Together - A Senku Ishigami Love Story (Dr.Stone)

Chapter 40

The flavourful explosion across her palette was more than enough to bring a genuine tear of joy to Tachi's eye, the sweet, sugary substance dissolving in her mouth throwing her back to the crowded carnivals and fairgrounds she had always adored. Beside her a delighted gasp escaped Suika, the child quickly throwing more of the cloud-like treat into her mouth, her cheeks tinging red and her shoulders shuddering in pure elation. She couldn't help but give the girl an amused smirk, ah, to be a child experiencing their first taste of the culinary masterpiece that was cotton candy.

"It's good huh?"

It was of course a rhetorical question, she knew it was good, and judging by the faces of the other villagers, not a single one of them would disagree. Suika nodded her head quickly in agreement, sticky remnants glued to her lips and the watermelon atop her head swaying with the motion.

"So good! Did you used to have this all the time?"

Tachi nodded, pulling another clump free from the sugary treat and inspecting it shortly before tenderly placing it onto her tongue, humming in adoration as it melted slowly. She was unsure if it was because she craved sugar so desperately or it was the nostalgia of the flavour, but this seemed to be the best cotton candy she had ever had.

"I always ate it until I made myself sick when the fair came to town."

Suika stilled for a few moments, gazing up fixedly at the blonde before she turned toward the woman fully, legs crossed and cotton candy half eaten.

"Tell me about a fair! Oh wait! A story about a fair! Please Tachi!"

The excitement in her voice made it blatantly obvious to the woman that 'no' wasn't an option, whether it was from genuine curiosity or entirely sugar fueled she would never be sure, but within seconds Ginro was seated by Suika's side in front of her, abruptly joined by Kaseki, all watching her with bright, curious stares. She rolled her eyes, but there was no ill intent behind the gesture, before laughing softly and agreeing to the request, Suika shouting in excitement for others to join them before the story began.

Senku's eyes ghosted across the residents of Ishigami village, his thin lips pulled into a lopsided smile at the marvel etched as clear as day across their faces, cotton candy in hand, wonder glinting in their affixed gazes as they hung on every word falling through Tachi's lips, the woman standing front and centre, weaving a tale he himself wasn't familiar with, centred entirely around a fairground. His arms crossed over his chest lazily and he leaned his head on the door frame of the lab, even from the back he could hear her voice clearly, her exaggerated movements and changing tones drawing those listening to her tale in deeper. She had become quite the story master since coming to the Kingdom of Science, her audience on the edge of their seats as they waited with baited breath for each and every sentence. He spotted Gen amongst the crowd, as immersed in the story as the others were, Chrome seated to his right with his lips pursed in excitement.

Obviously delivering the cotton candy to Homura would have to wait, no one looked like they were willing to miss out on this.

Switching his focus from the crowd to the woman enchanting them so easily he felt his expression had surely softened. He had seen many looks fall across Tachi's sun kissed face in the time he had known her. His eyes had followed the saddest tears as they slid slowly down her scarred cheeks, but they had also seen her pale eyes glimmer with the most sincere joy, accompanied with the sweetest of smiles, entirely content and adoring, a far cry from her often shit-eating amused grin. And now as she weaved her words so effortlessly into a tale so enticing that it had captured the imaginations of the villagers he watched her confidence shine brightly, she was charismatic, hypnotic almost in the way she spoke, the way she moved, the way her eyes roamed across the crowd. In the way those pastel viridian orbs settled onto him, her brow twitching upwards, eyes darkening and her grin, that twisted, imp like upturn of her lips that he had come to know so well stretching across her face. He felt his face flush, heat fizzing across his features like raw potassium on the surface of water and quickly he pulled his eyes to the side, readjusting his position and moving to instead stare up at the clouds wisping across the early evening sky.