Fix Me: Chapter Four (Claire/Elle)
Title: Fix Me
Fandom: Heroes
Pairing: Claire/Elle
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I own nothing!
Summary: AU: Silly boys, and broken hearts.
4.
Elle stared uncertainly at the plate sitting in front of her, crinkling her nose up and the food that sat neatly in its centre. The blonde haired boy had insisted in ordering for the both of them and Elle had somehow ended up with this smelly pile of goo. Boys are silly, she could have told him she didn’t want this if he had let her. ‘Claire would have known what to order me’, she thought absentmindedly as she stabbed something brown with her fork.
Looking up she saw Todd’s lips moving rapidly as he droned on about some game she knew nothing about, but he didn’t seem to mind that she wasn’t joining in. He seemed content for her to nod sporadically and mirror his smile at appropriate intervals. She took this time to stare at him, without fear of breaking a social taboo; it was polite to look when people were talking to you.
He had a very square face and square shoulders that gave him a harsh look, and she wondered if he could still breathe normally without any neck to speak of, but considering he wouldn’t let her get a word in even if she had wanted to, she thought that he should be fine. Unfortunately this boy did not make her stomach go gooey nor her heart thump, and although she didn’t know much, she did know what both of those felt like.
Sighing, Elle stabbed something else on her plate and mashed it around trying to make it look as though she had eaten it and considered zapping it to make some of it in to dust particles, but figured she should wait until he took a bath room break before she did. Although maybe that would make him stop talking about silly sports.
This wasn’t what her first date was supposed to be like. It was supposed to be magical, with laughter, stolen glances and lingering looks….and a silly little violin quartet…..they always have those in the movies and she wanted one dammit!
Maybe that’s what this date needed to improve. She looked around hopefully but there wasn’t one here, ‘Figures’, she thought. He seemed to have chosen the dullest restaurant in town.
When the waitress came to get the food, Elle could have sworn she threw her a pitying look, and was hopeful that maybe this wasn’t how it was supposed to be on a date after all….hopefully it was just him…..or maybe it was her.
More likely her really, she has probably made it very hard on him. She fought down a sudden wave of guilt as she realised that it was because she couldn’t do this properly that he wouldn’t let her talk. He was trying to help her.
She sat up in her seat and rededicated herself to the date. She would make herself enjoy this, no matter how difficult that might be, and no matter how much her gut was telling her that this wasn’t who she was supposed to be on her first date with.
# # #
Claire re-read the same paragraph for the fourth time and sighed as she slammed the book shut, this wasn’t working. Flopping back on the bed she glanced at the clock which read 11:15, and flung her arm over her eyes dramatically. What could those two possibly have been doing for three hours, a groan escaped her lips as her dinner threatened to make its way back up her throat but she swallowed it down and sat up.
Walking over to the window, she pushed the curtain back, hoping to see Todd’s oversized car turn down her street, but luck wasn’t on her side tonight. A knock at the door made her jump and step away from her vigil by the open window.
Sandra walked over and kissed her on the forehead, “Just wanted to say good night honey”, Claire nodded and looked away, “Yeah, good night mom”. Sandra looked at her for a moment and sat down on the bed, “You’re unhappy about Elle and Todd going out tonight aren’t you?”.
Claire shook her head in denial lamely, but Sandra continued, “I think I know what this is about honey, and it’s just going to make things complicated for everyone so maybe you should just let it go”.
Claire’s heart beat like a jackhammer in her chest as she tried desperately to think of what she could say to her mother, but Sandra continued, “I mean Todd is a handsome boy but now that he has been out with Elle it might make things awkward…”. Claire let out a low laugh unintentionally and cut her mother off before she could continue, “No mom, defiantly not interested in Todd, you have nothing to worry about”.
Sandra furrowed her brow and Claire continued quickly before her mother asked any more questions, “You know it’s just that I care about Elle, and I don’t want to see her get hurt”. Sandra smiled softly, “Yes, I have seen you two getting along lately, I’m really happy about it too. Elle’s a nice girl, just a little misguided”. Claire smiled and lifted her eyebrow, “A little?”. Sandra shrugged and rose to her feet before planting a kiss on her daughters head.
“She is a big girl, I’m sure she isn’t doing anything she doesn’t want to”, and as Sandra walked out the door Claire’s heart seized once more as she realised that she was right. If Elle wanted to kiss Todd and touch him, then there was nothing she could do to help her because she didn’t need helping. She did not need Claire to save her.
Claire decided that she wasn’t going to be able to sleep any time soon and she did not really want it to be painfully, embarrassingly obvious that she has waited up for Elle, so she made her way downstairs with blankets and a pillow, grabbed some comfort food and turned on the television. She did not have to wait long to hear an engine pull in to the drive way and cut off abruptly, and it was probably under four minutes between the engine cutting and the door clicking open but it felt like longer. It felt like so much longer.
Claire saw Elle poke her head in to the room from the corner of her eye but let her eyes leave the television screen. She did not trust her voice…..or her emotions not to get the best of her. Elle didn’t seem to mind; she just shrugged off her jacket and threw it and her bag on to the chair before settling in next to Claire on the couch. She stayed silent, and Claire had never been more grateful that Elle didn’t feel the need to fill in elongated silences when they were together.
After the fifth infomercial had finished Claire finally decided she would be an adult about this, and spoke up quietly, “How was your date?” she said, her voice coming out rougher then usual.
###
Elle had no idea how to answer Claire, but she didn’t seem terribly interested in what she had to say anyway so Elle thought she might be able to get away with lying so that Clare would not think that she was weird….well weirder than she already though her to be.
The thought of Clare thinking less of her made her insides funny so she lied. People had told her little white lies were ok if they were to hurt someone’s feelings. And Elle was someone.
“It was good”, Elle said softly, careful not to exaggerate too much because she knew Clare would see right through her. She saw that Clare wasn’t going to reply so she decided to go to bed, the way Clare was ignoring her was making her feel distressed and she was hoping if she went to bed and woke up then it would all be back to usual, that’s how she had been told to deal with nightmares. She figured this was more or less the same thing.
Carefully lifting her body weight so as to not disturb her best friend Elle began to reach towards her things to make her get away but Clare grabbed her arm, “Sorry, I’m just really tired tonight. Tell me about your date”. Elle raised her eyebrow and cocked her head to the side quizzically, “You want to hear about it?”, and Clare nodded unenthusiastically, “Yeah of course”.
Elle sucked in a breath and was trying to decide on what to tell Clare. Apparently there was a fine line between what people said they wanted to hear and what they actually did. When people asked questions like ‘How was your date’ or ‘How was your day?’, they only really wanted to know about certain parts….she had learnt that the embarrassing way, after telling one of Lyles friends how her day was right down to how her cereal had tasted. He looked at her funny now.
She finally let it all out in a breathe, sounding more like one extra long word then a sentence, “He took me to dinner, he ordered for me, he talked and he opened my door, he kissed me”.
‘Wow’ , Elle thought, she hadn’t meant to say that last part. Darn Claire and her magical best friend skills, she didn’t want her to not know anything, she wanted to share everything with her.
Claire turned and faced Elle rather slowly, kind of like a robot, it made Elle feel uneasy. “He kissed you?”, Elle nodded, “He also ordered me dinner and opened my door”. Claire nodded and smiled a tight smile, “And you had fun?” Elle nodded back meekly and Claire stopped looking her in the eye.
She reached over and squeezed Elle’s hand, before standing up abruptly, “I’m really not feeling great…I’m really tired, good night Elle”. Elle waved and smiled softly.
She didn’t know what she had said wrong. He had ordered her a dinner she didn’t want, he had talked without letting her get a word in and then he had kissed her without asking her if he could”, she didn’t enjoy any of it and she is not sure he enjoyed the last one as she got a little zap in to get him away from her.
She defiantly wasn’t going to tell her that …. Maybe she wasn’t great at choosing which pieces of the story to tell. Perhaps she should have told Claire her favourite part of the night was coming home to see her.
She would have to work on that, she mused as she stared at the screen and settled back on to Claire’s pillow, liking the way it smelled of her.
Authors note: Reviews are awesome and this story is open to suggestions .
Fandom: Heroes
Pairing: Claire/Elle
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I own nothing!
Summary: AU: Silly boys, and broken hearts.
4.
Elle stared uncertainly at the plate sitting in front of her, crinkling her nose up and the food that sat neatly in its centre. The blonde haired boy had insisted in ordering for the both of them and Elle had somehow ended up with this smelly pile of goo. Boys are silly, she could have told him she didn’t want this if he had let her. ‘Claire would have known what to order me’, she thought absentmindedly as she stabbed something brown with her fork.
Looking up she saw Todd’s lips moving rapidly as he droned on about some game she knew nothing about, but he didn’t seem to mind that she wasn’t joining in. He seemed content for her to nod sporadically and mirror his smile at appropriate intervals. She took this time to stare at him, without fear of breaking a social taboo; it was polite to look when people were talking to you.
He had a very square face and square shoulders that gave him a harsh look, and she wondered if he could still breathe normally without any neck to speak of, but considering he wouldn’t let her get a word in even if she had wanted to, she thought that he should be fine. Unfortunately this boy did not make her stomach go gooey nor her heart thump, and although she didn’t know much, she did know what both of those felt like.
Sighing, Elle stabbed something else on her plate and mashed it around trying to make it look as though she had eaten it and considered zapping it to make some of it in to dust particles, but figured she should wait until he took a bath room break before she did. Although maybe that would make him stop talking about silly sports.
This wasn’t what her first date was supposed to be like. It was supposed to be magical, with laughter, stolen glances and lingering looks….and a silly little violin quartet…..they always have those in the movies and she wanted one dammit!
Maybe that’s what this date needed to improve. She looked around hopefully but there wasn’t one here, ‘Figures’, she thought. He seemed to have chosen the dullest restaurant in town.
When the waitress came to get the food, Elle could have sworn she threw her a pitying look, and was hopeful that maybe this wasn’t how it was supposed to be on a date after all….hopefully it was just him…..or maybe it was her.
More likely her really, she has probably made it very hard on him. She fought down a sudden wave of guilt as she realised that it was because she couldn’t do this properly that he wouldn’t let her talk. He was trying to help her.
She sat up in her seat and rededicated herself to the date. She would make herself enjoy this, no matter how difficult that might be, and no matter how much her gut was telling her that this wasn’t who she was supposed to be on her first date with.
# # #
Claire re-read the same paragraph for the fourth time and sighed as she slammed the book shut, this wasn’t working. Flopping back on the bed she glanced at the clock which read 11:15, and flung her arm over her eyes dramatically. What could those two possibly have been doing for three hours, a groan escaped her lips as her dinner threatened to make its way back up her throat but she swallowed it down and sat up.
Walking over to the window, she pushed the curtain back, hoping to see Todd’s oversized car turn down her street, but luck wasn’t on her side tonight. A knock at the door made her jump and step away from her vigil by the open window.
Sandra walked over and kissed her on the forehead, “Just wanted to say good night honey”, Claire nodded and looked away, “Yeah, good night mom”. Sandra looked at her for a moment and sat down on the bed, “You’re unhappy about Elle and Todd going out tonight aren’t you?”.
Claire shook her head in denial lamely, but Sandra continued, “I think I know what this is about honey, and it’s just going to make things complicated for everyone so maybe you should just let it go”.
Claire’s heart beat like a jackhammer in her chest as she tried desperately to think of what she could say to her mother, but Sandra continued, “I mean Todd is a handsome boy but now that he has been out with Elle it might make things awkward…”. Claire let out a low laugh unintentionally and cut her mother off before she could continue, “No mom, defiantly not interested in Todd, you have nothing to worry about”.
Sandra furrowed her brow and Claire continued quickly before her mother asked any more questions, “You know it’s just that I care about Elle, and I don’t want to see her get hurt”. Sandra smiled softly, “Yes, I have seen you two getting along lately, I’m really happy about it too. Elle’s a nice girl, just a little misguided”. Claire smiled and lifted her eyebrow, “A little?”. Sandra shrugged and rose to her feet before planting a kiss on her daughters head.
“She is a big girl, I’m sure she isn’t doing anything she doesn’t want to”, and as Sandra walked out the door Claire’s heart seized once more as she realised that she was right. If Elle wanted to kiss Todd and touch him, then there was nothing she could do to help her because she didn’t need helping. She did not need Claire to save her.
Claire decided that she wasn’t going to be able to sleep any time soon and she did not really want it to be painfully, embarrassingly obvious that she has waited up for Elle, so she made her way downstairs with blankets and a pillow, grabbed some comfort food and turned on the television. She did not have to wait long to hear an engine pull in to the drive way and cut off abruptly, and it was probably under four minutes between the engine cutting and the door clicking open but it felt like longer. It felt like so much longer.
Claire saw Elle poke her head in to the room from the corner of her eye but let her eyes leave the television screen. She did not trust her voice…..or her emotions not to get the best of her. Elle didn’t seem to mind; she just shrugged off her jacket and threw it and her bag on to the chair before settling in next to Claire on the couch. She stayed silent, and Claire had never been more grateful that Elle didn’t feel the need to fill in elongated silences when they were together.
After the fifth infomercial had finished Claire finally decided she would be an adult about this, and spoke up quietly, “How was your date?” she said, her voice coming out rougher then usual.
###
Elle had no idea how to answer Claire, but she didn’t seem terribly interested in what she had to say anyway so Elle thought she might be able to get away with lying so that Clare would not think that she was weird….well weirder than she already though her to be.
The thought of Clare thinking less of her made her insides funny so she lied. People had told her little white lies were ok if they were to hurt someone’s feelings. And Elle was someone.
“It was good”, Elle said softly, careful not to exaggerate too much because she knew Clare would see right through her. She saw that Clare wasn’t going to reply so she decided to go to bed, the way Clare was ignoring her was making her feel distressed and she was hoping if she went to bed and woke up then it would all be back to usual, that’s how she had been told to deal with nightmares. She figured this was more or less the same thing.
Carefully lifting her body weight so as to not disturb her best friend Elle began to reach towards her things to make her get away but Clare grabbed her arm, “Sorry, I’m just really tired tonight. Tell me about your date”. Elle raised her eyebrow and cocked her head to the side quizzically, “You want to hear about it?”, and Clare nodded unenthusiastically, “Yeah of course”.
Elle sucked in a breath and was trying to decide on what to tell Clare. Apparently there was a fine line between what people said they wanted to hear and what they actually did. When people asked questions like ‘How was your date’ or ‘How was your day?’, they only really wanted to know about certain parts….she had learnt that the embarrassing way, after telling one of Lyles friends how her day was right down to how her cereal had tasted. He looked at her funny now.
She finally let it all out in a breathe, sounding more like one extra long word then a sentence, “He took me to dinner, he ordered for me, he talked and he opened my door, he kissed me”.
‘Wow’ , Elle thought, she hadn’t meant to say that last part. Darn Claire and her magical best friend skills, she didn’t want her to not know anything, she wanted to share everything with her.
Claire turned and faced Elle rather slowly, kind of like a robot, it made Elle feel uneasy. “He kissed you?”, Elle nodded, “He also ordered me dinner and opened my door”. Claire nodded and smiled a tight smile, “And you had fun?” Elle nodded back meekly and Claire stopped looking her in the eye.
She reached over and squeezed Elle’s hand, before standing up abruptly, “I’m really not feeling great…I’m really tired, good night Elle”. Elle waved and smiled softly.
She didn’t know what she had said wrong. He had ordered her a dinner she didn’t want, he had talked without letting her get a word in and then he had kissed her without asking her if he could”, she didn’t enjoy any of it and she is not sure he enjoyed the last one as she got a little zap in to get him away from her.
She defiantly wasn’t going to tell her that …. Maybe she wasn’t great at choosing which pieces of the story to tell. Perhaps she should have told Claire her favourite part of the night was coming home to see her.
She would have to work on that, she mused as she stared at the screen and settled back on to Claire’s pillow, liking the way it smelled of her.
Authors note: Reviews are awesome and this story is open to suggestions .