Five years after the Carnival…
Sylar smiles as the blond-haired girl rushes into the coffee, laughing on her cell phone. She's here every week; he's been watching her for a while now. As she leaves the coffee shop, he gets up and follows her, nodding at the waitress as he leaves, making her sigh.
He follows the blond into a dark alley, and pins her to the wall. She drops her phone, and is about to scream in fear, but he uses his telekinesis to clamp her mouth shut. He is just about to cut her head open, already holding up his signature finger, when someone calls out his name from behind him. He turns around to be confronted with another blond college graduate.
He grins when he sees her, not even caring that his almost-victim is getting away.
"Claire…" He smirks, tucking a loose blond strand behind her ear, "How lovely to see you. Just passing by?"
She smiles and nods her head to the direction the girl ran off, "I thought you said you were redeemed?"
His smile fades slightly, then brightens. "Well, you know how it is…Peter sent you, didn't he?"
Claire nods. "Actually, he said something very interesting. He said whenever I start dating, this happens." She gestures at the empty alleyway.
Sylar blushes and mutters under his breath, "I'm going to kill that son of a bitch."
Claire smiles and steps closer to him, smirking. "So is there anything you wanted to ask me?"
Sylar notices how pink her cheeks are, how beautiful she looks when she smiles, how she's grown exactly one inch since he last saw her. He then notices that she's still standing there, waiting for an answer. "Urmm… like what?"
She smiles even wider when he says that. "Call me when you figure it out." She turns and begins to walk out of the alleyway. At the last second, she turns. "Sylar, Peter told you my birthday's in five weeks right?" She asks, twirling a blond strand around her finger. Sylar nods his head, recalling the conversation. "Well, I'm having a mini celebration. Just you, me, Emma and Pete, 'kay?" He smiles and nods. She turns again and begins to walk, then turns around again. "Oh, and Sylar, if I ever catch you trying to kill someone again, I swear to you I'll poke every inch of you with a knife until I find your kill spot, you got me?" She smiles, and nods before turning around and running after a cab. Sylar actually finds himself feeling scared of the ex-cheerleader.
Five weeks later, at Claire's 24thh Birthday…
"Cheers to a long and happy life!" Claire, Peter, Sylar and Emma shout, clinking their glasses together. Both Peter and Emma have started to look tipsy, and after 30 minutes, Claire calls them a cab."Bye Peter! Bye Emma!" Claire calls and shuts the cab door, waving.
Sylar stays to help her clear up. As their doing the dishes, she turns to him, and asks in a curious voice, "So did you figure out what you wanted to ask me yet?" Sylar frowns at her. "What did you think I wanted to ask you?" Claire sighs. "Never mind." No matter how much Sylar pesters her, she refuses to say anything. They work on the dishes in silence for a while. Finally, Claire speaks.
"Remember when you kissed me, at my school?" She asks, cocking her head to one side, her expression curious.
Sylar nods slowly, not wanting to bring up any bad memories.
"Did you just do it to piss me off, or did you want to kiss me?" She faces him now, her expression unreadable.
Sylar grins sheepishly. "A little bit of both," he admits. "It would have been much nicer if you had kissed me back, but it was still extremely…" He trails off, staring at the ground.
Claire's smile is so wide, Sylar is sure her lips are going to crack. "Extremely what?" Sylar just turns away. "You know what, it's getting late, I should probably get…" She spins him around, wraps her arms around his neck and tiptoes until her lips reach his, pulling him down to her. It takes him a moment to realise what's happening, and when he does, there's no way he's letting her go. His hands are in her hair, hers on his chest as they stumble backwards until they reach the couch. He pulls away from her for a second, gasping for breath, then pulls her downwards onto the couch, on top of him. "It was still extremely satisfactory." He gasps, after a while.
"So…" She asks, between kisses, "did you figure out what you wanted to ask me yet?" He pulls back for a minute, not answering her question, but asking one of his own. "What about Alex?" He asks, referring to the guy she introduced to Peter a few weeks ago. She sits up, scrambling off him and sitting on the couch, her expression suddenly serious. "We broke up as soon as I figured I liked someone else. "Who?" Sylar asks, grinning, already knowing the answer. She grins again and pulls him towards her, hungrily twining her tongue with his. This goes on for a while, before she asks him again, pulling herself up and turning the other way, so he can't kiss her. "Do you know what you want to ask me yet?" He turns her head so it faces his, "Claire Bennett, will you go out with me?" He asks, smirking. She smiles and pulls him downwards towards her, her response clear in her actions.