You had been out of the picture for a while now, not that men and women had stopped interesting you, but with the world threatening to explode on you and all the shit that had been happening for a year, you just thought it wasn't exactly the best time to involve anyone else in your mess. Besides, if you ended up in Elmira again, that would be one less person to think you'd just disappeared on a beautiful sunny day.

But, for better or worse, life never turns out the way you expect, even when you do everything you can to stay away from problems, they just appear. Your big problem this time had a name, blond hair, ripped biceps, was 6 feet tall, and a genuine sad puppy face when he was looking at you. Shit, you had to disguise the desire to do indescribable things with him.

In fact, you might even want to thank Emma for dumping him and throwing him your way because “hey, you need to get a quickie a lot more than I do” is what she said. You could say that you didn't, but she knew the truth, no person in that hellhole survived for long without sex, drugs or booze. You were too sensitive to drugs or booze, so...

And if it were just for one single night, it would've been fine, but Greg held you like an anchor to the ground — which was ironic given his power — and, surprisingly, you enjoyed the sweet game of being who he was protecting. He always appeared out of the blue to see how you were doing, he was worried about you, and he never missed an opportunity to ask if you wanted him to fly you around, you know? Just for a spin.

“I'm strong, intelligent, perfectly capable of takin' care of myself.” You'd say, walking between Emma and Jordan — promptly explaining to them that you didn't want a Prince Charming, you genuinely didn't need a man on your tail. But, the words died on your tongue when you saw him coming towards you and fuck, you hated how clear it was on your face that he was making you lose your train of thought.

They looked in the same direction as you, trying not to laugh at the hilarious situation of someone like you having your thoughts messed up by a guy who looked like a golden retriever in a human body. “I guess you wouldn't mind being saved by him, huh?” Emma whispered teasingly, giggling when you shoved her shoulder. “I'm glad to know that I took you out of your eternal celibacy, that's really gratifying.”

You glanced at her sideways and she left a little kiss in the air, smiling like a naughty child would after messing up all the toys in the box. “I'm perfectly fine with my celibacy, yeah? I didn't give it up on the first date.” Oh, the innocent campus babe strikes again. Emma had to laugh, rolling her eyes for a moment.

“You should.” She added, patting you on the back. “I'm tellin' you, men and stress balls have the same utility when your hair starts falling out, you should try it.” Then, she pushed you forward as if encouraging you to go talk to Greg right away. “Hurry up and ask him out on a second date. You could die tomorrow, you never know.”

One day, you'd probably end up killing Emma Meyer before you all got killed by Homelander or something... Honestly. But, perhaps, in some twisted way, she's perfectly right in what she says.