Mamacita
Title: Mamacita
Characters/Pairing: Sylar/Maya
Fandom: Heroes
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 2,460
Disclaimer: Do not own.
Summery: From pushing to a kind of acceptance
Note: KW verse. A couple of short shorts :)
"Can you hear it?"
There used to be a saying that you could hear the corn growing in the fields at night. Gabriel had thought this was just some quixotic farmer's imagination but now he knows it's true. Odessa was situated in a semi arid land and it made the production of crops very difficult to harvest but trade from more lush places made that problem obsolete.
Now their survival relies on the land and their tending to it.
Maya stares with her mouth open, the sight before her both surreal and wonderful. Gabriel stands next to her, hands in his pockets and seems to brim over with accomplishment. It was just the three of them here, he had woken her up before the sun had risen because he wanted her to be the first to see. Maya had grudgingly accepted, baby asleep and snug in her pram.
Warped in a thin sweater she toes her shoe into the rich soil and then looks up at the night sky, blazing with stars but not a cloud in sight. He watches as she touches a rusk with timid fingers. She looks amazed but trying to hide it and he wallows in pride. But she must see this because her face becomes severe again and she steps back, crossing her arms tightly over her chest.
"You can grow anything?"
"I think so, anything you want and once I gain more control it could be overnight. This is for you." She turns to him sharply, her now almost constant severe eyes sweeping over his face. He comes to her with a smile and caresses the stalk where her fingers had skimmed. "There's gonna be more, I can feed everyone here and more...so, what do you think?" He stares at her in expectation, wanting some praise at his good behaviour but she just regards him with hooded eyes before bending down to check on Nadia.
Biting a bitter tongue he stuffs his hands into his pockets and looks over his handy work.
*
She walks as far as she dares, the pram pushed before her. It's twenty miles to Midland and once when she had taken a car he had been there, arms crossed over his chest, disappointed, like she was some wayward teenager out after her curfew. It was maddening, he promises to give her some space but when that chain around her neck starts to stretch too far he'll be there to tug it back.
They are sat on a bench, Gabriel having followed her at a distance until she had grown tired of it and sat, waiting for him to come to her.
"Come to check if there's a suitcase hidden under her pram? Maybe it would be better if you but one of those GPS trackers on me. Or a an animal tag?"
He frowns, truly not understanding her anger. "I'm only thinking about your safety and hers."
"I could care less what you think. You push me too far Gabriel...you tell me that you are different but so far it just seems to be words." He had been growing food, an abundance of it but the root of it seems to be Gabriel's need for admiration, not a desire to help others. At least that's the way it's presented to her.
"No matter what I do or say it won't make a difference, you're too hard Maya. I just want to - "
"Hello, long time no see."
The both turn towards the voice, argument hanging in the air as a man and a little boy stand across the street. Maya cocks her head and then looks at Gabriel who looks put off. The blond man takes the boy's hand and walks towards them, his blue eyes on Maya.
"What are you doing here?" Gabriel's voice snaps and a fair brow cocks.
"Grouchy this morning, aren't we? Just taking the boy for a walk. Not going to introduce us?" he smiles at Maya who flickers a weak smile in return. Those eyes are stark and strange.
"This is Adam and his son, James. This is Maya and my daughter."
"Ah, yes. Pleased to meet you mamacita." He bends over to look at Nadia quickly before straightening. "Lovely."
"Gracias. I haven't seen you at the base."
"Oh I live away from here but close enough." He answers in Spanish and she continues the conversation thus, aware of Gabriel's growing aggravation until he stands suddenly and starts pushing Nadia away.
"Oy!"
"We better get back now." Both of them gripping the pram handle they move away, Maya looking back to wave goodbye to the bemused looking Englishman. She elbows Gabriel away from the pram, making him walk in the gutter. Good, she thinks, he wasn't so tall then.
"That was rude."
"So is talking when I don't know what you're saying."
Maya stops, hand to her chest. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know I needed your permission. You're unbelievable." She walks ahead again as he clenches his jaw, hands stuffed in his pockets.
"I'm getting tired of this."
"What?"
"Your tone. I can't even have a conversation without you dragging it down. You keep saying you don't think I'm changed but at least I'm trying." He says softly, pitifully and she stares with hard but mute eyes.
"Maybe it's because I don't want to talk to you? You have -" she stalls, emotion stopping her tongue, "you have no idea how hard it is being near you, let alone talking to you. You make me feel like I'm drowning."
"I've given you space, even though it meant I couldn't see my daughter."
"This won't go away in a few weeks Gabriel." She looks away from him, from a gaze that looks concerned.
"I can fix this."
"I'm not a watch, Gabriel. You don't know the first thing about what's wrong with me, not even if you tried. I'm going to put her down for a nap..." So saying she walks away from him through the lot. He stands stone still, sun at his back.
"I can fix anything. I'm still special..."
*
She stands by the safety gate at the top if the stairs, little hands curled around the bars. It was a morning routine, one she had started once she realised that her father lived below. She would call him to come up for breakfast and Maya couldn't say no.
"Dadda? Dadda?" She hears the click of the gate at the foot of the stair and his steps and starts to bounce and wiggle when he appears.
"Hey, morning sweetheart. You're up early!" Closing the gate behind him he picks her up in his arms and carries her through to the kitchen, her arms wrapped around his neck. Maya is sat at the table, Nadia breakfast already laid out. She grabs a babygro covered leg and kisses and tickles it, making Nadia giggle before she's put in her high chair.
"You eat here today." Maya doesn't look at him as she starts to feed Nadia.
"What?"
"She doesn't eat when you leave, she makes it difficult. But I'm not cooking for you, no matter how much you sulk." She gives him a hard look, trying not to show any emotion but her reluctance was clear.
He takes a seat, brow raised and a growing smile on his lips. "I don't sulk."
"Oh, then it must have been someone else standing by the door, pouting."
He smiles at her but the best he can hope for from her is a twist of the lips, if he's lucky. But this was an improvement, on some level a block had been worn away and it was only a matter on time before it all came down.
*
Unimpressed gazes regard him, ageing the girls beyond their years for a moment. He smiles, persevering, as he holds up the sheet.
"It's pin the donkey, it's fun."
"Yeah, if you're four." Nadia, the most severely judging, answers back and he lowers the game, dejected. She gives him a small smile before giggling with her friends and he settles the game onto a table, pocketing the pin. It was Halloween and the garden rooftop of their house is ablaze with bright colours and scents, table laden with food and drink. Chinese lanterns and paper ribbons are strung up along the roof edge, brighting as the sun begins to sink. Maya stands behind a BBQ, tongs in one hand and a witches hat in the other. She settles it onto her head as he comes to her and she gives him a pointed look.
"Told you it was lame."
He purses his lips and slumps down onto a bench beside her. "I wasn't this hard to please when I was their age..." he trails off, watching silently as she flips a steak, the smell of it mouth watering. "You know I should be doing that."
"This? Why?"
"Because it's tradition, the men cook the food on the grill for everyone else."
"Ahh and then go back to never making dinner for another year and leaving it to thier wives and mothers."
"Exactly, tradition." He jokes but she doesn't smile. She'd been grumpy since this morning when she realised she wouldn't have a bed to sleep in. Nadia was having a sleep over and the number of friends had spilled out from her room and into hers.
"You'd just get pouty if I didn't cook."
"Ha! You wouldn't last a day without making something. You were more excited about this day then Nadia was." Learning that so many people were coming over Maya had began to prepare the food the night before, staying up till dawn to complete the icing on a cake. She had held out a tray with cupcakes for the girls with a bright and accomplished smile, not able to hide her pride at their approving mouth filled mummers. Seeing her happiness so unrestrained was fleeting and he feels tempted to throw these every week.
Nadia and her friends sit in a tight circle, whispering and giggling, trying to frighten each other with ghost stories while the sky starts to darken to purple and the first stars come out. Maya and Gabriel sit opposite each other, a gentle and warm wind blowing around them as they eat and drink in silence.
"
Tall, feathery, ostrich like leaves sway, the white stalks sliding up against each other in the breeze. The rooftop garden is littered with empty paper cups and plates and the colourful evidence of party poppers are everywhere. They sit tired but sated, one ear on the faint music playing on a CD player and the other for the banging of running feet and giggles that come from the open windows below. They sip at their drinks as the stars grow diamond bright.
"So...my bed?"
"Pardon?"
He smiles over his cup at her expected reaction, her eyes scandalised.
"Do you want my bed? I can sleep on the couch." Maya had given up her bed without much thought but now he knew she was regretting it. Gabriel shakes his head and sits back. "Not everything I say is suggestive."
"Everything you say to me is, you can't help yourself. I bet you've been waiting to say that to me all day." she susses shrewdly and he lifts his hands up.
"Got me...but really I think that says more about you then me, that you think that still."
She purses her mouth and stands, reaching for his empty plate. "We both know how desperate you are...how's that for suggestive?" He winces and his face grows hot instantly. The first few years had been...tough, his restraint could become very taught when he had been denied something that felt rightfully his, that still does. So his solution was logical really. Now it was just an embarrassment, one that she takes far too much joy out of picking at. It was shameful and that awful emotion was a sign that he was changing. At least to him.
"I stopped that a long time ago. You think I'm...well you believe I only think with my dick don't you?"
She shrugs lightly but bites her lip. "You and every other man I've met."
He raises his brows, eyes widening with mock shock. "Wow, hating men is an ugly thing."
"Oh I don't hate all men, just y-" as she's about to utter him Gabriel grabs her wrist and makes her sit beside him. The light homour on his face is replaced with anger and weariness in an instant.
"Stop before I...we're not going to do this today, we promised her. Come on, this week has been good." She looks down at her lap, a guilty look on her face but it's gone when she looks at him. He smiles encouragingly and places his hand over hers. "I'm not going to hurt you Maya."
She keeps a still face, eyes on his. "The fact that you still have to assure me is not reassuring. I don't trust you and that's it. You might not harm me but you still play games." She taps her temple and he cocks his head, reaching for her.
"I don't mean to, I'm not even aware of it. Before, when you first came here, I admit I did things that I'm not proud of but you know it was only to make you stay. I just wanted to make sure you were safe...I am trying." He traces his fingers down her face and she stays still for a moment, closing her eyes.
"Tell my something, the truth."
"Anything."
"If I hadn't got pregnant would you have come for me?"
He opens his mouth and then finds he doesn't know what to say. The first instinct is to say yes but he knows he just wants to stay in her good graces, as much as that's possible. Truth is he can't envision a life without her now. "I was a different person back then...I don't know. I'm just...thankful that this is my life now."
"That's not an answer."
"It's the only one I can give you...as much as this is intriguing we've got kids down stairs who are probably trying on your clothes and raiding the mini-bar." Maya stands up beside him and yawns and he runs his hand down her bare arm. "Go on, you can take my bed. I'll try and round them up."
"If I find you next to me I will kick you in the stomach." Her threat hanging in the air she slouches away with a jaw cracking yawn and disappears through the door. He smiles, rubbing a hand against his stubble and then through his hair in thought, looking towards the east, before leaving the roof. He spots his daughter and friends running away screaming when they see him in the doorway.
"OK, where's my lasso?!"
Characters/Pairing: Sylar/Maya
Fandom: Heroes
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 2,460
Disclaimer: Do not own.
Summery: From pushing to a kind of acceptance
Note: KW verse. A couple of short shorts :)
"Can you hear it?"
There used to be a saying that you could hear the corn growing in the fields at night. Gabriel had thought this was just some quixotic farmer's imagination but now he knows it's true. Odessa was situated in a semi arid land and it made the production of crops very difficult to harvest but trade from more lush places made that problem obsolete.
Now their survival relies on the land and their tending to it.
Maya stares with her mouth open, the sight before her both surreal and wonderful. Gabriel stands next to her, hands in his pockets and seems to brim over with accomplishment. It was just the three of them here, he had woken her up before the sun had risen because he wanted her to be the first to see. Maya had grudgingly accepted, baby asleep and snug in her pram.
Warped in a thin sweater she toes her shoe into the rich soil and then looks up at the night sky, blazing with stars but not a cloud in sight. He watches as she touches a rusk with timid fingers. She looks amazed but trying to hide it and he wallows in pride. But she must see this because her face becomes severe again and she steps back, crossing her arms tightly over her chest.
"You can grow anything?"
"I think so, anything you want and once I gain more control it could be overnight. This is for you." She turns to him sharply, her now almost constant severe eyes sweeping over his face. He comes to her with a smile and caresses the stalk where her fingers had skimmed. "There's gonna be more, I can feed everyone here and more...so, what do you think?" He stares at her in expectation, wanting some praise at his good behaviour but she just regards him with hooded eyes before bending down to check on Nadia.
Biting a bitter tongue he stuffs his hands into his pockets and looks over his handy work.
*
She walks as far as she dares, the pram pushed before her. It's twenty miles to Midland and once when she had taken a car he had been there, arms crossed over his chest, disappointed, like she was some wayward teenager out after her curfew. It was maddening, he promises to give her some space but when that chain around her neck starts to stretch too far he'll be there to tug it back.
They are sat on a bench, Gabriel having followed her at a distance until she had grown tired of it and sat, waiting for him to come to her.
"Come to check if there's a suitcase hidden under her pram? Maybe it would be better if you but one of those GPS trackers on me. Or a an animal tag?"
He frowns, truly not understanding her anger. "I'm only thinking about your safety and hers."
"I could care less what you think. You push me too far Gabriel...you tell me that you are different but so far it just seems to be words." He had been growing food, an abundance of it but the root of it seems to be Gabriel's need for admiration, not a desire to help others. At least that's the way it's presented to her.
"No matter what I do or say it won't make a difference, you're too hard Maya. I just want to - "
"Hello, long time no see."
The both turn towards the voice, argument hanging in the air as a man and a little boy stand across the street. Maya cocks her head and then looks at Gabriel who looks put off. The blond man takes the boy's hand and walks towards them, his blue eyes on Maya.
"What are you doing here?" Gabriel's voice snaps and a fair brow cocks.
"Grouchy this morning, aren't we? Just taking the boy for a walk. Not going to introduce us?" he smiles at Maya who flickers a weak smile in return. Those eyes are stark and strange.
"This is Adam and his son, James. This is Maya and my daughter."
"Ah, yes. Pleased to meet you mamacita." He bends over to look at Nadia quickly before straightening. "Lovely."
"Gracias. I haven't seen you at the base."
"Oh I live away from here but close enough." He answers in Spanish and she continues the conversation thus, aware of Gabriel's growing aggravation until he stands suddenly and starts pushing Nadia away.
"Oy!"
"We better get back now." Both of them gripping the pram handle they move away, Maya looking back to wave goodbye to the bemused looking Englishman. She elbows Gabriel away from the pram, making him walk in the gutter. Good, she thinks, he wasn't so tall then.
"That was rude."
"So is talking when I don't know what you're saying."
Maya stops, hand to her chest. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know I needed your permission. You're unbelievable." She walks ahead again as he clenches his jaw, hands stuffed in his pockets.
"I'm getting tired of this."
"What?"
"Your tone. I can't even have a conversation without you dragging it down. You keep saying you don't think I'm changed but at least I'm trying." He says softly, pitifully and she stares with hard but mute eyes.
"Maybe it's because I don't want to talk to you? You have -" she stalls, emotion stopping her tongue, "you have no idea how hard it is being near you, let alone talking to you. You make me feel like I'm drowning."
"I've given you space, even though it meant I couldn't see my daughter."
"This won't go away in a few weeks Gabriel." She looks away from him, from a gaze that looks concerned.
"I can fix this."
"I'm not a watch, Gabriel. You don't know the first thing about what's wrong with me, not even if you tried. I'm going to put her down for a nap..." So saying she walks away from him through the lot. He stands stone still, sun at his back.
"I can fix anything. I'm still special..."
*
She stands by the safety gate at the top if the stairs, little hands curled around the bars. It was a morning routine, one she had started once she realised that her father lived below. She would call him to come up for breakfast and Maya couldn't say no.
"Dadda? Dadda?" She hears the click of the gate at the foot of the stair and his steps and starts to bounce and wiggle when he appears.
"Hey, morning sweetheart. You're up early!" Closing the gate behind him he picks her up in his arms and carries her through to the kitchen, her arms wrapped around his neck. Maya is sat at the table, Nadia breakfast already laid out. She grabs a babygro covered leg and kisses and tickles it, making Nadia giggle before she's put in her high chair.
"You eat here today." Maya doesn't look at him as she starts to feed Nadia.
"What?"
"She doesn't eat when you leave, she makes it difficult. But I'm not cooking for you, no matter how much you sulk." She gives him a hard look, trying not to show any emotion but her reluctance was clear.
He takes a seat, brow raised and a growing smile on his lips. "I don't sulk."
"Oh, then it must have been someone else standing by the door, pouting."
He smiles at her but the best he can hope for from her is a twist of the lips, if he's lucky. But this was an improvement, on some level a block had been worn away and it was only a matter on time before it all came down.
*
Unimpressed gazes regard him, ageing the girls beyond their years for a moment. He smiles, persevering, as he holds up the sheet.
"It's pin the donkey, it's fun."
"Yeah, if you're four." Nadia, the most severely judging, answers back and he lowers the game, dejected. She gives him a small smile before giggling with her friends and he settles the game onto a table, pocketing the pin. It was Halloween and the garden rooftop of their house is ablaze with bright colours and scents, table laden with food and drink. Chinese lanterns and paper ribbons are strung up along the roof edge, brighting as the sun begins to sink. Maya stands behind a BBQ, tongs in one hand and a witches hat in the other. She settles it onto her head as he comes to her and she gives him a pointed look.
"Told you it was lame."
He purses his lips and slumps down onto a bench beside her. "I wasn't this hard to please when I was their age..." he trails off, watching silently as she flips a steak, the smell of it mouth watering. "You know I should be doing that."
"This? Why?"
"Because it's tradition, the men cook the food on the grill for everyone else."
"Ahh and then go back to never making dinner for another year and leaving it to thier wives and mothers."
"Exactly, tradition." He jokes but she doesn't smile. She'd been grumpy since this morning when she realised she wouldn't have a bed to sleep in. Nadia was having a sleep over and the number of friends had spilled out from her room and into hers.
"You'd just get pouty if I didn't cook."
"Ha! You wouldn't last a day without making something. You were more excited about this day then Nadia was." Learning that so many people were coming over Maya had began to prepare the food the night before, staying up till dawn to complete the icing on a cake. She had held out a tray with cupcakes for the girls with a bright and accomplished smile, not able to hide her pride at their approving mouth filled mummers. Seeing her happiness so unrestrained was fleeting and he feels tempted to throw these every week.
Nadia and her friends sit in a tight circle, whispering and giggling, trying to frighten each other with ghost stories while the sky starts to darken to purple and the first stars come out. Maya and Gabriel sit opposite each other, a gentle and warm wind blowing around them as they eat and drink in silence.
"
Tall, feathery, ostrich like leaves sway, the white stalks sliding up against each other in the breeze. The rooftop garden is littered with empty paper cups and plates and the colourful evidence of party poppers are everywhere. They sit tired but sated, one ear on the faint music playing on a CD player and the other for the banging of running feet and giggles that come from the open windows below. They sip at their drinks as the stars grow diamond bright.
"So...my bed?"
"Pardon?"
He smiles over his cup at her expected reaction, her eyes scandalised.
"Do you want my bed? I can sleep on the couch." Maya had given up her bed without much thought but now he knew she was regretting it. Gabriel shakes his head and sits back. "Not everything I say is suggestive."
"Everything you say to me is, you can't help yourself. I bet you've been waiting to say that to me all day." she susses shrewdly and he lifts his hands up.
"Got me...but really I think that says more about you then me, that you think that still."
She purses her mouth and stands, reaching for his empty plate. "We both know how desperate you are...how's that for suggestive?" He winces and his face grows hot instantly. The first few years had been...tough, his restraint could become very taught when he had been denied something that felt rightfully his, that still does. So his solution was logical really. Now it was just an embarrassment, one that she takes far too much joy out of picking at. It was shameful and that awful emotion was a sign that he was changing. At least to him.
"I stopped that a long time ago. You think I'm...well you believe I only think with my dick don't you?"
She shrugs lightly but bites her lip. "You and every other man I've met."
He raises his brows, eyes widening with mock shock. "Wow, hating men is an ugly thing."
"Oh I don't hate all men, just y-" as she's about to utter him Gabriel grabs her wrist and makes her sit beside him. The light homour on his face is replaced with anger and weariness in an instant.
"Stop before I...we're not going to do this today, we promised her. Come on, this week has been good." She looks down at her lap, a guilty look on her face but it's gone when she looks at him. He smiles encouragingly and places his hand over hers. "I'm not going to hurt you Maya."
She keeps a still face, eyes on his. "The fact that you still have to assure me is not reassuring. I don't trust you and that's it. You might not harm me but you still play games." She taps her temple and he cocks his head, reaching for her.
"I don't mean to, I'm not even aware of it. Before, when you first came here, I admit I did things that I'm not proud of but you know it was only to make you stay. I just wanted to make sure you were safe...I am trying." He traces his fingers down her face and she stays still for a moment, closing her eyes.
"Tell my something, the truth."
"Anything."
"If I hadn't got pregnant would you have come for me?"
He opens his mouth and then finds he doesn't know what to say. The first instinct is to say yes but he knows he just wants to stay in her good graces, as much as that's possible. Truth is he can't envision a life without her now. "I was a different person back then...I don't know. I'm just...thankful that this is my life now."
"That's not an answer."
"It's the only one I can give you...as much as this is intriguing we've got kids down stairs who are probably trying on your clothes and raiding the mini-bar." Maya stands up beside him and yawns and he runs his hand down her bare arm. "Go on, you can take my bed. I'll try and round them up."
"If I find you next to me I will kick you in the stomach." Her threat hanging in the air she slouches away with a jaw cracking yawn and disappears through the door. He smiles, rubbing a hand against his stubble and then through his hair in thought, looking towards the east, before leaving the roof. He spots his daughter and friends running away screaming when they see him in the doorway.
"OK, where's my lasso?!"