Disclaimer: If you recognise it, I don't own it.
AN: Another Heroes multi-drabble fic, complete. Warning – Claire is a very sick girl in this fic. If you enjoy it, please review.
Vortex
1.
She can't get his hand off hers. Soap doesn't work. Scrubbing just makes it bleed. Still, she feels it. Keeping her safe. It makes her sick. She stands in the shower and cries.
She can't get his eyes off her eyelids. Every time they close she sees him staring – dark eyes, that intensity; she blinks –
Blink.
Sylar.
Blink.
Sylar.
She won't sleep. Her eyes hurt. The blood he spilled washed down the drain but now his hand is still on hers. The moment froze and trapped her in it.
Her eyes hurt. Her heart hurts.
She blinks.
Again.
Butterfly fast.
2.
Nathan has a dream, not long after Coyote Sands, that Danko tells him to choose something. Danko has a watch. Nathan thinks a watch would be nice. He has one Claire gambled with in Mexico, a very nice one, nice even broken seven minutes to. But he thinks about it. Hard. And in the end, he doesn't choose a watch to remind him who he is.
When he wakes Nathan's forgotten what he chose. Must have been important. But he can't remember.
Claire calls him from New York. She's having a good day. Nathan smiles.
Hears the clock lose time.
3.
It's six weeks before Nathan gets away from Washington. Claire's on assignment. They're tracking a mind reader who uses his ability to pick up girls at clubs, which is pathetic. Claire's thinking – hard – about Peter. Being emotionally vulnerable. She's not supposed to think about the assignment, just dance. It feels good. Claire feels wild and free – and happy. Exhilarated. Hair, hips, the beat.
Peter has never danced with her, hasn't spoiled this with impossible love. Dad's not judging her on how well she does this.
Sylar couldn't take this from her.
This is all Claire.
Her heart flutters. Butterfly fast.
4.
The first day Nathan loses time, he only knows because the song has changed. One minute someone's singing about the whole club looking at some girl, the next – someone else is telling Nathan there's a timebomb ticking. And Claire's coming towards him, her face flushed and alight with happiness. She hugs him.
"When'd you get here?"
Nathan pretends he hasn't heard. She stays where she is, pressed against him on her tiptoes, and repeats the question. It's so loud in here. And hot. He wonders if he can get away with a third time.
"It's good to see you."
"What?"
5.
Nathan spoiled the trap, but Claire doesn't mind. What she minds is that she feels giddy and secretive and wrong, telling Nathan he's wrecked her assignment, seeing the flicker of a smile before he asks her to repeat that, please? She wobbles and his hand is on her lower back, his watch cold on her skin. Shiver. This is not like Mexico.
This is not how she feels with Nathan.
Her fingers curl around his suit lapel. For support. Lapel, not tie. Because anyone who tugs on Nathan Petrelli's tie knows what she's getting into.
And Claire doesn't.
Want to.
6.
The second time Nathan loses an hour. At ten he hears his cell ring. At eleven his left sleeve is soaked with blood and his arm is totally unmarked. He stares at it. There's a pattern – maybe – angular slashes, but the cloth drank greedily and the meaning's gone. Tell Ma.
Like a sleepwalker, he checks his cell. One missed call. Claire.
Don't tell Ma.
Roll down the sleeve. Cold and wet. He doesn't even have a knife. Not even a letter opener.
Call her back.
"Just reminding you about the benefit tonight. Do you still want me to come?"
Yes.
7.
Claire can't figure out what to do, can't understand what she feels, until she gives up. Just thinks – things are different. And somehow the observation sets her free.
She's hugged Nathan before. Shared a motel room with him. Helped undress him, for God's sake, and didn't feel anything but sad… but that was before.
Her life falls neatly into two halves.
Nathan is different. Claire is different. And when she does her makeup for the benefit, under the sweep of her eyeliner Claire sees something different in her eyes. Strappy shoes. Strapless dress.
Her mind is aflutter with butterfly wings.