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When the days turned into weeks, and the weeks to months, and eventually those months to years, it began to happen. So slowly that even with all his advancements and abilities Genos still had not seen it creep up like it had.
He had been so focused on Saitama, on how as, finally, S-Class, Rank 1, his sensei had achieved the recognition he deserved. There had always been hate mail, but with the thank you notes and clapping and cheering and gifts, they had been thrown to the bottom of a trash bin and forgotten.
As the top ranked hero of the world, he had nowhere to go up, and that had been fine. It never changed anything, since Saitama still defeated every monster, still patrolled areas, still saved people. He didn’t even move out of his tiny apartment in Z-City, and neither did Genos. Why change a good thing? And what they had was good. It was a type of peace neither expected to have, but somehow Genos thought it would last forever.
When the letters stopped coming, when the clapping turned to silence, when the Hero Association only called when they were really desperate, that was when Genos noticed the change.
Admiration, adoration, thankfulness, even hate and jealously.
It had all turned to fear.
Saitama had never harmed a civilian. He had never even killed a human. But as time passed and his power never faltered and no weakness was ever even hinted at, people began to look at the hero differently. Genos had foolishly tried to shield his teacher from the information, but no one is that blind. The fear written on the faces in the crowd as they would look down at the man they could not understand. Genos had watched the realization dawn on his master’s face, and he had watched it turn to acceptance in the same second.
Genos had come back early from a check up with the doctor, but hesitated to open the door, hearing the voices inside. One belonging to Saitama, the other to King.
“People fear what they don’t know. Maybe if you did an interview…?”
“But lots of people know me. Heroes know me, I mean, you know me, right?”
“Well yeah I know you-
“And are you afraid of me?”
The silence had lasted long enough that the damage had been done, and the message received. Genos quickly opened the door, announcing his arrival with false enthusiasm, greeting King with false surprise. King looked to Genos, greeting him with equally false enthusiasm, but Genos didn’t miss the way Saitama’s eyes stayed on King for a few extra seconds, his face going blank as ever.
There could be no peace without a war, and that day was the day Genos realized Saitama’s war was coming for him.
~
“I won’t leave, sensei.”
“Genos…”
It was a talk Genos knew was coming. He had seen it in the way Saitama didn’t look Genos in the eyes anymore. It was more painful that any injury he could remember.
“They’ll come for me sooner or later, sooner if I had to guess. If you stay-
“I will not leave you!”
His own voice surprised them both. His hands shook as he tried to control his emotions.
“I want to make sure you are never alone ever again Saitama-sensei. I will not go.”
“And what if I make you?”
Genos hadn’t expected that response, but he was still prepared for it.
“Even if you make me leave, I’ll just come back.”
“I could make it so you couldn’t come back.”
“Of course you could sensei, but you wouldn’t do that.”
For the first time in what felt like weeks, Saitama looked at Genos.
“You’re not afraid of me, are you?”
Genos took three steps forward, crossing a distance that had always been there, and he had always left between them until now. He took the strongest hands in the world in his own, and slowly held them to his chest. The soft hum of his core turned a bit louder.
“What you are capable of doing and what you do are two different things, sensei. So many people don’t understand that, but I know you, and I am not afraid of you.”
Genos waited for a response, waited like he always did, because he would always wait for him. Saitama did not remove his hands from where they were, and his eyes turned downwards to Genos’ chest.
“Your heart is very warm.”
It’s all he says before he moves closer, resting his head on Genos’ shoulder. He doesn’t comment on how the core gets louder, or when Genos wraps his arms around the man’s shoulders. Genos tucks the memory away in the back of his mind, hoping that one day he will think about it once things had gotten better.
~
When they came, they were scared and cautious. Almost all the S-Class heroes were there, and most of the Hero association board members. There were a few hired guards with guns, some may have been police.
Genos thought about attacking. He seriously considered it. He had been taught mercy by Saitama, but that was drowned by his rage. Only the hand on his shoulder could still his thoughts of destruction.
“You know, if there was a problem you could have just called.”
~
The prison had been build for Saitama and Saitama alone. It was cruel, outrageously cruel that it was underneath the Hero Association. Of course they didn’t call it a “prison”, they called it something like “special hero relocation” or “a confinement practice” and other ridiculous things. They had really tried to make it high security, but it was like locking a person in a paper box. It would never be able to actually hold Saitama.
“Ah, this isn’t so bad. It even looks a bit like an apartment.”
Genos looked at his teacher, his brave, kind, selfless, gentle teacher, and he broke. Oil slid down his cheeks, practically gushing and he could not for the life of him stop it. They dripped onto his shirt, on the floor, onto his shaking hands.
“Genos, hey, come on man why are you crying?”
Hands, smooth yet worn traced his cheekbones, and Genos couldn’t look up.
“Sen-s-“
He tried to breathe but it felt like his chest was clogged. An invisible weight pushed down on his core, and he sobbed harder. He hadn’t truly cried in years. He was ashamed of himself.
He was pulled, gently, cautiously, into the other man’s arms. Warm fingers hugged his metal back, and he closed his eyes to the smell of home.
He was only vaguely aware they were being watched, security cameras moving and people still behind them.
“Genos, you need to go.”
“No-
“Genos you have to keep helping people.”
“Fuck people. You saved their lives a thousand times and they threw you in here.”
He spit the words out into the air with all the venom in his heart while oil still fell from his eyes and his fingers gripped the soft cotton worn by the person he loved.
“Yeah, but I’d do it again. I’m stupid like that.”
“We can leave, we’ll just get away and I’ll follow you I’ll follow you anywhere Saitama-sensei please-
How pathetic that he couldn’t even finish a sentence. All the power he claimed to have and yet he was nothing but a mess of broken child.
“I have to stay here if it makes other people feel safe. And I have to stay in case I’m needed. Why are you so upset? This isn’t goodbye, hell I’m sure you can visit me just like any other prison. And someone has to take care of the cactus, that’s important.”
Genos still made no move to leave, and Saitama made no move to push him away. They clung together like wet leaves, one man with eyes dead to the world, the other with the face of someone whose whole world is being taken away.
“I love you, Saitama-sensei.”
“Stop sayin- wait what?”
He was only pulled back a little, enough for the other to look Genos in the eyes.
“I love you. You’re the most amazing person I’ve ever met, and I love you.”
“…Oh.”
There was a heartbreaking silence while oil still continued to fall, then-
“I had a feeling you did. I love you too though.”
He said it so calmly, just like he said the sky was blue or the birds were loud. But there was the hint of a smile on his face, the ghost of a happiness no longer available. And Genos did know Saitama, and he wouldn’t lie about something like this. It was a confirmation of being loved, and it was as wonderful as the situation was horrible.
A kiss, so quick and light he almost missed it, touched his forehead like butterfly wings.
“When you find that mad cyborg, you tell me, alright?”
Genos nodded, not trusting himself to speak. He tried wiping at his face, not really caring as it smeared. Warm, organic, solid hands brushed most of the oil away, and as they did the world fell away and memories replayed in his mind. His victories and his failures, his gains and losses, the times he had smiled, the reasons he had smiled. His family. The Doctor. His teacher. His love.
“Leave, for now. Help the ones I cant, then tell me about it.”
~
When the door closed, when brown eyes disappeared, Genos stopped crying. His tears were for Saitama, not the people that wanted him locked away. Bang met him on the first level, far above where he wanted to be. He brushed the hand on his shoulder off, not even looking at the old hero. He was no longer the boy that lost his family, nor the teenager looking solely for vengeance. He had spent years with the strongest, greatest man in the universe, and he had left behind his own hateful soul in favor of the humanity he thought lost. He walked out of the building, walked out of the city, walked to a small apartment in an abandoned city with dishes still drying and the sun just setting. His master had taught him that life was worth saving, worth sacrifice, but his master wasn’t here with him.
He hated the way the silence filled every crack of the room and every inch of his heart.
~
When the days turned into weeks, and the weeks to months, and eventually those months to years, the name “Saitama” became the name of a myth. For once there was a man so powerful he could destroy anything with just one punch, but he was too dangerous, so the heroes locked him up. But they say that from time to time when a great threat appears, the same man also appears and saves the world, only to disappear when it’s over. People have said it was a god, a being too powerful to be human, while others claim that there is another being that is always there, a being with metal skin and golden eyes, always saving people.
Always waiting for the other being, like a deeply devoted disciple, or someone very much in love.