Disclaimer: I do not own Heroes or Kyle XY
Author's Note: Sorry for the delay! Other stories begged to be written and to be honest very few have even read this story (even though those who have are very enthusiastic!) I promise this story will be completed relatively soon (I have an outline for 5-6 chapters total.)
Finally, this is obviously AU, though I admit I was surprised how Hiro actually got healed! Who could have possibly thought up that trial? But I digress…
Hiro opened his eyes and saw the beautiful Amanda Bloom sitting regally, smiling from ear to ear. It was an infectious smile and he returned it eagerly. He blinked as she said, "You're not frozen anymore!"
Hiro squinted as he looked around the room. He lay in a bed with wine red sheets and a dark purple paint on the walls. It was certainly not Kyle's room, where the two had started to heal him. The very thought of Kyle made Hiro suspicious. From Amanda's comment it was almost certain that Kyle had not told her anything yet. Was his word worthless?
He couldn't wait a moment longer. Hiro sat bolt upright and asked Amanda, "Where is Kyle?"
She didn't frown or hesitate in any way. "He and Jessi fell asleep." She giggled. "During the day, they're both napping!"
"They're asleep?" he asked before realization dawned on him. Surely the healing process had been complicated and they had used so much of their energy to save him that they had to rest to recuperate. Amanda nodded then giggled shyly and started blushing when he didn't chuckle. He asked, "When did you get here?" She was amazingly beautiful, this Amanda Bloom. If his heart was not taken by Charlie – and if he wasn't on the wrong Earth altogether – he knew he could fall for this girl.
She smiled again. "I've been here for about a half hour but I was told you are now fully recovered." He reflected for a moment and noticed his head certainly no longer hurt. He took a deep breath and noticed his nose was completely devoid of the mucus that had been making him sneeze so much.
"I seems that I am! Yata!" he exclaimed as he raised his arms.
Amanda burst out laughing. It might have irritated him if she didn't seem so nice. There was nothing in the code of honor that told him not to push things along the righteous path. "Kyle must tell you his secrets tonight," he declared.
Instead of the joyous reaction he expected, Amanda darkened visibly. Her lips pursed most sourly and she was no longer the immensely pretty girl she could be. She opened her mouth, perhaps to question or to complain before closing it again. She sighed then smiled, but much more subdued. "I don't love Kyle anymore," she said.
Hiro's eyes opened wide. He wondered whether Amanda was already with someone else. Did it matter? Did he have to make these two talk even though she was strongly against the whole idea?
"Kyle is special, like me. I am not of this world."
Amanda's smile faltered. "You are from Japan; you said so."
He nodded quickly. "I am. But I am not from this Japan, from this world. I am the Master of Time and Space."
Amanda laughed but it quickly subsided. "I'm sorry; you're serious?" He nodded once, a frown threatening to show on his face. He fought hard to keep it a mask, to hide the hurt he felt. Hiro wasn't at all sure how he had even managed to get to this Earth and there was no guarantee he could get back. She continued, almost painfully it seemed, "So, can you explain why or how you froze in time if you are, um, the master of time and space?"
This was something he could answer easily. He had made his peace with death months ago, although now death seemed to be behind him, at least until he went back to his world. "I was dying of an inoperable brain tumour. It put my mastery of time and space in question, and made it my master for a time." He laughed at his wit. It felt great to not have a head ache or be dizzy. How free he felt!
As Amanda started her reply, he froze time, walked slowly toward and beside her, then restarted time. "So, Hiro, how do—" she stopped then found him to her left. "Wow! That is amazing!" She stood and touched his shoulder. "Did you just move here with a thought or something?"
He shook his head. His head felt perfectly fine. Just in case, he put his finger to his nose to check for blood. "No, I stopped time and walked here."
"I would love to see time stopped! Please show me!" She gripped him fiercely by the shoulders and she looked almost ready to pounce on him, or at least that was his impression.
Sadly he shook his head and said, "This power is a gift; it is not to be abused. If I abuse it I could become a villain, become vain, hunger for more power." He certainly didn't want to risk having another tumour by the simple overuse of his power.
She let go of his shoulders and pouted for the smallest moment. She blinked and he stopped time.
***
Hiro turned around and walked out of the room. He was clearly on the second floor of a nice house. With a little exploration he quickly found Jessi and Kyle sleeping in adjoining rooms and found an older woman in the kitchen, likely Kyle's mother he speculated.
The young man seemed to be resting peacefully in a bath tub. Whether this was normal on this Earth would be a question Hiro would likely never ask. It was simply impolite. Hiro was grateful for the healing they had performed, but Kyle's promise had to be fulfilled. He grasped Kyle's shoulders with both hands and tried to lift him. To his surprise he was heavier than Ando even though he stood half a foot shorter than his friend.
After a fair bit of time – or untime as he liked to imagine it – Hiro unfroze time.
"That's too bad, I mean I understand. Kyle's the best, most selfless person I know," Amanda said. She pursed her lips. "Did you just move again?"
Hiro smiled from ear to ear. She was perceptive. With his eyes he glanced behind her on the bed and she turned quickly, only to gasp in shock.
Amanda's gasp awoke Kyle with a start. "Amanda?"
"Hiro!" she yelled. Kyle turned his gaze in his direction with a frown firmly in place.
Hiro felt somewhat sheepish at having coordinated this conversation so soon but he couldn't wait – refused to actually – he needed to be sure this conversation took place before he attempted to return to his Earth. He had to find Charlie. He smiled, bared his teeth really, before lunging to grab the two by the shoulder.
Kyle surprised him by moving out of the way well in front of his hand and Hiro found himself falling head first onto the bed with Amanda on one arm. She shrieked and he stopped time before Kyle did anything rash.
Amanda squirmed and got up, speaking very quickly, "What are you doing? Are you crazy?" She stopped and looked at Kyle, who was frozen in place. She turned to Hiro, her cheeks red. "Did you freeze him?"
He noticed her delicate hands ball into fists. He shook his head quickly and said, in a soothing voice, or at least an apologetic one, "I froze time."
Amanda cocked her head to one side. "But I'm still moving."
"It was my intention to give you the time to talk without having to actually take time but he is very fast."
She chuckled and added, "You should see how casually he walked off the roof of his house the day I saw him."
Hiro's eyes widened.
She nodded. "I crashed my car thanks to that!"
Hiro was shocked. "You know he's special then? What else can he do?" He wondered idly whether Kyle and Jessi were like Peter Petrelli, or perhaps like Sylar, the Brain Man. Was he in danger?
Amanda looked down to her feet and wiggled her toes in her socks. Why Hiro had actually looked at her feet with her was an annoying character trait or his, something he'd worked on over the years to be rid of. Now of course, with his guard down he'd done it again. "I've seen him do things but he's never told me how or why or even exactly what he can do. He has many secrets and he always teased me about them. When I asked him to reveal a secret, he once told me I had to tell him something he didn't know." Hiro was nodding, anticipating her revelation. "That didn't work. He probably could have told me the color of my underwear had he wanted to."
That comment made Hiro blush – as much as he could be said to blush – which subsequently made her turn beet red. Awkward silence filled the air. Of course, when time was frozen the air often felt and smelled stale, almost lifeless. But things! They looked so vibrant.
Amanda burst out laughing and pointed, "That fly was buzzing around me when I was waiting for you to wake up. I couldn't hit it no matter how hard I tried. You could be the world's best fly swatter."
"Thank you," he said in a monotone. There were much more useful things to be done when time was at your disposal. Pest disposal had never even entered his mind. He looked down at his own feet.
Amanda did not reply. Quietly she took the few steps necessary to stand directly in front of Kyle. She put her hand on his arm and bit her lip as she gazed into his eyes. Hiro's spirits sank as he witnessed the longing in her heart. He bit back the comment that had been on the tip of his tongue, a comment about her not loving the young man.
The feeling only lasted a moment because he then realized exactly how she was looking at Kyle. He was a love that was close and yet so far away – like his Charlie. As the Master of Time and Space he ought to be able to retrieve her easily.
Maybe he could.
He turned away when he noticed Amanda going on the tips of her toes to give Kyle a kiss he would never feel. "I will always love you Kyle," she whispered.
Hiro felt like an intruder in her soul. When the time felt right, he asked her, "He looks like he's concentrating. Do you have any idea what he might be doing?"
"He can't stop time, what are you worried about?"
"Fire, explosions, my head falling off my shoulders. There are people on my world who have very scary powers, very evil people." He continued when her face darkened. "One of them likes to cut open the heads of people like me; he eats their brains and steals their powers."
Amanda shuddered and her eyes were round as saucers. "He eats the brains of Asians?"
He laughed out loud. "No, people with powers, with abilities." She smiled and blushed further. "I have never seen him do it though; maybe he doesn't eat them but the brain is not in his victim's head when he's done with it. He has killed many people and once I thought I had killed him but he came back – maybe he's immortal now, I don't know."
After several seconds of silence, Amanda said, "I've never seen Kyle hit anyone or anything." She paused, biting her lip again. "Maybe you should unfreeze time from the other side of the room though, just in case."
"Come with me then, just in case." He took her hand in his and it felt warm, gentle. They looked into each other's eyes for many seconds and Hiro had the distinct feeling she was looking deep into his heart.
"Let me talk to him," she said just before he unfroze time. "I'll get him to listen."
***
Most people had trouble locating Hiro after he had stopped and restarted time, but not Kyle. He instantly turned toward him with a strange look in his eyes. "What are you doing?" Kyle asked.
Amanda took a step forward and stood in front of Hiro. Hiro was ready to freeze time at the smallest threat. "Hiro only wanted to give us time to talk by freezing us both in time."
"Is this true?" asked Kyle.
"Yes, I promise. I only didn't expect you to move away so quickly."
Kyle grinned slightly, "That's one of the things I can do I guess." He paused as Amanda came closer. "Jessi," he said.
Amanda approached him some more, Hiro directly behind her.
When Hiro felt his feet leave the ground, he stopped time and landed on the soft carpet. Kyle's hand was outstretched, facing toward the door to the bedroom and he had been about to say something. Hiro dismissed Amanda in this situation; she didn't seem to know what had started happening.
Hiro walked out of the bedroom and saw Jessi leaning against the wall, just beside the doorway. Her face was contorted with concentration and effort. He swallowed as he wondered if she too would know exactly where he was when he unfroze time.
He stood in the centre of the room, contemplating his next move. When he divined the correct one, he got to work.