Claire and Gabriel 2011
Pleased with the revelation that he had indeed ruined Claire for all other men, Gabriel felt daring, "Oh yeah, how did I manage that?" he asked, her head still resting on his collarbone, her every breath brushing his neck driving him a little bit crazy.
"Let's just say once you go super-powered villain…you never go back." She soothed letting her fingertips dance up and down his bare arms.
In an instant he pulled her up to face him, gripping her arms roughly, her body complying as though she were a rag doll.
"Damn it Gabriel what is with you?" Claire growled between her teeth.
He was unsure what the feeling was that was rumbling in his chest, but it felt like fire, "I AM NOT A VILLAIN ANYMORE CLAIRE! " he squeezed his fists around her slender arms, cutting off her circulation and finally throwing her off of his lap so that she landed with her back on the couch, "You have no idea how hard it has been! Is this some silly little game for you? What? You're bored with your life so you wanna come back here and play around with the monster? " his voice bounced off the walls of the otherwise silent apartment.
Clearly vexed by his outburst, Claire's seemingly never ending patience was wearing thin, pulling herself up off of the couch and straightening herself out she stood up, squaring herself up to his towering frame. With all 5 foot of her blazing up at him she finally cracked, "Oh let me get this straight. You show up, in my garden, with my past self and I am the one at fault here? This is so typically you, you never want to admit you might be wrong! And you can drop the self pity, no one here is calling you a monster but yourself! "
He brought his face down to hers, ready to spit words like venom in her face, " It wasn't my idea for us to leave her…you …in the future so that she ends up getting jumped by a guy who thinks she's his wife, what do you think this is? Some warped episode of, Wife Swap?"
"IS THAT WHAT THIS IS ABOUT?" Claire pushed her palms against his chest throwing him back a few inches, "Jesus Christ Gabriel! You're right, you're not a villain…you're a man! You think with your dick! I left her there because I thought she might need to see that one day you actually grow the f**k up! "
Gabriel couldn't help noticing that when she was angry she actually became red from her feet upwards, his eyes lingered on the rosy color as it crept up her chest to her neck like lava…if he hadn't been so outraged at the attitude she was displaying he would have probably found it fascinating.
"...are you quite finished?" he droned, trying his hardest to be as patronizing as possible.
Missing his words entirely Claire continued with her attack,"…oh and don't flatter yourself sweetheart…" she stuck one pristine finger in to his chest,"…if I were bored with my life the last place I would look for excitement is here! For your information we're. doing. just. fine!" her voice was as loaded with spite and malice, it couldn't have been more obvious what she meant. His Claire was currently eight years in the future with her Gabriel. Hell, future Gabe was probably having her in ways that he'd not even thought up yet!
That thought cut a valley down his very soul; this whole day was turning in to a nightmare. He knew it was irrational to be consumed with jealousy for your future self but he had always thought that Claire's,"first time" would be with him.Him now, not him years in the future when he'd already been married to her for God knows how many years. As corny as it may have sounded to anyone else, he thought it would be special. Inwardly he belittled himself for thinking such things, the anger burned and twisted in his guts. Balling his hands into fists he fought the urge to go feral ,"Claire, if you know what is good for you, you'll not say another word."
His words were measured; he was breathing hard battling to stay in control of himself.
"DON'T YOU DARE THREATEN ME GABRIEL! YOU DON'T SCARE ME ANYMORE!" Claire's shrill voice rang in his ears as a red mist descended the likes of which he hadn't felt in months. He could feel the force that he had come to know as,"Sylar"battling to get out, to take charge and remind Claire why she should still be scared of him. Not knowing what else to do with himself, he fled to the bathroom and locked the door behind him, not with the intent of locking Claire out but in a vain attempt to lock Sylar in.
He slumped heavy on the floor by the wash basin and buried his head in his hands, at that moment he felt every bit the failure that his mother had said he was. He sat there for long minutes, licking his wounds, going over every soul destroying comment that his she had ever made, he never did get anything right, he was weak and pathetic. He'd even managed to mess it up with future Claire, the one who had loved him in the first place. How did that happen? If he had had the foresight to take Stephen Canfield's ability when he had the chance he would have opened up a vortex right there and then and thrown himself into it.
**Knock knock**
"Gabe, are you ok Honey?" Claire's gentle voice came from the other side of the door, her rage had seemingly dissipated. But he didn't want her to see him like this, defeated and tear streaked; God knows he didn't have a lot of dignity left to cling on to. So he didn't answer her.
**Knock knock**
"Come on baby, don't do this. I don't want to fight tonight. Just open up the door n we'll go watch some stupid TV in bed or something." she cooed. He was tempted at her offer, he wondered if that's what they did in the future when they argued, just made their peace and did something mindless together. Still, his self loathing got the better of him and his reflex was to try and push her away.
"Just go away, leave me the hell alone!" he meant to scream the words, in the hope that she would run but they came out more of a bedraggled sob.
There was no answer for a few seconds; he assumed she had complied with his request. This began more wallowing, he found himself wishing that she had at least put up a little bit more of an argument; he was busy with his thoughts when the door flung open, Claire stood the behind it, with a dismantled hair grip poised between her fingers and a look of accomplishment splashed across her delicate features.
He arched those unmistakable eyebrows and questioned,"...how?"
Sitting herself on the floor besides him on the cold tiles of the bathroom floor she held up the now thoroughly useless hair grip, "Oh you'd be amazed what you learn when you have a six year old who's takes after his Daddy when it comes to sulking in the bathroom."
Rubbing his eyes, he couldn't help but throw her a weak smile at the mention of Noah.
Claire snuck a hand over to his and held it tightly, "I'm sorry I was mean…" she rested her head on his shoulder,"…I kinda forgot that I wasn't just arguing with my Gabriel, I pushed you too far."
"Do we argue a lot? In the future I mean?" he asked, reaching his arm around her and pulling her close to his side.
"Like cat and dog…" She rested her head against his chest, letting him hold her,"…but it never amounts to anything, and it's always fun making up." she added with a glint of mischief in her voice. Raising her face to meet his, she fixed her emerald eyes on his, "So…wanna let me make it up to you?" she purred, tracing her fingertips along his denim clad thighs.
Gabriel and Claire 2019
Claire sat rigid on the kind size bed that her future self shared with Gabriel, her hands buried under her legs. Gabriel was tucking Noah in to his bed down the hall. What was the deal here? He wasn't going to expect her to…? Nah…no way. Still, was she going to have to sleep next to him? Remembering that he'd just been asleep on her only a few minutes ago, she decided that she could just about deal with that.
Gabriel passed the doorway, he was strolling the landing while brushing his teeth. Ceasing her opportunity Claire chirped up, "Hey…hi...yeah..." she was suddenly uneasy, feeling like a guest in someone else's house,"…do I have some err, pajamas around here, a nightshirt something like that?" she asked heading to the wardrobe. Gabriel had already made his way back to the bathroom but hollered out a garbled reply.
"Errr…yeah you're not really a big PJ wearer here in the future Babe. I did buy you something akin to a night dress last valentine's day but you hated it…you said you didn't but you definitely did, and I don't know what you did with it, but I'm pretty sure you'd not want to wear it if I could find it…"
Claire shook her head exasperated, When did he get so damn normal? How are you supposed to spot the crazy ones when they're so good at ,"normal"? Jesus!
Letting Gabriel get on with his story about how the woman in the shop assured him that the valentines night dress was the right size, she rummaged through the wardrobe and pulled on an tatty flannel check shirt that she found on Gabriel's side. She had just finished slipping off her jeans and t-shirt from underneath it when Gabriel bounded into the room wearing only a pair of grey pajama pants and launched himself on the bed, laying on his front. He dug his arms under the pillow that he rested his head on, the masses of chocolate brown hair on his head more chaotic than ever.
She found herself more than a little awestruck, she could practically feel the hormones coursing through her as her eyes hungrily took in the sight of him; he was nothing short of gorgeous. She'd seen guys before, not many but enough. Enough to know that they were all just boys and Gabriel was a man! He was slender but not skinny with broad defined shoulders and his skin tone was lighter than hers but perfectly even with intermittent patches of dusky hair on his well toned torso.
Gabriel interrupted her lament by using his telekinesis to launch a scatter cushion directly at her head, hitting her with stealth like precision, ruffling her hair in a comedy fashion, "Did Sandra never teach you that it's rude to stare Claire?"
She shot him her best shit-eating grin, she would curse herself later for not thinking up a witty retort but mentally she was still stuck on that tantalizing bit of hair that lead down from his navel to the waist band of his pants.
"Would you get in bed already, I'm not going to bite you!" he pouted, climbing under the covers himself.
"Sorry…" Claire gingerly crept beneath the covers to lie beside him, just like in the cheap motel room a few days before they weren't touching but she could feel the warmth radiating off of him. To her surprise it didn't feel at all unpleasant, she would have been drawn to it were her inner monologue not screaming,"You're in bed with Sylar!"
"…it's just strange you know? So what do we do now? Are we just going to go to sleep like everything's normal?" she asked, pulling the covers up to her chin and staring at the ceiling.
Before he even began his answer Gabriel clicked off the light switch with his mind plunging the room in to darkness and making Claire visibly jump beside him.
"Unless you have any better ideas, yup that's the plan!" his nonchalance was starting to drive Claire crazy, why was he so cool with everything? She felt like everything she had ever taken as a fact was now being questioned, up was down, right was wrong and none of the pieces fitted together. Her chest felt tight and a sweat broke out on her brow as she stared up into the darkness of the unfamiliar bedroom.
"Claire…" Gabriel's voice rumbled beside her in to the night,"…you're about 3 minutes from completely freaking out aren't you?" the way he said the words offered her some kind of relief, she longed for someone, for anyone to take charge of this bizarre situation, she'd had had just about enough of being strong for one day.
She managed a short, rather weak sounding,"yeah" in response.
In an action that told her he knew exactly what he was doing and that he had done it many times before he reached over and dragged her close to him, he was so strong that she couldn't have stopped him even if she had wanted to. His arms encased her and all at once she was pressed against his warm body, her face against the chest she had been admiring moments earlier. One large hand swiped her hair back from her face and he placed a few not so delicate kisses on her head.
Feeling her breathing even out and panic dying down she allowed herself to snuggle in to his embrace. How had he known just what to do, even when she didn't? The way he was holding her was so comfortable; it was as if they were literally made to fit together. Threading his fingers through her hair he brought his lips to her ear, "Better now?" the whisper against her earlobe caused her to wrap her free arm around his waist and cling to him as though her life depended on it. She managed to sigh out the word,"much." before drifting off to sleep.
NOTE: Hey Guys! Poor old Gabe, no action again huh? That will all be rectified in the next chapter, I assure you! Thank you all for continuing to read the story and for being so generous with your reviews. You're awesome!