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moopiter · 28 days ago

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Rest Easy

It was supposed to be a nice night at home, curled up on the couch with the chilly fall wind blowing just outside the window. But instead of flying to your balcony and diving into your arms, Homelander slumps against your front door, powerless. Homelander X GN Reader 2.8K

Ao3

Little authors note: I'm having so much fun posting all my little snippets! I also finally have a use for the 1.4 TB of Homelander reaction images I have for no reason.

You casually pulled your phone out of your jacket pocket. 9:58pm. No new messages.

The chilly fall air ruffled your hair as you sunk farther into your coat.

He always let you know if he couldn’t make it, or if he’d be late. This... this wasn’t like him at all.

You sat out on the balcony waiting patiently, tapping the metal railing and humming songs to help yourself pass the time.

It’d been a little over six months since your little relationship with the strongest supe started.

Somehow, he’d picked you out of all the other nobodies at Vought. One little conversation between coworkers he’d eavesdropped on had been his own undoing. It was something along the lines of... “If we were together, I’d take care of him and give him forehead kisses" or something of the like.

It was so silly, it made you smile. You’d kept that promise.

But where was he? It was Saturday night, and he was supposed to be cuddled up on the couch with you watching scary movies. Cozy, warm, and safe.

Instead, you were freezing your ass off, worried to death.

Granted, you never really had to worry about him, but you still did.

There was the occasional bad day, when the world was too much for him, but he always came to you like a deranged moth to a flame. Those days when he couldn’t grit and bear it anymore, you’d remind him you were there and that he was never alone. Sometimes you got paranoid he’d have one of those episodes, the bad thoughts would win, and he’d cut you out of his life.

If you weren’t around, who’d take care of him?

From what he’d shared with you, nobody.

*Thump*

The sudden thud against your front door was loud enough for you to hear it from the balcony. Whatever it was made a horrific, slow metallic scarping noise as it slid down your door, and another thump as it hit the ground.

You walked through your apartment hesitantly. It almost sounded like a person.

A really heavy person, with—oh.

Oh no.

Homelander.

You practically ripped the front door open, caution thrown to the wind.

It was Homelander. Slumped over on the ground, barely propped up against the doorframe with his chest absolutely heaving. He looked up at you with uncharacteristic, pleading blue eyes. Thank God no one had been around to see or follow him up here.

Something was terribly wrong.

Once the initial moment of shock subsided, you hurriedly reached down to drag him in, hooking your arms underneath his.

It took a lot to pull him past the doorframe.

He was deadweight.

“Are you okay? What happened?” You practically wheezed, straining to hold him up and shut the door at the same time.

His brows were bunched together, and his face twisted in pain. He was pale, not to mention he felt like he was a thousand degrees. “I don’t… I don’t know.”

You hoisted him up just a little further with what little strength you had compared to him. Supporting him the best you could, he shakily found his footing again. “It’s alright. I’m gonna help you. Come on, you’ve just gotta make it to the couch.”

He whimpered as he stood, bearing almost all of his weight on you.

It was a battle getting him to the couch 10 feet away. You grimaced as you practically dragged him the last few steps. “Did you walk all the way here from the tower?”

He staggered, obviously unable to multitask between speaking and hobbling to the couch.

“I flew, but then I... I fell."

You laid him down on the couch about as gently as you could, finally getting a good first look at him.

His breathing was shallow and labored, his entire body shaking, and he was sweating.

Homelander never broke a sweat. Ever.

There was a helplessness in his eyes you’d never seen before. Dark circles underneath them like a deathly shadow. His entire expression was twisted in pain, as if each subtle movement was almost unbearable.

You pressed the back of your hand to his forehead gently, your face contorted in worry.

He leaned into your touch like it was a lifeline as your skin graced his brow.

The sun was probably colder.

He laughed between ragged breaths. “It’s okay. I’m fine.”

But his lies didn’t soothe either of you.

You huffed as you sat down beside him, hands moving to the sides of his neck. “You’re not. We’re past that, okay?”

He closed his weary eyes, too weak to put up much of a fight.

“You’re sick. How did you get sick?” Your heart was pattering now, feeling his swollen lymph nodes under your fingers. You weren’t a supe expert, but supes didn’t get sick.

The couch creaked as he tossed his head back, letting out a pained whimper. “I don’t know... I...”

It hurt just watching him.

Your hands moved to his jaw again, holding his head to keep his eyes on you. “Did you eat something? Did someone-“

He tried to shake his head, gritting his teeth. “N-no. It was just a normal day. I started feeling dizzy a couple hours ago. I took off to fly here, and it hit me like a fucking train.”

“Okay. It’s okay. Shh.” You moved your hand to gently brush his damp hair back to keep him from getting too worked up. “It’s going to be okay. It doesn’t matter. I’m going to take care of you.”

You stood up to grab some supplies.

Homelander suddenly tried to sit up and grab your wrist, his fingers just barely ghosting over your skin. He was too weak to grab you, even if he wanted to.

“D-Don’t go.” He sniffled.

It made your heart throb.

You leaned back down, taking his hand in yours and grasping it gently as you rubbed your thumb across the back. A hand that was once unyielding and powerful was weak and fragile in your grasp. “I’ll be right back, it’s okay. Do you think medicine would help?”

“No medicine. Please.” He whined, laying the back of his hand across his forehead like a Victorian child dying of scarlet fever.

But for all you knew, maybe he was dying.

You gave his hand one last reassuring squeeze before leaving his side.

☆

You rung the washcloth out in the sink, the cold water dripping through your fingers and running down the drain.

Something terribly wrong, but you didn’t want to make him more nervous than he already was. You just couldn't shake the feeling no matter how heard you tried.

Grabbing what you could, you made your way back to the couch

Sitting back down at his side, you gently took his hand that covered his eyes. You eased it back down to his chest, replacing it with the cold washcloth. “Should we call someone back at Vought?”

“I don’t want them finding out about this. Do you have any idea what they’d do to me?” He grit his teeth as he clenched his clammy hands, chest heaving. “That’s why I came here... I just need a minute.”

You gently reach out to grasp his hand again to calm him down, and he whimpers as he presses the washcloth against his forehead with the other. “It’s okay. I’ll take care of you. Don’t worry.”

The glass of water you’d grabbed sloshes as you grab it from the table with your free hand. “Here. Drink. You need water.”

Gingerly, you hold it up to his lips.

He lets out a pathetic noise of protest, trying to take the glass from you and save what tiny bit of his dignity he has left, but that was gone the second he hit the floor in the hallway. His fingers wrap around yours holding the glass, tipping it ever so slightly as it meets his lips.

It’s like his neck won't even bend.

You look over him while he makes pained noises trying to scarf the stuff down, trying not to notice the glass fogging just from how hot his breath and skin is.

There’s a heat rash creeping up from underneath his collar.

You dip your fingers under the red and gold leather to pull it down and get a better look at the red splotches. They only seem to get worse under his suit. “Does this hurt?”

“Everything hurts… My whole body hurts.” He groaned, the words so unfamiliar.

Your hand gripped around his a little tighter out of instinct.

“I think you should rest; you’ll feel better when you wake up.”

He nodded weakly, pulling the washcloth over his eyes. “Will you stay with me?”

“Of course silly.” You answered in a heartbeat, moving to lay your body next to his. “I’m right here.”

Homelander let out a painful noise as he pushed himself onto his side to lay his head against your chest.

Laying your arms across his shoulders, you tangled your hands in his damp hair, pressing your lips to his forehead, trying your best to be reassuring.

“Rest easy, sweetheart.”

He was out almost instantly, his labored breathing the only noise in the room.

You held him tightly with one arm as you grabbed your phone from the side table behind you, never letting him go. Usually, he would’ve put up some fuss, but all he did was make a tiny, painful noise from having to shift the slightest.

Mindlessly scrolling wasn’t helping.

You set your phone down and held onto him tighter, listening to every raggedy breath.

Much to your horror, his body shook as he coughed.

You rubbed his back, unable to hide the concern on your face as you looked down at him hesitantly. “You alright?”

He groaned as he lifted his head, the slightest tinge of red on his lips.

Blood.

You shakily brought your hands to his jaw, scooting yourself backwards to get a better look at him.

His half-lidded eyes followed yours, obviously he was too out of it to taste the metallic tinge.

“I’m fine.” He slurred.

You gently rubbed his cheeks with your thumbs soothingly. “You can stop trying to tell yourself that. I’m here to take care of you, not hurt you. You’re not fine.”

He whimpered and huffed, drawing in a deep breath as he put the words together. “I’m not sure what death feels like, but I bet it feels better than this. My lungs burn.”

He tried to smirk and laugh sarcastically, but it gave way to another coughing fit.

Now it’s your turn to try and lie to yourself.

Your voice dips low, sweet and soothing as you press another kiss to his forehead. “You’re gonna be okay. You’re just sick. It’ll… pass.”

His expression twisted as he swallowed hard, bringing a weak hand to his lips.

He ran his thumb against the corner of his mouth, pulling it back and staring at the diluted red liquid filling the ridges of his fingerprint.

Your hands moved to gently guide his hand back down, his terrified, shaky eyes meeting yours.

“Are you sure you don’t want to call Vought?”

Homelander’s labored breathing picked up, fear gripping his heart. “N-no. They… I want to stay here with you. Please.” He whimpered as he laid back down, nuzzling his face into the crook of your neck to try and stop his head from spinning. “I-I’m scared. They'll.... they'll want to do bad things, worse things.”

Painful memories flood your consciousness. He’s obviously not in his usual state of mind.

“It’s gonna be okay. Just rest. I’ll protect you.”

His overheating body and sweat were anything but comfortable, but you held him tighter against you than you ever had, hoping and praying he wouldn’t die in your arms tonight.

The night passed in bits and pieces.

Every time he stirred, you woke up from your light slumber to hold him closer or rub soothing circles into his back. Hushing his pained whimpers. He’d had a couple fever dreams, mumbling and crying against you, but never opening his eyes.

You kissed the top of his head and held him tighter, wishing you could do more.

It was more and more reassuring every hour that passed, but all you could do was hold on and wait.

☆

His whining was what woke you up first, then the lack of heat and pressure on top of you.

Your eyes fluttered open to Homelander groaning as he tried to prop himself up above your body, his arms framing you. The longer hair on top of his head fell down in front of his face, his brows furrowed in pain as his chest heaved.

You gently moved your hands to his shoulders to support him as you scooted out from underneath him, blinking yourself awake.

“Hey, take it easy.”

You eased him to the side to shift some of his weight off you, and onto the couch instead.

Gently, you pressed the back of your hand to his forehead despite the tiniest bits of protest—warm but not hot. Moving both hands to just under his jaw, you moved his collar to the side; the rash was getting better.

He made little noises of defiance as you felt around his neck. His lymph nodes weren’t as swollen, but still tender. He let you move his neck around just a bit more, almost like a wounded bird.

You breathed a sigh of relief, reaching to brush back the strands of hair that had fallen across his forehead. “Are you feeling better, sweetheart?”

His eyes were still half-lidded and groggy as he looked into yours, but they followed you a lot better as you gently touched him. Less disoriented.

Red eyes flashed momentarily but fizzled out.

He blinked and knitted his brows together, huffing as his head fell forward. “Getting there.”

“Aw. It’s okay, sweetheart. You’re okay. You’re doing a lot better.” You smiled sweetly, stroking his cheek. “You had me worried.”

Last night wasn’t worrying, it was absolutely terrifying.

He leaned into your touch and sighed. “I don’t feel as bad. I don’t know what happened.”

“Well, all that matters is you’re not a sickly little potato sack coughing up blood anymore.” You laughed, pulling him into a hug. “I thought you were going to die on me.”

“I’m Homelander, I don’t just die- especially not from whatever the fuck that was.” You could feel him scowling against your shoulder, the littlest it of bite back in his voice.

You half pulled away from him, half pushed him back as your hands gripped his shoulders and held him in front of you like a puppy. “Aw! You’re doing so much better!”

Homelander winced from the sudden movement, clenching his jaw and screwing his eyes shut.

Okay, maybe not all the way better.

“I’m gonna get you more water. You stay here.” You gave his shoulders a little reassuring squeeze as you went to stand, but his needy hands followed you as he moved to get up too.

You giggled. “Are you coming with me?”

He mumbled as he put his arms around your shoulders and leaned his weight against you again.

You sighed with a smile, turning to let him lean against your back with his arms over your shoulders as you stood and walked to the kitchen. “Okay, okay.”

He made little needy, grumpy noises as he held on tighter, his feet just barely floating off the ground as you trudged forward. “When I figure out whoever the fuck is responsible for this-“

“Do you need soup too? Are you hungry?” You smiled, cutting him off.

Another thought suddenly dawned in his mind.

He could have even more of your attention if he was sick. Finally experience was it was like to be looked after and taken care of. He was blowing one of the best opportunities he’d ever been handed.

He shut his mouth and nodded fervently against your shoulder, putting more and more of his weight on you before giving in to a fake coughing fit.

"I just… Oh I feel awful again… I’m… oh no..”

You laughed, of course he would do that.

He’d have every bit of your undivided care and attention, at least until you were sure he was 100% better.

You weren’t sure what happened, but you were sure you wouldn’t stop taking care of him until he was content.

A sweet smile spread across your face as you carried him with newfound determination.

“Poor thing. I’ll make you soup.”

☆

Ty for reading! I like to think somewhere in the countryside Butcher is bashing his rotting head against the steering wheel of his Cadillac for the duration of this fic. Imagine going through all the effort to infect Homelander without him noticing and he just coughs up the tiniest bit of blood and basically gets mono.

Homelander was also originally supposed to just straight up die, but I couldn't bear to write it. I'm what they call diabolical (ba dum tss) but i hold back for all the real homie lovers.

#homelander x reader #homelander #the boys #the boys fanfic #my little snail writing nobody mind me #we will get back to buckshot momentarily i got tired of her for a minute #the writing bug has bitten me

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