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Kevin found it difficult to stay awake for long periods of time ever since he got back into The Seven. The group more or less welcomed him back, uncaring of any details even when he happened to already be inside Vought Tower long before Vought officially got him back in. Homelander did condition them not to question the seamless flow of how everything worked. Not unless it disturbed them heavily, but even then it wasn't appreciated; Kevin felt glad his reappearance was not a cause for those times. That would've been a huge blow to his already diminished ego.
Kevin woke up well-rested at first; he swung between sleeping in the Vought Tower—mostly due to Homelander's silent allowance to do so—in the ocean itself, or dozing off in his actual house from time to time. Once he got to work, after continuously ignoring the influx of messages that he had received on his phone during his detour, he noticed that he was late to a meeting.
That was his first mistake of the day.
When he entered the meeting room, some supes looked up in confusion at the intrusion. Homelander was mid-speech; his eye twitched, and his expression fell subtly into something close to anger but not clearly enough to be called it.
“Deep, you're late.” Homelander observed, tone on edge.
Kevin cursed himself for forgetting to check his phone; maybe he would've been able to avoid this situation by skipping the entire meeting. Sure, it wouldn't be ideal; he'd be completely lost, and Translucent would never let him hear the end of it. Not to mention it didn't mean he'd be able to avoid Homelander's fury, instead, he'd just stall it enough for Homelander not to care as much as he did before.
Kevin's eyes raked over the room, taking a glimpse at Noir, who waved lightly at him when he noticed him. Kevin wanted to offer a wave too, but he immediately snapped his attention back to Homelander, pretty sure he was already sweating bullets under the man's hard gaze.
“I kind of, uh, took a detour. I didn't notice anything, I swear, sir! I would've been the first one to show up and...”
Kevin shut his mouth when Homelander raised a hand, indicating silence. “Sit down.” He sounded exasperated and unwilling to be bothered with whatever Kevin got roped into that required a detour; in all reality, his gills were too dry, and he felt the urge to do some acrobatics in the sea. He figured since he woke up earlier than usual, he'd treat himself to it—terribly failing to notice that he lost track of time.
Kevin took a seat at the uniquely shaped table, one right across from Homelander and right between Translucent and A-Train.
“Have fun?” Translucent nudged him, wiggling his brows with that smug grin of his. Kevin rolled his eyes. “Yeah! Not sure why you're asking, bro.” He didn't need to elaborate, Translucent would always assume the same things either way.
“Just making sure you have a good reason to be late. Dumbass.” Translucent scoffed, though his tone lingered on playful.
Kevin waved him off and turned to A-Train, who looked dead set on keeping his gaze on Homelander. He was looking kind of irritated actually, his lips pressed in a thin line.
“Yooo, speedster, how's you!” Kevin greeted; he tried to keep his tone low so he wouldn't accidentally sound above Homelander's resumed speech. “Hey,” A-Train offered. Despite it sounding like a greeting, it was definitely dismissal.
Kevin stared at A-Train expectantly but ultimately shrugged it off when he got no further engagement. A-Train was just like that: moody.
Looking back over at Homelander, the man was talking about one thing or another. Kevin found it increasingly arduous to pay attention to the words. The initial spike of energy he got that morning and anxiety from realizing he was late to a meeting dispersed once it was clear repercussions wouldn't follow his tardiness.
Ashley told him that the increased sleeping was probably due to his gills still not fully recovering from the assault—followed by Homelander's strong contribution to it—even though, to Kevin and his aquatic friends, the gills appeared to be fine. Yet another thing about his supe biology that irked Kevin; at least his weak spot wasn't able to fully incapacitate him easily. It just left minor consequences.
Around the twelve-minute mark of a never-ending, constant voice of Homelander, Kevin's eyelids felt heavy on his eyes. He found himself in a loop of slipping into a slumber for a moment's notice, then startling awake quickly because his very being knew that this, even if it didn't sound like it—not that Kevin even knew what this meeting was about—was important. Noir looked at him questioningly from across the room after his third slip-up, so it was clear his drowsiness was noticeable. He flashed a charismatic smile at the silent supe, if only for the sole reason of keeping up appearances.
If Noir noticed, Homelander probably did too. The man knew how his very heart beats, after all. It was a wonder why he didn't comment.
Whether it was the commentary from his fellow supes, the warm air of the room paired with the dim lighting, or how his suit didn't rub up against his gills in a way that made him uncomfortable, Kevin found himself in an aware state of sleep that he, despite wanting to, couldn't exactly wake up from. He saw flashes of color, patterns, and movement in the pitch black; every shape seemed to be something yet nothing at all. He tried to follow the patterns, willing his brain to go deeper but always ending up with resetting the entire flow once the spirals stopped. Then, all his senses abruptly stopped at a point. He wasn't certain when or how; they just did.
Which led to him waking up to an empty room; his head was resting in his arms, he noticed. Kevin glanced at the empty seats, frowning a little. He was pretty certain this wasn't a dream. A pinch of his arm made that very clear. His dreams tended to be this empty, so different from his eventful life. His uncertainty felt valid.
“Not very polite to fall asleep when I'm talking, Deep.” Homelander's voice rang out behind him, making Kevin spin around to face the man. His heartbeat picked up due to that initial fear; he willed it to calm down immediately after.
Kevin rubbed his eyes, grumbling a little, before finally holding Homelander's gaze. “Dude it's so hard to stay—”
“I'm not your ‘dude’ or anything of the sort.”
“Sir...” Kevin corrected after an awkward pause; his mistake was so obvious. He did let it slip by accident. Being interrogated so abruptly didn't leave much time for his brain to adjust to the conscious world. “It won't happen again. I mean, no one woke me up at all!” he defended himself weakly. Seriously, they should've. And Homelander certainly would've, so what's the occasion?
Homelander looked the man up and down, cocking a brow. “Well, it certainly seems I was too boring for you, Guppy. You should be grateful you're not a funeral; barely anyone who actually cares will be attending.” He avoided answering the cause of Kevin's turmoil.
Ouch.
Kevin visibly winced. “Yeah…” he murmured in acceptance. Downcasting his eyes from Homelander to try and remember what the blond supe could've possibly talked about before he lost consciousness. “Uh... What now?” he bounced up from his chair, trying to let himself relax under the intimidating gaze the blue eyes provided. He stood awkwardly, kind of rocking back and forth on his heels before nailing them to one spot when Homelander squinted at him.
“Since apparently you don't want to help out your teammates in saving people from a sinking boat, your expertise is water, for fuck's sake,” Homelander gritted out. “You're going to help me.”
Kevin took a second to glance again around the room before pointing at himself dumbly. “Me?”
“Translucent is not even near us right now,” Homelander dryly explained, motioning around the room. “Are you being intentionally dense? Because if you are, maybe you should go back on your vacation.” They both knew Sandusky was the opposite of one. Kevin shook his head, hands going up in defense. “I get you. I get you! Okay! What do I uh...” He didn't even know how to word that without it sounding like a foreign language on his tongue. He wasn't set on learning any new ones, that's for sure.
“Follow me.” Homelander walked past Kevin and continued on. Kevin was getting that sense of déjà vu, yet he marched on anyway. Last time wasn't that bad; this one shouldn't be either.
Kevin found himself in the most spacious mall to date, carrying items Homelander was casually throwing in his arms every few minutes. The items sometimes brushed up against his torso; unsurprisingly, his gills didn't like that. Kevin swore he heard them squeaking or something like that—he has truly lost it.
They had been walking around for about thirty minutes now. Kevin tried to keep up with the other supe and hold onto everything he selected: a multitude of random, probably useless, foods paired with drinks and a few weird collectibles for hunters. Kevin did at least like the deer sculpture, but it was the thing that kept poking him with its faux antlers the most.
Kevin wondered at some point in his life if Homelander had a sweet tooth or if he could get any effects from consuming things, but ever since he actually started being one of The Seven, it became very clear the man can do whatever the fuck he wants and get away with it. Even when it comes to his own biology. From what Kevin could see, the man has a fast metabolism, just like A-Train and some other supes. Kevin envied them, in a way, but he also recalled Homelander didn't like people seeing him without those fake padded muscles his suit has, so it can't be all that fun.
The mall was rather empty. Still, some people were up and about, shopping—and some did come by to take photos with Homelander directly this time. It was kind of sweet, though Kevin couldn't help but internally scoff that no one seemed to even notice him besides the superior hero. He felt like an ant, one you know exists but don't bother taking the time to acknowledge unless it's directly causing you a problem. Kevin tried to cheer himself up as he waited for another fan to chat with Homelander, telling himself that since that encounter with a girl in Sandusky, he shouldn't even bother with fans. They didn't deserve him.
Despite that self-reassurance attempt, it just made him feel worse. Whether it was the reminder that he got dominated by a human girl like that, or the fact he didn't believe his own words—he didn't know. He paused his train of thought, suddenly feeling dirty.
Kevin caught himself from another micro-sleep by quickly putting a spring in his step to walk alongside Homelander when he detached from the, now rather annoying, fans.
“So annoying,” Homelander huffed quietly to himself as he stopped near a selection of clothes, merely inspecting them. Some were Vought merch, which was nice to see. Kevin didn't see any of himself, though; that did sour his mood more than the constant gill irritation could.
“You do like it though,” Kevin offered, watching as Homelander recoiled from a shirt that owned horrendous text. Kevin understood that reaction; it was a vulgar, ugly shirt.
“Oh yeah. On the off chance that it doesn't require me to stop for five minutes every goddamn second.” Homelander spoke through gritted teeth, clearly pissed off at the fact Kevin even said that.
Kevin swallowed a lump in his throat, deciding he's not going to add fuel to the slowly burning fire.
At some point they ended up in the section of the mall split between a bakery on one side and a small place for children's toys on the other. Kevin already felt like he was carrying way too many items, and at some point they'll start falling from his grasp. He was surprised he even held onto them this far.
Homelander must've calculated that, because as soon as they exited the bakery section and went to the children's one, he glanced over at Kevin. “Don't drop that or I'll cut your fingers off. You can take one more thing.” Homelander didn't ask; he stated it. Kevin nodded wordlessly.
Some kids in the area gawked and tugged at their parent's arms while pointing at the supe. Homelander shot them a smile and a wave but ultimately didn't approach them. At least he didn't seem annoyed after it.
Kevin almost tripped forward when a kid found themself in his way; the kid pushed him a little in annoyance when Kevin apologized on instinct.
With an annoyed sigh, he continued on.
“You like this?” Homelander asked.
Kevin was confused at first, mostly because he wasn't paying attention to his surroundings and was focused on keeping up; he opened his mouth to ask, only closing it when what looked like two grey and light blue items were shoved in his face.
Kevin backed up a little in an attempt to actually register what they were. “Huh,” he sounded unhelpfully. It was a fuzzy shark thing and a dolphin; both looked like soft plushies. He then recalled the question, “Oh! Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They're... cute?” He didn't know what to think of them, really. They were just toys for kids. He has long passed the age of caring about soft, marketable versions of his aquatic friends.
Homelander waved the things in his face almost eagerly. “Who do they remind you of, hmm?” Homelander had a lilt to his tone. It made Kevin want to answer right; Homelander rarely showed genuine cheerfulness. Despite the fact that it was kind of mocking, in a way. It was hard to tell with Homelander; even with so long working for him, there will always be things missing from the greater image, and they will remain so even when you try to dig out the missing pieces.
Kevin stammered, furrowing his brows to contemplate his options.
Well, obviously, it had to remind Homelander of him. Those were water-based creatures.
“Probably... Me, I think.” Kevin grinned, though it looked like he was smiling through pain with how uncomfortable he felt at the moment. He really wanted to throw everything off his hands and give his gills a moment of rest. They were practically begging him to sleep.
Homelander took away the plushies from his view, his expression unreadable. “Think broader for a moment.”
“I don't know...” Kevin admitted, biting his bottom lip because he sure as hell couldn't scratch the back of his neck.
Homelander sighed heavily, bringing up a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose. “I don't even want to say it. Your...lack of intelligence repulses me.”
Kevin's grin fell immediately. That didn't hurt as much as it would've a long time ago; he was used to it.
Homelander ended up carrying the two plushies himself, because he was actually quite certain Kevin was probably going to end up being clumsy. Kevin agreed on it, even if only because he didn't want to carry anything else. He was sure he could handle it if he had to.
Homelander made Kevin neatly set up the items he brought in the fridge of his penthouse and anything else on the bed so the blond supe could take care of it himself when he felt like it.
When he was finally done for the day, Kevin felt the all too harsh need to collapse somewhere and sleep. The bedroom he slept in last time in the Vought Tower was the closest, so he felt like heading to it first.
But when he made his way to walk out of Homelander's quarters, he felt a hand on his shoulder, successfully halting his movements.
Kevin, feeling tired enough not to be mortified, glanced over at Homelander with a questioning look.
Homelander held his gaze as he handed over one of the plushies, the shark one. It was satisfying underneath Kevin's fingertips, way unlike his actual friends, but if he had to, he'd overlook the inaccuracies.
“I know you're desperate for my affection,” Homelander started passively, ignoring the startled expression Kevin suddenly got. That sentence definitely woke him up. “But I don't reciprocate. You can have a faux me instead.” He nodded meaningfully at the shark in Kevin's hands.
Suddenly squeezing it felt disrespectful.
Kevin didn't question it, not really. It was stupid and silly; he knew that, but the fact that Homelander was the one acting within this behavior made it feel more serious. He nodded. “Thank you, Homelander, I—”
“Go.” Homelander didn't sound like he wanted Kevin in his room any longer than he had to be. So, without being told twice, Kevin practically ran out of there.
It didn't take long for Kevin to come to the spare bedroom he used, he fell asleep the moment he hit the bed. His body didn't waste a moment on letting himself take in the sheets or the air this time; he just dozed off. The shark in his hands wasn't entirely forgotten about; it simply rested besides him.
What a confusing day.