Drabble: Never Alone (Peter/Claire)
Title: Never Alone
Rating: PG
Pairing(s): Peter/Claire, Peter/Nathan if you squint.
Warning: Spoilers for season 3 ending, angst
Word Count: 500
Summary: Claire knows something’s wrong with Peter, he just won’t tell her what…
A/N: I struggled a lot with this fic. I started about two days after the prompt and then got stuck on it. I finally forced myself to finish it today. I initially had a lot of ideas for this prompt but I had to give the clichéd scenario of the Peter/Claire breakdown over Nathan’s death a try or it would just keep bugging me :P So here it is! Written forpairechallenge drabble prompt “look”. comments are love :)
He’s become more silent recently, his smiles less frequent…
She can tell something is bothering him; even if he’s not telling her… she can see it in his eyes; the same repeated look of sadness that she can’t understand and it’s killing her not knowing what it is…
But he never tells her, never burdens her with his problems even if it’s clear she wants to hear them and she never presses him, instead she remains silent…
He’ll tell her, she just has to give him time…
…
He stops answering her calls, doesn’t reply to her messages, cuts off all contact with her and she begins to worry about him…
She goes to his apartment on the first free weekend college allows and finds him on the roof of the building. He looks so shattered, so unlike the hero she thought she’d regained…
“Peter…” she breathes, moving towards him, he keeps his eyes averted and she places her palm on his cheek, turning his face to look at her, “talk to me…please…” she pleads. He swallows hard, still not looking at her “Peter…” she breathes again, “Peter, look at me…”
He finally raises his eyes to hers and she’s shocked to find tears lining them and it makes her only further restless. He holds her gaze for a long moment and she waits, hoping he can see the desperation in her eyes, desperation for him…
And then he tells her…
His voice a mere whisper, cracked with emotion and pain as tells her what his mother’s done, what really happened to Nathan and on instinct, she doesn’t believe him, doesn’t want to believe him but she knows he’s telling the truth…the tears staining his face are enough proof of that.
She doesn’t know if she puts her arms around him or if he leans into her himself but before she’s fully comprehended what’s been said, she’s holding on to his shaking shoulders, tears streaming down her own face-stinging and painful as the truth sinks in…
…
She stays with him that night; the pounding rain and claps of thunder drowning out the pleading sounds of him calling out Nathan’s name in his sleep, but she’s close enough to hear him…
She watches his features unconsciously fade into his brother’s and back, tears slipping through his closed eyes and drying beneath her fingertips and all she can do is bite down on her lower lip and force herself to not cry.
Peter’s pain cuts her deeper than her own and she wants nothing more than to take it away…
She tightens her arms around him, running her fingers through his bangs as she stares at his face in the dark.
Even if she can’t change what’s happened, even if all she do for him is hold him as he goes through the pain of losing his brother, in hopes of giving him comfort, reassurance…no matter how slight…she will.
Because she loves him…too much to let him suffer on his own…
(yes team Jacob twihards, there was a line borrowed from Eclipse somewhere here :P)