Dead Man Walking

By: TracyCook

Disclaimer: I own nothing. These characters belong to the creator of heroes.

Couple: Elle/Claire

Rating: M

Chapter 4

Maybe Sympathy

It had been an entire month since Elle had "stayed the night." Somehow one night had turned into one month and the cheerleader was growing tired of it. She was invasive, childish, and extremely immature. Noah had told her that it was due to how she was raised and not being exposed to many things but Claire often found it annoying. Once again she was in the middle of talking with her father about making the electric blonde leave and as always he was against it for whatever reason.

"She is perfectly healthy dad there is no reason for her to stay here any longer." She whispered out, caring just enough to not be overheard by the other blonde.

"Sylar wants to kill her Claire, we can't let that happen."

"Funny how you are there for her when she needs you." She stated with spite on her tongue as she crossed her arms over her chest and looked away from her father's hurt eyes. Guilt filled her as she realized that she had taken things too far again, Noah had been trying his hardest to be there for her since her death a month ago, and she knew that she could not continue holding onto her grudges.

Suddenly there was a scream of pain upstairs and the lights in the house all flickered. 'At least some of my grudges.' "Guess someone's taking a shower." Claire said with a roll of her blue eyes.

"She can't control her powers yet, she is trying. Please try and show some remorse."

Chewing on her bottom lip the blonde cheerleader thought over the last month. Elle had made progress, a lot of progress, and as of yet she had not tried to kill anyone in her family while they were sleeping. So maybe she was being a little hard on her, everyone deserved a second chance right? 'Or a third chance in this case…' "I'm sorry dad I just can't seem to get to that point where I trust she isn't going to just turn on us."

"I understand." He said with a smile pulling the young girl into an embrace. She let out a sigh as she rested her head right below his shoulder feeling safe which was not something she felt often these days. "I'm not telling you to trust her Clairebear, maybe just spend some time with her. Deep down I know she is a good person, I have seen that side of her and I think she could really use a friend."

Looking up at her father she felt a pang of guilt for how she had been treating the other woman and she thought it over. Would it really be so terrible to make living together at least bearable? Maybe they would have something in common.

"Okay, I'll try to be her friend."

Suddenly Elle made her way into the kitchen, her blonde hair still dripping wet from the shower she had taken. All that she wore was a pink fluffy towel which was drawn around her body and held in place, revealing a little bit more skin than the cheerleader was comfortable with seeing. Luckily the electric blonde seemed oblivious to the fact that blue eyes had started to wander over the curves of her body, enjoying the sight a little too much a blush covered Claire's cheeks. 'God she is gorgeous… Wait? What? She is not gorgeous, she is a murderer... A sociopath…' She looked to her feet uncomfortably.

"It's still so weird taking showers without being watched by all of those men in white coats." The electric blonde stated absentmindedly as she moved toward the refrigerator opening it, peeking her head curiously inside. There was one thing that she loved more than anything in the world, one thing that would never hurt her like Sylar had, never let her down, and that was food. Her eyes widened as she witnessed one last piece of pumpkin pie in the refrigerator. "Ohh! Pie!" She shouted out her grin nearly spreading ear to ear as she hummed excitedly and pulled it out.

'She is so childish… there is no way I have something in common with her…'

"Elle, what have I told you about putting on clothing before getting a snack?" Noah asked a little uncomfortable with the situation as well as the statement. On many occurrences he had been one of those men in a white coat watching her shower. It had been purely scientific but still left him feeling uneasy.

Turning around so that she was now facing the two of them a pout formed on her perfect lips, blue eyes filling with sadness. "But if I waited until I got dressed someone might have eaten this scrumptious piece of pie."

Claire rolled her eyes at the pouting and immaturity, but once again found herself feeling oddly toward the electric blonde. She found it cute. But she shouldn't have found it cute, she hated when Elle acted like a five year old, not that it was her fault necessarily, but it still irritated her to no end. So why was she suddenly finding that annoying pout on her lips cute? Why was the other blonde's adoration for something as simple as pie suddenly an endearing and sweet quality? 'Gah what is wrong with me lately?'

"Go get dressed." Noah instructed. "And then I think Claire wanted to have a girl's night tonight."

"I did?" The blonde cheerleader asked being snapped back into reality.

"She did?" Elle asked as well, before pouting even more as she set down the pie in order to go and get dressed before indulging in it.

"She did." He said with a smug look on his face before watching as the electric blonde started for the door, her shoulders slumped. He knew it was because of the pie and how badly she wanted to eat it, it made him smile a little. "And Elle." He started.

Snapping her head back to look at him she asked. "Yeah?"

"Take the pie with you."

Her smile stretched clear across her face at this point, twisting up at the corners, eyes sparkling with happiness. Unnecessary happiness in Claire's opinion, it was only a piece of pie, yet the blonde couldn't help but think that the smile was awfully adorable on her. "It's only pie." She mumbled as Elle squeaked out excitedly taking the pie and heading up to her room.

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"Why did he bring her flowers? Is that common when you tell someone you are sorry?" Elle asked glancing between the blonde cheerleader sitting beside her on the couch and the television screen, her hand digging deep into the bag of popcorn before shoving some of the pieces into her mouth. Honestly she had been in Heaven for the last month, no worries of killing, eating whatever she wanted, feeling safer than usual, the only thing she was still trying to get her mind around was what was socially acceptable.

Claire let out a sigh leaning against the couch as she once again clicked pause on the movie. Somehow a two hour movie had turned into a four hour movie and she could not wait for it to be over if only to stop the questions the naïve blonde continued to ask.

"It depends." She muttered.

"Depends on what?" The electric blonde questioned turning her glowing gaze in order to meet the younger girl's as she popped some more delicious pieces of popcorn into her mouth.

For a moment she just stared at the other girl a look of agitation growing on her face, how could someone be so intelligent about certain things, namely murder, and so unintelligent about things like apologies and relationships? What had her father done to her as a child? Was she really that sheltered? There it was an ounce of sympathy for the older woman. She actually was starting to care for her.

"It depends on the situation. Usually you only bring flowers to people you love romantically." Pausing she looked to the television signaling their situation. "He hurt her and he is sorry, so he is bringing her flowers in hopes to fix their relationship."

Elle's mouth fell open as she started to understand the concept looking back toward the television. Claire watched shaking her head and smiling a little at how cute she was. 'There I go using that word to describe her again… she's only cute because she has the mentality of a child…'

'Will he bring me flowers? I doubt it…' The electric blonde wondered to herself if Sylar would care enough to apologize. What they had was not ever official but she assumed it had fallen into a romantic relationship considering he had taken her innocence and she had fallen for him. She doubted that if he brought her flowers she would forgive him anyway. "I see." She finally whispered out waving her hand impatiently signaling for the cheerleader to continue the movie.

Claire did not click the start button though, instead she hesitantly asked. "Haven't you ever been in a relationship before?"

Glancing over at the younger girl she frowned. "Until recently I had never even been out of the Company aside from being assigned to watch you. I recall treasuring those moments because I could go and watch the people at the amusement park ride the rides and imagine being in their shoes, sip on a delicious slushy, and enjoy my freedom." Letting out a sigh she glanced away. "That was until the cold reality of my life returned and I had to do my job and make my father proud to call me his daughter, proud to call me an agent."

Not knowing what to say she simply listened as Elle rambled quickly, taking in all of her words as she started to understand her a little more clearly. The other blonde was like a puppet, she did what she was told and she tried to do it well, never having any fun or personal freedoms. Never having love, only responsibilities. It was actually quite depressing.

"I did fall in love once." She stated with a smile. "At least I think it was love."

"You think it was love?" Claire questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"Well yes." Elle stated with a firm nod as she recalled the relationship she had shared with Sylar. "We kissed, talked about things, and slept together like they did in this movie. I had never been so happy in my entire life, at least until he trapped me and tried to kill me." Her smile fell as she stated this and recalled when it had happened, how he had done so without caring at all if she lived or died. She wondered every day how he could do something like that to her when she had been the reason he was alive in the first place. "And he didn't ever bring me flowers to apologize." Looking to the other blonde she asked. "Is that love?"

The healer once again found herself chewing on her bottom lip as she stared into innocent blue eyes, so innocent yet so evil, Elle was a confusing mixture that was certain. "No, Elle, I don't think that counts as love."

"Why not?" She wondered aloud.

Sighing Claire found herself doing something she had never thought she would do, she was reaching up to stroke bangs away from beautiful electric blue eyes and smiling at the deranged woman. A month back you could have told her they would be in this position and she would have laughed.

Elle immediately froze at the skin on skin contact, confused by the action. She did not know how to react so she simply sat as still as possible staring into the beautiful girl's eyes awaiting some direction as to what to do. "Claire?"

"When you love someone it should feel special, like you are the only one in the world. He should never hurt you, never break your heart, and never leave you. He should love you for who you are and not force you to be someone else or control you. When you kiss you should feel sparks—"

"—We did." She protested softly, enjoying the way that Claire's fingers tickled her skin.

Laughing the cheerleader shook her head. "Not because of your powers, a different kind of spark."

"I see." She swallowed hard, wondering if this spark that the younger girl was talking about had anything to do with the shivers her hands were causing and the way that she found herself short of breath. 'She said 'he' will make me feel that, so it couldn't be what she is making me feel right…?' The truth was she did not understand.

"Do you now?" Claire teased, able to see confusion written all over the other's face. 'She's so clueless…'

"Nope." She responded, before both girls burst out in laughter on the couch.

It was strange that they were actually enjoying themselves, they had thought tonight would end in disaster and it seemed that Noah's plan to help them bond had actually worked. Elle had not smiled so much in quite some time, she once again wondered about the spark before glancing back toward the television and urging her to push play as she shoveled a hand full of popcorn into her mouth.

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Elle glanced downward uncomfortably; somehow she had ended up in an awkward position. During the second movie they had turned out the lights and gotten blankets in order to make themselves more comfortable, but apparently someone had gotten a little too comfortable because the cheerleader had fallen asleep leaning against her.

Blushing a little she allowed her electric eyes to look over Claire's face which was illuminated from the light of the television, she realized that the other girl was gorgeous. 'She is seventeen and the daughter of a man who will not hesitate to kill you, you need to move.'

Still, she did not do as her mind commanded and continued to allow her eyes to look over the rest of the teenager's body. She had amazing toned arms and abs which she could just slightly see where her shirt met her shorts, then there were those long perfect tanned legs. 'I should not be thinking these things… god my whole body is tingling, is this a spark? Doubtful… But I didn't feel this with Sylar… He was always rushing things…'

Elle contemplated moving Claire, maybe nudging her and waking her up but the other girl looked so peaceful as she slept with her body pressed against her own that she could not bring herself to wake her. Chewing on her bottom lip she tensed a little as the younger girl moved against her. Letting out a soft sound she forced herself not to electrocute the other she calmed down.

'I just need to calm down… If I can't wake her up then I'll just have to sleep like this and pray I do not wake up with a gun between my eyes…'

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End Chapter

Authors note: Welp my last chapter was so short I decided to add another to this tonight. I do not know for sure what all I want to happen so if anyone has ANY suggestions I will definitely write them. :) Oh and as always if you have any ideas for stories send em to me, I'll write em. Hopefully this chapter will be a bit longer, and I am sorry Claire wasn't all too sympathetic, going more off of the show for now.

They will grow to love each other promise!

As always I love reviews and they keep me writing, so click that little button and tell me what you think. :p

-Tracy Cook