Fic: Yen, 12/12
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 | Chapter Seven | Chapter Eight | Chapter Nine | Chapter Ten | Chapter Eleven
~~~
Part 12
Bennett had Hiro take them all to what looked like a basement, until he opened a wall locker and it was full of guns. Suresh, Nathan, Matt and Bennett all took one, and Adam held his hand out for one as well, the cold weight of it still unfamiliar in his hand. Hiro turned down the gun he was offered, and Bennett led him to another locker.
“I had a feeling you weren’t the gun type,” he said, opening it. It was full of blades, from small hand knives to full size swords, and Hiro’s eyes widened.
“I can take one?” he asked.
Bennett nodded. “You did well with a sword the last time, as I remember.”
Hiro smiled shyly and lifted one down, a slim, straight blade with a leather wrapped grip. Adam watched him shoulder the sheath and slide the sword into place, and then looked at the gun in his own hand.
“Hold on,” he said, handing it back to Bennett. “Given the choice, I’ll take what I know best.”
Hiro grinned at him as he took a blade, a little longer than Hiro’s to match his greater height and reach. He swung it experimentally, listened to the clean hiss of air over the sharp metal, and nodded. It didn’t quite live up to Kensei’s sword, but it would do the same work.
“You want anything?” Bennett asked Nikki.
“I got it, thanks,” she said distantly, already strapping a holster to her thigh. She slipped a knife into her belt, and another into the leg of one boot, and Adam thought if he weren’t so utterly taken with Hiro, he’d want to get to know her better.
“Here,” Bennett said, pulling a drawer open. Adam saw tiny bottles of unidentified fluid, along with medical supplies and needles and he sighed, rolling up his sleeve.
Suresh took the empty syringes and methodically filled them with Adam’s blood, capping each one. Soon there was an even dozen lined up in a row, and he said, “You think that’s enough?”
“Peter and Adam won’t need it,” Nathan said, “so that’s two for each of us. Should be plenty.”
“I can always refill them if I have to,” Adam said.
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” Suresh said. He bundled them together and tucked them into a small satchel, and Adam slung it across his chest, hearing the needles click together softly inside.
“Right,” Bennett said, “where’s Molly?”
“At our place in New York, the new one Bob got for us,” Suresh said.
Bennett nodded, absently checking the clip of his gun, then tucking it away. “This is where we split up. We can’t go walking through New York visibly armed like this, and the whole group showing up at your place is going to catch the company’s eye. Hiro, you’ll take us all to the field, then you and Peter go back for the location, and Sylar.”
“Okay,” Hiro said, and they clumped in close, putting their hands on him. The smell of damp grass washed over them before the sunlight hit, and then they were back in Maine. Adam thought it looked like any battlefield before the battle, innocent and empty.
Suresh described the place in New York for Hiro, and said, “Tell Molly... tell her I promise to come back.”
“Me too,” Matt added. “Try not to scare her, okay?”
“We’ll be careful,” Peter said.
“Hiro,” Adam said, taking a deep breath when his voice threatened to give him away. “Good luck.”
“Goes for me, too,” Nathan said, giving his brother a quick hug. “You got this, no problem.”
“I know,” Peter said, but he was tense, electricity already coiling in his palm.
“We’ll come back right here,” Hiro said. “Be ready.” Then he put a hand on Peter’s shoulder, met Adam’s eyes for a long moment, and they were gone.
There was a beat of silence, and then Bennett said, “You heard the man. Everyone in their places, it’s time.”
~~~
Peter turned out to have a knack for talking to kids, and Molly responded well to him, soon getting over her initial fright at seeing two men suddenly appear in the house. Hiro watched as she found Sylar for them, her finger tracing down the map until it rested on Florida.
“Miami?” Peter murmured. “What’s he doing there?”
Molly shrugged. “I just know where he is, not why.”
“Can you get closer?” Hiro asked, and she nodded.
“I need a map,” she said, and soon they had him pinpointed to a marina on the coast, right on the water’s edge.
“Thank you,” Peter said, and she nodded solemnly.
“Be careful,” she replied. “Please take care of Matt and Mohinder.”
“We will,” Hiro promised, and then Peter drew him aside, one hand on his arm.
“I’ll make us invisible as soon as we get there,” he said. “Try to get us close, but not so close that he sees us.”
Hiro closed his eyes and reached for the place Sylar was, seeing the choppy seawater and wooden dock before he opened them again. They appeared right on the beach, on a short, sandy shoal under the dock, wooden boards over their heads.
“Stay close to me,” Peter said, leading them up to the road above. Hiro did, noticing the way that people walked right toward them, dodging to the side so he wouldn’t be run over. Being invisible didn’t feel any different, but he supposed it wouldn’t, from the inside.
Miami was hot, sticky, and crowded, and Hiro’s impression of it was only a fleeting rush of white shirts and sunglasses, Cuban music and boats dotting the water, and the grit of sand beneath his feet. They walked carefully along the dock, Hiro watching the road to their left, Peter the water to their right.
“There,” Peter said softly, pointing.
Hiro squinted in the bright sun, looking at a small fishing boat just a short distance from shore, a man visible standing on the deck, rummaging through a cooler. “Is that him?”
“I think so,” Peter replied. The man turned, and for a moment Hiro’s heart leapt into his throat, dead certain he was looking right at them, but his gaze just swept past slowly, searching.
“It’s him,” Hiro said, nodding. Even at this distance, he’d know those eyes anywhere.
Peter’s grip on his arm tightened. “You ready?”
“Yes,” Hiro replied. “It will be very fast.” He fixed his mind on the deck of the boat just behind Sylar, and said, “Now.”
Sylar was already turning, startled, one hand raised when they appeared behind him. Peter raised his own hand, holding it out flat, freezing Sylar in place, and for a moment there was struggle, both of them pushing without touching. Hiro darted forward, wrapped a hand around his wrist, and closed his eyes tight, and they landed in the Maine field, Peter and Sylar rocking backward with the change.
Hiro dropped to the ground and rolled, gunfire starting over his head.
“Stay down!” Adam shouted and Hiro ignored him, rising up, his sword drawn.
Sylar was standing, both hands held out, bullets hanging in the air around him like a swarm of lead. He grinned, drew them in, then flung them in all directions. Hiro heard Nathan cry out, felt the wind as one zipped past his face, and then another caught him in the side, just above his hip.
He went down, hands pressed to his gut, struggling to breathe. He was dimly aware of the crackle of electricity as Peter honed in on Sylar, and Nikki’s pounding footsteps beside him, the knife flashing in her hand. Hiro felt like the ground was moving beneath him, the world spinning, his skin cold everywhere but his belly, where it was hot, slick, shaking.
Sylar shouted as the electricity snapped again, and then more gunfire, while he was distracted, and Hiro thought time must be slowing down because he could see the bullets streaking overhead, almost graceful. The air bent around them, spinning, hot, and the smell of burning as the grass caught in the sizzling electricity.
Then there were hands on him, covering his own on his belly, and a muttered, “Dammit, Hiro, what did I tell you about this?”
Hiro didn’t feel the needle, but he felt the wound closing, the cold and dizziness retreating, and saw Adam kneeling over him, backlit in the sun, visible only in outline. “Stay down,” Adam growled, and then ran to help Nikki, grunting as a bullet caught him in the shoulder. Hiro saw him miss a step and twist, but recover, his body spitting the bullet out even as he injected Nikki’s still form.
Hiro sat up, looked down at the bloody mess of his shirt, and then picked his sword up. Sylar’s back was to him, and he was badly burned, his clothes smoking and blackened, his skin blistered, but he was still on his feet. Hiro saw Nathan crumpled on the ground several feet away, Adam already headed for him, and further in the distance, Matt had taken a knee, blood soaking one side of his shirt, his gun up but empty.
Bennett was still standing, his gun trained on Sylar, but he wasn’t firing. Another shot of electricity came from the side, seemingly out of nowhere, and Sylar writhed, shoving blindly with his power. A wave of force rolled out, flattening the grass, and in Sylar’s hands, red light began to spike.
Bennett fired while he was distracted, and Sylar took the hit, but it was in his arm, a flesh wound, and he only staggered. He pushed a hand out and Bennett went flying, landing with a crunch thirty feet away.
Behind him, Nikki was on her feet, darting forward, knife plunging deep into Sylar’s leg. He cried out and dropped to his knees, then twisted, one hand flashing bright against her. She screamed and flew back, a blackened mark in the shape of his hand on her chest.
Nathan was up again, zooming overhead, swooping down to get a good shot, but Sylar caught him with his mind and slammed him back into the ground, bones snapping audibly as he landed. Hiro saw Adam scrambling to him, a syringe tucked between his teeth, and Peter lashed out with the electricity again, but Sylar pushed it back, the red glow in his hands building again.
Hiro raised his sword, moved close, and it felt like a hand guiding him, like pieces falling into place. This had always been his role.
Adam had gotten to Matt, and he fired again, Sylar catching the bullets, holding them spinning in midair. Nikki was still down, moaning in pain, Nathan twisting on the ground as Adam’s blood did its work and his bones knitted, Bennett lying still, broken in too many places.
Sylar threw the bullets to where the electricity was coming from, and one caught Peter, flickering, visible for a moment. Sylar smiled, predatory, triumphant.
He raised one hand, and Hiro felt the rush of building heat, saw the redwhite light spike, and it was his dreams all over again, it was New York and the bomb and saving the world, it was his destiny. He ran silent, giving no warning, and sword went in smoothly, slicing through flesh and muscle, scraping against bone.
Sylar looked down at the sword sticking from his chest, blinking in shock, his breath caught on the blade. Hiro yanked it to the side, felt the resistance, heard the thick, meaty sound as it severed Sylar’s spine, and then drew it back out, gleaming gray steel gone bright red.
Sylar crumpled to the ground, gasped, his legs jerking spasmodically. Light flickered in his hands, in his eyes, hissed and sizzled, and then faded, gone.
Hiro took two steps back, and his knees folded beneath him. He sat down hard, the sword lying forgotten on the ground beside him. “I did it,” he said, soft, disbelieving.
Peter landed beside him, Nathan joining them, one arm slung around Peter’s shoulders. They were still, silent, watching Sylar’s body. Adam finished his rounds and soon they were all back up, everyone bloodied but whole.
“Make sure he can’t come back,” Bennett said.
Peter nodded, moving to his side. “Stand back,” he said over his shoulder.
They did, Adam pulling Hiro to his feet, holding him against his chest, one arm snug around Hiro’s blood-soaked waist.
Peter crouched over Sylar, put his hands on him, and white light grew, glowing so bright they all had to look away. When they looked back, there was only a burned, bare circle of earth and fine ash powder, blowing across the field, scattered by the wind.
They huddled together, Nathan hugging his brother, Matt and Suresh giving each other relieved smiles, and Adam surprised Hiro by curling a hand behind his neck and kissing him fiercely, not caring that the others could see.
“Well done, everyone,” Bennett said, nodding at them.
“I’m just glad it’s over,” Peter said.
Bennett lifted a sardonic eyebrow. “Believe me, there’s always something. We may need to work together again someday.”
“I’ll be there,” Nikki said.
“Yeah, count us in too,” Matt said, and Suresh nodded.
“Sure, what the hell,” Nathan added. “Politics didn’t work out so well, maybe I should try being a superhero.”
“We’ll have to get you a cape,” Peter said, and Nathan punched him lightly, rolling his eyes.
Bennett chuckled, then cast Adam a questioning glance. “How about you?”
“Of course,” Hiro said.
Adam sighed and spread his hands. “Who am I to argue with fate?”
“Now you get it,” Hiro told him. “I told you you’d be a hero.”
“You’re the one who finished him,” Adam pointed out.
“You kept us all alive,” Hiro countered.
“Team effort,” Nathan said. “Now, what do you say we get out of here? If anyone comes wondering what all that gunfire was about, we’re not going to make a pretty picture.”
Hiro nodded, and they gathered around him one more time, ready to go home.
~~~
It took a while for Hiro and Adam to actually make it back to Tokyo. There were guns and swords to be returned, and everyone was in various stages of bloody and burned, something that would draw attention they didn’t want if seen publicly.
So Hiro took them all where they asked to go, to get cleaned up and changed and assure loved ones they were all right. Molly cried when she saw Matt and Suresh again, hugging them both, refusing to let them out of her sight. They took Nikki back to her son, who beamed when he heard the story, and told her he’d always known she was a hero.
They dropped Bennett back in California, and Hiro finally got to meet his cheerleader when she came running out to hug her father. They told and re-told the story, were invited in for barbecue with Nikki’s family, for cupcakes and coffee with the Bennett’s, for a celebratory drink with the Petrelli brothers.
So by the time they got back to Tokyo, it was very late (or very early) and Hiro was yawning, walking with his side propped against Adam’s and his glasses sliding down his nose.
“Hey,” Adam said, turning them, pulling Hiro against his chest. “You did it.”
Hiro curled into him, nuzzling sleepily at his throat. “Mmm,” he said. “We did it.”
“So is that what we do from now on?” Adam asked. “Save the world, fight the villain, succumb to fits of heroics?”
“Pretty much,” Hiro replied. “It’s our destiny.”
Adam framed Hiro’s face with his hands, kissed his forehead, his cheeks, the line of his jaw. “Hiro,” he said. “I love you.”
Hiro smiled sweetly at him. “Yeah,” he said. “I know.”
~~~
End
Written January 25, 2008 - February 17, 2008
I just want to say thank you to the comm, which has been awesome and welcoming and very encouraging. You guys rock. ♥
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 | Chapter Seven | Chapter Eight | Chapter Nine | Chapter Ten | Chapter Eleven
~~~
Part 12
Bennett had Hiro take them all to what looked like a basement, until he opened a wall locker and it was full of guns. Suresh, Nathan, Matt and Bennett all took one, and Adam held his hand out for one as well, the cold weight of it still unfamiliar in his hand. Hiro turned down the gun he was offered, and Bennett led him to another locker.
“I had a feeling you weren’t the gun type,” he said, opening it. It was full of blades, from small hand knives to full size swords, and Hiro’s eyes widened.
“I can take one?” he asked.
Bennett nodded. “You did well with a sword the last time, as I remember.”
Hiro smiled shyly and lifted one down, a slim, straight blade with a leather wrapped grip. Adam watched him shoulder the sheath and slide the sword into place, and then looked at the gun in his own hand.
“Hold on,” he said, handing it back to Bennett. “Given the choice, I’ll take what I know best.”
Hiro grinned at him as he took a blade, a little longer than Hiro’s to match his greater height and reach. He swung it experimentally, listened to the clean hiss of air over the sharp metal, and nodded. It didn’t quite live up to Kensei’s sword, but it would do the same work.
“You want anything?” Bennett asked Nikki.
“I got it, thanks,” she said distantly, already strapping a holster to her thigh. She slipped a knife into her belt, and another into the leg of one boot, and Adam thought if he weren’t so utterly taken with Hiro, he’d want to get to know her better.
“Here,” Bennett said, pulling a drawer open. Adam saw tiny bottles of unidentified fluid, along with medical supplies and needles and he sighed, rolling up his sleeve.
Suresh took the empty syringes and methodically filled them with Adam’s blood, capping each one. Soon there was an even dozen lined up in a row, and he said, “You think that’s enough?”
“Peter and Adam won’t need it,” Nathan said, “so that’s two for each of us. Should be plenty.”
“I can always refill them if I have to,” Adam said.
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” Suresh said. He bundled them together and tucked them into a small satchel, and Adam slung it across his chest, hearing the needles click together softly inside.
“Right,” Bennett said, “where’s Molly?”
“At our place in New York, the new one Bob got for us,” Suresh said.
Bennett nodded, absently checking the clip of his gun, then tucking it away. “This is where we split up. We can’t go walking through New York visibly armed like this, and the whole group showing up at your place is going to catch the company’s eye. Hiro, you’ll take us all to the field, then you and Peter go back for the location, and Sylar.”
“Okay,” Hiro said, and they clumped in close, putting their hands on him. The smell of damp grass washed over them before the sunlight hit, and then they were back in Maine. Adam thought it looked like any battlefield before the battle, innocent and empty.
Suresh described the place in New York for Hiro, and said, “Tell Molly... tell her I promise to come back.”
“Me too,” Matt added. “Try not to scare her, okay?”
“We’ll be careful,” Peter said.
“Hiro,” Adam said, taking a deep breath when his voice threatened to give him away. “Good luck.”
“Goes for me, too,” Nathan said, giving his brother a quick hug. “You got this, no problem.”
“I know,” Peter said, but he was tense, electricity already coiling in his palm.
“We’ll come back right here,” Hiro said. “Be ready.” Then he put a hand on Peter’s shoulder, met Adam’s eyes for a long moment, and they were gone.
There was a beat of silence, and then Bennett said, “You heard the man. Everyone in their places, it’s time.”
~~~
Peter turned out to have a knack for talking to kids, and Molly responded well to him, soon getting over her initial fright at seeing two men suddenly appear in the house. Hiro watched as she found Sylar for them, her finger tracing down the map until it rested on Florida.
“Miami?” Peter murmured. “What’s he doing there?”
Molly shrugged. “I just know where he is, not why.”
“Can you get closer?” Hiro asked, and she nodded.
“I need a map,” she said, and soon they had him pinpointed to a marina on the coast, right on the water’s edge.
“Thank you,” Peter said, and she nodded solemnly.
“Be careful,” she replied. “Please take care of Matt and Mohinder.”
“We will,” Hiro promised, and then Peter drew him aside, one hand on his arm.
“I’ll make us invisible as soon as we get there,” he said. “Try to get us close, but not so close that he sees us.”
Hiro closed his eyes and reached for the place Sylar was, seeing the choppy seawater and wooden dock before he opened them again. They appeared right on the beach, on a short, sandy shoal under the dock, wooden boards over their heads.
“Stay close to me,” Peter said, leading them up to the road above. Hiro did, noticing the way that people walked right toward them, dodging to the side so he wouldn’t be run over. Being invisible didn’t feel any different, but he supposed it wouldn’t, from the inside.
Miami was hot, sticky, and crowded, and Hiro’s impression of it was only a fleeting rush of white shirts and sunglasses, Cuban music and boats dotting the water, and the grit of sand beneath his feet. They walked carefully along the dock, Hiro watching the road to their left, Peter the water to their right.
“There,” Peter said softly, pointing.
Hiro squinted in the bright sun, looking at a small fishing boat just a short distance from shore, a man visible standing on the deck, rummaging through a cooler. “Is that him?”
“I think so,” Peter replied. The man turned, and for a moment Hiro’s heart leapt into his throat, dead certain he was looking right at them, but his gaze just swept past slowly, searching.
“It’s him,” Hiro said, nodding. Even at this distance, he’d know those eyes anywhere.
Peter’s grip on his arm tightened. “You ready?”
“Yes,” Hiro replied. “It will be very fast.” He fixed his mind on the deck of the boat just behind Sylar, and said, “Now.”
Sylar was already turning, startled, one hand raised when they appeared behind him. Peter raised his own hand, holding it out flat, freezing Sylar in place, and for a moment there was struggle, both of them pushing without touching. Hiro darted forward, wrapped a hand around his wrist, and closed his eyes tight, and they landed in the Maine field, Peter and Sylar rocking backward with the change.
Hiro dropped to the ground and rolled, gunfire starting over his head.
“Stay down!” Adam shouted and Hiro ignored him, rising up, his sword drawn.
Sylar was standing, both hands held out, bullets hanging in the air around him like a swarm of lead. He grinned, drew them in, then flung them in all directions. Hiro heard Nathan cry out, felt the wind as one zipped past his face, and then another caught him in the side, just above his hip.
He went down, hands pressed to his gut, struggling to breathe. He was dimly aware of the crackle of electricity as Peter honed in on Sylar, and Nikki’s pounding footsteps beside him, the knife flashing in her hand. Hiro felt like the ground was moving beneath him, the world spinning, his skin cold everywhere but his belly, where it was hot, slick, shaking.
Sylar shouted as the electricity snapped again, and then more gunfire, while he was distracted, and Hiro thought time must be slowing down because he could see the bullets streaking overhead, almost graceful. The air bent around them, spinning, hot, and the smell of burning as the grass caught in the sizzling electricity.
Then there were hands on him, covering his own on his belly, and a muttered, “Dammit, Hiro, what did I tell you about this?”
Hiro didn’t feel the needle, but he felt the wound closing, the cold and dizziness retreating, and saw Adam kneeling over him, backlit in the sun, visible only in outline. “Stay down,” Adam growled, and then ran to help Nikki, grunting as a bullet caught him in the shoulder. Hiro saw him miss a step and twist, but recover, his body spitting the bullet out even as he injected Nikki’s still form.
Hiro sat up, looked down at the bloody mess of his shirt, and then picked his sword up. Sylar’s back was to him, and he was badly burned, his clothes smoking and blackened, his skin blistered, but he was still on his feet. Hiro saw Nathan crumpled on the ground several feet away, Adam already headed for him, and further in the distance, Matt had taken a knee, blood soaking one side of his shirt, his gun up but empty.
Bennett was still standing, his gun trained on Sylar, but he wasn’t firing. Another shot of electricity came from the side, seemingly out of nowhere, and Sylar writhed, shoving blindly with his power. A wave of force rolled out, flattening the grass, and in Sylar’s hands, red light began to spike.
Bennett fired while he was distracted, and Sylar took the hit, but it was in his arm, a flesh wound, and he only staggered. He pushed a hand out and Bennett went flying, landing with a crunch thirty feet away.
Behind him, Nikki was on her feet, darting forward, knife plunging deep into Sylar’s leg. He cried out and dropped to his knees, then twisted, one hand flashing bright against her. She screamed and flew back, a blackened mark in the shape of his hand on her chest.
Nathan was up again, zooming overhead, swooping down to get a good shot, but Sylar caught him with his mind and slammed him back into the ground, bones snapping audibly as he landed. Hiro saw Adam scrambling to him, a syringe tucked between his teeth, and Peter lashed out with the electricity again, but Sylar pushed it back, the red glow in his hands building again.
Hiro raised his sword, moved close, and it felt like a hand guiding him, like pieces falling into place. This had always been his role.
Adam had gotten to Matt, and he fired again, Sylar catching the bullets, holding them spinning in midair. Nikki was still down, moaning in pain, Nathan twisting on the ground as Adam’s blood did its work and his bones knitted, Bennett lying still, broken in too many places.
Sylar threw the bullets to where the electricity was coming from, and one caught Peter, flickering, visible for a moment. Sylar smiled, predatory, triumphant.
He raised one hand, and Hiro felt the rush of building heat, saw the redwhite light spike, and it was his dreams all over again, it was New York and the bomb and saving the world, it was his destiny. He ran silent, giving no warning, and sword went in smoothly, slicing through flesh and muscle, scraping against bone.
Sylar looked down at the sword sticking from his chest, blinking in shock, his breath caught on the blade. Hiro yanked it to the side, felt the resistance, heard the thick, meaty sound as it severed Sylar’s spine, and then drew it back out, gleaming gray steel gone bright red.
Sylar crumpled to the ground, gasped, his legs jerking spasmodically. Light flickered in his hands, in his eyes, hissed and sizzled, and then faded, gone.
Hiro took two steps back, and his knees folded beneath him. He sat down hard, the sword lying forgotten on the ground beside him. “I did it,” he said, soft, disbelieving.
Peter landed beside him, Nathan joining them, one arm slung around Peter’s shoulders. They were still, silent, watching Sylar’s body. Adam finished his rounds and soon they were all back up, everyone bloodied but whole.
“Make sure he can’t come back,” Bennett said.
Peter nodded, moving to his side. “Stand back,” he said over his shoulder.
They did, Adam pulling Hiro to his feet, holding him against his chest, one arm snug around Hiro’s blood-soaked waist.
Peter crouched over Sylar, put his hands on him, and white light grew, glowing so bright they all had to look away. When they looked back, there was only a burned, bare circle of earth and fine ash powder, blowing across the field, scattered by the wind.
They huddled together, Nathan hugging his brother, Matt and Suresh giving each other relieved smiles, and Adam surprised Hiro by curling a hand behind his neck and kissing him fiercely, not caring that the others could see.
“Well done, everyone,” Bennett said, nodding at them.
“I’m just glad it’s over,” Peter said.
Bennett lifted a sardonic eyebrow. “Believe me, there’s always something. We may need to work together again someday.”
“I’ll be there,” Nikki said.
“Yeah, count us in too,” Matt said, and Suresh nodded.
“Sure, what the hell,” Nathan added. “Politics didn’t work out so well, maybe I should try being a superhero.”
“We’ll have to get you a cape,” Peter said, and Nathan punched him lightly, rolling his eyes.
Bennett chuckled, then cast Adam a questioning glance. “How about you?”
“Of course,” Hiro said.
Adam sighed and spread his hands. “Who am I to argue with fate?”
“Now you get it,” Hiro told him. “I told you you’d be a hero.”
“You’re the one who finished him,” Adam pointed out.
“You kept us all alive,” Hiro countered.
“Team effort,” Nathan said. “Now, what do you say we get out of here? If anyone comes wondering what all that gunfire was about, we’re not going to make a pretty picture.”
Hiro nodded, and they gathered around him one more time, ready to go home.
~~~
It took a while for Hiro and Adam to actually make it back to Tokyo. There were guns and swords to be returned, and everyone was in various stages of bloody and burned, something that would draw attention they didn’t want if seen publicly.
So Hiro took them all where they asked to go, to get cleaned up and changed and assure loved ones they were all right. Molly cried when she saw Matt and Suresh again, hugging them both, refusing to let them out of her sight. They took Nikki back to her son, who beamed when he heard the story, and told her he’d always known she was a hero.
They dropped Bennett back in California, and Hiro finally got to meet his cheerleader when she came running out to hug her father. They told and re-told the story, were invited in for barbecue with Nikki’s family, for cupcakes and coffee with the Bennett’s, for a celebratory drink with the Petrelli brothers.
So by the time they got back to Tokyo, it was very late (or very early) and Hiro was yawning, walking with his side propped against Adam’s and his glasses sliding down his nose.
“Hey,” Adam said, turning them, pulling Hiro against his chest. “You did it.”
Hiro curled into him, nuzzling sleepily at his throat. “Mmm,” he said. “We did it.”
“So is that what we do from now on?” Adam asked. “Save the world, fight the villain, succumb to fits of heroics?”
“Pretty much,” Hiro replied. “It’s our destiny.”
Adam framed Hiro’s face with his hands, kissed his forehead, his cheeks, the line of his jaw. “Hiro,” he said. “I love you.”
Hiro smiled sweetly at him. “Yeah,” he said. “I know.”
~~~
End
Written January 25, 2008 - February 17, 2008
I just want to say thank you to the comm, which has been awesome and welcoming and very encouraging. You guys rock. ♥