Chapter Text
The scientist was in his lab hunched over his work, scanning over pages and pages of research, until the sudden sound of his door sliding open disturbed his peace, he didn't have to look up to know who it was.
"Senku, You've been locked up here for way to long!"
His sister scolded, walking up to him and snatching his papers out of his hand, an annoyed expression growing on his face
"What do you want, lioness?"
The woman groaned at that nickname, giving him a smack at the back of his head
"I told you to stop calling me that!"
She snapped, Senku winced getting more annoyed by the second but before he could complain about it, Kohaku spoke up
"Minami told me there was a new coffee shop down town, and apparently, they serve good coffee!"
"Then go by yourself?"
She frowned at that reply, grabbing him by the back of his collar and forcefully dragging him out of his lab, despite his protest.
The commotion was heard by their oldest sister, her head popped out the corner of the hallway
"You guys are going out?"
"Yeah! To the new coffee shop, need anything?"
She stoped walking, which Senku took as an opportunity to break loose from her grip, she didn't let go. Ruri chuckled at her sibling's stuggle, Senku frowned at her for it.
"Could you bring a little something for Suika and I?"
"Yeah sure!"
And she began to drag him again
"You can let me go, now."
"Thank god! I thought I'd have to drag you all the way there"
He got up, looking at her with his usual annoyed expression while rubbing the back of his neck. After putting on their jacket, they made their way outside.
The sun had already set and the cold air of early winter brushed past them, Senku adjusted his scarf and put his hands in his pocket. He didn't know the exact location of the coffee shop, just that some people from college talked about it non-stop, to the point that even his lab partner was slacking off.
Kohaku suddenly stopped at an intersection, glancing at her phone before looking around them
"It should be right..."
Then suddenly pointing to one direction
"Right there! Come on!"
She said walking ahead with an already exhausted Senku following right behind her.
They stopped in front of the coffee shop, the sign read "Sunflower Café" he watched as the blonde swung the door open, the gentle sound of bells ringing as they both stepped in.
The atmosphere was calming, the decorations were those of a typical European style café, cosy. Some books were displayed on shelves and plants were hanging from the ceiling, he could name some of them: Epipremnum aureum, Philodendron hederaceum and Senecio rowleyanus.
As his eyes scanned around his surroundings, he followed Kohaku to a table, they sat down across from eachother
"It's very pretty in here, what do you think?"
She said, looking around.
"Sure, the coffee just better be as good as the decorations."
The woman sighed, shaking her head
"Of course.. But I trust Minami's taste, if she says it's good, then it most likely is!"
As they spoke, they both seem to notice how the waitress that was walking towards them suddenly scrambled away to the counter.
The siblings looked at eachother, confused by her action, until an other barista showed up to take their order
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"Gen! Gen!"
The pink haired girl called to the barista behind the counter. He wasn't doing anything in particular, mostly procrastinating from his duty, tired from the previous rush hour.
"What is it, darling Luna?"
He sighed out trying to keep his composure but he was clearly exhausted from the work load.
"2 clients at table 4, both Japanese speakers, can you serve them for me? Pretty please!"
She begged, putting her hands together and giving him puppy eyes. Although these type of tactics didn't work on the mentalist a whole lot, she still did it.
"Fine, I uppose-say I have no other choice.."
He took a napkin wiping his hands with it before making his way towards the table. He took out his small notebook to write the orders.
He stopped in front of the table and before he could say anything, the blonde woman sitting in front of him beat him to it.
"Hello!"
She greeted in english, her accent wasn't bad at all, he silently cursed Luna for assuming, he cared about her deeply but she had a habit of jumping to conclusions really fast.
"Hello, what can I get for you?"
He followed up, ready to write out their order.
"What do you recommend?"
The man to his left spoke up quirking up and eyebrow, Gen took notice of his unusual appearance: wild white hair with green tips with sticking red eyes, not something you see very often.
He tilted his head at the man's question as if acting a little clueless.
"I'd say, the best thing on the menu is spicy cola, although for this cold weather I would recommend one of our hot drinks, like our speciality: the matcha-Ube mix!"
He said putting on his usual corporate smile as he answered the question, only for it to almost shatter immediately at the client's response.
"I'll take a black coffee then."
"Very well then! How about you, miss?"
He turned to her, and she pointed to the menu as she spoke
"I'll take a caramel latte with uh... buruberi muffin!"
Her accent slipped out, making the man sitting across from her cackle. She gave him a glare and Gen couldn't help but breathe out a light laugh
"Will that be all?"
"Yes, thanks."
He walked away towards the counter. So Luna was right, they were Japanese, he was kinda surprised that the woman who had striking western features was also from his home country, even if he was gossip now wasn't the time to think about business that didn't concern him.
"Table 4's order, and by the way, they do speak English"
He walked behind the counter, as he gave Luna the note, he began to brew some coffee exhaling.
"Oops! So sorry Gen! You can sit down, this capable gal will make and serve them their coffee!"
She pointed a thumb at herself, huffing proudly while taking care of the order herself. Gen leaned against the nearby wall, looking amused at the pink haired woman.
"If you so insist darling, although, I'll have to warn you about the man sitting at that table, errible-tay manners!"
Luna turned to look at him tilting her head, harbouring a puzzled expression
"Really? What happened?"
"He's the type of person to ask for recommendations and then take something else"
"Ah.. he's one of those..thanks for the heads up!"
She replied, her tone sounding more joyful in the end. Once she was done with preparing everything, Gen watched her walk away to serve them while he took care of the next clients.
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The waitress served the pair, a bright smile on her face, Senku didn't even bother to give her a glance, too busy reading an article on his phone.
"Here you go!"
He picked up his cup and began to drink, until he felt a small nudge. He looked up at his sister.
"What? Can't you see I'm busy?"
He deadpanned. The blonde frowned but quickly got back to the excited expression she had previously.
"That waitress, she's the prettiest girl I've ever seen!"
Senku stared at her eyebrows raised, in a way that can be interpreted as both confused and unbothered , before he shrugged turning back to his phone.
"You're 10 billion percent exaggerating."
He replied taking a sip of his coffee and setting it back down.
"I forgot you're too gay to even give a woman a second glance."
If at first he wasn't bothered, now he definitely was. Kohaku smirked knowing she hit a nerve there.
"What about that guy with the 2 toned hair from earlier?"
"What's with these allegations? First Chrome now you??"
"Denial is a river in Egypt Senku, the sooner you realise the better."
He snarled only letting out a "tsk" sound.
"Whatever, go get that girl's number if you want, just keep me out of your mess."
She didn't even finish her food, she was already on her merry way to get that waitress's number.
He rolled his eyes as he watched her walk away, when she came back she had 2 drinks, one for Ruri and one for Suika.
She also harboured a proud expression on her face. He could only assume that the barista had given her her number, but something about the gleam in her eyes told him that Kohaku was 10 billion percent scheming something.
After they were done eating, he got confirmation of that. The dual haired waiter walked up to them to hand them their receipt, the man only smiled at the lioness before walking away. They got up and began to make their way to the exit, Senku raised an eyebrow at their silent interaction, before taking a look at the receipt, he paused looking between the piece of paper and his sister
Kohaku gave a knowing smile, he gave her a grimace.
"Seriously?"
"Mhm?"
She crossed her arms over her chest, looking at her brother smugly. He pinched his nose bridge and sighed
"Why would you do this?"
"Do what?"
Kohaku asked innocently. Before swinging her arm around his neck, taking a look at the paper
"Looks like you're his type!"
"I don't care."
Senku swatted her hand away walking out of the shop to find the nearest trash can.
"Hey! Senku, what are you doing?!"
The blonde followed right after him watching him throw the receipt away she shoved the drinks she was holding for their siblings in his hands before digging right into the trash can trying to find it, some people looked at them funny as they walked past our duo.
"You truly know no shame."
"Ha! You're one to talk!"
After a pause and shuffling around the trash bin she finally stopped, holding the small piece of paper up with a proud smile on her face as if she had just found treasure.
"Found it! And I'm keeping it until we get back home"
She sang, shoving it into her pocket, Senku rolled his eyes at her again. Before walking ahead.
When they arrived home, Kohaku put the drinks on the kitchen counter while the scientist making his way to his room. He tried to reach for his phone in his pocket but it wasn't there anymore, he whipped his head around only to see the lioness holding it with that smug expression.
"Give it back."
He turned to face her and walked back into the living room where she was.
"I'm doing this for your own good!"
She shouted. There began a game of cat and mouse, they circled around the couch.
"Give it back lioness I don't need your help!"
The scientist launched at his sister jumping over the couch only to fall head first into it, she had already started to type out the waiter's number on his phone.
"Yes you do! You still pretend to be confused when I mention how gay you are!"
He got up and ran towards her, trying to snatch his phone out of her hands, the blonde kept dodging him, raising the phone above her head while jumping on different furnitures and running around.
"For the last time, I'm not gay! I just don't see a point in dating women or dating in general!"
Senku wasn't athletic, so after a few moments of struggle he was panting heavily and already exhausted.
"Right..And I didn't see a point in dating men, or dating in general until I realised!"
She retorted, as she jumped off the kitchen counter, landing on the floor. Through his heavy breathing Senku managed, crossing his arms
"That...that's different.."
"Uhuhuh. Just talk to him please! Even if you don't end up dating you need more friends here! And ones that aren't total nerds."
The Ishigami family had moved to America a little under 5 years ago, it was simply more convenient with their father, Byakuya working at the NASA headquarters and this being their mother Lillian's home country, moving to the United States was more efficient for both parties. But that also meant that Senku had to leave his childhood friends behind.
He still keeps contact with them, but that doesn't mean the hole they left was any easier to bare, he of course had Chrome now, but it wasn't the same.
"Whatever. If I do, you owe me lab equipment, and i might also need some manpower for my next experiment."
He said catching his breath, picking his ear with his pinky finger.
Kohaku walked up to him, handing him back his phone with an exasperated sigh, before putting both her hands on her hips shaking her head dramatically.
"The things I do for your sake.."
She sat on the couch, leaving Senku standing up, leaning onto the backrest of the couch trying to think of what to send first.
"By the way, I didn't wash my hands."
As a reflex he threw his phone, it thankfully landed on the couch. He gave an absolutely disgusted look, kohaku couldn't help but cackle.
"Just kidding!"
She said wiping away fake tears. The scientist still didn't quite trust her, so he looked for some cleaning product to sanitiser his phone, making the woman laugh harder.
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Finally, Gen was home after a long shift. He walked towards the living room, stumbling over his feet from exhaustion, until he collapsed face down onto the couch.
Footsteps approached and he felt someone sitting next to him.
"Long day?"
The man next to him asked, ruffling his hair. The Mentalist didn't need to look up to see who it was.
"Yeah... An ot-lay of clients."
He curled as he spoke as if he wanted to just melt onto the fabric beneath himw customer service was a painful job.
"I see. You should rest."
"No need to tell me twice!"
He let out a tired laugh in response, before finally sitting up to look at the man.
His white hair and dark eyes matched his own, if it wasn't for his foreign features, people wouldn't be able to tell they weren't related by blood.
"Xeno, have you seen my cigarettes?"
A blonde man walked into the living room, searching around. Xeno looked up at him, frowning, clearly not satisfied with the question.
"In the trash can."
"Are you serious?"
"Maybe you could stop inhaling poison"
He retorted, turning his attention back to the figure laying on the couch next to him.
"Whatever, I'm going to buy a new pack. Gen, do you need anything?"
"Cola please.."
He mumbled tiredly. The older scientist pinched his nose bridge, exasperated.
"I live in a house full of addicts."
The blonde man rolled his eyes before making his way to the front door.
After the man left, Gen felt his phone vibrating with a notification. He sat up grunting, before taking a look, a message appeared on screen from an unknown number:
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[Unknown]: hey, so idk what what my sister told you to convince you to give me your number, but I'm kinda forced to text you now.
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Gen had completely forgot he gave his number to that girl. She had made an excuse about how her brother was interested in him, of course he could tell that was a lie but curiosity got the better of him
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[Gen]: Well, I wouldn't want to keep you hostage
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He didn't even know that guy's name, he just knew he gave a terrible first impression. But it's worth a shot he supposed.
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[Unknown]: haha very funny. You haven't met the lioness, she's very fierce and short tempered.
[Gen]: I don't think that's a way to speak about a woman! (~￣³￣)~
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He let out a light chuckle at the text, the older man glanced at him not saying anything about his son's behaviour.
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[Unknown]: whatever. I don't see a point. What are we even supposed to do? (눈_눈)
[Gen]: well, I uppose-say we could start by introducing ourselves first! My name is Gen, hbu? (◕દ◕)
[Unknown]: why don't you guess?
[Gen]: and what do I gain by doing that? I'm a very shallow man, you see? ♪～(´ε｀ )
[Unknown]: If you guess right I guess I could pay you a meal somewhere.
[Gen]: As they say, the way to a man's heart is through his stomach! Wasn't expecting you to be the flirting type! Game on!! (ʃƪ＾3＾）
[Unknown] don't get any ideas, idiot. That's only IF you win. ತ_ತ
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The dual haired man stared at his phone pondering on ways to find the mysterious guy's name. He truly was an odd pod, a new puzzle for Gen to uncover, how stimulating! How exciting! And the mentalist was planning to find out everything that needs to analyse every ounce of information about this man.