Hello! Yes, this is a months-late collection for the December 2023 SenHaku Week. I hope you enjoy!

Content warnings: death, but it doesn't stick.

The lunar car was, thankfully, easy to flip over and didn't need repairs. They all piled in, Kohaku settling into the back seat with their little prize cradled in her hands and stared out over the dusty gray planes of their moon.

"Incredible," she said softly.

"What was that?" Xeno asked from the radio.

Kohaku snorted. Right, she was currently being broadcast to a bunch of scientists back on Earth, as well as her fellow astronauts. "Nothing. Sorry." Then pressed the button on her wrist to turn off her microphone so she could marvel in peace.

There was some chatter from the radio, which she tuned out. It was probably all science stuff anyways, which still didn't make such sense to her.

Instead, she watched the craters as they passed them. The Earth hung over the horizon, and she realized it had been in that same position their entire trip—the shifting clouds and the view of the continents were all that changed on that little ball, really. Incredible, just incredible. Her entire world for the first fifteen years of her life, Ishigami Village and the land around it, was so far away that she couldn't even dream of making it out with just her eyes, not with all her skills of perception.

Then Senku reached back and tapped her arm. "Senku to Lioness, you there?"

"Oh! Yes! And I'm not a lioness!"

He smirked and raised an eyebrow. "Microphone."

She quickly switched hers back on. "Sorry. Yes, hi. What do you need?"

"Nothing. We're on a private line, though, now."

"Private…line?"

"Yep. Just you and me. And one person back on Earth, but they promised not to say anything and let us talk. So…what do you think?"

She laughed. "Of what, the moon? Ha! It's amazing. I can hardly believe I'm here."

"Me neither. I was aiming for the ISS when I wanted to be an astronaut as a kid."

"What's that? I've heard you mention it before."

He explained the ISS to her, of the collaboration between scientists of all nations for research and experimentation. "My dad brought up a near-zero gravity robot to the ISS, developed with his university," he said. He was facing forward as he talked, but Kohaku could imagine the look on his face—proud and somewhat wry. "I wanted to do chemistry stuff. Never once did I think, 'Yeah, I'll go to the moon.'"

She found that hard to believe. "Did little Senku not dream big enough? Here you are."

"Well, maybe baby Senku wanted to go to the moon. Before I learned what had been done already, and what still needed doing," he said with a smile in his voice. Always practical, even as a kid.

She closed her eyes. "I can't even imagine…our childhoods were so different. Never in my dreams did I imagine going to another island, let alone the moon. My world was so small." She shook her head. "I've only spent ten years by your side—I've still spent more than half my life not knowing you—and I can't wait to see what we do next."

He chuckled. "Don't expect miracles. We've been playing catch-up until now, using the knowledge we already had to rebuild. Like using a map someone else had drawn for us. The way forward now is definitively uncharted—we have to find all the answers ourselves."

"Hard, diligent work toward a brighter future? Our specialty."

"Yeah, yeah," he said with a laugh. "Hey, do you have any questions about the moon?"

She almost didn't ask, but she had the feeling Senku was done with emotional, nostalgic conversations and wanted to distract himself from something, and she did like hearing his voice, even if she had trouble understanding what he talked about sometimes. (She remembered being amazed when Yuzuriha said she'd listened to an hours-long impromptu lecture on rockets from Senku. She'd sat through a few lectures of her own, now—it was just how Senku shared what he loved.) "The Earth. It just sits there. Is there not an…an 'earth rise' or 'earth set'?"

He talked about the moon being tidally locked, then told her how the phases of the moon worked, that the moon's day and night were about four Earth weeks long. Two Earth weeks between sunrise and sunset on the moon, linked with the changing shape of the moon from Earth.

"Wow. I suppose I'd been taking the fact the sun was up for granted."

"Yeah, that was part of planning this little trip. Because the moon doesn't have an atmosphere, doesn't have that cozy blanket of air to keep things averaged out, the temperatures reach 120 degrees Celsius during the day and then negative 130 at night. We arrived just after 'lunar dawn.' The sun's just starting to rise, and we don't get boiled alive or frozen solid in our suits, although our temperature control probably won't let that happen."

She shuddered. "Ugh, don't even say that." There was something so unsettling about the only thing between her and certain death being a suit.

He just laughed. "Don't worry. We have days before we have to worry about any of that. Well, Earth days, at least." Then he hummed. "They planned it way back when we first sent people to the moon, too. So no person has ever actually seen sunrise or sunset on the moon with their own two eyes."

"Something to look forward to in the future," Kohaku said.

"Yeah, although I can't think of an actual reason we'd need a moon base anytime soon. It's still exciting to think about!" Then he turned a little, a sparkle in his eye as he glanced back at her. "So how does an active lioness like jumping around in low gravity?"

She grinned and started talking (after protesting her nickname) about balance and how she'd had to adapt, how she wanted so badly to be able to jump around and try to do more intense moves with a more flexible suit (she demonstrated the limited range of motion now that she was up here and how she would suggest that Yuzuriha or whoever change it), how she wanted to spar with someone up here on the moon, wanted to try fighting in the near-zero gravity of the space capsule. She only realized she was talking much too fast and long when she stopped to take a breath, feeling a bit winded, and realized Senku had never really asked her about that kind of thing before.

"Eh? What's up?" he asked.

He'd just…been listening to her talk about something she was passionate about.

"Because you're ten billion percent right about the momentum thing. If you want, I'll show you while we travel back to Earth. We have oxygen to spare, so you don't have to be petrified the whole time on the return trip."

Was this what an unstressed Senku was like? Asking more personal questions, listening?

"Yo, you there?"

It was a little overwhelming…

"Lioness."

…but quite nice, too.

"Hey, you okay?" There was a little buzz in her ears and she heard more voices, but Senku cut them off. "Stanley, stop driving. Kohaku, say something."

It seemed like the surface of the moon was starting to glow. What made it glow like that?

"Shit. Shit, where's the Medusa?"

"What's going on up there?"

"Hang on, Xeno. Did she drop it?"

"I don't know, she's not responding." There was a thump against her helmet and she slowly looked over to see…Senku, and…Stanley. Looking at her. Worried.

Something was wrong. It shouldn't be so hard to think. "Can't," she managed, then gasped a little. Her chest hurt. She reached up, but something blocked her. Right, the space suit. "…breathe…"

There were voices blasting right into her head, getting louder, it seemed.

"Where's the capsule?!"

"Don't shout at me! Do something useful and help me look for it!" Someone was pulling on her arms, making her lean to the side, and she felt hands feeling around her waist. Well, kind of. Space suit and all.

"Senku, what's going on down there?! Is there anything I can do from orbit?!"

"Kohaku's suffocating or something, I can't tell, these damn suits are—Kohaku, hey, keep your eyes open. Come on, lioness, eyes open."

"Not…a…"

"Ha, sure, stay awake and I'll never call you that again, but stay awake. Damn it, anything?!"

"Not yet. I'm checking all the supplies. It's not on her?"

"Not that I can see. Shit, she was talking just fine not even five minutes ago, lucid as hell. Kohaku, eyes open. Do you remember dropping the Medusa?"

She opened her eyes. His eyes were so bright as he looked at her. He was quite handsome without the scars—he looked younger, more hopeful. Well. Not now. Now he looked scared. "Sen…ku…"

"I'll backtrack. Senku, take over checking the bags. Maybe she dropped it recently."

Then Senku was gone from her vision. All she could see was the Earth, hovering over the blinding desert of the moon. "So…bright…" she murmured. She wondered if her mom would be able to find her all the way up here. She was so far from home.

Then even the Earth was shining, bright as the sun over the horizon, and then in its place she could see the head and shoulders of a woman, a familiar woman, and a hand reaching out to her. She reached back. "Mom…?"

And a familiar voice, getting fainter.

"No, no, no, no, this is not happening, not now! Kohaku, don't die on me! Kohaku!"

Kohaku took a deep breath and opened her eyes.

She was in the space capsule. There were Senku, Stanley, and Ryusui, all floating there staring at her. "Um, hi?"

Stanley chewed aggressively on his cigarette-shaped tobacco. "Right, that was something. I'm going to check the trajectory and update everyone." And he pushed himself to the command console.

That was a bit confusing. "Ah…?" Then Ryusui was hugging her, holding her tightly, and, baffled, she hugged him back. "Ryusui…?"

"Holy shit, you're okay," Ryusui said in lieu of an actual answer. To her surprise, his voice was thick with emotion. "I do not want something like that to happen again, not ever." Then he pulled away and rubbed his eyes quickly. Then he smiled broadly. "Ha ha, back to storage for me! See you back on Earth!" And then quickly yanked himself over to storage, grabbing the little capsule of the one Medusa they'd manage to persuade as he went, once again rubbing his eyes.

She put a hand against her head. "What…happened?" she asked Senku, who was floating off to the side with an impassive face and folded arms. "Senku? Are you okay?" Senku was not an impassive person—something must have gone wrong.

He looked at her. "You're asking me?"

"Well…yes."

His gaze flicked over to Stanley, who had the headset on, facing away from them as he tapped some things on a screen. Senku also looked down to where Ryusui had gone, and there was a small flash of green light as, presumably, Ryusui petrified himself. Then he looked back at her.

"Senku?"

He closed his eyes, running a hand over his face. "Your space suit malfunctioned. Stopped delivering air to you. You suffocated."

Kohaku reached up and touched her chest. That would certainly explain the pain she could remember, the inability to focus "Oh."

He snorted. "Yeah, oh. We managed to petrify you…eventually." His mouth twisted. "Yuzuriha will want to apologize for the suit. She's apparently broken down back on Earth."

"What?! No, she shouldn't apologize! I was probably too rough with something! I'm sure it's my fault!" There were all sorts of tubes and things involved, and Kohaku could be impatient. She was sure she'd pulled something out of place in her haste. Or maybe when she'd tried to show Senku how the suit could be improved—she really should've known better.

"No fault here," Senku said, his voice rough. "Any future space suits will be made sturdier, and any future astronauts will be more careful with their gear. That's it. All's well that ends well."

Kohaku glanced at Stanley, who still had the headphones firmly over his ears and was aggressively not facing them even a little bit, then pushed herself over to Senku. "It's not your fault, either," she said.

He laughed and picked at his ear. "Of course not." But he wasn't looking at her.

She touched his cheek and gently turned his head so he was looking at her again. "It's not. And even if it was, I'd forgive you."

He flinched. "Don't say that."

"Why not? It's true. You could stab me through the chest right now and I'd forgive you."

His brow creased deeply. "Don't joke about that kind of thing."

"I'm not joking." She put one hand over her chest. "I mean it, with all my heart." Didn't he know that already?

"I don't deserve that kind of trust," he hissed. "I'm just a guy. Just one stupid, overconfident, nerdy-ass guy."

"Who saved the world," she added, "and has made friends in so many places, and shared your knowledge with others, and risked life and limb to do it all. You've proved over and over that you are trustworthy."

"And you died, and we're lucky we found that little Medusa again, or we'd be carting home a corpse." He said it viciously, like he wanted to scare her.

So she took his face in both her hands. "Not your fault."

"I know."

She pushed her forehead against his. "I'm alright. I'm alive. I'm breathing."

"I know."

"It's not your fault I died."

He grabbed her wrists and pushed her away. "Of course it's my fault! In what universe would you be going to the moon if I hadn't dragged us here? Who pushed everyone to go faster, as fast as we could, when we could've spent more time making and improving everything?" Angry tears were starting to form in the corners of his eyes. "You said you'd forgive me if I stabbed you through the heart, but I may as well have strangled you with my own two hands. Who knows what kind of brain damage you have now, after all that time, even with the petrification? What if we hadn't been able to find the Medusa? Our saved-the-world celebration would be a funeral, because you died." He pressed the back of his hand against his mouth, looking away once again.

She'd never seen him like this. But she wanted to comfort him. She hugged him, as tightly as possible without breaking him. "I told you: I don't care. I forgive you."

He didn't hug her back, but he did lean his head against hers a little. He took a deep breath, apparently inhaling her smell, because he said weakly, "You smell like home. Like the forest in summertime."

"And you smell like weird chemicals," she told him fondly, stroking his hair. Just like home.

When Senku pulled away, she was fully prepared for that thing he did where he pretended everything was perfectly fine. It was annoying, but endearing. It was his way of saving face, of keeping it all together.

He did not do that.

He kissed her.

She squeaked in shock. He frowned at whatever face she was making and tried to pull away. "Sorry. Sorry, I thought—"

She grabbed his shirt and tugged him towards her to capture his lips with hers, and he made a surprised little noise that turned into a huff of amusement.

When they pulled away from each other, Senku was looking at her in a way he'd never looked at her before. Soft. She didn't know he could make that expression, and yet there it was. He raised one hand and placed it over her heart, quiet for a few moments.

"I forgot to count," he said in a low voice, "when you died. Threw me all off."

She swallowed. His hand was warm through her dress. She put one of her hands over his heart as well. Her fingers splayed out over his chest, eager to touch now that he didn't seem to want to pull away. Warm there, too. And his heartbeat was strong and steady.

"You were dead for four days," Senku finally said.

Kohaku gasped, snapping her eyes up to his again. "What?!"

He looked so sad, so tired. "It took forever to find the capsule. It turned out to be only a few meters back from the cart, but buried and ran over. It must've been tossed in front of one of the wheels."

She closed her eyes. She must've tossed it accidentally when showing Senku how she wanted to try sparring. Her own damn fault.

"The capsule itself was broken, but the Medusa wasn't damaged. It couldn't hear or respond to us over the radio, since the damn thing broke. Took us four days to find."

Four days…

"Incidentally, that makes our trip the longest amount of time that humans have been on the moon."

"Did everyone know I died?!" She couldn't even imagine how her family was handling the news.

"Of course. Me and Stanley were swearing at each other every waking moment, trying to find the damn Medusa so we could petrify you, and everyone listening in could hear. I, uh, might need to apologize," he said as he rubbed his neck. "I said some things I'm not proud of…"

Senku must've really been struggling if he was talking about apologizing. But most of all… "Thank you," she said softly. Then she snuggled close to him. "Thank you for rescuing me."

He snorted. "Yeah, well, who else is gonna watch the sunset on the moon with me when we build that base?"

She smiled. "I wouldn't miss it. Not for all the world."

One of his hands then rested on her back, the most she'd ever seen him reciprocate a hug, and she knew it meant he just didn't have the words for all he wanted to say. Ridiculous man.

She pulled away and cleared her throat. "Ha! You were saying something about momentum before, that you would show me later. Is it later yet?"

He kissed her again instead of answering, then smirked at her blushing face. "Yeah, I'll show you. That and anything else you want to see, ten billion percent." He pushed himself away from the wall they were near with a laugh. "Come on, lioness!"

She pushed herself after him, ready to follow him wherever they went next. "I'm not a lioness!"