Work Text:
"Senku?" Kohaku poked her head inside the laboratory, finding the one she was looking for hunched over the table, fiddling with... something.
"Hey there, Lioness. What's up? Do you need anything?" Senku asked, sparring her a quick glance before turning back to whatever he was working on.
"Yeah, for you to stop working. Come on, it's already late. Also, I'm not a lioness!" she snapped, resisting the urge to whack him on the head.
"Sure you're not. Also, you go on ahead. I'm just finishing this up." Senku casually dismissed her, still not stopping with whatever he was doing.
Now, any other day she might have huffed and left, muttering about him being stubborn, only for her sharp eyesight to notice something.
Senku's hands, usually so steady and precise as they worked were fumbling, fingers clumsily missing wires and tools he tried to grab and seemingly struggling to steer them and connect things to each other.
"I'm not going on ahead! Look at you, you can barely even move your hands!" she told him, marching over and grabbing his hands pointedly, only to drop them with a flinch!
"Gods! You're hands are like ice!" she cried out.
Then again, it was winter and while Senhku had created multiple ways for everyone to stay warm, he kept nothing like that inside the lab. He always claimed it was a safety-hazard due to the chemicals and them being too flammable.
And while she did find it genuinely admirable that he was such a hard worker, right now it worried her how when she thought about it, she had barely see him leave the lab at all that day.
"Alright, you're going to go warm up, mister!" he ordered.
"Sure, after I finish this!" he right away shot back stubbornly.
Kohaku bit back a frustrated growl and went to grab him and toss him over her shoulder, only for him to leap back.
"I really need to finish this, Kohaku! Look, I promise I'll go inside after I'm done with this!" he told her, motioning to whatever he was working on.
As much as Kohaku wanted to argue more, she knew that even if she forcefully dragged him out, he'd probably go back as soon as he got the chance.
"Alright then, but I'm staying to make sure you'll actually go inside when you're done." she gave in, relieved when he nodded and got to work again as she saw herself on the edge of the table.
She wasn't sure for how long they sat in silence but she did know that whatever Senku was doing would have already been long done any other moment, but not now thanks to his hands obviously getting less and less able to work thanks to the cold.
Then she got an idea.
"Give me your hands." she told him.
"Ha? I'm not done yet, Lioness. Look, if you're getting cold yourself, just go inside and I'll join you in a bit." Senku shot her a glare and went to continue his work when she snatched his hands in her own.
"Not a lioness!" she yelled with her own glare before bringing their joined hands to her mouth.
"What are you-?" Senku went to ask when she took a deep breath and breathed over their hands, doing so a couple more times before furiously rubbing his hands with her own.
"I noticed you're having trouble with your hands, even if you'd never admit it, so I figured if I could warm them up, you could finish sooner and come inside and actually warm up." she explained herself, frowning when she found him staring at her weirdly.
"What?" she asked, seemingly snapping Senku from whatever trance he was in.
"Kukuku! Just thinking how you're staying with me and going through all this trouble while you could just go join the others without me. Is it that your little confession about having fallen for me was true after all and now you can't bear to be away from me?" he teased and her face turned bright red.
"I already told you I didn't mean it like that!" she yelled, hating how hot her face suddenly felt.
"Sure you didn't~" he just grinned back and she huffed.
She pointedly started rubbing his hands faster, just to not have to respond, only to see him wince.
"Are you alright? I didn't hurt you, did I?" she asked worriedly.
"No, no, you're fine. It's actually because what you're doing is working and my hands are warming up. In cold temperatures, your body's blood vessels narrow to conserve heat for your core, reducing blood flow to your extremities like fingers and toes. When the hands re-warm, the blood rushes back, often causing throbbing, tingling, and sharp, stinging pain as circulation returns to the starved tissues. This is just my body responding to the temperature change and it'll feel better after a moment." Senku explained and she nodded in understanding, relieved she hadn't accidentally hurt him.
"Okay, you can stop now. My hands are fine, I swear." he then told her and she looked down, realizing that while she had stopped rubbing, she was still holding his hands.
"Oh right!" she quickly let go and watched him go back to work, not as quick as normally but still quicker than just moments ago.
"Hang on, just give me a couple more minutes." he told her, as if hearing her thoughts and she snorted.
"You better be keeping your word about coming in, you hear?" she playfully tugged at his ear, frowning when it was just as cold as his hands.
"Geez! You're freezing all over! Hurry up already!" she told him.
"Yeah, don't worry I'm about done." he swatted her hand away and turned to face her with a smirk.
"Though I wonder, what would you have done if it had still taken me a while? Would you have tried to warm me up some more, starting with my ears?" he asked teasingly.
Now, Kohaku was sure he was just being an ass and messing with her, yet she couldn't help but blush both at what he said and a little at the idea that he really wanted her to take care of him, even just in this small way.
Still, she wasn't gonna let him get this one over her.
Fixing the most sultry smile she could manage she stepped even closer, watching how his grin slowly dropped and his eyes widened as she leaned into him so her mouth was right next to his ear before taking a deep breath.
"Kohaku? What are you-"
"IF YOU'RE REALLY DONE, GET YOUR ASS MOVING ALREADY!" she shouted, right into his hear.
"GAH!" Senku cried out as he stumbled away from her, clutching said abused ear.
"What the hell, Lioness?!" he yelled agrily, though she could have sworn that the redness in his face wasn't just from the cold.
"Sorry, I couldn't resist!" she laughed.
"But seriously, let's get going already! I'm actually starting to lose feeling in my own hands too." she said and turned to leave when was stopped by him grabbing her wrist.
"Senku?"
Instead of saying anything he just rubbing her hand with his own like she had done earlier for a couple seconds before dropping it and walking ahead of her, picking his ear with his pinky like his always did.
Still, as uninterested as he was trying to act, she was sure she saw his face being even redder than before.
For some reason the idea that what had happened between them actually flustered him made her heart sped up a little.
"Come on, Lioness! You're the one who's been hounding me to get inside all this time!" she heard him call back.
"How many times do I have to tell you?! I'm not a lioness!" she yelled back and went to follow.
As soon as she reached him she, without thinking, reached down and took his hand in hers one final time, simply to hold.
And he didn't not pull away but instead held her back.