Chapter Text
“Sensei!”
Saitama looked up from where he was sitting on a bench under the sun and watched his disciple jog towards him.
“Oh, Genos! I’m glad you could make it,” he greeted with a smile, standing up to face the teen.
Genos stopped in front of him, doing a quick scan over the immediate area before looking intensely at Saitama’s face. “Yes. I was tied up in a minor fight across town, so I quickly defeated the monster and sprinted here in order to make it in time.”
“Wow,” Saitama muttered, his eyebrows rising. “You didn’t have to rush. I would have waited.”
“Don’t be ridiculous!” Genos insisted passionately, leaning towards him. “I made a promise to meet you in this location at this exact time, and I must stay true to my word!”
Saitama slumped a bit in exasperation at his serious tone, but laid a kind hand on Genos’s shoulder nonetheless. “Well, all that matters is that you made it. You do have some free time today, right?”
“I always have free time for someone as special as you, Sensei,” Genos said calmly with a straight face, as if that was the most natural thing in the world to say to someone, and Saitama choked on his own air before he could help it, coughing and waving his hand when Genos immediately tried to dote over him.
“Are you okay, Sensei?!”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” Saitama said, still waving and trying to play it off. ‘How can he always say such embarrassing and weird things with a straight face like that?! It’s this strange gift of his! Or maybe a curse..’
“So, where will we be going today?” Genos asked, looking highly interested in whatever Saitama had planned.
“Not too far from here.”
“I understand,” Genos said, walking in step beside him. “I’m already prepared for both the vegetable and poultry sales at the local market today.”
“Oh yeah, there is a poultry sale today! Thanks for reminding me, Genos, but that’s not where we’re going right now.” He noticed how Genos’s gaze whipped in his direction, the cyborg’s scowl growing more intense yet.
“I see... Could there have been other sales today I forgot about..? Any other errands? It is Wednesday, right, Sensei?”
“Yes, it is Wednesday, Genos,” Saitama humored him, a small smile on his face as he walked with Genos away from the busy city and in the direction of a small park not too far away.
“Wednesday,” Genos was muttering to himself now, one of his hands fishing in his pocket for his phone and flipping it open. “Wednesday. Veggie and poultry sale... Meet Sensei at 3:00 P.M... Clean dishes, mop bathroom, dust behind TV, bookcase, and fridge... What am I missing?”
“This isn’t an errand,” Saitama told him light-heartedly. “We’re just going somewhere together for fun.”
Genos seemed to falter beside him for a second, his eyes growing a bit wider, before he slowly closed his phone and put it back in his pocket.
“Oh,” he just said, his arm lowering back to his side. “I see.”
They walked in comfortable silence for a while until the fresh green grass of the city park was in sight. It was largely unpopulated, with kids and teens still in school and adults still at work, and Saitama led Genos to a metal bench covered by a collection of trees.
Genos sat beside him carefully, placing his hands on his legs.
A little farther down the path that trailed through the park, there was a small playground, nothing too special, only a few swing sets and a slide, but it caught Saitama’s eye regardless.
He vaguely remembered coming here when he was younger. This was the only park with a playground near Z-City and within walking distance to where he’d been living. Some days, when he was in middle school, he would take a detour before going home and come to this exact park, plopping himself down on one of the swings and just sitting there for minutes.
Sometimes he would sit for half an hour or more, rocking ever so slightly and watching the people that walked past. Once (or twice..), he’d fallen asleep while sitting there, slipping off of the swing and thumping onto the dirt below it before grumbling and slumping home to collapse onto his bed.
“Have you ever been on a swing before?” he found himself asking Genos absentmindedly, his eyes drifting away from the playground.
“Yes. I loved swings back when...” Genos let the end of his sentence trail off, both of them well aware of what he was implying. “I loved to spend time just sitting on a tire swing near my house. It was the only playground within walking distance and was in a nice, peaceful area. Sometimes I would go there and just stay for hours, sitting on it and reading.”
Saitama turned his head and looked into Genos’s eyes as he spoke, a burst of emotion flashing through him at those familiar words. That familiar tone.
“Get on a swing with me.”
Genos shook his head, looking away. “I’m afraid that’s not possible, Sensei. I doubt a swing could hold my weight now.”
“Oh.. That’s a real shame,” Saitama mumbled, meaning it.
The whole reason he’d brought Genos here was so he could relax and enjoy himself. After hearing how much he used to enjoy it as kid, it was almost heart-wrenching to think that he was physically unable to do so anymore, especially because of the weight of his metal body, something he was unable to control. Something that was a direct result of the tragedy that had happened to him and taken that peaceful tire swing away in the first place.
Saitama stood up and wandered over to the swing sets, not having to look behind him to know that Genos was following. When he turned and sat down on one of the swings, he caught a glimpse of Genos standing somewhere to his right before the cyborg moved out of view.
“Maybe if I hold the chains, it won’t break,” he mused to himself, kicking at the worn-down dirt beneath his feet. Worn-down and scuffed up from countless kids and teens and maybe adults sliding the bottoms of their shoes against it.
“Don’t worry about me, Sensei,” came Genos’s voice from directly behind him. “I’m perfectly fine without a swing of my own.”
Then, Saitama felt a firm pressure right under his shoulder blades, a pair of metal hands pressing against his back and pushing. He was swung forward, rocking back and forth a few times until, as he started to slow down, Genos gave him a push once again.
“Heheh..” he couldn’t help but giggle a bit, swinging his legs along with the movement. “It’s been a long time since anyone’s pushed me on a swing.”
‘Since I’ve had anyone to push me on a swing.’
“Do you want me to stop, Sensei?” Genos asked hesitantly, his hands pausing mid-push. “If I’ve done something inappropriate, I can-”
“Nah,” Saitama interrupted, knowing that the cyborg would never stop if he didn’t. “It’s fun. Don’t you think so?”
He craned his head back to look at Genos, meeting his eyes before he was pushed forward again. He’d only gotten a brief glimpse of his face, but Saitama had seen the tiny smile on his lips and the hint of mirth in his eyes.
When he kicked his legs harder, Genos matched his movements and pushed him higher in response.
“Yes,” he heard murmured from behind him. “It is fun.”
Then, when Saitama rocked back, Genos abruptly grabbed the metal chains of the swing and held on tight, interrupting the rocking motion and almost jerking Saitama forward and onto the ground.
“H-Hey!” Saitama fumbled for the chain, holding it right under Genos’s hands and looking back at him. “That scared me..”
Genos just gazed down at him and started to twist the swing, the metal chains creating a twist in the middle and moving downward. Saitama sat still, lifting up his knees so his shoes didn’t drag on the ground as he was spun in a tight circle.
“My mother used to do this to me all the time,” Genos told him, trying to spin Saitama as much as possible without breaking the chains. “Please watch your hands so they don’t get pinched, Sensei.”
Though they both knew that a little pinch from metal couldn’t hurt Saitama in the slightest, Genos still mentioned it, and Saitama still moved his hands away from the twisting chains as instructed. Instead, he rested his hands on Genos’s wrists above his head, hearing the chains begin to creak under stress.
“Ready?” Genos asked simply, but before Saitama could even answer, Genos shook his hands off his wrists and reached down to grab the seat he was on, pushing it hard in the opposite direction.
Saitama couldn’t hold back the immediate laughter that rose in him from the feeling of spinning wildly, the force of it almost pulling him off the seat. Of course it was over in only a few short seconds, but it left a bright smile on his face regardless.
As he swayed to a stop, he smiled back at Genos, who looked half content and half waiting for his approval.
“Again?” he asked, and Saitama lifted his knees back up and gave a light nod.
“Maybe just... a couple more times.”
After way more than a couple more times, a few people and kids, off from school and work, started to wander into the park, popping the quiet bubble that the two of them had formed by being the only ones in the entire park, so Saitama decided that they call it a day and head back home.
He tried to see if his plan had worked at all, taking sly glances at the cyborg beside him, but Genos didn’t seem any different from how he normally was. He was walking in step with Saitama, as usual, taking slow but determined steps, as usual, and scowling straight ahead of them, as usual.
“Man,” Saitama sighed, deciding to voice his concerns. “I meant for you to have fun in the park, but I ended up being the one who was pushed on the swing the whole time.”
“I did have fun, Sensei,” Genos said, looking to him. “Pushing you on a swing is more fun than being on one myself.”
Saitama just hummed in thought, wondering if Genos was serious or if that was just an overstatement to portray that he enjoyed their time in the park as well. Was it really that much fun pushing and twisting someone else on a swing?
He supposed it could be, if one cared enough about the person they were pushing. Kind of like how he cared about Genos having fun so much that he took him out to a park to try and help him relax. He didn’t have to do it, but he wanted to. It seemed Genos felt the exact same way about him.
‘I wonder...’ Saitama mused as they walked past a building under construction near the outskirts of Z-City. ‘I wonder if to help Genos have fun with me, I need to be having fun myself. That kind of makes sense.’
As he thought, his eyes fell over some construction material behind the fenced off area, running over the building and trucks, one of which had a large spare tire on its back and a coil of wire roping on its bed.
They took a few more steps past it together before Saitama stopped dead in his tracks.
“Sensei?” Genos questioned, looking back, but Saitama was already approaching and scaling the fence.
“Did you hear that weirdo monster who was breaking into people’s houses who owned dogs and eating their dog food was taken down today?” Saitama asked, staring off of his balcony.
“Yes,” Genos called up to him. “I defeated that monster myself, Sensei. Before we met up to go to the park.”
“Oh, nice, Genos!” Saitama praised, swaying back and forth slightly. “Such a busy guy...”
He leaned further over the balcony, looking down at Genos a few feet beneath him. Genos was gazing up at him from his spot on a large spare tire, strung up with the wire roping in Saitama’s hands.
“I’m just borrowing them for a while,” Saitama had told him when the older man had jumped over the fence to snatch both items from the back of the construction truck.
Genos hadn’t known what to say.
Now, swaying gently by the side of their apartment building, just below the edge of the balcony, he smiled up at the man above him as nostalgia washed over his whole body like a warm, soothing wave.
Saitama must have noticed his smile, because his eyes fixated on Genos’s face and he started to twist the wire in his hands, making Genos spin slowly beneath him.
“Having fun?” he asked with a smirk, twisting the wire faster.
Genos braced his hands on the makeshift tire swing made specially to accommodate his weight, sighing at the nostalgia it gave him. Sighing at the smiling man above him. Sighing at the thoughtfulness put into this act of kindness, done just for him.
“Yes,” he answered, his words floating to Saitama’s ears on a gentle breeze. “I always have fun with someone as special as you, Sensei.”
He saw Saitama avert his eyes at the sudden compliment, but that smile on his lips didn’t move at all.
If anything, it settled there, and softened and grew.