Written By: Mello McQueen

Summary: Gabriel watches soap operas, among other things.

Characters/Pairings: Sylar/Gabriel Grey, Peter Petrelli. None.

Authoress Notes: Set after the Carnival arc and season 4, hence why I am not adding this to my continuation of drabbles: The Random Title.

General Hospitality

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It's nearly one o'clock in the morning when Peter gets back to the run-down apartment he calls home. It's dark inside, except for the flickering light of the television visible beneath the door.

Peter blinks. He's sure he turned that off before he left. Positive, actually.

With a frown he puts his keys away, reaches forward and pushes the door open. The doorknob doesn't turn right and he can see where the wood around it has been chipped and splintered, forced open.

Normally, he'd growl in frustration and slam the door shut so hard it would rebound into the opposite wall, but just now he's too tired to bother. It's the Easter holidays, and while most of the world should be home celebrating the joys of life with their family's, half of New York seems determined to end theirs.

Peter has spent the last two and a half days trying to prevent that. So ...he's tired and he doesn't fling the door shut in a rage. Instead, he closes it gently, drops his bag down just inside and heads into the living room.

Sylar is sitting on the couch, staring intently at the television screen and clutching a pillow to his chest. Peter glares at him. "What the hell are you doing here, Gabriel?" He asks. Sylar glances up at him.

"I stopped by to see if you were home." He states looking back at the screen. "You weren't."

"So, you decided to break in my front door?" Sylar shrugs nonchalantly. "Have you ever heard of coming back, later?"

Sylar looks at him, again. "I thought you'd be back sooner." He says, "and I didn't have anywhere else to go. Plus, it's Easter..."

"No it's not." Peter says, automatically, because he doesn't know what else to say and because it isn't.

Sylar shrugs. "It was when I got here." He explains, and Peter might feel bad for him right now if he weren't so pissed off, and tired, and ...and-

"Oh my God, are you watching General Hospital?"

Sylar gives a soft 'hum' sound of acknowledgment, and Peter gawks. "It...it's in black and white." He states, helplessly moving forward to get a better look at the screen. Another hum, then:

"Oh! Shhhh! I think Jessie is about to find out Phil's cheating on her again..." Peter is silent as they watch the scene unfold.

The woman slaps her errant husband in the face, and the screen blacks out only to resume with her sitting in the lobby of the hospital with another man. While he's consoling her, telling her it will all be alright, Sylar turns to Peter. "That's Dr. Hardy. They're secretly in love." He states, waggling his eyebrows in insinuation.

"Gabriel, it's a soap opera," Peter says, "Everyone's in love."

Sylar gives Peter a look like he's just committed a sin against humanity, or at least General Hospital, which Peter finds is...sort of ironic, really. He sighs. "I'll go make popcorn." He says, and does.

Twenty minutes later, Peter and Sylar sit on the couch together in a comfortable silence until Peter says: "You owe me a new door." And Sylar grins.

"I'll get to that eventually." He says, "now be quiet and watch the show."

Peter does and the next time Sylar stops by he makes sure not to break down the door, although he can't say much for Peter's bedroom window.

End

Authoress Notes: Comments?