Umeka twisted the stick of her lollipop between her fingers, watching the amber disk refract the bright moonlight above them. She stuck it back in her mouth and smiled, shutting her eyes and taking a deep breath. She hadn't had something so sweet since the day the green light hit. Her eyes watered suddenly, remembering how her mother had swung her up into her arms when she picked her up from school, how they'd gone to the convenience store and gotten popsicles they'd eaten on the walk home. She wondered how long it had taken for her popsicle to melt over her hand, for the stick to rot away between her stone fingers, for her uniform to shred from the grey rock of her body. She'd heard once that plastic never broke down and found herself wondering if her mother's card that had paid for their popsicles was still somewhere in the world, the characters of her mother's name, Himari Yamaguchi, still raised on it even if they were no longer silver. Maybe one day she'd find her mother's ID and have a picture to keep with her until she was able to wake her up again.

When she opened her eyes she could swear Senku had been looking at her but his eyes shifted back to the sky so quickly she wasn't sure, "You do realize," he said, red eyes glimmering at her from the corners as a smirk pulled on his lips, "that this is the second night in a row you fell asleep up here?"

"Mmm," she grinned slowly, blinking up at the stars above them, "'s comfy."

Senku rolled his eyes but his expression stayed mockingly judgemental, "Clearly."

She pushed up and leaned to look at the star chart. He'd done an amazing amount of work in the past two days. She wondered if she'd even ever be able to understand how smart he was, much less be smart herself, "Science was my favorite class in school."

She blurted it so suddenly they both blinked at each other. She could feel her face reddening as Senku's expression twisted with embarrassed confusion.

"I-Is that so?" his voice strained. His eyebrow twitched and he couldn't keep himself from glancing at his star chart. He wasn't playing off his discomfort at all, but she appreciated his obvious effort.

"Sorry I-" She shook her head quickly and looked back up at the sky, "That was a weird thing to blurt out while you were working it's just. You're really smart. So. And...you like science and-"

"Heh," Senku chuckled suddenly, then started to shake as he laughed harder. Tears formed in the corners of his eyes and he laughed, looking at her as though he was sorry even though he didn't try to stop his laughter. She stiffened, mouth gaping at him as her cheeks burned from the heat of her blush and from the strain of her shocked expression.

"Don't laugh at me!" She cried, her voice whiny and high, the break in it making Senku struggle to contain himself.

"I don't know what else you expect that was so weird," he sighed, smiling as he wiped the tears from his face, "and I mean...nothing you said was weird but you treated it like...heh...like it was talking about...I dunno. Something really nerdy and obscure…"

Umeka puffed her cheeks at him, eyebrows knitting together as the pinkness spread over her face and onto her ears, "The kids in my class thought liking science was weird so!" She stopped short, folding her arms over her chest as if to say that was enough. She turned, pouting somewhat over the top, and stared back toward the village but she didn't move.

Senku sighed. This was something that had always confused him about other people. Taiju had never really done it, maybe that's why Senku had decided to make him his best friend. He was earnest, honest, and maybe just a little simple. He was about to chide Umeka for being childish when it struck him.

In some ways she was. Of course, they were the same age now. But without the green light putting them on pause and her early wake-up call, she would have been some ten years younger than him. All she'd known was grade school teasing, kid's cartoons, and the apparently vast teachings of her grandfather. Given that she'd done incredibly well. Freakishly well in fact. Just like Taiju's terrifying endurance, Gin's mental abilities, Tsukasa, and Kohaku's strength; Umeka was yet another freak of nature. Freakishly able to survive despite all the odds. He swallowed hard, so maybe she was a little childish in how she expressed herself. What else could he expect? Ten years of isolation and now she was stuck with people with vastly different levels of socialization. Even people from the past might not be able to relate to her. What were kids even watching back then?

"Hey…" he spoke, his voice rasping.

She didn't speak, but she raised her eyebrow at him, unable to stop from turning her shoulders back somewhat though she still tried to play up her cold shoulder.

"Did you watch Doraemon?"

Her demeanor suddenly changed, her eyes widened in the starlight that shone on the threat of tears. It made his throat tighten but he couldn't think about it for long because Umeka suddenly launched into his space.

"You watched it?!"

"Heh," he smirked, "a big nerd like me watching Doraemon should be ten billion percent not shocking."

"Well it's just," and then she smirked, suddenly seeming to feel better, "it was for kids, after all."

Senku rolled his eyes, "Oh don't be one of those people."

"Just admit it was for kids, Senku."

"Kids might be a major target demographic-"

Umeka settled back, and leaned her head toward him looking at him from under her brow, "Senku."

"Fine. If it will make you happy. Even though I think it's a pretty narrow-minded way to classify Doraemon which had a wide fan base due to its long serialization and various anime adaptions spanning generations; it was technically for children," Senku rolled his eyes about but smiled at her, ever so slightly.

"So this is how you say you're sorry?"

"Well if that's how you want to take it I won't argue with you."

She smiled wider, "You already knew that though, right? Because of Sueno's name."

Senku turned, looking back at the stars, "Musta forgotten."

She hummed beside him playfully but didn't speak. That was something he'd grown to really like about her. She didn't talk all the time. She didn't ask a ton of questions and when she did she seemed to always take his answers at face value. Though now he wondered if she was quiet because he confused her or maybe made her uncomfortable, but glancing at her in the moonlight that didn't seem to be the case. She looked peaceful, gazing into the skies. Whatever accidental hurt he'd caused before seemed to be forgotten now as her amber eyes traced the patterns of the stars.

"Your grandpa…" Senku spoke, surprising himself. It wasn't like him to probe for knowledge. Even when Ruri revealed the truth of the village to him he couldn't bring himself to poke her for too much. It wasn't in his nature. At least not person to person, he left his investigations for science, for the inhuman elements of the world. It made him feel more like his father in a melancholy way that he tried to ignore.

Umeka turned to him, tilting her head and patiently waiting for him to continue.

"He taught you a lot, it sounds like…"

She stared for a moment, and then a slow teasing smile broke onto her face so smoothly it made Senku cringe in embarrassment but she didn't tease him. Instead, she smiled and answered, "He did. And Grandma. They both did. Grandpa was a folklorist for work and Grandma was a housewife, but they both knew tons of stuff. I think Grandma knew more things to do. Grandpa knew more stories but Grandma...she was the one that made clothes and planted gardens and cooked… Of course. Grandpa helped in the garden too but Grandma was the boss. We did what she said when we'd be working the field and every year we had so much leftover one of my evening chores was to run them around to other houses in the neighborhood."

"So you lived with them, huh?" Senku set his paper down without thinking about it. Turning toward her. For the moment it was more interesting to figure out how she'd survived so young in such a brutal place.

"Oh. Only in the summer," she smiled wistfully. She didn't look at him. Instead, she was looking up into the stars, as though her grandparents and her childhood were constellations there she could map out for him as she told her own myth. "Mom would work more in the summer, or she'd have to travel. So since I was off from school I'd spend the month with my grandparents. Mom and I lived with them when I was really little but I don't remember so much of that. Mom got a job in Tokyo when I was...uhmm...five? I think. So we moved so she could be near work and I could go to better schools."

He felt lazy. He wished he didn't feel so guilty when he had a normal conversation. He realized he didn't know much of anything about Gen's life, at least, not his life off the stage. What he knew about Chrome and Kohaku he'd just learned incidentally as they fought to earn the trust of the village. He wanted to know about them, he was enjoying hearing about Umeka's life. Yet he could never dismiss the constant urge to work, the guilt that drove him to push forward on every project. No one else could do it and so his conscience or maybe his ego was driving him to work all the time leaving very little time for his friends that trusted him and helped him so much more than he felt he deserved.

He pushed the thoughts away, even sliding the star chart further away from his hand, "Do you know what your mom did?"

"Oh uh," Umeka seemed to think hard, a finger tapping her chin, "No...I'm not super sure. She worked in a big building. She walked me by once but she never brought me in. I don't think anyone knew about me….now that I think about it."

Senku didn't speak. He wasn't sure what to say and he knew from personal experience how complicated explaining one's parents could be, so he waited instead. Glancing at the sky to call himself.

Umeka waited for the inevitable questions. 'What about your dad? Why did your mom look so young? Why would she hide you?' But Senku didn't say anything. He looked peaceful, calmly looking out at the sky and the village on the horizon. Her eyes traced the cracks on his face, then down his nicely curved nose, and over his chapped lips. She found herself staring at the equation on his chest, the one he'd written in blood but she'd yet to ask about.

"My mom…" Umeka offered, suddenly compelled again to share as she had when she blurted out her love for science, "she was really young when I was born."

Senku looked at her, sincere but passive. It filled her with a foreign sensation, a tightening in her stomach she couldn't identify. She'd trusted him quickly because of his honesty. He wasn't secretive, or bashful. He was painfully, almost rudely honest. But he was kind, and his eyes were beautiful but strange. A reddish color she didn't think she'd ever seen before that made her want to look away or stare longer.

"My father," she swallowed, then she stopped, "Should I be quiet? Are you working?"

Senku blinked, and glanced at the star chart behind him, "Ah it's so far away now. If I reach for it I'd probably fall to my death but," and then he turned back to her, the airy joking in his voice dropping out suddenly leaving him quiet and earnest, "you don't have to tell me about him. If you don't want to, I mean."

Her lip quivered. Her birth hadn't been a secret to her. Her mother and grandparents had thought honesty was the best policy. Growing up she'd been told she probably knew more than most children her age. She could still see her mother; beautiful and crying gently as she apologized for something Umeka didn't fault her for. Even if she'd made her peace with it thousands of years ago now, she'd never told anyone else before and as much as she wanted to, it felt heavy and difficult. And she didn't want to mess it up, "Can you tell me about your parents?"

"Well you know a little already," Senku nodded, completely unfazed by her request, "he was an astronaut but he got that on a real crapshoot I mean...he worked like crazy to get it but it was really a one in ten billion percent chance. He'd tried a bunch of times before and always failed. To be honest, I think they might have taken him the last time cause it was starting to get a little sad." Senku smiled in his teasing way, a quick quirk of his mouth, but his eyes looked sad and his shoulders slumped without him noticing, "Anyway...he'd been a college professor before that. Science. Byakuya was a good guy. He was nice...and funny...and supportive I guess. Or maybe, I was just a brat. Heh."

They sat quietly for a while. In the distance early morning birds began to chirp. Signaling the end of their talk soon, as the village woke up and they had to get to their work and chores for the day. Senku turned, staring for a moment in the direction of the birds and then looked at her, "Byakuya isn't my biological father. I don't know them, or anything about them really. All I know is that Byakuya said my birth father was his best friend but...why they gave me to Byakuya or where they were I've got no idea. I never wanted to know."

"Because Byakuya is your dad."

He stared at her then and she thought she might have just seen his eyes quiver, a gentle shimmer of tears passing through that didn't fall. Like storm clouds rolling over without raining.

"Right," he spoke, nodding. "That was that."

Umeka took a deep breath. Maybe Senku would understand even better than she thought. Maybe even if he didn't he was the best person she could tell. He was logical after all. "My mother was sixteen when she had me. My father was a young teacher at her school...I think he'd just finished his training. Because she was just old enough in our prefecture...and because my grandparents thought maybe it would be hard on my mom, I don't think they got him in as much trouble as they could have. I know Grandpa went to the school and got him fired, and mom told me once that Grandpa hit him but he thought that was bad of him to have done around kids so she told me not to tell him that I knew."

She paused and looked at Senku but his expression was unreadable. It wasn't pity or even sympathy. He was just listening, calmly waiting as she thought. In a comforting way, it was like she wasn't even telling anyone. He looked like she told him grass was green and birds had wings. A simple fact of nature he'd learned when he was very young.

"If he ever wanted to meet me he couldn't. He signed something and gave up his rights and he wasn't allowed near me and mom. I think...they told me a little more than most kids because...maybe my grandparents felt bad. Like if they hadn't sheltered mom my dad couldn't have been bad. But...I don't think they did anything wrong...and mom was just a girl. There's probably not so much we can do when there are bad people I mean. At some point, everything is just the person who is doing something wrong's fault. I think. It's always been kind of confusing cause I think it was hard for mom but if that hadn't happened I wouldn't be alive."

Senku nodded, and then took a heavy breath, "A guilty feeling when you didn't do anything wrong is the worst because it's the epitome of illogical but it's just human nature."

"So humans are illogical?"

"Heh...probably ten billion percent of the time."

"Out of how much?"

Senku smiled slowly, "Oh I dunno...infinity maybe? Philosophy isn't my strong suit though."

Umeka smiled, even though, if she was being honest, she didn't really understand what he meant, "I'm older than my mom was when I was born now. She was twenty-four when she was frozen...it won't be too much longer and we'll be the same age."

Senku took a deep breath and dropped back to the roof, "Well let's try and make sure you stay younger than your mom. We'll have to wake her up soon."

"No."

She didn't look at him but she heard the hay rustle, she could feel him sitting up by her shoulder, waiting for her to explain. She choked back the tears that suddenly threatened to come out, struggling to keep her body still. She'd seen enough of Senku to understand that big emotions scared him and she didn't want to make him uncomfortable when he'd already been so kind listening to her. But he put a hand on her shoulder, heavy but gentle and still. She took a deep breath through her nose and though she could feel tears trailing down her face silently she turned to him and spoke her voice somehow remaining strong and unbroken, "I don't want to put her through anything else hard. I've already decided; I don't want to wake her up until we fix everything."

Senku nodded, looking down between them. Then he sighed loudly and looked back at her, "Well we've got a lot of work to do then. What, you woke up at eight and it's been another eight or so years now, right? So we've got another eight years to get society full back and running if we're going to make sure you stay mommy's little girl." He grinned suddenly, "Far from the worst deadline we've had."

She felt her lip wobble, "Can I hug you?"

He rolled his eyes slightly, but a small hint of pink seemed to prick his ears, embarrassment she assumed, "Do you have to?"

"No, that's why I asked."

He snorted but dropped his shoulders, "Fine. One hug. And don't tell anyone I don't want them getting ide-"

She launched forward before he could finish his demands, hugging him tightly around his shoulders. She didn't expect much of a return, Senku was after all an awkward maybe even aloof person. He was full of high-fives and half-said praise, but not much open affection and she didn't want to make him regret allowing her a hug. But just as she started to pull away one of his arms wrapped around her, the open palm of his hand pressed lightly to the back of her head.

They were still, silent, and she noticed Senku barely breathed by how still his chest felt against hers. When she moved slightly he quickly pulled back and picked at his ear, eyes falling anywhere but hers. She smiled.

"Seriously. Don't tell them. If I have to hug Chrome I'll never forgive you." She grinned wider and finally he smiled, "And look I-"

"I just told you because you need to plan who to wake up, right? I didn't want you to worry about me and my mom."

"Who says I would have done that?"

She raised her eyebrow and he sighed, "Fine but-"

"And it's nice to know...someone else knows her. Sort of. She's not in the past now...if we both know about her. Like Grandpa's stories."

Senku smiled gently, nodding, "Sure. Only logical."

"Thanks...really…"

"Don't mention it."

"I wasn't talking about the hug."

Senku groaned, then laughed slightly, "Are you sure you never met Byakuya? Maybe he was your professor in some insane early placement college?"

Umeka grinned and started to climb down the ladder as the sun's rays peaked on the horizon, "Hmmm maybe? I mean. I wasn't in an early early early college but hmmm. I feel like I met a lot of people. Why ask?"

"Oh sure. Eight-year-olds are famous for their social engagements with college professors. How silly of me. It's just, much like my dad, you have a very annoying habit," Senku said as he climbed down after her, turning to look into her face as he finished, "of thinking you are absolutely hysterical."

"I…" she leaned toward him slightly, enjoying just a little how he flinched back from her, "don't know what the word hysterical means."

Senku sputtered for a moment, and then laughed loudly, waking up a very grumping sounding Gen above them.

"Ooooh. I think I figured it out."

Senku smiled and shook his head, "Go be funny somewhere less distracting for a while, I've got dangerous chemicals to mix together on no sleep."

Umeka smiled and looked at the dogs under the hut, maybe she'd take them hunting. Get together a nice breakfast. Another nonverbal thank you for Senku since they seemed to be the only kind he'd accept. She nodded and whistled for the dogs, heading into the woods feeling lighter than she had since the first cracked stones had fallen from her body years before.