Erosion [Dr.Stone] ☐

[5] Penguin Huddle

It was now winter and you didn't have much to do since it's cold. "Senku!" You whined, "How many more weeks do we have to suffer through until spring?"

"About 4 more weeks, I'm 10 billion percent sure of it." Senku answered, "Why are you complaining about it? You've toughed it out for 2 years, another won't hurt you."

"But I didn't have anyone to complain to for 2 years and now you're here so I can complain to you." Senku rolled his eyes and continued to experiment. You peeped your head outside and saw the dark grey clouds consuming the pinkish-orange sky.

"I think it's going to snow Senku." You said still looking at the sky.

Senku turned his head towards where you were looking at, "Seems like it."

"I'll move the excess beds that I've made together so we can conserve heat and have more room for when we sleep." You left the lab and made your way across another bridge to get to the bedroom.

Senku only nodded his head as he continued to experiment around not getting much luck.

A few hours passed by and nighttime soon came, but not a single star was visible in the sky due to a blizzard currently terrorizing the land. You and Senku blocked off any large openings in the bedroom to try and trap the heat. Senku turned to you, "Are winters always this bad?"

"Not usually, this is actually the worst blizzard I've seen. I guess weather patterns do change over the years.."

There was a silence, it lasted for quite a while. The only light in the room was a very small, but controllable fire in the far corner. You and Senku were in warm clothing sitting on the bed. You wrapped an extra animal pelt around your shoulders as you listened to the wind howling outside of the room. After a while you looked over at Senku, he had his hand touched to his chin and his eyebrows were pushed together making wrinkles on his face. He must be in deep thought I wonder what he's thinking of.

You decided that you should speak up to distract yourself from the howling winds outside. "Senku, what are you thinking about?"

"Huh?" Senku snapped out of his dazed state, "Since I can't be in the lab as of right now I'm thinking of reasons as to why humanity was petrified."

"So like theories?"

"Yes." You had an idea but felt as if it was a bit too stupid to say anything so you just turned your head away from Senku. Senku felt confused as to why you turned your head from him, it kind of hurt. "You okay Y/n?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Your lying." He stated.

"Wha- No I'm not." Your face got red because you were nervous.

Senku poked your cheek with his finger, "I can see right through you Y/n. Your face is all red. Tell me what's wrong." Senku didn't know why he was prying so much, but you were his friend and he felt a need to make sure you're alright. Mental stability is important for a human being, especially social interaction.

"I have a small theory but it's probably stupid."

"Well, we have a whole lot of time to kill. Other people's ideas are good too, it can broaden someone's viewpoint." Senku said as he cracked his neck.

"Well, I'm thinking the culprit of the petrification is some sort of A.I. or robot someone made or programmed."

"An A.I.? What makes you think that."

"Well if it was just a beam of light that turned things to stone, why hasn't all life on earth been petrified? It started with the birds, which was probably some weird test to see if the light worked. And then it targeted people, just us. It didn't even matter if you were inside a building unable to see the light, it still petrified you. I think it was some program that targeted the birds and then humans. Maybe they targeted the birds first because they share some kind of genetic trait or genealogy with humans.."

Senku stared at you in shock. He hadn't even thought of some computer program being the culprit. He ruffled your hair, "It's a good start but we won't know for sure until we can make scientific items to test your theory."

You yawned and smiled at him, it felt nice to be acknowledged and praised. Especially since Senku spends most of his time cooped up in the lab. Senku stood up and walked to the small fire to put it out. "We should go to bed... It would be illogical to stay up the entire storm. Sleep is important for the body anyways."

You rubbed your eye and laid down on the bed. Senku lied down next but not too close to you. "Good night Senku."

"Good night Y/n."

You tried to slow your breathing to help you fall asleep faster, but you couldn't help but stay awake. Not only was Senku stuck on your mind but you were also getting cold. You didn't want to bother Senku about it, since like he said, sleep is important. You shivered a bit and just tried to tough it out.

Senku himself couldn't sleep either. His mind was still thinking about the theory you came up with. Sure there were a plethora amount of ideas, but that one seemed to be logical. Senku smiled knowing he'd have a great partner for rebuilding civilization with. He snapped out of his thoughts when he felt small vibrations on the bed. Senku quickly realized that you were shivering a bit.

Without saying anything Senku spooned you. "S-Senku what are you doing?" You were blushing very hard. Senku was too but you couldn't see it from the darkness.

"You were cold and this just seemed like the most logical way to keep you and I warm. We can use our body heat."

"So kind of like what penguins do?"

"10 billion percent."

After a while, you just leaned more into his touch and warmth as he did with you. Maybe winters weren't so bad after all.