Steps to survival

Chapter 41 : Us Time?

"I'm guessing they got you too, huh? For a minute I thought they were plotting to kill me," I breathed humorously. "What did they drag my ass out here for anyway? Flower picking?"

"Well I'm actually not sure but uh..." Senku glanced down, I followed his eyes. "Ah, they tackled me and told me that if I didn't put this on..." I winced playfully and let him imagine. "You look good in a dress."

"Oh is that so," though I wanted to maintain nonchalant, I found my face turning an uncomfortable beat red. Senku smirked and after a short pause, grabbed my hand gently, I swore I felt a small shock, must be static electricity. "You know I feel like we should be back at the village, helping everyone," I complained as we walked hand in hand, him clearly leading us somewhere.

"What am I too boring for you Kai?" He cooed. "Look I know how you feel, but if they couldn't handle it, they wouldn't have sent us off," he sighed. And tugged me to a stop, we were standing in front of a deeper part of the river, I looked over to Senku. "Fancy a swim?" It wasn't really a question, chuckling I knew that if I said no he would toss me over his shoulder. "I have no choice in the matter do I?"

"Well you could pummel me in the ground if you wanted," he shrugged.

"Yes...yes, I could," with a small grin I found myself foot deep into the river when I turned back, grabbed his wrist and pulled him with me. "You know maybe if I..." I smirked, pulling him close to me, our faces inches from each other, after a bashful smile from him I spun him around and pushed him into the water. Giggling, I ran as fast as I could in the water away from, I heard him close behind, though I'm the athletic one, he had really long legs. I took a sharp left turn only to find him in my way. "No, you don't." He yanked me and we both went under, fully clothed and all.

At this point, we were a laughing mess in chest-deep water, after our laughter died down, Senku was the one pulling me to him, hands on my waist that left a warm sparking feeling that made my stomach flutter. In the water, I was basically floating so I wrapped my arms around his neck, our legs tangling together. "Do I have to persuade you with a kiss or will you behave?" I laughed breathlessly at that. What a tease, with not much holding me back I pressed my lips to his, though I was very inexperienced.

We both just winged it, not really finding that it mattered I ended up wrapping my legs around his waist as to not float away, his hands on my thighs kept me in place. "I feel like that was overdue," he panted lightly.

"Yeah well, we do kind of have a civilisation to rescue or whatever," I joked casually.

"How much do you want to bet the others are lurking in the trees?" He turned his head, using a finger to direct my sight to the rustling bush not too far away.

"Ooh, that's nasty," I grimaced. The two of us found ourselves in something close to a euphoric state, I was just admiring how his blood-red irises looking as the water reflected onto them or how his hair was now damp and hanging down in waves to his shoulders. I was messing with it when Senku began walking back out of the water, I glanced at the hair tie on my wrist. His grip tightened on my thighs as the gravity of the water made me weightier.

"You know if I'm too heavy for your noodle arms you can just say it," I looked at the uncomfortable positioning of his hands, he turned back to face me and look me in the eye. "Just shut up and leave my noodle arms alone," he quipped. With a coy smile, I started to gather his hair at the base of his neck, making sure to leave out two strands at the front and tied his hair out of his face. Secretly loving how he looked, is have to get him to wear it like that, otherwise, I'd have to get signed petitions knowing him.

"What are you doing?" He cocked an eyebrow.

"Nada."

"What have you done to my hair? I look stupid," he eases me to the floor and reached to remove it but I grabbed it. "But I like it," it's almost like he couldn't resist my puppy eyes, his ears turning red stubbornly as he intertwined our hands and sat both of us down on the small patch of conveniently placed sand. We just sat in the quietness both listening to the bird's songs, water rushing giving the atmosphere the solace it needed. I rested my head on his shoulder as my body quivered from the wind on my soaking wet clothes.

I took notice of the goosebumps on Senku's arms and legs. "You didn't happen to bring towels did you?" He laughed.

"Not the smartest on my part."

"See, I am the more intelligent one of us!" I stood up.

"I don't doubt it, who's one that let me drag her in the water with me?" He stopped to meet my eye level, I scoffed. "Who? Not me," I looked him up and down, flicking my wet hair off of my shoulder causing him to almost double over in hysterics. "You sound like a hyena," I snorted but ended up chortling along with him. We decided to take a walk back to the village before we froze to the point of no return. About five minutes in I turned to Senku, observing that his hair was still in place, he blew one of the two strands out of his eyes every so often.

"Are your arms tired?" He raised an eyebrow at me before he huffed.

"Let me guess, you want me to carry you?" I turned my head away embarrassed, why did I ask that? To be fair I do have a bit of weight to me, my stature and muscle in some places do make me slightly heavy. Though my body was suddenly jerked, Senku had stepped in front of me and grabbed both of my wrists, pulling them over his shoulder. He gave me a piggyback quite easily on the way back, we arrived slightly drier but wrapped a blanket around our shoulders.

Soon the sun had soon sunk into the mountains in the distance, leaving behind a red and orange hue to the sky, by then the group was nowhere near done teasing and prodding at Senku and me but we retreated back to the science shed. I hummed an old song I missed as I stared down over the village from the open door with the blanket still held close to me. Looking back on the day I realised how in love I was with my freak scientist friend, a dreamy smile stretched over my lips.

A pair of pale arms suddenly shot out from behind me and took me by the waist, a chin rested on my shoulder, his face pressed against my cheek. "I haven't heard that one before," he murmured tiredly, his legs curling around mine. "It's umm..." I struggled to think of the name but eventually got it. "Never let me go."

"Ironic," we both smiled at his joke, I could feel my eyes drooping, dropping off, I'm sure Senku noticed because he pulled me to my sleeping bag and before I knew it my head was lying on his outstretched arm he offered to me. We fell asleep facing each other, ignorant to the group of smiling idiots that exchanged quiet happy comments. "I knew he'd come through, I mean, he was following my advice and expertise of course!" Ginro announced squeakily.

"Shut up, Ginro!"

"I'm just glad they got time with each other instead of burying themselves in their work," Kohaku high fives Suika.

"True!" Gen watched the interactions with amusement and couldn't help but be a little jealous of the two, it seemed to perfect. They welded together like ying and yang. God knows how long they had been pining over each other. They soon all got to bed due to Kohaku's bickering.