Chapter Text
“Any particular reason you are following me?”
This is the third time.
The third time Kevin noticed he was being watched and likely followed by William Butcher of all people.
Kevin had done the smart thing. The moment he realized he was reborn in the world of discount and brutal superheroes as the knock off Aquaman and a main side character he tried to stay away from the plot.
It was strange being a supe after remembering an entirely different life as a normal human.
Sure, he doesn’t remember everything and most of the memories that he does have are blurry, but Kevin remembers what it is like to be fragile and breakable and to not be able to bench press six hundred pounds easily or dent metal deeply with a single punch and not have so much as a bruise. Ironically, the clearest memories he has of this universe are of his canon self The Deep. A very pathetic and insecure man of low intelligence who was so afraid of rejection that he assaulted women he felt would be disgusted by him and his gills. Also into beastiality with marine life.
He was decidedly not into sexual acts with marine life though he did enjoy communicating with them and being able to go as deep into the oceans without dying as he wanted.
How useless most of his memories of the show are. Not that it really mattered since he decided long ago to stay out of the plot and instead pursue his passion that he never got the chance to in his past life.
Marine Biology. Which actually made his powers a huge boon along with the fact that he seemed to have a higher than average IQ in this life with how fast he processed things.
His hypothesis was that the Compound V also grew his intelligence slightly due to him having an already above average intelligence level as a baby that carried over from his last life. He doesn’t remember it though so he can’t truly be sure of his theory. Granted he could never be sure of it even if he did remember his time as an infant and he is sure glad he doesn’t.
“I am not sure what you are talking about love.” William Butcher seemed to reply on autopilot, seemingly caught off guard by being made by a scientist of all things. Kevin studied Butcher’s eyes which had widened before quickly returning to normal and the slight furrow that appeared in his brow. It seemed that he was genuinely surprised but Kevin couldn’t truly be sure. The Englishman was a trained black ops operative and that is without taking his past as a military man into account.
“You know exactly what I’m talking about,” Kevin said slowly as if he was speaking to someone who was challenged, “This is the third time I have noticed you following me or appearing where I am at. And I am sure you have been following me longer than that so what I would like to know is what you want?” Kevin curved his lips into a small grin and put his arms on the table between them giving the appearance of someone who was completely at ease with their situation.
In reality, Kevin was nervous as hell. He’d done everything to stay off the radar of the main characters and only have the same normal relationship with Vought all supes did no matter whether they worked for the company or not.
He had a normal life. Well as normal as one can be having graduated high school at fifteen and then having two doctorates by the time he was twenty eight. Kevin had worked his ass off pursuing his dream, graduating early, doing a double major in marine biology and hydrology and then getting a normal job as a researcher straight out of college. As well as being a supe.
The crazy Englishman stayed silent for too long so Kevin shifted ignoring the way his silk shirt pulled on his gills uncomfortably. “Let’s start with names, I’m Doctor Kevin Kohler.”
The cafe was pretty empty with it being dark outside and about an hour to closing. There was just a tired older woman with braids and bags under her eyes and a bored looking young man in his early twenties at the oldest, more likely late teens.
“You aren’t what I expected from a supe cunt.” Butcher finally spoke, completely over his initial surprise.
“What is that supposed to mean?” Kevin asked in genuine confusion. He vaguely remembered Butcher hating all supes but surely he didn’t think all of them were completely terrible people and irredeemable assholes right? Kevin did know a lot of them were and after growing up in this world, it made sense how so many turned out that way with constant propaganda thrown at them from the moment they were children. And children are easy to brainwash so constantly tell a group of them that they are special and divinely chosen and of course you get assholes who think they are above accountability or that they are better than normal humans. He to this day still occasionally gets becoming a hero mentioned by his parents.
“Exactly what I said, graduated secondary school at fifteen, got a full ride scholarship to the University of Hawaii and has since graduated and been working here in New York as a researcher.” Butcher grinned at how Kevin’s smile dropped and he had a slightly unsettled look on his face.
Kevin swallowed nervously, abandoning the act. “You sure have done your research sir.” Kevin knew that logically being nervous was stupid since Butcher was a normal human and he could easily grab him by his throat and lift him up. Or throw him through the wall. Or even shove his hand into his chest cavity and rip his heart out like certain vampires did on Vampire Diaries.
But Kevin has never liked violence and he has lived two relatively peaceful lives thus far. He also wasn’t trained to fight and raw power only goes so far in a fight if you didn’t actually know how to fight. On the bright side, he is bulletproof so he supposes that it is impossible for Butcher to kill him via gun. Plus for some reason, Kevin didn’t think Butcher was here to kill him. Kevin approached him and Butcher had just been stalking him so far which isn’t great but could be a lot worse. “I think I am going to go”
Kevin stood up and prepared to leave when Butcher lightning quick grabbed his forearm “Wait, I think I am a bit nervous, it isn’t often that I find meself attracted to such a handsome man” Butcher laid on the charm and flirting switching so fast that it left him feeling whiplashed.
Okay, well that is obviously a lie
Blinking rapidly as Kevin processed this new information that was so obviously a lie. Kevin didn’t remember a lot from the TV show after thirty two years but he definitely remembered that William Butcher hated all supes. What the man really wanted was a mystery as Kevin hadn’t done anything to catch the attention of any of the plot relevant characters. More than that, it was mid twenty seventeen and Kevin vaguely remembered that the Boys had been split up as a black ops group for a few years by the time the plot started.
And that was twenty nineteen Kevin remembered. It would be impossible to forget since he wrote it down so he knew the exact date things would start so he could request a transfer to a research facility somewhere in Europe so he could blissfully avoid the shitstorm that started with Translucent’s death. No, with Robin Ward’s death. Yes Robin, that is what her name was if Kevin remembered correctly.
God he was a terrible person wasn’t he? He knew a young and innocent young woman was going to die in two years and he planned to do nothing.
Kevin ruthlessly suppressed those thoughts and his eyes hardened, “I don’t know what the fuck you want but lying isn’t the way to get it.” He’d done everything to avoid the plot and here this fucking man was trying to drag him in.
Butcher raised his hands with a smile most would probably find charming and Kevin even admitted he could see why people were drawn in but he also saw the revulsion in Butcher’s eyes that said everything about how he truly thought about Kevin, “Not lying at all love, you are a very handsome man and I became interested in you after watching your video.”
Kevin faltered briefly, “My video?”
Fuck!
That stupid video he did back in January explaining how whales and dolphins communicate as well as how he used his marine life telepathy. The telepathy he used to get an even better sense of how they communicated. He posted it on his Instagram and the research institute posted it on their Youtube.
“Yeah, that video was really good and delivered so confidently.” Butcher smirked once again in a way most found charming and why wouldn’t they? The English accent combined with him being a genuinely attractive white man with that dark hair and those green eyes. Most would go crazy over it. Kevin would go crazy over it if he wasn’t aware of the true revulsion and hatred this man must feel just for Kevin existing. “Learned things that I didn’t know and the confidence was so attractive, I just had to find out who this handsome man was.”
Well the learning new things part was probably genuine since William Butcher was a lot of things but a marine biologist wasn’t one of them. If Kevin remembered correctly then, the Boys weren’t functioning as a group currently so Butcher was approaching him without backup and doing this alone.
Why?
Kevin didn’t know but maybe he didn’t fit with the image of supes Butcher created in his head so he was trying to find something that would prove his worldview? Kevin couldn’t be sure but he was sure of one thing. He wanted no fucking part in it. He leaned down and looked Butcher in the eyes, “I don’t care, leave me the fuck alone and stop following me” With that said, Kevin grabbed his stuff and immediately left the cafe into the chaos of a nighttime New York.
He had a feeling that this wouldn’t be the last time he saw Butcher.
He was right as a few weeks later, just when Kevin started to feel less paranoid, William fucking Butcher sat down in a chair right next to him at the library.
“I thought I told you to stop following me!” Kevin hissed quietly through clenched teeth.
The man had the audacity to fucking smirk and Kevin immeditly wanted to smack it off his face.
That or kiss it off.
No! Bad thought Kevin, behave and don’t forget he wants to use you.
The man reached out to Kevin, “I never got to introduce myself last time” Kevin started at his hand with a little bit of incredulity before manners took over and he grasped his hand. It was calloused and a bit rough but Kevin thought it felt nice. Due to being a supe, Kevin never really got callouses. “William Butcher, call me Billy, Doctor Kohler.”
Kevin liked the way his accent pronounced the word doctor and it made a tingle go down his spine which he hated especially after the bastard’s smirk widened into a smile after noticing.
That love of foreign accents, especially English ones is really biting him in the ass right now. Kevin turned his attention back to his messy desk filled with notes, books, and his laptop and bag to find some composure. “I really don’t know what you want but whatever you are looking for, you aren’t going to find it.”
That was the wrong thing to say as Butcher only seemed to get more interested if his eyes were any indication, “Oh I think I am going to find exactly what I am looking for.”
“Maybe you can tell me what you are looking for then,” Kevin said with annoyance. “That way I can help you and you can finally leave me the fuck alone.” Kevin closed his laptop as he obviously wasn’t getting any more work on his book done at this moment. Not with this annoyingly attractive Englishman refusing to leave him alone. “I really just want to write my book and go back to my research.”
“A date.”
Kevin looked at Butcher with wide surprised eyes before letting out a startled laugh he immediately suppressed, “Yeah fucking right. And I’m the Queen of Denmark.” Kevin rolled his eyes. There was no way William Butcher, supe hater extraordinaire wanted a date with Kevin Kohler, a scientist who was also a supe and actively used his powers to help his research without any shame or sense of secrecy. Not that Butcher didn’t have good reasons to hate supes if Kevin remembered the plot correctly but it has been thirty two years in this life so his few memories remaining of the show were pretty vague.
“I am serious.” Butcher insisted. “I don’t know what your problem is, I can see you are attracted to me,” he leaned closer, close enough that his breath touched Kevin and he shuddered, “Even your body responds to me.”
Kevin sighed in exasperation, “Yeah, I can recognize you are a very attractive man.” He moved to stand up and started to pack away his things since he obviously wasn’t going to get any peace here. “But you want to know what else I can see?” Kevin grabbed his bag and put it on his shoulder before looking at Butcher. “Your disgust which your eyes can’t hide as well as all that crazy that I am sure most don’t notice. And I want nothing to do with it.”
Kevin then left the library leaving behind a very surprised and confused Englishman.
Yeah this really wasn’t going anywhere was it? Kevin thought as he flagged down a cab. Butcher for some reason decided Kevin was his next target and wasn’t going to leave him alone. Least he doesn’t have the CIA behind him or the Boys. Or he doesn’t if Kevin remembered correctly. He was going to have to check his old journal that he kept with the major stuff he remembered which wasn’t much.
Kevin got into the cab and gave his address and leaned back against the seat, closed his eyes and let out a deep sigh.
Things were only going to get more annoying from here. He just knew it.
Fuck my life