[Disclaimer] I DO NOT own Baccano! All the credit goes to its creator(s)!

[Author's Note] Hello there! This is a story that I written about my favorite Baccano couple, FiroxEnnis. I swear, figuring out your favorite pairing in this show is so hard! All the pairings are so great, and that's what makes it so problematic! But after a lot of thinking, I decided that Firo and Ennis is my favorite one. Anyway, I'm sorry about any OOC-ness in this story, and I'm sorry about any typos and other writing errors. Please enjoy ^_^.

(72 Years Was Worth the Wait)

Back in 1930, a young man named Firo Prochainezo met the most beautiful girl that he has ever seen. Her name was Ennis, but she was no ordinary human being. In fact, she wasn't a human being at all; she was a homunculus, or in other words, an artificial human. A man named Szilard created her by using his cells, and the cells of an abducted female. Although she was "born" without any knowledge, she eventually began to experience emotions.

It seemed like it would take forever for her to understand things, but Firo was very patient with her. He knew that she didn't understand things and it would take a while until she did, but it sort of killed him inside that she didn't fully understand his feelings towards her. Firo loved Ennis with such a strong and truthful passion. Nothing in the world could change that.

No other woman had that magical aura like Ennis did to Firo. He loved her gentle and easygoing personality. He loved listening to her talk. He loved her beautiful, short, red hair. He loved the way she dressed, and how her suit would closely hug the curves of her body. He loved how she could beat the living crap out of people. He loved how innocent she was. There wasn't one, single thing that he didn't love about this young woman. It was love at first sight for him.

The first time he seen her, he just couldn't get her out of his mind. He would have dreams about him and her walking along the shore of the beach, married, and holding each other's hand while looking at a beautiful sunset together. But you know what? He actually did get to live out some of these fantasies over the years, but it wasn't exactly perfect because Ennis just didn't understand the way he felt, even after so many years of trying to, and they were not married, either.

Firo sometimes felt like it was pointless trying to get her to understand certain things, and love was definitely the hardest of them all. But it wasn't entirely pointless because he loved her, and he wanted her to know that. Since they can no longer age or die, he felt like he had an eternity to help her understand. But after the first couple of decades, he felt like giving up. It just seemed rather impossible to pursue this beautiful, young, female homunculus.

The young man talked to a lot of people in the past and asked them for advice, but they never gave him any good guidance. So over time he came down to a conclusion: if he can't be with Ennis, then he won't be with any other woman. He's had this frame of mind for as long as he can remember, and it seemed like it would always be that way.

But one faithful day changed all of that, and that day was April 4th in the year 2002. It seemed like an ordinary day for the youngest member of Manhattan's Martillo Camorra family. He talked to Luck Gandor, Claire Stanfield, and did other ordinary things that he'd usually do. Today, he bought a new green suit and fedora. It wasn't much different from his usual outfit, but the green was a tad darker than the last one that he wore.

Strangely enough, he didn't see Ennis anywhere today. He didn't panic or anything, he just figured that she may have left to go venture around the city, or something. Since his level of boredom was increasing by the minute, he decided to go outside and take a walk. After a while of walking around, he ended up on the dock of the bay. He watched the tides roll away as he continued his stroll.

"I wonduh what Ennis is up to. It's not like her to be missin' for so long," he quietly said to himself, worry and tedium in his voice of concern. After a few minutes later, he sat down on the ground and looked at the sunset. Firo loved sunsets. Its radiance and beauty reminded him of the girl he loves deeply. The young man then removed his hat to let the gentle breezes of warm wind blow through his hair. He closed his eyes and breathed in the air, sighing soon afterwards. The air was so fresh and crisp; it relaxed him so very much. He then began to think of something, something that put him in an even more relaxed state.

He thought about him and Ennis sharing a romantic, soft, innocent kiss with this perfect scenery that was around him. Just the thought of that made his body feel so heated and numb. "Oh, Ennis," breathed the boy, his daydream continuing inside his mind. Someone happened to see him sitting down with his eyes closed, so this person decided to walk over to him. Who was it? It was none other than Ennis, the girl who was stuck on his mind and driving his heart, intellect, body and soul crazy.

She was wearing her usual black suit today; she did wear other things, but she felt the most comfortable in this outfit. She walked over to him slowly, soon standing right beside the unaware young man. She stared at his face and saw how calm he looked. His smile made her feel an immediate feeling of happiness, and though she wasn't one to smile much at all, he tended to always somehow make her smile.

No one may have noticed much, but over the past few years and decades, she has learned quite a lot. She's learned all sorts of emotions, and who was the person who helped her learn all of this? Firo, Firo Prochainezo. No one else really tried to help her understand things, but he sure did. He taught her about happiness, boredom, anger, jealousy, fear, shyness, stress, depression, love, pretty much everything. And thanks to him, she could now learn a whole lot of things all by herself. One major thing that she truly discovered about herself was that she was in love with him. There were times long ago when Firo told her that he loved her, but she never said anything back to him because she honestly didn't understand the meaning of love.

She would apologize to him because of that, and he would just tell her that it's okay and that she would understand his feelings one day. She felt like today was that day. When she thought hard about it, she felt like she always had feelings for him, but now she was certain about it. She wanted to tell him, now. She didn't want him waiting any longer.

She felt bad that he had to wait so long, and he was still waiting because she didn't even tell him yet, though she wanted to. Why didn't she say it now: because she didn't know how to say it. If it weren't for the fact that he could no longer age or die, he would have been an old man by now. The poor girl felt such guilt, such onus. She then began to remember when he was teaching her about the feeling of guilt, and she sure felt what he was talking about.

She was getting lost in her thoughts; she even forgot that she was standing right next to him. But then again, he didn't even know that she was there standing next to him. "Ennis," he breathed out again, quickly catching the attention of the girl who was in a daze of thoughts. She looked at him with wide eyes, not knowing how to respond to this. Why did he say her name? What was going on? She couldn't think straight at the moment, she could only gawk at him with curiosity.

Firo was sure lost in his own world. This was probably the deepest he has ever been inside his own mind. Everything felt so real to him, but a voice quickly snapped him back to reality.

"Firo?" she said to him, her voice soft but loud enough to hear. She almost gave him a heart attack. He jumped in shock and looked up, his eyes now looking into the eyes of an all too familiar girl. The gaze of her reddish, brown eyes put him in a state of amazement. She just looked too gosh darn cute to him.

"Oh, hey there, Ennis," said the somewhat embarrassed, young man. He then stood up and scratched his head, wondering just how long has she been here. "Say, how long were you standin' there?" His cheeks were now turning a shade of red.

"Not long," she simply answered, her face lighting up red, also. She was about to ask him why did he say her name, but she decided not to. She kind of already knew, or at least she thought that she did. Ennis believed that he was obviously thinking about her in some way, and that flattered her greatly.

Firo then threw his hat into the air, the green fedora soon landing perfectly on his head. He gave her a smirk and asked, "Where were you all day? I was lookin' for ya, but no dice."

A small smile came upon her face as she replied, "I wanted to take a long walk around the city."

"I figured that's what you were doin'. Sad, I wanted to go with ya."

"Oh, I'm sorry. It's just that I didn't want to bother you." Her voice sounded sort of sad when she said that.

A look of fretfulness now substituted his smirk. "You thought you would have been botherin' me? Come on, Ennis, don't you know me by now? I would have loved to walk with ya." She then began to look towards the ground; a feeling of prodigious melancholy was now slowly devouring her heart and mind. As much as he loved seeing Ennis, he hated seeing her upset.

He started to feel bad himself. He then placed his left hand on top of her left shoulder. This action of his made her look at him, and that's just what he wanted her to do. He smiled at her again, afterwards brightly saying, "Hey, don't feel bad, okay? You know I don't like seein' your cute face lookin' upset there. Next time when you think you're gonna bothuh me, bothuh me."

That bright, warm smile was now back on her face, the smile he could never tire from seeing. "You look so beautiful when you smile like that." His comment made her face flush a deeper red.

"Thank you," she shyly replied to him.

Firo took his hand from off of her shoulder and grabbed her hand, their hands now tightly cuffing each other's. "Hey, I bet you didn't walk ovuh to the park, now did ya?" Ennis looked a tad confused and shook her head. He closed his eyes and smiled, and then soon spoke, "Good, how about we go there togethuh?"

"Sure, I would love to," replied the pretty, red haired girl with a humble and sweet tone of voice.

"Glad to hear that. Come on, let's go," he said as he began to walk. She walked along with him, both of them close-up to each other.

Though they did things like this before, this time felt very different to Ennis. She studied and focused her feelings towards Firo at this very moment, and that made her feel such a special feeling, a feeling of deep, true love. She could sense it in her soul. She paid close attention to how soft and warm his skin felt against her own, which made her hold onto his hand harder. The suave gentleman noticed that her grip has gotten tauter, and that made his body tremble a little, for some reason. Her skin felt so amazing, so awesome, and so unbelievably soft.

He felt his face heating up again, so avoiding eye contact was definitely on his mind, but not for Ennis. She turned her head and looked at him. She saw his blushed cheeks, how nervous he looked, and the virtue in his eyes. It was odd that they were still so shy around each other even after all these years. Now that she really knew about all sorts of feelings, she could actually read his emotions by just looking at him.

She knew that he loved her, but she also wondered why he did. She knew that she wasn't a real woman no matter how realistic so looked, or acted. No matter what, she was nothing more than an artificial and synthetic human being. She felt like he needed to be with someone that was real, not a homunculus like her. She felt strongly about that, but she also wanted him for herself, she didn't want him to be with somebody else other than her.

As she thought to herself about all of this, she started to feel like she was being a greedy jerk. She just didn't understand why he was so madly in love with her. It just didn't make any sense to her. Ennis was now completely zoned out, she forgot that she was even looking at him; this was the second time today when this has happened to her. When he felt himself calming down, he turned his head and looked at Ennis.

His light brown orbs gazed at her ruby colored gems of beauty. Words could not be spoken from him; he was far too lost in her eyes. She soon snapped back into realism, but it was too late for her now. She saw him staring at her, and she felt like she couldn't talk. They were so busy looking at each other, they forgot that they were even walking somewhere; it's a good thing that they didn't bump into somebody. Soon enough, Firo decided to say something. "Somethin' wrong, Ennis?"

She slowly turned her head away from his and softly replied, "No, nothing is wrong." He felt like something was wrong, though. Something about the way she was looking at him made him think that something very serious was on her mind, but it was really none of his business, and he knew that. After what felt like an hour, they finally made it to the park. It was pretty much night time now, and the huge fountain of water was changing colors.

It would switch from dark blue to red, orange, green, yellow, pink, purple, and then start all over again. A few people were there sitting on benches, and some folks were running around the fountain of H2O, but it didn't feel too crowded. The two began to walk around the park, trying to make a full circle around the fountain. Ennis was now holding onto Firo's arm, and this sort of shocked him because she never did something like that before. "Sure is a beautiful night tonight," Firo said as he looked around the place and into the sky.

Ennis slowly began to rub her head against his arm; the boy's face once again lighting up, his cheeks matching the fountain's red lit water perfectly. "Yes, it is." Her voice sounded so lovely to him. Was it always so dreamy like this?

He then looked down at her as he spoke with a deep and meaningful voice, "And you make this night even more beautiful." She titled her head up and looked him in the eyes, her smile looked so flawless. He saw her blushing, and she saw him blushing. This was probably the first time ever when they didn't care about their faces being red. In fact, they both wanted each other to notice this time, and that they did.

"Hey?" he started. "Wanna dance?" She didn't expect such a question from him. They did dance before, but she felt like she was never any good at it.

"But, people are around us," she told him with that customary serious voice and expression on her face.

"Ah, phooey to that, I don't care who's watchin' us. Besides, they look like they're about to go," said the young man. She turned her head and looked at the other people, and they were indeed on their way to leave from the park. She then looked back at him and saw that million dollar smile on his face. "Looks like we got this whole park to ourselves, huh? May I have this dance, my fair lady?" Firo said as he stepped away from the girl and held out his right hand.

Ennis looked down at his waiting hand, and then back at his smirking face. With a warm smile on her face, she then gently placed her delicate hand onto the palm of his slightly rougher hand. He carefully pulled her towards himself and placed his right hand on her waist. Ennis rested her head against his chest and closed her eyes, the two of them now slow dancing together; this felt so romantic to them. Firo got a good whiff of her hair, and boy did it sure smell good, the aroma of ripe peaches now pleasing his nostrils. Ennis heard the sound of his beating heart, making her feel very safe and relaxed.

"I love the smell of your hair, Ennis. It's wonderful," complimented the young man in green.

"Thank you, Firo," replied a grateful Ennis, her heart filling up with unmanageable happiness. She was a woman of short words, but he admired that about her. "Firo, why do you love me?" she asked him, her voice sounding sad, yet eager to know why. Her question kind of startled him, but it wasn't hard to answer.

"Why do I love you, you ask? Maybe it's because of the way you act. You're always so mature, blasé and innocent, and not to mention how beautiful you are. Sweetheart, no girl can evuh hold up a candle to your looks, and if they tried, I'd blow it out because you're the most darn gorgeous girl I've evuh met. From the first time I saw you I couldn't get you outta my mind. You were cemented in all of my thoughts, Ennis.

I used to have a lot of dreams about you. In fact, I still do; dreams about us being married with a family of our own. But sadly, I'd wake up in a cold sweat, lying there shirtless in my bed, left there to only realize that it was nothing more but a dream, a fantasy. I can't tell you enough about just how crazy you make me.

They say when you're in love, you'd do anything for that person and you'll always want to be around them. Well, that's the way I am towards you. I'd do anything for you, and I always want to be around you, Ennis; and I don't evuh want to leave, you know? Sorry for sounding cheesy, but I'm just speakin' from my heart about this. I used to see Maiza always lookin' at those movies.

You know those movies about some guy who's crazy about some dame? Back then, I never understood it, but when I met you, I started to realize just how those guys were feelin'. There you were, an extremely fine woman wearin' a nice lookin' black suit, quickly stealin' the key to my heart. Bottom line: I love you because you're you, Ennis. I don't give a darn about you being a homunculus; you're just as human as everyone else. You'll understand my feelins' one day. Just don't worry about it, okay?"

She knew that he meant every single word he spoke. She finally understood now, he is really in love with her, and that is that. Now that she fully understood and wholly developed emotions, his words touched her heart in a way it never did before. The young woman was so glad that she finally fathomed him and his feelings. She was so moved by everything, she also started to cry; she was crying because she never felt so happy before. Firo still believed that she didn't understand that he loved her, but that's where he's wrong. She did understand, and she was going to let him know that.

"Firo," she said to him, voice only a hair above a whisper, head titled up, eyes looking into his. He loved the way she said his name, it sounded so, so cute. He gazed at her ruby colored orbs and smiled at her.

"Yes, Ennis?" asked the boy.

"Kiss me," she spoke, her voice and face has never looked and sounded so serious before. By just looking at her face and hearing her voice, he knew she wasn't playing around; Ennis was not the joking type of person, either. He then stopped moving, and so did she. He felt like his body stiffened up. He couldn't believe what she said, and how she said it, and how stern she looked while saying it.

"Ennis, a-are you…" She continued to stare at him, her eyes not blinking, ears waiting to hear what he was trying to say. "Are you serious here?" he then asked; a surprised expression on his face. Ennis nodded her head in response. She then blinked her eyes, which made more tears fall down her face. Firo couldn't even comprehend how he was feeling at the moment. He was happy because of what she said, but her weeping face made him feel kind of sad.

At first he didn't notice that she was crying, but now he did, and that worried him quite a bit. "Ennis, you're cryin'. Why are you cryin' for?" he anxiously asked her, using his thumb to gently brush away her precious tears. And then the unexpected happened, Firo suddenly felt the soft touch of Ennis's lips press against his mouth. His broadened eyes just watched her.

Her eyes were closed, her lips were soft, and boy did this feel so good to them both. He felt like he lost the feeling in his arms, his legs, and pretty much the rest of his body. This felt like one of his many dreams, but the only difference is it's not a dream, this is reality, this is authenticity, this was truly happening to him.

Once five seconds passed, she pulled away from him, her watery eyes looking back into his stunned, bronzed spheres. "I love you," she then said to him, her voice breaking up as her emotions were getting the best of her. Firo's emotions were getting the best of him, too. He started to feel the tears in his eyes accumulate, seconds later salty droplets now pouring down his face.

He's waited so long for this moment; he's had the patience that no man has ever had before. Most guys probably would have left Ennis alone after the first five years or two, but Firo waited for 72 years, and now it seems like the wait is finally over.

"Oh, Ennis, I love you, too!" His arms wrapped around her waist, his eyes closed shut, and his mouth was now moving towards the sweet lips of his lover. His lips collided against hers, both of them kissing each other with such serenity, placidness, innocence, and love. Ennis soon threw her arms around him and embraced him with a hug, melting in pleasure as her beloved kissed her on the lips. This was an emotion that she never experienced before, and Firo was the only one that could make her feel this way, and Ennis was the only one that could make him feel this way.

As much as they didn't want to stop doing this, they had no choice. The couple waited until they felt like air was definitely needed, and after a while it was very much needed. They soon pulled away from each other's moist orifices, the look of desire in their eyes, and the sound of genuine love beating in their hearts. They both still had their arms swathed around one another.

"So, does this mean that you understand now?" Firo asked, thinking that it was somewhat of a dumb question.

Ennis smiled at him and responded, "Yes, I understand everything now. I'm not really sure how it happened, but overtime… I started to learn a lot of things just like you said I would. All of those times when you told me that you loved me, I didn't get it. I didn't know what love was, or how it felt, and why some people needed it, or wanted it. But now, now I get it. I know how it feels to truly love someone, and I also know how it feels to be truly loved by somebody."

Beautiful, her words were just so darn beautiful to him. "I'm so very glad to hear that, Ennis," he replied pleasantly, now flashing that chummy smirk of his.

"I'm so sorry, Firo. I know I've must have been an annoyance to wait on. I'm sorry for taking so long," she spoke sadly, her smile slowly fading away.

"Hey, hey, don't say that," he said scrupulously. "You weren't an annoyance at all. It just took some time, that's all." She couldn't believe how he was so unfazed by this; it just didn't make any sense to her.

"How could you say that? Do you know how long it took for me to develop such knowledge?" she asked him, her smile still vanishing. His hands began to travel up her back, and then down her sides. He was sure admiring how curvy she was; her closefitting suit complimented her perfect shape well.

"Yeah, I know how long it took you. I waited for seventy-two years, and you know somethin'? It was totally worth the wait there."

She gasped at his words. Did he actually mean that? She had to know. "Do you really mean that, Firo? Do you really?"

The fedora wearing boy chuckled before he answered back, "Ennis, sweetheart, I would of waited 1000 years. Nothin' was gonna stop me from waitin'… I love you too much to do that." Hearing him say that made the red haired girl smile again. She leaned her head closer to his and kissed him again, and he returned the favor by kissing her back.

After seven seconds of that, they stopped, now back smiling at each other. "I love you, too, Firo," she breathed out, sounding as happy as ever.

"Ennis, can I ask you somethin'? And if I can, I want you to give me an honest answer, okay? I want you to say what you really wanna say."

"Okay," she replied back as she nodded her head a little.

He then took his arms away from her waist and grabbed one of her hands, later saying sincerely, "Ennis, will you marry me? Will you do me the honuh of becomin' Mrs. Ennis Prochainezo?"

She felt the tears coming back in her eyes now. Ennis then put her hand on top of his and whispered back, "Yes, I will marry you. I want to be with you forever. I love you."

After she accepted this proposal of his, a feeling of overwhelming ecstasy came over his body and soul. The happy, young man then tightly hugged the girl, now spinning around with cheerfulness. "Oh, thank you, Ennis! May God bless your soul! Oh, happy day! Ha-ha, I'm so happy right now! I think I can rocket off to the moon, or somethin'!"

Ennis just laughed as he shouted with glee and spun her around in circles. He soon set her back down on her feet. "Hey, let's get married as soon as possible, okay? Is tomorrow good?" asked the overexcited boy in green.

Now with a baffled expression on her face, she then asked, "Sure, I would love to, but is that possible?"

He then put his hand on top of her head and began to play with her hair. "Of course it's possible. Don't worry; I'll have Maiza backin' us up. We'll invite everyone in the Martillo family! Boy, Ennis, you sure made me the happiest man alive, you know that?"

"Thank you, Firo," was what she replied back to him, that exquisite smile now back on her face.

"Come on, beautiful, let's go tell everyone the good news," said Firo, now holding out his hand.

Ennis grabbed his hand, and then said, "Okay, my handsome fiancé." It felt so sweet to him to hear words like that come out of her mouth. But then again, just hearing her voice was delighting enough. He smiled at her, and then pecked her on the cheek. The happy couple then began to walk away, now on their way to leave from the park. Firo told Maiza about him and Ennis, and he couldn't have been happier for the two.

The next day, Firo and Ennis actually did get married. Everything went as planned, and it felt undeniably perfect. The happily married couple had many content years together, and they forever would until the world ended. But on one special day, they got the surprise of their lives. Everything seemed normal as Firo just came home from work.

He went inside his house, and his wife greeted him with a kiss. "How's my angel doin' today, huh?" asked the husband, happy to see his wife's pretty face again after having a rough day at work; his arms wrapped around her waistline.

"I'm doing fine, and I hope you are, too."

"I am now," he replied, now kissing her on the neck.

Ennis laughed and afterwards told him, "Before you get carried away, I think that there's something that you should know, dear."

He stopped his actions and looked his wife in the eyes. "Sure, what's up, Ennis?" he asked.

She then grabbed his right hand and placed it right on her stomach; his eyes immediately began to widen with happiness when she did this. And then, he heard the words that he's been dying to hear for quite some time now. "I am pregnant, Firo. We're going to have a baby," his wife sweetly whispered in his ear.

The End!

Okay, well, thank you for reading! Again, I'm sorry if the characters were OOC, okay? I tried my best, though. I hope you enjoyed reading this! Long live FiroxEnnis, and the beyond awesome anime Baccano! God bless you and have a nice day, or night, you hear? ^_^.