Fic: Yen, 7/12
Yen
By kalimyre
Pairing: Kensei/Hiro, Adam/Hiro
Rating: Adult
Summary: In which the fairy tale does have a happy ending, but not the one you were expecting.
Notes: As always, thank you to my fabulous betas: powered_otaku and soulpeddler.
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
~~~
Part 7
They sort of milled aimlessly a little after that. Suresh was busy kicking himself over actually giving Sylar the cure, instead of some random chemical in a syringe. Molly had gotten very quiet and sat on the edge of a lab bench, watching him solemnly. Nikki went off to call someone, presumably Bob.
Adam stood with his back turned to the smear of Hiro’s blood on the floor, and watched him pace. Hiro noticed this only peripherally. He was trying to work it out in his mind, how Sylar could have survived, how he could keep surviving, keep escaping, always slipping out of his grasp.
And now, of course, what was he going to do? Clearly he couldn’t let Sylar just go on, unchallenged. He’d continue killing, continue stealing powers, and just get stronger. For Hiro it was one more failure, one more time when he hadn’t done as he should. Failed to stop him from killing Charlie, failed to save New York, failed to kill Sylar. Compared to that, what had he done right? Save Japan’s history? No, Kensei had done that; all Hiro had done was give in to temptation and take a piece of that history home with him.
“I have to anticipate him,” Hiro said to nobody in particular. “If I can figure out his plan, if I can be there waiting for him...”
“You want to face him again?” Adam asked incredulously.
“I have to,” Hiro replied, cutting him a sidelong glance. “I can’t let him keep doing this.”
“And why is that your responsibility?”
Hiro shook his head, because that was too big, too much to explain. The reason was somewhere in the pattern beneath events, the wheels that kept bringing him into Sylar’s path, giving him chances that he failed to grasp. But he thought Adam would probably not take ‘destiny’ for an answer.
“Bob is on his way,” Nikki said, slipping her cell phone back into her pocket. “He said we should stay put until he gets here.”
Hiro nodded absently, not really hearing her. What did Sylar want? Besides power, obviously. He’d want more people with powers, more abilities to steal. Hiro knew Suresh had some kind of way of finding them, something about code and genes and a system his father had worked out that he’d told them earlier, when he was testing Adam. Sylar would want that system, that list of targets; could they use it as bait? But no, that would put the people on it in danger.
Or maybe they could track down the people on the list first, gather those with strong powers, mount an offensive. Unless Sylar followed them, and they ended up leading him right to his victims.
Hiro sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. His chest felt tight, his stomach unsteady, and he had an incipient headache that seemed ready to become worse at a moment’s notice; he wondered if they were side effects from dying, or from seeing Sylar again.
“I should call Matt,” Suresh said distantly. He’d stopped cursing about giving Sylar the cure and had settled on the bench beside Molly, staring blankly into space. “He’d... he’d want to know.”
“Who’s Matt?” Adam asked.
“He’s...” Suresh shook his head. “We’re taking care of Molly together. If he gets back to the apartment, finds... God, a dead body, he’ll panic. I should call him.” But he made no move to do so, staring at the opposite wall with blank, glassy eyes, one hand methodically stroking Molly’s arm.
Shock, Hiro thought, nodding, wondering why he wasn’t affected. Unless maybe he was, and that was why he couldn’t stand still.
“Bob will take care of that,” Nikki said, not indicating if she meant the dead body, or calling Matt. Possibly both. Hiro thought Bob was the sort of man who could make inconvenient dead bodies go away.
Adam caught Hiro’s sleeve as he went by, tried to hold him in place, and Hiro pulled away. “Don’t,” he said.
“Hiro...” Adam looked at him, his eyes flicking uneasily to Hiro’s bloodied shirt again. “Would you just stop for a minute?”
Hiro was aware, in a detached way, that Adam had been scared when he died. That Adam probably wanted to touch him, to make sure he was okay, to talk to him. He was even aware that it would probably be good for both of them. But if he stopped moving, everything that had just happened would catch up all at once.
So he shrugged off Adam’s hands and kept pacing, and eventually he was able to ignore the weight of Adam’s worried gaze.
“That cure was meant for me,” Nikki said quietly. “If I hadn’t needed it, then Suresh wouldn’t have made it, which means Sylar would still be sick right now.”
“It’s not your fault you got sick,” Adam pointed out.
She laughed bitterly. “You’d think so, but actually, it is. I injected myself with that virus on purpose.”
Adam stared at her, baffled. “Why?”
“Long story,” she said.
“It usually is,” Adam muttered.
“Don’t try to lay blame,” Suresh said. “Nobody made Sylar a killer; he did that on his own.”
“Well said.”
They all turned; Bob was standing just inside the door, a young blonde woman at his side, looking around warily. She trailed him into the room, then sat beside Suresh, shooting him a concerned glance.
“First,” Bob said, “is everyone all right?”
They made assenting noises, and Bob paused, looking at Hiro. It took him a moment to register, and then he glanced down at his chest, vaguely surprised to see the drying blood. Getting shot seemed very distant now.
“Sylar shot him,” Suresh said when Hiro didn’t speak up. “But we got him some of Adam’s blood, and he recovered.”
“Okay, good, quick thinking,” Bob said, nodding. “I want you to know you all did well today.”
“We let him get away,” Hiro said flatly.
“You survived,” Bob replied, “and with your abilities intact. That’s more than many who’ve faced him can say. Now, granted, this is... unexpected, but I’ve been in contact with several other company founding members, and we’re coming together to make a plan.”
“Good,” Nikki said, “I want in.”
“So do I,” Hiro agreed.
“And you will be,” Bob told them. “You are all critical in this fight, believe me. But for right now, I want you to go home.”
“What?” Suresh said, sitting up straight.
At the same time, Nikki said, “You just want us to run?”
“No, to regroup,” Bob explained. “Chasing after Sylar, blind and disorganized, is not the way to do this. I assure you we will contact you, and we will ask you to work with us in the effort to bring him down, but for now, we need to think, to prepare.” He turned to Suresh, and added, “Your apartment is being taken care of. In the meantime, the company has a safe place for you to stay.”
“Sylar knows where I live,” Suresh realized, and Bob nodded.
“Which is exactly why you’re not going back there. I can get a place for you, too,” he said to Nikki.
She shook her head. “I need to go back to my son.”
“I understand,” Bob replied. “And I assume you will be returning to Tokyo?” he asked Hiro and Adam.
“For now,” Hiro said.
“Good. I don’t know if you know Elle,” he pointed to the blond, “but she’ll be working with us too. For now she’ll be staying with you and Parkman,” he said to Suresh. “To keep you safe, and especially, to keep Molly safe.”
Suresh narrowed his eyes. “If you think you’re using her-”
“I want to help,” she interrupted, lifting her chin stubbornly. “I can find him.”
“And she’s the only one who can,” Bob said pointedly. “You know she’s crucial to this. Her safety will be our top priority.”
Suresh didn’t look pleased, but he nodded, pulling Molly close to his side. On his other side, Elle leaned in, tucked a bit of his hair behind his ear, and said, “Guess we get to be roomies.”
Bob ignored the byplay and dusted his hands together. “We should all get going. Now that Sylar knows this place, it isn’t safe; we won’t be meeting here again. I’ll get details to you of our new location once it’s established. Suresh, I’ll take you to the safe house here in New York, and Hiro, if you could please give Nikki a lift back home, I would appreciate it. Teleportation really is the safest way to travel.”
Hiro nodded absently, already thinking of the little girl and her gift. If she could find Sylar, if she always knew where he was, and if he could get her to tell him... well. That just opened all kinds of possibilities.
They dispersed, Bob promising to speak to them all soon, and he took Suresh, Molly and Elle out the door. Nikki and Adam gathered around Hiro, and he took them to New Orleans. He’d never been, but he could picture it from his memories of the news coverage. Fortunately he didn’t take them back in time to the middle of the hurricane, which was more luck than skill; his mind was barely on the task.
“Wow,” Nikki said, blinking up into the sunlight. They were in a small park, in a clearing beside a lake, the air heavy and warm compared to the crisp early spring in New York. Traffic hummed by on the other side of the trees, and when they walked forward a little, they could see street signs.
“I know where I am,” Nikki said. “I’ll get a ride from here. Thanks for the short cut; sure beats flying.”
“You’re welcome,” Hiro said, and even his voice felt faraway to him now, as if it came from someone else. He felt cold, hollow, and there was a peculiar white numbness laying over him, like a thick layer of cotton, muffling the world.
“Come on,” Adam murmured in his ear, “take us home.”
So Hiro did, and they were back in the apartment in Tokyo, the sky outside the windows dark, the city lights laid out in a glittering grid. He wasn’t sure what to do next, which Adam solved for him by pushing him into the wall, holding him there with the weight of his body. He ran his hands over Hiro, fingers sifting through his hair, framing the shape of his back and arms, measuring the line of his ribs, as if making sure he was whole.
At first it was muffled like everything else, but the heat of Adam, the weight and tangible feel of him, seeped through the layer of numbness and Hiro felt his skin tingling, his hands shaking and he squeezed his eyes shut and pressed his face against Adam’s shoulder and tried to breathe.
“You can’t do that,” Adam murmured, his lips brushing Hiro’s temple. “You died, you were dead and if I hadn’t been there, if we didn’t have a way to get the blood into you, you would have been gone, don’t you see?”
“I’m all right,” Hiro said, not sure if he was reassuring Adam or himself.
“You died!” Adam insisted, punching him lightly on the shoulder. “Listen to me! The... the whole dying thing, not acceptable!”
“He would have killed the little girl,” Hiro argued, and Adam pushed him harder against the wall, shaking him.
“You should have let me do it! I would have been fine.”
“But you didn’t do it,” Hiro pointed out. “You didn’t move.”
“I know!” Adam snapped, and then closed his eyes, resting his forehead on Hiro’s shoulder. “I know,” he said again, softly. “Don’t you think I know that? But I’m too good at taking care of myself, and nobody else.”
“You would have,” Hiro said. “I just got there first.”
“No,” Adam replied sharply. “I’m not the man you think I am. I never was. I don’t know why you still...” He stopped, pressing his lips into a thin line, looking away.
Hiro touched his face, curving his hand around Adam’s jaw and turning him back until their eyes met. “Still what?” he asked. “Have faith in you? That isn’t going to change.”
Adam shook his head, and covered Hiro’s hand with his own, pressing a kiss into the palm. “Then you’ll be disappointed,” he said.
“No,” Hiro said simply. “I won’t.”
Adam held his face in both hands, stroking this thumbs over Hiro’s skin. He kissed Hiro very gently, holding him as if he might break, and Hiro could feel the tremor in his hands, could feel Adam’s chest hitch against his.
“I had to watch you die once,” Hiro pointed out. “This is only fair.”
Adam gave him a hard look. “Fine, that makes us even. You don’t get to die again. Ever.”
“You can bring me back,” Hiro said, which was clearly not the answer Adam wanted.
“You’re planning to go after him, aren’t you,” Adam said. It wasn’t a question.
“I have to,” Hiro replied.
“Weren’t you listening back there? They’re going to make a plan, fight smart. This one man crusade you’re trying to become is going to get you killed. Again.”
“I heard what Bob said,” Hiro said, “but that doesn’t mean I trust him. I don’t know what he really wants. This is my task to face; I have to make sure it happens.”
Adam threw his hands in the air, making a frustrated noise. “Why is it your task? Why yours alone? Saving the world is not your sole responsibility.”
“It’s hard to explain,” Hiro said.
“Try,” Adam insisted, pushing him back against the wall when he tried to turn away.
Hiro gave a resigned sigh. “When I went into the future,” he began, “and met the future me, he had created a map of time. Of my life, and Sylar’s, and so many others. He worked out exactly how each path crossed, how each event led into more, and how changing one key moment could change the future. My place in that timeline was to kill Sylar the night the bomb went off in New York.”
“And you nearly did,” Adam pointed out. “He’s hard to kill.”
“But it’s still my place,” Hiro replied. “His path has crossed mine again, and I believe it will keep crossing mine until one of us is dead. It’s up to me to end this.”
Adam sputtered, scrubbing one hand through his hair. “Based on what, a theory that another you had in a future that never happened? On coincidence? From what I could gather today, Sylar has run across a lot of paths. Maybe Suresh is meant to kill him. Maybe Nikki-hell, maybe I kill him. Does it really matter who does it, as long as he ends up dead?”
“But in the comic book-”
Adam cut him off. “A comic book? Like the ones you showed me on your shelves over there? A children’s story? Is that seriously what you’re going to plan your life around?”
Hiro glared at him. “They’re not just for children. And this was a special book, it was written by Mr. Isaac. He could draw the future, and everything in that book came true.”
Adam thought for a moment, then asked, “Came true after you read it? After you had that map to follow, to make it happen?”
Hiro nodded slowly, remembering how he’d followed every step of the book so carefully. And yes, some of it had been right, some of it had shown things he couldn’t have made happen, but how much of it was destiny and how much was a self-fulfilling prophecy? “It’s a circle,” he said. “Seeing the future makes us take action to create that future, which makes that future happen.”
Adam blinked at him. “Right,” he said after a moment, looking baffled. “My point is, it’s not all about you. A lot of powerful people are after Sylar. You can accept a little help.”
“Fight smart,” Hiro said, smiling at Adam.
“It’s how I survived so long,” Adam replied.
“You can heal from anything.”
Adam shrugged. “That too.” Then he sobered, putting a hand on Hiro’s chest, over his bloodied, perfect skin. “But you can’t. I mean it, Hiro. Don’t do this again.”
Hiro nodded, wrapping his arms around Adam’s waist and resting his cheek on his shoulder. He could feel Adam’s long sigh, and a kiss pressed into his hair. “I’m sorry,” he said quietly.
Adam shook his head. “You can’t help who you are. Just be a careful hero next time, all right?”
Hiro chuckled and kissed Adam’s jaw, nuzzling him until Adam shifted against him and curled his hand around the back of Hiro’s neck and pulled him in for a hard kiss, licking into his mouth, pulling the breath out of him and giving it back.
They didn’t hear the door open until there was a thud, and they both looked up, startled. Ando stood just inside the open door, keys dangling from one hand, a bag of groceries spilled at his feet. His eyes were round, and got even bigger when Hiro stepped forward and he saw the blood on his shirt.
“Um,” Hiro said. “Hi. You, you brought me groceries?”
Ando nodded slowly, his mouth working, but no sound coming out. Eventually he said, “I didn’t know if... I mean, you were gone and I thought...”
“Right, thanks,” Hiro said, tugging awkwardly at his shirt. “I... um. You met Adam? He was Kensei, before.”
Ando nodded again. “You’re... were you...?”
Hiro looked over at Adam, who was leaning one shoulder against the wall, arms crossed over his chest, looking like the cat that had gotten the cream. Then he looked down at himself, at his torn and bloodstained shirt, and up at Ando, who was still gaping like a fish.
Well. At least the question of how he was going to tell Ando about Adam had been answered. Now he just had to figure out how to explain the rest of his impossible story.
Adam, smirking, came up behind him and slipped a possessive arm around his waist, raising one suggestive eyebrow at Ando. Ando’s eyes, if it were possible, got a little wider.
Yeah. Clearly Adam was going to be a big help.
~~~
Adam watched Ando lazily as Hiro bustled around, picking up the spilled grocery bag, putting the food away. Ando returned his stare a few seconds at a time, his eyes flicking away nervously. “So,” Adam said, and Ando jumped. “You often let yourself in?”
Ando shrugged. “Hiro forgets to get things sometimes. Like food. He gets distracted.”
“He is excitable,” Adam agreed, curling his voice around the word deliberately. Ando shifted his weight back and forth and scrubbed a hand over the back of his neck.
“I, um... I just wanted to check on him. I haven’t seen him since he brought you from the past. I wasn’t trying to... it’s not like that,” Ando mumbled. “With Hiro, I mean. It’s not, we’re not. You know.”
It took Adam a moment to realize the man was assuring him he wasn’t a rival for Hiro’s affections, which... he really wasn’t sure how to react to. Good? Presumptuous? Ridiculous to even think he’d be competition? But nice of him to confirm that he wasn’t?
“Come sit down,” Hiro said, sweeping back into the room. “I have a lot to explain.”
“Yes,” Ando agreed numbly. He edged past Adam and sank on the couch beside Hiro, and Adam, when Hiro waved him over, settled into a chair opposite them.
“So, first,” Hiro said. “I... what comes first?” he asked Adam, spreading his hands.
At the same time, Ando said, “You don’t have to... it’s none of my business.”
“Ando,” Hiro chided. “You’re my friend. I would have told you before, I just. I didn’t know.”
“Didn’t know,” Ando echoed, raising his eyebrows.
Hiro flushed and squirmed a little and tugged at his shirt and was generally irresistible. Adam covered a smile with one hand. “That I,” Hiro started, then paused, swallowing hard. “I thought... it wasn’t what I expected, but...”
“It’s okay,” Ando said quickly. “I get it.”
“Oh,” Hiro said, making a crestfallen face.
“Hiro,” Ando said, chuckling. “Really, it’s fine. I kind of knew anyway.”
Hiro’s mouth fell open. “What? Really? How?”
Ando shook his head, waving one hand dismissively. “I’ve known you since we were boys,” he said. “It would be hard to miss.”
Hiro nodded slowly, sharing a glance with Adam, who suddenly felt sorry for him. It never felt good to be the last to know. So he said, “Shouldn’t we be talking about Sylar?”
“Right,” Hiro said, visibly relieved. “Ando, Sylar isn’t dead.”
“But you killed him,” Ando argued, frowning.
“Apparently not,” Hiro sighed. “He’s the one who shot me today.”
Ando sat up straight, one hand gripping Hiro’s shoulder. “He shot you? Is that... that’s your blood?”
“Yes, but it’s okay,” Hiro said.
Ando stared at the spatter on Hiro’s shirt. “How is being shot okay?”
“Good question,” Adam added, giving Hiro a pointed look. He didn’t plan to get over that anytime soon.
“Adam saved me,” Hiro said. “I’m fine now, that’s not the point. Sylar is back, and he has to be stopped.”
Ando sighed. “And I suppose you have to stop him.”
“Right,” Hiro said. “I want you to stay away from New York, that’s where he is. And tell my father to stay away too. It’s not safe.”
“For you, either,” Ando pointed out.
“He won’t be going alone,” Adam said, flashing Hiro a warning look when he opened his mouth to argue. “There are several of us working together, and believe me, I have no intention of watching Hiro get killed again.”
Ando paled. “Again?”
Hiro rolled his eyes. “Adam, stop it,” he said. “He’s just trying to scare you,” he added to Ando. “I was only dead for a minute.”
Ando failed to look reassured.
“It will be all right,” Hiro told him gently. “I know Kensei will not let anything happen to me.”
Adam caught the name change and shifted uneasily, understanding too well. Hiro still saw him as the hero, and still relied on him to be one, even after he kept proving he couldn’t live up to it. He wasn’t sure if Hiro’s faith was an unbearable weight or an amazing gift. Possibly both.
“Except for getting shot,” Ando said mildly.
“And I’m fine now, because he saved me,” Hiro replied. “A hero is not afraid to take risks, Ando. It has to be done.”
Ando gave him a resigned smile. “Still the same Hiro,” he said.
Hiro grinned, then said, “Has my father returned to the company? I want to tell him about this too.”
“He already knows,” Adam said, and Hiro turned to him.
“He does? How?”
“Bob said he’d called the founders, remember? Obviously your father is one of them.”
Hiro blinked, his eyebrows drawing together. “Oh,” he said, “right.” He fell quiet, staring into space.
Ando nudged his shoulder. “What?” he asked.
Hiro shook his head. “It’s just... so much of this is connected. My father and Bob, and Suresh, his father and Sylar, the virus, the cheerleader and the comic books, and the Petrelli family is part of it too somehow. I feel like I’m missing something. They’re all pieces and if I could put them together, I could see more.”
“You should talk to your father,” Ando said. “He probably knows everything. He usually does.”
Hiro nodded ruefully. “Yes. Have you seen him since he returned to Japan?”
Ando grinned, his face suddenly lighting up. “That’s what I came to tell you! Well, partly. I got a promotion! He gave me an office and now, our old boss? He’s working for me.”
Hiro laughed and raised his hands in the air in a cheer. “That’s great! See, I told you coming with me to America was the right choice.”
“I don’t know,” Ando replied. “Your father still seems kind of angry with you. He said something about not approving of the company you keep.” Ando indicated Adam with a glance.
“What?” Hiro frowned. “Why not? He barely even met Adam, and we did everything he asked, I don’t know why...” He paused, then clapped a hand over his face, peeking out between his fingers. “Ohhhh no,” he moaned. “You don’t think he knows, do you?”
At that Adam had to laugh, and Ando bit his lips, obviously trying not to. “Hiro,” Ando said gently. “Think about it. I’ve known you since we were what, twelve? He’s known you your whole life. And he always knows everything.”
Hiro groaned and flopped back against the couch, his eyes squeezed shut. “Oh, this is so bad,” he mumbled. “What’s he going to do? Is he sure? Maybe he just suspects. Unless... what if Bob told him he saw us?”
Adam moved to sit beside Hiro and slipped an arm around his shoulders. “Carp,” he said softly. “He’s known since the first time he met me, in New York. He’s not going to do anything. He’ll just keep pretending not to notice.”
Hiro opened his eyes, casting them both hopeful looks. “You think so?” When they nodded, he considered, shrugged, and said, “I can work with that.”
“Good,” Ando said. “Now, I still haven’t heard the story-you being in the middle of the trials of Takezo Kensei?”
“Oh!” Hiro replied, grinning. “It started when I fell into an open field, right before the eclipse.”
Adam sat back and let him tell the story; a considerably more detailed one than the one he’d told his father. Still, it left out his fear of the mountain cave, which he was grateful for. It was funny, he thought, for someone who was supposed to be the strong, brave ‘hero,’ he certainly ended up clinging to Hiro, scared to death, more often than he’d like to admit.
“And then we met Yaeko,” Hiro was saying. “The swordsmith’s daughter; the most beautiful woman in Japan.”
“Was she?” Ando asked, leaning forward a little.
“Oh yes,” Hiro replied. “And smart, and brave-definitely a princess.”
Adam watched his face as he described her, aware there would probably always be a little of that boyhood crush left in Hiro for her, and wondered what it would have been like if it had been more than that. If Hiro had fallen for the princess, instead of him. He could even picture it: him coming back from some battle, exhausted and hot in his heavy armor, to find Hiro and Yaeko beneath the cherry blossoms, stealing a kiss.
The image cut an unexpected shaft of pain into his guts and he shook it off, frowning. Hiro would never.
Still, later that day (night?) after Ando had finally heard the whole story and Hiro had made them waffles and Adam had decided, grudgingly, that Ando was not so bad, he couldn’t help bringing it up.
“Hiro,” he said, leaning against the door frame in the kitchen. Ando had long since gone, as it was some ungodly hour of the morning in Japan.
“Hmm?” Hiro said, busily picking burnt edges of batter from his waffle iron; he’d insisted on buying it when they’d gotten food and clothes for Adam, but hadn’t quite mastered using it yet.
“Was there...?” Adam hesitated, not sure how to ask without sounding paranoid and jealous and mistrustful.
“What?” Hiro asked, glancing over his shoulder. Something must have shown on Adam’s face, because he put the waffle iron down and went to him, slipping his arms around Adam’s waist.
Adam shrugged, looking away. “I don’t know,” he said. “I just thought... when you were a boy, reading stories, you wanted to be Takezo Kensei, right?”
“Of course,” Hiro said, smiling.
“And in the stories, Kensei loved the princess. So you must have loved her a little, right?”
Hiro tilted his head thoughtfully, his hands stroking Adam’s sides. “Yes, I suppose so.”
Adam nodded, biting his lip. “And when you met her, and she was everything the stories said she was? And I wasn’t?”
“What are you asking?” Hiro replied, one hand touching Adam’s face, turning him until their eyes met. “You think I loved Yaeko?”
“Didn’t you?”
Hiro hesitated, and Adam felt the bottom drop out of his stomach, his hands clenching at his sides. But Hiro said, “I loved the idea of the princess. The idea of the perfect fairytale love story. But the real Yaeko? I felt sorry for her, because she didn’t get to have you.”
Adam looked at him for a moment, and then he curled a hand behind Hiro’s head and kissed him, his lips and his face and his jaw, his hair and his throat, where he could feel the pulse quicken, the muscles work as he caught his breath.
And he wanted to say something, he wanted to have the right words and didn’t. He could tell Hiro that if he lived another hundred years, he’d never find anyone else like him. He could say Hiro made him feel worthwhile, made him feel both happy and like he deserved happiness. He could say that the idea of living forever terrified him, because Hiro wouldn’t.
But none of that was enough, and it would never sound right when spoken out loud, so he took Hiro into the bedroom, and showed him instead.
~~~
Because I cannot resist soppy bits, or Ando. ♥
Chapter Eight
By kalimyre
Pairing: Kensei/Hiro, Adam/Hiro
Rating: Adult
Summary: In which the fairy tale does have a happy ending, but not the one you were expecting.
Notes: As always, thank you to my fabulous betas: powered_otaku and soulpeddler.
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
~~~
Part 7
They sort of milled aimlessly a little after that. Suresh was busy kicking himself over actually giving Sylar the cure, instead of some random chemical in a syringe. Molly had gotten very quiet and sat on the edge of a lab bench, watching him solemnly. Nikki went off to call someone, presumably Bob.
Adam stood with his back turned to the smear of Hiro’s blood on the floor, and watched him pace. Hiro noticed this only peripherally. He was trying to work it out in his mind, how Sylar could have survived, how he could keep surviving, keep escaping, always slipping out of his grasp.
And now, of course, what was he going to do? Clearly he couldn’t let Sylar just go on, unchallenged. He’d continue killing, continue stealing powers, and just get stronger. For Hiro it was one more failure, one more time when he hadn’t done as he should. Failed to stop him from killing Charlie, failed to save New York, failed to kill Sylar. Compared to that, what had he done right? Save Japan’s history? No, Kensei had done that; all Hiro had done was give in to temptation and take a piece of that history home with him.
“I have to anticipate him,” Hiro said to nobody in particular. “If I can figure out his plan, if I can be there waiting for him...”
“You want to face him again?” Adam asked incredulously.
“I have to,” Hiro replied, cutting him a sidelong glance. “I can’t let him keep doing this.”
“And why is that your responsibility?”
Hiro shook his head, because that was too big, too much to explain. The reason was somewhere in the pattern beneath events, the wheels that kept bringing him into Sylar’s path, giving him chances that he failed to grasp. But he thought Adam would probably not take ‘destiny’ for an answer.
“Bob is on his way,” Nikki said, slipping her cell phone back into her pocket. “He said we should stay put until he gets here.”
Hiro nodded absently, not really hearing her. What did Sylar want? Besides power, obviously. He’d want more people with powers, more abilities to steal. Hiro knew Suresh had some kind of way of finding them, something about code and genes and a system his father had worked out that he’d told them earlier, when he was testing Adam. Sylar would want that system, that list of targets; could they use it as bait? But no, that would put the people on it in danger.
Or maybe they could track down the people on the list first, gather those with strong powers, mount an offensive. Unless Sylar followed them, and they ended up leading him right to his victims.
Hiro sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. His chest felt tight, his stomach unsteady, and he had an incipient headache that seemed ready to become worse at a moment’s notice; he wondered if they were side effects from dying, or from seeing Sylar again.
“I should call Matt,” Suresh said distantly. He’d stopped cursing about giving Sylar the cure and had settled on the bench beside Molly, staring blankly into space. “He’d... he’d want to know.”
“Who’s Matt?” Adam asked.
“He’s...” Suresh shook his head. “We’re taking care of Molly together. If he gets back to the apartment, finds... God, a dead body, he’ll panic. I should call him.” But he made no move to do so, staring at the opposite wall with blank, glassy eyes, one hand methodically stroking Molly’s arm.
Shock, Hiro thought, nodding, wondering why he wasn’t affected. Unless maybe he was, and that was why he couldn’t stand still.
“Bob will take care of that,” Nikki said, not indicating if she meant the dead body, or calling Matt. Possibly both. Hiro thought Bob was the sort of man who could make inconvenient dead bodies go away.
Adam caught Hiro’s sleeve as he went by, tried to hold him in place, and Hiro pulled away. “Don’t,” he said.
“Hiro...” Adam looked at him, his eyes flicking uneasily to Hiro’s bloodied shirt again. “Would you just stop for a minute?”
Hiro was aware, in a detached way, that Adam had been scared when he died. That Adam probably wanted to touch him, to make sure he was okay, to talk to him. He was even aware that it would probably be good for both of them. But if he stopped moving, everything that had just happened would catch up all at once.
So he shrugged off Adam’s hands and kept pacing, and eventually he was able to ignore the weight of Adam’s worried gaze.
“That cure was meant for me,” Nikki said quietly. “If I hadn’t needed it, then Suresh wouldn’t have made it, which means Sylar would still be sick right now.”
“It’s not your fault you got sick,” Adam pointed out.
She laughed bitterly. “You’d think so, but actually, it is. I injected myself with that virus on purpose.”
Adam stared at her, baffled. “Why?”
“Long story,” she said.
“It usually is,” Adam muttered.
“Don’t try to lay blame,” Suresh said. “Nobody made Sylar a killer; he did that on his own.”
“Well said.”
They all turned; Bob was standing just inside the door, a young blonde woman at his side, looking around warily. She trailed him into the room, then sat beside Suresh, shooting him a concerned glance.
“First,” Bob said, “is everyone all right?”
They made assenting noises, and Bob paused, looking at Hiro. It took him a moment to register, and then he glanced down at his chest, vaguely surprised to see the drying blood. Getting shot seemed very distant now.
“Sylar shot him,” Suresh said when Hiro didn’t speak up. “But we got him some of Adam’s blood, and he recovered.”
“Okay, good, quick thinking,” Bob said, nodding. “I want you to know you all did well today.”
“We let him get away,” Hiro said flatly.
“You survived,” Bob replied, “and with your abilities intact. That’s more than many who’ve faced him can say. Now, granted, this is... unexpected, but I’ve been in contact with several other company founding members, and we’re coming together to make a plan.”
“Good,” Nikki said, “I want in.”
“So do I,” Hiro agreed.
“And you will be,” Bob told them. “You are all critical in this fight, believe me. But for right now, I want you to go home.”
“What?” Suresh said, sitting up straight.
At the same time, Nikki said, “You just want us to run?”
“No, to regroup,” Bob explained. “Chasing after Sylar, blind and disorganized, is not the way to do this. I assure you we will contact you, and we will ask you to work with us in the effort to bring him down, but for now, we need to think, to prepare.” He turned to Suresh, and added, “Your apartment is being taken care of. In the meantime, the company has a safe place for you to stay.”
“Sylar knows where I live,” Suresh realized, and Bob nodded.
“Which is exactly why you’re not going back there. I can get a place for you, too,” he said to Nikki.
She shook her head. “I need to go back to my son.”
“I understand,” Bob replied. “And I assume you will be returning to Tokyo?” he asked Hiro and Adam.
“For now,” Hiro said.
“Good. I don’t know if you know Elle,” he pointed to the blond, “but she’ll be working with us too. For now she’ll be staying with you and Parkman,” he said to Suresh. “To keep you safe, and especially, to keep Molly safe.”
Suresh narrowed his eyes. “If you think you’re using her-”
“I want to help,” she interrupted, lifting her chin stubbornly. “I can find him.”
“And she’s the only one who can,” Bob said pointedly. “You know she’s crucial to this. Her safety will be our top priority.”
Suresh didn’t look pleased, but he nodded, pulling Molly close to his side. On his other side, Elle leaned in, tucked a bit of his hair behind his ear, and said, “Guess we get to be roomies.”
Bob ignored the byplay and dusted his hands together. “We should all get going. Now that Sylar knows this place, it isn’t safe; we won’t be meeting here again. I’ll get details to you of our new location once it’s established. Suresh, I’ll take you to the safe house here in New York, and Hiro, if you could please give Nikki a lift back home, I would appreciate it. Teleportation really is the safest way to travel.”
Hiro nodded absently, already thinking of the little girl and her gift. If she could find Sylar, if she always knew where he was, and if he could get her to tell him... well. That just opened all kinds of possibilities.
They dispersed, Bob promising to speak to them all soon, and he took Suresh, Molly and Elle out the door. Nikki and Adam gathered around Hiro, and he took them to New Orleans. He’d never been, but he could picture it from his memories of the news coverage. Fortunately he didn’t take them back in time to the middle of the hurricane, which was more luck than skill; his mind was barely on the task.
“Wow,” Nikki said, blinking up into the sunlight. They were in a small park, in a clearing beside a lake, the air heavy and warm compared to the crisp early spring in New York. Traffic hummed by on the other side of the trees, and when they walked forward a little, they could see street signs.
“I know where I am,” Nikki said. “I’ll get a ride from here. Thanks for the short cut; sure beats flying.”
“You’re welcome,” Hiro said, and even his voice felt faraway to him now, as if it came from someone else. He felt cold, hollow, and there was a peculiar white numbness laying over him, like a thick layer of cotton, muffling the world.
“Come on,” Adam murmured in his ear, “take us home.”
So Hiro did, and they were back in the apartment in Tokyo, the sky outside the windows dark, the city lights laid out in a glittering grid. He wasn’t sure what to do next, which Adam solved for him by pushing him into the wall, holding him there with the weight of his body. He ran his hands over Hiro, fingers sifting through his hair, framing the shape of his back and arms, measuring the line of his ribs, as if making sure he was whole.
At first it was muffled like everything else, but the heat of Adam, the weight and tangible feel of him, seeped through the layer of numbness and Hiro felt his skin tingling, his hands shaking and he squeezed his eyes shut and pressed his face against Adam’s shoulder and tried to breathe.
“You can’t do that,” Adam murmured, his lips brushing Hiro’s temple. “You died, you were dead and if I hadn’t been there, if we didn’t have a way to get the blood into you, you would have been gone, don’t you see?”
“I’m all right,” Hiro said, not sure if he was reassuring Adam or himself.
“You died!” Adam insisted, punching him lightly on the shoulder. “Listen to me! The... the whole dying thing, not acceptable!”
“He would have killed the little girl,” Hiro argued, and Adam pushed him harder against the wall, shaking him.
“You should have let me do it! I would have been fine.”
“But you didn’t do it,” Hiro pointed out. “You didn’t move.”
“I know!” Adam snapped, and then closed his eyes, resting his forehead on Hiro’s shoulder. “I know,” he said again, softly. “Don’t you think I know that? But I’m too good at taking care of myself, and nobody else.”
“You would have,” Hiro said. “I just got there first.”
“No,” Adam replied sharply. “I’m not the man you think I am. I never was. I don’t know why you still...” He stopped, pressing his lips into a thin line, looking away.
Hiro touched his face, curving his hand around Adam’s jaw and turning him back until their eyes met. “Still what?” he asked. “Have faith in you? That isn’t going to change.”
Adam shook his head, and covered Hiro’s hand with his own, pressing a kiss into the palm. “Then you’ll be disappointed,” he said.
“No,” Hiro said simply. “I won’t.”
Adam held his face in both hands, stroking this thumbs over Hiro’s skin. He kissed Hiro very gently, holding him as if he might break, and Hiro could feel the tremor in his hands, could feel Adam’s chest hitch against his.
“I had to watch you die once,” Hiro pointed out. “This is only fair.”
Adam gave him a hard look. “Fine, that makes us even. You don’t get to die again. Ever.”
“You can bring me back,” Hiro said, which was clearly not the answer Adam wanted.
“You’re planning to go after him, aren’t you,” Adam said. It wasn’t a question.
“I have to,” Hiro replied.
“Weren’t you listening back there? They’re going to make a plan, fight smart. This one man crusade you’re trying to become is going to get you killed. Again.”
“I heard what Bob said,” Hiro said, “but that doesn’t mean I trust him. I don’t know what he really wants. This is my task to face; I have to make sure it happens.”
Adam threw his hands in the air, making a frustrated noise. “Why is it your task? Why yours alone? Saving the world is not your sole responsibility.”
“It’s hard to explain,” Hiro said.
“Try,” Adam insisted, pushing him back against the wall when he tried to turn away.
Hiro gave a resigned sigh. “When I went into the future,” he began, “and met the future me, he had created a map of time. Of my life, and Sylar’s, and so many others. He worked out exactly how each path crossed, how each event led into more, and how changing one key moment could change the future. My place in that timeline was to kill Sylar the night the bomb went off in New York.”
“And you nearly did,” Adam pointed out. “He’s hard to kill.”
“But it’s still my place,” Hiro replied. “His path has crossed mine again, and I believe it will keep crossing mine until one of us is dead. It’s up to me to end this.”
Adam sputtered, scrubbing one hand through his hair. “Based on what, a theory that another you had in a future that never happened? On coincidence? From what I could gather today, Sylar has run across a lot of paths. Maybe Suresh is meant to kill him. Maybe Nikki-hell, maybe I kill him. Does it really matter who does it, as long as he ends up dead?”
“But in the comic book-”
Adam cut him off. “A comic book? Like the ones you showed me on your shelves over there? A children’s story? Is that seriously what you’re going to plan your life around?”
Hiro glared at him. “They’re not just for children. And this was a special book, it was written by Mr. Isaac. He could draw the future, and everything in that book came true.”
Adam thought for a moment, then asked, “Came true after you read it? After you had that map to follow, to make it happen?”
Hiro nodded slowly, remembering how he’d followed every step of the book so carefully. And yes, some of it had been right, some of it had shown things he couldn’t have made happen, but how much of it was destiny and how much was a self-fulfilling prophecy? “It’s a circle,” he said. “Seeing the future makes us take action to create that future, which makes that future happen.”
Adam blinked at him. “Right,” he said after a moment, looking baffled. “My point is, it’s not all about you. A lot of powerful people are after Sylar. You can accept a little help.”
“Fight smart,” Hiro said, smiling at Adam.
“It’s how I survived so long,” Adam replied.
“You can heal from anything.”
Adam shrugged. “That too.” Then he sobered, putting a hand on Hiro’s chest, over his bloodied, perfect skin. “But you can’t. I mean it, Hiro. Don’t do this again.”
Hiro nodded, wrapping his arms around Adam’s waist and resting his cheek on his shoulder. He could feel Adam’s long sigh, and a kiss pressed into his hair. “I’m sorry,” he said quietly.
Adam shook his head. “You can’t help who you are. Just be a careful hero next time, all right?”
Hiro chuckled and kissed Adam’s jaw, nuzzling him until Adam shifted against him and curled his hand around the back of Hiro’s neck and pulled him in for a hard kiss, licking into his mouth, pulling the breath out of him and giving it back.
They didn’t hear the door open until there was a thud, and they both looked up, startled. Ando stood just inside the open door, keys dangling from one hand, a bag of groceries spilled at his feet. His eyes were round, and got even bigger when Hiro stepped forward and he saw the blood on his shirt.
“Um,” Hiro said. “Hi. You, you brought me groceries?”
Ando nodded slowly, his mouth working, but no sound coming out. Eventually he said, “I didn’t know if... I mean, you were gone and I thought...”
“Right, thanks,” Hiro said, tugging awkwardly at his shirt. “I... um. You met Adam? He was Kensei, before.”
Ando nodded again. “You’re... were you...?”
Hiro looked over at Adam, who was leaning one shoulder against the wall, arms crossed over his chest, looking like the cat that had gotten the cream. Then he looked down at himself, at his torn and bloodstained shirt, and up at Ando, who was still gaping like a fish.
Well. At least the question of how he was going to tell Ando about Adam had been answered. Now he just had to figure out how to explain the rest of his impossible story.
Adam, smirking, came up behind him and slipped a possessive arm around his waist, raising one suggestive eyebrow at Ando. Ando’s eyes, if it were possible, got a little wider.
Yeah. Clearly Adam was going to be a big help.
~~~
Adam watched Ando lazily as Hiro bustled around, picking up the spilled grocery bag, putting the food away. Ando returned his stare a few seconds at a time, his eyes flicking away nervously. “So,” Adam said, and Ando jumped. “You often let yourself in?”
Ando shrugged. “Hiro forgets to get things sometimes. Like food. He gets distracted.”
“He is excitable,” Adam agreed, curling his voice around the word deliberately. Ando shifted his weight back and forth and scrubbed a hand over the back of his neck.
“I, um... I just wanted to check on him. I haven’t seen him since he brought you from the past. I wasn’t trying to... it’s not like that,” Ando mumbled. “With Hiro, I mean. It’s not, we’re not. You know.”
It took Adam a moment to realize the man was assuring him he wasn’t a rival for Hiro’s affections, which... he really wasn’t sure how to react to. Good? Presumptuous? Ridiculous to even think he’d be competition? But nice of him to confirm that he wasn’t?
“Come sit down,” Hiro said, sweeping back into the room. “I have a lot to explain.”
“Yes,” Ando agreed numbly. He edged past Adam and sank on the couch beside Hiro, and Adam, when Hiro waved him over, settled into a chair opposite them.
“So, first,” Hiro said. “I... what comes first?” he asked Adam, spreading his hands.
At the same time, Ando said, “You don’t have to... it’s none of my business.”
“Ando,” Hiro chided. “You’re my friend. I would have told you before, I just. I didn’t know.”
“Didn’t know,” Ando echoed, raising his eyebrows.
Hiro flushed and squirmed a little and tugged at his shirt and was generally irresistible. Adam covered a smile with one hand. “That I,” Hiro started, then paused, swallowing hard. “I thought... it wasn’t what I expected, but...”
“It’s okay,” Ando said quickly. “I get it.”
“Oh,” Hiro said, making a crestfallen face.
“Hiro,” Ando said, chuckling. “Really, it’s fine. I kind of knew anyway.”
Hiro’s mouth fell open. “What? Really? How?”
Ando shook his head, waving one hand dismissively. “I’ve known you since we were boys,” he said. “It would be hard to miss.”
Hiro nodded slowly, sharing a glance with Adam, who suddenly felt sorry for him. It never felt good to be the last to know. So he said, “Shouldn’t we be talking about Sylar?”
“Right,” Hiro said, visibly relieved. “Ando, Sylar isn’t dead.”
“But you killed him,” Ando argued, frowning.
“Apparently not,” Hiro sighed. “He’s the one who shot me today.”
Ando sat up straight, one hand gripping Hiro’s shoulder. “He shot you? Is that... that’s your blood?”
“Yes, but it’s okay,” Hiro said.
Ando stared at the spatter on Hiro’s shirt. “How is being shot okay?”
“Good question,” Adam added, giving Hiro a pointed look. He didn’t plan to get over that anytime soon.
“Adam saved me,” Hiro said. “I’m fine now, that’s not the point. Sylar is back, and he has to be stopped.”
Ando sighed. “And I suppose you have to stop him.”
“Right,” Hiro said. “I want you to stay away from New York, that’s where he is. And tell my father to stay away too. It’s not safe.”
“For you, either,” Ando pointed out.
“He won’t be going alone,” Adam said, flashing Hiro a warning look when he opened his mouth to argue. “There are several of us working together, and believe me, I have no intention of watching Hiro get killed again.”
Ando paled. “Again?”
Hiro rolled his eyes. “Adam, stop it,” he said. “He’s just trying to scare you,” he added to Ando. “I was only dead for a minute.”
Ando failed to look reassured.
“It will be all right,” Hiro told him gently. “I know Kensei will not let anything happen to me.”
Adam caught the name change and shifted uneasily, understanding too well. Hiro still saw him as the hero, and still relied on him to be one, even after he kept proving he couldn’t live up to it. He wasn’t sure if Hiro’s faith was an unbearable weight or an amazing gift. Possibly both.
“Except for getting shot,” Ando said mildly.
“And I’m fine now, because he saved me,” Hiro replied. “A hero is not afraid to take risks, Ando. It has to be done.”
Ando gave him a resigned smile. “Still the same Hiro,” he said.
Hiro grinned, then said, “Has my father returned to the company? I want to tell him about this too.”
“He already knows,” Adam said, and Hiro turned to him.
“He does? How?”
“Bob said he’d called the founders, remember? Obviously your father is one of them.”
Hiro blinked, his eyebrows drawing together. “Oh,” he said, “right.” He fell quiet, staring into space.
Ando nudged his shoulder. “What?” he asked.
Hiro shook his head. “It’s just... so much of this is connected. My father and Bob, and Suresh, his father and Sylar, the virus, the cheerleader and the comic books, and the Petrelli family is part of it too somehow. I feel like I’m missing something. They’re all pieces and if I could put them together, I could see more.”
“You should talk to your father,” Ando said. “He probably knows everything. He usually does.”
Hiro nodded ruefully. “Yes. Have you seen him since he returned to Japan?”
Ando grinned, his face suddenly lighting up. “That’s what I came to tell you! Well, partly. I got a promotion! He gave me an office and now, our old boss? He’s working for me.”
Hiro laughed and raised his hands in the air in a cheer. “That’s great! See, I told you coming with me to America was the right choice.”
“I don’t know,” Ando replied. “Your father still seems kind of angry with you. He said something about not approving of the company you keep.” Ando indicated Adam with a glance.
“What?” Hiro frowned. “Why not? He barely even met Adam, and we did everything he asked, I don’t know why...” He paused, then clapped a hand over his face, peeking out between his fingers. “Ohhhh no,” he moaned. “You don’t think he knows, do you?”
At that Adam had to laugh, and Ando bit his lips, obviously trying not to. “Hiro,” Ando said gently. “Think about it. I’ve known you since we were what, twelve? He’s known you your whole life. And he always knows everything.”
Hiro groaned and flopped back against the couch, his eyes squeezed shut. “Oh, this is so bad,” he mumbled. “What’s he going to do? Is he sure? Maybe he just suspects. Unless... what if Bob told him he saw us?”
Adam moved to sit beside Hiro and slipped an arm around his shoulders. “Carp,” he said softly. “He’s known since the first time he met me, in New York. He’s not going to do anything. He’ll just keep pretending not to notice.”
Hiro opened his eyes, casting them both hopeful looks. “You think so?” When they nodded, he considered, shrugged, and said, “I can work with that.”
“Good,” Ando said. “Now, I still haven’t heard the story-you being in the middle of the trials of Takezo Kensei?”
“Oh!” Hiro replied, grinning. “It started when I fell into an open field, right before the eclipse.”
Adam sat back and let him tell the story; a considerably more detailed one than the one he’d told his father. Still, it left out his fear of the mountain cave, which he was grateful for. It was funny, he thought, for someone who was supposed to be the strong, brave ‘hero,’ he certainly ended up clinging to Hiro, scared to death, more often than he’d like to admit.
“And then we met Yaeko,” Hiro was saying. “The swordsmith’s daughter; the most beautiful woman in Japan.”
“Was she?” Ando asked, leaning forward a little.
“Oh yes,” Hiro replied. “And smart, and brave-definitely a princess.”
Adam watched his face as he described her, aware there would probably always be a little of that boyhood crush left in Hiro for her, and wondered what it would have been like if it had been more than that. If Hiro had fallen for the princess, instead of him. He could even picture it: him coming back from some battle, exhausted and hot in his heavy armor, to find Hiro and Yaeko beneath the cherry blossoms, stealing a kiss.
The image cut an unexpected shaft of pain into his guts and he shook it off, frowning. Hiro would never.
Still, later that day (night?) after Ando had finally heard the whole story and Hiro had made them waffles and Adam had decided, grudgingly, that Ando was not so bad, he couldn’t help bringing it up.
“Hiro,” he said, leaning against the door frame in the kitchen. Ando had long since gone, as it was some ungodly hour of the morning in Japan.
“Hmm?” Hiro said, busily picking burnt edges of batter from his waffle iron; he’d insisted on buying it when they’d gotten food and clothes for Adam, but hadn’t quite mastered using it yet.
“Was there...?” Adam hesitated, not sure how to ask without sounding paranoid and jealous and mistrustful.
“What?” Hiro asked, glancing over his shoulder. Something must have shown on Adam’s face, because he put the waffle iron down and went to him, slipping his arms around Adam’s waist.
Adam shrugged, looking away. “I don’t know,” he said. “I just thought... when you were a boy, reading stories, you wanted to be Takezo Kensei, right?”
“Of course,” Hiro said, smiling.
“And in the stories, Kensei loved the princess. So you must have loved her a little, right?”
Hiro tilted his head thoughtfully, his hands stroking Adam’s sides. “Yes, I suppose so.”
Adam nodded, biting his lip. “And when you met her, and she was everything the stories said she was? And I wasn’t?”
“What are you asking?” Hiro replied, one hand touching Adam’s face, turning him until their eyes met. “You think I loved Yaeko?”
“Didn’t you?”
Hiro hesitated, and Adam felt the bottom drop out of his stomach, his hands clenching at his sides. But Hiro said, “I loved the idea of the princess. The idea of the perfect fairytale love story. But the real Yaeko? I felt sorry for her, because she didn’t get to have you.”
Adam looked at him for a moment, and then he curled a hand behind Hiro’s head and kissed him, his lips and his face and his jaw, his hair and his throat, where he could feel the pulse quicken, the muscles work as he caught his breath.
And he wanted to say something, he wanted to have the right words and didn’t. He could tell Hiro that if he lived another hundred years, he’d never find anyone else like him. He could say Hiro made him feel worthwhile, made him feel both happy and like he deserved happiness. He could say that the idea of living forever terrified him, because Hiro wouldn’t.
But none of that was enough, and it would never sound right when spoken out loud, so he took Hiro into the bedroom, and showed him instead.
~~~
Because I cannot resist soppy bits, or Ando. ♥
Chapter Eight