[Fic] Heroes - Candy Cane
Title: Candy Cane
Author: themaskedmckay
Rating: Gen
Fandom: Heroes
Pairing: Sylar x Mohinder
Characters: Lyle Bennet, Claude Rains, Sylar, Mohinder Suresh
Words: 1,981
Disclaimer: Characters do not belong to me.
Summary: Lyle and Claude have a holiday assignment.
Author's Notes: Written for mylar_fic holiday prompt table for the prompt 'candy cane'. In case it isn't obvious, this story is set a few years in the future. My personal canon is Lyle and Claude work for the New Company as a team. You'll find them popping up more and more in my fics.
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"Are you sure he's here?" Lyle asked with a whisper. His voice was steadier than his hands, which shook slightly around the handle of his taser gun.
Claude stepped on a miniature candy cane and the crackling plastic gave away his position. "Shit," he said in reply as he turned invisible and slipped behind Lyle to another point in the room. "Yes, he's got a sweet tooth."
Lyle looked like he might cry but he struggled and fought back the urge; his features hardening into a determined stare that was remarkably like his father's. "Let's hope he didn't eat Dr. Suresh." He muttered quietly.
As he inched his way across the old floorboards, trying simultaneously not to make them squeak and toeing discarded candy and wrappers aside, he kept his gun up and pointed down the hall way.
The house was an old Craftsman style bungalow fallen into disrepair. It was on the edge of a small town in Northern California and had been abandoned since the housing market collapsed back in 2009. It wasn’t exactly a haunted house but it was still quite creepy in its derelict state.
He snapped his aim to the left when he heard a sound in the kitchen. He stared open-mouthed at Sylar standing in a pair of festive boxer shorts with a glass of milk and a plate of cookies in his hands. The boxer shorts had snowmen on them.
“Cookies?” Sylar offered with a raised eyebrow. When Lyle didn’t move, didn’t pull the trigger, Sylar shrugged and set the plate on the counter so he could pick up a cookie and take a bite. They were shortbread cookies; the kind with a dollop of jelly on top. “I’m taking a break from candy canes,” Sylar explained. ”I must have eaten four dozen of those things already.”
Lyle tried to recover his composure. “W-where is Doctor Suresh?”
“Sleeping.” Sylar tilted his head and studied Lyle while he chewed. He swallowed and asked, “Don’t I know you?”
“We’ve never been formally introduced,” Lyle growled. Tried to growl. Squeaked, really.
“Kyle, right? Kyle Bennet?”
“Lyle, actually, but I’m, impressed. Most people don’t remember me.”
Sylar shrugged and swivelled his hips so he could lean against the counter and drink his milk. He chugged it back until the glass was empty. When he put the glass down he had a milk moustache and was making no move to wipe it away.
Lyle pointed at his own upper lip, “You, uh...”
Surprised, Sylar wiped his mouth with a hand then licked it clean.
Lyle shifted his stance but didn’t drop his aim. His arms were starting to tremble from the effort it took to keep his gun trained on Sylar. “I’m here for Doctor Suresh. You can’t keep him here.”
“Where’s your partner, Lyle?”
“I work alone.”
“Pfft, no you don’t.” Sylar rolled his eyes and picked up the plate of cookies. “One, you’re Bennet’s kid and there is no way he’d let you out into the field on your own when you’re this green. Two, the rule is ‘One of us, one of them’, right?”
Lyle kept his expression steady.
“But which ‘them’ would Bennet trust with his only son? Hmmmm...” He let his hand drift over the plate of cookies he was holding then suddenly splayed his fingers and the small cookies went flying across the kitchen, hall, and into the living room beyond. A swirly shortbread cookie bounced off of nothing a couple feet away.
Lyle fired his taser at Sylar followed immediately by an invisible Claude doing the same. Sylar stopped the shots mid-air. Nobody moved.
“Ooh, awkward.” He said with feigned sympathy. “And is that the extent of your offensive capabilities?”
His head suddenly jerked to the side as Claude decked him. He doubled over as the still invisible man kicked him in a not very sporting place. “Get Suresh! Back room!” Claude yelled at Lyle.
Lyle ran to the back of the house, hoping Claude had meant Suresh was in the master bedroom because the other two bedrooms would be on the other side of the kitchen and he really didn’t want to go back that way. He heard the sound of china breaking and a horrific screech like something heavy, like a major appliance, was being dragged across the tile floor.
The master bedroom had a soft light coming from it. He burst through the half-opened door then stopped dead in his tracks. A slow flush climbed up his neck and stained his cheeks red with embarrassment. Doctor Suresh was naked but for a strategically wrapped ‘package’ and bound with Christmas lights, garlands, and ribbon to a large bed. The soft light came from the blinking Christmas lights.
Doctor Suresh’s brown eyes looked black in the low light and they glittered with anger. He certainly wasn’t sleeping.
Lyle stood in the doorway, unable to process what he was seeing, until a loud crash jolted him back to his senses. He scrambled onto the bed and yanked the gag out of Doctor Suresh’s mouth.
“Unplug the lights,” Suresh commanded. “I don’t need you electrocuting me or yourself.”
Lyle yanked the extension cord out of the wall then produced a pocket knife and started slashing at the Christmas ornaments binding him. With the lights off it was too dark to do the job quickly.
The smell of smoke wafted into the bedroom and he could hear Sylar roaring something about roasting Claude-nuts over an open fire.
Desperate now, Lyle hauled Doctor Suresh to his feet and flipped him over his shoulder.
“What are you doing?” Mohinder asked; shocked at the position he found himself in. “Untie me!”
“No time!” Lyle gasped. He lurched out of the bedroom and made a beeline for the back door.
An explosion sent them sprawling face-first in the backyard snow. Lyle shook his head and tried to focus on Doctor Suresh. He was yelling something at Lyle but the explosion had deafened him enough he couldn’t make it out.
Lyle was alarmed to see the clever ‘packaging’ was coming undone and the wrapping paper was starting to slip. Doctor Suresh’s modesty was nearly compromised. He pulled the smaller man to his feet and flipped him over his shoulder again, ignoring how he struggled and wiggled, and continued his interrupted flight into the woods where they’d hidden their vehicle earlier.
When he saw their SUV, carefully concealed under military-issue winter camouflage netting, he sobbed with relief. He scraped the netting back and tossed Doctor Suresh into the back seat, closing the door behind him.
He tried not to notice all the scrapes and scratches on the doctor’s body he probably acquired when Lyle was pushing them through the bare trees. As long as the doctor was recovered a bit of collateral damage didn’t matter.
He struggled to remove the rest of the netting so he could get access to the driver’s door.
As he started up the vehicle the passenger door opened and Claude, visible and bloodied, slammed into his seat. “Drive!” he yelled.
Lyle floored it and ignored the screeching of branches against the body and windows of the SUV as he cut across country for the nearest road.
Nobody spoke for nearly twenty minutes as Lyle sped down the secondary highway. When he turned onto the Interstate the tension seemed to snap and they all started to breathe easier.
“Good job back there, kid.” Claude said wearily. “Your dad’ll be proud.”
Lyle kept his eyes on the road and didn’t answer. His knuckles were white from gripping the steering wheel so hard.
Claude glanced at the back seat then chuckled and held up a scrap of wrapping paper with a stick-on bow dangling from it. “I think you dropped this, Doctor.”
“How considerate of you to retrieve it for me,” Doctor Suresh’s voice was chilly and polite. “Perhaps you also managed to retrieve my pants?”
“Nope,” Claude said. “But I tell you what. Next motel we come across we’ll stop, finish untying you so you can clean up, and Lyle here will find you something to wear.”
“That will be fine.” Doctor Suresh settled back into his seat and stared out the window. He seemed completely unabashed at sitting, naked, in an SUV with two fully-clothed men.
“So, um, Doctor Suresh,” Lyle began with a brief, embarrassed, glance at the rear-view mirror. “Do you require medical attention?”
“Why isn’t Sylar following us?” Mohinder suddenly asked. “It’s unlike him to give up pursuit so quickly.”
“Oh,” Claude smiled. “I suppose the grenade I stuffed in big mouth helped with that.”
Silence filled the SUV. Mohinder scowled at the back of Claude’s head.
“C’mon, it isn’t like it can kill him!” Claude protested. “We’re cleared to use extreme force when it comes to Sylar.”
“It isn’t right,” Mohinder muttered.
“I agree,” Lyle said, surprising Claude. “I mean, yeah, he’s a psychopath and he’s tried to kill everyone in my family, uh, except me I guess...” Lyle’s voice trailed off when he realized what he was saying. He shook his head and rallied, “But it’s Christmas! I mean, he was eating cookies in his Frosty the Snowman boxers!”
“Where did he get those things, anyways?” Claude asked. He seemed entirely unrepentant in the face of his companion’s admonishments.
Doctor Suresh mumbled something Lyle didn’t quite catch. “I’m sorry, what was that?” Lyle asked. ”My ears are still ringing from the explosion.”
Doctor Suresh sighed heavily and looked out the window, “I gave him the boxers.”
Lyle slammed on the brakes and the SUV slid sideways down the highway until it came to a stop. “YOU WHAT?”
Doctor Suresh struggled upright and glowered at Lyle. “Some of us aren’t wearing seatbelts!”
“Why did you give Sylar a pair of boxer shorts?” Lyle demanded.
“Because,” Doctor Suresh held himself stiffly and tilted his chin in defiance, “It is Christmas and everyone, even Sylar, deserves a bit of forgiveness this time of year.”
Claude shook his head in disbelief. “You know, Bennet’s been suspicious of you two for years.”
Lyle stared in shock, his gaze swinging between Claude and Doctor Suresh.
“Well, Noah Bennet bloody well knew where I’d be and who I’d be with.” Doctor Suresh snarled, ”I wasn’t in any imminent danger.”
“Sylar’s GAY?” Lyle finally blurted out. “I can’t believe it! I mean, didn’t he try to sex up my sister?”
Suresh and Claude shared a look. “He doesn’t get out much, does he?” Suresh asked.
“Not really,” Claude affirmed. “I suppose I’ll have to teach him all about the bees and the bees; and the bees who like both bees and birds.”
“Given his history, I would have thought Noah would have had that talk with him already.” Suresh sniffed. “Regardless, this was a very rude way to tell me my vacation was over.”
“It was probably a test for Lyle, too.”
“If that’s the case, Lyle,” Mohinder flicked a bit of tinsel off his bare leg, “I would investigate what you did to annoy your father. Even at Christmas, Sylar can be very dangerous.”
Lyle’s head was spinning but he had the presence of mind to start driving again before someone T-boned the SUV. “I’m giving dad socks for Christmas.” He muttered darkly.
“I’d say you should give him coal but he probably collects it,” Claude said with a laugh.
“I never did get a candy cane,” Doctor Suresh grumbled. “The selfish pig hogged the whole box.”
Miles away Sylar pulled himself out from under a section of collapsed wall and pushed his hair out of his face. What hadn’t been destroyed in the blast was burning merry and bright. He stumbled over the rubble and fell against what remained of a bed.
Something crinkled underfoot.
He picked up a cellophane wrapped candy cane that had somehow survived the explosion and smiled. “That was a pretty decent Christmas.”
Author: themaskedmckay
Rating: Gen
Fandom: Heroes
Pairing: Sylar x Mohinder
Characters: Lyle Bennet, Claude Rains, Sylar, Mohinder Suresh
Words: 1,981
Disclaimer: Characters do not belong to me.
Summary: Lyle and Claude have a holiday assignment.
Author's Notes: Written for mylar_fic holiday prompt table for the prompt 'candy cane'. In case it isn't obvious, this story is set a few years in the future. My personal canon is Lyle and Claude work for the New Company as a team. You'll find them popping up more and more in my fics.
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"Are you sure he's here?" Lyle asked with a whisper. His voice was steadier than his hands, which shook slightly around the handle of his taser gun.
Claude stepped on a miniature candy cane and the crackling plastic gave away his position. "Shit," he said in reply as he turned invisible and slipped behind Lyle to another point in the room. "Yes, he's got a sweet tooth."
Lyle looked like he might cry but he struggled and fought back the urge; his features hardening into a determined stare that was remarkably like his father's. "Let's hope he didn't eat Dr. Suresh." He muttered quietly.
As he inched his way across the old floorboards, trying simultaneously not to make them squeak and toeing discarded candy and wrappers aside, he kept his gun up and pointed down the hall way.
The house was an old Craftsman style bungalow fallen into disrepair. It was on the edge of a small town in Northern California and had been abandoned since the housing market collapsed back in 2009. It wasn’t exactly a haunted house but it was still quite creepy in its derelict state.
He snapped his aim to the left when he heard a sound in the kitchen. He stared open-mouthed at Sylar standing in a pair of festive boxer shorts with a glass of milk and a plate of cookies in his hands. The boxer shorts had snowmen on them.
“Cookies?” Sylar offered with a raised eyebrow. When Lyle didn’t move, didn’t pull the trigger, Sylar shrugged and set the plate on the counter so he could pick up a cookie and take a bite. They were shortbread cookies; the kind with a dollop of jelly on top. “I’m taking a break from candy canes,” Sylar explained. ”I must have eaten four dozen of those things already.”
Lyle tried to recover his composure. “W-where is Doctor Suresh?”
“Sleeping.” Sylar tilted his head and studied Lyle while he chewed. He swallowed and asked, “Don’t I know you?”
“We’ve never been formally introduced,” Lyle growled. Tried to growl. Squeaked, really.
“Kyle, right? Kyle Bennet?”
“Lyle, actually, but I’m, impressed. Most people don’t remember me.”
Sylar shrugged and swivelled his hips so he could lean against the counter and drink his milk. He chugged it back until the glass was empty. When he put the glass down he had a milk moustache and was making no move to wipe it away.
Lyle pointed at his own upper lip, “You, uh...”
Surprised, Sylar wiped his mouth with a hand then licked it clean.
Lyle shifted his stance but didn’t drop his aim. His arms were starting to tremble from the effort it took to keep his gun trained on Sylar. “I’m here for Doctor Suresh. You can’t keep him here.”
“Where’s your partner, Lyle?”
“I work alone.”
“Pfft, no you don’t.” Sylar rolled his eyes and picked up the plate of cookies. “One, you’re Bennet’s kid and there is no way he’d let you out into the field on your own when you’re this green. Two, the rule is ‘One of us, one of them’, right?”
Lyle kept his expression steady.
“But which ‘them’ would Bennet trust with his only son? Hmmmm...” He let his hand drift over the plate of cookies he was holding then suddenly splayed his fingers and the small cookies went flying across the kitchen, hall, and into the living room beyond. A swirly shortbread cookie bounced off of nothing a couple feet away.
Lyle fired his taser at Sylar followed immediately by an invisible Claude doing the same. Sylar stopped the shots mid-air. Nobody moved.
“Ooh, awkward.” He said with feigned sympathy. “And is that the extent of your offensive capabilities?”
His head suddenly jerked to the side as Claude decked him. He doubled over as the still invisible man kicked him in a not very sporting place. “Get Suresh! Back room!” Claude yelled at Lyle.
Lyle ran to the back of the house, hoping Claude had meant Suresh was in the master bedroom because the other two bedrooms would be on the other side of the kitchen and he really didn’t want to go back that way. He heard the sound of china breaking and a horrific screech like something heavy, like a major appliance, was being dragged across the tile floor.
The master bedroom had a soft light coming from it. He burst through the half-opened door then stopped dead in his tracks. A slow flush climbed up his neck and stained his cheeks red with embarrassment. Doctor Suresh was naked but for a strategically wrapped ‘package’ and bound with Christmas lights, garlands, and ribbon to a large bed. The soft light came from the blinking Christmas lights.
Doctor Suresh’s brown eyes looked black in the low light and they glittered with anger. He certainly wasn’t sleeping.
Lyle stood in the doorway, unable to process what he was seeing, until a loud crash jolted him back to his senses. He scrambled onto the bed and yanked the gag out of Doctor Suresh’s mouth.
“Unplug the lights,” Suresh commanded. “I don’t need you electrocuting me or yourself.”
Lyle yanked the extension cord out of the wall then produced a pocket knife and started slashing at the Christmas ornaments binding him. With the lights off it was too dark to do the job quickly.
The smell of smoke wafted into the bedroom and he could hear Sylar roaring something about roasting Claude-nuts over an open fire.
Desperate now, Lyle hauled Doctor Suresh to his feet and flipped him over his shoulder.
“What are you doing?” Mohinder asked; shocked at the position he found himself in. “Untie me!”
“No time!” Lyle gasped. He lurched out of the bedroom and made a beeline for the back door.
An explosion sent them sprawling face-first in the backyard snow. Lyle shook his head and tried to focus on Doctor Suresh. He was yelling something at Lyle but the explosion had deafened him enough he couldn’t make it out.
Lyle was alarmed to see the clever ‘packaging’ was coming undone and the wrapping paper was starting to slip. Doctor Suresh’s modesty was nearly compromised. He pulled the smaller man to his feet and flipped him over his shoulder again, ignoring how he struggled and wiggled, and continued his interrupted flight into the woods where they’d hidden their vehicle earlier.
When he saw their SUV, carefully concealed under military-issue winter camouflage netting, he sobbed with relief. He scraped the netting back and tossed Doctor Suresh into the back seat, closing the door behind him.
He tried not to notice all the scrapes and scratches on the doctor’s body he probably acquired when Lyle was pushing them through the bare trees. As long as the doctor was recovered a bit of collateral damage didn’t matter.
He struggled to remove the rest of the netting so he could get access to the driver’s door.
As he started up the vehicle the passenger door opened and Claude, visible and bloodied, slammed into his seat. “Drive!” he yelled.
Lyle floored it and ignored the screeching of branches against the body and windows of the SUV as he cut across country for the nearest road.
Nobody spoke for nearly twenty minutes as Lyle sped down the secondary highway. When he turned onto the Interstate the tension seemed to snap and they all started to breathe easier.
“Good job back there, kid.” Claude said wearily. “Your dad’ll be proud.”
Lyle kept his eyes on the road and didn’t answer. His knuckles were white from gripping the steering wheel so hard.
Claude glanced at the back seat then chuckled and held up a scrap of wrapping paper with a stick-on bow dangling from it. “I think you dropped this, Doctor.”
“How considerate of you to retrieve it for me,” Doctor Suresh’s voice was chilly and polite. “Perhaps you also managed to retrieve my pants?”
“Nope,” Claude said. “But I tell you what. Next motel we come across we’ll stop, finish untying you so you can clean up, and Lyle here will find you something to wear.”
“That will be fine.” Doctor Suresh settled back into his seat and stared out the window. He seemed completely unabashed at sitting, naked, in an SUV with two fully-clothed men.
“So, um, Doctor Suresh,” Lyle began with a brief, embarrassed, glance at the rear-view mirror. “Do you require medical attention?”
“Why isn’t Sylar following us?” Mohinder suddenly asked. “It’s unlike him to give up pursuit so quickly.”
“Oh,” Claude smiled. “I suppose the grenade I stuffed in big mouth helped with that.”
Silence filled the SUV. Mohinder scowled at the back of Claude’s head.
“C’mon, it isn’t like it can kill him!” Claude protested. “We’re cleared to use extreme force when it comes to Sylar.”
“It isn’t right,” Mohinder muttered.
“I agree,” Lyle said, surprising Claude. “I mean, yeah, he’s a psychopath and he’s tried to kill everyone in my family, uh, except me I guess...” Lyle’s voice trailed off when he realized what he was saying. He shook his head and rallied, “But it’s Christmas! I mean, he was eating cookies in his Frosty the Snowman boxers!”
“Where did he get those things, anyways?” Claude asked. He seemed entirely unrepentant in the face of his companion’s admonishments.
Doctor Suresh mumbled something Lyle didn’t quite catch. “I’m sorry, what was that?” Lyle asked. ”My ears are still ringing from the explosion.”
Doctor Suresh sighed heavily and looked out the window, “I gave him the boxers.”
Lyle slammed on the brakes and the SUV slid sideways down the highway until it came to a stop. “YOU WHAT?”
Doctor Suresh struggled upright and glowered at Lyle. “Some of us aren’t wearing seatbelts!”
“Why did you give Sylar a pair of boxer shorts?” Lyle demanded.
“Because,” Doctor Suresh held himself stiffly and tilted his chin in defiance, “It is Christmas and everyone, even Sylar, deserves a bit of forgiveness this time of year.”
Claude shook his head in disbelief. “You know, Bennet’s been suspicious of you two for years.”
Lyle stared in shock, his gaze swinging between Claude and Doctor Suresh.
“Well, Noah Bennet bloody well knew where I’d be and who I’d be with.” Doctor Suresh snarled, ”I wasn’t in any imminent danger.”
“Sylar’s GAY?” Lyle finally blurted out. “I can’t believe it! I mean, didn’t he try to sex up my sister?”
Suresh and Claude shared a look. “He doesn’t get out much, does he?” Suresh asked.
“Not really,” Claude affirmed. “I suppose I’ll have to teach him all about the bees and the bees; and the bees who like both bees and birds.”
“Given his history, I would have thought Noah would have had that talk with him already.” Suresh sniffed. “Regardless, this was a very rude way to tell me my vacation was over.”
“It was probably a test for Lyle, too.”
“If that’s the case, Lyle,” Mohinder flicked a bit of tinsel off his bare leg, “I would investigate what you did to annoy your father. Even at Christmas, Sylar can be very dangerous.”
Lyle’s head was spinning but he had the presence of mind to start driving again before someone T-boned the SUV. “I’m giving dad socks for Christmas.” He muttered darkly.
“I’d say you should give him coal but he probably collects it,” Claude said with a laugh.
“I never did get a candy cane,” Doctor Suresh grumbled. “The selfish pig hogged the whole box.”
Miles away Sylar pulled himself out from under a section of collapsed wall and pushed his hair out of his face. What hadn’t been destroyed in the blast was burning merry and bright. He stumbled over the rubble and fell against what remained of a bed.
Something crinkled underfoot.
He picked up a cellophane wrapped candy cane that had somehow survived the explosion and smiled. “That was a pretty decent Christmas.”