What Once Was (A Steins;Gate 0 Story)
Chapter 6-Okabe's Day Off
Disclaimer:I don't own Steins;Gate only this story...
The next morning, Okabe was preparing to go on his date with Faris. Luckily he had SOME experience with this sort of thing, since he had went on that date with Ruka in another worldline. It was the only date he had ever been on though, so that wasn't saying much. He also had Kurisu to help him get ready, which was something that was missing this time around. He COULD have asked Mayuri, but she had to go to work and he didn't really want to get her involved. Sometimes she made a big deal out of nothing. Hopefully, none of their friends would see them, since this would be an embarrassment to him. Daru would probably tease him about it too, and he was the type to get easily flustered. It wasn't that he was embarrassed to be seen with Faris, it was just that he didn't want to draw attention to himself. Ever since he had dropped his alternate persona, he wanted to become a normal person, someone that didn't really stand out. He had kind of drawn into himself for a while.
Okabe was afraid that getting close to anyone might result in his or her death, even though he knew that was an illogical assumption, he couldn't shake the feeling. Recently, he had started reaching out to his friends again, but that was only through the use of Amadeus. That wasn't really healthy, so he decided that going out with a friend would do him some good.
He was dressed in a black suit similar to the black shirt he always wore these days, and a matching tie. He had slicked back his hair so that it wasn't sticking up all over the place like it usually did. It was a good thing that Kurisu had showed him how to tie a tie, because he would have never figured it out otherwise. As he straightened his tie while looking in the mirror, he couldn't help but do a double take. He hadn't looked this good in a long time. "If Kurisu could see me now, she'd probably call the police to tell them that a stranger had broken into the lab." He chuckled at the mental image. He sighed, "Well, this is the best I can do, so I should probably get going." Okabe walked out the door, locking the place up behind him.
They had never specified a time or place, so he was planning to stop by her house to pick her up. He had never been to her house before in this worldline, but he remembered its location from his memories of the others. He had left the house at around 10:00, and Faris' house wasn't too far from the lab, so he should make it by about 10:30. Since Faris' family was so well off, it would stand to reason that the house they resided in would be fancy. The gate in front of her place of residence had an intercom like Maho's apartment building, and she had her own security that regularly patrolled the house. Okabe repeated his actions from the other day, stepping up to the intercom and pressing the button to speak into it.
"Hello, this is Okabe Rintarou. I'm here to see Miss Rumiho. She and I have a prior engagement scheduled for today." With a crackle of static, a voice replied,
"Very well, sir. She says she will be down in a moment. You are welcome to wait on the ground floor if you wish, however."
Okabe was pretty sure that he recognized the voice as Faris' old butler Kuroki, though he could count on one hand the number of times he had seen him face to face. The gate opened, allowing him to step through and onto the property, closing behind him immediately afterwards. He entered the house, and saw the butler standing in the corner, near the entrance, bowing to greet him.
"Greetings, Master Rintarou. You may sit anywhere you wish. The young miss will be down shortly." Okabe nodded,
"I see. Thank you, sir." The older man had grey hair and the customary tuxedo that a butler wore. He had been with the family a long time, since he was a much younger man, in fact. After her father had died, Kuroki had taken care of Faris and helped raise her, so he was like another father to her. Okabe sat down in a leather armchair, while he waited for her to come down. The moments were spent in a semi-awkward silence between him and the butler, as neither one knew quite what to say to the other. Thankfully, the wait wasn't long, at most lasting about 10 minutes. Okabe was not the only one who had dressed for the occasion it would seem, as Faris descended the stairs.
She was dressed in a black dress with a short grey skirt that went down to just above her knees, revealing the pale milky skin underneath. Black dress shoes covered her feet, and her lips were covered in a thin shade of bubblegum pink lipstick, completing the look. Something was missing, though, and it took a moment for Okabe to realize what it was, not helped in the least by her distracting him with her beauty. Of course! Her cat-ear headband was missing! He had thought that it was glued to her head, since she was never seen without it in public. While it wasn't something that he was used to seeing, it wasn't an unwelcome change. Her gorgeous rose pink hair was now on full display, sticking out in two spiraled ponytails, one on each side of her head in her signature style.
Okabe's mouth was open in surprise, and the breath was stolen from his lungs in awe of her appearance. He closed his mouth quickly at a loss for words. Faris' was faintly blushing, both from his eyes scanning her up and down, and her impression of how handsome he looked. He sure could clean up nice if he wanted to! Faris shook her head, regaining her composure enough to realize that this didn't make sense. Her fuscia eyes blinked in confusion, not sure what to say about this situation. "Um, Okabe, how did you find out where I lived?" She knew that she had never told him, and only a few of her friends had ever been here, all of them girls.
Okabe hadn't realized that this was strange up until now, so he scrambled to make up a believable excuse. He started to open his mouth to speak, then paused. What if he just told her the truth? It would sound just like one of the stories that they always made up, and she would probably believe it, or at least play along like she did. "Faris, the truth is that the Organization trapped me in an alternate timeline. While I was there, I visited your house, and it was in exactly the same place. Luckily, I made it back with the help of the you from that world."
Faris suddenly felt a dull ache in the back of her head, as blurry images flashed through her mind. She couldn't make any of them out, but it felt like she had forgotten something important. She got the feeling that what he was saying was somehow true, that she could feel it in her gut. She believed him, but not for the reason he thought she would. "All right, I believe you, Okabe. Let's just leave it at that." She grinned, remembering his gaze traveling her body, "I can see that you like what you see." Okabe blushed a bit, feeling the need to defend himself.
"My apologies Faris, but it's the normal reaction of any healthy young man to admire a beautiful girl when he sees one. I just wasn't quite sure what to say at first, is all." That sounded just like something that Daru would say, they both noticed. Faris smiled gently,
"I'm flattered that you think of me as beautiful, Okabe. Now then, shall we get going on our date?" She offered her slender arm to him. Okabe stood up from his place in the leather armchair, walking up to her, and accepting it, linking his arm to hers. They were just about to walk out, but the man in the corner couldn't accept it.
"Wait just a moment, you two!" Kuroki called out, "Rumi my dear, you didn't tell me that you were going out on a date!" Faris looked over her shoulder at him.
"Did you really think that I'd go out dressed like this for show?" Kuroki scratched his head, the mechanics of a young girl's mind far beyond his reach.
"Possibly." He was pretty sure that wasn't the right answer, but he couldn't think of anything else to say.
"Listen, Kuroki, you can't stop us. We're going on a date, and that's final." Faris wasn't backing down without a fight. She had looked forward to this ever since she had accepted it. Kuroki put his hands up in surrender.
"Whoa, Whoa, I'm not stupid enough to try and stop you! But…" The old man turned his gaze to Okabe, causing him to instinctively shrink away from his malevolent aura. "Mr. Rintarou, I expect you to treat my little girl with the respect she deserves. Treat her right. If you break her heart or hurt her in any other way, then you have my word that dying would be preferable to what I'll do to you. I might just break something of yours." Okabe shivered a bit under his intense gaze.
"Y-Yes sir. I wouldn't dream of it. Heh, heh."
As quickly as it happened it was over, and the friendly old butler had returned. He waved goodbye as they exited the house. "Toodleoo!" Okabe carried them along at a slightly faster pace for a bit, eager to get out of there as soon as possible. After they passed through the gate that led out of the property and carried on across the sidewalk, Faris had to speak up. At this point she wasn't so much walking alongside Okabe, though their arms were still linked, it was more accurate to say that she was being dragged along behind him.
"Okabe, can you please slow down? In case you haven't noticed, my legs aren't as long as yours." With a quick apology, he slowed his walking speed to match hers until they were walking side by side once more. Although, he sometimes forgot it, Okabe was taller than a lot of people, especially when it came to the girls that he always hung around. Faris was at least a good one or two inches shorter than him, so if he traveled at TOO brisk a pace, then she could barely keep up. She leaned her head over onto his shoulder, wrapping both arms around his right as they continued walking down the street. Faris looked up at him, "May I ask where we're going?" Okabe was a little embarrassed, since he didn't really plan out where to go on their little outing.
"I'm not entirely sure. I DO have a few ideas of some places we could visit, though. Besides, even if I knew exactly where our next destination was, it would spoil the surprise." Faris pouted, cutely.
"Aw, you're no fun at all! You could at least give me a hint!"
Okabe thought for a moment thinking of the first place that it made sense for them to go. "The place that we're headed towards is green, with lots of trees." Faris knew immediately which place he was talking about. She was sure of it.
"Ooh, I know! It's the park, isn't it?" Upon witnessing the defeated expression on Okabe's face, she knew that her guess was correct. "I told you to give me a hint, not tell me exactly what the place is!"
"I gave you a hint! You never said it had to be a good one. I'm terrible at this sort of thing." He chuckled. She giggled along with him,
"I guess not. Come on, I thought the great Hoouin Kyouma would be better than that!" She was teasing him, and had meant her tone to be playful, but the look on his face didn't look like he thought so. In a very tired voice, one that shouldn't be coming from someone who looked to be so young, he said,
"I believe I told you to stop calling me that. I'm not that person anymore." He pulled his arm out of her grasp, creating a distance between them that felt like a canyon to her. He was so close that she could reach out and touch him, yet he was far away. Faris hadn't meant to let that slip out, it was just out of habit, but now she couldn't take it back. They had just been in such a good mood, then she had to go and ruin it. Neither Daru nor Mayuri had ever told her the whole story behind his sudden change in behavior. To her it seemed like he was just different one day, and she couldn't imagine what could cause a change, but it wasn't something that was small if it caused such a big difference. She was hesitant to ask, but she really wanted to know.
"Okabe, what happened to change you so much? Don't you dare say that nothing did, because I know it must have been something big. I can't help you if I don't know what happened in the first place. Please, tell me." Faris put a hand on his shoulder, pleading with her eyes.
He sighed, knowing that there was no avoiding this conversation. She had been kept in the dark long enough and he owed her at least this much. "Very well, I'll tell you. Let's get out of the street and sit on that bench over there, so we won't be in the way of anyone. This will take a while." Faris nodded, doing as he said. "I know that none of this will matter once I make it to Steins;Gate, but I would feel bad if I didn't tell her while I'm still here. She is still my friend that I care about, even if she will carry none of these memories to the other side."
He cleared his throat in preparation for the tale. "Remember earlier today when I told you about that alternate timeline that I was trapped in?" Faris nodded. "That was something that actually happened to me, not a story that I made up. Do you remember when Makise Kurisu was murdered in the radio building a while back?" Faris nodded again, wondering how this related to what had made him so different. "I know that you wouldn't think that I would be affected by this any more than a person who didn't know her personally would. It actually affected me more than most, since I got to know her in that alternate timeline. To get back to this world, I had to make an impossible choice. I had to give up the only woman I've ever truly loved, and leave the world where she lived, only to return to a world where she died and I never knew her. Now do you see why I've been having such a hard time lately, and why I've changed so much?"
Faris couldn't imagine the pain that he must feel. To carry something like that around with you all the time must be exhausting. No wonder he didn't have the energy to behave like he used to! She had no idea that this was what had happened. If it was anyone else, Faris wasn't sure if she could believe it, but coming from the completely serious Okabe, she had no choice other than to trust him. There was no way he would lie about such a thing. "I'm sorry, Okabe. Someone like you should have never had to go through such a thing." Okabe shook his head.
"I appreciate your concern. I am sorry that I ruined the mood of our date." Faris completely understood and didn't blame him for it.
"It's fine. After all, I'm the one that forced you to tell me. Should we continue?" Faris stood up from the bench, holding her hand out to him.
Okabe nodded, "Yes, of course." He stood up as well, grabbing her hand in the process. By the time he had finished telling her the story it was time for lunch. "It appears that our plans of going to the park, have changed." Faris looked up at him, curiously.
"I see. Where are we going instead?"
"I have a place in mind to go to for lunch."
"Oooh, you're being all mysterious." Faris said, grinning playfully.
"As I said before, to say any more would spoil the surprise." Okabe chuckled, as they continued making their way down the sidewalk. The place that he had in mind was the same café that he had taken Ruka to on their date. It could be considered cheating since he was using the same place for a different date, but according to this worldline, that had never happened. With that line of logic, it no longer mattered. He had already made reservations for them at Café Nagasaki, and their scheduled time for arrival was fast approaching.
When they arrived at the restaurant, they walked through the double doors, entering into the main area. The waiter standing near the entrance greeted them as they came in, asking if they had a reservation. "Yes, the name is Rintarou. Table for two." The waiter checked the list and found the name, leading them to a table on the second floor, overlooking the rest of the restaurant. Faris took a look around the room, even she had to admit that this place was pretty fancy.
"I was just wondering, but how can you afford to take me to such an expensive establishment, Okabe? I know that I have more money than you do, so maybe I should pay for it. Do you think you have enough?" Okabe was expecting her to ask such a question, so he responded with ease.
"There is no reason to worry. I would have never made such reservations if I were not confident that I could afford them."
Faris frowned, "You still didn't answer my first question, though. How did you afford it?"
"I had some savings stowed away for a special occasion, and I thought that there was no better reason to use them."
"Well, if you're sure, then I'll stop worrying."
Soon after, the server came to get their drink order. Faris just ordered some of their fancy bubbly water, and Okabe ordered, you guessed it, Dr. P. That was pretty much all he ever drank, though, on a rare occasion he would have water. When the server came back with their drinks and asked for their meal order, they both decided to order ramen soup. Faris ordered Shoyu flavor, since she liked the slightly sweeter taste, while Okabe ordered the Miso flavor, since he liked its more complex taste. While they were silently sipping on their drinks and waiting for their meals to arrive, Okabe decided to ask a question that he had been wondering about all day. "Faris, is it alright if I ask you something?"
"Sure Okabe, what do you want to know?" Okabe was unsure about the best way to word it, and he didn't want her to get offended in some way.
"It's not really a big deal, but I've noticed that you haven't been using any of the cat words that you normally do when you talk to me. Why is that?" Faris tried to think of a way to explain it to him that didn't sound silly.
"You know how when someone cosplays, they take on the personality of the character that they dress up as? It's the same way with me. When I'm not wearing my cat ears and maid outfit, I don't feel the need to talk like I'm some kind of neko maid. Right now I'm just a normal girl on a date with a guy that she likes. That's all there is to it." Okabe had never really thought about it like that, but he could understand where she was coming from. He wasn't sure how to respond, but their meal arrived at that moment, so the subject was tossed aside. Both of them were too busy slurping up noodles to talk for a while after that. Once they were done and the bill was paid, they stood up to leave, walking to the entrance. They stepped outside just as a torrential downpour fell from the sky. Standing under the canopy over the entrance to the restaurant allowed them to avoid getting drenched.
"Geez, this would be the day that I forgot my umbrella." Faris complained, not exactly looking forward to getting drenched. It was at this moment that Okabe remembered that he had one with him, since the news that morning had warned of this possibility. This was his time to shine, to show off as a gentleman! He reached into the inside pocket of his suit, withdrawing a small cylindrical object with a switch on the side. He smoothly slid the switch with his thumb in the same motion, causing a metal rod to extend out into an umbrella. He held it out to the girl beside him.
"I present to you Future Gadget #9, Aphrodite's Umbrella. Otherwise known as the Pocket Parasol. It's one of the lab's latest inventions. I shall allow you to use it." In his spare time at the lab a few weeks ago, he had invented this masterpiece. It was the only invention that he had made since the Phonewave. Faris was surprised and gladly accepted his generous offer.
"Wow! Thanks, Okabe, I really owe you one for saving me from the horrors of a cold and soggy fate!" Once she held it in her hand, she realized the same thing that her companion already knew. It was too small to fit more than one person under it. Unless…she had an idea.
"You probably think that you're being a gentleman, but I'm not going to let you catch a cold! I'd feel bad if that happened, so we're just going to have to share it! Get under here, you dummy!" Faris grabbed his arm, pulling him under the umbrella with her. He had to bend over to fit next to her. Once she saw that wouldn't work, she handed the umbrella back to him. She would just have to invade his personal space a little to make it work. Faris wrapped her arms around his right arm just like earlier, squishing her body as close to him as possible. It was a tight fit, but now they could both use it.
Okabe blushed, uncomfortable with how close she was to him. "Faris, just what are you playing at?" Faris was blushing a bit too, having never been this close to a boy before.
"S-Sorry, but this is the only way for it to work, so you'll just have to put up with it."
They stepped out into the rain, protected by the umbrella, and began traversing the sidewalk once more. This continued until they got back to her house. There was a canopy attached to the entrance of her house where they stood for a moment. Okabe slid the switch back to its original position, retracting the umbrella back into the cylinder and depositing it back in the pocket that it came from. He scratched the back of his neck, not sure how to end the date. According to Daru, the best way to show that you had a good time was to kiss the girl goodbye, but that depended on if the girl would let you or not. There was NO way he was even trying that, and there was no telling if the advice was even reliable coming from someone like Daru. "I hope you've had an enjoyable time, Faris. I know I did." Faris was also unsure how to end it, but there was one thing that she could think to do. Was she brave enough though, and how would he react?
"Yes, I did too. I had a good time today, Okabe. Thank you for asking me out."
Okabe was still uncertain if he had lived up to her expectations of what a date should be. "Are you sure that I didn't ruin it? You don't have to spout falsehoods."
"I really did enjoy it, Okabe. If you still don't believe me however, I can prove it to you." Her tone was playful, and she grinned slyly. "Close your eyes." Okabe closed his eyes, but not before he saw her enticing bubblegum pink lips getting closer, as she slowly leaned in. As if his body was controlling itself, he bent down slightly, so she could reach him. Their lips connected, but only for a moment, lasting just long enough to realize what had happened, before she pulled away. Okabe wasn't really sure what to say, having not expected that the date would end this way. "I, uh, hope that's enough proof for you. I'll see you later, Okabe. Maybe we can do this again, sometime!"
"Yes, maybe so." She smiled and waved as she went inside. It may have been his imagination, but it looked like her face was slightly flushed. "I'm glad that I could at least give her this special memory, even if we can never be together the way she wants us to be." He smiled, feeling good about the day. Suddenly, he heard a voice shout from inside the house.
"You did WHAT, young lady?" Okabe got out of there as fast as he could, before he could be brought in for interrogation or something.
When he arrived at the lab, he was drenched. In his haste, he had forgotten to use his umbrella. He would have to hang his clothes out to dry when the rain let up, for sure. There wasn't anything else that he had to do at the moment, so he was done for the day. Tomorrow would be the 2nd day of Daru's job, so Okabe decided to go check on him to see how much progress he had made. He may even be nearly done by the time he got there. Okabe doubted that even the skills of a Hack like Daru were great enough to get that far in so little time. Until then, all he could do was hope for the best.