Title: "Undertones"
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 274
Characters: Peter/Claire (canon), Nathan
Summary: After all these years Nathan couldn't even find it in himself to feel disgusted.
Spoilers: Volume 3, speculation for volume 4.
Disclaimer: Don't own. D: Though it probably wouldn't be half as epic if I did, so I'm not complaining.
Author's Notes: Ahhh, I went through so many ideas for this one little drabble! I swear, this is the 3rd or 4th idea I've tried... but it finally worked! Written for pairechallenge's challenge "Whisper." :)
Nathan watched as the world, slowly but surely, degenerated into a fragment of what it had been--scarred, torn, broken. He had imagined what it would have been like in a world where their powers could be shared, developed, distributed... all the fear he had of being claimed some sort of mutant would have disappeared into a realm of hope. He hadn't counted on his own brother destroying those chances barely before they had the chance to begin.
The same brother who was currently curled up half naked on the floor of the concrete cell, clutching the frail and shuddering form of his niece like she was all he had in the world. It had been twenty years since they had disappeared and the two still didn't look a day older than the last time he had seen them.
Peter stroked Claire's back gently, his hands moving up and down continuously as she pressed her face into the crook of his neck as if she believed that would be able to hide the frightened tears welling unbidden in her eyes. His face was buried into hair, but Nathan could still see the words being formed in his whispers to her: "It's okay, it's okay, it's okay."
And even as Peter moved to cradle Claire's face in his hands and plant butterfly-light kisses over her face Nathan couldn't find it in himself to feel disgusted, because even in a world that was barely even a whisper of what it once was they had still managed to find home and love with each other. Even if everything else they had ever cared about had disappeared.