Frostbloom
Chapter 9
When Homelander returned from the American Hero mansion, Also Ashley escorted him to a photo session for a hair gel that he was apparently endorsing. Although he kept his pleasant, energetic façade intact as the hair and makeup people fluttered around him, all he wanted was to get back to Ashley. Now that they were on a new footing, he found himself unexpectedly eager to see her again. She'd been so cute in her superhero outfit, even if the mask hid her face from him; he smiled at the makeup artist without realizing it. He'd arranged the catering for his dinner with her tonight, and he'd instructed Also Ashley to have flowers delivered. For a moment he remembered Stormfront's red and white roses before he put the memory aside. That was all in the past, and now he'd found someone who actually was his equal, who wasn't using him for her own purposes, who wasn't a Nazi. Ashley deserved dinner and flowers and him. He wished he'd realized sooner how perfect she was, but then again she hadn't been a supe before this.
Ashley was hanging up the phone when he entered her office. She looked disturbed, and he had a flash of worry because he hadn't been paying attention to what he was hearing and didn't know what she'd been talking about. "Is something wrong?"
She rubbed at her eyes. "Shane Miller died today." Seeing his confused expression, she clarified. "The one who had Mindstorm's powers."
"Oh. Okay." He seated himself on her couch. "What happened?"
"Dr. Clay said a heart attack. They'd been monitoring him. I'm having his body returned to his apartment tonight so it'll just look like he died in his sleep. Which he did. The nurse regained consciousness a few minutes after it happened."
Homelander hadn't thought about the nurse that had been attacked since he'd heard about her. "That's good."
"One less person to dispose of, so yes."
"How's Dr. Rennie?"
She shrugged. "About the same. Still says she didn't fuck the Deep."
"Well, I admire her commitment to the lie."
Ashley gave him a smile, and he thought she looked tired. "But enough about me. How was your day?"
"Fine. The American Hero interviews went off without a hitch, and except for me being bored the photo shoot went well. Is there any word on Harriman or Firewhirl?"
"They're staying hidden. Analytics is drawing a blank for where they are."
"Come here." He patted the couch next to him. When Ashley got up and came over, he caught her hand and pulled her into his lap.
"What?" she said, but she was laughing and didn't resist him at all.
"I've been away from you for too long. I want to have you closer." The admission caused a twinge of unease, because what if she thought of what happened between them on the island as an isolated incident that she didn't want to repeat, but his worry eased as she relaxed into him and let her head rest on his shoulder. "Comfortable?"
"Ummm. This is nice." Homelander enjoyed the soft warmth of her against him and let his hand caress her knee and thigh through the material of her skirt. "Are you done for the day?"
He nodded. "Just getting ready for dinner with you." She was quiet for so long that it worried him. "We're still on for dinner tonight?"
"Oh, yes," said Ashley.
"You were kind of quiet there for a minute."
"Well, we've never have very many quiet moments."
That got him to chuckle. "No, we've never had a lot of those. But that could change."
"Everything does. Nothing stands still for long." A shadow descended over her face, but before he could ask her what was wrong, she smiled and the darkness was gone. "I think I'll take off early today, spend some more time with you. Is that all right?"
Homelander laughed. "I can't believe you even felt the need to ask."
"You know I've never been sure where I stood with you from minute to minute."
"That's over now. You don't have any more reason to feel like that."
Ashley smiled and raised her head to kiss him on the lips. The brief, soft contact made him feel better, more secure. "Thank you, Homelander. I appreciate that."
"You're welcome." Then he had an idea. "Do you want to take a trip around the city?"
"Weren't we having dinner? Do we have time?"
"It'll just be a quick flying trip. When you were chasing me out to sea, I don't think you got much of a chance to look at the city."
She was shaking her head before he finished. "I can't be seen flying. You know—"
"Who said anything about you flying? You can be a passenger. I've flown people around before this." Homelander crushed a memory of Maeve; there was no room for her in his mind, now that he had Ashley. It was a shame that Maeve had been so much more beautiful, but her loveliness had been nothing but a veil for lies. He couldn't really regret her loss.
Ashley brought him out of his thoughts with a smile. "We can do that. It sounds like fun!"
His mood brightened at her words and he took her up to the roof of the Tower. "It's a wonderful view," Homelander told her when he detected some unease on her face.
"It's less beautiful when you're looking at the street in freefall," she replied.
Was she going to throw that up in his face? That was the only way she would have learned to fly. It sparked some annoyance in him, but he decided to ignore it. "Ready to go?"
She smiled at him again and he found it charming enough to let go of his irritation. "Whenever you are."
"Put your arm around my neck," he told her, and repressed a little shiver at the contact between her arm and his skin. Ashley put her other hand on his cheek and turned his head enough to kiss him.
"I didn't mean to make you feel bad about trying to get me to fly. I can understand why you did it. It was just…very frightening to me at the time. I mean, you've never had to be afraid of dying like that so I know you don't understand, but when gravity takes hold of you and pulls you down, it's this primal fear of death that gets activated."
"You'll grow out of that the longer you're a supe. And I'm sorry I frightened you that way." He wasn't, not really, but he wanted to keep her sweet, the way he enjoyed. His arm went around her waist. "Do you still want to go flying?"
"Yes. Like you said, I didn't get much a view of the city that time."
Homelander didn't do one of his gentle takeoffs, the way he had usually done with Starlight when they'd been having their fake publicity relationship, because Ashley was stronger than she had ever dreamed of being. He took off full-speed, the way he had in Africa, and her grip tightened around his neck. He spared a glance at her to see if she was frightened and found her smiling. To prevent sonic booms and a lot of citizen complaints to the city government and Vought, he slowed down as they zoomed over midtown Manhattan. The setting sun glinted off the glass walls of the skyscrapers and cast red light down the streets bisecting the manmade canyons. Humans on the sidewalks, in the subway trains, in the buses and taxis and skyscrapers, chittered like insects in his ears.
She leaned toward him and put her lips to his ear. "I've only seen this view out of a helicopter before, with barriers around me. This is…beyond anything."
The compliment boosted his mood and he twirled in the air with her, circling the top of the Empire State Building, then setting them down on the roof of the Flatiron Building. "You'll be able to fly alone before long, when Vought rolls out Frostflower. People will love you."
"Thank you. I appreciate it." Ashley walked over to the edge of the roof and looked down at the street. "Did you ever think it makes people weak, depending on supes? Not being able to stand on their own."
"People are weak," he said. "Depending on those who are stronger doesn't change their essential nature. It makes them smart to find someone stronger and get protection."
"Okay," she murmured. "Makes sense." He was about to say something else, question her about the line of thought she'd just expressed, when she said, "I'm hungry. Can we go back to the Tower and have dinner?"
He gathered her up and lifted off from the roof, flying them over the shining buildings until Vought Tower loomed up in the distance, reflecting the dying sunlight as Homelander circled the helipad a few times before he touched down with her. "Home safe," he said. "Nothing to worry about." She smiled at him and took his hand as they got on the elevator for the one-floor ride to his penthouse.
Also Ashley had done herself proud with a nice Italian dinner for them. The table was set next to the big windows, draped with a pristine white linen cloth and lit candles. A vase of lilacs sat in the middle of the table and Ashley exclaimed, "How did you know lilacs are my favorite?"
"You have no secrets from me," he told her, although he'd had no idea what her favorite flower was. She must have mentioned it to Also Ashley sometime, and he made a mental note to commend her on her memory.
Their food was on a covered hotel-style cart next to the table. Homelander hadn't wanted anyone present for the dinner except Ashley, so he'd elected to serve them himself. They started with a mixed house antipasto, a basket of warm Italian bread, penne alla vodka, and a couple of bottles of the house red wine. Dessert was a tiramisu cake from a bakery that Also Ashley assured him had the reputation for the best tiramisu in Manhattan.
She seemed distracted during the meal, but he contained himself until he'd cut pieces of the tiramisu for their dessert before he asked, "Is there something wrong? Are you worrying about something?"
Ashley took a tiny forkful of the tiramisu and sighed with pleasure at the taste. "Not worried, exactly. Do you remember how Stan Edgar always wanted to get that Seven anime off the ground?"
"Yeah. I never understood that. We're famous enough as it is."
"Well, I always wanted to be able to get something done than he never managed." He made a gesture for her to continue. "There's a director, Koji Teshima, a legend in anime. Not Miyazaki or Satoshi Kon but close. And he wants to meet you."
"And I have to talk him into taking the job?"
"Oh, no, no," she said. "He just wants to meet you. Very informal."
"Does he even speak English?" Was he going to have to deal with an interpreter? He hated that, especially since he had to trust that the person interpreting was telling the truth about what the other person was saying.
"Yes, he's fluent. And you don't have to do anything to convince him at all. Just fly over to Japan—we've got a reservation for you at the Presidential Suite at the Park Hyatt Tokyo, the hotel where Lost in Translation was set—and have lunch with Mr. Teshima. You don't even need to leave the hotel. He's a big fan of the New York Grill, the hotel restaurant. You can get some lovely Kobe sirloin there, and the Presidential Suite has a private heated outdoor pool with a sundeck that has some great views of Tokyo, and there's an indoor Japanese Zen garden, and—"
He couldn't help but laugh. "Enough of the hard sell. It's that important to you?"
She looked down at her plate. "I would just like to be able to get something accomplished that Mr. Edgar failed at."
It caused a twinge of discomfort in his chest, how insecure she had been in her position as CEO. And he deliberately had done nothing to help her because he needed her that way, firmly under his power in order for him to feel secure in his control of both her and Vought. And, now that they were…closer, he supposed it wouldn't do any harm to help her with her plans for the Seven anime. "When am I leaving?"
Ashley's face lit up and she laughed. "Eight AM, if you could. Travel time should be about fourteen hours. Tokyo is thirteen hours ahead of us, so you should get there about eleven AM their time the next day since you'll cross the international date line. We'll have a personal assistant waiting for you at the hotel so you won't have to do anything. Then, after you have lunch with Mr. Teshima, you can just fly back home, no fuss no muss. Or you can hang out in the Presidential Suite for a while, if you want. Take a little free time for yourself."
"I'll probably just head back here afterward." He almost told her he wanted to spend more time with her but didn't, as he thought that might make him sound needy and he didn't want her to think that. "And I don't have to do anything but have lunch with this guy?"
"No. Like I said, he just wants to meet you."
"Well, that I can do." He watched her lift her wineglass to her mouth and the liquid slide down her throat. "Come here, Ashley." She raised an eyebrow but stood up and moved over to him. He took her hand and drew her down onto his lap. "Did you like the tiramisu?"
"Yes, it was delicious."
He removed his gloves and pinched off a bit of his own, which he hadn't cared for. Too much coffee, but he thought it might be good if he soaked it in milk. "Then have some more." Her eyes darkened and she opened her mouth for him to slide in the cake. Her lips closed around his fingers before she swallowed, then he felt her tongue taking little catlike licks at his fingers. The sensation went straight to his groin.
"Do you want more?" he asked when he drew his fingers out of her mouth.
"Yes." Her voice was breathless, unsteady, and he fed her more of the tiramisu by hand, blood surging into his cock as she licked and sucked at his fingers.
"I'll give you more. I'll give you anything. You are everything I want, Ashley. Now that you're a full supe, like me, there's nothing to prevent us from being together. If that's something you'd want?" A little wariness crept in since they'd never discussed any plans, nothing long-term. All their talking—or most of it—had been usurped by the missing Dr. Harriman and Firewhirl.
More hesitation than he would have liked, but finally her eyes met his. "There's nothing I would like better than to be with you. From the moment Madelyn introduced us, I wanted that. But I knew it was impossible."
"Nothing's impossible for us now, not with your powers. If you want, you can be in the Seven. Or you can just be Vought's CEO and my girlfriend, and nobody outside the company needs to know about you being a supe. There is a world of possibilities for you now that you could never have imagined when you were only a human."
"It seems so." She was quiet long enough to make him concerned, but then she said, "Well, I don't have to make any decisions about this immediately, so no worries." Her mouth found his and he tasted coffee and sweetness. "Thank you for the lilacs, by the way."
"You deserve them." And now it was his turn to kiss her, feel the tension ease out of her body as she surrendered to him, to what he made her feel. He eased off her blazer, let it fall to the floor, and began applying himself to the buttons on the front of her blouse. Her nipples stuck out against the fabric, and he took a moment to run his fingertips over them, earning a shudder of pleasure from her. "You deserve me."
Ashley didn't answer him, just squirmed around in his lap until she was straddling him as he finished undoing her blouse and revealed her breasts and their tempting nipples. Homelander leaned forward and caught one in his mouth, a sizzling bolt of excitement shooting through him as he remembered the island, how she had excited him, taken care of him. Her hands went into his hair and he felt her nails tickling his scalp as she made little noises that drove up his temperature as he suckled on her.
He felt her fingers scrabbling at his costume shirt, heard the Velcro separate and then her hands were on his chest, sliding over the skin, caressing, and he made his own little pleased noise at her actions. "I love touching you," she murmured. "And I never get to see enough of your skin."
"Should I borrow the Deep's costume?"
She scoffed. "Not if you want me to fuck you. He's…not to my taste. Never has been."
Something inside him calmed at the truth of her words. He'd thought he'd seen some attraction between them on occasion, and Ashley had tried to protect the fishman from him several times. "That's good to hear."
Sadness filled her eyes. "How can you not know you're the only one I've ever wanted? Even when I knew it was hopeless, there was ever only you, no matter how much you hated me, how badly you treated me. It was only you."
Homelander tried to crush the surge of tenderness at her words and opened his mouth to say something comforting, something as intimate as what she had just said, but Ashley bent her head and her mouth was on his throat, a brush of satiny lips and a nip of her teeth before she began to suck on the sensitive skin. At the same time, she found his zipper and pulled it down, sliding her hand inside to tease his cock into hardness. He'd already been halfway there, but she finished the task and he was hard and ready for her.
Ashley squirmed and wriggled in removing her panties, and he put his hand between her legs, finding her wet and hot and then applying himself to the bud of nerves that made her jerk with sensation. "A little quick, sweetheart," he whispered.
"I want you. I've been thinking about you all day."
"And we have all night anyway," Homelander told her as he caressed her and enjoyed the sight of her writhing in his lap. "We have all our nights now."
Gasping, Ashley took his cock in her hand and guided it inside her, moaning at the feeling as he filled her. "Oh, this is wonderful."
"The perfect ending to a perfect day." She pressed her forehead against his shoulder and started to swivel her hips, and he lost the impulse to talk. He pulled her skirt up around her waist and took hold of her ass, helping her move, intensifying the feelings for both of them. His pulse throbbed in his temples and he could only hold thoughts in brief moments. So perfect, sweetheart. You are my perfect supe mate. She would never leave him. Homelander and Frostflower: #homeflower? Well, he did prefer being listed first. Then her muscles clenched around him and her nails dugs into his shoulders as she cried out, and he didn't want to fight his own orgasm, didn't even try. As he released inside her, he had the stray thought: we can do this whenever we want. We have all the time in the world.
Ashley was still asleep in his bed the next morning, when he showered and dressed for the trip to Japan. Before he left, he sat down on the bed and ran his fingertips over his face, waking her. "I'm leaving now."
She seemed unusually tired—had their night worn her out? He felt a flicker of pride at the idea—and said, "Okay, be careful. Let me know if anything out of the way happens."
"I will." He pressed a kiss to her mouth and went up onto the roof to take off.
The trip was boring as all hell, since most of what he saw on the way there was ocean. The Deep might have gotten a charge out of it, but he got a different view from underneath the water. Ashley's travel estimates were right on the money, and he landed in front of the Park Hyatt Tokyo at just before eleven AM. When he entered the lobby, a young man in a business suit hurried up to him. "Mr. Homelander? My name is Seiichiro Aoki, and I'm the assistant that was sent by Vought Studios Japan. Did you have a pleasant trip?"
"Yes, the trip was fine."
"I've checked you into your suite in case you would like to freshen up before your meeting with Mr. Teshima. We've taken the liberty of having additional copies of your costume taken to the suite." He handed the key card for the suite to Homelander.
"Excellent, Mr. Aoki. I would like to see it. Ms. Barrett told me the views from the sundeck are exceptional."
"She was quite right. Your lunch meeting with Mr. Teshima is scheduled for two PM at the New York Grill. I'll escort you to the lunch if you wish."
"I'm sure I can find the restaurant on my own, but I appreciate the assistance. I was told that he speaks English so I won't need an interpreter."
"No, sir," said Aoki. "Mr. Teshima is quite fluent in English, so you should have no problems in understanding each other."
He allowed the man to escort him to his suite, which was both huge and luxurious. Two king beds in the bedroom, televisions everywhere, a kitchenette, that Zen garden Ashley had mentioned, and the outdoor heated pool. If it had been night, and she had been here with him, he might have been persuaded to strip down and go skinny-dipping, but he was too conscious of the possibility of photographers with telephoto lenses, just panting to get a picture of the Homelander in the nude, which couldn't be allowed as it would give proof that the muscles in his suit were false. That brought down his mood for a little while, but he managed to find one of his movies playing and watched it for a lift, even though it was dubbed into Japanese and the voice actor did not sound like him at all.
Aoki was waiting outside the door when Homelander emerged on his way to the restaurant. "Since you have never met Mr. Teshima, I'll escort you to his table. He has advised me that his time is limited, as he is in the editing phase of his most recent film."
That bothered him. If the man was hot enough to meet him to consider directing an anime centered on the Seven, he should have cleared more time for Homelander, as he was the leader of the Seven. But he didn't have time to come to any conclusions before they entered the New York Grill and an elderly man in a navy business suit stood up from a window table. He bowed from the waist. "Homelander. I am Koji Teshima."
He inclined his head a little. "It's a pleasure, Mr. Teshima. Shall we order?"
"Of course. I think you'll find the Kobe sirloin to your taste." The other man's face was deeply lined, his features craggy like the rock face of a cliff, but his eyes were serene as he perused the menu. They didn't do any further talking until the waiter had appeared to take their orders. Homelander decided to try the Kobe sirloin, and Teshima ordered the grilled Japanese chicken breast. After the waiter brought them their drinks, coffee for Teshima and milk for him, he decided to get down to business, but the old man beat him to it. "I must say I was quite flattered to learn that you wished to meet me. I have had some small success in the field of anime, but I admit I find it hard to believe that someone of your stature has even heard of me."
Well, he hadn't, not before Ashley had talked about him, but he tried to keep his expression placid. "You do have quite a reputation in your field. I understand that Vought has offered you the Seven anime to direct."
"Yes, the studio has been quite persistent. I've turned down the offer twice."
A sense of deep unease fell over him. "I was told that you'd been more amenable to the offer than that. That perhaps meeting me might sway you toward the project." But she hadn't said that. She'd implied, and he'd picked up on the implication and thought she'd come right out and said that. But hadn't she been very careful with how she worded things, so careful not to tell him a direct lie that he could detect…
Teshima bowed his head. "Despite my great respect for you, and my desire to meet you, the project is not for me. My creative vision does not mesh well with what Vought Studios wants for the anime."
Only his lifelong experience with hiding his feelings enabled him to flash his best smile. "It seems I was misinformed, then. I apologize for any confusion." Teshima made some polite noises and the conversation was interrupted by the arrival of their food. Ordinarily Homelander would have enjoyed the Kobe sirloin, but his mind was racing, unable to concentrate on the taste of the food. Ashley had lied to him—misled him, really—about the anime and Koji Teshima. Why? To get him to Japan, obviously, but why did she want that? After lunch, he intended to find out.
After bidding Teshima goodbye, he found Aoki waiting outside the restaurant. "Give me half an hour, then check me out of the hotel. I'm going back to New York."
"Of course, sir," said Aoki as Homelander vanished into the suite. Unexpected adrenalin made his hands shake as he picked up the telephone and called Ashley.
The phone rang twice before she answered. "Homelander. How was your lunch with Mr. Teshima?" She sounded wide awake even though it was two in the morning in Manhattan.
"Hunky-dory, except that he'd rather have rats eat his face than direct the Seven anime."
"I'm sure he was more diplomatic than that."
He had no patience for matching wits. "Obviously you misled me about him and the Seven anime to get me to Tokyo. Why?"
She sighed. "I needed you to be somewhere you wouldn't be able to interfere with what I have to do."
"And what is that?" Anger and fear made his gut clench. What the hell was she planning?
"Dr. Harriman and Firewhirl are auctioning off his research notes, the aerosolized Compound V, and a list of names of people to be used as guinea pigs for experimentation. A lot of foreign governments are interested. I know where the auction is being held and I'm going to stop them."
"Playing hero?" He scoffed, hoping the fear didn't show in his voice. "As I remember, the last thing you wanted to be is a hero. Maureen tried to drag you into the Seven and you were kicking and screaming."
Ashley sighed again. "Maybe it's like you told me after I saved Emma from that house fire. This is what heroes do. When you get back to the Tower, Maureen will give you a complete briefing on the situation. Besides, this is something I need to do on my own."
"Stop being stupid," he snapped. "You barely know how to use your powers. Just wait for me to get back and I'll take them all down for you."
She continued as though she hadn't heard him. "There are things I haven't told you about my powers. I've been a coward, and I guess I still am because I can't bring myself to tell you. That's why you have to talk to Maureen. Just—I love you. I want you to know that now. I don't want you to doubt it, and I know that you will, later. I love you."
"Ashley—" he said, but she disconnected the call. When he redialed, her phone went straight to voice mail, and he realized she wouldn't answer again until after the situation was resolved. If she could. Homelander launched himself into the sky from the sundeck of his suite, blind to the beautiful views of Tokyo, heedless of any sonic booms, the sinking feeling in his gut underlining that it was already too late to stop her.