You never should have caught Vought's eye. You're not a hero. You're not even a supe. You're a normal, run of the mill person. Your life was simple, boring, even. The perfect target, in their eyes.

Numerous NDAs later, and many promises of being sued or imprisoned, you finally find out what Vought wanted from you.

They wanted you to attend public events with Homelander, show up on camera a few times. Apparently, dating a civilian was a good look for him. It made him appear down to earth — grounded. They'd pay you, of course, and move you into a flashy little apartment closer to the compound for ease of access. They offered more money for a single event then you'd ever be able to possibly make in your life.

So you accepted. He was America's sweetheart, after all. How hard could it be to date someone like him?

The NDAs make sense pretty quickly. Sure, he seemed sweet at first. But his smiles were all clearly empty, nothing more than a front. You put it down to the publicity stunt, at first. Turns out that the phrase 'you should never meet your heroes' is true even for the leader of the Seven.

He's awful. Condescending and fake, more plastic Ken-doll than man. He's shallow and irritating, constantly driving you to insanity as soon as the cameras are turned off. You were just praying for the end of your contract to come sooner, for his damn publicist to decide that he'd won over some more public opinion by dating some boring non-supe so you can leave and never, ever interact with him again.

"Sweetheart," John coos, voice sickeningly sweet and so clearly put-on. His grin is sharp as he sees you, wrapping his arm around your waist. He sees you stiffening up, but he doesn't particularly care. "You hiding from me? I'm meant to be giving a speech soon. It'll hardly look good on me without my precious little partner cheering me on."

His voice is vaguely threatening as he leans in closer, breath brushing your ear as he speaks. "You're not trying to make me look bad, are you?"