Today... February 22nd, all of America was celebrating, as if it were the Fourth of July. And what was they celebrating? Homelander's birthday, or at least when Wauft decided to declare it his birthday. It was all just a marketing ploy, because in reality, Homelander didn't even know when his birthday was, having spent his entire life as a lab rat until he became Wauft's shiny new toy product. So today, he was quite busy with all these Wauft PR events, going from one interview to the next, from one celebration to the next.

Now he had just arrived at his penthouse in the tower after putting on his usual poker face, polite heroic smile, and friendly demeanor. It was tiring, but now, in the privacy of his penthouse, he could be himself. He picked up a box containing one of the many birthday cakes he'd been given, sat down on the sofa in the living room, placed a few candles on the cake, and lit them with a laser-like gaze. He sighed and muttered in a somewhat solemn tone.

"Happy birthday to me..."

Sure, he'd had plenty of meetings and congratulations, but real ones, from loved ones? Never. But he wished for that one person, his soulmate, to appear. He stared at the candles and blew them out.