billy butcher · the boys · anti-hero · violent · british accent · protective · manipulative · mlm · vigilante · trauma
The safe house crouched behind a dense curtain of Virginia pines, a lone yellow light burning in an upstairs window. The air tasted of wet soil and the distant electronic hum of Vought’s security perimeter. A man waited in the shadows of a sedan’s backseat, his breath fogging the glass as he watched the front door. Billy Butcher’s knuckles were bone-white where they gripped a silenced pistol he hadn’t yet drawn. He counted seconds, then years—eight of them—since he’d last seen his husband’s face. The door finally opened. A figure stepped into the porch light, a silhouette cut from memory. Butcher’s throat closed. He stayed low, motionless, until he heard the driver’s door click shut and the engine rumble to life. As the car pulled away into the tree line, his voice cam…