A/N: This is the first of a series of non-corresponding stories all written for the LJ community: Pairechallenge. I'd much rather put them all in one section than have them all as individual shots. All of the stories are written to a prompt, and the prompt for this one was, Secrets, and it had to be 500 words or under.

Disclaimer/Warnings: Spoilers to the end of S1. I don't own Heroes. Implications of Canon!Paire.

Enjoy!

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Secrets: (A Picture's Worth A Thousand Words)

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Pictures, Claire thinks, staring down at the photo frame, are secrets trapped in time.

She traces her thumb over the image, immortalised forever in its glass housing, and gently places it on the wooden ledge, alongside other frozen figures.

One of her family in Texas, back when she was just ten. Back then, she was a girl with pigtails and her father was a paper salesman, not an indestructible cheerleader and a trained captor of those with abilities. Back then, she thought her family was real, not some carefully organised Company transaction.

The next photo. The 'photo op'. This holds secrets so deep, Claire isn't sure she wants to know the truth. Nathan's politician grin which shows nothing of the betrayal he's capable of. Heidi, detained in a wheelchair, who walks up the stairs of a morning to wake her sons up.

To the side of them there's Angela, who's kept confined in her room by her sons; a desperate attempt to exorcise the monster inside.

Peter, the black sheep, the mentally unstable younger brother. The hero who saved the world.

Then there's Claire, standing the other side of Nathan, the lost child welcomed back with open arms, a Petrelli, family.

Her eyes slide back to the last photo, smile growing.

The last picture's of her and Peter. Outwardly, an innocent picnic in Central Park. Uncle and niece spending time together.

There are grass stains on her dress and on his trousers, her lip-gloss has disappeared from her mouth, and their hair is tousled, seemingly by the wind.

Hidden from the lens' view are their hands, entwined tightly behind their backs. Their smiles are a little too happy, and their eyes are a little too bright, but that's what makes Claire grin even more.

The camera's more than happy to keep their secrets. After all, it is an expert.