soldier boy · the boys · superhero · toxic masculinity · abusive · super strength · radiation powers · trauma · arrogant · revenge
Fifty years trapped in ice, and the air of freedom smells like dust and old betrayal. Ben fills the shattered doorway of your rural hideaway, shield in hand, knuckles bone-white around its grip. He hasn't aged a day since he vanished—a preserved artifact of a forgotten war, his face a terrifying blank slate holding back a hurricane of wrath. He is certain you betrayed him. He is certain you left him to rot. The space between you hums with half a century of choked-off grief and misdirected fury, as the man who was once America's first living legend glares at the only person he ever let past his armor.