My Sort-of Weekly, Sort-of Episode Tag

Feb 24, 2009 21:47

Sort of.

*cough*

Although really, it's none of those things. It's a Claude ramble. Oh well.

Title: Of Opportunity
Characters: Claude, Bennet, OMC
Pairings: Claude/OMC and maybe a little Claude/Bennet-y. Maybe. I'm odd.
Rating: PG13 for implications
Warnings: Rambly. Slashy. Those sorts of things.
Spoilers: Up through "Cold Wars", sorta. Well...inspired by "Cold Wars".
Disclaimer: Not associated with Heroes, etc.
Word Count: 500! On the nose!
Summary: Claude isn't too thrilled with his new partner. Shocking, I know.
A/N: Okay, so originally this was meant to be a take-off from the Bennet/Danko (not like that! Although, you know, maybe) interactions in "Cold Wars". And then it was supposed to fulfill the heroes_contest challenge of "Freedom". And then it was The Differences Between American Football and Rugby League Football as They Apply to Our Daring Protagonists. And in the end it was none of those things, I think. Oh well. At least I got something done. And it only has marginal mentions of economics and/or torts! Woo-hoo!

Of all the things he’s sure he’ll come to hate about his new partner, the misguided attempts at camaraderie have just jumped to the top of the list.

It’s the reason he’s stuck here, to begin with.

Nursing a beer, attempting to listen to the steadily more enthusiastic ramblings of the low-level bureaucrat beside him, something vague and theoretical and dependent on all other things being equal.

As if they ever are.

As if devout followers of company lines who can return to loving wives in average homes and those who haven’t gotten around to so much as hanging a painting in the flats they’d been renting for a year are, as his new friend would insist on calling it, on “a level playing field”.

Especially since they’re not even playing the same game, as far as he’s concerned.

That’s where Bennet’s off to, at the moment. Back in his room, playing his game, calling his wife. His very precise strategies and end zones backing up his belief that he’s on the whole basically decent, basically human, since his partner won’t.

Not because he doesn’t believe him to be, really, he hasn’t formed much of an opinion either way, but he’ll be damned if he’s going to participate in some warped bonding exercise just to make Bennet a little more comfortable.

And maybe he’s regretting it a little, his success in scaring the rookie away with a total unwillingness to engage, because it’s left him to the always exhausting game of take what you can get and run away as fast as you can with it.

Which brings him to…Henry.

Who is himself more than basically decent, especially for a low-level bureaucrat, and not nearly as dull as he’d appear from a cursory investigation.

Most people aren’t, in the end. He may have no illusions about the average quality of humanity, but he’d never go so far as to call it boring.

Wouldn’t admit to a fascination with it, of course, but seeing it full-blown and wide-eyed in a man like Henry, with his rather limited knowledge as to the true extent of human capabilities, he can’t help smile a bit.

Charmed reaction to the earnestness, but not entirely appropriate, given that the topic of conversation seems to have been the basic organization of Kuwait’s economy.

“Am I boring you?” playing at coolness, maybe even vaguely accusatory, but the undercurrent of self-consciousness isn’t difficult to pick up.

“Nah, ‘s not that, mate, I’m just…” he shrugs, and looks away.

“Just…what?”

He glances back, and the other man seems genuinely interested if not exactly concerned.

“Tired,” he says, precisely. Honestly, making sure to keep his eyes from narrowing, because every interaction isn’t a challenge or a test. Doesn’t have to be, at least.

But there’s a flicker. An irrepressible blush, a breathless chuckle, and he knows that while he may be going back to an empty hotel room tonight, he won’t be going alone.

For now, that’ll have to be enough.

*

episode tag!, fic:heroes

Previous post Next post
Up