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"Senku?" Kohaku called out as she poked her head inside the observatory, finding the scientist looking through the telescope at the sky again.
"Sup, Lioness. Need anything?" Senku casually greeted her without looking back.
"I'm not a lioness! Also, I got a little worried since you've been here all night." she explained, coming closer.
Don't get her wrong, she was glad that despite how he'd treated it just as another useful thing for their fight against Tsukasa, he was truly happy with the gift everyone had made him for his birthday.
She just wanted to make sure he didn't hole himself up all the time.
"Here, come look at this. There's barely any clouds and the constilations are all visible." he waved her over, shooting a quick grin over his shoulder.
Bemused, Kohaku gave in and walked closer till Senku practically pushed her in front of the telescope for her to look into.
"Oh... Alright, that is beautiful." she admitted, hearing Senku chuckle triumphantly.
"But you know," she said as looked back up at him, "What if I told you I know an even better place to look at the stars?"
"Heh? Somehow I doubt you know somewhere that would be better for stargazing than a place with a big-ass telescope, but alright, I'll humor you." Senku smirked, getting up.
"Humor me? Oh, just you wait!" Kohaku grinned, grabbing his hand and starting to run, ignoring his protesting shouts for her to slow down.
Together they ran past the village, through the forest for quite a while till they finally reached their destination.
"We're here!" she announced, letting go and turning around, only to find nothing behind her.
Then hearing a weird noise made her loom down and she found Senku on his hands and knees on the ground, the strange sound being him wheezing as he tried to catch his breath from the running.
Right. She'd forgotten he had the strenght and stamina of a bug, especially compared to her.
"Geez, are you trying to kill me, Lioness?" he huffed as he stumbled to his feet, glaring at her before looking around.
Kohaku had dragged him to a large grassy hill.
"Look up." Kohaku ordered and obeying his eyes went wide.
Here, the sky somehow seemed even larger and brighter than anywhere else, even bright enough to make everything around them slow slightly.
"What was that about humoring me?" Kohaku's voice brought his attention back to her, finding her smiling smugly.
"Alright, I guess this isn't so bad." he admitted wit a chuckle, digging his pinky in his ear.
"How'd you find this place anyway?" he asked as they sat down in the grass.
"Honestly, it was an accident. One time when I was younger I got scolded and ran away because I was angry and ended up here. I was tired and figured I'd take a short break and when looking I saw how the sky was somehow brighter here and decided to stay a little. I'm not sure how long I was there but at some point I somehow wasn't angry anymore and went home." she explained.
"I guess that does sound like something you'd do. Also, it's been said looking at the stars can trigger a deep sense of peace and awe." he agreed.
"A feeling of peace and awe, huh? Is that what happens to you everytime you look at them, Senku?" she asked.
"I guess it sorta does. Always has, ever since I was little. My dad would tell me how back when I was a baby and if I cried at night, he'd just take me outside and I'd calm down as soon as I looked up and saw the stars." he told her, having to blink a couple times when his eyes got a little wetter.
"I see. So you have had your love for the stars and anything else out there ever since you were a baby." Kohaku confirmed with a tender smile.
"Kukuku~ Yeah, and it never went away." he agreed, laying down on his back because all the looking up was starting to hurt his neck, Kohaku quick to join him so their heads were right next to each other.
"He also told me how as a kid I'd try to grab the stars all the time." he told, hand reaching up high as if to try and grab them then, aimlessly opening and closing.
"I did so too. I could never understand how something so small would be out of my reach. However, I know if anyone would be able to do so, you'd be the one to one day hold an actual star in your hand, Senku." Kohaku said as her hand also reached up, covering his own and threading her fingers between his.
Senku couldn't help but feel strange at this action.
"Thanks for the confidence in me, but I'm never holding a star, no matter what. A star is a massive, glowing ball of plasma—mostly hydrogen and helium—held together by its own gravity. At its core, the extreme pressure and heat trigger nuclear fusion, which generates energy, light, and heat. The sun is actually a star too and the closest one to earth." he explained, dropping his hand (and her's).
"That's... Something..." Kohaku muttered awkwardly and he snorted, knowing she was trying to process the information he'd given her the same way she and the others from Ishigami Village always did when he revealed something to be far different than they first thought.
"To think they look so small, yet actually are so huge, and there are more than anyone could ever count. It really makes you feel small, yet big knowing how much a difference we are all making every day." she then spoke softly.
"You should hear yourself. You may be a lioness in almost every way but you've got the tongue of a poet." Senku commented, earning a light swat to the shoulder for calling her a lioness again.
"I used to think stars were actually fireflies flying real high till Ruri told me how they're the spirits of our ancestors looking down at us." she muttered before looking thoughtful.
"Are you sure about all stars being these big balls of plasma-stuff?" she asked and he almost confirmed but stopped himself.
Despite being a fierce warrior, Kohaku was often surprisingly sentimal and poetic and why should he ruin that for her?
"You know, you were right that there's way too many stars to count, especially to study up close so who knows, maybe some really aren't just plasma." he instead told her, feeling doing so was the correct at seeing the smile that grew on her face.
"I believe your father is looking down on you too, Senku. And that he's proud of everything you do." she then said, making his heart pinch.
"M-Maybe." he muttered, throat tight.
"Maybe the brightest ones are the spirits. Like those three there." she thankfully went on, because he wasn't sure of he could handle the direction their talk had been heading to.
"Oh, that's actually part of Orion's Belt!" he perked up, spotting the line of stars she was looking at.
"Huh? No, there's no belt in the sky. And who's Orion?" she frowned at him.
"Not a person, but a constelation! A constellation is a group of stars that appear to form a specific pattern in the night sky. They've been names after mythological figures, animals and objects. Here, they're actually part of a bigger constellation called Orion the Hunter. Those three stars are also called Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka. And here, see those stars there?" without thinking he shifted even closer and grabbed her hand, making her point at the sky and tracing lines around the stars, explaining the shapes and the names of several stars.
After this they spend the next few hours looking for more constellations and tracing them together as he explained about them till at some point they started tracing random stars together and giving them their own constellation-names.
"See how those form a sorta circle? If we connect that one star above it it can be a stem and all together form Suika's melon helmet!" Kohaku exclaimed excitedly as she pointed ahead.
"I actually kinda see it. And "Suika's Helmet" sounds pretty cool too." Senku agreed with a laugh when Kohaku yawned.
"Tired?," he snorted, "I guess it is past our usual bedtime."
"Yeah, but I don't wanna go. I'm having fun right now!" Kohaku whined with a pout, making her look like a cute child.
"Easy up, girl. We can always come back here with the others. I'm guessing they love it here too, right?" he offered.
"Actually, you're the first person I brought here." she admitted, surprising him.
"Wait, really?"
"Yeah, I was planning on taking Ruri here some day but then her illness got worse and she couldn't go outside anymore and even after you showed up and saved her, she still needs to take it easy so we never got to it." she explained.
"I see. And now you made me the second person knowing about this place. I'm honored." his grin was he said this was playful but he did mean it.
After all, he knew how much Ruri meant to her and yet she showed him this place first instead of waiting a little more till her sister was well enough for the trip.
The weird feeling in his chest was back for a moment.
He took a deep breath to calm down.
"Ha! You'd better be honored! Admit it, this is way better than your silly telescope!" she nudged him with a grin.
"Eh, I wouldn't say better but this place is pretty cool." he in turn closed his eyes and put his hands behind his head, the
He heard her shift and felt something lightly brush his arm, and when he opened his eyes he was surprised to find her hovering over him, both hands behind his head, looking like the epitome of casualness.
He heard a shift and felt something brush his side, and upon opening his eyes was surprised to find Kohaku hovering over him, having both hands plated next to his head.
Looking up, with the stars as background, their feint light braming her, she looked like something holy.
"Come on, what you're seeing looking up is way more than 'pretty cool'! Now, when you look at what's aobve you, you see something..." she challenged to finish.
"Beautiful..." Senku whispered in awe, not at all talking about the stars.
Kohaku's blue eyes went wide as she seemed to realize it too.
Together they stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity before she jumped off him.
"Great! I-I mean that you get it! Come on, we should head back!" she rambled as she looked at anything but him.
"Yeah... Ahem, let's go." Senku agreed getting up and together started heading back home.
As they walked he couldn't help stealing glances at her.
He may be emotionally constipated in a lot of things but he knew what happened earlier.
He had or was at least starting to develop feelings for Kohaku.
Strangely, he wasn't as opposed to it as he'd thought he'd be, but he also knew now wasn't the time for it.
They had an incoming war to win and a whole society to revive, but maybe after all of it...
Glancing back to her again his eyes met her's.
They stared at each other again for a moment before she smiled shyly at him.
Seeing her like this he couldn't help but smile back and the nervousness left her's right away, spreading into a grin before she jogged ahead, calling him a slowpoke and to hurry up.
He huffed and shook his head in amusement at her antics.
Yeah, after his mission was over, he'd need to have a serious talk with her.