Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want

27

Homelander couldn't stop thinking about Nina. He could just go after her, he knew that they were somewhere around Times Square, but it would look too... desperate. He decided to stay behind and solve the shapeshifter problem with corporate. None of the Seven was at the Tower, but everybody else had returned to work. He sat through a meeting with Stan Edgar and Ashley, and it was perhaps the most bored that he ever felt in a long time. Compound V, National Security, death threats, the possibility of Vought's stocks going down so hard and quickly that they would reach the Earth's core. He didn't care about anything. For the first time, words flew through his mind, they danced around his ears, but never came in. Because she was the only thing he cared about at that moment. If she were in the room, he would probably not pay attention to anything but her. What Edgar decided, what Ashley agreed to, he would say yes to whatever, just to leave that damn meeting. He was sure that Nina would come up with millions of solutions in forty-five minutes. Nothing discussed that day was productive.

He thought about calling Nina. She probably had her cellphone with her. He would say he was sorry for not going out with her, and he would invite her to eat, to have some milkshake, to walk around Central Park like she mentioned. Again, still ridiculous. She was out with Starlight, and as much as Homelander hated her guts, he was relieved that she had one of the Seven with Nina. She needed to be protected. His relief was very superficial, due to the fact that he thought that he was the only one who could protect her properly. It was stupid and silly, but he just wished she was home. Then nothing would hurt her. He went back to his room, to have a glass of milk and to relax. It felt so much better when she was laughing with him. It was like he could hear her sweet voice. He heard a knock on his door, which made him frown. He had forgotten to lock it, and he was in no mood to talk to anybody. But it wasn't what he was expecting.

"Hi, sir."

God.

It was like he had forgotten how to talk. How to breathe. How to do anything. He felt his knees weaken. His mouth opened slightly at what was probably the most beautiful creature he had ever seen. Nina came in, and closed the door. She was naked... and wet. Wet hair, water running down her beautiful body, dripping all over the floor. Her caramel colored skin was glistening. She had a smile on her face, as if she had planned it all along. She walked to him and he felt like his heart was about to explode. He was frozen in place, looking at every single part of her body, but also seeing nothing. It was too good to be real. Too beautiful. Like if heaven had opened before him, to let him have a taste of pure paradise.

"I told you not to call me sir," he said, in a weak, pathetic tone. Like a little puppy trying to intimidate a grown dog.

Nina shrugged, "sorry."

He was still too stunned to say anything. She stopped in front of him, somehow too close but not close enough. "I came to check on you. Perhaps you could lend me a towel."

He took a deep breath. "I can."

She touched his right cheek, caressing his skin with her fingertips. "Why don't you take me, boss?"

Her eyes looked like pure, melted hot chocolate. Her full lips looked so warm and inviting. "I'm all yours."

He blinked twice. It was a dream. A glorious dream, but it had to be a dream. He put his hand around her neck and kissed her cheek, prepared for her scent to take over him.

But it didn't happen.

Nina always smelled good. She had a sweet smell, underneath the cologne and the moisturizer. It was the smell of her own skin, the smell of her hair. It was just hers. Homelander knew who people were by their smell, and he was usually very good at identifying the scent quickly. Seeing Nina that close messed with him, and it took him a minute to realize that Nina wasn't smelling like Nina at all. The scent of a person didn't go away with water or soap. It was distinct, and Homelander was absolutely enthralled by Nina's. So it wasn't Nina.

It was someone else.

Homelander's face started to twitch. He tried to talk as softly as possible, to its ear. "Remember not to call me sir. Say my name."

He took a good look at the thing. "What's my name, Nina?"

"Hm?" It was still trying to seduce him.

He squeezed its neck, "what's my fucking name?"

It looked a bit scared, but a second later it burst into laughter. It was eerie seeing the face he adored so much contort into a sinister laugh. "Let me go, you fucking yankee."

"What do you want?", Homelander shouted. "What the fuck do you want?"

The shapeshifter giggled, as if not afraid of death. "Your downfall."

The most offensive thing about all of that was that the thing used Nina's face to get to him. It knew they were somewhat close, but it didn't know enough to call him John. He wanted to know how, and where the others were hiding. He tried to be patient, but he was furious.

"What do you win with this? What's your plan?"

"We may not get what we want, but we also have nothing to lose." It was using Nina's voice, but without the cadence, the sweetness, and the accent was now gone.

"You filthy piece of shit," Homelander said. His eyes started to glow red.

One second he was holding Nina, and then... Madelyn. Naked and wet, as if she was still alive.

"Keep going," said the shapeshifter, with Stillwell's voice. "You'll end up killing everyone you've ever loved."

His laser eyes beamed through the shapeshifter's skull the same way he murdered Madelyn some years before. It was like he was back at her house again, with Billy Butcher as the audience. He couldn't let the thing's words get to him. He burned through its skull and a bit through the floor of his bedroom. He threw the body down and sighed. Perhaps he didn't kill it instantly because it looked like Nina. He couldn't even think about hurting Nina, it made him nauseous. It made him afraid. For the first time in his life, Homelander feared for the human. It was the same fear that made him fly through the window almost immediately, to Times Square. She was probably in danger. He wouldn't forgive himself if something happened. The entire world could burn, but not her.

Not her.