Senku stared blankly at Kohaku. She stared blankly back.

He wanted to say something, but his voice might wake the baby, so he refrained, a muscle in his jaw twitching.

Kohaku seemed to be having a similar realization, opening her mouth, pausing, and then closing it again with a scowl.

Even while he slept, their little tyrant ruled over them with an iron fist.

But Senku wanted to talk to Kohaku, so he slowly, slowly stood up and started moving to the door. Thank goodness for his boots and their quiet leather soles. Kohaku was much quicker than he was, and much quieter, but eventually both of them were well away from sleeping Okusei.

Senku sat on one of the bastion walls and let out a deep sigh. Kohaku jumped right into training, stretching and swiping her blades through the air. Well, it was only natural for a lioness to protect her cub. He had something to ask, though.

"Lioness," he called over to her.

"Not a lioness," she snapped back, glaring at him and slashing the air more viciously.

"I have a question for you," he said, hoping that he wouldn't have to shout it at her loud enough for every living person on earth to hear. "Come here."

"Then ask it." She didn't even look at him, focused on some kind of spin. "I can hear you just fine from here."

He smirked. Well, if that's how she wanted it, why not jump right in? "Do you want to have sex with me?"

She stumbled and dropped her daggers, whirling on him with a bright red face. He wasn't quite able to make out what she said next, as her voice had gone very high, but he was pretty sure she was berating him.

"I asked you to come over," he said, still smirking. "Not my fault you wanted our little chat broadcasted to everyone."

"I—I didn't know—you absolute asshole—!"

He sighed. Was she going to keep being so illogical?

"Why would you even ask such a thing?!" she finally squeaked out.

"According to you, we're married," he reminded her. "The majority of married couples have sex at least sometimes. Is that something you want with me?"

She hid her face in her hands and he was pretty sure she was muffling a scream. Then she took a long, deep breath and looked up at him. "Is it a modern-time thing to be so blunt about this, or is it just you?"

"Well, Miss Hard and Fast, I thought you'd appreciate it if I didn't beat around the bush." He was honestly surprised she was so flustered.

"Just you, then. Okay." She picked up her daggers and sheathed them, then came and sat by him. "Don't you hate romance?"

He shrugged. "I mean, I don't get a lot of it, and I'm not about to start spouting poetry at you or anything like that. I just want to know what to expect." He glanced at her. "What do married couples do in your village, then? I've only got my modern perspective to work with."

Kohaku tilted her head as she thought. "I guess…they spend their free time together. And have meals together. And they share a house, and I assume they share a bed, although I haven't exactly asked about that." Then a faint blush started to show on her cheeks. "I remember my dad would bring my mom flowers when she was too sick to go outside, and he brushed her hair and hummed for her, and my mom always gave him a hug and a kiss and said she had the most wonderful husband in the world…"

So Kohaku did like romantic stuff. Little gifts and some quality time together, words of affection and small acts of service, and a bit of physical intimacy to top it all off.

Yikes. Did he want to go through all that trouble?

It sure seemed to make Kohaku happy, though, imagining all of that. And it wouldn't be too much of a hassle…

With that in mind, he tested a hypothesis by grabbing Kohaku's hand.

"Senku?" she asked. "You okay? Do you need to lie down?"

Great. He tries to hold her hand and she thinks he's ill. "Testing something," he said. "Hold still."

She did, still looking confused.

Senku looked at their hands. Hers were smaller than his, the bones a bit more delicate. He had pretty boney fingers. His dad said he'd grow into them, but he wasn't so sure. Both of their callouses had disappeared thanks to the petrification, which was honestly as annoying as hell, but it did mean their hands were soft to hold.

Usually, touching other people beyond a high five was just…off-putting to him. It made his skin crawl and, if he was really tired, he'd freak out a bit, literally jumping away from the contact.

Touching Kohaku did not do this to him. He didn't know why. It was beyond baffling. But…it didn't. She was a physical person who hugged her friends and sometimes beat them up if they were being idiots. Senku had escaped being beat up but hadn't escaped her hugs, but he hadn't minded.

Hell, she'd kissed his cheek very close to his mouth on Treasure Island and he'd been surprised but not repulsed.

Did…did he like her? Romantically, sexually? Is this what attraction was?

Still she sat there, hand in his, warm and soft and strong. Just waiting for him to figure himself out.

He let out a breath. Further testing was needed. He let go of her hand and, somewhat awkwardly, held out his arms.

Kohaku raised an eyebrow. "Seriously, are you okay? Are your shoulders hurting or something? You shouldn't bend over a desk so much, it can't be good for your back."

He snorted. "Already nagging, huh?"

Her mouth twisted into a little pout. "I'm not nagging!" She then proceeded to nag him some more about his physical health and abilities.

His arms were getting a bit tired (maybe she had a point) so he just reached over and wrapped his arms around her.

"Um, Senku?" she squeaked. "What…?"

"Testing something," he said again.

"But…you…this is…!"

He could 'hear' her voice in resonance, could feel the expanding and contracting of her chest as she breathed. It was interesting.

He felt her arms move, lifting, and then he was also wrapped in a hug. "You're terrible at hugs," he heard her mutter as she scooted closer. He had to adjust his arms, which now rested around her shoulders and waist.

He kept waiting for that feeling to rear its head, that overstimulated buzzing…but it just didn't happen. Instead, he found himself relaxing into the hug, even letting his head rest on hers (she was almost a head shorter than him while sitting).

"What are you testing?" she asked after a while.

"Whether or not touching you bothers me."

She moved to look at him through her eyelashes. "And your findings?"

Ah, she'd picked up a bit of scientific vernacular. "Not enough data to be statistically significant," he said, even though he was pretty sure at this point that he wasn't bothered at all. "More tests are required."

She snorted and rolled her eyes, but tucked her head back under his chin. "Ridiculous man," he heard her say.

They sat there for four more minutes. Senku was mentally reviewing all the things they needed to get ready to start building their rocket—it was going to be a lot, a worldwide trip. And they'd probably have to wake up Xeno—they'd need all the help they could get.

And they'd need Kohaku. On that note, he asked, "Would you want other people to feed the kid?"

She sat back up and raised an eyebrow. "I don't see how they could."

He explained what a breast pump was, how they could make one and a bottle for the kid so other people could feed Okusei.

She stood and unsheathed her daggers, and Senku would have been a little miffed that she was leaving in the middle of the conversation, but he could see she was thinking as she started moving, so he leaned back on his hands and waited.

"I will try it," she said after six minutes of consideration. "If I like it, if it's convenient, great. If not, I'll carry on feeding him myself."

Well, that was good enough for him. He'd ask Chrome and Kaseki to see what they could come up with.

"And my question from before?"

She blushed and glared at him, then stalked over, standing right in front of him and leaning over him.

"No," she said with narrowed eyes. "No, I don't want to have sex with an insensitive jerk, even if we are married."

Senku narrowed his eyes back at her. "Hey, I said I'd try to be nicer."

"No, you didn't. You just nodded when I said I'd appreciate it if you were."

"Same thing."

She rolled her eyes and stood straight again. "I might, eventually, want to have sex with you. It sure won't be any time soon. And we'll talk beforehand."

Kaseki came around the corner of one wall, raising his hand and opening his mouth.

Kohaku didn't see him and went on, "Unless you want me to tie you to the bed and take advantage of you."

Kaseki turned right back around and left. Well, that'd be getting around camp soon. Great.

Senku snorted. "Not even a millimeter." He stood up and brushed himself off. "But…I'm open to experimenting, as long as we talk first."

She nodded. Then a sly smile stretched across her face and she stepped closer. "Should I go get some rope, then? I can start by tying your wrists together…"

There was a choking sound and Senku glanced over to see a red-faced Chrome and a blissfully ignorant Taiju nearby. Good grief, private conversations just did not exist here.

Kohaku had already fled, no doubt out of embarrassment. Chrome couldn't look Senku in the eyes, looking literally everywhere else.

Taiju beamed. "Hey, man! Thought you should know that Okusei woke up. Francois is taking care of him, though, so don't worry about him!"

Senku stretched out his back. "Thanks, you big oaf. I'll leave them to it and get some work done. Chrome, with me." The other scientist followed after making some indecipherable noises. Was Chrome going to be like this the rest of the day? Well, might as well make the most of it. After all, they had a bottle and pump to develop. "Hey Chrome, what do you know about breasts?"

Chrome tripped and fell flat on his face. Senku cackled and kept walking. This could be fun!