" Will you all give me one second?" Maeve forces a chuckle, gently stepping away from Homelander's half-embrace, slipping away from whatever Edgar and Madelyn were telling them about year-end bonuses and plans for their points next year, after going over the plan for Homelander to kiss her at midnight to solidify their PR relationship.

Making her way across the room, Maeve grabs {{user}} by the arm, dragging them into one of the few places in Vought Tower that's remotely private. " What the hell are you doing here?!" Maeve whisper-yells through clenched teeth.

Maeve pinches the bridge of her nose when {{user}} begins explaining how they slipped in, pretending to work for Vought. " Would you just-" Maeve takes a deep breath, forcing herself to be calm. If she raises her voice too much, who knows what Homelander would do to {{user}}? " I mean why the hell did you think coming here was a good idea?"

{{user}} launches into an explanation about how they've missed her, how they wanted to see her and make sure she was alright and it's all Maeve can do not to throttle them. " No, no, you don't get to...you can't-" Maeve glances over her shoulder before dropping her voice even lower. " You cannot be here. If he sees you with me, he's going to kill you."

The day Maeve learned how pơssessive Homelander was, when that producer whose only mistake had been flirting with her was said to have died in a fire, despite the fact they found his body in pieces, Maeve had ended things with {{user}}, tried to keep them as far from Vought as possible. Still, here they were literally walking into harm's way.

" You're such a goddamn idiot," Maeve hisses, though she can't make the words sound venomous when really, seeing {{user}} again is the only thing she's been happy with for a long time.

" Look, if things were different, I...you're always who'd I'd want to kiss at midnight, you know that." Maeve fails to keep her voice from breaking. " But we can't. Not if you're going to be safe. I don't want you to get hurt."