She got out the river, the sound of water dripping into one as dirt attached at her wet feet. She grabbed the coat that was tied to a tree to prevent the monkeys from stealing it again. She walked back, and began to slowly place it back on. The coat was significantly bigger due to not being hers and rather Senku's coat.

The male's coat dangle low from her arms, showing part of her butt. Her long hair placed in front of her body all huddle on her right side.

Taiga kneeled down and gave a final loving touch to the water. She stared at the rings that swam away from her touch as her fingers were submerged still underwater.

She couldn't avoid but think how water was so particular, gentle and moldeable. It's touch's sensation of cleanse sculptured into anything, so transitional that the wind spoke to it to leave and fly. So harsh that it became bitter, pure white cold from some cotton ball that once floated with ease.

Yet, it was all now huddled together in one place touching her hand. It's dancing spirals swimming away.

She moved her hand again, repeating her actions of observing with certain longing from her heart.

Her pale back was uncover by his coat that fell down her shoulders stopping at her elbow joint.

She stared at the reflection that held a emotionless imperfect girl.

She smiled with genuine happiness at the reflection, cheering herself up like she tried to do with others.

Her eyes dragged it's way to the purple scar she had. Her ugly scar that was on her left side of her back that reminded her of the malice in the world. Her smiled faded slightly. Her hands touched the dead like skin of the scar, her fingers roaming on her damaged skin.

She gave off a small smile at her reflection accepting it. Even though she profoundly knew how ugly it looked on her imperfect body.

Footsteps crackle the dried leaves and she turned around quickly. Her eyes landing on a puzzled boy. The only male in the earth.

She blushed and placed his coat tightly around her body covering her most important parts. She then raised the coat and began to tie it around her waist.

He had his eyes closed. He held a hand up rejecting the view, the other hand on his face as if he wanted to face palm and hide his red face. He seem to be struggling as he gritted his teeth as if he couldn't speak. Clearly seeking words.

"Aurgg. Why are you naked!" He yelled out

Taiga smiled. He clearly wasn't thinking. Senku would be logical and less emotionless, and this cute reaction made her happy.

"I showered. I just finished and I was putting the clothes on" she calmly explain "you can open your eyes cute scientist"

He did and his blush diminished but remained lightly, almost not visible. "I didn't expect that. Even though we are in the stone world. It caught me off guard."

"So you do give reactions to this stuff" she dorkily smiled.

"There is no point in covering or not."

"Weeell~. Your body doesn't say so" she said in a soft mocking voice imitating his words he had said to her the night she went crazy.

He sighed and walked towards her. "We can gather this it will be of good utility."

"Yes captain" she took her shorts and placed them, and then she picked the ends of the coat and dug it into the rope, covering herself but making it shorter to avoid getting it wet. "I won't forget this conversations. It is delayed! Not ignored!" She yelled as she held her pointer finger up.

"Fine" he calmly said as he was concentrated picking up stuff from the shallow part of the river.

That night at their fire place they sat in front of each other.

"That was a cute reaction"

"What reaction?" He asked as if he didn't know what she was referring to.

"At the river. When you got all fluster and stuff"

"I wouldn't find it interesting. It was a likely reaction from anyone who encounters a naked human of the opposite sex"

"But you're not anyone. You're Senku Ishigami. The focused scientist" she said with some dramatic moves.

"I am" he smirked slightly "I just. Reacted according to the situation." He responded with absolute calm.

She eyed him and he knew she was questioning the same question he was doing to himself.

Didn't he not care if people were cover or not, especially if it was with someone you had already seen naked?

It caught him off guard. That is all. His mind moved on reluctantly from question.

She walked over and sat next to him. "Tell me"

He looked over at the short girl.

"Tell me something" she smiled and it warmed his heart like the times he accomplished a science experiment with success.

"Hydrogen peroxide..." he began his science lectures that didn't bored Taiga out. It did confuse her a lot. She didn't even get what he was speaking about most of the time. But she was always there to listen to him, and him to stare at her bewildered face and to answer her questions.

On the evening of the next day as he was awaiting the wine he had placed to distill, he heard a chipmunk speak.

"Can I?" She asked as her hand hover aboved his tall hair.

"Huh" he questioned her request he could not understand.

"C-can I" she looked away for a moment, clearly shy at her own request "...touch your hair?"

"...Go ahead" he closed his eyes for a moment as he awaited her touch, and he began to feel her hands run through his hair. Ruffling it in a gentle manner, making it messy and causing some strands to fall down.

He wondered about her curiosity and the reason behind her actions, but he liked to encourage the tigress to get comfortable with him. She had won his friendship, and as a scientist he can comprehend the desire that derived from the implacable curiosity if you do not fulfill it.

"Your hair is weird" She mumbled

A small red tick off vein appeared in Senku's forehead as he kept his eyes close. "I don't understand your curiosity in it."

"I have never seen hair standing up against gravity for so long. Without even gel. It is clearly not like any other, lettuce"

"Good observation bubble head. My hair is distinct beginning with its uncommon color that wasn't possible to inherit back then. Gre-"

"That's your natural color?" She exclaimed as she leaned forward to look at his expression.

"Yes. When I was young, I also got interested in my hair. I wondered what kind of material it had causing it to be different and resistant against gravity."

"Wow" she curled a strand of his hair around her finger like she did to her hair. She stared at its green parts "what did you find out captain?"

"I had to learned the how color is obtained in this world, DNA, and gravity of course." He touched his front bangs rubbing its hair "the color was inherited by my past family. The only difference was that a mutation caused my hair to have less mass which provides more volume depending on the conditions."

She didn't respond, but he knew she was listening even when she didn't say something back. He looked back to see her slight confused face that was concentrated on his hair. She kept touching his hair.

"We got work to do" he looked ahead.

"Yes captain" she smiled and went to her tasks.

They usually worked when night came too, but it wasn't always that way. They sat in their place. In front of each other or beside each other usually.

The light emitted from the fireplace gave off warmth too. It's vibrant colors fazing the eyes of anyone who stared at it. Yellow, orange, red-orange.

D a n g e r o u s,  C o n t a g i o u s, 
B e a u t i f u l,  S p o n t a n e o u s .

The four words she wrote in the ground with dirt and a stick. Senku sat in the log beside her. Staring at her doodle drawings.

"What are you writing about?" He asked as he stared at the English words.

"Fire"

"Dangerous. Contagious. Beautiful. Spontaneous" he recited "it is accurate"

She nodded, and she turned to look at Senku with a gentle smile that caused him to always smile back. In their fond way.

He had learned some words in English with her help. She had been teaching him words in Spanish and English and with his brilliant mind he was learning at a fast pase, yet his pronunciation was the most difficult for him. On the other hand, Taiga was learning Japanese more fluently as she spent time with him, considering making phrases the most difficult orally.

The tigress kept drawing and scratching off the little drafts, her knees up on her chest as she looked below to see where her 'modern brown pencil' went.

Senku yawned and he ran a hand over his face. He shrugged looking towards their room with exhaustion. "I'm more exhausted than expected" he looked over at Taiga "We should get to bed now"

She looked over with a small surprise look. Ten billion percent faked but smooth. "ay carai" She said as she played with the stick on her hand and stopped, looking at him.

"Without even a drink of wine to gain courage?" She asked in a innocent flirty tone. She looked at him with a silly flirty look of that of a girl genuinely in love that knew his real intention of words.

He could have taken the route of a witty remark or his obvious feelings of calmness due to being subjected to it before since he was getting accustom, but he couldn't avoid to chuckle at her insistence on flirting with him in a playful way. He stood up. "You ten billion percent know what I am saying"

She chuckled with a small smirk on her face. She then stared at his back, his surprising muscular back considering his thinness.

"If I got you to bed" he turned his head back to look at Taiga "that drink of wine wouldn't do you much of help" he smirked-smile.

A similar one of that fond kind of smile, but the one he gave off was one of absolute victory. She immediately looked back at him. Surprised at his words.

She then evaded his look. Her cheeks redden at his eyes that preyed at her. She bit her lip subtly in shyness.

"Finally. I got you back" he rubbed his hair and yawned.

She faintly chuckled shaking off his flirty look he had given seconds ago. "Why don't you test it out then?" She murmured out in a decent voice that got softer as she spoke.

"I'm not that shy" she shyly pouted as she said that in a almost inaudible volume of voice. Shyness within her sentence.

He was puzzled as he looked at the embarrassed mess evading his look that had blurted those words. He rubbed his hair more getting flustered as well. A faint blush on his cheeks.

"Come on let's go to-" he thought of his words and rephrased "let's go"

She grabbed the bucket and turned off the fire with the splash of water.

She then entered their room and flopped down beside him. Grabbing into his coat.

"You have your own bed" snarkily said.

She didn't respond and he didn't question anymore. He just allowed that to be as long as she could gain sleep without crying, and felt comfortable and happy around.

The tigress and the genius were got along well, and everyday they got closer to each other at their slow pace and own way. Their friendship grew steady and in that there's always black tiles within the white.

"Hold it well! Make sure to place it down when you can't hold it anymore." he said as he peeked from the side as his hands whitened at the weight of the heavy enormous pot full of their precious wine.

She reaccommodated her position to get a better hold of the big pot, but in a second she felt it loose and the pot tumbled side to side.  She backed away as a reflex after the pot hit the ground. She was uncertain of what to do.

Her hands went after it afterwards to steady it, realizing what was happening.

The pot steadied and she began to breath again thankful that it hadn't dropped all their wine or broken as she kneeled down at the aching pain of her feet.

"I told you to put it down whenever you could not hold it anymore!" He sternly yelled.

She looked up at the big figure that stood with frustration in his face. Clearly blaming her for the pot accident. Yet, they had both let loose at the same time making the pot fall straight down.

She stopped moving as she was kneeled down. She analyzed his angry look, and her puzzled face evaporated slowly to emotionless. It was her cold look that assured him ten billion percent again of her dangerous nature.

Her eyes pierced through him as if she was searching something in his crimson ones. Silence gave the tigress time to think and he couldn't avoid but to be threatened by the thought of it.

"Sorry," Senku apologized "It wasn't my intention to speak to you in that tone" he seek for her reaction after she had gone silent looking down finally looking away from his face.

He messed up. Her trust and confidence slipped by him even when she smiled a fake one that seem so realistic and true.

"It's okay" she nodded dropping off the menace, but he wasn't satisfy with only feeling safe.

Silenced filled the tense air for that second that longated into minutes as he stared at her farce smile. His stare finally left her face and it lowered to her hands that held her bleeding feet.

He kneeled down worryingly realizing the pain the impact gave her. He reached out to her feet but she subtly moved away into herself, away from him.

He was surprised at her sudden move that confirmed him of his current tenseness due to the fact that she had retrieved her trust away him.

She immediately stood up and told him to go at it again with a small faint chuckle.

Their day was uncomfortable. She didn't speak, she didn't joke, or sing, or dance, or looked at him in her soft way she always did. Even her presence was rigid. She just did what she had to do and kept an eye on him.

"Your feet" he blurted out as he stared at her shaking purple feet.

"It's okay, it'll heal. It's just like stubbing your toe. It's fine" she said without even giving him a glance at his eyes.

Longest sentence she had said all day after their event.

"Taiga"

She hummed. "I'm sorry." He genuinely said, he didn't want her that way, it was necessary to coexist in a efficient relationship to survive. Otherwise, it would be dull, and dangerous. She just made things better, but the tiger was scared off.

"I already forgave you silly" she more openly said yet her eyes told him she wasn't all in yet.

"You have, but you haven't given me your trust and confidence we had before this"

She looked down at the ground. "....indeed..."

"Forgive me" he looked at her seriously. He had asked for forgiveness again, but they both knew as they stared at each other, that he was asking her to give him what they had back.

She looked away and before he knew it she was sitting beside him. Hestitantly leaning her head on his arm and getting close to him.

"Don't." She began but she couldn't describe what she didn't want him to do. He wasn't like that. They had been working all day like crazy, and they had been out of luck with food, and by the time the day was dark they couldn't get water. A bad day.

He wasn't like that. Even through bad, he was really collected. They had had worst days with them filled without food or bad weather and more work than the calories they could collect.

Lack of resources, nutrients, and a row of unfortunate uncontrollable events they had gone through. But even then, they had stayed together. He had stayed himself, and she had been closed than ever to him and him to her. Something he had come to become yearnful for as if it were a losing piece of his experiment if he didn't have her happy.

He couldn't comprehend the reason why he had reacted harshly towards her. He rarely or never had done to anyone even before unfortunate circumstances. Especially to a lady.

"It surprised me." She decide to say after not knowing how to finish her past sentence. She looked at him, her eyes gently piercing his soul down "don't do it again. Try."

He nodded. "I'm ten billion percent it will be a rare case for me to act that way again. Especially with you, Taiga"

"Why is that so?" She rubbed her head with his arm, kneading him in appreciation. Slowly reaching out for the loose part of the cloth that made up his shorts. Always slow to seek permission. Oh, how did she want to hold his hand and be it's pair.

But foolish thoughts like those would ruin their friendship she thought. Most importantly, it would destroy her at some point, and possibly him in a way. Because that was what love is at the end always.

Nothing.

"Because you are my partner in this world." He looked at the fire.

"I am." She said as she slightly frowned.

"What's wrong?" He asked in his usual monotone voice and 'annoyed' face.

"Well." She finally laid her head on his shoulder for long term stay "....nothing"

They sat beside each other, as the fire made loud sounds as it burned the wood down. He moved once in awhile to place more wood, but her head always returned to his shoulder.

She had not been this attached to him in a physical way. They always sat or slept beside each other. Her hugs being an exception, but never had they touched much.

"Will I when people come in?" She finally decided to ask what was on her mind.

"What do you mean, you bubble head?"

"Will I see that side again, will I even see....see you, when you find the cure?"

He stared at her face that seem to be struggling. "I'll be focused on doing the science civilization. And as long as you want to be there, I'll be there."

She chuckled "Interesting" she said with a small smirk. "Lettuce"

"Bubble head"

"...I was stressed. I was thinking about Taiju. Thinking that the little wine we dropped could have earned us more time to find the cure and it cause me to react differently than I ever had. I was even surprised myself. I can't promise you it won't happen again, but I'll do my best for you to not experience it again."

"I'll do my best too" she murmured as she closed her eyes. "I just want to let you know that you can speak to me. I want you to know that you can have all confidence with me to speak about anything." She turned her head around with a small smile "But also that if you talk to me harshly again I will not allow you to...have that tone with me young man" she ended her phrase in a playful sassy voice "you better watch yo mouth Senku