Work Text:
I think I've been in love twice in my life. The first time was with the Red Power Ranger, a short-lived childhood crush that drove me into an obsession with comic books and stories of heros that would last a lifetime. The second was a cyborg-kid who showed up at my doorstep with a wad of money and started following me around like a lost puppy.
There were plenty of times I thought I was in love, of course. Like my second year of elementary school, I was head over heels for Ms. Sakamoto, my homeroom teacher. In middle school, I graduated and gave the second button of my uniform to a girl name Chiyuki. She turned me down flat, but, hey, I gave it a shot. In my second year of high school, I dated a girl called Yoko for almost a month. She dumped me when she found out I had no motivation for myself. Then there was college, which was an endless stream of mixers and one-night stands that left me with reeling heads and worries for why I didn't feel a damn thing about any of these people.
Then, barely a week into my job hunt, I got beat up by a crab monster for defending some brat with a butt-chin. I wonder what would have happened if I had just ignored that kid, and that crab. Chances are, I would've become a NEET and died in some sad, mediocre way with a wife I felt nothing for.
Instead, I became a hero. At the time I decided this I had no idea the job field was so competitive, of course. Hell, if it hadn't been for Genos I'd still be broke.
Speaking of Genos, he is the previously mentioned cyborg who started begging me to teach him some of my 'hero wisdom' and how he could improve his strength. Truth is, I had no fucking clue why I got this powerful by doing something as meager as a tough workout routine for three years. It just kind of happened. The kid wouldn't shut up about it, though. So I let him believe I wasn't a pathetic guy scraping to pay his bills and wishing for a higher purpose in life, and next thing you know Genos moved himself into my apartment.
"I'll help!" was all he kept saying to me. If I started the dishes, Genos would immediately swoop in and take over, cleaning the whole kitchen while he was at it. At first I felt bad about it but he seemed to get a kick out of doing chores, so I let myself become even lazier and soon just left the main household tasks up to him (this includes rent money)(I am an awful person).
Despite my best efforts, I knew Genos was beginning to crack down on me after I punched through that meteor that almost took out the city. He insisted in his faith in me, and praised me until I felt my ears sting from embarrassment. Smooth talking came so naturally to him.
"Sensei," he once came to my room and stood in the doorway, hesitant to disturb me. Not that I really minded, I was just reading manga. When I waved him in, Genos' eyes lit up in a very adorable way. Adorable. That was the first time I thought of him that way.
"What's up, man?"
"I just wanted you to know, you can trust me." Genos looked so nervous. His normally intense eye-contact had become a boring stare into the floor, avoiding my face in general. "Sometimes you seem almost... Exhausted about things... If you want to confide in someone, I beg you, confide in me!" With this, he bowed his head and shoulders low. I didn't even know what to say.
Leave it to Astro Boy to see through my poker face. "Genos, you don't need to worry. We're friends, of course I already trust you."
Genos lifted his head and finally looked at me. He was biting his lip, a small thing that made my stomach turn inside out, but not in a bad way. "I'm sorry if I bothered you."
"What the heck, it's fine! It's nice to have someone worry about me for a change." I chuckled, then wondered if I'd said too much, given too much away. Genos was looking at me with wide, affectionate eyes.
"Please," he said again, "I'll listen to your troubles as you have listened to mine."
This kid didn't need my bullshit added onto whatever bloodlust fueled revenge mission he had on his plate, so I shook my head and reached out to pat him on the shoulder. He started at the touch, and from the way his eyes went wide, like a deer in the headlights, I figured it all out. His flattery, his constant worrying about me, the strange possessiveness that overtook him in a fight where I was targeted. He had a crush on me, and a bad one at that.
With this mind blowing realization, I totally forgot what I was about to say to him and just awkwardly held his shoulder and felt myself sweat for a moment. Genos was looking at me, with those open, totally obvious goo-goo eyes. Shit. Shit. Shit on a brick.
"Um," I finally managed to get something out of my throat. "I promise I'll tell you if something is really bothering me, but until then, you should make sure everything's good on you end."
Wow, that sounded so lame. Genos eats it right up, though, and barks: "Yes, sir!"
He leaves the room with a small smile on his usually blank face and that's when it hits me that this kid is probably the best thing that's ever happened to me. And I'm probably going to fuck it up like the rest of the things in my life.
That first night of the burden of knowledge, I couldn't sleep a wink. Knowing that some perfect, kind-hearted teenager was in love with me if some tough stuff to take in. It's probably poisonous for the kid to see me, the king of slackers, as a role model. I'm usually not so hard on myself but Genos is a great guy. He was a kid, though. Only nineteen, but still so much more gathered than I'd ever be, most likely. I never noticed how much he acts like a housewife until I started pacing around my room and remembering all the gory details. Oh my god, he wore my apron and said "Welcome home!" whenever I got back from filling my hero quota.
I was halfway through my intense pace-the-feelings-away session when Genos knocked on the door. I yelped, and asked him to come in in the calmest voice I could muster (which probably sounded annoyed, oh how great I am with these things known as emotions).
"Sensei, it is almost two a.m." Genos blinked at me, probably wondering if I was doing some late-night training he could hop in on. "What are you doing?"
Crap. What was I supposed to tell him? I was having an existential crisis because I was probably half in love with this kid already? When had this even happened? Why was I even thinking like this? I was definitely off my rocker already; first balding now mental instability, oh how my youth had left me. "I'm not sure, " I answered honestly. I kind of felt like I was going to explode if I did any more thinking, so I spoke from my gut. "To be honest, Genos, I'm feeling a bit nuts."
He took my words in like a champ, with a strange mix of worry, amusement, and confusion all swimming in his face. Finally, he let out a small giggle. Oh no. Oh nooo, that was unfair. "Sensei, would you like to watch some anime with me?"
Normally he never sat through my marathon sessions. He would peek over and watch a couple minutes of the animes he liked (mostly Hunter x Hunter, Genos was obsessed with Killua's character development and would not let me watch an episode without him) but he rarely ever asked me to watch. In fact, that may have been the first time he ever did.
So I said yes, totally dazed, and I threw my worries out the window for an hour of animated fight scenes and Genos sniffling about the power of friendship in popular media. In fact, I got so into the show I barely noticed that my friend was starting to doze off, let alone the fact his head was resting on my shoulder. Or maybe, I was pretending I couldn't see the way Genos fondly smiled as I let him lean into my arm.
Yeah, I was definitely in too deep.
This went on for months, me avoiding the obvious shower of love and affection from my roommate, trying my best to act oblivious to the feelings when all I really wanted to do was grab Genos by the waist and tell him I thought he was the bee's knees and that he should totally date me. But it would go up in smoke, I was sure of it. I ruined so many things because I was too lazy, and I was certain Genos would become one of those things if I wasn't careful. Besides, he was young. He would get over me in no time.
Of course I was wrong yet again, but hey, that's nothing new.
I knew this the moment Genos got himself blown up just a little too much for my liking in a fight. They were some kind of blob monsters, even if they were broken apart, they would stick themselves back together like that metal man in Terminator 2. I thought it wouldn't be too much of a hassle, at first, but they just kept regenerating until Genos was out of stamina and before I could call out to him, one of the damn things took him off guard and practically suffocated him, leaving considerable damage on his already worn out body parts.
Without thinking, I smashed through the monster that had crushed him, sending flecks of it flying everywhere. I didn't care, I just scrambled over to Genos and quickly picked him up. His lower half had gotten dislocated, he was nothing but a torso at the moment.
Genos came to about three seconds after I grabbed him, and he immediately started protesting. "S-Sensei, put me down. You can't fight them off if you're holding me!"
"Who cares, we're going home." I rolled my eyes as if it were no big deal, but Genos looked considerably worried. There were still about ten of those blob things left, and if I didn't figure out how to get rid of them quickly, they would move onto the city.
"My blaster cannons! Sensei, I can melt them!" Genos suddenly yelled, and I stopped running. He was way out of shape, I didn't know if he could take that blast.
"Are you sure?" I asked, worry creeping into my voice, and probably my face. Genos looked up at me with a child-like stubbornness.
"Certain!"
With a sigh, I held him so that he was facing the blobs, all of which were almost ten feet in front of us now. Genos barely had time to load before he jerked his arms forwards and sent out two ridiculously wide and hot beams of light. The monsters all incinerated in seconds, and finally the beams died out. Genos coughed weakly, so I hugged him close without really thinking about it.
"You did it, man. Now let's get you to the Doc, okay?"
Genos nodded, and then he did something that I normally would have found adorable if he didn't look like he was about to pass out. He nuzzled his head in the crook of my neck, and closed his eyes. I ran to Doctor Stench's lab faster than I had ever ran in my life, that day. When I handed Genos over to the worried looking old man, I finally accepted my fate. I was totally in love with this cool, younger guy. And he thought I was amazing, for some reason.
"You must be Saitama," the Doctor caught my attention before I considered running away.
I nodded, "Yeah."
For a minute, the old man looked like he knew something I didn't, and then he smiled. "Can you promise me you won't let him be so reckless, next time?"
"No, sir." I grinned, "That's up to Genos."
He grinned back at me, "I can see why he likes you."
With that, he wheeled Genos away on the little operating table he had him propped on. I decided to head home, but the Doc's words echoed in my head. He likes you. He likes you. Of course I knew that, but the way the old man was looking at me confirmed my suspicions. It kind of sucked and was an utter relief to have been right the whole time.
I stopped by the duck pond just on the outskirts of the city. It was late, and nobody was around. The sun was just beginning to set in the sky, leaving a stain of orange and pink clouds on the horizon. It was here, staring into the pond with my vacant eyes, that I let out a howl of what was either rage, joy, frustration, or just plain exhaustion into the night. Thank God no one saw me, I probably looked like a freaking idiot.
Genos came home the next night, with brand new parts and a warm smile on his face. "I'm home." He said to me, rather tentatively compared to how I usually bellowed it to him.
"Welcome back," I smiled crookedly at him from behind my manga, and then immediately set it down on the kotatsu because I had a plan. I had some things to say. "Mind if we have a chat?"
Genos shook his head, taking a seat across from me. He looked like he was fighting back his questions, so I decided to just start talking without a filter.
"The thing is, I really care about you. Lots. More than a disciple and even more than a friend." I start to say, but I lose track of myself and feel my cheeks heat up. "Erm, you're really cool, and organized, and very cute when you think I'm not looking at your smiles. You're so nice to me and give everyone else the cold-shoulder, which is really adorable. Also, you're great at cooking, and sure you get off topic when you start talking but you get so fired up I just- I... Well. Yeah."
At this point I had stopped talking because Genos was gaping like a fish.
Cue a thirty-second awkward silence before Genos started making some kind of sob-noises that regular humans make when they cry, and then I got really embarrassed and worried and started to run to get him a glass of water before he practically rugby tackled me into the wall and started blabbering about how "Sensei is always so kind" and "Sensei is so powerful" but then went onto things like "You're clumsy and adorable" and "The smell of your sweaters are nice".
When Genos finally got that rant out of his system, he seemed to notice he was holding me up against the wall so that only the tips of my toes were touching the floor. I must've gone as red as Rudolph's nose about five sentences into that passion-fueled outburst, and Genos was now back to gaping at me. We stared at each other like this for what seemed like a century, but was probably only a minute or less if we're talking realistically. Oh, hell, we were so stupid.
Finally, I laughed like an idiot and kissed him as hard as I could.