Worth It
He felt the change. Singularity point he was not, but he'd been out of time for so long, he knew, deep in his bones, when something changed.
He saw her at "Running a Coffee Shop" class, but in this time she didn't look his way. It'd all been erased by Zeronos. When he tried to talk to her anyway, something always stopped him, whether it was one of her friends calling her attention away, or a sharp pain in his stomach and his vision narrowed, as if Airi were at the end of a long tunnel. A warning from Zeronos, perhaps. Or maybe his own body was so used to serving Time that his body repelled anything that shouldn't happen. What a traitor.
He passed her many times on the street, and he couldn't say hello, and she never recognized him. Ryoutaro always walked right past, too. Singularity point though he may be, Den-O hadn't happened to him yet; he didn't realize a change had occurred. But sometimes Ryoutaro caught his eye or turned back to look at him, as if Ryoutaro realized something was a bit wrong with this picture.
He visited the Milk Dipper whenever he could, whenever the sick feeling and the tunnel-vision didn't appear when he approached. But he was never noticed, because Airi was friendly to her patrons and if she managed to strike up pleasant conversation with him, she might recognize him and Time forbade that. Yuuto and Airi's relationship as it existed before, the relationship that only Ryoutaro remembered was gone, never to be. But it wasn't time yet for the two of them to meet again.
He did recognize some of the times Time wouldn't let him go into the Milk Dipper. Because Yuuto was there. Yuuto was never allowed to be where his younger self was, Yuuto was not allowed to interact with Zeronos.
Then one day Ryoutarou looked at him with recognition in his eyes. Yuuto didn't know whether today was the day Ryoutarou had obtained Den-O or if it was the day he met Zeronos or what. But he managed to make himself smile politely, and nod, and then make a hasty escape, ignoring the feel of Ryoutaro's eyes burning into his back.
All of a sudden he was hit with a feeling of urgency. "Quick, Deneb! What's the date?" Deneb had barely told him before Yuuto was out the door.
He walked quickly, not really knowing where he was going, until he saw the hospital and the date hit him and he understood.
He saw Ryoutaro trip, and he didn't know how the future would end but he couldn't help but feel Ryoutaro would be all right. Ryoutaro had merely tripped, after all. He'd faced much worse.
Even so, Yuuto raced forward and caught Ryoutaro right before Ryoutaro hit the ground, just in case his cosmically bad luck made his lose his balance and roll out into the street and into the path of oncoming traffic. Or something.
Airi came down the steps to see if they were all right, her eyes finally registering Yuuto. And Ryoutaro was grinning, and before long Yuuto found himself dragged to the Milk Dipper and Airi was asking his name and.
And Yuuto began to truly feel it might have all been worth it.