Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want

3

Nina's job became clearer as time went on, and it included being besides Homelander as much as he demanded, because he was always asking for something. She followed Ashley's request for no questions and everything went on smoothly. If he needed food, water, or anything, Nina was there. If he needed to vanish from the face of the earth for some reason, before an event, Nina was there. She would make up the most outrageous excuses for her boss. He failed visiting a children's hospital? He had to save a bus full of elderly people on vacation. Any interview he didn't want to be a part of? Just talk to Starlight to cover it up for him. She reluctantly agreed, because Nina was somewhat charismatic, and was the only one who didn't seem like a psychopath. Too bad her boss was a dick. Stan Edgar hated when Homelander disappeared, but he was the face of the brand and it would be unwise to get on his nerves. So he continued to do it, and Nina continued to cover up for him.

She always wanted to know where he went, what he was doing. Maybe because the crush she had never went away. He was downright scary sometimes, but after a while, it just added to his hotness. She loved the smiles, the pet names he would give her. The winks. It was just so surreal. Though he appeared to be lovely to her, people were always uneasy when he was around. The fear was palpable, like a presence in every room he was. She had to witness some meetings, including talks with the Seven, and even the Seven themselves looked tense. Homelander had such a powerful, booming voice. When they discussed serious Vought business like some actions by other superheroes that could be hurtful to the company, sometimes people disagreed and he would raise his voice to the point it was scary. Nina always felt tense too, but she knew to leave him alone when these things happened. He would leave, go to his room and lock himself up.

For days, Nina would hear thrashing around his room. Her own wasn't too far away, because the people who hired her knew he would eventually come up to Nina and ask for something. She was curious of why he would do such thing, but she had promised Ashley that she wouldn't ask for anything. After a while, one of her tasks was to get people to fix his room from time to time. Again, he had super strength, perhaps he got mad or didn't measure his force and broke his bed... and the ceiling... and punched a giant hole through the floor. Sometimes she would enter his room while he wasn't there and it looked like a war had been going on there. Nina would shrug and get to work. He would call her sometimes with a very silly request, like water or something, and she would make him company while he was working on movies.

Now, Homelander movies were always patriotic and they always ended up with him saving the day. Nina adored them. Yeah, they were US propaganda, but... he looked so good doing it. All the time. She would go to the movies and watch them, had posters of them all over the place and it seemed to make him happy, every time he looked around her room. Even though he told her he loved making movies, sometimes it seemed like he was extremely annoyed by people messing up their lines. Once he mumbled that they waste his time. But then he smiled again and said it was just another day at a movie set. The more Nina hung out with him, the more fascinated she was. He also smelled ridiculously good for someone who was on a superhero suit all day. In fact, she never saw him wearing anything else, until he requested that he needed another one. Nina was happy to comply, saying that he had to be fitted and that it'd be ready as soon as possible.

"He asked for another suit. I hope it doesn't take long."

Ashley asked to be informed of Homelander from time to time, and Nina would always visit her office. She was always stressed and jittery, which Nina grew accustomed to. She would be snarky and a bit rude, but being a stand in while Stan Edgar was busy didn't seem to be easy.

"It won't," said Ashley. "It would be very funny if he asked for his real measures this time."

Nina giggled. Ashley continued, "you know that the muscles are fake, right?"

Nina nodded, "yeah, I watched a ton of movies and it really shows."

"I mean, I've seen him naked and..."

Nina raised her eyebrows, "you what?"

Ashley made an expression of disgust and shook her head, "oh no, no! Not like that...!"

Nina looked surprised, "like what then?"

"Once I entered his room without knocking and..." she interrupted herself. "The point is that he's very fake."

Nina sighed, "what do you mean?"

Ashley now realized she was breaking the spell, "I mean that... he could just be honest about the muscles but he isn't."

Nina thought Ashley's attitude was a bit weird. "Ashley?"

"Yeah?"

"Is there anything you want to tell me?"

"No."

"Then explain to me why he doesn't like questions," Nina was a bit more serious than usual.

Ashley sighed, "Well, he's the Homelander. He can do whatever the fuck he wants. No questions."

It did make sense. Nina thought about one of Homelander's speeches, the day he said he didn't want to be controlled anymore. She wholeheartedly agreed with him. She thought about how her mother would try and tell her what to do, even during adulthood. Her mom would complain about clothes, about swearing in public, about losing her virginity, about religion, about everything. She felt moved when Starlight did the same, saying that we don't need to worry about these things. She considered Starlight a role model, and she was her favorite woman of the Seven. Nina knew Homelander had killed people here and there, but she always backed him up because there was nothing that America's Superhero wanted more than protecting the civilians. His rage was more than justified when he realized that things weren't going the way they were supposed to go. Maybe he needed not to be questioned while he had so much inside his head. Nina knew some questions should be left unanswered, but her curiosity was bigger than her sense of safety.

After a while, and after a lot of long, boring meetings, Nina noticed that Starlight appeared not to like Homelander that much. Although part of the Seven were terrified of him, they all talked to him somewhat friendly most of the time. Starlight only talked to him if she was spoken to, and was the only one who didn't warm up to him at all. Nina at first considered it to be a brother-sister dynamic, but it wasn't even that. She rolled her eyes constantly and once while in an argument, both of their eyes glowed, simultaneously. It was the first time Nina saw Homelander seriously losing it, and Starlight lost it too. It felt like they would actually go at each other and A-Train and The Deep were the ones to calm them down. Now, Nina knew that the boss would evidently have some people against him, and people who didn't like him at all. But in that case, she needed to know what was up. Nina promised no questions to Homelander, but Starlight was probably fair game.