This was supposed to be a pure crack everyone x Senku fic where Senku chooses science over all of them in the end but well… somehow the whole thing caught feelings + angst
If you wanna check out the original idea behind it: post/611644124373925888/dr-stone-crack
I hope everyone likes it
I would love to hear your ideas if you had any! Even if I can't use them all I'd still enjoy reading them.
Enjoy~
+++l+++
It all started with a cup of coffee.
Now, it wasn't a normal cup of coffee, mind you. It was Senku's special 'I've been up for three days straight and I need something to keep me going for three more' recipe, which basically meant it was liquid energy loaded with seventeen shots of espresso and the power to possibly kill gods, but it was a cup of coffee nonetheless.
So, it went somehow like this: Senku walked up to the counter, ordered his monstrosity of a drink with half closed eyes and chalked up the gobsmacked expression on the barista's face to his 1) soot covered face and still smoking lab coat and 2) weird order. He gave out his name to be called and somehow dragged himself to a corner sit to wait. He might've dozed off a few times between these steps, he wasn't sure, but before he knew it they were calling him to collect his drink.
He walked up to the front of the tiny cafe, ready to finally get some caffeine in his system, when the barista suddenly bowed.
Senku stared.
The guy lowered his head; lower and lower and lower until Senku couldn't even see the tip of his purple employee hat past the counter. He held out the coffee to him like an offering to the skies, somehow not dropping it despite the awkward angle. Senku continued staring.
"It's our best blend. I hope you like it." He said, voice shaking with nerves. Senku wordlessly took the cup from him, for once rendered speechless as he mechanically reached for his wallet. Had the dude had too much caffeine already?
"O…kay? Here, I'll pay with cre-"
"NO!"
Suddenly, two pairs of hands were gripping Senku's own, stopping him in his tracks. The scientist blinked at the offending limbs, then higher to the body and finally the face attached to them. Wide, wide eyes blinked back at him, horrified like he'd just tried to add another seventeen shots of espresso to his drink. "It's free. Please, take it. It's the least I can do for you."
Okay. This was ten billion percent weird.
(and Senku was curious about what the hell was going on, really, he was, but he was also very much on the verge of collapse and in desperate need of a shower and not even one millimeter awake enough for this- so he let it be.)
"thanks I guess?" he said with a raised brow, changing his grip on the coffee and turning to walk out of the door. Had he been 1.47% more awake, he might have noticed people freezing in their tracks just to stare at him pass on the way home.
(He saw, far too late to really do anything about it, that they guy had somehow managed to misspell his name as 'The god of the new world')
_and why the hell was there a phone number scribbled under?!_
+++l+++
Senku was late to school the day after.
He hadn't even wanted to go –not now, not when he was so close to a breakthrough- but in the end decided that he probably had to show up for at least a few periods to let them know he was still alive. So, he made a decision to show up for the morning classes the next day and then come back to his lab to continue his work. Unfortunately for him, things in life often don't go according to predictions and plans.
Which brought him back to his current problem- he was ten billion percent late for school.
It wasn't his fault really. The experiment had exploded in his face in the last minute, and that had left him in dire need of a shower and a change of clothes. Of course, he also had had to figure out the cause of explosion- and anyway by the time Senku actually managed to get to class, it was in the middle of the fourth period.
Senku adjusted his back straps, feeling the comfortable weight of thick books pressing into his shoulders. The teacher was probably going to give him hell for showing up late after three days of radio silence- but whatever. It wasn't like he needed these lessons anyway.
He pushed the door open, cursing his luck when he saw the telltale pure white head of Sato-sensei standing with his back to him. He was not in the mood for a berating.
Sato-sensei had used to be a university professor, but decided he wanted to help shape 'younger minds' half-way through and moved back to teaching high school brats. He was an okay teacher, all things considered.
He was also very adamant against tardiness.
The older man slowly turned, eyes widening behind thick glasses like he couldn't believe someone had just dared interrupt his class. The students, frozen comically in the middle of taking out notebooks from their bags, stared at him in similar disbelief. Senku struggled not to roll his eyes.
"Ishigami-san," Sato-sensei finally called, turning to face him fully. Good. About time the old man got on with his lecture. The sooner it was over, the sooner Senku could take a sit and start reading his own book. "We were just about to start the lesson. Would you like to teach the class on how to make antibiotics if we ever got stuck in the stone age?"
…Huh?
Was this a trick question or something?
Senku frowned, walking to the front of the classroom and busying himself with erasing the board even as his brain worked overtime. what was the point of this?
Sure, trick question seemed like the most logical option, but it was so random. Why would the teacher waste his and the class' time on learning how to make antibiotics in the stone age of all things? The clearly weren't in the stone age.
Board now clean, Senku turned, facing the class with narrowed eyes. Whether this was a prank or Sato-sensei's way of getting back at him for being late, Senku had been asked a question, and he would not disappoint.
Just five minutes later, he was deep into a step-by-step explanation on how to make magnets from scratch. He didn't notice Sato-sensei slowly begin to take notes, or his classmates staring at him in awe and admiration. He was a little too busy wondering why such unusual explanations seemed so familiar to him.
+++l+++
The ringing of the bell brought Taiju with itself, and Taiju brought Yuzuriha.
Yuzuriha brought yet another oddity.
"Nice haircut." Senku mentioned off-handedly as he shouldered his bag, observing her expression for any change. Just what the hell was going on?
Yuzuriha giggled, running a hand through her now bob cut. Her eyes were glazed over, as if remembering a memory from long ago. Senku didn't get it.
He'd talked to her in a video call just last night, and she'd been the same as always. That meant she'd got her hair cut in the span of thirteen hours and twenty-three minutes, some of which she'd spent at school. Maybe he wouldn't have thought it was that weird if it was another girl, but they'd been friends for a long time. He knew she wasn't the type to make sudden decisions like that.
"Oooooooooooo! DOESN'T IT SUIT HER, SENKU?!" Taiju cried, successfully snapping him –and possibly everyone else in the whole building- out of his thoughts with sheer volume alone. Senku shook his head in amusement, making his way towards the cafeteria.
"sure," he threw over his shoulder, fighting back a smile when Taiju took his unenthusiastic reply and ran with it, complimenting Yuzuriha loudly enough that she started shushing him in embarrassment. It was good to know that even if the whole world stopped making sense, the simpleton would remain the same as always.
+++l+++
Senku was having a strange nightmare.
It was nothing like his 'normal' strange nightmares- the ones where he finally made his way to the moon only to find out it was made of cheese and followed him because it had a crush- no, this was something far more disturbing.
In it, Senku was running from someone. Not running as if fleeing in top speed, gasping for air and hoping for a savior. It was more of a fast-paced walk, a stroll in a beautiful forest ruined by the knowledge that somebody was after him. Maybe not as his heels, not even in his line of sight- but somewhere out there and closing in.
(Closer and closer andCLOSER until he caught up. Until he had his spear to Yuzuriha's throat, until his hands were breaking Senku's neck, until everything went pitch black.)
They tried to hold out but he was strong. Stronger than Senku, stronger than Taiju with his ridiculous new clothes, stronger than Yuzuriha whose hair was still long and-
And then it wasn't.
Senku gasped awake just as the spear came swinging down, sending strands of hair flying. He couldn't remember if there had been any red mixed in with the brown.
He sat there for a few moments, breathing heavily. It took him eleven seconds to realize he'd woken up by the ringing of the phone.
"Taiju," he snapped as he answered, struggling to hide the trembling in his voice, "Do you have any idea what time it is."
"I do." Came the chocked answer, "It's the past."
That made him hesitate.
"past… what?"
A shaky laugh. "Past the stone age."
What…?
"It is." Senku agreed; then very, very carefully: "It's been past the stone age for five thousand years."
The line went quiet for a while, nothing but harsh breaths coming through. Senku counted up to 78 seconds before he even realized what he was doing.
"You're amazing," Taiju said out of the blue. His voice was hoarse, quiet and wet with tears. It sent alarm bells ringing in Senku's mind. Taiju was cheerful and lively and loud. He wasn't supposed to sound like this, he wasn't supposed to sound so- so quiet. "You're amazing and you don't even remember how much."
Senku swallowed hard. He opened his mouth to give a witty reply, maybe make a sarcastic comment, but what came out instead was: "Taiju, you're scaring me."
More silence. More seconds to count. More time to worr-
"I'M SORRY, SENKU!" Senku almost threw the phone across the room, not expecting the sudden shout. It sounded specially loud compared to the earlier soft murmurs, sounded shrill, sounded forced.
Sounded fake.
"I'm sorry for worrying you!" Taiju continued on, oblivious to the other's concerns, "it seems that I just had a nightmare! Hahaha, how embarrassing! Oh, Yuzuriha is going to laugh at me so much!"
Behind his closed lids, Senku could see Taiju sitting on his bed, room only illuminated by the mountain-shaped nightlight Senku had made him when they were kids and he had yet to throw out. He could imagine the way his hands shook around the cellphone, the way stray tears made his voice come out watery and tinted with salt. Senku could feel his friend having to force himself to be loud for once.
Would a nightmare even be enough to get Taiju this down?
Senku swallowed again, remembered the horror of watching Yuzuriha press a blade to her own throat, the fright of making the wrong choice, the sensation of dying as the world went as black as the gun powder still stuck under his nails.
Well, not like he could talk.
"She sure is, you big oaf." he finally breathed out, rubbing his eyes with his palm. He didn't mention the still hysterical edge to Taiju's voice, the uneasy feeling in his gut that had yet to disappear. He didn't mention his own nightmare of forests and hot springs and stones.
He didn't manage to fall asleep again that night.
(he didn't manage to stop counting either.)
-the day after, one of their classmates threw an apple at him, laughing that it was a suitable snack for the 'Eve of the Stone world'. Taiju fell over himself laughing, and for the first time in his life, Senku didn't understand something the simpleton did.-
+++l+++
So I was trying not to post this until the word count was higher because I know I'm gonna get discouraged the moment I post this and don't get much reactions, but well, I was kinda getting discouraged after not updating so long anyway so…
It would really make me happy if you could leave a review, and if you have any headcanons, crack – angst – fluff ideas to share I'd be beyond happy to hear them! Come to welcometothelairofthebitchking in tumblr to chat also!