Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want

14

Ever since Nina stopped wearing heels, she felt so much better. It was so much more comfortable. She looked at her heels before leaving her room and thought about selling them. They hadn't been worn in a while. She didn't do too much to her curly hair, that she had stylized the night prior. She put on her soft loafers, a gray skirt, rolled up the sleeves of her white shirt and sighed. She had no idea where Homelander was, but he asked her to be there. She organized everything, and perhaps that was the reason. She rode to the place with Deep, Noir, Starlight and Maeve in a van. A-Train would probably join them later. It seemed like that the Seven wouldn't talk to each other not even if they forced to, and Deep tried to break the ice an uncomfortable amount of times on the way to the amusement park, to no effect. People just ignored him until he stopped completely.

The place was packed. Nina spotted three or four travel buses in the parking lot. She asked the school to send as many grades as they could, and they apparently did. Not only the kids, but the parents too. Everybody seemed happy. Nina went in before the heroes did, so she wouldn't be in the way when they were eventually swarmed by people. They had security, not because they could be harmed, but because it could be overwhelming having screaming moms and crying children trying to climb them. As soon as the stars of the whole thing had arrived, Nina went on to see if everything was okay. Apparently, people were having fun. The lines to the rides weren't terribly long, and people were laughing and eating rainbow colored food. It looked tacky for sure, but Nina had visited Voughtland before, and what they served was indeed delicious, even if the presentation was questionable. They had cotton candy that day and she went on and bought one. She sat on bench, on the quietest place she could find, and started enjoying the sugary treat by herself. She loved the taste and the sensation of her fingers getting sticky while picking it up. Suddenly, she felt the wind blowing through her hair and he was there. She smiled, shyly. Of course he wouldn't arrive at the park like everybody else. Homelander walked to her field of view, having landed on her side. He sat next to her.

"Morning."

"Good morning, boss." She had a piece of cotton candy in between her fingers.

He stared at her for a few seconds as she ate, and she felt herself blushing. He did that from time to time, those big and round puppy eyes. They were so close, and she smelled like heaven as he always did. She looked away at the children playing and he finally said something.

"You look lovely today."

"Hm?" She turned back to him, just to make sure she wasn't dreaming. He was never that direct.

"The hair," he said. "Looks beautiful."

"My hair is always like that, boss," she giggled.

"Well..." He seemed a bit embarrassed with her response. "It's different today."

He got quickly overwhelmed by people before they could talk more, so Nina nodded silently and left. It was impossible to have a conversation with him, being known the way he was. But he was so lovely, always so lovely. She walked to the administration building, inside the castle and saw A-Train and Starlight taking selfies with kids and moms on the way there. She knew that they hated it, but it was so good for their image. They needed to show how much they enjoyed each other's work and how tight of a team they were, because people started seeing through it.

-

It was so much better to relax in a room with air conditioning and a nice couch than being out there. Yes, the squeaks of happy children made Nina happy, but she took a well deserved break from them when she stopped teaching. No need to deal with them again. New York wasn't that hot, but she always drank cold water with ice in it. She came from a very hot state in Brazil and it was common to do it there. As she was drinking, Homelander came in. She left him as he was busy with the kids, but she knew he could find her very quickly. But it was different. He was really serious.

"Hi, boss."

"Where the fuck were you?", he said, anger pouring through his voice.

"I was..."

"You left me with those fucking kids that I hate...", he pointed to the window that showed a view to the whole amusement park. "And you're sitting here all comfortable."

"I mean... they wanted..."

"You know what?", he said, hands on his hips, even his body language was belittling her. "Why don't you suck my cock while we're here? It's probably the only thing you're good at."

Nina shook her head. He had no reason to be that disrespectful. "That's such a gross thing to say."

He approached. "You can at least please your boss instead of being incompetent."

"What the fuck did I do?", she frowned.

The assistant got up to leave and that made Homelander angrier. "Sit down!"

Nina looked shocked and her disobedience earned her a punch. He punched her square in the face, over her left eye, which broke her nose. She squealed in pain, such excruciating pain that made her take both of her hands to the face and fall back on the couch. The cup fell on the floor. She cried and screamed, completely stunned, not being able to process or understand why. The warm blood started running down her face through her injured nose. Her hands started to tremble. He took her by the throat, his fingers gripping her so hard that they would probably break her neck. He lifted her body up, and she felt the air leaving her. He was gripping her so hard she didn't have strength to fight against it. That was it. It was the end. She would die staring at the big blue eyes she once thought were so beautiful.

But suddenly, just like that, he let her go.

She fell over the couch. He didn't look angry anymore. His eyes had relaxed. They looked hollow. His chest... had been punched through. His heart was pounding outside his body. It was immediately squished by a gloved hand, covered in blood. The blood gushed all over Nina's clothes, making her even more terrified. The same gloved hand then exited Homelander's body and grabbed his head, which was squished like a tomato. Nina screamed as she realized he was being killed in front of her, and his body fell over her knees. She looked down to her trembling hands and they were bright red, painted with someone else's blood, glistening under the fluorescent lights. The person pushed the body away and reached out to her.

"Nina?", he asked. His sweet voice sounded shaken, but it sounded like him again. The one she knew.

Nina blinked twice. The pain was unbearable. She was covered in tears, and blood. She tried to leave, he would try to do something again. She tried to slither over the couch and her feet touched the corpse on the floor. All of it was so incredibly disgusting.

"No, Nina. It's me. It's me," he touched her bloody face as she was about to pass out. Maybe she was in heaven already and he was her guardian angel. He spoke so softly it was like she was floating on a cloud.

"It's me. It's John."