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"Is it too late to change my decision?" Senku deadpanned, staring at the unfamiliar figure scowling back at him in the full-length mirror.
"The Senku I know would never back down from a challenge!" Taiju yelled from where he sat on Yuzuriha's bed.
"When it comes to science, you big oaf," Senku rolled his eyes at the over-simplification of the statement, huffing, "And this isn't even a challenge, more of an annoyance."
"Oh, Senku, it'll be fine!" Yuzuriha giggled, but Senku could see the moment her eyes turned downright murderous, "You wouldn't want all of my hard work to go to waste, right?"
Senku sighed in response but knew she made a fair point. For the first time in years, he was formally dressed, and even in his unqualified opinion, he thought he looked what society would deem as acceptable. Of course, it was nothing short of a miracle Yuzuriha performed to get him to this state.
The initial obstacle was clothing. It was the first excuse Senku used when Byakuya invited him to the masquerade a few weeks ago. He didn't have a suit, and he refused to get fitted for one; he figured that was the end of it and promptly forgot about the dance in the first place. Then, about a week ago, an exhausted Yuzuriha showed up on his doorstep with a garment bag in hand. For how nice he always made himself out to be, Byakuya had contacted Yuzuriha behind Senku's back and asked her to make a suit for him. She was able to get his measurements when the scientist let her take them as a 'standard' measurement for her clothing class.
It was manipulation, the whole thing.
It was a three-piece burgundy suit - to make his eyes stand out, Yuzuriha mentioned - with a matching tie and black button-up shirt. Surprisingly comfortable and well fitted to his body measurements, the outfit wasn't nearly as awful as he thought it would be. It still took too much effort to put on and stifling with its many layers - and the whole situation had Senku inclined to dislike it, anyway - but he knew Yuzuriha was the best one to create such a thing.
The second obstacle, just as tricky, was taming Senku's hair. The day of the masquerade, a Friday night, Yuzuriha dragged Senku to her house, where there were already brushes, combs, and a bunch of liquids, creams, and gels spread across her bed. He tried to leave immediately (wasn't the suit enough?), but she'd gotten Taiju in on it, and the big oaf already blocked the doorway to her room and, coincidentally, Senku's only viable escape route.
He had no other option but to sit down and let her pull and tug at his hair for the next hour until the bottom part had been gelled down and the top layer pulled into some sort of ponytail at the back of his head. Half-up, she called it, and Senku felt strangely annoyed that his eidetic memory would store such knowledge for the rest of his life.
After that, Senku thought they were done, but then Yuzuriha pulled out another bottle, tweezers, and a pen, and this time, he readily accepted his fate. Another hour later found him with a freshly cleaned face, tweezed eyebrows, and thin black eyeliner outlining his eyes.
"All of this for one night..." He trailed off, "I could've used that time to do literally anything more productive."
"But now you'll look like you belong among all of the other celebrities." She pouted, shifting the two bangs in front of his face, "So many people would kill to be in your spot."
He batted her hands away, "Lucky me."
At that moment, they were interrupted by a knock at Yuzuriha's front door.
"That's your dad!" Taiju yelled, and he was already running to the front door before Senku or Yuzuriha moved a muscle. Senku couldn't help the small upturn of his lips at the scene. He knew his friend saw Byakuya as a father figure after spending most of his days at Senku's apartment growing up. Byakuya knew him as another son: one that could give him the affection Senku couldn't, the scientist figured.
Senku could hear Taiju already deep in conversation with Byakuya about the masquerade when he and Yuzuriha walked into the hall. His father wore a simple black tux with his hair in his usual slicked back style. The normality of the sight irritated him.
"I have to spend hours getting ready when you look like you rolled out of bed and grabbed the first suit in your closet?" Senku drawled, meandering over to where the pair stood, Yuzuriha right behind him.
"Probably because you need it more," Byakuya smiled, wrapping an arm around Senku's shoulders.
He shrugged the arm off and rolled his eyes, "Do you have the money?"
"Senku!" He wailed, the edges of his mouth pulling down into a deep pout, "Do you not want to hang out with me?"
"You know what I want, old man."
Though not as physical as the other two, the last obstacle was getting Senku to go to the masquerade in the first place. He appreciated the work Yuzuriha put into his outfit, and he understood Byakuya wanted to spend time with him, but that didn't mean shit for his ultimate final decision. They knew the kind of person he was, and it almost offended him how hard they tried to get him to go with nothing but a little persistence. It was only during dinner the night before, when Byakuya sighed and held a familiar card up in the air, that Senku finally acquiesced to the request.
"Like you won't run as soon as I give it to you," Byakuya wiped at fake tears on his face, "You'll get it after."
Senku visibly deflated but pushed past his father and out the front door. He heard Byakuya thanking his friends for their help while they called out goodbyes.
At that moment, he noticed the long, sleek vehicle parked across the street and stopped in his tracks, looking back to see Byakuya smiling sheepishly. "I kinda don't have a car, so Lillian offered to provide transportation."
"A limo seems a little excessive for 'transportation.'" Senku scoffed. Byakuya offered a shrug in response.
Senku stepped into the limo without further disruption, though it was harder to keep his mouth shut at the warmth radiating from the seats below him.
Ever since the Soyuz crew landed back on Earth on November 31st, exactly six months after its departure, Byakuya returned home to Senku instead of Texas's NASA branch. It was a normal thing for astronauts to do after such trips. Sitting in space for half a year would make anyone want to take a break, and for someone like Byakuya, who was already sliding in besides Senku and asking how school went that day, the feelings were only further amplified.
Senku immediately explained the experiment he ran - he never talked about actual schoolwork - discussing the issues encountered, the supplies needed... "Which I'll buy with the money I get from this ridiculous thing."
Senku raised his arm to crack his neck, his face scrunching in irritation at the soft matted hair he found instead of the normal skin. He crossed his arms across his chest, not wanting to mess with the style and make it look even more ridiculous, "What kind of event even is this?"
"Did I not tell you?" Byakuya's eyes widened, and Senku couldn't help but think he looked more like the child between the two of them, "It's a masquerade! They invited celebrities from all over Japan."
"And you got an invitation?" He asked, thick eyebrows raised.
"Well, Lillian did, and she asked for the rest of us on the Soyuz to be included as well. We all got plus ones."
"And you took me?"
"Why, of course, why wouldn't I bring my favorite son?"
"I'm not even your son. Wha- stop crying, old man..."
The rest of the trip was filled with more tears than Senku needed for his whole life, and by the time they finally rolled to a stop in front of a multi-story mansion, he'd rolled his eyes eight times, evaded hugs three times, and contemplated telling the limousine driver to turn back on countless occasions.
Byakuya paused in the middle of his fourth sobbing fit to stare open-jawed at the lit up castle-esque building. "Woah, it's so big!"
"You were in space for six months; what do you mean it's big?" Senku replied, leaning back in his seat with his eyes peering suspiciously out of the darkened windows. The whole thing was even more ostentatious than he expected.
The limo stopped down a long walkway to the entrance, and Senku scoffed when he noticed Byakuya wiping at the dried tear streaks on his face.
"Here, we'll need these," Byakuya finished cleaning the last of the tears before leaning down to rumble through a bag at his feet. He made a 'hah!' sound as he found what he was looking for and tossed it Senku's way.
He fumbled for the object - never one for hand-eye coordination - and once he had a stable grip, turned it around to make out a dark red and black eye mask. The teen laughed but fastened it on and around his head. Of course, they were at a masquerade after all.
Byakuya had a similar mask with a fade from white to black. When he noticed Senku's gaze, he smiled, "Your friend is very skilled."
"Whatever, let's get this over with."
Walking to the entrance felt like some sort of runway, and a grimace etched itself onto Senku's face. He couldn't care less what people thought about him, but the place was way too fancy for his own tastes, especially for someone who preferred the comfort of a sterile, well-stocked science lab and the rough feel of a durable lab coat over bright spotlights and expensive suits.
Once they walked up the steps to the opened double door entrance - Senku only slightly out of breath - a burly man with a similar suit and mask attire stopped them and held his hand out. Byakuya placed two cards and an ID in the palm of the man's outstretched hand, who then proceeded to thoroughly examine the cards before nodding and unhooking a satin rope to allow the two in.
If Senku thought the outside was too much, the inside only made his irritation increase tenfold. The whole room, a large atrium with a high domed ceiling, was cast in warm yellow light, courtesy of the large chandelier in the center and smaller yet no less grandiose wall lights spread evenly along the walls. It was full of polite chatter and clinking glasses, fake laughs, and practiced smiles. The falsity of it all had him scoffing.
"You're knocking it out before you've even tried it, Senku!" Byakuya exclaimed, his eyes shining in the light.
"It's a room full of rich celebrities."
Byakuya cocked his head, "Well, aren't you looking for sponsors, anyway?"
"The people here don't care one millimeter about science." Byakuya opened his mouth to respond when his eyes locked on something across the room, and a broad smile broke across his face.
He clapped Senku on the back, "I think I found the people who do."
---
The people ended up being the rest of the crew members on the Soyuz, minus Lillian, who was currently talking with a large group of people across the ballroom, much to Byakuya's chagrin. Senku pointedly ignored the glances he kept sending her way.
For a masquerade, the group recognized each other pretty quickly, though he supposed such was the result of living with each other for six months.
They all begin catching up, and Senku wasn't as excited by the conversation as he thought he might be. The astronauts talked more about their life back on Earth than in the ISS. Where they settled down, how happy they were to eat actual food, family...
"Speaking of family!" Byakuya exclaimed, holding his hands out behind him where Senku stood, "This is Senku!"
The latter resisted the urge to roll his eyes as all of the members turned to him with similar expressions of recognition. Senku was not ignorant to the fact that Byakuya told everyone who would listen about his 'son.'
"Byakuya's told us so much about you," The blonde woman said, "Especially the rocket building."
"It's a slow but steady process." Senku shrugged, thinking of his most recent failure. He lacked not only the materials needed for the rocket but the funds, too. "The main problem is producing fuel for each launch since most of it is used up at the beginning of takeoff. Of course, it's a smaller model and doesn't come a millimeter close to the real thing..."
"Maybe you should've gone instead of me." A voice chirped from behind him.
Before Senku turned around, there was a chorus of cheers from the Soyuz crew, "Lillian!"
"How are you?"
"I see you're just as popular as ever."
Byakuya stared in awestruck silence, and Senku resisted the urge to vomit.
"While this reunion is simply riveting, I'm going to go now." He rolled his eyes, deciding he'd rather not watch his father make googly eyes at the singer, and if her own bright blue eyes locked firmly on Byakuya's were any indication...the feelings were mutual.
They all waved goodbye to him, and he didn't waste time locating the nearest refreshments table - along one of the sidewalls - and making his way towards it. Since lunch at school that day, he hadn't eaten, having been kidnapped and taken to Yuzuriha's house right after school ended.
Suddenly, a loud clapping sound drew Senku's attention away from the table and towards a crowd of people gathered in the corner of the room. It was the loudest, and by extension the most interesting, occurrence in the stuffy place yet. He was going to continue his original goal of getting food when a chorus of in awe 'oohs' echoed through the hall, and Senku begrudgingly turned away from the food table and towards the commotion. What got a bunch of rich people so excited, anyway?
Fortunately, Senku was pretty tall for a party with mostly Asian guests. Still, without his usual gravity-defying hair, he found people didn't let him through like they normally did, so he had to do a little bit of maneuvering to get a view of what was going on.
The main focus appeared to be a young dark-haired man standing on an elevated platform. The shiny, sleek purple suit he wore almost blinded Senku, though he supposed that was the intended effect. The man held a deck of cards in one hand, and with a swift, single motion, he threw them in the air...only to catch them in the other hand. More clapping erupted as he maneuvered the laminated paper into a flourish that made it seem as if the cards were glued together in a complex structure.
Cardistry, then. Senku didn't clap along with the rest of the crowd. Cardistry was just the implementation of physic concepts that appeared appealing and challenging to the watcher. Though, as the man continued his tricks, Senku couldn't help but continue watching. The art's whole point was to make movements appear effortless and smooth, but the performer was so incredibly adept, it took Senku a few seconds longer to pick apart the tricks. Sometimes, he'd have to wait for the man to repeat the movements; the first time being too fast for his eyes to catch.
The man didn't speak throughout this spectacle, only occasionally flashing a white-toothed grin to the audience or a wink at one of the women in the front. He'd even met Senku's eyes a few times. Senku scoffed and crossed his arms. Of course, the man was attractive. Even with the winding black mask on his face, he could tell as much. He supposed his appearance worked as a distraction from the hidden movements of his hands, and the glances served to make people flustered.
He attempted one more trick, spreading the cards out as a perfect circle in one hand before throwing them behind the other and holding his arms out as the cards seemingly disappeared. More cheering started up as he pulled the cards from behind his back, and even Senku gave a half-hearted clap. He couldn't figure out the last trick. Maybe he slid it down his sleeve? But then how did it appear from the back?
A sudden voice from the stage broke him out of his reverie, and everyone quieted down as the man spoke in a light but confident tone, "May I have a volunteer for this next trick?" Several people in the crowd raised their hands as an offer, halfway up - ah yes, heaven forbid they raise their hands high in the air like school children.
Senku's stomach growled, and he was about to leave for the food table when his feet stopped in their tracks, "How about the young man in red in the back?"
Senku slowly turned his gaze back to the magician, whose dark eyes stared at his figure from behind the mask. He vaguely noticed everyone in the crowd turning to look at him and almost cursed. Clenching his jaw, Senku's feet began to move him through the group of people - who parted quickly now - and towards the man, their attention never diverting from each other.
He stepped up onto the small platform, stopping a considerable distance from the man. The magician giggled, and he waved a hand towards Senku, "Come here; I don't bite, you know."
Even if he didn't, Senku decided he'd rather not associate with someone who said that. Regardless, he moved a little closer until he could more clearly see the thick black eyeliner skillfully lining the man's eyes and the uneven cut of his bangs. "I'd ask for your name, but I'm afraid that would defeat the purpose of this whole thing." He turned toward the crowd with a sheepish smile, "But how about I amaze you with my magic, instead?"
Senku raised his eyebrows in response. The man wasn't even fazed as he pulled out a long black strip of cloth and held it out to him. "Would you mind wrapping this around my eyes? As tight as you want."
He narrowed his eyes before reaching out to grab the blindfold. As the man turned around, Senku took a step forward, raising his arms and wrapping the silk around the man's head. He debated tying the silk as tight as possible but settled for a comfortable fit since the eye mask got in the way. He stepped back, and the man turned towards the crowd. He pulled the same cards from before out of his suit pocket before beginning to deftly shuffle them in his hands.
Senku observed the scene before him, but he found nothing to indicate the man wasn't just shuffling the cards. The back patterns were the same, no corners were folded, and nothing else seemed out of place.
"Pick a card, any card." The man turned toward Senku, spreading the cards out in the typical 'pick a card' manner.
Senku noted the card slightly stuck out in the middle and rolled his eyes before choosing the second card on the stack. He wasn't ignorant to the sleight of hand trick. He heard a chuckle and looked up to see pink lips quirk up in a smirk before straightening into a line again.
"If you would show the crowd your card." He turned around when he said it, facing the wall as Senku followed his instructions. The card was a joker. Interesting, most magicians don't use it. After a few seconds, the man turned back around and handed the rest of the deck to Senku, eyes still firmly covered by the blindfold.
"Could you place the card in a random part of the deck?"
Senku grabbed the deck, vaguely noting the warmth of the man's hand as it brushed his. He counted four cards down and placed the joker in the same spot it was before. "Once you've done it, please place the deck back in my hand."
Senku scrutinized the deck before putting it back in the magician's hand, irritated when he didn't find anything once more. "Good."
And then he threw the deck in the air, and the cards went in all directions. Some landed face up, and others face down. The visible ones were all different cards, and Senku began to count as the crowd gasped. 53 cards. One was missing.
"Oh my, what a mess I've made. How will I ever find your card?" He held his hands out and shrugged dramatically. "Unless..." The man turned back toward Senku before hooking a finger under his blindfold and pulling it up and off his head. He threw it to the side before stepping forward and reaching towards Senku's face. He stiffened as the empty hand went past his face and behind his ear before pulling back to show... a single red rose.
He held the rose up and frowned at it, "That's not quite it, is it? Here, you can take this back." The man tucked the rose's short stem behind Senku's ear, and this time, he pulled out a card tucked between his first and middle finger.
He showed it to the crowd, who immediately began to clap loudly.
"Is this your card?" He flicked it towards Senku.
It was the joker.
---
Senku went to the refreshments table after that, ignoring the urge to stay and watch the rest of the performance - only because he wanted to expose more of the tricks, of course. There were no trash cans in the main hall - to protect the aesthetic or something equally ridiculous - so he wasn't able to do much about the rose other than tuck it in the front pocket of his suit.
One perk of a party for rich people was the variety of food. Even before Byakuya went to space, his cooking was limited to rice and pre-packaged natto, so Senku was used to eating microwaveable ramen and other various forms of junk food. The spread of food made his stomach growl in anticipation, and he didn't hesitate to grab one of almost every type, barely chewing before swallowing.
There was also a bottle of champagne Senku poured himself a glass of. It seemed they didn't anticipate someone underage coming to the party. The small appetizers, desserts, and expensive alcohol almost made coming worth it.
Keyword: almost.
"It's rude manners to stay by the refreshment table, you know." A voice hummed from beside him.
"It's rude to assume I care." Senku retorted, looking up from his chocolate truffle to see the magician from before pouring his own glass of champagne.
"My apologies." He laughed, and Senku resisted the urge to grimace at the practiced sound.
"Did the audience finally get bored of your tricks?"
He shook his head, "I only did a few more. Part of a magician's allure is their mysterious nature, after all."
Senku snorted, "Telling me that defeats the whole purpose."
"I figured you wouldn't fall for that kind of thing," He shrugged, and then his voice took a different tone, something intentionally more innocent than before, "Did the last trick please you? You didn't seem all that amused by the other ones."
"You noticed?"
"Hard not to," His voice dropped, and he flashed a grin at him, "You're definitely a sight for sore eyes." Before Senku could respond, he continued, "Do you happen to know cardistry?"
"No, but I know basic physics." He ignored the man's previous statement, though it stayed at the back of his mind.
"A scientist, then?"
"Yup."
The man let out a whine, "It's always the scientists who won't allow any fun."
Senku chuckled, not bothering to correct him, "Whatever you say, mentalist."
"Mentalist?"
"That's what you are."
"Hm, you're not wrong," He paused, shrugging, "though a magician is better in public spaces."
"Nobody wants to get psychoanalyzed?"
"Not knowingly, Lab-kun~" Senku narrowed his eyes. "Not a fan? You gave me an English name, so I figured I'd return the favor. Both the English and Japanese words for a scientist are not easily made into nicknames, but laboratories, which scientists work in, can be shortened into Lab."
Senku ignored the roundabout way he came about the nickname in favor of asking, "Can you speak English?"
"I can." The man smiled something wicked, then, before switching to the language above, "I'm a man of many tricks." The words took a moment to process in Senku's brain, as comes with suddenly switching to another language. He may not be completely fluent, but years of typing long and complicated English emails got him pretty damned close.
"Don't sound too smug," Senku switched to the language as well, watching with amusement as the magician's eyes widened slightly, "What did you expect? Oh, mentalist, you're so talented, I think I'm falling for you." He rolled his eyes, taking a sip of his champagne.
"As much as I would've appreciated the compliment, Lab-kun, that wouldn't have made this half as fun."
"What? You hitting on me?" Senku downed the last of the champagne, reveling in the warm feeling in his chest.
"Was I that obvious?" He asked, swirling the liquid in his glass.
"I was only about ten billion percent positive." Senku didn't bother bringing up how they both knew the man wasn't trying to hide it.
"What gave it away?"
"You looked at me seven times before you called me up."
"It wasn't the rose?" The man asked, his eyebrows narrowed in confusion. The flower immediately felt warm in Senku's pocket.
"Oh, that was you flirting with me?" He cocked his head and fluttered his eyelashes innocently. The man only stared for a few seconds before letting out a laugh. Then, he glanced to the side before noticeably perking up.
"Do you know how to waltz somewhere in that big brain of yours?" He asked, setting down his glass.
"I don't dance."
"Well, it's either a haughty rich snob or me."
"Bold of you to assume you're not one."
"That doesn't matter if you don't see me as such," He giggled, then, and the sly smile that slid onto his face made Senku's stomach drop, "After all, perception is reality, Lab-kun~"
Before Senku could reply, there was a warm grip on his wrist, and his feet stumbled to keep up with the mentalist as he led him out onto the floor.
"Hey, I don't kno-" Senku sputtered, cheeks flushing.
"Not even the basics?"
"No-"
"You're at a ball." Once they reached the middle of the room, the man finally stopped pulling Senku around, though he didn't let go of his hand.
"I didn't want to be," Senku muttered, glancing around for any means of escape, but partners were already pairing up around them to form a large circle in the ballroom, and if he were to leave, there'd be an obvious hole in the formation.
"I suppose that makes me the one who knows more now," Gray eyes narrowed at him, and as the man pulled him closer, Senku noticed the irregular texture of makeup on his face.
"Enjoy it while it lasts."
"I would never pass the opportunity up," The mentalist wrapped an arm under Senku's left, and he could feel the callouses of his palms through the fabric of his suit, steady and sure. It's not an unpleasant feeling, but...
"This was just a plan to get your hands on me, huh?"
"Ulterior motives aside, maybe you're not as smart as you claim to be if you think a dance doesn't involve touching your partner, Lab-kun," He laughed as he leaned his head down to Senku's ear. His bang tickled the scientist's chin, and a whiff of sweet lavender made his head dizzy, "Besides, if you really minded, you wouldn't have come out with me in the first place."
"For a popular mentalist, you're pretty shit at figuring out what people want," He claimed, but what the man said was sorta...true. His grip around Senku's waist and hand were loose enough for him to leave if he really wanted to. Nobody was forcing him to stay here. And for all of his complaining...did he even want to go?
"Sometimes, even people don't know what they want," He smiled softly, tilting his head forward. Senku felt the urge to push the stupid bang back behind his ear, "But body language doesn't lie, even for an emotionally closed-off man of science like yourself, I'm afraid."
He didn't have the time to ask what he meant when the background chattering suddenly stopped, not unlike the sound of a forest when a predator appears. The dance was about to start, and Senku had no clue what he was doing.
"You like numbers, right?" The mentalist murmured, "It's a 1-2-3 pattern. You'll step back with your right leg as one, pull your left leg back and to the side as 2, and then bring your right back to your left with 3."
"This isn't quite algebra."
"Nope, it's easier. Just follow my lead."
The sound of some basic, and in Senku's opinion, quite shitty music started up from a group of musicians on a raised platform at the back of the room. Slowly, they begin to move, and as he shuffled his feet as per the man's instructions, he noticed how their shoes moved in tandem with each other.
"Now do the opposite," Up close, the purple of the man's mask revealed his eyes had a blue undertone, instead of just the gray steel Senku noticed before. For once, he didn't have a sly smirk or practiced smile plastered on his face. It was something softer, more genuine, like he didn't care how he appeared in that moment, "The inverse, you could say."
Senku scoffed at the use of the term, but he understood what the man meant, and as they completed the box, it only took another two rotations for Senku's feet to catch up with his mind.
"That's all there is to it?" Senku couldn't believe he thought he would have to put effort into learning the dance, "This is stupid easy."
While he tugged Senku closer, the man let out a soft laugh, "Of course it is! It's a common dance respectable people learn alongside reading and other basic skills. Or at least, it used to be."
"I don't understand why - who would actually enjoy something like this?"
"It's the intimacy of it all, Lab-kun. Surely, you've heard of Cinderella?"
"I don't care about that junk," But the mention brought the story to the front of his mind, despite having not heard it in years. He always thought it was ridiculous. What did the two get in the one night they spent together that warranted a happy ever after? It was more likely they didn't match each other at all, and even if they did, the story did nothing but fool young children into thinking that's how relationships worked, but he digressed. "Even with the 'intimacy' or whatever you're going on about, doesn't it get boring?"
The man didn't answer at first, but he cocked his head in contemplation, and an unidentifiable glint flashed in his eyes. Not a second later, the grip on Senku's waist tightened, and he felt his feet slide out from under him as the mentalist moved him into a dip.
"Are you bored, Lab-chan?" He muttered, the words falling out of his mouth as more of a breath than a voice. Senku's eyes widened instinctively at the sudden drop, and his stomach twisted as his sense of balance was whooshed away. He secured his grasp on the man's shoulder, surely wrinkling his suit in the process. It felt like they stayed in that position for minutes, gazes on each other unwavering, though Senku was vaguely aware of his mind counting 1-2-3-4...
Suddenly, a sound bubbled up from his throat and erupted out of his chest in a fit of genuine, sustained laughter.
The man raised him from the dip and took a step back, as did the rest of the ballroom dancers, though they barely noticed. The mentalist's cheeks were flushed red, and Senku could hear the huffing and puffing of his breath, see the accelerated rising and falling of his chest. Not as strong as he tried to look, huh? The thought slipped a wicked grin on his face, and he grabbed the man's purple tie, wrapping the smooth silk tightly around his fist and tugging him forward until their faces were only a few inches apart.
Senku murmured, "It takes a lot more than flowery words and superficial smiles to excite me, mentalist."
He let the tie drop from his hand, noting the new creases with a satisfaction not unlike what he felt whenever a challenging science experiment finally went right.
And then he turned and walked away, not needing to look to imagine the expression the mentalist held. Mouth in a slight 'o' shape, face flushing red through his makeup, and staring directly at Senku.
Byakuya was waiting for him by the entrance, and he only took one look at Senku before his face broke out into a large smile,
"I told you you would have fun."
"Shut up, old man."