The woman on-stage waved politely to her audience, giving a final bow before she began to shuffle off. She wore an elegant black gown that complimented her dark features nicely.

As she walked behind the stage curtains, she suddenly stumbled, tripping and falling off the stage with a gasp. In an instant, a young man in a sleek tuxedo raced over; the woman fell right into his arms in surprise. He blushed heavily as she gave him a smile.

"You're her hero!" Another woman gasped happily, running over to the young man. "Oh, what if one day, you two get married? And have lots of children? That'd make Mayushii very happy!"

The two blushed at that and the young man carefully set the woman back down on her feet.

"I wouldn't mind hanging out with you two for just a bit longer. Why don't we get something to eat?" The pianist suggested, making the young man blush even more.

The girls chuckled at that and each took a hand of his, pulling him out of the now-empty auditorium.

####

Rose woke up early the next morning and skipped having breakfast with her..parents? Her mom? She shook her head and buttered up a warm toasted waffle, beginning to gather up her things to leave. It was already Thursday.

"Rose! My little rosebud!" A familiar voice greeted her, making Rose jump a bit before she relaxed.

"Dad," She nodded awkwardly. "Andrew?"

Andrew laughed. He was a pleasant man of average height with golden hair and deep brown eyes. "It's always just 'Dad'. You feeling okay?"

Rose remained silent. She still referred to him as her father here, even when he biologically wasn't? Even he had only been married to her mother for the past three years.

"Rosebud?" He walked a bit closer to her.

"I don't know. Everything's been...weird lately." She admitted.

"Anything you'd like to talk about?" He asked, and Rose shook her head.

"I think I'm going to go over to the twins' today. Maybe they'll be able to help me," The words were out of Rose's mouth before she could stop them, but she found that was a logical thing to do. After all, they were her sisters in this universe, right? Maybe they had a closer bond.

"Alright. I'm about to head out for work, myself. And your mother is already gone, but she's always just one call away," Andrew smiled and motioned to Rose's red phone, which she nodded at and slipped into her pocket.

With a bite of her waffle, she left the house and walked slowly around town, taking in the sights. Everything was exactly as it always was, which disturbed Rose more. Her own life was practically identical too, just the one small factor of who fathered her had changed.

But why did it bother her so much? She didn't have to live with Okabe, she didn't have to ever see him again if she didn't want to. He married someone else.

She took another bite of her waffle.

Maybe it was just how he normally acted; his pompous attitude and his fake 'mad scientist' persona. All of their parents giggled and played along when he was like that; Itaru was the super-genius hacker, Yuki was his loyal maid, Luka was the tough warrior, Kaede a soft pianist, Kiryuu was the silent assassin, Faris was the cutesy fighter, and Mayuri was his hostage, while Okabe and Kurisu were the mad scientist duo who ruled over them all. Even her friends got super into it when those stories weren't fun even when they were children.

She heard the noise around her begin to pick up some and glanced up, noticing she was in front of Faris' famous cafe.

"Poptart-san wouldn't be a bad person to spend time with," Rose decided to herself, finishing up her waffle and heading inside.

As usual, the cafe was buzzing with activity despite the early hour, and cat-girl maids and a few butlers bustled around from table to table. Rose even caught sight of her Aunt Mayuri working the floor, her blonde ponytailed wig twirling about. She remembered the cafe; May-Queen Nyan-Nyan, was an important part-time job for Mayuri when she was a teenager, but after her marriage and daughters being born, she stopped taking on as many shifts to help out around the house, especially since she had a real job of her own as a teacher. Still, she loved May-Queen Nyan-Nyan and the memories it gave her, so she worked a few hours at a time on days she had nothing else to do, and Aunt Faris was always happy to oblige her.

"Welcome, my lady. Would you like to sit down somewhere?" A voice reached her ears, and Rose glanced over to see Poptart's younger brother, Fenris, staring at her with his pink eyes.

"No thank you. Is your sister here? I wanted to spend the day with her." She shook her head politely.

"Well, she's at work right now." The fifteen-year-old said back calmly.

"I don't mind waiting. Maybe I'll just have some milk,"

"Alright. This way, my lady," Fenris led her to an empty table near the back of the restaurant close to where the employees usually changed or hung out, and gently pulled the chair out for her, then pushed it in just as easily. He headed back to the front of the cafe, while Faris herself walked over, perking up.

"Rose-chan-nya! One of my favourite nieces!" She pulled Rose into a tight hug. "What brings you here?"

"I just wanted to hang out with Poptart-san, though I suppose I caught her at a bad time," She said, gasping a bit from the tightness of the hug.

"Yes, she's working right now, nyan...but! There is nothing that says you can't hang out here until her shift is over, nya?" She smiled a cat-like smile, bringing a small smile to Rose's own face.

"You're right. Maybe I'll watch TV while I wait,"

"Nyan! And if you need anything, you have me or your Aunt Mayuri here!" Faris winked and walked off to go serve another table. Another random cat-girl maid brought Rose her milk along with a plate of mozzarella sticks, winking.

"It's on the house, my lady!" She smiled and walked off.

Rose pushed the plate away from her, simply not hungry, and sipped at her milk as she watched the bustle of the place.

She didn't know very much about the history of the place aside from what Poptart told her, and she thought it was a very skeevy, weird place. It was Aunt Faris' pride, evidently, and she had owned it ever since she was a child, all by herself.

"If it wasn't for her, Akibahara would be more of an electronics town than a cosplay one," Poptart told her once in junior high.

Rose bit her lip as a sudden bad headache came on, grabbing her head and knocking hard in into the table, making her milk swirl around and nearly splash out of the glass. The image in front of her doubled suddenly; the bustling cafe and a near-abandoned dull coffee shop. She blinked and everything was back to normal, though Mayuri had come over and was staring at her with wide eyes.

"Rorin? Are you alright?" She blinked.

"Rorin..." Rose decided not to question the unusual nickname. "I...my head started to hurt suddenly. I felt dizzy too. It's nothing,"

"Oh yeah, Kurisu-chan said you were coming down with a summer flu!" Mayuri suddenly gasped. "Are you sure you're alright to be walking around?"

Rose certainly didn't wish to get any customers at the cafe sick, though she still nodded. "I'm fine,"

"Okarin still gets bad summer flus from time to time. Mayushii takes good care of him though, and if Rorin gets sick too, she will take care of her too! Mayushii makes a really good broth!"

Okabe too...? Rose had the sudden feeling her symptoms were more than just a simple sickness, especially considering what Okabe told her the other day.

Mayuri walked away to handle more customers, while Rose leaned back in her seat.

What could the symptoms be a sign of? They weren't just simple cold or flu symptoms, they came on suddenly and strong and vanished just as quickly. Even stranger, she had been having the spells ever since she was younger; amplified by a very bad bout of pneumonia she had as a child. Kurisu stayed at her bedside day and night, worriedly caring for her and spending hours arguing on the phone with Okabe. That wasn't a memory from whatever timeline this was either; she had a strong memory of Mr. Smith there too, holding her head up so she could drink water or running a brush through her hair.

She knew she'd have to ask Okabe about it, but...not yet. Poptart and Fenris remained the same here, and she wanted to savour some taste of normality.

The TVs around the cafe were all playing some different kind of anime; all cutesy pastel magical girl things. In one corner of the room was a small game-table set up, where one of the maids was engaged in a tough card game with a guy. The center of the room had a pink stage set up with large speakers and balloons, though nobody was currently on it. The balloons were all shaped like hearts.

No matter where you looked, you were bombarded by every single cute thing possibly known to man. It was hard to take in at times, yet it was a comfort today. Rose's life had already been so chaotic those past two days, she was finally glad for some semblance of normalcy.

She drank the rest of her milk and nibbled at a mozzarella stick, thinking it was a bit dry without the marina sauce. That's how Mr. Smith always enjoyed eating his.

"Why couldn't you wait for me to get off my shift?!" Poptart's nasally voice reached Rose's ears, and she glanced up and offered a small smile.

"Sorry for barging in like this, though I have to say that both Aunt Faris and Aunt Mayuri are working and they hardly minded. Same with Fenris,"

Poptart just pouted and huffed, looking away.

"I just needed a place to relax for a few hours. Dad...he's...uh, we're in a disagreement," Rose nibbled on another.

"Really? You and Smith-san never fight," Poptart asked, genuinely surprised.

"No, not him."

Poptart silenced.

"I don't hate him at all, I just wonder...why him? I don't look like him or act like him...Mom says she doesn't regret it at all, but..." Rose trailed off, unsure of what she was trying to say for once.

Poptart sat across from her at the table. "I get it. You think your life would be easier if you never knew, don't you?"

Rose wanted to flinch at the sudden chipper tone Poptart had adopted.

"I don't know mine. Mama says she doesn't know and I don't think she cares. I was always jealous of that fact, you know," She continued, pouting. "You have siblings, a stepdad...and you know your real father too in spite of that,"

Rose said nothing and stared vacantly at her food.

"Mama was telling me an interesting story last night," Her voice had lowered suddenly. "About our grandfathers. Apparently they used to be best friends back in college. I've always wondered about that,"

"Really? Mom never told me that," Rose asked in disbelief.

"The party's tomorrow...I'm not ready! I have to deal with a bunch of annoying people crammed in a tiny room for several hours!" The serious tone had been replaced with Poptart's usual nasally whine. Rose smiled slightly.

"You'll live," When Poptart laid her head down on the table, Rose gently patted it. She then frowned. "Wait, I thought the party was on Saturday because of our parents' jobs...?"

"Huh?" Poptart glanced up at her pseudo-sister. "It's tomorrow. You and Suzuha-san decided on Friday night in the hopes our parents would be more spirited,"

No I didn't...I planned it on Saturday. We were all there...

Poptart left then to go wait on more tables, while Rose stared straight ahead, slowly sipping at her milk. She then winced at the sudden pain in her stomach and quickly set it down.

"Would you like a refill? Anything else for you?" A random cat-girl-maid passing by asked politely, seeing her almost-empty glass. Rose covered her mouth and shook her head.

"No. I was about to leave, actually," She quickly paid the amount necessary and hurried off, a hand still on her stomach.

She could always handle milk just fine before...! Was that due to her half-American blood? Why would something like that even matter?

"Rose-san!" Suzuha said, running over to her at a breakneck speed and nearly colliding with her. "Eeek!"

"What's wrong?" Rose asked in surprise, helping to steady her.

Instead of answering, Suzuha just glanced around at the bustling street, motioning to it. Rose took the hint and grabbed her wrist, ducking back into the maid cafe and sneaking into Faris' office.

"What is it?" Rose asked again, keeping her voice level and at a whisper.

"I was talking to Dad the other day, about time-travel and stuff like that...I was curious about what Uncle Okabe said to us. A bunch of different timelines, just like something in a sci-fi movie! There could be a thousand different versions of me, all living different lives, just think about that! Do you think there's one that's a super badass soldier?"

Rose waited.

"Anyway, he confessed the primitive machine Uncle Okabe built for us was more of a memory-wave thing that could take us back only a few hours in time. I asked if that was why everything seemed to remain the same aside from him having that knowledge, and Dad said yes. He said if we're serious, we're going to need a more advanced time machine and quickly," Suzuha explained.

"I'm not sure...this really isn't something we should be messing with. Uncle Ok-Dad-looked really broken as he told us about it yesterday. We might see things or do things we can never take back and live with that...even if nobody else knows. Especially if nobody else knows." She winced at the name change, but it was the version of herself this version of Suzuha was familiar with.

"Dad says it's up to us to find where the timelines diverged and try to fix it. He says since nothing super major has been changed, it should be an easy fix,"

Rose still doubted it. She knew plenty about time-travel from Uncle Okabe's supposed true stories she heard him sharing with their parents some nights. He never went into details, but the science-fiction novels always did. She could end up in a universe where WW3 has broken out, or a dictatorship has formed, or even worse, a universe where for one reason or another, she was never born. And that's not even counting all of the risks that came with changing history, whether intentional or accidental.

"When will this time-machine be made?" She asked instead.

"Sunday or Monday by the latest. He was amazed I could find the items for it so easily!" Suzuha boasted. "Until then, he said we should use Uncle Okabe's machine only when absolutely necessary,"

Rose nodded and got to her feet, her phone beeping. "Hm?"

Hiiii! Mayushii wanted to invite you for dinner with her family and Rorin's family too!

Aunt Mayuri...inviting her for a family dinner?

She had already accepted before she was fully aware of it, then bid Suzuha goodbye before taking the bus over to Mayuri's and Okabe's apartment. The lights were all on inside, and Rose shyly knocked on the door, suddenly feeling awkward she arrived alone.

"Big Sister Rose!" Hanako gasped upon opening the door, throwing herself into a huge hug. Rose widened her eyes in surprise and nearly stumbled; actually falling when Kanako noticed her and joined in on the hug.

"Alright, alright, don't smother your poor sister," Andrew chuckled, shooing the twins away and helping Rose to her feet. "You got here rather quickly,"

"I was one of the only people on the bus," Rose took her shoes off and walked inside, being careful to not slip on the tiles in her black tights. "So there weren't a lot of requested stops,"

She heard Mayuri in the kitchen, finishing up with cooking, as Kurisu and Okabe debated with each other at the table, sitting across from each other. There were two empty chairs across from them as well. Rose sat at the head of the table, across from where Hanako and Kanako were sitting.

She nervously glanced at her Uncle Okabe, tilting her head when she noticed he looked exactly the same as she had always known, aside from being a bit more clean-shaven.

"Aunt Mayuri isn't going to be making...anything with diary, right?" She suddenly asked, making the two look at her.

"I have no idea what she's making, honestly. She just invited us here on a whim," Kurisu sighed.

"It's a shame you can't have anything like that. You haven't lived until you've had strawberry milkshakes with cheese pizza!" Mr. Smith sat down next to Kurisu, grinning.

That was his favourite snack to make for her back in the old timeline, when he was her biological father. She just bit her lip.

"I went to Aunt Faris' cafe earlier and I drank a glass of milk without thinking. Guess I won't be making that mistake again," She could feel Okabe's eyes on her and straightened in her seat. He knew, didn't he? He knew that wasn't normal for her.

"Dinner's ready, tutturu!" Mayuri announced happily, walking into the dining room. "It's hamburgers with peaches!"

"Do those things even go together?" Andrew wondered.

"You didn't put the peaches on the meat, did you?" Kurisu asked as Mayuri started serving everyone. She giggled.

"No, there's no peaches on the meat, it's a side! Though, Mayushii supposes you could add the peaches as a condiment if you want!"

Rose shook her head slightly at that, bowing her head slightly as Mayuri finished serving her.

"Mayushii is excited to go to the party tonight!" She smiled after everyone started eating. "She's a bit unprepared because hers and Yuki-chan's outfits aren't done yet, but...oh! That was meant to be a surprise!"

"New outfits?" Rose asked curiously.

"Yeah, her and her friends are all dressing in a different colour and so are us," Okabe nodded. "Mayuri-chan picked blue for us,"

"Mayushii thought it was a perfect colour," Mayuri nodded in agreement. "But now the surprise is ruined..."

"Can we wear blue too?" Hanako asked eagerly, clasping her hands together. "We don't have a lot of blue, now that I think about it...a lot of our winter clothes are blue but that's it,"

Kanako didn't respond to her twin; instead, she was moving her peaches around on her plate. "They're melting! They're melting! My peaches are melting!"

Rose slowly ate. She thought of how they were her half-sisters in this universe, and how her grandfather and Poptart's grandfather were best friends in university. Why hadn't her mom told her? Maybe she could ask her later...if the timelines didn't switch again and that fact was rendered obsolete.

"You shouldn't play with your food," Kurisu said, staring at Rose. She jumped and glanced down at her plate, realizing she had opened up her burger and was spreading ketchup around aimlessly with her spoon.

"Huh?" The condiments had been mixed into a giant glop on her meat. "Oh, sorry...I was thinking,"

"I don't really think that counts as 'playing'," Andrew chimed in. "Maybe she's one of those girls who enjoys eating mushy burgers!"

"That's gross. Though again, she does get her sense of taste from Okabe,"

"Are you implying I like mushy burgers?! They haven't been popular for ten years, this is something I would know! Don't listen to the lies and propaganda spread about it!" Okabe laughed.

"Then Rorin needs some peaches on hers!" Mayuri laughed, scooping up a handful of them. Rose started to protest before Mayuri suddenly stuck the spoon inside her mouth, making her eyes widen in confusion.

"Thank goodness, you would've ruined a perfectly good burger," Andrew teased.

Rose glanced around at everyone and closed the bun on her burger, slowly eating it. The adults had settled down somewhat and started to talk about their actual jobs and how they were going. Kanako slapped her peaches hard with her spoon, making the juices fly around, while Hanako poured herself some more lemonade.

After dinner, Kurisu and Andrew started readying themselves to leave, while Rose hesitated at the door.

"You don't mind if I...stay the night here, do you? I...I want to go over some last-minute stuff with the twins,"

"Of course!" Mayuri snuck up behind her and pulled her into a tight hug. "Yay! A slumber party! In that case, Kurisu-chan! You should stay too!"

"I don't think your house can accommodate me," Kurisu smiled awkwardly. "It's awfully small."

"Nonsense! You can sleep right in bed with Okarin and Mayushii!"

Rose choked. Kurisu blushed heavily and quickly turned away.

"I have a report that's due at five in the morning, so..it's best if I sleep at my own place tonight," She ran off, flustered. Andrew waved at Rose.

"I'll bring some stuff over for you then, alright? I'll pick you up at noon," He explained, and Rose nodded in understanding. She sighed when Mayuri turned around to face her.

"Well, you've slept over here dozens of times before, so you still remember where your room is, right?" Mayuri asked curiously.

"Er...across from the twins'?" They had a teeny-tiny storage space she often slept in when she visited.

"Nope! You usually make a pallet on their floor and sleep there! It'd be mean to separate you, you know?"

"Where is my hostage? The servants are starting to get cranky!" Kyouma's voice boomed from the back, and Mayuri giggled.

"I'm coming!"

Rose headed over to the twins' shared room, finding one side violet-blue and the other a sky-blue. Fancy cosplay outfits hung neatly on mannequins, and a large desk covered in stickers and fashion dolls was on the other side of the room. There was also a giant basketball hoop game. Portraits drawn by Hanako were on the walls.

Everything was just as she remembered it.

With a sigh, she started setting up her pallet, using spare clean sheets and blankets and then a pillow, forming it right in the center of the room on a butterfly-shaped rug.

"Big Sister is sleeping with us!" Kanako gasped in amazement, giving her a hug.

"Yeah...surprise," She smiled weakly.

"Do you like my pajamas?" Hanako asked, wearing a long blue nightgown with no sleeves and frills on the chest and hem. A big bow was on the back of her head. Rose saw that Kanako wore the same except in purple.

"Yes, they're very cute. Did Aunt Mayuri make those for you?"

"She did!" The twins exclaimed at once.

"We have to sleep well because tomorrow is the party and we need lots of energy," Hanako pouted, crawling into her bed.

"But that's not fair! Big Sis is here and I wanna play with her!" Kanako bounced up and down.

"We just saw her a few days ago!"

"Yeah, and?"

"Asonla?"

"Thaut, thuat, tut!" Kanako looked away in annoyance.

"Onah..."

Rose ignored them and took her hair down, letting it fall to her waist like her mother's. "Are my pajamas here yet?" She asked and received no answer. Well, she wouldn't mind just sleeping in her underwear if she needed to. She peeled off her layers and left them neatly on the foot of her makeshift cot, then crawled in once she was in her small grey camisole and matching panties.

"It's a sleepover, right? And what's a sleepover without...!" Hanako's voice reached her, and rose glanced in that direction before getting hit smack-dab in the face with a pillow. She gasped in surprise.

"H-Hey!"

"Direct hit!" The twins cheered. "We got Big Sister!"

Rose found herself starting to smirk a bit. "You shouldn't have done that..for you just invoked the wraith...of the Makise-Smiths!" She grabbed the pillow thrown at her and tossed it back to Hanako, who took it in the back.

"You fight dirty!" Kanako gasped, still laughing.

"Maybe because I have your father in me," Rose gloated before grabbing her own pillow.

"Pillow fight!" The twins cheered, grabbing their own pillows and beginning to hit Rose with them.

Rose managed to dodge a few hits by leaning back or spinning around, and soon tightened her grip on her pink pillow and hit Kanako in the face with it. "Got you! Now you're out,"

"Awww man," Kanako pouted, tossing her pillow to the ground.

"I can still win this fight! For the Okabes!" Hanako proclaimed, posing with her pillow. "Come at me!"

"Gladly," Rose rushed at her younger sister, slamming the pillow right into her side. Hanako got her at the same time on her back, and both fell to the ground in a flurry of giggles and a few feathers.

"Wow Rosaline, you did a number on those servants, eh?" Kyouma's voice reached her, and Rose was brought out of her fun daze. She glared at him in annoyance.

"Rosaline is not my name. You should know that by now," She placed her pillow back on the pallet.

"Yes it is, it is your mad-scientist name! To be as feared as your mother, Christina!" He folded his arms in front of his chest.

"Kyoma-san!" The twins gasped and started to tidy up the feathers, stuffing them back into their pillows.

"I heard the servants were making a lot of noise in here. Don't they know it's nearly past their bedtime?"

"They still have a bedtime...?" Rose tilted her head.

"Never let it happen again! Rosaline, as a mad scientist, this behavior is expected and cherished from you, but do not forget we have that gathering to attend with the other brilliant minds of this century! The servants are some of the starring guests and therefore should not be groggy!" He laughed before leaving.

"He does that to us a lot before bed," Hanako admitted, crawling into her bed.

"I don't see how you two can stand it," Rose sighed and crawled into her own pallet, curling up under the blankets.

Tomorrow was the party...for some strange reason. She swore on her life it was on a Saturday, and now it's not. She rolled over onto her back and mulled over that thought for a very long time, even after the twins had been asleep for several hours. Rose was almost afraid to fall asleep herself, instead just tossing and turning around all night.

If she fell asleep, would the timeline change again?

Would it remain exactly the same?

Would it go back to the way it was?

Would she ever have a way of knowing?