[ Set frowns, and Homelander frowns back, though his expression reads a little more of confusion than anything else, like he's not sure, in this moment, why the form Set takes would matter to him. It shifts as Set continues to speak, asks him to consider a question that he isn't sure how to answer. ]
You brought me back, [ he says — first and most important. ]
So we can play the game together.
[ Which isn't to say that he doesn't want revenge or that he doesn't want to know, but— ]
[ He laughs, faint and breathless: to play the game together.
Well, isn't that something.
Most relationships, he's found, are transactional at their core; what-can-you-do-for-me and what-can-i-do-for-you are foundational among gods and humans, generals and soldiers, merchants and buyers, even a foreign entity visiting distant lands to learn and grow and explore. The lessons he had learned, painfully and violently were that to be worth being loved, one must be strong. To have friends, one must conquer the other and impress upon them hierarchy. And then, there is Homelander. A man he found equal in. Equal anger, equal desire, equal meaning in his strength. ]
Yes, I would have been far too unhappy, to enjoy myself. Now, I can play freely.
[ It takes a few taps of his foot to ensure nothing is directly in his way, before he grips the hand he still holds and swings himself in for a strong-armed hug around Homelander's shoulders. A warmth and relief in his sigh. ]
What else are friends for, Homelander, than to see things through together?
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no subject
You brought me back, [ he says — first and most important. ]
So we can play the game together.
[ Which isn't to say that he doesn't want revenge or that he doesn't want to know, but— ]
That's what matters to me.
no subject
Well, isn't that something.
Most relationships, he's found, are transactional at their core; what-can-you-do-for-me and what-can-i-do-for-you are foundational among gods and humans, generals and soldiers, merchants and buyers, even a foreign entity visiting distant lands to learn and grow and explore. The lessons he had learned, painfully and violently were that to be worth being loved, one must be strong. To have friends, one must conquer the other and impress upon them hierarchy. And then, there is Homelander. A man he found equal in. Equal anger, equal desire, equal meaning in his strength. ]
Yes, I would have been far too unhappy, to enjoy myself. Now, I can play freely.
[ It takes a few taps of his foot to ensure nothing is directly in his way, before he grips the hand he still holds and swings himself in for a strong-armed hug around Homelander's shoulders. A warmth and relief in his sigh. ]
What else are friends for, Homelander, than to see things through together?