Chapter Text
Senku looked at his computer screen with a slight smile. He had a new mail from Dr. X. It was a reply to his original one about why he thinks the stone sparrows were very much real and not some sort of art project.
He was waiting for a reply from his mentor for a while to see what he thought about it, so he didn't waste any time and opened the mail.
-Senku,
Just as you said, the stone sparrows are more than they seem. I've been trying to find a way to get a read on their brainwaves but as you can guess, the exterior of the stone is altering my readings. Which, is even more interesting because the stone layer shouldn't be thick enough to block the sensors. I've contacted few colleagues of mine to see deeper into this matter. We will be gathering in 2 days to discuss our respective findings. I would like you to join us as well. It would be very inelegant of me to not invite the scientists that lead us to investigate the case. As you realized, I've attached your plane ticket. I will meet you when you arrive at the airport. See you soon Dr. Senku.
Science is elegant
Dr. X-
Senku could only chuckle at the e-mail. His mentor sure loved to show off buying him a ticket without asking him and a one without a returning date, letting him know his company would be appreciated for however long he wished to stay. Hell, he was sure the whole reason he even invited was to show off his 'elegant' protege to his colleagues. Show off.
Senku didn't bother replying to the mail. He grabbed his phone to text Taiju and Yuzuriha he wouldn't be coming to school for a while and dived right back into his research.
He wouldn't allow anyone to think Xeno was bragging on baselessly about his amazing mentee.
//
"Hi Dr. Senku. How was your flight?" Greeted him a voice. He turned to see his mentor in familiar clothes.
Almost the same ones he was wearing when he first saw him. Neat as always with his hair styled and shirt ironed. His expression however, looked amazed. As if he couldn't believe his student was really here. He looked at him with stars in his eyes.
Senku smiled at him knowing that he too must be making a similar expression. "Yo Dr. Xeno. It was good enough to sleep." He said as he shaked Xeno's extended hand. "Perfect to know booking a first class wasn't the wrong choice. Now, let me take you for a proper dinner. I'm sure airplane food wasn't up to your standards."
"Sure. What are we eating?" He asked and followed Xeno into his car. "I was thinking of properly introducing you to my favorite food, cheeseburgers." Senku couldn't hold back a laugh at that. Xeno turned to look at him as if he was offended. "What? I can't believe your favorite food is cheeseburgers. You go on and on about how important health is but I guess you are an American at heart." Said Senku and laughed at his own joked while Xeno tried to keep looking offended even though it was obvious he was trying to not laugh. "Too bad I already made reservations." Xeno said and started to drive after making sure Senku put on his seat belt.
"What kind of stuck up burger place takes reservations?" Senku asked.
"A place that makes balanced and healthy burgers of course. I would never allow my pupil to eat at those greasy fast-food places."
Senku hummed. "I should take you to my favorite ramen shop when you come to Japan then." He said without thinking. Realizing his implication he turned to look out of the window to hide his face.
Xeno smiled softly. "Of course. I expect to see all of your favorite places when I come." He said. Senku turned to him with a mildly surprised face and smiled, happy to know he wasn't rejected.
The rest of the ride was finished soon and as Senku expect from someone like Xeno, the place was extravagant.
Seriously, what kind of a burger place has a waiter with a reservation list waiting at the entrance? He sighed and followed Xeno in to their table. The cheeseburgers and glasses of coke was placed on the table without them ordering anything or even being given a menu.
Senku rolled his eyes at his mentor. Was it that fun to decide things on his behalf?
"To our meeting." Said Xeno with a smile and rised his glass of coke. Senku chuckled and clinked his glass to his. "To our meeting." He repeated and started to eat. As expected it was good. He must've made an expression since Xeno was looking at him all smug. "See? This is what I mean when I say I like cheeseburgers." Senku rolled his eyes. "Fine you win old man. This is delicious." He admitted.
Xeno raised his brow. "Old man? excuse you I'm in my late twenties." Senku laughed. "Yeah late twenties as in 29. You're an old man."
Xeno smiled and leaned closer into Senku. "So you mean to imply you enjoy older mens company?" Senku sputtered and blushed. "What?? No I definitely did not imply that you crazy old man." Xeno leaned in further to push a lock of white green hair out of his face. watching him with dark black eyes. "Then are you not enjoying spending time with me?"
Senku locked his red eyes into the black ones. In a split second he decided to be truthful. "You know I do. I'm glad we can finally meet and work together." His blush spread down to his neck with the confession. Xeno smiled. "I'm glad you think the same as I do. I would've taken you with me much earlier had you been older when we met. Alas, my patience paid out."
Senku's eyes widened before he took control of his expression, trying to look uneffected as he could. "Cheesy old man." Xeno gave him a short laugh and turned back to eating.
When they arrived at his mentor's house it was almost midnight. Xeno took his time driving around Senku to show him the night view of America. To Senku's surprise they ended up not talking much about science and more about personal things they usually didn't when mailing each other. It was good to know his mentor was interested in him as a person as well.
Xeno's house was extravagant as expected of him. Neat and modern. When he was about to step in with his shoes he saw Xeno removing his and followed the action. "Ever since talking to you I've been learning more about Japanese customs. I find it elegant to not bring dirt from outside into our houses. A very neat practice." He explained without being asked.
Senku felt more surprised than he should've been. His mentor had learned Japanese for him so what was adopting a few customs? Still, it made him happy.
"You must be tired after that long flight so I won't keep you much." Xeno said and led him into a room. "I prepared the guest room for your stay. You can use the conjoined bathroom. Please use anything you want in the house freely as well. My room is down the hall if you need me." Senku nodded. "I'll see you in the morning then. Good night Dr. Xeno."
He smiled at him softly. "Good night Dr. Senku." He said and walked away. Senku quickly took a shower and changed into comfortable clothes to finally rest.
//
Senku looked at the clock when he woke up. Surprised to see it was already 12 a.m. The jet lag must've made him more tired than he thought.
He walked into the kitchen to see Xeno drinking coffee while writing down something on a notebook. He was dressed in another white button up and a form fitting black coat. His black tie was accompanied by the choker like accessories and Senku was still in his pajamas that he didn't bother changing out of. "Hey." He greeted.
Xeno seemed like he wasn't aware he was here and simply stared at him for a while before smiling. "You must've been tired." He said and stood up to place an egg toast on the table. "Here, have some food."
Senku sat down and took a bite. "It's good. Did you make it yourself?" He asked in between bites. Xeno seemed satisfied. "Of course. I'm glad it's to your liking. I was thinking of preparing a Japanese breakfast but I guessed you'd be more pleased to try something new."
Senku couldn't help but to smile. His mentor was thoughtful of him as always. "What are you working on?" He asked.
"Ah this? Well, it's supposed to be confidential but I believe there won't be any problem telling you. You see I've been working on a new weaponry project for U.S. Military. It's a new sniper rifle with affordable materials and much easier to assemble. What do you think about it?" He explained, sitting next to him and pushing the notebook in his view.
Senku hummed. "Well, a polymer frame would be ideal for affordability but I'm not sure what could make the assembling process faster." Xeno smiled and put a hand on his shoulder as he spoke. "Assembly is something we'll have my dear friend Stanley to test." At Senku's look he explained further. "He's a military officer and a sniper specialist also, my best friend. I would love for three of us to work together to design an elegant weapon."
Senku nodded. "If he is Dr. X's friend then I'd love to work with him." Xeno smiled brightly at his answer before diving deeper into his project with Senku.
2 hours later when they were still talking at the kitchen table Xeno looked at his watch. "Senku, it's the time we make our way to meet my colleagues." He said.
"Sure I'll go get ready." Senku replied and walked off into his room. He changed into a white turtleneck quickly and placed his laptop in a bag.
Xeno was waiting for him at the entrance with another black coat of his in his hands which were now covered with white gloves. Xeno took his bag from him and layed the coat over his shoulders. "It's for you." He said, looking at Senku expectantly.
Senku put on the coat and unsurprisingly, it wasn't form fitting as it looked on Xeno and long enough to reach his ankles when Xeno's was only reaching his calfs. Damn the 1.80 cm American.
"As expected, it suits you." Said Xeno with a look in his eyes and held him from the shoulders to turn him to face the mirror. Senku couldn't deny he looked good. Especially when he could see how Xeno looked at him from the mirrors reflection.
They arrived at the venue soon enough. It was a nicely decorated building with a big garden and tables all around. "Is there another event?" Senku asked. It was strange to place tables and seats on the garden when they'd be having the meeting inside.
Xeno placed an arm around his shoulder. "Yes. An event we will be attending when our meeting is over. The Milliary is interested in knowing more about petrification and if it would affect humans."
Senku made a face. "And why would they allow a Japanese to attend?" Xeno smiled at him. "Because I asked them to." Senku smirked. Must be the job of the Stanley person he heard about.
They walked into a room clustered with papers and laptops. The few people in it took notice of them and came over. "Ah! Dr. Xeno. Good evening. Is that your mentee?" An older man asked while the other scientists settled with simple greetings. Xeno smiled and pulled Senku in front of him and took a hold on his shoulders.
"Yes as I said he's the one who discovered about the depth of the petrified sparrows. My mentee Ishigami Senku." He introduced them to him in a proud voice. Then turned to him to introduce everyone else.
After Xeno was finally done they took a seat and listened to others findings. Unsurprisingly, there wasn't much. Xeno wasn't joking all those times when he called his colleagues supbar.
Xeno must've be thinking the same so they turned to each other to talk about it instead. Soon enough all the eyes were on their discussion while they were too absorbed into their talk.
When the meeting was concluded they learned two important things. First and the most important was that the sparrows were conscious. Seeing the brainwaves of the bird on the screen made Senku sweat in excitement.
The second was that the stone was indeed stone despite their thoughts. Nothing was different about it yet it was definitely not a usual stone. Maybe something of it was different in a way any of their devices couldn't detect. The things he learnt from this meeting only got him more and more eager to see what it really was.
They said their goodbyes to the scientists before heading out to the garden. It was already filled with people. Xeno escorted him to a table with several military officials sitting. A man with blond hair and a purple lipstick turned to them as he took out a cigarette from his pocket and lit it. "Xeno." He simply greeted.
Xeno walked over and snatched the cigarette from his lips to snuff it. "Stanley. I can't have you smoking around my protege. The toxic fumes will get to his lunges." The man, Stanley, huffed in annoyance before turning his amber eyes to his crimson ones. He stood up and reached out a hand towards to him. "Stanley Snyder. Special forces officer. Nice to meet you." He introduced himself.
Senku didn't break the eye contact with the much taller man and shook his hand. "Ishigami Senku. Nice to meet you too." Stanley gave him a small smirk. He let go of his hand with another squeeze and sat back down. Senku went around the table to sit next to Xeno.
"Stan, you won't believe what we found out-" Xeno started to talk as he put down the petrified sparrow on the table, only to be interrupted. "There are people around." Stanley reminded.
The scientists shrugged his shoulders. "The public statement is scheduled for tomorrow. It doesn't matter if they hear it a day earlier." He opened the recordings on his tablet to show the readings to Stanley. "This stone sparrow is alive and conscious. However they lose their consciousness as time goes on."
Stanley's hand went to his pocket to take out a cigarette. Xeno was too busy looking at the tablet to realize. "So we have a chance as long as we stay conscious." He lit his cigarette.
Xeno was about to snatch it away from him again before Senku put a hand on his arm. "I don't mind." He said. Xeno huffed and crossed his arms. "You should." Stanley chuckled at the exchanged. So this was Ishigami Senku in flesh.
His thoughts were cut off by the sudden screams and the green light coming on the horizon. Shit. This must be it. "Whatever you do do not lose consciousness!" He ordered. He turned around and rushed to Xeno's side.
Xeno quickly wrapped his arms around Senku and pulled them down just in time for Stanley to put a hand on his shoulder before the green light reached them.