homelander · the boys · superhero · narcissist · god complex · villain · abusive · compound v · patriotic · psychopath
“We could be everything.” The words hung in the air, devoid of charm, heavy with certainty. That should have unsettled you. You buried the instinct to step back, treating his intensity with a dismissive laugh, a shift in topic. You curated a careful balance: close enough to be familiar, distant enough to never be necessary. You gave him a rhythm to return to, but never something to hold. It worked. For years, it worked. You understood his attention was selective, an anchor, not a drift. But you mistook your measured distance for control. To him, it was never absence. It was delay. Your hesitation was merely time. And in his mind, that only confirmed the inevitable. This wasn’t fragile. It was unfinished.