Doctor In The House (Dr. STONE Fanfiction)

A Flimsy Alliance

It had been minutes since the first light was lit up in the dark night of Stone World. Senku had called Chrome, Kohaku and Suika to join him inside the storeroom where he told them everything, including his encounter with Tsukasa and the circumstances that led them up to this point. Besides the exhausted brothers sleeping near the power generator, Gen and Rikona were hanging around a nearby tree sitting next to each other.

"Should I sew you a pair of slippers?" she suddenly asked, as her curious gaze went to his bare feet.

Gen turned to her with a closed-eye smile. "But I don't like wearing anything on my feet." he said in a sing-song voice. "So you don't have to trouble yourself, Ri-chan."

"Whatever floats your boat, then." she shrugged. "Guess the least I'll do is to just make sure you don't have a blister."

His playful smile was replaced by one of sincerity and warmth. "But you'll always be there to help me in need, right? Like you always did."

Rikona, too, had the same smile. She leaned into him and placed her head on his shoulder. Gen didn't seem to mind at all, as if he'd been used to it. She soon broke that silence with a soft sigh before asking, "Do you remember we used to play in the park when we were young?"

"Of course." answered Gen, giving her a gentle nod.

"It felt like it was so long ago." she remarked. "How long has it been since we last hang out?"

"I believe it was before you went to university, and I went on to work my way for a full-time career as a mentalist." he answered. "Honestly, I thought it was pretty interesting how we came from two completely different worlds, and yet, we became friends instantly."

Rikona chuckled at this. "We were so young and didn't have a care in the world of what everyone else thought. Look where were are now, after being apart from each other for so many years. I guess meeting you when you got the blisters while playing in the park was truly meant to be."

Gen suddenly flinched and then gave her a pout. "Did you have to ruin the moment?" he whined. "I thought it was pretty cool until you had to bring up that embarrassing memory."

The blue-eyed lass removed her head from his shoulder and laughed, which, of course, didn't help much with his sulking. "What can I say? You were a pretty clumsy kid back then. I mean, you literally tripped on thin air and got bruised up all over. And after patching you up, you'd somehow have a magic trick under your sleeves as if you were trying to repay me."

The mentalist could only heave a sigh, but even he chuckled at the embarrassing, yet fond, memory. "I still remember those Doraemon and Crayon Shin-chan plasters. You would also accompany me wherever I went because you were so worried I'd get hurt again. Ever since then, we kept meeting each other in the same park before you invited me to your family garden. You have no idea how terrified I was to meet your father and grandfather. But luckily your grandmother was there, so it was less terrifying."

"It is called parental protectiveness." she shrugged before getting up on her feet. "You can't expect a parent to not be protective over their daughter who suddenly brought over a male friend."

Just as the mentalist mirrored her action, Chrome suddenly emerged from the storeroom entrance and shouted, "Hey! Did you hear that, Gen? You saw it too, didn't you? Electricity! That powerful light of science! I don't care who wins or loses. Tsukasa versus Senku. Who cares if either Tsukasa or Senku has the edge? The Kingdom of Science is obviously more fun!"

But the mentalist had a closed-eye smile plastered on his face when he turned around. "The youngsters are so passionate." he remarked. "But what a shame. I don't have such passion, Chrome-chan. I'm the world's most shallow man. I only care about my personal interest." With that, he walked away with a concerned Rikona trailing behind, completely oblivious to Senku holding back an enraged Kohaku who was very close to charging up to him with the knife in her hand.