𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐞 | Billy Butcher [ON HOLD]

𝖢𝗁𝖺𝗉𝗍𝖾𝗋 𝖳𝖾𝗇

«The Mesmerizer»

THERE was no running away from Butcher. Lydia was aware of that the moment she arrived outside her apartment, or perhaps what was hers, to find people already living there. Of course, she didn't dare to knock and find out who has her apartment now and how, neither did she want to as she tried to maintain a low profile after what happened an hour ago.

For now, she decided to walk back to the safe house she had spent last night in, hoping Frenchie would help her find a new place without complaining about it.

Hoped.

Turns out no one was home... She sighed at the fact that she'll be stuck in this place for another hour or so until Frenchie decides to turn out, that if he did before Butcher returns, and that thought was more than enough to make her sick to the stomach. The last person she wanted to see was Billy fuckin' Butcher.

She managed to spend the next hour watching TV, coming across The Seven on almost every channel, the faces of Homelander, The Deep, and Queen Maeve hunting her. Of course, she didn't hate Queen Maeve like the rest but her relation with Vought made her change the channel every time she saw any face that reminded her of the company and its dirty work.

She was eating some snacks the moment she heard the basement's door open followed by footsteps that seem to belong to two people walking down the metal stairs. She was about to start panicking when she remembered that no one else but the group that lived here had the key.

A figure finally emerged, that of Hughie followed by the one she rather not say his name with a smirk on his face the moment he saw her.

"Where's MM?" he asked neglecting the angry look on her face.

"No one is here," she said coldly.

"Hey," Hughie said softly as he took a seat beside her his eyes on the TV.

"Hi," she muttered.

"Where are you?" Butcher's voice echoed in the basement as he spoke to MM over the phone. "Really?"

Hughie's eyes shifted to Lydia slightly as he tried to read her face. "You okay?" he asked before averting his gaze back to the TV show that was now showing The Deep.

"Asshole!" she spat as she directly changed the channel, Butcher's voice following hers.

"What'd you get?" he said and waited for a reply. "Sounds good. Does it taste like lies? I got your phone linked to my Find-Your-Shithead-Friends app. Now, where the fuck are you?"

Hughie's gaze was now on Butcher and away from Lydia's annoyed face.

"Come on, we're heading out," Butcher said looking at the duo that sat side by side, one pair of eyes looking at him while the other pair glared at the TV.

"If you're going to scream at it, go ahead do it before we get going," he told her gesturing to the TV. That's when she averted her angry gaze to his rather annoyed face.

Of course, she had the urge to scream over and over again, letting out all her bottled-up anger but she chose not to as she stood up and grabbed her jacket instead.

"Where are we going?" she asked coldly again.

"Your Supe friend. The Mesmerizer," he told her before turning to walk out.

"He's not my friend," she muttered under her breath before following him.

Hughie stood up following Lydia, a look of amusement on his face. For a second he thought she was going to scream at Butcher again, sending him flying into another wall, but the fact that she chose not to made him curious about what had happened that changed her mind and made her come back here to the safe house instead of running as far away from them as possible.