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Desire is human nature—primal in the way it coils beneath skin and bone. A hunger that refuses to be starved. Humans are creatures who reach, who ache for more than what rests in their hands, who look at the horizon and think it’s not enough.
Ryusui has never been ashamed of that.
He wants, therefore he is.
And Ryusui always gets what he wants.
Whether it is wealth, experiences, or people, the world has never truly been beyond his grasp. He was born into a life that rewards appetite—a life where ambition is applauded and greed is simply another word for vision. Wanting has never been a flaw to him. It has always been a virtue.
Desire is noble. It drives ships across restless seas and dares them not to drown. It pushes humanity forward, drags it from caves to constellations.
Desire is beautiful.
And Ryusui dares to say that desire is not something he merely feels—it is what he is made of. It lives in the marrow of his bones, hums in his blood, and sharpens his smile.
Whenever he wants something, he reaches.
And more often than not, the world places it neatly in his palm.
Almost always.
There is one variable that refuses to resolve. One anomaly in the otherwise elegant equation of his life. A single factor that will not yield, no matter how confidently he calculates.
The one he wants, but cannot seem to obtain.
Ishigami Senku.
Ryusui did not think it would be difficult. Senku is logical, rational, a man who lives by measurable truths and repeatable results. Someone like that should be easy to understand. Predictable, even.
That assumption was his mistake.
If there is one thing Senku loves most, it is science, for it is absolute and unyielding. A truth that does not bend for charm nor glitter for wealth. It simply exists, and Senku follows it with unwavering devotion.
Ryusui finds everything desirable. Every person is a possibility waiting to be claimed, every encounter a door waiting to be opened.
Senku sees people differently. Not objects of desire, but fragments of a vast blueprint only he seems capable of assembling.
And Ryusui, for the first time in his life, finds himself wondering—what part he plays in that blueprint.
So why does this boy he met by chance at a party unsettle him so completely?
Senku had not even wanted to be there. He stood beneath the lights as though they were an inconvenience, as though he would rather be shut away in his room, hands stained with his beloved chemicals, lost in research instead of enduring polite applause for astronauts returning from their brief dance with the stars.
The party glittered. Laughter spilled all around. Conversations rose and fell in rehearsed crescendos.
Senku drifted away from it all. Not because he was shy. Because it was not for him.
Was it because they were nearly the same age among a crowd of dignitaries and aging elites? Perhaps. But that was not what intrigued Ryusui most.
It was the way Senku slipped from the crowd silently, like smoke escaping through an open window. The way his gaze fixed not on the chandeliers or the cameras, but on the spacecraft stationed just beyond the glass.
On NASA’s pride.
Ryusui did not mean to follow him. It simply happened.
One moment he was smiling for someone important. The next, his feet were carrying him across polished floors and toward the night air, drawn as though by gravity.
“Where are you headed, Ryusui-sama?” Francois asked from behind him, ever composed.
But even without turning, Ryusui knew Francois understood. After all, it was a butler’s role to recognize what their master desired, sometimes even before he did.
Ryusui sees Senku standing outside the building, his gaze fixed on the spacecraft resting beneath the open sky. It gleams even in the dark, kissed by moonlight, magnificent and untouchable.
Ryusui desires that too.
He has always ruled the seas, bending wind and tide to his will, but this is different. This is not the ocean stretching obediently before him, but the endless expanse above—a conquest that does not bow easily. And yet, what captures him more than the ship itself is the way Senku looks at it.
There is awe in his expression. Unadulterated awe. Only his interests have the power to bring it out
It suits him.
For a fleeting moment, Ryusui wonders whether Senku loves the stars the way he loves the sea. And then a more dangerous thought follows—could Senku ever look at him with that same focus, that same unshakable devotion?
Senku is the kind of person one cannot help but be drawn to, even in a first meeting. Ryusui cannot fully explain it. It feels less like coincidence and more like inevitability, as if somewhere—perhaps in another version of this world—they have already stood shoulder to shoulder, crossing skies and commanding impossible horizons together. If such a Ryusui exists, then he must be the greediest man alive.
But the Ryusui standing here now has no intention of falling behind any version of himself.
He steps closer, shoes crunching softly against gravel.
“It’s magnificent, isn’t it?” he says, coming to stand beside Senku. The moon crowns the spacecraft in silver, turning steel into something almost celestial.
“Yeah,” Senku replies, voice calm. “It truly is.”
He does not move away, nor does he seem surprised by the company. That alone feels like an opening.
“Do you want it?” Ryusui asks, his eyes lingering briefly on the way the wind lifts Senku’s pale hair, strands catching light beautifully.
Senku lets out a quiet breath, almost a chuckle. “That’s sudden… but of course I want it,” he says, still fixated on the ship. “I want to see what’s beyond this planet. I want to understand it.”
There is no hesitation in his voice.
Ryusui smiles faintly. “If I say I desire it too, would you believe me?”
This time Senku glances at him. “We’ve crossed paths before. From what I know of you, Nanami Ryusui, you’d desire whatever catches your eye.”
Ryusui blinks. “You remember?”
He had assumed he was the only one who carried those small, strange recollections—the boy with impossible hair and a mind too bright to ignore. The pull that felt older than this meeting.
“Everybody knows you,” Senku says simply. “At least everybody who should.”
Something leaps in Ryusui’s chest at that.
“And you’re part of that?” he asks, tone lighter than he feels. “Should I be honored?”
“That’s up to you.”
“Senku,” Ryusui says, more quietly now.
“Hm?”
“What if I say I desire you too?”
Senku turns fully toward him at that, gaze direct and unflinching. “Then that would be a problem,” he replies. “I have no desire for you.”
For a brief second, the night feels sharper.
Ryusui only smiles wider. “That would be a problem for me as well,” he says, voice smooth but resolute, “because I have no desire to stop.”
The wind moves between them, carrying the faint hum of distant conversations from inside the building. Senku studies him for a moment longer, then a small, knowing curve touches his lips.
“Then keep up,” Senku says, voice calm, eyes sharp. “If you want something that badly, prove you can reach it.”
And that is how it begins—not with surrender, nor with retreat, but with challenge.
They become friends in the way only two men who desire the world can. Days pass, conversations drift effortlessly, and Ryusui realizes how easy it is to open up to Senku. To understand him. To be understood in return. There is a pull that feels like gravity.
One evening, as Ryusui demonstrates yet another audacious feat to impress him, Senku looks up with that calm, brilliant smile and says, almost casually:
“Fly me to the moon.”
The words strike him like sunlight. Ryusui can’t help but laugh softly to himself. They are so alike, so greedy, so unashamed in their hunger for more.
“Don’t underestimate me, Senku,” he teases.
“Yeah,” Senku replies, eyes glinting. “I’ll look forward to it.”
It is not just ambition Ryusui admires—it is that spark of desire in Senku’s eyes. The way he wants the impossible, and the way he moves toward it unapologetically. His smile is brighter than any star, and more breathtaking than anything Ryusui has ever seen in the solar system.
This is exhilarating.
Ring. Ring. Ring.
Ryusui leans back in his chair, phone pressed to his ear. “Hello, Senku? Are you back in Japan already?”
“Obviously,” Senku answers, still assembling another miniature spaceship.
Ryusui grins. Funny enough, he had offered that they could return to Japan together, but business called him elsewhere, and Senku was eager to get home.
“I saw this ruby on display yesterday,” Ryusui says, letting his words fall lightly, almost carelessly, though they carry all the weight of intention. “It reminded me of your eyes. Perfect as a ring, don’t you think?”
There is a pause. But after a while, Senku responds:
“I would have preferred a diamond. It would cut through exactly with the project I’m working on.”
Ryusui’s grin deepens, amused by the matter-of-factness of it all.
“So… you wouldn’t mind being married to me, then?” he asks, teasing.
“Negative ten billion points, Ryusui,” Senku says, dryly.
“Well,” Ryusui replies, with mock resignation, “I suppose I’ll better get home soon. Can’t keep you waiting, hm?”
“Don’t forget the diamond,” Senku reminds, tone completely unbothered.
“You’re greedy,” Ryusui murmurs, a laugh curling through the words.
“I just desire it,” Senku says lightly, as though it were nothing, and Ryusui can’t help but laugh outright this time.
He leans back, the corners of his mouth lifting with satisfaction. Desire is a strange, beautiful thing. It drives men to conquer seas, to chase stars, to risk everything. But sometimes, it brings the impossible within reach, wrapped in laughter and undeniable affection.
Desire truly is noble.
And oh, how deliciously human it is.
♡