Chapter Text
"You really went overboard huh, Ryusui." Senku murmurs to himself when his taxi arrives at Ryusui's mansion. It's decorated from head to toe, with loud music blasting and bright lights coming from the balcony; a stark contrast to the surrounding buildings which are pitch black. Probably because it was 11:00 pm already.
Senku groans. He'd rather be studying or packing his suitcase than go to this party but his friends managed to convince him otherwise.
And he supposes he won't be seeing them for a while so indulging them just this once was okay.
He gets out of the taxi, and begins making his way up the hill to the front door. It was difficult to walk in the tight suit he was wearing. He rings the doorbell and waits.
"Ah, Senku!" Ryusui pulls him into the mansion. It is so crowded and loud and bright, and it takes Senku a minute to get used to it. Ryusui guides him to the top floor where he is met with some of his closest friends and Senku thinks maybe it was worth it to come after all.
"SENKU!!" Taiju is the first to meet Senku with a hug that Senku tries ducking out of but fails.
"Okay big oaf, you can let go now."
Just then, Yuzuriha hugs him from behind too. "You're not getting out of this one!"
"Common guys, let go-"
But Taiju squishes him even tighter and Senku is certain he feels his bones crack. “But you're leaving!!"
"Taiju, Yuzuriha, you're suffocating him." Tsukasa pulls them both off of Senku who gasps for air as soon as he does.
"Heh," Senku says after getting his breath back. "Breaking all my bones so I can't board the plane? Pretty effective strategy, big oaf. But I never expected it from you too Yuzuriha."
They both start profusely defending themselves while Senku continues jokingly accuses them.
"I don't know why you guys are hugging me though. This is Ryusui's party after all, he and Tsukasa are leaving too."
"Nonsense!" A very drunk Ryusui slings his arm over Senku's shoulder. "You're leaving too so we might as well combine all the parties into one."
"Seems kinda stupid to have a party when we're leaving. It's like they're celebrating that we're gon-"
"Shshshsh just have a drink."
Senku rolls his eyes "Oh you're drunk as hell. Oi Tsukasa, come take care of your idiot."
Tsukasa blushes slightly while dragging Ryusui off Senku. "He's not my idiot."
"You're travelling all the way to America on a cruise ship with that idiot."
Tsukasa opens his mouth to retort but just smiles. "Blunt as always."
Senku hums and is just about to walk off when he remembers. "Oh yeah did Gen show up?"
"We invited him but…" the smile slips off of Tsukasa's face slightly. "He's been really busy with his shows recently. I don't know if he will make it tonight."
"Oh."
"I'm sorry."
"S'alright. Not your fault- uh should he be so close to the railing?" Senku peers over Tsukasa's shoulder at Ryusui who looks like he is about to walk straight over the railing and off of the balcony.
"Ah-" Tsukasa replies as if he's seen this a million times before. "If you'll excuse me."
Senku chuckles to himself before walking off to meet the rest of his friends. Throughout the night he alternates between talking to them, drinking a little here and there and asking around for Gen. Eventually he tires himself out and finds a secluded space on the roof to take a breather.
He sits there for a while when he hears someone yelp behind him but before he can turn around, he feels something crash into him. They tumble further down the roof, almost falling off the edge.
"What the hell?!" Once he's a little more oriented he realises what hit him.
"Ow… Hello Senku-chan." Gen rubs his head and untangles himself from Senku.
"What was that for?!"
"I wanted to surprise you, but I guess I tripped and that ended up back firing."
Senku let out an exasperated sigh. "Yah thinks?" Still, he moves back to his original spot and indicates for Gen to sit with him.
"Trust you to show up late and attempt murder too. You're ten billion percent looking for attention."
Gen takes a seat beside him and looks at his shoes. "Hey I said I was Sorry."
"No you didn't."
"Didn't I?"
Senku rolls his eyes. "Did you hit your head when you fell or are you trying to manipulate me into thinking you apologised?"
"I would never~ do something like-" he lifts his head to find Senku's face inches from his own.
"W-what is it dear?"
"Are you wearing makeup?"
"A little bit, yes."
"Why?"
"I… just wanted to look nice for the party."
"Hmm." Senku moves his head back. "I think your natural face looks fine without it."
"...Is that so?"
"I guess it's just strange to see you wearing it when you don't need to."
Gen hums. “My mind has just been a bit fuzzy lately. I didn't mean to come so late by the way, I just had a-"
"Yeah, yeah I get it you're busy."
"Are you mad, Senku-chan?".
"No…Maybe." He looks up at the sky, it's cloudy so he can't see the stars. "I never see you anymore, none of us do. You almost missed this because of one of your dumb shows."
"Rude~ but I guess you have a point."
"Look of you don't wanna see us anymore because your famous or whatever you could just sa-"
"No! No." Gen waves his hands. "It's nothing like that I swear. It's just…"
Senku looks at Gen."What?"
The mentalist sighs. "It's nothing, you're right I should manage my time better.
I'm Sorry."
"Tch, you don't need to apologise."
Gen opens his mouth but closes it and nods; they sit in silence for a while.
"I think I'll go to one of your shows."
Gen blinks and whips his head around. "Eh?"
"I said I would go to one of your shows.'
"EHH!?"
"Will you shut up?" Senku sticks a finger in one of his ears. "I just thought I had never been to one of them before."
Gen raises an eyebrow. "Who are you??"
"What?"
"Senku-chan would never ask to go to one of my shows. If I wanted him to come, I would have to drag him there kicking and screaming." Gen chuckles.
"As if you're strong enough to drag me anywhere."
"As if you're strong enough to stop me dragging you anywhere."
"Heh…fair enough."
"But why would you wanna go now?"
"Well, I'm leaving soon so I might as well finally give one of your shitty shows a chance."
"Calling them shitty hurts-" Gen's eyes widen. "I'm sorry, did you say that you're leaving?"
"Yeah, that's the whole point of this party. Didn't you know?"
"I thought this party was for Ryusui-chan and Tsukasa-chan?"
Senku curses under his breath. 'Ryusui, you dumbass-' "Well, I'm also gonna be leaving soon to go to America."
"For how long?"
"Dunno, a couple years probably. I'm going there to stay with my old man and his wife and be an apprentice to an actual NASA scientist…" Senku tries to read Gen's expression. "Are you okay?"
"Of course!" Gen smiles brightly at him and Senku relaxes a little. "That sounds amazing dear. I'm so happy for you."
"Alright no need to overdo it… So can I come to one of your shows?"
"Yes! Definitely. Is tomorrow, okay? Or I guess later on today…what time is it again?"
Senku raises an eyebrow. "Didn't you just have a show yesterday, and you've got another one today?"
"That's the life of a performer dear."
"And I thought I had it bad."
"Oh, but I love performing Senku-chan. 'Lights, camera, action' is my life."
"It's your life?"
"Mhm."
Senku stares at the mentalist for a moment before standing up. "Common. Let's go back to the party."
"Aww do we have to~?"
"Yah. We can get something to eat-"
"It's okay Senku-chan, I already ate a lot earlier."
"You ate before coming to a party? Ryusui's party? When Francois is catering?" Senku furrows his eyebrows. "You're so weird."
"Hey!" Senku giggles as Gen stands up and slides down the roof."Says you." He holds his hand out to help Senku down.
"What's that supposed to mean?" He takes Gen's hand and hops down.
"Do I really need to list all the ways in which you are a weirdo?"
"Yeah, now that you brought it up."
Gen sighs. "Alright first-"
…
"And lastly you drink coffee-"
"That's not weird."
"Mixed with an energy drink. An absolute abomination."
"Hey, it was one time. It was 6 am class, what was I supposed to do?"
"Sleep the night before?"
"Do people even sleep in college?"
"Yes??"
Senku hums. They stop just before the front door to bid Ryusui a good night (or morning they couldn't tell how long the party had been going on) and walk out.
"Are you going to walk home Senku-chan?"
"Who do you think I am? I'm getting a taxi of course. Gotta walk further down though to catch it."
"Ah."
"Well, see you later then?"
"Yup!" Gen waves him off as he starts walking down the hill.
Once he's sure he's at the bottom of the hill and further still. He walks behind the mansion.
And starts throwing up.
God this was embarrassing. And rude too, this was someone's house after all.
He'd barely eaten anything, so why-
'Senku-chan is leaving.'
'Why didn't he tell me before? Does he not trust me anymore? It's your own fault dumbass for ignoring him for so long.'
'Senku-chan is leaving.'
'he's moving on, all of your friends are.'
'Senku-chan is leaving.'
'How long do I have before he's gone?'
'Senku-chan is leaving.'
'Its okay. Just calm down.'
'Senku-chan is leaving.'
'What if someone catches you out here? They'll ask questions, they'll find out-'
'Senku is leaving.'
He heaves the remainder of the small sandwich he had the night before.
He wants to cry but he doesn't think he can.
All Gen can do is slump against the wall and slide down it, all he can do is curl against it wishing it would swallow him up, all he can do is think.
And think
And think
And think
And think
And-
Suddenly he hears his phone ringing, and it snaps him out of his spiral. He fumbles for it in his pocket and almost drops it.
His hands are so damn shaky.
And they shake even more when he realises it's his manager who's calling.
For the fourth time.
Shit.
Gen scrambles to accept the call, but it stops ringing and he curses. He looks at the missed call and considers not answering it and saying he was bus-
No, that would make him even more mad.
He calls back the number and anxiously waits for it to be returned.
"Hello-"
"Why the fuck haven't you been answering my calls?"
"I'm sorry, Yamato-chan. I must not have heard the ringing because of the party an-"
"Party. What party?"
"Aha...didn't Hina-chan mention that I was going to a par-"
"I've been working my ass off trying to get you the biggest gigs of your career and you've been out partying?"
"Well, I was more meeting up with my friends who will be leaving soon for-" he hears Yamato slam his fist on something and Gen immediately clamps up.
"I don't give a shit. Fame waits for no-one kid, and if you ain't willing to give up a couple meet ups with your friends then we'll just drop you and move on to the next big thing."
"NO!" Gen clasps at his phone desperately. "No, I'm so sorry Yamato-chan. It won't happen again." And Gen isn't even lying about that.
Soon he expects he won't even have friends to spend time with instead of working. "I really do want this."
'I need this'
"You can bet your ass it's not gonna happen again. I better see you working hard later to make up for this."
Some part of Gen's brain wants to yell, 'haven't I been working hard enough!?' but he promptly tells it to shut up. "Yes Yamato-chan, goodb-"
But the call ends before he can finish.
Gen feels like he will be sick again but just sighs and smooths his hair back into place. He calls a taxi so he can go home and practice.
As he waits, he worries about if his performance will be enough later, if it'll satisfy his audience, if it'll finally satisfy Yamato, it’ll finally satisfy himself-
But then he remembers Senku will be there too and he smiles a little.
Yamato is right, Gen will have to work harder today.