Aqua looked Homelander up and down, eyes lingering on the bright blue suit.
She tilted her head. "Why is he dressed like that? More importantly... how does he even go to the bathroom in that thing?"
The room fell silent.
Ethan hadn't expected that question. Now that Aqua had mentioned it, he found himself looking at the suit more carefully. There really wasn't an obvious zipper anywhere.
"...Huh."
She actually had a point.
"Aqua," Ethan said, trying to keep a straight face, "that's a rude question to ask a guest."
"I'm just curious."
"So am I," Ethan admitted before coughing into his fist. "But that doesn't mean you ask him."
Despite saying that, his eyes drifted back to the suit one more time.
Homelander smiled. Not because he liked Ethan — because Ethan wasn't behaving the way people normally did around him. No fear, no attempt to impress him. Just a man who had opened his door, invited him inside, and spoken to him like any other guest.
Homelander found that interesting. His ego wouldn't let the humiliation from Flight 37 go, but neither could he ignore the fact that Ethan simply wasn't intimidated. Instead of making him angry, it made him curious.
"May I know your name?" Homelander asked. "Last time we met, we never properly introduced ourselves."
"Ethan."
Homelander nodded. "Well, Ethan, I didn't appreciate the way you treated me last time."
Ethan looked at him without much interest. "So? Do I look like I care about your feelings?"
Homelander's smile didn't waver. "You're blunt."
"You'll survive."
Neither spoke for a moment.
"You know, Homelander," Ethan continued, "everybody wants something. You want popularity. More than that, you want people to love you. You can deny it, but that's what you're chasing."
Homelander's eyes narrowed slightly. "And you?"
"I do whatever interests me. Sometimes I make movies, sometimes I travel, sometimes I save people because I feel like it. Flight 37 interested me. You got in the way, so I ignored your plan."
Homelander's gaze shifted toward Kimiko. "She was supposed to stay in that cage. I had plans for her."
"Yeah." Ethan shrugged. "Ruining other people's plans is one of my hobbies. If your plans involve innocent people getting hurt, I'll probably ruin those too."
Homelander's smile thinned. "So you're making an enemy out of me."
"If that's how you want to see it." Ethan met his gaze. "If you decide to come after me, that's your choice. Just understand something first." His red eyes began to glow faintly. "The moment you do, you'll be dealing with me."
Homelander held his gaze for several seconds. Then he laughed — quiet, genuinely amused.
"Most people start shaking the moment I look at them." He glanced around the apartment before his eyes returned to Ethan. "You're confident. I like confidence." He stepped closer until only a few feet separated them. "But confidence and arrogance are two very different things."
"You're free to think whatever you want."
"I am." His expression stayed friendly, but there was a sharpness behind his eyes. "I've met people who thought they could stand up to me before. They usually changed their minds." He paused. "You haven't. That makes you interesting."
His gaze shifted briefly toward Kimiko. "You've taken something that belonged to Vought."
"She isn't property," Ethan replied.
"To you, maybe."
Silence.
Then Homelander smiled again, as though the tension had never existed. "Well, I'm not going to fight you in your own home over dinner. That would be uncivilized." He glanced at the takeout containers on the table. "Besides, you invited me in."
He moved toward the door, rested a hand on the knob, and looked back one last time. "This conversation isn't over. I'll be seeing you again."
No threat in his voice. That made it more unsettling.
Homelander walked out still wearing the same pleasant smile. Once the door closed behind him, it slowly disappeared.
He had confirmed what he came to know. People who challenged his view of himself had a habit of staying in his thoughts, and Ethan had just become one of them.
Aqua stared at the closed door. "Who the hell was that weirdo? He's arrogant enough that if someone talked to a god like that in the divine realm, they'd be dead."
"He's the strongest human currently on Earth," Ethan said. "Sometimes that tends to enlarge the ego."
He looked at Kimiko. "Sit down and eat," he said in Japanese.
Kimiko signed something with her hands.
As usual, Ethan watched for a few seconds before giving up.
"Hm... the only thing I understood is you're asking why I didn't attack him. Is that what you mean?"
Kimiko nodded.
Ethan leaned back in his chair and picked up the glass beside him.
"Everything has its time and place. Homelander wasn't born the way he is. He was raised that way. That doesn't excuse anything he's done, but today wasn't the time."
He held the glass up for a moment before letting it slip from his fingers.
The glass hit the floor and shattered into pieces.
Kimiko looked down at the broken glass.
"The higher something stands, the harder it falls," Ethan said calmly. "People at the top eventually start believing they'll stay there forever."
He looked at the shattered pieces scattered across the floor.
"But nothing is eternal."
He looked toward the door through which Homelander had left.
"Sooner or later, Homelander's time will come too."
"And when it does, he'll fall just like everything else that believed it could never fall."
***
A/N: And on Patreon, The Boys arc started.
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