Chapter Text
"This guy gets me." Ryuusui says after a moment looking at Senku like he just hung the stars. "There's the angst I was talking about! Always reading my mind, I could kiss you right now." Senku blinks owlishly at him before breaking into a grin.
"Cuddle fish." Senku says matter of factly, and everyone around him looks confused.
"Senku, what do mean 'When Byakuya was alive-'? Unless- Oh, he was on the space station." Xeno calls up, working out what happened by himself. Xeno doesn't have to say anything else for Stanley to understand what exactly happened.
A deep pit of sadness forms in their chests. They always knew that there was a chance Byakuya didn't survive, but it hurt to know their theories were basically confirmed.
They both thought back to the last conversation they had shared with Byakuya before he had gone up to space. "If anything happens to me, take care of Senku for me? He'll try to push you away, but don't let him. He's too much like the three of us to admit that he wants you to stay. Don't let each other wallow in grief, either."
They had both brushed him off then, confident that everything would go correctly and that their boyfriend would be back before they even truly missed him. They share a look before nodding. They would do their best to honor their promise to Byakuya.
"Plants are harvesting us for our bodies." Senku says with an entirely straight face. "Fisherman kidnap fish on the daily and the fish usually never see their families ever again." Gen is starting to grow concerned.
"Senku-chan?" Gen asks, watching as Senku's eyes visibly dilate. Maybe they shouldn't have let Senku consume the entire bag of drugs Senku had found. Senku giggles and pokes Gen in one of his eyes. Gen jerks back with a hiss, clutching his eye.
"Back in the day, your eyes would have been worth a lot of money on the black market." Senku says with an intense look in his eyes. Gen shivers, and looks to the others for help still clutching his eye. "Especially because you were a celebrity. I could have funded even more of my experiments."
"Maybe Brody can let us in? He was in the basement last time I checked working on the submarine." Stanley says, watching as Senku goes from happy go lucky, to glaring at the world like it stole his favorite piece of science equipment. "Also what did you put in those drugs?"
"Ah, uh. Um, just-. You know when I run out of ideas?" Xeno starts, trying to find a way to explain why he needed the drugs. Stanley just stares at him unimpressed. "I take those drugs, and then I get, like, a billion ideas at once! Truly elegant, Stan."
"Uh-huh." Stanley says, sending a judgemental look towards Xeno. "Luna." He calls up, and the girl that was currently ogling Senku turns her attention to Stanley and looks sheepish. "And why did you decide to turn traitor?"
"He made me laugh?" Luna calls out, looking between her two ex-leaders and Senku. Stanley looks both proud and disappointed at the same time. Which is quite the achievement in Luna's book, she had never seen Stanley be so expressive before.
"Made you laugh?" Stanley asks, sounding very done with the world. "That is really all it took?"
"That and the sparkles." Luna says very seriously. Everyone besides Senku looks at her confused.
"Sparkles?" Xeno says, sharing a look with Stanley. They didn't have any glitter on hand. Also, Senku detested glitter and anything sparkly unless he was pulling a prank.
Luna nods very seriously. "Yes, the sparkles. He was just so handsome I couldn't say no to his plan." Everyone besides Senku just blinks at her. What? Luna huffs before turning to Senku. "Show them." She demands, and Senku blinks at her before tipping his head sideways in confusion.
"Hm? Show them what?" Senku asks, and Luna looks confused as well. Didn't he remember? Maybe she just needed to bait him into doing it.
"Well, maybe I should go open the-" Luna begins, heading for the staircase down, before she pauses when Senku grabs her hand and makes it feel like he's giving her his undivided attention. Sparkles magically appear around him, highlighting his looks without straining the eyes.
"Now why would you do that? We were having so much fun together. Do you really want the evil gerbil and his loyal mutt to ruin our time together?" Everyone blinks as the words flow beautifully from Senku's mouth. Luna giggles slightly loosing track of what exactly she was trying to do.
"What the fuck." Gen whispers, looking at the horrible creature in front of him. "Could he always do that?" He asks to no one in particular.
"Did you teach him that, or was it me?" Xeno asks, not remembering if they got to that part of the take over the world lessons. Stanley looks proud, no longer confused.
"Oh no, that was all me. Same with his makeup skills. Though it seems my fashion lessons never stuck." The last part was grumbled as Stanley glares at the tunic they can barely see through the window. "A pretty face can help you with a lot. Sweet talk as well."