Rowan held her arms out wide and her long hair fell in front of her face. "D-Daddy?" She stuttered out with wide eyes as the blue ice beneath her skates cracked. "I'm scared." She admitted.
"Don't be, little one." Dylan held his hands out towards her encouragingly,"Just come to me and then I'll take you home and we'll get dinner - just walk to me and your brother."
Her eyes shifted to her brother, with messy, ruffled, ebony hair and a hood hiding his face. He couldn't bare to look at her, to see her like this. "I can't." She whispered.
"If you don't walk to me, we can't go home." He reasoned.
Rowan adjusted the wires on her wrists and her foot slipped forwards slightly, making her almost trip. Her breaths grew heavier as ice underfoot broke."Daddy!" Her voice grew panicked.
"It's okay," His large hands softened in her direction,"Come on, baby."
Taking a deep breath with her eyes closed, Rowan nervously skated a few steps further to the frosted banks. Her fingers and lips were blue. After all, she was only wearing a long-sleeved top and shorts in the middle of winter while the skies grew darker. That, unbeknownst to her, was the concept of this.
She sniffled and hunched her shoulders, the cold was making her grow weaker. Her eyes fluttered and she fought to keep them open, calls of her brother passing through her ears without effect. "Daddy, I can't..." Rowan let out a long sigh with hardly any tone, before she slipped and her legs gave way beneath her.
"Hey, Ro, open your eyes, Bubs." A warm hand smoothed over her cheek, accompanied by a comforting voice that brought warmth back to her heart.
"Tee..." She murmured, shakes in her voice with each vibration of his hurried steps.
"We're going home, kiddo." He hoisted her up so her small, soft head tucked into his sweater hood,"Bed sound nice?"
"The bunk den?" Rowan whispered innocently.
"Hell yeah," He smiled softly, face buried in her dark hair,"I'll even stay at the bottom bunk with you."
"All night long?"
"All night long."
____________________
Her fingers dug into the white leather, collecting chunks of sea-life flesh beneath her broken nails as she pulled herself through a thick layer of skin and gasped for air. She rubbed the blood out of her eyes and squinted at The Boys as Butcher declared,"Fuckin' diabolical."
Apart from Rowan having just crawled out of a whale, something still didn't feel right. "Where's Hughie?" She asked, breaths growing heavier,"WHERE THE FUCK IS HUGHIE?!"
"You guys go ahead, I'll be fine."
She spun around as he called from inside the mammal, head leaning by the still thumping heart and twitching organs. Rowan exchanged a braced glance with Butcher and before a single word escaped her lips, he knew exactly what she was thinking.
"Fuck no, Fields." He pointed at her in his soaked coat.
"Fuck yes." She smirked back, despite feeling squelchy whale blood soaking into every inch of her skin.
"The Seven are gonna' be here any second!" He yelled,"Rowan, you are not getting back in that fucking whale!"
"I'm getting back in the fucking whale!" She giggled mischievously while slipping about on the squealing animal's fin and splatted right onto her chin, landing in a warm mound of flesh and chuckling to herself,"Come on, Hughie." She reached her hand out,"Let me give you a hand."
"No, no, you go ahead. I'm just gonna' wait here." He said dismissively, eyes glazed over in a troubled trance. Not exactly sure what to tell him, she let her eyes wander to the adults, but it was clear they had scurried into the storm drains to escape the supes."Rowan, they're gonna' be here any minute." Hughie pointed out worriedly as the child scrambled to sit so close to him their sides were connected, practically leaning on each other out of exhaustion.
"Yeah, I know." She said, nonchalantly playing with her necklace again."You know what I like to think about when I feel shit?" Rowan smirked weakly, leaning her head back on the inside of the whale. "Kim Kardashian." She announced, watching the line define the two eternal blues through the hanging entrails above them. "You see, she may look a glamorous twat, but really, she ain't got nowt. 5am in the morning, she's still a spotty, greasy hopeless case, just like the rest of us." She turned to see if it had any impact on Hughie - but he was just as paralysed as before, possibly even more. "What do I have to say, eh?" She asked softly,"You're not a hopeless case, I'm sorry I said that." She muttered,"Really, you're too good for us. Butcher's a maniac and now I'm definitely stuck with him, we need someone who... we need a Hughie. 'Cause I don't know about you, but I think they're pretty fuckin' underrated."
She sighed,"I know you're keeping to yourself these days 'cause you think everything's going wrong... sometimes you just want to lay down and die... that feeling can be so... strong...?" Their eyebrows furrowed identically,
"Rowan, that's Billy Joel."
"I know." She sighed, offering her hand out a second time,"I wanna' show you something." He finally complied with a groan, and ended up having to lean most of his body weight on the child to even stand. "You see this?" Rowan snapped the chain around her neck and held the blood tinged amulet out for him to see,"You know what this is?"
"Yeah, but that's the only thing you have left of-" He was intervened by a loud grunt beneath him, and a splash in the water a few meters away. Just like that, the feisty animal was no more.
"Goodbye, brother." She sighed, seeming completely unfazed as she stared at it sinking through the water.
"Why the fuck would you do that?! That was the last thing you-"
"Precisely," Her arm tightened around him,"Now, we really have only got each other."
____________________
"Those kids are falling apart - you know that, right?" M.M. hissed at his clearly ignorant colleague.
Mind very much focused on the path ahead, Butcher found it more than an inconvenience to be turning all the way around but his face could hardly hold back concern as he did so, squinting at the silhouettes of Hughie and Rowan staggering after them at snail's pace, stumbling over each others feet as she held him up with an arm around her shoulders and one around his back, whispering nothing but supportive praise into his ear. "What are you talking about? He's fine." He dismissed. The possibility of Rowan also struggling was hardly even present in his head.
"I'm not just talking about Hughie - I'm talking your kid, all of us. At each other's throats and you just keep pushing and pushing us." He explained,"It's like-"
"Right over the fucking finish line." He said,"We just need to keep our shit together a little bit longer. We hand the cunt over, I get Becca and you get your girls-"
"Butcher, Butcher, Butcher," M.M. interrupted,"Those two aren't gonna' make it. And you need them, more than any of us - just as much as she needs you two. How are you gonna' know when you've gone too far when you've killed your own fucking kid?"
"When the fuck did I say-"
"Don't gimme' that bullshit. I've heard you call Rowan your own kid - I know the way you smile at her." He retorted,"She might not just be some civilian... but that don't change the fact she's just a fucking kid."
____________________
"Come on, Hughie - we're ages behind." Rowan winced,"We're almost there, you're doing real good." She encouraged, limping beneath her aches combined with the majority of his weight.
Pat, pat, pat, pat.
They both froze at the sound of haunting footsteps, sloshing in the drains of the dark tunnel. Hughie exchanged a petrified look with her before they scrambled to the nearest corner, practically clinging to each other as they squeezed up to the rusty pipes in the walls. Holding the, once again, blood-soaked child up to his pounding chest, he hesitantly peeked around and was instantly consumed by a tidal wave of relief: pretty, blonde hair, innocent eyes and adorable freckles the makeup just couldn't cover.
"Rowan, it's Annie." He almost chuckled, leading her by the shoulders into the light as the supe's eyes lost their powerful glow. Rowan knew to keep her mouth shut - she knew that Starlight was the reason most of The Boys, Hugh included, were alive but she still wasn't prepared to trust one of... them.
"You got my message!" Hughie exclaimed,"Annie, I-"
Rowan barely got a word out before she clung to Hughie again - a flash gripped her dark eyelashes together and something pushed her feet through the grotty gunk until she was laid on her back, with a head of familiar, curly hair was holding her shoulder down.
"Bitch." She groaned, turning and protectively laying her arm over a coughing Hughie as Annie remorsefully approached them with golden palms, regret settling into her face. Rowan furrowed her brows slightly and followed her gaze across the ground.
HE'S BACK.
COMING BACK FOR MORE.
TO FINISH YOU OFF.
She would've liked to claim her heart didn't stop once her eyes met those red boots again. But it was a lie. Hughie could hardly breathe from how tight she was holding onto him. "Motherfucker." She choked out. She had just felt okay saying goodbye and now it was being shoved back in her face so hard it made her nose bleed. She said goodbye. Without even thinking. She did it for... Hughie...?
"Oh, come on! You two? Again?" The bleach blonde and icy blue channelled spikes to pierce her eardrums, the American flag whipping at her nose.
"I didn't know-"
"Shut it!" He roared, sending Rowan trembling helplessly as Hughie complied to her need for someone to be there and scooted up close as they laid, helpless, beneath two of the most powerful people on the planet. "Come here," Homelander led her further towards the messed up members of the 'inferior' breed and smirked wickedly,"I'd like you to do something for me, okay? Kill them."
"Bu... they... th-" The other blonde stuttered nervously,"They're wanted... shouldn't we take them to the police?"
"Yes, they are. Yes, we should. Kill them. Right now. Chicks, right guys?" He scoffed at the weak humans with flesh particles hidden in their hair. "It's easy - hands in the air, like you just don't care. Kill."
Annie continued to stare at them with her shaking arms outstretched in their faces as Rowan and Hughie practically hugged each other away from the superhumans, heads nestled up against each other and arms tangled in both sets of bloody shoulders.
This prompted Homelander to loose what little patience was lingering there,"More incentive? Okay - you kill them or I'll fucking kill all three of you."
As Starlight's eyes began to hesitantly glow, Rowan pressed her head harder into his chest and felt vibrations rattle through her ears - as they both shut their eyes tight, feeling death close in on them yet again, he was humming.
It's alright though you feel your heart break
You're only human
You're gonna have to deal with heartache
Just like a boxer in a title fight, you got to walk in that ring all alone
You're not the only one who's made mistakes, but they're the only thing that you can truly call your own
Don't forget your second wi-
"OI! CUNT!"
Her eyes shot open, meeting a dripping, trenchcoated man stroll into the tunnel opposite, fists blaring in view. She was so tired and aching, so oblivious to reality, so incapable of realising the sounds coming out of her mouth, Rowan murmured absent-mindedly, "Dad...?" As soon as the word slipped out, she bit her lip and prayed not a soul had heard.
"William?" Homelander chuckled,"What a surprise! You know, I had a great breakfast with your wife this morning? Pancakes. Delicious." He teased vilely.
"Yeah?" Butcher smirked,"Eat this, motherfucker."
Kenji stepped out from behind him and the ground suddenly began to crumble, prompting Hughie and Rowan to shuffle further back on the floor as it caved in, swallowing the symbol of intense, dangerous patriotism and sucking up a train carriage from the ground above them, letting a stream of daylight into the storm drain. Rowan defensively kicked Starlight away from them as Kimiko used her and her brother's silent language to plead for him to stay, but it was left futile as he hopped up the rubble and clambered the bonnet of a car to reach the surface. Naturally, she made an amazing jump and immediately followed him.
"Come on, before that cunt gets out." Butcher strolled towards the youngest, curled up and helplessly trembling on the ground. Two pairs of glossy eyes stared up at him, showing reluctance in their own fear. He let out a heavy sigh and finally offered both of his hands out,"Come on, kids. Back on ya' feet."
____________________
Rowan had trouble recounting the hours after that event. It was a blurred consistency of rocking to herself and feeling other people's arms rest around her shoulders. Perhaps she found it hard to pay attention because something so significant dulled the rest of it down.
The Boys had gone to look for Kimiko and came across a building of mass destruction, several floors wiped out and the young woman frozen to the ground at the top. Feet weakly shifting along the gravel, the girls eyes finally met and something dreadfully familiar connected between them.
Loosing a brother was something very distinct on a spectrum of hurt - brothers were everything. All the friends you'd need, teach you all the things in school, tell you all the words you were never supposed to know. Brothers were livelihoods. Most of the time, they were the only thing that ever mattered.
In that moment, Rowan wasn't angry, being reminded of those cosy arms which always seemed to scoop her out of trouble. She just missed them. There was nothing wrong with looking back fondly on those times, was there?
She let out a reminiscent sigh as the grown men stood, clueless behind her, expression hardening when she met Kimiko's traumatised glare. She refused to cheer her up - from experience, that was the last thing she needed. Eyes rolling and hand shooting out towards her, just like Butcher's had earlier, Rowan grumbled,"Welcome to the club, sis."