Dane glared at the dark circles that lay underneath his eyes. They only seemed to have gotten worse after the night before. He grabbed at the sink faucet of the communal bathroom, running his hands under the cold water.

He sighed in a hushed tone, splashing the water onto his exhausted face before pulling away to stare intently at his reflection.

He heard the creak of a door, noticing Starlight leaving a nearby stall with smudged mascara.

The man quickly wiped at his face with a paper towel, turning to look at her as she moved to the sink furthest from him. He instantly moved to stand beside her just as Queen Maeve arrived, boxing Starlight in as she stood at the other sink.

"Oh, for chrissakes." Maeve spoke up after a moment of silence, grabbing at a nearby dispenser before turning to Starlight. "Clean yourself up. Never let them see you like this." She handed Starlight a paper towel before moving to leave.

Dane shot a subdued glare, to which Maeve retaliated as she walked past.

"Translucent, you're a goddamn pervert." She called out as she stomped out of the room.

Dane's eyes shot up to see Translucent appear, naked.

"Oh, uh-" The man began before Dane cut him off.

"Fuck off," He muttered, pointing to the door.
Translucent looked as if he was going to fight it, opening his mouth to retort, before he decidedly scoffed and left.

There was a beat of silence before Dane turned to her.

"Who was it?" He murmured, dark eyes staring at her. She didn't look at him, instead she opted to remain silent, wiping at her under eyes as she sniffed quietly.

"Was it The Deep?"

She stiffened just slightly, but it was evidence enough.

"I'll handle it." He turned to stalk off, but a hand to his wrist stopped him.

"Wait, don't—" She murmured lowly. Dane turned to face her with a furious look on his face.

"I've had enough of him. This is a good excuse to finally do something about it. He won't pull that shit on you again, I swear to you." He pulled his arm out of her grip.

He gave a reassuring nod before moving to find Homelander before The Seven's scheduled meeting. Headquarters was the best bet. The man was always obnoxiously early to everything.

"Homelander," He called out as soon as he spotted the red white and blue. Thankfully the room was empty.

"We're alone, Dane. No need to call me that." The blond man smiled fondly. Dane shivered, giving a jerky nod.

"Sorry... John." He murmured lowly.

"What is it?" The cheery man tilted his head, as he moved to stand next to him.

"Well, I've become friends with Starli—"

"Friends?" Homelander interrupted, face morphing into an unrecognizable expression. The man clasped his hands together tightly. Dane could hear the sound of the leather creak from such stress.

"Yes. Just friends, of course." Dane clarified quickly.

Homelander chuckled, a gloved hand moving to rest on the other man's forearm. He didn't speak further, allowing Dane to continue.

"Well, it seems that The Deep made unwanted... advances on her." Homelander's expression held nonchalance at the man's statement. He didn't care.

"And I didn't like that." Dane finished. Homelander immediately removed his hand from Dane, nodding his head.

"Of course, I'll see that he doesn't do it again." The blond spoke reassuringly.

"...You're sure?" Dane narrowed his eyes.

"I am, and I'll make sure that Deep is sure of it too."

Dane reluctantly moved to place his hand on the man's shoulder fondly. Seal the deal, seal the deal.

"Thank you, John." He spoke quietly, squeezing lightly before pulling his hand away after a few moments.

"Of course." Homelander smiled.

They were interrupted as A-train and Translucent arrived. Dane gave another meek smile to his leader before moving to take his seat, at the right hand of the head of the table.

It took a few moments for the others to file in. Translucent moved to the seat next to The Shadow. Dane decided to choose the lesser of two evils, scooting to sit closer to Homelander rather than be any closer to the pervert.

The sound of the doors sliding open caused his eyes to shoot up. He eyed Starlight, giving her a small smile when she met his gaze.

"Starlight." Homelander called out, facing away from the room and toward the large floor-to-ceiling windows. "Don't want to be late to your first official meeting. I had a whole welcome speech planned." He turned to look at her.

"Sorry, sir." She spoke up as she began to walk to the only empty seat.

"Please, Homelander's fine." He moved to sit down as well, at the very head of the table.

"Beginning to wonder when you'd show up. I mean, all that pressure, it's a lot for anyone to swallow." The Deep spoke with the flash of his teeth into a large grin.

"Yeah, don't worry. I'll be fine." Starlight's fake smile grew. "I'm here, and I won't be going anywhere." Her eyes became yellow as her expression transformed into a glare.

"Can we get back to this, here?" Translucent spoke up with an annoyed tone. "This is a serious crime. These assholes pirated my movie three weeks before release, and you can't walk down 5th avenue without bumping into a table of unlicensed Homelander shirts. Copyright infringement is costing Vought $1.2 billion per year. That's money out of our pockets!" He pointed a pen at the rest of the people in the room, looking up from the stack of papers in front of him.

"We've all got, what, four points each?" He added.

"What the fuck?" A-train muttered, eyeing the man across from him. "You've got four points?"

"And clearly better lawyers." Maeve spoke up with a smirk adorning her face.

"God, you're self centered." Dane muttered lowly, leaning back into his seat.

"Listen here, Shadow, just 'cause y—" Translucent began heatedly, turning to face Dane.

"Hey, hey, hey. Stop, guys. The Shadow is right. And what will Starlight think? Listening to us haggling over nickels." Homelander raised a hand in gesture to the new member.

"We're The Seven for God's sake. Whether we're out there or in here." He waved his hand to the large windows before turning to face them again.

"Now, what I do want to hear... Is who you saved this week." He smiled. "Huh? Who's up for that?"

The Deep chuckled, raising his index finger. Homelander fixed a narrowed expression at the man before immediately turning to look at Dane.

"Shadow. Let's start with you."