hai i havent said hai in a long while but!! i think id follow luna llena no matter what form it takes.. or rather. no matter what form your writing takes, if it changes its name or what, id love it nonetheless... i love your introspective writing. and the descriptors you use. the prose delivers itself very nicely!!
omg hai there how have you been? i really appreciate your support and missed hearing from you :)) thank you so much for the kind words they mean a lot to me <33
nice that ur doing well!!! thank u for asking ab me 🥹🫶 me... i've been trying to get back into writing... haha it is so very hard but! we move forward😓
PLEASE WRITEEEE omg user sewersaga is rooting for you. it def can be hard at times but its sooo worth it
ACT XIII: STEER AWAY FROM THE ROCKS (THERE, THERE!)
cw: mild sexual cotent as usual dis is ryusui were talkin ab
With this new, incredibly disconcerting transmission hanging heavily on everyone’s minds, the best and the brightest the Kingdom of Science have to offer immediately put their heads together and get to work. You’ve all barely stepped your feet onto dry land when the villagers help set up the official War Room ™ with Senku, Gen, Chrome, Ukyo, and Ryusui immediately stepping into positions of leadership. Both you and Miharu are invited (although you suspect your inclusion is once more nothing but a measure of preventing Ryusui from rambling on about you) but the both of you are diametrically opposed to join in for the sole purpose of the fact that they excluded Kohaku, who is far stronger than most of the people in that room.
Regardless, it is determined that the best course of action is to keep inventing, as per the usual. This time, the conclusion that it’s time to make radar is a little bit less shell-shocking considering the fact that you were already properly primed by the invention of GPS. Ukyo is able to get back to his old world job of watching the radar, and the five “wise generals” (a name you find utterly ridiculous, honestly) return from a trip out to sea with a huge net of fish that Ryusui somehow caught singlehandedly. You ignore your girlfriends’ taunts about you running to him like a war wife when her husband returns, subtly flipping them off. God forbid you’re excited about cooking a different fish dish than usual. When their significant other is able to lift a crazy amount of fish out of the water with one arm, then they can talk.
Everyone is enjoying some stone world sashimi — prepared meticulously by Francois, who despite definitely not being natively Japanese is far better at prepping your own (half)native cuisine than you are — when Chrome has an epiphany regarding the new “eyes of science.” Despite Ginro’s far more sleazier eureka moment that earns him a knuckle sandwich from Kohaku for dinner instead of some tasty fish, Chrome ends up taking his curiosity to the lab. A little bit of tinkering later, he reinvents a metal detector. Miharu manages to knock his socks off by telling him that his new baad creation did indeed exist in the old world, but he’s happy enough to let her join him in his expedition for some iron.
And Chrome’s ceaseless dedication to innovation ends up discovering a brand new iron deposit. Ryusui is giving you a rather self-indulgent shoulder massage when he hears about this, and you practically hear the cha-ching of Dragos echoing between his ears. Before you can take off your chancleta to whack him good naturedly, he goes silent in a rather uncharacteristic manner. You throw him a glance over your shoulder, confused, but he simply raises an eyebrow as if to ask what was out of the ordinary. You huff, decidedly suspicious, but then the shoulder rub starts again after a kiss to the back of your neck and you’re unable to focus on much else.
It doesn’t take long for you to find out just what his strange behavior can be attributed to. Ryusui assumes some of the profits from the iron deposit, but the deal is quite a bit less in his favor than usual. And when you ask him why, he simply snickers, a fact that almost leads to the first real fight of your relationship. But before disaster can strike, Miharu approaches you one day, a feline smile tugging at her lips. “I just made the most interesting business deal with Ryusui-kun.” And interesting it is, indeed. Turns out your insanely greedy boyfriend decided to come to your best friend with a request for a late birthday gift in exchange for relinquishing some of the profits from the iron deposit. Which is to say he commissioned a portrait of you. Naked. A nude portrait. Your jaw practically falls to the floor.
The nerve of that man. How ridiculous. He can see you naked whenever he wants, and he wants a drawing? You agree, of course, but only because you are simply not in any place to deny him a birthday present. Of course, he and Miharu both know just how to get you to fall in line. The two of you agree to meet once a week to work on the portrait, and you’re silently grateful for the fact that she’s already seen you naked. It makes the task of being an amateur nude model far less daunting.
Ryusui apologizes for keeping his request a secret from you, of course. You wave him off, apologizing for taking things so seriously. Once everything is resolved, the two of you make yet another bet (of course, waged with the money he so graciously hands to you without a second thought) on how long it’ll take for Kohaku to get with his slick Shibuya girl of a cousin. No matter how poor the terms the two of them are on seem to be, Ryusui is perfectly happy to bet that they’ll get together far sooner than you believe. It’s not anything personal on your behalf — you just believe that Kohaku has her sights set on things other than entering a formal relationship. Still, you fear you may be completely off base. Either way, he doesn’t seem particularly willing to dive into the circumstances of their family feud, and you don’t push it. You know fully well when some things just aren’t your business.
So, when you enter Kohaku’s room with a wicked smile on your face, she groans with full knowledge of what you’re going to harass her about. “It’s never a good sign when you give me that look.”
“What look?” You are completely aware of the look she’s talking about. In fact, it’s not far off from that devious look Miharu gave you just the other day when she approached you about that portrait.
“The conniving leopardess look.” Kohaku says it aloud, and you giggle. The way your canines flash likely doesn’t help your case much, but you don’t particularly care.
“Am I a leopard or a jaguar?” You vamp, tilting your head in her direction with a sly grin. “You and Miharu need to come to a consensus on that one.” As superfluous as the remark is, it does hold some truth to it. If you had to choose a big cat for yourself, you’d pick a puma. But the sleek, spotted felines aren’t too bad either.
“Don’t deflect,” Of course, Kohaku catches exactly what you’re trying to do. Your mouth presses into a line as you attempt to suppress your smile. “What do you want to know?” You fail, breaking into a grin as she finally relents. You suppose you’re not as good at suppressing your emotions as another person you know, someone else often compared to a big cat, albeit male.
“I want to know why you’re not laid up with Komugi yet.” You practically blurt out your statement, the words coming out rushed all in one breath. Perhaps you say it so quickly so as to forget the person in the back of your mind, the very one you were completely incapable of expressing your feelings to until he was quite literally on his deathbed. “All that shit she promised to do to you over the phone, and you’ve still not been honest with her about your feelings?” You’re most certainly projecting, but it doesn’t matter. You’re happy now, so you’ve got to forget and move on just like he told you to do.
“What feelings? I don’t have any feelings.” Kohaku scoffs, rolling her eyes. Your own narrow as you send her a sideways glance, because Kohaku is far from emotionless. The very woman who’s prone to running off on a dime in order to avenge the people she cares about. She must realize the statement is ridiculous, because her cheeks are flushing crimson as she avoids your gaze.
You simply sigh, resolving to hit her where it hurts. “You sound like Chrome.”
“Don’t say anything like that to me ever again. That may be worse than being called a lioness,” She grabs your shoulders, attempting to express the fact that she means business. That stupid little smile doesn’t leave your face, so now it’s her turn to sigh. “Fine. I don’t have to say it, because you already know how I feel.”
“Then what’s stopping you from saying it to her?” She doesn’t reply, her bottom lip quivering in a way that wordlessly tells you the answer. “Are you scared?”
“You know me. I’m not scared of anything, least of all that.” Kohaku shakes her head resolutely along with her words, which are met by an incredulous raised eyebrow from you. “Okay, maybe I’m a little afraid. How did you deal with it?” She relents, and you shrug.
“Honestly? I kind of didn’t have to say anything.” It’s the truth. You never really had to admit your feelings to Ryusui because by the time you got together he somehow already knew. After all, you’re not the kind of woman to let someone into your bed that you don’t have some sort of feelings for, although it may seem that you moved on quickly from your first love.
It doesn’t matter, because you love Ryusui now. You’re certain of it despite the fact that you haven’t expressed it aloud yet. You don’t need to, you feel it whenever you’re with him. “Right, I forgot you’re with the king of desire. All he has to do is snap his fingers and he knows that you’re madly in love with him.” Kohaku replies as if reading your mind, and you rub the back of your neck self-consciously.
“Well, we haven’t exactly said anything like that yet.” You admit.
“Everyone knows the answer, though.” Kohaku waves you off, and you can’t exactly prove her wrong. You’ve never felt more cared for than in his presence, never had anyone know just exactly what makes you tick before. At first it felt like being gutted open before him, but now it’s the most reassuring sensation you’ve ever experienced. That’s all you want for Kohaku; that she gets to know what being loved like that feels like. Perhaps that’s why you’re going so hard for this. Sue you, everyone deserves to be loved Slavicly when possible. “What if she shuts me down?”
“I’m sorry, please remind me of the various crevices of your body she offered to lick again?” You’ve overheard far too much of their phone calls to buy this false narrative. Not only do those cousins share their undying devotion for the objects of their affection, it also translates to insane freakiness. “Girl, why the hell would she shut you down?”
“I don’t know. I know I’m being irrational.” Kohaku groans exasperatedly, rubbing at her forehead.
“No, I get it. These things are fucking terrifying.” You think about how it felt leaning over Tsukasa’s bastardized hospital bed, your face just inches from his as you finally confessed how you felt. You may not have formally confessed your feelings to Nanami Ryusui, but you understand how she feels. You understand the way your heart pounds in your chest, terrified that you’ll be rejected. Whether that rejection be death or betrayal doesn’t matter; sometimes even when all the evidence that they feel the same way is in front of your eyes, you still don’t want to believe that anyone could think that way about you. “Believe me, I know.” Yet another thing to blame your fathers of the year for. God bless abandonment issues.
Kohaku’s expression momentarily twists into one of confusion before she recognizes the context behind your words. “Right. I forgot about —” She winces. You nod. She moves on. Sometimes that’s the only thing you can do. “Yeah. I just have to think about it some more. There’s just so much going on right now, I can’t help but wonder if it’s a good idea.”
“Kohaku. Being with someone you really, really like is never a bad idea.” You press a pointer finger to her sternum, hoping to really hammer your point home. Because it’s true, granted that person isn’t, you know, a homicidal maniac. Man, this new world is so fucking complicated. You can only hope the Kingdom of Science doesn’t implement the Ishigami Trials on Tsukasa when they revive him. If they revive him. “Especially not if that person is good for you.” And there’s the discrepancy between Shishio Tsukasa and Nanami Ryusui. You loved Tsukasa; you’re more than able to draw that conclusion now. But he wasn’t compatible with the person you became, and that was glaringly evident when you finally reunited before Hyoga decided to do his little stabby-stabby routine. Ryusui is simply perfect in every single way possible. You are undeniably obsessed with him, like, you think about him almost every waking moment of the day. And on the off chance you’re not thinking about him, you’re thinking about how lucky you are that he loves you.
So why the hell does this conversation make you keep thinking about Shishio Tsukasa? Kohaku thanks you for your input with a tight hug, and you leave her room with your thoughts swimming. What could possibly be your problem? Perhaps being with Ryusui has made you greedy. You don’t know, and it’s not something you can afford to worry about right now. It’s the kind of thing that’ll eat you alive if you dwell on it for a moment too long.
Thankfully, your favorite distraction in the form of your incredibly perfect, insanely handsome boyfriend manages to pull you aside before you can make it more than a few steps away from Kohaku’s place. “What would you say if I told you that the stone world would be getting its first onsen?”
“I would drop to my knees and worship you right here and now,” Your remark, although provocative, is not necessarily an exaggeration. You’ve been dying to soak in a hot spring. No matter how refreshing the cool spray of the waterfall may be, it’s not exactly feasible year-round. “Are you telling me it’s in the works?”
“All I can say is that you’d better get on your knees, then.” His hand meets your chin, tilting your face upward to look him in the eyes as he grins upon seeing the excitement flood your expression. Warm baths are so back. You’re almost giddy.“I know, I’m the best.” You can’t tell if he genuinely expects some sort of effusive worship on your behalf. Normally you’d play along, but you kind of like the idea of him forcing you to kneel. Call it fucked up, but the thought exhilarates you as you lean in.
His eyes widen as you get so close that your noses are practically touching, clearly stunned by this public debauchery — which is saying a lot for the two of you. When you speak, your lips brush his own. “Don’t get ahead of yourself,” Then you pull away, sticking out your tongue mockingly, relishing in how visibly frustrated he is. “Think they trust us enough to go in alone for a little onsen date?”
Quickly recovering, he laughs boisterously. “Unfortunately, one of the conditions of my agreement with Miharu is ‘no fornication allowed.’ Verbatim. That woman seems to know us a bit too well,” You exhale airily through your nose, continuing in the direction of Francois’s restaurant before he grabs your arm. “Speaking of. I seem to remember something about worship?” He tugs you back to him and you raise an eyebrow.
“Worship yourself,” You settle on a half-hearted remark for the sole purpose of provoking him further. “Francois is expecting me.” You turn over your shoulder with full confidence that he won’t let you leave, not right now.
“Francois is more than capable of preparing dinner on their own,” And like clockwork, he catches your wrist. “Or are you doubting our fine butler’s abilities?”
“I’d never do anything of the sort,” You are not a particularly convincing actress. But what we believe from others is a matter of choice, isn’t it? “But if there’s something you’d like me to do outside of my duties, then I suppose you’ll just have to make me.” If you weren’t so embarrassingly obsessed with the man, the words leaving your mouth would make you cringe so hard your shoulders would get stuck behind your ears. But something dangerous flashes in his eyes, something that practically starts you vibrating with anticipation.
Then without a second word he has you slung over his shoulder, his palm resting on your backside for a moment longer than necessary. You slap at his shoulder with barely any bite behind the action. “Ryusui, what the hell —”
“This is what you want, isn’t it?” His voice is almost lost to the wind as he carries you through the village. You’re pretty sure it’s in the direction of his place, but he’s moving so fast that everything is spinning and you genuinely can’t tell. Which is probably for the better, because you don’t particularly favor seeing the faces of your friends right now. Still, they seem to know enough not to save you, because you’re exactly where you want to be. It feels like only moments later that he enters his room, setting you down (albeit gently) upon the deerskin pelt covering the floor. “It’s like you said. If you want something from me, you should ask.”
“Fine,” Despite you being the one who offered to literally drop to your knees earlier, he’s now lowered himself to your level. Your legs part almost instinctually, allowing his body space to settle between them. He does, and you hook a leg around his waist. Grabbing him by the collar of his shirt, you tug him even closer, reveling in the way his body tenses excitedly. “I want you to be a little rough with me.” He freezes, and the only sound between the two of you is your tandem breathing. Knocking your foot against his lower back, you laugh self-consciously. “What, is that too much to ask?”
“Far from too much. Nothing is too much if it’s for you.” When he speaks, his voice is low and almost breathless despite the lack of physical activity. His hand meets the side of your face, thumb smoothing over your cheekbone. “I’m just trying to keep my composure. And you’re making it terribly difficult.” He laughs, and he sounds like he’s barely toeing the line of his own sanity. The notion thrills you far more than you’d ever admit outside of the four walls of his room.
“Then don’t. Do what you want with me.” It’s true honesty, the statement pulled from the basest parts of your own existence. And it seems like he’s no better, because he’s looking at you with unadulterated hunger. Desire, the word he seems to adore so much. Your voice drops a few decibels, practically begging. “I’m asking you to.” He doesn’t need to be told twice. He kisses you like he’s trying to devour you, his hand sliding up your thigh to take greedy handfuls of the flesh. You may or may not end up kneeling, but you certainly get some desires you didn’t even know existed fulfilled.
You’re taking stock of the state of the quickly darkening bruises on your body afterwards when Ryusui returns with some water. Seemingly not wanting to part with you for too long to fulfill your request for hydration, he immediately pulls you back to him before tipping the cracked cup to your lips. You let him love on you, your hand snaking behind him to scratch the back of his head affectionately. “Still doing alright?” He presses the words into your hair along with a kiss.
“I’m perfect.” You reply, despite the scratchiness in your voice suggesting otherwise. It’s nothing more than a remnant of the various sounds he pulled from you, anyways, so he should take it as a compliment. You make a mental note to apologize to Ukyo and offer to make any meal his heart desires. And get some new ear plugs made on his behalf.
“Good, because Miharu was looking for you. I told her I’d pass on a message.” Good choice on his behalf, because you are certainly not in any state to see anyone right now. Especially not if the literal bite mark on your shoulder that you had to crane your neck to lay eyes on as soon as Ryusui left the room is still making its presence known. “She said something about a girls’ night at the spa this weekend. Sounded fun.” Almost as if sensing your thoughts lingering on the offending imprints on your shoulder, he kisses it as if undoing his earlier debauchery.
It kind of works, too, because you’re somewhat endeared by the action. “You can tell her I’ll definitely be there,” You state, and he hums in response. The two of you fall into comfortable silence, savoring the last remnants of the afterglow. You’re starting to succumb to the warmth of his embrace and fall asleep before your eyes shoot open. “Shit. I can’t wear a swimsuit like this.” Not like you have any proper swimsuits yet, but your everyday clothes don’t leave much to the imagination, much less your undergarments. Ryusui is overcome by a fit of laughter as you start to die of preemptive embarrassment, because you know your friends will absolutely not let this go. They’re more than used to the marks in various stages of healing on your neck and chest, but the ones on your inner thigh and stomach are slightly more suggestive. Not much you can do about it now, anyways, so you simply let him kiss it better and then curl up for bed.
The first thing you do upon seeing Miharu at the spa is commend her for the idea. Neither of you say it out loud, but you’re both aware of the fact that everyone needs a bit of distraction and recreation right now. Especially with the threat of a mysterious, almost invisible enemy weighing at the back of your collective minds. She’s even gone as far as to invite Minami and Nikki, a fact that greatly relieves you. Introducing two groups of friends is usually awkward, but after a drink or two prepared by Francois everyone fits right in. And by everyone, you mean everyone — Miharu seems to have reached out to every girl of drinking age here, with the exception of Suika who clings to your side, the glass lenses of her mask fogging up with the steam.
Although Miharu does bring up an almost random rule: no discussing men in any way, shape, or form. You don’t exactly have it in you to complain, especially not when she set up this entire thing. The other girls agree as well, with Komugi in particular being the most relieved. You suppose there’s limits to her nosiness about straight relationships after all. Although it isn’t as if she can talk when the tension between her and Kohaku is so thick you could cut it with a knife. You notice the way her (somehow perfectly manicured) hand lingers on the blonde’s bare thigh. You snicker to yourself, and you can’t determine whether the flush on Kohaku’s skin is from the alcohol, heat, or other reasons. Perhaps it’s all three.
Minami does a damn good job at not bringing up her beloved Tsukassan, too. Despite the sheer magnitude of her grief, she seems to be doing a lot better these days, especially since she got her hands on a camera. Talking about her job seems to placate her a whole bunch, and her and Ruri get on a lot better than any of you could’ve suspected. You suppose they’re both storytellers in one way or another, so that definitely helps.
You end up being one of the first to (accidentally, you swear!) break the “no men” rule, although surprisingly not with any mention of the man you’re undeniably infatuated with. You have enough respect for your friends not to provide them with the anecdotes behind every blemish on your skin. You just get a little too excited when Komugi asks what everyone’s favorite music is and she actually happens to know who Bad Bunny is. Look, it’s a rarity for anyone in Japan. Or in America, honestly, he’s kind of off the radar for anyone who doesn’t speak Spanish. Still, you down your punishment drink without complaint despite the way the shit tastes like battery acid. You poorly suppress a wince, and Miharu cackles while downing one of her own without even batting an eye.
And by the end of the night, everyone is truly and completely wasted. Poor Suika is running back and forth fetching water and Francois is all but phoning sober chaperones to come pick people up. You’re laying on your side by the water’s edge when you get a lopsided view of Kohaku and Komugi practically shoving their tongues down each other’s throats. Well, tonight was certainly a good night in more ways than one. You giggle drunkenly to yourself, vaguely conscious of Francois speaking in a hushed tone to someone at the spa’s entrance.
A few moments later, you’re somehow levitating in the air? Sort of. It takes you a few moments to register that your boyfriend has somehow materialized and has lifted you bridal-style in his arms. “Someone had a fun night.” You mumble something in response and he chuckles. “Come on, let’s get you home.” You think you thank Miharu for the night on the way out, but you’re not sure if your words are particularly intelligible. Ryusui says something to her that doesn’t quite seem to register between your ears.
The way home is a complete blur, although Ryusui makes sure it’s a rather smooth ride for your behalf. He’s saying something, certainly addressed towards you, but you’re not in any state to decipher it. Whatever it is seems to work your intoxicated self up, because you manage to sit up and whisper some utter filth in his ear before giggling, burying your face into his neck. And whatever you said must have been crazy because you feel his skin heat up in response before he mutters that it’ll have to wait until the morning. “You can’t even think straight right now, beautiful.” You remember him saying something along those lines.
He gets a few glasses of water into you before making sure you’re dried off properly and tucking you beneath some pelts. But you refuse to go to sleep until he gets into bed with you and practically smothers you, so naturally he can’t deny that request. The moment his arms wrap around you you’re out like a light, entering the dreamless sleep of the drunk. All of this information is relayed to you the next morning by Ryusui as he dabs at your forehead hangover sweats with a cold cloth.
You stare at him, mouth agape at the utter state you were in last night. Your mouth is dry and tastes like the remnants of liquor, and it feels like you’re getting an icepick lobotomy without anesthesia between your ears. It’s a miracle that you haven’t had to puke yet, a small mercy that you attribute to the sole fact that you interspersed your drinks with generous amounts of water while still at the spa. You make a mental note to thank Francois for keeping the water coming even when you forgot to keep asking for it. Still, you’re embarrassed that Ryusui had to see you in that state. He simply laughs it off, reminding you that taking care of you is simply an expectation of being in a relationship with you. It makes you feel slightly better, but you’re kind of getting to the point of your headache where it hurts to keep your eyes open, so you simply collapse back against the pelts while he strokes your hair.
When you open your eyes a few hours later, you’re expecting him to be gone, somewhere out in the village doing Wise General Duties ™. But instead, it seems that he hasn’t moved an inch from serving as your impromptu pillow. His eyes are closed, but it’s clear that he’s not fully asleep. Already feeling slightly better after a nice nap and some water, you press a kiss to the bridge of his nose and he chuckles, the sound rumbling low in his chest. “Good morning.” Your voice is remarkably sing-songy for someone who got wasted off her ass the night before.
He hums. “It has to be at least one in the afternoon by now.” You blink, and yeah, judging by the light filtering in through the room’s cracks it’s certainly later in the day than you anticipated.
You sit up so quickly that stars burst behind your eyelids. “Shit, you’re right. We have to get up.”
Only to immediately be tugged back to Ryusui’s chest. “Not so fast. You’re taking the day off.” The side of your face is practically pressed against his heart. It thuds gently underneath your cheek. “In case you’ve forgotten, you went way overboard last night.”
“I don’t think I’ll forget any time soon.” You squeeze your eyes shut, noticing that the heavy feeling behind your lids hasn’t completely gone away just yet. “I’m never drinking again.”
“Hey, don’t give up so easily.” He rubs your back reassuringly and you wish there was a way to sink even further into his embrace. “How else are you going to build up a tolerance?”
“That’s not how it works.” His fingers tap against your spine, and you groan at the idea of consuming any more alcohol any time soon. “Don’t encourage me,” Although he has a point; you certainly aren’t giving up on drinking just yet. Call it an informal hiatus for now. But still, perhaps you can take the day off but he certainly has other matters to attend to. Halfheartedly, you press a finger into his chest. “You have things to do, don’t you? You shouldn’t be laid up with me all day.”
“Why not? There are four other generals to take care of things for a reason.” In response to your hesitation upon hearing his words, he sighs. “This is more important. I’m staying with you, and that’s final.” You don’t think caring for the aftermath of your own poor decisions constitutes as more important than saving the entire fucking world, but Nanami Ryusui certainly has interesting priorities. But then he’s kissing you, and you get distracted, and semantics like that don’t seem to matter much anymore. His lips travel from your own to the sensitive skin of your neck and you find yourself tilting your chin to grant him access. “I can take care of you in more ways than one, if you’re up for it, of course.”
“You and your one track mind.” You reply, your voice low and undeniably already affected by his ministrations. It’s not as if you’re trying to hide it, anyways. It’s so strange; if any man had tried to invade your bed while you were hungover in the old world you would’ve kicked him in the balls. But here you are, letting Nanami Ryusui grab your ass in a dark room layered with various animal fur pelts. Yeah, this life is certainly a far cry from drinking White Claws alone in your apartment while working on your thesis because you do better work when drunk. But not in a bad way, not bad at all.
“Can you blame me? You’re the only thing always on my mind.” You swear his fingers are going to leave imprints on your skin, but you’re in zero place to complain. Perhaps this is what you needed when you were a depressed college student, isolating herself for fear of being rejected by her older peers. Back then, the only person you had was Mama, and even she was a whole ass bridge away. And your father, fuck him, was on the complete opposite side of the Pacific. Not as if he’d be any help apart from the slow trickle of money you’d receive to pay your rent and utilities.
But God forbid you think about your father right now. This is one thing you’ll never allow that man to ruin, not like he ruined all the other good things you’ve ever had. “Well, you have me.” You drag your thoughts back to the present, physically grabbing the back of his head and pulling him from the crook of your neck to look you in the eyes. “What are you going to do with me?” Thankfully, he has plenty of ideas. You do, too. There’s no point in entertaining any thoughts of the outside world because you have him here now. He tosses your leg over his shoulder, and perhaps now is all that matters.
After your rather eventful late start to the day, you and Ryusui manage to roll up to the meeting in the Craft Zone fashionably late yet inexplicably glowing. Senku simply cuts a snide glance in your direction before turning back to whatever blueprint he’s occupying himself with. “Well, well. Look who decided to turn up.”
Still somewhat reeling from the night before, you’re far from in the mood for any judgment right now. “You’re lucky we came at all.” Miharu once told you on the low that orgasms can do wonders for your mood, but you suppose there are still some annoyances they can’t remedy. One of those being that Senku is right; it’s pretty disrespectful for the two of you to show up late.
But Nanami Ryusui does what he wants unapologetically, a fact expressed by the boisterous laugh he offers as the only response to Senku’s half-hearted ire. You deflate, muttering a half-hearted apology of your own for showing your fangs too early on before plopping yourself on the edge of the table and making yourself comfortable under Ryusui’s cape.
And as much as you wished you’d just been able to skip this little reunion, some important developments in the ship-building process have emerged. While the two of you were unceremoniously laid up, the decision was made to scrap the big yacht Ryusui wants in favor of a smaller sailing ship with an even smaller crew. Ryusui refuses to give up, however, and offers his expertise to aid in creating a smaller-scale model that can be translated to his coveted yacht without requesting a single Drago in return. Classic for those swindlers to take advantage of his interest in anything nautical and his elevated mood in order to get what they want from him. You can’t say you’re not somewhat impressed.
It kind of doesn’t matter, though, because Senku ends up basically giving the whole thing away to Ryusui like he’s donating to charity. You know Miharu won’t let him hear the end of this one, and he’s incredibly lucky that she’s currently absent. You suppose the liquor she consumed without batting an eye last night really did get to her, and you’re mildly reassured that even Shinomiya Miharu has her limits. It makes you feel a bit better about the utter state you were in by the end of the evening.
The woman in question does end up showing up around the evening, looking mildly worse for wear but otherwise alright. She offers her services in drawing the blueprint, but immediately disappears afterwards in protest. You do the same, waving an unapologetic goodbye to Ryusui, whispering for him to meet you at the cove for a shower after the meeting and watching the way he has to physically restrain himself from ditching this meeting and carrying you over there right now. Although thankfully it seems like some of the sense he lost earlier has been knocked back into his body, because he lets you go, white-knuckling the table all the while.
You do plan on helping Francois prepare dinner before your shower, however, but in the meantime you manage to seek out Kohaku. From what Suika happily told you, she and Komugi spent the night together, although the young girl thankfully didn’t know any more details but that Kohaku went to the gyaru’s room. You manage to get a good amount of pestering targeted at your lioness of a friend in before heading to the kitchen, and then having a simultaneously freezing and somehow steamy session at the waterfall. Then you go to sleep, and do it all over again the next day; minus the dastardly hangover of course.
The next year is perhaps the best one of your admittedly short life. One three-thousand or so year intermission later, and you finally feel like you’re living. You and Miharu meet up a few more times before the year ends to finish up your extra-special portrait, and it’s completed in time for you to present it as a Christmas present for Ryusui. And in return, he gifts you the most gorgeous customized journal that leaves you wondering just how long it took Miharu to make. “You mentioned wanting to record unique slang terms and cultural practices of the villagers,” he’d said as you appraised the binding, stunned by its beauty. “And as we travel the world, you can record all the changes in the landscape and culture that you find. We can’t be the only ones alive, after all.” You practically attack him with a hug, not wanting to part with the book for the rest of the day.
Francois takes over the Christmas KFC, and you’re in charge of the cookies and goat’s milk eggnog. As much as you’d like to treat everyone to coquito, that sadly requires coconuts that you still don’t have. Soon, very soon, you tell yourself. You’re half-heartedly watching Asagiri Gen entertain the masses with an impromptu magic show when you get the idea to flip to the back of your stone world cultural dictionary (or so you’ve decided to name your new gift.) You suppose you shouldn’t be surprised to see a message in Ryusui’s elegant handwriting. “For my beautiful [Name]. Never lose your curiosity nor your hunger for everything this world has to offer. Love, Ryusui.” The last two words on the page begin to blur, and you wipe at your eyes before your tears can land on the page and smear the message.
New Year’s rolls around, and everyone resolves to stay up and watch the sunrise just like last year. This time, you know not to even attempt to sleep at night for fear that you won’t wake up before dawn, deigning to instead spend the day in bed with Ryusui. Everyone seems to be in chill mode these days, anyway, and he’s already declared both New Year’s Eve and Day as national Stone holidays, so it isn’t as if you’re needed in any important meetings either. When night falls, everyone who’s also decided to stay up sits around the fire, drinking and reveling in the warmth. If Ryusui has noticed that you’re somehow clingier than usual tonight, he doesn’t seem to have any complaints.
But the fact is that you can’t help but think about how misguided you felt at this time last year, that vague sense of hopelessness you felt when you looked up at the vast night sky. The stars are the same tonight as they were back then, but it somehow feels like the entire world has expanded. Next year the ship will be complete, and then what? You’ll travel the world, reviving every single human being, the complete opposite of Tsukasa’s goal? The hindrance he posed to your life, to the world’s progression as a whole isn’t lost upon you.
Because the truth is that in the scheme of things you are nobody. A member of the corps that will revive the world, sure, a woman whose life was changed by both platonic and romantic love. And perhaps it was love that revived you in the first place. Love or selfishness; you aren’t sure. You shiver, and Ryusui wraps his cape around you. “You doing alright? Not too sleepy?” He pokes at your cheek and you laugh.
As silence settles between the two of you, the fire crackling like a movie soundtrack, you sigh. “Just feeling introspective.” You chose your words carefully, not wanting to alert him to anything wrong with you. Because the truth is that nothing is wrong, and you’d be utterly self-centered to complain when you have the entire world at your feet. That is your truth, just one small drop of milk in a vast cosmos splattered across a dark cloth. You’re unsure how to put this sentiment into words, though, so you just leave it at that.
“Yeah, the new year tends to do that to people.” His hand strokes up your arm protectively, and you sense a quiet sort of understanding in him that goes beyond his somewhat superficial words. You feel a little guilty, because you know that he’s been struggling with memories of his own past lately. He doesn’t do well with being told to give up on things, a trait you assume is thanks to being the black sheep of a rich family. And considering the fact he implied that he was literally beaten into submission sometimes, the Nanami Conglomerate did not look fondly upon those who break the mold. And Ryusui, the illegitimate son, was nothing if not born to break their mold.
“You’re not wrong.” You reply, attempting to switch up his trademark phrase on him. He may have been about to say something more, but everyone gets up to head over to watch the sunrise, and he helps you to your feet. Embers land at your feet as Ryusui gently tugs you away in the direction of the new day.
With the new year comes Ishigami Senku’s birthday, and after a long ass nap you immediately enter party planning mode. As much of a pain in the neck as the guy can be, if anyone deserves a proper birthday celebration this year it’s him. Although it isn’t as if he’d properly appreciate it, or so you huff in Miharu’s direction while seeking advice on how to best go about the festivities. Because the two are still growing as close as ever while Ryusui has you distracted and wound around his indigo-tipped finger.
But surprisingly, Miharu seems content to skip out on the partying in honor of who seems to be one of her favorite people these days. Yeah, you may be on the losing end of the Gambler’s Anonymous bet if things continue this way. Although if you and Ryusui got on like a rapidly catching house fire, the two scientists are more like a painfully sweet slow burn. Comically trite romance tropes aside, you and Francois cook up some ramen for Senku — his favorite food. Even Senku has a drink with dinner, so you suppose this must be a rather exciting birthday for him. All the while, Minami gets various candid photos of everyone socializing and having a good time. Miharu is still M.I.A., but you’re sure she’ll acknowledge the special day in her own way.
Unfortunately for you (but probably thankfully for Senku) everyone moves on from the celebration pretty quickly when Ryusui announces that he desires to bring back winter sports. You drape yourself in the nice fur lined jacket, pants, and winter boots provided courtesy of Yuzuriha. You’ve never been skiing or snowboarding before — not many opportunities in the constant mild weather of the Bay Area — but it can’t be that hard, can it?
The first time you stepped out into the stone world snow nearly two years ago you came to the conclusion that you were most definitely not built for this. Which isn’t necessarily wrong; your genetics are best suited for laying out on Caribbean beaches than gallivanting knee-deep in snow. You thought you’d gotten used to it by now, but introducing winter athletics is a whole other beast. How the hell do those Olympians do this? Ryusui is nice enough to forgo the big hills he was so excited to snowboard down in favor of helping you actually get your bearings, but after learning the basics you practically shoo him away to go have some fun on his own. Just as he reluctantly leaves and you’re messing around on your own with the skis, Kohaku positively blasts past you mid-race with Komugi.
Needless to say, you’re positively terrified and still regrettably unable to control the direction in which you glide. Before you realize what exactly is happening you’re hurtling downhill, on a direct course to slam into Miharu. You’re unsure if the ever-meddling Asagiri Gen is a godsend or a fruit of the devil, because he shoves your doctor friend out of the way and leaves you flying towards certain doom. This is why you should’ve listened to your boyfriend and started with the stupid fucking tiny hills. Because you completely eat shit, and as you’re trying to recover your footing there’s a resounding pop from your ankle and next thing you know you’re flat on your ass beneath a foot of snow. Fuck winter with an icicle up its freezing cold ass.
You try to pull yourself up, but your left ankle basically tells you to fuck yourself. So you resolve to just lay there in the snow for a moment, considering your options. Thankfully, a minute doesn’t even pass before Kohaku tugs you up. “Are you alright?” She rubs the back of her neck sheepishly, still cat-like even in the throes of your injury. “Sorry, we got a bit carried away.”
You’re about to mumble something about that being an understatement when Ryusui calls your name as he runs down the hill surprisingly fast given the conditions. Kohaku seems to have noticed the way you’re hovering on one foot, ski suspended in the air, so she and Komugi tag-team to help you get them off your feet just as Ryusui makes his way over. “Here you go, Ryuchinko,” Komugi states, although she hands you over into his custody rather gently despite the venom dripping from her voice. “Although I don’t know what you’re going to do. Dirty money can’t fix Reinyan’s ankle.”
He waves her off, to which she offers you a sincere apology before flipping her cousin off with a long, manicured nail. “What happened to your ankle?” Ryusui asks, allowing you to support yourself on his arm.
“Nothing crazy,” You start, and he sends you a glance that tells you he doesn’t believe a word you just said. “There was a weird pop, and now I can’t stand on it.” His skeptical expression morphs into one of concern. Then, he’s scooping you up in his arms and heading back in the direction of his village. “Okay, wait, slow down. Don’t cut your snow day short on my account.”
“I’m not cutting anything short,” he replies sternly, clearly not willing to argue with you on this matter. “You most likely sprained your ankle. We have to elevate and ice it immediately.” You can’t say you’re necessarily opposed to him being firm with you like this. But of course, he already knows this fact.
“Well, there’s plenty of ice around here.” You’re somewhat giddy from the pain whenever you try to shift your foot in any particular direction. So you decide to stop doing that, instead letting him set you up inside where it’s warm. A few pelts, an ice pack, and elevated foot later, he’s bringing you warm tea and Francois’s signature soup that apparently always made him feel better when he was sick as a boy. With a little bit of rest and T.L.C., you don’t even have to bother Miharu at the clinic. Which is good news, because you end up finding out that you were inadvertently responsible for her taking a tumble of her own. Straight onto Ishigami Senku. Oops. You can’t say you’re particularly regretful for that one.
Valentine’s Day ends up being revived with Senku somehow figuring out how to reinvent chocolate without the use of actual cocoa beans. Ryusui surprises you with as many sweet treats as your stomach can possibly handle and a massive bouquet of flowers that Asagiri Gen helped him procure. He laments not being able to find hibiscus this far inland or at this time of year, but you simply thank him profusely for the lilies and red roses — the former being your second favorite flower and the latter naturally for its romantic implications. Of course, you share a nice dinner and a steamy night, but that’s besides the point.
Because as much as you love your man, a rather glaring concern has made itself known to you recently. You’ve noticed Minami running around a bunch lately, taking pictures of every moment with her beloved camera. Naturally, there’s nothing wrong with this in and of itself — she’s gotten all sorts of photos from New Year’s, Senku’s birthday, the stone world Winter Olympics, and even Valentine’s Day. You’d think she’d have gotten tired of simply capturing the moments rather than being a part of them, but without fail she always shows up to document even the smallest moments with a smile on her face. Perhaps it’s lingering tendencies from her journalist days, but you suspect there may be something deeper residing just below the surface.
Winter is drawing to a close when you finally approach her. She snaps a photo of you as you send her a wave, stunning you with the flash. “Just a candid of you being your gorgeous self,” she explains with a wink upon seeing your equally amused and startled expression. “What’s up?”
“Just wanted to check in on the paparazzi.” You reply, attempting to sound as casual as possible so as not to scare her away. “Is everything alright?”
She blinks harshly, hesitating for a split second. “Of course. Why do you ask?” Obviously, you’re not very inclined to believe her, especially not after seeing the flicker of sadness that flashes across her brown eyes when she smiles.
“No reason. I just feel like we haven’t spoken much lately.” You’re trying (and failing) to mask your concern with a minor fib. You and Minami speak at least once every day, although the conversations aren’t exactly as in depth as you’d like them to be. It isn’t as if you and the journalist exactly had soul-searching conversations back during your days in the Empire, but the exchanges were decidedly longer then.
“Yeah, well you’ve been pretty occupied these days,” Minami wiggles her eyebrows suggestively, clearly referring to the man that takes up most of your time with his greedy whims. “You still owe me an ‘I told you so.’ I deserve it. I can’t lie and say you guys aren’t super cute.” Is she still feeling guilty for her initial wariness about you entering any sort of relationship with Ryusui? Your demeanor softens. It isn’t as if her warnings weren’t well-founded; from what you’ve heard Ryusui is well aware that he was a very different person in the old world and now regrets his romantically hedonistic ways. You suppose the stone changed everyone in one way or another.
Still, you can’t help but scoop your friend into a hug. “I appreciate it. I’m sorry I haven’t made enough time for you.” You pull away, allowing your hands to linger on her arms before dropping. Her bottom lip begins to quiver before she quickly and consciously steadies it.
“I didn’t mean it that way. We’ve all been busy with other things.” Her voice is wavering, too. You swallow.
“Well, I’m glad you’re capturing everything on film.” Your own smile is shaky as you pat her arm. You’re about to head out, content to leave it at that so as to preserve both of your feelings.
“But since you asked. About something being wrong,” She speaks again, catching you off guard. You nod, silently encouraging her to go on. “Do you ever worry that this year will be the last time we ever see each other again?” Your lips part in surprise, because you indeed have worried about that before. All these people back in the village that you’ve made connections with, who have touched your life forever. You and the others that restarted the world changed their lives forever, for now they will never go hungry or die of disease ever again. Their ranks will multiply and they and their descendants will thrive. And it’s all due to the future of science that Ishigami Senku has envisioned. You’re just expected to leave them like nothing happened? “Not to be all doom and gloom, but like, we can’t all go on Nanami Ryusui’s fancy yacht, can we?” She quips, clearly trying to lighten the mood of the situation.
You’re quiet for a moment, unsure of exactly what to say, before a sound akin to a sigh and sob combined tumbles from your lips. “Oh, Minami. That’s what you’ve been thinking about this whole time?”
“Well, yeah. It’s kind of hard not to.” Her dark eyes are wide with tears she won’t allow to fall for the sake of her own pride. Wiping them away with the heel of her palm, she sighs. “I don’t want you to feel bad for me or anything. I’m just going to miss everyone who sets sail whenever the ship is complete.” She bites her lip, pausing as she swallows back another bout of tears. “I’m going to miss you a ton, [Name].”
That activates your waterworks, because how else are you supposed to react? Minami was one of your first ever friends in this new world, and you’ll be parting ways sooner rather than later. She’s only ever wanted the best for you, even if it came off as overstepping at times. “I’ll miss you too, but it won’t be forever.” How are you supposed to leave her behind? There’s a lump in your throat, a black hole in your stomach.
“How can you be so sure?” Minami raises her voice, and tears are streaming from your own eyes now. “The seas are dangerous. Not to mention the fact that you guys don’t even fully know what you’re getting yourselves into with this invisible enemy.” She sniffs, allowing her words a moment to sink in until they take root in your bones. Because she’s right — you’re unsure if even Ishigami Senku is aware of just who he’s waging war with. He may be insanely intelligent, but he’s still human.“Very noble, but I don’t want you to fucking die.” She spits out, finishing her tirade. But then she realizes the state you’re in, practically melting in a puddle of your own sadness. Her eyes widen. “I’m sorry, I’m getting too carried away.”
“Don’t apologize for normal emotions. I’ve thought of these things, too.” You wipe your eyes, not wanting her to feel bad for actually expressing how she feels for once. “But we owe it to humanity to at least try, don’t we?” Minami is silent, berry-tinted lips parting as she listens to your assertions. You want her to feel just as confident in the future’s trajectory as you are, even if your faith may be blind. “In going on this journey, we’re placing our full trust in science, and in Ishigami Senku. Neither of them have failed us yet, have they?” Perhaps it’ll bring her some comfort. You don’t know, but it’s all you have to offer right now.
“Good point.” She concedes after a moment of silence, chewing her lip. “But I still can’t stop being sad about it.”
“I understand. We’ll stay in contact the best that we can. But I promise you that we’re going to try our damndest to come back to you all, okay?” You pat her shoulder gently and her frustration seems to deflate a bit. “So until the day we set off, let’s enjoy the time we’ve got. I don’t want you to get so carried away in documenting things that you don’t make memories of your own. Come on, let’s go grab something to eat.” You extend your hand. Her gaze travels from it, to your expectant face, and then back again. She takes it, a small smile crossing her face. Francois is making something delicious for dinner, and then you’ll be helping kickstart the Science Academy tomorrow to teach the villagers to read and write. And you’ll most certainly need a talented photographer to capture that.
You wish you can tell Minami that her worries are entirely unfounded, but you cannot. None of you know what’s going to happen in the next few months, but all you can do is keep living. The future is going to come whether or not we are afraid of it, so you suppose the best course of action is simply to embrace it with open arms.
an: sorry for da late post im busy and distracted by another fixation right now #NotSorry dw I have through ch18 finished so ill post this for the negative readers i still have and the "bots" who comment on ao3 love yall!
Never before did you ever think you’d be performing a walk of shame off of a hot air balloon. Yeah, you hardly make it one step out of the balloon basket before Kohaku rips you away from Ryusui, tugging you in the direction of her place so you can tell her every damn detail of your overnight getaway. You tell her you’d be more than happy to fill her in, but you’d like to eat breakfast first considering you didn’t exactly wake up to any food left over from your picnic the night before.
In fact, you woke up with your face smushed into his chest, both of you still naked under a few deerskin pelts. The sun was just rising, and everything was covered in a sparkling layer of dew. Somehow he woke just a few moments after you — maybe it’s that sixth sense for your presence from earlier? — his hand twitching to life as it stroked up and down your back. Then, there was a chaste kiss to the crown of your head as if undoing the utter debauchery of the night before. It didn’t take long for you to start kissing in a slightly less innocent manner, but everything was kind of sticky considering the heavy pelts and the midsummer heat. You wanted to wash up but you were incredibly sore. In a good way though, a way that made you feel the opposite of empty. It’s nice.
So he carried you to the water so you could clean up, running his hands through your wet hair and naturally taking every opportunity to feel you up. As if he didn’t get more than his fair share the night before. The water was cold, but it kind of helped shock your weak limbs back to somewhat normal function, although the limp back to the shore to get your clothes was pretty unavoidable. All the more reason for him to carry you back to the balloon. At this rate, you’ll never have to use your own feet ever again.
So yes, by the time you get back to Ishigami Village, you’re starving. A night of more physical activity than you’ve ever been used to will do that to you. Kohaku lets you peel away from her in order to eat breakfast by Ryusui’s side, and you’re trying to ignore the very suspicious way Ukyo is looking at the two of you right now. Did he…? Your eyes meet and he immediately diverts his gaze, flushing red as he gets up to leave. Okay, he most certainly did. That’s probably the last time you’ll ever be able to look him in the eye. Ryusui tucks some hair behind your ear before feeding you a bite of breakfast. The village aunties are great cooks, but you really can’t wait to get back into the kitchen.
Finally, Kohaku manages to dig her lioness claws into you, and you agree to tell her everything about your special birthday dinner as requested. Honestly, you’re trying to glaze over the more X-rated details, but your friend just won’t stop prompting you for information. So what choice do you have but to tell the truth. The two of you find yourselves laying on the floor of her room, giggling to yourself about your sailor companion’s proficiency with various parts of his body. Kohaku sits up, breathless from laughter. “But seriously, you look like you got mauled.”
“What are you —” You move your hair away from your chest, and sure enough your top that leaves little to the imagination has done an extremely poor job at concealing the dark marks that have formed in a very compromising location. “Shit. I knew I should’ve stopped him.”
“Oh, be for real.” Kohaku slaps your arm playfully. “You know damn well you didn’t want him to stop.”
“I didn’t. Not in the slightest.” You reply into your hand, and it feels like you should be ashamed that so many of your friends have seen you like this. But all you feel is this expanding warmth in your chest knowing that you have someone who really likes you. So when you make eye contact with Kohaku the two of you descend into yet another fit of giggles, because holy shit, this cannot be reality. But it’s true, and as your friend pulls you into her arms to congratulate you on what’s supposed to be some monumental event, you can’t help but feel like the act really does live up to the hype. Or perhaps you just got lucky with who you got to do it with.
You end up hounding Ryusui into lending you his cape, just until your little situation clears up and you’re a bit more decent. It’s his fault anyway, so it’s the least he can do, but he honestly seems reluctant for you to cover them up for whatever reason. You simply punch his arm weakly, making a half-hearted comment about him being perverted to which he responds that you’re no better. Which you hate to admit is true, because you kind of like shifting the fabric of the cape aside when no one is looking just to prove there’s still a reminder of him on you. Or whatever, you realize it’s kind of corny.
So, is this what actually being in love is like? All these trite little thoughts that won’t stop racing through your mind whenever you lay eyes on him? You’re so distracted these days, and you spend so much time at his place that Kohaku suggests you might as well move in. To which you remind her that you and he have technically only been reconnected for less than three months at this point. And somehow that was enough for you to fall completely head-over-heels, but not quite to live at his place. That’s a little much, even for the two of you. But it does have you questioning the fact that you and Ryusui have quite literally moved faster than stone age lesbians.
Senku even comes up to you at some point, practically begging you to sit in on the conversations about how to proceed. “Believe me, I know you don’t want to be there for these boring ass meetings.” He narrows his eyes, gesturing over his shoulder to where Ryusui is chatting emphatically with a group of villagers. “But you gotta understand. When you’re not around, you’re all he talks about.” Sure enough, he’s glancing in your direction, with his captive audience’s collective gaze following his line of sight. You offer a small wave, and a grin breaks across his face. “He’s going to talk about you anyways, but it’s significantly less when he can feel you up, or whatever.”
You grimace. “Do you have to put it that way?”
“What’re you so upset for?” Senku scratches the back of his neck, the picture of nonchalance as if he hasn’t quite literally clocked your borderline inappropriate public displays of affection. “It’s the truth. If it bothered you, you’d ask him to stop.” The scientist drops yet another truth bomb, because you definitely don’t intend on telling Ryusui to stop any time soon. So in lieu of embarrassing yourself even further, you quietly agree to attend the next little science meet up. Turns out the crew back in the Empire have been assigned to grow some good old wheat so you all can make bread for the boat journey to recover the Soyuz. Honestly, you have no clue why you weren’t included in these conversations to begin with, but perhaps it has something to do with the fact that Ukyo’s ears go bright red whenever you so much look in his direction. You feel bad, but there isn’t much you can do except offer to sign him up for a lobotomy whenever Miharu rediscovers the technology.
Ryusui seems very tickled by the idea of fancy bread no matter how much you warn him that isn’t exactly possible right now. You promise to do your best; it’s the least you can do considering everything he’s done for you. You, he, and Senku take a quick trip back to the Empire so the Kingdom leader can check in on the wheat farming efforts. The stop is so short-lived that you and your sailor-turned-pilot companion hardly see any reason to get out of the basket. So much so that he may or may not have you leaned up against the railing, kissing you dizzy when a familiar voice calls out. “Oh, [Name]-chan, Ryusui-chan.” Ryusui groans, clearly frustrated at having to stop right here, although you have no idea where the fuck he expected this to go in plain sight of everyone who cares to look.
But sure enough, Asagiri Gen is approaching the two of you, waving lazily in a way that tells you he knows exactly what he’s interrupting. “Oh, my.” He stops about a few meters away, hiding his mouth behind his lilac sleeves. “There have certainly been some new developments over the past onth-may, haven’t there?” He giggles to himself, watching an uncharacteristically irritated Ryusui roll his eyes.
“Can we help you with something, Gen?” The sailor grits out, a protective arm around your waist. You nudge him, whispering a warning to behave.
Gen simply snickers even more. “I can’t come say ello-hay to my dearest friends?” He tilts his head in that creepy way of his, and you and Ryusui share an uneasy look. “My dearest friends who are very early-clay involved.” Your cheeks flush crimson, and Ryusui seems just moments away from shooing Gen out of your vicinity with a broom.
The mentalist skitters away, but not before muttering something to Ryusui about not breathing fire at him. The two of you manage to shake it off, but are interrupted once more before you can get back to where you left off by Senku’s return. “Alright, got what we needed.” Senku looks between the two of you before rolling his eyes. “You guys good to take off?”
“We’re perfect.” Ryusui is already stoking the fire to get back to the village, and Senku chuckles. At the sound of his friend’s laughter, the pilot deflates a little bit before wrapping his arms around you, which seems to placate him further. That combined with some alone time at his place when you return to the village (to which you ask him not to leave any evidence in visible places and he replies that he makes no promises) seems to really simmer him down, so you bring your newly calm boyfriend to the evening meeting. Because yes, that’s the label he wants, and you surprisingly don’t mind one bit. It feels like when you’re with him any worries that you have just, like, melt away. You should be concerned, but it all feels too good for you to care.
With the wheat in tow, you decide that it’s time to make your first attempt at stone age bread. Senku’s only knowledge of baking is from a scientific standpoint, so you take over the efforts while Ryusui looks on fondly. Until you drag both him and Chrome into the fray to help you knead, because Lord knows you can’t make a village-sized batch of bread on your own. Unfortunately, you make the mistake of letting Kohaku drag you away from the kitchen for a debrief about her earlier call with Komugi (Goddamn those lesbians are freaky) so the baking is unfortunately left up to the science-brained men. And Senku knows theoretically when to take bread out of the oven, but he doesn’t have the practical knowledge that you do.
All of this to say that by the time you return, they’ve burnt the bread. To a crisp, actually. Although Kohaku, who currently is latched onto your arm as you stare on unimpressed, seems pretty eager to dig her teeth into it. And dig is certainly the right word for it because the bread is as hard as a damn rock. She and the other villagers absolutely adore the burnt block, but you and the other modern day humans are nothing short of devastated. Ryusui and Senku even fall to their literal knees at the taste. Talk about not taking failure well. By the time you carefully approach Ryusui, gently patting his head and afraid to do much more for how genuinely messed up he is over this, he’s rambling on about how you need to revive a professional chef.
And it’s a fair point, no matter how much he backtracks about loving your cooking. You know your way around the kitchen, but you certainly have zero idea how to make shelf-stable food that’ll last over an ocean voyage. Senku is in complete agreement with the sentiment, and when those two get an idea in their mind they’re going to make it happen. And Ryusui already seems to have a person’s name on the tip of his tongue.
He mentioned Francois to you when you took that balloon ride on your birthday, confessing to you that they were the one who practically raised him. All that, and he’s still unsure if they’re a man, woman, or something in between. You suppose they’re just Francois, and from the way he talks about them he clearly judges them more for their merit as a butler than by however they may identify. You’re excited by the opportunity to meet them, but Ryusui seems to be a man on a mission as he pulls you aside. “You’re close with that journalist, aren’t you?”
“Minami? Yeah, sort of.” He raises an eyebrow, prompting you to elaborate. “She was kind of icing me out before we left, but I feel like she changes her opinion on me by the day.” You gesture between you and him, laughing humorlessly. “She definitely won’t be a fan of this.”
“It doesn’t matter what she is or isn’t a fan of. She’s hiding something.” He declares, and your eyes narrow at his accusation. But then you take a few moments to think about it, and yeah, it definitely makes sense. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons she’s been acting so weird towards you? Your eyebrows furrow as you think. “You’ve noticed it too, haven’t you? The rattling in her headpiece?”
Your mouth opens to say something, then promptly closes. You sigh. “As much as I hate to say it, I think you’re right.” You really do hate to accuse your friend of keeping secrets from all of you, but all the evidence is pointing towards it being the truth. This is something you all really need to prepare for the long journey ahead, because you can’t exactly expect freshly grilled meat to last through an expedition to South America. That, and you suspect reviving Francois will make Ryusui really happy. If you can’t have any parental figure, you might as well help grant him that.
The two of you convey your suspicions to the village team during your routine call, to which they promise to check it out. However, as pragmatic as they are, they bring up the concern that Minami won’t relent unless you offer her something in return. The line goes silent for a moment as you all think before Senku grabs the receiver from you and Ryusui. He admits quietly into the phone that he’s been thinking of making a camera, and now is as good a time as ever. You roll your eyes, because of course he can’t just do something for Minami out of the kindness of his own heart. Ryusui seems impressed by the negotiations though, but you can’t really hold it against the purveyor of capitalism himself.
And clearly, the promise of returning a camera to the journalist’s hands must work, because Gen, Miharu, and the famed Francois ride into the village on some nice and shiny stone world bicycles a few days later. You immediately run over to give your doctor friend a hug, although not without some teasing concerning the fading bruises peeking from beneath your top. You feign anger, shooing her away so she can go greet the others. Gen is snickering up a storm, so you’re pretty content to ignore his presence for now.
Francois, on the other hand, doesn’t exactly look how you expect; although you’re not sure what you’re expecting. You guess you figured they’d at least be sort of tall, but even with their platform shoes they barely have a centimeter or two of height on you. And you also need to know how their perfect blond ringlets survived a jaunty bike ride from the Empire. The others are deliberating about the vagueness of their gender when Ryusui introduces you to them as his girlfriend. They don’t bat an eye, instead offering you a humble bow before accepting your handshake. You kind of want to give them a hug considering all the good things you’ve heard about them, but you figure that’s a bit too much for the no-nonsense kind of person they are.
Your deductions are proved correct when they immediately get down to business, asking where the unfortunately baked bread is located. You and Senku share a look as Ryusui leads them in the direction of the big oven. As soon as Francois lays eyes on the mysteriously burnt black substance, their face goes ashen. “Isn’t it terrible?” Ryusui comments, clearly trying to rile his butler up.
Francois simply blinks, shaking their head. “Preparing for the worst is simply part of my work, so I must ask.” Their voice shakes as they pull out their handkerchief, raising it to their lips with an unsteady hand. “Did you really dare to serve this industrial waste to those desiring something edible?” Well, at least you found someone else who doesn’t play about making quality food. Ryusui confirms that yes, people did indeed eat this, and Francois quickly collects themself. “We’ll remedy that. What style of bread do our guests desire?” Senku fills them in on what exactly everyone is looking for, and Francois soon has a plan in order. They help you gather some goat’s milk from the auspiciously marked herd on the map.
Miharu actually ends up using the new almost-dairy product to make some skin and body care, and upon hearing you admire the berry-scented lotion Ryusui loads you up with a lifetime supply. To which he so conveniently requests that you keep at his place, so you’ll always have to come over before and after you shower. Kohaku still hasn’t dropped the idea of you moving in with him, so you can imagine how tickled she’ll be when she hears about this.
But you can’t say you can complain about having access to goat’s milk and butter. You and Francois spend a considerable amount of time in the kitchen together, to which they immediately develop a liking towards you because you’re the only one who can properly incorporate the nuts into the stollen dough in a way that they won’t be burned. You giggle as they swat at Ryusui and Senku’s hands with a rolling pin. The two are doing okay, but Francois still hasn’t forgotten their transgressions of burning the bread in the first place.
The bread turns out delicious, for what it’s worth. The villagers keep raving about the fact that they’ve never had something so tasty before, and the moderners are feeling some sort of nostalgia about their first taste of old world food. After sampling the bread, Miharu gifts Francois with a little tub of berry lip pigment, which they accept gratefully. Finally relishing the opportunity to get you alone, Miharu pulls you aside.
“I won a bet on you, you know.” She giggles behind her hand, gently grabbing your arm.
“I’m not so sure I want to ask what about.” You reply, already fully certain of exactly what she means.
“I think you know.” Honestly, you’re confused who exactly was betting against it. You hope whoever had faith in you being a stronger woman and resisting a man’s devious charms isn’t too disappointed in your easiness.
“Well, for what it’s worth, I won a bet on you first.” You point a mock accusatory finger in her direction, and she laughs.
“I don’t even need to ask.” She shakes her head, but there’s still a smile on her face. “But I have to know. Who was betting against me and Gen doing…whatever?” Well, good to know the two of you had the same thought process in response to finding out about the bet. But there’s just one problem.
“I can’t exactly reveal that.” You start, trying your best not to let the fact slip that the bet is technically still on. Not to mention that the factor up in the air wasn’t necessarily whether or not she’d end up with Gen — you all knew that would happen — but if she’d choose him or Senku first. “Gambler’s Anonymous is supposed to stay anonymous, you know.” She seems content with that answer, and you don’t have to reveal that you, Ruri and Kohaku have clandestinally extended the bet. That’s a conversation to have later with Kohaku, who’s been pestering Miharu into giving her daily updates about her relationship with Gen. She’s awfully nosy about straight sex lives for a sapphic woman.
But then the subject about living with one’s boyfriend (or whatever her and Gen want to label it) comes up, and Miharu admits that she’s been staying with Kohaku while you have your extended sleepovers with Ryusui. This fact fills you with genuine confusion. You were well aware that you and the sailor were moving a mile a minute, but if any couple were to live together it’d be Gen and Miharu. The two are practically attached at the hip, mainly due to the fact that she seems to have the mentalist domesticated and wrapped around her finger, and he keeps her on a nice long leash. Pet metaphors aside, Miharu doesn’t seem to want to dwell on the subject any longer, and knowing how it feels you’re happy to let her deflect.
And everybody is kind of distracted by the fact that Minami has been whining about when she’s going to get her camera. To be fair, her ire is expected considering she gave up the last of the revival fluid for what seems to be an empty promise. A few days after one strongly worded phone call from her, Kaseki and Minami roll in on a new and improved Steam Gorilla. The old man seems to have taken note of Yuzuriha’s styling, because he’s also rocking a brand new biker-dude-chic look. That subsequently doesn’t last long before he bursts out of his clothes at the prospect of some exciting new crafting.
Finally after sending a few guarded looks your way, Minami seems to muster up the courage to approach you while Ryusui is distracted by the camera effort. “Hey.”
“Hey, girl,” You reply, your tone almost offhand. “How was the joyride?”
“Very bumpy. That geezer doesn’t have a driver’s license.” She comments, laughing awkwardly. You chuckle along politely, but you can sense something unsaid between the two of you.
“Anything you wanna ask me about?” You decide to open the floor to questions, because there’s zero way she hasn’t noticed by now. The signs aren’t exactly inconspicuous, and to top it off you’re still wearing some remnants of him, both on your skin and around your shoulders. “I’m an open book.” Minami must think you’re some sort of loose woman, hopping from cape to cape.
“Oh, I’ve got nothing to ask. But I do have something to say,” She smirks, a devious look painted across her beautiful features. “I told you so.” She jabs your arm to punctuate each word, and you raise an eyebrow.
“You actually told me that once he got me he’d switch up, actually.” Your grin is false, almost too sharp. “Hasn’t happened yet, but if it does you’ve got my full permission for an ‘I told you so.’”
She winces. “Yeah, about that.” She’s quiet for a moment, choosing her words carefully before sighing. “I’m sorry. I was out of line.”
You nod with a breathless laugh. “Yeah, you were.” Her face starts to morph into one of panic, and you quickly elaborate as you glance at your feet. “I get it, though. We were going through so much, but,” Looking up, you meet her gaze just to find her eyes watery. “I don’t like that you took it out on me and my friends.”
Minami bites her lip as tears begin to spill down her cheeks. “I was so evil to her. I just wanted someone to blame, but —” She starts to trail off and you reach out to wipe her wet face.
“These things just happen. No one’s to blame except Hyoga.” You can’t help the way the temperature of your voice drops well below zero when you mention that man’s name. Just because you’re dating someone else doesn’t mean you’ve forgotten. You still want to get your vengeance no matter how long it takes to bring Tsukasa back. If he ever comes back.
You shake your head, flicking those morbid thoughts away along with Minami’s warm tears. She offers you a sad smile. “You were all so kind and patient with me. You, Nikki, Miharu.” She sniffs, averting your gaze. “I didn’t deserve that.”
“Everyone deserves someone to be patient with them when they need it.” She tilts her head, glancing at you out of the corner of her eye. “I accept your apology, but you should speak to her yourself when you get a chance.” The two of you look over at where Miharu is chatting about something with Senku, likely camera-related. She pauses, then nods.
Then she smiles, wiping the last of her tears from her face. “I’ll do it the moment she isn’t occupied.” There’s that devious look again. “And speaking of occupation, a few questions do come to mind right now, actually.”
You groan, although you’re not actually all that irritated. You’ve become the kind of woman who relishes getting to talk about the man she’s involved with, a fact that greatly embarrasses you. But as Minami practically conducts a journalistic interview about what she missed while you’ve been on your little romantic getaway, you don’t get the sense that she’s judging you. In fact, she apologizes multiple times for misreading the situation, and the moment your conversation ends she immediately runs over to track down Miharu. So you suppose your relationship with your journalist friend has been mostly patched up.
Thus ensues the stone world camera chronicles, with Minami being absolutely thrilled to the point of tears to receive one of her own. You know that just having the device means the world to her, even if it’s a far cry from what she’s used to, so you offer her a few reassuring pats on the shoulder as she cradles the thing to her chest. But of course, Senku just has to ruin the sentimental moment by letting it slip that this is simply the first of many cameras crafted for the purpose of the oil search. He manages to somewhat salvage the situation before Minami chucks her new camera-baby at his spiky head by agreeing to let her take the stone world’s first photo.
And even more naturally, your greedy ass boyfriend just has to demand to buy the rights to it from her. Minami is initially incensed, but after both of them witness your scarily blank expression at the prospect of them fighting Ryusui explains that he doesn’t intend on being the subject of the photo. The one who the history books should commemorate for this moment is Ishigami Senku, so that is who shall be featured. Minami deflates after that, respectfully conceding. You can practically hear the gears turning in her head as she realizes that Ryusui is definitely not the evil monster she originally thought him to be, and you can’t help but smile to yourself. Now who gets to say “I told you so,” because it’s certainly not her.
Ryusui sends Francois to collect some things from what he refers to as your “joint wardrobe,” although you’re unsure of exactly what use Senku will have for your clothes. Perhaps he just wanted an excuse to brag about the fact that you have clothes at his place. Either way, the butler returns with their slender arms full to the brim with Yuzuriha Couture bags. Miharu is so kind as to take them off of Francois’ hands so she can help Senku get ready, and that’s that for the moment being.
Then Ryusui proceeds to almost immediately pull you aside to help you “get ready,” considering Miharu wants to get some cute girls’ pictures, which essentially consists of him messing with your outfit and playing with your hair until everyone looks away long enough for him to sneak you somewhere more secluded. Both of you get a little overzealous, but when you emerge adjusting your hair in a manner that the back of your neck isn’t visible in any way, shape, or form and he’s tugging at his sleeve so no one can see suspicious teeth marks on his upper arm, no one says anything. You figure they’re all used to your bullshit by now, which is a small mercy at this point in time.
Only for Kohaku to immediately prove you wrong when she pulls you in for a photo. “Nice hair, vampiress.” You immediately regret teaching her about fairytale beasts of yore. She’d better expect some extra arduous English lessons in the future. For now, she’s easily silenced when you whisper some things you overheard in one of her phone calls with Komugi. Her face goes white, and you pinch her cheek to flood some color back into her skin before the camera flashes. Miharu grins at the two of you, then beckons Minami to join in on the photo, so you assume they resolved things on their own time. The journalist bounds into the frame, and the lot of you waste a crazy amount of film on silly poses and immortalizing the moments of holding each other close.
Senku decides to be a party pooper by dispersing everyone to get back to work, but at least you’ll be able to keep the memories of this day in the back of your mind. Gen and Miharu head back to the Empire shortly after that, with you and your doctor friend sharing a long hug before they set off. Then, you set off in the balloon with Ryusui and Senku to help them with aerial photography. Not a profession you ever thought you’d break into, but the stone world is full of surprises.
In the meantime, Francois is simply chugging away at all the gourmet dishes Ryusui throws their way. They’re doing their best with the ingredients they’ve been given, but the sailor has had a recent hankering for truffles that his butler has decided they must do everything to satisfy. They also managed to recruit Suika and her canine friend, a fact that simply elates you. The little girl runs into your arms the moment she sees you, and you spin her around while she giggles happily.
It doesn’t take long at all for Suika and Chalk to stumble upon the location of some coveted boars. You accompany them along with Francois, Kohaku, and Ukyo (with the latter two coming along for the sole sake of their superhuman senses) to apprehend your new porcine friends to help you uncover some truffles. The moment you all manage to shepherd the boars into a pen, Ryusui’s mouth is already watering at the concept of pork. You try to warn him that it may not taste the same, but he’s too carried away by the idea of an old world meal. You suppose he was so spoiled back then that it can’t be helped. Not to mention the fact that you wouldn’t exactly mind some pork chops either. You’ve been fiending for some pernil.
Thanks to some handy aerial photography, Kohaku manages to spot the other form of black gold. It seems that her desire for a tasty meal and crazy eyesight ends up discovering the Sagara oil field rather than any truffles. While Ryusui, Senku, Chrome, and Kohaku run off in an attempt to discern its exact location, you prepare to cook some delicious pork shoulder with Francois. The two of you are chatting idly when a foul, undeniably recognizable scent meets your nostrils. The butler is holding their handkerchief to your nose when the scout team comes running back, pleading for you to halt before snatching the life of this stinkier-than-usual boar away.
Turns out Sagara (what Suika has so affectionately named her new snouted friend) has been rolling around in the very oil field everyone is looking for. He leads everyone straight to a pool of oil welling up to the surface, immediately diving in and rolling around like — well, like a pig in slop. With how excited everyone is, Senku and Francois decide not to cook Suika’s new pal, a fact that elates the young girl who wraps her arms around the boar despite your protests about her getting nasty oil on her clothes.
As the year marches onward, you spend quite a bit of time with Francois. You can’t help how curious you are about them as a person considering Ryusui didn’t exactly know much about them. And it became extremely clear why after just a few conversations with the butler; they keep any personal information or stories close to their chest. In fact, they won’t discuss much about themself at all unless it pertains to their work. Having been Ryusui’s personal butler since he was a young boy, they’re extremely skilled at raising spoiled little children that mean well, housekeeping, hospitality, medicine, and even some mechanical work.
But the fact that excites you the most is that they’re on their way to becoming a polyglot like yourself. You learn that they speak English, French, and Japanese fluently, with varying proficiency in other additional tongues. They speak a decent amount of Spanish, but they agree to let you tutor them so they can achieve perfect fluency. They’re also very interested in learning Caribbean cuisine, so you rope them into your Japanese-style pernil making shenanigans. By the time of the next big holiday, the two of you should definitely have the stone world version of your beloved pork shoulder dish mastered.
Funnily — and excitingly — enough, Ryusui’s birthday just so happens to be coming up. You find out from Francois rather than the man himself, who — for whatever reason — simply decided not to disclose his day of birth to his fiesta fanatic girlfriend. You knew it was in November for the sole purpose of surmising the fact that he’s a Scorpio (the only male Scorpio you’ve ever liked, by the way) but he never gave you an exact date and you didn’t want to ask straight up for fear of ruining the surprise. So when you oh-so-casually brought the subject up to his butler and found out that he’s set to turn twenty-one on November 11, you practically started vibrating with excitement. “Francois, do you know what this means?” To the polite shake of their head, you gently grabbed their shoulders. “We have less than a month to get everything prepared.”
As expected, they jump right into hospitality mode. Francois may not talk much about themself, but they sure have stories to tell about Ryusui — although only in response to your insistent prompting. They tell you all about birthdays past — sure, about the various game systems, race cars, expensive model ship-building supplies, and even private planes he received — but mainly how he reacted and how happy they made him. Francois even tells you that it felt like giving him joy, for Ryusui is never one to take material items for granted, and you gently grab their hand. Seemingly getting used to your touchy nature, the butler’s berry-tinted lips stretch into a smile.
So, naturally, you have an idea in mind, especially considering how special he made your own birthday. But as dutiful as Francois is, you know you can’t achieve your vision alone. Of course you have your special meal planned, but Rome wasn’t built in a day, nor was it built with two sets of hands alone. You wander into the Craft Zone ™ midway through October with a goal in your sights. Senku and Miharu glance up at you from where they’re bent over a blueprint. Asagiri Gen stands behind them, tilting his head in your direction with an unreadable smile. “Hey.” You venture awkwardly.
Senku raises an eyebrow before sighing. “What do you want us to make?”
You bite your lip. Damn, you don’t even get to preface your request with a little bit of fluff? “Am I that obvious?” You’re still not used to no-nonsense people like Ishigami Senku.
“Aybe-may so,” Gen butts in, arms crossed below his chest in that way of his. “Or maybe an uper-say special day is coming up soon, and [Name]-chan is simply the best girlfriend ever.” You can’t tell if he’s making fun of you or not, but your eye twitches in annoyance regardless. Despite wanting to waste a bit of time on idle chitchat just a few moments ago, you don’t have time for Gen’s vamping. “A certain ailor-say has been looking for you, by the way. He says you’ve ade-may yourself strangely scarce around him these days.”
“Perhaps he’s imagining things.” You reply half-heartedly in Gen’s direction before turning to the two people you actually came here to talk to. “But if it were related to that, would you be willing to help me with a few things?”
Senku pauses, considering your question, before sharing a look with Miharu. Then, scarily in sync, they both turn back to you with a smile that tells you that Ryusui isn’t the only one that they’ll rob blind. “Depends on if you’re willing to help us with something.”
You end up making a deal, for what it’s worth, and you don’t lose any Dragos in the process. It’s not as if you particularly care much about the currency, anyways. The economy is Ryusui’s problem, not yours. Still, you don’t lose very much in the agreement you make with Senku and Miharu, with even Gen resolving not to instigate too much on anyone’s behalf. Perhaps Senku does have some celebratory spirit inside of him, although the whole ordeal does get you thinking exactly what kind of deal Ryusui cut to set up your birthday festivities.
Regardless, you trust that your request will make its way to Kaseki and be ready by the 11th. After all, the opposing party in your little agreement have been made well aware that you’re reneging on your side of the pact if anything falls through. You have full faith in them, though. With that in mind, you seek Ryusui out to spend some time with him, just so he doesn’t get suspicious. Or such is the reason you tell yourself for a couple hours of alone time in his room.
The closer and closer you get to the day in question, you start to realize just how hard it is to keep secrets from people. You may have been the queen (pun intended) of the surprise party in the old world, but that was when you could comfortably avoid the people you were planning to jumpscare with some festive fun. This time around, you aren’t exactly in a place to avoid the man you’re literally in a relationship with. And the worst part is that you don’t really want to.
That’s how you end up straddling his lap in his room a week before his birthday, although the occasion is the furthest thing from your mind as his hand tangles in your hair. And yeah, kissing him is certainly an effective distraction, but there’s still so much you have to do that’s not even related to the special day. Like, there’s a whole-ass ocean journey in the works, and you might actually have to make your expertise in cultural relations useful. Everyone’s working so hard, and you’re just … here. Not like having Nanami Ryusui’s face buried in your neck is anywhere unpleasant to be, but you’re still human, and you can’t always shake your inadequacies.
And ever-perceptive to the slightest changes in your demeanor, his mouth only hesitates against your skin for a split-second before he flips the two of you, pinning you under him. “Distracted?” If it were anyone else, the question would have you fearing you upset them. But Ryusui simply smiles down at you, genuinely waiting for an answer.
Your hand travels up his neck, ghosting against the sensitive skin before your palm meets the side of his face. “By you? Yes.” You’re sure if he knew about your sudden and untimely bout of imposter syndrome he’d want you to tell him. But you don’t particularly relish burdening him with that right now, and you’re certainly not lying about being pleasantly distracted.
He leans down to steal a kiss from you. “Glad I can be of service.” You think you’ve almost shaken him off your trail, but Ryusui doesn’t give up easily. “What’s on your mind?”
“Nothing important.” His brows furrow, and you clarify. “Seriously, it’s not important. I just want to be here with you right now, okay?” In this moment, in his arms, something. You just want to be present, away from all these thoughts of uselessness.
Sensing the change in your demeanor, he kisses you again, slow and sweet. “Would you rather we stopped talking?” Then there’s his knee between your thighs, his hand traveling up the outside of your leg. Every molecule in your body is screaming yes. So you listen. And upon hearing your affirmative reply he immediately dives in to indulging your every whim. Knowing all he needed to ruin you thoroughly was your express permission has you coming undone again and again, but that’s neither here nor there.
When you not-so-clandestinally creep back to your place the next morning, you’re met with a neatly written note laying on your pelt. The message is from Miharu, informing you that your request has been fulfilled, and it’s almost time to uphold your side of the deal. At the bottom is a cute little doodle of what seems to be a jaguar shaking hands with a black cat and a fluffier white cat . The doodle makes you chuckle to yourself as you sit cross-legged on the floor. Then you start getting kind of distracted by trying to figure out what drove Miharu to decide that a jaguar best represents you.
Only to answer your own question by almost turning around hissing in Ryusui’s face when he suddenly enters your room. “Brought you breakfast. Francois made your favorite —” You must look so incredibly guilty right now, because his expression almost immediately twists into one of confusion. “What’s wrong?” Actually, you’re currently weighing the advantages of having your back facing him right now, because he can’t see the incriminating note in your hand right now.
So in one fell swoop, you leap up to give him an uncharacteristically performative hug, taking advantage of the fact that his hands tend to gravitate to your ass to shove the note in the band of your top. That and some profuse thanks and praise you shower him in seems to throw Ryusui off enough to momentarily shelve your odd behavior in favor of practically feeding you your breakfast. By the time he leaves, you collapse back to the floor. Keeping secrets is exhausting. Thank God this will all be over with in just a few days.
The next week passes without consequence, with Ryusui getting respectfully tipsy on the night before his birthday and retiring early to bed. You promise you’ll join him after you take a shower, to which he insists on going with you. Which then leads you to swiftly changing your plans right before his eyes to wash some dishes before joining him in his room. Reluctantly, he goes off to bed, decidedly [Name]-less, and after one shared glance with Francois, the final stage of your secret mission begins.
It takes all night to finish the preparations, but you manage to creep into his room in the early hours of the morning. The last thing you want him to do is wake up alone on his birthday, after all, so you curl up on his chest as if nothing happened. He stirs slightly, just enough to wrap his arms around you, but he doesn’t fully wake up for another half hour or so. “Hi,” You greet him casually once he actually opens his eyes, kissing him as a grin splits his face. “Happy birthday.”
“Francois spilled the beans, did they?” He asks against your lips, and you giggle.
“Maybe they did,” You reply as he presses a kiss to the bridge of your nose, and you pull away with a smile. “Doesn’t matter how I found out, I have my ways. It’s your special day.” The excitement from the holiday and celebrating someone so important to you has you giddy. Perhaps the lack of sleep is adding to it, but you can’t bring yourself to care at the moment. “And I have a big day planned for us.”
“Do you?” His voice is low, still rough around the edges with sleep. Something about it has you all flustered. Or maybe it’s his hand traveling up your spine. He certainly has a one-track mind, doesn’t he? Although it isn’t as if you’re any better. Jesus, it can’t even be eight in the morning yet. But he mumbles something about you being the only birthday present he could ever want in this world, and you fold almost immediately. Oh, well, Francois won’t have breakfast ready for another hour. And as much as you wanted to help them out, you suppose your services are needed here; although you certainly aren’t the only one doing the servicing.
You and the man of honor himself stumble out of bed about thirty minutes late for breakfast. Francois simply averts their eyes, offering Ryusui a bow as they wish him a happy twenty-first birthday. Ryusui, for his part, snaps excitedly before scooping his loyal butler into a hug. Any meaningful physical contact between the two is rare except for special occasions, and you suppose his birthday falls into that category. You whisper a soft “thank you” in their direction, to which they reply with a humble nod.
If you were to ask Nanami Ryusui about his favorite foods (which you have, on multiple occasions) he would likely reply that he likes everything. If it’s you that’s asking, he’ll even tell you that anything you cook is a favorite of his. However, he’s particularly partial to some nice, luxurious French pastries. You and Francois stayed up late baking, with them applying the finishing touches to the meal while the two of you slept in. Sadly, you don’t yet have champagne for mimosas, so everyone of legal age simply makes do with a wee bit of morning wine. It isn’t exactly as if you can complain; you love a bit of day drinking on a holiday. And of course, Ryusui loves the attention, so you let him wrap his arm around you, his hand rubbing soothing circles into your skin as he boasts about just how lucky he is. There’s a mid-autumn chill in the air, so you welcome the warmth anyways. Plus, you’re still flushed from the inside-out since this morning.
You spend the day with him and your shared friends, with everyone joining in on the festivities by lunch time. You can’t help but feel bad that you weren’t able to do more with the time that you had, but Ryusui seems perfectly happy to press occasional kisses to the crown of your head and your shoulder while everyone ethically slacks off.
Speaking of ethically slacking off, Miharu presents him with a little doodle of a rather zen dragon curled around a sleepy jaguar with a devious grin on her face. “Happy birthday, Ryusui-kun.” He simply barks out a laugh, patting her head fondly. Even Kohaku extends her well-wishes, although she does tug you away from his grasp to give you a hug of her own before you take him for a lunch date by the water. It’s still chilly out, but the meal is delicious. Francois certainly outdid themself.
It has you thinking of the meals you shared in San Francisco, long, long before anything happened. Before petrification, before this. Everything changed so much in such a short time. Or, you suppose, a long time. Nearly four-thousand years worth of time, actually. A lot has happened since then, but you don’t think it’s necessarily all for the worst. After all, it allowed the talents of a high school student like Ishigami Senku to truly shine, and you made some incredible friends in Miharu, Kohaku, and even little Suika. You certainly would not have met them had that mysterious force not petrified you all those years ago.
You may have known Nanami Ryusui back then, but the people you have become are so different now. Or perhaps, you’re the exact same as you were before, and it only took, you know, an extinction event to bring you together for good. You don’t know, and any speculation is likely nothing more than wishful thinking. What you do know, as the frigid waves crash against the shore, is that you have a birthday gift for him, or such is the information you whisper in his ear as you finish your meal. “It’s not anything finished, but I’ve heard that’s part of the fun.” That riles him up quite a bit, so the two of you finish up and you lead him back to the village so you can present him with his gift.
By the time you return, it’s mid-afternoon. You slip away to the Craft Zone ™ to pick up what you need and send a discreet thanks to Senku, who simply waves you off. “It’s nothing. Go get back to the festivities. That’s what you really care about, isn’t it?” He isn’t exactly wrong. You wrap a nice red ribbon (sent your way courtesy of Yuzuriha) around the box of supplies before bringing it out to Ryusui.
And for what it’s worth, he’s absolutely thrilled to open a crate of model ship supplies. “I haven’t built one of these since before —” He trails off, clearly reminiscing about the old world before he seems to snap back to the present as he turns back to you. “This is the best gift I’ve ever received.” Luxury cars, unreleased video games, race tracks, and this is the best gift he’s ever received. Your eyes are a bit watery.
“If you want to thank someone, thank Senku and Miharu.” You say, patting his shoulder. “You know I don’t have the capacity to make something like this.”
“Ah, yes. Because Senku-chan and Miharu–chan simply sensed that Ryusui-chan loves to build odel-may ships.” Asagiri Gen chimes in from somewhere behind you, and you roll your eyes. He’s not necessarily wrong, but you can’t help but feel like you haven’t done enough.
It doesn’t matter because you can most certainly redeem yourself with dinner. You give Ryusui a quick kiss before grabbing Francois and disappearing into the kitchen, because it’s finally time for some pernil. Ryusui has had a hankering for some pork for ages now, and you don’t intend on letting him down. You can quite literally sense the gears in the butler’s head churning as you teach them how to make the dish, and you figure that they’re going to have the recipe memorized before long. You even managed to make your own stone world sofrito to use in the marinade with Francois and Suika’s help to get the ingredients together.
Since you sadly don’t have access to your beloved yellow rice and pigeon peas, you settle for a nice side salad to accompany the dish. You can’t help but be a bit disappointed that you physically can’t make everything perfect, almost to the point of tears. Francois tries to console you by asserting that Ryusui will love anything you make, but it just makes you cry harder because you don’t think you deserve his affections. You don’t tell the butler this reasoning, but as they gently and politely pat your back you think that they know. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s gotten into me.” You apologize, accepting their handkerchief and using it to dab at your eyes.
“There’s no need for apologies,” they reply, shaking their head. “It’s perfectly natural for you to be stressed at a time like this. It’s been a long day, and you are not adequately rested.” They’re right; you’re not sure how long you’ve been in the kitchen for. They call it slow-roasting for a reason, after all, because dusk fell two hours ago and the pork is just now almost done cooking.
Still, you can’t help but draw comparisons. “You haven’t slept either.” They blink, their expression unchanged by your observation. “In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you rest, Francois.” Then start those ridiculous tears again, because you’re suddenly upset by the fact that Francois works themself to the bone, no matter how much they may or may not love their job.
Producing another handkerchief, they dab at your eyes. “You ought not worry yourself about me. I can assure you that I do rest properly.” You don’t quite believe them, but you’re already embarrassed enough at breaking down in front of them. And you’re at the state of overwork where you feel almost wired, so the rest of dinner is complete before Asagiri Gen can even come sniffing around the kitchen for scraps.
Naturally, the man of honor is served first, but when you attempt to help them get everyone else served Francois simply hands you a plate and tells you to go enjoy your dinner. The look they give you tells you that they aren’t going to take no for an answer, so you simply offer them an earnest thank you before making your way over to Ryusui where he sits by the fire. He grins upon seeing you, hugging you to him while he compliments the food as always. He’s in an excellent mood, and it’s really all that you want for him today. So you lean on his shoulder and ask him to tell you something, anything, about his life in the old world that you don’t already know.
He laughs, ruffling your hair affectionately, before agreeing. While he talks, you manage a few bites of your food and quite a few sips of wine before you’re nodding off. The next thing you know, you’re opening your eyes about half an hour later with his cape around your shoulders. You blink a few times, clearing the sleep away from your eyes, before you practically jolt awake. “Oh my God,” You turn to Ryusui who is sipping his wine with a small smile. “I was fast asleep. You must think I’m the worst person ever.” Humiliated, you shove your face into his chest as he pats your back.
“In what world would I ever think that?” He chuckles, the sound echoing against your cheek from where it’s pressed against him. You don’t respond, so he gently pulls you up until you’re face to face. “Let me tell you a secret. For my eighteenth birthday, I got a yacht. I threw a massive party with a bunch of crazy rich and famous people,” You nod, mildly confused. You already knew all of this, so you’re not exactly sure how it’s a secret. “For my tenth birthday, I had a massive racetrack built just for me and my friends. And last year — well, three-thousand or so years ago, I guess — I steered my own sailboat around the San Francisco bay.” You’re still puzzled, tilting your head as he tucks some hair behind your ear. “I’ve gotten more gifts than I know what to do with. So here’s my secret.” Then, he leans in, lips brushing against the shell of your ear. “Today is by far the best birthday I’ve ever had because I’m spending it with you.”
You pull away, stunned. When you first met Ryusui, you had a hard time believing that his compliments were anything more than empty flattery. But now that you know him so well you;ve realized that he means everything he says with his entire being. All of this to say that what he’s just told you must be true, no matter how hard it is to believe that your presence is that important to anyone. Your lip starts to wobble, the tears from earlier welling back up in your eyes.
But you won’t cry on someone else’s birthday, no matter how happy the tears may be. “Thank you. You don’t know how much that means to me.” You smile shakily. He scoops you into a hug, and for once in a very, very long time, things kind of make sense. No, things definitely make sense right where you are, like everything has settled into place somewhere in your chest. And there’s one last thing you really want right now, so it’s your turn to whisper in Ryusui’s ear, asking if he’s ready to retire to bed a little bit early. Immediately catching your drift, he offers you his hand as the two of you stand up. Thankfully, Francois already offered to wash the dishes, so you’re able to sneak away to Ryusui’s room in a manner that is kind of far from discreet.
But, hey, both of you get what you want that night for sure. More than once. And then maybe again after that. Who’s to say? You’re incredibly sore yet completely satisfied at breakfast the next morning, and Nanami Ryusui is unable to keep his hands off of you for more than two minutes at a time. As your pair takes a seat by the fire later than usual, Senku simply rolls his eyes before announcing that the motorboat the science and craft team have been working on is finally complete. You appreciate him waiting to drop this news until today, because there’s nothing you hate more than holiday spotlight-stealers. Ryusui is pretty excited about it though, which makes your job decently easier.
You think back to that little doodle Miharu drew of her and Senku’s catsonas shaking hands with your … jaguarsona? Whatever the big cat she sees you as may be, you’ve got your side of the deal to uphold. You nudge Ryusui, and he hums in reply. “How would you like to go out to sea with me?” He starts to open his mouth, clearly enticed by the idea as a haze of that usual desire starts to settle over his eyes. “And Senku. And Miharu. And Gen. Chrome, too. Even Ukyo.” His grin immediately falls. You bat your lashes.
Then, he sighs. “I suppose it can’t be helped, can it?” With a kiss to your shoulder, he grumbles. “Of course, I’ll go. They need someone who understands the sea, anyways. But I’m taking you out on the boat the moment I can. Just the two of us.” You agree to go, leaving him with a kiss on the cheek and a strict warning that if he’s going with you on this motorboat test run he’s going for free. He promises not to charge Senku any Dragos for his cooperation, and you skitter away to find Miharu to let her know you upheld your end of the deal. Although something tells you she and Senku knew there was absolutely no way in hell Nanami Ryusui would ever say no to you. You really got the easy end of the deal.
The day the boat is set to leave is far warmer than usual. It’s almost the end of November, around the same time that you used to celebrate Thanksgiving back in San Francisco. Funnily enough, you hesitate to tell others about that holiday for fear it won’t catch on here. Maybe when you eventually make your way back to the land of the free. Ryusui helps you into your life jacket while Senku and Miharu are chatting about something or other.
Wait, Senku and Miharu are chatting about something or other. You pinch Ryusui’s arm with little bite behind the action and he raises an eyebrow, confused. You jut your chin in the direction of the two scientists, and understanding floods his gaze. Come on, what kind of woman would you be if you didn’t fill your boyfriend in on Gamblers Anonymous? Especially considering the fact that he’s far better at placing bets than you are. He may have joined the bet on Kohaku’s side, but there’s not exactly any bad blood between the two of you because of it. In fact, considering the way the doctor and scientist are gazing at each other, Ryusui’s luck may prove him right yet again.
He snickers, muttering something good-naturedly about you owing him a shit ton of Dragos. To which you remind him that the majority of the money you have was given to you by him, anyway, so it’d basically be money recycling for him. He’s a one man economy, after all. Still, you can’t help making a snide remark or two in Miharu’s direction, teasing her about whatever the hell is going on with her and the leader of the Kingdom of Science. Naturally, she pretends she doesn’t hear shit, a fact that practically sends you into hysterics.
Once the lot of you get out in the open waters, it’s time to activate the GPS. Yes, GPS. Of course, you and Asagiri Gen’s jaws were on the floor when you found out that was in the cards, and this time you weren’t the only ones. Ukyo manually spins the antenna rather self-consciously, attempting to catch the Empire’s signal. Sure enough, he succeeds, and the first phone call between land and sea is set in motion. Ruri’s enthusiastic voice echoes through the receiver. “Sailors, have you found your bearings?”
Chrome is vibrating with excitement. “Yup, we’re in baad business.” Ruri doesn’t reply right away, but you can catch the sound of someone whispering to her on the other side of the phone. You nudge Ukyo, who simply mouths a name. Ginro. You groan aloud. What the fuck could that moron possibly be telling the priestess? Before you can ask the sonar man for another breakdown of what exactly is being said, Ruri speaks again.
“Chrome?” The adventurer’s face softens expectantly, his cheeks flushing red. Are you really about to finally witness the stone world’s first childhood friends to lovers trope be fulfilled? “Everyone’s telling me to say how I feel, so I will. I’ve always —” You’re practically at the edge of your seat when ear-piercing static cuts through. You and Miharu share a collective groan, equally invested in this overseas romance drama. Gen is mourning the loss aloud when you realize something weird about this “static.”
Which is that it’s far too purposeful to be anything accidental. Ukyo’s face is pale when your eyes meet. Ryusui’s grip around your waist tightens. Every single one of you on this boat is fluent in Morse code. You know exactly what the signal is saying — or, rather, asking. W-H-Y?
Over and over, repeatedly, relentless. The dots and dashes don’t stop, pleading for an answer from the humans who restarted the world with their own bare hands. Ever-cowardly, Gen is quivering with fear, but Chrome is clearly feeling the exact opposite as he grabs the receiver and immediately starts hooting and hollering into it, imploring the mysterious source of the transmission to “square up or shut up.” Good to know your lessons on slang are not falling upon deaf ears, but Ryusui has to practically pry the receiver out of his hands to pass it to you. As he lectures Chrome about keeping his composure, you rapid-fire every single major language you know in hopes that something will resonate and you’ll get a reply. To no avail, you pass the task onto Senku.
“It’s you, isn’t it?” He speaks lowly into the mouthpiece, and everyone is silent, not wanting to miss a single word. The only sounds apart from his voice are the wind and the water. “The mastermind behind the petrification.” A grin that borders on manic splits Senku’s face, and a chill runs up your spine. What the fuck have you just gotten yourselves into?
a/n: i just realized there's like zero dividers this whole chapter oopises. I also realize that atp i am only posting shit for myself bc #NoOne is infested but i ALSO realize that i do not care! i have like 7 more chapters that are already finished im grown asl who cares if no one likes it but me ok bye have a great weekend everyone!!
CONTENTS: VOLUME 16: ON PHONE CALLS, REQUESTS, AND LOVE POTIONS
To your great surprise Senku does call. The first time it happens you are so unprepared you end up asking if he wants you to pass the phone to Gen. There’s a moment of still, foreboding silence before Senku snaps with his favorite deadpan sort of tone, asking why exactly he would want to speak with Gen. You can name at least one hundred and eighty-seven reasons just on top of your head but bite your tongue, opting to apologize instead.
You asked Senku to call you and he did. You don’t exactly know what this means but you pretend like you can’t hear how embarrassed he is even over the grainy audio and push whatever it is that you feel down to the bottom in your stomach. Then you start speaking. How the ship is coming along. Yuzuriha’s progress with the statue restoration project. How you overheard people being worried that they end up running out of food before winter even hits. There’s a little bit more context to that one but both you and Senku know that this concern is applicable to your current situation, anyway. There are a lot more people now for him to take care of, and some preserved meat and vegetables won’t suffice. He sighs, promising to think of something. You apologize for adding more problems to his plate. He doesn’t even have enough time to dismiss you before Kohaku interrupts the call to monopolize your attention for another Love Island Japan update.
You think that’s it. Senku begrudgingly gave you want you begged him to do to get you off his back and now he is free from your pestering up until you see each other again. You are wrong. Senku calls again a couple of days later and when you call yourself the next evening, he picks up the phone. It continues like that all throughout the summer. Sometimes you can hear Kohaku’s voice pushing through the static noise before Senku yells back that he’s busy. Sometimes Gen pops up to say hello, whispering something that is not for your ears to hear. Sometimes it’s just the two of you and the static on both sides of the line, before Ukyo apologizes for interrupting and the call ends with a rushed goodbye.
Today, however, Senku seems to be in high spirits, and you aren’t even fast enough to ask what got him so excited when he speaks. Rather cryptically, at that. “Kohaku should be there by tomorrow.”
“Something’s wrong?” You ask, unsure what exactly to expect. It’s definitely not oil. Senku would have announced it differently and in front of other people, but he also uses your calls as PSAs these days so you guess anything can happen at this point.
“We found wheat the other day,” he explains before laughing. You sure as hell know they couldn’t find a stray Komugi. Your Shibuya girl friend is pestering Nikki right now about how cute she is, so they must have found the actual crops. And that snickering of his is one of Senku’s sleazy cackles, so you can pretty much imagine his next words already. “Ryusui said he’ll pay for labor.”
Senku’s laughter is a rather contagious little thing. You allow yourself exactly one minute of giggling along before you put a stop on this nonsense and get back to the important stuff. As fun as it is that Senku swindled Ryusui again, the message is clear. You have a job to do, and you will do your absolute best to make sure everything is according to some invisible stamp of perfection that you strive for. Moreover, Senku trusts you take care of things, even if he doesn’t exactly admit it out loud, and you hate disappointing people you care about.
“I’ll figure something out,” you promise. “Take care.”
“Sure you will,” Senku quips. You can almost see the curve of his lips when he says that. “Thanks.”
Wheat farming turns out to be one hell of heavy labor. Granted, Taiju is astonishingly good at this, having not only his endless stamina and dedication to the cause but also a whole array of Senku-mandated agriculture tips up his sleeve. Gen does his best to keep the momentum going with his cheap tricks, and soon everyone involved is far too fired up over the prospect of winning a hat that Gen literally brought to Yuzuriha because he didn’t want her to get a heatstroke. Always at the scene of a competitive crime, Magma and Yo clearly don’t get why Taiju’s wheat is sprouting while theirs isn’t, and you have to bring out the big guns in a form of litmus paper to clarify just how exactly pH levels affect the environment. When you explain the whole thing to Senku he just crackles and tells you to pass the big oaf his best regards for remembering how to neutralize acidic soil with calcium. You tell him that he should congratulate his friend in person.
In the end Taiju gets his cool new hat and Senku does pop by to congratulate him. Ryusui and Reina are suspiciously too close in the balloon cart, so you confirm that you won your bet and Minami should pay up. Deciding to tease the lovebirds too much, you don’t bring up the fact that the sailor owes Taiju and his team an atrocious sum of money for their labor, opting to leave them alone for now. It’s not like you need a crash course on their love life, anyway. You know everything in meticulous detail from Kohaku and her enthusiasm for all things romance. It’s cute, also a little bit disturbing, but you guess you can’t expect anything but overzealousness from the resident loverboy extraordinaire. Good for Reina, really. You are happy for her and–
“Good job.” Senku sounds so casual, that bastard, as if he hasn’t just almost sent you into a cardiac arrest by popping from out of nowhere like that. You despise this guy sometimes, you swear. And is it really necessary to look at you like that? You are going through heart palpitations here and whatever the hell that look of his is, it doesn’t help in the slightest. Gripping the burgundy fabric of your dress right over your chest, you try to calm down your racing heart and rapid breath. And the asshole has the guts to laugh at you. “Not overworking yourself, are you?”
“You know damn well how lazy I am, Senku,” you deny any involvement in the wheat cultivating success with a little to no effort and a tad bit too quickly. You are awful but not to such an extent as to rob people of their achievements just to get a pat on the back from Ishigami Senku. Even if he gives out some damn good pats. “Taiju worked hard on this. I’m just riding the wave to get some more money out of Ryusui,” you grumble through your teeth, still a little spooked. Senku doesn’t look particularly convinced by your self-admitted laziness, which is just weird. You are as uninspired about physical labor as Gen is, Senku should know this by now. Still, it’s nice to hear some earnest praise thrown your way once in a while. Even if you did a bare minimum of putting a couple of people together so they can do all the job for you. You’re such an attention-seeking nuisance, aren’t you? Damn it. At least it’s a nice segue into what you actually wanted to talk with Senku about. “But if you really want to congratulate us on a job well done…”
You cut your sentence short, unsure how to go about it in a way that won’t make you seem like you are demanding things instead of actually asking questions. The start of your sentence is already pretty poor, so all you can do is just continue digging your own grave. You already proved to yourself that the last thing Senku can do is refuse. It won’t really change much if he refuses, really. You understand Senku has more important things to care about than your whims. But it will help a lot if Senku gives you a time of day to give a quick rundown on a blueprint or two. You can take it from there, too, so you won’t waste too much of his time. Things have been so very slow without him around, especially for the more peculiar individuals of your bunch, and you think it’s a good idea to put some restless minds to work before they wither.
“Well?” Senku tilts his head to the side before sighing, a little annoyed with your stalling. Then Senku notices you aren’t exactly paying him any attention, too busy overthinking your own choices, so he snaps his fingers right in front of your face. You shudder, but it does the job. “Are you gonna talk or are we gonna be standing here all day?”
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. You’ve been saying this a lot these days. Senku won’t think you are stupid for asking questions, you went over this one already. Still, you don’t want to sound too ungrateful by putting more pressure on him. Gen is right, you really are just pulling problems out of thin air to sabotage yourself. But it’s not really your fault that doubting yourself is borderline engraved in your DNA at this point. It takes up to almost three hundred days to break a habit, and relapsing is a natural step towards recovery. This may just be a ‘two steps forward, one step back’ thing but one step in the right direction is still progress.
“Is there a way for us to record music now the same way Byakuya-san did?” You ask at last.
Senku considers your words for a second, scratching the back of his head absentmindedly. “I guess so?” He says. It’s noncommittal. It’s clear Senku already knows whether it’s possible or not, he just doesn’t want to tell you. “Why? Not a big fan of Lillian Weinberg?”
Biting the inside of your cheek, you look at the patch of golden wheat amongst the sea of green. “It will be a long winter, that’s all.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Senku deflects.
It’s not a no, and if you can judge the patterns, it’s basically a yes dressed in a very vague disguise just to save face. You guess it’s fair. You’d like to think you know Senku a little better now, but he’s always been like that since the very beginning and sometimes you wonder exactly why it’s so hard for him to be open with his emotions. You’re not the one to talk, but human mind is still the most fascinating poison you’ve ever had a chance of tasting. And you must have lost yourself staring at the rustling waves of wheat, because Senku clicks his fingers again.
“Any more requests, doc?” Senku asks, leaning in just a bit, and you need to force yourself to stay still so you won’t back away on accident. Senku’s eyes are too intense for you sometimes, that’s all. But you need to keep eye contact going, otherwise you lose whatever the hell this staring contest is. However one-sided it may be. “Since I am your personal on-demand engineer now.”
Yes, you still think Senku’s eyes are the most expressive thing you’ve ever seen, and you know just how often your face betrays you. You guess it’s the shape and the color. Senku is clearly not fully Japanese. Your best guess one of his biological parents was from somewhere around the Caribbean. But that just adds to your overall confusion. This shade of almost-red is rare. But so is white hair, especially with the clear wave pattern he has zero clue how to manage.
Byakuya never mentioned anything about albinism, and you know damn well that he would have. You also could have forgotten, too, of course. But Senku himself has never complained about bad eyesight or having issues with going out in the sun. He is also not the one to complain about his own grievances and you would never truly know unless you ask. You’re also staring like a creep, aren’t you? Well, it happens even to the best soldiers of love such as yourself. You just hope Senku doesn’t call you out on it, that would be too humiliating even for you.
And you know Senku is being sarcastic. You shouldn’t take his words seriously when he sounds all cocky like that. Still, you give one look at Taiju and Yuzuriha, conversing with the newly appointed couple a bit farther away. Maybe this is a bit more urgent than some new, shiny records. A bit more useful, too. “Bicycles?”
Senku follows your line of sight, a contemplative frown tugging at the corners of his lips before something flashes in those eyes of his and he scoffs. “Do you even know how to ride one?” He asks rather incredulously.
You want to say that you aren’t even the slightest bit offended by just how little faith Senku has in your physical prowess but that would be a lie. You can’t even blame him for doubting you this time around. Given your awful track record with not being able to swim, or run, or lift anything over ten kilos without huffing and puffing. It’s really a miracle Senku even asks before outright stating that. And he’s right, too. You can’t ride a bicycle, or at the very least you don’t have any memories of knowing how to. Trusting your memory is rotten work, you are aware. But with how awful those tremors of yours used to be sometimes, you aren’t sure you qualified for a balancing act on a bike back then.
“That’s beside the point,” you huff, trying to change the subject before Senku gets too proud of himself for calling you out on your ineptitude. Of course, your resident perfect genius knows how to swim, and can ride a bike, and he is probably allowed on roller coaster rides at USJ, too. Unlike a certain someone by the name of Shinomiya [Name]. Is there anything this guy can’t do? You hate Ishigami Senku. Positively despise him. “Please, Senku.” And yet, you still beg him for help. How the mighty have fallen, groveling all over again. It’s not for you, anyway. It’s for the betterment of society. “Everyone is working so hard these days, but it’s a pain to walk here every morning. Yuzuriha’s been coming over with joint aches, too.” And it clearly annoys Senku, too. If judging by his rather unimpressed, vacant expression and those tightly wound shoulders, at least. So it’s just a win in your books. And you love winning against him. “Please, Senku. I will do anything–”
You guess using Yuzuriha against him is a bit of a low blow, but it sure does the job. Senku interrupts you before you can finish your sentence and sell all three of your future children to him. “Sure, if you want them that bad.” Senku’s deadpan mumble is a rather telling thing, and along with the absolute look of disgust on his face it makes for a pretty evident picture. You grin. Senku rolls his eyes at you so hard, one might think you are the bane of his existence. And you guess you are to an extent. “You’re gonna be the one explaining this to Kaseki, you know that, right?”
You shrug, satisfied with the compromise. “We did just fine with the telescope before,” you admit casually. Then you notice the questioning look in Senku’s eyes and realize it’s the first time that you admitted your involvement with that specific thing. You clear your throat awkwardly, urgently rushing to save your face before Senku thinks you actually put effort into that one. You did. Too much of it, in fact. But it’s irrelevant to the current matter at hand. “And other stuff, too.”
Senku hums in agreement, once again looking over to where Taiju and Yuzuriha are. “I guess it will be useful in the long run,” he says, a little less stiff. Cracking his knuckles, Senku unceremoniously opens your satchel and digs for your journal. “Single speed’s enough, right?” Senku asks, as if he actually expects you to respond. He seems to be genuinely apologetic too, that guy. Who does Senku think you are? But better yet, who does Senku think he is? He really loves stealing stuff from you, that bastard. From your nitric acid, to your unpaid labor, to your sleep, to your pencils, to your medicine cabinet, to now your own damn diary. What if you had something inappropriate in your bag, then what? “I don’t have the time for anything too fancy, sorry.”
“More than,” you mumble, still very much grateful for his help even if he technically stole from you just now. “Thank you, Senku.”
“It’s nothing,” he answers, still scribbling over a two-page spread of your journal.
Senku silent for a while and it takes you a good fifteen minutes to gather what little courage your self-proclaimed cowardly mind has to come a little closer. A little peek at what exactly Senku is drawing up for you won’t hurt, but before you can even steal a glance, he turns around and then snaps the journal shut. Then he hides it back in your satchel and scratches his ear as if everything is perfectly normal. Talk about being a complete freak.
“See ya,” Senku says, throwing you a lackluster peace sign and then promptly distancing himself from you.
“Call me when you get back,” you remind him.
“Yes, Senku-chan, call her,” Gen says mockingly, popping out of nowhere and admittedly capturing you hostage by wrapping his arms around your shoulders to bring you closer to his chest. “Or you’ll be eally-ray missing out.”
“Gen,” you mumble, nothing more than a reprimanding slap on the wrist for the mentalist you are supposed to keep in check. “Behave, please.”
Rolling his eyes for what feels like a hundredth time today, Senku walks away without even letting you say a proper goodbye. Gen giggles. You have no idea what’s so funny about irritating Senku into an Irish goodbye, but Gen definitely knows something that you don’t. Maybe he also likes winning against someone like Ishigami Senku, whatever games those two play. Your best guess is that it’s their manly male solidarity or whatever the hell they call it. It’s fine, everyone is allowed their own secrets. You sure have a share of your own, rather shameful ones at that.
Despite never agreeing to anything Senku calls in two hours to check in. Then he calls again the next morning to inform you that they suck at making bread and Reina’s efforts are apparently not enough to pacify Ryusui’s endless greed. The sailor is far too picky for his good and is now demanding to revive a professional chef. You clear your throat, awkwardly pointing out that you are, in fact, out of revival fluid. Then you almost go deaf, not expecting Ryusui to barge into your conversation out of nowhere. He points out his suspicion of Minami hanging onto some revival fluid. Before either you or Gen can disprove the notion, Reina backs Ryusui up by stating she noticed something clanking in Minami’s headpiece before.
You sigh, pointing out that she won’t just be giving something as valuable as revival fluid for free. Gen chimes in, reminding just how high the price of bribing Minami is this time around. Something rustles on the other side of the line, so you guess they are fighting for the speaker and Senku wins, admitting that he’s been thinking about making a camera for a while now. For the sake of oil search, of course, but this just gives him all the more reason to hurry up. Two birds with one stone again, you suppose.
Minami is so ecstatic to upgrade her newspaper into an issue with photographs that she surrenders her stash or revival fluid without a second thought. You don’t correct her, even if you know full well it’s probably going to be a daguerreotype and not a modern camera she’s imagining right now. But you guess that even a glass photo is better than none at all. Under Senku’s long distance guidance you and Kaseki finish up with the bicycles just in time to start the search for the person Ryusui picked to be your professional chef. Fortunately for everyone involved, really.
Francois is a peculiar person. They are also an outstanding specimen. They give you nothing by their name and occupation and then almost drag Gen into a wild goose chase in search of Ryusui before you stop them and show them to the bikes. The five-hour bicycle ride around the coast is much more enjoyable than a two-day walk on foot through the woods, and you give yourself a metaphorical pat on the back for your insight. You do leave Yuzuriha, Nikki and Minami with only one bike to share, however, but they can take a brisk journey back to the Empire way easier than you.
Gen is barely alive when you arrive at the village, given he has to survive the ride with you clinging to his back. Reina waves her hand excitedly. She’s positively glowing, and you give her a quick hug, whispering a teasing remark or two in her ear, before you run off to greet everyone else. Ukyo is, for the lack of better words, absolutely traumatized and you offer him your silent condolences and a firm pat on his back. Chrome and Kohaku insist on your trying out the bread and you politely decline. As much as you love poison, you are not about to eat straight up dirt unless in times of famine. As per your prophetic expectations those two are perplexed by your refusal and see nothing wrong with the charred pieces of coal-like dough they’re chewing on. Francois, however, is so utterly disgusted with the state of the bread Ryusui shows them, they almost puke.
Nothing if not efficient, soon they not only organize a full-blown bakery class, but also help your own business tremendously. The first ever stone world restaurant is now established, and you use the newly acquired goat milk and your favorite freeze-dried berries to make a new batch of skincare that Ryusui buys from you the second he spots you putting lotion on your legs. You, now a couple thousand dragos richer, grin devilishly. With Ryusui distracted by creams and lotions, you can now get to the fun part of testing actual makeup and shampoos while Senku is giving free lessons on mirror making.
You’ve been thinking of starting to sell makeup for a while now. Partly because Komugi keeps pestering you about feeling naked without her gyaru getup, partly because you want the girls to have some fun when Senku finally pulls through with his promise of making a makeshift recording device. The winter will be long and for the most part taskless, so a little party won’t hurt. Especially it won’t hurt the economy when you end up selling tickets to get in. Alcohol and some nice music do wonders for uplifting the mood, after all.
You are inexplicably elated to be back in Ishigami village. It almost feels like coming home, even if it also feels a little odd to not go back to the storehouse when you retire for the night. With so many empty huts you definitely have no reason to stay there but when Gen cheekily offers to crash at his place, you awkwardly decline. Despite the nature of your connection, it still feels terribly wrong to live with Gen, albeit temporarily. Yes, you get physical and kiss in public sometimes, but you aren’t dating. So you opt to stay over at Kohaku’s hut, terrorized by the silence of your empty room back at the Empire.
It’s something that earns you a perplexed glance from Reina, who still thinks that you and Gen are officially together. She and Ryusui are now apparently moving two hundred per hour and all but got married in the span of one month. You don’t grace her with a response when she asks why exactly you decided to stick with Kohaku when you can just share a futon with your unlabeled not-boyfriend and the look on her face when you deflect is telling. You don’t want to unpack this one just yet, so you just tug Senku on the sleeve and remind him that you need to update Minami on your progress.
The journalist is understandably mad about her camera not being ready yet and you try your best to explain that you actually won’t be able to finish it without Kaseki present. The man is old and won’t be able to handle such a taxing trip, and the bicycle that remains in the Empire is occupied by Taiju for the most part. Fortunately for Minami, Kaseki is still bored out of his damn mind. So much, in fact, that even after being swindled by Komugi into crafting her a set of drums he still feels completely jobless. Gen offers Minami to steal Taiju’s bike and take a ride down the steep hill to the village. Minami huffs, giving Gen a clear direction to where exactly he should go to find enlightenment and promptly ending the call.
Two days later Minami and Kaseki show up on an upgraded Steam Gorilla, shocking even Senku himself. You can’t help but laugh. That’s what you meant when you said that humanity is at their most brilliant when they’re spiteful. The camera is finished in the span of a week. Well, one of the cameras, as they’re obviously just a tool for the oil search more than a gift for Minami. Still, ignorant of Senku’s ulterior motives, Minami can’t fight back tears. You are glad she got what she wanted, even if you have to help Kohaku with moving the extra cameras to the hot air balloon before Senku gets to ruin Minami’s moment with his never-ending pragmatism.
Naturally, Minami is excited to take the first ever post-petrification event photo and Ryusui is quick to offer to buy it from her. As glad as you are that he is adhering to your agreement and doesn’t try to appropriate this for himself, Minami is obviously enraged over the fact. Luckily for all of you, Ryusui is perfect. He knows just who exactly should be the subject of the photo that he’s going to put in the Nanami Museum later down the line. Senku is not impressed by being dragged into this but can’t escape the sheer force of peer pressure, crumbling under everyone’s rather intense enthusiasm.
One look inside the bags Francois is holding, you choke on a snort and put a stop on Minami’s hyper rambling. Then you kindly offer to prepare Senku for the photoshoot before Minami and Ryusui get overzealous and start putting him in frilly dresses from Reina’s vast wardrobe. Minami gasps, as dramatic as she is, hitting Reina on the shoulder excitedly. Kohaku grins at you, all catty, and throws you a thumbs up. Your perplexed frown is telling, but Gen waves his hand dismissively and ushers you to move on with it.
“What is there to prepare?” Senku snaps the second you push him up the observatory and close the door behind you. “She just needs to press a button and we’re done.”
“I saved your ass just now,” you hiss, dropping the bags with clothes on the floor. “Be grateful.”
Senku scoffs, folding his arms over his chest. You get it, Senku isn’t happy about this whole ordeal, but he should know that it could have been way worse if you weren’t such a nosy little thing sometimes. You are saving his dignity here, really. Or, more accurately, you are saving yourself the time you would have spent laughing over Senku in a frilly dress. That’s just not a thing you want to see, no offense. But if he wants to put it on, then sure. Who are you to deny him the luxury of cross-dressing even if you aren’t particularly into it. Gen sure has no issues utilizing a dress to confuse the weak-minded sometimes. But then again, everything except murder is fair and no low is ever too low. Especially when scamming the infamous one percent of the one percent of the stone world’s Forbes List out of money.
With one rather strained kick, you push the bags towards Senku. He gives them one scrutinizing look before digging his hand in a random one and pulling out one of the worst options he could have gotten his hands on. Senku’s luck is truly nonexistent, or maybe whoever it was that Francois assigned to collect Ryusui’s wardrobe had no idea what they’re doing. Or they just have some interesting sense of humor. That’s probably just Minami being petty for taking too long with the camera, isn’t it? Most definitely.
“What the hell is this?” It’s actually a little unclear whether Senku’s question is rhetorical or he’s genuinely confused about the integral structure of the garment. You, yourself, aren’t exactly aware how all those strings are supposed to combine into a clothing piece but there’s a chunk of solid white fabric in there somewhere, so you guess it’s another backless dress. Just suited to be worn only indoors. Probably in private, too. Or outside, if that’s Reina’s thing, you aren’t the one to judge. You’re actually pretty damn jealous she can pull it off, really. “Can’t wait to pose for the lithic gravure magazine in this thing.”
You do a terrible job at suppressing the snort at the sardonic comment, or the way Senku drops the dress back into the paper bag with a little too no will to live and pushes it towards you. “Probably Reina’s,” you state the obvious, then laugh, kicking the bag back to Senku. “Want it?”
One sharp look from Senku is more than enough to shut you up and you decide not to push the line too much. Some lighthearted teasing is fine, but you’re actually playing his white knight here, not an evil witch. You search through the assortment of clothing to find the suit you spotted, giving it a good once-over to access just how big it would be on Senku. You guess Ryusui’s greed really knows no bounds, because this definitely is far too small on someone of his statue. Luckily for you, however, it should be just around Senku’s size. He really owes you for this one, so many things you need to hide in your secret booze stash after you’re done here.
You separate your pick from the rest of the terrible options, and beckon Senku to take a seat next to the window where the telescope used to be. He does so, albeit reluctantly and complaining under his breath. But you did promise Minami you are going to make a Vogue model out of your resident genius, so you are going to do just that. Even if you are surely pushing boundaries with this one. Disappointing men in power is pretty high on your metaphorical fear ladder, so exposure therapy it is.
“With how ass the resolution is on that thing, this stuff is useless,” Senku reasonably points when he notices you taking out all the different jars from your satchel. He’s right, nobody will be able to tell the difference, but it’s not really about whether Senku has his dark circles professionally color corrected but the fact that you need to actually do something to sell your lie. Not to Minami herself, but to Francois. They are far too perceptive; it’s kind of terrifying.
So you shrug, poking the wooden side of the makeup brush against Senku’s undereye. “Your eyebags are the size of Antarctica. You look like a dead raccoon right now,” you say and just to drive your point home you show Senku his own reflection. Exhausted and, for the lack of better words, unimpressed, he stares back at the mirror with vacant eyes. You sigh, rubbing your temples. “Okay, fine,” you admit, giving up on your obvious ploy. “I just want to test this out. Please?”
“I really don’t care about stuff like that, [Name],” Senku repeats himself.
It’s not a no, so you push one of the logs lying around to use as your knee rest and get to work on removing those pesky dark circles of his. You don’t even need to do much, really. This guy is lucky with just about everything other than what actually matters to him. But damn, how unfair. Men wash their face with some water and flesh-corroding soap and somehow still have that perfect glass skin.
“I know,” you nod, slapping Senku on the shoulder so he sits back straight. Your jealousy over Senku’s complexion aside, it’s obvious that he’s not actually talking about makeup but the whole photoshoot thing. For someone like him it really is a waste of time. He’d rather just set off with the search party again than be here with you, but there are some things Senku needs to sacrifice as a leader now. Even if it is unfair to ask those of him, in a way. “But they do. You are kind of the heart of this whole thing, you know.”
You don’t mean to put it like that, but even if it’s a rather embarrassing thing to admit, that’s what Senku is in his core. It all returns to the fact that to be a true leader, one must first be chosen by the people. In an ideal world, it’s not about making compromises by choosing the lesser evil, but about picking the person you deem the most suitable. Your choice falls onto the one you like the most. This world is a far cry from a utopia, but you just won this one-in-a-ten-billion lottery by getting Senku as an option. God knows you don’t want to choose between an evil guy with a criminal record and another evil guy who was just lucky enough to not get caught on his crimes.
Senku falls silent for a moment, trying to process what exactly you said to him and what it really means. You guess even someone like Ishigami Senku needs some time to get used to the fact that the people around him actually care about him and not the things he can offer them. Although you can’t help but wonder if Senku has those kinds of doubts in the first place. A thing that seems very much out of character for someone who does his utmost best to pretend to be cool and unbothered. If only Senku weren’t so quick to cover up his tracks.
Senku’s whole face contorts in disdain, and you smack him on the shoulder again to remind him to stay still. “Not the brain, really?”
You snicker. Of course, Ishigami Senku wants to be the brain. “Basic biology,” you remind him. “Brain can’t survive without a heart. We depend on you a lot more than we should.”
You are a bit too honest today, but that’s just the truth. One that Senku doesn’t seem to accept, it looks like. “You’ll manage.”
Once again dismissive, Senku repeats these exact words to you for what feels like a hundredth time. It’s only the third, but it’s not like you are counting or remembering every single thing he says. That’s just ridiculous. Senku also doesn’t really get what he actually represents at this point. It’s not about managing to get by anymore. Not a single person here would bother following someone else even if a malevolent miracle occurs and Hyoga somehow escapes his prison cell to wreak havoc upon these lands. And you did promise to kill yourself if that ever happens, so here’s your answer to that hypothetical.
“No, Senku. Not anymore.” You shake your head and bite the tip of the makeup brush, giving your work one last scrutinizing look. The shade isn’t exactly the perfect match, but you think nobody except Kohaku will notice the difference. It’s a shame. You don’t exactly have all the right ingredients but at least you like the formula. Looks pretty damn even. You guess that will suffice for now, even if the fact that it’s not perfect makes you yearn for a lobotomy just a little bit. You pass Senku a mirror, then you grin. “You look great, right? Eight hours of sleep do wonders to a man of science.” He doesn’t reply, opting to stare wordlessly at you with that deadpan and vacant stare of his. You take it as the cue that you overstayed your welcome. “Get dressed and if all fails you can always cosplay Einstein.”
Senku ends up cosplaying Einstein. Minami is far too meticulous and when Ryusui sends Francois looking for another set of clothes that isn’t a suit, you pretend like you have no idea where the bags went. You won’t know how the photo turns out until later, but you do ask Senku to spare a couple of mirror plates on you and the girls. He shrugs, telling you to knock yourself out. Minami giggles for whatever reason, before you call her in to join you, Reina, and Kohaku in the photo. Francois is kind enough to offer to be a camera person and soon you waste a lot of film on just fooling around with the camera up until Senku drags your resident wild cats back to work on the balloon.
With the reinvention of a camera things pick up immense speed. You and Gen return back to the Empire, not wanting to waste your time on dilly dallying. You feel far too awkward being pestered by Reina over your sleeping arrangements and there are a lot of winter preparations to be done there, anyway. You need to feel useful again, so you go back to your Senku phone updates schedule up until October. Francois’ restaurant is thriving and while in search for truffles all of you know she can’t find above ground, Kohaku ends up spotting a minuscule spec of black that turns out to be the Sagara Oil Field. Nanami conglomerate gets its black gold at last, and you have just the funds to buy it all.
The party returns soon after, with Senku announcing that you are straying off course to build a motorboat. Gen blinks at him dumbly before resigning it all to fate and you just roll out a parchment big enough to fit the blueprint. Then you add salt to the wound by asking if the motorboat is actually for testing the GPS you will be starting on soon. Senku cackles. You receive your ten billion points for being right. Gen turns paper white before begrudgingly putting himself together. You end up splitting the work, with you and Gen getting to upgrade the communication tower into a radio beacon and Senku, along with his craft team, gets to tinker with the Stirling engine for the boat.
By the time you are done with the boat it’s already November. Surprisingly, you don’t argue over the passengers this time, with Senku just dropping the list of names and telling you it’s nonnegotiable. If Senku expects you to protest, he doesn’t get the satisfaction of another debate. You want to ride that boat, too, even if you can’t swim. Yuzuriha didn’t spend all that time sewing six life jackets for you to just bail like that. Gen offers to pull yet another card trick of his to make sure Ryusui doesn’t demand money for his services, but you just ask Reina to tell him to come for free. He does.
The weather is amazing for November, and the sea is surprisingly calm. It really seems like just the right time to set out on a little seaside adventure, even if it absolutely stinks of gasoline in here. You offhandedly congratulate Senku on the job well done and he dismisses you. As expected, of course, that guy can’t take a compliment to save his life. But Senku then puts his hand on his hip and smirks, stating that the ship will be the real deal, and you’ll just have to wait and see. You don’t doubt that, not in the slightest, so you just laugh and pretend like you can’t hear Reina making any unsolicited comments. Uncalled for, really.
Next to you Taiju sniffs the air, muttering something about a love potion under his breath and then smiles. It’s genuinely happy and so damn bright you think you go blind for a moment. Only Taiju decides that temporary blinding everyone is not enough and hits the second tower right after. “Are you in love with someone, Senku?”
Just as shell-shocked at the rest of you, Senku blinks at his best friend in confusion. Gen cackles, the sly fox that he is, leaning in to whisper something in Senku’s ear. Really born in the wrong generation, that guy. Gen would have done wonderfully as a scheming eunuch, plotting behind some incompetent emperor’s back. You guess he achieved that one, in a way, granted your situation. But Gen still keeps meddling even after the not-so-evil Tsukasa gets locked in the cryo chamber and his new liege has a good head on his shoulders. Mediocrity can never satisfy Asagiri Gen, can it? It makes you wonder why the hell Gen even bothers with you sometimes. You guess the lack of better options got him feeling desperate. Lucky you. Which makes this whole thing so stupid. You are despicable.
Red-eared and fuming, Senku whacks Gen over his head. Then he clears his throat and laughs, stating that if even Taiju can recognize the smell of gasoline, then he did a pretty good job with it. Which just leads to Taiju going over his evidently eventful, albeit very high-school drama sort of romance with Yuzuriha and how Senku tried tricking him into drinking his gasoline love potion. A dangerous thing, but very telling, considering Senku knew for sure that not only Taiju wouldn’t stoop as low as to manipulate Yuzuriha’s feelings but also the extent of trust Senku has in his friends. It’s admirable how much of a great person Ishigami Senku really is. But you’ve been praising him far too often these days, haven’t you? A slippery slope, this one.
You grind your teeth and shake your head, focusing on what really matters. Suika flips the switch and you catch Empire’s signal right in the middle of the open sea. By the laugher and eager muttering on the other side of the line you guess everyone is ushering Ruri to confess to Chrome. No better than he is, she fails. In about a moment all your romance drama seems particularly insignificant when static breaches through the signal, interrupting the conversation and completely cutting your connection with land.
Dots and dashes. It doesn’t take much time to figure out that it’s not just an equipment issue. You always found it fascinating how a human can drown in a spoonful of water, but you never expected for your life to be changed by three letters only. W-H-Y. You’ve never felt more grateful for Reina, you wouldn’t have brushed your international Morse code skills without her. But this is it, right? That’s not a mistake, not at all. There is no such thing as a coincidence in the world of science.
This right here is the entity that petrified humanity all those years ago and now it’s back, demanding to know why you are still alive and kicking after they went through all that trouble of getting rid of you. Senku surely realizes it too, that’s why you lock eyes for a long, drawn-out moment just to see him absolutely, positively seething. You must be grinning like a maniac again, too, but you can’t help yourself. You and Senku agreed to find this thing together, and now it’s finally the time to open this Pandora’s box one dot and dash at a time. Isn’t it just so damn exciting?
You spend the rest of the evening trying to contact the entity through the phone but ultimately fail. From Morse to the vast array of languages Reina has under her belt, to some good old rage baiting. All fails. You return to back to the Empire wound up and borderline vibrating, and the so-called war assembly is established that very day. Senku casually offers you to join in on the conversation, apparently being the resident against-your-own-will medic warrants a seat in the war room. You think that if Kohaku isn’t there amongst the leaders of the nation as your finest fighter, then you shouldn’t be present either.
You also don’t want to be alone amidst the stench of testosterone, and you really don’t feel qualified to be plotting anything of sort with the rest of them. You’d rather keep it casual between you, Gen, and Senku. God knows Ukyo doesn’t need to hear any of your nonsensical ideas, he has enough on his plate as is. So you deny, stating that if you have something to say then you will let him know, up close and personal. Senku shrugs, seemingly unbothered, and then leaves Gen’s room without much else except the loud bang of the door closing behind him.
Gen quirks his brow, already scheming and you plead him to behave. You must be doing a pretty lousy job this time, because he presses a chaste kiss on your cheek and then laughs, saying that you should really start paying more attention to people other than him. Whatever that means, you don’t want to know. So you don’t ask. Just tug him by the collar so you can kiss him properly and tell him he has exactly one hour before you need to go clock into the academy for your teaching duty. Gen is nothing if not opportunistic, but the look he gives you when you kiss him goodbye is confusing. You ask what’s wrong. You wish you didn’t.
“Do you think it’s ossible-pay to want more than one person at a time?” Gen’s question puts you in a stupor and you need a good minute or two to just process his words.
“Is this your way of saying you want to see other people?” You ask, a tad bit too dismissive for your liking over a question like this. You should feel some sort of way over this, but you don’t feel much of anything right now. Not that you think it’s impossible to be emotionally invested in two people like that, but for you personally? You don’t think so. Suddenly feeling extremely stupid, you can’t believe Gen even got you contemplating stuff like that. You sigh, rubbing your eyes with the heel of your hand. “If so, then you can do whatever the hell you want, Gen. We aren’t exactly dating now, are we?” Laughing at last, you blink at Gen with a tired look that is bordering confusion. “What, your first option got you all hot and bothered after all?”
Gen unblinkingly stares at you, a disappointed sort of look in his eyes. Whatever he wanted to test with this question of his, you guess you failed. “Please don’t put words in my mouth, [Name]-chan,” he mutters, a little offended. Then Gen reaches out to fix your dress’ collar and tucks a stray wallflower in your hair. He giggles right after, whatever true emotions he let slip through the crack of his mask long gone. “I don’t think he’s interested in me like that at all, eally-ray.”
Not in the mood for any more mind games, you step aside, plucking the flower from your hair and return it back to Gen. Sharp-eyed and somewhat hurt by your rejection, he follows your every step until you have nowhere left to run. “Gen, I’m late,” you say, warning him to keep meddling to the minimum. “Reina will eat me alive.”
“Well, we can’t have that now, can we?” A misleading question. The cunning smile this fox has on is painstakingly designed just for you. You failed the test, after all. And now you have no right to go back to fix your mistakes. It’s far too late and a time machine is a thing that is not yet possible. You can only move forwards, so Gen does. You trip over the edge of the bed and Gen allows himself to fall along with you. “That’s my burden.”
You wonder what you missed by not really listening.
hii, this is a short one. 8.1k words only.
senku has made some calls. mc has made some requests. gen has made some questionable decisions. if i could i would have probably written every single phone call senku and mc had but we would've been here for like the next 10 chapters with just them awkwardly talking.
on the brighter note! francois is finally here. whyman shows up. they did not fry sagara. taiju thinks senku's in love and gen really thinks he's a eunuch. he would have made rounds as the concubine's second favorite eunuch in the apothecary diaries lmao.
the next chapter is technically the end of the genmc arc of the fic and the chapters 18-26 are them being messy, so good luck. also it's the treasure island arc with a little twist. god knows i hate writing canon scenes so much.
side note: mc says komugi is wheat in japanese, that's why mc brings her up when senku is talking about, well, wheat lmao.
ACT XI: UNDER YOUR STARS FOREVER (NEITHER HERE NOR THERE)
cw: moderate sexual content! reader beware.
Shortly after the date that left you with so many conflicting feelings, the finishing touches are placed on the hot air balloon. Miharu, Senku, and Gen seem to take a considerable amount of time to decide who all should be included on board, and imagine your surprise when they inform you that you’ll be occupying a spot as the interim geographer. It’s more of a side interest of yours than a field of expertise, but you’ll take any opportunity to be useful.
The only other spot apart from your own that’s been decided is that of Senku, because of course a science expert is needed on board. The vessel can fit four so that leaves two open spots; one for a miscellaneous passenger and the other for a pilot. Upon hearing the last part, your stomach drops rather embarrassingly. Because there’s only one person who has the expertise in wind patterns to operate any airborne vessel, and he just so happens to be the very one who’s always stuck at the back of your mind.
Some time has passed, and you still can’t stop thinking about that night, about the phantom sensation of his touch against your skin. And with every day that passes, the sense of guilt that weighs upon your shoulders seems to slip away, dreg by dreg. It’s scary, but you can’t say a part of you hasn’t been anticipating it since the very moment he was revived.
That’s not to say that Tsukasa has fully vacated your thoughts. In fact, you can’t seem to shake one of the last things he told you, because the man himself seemed very adamant that you move on. Especially considering the fact that he was convinced he wouldn’t exactly return to you alive. You have full faith in Senku and his ability to harness the power of the petrification beam, but you’d be lying if you said you’d never considered the worst case scenario. Clearly, Tsukasa had done the same. So he told you that he didn’t want you stuck in place forever.
And it feels like your heart is anything but in place. Because it’s pounding at the prospect of being stuck in an enclosed space with Nanami Ryusui for an extended period of time. Yeah, your brain seems to have completely set aside the fact that Senku and some other mysterious passenger will be alongside you, because it loves to abandon all logic when this man is involved. Well, whatever, because this balloon trip is going to be for the greater good. No matter how much your mind seems to be stuck on delusional little fantasies concerning the Kingdom of Science’s resident sailor.
Despite it already having been decided that you and Senku will take two out of the four spots, Gen seems to have his own little plan to fabricate the luck of the draw. Producing a deck of cards, he explains that in order to keep things fair the balloon’s passengers must each draw a joker. And Chrome is still decidedly absent following his journey to Ishigami Village, a fact that is undeniably a shame considering he seems to be the most popular pick to come along for the ride. You do feel some pity, especially considering this is the kind of voyage the pro adventurer would love to embark on, but there’s little that can be done if he doesn’t make it back in time.
You and Senku manage to each pull the appropriate cards, rather auspiciously if you do say so yourself. However, it works in your favor so you’re not exactly in the place to object. It’s now Ryusui’s turn to draw from Gen’s clearly improperly shuffled deck of cards, and you can’t shake the anticipation bubbling through the tips of your fingers. If he doesn’t get the joker card, then what? Or, God forbid, he does? What are you supposed to do with yourself after that? You fidget with your hands as Ryusui’s blue-tipped fingers close around a card.
And it is decidedly not a joker. Asagiri Gen gives him little time to react to his loss before offering the opportunity to pick a card, any card to Shinomiya Miharu. With a small, knowing smile, she does as she is told. And lo and behold, she pulls that stupid joker card. You don’t even want to decipher the look that Ryusui is sending her, because Nanami Ryusui is not at all fond of losing. Especially not when the prospect of a balloon ride with you has slipped through his fingers with the ease of one of Gen’s thin playing cards.
“My, won’t you look at that?” Naturally, the mentalist puts on a big show of congratulating Miharu for receiving the one thing Ryusui wants most at this moment — apart from you, of course. “My Miharu-chan sure is one ucky-lay lady.” The sailor might as well be fuming at the present moment, especially considering the fact that he was so certain he’d draw the winning card. Senku is eyeing them in a manner that tells you he’s probably not entirely in on what’s going on here, which makes it ten times more offputting. Besides, she can’t be the best pick considering the fact that —
“Damn, that’s one in ten billion kind of luck right there.” Senku states with a smile, quickly recovering from whatever confusion he may have initially been experiencing. “Just the person we needed.” Ryusui is becoming increasingly more frustrated with each person that passes him without a second glance.
And as if finishing your earlier thoughts, Miharu jumps right in, all feigned sheepishness. “Senku, I’m scared of heights. You know that. What if I —” It’s not all embellishment; the fear of heights part is very true. Which makes the fact that Miharu never intended to go up there just yet even more glaringly evident to you, but clearly Ryusui isn’t thinking that deep into it.
It seems that Asagiri Gen has rubbed off on his other trio members, because Senku and Miharu are completely content to put on a show that involves some not-so-subtle flirting on the scientist’s part. Not a side of him that you’re particularly used to, but it’s quite unnerving to find out that the smartest man alive is also a decent actor. That means that he could probably convince any of the Kingdom’s denizens to do anything, but simply chose not to out of the goodness of his own heart. Up until this point, of course. Senku, Gen, and Miharu go back and forth until the faux-conversation ends with your doctor friend in tears.
Yes, she seems to be melting into a pile of performative tears. But you should’ve realized that men like Ryusui don’t take women crying lightly. Entirely abhorred, he stands up with full intent of defending a lady’s honor. “Senku, you bastard. How dare you make a beautiful woman cry?” Good to know he’s willing to go to bat for your friends. It’s honestly a green flag, because a man that doesn’t get along with women is a true sign of — “Don’t worry, I’ll do it for you.” Your thoughts are cut off by the realization that Ryusui has just co-opted Miharu’s spot on the balloon. You blink sharply, realizing that the Tricky Trio ™ has just played every single one of you like a fiddle. You don’t have the heart to reveal this to the sailor, so you purse your lips by way of keeping your mouth shut.
Miharu offers Ryusui a crocodile tear filled thank you, and you send her an unimpressed glance. Smug as ever, she shrugs before blinking a strange pattern your way. Realizing what exactly she’s insinuating is going to go down between you and Ryusui in the balloon’s basket, you quickly and clandestinally brush some hair away from your face with your middle finger. Miharu giggles, and you’re unable to suppress your own smile at the fact that your friend is quite literally setting you up right now. You’re about to tease her about the way Senku is looking at her right now when some hooting in the distance catches everyone’s attention.
Sure enough, Chrome is thumping and bumping over the horizon in his stone geta. He’s made it back just in time to draw the fourth joker, and it seems luck is on his side today in more ways than one. With the favored card between the explorer’s thumb and index finger, the crew for the stone world’s first airborne expedition is set in stone. You can’t help but feel the slightest bit outclassed considering the undeniable expertise of your crewmates, but you can’t ignore the fact that you wouldn’t be included in something this important without a reason. The balloon is set to take off as soon as the wind is right.
So obviously, it’s Ryusui’s job to remain on the lookout for changing conditions. So despite his indulgent nature, he hardly sleeps. You bring him dinner the night of the draw as he looks over the horizon, blond hair blowing with the strong gusts. He’s pleasantly surprised, especially considering the fact that he didn’t ask anyone for food. It’s so strange to think that such a greedy man is able to put his love for opulence aside when something is needed of him, especially something as important as this. “Come. Sit with me.”
“I don’t think I’ll be much help,” you reply, still a few steps behind him. “I’m not exactly an expert in meteorology like you are.”
“I didn’t ask you to observe the conditions. I just want you with me.” He states before politely taking a bite of the stewed game you prepared tonight. “You’ve outdone yourself with this meal as always. Come relax.” The man seems to always be convinced that you need to rest. Perhaps he’s right, but you’re in an anxious state of overdrive considering you may be taking off anytime in the next few days. And also, it’s kind of hard to ignore the fact that you know what his lips feel like. But it’s nothing but a digression on your part; you sit down next to him with your own plate. Despite your anxiety, you should still try to get something in your stomach. Ryusui lets you lean up against him as you dig into your meal, eating quietly beside you save for a few intermittent comments hyping up the quality of the food. You don’t think it’s that good for him to be reacting like this, but a little flattery can go a long way.
“Excited for the trip?” You comment mostly for the sake of making small talk, fork clinking against your own plate as you take up his offer for a few moments of respite. Not to toot your own horn, but the food is pretty damn good so you’re glad he noticed that much. You can count the things you’re decent at on one hand, anyways, so you’d better keep track of your blessings.
He hums, swallowing politely before he replies. “More than anything. Although I’m more excited for the company I’ll be keeping.” There’s that hand at your back again, tracing up and down your petrification marks. You’re not sure what his fixation with your shoulder blades is, but you can’t say you particularly dislike his touch. The opposite, actually, considering you’re already practically resting your head on his shoulder while you eat.
“Is that so?” You play dumb as he twirls a lock of your hair around his finger, your delicious meal sufficiently neglected in favor of riling you up with some fleeting brushes of his hands. “I wouldn’t exactly be looking forward to traveling with Senku and Chrome if I were you. They do everything for the sake of efficiency.” You tilt your head to look at him, finding his gaze already fixed upon you. “And that’s not exactly the way you do things. Am I wrong?” He laughs, loud as ever, and clearly your adopting of his trademark phrase hasn’t been lost on him.
“Not in the slightest.” He shakes his head, and you exhale mirthfully through your nose before turning back to your food. “But you know that I’m not talking about them.” That you do. Funny how every single attempt you make at coy flirting immediately gets shut down when he forces you not to dance around your own feelings. That’s what you get for not bothering to actually date in the real world and getting any knowledge of romance you currently have from Criminal Minds fanfiction.
“Right.” Nanami Ryusui is no Spencer Reid, that’s for sure. He’s blunt, unabashedly loud, and borderline obsessive. But you don’t see any of these as faults, not in the slightest. You just cannot fathom why you’ve become the object of his fixation; you who are so damn ornery, always unimpressed, and even worse at any sort of romantic contact. For God’s sake, even the actual intellectuals have a better love life than you.
As if sensing you starting to dig yourself into a hole of your own inadequacies, Ryusui sighs. “I’m serious about you, [Name]. I hope you know that.” He tucks your hair behind your ear, and you reluctantly turn to face him for fear of what you might see in his eyes. But his expression is entirely earnest, and you swallow. You wish you’d grabbed a glass of wine, or that Ryusui had some you could bum off of. Unfortunately, the man does surprisingly have a logical bone in his body and prefers to keep his mind unaltered when observing weather conditions, so you’re regrettably sober.
But you’ve got to start reckoning with your feelings eventually. Setting down your plate, you adjust your seated position so you’re directly facing him. And to his credit, he’s surprised, as if he expects you to keep running from him. Not going to happen, not when you’re about to spend God-knows-how-long suspended in the air with him. Might as well come to terms with making eye contact with him while you’re sober, just to ensure that you know you won’t explode just from doing so. “But why?” His hands rest on your shoulders, his now-empty plate set aside as he rubs circles into your skin.
In lieu of his typical quick answer, he leans in as if about to tell you a secret. Your foreheads meet, and you feel goosebumps prickling the skin of your arms as his lips part. Maybe he’s about to reply to you, but a voice calling from the distance catches both of your attention. “[Name]! Ryusui! Get over here! We got stuff to discuss.” Of course, Chrome just has to start hollering at you right now. There’s no way whatever he needs to discuss with you is more important than this, even if it has something to do with the great oil expedition.
Alas, Chrome has already distracted you enough and you pull away from the embrace. Thankfully the expedition expert is too focused on whatever he’s rambling on about to notice any compromising position you and Ryusui may have been in, although the sailor is visibly miffed at being interrupted. Well, he should’ve said what he wanted to say sooner instead of playing these mind games knowing just how you react to his touch. The two of you sit rather uncomfortably through what’s supposed to be a debrief of Ryusui’s findings on the weather conditions for the day of takeoff, but you get the sense that neither of you are particularly focused.
And when Ryusui mentions offhandedly that he’s going to stay up all night to keep an eye on things and ensure tomorrow morning is the best time to depart, you know exactly what you’ve got to do. Senku doesn’t so much as bat an eye at your offer to keep him company — you know, for geographical purposes considering you have about a year more of familiarity with the changed landscape than he does. Something tells you that the scientist knows what’s going down anyway, because he’s remarkably not entirely obtuse when it comes to matters of the heart. You know, if the way he still looks at Shinomiya Miharu has anything to do with it.
So the two of you end up right back where you were before, with you curled up into his side and his arm wrapped around you. It’s summer, but the breeze is strong and those goosebumps from earlier have returned. “You wanted to know why I’m so sure about you?” The words are practically spoken into your hair, but you nod anyway, not trusting yourself to respond without saying or doing something stupid. God, you may be sober now, but you can’t so easily shake thoughts of what he offered to do to you through Morse code — “Because you’re perfect, and I just know.” His lips shift downward until they brush against the shell of your ear. “My sailor’s intuition is never wrong, so I don’t intend on giving up on you anytime soon.”
Your whole body feels like it’s burning from your earlobes to your fingertips. “I hope you don’t. Because I’d be really upset if you do.” Your voice comes out shaky, and you’re suddenly conscious of the way you’re clinging to his bicep.
Clearly, he doesn’t mind because you feel the vibration of his laughter right against your ear. “Is that the closest thing I’m going to get to a confession from you?” Yes, you are most certainly not feeling his arm up right now, not one bit.
“Right now, maybe.” You finally offer a laugh of your own, albeit a shaky one. Because despite your rather misleading statement, you’re starting to realize just how you feel about him. But it’s not exactly something you can say right now, when you’re half asleep and letting his hand slither down the back of your top. “But that’s certainly subject to change.”
He snaps, something he does less often when it’s just the two of you because he knows that it makes you jump. “Then all I’ve got to do is get you to say it out loud.” He pokes your cheek, and you chuckle. Good luck with that. Because as much as the confession is at the tip of your tongue, you are incredibly sleepy right now. And he seemingly notices, because he doesn’t press you for any sort of response, although that isn’t really his style either. If he wants an answer, he can find it in the way you’re clinging to him right now.
And if that isn’t enough, you kiss him to really hammer it home, because you’re not exactly in the state to say anything aloud right now that you might regret. Then, you proceed to doze off in his arms in the middle of telling him some sort of story about your childhood. You don’t even remember what, so you suppose you were more sleep deprived than you initially thought. It doesn’t matter, because the two of you are about to be among the ranks of the stone world’s first hot air balloon passengers.
You wake up a few hours later with his cape draped over your shoulders. Dawn isn’t far from sight, and noticing the change in your breathing he smooths a hand over your hair. “You’re back in time for the best part.” His voice is quiet, amused, as he points to the slowly lightening sky. You don’t reply verbally, and he doesn’t push you to, so you just tiredly bury your face into his chest to the sound of his laughter.
Yuzuriha takes care of breakfast today so you can focus on getting ready for your journey, something you’re eternally grateful for. You give her a hug after the (earlier-than-usual) meal is complete, thanking her profusely for her help and the sheer amount of clothes you now have at your disposal thanks to your rich-ass benefactor. She wishes you safe travels, and then you’re off to say goodbye to Miharu and Suika.
With all of your farewells in order, it’s finally time for takeoff. The sun is just breaching the horizon as Ryusui helps you into the balloon cart, refusing to let go of your hand even once you’ve made it safely aboard. Senku exhales from his nose at the sight, and you get the idea that the two of you are going to be tap-dancing on his last nerves. Thank God for Chrome’s enthusiastic personality to take some of the heat off of you.
Honestly, you’re grateful for the grounding sensation of his hand in yours because being up there is kind of terrifying. You’re starting to understand why heights are so scary to people like Miharu, because what happens if something goes wrong with the “flying machine” and all of you plummet to your deaths? You know how unlikely it is for that to happen during a two hour ride (or ever, God-willing) but you can’t help but consider the worst case scenario. So yes, you’re squeezing Nanami Ryusui’s hand right now. Sue you. The others may be willing to die for science, but you’ve got other shit to do, and you’d rather not die right before your birthday.
According to Senku, you’ve made it about twelve-hundred meters above the ground when Chrome’s sniffling catches your attention. You glance at him, and sure enough tears are streaming down the explorer’s face. “It’s true. The earth really is round.” You and Ryusui share an empathetic look. Because in the twenty-first century, every single one of you took this knowledge for granted, the ability to open Google Earth and see the state of the planet whenever you wanted. For a fifty-eight century human, the ability to witness the curvature of the earth with their own two eyes is a completely unfathomable event. “I wanna see more. I wanna know everything about our planet!” Chrome is full on sobbing at this point, but Senku simply chuckles.
“There are plenty of unknowns I wanna take a look at, too.” The scientist juts his chin in the direction of the horizon where the sun gleams bright and strong. The surface of the planet some thousand meters below is still shrouded in darkness, but up here everything is warm and glowing. Perhaps you’re fighting tears of your own, but Ryusui wraps an arm around you and you can’t bring yourself to feel any sort of shame about it. “Like the source of that beam on the other side of the planet. What’s really over there?” Senku’s statement is clearly addressed to the pilot opposite you, who laughs.
“I’m your man, then. I’ll get us there without a doubt.” Ryusui’s palm rubs up and down your back, and Chrome raises an eyebrow as if just noticing your proximity. Although in all fairness, he probably has just noticed. “So take a look at the world below, because right now all of this is ours.” He proclaims, and a silence falls over your ranks as you all do as you’re told. The sight is really something to behold, completely unlike the view of the Earth’s surface you’d receive from an airplane. The balloon cruises through the air alongside the birds, and you listen to the beating of their wings as your captain companion is bragging about flying a private jet just to go shopping. Very Nanami-coded.
Clearly, everyone is quite tickled by the whole experience, though. Chrome manages to pluck a bird’s feather, a fact that makes him completely ecstatic until Senku not-so-subtly lets it slip that birds are responsible for a large number of aircraft crashes. That little tidbit has you eyeing your avian friends with a bit more scrutiny as Ryusui reluctantly pulls away from you to check the fire. “Weird. We aren’t getting up very high.” Everyone seems to shrug his comment off as he stokes the fire, and you unfurl the map you brought along. Chrome and Senku are digging into the grilled meat you brought along in case of emergency, and you’re not exactly sure how they’re already hungry when you ate breakfast less than an hour ago and the trip isn’t particularly long. Male appetites never fail to astound.
It immediately comes to your attention that Chrome wasn’t at all aware that the balloon’s destination was Ishigami Village, considering the fact that he goes into a tizzy upon seeing the location marked on your page. “Surprise.” You mutter sheepishly, awkwardly throwing up jazz hands in an attempt to dispel the awkwardness. Unfortunately, your theatric gesture is met from a complete blank stare from Chrome and a sneer from Senku as he digs in his nasty-ass ear. Ryusui simply pats your head, but you’re already upset by the others’ reactions and bat his hand away. “Don’t look at me like that, Senku. I’m not the one who kept this a secret from one of the literal passengers.”
“Because I knew he’d ten billion percent make a scene like this.” Senku waves you off as he often does, and you hope he remembers that you’re a thousand meters above the ground and he’s within pushing range of the balloon’s edge.
“I’m not trying to make a scene.” Chrome points at Senku, frustrated by the accusations. “It’s just that the trip takes two days, even speedwalking.”
The scope of how game-changing air travel is still hasn’t kicked in for the seasoned explorer yet, and Ryusui pats his shoulder. “It’ll be two or so hours by air. That’s the power of wind.”
“Air travel is baaad stuff.” Chrome muses, leaning over the edge of the balloon as if trying to remind himself just how far from the ground the balloon is.
“It may be cool as hell, but we’re still facing some problems here.” Ever the pragmatist, Senku cuts in to dash Chrome’s scientific fascination. “In order to get to Ishigami Village, we’ve got to go west.”
“And the wind in Japan only blows east.” You comment offhandedly, finger tracing the balloon’s projected route on the map.
“Oh. Well, how are we gonna use the wind to go west then?” You can practically hear the gears turning in Chrome’s mind. He’s a smart kid, so he’ll pick all this information up pretty quickly. In fact, he even seems to work better when he’s briefed on something right before it happens as opposed to learning about it ahead of time. Perhaps that’s why Senku and Ryusui waited so long to tell him where exactly you’re going, but you can’t say so for sure.
Ryusui snaps. “A low pressure system.” He goes on to explain how your route is harnessing the counterclockwise spiral of the system in order to hitch a ride to the west. Chrome’s eyes are narrowed, but he’s processing everything pretty well. “It’s super risky, but stepping up to this challenge makes me a pro adventurer. Am I wrong?” You nudge him, an almost knee-jerk reaction to the ragebait he’s laid out for Chrome to pick up. You’re not sure why everyone is trying to use reverse psychology to motivate the real adventurer today, but you were decidedly left out of that little conversation.
Sure enough, Chrome’s face immediately twists, his eye practically twitching with irritation. Thankfully, he decides to keep his peace, instead huffily leaning back and crossing his arms over his chest. Emerging triumphant from that one-sided battle, Ryusui laughs. “I’ll fly us to Ishigami Village, and from there we can embark on our adventure to find us some oil.”
Unfortunately, that rather benign statement seems to be Chrome’s tipping point, because he decides to open his mouth and accuse Ryusui of only being useful up in the air. Of course, the man with insane nautical knowledge refuses to take that comment lying down, so the two end up in a weird sort of standoff while you and Senku look on, unimpressed. You groan, resolving to be the one to break up the situation. “Okay, can we shelve the dick-measuring contest for now?”
“[Name] makes a good point. We may have bigger problems to worry about.” The two separate from their little chest-pounding match, turning to face you and Senku with a small measure of embarrassment. “We’d better check the wind down below.” Senku proceeds to drop a teru teru bozu puppet over the balloon’s edge to surmise which direction it’ll blow.
Only for it immediately to get swept away by the gusts. All four of you share a look before your gaze travels towards the horizon where massive storm clouds are beginning to form. So, perhaps your earlier fears about the balloon going down were moderately well founded. Ryusui immediately jumps into pilot mode. “If we get too close, we’ll be sucked into the storm. We need to prepare for an emergency landing now. [Name], pull that rope.” Honestly, hearing him give you commands like this is kind of —
Nope, [Name], mind out of the gutter. You can worry about that once you’re all not actively in danger of losing your lives. Your fingers are just closing around the rope when Senku halts you by grabbing it himself. “Wait. It’s already popped.” The rest of the passengers look at him with shock, and Ryusui gently moves you away from the rope. “Pull any more, and the fabric will rip off. We’ll be in complete free fall.”
“What the hell?” Chrome butts in, craning his neck to look at the rip in question. “When and how did that happen?”
“The birds from earlier.” You realize aloud and everyone hums in agreement. Stupid birds. Now Ryusui’s comment about the balloon’s altitude slipping earlier makes a lot more sense, but it’s strange that he noticed that and didn’t think to look up. Whatever, all of you are a bit off-kilter today. Plus he’s running on like zero sleep.
But unfortunately, you’ve all already been caught by the evil cumulonimbus cloud. Despite the fire being under control, the balloon just keeps rising and everyone is in panic mode with no way to descend in sight. But conversely, the dire situation seems to have Ryusui all wound up. “This is the perfect challenge.” Two hands gently on your shoulders as he moves you as far from the edge as possible in this small carton, he laughs to himself. “I’ll get us out of this.”
Both Chrome and Senku are muttering to themselves and you feel entirely useless. But standing at the center of the craft, closest to the fire, you realize that there’s something you can do. Your voice is weak when you speak up, but Senku gives you the go ahead to stoke the fire. A silence falls over the group as Chrome slides in to help you. “Baad idea?” He tosses over his shoulder in the direction of the two men who watch, shocked by your quick thinking.
Senku grins. “Bad in the best way.” Producing some revival fluid, he shoves the elixir into the fire by way of igniting the fire even more. Everyone only has a few seconds to brace before that shit explodes. Ryusui grabs you, pulling you from the direct line of fire. Unfortunately, Senku is not so lucky considering he’s the one who chucked the revival fluid bomb, and he’s shot right over the side of the balloon.
Senku dangles from the railing like a damn jungle gym, and Ryusui chucks his hat upwards to find the updraft. “There’s a path upwards.” His free hand is still grabbing your arm, and you kind of wish he wouldn’t have to let go until all of this shit is over. Sadly, he’s needed to pilot you out of this shitshow, so you and Chrome stoke the fire to break out of the cloud. Like a boomerang, Ryusui’s hat flies right back into his waiting hand.
Finally, clear skies are back in sight, and so is Ishigami Village. Everyone breathes a collective sigh of relief, and Chrome and Ryusui share a nice fist bump. All of the adrenaline coursing through your body has you weak and you lean against the railing, suddenly dead tired. Ryusui moves over to you, hugging you to his side. “Great thinking earlier.” A hand ruffles your hair as he leans down to whisper in your ear. “You did well.”
Your cheeks are bright red as you mumble a thank you. Chrome’s brows are furrowed as he points between you and Ryusui. “Wait, you two —” Nothing ever gets past Chrome, does it?
Thankfully Senku cuts off his proclamation of what exactly you and the man currently holding you are. “All this bonding is well and good, but I kind of need some help down here.” Yes, Ishigami Senku is currently still dangling over the side of the vessel. Oops.
After Ryusui pulls Senku back aboard, the balloon touches ground in Ishigami Village. Kohaku waves frantically as she and Ukyo help you make a safe landing, greeting you alongside swathes of enthusiastic villagers. Considering the way Chrome reacted earlier, this kind of thing must be a crazy sight for them to behold. As soon as you step foot on solid land your lioness friend scoops you in her arms for one of her gorilla hugs. “Welcome home!” The various village children swarm around you as well, and you crouch down to their level to give them hugs and promise to tell them one of your trademark stories later tonight to celebrate your return.
It’s been a long ass day, and you didn’t exactly have time to indulge in the snacks that you brought aboard the balloon (the ones that you cooked, too, irony is an unfortunate thing) so you’ve been looking forward to dinner. You didn’t exactly expect anything crazy but you can’t help the way that the sight of grilled mackerel makes your stomach turn. Perhaps you got a bit spoiled over in the Empire, but beggars can’t be choosers.
Ryusui, on the other hand, is wholly unimpressed. He sits beside you with a plate of miscellaneous grilled fish, waiting until the kind aunties who prepared this feast are out of earshot. “Is this really what they eat when you’re not in the kitchen?” You snort, shaking your head in response to his flattery. “I’m serious, [Name]. This is fine, but it’s far from anything you can make.” As if demonstrating his point, he holds a bite to your lips which you gratefully accept, ignoring the way Kohaku is giggling behind her hand. You stick your tongue out at her; you know damn well who she’s missing right now, and exactly what the woman in question has been talking about doing to her. Again, nobody moves faster than stone age lesbians.
Still, Ryusui seems entirely unimpressed by the meager food selection in the village. As so delicately pointed out by Asagiri Gen ages ago, you’re working only with the same ingredients, so you can understand his point. The villagers murmur something about only having fish to eat over the past few months, which seems to drive him to the edge. “Senku, how long are we staying in this village?”
Senku shrugs. “Could be a year or two before we find oil.” You expect that news to make Ryusui deflate, but instead it simply stokes his determination. He declares that he’s going to find better food before turning to you, stating that he’d hate for someone as beautiful as yourself to get bored in the kitchen. You sigh, unimpressed. And here you thought he’d abandoned the aggressive flirting. Because he knows damn well how hard it is for you to resist him when he’s quiet with you; you haven’t been able to forget the praise he whispered in your ear as the balloon was landing, after all. Like, it’s been playing on repeat in the back of your mind.
Your own pathetic easiness aside, you set up shop back at Kohaku’s place. To which she immediately starts interrogating you about the progression of your relationship (or lack thereof) with Ryusui. You try to give her the answers she wants, but it seems like she won’t be fully satisfied until you admit that you’re madly in love with him. Seriously, the knowledge that you kissed isn’t even enough to satiate her curiosity. Thankfully, you have access to the trump card that is mentioning Gyokunaha Komugi, and Kohaku’s face immediately goes red. You claim the victory, laughing loudly in a manner not unlike someone you know before rolling over to go to sleep.
You, Ryusui, and Senku take to the skies a few more times with Kohaku as your fourth passenger in lieu of Chrome. Her eyesight is incredibly useful for mapping the land considering she spots things you humans with genetically diverse eyesight aren’t able to. For what it’s worth, Kohaku is thrilled to be flying high in the sky, even dangling willingly from the bottom of the vessel in a way that likely is giving Senku PTSD. With Chrome and Ukyo on the ground, both of your teams are working towards the goal of creating a comprehensive map until you find oil. And you’re the one doing the sketching, so you’d better hope you don’t get stone age carpal tunnel.
Ever greedy, Ryusui seems hyperfocused on the goal of finding something good to eat. To the point where it seems to have taken priority over finding oil, which is kind of insane for him. Damn, your food must have really had everyone spoiled. You can’t help but feel proud, but now isn’t the time for that. Kohaku spots a forest, and as you approach it, Ryusui spots something moving. He’s practically frothing at the mouth at the possibility that it could be foodstuff, and honestly the rest of you aren’t much better. As you mark the cedar forest on the map, Ukyo on the ground comes to the conclusion that the creatures Ryusui saw were indeed a herd of wild goats. And if one just so happened to separate itself from the herd, well, Ukyo’s bow and arrow may come to good use.
With tonight’s dinner secured, you clandestinally mark the location of the goat herd on the map. You and Senku work tirelessly with the help of the others to sketch out the topographics, and with your sheer amount of effort the official stone world map is complete. Of course, you haven’t been able to see all of Japan from a thousand meters up, but you were able to successfully map all the most important locations that would be useful to a stone age human living in the area.
The villagers are astounded by the creation of a map. You’re surprised no one thought to do it earlier, but you suppose such a thing isn’t really important in such a small settlement. If you don’t know where something is, your neighbor probably doesn’t either, so both of you just resolve not to worry about it. You listen to their shock and awe routine as you roast some goat over the fire. You wish you had access to some spices so you could make biryani to satiate your soft spot for South Asian cuisine. You make a mental note to request you all visit the spice capital of the world; after your trip to Puerto Rico, of course.
Ryusui declares to his captive audience that they’ll no longer be subjected to only fish with the help of the data you collected from the air and your own cooking skills. Still unimpressed, you send him a small smile over your shoulder. The events of today have worn you out, but you listen in as he comforts some older villagers as memories of past starving periods resurface. You bite your bottom lip; of course you assumed that there were events like that in theory considering how small the village’s population remains, but hearing about it is still heartbreaking. It makes you think of how lucky you really were in the old world to take things like an abundance of food to eat for granted. Effectively sobered, you finish your dinner quietly before retiring to bed.
You’re tossing and turning in your dark room when Kohaku enters quietly. You immediately cease all movement to feign being asleep, but she simply sighs. I know you’re awake, [Name].”
“You caught me.” You concede, sitting up to wipe the non-existent sleep from your eyes. “What, you didn’t wanna miss out on our nightly interrogation?”
“Sort of.” She shrugs, striding over to her side of the room before sitting cross-legged. “Ryusui is looking for you.” She attempts to state this little tidbit with some nonchalance, but immediately fails.
“I’m sure he is.” Rolling your eyes with barely any bite behind the action, you comb your hands through your tangled hair. Naturally, you forgot to braid it before laying down to rest which is just adding to your sensory hell right now. “You can tell him that when he’s willing to stop boasting to everyone who will listen about me he can come find me.”
“Aren’t you into that?” Kohaku raises an eyebrow, tilting her head at you in that feline-like manner that both her and Miharu share. “Because it seems to me that you’re making up excuses not to deal with your feelings for him.”
That effectively renders you speechless for a few moments, your hands freezing as they plait your hair. Finally you sigh, resolving to allow her this one victory. Because she’s not wrong. Far from it, actually. “You know, I spoke to him earlier. He’s a good guy.” You swallow. Honestly, it takes a lot to get such a raving review about a man from Kohaku.
You can do little more than nod, because you know that no response you give her will be effective. Something about being back here is making your head all swimmy, especially considering what’s happening next week. It’s not as if you have anything planned what with the only people who know about the significance of the day are back in the Empire, but the knowledge that it’s coming is still a little bit jarring.
You’ve always been the kind of girl to hate your birthday, anyways. It’s so funny, the entire world went and got itself petrified a month before you turned nineteen, and by the time you woke up no one was keeping track of the time anyways. So this will be your first real birthday in the stone world that you’re actually aware of. And you are certainly not sure what to do with that information. Kohaku doesn’t press the matter, simply dozing off in seconds. You suppose the events of the day tired her out as well. And even with the comforting sound of her breathing, you’re unable to drift off yourself, so you decide to head off to the cove for a cold shower.
You only make it a few steps away from Kohaku’s place when Saionji Ukyo stops you. “Hey, [Name]. What’re you up to?”
You eye him with confusion. “I’m going to take a shower. What, do you have a sixth sense for when I want to wash up or something? Because this keeps happening.”
Despite the implications of your statement, Ukyo simply shakes his head good-naturedly. “Nothing like that. It’s just late, that's all.”
You crane your neck to look around him. “Really? How come Senku and them are all still up, then?” The utter strangeness of the phenomenon really sinks in as you finish your statement. It’s not anything new for Senku, Chrome, and Ryusui to be burning the midnight oil, especially considering the sheer amount of hours you all stayed up to complete the map, but they’d certainly have you accompany them right now. Especially considering you’re the one who drew the damn thing. “I should probably go help them, actually.” You start heading in their general direction.
“No!” Ukyo replies quickly, shifting to block your path. “I mean, you wanted to take a shower, didn’t you?”
“Yeah.” You narrow your eyes at him, metaphorical fangs on display. “Am I allowed to do that?” You grit out, and Ukyo winces.
“Of course. Just let me walk you there.” You raise an eyebrow, but you suppose some company wouldn’t hurt. Especially considering Ryusui has certainly heard your conversation but decidedly hasn’t come over to put a stop to it. Perhaps your avoidant tendencies have finally caught up to you and he’s lost interest. And that thought certainly does not wrench your heart in a way that makes you abruptly freeze a few steps behind Ukyo to the point where he has to ask if you’re okay.
You do get your shower, for what it’s worth. And as soon as you step foot into the vicinity of Ishigami Village, wet hair freshly braided, Ukyo is once more waiting to walk you all the way back to Kohaku’s place. This is extremely weird, but by this point you’re too tired to care. You start to drift off as soon as you lie down, and you’re still unsure if you dreamed Kohaku quietly tiptoeing out of the room, chatting quietly about something with Ukyo just outside. Again, you’re too tired to care.
A few mornings later, you wake up to Kohaku standing over you, practically vibrating with excitement. You simply blink the sleep away, gazing up at her. “Can I help you?”
It seems you can, because she immediately pulls you up, scooping you into her arms in the Kohaku way. “It’s your birthday, isn’t it? Happy birthday!” Your mouth drops open as she squeezes the living daylights out of you. Who the hell told her? It’s not as if Kohaku watches the calendar with any vehemence.
You let her drag you outside, still stunned and barely presentable. “Here she is!” You’re immediately swarmed by the village aunties and their children, all granting you their best wishes for your birthday. Still half-asleep your head feels like it's full of cotton, but you thank them all anyways. Your main priority is figuring out who is responsible for this and trying not to cry, for both good and bad reasons. Because you can really feel the love that these people are sending your way, but you know all at once that you don’t deserve it.
Ryusui, Senku, and Chrome are still notably absent, but Ukyo approaches you as you help yourself to breakfast that someone else has already cooked and some piping hot tea to combat the mild morning. Well, you can’t exactly complain about less responsibilities today, no matter how much you don’t feel like you should receive any special treatment. “Big day, isn’t it?”
“More for you all than for me. I appreciate it, though.” You sip your tea, relishing the way it burns your tongue.
Ignoring your sarcasm as he often does, Ukyo pats your shoulder. “Happy birthday, [Name].” He leaves with little fanfare, a weird vibe lingering in his wake. Funnily enough, you can’t exactly decipher which direction he went. You don’t have much time to ponder on it before Kohaku attacks you with another hug, demanding you announce to everyone how old you’re turning.
Then, she rambles on about something or other before she quickly and suddenly relinquishes her grip on you. With a catlike chuckle she peels herself away, and your eyebrows furrow in surprise. “Kohaku —” You turn over your shoulder only to be met with the presence of Nanami Ryusui. “Hi.”
“Hi.” His grin is wide, his slightly sharp canines peeking out. “Are you up for a birthday adventure?” You can’t help the way a smile that mirrors his own stretches across your face.
Senku, Mr. I-Hate-Celebrations himself seems to have relented enough to allow Ryusui to take you out on the balloon. There isn’t much of the land that you haven’t seen at this point, but the idea of being up there, just the two of you, is kind of making your stomach twist. Which you totally kick yourself for, because what exactly are you so nervous about? You’ve literally already kissed for God’s sake, although not in recent days. In fact, you haven’t seen very much of him around lately which led to a complete spiral of overthinking about his interest in you. You fiddle nervously with your hair as you approach him where he waits for you beside the balloon. “Your hair looks beautiful.” He leans down to whisper to you in the way that he knows sends shivers up your spine.
“Are you sure?” You ask, swallowing harshly in hopes that your voice doesn’t shake. “I only took it out of a braid.”
He clicks his tongue. “Still beautiful. Like the rest of you.” He helps you into the balloon’s basket as you try to ignore Kohaku’s smug smile and well-wishes for you and Ryusui to have a very lovely and cozy balloon ride. Naturally, Miharu rubbed off on her in that regard.
Senku mutters something to Ryusui to which the sailor almost immediately waves him off, promising something about tomorrow morning. Senku nods before turning to you. “Happy birthday. Enjoy your day, or whatever.” Good to know there’s still not a sentimental bone in his body. Ryusui stokes the fire, and the two of you are off on your birthday adventure.
As the balloon ascends, you’re sitting in comfortable silence despite the physical distance between the two of you. “Twenty years old. That’s a big birthday.” It feels like he’s waiting for you to close the gap, especially considering you can’t seem to be in his presence without wanting him to touch you for whatever reason. For that reason, you’d like to request your next birthday present be a merciful euthanization. “Still can’t drink in America though, can you?”
You chuckle, leaning against the railing in a way you hope comes off as coy. “Why do you think I moved away?”
Finally he approaches you, stopping just in front of you, which isn’t saying much considering the basket is incredibly small. “Yeah, I’d do the same.” Then he leans forward, planting his hands on the rail on either side of you. “Don’t worry, we’ll toast to you tonight.”
“Yeah, some alcohol is long overdue.” You muse. No one has really been drinking ever since you all got here, especially considering you’re all so occupied with the joint oil and food mission. You desperately miss Miharu and her flasks of mysterious intoxicating liquids. You probably would’ve done a shot before getting up here to ease your nerves. “Thank you for taking me up here, though. It’s really thoughtful of you.”
“Of course. What girl doesn’t deserve to see the world she’ll rule over for her birthday? Besides, I’ve been wanting to get you alone again. I miss you, [Name].”
His words strike straight through your ribcage like a well-placed arrow. You hesitate, swallowing as you pick your words wisely. “Well, I haven’t exactly seen much of you either.” Because how terrible would it be to bare your soul before him right here, a thousand meters above the ground? Kohaku is right, you’re avoiding things, but you have no idea how to change.
“Is that your way of saying you missed me?” But Ryusui recognizes that you need a little more guidance to say exactly what you mean. He laughs good-naturedly, his hand coming to rest at your chin. “You can just say it, you know.”
“Fine. I missed you.” You blurt out, leaning into his touch as his thumb rubs against your skin. Yeah, you missed this. You never realized how touch starved you were in the old world considering the fact that you never really let anyone close enough to touch you. “But what’s with all this world ruling stuff? I don’t think I need to rule over anything. I’m happy just to be alive.” It’s the truth. Plus, you’re not exactly a special enough person to rule over anything, much less the entire globe. That’s a little far-fetched, even for Nanami Ryusui.
“A queen doesn’t want to rule the stone world?” He switches to the Spanish word for queen — your given name — and you freeze, blinking up at him.
“Oh, so you understand Spanish now?” You press a palm to his chest, and he laughs smugly.
“A little bit. But I’ll learn more for you.” His wandering thumb finds your bottom lip.
And when you open your mouth to speak, your words are practically pressed against his finger tip. “I suppose I could teach you. It just depends how good of a student you are.”
“Believe me, I’m a great student. And a quick learner.” For a fraction of a second, his thumb dips into your mouth before he drops his hand, leaving you frustrated. Is this flirting? This is definitely flirting. God, every interaction the two of you have is flirting, isn’t it? It’s embarrassing, but it’s also amazing. And you wish you could capture the way he’s looking at you right now so you could feel the warmth that’s flooding through your veins forever. “Look. You can see the ocean from here. I know we never focused much on the sea before when we were making the map.”
“Wow.” You whisper, and wow is correct. From this high, you can see the way the sun glints on the water, the way the sea foam dances atop the surface. It’s been so long since you’ve been able to see the ocean like this, to really focus on it instead of the locations you need to include on the map. So yes, you may have seen this before, but you haven’t been able to just be up here. He wraps his arms around you from behind, and somehow your hand finds his bicep once more. Talk about a sleeper agent activated by the sight of arm muscle. “Thank you, Ryusui.”
He presses a kiss to the top of your head, and there go the goosebumps again. “There’s no need to thank me yet. Trust me.” You crane your neck to look at him, confused, but he simply smiles down at you without another word to elaborate on what he’s talking about. Whatever, you suppose you can enjoy the view and the feeling of his large arms around you. And it’s indeed a very enjoyable sensation.
You stay up in the air for a few hours longer, talking about any and everything. You get to learn a lot more about him than you knew previously — for example, you find out that he was practically raised by his butler and that the insane amount of half-siblings he has doesn't speak to him — but you also realize just how much attention he’s been paying to you. He knows what tea you’re partial to, which meals are your favorite to cook. So the questions he asks you border on utterly strange; things that tap into your hyperfixations like what your favorite civilization is. You don’t get many chances to talk about your studies these days, so you get to fill him in on what you were studying in the months before the petrification.
As evening settles in, he guides the balloon to a stop at a nice spot near the coast. “Don’t we have to take it back to the village?” You inquire, pulling at his arm in another poorly-veiled attempt to feel him up.
For what it’s worth, he doesn’t seem to mind. “Not right away. It’s your birthday, so it isn’t as if Senku expects us to be in any rush.” Fair enough. Plus, you wouldn’t mind spending more time with him without the prying eyes of the villagers or your well-meaning yet overenthusiastic lioness of a friend. As the balloon descends, you realize that this location actually isn’t very far from the village anyways, to the point where it would probably only be an hour walk back and a comically short trip by air.
He helps you out of the basket before almost immediately guiding you swiftly to some unknown destination, although he seems quite familiar with the path. Your inquiries about where he’s taking you are only met with a mirthful “You’ll see” in response, so you’re really hoping he hasn’t been playing the long game in seducing you just so he can murder you in a secluded spot on your birthday. As if sensing the doubts in your mind, he squeezes your hand reassuringly, rubbing a thumb over your knuckles.
Finally, you emerge near a small cove just by the sea. The waves crash against the shore and you look around stunned, completely unaware that such a beautiful spot existed. “How did you find this place?”
He doesn’t let go of your hand, simply beaming at you. “There are some secrets I’ll never reveal.” Pulling you close to him, he runs a hand through your hair. “You like it though, don’t you?”
“I love it.” You reply honestly, and his entire face lights up. You stay like that for a moment, just looking at each other, before he seems to come to his senses.
“Good, because I have something else to show you.” He proceeds to guide you just a few steps over, to where he’s somehow set up an entire picnic spread on a thick pelt, the area covered by a tentlike structure made of tarp eerily similar to that of the hot air balloon. “I wasn’t sure if it would rain, but it seems like the weather is on our side.” He comments offhandedly, as if your surprise is only due to the covering he managed to put up.
“Ryusui. How the fuck? How long have you been planning this?” You can count the number of people you told the date of your birthday on one hand. Which is to say that only Nikki, Minami, and Gen know, with the latter having stumbled in on your conversation like the nosy little bastard he is. And Nikki and Minami decidedly refuse to speak to the sailor, so —
“That mentalist friend of yours let slip that a very special day was coming up about a month ago.” What a surprise. But Ryusui simply shrugs, tugging you in the direction of the little set up. “As for everything else, well, a few dragos go a long way.” You open your mouth to say something — perhaps to tell him that it’s too much? — before he intercepts you. “But you shouldn’t worry about that right now. Just come enjoy your birthday dinner with me.” Sure enough, the food that’s laid out is still warm and incredibly delicious. Jesus, how much did he pay these mysterious people to not only set the food up but also to skitter off before the two of you made it here? Sure, it’s only a hop, skip, and jump away from Ishigami Village, but still? As you’re eating you can’t help but consider the sheer amount of effort that went into planning this. There’s no way he did this alone, so —
Oh. Well, Ukyo and Kohaku’s weird behavior certainly makes sense now. As does Senku, Chrome, and Ryusui’s secret late night meeting that you weren’t allowed to stumble upon. “I know you told me not to worry about it, but I have to know.” Taking a bite of his food, he raises his eyebrows to prompt you to continue. “Just how many people did you involve in this?”
“Oh, only a few. Okay, a lot.” He relents, and your jaw drops in real time. “Is it that hard for you to believe that so many people care about you?”
“Yes.” You reply honestly, feeling a lump forming in your throat. “Yes, it is.” He looks like he’s going to say something else, so in lieu of being too vulnerable, you quickly change the subject. “What about that toast you promised me?”
And sure enough, he produces a bottle of wine from a basket included in the picnic spread. “How could I ever forget?”
You get your toast, and a few more servings of wine after that. The two of you are talking and laughing loudly, taking advantage of the seclusion to say whatever the hell you want. Whoever helped him set up had the genius idea to leave some extra pelts around, so the two of you drag them onto the beach so you can comfortably lay down and look at the stars. “So, how would you rate this birthday?” He asks, and from your spot laying on his chest you crane your neck to look up at him.
“Ten out of ten. Would recommend Ryusui Birthday Services.” You giggle as his hand travels up and down your back, tracing circles on your warm skin.
“Whoa, slow down. As much as I love making money, this particular service is special just for you.” The summer breeze blows around the two of you, and despite it being early July conditions near the shore are nice and mild enough that laying on top of him isn’t at all uncomfortable.
“Is it? Good to know.” You reply, rather tongue-in-cheek as his finger trails up your spine. You fall into a rather comfortable silence, gazing up at the same sky.
Finally he hums, pressing yet another kiss to the side of your head. “Are you sure you don’t want to go back to the village? It’s just a walk away.”
“Nah. I’m comfortable here.” You shake your head. You don’t much favor a tipsy walk of shame back to Ishigami Village, nor do you think you’re particularly in the mood to give Kohaku an exact play-by-play of what went down tonight.“Plus, we’ve got the pelts anyway, just in case we get tired.” Not to mention that there’s still something unfinished hanging in the air between the two of you, and you have a feeling that you know exactly what it is.
“I’m not tired.” He sniffs, sitting up.
“Me either.” You follow suit, the two of you now upright and staring into each other’s eyes. His hand finds the side of your face once more, and then he’s kissing you. This kiss is a little longer than the other ones you’ve shared and feels different somehow. It feels almost less chaste, especially considering the fact that there’s no one else here to interrupt you. His tongue slips past your lips, and a breathy noise escapes you.
He pulls you onto his lap and you let him, your thighs now on either side of his waist. He kisses you a few more times before reluctantly pulling away, and the look in his eyes cannot be described as anything other than hungry. “[Name]. I think I’ve been pretty up front about how much I want you.” His tone is low, incredibly serious.
“You have been. I’ve been the one beating around the bush.” You lean in to steal another kiss, and he’s unable to contain a smile. “So I should tell you the truth, yeah?” He nods, and you lean down until your foreheads are almost touching. You swallow, trying to weigh the pros and cons of revealing this to him right now before deciding that you have absolutely nothing to lose. Especially not if the way he’s moving under you has anything to do with the matter. “After that time we had dinner, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about what you said to me. You know, the Morse code?”
His thumb swipes your bottom lip before entering your mouth for real this time. “Yeah? Remind me what I said again.” He glances at you as a silent command, and you obediently suck his finger, receiving a low groan in response.
“Please don’t make me say it.” Your voice is muffled by his thumb, but you can’t pretend like the sound he just made isn’t doing ungodly things to you. “I’m already admitting to you that I want it.”
“Well, I suppose your birthday is as good a time as any, isn’t it?” He pretends to consider the prospect, his finger slipping from your mouth. “The best time, actually.” His lips meet yours again, and you feel like you can melt into him.
“I just have to tell you.” You venture between kisses, figuring it’s only fair to give him a warning. “ I haven’t done… anything…. like this before.”
He pauses, pulling away from you once more to brush some hair away from your face.“Are you afraid?”
You shake your head, biting your lip. “Not afraid. I just don’t want to disappoint you.”
“Nothing you ever do can disappoint me, so you can forget that right now.” He leans in, capturing your lips in a sweet kiss. “In fact, I don’t want you to think about me at all. Just let me make you feel good, alright?”
“Okay.” It’s all you can say, because his open-mouthed kisses have migrated from your lips to the side of your jaw.
But he seems to remember something. “But promise me one thing.”
“Anything.” You reply without hesitation.
“Promise me that you won’t run from me anymore.” Another kiss to your jaw, then one just below it, further down your throat. “I can’t stand it when you keep away from me, you know that, right?”
“No, I just …” His lips find a sensitive spot on your neck that you had no idea was even there, and your statement is punctuated by your airy moan. “It’s like I told you. I’m so afraid of what I’ll say to you.”
“I don’t want you to be.” He murmurs into your skin, humming as your hand runs through his hair. “You can say or do anything around me. It won’t change how much I want you or how perfect you are.”
“I know, it’s just …” He sucks at your neck once more, effectively derailing your already rickety train of thought. “I just…” Then there’s the flick of his tongue against your skin. “God, Ryusui, I can’t think.”
“Good.” His voice is muffled by your neck, but it sounds breathier than usual in a way that’s making you weak. “Don’t think. Just focus on me.” You do a very poor job at suppressing the pathetic noise that falls from your lips. But you can’t help the way it feels like liquid heat has pooled between your legs. “Good. Just think about this, okay?” You also can’t help the way that your hips have almost subconsciously begun to move against him at the repeated praise. This is all so new, so strange, but so good —
“I am. I have.” You reply, too far gone to realize or care how desperate you sound. “This is all I can think about sometimes.” And as his kisses trail further down your body, you realize that the fear of laying yourself bare before him is already starting to slip away.
“Me too.” His hands fiddle with the knot securing the back of your top before smoothly undoing it. “So let me take care of you, alright?” Gently removing your top from your body, his lips meet bare skin that no one else has ever touched like this before. Your mouth falls open as you throw your head back, and your eyes flutter shut as stars burst behind your eyelids.
The ocean meets the shore. The stars crumble to the sea. Everything between you and him is the same and completely different all at once. But you’re also so, so incredibly sure that this is right. So maybe, that’s enough.
a/n: idk if i can show my face to yall again ts freaked out af. enjoy