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You gasped as you woke up, sweat forming on your forehead with tears leaking in the corner of your eyes. Your back was sore as you were once sitting up against a wall, you looked at your side as you saw Gen, his sleeping head gently rested against your shoulder. It was the middle of the night, a few hours ago you, Gen, and Senku had been up in Chrome’s storage room. The three of you were discussing and going over the plans for another science project, forming words of options, opinions, and concerns far away from everyone.
After sometime the three of you grew tired and tired, drifting off to sleep aside each other. After falling asleep you started to dream, in your dream you saw your family. Your loved one’s close to your side, you were at a family gathering, dressed in comfortable clothes and sitting on a chair.
Looking around you were in an area, you didn’t know if you were in a family member's house or a public area. But in your heart you knew that you were safe, the sounds of familiar voices ringing in your ears. Voices rising high and low, filled with emotions and intentions. Relatives were around you, standing, sitting, or moving. The sound and feeling of love and comfort was around you and it felt good.
In the blink of an eye you were no longer with your family, but now you were with your friends. Their voices booming with laughter as you look at them, they were all next to you talking to one another, making jokes and eating snacks. Their faces filled with happiness and mischief, faces of teenage kids enjoying the moment. Your friends turned to you, their smiles from laughter and happiness still radiating off them. You blink and just like your family they were no longer there.
When you opened your eyes, looking around you saw Japanese signs to be exact. Now knowing where you were, you realized you were in Japan, in front of you sitting across from you was Senku. You were at a cafe with Senku, sitting outside at a small table with your heads being covered by a giant umbrella, blocking the sun's harsh rays. You looked at Senku, his eyes were filled with love and care, and his cheeks were slightly pink. Looking into his red eyes, his pupils looked as if they were shaped like hearts, looking at you as if you were a masterpiece.
Senku touched your hand as he held it in his own, his touch so gentle and calming, his thumb grazing gently against your knuckles, feeling their bulbous structure. “I have a fun scientific fact for you. And it’s about caffeine, especially since you're drinking some right now” he said, pointing at your espresso. “The fun fact is that caffeine boosts dopamine, a neurotransmitter linked to pleasure and motivation, which can improve mood and focus. Caffeine also enhances a range of cognitive functions, including alertness, attention, and memory.”
“Y’know, even though this is gonna sound cringy” he said, turning his blushing face away from your face. “Just like caffeine, you too also improve my mood. Whenever I’m around you, I always feel more confident and even better sometimes, especially if I feel a bit down on certain days.” “Wow Senku, I didn’t know you could be so nerdy yet so romantic at the same time” you said jokingly.
The boy chuckled at your statement, “you know I’m not good at saying romantic things all the time but it’s true, you're practically a form of caffeine for me, giving me all the energy I could ever need. And that’s why… I’m grateful I met you, and that I have you in my life.” He said turning to you, a slight smirk now on his face.
In that moment you woke up, your heart thumping fast against your chest. Gently and quietly, you moved your shoulder away from Gen’s head resting his head against the wall. Silently you got up, as you began to tippy toe your way to the door, careful not to knock over anything or accidentally make a noise alarming Senku and Gen.
After arriving at the door, you opened it. When you touched the ladder, you then closed it as you began climbing down the ladder. When you got down, immediately your broken sobs began to slip out of your mouth as you ran down the path into the entrance of the forest, sobs growing louder as you ran more. After a few seconds of running, you entered into the forest stopping in your tracks.
You wiped your tears as you turned your head around looking at the greenery surrounding you. Looking at the plants and trees in the forest, your eyes filled as you burst into tears again, you were hurt. The faces and memories of your friends and family were in your head, now being reopened and remembered. Except, the ones you had racing in your head were only the visions from your dreams. Your tears streaked harder down your face, as your palms covered your face.
Minutes passed as you cried your heart out, your tears forming muffled sounds in your palms. After releasing your face from your palms, your cries came to a slow but full stop. Your eyes were itchy and red, from the minutes of crying and rubbing your eyes together in your palms. A small frown was on your face, “why…why did that dream come to me, what sign does it even hold, what was the purpose of it.” You said in a defeated tone.
The sound of footsteps quickly rushed across your ears, your heart filled with panic as you looked around. Your eyes went to a sharp rock, quickly, you picked it up as you took a quick breath in ready to defend yourself with the rock in your hand. You turned around as you lifted your hand with the rock, ready to throw it at the stranger who was behind you.
“Woah! Calm down, it's just me.” Senku said, raising his hands defensively, “oh Senku, it’s you” you said, your cheeks turning red, burning with embarrassment. You quickly dropped the rock as you apologized to Senku, you tried to turn back around in hopes Senku didn’t notice your red eyes. However something was forcing you to not turn your back, you looked and saw Senku, his hand was on your shoulder gently, but firmly holding onto your shoulder.
“I know you snuck out here to cry,” Senku said, “I heard you when you started to tiptoe your way out of the storage room. I didn’t think anything about it because you weren’t doing anything suspicious, for a moment it looked like you were leaving to go take a piss or something” he said looking at you. “However when you were opening the door and then closing the door while climbing down the ladder. I saw your face, you looked sad, you looked as if you were defeated. I saw them, the tears in your eyes.”
“Please Senku, you really don’t need to be so concerned about me right now. It’s not like I’m hurt or in danger, I’m fine really.” You said, trying to calm the boy’s concerns. “No! you're not fine!” He said in a serious tone. You never annoyed Senku or got him mad before, so for him to sound almost angry and harsh was surprising. “I’m sorry…” he said to you, sighing, “You know I’m not the one to get emotional, however seeing you I knew you were stressed. But not in a good way.”
“We all know that stress is an organism's response to challenges, it’s an in-built mechanism. With stress it can motivate us and make us complete things like work. However, sometimes stress can be bad for us, as too much stress can lead to negative changes in our lives and even affect us physically like gaining or losing too much weight. Even mentally like developing mental illnesses like depression and anxiety.”
“I’m not a therapist or anything…” the boy said in an awkward tone, “but I do know just like everyone else that stress isn’t a good thing all the time. So please, tell me what's wrong and I promise you I will listen.” You felt the grip Senku had on your shoulder loosen, his eyes staring into yours with seriousness and concern.
You felt your heart beating in your chest, tears started to form in the corner of your eyes. Suddenly you found yourself hugging Senku, crying into his shoulder. “I miss them so much! My family, my friends, I miss them all. I feel so guilty for being alive, I feel so guilty that they're not alive and their bodies could be god knows where right now.”
“A few hours ago I had a dream about them, a dream where I was with them. I was hanging out with my friends and family, they all looked so happy and so in the moment that when I woke up it hurt because they were gone. It hurts so much because that dream wasn’t real, none of what happened really happened. My friends and family are gone from me and there’s nothing I can do about it.”
“I know they're not really gone since they're just petrified, but… that itself hurts.” It was pitch dark and you were in the forest crying your eyes out on the shoulder of the man you loved. Everything was confusing for you, although you managed to survive and made allies and friends in this primitive world it was frustrating.
You felt Senku gently place his left arm around your waist, hugging you closer to him. While he had his right placed on your back, patting it gently. Hearing your cries triggered a feeling in Senku, something he tried not to think about too often. That feeling was sorrow, seeing your tears and hearing your pain reminded him of the sadness of the situation.
The world you both knew was gone, all that existed in the modern world was erased. All from an event that nobody agreed to or expected.
Hearing your mourning cries reminded Senku about how he felt, how he had lost most of what he had. Worse, he lost someone very important, his dad Byuaku. The one man he loved dearly with his heart, the one who inspired him and taught him all he knew about the world. Unlike everyone else, Byuakyu was dead and there was nothing he could do about it.
“Please don’t feel so guilty” he said to you, “it’s not your fault that your friends and family aren’t here with us now. And even though I don’t know them, I know that they would have hoped that you were safe and I’m pretty sure that they miss you too.”
“I’m sorry about this… about all of this” the boy said reassuringly, “I don’t know why this happened, but one day we will manage to free humanity from petrification, and that everyone including your friends and your family will be a part of that.”
“And I promise you this, your tears won’t be for nothing. I want you to know that as long as I’m here, I’ll work hard enough just to make sure that everyone is ok including you.” You felt arms wrapped more around Senku, as rested your face on his tear stained shoulder, you were now smiling as you stood there wrapped in Senku’s arms.
Senku looked at you, seeing your face resting on his shoulder pulled a light smirk from his lips. Looking at your relaxed face he stood there watching you with care, daring not to move in hopes that your cute face wouldn’t stop being on his shoulder. You both stood together, your arms wrapped around each other. Seconds passed as you both continued hugging each other, soon your hug came to an end as you realized you were still hugging Senku.
You pushed yourself away as you started to awkwardly apologize, “I’m sorry, please forgive me Senku, I didn’t realize that after you said to talk to you I was hugging you and…” Senku laughed at your awkwardness. “Don’t be sorry, you already did what you did. And besides, even though I don’t really do hugs and my shoulders now wet like an umbrella, I’m glad that me being your hugging tree was able to help you get some negativity off your chest. Besides you hugging me, it seemed your mood improved.”
You chuckled at his comment, “thank you Senku,” you said, a smile shining on your face. “You're welcome, and besides, let's head on back now. We don’t want anyone to notice we're gone now, do we?”
The two of you started to walk down the path leaving the dark forest. After some walking, you and Senku were back at the ladder to Chrome's storage room, “ladies first” Senku said to you, ushering you up the ladder. You both climbed the ladder, soon you were both inside. You laid down on the wooden floor as you grabbed a pillow on the ground, pulling it under your head. You heard the sound of the door closing, Senku pushing it shut gently as he could.
You turned to your side, hiding your face away in the other direction, as you heard Senku scuffling his feet. Soon you heard him as he laid down on the wooden floor, you didn’t dare turn yourself to look at him to see where he was but you knew that he was close. “Senku, can I tell you this?” You said, "Sure what is it you have to say?” He said replying to your question, “in my dream tonight, aside from my friends and my family. You were in my dream too, but we were together just you and me.”
“Really, and what were we doing?” he said, curiosity filling his mind. “We weren’t really doing anything, but we were at a cafe, we were relaxing and we were talking to each other. It was nice, and the moment it just felt right, and thinking about it. If it wasn’t for petrification, do you think… we could have met each other at all still”
“I don’t know how to explain that,” he said. “Even though there’s a ten billion percent chance that we wouldn’t, I do want you to know that if we did meet. I think that whatever we were doing in your dream, I’m pretty sure we would’ve done it in real life and it would’ve been good.
You felt your cheeks burn up as his words soaked into your head, the image of Senku holding your hand from your dream came back. “Yeah it would have been good” you said quietly, as you felt yourself drift off to sleep. After you fell asleep, silence filled the air, Senku turned towards your direction looking at your sleeping body. A smile lit across his face, as he looked at your sleeping body, “thank god she’s no longer stressed” the boy said to himself.
Looking around the room he found a blanket on the floor, he got up as he grabbed the blanket. He then walked towards your sleeping body and gently placed the soft blanket on you. “Yeah whatever we’re doing in your dream, I’m pretty sure it would have been good” he said, going back to sleep.