Claire is tired. Beyond tired. She's just pulled an all nighter studying for her stupid history assignment. So when she gets to her room, just ready to collapse into her bed, and she sees the serial killer who killed both her parents and stuck his finger in her brain, imagine her reaction.
"Hello, Claire." He drawls, smirking at her in the darkness.
"Sylar." Suddenly, her tiredness is gone, only replacing it with fear and anger.
"Miss me, Claire-Bear?" He smirks.
"What the hell are you doing here?" She hisses at him, silently thanking god that Gretchen was on holiday with her parents that week.
Instead of answering her, he lifts his arm and suddenly Claire feels herself lose control of her body. Sylar grins triumphantly and moves her towards him. She feels like swearing and screaming, but she can't. She can't do anything but watch as her personal bogey-man manoeuvres her body into his lap.
"Much better. Now, what was it you wanted to say Claire?" He whispers into her ear, sending shivers up her spine.
"Let me go, Sylar." She wills her voice not to shake.
He smiles at her as if she had said something incredibly amusing.
"No." He tilts her head so she looks him straight in the eye. "Now, as I was saying, I'm here because of this." He holds up his hand and pulls down the sleeve. Claire's heart stops. Her face, her friggin' face is imprinted on his wrist!
Claire forces herself to smile coolly and cocks her head to one side. "I know you love me and everything, Gabe, but isn't that going a bit far?"
His cool demeanour vanishes at the sound of his real name and he slams her into the wall above her bed. "My name is Sylar!" He snarls. Claire just smirks. "Your face showing up on my wrist in ink wasn't my choice." He smirks again, and leans in, just inches away from her face, his breath tickling her lips. "It was destiny showing me my desire." He leans in slightly closer. "My desire is you, Claire."
She spits in his face. "You killed my father!" She yells. "Isn't that enough? What more do you want from me? You got my power! You took everything from me! What more could you possibly want?!"
Sylar just wipes the spit from his face, drops his telekinetic hold on her, and takes her body in his arms. "This." He leans in and tilts her head towards his, and kisses her. Claire tries to push him away unsuccessfully. And a small, miniscule part of her is happy she's unsuccessful. She may hate the guy and everything but she can't deny that he's an amazing kisser. Her knees are weakening and her heart is racing. She's furious at herself for reacting like this. This is the guy that killed your father! Her mind screams. Push him away! Kill him! Bite his tongue! Her body doesn't want to listen.
The kiss deepens. He pushes her downwards onto the bed, and she doesn't even fight him. She runs her fingers through his hair, lavishing in its silky feel. Finally though, she gets a hold of herself and pushes him away, harshly. He's smiling though, as he stumbles backwards.
"Now I understand. You and me, we're the same." Sylar smiles wickedly.
Obviously, Claire is offended. She has never cut open someone's head and put her finger in their brain. "We're nothing alike, you sick bastard." She snarls.
"You do exactly what I do. You push people away. Build walls. The Indestructible Girl, who's afraid to put herself out there to get hurt,." He smiles mockingly at her. Claire feels fury rise through her and she rises from the bed, and pushes him so hard that he falls on Gretchen's bed. He only laughs, though. This infuriates her even more, and she raises her hand up to punch him, but he catches her fist with his palm, and raises it to his cheek. He pulls her in more, and kisses her softly. Then she's crying into his shirt, crying for Nathan, crying for Meredith and for all the times he's hurt her. He just holds her against him, stroking her, waiting for her to calm down. "Well," he continues more quietly, "you don't have to worry about me hurting you anymore. I won't hurt you again." And he means it. Claire doesn't trust him yet, how could she? But maybe, a small part of her thinks she will someday. But that's probably a few hundred years away from now. Claire chuckles into his shirt at the thought, and clings to him tighter. It's just nice to have him by her side, right now.