Okay, this is the SenHaku fanfiction I was talking about. I think I will post it to archive of our own, but I kind of want to throw it on here to get an idea if anyone is interested...
Awoken by the courtesy of a throbbing headache, Senku struggled to slowly open his unexpectedly heavy eyes. As he lay there feeling unusually disoriented and not entirely sure where he was, he tried to make sense of his surroundings and took note of the quiet darkness around him.
A sharp pain thundered through his skull, and he tried to lift his hand to his forehead, before realizing a weight was pinning his arm down. He blinked a few times, trying to adjust his eyes to the darkness, then turned to the source of the weight on his shoulder. He could make out the shape of a person, and from there, the rest slowly started coming back to him. Being alone in the lab with Kohaku while he tested the purity of some distilled alcohol he’d been working on as a disinfectant for lab equipment. Sharing a drink with her from a batch that had failed to hit the right proof. The aftermath of that decision.
He turned to look back at the ceiling.
Let’s see, he began to think through the math, despite his blistering headache. The average fertile window tends to last around 6 days of every month. In the event of a one-off, random encounter, there is only a twenty percent probability it’d even fall within that window. And even at its peak, there is still only a sixty percent chance of fertilization, then only a thirty percent chance it manages to successfully implant. The likelihood of all the variables lining up exactly as they’d need to result in a pregnancy is relatively low, hovering around three percent…
Although, with my rotten luck…
Eventually, he was pulled out of his thoughts by Kohaku starting to shift beside him. He looked down to where she lay, and watched her slowly stir. In the blackness, he could barely see her gradually open.
“Decided you had enough sleep?” he said as she was still waking up.
“Senku?” she murmured in confusion, voice heavy with exhaustion. “What’s going on? Where are we?”
“The lab,” he said flatly, looking back up to the ceiling.
She started to sit up, “Why are we in the lab?”, she asked, pushing herself off the floor. As she did, she felt cold air brush against her body, making her aware of the fact she wasn’t wearing her dress. She pressed her hands into her chest, her stomach, her hips. She wasn’t wearing anything. Now she was fully awake. Mortified, she quickly turned away from Senku, trying to cover herself with her arms as best she could. “Why am I not wearing anything?!”, she looked back at him and her eyes traced up his body, stopping abruptly at his exposed thigh and going no further. “Why are you not wearing anything?!” she shrieked, quickly looking away from him.
He winced, bringing a hand to his temple. “Quit freaking out, my head is killing me and I don’t need you screaming,” he snapped, glaring at her before sitting up too.
“We had sex.” He told her bluntly, rubbing his forehead, trying to ease the nauseating headache he had.
Her eyes widened. “We-“ she started loudly, until Senku shot her a murderous look and she brought her voice to a panicked whisper, “We did what?!”
He placed his elbow on his knee and rested his chin in the palm of his hand while smirking at her, “I hope this doesn’t mean you’ve backtracked on what you said before about not being in love with me, lioness” he quipped.
She turned to face at him, furious, her face a deep red, intending to rip into him, but forgetting that he hadn’t been wearing any clothes. Upon being met by more than she was prepared to see, she quickly looked away from him again.
“Senku,” she said, her voice dangerously low, “if you speak to me that way again, I will not hesitate to beat you to next year.”
He dropped his smirk, although he looked more annoyed rather than concerned by her threat. “Yeah, yeah,” he rolled his eyes, before standing up and stretching his arms. “By the way-” he paused to yawn. “You don’t plan on making a habit out of this, do you? Because I’m exhausted.”
Her anger flared even more in response to his smug arrogance, and she turned to face him. “You must really not value your life you bastard, I don’t even care that you’re naked, I will pummel you right now.” She spat furiously, swatting him on the head.
“Damn it, lioness!” he shouted at her, clutching his head as her swat compounded his already blistering headache. “Fine! You’ve made your point!”
While Senku continue to grumble and rub his head, Kohaku turned away again. Her anger began to recede and was gradually replaced by the weight of what they had done. As the realization continued to settle in her, she pulled her knees to her chest and rested her chin on her them. After a few moments passed, she spoke again.
“We can’t tell anyone about this.”
In response, Senku stopped melodramatically rubbing his head and flicked his gaze over to her, bringing his hands to his hips.
“I hadn’t planned on it.”
She pulled her legs in more, as if to make herself smaller. “Good,” She muttered. “Let’s just pretend this never happened.”
Once again, Senku’s smug smirk returned to his face. “You’re not going to get an argument out of me, lioness.”
“Not a lioness,” she mumbled, turning her head slightly so that her cheek was resting on her knees rather than her chin.
He scratched his ear indifferently, “if you want to keep this a dirty little secret between the two of us, you better start getting dressed. Chrome may be dense when it comes to these types of things, but even he’s going to ask some questions if he walks in here and finds you naked.”
She clenched her jaw and shot him irritated look, making sure to only focus on his upper half. “Get dressed and turn around. I’ve already seen more than I’d like too, and I don’t want you to see me.” She growled before looking away again.
A wide, smug smirk broke out across his face. “A bit late for that lioness,” he laughed dryly.
At that she snapped her head to glare at him, the anger in her chest staring to bubble again. “Look Senku, this may not be a big deal to you, but it is a big deal to me!” She snapped, “so for once in your life, can you treat something with an ounce of the respect it deserves!”
Senku crossed his arms in response, narrowing his eyes in annoyance and tension hung thickly in the air around them for a moment before he spoke again. “Fine.” He rolled his eyes and started getting dressed. She gave him a hard look before turning away. After a minute or two passed with the sound of rustling fabric behind her, he let her know it was safe to get dressed. When she turned around, he was facing away from her, hands on his hips and tapping his foot impatiently against the floor of the lab. She let out an unexpected sigh of relief, before quickly finding her clothes and getting dressed.
“You can turn around now.” She mumbled, averting his gaze when he did and subconsciously rubbing her arm from nervousness.
He looked her up and down before crossing his arms again, “hopefully this isn’t your impression of acting like nothing happened.” He commented dryly, “Everyone will immediately see through the bullshit.”
She bit the inside of her cheek before turning her head to the left so that she couldn’t see him, eyes fixed on the ground instead.
“Shut up, you bastard.” She muttered.
He sighed, running a hand through his hair before waving it dismissively at her. “Whatever, I’m going to bed. It’s late, and I can’t fall behind on the timeline for the Kingdom of Science because of an alcohol fueled mistake.” He started walking towards the entrance to the lab.
“See you tomorrow, lioness,” he called back before leaving.
The walk back to the hut he shared with Chrome was not far, but he took his time to get there, his pacing a slow stroll while his eyes remained pinned to the ground. Alone with his thoughts again and with nothing to disrupt him, his mind started playing through the possible consequences of their reckless, impulse-driven behavior. Obviously, an unwanted pregnancy—but more specifically, what exactly that meant. How would it affect the trajectory of the Kingdom of Science? How much would their progress slow down by benching their strongest warrior? How much of his own attention would he have to redirect from the Kingdom of Science’s goals to managing Kohaku’s pregnancy?
He didn’t have to ask around to know pregnancy and birth in the stone world was a dangerous game. Not only was he not a doctor, he didn’t even have the bare minimum medical equipment required to handle emergencies. What would he do if Kohaku suffered complications? There was a very real chance she could die. How often do women from the village die in childbirth? He had to assume it wasn’t rare.
A deep, sinking feeling of dread grew in his chest and he grimaced.
Notes:
1. Consider this a bit of a rough draft, the bottom I haven't gone through yet and cleaned up!!
2. This is going to be heavily influenced by baby stone!!
3. This is a bit of a proof of concept
4. To make sure it's clear, this is not a one-shot!
5. If you have any feedback, don't hesitate to share!
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