Title: If You Believe
Author: Cassandra Mulder
Rating: PG
Classification: Heroes; Peter/Claire; friendship/fluff
Disclaimer: Not mine, it all belongs to Kring and NBC. Don't sue, because no infringement is intended.
Spoilers: None to speak of, this is actually set a bit in the future from where the show is now.
Written: December 31, 2006
Word Count: 1059
Summary: Claire has a different New Year's Eve ritual.
A/N: This kind of popped out at me from nowhere. Even though I had been contemplating New Year's fic, I hadn't really considered Heroes to be the fandom of choice for it. This turned out a bit differently from most New Year's fic, for which I'm glad. It's just a fluffy bit of friendship (mostly), but I hope you enjoy! Happy New Year, everyone! Remember, feedback is love.

When Claire was younger, she had never really understood the concept of New Year's resolutions, so she had always made wishes instead. She figured they were nearly the same thing, and when she got older she had discovered that she hadn't been far off. People always said they were going to do something spectacular in the new year that very rarely happened, and most people's wishes never came true, so she figured it was more or less the same thing.

Even as she grew older she had kept wishing instead of making promises to herself that she knew she couldn't keep.

If she had been a resolution kind of girl, she would have been standing out on Peter's small balcony promising herself she wouldn't fall in love with him. That was no easy task, considering all they had been through together in the last few months; saving the world could bring you closer to a person than she had ever thought possible.

Instead, she was out on Peter's balcony, bundled up from head to toe, watching the snow fall, and wishing that as soon as she was eighteen (just another three months) he would feel for her all the things she had been trying not to feel for him. It would certainly make her life easier if she didn't have to worry about unrequited love on top of being an invincible, crime-fighting teenage runaway.

Her life wasn't turning out anything like she had planned, and that was the understatement of the century.

She felt Peter behind her before he spoke, and she smiled to herself as she waited for him to make his presence known. She didn't know if it had anything to do with some unknown side effect of him constantly absorbing her power, but she always felt like she knew right where he was. It was comforting to her, because sharing her power and keeping him close meant that no one could hurt him; no one was allowed to take him from her.

"What are you doing out here?" he finally said, and she turned to face him. "You can't possibly be used to this weather already."

"I'm not. I'm freezing," she said, but she was smiling again as a few small snowflakes gathered on her cheeks. She wiped them away, and rocked back on her heels. "We don't get snow where I'm from, so I thought I'd take it in. Looks like we're in for a white New Year's instead of the Christmas that didn't cooperate," she said with a laugh.

He smiled faintly and took a few steps closer. "You still didn't answer my question. You looked pretty intense about something."

"I was wishing," she said simply. There was very little she kept from him, and at his quizzical expression she explained her end of the year ritual to him.

"That sounds like you," he said.

She tilted her head further back to look up at him fully. "What does that mean?" With her luck, he just thought she sounded even more childish now.

He shrugged, looking out over the city. "You believe in things whether other people think you should or not, and I'm surprised, after everything that's happened to you in the last three months, that you still do."

"You do, too, Peter. I know it's been difficult lately, but we have a good reason to believe. Look at us; all of us. You, me, Nathan, Matt, Isaac, Hiro - we're all capable of things no one else believes to be possible. If we exist, what kind of an obstacle is a little wishing?"

He looked at her with a smile, but he shook his head. "Maybe I'm just getting old and cynical."

Claire rolled her eyes. "I'd have to contradict you on both counts," she said.

"You usually do," he teased.

That only prompted her to playfully punch him in the shoulder, but she quickly wrapped her arms back around herself when she realized her teeth were starting to chatter.

Peter pulled her into his arms before she knew what was happening, and she buried her face in his coat. She felt his arms tighten around her, and she tried to take deep, calming breaths to relax her body, not just from the cold but the contact.

"We should really go inside," he said, but he rested his chin on the top of her head.

"I know," she said, though she was sure her voice was muffled against his sweater, now that she had nuzzled through the opening of his coat. He smelled wonderful, and she thought there would be no way she could get hypothermia if they stayed the way they were. She could handle that.

"What did you wish for?" he asked, his voice so low she almost didn't hear him.

She turned her head to where she was resting on top of his coat again. "I can't tell you that, or it won't come true. You know the rules. It probably won't anyway, but why risk it?"

He planted an innocent kiss at her temple, and she closed her eyes at the rush of heat the simple act created throughout her entire body.

"Don't say that," he said. "If you believe, you'll get it."

She finally pulled back to look at him, even though she knew it would likely break the spell. "How do you figure that?" she asked.

"Because I believe in you, and we've already proven that between the two of us, we're unstoppable."

She laughed lightly. "Your logic is so skewed, it just might be right," she said. "I hope so, anyway."

"I hope so, too. You deserve anything you want, Claire."

She hoped he felt the same way if she ever got her wish. "Come on," she said, stepping out of his arms and taking his hand. "Let's go inside and you can make me hot chocolate to thaw me out," she said with a giggle.

When he complied with no complaints, she thought that if she never got her real wish, she had already gotten pretty close. That didn't mean she wouldn't go on believing, because she already had proof of what happened when you did. She had Peter, one way or the other, and he was the biggest believer she had ever met. As long as she was with him, anything was possible.

Finis