"A rocket? Like a bottle one?" The boy deadpanned, finally turning around to look at the person interrupting his work. She seemed to be around his age, tilting her head to the side and framing his experiment with her fingers.  "Seems a bit too complicated for that... or heavy."

"No, it's for a real rocket. Are you done asking questions now?"

"Harsh. Can a girl not be curious about a wild machine in the middle of the park, with a boy around her age testing it?" She pouted, squatting down to look Senku directly in the eyes. He flinched and inched backwards a bit from her abrupt gesture, making the girl laugh.

"I'm [Name]!" She introduced, sticking her hand out towards the boy. "Currently working to be either a graphic designer or an animator. Hope you don't mind me helping you build that rocket of yours, 'cause it sounds plenty interesting!"

"...Senku." He responded, shaking her hand with a small smirk on his face. "Currently working to go to space. Good to have you on the team, [Name]."

For the next few years, [Name] continued to help Senku with his work as best as they could, even though the girl was immensely confused at the vast amount of knowledge he had learned.

"Wait... so, this connects to this?" She held up two wires in the mess of mechanical parts he had laying on the ground. "It's the same color, so..."

"No, stupid, how are two wires going to connect without something to hold them together? Here, just give me that..."

"Oh! That makes sense. Geez, you're too smart for your own good, Senku!"

He paused, then waved off her bright smile and went back to building his experiment. "Yeah, whatever."

The encouragement wasn't uncommon to hear, especially after continuously having people compliment him time after time, but... this seemed ever-so-slightly different to the boy.

"So, what can you do?" Senku asked, crossing his arms. "I'm gonna need to know your skill set to see how you can help with the rocket, otherwise there's no point to any of this."

"Okay, I get it, don't kick me out when I just joined!" [Name] sheepishly laughed, raising her hands in defense. "I don't really have enough money to buy any state-of-the-art equipment, so... I sort of make do with what I can see already. I, uh, draw environmental sketches and stuff around me to get a better understanding of the world."

"In that sketchbook of yours, right?"

"Yep!" She nodded, flipping a few pages to show him her work. His eyebrows slightly raised at the sketches she had drawn out, from multiple portrayals of day-to-day life to whole illustrations with detailed images full of sunsets and skylines.

Compared to his diagrams, his was more technical, but hers was as if the pictures were taken from a camera lens—no, maybe even straight out of the human eye; like looking through someone else's point of view. They were just so detailed that it had Senku scrutinizing every little mark to get the entirety of the picture in his head.

"Wait, what's this—?"

"Ah, hey—!" [Name] snapped out of her daze (was she looking at him?) and noticed him flipping through more pages in her sketchbook, snapping it shut with one hand. "I showed you the ones I wanted you to see, don't just go snooping through the rest of it!"

"...Sorry, sorry." He averted his eyes, rubbing the back of his neck.

For a second, he thought he saw a sketch of himself working on one of his older experiments in one of the pages, but he must have been wrong. Senku could feel a slight flush on his cheeks beginning to work up to his ears, pinching his arm slightly to focus on something else.

"...Anyways, I'm pleasantly surprised by the amount of work you put into your art, so you're totally welcome to join the team. As of now, it's just us two."

"Nice!" She cheered, pumping a fist in the air. "I'll do my best to help however I can!"

She wasn't very good at science, he noted with a dumbfounded expression as he watched the girl get confused over balancing chemical equations, but [Name] was definitely one of the more determined ones he's met. After Taiju joined their makeshift group, work was done at a faster and more sufficient rate than before, but all eventually came to the conclusion that they were stuck with not enough information to work on the rocket by themselves.

"Then why don't you ask the actual pros for help?" Ten-year-old [Name] tapped her fist on her palm, pointing at Senku with a broad grin. "You know, like NASA? Since they're the ones with rockets and all."

"NASA?!" Taiju's eyes widened at her suggestion. "Do you even think anyone there would bother taking a bunch of kids seriously...?"

"Hehehe... that's a wild proposal I've heard in a while from you, [Name]." Senku cracked his knuckles and pulled out the dictionary he had, facing his computer screen with a smirk. "It won't hurt to try contacting them, and there's bound to be someone out there interested enough to share some advice with a couple of curious kids."

Her ideas were fascinating in their own way, and they continued to support Senku's never-ending curiosity for possible inventions and perspectives on how the world worked. She gave new questions to ask and solutions to reach, filling his mind with the satisfying need for continuous challenges.

Yet, to be able to further grow his curiosity, he would need her by his side, right?

"Ah, sorry Senku, could you repeat your explanation again? I swear I was listening to a good portion of it, but I dazed out halfway through, ahaha..."

He tilted his head, glancing between her sketchbook laid out on the table filled with drawings of someone he didn't know and the sheepish look on her face.

"How come you've been so distracted lately?"

"Oh, nothing really, it's just this guy that's in my art class has been needing some help with the work to catch up on. He recently transferred here, so I volunteered to help him out." She explained, twirling a pencil between her fingers. "We were talking about that one really cool anime that's about a group of kids making an anime and how they went into depth of animation and stuff the last time I saw him, so I'm wondering if he caught up with the latest episodes yet." 

"You're too nice for your own good."

"Geez, what's that supposed to mean?" [Name] snickered, standing up to gather her belongings. "Anyways, I gotta go now since it should be around the time we're supposed to meet up. See you later in the next club meeting, Senku!"

He lifted a hand in response to her wave, watching her exit the science lab with an unknown emotion building up within his chest. His hand slowly fell once he could tell she was out of the vicinity, and he let out a long, drawn-out sigh.

"Alone in the room again, huh..."

Senku didn't exactly crave for companionship, and he definitely didn't want to force her to stay with him, but working on his experiments by himself as the days went on without someone to comment on his actions made the effort feel more... tedious. His head would instinctively glance in the space she'd made for herself by his side, not hovering too close but still enough for him to note her presence.

"Don't think a bit of research would do any harm..." He muttered, powering on his laptop with firm resolve. "Let's see who this guy is, hm...?"

── ࣪˖ ࣪ ⊹ ࣪ ˖ ──

"...Hey, you're back." Senku spoke out upon watching the girl enter the club room, closing the door behind her and immediately pulling out her sketchbook. "Not as busy anymore?"

"Seems so... the dude I was talking about got a tutor and is steadily catching up to everyone else, so I'm not needed anymore, ahaha." [Name] forced out a laugh. "Wonder where he found one after he was saying how it's hard to find one nowadays?"

"Probably his friends or something." He shrugged, finishing looking over the email in his inbox and closing his laptop. "And... no need to take this seriously or whatever, but you're always welcome here."

"Huh... really?" She visibly brightened, her gloomy mood from before fading away. "I'll take you up on that offer then, Senku! Get ready for a load of information then, 'cause you'll never believe what I started finding around town!"

And like that, everything was alright in the world again, with her by his side once more.

"Keep your eyes on me," Was a fleeting thought of his, as he listened to her rambling and watched the enthusiasm in her expression grow.

All just to find out what she thought, what was going on inside that observant mind of hers, for as long as he could.

you had to act like the familiarly handsome man plastered everywhere in your house (laptop stickers, keychains, clothes—was that a dakimakura cover—?) was just some guy that looked really. really similar to Caleb, explaining with warm cheeks that he was just your type, is all. don’t make it weird, it’s just pure coincidence!

but you still yapped about the game to him. told him about this otome that you’ve been following since the beta trailers—when there were only three love interests in the beginning, and the planned gameplay was extremely different. it was a big part of your life, after all.

it was endearing, seeing you so passionate about some fictional mobile game that had progressive views that could pave the way for a healthier mindset towards the lifestyle of women in real life. like wow, a period tracker in-game, and the main character you customized and inserted yourself as was a badass fighter that could hold her own? he was sort of a gamer himself, but this was a fresh change of pace he wanted to indulge in, and maybe relish in the sight of your excitement, too.

…well, he couldn’t help but pause and let his gaze linger on the way your face brightened from talking about the earlier stages of the game’s development. when you used to have your original bias from the three before your current favorite one that was everywhere, having not believed he would be a genuine love interest until the release announcement had dropped.

he couldn’t have you fawning over some guy that was different to your main, now could he?

i mean, come on. the ash-blond boy-next-door, the doctor/patient trope, and a whole ass mermaid? your guy has the childhood friend thing down already (in different localization, that is, but semantics), and it seems like he’s had a longer bond with the main character in this timeline compared to the rest! doesn’t his sick-ass bionic arm make up for the fantasy aspects of you technically dating a sea god and a dragon?? he supposes he can give a pass to the doctor, though, as he was more drawn to him from the first three…

but tell him more about this… Mahiru, guy. even though it still wasn’t him, at least he had more of a chance when your favorite was oddly similar to himself.

(you couldn’t let him find out that you scrambled to think of a name to refer to in-game Caleb, it would be far too coincidental calling them both the same name. and so you settled for the Japanese server’s name for him: Mahiru.)

Caleb starts getting weird dreams about a girl. blurry, but… maybe that’s why he’s so endeared to you. was he just projecting this unknown girl in his head onto you? your appearances looked similar, but your mannerisms were different... he thinks? maybe it was just that he was reminded of it when you’d complain about the game’s lack of consistency for MC over time, with less of her lines being voiced, and wanting to get more of her personality in how she interacted with the guys despite being a self-insert. you’d say how you’d react some other way in her shoes, maybe putting the guys in their place by calling them out on their flaws, and not letting them get away with brushing over things that should be confronted.

(he remembers you saying how you cheered on MC’s implied possessiveness with Mahiru, calling them “freak4freak”… whatever that meant.)

and maybe it’s because of those brief moments that give him a weird sense of déjà vu, as if they actually happened in his foggy mind in memories long gone, rather than you daydreaming about how you would’ve acted. with every word that spilled from your lips, like he could re-enact and feel the faint ghost of a touch squeezing around his torso when you said how you would’ve held Mahiru back from opening that damn door. he dismissed your curious look with a casual smile when he shuddered subtly.

the plot twist: you knew exactly how he got to your world, you brought him here. found a shady connection to the company, doing darker things below what was advertised as just a dating sim, made a deal—but who cared what you sacrificed? as long as you had your beloved Caleb…

and really, he wouldn’t have it any other way. because he eventually realizes you were the MC from his past life that died, you just didn’t remember anymore. mind wiped by Astra and sent to another world where you’d be discarded, because there was no use in a failed product of Deepspace.

but, you were safer here.

and he would follow you to the edges of the universe, no matter what.

a/n: the darker themes for caleb's character is essentially a crucial part of himself ^^ as much as i adore how he's like a safety net for his fans, his possessiveness that seeps into yan territory is definitely something that makes him lean towards more red flags, lmao. love him!

when coming up with a nickname to call you in the meantime, you felt the urge to speak up before the suggestions got out of hand.

“and don’t call me Sakura or Soap! i swear, i would’ve never agreed to those if i was in those girls’ shoes!”

“don’t bring those up! wait—you read those?!”

just talking to Gintoki can be hard due to how infuriating it can get when he’s genuinely being cool, as he has his moments when he’ll say something profound—or god forbid—swoon-worthy.

“god damn it Sugitan for making his voice attractive…” you mutter under your breath off to the side, in the midst of a serious moment.

“hah? what was that?” upon turning around to face him, you’re met with a raised eyebrow and a smirk, like he knows exactly what you meant.

“nothing! it’s nothing…” (…it’s likely for the best you stifle any simping in his presence.)

having gotten relatively used to the nature of Edo’s Kabuki-cho and its residents, your prior knowledge of the series definitely helped in getting along with the residents (or rather, staying out of the way of the more troublesome ones. aka a certain blond sadist.) specific details about their likes and dislikes made it easier to avoid getting on people’s nerves, and you definitely didn’t want to anger Gintoki himself.

but, well, he wondered why you could be so openly clingy with everyone else except him.

it wasn’t weird for him to think that you were fond of him, right? Kagura, Shinpachi, and Sadaharu—they were kids and a fluffy ass dog, he could understand that, he supposed. but letting Zura—or worse, the Shinsengumi—accompany you on your trips around town to explore? …not that he was put off by it!

Gin being Gin, he first claims that it’s fine but pouts about it… like the tsundere he is. upon finally asking why in the most roundabout way possible, you respond with the fact that you heard him say he doesn’t like clingy people (rather, you knew this from him stating it in the show before. it was why he disliked Sacchan’s stalking, after all).

there’s a mumbling mess of words he follows up with under his breath, so inaudible that you have to squint and lean in a little to try and hear him properly. annoyed, he scratches the back of his head and halfheartedly glares back at you.

“…geez, i’m not gonna give you shit for just holding onto me or something. do i look like some kinda virgin schoolboy to you?”

momentarily realizing he’s giving permission to let you be clingy with him too.

“really?!” the stars that formed in your eyes paired with the excited tone of voice makes his eye twitch, cursing the warmth steadily creeping up his neck in response.

“yeah, yeah, whatever. s’not a big deal. i know better places around here anyway.”

“for pachinko and dessert shops only, i’m sure.”

“hey!”

Gintoki also calls you shortcake, as a treat :3 (self-indulgent cough cough.)

a/n: i had to mention the kareshi volumes here for him, lmao. they’re too iconic to not share (shameless self-promo to go check out my kareshi translations blog to understand the context…)

taking care of him was basically your job, which in itself was already an endless hassle and a half. gathering food for him when his methods could damage the surrounding environment, finding ways to partake in entertainment or games despite the lack of choices… getting creative was the key here, which you supposed you were decent at. he hadn’t killed you out of annoyance yet, at the very least. thus, over the many, MANY years, the two of you warmed up to each other.

that shifted once he was sealed by the hero, of course.

unable to do much but hide and stay out of the line of fire, you could only worry for his life once everything was done and over with. trapped in a cave with zero possibility of leaving Ultimate Imprisonment, you wept at the sight of the once prideful dragon being reduced to a source of magicules for the surrounding forest, seeping out slowly with time.

...at least his boisterous nature hadn't fully gone away, thanks to that laugh of his echoing through the emptiness of a cave.

you refused to fully give into despair, resigning yourself to being his eyes on the outside. though you were reluctant to leave, staying would only make more trouble and possibly bring more onlookers in case anyone tried to do something with you there. so, you traveled but visited the cave often to tell him about what was going on currently. letting him know what was up to date and telling stories about all the changes happening throughout the world. because you couldn’t bear seeing him left alone for who knows how long, with nothing to occupy his time. hoping that at the very least, this would satiate his boredom in solitude.

now, you could only imagine the shock that settled in upon coming back and seeing a mere slime in front of the True Dragon.

reasonably suspicious but relenting to Veldora’s insistence on going through with the plan, you supposed it was alright to place trust in this newcomer. one who seemed to hold a dreamer’s mindset—kind and full of possibilities from his skills that would grow with time. witnessing the absorption of said slime engulfing the being you knew all your life.

therefore, you were now indebted to "Rimuru Tempest" until he found a way to release the shackles of your dragon (since when had you started calling him yours…?), staying for weeks at a time at his newfound village of goblins and direwolves that he united together.

time passes, and from observing the way he ran his growing town, overhearing many of his imaginative ideas only continued to fuel your own creative nature. (you supposed this trait came with being a product of Veldanava’s, the Creator himself).

one idea in particular being—

“oh? and what is this… manga, you speak of, Rimuru? aren’t they just stories with pictures? like those storybooks in the cities.”

“ahaha, not you too…”

“—oh, i see!” a closed fist landed on an open palm in spark of a new idea forming. “then, would i be correct in assuming that there are recipes or visuals for some of the cuisines in these stories? i would very much like to replicate them.”

“eh? why’s that your interest?”

“i am assuming that whenever Veldora may come back, he would like to try all the types of food you have already made, Rimuru, especially the desserts. it would be my pleasure in getting a head-start on your fellow cooks here before they get to give him any. also, with the way you described the types of genres, some of them seemed right up his alley.”

“ah, i remember you saying that you told him about your adventures and stories whenever you traveled.”

“correct. it sounds like something he’d… fangirl over, in your terms, right?”

“where did you even learn fangirling from…” a sweatdrop. “…fine, fine, i’ll give you copies of all the volumes i can think of whenever i have time. make sure to make some for me too though, alright?”

“of course, Rimuru.”

meanwhile, Veldora himself never caught onto you making anime-inspired food for him. why, you ask? because the first (and only) time you asked, he was distracted in talking with Ifrit, missing what you were saying specifically.

“ah, the holy sacred texts! of course dear [Name] would be interested, i wouldn’t expect anything less! perhaps they’ll be amazed by my Veldora Style Killing Arts—”

“master Veldora, if i may interrupt?”

“yes, Ifrit?”

“i’m not entirely sure, but it seemed like they were talking about you? they already left, however.”

“WH-WHAAAA?!?!”

more time passes, and before you know it, the slime you observed had risen to Demon Lord level. so when Rimuru came back to the festival in tow with an oddly handsome (and ostentatiously-dressed) man, you could only yelp in surprise when said man scooped you up in a tight bear hug and spun you around out of nowhere.

“no one dared to lay their claws on you, right?!” he grabbed you by your shoulders, before sputtering at the close proximity and averting his gaze elsewhere. “i-i mean, of course they wouldn’t! for you are my one and only soulmate, of course! GWA HAHA!”

“…and here comes his whole tsundere act again, hah… brings back memories.”

you blinked slowly in realization. “…wait, you could see me? but weren’t you in Rimuru’s stomach the whole time?”

“correct! i was able to observe through his perspective while working on getting out of Unlimited Imprisonment since he absorbed myself. oh, how joyous i was whenever he would spend time with you, getting to see your presence again! but then he would leave with other troublesome affairs to do, and i couldn’t do anything about it…” he huffed, crossing his arms over his chest while you struggled to stifle a laugh.

he’s downright ecstatic when you surprise him with the desserts from the manga he read from Rimuru in the two years he had been gone, of course.

nothing could satisfy you further than seeing the toothy grin on his face, whether as a human or dragon.

a/n: if more people like this, maybe i'll indulge more in writing for this endearing chuuni of a dragon :>