01: Four Years
Warning! We got another 9k monster here! Please do take breaks if you need it.
Well, we're off to a bit of slow start here in this first chapter, but we're building up there!
Enjoy!
Genos kept his remaining eye averted from the person standing above his ruined remains, a bit ashamed of his latest failure. She crossed her arms, pushing up her bosom, and rose an eyebrow at him, "Honestly Genos..." Kagome dropped her arms and bent down, gathering some small parts, "You're such a pain in the ass." She grabbed an unattached leg and dragged it close behind.
He couldn't resist. A little desperate to lightened the sour air she carried, he cheekily added "Yes, but I'm your pain in the ass."
"You're not wrong." She remarked, pouring the metal pieces into the dented shopping cart she found in the rubble-there's always one near no matter where Genos went-with care, "Still, you're too reckless!" Kagome twirled at her boyfriend, now sitting up on what left of his waist via the remaining arm, "You nearly died!"
"And that is precisely why I am studying under a teacher now." Genos nodded, with complete sincerity in his smooth, human voice.
Kagome narrowed her eyes on him, even as she tossed an arm under his and wound another under his waist, and unbowed her knees. Genos wrenched a grip upon her shoulder to give better support, somewhat embarrassed by having his Kagome carrying him around like a bride. She didn't struggle with his weight, though she left behind deeper footprints in the gray-black dust left behind by Genos' flames among the broken concrete.
"Oof," Kagome grunted when she unloaded the cyborg into the cart with his legs and what left of other unmentionable parts. She rested her arms on the dense line of steel from the trolley and stared into her idiot beau's sole eagle eye, "Okay, who?" She bit back a groan when she saw a familiar twitch in Genos' mouth. Even when his face was all but cracked and broken, she always could see that twitch coming from miles away.
"His name is Saitama," Genos began. Kagome gave him a droll stare, urging him to go on. She twirled away and grabbed the handle, "I'm only alive now because of him. He's the third person to save my life." He started.
"Who's the second?" Kagome asked, genuinely curious, as she finally began to push.
Her boyfriend smiled up at her, "You, of course!" Her cheeks flushed.
"Oh, I see..." Kagome quieted, now feeling a need to deflect the subject away from herself lest he go into a heartfelt rant about her, "Okay, keep going." She encouraged him to continue on of this new mentor.
"I've never seen strength quite like it before." Genos gestured to the blood drenched building not too far away, "That was the enemy over there. He did that to her just by one hit. A slap to be precise." Kagome's eyes bugged out of her sockets.
"Wait, that was just a slap?" She yelped, her expression was enriched with disbelief at the sight of the large splatter of blood leaking down from the brown bricks.
He nodded seriously, "Yes, he just hit her like it was nothing. I've never seen anything like it." The boy's face contorted as Kagome went over a bump in the torn up road, "He's the third person who's saved my life. You and Doctor Kuseno were the first two. Saitama's strength is unimaginable. I want to train under him so I can get stronger!" Kagome recognized that the blond was beginning to go into yet another of his long and tangled rambles. "If I can get stronger by training under him then I can track down that cyborg and get revenge. But if I don't train under him than I won't be able to find the cyborg and I won't be able to learn the secret to Saitama's raw strength." By this point she was starting to tune out, going over another bump in the process, indicting a rattle of machine parts within her cart, "If I cannot protect you like I've promised..."
Kagome think her hearing may have gone daft to him, her eyes refocused on the road ahead. She barely registered the orange-gold light of the dying sun pulling away from the shadow, occasionally nodding and humming in response to Genos' rambles. Due to his excitement he failed to realize that his own girlfriend had long since stopped listening to him.
It was well into the early morning when she finally arrived to the doctor's secret lab, with Genos still talking. By miracles he never stopped nor had he realize yet Kagome already tune him out.
"I'm going to move in with teacher soon." The bombshell was dropped. Kagome didn't stop in her task but her heart skipped a beat and an unknown rage welled within her.
After inputting her password, both verbal and entering codes via a keypad, and a secret door pulled open from a wall, Kagome had enough and silenced Genos with a snap of her frustration, "Dude! Am I supposed to be jealous or something?"
He blinked, chattering with his parts, "No, why?"
Kagome leaned forward to Genos, pushing him inside the not-too suspicious white building, and frowned, "You've certainly been going on a lot about this guy lately." She huffed and glared at him, "The only person you used to ramble about like this was me."
Genos stared at her in shock. Well, that was true but her feeling jealous? Why, that seemed so ludicrous to him. Saitama was a man!
He had zero interest in men!
"That's just ridiculous, Kagome. You're only one for me," Genos defended, barely detecting the soft hissing of the door closing behind them, "You always have been." He nodded seriously.
She sighed, pinching the skin in between her eyes, and bowed her chest guiltily, "You never rant so feverishly about someone else before." Kagome shook her head, "Are you sure about this, Genos?"
"Sure about what?" He asked, the light became very bright when they arrived at the very lab of the beloved doctor.
Kagome shook her head, disappointment rich in her expression, "Forget it. Just get your ass repaired and we'll talk later." She sighed, handing the cart over to the distracted doctor, "Hi, doc!" She chirped.
Doctor Kuseno greeted them warmly. Though his eyes did not miss the way Genos kept staring at his companion in shock and confusion. He also didn't miss the slight pinch in Kagome's expression. The old doctor knew the aftereffects of a disagreement when he saw one.
Genos lifted his one good eye and met the old man's, "What did I do?"
Doctor Kuseno curled in his aged fingers over the handle and began to push his patient into a long hallway, "Hmm, well, what did you two talk about then? I only just saw you, after all." He wasn't privy to their conversations nor was he interested into eavesdropping. Genos sometimes was convinced that the doctor knew all though, which was far from the truth.
"I found myself a mentor I will be studying under soon," Genos then added with an afterthought, "likely after when my body is completely repaired. His name is Saitama and he was solely responsible for the elimination of that female insect hybrid. He eliminated her with one hit!" Once again he went into a rant about this mysterious gentleman.
The doctor found himself wanting to pinch into the between his eyebrows, mimicking his pseudo daughter had just done with this silly hare-brained boy previously. Now he could completely understand Kagome's dilemma.
It was pretty trivial to him, and he knew Kagome thought the same. But it still got to her.
Because it really did sound like Genos had developed a crush on someone else, a male at that, in spite of his relationship with Kagome. Unintentionally Genos had insulted Kagome's female pride.
His eyes popped open wide when Genos said something specific.
Ah, so that was why.
"I decided to move in with him so I could learn more." Genos stated, his golden eye staring up at the doctor seriously.
Doctor Kuseno at lasts allowed a sigh to escape him, "Weren't you already living with Kagome?" He believed that the best way to get the boy to understand would be to force him to see her side of the issue. Breaking it down into parts and then twisting it the opposite direction would definitely be a good way to start. Reverse psychology, it always seemed to work so well with this young, thick-headed lad.
"Of course I was but even she understands that I need to become stronger." They made their way deep into the lab where they often worked on his body. Said girl in question waited on the other side of a glass window—sitting casually in a chair, flipping through one of the sci fi novels they had picked up a few weeks before.
The aging man rubbed his chin and gave his best patient a knowing smile, "But does she?"
Genos gave him a questioning glance, cringing as they arranged his body in the all too familiar body board where he'd be reassembled. Black straps went around the good few parts of his body as the doctor went to work.
"Let me put it to you this way," The sounds of the helper bots beeping and booping whirled all around them. Parts were tossed aside into a trash heap as other, more advanced features were installed. "What if Kagome said that she found herself a master? One that would be able to teach everything she'd ever need to know about fully controlling her power. Would you be happy for her?" A screwdriver was tossed away, a square shaped helper bot flew by and opened its top. The tool landed squarely inside of it as if it was always meant to be. The little bot clicked the little door closed and glided away.
"Of course I would. Why wouldn't I?" The blond answered truthfully.
Doctor Kuseno nodded, "Then what would you feel if said mentor believed that in order for Kagome to fully learn she must first move away from you? Would you still be happy then?" The cyborg grew silent. His mind tried to process the information. Kagome moving away from him? The very thought made his brain hurt with worry!
The sagely man tutted happily as the last bits of the new features were installed and regeared, "Put yourself in her shoes child. You are the only thing she knows. You are her safe zone, now you're saying you want to move away?" Genos' mind raced. Was that what this was all about? He hadn't even realized! "The poor girl is understandably concerned and worried about what that future may hold. You're going to be putting your relationship with her on hold and she's uncertain of what that might mean for the two of you."
The straps around his body were undone as Genos turned to look over at his beloved girlfriend. Her face was as impassive as ever but there was an unusual crease of worry that wasn't there before. Perhaps he should have thought this through more thoroughly first?
"Think your decision over carefully Genos. She's depending on you still." With that the doctor ushered him out with a paternal smile and some pride shining in his eyes when Genos walked easily in his newly repaired body.
Genos didn't need a hint to know what he needed to do.
Kagome was startled as Genos grabbed her hands gently into his. Unlike before his grip covered both of her hands—just like the day they made their promise. Her eyes turned up to stare at him curiously.
"Forgive me," The blond started, leaning his forehead against hers. "I wasn't thinking about your feelings in this situation." The young man lifted his head to plant a gentle kiss on his love's brow. "My training with teacher may result in me moving in with him, but it won't change a thing about the relationship between us." His hands tightened over her own, "When I made that promise here all those years ago, I meant every word of it. I want you to trust in this future with me. Even if it means that we have to separate physically for a short bit. But there's one thing I want you to know that will never change."
"What is that?" Kagome breathed, a flush covering her face at the intensity of his demeanor. Genos was always so serious but in this case, he seemed so fired up. Seeing him this determined over something really did light her senses on fire.
"That my feelings for you will never change. If you need me, I will always be by your side." With that, he tugged her forward and kissed her firmly on the lips. Kagome melted in his embrace, all of her previous anger evaporated like mist in the sunlight. "Don't ever forget that."
She didn't, but that didn't mean she was by any less peeved by the notion of him moving out. Kagome sighed, pocketing her phone while ignoring few more of the mechanical ping alerts that kept going off. Genos left to meet with this new mentor of his, though he never ceased his incessant texting. Genos was notorious with his excessive messaging whenever he was separated from her for 'too long', according to him.
Good grief! It was probably a good thing he was the one paying for her phone. The bill was ridiculously high thanks to his constant spamming. She considered muting the device when she arrived at the doorstep of a police station; an unconscious and burly man dragging behind her in a lax grip. People were staring at her, their eyes nearly all white and burgling at the sight of a tiny woman pulling a giant man with a neck larger than his own head. He was nearly five times bigger than she was.
Kagome stood there contemplating at the size of the glass door, seeing her latest bounty was much too big to go through it to get inside the police station.
Shrugging, she took the man and smashed him through the glass. Dozens of pairs of wide eyes stared at her. "Delivery!" She cheerfully called out, kicking the groaning man towards the men in blue. They stared at her in both shock and irritation.
"That's coming out of your reward!" One bellowed, pointing a nightstick at her. She shrugged.
"Okay, you do that." She stepped over the man's unconscious body and stuck out her hand, "Now give me my money." Kagome's voice dropped to a growl. The only sound afterwards was the barrage of text alerts that were being sent by her nearly frantic boyfriend. A black brow twitched. "What the hell are you waiting around for? I don't have all day!" Okay, so she would admit it. She was way more than a little peeved. Staring at the measly pile of monetary notes in her hand, she realized that she needed to get her temper under control, and quick. She wasn't like Genos damn it! She wasn't supposed to be the one to destroy shit in a fit of rage!
With that the young woman stomped out of the police station, alarms ringing off in the distance.
"Warning: The Danger Level has been raised to Wolf in this area. Suspicious person appeared at the police station. I repeat the Danger Level has been raised to Wolf." An announcement went off overhead. Great. Just fucking great.
Kagome made sure to slip away fast, though unknowingly she had her picture already captured by nosy media until she arrived at her apartment with little inconvenience. Only trouble she encountered was some group of drunk men trying to get her into their little triple x games. Unfortunately for them she was far from being interested. She pancaked them too into the wall of the bar they were hanging out at, having run out of patience. Kagome did hope her punishing acts would cure their hangover the following morning-they were that drunk.
She slammed her face into a pillow, her body bouncing into her comfy bed, and she didn't intend to groan so loud when she heard yet another ping! Kagome grabbed the phone from her jacket and glanced at the messages-Genos went past above his promised texting limit again.
119 texts.
Kagome scowled, skimming through them. Genos was much more emotional through messaging than he was in person, though it was only to her. She was always his exception. Something that would have usually deflated her anger whenever he did something she deemed stupid.
Unfortunately, the idea of her own boyfriend's impending move out counteracted the calming thought of Genos' sweet character.
They said there was a Danger level Wolf warning in your area. Are you okay? I'm coming over right now! Those were the most recent texts. Kagome lifted her eyes to the little timestamp in between the texts, and frowned once she looked at the previous messages. There was a bit of time gap in between Genos' excessive amount of messages to his latest, tipping her off that her boyfriend was busy with that teacher of his for few hours. Probably when she caught that oversized muscles for brain and knocked him out in one fell swoop and physically transferring him to the police station across the city-which was several hours away by foot with a literal heavy burden. She hadn't realized the still silence of her phone then.
As for the guy she busted, he was infamous for heisting banks, easily owning some B classed heroes' asses, and shooting up multiple dance clubs for sheer pleasure. He sure was dumb underestimating a little girl like her. A solid kick into his head and he was already down and out. Kagome specifically targeted him because he had no known associates or minions of sorts, and she didn't especially feel like dragging more than one person to get her bounty.
Remembering the reward money, Kagome shuffled around her jacket and punted the wad of money onto her side table. There was only enough to pay her rent and a bit left over for groceries. She muttered about needing to hunt for more bounty when another ping! sounded from her phone. She didn't bother replying earlier, having felt an urge to rip into him via texting. Though she knew to never do such thing. It'd only make Genos more persistent and a persistent Genos equaled an annoying boyfriend. And an annoying boyfriend equaled a super pissed off girlfriend.
You set off the alarm didn't you? The media recorded you.
Are you still angry?
Steeling her resolve to ignore him Kagome rolled away from her phone constantly lighting up with more messages, with the quilt pulling with her body. It was childish, she knew, but she didn't like the idea that her own stupid boyfriend was moving away to live with some stranger he barely met.
Hello, stranger danger anyone?!
Plus, she felt a small victory at knowing Genos was being ignored. Being ignored by his own girlfriend bothered him more than he let on, more so when he knew Kagome did so on purpose. And it showed.
Still, she was tempted to turn into the news to see the supposed images of herself. She plucked the remote control sitting prettily next to the wad of cash, and clicked a red button. The large screen television perched upon the wall ahead of her bed blinked on, already showing the news channel. Apparently now she was wanted for arrest for the destruction of the police's property.
Nice!
Kagome clicked it off with a huff. Guess that's one town she would stay away from for now on.
There was a knock on the door, and she burrowed deeper into her blanket.
Nope!
She knew it was Genos and she knew no one else here. Unless the police or some hero wannabe tracked her down, which she doubted given her uncanny ability to evade and twist around her directions to avoid any potential disasters she tended to attach.
Kagome snuck a glance at the phone, when it lit up again.
Please open the door, babe.
She twitched, her fingers fighting the temptation to point out that he still has a key to her place. Or perhaps he wanted her to see him on her own terms.
Kagome, please.
More knocking, each one a little louder than the last.
No way in hell, she thought, with one thumb holding down the power button of her phone. Satisfied, she plugged in her white noise machine and turned up the noise to drown out Genos' persistence. Kagome didn't forget to lock her bedroom door either, knowing that was one key Genos didn't have. He didn't realize that it was his own girlfriend who stole it from under his nose. That metal dumb butt lost that privilege when he made a decision to move out so soon to be a better student.
Sure, Genos could come inside all he wanted. Kagome didn't want him sit outside in the cold and be looked on strangely by what neighbors she still had after all. But he was not touching her bedroom dammit!
With that in mind, she huffed again, and curled over in her warm, comfy quilt. Kagome allowed the darkness to carry her away to the sweet land of dreams, where her boyfriend never did anything stupid, such as moving out and leaving her stone cold.
Meanwhile Genos stopped knocking, detecting the white noises, and couldn't stop the sigh. He didn't want to invade her space, but Genos really need to assure his girl. With a shake of his ruined head, he fished the key from his pocket and watched as the doorknob swallowed the jagged head of his key. With a flick of a wrist, the door gave no protest when it opened the way to him.
It was black inside and his night vision found no evidence of her things being tossed aside outside of her boots—which were strewn across the floor. These two objects created a hazardous obstacle course through the entryway. It seemed like Kagome stormed into her bedroom. A minimal frown pulled at his lips, he locked the door behind him and pulled off his somewhat burned shoes and corrected his girlfriend's boots into a small cubby. With that task accomplished he straightened up and marched toward the destination he had in mind.
And it was locked. Lovely.
He couldn't knock either upon hearing how loud Kagome's white noise machine was. Genos slid close his one eye and slumped his shoulder, again fishing for his keys. And no bedroom key. He stared at his ring full with keys, and that little pink tabbed key wasn't there. Genos rubbed the synthetic skin in between the one functioning eye and a great crack where the other eye used to be. He resorted to his phone, typing in more messages, well aware he was already pushing it as it was.
In the dark he stood there with his phone his only light, constantly typing away whenever he didn't receive any immediate reply he was hoping for. Until his phone completely and utterly died. Genos bit back a groan, and went on a hunt to find a charger.
Defeated at the lack of a charger, Genos made himself comfortable on the couch. He made sure he would be able to see Kagome exiting her little domain, but for now he needed to wait and rest. It had been a long day dealing with the proclaimed House of Evolution.
He powered himself down and without realizing it he drifted off to a cyborg's version of sleep. It was only when the white noise died down that Genos woke, hearing the chatter of some objects and a 'Oh shit Genos, what the hell? Why 467 texts?!'
"Oh really? I thought it was in the 600 range...Maybe some didn't go through?" Genos let slip, causing a sound of something crashing, "Are you okay?!"
The door slammed open, revealing a heaving Kagome in a thin pajama, making Genos' breath to hitch at his throat, and her pointing her phone at him. Whatever words she had on her tongue, they died at the sight of Genos. He blinked, when she remained quiet for a long period of time. He had to force his body to behave when it reacted at her wearing little clothing, "Kagome?"
Kagome screwed up her expression, clearly at conflict at what to feel about her idiotic robot boyfriend's appearance. Eventually though she picked a side, and just...roared out in laughter, an arm holding her now aching belly, "Oh m-haha, Genos," snik! "what the f-haha!" Kagome couldn't talk at all, and retreated into her room to fight the hilarity of this situation.
Genos frowned and patted his fluffy head, remembering his damaged appearance, "It's my hair, isn't it." He stated, dryly. He wouldn't have known if it weren't for Saitama pointing it out earlier.
When the laughter ceased a little, Kagome returned but not to talk to Genos. Rather, she held up her phone and snapped a picture of Genos with his burnt afro. His eye widened once the realization reached him, "What the-?! No, don't!" Genos cried, but Kagome, lost to her laughter again, ran back inside her room and locked her door, "Give me that phone! Delete the picture!" Genos pounded on the wood, "Kagome!"
Kagome said nothing, but rather she jumped onto their shared computer and saved the embarrassing image on their back up drives. As she knew her boyfriend's habit of being thorough, she saved copy after copy and made back ups of her back ups. By the time she was done, the picture had been saved over fifty times onto several drives. To help drive the point home, she went into the system preferences and changed her background image to that of Genos reaching for her with one eye missing and singed afro-styled hair.
Genos called out to her, pounding at the door. If she waited too long he'd likely break it down just to retrieve the phone. So, still giggling like mad, she slipped her feet onto the ground and slowly creaked the door open. The girl's face lit up with twisted delight at the desperation on his face. Oh this was too good to pass up!
"Yes dear? Did you need something?" Kagome asked sugary sweet.
"Delete it!" Was her only response. She tutted at him and traced her finger from his collar down the center of his chest.
"Now why would I do that? You look so… so…." His good eye widened as her face grew into a maniacal smile, "HILARIOUS!" With that she darted past him and into the living room. Genos took off after her, his eye locking onto the cellular device in her hand. He was not about to let her keep that damn photo!
With her lithe form she was able to turn and bend at every obstruction of her apartment easily. With Genos, not so much, but with a little cleverness he caught her with ease, wrapping his arms around her waist and lifted her high in the air, "Give me that phone!"
Kagome shrieked, Genos could feel her laughter expanding her waist, and she kicked her legs, "No!" She pushed away the hand that still held her phone as far away from her scowling boyfriend as she could.
"Give. Me. That. Phone!" He demanded, now pulling her closer to the ground in between his legs so he can reach the hellish object easier.
She wailed in midst of her crackles, her knees now on the cold tiles of the kitchen floor, "Noooo!"
Genos didn't stop a steam of smoke escaping from his mouth, "Fine, you asked for it!" He curled in over her, never once letting go of her waist, until he was on all three available limbs, "Please give me that phone!" Almost there!
Kagome wiggled, finding herself literally stuck, squished, in between a hard place and a rock-well a hard as rock cyborg that is, her flailing hand tried so hard to avoid the nearing mechanical hand of her boyfriend it became damp. She tried to push her legs out of his hold, tears in her eyes, "Nooooo! Haha!"
Genos growled under his breath. He pushed his hips forward purposely as he reached for her phone. Kagome squealed, throwing the long sought after phone down her shirt between her breasts. A smirk spread across his face.
"You just gave me the encouragement I needed."
With that, a metal hand went down her shirt and grabbed the object away from her, momentarily fondling her. Before Kagome knew what was happening, her boyfriend had torn himself away from her and was hard at work deleting the photo.
With a victorious triumph, Genos kept Kagome away who was trying to seize her own device from him while he sifted through the phone applications for a certain app. She still hadn't stopped laughing, regardless of her loss. He pulled open her picture gallery, biting back the smile at the sight of numerous pictures of them together, and clicked the very first image he saw. It was of course the very picture of him with a humiliating symbol of his loss against the Carnage Kabuto. What made it worse was his shocked expression.
He deleted it immediately, and being wise to his girlfriend's antics he made sure to be thorough with the electronic object-searching to eliminate any additional copy of that such image.
There was no other copy he could find, but...
"Don't tell me you saved more of them on the computer!" Genos barked, seeing Kagome spraying across the kitchen fighting her tears. "Oh for the fuck's sake..." He stormed to the bedroom, determined to get rid of every last humiliating image of himself, forcing Kagome to scramble after him. Her laughter trailed close behind.
Distracted with his end goal, Kagome snatched her phone back from his loosened grasp-that arm seemed a little frayed, a usual sign of his pressure sensors being damaged. With a mad giggle Kagome discreetly took more pictures.
Genos woke the laptops and logged on. He glared at the new background, and quickly eliminated it and set it back to the previous background, which was consisted of them on a date in an ice cream cafe. Familiar with Kagome's usual tricks though, he knew to check every crook and cranny of the computer. Within matter of minutes he discovered just how far Kagome wished to keep the image.
"Why in the world would you want 50 images of the same thing?!" Genos was frustrated, deleting the 46th image he found, but he hadn't yet given up. His only response was more laughter. "Stop laughing!" He brayed, but didn't look back to see Kagome actually video recording him fretting around on the computer.
There were actually more than 50 images, some near impossible to delete-the bitch was too crafty with her passwords sometimes, she was just usually generous with her secrets with him. Cursing under his breath, Genos looked back to fuss at her but found himself deflating at the sight of Kagome's phone recording him. He forgot about her phone!
Kagome's laughs had slowed to snickers, perhaps being too exhausted to continue. The mad smile stayed the same though.
"I surrender. You win." Genos' forehead met the shiny surface of the glass table, next to the laptop, and stayed there for good solid few minutes.
She couldn't resist rubbing some salt in his open wounds, "I've already uploaded the picture to your profile on FaceSocial!" Never mind he had fairly few 'friends' to begin with who could see his humiliating image. The sole purpose of his usage of a such website was to commemorate memories he liked to keep, especially when they both had a bad streak of luck in losing their phones and computers to rampaging villains.
"Oh come on!" Genos shot a glare at his cackling girlfriend, and wilted again at the unwavering expression Kagome held, "You're too evil for your own good." He moaned, flexing to his feet and walked past the troll he already paid the toll to, "I'm going to watch a movie. Whenever your lungs come back from the orbit, come and watch with me at least." Genos muttered, a little disgruntled at how the past two days had been for him.
At least Saitama enjoyed his company during the big sale shopping, before Genos heard about the incident in the neighboring city where his girlfriend (should be) residing for her job request.
Genos stalked out to the living room, Kagome's quiet giggling following him all the way. Did it really look that bad? He saw the image of himself that she saved probably a thousand times over by now but was it really that funny? The cyborg felt himself deflating again. Well, if it kept her from being pissed off at him then he'd guess that he'd have to live with it for the time being. He sighed. Damn, he was really hoping to patch things up tonight too. He really wasn't a fan of being left to his own devices for more than a day. The frustration was already starting to get to him!
He popped in a dvd of a movie he hadn't yet seen of Kagome's horror collection and made himself comfortable on the couch again. Genos made sure to leave some room for her to sit with him too, hoping she would at least be up for some cuddle time with him. He sure could use it.
Unfortunately, once Kagome was done with her fit and her lungs figuratively came flying back, she performed her usual morning routine and took up the recliner instead. Pointedly ignoring him, she curled in her long legs, unknowingly teasing the poor Genos, and relaxed her position to watch the movie inside the seat that was a bit too big for her tiny size. Certainly there was no room for him, unless he picked her up and propped her down on his lap...
Which would not of been a bad idea, if not for Kagome's temper.
Still, he kept an eye out for an opening to at least touch her. The movie was surprisingly gory-the kind even he would have flinched at by watching it. Knowing his girlfriend she would get uncomfortable at a certain point of the movie and pause it to appease her greasy tummy. An unusual case of nausea from a side effect of seeing horrible things. Genos never understood why Kagome was fascinated by such genres, but he never asked, because he didn't mind it either.
"Ugh!" Kagome twisted her face, her skin paled as she bent over and stole the remote control from next to Genos' thigh, where he conveniently forgot to return to the coffee table.
There was that opportunity he was looking for!
Before she could even breathe Genos grabbed her reaching arm, his hands easily wrapping around her thin limb, and gently tugged her over the ledge of the couch onto his lap. His arms secured around her waist as his lips pressed themselves against her mouth. She grunted against him in shock. Sensing her rising ire, and fist pushing on his chest, he pulled back and gave her a soft smile.
"You know I can't stay away from you."
Her chest lowered somewhat, "You're a hound, you know that?"
The cyborg's expression lightened, "You tell me all the time."
Kagome shook her head and moved to stand up, though a pair of strong arms prevented her from doing so. "Genos, let go. I'm not in the mood." Her gaze turned back to the disaster sitting on top of his head, "Besides, I am not going to sleep with you while you look like that!" A single index finger pointed up at the afro. His expression soured again. Damn, he really should've cleaned up first before heading back here. Genos would have been laid by now!
"I am not fucking a man who looked like he's a circus clown in training." Kagome muttered, darkening her boyfriend's mood further. She peeled away from his laxing grasp and threw a look at Genos, though now was weighted with some sympathy with his current plight, "Let's just take you to Doctor Kuseno, okay? I don't think I can handle the movie today anyway." As stupid as he may be, Genos was already humiliated enough and Kagome knew when the enough was enough.
Genos dropped a sigh, "Fine."
"I'll put some clothes on." Kagome hummed, retreating back to her room. With a clean set of, admittedly, cute clothes on, she didn't forget her phone and bounced toward her patient idiot, "I'm ready to go." She informed, pulling her boots on.
Genos, still looking defeated, nodded and led the way.
The walk to the lab was long and neither spoke a word to each other. The quiet between them was comforting, at first. It grew to become suffocating the closer they were to their destination, but they ignored it in the favor of each other's company. A familiar building came in view among lifeless streets.
Kagome pulled back her lips. She had been trying very hard to ignore the fact she would sorely miss his company when Genos moved out. Four years with him...and having him gone for a long period of time wasn't an idea she is willing to entertain for long.
She wondered why Genos didn't seem to feel the same, in spite of all of his clingy text messages he often times spammed her with.
But, no, her logical side reminded her-that was just Genos. He wasn't ever an emotional individual. It took him well over four years to confess his love for her, and that was two years ago. They had been together since. But even before then, Kagome and Genos were hardly ever part for very long, almost joined at the hip.
Even when she could no longer remember her past after she woke to the empty hell of ashes and stones, Kagome couldn't remember not ever being apart from her Genos for more than few days at most.
And that made her angry.
Her stirring thoughts met an abrupt end when they had arrived at the doorstep. Instead of facing the glass door, Genos stared at the wall adjacent from it. His eye lighted, and a still pause passed for several seconds. There was a tiny beep and he spoke a verbal password, "Genos, access passcode: fiend17 slash 48damage equal red dot dawn." Kagome was startled at this, not expecting his passcode to be a new one.
A thin voice beeped, "Please input your secondary passcode in the keypad provided to you."
The wall ejected a small square and it twirled to his direction, with white digits encased in black. Genos raised a hand and allowed his fingers to tap-dance over it. Another beep, this time sounding with satisfaction, pulling back the small keypad, "Access granted! Welcome back, Mr. Genos." Again another beep, this time slightly longer, sounded, "We've detected another presence. May we have the guest's identity?"
"It's Kagome, my significant other." He replied, at which Kagome twitched at but she said nothing.
His response followed a whirring of happy chirping, "Oh, welcome back, Ms. Kagome! We hope you have been well!" There was a slight provocation behind the voice's words, but Kagome sighed with understanding.
It needed her voice for confirmation, "I'm doing alright. How about you?" The series of clicking ended.
"We are quite functional and running smoothly, Ms. Kagome! May you both have a pleasant stay." A thin line of a rectangle that was taller and wider than Genos lit up, and the door came into view. It slid open, awaiting their entrance.
Kagome stared, not over the new change of the verbal passcode, "Okay, what the heck?" Looked like the paranoid doctor changed the passcodes again, and she hadn't yet received any information on this.
Genos rolled his shoulders into a shrug, throwing a glance at her, "It was the doctor's idea. Apparently he's been obsessive over that Call of Honor game lately."
She dropped a brow, "Somehow, that does not surprise me. Let's just go in."
The door zipped shut behind them, and they made their trek through the long tunnel of a white hallway. At the end, there was no door-simply a ring of white, where the doctor was sure to wait for their arrival. And he was, though looking a little bit peeved.
"Hello, doctor," Genos greeted, a little distached in hope the doctor wouldn't notice and find some humor with his broken appearance.
"Hi, doc!" Kagome chirped, though it was obvious she was feigning given her voice was pitched higher than usual and the tightness around her mouth.
Genos was relieved when Doctor Kuseno only gave him a raised eyebrow, "Now what happened there, Genos boy?" He didn't fail to notice that the couple hadn't yet worked out their differences, though he didn't expect them to. Genos was still holding on the idea of moving in with this supposed teacher to be a better pupil, while it was too apparent Kagome did not agree and was having difficulties coming to terms with his decision.
Unable to take another second being in Genos' presence, with a horrible feeling like she'd blow up, Kagome turned towards her boyfriend. She gave his hand a gentle squeeze, "Hey I have to head back and take care of a few things." Well, her rent was set to be due at midnight-a good excuse as any, "I'll see you soon, okay?" After that she took off in a flash. Genos raised his arm to reach for her but she was already gone. He felt the pang of guilt in his chest. What did he have to do to make this right?
"I told you, did I not?" Doctor Kuseno began as he offered the boy a familiar seat. "You must reassure her. Right now she's feeling that loneliness. You're more determined than ever to leave her side and she's confused." A small smile spread across the older gentleman's lips as he set to work, "Sex is usually a good way to help a woman understand your feelings."
Genos grunted, "She won't let me." If the doctor didn't know any better, he'd say that his patient was pouting.
"I'm not surprised, but you've got to keep working at it." The old man tugged a few objects from his face and threw a few useless nuts and bolts away, "Women are driven by their emotions. They want to feel loved and accepted." A helper bot whirred, its' antenna twirling rapidly as it searched for any anomalies within Genos' body, "She's done that for you, now you must be willing to do that for her. Try talking to her again. A promise will only get you so far." The doctor's eyes sparkled mischievously. So he had heard that last time. Damn, what else was there to do other than bed her from dusk to dawn? Not that she'd allow him to at this point.
"When you say talk, what do you mean by that?"
His doctor hummed, "Ask her what's causing her to be so upset. Get down the source of her problems and then work from there." Aged fingers pulled away the now destroyed hair piece that Kagome had laughed at earlier. It was swiftly replaced with another similar looking one but this time it came upgraded as fireproof. Good, that would come in handy after all. "Chances are she's just sad, hurt and confused. You are leaving her after all. She might think that you're trying to break up with her."
Genos shot forward in his chair, only restricted by the bindings that curled around his body so to better scan for any broken functionality, "No! Never! I'd never!"
The doctor held up his hand, "That may be true on your end, but you don't show your emotions very well child. You must prove to her your loyalty."
The cyborg leaned back, still uneasy about the situation. Was that what this was really all about? Kagome didn't trust him not to return? She thought that he was trying to leave her? Determination filled his soul. He'd be damned if he let her think that for another instant!
"But, give her a little space for a little while." Doctor Kuseno sighed, shifting through his tools upon a small hovering table, "I have a feeling she will need to vent first. An overly emotional woman would only impede the needed conversation." He pulled on some patch of synthetic skin over Genos' cracked cheek, "Why not go and hang with your sensei for a little while before trying again?"
Genos didn't like the idea of leaving Kagome alone any longer than necessary, but slumped into his seat, "Alright. I'll check in with Saitama-sensei then."
"Good, because I'd like to get back to my game." The doctor tutted, resetting a new eyeball into that empty hole.
It didn't really good to feel alone, but at the same time, it was oddly liberating. She could breathe a little better without her boyfriend trying to drown her with his love. Kagome muted her phone, though she didn't know for sure if the doctor managed to talk to Genos on her behalf.
He was usually quite good about being stern with Genos' texting-for a man who worked endless hours with technologies, Doctor Kuseno absolutely hated whenever Genos texted in front of his presence and put his foot down about using it if he was in the room with his patient.
A heavy roll of breath left her lips, Kagome still felt her chest burning with hurt and rejection. Lifting her eyes up to the bright green and cobblestone-colored scenery ahead of her, Kagome tried to calm herself. She could detect the sourness twirling around her being tightly, but with several more breaths they seemed to have loosened their chains a little.
She could think more positively. Maybe she could try to see things from Genos' perceptive? Kagome knew she was way too focused on the notion of her idiotically reckless boyfriend's moving out, but not of his reasoning.
Clunks of her boots gave a calming rhythm that she could keep her mind to-there was no one here in this neglected park anyway.
So, why did Genos want to move out? He said it was to get stronger. To be a better fighter and protector for her. Never mind that she hardly needed protecting to begin with.
Couldn't he just stay and attend to this teacher's training on his own time? Genos was by no means slow, after all. He was rather quick on his feet, and beside this sensei lived somewhere in the abandoned section of the Z city. That wasn't too far away from her place of resident, which resided in Y city.
Kagome didn't quite get this logic...but Genos was always driven, perhaps too focused for his own good. He would learn more if he put all that he had into the training. She wouldn't deny that. He wouldn't learn as much if there were distractions around...
But did that mean she was a distraction too?
Her stomach turned cold at that thought, Kagome crossed her arms over it in attempt to warm it up a little. She blinked, feeling a familiar stinging sensation in her eyes, and Kagome drew in air to keep herself composed. It would be no good if she just started crying into middle of nowhere.
She'd cry later.
A pressure that resembled a stab into her brain made Kagome stop in her tracks, her mind's eye pulling her attention of a very speedy presence heading her way. And the individual seemed to be...in pain?
His body screamed it, brightly red in her mind. It was saying he was in need of recovering from whatever injury he received.
There!
Kagome blinked. She only had few seconds to get a full glimpse of this...man? It was a very slim man with a feminine body figure, or perhaps she had it the other way around? Though he was nesting his hands upon his loins. He was clad in complete black, tightly form fitting, with a long violet scarf that actually slapped her in the face.
She threw a glare behind her, though he was already long gone, "Rude!"
Kagome sniffed, rubbing her cheek, "Fucking narutard playing ninja...It's a bad idea to be running if your balls are aching, ya know..." she muttered, forcing her feet back to her lonesome walk back home, to continue her emo brooding.
-End Chapter 1
A/N: Well, I didn't expect to have another yet long monster. Boo...anyway, this chapter primarily is about Genos and Kagome's relationship and getting a clearer picture of who they are as a couple (who still love each other), even in spite of their struggles. Beside from that, I'm pretty much setting up the story still. Next chapter should be pretty fun, I think. ^^
Thanks again to Limitless Musings for helping me to grind out this chapter! She's amazing! She also recently started her own, original OPMxIY fanfiction apart from mine. Why not check out her Kazoku?!
Here's the summary of Kazoku to interest you: "A family is all that one has. Keeping that family together even during the toughest of storms is sometimes harder than it appears."
Thanks so much for your reviews! It was warming to know that this new tale got some nice warm reception!
Anyway, as always, please leave any feedback! Any criticism, suggestions, or what have you, are always welcome.
Beta Reader: Limitless Musings