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“Genos? Hey, are you there? I can’t hear you.”
“Ye- ... Sen- ... sorry- ... no- ... -tion.”
“Genos?? I can barely hear what you’re saying. Is there a bad connection?”
Saitama furrowed his eyebrows at his TV, flipping through channels with one hand while his other hand held his phone to his ear.
It had been less than a day since he’d found Genos in the street, the aftermath of taking on a monster who’d apparently specialized in destroying machinery and electronics. To this day, Saitama would never understand why Genos, of all available heroes, had been assigned to this mission, but he could only assume it was a case of miscommunication on the Association’s part.
Either way, that encounter had left Genos in the worst state Saitama had ever seen him in, even worse than what had happened to him while fighting the Sea King. There had been no trace of skin, hair, or clothes left on his mangled body. When rushing to the scene, Saitama had almost stepped right over him, mistaking him for a random pile of wires and shrapnel, before soon realizing in horror that what he was looking at was indeed his disciple and friend.
With the monster having already been taken down by other heroes, he’d wasted no time in gathering as much of Genos into his arms as he could, making extra sure he’d picked up his head and, thankfully, still-running core and sprinting as fast as he could to Genos’s doctor.
He had really thought Genos was going to die on that day.
He couldn’t explain the emotions that had flooded his body when he’d seen that unrecognizable pile of crushed metal. To even think about it now almost made him physically sick to his stomach.
“S... now- ... Sai- ... Sensei? Sensei, can you hear me clearly now?”
Genos’s voice gradually turned from static to audible words, the first words Saitama had heard from him since seeing in that near-death state, and he couldn’t help the huge sigh of relief that poured from his lungs. Setting his remote down, as he no longer had a need to nervously fiddle with it, he relaxed, smiling at the familiar sound of Genos’s voice.
“Yeah, it’s okay, Genos. I can hear you now. So what’s going on? Are you alright?”
There was a slight pause and the soft murmur of another voice before Genos responded.
“Yes, Sensei. I’m sorry; there was an unstable connection earlier. Dr. Kuseno was having me transported to a room with a better connection.”
These words took all of the relief that Saitama had felt and flipped it upside down.
“Wait, transported?? Like... You can’t walk? Tell me what’s going on, Genos. Are you okay?”
“I am fine, Sensei,” Genos clarified, his voice much more gentle now. “I promise. Most of my body has not been constructed yet, so I’m fully reliant on the machines here to move. I’m not even holding the phone right now. One of the doctor’s machines is propping it up for me.”
“I see..” Saitama muttered, those words that Genos had meant to be reassuring not reassuring him in the slightest. “Is there any estimate yet on how long it will take to fully rebuild you?”
“Well, the doctor is hoping to implement a few upgrades in the process, so I’d say it could take anywhere from one to two weeks.”
“Really?!” Saitama asked in disbelief. “That long?? You’ve had upgrades that were done in less than a day before, though.”
“That is true, Sensei. But this is the complete reconstruction of my entire body. There were very little parts that he could salvage from my former one. I wish it wasn’t taking so long, either, but there’s nothing we can do about it.”
“I guess, yeah...” Saitama sighed, running a hand over his head and looking to his balcony window. “Man, I’m just glad you’re alive. I really thought.. I mean, you looked..”
“I know,” Genos cut him off, then let out a sigh himself. “My mind had shut down by the time you showed up, so I don’t remember much of it, but I’m sorry you had to see me that way.”
“It’s fine. Wasn’t your fault.”
“I know,” Genos repeated, then paused. “I’m just happy you got to me in time. I can’t thank you enough, Sensei. You’ve saved my life more times than I can count now.”
“I’m happy I got there in time, too... I can’t imagine if I hadn’t,” Saitama breathed, now staring absentmindedly out at the sunset between his curtains.
He took deep, even breaths as he heard another voice again, Genos’s doctor, he assumed, and Genos responding to him.
“Yes. Right now? Okay, yes, that would be for the best. Sensei?”
“Gotta go?”
“I am afraid so,” Genos said, sounding truly sorry about it. “I will try to get in contact with you again soon, I promise.”
“Sure. It was nice hearing that you’re okay, Genos. Don’t worry about calling me back soon, just take care of yourself, okay?”
“I will. Goodbye for now, Sensei. And thank you again for all that you’ve done for me.”
“Oh, don’t mention it. Talk to you later.”
“Goodbye.”
With Genos’s condition (mostly) laid to rest in his mind, Saitama set his phone down and stared at the TV for a while without really watching anything on the screen.
Then, he sighed for what felt like the tenth time that day and pushed himself to his feet, walking to the kitchen to make dinner for himself.
He couldn’t shake the lonely feeling that started to creep up when he looked around his empty apartment and thought about how Genos wasn’t going to be here for a week or more, but at least the cyborg was still alive.
Thank god he was still alive.
*
The next time Genos called him was two days later, barely past noon, his phone ringing just minutes after stepping back into his apartment from being outside. Still had his hero clothes on and everything, monster blood all over his right fist.
“Yeah?” he mumbled out over the line, a little rude from exhaustion. To be fair, Genos wasn’t really the first thing on his mind right now; he was expecting the call to be from the Association or something as equally annoying.
“Saitama-sensei. It’s me again.”
“Oh, Genos!” he greeted in surprise, letting his guard down. He wandered over to the kitchen sink and pressed the phone against his shoulder to free his hand, pulling his messy gloves off. “How are you? Any good news?”
“Plenty, Sensei!” Genos responded proudly. “Most of my abdomen is completed now, and a new pair of arms is being worked on. My core is also fully protected now and running stably, so I’m technically not in critical condition anymore.”
Saitama scrubbed his gloves in the kitchen sink, smiling at the news. “That’s great! Sounds like you’ll be out in less than a week then, huh?”
“That remains to be seen, but I certainly hope so.”
Flicking water from his now clean gloves, Saitama took them to the living room and hung them up, wiping one wet hand on the front of his suit so he could hold the phone again. “What do you do in your spare time over there anyway? Aren’t you bored laying around all the time?”
“Sometimes, yes,” Genos admitted to him, as he dried his other hand and sat down in his desk chair. “Dr. Kuseno is here most of the time so we have a lot more time to talk than we usually do, though he’s mostly distracted with building other technology.” He took a pause to breathe, but Saitama interrupted him.
“Wait. Building other technology? Isn’t he supposed to be working on you?”
Genos must have thought he sounded angry, because he hesitated.
“He is working on me, Sensei. He has programmed all of his machinery to work very hard on reconstructing me. My body can’t exactly be built by one man’s hands alone.” Genos sounded like he was smiling now, or at least like he was amused.
Hearing his light-hearted tone, Saitama allowed himself to relax more, too. He had seemed a little overprotective there...
“Gotcha. So anyway, what else do you do?”
“Well, there is a TV here that Dr. Kuseno is kind enough to turn on and off for me when I ask him to. My arms are the next priority in being constructed, so I’ll be able to do more things for myself like manually control it, but I’m content with just watching the news for now in my spare time.” There was a pause, then a small voice. “...I keep hoping to catch glimpses of you when they show footage of monsters around the city. But nothing so far, unfortunately.”
Saitama felt his lips curve into a smile, as if he had no control over the feelings that took over his body when he heard those small, muttered words. He stood back up and walked to the balcony window, that smile still pulling at his lips.
“Oh yeah? Well, you know how the news is. I’m not that popular, so...” He trailed off and swallowed hard before continuing. “..I wish I could see you, too.”
The silence that followed almost made him want to take the words back, but then Genos let out a heavy breath and finally spoke.
“Oh.. I- Yes, Sensei. It would be nice.”
Another silence threatened to drown Saitama, until Genos spoke up again and saved him.
“I look forward to talking to you when I can. I wish we could talk more, but I know you’re busy. And we would probably run out of things to say.”
“Do you want me to call you more often?” Saitama asked him seriously.
“...Yes..” the cyborg whispered after a while, then rushed to add, “If it’s not too much trouble for you, Sensei!”
“Genos,” Saitama assured him, “I like talking to you, too, okay? I just back from killing things, so I gotta clean up now, but how about I call you back before I go to bed tonight. That sound good?”
“Okay..”
“I’ll let you go now, alright? Talk to you then.”
“Yes. Goodbye.”
It wasn’t until Saitama had hung up that he realized he’d been partially holding his breath through the last half of that conversation.
His evening went about the same as the last two: relaxing until he was hungry, making dinner by himself, for himself, eating while watching TV, then relaxing more until he was tired. It reminded him of nights he used to spend when he had been living alone, long before he’d met Genos.
Night like these used to fly by back then, days melting together until he didn’t know which day was which, but now, the night just seemed to drag on and on. He was hyper-aware of time passing slowly, of every little noise made in his apartment, of how he found his eyes flitting over to the empty spot at the table where Genos liked to sit.
He slowly realized that he was terribly lonely.
When the time came around to call Genos, he took his phone and crawled into his futon with it, both mentally and physically exhausted for some unknown reason. He laid on his back in the dark, staring at the ceiling and waiting for the teen to pick up.
On the third ring, someone answered, and he finally heard Genos’s voice again.
“Sensei?”
The cyborg sounded almost as tired as he was.
“Hey, Genos,” he said quietly, close to whispering. His apartment was just so quiet, he didn’t feel like making too much noise, either. “Sorry. It’s so late. I meant to call earlier.”
“I don’t mind,” Genos whispered, now speaking as quietly as he was. “What did you have for dinner tonight?”
“Oh, just a package of yakisoba. I didn’t cook a lot. No one here to help me eat it, ya know.”
“That sounds good. I wish I was there, but I hope you enjoyed it all the same,” Genos murmured, and Saitama felt his body do that thing again where it felt so hard to breathe.
He rolled over onto his side, putting his phone on speaker and setting it down on the pillow by his head. “So, how are you doing?”
“Better. I’ve gotten my arms now. I’m holding the phone all by myself,” he bragged, not without humor, and Saitama chuckled.
“Hey, that’s awesome, man. And soon you’ll have a whole body, and legs...” he lilted jokingly, closing his eyes. “And feet. And you can get up and make your way back.”
‘To me.’
He didn’t say the words. He thought it might be weird to.
Genos chuckled for him, so softly he almost didn’t hear it.
“Sensei...” the teen sighed out. Saitama could tell he was still smiling. “I think I had a dream about you last night.”
Saitama’s eyes shot open and stared at the phone right by his head, feeling his face heat up. That was just... an embarrassing thing to think about, that was all. He took deep breaths, trying to calm down whatever the hell was happening to him from hearing those whispered words.
“Sensei?”
“Yeah,” he blurted out eventually. “Did you? What was I doing? Fighting something?”
“No,” Genos breathed, speaking slowly. “The opposite, actually. There weren’t any monsters. We were just sitting somewhere together, on the roof I think, and everything was quiet and peaceful. The sky was so dark, but it was warm out. It was nice.”
“I bet...” Saitama whispered, letting Genos paint this pretty picture in his head. A small smile tugged at his lips as he envisioned being in such a place with Genos, and he sighed out, wistful, before he could stop himself. “Man... Cool dream,” he finished bluntly, clearing his throat.
“Yes,” Genos said, apparently not phased at all by his awkward reaction.
Saitama shifted on his pillow, burrowing into his covers and getting more comfortable. He couldn’t help but wonder if Genos was comfortable where he was, probably laying on the metal table that he’d seen before, while machines went crazy all over his body, soldering metal and connecting wires and adjusting plating.
For some reason, the thought of him there, possibly uncomfortable, burned itself into Saitama’s mind until he couldn’t think about anything else.
“Are you..” he sputtered out, “Do you.. have a pillow?”
He immediately wanted to slap his own face. What a dumb and weird question to ask out of nowhere.
“I...” Genos hesitated.
‘With good reason,’ Saitama thought wearily, still embarrassed.
“No. I don’t have need for one, Sensei,” he said, confused.
“Yeah, but,” Saitama struggled to make sense of himself, shifting again in bed. “Are you comfortable at least? I don’t like thinking about.. You know.”
‘You being uncomfortable.’
Instead of answering, Genos whispered out a question of his own.
“Are you in bed right now, Sensei?”
Saitama stared the phone. “Yeah. I have you- I mean, I have the phone beside me, on my pillow. You’re on speaker.”
The cyborg said something so quietly, Saitama had to poke an arm out from under his covers and move the phone closer to his face.
“What, Genos?” he whispered, feeling breathless again.
“I could never feel uncomfortable when I’m talking to you like this.”
Saitama didn’t know what to say to that. So he didn’t say anything at all.
“Well, good night, Sensei... Call me again sometime tomorrow, please.”
“Sure,” Saitama said to the darkness of his room, the memory of Genos’s voice still murmuring in his ears even after he’d hung up.
The phone remained on his pillow while he slept until he woke up the next morning, opening his eyes to see that he’d reached out and grabbed it sometime in the night.
*
He did call Genos back the next day. And the next day and the next day and the next day.
Eventually, bedtime calls became a daily thing for them, regardless of how many times they’d already talked throughout the day.
After only three days, Saitama fell into the easily habit of grabbing his phone when he walked by to turn the lights off and placing it on his pillow while he was talking to Genos. It was no longer rare for him to wake up having cuddled it to his body in the night, and one night, after Genos had whispered a soft “sweet dreams” and hung up, Saitama had gripped his phone in two hands and curled up under his covers with it, cradling the device to his chest.
He was just happy that Genos was alive after that scary accident, he told himself time and time again, an excuse for this behavior, but over time, it seemed to be getting harder and harder to fully belief that.
He’d been laying in bed and laughing at something Genos had said for about 5 minutes now. He couldn’t even remember exactly what was said, only that it was funny and said by Genos and he was tired and boy, was it late.
Boy, did Genos’s voice sound so soft and nice right now.
“Sensei, please don’t die over there. I still have good news to tell you,” Genos joked, and Saitama gave a few more chuckles before finally calming himself down.
“Haha.. Okay, okay. Sorry. Okay, what’s the good news?” He smiled, leaning up on one elbow as if Genos was actually laying beside him.
“I might be able to come home soon!”
A sigh drifted from Saitama’s lips, his body flooding with happiness. “That’s good, Genos...” he breathed. “That’s awesome. So your whole body is done now? Man, a whole new body, huh?”
“Yes, Sensei.” Saitama heard shifting through the phone and wondered, now that Genos was done being worked on, if he was laying on his side with his phone on speaker just like Saitama had described to him. “One of my new legs was malfunctioning a bit, so that’s going to be examined and fixed, but hopefully, I’ll be back within the next few days.”
“Could I come visit you or something? I mean, you’re nowhere near critical condition anymore, right? So could I see you, if you want. You must still be bored.”
“Though it pleases me to hear you would come see me, you don’t have to bother yourself with it. Hang in here with me for a little longer, Sensei, and I’ll be back home in no time.”
Saitama sighed around the ache in his chest. “I would wait for you as long as you needed, Genos, you know that.”
There was a brief silence, one of those intense ones that they hadn’t had in a long time.
“Sensei...” Genos started, whispering his words out so gently, like they were made of glass. “I really miss being around you.”
Saitama closed his eyes, gripping his covers tight. “...Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, I miss you, too... Hey, can I tell you something kind of embarrassing, Genos?”
“Anything, Sensei,” the teen affirmed.
“Talking with you like this... It’s kind of.. helping a lot. It’s been pretty quiet here and staying in touch with you.. I really love it. Ah, wait, I didn’t mean to say that. I just mean...”
Saitama was sure his face was burning right through his pillow by this point. If it burned through his floorboards and he fell through the ground, he wouldn’t really mind that escape right now.
“Listen, I mean-”
“I love talking to you, too, Sensei,” Genos murmured fondly. “I always have. And I understand what you mean. Something about this, being so far away, yet still feeling so very close to you, it’s something special. I feel like if I look to my left right now, I could picture you here easily, right beside me. ...I want you to be.”
Saitama’s chest heaved, something in him almost breaking. His heart was pounding, his face still hot.
“Genos, listen. I’ve been thinking about it lately, over the past week or so, and I can’t really get out it of my head that you’re... Recently, I feel like, to me, you’re..”
‘Special, irreplaceable, perfect, lovely-’
Did he really want to say those words? What would that change? Would that even change anything? Wasn’t he being way too weird right now?!
“You’re a really.. great person,” he decided on lamely.
He bit his lip when a short silence followed.
“Thank you so much, Sensei.”
“Yeah..”
Silence persisted, and he feared that Genos was going to call it a night and hang up, but the cyborg whispered something so unexpected to him, he could have never seen it coming.
“Hey, Sensei. I think I might be able to help you feel better when things are quiet. Do you have my pillow nearby?”
Saitama sat up and looked over, spying Genos’s rolled up futon and pillow right beside him, pressed up against the wall.
“Yeah, it’s right here,” he said, rolling over to face it and moving his phone with him.
“Take it and hold it to your chest.”
Not questioning the instructions, he silently grabbed the pillow and pulled it to him, tucking it in against his chest and wrapping an arm around it.
“Genos..?”
“Are you doing it?”
“Yes..”
“Good,” Genos said cheerfully. “Goodnight, Sensei. Talk to you tomorrow.”
Saitama sat up and fumbled for his phone. “Wait! Genos..!”
But Genos had already hung up.
Saitama woke up in the morning with his face buried in the cyborg’s pillow, a lovely dream of him fresh in his mind.
*
“Okay. Just tell me when again?”
“I’ve told you 3 times, Sensei. Around 4:00 this evening.”
“Man, finally... So we can make dinner together tonight?”
Genos beamed. “Yes.”
“And we can hit the night sales when it gets dark out?”
“Yes.”
“And you can stay with me all night? No going back for a check-up or anything??”
“Yes!” Genos answered as enthusiastically as Saitama had asked.
“And you’ll sleep beside me?”
At this question, Genos paused, but only because of the tender feelings that swirled around his core.
“Yes, Sensei.”
“Kay, good. Because your pillow is, uh... Well, I had to buy you a new one.”
Somehow, the thought of Saitama squeezing his pillow so tight that he destroyed it didn’t bother Genos at all. In fact, he was touched.
The cyborg leaned back in his chair in the lab, having decided to quickly call his sensei while he waited for some diagnostic results to come in.
It had just made him so happy to hear how excited Saitama was for his return this evening. Genos understood; he was giddy, too. Thoughts of going shopping with him, spending the evening with him, sleeping beside him once again... They were things he’d been yearning for. Familiar things he had missed so much.
It was odd, but it seemed like they’d grown closer than they’d ever been before over this week and a half of chatting on the phone, almost as if the distance between them didn’t matter at all.
This incident only strengthened Genos’s belief that, even if they were separate, even if they were miles or seas or worlds apart, they would always be connected to one another.
“Do you want me to call you back before I leave?” Genos asked, hearing some shuffling and rustling of paper on the other side of the phone.
“Nah. Just come on home. ...Where the hell did I put the night-sale coupons, godammit...” Saitama muttered to himself, and Genos’s smile widened.
“Check the third drawer in the kitchen.”
“Ah. By the way, remember last- Oh, they’re here! Good job, Genos!”
“Thank you, Sensei. What were you saying?”
“Oh yeah. I was going to ask.. Remember last night, you were talking a lot, and I think I fell asleep on you?”
“Yes, I remember. I realized you were asleep when you started snoring. It was fine, Sensei. I was tired, too. I just wished you a good night and ended the call.”
“I know, I know. But... You were saying something I wanted to hear, I think. It’s fuzzy, but.. What were you going to say? Around the time I fell asleep.”
Genos was silent, staring down at the gray floor under his feet and thinking back over what had been said.
“-and I think, without you, I never would have gotten here. I would not be the person that I am today. ...Sensei?”
Genos’s soft voice was met with an equally soft snore. The sound warmed him all over. He turned the volume up on his phone to hear it more clearly, imagining himself laying right beside the other man, his familiar snoring lulling him comfortably to sleep.
Now, with this gentle sound rumbling through the phone, spurned by the feelings it produced in him, Genos spoke as freely as if he were writing in a diary.
“Saitama-sensei... I will let you sleep peacefully. You sound so comfortable over there. I hope you’re not too lonely without me. I wish I had something of yours to hold in the night, like you have something of mine, but the sound of you now, sleeping like this, is enough for me. I can picture you, tucked into bed, curled up in your covers.... Ah, I’m getting distracted. Forgive me, Sensei.
“I really can’t explain how much you calling me every night has meant to me. I don’t know if I would have died that day or not, and I would have happily died if it meant keeping you safe, but I’m glad I didn’t. I remember what you said, a few nights ago, how you love talking to me... How you wish I was by your side again... I feel the exact same way. I can’t wait to see you again and spend time with you. Just being near you makes me the happiest I’ve been in a very long time.
“You are so dear to me, Saitama-sensei.. I don’t think I could ever explain these feelings properly with just words. But I suppose the most appropriate phrase would be, I love you. I love you with everything in my body and soul, and I think that I always will. I think these are feelings for you that I will never be able to change.”
He stopped and listened to the other’s snores for a while before speaking again.
“Well, I’ve been talking for far too long. I hope you sleep well tonight. I’ll try to stay fully rested, too. You already know I’m coming home tomorrow. Maybe I’ll share all of these feelings with you then, if you are willing to listen. Something tells me...” A smile graced his lips. “..that you will be more than happy to.”
“Genos? Are you still there? Is there another bad connection..? Hello??”
“Sensei, no. I’m here. I can hear you.”
“Oh, good. So? Are you gonna tell me what you said?”
Genos stood up and smiled, stretching his new body.
“Please, be patient, Sensei. I will come home to tell you face-to-face very soon.”