For northernclaude

[medicpetrelli]

Simone was dead. Here one moment, gone the next. Nathan was busy with God knows what; probably trying to save his career, and Angela...all she kept telling Peter was that he needed to be a good boy and try to work with Noah, but Bennet had been preoccupied with keeping Claire safe from that Sylar guy.

He was going to explode. He'd heard it over and

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[northernclaude]

Claude felt awkward as they drove up to Nathan's new secret base. It probably wouldn't stay secret for long, but at least with five of them they would be relatively safe. They'd spent a while following Angela, managing to steal some information from her, narrowly escaping trouble. He supposed it was sort of exciting. Noah certainly reacted to adrenaline in good ways.

But now they were going to have to share a house with Nathan, whom he disliked, and Peter, who was his ex and definitely pissed off about how they'd parted. This wasn't going to be easy.

The house wasn't huge, but it was classy, and in warm enough climes in January not to have snow. Always a bonus. Claude sat in the car motionlessly after it had stopped, staring at the place.

[noah_hrg]

Noah put the car into park and turned it off. Some dim light coming from inside was a tell-tale sign that the others had already arrived which was less than fortunate. He'd been hoping they could get there first and pick out the best bedroom.

He let Claude have his minute of silence and then clasped a hand onto his lover's thigh. "Don't wuss out on me now. It'll be bad enough that I have to watch Nathan and make sure he's not stealing my daughter away...can't keep chasing you down and bringing you back if you run off with your tail between your legs."

[northernclaude]

Claude shot him a glare. "You don't know very much about me if you think I'm going to leave you on your own with this bunch." He sighed and rubbed his face. "I just hope Peter acts like a grown up. Though from what I've seen, I shouldn't get my hopes up."

[noah_hrg]

"In all fairness his witch of a mother did send him off to be molested and damaged. Anyone would be screwed up after that, especially someone unstable like Peter Petrelli." He massaged Claude's thigh soothingly. "We just have to be the responsible adults of the house. We'll go in there, act kind to everyone, and if something happens we'll let it roll off our backs."

[northernclaude]

Claude nodded, soothed by Noah's touch. "Yeah, you're right about that. Okay. We'll be the grown ups and be good, hopefully it'll turn out all right." He nodded again to himself, and got out of the car.

Nathan had heard the car arrive and was standing on the porch, waiting for them. He hoped they weren't smooching or something, it wasn't exactly the right time or place.

[medicpetrelli]

Noah followed suit, and before he trailed Claude up the path to the porch he grabbed their suitcase from the back seat. Bennet offered Nathan his hand, shaking it firmly. "Sorry we're a bit late. Had to shake some of Angela's goons a few states away."

Peter pushed the window curtain back from inside the living room and Claire went up on her tip-toes, trying to see. Her eyes widened before she rushed out, pushing past Nathan to hug Noah. "Dad!"

"Hey Clairebear," he said, hugging his daughter tightly. Once she was done with Noah, Claire practically tackled Claude.

[northernclaude]

"That's all right," said Nathan. "I'm glad we all made it without too much trouble--" He was interrupted when Claire shot past him and hugged Bennet. He felt both relieved that she now had Bennet to support her and slightly jealous of their relationship.

"Hello love!" said Claude when it was his turn for a hug. He held her tight, stroking her hair.

[noah_hrg]

"Hi! Welcome home!" she said cheerily. Claire returned Claude's epic squeeze and then pulled away, taking both of their hands to tug them inside. "Wait til you see this place, its great!" She knew she needed to be the buffer here. There was a lot of weird tension between these four men.

Noah chuckled, shrugging apologetically at Nathan as he was pulled in by his daughter. "Woah hey easy. Nathan I got to hand it to you, this house is very nice. You're positive Angela doesn't know about it?"

[northernclaude]

Claude smiled and let Claire guide him inside. He was dreading seeing Peter again, but she seemed to have decided to be in the middle, and that was fine by him. He was just following the guide, here.

"Well as much as I can be with Ma. I know I never spoke to her about the contact who rented it to me, but that doesn't guarantee she doesn't know about it. It's Ma, she has her ways of figuring things out, as well as her visions."

[noah_hrg]

"I should work with Claude to get some safety precautions set up. Make sure any back doors are properly boarded, windows shielded, maybe a trigger-alarm or two. That sort of thing," Noah suggested. Claire brought them right into the kitchen and bypassed Peter in the living room.

"Look at this freaking fridge!" she said excitedly, opening up a very tall refrigerator that was built right into the wall and packed with food. "We went shopping. Are you hungry?"

[northernclaude]

Nathan nodded. "That sounds like a good plan, yeah. I can help you set up some trigger alarms, and I got the weapons we used to attack the Company. Hopefully those could help too, in case of an attack."

Claude gave Peter a glance and a small smile as he passed by him in the living room, following Claire to the fridge. "Oh, er... I hadn't really thought about it. Maybe after we've rested a bit? Never feel really hungry after driving," he said.

[noah_hrg]

Peter left the living room and went upstairs. He didn't have any desire to see either of them, especially now that they'd had so much time to date or whatever.

"Okie doke," Claire said, sitting down on a kitchen stool. "Soooo if you're gonna do the trigger alarm thing later can I help?"

"Sure, sweetheart," Noah agreed, rubbing her shoulder. "You need to learn that kind of thing anyways."

"Cool."

[northernclaude]

"She was very brave when we stormed the Company," said Nathan, settling down on a seat. "Just needs to learn not to take too many risks, and she'll be ready for the Special Forces." He gave Claire a little wink.

Claude didn't much like the fact that they were encouraging Claire to become a killing machine. She was a teenager, angry and violated, just looking for a way to let off steam. Turning to violence was the easy solution, but it could also change her forever, make her into a heartless angry killer.

Well, setting a few trigger alarms would be all right, he supposed. He'd have to talk about it with Noah.

[noah_hrg]

Claire smiled shyly and nodded. "Thanks Nathan. I know I kind of rushed into things sometimes but it worked out, didn't it?" She looked at Noah and Claude proudly. "I was bait. I distracted Thompson and Nathan shot him. Thought you might appreciate that fact."

Thompson getting shot? Noah very much appreciated it. "Just remember, Clairebear. You can regenerate but you're not indestructible." He put his hand atop her head. "You need to protect this."

"I know I know. Nathan is a damn good shot, it was fine."

[northernclaude]

Claude couldn't say he disapproved of Thompson taking a bullet, but he didn't show it too openly. Part of him regretted the bastard wasn't dead, but he knew that rejoicing in someone's death would pull at his conscience anyhow.

Nathan smiled briefly and nodded. "I did my best to keep her in one piece and not too traumatised. But yeah, we shot Thompson. We also had to shoot your Haitian friend."

[noah_hrg]

Noah knit his brows tightly. He didn't like that at all. "Is he okay? Rene. The Haitian."

"...He's okay. Not life threatening. I know Peter offered his blood but Rene told him to go," Claire said.

Noah relaxed some. He didn't like the thought of old partners meeting such fates, but, good on Peter.