She opens her mouth to respond before closing it again, opting instead to remain silent. She holds her ground, staring back up at him, nearly completely fearless. Although he has another effect on her, one she's sure he knows about. Why else would he let her get so close?
“Fine,” it's blunt yet a sign of surrender. He's won, at least, he's won this round.
She leaves, not daring to look back at him. It'll be better if they spend some time apart so she returns to the bowels of Vought Tower and the actual job she's employed for.
Weeks go by and yet, Homelander doesn't see her, mainly because she's purposely avoiding him. Yet every so often, a gift arrives for hin and, as always, it's something of historical value that she's acquired.
However, she never delivers it - it's always some Vought lackey she sweet talked into doing it for her because she's keeping a low profile.
Every now and again she has to head to Crime Analytics to convince The Deep to let her look at some security footage. The Deep, being a gormless idiot, mistakes this for flirting and brags about how this beautiful woman from, well, he doesn't know what she does, keeps talking to him.
Of course, it doesn't take much time at all for this news to reach Homelander.
Homelander blinked as he watched her leave suddenly, his brows furrowing as he was left wondering what the hell just happened. He didn’t care if she broke the law, if what she was doing was illegal. She wasn’t the only one doing such things around Vought. Besides, if she knew half the stuff he’d done…well, she wouldn’t have him on such a high pedestal, that was for sure.
Still, he didn’t stop her from leaving. Nor did he try to contact her. He was aware of her being distant, aware of her purposely avoiding him. And while he’d love to ruin her plans and show up regardless, he was far too busy for mind games. Instead, he left it be and focused on his day to day tasks, between missions and interviews and the like.
Though, as the presents continued to arrive, Homelander wondered just what the hell her deal was, considering she was getting others to deliver them on her behalf. Yet each one he placed in a specific spot, almost like his own collectors room, every item neatly and carefully placed.
Course, Deep then just had to complicate matters by bragging during a meeting one morning, about how he’d met this girl and she kept talking to him. The way he spoke about her annoyed him. He left the room after throwing Deep a death glare, then went to hunt her down. With his senses it didn’t take long at all to find her.
“Who the fuck do you think you are? Avoiding me, but sending gifts? Not talking to me but talking to Deep? What is your problem, hm? What, are you mad at me? For not caring that you’re going against the law? Big whoop, sweetheart. Guess what? I’ve done that too. Many times!” He rambled. “And what’s with the gifts, huh?! Having someone else deliver them for you. Why the mind games?”
