𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐰𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐲 𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐤 ⤿ 𝘪. 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘬𝘶 ✔

𝐦𝐨𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐫 𝐠𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐲 𝟏𝟎𝟏

"And that is how you make passion fruit caviar. Quite a simple experiment, don't you think?" You say with a stupidly wide grin as you seal the said caviar in a small container for the festival. Senku smirks, "Enough with the warm-up, show me what expertise you've hidden all these years. This demonstration is child's play."

You laugh at his remark. It was true that this one little side dish would not fill up the menu. "As you wish." You begin to say as you grab a plethora of ingredients.

Quickly, you start to make the stock. Senku quickly catches up. "I swear, you and your anime obsessed ass is either the worst or the best thing that's happened to me." Senku says with a sigh, a small smile slowly making its way to his face. You bring your finger up to his lips, earning a ghost of a blush on the male's face. "Hush, Food Wars is a great show. Now go and fry these chicken wings with sesame oil, dear assistant." You laugh and continue to chop some green onions for garnishing.

A comfortable silence filled the kitchen as you continue to work in sync, with Senku occasionally asking questions about some topics he doesn't understand. He gave you the fried wings which you immediately added to the stock. You later earned some teasing material for Senku when you found out he could barely chop an onion. "Seriously, what would happen if you needed to make decent food with minimal ingredients and tools? What would you do then?" You chuckle and add the gelatin mixture to the stock. "I'd ask you for help, of course, it would only be logical to get someone experienced to help." He smirks as he, again, attempted to chop an onion without injuring himself. "That won't do. What if I'm not around?" You frown, and it seems like Senku stopped what he was doing since you could no longer hear the noise of onions getting sloppily chopped. "You follow me around like a lost puppy, the probability of your expertise being inaccessible to me is close to none." He says although uncertainty was laced in his tone. The chopping continued once more as you brought the mixture of stock and gelatin water to the fridge.

"You do realize we don't even need an onion for this dish, right?" You raise your eyebrows and smirk. You saw him flinch. "Ow!"

"Did you hurt yourself?" Walking over to the ruby-eyed teen, you could see blood pooling out of a small injury caused by the knife. You sigh, "What would you do without me, leeky?" You laugh as you turn to grab the first-aid kit. "I'd probably be lost without my partner in crime." He teased which made you laugh, "I doubt it. With enough trial and error, you'd probably be able to survive the stone age without me."

"You're probably right, but it's the thought that counts, right?" He smirks as you disinfect his wound, flinching a bit at the sudden sting he felt. You look him in the eye with a lopsided smile. "I didn't think you could be so sentimental, Ishigami."

The male shrugs, "Neither did I, and yet here we are." Finishing up with a band-aid, you let go of his hand and smile.

"I like you." You mumble incoherently.

Another ghost of a blush made its way to Senku's face. The possibility of him mishearing you were high, but he had his hopes up that he didn't. "What was that?" He smirked

You let out an empty laugh, "I said that I like how you're so out of character today, it's quite a nice change from your usual serious attitude."

Senku's smirk faltered, "I guess..."

You laugh, "But I prefer the real Senku who would geek out about anything science-related," You start. "I prefer the Senku who's dedicated to his work and would drag me across the street just so I could help him with his research." This earned a chuckle from him. "Whatever troubles you have in that pretty little head of yours, know that you always have me to turn to. Ok?" You ask with a teasing yet sincere smile, hoping that whatever was going on inside his complicated thoughts would subside even for just a bit.

This earned you a flick on the forehead.

"Jesus fuck, Senku." You sigh as you rubbed your forehead with a pout. His smirk came back. It was his usual arrogant smirk, not the one you kept getting earlier that was laced with fake confidence.

"Cut it with the sappy shit, you have a dish to finish." he smirks and stood up, taking the stock from the fridge. Looking at it now, it had firmed up into a gelatinous consistency. You ordered Senku to scramble some eggs and earned a lazy "Yes chef." in return as you cut the gelatin stock into small cubes.

"Transforming furikake rice, served." You finish plating and hand Senku the dish. His eyes slightly widen as you sprinkle the egg and gelatin stock on the rice, finishing up with green onions as garnish. Slowly, the gelatin stock melts dues to the heat of the rice and coats the egg, creating a new flavor.

"Enjoy." You pat Senku's head as he weakly slapped your hand off with a smirk. He grabbed some chopsticks and took a bite.

No longer than a second had passed and Senku was already complimenting your dish. "It was a good idea to let you call the shots." He says with a reassuring smirk. "The cafe will be a success."

You wore a stupidly huge grin and pulled the dish away from the ruby-eyed teen. "I'm glad you think that because we aren't even halfway done with the dishes!" You laugh and pull him back to the kitchen. "I did not sign up for this, just to let you know." He groans and once again grabs a kitchen knife, this time with more confidence since you've taught him how to properly cut and chop with it. "And neither did I when you drag me to your room just so I could help you out with your research."

You retort with a slight smirk. Senku hums in an amused tone, "Shut up, you knew what you were getting yourself into when you approached me in the library back when we were kids."

More playful banter ensued as you continue to teach Senku the dishes you plan to serve during the festival. He learned quickly, you observed.

Senku always was gifted, so you weren't surprised. You were only being cautious now since you did not want to slip up again and 'accidentally' confess. Senku didn't need that on his plate right now. Whatever got him so out of character today must have been serious so you didn't want to burden him with your feelings.

Plus, you had that secret admirer to worry about.