Work Text:
Senku's fingers worked with efficiency; he's focused on his new blueprint for more future projects. His charcoal strokes were straight and almost perfect, that is, until you suddenly appeared inside the laboratory without warning. He startled himself at your presence, which jolted his hand, resulting in a big foreign mark on the paper.
“My bad for scaring you Sen, I wanna ask you something real quick.” You explained softly so he wouldn't shock himself again.
“Yeah sure, ask away.” He responded, although his tone didn't sound like he was annoyed.
“You think you can make my sketchpad? I know it doesn't help anything for humanity, but I heard you made paper a while back so…”
He faced you with a smirk. “Kukuku, obviously I can, I know how much you love doodling pointless but impressive things there.”
“Those aren't pointless!”
“I'm ten billion percent sure it is.”
You frowned and playfully crossed your arms against your chest. “You just don't understand art,” You turned to leave and glanced back at him with a changed expression — a genuine smile — before adding one more thing. “But seriously, thanks Sen. You know me too well, now I gotta go to the village and check out stuff. See you later!” Facing back at the exit, you waved him a simple goodbye and left the room.
His gaze still locked onto the door, his mind was filled with nothing but you and the way you looked at him, unfortunately for him, Gen noticed it and pulled him out of his thoughts.
“My, my Senku-chan, what's that all about?” He almost forgot that he's in the same vicinity as this guy. To be fair, his contribution in the laboratory is playing around at the sidelines rather than helping out on anything science-related unless he's forced to. When a guy like Senku is in his own world, they tend to remove everything else that doesn't interest anything in their minds. Including someone that doesn't give any progress to inventions.
“Cut it out you mentalist, they just want a sketchpad.”
“It's not exactly useful to us now, is it?”
He scoffed but he knew Gen was right. “I suggest you get outta here before I dump workload on your weak ass.”
“And I suggest you fix up that mistake on your poor roadmap before I scream to the whole world how lovey-dovey you are about-”
“Out.”
Gen fled out of the lab immediately with snickers escaping his lips. Senku gave out a heavy sigh, he glanced at the blueprint on the table, the uneven and shaky line stuck out like a sore thumb; reminding him of how he is to one person.
He doesn't react like this to anyone — except the time Gen scared him during New Year's on Chrome's hut — but when it comes to you, his emotions and reactions skyrocket without his consent.
He tried his best to hide it under formulas and sarcastic remarks, but little cracks of it always find a way to show up. And those cracks are painfully visible to everyone except you.
…
Hours passed by like a blur, you're currently chatting about what the modern world is like from your perspective to Kohaku and Chrome. You talked about your interests, places you loved, and memorable events that kept them hooked and in awe. The topic soon shifted to your friends when Kohaku questioned it curiously.
“Oh them? They were all caring and being their usual selves. Taiju was always loud and funny, Yuzuriha was cheerful in a calm way, and Senku… how do I describe him?” You paused for a few seconds before continuing. “Well it's just, there's more to him than someone who's obsessed with science that I can't put my finger on.”
“Yeah, he's obsessed with you.” Chrome blurted out to which Kohaku jabbed him harshly on the shoulder. “Watch it gorilla!”
“Don't call me that! Also, you need to keep that down, they don't know that.” Kohaku mumbled the last part to him.
“Obsessed? That's so not like Senku.”
“Really? Then why is he approaching you weirdly with something in his hand right now?” The slightly injured Chrome pointed out behind you. Looking back, there is indeed a scientist who's striding towards you with a suspicious grin.
He stopped in his tracks once he got close — too close to be friendly — and handed you the sketchpad you requested earlier. “Here's the totally useful thing you asked for, you should've just stayed in the lab. It took me no longer than 15 minutes to prepare this since I already had the materials needed.” He exclaimed casually, the comment brought unwanted attention from Chrome and Kohaku, who are now looking at him as if he stated that the sky is green.
“Ah thanks Sen,” Your hand took the pad away from him, fingers brushed against his unintentionally. It would've gone unnoticed if those two weren't analyzing every small interaction you're having. “Next time I'll stay longer whenever you're going to make these quickly.”
“With the necessary items already available, that's possible.” Everyone went quiet after that conversation, Senku stayed in his spot longer than he should, he didn't move a single muscle and kept his eyes on you.
“So uh, aren't you gonna do your bad roadmaps?” Chrome broke the silence.
“That, of course I will you fool. I was making sure that the sketchpad I wasted the precious minutes of my life on isn't a waste.” He instantly defended himself and dashed away curtly before Chrome had the chance to speak up about Senku's denial.
“It won't be a waste!” You shouted out, unsure if he heard it at all since he was somehow farther than you expected. “I don't understand how he can move that fast.”
“I don't understand his weirdness towards you.”
“He's just overdoing it. He always complains when he makes something that doesn't benefit him at all.”
They both slammed their palms to their face, and you stood there in confusion. Technically it is true, but you're completely missing the bigger picture.
…
Later in the evening, you sat down inside the makeshift laboratory on your own, sketching out common but detailed flowers you found in the area of the KoS. It's a nice hobby to do whenever you want to relax and take a break once in a while. Your back was hunched over the worktable as you drew, failing to notice someone sneaking behind you.
You only do so when a chin rests on your shoulder. Peeking over your shoulder, that person was none other than Senku. Maroon eyes looked over to the paper and shifted to you slowly. “You working on this now?”
“Yeah, why are you here though?”
“This is the lab you know. I was going to work on a calculation for the hot air balloon.” He didn't remove himself from you.
“Right… I'll just leave then so you can tweak out whatever variables that I know nothing about.” You grabbed the sketchpad but his hand interrupted you when it barely lifted an inch. “Senku?”
“Just stay. It's illogical to use your energy to move somewhere else.”
You pondered over the thought for a moment and decided it's best to comply mostly because you're feeling lazy. “Okay, can't say no to a friend.”
He huffed in relief — not that you can tell — and detached himself so he could stand up properly; he gestured to you to give him some space on the bench. The two of you stayed in comfortable silence in the presence of the other. You worked on your picture and he worked on his formula.
There were no words needed to be said.
Unbeknownst to both of you, Gen and Chrome watched the whole thing through the slight opening of the door. Chrome's mouth was wide open in disbelief and Gen had to put in all of his effort to prevent himself from bursting out laughing at the scene.
“How can they act like that and still be friends with him?!” Chrome whispered aggressively.
“Just as dense as Taiju-chan, but even he knows when someone is deeply in love. They're quite interesting.”
“They make me badly sick. And I mean bad bad.”
“Same here Chrome-kun. This illy-say romcom isn't going anywhere tonight, let's just go.”
They left you two for the night, absolutely tired from seeing the ridiculousness of the situation. In Gen's head, he's betting that no matter how many neon signs that say ‘He's in love with you’ are pointing to Senku, you're going to be blinder than an actual blind man.
Back inside the lab, he's been giving you numerous discreet sideways glances — which he counted to a total of 17 — for the past five minutes. His foot shook up and down restlessly, unsure whether to speak up or not. With all of his courage, he cleared his throat abruptly, which caught your attention and stopped whatever you were doing.
As soon as he felt your eyes, his own frantically looked everywhere but yours. “Hypothetically, if someone confessed to you about… the neurobiological phenomenon that bypasses all logic because of you, how would you react?”
You blinked. “Huh? Oh you mean love?”
“... Yes.”
“Good question,” You didn't even question why he asked something out of character. “If they're strangers, I would reject them like a normal person. But if I were close to them, like really close, then I would definitely consider it.”
He gulped down the remaining anxiety. “Consider?”
“Yeah! I will totally love someone back with all my heart when I'm loved as well.”
“I see. Well…” He tries to find the words to say it himself, just a confession, a simple one. However, the way you look at him with such curiosity only leaves him speechless.
“Well?”
“...
Nothing.”
He failed to tell his own sentiment, at least he knows there's a chance. It's going to take a while for him to build that courage back. His luck is truly amazing. Maybe next time, you'll realize his feelings sooner or later so he wouldn't have the need to water down his pride to tell you himself.
Maybe, he should've just told you.