SUNSHINE ― billy butcher

twenty five

"I'M SO SORRY, ALICE."

Hughie kept apologizing the whole drive to his Dad's house. It was quite a while so it was a lot of apologies that I couldn't even, for the life of me, come to accept. It just—enraged me so much that I couldn't get it out of my head no matter how hard I try. "I didn't mean it. It—It was in the heat of the moment and Butcher was being an asshole—"

"I'm not somebody's bitch, Hughie." I finally spoke, after a while of silent treatment that seemed to affect him as much as I thought it would. "And you don't have the slightest right to tell me that Butcher's just stringing me along like a fuck doll." He winced and pursed his lips as he drove. "How could you even say that?"

"I'm sorry—"

"No, Hughie. How?"

"Because you always let him run over you even if you know why we're here in the first place." Wow. "This isn't about Robin, or the fucked up things Supe's does every day. No. It's—always about his wife. And you're still ridin' to hell with him."

I sighed, letting the bat fall on my leg as I looked outside and shut my eyes real tight. He didn't understand—and that should make it a little bearable, right? That should make the truth a little less hurtful.

"Eight years ago, when I was recruited to join the boys, Butcher and I agreed on some things before we began planning on Homelander and VOUGHT. I—said to him, If I join this hellhole with him, I'm not going to be the Alice that he once knew. I won't set my eyes for immediate death, won't rage like an idiot, or eliminate everything on sight. I told him, this isn't a death match for me—but a promise to help him find justice for his wife in any way he wanted it to. He's always going to be the boss in the meanest most fucked up way he found it best to do and I'll always be there. No questions asked." Always. "But we never came across the thought—or the slightest possibility that our closeness could lead into something, Hughie. I didn't mean that no matter how hard it is to believe. I'm not his bitch, and he's not stringing me along for the hell of it. I promised I'd stay for Becca, and that's what we're still doing now. Even today. So, yeah. I guess I should tell you that you're an asshole for thinking so low of me and that the next time you cross me like that—you'll probably lose a finger... or two."

Hughie folded his fingers across the steering wheel and nodded, glancing over me with a tight smile as I chuckle a bit. "And I think you'll be needing this." I held a sample of the V from Popclaw's apartment, a syringe only halfway there, and is dangerous to hold around carelessly, but I have trust in my plans.

"Wait—is that—"

"Swiped it from Butcher's coat a while ago. Because talking to M.M. most of my days today meant learning a thing or two about drug addicts and boys."

"What do you mean?"

"Bait."

-

I had Hughie drop me off a few blocks away from their apartment, trespassing an empty house to stay at for a couple of minutes because I had a feeling A-Train was going to run around the block looking if he brought anybody with him. He was deranged enough to go over their place and hold Hughie's dad as hostage—my cautiousness isn't overthinking at best.

I wanted to wait for a few more minutes. Snooping around a stranger's place and finding a newspaper nearby with the whole Seven on the front page. Making me wonder all of a sudden, about how I was the only un-burn person in our own little team of mortals. But if A-Train knows Hughie—would that mean The Seven knows I'm one of them? I never went to Mesmer but they have so many eyes around the City. It wasn't far out to guess that I was already made.