Short, but I had fun writing it. Hope you guys have as much fun reading! Thanks, guys! Remember to review…

"Nathan!" Peter's voice echoed excitedly and strongly, no longer plagued by annoying pubescent cracking, as the high school senior entered his family's home. "Heidi! Claire!" he continued to shout while discarding his bulging messenger bag on a nearby side table. "You guys are never gonna believe what just happened!" He heard footsteps on the staircase and looked up expectantly, only to find spacey Mrs. Gray.

"Oh, Peter," she squeaked, struggling with a mound of laundry, "Everyone's outside, I think."

"Great, thanks Mrs. Gray." He began to turn but rethought the action, moving closer to lean a hand against the curving banister. "Can you tell Gabe to give me a call when he gets in from work? I have awesome news."

"Of course, Peter," she stuttered, "but I think you…"

"Thanks again, I owe you one," he interrupted, whirling away from the mousy woman and proceeding to bound down the hallway, so caught up in his excitement that he was completely deaf to the cautionary words hurled in his wake.

The elegant French doors leading to the gardens and posh outdoor seating area were thrown wide open, inviting the pungently aromatic scents of jasmine and rose to waft through the house, greeting Peter with what served nicely as a sweet congratulatory kiss on the occasion of his success as he crossed the threshold. Heidi's tinkling laughter met his ears before he had turned the corner to the terrace tea table.

Peter felt as though he was on a euphoric high. The beautiful dusky sky, the smell of the flowers, the sound of his loved one's laughter, all compounded the feverish joy resulting from his life changing secret. The words were leaping out of his mouth as he swaggered on to the familiar table. "You'll never believe what happened today…" The words died mid-leap when he finally reached his lounging family. The billowing waves of contentment that had been pleasantly stewing in his abdomen fell still, silent and flat. He was a kid whose bright red balloon had been caught in an updraft. In the bit of widely used colloquialism, "It's like taking candy from a baby," he was the baby.

His parents were home; His cold, harsh, demanding parents. Sigh.

Their greeting was awkward on all sides, as is to be expected after years of separation relieved only by bi-monthly telephone calls, highlighted by uncomfortable hugs, forced kisses. Peter loved his parents, he truly did, but he hadn't missed them. In the beginning he had felt guiltily remiss over his apparent lack of filial affection and would try to coerce even the smallest pang of regret to sprout from his compassionate heart. It had disturbed the young man that he, who commiserated and empathized with all forms of life, could evoke emotion over the break in family relations.

"Peter," his father's voice boomed, startling him from his reverie, "still haven't out grown the day dreaming, I see."

Peter hunched over the table, casting a sideways glance at his sympathetic sister-in-law. "Guess not, dad."

"You're 18 years old Peter. Did you know that by the time your brother was your age…"

"He had a kid?" Peter interjected laconically, regretting his words as quickly as they had been said. Even with his eyes set on the linen table cloth he could feel the combination of heated glares from Nathan and Arthur threatening to burst the youngest Petrelli into flames. "I'm sorry," he said quietly, more to his brother than anyone else. "I didn't mean anything…I'm sorry."

"So Peter," Angela changed the subject in a brilliant display of sagacity, "we heard your amazing news. Congratulations, sweetheart."

"Yes, son, we're very proud of you," Arthur said in turn, though lingering traces of irritation tainted the kind words.

Peter's jaw dropped. His parents really did know everything. "H-How did you know?" he asked hesitantly.

"I told them, Pete," Nathan admitted after a sip from his glistening glass. "I know you wanted to be the one to share the news, but, well, I just couldn't wait for you to get back from CAP."

Peter was officially lost; 200 miles into the Sahara desert sans map or compass lost. "You told them? How did you know?"

Nathan and Heidi exchanged a worried glance. "What are you talking about, Peter? I was there when you opened the letter."

"What letter? They just told me today," a wide-eyed Peter regarded his brother incredulously. "Did Parkman call you?"

"What letter?!" Nathan echoed, smothering the urge to reach across his wife and slap him brother into his senses. "Columbia, man! Your acceptance letter..."

"Ohh…Columbia," Peter said somberly, his eyes shifting nervously from his brother to his father. "Yeah, thanks, surprising, huh?"

"What news did you think we were talking about, Peter? Its obviously something that rivals Columbia, and while Columbia's prestige doesn't nearly match a school like Harvard," a nod to his older alumni son, "its certainly a marked occasion."

Peter hemmed and hawed, forcing his father to bark at him about browbeating and other such displays of weakness. Still trying to keep the family's first meeting in years as light as possible, Angela asked Peter if something special had happened at school.

"Not exactly," Peter said, occupying his twitchy fingers by toying with the matching salt and pepper shakers. "I just got some good news during my CAP hours today."

"Of course, your internship," Arthur drawled approvingly. "That's going well?"

"Very well," Peter nodded.

"Kaito still around?"

"No, he left before I started there, once Hiro graduated from the Academy last year."

"How is Hiro doing?" Angela asked politely. "He was always such a strange little boy."

Peter chuckled good-naturedly at his mother's observant words. "He's definitely different from most people, but he's a good friend. Taught me to bend time and space," he grinned, leaning playfully towards Heidi.

"I would've thought that becoming the master of time and space you could have at least managed to do a bit more homework," Arthur remarked snidely, disregarding Angela's attempt at a restraining look.

"Never said I was the master," Peter muttered under his breath, Heidi's chuckle the only sign that his tart remark was heard by any of his companions.

"The good news, Pete?" Nathan spurred his brother.

"Uhh," he swallowed hard, shifting his seat closer to the table. His head was angled to the side, leaving him to look out from under a cocked brow. "They offered me a job."

"Really?" Cue voices of disbelief.

"Yup."

"An actual paying job? You?"

"Yeah, Nathan, an actual paying job."

Arthur watched warily as his family fawned over his younger son. "I didn't think they offered jobs to college students. Policy has always been internships only."

Peter grimaced, scratching at the back of his head. "That's the thing, they don't."

"Well that's too bad," he said significantly. "You'll find another part-time job, something closer to campus."

The tension between father and son would have been more befitting in a cement cell, rather than surrounded by the subtle beauty of a well-kept garden. "Dad," Peter looked directly at the man across the table, "I'm taking the job." Nathan intercepted an anxious look from his mother. "I'm not going to Columbia. Or any other college."

All were quiet, absorbing the boy's astonishing news. Arthur coolly daubed at his mouth with the hand that wasn't powerfully gripping the armrest of his chair. "That isn't really your decision to make, Peter."

"Uh, yeah, I think it is," Peter argued.

"This is about your future, young man, and the future of this family. You are going to college, and then you are going to law school. End of discussion."

"Right, I can only benefit this family by being a lawyer?"

"This is what we do, Peter, it's who we are."

Peter groaned loudly at the tired logic, angrily pushing his chair out behind him. "Its not who I am, dad. I can fly, I can lift a car right over my head, I can stop time and move through walls! Do I sound like the type of person who should be spending my life in offices and court rooms?"

"Your ability is not who you are, Peter, its only what you can do, we have always taught you that."

"Maybe I want it to be who I am," he sighed, hands at his waist.

"And what would you be with CAP, Peter? Doing errands for the higher ups? Making coffee?"

"No," he paused, considering whether or not to divulge the next bit of information. "Claude wants me working with him in the GPS division."

"GPS?" Heidi asked with genuine interest.

"Global Protection Services," Nathan offered absentmindedly.

Arthur was unable to contain a mocking smile. "Peter wants to be a superhero. Are you going to wear a cape, Peter? Save kittens from trees?"

Unsurprised though thoroughly disgusted by the less than stellar reception of his wonderful opportunity, Peter shook his head and moved toward the house.

"Peter," Arthur called, his voice bringing his son to a reluctant stop. Only a few steps and the older man was nearly nose to nose with his rebellious son. "I have certain expectations for my sons. If you want to continue enjoying the many rewards of being a Petrelli then you are going to do exactly what I say."

"I don't need your money, dad," he replied steadily.

Nathan was suddenly pulling his brother pushing his brother toward the open doors. "Go to your room, Peter," he insisted. "Go. Now." He could feel their father's gaze boring into the back of his neck as Peter loudly stomped to his room. "Pop…"

"I trusted you with him," he growled, pushing past his older son. "Fix this, Nathan. Fix it."

Nathan opened his brother's bedroom door to find the younger man sprawled across his bed, weary hands covering his eyes. "So…" he began, plopping onto the bed beside Peter. "Thanks for that, really. Appreciate it."

"For once, Nate," a muffled voice reached his ears, "this actually has nothing to do with you."

"You have to go to college, Peter."

"Why?" Peter sat up to face his brother. "I hate school, you know that. You've been to enough parent/teacher conferences to know that I don't exactly excel in the classroom."

"Not from lack of ability, you just need to…"

"Apply myself, yeah, I've heard that one a couple of hundred times," he rolled his eyes, lurching to his feet and moving to lean his hip against the desk on the other side of the room. "It isn't for me, Nathan. I know what I want to do, I know what I can do, and I know that college…I just...its not for me."

Nathan remained seated, shaking his head at his brother's stubbornness. Sometimes Peter and his father were too much alike. "I don't like this Peter. Mom and dad, they just want what's best for you."

"Sure," he scoffed, "What's best for me."

"No matter what, you have to finish high school. And we're going to be trying to convince you to continue your education every second we get."

"I wouldn't expect anything else," Peter said with a small smile.

"Man," Nathan stood, walking to his brother and tousling his hair affectionately. "Where did I go wrong with you, huh? I knew I shoulda stopped you from hanging out with the Gray kid."

"Oh, you mean the guy who's going to MIT on a free ride? Terrible influence, him."

"Well it must've been you last girlfriend, then. The one with the dark hair. She was definitely some kind of bad seed."

"You mean Eden?" He grinned wolfishly, dwelling happily in memories of the wild young woman. "Huh. Yeah."

"You're too much, kiddo," he laughed at his brother's far away expression. He walked to the door, pausing to lean his weight against the frame. "I'm gonna do what I can to calm him down, but you know this isn't over, right?"

"Of course it isn't over, Nathan," he shrugged with resignation, trying to convince himself that the pain he so keenly felt over his father's constant disappointment was meaningless and fleeting, but never truly succeeding. "It's never going to be over. Nothing I could ever do would be good enough for him."

"Well, look on the bright side, Pete," he said dryly, "at least it won't come as a surprise."

Please, thoughts and opinions are always very welcome. I'm sure someone will say someting about Eden. Yeah, I meant the Eden from the series. I was watching season one while writing this he he he.