Chapter Text
Gen
His very first impression of Senku is complete awe.
Of course, at the time of this first impression, he had yet to even meet him, he didn't even have a face to associate with the name. At the time his head was still spinning from the impossibility of emerging from a skin of stone on a clifftop, with a fellow performer, and quiet possibly the strongest person he had ever met, telling him the world had ended.
Still, after being informed about him and seeing a date carved into a tree, his birthday no less, and realizing someone had actually counted every second? Gen could only feel awe. What sort of person could do that? Who could stay conscious and counting in the darkness, in the complete isolation?
He could only begin to imagine the psychological effects of being completely alone for so long. Isolation and loneliness can have long term effects not only on the mind, but also on the body. Quite a few of the papers he had read about the subject related the effect to be comparable with the risk associated with some kinds of substance abuse. However to be isolated, awake, and cognizant for 3,700 years? It's awe inspiring, if his sanity is still intact of course.
Naturally, Tsukasa had only awakened him only to go confirm he had actually killed this guy. So not only did Gen have to suffer through a world still basically in the stone age, with no decent food, stinking animal pelts for clothes, and no indoor plumbing, but he also had to go look for a potentially insane mad genius and confirm he was actually dead or the strongest person alive is going to impale him with a giant stone spear.
Ah, such is the life of a celebrity!~
His second impression of Senku was quite good at first, until he had actually opened his mouth to talk. The ramen was... passable, but it was also the very first food he had smelled and tasted in nearly 4,000 years that was not salted meat roasted over an open fire. He could have cried when he took his first bite of ramen and he might have if it wasn't for the awful noodles.
Gen isn't sure what he had been expecting when he first spoke with Senku, but from Tsukasa's description he certainly wasn't expecting him to be so young, so rude, or so... completely uncharismatic.
Senku had recognized Gen immediately, called his books trash, and didn't even give him a chance to cover his ass, calling him out as a spy at the first chance he got. He couldn't say he minded it though, negotiations become a little easier when all the pieces are on the board.
Yet despite how rude and blunt he could be, every time Gen spoke to him he couldn't forget it- he counted every second.
It was completely possible it was a lie, that Senku had just made it up and chose a date at random, but somehow he didn't believe that. With everything he showed him, every piece of knowledge, he proved himself to be exactly the sort of person who could not only manage such a feat, but also would. He wondered if he ever stopped counting after he broke free.
He realized early on, almost as soon as he met him, that Senku was trying to impress him with his knowledge, his capability. He was doing everything he could to try and convince him that humanity as it once was was worth saving. By showing him his scientific prowess, Senku was trying to do everything he could to endear himself to Gen, in his own blunt, completely charmless way.
Gen watched and pretended he was still making his choice. He couldn't tell him he had decided before they even met.
The ramen, the forge, the magnet, the generator, the cola, the lights, his terrible personality, none of it could have made him change his mind. Gen liked him from the very start.
It came as no shock when he finally made his choice, not to himself or seemingly to Senku at least. It had been obvious before he had even met Senku that being close to him simply was the best choice he could make. Gen lies plenty, but he's never lied about doing everything for his own self interest.
When he officially joined the kingdom, he had been expecting some level of apprehension, of suspicion, but it didn't come in the way he had expected it.
The villagers reacted appropriately, with the exception of Kaseki, but Senku didn't react in the way he had expected at all.
When Gen was still traveling between the Empire of Might and the Kingdom of Science, Senku had always kept Gen fairly close, nearly at an arm's reach if the work permitted it. Gen had assumed it was to keep a close eye on him as a spy. Since Senku is so knowledgeable with all of the chemicals, rocks, and other assorted science doo-dads he has laying around, he would naturally be the best person to watch over him, just in case Gen did have any sort of knowledge that would allow him to steal or sabotage anything important.
Yet, now that Gen has returned as a more permanent resident, Senku's behavior hasn't changed much at all.
Sure he's busier with building a phone and managing an entire village, but he still spends a lot of time with Gen. He brings him to the lab and gives him materials for whatever horribly tedious labor he has planned for him, then when he starts working, Senku unfolds whatever schematic he has to work on, or starts mixing a bunch of chemicals together.
Sometimes they work in silence, other times Gen will play a little game with himself to see how much he can irritate Senku (which never works the way he wants it to,) and other times Senku will ask him scientific questions Gen would obviously never have an answer to.
Sometimes he baits Senku into a lecture as they work, just to distract him long enough to allow Gen to have a moment of rest from the tedium. He wonders if Senku notices he's doing it or why he would. He's the smartest person Gen has ever met, so he doesn't see how he wouldn't notice, it's likely that he knows. Senku is probably the only person who has ever been able to see through him.
So why would he go to the effort of humoring him? It could be his geniune passion for knowledge and sharing it with others, but Gen still feels as if he's missing something.
There had been one memorable occasion when Senku had come to find him and asked him to come to the lab only to give him an incredibly easy task, one Senku could have just done himself. The two had worked, Gen crushing walnuts and separating the shells from the flesh, and Senku preparing some sort of chemical solution, while making idle chatter. Gen can barely even remember the conversation, himself complaining about airline food and Senku explaining the effects high altitudes have on the ability to smell and taste.
Senku had been in full lecture mode, his eyes sparkling as he spoke of the palatability of space food, when Gen was struck with a thought, 'He's lonely.'
In that moment all of the errant pieces of Senku's behavior towards Gen slotted into place. The hovering, giving him work that could be done alongside him, the banter, the teasing to save face.
All this time he thought Senku had been seeking him out to ensure Gen wasn't slacking off, but really- could it be he just wanted his company? He had thought on it a little more and realized Senku only seems to have Gen work with the villagers when he's busy working with Chrome or Kaseki. In short, he always tries to ensure he never finds himself alone.
Before, he hadn't thought much of it, believing Senku only made work arrangements based on need and efficiency. Now it seems almost as if Senku had been strategically rotating out the people he works with so he wouldn't ever be completely alone for very long. Though, Senku is all about efficiency- both reasons had likely been true.
From that moment on, Gen started to look at Senku in a new light.
He's a genius, sure, but he's young, stayed conscious for nearly 4,000 years counting, survived completely alone for at least a few months, then revived a man who immediately killed him. Then from there he's brought to a village who won't even permit him inside. Every moment since he broke free from stone has been arduous and he's been doing it, from his own point of view at least, completely alone.
Senku spends a lot of time with Gen, at least relative to his goals, he does. It's likely Senku feels closer to Gen since he came from modernity; he knows exactly how much they lost. It's no doubt the solidarity makes him feel less alone.
Gen finds himself thinking about it almost constantly, the young man who stayed awake for thousands of years, completely alone, and who likely still feels alone within the crowd that's building around him.
An idea starts to form as he thinks about the date carved in the tree. After one of Senku's grand gestures, the lights at christmas, Gen finally decides he needs to show him just how much everyone appreciates what he's doing.
Then with a few carefully placed questions, Gen finally has enough information to set a plan into motion to prove it to him- a grand gesture of his own. He knows that as a scientist at heart, Senku isn't going to understand unless he's faced with the evidence.