Title: Love

Synopsis: Despite living for over two hundred years, Czeslaw Meyer would never hit puberty, and would never be able to truly understand love. /Drabble/

Rating: T

A/N: My first Baccano! Fic! Yay! This was inspired by Czes's character bio on Wikipedia, in which it states 'Despite being around 230 years old in 1931, he remains a child, his body destined to never enter puberty.' I read that, laughed, and then got the idea for this (rather short) story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Baccano! because if I did, the novels would have been released in the US.

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Czeslaw Meyer had been alive for over two hundred years and he had never once had a crush on a girl.

Not once had he even looked at a girl and thought 'Oh wow! She's a keeper!' or 'Man, that broad has got nice tits.' Like most men did at some point in their lives.

It's just that he had never been interested in women yet. He was too young when he was turned into an immortal. Because of that, he would never hit puberty and therefore, never really care much for the opposite sex. It wasn't that he was asexual or anything, it was just that he wasn't mature enough to be concerned with matters of that sort. Because of this Czeslaw, despite living for such a long time would never have some of the things that many children looked forward to.

He'd never go out to the movies with a girl that he liked and try to put his arm around her shoulders.

He'd never have his first kiss awkwardly in the back of said movie theater during the credits of that movie.

He'd never get drunk one night and end up with some random girl that he didn't know in his bed with no clue how she got there or what sort of diseases she may have had.

In fact, Czeslaw would never have sex.

Czeslaw would never fall in love and would never get married, either.

Not that he particularly minded; Czeslaw had read all of the books, seen all of the movies and watched all of the television he could having to do with the idea of love, and it honestly seemed like it never got anyone anywhere. This phenomenon of love only seemed to make people do incredibly stupid things and risk their lives and reputations for no specific reason. For a blood relative, or at least a relative like Ennis was to him, Czeslaw could sort of understand doing risky and stupid things, but for someone who was in no way related to and you and who your passion would cool down for in a few weeks? That was a ridiculous notion.

Then again, there was something rather sweet about the way that Jacuzzi looked at Nice and how Isaac caressed Miria. When he saw those couples, or people like Firo and Ennis, even, love didn't seem like such a bad thing. In fact, when with their significant person, they seemed more whole than they did alone.

But then he remembered Sylvie's tears over Gretto's death on the Advenna Avis, and he rethought everything once again. If losing someone like that could make you so miserable, then why would you even bother with love in the first place?

Love seemed to be one of those things that a person had to experience for himself first hand in order to understand. Being familiar with familial love, Czeslaw could understand that, but a love between two non-related people would forever be a mystery to the boy who was doomed to never hit puberty.

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Fin