Title: Loyalty in the Face of Change
Chapter: Ten: The Emergence
Author: chasepoke
Characters: Characters in Heroes, but mostly Luke and Gabriel/Sylar
Spoilers: Season 1 and beyond
Rating: R - NC-17
Warnings: Mentions phone sex silliness
Summary: AU-ish. Luke and Gabriel attend the same High School back in the early 90's (which I'm guessing is when canon!Gabriel went to High School). The story follows their relationship throughout the years. I suppose the story will end when the series does. Wow, this summary sucks. Oh well, just read it.
Author's Note: I'm baaaaaaaack :D Yea, this is only a few years late. My guess is that all my regular readers are probably onto different fandoms by now. Oh well, I had to write this. I might actually finish this after all. Anyways, enjoy.
“Do you… need your watch fixed?” Gabriel asked. Dr. Suresh shook his head,
“No. I…” He paused, eyes landing on Luke, “Perhaps we should speak somewhere more private.” Luke’s eyes narrowed and he opened his mouth to protest, but Gabriel put his hand on Luke’s shoulder.
“What did you want to speak with me about?” Gabriel said.
“I’m doing research on human evolution and I believe that we need to speak.” Dr. Suresh said.
“Human evolution?” Gabriel said, confused. He held out a thick book with a blue cover to Gabriel,
“Read this. If you think you’re interested, give me a call. My number’s on the inside of the front cover.” Gabriel glanced down at the book, flipping through it quickly. He looked up, but Dr. Suresh was already leaving.
Luke watched on, worry etched on his face, as Gabriel intently read the book. Finally, after Gabriel had nearly finished two thirds of the book, Luke could no longer take it, “Gabriel?” Gabriel looked up,
“Hm?”
“Well? What does it say?” Gabriel swallowed hard,
“It… It says that… that humans are evolving to have powers.”
“Powers?” Gabriel nodded. “What, like, Superman or something?” Gabriel bit his bottom lip,
“Yeah.” Luke deadpanned,
“You don’t really believe it, do you? You know how ridiculous that sounds, right?” Gabriel looked a bit affronted,
“Well, the book explains it better.” Luke blinked, Oh God, the book’s brainwashed him. Luke just looked down at his hands, fidgeting. “I know it sounds a bit ridiculous, but how else do you explain what’s been happening?” Luke shrugged,
“I don’t know, but there has to be a more scientific explanation,” Luke insisted.
“This is scientific. Look, I’ll let you read the book when I’m finished,” Gabriel said. Luke sighed,
“Fine.”
Luke watched intently as Gabriel finished the book, trying to read the expression on his lover’s face, but it was unreadable. Gabriel stared at the closed book in his hands for a long time. Luke wrung his hands in order to keep his nerves from spurring him to start babbling. Finally, Gabriel looked up. “Well?” Luke asked. Gabriel bit his lip nervously,
“It’s… it’s like I finally found my calling. What makes me… special,” there was a hungry glint in his eyes that unsettled Luke to the core. Catching the look on his mate’s face, Gabriel seemed to snap out of it, “Or it could just be nonsense, you never know,” he said, chuckling weakly. He held out the book to Luke, “You want to read it?” Luke took it,
“I guess I better see just what’s gotten into you,” he said light-heartedly. Gabriel grinned.
He scanned through the book over the course of a few days. Gabriel was right about it being scientific, or at least it seemed scientific. Luke had heard some pretty convincing arguments over the years that turned out to be persuasive pseudo-science bullshit. Gabriel had wasted no time calling Chandra and Luke saw no harm in it. Gabriel had clearly been upset over all the stuff that happened to him after the day of the eclipse and so anything that made him feel better was fine by Luke. He just warned the bespectacled man to carry some pepper spray with him, in case Chandra turned out to be psycho. All in all, it seemed harmless, so Luke was surprised when Gabriel came back from his meeting with Chandra incensed. When Luke questioned him, though, Gabriel refused to answer and stalked off to bed.
The next morning, Gabriel seemed to be in better spirits. “Are you okay?” Luke asked him, munching on his yolk soaked toast. Gabriel nodded,
“Sorry about last night, there was a problem with the interview last night, but I was being childish.” Luke pressed for more details, but Gabriel shrugged him off,
“Don’t worry about it,” he cooed. Gabriel finished the last bite of his own breakfast and kissed Luke on the forehead, “Don’t be late,” he said, motioning to one of the numerous clocks. Luke nodded and got up to leave for work.
When Luke entered their home after work that night, Gabriel seemed… different. That, and nervous. Every time Luke moved, Gabriel jumped. “What’s gotten into you?” Luke asked.
“N-nothing. Just watched a scary movie,” he responded, averting his eyes. Luke rolled his eyes,
“I told you not to watch those, man, they always make you freak out like this.” Gabriel rubbed the back of his neck,
“Sorry. Listen, Luke, there’s something I need to tell you.”
“Yea?”
“Well, rather…. show you, first.” Luke motioned for him to go on. “Watch that cup on the coffee table.” Gabriel instructed. Luke looked down at the table and cup in question. It suddenly shifted a few feet on its own. Luke shot up and ran over to Gabriel.
“What the fuck!?” Gabriel glanced at him.
“I have telekinesis, Luke.”
“What?” The cup zoomed to Gabriel’s waiting hand. “How…. how did you do that?” Gabriel shrugged,
“I just will it to happen.” Luke looked at him shock before speaking again,
“So, Chandra was right. That…. is… so COOL!” Gabriel laughed,
“It is, isn’t it? But Luke, there’s something else. I told Chandra that I’d help him find other Specials… that’s what we’re called, Specials. So, he and I are leaving for a few months.” Luke looked at him in shock,
“But… but what about the shop?” Gabriel shrugged,
“This is more important. Besides, there are people like me out there who are going to need my help.”
“But we haven’t been apart for that long before.” Gabriel looked at him amused.
“Don’t worry, I’ll call.”
The morning Gabriel was to leave was a hard one for Luke. Gabriel had always been at home or in the attached shop waiting for him when he got back from work. It was going to be weird and unpleasant not having him around. Gabriel and Luke stood outside of Gabriel’s taxi after they loaded Gabriel’s bags into the trunk. “I’m going to miss you,” Luke said.
“Me too. But I won’t be gone forever, and I’ll be doing important work.”
“I know, but that important work won’t cheer me up after a bad day.” Gabriel frowned and unfastened his still broken watch. “What are you doing?” Luke asked.
“Here, keep this safe for me until I get back.” Luke smiled softly as he took the watch and fastened it around his own wrist.
“I better go before the taxi driver gets pissed,” Luke nodded and embraced Gabriel once last time, kissing him. There was a derisive grunt from the cab, but it went ignored. “Don’t worry, you’ll see me again before you know it.”
The months crawled by slowly and painfully for Luke. They were only barely helped along by the numerous calls by Gabriel. Luke noticed tiny differences in his lovers’ personality each time he called, but Luke chalked it up to the other being excited by his travels. One of the worse things for Luke was the lack of sex. He and Gabriel tried having phone sex once, but they just ended up giggling the whole time. But eventually, the calls became less and less frequent. Once again, Luke just chalked it up to Gabriel being absorbed by his travels and his work, but Luke still couldn’t help feeling that Gabriel might forget him in lieu of a more exciting life. Luke pushed these thoughts out of his mind. And then, finally, after five months had passed since Gabriel had left, Luke received the call he had been waiting for, “Hello?” Luke answered the phone,
“Luke? It’s S-Gabriel… I’m coming home.” The voice was gruff and deep, but Luke was to ecstatic to notice. “When ar-” but the ringtone cut him off. “Weird….” Luke mumbled.