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Senku doesn't give out nice words and compliments easily unless your talents are extraordinary. And if he does, it's usually like a conclusion you would hear on a scientific output. He thinks sweet and sentimental feedback are nothing but words any human being would die to hear for the sake of dopamine.
He obviously knows how it affects the brain, but he himself can't understand the appeal of it if it's not from rocket science. Love? Partners? Physical affection? It irks him to the bone.
But that changed the moment he met you. You altered his thought process about relationships. Suddenly he doesn't mind being closer to you, he notices small details about you like the way your eyes dilated at the sight of him, and best of all, he knows how much you love praise. Like you really love praise.
He found out the day he caught how you reacted to him the first time he bluntly admired your physical attributes.
“You look ten billion percent better today than usual, your subtle facial cosmetics did bring more attention to your features. Quite… likeable.” He blurted out randomly with no shame whatsoever.
And he was right, ever since he made that primitive make-up set one time when Kohaku had to infiltrate the treasure island, you begged him to make one for you too.
If the light pink blush on your face wasn't enough, then your steamingly deep red, flustered cheeks will ought to do it. “Eh?! You're serious?!”
“I exclaim facts. I'm not an idiot that just drops a lie out of nowhere, that's illogical as hell.” He dug a pinky in his ear. “Of course I'm serious, you simpleton, it matches you well.”
“Thank you…” Your voice slightly cracked as you mumbled. And he noticed it. He unconsciously made a mental note about that, it was an exhilarating discovery.
His gaze fixated on you more, and you were locked in place; unsure why this is happening. Your hands were sweating like crazy and your eyes started to drift anywhere but his sharp, crimson eyes. He was analyzing you like a lab rat, every shaky breath, every micro-expression — buried deep into his mind like a crucial part that needs to be studied.
You began to shriek in embarrassment and quickly turned away when he couldn't stop looking at you. “I gotta go now, see you!” You ran away without wasting a second in a random direction. He stared at your figure that grew smaller and smaller as distance became clear as day.
He chuckled mischievously, it was really exciting him now. Looks like the leek-head has a special hypothesis to test out on you.
…
You're helping Chrome out at sorting his latest materials from his earlier cave expedition with the power team. You were a bit like him, you know how to differentiate most rocks and minerals, so it was a breeze for you to label them separately.
“Check out this Manganese! It's so bad!”
“Cool! Oh look, more Scheelite! You guys are way too good at mining crazy stuff.” You picked it up in awe, you can't get enough of these.
“I know right! You can never go wrong with the king of exploration!” He pointed his thumb at himself with a wide grin that reached his eyes.
A familiar green-headed scientist began to approach you two with a cocky smirk. “Not bad at all, these things will help our future projects significantly.”
“Of course!” Chrome gleamed like a child. “Oh wait, crap! I forgot one of the baskets in the cave, I bet there's something even more badass in there. Give me a moment!” He stood up and rushed to grab his forgotten basket, leaving you alone with Senku.
“That fool, he should've kept track of his stuff more.” He sighed from how pathetic this scientific primitive is. “Anyway, that looks like a decent set-up, it's organized like how it should be. Well done. You're much more efficient than that baby.” He glanced back to the direction where Chrome left earlier. You stopped sorting through the materials and looked up at him with wide eyes.
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me, I said you're efficient. Keep it up, kukuku. It's an admirable trait you have.” He announced and acted calmly as if his statement wasn't making you feel crazy in your heart.
You wanted to say something but he instantly walked away from you before you uttered a word. You stared at him with your mouth left agape, you felt weirdly agitated from his comment — in a good way of course. You never thought you would hear his commendation again.
You didn't see the way his cheeky smile never left his face, he was enjoying it way more than you — he's never going to admit it though. He's coming up with more ways to surprise you rather than planning out more projects that would be useful for the voyage to America.
…
Later on in the afternoon, he finds you helping out Francoiş cook for dinner. Your hair was tied back with one of Kohaku's spare ties — hands working and switching from chopping vegetables to stirring a pot filled with soup — he can't help with how his eyes softened at the sight. He likes it when you're focusing at a task with precision and grace, it was one of the reasons he took a liking to you.
You scooped some of the broth in the ladle to have a taste test with it, but from your peripheral vision, Senku moved closer and looked at you intensely again as if you're some spectacle. A soft gasp escaped your lips, nearly dropping the ladle you were holding. “Senku? What are you doing?”
“Wanted to check on some important variables.” He tried to shrug it off.
“Right…” You doubt watching someone cook a homemade meal is anything important to a man that obsesses over work productivity.
“Can I have some?” He leaned over to you, face a few inches from yours.
You jerked a little to his sudden movement, although you didn't make an attempt to step back. “Go ahead.” Your hand moved the ladle up to his mouth, and carefully, he sipped on it — tastebuds acknowledging the delicacy of such simple broth.
He stepped back with a mused smirk and huffed in awe. “That's really impressive. You're outstanding at everything you get your hands on, huh? It's exhilarating.”
“It's only a basic recipe I remembered from my mother! It's nothing special…” You defended yourself as you felt your chest pound rapidly again.
“And yet you managed to find a way to make this something worthy in a fancy ass gourmet restaurant. I would surely do anything to eat your cooking again someday.” He teased, making you squirm from his overwhelming praise.
“Whatever! Just go wait for the others, I still have more dishes to prepare!” You squealed and gestured to him to go away with your free hand.
“Disappointing, can't believe you would kick out the very man that helped you bring back these kitchen utensils in the Stone World.” He feigned sadness.
“Just go!!”
…
The next days that followed after that incident have been getting more and more ridiculous to the point you're starting to believe an alien secretly replaced the real Senku.
Lately, he's been creeping up on you and giving you sweet nothings so casually. You were such a mess every time, and he looks way too happy seeing you like that. It's driving you to madness.
As you think about it, you hear those specific footsteps again. Your cheeks go hot again reflexively, head turning to look up at him, you know where this is going to go. “Sen… don't tell me you're gonna praise me for sitting like an agitated monkey.”
He chuckled at your response when he hadn't said anything yet. “Oh? You're expecting it now?”
“It's hard not to, I don't even know why you're doing this!”
“Then I'll tell you something, that will finally give you the conclusion you need.”
You perked up your eyebrow at that, he moved closer to your ear; his warm breath caressing it and you shivered at the feeling.
“You've been acting wonderfully like a chemical reaction. It's beautiful and ten billion percent perfect, like you.” He whispered to you as if you're a precious stone. The last straw of your composure crumpled the moment you heard those words clearly.
“Senku, seriously what is wrong with you?!” You screeched at how uncharacteristic he's being, you convinced yourself that you're currently in a dream — a really strange and exciting dream.
“What's wrong with me is how I find your silly thing being into complimentary verbal feedback uncanningly endearing. It's troublesome that my brain runs on dopamine and oxytocin from this fact.” He really did just explain the fact he loves seeing you frazzled over his sugar-coated sentences like it's a world changing feat.
“You should be glad you're too damn hot.” You muttered.
“Kukuku, you can't deny that you love it.”
And it's true obviously, you wish you could just squeeze him to death right now from how accurate it is. Hypothesis confirmed, his partner adores his praises. It looks like he found the perfect solution to rile you up more in future, get excited.