Bricks in the Wall, Chapter 14: Defending His Memory
Title: Defending His Memory
Characters: Peter, Sylar
Rating: PG
Warnings: None
Words: 420
Setting: Any of my various Wall settings, or post BNW
Summary: Peter tries to explain to Sylar the connection between grief and love.
Notes: Heroes_contest "Defended" entry. Inspired by WWW dot Slate dot com/blogs/quora/2012/03/23/when_should_someone_be_finished_grieving_.html . Beta by the wonderful means2bhuman.
"We're made to love each other. That's what we're here for, to meet other people, learn about them, learn to love them. That's what heaven's about - we just exist in love. God's love, I suppose, but loving people, loving each other is our first experience of that. It's biological. We're sexual organisms. It's natural. All of that, 'love one another; be fruitful and multiply'? Yeah, I believe that. We're wired to make love to each other. That's how we come into being. It's what we should do with our lives."
"I'm never going to have your children, Peter," Sylar said blandly.
Peter reached out for him, caressed Sylar's forearms and leaned in to kiss him gently, first on the mouth, then his stubble-strewn cheek, then nipping along his jaw towards his chin. Sylar shut his eyes in bliss and made a contented sigh. Peter smiled at him and pulled back. "You like that, right?"
"No, Peter, I only melt inside like that over things I detest."
Peter grinned and gave him a quick smooch before settling back down. "I know I might never have kids. Lots of people don't. That's not a big deal. But just because someone is blind doesn't mean people aren't meant to see."
"You think being gay is a disability?"
"No, it's not," Peter said with a somewhat exasperated sigh. "Okay, maybe that was a bad example. Let's say that just because a woman chooses not to have children doesn't mean her body isn't made to do it."
"So now being gay is a choice?"
"Not having sex with women is a choice. Not wanting to isn't a choice."
"That's kind of convoluted."
"Yeah, well, I'm not a genius like you. But back to my point, we're meant to love each other. Grief is a way of honoring that love, for those you can't be with."
Sylar shifted uncomfortably, but said nothing.
"I'm never going to stop loving the people I've lost. I don't think you're going to either - not if you loved them to start with. There's no reason why that emotion would end. You still love them, and so you still miss them-"
"Talk about yourself, Peter," Sylar said curtly. "Not me."
Peter reached out and took Sylar's hand, which was reluctantly allowed. "I'm going to miss Nathan for the rest of my life. I'm not going to get over it. I'm not going to forget it. I'm not going to pretend it doesn't matter. The same goes for everyone I love, especially you."