You stare at him every day, trying to burn his image into your memories. If there ever comes a day when your machinery falls to ruins, you want the memories of him to be the only thing that remains in your hard drives. You swear to yourself that it would never ever come to that.
You write down the words that flow melodiously from his mouth. Nothing is ever too mundane, nothing too insignificant. Everything is profound and important. Nothing must be left behind.
You find joy in making him smile. Even the slightest twitch of his lips gets your senses flaring. You don't actually have a heart anymore, or you're sure it would beat faster each time he's near.
You cook his favorite dishes; you remind him of the sale days in the supermarkets, you help around the house. You do it all just to see his smile. He looks at you fondly on certain days, and that's all you need. Some days he thanks you for all that you do and you want to tell him that you would do anything for him. You would. He just needs to ask.
Every night, you get to be by his side. It's just lying down in the futon beside him, and yet you know that your place is by his right side. Even if the world is against him, you would stand by him.
"Sensei," you say, and he turns to you. "Ah?" he says, scratching his belly.
The words come unbidden. "I love you," Genos says.
That's when it all changes.
Saitama didn't really know when it began. When was it that he started seeing Genos as something different?
He didn't like men. He was sure about that. He could never get off to magazines of pretty boys or all those men with bulging muscles. Did Genos count? He was more robot than man wasn't he?
Saitama mulled over this for several days. He liked girls. He had even gone out with a few when he still had hair. They had all left him after a few dates, when he had become too poor to bring them out often. Most of them complained that he was too distant. Saitama had no idea what that even meant!
Genos was always there. Even when Saitama didn't want him around, that robot would find his way to Saitama. He had found it annoying at first, but he got used to it. It was easy. He would turn to his side, and Genos would be there. It was pleasing, and somehow it settled something in Saitama.
He found that he liked having Genos around. Genos would leave the apartment sometimes when he got his upgrades. Saitama found the emptiness of his apartment to be overbearing. He would miss the near-silent whirrs of Genos' machinery. The sound of the pen scratching on the paper when Genos wrote down the ridiculous things Saitama would make off the top of his head. Even the sound of Genos tinkling around in the kitchen while he tried to make something new for Saitama would bring a smile to his face.
Goddammit. When did he start to have feelings for this cyborg?
Saitama would just ignore it. It would probably go away. Genos would find someone. A cyborg girl probably. Or someone from his fanclub. That was all there was to it. Nothing to be upset about. He was a grown man! And a hero!
Yes, he would ignore it, Saitama decided. Ahh. He stretched on the floor, and placed his manga down. Tomorrow was Sales day, and he would go with Genos to get some high-quality crabs. They had been saving for that.
He turned to look at Genos who had been writing furiously in his notebook as he always did. Saitama wondered if Genos was sketching Saitama yet again.
"Sensei," Genos spoke up then.
"Ah?" Saitama scratched his stomach. They should probably get some kombu tomorrow too.
"I love you," Genos said and Saitama stared at him.
What?