my heart of stone

The bike in question looked like a tourist bike he’d seen in the city before. It had one set of pedals but two seats - a regular bike seat for whoever was putting in the work, and a seat more akin to a camping chair in the back for whoever was just along for the ride. In fact, the word bicycle was deceiving - it was technically a tricycle, since there were two larger wheels in the back to help support all the weight.

In short - it was ridiculously dorky and didn’t look like anything a normal college student would head to school on. However, Senku didn’t know why he should be that shocked - of course Byakuya would buy something as cheesy as the tricycle in front of them.

“The last time either of us touched those bikes was when I tried to get you to go on a biking trail with me. After my training, it was much easier for me! But I don’t remember you liking it very much… so I thought it was time for something new,” Byakuya explained. “And with this, you two can ride together to campus instead of riding side-by-side! Isn’t that better?”

No, it isn’t. It just means one of us will be doing a hell of a lot more work than the other, Senku thought. The mention of the last time he used a bike was a humble reminder as well. He remembered that day well - Byakuya blazing ahead of him while Senku wondered why anyone bothered trying to bike uphill. By the time he caught up to him at the top, Senku was out of breath and vowed to never touch the bike again. “I’m not using this thing. You should return it while you still can.”

However, Byakuya wasn’t going to give up that easily. He had hope for the idea - and he wanted to see Senku make friends with the new neighbor after seeing her put in that first step over and over again. “There was an expensive instrument you were looking at the other day, wasn’t there?” Byakuya began. “It was… a FIA machine, right?”

The mention of the machine caught Senku’s attention. He was no stranger to lifting Byakuya’s credit card and making expensive purchases on it for some equipment - but that particular machine was nearly four million yen. Even the one in the university wasn’t available for most students to use. “What are you getting at, old man?”

Byakuya smiled, knowing he now had Senku’s full attention. “Just use it once, that’s all I’m asking. Offer her a ride to campus tomorrow when she asks you to ride with her.”

One offer for a ride on this for a FIA machine? Really? “It’s a deal, then. You’re going to regret it when you end up taking out a loan, though.”

Especially since he never said that the ride had to be accepted… and I doubt anyone wants to be seen on this thing.

⋆✴︎˚｡⋆

Riding to campus was relatively easy. Honestly, thanks to where your parents had recently moved, it was mostly downhill or flat land except for the very end - so the journey to and from your morning and afternoon classes never took more than an hour each day. Plus, it was much easier than dealing with traffic and fuel prices in the city. So, it was the obvious choice on non-rainy days.

You kept your bike on the side of your house - so, each morning when you went to unlock it, you always ran into the same person: Senku Ishigami, your neighbor. Since you found out he goes to the same university as you and usually either walks or takes public transportation to school, you’ve always made him the same offer in the mornings.

“Good morning, Senku! Do you want to ride to campus together?”

His response had never changed - he always said no. It wasn’t as if he didn’t own a bike. The only reason you asked the first time was because you could see two nearly-identical bikes leaning against the side of his house. However, he never seemed to touch them. You wondered why he bothered walking to campus when riding a bike was much more efficient… so, every day, you kept asking.

And kept getting rejected. Not that you ever expected that to change.

As you were strapping your helmet on that morning, in fact, you caught Senku walking past your house. “Good morning, Senku!” you began happily. “Do you want to ride to school together?”

You had already mounted your bike, ready to take off the moment he said no when he caught you by surprise. Instead of the usual rejection, Senku reached out, putting his hand on the handlebar of your bike to keep you from going anywhere. “I have a better idea,” he smiled. There was a glint in his ruby eyes that made you somewhat nervous - as if you’d missed something important. “Why don’t you let me take us to campus together?”

While part of you was happy he was deciding to somewhat take you up on your offer, there was something… off about his acceptance. You raised an eyebrow somewhat suspiciously at him. “Do you drive a car…?”

“Oh, no. But I have something else in mind. I’ll be right back.”

He walked just ten feet down to his house and disappeared as he turned the corner, leaving you guessing as to what was going on until you saw him come back into view…

… with something you’d never guessed he’d own in ten billion years.

Upon seeing the shock on your face, Senku chuckled. “I know - it’s awful, right? My dad bought it for me,” he began. “He said I should take you up on your offer… and that I should offer you a ride. How about it?”

Senku was expecting a rejection. In fact, with Byakuya watching from their window, he was banking on it. One offer for a four million yen machine. It was an easy win.

To his surprise, you smiled and began to lock up your bike again. “Absolutely,” you agreed, keeping your helmet on as you climbed onto the chair in the back. “Let’s go!”

His expression quickly twisted into shock the moment you climbed onto the tricycle. “Are you sure?” Senku asked carefully. “I mean, it’s -”

“I’m sure,” you cut him off, leaning back in the seat as you kept eye contact with him. “You’ve said no to me for weeks. I want to be here now that you’ve changed your mind. A tacky tricycle won’t stop me.”

All Senku could think to do was stare blankly at you for a moment before nodding, putting on his own helmet. It pushed down his wild hair until it was falling against his face, tickling his neck at how long it really was. “If you’re sure,” he muttered. “Then let’s go.”

How hard can it be to ride a tricycle mostly downhill anyway? Senku thought, false hope filling him as they rode the first hill down and out of their neighborhood together.

⋆✴︎˚｡⋆

The moment they reached the uphill section that led to the gates of their campus, Senku remembered why he hated biking so much.

The beginning of the bike ride had been simple. In fact, when they’d been going downhill, Senku had even deceived himself into thinking it would be over soon. The force they gathered by getting out of their neighborhood had even been enough to leave them cruising during a lot of the flatter portions. However, by the time the bike had run out of momentum, Senku was already struggling.

Now, as the two of them sat on the bike and looked at the steep uphill ride, Senku began wondering if this was really worth the four million yen.

It didn’t take more than a moment for you to pick up on Senku’s hesitance. “Are we walking this bike uphill from here?” You asked, a touch of humor barely detectable in your tone. After seeing Senku start to struggle on flat terrain, you had doubts about him being able to get you both uphill. Hell - even if he was by himself - you doubted he’d make it far.

Senku knew that, at this point, there was no way for Byakuya to know if they didn’t make it all the way through the campus gates. No matter what he did here, he was securing the FIA machine he wanted. However, he also wasn’t one to half-ass the challenge he was given. If he was going to do this, he was going to do it all the way. “No, stay seated,” he began, a new sense of determination filling him. “We’re going to make it.”

… The newfound determination lasted all of three minutes before Senku was basically panting as he pedaled the bike, students passing you both by with suspicious glances and whispers to one another. When you started to notice the sweat going through his shirt and how much he was shaking, though, you couldn’t sit back and say nothing anymore. “Senku, are you okay? Please don’t die on the way to campus. I have a test today and I don’t want to delay it by having a crisis about killing my neighbor.”

Senku turned his head and looked back, a slight glare in his eyes. “You’re the one who accepted the ride.”

“You’re the one who offered! This is hardly my fault. Have you never ridden a bike before? Is that why Byakuya got you a tricycle?”

Suddenly, Senku hit the brakes on the bike, stopping to fully turn back to face you. He expected to find actual annoyance about the scenario you were in clear on your face, but instead, you were smiling. It caught him off guard for a moment - that, despite the past few minutes, you still simply seemed happy to be there. “We’re switching,” he said before he could stop to consider another option. “You’re having way too much fun back there.”

“Really? Okay! You’re holding my bag, though.”

Your acceptance was another thing to catch him off guard. The two of you weren’t even a five minute walk away from the gates. You could’ve easily said no, got off the bike, and walked the rest of the way to campus. Instead, you’d happily accepted the responsibility, making Senku raise an eyebrow with you as he got comfortable. “Why are you actually switching?”

“Because we’re not making it up this hill if you’re the one pedaling.”

“You know what I mean. You could leave me here.”

You just spared him one last look over your shoulder, a smile still on your face. “Why would I do that? You got us this far. I can do the hard part. Besides… I’m guessing that, after today, we’ll never do this again. May as well enjoy it while it lasts, right?”

As you started making progress with much less effort, Senku had an idea for how not to make this a one-time thing.

⋆✴︎˚｡⋆

“That is not the same bike it was before,” you began, your jaw nearly dropping. “What did you do to it?”

After how things had gone yesterday when Senku offered you a ride to campus, you expected it to never happen again. Not only because he seemed to be completely exhausted by the end, but because you had seen him dismantling the bike when you’d arrived back home after staying at the university to study. That, more than anything else, appeared to be the nail in the coffin.

You never expected him to be dismantling the bike in order to transform it into something else overnight.

Senku couldn’t hide the grin that spread across his face at your surprise. “It’s self-pedaling now, solar powered to save the need for any battery or fuel. I also added some… heat powered engines to keep us going forward in the case of there not being enough momentum.”

“Heat-powered?” You asked, looking down at what appeared to be rockets secured to the sides of the two back wheels. “This looks like it’s going to kill us if it goes wrong. I’m in.”

By now, Senku had started to grow used to your somewhat radical acceptance of whatever was happening around you. He thought he should’ve noticed it from the moment you accepted the ride from him in the first place, but it wasn’t until you accepted his demand to switch seats like it was no sweat that he realized that’s just who you were. You never seemed to remain shaken by anything thrown at you - you adjusted, accepted, and threw yourself into the task with a smile.

It was a ridiculously admirable trait in his opinion. He was the same way - there was no use trying to ignore or change the principals of the world. All he could do was educate himself on every aspect of it and use science and invention to move forward.

“Good. Then get on…” he said, gesturing to the seat in the back as he got into the former pedaling seat. Not that it actually required anyone to pedal anymore. “…and you might want to hold on.”

“Hold onto what?” You asked, barely securing your helmet in time before the bike came to life. The moment it started, you knew exactly what he meant, and you reflexively moved forward to grab onto Senku’s shoulders. While he had the handlebars to grasp onto, all you had was him - and with the bike immediately hitting high speeds, you really didn’t want to simply sit back.

The journey downhill was relatively smooth, if not a little faster than either of them expected. It wasn’t until they were taking turns that Senku realized that this design was not well-suited for turning on any terrain. It didn’t take more than the first turn for you to notice that, either. “Uhm, I don’t know if we should be turning at this speed,” you spoke up, leaning forward a little more so your chin hovered just above Senku’s shoulder. “In fact, I know we shouldn’t be.”

“We’ll be fine,” Senku started to assure you. “It’s just a little -”

Less than a second later, Senku was shown how it was not fine.

He considered it lucky, though. Of all the places to lose control of the bike and crash, he was glad it was somewhere public and familiar. If it had been hidden or in an unfamiliar area and both of you were hurt, you were both in trouble. Luckily, though, he knew the exact grassy slope you were now each falling down, and thanks to both of your helmets, you were protected. You had grabbed hard onto Senku when the bike crashed, which meant that when you were thrown off, you two were thrown off together. When you rolled down the hill, it was in a tangle of limbs, each of you rolling over the other.

When you finally came to a stop at the bottom of the slope, though, Senku was lying on top of you. The bike was already forgotten to him, his one focus making sure that he could still feel all his limbs before checking on you. However, by the time his glance down at his arms and legs to make sure there was nothing more than surface-level scratches was complete, you already seemed to be in good spirits. “I guess we’re never riding to campus on that thing ever again, are we?”

Looking down at you, he was relieved that you were alright. In fact, you were smiling. “No, we’re not,” Senku couldn’t help but let a smile tug at his lips as well. “Does anything get under your skin?”

“Not when I have a hot guy on top of me. Pretty hard to stay mad in that scenario.”

Senku’s expression went blank as he pulled himself off of you, moving to the side and clearing his throat, suddenly desperate to change the subject. “Come on. If you’re feeling well enough to say that, you’re fine enough to get up and walk the rest of the way to campus with me.”

“Hey! Not even a ‘sorry for making us crash’?”

“Nope. Failure is part of the process. Apologizing for that is a waste,” Senku said, standing with a grunt before turning back to you and offering a hand. “Now come on. Let’s get out of here.”

You accepted his hand without hesitation, but when it came to Senku actually helping you up, you still had to do most of the work.