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You wake up in what looks like some kind of quarry, surrounded by cavemen. And to your surprise, you’re dressed like one of them too. The only thing you remember before that was a green flash of light as you were running behind time to school. “Excuse me, but could somebody please tell me what happened?” You say.
A fairly young looking one, much better dressed than the others for a caveman, using a rope as a headband, answers your question, “All of humanity turned to stone and we just brought you back, thirty-seven hundred years later.”
You reply, “Well, thank you, I guess.”
A different caveman, no, you recognize him from your class. This was Oki Taiju. “You shouldn’t be thanking us, you should be thanking him.” He pointed to somebody overseeing some sort of construction project, one quite impressive for a post-apocalyptic civilization. “He’s the super smart scientist who found out how.”
You then realize, you recognize this “super smart scientist”. It was the leek-haired man of your dreams, Ishigami Senku. You always looked up to him in school, but your feelings really began to blossom when you got assigned as lab partners. You quickly adjust your hair, even after global almost extinction, you can’t let him see you looking like you just woke up.
He looks over, and you can swear you make eye contact for a second. “Chrome! Was I right about the statues?” He yells.
Rope headband man answers, “Yup, Taiju confirmed, all of your classmates were in the same general area. We’ve even revived one of them already.”
You see his face. He was cute no matter what he was doing, but it especially put your heart aflutter when he had that look of determination, amplified by those new seeming lines near his eyes, did he try makeup?
“Ten billion percent exciting!” He exclaimed. His pupils went small and he put on a devious grin, abandoning all the tension that came with the determination. “Hehe, my lab buddies are going to freak when I show them all we’ve done.” He rubbed his hands together like a villain character.
He was right, everything there is unimaginable for them to have developed in such a short time, it could only have been a couple years since Senku woke up. Judging by his aging. You really want to walk up to him and start a conversation, but you still don’t have any idea of things like where food is. You get Taiju to show you around and you spend the rest of your day getting acquainted with your new home. This place feels much more welcoming with the prospect of ramen, even if it is kinda crumbly.
The next day, you want to do some science, just some basic chemistry to ensure you don’t forget anything, so you go to the science shed. You figure to start at the very beginning of chemistry, baking soda volcano. You find some vinegar in the shed, but no baking soda. But there are chemicals you recognize as being able to combine to make baking soda. When you’ve done so, you sit at a table facing away from the door and are ready to make your volcano explode.
Suddenly, somebody looks over your shoulder, putting his hands on the table and barely touching your neck. You look up and go slightly red when you see that it’s Senku. “Y/N was it? Good to see somebody else using the science shed, the more of us the better,” he tells you.
“Uh, I suppose so,” you reply. You stand up to avoid this situation. It is exciting, but it’s also nerve-wracking twice so. In your haste, you end up bumping into a shelf, knocking a glass container of some clear liquid off of it. The liquid ends up pouring onto Senku’s head, and the container itself shatters on his back. You gasp, “Ishigami-kun! I’m so sorry! Are you okay?”
His wet hair droops down, a strip of it covering the space between his eyes. He slouches and nonchalantly says, “Dude, society is just a memory by now. You don’t need to bother with the respect.” His posture returns. “I should be fine, it’s just water, you just need to check my back for cuts.” He lifts his shirt and turns around.
You only got a short glimpse of it, but he’s surprisingly muscular. You start to lament the fact there was never a swimming class one of you didn’t miss. Shaking his abs from your mind, you check his back. You inform him, “No bleeding, uh, s- Senku…”
He turns his head to you. For the first time, his eyes actually angle up instead of down. That’s not all that’s different though. You notice his mouth open like he abandoned control of the muscles there. Much harder to ignore though, were his cheeks, red like, well, the blood rushing there. You never thought it would be harder for him than for you when you said his first name. Noticing this opportunity, you turn your thoughts into words, “Science is fun and all, but I think you should make some time to enjoy some, uh, other, parts of life.”
He returned to normal and cracked his neck. Denying the thought, he said, “Eh, I’ve never liked sports that much, and I’m not a fan of any kind of-”
You silence him by touching your finger to his lips. “That’s not what I meant,” you clarify. “I was thinking more along the lines of, tomorrow we come here together and do the science, or, other things, together.”
Senku recoils, widening his eyes in shock. He regains his composure and comes back to you, “I would like that. I’ll leave you to your baking soda volcano. Try throwing in some other chemicals too, just don’t blow yourself up.”
You pour the vinegar into the baking soda and watch it explode, but you don’t care to do any more chemistry. You’re more concerned with a different kind of chemistry. You live out the rest of your day eating ramen and planning the coming one. When you go to sleep you try your hardest to have no dreams so you can be sure everything that happens will be real.
You wake up and bring a bar of soap to the lake and take a bath in it, leaving your clothes on. They need a wash just as much as you do.
After that, you head to the science shed. You pass the time by running it through your head what would happen if you mixed the chemicals there.
At about noon, you can’t know for sure with just the sun to tell you, he arrives. Senku greets you, “Hey Y/N, we should probably make a clock today, but I’m interested in what you meant by ‘other things.’”
Taken by surprise by such a direct question, you manage to push out the words, “Well, I, uh, saw your makeup and I guess we could do each others’.”
He smiles with a small amount of air stuffed in his cheeks. Unable to hold back anymore, he breaks down laughing, placing his hand on his stomach area to keep himself stable. “You, you really thought it was makeup, haha. It’s just cracks in my skin from undoing the, haha, undoing the petrification.”
You quickly turn your head in different directions and avert your eyes if they stay on one thing for long enough. “Then why don’t I have any?”
He spends a few seconds recovering from his fit of laughter and answers, “Maybe they’re on your back. Want me to check?”
“Huh?” You cry out. “I, uh, sure, if you would.”
He puts his arms down the back of your top and runs his hand down your spine. His hand feels like that of a doctor, if that doctor was pressing their hand onto you more to feel any kind of imperfections. When he reaches four vertebrae before your pants, you feel a jolt go up your spine and you flinch like you just saw a car crash. “Found it!” He proclaims.
You question, “The cracks feel different than regular skin?”
“You wanna find out?” He asks.
You reach your hand out to touch a crack on his face. It definitely feels different from normal skin, more like a scab. Your question was answered, but you don’t move your hand. That look of determination slowly disappears as his eyes and smile soften. He places his hand on your face on the same place you put yours, just mirrored. Feeling the moment, you move your face halfway to his.
In a moment, he closes the gap, pressing his lips against yours. They’re chapped, and he’s kinda bad at kissing. Just kinda making suction against your mouth. It makes sense, he probably never went through that phase in adolescence where he’d look up that sort of stuff. And unless you weren’t aware of some things, you’re his first kiss. His inexperience doesn’t matter to you though, just his feelings, as you somehow bring yourself even closer.
He pulls away after a few seconds that feel like eternity. He scratches the back of his head, clearly red and noticing the same on you. You tell him, “I think we might have done that too early.”
His normal expression returns, as if that hadn’t just happened. “I don’t think so, we both wanted to do it,” he replies. “I’ve never understood why characters never just use their strongest attack first.”
You laugh at his comparison and feel yourself too not dwelling on it any longer. You wave and leave him with the words, “Well Senku, see you later. And next time, we’re building up to it properly.”
He raises his hand like he’s trying to act cool while alerting a passing boat that he’s stranded. “Sure Y/N, I’ll make a clock so we can schedule it properly,” he affirms.
As you walk away, you get the feeling you won’t be able to avoid any dreams tonight.