"What's the first thing you'll do when we get back?" Kohaku asked.

Senku leaned back on his hands, staring up at the moon. "First thing, huh?" He was quiet for a while. "Probably sleep for like a week."

She snorted. "Yeah?"

"We've been speedrunning this rocket, even if it did take literal years. It's been kind of stressful. So, yeah, sleep."

"I'll make sure no one wakes you up, sleeping beauty."

"My own personal sleep bodyguard? Nice." They're quiet for a while, and Kohaku wondered if anyone had ever counted all the stars. Senku would have, if it was possible. "How about you? What will Kohaku's first actions be after returning to Earth?"

She hummed and pulled her legs up to rest her chin on her knees. "Let's see. Unlike you, I actually do sleep." She laughed when Senku lightly shoved her shoulder. "So no extra-long nap needed." She tried to think of something, anything. "Huh. I don't know. I guess…"

And then Senku's hand was brushing her cheek—wiping something away. Then she registered the tears, hot trails running down her face.

"Come on, lioness, don't get all weepy on me," Senku said, not as mocking as she might have expected.

"I'm not crying," she said, rubbing the tears away. "I'm not." And then a sob broke free of her chest and she tried to curl into the tiniest ball she could, mortified that Senku was seeing this moment of weakness.

Senku, meanwhile, was wondering what on earth to do. Kohaku was strong and fierce—she didn't need coddling.

But she was human, just as he was, and all humans needed comfort sometimes. Especially if they were about to go on perilous missions that they might never return from, possibly never seeing friends or family again, with the added risk that they might somehow doom the rest of the earth in the process.

It was…a lot.

So he scooted closer to Kohaku and wrapped one arm around her, pulling her to his side.

She was confused for maybe half a second before shoving her face against his shoulder and proceeding to get his lab coat all gross with tears. And, just because her head was at the perfect height, he hid his face against her hair (soft, probably from conditioner, smelling like flowers from Treasure Island).

He counted the seconds until Kohaku stopped crying (257). He waited for her to pull away, but she didn't, instead reaching up to smooth her thumb over one of the lapels of his lab coat.

"I think," she said eventually, "when I get back, I'll ask someone on a date."

"Oh?" Senku hadn't known she was romantically interested in anyone. "Someone in particular?"

She chuckled. "Yeah. They'll probably say no, but I'll ask anyways."

Senku honestly couldn't imagine who would say "no" to a date with Kohaku—she was awesome, and a little bit scary. "Well, good luck. Let me know if I can help."

"After you sleep for a week, of course."

"Naturally."

She laughed and straightened up, smiling at him with moonlight shining in her eyes. "Thanks, Senku. I can always count on you."

—

And then they were in space. And then on the moon. And then coming back from the moon.

Stanley had asked to be petrified for the return trip—he said it was more relaxing than sleeping. Ryusui was still petrified from earlier, and Senku didn't see a need to wake him up just yet. Once they got closer to Earth he would, just in case there were any weird piloting problems.

So it was just him and Kohaku, floating around in the tiny living space.

Kohaku was playing with some water, giggling like a kid as she poked and pushed the little globules around.

He grinned and pushed himself over to eat (drink? consume? inhale? He was unsure of the verbiage of zero-gravity beverages) one of them, and Kohaku pouted at him.

"Hey, get your own bubbles. These ones are mine."

"I don't see your name on them," he taunted, and then tried to eat another one.

Kohaku laughed and shoved him away, sending him spiraling. "What are you, ten? Leave my poor bubbles alone!"

The sheer sense of relief was obvious to both of them. The threat of Why-man was gone—no more random globe-wide petrification events. They could—maybe, just for a bit—relax.

And Senku could maybe stop ignoring the fact that he wanted to ask Kohaku out. He'd have to wait until they landed, though. He remembered overhearing Taiju and Yuzuriha so long ago—Taiju wanted to make sure Yuzuriha didn't feel pressured to accept him in any way, and Kohaku might feel trapped with him on the ship if he started bringing up romance, which could get weird. And he remembered how Luna had sort of declared herself his girlfriend as he was literally dying, where his answer was kind of implied to be payment for her help or something. Situations were important for these things.

"Hey, Senku," said Kohaku from where she was looking out at the planet. "You know how I said I wanted to ask someone out on a date when we got back to Earth?"

Ah shit. That's right. Maybe I shouldn't ask her out. "Yeah, what about it?"

"Well, I was thinking…wait, come over here." She grabbed his hands and dragged him to the wide viewport, and he didn't think he'd ever see something more beautiful than his best friend backlit by billions of stars.

Kohaku was thinking much along the same lines. She was a bit nervous, but…well, she'd never been one to hold back! And to her, this was a risk worth taking.

"Senku," she said, hoping he would be kind in his rejection, "I was thinking that it might be better to ask that person out while we were alone like this." He was smart—his eyes widened as he connected the dots. Before he could say no, though, she wanted him to understand: "You're my best friend, and I don't want to ruin that for anything. I just…can't see myself spending my life with anyone but you, as your friend or something else, and even though I've probably freaked you out, I…I wanted to see if you'd like to go on a date with me."

Senku squeezed her hands—she hadn't realized she was still holding them from pulling him to the viewport. "Just a date?" he said, eyebrow raised and a smile she'd rarely seen before on his face. "I was going to ask you to be my girlfriend, but if you'd rather just go on a date, we can do that instead."

She couldn't help her happy laugh, pulling Senku's hands up to her lips to plant a small kiss on each of them. "No, be my boyfriend instead. I like that much better."

He looked…happy. Usually he only looked this happy when some awesome breakthrough happened with a really hard project, but now he was looking at her like that, and if she hadn't already been floating, she would have said she felt like she was flying. She tugged him a bit closer, reaching up to touch his cheek, wishing she could stay like this forever.

"Can…can I kiss you?" she asked, honestly unsure of the answer.

And then Senku laughed and pressed his forehead against hers, their noses brushing. "Sounds good to me," he said. "After all, how many people can say they've had their first kiss in space?"

"After this? Two," she replied, before pressing her lips to his (she just knew he would keep finding things to talk about if she didn't, and she really did want to get around to kissing him).

And so, lit by moonlight, starlight, and even reflected Earthlight, the only living beings for miles and miles, Kohaku and Senku started their next great adventure.