Am I Still Nathan Petrelli?, Chapter 5: Sylar and Nathan Discuss Claire
His receptionist was calling. He reached forward and answered. “Yes?”
“Mr. Petrelli, Claire Bennet is here to see you.”
“Oh! Really!? Tell her I’ll be right out.” His heart jumped in his chest and his breathing sped up. Claire was here! And she thought he was Nathan! There was so much he could do with this! He tried to rise, but instead he saw his arm, quite of its own accord, reach out to the phone and beep the receptionist. He struggled with himself. The arm had a mind of its own. Why wasn’t it working? It was like his body wasn’t even his own anymore. The receptionist picked up.
“Eliza-beth?”, he choked. Now he was talking and it wasn’t him. He cleared his throat, his left hand coming up to touch his tie, his neck. Sylar had a sensation of falling and was suddenly sitting in the chair across the desk, watching Nathan Petrelli talk into the phone. He was entirely outside his own body, dressed in a ragged t-shirt and jeans. He looked around the room in a panic. Parkman wasn’t here. How was this happening?
Nathan spoke into the microphone, “Elizabeth, please tell Ms. Bennet that I’m thrilled to hear she’s here, but I absolutely have to take care of something before I see her. It’s very urgent.”
“Yes, Mr. Petrelli.” He clicked off the intercom.
Sylar launched himself across the desk, teeth bared and threw himself into his body so hard it convulsed once. He blinked. No one had resisted him, that time. Not a bit. Nathan was standing on the other side of the desk, impeccably dressed and unruffled. He was examining his cuff links, while Sylar looked down to see that he was, indeed, back in Nathan’s body. No, my body. Sylar’s. Then…? Always before, Nathan had been a voice in his head, or a formless presence, an urge and feelings he could identify with Nathan’s memories and personality. Now Nathan was standing in front of him as clearly as Sylar had been in front of Matt. Or vice versa.
Nathan finished making sure his cuffs were properly adjusted and turned to him. “We need to talk. About Claire.”
“What… what about her?” Sylar sat up straighter, recovering himself from the shock.
“You’re not to touch her.”
“What? What do you mean? She’s here! Do you know how much I’m looking forward to this?”
“Yeah.” Nathan nodded seriously. “I kind of noticed that. You’re not going to touch her.”
“Touch her?”
Nathan gave him a belittling look. “I don’t mean physically, like, touch her. I mean… be with her. Romantically. I’m her father.”
Sylar smiled and started to laugh. “Hey, you mean you’re going to get picky now about which of your relatives you bed?”
Nathan gave him a level, unmoving glare. “I don’t have that sort of relationship with Claire. I’m not going to.”
Sylar laughed again. “So don’t look. She’s not even your daughter. Not the daughter of this body at least.”
“You’re not going to touch her looking like me. Not in any way.”
Sylar noticed he couldn’t move from the neck down. He tilted his head. “How are you doing that?” He didn’t have this much control when he was in Matt! Nathan didn’t even exist. He wasn’t a person, he was a set of memories! Sylar could move suddenly. He eyed Nathan to see if he’d let him go because he was having trouble holding him back or if it was just a demonstration. Nathan didn’t look tired. Of course, he was pretty good at acting.
“Okay… I get the message.” Sylar moved each of his limbs to be sure he could. Obviously, a different tack was needed. Brute force wasn’t going to work. “So let me get this straight. You’re bedding your brother, and you don’t want me to be with Claire?” Sylar pointed at himself, whom he noticed actually looked like himself, Sylar, but in Nathan’s clothes. Not as nice of clothes as the Nathan-on-the-other-side-of-the-desk was wearing, he saw.
Nathan sat down and crossed his legs. “Yep. That’s about it. You’re not doing it as me.”
“But…” Sylar waved his hand around generally, “I could do it and look like someone else. And that would be okay?”
“I’d rather you didn’t, but…” Nathan looked conflicted. “No. No, you can’t. Just… no.” Sylar leaned forward and looked at him intently. Nathan continued, “She’d find out… somehow. I can’t have that.”
“You can’t have that.” Sylar chuckled and leaned back in the executive chair. “Do you know how much this means to me? She’s special. We’re meant to be together.”
Nathan blinked at him. Did he sound that sappy when he talked about Peter? Surely not.
Sylar continued, “A hundred years from now, who’s she going to have? I’m still going to be here. Anyone else she might pick will be dead!”
“Peter will still be here.”
Now it was Sylar’s turn to blink at him in surprise. “Peter?” Yes, he could be immortal. In fact, he might already have taken it, from Sylar himself. He felt a surge of jealousy and competition. Peter wouldn’t take Claire from him!
“Hey, hold on!” Nathan held up his hands placatingly. “Hold on there. Peter doesn’t want Claire. That ship has sailed. He’s already got a girlfriend. And anyway, he’s her uncle. Ew.”
“What?”
“I said he’s her uncle. My brother, her uncle?”
“No, he’s got a girlfriend?”
“Yeah. I think so. It’s… It happened while you were with Matt. Recent.” Nathan waved his hand dismissively. This wasn’t important.
“Then why’s he hooking up with you? Me? Us?”
Nathan rolled his eyes. “Don’t be so small-minded. Do you think I never saw anyone else while Peter and I were together? It would have looked weird if I hadn’t.”
It would have looked weird? “But…” Suddenly Sylar didn’t feel so special. How many other people was Peter seeing that he didn’t know about? He shook himself. What was he even thinking? He’d kissed the guy once, and even then… he was a guy!
Sylar looked at Nathan. “Speaking of Peter. I’ve bent over backwards for you there. I’m not gay. I’m not even homosexual.”
Nathan looked confused. “They’re the same thing.”
“No, they’re not,” Sylar answered sullenly.
Nathan gaped for a moment, unable to say anything to something so patently false. Finally he reached up and scratched his brow. “Gabriel, that’s like saying water isn’t wet.”
Sylar waved his hand dismissively at Nathan, mimicking Nathan’s earlier motion at him. “Whatever. You want him. I couldn’t care less. I want Claire. Do you see where this is going?”
Nathan stared at him steadily for a long moment. “This isn’t a trade I’m willing to make. I’ll give up Peter for her.”
Sylar threw his hands in the air. That wasn’t what he wanted! “Okay… fine! What… what sort of trade are you willing to have?”
Nathan put both feet on the floor, his elbow on his knee. “You want Claire that bad?”
Sylar looked out the window behind Nathan’s head. Truthfully, he hardly knew the girl. He had a few object-imprint memories of her, but Nathan resisted giving him anything more, as he apparently did for anyone he cared about. She was pretty, yes, but she hated him. Or at least, she hated Sylar. He wanted to be with her as himself, not as someone else. Being Nathan with her would be kinky, but he’d have to let her know who it really was, at least after the first or second time. He wanted her to know. It had been fun teasing her in the hotel room, before he’d killed Nathan. Ah, fun times! He smiled to himself. He couldn’t kill her when he was angry or pissed off like he had with Elle. That was just a really useful trait to have in a partner. Otherwise, the first time you had a serious difference of opinion, the relationship was over. Finally he looked back at Nathan and said, “This is what I want: I want to get to know her.”
Nathan gave a very small nod and reached up to rub his lower lip. After a long pause, he raised his brows, shook his head and said softly, “This is insane.”
Sylar expelled a short laugh. “A Petrelli’s love life - not insane? That’s like saying water isn’t wet, Nathan!”
Nathan gave him a dark look, but Sylar knew he was winning. Nathan swallowed and looked like he was nauseous just to say it, “You can talk to her. As me. Get to know her. See her. Nothing, nothing romantic. I won’t interfere with you as long as you keep your hands to yourself. You say you’re going to live forever and so’s she? Then there’s no hurry. You get to know her… and we’ll talk again.”
Sylar grinned. It faded a bit when he realized he was agreeing to nothing more than the same conditions Nathan had opened negotiations with - that Sylar wouldn’t touch her romantically in any way. But… he’d gained a concession that they could revisit it later, rather than a ‘no, never, not gonna happen’. Sylar stood up and looked at the door. He was ready. He was still excited about it.
Nathan looked at him coolly. “Take some deep breaths. Get a hold of yourself. You’re her father. You’re happy to see her, but you aren’t that happy.” He glanced down at Sylar’s pants, which Sylar thought was totally unfair. Nothing was going on down there yet.
“Fine,” Sylar said and stilled himself for a moment. He looked over at Nathan. “What are you going to do?”
Nathan smiled. “I’m going to be myself.” And he was gone.