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

Chapter 4

REPUBLISHED! I MISSED A PARAGRAPH WHEN I WAS INPUTTING IT TO BE PUBLISHED, SORRY!

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The next morning Senku shook Tachi awake as roughly as ever, and as she gained consciousness she became aware of a dampness on her cheek, one eye remaining closed as she sat up. One half of her was coated in mud, and after wiping the wet substance from her face and opening her other eye, she cast an unamused glance towards Senku. He wasn't much better off, thick brown mud drying into his hair and clothing. He didn't say anything to her, but turned to gaze out towards the encampment through a tear in the teepee. The fences were destroyed, washed away by the heavy flowing river of mud, the sheep gone with them. The cabbage patch was washed out, and the teepee's once confident structure was buckled and broken, most of what was stored inside ruined. Senku's workspace hadn't gotten off lightly either, what was left of it having collapsed on top of its contents. Tachi's shoulders sank, worry and disappointment pitting in her stomach. Everything she had worked to build was gone in just one night. Senku pursed his lips, hands on his hips before he sighed, shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly.

"Looks like the storm washed us out."

Tachi snapped her head to him sharply, her green eyes narrowing tightly. She knew it wasn't his fault, of course it wasn't but she was frustrated, and that energy had to be vented somehow..

"Washed us out? Everything's gone Senku! We've been pre rinsed, washed out and hung up to dry!"

Senku chuckled, cracking his neck loudly and turning to face inland, pointing upstream.

"We'll rebuild on higher ground, away from the edge of the mountain to avoid further mudslides."

She glowered at him and his matter of fact attitude. Their entire camp was gone, and he was acting as though that meant nothing. It had taken her months to put it together, who knew how long it would take them to rebuild.

"Can you please panic even just a little bit, like a normal person would? I'm freaking out over here all on my own!"

He laughed louder, his red eyes locking onto her annoyed, tightly screwed green orbs.

"There's no need to panic. With both of us working together to rebuild things, I'm ten billion percent sure our new camp will be much better."

He pushed his hair from his face, before pointing towards the remnants of his laboratory.

"In the meantime, you should start trying to salvage anything you can, while I scout the land for a more appropriate location."

Tachi glared at him, huffing dramatically and crossing her arms over her puffed out chest.

"Why am I picking through mud while you wander around the forest?"

Senku was already wandering off into the trees, pinky pressed firmly into his ear, and what Tachi assumed was an incredibly bored expression set across his face, an expression which although she was completely unable to see, irked her greatly.

"Because you messed up with the location once, I'm not going to let it happen again."

He had disappeared into the thick brush before he caught a glimpse of Tachi's reddening cheeks and clenched fists, but was still able to chortle to himself quietly as her feral shout sounded through the forest, followed by some of the more colourful swears in her vocabulary.

Senku hadn't disappointed that day. Although Tachi would never admit it, the location he chose for their new camp was much better suited than the last one. They had begun constructing their new shelter, one more spacious than her small teepee, and thanks to having a second pair of hands during the construction of the framework, it was also much sturdier. Tachi was determined to regain what they had lost, and in just 2 months, they were already close to catching up. Unfortunately, she had been unable to relocate the sheep, and feared that the storm that night may have taken them from more than just their pen. The cabbage patch wasn't salvageable, and after Senku had explained to her that when she cleared the land for her teepee she destroyed their natural barrier against things such as mudslides and heavy rainfall the disappointment had hit her hard. It was true that she was sick of looking at the green leafy vegetable, but without it she would never have survived, and had everyday given the cabbage patch a short crooked smile, a silent thank you to what it had done for her.