I’ll Show You Mine If You Show Me Yours
Author’s Notes: Thanks so much to freetheelves2 for beta help and for the title :) Let’s pretend that Claire was already in New York during “Parasite”, but that she doesn’t know about the familial connection to Angela and Peter yet, m’kay? It’s set right before Mohinder spikes Sylar’s chai with curare.
Claire knows she should go to Peter’s apartment, that he would help her, but she’s wary of running to him. The Haitian had told her to go to Peter, and she knows that Peter was even willing to die for her before, but she feels uncomfortable. She sits on the park bench, looking around, trying to find a sign, an omen, to point her in the right direction, but all she sees across the street is a fast food restaurant and a book store.
Book store. Books. Thousands of thoughts dance across her mind, all revolving around that book on evolution that she and Zach had spent so much time reading. Dr. Suresh supposedly lives in New York, and she’s hit by sudden inspiration. She sees a telephone booth at the corner, and runs to it. Pulling out the phone book, she starts thumbing through it quickly. She’s frustrated by the hundreds of Sureshes in the book, but as she starts reading down through the list, she can only find one Chandra Suresh. There was a chance that he was one of the ten C. Suresh's listed, but she has to find out for sure. She pulls out her cell phone, and takes her chances. No answer.
She looks at the listings again, double checking to make sure there are no other listings for Chandra Suresh. None. There is an address listed for the one, though, and she decides to hunt him down. Scribbling the address on a piece of scrap paper in her purse, she puts down the phonebook.
Even though she knows that it’s insane and dangerous to run off to visit a man that’s she’s never met - not even sure that she’s got the right man - it feels right.
- - - - - - - - - -
Sylar’s perusing Mohinder’s map of victims, taking advantage of poor, dumb Dr. Suresh’s absence, when someone knocks on the door. Dammit. He gets one chance to drop the Zane charade, and someone has to come for a little visit. He wonders if he can just ignore the knocking.
“Dr. Suresh?” A woman’s voice calls out to him through the door. She sounds young, and he wants to yell back that he’s not interested in any damned Girl Scout cookies, to go away, when she bangs on the door. He winces at the sound, and mentally curses Dale Smither and her hearing again.
Slipping into the façade of Zane Taylor again, he plasters a smile on his face and goes to the door. He undoes the locks and pulls it open to see a petite blonde woman. Well, well, well, it’s his little cheerleader. She doesn’t immediately run screaming from the building, so he assumes that she didn’t get a good look at him back in Texas.
“Hi.” He licks his lips in anticipation. “I’m afraid Dr. Suresh isn’t in right now, but he’ll be right back. Do you want to wait for him?” He motions her in, and as she steps over the threshold and he closes the door, he’s amazed that she’s stupid enough to step into a strange man’s apartment.
“I’m Claire.” She sticks out her hand for him to shake. “You don’t mind me waiting for him, do you?”
“I’m Zane. I’m Mohinder’s… friend.” The word sounds odd on his tongue, and he finds that it leaves a strange taste in his mouth. “It’s not a problem for you to wait for him here. We’ve had a couple people looking for him lately, but you’re certainly the prettiest of all the visitors.”
“Oh, um, thanks?” She blushes. “Wait, did you say Mohinder?”
“Yeah. Dr. Mohinder Suresh,” he says, watching as disappointment flashes on her face. “Wait, are you here for Mohinder’s dad - Chandra Suresh?”
She smiles again, and he’s briefly dazzled. “Yes! Great, does he live here with you two?”
“You must not have heard. Chandra was murdered a few months ago.” He reaches over and places his hand on her arm, like he’s comforting her. She ever so slightly leans into his touch. It’s so slight that he knows that she’s unaware of it, even if he isn’t. He takes a step closer to her, and she doesn’t flinch away from him. “I bet I know why you’re looking for him. Are you… special?”
She suddenly looks scared, and he rushes to assure her. “If you are, that’s great! I am, too. What can you do? I’ll show you mine, if you show me yours.” He smiles at her.
She looks at him oddly for a minute, and he can tell she’s debating whether or not he’s flirting with her. He smiles at her again, trying to subtly encourage her, and she returns the smile. “Got a knife?” she asks.
“Give me a minute.” He goes into Mohinder’s kitchen, and she follows. He grabs one of the steak knives out of the wooden knife block on the counter, and turns to hand it to her. When she stabs it into her arm, he gasps and uses the opportunity to run his hands over her arms again. He lets a look of wonder slide onto his face as the wound heals over. “That’s amazing! What do you call that, like instant healing or something?”
“In his book, Dr. Suresh called it cellular regeneration. Ok, your turn now.”
He takes the knife back from her, and holds it over the sink. He focuses on Zane’s power, and looks at her as he lets the blade melt away to leave just the plastic handle.
“Ok, yours rocks too.” Her eyes light up and he realizes that she must not have met many other powered people before. “Do you know if anyone else can do this?”
He puts a hand on the small of her back and leads her back into the living room as he tells her all about his travels with Mohinder and all the special people they’d found. He’d planned on killing her in the kitchen, but he’s got a new idea.
- - - - - - - - - -
“So, how did you find Chandra’s book?” Zane asks, looking interested.
“My friend Zach showed it to me, when we found out that I could heal from just about anything.” She responds, suddenly hit by a brief wave of homesickness.
Zane must have noticed her forlorn look, because he slings his arm around her shoulder and gives her a brief squeeze. “Hey, no sadness here. I didn’t even know about the book until Mohinder showed it to me. He has some sort of master list, and called me to talk about it. I was just so shocked to find out that I wasn’t the only one.”
She snuggles against his side, glad for the comfort he’s giving and for the fact that she’d come looking for Dr. Suresh instead of running to Peter. “Yeah, I met a guy down in Texas who could do stuff, too. That’s when I realized I wasn’t an absolute freak.”
He frowns at her. “Please don’t say that. I hate it when someone uses that word ‘freak’ to describe us. Everyone Mohinder and I met, they all described themselves as freakish, odd, somehow different like they’re less than everyone else because they aren’t normal. If anything, our powers make us more special than anyone else. Everyone tries to hide what they can do, instead of embracing it and using it.”
“Hey, I said I realized that I wasn’t a freak, and I do use my powers. I saved some guy from a fire, and in a way, I saved Peter. I just wish I knew what to do to help more people.”
He doesn’t say anything, and she thinks it’s because he doesn’t know what to say. She changes the subject back to the book again. “So, Zach and I spent hours reading through the book, and then reading other books trying to figure out all the biology. I guess it was easier for you, since you have Mohinder to explain it to you.”
“Nah, didn’t need help. I’ve been a… student… of genetics and evolution for quite some time now. It just makes sense to me, I guess. I had it in some of my college classes, and I’ve really become interested since I learned about my powers. It’s just amazing, how much we’ve learned about genetics in the last few years.”
“Yay genetics?”
He laughs, and she starts giggling when she realizes she’s blushing. “In case you can’t tell, former cheerleader here.” Great, he’s turning her into a babbling moron. She thought she was over acting like this around cute guys.
Claire looks at Zane again, and mentally sighs. She wishes they had more guys like that back home, maybe she wouldn’t have been so quick to run away. He’s got powers, just like her and Peter, and he seems so kind and has this youthful innocence to him that calls out to her. She knows that there’s no way possible he could be interested in her, but that doesn’t stop her from checking him out. He continues laughing softly, and she finds the way his mouth crinkles and his eyes shine are quite possibly the hottest thing she’s ever seen. He leans forward and places his hand on her knee as he says something to her, and she could swear that she’s felt a crackle of electricity.
“I’m sorry, what? I’m not paying attention; I guess I’m just tired.” She apologizes for paying too much attention to his mouth and not enough attention to the words coming out of it. “It’s been a long trip.”
He’s immediately solicitous. “Oh, I’m sorry, Claire. I didn’t even think about that.” He looks at the clock and sighs. “I don’t know what could be keeping Mohinder. He should have been back by now. If you want, you could take a quick nap until he gets here. Since Mohinder’s room is always a mess, why don’t you go lay down in my room for a bit?”
She’s drawn between wanting to stay with him and closing her eyes for just a few minutes, when she’s struck by what he just said. “Your room?”
“Well, you can nap on the couch if you really want to.” He smiles at her again, and she melts just a little bit more.
“I just… um… I didn’t think you’d have your own room.” She blushes as she stumbles through her explanation.
“Why in the world would you… oh!” He covers his mouth with his hand, like he can stopper his sudden laughter. “I think you got the wrong impression, Claire.”
She wishes a giant hole would just open up in the floor and swallow her whole. “I’m soooo sorry, it’s just you said ‘Mohinder’s… friend’ so oddly, and then you were all hands-on and flirty like my friend Zach, and I think I’m going to leave now before I die of embarrassment.” She gets up to leave, only to find him reaching out to her and pulling her back down on the couch, almost on top of him.
“If I was hands-on and flirty, it’s because I was flirting with you.” He runs his thumb over her lips. “You know, I really shouldn’t be doing this.” He pulls his hand away to run it through his hair, and sighs. “You’re right, you should leave now.”
She wants to scream “no!” and cling to him, but that would just be crazy. She stands up to leave.
Zane stands as well, and grabs her by the hand before she can walk away. “Before you go, though, I just want to warn you. There’s some psychopath out there, trying to kill people like us.” He scowls. “Be careful. Mohinder thinks Sylar might be following us. I’d hate for him to find you because he sees you leaving here.”
It feels like all the air in the room’s suddenly disappeared, and she feels faint. “Sylar?” Her question is no more than a whisper.
He’s immediately got his arms around her again, holding her in a tight hug. “You look so scared. Have you heard about him already?”
“He tried to kill me, back home.” Her mind is racing, trying to figure out how to run, where to run. “Oh, God, he’s not here in New York is he?”
“We don’t know.” Zane confesses. “I think he might be. If he already knows about you…” he breaks off. “It scares me to think of him coming after you. I might stand a chance fighting him, but you’re so… I mean, I know you can’t really be hurt, but it still bothers me.” He presses a kiss across her forehead, and she knows that he has to feel her subsequent shiver. “It’ll be ok, Claire. Really.”
She doesn’t mean to lean further up against him. She doesn’t mean to wrap her hands around his neck. She doesn’t mean to kiss him, but she does anyhow.
He breaks away, and steps back. “We can’t do this, Claire.” He sits down on the couch, and puts his head in his hands.
“Why not?” She doesn’t understand why she wants him so badly, but she’s willing to acknowledge that she does. She steps forward, between his knees, and places her hands around his neck again.
“You’re too young. Mohinder should have been home ten minutes ago. You don’t know me. There’s a killer after us. There’s a thousand reasons why this would be a bad, bad idea.”
Even though he’s saying no, she knows his body’s saying yes as he places his hands on her hips and pulls her closer. “I’m over the age of consent. I don’t care if a stranger I’ve never met catches me kissing you, as long as you don’t care. I’m not the type of girl that picks up random strangers, but I feel some sort of connection to you - it’s like we’ve met before. The fact that a killer wants me makes it an even better reason ‘cause we might be dead tomorrow.” She carefully sits down, balancing her weight on his left thigh and knee.
He makes eye contact with her again, and whispers “carpe diem” as he lays her back against the couch pillows and slides over so that he’s lying on top of her.
- - - - - - - - - -
When he was little, he always adored it when his mother had taken him out for lunch at one of the fast-food chains. She didn’t do it often, saying that junk food would stunt his growth, that it cost too much, that she was more comfortable making all his meals. In between visits, he would find himself craving the toys in the kids’ meals. When she’d finally relent to his begging, and take him to McDonald’s, before he’d go in he’d insist on standing in front of the windows, staring at all the newest offerings, thinking about which one he wanted the most. When the workers would place the brightly-colored Happy Meal on the tray, he’d start wanting the toy so badly he could almost taste it. He’d eat his chicken nuggets, barely tasting the food, before he let himself have the toy. Relief would flow through him when his hand wrapped around it and removed it from the bag, even though he knew it wouldn’t last long. The toys were inevitably cheap and would break, but he didn’t care. Some of the toys, especially the plastic cars, would break before they’d even left the restaurant. Other toys, he’d play with days before the heads would pop off the toy soldiers and the springs would break in the mechanical toys. Once broken, they were easily discarded and then he’d start craving a new one again.
He had planned on taking Claire’s power as quickly as possibly, only to realize what a waste it would be. No, it had to be saved for the last. He'd work through the rest of the list, saving her as his special toy. Of course, he could always play with his toy a bit first, knowing that this one won’t break as easily; she’ll still be there for him to play with once he’s finished the rest of his tasks.
She’s so warm and willing to be had by a stranger, and he knows that he was right when he’d described her as ripe to her father. She lets him push her back against the couch, and he knows that she thinks that she’s the one seducing him. He wants to laugh, but that would give the game away.
His body screams at him to take her, to force her, to make her scream in pain and pleasure, but he knows he can’t. He’s got to limit himself to gentle caresses and sweet nothing like she expects from Zane, but he promises himself that he’ll have her like he really wants soon enough.
“Zane,” she moans when he runs his hand down her side before letting it rest on her thigh, “please.”
Lowering his head to the nape of the neck, he tastes the sweetness of her skin. It’s just as good as he thought it would be, and he resists the urge to bite her, to claim her. “Please what?”
She gets bold, and instead of just resting her hands on his shoulders, she slides them down his chest and starts tugging on his T-shirt. “Help me get this off?”
He stops what he’s doing, and mock-pouts at her. “You don’t like my Ramones T-shirt?” He lets his hands come to rest at the bottom of her shirt, and toys with the hem.
“I love it, but I’d love it a lot more if you weren’t wearing it.” She wraps one of her legs around his hips, and laughs when he starts scrambling to get the shirt off like he can’t get it off fast enough. Her giggle turns into a moan when her shirt quickly follows his to land on the spot that’s soon to become a pile of their discarded clothing. He struggles with the back clasp on her bra, finally resorting to using his telekinesis to undo the hooks. He doubts that she’d noticed either his fumbling or his additional powers; she’s that lost in her lust. She keens when he takes a nipple into his mouth, and he has to remind himself again that this won’t be the last time he can have her.
She’s just managed to get his jeans unzipped and halfway down over his hips when the phone starts ringing. “Ignore it.” He mutters as he kicks the pants off and tries to return the favor.
“What if it’s important?” She asks, helping him slide her jeans off. “Get it. I’ll still be here waiting afterwards.”
He reluctantly gets off the couch and grabs the phone before the machine picks up. “Someone had better be dead.” He snarls. He knows that he’s slipping up, that Zane would never answer a phone that way, but he can’t help it. He’s so hard that he’s surprised that he’s able to think at all.
“Zane, what an interesting way of answering the phone.” Mohinder. Of all people, it just has to be Mohinder. “I just wanted to let you know that my research at the library took longer than expected. I need to run a short errand to get some special supplies, and then I’m headed to the store. I should be home in about thirty minutes. Any particular type of tea you’d like?”
“No.” He hangs up as Mohinder continues talking. He looks over at Claire. Goddamit, he’s only got thirty minutes to have her and then get her out of the apartment before Mohinder gets home. Oh, he’s going to have to make Mohinder pay for this.
He walks back over to the couch. “Sorry for the interruption. Where were we?” He slowly lowers himself back down on top of her again, and then kisses her deeply as he pushes her into the cushions. She responds nonverbally by sliding her hand into his boxers, and he groans into her mouth when she wraps her hand around him.
Bucking against her, he tries to get control on his impulses and grabs her wrist. “Don’t. Going to explode, babydoll, if you keep that up.”
“Oh.” He finds it adorable that even though she’s lying on a dirty couch in just her panties, lying underneath a stranger that has his boxers barely on, she can still blush. The blush fades as she smirks at him. “We can’t have that, can we?” She uses her other hand to grab the thin cotton of his boxers, and she yanks them down before he has a chance to think. She looks down at him, and the blush is back.
“We don’t have to go all the way, you know.” He offers, knowing that she’s not about to back down.
She hesitates, and then proves him right. “No, I want to. It’s just that… I’ve never done this kind of thing before.”
He kisses her again, using his tongue to explore her mouth in a crude mockery of what he wants to be doing with his lower body, and then backs off. “It’s ok. Nothing to be scared of.” He sits up just enough to get both hands on the thin straps of her panties, and then slowly slides them down. Her eyes are closed, and since she’s not looking, he uses his telekinesis to slip them into the pocket of his discarded pants. She’ll never miss them. He runs his hands back up her legs, onto her hips, and then helps her pull herself into a better position.
Her legs wrap around his hips, and he almost comes at just the thought of getting to be her first. He kisses her again, and then slowly starts to slide in. He comes to a stop, and when she moans in frustration, he thrusts all the way in. She jerks, but doesn’t make one bit of noise at what must have been painful for her. He’s picked up such a good little toy.
“You know, that was the point where people start screaming, usually. Are you ok?” He asks, like he cares. He goes completely still, waiting for her to tell him she’s fine. He doesn’t want to break her before he has to.
“Mmmm.” She moans, and he can’t stop himself from moving. “Yeah. More, please?”
He starts slowly rocking in and out, keeping a perfect rhythm in perfect time. She digs her fingernails into his shoulders, and he quickly gets the message that she wants something deeper, faster, harder and far less tender and loving. It’s like she knows that she’s got Sylar in her arms, instead of Zane, and he’s mortified to say that he’s not going to last long, not with the way she keeps fluttering her muscles around him and whimpering, begging, moaning for him to take her. He slowly massages her clit with his finger, telling her to let go already, and speeds up his motions until she releases his shoulders and grabs onto the sofa as she arches her back and screams. He comes at the same time, and lies still until he can stop shuddering. He kisses her shoulder blade again, as he slides out and she moans at the loss of him.
- - - - - - - - - -
She’s too self-conscious to leave the bathroom. She’d retreated to the tiny dirty bathroom in the apartment, in order to freshen up a bit and to get dressed, and now she dreads having to go back out there. She’s never acted like this before, and she doesn’t know if she can face him.
“Claire?” He knocks on the door. “Mohinder should be here in a few minutes. You want to stay to meet him?”
No, absolutely not. She cannot meet this man, not after she’d just let his roommate fuck her on his couch twenty minutes earlier. There’s no way she’d make it through the introductions even before she dies due to having all the blood in her body rush to her cheeks. Death by blushing - she’s sure it would be an original way to go.
Zane knocks again. “Claire? Are you ok?”
She’s got to face him. She gathers up what’s left of her courage - what she hasn’t used already in running away from her father, trying to hunt down Chandra Suresh, and then in seducing a stranger - and opens the door.
Zane reaches out and runs his hand down her cheek. “You ok?”
“Yeah, just embarrassed.” Claire mumbles, not loud enough for him to hear, or so she thinks.
She’s surprised when he responds. “No reason to be. I should be embarrassed, if anyone should be. Not my best performance.” He pulls her to him, and tenderly kisses her. “It’s ok, Claire, really.” He looks up at the clock again. “But if you don’t want to meet Mohinder, you need to go - now.”
She lets him lead her to the door, and this time, she’s the one that initiates their kiss. “I’m sorry; I hate to run out like this, but…”
“I understand. Don’t worry about it. You’re going to be here in town, aren’t you? We’ll see each other real soon, I’m sure.” He kisses her goodbye, a light lingering kiss, and she steps out into the hallway, finally on her way to Peter’s.
- - - - - - - - - -
He’s almost sad to see her go. He hadn’t expected her to be so responsive, and he knows it bodes well for their future together. He knows now that he’s not going to break her as easily as he thought, and he smiles at the thought.
He’s still sitting there smiling when Mohinder stumbles into the apartment, arms full of grocery bags and his computer bag.
“Ok, you seem happy now. Want to explain what that was about earlier?” Mohinder asks as he puts the groceries up in the kitchen cabinets. He seems vaguely nervous and his heart is beating faster than usual. Sylar finds it intriguing; what could Mohinder have to be nervous about?
“Old friend stopped by to see me.” Sylar responds, trying to slip back into his Zane persona. “I was a bit frustrated when you interrupted.”
Mohinder stops, and turns to face him. Sylar tries his hardest to blush. “Oh. Gotcha. No questions asked then. Well, just one - green tea or chai? I’ve got a special chai blend I think you’ll like.”
“Chai it is then.”