~Chapter 6~

Opening the door to the apartment as quietly as he could, Genos blinked at the dim-lighted space before him. He could hear the TV still working, and he figured his master was probably still up, watching it.

"Where were you, dude?"

"Why were you acting so strangely?"

"Would you just tell me what the hell's going on, already?"

Swallowing hard, He prepared himself to face all of the inevitable questions.

Stepping inside and closing the door behind him, his serious expression quickly softened as his eyes shifted to the center of the room, where he found his bald master to be sound asleep on the coffee table in front of the loud TV, with his head rested on top of both of his gloved hands.

The cyborg stayed in his place for a few more moments, simply staring at him.

Moving right next to him, he quickly found the remote and turned the loud appliance off, his expression turning incredibly displeased as he noticed Saitama was still in his hero suit, which was covered with monster blood.

'Really, sensei.. At least take a shower before you sit down to watch TV..' He thought to himself, narrowing his eyes at the new stains which now decorated the carpet below the bald man.

The cyborg simply let out a deep sigh, then grabbed the nearest blanket to cover his sleeping master.

'I guess I should go get cleaned up myself..' He thought to himself, looking down at his own stained appearance.

Making his way to the bathroom, Genos quickly replaced his dirty garments with fresh new ones. He made sure to give them a slight wash before adding them to the dirty pile of clothing on the ground to prevent any foul smell that may surprise him the next day.

Then, he returned to his master's side, and quickly dozed off into sleep mode.

The following day started with the familiar loud siren warning everyone of an upcoming monster threat, which caused both of our two heroes to wake up all at once and barely have any time to eat breakfast. They did, however, manage to find some time to have one of them take a shower in order to get rid of his awful stench before they left to fight. There was no other choice; It was simply unbearable.

The cyborg simply waited at the door for his master to finish, making use of the time to do a double-check on all of his systems to make sure that everything was okay, just in case.

'We might be too late already..' He thought to himself, letting out a worried sigh.

"Genos I'm all cleaned!" The bald man suddenly declared, running out of the bathroom to his closet at full speed, managing to put on a full new, clean outfit at a remarkable record-breaking time of 0.05 seconds.

They both quickly stepped out of the apartment and made their way into the street, passing through a crowd of hysterical, screaming people running from the opposite direction.

"Sensei, its close." Genos determined, his expression serious and his eyes fixed on the distance.

He blinked as he suddenly realized something that he wasn't familiar with;

'This energy's not ordinary.. What's going on..?' He thought to himself, trying to somehow analyze what kind of monster they were up against, his eyes narrowing at its vague figure which could now be seen through the thick, dusty air before them.

They both decided to simply wait in their place for the strange beast to get closer.

"Hmm.. It sure is taking long." Saitama said, putting one hand on his waist, his expression confused.

Genos shifted his gaze to his master.

"Sensei, something's wrong." He said, grabbing the bald man's attention.

He blinked at his disciple.

"What do you mean?"

The cyborg shifted his gaze back and kept it fixed on the blurry figure at the distance.

"I'm getting disrupted, inconsistent readings from this creature." He explained, his expression turning serious, "I might be mistaken, but I don't think what we're both looking at here is the real thing."

The bald man's expression turned even more confused.

"Huh?" He asked, scratching his head.

"I shall demonstrate." Genos said, lifting his right hand at its direction and firing a powerful shot of fire, completely piercing through the dusty air and clearing it out to reveal.. Nothing. No monster.

'I knew it.' He thought to himself, a pleased smirk now showing on his face when he could confirm his theory was indeed correct.

"What the hell.. It's gone?" Saitama asked, staring wide eyed at where the figure had just stood.

Neither of them said anything for a few moments.

Then, the cyborg blinked as he suddenly realized.

'Could it be..?' He turned his attention to his master, "Sensei, it seemed to have been a diversion-"

Before he could manage to finish his sentence, a huge, incredibly strong gust of wind shot at both of their direction, knocking Genos back and crashing him into the wall far behind him.

Saitama simply stood his ground, staring wide eyed at whoever appeared before him.

"You!" The tall, floating woman called, her expression furious.

"Oh." The bald man blinked as he recognized Rank 1 of B-class; Blizzard of Hell.

Her expression only turned angrier at his indifference to the situation.

"Saitama!" She yelled, her green eyes glaring at him, "How dare you attack us like that?!"

Hearing this, Genos lifted himself from under the rubble which covered him completely. He raised his eyes to the furious woman in front of both him and his master, processing her question.

'She said we 'attacked' her? What is that woman talking about?' He asked himself, dusting his clothes off and stepping forward, closer in her direction.

"Genos only fired his attack at the monster, though." Saitama explained, scratching his bald head.

"There was no monster, you idiot!" The woman suddenly shot at him, gritting her teeth, "It was an obvious hologram. A distraction to appear before heroes and make them fire at it so their attack could only cause destruction to the city. And you both fell for it, carelessly firing your shot at its direction and almost hurting a few of my group members!"

Genos' eyes widened at her words.

'I almost hurt.. Her group members..?' He thought to himself, his expression quickly turning worried.

Not only did his attack almost accidentally hit humans, but the Blizzard Group of all people..?

"Look-" Saitama started, only for his words to get cut off by his disciple;

"I apologize." The cyborg quickly said, both of his hands clenching into a fist, "My attack was indeed too rash. I never meant to hurt you or any of your group members."

He suddenly found himself desperately wanting to confirm that Lily was indeed okay after his reckless act.

But how would he do that without looking suspicious? Or maybe it was already time to pull the plug on this whole secret? But this was certainly not the place or time..

His mind was in a turmoil.

'What do I do..?' He asked himself.

"Its fine." Fubuki suddenly said, grabbing his attention, "My group members were skilled enough to dodge your attack, so none of them got hurt." She lowered her hands at both of her sides, her expression softening, yet still angry.

Hearing this, Genos let out a sigh.

"I see." He said.

The woman shifted her attention to Saitama, who was simply staring at his disciple in silence.

"You're his master," she called to him, making him look at her direction, "It's your duty to keep him away from recklessness. Keep that in mind!" And with that, she flew back at the direction where she came from.

Neither of them said anything for a while.

"Man, she was pissed." Saitama said, rubbing the back of his neck.

Genos lowered his gaze to his feet.

'I need to be more careful.' He determined to himself, suddenly feeling very conscious of his actions.

Noticing his disciple was looking incredibly worried, the bald man reached his hand and patted him on his back.

"Genos, its okay. It happens." He reassured him, smiling at him, "Learn from your mistakes and move on."

The cyborg lifted his gaze to his master.

"Yes, sensei.." He said.

Walking through the familiar Hero Association HQ's hallway, the cyborg was lost in his thoughts.

It has already been a week since that incident with the fake monster, yet somehow, Genos found himself unable to shake the guilty feeling off. Time only seemed to make it worse, even, as it kept throwing him back into that day; that single moment before he had made that mistake, making him think of a thousand other options to demonstrate what he meant to his master in a different, far smarter way.

He felt ashamed.

But why.. was he feeling this bad about the whole thing?

He had made reckless decisions in the past, and just as his master said, he learned from his mistakes and moved on. But this one bothered him immensely. Too much, even.

He swallowed hard.

'I can't let that mistake occupy my every thought like that.' He thought to himself, his metal hand clenching into a fist, 'I must let it go already.'

Then, just as he made his turn around the corner, he was bumped by a short person, and his face was filled with two, white lilies and their pleasant smell.

"Ow!" The girl called, taking a step back and holding her aching nose which hit against hard, warm metal.

As she lifted her gaze to apologize to whoever she just ran into, her blue eyes widened.

"Genos!" She called, accidentally forgetting to control her voice, and quickly raising both of her hands to cover her mouth.

Luckily for the both of them, not even one hero was in sight.

"Lily.." The cyborg said, surprised.

Then, his expression turned serious.

"What are you doing here?" He asked, watching her closely.

The girl looked all around her to check once again if any of her group members were in sight.

"I came to find you." She said, raising her gaze back to him, "Come with me."

Reaching for his hand, the girl grabbed it and pulled him after her as she started stepping in an unknown direction.

The cyborg's eyes widened at her unexpected actions.

'She came to find me..?' He processed her words, his eyes fixing on her hold on him.

"Where are we going?" He asked, his expression turning confused.

Lily turned her head at his direction.

"This is the main hallway, we're going somewhere quieter. Just come with me, okay?" She answered, her expression unreadable.

Genos stared at her for a few moments in silence as the girl turned back to face forward.

'She looks.. angry.' He thought to himself, swallowing hard, the familiar guilty feeling quickly filling him up, once again.

A/N: Fubuki makes an angry appearance :)

And a slight cliff-hanger there as well, what's Lily thinking?

*finnjake, Hispanicin, Carlmike94 - Thank you!

*ApexUtopia - Well, Fubuki doesn't fancy Saitama, so that fact affects her members as well. And we shall see about the development! ^^(But you just gave me a brand new idea, so thanks.)

*BakedPopsicles - Thanks! I'm glad to know you like how I write her character. ^^