Bricks in the Wall, Chapter 59: Faulty Charge
Title: Faulty Charge
Characters: Peter, Sylar
Rating: PG
Warnings: Mild discussion of possible date rape
Words: 1200
Setting: The Wall
Summary: Peter gives Sylar some coaching on how to initiate a relationship.
Notes: There's a lot of words in here referencing electricity. Just because.
Peter shoved Sylar away, forcefully. It wasn't hard - Sylar was right in his face (again), hulking over him and evidently thinking Peter would find this behavior so alluring that he'd surrender to Sylar's charms with a buckling of his knees and unbuckling of Sylar's pants. No way.
Sylar, for his part, looked frustrated and put-upon at the continuing resistance. He'd gotten over being hurt at the rejections, or at least he'd stopped showing it. Since the rejection was just that - rejection - and not followed by prolonged isolation or anything Sylar might find truly negative (although it was occasionally followed by a fist-fight), Sylar had not stopped trying.
Sylar wasn't the only one frustrated, but in Peter's case it wasn't due to the desires of another being at odds with his own. He'd slowly, over the months and maybe years, come around to the idea that yeah, there could be something between them. And perhaps Sylar's approaches were due to an equal sensing of that possibility. Yet Sylar's actions shut the door to that electrifying potential every single time.
"Would you stop charging up on me?" Peter exclaimed as Sylar stumbled back. Peter's right fist was balled as it often was, just in case Sylar didn't take the hint of being shoved away and tried to invade Peter's space a second time, this time with husky murmurs about his willingness to play rough. Peter glared at him. What he was doing wasn't doing any good. He needed to short-circuit the process somehow. He huffed. What would do some good?
"When you charge up on me like that," Peter explained heatedly, "it doesn't do you any good. It makes me associate 'Sylar close to me' with 'Sylar threatening me' or 'Sylar ignoring what I want', neither of which are positive things. They're both huge turn-offs, so I respond by trying to fight you. I don't want to play rough. I don't want to play at all. I get afraid, so I try to fight you off." Peter stopped to take a few deep breaths. Sylar had become static, his expression serious. He was silently and attentively listening. "Do you get it?" Peter finally asked, unsettled by the shift in demeanor. He wasn't saying anything that wasn't patently obvious, after all.
"Yes," Sylar said simply. "What would do some good?"
Peter snorted and walked away, raking at his hair. Funny - it was the same question Peter had asked himself, only moments before.
"Hypothetically?" Sylar added to his retreating back, a pleading, hopeful note entering his voice.
Peter turned back. He'd seen lots of guys who were complete and utter idiots in dealing with the people they were attracted to. Not that he exempted himself from that category, but he had noticed a few patterns and it would probably make things nicer between them if he could convince Sylar to abandon the over-the-top power-play. "Dial it back a few notches. Don't charge up on me, stand over me, and go all bedroom-voice on me. You're coming on way too strong before you even know if I'm in the mood. And I'm not so stupid that I don't know that - that you've gone zero to sixty without paying any attention to where I'm at. So, like ..." Peter stepped closer, his face softening as he sidled up to Sylar at an angle, most of an arm's reach away. He reached out and touched Sylar's forearm, just a brush back and forth before pulling away. Sylar, like any human being with reasonably normal emotional reactions, had raised his forearm in response to the gentle, non-threatening touch, looking at Peter with interest and curiosity flavoring his otherwise intent attention.
Peter took a step back. "Something like that, and back off." He waited a beat to illustrate his point. "Then let me react," he said with emphasis. "I'll probably look at you like you're crazy and I'm not interested, but my point is that I won't be shoving you or hitting you or wanting to run off in the other direction. You'd be giving me a choice. The way you're doing it with the getting-in-my-face thing, it's all fight-or-flight. Even if I'm interested, there's nothing for me to do except surrender because you've taken all the moves. Leave me some moves. You back off and maybe if I'm interested I'll reach back. Or do something else." He smirked and took a step nearer, reaching out to playfully nudge Sylar's shoulder. He tilted his head, smiling at Sylar's uncertain look. "Most likely I won't be into it at all, but getting a weird look is better than getting a fist, right?"
Sylar lifted both brows and shrugged slightly, unconvincingly trying to pretend he didn't care which he got. "I don't mind."
"I do." Peter sighed with exasperation. "Most people do. Listen, I've seen guys pull that stunt on girls half their size, making her think she might be in a lot of danger to turn him down, and sometimes that works for the guy. He takes what he wants because he can and maybe she'll go along with it, but it never works out in the end." Peter paused, because Sylar had abruptly blanched and moved a step away from him, regarding him with a mix of suspicion and disgust. "What?" Peter asked.
"I never told you about that," Sylar said, almost a question. His shock made it clear Peter had described something that applied very directly to Sylar's personal past.
Peter blinked. "No … you didn't." He drew in a slow, deep breath, realizing the rapey vibes he occasionally got off Sylar were dead-on.
"I thought … I didn't ..." Sylar's voice faltered. He shook his head. "She never … I tried to save her life."
"By fucking her?" Peter cocked his head judgmentally.
"No!" Sylar snapped. "I-" He stood there uncertainly for a while, then shook his head, semi-decisively. "She seemed into it."
Peter crossed his arms, not buying it, even if what Sylar was sharing of the incident was awfully sparse. "Let's imagine she wouldn't lose anything by turning you down. Let's imagine you hadn't even made a move. Do you think she would have made one herself? Did she seem into it before you made it clear what was going to happen regardless of what she wanted?"
Sylar squirmed. "She was talking about how bad things were … I was showing her how it didn't have to be like that ..."
"So you're telling yourself that you had sex with her to get her mind off of everything, right?" Peter still wasn't impressed. Sylar made a helpless shrug, so Peter went on, "Here's another way of looking at it, Sylar - you completely disregarded what she was concerned about, made it clear what you wanted just like you've been doing with me, and left her with the choice of 'seeming to be into it' and staying on your good side, or fighting and maybe having it happen anyway, and probably having you against her after that." Sylar looked crushed. Peter exhaled heavily and forcefully. "That's why I keep turning you down - you're ignoring what I want. I thank God we're about the same size and you don't have all your powers, Sylar."