Work Text:
“LISTEN UP, SENKU!”
she jumped out of her skin as she turned toward the sliding door that slammed open. there stood taiju in all of his might, staring at the boy who sat next to her. she grinned as said boy grimaced.
“IVE MADE UP MY MIND! TODAYS THE DAY! IM GONNA CONFESS TO YUZURIHA.”
she smiled at taiju and senku rolled his neck to look behind him. the rest of the club members were either plugging their ears or flinching away at the boy’s loud voice.
“is that right? i’ll be cheering you on at the top of my vocal chords… from the club room that is.”
she frowned as she flicked his arm from her seat. he seethed from his teeth as he dismissively waved his hand at her.
this went unnoticed to the loud boy in the club room as he happily yelled louder. walking closer to the duo, he excitedly clenched his fists. she puffed out a laugh at the density of his head.
“REALLY?! THANK YOU SO MUCH, SENKU!!”
she sighed good naturedly as she looked up at the ceiling. it was a normal occurrence really, she’s sure senku was tearing his hair out in his head by now. but taiju was too sweet, so it’s okay.
“aah shut the hell up already, i obviously won’t be.”
never mind, apparently.
“WHAT?! MAKE UP YOUR MIND! ”
taiju screamed as he rubbed his head to understand what senku was saying. the boy only pointed a finger to the taller boy’s chest with a frown. she closed her eyes as she listened to the banter.
“besides, five years and you still haven’t said anything? irrational.”
clicking her tongue, she shot him a look and crossed her arms. she looked back at taiju’s crest fallen face and put a hand on his shoulder.
“well it’s okay taiju, i’ll definitely be cheering you on!”
taiju yelled out of happiness, furthering making the club members roll on their heels and cover their ears. senku, his ears already used to the abuse, ignored it. the athletic boy ran over as he gave her the most bone crushing hug she’s ever experienced.
senku stuck his pinky in his ear as he rummaged on the desk in front of him.
“yes yes i’m sure you’ll definitely hear her… considering how annoying she is.”
he murmured under his breath. she felt annoyance build into her smile that she refused to drop.
“REALLY?! THATS SO NICE!”
taiju pointed out to his long time friend as he hugged the girl harder. she grinned with a sharp edge as her arm wriggled out of the death grip. she wasted no time to land a blow on the leek boy’s shoulder.
he yelled in pain for a moment, rubbing his shoulder. muttering nothings under his breath but soon, he turned around with a test tube
in his hand and grinned at the bigger boy. the aura around him becoming increasingly evil.
taiju, feeling the change, dropped her as he looked at the bottle curiously. as she shook her body awake, she stared at the bottle also. her eyes squinted as she looked at the bottle it was in and…
wait… isn’t that the-
“well here’s something completely rational that is sure to make yuzuriha fall in love with you. 10,000,000,000%!”
taking the bottle in his hand, he stared at the liquid in the glass container. she crossed her legs as she watched him, curious on what he’ll do. senku shrugged as he smiled devilishly.
“a love potion, if you will. just drink it and you’ll be set.”
the other members gasped as some of them craned their heads to see it. she rolled her eyes with a grin. love potions obviously didn’t exist, but honestly she doesn’t blame them. with senku, anything seems possible.
raising an eyebrow, she watched as the boy poured it down the drain.
“thanks senku, but i have to do this myself.”
the boy in question only turned back around and waved him off. giving one more whoop and a nervous thumbs up to the girl, he stomped off.
the rest of the members were looking at the sink where the liquid was poured down. with far too much curiosity, she noted, if it was a real love potion. asking the question to senku, curious if it really was.
the boy next to her scoffed as he lit a match and carelessly threw it in the sink. to where it bursted you into flames. she heard the yelps of surprise as the fire burned and extinguished itself.
“obviously not, like those exist.”
he muttered, to which one of the boys opened their mouths.
“oh but if.. taiju drank that…”
he evilly grinned as his hand screwed something into his project.
“i was 10,000,000,000% sure he wouldn’t.”
a beat dropped, as he stared out the window with a fond grin.
“not that straight laced idiot.”
he felt a smack to his head as he yelled in pain. the moment being broken entirely as the rest of the members watched in disbelief.
“you IDIOT! and what if he did?!”
he grit his teeth as he turned back to her and pointed at her with a test tube.
“well OBVIOUSLY i knew that he wouldn’t!”
“10,000,000,000% isn’t a fucking real thing senku!”
the rest of the members looked at them with fond familiarity as they went back to their devices. it was something they saw often, their bickering. she wasn’t in the science club but came often enough for her to become a staple in the room.
it was strange, as they all knew senku-kun was a cold and rash person. he was bold and lacked tact in just about everything.
to where yuzuriha and taiju simply looked past his hard exterior, she took all of his words and fought against them. taiju went along with it and laughed off just about everything. yuzuriha normally smiled and could look between the lines of his words.
she.. never did. she berated him constantly. always looking to fight him on something.
she’d do it with a smile and looked at him in a way that none of them knew why. senku-kun was smart, he obviously knew what he was talking about. but she still did it.
and he’d, surprisingly, just go along with it. he’d yell at her back and tug on her hair. to which she would hit him again until a club member would speak up and say, “umm club leader?”
and their hands would immediately drop as he turned his attention to the member and she turned back to the homework she had. she never had smart arguments, never tried to be on the level he was.
when asked on why she did it one day after club was over. she grinned at the two boys asking and pointed behind her. they looked and saw the boy in question walking away.
“because it’s fun! it knocks senku off of his high horse!”
before she could continue, they heard the boy in front of them yell back, “i can hear you, idiot!”
and when the room seemed a bit too quiet, you could look at senku’s table. and she’d be quietly doing her homework next to his comically complex project.
if you asked, one of the members would say that he saw senku knock his shoulder against hers.
‘you’re not yelling. it’s unnatural.’
and that’s what he whispered under his breath. and when they quietly conversed under the conversations floating around the room and the tinkering, slowly the room was louder.
five minutes after that, they could all hear her yelling about something stupid and it felt brighter.
it was always… strangely lively with her in it.
one could tell that senku didn’t care for many things. he cared about logic and science. cared about numbers and exact measurements.
if you looked hard enough, he cared for taiju and yuzuriha to the depths of his heart.
if you looked even harder, he cared for her far more than he let on.
as everyone went back to their own devices, she leaned back in her chair. it’d be a little bit for taiju to get down to the stairs to yuzuriha. she sighed as she stared up at the ceiling.
“aah love is in the air…”
“urgh don’t remind me.”
senku rolled his eyes, obviously over the dancing around each other yuzuriha and taiju always did.
she punched his shoulder lightly, not enough to make him drop the glass container he was holding.
“c’mon, your kids are getting together, isn’t it exciting?”
“should’ve happened when they first met, love at first sight and all that.”
“you know you don’t believe in that shit, senku.”
she says in a light hearted tone as she pouts. until she can hear taiju’s loud yell come from below. she squeals as she jumps out of her chair and runs out of the room.
senku only sighs as he stretched his arms over his head.
‘guess i should follow and see my theory out.’
he sees her next to the vending machine, her body already leaning out of the open window.
“aaaah! it’s happening it’s really happening oh my god!”
“what’s making you so excited? we both knew it was gonna happen.”
his mutter of ‘should’ve happened a long time ago’ went unheard. as he’s getting his soda from the vending machine, he sees her giddiness is getting the best of her.
her feet lift off the ground as she leans her way out of the window. he spits out some of the soda he was drinking as he hurriedly reached a hand over to the other side of her body to assure that she won’t fall.
“oi! remember what gravity is idiot! you’re basically a damn scale right now! too much weight over the window and you’ll fall!”
he scolds her to the point where she pouts and her body relaxes over the window.
“can you not hear me or something? you’re gonna-“
“well it’s okay, because you’re here if i do fall!”
she happily states to him, as if it was obvious. she springs her head back up to watch taiju in front of yuzuriha. it’s only then he processes how close he is to her.
his hand is on the other side of her, holding the cool metal of the window. his thumb is pressed up against the felt of her school skirt. his the right side of his body is pressed up against her lefts.
he feels his face heat up as the realization dawns on him. he doesn’t know why his emotions are flaring up really. it’s doesn’t really make any logical sense.
so he takes a sip of his soda and tries to control his body heat. all the while, she’s still watching with utmost interest. it’s then he realizes that passerbys could probably look up her skirt.
he groans and retracts his hand to pull a side of his lab coat to cover her behind. he tucks the lab coat under his fingers as he still acts as a safety net in case she falls.
she doesn’t seem to notice or mind.
from across of them, they hear members of his club place bets on taiju’s rejection. he rolls his eyes as he knows that yuzuriha would definitely reciprocate.
he watched as the girl under him would burst into his room just to yell about how yuzuriha doesn’t think taiju likes her after all.
“i bet 10,000 on her saying she likes him back”
he said smugly as the boys gawked. the girl under him giggles as she points a finger up.
“i’m with senku! go taiju!”
he scoffs as he takes another sip of his drink. they heard taiju say the first few words of his confession and before he can say more, she uncharacteristically stops her squealing.
“what…. is that?”
she mumbles as his eyes adjust to the green running through the sky. millions of equation flow through his head of what to do. what is this? what could this possibly be?
he drops his soda can as her arm finds his as she pushes herself back in the window.
“what’s going on?!”
he can’t reply as he doesn’t know. he realizes that she’s struggling getting back inside. he acts on instinct, his hands wrap around her to pull her back on her feet as the he sees from the corner of his eyes that taiju and yuzuriha are stone.
it’s going fast. she’s back inside and she’s her hand is clutching his arm for dear life. it’s going to take a few seconds.
3
he hears her scream.
2
what’s going on?
1
he start counting immediately.
….
“hey senku.”
the boy in question turns around to one of his best friends. they’ve now reunited after a year and he still can’t get used to the sight of him. it makes him inexplicably happy.
everyday without yuzuriha or taiju made his heart ache. he didn’t know he could miss them so much. miss how sweet yuzuriha was or taiju’s idiotic tendencies.
“yeah, big oaf?”
the boy before him is silent for a moment, trying to collect his words. something that he’s never done before, usually just spitting whatever comes to mind. this makes senku’s hand stop turning the the screwdriver he was holding.
they were currently working on his new invention but not doing anything extremely giving. chrome and everyone else is around them but paying attention to their own devices.
his eyes focus on taiju, giving him his full attention.
as her name slips from taiju’s mouth, he freezes. his eyes widen, as his jaw drops.
“where is she?”
yuzuriha is next to him, sewing clothes as she looks up also. she’s looking innocently at him, her eyes looking to him for answers.
“yeah, i thought you would have revived her even before this mess.”
gen’s interest is piqued by the conversation. wondering who is this she.
as he looks up and examines the boy’s face, he sees an scene he never thought he’d see. senku is looking up at the bright blue sky.
a small grin on his face, his eyes looking miserable.
“i couldnt.”
he whispers under his breath.
“what do you mean you couldn’t?!”
taiju sprang up, making a commotion.
“she meant a lot to you right?!”
kohaku turned slowly, startled by taiju’s loud voice. yuzuriha gets up also nervously smiling.
“we can revive her right, senku?”
senku doesn’t move as taiju’s hand is gripping his collar. he’s smiling, kohaku notices. it’s a sad little thing.
usually when he smiled, he was completely confident. boastful even. but she recognized this smile. it’s a smile she wore as she ran every day to the springs. as she disobeyed her father so her sister can keep living.
a smile of a desperate attempt at keeping one’s composure.
“she was far too deteriorated.”
taiju falters as he yells back in full force. pulling senku’s body up with his fist.
“how do you know that?! did you even try to find her?!”
he flinched back as the boy he’s holding suddenly pushes his arms out. his face twisted into an emotion taiju can’t remember senku making a lot of times.
“of course i tried!”
senku bites back. his eyes staring into his friend’s, begging him to understand.
“i was with her when it all turned to stone.”
“and she was…”
when he had turned back, he opened his eyes. he knew that she was latched into him. it was the last thing he remembered.
he was half expecting to see her.
to hear her voice as she asked him what was going on. as she hit him for looking at her naked. her cries as she realized they were alone.
see her smile when he said they’d revive everyone.
he expected for her to be by his side when they found taiju. helping him out with everything.
but when he looked at his arm, he only saw a rock hand latched onto him. it was a rude slap in the face. of reality.
she was gone before he even knew it. his mind involuntarily came up with the possibilities on why she broke. maybe something fell over and it hit her. maybe his statue fell and she’s the one who took the impact.
instead of him.
he didn’t have time to mourn. he wiggled the hand off and carried it with him. sometimes, he’d catch himself staring at it. sometimes, he’d feel kohaku’s smacks on his head and felt her name start to roll off his tongue instead of “lioness”.
sometimes, he’d turn to chrome who’s next to him and call for a different name to give him a material.
it made him pause for a fraction.
before he’d have to get back to work. waving off chrome or kohaku’s confused eyes. he didn’t have time to mourn. he didn’t have time to cry.
not her of all things.
because she didn’t mean all that much to him right?
she was just that annoying neighbor that always bothered him. that annoying girl who’d come over all the time because his dad loved her.
an annoying girl who’d ask him dumb questions about science or math when they were younger. always getting upset when she didn’t understand because she was normal.
an annoying girl who would poke his arm and tell him he needs to go to sleep. who told him that he’s too soft for people after he gave the answers for the science quiz to people.
an annoying girl who got mad at people for him, because he couldn’t be bothered to.
an annoying girl who looked at him like he hung the stars when explaining something simple in chemistry. annoying girl who cheered for him when he got friends in middle school.
an annoying girl who was beautiful in her sleep when she curled up on his bed. claiming “i’m just gonna rest my eyes” every time.
annoying hands that would comb through his rough hair with her fingers. knock her temple against his and say that she doesn’t mean what she says at school.
annoying voice who’d always tease him at school because she thought it would be funny if that’s how they were labeled at school.
annoying girl who wasn’t here and would never be here.
and it was his fault.
that was the only deduction he could make.
she was gone. and it’s all his fault.
…
he clutched the rock hand and watched as yuzuriha and taiju’s eyes watered with tears. feeling the rain pour from the sky hit his face. dripping down his chin as his teeth clenched.
there was no rain that day.