Title: Victory March

Fandom: Heroes

Pairing: Isaac/Simone

Rating: PG-13

Word Count: 523

Summary/Description: She smiles at him like he is the axis on which she turns.

Warning/Spoilers: Spoilers for season one? Pretentious stream of consciousness? Angst?

A/N: First Heroes fic, yay. At the start of 1x18, I just paused and wrote this. It was so sad. :( Still crying over here.

Disclaimer: Heroes is not mine.

Isaac loves deep and with all his heart, if not with all his mind. He paints Simone in bright colours, in swirling reds and golds and browns, but she never looks as beautiful as she does when she is right next to him, smiling at him like he is the axis on which she turns. He loves it when he can make her smile.

The drugs bring so much good and so much hurt, and Simone can make it all go away, but not for long. Not forever. Isaac's eyes roll in his head and he paints destruction and demise, and it is all too much. He wants her to see so badly, he wants her to know so badly, but all she sees is madness and all she knows is pain. He could kill himself for making her suffer. He could kill himself for making for cry. He could kill himself.

He wants the old days back. When Peter was a tiny shadow in her mind, when he drew just to draw, when he promised to get better and he meant it, really meant it, because he loved her. He loves her like no one else, and nothing will ever take that away from him. Even when the shadows grow taller and he doesn't know who he is or what he is supposed to do or if she loves him anymore, or why why why; even then he loves her, and he wants her.

Madness creeps like a tiger, everywhere.

There were days when she would stop by the studio unexpectedly, sunny smiles and jaunty laughter. She could grin as she pushed aside his paints and easels, and spread him over the floor like her very own masterpiece, crawling up and over his body, painting him black and blue and mad with desire and love. She would smile like a temptress and giggle like a girl, curls bouncing over her shoulder as she kissed her way up his stomach, over his nipples, dancing over his throat to his lips.

There were days when they were happy. The sun shone like a promise, and he made her smile.

Everything corrodes away however, and now, the darkness and the madness and the fear; it all consumes. He needs to be a hero, he needs to be a man, and he is crawling his way up the pipes, on his way to salvation. He paints in a flurry, dark shades and images, tense figures, scenes of horror and death. He paints the future, and maybe this time she believes, maybe this time she will stay.

He grasps at straws and does not feel them slip away. He doesn't hear the lies he needs to, see the things he must see. He clings to her and he wants her, for without her, there is nothing for him. He is nothing.

Isaac loves deep and with all his heart, and Simone does too. He sees it in her eyes as she lies in Peter's arms, with a bullet in her heart and a key in her hand, and all he wants is for her to smile again.

A/N: :(

I wasn't kidding about the pretentious stream of consciousness.