Black Nightshades

Chapter 2 • Soulmates Defined

Senku hated the rain. For a reason of course. That day was when his life had changed...

Lying in bed, he tried his best to ignore the drops of water against the ground. He did everything in his power to avoid looking at it or hearing the sound of it—drawing the curtains and closing the windows tight— but somehow it just made its presence known. Things which you want to avoid always had a tendency of catching your attention the most.

Instead, he focused on the flowers placed on the bedside table. Pink carnations. He had to chuckle. His mother got flowers for him everyday. He tried telling her that it was a waste of time but she insisted. Every single day she changed them. According to her, every flower had some sort of meaning. Even th pink carnations did. But when she explained what they meant he hadn't paid any any attention. He never understood flowers anyway so he didn't bother with that.

"Senku?" His mother peeked called out from behind the door.

"Yeah?"

"You're still awake? It's midnight! What if you're late for school?" She asked walking over and sitting on the edge of the bed.

"I won't be mom. You know I can wake up early!"

"Haha, alright," she said ruffling his hair. (Dunno how that works but just go with it) "Now go to sleep. Good night."

"Night!" After which she turned the light off and went away closing the door. Engulfed in silence, he hoped that rain stops before school next day. He would not be able to stand the water droplets on his skin. Despite the rain, Senku was quite happy because he had talked to his soulmate. Just thinking about them brought him this weird feeling. It was ridiculously illogical, talking to someone you didn't even know and yet feeling happy, but it was true. He was happy. With that thought came hundreds of questions. The curiosity of science was nothing compared to this.

He knew he had to deal with the whole soulmates thing one or the other day, but this wasn't how he had imagined it to be. Slowly thinking about them he fell asleep.

Cloud nine was an understatement. Gen was on cloud ninety nine if possible. After years of failed attempts at talking to his soulmate they had finally replied. The loud beating of his heart could be heard from a mile away.

Gen's gaze wandered out to the pouring skies. Soulmates, the beautiful bonding of two beings who are fated to fall. When time brings them together their heartbeats align and beat as one...

That was just what Gen wanted.

He wanted this to be the start of something beautiful.

Now that he had had his first ever conversation with them, he wanted to savour it. What little sleep was in his eyes left it. He didn't want to sleep but he also knew he would run late tomorrow. Did he care? Nope. Not at all.

With the low thudding of rain in his ears, he plugged in his headphones and put on his playlist. Opening Pinterest he saw his feed full of magic tricks and fan arts. He was too into his soulmate to care about that. Searching 'soulmates,' he waited for pins to show up. A bunch of images of people posing with their partner is what came up. He wasn't jealous. He knew he would find his soon enough. That was when a particular post containing text caught his eyes.

After a while when he checked the time he was shocked to see it was 3:17 in the morning. Gen should really go to sleep now or he won't be able to make it in time for school. He planned to  tell them tomorrow but it wouldn't work if he slept through the day. Giving a tired sigh, with a hint of happiness mixed, he went to bed.

Gen had expected to wake up to the shrill ringing of his alarm. But his expectations were not met. All he could do was yell when he found out the time was 8:17 am. He was going to be late, again. But it had come to a point where everyone knew that he would be late. He ran to the bathroom and did the necessary. With a toast sticking out of his mouth, one hand holding his bag he tried to put shoes on. About halfway through the street is when he remembered he forgot to lock the door. He rushed back to school after doing so.

Reaching his school a little late, he hurried to his first class, Geography.

"Asagiri, you're late again!" His teacher said as he stood at the doorway, panting as the entire class watched.

"Sorry, Sensei. I slept late so I woke up late and then I-!"

"Yeah, now go take your place." The teacher said turning to the book she was holding.

"...sorry."

He didn't really listen. His mind wandered to the thing he was about to tell his soulmate. It wasn't much but he spent more than three hours for it and risked being late to his classes. Lunch was his chance, that is, assuming they weren't at the science lab. But either way, he would tell them about soulmates.

It was lunch. Senku's day so far was alright but nothing had actually happened. In Chemistry class, his classmates were still on the topic of moles but he was way ahead of them so he didn't bother listening. He would never admit it but the conversation from the previous day had occupied his mind for the most part of the day.

The sky was as clear as a crystal with an occasional cloud. Senku was glad the rain had stopped. He was currently having lunch on the park bench in front of a huge tree. Taiju was with Yuzuriha. Which was why he was sitting alone. Looking down at his phone he saw a text message from his mother. Clicking it open he read:

Mom: hey hope you're having a good day now to the point I have this delivery to make to this customer who lives quite a distance from here so would you mind taking over the shop just for the evening?
Mom: that is if you don't have any homework

Senku's mother owned a flower shop. He stopped there frequently to what he claimed as 'helping' his mother. When in reality he just wanted to spend his time reading there. Conveniently, there was a library nearby. Occasionally being asked to converse with familiar people and being asked to help around the shop, but he didn't mind that.

He didn't really understand flowers, but he pretended to be interested in it just so his mother wouldn't feel bad. He obviously felt guilty about that but he didn't want to tell his mother to stop talking about them. After all she put up with his obsession with Science. This was the least he could do for her. He quickly replied back.

Senku: sure

Mom: thanks Senku want chocolates?

Senku: no

Mom: haha okay be good when I'm gone

After stuffing his phone in he was surprised to find his skin prickle bringing him a message from his soulmate.

Soulmate: hiiii soulmate chan

Senku was about to have lunch but surely it wouldn't hurt to reply just once more?

Senku: hi
Soulmate: what are you doing
Senku: its lunch? So of course I'm having lunch
Soulmate: oh okay what are you having?
Senku: Rice with some weird thing my mom made
Soulmate: also
Senku: also what
Soulmate: do you know soulmates can be defined scientifically?

That was all that was needed to grab his entire attention.

Senku: how
Soulmate: ahh I knew you would want to know this
Senku: just tell already
Soulmate: no~
Senku: do you want me to pour nitric acid on your face?
Soulmate: okay okay calm down soulmate chan anger isn't good for your health
Senku: shut up
Soulmate: :) anyway ............
Senku: I'm not kidding about the nitric acid part you know?!
Soulmate: -_- so maybe when we were created our atoms were next to each other and now it wants to keep coming back together or something idk*
(*Short for- I don't know)

It did make sense.