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Senku often complains about the excessive affection and physical touch from you because he hates how his hybrid-cat body reacts to it. He would dismiss it by explaining how it's unnecessary, ineffective, and distracting from his experiments — deep down, it's keeping him from the path of insanity.
The moment he doesn't find you in your usual spots, that's when he gives up on that act.
‘Where is she?’ He grumbled at the thought. You were nowhere in sight. Not in the village, not in the laboratory, not on the seaside shore, just gone. He figures there must be a rational reason why your presence is missing from the daily routine he carefully memorized to bits in his head.
He calls out to Suika — who was playing with Chalk earlier — to go find you as soon as possible.
“Okay Senku! Leave this to Suika!” She jumped and transformed inside her helmet, rolling off for a mini search party after you. He mentally thanks her for her willingness and enthusiasm; she always finds you somehow. He wishes he had that ability as well, but alas he's merely a genius leader with attachment issues.
“Senku-chan, why don't you look for her yourself hm? Is it perhaps your reputation as an arrogant scientist will be downgraded to that of a miserable cat who misses their owner?” Gen mysteriously approached Senku with a sly and teasing grin.
His sudden statement caught Senku red-handed, making his tail whip against the ground and his ears flatten on his head. “I'm not, you fool. I just need her for… computations.”
“Only for computations? Eriously-say? You're a bad liar Senku-chan.” He sang-song.
Senku's shoulders tensed more; Gen's bothersome questions got to him. “I don't remember a mentalist being capable of forming interrogations about what I do.”
“And I don't remember our leader being a lovesick bum yet here we are!” He dramatically waved his arms in the air. “I thought cats were solitary and independent, no?”
“That's a stereotype about the biology of us felines.” He scoffed.
“So you're admitting you have such a strong emotional bond with her.”
Senku clicked his tongue but made no effort to deny his accusation, which is a factual one. Not a second later, Suika came back from her rolling session and popped out with a smile.
“Senku I did it! I know where she is!” She ran towards him with her arms flapping at her sides.
His tail curved slightly, and his lips upturned into his knowing smirk. “Well done detective Suika. Where is she?” She pointed out the direction from which she came.
“Straight ahead! She's doing something with Ukyo so she's easy to spot!”
“Ah, I see.” His tone was slightly off but she didn't notice it except for Gen himself.
“How interesting! You might want to run off to your fellow owner before she replaces you.” Gen teased.
“There's no replacement happening. And she's not my owner.” Senku bit back instantly.
“Sure, whatever helps you sleep at night.” He cooed.
Absolutely exasperated from Gen's behavior, he dashed away to leave the scene and find you. His fists clenched as it sways aggressively with each step, unsure why you're with Ukyo in the first place.
Why him? Why not me?
I don't understand.
You're not that close to him, right?
No, of course not. You're always with me.
Always.
His negative thoughts plagued the poor boy's mind. An overthinker like him sure has its own cons.
…
He quickly sees you in his line of sight, and he does, unfortunately, catch you beside Ukyo. You weren't having any casual conversation with him, you were learning how to use a bow from him. And his figure was uncomfortably close to yours from Senku's perspective. Ukyo held your arms gently but firmly, guiding your hands for the perfect trajectory.
He knows this is how people learn to shoot an arrow, but seeing you in a position like that makes his eye twitch in irritation and his chest feel heavier than ever.
“Just relax your hands. Don't grip too hard. Remember the anchor point.” Ukyo whispered in your ear. You took a deep breath and released the string. The arrow dashed and landed near the center point.
“That was close!” You beamed.
“Good job, a few more practices and you'll master it.” He commented and patted your head softly, resulting in an irrational move by Senku that exposed him.
“Okay that's enough.” He blurted out and walked over to you immediately, placing a hand around your waist at your side as soon as he closed the distance between you two. “I'll be taking her man, she's supposed to be working on something. This isn't a great, optimal use of her time.” He hissed directly at him.
“Really? I thought you told me you weren't busy.” Ukyo's voice was surprisingly calm as if he knew what was happening.
“Well-”
“She's busy now.” Senku interrupted you, holding you tighter against him and leaning down to rub his cheek on yours. “If you excuse us, we'll be heading to the lab.”
“Of course, go ahead. It seems there's something important you want to show her.” His comment didn't feel innocent due to the emphasis he added.
Without wasting a second, Senku straightened up and took you by your wrist, walking away with you stumbling on your feet behind him from the abrupt departure. Ukyo simply chuckled heartedly at his reaction, musing how someone like him could fold this hard from jealousy.
Step after step, Senku slowly increases his pace, his feet crushing the soil and fallen twigs with no mercy. You, on the other hand, felt perplexed by this whole attitude he's having. His tail flicks from side to side, hinting that he's experiencing something unusual.
Did something urgent happen?
An emergency?
An explosion?
Why is he acting like this?
You wanted to speak up but he stopped dead in his tracks, causing the words in your throat to die out. It turns out, you're already here at the entrance of the lab. He hurriedly opened the door and yanked you inside — balance faltering because of his uncharacteristic impatience. He shuts the entrance as soon as you are in and turns to you with an unreadable face.
“Sen? What's up with you? You never act like this unless someone is in danger-”
Out of nowhere, he lunged forward at you, causing both of you to fall onto the ground with a loud thump. He used this as a chance to hug you tightly and bury his face between your neck and shoulder.
“Senku what the hell?! Are you okay?” You struggled to break free from his grip, but he held you tightly against the floor, leaving no space to move.
“No, I'm ten billion percent not.” His words muffled your skin.
“You mind telling me what's going on then? This is out of your character.”
He groaned although he reluctantly decided it was best to tell you. He shifted his head so he could speak better. “My useless bonding hormone decided to plummet from the absence of social stimuli, which is undoubtedly you. Basically, I felt like a malfunctioning being from the lack of your… presence.”
Your eyes widened from his response, not expecting that he would actually admit himself. It caused you to giggle at the reason for his absurd behavior. “Oh, so you missed me that much?”
“You're making this weird.”
“You're cuddling me as if I would disappear if you let me go.”
Instead of a harsh comeback, he accepted it and hugged you even tighter like he was trying to merge your bodies into one. “Fair point.” He snuggled his head back into the space of your shoulder and kissed it as he inhaled your scent deeply.
“Are you trying to memorize what I smell like?”
“Yes, I concluded that your skin wasn't that unpleasant. Surprising how you don't stink like shit in an era like this.”
“Way to be romantic.” Still, you scratched and patted his scalp with care, which made a quiet purr leave his mouth uncontrollably. “Never knew you'd like that.”
“Shut up, don't ruin this.” He buried his face into your chest even more to hide his flushed face.
You never thought you would encounter Senku Ishigami — who states that physical affection is nothing but an action that a neurochemically hijacked person does for the sake of feeling the dopamine rush — to cling to you just because he missed his lover. A lovesick bum indeed.