Chapter Text
Suika had been sitting in the corner of Senku’s lab, watching in awe like she always does as he paces back and forth, grabbing any ingredient to make some wild reaction that she didn’t understand in the slightest, but seeing her big brother be so happy at his work made her happy too.
As engrossed as Senku is in his work, Suika’s bewilderment and excitement of everything going on doesn’t go unnoticed by him. Her little squeals of joy are a very nice change of pace from Chrome screaming at how bad everything is. He loves having her as his lab assistant, despite her not doing much, which according to him was for her own safety. She’d throw a small fit here and there about not doing anything, but he knew it came from a place of helpfulness, not being a brat like the rest of the kids in Ishigami village.
“Hey Suika,” he called out. “Come over here, I wanna show you something.” Within half a millisecond she had hopped up and rushed to his side, bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet. “Do you remember when Chrome made that color changing fire?”
“Yeah, back when we thought it was sorcery!” she giggled, now realizing how silly the thought of magic was.
“You wanna take a crack at it? I’ll show you what to put on,” Senku hyped up this classic experiment and Suika’s excitement couldn’t be contained. A small flame had been lit inside one of the larger cups, and a few dishes filled with Chrome’s minerals were laid out in front of it.
“You’re only going to want to take a pinch of these minerals. The reactions aren’t that dangerous, but you are playing with fire and they could spark up, and I don’t want you to get hurt, you understand?”
Suika nodded, still bouncing up and down, and grabbed the first dish. She followed Senku’s instructions to a tee and squealed when the fire changed to a shimmering blue. She knew this was a matter of science, but she still felt that wonder and loved seeing this simple reaction. She kept at it with every new mineral, giggling and jumping as the flames created her own special little rainbow.
“Hey, Senku, what do you think would happen if I put them all on at once?” she asked. Senku could never say no to her, so he asked her to step aside as he pulled out a final dish and put a small portion of each mineral onto it. He then handed it to Suika who dumped it in the glass.
It was. Underwhelming to be completely honest. It turned a muddy brown color, and the flame got put out by how much was on the plate. Suika was disappointed, but her big brother put his hand on her watermelon mask.
“Yeah, that happens sometimes. You get excited and then it’s underwhelming. Ah well, let’s call it a day for now, sun’s gonna set soon,” he said apathetically. He began putting the dishes away and noticed her head hanging down. “Come on kid, it’s not worth crying over. It was a small flame anyway, I should have realized putting that much on it would have put it out. I’m sorry.”
“No, it’s ok,” she said. “I’m getting tired anyways.” She walked towards the entrance. “Let’s go meet everyone for dinner.” She pushed back the curtain and walked towards the bridge.
That kid had Senku defeated a dozen times, he’d do anything for her. He hated seeing her upset, she’s one of the few people he knew would spread the word of science, he didn’t wanna lose that.
Just then, he had yet another of his genius ideas. He followed after Suika, meeting up with her to cross the bridge to the village together. At dinner, he pulled Yuzuriha to the side at the one moment Suika wasn’t attached to his hip.
“You made all the clothing when you were with Tsukasa, right?” Senku straightforwardly asked.
“Yeah, why?”
“Can you do me a favor and make something for Suika?”
“Oh? What’s the occasion?”
“She got bummed out by her science lesson being ten billion percent a let down, so I felt like making it up to her,” he confessed. Yuzuriha let out a squeal, damn near making sure everyone in the village knew how cute she thought this was. “Yeah yeah yeah ok it’s cute, now will you keep it down, this is supposed to be a surprise.”
A week later, Suika had followed Chrome into Senku’s lab yet again, walking towards her normal spot in the corner, when Senku suddenly stopped her.
“Hold it, kid,” he sternly warned. This made her anxious. Was he mad at her for being upset about last week’s failure? Did she not make herself useful enough? He motioned her to come over, she silently obeyed his orders.
“Do me a favor and take off your mask.”
“Wait but why? I won’t be able to see anything,” she said, tilting her head in confusion.
“So I can make sure you’re closing your eyes.”
Still confused, she did as she was told, proving to Senku that her eyes were shut. Senku walked over to one of the shelves, where he had hidden his gift. He draped it over Suika’s shoulders, and helped her guide her arms into the sleeves. He put her watermelon glasses back on, and told her to open her eyes.
This didn’t answer any of her questions, why did he put a jacket on her? And why were the arms far too long?
“So, back in my time, scientists wore what are called ‘lab coats’, they helped protect us from any chemicals that could damage our regular clothing. Since you’re an official team member of Senku Labs, I figured it’s only natural that you get your own. I’ll have Yuzuriha adjust the sleeves before you can officially have it, but I wanted to say thanks for all your help,” he explained.
Suika began crying through her mask, flapping the sleeves in pure happiness, and wrapped her arms around Senku’s hips. He gave her a hug back, deciding to ignore Chrome’s complaints about not getting one himself.