Chapter 14
At almost exactly 5:30 Peter and Claire arrive at Isaac's door.
"So what do you think Mohinder has come up with?" She asks excitedly.
"I have no idea. Whatever it is, it must be interesting, otherwise he wouldn't have called us over here right away." Peter answers, reaching out to knock loudly on the door. He cringes when he hears the sound of falling objects and running feet, wishing his friends could be less conspicuous. He glances at Claire and is relieved to see she's too busy looking at the city lights to pay attention to the noises coming from within the apartment.
The door is pulled open an inch by DL who is shaking his head and looking at the room behind him.
"Is everything okay?" Claire asks, trying to peer around the older man.
"Just the usual." DL answers with a grin before throwing the door open wide.
"Surprise!"
Claire's eyes light up as she takes in the motley crew standing around the room. Hiro has donned a traditional pointed birthday hat and after giving Claire a quick hug, returns to arguing with Ando about the necessity of the aforementioned hat. Ando shakes his head quickly pointing to Hiro's hat and continues to argue animatedly.
Niki steps forward to give Claire a hug, "Happy birthday girlfriend."
"Thanks, this is so amazing, thank you guys so much." Claire looks around the room, turning and pauses at Peter. "Thank you." She mouths, and Peter responds with a crooked grin before taking her hand and leading her further into the room.
Hiro has given up on getting Ando to wear the birthday hat, and has moved on to better prey. Micah and Matt eagerly agree to put on the goofy hat, while DL phases each time Hiro attempts to place the cardboard on his head.
"Do I look like a man who would wear a paper hat?" He finally asks. Hiro looks at him a moment questioningly.
"But tradition." He murmurs, then shakes his head. "Okay, no hat." DL smiles as Hiro moves on to his next victim, Nathan.
"Flying man! Have a hat!" He says with a big smile, trying to hand Nathan the hat.
"Oh no, you are not getting me to put one of those things on." He says backing away from the Japanese man. "Peter, I was here, I said surprise and happy birthday, now I'm going home."
"Nathan." Peter says, reaching out to grab his brother's arm. He pulls Nathan to the side, watching as Mohinder catches Claire in a conversation about her abilities.
"You promised you would give her a chance that you would get to know her."
"I did as I promised, I'm here, and I played nice. But, your cheerleader is still jailbait, even if it's only in the moral sense." Nathan pauses and looks around the room as the crowd around Claire grows. "Look, I'm not going to argue with you about her. She's legal, my people say even if it does get out, it will only be a small scandal, easily handled. So this time Peter, I'll give you some rope. Just try not to hang yourself with it."
"Nathan!" Peter hisses, watching his older brother slip out the door.
"Is everything okay?" Claire asks quietly coming to stand beside him.
Peter smiles down at her, and puts an arm around her shoulders to hug her close. "Of course it is." He answers.
"Good!" Claire brightens. "Because, since it's my birthday, there's something I want you to do for me." She continues in a low voice.
"Oh yea?" Peter asks, leaning closer. "And what would that be?"
"Wear this!" She pipes, holding up one of Hiro's paper hats.
"Now Claire, is that really necessary? I mean we have decorations, and seeing as how the apartment isn't plastered in pink crepe I take it Niki was able to keep Hiro in control, and we have cake. Do we really need hats?"
"Well." She starts, and gives him a pout. "I really want to see you wear it, I mean it's my birthday, and it's the only first birthday I'll have here in New York." She leans forward to press against his chest and looks up at him with puppy eyes. Peter can't tear his eyes away from her pleading ones and groans.
"You do not play fair." He says, before snatching the hat out of her hands and placing it on his head. "Happy now?"
"Ecstatic." She answers with a big smile, before abandoning him with the hat to rejoin Isaac, who is watching Hiro once again try to tempt Ando into putting on the hat.
"As much fun as watching this is, I think we should move on to presents." Matt says dryly.
"You guys got me presents?" Claire asks excitedly looking around the loft.
"Of course we did." Niki answers, turning Claire to face a table off to the corner of the room where wrapped packages are stacked high.
"You guys. Thank you so much. You didn't have to do all this for me."
"Of course we did, cheerleader Claire. It is your birthday, a very important day." Hiro answers. "Come, see what you got!" He says happily leading Claire to the table.
The group crowds around to watch Claire open her gifts. Peter watches her fondly as she exclaims over each gift. Peter glances around the room before catching Matt's eye.
'Did Claude show?' he asks the mind-reader.
'No, but then again, for all we know he's watching in the corner.' Matt answers.
Peter shakes his head, and turns his attention back to Claire, unaware of the invisible blonde man in the corner, who watches the proceedings with a close eye.
"Thank you so much for tonight you guys." Claire says fondly as she and Peter say their goodnights to the rest. "I'll never forget it." She hugs everyone goodbye in turn, before following the package laden Peter out the door.
"You are amazing." Claire says happily hugging Peter around the waist as they walk down the street.
"Because I am all powerful?" He asks with a grin looking down at her.
"All powerful? We'll see about that." She laughs lightly smacking him on the arm, before returning her arm to its place around his waist. "I mean tonight. That was so sweet of you to set it up."
"Well, the guys wanted to make your birthday special, so we all took part in the planning." He answers self-consciously. Claire smiles at him as they hail a cab to take them back to Peter's apartment. Once inside, Claire closes the door behind them and follows Peter into the living room where he dumps her gifts on one of the nearby chairs.
"Do you want to know something else that I know?" Claire asks, leaning against the doorframe of the kitchen. "I know that a modest someone, is the person who was the true leader setting this party up." She continues, smiling when she hears Peter mutter under his breath about Niki being a traitor. "While I am grateful for the party, and I hope this doesn't make me sound insanely selfish, but I also happened to notice that there wasn't a present from you on that table."
Peter grins and steps over to stand in front of her. "Well I did plan your party. Isn't that good enough?" He asks raising a brow, hooking a finger on the waistband of her skirt. "On top of that, I had to spend half the night with a cone shaped cardboard hat on my head." He continues leaning close enough that Claire can feel his breath on her neck.
Claire bites her lip, torn between laughter at the memory and awareness of how close they are to each other. "That is true." She begins thoughtfully, taking in the man in front of her and drawing in a quick breath. Deciding that maturity is the rule of the night, she carefully answers. "That is true. That party was one of the best gifts I've ever been given." She leans forward a bit, closing the space between their bodies to kiss him lightly on the cheek. "Thank you."
The feel of her warm lips against his cheek is almost enough to send Peter over the edge. His hands drop to Claire's hips, pulling their bodies even closer together. Claire's surprised eyes shoot up to his, before lowering to lock on his lips. Her tongue darts out to touch the corner of her lips, and Peter's eyes automatically track the movement. He pulls her infinitesimally closer so their gazes meet again.
The shrill ringing jars the silence and Peter curses as he tears his gaze from hers to pull out his phone. Claire jumps at the noise and takes a step back.
"It's late, I should probably get some sleep." She says, hurrying past Peter and into the bedroom. Peter watches her retreating back before bringing the phone to his ear.
"What is it Nathan?"
Just before midnight, Claire wakes up to the feather light touch on her cheek. Her eyes shoot open and she's about to throw an arm out to attack whoever is in the room with her, when a familiar voice stops her.
"Shh, it's just me." Comes Peter's whisper from above her. It takes a moment for Claire's eyes to adjust to the darkness before she can make out Peter's form kneeling on the floor next to her. "Your birthday's almost over and it's time for one last gift." He says standing up and reaching out a hand to pull her into a sitting position on the bed. Claire pulls herself up higher to lean against the headboard, listening to Peter's soft footsteps cross the room. A moment later light fills the room and he returns to the bed carrying a flat wrapped box. Claire grins as he sits down on the bed across from her and holds the box out with a grin.
"You are such a liar Peter Petrelli! You got me a gift!"
"Happy birthday." He says softly, watching Claire daintily remove the wrapping paper to reveal a black jewelry box. She opens it slowly and gasps when a white gold heart shaped locket with roses engraved around the border and three diamonds going diagonally across winks up at her.
"Open it." Peter encourages. Claire carefully pulls the locket out of its case and skims her finger along its side to find the latch. She pushes on it to release it and slowly pulls the locket open. There are two pictures inside. On the left is a picture of her and Peter taken a few weeks ago when they had gone to the park with the Sanders. The second picture and Peter's accompanying words brings tears to Claire's eyes. "We can be your family too." He whispers clasping a hand over hers. Claire returns her gaze to the second picture, where the smiling faces of all the Heroes, look up at her.
"Peter, it's beautiful." She whispers, leaning forward to hug him and give him a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you so much, this means so much to me."
"Come on; let's see how it looks on you." Peter says standing up to move behind her on the bed. He holds out his hand for the locket, and Claire lifts her hair off her neck to move it out of the way, while Peter attaches the necklace. "All set, check it out." He says a moment later. Claire drops her hair back down and bounds off the bed to look in the mirror. She turns her head this way and that to watch the light reflect off the diamonds in the locket.
"It's beautiful." She whispers again, smiling broadly. Peter comes to stand behind her, placing his hands lightly on her shoulders while they stare at each other in the mirror. Almost as if in a dream Peter leans his head down, just as Claire tilts hers up and their lips meet. It lasts only a second before Peter pulls back looking into Claire's eyes questioningly. She answers by turning to fully face him, before twining her arms around his neck, pulling his head back down so that his lips could meet hers. He drops his hands to her waist as they share one sweet kiss after another, their kisses getting deeper and deeper each time. Claire opens her mouth with a sigh when she feels Peter's tongue against her lips, begging entrance. Their tongues clash together as Peter drops one hand to her hip and the other cups her ass while Claire tightens her hold around his neck. They continue to kiss each other like they're drowning and the other's lips are their salvation. Peter reaches a hand under Claire's shirt to rest it against the soft skin of her back. When they finally break apart for air, Peter leans his head down so their foreheads are touching. Claire stands on her tiptoes again, while snaking one hand up his shirt to skim across his abs. She sighs happily when Peter releases her lips to bestow light nips and kisses down her neck. She pulls his head back up so their lips meet again, kissing him deeply. She's pulling on his shirt to try to pull it over his head, when he breaks their kiss and steps back suddenly.
"Claire we can't go too fast." He says quietly.
"We aren't." She argues. "We've been living together for a month and have been attracted to each other for almost as long, what's wrong with wanting this?"
"There's nothing wrong with wanting this." He sighs, running a hand through his hair. "I don't want to screw this up."
"You were doing a fine job of not screwing it up until a minute ago." She says.
"I don't want to rush this, what we have, our friendship is the most important thing in my life and I don't want to rush you, rush this and in the process ruin what we already have. Do you understand?" He asks, stepping forward so close that their chests are almost touching.
"But Peter we weren't rushing."
"If we kept going I would've had you flat on your back in the middle of that bed within minutes. It best that we stopped when we did."
"And what makes you think that wasn't exactly what I wanted?" She asks looking up at him. Peter groans and drops his forehead down to hers.
"I have a shitty track record with relationships. I just want to do this one right."
"I trust your judgment." Claire concedes. "As long as you don't take it inordinately slow. I'm not a little girl, I know what I want and I want you."
"I want you too. I just want everything to be perfect." He returns kissing her lightly on the lips. Claire refrains from mentioning that this moment seemed pretty perfect to her and instead settles on,
"Stay with me tonight?" She asks hopefully and seeing his nod, takes him by the hand to lead him to the bed, shutting off the light on the way. She crawls onto her side, while Peter crawls over her to his side, before pulling her body against his so that her back fits to his front. Peter throws one arm protectively over her stomach and fits one leg between hers. Claire smiles as she feels him wrap himself protectively around her, enjoying how well their bodies fit together. He leans over to give her one last kiss, before whispering goodnight as they settle down to go to sleep.