Heroes, "Rise Above" Claire/Adam
Fandom: Heroes
Title: Rise Above
Characters/Pairings: Claire/Adam, implied Peter/Claire, Claire & some nameless guy, and Sylar/Claire if you squint
Rated: NC-17
Word Count: 3,512
Spoilers/Warnings: 3x02 "The Butterfly Effect". Sexual situations, references of S&M, physical violence, bad language
Notes: Takes place in the future. Thank you to rtwofan for the beta.
Summary: After all her searching, Adam Monroe gives Claire Bennet what she needs most.
Rise Above
Claire Bennet is no longer afraid of anything. She has no boundaries. Once upon a time a bad phantom took something important away from her.
Something that most people take for granted.
--
She wakes up, and it’s one of those days where she can’t remember how old she is. It doesn’t concern her. Even the horrible and rancid motel she wakes up in doesn’t distress her. She smells blood in the air, and a strange body snoozes next to her.
She’s left unsatisfied. Even a night of torture ends up spawning some kind of haphazard act of sex. Maybe her mysterious partner can appreciate it, but she cannot.
She remembers his frightened voice, the way he watched her eyes signaling for her to give in.
“Babe, aren’t you going to say the safe word? Aren’t you?” He looks worried, but not too worried to stop the whip coming down on her back for the millionth time. Well, maybe not that much, but she’s definitely lost count.
She grits through her teeth, blood dries and crusts at the edge of her mouth. “Just keep going,” she huffs out arrogantly.
This guy doesn’t like her boldness. He doesn’t like her strength. He brings the whip down again and says nothing. (She’s chosen well.) She’s bloodied, bruised, and torn when he gives up and drives into her from behind. He’s so intent on her submission he doesn’t notice the gashes healing all over her body. She closes her eyes and tries to remember the last time she felt the sharpness of a blade. Then her thoughts feel warm again.
She comes as she imagines the time when Sylar cuts a gash in her forehead. She was so scared. She thought she was going to die.
She smiles and sighs and floats down from her peak. Her partner has already collapsed beside her; asleep.
Nothing he’s done brings her joy. Nothing. But always her joy comes from memories - sad, fading memories of being human and feeling pain that she will never relive again.
--
A few more freak shows, a few more disappointments. Claire will never find a guy to fulfill her needs. They are absolutely impossible to fulfill, and she knows this in the back of her mind. Despite this, she denies it. She still has some sort of glimmer of hope. If she doesn’t get what she once had, she may go insane. She may just blow her head off and be done with it. She doesn’t like how Sylar’s voice echoes in her head telling that she can never die.
Bastard. He did this to her.
She’s begged Peter too. Even though she knows it’s his fault. Well, she finds that out later. He comes back from the future and messes things up. She blames him sometimes, even if he’s not the one who pushed and prodded inside her brain.
She can’t stay mad at him. He’s her Peter, after all.
But he can’t bring himself to hurt her. He thinks she’s insane, and he takes her into his arms and coos at her like a child.
“You’re still human, Claire. Don’t worry,” he says in her hair and lovingly strokes her skin. But nothing he says or does will ever help her. It won’t ease the hollow need that grows deeper inside her chest every day. She pulls away from him and looks into his eyes. Sweet, innocent, misguided Peter. She studies him and frowns. He can still feel pain so he can never understand.
Claire shakes her head and walks away from him. She’ll never ask him again.
--
She roams the world mostly. She reads and researches local history. She learns languages. She scurries into local nightlife in the dirtiest hell pits of the world. She gets random sickos to kill her, to mar her flesh, and fuck her until she bleeds for hours.
She always comes back - feeling nothing.
After the fiftieth time she dies and wakes up in the same body of a seventeen year-old, she realizes she’s had enough. No human on this planet can give her what she wants. Maybe she’ll never obtain it.
Then, ten years after Sylar picks apart her brain, Claire Bennet meets Adam Monroe. He takes her breath away with one smile, and he reminds her that despite not feeling pain, she still has to breathe to keep standing.
--
Hands sliding over flesh, perfect tan skin succumbs to perfect white. Desperate and blazing, they fall onto the bed like burning towers. She moans as his mouth fits perfectly over hers, tongues searching out heat. He groans and she wonders if he has the same thought - is this real? Are they for real? How can a man fit inside her body as if he was born there? How can he move against her so cautiously but his hands and mouth betray his experience? She sighs as his warm lips travel from the juncture of her neck to her breasts. Her hands fist in his short sunlight hair, and she moans when she feels wet.
It's been too long for both of them. Adam hasn't felt a spark in his heart since loving a long dead princess in Japan. Claire hasn't felt anything but yearning for pain, but when Adam touches her and fills her, he leaves her skin aching for pleasure and not an elusive pain. She settles into him as if she's finally found her fit in this puzzle of the world.
Claire and Adam make love, and for the first time, Claire notices that blood is absent from the air.
--
She realizes right away that Adam is more than elated by her existence. She’s just like him: immortal, indestructible, and forever young. The only difference is Adam can still feel pain. Sylar's never swished around in his brain, but it doesn’t bother Claire. Adam doesn’t let it bother her.
“I don’t know why you’re so obsessed with it, love,” he says. Claire stares at him as he makes her tea. She watches him in fascination as he picks up hot pots and cups without an oven mitt. His hands redden, and she can smell the burnt flesh before he heals. She grins inwardly, reveling the moment. “After four hundred years, I don’t feel pain much either. I imagine it’ll be completely gone in another hundred or so.” He sets the sugar in front of her and catches her green eyes staring at him. He puts his hand over hers lovingly. “I consider it a gift to not feel pain. I’ve seen so much human suffering, and I’ve experienced just as much myself.” He shakes his head, but then he takes her hand. His clear blue eyes bring her to a halt. "I envy you, Claire, to not be able to feel pain."
She laughs at him. For years she's felt like such a freak, and then this magnificent man, four hundred years or so older than her tells her he's envious.
"Why? Pain is the only thing that makes me still feel human," she says a little too nastily. Adam smiles at her. Her temper doesn't affect him; it never does. In fact, Claire thinks he finds her anger and quick emotions amusing.
"And why would you want to feel human, Claire, when you are clearly better?" he says, keeping his hand in hers as he sips his tea with the other. Claire freezes and waits for his meaning. He smacks his lips and delicately sets the tea cup down. "They're animals, Claire. They can't do what we can do. I've seen them kill, fuck, and betray each other over nothing. The world spins around in chaos upon more chaos, and they have hope and they wish for peace, but it can never come from them."
Claire's blood seems to run cold in her veins, but what Adam is saying makes some kind of sense. In fact, it makes more sense to her than she's willing to admit.
She frowns and looks away from his overwhelming gaze. She mumbles with bitterness. "Right, because we're special."
Adam sighs in exasperation and releases her hand. "Special - they say that to coddle us. But what's really underneath that word, Claire?" Her eyes widen. No one has ever felt the same as she has about that odious word. "It's fear. Their fear - of the species evolving without them."
"But..." Claire protests, but Adam shakes his head.
"Never you mind that. Just remember that you were born better. This isn't arrogance, Claire." He says as he leans comfortably back into the chair. The tea is gone. "It's just nature."
And Claire Bennet has never felt better about herself until that moment.
--
Peter finds out Claire is living with Adam, and he isn't happy. He blazes into their home, doors flinging off hinges and anger storming in his eyes. He interrupts one of Adam's many martial arts lessons, and he doesn't even meet Claire's surprised eyes.
"Hello, Peter," Adam says with mocking fondness. Claire knows their story. Adam has told her his version, and she believes him. He describes knowing Peter's personality to a T.
"Claire, you're going home with me," Peter demands. He still doesn't look at her in the eyes, and this angers her.
"I am home," she says boldly. Then, Peter meets her gaze.
"You can't be with this guy. He's dangerous," Peter warns her and turns his gaze momentarily to Adam, who doesn't object. "He belongs in a prison."
Claire meets Peter with ferocity, as Adam chuckles softly behind them. Peter is stubborn, but Claire is in no mood to bargain with him. She's beyond listening to Peter, and she no longer follows him like a lost puppy because she can't take care of herself.
"Peter, you have no right to come here and bust up our home! I'm not going anywhere with you. I'm a big girl now; I can take care of myself." He makes a motion to counter her words, but she turns away and ignores him. "Adam, lets try this move again." Adam throws Peter a victorious glance and smiles sweetly at Claire.
"Alright, love, get into position," Adam says, and immediately, Peter takes offense to Adam addressing Claire so affectionately.
"Claire!" Peter grabs her arm, which startles her. "Has he told you the truth about his past? He tried to wipe out the entire world with a deadly virus! A virus that not even your blood would have cured!"
Adam sighs, and Claire goes rigid in Peter's grasp. She spins around, and anger reddens her face.
"I know all about Adam's past. He tells me everything. That's what people who love each other do." She yanks her arm away, and his mouth drops, and he picks up on her obvious jab.
"Claire..." Peter says pathetically. Even Adam doesn't take pleasure in her uncle's sadness.
Claire frowns with a forlorn expression. "Just go, Peter."
And after all the years they've been close, Peter and Claire both know they won't be seeing each other for a very long time. Claire feels numb, but she's okay with it.
--
Adam and Claire have their first big argument - over Peter, of all people. Adam takes Peter's side, and Claire sees this as obvious manipulation.
"Don't think you can fool me, Adam," she says. She knows how he is, and she wishes he wouldn't think of her as stupid. She's witnessed countless times where Adam uses his charm and centuries of persuasion on people when they've gone out. He's done everything sans taking them to bed with him, and Claire knows if she wasn't around, he'd do just that.
"Claire, he just wants to protect you," Adam says. "Having him on your good side would be better for both of us." He watches as she throws another letter from Peter in the fire. He sighs, and he grabs her cell phone, and she glares at him. "And you're not deleting his number again. We could use him."
"What do you even want with him? You know how Peter is. He'll never help you. He hates you, and Peter doesn't usually hate anyone," Claire says, still suspicious. Adam walks over to her, and gently kneels down looking up into her fiery eyes.
"Look, love, he's one of us. Sure, he still cares about the people who would scorn us, but he's still a powerful person, and despite this fight between you two, I think you'll need him."
Claire's nostrils flare, and Adam knows he's said the wrong thing. She leaps from her seat and heads for the bedroom. Adam follows her.
"I don't need this! I spent my whole life running away from this," she fumes, throwing clothes into a suitcase. Adam leans against the door with worry. Claire angrily points a shoe at him. "I thought you were different than them, Adam! I can't believe you're all just the same."
Adam takes offense at the label. "Same as who?"
"The people who just want to lock me up and protect me! I'm so stupid and fragile and everyone wants to shield me. Well, I obviously can't take care of myself. Just like my father, and Nathan, and Peter, and hell, even Sylar has sporadically swooped in and saved me with his fucked up sense of special justice." Adam nears toward her slowly, but Claire is still heaving with anger and on the verge of tears. "I'm not some porcelain doll that people can keep in a cage!" A tear trails down her cheek, and she wipes it away roughly, leaving a scratch under her eye.
"I never would treat you like that," Adam says, his voice low and honest.
"Then why do you care so much about Peter staying in my life?" she yells.
"He's your family, right?" Claire glares at him, but says nothing. "And you can't honestly tell me that you don't know why I want you to stay on good terms with Peter?" He gives her the smile that always leaves her legs weak. When she doesn't respond, Adam takes her into his arms and holds her, rocking her back and forth. "You still want to leave me? After all these painful years it took me to find you?"
Claire stills to his words, and she shakes her head, burying her face into his chest. He rubs comforting circles on her back for a moment. He wipes her tears away and flings off her things from the bed. She closes her eyes as he leads her down on her back, covering her body with his. He whispers softly in her ear, and she cries when he tells her he loves her more than anyone else in the world. His love and his hands distract her as he pulls the clothes from their bodies, naked and ragged with need as if they'd been created right then and there from the dust in the room.
--
She's straddling him, and he's deep inside her as they begin to recover. She traces a hard fingernail over his perfectly sculpted chest. "Can I... hurt you?" She asks him so shyly and demurely, as if it's a terrible secret. Adam grins at her.
"There's a pocket knife in the drawer of the nightstand," he says without taking away his eyes from hers. She's both nervous and excited. She's never asked anyone this before. She's never done this to someone who is willing.
"Are you sure?"
"I don't care, love. I'll heal as always. If it makes you happy..." Suddenly, she shifts over him and opens the drawer. She comes back with the knife ready as she stares at the flesh under his pecs. Before she can bring the knife down, he stops her hand for a second, and instantly she looks embarrassed.
"Before you do this, there's something I need you to help me with tomorrow. I can't do it alone."
Claire cocks her head to him, and then, she nods slowly in agreement. "Alright."
"You don't want to hear what I need you for?" He seems amused by her willingness to go along with him without information. She's well aware of his past, and until now, she's always been suspicious.
He winces when he feels the blade pierce a few layers of skin, and then his new wound shudders with a dull chill. Claire watches as the wound heals and closes up on his chest, perfect and untainted as it was only seconds before. She smiles and sighs with elation. She bounces happily in his lap, drawing him inside her again. He groans, and he watches her with revived excitement.
"Continue, love," he says. She gives him another slash on his shoulder, on his forearm, on his stomach; and every time he heals. She holds up the knife, and he bucks against her, wanting more pleasure than pain.
"What are you planning on doing tomorrow?" she asks. Her eyes and her heat wrap around him and hold him hostage. He sits up and slides his arms around her as the cool blade rests against his neck.
"We're going to Odessa, and we're going to look for a formula," he answers in between kisses.
Claire's expression is placid, and Adam is sure she would show more concern. He kisses her again, and she doesn't let him go. Together their tongues deepen, and Adam moans pushing inside her and bucking his hips.
"Claire..." His voice sounds like silk wrapping around her ears - just as always.
She pulls back and stares at him. The grip on the knife changes in her hands, and Adam watches her with anticipation. Claire sees a quick flash of fear. He closes his eyes, and she brings the knife down. He jumps against her touch as she stabs the wood on the nightstand. He pulls her closer, sighing into a long burgeoning kiss.
Adam takes her, and she submits to his touch. He sees that as her agreement to help him, to go along with his plans and be ignorant to his worldly intent. He fills her and she cries with sedation, not protest. Claire is already too far into this, and she can't turn back. What she knows and feels of Adam, she doesn't want to leave, and she knows he's right. He's spent so much time looking for her, and she's been waiting for him all this time. The hollow ache inside her all these years isn't for pain - it's for him.
She can't pull away now. Not anymore.
--
He keeps her hand in his as they walk together inside the old abandoned Company building. Only a skeleton crew of guards remains, and Adam takes care of them along side Claire's willing help. Down inside the lower levels of the Company basement, Adam fishes through folders and boxes, and Claire follows his example.
Without thinking, she asks him, "What are you looking for?" She wants to help, but deep inside she doesn't want to know too much. She knows Adam wouldn't indulge anyway.
"Chemistry formulas, maybe a serum for a cure," he says without drawing his attention away from the boxes.
Claire freezes, and her fingers stop leafing through papers. Her body tenses, and she feels something ominous in the weight of Adam's words. His shuffling drowns away in the background, and she notices a sharp pain in her chest.
Pain? she thinks. It takes her only a second to realize she's just felt pain - after all these years, and though it's not physical, it still hurts. Claire wonders why she hasn't felt it before; she's certainly lived long enough, but why is it so different with Adam?
She turns and watches him, and he doesn't seem to notice her stare. He's lying to her and fooling her, and he does it so well that it's natural for him. She's seen him do it before, and sometimes he's even attempted to get away with it. But this time is different. He lies to her and she feels the pain - the pain of being lied to by a loved one and knowing that such a lie could change everything.
Such a lie could cause detrimental loss.
Claire bites back tears and returns to the files. She keeps digging, and Adam ignores her in silence. The pain is still sharp in her heart, and she can't help but trace her hand over it, delighting in the bitter and agonizing sting. Finally, she thinks, knowing this is just what she's wanted to feel all along. She smiles to herself, and Adam draws her out of her reverie. She follows him dutifully out of the compound, and shares in his excitement in finding whatever it is he came for. He kisses her in victory, and she sighs as his gaze still makes her body melt, while her new pain comfortably remains.
Claire knows, that no matter what Adam is planning to do, she can't leave him now. With him, she's right where she's supposed to be.
END
Title: Rise Above
Characters/Pairings: Claire/Adam, implied Peter/Claire, Claire & some nameless guy, and Sylar/Claire if you squint
Rated: NC-17
Word Count: 3,512
Spoilers/Warnings: 3x02 "The Butterfly Effect". Sexual situations, references of S&M, physical violence, bad language
Notes: Takes place in the future. Thank you to rtwofan for the beta.
Summary: After all her searching, Adam Monroe gives Claire Bennet what she needs most.
Rise Above
Claire Bennet is no longer afraid of anything. She has no boundaries. Once upon a time a bad phantom took something important away from her.
Something that most people take for granted.
--
She wakes up, and it’s one of those days where she can’t remember how old she is. It doesn’t concern her. Even the horrible and rancid motel she wakes up in doesn’t distress her. She smells blood in the air, and a strange body snoozes next to her.
She’s left unsatisfied. Even a night of torture ends up spawning some kind of haphazard act of sex. Maybe her mysterious partner can appreciate it, but she cannot.
She remembers his frightened voice, the way he watched her eyes signaling for her to give in.
“Babe, aren’t you going to say the safe word? Aren’t you?” He looks worried, but not too worried to stop the whip coming down on her back for the millionth time. Well, maybe not that much, but she’s definitely lost count.
She grits through her teeth, blood dries and crusts at the edge of her mouth. “Just keep going,” she huffs out arrogantly.
This guy doesn’t like her boldness. He doesn’t like her strength. He brings the whip down again and says nothing. (She’s chosen well.) She’s bloodied, bruised, and torn when he gives up and drives into her from behind. He’s so intent on her submission he doesn’t notice the gashes healing all over her body. She closes her eyes and tries to remember the last time she felt the sharpness of a blade. Then her thoughts feel warm again.
She comes as she imagines the time when Sylar cuts a gash in her forehead. She was so scared. She thought she was going to die.
She smiles and sighs and floats down from her peak. Her partner has already collapsed beside her; asleep.
Nothing he’s done brings her joy. Nothing. But always her joy comes from memories - sad, fading memories of being human and feeling pain that she will never relive again.
--
A few more freak shows, a few more disappointments. Claire will never find a guy to fulfill her needs. They are absolutely impossible to fulfill, and she knows this in the back of her mind. Despite this, she denies it. She still has some sort of glimmer of hope. If she doesn’t get what she once had, she may go insane. She may just blow her head off and be done with it. She doesn’t like how Sylar’s voice echoes in her head telling that she can never die.
Bastard. He did this to her.
She’s begged Peter too. Even though she knows it’s his fault. Well, she finds that out later. He comes back from the future and messes things up. She blames him sometimes, even if he’s not the one who pushed and prodded inside her brain.
She can’t stay mad at him. He’s her Peter, after all.
But he can’t bring himself to hurt her. He thinks she’s insane, and he takes her into his arms and coos at her like a child.
“You’re still human, Claire. Don’t worry,” he says in her hair and lovingly strokes her skin. But nothing he says or does will ever help her. It won’t ease the hollow need that grows deeper inside her chest every day. She pulls away from him and looks into his eyes. Sweet, innocent, misguided Peter. She studies him and frowns. He can still feel pain so he can never understand.
Claire shakes her head and walks away from him. She’ll never ask him again.
--
She roams the world mostly. She reads and researches local history. She learns languages. She scurries into local nightlife in the dirtiest hell pits of the world. She gets random sickos to kill her, to mar her flesh, and fuck her until she bleeds for hours.
She always comes back - feeling nothing.
After the fiftieth time she dies and wakes up in the same body of a seventeen year-old, she realizes she’s had enough. No human on this planet can give her what she wants. Maybe she’ll never obtain it.
Then, ten years after Sylar picks apart her brain, Claire Bennet meets Adam Monroe. He takes her breath away with one smile, and he reminds her that despite not feeling pain, she still has to breathe to keep standing.
--
Hands sliding over flesh, perfect tan skin succumbs to perfect white. Desperate and blazing, they fall onto the bed like burning towers. She moans as his mouth fits perfectly over hers, tongues searching out heat. He groans and she wonders if he has the same thought - is this real? Are they for real? How can a man fit inside her body as if he was born there? How can he move against her so cautiously but his hands and mouth betray his experience? She sighs as his warm lips travel from the juncture of her neck to her breasts. Her hands fist in his short sunlight hair, and she moans when she feels wet.
It's been too long for both of them. Adam hasn't felt a spark in his heart since loving a long dead princess in Japan. Claire hasn't felt anything but yearning for pain, but when Adam touches her and fills her, he leaves her skin aching for pleasure and not an elusive pain. She settles into him as if she's finally found her fit in this puzzle of the world.
Claire and Adam make love, and for the first time, Claire notices that blood is absent from the air.
--
She realizes right away that Adam is more than elated by her existence. She’s just like him: immortal, indestructible, and forever young. The only difference is Adam can still feel pain. Sylar's never swished around in his brain, but it doesn’t bother Claire. Adam doesn’t let it bother her.
“I don’t know why you’re so obsessed with it, love,” he says. Claire stares at him as he makes her tea. She watches him in fascination as he picks up hot pots and cups without an oven mitt. His hands redden, and she can smell the burnt flesh before he heals. She grins inwardly, reveling the moment. “After four hundred years, I don’t feel pain much either. I imagine it’ll be completely gone in another hundred or so.” He sets the sugar in front of her and catches her green eyes staring at him. He puts his hand over hers lovingly. “I consider it a gift to not feel pain. I’ve seen so much human suffering, and I’ve experienced just as much myself.” He shakes his head, but then he takes her hand. His clear blue eyes bring her to a halt. "I envy you, Claire, to not be able to feel pain."
She laughs at him. For years she's felt like such a freak, and then this magnificent man, four hundred years or so older than her tells her he's envious.
"Why? Pain is the only thing that makes me still feel human," she says a little too nastily. Adam smiles at her. Her temper doesn't affect him; it never does. In fact, Claire thinks he finds her anger and quick emotions amusing.
"And why would you want to feel human, Claire, when you are clearly better?" he says, keeping his hand in hers as he sips his tea with the other. Claire freezes and waits for his meaning. He smacks his lips and delicately sets the tea cup down. "They're animals, Claire. They can't do what we can do. I've seen them kill, fuck, and betray each other over nothing. The world spins around in chaos upon more chaos, and they have hope and they wish for peace, but it can never come from them."
Claire's blood seems to run cold in her veins, but what Adam is saying makes some kind of sense. In fact, it makes more sense to her than she's willing to admit.
She frowns and looks away from his overwhelming gaze. She mumbles with bitterness. "Right, because we're special."
Adam sighs in exasperation and releases her hand. "Special - they say that to coddle us. But what's really underneath that word, Claire?" Her eyes widen. No one has ever felt the same as she has about that odious word. "It's fear. Their fear - of the species evolving without them."
"But..." Claire protests, but Adam shakes his head.
"Never you mind that. Just remember that you were born better. This isn't arrogance, Claire." He says as he leans comfortably back into the chair. The tea is gone. "It's just nature."
And Claire Bennet has never felt better about herself until that moment.
--
Peter finds out Claire is living with Adam, and he isn't happy. He blazes into their home, doors flinging off hinges and anger storming in his eyes. He interrupts one of Adam's many martial arts lessons, and he doesn't even meet Claire's surprised eyes.
"Hello, Peter," Adam says with mocking fondness. Claire knows their story. Adam has told her his version, and she believes him. He describes knowing Peter's personality to a T.
"Claire, you're going home with me," Peter demands. He still doesn't look at her in the eyes, and this angers her.
"I am home," she says boldly. Then, Peter meets her gaze.
"You can't be with this guy. He's dangerous," Peter warns her and turns his gaze momentarily to Adam, who doesn't object. "He belongs in a prison."
Claire meets Peter with ferocity, as Adam chuckles softly behind them. Peter is stubborn, but Claire is in no mood to bargain with him. She's beyond listening to Peter, and she no longer follows him like a lost puppy because she can't take care of herself.
"Peter, you have no right to come here and bust up our home! I'm not going anywhere with you. I'm a big girl now; I can take care of myself." He makes a motion to counter her words, but she turns away and ignores him. "Adam, lets try this move again." Adam throws Peter a victorious glance and smiles sweetly at Claire.
"Alright, love, get into position," Adam says, and immediately, Peter takes offense to Adam addressing Claire so affectionately.
"Claire!" Peter grabs her arm, which startles her. "Has he told you the truth about his past? He tried to wipe out the entire world with a deadly virus! A virus that not even your blood would have cured!"
Adam sighs, and Claire goes rigid in Peter's grasp. She spins around, and anger reddens her face.
"I know all about Adam's past. He tells me everything. That's what people who love each other do." She yanks her arm away, and his mouth drops, and he picks up on her obvious jab.
"Claire..." Peter says pathetically. Even Adam doesn't take pleasure in her uncle's sadness.
Claire frowns with a forlorn expression. "Just go, Peter."
And after all the years they've been close, Peter and Claire both know they won't be seeing each other for a very long time. Claire feels numb, but she's okay with it.
--
Adam and Claire have their first big argument - over Peter, of all people. Adam takes Peter's side, and Claire sees this as obvious manipulation.
"Don't think you can fool me, Adam," she says. She knows how he is, and she wishes he wouldn't think of her as stupid. She's witnessed countless times where Adam uses his charm and centuries of persuasion on people when they've gone out. He's done everything sans taking them to bed with him, and Claire knows if she wasn't around, he'd do just that.
"Claire, he just wants to protect you," Adam says. "Having him on your good side would be better for both of us." He watches as she throws another letter from Peter in the fire. He sighs, and he grabs her cell phone, and she glares at him. "And you're not deleting his number again. We could use him."
"What do you even want with him? You know how Peter is. He'll never help you. He hates you, and Peter doesn't usually hate anyone," Claire says, still suspicious. Adam walks over to her, and gently kneels down looking up into her fiery eyes.
"Look, love, he's one of us. Sure, he still cares about the people who would scorn us, but he's still a powerful person, and despite this fight between you two, I think you'll need him."
Claire's nostrils flare, and Adam knows he's said the wrong thing. She leaps from her seat and heads for the bedroom. Adam follows her.
"I don't need this! I spent my whole life running away from this," she fumes, throwing clothes into a suitcase. Adam leans against the door with worry. Claire angrily points a shoe at him. "I thought you were different than them, Adam! I can't believe you're all just the same."
Adam takes offense at the label. "Same as who?"
"The people who just want to lock me up and protect me! I'm so stupid and fragile and everyone wants to shield me. Well, I obviously can't take care of myself. Just like my father, and Nathan, and Peter, and hell, even Sylar has sporadically swooped in and saved me with his fucked up sense of special justice." Adam nears toward her slowly, but Claire is still heaving with anger and on the verge of tears. "I'm not some porcelain doll that people can keep in a cage!" A tear trails down her cheek, and she wipes it away roughly, leaving a scratch under her eye.
"I never would treat you like that," Adam says, his voice low and honest.
"Then why do you care so much about Peter staying in my life?" she yells.
"He's your family, right?" Claire glares at him, but says nothing. "And you can't honestly tell me that you don't know why I want you to stay on good terms with Peter?" He gives her the smile that always leaves her legs weak. When she doesn't respond, Adam takes her into his arms and holds her, rocking her back and forth. "You still want to leave me? After all these painful years it took me to find you?"
Claire stills to his words, and she shakes her head, burying her face into his chest. He rubs comforting circles on her back for a moment. He wipes her tears away and flings off her things from the bed. She closes her eyes as he leads her down on her back, covering her body with his. He whispers softly in her ear, and she cries when he tells her he loves her more than anyone else in the world. His love and his hands distract her as he pulls the clothes from their bodies, naked and ragged with need as if they'd been created right then and there from the dust in the room.
--
She's straddling him, and he's deep inside her as they begin to recover. She traces a hard fingernail over his perfectly sculpted chest. "Can I... hurt you?" She asks him so shyly and demurely, as if it's a terrible secret. Adam grins at her.
"There's a pocket knife in the drawer of the nightstand," he says without taking away his eyes from hers. She's both nervous and excited. She's never asked anyone this before. She's never done this to someone who is willing.
"Are you sure?"
"I don't care, love. I'll heal as always. If it makes you happy..." Suddenly, she shifts over him and opens the drawer. She comes back with the knife ready as she stares at the flesh under his pecs. Before she can bring the knife down, he stops her hand for a second, and instantly she looks embarrassed.
"Before you do this, there's something I need you to help me with tomorrow. I can't do it alone."
Claire cocks her head to him, and then, she nods slowly in agreement. "Alright."
"You don't want to hear what I need you for?" He seems amused by her willingness to go along with him without information. She's well aware of his past, and until now, she's always been suspicious.
He winces when he feels the blade pierce a few layers of skin, and then his new wound shudders with a dull chill. Claire watches as the wound heals and closes up on his chest, perfect and untainted as it was only seconds before. She smiles and sighs with elation. She bounces happily in his lap, drawing him inside her again. He groans, and he watches her with revived excitement.
"Continue, love," he says. She gives him another slash on his shoulder, on his forearm, on his stomach; and every time he heals. She holds up the knife, and he bucks against her, wanting more pleasure than pain.
"What are you planning on doing tomorrow?" she asks. Her eyes and her heat wrap around him and hold him hostage. He sits up and slides his arms around her as the cool blade rests against his neck.
"We're going to Odessa, and we're going to look for a formula," he answers in between kisses.
Claire's expression is placid, and Adam is sure she would show more concern. He kisses her again, and she doesn't let him go. Together their tongues deepen, and Adam moans pushing inside her and bucking his hips.
"Claire..." His voice sounds like silk wrapping around her ears - just as always.
She pulls back and stares at him. The grip on the knife changes in her hands, and Adam watches her with anticipation. Claire sees a quick flash of fear. He closes his eyes, and she brings the knife down. He jumps against her touch as she stabs the wood on the nightstand. He pulls her closer, sighing into a long burgeoning kiss.
Adam takes her, and she submits to his touch. He sees that as her agreement to help him, to go along with his plans and be ignorant to his worldly intent. He fills her and she cries with sedation, not protest. Claire is already too far into this, and she can't turn back. What she knows and feels of Adam, she doesn't want to leave, and she knows he's right. He's spent so much time looking for her, and she's been waiting for him all this time. The hollow ache inside her all these years isn't for pain - it's for him.
She can't pull away now. Not anymore.
--
He keeps her hand in his as they walk together inside the old abandoned Company building. Only a skeleton crew of guards remains, and Adam takes care of them along side Claire's willing help. Down inside the lower levels of the Company basement, Adam fishes through folders and boxes, and Claire follows his example.
Without thinking, she asks him, "What are you looking for?" She wants to help, but deep inside she doesn't want to know too much. She knows Adam wouldn't indulge anyway.
"Chemistry formulas, maybe a serum for a cure," he says without drawing his attention away from the boxes.
Claire freezes, and her fingers stop leafing through papers. Her body tenses, and she feels something ominous in the weight of Adam's words. His shuffling drowns away in the background, and she notices a sharp pain in her chest.
Pain? she thinks. It takes her only a second to realize she's just felt pain - after all these years, and though it's not physical, it still hurts. Claire wonders why she hasn't felt it before; she's certainly lived long enough, but why is it so different with Adam?
She turns and watches him, and he doesn't seem to notice her stare. He's lying to her and fooling her, and he does it so well that it's natural for him. She's seen him do it before, and sometimes he's even attempted to get away with it. But this time is different. He lies to her and she feels the pain - the pain of being lied to by a loved one and knowing that such a lie could change everything.
Such a lie could cause detrimental loss.
Claire bites back tears and returns to the files. She keeps digging, and Adam ignores her in silence. The pain is still sharp in her heart, and she can't help but trace her hand over it, delighting in the bitter and agonizing sting. Finally, she thinks, knowing this is just what she's wanted to feel all along. She smiles to herself, and Adam draws her out of her reverie. She follows him dutifully out of the compound, and shares in his excitement in finding whatever it is he came for. He kisses her in victory, and she sighs as his gaze still makes her body melt, while her new pain comfortably remains.
Claire knows, that no matter what Adam is planning to do, she can't leave him now. With him, she's right where she's supposed to be.
END