It was getting late. Very late. The blinds of the Future Gadget Laboratory were mostly closed, and so the only light came from the small PC in the back of the room and the dim red and green glow of the Christmas lights Mayuri and Faris had strung up around the lab a few days ago. A single window remained open, so the occasional gust of cold wind would blow through the lab and cause both the lab mems still inside to consider getting up from their work to close it, but neither would actually bother to do it. Kurisu had stayed behind at the lab to work on research for the paper she was writing, while Okabe had stayed with her to work on another one of his 'Future Gadgets' very loudly on the other side of the room.

The two of them spoke very little to each other, engrossed in their own work, and before either of them had realised it the last train from Akihabara had gone. As they looked out of the window and saw the heavy rain hammering down from the dark mid-winter sky, they were out of options. They would have to spend the night at the lab. Together. Alone.

'It's not THAT weird!' Kurisu had thought at the time, 'And now that we're dating, it's perfectly natural for us to spend time together like this. Besides, it's not like I can leave anyway! I can survive one night alone with Rintaro Okabe.'

The quiet of the street outside, the dull light of the moon leaking through the gaps in the thick clouds in the sky, and the loud pattering of the rain on the windows of the lab all combined to create a serene atmosphere. Or they would have, were the lab's occupants not currently locked in an angry battle of words. She didn't remember exactly what the trigger of this increasingly loud argument was, it didn't really matter, but Kurisu was sure that it had all started how it always did with the two of them; playful back and forth. A way of communicating between just the two of them, where witty jabs and petty insults kept them talking without the fear of awkward silences or mind-numbing small talk.

It was in this playful banter that Kurisu found comfort. The familiar safety in the stupid, pointless arguments they had on an almost daily basis gave her an odd sense of joy she daren't admit out loud, allowing her to be freely expressive to the man who had taken her first kiss without wanting to die of embarrassment at the thought of looking like one of those couples who are all over each other that she sees everyday out on the streets of Akihabara. As this argument continued, however, she realised that it wasn't the same as always.

Their voices kept getting louder and louder, their jabs less witty, their argument less playful. Kurisu felt that familiar comfort and ease blown out of her, as if one of the gusts of wind coming in from outside had stolen her safety away. It continued without sign of stopping, and she could feel herself shrinking further and further into herself with every word exchanged between them. Instead of the usual joy and excitement, all Kurisu felt were stings of pain in her heart as the two got louder, as genuine concerns and grievances were brought up by the both of them in this less than ideal fashion. She wanted it to stop now, she'd had enough, this isn't what this was supposed to be like. She wanted it to just be over.

But even as things got heated and the desire to end this got stronger and more suffocating, she was still Makise Kurisu, and she knew she couldn't let Okabe have the last word here or she'd never hear the end of it from him. So, with every remark he would make she would rebut, although not with the vigour and confidence that she usually held. She wasn't even meeting his eye anymore. His eyes before had been full of that almost childlike entertainment they usually held as the two of them went at it, but she was too scared to look at them now. Would they look the same as always? Or would the eyes looking on her now be full of anger, sadness and distrust? She couldn't bear the thought.

Okabe turned dramatically and yelled something back at her in that loud, high and mighty voice he has in situations like this. Kurisu didn't hear a word of it, all meaning to the words leaving their mouths had been lost to her for a while now. She just wanted to stop yelling at him, and for him to stop yelling at her. For him to stop looking at her. It was this that finally broke her. Avoiding his gaze still, she said nothing and just stood there. She didn't know how long she spent stood silent, it was probably only a few seconds, but to her it seemed much longer. She felt tears begin to well up, and as one escaped the confines of her eyes and began to roll down her face it met the burning heat of her cheeks.

As soon as the sensation of the wet tear on hot skin hit her, Kurisu spun around and sprinted out of the lab as fast as she could into the cold and wet night. As she turned, she could have sworn she saw Okabe's face immediately lose the ever-present foolish confidence it wore and fall into a state of immediate regret, but those thoughts were not permitted to stay long before being expelled from her mind as she stomped blindly through the pouring rain. She didn't care where she was running as she left the warmth of the lab behind, she just wanted to be anywhere but there. She wanted to find somewhere else she could just hide. Somewhere she could hide from the shouting, from her own feelings of embarrassment regret, and from that idiot Okabe.

Author's Notes:

Thank you for reading through the first chapter of my Steins;Gate fic! This is a re-write of a story I posted not too long ago.

I've tried to make this one a much more enjoyable and well-written fic, like how I'm spreading the story out into multiple chapters (which will hopefully be coming sooner rather than later!) rather than cramming the whole thing into one.

I'm still very new to writing, especially posting works online like this, so any feedback is really appreciated!

I hope you enjoyed this enough to stick around and wait for future chapters!

Stralalneopac-