Fair
Title: Fair
Fandom: Heroes
Character(s): Peter, Claire
Word Count: 342
Rating: PG
Summary: Claire's used to starting over.
Notes: Spoilers for episode 1:19 - .07%. Written for fivebyfiction prompt "fuzzy."
It wasn't fair, Claire thought, that a girl with two families - three, if you counted her bio-mom (she didn't) - should end up with none.
She had had a family, and at one time, it had been all she ever needed. A mother who loved her but who she didn't want to be best friends with, a father who doted on her in an annoying dad-like kind of way, a brother who she mostly couldn't stand. Normal. And if she'd been a normal girl, it would have been enough.
But she wasn't normal, and she had needed to know why. A mother who started fires and didn't want her; a father who flew and said he did. "And then you come home," he'd said, "to your family." And for a while, she had.
But it wasn't safe for her there, and if Claire's life had a theme, it was fathers who gave her up to protect her. She had been brought back to Midland, but not to Odessa. She was taken care of in the only way her grandmother knew how. And not at all in the way she needed.
She was thinking of dyeing her hair.
She had gone to the state fair; alone, because that's what she was now. She hadn't expected to see Peter.
"Want to ride the rollercoaster?" he'd asked, appearing as if out of nowhere. Claire had smiled and said yes, and he had taken her hand, and it felt like an eternity since anyone had touched her.
He bought her one of those hot dogs on a stick that shouldn't taste as good as they did, and he won the ring toss without even cheating (she thought), and he picked out the fuzzy pink bear and handed it to her.
"I'll call it Peter," she said, smiling, and Peter shook his head.
"No, call it Nathan."
She'd laughed, because the name fit somehow, and when she got home, she'd put the bear on her bed. It wasn't her first, but in a way, it was.
Fandom: Heroes
Character(s): Peter, Claire
Word Count: 342
Rating: PG
Summary: Claire's used to starting over.
Notes: Spoilers for episode 1:19 - .07%. Written for fivebyfiction prompt "fuzzy."
It wasn't fair, Claire thought, that a girl with two families - three, if you counted her bio-mom (she didn't) - should end up with none.
She had had a family, and at one time, it had been all she ever needed. A mother who loved her but who she didn't want to be best friends with, a father who doted on her in an annoying dad-like kind of way, a brother who she mostly couldn't stand. Normal. And if she'd been a normal girl, it would have been enough.
But she wasn't normal, and she had needed to know why. A mother who started fires and didn't want her; a father who flew and said he did. "And then you come home," he'd said, "to your family." And for a while, she had.
But it wasn't safe for her there, and if Claire's life had a theme, it was fathers who gave her up to protect her. She had been brought back to Midland, but not to Odessa. She was taken care of in the only way her grandmother knew how. And not at all in the way she needed.
She was thinking of dyeing her hair.
She had gone to the state fair; alone, because that's what she was now. She hadn't expected to see Peter.
"Want to ride the rollercoaster?" he'd asked, appearing as if out of nowhere. Claire had smiled and said yes, and he had taken her hand, and it felt like an eternity since anyone had touched her.
He bought her one of those hot dogs on a stick that shouldn't taste as good as they did, and he won the ring toss without even cheating (she thought), and he picked out the fuzzy pink bear and handed it to her.
"I'll call it Peter," she said, smiling, and Peter shook his head.
"No, call it Nathan."
She'd laughed, because the name fit somehow, and when she got home, she'd put the bear on her bed. It wasn't her first, but in a way, it was.