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Senkuu always woke up before him, Taiju had noticed.
His friend insisted it was because he was the brawn of their team of two, so his muscles needed more time to recover from the strain he put them under during the day. Senkuu was the smart one, so he was probably right. Taiju always felt much better after sleeping, and he always went to bed extremely tired.
On the other hand, Senkuu was always tossing and turning by the time Taiju fell asleep.
Yet somehow, Senkuu’s always the first to wake up. His friend ‘s always up and about by the time he opened his eyes, and Taiju couldn’t help but be curious as to what exactly he did so early.
He had never seen him bathe for one, yet he was always clean. Clean-ish. It was impossible to be clean in this wild world.
Truth be told, it worried him a little because if Senkuu cramped and fell in the river, Taiju would be stupidly asleep and wouldn’t be able to help.
But!
Senkuu was real smart so he would trust him to take all possible precautions so nothing like that would happen.
…Even if it would make him feel better if he could be there for him.
He respected his wishes as well as possible, but Taiju started having his own suspicions as to why he woke up so early– a hypothesis, Senkuu might have called it. Especially that particular day they had both worked extra hard, preparing more miraculous liquid to revive Yuzuriha. They had both been sweating a lot, and when Senkuu ran a bandaged hand across his forehead to wipe it off, his face had changed.
Taiju blinked.
One of Senkuu’s scars over his eyebrows had disappeared entirely.
As if it had… been drawn over.
“Big Oaf, why are you stopping?” Senkuu asked him, arching a scarred eyebrow– looking odd, asymmetrical with its missing twin.
…
Asymmetrical.
Could that be…?
“AH, SENKUU! I COMPLETELY SPACED OUT!” He screamed, straightening up so abruptly he made Senkuu take a step back, their nitric acid container firmly in his grasp. Without giving him any chance to ask anything else, Taiju looked at the grapes at his feet and reassumed stepping on them, feeling revitalized by the thought that if he was right…
And surely he was…
Senkuu had not liked his asymmetrical scars.
And had drawn on the other one.
(Taiju made sure to look down at his feet, so Senkuu wouldn’t be able to call him out as he let a wobbly smile lit up his face. He fought down the urge to cry.)
(He had always thought Senkuu was as adorable as Yuzuriha, but moments like these drove the point home so hard it hurt.)
He sniffed a little, but remained resolutely quiet, and did his best not to stare at his friend’s face. Senkuu did look at him suspiciously a few times, but fortunately decided to focus on making their alcohol.
Taiju finished squishing the juice out of the grapes, Senkuu filtered it and sealed every grape juice container as best as he could.
Alcoholic fermentation, he had told him, was a catabolic process that occurred in the absence of oxygen. It was important it was carried out without oxygen– otherwise the microorganisms would go ahead and oxidize the ethanol into acetic acid.
Some –or maybe all– of his bewilderment must have shown on his face, because Senkuu stopped himself, as he finished sealing the last container and hummed in thought.
“We need to make sure the least amount of oxygen gets inside, or the juice won’t turn into wine.”
“What could it turn into?” Taiju asked, relieved as always that his incredibly intelligent friend remembered that he wasn’t up to the same level. Catabolic? Oxidize? And wasn’t acid like super dangerous?
“Vinegar.” His very smart friend answered absent-mindedly as he checked over all of their sealed containers. Once done he smiled, satisfied with their work and ran a hand across his forehead again. “A major component in the commercial vinegar we used to buy is– or rather, was– acetic acid after all.”
Taiju hummed in thought, once again doing his best not to look back at Senkuu’s scars. “Well, if any of them go bad, we could make a vinaigrette with it, right?”
Senkuu paused in his brow-furrowing to smile at him, “not a bad idea at all, Big Oaf.”
Taiju grinned back.
He had asked, kind of, in as much of a roundabout way as he could.
“What did you write that formula on your shirt with?” He had said, pointing at the ‘E=mc2’ scrawled in a rather off-putting maroon.
“My blood.” Senkuu had replied, nonchalantly cutting up their leather to fashion some clothes for Yuzuriha. He looked up, stone knife in hand when Taiju spluttered taken by surprise. “What, it’s not like I had anything else to write with.”
“But then what about…?” Taiju trailed off, eyes wanting to jump at the symmetrical scars running up his forehead. He laughed, a hand to his neck, “Ah, sorry I must be confusing one of your lab instruments with a pen!”
Senkuu was silent for a bit.
“Yeah,” he said. “Probably.”
(When he noticed Senkuu’s ears taking on a more tomato-like color, Taiju had to run and take a dive down the river. Cute, too cute!)
After Yuzuriha had finally been depetrified, Taiju had cried a lot.
As he went to bed, and when he woke up and sometimes even during the rest of the day. Because finally, after 3700 years, she was back.
And even better, she hadn’t had to suffer like he and Senkuu, awake and immobile for millennia!
His love for her was what had kept him sane and awake during all this time. His love for her had made everything bearable in this insane world they were now living in.
He couldn’t confess though, not right now, not like this. But he relished in every little smile, every little laugh of hers. Her helping around Senkuu, putting her amazing handcrafting skills to good use was better than anything Taiju could have wished for.
He was just content in watching them both, his fondness growing with every second that passed.
Yuzuriha noticed as much.
In this new, scary world they had found themselves in, Taiju managed to be happy and smiling as goofily as he always did. And it just made something inside her relax. Made her think that things weren’t as bleak as she had feared. That there was an upside to all of this.
And honestly, with Senkuu as their leader, and Taiju by their side, Yuzuriha could believe there was a future ahead of them.
And with her own two hands, she would help it become true.
Senkuu was a genius, but he lacked the fine motor skills Yuzu had developed over the years, and she put it to good use. Mending Senkuu’s torn shirt, closing the gaps in her own dress. Altering the shoes to be a little more comfortable. Making sure their stone weapons weren’t coming loose, and fixing the broken ones.
Sometimes she even subbed as Senkuu’s lab assistant, even though the dangerous chemicals and the lack of proper safety equipment made her nervous as all hell.
And working so close with Senkuu, she began noticing a couple things.
The easiest was Taiju.
How happy he had been when she had woken up, how overcome he had been for nearly two weeks over every single thing she did. It made her heart soften, and the love that had never faded resurfaced once more.
But also, she had started to notice how he looked at Senkuu in a similar way.
How he would sit by the fire in the nights and listen, riveted, to whatever crazy experiment he was concocting this time. He was very loud and very clear when he didn’t understand anything, but it never seemed to dampened either of their enthusiasm.
Senkuu never got angry either. He just mulled the words in his mouth, trying to find an explanation for those not well-versed in the wonders of science. But every time he corrected himself, he just smiled fondly at Taiju. Admiring his willingness to learn, his perseverance even in the face of the unknown.
It had never occurred to her, that Taiju no longer liked her.
It was just never on the table, with the way he moved, with the way he spoke to her as if she hung the stars and moon.
It was that his heart was too big, and Senkuu fit in too.
Yuzuriha smiled as she watched a pouting Senkuu rebuilding his most recently exploded earthenware. He was frowning, sweating profusely as he used his hands to give shape to the clay.
She had noticed how he had progressed from clumsy, slender fingers to calloused hands that knew their way around the malleable clay. He wasn’t an expert; he was barely more than a novice. But his perseverance awed her.
Everything about Senkuu awed her.
From his keen intellect, to his bullheadedness, and his steady assurance that they would come out of this alive…
Softly, quietly, Ishigami Senkuu wormed his way into her heart. And she would never let him go.
She was in one of her scheduled Admiring-Senkuu hours when it happened.
Senkuu scrunched his forehead as sweat rolled down into his eyes. He wiped it off with the back of his hands, still very much focused on the task at hand.
Yuzuriha stopped functioning. Because one of the scars above his eyes had been rubbed clean off.
Like when one of her friends had the misfortune of rubbing her eyebrow off. Even worse, because there wasn’t even a smudge left on his face.
Her immediate thought was that he looked so cute with asymmetrical scars. Just like Taiju.
She was about to say as much, when none other than Taiju ran up to them, screaming at the top of his lungs.
“YUZURIHA!” He hollered, making the both of them jump in their place. He looked frantic enough that Senkuu was beginning to lower his craft and reaching for his weapon– Yuzuriha following suit with her staff, when Taiju continued. “I FOUND A FLOWER BY THE RIVER THAT REMINDED ME OF YOU! YOU GOTTA COME SEE IT!”
He skidded to a stop in front of her, and without letting her say a word edgewise, he had grabbed her hand and dragged her off.
Once out of eyesight, Taiju had let her go and let her catch her breath with an apologetic look on his face.
“Sorry about that Yuzuriha, the flowers haven’t bloomed yet.” He said, looking as miserable as a kicked puppy. She was already smiling indulgently by the time he looked into her eyes again. “But I couldn’t let you tell Senkuu.”
“Why not?” She didn’t ask what it was about. They were far too much in synch, for that to be in question. The staff in her hands was shifted to lie horizontally in front of her, so it wouldn’t get in the way, as she rocked on the balls of her feet. “He looks cute.”
“He does,” Taiju agreed, face scrunched up as if he wanted to cry. “He’s too cute. Almost as cute as you are. And he doesn’t like asymmetrical scars, so he draws on the other one and he’s so cute. Yuzuriha, I think I might die!”
She laughed. “He really is so cute! Do you think he would be embarrassed if we told him?”
“Yeah! I’m worried he’d stop!” Taiju exclaimed in a stage whisper, managing to make her laugh some more. He looked down at his hands, embarrassed. “Do you think I’m being silly?”
“I think you’re as cute as Senkuu-kun!” She teased with a grin, her man blushed and stammered, and just making her heart swell inside her chest. She put her hand on the side of her mouth as if to whisper to him and said. “I think you’re right. He’s so cute drawing his scar. And I think the embarrassment might just kill him, so let’s not tell him!”
Taiju grinned at her, as if she had given him the best gift ever, and she had to wonder if her chest was big enough to hold all the love she had for her boys.
They had endeavored to be as discreet as possible. To never point it out to Senkuu, no matter how adorable it became. But they helped each other, and did their best not to embarrass him.
So of course it hadn’t taken long for the secret to be revealed by absolute accident.
Yuzuriha had woken up far too early that particular morning, and was still half asleep as she made her way to the river, deciding that she might as well take a shower and begin her day early, maybe continue practicing how to wield her new weapon.
She hadn’t remembered to account for Senkuu’s morning routine.
So she found herself staring straight at a Senkuu-caught-in-headlights, his hair still wet from his bath, a victim to gravity, and his precious pencil on his face, only half-way done. His other hand was still poised on his face, guiding his movements.
She only had a few seconds to think.
“Ah!” She exclaimed excitedly, clapping her hands together– it spooked him, but he did not flee as she drew closer, eyes firmly on the lowered pencil. “Is that an eyeliner pencil?! Could I try it, pretty please?!”
“I, um…” Senkuu began, so out of his depth it was painful. Wide red eyes scrutinized her face, as if looking for any sort of lie on her face.
It made her a little sad, honestly. That he would ever think she would mock him.
“Oh, if you don’t want to lend it to me, it’s okay!” She hurried to clarify, waving her hands in the air rapidly. “But maybe, tell me how I can make one too?”
Silently, the scientist stretched out his hand, offering the rustic pencil to her. Yuzuriha smiled as she grabbed it, but Senkuu’s face was studiously inexpressive.
She scrutinized it, actually interested and not just to continue her act. Quickly realizing it was coming apart, the embed charcoal threatening to fall off.
She mentioned as much. “Do you want me to fix it?”
I, um,” he repeated like a broken record. He hesitated briefly, then just decided to look off into the distance, with an uncaring shrug. “Yeah, I would appreciate it.”
So she did.
She complained about not having a mirror, trying to keep her short hair out of her face as she used the placid river as a substitute as she moved her hands in nearly forgotten motions to give herself a winged eye.
She failed. Horribly, the charcoal point too flimsy to handle with any sort of dexterity.
She didn’t mind, she just laughed at her failed attempt, trying to get Senkuu to join her.
He was hesitant and taciturn at first, but he did end up snorting at the mess she made. She had to pout though, when this only prompted him to promise to make a better pencil in the future.
“It’s okay,” she said, as she tried rubbing it off her face. “We have more urgent things to deal with. I can wait.”
“Yeah, I think it would make very little sense for me to make a makeup pencil before electricity.” Senkuu said with an eye roll, but there was no heat to it. He just grabbed her by the shoulders, to make her sit upright again and rubbed at the corner of her eyes with a wet rag he produced from nowhere, to get rid of the last vestiges.
This up close, Yuzuriha couldn’t help but notice that Senkuu’s right scar was… unfinished.
This up close, she couldn’t help the wandering thoughts of…
She knew she was in love. She had known for a while now.
She knew she had fallen in love with both of her best friends.
She was still figuring things out with Taiju, but…
She did like Senkuu a little too much to ignore. Fortunately, so did Taiju.
Was there ever a chance that Senkuu liked her back?
But, even if they both liked him… was there a chance that Senkuu liked either of them back?
And what would she do if Senkuu only liked Taiju?
A finger was pressed between her eyebrows, smoothing out her frown and drawing her out of her thoughts.
“Stop thinking so hard,” Senkuu said. She couldn’t help but blush as his breath fanned out over her face– they were still so close.
“Ah-I! Ah-!” Yuzuriha drew back, hands on her forehead. She laughed, a little breathlessly. “Sorry, was I frowning too much?”
Senkuu opened his mouth, closed it– and next thing she knew, he was already standing up, his back to her.
“I’ll make it for you, don’t worry.”
“Senkuu-kun…” Yuzu looked at him, looking at the thin shoulders that wanted to take on the entire world, and wondering how she could help carry the weight. “Hey… did you know that you look cute with your hair down?”
“I- What?” The genius teen fumbled for words, turning his head to look at her so fast his neck cracked ominously. His eyes were wide, his confusion clear but at least it made the exhaustion on his face disappear, if briefly. He tried frowning, but the pout on his face completely ruined his efforts. “What are you on about, of course not.”
“Of course you are! It’s you after all!”
“What does that mean? Also shouldn’t you be saying these things to Taiju? What if he hears you? He’d be sad.”
Yuzuriha only laughed harder. “No, he wouldn’t. He thinks you’re cute as well.”
“Wha-?” Senkuu’s face flushed a beautiful crimson. He looked away again. “Hey…” he said in a different tone, so at odds with the situation it threw her off. “Why are you… “
The tone was sobering, and his friend’s smile slipped off like melted butter.
Yuzuriha could practically see the metaphorical walls rising between them. “…Senkuu-kun?”
“Never mind.” He turned around, and Yuzuriha couldn’t bear to look at his lonely back.
She reached out a hand.
Her fingers closed around a fragile arm, belonging to an equally fragile man.
“Wait,” She whispered.
He frowned at her, but didn’t shake her off. The smile he always wore that was cocky and nothing but a façade was absent for once. They were both holding their breaths, waiting for her to speak.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “Did I hurt you?”
Senkuu smiled briefly, his ruby red eyes softening immediately. “Of course you didn’t, dummy. I’m just… I don’t know. This is embarrassing.”
Which part, she wanted to ask, but decided to spare him.
“But it is true. Taiju agrees with me. You’re cute.”
Senkuu only grimaced, his eyes skirting away from her. “I’m a dumbass that’s what.”
She pursed her lips, wanting nothing more than to chastise him for his words. But there was nothing she could say that would make it better.
So instead, she decided to distract him.
“Can I draw them on you?”
“…What?” He was eyeing her warily, as if unsure what to expect. Yuzuriha swallowed through her nerves, hoping to soothe his fears.
“Can I draw my scars on you?”
“What.”
Senkuu wasn’t too sure what was going on anymore, as he felt Yuzuriha pressing the point of his pencil against his neck, slowly but surely drawing a wobbly spiral down his chest.
The repetitive, circular motions were rather soothing, and Senkuu soon found himself closing his eyes closed, enjoying her touch on his chest, and then on his arm. Even after she was done, he breathed in once, twice, trying to let the feeling of peace linger inside of him.
“Can I finish drawing the scar over your eyebrow?”
Senkuu bit his lip, mortified. “Don’t you find it stupid?”
She only smiled, letting some of the warmth inside of her show on her lips. “I find it cute. I think it looks beautiful on you.”
“It’s frivolous.”
“It’s not.” She said softly, even as she got closer to him, brushing still-wet strands of hair away from his face. She gauges both scars for a second before getting down to work. His eyes were already closed but he still flinched when the pencil touched him. “Taiju thinks it’s cute as well. You’re cute.”
“…He does?”
Somehow his hesitance began to shed some light to this entire ordeal. Yuzuriha smiled. “Of course he does. And I think he’s going to like the ones I drew on you as well. We should do this more often?”
The young scientist was silent for a moment, as he mulled the words, and what they meant. “…I must admit, it felt nice.”
“Thanks for saying that.” If he had been Taiju. She would have loved to tease him some more. But this was Senkuu, genius, smart, and somehow frightened by intimacy. “We could do this every day.”
He didn’t reply immediately. He just gazed up at her, as she was giving his scar a final touch before smiling at him.
He was nervous.
He wasn’t sure what he was getting himself into. He wasn’t sure Yuzuriha or possibly Taiju knew what they were getting into but…
“Every day?” He asked. His voice was soft, trembling with tentative hope.
Yuzuriha smiled, “every day.”
Taiju found them soon after, his wide panicked eyes evidence that he hadn’t taken kindly to waking up alone. He stopped a few feet away before falling on his knees and crushing them both to his chest.
“Sorry, Big Oaf.” Senkuu mumbled, immediately understanding what was going through his mind. “We got distracted.”
“It’s okay,” Taiju replied, sighing in relief before letting them go. “It’s okay, I just… What were you guys doing without me?”
He was smiling again, despite his words. Senkuu just looked away, conflicted.
Yuzuriha reached out for his hand, not letting go even when he flinched. She smiled at him, at Taiju. “I was just telling Senkuu he was really cute. You agree, don’t you, Taiju?”
And Taiju only laughed.
“Of course he is!”
And it melted something that had laid cold and frozen inside Senkuu’s chest. Something that tasted a lot like fear against his tongue.
They noticed the shift, and their smiles grew wider.
“Oh, Senkuu? You got new scars, what…?”
Senkuu blushed while Yuzuriha laughed. “They’re not real, I drew them on him. Look! We’re matching!”
Taiju oohed, and ahhed, a wide, goofy grin on his face that only made Senkuu want to shove his face under the river and disappear into the forest forever.
Taiju’s eyes were practically glowing as he looked from one to the other. “So then we can finally tell you then?”
Their resident scientist leaned back, looking suspiciously from one friend to the other. “Tell me what?”
Taiju grinned, wide as the world. “That I think you’re adorable.”
Senkuu did his best to stay dignified even as his blush deepened in color. “Can you guys please stop saying that?”
“Oh but you are!” Yuzuriha added. “Honestly it shouldn’t surprise us that you’re such so concerned with symmetry.”
Senkuu just grumbled under his breath. “I am not that ridiculous.”
She just smiled, softly, like a petal falling on a river.
Senkuu and Taiju both shared a glance before they laughed, softly, awkwardly. Happy. She grabbed their hands, and let the moment linger in her heart.
It became part of their routine.
Senkuu would be the first one up, as always, preferring the privacy anyway. Taiju would come after he was done dressing, and would bathe while Yuzuriha drew his eyebrow scar. After that, the boys would leave to give their girl some privacy and between setting everything up for their breakfast, sometimes Senkuu allowed Taiju to draw on Yuzuriha’s scars on his chest, and arm.
Honestly, Senkuu was grudgingly impressed they looked so much like the real deal given that Taiju was neither the most skilled, nor had a visual reference.
“I just trace them a lot!” He ended up saying with a big goofy grin, looking proud of himself. Senkuu just blinked at him, as the words sink in, and his friend burst out in the most absurd shade of red. “No, wait I didn’t mean it like that!”
Senkuu wasn’t doing much better, all things considered. Not just because of the implications, but rather because he had actually imagined his friends…
“What’s wrong with you two so early in the morning?” Yuzuriha had asked, toweling her choppy short hair dry, and looking at her two blushing friends. Taiju laughed, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly, but Senkuu just looked away from the both of them entirely.
“Senkuu-kun?” She asked, laying a hand on a stiff shoulder. “Is everything okay?”
“Ten billion percent peachy don’t worry about it!” Senkuu replied with a cracking voice. She looked back at Taiju, sharing a helpless look. Then she’s reaching out for the charcoal pencil in Taiju’s grasp and without any prompting began drawing more spirals on his arm.
Senkuu stiffened in confusion, but she continued drawing more and more shapes on him, letting the continuous, circular motions ease his mind. Eventually he relaxed into it, but still refused to look their way.
“What happened, Senkuu-kun?”
“Nothing happened, just drop it.” “Let’s get some food.”
“Was it because of what I said? Did I make you uncomfortable?”
“What did you tell him, Taiju-kun?”
“I-no-well… uh… I may have mentioned I traced your scars a lot and it kinds sounded like well, um, you know and…”
Yuzuriha looked at his reddening ears and a little impish grin lit up her face. “Oh? Did maybe Senkuu-kun imagine something naughty?”
“Wha?! No! Of course not, why would I ever think such things about my best friends…”
Yuzuriha hugged him from behind, her head resting softly against his. Taiju crawled forward, looking just as fond and soft as Yuzuriha was feeling.
“I had a feeling we were having a misunderstanding,” Yuzuriha began, as Taiju laughed before grasping one of Senkuu’s limp hands.
“You’ve been a little distant, so I thought you were just not interested but… Is it because you were shy?”
“What are you guys…?”
“Back then, when I caught you drawing your scar, when we called you adorable… We may have hoped something could happen between us… you know, romantically?”
“What? But you two…”
“We are very much in love!” Taiju was quick to ascertain. He looked a little bashful as he added. “But we would love to have you be part of… you know…”
“How does that even work?”
“Hmm, I love Taiju. And I love Senkuu-kun. And Taiju loves me, and he loves you. And hopefully you love both of us as well?”
“That’s’ not… I mean… “
“We’re not saying this to force you. It’s okay if you don’t want to. I just… I just realize we were too happy and weren’t clear at all.”
Senkuu bit his lip. “I just… don’t want to intrude. I’m- I don’t want to be third-wheeling you guys just because- “
“Stop.” Yuzuriha whispered, giving his hand a little squeeze. “This was never about pity, Senkuu-kun. We want you. The question is… do you want this?”
He looked at her, then at Taiju, letting his eyes dance away from them afterwards. “What would this even be? I mean, back in the modern day-”
“We don’t care about that,” She assured him, laying her other hand on top of his. His hands weren’t trembling, but they were cold. “We can find a name for it, if you want. Or we can just… be together. Who’s going to stop us? If we’re all… well, if we’re all in love, I don’t see anything wrong with it.”
“I’m just not sure… I’ve never done this before. What if what I’m feeling is not… What if I’m just well…”
Taiju was the one to cut him off this time, lifting his chin softly, his large, calloused hands cupping his cheek as he drew close. “That’s okay,” he said in their combined breath. “You don’t have to answer us right now. And we can help you figure things out if you want.” The meaning was evident when his eyes jumped to his lips, but he still gave him time to pull away if he didn’t want to kiss.
Senkuu just looked back at him expectantly, licking his lips in nervousness. He did not initiate, but he did not shy away either.
Taiju smiled as he leaned in. He kissed him on the forehead, on the nose, and with another goofy grin he kissed him on the lips.
Short, sweet and sparking off electricity throughout Senkuu’s entire nerve receptors.
He wasn’t given much time to process that fact when a smaller hand tilted his face away from Taiju and Yuzuriha sighed softly as their lips met, cradling his cheek as she deepened the kiss.
When she finally pulled away, they were both gasping for breath. She was grinning impishly, even as she tucked a stray strand of damp hair behind her ear, in a nervous fashion.
“So? What do you say? Do you think you want to try this out with us?”
Senkuu was still in a daze, reeling in from the new and different sensations and experiences and just needing a minute.
(He did not pull away from them though.)
“I think…” He began at last, still flushed a vibrant red. “That as all good experiment, it should be replicated at least three more times, to make a statistically sound hypothesis.”
Taiju immediately brightened. “Oh that’s something I understand!” He exclaimed as he swooped in to kiss him senseless.
Senkuu grumbled a little, still putting a tomato to shame, even as he tentatively reached out to cradle his cheek, like Yuzuriha had done. This only further excited the other man, smiling so widely, their teeth ended up clacking together. He leaned in, closer, and closer, wanting to be as close as possible until they were both lying on the ground.
Yuzuriha was quick to claim his mouth again, when Taiju broke away, trailing sloppy kisses down his neck. But when their third broke away, laying a hesitant hand on him, he stopped immediately, kissing his hand, his cheek, before nuzzling into his neck instead.
“Sorry…” Senkuu mumbled, mortified, but Yuzuriha pecked him on the nose to draw his attention away.
“It’s okay,” she whispered. She kissed him on the lips, softly. “You’re doing great. There’s nothing wrong.”
She distracted him with a kiss, then two, then more and more, always mindful of his every reaction, and keeping her hands from wandering. And when he relaxed again, his breathing slowing down, she leaned back, giggling when she noticed Taiju’s dazed expression on them.
She kissed him as well, a soft peck as hello, before they were both lying down again, on each side of Senkuu, content in his embrace.
Senkuu could feel his arms curling around them instinctively even as his hazy mind tried figuring out what was happening. Then he remembered he had to give a reply. “I believe… the evidence is clear.”
“Oh? And what is your conclusion, my dear scientist?” Yuzuriha giggled against his chest. Senkuu laughed.
“I seem to love you both.” His words were bold, brave. Like the man himself. And after a little pause he added, cheekily. “And kissing.”
Yuzuriha felt herself melting into a fluffy cloud. Somehow, she felt light, and happy, and lucky and so safe, knowing, feeling, that despite being outdoors in a world that had long since forgotten humankind, she was not alone. And she would never be.
The emotions, the words caught in her chest, in her throat, and she just didn’t even know how to begin voicing anything of what she was feeling, all she could reply to that was a breathy, “We love you too.”
Taiju laughed, agreeing immediately, doing his best to hug the both of them closer to his chest, while lying on his side. “And also kissing you!”
Senkuu laughed.
(They were content.)