Valentine's day, for most it is seen as the perfect time of the year to go all out in showing one's affection towards another person, whether it be through a date, a gift, or some grand gesture. For others the day is seen more so like a stealth mission one might find in a secret agent movie or video game, as this is the one time of the year where their confessions of love and secret admiration will be accepted warmly and not turned away. Then you had people like Fubuki whose situation was rather unique as the person who had her heart was none other than Saitama, and while he was indeed aware of her feelings for him she knew he appreciated how she didn't make things weird or tried to complicate their friendship by making it more than it was. This in turn made it quite difficult for her to show her affection towards him, for while she respected his desire to keep things simple she still wanted to show how she felt about him in some way, especially for Valentine's Day.
But in order to achieve this goal she would need to go about it in a way that was both causal and unsuspecting, she needed a way to spend the day with him while making it seem like they were just hanging out and not doing anything romantic. And while at first this might seem fairly easy given there are a plentiful amount of activities she could choose from for them to partake in, at the same time this would all be happening on Valentine's Day where nearly EVERY business and person would be trying to make whatever they did tie into the holiday. Additionally Saitama was a known recluse when it came to days like this as his fans could get rather insane even by their standards, so she would somehow have to ensure that if they did go out and do something no attention would be brought to them. Then of course there were their friends to consider when making these plans too, not to mention her sister and Mutsuko who would ring her out to dry if they learned what she was planning behind their backs.
Thankfully though unlike the rest of their group Fubuki had an advantage unique to her and her alone, she had The Blizzard Group! With the help of her group she would be able to plan the perfect day that both her and Saitama could enjoy, as the group would be split into different teams to ensure it. First there was the diversion team who arguably was the most important, as their job was to keep the others from finding out what was really happening which would be incredibly difficult. Next was the damage control team, their job was to keep the public in check as she and Saitama went about their day of activities.
Finally you had the support team which consisted of three smaller teams, two of which would be dedicated to the two aforementioned teams while the third would remain at their headquarters. All in all Fubuki was as determined as she possibly could be to "hang" out with Saitama for the day, and with the aid of her group it seemed like nothing could stop them. At least that's what they chose to focus on, instead of thinking about the wrath they might all incur from their leader's sister if they got found out, but if it meant she could have the perfect Valentine's day then it would be worth the effort.
"Mhm, copy that." Mountain Ape replied to another member of the group via earpiece, before he looked to Fubuki "All preparations are complete." He told her.
Come the fateful day when everything was set to happen, Fubuki would be taken to Saitama's place by her car with the likes of Mountain Ape, Eyelashes, and Lily to accompany her.
"Good." She replied, though a bit lack luster as if she were distracted.
"Is something wrong ma'am?" Eyelashes asked, taking notice.
"Do you...do you guys really want to do this?" She asked, catching them all by surprise "I mean, you're basically just helping me go out on a date, surely you want to be doing something else today right?"
"No ma'am!" All three exclaimed in unison causing her eyes to widen "You are our leader miss Blizzard! and above all else your well being and happiness are what is most important!" Mountain Ape insisted.
"Exactly! plus it would be AMAZING if you and One Punch Man actually hit it off today and fall madly in love with each other!" Lily added, seeming to be a bit too excited about that idea.
"Plus think about the group's image, if you're able to win over his heart and you both become an item, then he'll be a part of the blizzard group, imagine how well that would help us!" Eyelashes suggested.
"I don't know if it'd ever happen like that, but that is something I hadn't considered." Fubuki admitted "But my feelings for him are not based on anything else than themselves, and I don't want him to ever think otherwise." She asserted.
"Of course not, we're just saying that besides making you happy this can benefit all of us, so there's no reason not to help you as much as we can like always." Mountain Ape said with a smile.
"Though...it does help that none of us HAD any plans for today..." Lily mentioned, as all three of them let out a slightly disappointed sigh.
Feeling a smile of her own come to her face Fubuki was glad that her group actually did want to help her, and this wasn't just her slightly abusing her role as the leader.
"We're here miss Blizzard!" The driver said from the front as the car came to a stop.
"Alright, showtime." Fubuki said as she opened her door.
"Good luck ma'am, and don't you worry about a thing we have it all under control." Mountain Ape assured as she stepped out, Eyelashes and Lily nodding in agreement.
"Thanks, and good luck to you too." She replied before she shut the door.
Waiting for the car to drive away before she headed up the building's stairwell, as she stood outside of Saitama's apartment she found herself freezing up, just like she did the first time she ever came here.
"Okay keep your cool Fubuki, you're just going to hang out with him today, it's not going to be romantic or weird it's just two friends hanging out together..." She lied to herself as she took a breath to calm her nerves "Okay, here we go."
Knocking but a few times on the door in hopes he was awake, the sound of approaching footsteps was soon heard followed by the door's knob being turned.
"Oh, hey Fubuki." Saitama, still dressed in pajamas greeted once it was open "What're you doing here?" He asked.
"Well Saitama, I thought that since today is Valentine's Day that we could maybe-"
"Wait, are you here to ask me out?" He asked cutting her off, causing any bit of composure she had to disappear instantly.
"W-WHAT?! NO! OF COURSE NOT!" She shouted in reply, her face becoming immensely flushed.
"Phew, okay good." He said with a sigh of relief "So why did you come by then?" He asked.
"W-Well..." She stammered, doing her best to calm herself "I thought that since...since you and I both don't have anything planned for today, that we could maybe hangout, STRICTLY as friends of course nothing more!" She explained.
Silence fell between them as Saitama was considering her suggestion, and even though he didn't have some kind of uncertain expression on his face, Fubuki still worried he might say no and make all of her planning be for nothing.
"To be honest, it's not like I had anything planned for today anyways." He admitted as a small smile came to his face "Yeah sure we can hangout, just let me go get changed okay?" He asked.
"Of course, no need to rush or anything." She assured him.
Retreating back into his apartment to get into some proper clothes, Fubuki once the door was closed suddenly regained all of her confidence as a smirk came to her face.
"Perfect! phase one is complete, now all we need to do is stick to my schedule and everything will work out just fine, so long as none of the others find out." Fubuki thought proudly.
"Fubuki?" The voice of Kaemon asked from beside her, causing her to jump in surprise.
Looking to her left Fubuki saw an extremely sleepy looking Kaemon just barely poking their head from inside their apartment, no doubt having been woken up by her previous shouting.
"What's going on?..." They asked, not even bothering to open their eyes.
"Oh uh, nothing's going on Kaemon, go back to sleep." She told them.
"...Okay." They replied as they shut their door.
"One down, four more to go." She thought as her smirk returned to her "King should be pretty easy to divert, Genos will be a little stubborn, but Mutsuko and Tatsumaki are going to be near impossible, hopefully they won't try coming here till the day's nearly over..."
"Oh this is just so exciting!" Mutsuko exclaimed as she, King, and Genos all walked down the street.
Though none of them planned on going to Saitama's together they all somehow managed to run into each other at the same time, ironically enough when all of them were buying something. With King it was a brand new dating sim that was scheduled to release today that he thought Saitama might enjoy to help kill time, from there as he headed to City Z he ran into Genos who was buying some manga he thought Saitama might enjoy to help kill time, then as they got closer to the district he lived in they ran into Mutsuko who was buying chocolate.
"You do know he probably won't accept that right?" King asked as he pointed to the heart shaped box she held in her hands "Saitama's never been one to care about Valentine's day, especially after his fans made it worse." He explained.
"Yeah but it's not like I'm intending for something to happen, like I'm not expecting him to kiss me or to say he loves me or anything, this is just my first Valentine's day and the tradition is for the girl to give the guy chocolate so I bought him some." She replied "Besides, you both bought him stuff too so it's not like I'll stand out or anything."
"True, but I was already planning to get this game, and Genos just thought of buying the manga on his way here." King argued.
Rounding the next street corner all three would find themselves coming to a stop and their conversation ended, as they were met with the sight of two people dressed in construction attire wearing gas masks standing in front of a roadblock with their arms crossed.
"Sorry, but the road's closed for today." The one on the left told them, though a bit muffled due to the mask "As are all other roads leading into the area."
"Um...why?" King asked, as there seemed to be no problems that they could see.
"Potential gas leak, extremely poisonous and highly flammable, until the area's been thoroughly investigated and cleared no one is allowed to pass." The same one explained.
"But doesn't gas just dissipate once it reaches the outside air?" Mutsuko asked.
"Yes, and it also loses it's density as it get's further from the source, making it less likely to pose a threat." Genos answered.
"Look, we don't make the rules we just enforce them, now all three of you need to turn around and walk away." The one on the right instructed.
"You do know One Punch Man lives in this district though right?" King asked.
"Your point?" The one on the left questioned.
"If there was a gas leak big enough to close off an entire district he'd be told about it, as would I since I'm an S class hero." King explained.
"Yeah, and we're A class soooooo..." Mutsuko chimed in as she rocked back and forth on her heels.
"Hero status has nothing to do with this, this is a matter of the city itself not of some criminal, monster, or threat to the world, it is our job to deal with it simple as that." The same one explained "Now I think we've been patient enough, please turn around and leave." They instructed once more.
"I dunno, this whole thing seems fishy to me." King said as he put a hand to his chin "You know, I remember one time when a bunch of One Punch Man's fans came up with this scheme to meet him, and how they did it was they disguised themselves as construction workers who claimed his building needed to be inspected." He explained as he leaned in to look at them more closely "After that didn't work no one tried anything like it again, cause they figured if it didn't work once it wouldn't work a second timr, but I wonder..." He trailed off, hoping to intimidate them.
Suddenly though almost as if on cue the entire street behind the roadblock suddenly exploded, catching King and the others off guard.
"Whelp, looks like a pipe's exploded." The one on the right said casually, neither they nor their partner seeming to be affected "Now the street's REALLY unusable, and who knows if another pipe or even a building could explode next." They said.
Again as if on cue a building behind them a few doors down suddenly exploded.
"Well would you look at that, things really are getting crazy huh?" The one on the left said, though didn't even turn around to look at it "So unless you all want to be cooked extra rare, please turn around and leave us to do our job." They instructed for a third time.
Looking at the raging inferno that happened behind the two, the trio of heroes did find the notion they were lying or faking to be completely ridiculous now, as blowing up a street or building just for the sake of meeting Saitama would be insane.
"Uh...right, sorry for the trouble..." King apologized, still a bit shocked from what just happened "We'll just be going now..."
"Alright then, have a good day, and happy Valentine's!" The one on the right called out as they took their leave.
Waiting until they turned the corner and were definitely out of earshot the two workers then finally looked behind them at the still raging flames.
"Alright, the coast is clear, you can clean up." The one on the left said.
Much like a movie set Blizzard group members suddenly came out of the nearby buildings and began to put out the flames, as they did it was revealed that the building and the street hadn't actually exploded, but were made to look so thanks to multiple projectors that had been set up all throughout the other buildings. As for the fire itself that was actually real and so were the explosions, however the explosions were caused by a chemical reaction that while looked and felt like real explosions, were essentially just optical illusions.
"Good thing Kanako's a special effect's master huh?" The one on the left said as they watched, referring to one of their fellow members.
"Yeah, without her I don't think we could've pulled off something this good." The one on the right agreed.
Taking off their masks so that they could speak without issue both workers revealed themselves to be Eyelashes and Lily.
"Hopefully Mountain Ape's job is going well too." Lily said with a contented sigh, as it felt nice to take off that mask.
"Yeah, though I'm fairly certain thanks to his size that he wont have to do much to keep the peace." Eyelashes replied.
"How is it Saitama?" Fubuki asked as she watched him take a bite of his food.
After he was finished getting dressed Fubuki took Saitama to a cafe she knew about in City Z, where the pastries they served were said to be divine in taste. She chose to start their day off by getting some brunch as that would come across as completely casual and not romantic, and as for anything Valentine's related besides a few heart shaped cookies for sale, there wasn't anything that just screamed LOVE. But this was still a fairly public venue in a fairly public place, so in order to ensure they would not be bothered or disturbed Mountain Ape, who was in charge of the security team, was to go to each destination before they arrived and wait for them. Thanks to his status as the third highest ranking B class hero as well as a member of the Blizzard group, anyone who saw him knew that if he was there then the blizzard of hell couldn't be too far behind.
And while everyone who was watching or had seen Saitama and Fubuki together wanted to ask questions, such as if they were on a date or not, one stern glare from the massive man quickly told them that if they overstepped their boundaries, they would have to deal with him. He wouldn't do anything of course, but the mere intimidation was enough to get the job done.
"It's good." He answered, though a bit muffled as he was chewing "It's really flaky, but not in a bad way, plus they're really soft and sweet." He described.
"I'm glad you like them." She replied with a smile as she picked up one of her own "I just recently came across this place when I was coming over one day, thought that we all could check it out as a group." She explained.
"Eh, it'd be kinda weird for a group of people to go to a cafe." He said as he swallowed his bite "Usually cafes are meant for like, two or three people."
"True." She agreed as she took a bite.
"So, what else are we gonna do besides eat pastries?" He asked, curious of what she might have planned.
"Well, considering it's Valentine's day there's not a lot we can honestly do without drawing attention to ourselves or getting pulled into the whole theme of today, but I do know of a few places that we can check out where neither will be an issue." She explained after she swallowed.
"Man, you really do know a lot about the city, even though you don't live here." He noted.
"That's because whenever I come over I always take a different route, so I can maybe find something that might interest me." She explained.
"Oh." He sounded in reply.
Though she wasn't lying she wasn't being entirely truthful either, as the only reason she knew about this cafe and the other places they were going to after, was because she for this day spent HOURS looking through every possible location to find the best ones. But so far the effort to do so was paying off in earnest, as they were not only spending the day together but there hadn't been any interruptions or problems so far, making it seem like everything would go according to plan.
"Hey baldy!" Tatsumaki called from outside his door as she knocked on it a few times.
Even though as time went on she became a bit softer towards Saitama and the others she still had a VERY adversarial personality, combine this with her short fuse and something as small and insignificant as being ignored could easily set her off. This was what she believed was happening in this moment, as she came by to spend the day with Saitama to make it all go by faster, she found herself not being met with any reply though she knew for a fact he was in there, given that he never left his apartment on days like this.
"You have exactly three seconds to open the door." She warned as she crossed her arms "Otherwise you'll need a new one."
Thankfully, before this could go any further the door to Kaemon's apartment opened slowly, followed by the still sleepy occupant poking their head out.
"Why is everyone shouting so much?..." They asked as a yawn escaped them "I thought you guys didn't like today..."
"Go back to sleep Kaemon." She told them with a dismissive wave of her hand "I'm just waiting for Saitama to open the door."
"But he's not here." They replied, immediately gaining her full focus.
Thankfully before the conversation could go any further Eyelashes and Lily burst out from the building's stairwell, both seeming to be out of breath.
"M-Miss tornado..." Eyelashes spoke while panting, doing his best to catch his breath "W-We're so glad we caught you..."
"Who're you?" She asked, barely caring to hear the response.
"We're part of the Blizzard group." Lily answered, causing the other to roll her eyes.
"Oh you're my sister's lackeys, got it." She replied "So what're you two doing here then?" She asked.
"Miss blizzard told us to wait for you if you came by, she wanted us to tell you that both her and One Punch Man aren't here." Eyelashes answered.
"...What." She said simply, though her tone and neutral expression hinted at potential rage.
"They went back to hq to spend the day together, they thought that since neither of them had any plans they could just hangout together." Lily explained.
Before either of them could even blink Tatsumaki was suddenly in front of them, causing them in response to jump back from surprise.
"Where?" She asked, clearly doing her best to keep calm.
"City B." They both answered in unison.
Not saying another word Tatsumaki took off into the sky and flew away, leaving them both alone to breathe a sigh of relief.
"Thank GOD we caught her..." Eyelashes sighed as he put a hand to his chest.
"Miss Blizzard told us she would probably fly here, I just didn't think it'd be that fast..." Lily replied "How long do you think we have until she realizes we lied to her?" She asked.
"Long enough for us to get back to hq and hide from her until the day is over, so we better hurry." He answered.
And with that the diversion team's job was done for the time being, leaving them with nothing more than to go back to their base and wait for their leader to return. As for Kaemon, who had still been present during that whole exchange but was simply ignored, they kept their head outside of the door for a few seconds longer before going back inside.
"I hate valentine's day..." They muttered as they shut the door.
"Come on come on!" Saitama exclaimed as he rapidly pressed the buttons on an arcade game's console "Damn it!" He exclaimed in frustration as he got a game over.
After finishing their brunch the next stop for their day was an arcade that was only ten minutes away. But unlike most arcades this one didn't just have video games, it also had claw games, skee ball, and so on, giving it a nice variety. And while for the most part there wasn't too much that either of them could do together, Fubuki's plan was to get him to play a claw game and win her a prize, but doing so without seeming weird was going to be a challenge. As for Mountain Ape, he did his best to be incognito so that Saitama wouldn't notice him, and even though he was doing a good job by actually playing some of the games and not just standing around somewhere, he was an incredibly massive man so it was still challenging.
But thankfully Saitama seemed far too focused on the games he and Fubuki were playing, either alone or even for some of them together, which she admittedly enjoyed because she got to stand right next to him.
"Seems pretty difficult." Fubuki noted "But you still managed to get a highscore." She added.
"Yeah, but I didn't come close to King's." He replied as he pointed to the top of the screen, where the initials "Kng" sat atop of the list.
"Wait, Kng is King?!" She questioned as she looked around them "But that's on all of the games we've played!" She exclaimed.
"Yeah, King is so cool." He said as he finished putting in his initials "So, what should we play now?" He asked.
Upon hearing this Fubuki deciding that now was the perfect time to try and get him to win her a stuffed animal, began to look around until she saw a claw machine that had an abundance of them.
"Why don't we try a claw game?" She suggested as they began walking over.
"Eh, there's not that much skill to these things, they're all rigged." He replied.
"Still they are pretty fun, especially when you win something." She reasoned as she looked inside.
Looking over the sea of plush toys that awaited on the other side of the glass, as she looked for the perfect one she saw in the corner an adorable brown teddy with a red bow around it's neck.
"I'll try it first." She told him as she put in a few coins to start it.
Moving the claw around in a somewhat vague way as to not give away that she had already chosen what she wanted, as the game's timer slowly got closer to zero she eventually moved it to the corner and pressed the button. Now, normally it would be relative chance whether or not she would actually grab the bear or not, but to ensure success she subtly used her power to move the crane's hand just enough, to where it couldn't be noticed and she wouldn't get the bear.
"Aw, that was so close." She complained with fake disappointment "I'll give it another go then you try it, sound good?" She suggested.
"Sure." He simply replied as he watched.
Putting in more coins this time she went straight for the bear, but instead of pressing it immediately she fidgeted with the stick to make it seem like she was looking for the right angle, when in reality if she wanted she could just hoist the thing out of the machine.
"And...there." She said, as she pressed the button.
Just like before, right as the claw neared the bear and it seemed like it might be grabbed, a subtle nudge to the left caused it to fall just a small bit off of the toy, resulting in another miss.
"Guess I'm just no good at this." She said with a sigh as she stepped aside "Your turn."
"Don't feel too bad Fubuki, like I said these things are just about chance." He told her as he stepped forward "But if you want I could try and get you that bear." He offered.
"You don't have to do that Saitama, you should go for whatever you want." She offered.
"Yeah, but there's nothing I really want in here it's mostly just stuffed animals, so I'll go for the bear and you can have it." He explained as he put in the coins.
Watching him move the claw over to the bear and just instantly press the button, even though Fubuki wanted him to win it on his own she knew that it might take a while if she did nothing, so for the third time she subtly changed it's course to be spot on with it.
"Oh wow, I got it." He said slightly amazed, as he fully expected to lose.
"Guess the odds were in your favor huh Saitama?" She asked as the claw carried the bear from it's place to the drop box.
Waiting until it was released and fell into the small space below, Saitama reached inside, pulled it out, and gave it to Fubuki.
"Here you go." He said as she took it from him "Like it?" He asked.
"Mhm, it's very cute." She answered as she looked it over "Thank you Saitama."
"Hey, what're friends for?" He asked as he looked around them "I think we've played most of the games here though, wanna move onto something else?"
"Sounds good." She replied.
Taking their leave the duo's next destination would be a park near the center of the city, and while most would think it'd be crowded during a day like Valentine's it was actually quite vacant, as most people were no doubt spending today with their significant other. Thankfully this not only gave them a great deal of privacy but also made Mountain Ape's job of keeping the peace much easier, as he could just sit on a bench that was relatively close but far enough so they could still be alone.
"Why're we at a park?" Saitama asked as he looked around "Is there something happening here?"
"No, I just thought that since we've been to a cafe and an arcade already, that we could maybe use a bit of a pause is all." Fubuki replied "If you don't want to stay though we could go somewhere else." She suggested.
"No it's fine, was just wondering is all." He assured her, placing his hands behind his head as they walked "So...Fubuki."
"Yes Saitama?" She responded.
"This...this isn't an actual date right?" He asked causing her eyes to widen.
"W-What? no of course not! like I said it's just two friends hanging out is all, nothing more!" She exclaimed in a bit of a frenzied fashion, obviously flustered "W-Why would you ask that?" She asked.
"Dunno, just seems like what we've been doing all day has been pretty...datey?" He answered, unable to come up with a word to describe it "I mean we started at a cafe right? which is pretty normal, but then we went to an arcade and I won you that bear, and now we're walking through a park together, just seems like it could be a date is all." He explained.
"Well it's not, I know how you feel about relationships...at least I think I do, and I know you wouldn't want to be in one with one of your friends aka me, so it's not a date just us hanging out." She insisted "But out of curiosity...why aren't you in a relationship? you're the top ranking hero of S class and the most famous person in the whole world, there's a whole bunch of people who'd throw themselves at you." She pointed out.
"Eh, it's for two reasons really." He began as he held up a finger "The first is because it's not something I want to focus on right now ya know? I'm fine with just being a hero and relaxing and hanging out with my friends."
"And the second?" She asked.
"I don't think anyone would be able to be in a relationship with me." He answered as he looked up to the sky "Ever since I became this strong, things have just gotten really boring for me, to the point where I can barely feel emotion anymore, so even if I did find someone who I wanted to be with I wouldn't be there like, emotionally, and that wouldn't be fair to the other person." He explained.
Taking a moment to think on what he said Fubuki hadn't really considered that all too much, sure she and the others were well aware of Saitama's inability to feel emotion most of the time, but something she, Tatsumaki, and Mutsuko hadn't realized was that if they did somehow get into a relationship with him, he wouldn't be able to return their feelings with his own all the time, if at all.
"That...does make sense." She agreed "It wouldn't be fair to the other person if you couldn't return their feelings completely."
"Right, so for now at least I'm fine with being single, I've got my apartment, I'm a hero, and I've got friends, what more do I need?" He asked.
"Plus you're immensely wealthy." She added causing him to sigh.
"Yeah don't remind me, I told the association that if they wanted they could not pay me for a while, but they insist on doing it so I've just got this massive stockpile of cash sitting in a bank or something." He explained.
"Mind if I borrow some money then?" She asked playfully as she nudged his side.
"Eh, you don't loan money to friends, makes things awkward." He told her, causing her to laugh.
"True." She agreed.
Continuing their walk through the park until they decided to stop, they went on to spend the rest of the day just going to different stores and seeing all of what was for sale. From books and manga, to movies and video games, to clothes and outfits, and even just some browsing in an open food market, for the next several hours they didn't focus on finding one particular thing to do to pass the time, they just simply enjoyed spending that time with each other. But sadly all good things never last forever, and so as the sun began to set over the horizon the duo found themselves back at Saitama's apartment.
"Today was nice." Fubuki said as they stopped at his door "We should do it again sometime." She suggested.
"Yeah, sounds good." He agreed as he opened his door "To be honest, this has been the best Valentine's day I can remember, no stress about not having a girlfriend or anything, just hanging out with a friend." He said as he stepped inside "Wanna come in and hang out here for a bit?" He offered.
"Thank you, but I need to get back to my group and see how they've kept themselves busy all day." She replied "See you tomorrow?" She asked.
"Mhm, see ya." He answered before closing the door.
Standing there for a minute or two as to reflect on the day she had, Fubuki ever so carefully hugged her new bear to her chest, a smile present on her face.
"Miss Blizzard." Mountain Ape spoke, as he stepped out of the building's stairwell "The car's here, ready to go?" He asked.
"Yes." She simply answered as she walked over "How did the others do?" She asked.
"Everything went according to plan ma'am, though we think tornado might know what happened." He answered.
"Well it couldn't be COMPLETELY perfect, but still she didn't interrupt so it was a success nonetheless." She replied as she looked at her bear "And it was without question the best Valentine's Day ever." She said, a contented smile present on her face.