Constant Variable (Senku x Reader)

16.1: A Tale For The Ages

Loud protests came from Byakuya as he exclaimed, "I can't swim in this thing!"

Despite that, the man was grateful for all that his son did when he remembered the effort and hard work the young boy put into ensuring his father's dream would come true. And, it paid off later on when Byakuya cleared the clothed swimming test with ease.

Later on, during his interview after the swimming test, one of the JAXA's higher-ups asked. "He made that crazy suit himself? In fifth grade? So was it really useful?"

"Of course not," Byakuya answered honestly.

"I figured," The same interviewer responded.

There was a moment of silence before Byakuya spoke up, his voice filled with pride as he spoke about his son, "Though...Senku made it just for me. I had to swim in it, even if it killed me. In the end, I managed to make it through the clothed swimming test, and I made it here to the interview. I'm going to become an astronaut and go into space, no matter what. And I'm going to work for science. That's the only way I can repay Senku."

Time skipped

The sound of the door unlocking could be heard as Byakuya entered the apartment. Closing the door behind him, the man removed his shoes when he noticed an unfamiliar pair sitting next to his son's own pair.

Furrowing his brows in confusion, he called out, "Senku?"

However, he received no reply and frowning, he made his way to his son's room, thinking that he might be caught up in one of his experiments to have not heard him. As he neared the room, he could hear two voices – one that belonged to Senku and the other, a lighter and higher pitch, that he never heard before.

Stopping in front of the slightly ajar door, Byakuya remained silent so he wouldn't alert the occupants in the room to his presence and observed what was going on in the room.

His eyes widened when he saw a (h/c)-haired girl, about the same age as Senku, holding up a chopstick with what looked like to be ramen noodles over the bowl, almost poking his eyes out as she shoved the utensil into his son's face.

"Come on, Senku! You need to eat!" The girl nagged the other, (e/c) eyes narrowed into a small glare. "Your experiments can wait!"

Senku returned the stare with one of his own, lips pulled down into an annoyed frown as he paused in his tinkering, "I told you already to stop bothering me when I'm working on my stuff. Go away, (Name). You're disturbing me."

With that, he returned to his work. (Name), whom Byakuya now know the girl as, wilted immediately like a dying flower that was denied sunshine. The hand that was holding the chopsticks lowered as her gaze dropped to the floor and from his angle, he could see the first telltale of tears as those (e/c) eyes became glossy.

Wordlessly, the girl placed the bowl of ramen onto the desk before gathering her stuff and headed for the door, causing the older man to panic as he moved away but was stopped in his track when he heard the (h/c)-haired girl spoke up.

He couldn't see her expression, but he could hear the sadness in her voice as she said in a soft tone, "Sorry for disturbing you, I just wanted to make sure that you won't go hungry since you haven't eaten all morning."

There was a pause as though she seemed to be waiting for a reply but when she got none, she let out a small, resigned sigh, "I'll put the ramen in the fridge so when you're done and still want to eat, you can just heat it over the stove. I'll take my leave now. See you in class tomorrow, Senku."