Victoria woke up the next morning to an empty bed. She kept her eyes closed, for a moment forgetting the previous night had happened. It hadn't been real. Some random guy called Hughie hadn't come to her in the nightclub. He hadn't given her Billy's number. She hadn't called him and heard him tell her that Homelander was dangerous. Her boyfriend hadn't shown up the night before and she hadn't lied to his face. Her stomach began churning and her eyes remained closed. She could feel that the bed was empty, the usual dip in the mattress from where he slept wasn't there. He was gone.

She peeled an eye open and looked around. Reaching for her phone, she saw that it was just gone seven in the morning. It was pretty early and she wondered where Homelander could have gone. She moved to sit up in the bed and looked around the bedroom. His suit was gone too, meaning that he was dressed and either away or waiting in the living area.

Reaching for her scrunchie on the bedside table, Victoria tugged her hair from her face. She hadn't heard Daniella or Michelle get in, but as she looked in the hallway, she noted that their doors were firmly shut. They must have made it back. Going to the living area, it was completely empty. She didn't call his name out, not wanting to wake her friends. She noted a piece of paper on the coffee table and went to pick it up.

'Come to the Tower when you can. We need to talk.'

Shit. Victoria inhaled a sharp breath. What the hell was that message? It was Homelander's writing. She noticed it instantly. She rushed back to her bedroom and grabbed her phone. Dialling his number, she heard the phone ring, but it went straight to voicemail. She began panicking, longing to know what exactly was going on. She dialled once more, but again, he didn't pick up. She huffed loudly and stripped out of her cotton pyjamas quickly.

Not bothering with makeup, she dressed into a long sleeved tight fitting brown and white striped top and pulled on her black a-line skirt. She shimmied into black tights, cursing when she ripped them and had to get another pair. Tugging a brush through her hair, she left it up in the ponytail and then brushed her teeth before gathering her things.

Ensuring she had her phone, purse and apartment keys, she left a quick note to tell her friends she had gone out. Taking the subway towards the Tower, she arrived just an hour after she had seen the note. She showed her pass to security, but they had gotten so used to seeing her round that they barely looked anymore. Tapping in the access code to the private penthouse level, she headed on up and tapped her foot nervously on the ground.

There was only one thought running through her mind. Did he know? Did he know about the phone call? What else could be so urgent? She could feel her heart racing and she knew that he would be able to hear it too. He wasn't an idiot. He would know that something was up. She was amazed he didn't spot it last night.

The doors pinged open and Victoria moved into the living area, dropping her bag to the floor. "John?" she called his name. She headed on through to the kitchen, but that was empty as well. She shook her head and went to the spiral staircase, but she needn't have bothered. He was outside on his balcony, hovering in the air and looking out over the skyline, the glass balustrade sitting beneath him.

Opening the door, Victoria stepped out onto the balcony, the wind blowing harshly against her. She felt some strands of hair fall out from the ponytail she had tugged it up into and she watched the back of him. She gulped and spoke his name again, trying to act as though everything was fine.

"John?" she said. "Didn't you hear me in there?"

"My mind is elsewhere," he responded, but that didn't answer her question. He must have heard her. How could he not have? He turned his head over his shoulder and looked down to her, drinking in her appearance and giving her a tight-lipped smile. Was she going to continue lying to him? Was she going to try and convince him that she was loyal if she kept the truth from him?

"What is it?" she asked, stepping further onto the balcony, hands curling around the railing.

He moved to the ground then, floating back down gracefully and looking at her. He sighed. "I didn't know how to tell you this," he confessed.

He moved to the coffee table in between the two wicker chairs. He picked up a brown file and Victoria's eyes narrowed before she took it from his grip. Peeling it open, she looked into it and saw a familiar face staring back at her. She looked up then, unable to glance at him for much longer. She glanced back to Homelander.

"What is this?" she asked from him.

"Your brother," he declared. "I know you told me not to look into him, but I had to. I had to because I need to protect you. I need to do everything I can to keep you safe."

"I asked you not to," Victoria replied, her tone tight and he wanted to scoff. She had the audacity to be mad at him? She had the nerve to tell him not to do something? His jaw tensed and he ground his teeth together. Watching her, he felt the anger swell up inside of him, but he kept it bitten down. He needed to see how this would play.

"Well, I had to," Homelander said. "And it is a good job that I did. Look at it."

She sighed but opened the folder once more, her eyes scanning over the notes inside of it. Homelander spoke as she read, unable to contain himself. He wanted to get this over with. He wanted to get to the juicy question he had been dying to ask her since she had walked into the penthouse.

"He was dishonourably discharged from the SAS for not obeying orders," Homelander informed her. "He was involved in shady activities…extorting fellow soldiers…smuggling in illegal goods…ever since then, he's been laying low. He's had hardly any money to his name and now he knows where you are. He knows what's going on with you."

"This…Billy?" she checked and shook her head. Then again, did she know her brother? How could she? He was long gone by the time she was old enough to understand everything that happened in their family. It was another moment before Homelander continued talking, moving to stand over her shoulder and looking over it to the folder.

He looked at his handiwork, the fabricated documents easy to deal with thanks to Madelyn's help that morning. She had been hesitant, but she knew what Victoria going rogue would look like to Homelander's rating and she had promised to protect him at any cost. It just seemed that the cost was getting much higher than any of them had ever anticipated.

"He's been planning the best way to extort you, Vicky," Homelander said to her and she flipped the page before feeling her shoulders slump and her chest tighten. Her head began spinning and she closed the folder as soon as she could. Shaking her head, she dropped it back onto the coffee table and began pacing.

Her hands tugged through her hair and she began pacing the length of the balcony, her fingers shaking and her breathing coming out in short pants. Homelander watched her back as she moved away from him and he could hear her heart rate. It was far too high. He noted her grip hold of the railing again, doubling over, her head bowed low and her face scrunched up. This wasn't possible. This couldn't be possible.

"I'm sorry," Homelander called out to her and she crouched down on the floor, shaking her head.

"No," she said firmly. "That's not right. That can't be right."

"He never intended for the men to hurt you," Homelander said to her and watched her, hands behind his back as he realised that this was going exactly as he'd hoped it would go. She was playing right into his hands and soon enough he'd have what he needed. "He just intended for them to keep you in that building until I paid up."

"No!" Victoria yelled this time, shaking her head, a manic look on her face. She moved to stand up straight again, her eyes set on Homelander and he could see the tears forming there. "He couldn't…He wouldn't…it's not true…none of that is true."

"Vicky," Homelander whispered her name. "We've been looking into your kidnapping for some time. It's taken us a while to find out who was behind it, but we have the proof. That right there is the proof," he pointed to the folder and Victoria looked down to it once more. She didn't want to open it again. She didn't want to look at her brother's face and think that he could have done this.

"It can't be," she said and shook her head.

"It is, sweetheart," he said, voice soft. He was playing this well. "Madelyn will confirm it for you if you need, but she told me last night. I wanted to say something, but I didn't think it was the right time. You weren't exactly in a great place. I don't know…it was almost as though you weren't yourself…" he finished off and Victoria looked to him.

She sat down in the chair, afraid she might collapse. This wasn't happening. It couldn't be happening. He had sworn on Lenny's grave. He had sworn that he was telling her the truth and Lenny had been their brother. He had been family. Could he have sworn on his soul and it meant nothing? It was just words? Then again, could he really have organised for his own sister to have been kidnapped? Did she really know Billy? But this. This felt like something else.

"Was something wrong last night?" he questioned from her and he crouched down before her. He took hold of her hands inside of his, holding them firm and seeing how she looked down into her lap. "You can tell me, Victoria. You can tell me anything."

Her eyes closed firmly and tears fell down her cheeks. He watched her intently. This was her chance. She would either lie to him or she would tell him the truth. There was no in between now. This was her final chance. If she didn't tell him then he knew what that meant. It meant that his trust in her was misplaced. It meant that everything he thought about her was wrong. It took him a moment to comprehend that this could be the end of them. He'd have to end it and then he'd have to deal with Victoria. He'd have to do something to deal with her and keep her from turning on him.

"He swore on Lenny's life."

She finally cracked, the words coming out of her mouth and he furrowed his brows. Lenny. Her brother who committed suicide. She sniffed, her cheeks now red and eyes puffy. She looked at him with those tear-filled eyes that normally made him pity her and long to find a way to protect her.

"What was that?"

"Last night," she cracked. "Some guy came to the club and asked me to talk to him."

"Do you remember his name?"

"Hughie someone," she said, shaking her head. "It was loud and he'd said Billy's name. He told me that he was desperate to talk to me. I…I called him on the way home. This Hughie had said that he'd sworn on Lenny's soul that he was going to tell me the truth. That was why I called him. I called him because I thought that Lenny meant something to him. I thought that he wasn't a complete asshole to lie to me like he had done."

"So there was something off last night," Homelander concluded and Victoria nodded.

"I didn't know how to tell you," Victoria confessed. "I was confused. I didn't know what to think. I didn't know what to do because…he is my brother…he's my brother, John and I guess some part of me wants to believe that maybe he does care. Maybe he actually does want to look out for me."

"What did he want from you?" he continued pushing her, lifting his hand up to cup her cheek gently. His grip was soft, thumb running along her cheekbone and she leaned into him. This was what he wanted. This was exactly what he wanted.

She moved her own hand to curl around his wrist, holding onto it and watching him. She continued to stare at him, her eyes meeting his and she wondered if she should do this. Should she tell him? Was there any part of him that had been telling her the truth?

"You can tell me anything, Victoria," he whispered to her, voice soft and low. "You know me."

And she did. Well, she thought that she did. She had confessed that she loved him. She'd been with him almost every day for the past ten months. She'd trusted him more than anyone else in her life? But Billy had told her not to. He had told her not to trust him, but could she trust Billy after everything? Homelander had never let her down, not like her brother.

"He warned me about you," Victoria said and Homelander wanted to laugh out loud. This was exactly what he had wanted to happen. She was giving him everything that he needed to hear from her and she didn't even know it. She had no idea. "He told me that you weren't who you said you were and he swore it on Lenny's soul. That was why I was going to meet him. I was going to go to him and I didn't know what I expected him to tell me."

"Because a part of you believed him?" Homelander asked and now it was his turn to act hurt. It was his turn to be the injured party because he knew exactly how she would react.

"No," she said quickly and he knew that was still trying to please him. She still wanted to keep him on her side. "No…I just…I wondered if he'd gotten something wrong…I just…I wanted to know what he wanted and what had made him swear on Lenny's soul. I didn't know how to tell you last night. I was confused. I just wanted to sort this without worrying you."

"So there's no part of you that believes what he said to you?" he checked.

"No," she said, finally coming to that decision. The word came out of her mouth before she could stop it. It was a reflex. It had become an immediate reflex to believe everything that he told her. "You know that I trust you. You've never given me a reason not to, but he's still my brother. He's still my own flesh and blood and…Christ…I claim that I've left them all behind, put my family in the past, but I haven't, have I? I haven't because I'm still running to them."

"Victoria, you need to understand that's not healthy," he whispered to her, his voice low and soft. "They've done nothing but hurt you. Look at what he did," he moved a hand to point to the folder. "He tried to get money out of you. He had you kidnapped. And I know that hurts. I know that you don't want to believe that your brother could do that to you, but he did. The evidence is all there."

"He…I don't understand how he could do that." Victoria replied, shaking her head back and forth. "How could you do that to your own family?"

"Because he doesn't care about you," Homelander said, laying it on thick and knowing that he had to do something to get her firmly on his side. There could be no room for doubt. There could be no margin of error. "When has he ever cared about you? He left you when you were a sixteen-year-old girl. He left you to that monster. He left your brother to your father. He left you to him. He never looked out for you, Vicky."

She was quiet then, still crying softly, tears slipping down her face. He watched her, longing to know what she was thinking. What was going on inside of her mind? What was it that she was hoping might happen? He continued observing her until she sniffed and looked him in the eye.

"When did you say that you would meet him?" Homelander pressed her. But he knew. He'd heard the entire phone call. Her eyes closed again and he wanted to snap at her. He had given her the evidence she needed. He had given her exactly what she wanted, someone who would look after her, protect her. He had given everything she could need and she was still hesitating, still wanting to protect her brother.

"Wednesday at seven," she finally whispered, her throat clenched and voice hoarse.

"By the Alice in Wonderland statue?" he checked, recalling her mentioning that as the place he wanted to meet last time, and she just nodded once, knowing that she had betrayed her brother. She knew that she would have done that. She bowed her head and he moved to wrap her into his arms and, just like he had wanted her to do, she moved her own arms around him and clung on tightly.

…

He wanted to trust his sister. He had wanted to trust that she would show unaccompanied. He longed to believe that there would be a way she would follow through. But he should have known better. He wanted to meet her at the statue, but he knew just how deep Homelander had his claws in her. He knew that there was every chance he would have gotten the location and meeting time from her. That was why he didn't go there himself.

He'd managed to climb onto the roof of one of the many buildings surrounding the park. He had a pair of binoculars by his side so that he could look down onto it. He'd asked Frenchie to sit on the bench to the side of the statue, waiting to see if she turned up. They knew who she was, of course. Frenchie and MM knew all about Butcher's past.

"Why do you two not talk?"

Hughie was up on the roof alongside Billy. MM was down in the van to the side, prepared to get Victoria out of there if she agreed to come with them. But he should have known that was never going to happen. Billy was quiet for a while, his mind going back to that day he had gone back home while he had been on leave from the army. He could still see her in the apartment. He could still picture her, stood outside on the pavement as he got into his car and she begged him to take her with him. She'd banged her fists against the window and he had just stared straight ahead and drove off, silently telling himself that their father wouldn't touch her again. But it wasn't him who she was scared of. But she'd never told him. She had never told him. She'd just cried on him and clung to him. And he had pushed her off gently.

"It's a long story," Billy responded. He didn't want to go into it. He didn't know if he could. His past was exactly that and he wanted to keep it that way. They had a job to do. He couldn't afford to be distracted by his prior regrets. But he was. He was getting distracted constantly. "She's my sister."

"Wait," Hughie said. MM and Frenchie knew that much. They had a history, but Hughie was new to the group. "Your sister is Victoria Anderton?"

"Yeah," Billy said, voice gruff and low. "My little sister."

"Butcher…what the fuck?" Hughie demanded to know from him. "Your sister is dating Homelander …and you sent me to her?"

"They won't find you. That club has no CCTV."

"I gave her my name."

"It's not you who they're after. You're just the messenger boy," he said to him. "It's me who they'll want. It's me who's threatening to expose Homelander for the asshole he really is."

"I killed Translucent, or have you forgotten that?" Hughie hissed.

"And no one is linking that back to you," Billy declared and he picked the binoculars up again as the clock struck five to seven. There was still no Victoria. "I needed to try something because I need to get her out of there. I need to get her away from him because he's psychopath."

"She always seemed pretty happy with him whenever I've seen them on TV," Hughie said to him and Billy glowered to him. He held his hands up defensively. "I'm just saying that she never seems like she's in danger with him. In fact…she looks like she really-"

"-Do not finish that sentence unless you want my boot up your ass," he interrupted him firmly. He didn't even want to think about. He hadn't told Hughie about Becca yet. In fact, he had hardly told him anything about his past. But he knew that he would have to. He knew that the time would come when he'd have to tell him something.

They'd been so close to Homelander finding them once before. He had gone looking for Translucent the other day, but he hadn't found him. They'd thrown Homelander off the scent quick enough. But the fact was that they had been so close to him finding them. He'd been concerned about Translucent, for some reason. He saw it as a member of the Seven being fucked with and he wasn't going to let that happen because it meant that he might be fucked with one day. He wasn't going to settle for that.

"I just need to get her away from him and tell her the truth," Billy settled on saying. "But she's not going to show. She's not coming."

"You think?"

"I know," Billy said, looking back through the binoculars and then handing them to Hughie.

He looked into them and saw exactly what he had feared he would see. Homelander. He had landed right near the statue and was looking around, ignoring the fans who were coming up to him. His eyes were scanning around and he was looking for that familiar face. Billy shook his head and closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose and wondering just what more he could do. He was beginning to get desperate. She wasn't going to come with him willingly and listen to him. He'd have to make her.

"What do we do now?" Hughie wondered.

"We move on to plan B."

…

"This isn't healthy, Victoria."

Homelander had come back from a brief meeting on the Saturday morning before the race. Translucent was still missing and they had no idea where he was, but everyone was more interested in A-Train against Shockwave, coining it as the race of a century. He'd been out with Maeve the day before and raised his concerns with her as they dealt with some gunman in a building who the police hadn't been able to stop.

Victoria had been back and forth between her apartment, the library and the penthouse. She had gotten the comments back on the first draft of her thesis and was making the necessary alterations before the oral examination in the summer. Homelander knew that was stressing her out and he tried to make her life easier. He cooked for her. He gave her space. He had even gone to her apartment some nights when he hated making small talk with her friends. But he did it. He did it for her. And in return, he had found her continuously looking through the folder he had given her on her brother.

And that was what she was doing on the Saturday morning before the race. She was sat up in bed, hair tugged behind her ears and folder in her lap once more, legs tucked upwards so that she could read it easier. He had just finished showering and returned back to the bedroom to find her there.

"I'm still struggling to believe it," she confessed and Homelander sighed. He wanted to snap at her and tell her to get out of that mindset; to give him all of her attention as she should do, as he deserved.

"I know," he humoured her and sat down on the edge of the bed by her side. He plucked the folder from her grip and tossed it off to the side, letting it fall on the floor. "But reading that isn't going to change anything. It's only going to keep making you worry…upsetting you…and I don't want to see that. Just stop looking at it. You will feel better for it, trust me."

She knew he was right. She knew that he was making sense and just looking out for her. She nodded once, letting out a deep breath she had been holding in. She took hold of his hand and he squeezed it, fingers lacing against his. He moved his free hand towards her cheek, brushing her hair behind her ear.

"You're right," she said and that felt like music to his ears. "I know you're right."

"And he never even showed the other night when he said he would. That's got to tell you something."

"I know," she said to him. "And I know that nothing is going to change what is in that folder and what he's done. So…I'm not going to think about it. Today's the race. We'll go to that and everything will be fine."

"The fucking race," he complained and flopped backwards, his head resting in her lap. Looking down to him, she moved her free hand to his hair, brushing her fingers through it. "You know, Translucent is still missing and all everyone is talking about is this fucking race, as if it actually means anything."

"Still no news on him then?"

"None at all," Homelander responded. "And no one seems to be taking it seriously except me."

"I'm amazed it hasn't been in the news," Victoria commented, fingers still threading through his wet hair. "A member of the Seven going missing seems like it should be front page news."

"Vought are covering it," he said to her. "But I have no idea how long they are going to be able to do that for."

"You think someone has a vendetta against the Seven?"

"No idea," Homelander scoffed. "I don't know if it's that or if it's something personal against Translucent. The guy was a massive pervert so he must have made some enemies. Either way, I've got to go to this shit show and smile and wave and pretend everything is fine."

"And there's no way that you can get out of it?"

"Doubt it."

"Well, I don't know what to suggest," Victoria said. "Except for the fact that I know it's almost impossible to kill supes, especially a member of the Seven. Hopefully he'll just turn up and then you can bollock him for going AWOL without a word."

"Yeah," he said, but he wasn't entirely convinced on that point. How could he be? He thought that there was something sinister at play. There was something inside of him that felt it. But he had to push it down. He had to ignore it for the day because he had other things he needed to do. "Anyway, we should get ready. We need to be leaving soon."

"I said I'd meet Daniella and Michelle there while you do your media interviews," Victoria said to him. "I also told Starlight that I'd drop by and see how she's doing. You know that the girl she saved came forward and collaborated her story? Seems that Madelyn's not pissed at her anymore."

"Good news for her," Homelander agreed on that point. He didn't give a shit about Starlight, but he could hardly say that to Victoria. "Come on, we should get ready."

He began to move, but Victoria pulled him back. She knew she had no force, but he didn't move away. She knelt on the bed, hands going to hold onto his shoulders as she looked down at him. Her gaze moved over his and she reached up to stroke his cheek softly. It had been over a week since the two of them had really been intimate and Victoria knew that things were bound to cool down. She didn't expect to be having sex all of the time, but she didn't particularly like the thought that she had pulled away from him.

"Don't we have half an hour?" she wondered and he picked up on where this was going.

Over the last week, he'd been lucky to get a chaste peck from her. He'd not forced it, of course, but he had been left to take care of himself for far too long, particularly in the morning. He arched a brow and grabbed hold of her by the hips, pinning her to the bed and giving her no other option but to wrap her legs around his waist.

"Pretty sure we can be late if we want to be," he responded and he let her dip her hand underneath the towel around his waist, groaning at the feeling of her hand around him. "We're America's golden couple, darling. We can do whatever the fuck we want."

…

Moving into the stadium, Victoria flashed her VIP pass to the security guards and placed her phone through the security scanner. She hadn't bothered bringing anything else with her. She put her phone back into her denim jacket pocket that she was wearing over her white shirt tucked into her dark jeans. She looked around for any sign of Michelle and Daniella and soon found them by the bar, holding glasses of champagne and looking out the large floor-length windows that overlooked the track and pitch in the stadium.

"Hey," Victoria greeted them, moving to embrace them each. "How are you both doing?"

"Great," Michelle answered. "This is amazing."

"She's on her third glass of free champagne already," Daniella said.

"You've got to make the most of it," Michelle defended herself and Victoria shook her head, a smile on her face.

"You know that I gave each of you one and a half million dollars, right?" she checked with her friends. And that was true. She had used Vought's money to ensure her two closest friends were financially secure, especially since they'd supported her through the entire ordeal of fake dating Homelander and done even more to support her through her real dating of him.

"Doesn't mean I'll never look for a freebie," Michelle retorted. "And did you know that most of the Seven are here too? I've already spotted Black Noir and Queen Maeve. I would've thought that Homelander would be here already."

"He's doing an interview with Maeve. I told him that I'd watch the race with him, but I wanted to come and spend some time with both of you," Victoria said.

She'd told them everything about what had happened with Billy earlier in the week. She'd sat down at the breakfast bar and explained all of it, her two friends gasping in horror and promising her that they would do everything that they could, but she assured them she was fine. She just pleaded with them to tell her if he dared to make contact with them.

They spent an hour together, catching up and talking about summer plans. Daniella said that her and Georgina were looking into going to Europe and travelling round for a month. They wanted to go to Madrid, Paris, Rome and Berlin. Georgina had been saving, putting aside the bonus that her law firm had given her while Daniella intended on paying for most of it with the money Victoria had given her. Michelle was going away with her parents to the Caribbean considering her parents were going to renew their vows.

Listening to the tannoy announce that it was half an hour until the race began, Victoria realised that she had to go. She needed to say hi to Starlight before finding Homelander. She embraced her friends as they ordered a big bowl of nachos to share before leaving the restaurant. Moving through the concourse, she soon found Starlight heading towards a table filled with posters of her. Fans were lining up to get her autograph already. She was carrying a cola, sipping on it through the straw.

"Hey," Victoria said once she had caught up with her down the corridor before she could get to the table for the signing of autographs.

"Oh, hey!" Starlight exclaimed.

"I wanted to come and say hi…and…is that new?" Victoria asked, finally spotting the uniform she was wearing. There was no cape and long gone was the sleeves. Her new costume looked more like a swimsuit, a zip coming down her chest and her boots knee-length with stars adoring them at the top. Her hair was pristinely curled and her face had more makeup on than Victoria had seen her wearing before.

"Stillwell's idea," Starlight said to her. "I hate it."

"Did you not tell her that it was your body and your choice how to dress?" Victoria asked from her and she nodded.

"Yeah," she replied. "But it doesn't matter because she didn't exactly give me a chance. I either wear it or I leave the Seven."

Victoria rolled her eyes. "She's such a bitch," she complained to her. "I mean, you look good in it, I'm not denying that. But you need to wear what makes you comfortable and this just isn't it, is it?"

"Not at all," Starlight replied and shrugged her shoulders. "But whatever, I'll wear it for the day and then I'm going home for a bath and an early night. I get the feeling that I'll need it. I don't suppose you're free tomorrow?"

"I have the morning free," Victoria confirmed. "Do you fancy grabbing brunch? You could go incognito. There's this amazing place I know that does pancakes and waffles. Plus, they let you get half and half so you get the best of both worlds."

"That sounds pretty great," Starlight confirmed.

"Awesome, I'll come grab you at about half past ten, sound good?"

"Perfect," Starlight confirmed to her and motioned to the long table. "I'd best get sat down and start dealing with autographs. I'll see you tomorrow."

"See you then," Victoria said and she took off, heading off over the concourse as Starlight sat down and Victoria passed a small girl who was first in line, dressed in a Starlight costume, looking pretty adorable. Victoria smiled softly at seeing her, turning her head over her shoulder to see Annie beam at her as Ashley arrived, glued to her phone and clearly supervising her. But then she heard two guys talking as she walked out.

"Have you seen the tits on her?" one of them spoke to the other. "That new suit is so hot."

"God, I bet she's a screamer in bed."

"Dare you to shout her?"

"How much?"

"Ten bucks."

"Hey, Starlight! Show us your tits!" and he did exactly just that as Annie bent down to take a selfie with the little girl who looked back, clearly uneasy with everything.

Victoria couldn't help herself from responding as everyone else fell silent, no one standing up for Starlight. But this was a common occurrence. People never knew how to deal with men like that. They never knew what to say or how to react. And so silence was the next best thing. But that wasn't Victoria, especially not when it came to someone she was considering to be a friend.

"Why don't you show us your dick?" Victoria retorted and the two men looked to her as she stood there, arms flapping by her side. They went silent then, looking between each other.

"I…what…well…"

"I…what…well…" Victoria mocked one of them back and they seemed to turn red at hearing her. "Not great, is it? Being yelled at like that? So, why don't you two just shut the fuck up and show her some respect because you know who she is and she could handle two idiots like you in a second."

"Who the fuck do you think you are?" one of them asked from Victoria.

"Someone with more intelligence than you two put together," she retorted. "Now, why don't you get lost and leave everyone in here alone because they don't need two imbeciles like you ruining the atmosphere."

Victoria began to walk away, but one of them grabbed her arm and stopped her from going. "You think that you can get away with talking to us like that, bitch?" he demanded and then before Victoria could do anything, Ashley was there in an instant.

She stood to the side and looked between them all. "Why don't we just diffuse the situation here?" she suggested and Victoria wanted to ball her hand into a fist and punch him, but she guessed Ashley might not approve of that. "Victoria, I'm sure Homelander is looking for you."

"Homelander?" the guy instantly removed his hand from Victoria's arm and backed away.

"Yes, her boyfriend," Ashley said.

He held his hands up. "Whoa, okay…look…I don't want any trouble."

"Now that you've found out who my boyfriend is?" Victoria checked from them and a smirk formed on her face. "Yeah, not so tough now, are you? So pathetic."

"Victoria," Ashley said her name, almost pleading with her no to do anything.

Victoria wanted to. She wanted to make a scene and demand where two guys like that got off on talking to a woman like that. Victoria shook her head and rolled her eyes. "I'm going," she said to Ashley who was now going to have make sure the entire incident hadn't been filmed and, if it had, ask people to delete the videos.

Ashley nodded and Victoria headed off, passing by Starlight and mouthing to her. "You alright?"

She nodded her head back to her and mouthed a 'thank you'. She wanted to react. She wanted to hurt those guys for thinking they could talk to her like that, but Ashley had warned her against it. And she had listened. She thought that it would be best. Victoria, on the other hand, had been too quick for Ashley to intervene and she knew that was likely to be an issue with Madelyn if she found out.

Heading to the outside of the stadium, Victoria could hear the roar of the crowd as it was announced that the race was due to begin. Running towards the platform just outside the double doors of the VIP area, Victoria spotted Homelander's cape instantly. She moved to him, arm going around his waist as she pulled up alongside him.

"I haven't missed it, have I?" she checked with him and he shook his head as she looked down, spotting that A-Train and Shockwave were lined up on the track.

"Just starting," he confirmed as the announcer asked for everyone's attention to turn to the track.

Keeping an arm around Victoria's shoulders as she kept hold of his waist, Homelander looked down onto the top of her head and kissed her softly there before she glanced up to him for a brief moment and smiled before turning her attention to the track. Homelander looked around as everyone screamed and yelled, cheering loudly. But that was when he noticed. There was one face not looking out to the crowd. He had turned and was staring directly at Homelander, his gaze meeting his and not backing down. Brows furrowing, Homelander instantly knew who it was.

But he couldn't make a scene. In a stadium full of people, he just couldn't risk his reputation, no matter how much he wanted to. The two men kept staring at each other as Victoria remained ignorant, looking down to the track as the noise of the starting gun went off. She didn't see a thing, looking to the screen and then spotting that the replay camera showed A-Train had done it. He'd beaten Shockwave. The crowd's yells grew louder and Victoria looked up to Homelander.

"He did it," she said and Homelander glanced down to her before looking out to the crowd again, seeking out that face that had been staring directly at him.

Victoria's brow furrowed and she squinted. She squeezed around his waist. "You alright?" she questioned.

"Fine," he said, lips still pursed and then he looked down onto her as A-Train celebrated his victory. His lips pulled up and he watched her. "Just distracted."

She seemed to relent, not pushing him on that point before he bent down and kissed her sweetly, keeping her distracted. Something wasn't right and he knew that. Something was horribly wrong and that sense of foreboding was looming over him continuously. Pulling back, he brushed her hair behind her shoulder.

"Want to get out of here?" he asked her.

"Love to," she responded.

…

Sitting on the sofa with a glass of white wine, Victoria had her back leaning against Homelander's side, her gaze focused on the television on the wall that was replaying his interview from before the race. They had turned the television on and the news had been playing, reshowing the race. Homelander had gone to skip the channel before the interview had come up and Victoria had insisted on leaving it on.

"And is it not awkward for you, Queen Maeve?" the interviewer asked. "You two used to date and now you're having to see his face plastered over magazines…news shows…with his new girlfriend."

"Well, actually, it's fine," Maeve answered. She was sat next to Homelander, legs crossed and looking as perfect as she always did whenever she was on camera. Homelander was next to her, sat back and hands clasped on his thighs. "We're friends and we realised that's all we were ever meant to be. Plus, Victoria is great. She's a lovely woman and she has so many excellent qualities."

"True, they have no idea how talented that mouth of yours is," Homelander whispered down to Victoria and she nudged him with her elbow as he kept his arm around her, squeezing her and laughing, bending down to kiss her as the interviewer asked her next question on the TV.

"And you, Homelander, how's it going? We haven't seen you two in public as much anymore? I trust there's not trouble in paradise?"

Homelander gave a fake laugh, the one Victoria had learned was reserved for the cameras. "Anything but," Homelander said on screen. "Things are going great. Victoria's been busy finishing off her PhD and so she's been in the library quite a lot. But we're doing well…still very much together."

"And it's almost been a year since you started dating," the interviewer continued. "People have been wondering…is this it? Is this Homelander officially off the market for good?"

He laughed again. "Well, I think it is safe to say that. My other half would definitely agree, I think."

"And do we hear wedding bells in the future?"

Victoria spat out the sip of wine she had just taken, unable to hold it in. She moved a hand to her mouth and did her best to stop herself from looking like she'd made too much of a mess. She placed the glass down on the coffee table and Homelander brushed a hand down her neck as she leant forwards and listened to the TV with interest. Homelander had gone quiet on screen, looking down thoughtfully and a soft smile on his face.

"You know, I've always wondered what it might be like to settle down…have a family…" he confessed. "But that's never seemed real to me before…not like now. Perhaps one day, I will have news on that front…news involving an engagement, but not quite yet. The timing has to be right and something just between me and her."

"But it is on the cards?"

"Well, I think that's enough sharing for the day." Homelander simply said with a laugh and the interview cut away, the news coming back on. Victoria picked the remote up from next to her wine glass and turned it off. Looking back to Homelander, she watched him as his shoulders shrugged.

"They kind of cornered me," he said to her and her eyes widened.

"You think?" she responded. "Are people really speculating on this?"

"If I tell you that Woman's Weekly had an article detailing what wedding dress would look best on you, would you freak out?"

"What the fuck?"

"I'll take that as a yes," he answered his own question. "I didn't tell you because I knew that it wasn't important. It was just idle gossip that didn't mean anything. You know that."

"I just…I mean…I can't believe people think about that. It's none of their business."

"So you haven't thought about it?" he wondered and Victoria shrugged.

"I mean, yes, I think of the future," she said to him and he nodded his head as she curled one leg underneath her body and draped an arm over the back of the sofa, hand going to his cheek and stroking it slowly. "But I've not even finished my PhD. I have a new job starting in three months. I'm twenty-nine next month. I want to enjoy life now and not get the future here quickly."

He nodded his head and picked her hand up, kissing the back of it tenderly before speaking. "Humour me though, what's in this future of yours?" he wondered from her.

"You're not going to be scared off?"

"It's unlikely," he assured her and she went back to leaning against him once more. He wrapped his arm around her, holding onto her as she toyed with his fingers.

"I think about us moving in together," she said to him. "Me…going to work and enjoying my job…decorating an apartment how we like. I think about travelling together. We've had weekends away at the cabin, but nothing else. I mean, we could go to so many other places."

"We could," he agreed with her on that point.

"And yeah, maybe marriage one day," she said to him. "But I don't want some big, grand wedding for the press. I don't want Vought to control it. I want that to be something we have control over."

"You know it might be difficult to spin that," he said to her. "But we could compromise. One small wedding and one for the cameras?"

"Would you want that?"

"I'd want the world to know you're my wife," he said to her and she laughed at that. "Show them that you're all mine…that you would always be mine…"

"I think the world might be aware of that," she retorted. "But that's the future, isn't it? It's something to look forward to…a life together."

"And the fact that I can't have children?" he questioned from her and she shook her head, not wanting him to dwell on that point.

He'd told her it one night when they'd been in bed and Victoria had asked him about protection. She was still on the pill, not wanting to come off it just in case. He had told her that he wasn't able to father children. He had been told that from the off. There was no chance of him ever being able to have his own family. He had found it cruel for such a long time. The one thing he had never had was the one thing he longed for and he couldn't have it. But Victoria had insisted that it was fine. She had told him that, for her, children wasn't something she had thought of, not really. But he wondered if she might change her mind in the future.

"Doesn't matter to me," she promised him in a whisper. "You know that. It's you and me, right? We're enough for each other."

"And you're sure that's how it will always be?"

"I'm sure," she promised and moved to kiss him, taking his chin into her fingers and guiding him down to meet her. "I love you."

"I love you too," he promised her in a whisper and she smiled against his lips, deepening the kiss.

Reaching for her shirt, he began pulling at the buttons. She got annoyed whenever he ripped her clothes, claiming that he'd ruined too many shirts and pairs of underwear for her to count. She helped him, shrugging out of the shirt and letting it fall to the ground. He moved so that she was beneath him. She firmly pulled his hips against hers, his hand slipping between their bodies to push her skirt upwards.

"Homelander, I need…oh…shit…sorry…"

Homelander groaned in frustration before the two of them sat up, Homelander covering Victoria with his own body. She sat behind him, front pressed to his back and cheek sat by his shoulder blade, hiding her blushing skin.

"I didn't realise you two were-"

"-What do you want?" Homelander interrupted Deep, his voice stern. "And how the fuck did you get up here?"

"I asked for the code considering you weren't answering your phone."

"It's on silent for a reason."

"Yeah, I get that," Deep said, eyes scanning to Victoria's head as she remained looking away and he caught a glimpse of her black bra strap. Homelander adjusted his body, glare increasing and Deep looked away. "Anyway, this is urgent. I need you to come to the meeting room."

"Why?"

"Well…I think I should say when we're down there."

"Say now or I'm not coming," Homelander retorted and then noted Deep glancing to Victoria again. "Whatever you have to say, you can say in front of her."

"Well," Deep said, coughing and clearing his throat. "It's Translucent…we found him."

"Where was the fucker?"

"That's the thing," Deep said. "He's dead."

…

A/N: So...here's the next chapter! We're moving along slowly and plenty more to come. I am going to be away for the next six days, but in the meantime, please do let me know what you think - would be great to get back from holiday and know that people are still interested and, as always, I take comments/suggestions on board. .Venus - some Black Noir content incoming in future chapters!