Mei-chan's Infallible Guide to Get Uncle Senku and Uncle Gen Together 🍝
“Is uncle Gen coming too?”
“Shouldn’t you say ‘I’m so happy I get to spent the weekend with uncle Senku’?” The scientist pointed out, earning a chuckle from the little girl. “Wasn’t /I/ your favourite uncle?”
“You are, you are! But you always act funny when uncle Gen visits.”
“Hah? I ten billion percent do not,” Senku playfully argued, though he certainly felt embarrassed to have a five year old pointing that out. He turned towards her parents, who simply smiled happy at the scene as they always did whenever they visited him. “I do not act funny when the mentalist is around.”
“Of course not,” now Yuzuriha was mocking him. “But… talking about Gen, is he actually coming?”
“You don’t know? Oh, does he have a date?”
“What? Gen does not date.”
Yuzuriha didn’t reply to that, and that was probably worse than any answer she could have given him.
“He doesn’t, right?” Senku found himself asking.
“I mean… you are the one who lives with him.”
“I don’t live with him, he just stays over because he’s always traveling so he doesn’t have time to buy his own apartment,” he pointently reminded her.
“But it’s been years already, isn’t that basically living together?” Taiju asked for his part.
“Fine, but you still know him better than I do,” Yuzuriha countered.
“That… I do,” Senku couldn’t argue with that.
“Yeah—Wait, no,” the girl chuckled and he could tell Yuzuriha was barely holding back from laughing as well.
“Don’t you have some dinner reservations to get to?”
“Oh, right!” Taiju said, picking up the still giggling girl. “Say goodbye to papa and mama, Mei! Promise we’ll be back soon! You can trust Senku will take good care of you!”
“Are you crying?” Senku cringed, but there was also fondness in his voice.
It didn’t matter how many times Mei stayed over, Taiju would always be impossibly dramatic about it.
“But seriously, aren’t you going to be late?” He turned to the usually more reasonable Yuzuriha, who was entertained watching the scene before joining the hug.
In the end, Senku was part of the group hug too even if he was the one to stay back to babysit Mei.
Once Yuzuriha and Taiju left, the real negotiations began.
Senku was just about to convince Mei to play lab assistant and finally start developing her interest in science when the mentalist arrived and all of a sudden, his spotlight was stolen and the plan changed to “playing restaurant” instead.
“Hey, don’t look at me like that. It was Mei-chan’s idea,” Gen defended himself.
“Yeah, right. You just had to go and bat your eyes saying something like ‘oh, what I would give for a cold bottle of cola~’,” Senku replied.
“Welcome to Mei’s restaurant!” The little girl exclaimed then, arriving with a plate of plastic pasta and two plastic forks. She placed it right between them and then gasped and rushed back to get two plastic cups filled with water.
“Uh… Mei-chan, aren’t you forgetting something?” Gen asked, noticing the still missing plate while Senku stared at the table display with a bad feeling in his gut.
“Mm… You’re right!” She exclaimed and rushed away once more, returning with flowers and a led candle which she set in the middle of the table. “Now it looks better!”
“It does look very pretty, Mei-chan, but are you sure there isn’t anything else missing? Let’s count, shall we? Two forks, two cups, one plate…”
“Nope, that’s all you need! I saw it in a movie!”
“Oh! Don’t worry, I’ll bring the surprise dessert later!” She assured him, making the mentalist laugh fondly while Senku sank in his chair as he realised what was happening. Perhaps he would be lucky enough and the mentalist wouldn’t give any special meaning to it. “Enjoy your date!”
“Date?” Gen parroted while Senku choked on his water. “Where did she even learn that?”
“I mean… Yuzuriha and the Big Oaf go on dates all the time. She… she probably overheard them talking about it… or something,” Senku tried to rationalise, but that only got him a look from the mentalist.
“You know something, Senku-chan?”
“Maybe,” but it wasn’t really his fault! “Yuzuriha asked if you were out on a date today. Care to explain where she got that idea from?”
“How am I supposed to know?” Gen asked, his expression morphing into one of genuine surprise. “I barely have time to date with all the work you give me!”
“Oh, so if you had time you would be going on dates?”
“Maybe… I don’t know… it’s not as if I have time to even think about it thanks to—“
“Again with that,” Senku scoffed but he certainly felt relieved, at least for the moment. “So you aren’t dating anyone then?”
“Not that I’m aware of, no idea why Yuzuriha-chan would think that—,” unless she didn’t think that at all. She was too perceptive for that and she was also careful with her words, which could only mean she knew exactly what she was doing when she put that thought in Senku’s head. “Why are you so suddenly so invested in my love life?”
“What love life?” Senku asked, earning a kick under the table. “Oi!”
“Do you need more water?” Little Mei asked.
“Yes, and another plate of pasta, please~,” Gen smiled before Senku could accuse him.
“Sure sir!” Mei giggled and took their cups and pasta to prepare their refill.
“So… Senku-chan?” He asked once the girl left.
“I was just repeating what you said.”
“Don’t dodge my question.”
“It just took me by surprise, I guess. The idea of you dating someone and me not even knowing about it.”
The scientist frowned but actually took a moment to think over his question.
“I didn’t like the thought very much.”
“Currently I’m a diplomat, remember? So enlighten me,” Gen smirked, earning a roll of eyes.
“I don’t want you dating someone else… you are supposed to go to hell with me, wasn’t that what we promised?”
“Chrome-chan too and he’s happily married to Ruri-chan.”
“I definitely don’t want you marrying,” the words escaped when the mental picture appeared way too clearly in his head.
“Because you won’t? Is that what this is about? You don’t want to be the only one single?” Gen continued to press.
“Ugh, you know that’s not it. I don’t give a crap about marriage.”
“But you give a crap about my marriage.”
“I do…” Senku begrudgingly admitted. “I guess what I’m trying to say is… if you are going to be with anyone, it should be me.”
“Senku, you poo poo head! You are supposed to ask Gen to marry you after the surprise cake!” The girl interrupted then, making both adults’ faces go completely red.
“Ma-marry…” Senku repeated, fearing that was how it sounded for the mentalist as well.
“Who… who taught you that?!”
“Uncle Chrome but he told me not to tell my parents about ‘poo poo head’ or he’d get in trouble,” Mei innocently explained. “Oh…”
“That’s not what I… never mind,” Gen sighed before giving Mei a smile. “Listen, Mei-chan, Senku-chan and I aren’t getting married.”
The girl exclaimed, clearly disappointed, while the scientist turned to the mentalist, silently asking if this was how he was going to get rejected.
“Well… not yet, at least. First we need to go on a few dates. Right, Senku-chan?”
“Oh… How many dates are ‘a few dates’?” Mei asked.
They exchanged looks and smiled.
