Chapter Text
At first when Xeno tells Senkuu his plan about trapping Luna for an heir because of the infamous Wright genes that have developed geniuses consistently over time, he warns Luna at the NASA party. When new information is discovered about her currently looking into in vitro, Senkuu does his own math and decides he wants to cheat years off the unreliable romance relationship option with science too.<br />
Senkuu wants to create a baby with science.
The Kingdom of Science doesn’t agree.
Senkuu saved the world. Senkuu took them to new countries. But when Senkuu asks Gen to date Luna, but cheat on her with Kohaku? Anyone would want to bolt! Add in phobias, village tradition dismantling, and Senkuu's own unobserved hidden feelings? Gen should just be out the door!
But it was Senkuu's brain that gave him the modern world back. It was the same one who first gave him Senkuu Cola. And honestly with the jam Senkuu put himself in? Anyone less probably couldn't do it.
Gen has no misgivings Luna will be fine (with serious restrictions) but dating the tiger that always followed Senkuu around? This was going to be his hardest extended vacation he took.
It looked good? It looked good. Luna blew off her noodles. Though it was almost like building things from scratch again, Senkuu’s group seemed to work so fast through science, that it never felt like she was stuck primitively. Similar to Doctor Xeno.
Tonight? She was cooking for her boyfriend! It had taken some time to get him to come. He was very into science, and he was always off with crazy ideas and crazy places to make their situation and the world better. It wasn’t always as easy to be a girlfriend to him.
But he agreed to stop by tonight, which was great. They had a long, overdue talk to have. Although, Luna had been good at observing Senkuu. She could tell a lot about him before he even got shot. A lot of people just gave her weird looks sometimes, like she was clueless about everything.
She wasn’t, but she also didn’t care. Life wasn’t short, but life was long, with stupid stone parts ruling most of it! She hung onto her consciousness through all that time by not wanting to be single! It was her one thought to keep her going.
And she was going to keep it. She just needed Senkuu to understand.
Oh! There was a knock at the door. “Coming.” It should be Senkuu. When she opened it, she saw him. Perfectly as she expected. No dressing up or anything, that was rare to do anyhow.
“You wanted to see me about something?” he asked.
“Dinner. I have noodles for us,” she insisted. He didn’t look very pleased.
“That’s. Great, I just have to-”
“You can have a couple bites, Senkuu,” she insisted.
“Yeah. Sure,” he decided as he came over to her. He took the noodle bowl and quickly started to eat.
“I wanted to talk about us,” Luna started. He didn’t answer back. She expected that. “When I was alive, I was very desireable. You saw Carlos and Max, I had that a lot, and I didn’t like it.”
Senkuu actually stopped eating a moment to look at her. Like he was trying to figure out if what she had to say was important.
“The one thing that kept me alive through all those thousands of years, was the thought of not being single.” Luna looked at him. He was a smart man.
He sipped his noodles a little slower. She made it into a puzzle for him. He didn’t say anything yet.
“So far, we’ve had a great relationship,” she added. “You’ve made me really happy to be your girlfriend so far, Senkuu.” One more fragment. A helpful fragment.
“How many boyfriends have you had that were as perfect as me,” Senkuu finally asked.
“Zero,” she said.
“How many boyfriends have you had that weren’t as perfect as me,” he asked afterward.
“I couldn’t have a boyfriend, because boyfriend always grows to something physical. I don’t like. Physical.” Oh. His eyes lit up a little, he seemed to get it now.
“Never?”
“Not. Much. Not typically.” A boyfriend. That wasn’t pining for anything else. That is all she ever wanted. Even with a person who didn't feel it back.
“I am ten billion percent sure I get enough of that.” He took another bite of his noodles. “I am still not what you want,” he told her. “You read me well, but I’ve read you too.”
Oh. She didn’t like the way he said that.
“Carlos and Max did something for you. By giving them up, you might have a bright guy? But I’m terrible at physical protection. Having me around as a boyfriend won’t help you out at all.”
Luna knew that. “Most kind of bug off to the side when someone finds a boyfriend.”
“No, they don’t, they hide in the bushes, act like a friend, waiting for their chance again,” he corrected her.
“At least they are in the bushes,” she said back. “I knew the risk.”
“As long as you knew,” he answered.
“I just want a boyfriend without . . . stuff. I could make noodles each time. I could do more as we get more options, Senkuu,” she said. “How about every Friday I make noodles?”
“Just to be sure,” Senkuu said. “You get that this isn’t going to work out perfectly forever.”
“Right. One day, I might want kids or something, and by then, I guess I’ll figure out what I want to do with that, since in vitro isn't really a thing. Maybe it would be later,” she said honestly. “You make me feel better, Senkuu. I did save your life, and you are using me in a sort of political way anyway.”
“Yeah. I knew you’d see that,” Senkuu said. “You even had enough medical training to save me. That’s not a hobby for dummies. You made it hard to see.”
She smiled. “I was even more confident that I made the right decision to save you.”
“Don’t be so confident. I’m human. People change,” he warned her.
“Science is your true love. That won’t change,” she said confidently.
“Science is a constant. Nothing else is a constant. Mankind is an evolving species, it never stays still for long.”
True. People did change. “For right now? For the moment in this evolution, I am here. You are there. I don’t mind your there, if you respect my here.”
“. . . I’ll do Fridays if I’m not incredibly busy. My doctor says it's good healthwise to have something pull me away a good 30 minutes. Night, Luna.”
Good point. That’s why she loved brilliant men. She watched him walk away, probably to do more science things.
“You monster! I don’t want to be away from Senku!” No, this was going to be terrible!
“I should let you in on a secret,” Gen whispered to her. “Senkuu has a type and supremely capable women are the muses of his heart.”
Oh. “Well, I just so happen to be Luna, a capable woman.” Okay, well? Don’t overreact in front of him. He’d appreciate her more with less whininess. All people had types and it made sense that the more whiney, the less she could keep a smart wonderful scientist in the Stone World.
She’d just take it down a notch.
Still.
“Luna!”
The people in the bushes Senkuu talked about. She knew they would show up.
“Luna, I’m sorry you have to be alone this Friday, you know, no date!” Carlos didn’t sound sorry. “Luna. You shouldn’t eat alone tonight, I will join you. You can even come to my area, I have food ready just for you!”
“No.” The more polite room she gave, the more people would take.
“Oh? But Luna-”
Luna closed the door. It didn’t even matter, he was still there.
“Luna? I just want to be a good person, and not leave you alone at dinner. You really have no idea how much you mean to me! Really!”
“Hey, what are you bothering her for? She’s sad.”
Max’s voice of course.
“I know she’s sad, that is why I came over to see her!”
“Well, it looks suspicious that you are here on the one day Senkuu is gone! She’s already feeling bad, she doesn’t need you here to make it worse.” Max knocked on the door. “Luna, you okay?”
“Yes!” She was fine. Without them.
There was another knock. “I have really nice food, Luna.”
“She doesn’t want your food, Carlos.”
“Well she doesn’t want you around either, Max!”
Luna covered her ears. Why? “I am fine to eat by myself tonight.” Senkuu never even stayed that long. One day a week. Of course they knew and wanted to use it to get closer to her. If she let them inside and ate with them, would it be fine? Sure. She’d dealt with them for years. But bugs didn’t fly away any faster when you beckoned them into the room.
Those guys hadn’t exactly been knocking on her door urgently when Senkuu was still there.
And they were still knocking. For now, she would take the lesser of the evils. She opened the door, and invited them both in. It was never just Carlos. It was never just Max. It was both. They could get away with less things when they were both competing for her attention.
She didn’t have enough food, so they immediately went for food. Carlos brought back all the food he had prepared back. Max brought some quick food too. Fine. Most of the time, they tried to get her to express her sorrow to them, in a way that she would end up crying on their shoulders.
She was a little sad. It was expected, but she didn’t use any of their shoulders. She ate her food, ignored most of what they said, and when the food was done, she tried to get them out. “Thanks for the food. I’m tired.”
“I can stay longer?” Carlos suggested.
“No, I can stay longer. I still feel like watching over you is my job,” Max reminded her. “It always does, Luna.”
“I’m tired, and I am going straight to bed. Good night.” She closed the door. In order to make them go away, she had to actually lie down.
Still? Knocks.
“It’s way too early to go to sleep. You just ate too, Luna, that will make your belly feel terrible,” Carlos warned her.
Luna covered her head. They continued to knock.
“Luna, I’m not going to be very far,” Max said. “If you feel bad, just let me know. I’ll take Carlos away if you want me to?”
“No, she doesn’t want me to leave,” Carlos insisted. “Luna?”
“Yes please,” Luna said from her bed.
“Yes? I can come back in?”
No! No.
“I think she said yes about me moving you away,” Max said to Carlos. “You want me to take away-”
“Yes, take away Carlos!” she yelled.
“But you shouldn’t be alone right now,” Carlos said. “Luna?”
“Come with me. Stop bothering Luna,” Max said.
Luna rolled her eyes and sighed. Finally, they were gone.
No, no, no! Again? And to the moon? Senkuu was selected to go see Why Man. And. Hopefully he made it back, but she wasn’t stupid. There was no guarantee a return trip would work right. There was no guarantee anything would perfectly work right. It had to be exact distancing to work! This was. This was.
She couldn’t take it down a notch this time!
“I can’t say goodbye! You can’t make me! I only just reunited with Senkuu. Now he’s leaving the planet and there’s a chance he could die!” It was bad, so bad, why Senkuu? He wasn’t the fighter kind, he was the smart kind. Maybe if the rocket was built in her era? Oh, but then that’s saying she shouldn’t trust in him.
Oooh. No, she had to get it in control. Senkuu and Dr. Xenos both worked on it. They were both brilliant men. “It’s not like I’m stressing. I always keep my cool. Capable woman like me don’t worry about things like imminent doom or space catastrophes. It’ll be okay. You’ll come back safe and sound, right?”
Aww, that look. Senkuu had no stress himself, which made her feel better. His mouth started to move, saying facts that always made her feel better too. “Yeah. No need to worry. The fatality rate in space is historically around 5% so those odds aren’t bad.”
Did he really just state the fatality rate to her from her time when that data had been gathered, when there was so many more people and securities?! Even that wasn’t 0, and now they were in the Stone World, trying to predict every little thing by handwritten calculations! “Is that supposed to be comforting?” Hopefully, that data was comprised with Senkuu and Dr. Xenos over the chances of now.
But 5% was still a loss she didn’t want to take.
She fussed a little, but tried to be brave. But. She could feel how much worse things would get while her boyfriend was gone. They had gone and unpetrified so many people to get that far.
Senkuu still didn’t seem to get everything. He got some, which she was happy about. That’s all she wanted to say about her phobias or her sister or anything.
His little visits helped. Him never denying the boyfriend thing really helped. Luna could see the world slowly shifting back to the world she remembered. And that? Was a little terrifying.
Because gaining more of that back, without the strictness of government in society. It spelled trouble. But, Senkuu kept things okay. Every chance she had to address him to someone, she was sure to say ‘boyfriend Senkuu’. Everyone had learned who was the leader, and who was getting things done. Senkuu.
Genius men did that. They earned their spot with their cool minds and inventions. They didn’t think about things that didn’t matter. They were often obsessive or arrogant. She scored big with Senkuu, he wasn’t that arrogant. He wasn’t real selfish. He was a good friend with normal people, but clearly an obsessed genius.
Not just genius men, her mother had been similar too. So had her sister, though, her sister held different warnings for her . . .
/// “Don’t wear things like that, Luna.”///
/// “Pretty dresses will get you in trouble if you aren’t willing to put out, trust me.”///
/// “You are already well endowed, quit trying to show anything off if you aren’t interested in more.”///
/// “Luna, just get a husband that takes a side piece and call it good! No one wants you without anything else!” ///
“Hey.”
Oh. An unfamiliar voice. There had been more of those lately. Where was Max right now? She turned and saw one of the newer people that had been unpetrified.
“I know you.” He pointed at her. “Luna Wright. Right? Famous heiress? Isn’t your dad some great inventor or something?”
Max? Oh why would he be around, he wasn’t her bodyguard anymore. He came and went like everyone else.
“No, wait, it was your grandfather. Wasn’t it?” he asked.
Okay, so far, guy was fine in conversation.
“You must have really wanted to make something of yourself back then. Could have, before all this happened.”
“I was in medical school,” she answered trying to be polite.
“So a genius like your grandfather?”
“Not really,” she admitted. “Who are you?”
“Lenny.” He held out his hand. She shook it. “Pretty big honor to meet someone like you.”
“Sure. Nice to meet you.” She started to walk away, but of course, he walked right beside her.
“Pretty cool, isn’t it?” He asked her. “Stone World is hard now. It feels weird, but I love the fact that this could even happen. Someone like you and me, couldn’t have ever met before the Stone World. You would have had bodyguards and everything. Now, we can talk like two normal people.”
“Great, yeah, I am going home,” she said.
“I heard a rumor you might be dating Senkuu,” he said.
“Yes, I am.” She would definitely use that.
“Funny thing is, I also hear a lot of rumors that he doesn’t even care about you really. He doesn’t get down with girls much. He doesn’t get down with guys much either.”
“All just rumors,” she said.
“It’s a genius thing, right? More obsessed with science than the real pretty girl he has at his side. Real shame. Why are you even bothering with him? Political thing? Is it one of those class things?”
Luna stopped talking. She was just walking straight toward Chelsea now instead of her place. “Chelsea, how is everything going? Are you as worried as me about everything?” She would take her mind off this guy and focus somewhere way more important.
“I am,” Chelsea admitted. “I hope everything turns out okay. I really am excited to know who Why Man is though.”
“Me too.” The mystery to be solved. The unsolvable mystery was going to be answered soon. She wouldn’t want to be thinking about it right now. She wanted to go home and think about something else, so she could worry less. Science was science, and something would happen. With this guy at her side though, getting more involved seemed like a safer bet to-
“I’ll see you around, Luna.”
To make that guy go.
“Ooh.” Chelsea watched him leave and looked toward Luna. “That guy was cute. Are you dating him?”
What?! “I’m dating Senkuu.” She knew that. Everyone knew that.
“Uh huh.” Chelsea sounded like she didn’t believe that. “He’s probably more fun if you know what I mean.”
“No. I’m dating Senkuu.”
“Really?” Chelsea was getting too close. “You know that Senkuu’s not . . . not really . . . I mean-”
“Senkuu and I are just fine,” she quickly said. “I’m heading home.”
“To your domicile?” Chelsea said.
“Yes.” To her place. To her spot. To her sanctuary away from all things.