A Note From Lara: Okay, I promised this a long time ago to some of you, but here I am finally getting around to it. This is a sort of companion to my star, Welcome to Real Life, and it's sort of showing Peter's perspective on the relationship between Peter and Dianne and the altered events of S1. If you haven't read WTRL, you're gonna be really confused. Thank you guys for making an OC fic, of all things, the most reviewed, most popular fic I've ever written. You're amazing!

*First Sight*

The first thing Peter noticed when he walked into the room was that Prissy Gordon had finally gone on maternity leave, if the temp sitting in her usual desk was anything to judge by.

The second thing he noticed was the temp herself. The woman looked about his age, and she was clearly out of her depth. Her light brown hair pulled up in what had once been a neat ponytail, but several wisps had escaped and were straggling down past her face as she juggled telephone calls. She was pretty, but in a rough-cut sort of way, with nothing that would be particularly striking about her to most people.

However, as Peter approached her desk, she looked at him with a pair of electrifying blue eyes and he had to work to avoid being completely stopped in his tracks. There was something forceful in her gaze that made him think that maybe she wasn't out of her depth after all.

He stepped up to the desk. "Hey, is my brother in?" he asked.

"Your brother? I'm really new here, so...?"

Peter laughed. "You really must be new," he exclaimed. "I'm Peter Petrelli."

"Peter--? Oh!" Those blue eyes widened, and she looked a bit mortified. "You're Nathan Petrelli's brother? Aw crap, sorry, I'll let him know you're here." She searched around the desk, presumably looking for the sheet that listed the extension codes for the various VIPs within the campaign office. On impulse, Peter placed his hand over hers to stop her search. There was no need for her to go out of her way just for him.

"It's okay. Don't worry about it, I'll just go on in. It's not like I need some formal announcement. Besides, I go barging in there practically every day anyway," he explained.

She took a deep breath, a hint of relief showing on her face. "Well then, Mr. Petrelli--" she began.

Peter recoiled from being addressed like that. That was Nathan, or his father. Mr. Petrelli wasn't a name he had ever felt comfortable having applied to him. "Call me Peter," he insisted.

She looked taken aback by the familiarity. He couldn't blame her; with some of the people she probably had to deal with on a daily basis, being on first-name basis with anybody in the office setting probably felt very strange. "Alright then... Peter," she said, stumbling a little over the name, "I guess I'll see you around here sometime."

He suddenly realized that he didn't even know her name. "Yeah, probably, Miss--?"

"Morton. Dianne Morton." She smiled for the first time in their brief conversation, and the expression softened the sharp angles of her face.

Peter smiled back. "Nice to meet you, Dianne," he said. Then he continued into Nathan's office before he had the opportunity to do or say anything idiotic. He slumped down in a chair opposite his brother. It was several seconds before Nathan looked up from his paperwork to acknowledge him.

"Hey Pete," he said distractedly. "Good to see you, man."

"Yeah. So, Prissy finally went on maternity leave, huh?"

Nathan nodded. "Almost had to pry her out of her desk to get her to go." He seemed, for once, to understand the true meaning behind the seemingly innocuous question. "Her replacement's pretty cute, though."

In an attempt to brush off Nathan's sudden, surprising insight, Peter laughed. "You're married, man. Behave."

The elder Petrelli smirked. "I'm not the one she should be worried about!" he said, before turning back to his papers.

They spent a few minutes chatting before leaving to go to an early lunch together, and Peter was glad for the distraction from the thoughts Nathan's insinuation had stirred up in his mind. No, he was definitely in love with Simone. So he found Nathan's new secretary interesting. What was the harm in that? He could have female friends without having feelings for them!

Next Time: Peter finds out that his "new friend" is also his new neighbor!