Chapter Text
Genos shuffles into the classroom, pale hands gripping his backpack. Sunlight shines through the windows and kiss his features as he walks down the rows. He then proceeds to sit down at his desk, placing his backpack beside himself as he drags open the cheaply made plastic zipper. This is the last semester of 8th grade, the last impression you’ll make on your elementary and middle school years. To show how much you have grown- to prove that you are capable of going to highschool.
The blonde sighs as other students enter the classroom. Chatter erupts and fills the air, along with the few girls waving and giggling as they look over at Genos. He gives a half-hearted wave back, not really caring for the attention. His eyes drift towards the clock which reads that it is almost time for class to start. The morning beams speckle the classroom as they fill through the gaps in the trees. Genos is satisfied with his seat by the window, as he is able to daydream and look to the outside world during long and tedious lectures.
‘Soon.’ He thinks to himself, ‘Soon.. I’ll be able to leave all of this behind and make a new start.’
All chatter is abruptly silenced as the obnoxious ringing of the morning bell resonates through the entire school. The students take their assigned seats as the teacher walks in, her shoes making loud clicking noises against the hard floor. Genos tugs at his uniforms collar, it was stiff and highly uncomfortable. Perhaps the highschool he would be going to didn’t have such starched uniforms as this one?
The beginning of the class is horrible. His teacher, whose face is caked with makeup, slurs with her opening speech with the annoying smack of the gum in her mouth. Genos is appalled; teachers shouldn’t be so rude. At least have the decency to spit out your gum before speaking to your class. As if saved from the lady’s ceaseless rant to her students, the door swung open to reveal a tousled, panting kid. His apologies are quick and garbled as he runs a hand through his dark chocolate hair, his eyes glued to the floor with his face heated. The students start muttering comments as the teacher tells them to quiet down. She frowns at the boy and tells him to go sit in the far back, next to.. Genos? The blonde looks to his right, and sure enough, the seat beside him was empty. The nametag on the desk, neatly printed, says ‘Takahashi, Saitama’. The girls jealously mumble about how lucky the new kid is as he gets to sit next to Genos.
Saitama walks down the rows of desks and slides into his seat next to him. His breathing has slowed but his cheeks still remained prominently flushed. Genos glances over at the new student as the boy pulls out his sketchbook and begins drawing.
‘Saitama is talented in sketching,’ He remarks to himself thoughtfully, as his interest and curiosity towards the new kid grows. The boy sketches out heroes onto his paper while Genos tries to make his observing unknown to the other.
Class continues on smoothly, and the teacher rattles on irritatingly about how they should be prepared for the hardships to come in highschool and that life won’t hand you everything, so get used to it.
Dumb things like that all other adults have already said a thousand times before. Genos soon grew bored of watching Saitama draw, so he decides to pay attention to his weird instructor up front.
After what seems like a neverending class period, the students are finally allowed to go play outside for a bit. Everyone pushes out the door as they all ignore the warnings the teacher spouts about not being allowed to run in the hall. Genos and Saitama happen to be the last ones out the door, and neither say anything to each other. As they both exit the doors to the outside, they disperse and Genos heads to the group of boys from his class at the corner of the courtyard.
The boys all shit-talk their new homeroom teacher as Genos stands and listens to them, uncaring of what rude comments they have to say. His friend Mumen (Genos is unsure of how he got that name but alas always forgets to ask) walks up to him and gives a shy smile, his eyes hidden underneath his glasses. It seems he doesn’t care for the talk his friends are having either.
“Hello Genos..” Mumen says warmly, he has always had such a welcoming aura, Genos notes.
“Good morning. How was your break?” He replies, wanting a distraction from the nasty words his fellow classmates are uttering. Mumen smiles kindly and he shrugs, “It was alright. Nothing much happened.. I did get to see more family on my mothers side though. I got to spend alotta time with her because I was at my moms house more over the break than my dads..”
Oh that’s right. Mumens parents are divorced.. Genos wonders how his Christmas’ or New Years look, “That is nice, Mumen. I am guessing you had a good time?” Mumen nods cutely and asks Genos how his break was. Before long they were talking and even laughing, enjoying eachothers company.
“So, there’s a new kid in your class, right? Are the rumors true?” His friend asks. Genos nods curtly, “Yes. He walked in late and had ended the horrible rant our teacher had been dragging on. His name is Saitama.” Genos looks around to sought out Saitama, and soon enough he had spotted where he is. The boy is sitting alone on a bench, quietly drawing. Mumen looks to where Genos’ gaze is and sighs, “Looks like he needs some friends.. He looks pretty lonely Genos.” He agrees with him, he does seem lonesome.
“Come on, let’s go talk to him!” Right after Mumen says this, the bell rings. Genos’ friend pouts and mumbles under his breath saying that maybe tomorrow they can both go talk to Saitama. All the students on the courtyard trickle back into the school building and shuffle into their classrooms awkwardly. The hallways are filled with the loud noise of students feet and chatter, and Genos thankfully arrives at his homeroom before having to endure anymore of the roaring walkways.
Lunch is here, finally, Genos happily thinks as he sits at a table that isn’t occupied. His school is very gracious and allows lunches to be outside when weather is good, which right now is absolutely perfect for a warm spring day. Genos takes out his home packed meal and begins eating after saying a few words of thanks. Using his chopsticks, he digs into his bento and greets his classmates slowly joining his table one by one.
Genos quietly observes his surroundings and notices the girls looking over at him, trying to gain his attention. He fights the urge to roll his eyes. Now, if you didn’t know Genos you would think this kind of behavior was harsh- and wouldn’t a guy want the girls’ attention? Well, you’re right, but there’s two problems: Problem one is that those girls, practically none of them, have even tried to talk with Genos. How do they have crushes on him solely on his appearance and nothing more? And problem two is that Genos is gay. Homosexual. Not interested in girls. Not at all. Not even a little bit.
But they don’t know that, no one does. So he doesn’t blame them.
After faking a smile and waving at the girls to satiate them for a while, he continues looking around, curious and wanting to distract himself from his peers conversations. His gaze lands on Saitama who happens to be sitting with Mumen.
‘It seems Mumen decided to go say hello to Saitama before tomorrow.’ Genos thinks as he notes that Saitama has no lunch and is instead scribbling in his sketchbook while listening to whatever Mumen was going on about. He hadn’t even humored the thought of meeting him at lunch.
'There will be times for me to talk to him. There’s no rush.’ He concludes as he finishes his lunch and gets dragged into a strange conversation with the other boys.
While walking home after the long day of school Genos has been put through, he spots Saitama.. Trying to pet a cat? The cat seems to not be having any of that however and proceeds to hiss and bolt away from Saitama’s hand. The blonde chuckles but quickly covers his mouth. Saitama is quite a distance from him so he doesn’t seem to notice Genos. The boy stands up from his crouched position and doesn’t seem affected by the cats reaction at all. Maybe this was a recurring thing for Saitama? The dark haired boy starts walking down the sidewalk again and takes a turn at a corner, disappearing from Geno’s view.
‘How strange.’ He thinks but continues his walk home.
Once home Genos rushes into the house and runs up to his room after giving his mother a hurried hello. In his room finally, he shuts the door delicately with a soft click and flops onto his bed. After easing into a more relaxed state of mind he pulls out his diar- notebook- and begins to write out his thoughts. This was something he had started doing a little while ago, as it helps him reflect and just chill out from his hectic school days. In the notebook he begins on how his day started, naming what he had for breakfast and a thorough description of how warm it was for spring. He then goes on to talk about his first class of the second semester, and how horrible it was. Genos puts in the detail of there being a new student by the name of Saitama and how good of an artist he is. After writing this Genos put down his pencil and begins to ponder about the boy. Saitama did seem like an interesting person, quiet, but a fresh perspective Genos could get to know.
Maybe he is nice, “Hopefully..” Genos says to himself quietly. It would be a good change from the other people around him who are focused on clothes, makeup or other things like relationships. These things are fine to like and partake in but.. When it is what your entire world revolves around it can cause problems. Thankfully Genos has Mumen who is probably one of the most down to earth people he knows. Perhaps.. Saitama could become a close friend of his as well.
There’s no reason to not try, right?
Not once in the whole week did Genos approach Saitama. Mumen had tried to encourage Genos to go talk to him, but the blonde had been too anxious to go and try to make acquaintance. Today is Friday. There is the pitter patter of rain coming down hitting Geno’s umbrella and rolling off in thick drops. His honey eyes dappled with gold flick towards his school. Students in well made uniforms walk in chatting with their peers. Genos just wants the weekend to start already.
Once in his seat, away from the cold rain outside, he waits for the bell to ring and for Saitama to come rushing in right on the dot. Genos wonders why he waits till the last second to come to school. Maybe he is busy doing other things? Were there any other reasons for this? Genos ponders this more as Saitama, as predicted, pushes through the door for the fifth time this week. His classmates chuckle at the new kid and embarrassed, he run his hand through his hair.
After this, class returns to normality and the instructor begins teaching. Genos neverminds her and instead tilts his head to view whatever Saitama is doing. The dark haired boy seems to be writing down something- now he’s handing it to Genos? His almond colored eyes meet with Genos’, his hand holding out the piece of paper to him. The blonde takes the paper and stares at Saitama until the boy turns away from him and goes to start drawing in his sketchbook. The note reads, ‘why do u keep looking at me its weird.’
Genos’ face flushes red then he scribbles back, ‘I have just been admiring your drawings. Sorry.’
With hands shaking, he folds the note and passes it onto Saitama’s desk. The boy looks to Genos with a questioning look and the blonde turns his head away from him, not wanting him to see the blush on his face. This is so embarrassing.
Not long after, Genos receives the paper back from him, it saying, ‘then y dont u just ask to see like a normal person lol? ’
Well he would but- his thoughts are halted by the scream his teacher makes. Right on her desk, from what Genos can see, is a huge spider. It has long legs and looks just as scared as his caked instructor. Some of his classmates start to laugh and point at his teacher while others look just as freaked out by the gross thing on her desk. Then, out of nowhere, Saitama appears in the front and moves his hands to grab the devil.
Everyone quiets and watches as Saitama scoops the spider into his hands, emotionlessly, and walks out the door. After he left, a quiet murmur fills the air as the teacher drops into her chair, clearly not having expected such events occuring.
‘That was..... kinda cool.’ Genos decides. He appreciates what Saitama did as well, instead of killing it, like Genos and well pretty much everyone else in the room would have.. He took it outside. Respectable.
The rain had stopped just in time for recess, so the students were let out to play.