Hi again!

Thank you everyone who reviewed.

I'm trying my best to give the majority what they want, but you guys have some dramatically different opinions.

So this one is pretty short, and I'm not trying to cheat you; I truly believe it is better this way, you'll see why when you get there.

Again your opinions are very important to me. If you want me to reply let me know and I'll be sure to do so!

Chapter 3

Claire woke up later that evening to Gabriel frantically untangling himself from her. When she spun around to face him, he leapt off the bed; only to look back at her in horror. Claire stifled a laugh as he hurriedly tried to cover himself up; grabbing any article of clothing he could find to hold up against his exposed chest.

Unfortunately for Claire, she was unable to hold back the girlish giggle that sprang forth upon seeing what he had neglected to cover. Gabriel didn't bother to look down at his proud morning erection before casting a glare at the girl still laying in bed, "Is something amusing?" he seethed. Claire dialed it down to only a broad smile.

"What? Do you think I'm funny Claire? Like a clown?" Claire's smile faded completely at that. She had expected him to be a bit confused when he woke up, maybe embarrassed and sorely hung-over, but not angry with her; after all she wasn't the one who came on to him.

Of course Gabriel didn't remember anything; so she supposed his assumption would be that they had sex, poor Gabriel. She set out to put his mind at ease, but her own anger was evident in her words.

"Nothing happened, Gabriel," she told him. He stopped fuming a little bit when he picked up on her tone.

"But you wanted it to…" he guessed.

Claire looked down in shame, embarrassed that she had even remotely taken advantage of him that morning; that she allowed him to touch her.

"So if nothing happened, then why are we both half-undressed?" he asked suspiciously, he made a point to not look at her. Gabriel was obviously confused and a little scared of the possibilities; of what those possibilities would mean for him. Claire was young, very young, and he didn't know her that well at all.

Claire wrinkled her nose, "have you smelled your clothes?" she asked.

He did so then, and finding himself to be disgusted, immediately cast them aside before dishearteningly moving to sit on the end of the bed. Claire looked down then and noticed her own state of undress, her shirt was bunched up around her waist and her jeans were unzipped. She immediately pulled up the sheet to cover herself.

"Um… excuse me while I change?" she asked apologetically.

Gabriel immediately sank down and rested his head against the arms he had lain across his knees. As he tried to piece together the morning before and what he had woken up to, Gabriel gazed at the floor as if he were dizzy, looking even more stressed out than he had been the previous night.

Claire felt another wave of pity as she pulled on some lounge clothes. "Ok, I'm done," she told him. When Gabriel looked at her again, he made a frustrated noise. "Damn it Claire!" he groaned loudly, "can't you put some clothes on?"

Claire looked down at her cotton shorts and shirt; personally she didn't see anything wrong with them, but bent over to pick up some sweatpants from the floor anyway. Gabriel tried to repress a shudder at the movement. "Better?" she asked, and figured he must have been feeling really awkward and self-conscious.

"Much," he choked out gratefully as if being given a flask after being stranded in the desert for a few days.

"I'm not asking for much here," Gabriel lifted his face from his hands and inhaled, combing his fingers through his dark hair in the process, "but I just woke up almost naked in a strange girl's bed, without any recollection of how I happened to end up there. I just want some answers."

"Some answers," Claire repeated, wondering what she should tell him.

"The truth?" he asked hopefully, as if he could read her mind.

"The truth…" she wore an uncomfortable expression, "Well… you drank a half bottle of mezcal this morning… ate a worm, and ended up too drunk to tell me where you lived; so I took you back to my room so that you could sleep it off."

"Ok…" his tone held more than just a little skepticism and irritation. "But how did I end up like… that… with you." Claire's temper flared at the distaste he placed on the word 'you'.

"Let me finish," she snarled at him. "Obviously your clothes absolutely reeked and would have been uncomfortable, so I took the liberty of helping you to take most of them off; which was no picnic mind you!" she tried to make him feel guilty. "That's when you insisted that we have sex," her tone grew more hurried, "and I said no, because that would have been bad, and you were drunk… and… Well then you tried it anyway, but you passed out before you could get too far."

Gabriel looked at her in horror.

"Oh god Claire… I'm sorry! I tried to… make you?"

"Well sort of…" Claire saw his expression change into one of self-loathing, so she moved to take his hands in hers and sat on the bed next to him. "But Gabriel… don't worry about it-" he cut her off and turned on her viciously.

"Don't worry about it?" he snapped, "Claire I…" he couldn't say the words.

Claire gently placed a hand on his face and looked at him softly, "Don't worry about it… I wanted to," she crooned soothingly. Gabriel removed her hand, placing it back in her lap, and roughly turned away. The sting of rejection struck Claire.

"You wanted to…" Gabriel repeated with his head down, seemingly lost in his thoughts. He sounded bitter and despondent. Claire sat silently at his side; unable to move for fear that he would notice her sitting there and say something that would hurt again. Despite her efforts to escape his notice; Gabriel spoke anyway, "It's just that I'm me… and you're... you" he was strained as he said the words.

"I'm me," Claire repeated, and tried to hold back the tears that had begun to gather in her eyes. The combination of the rejection she felt at not being wanted after she almost had sex with him, and Gabriel's blunt tactlessness was doing a number on her emotions.

"You… Claire… so young, so very young," he appended, "but beautiful, and smart, and kind." A loud sob escaped from Claire. She might have been those things… might being the keyword, but still she wasn't good enough for him. Claire thought that she should have known better than to expect anything else. It wasn't new information for her that Gabriel detested her and her company. His weak efforts to make her feel better were not doing the job.

At that point Gabriel turned around, dismayed that she was crying and not knowing what to do.

"Oh Claire…" he started, "Claire. Stop please?" he asked, she cried louder upon hearing his unsympathetic tone, of course he would be annoyed.

"I'm not good enough for you," she managed, half-wailing.

"Claire no! No that isn't it at all," he laughed at her.

"Oh yeah right!" she spat bitterly, "Yeah it's not me, it's you right?"

"Did you just?" he scoffed at her, "no… Do people actually say that?" That sobered up Claire a bit, and she just glared at him in response. Gabriel made an attempt to reason with her, "You hardly even know me Claire," he said.

"Oh so now I'm being immature?"

"I said nothing of the sort!" he protested, "But I am starting to think that it wouldn't be too far off base."

"You tried to force yourself on me!"

"You said you wanted it!" he bellowed, aggravated by the circle they had gotten themselves into.

"But you didn't know that," Claire pointed out. Gabriel surrendered and threw his hands up; not wanting to argue with her. They both glared at each other for a few long moments until Claire tackled him to the mattress and attacked his mouth with her own. Gabriel threw her to the mattress underneath him and gave her a withering look.

"Claire…" he warned her dangerously, "what are you doing?" Claire's heart was pounding away, her chest heaving as she lay there trapped underneath Gabriel. She felt like she was in a bad romance novel, and all the while Gabriel had no idea what the position he had her in was doing to her nerves.

Claire tried to pull him down for another kiss, but he remained firm and instead pinned both of her arms behind her head so that she couldn't move. Claire smiled at that, Gabriel seemed to have forgotten that he was almost completely naked, and in the hold he had her in, Claire could feel the entire lean length of him pressed against her body.

"You really don't want me anymore do you?" Claire asked, and pressed her hips into his slightly to test that theory. Gabriel inhaled sharply and glared at her again, "No." Really Claire had no idea what she was doing, all she knew was that she had just thoroughly embarrassed herself. He kept his hands wrapped around her wrists, but allowed her to lay there in silence.

"So where do we go from here?" Claire asked, breaking the spell.

"I'm craving waffles."

Gabriel flushed when he and Claire left her room. A few people in the hall immediately turned to look at them and hollered Gabriel's name following up with fist pumps and mock moans. Claire thought that they closely resembled monkeys at play. Gabriel half looked like he wanted to crawl into his own skin and hide, and half as if he wanted to kill something.

A few girls were eying Gabriel, apparently also aware of how delicious he looked when he was carelessly thrown together. Claire felt a stab of jealousy as she compared herself to the admirers, and found a couple to not be without. She turned her own attentions toward the man in question and made a mental note that although he was swoon worthy, he also looked incredibly pissed off, and that was something to take seriously with him.

Claire tried to lighten up the situation and leant over to whisper something in Gabriel's ear, "Looks like you're a celebrity," she warned before turning around to shoot her own fist up in the air.

Immediately Gabriel put his hands on her shoulders and hurried her out of the hall way, shushing her. She couldn't help but to think it was adorable that Gabriel could be embarrassed; it went against everything she had in her mind about him. Claire had never partaken in a walk of shame before, but she thought the whole situation was funny to say the least. Gabriel didn't seem to be as amused.

Gabriel picked at his stack of waffles distastefully. Clearly he had not foreseen that with a stomach full of hard liquor, he would feel even more ill than he felt hungry. Claire was impressed that he hadn't actually thrown up since they started drinking, though judging by the way he was looking at his plate, she was sure that the time wasn't far off.

Claire looked up when Gabriel dropped his fork; she was expecting him to run for the bathroom, but instead he gazed thoughtfully at the table.

"There is something that has been bothering me," he told her. Claire stiffened and braced herself for the emotional impact of whatever hurtful thing he had to say to her that time. "I really ate a worm?" he asked.

Claire promptly burst into laughter. She was grateful that it wasn't anywhere near as bad as she thought. "Yes!" she gasped, "yes you did!" Gabriel smiled weakly; it was a sick sort of smile.

"That's disgusting Claire…" then he thought about it again. "Did it taste good?" he asked warily.

"I think you said it was spicy," she replied sympathetically.

Claire noticed how neat Gabriel was when he ate, literally neat. He took his time and cut a tiny piece of waffle off of the stack for every bite he took; individually buttering and dipping the small bits in syrup before putting them in his mouth. He caught her staring and frowned.

"So Claire," he began to say, "I have another favor to ask you… you can say no if you so desire."

"Let's hear it," Claire prompted. Curious as to what this favor could possibly be.

"Stanford gives me a break on tuition for being a tutor. I'll understand if you don't want to do that anymore, but it would really help me out if you didn't say anything about it." He looked at her hopefully.

"Oh!" Claire exclaimed with surprise, "Well actually I think you're a very good tutor, and I was hoping that you would stick around to help me." They had only had one actual tutoring session up to that point, so Gabriel knew she wasn't being sincere.

"And what have I taught you Claire?" he challenged.

"Umm…" she rifled through her memory, then it hit her. "Spanish!" she exclaimed, "Arriba, abajo, a la derecha, izquierda y pa´dentro," she said proudly and took a sip of her coffee.

Claire noticed the mental grimace Gabriel had not tried very hard to hide.

"Well I don't know if that constitutes one as being a good tutor," he explained. "I taught a centuries old Mexican drinking tradition to an underage girl." His tone told her that he was severely disappointed in himself. She supposed most of it was that he consciously chose to take her to a bar with him.

"I would like you to continue teaching me Gabriel," Claire stated clearly. "I like you-r way of making me understand things." She smiled innocently, once again not giving Gabriel the credit he deserved; he rolled his eyes at her, making it clear that he caught her mistake, and did not approve.

"I have something I want to show you Claire," Gabriel told her when the waiter handed him the check. Claire tried to take it from him when he pulled out his wallet.

"I've got it Gabriel," she tried. He looked at her pointedly in return.

"I have money Claire. I do have a job."

"You picked up the tab last night, let me get it." She tried to grab the slip of paper from him again, but he used his superior height to pull it out of her reach. Claire pouted a little bit, and it made her seem more like a child than ever.

"Claire," he scolded her with a look that made her sit back.

"Ok!" she surrendered, "The next one is mine though," Claire put on her resolved face.

"Alright come on," Gabriel pulled her up by the elbow and led her out of the restaurant, once again surprising her with his lack of gentility.

"Where are we going?" Claire asked him when he parked the car in a secluded spot. He was silent as he opened the passenger door for her.

"I believe it is common practice for people to be in a monogamous relationship before they get into a fight and break up, so I figured that we could work our way backward to something of a more platonic nature," He explained in a way that didn't answer her question at all, but answered five more. Claire smiled to herself; Gabriel had the most peculiar way of thinking, but it always made sense to her in one way or another.

"So this is a date?" she checked, "and you still didn't answer my question." He gestured her to follow him through a thicket of evergreen trees. She had no idea of where they could possibly be.

"Last night you showed me a place where you like to be alone with your thoughts; while we were eating, I decided it would only be appropriate for me to show you my own sanctuary."

"What your own place isn't good enough?" she questioned.

"Not in the slightest," he answered as he brushed aside a large branch at the end of the path. Claire was awestruck as she found herself standing on the top of a tall look out point, with the angry dark ocean crashing against the side a few dozen feet below them.

"This is incredible," Claire stated the obvious. "Thank you."

"Come sit with me," Gabriel commanded softly. Claire did as he requested. They sat in silence and appreciated the silence of the cool night air for a long time before Claire disrupted the stillness around them.

"How are you feeling?" she asked him.

"Fine," he replied simply.

"So you're ok?" Claire was still concerned about his emotional fragility.

"I'm better," he compromised. Claire recognized the change in his demeanor and felt guilty for bringing it up.

"What did you used to think about here?" She tried to reel him back in.

"Many things I suppose, I have spent a great deal of time contemplating family here," he answered hollowly.

"Your family?"

"I never told you why my mother and I were fighting."

"No, you didn't," she replied hesitantly.

"She had just informed me that she was not birth mother. She lied to me about it for twenty long years. My biological father too… he didn't leave."

"Gabriel," Claire began, "If she loved you then why does it matter?" Claire looked down and thought about her own family, "When I found out that I was adopted, it didn't bother me as much as it would most people, because I realized that my mom and my dad would always love me like their own, even my brother Lyle."

"It wasn't like that though Claire… I wasn't adopted at all."

"What do you mean?" she pried.

"My real father's name was Samson Gray," he paused to throw a large stone angrily into the ocean. The action betrayed his voice, which was absent of any resentment; he seemed lost, and sorrowful, but his usual anger was gone. "He sold me to his brother," he finally said.

"Are you sure?" Claire was shocked, "Why would anyone sell you?"

"I know," Gabriel chuckled darkly. "Who would want to buy me? I always knew my father was an imbecile. I knew that I could not be the son of a washed-up clock smith and a woman who collected figurines."

"No," Claire protested, "I mean why would anyone want to give you up?" Gabriel turned on her questioningly. "You're intelligent," she kissed him on the cheek, "and handsome," the other one, "and strangely charming," she held his face in her hands and laid a completely honest and soft kiss upon his lips; for the first time, it wasn't rushed or masked by lust. Claire's kiss was sincere. When they parted, she finished her speech. "You're kind of perfect Gabriel."

"I'm not," some personal condemnation crept into his voice.

"Then you're perfect for me," Claire curled into his side where he put an arm around her. The gesture wasn't as affectionate as she wished it could be, but the fact that he was letting her touch him was definite progress. Claire took a moment to appreciate the feel of his warm body next to hers; it was Gabriel who ruined the imperfect silence this time.

"So who is your father then?" he asked.

"His name is Nathan Petrelli," she answered. Gabriel drew back slightly at that so he could size her up.

"You're kidding!" he exclaimed, "I knew you looked familiar." Claire was shocked that was the most lively she had seen Gabriel act while sober since he leapt out of her bed before.

"Oh?" she questioned him in surprise. "From where?"

"2009 May issue of Time Magazine," he immediately prompted as if he were a living encyclopedia.

"You caught me," she gave in cheekily, "you actually remembered that?"

"I don't seem to forget things easily," he told her, then recognizing the irony in it, smiled to himself. "So if Nathan Petrelli is your father, then what possible reason could you have for living in Palo Alto?"

"I told you I had money," she idly explained, "How did you think I ended up at Stanford?" Claire shook her head, "besides I told you, my real family is in Costa Verde."

"You put every other girl I have met to shame Claire Bennet," Gabriel placed a single kiss on the top of her head, and held her close.

"I feel wrong Claire," he said after while.

"Why do you say that?" She asked curiously.

"I'm happy that my mother is dead." Claire stiffened a little bit at that. Gabriel noticed and released her from his hold.

"What did she do?"

"It isn't important," he told her, but Claire noticed him idly examining his hands besides. When he saw her watching, he hastily pulled them away from view. "I should get you home Claire, it's late."

"Ok," she agreed.

"I almost forgot," he turned to her, "I need to make a brief stop at my apartment first." Claire nodded as she stood up to leave with him.

"There is something I wanted to give to you before I drive you home," Gabriel told her as he fumbled with the lock on his apartment door.

"Me too," Claire smiled conspiratorially and stood up on the tips of her toes to kiss him. Gabriel was surprised, but returned the affectionate gesture with passion that matched hers. He hungrily pressed her up against the door, running one hand down her chest and opening the door with the other.

They both stumbled inside as Claire jumped up to wrap her legs around Gabriel's waist, upon which he groaned and deepened the kiss; drawing her shirt up with a single hand while he held her close to him.

"Hello Sylar," Claire heard a familiar voice behind her say, she snapped her head in that direction. "Dad?!" she exclaimed horror-struck as he stepped out from the darkness with a gun.

"Claire?"

Tbc.