My Own Science (Dr Stone Senku x reader)

Penpals

For a long while, this was the type of conversations you'd have with him: just telling him about your crazy adventures with Senku and him having fun reading your stories. And sometimes, he'd tell you about his wacky colleagues too. It was nice and fun.
Then one day, he stopped replying. You were used to wait a couple of days, maybe a week for his response, but not four whole months. When you saw Senku checking his phone for the third time today and frowning, you figured Xeno wasn't replying to him either. You sent him several emails telling him that you hoped he was okay and doing well, but still no reply. You were getting worried. Did something happen? What if he got tired of talking to kids?!
Just when you started your internal freak out, he replied:

'Dear (L/n), I apologize for not reaching out to you for these past couple of months. I appreciate your concerns and assure you that I am fine. If not a bit ticked off; You see, in a meetings with my higher ups, I've proposed to take our newest project to a new direction, something that could've greatly advance our researches and could've been very beneficial for future projects. Yet, despite all my proof of the contrary, they told me it would be "too risky" and that "the public liked our initial plan better and they didn't want to disappoint them". Ridiculous. Keeping up their image at the cost of precious scientific advancements, all so they can keep getting funded. It is in those times that I'm reminded that NASA isn't the elegant place I first believed it to be. During these four months I've been working in this project, the fact that my heart wasn't in it has made me a bit frustrated and so it was difficult to focus. I have sadly still not finished but have allowed myself a short break and will be able to reply sooner in the future. Again, I apologize for worrying you and hope you are doing okay as well. Warm wishes, Dr. Xeno.'

Reading his message, you could tell he was still worked up by all of this. You could relate to being forced to do something you don't want to, especially when it's in the realm of something you usually love. The times your parents forced you to enter stupid competitions when you were younger popped in your mind, forcing you to play a piece exactly right and not putting anything extra into it or else it'd be labelled as "bad" and sometimes "tasteless" (you huffed just thinking about it). You checked the world clock on your phone to see what time it was in America. Because where you were, it was the middle of the afternoon, and you have yet to get used to the different time zones.
'2:30am.'
You felt your chest tightening with an expression of sad empathy on your face. You quickly searched through your computer and found a track you finished a while back. You attached it to your email and typed:
'Xeno, thank you for telling me about this. I know how it feels when the thing you love becomes bitter, I hope you feel better soon. I won't take too much of your time, you must be tired. I'll just give you this track I made (I recorded it in an empty parking lot), I hope you like it. Your friend, (Y/n).' you stopped, realizing you just wrote your first name. Blushing, you kept typing. 'P.S.: just (Y/n) is fine.'

Meanwhile, in his dark apartment only lighted by his computer screen, Xeno read your email and opened your track. It started with just the muffled sounds of the city in the background, then the music started, the reverberation of the instruments plus the slow tempo made it all very calming. It was very lofi-ish, but somehow, Xeno could tell you made this music with a mindset similar to his at the moment, maybe even the exact same. It was sad yet serene. He leaned back and listened, drinking his warm coffee with his eyes closed.
It was the first time he listened to your music, and he realized: you were good, really good.
'Dear (Y/n), thank you.'

"Did he tell you about it?" you looked at Senku.
"Nope." he casually said. "He just replied to me as if nothing happened and I was just glad he didn't ghost me."
You looked down for a moment, unwillingly feeling happy that he opened up only to you that day. You shook off that feeling and kept going.