Title:
Party!
Author:
Dark-Dreymer
Part 2- In which everyone arrives and the bread rolls disappear
"Boys." Nathan shouted up the stairs, "Peter's here."
"Uncle Peter." Monty said gleefully hurrying to pull on his shirt.
"Steady you'll crease it." Simon reached over and straightened his brother's shirt, hands lingering for a few seconds longer than strictly necessary.
"Uncle Peter." Monty shouted bouncing down the stairs and into Peter's arms.
"Hey Monty, wow you're getting big, nearly as tall as me now." Peter hugged his nephew.
"Oh." Monty spotted the man stood beside Peter, "Hello Mr. Sylar."
Sylar nodded in reply, slightly unnerved Monty retreated to Simon's side. Simon placed a reassuring hand on Monty's back and smiled at Peter. "Hello uncle Peter, hello Mr. Sylar. We're going to go and help dad with the barbeque, we'll see you later I'm sure."
Polite greeting complete Simon subtly steered Monty in the direction of the garden.
"He's still creepy." Monty whispered.
"Monty. Be quiet." Simon scolded, "He may be creepy but Uncle Peter loves him, and it may not be long before he's our uncle too."
"You mean?"
"I heard Dad talking with Uncle Peter on the phone a few nights ago, it seems likely that Sylar will propose any day now."
"That'll be… nice." Monty struggled to sound sincere.
"Indeed it will." Simon sounded equally as unsure.
"Hello." Matt smiled cheerily and waved.
"Yeah, hi." Niki attempted to be polite, but with Heidi glaring daggers at her that was difficult. Honestly, one time she gets drunk and hits on Nathan (Whom she was pretty sure was Sylar at the time) and the woman has a grudge against her for life.
"We brought coleslaw." Mohinder held it up with a smile.
Nathan smiled back but his jaw got sort of stuck and it ended up looking more like a grimace.
"Oh that reminds me." Niki reached into her (Mom's: TARDIS style seems to hold infinite amount of Kleenex and other useful items) handbag and pulled out a couple of bottles.
"Wine. How thoughtful." Heidi said in a tone that almost screamed: 'Alcoholic.'
"I'll go put that in the fridge." Nathan accepted the bottles and all but fled the scene.
Heidi turned to Monica, Micah and Molly, "Simon and Monty are in the garden."
Matt heard Micah mentally grumble 'I hate those stuck up twats', Molly mentally grumble, 'I already know, I find people, do you even know who I am?' and Monica mentally grumble 'How dare she associate me with the children, I'm 18 years old. I should judo chop her too-heavily caked on make-up right off her face.'
All three merely replied "Thanks." And hurried off towards the garden.
Unfortunately this left Matt, Mohinder and Niki with Heidi, the latter two of whom were still busy in a staring competition.
Matt thanked any god listening when a distraction presented itself, "Peter." Matt held onto Mohinder and half-dragged the man towards Peter, as he did so however he caught sight of the man behind him, "And Sylar." Matt managed to sound reasonably cheerful.
"Hi Matt, Hi Mohinder." Peter smiled warmly.
"Hello Mohinder, foxy as ever I see." Sylar smirked as his eyes traveled over Mohinder.
Matt glared and Peter dug Sylar in the ribs with his elbow, apparently empaths couldn't absorb subtlety.
"Hello Matt, how are you?" Sylar replied semi-politely.
"I'm good thank you."
"That's good."
"Yeah, good."
"Good."
"Good."
"I need a drink." Mohinder interrupted the repetition suddenly.
"They're in the kitchen." Peter said glad to break up the fight, "You know the way, right?"
Mohinder nodded and steered Matt towards the kitchen muttering, 'One time, I sleep with him one time and he has to keep bringing it up' under his breath.
"Everyone okay?" Nathan asked reappearing.
"Oh, everything's fine." Sylar smiled almost genuinely.
At that moment a commotion erupted at the doorstep.
"I am invited to this snob fest aren't I?" A woman was shouting.
Heidi was stood blocking the doorway, and Nathan had to gently ease her away to greet their guest. "Meredith, hello. I'm glad you could make it."
"I'm sure you are." Meredith replied holding out a bottle of vodka, "It's the good kind." She informed helpfully.
"That's very kind of you, why don't you go and get something to eat from the barbeque in the garden."
"Need a little help getting it lit?" Meredith's eyes lit up orange with hope.
"No, no." Nathan was quick to stop her, he didn't need another family heirloom getting burnt, his mother hadn't forgiven him the last time, "It's already lit."
"Oh." Meredith looked disappointed; "Well I'll go get a smoke then."
"Outside please." Heidi shouted at the woman's back.
Once Meredith had vanished Heidi turned on Nathan, "I told you not to invite her."
"I told Peter that too, he was the one handling the invitations." Nathan replied hastily.
"Right."
Heidi stormed off towards Peter.
"Oh, not now. Can't we at least get to dessert without a fight?" Nathan whispered eyes shut.
"Peter, is there any particular reason why you invited Claire's mother?"
"Sandra? Are the Bennet's here?" Peter looked around expectantly.
"No, her real mother."
"Meredith? But I didn't invite her…" Peter paused and turned to face his lover, "Sylar did you happen to invite a pyromaniac drunk with a vengeance to this party?"
"Oops." Sylar said grinning.
"Oh you…" Heidi left the insult unfinished, calmed herself and left.
"Hi grandma." Monty sat in the seat besides Angela who was sipping amber liquid from a wine glass.
"Monty my dear you must promise me something." Angela said turning to face her youngest grandchild.
"What?"
"Never have children."
"Why?"
"First you have to care for them, then you have to explain to them when they get their powers, then they host parties every year where groups of people gather together to get drunk and fight."
"Are you alright grandma, you're eyes are a little blurry?"
"I'm tipsy Monty, and the sooner I get steaming drunk the better I must say."
With that said she stood up and only slightly unsteadily made her way back towards the house.
"Monty." Simon yelled from across the garden, "Do you want to play swing ball?"
"Sure." Monty leapt up and hurried over, snatching up a racket and turning to face his brother.
"Nathan Petrelli." Hiro shouted enthusiastically and mangling the name slightly, even after years of living in America Hiro still struggled to pronounce Nathan's name accurately.
"Hiro." Nathan returned the slight bow Hiro had given, "And Ando." It had taken Nathan a good few months to get Ando's name to stick in his memory.
"We brought takoyaki." Ando held up a tin, which made odd noises when moved; a mix between a squelching and a rolling sound.
"Takoyaki is a sweet from Japan. Very good." Hiro added for Nathan's benefit.
"Thank you." Nathan said still slightly bemused, "Everyone's in the garden."
"This is boring." Monty watched the ball swing round the post. Niki, Mohinder, Matt, Peter and Sylar had stolen the swing ball leaving the kids to watch.
"Well, I'm gonna go back inside." Simon stood up, "Anyone coming."
"Sure why not, the Bennet's are gonna be here in a minute anyway." Molly replied getting out of the lawn chair she'd been occupying.
"Better than sitting around here." Micah said, "You coming Monica?"
"Not now, I'm busy." Monica's eyes were fixed on the swing ball game, the moves locking themselves away in her memory.
Simon, Monty, Micah and Molly approached the door.
"Dad." Simon addressed Nathan, "Go get something to eat, we can handle the door for a while."
"Are you sure?"
"Trust us." Monty smiled innocently.
Nathan entered the garden just as the doorbell rang.
"Welcome to the Petrelli household." Monty said opening the door.
"Thank you." Sandra replied, "Isn't that sweet."
Lyle rolled his eyes, Claire waved at Monty and West glanced back to the car wondering if his PSP (which he had left inside) really would blow up.
"We bought Green Salad and Diet coke." Sandra said, despite the fact Noah was holding them.
"Please come in." Monty stood out the way to let the group in.
Micah raised an eyebrow at Noah, Lyle and West's matching ties, "Is it a theme, like the three musketeers or something?"
Lyle glanced over at his mom, "Told you." With that he pulled of his tie and headed towards the garden.
"Congratulations." He said to Peter as he walked past.
"Sorry?" Peter stopped confused.
"Lyle- Claire's brother, premonitions, remember?"
"Oh right, thanks." Peter grinned.
"I'd advise you to stay away from the quiche…"
"…and be ready for the fire. Yeah I think Simon should have it covered."
"Has anyone ever told you that your power is extremely annoying?"
"All the time. I bet you get the same."
"I suppose. Well I'm gonna go get a bread roll before they're all gone."
Molly was stood watching the buffet table curiously; every so often a bread roll would just vanish without a trace. The steadily occurring process had one obvious reason.
"Peter." Molly caught the empath's attention from where he was talking to Matt.
"Yes, Molly?"
"Do you know anyone with the ability to become invisible?"
"Yes."
"Well they're over by the buffet table, can you please tell them to stop stealing the bread rolls or they'll be none left." Her job done Molly wandered off to find Micah and/or lemonade.
"Claude?" Peter whispered approaching the buffet table. "Claude I know you're there."
"I was hoping to stay out of sight a little longer than that." Claude muttered reappearing, half a bread roll in his hand. He hadn't dressed up in the slightest but he had shaved.
"It's good to see you, no pun intended."
"Good to see you too mate, oh and congratulations I guess."
"You know?"
"Invisible men hear things." Claude reminded Peter, "And this invisible man needs a piss, back in a flash."
Peter watched Claude hurry off.
"Nice to know he hasn't changed." Sylar said sidling up and wrapping a hand round Peter's waist.
