

He spoke to himself in his mind, "Things won't be okay…there's got to be more I can do for Sayori than this…I have to prove my trust somehow." Jin hung his head and looked down at the pavement, biting his lip and stuffing his hands nervously in his pocket.

"Jin? Is everything okay?" Sayori asked through her tears.

"Sayori…I'm concerned about something. Very concerned…the state you're in is not one I can just leave you in right now. I can't leave you alone with your own mind like this." Jin put his hands behind his head and stretched back letting out a long breath of exasperation. "I'm staying with you for the night. We can stay at your place if that's more comfortable for you."

Sayori's eyes widen as more tears fill them. Her chin quivers and she tries to stammer out something in response "…Y-you…don't have to…do that…I'll be f-fine…on my own…"

Jin gently grasped Sayori's hand in his own, lifting her face and wiping a tear from her cheek, "I know, but I want to for your sake." He quickly glanced at his watch noticing that he had been making banners with Yuri for much longer than he thought. "It's almost dinner time. Let's go back to your place and get something to eat."

Sayori wiped her face with her forearm, sniffles and nods. Hand in hand the two of them walked back to Sayori's house. Sayori unlocked the front door awkwardly, fumbling the house keys in her hands.

"Is there anything in particular that would make you feel better right now?" Jin asked Sayori.

"Well, there's some macaroni and cheese in the pantry…there's enough for the two of us." Sayori says, her crying subsiding. She helped Jin through the pantry, pointing out two boxes of mac and cheese. Placing a pot on the stove, Jin began heating water for the noodles and set an alarm.

"Why don't we go upstairs and talk? I'll keep the door open so I can hear the alarm." Sayori nods and the two of them walked upstairs to her room. Jin opened the door and let Sayori in first. She sat down on the edge of her bed and Jin took a seat on the floor next to her.

It was the same messy room he had been in that morning. Clothes strewn about, a cluttered desk with papers and homework laying unorganized, and the same giant cow plush at the foot of the bed. "You don't have to sit on the floor if you don't want," Sayori says, patting the bed next to her and cracking a faint smile. Jin got up and sat next to her. Neither of them said anything for a few minutes. Jin's thoughts began to race again, thinking of how to arrange his next words.

"Sayori…the other day, when you were feeling down and left early, what did Monika talk to you about?" Jin's heart began to race. He had a very keen idea of what Sayori was going to answer him, judging by what she tried to stammer out earlier.

Sayori quickly looked at Jin with an expression of despair and fear. "M-Monika? She…she…"

Sayori burst into tears, hanging her head in her hands as the tears began to stream through the spaces between her fingers. Jin scooted closer to her and placed an arm around her shoulder, quietly trying to reassure her. Sayori lifted her head, face red and soaked with her own tears. "She said I shouldn't exist! That I'd be better off dead! She says then I wouldn't be sad anymore!"

Sayori continued to sob before adding "But…I know that's not true…if I die, that's the end! I can't be happy like that! There has to be another way!" She turned to Jin and grasped his shoulders as tightly as her tiny, shaky hands could, struggling to say her next words.

"A-and…yet, I was about to do it…until…" She trailed off. Jin noticed something out of the corner of his eye that caused his heart to nearly jump into his throat. A frayed rope tail stuck out from underneath Sayori's bed. He began to cry as well, hugging Sayori tightly.

"Sayori, I'm so thankful…" he said, choking on his words. "I'm so thankful I came over…this is exactly what I was afraid of…"

The two of them held each other tightly for several minutes before releasing each other once again when the alarm downstairs went off.

Jin stood up and sniffled, "I'll be right back. I can bring it up if you like." He walked out of the room expecting to walk downstairs on his own, but Sayori followed him close behind.

Jin finished preparing dinner for the two of them, and they sat down at the table to eat. He could barely think straight to himself, nearly tunnel-visioning as he slowly scooped mac and cheese into his mouth.

Sayori grabbed Jin's free hand with hers. "Jin, you didn't have to waste your time by doing this…the festival is tomorrow, don't you have things to be doing?"

Jin looked Sayori in the eyes and clasped her hand in both of his. "Sayori…this isn't a waste of time. Every second I spend with you is absolutely worth it. You are worth it. Simply being with you and comforting you is something I wouldn't trade for anything else. You are not a waste of time, you're the exact opposite, you're the most important thing in this world to me."

Sayori's eyes glanced away, still filled with doubt, but she managed a weak smile anyway. Jin's thoughts stopped racing and he started to feel relieved. "Don't listen to what Monika said. The world would not be better off without you."

Sayori had no response. They finished their macaroni and cheese, then Jin cleaned up the kitchen before going back up to Sayori's room with her.

The rest of the evening was quiet. Very few words were spoken between the two as they sat on the bed. Daylight turned to dusk, and dusk turned to night. Sayori began to doze off as the hours ticked by, and Jin tucked her into her bed before falling asleep on the floor, covering himself with a blanket lying on the ground next to him.

Hours passed and the clear, starry skies turned to rain. The pitter patter against the window woke up Sayori from her sleep. Still groggy, she looked around the room and out the window, saddened by the rainclouds looming over the house. She turned to see Jin lying on the floor, sound asleep and snoring softly. Grinning, and with tears beginning to stream down her face, Sayori dug the long rope out from underneath her bed. She wrapped it into a coil and stared at it mournfully for a few seconds before quickly opening her window and determinately casting the rope out onto the sidewalk in front of the garbage container. Closing the window as quietly and quickly as she could, Sayori sat in her bed blank faced, then grinning once again. "There is more to me than this…I can make it through the storm," she thought. Glancing once more at Jin, she ducked under her covers once again and drifted off to sleep.

Author's notes: Hello hello! Welcome to Comfortably Numb, my DDLC fan fiction. This story was completed just this past week after over a month of work. It was first posted on r/DDLC on a loose twice-weekly basis, and garnered a small following. I'm posting it here on this site as a way to give it more exposure. With this story I had set out to write something wholesome and comforting, to give the characters of DDLC the happy endings they deserved. I will preface the rest of this story by assuring everyone that I am by no means an expert writer. I wrote this story mostly from the heart, typing what I felt more than anything, wanting to give these characters something that the game never gave them, and giving it to them in the best possible way. As such, I apologize if it's overly sappy or amateurish at times. I hope you guys enjoy it, because I sure had fun writing it.