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*beep* *beep* *beep*
The alarm ticked, heralding a new monotonous morning once more in the Butcher residence. If you could call it that with just one lonely old man in it. Said man turned off the alarm, rubbing his eyes afterwards. He lifted himself up, small rays of sunlight peeked through his curtains and he looked at them briefly before getting out of bed. Another boring day of his new routine.
Things had turned out in unexpected ways after the incident with Soldier Boy. Unexpected in the sense that things got much more dull than Butcher had ever foreseen back when they rescued America’s old sweetheart from Russia.
Homelander got more unhinged but not by more than he was already, he was generally keeping quiet. Probably devoting all his attention to his son. Butcher felt dread down to his stomach whenever he thought about Ryan, much more because of what he did to him than the fact he was now being fostered by his biological maniacal murderer dad. But it got worse than that, Billy’s clock was ticking away. All the Temp V he shot up fucked up his body really bad. He himself didn’t feel much different, but he knew he would die eventually and it wouldn’t take long. Less than a year probably, even sooner if he stressed his body. So, as consequence of that, his Boys unanimously benched him in their fight against Homelander and the supes, lest they find a way to heal him.
So: His son was gone. His friends were gone (they periodically visited, they were too busy to check up on him often). He couldn’t do jack all to help fight back against the cunt who had Ryan. And to top it all off, he would drop dead in a matter of a semester or so. Things never looked brighter.
He sighed as he brewed himself some tea. This was honestly the most interesting part of his days lately. He brewed a lot of tea, coffee and other hot beverages. He was cooking a lot too even though he was depressed as hell. He just ordered a ton of groceries and never left home.
Even then… he could never shake the feeling he was constantly being watched.
“Hm?” Butcher muttered as he stared out the window.
Maybe he was being paranoid, maybe he was going crazy. It didn’t matter. At least he had something interesting happening lately, which was this uneasy feeling he had throughout the day.
His day passed without anything happening, with that, nightfall came quickly.
He laid in bed again for the night and stared at the ceiling. He couldn’t think about anything really, at least nothing that wouldn’t make him wallow in self pity anyways. Ryan, Becca, the boys, Homelander… He was stuck without an easy way out. Without any way out.
Maybe he wasn’t meant to find a way out, maybe this was how his tumultuous life ended. In the most dull, boring and un-diabolical way possible.
But something interrupted his inner monologue, he looked to the corner of his bedroom and he saw a pair of eyes, cerulean ones, staring right through his soul. He must be hallucinating now, he rubbed his eyes and the mystery figure got an inch closer. He felt a small tingle down his spine so he turned on his night light and much to his surprise they were gone.
He was unsettled but not enough to be disturbed. He was seeing things now that he was on the last leg of his life, so what? At least something interesting is gonna happen before he kicks the bucket.
Butcher turned the lights off again and laid his head on the pillows, getting ready to drift to sleep.
But… The uneasy feeling he was being observed was now stronger than ever.
--
After his fateful encounter with the floating eyes, he got nervous and a tad curious every night waiting for them to reappear but they never did. Until he caught the perpetrator red handed.
Dying of curiosity, he set up his phone to record his whole dreamless night of sleep. Maybe this way he could see if anyone was actually sneaking in his apartment somehow to stalk him.
But what he found out was exactly what he expected and exactly what he didn’t at the same time.
The Cunt with capital C. The cunt to end all cunts in the world. America’s golden boy, or at least part of it nowadays, himself. Homelander. watching him sleep for at least a few hours. He wasn’t sure if he was being watched now, if the cunt noticed he was being recorded or if he even cared. In the state Butcher was in he was helpless against him. But unfortunately, he understood Homelander’s M.O much to his dismay, if he wanted Butcher to die he would have done it so long ago, since he knew where he lived (which is not hard to find out, he doesn’t make an effort to hide since he technically doesn’t need to anymore and because Vought has surveillance all over the city, all over the country probably). He probably wanted something. What could a dead man walking like Butcher offer to a “god” like him? He’d just have to ask.
Since the act was up, Butcher needed to know what in the bloody hell was going on. So he waited for nightfall, he laid on his bed and pretended his best to sleep. After an hour or two, he didn’t really count, he spoke into the darkness.
“Ok you cunt, I’m actually surprised I went this long without noticing you in my flat staring ‘oles in me back all this time.” He opened his eyes and looked at the spot he previously found the blue eyes looking at him. There they were. Butcher lifted himself up and turned the lights on, but the sight was actually unexpected. He saw his nemesis standing in front of his bed but… He wasn’t wearing his pompous supe clown costume. He sported dark jeans, sneakers and a jacket. Synthetic leather. Looked cheap but also not second hand. And hair that wasn’t gelled up till it could barely move, it actually clouded his forehead a bit, it was longer since the last time he saw him too but not that much. He looked stoic, maybe ashamed to be caught in the act? Somehow Butcher doubted this creature could feel such a thing, but he looked unsettling as fuck. Looked like any average joe on the street.
“Hello, William.” Homelander spoke in his usual cynical tone. He grinned slightly.
Butcher sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “You don’t want to kill me, that much I got, I’m not daft. Can we cut the formalities and get to the fucking point?”
Homelander swallowed and looked down to the carpet, avoiding direct eye contact. His grin fading alongside. A fucking child is what he is, Butcher thought.
“Ryan has been asking about you. Constantly.”
That surprised Butcher, maybe he was dreaming. He could feel his face softening a tad. He scratched his neck. “So what? I doubt you cunt will let ‘im see me.”
Homelander tilted his head slightly. This idiot was already annoying Butcher with all his mannerisms, as if his presence alone didn’t get on his nerves.
“I thought about killing you. Getting you out of the picture as quickly as possible.”
“Flattering.”
“But Ryan is everything to me. If he unfortunately wants to see you, I can get used to the idea. Maybe. I don’t know.”
“Yay, he don’t hate me. Now why on god’s name have you been stalkin’ me? And where did you get so fucking sneaky.”
“You underestimate me William… But ease your mind. I’m not here to kill you as you deduced. Not yet.” He chuckled softly. A sound you can probably hear the devil make or maybe the devil himself would shudder listening to this cunt chuckling. “I’ve been watching the corrosion in your body progress. I have been reporting it to scientists at Vought, medics and others to see how to heal you.”
Makes sense. Homelander could see through your organs, still didn’t explain why he of all people cared for his well being. “Why? Why do you fuckin’ care? An-” He sighed again. “And why didn’t you just fuckin’ ASK me then, why are you such a goddamn freak!” Butcher stood up from his bed, staring right into the lion’s eyes.
“I admit, that was impolite of me.” He said sarcastically. “For Ryan. If he wants to see you, it’ll be no good if you’re in a coffin, as much as I’d want that.”
Butcher averted his eyes. Made sense. He sat back on his bed, running a hand through his face. Maybe he was not going to get Death’s sweet embrace this year. Thanks to the most unexpected help ever.
Homelander walked towards him and stood in front of him. He was already fed up with his presence in his house already.
“You know William…” Homelander said as he reached towards Butcher’s face, he cupped his cheek, directing his gaze to his. He enjoyed making people look up to him literally. Freak. “There is hope. Once you’re good to go you can apologize to my son and everything can be right again, isn’t that great? Hm?” He grinned, Butcher saw pity in his eyes.
“Yeah fuckin’ right. All’s gonna be fine and dandy as always, leave it to you cunt to always get up in people’s fuckin’ business.” He slapped Homelander’s hand away and looked down. Fed up with his face already.
“Now, now, no need to be so rude, I’m really with your best interest in mind. This time. Look at me William.” He ordered. Butcher of course did not comply. “Look. At. Me.” he said sternly this time.
With no strength left in him these past months, he complied looking into the cunt’s eyes. He had something in them he couldn’t quite place.
“I’m not gonna lie, William. Ryan made me soften up a tiny little bit towards you. In the end what he wants is of my utmost interest…” He puffed his cheeks and let the air go, smiling afterwards. “But I gotta be honest, in the last two months I’ve been observing you… I realized you are utterly pathetic. And very sad. Very very very sad.”
“Thanks, I hadn’t noticed it. Cunt.”
He chuckled as softly as a demon could again. “But in all that patheticness and misery… There is a bit of a charming man. Someone different from all the other mudpeople. I couldn’t understand what Ryan saw in you, what everyone around you saw. All I ever saw was a vile, foul mouthed Londoner, all you ever did was hurt everyone around you but they still cared and loved you.” He said as if he was… Jealous? He was hard to read and Butcher didn’t like wasting his brain power on understanding the devil in front of him. “But now I get it.” He inched his face closer, he squeezed Butcher’s cheeks a bit forcefully. “You’re so… quaint. Such a caricature of a person. Someone on this pathetic shithole of a world I care enough to hate.” He smiled less softly now, he was beaming at Butcher. Butcher gulped. He knew Homelander didn’t want to kill him but that didn’t mean he could break a few bones for sport, he was going to heal his Temp V poisoning anyways, what’s a broken leg or arm, a missing tooth or two.
Homelander fucking kissed his lips.
Softly.
He tasted like mint.
Huh, another thing on the list of batshit insane things that ever happened to him.
Homelander slowly pulled back. Not letting go of Butcher’s face. “You have unparalleled taste in hot drinks, anyone tell you that?”
Butcher had enough of this bullshit, what was this cunt planning he was not going where he wanted it to go. Not in a million years would he allow Homelander to use him like some kind of doll.
“The fuck you want? Just… get to the point, cunt. I’m tired.”
Homelander sighed and released his grip on Butcher’s face. “That’s what you get for trying to be romantic…”
“You want to bugger me? I’m sorry mate, I don’t think you’re exactly my type.”
“No need for humor now William.”
Butcher laid back down on the bed, covering himself with the blankets. He turned away from Homelander. He was at his wit’s end, just looking at the cunt would make him burst.
“After you’re healed, everything will be fine.”
“What if I don’t want to be healed? What if I want to fuckin’ die?”
“Oh c’mon, we all know you don’t want that William and as if I’d allow you to die.” He heard Homelander crouching down. He turned around to look at,apparently, his new bachelor. “You’re going to heal whether you like it or not and you’re going to apologize to Ryan and you’re going to be part of my family.” He smiled. You know, if Butcher didn’t know the maniac in front of him he’d say he actually looks a bit cute and disarming like this, since he’s dressed like you know, a normal person.
“Huh?”
“What did I say? What my son wants is the most important now. And he wants to see you. Regularly.”
“What makes you nutjob think I ’d be down to play house with you? Betraying my boys, Becca, everyone like-- like this?” Butcher said.
“C’mon Billy , we all know you have no one else in this world but Ryan and me now.” He got up, picking up a framed picture of Ryan and Butcher in his nightstand. “Your friends barely visit, your wife is dead, you have no real routine, you live a pathetic life enclosed in an apartment that’s barely decorated. I’m giving you a new start.” he clicked his tongue. “If it makes you feel better let me tell you something then…”
He crouched again, Butcher patience was at his limit with his drawn out monologues. If this is his punishment for being a cunt this is a cruel one. “Madelyn, Maeve, Stormfront… You know what they all had in common?”
“No.”
He kept smiling. “They all left. But you… You pest stayed. You kept on being a nuisance, you were, are, in the corner of my life all the time. Always there to annoy me, to get in the way, always there to be the good old William Butcher, the one who is not afraid.”
“So fuckin’ what? I get an award for it?”
Homelander clicked his tongue. “That makes you special. You’re special. That fire, that dedication, that desperation to get your revenge is actually touching.” He placed a hand in his chest, where his heart would be if he had one probably. “I’ll make you mine. What I couldn’t do with anyone else, it’s clear I can do with you. In fact I think I already did.”
This cunt was insane and Butcher just wanted to go to sleep now.
“You spend every waking minute thinking about me don’t you? Every day of every month of every year… This was what I always searched for.”
He climbed on top of the bed, pinning Butcher down. “You’re mine.”
“Fuckin’ hell I’m not! Now get off me you insane cunt I didn’t ask for this!”
Butcher finally deciphered the emotions in the back of Homelander’s blue eyes. It was obsession. He was obsessed with him.
He leaned down and whispered into his ears. “And you want to know something, William?” He backed away and cradled Butcher’s face.
“I’m yours too. Isn’t that beautiful?”
Butcher could feel a cold sweat trail down his neck, or his back, figure of speech. Now he had the most powerful creature alive obsessed with him, he was sure this manbaby would never take a no for an answer.
He knew Homelander did insane things for the things and people he had attachment to.
But now it was Butcher’s turn to be the target of this twisted affection, if you can even call it that.
Well, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad… He has been really lonely lately.