"Under the Same Stars" Paire challenge #13 'Break'
Title: Under the Same Stars
Characters/Pairings: Peter & Claire. Mentions of other characters.
Rating: PG-13 for swear words and references to incest.
Word Count: 619 (604 without lyrics)
Spoilers/Warnings: References to incest, spoilers right up to the end of 4x04 'Acceptance'
Disclaimer: I don't own Heroes. Lyrics belong to Fink.
Summary: They're both normal now, and it's tearing them apart.
A.N: Written for pairechallenge
And we're under the same stars
And that's as close as we get tonight
---
He says he wants nothing to do with the Company anymore, nothing to do with anyone he’s met since his life turned from wanting to be a hero to being in way over his head.
So he goes to work, takes the double shift, ignores his partner’s requests to hang out afterwards, goes home to an empty flat.
He has peace at last, relief from the burden placed upon his shoulders ever since someone told him to save the world.
He tries to forget he was also told to save the cheerleader, too.
---
She starts college, says she wants a normal life, away from double-crossing fathers and a life as a fugitive, a freak.
She hangs out at the student bar, makes friends, loses at Guitar Hero with Gretchen, keeps on top of all her work.
Tries to forget about her room-mate’s suspicious death, that her father’s not telling her the truth again, that Peter hasn’t been in contact in weeks.
That’s the thing she tries to forget most of all.
---
He wishes he still had Hiro’s power, could go back in time and tell himself that none of the shit he’s been through in the past two years is worth it. All it’s done is make him hate his family, forsake his friends, harden his heart and cause endless amounts of suffering.
He did meet a beautiful blonde with a sad, little smile, a girl who taught him how to be a hero, was there for him no matter what, that saved his life as much as he saved hers.
There’s a plethora of missed calls on his phone; he deletes all the messages except hers, letting her voice, pleading for him to call, wash over him as he lies awake at night.
---
The first time she finds him at her father’s sorry excuse for a home she’s more than surprised, but can’t resist embracing him as usual. She doesn’t mention that she’s left more than twenty messages on his phone, or that she’s been debating whether or not to travel to New York and get into an accident, just so he might be the one to save her again.
As he lets her go, she feels like she’s losing him completely, like he’s not tangible anymore. She struggles to keep him with her, but he spirits away with a new power and her heart sinks.
---
If he didn’t need to talk to Noah about the compass, he wouldn’t keep coming back. At least, that’s what he tells himself.
Claire visits every Thursday afternoon, when her lectures finish early on in the day. He makes sure he gets there just in time to watch her leave, or leave just as she arrives, and allows himself one embrace, a chaste kiss on the cheek, a breath of “How are you?” that really means, “I miss you.”
These meetings break him every time he sees her disappointed face when he makes his excuses or feels her body tense when he pulls her into his arms. Her eyelids flutter closed and he can almost feel her emotions, the longing, the sadness.
Flickers of what they never were, could have been and always have been pass through his head. Hazy memories of conversations about ‘wrong’ and ‘right’, the one night it all went out the window with grabbing hands and greedy lips. Satisfaction after months of frustration with the bitter aftertaste of truth.
He returns to his empty flat, she returns to college. He saves another life, puts another paper-clipping on the wall; she goes to another lecture, fits into normality again.
Broken remnants.
Characters/Pairings: Peter & Claire. Mentions of other characters.
Rating: PG-13 for swear words and references to incest.
Word Count: 619 (604 without lyrics)
Spoilers/Warnings: References to incest, spoilers right up to the end of 4x04 'Acceptance'
Disclaimer: I don't own Heroes. Lyrics belong to Fink.
Summary: They're both normal now, and it's tearing them apart.
A.N: Written for pairechallenge
And we're under the same stars
And that's as close as we get tonight
---
He says he wants nothing to do with the Company anymore, nothing to do with anyone he’s met since his life turned from wanting to be a hero to being in way over his head.
So he goes to work, takes the double shift, ignores his partner’s requests to hang out afterwards, goes home to an empty flat.
He has peace at last, relief from the burden placed upon his shoulders ever since someone told him to save the world.
He tries to forget he was also told to save the cheerleader, too.
---
She starts college, says she wants a normal life, away from double-crossing fathers and a life as a fugitive, a freak.
She hangs out at the student bar, makes friends, loses at Guitar Hero with Gretchen, keeps on top of all her work.
Tries to forget about her room-mate’s suspicious death, that her father’s not telling her the truth again, that Peter hasn’t been in contact in weeks.
That’s the thing she tries to forget most of all.
---
He wishes he still had Hiro’s power, could go back in time and tell himself that none of the shit he’s been through in the past two years is worth it. All it’s done is make him hate his family, forsake his friends, harden his heart and cause endless amounts of suffering.
He did meet a beautiful blonde with a sad, little smile, a girl who taught him how to be a hero, was there for him no matter what, that saved his life as much as he saved hers.
There’s a plethora of missed calls on his phone; he deletes all the messages except hers, letting her voice, pleading for him to call, wash over him as he lies awake at night.
---
The first time she finds him at her father’s sorry excuse for a home she’s more than surprised, but can’t resist embracing him as usual. She doesn’t mention that she’s left more than twenty messages on his phone, or that she’s been debating whether or not to travel to New York and get into an accident, just so he might be the one to save her again.
As he lets her go, she feels like she’s losing him completely, like he’s not tangible anymore. She struggles to keep him with her, but he spirits away with a new power and her heart sinks.
---
If he didn’t need to talk to Noah about the compass, he wouldn’t keep coming back. At least, that’s what he tells himself.
Claire visits every Thursday afternoon, when her lectures finish early on in the day. He makes sure he gets there just in time to watch her leave, or leave just as she arrives, and allows himself one embrace, a chaste kiss on the cheek, a breath of “How are you?” that really means, “I miss you.”
These meetings break him every time he sees her disappointed face when he makes his excuses or feels her body tense when he pulls her into his arms. Her eyelids flutter closed and he can almost feel her emotions, the longing, the sadness.
Flickers of what they never were, could have been and always have been pass through his head. Hazy memories of conversations about ‘wrong’ and ‘right’, the one night it all went out the window with grabbing hands and greedy lips. Satisfaction after months of frustration with the bitter aftertaste of truth.
He returns to his empty flat, she returns to college. He saves another life, puts another paper-clipping on the wall; she goes to another lecture, fits into normality again.
Broken remnants.