Disclaimer: Don't own! If I did, I'd have Mohinder all to myself...and Maya just would've never been in the picture to begin with, and Ando would be normal again. Useless!

A/N: I'm not dead! Yaaay! Okay, so yes before you ask for those of you who got it, this was inspired by the mini-series "The Lost Room." It's also sorta choppy, but bear with me. It's my first Heroes fic.

Animal Pancakes

Mohinder slid the vaguely elephant-shaped pancake out of the pan. Molly looked at it critically.

"You're not very good at this, are you?"

"I've... Never made animal pancakes before," he admitted shamefacedly. Molly shook her head and smiled, shoving the head of the elephant into her mouth all at once. ''How about human-sized bites so you don't choke and die?" My God, I sound like my mother!

''Sorry." An enormously loud yawn announced Matt's consciousness in the world that cloudy Saturday morning.

''Morning, Sunshine. Or rather..." Mohinder glanced at the clock, "afternoon." Matt followed his friend's glance. 12:13.

''Molly's still in her pj's, too!" Matt tried to defend himself as he flumped into the chair next to the accused, who promptly stuck her tongue out.

"Mohinder's just a morning person. He was up at eight. I heard him." Matt looked over at the geneticist.

"Eight? Mohinder, it's Saturday! That's just obscene!" The slighter man pursed his lips and brandished his spatula.

"I slept very well, thanks. And you, Matthew?" Matt flushed a little and looked down, mumbling something about being fine. "What kind of pancakes do you want?"

"I got an elephant!" Molly tilted her plate proudly to reveal the back half of the elephant. Matt considered for a moment.

"What about a bear?" Mohinder shrugged.

"Alright…" He really knew nothing about animal pancakes. The animals themselves, sure. He could give anyone the family, genus, and species, their natural habitats, muscular and skeletal structure, nearly anything they wanted. But pancakes? Nearly impossible. He poked the batter around in the pan and flipped it uncertainly. It wasn't looking good for Mr. Bear.

"Did you have the nightmare again?" Matt didn't easily hide the concern in his voice. Mohinder flinched. He knew Molly was nodding; it had been the first thing she'd said when she had trudged out of bed half an hour ago. Another semi-successful animal pancake slid onto a plate. Mohinder squeezed Matt's shoulder a little as he leaned over to set the plate down in front of him. "It looks like Mickey got an ear reduction…" Mohinder playfully smacked Matt in the back of the head.

"I did my best! You try it next time." Matt grinned.

"Alright, I will. And I'll even make a platypus." The professor snickered as he poured batter for his own boring, shapeless flapjack.

"Do you even know what a platypus is shaped like?" A pause.

"I can find out." Mohinder merely smiled and shook his head. He seated himself at the scrubbed little wooden table next to Matt and began cutting his pancakes with a fork. "And what kind of an animal is that?" Molly sat on her knees to get a better look.

"Yeah, what is it?" Mohinder looked down self-consciously at his breakfast. It wasn't anything…

"This…this is an amoeba-shaped pancake, obviously! Come on, am I the only one who took microbiology?" Matt raised an eyebrow. Mohinder lowered his eyes back to his food and mumbled, "Question retracted." Matt chuckled quietly. The professor's heart jumped as he felt a warm palm envelope his own. Quickly he glanced up at Molly across the table, then pulled both his and Matt's hands underneath the table out of site, ignoring the psychic's queer look. He glanced sideways at Matt.

We need to talk. Meet me in the bedroom after breakfast.

Despite the thinness of the food, Matt's next swallow was hard. "Needing to talk" and meeting "in the bedroom" in the same sentence almost always meant some sort of fight was coming. The rest of the meal was passed with a silence between them, Molly rattling on about school and ballet and her friends. Matt tried to get into Mohinder's head to get some sort of clue as to what this was about, but found that the Indian was concentrating intensely on his pancakes.

"Can I be done?" Molly had finally finished her elephant. Mohinder nodded and she got up to go into the living room, but Matt caught her by the arm.

"Hey, dishes young lady." She sighed and took her plate to the sink before escaping to Saturday cartoons.

Mohinder cleared the table quickly and quietly and began washing up the dishes. Matt came up behind him and put his hands on his partner's hips. Pulling him closer, the cop rested his chin on Mohinder's shoulder.

"What's wrong?" he asked softly, planting a gentle kiss by his ear. The professor sighed and turned the sink off, leading Matt gently by the hand back into the bedroom they shared. He sat on the bed and patted the mattress beside him. Matt sat on the edge, facing him. "What's up?"

"Matt, I…I don't think we should be doing that in front of Molly."

"What?"

"Holding hands…kissing…I just don't think we should be doing it." Matt frowned.

"What? Why not?" Mohinder ran his fingertips along his scalp.

"It's just…it's not…natural."

"Not natural? Mohinder if you haven't noticed, nothing about us is really all that natural. I mean, I can hear people's thoughts. Your father left you his research explaining why I can do that. Molly can see anyone anywhere in the world. We aren't natural." Mohinder bit his lip.

"Look, even if we were normal then—"

"Then we never would have met and Molly would still be with her parents." Mohinder scowled.

"First, please don't interrupt me. Second, that's not the point. The point is that what we feel isn't the natural order of things. We're trying to give her as normal a life as possible and as far as she knows we're just friends. We want to keep it that way until she's old enough to understand."

"We? When did we decide this, Mohinder? And when were you going to tell me that we decided this? Normal married couples can hold hands in front of their kids, why can't we?"

"Because we're not married and Molly isn't our daughter."

"Like Hell she isn't! I—"

"Matt, please keep your voice down! She's not our biological daughter and we're treading on thin ice with Social Services as it is just living together. The last thing we need is her going into school saying 'I have two daddies!' Then we'd both lose her, with no hope of getting her back!" Matt thought for a moment.

"I just don't see the difference. We have a functioning, loving relationship. That's a lot better than the kids of so many straight parents have. So why can't we show her what a relationship is supposed to look like?"

"Because as far as we know, she won't end up in a relationship with another girl. And unless she does, we can't give her guidance."

"Just because we're not 'traditional'?" Mohinder opened and closed his mouth. Matt wasn't getting it…they couldn't, they just couldn't.

"I can't…" Matt's brow knitted.

"Can't? Can't what?" Mohinder stood up and began pacing.

"I can't do this. I just…I don't know anything about kids or men or…or…or anything!"

"Then why are you even bothering?" the cop demanded. "I mean, if you don't know anything about Molly or about me, then why do this? Huh?" Mohinder stopped his pacing mid-step.

"You know why," his partner returned quietly, looking down.

"I do, really? Then why don't you explain to me what exactly it is I know, Mohinder, so then maybe we'll both know."

"Because I love you!" he blurted. He stepped back and took a deep breath, pulling his hair away from his face and keeping his hands on his head. "I love you both…so much. I mean you…you two are the closest to a family I've ever had, and I don't know how to deal with it. My father was always gone, and I know absolutely nothing about raising a child or loving a man." He turned to face Matt. "You may be that kind of person, but I'm not. Love isn't a fact and I don't know how to cope with learning it. I just want a good home for Molly and I don't know how to give it to her." He resumed his pacing, hands still on his head. Matt followed him and grabbed his shoulders, pulling him into a bear hug.

"Don't worry about it, hon. No one is born knowing these things. There's no book or website or magazine that tells you how it all works, there's no instruction manual." Mohinder buried his face in Matt's neck and clung to him.

Sometimes I just want to leave.

"What?"

"I didn't mean that!" Matt scowled and let go of the professor.

"If you want to leave, then leave! No one's stopping you!"

"No, Matt! Matthew, please…" His fingers desperately caressed the cop's cheeks, his hair, down his neck. "I…I didn't mean it. Matt, I'd never leave you and Molly, ever." Matt's eyes remained hard.

"Then why did you think it?"

"Because I just…I don't know. Everybody thinks things they don't mean every now and then. Just like they say things they don't mean. Matt, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it." He closed his eyes and kissed the man he loved. He hadn't meant it: he would have rather died than left Matt and Molly. The kiss softened his partner. Mohinder felt a strong, soft palm on the back of his neck and Matt's other fingers running through his hair. He knew he'd been forgiven.

"So how are we gonna work this out?" Mohinder sighed.

"I don't know. I still don't think that signs of affection in front of Molly are a good idea, but you clearly do." Matt nodded. "So…we compromise." Another nod.

"What if it's just subtle?"

"How do you mean?" Matt shrugged.

"Holding hands on the couch, the hug that lasts a little too long, maybe a kiss here and there." He was only too happy to demonstrate. Mohinder tried not to smile, but failed miserably.

"Kissing is out," he said firmly, despite the smile. Matt sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Okay, fine. We'll save kissing for the bedroom, then." Kissing his man on the forehead, the psychic pulled him back down onto the bed with him. Mohinder adjusted, lying across him with his ear over Matt's heart.

"We can explain it to her when she's older." He kissed his chest. "I promise." Matt's arms enveloped him.

"Alright. When she's older. Only one more condition."

"What's that?"

"Next time…I get to make the animal pancakes."

Reviews are LOVE! Review and you get animal pancakes made by Matt and/or Mohinder. ^-^