Shadow Girls Page

Feel (Chapter Ten)

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 13:16:34 GMT

Title: Feel
Chapter: Nine
Pairing: Elle/Claire
Summary: AU after Eclipse.

Sorry I took so long to update! Life got in the way!

Elle groaned inwardly but she couldn’t open her eyes, which felt unusually heavy. She remembered a feeling similar to this when she had drunk too much of her fathers wine. It was like she couldn’t control her body…but this time she didn’t like it.

Slowly she began to regain the feeling in the various parts of her body. Her legs were heavy and numb, her head was pounding, her stomach was growling and there was a soft hand intertwined with hers…wait a second.

Elle fought to open her eyes, to make sure.

She was greeted by the top of a messy mop of blond hair. Claire was asleep, lying half on the bed, but still sitting on an arm chair that had been moved over as close as it could possibly get to the side of the bed. Their hands were still interlaced and Elle smiled as she touched Claire’s face gently with her free hand, as her brain filtered through the mess of the last time she had seen the younger girl.

Elle momentarily wondered whether she had died the other day at the hotel, but decided this wasn’t so bad if she had. She wouldn’t mind being here for eternity one bit. After she had re-memorised every contour of Claire’s face, Elle managed to pry her eyes away and looked around the unfamiliar room, which was full of strategically placed teddy bears and trophies….and pink! Lots and lots of pink. Elle shook her head softly and rolled her eyes when she realised that she was in was Claire’s room. She was such a dork.

Claire must have felt the movement because she stirred, and Elle fought to maintain a cool façade, as the cheerleader looked up and saw that she was awake. Claire immediately shot up and pulled her chair up towards the head of the bed, never breaking eye contact. She mirrored the wide grin that Elle imagined must be splattered across her face by now. So much for playing it cool.

“Elle….you’re ok”, she breathed, squeezing her hand.

Elle shrugged, “Yeah – I’m guessing I have your super strength blood to thank for that…so thank you”, Elle had to work to keep her tone sincere…she really did mean it but years of talking a certain way had left her unsure whether she even believed herself.

Claire beamed, “It was the first time I’ve actually been thankful for my ability…it was the first time it ever felt right….saving you”, Elle looked at her and then looked down, still unable to look people in the eyes when she had something important to say. A habit picked up from her youth.

“You’ll do more important things then this Claire…you’ll do so many great things for the world. This, well this surely wont be one of them.” Claire shook her head, “That’s where you’re wrong. I don’t thin you realise how… I can’t do this without you. I can’t do anything without you. If I hadn’t met you id still be skulking in my room hating the world. You made me realise what’s out there.”

Elle smiled and shrugged, “I am pretty fantastic”, she said easily, with a sarcastic grin on her face.

“You really are.” Claire said. No trace of mocking in her tone. Elle felt her heart in her throat. Elle looked down again, and Claire put her finger under her chin, “You know how I feel about you. You remember what I said to you didn’t you…I do love you.”

Elle smiled nervously torn between elation of the memory and the fear of having to say it back. Having to expose herself…her vulnerability. It was something she had been warned against her entire life.

“Do you have anything to say?” Claire said finally. Her eyes unsure.

“You know how I feel…” Elle let her sentence teeter off.

Claire searched her eyes, “Not until you say the words”

Elle fought an internal battle, one side of her wanting to do anything to please Claire and the other hell bent of self protection. “You know I’m not that girl…I can’t…”

“You can’t or you don’t want to?”

“I can’t” She whispered and Claire squeezed her hand, “I can wait”

“I might never be ready,”

“I can wait forever”

Elle smiled in spite of the corny line. Then diverted the conversation to cover the blush that had crept over her face, “So how on earth am I in your house without my feet stuck in a bucket or water….it just doesn’t feel right”

Claire raised an eyebrow but said nothing, “Sylar is sedated somewhere….I wasn’t really paying attention….and they were talking about what to do with you and I said…I told them how you saved me….and surprisingly Dad was willing to let you recover here.”

“Who knew all it took to win him over was a pole to the stomach…easy peasy.”

Claire rolled her eyes, “So Dad, Dad two and Peter are downstairs.” Elle felt her body tense slightly but tried to hide it. She wasn’t successful though as Claire’s interest had been peaked by her bodies reaction.

“Oh”

“What is it?” she asked, genuinely concerned.

“Nothing. It’s nothing, don’t worry about it.”

“I worry about everything. Tell me”

“Nothing I just….Me and Peter don’t get along that great.” Elle shrugged, trying to be nonchalant about the whole situation.

“I remember you said something about that in the hotel room….care to elaborate?”

“Not really”, Elle said, feeling like a petulant child.

“Why!?”

“He is your family; I’m not going to say anything bad about him. I’m not that stupid”

“Don’t say anything bad then, just the truth.”

“He just….we just…we had words….and he explained something to me, and I thought it would be best if I left you alone.”

“Left me alone? Something he said is the reason you never followed me? What did he say?” Elle watched as Claire’s voice increased in pitch and intensity…it was making her slightly uncomfortable.

“I don’t….”

“Don’t protect him; I have a right to know what he said. I never asked him to be my big brother. What did he say?”

Elle hesitated, not liking to tell on someone…she thought it was of ill taste, but she was angry at herself for upsetting Claire again…and if she had to say something…then choosing between having to say I love you out loud and this, well she knew which one would be easier.

“He just said…he said that you didn’t really care about me, that it was more a pity thing…,” Elle trailed off and waved a hand in the air, “Or you know…whatever.”

Claire tensed and the grip she had held on Elle’s hand faltered. Elle knew she shouldn’t have said anything! Now she was angry at her….scrambling to rectify the situation Elle started to formulate words but was shocked when Claire jumped up and made off towards the door.

“Where are you going?” she blurted before her brain had even registered what was happening.

“Where do you think?” Claire said, looking furious. Elle swallowed to try and get rid of the dry throat that was preventing her from speaking but it was to no avail. No words would come out.”

“I’m sorry” she stuttered quickly, “I know I shouldn’t have said that but I wasn’t…I’m not…I’m sorry.” Claire’s anger dissipated quickly, “I’m not angry at you Elle don’t be ridiculous! I’m furious at Peter…I don’t know why he thinks I need him to interfere with my life…but I don’t. I know what I want.”

# # #

Claire’s heart strained when she saw how relieved Elle looked…like she even had to worry about her feelings for the older girl at this point…it was endearing and infuriating at the same time.

“I want you…and if there are people that aren’t happy with that then they are going to have to live with it, because I’ve lost you once I’m not going to do it again. Ever.” Elle smiled and grabbed her hand again loosely, tracing her fingers over them softly, making the hairs on the back of Claire’s neck stand to attention.

Once touch and her whole body was already on fire….she is in recovery she reminded herself, to stop from jumping on her right there and then. She waited this long, she could wait another few days. Her resolve, however, was rapidly disappearing as Elle continued her sensory assault, her hands now roaming up her arms.

“Elle”, she breathed and opened her eyes to see the older girl smirking in her usual way, her eyes sparkling softly.

“Yes cheerleader?” She said innocently as the lifted her hand to her lips and kissed it softly.

“We should wait….” Claire said, trying to be rational. Her whole family was home, her whole extended family too. It was too dangerous to start something she knew she wouldn’t be able to stop.

“For what? Elle whispered. “For you to join the company and me to go on a cross country rampage? Aren’t you tried of waiting? I am”.

Claire said nothing which Elle took as agreement; she tugged Claire’s hand softly and pulled her down on to the bed beside her. Elle smiled softly as she brushed loose strands of hair back from Claire’s face.

“My whole life I’ve followed everyone else’s plans…their dreams. I’ve never really been able to follow my heart. And I might not be ready to say the words…but know that the only thing I’ve ever wanted this badly is you. I didn’t choose this life, but I choose this …You…forever.”

Claire didn’t fight the tear that rolled down her cheek, as their lips finally crashed together, months of longing culminating in one perfect moment.

Author’s note: Wow, sorry about the massive update delay, I’ve been so busy! But the review love always brings me back, thanks guys! Its not that long I Apologize, I’ll be a good girl and crank out a longer one next time.

Feel (Chapter Nine)

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 13:51:56 GMT

Title: Feel
Pairing:Elle/Claire
Summary: Claire Vs. Sylar. Vs. Elle - take two.

9.

Claire finally broke the silence which had lasted so long that there was now a thick air of tension. She wanted to tell Elle everything, to tell her anything that would make her understand what she meant to her. Claire was having trouble finding the words to let Elle know that thoughts of her consumed her so much that every choice, every action made in these past months had been done to get to this place. To get to her.

Claire had so much that she needed to get out, that she didn’t know how she could ever begin. “Hey”, was all that she could actually get out of her dry throat and she immediately felt stupid. Like the child she had been so desperately trying to leave behind.

Whilst Claire was internally berating herself, she realised that there was a small half smile on to the lips of the older girl. Claire beamed back at Elle, unable to wash the grin off her face, but neither of them moved, both rooted to the ground on which they currently stood.

She had to stop herself from reaching out to grab Elle right there and then. Baby steps, she reminded herself. Claire had to ball her hands in to little fists kept tightly by her sides to obey her internal command. To stop from reaching out to her.

She saw the way Elle was studying her face, her head cocked to the side as they continued their staring contest. As stupid as it felt she was wishing she had worn something else, done her hair differently….when did I become such a girl? She mused silently. She had never given a second thought to such things, but suddenly she wished she had. Elle looked so glamorous and she felt like a kid playing grown up.

Elle had yet to speak and it was making Claire anxious, she didn’t know how much time they had, and she had so much ground to cover. But she knew better then to push the older girl, as she wouldn’t respond well to that.

So Claire waited patiently as she drank in Elle’s features, greedily letting her eyes memorise her. She had no pictures of Elle; well none that weren’t pulled from security cameras…and that wasn’t who she was. Her Elle and everyone else’s Elle were very different people.

Elle opened her mouth to speak, before shutting it promptly and looking at the ground. Claire ached to touch her but she wasn’t going to give her any excuse to run away. Not again. Finally Elle looked up and met Claire’s eyes, they were searching for something and Claire wished she knew what it was so she could give it to her.

Claire took one step towards her and Elle took a step back, her eyes flashing. Claire tried to bite down the rejection, “What are you doing here pom-pom?”, she asked finally. Her arms still wrapped tightly around her body, forming a barrier between herself and the world.

She opened her mouth to respond but the words were spilling out of Elle’s mouth now, “Why are you here? Who are you with….what do you want from me?”, Claire took a step forward once again but this time Elle stayed glued to her spot, she was trying to act indifferent but Claire could see she was confused…scared.

“Are you actually going to let me talk?”, she asked with a small smile, hoping to lighten the mood a little.

“That depends”, Elle responded softly, a pout on her lips.

“Depends on what?”

“On whether or not I’ll like the answer,” she said with a shrug. Claire was about to answer when a stricken look suddenly made its way on to Elle’s face and she shook her head violently, “Shit”, she quickly closed the gap between them and grabbed Claire’s wrist, pulling her along behind her toward the door. Claire tried to focus on what was happening and was about to protest when Elle’s touch suddenly made her light headed. Her hands were as soft as she remembered.

“Sylar will be back any minute; you have to get out of here. He will…”, Claire held a hand up and stopped her from going any further, closing the door which she had just whipped open. “He is…busy, he won’t be back soon.”

Elle looked confused, “I don’t understand…” Claire fought back the urge to smile when she realised that Elle had yet to remove her hand.

“You’re with them?” She asked, looking horrified, whipping her hand back off Claire’s skin like she had been burned.

Claire shook her head softly, Elle took two steps backwards but her eyes never left Claire’s face. “I’m not with them….well I’m with them, but I’m not with them.” Claire swore internally, she couldn’t even understand what she was trying to say.

“You can’t make me go back there with you, I won’t go.” Claire was confused now, “I’m not trying to….”. She began, but Elle turned on her heel quickly, putting a hand up to her forehead, “I can’t believe that I didn’t see this coming. Peter said you would always stick together but I didn’t think….”

Claire had no idea what was going on but she knew it wasn’t going well, she struggled to keep up with what was going on, why the fuck was Peter talking to Elle about her?

“Peter?...I don’t…” She struggled to form words, to keep up, she was trying so hard to be grown up but she just wanted to fall to her knees and apologise for anything she did or didn’t do. She would do anything to stop this conversation from going south, which was where it looked like it was heading, and fast.

# # #

Elle didn’t know what to do, she wouldn’t go quietly but she could never hurt Claire. Claire the new shiny perfect company girl, why hadn’t she seen this coming? It made complete sense; she just couldn’t believe Noah had agreed to it.

Claire had always been better than Elle at everything, it made sense that they would figure out how useful she would be to the company. But she didn’t belong there; she deserved so much more then that.

Turning around she saw that Claire was still struggling to form words, but Elle didn’t have the time to wait for her to get them out. “Fuck”, she whispered softly. This had to be some sort of cosmic joke.

Elle turned her back to the girl and grabbed her packed bag, “Fuck you cheerleader,” she tried to slide past her but Claire stopped her. Her eyes pleading. “I don’t know how I managed to fuck this up so badly, but this wasn’t how I wanted this to go,”

Elle was furious, “And how did you want it to go pom-pom?”, you wanted me to put my hands together and be led back to that hell hole quietly. “You have no idea…”

“I do,” she interjected quickly, “I do”. Suddenly Elle felt her face flush, Claire’s Eyes let on that she did know. Elle suddenly felt humiliated. Ashamed. Everything she was trying to run away from was here and in her face. And the one person she wanted to think that she was strong and independent knew all of her weaknesses.

“You know nothing”, Elle said. Her voice quivering.

Claire moved towards her and Elle made no movement. Her heart was beating too fast and her legs were shaking too violently. She was stuck, here at the mercy of the only person who could truly break her.

“Maybe not”, she agreed softly. “But I know a few things”.

Elle took the bait, “Like?….”, Elle couldn’t resist the bait.

“Like…,” the indestructible girls voice was quivering and Elle wanted to comfort her, despite her mind screaming at her to run.

“Like, I know that when I woke up and you weren’t there…you broke my heart,” Claire broke eye contact but moved closer still, so that there was mere inches between them and if Elle had simply looked up and tilted her head they would have been touching.

She continued, “Like I joined the company to look for you….like I can’t live without you. Not know that I know what its like to live with you in my life,” Claire still didn’t look up. “I thought that I was losing feeling because of my ability, because of what my body could do, but you woke something up within me. It wasn’t my body that was shutting down…it was my heart.”

Elle was positive that she must have heard her heart beating violently out of her chest. She shook her head softly trying to clear her head, because she could not have just heard that correctly. There’s no way….

# # #

Claire finally looked up and saw Elle shaking here head softly. Her chest tightened, afraid of everything that could mean. Shaking head was a bad sign. Shit, shit , shit…

Flustered, Claire took a step backwards. Rejection wasn’t her strong suit. But Elle shot out her hand and grabbed her, keeping her in place. She slowly let her hand slide down Claire’s arm until their hands were intertwined. Claire’s whole body pulsated with the touch. She held her breath, afraid to ruin this perfect moment.

Elle opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted by the front door opening. They jumped apart, out of some weird reflex and both looked towards Sylar, who stood at the entrance grinning.

“Clare-bare!”, he said and laughed softly, “I should have known. Like father like daughter and all that,” he waved his hand in the air as he closed the gap between the three of them. Claire remained in front of Elle wanting to protect her. She saw a movement out of her left eye and was surprised when Elle quickly stepped around her, so that she was now the one in between them.

Claire didn’t know whether the move was to protect her or Sylar. Claire’s mind suddenly flashed to Andrew, her stomach flipped.

“Where’s Andrew?”, she said evenly.

“Andrew?” he put up a finger to his lips, pretending to mull it over, “Oh, skinny guy? Bad suit?…he ran as soon as I figured out his little ruse. So pitiful I couldn’t even be bothered following him,” Claire let out the breath she hadn’t known that she had been holding.

He studied her over Elle’s shoulder, “Though I am interested as to why Elle got the company’s number one new recruit and I got Joe nobody…intriguing,” he smiled.

Elle stepped forward, “Sylar,”, she said sternly, as though she was reprimanding a child, “Claire was just leaving. So were we. Let’s not do this. Please”

“Do what, Sugar?” he smiled. “That’s all I want to know… what the fuck is going on?”, Claire stepped out from behind Elle, and stole a glance to see that the older girl was pretty pissed at her for doing so.

“What the fucks going on? Sylar, you didn’t think that everybody was going to let you criss-cross the country reeking havoc wherever you went and not step in.” Claire did her best to look at him with no trace of fear.

“Let me?”, he laughed harshly, “You say that like you think you could stop me if you wanted to…silly child”, Claire felt her face flush. She hated being referred to as a child, especially in front of Elle. Claire went to retaliate, to tell him that they had something that could bring him down. Her common sense stopped her, giving away her upper hand may not be the brightest idea if she was trying to assert how grown up she was.

She shut her mouth promptly, and Elle took over. She walked up to Sylar and put a hand on his chest pulling his face away from its lock on Claire so that it was focused on her.

Claire felt a stab of jealousy. It ripped through her entire body, she couldn’t watch this….but she couldn’t look away. It was like a car wreck. She couldn’t help herself.

“We knew they were after us…and there will be more coming soon, we should take our head start.” She cooed softly. His features softened when they locked on her. It would be fascinating if she weren’t so horrified…that the greatest monster of their time was brought to his knees by the electric girl. Just like she was.

Sylar shook his head, “Or we stay and get them off our backs,” he smiled, “Think of how much fun it would be Elle.” Elle’s hand dropped from his face but her hand on his chest stayed in place, much to Claire’s dismay. Elle made no move to speak, seemingly trying to find a way out of this situation.

Sylar motioned towards Claire who was standing awkwardly in the centre of the room, “We have bait, and I know how to work it so she wouldn’t heal…we have an Achilles’ heel”, Elle stiffened and dropped her hands. Claire thought it weird that she was relieved about the lack of contact between them and not worried that she had just been threatened. She really had lost her mind.

“No” was all Elle replied. She looked like she wanted to say more but she was choking on her words. Claire’s heart swelled up when she realised she was scared. Scared for her. There was hope yet.

It was Claire’s turn to sneer, “You think that you’re keeping me here Sylar?”, She shook her head with a laugh, “If I didn’t want to be here, I wouldn’t. You couldn’t stop me.”

“Why would you possibly want to be here Claire?”, he said, his eyes cloudy with confusion.

“You know what, this is stupid. Is this a pissing contest?, I’m sure your both badass, but in this particular instance lets everyone just go our separate ways.” Elle said quickly, her voice dripping with desperation.

“No”, Claire and Sylar both said in unison. The room was deadly quiet as Sylar mulled something over in his head before his eyes cleared and his confusion lifted. He smiled widely.

“You want her to go with you? You want to save her from me?”, He spun to Elle quickly, “Look at that! You must have pulled off the lost little girl better than I thought. The company wants you back.” He stared at Elle for a moment, who currently had her eyes locked on Claire…the fear evident in her posture…her face. And it wasn’t fear for herself.

Sylar then slowly and then turned back to Claire, the smile vanished from his face when he saw the same desperation in her. His features had hardened. “Not the company.” He said in a low voice, “You”.

Claire said nothing but lifted her head up high. Elle was looking at Claire, there eyes were locked and Sylar made a move towards Claire but Elle stepped in and blocked him, “Don’t”.

He grabbed her arm violently, “You want her?” Elle said nothing, but whimpered from the force of his grip.

“Let go of her”, Claire said, her voice quivering with rage.

“Don’t you tell me what to do girl”, he snarled, before focusing his attention back on Elle, “This whole time. You’ve never let me in, never given yourself to me. It was because of her.” Claire’s heart beat fast, her mind racing, what did that mean?

“I told you from the start that I could never give you what you wanted,”

“Why!?”, he roared. His eyes wild, teetering on the edge on control.

“Because somebody already had it. Somebody else already has it.”

“Has what?”

“Me. All of me…”

Claire’s heart soared, this must be what happiness felt like. She had Elle’s heart. She could stop the smile that spread over her face though she was cautious to look at the ground. Afraid to antagonise Sylar further.

He let go of Elle in disgust. His fists shaking in fury, “She’s mine” he spat. Elle walked over and stood next to Claire, “I don’t belong to anyone…not anymore.”

He flicked his wrist and Elle went flying in to the wall, Claire moved to go to her but another flick and Claire was on the ground on the opposite side of the room. She fumbled trying to get her gun as her broken ankle repaired itself.

Sylar advanced on her and sent her flying again just as she had reached the handle of the gun that could save them. She cried out as her wrist snapped, and she could feel red hot liquid pouring down her face. Claire heard Elle cry out to her and wanted to respond but she was to focused on her gun and the ripping pain. He wouldn’t hurt Elle, she reminded herself. She wiped the blood away with her good hand and looked up at Sylar who was wearing a menacing grin.

“Bye cheerleader”, he said as he levitated a pole from the tv unit in the air, aiming for her skull. For where she wouldn’t heal. Claire closed her eyes and waited for the impact. She heard terrible screaming, and waited….but it took her a moment to realise it wasn’t her voice….it wasn’t her screaming.

Looking up she saw Elle on the ground with the rod in her stomach. Sylar stared horrified. Claire pushed him out of the way, but he grabbed her. Claire did a sweeping kick to the back of his knees and he fell to the ground with a thud. He moved his arm to retaliate, but Claire had her hand on her gun in an instant, and she shot the liquid bullet in to this thigh. Wounding and incapacitating him.

Running over to Elle she cradled her in her arms, “Its going to be ok, I promise”, she tried to smile reassuringly as she held her hand over the wound. Hearing the door fly open and hearing the rush of back up sweeping the premises, asking her questions, she ignored them. Focusing completely on Elle. On her Elle.

“I love you”, she said, a tear running down her cheek. Elle smiled softly and struggled to speak, her voice coming out husky and broken, “I know you do pom-pom”. Claire laughed through her tears and kissed her lips, not caring who saw. But when she pulled back, Elle’s eyes fluttered closed.

Authors note: Mean I know. But be nice and I might keep going ;) Thanks for the reviews guys, I adore them. They make my day. xox

Feel

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 12:57:09 GMT

Thanks to alexfoster451 for taking the time to make me a banner for Feel, very sweet. Xox

Feel (Chapter 8)

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 12:56:51 GMT

Title: Feel
Pairing: Claire/Elle
Summary: AU after Eclipse
Disclaimer: I own nothing

Claire gripped the steering wheel tighter, she was glad that Andrew had the music on so loudly, otherwise he might have heard the bones in her hand breaking and mending over and over again. She couldn’t stop herself from doing it no matter how hard she concentrated…because every minute she was getting closer to her destination. Every minute she was getting closer to Elle. Her knuckles popped again.

As much as she had played this moment countless times in her head since they were separated, now that the moment was finally upon her she had absolutely no clue what it is she would do. No idea what she could possibly say, how did you tell someone you couldn’t exist without them?.

She had been so relentless in her pursuit of this reunion that she hadn’t considered what it is she could say to make Elle understand. Or even if she would want to. ‘Oh god’, she thought suddenly and her stomach lurched. If she could vomit she is positive that she would have in that instant.

‘I’m such an idiot’, she thought suddenly. Chiding herself for being so obliviously confident about the outcome. Elle had taken off once, who is to say she even wanted to be found. Maybe she would pity Claire for following her. Maybe she would be angry.

Her brain was so busy running through every worst case scenario that she had never considered before now, that she almost drove straight past the hotel. Andrew was more attentive, and he gently nudged her arm and pointed in to the car park.

Working on auto pilot, Claire followed the direction she had been pointed to and gulped loudly. Andrew saw this and smiled, “Pay off day huh Claire? This is it – our instant promotion”, she nodded dumbly, barely registering what he had said.

She opened the door slowly and made her way to the boot of the car, strapping on her two guns. The normal one and one ‘special’ one developed by the company through past research she wanted to know nothing about.

Apparently it was full of something that was very effective at stopping ‘their kind’ in their tracks. If only they knew who Claire was. Angela had kept that under wraps for the most part, saying that she wouldn’t be in such a ‘lowly’ position for long and that her two partners were so oblivious they wouldn’t realise. And they hadn’t.

Claire looked at the second gun cautiously as she put it in her holster, she always treated it with kit gloves, afraid it would some how turn on her. She then watched Andrew do the same. She knew she couldn’t hurt Elle…but Andrew could be pretty trigger happy. He wouldn’t hesitate if given the opportunity for glory.

Claire tried to choose her words carefully and keep her tone non-panicky, “We need a plan before we rush in to this”, she said finally. He shrugged and cocked his gun out of his holster, “Who needs a plan? We’ve got these mother fuckers cornered…this baby is going to take care of the rest.” He slid the weapon from hand to hand, appreciating it.

Claire felt her stomach tighten and she fumbled for words, for something to stop Andrew getting near Elle. She would stop him from hurting her, but she would rather it was the right way. She knew that she wouldn’t be able to stop her instincts from kicking in if he advanced on her. She would protect Elle at all costs.

She kind of understood her fathers past actions in that moment, that love you feel for someone that’s so strong it trumps everyone else. Everything else… Right, wrong…It’s all fuzzy when it comes to protecting that.

“I think we should be careful about this”, she said quickly, not even know what she was going to say as the words flew out of her mouth,” We need to split them up if we are going to take them out. They will be weaker on their own. As a pair we have less of a chance.”

He was distracted by her suggestion and she could see his mind mulling it over as he responded, “All we need to figure out is a way to get one of them out of the room”. Andrew nodded appreciatively, “We could lure Sylar out… trick him”

Clare agreed, “Yeah, but I don’t think we need to even try and get crafty. The simpler the plan is the less likely he is to think that there is something going on. If we just get him out on a sham reason like a bill he will come calmly.”

Andrew nodded, “Ill go talk to the manager, see if we can arrange a porter to call him down on an overdue invoice.”

Claire gave the thumbs up to him, mostly as she couldn’t bring her voice to come out evenly. She was so close now that she could taste it. She could taste her. It was the most exhilaration she had felt since last time they were this close.

# # #

Elle was packing up her things quietly, taking her time, she was tired of this routine. They did it every other week. Elle just wanted to stay somewhere, anywhere, for more then a week. All this moving around was finally getting to her. Sylar came up behind her and slid his arms around here waist, he mumbled in to her hair, “Why are you dragging your feet?”.

She shrugged his weight off of her, “I told you. I don’t want to go”

“You say that every time”

“I mean it every time…and every time we still leave. Can’t we do it my way just this once?”

“Just this once?” he laughed, “You always get your way Elle, if I had my way we would be on to bigger and better things already. More lucrative things. We would also stop this mating dance and commit to one another.”

He moved away, “But your unknown reasons stop you from any of that. What is it exactly that makes this life so undesirable? What is stopping you from embracing it?”

She continued smoothing out the imaginary creases in her folded clothes, “There is nothing stopping me Sylar…I choose not to”

He rolled his eyes and threw his hands in the air, “Choose” he muttered laughing, “I liked it better when you did what you were told, like a good little company girl.”

She whipped her head around to face him, static flying from her fingertips, she was ready to rumble. He smiled like he hadn’t in months…he seemed almost gleeful that he had sparked such a violent reaction.

A knock at the door broke the silence, but neither of them moved, they just stared at each other waiting for a go signal, an excuse to strike.

A voice flowed through the door, “Mr and Mrs Smith?” a pre-pubescent voice asked.

Sylar sighed, “Go away…we’re busy”

“Uh, yeah sorry to disturb you sir, but we know you’re planning on checking out today and there is a problem with your bill”.

He momentarily looked confused, “What? I paid cash you moron”

“Uh yeah, there are additional charges”

He rolled his eyes grabbed a wad of cash and opened the door shoving it towards the pimply boy, “Here”.

The boys’ eyes lit up but he restrained himself, “Sorry sir you have to sign for the charges downstairs”

Sylar’s hand went in to a little ball and Elle spoke up, “Behave, sweetie, I told you I liked it here. I still want to stay”

He turned around on his heels to face her and spoke through gritted teeth, “No problem sugar, I’ll sort this out and be back up to finish this”

Elle mimicked him as soon as he walked out the door “Ill be back up to finish this” she said in a low voice, “What a dick”, she flopped back on to the bed and let her arm fall over her eyes.

# # #

Claire listened to the bell boy from around the corner, she winced at the tone of Sylar’s voice, afraid that he would hurt the young kid… then she heard her, “Behave, sweetie, I told you I liked it here. I still want to stay”, Claire’s heart raced and her mouth went dry… sweetie? She suddenly felt ill again, this wasn’t happening.

“No problem sugar, I’ll sort this out and be back up to finish this”

Claire used the wall she was leaning against to prop herself up, afraid her legs would completely give way underneath her had she not had it for support. So it was true, this whole time she had been so sure that there was nothing between them. She felt like such an idiot.

The sound of the elevator door closing snapped her out of her haze and she remembered that she had a job to do regardless. She was going to save Elle from herself, even if she didn’t think she needed saving.

Forcing her legs to move one in front of the other, she felt as though she floated to the door of room 535. Fumbling for a second she got the key card she had been given minutes ago out of her pocket and let it hover just above the slide, “You can do this”, she repeated to herself softly.

“Like a bandaid”, she said as she slid the key quickly through the lock and used her other hand to click open the door. Before she could change her mind she took a step in to the large room and looked around for a moment, taking in the scattered money, jewels and clothes. There was so much stuff there she nearly missed the small body stretched out on the bed.

Claire struggled to speak. She just stood there dumbly staring. Elle had one arm slung casually over her eyes, blocking out the sunlight, he long golden locks sprayed out over the quilt cover. She groaned when she heard Claire. And let her arm fall off her face, but she still didn’t open her eyes. Claire took the moment to study her, taking in every feature. She was still perfect.

She spoke after another moment, but her tone wasn’t as soft as it had been last time they had seen one another, it had regained its sarcastic, bitter edge. “Back already? Couldn’t you just give me a moments peace?”

# # #

Elle made a groaning sound and flung her arm off her face; if he wanted to finish this she would finish it. Oh lord, she would finish it. She stretched her arms above her head, readying her body for whatever was coming next and then she let her eyes open finally as she sat up.

Meeting the eyes of the solitary figure standing in the middle of the room, Elle thought her heart and stopped, but her body hadn’t. With adrenalin pumping through her she stood up quickly and wrapped her arms around her waist, subconsciously trying to protect herself from any more hurt from the innocent looking girl standing in her hotel room.

She must have known where to find her because the look on her face wasn’t shock, it was something unreadable. Elle finally pulled herself in enough to take in the younger girl’s appearance. She looked more mature…more beautiful, if that was even possible.

Elle couldn’t find her voice, and neither, it seemed, could Clare because they both just stood there staring at each other for what felt like seconds but could have been forever.

Authors note: Sorry the updates have been further and further apart, but its harder to get amped when I’m getting less responses. I know I’m a review w**** but whatever, I’m still going! So take it easy on me :P Love you guys that have hung in. Long update next, ive already nearly finished it but this was getting super long. xox

Feel (Chapter Seven)

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 13:09:10 GMT

Fandom: Heroes
Pairing: Claire/Elle
Summary: Six months later....
Chapter: 7
Disclaimer: I own nothing!

Authors note: I know everyone was impatient for them to meet up again so I have made this a flash forward of sorts :P.

Six months later…

Elle walked through the rubble that littered the store floor, kicking it aside to give herself enough space to wade through. Looking around she tried to see where her partner had gone, sometimes, well most of the time, she thought that he was more trouble than he was worth.

She really didn’t know why she was still with him other than out of habit. He was like one of those ones that you just cant be bothered breaking, like cleaning up the bathroom after six months…it’s just easier to let it get worse and worse and hope someone else will deal with it eventually.

He was also a warm body, and he listened when she talked. That was more then she would have if she decided to go off on her own again. She really did hate being on her own.

Finally she saw a shadow hovering in the distance, across the far side of the room. Elle picked up her pace and got to him just as he was standing over some poor human, who was gasping for air and wheezing on the ground. She grabbed Sylar’s arm lightly, careful not to spook him.

It was times like this that she was actually glad that he adored her as much as he did, because it meant that she actually had some leverage over him. If she didn’t have this advantage she would have been dead by now, along with a lot of other humans along the way.

“Lets go…we got the money - there is no need for this,” she said softly guiding him away, seeing his pupils were dilated and wild she felt a small shudder through her body. The old man clutched at his chest and Elle felt a pang of sympathy, wanting to leave him alone as soon as she could.

He shrugged her off, “I see the fun police have come back again”, he said dryly, “What has happened to you Elle, you used to be so exciting to be with and now your moral and boring.” He folded his arms and made a face like a child who couldn’t get his way.

Elle returned his glare with equal ferociousness, “So exciting is killing old defenseless men is it Sylar? I must have missed that life lesson”. She stepped in between him and the man, “We’re going. Now.”

He shrugged and the grin that appeared on his face was menacing, but he turned and walked with her towards the two bags full of cash they had gotten from the safe. They picked up one each and made their way out of the store.

Elle turned and looked at the man still cowering on the floor, but thought that leaving him alive was about all she could manage today. It was getting harder and harder to even do that these days. He was getting worse.

She slid in to the passenger seat as he jumped over the car door, once they had reached the front of the store, he was always the exhibitionist.

They had both thrown their bags in to the back seats, and Elle slid her sun glasses off her head and on to her face, leaning down in her seat and closing her eyes, she was over this. He wasn’t.

“That was a great take,” he said, his voice practically buzzing with excitement.

“Yeah,” she replied softly, not really caring.

“I think we should hit a bank this afternoon,” he said tapping his fingers incessantly on the steering wheel.

“Why?” Elle asked, exasperated.

“Why not?” he countered and Elle opened her eyes to look at him, “We have more money that we know what to do with! There is no point to this anymore” she gestured around them, to the mess they were leaving behind in their wake.

“Well…”, he looked straight at her as he drove, putting his foot on the gas as he did, he liked to try to scare her, “We could go ability hunting, I could teach you…we could be more powerful than ever…”

Elle broke eye contact with him and turned towards the window looking at the blurry shapes going past, “Why?” she repeated, feeling like an spoilt child, but not being able to stop herself, “Why bother? So we can get more money we don’t need? its not going to make you happy Sylar. There’s never going to be a point where any of this finally fulfills you.”

He moved his eyes back to the road, thoughtful. “There will be a time,” he said nodding to himself, as if reassuring his own mind that there would be.

Elle was curious, “When will that be?”, she asked, genuinely interested. “When Noah finally tracks us down and I can take my time disposing of him”, Elle rolled her eyes, “You don’t even know that he is tracking us.”

He looked at her incredulously, “There is someone hot on our trail, and who the hell else would be following us around state to state? Who else would be stupid enough to try” Elle shrugged, “I guess your right,” she said and then continued, “But if you would stop sneaking off to try and steal people’s abilities then I doubt they would care about us. Can’t you leave well enough alone?”.

He shook his head and laughed in to the wind, “Half the fun is leaving them a mess to clean up. They made us like this Elle and now they are going to have to deal with the consequences”.

Elle returned her focus to the window, and sighed. She was over this life, and she just needed to get away.

The mention of Noah brought up the same old memories, which plagued her every day anyway. She had never really gotten Claire out of her head. It had actually gotten worse as the days past. She felt lonelier; more isolated….more shut off.

She didn’t like to think of her too much as she knew that the younger girl would be happy and content in her perfect life, with memories of them being but a faint forgotten memory. She didn’t like to be thought of like that because Claire meant so much more to her than anything that could be confined to a faded memory.

Sylar had been persistent in his pursuit of Elle and she had finally given in…given him her body but no more. It was nice to be wanted, if nothing else. Rejection hits you hard, she now realized, and knowing that there is someone who worships the ground you walk on can sometimes is comforting, even if it’s not the one you want.

She knew he was getting annoyed at her emotional distance, but he was so self absorbed that he was usually distracted pretty easily. She would never offer him any more then her flesh, as try as she might to deny it, her heart belonged to someone else, even if she didn’t want it, it would always belong to Claire now.

Gritting her teeth as Sylar laid his hand on her thigh she turned away from his touch, she was not in the mood to pretend today. She was too tired, and thought of the younger blonde consumed her.

She hoped that Claire didn’t know what she had been doing, but she doubted that she would care either way. And that’s what hurt the most.

# # #

Claire shuffled papers on her desk as Mark and Andrew argued over whether to have pizza or Chinese take out for dinner. It was infuriating sometimes, to be the youngest and still feel like she had to mediate these men who behaved like boys. She was only 18 but it felt like so much more time had past. She felt as though she had aged decades in these past few months.

She tied her long her back in to a tight pony tail and answered the phone sitting on her desk on the first ring, “Hello?” she said, unable to keep the weariness out of her tone. She had been learning all the administration duties during the day and had physical training as soon as she got off work, it was exhausting but it was paying off. She had advanced quicker than any other agent in the company’s history. She was a prodigy of sorts apparently. She just felt tired.

The receptionists too perky voice made its way down the line, “We have another one for you Miss Bennet”, Claire felt her heart thump abnormally hard, “Where?” she said breathlessly, “LA” she responded quickly, knowing the drill, “Two jewelry stores, a bank and a car dealership”, Claire nodded and immediately felt ridiculous, “Any fatalities?”, she nearly held her breath.

“No. None this time, but one store owner saw the two of them using their powers and heard them arguing. Angela thought it might be helpful for you to talk to him”, Claire slammed down the phone and grabbed her coat, throwing it on as she addressed her partners, “They hit again, and there is a survivor that Angela wants us to talk to.”

The two men looked at each other and sighed, they started a game of paper, scissors rock to see who would have to make the trip with Claire. She always went, but there was no need for the three of them to all make the trip. They had stopped bothering to tell her to take a break, because she never did.

Andrew lost with paper and grumbled under his breath as he followed Claire out the door, her short legs were out striding him as she almost ran to the car. She wanted to talk to someone who had seen Elle, she wanted to know what she had said, what they had fought about. She needed to know everything. It had turned in to her obsession.

# # #

Claire waded through the rubble piled on the floor through a path that someone before her had cleared, and then she ducked under the yellow police tape that surrounded the interior part of the store. The place was a mess, it looked much worse than the last one.

Each was getting progressively worse actually. She assumed that Sylar was getting more violent, more volatile. Every one thought she was insane for insisting that Elle wasn’t the one responsible, but she didn’t care what they thought of her. She didn’t care what anyone thought of her these days. Well anyone, bar Elle.

She secretly hoped that Elle would think that she was more grown up when they finally met again. She hoped that maybe she would regret leaving her. In any event, she had to know what had happened. Both what had happened to make her take off and what had occurred in the intervening months.

She had moved in to her own apartment a few months prior, with the help of Angela, of all people. Noah wasn’t happy, obviously, but she was home for dinner at least once a week and spoke to Sandra almost every day.

It was just hard to learn about her father and what he had done and still see him in the same light that she once had. Still idolise him. He was a perfect father; he just wasn’t a perfect human being. He was actually a pretty questionable human being. And that freaked her out a lot.

She hadn’t been able to bring her self to read all of his files. But two she had to read and access with the guise of background research were Sylar and Elle’s. He had played a heavy hand in their lives. Sylar's was obvious; he moulded him in to what he had become. Elle’s was more subtle, but just as disgusting, if not more so because of the feelings Claire held for her.

The testing, the neglect...the exploitation. She had cried the first few times she had read that file. Aching to comfort the girl locked in the room alone and scared. It was had to believe that no one had taken pity on her. The number of people that she saw daily as they poked and prodded her and not one of them thought to treat her like the child she was. Especially not her ‘father’.

Claire gritted her teeth; they shared that in common too. They both had fathers they couldn’t trust. At least Noah loved Claire. That was more than Elle had ever gotten from hers.

She couldn’t help but think how easy it would have been for her to be that girl. And it could have been her locked up like an animal, but for a twist of fate. A twist which was kind to her, cruel to Elle.

Considering everything, the fact that Elle was who she was, was even more amazing. She loved her more now, if that were even possible. She knew that the older woman wouldn’t like her knowing, but it wasn’t pity, it is awe. Claire wouldn’t have survived. That much she knew. She needed to tell Elle how she felt, and she hoped that it would change something, but even if it didn’t she just wanted Elle to know, she deserved that much.

Straightening her jacket up she approached the man who was sitting up on a raised block of cement that had been strategically placed there as a make shift bench. She smiled softly at him, hoping to make him feel at ease and it worked as he smiled back immediately. Sometimes it helped being a young blonde, it made people trust you.

“Hello Mr Yates”, she said as she approached him and took his outstretched hand, “I’m Agent Bennet”, She looked back to see Andrew doing background work and sighed. He hated interviews, so she always had to fly solo on them.

“Agent Bennet,” he said with a nod at her, She sat down on the block next to him, “Are you feeling better today sir?”, she said with genuine concern, worried about the stress this must have put on him. The agents who arrived prior to him had given him some story about stress and a mild heart attack causing his hallucinations, or something along those lines. Sometimes it was funny what people would believe to avoid the truth.

“Oh, much better thank you”, he said brightly, “Now I’m just thankful to be alive,” the police man who had been standing their pitched in, “Yeah sir, you are really lucky. Those two psychopaths have been on a rampage across the country. I can’t believe they didn’t kill you, you should invest in a lottery ticket,” Claire shot the man a look, indicating for him to back off. The downside of being a young blonde was of course, that the other officers didn’t respect you...

To her surprise the elderly man jumped in, “Oh he would have killed me, he wanted to”. Claire winced, that wasn’t what she wanted to hear, but she got out her note pad and pen.

“Yeah, the man with the bushy eyebrows, he had this crazy look in his eyes. I thought I was a goner.” He nodded and got a wistful look on his face as he recalled the prior events.

“What happened to stop him?” she prodded, her pen waiting expectantly on top of the paper.

“She did. The little blonde,” Claire felt her heart beat quicken exponentially but she bit her tongue, not trusting her own voice. The police officer took care of that for her, “The blonde?”

The older man nodded enthusiastically, “Yes. Pretty little thing, she came over and stood between us. Told him he wasn’t to hurt me that they had what they had come for.”

The police man let out a low whistle, “Wow, that’s unusual”

The man shrugged, “She seemed quite apologetic, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he was coercing her. Little thing like that can’t be doing it of her own free will. Surely not”

He nodded to himself, convinced, “Yes she looked at me as they were leaving and it was like she wanted to come back but decided against it, she’s my guardian angel, that one”

Claire just sat dumbly nodding, before remembering to write when she saw Andrew approaching. She tried to control her breathing rate, tried to stay calm. Andrew leaned down when he finally reached her and whispered in to her ear, “Witnesses place them at a hotel thirty minutes south. This could be what we’ve been waiting for. They could still be there. Do you want to send in SWAT?”

Claire stood up so fast she had a head spin, “No we’ll go. They wouldn’t be able to handle this. SWAT would just aggravate them. We can handle this.” She focused on breathing as she headed towards the exit, towards their car.

He looked at her dubiously, “We can?”

She nodded and suppressed a smile, “Yeah we can get through. This can end peacefully”

He shook his head and smiled ruefully, “I really hope you know what you’re doing”.

She nodded affirmatively, “I do. I know exactly what I’m doing”.

Authors note: Sorry I know, I’m mean. But this chapter was already really long, and obviously they meet up next update! Ps, I love all your reviews. I read and appreciate every on. Keep writing them, and I’ll keep writing this! xoxox

Feel (Chapter Six)

Thu, 25 Dec 2008 15:56:37 GMT

Pairing: Elle/Claire
Fandom: Heroes
Summary: After Eclipse part one, really AU.

Elle glanced around the room and was annoyed that she wasn’t happier with her accumulated bounty. Fleetingly

she looked at the designer clothes, electronic gadgets and the jewellery, but saw nothing that spiked her

interest…she didn’t feel anything, and she needed this to be more fulfilling.

There was no triumph, no satisfaction – and it was utterly annoying.

Kicking a Calvin Klein dress out of the way, she plonked herself down on the bed, and grabbed her slushy off of

the bedside table. Elle sat with the straw trapped between her teeth, but she didn’t have the energy or the will to

take a gulp. She just gnawed at the straw as she stared at the muted television.

Elle was truly bored…and really lonely. She frequently went to say something, only to realise that there was no on

there to listen to her. It was off-putting, as she had never been alone before in her entire life. Well not physically

alone anyway.

Emotionally, however, her father had really fucked her over – but he had always just been there. Someone had

always been there.

Consequentially, all this time on her own had been torturous. Compounded by the fact that all she had to do in

these periods was to think, which was the one thing she really couldn’t afford to do at this point. Because thinking

led back to one thing…well back to one person, and that was just too much for her to deal with at the moment.

Elle wanted nothing more than to be independent and worry free, but it turns out, surprisingly, that robbing stores

and threatening little humans gave her no satisfaction anymore, and this change couldn’t have come at a more

unfortunate time…it was all she had ever known and there wasn’t anything else she could even contemplate

doing.

The rush and feeling of exhilaration was no longer appearing throughout her body when she was carrying out

these robberies, and the only reason she kept doing it was the intense boredom she was experiencing. That was

a worry as she was sure that things would not get any better, and that they could only really get worse.

It wasn’t as though she would feel less abandoned, as she had no family or friends to cheer her up, and more

upsettingly, it wasn’t as though she would miss Claire’s touch less with time….that would only intensify. Elle was

already fretting that she was beginning to forget her scent and it had only been ten days – ten agonising days.

Putting her slushy cup back on the bed side table, Elle stood up and made her way over to the bathroom, which

was surprisingly far away given the sheer size of the room she was in. Just as she was about to pass through the

doorway, she felt a tingle down her spine, and her body immediately stiffened.

Her time with the company had taught her to trust her instincts, so she summoned a ball of electricity in to the

palm of her hand and turned around slowly. Her body was as rigid, but for the flicker in her hand.

When Elle had finally turned around completely, she saw him leaning against the wall casually. A smirk was

plastered across his face and his hands casually shoved in to his pockets.

She let the flicker die out in her hand, knowing that it was best not to provoke the man standing before her, “What

do you want Sylar?” she sighed crossing her arms tightly over her chest.

He faked a hurt expression and pulled his hands out of his pockets to clutch at his heart “No hello? No how have

you been? No explanation as to why you took off with the cheerleader and left me high and dry?” he put his hands

back in his pockets, “That wasn’t a very nice thing to do Elle…naughty girl.”

She rolled her eyes and turned away from him, “Arthur isn’t my father, and I realised I didn’t want to follow orders

anymore. It had less then nothing to do with you Sylar, don’t flatter yourself.”

He flinched slightly, and the grin disappeared from his face, “Well it turns out that he isn’t my father either…well he

wasn’t.” Elle felt her stomach tighten a little when she realised what he had done, that he was back to his old

tricks, “You killed him”, she stated softly.

He nodded and the smile returned to his face, “I killed them all.”

“Them?” she enquired casually. As if this was a normal conversation, it was best not to encourage him, “Arthur…

his whole team. Everyone.”

Elle nodded but she didn’t let her face betray her emotions, silently relieved that no one was left to go after Claire,

though she chastised herself for still caring. She shouldn’t let the girl get to her so much, it was infuriating. “Well

done”, she said in a dry tone, as she pulled a beer out from the mini fridge.

He smiled and flicked his finger to pop the cap off the bottle as he moved in toward her, “Don’t you want to know

why I’m here? How I found you?” Elle took a gulp of her drink and shook her head, “I figured that you would tell me

soon enough.” He nodded excitedly, “See that’s what I like about you Elle - we fit, we get each other.”

“I don’t get you Sylar - and we are nothing alike”, he smiled pushed a few stray strands of her hair out of her face.

Elle was determined not to give him the upper hand so she didn’t shrug away from his touch. She stood still and

forced herself not to shudder.

“But we are”, he whispered softly, he leaned in so his mouth was right next to her ear, “And we are perfect for each

other…why can’t you see that?” Elle shook her head softly, but no words came out of her mouth.

Maybe this was the best she could do…maybe it was enough to be adored by a psychopath. Perhaps she was

expecting too much to want anything more. It had hurt enough when Claire had left her after two days; getting any

more invested in anyone would be devastating.

She wouldn’t make that mistake again. Her stomach felt heavy and her heart was hurting but she lifted her chin,

“We are not perfect for each other Sylar, but we are perfect partners, but that’s all I’m offering...a professional

relationship”.

He smiled brightly, “I’ll take that much…for now”, he added more softly. She rolled her eyes and walked back

plopping herself in a chair. “So what’s the plan?” He raised an eyebrow, “The Plan?”, she nodded, “Yeah the

plan.”

He raised his arms up and laughed, “There is none, aren’t you sick of plans and schedules?, there is too much

company girl in you still. The world is our oyster Elle, and we can take from it what we want, when we want…that’s

the only plan we have to have from now on,”

Elle smiled in spite of herself, “I like the sound of that.”

Suddenly feeling slightly less alone.

# # #

Claire paced in the waiting room, feeling very anxious. If her father knew that she was here he would have killed

her himself. Well - not literally, but he would have been furious.

When her grandmother finally appeared Claire was so lost in thought that she slightly jumped in fright, and

Angela smiled at her reaction…she was creepy like that.

“Well, this is certainly a surprise,” she said as she motioned for Claire to follow her in to her office. Claire said

nothing as she settled in to a chair opposite from the woman she barely knew, and she waited until her heart had

slowed a little before she started, “I have a proposal for you”, she said finally.

The older woman laughed, “You aren’t one for small talk I see, must have gotten that from our side of the family”,

Claire ignored her comment and continued, “I could be useful to you…all I need is some training, and I would be

invaluable….that’s a given”.

Angela shrugged, “I’ve always thought that Claire, but your fathers disagree…” Claire didn’t miss a beat, “Neither

of them can really stop me if I decide to do this, and I have decided”.

“But why?”, she prodded. Claire struggled for a lie, “I think I could make a difference…I think I want to stop people

from mis-using their abilities. I feel passionately about protecting innocent people.”

Angelasmiled, “In time child, first we would train you up in administration and training, one day you can help to

track down rouge…”

Claire interrupted her, frustrated, “I won’t wait…I want this now”. Angela smiled widely at her, “Impressive.” The

older woman shuffled some papers that were sitting in front of her as she continued to speak, “We will still have

to train you up, but you can actively work in the field at the same time. You cam join an existing team so you have

back up.”

She scanned some of the files in front of her quickly, “Here you go, Mark and Andrew. A female will help them in

their undercover operations so everyone wins. Come and I’ll introduce you.”

Claire beamed back at the woman, feeling a rush of affection though she knew it wasn’t because she actually

liked Angela, it was because she was finally doing something productive to get Elle back…to get her life back.

Authors Note: Don’t worry they will meet up soon! xox. Ps - reviews are love ;)

Feel: Chapter Five (Elle/Claire)

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 14:11:00 GMT

Note:Sorry about the delay, I've been flat out! but I spent all tonight writing this one up, thanks for the reviews.xo
Summary: Claire's POV. After the Seperation.
Disclaimer: I own nothing!

Claire sat up in her bed and whipped her head around so quickly she heard her neck crack. Her breathing was labored and it took her a few moments to realize she was in her own bed…that she was no longer at the motel with Elle.

Memories from the past few days flooded in to her memory…and they made her entire body tingle. A smile crept across her face, and she thought it was so wide that it might have hurt her face, had she been able to feel it. Claire knew she may not feel physical pain again, but knowing that she wasn’t dead inside was more then enough.

The reason she had felt nothing inside wasn’t because there was nothing there…it was that nothing had ignited her heart yet…until now. Until Elle.

It may not have been an instantaneous revelation, but she had been so focused on what she had lost, she couldn’t fully grasp what she had gained. But after such a momentous discovery, Claire didn’t like how normal everything looked…everything was in the exact same place as when she had left days ago. Seemingly, the only thing that had changed was her.

She shook her head softly in amazement…it was truly curious how feelings that were so intense, that pulsated through her entire body…didn’t effect her entire world. Everything had all stayed the same in her absence, however nothing as she had once viewed it.

Smiling as the memories of the older blonde flashed through her head on repeat, Claire jumped up and threw on an old sweat shirt hurriedly, trying to sort through her muddled memory to work out how exactly she had gotten home…but Elle’s face seemed to be all her brain could focus on.

Exiting her room, and bounding down the stairs two at a time, Claire suddenly came to a screeching halt when she saw that there was a group of men assembled in her living room having a quiet, but heated discussion.

Nathan, Peter, Noah and two people that she did not recognize were situated across the room and they all had solemn expressions on their faces. Trying to remind herself of the very real danger that she was still in, she tried unsuccessfully to wipe the grin off her face.

However she couldn’t replace the wide smile plastered across the room and gave up quickly; too curious to find out what was going on.

They finally realized she was present only when she was physically in front of them, and they immediately ceased their hushed argument. Claire walked over to her father and looked at the strangers warily as Noah embraced her tightly, “How are you feeling Claire?” he said after he had placed a kiss on her head. Claire took a moment to search the adjoining rooms with her eyes, looking for Elle.

She shrugged, “I’m perfectly healthy”, she responded, and he seemed satisfied with that. After all, her body was fine. Her heart was aching to see Elle, and her lips….well she didn’t think that such thoughts were appropriate in front of her two fathers.

Trying to focus on the situation at hand, Claire looked up at her father from her position still within his embrace, “What’s going on Dad?”, she asked once the silence became uncomfortable, and it was apparent no one wanted to reignite their talk in front of her.

Noah tightened his grip, “Arthur’s dead…Sylar took him out, and we’re pretty sure he got to everyone else that was in the building with him,” Claire pondered this for a moment, unaware if it was wrong to feel relief when so many people had died, she decided not to dwell on what she couldn’t change, “That means I’m safe though right? That they aren’t after me any more?”

Noah sighed, “Yes and No”, Claire hated it when adults did that. Gave cryptic answers and then wondered why their children couldn’t understand what they were on about. Claire pulled back from him, “And what does that mean?”

Noah sighed, “He is stronger than ever, unpredictable…and powerful. We aren’t sure what his next move will be or how to counter it”.

Claire shuddered slightly at the thought of the bushy eye-browed menace running around with new powers…taking out innocent people. She sighed, realizing that this would never really be over, “What do we do now?”

Noah lifted his glasses up and pinched his nose, rubbing his eyes before placing them back in place and looking directly at her, “You don’t do anything. We will handle this,” he waved his hand to gesture at the men in the room. Claire gritted her teeth, getting increasingly frustrated at being treated like a child, “Dad that’s ridiculous, I’m an asset…and you need all the help that you can get at this stage.”

Noah waved his hand again dismissively and Claire sighed. Resuming her subtle search of the surrounding rooms for Elle, her eyes caught sight of the daily newspaper, and they nearly bulged out of her head, the date on the paper told her she had slept for nearly two days!

Suddenly she snapped her head up again, no longer caring about keeping up appearances, “Where’s Elle?” she directed the question at Nathan and Peter, who had still not spoken. They glanced at each other and then both searched the room for something to look at rather than meeting Claire’s eyes.

“Where’s Elle?” she repeated, her tone more urgent. Peter finally turned his attention to her and answered, “We’re not sure”. Suddenly she felt queasy, but experienced no relief in the knowledge that her other feelings were also operating at full capacity.

“You’re not sure!? She was at the motel, what happened? Why isn’t she here?” Claire could hear her voice getting increasingly high in pitch and bordering on hysterical but she couldn’t have cared less at that moment. The fact that no one would look at her was making her feel sick to her stomach.

She knew that they wouldn’t speak to her if she continued acting like this so she sucked in a few deep breathes and attempted to steady herself, tried to act like she was in control…but she desperately wanted to stamp and scream to get the attention she needed. They didn’t appreciate how much was riding on this. How much her happiness was dependent on Elle?

“Where is she?” she re stated for the third time, her tone more even. Peter hesitated, “We’re not sure. The last time I saw her she was still at the motel…” Noah interrupted, “And Peter should have brought her back here, now we think her and Sylar have teamed up, and that is one team we can’t afford to see. They will be catastrophic.”

Claire shook her head violently, “She wouldn’t do that…she was trying to turn her life around, it makes no sense.” Peter sighed and shrugged, “Elle took out half the motel Claire, and now she’s taken off”. Claire tried to stop her mind racing but it was all jumbled and she couldn’t make sense of it, “I don’t…what do you?…she wouldn’t…”.

Peter still wouldn’t meet her frantic eyes and it made her wonder what it was that they were keeping from her, “Were you there?”, she asked incredulously.

He kicked his foot against the throw rug, “Yeah, I was there when it happened.”

She searched his face, “So what happened, there has to be an explanation, she wouldn’t do that for no reason, what did she say…you have to have some evidence, you cant just go around spouting out these theories. I need proof if you want me to believe it”.

“We had a…disagreement, and she told me to get out. I did and then she took out half the building”, Peter said softly.

Claire shook her head slowly, trying to wrap her mind around what the hell had happened. “So she warned you to get out…she didn’t mean to….”.

Peter interrupted her, “No she told me to get out…but the motel attendant wasn’t so lucky, she scared him half to death…threatened him with her powers and took off before the police got there.” He saw Claire wasn’t going to reply and continued, “As far as we know she has hit at least two banks and a petrol station in the past two days….and that’s just what we’ve heard through our connections, who knows what else she’s been up to.”

Claire turned away from the men and walked over to the stair well, leaning against the banister for support, she closed her eyes, this can’t be happening, she thought.

“I said I need proof….” she whispered, trailing off, not sure what more to say to make them understand…they couldn’t. She flinched slightly as a heavy hand touched her shoulder, and turned her around; Peter bent his head to her height and looked her in the eyes, “I’m sorry Claire. I know you thought you could trust her, that she was your friend, but…you have us. You’ll always have us, and we’ll get through this together”.

Claire shrugged away his hand, but she couldn’t form any words to reply, everything was hazy and she felt slightly off balance.

“You’re still not one hundred percent better, you should go back to bed”, her father said softly. But Claire knew better, she knew her body was perfectly functioning, it was her heart that was faltering.

She didn’t know how she was supposed to believe that Elle would just take off and do a complete turn around. Now, she was supposed to accept that Elle was off the rails, and joined forces with Sylar again?

The thought of them together made her shudder. And it wasn’t for the same reason everyone else was scared, it was her own entirely different reason.

“I’m fine Dad, I’m not going back to bed”, she said finally. She looked at Peter, “She had to have said something…given some indication…a reason why”, Peter hesitated, but shook his head to indicate that there wasn’t. She couldn’t lose Elle.

She wouldn’t give up on her without a fight, even if the older blonde was confused, Claire wouldn’t condemn her like everyone else in her life had. Elle needed someone to believe in her, even if she didn’t believe in herself.

Feel: Chapter Four

Fri, 05 Dec 2008 15:21:44 GMT

Summary: The Honeymoon is over. Claire's Gone.
Disclaimer: I own nothing....quite literally, it is sad really.

Elle looked at her hand which was still outstretched and lowered it quickly, but she couldn’t tear her eyes away

from the dimly lit space….unwilling to believe Claire was really gone. It had all happened so fast, and she was

still trying to grasp it in her head…suddenly she was wishing that she was the funny little man with glasses so

she could turn back time.

She should have never let Claire make that call to her father…she should never have left her alone. She couldn’t

bare knowing the younger girl was suffering and she couldn’t do anything to make it stop.

A movement to her left caught her eye, realising that Peter was still in the room, she cursed under her breath,

wishing he would leave her in peace. He had already ruined her life, the least he could do was give her some

space.

She turned away from him and violently brushed away the tears leaking from her eyes. There was no way she

would let him see her like this. Elle took a few deep breathes to steady herself.

“Now what shall we do with you?” he said finally.

Elle turned back to face him. Now she was just pissed.

“Are you serious? The eclipse is over Emo boy. I have my powers back; you on the other hand are still as useless

as ever.” She walked towards him, trying to regain the upper hand, “Back off and I won’t hurt you. I don’t want to

hurt you.”

Peter studied her for a few seconds and shrugged, “We can’t let you run off in to the sunset Elle, you’re

dangerous and unpredictable…a liability to us all.”

Elle threw her hands in the air, frustrated, “Stop saying us, like you have anything to do with our little mutant

movement anymore. You can’t be exposed Peter. You’re nothing.”

He inched closer to her, “Then why are you afraid of me?” he said with a smug little smile. Elle wished she could

tell him the only thing she was afraid of was how pissed off Claire would be if she short-circuited her uncle.

“I’m not” She replied flatly, standing her ground, “And chances of you dragging me back to that hell hole are slim

to none…and I just said slim because it sounded better out loud, chances are actually flat out nil.”

He made no move to leave, and Elle was getting bored with this little power play. She let her fingers light up to

warn him, “I don’t want to hurt you, but I will”. He smiled a lop-sided grin, “Why don’t you?”

Maybe Claire would get over it, she mused, as the words stuck in her throat, she opened her mouth but promptly

shut it again; she didn’t owe him any explanation.

Especially when she could barely admit her reasoning to herself.

Walking past Peter she exited the bathroom and started for the front door, but hegrabbed her arm. Elle gritted her

teeth and closed her eyes, trying to calm down; she was inches from freedom and teetering on the edge of her

breaking point.

He was waiting for an explanation and she blurted out a toned down version to make him let her go before she

toasted him. “I’m trying to be good. And….Claire seems to be fond of you, for some unknown reason”, she said

shrugging her arm out of his grasp and straightening her jacket up.

She opened the door but didn’t step through it before he replied, a throaty laugh preceded it, “You’re doing this for

Claire, oh come on are you serious?” stopping dead in her tracks Elle said nothing, but a sensation of cold

anxiety appeared in her stomach.

She didn’t like how amusing he had found her explanation.

Feeling compelled to defend their relationship or whatever it was, Elle lifted her head and replied confidently,

refusing to let him taint this, to taint them.

“She’s been good to me”.

He studied her and responded in a tone suitable for a child, she hated when people looked down on her, like she

understood nothing, “She’s been good to you because she is a good person Elle. She is too nice not to”

Elle felt bile rise in her throat, “She cares about me” she responded trying to swallow the sinking feeling.

His pitying gaze didn’t falter, “Don’t delude your self Elle. You’re a cautionary tale, of what could have been. But it

will never be more then that, more then a fleeting act of compassion on her behalf”

Elle said nothing, mainly to control the anger and fear coursing through her body, she was aching to release

some energy, her entire body was shaking. She didn’t like this, it felt like actual physical pain without the

satisfaction of a cool scar.

Every word and every touch she had received from Claire was now being viewed on rerun in her head, checking

for hidden meanings …did Claire really pity her? Was Elle the closest warm body when the eclipse was on? Her

mind was in overdrive and her palms were sweating as she clenched and unclenched them in rapid succession.

“You know nothing, boy”, she couldn’t help that her breathing was becoming increasingly ragged. And she could

not stop the images that were pulsating through her mind.

“You think I don’t know my own niece better than you?” he said with an eyebrow cocked, “What have you met her

like twice? She left you at Pinehearst, and she will always choose us over you Elle…you’re nothing”

"Get out” she said flatly.

Peter was about to refuse when he saw the pulsating light coursing through her body. He exited quickly and shut

the door just before the energy exploded out, beams of electricity running from her body.

Unfortunately it felt less satisfying then it usually did. Even when the room was a blacked mess and she was

hunched on the ground in its centre exhausted, she felt nothing but the dull ache in her heart.

###

Claire struggled against Nathan, but she gave up because her limbs felt heavy, and her eyelids were drooping

against her will, she was just so….tired.

She had tasted happiness and now she was supposed to go on like it had happened and she wasn’t sure that

she could. Maybe it would have been better if she never knew what could be, never knew what she could have.

She was trapped in this invincible body and she ached to be free of it. For all she knew she was doomed to live in

it for eternity, watching everyone around her live out their lives and exit stage left while she would be always

watching, forever the spectator in her own life.

Claire felt drained, and let her eyes droop closed, smiling softly when the image of Elle flashed across them.

She relaxed back in to Nathans grip.

# # #

Elle stood up and brushed furiously at her face, but gave up when the wretched tears were coming too thick and

fast. This wasn’t who she was raised to be…this wasn’t who she was. She didn’t need anybody, and she would

be pitied by no one, especially not pom-pom.

Elle understood now why her father had severed all of her emotional relationships when she was growing up.

She just wished she had listened to him, instead of having to learn this lesson herself. It was a particularly brutal.

She may have no skills, experience or friends in the real world, but she had a shit load of special tricks up her

sleave and she was sure she could find a way to get what she wanted….well most of it.

Walking out of the room numbly she looked around and saw that Peter had left, probably to avoid getting caught

up in the aftermath of her power meltdown. Looking up she saw that the manager was staring at her and had the

phone gripped between his little fat fists.

Elle covered the length of the car park in long strides and threw the door to his office open, “So pork chop, how

long until the cops get here?”, he just shook his head back and forth, stuttering.

Elle let an energy ball form in her hand, “I said how long?” His voice was strangled but he replied, “Ten minutes”.

She smiled, “God bless the under-staffed police force”, she said with a sigh. Aiming to narrowly miss his head,

she smelt the singe of his hair as he dropped the phone receiver to the ground.

“You will tell them I’ve headed south, or I’ll come back for you and I won’t miss this time”, the hairy beast nodded

profusely as sweat trickled from every pore in his body.

Elle rolled her eyes and walked outside, unlocking the car and sliding in to the passenger seat, she started the

engine and tore out of the parking lot. This was how it was supposed to be.

Her against the world.

Feel: Chapter Three (Claire/Elle)

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 14:00:41 GMT

Summary: Back to the real world
I own nothing: etc etc etc

Elle was leaning against the car with her arms folded tightly against her chest and a scowl gracing her delicate features…she hated waiting. She was way too impatient to put up with this. Usually she wouldn’t have waited this long for anyone, but she didn’t want to appear needy or whatever. She didn’t need anyone.

The cheerleader had been in the motel room for over an hour, it was ridiculous. What could she possibly be doing in there? She thought with a sigh.

Claire looked perfect from the moment she woke up, which was slightly annoying at the same time as being endearing, so it wasn’t as thought she needed to spend this much time in front of the mirror.

Elle muttered under her breath and cast a sideways glare at the fat reception guy who was staring at her in a way that made her want to zap him. He’d better not think about her on his date with his right hand tonight. She shuddered slightly and pushed herself off her position on the car, she was over this.

Elle made her way to their room, determined to show Claire that she couldn’t treat her this way, she wouldn’t put up with it. It was all part of her new persona, she was a strong, independent woman - - or whatever it was Beyonce had told her to be in that stupid song.

She drew in a breath and swung the door open, “Come on princess, some of us work on real time. Let’s go!”, Elle looked around and saw the room was empty. Confused she almost turned around and walked back out, but a muffled sound from the bathroom made her walk towards it, “Are you serious, you’re still….”

Elle’s words faltered when she saw Claire sitting on the ground shaking and looking blankly in to space, her heart constricted in a way that she had never felt before, she was almost shaking herself.

Grabbing a towel off the rack she wrapped it around Claire tightly, and rubbed her hands up and down her bare skin, trying to warm her up to stop her from shaking.

Pushing the hair off of her face so she could look in to her eyes, she realised that they were blank and unfocused, “Claire”, she said softly, “Claire, look at me.”

There was no response as the girl just let tears seep out, Elle started to panic, she didn’t know what to do. She had rarely been comforted and was trying to remember scenes from movies or books or anything that could guide her. She needed so badly to make Claire feel better, but she didn’t know how.

“Claire, please”, she heard her own voice quiver and tried to stop it, knowing that they both couldn’t fall apart.

Seeing a razor and some droplets of blood on the tiles beside the girl she quickly moved the towel to check for marks but Claire was completely fine, realizing what must have happened Elle flicked her hand and made a ball of energy appear, and watched it for a moment as it sat on her fingertips…their powers were back.

Elle was about to try to comfort the broken girl before her when the door flew open and Peter and Nathan stormed in, yelling, swearing and stomping….Elle had thought such dramatics were supposed to be reserved for girls, apparently not. She was too stunned to move, so she stayed still, bending down with one hand on Claire and the other holding a ball of electricity.

Elle was initially confused when Nathan violently pulled her to her feet, before she realised that the ball of energy was still sitting in the palm of her hand, cursing she let it die out and held her palms up defensively.

Peter had already run to Claire who was still sitting catatonically on the ground wrapped in the motel towel, and staring blankly ahead.

“What did you do to her?”, Nathan spat out aggressively, shoving her against the bathroom sink, making her stumble slightly. She would have zapped him back right then but thought she didn’t need to be on the bad side of both of Claire’s fathers.

“I didn’t do anything to her, I was helping her…”, she said calmly. Peter scoffed and Elle’s chest boiled, he really was a self righteous little thing.

Nathan jabbed his finger in to her chest, “You’re helping her?, If you think this is helping her you’re more fucked up then we thought”.

Elle gritted her teeth and tried to calm herself, she hated it when people got in to her personal space, “We just got out powers back, I was testing it.”

“Our power have been back for over half an hour, how do you think we got here so fast?”, Elle sighed, “I didn’t, I try not to think about anything you do. You’re severely annoying…but I had other things on my mind I didn’t realize.”

Nathan ignored her and continued, “We tracked Claire’s phone call here, and thank god we did who knows what would have happened otherwise…”

Elle crossed her arms over her chest, “I probably would have helped to figure out what was wrong with her, without you bozos causing such a ruckus, have you even asked her what’s wrong?”

Peter grabbed a robe and tied it around Claire, who still seemed oblivious to the commotion, which worried Elle immensely, but she didn’t think running over to comfort the girl would go down particularly well at that instant. Instead she watched Peter fumble over her, as her heart constricted painfully.

“Are you ok!?”, he yelled at her as though she was deaf, “What has she done to you?! Claire!?”. Elle sighed and figured that they wouldn’t listen to her, and Nathan still had her cornered, her fingers were itching to give him the shock he deserved, but she held back. How was Claire related to these people?

Eventually, after the sound of Peter yelling at Claire grated on her last nerve and she said evenly, “She has her powers back, its not physical genius. And if it’s psychological you yelling at her isn’t helping her any.”

Peters head snapped up, “Why would it be psychological?”, Elle rolled her eyes, “Do any of you people actually talk to her? Or is it just at and around her?”. Both men looked at her blankly, and she realised they really didn’t know anything about Claire.

“She has been struggling with the repercussions of her ability…it’s getting more consuming, she is feeling less and less”. Nathan shook his head, “She’s fine, Elle, give me your hands.”

Elle cocked her eyebrow, “Any why on earth would I do that?”, she asked, despite the situation she was amused that fly boy thought his powers trumped hers, silly boy.

Nathan tried to grab at her, “You’re coming with us.”

“Like hell I am”, Elle stepped back, sick of letting them think they had any upper hand on her, she was nobodies bitch. She let her hands spark as she stared Nathan down.

Nathan squatted down like a wrestler, “I’ll never go back there, you’ have to kill me first”, Elle stated flatly.

Nathan never broke eye contact, “That can be arranged” he growled.

Elle let her hands light up completely, “Oh it’s on”, she whispered back.

A whimper from the corner made Elle immediately drop her hands, Claire was looking straight at her, still dazed but looking at her. “Elle”, she whispered quietly, “Don’t…”

Peter cut her off, “She wont hurt any of us Claire it’s ok”, and he scooped her up in his arms. Claire fought against him weakly but he didn’t notice as he passed her to Nathan. “Take her, I’ll meet you back there”. Nathan hesitated, but Peter waved him off, “Just get her back there she needs help.”

Elle looked up at them, startled to see that Claire was looking directly at her as the two men spoke logistics, Elle blinked back the tears that sprung to her eyes. She looked so scared and confused.

Claire looked straight at her, and softly, almost inaudibly, finished the sentence that Peter had interrupted, “Don’t leave me…” she said, and Elle let a tear roll down her cheek. She reached out but there was a flash and a gust of wind and they were gone.

Feel: Chapter Two (Claire/Elle)

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 16:30:38 GMT

Summary: The next morning

Rating: NC17 - Adult themes (Self harm etc)

I own nada

Claire woke with a start, sitting up straight and searching the room frantically. She was in bed alone. She knew
almost instantly where she was because she had tried to stay awake as long as she could just holding Elle, making sure she was there and that she was real.

This is exactly why she hadn’t wanted to go to sleep, knowing that what had happened was too good to be true, that believing she could be happy and feel alive was too much to ask for, and it was already gone.

The indent next to her in the bed reassured her that it was at least real, and that it had happened…. however, that meant something almost worse then her going insane.

She flopped back on to the bed and growled lightly at all the possible and equally horrible scenarios running through her head, but they all led back to one thing. Elle had snuck out sometime during the night.

Even her bag had disappeared from the couch and the gun was no longer on the table, “You can have me as long as you’d like, my ass” she muttered. She couldn’t believe she had let herself believe what Elle had said to her.

“Talking to yourself Pom-Pom?, and they say I’m crazy”, Claire shot up and tried to push down the wave of relief that shot through her body at the sight of the older blonde walking through the door casually.

“Where were you?” she asked, trying to keep the whiney tone out of her voice. Elle just shrugged and sat down on the end of the bed, “Well you slept forever, and my internal clock is still set on company time, which has a strict no lazing about policy… but you looked all peaceful and I didn’t want to wake you.”

Claire studied her trying to read what it was she was thinking, but she wasn’t having any luck. She was here but she was also situated on the furthest edge of the bed.

Elle spoke again first, flicking her hands in the hair, looking pretty ridiculous “So I went out to test out my powers, but still nothing…”, Claire couldn’t help the smile that briefly crossed her features and Elle didn’t miss it.

“Don’t get too excited Claire, I’m sure its still temporary…it hasn’t even been twenty four hours”, but she began crawling up the bed towards her heart fluttered more violently, as she got closer, “But for now you can feel…this”, she kissed her teasingly on the lips, her body still arched in her crawling position.

Claire sighed in to the kiss and nodded, “Yeah I can still feel that…’tis nice”, Elle sat back and feigned hurt, “Nice?…I think you meant to say earth shattering….”, Claire ginned and shrugged, “Nah, it was just nice.”

Elle cocked an eyebrow and crawled right up so she was straddling Claire, then she kissed down her collarbone and her still bare chest, pulling the white sheet that was covering her modesty.

Claire struggled to maintain her focus, but lost it when Elle made her way to her final destination. Her tongue danced between her thighs and Elle stared up at her, moving her hands up to massage her breasts gently.

Claire was already close and she was so embarrassed that it took no time at all but she couldn’t help herself, the sensations buzzing through her body were so raw and so powerful…she hadn’t felt anything for months, but she hadn’t felt anything like this in her entire life.

She arched up in to Elle and knew what was coming, after having experienced it for the first time, mere hours ago. She shut her eyes and gritted her teeth as the contractions started; relaxing her muscles once they slowed and stopped.

She lay back on the bed panting and Elle climbed back towards her lying down on the pillow next to her. Claire was too blissfully relaxed to move, and Elle seemed content to play with her hair, wrapping it around her fingers.

“What are we going to do?” Elle asked finally, not stopping her fingers from twirling strands, “Hmm?”, Claire responded, still groggy.

“Surely I didn’t tire you out this much…maybe next time ill have to take it easier on you” Elle nudged her softly, but propped herself up on one elbow so she was looking down at her, searching for an answer.

Claire knew that Elle had never really had the luxury of making her own decisions, but neither had she…it was just for entirely different reasons.

“I’m not sure…” Claire suddenly sat up, narrowly avoided hitting Elle in the head, “Oh my god! I completely forgot about Dad, I have to call him he’ll be worried sick.” Claire reached for the motel phone, but Elle stopped her grabbing a hold of her arm.

“Oh come on cheerleader, the motel phone? Do you want to get caught?” Claire realised that it was probably not the greatest idea, as Elle walked to the cupboard in the far corner of the room, pulling a disposable cell out of her neatly stored bag and throwing it to her.

“Good thinking”, Claire said, as she dialled the familiar number.

“Yeah well keep it short, anyone could be tracking you”. Claire nodded as she heard to number start connect. He answered on the first ring and she could tell by his tone he was frantic. “Hey Dad”, she said meekly, feeling guilty already.

“Claire!” the relief in his voice was evident, “Honey where are you?”

“I’m safe, I got out of town, I’m sorry I didn’t call you earlier….”, she stopped herself there thinking that he might not appreciate the specifics.

“I can’t believe I’m going to say this but stay where ever until you get you powers back.”, he said sighing in to the receiver.

“You think I’ll get them back?” she asked, holding on to the hope this was a more permanent change, no matter how remote it seemed.

“I was told that they should return tonight, it was a twenty four hour anomaly.”, he sounded comforted but Claire felt her chest constrict and she stole a glance at Elle who was walking out of the room and in to the bathroom, “Oh” was all she could reply.

“Yeah, it’s a relief. So once you get your ability back we need to get you back here where we can protect you.”

“I’m safe here Dad.” She replied, not wanting to return to the real world just yet.

“You can’t protect yourself Claire; I think we proved that yesterday at the house, you haven’t trained…”

“I’m not by myself Dad.”, she interjected quickly, without thinking. There was silence down the end of the line for a few moments, and Claire wondered if she should have let that slip, “Who’s with you?”

Claire wrestled with herself for a moment before she decided she didn’t want to lie, she was too tired of the lies, “…Elle”, she said softly.

A string of profanities travelled down the line as Noah struggled to come to grips with this. Claire cut him off, “Dad she snuck me out of the house yesterday, and she offered to let me go on my own but I didn’t want to…she has had nearly twenty four hours to turn me in or kill me if that was her plan.”

“You can never tell with her Claire…what has she told you? Did she say something about me?” Claire was confused, “Why would she have said anything about you?”

Noah sighed, “Never mind, we’ve sent someone after Arthur. This may be our only chance to get rid of him with this eclipse, while he’s powerless….ring me back at dusk and I’ll tell you the outcome”

“Okay Dad”

“And Claire...I love you”

“I love you too”. Claire ended the call and threw the phone on the floor. She sat thinking about what her father had said for what she thought was a few minutes, but it must have been longer, as Elle walked out of the bathroom freshly washed and dressed. She barely glanced at Claire.

“Did you speak to your father?”

“Yeah…I’m supposed to call back in a few hours.”

“Ok”, Elle seemed distracted and edgy, and she still wouldn’t meet Claire’s eyes, “Well princess, I’m going to find some food, you have a shower and collect your stuff, and I’ll meet you in the diner”

Claire was about to protest but Elle had grabbed her bag and the gun and made her way to the door, opening it and closing it swiftly. Claire watched the door for a second, and her heart soared when it opened, but only a hand reached back in and placed the gun on the table, before shutting again.

Claire sighed, but supposed that was about as much affection as she could hope for from Elle at the moment…at least she knew that she wanted her safe.

Getting up, Claire made her way to the bathroom and saw an outfit laid on the chair. She smiled as she turned on the water and stepped under. S

he had just finished washing her hair when she noticed the temperature gauge was set way too high and she looked at her skin…it was red, but there was no pain.

She panicked and turned it up as high as she could but nothing. Hyperventilating she walked out and grabbed a razor slicing at her leg, she couldn’t feel it and the wound healed. Not as fast as usual but it was healing, and her skin had already returned to its natural colour.

She slipped on to the floor, the room suddenly feeling achingly small as her head spun and her eyes started watering. She was back to normal….well back to abnormal.

She sat there for god knows how long, shaking on the dirty motel floor naked, before Elle finally returned. She sounded angry, but Claire couldn’t bring herself to listen to the words. She felt so alone.

She did notice her tone changed when she entered the bathroom and saw her there. The little indestructible girl completely broken.

Authors note: If you like please review so I know whether to continue xo

Feel: Chapter One (Elle/Claire)

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:46:16 GMT

AU: A different series of events after the Sylar/Elle/Claire/Noah confrontation. (Elle x Claire)

NC-17ish. So if you don't like dont read.

I own nothing!

Elle walked up to the house slowly, contemplating what on earth she was actually doing there.

She had felt compelled to come with Sylar on this little mission to get the cheerleader, however

she’d yet to figure out why.

Entering she saw Noah and Claire standing there, almost as if they were waiting for her. Almost

as if she was waiting for her.

“Hey girls” She said smoothly, brushing her attention over the blonde to focus on the bigger

problem at hand, Noah. She flicked her hand to gather a ball of electricity but nothing came, “You

have the Haitian here”, she stated flatly.

Noah pulled out his gun, and she sighed, she should really invest in one of those things. “No. Just

me” he said staring at her through those eyes that so haunted her late at night. She waited for

her back-up patiently, not willing to give Noah the satisfaction of thinking he had the upper hand.

His smugness annoyed her immensely.

“Back out of the house. Now”, he ordered as he moved across the room, “You’re not getting

Claire” Thankfully, Sylar finally decided to appear behind them, “Funny story. We are” he said

smoothly, as Elle rolled her eyes at his arrogance.

But when he flicked his finger and nothing happened she realised that they may not be as in

control of the situation as she had thought. This was bad. Both men seemed to realise this at the

same time Elle did, as they lunged at one another with fists flying.

“Clare. Stay back!” Noah yelled as he tried to fight off Sylar, the good old fashioned human way.

Elle took the opportunity to grab the gun that had somehow been kicked to the ground in the

struggle.

She pointed it at the two of them as the thrashed about on the floor, then she clicked, this was

too perfect, she thought. She wanted an answer to what she should do and here it was handed

to her on a silver platter.

She let the gun drop from its targets and down to her side, watching for another second as they

wrestled about on the ground, looking utterly ridiculous. Silly boys, she thought with a head

shake, they really were making things easy on her.

Elle turned to face Claire who was cowering by the stairs. Walking to her swiftly she grabbed her

by the arm and bent down, “I’m guessing that your little ability has gone too, but this little

contraption” she said waving the gun, “Still works just fine. So come with me quietly and no one

will get hurt. Not you. Not him” she motioned towards the mess of limbs rolling around on the

bare wooden floor.

Claire glanced at the men as Elle pulled her up, “Don’t worry, he is currently as useless as me and

you. I’m sure they will tire themselves out soon enough”.

She guided Claire out the door and heard Noah shout out, but he didn’t get a chance to follow

them as she heard the scuffle re-ignite.

“Where are you taking me?” Claire asked in a whiney voice, and Elle almost regretted her

decision to keep her away from Arthur, almost. But something in her wouldn’t let her do the

sensible thing. It was infuriating, these feelings she had no control over. She wasn’t even sure

what they were, but she knew she had to get Claire out of there.

“Just get in the car cheerleader, we can save the catch up chat for later”, with that she opened

the door and shoved her in the drivers seat, wincing when the girl hit her head and yelped. She

would have to remember that she was breakable now. Quickly rounding the car, keeping her aim

on the girl she jumped in the passenger seat, “Drive” she told her.

“Where?”, Claire inquired making no movement to follow her order.

“Just drive I’ll direct you. And step on it grandma we haven’t got long”. Elle muttered settling back

in to the seat, and wondering where on earth she would take the girl.

# # # #

Elle was relieved when she spotted a motel off the dusty highway. Planning seemed to be over

rated, as everything was falling easily in to place. This being on her own stuff didn’t seem as hard

as Daddy had led her to believe.

“Pull in here” she said with as much authority as she could muster. Her new found confidence

made her feel powerful, even without her ability.

The blonde obliged and when the car stopped Elle tucked the gun in to her waistband, snatched

the keys out of Claire’s hand, and popped the boot to grab her duffle bag. Turning around she

begun walking towards the reception. Claire scrambled behind her, “I’m free to go?” she asked,

confused.

“I’ve done my part”

“Your part? What’s going to happen to me? Did they put you up to this? ” she spat out angrily.

“No one put me up to this Pom-Pom. You helped me out, and I don’t like to be indebted to

anyone. You’re free to go,” Elle motioned out to the seemingly endless desert.

“To go where exactly?, we’re in the middle of nowhere”

Elle shrugged, “You’re safe…And I need a shower, a slushy and a burger. You can do whatever

you please; maybe your little boyfriend can fly in and pick you up”

Elle tried to act casually as she turned and walked towards the dingy office, fighting down the

burning feeling that appeared when she thought of West. She was sure it was because of the

little stunt he had pulled on her. Yes that was it, she thought quickly.

She was relieved when she heard footsteps follow her up the stairs after she had paid for the

room, but she was careful not to turn around or give Claire any indication that she knew she was

there. Even though there was a fluttering in the bottom of her stomach.

Leaving the door open she dumped her bag on the overstuffed orange chair and kicked off her

shoes. When the door closed with a soft click, she finally turned to face Claire.

“Why?” was all she said, looking at Elle intently. She knew she wasn’t referring to her lame

excuse before, but she still wasn’t ready to admit why she had done to herself, let alone the girl

standing in front of her.

“I never wanted to be a part of another company…but I felt responsible for Gabriel, I thought I

could help him”, she shook her head and sighed, “But when I saw him with Arthur I knew it was a

matter of time before he turned again. And when I heard they were going to take you to

Pinehearst…”

Claire shuddered slightly and Elle didn’t miss it, so she stopped.

The girl just continued to look at her searchingly, making Elle feel uncomfortable, so she spoke

again, “The question you should be asking is what the hell has happened to our abilities…being

human is really off-putting. I feel weak and useless.”

Claire suddenly smiled widely and Elle looked at her like she was insane, as she reached up and

felt the bump on her head, “I was so flustered I didn’t even register…I felt the car frame hit me”.

“Yeah that’s kind of the problem blondie” Elle replied furrowing her brow.

“Its not a problem Elle, it’s….this is what I’ve wanted ever since I found out about what I could

do”, the look of pure joy on her face made her eyes sparkle and Elle’s lips twitched in spite of her

best efforts, fighting the involuntary reactions the younger girl was bringing out in her.

She looked down to hide her face, and replied in an unsteady voice “You want to be useless?”.

“Not useless Elle…to be normal. I want to feel alive”.

Elle returned her gaze to the girls face, “Well that’s touching, but you won’t be alive much longer

without your ability and I need mine back if I want to make it on my own”.

“You were willing to get rid of it before”, Claire replied swiftly, with an eyebrow cocked.

“Yes well, I didn’t think that logically through did I? I have no skills, no experience….I don’t think

executioner will go down super well on my resume”.

Claire shook her head and walked towards her grabbing her by the arms, Elle was nervous about

the invasion of her personal space but Claire was too committed to her point to let Elle get a

word in, “Don’t you see, you can be anyone. You have a second chance”

“No Claire, you can be anyone. You have a second chance” She backed out of her grip and turned,

talking as much to herself as to Claire, “I spent the better part of my life in a glass room, with an

IV of lithium in my arm. I can’t interact with people. They make no sense….”she let the sentence

drift off.

Suddenly aware of her emotional vulnerability she turned sharply and looked Claire in the eye,

wanting to make sure she didn’t think she was weak, “I’m a sociopath”, she smiled wickedly, “…a

company girl”. She added softly.

“Your not a sociopath”, Claire said looking at her, “If you were you wouldn’t have saved me…you

didn’t have to. That has to mean something”.

Elle furrowed her brow, “I’m not sure why I did that” she replied honestly.

Claire grinned, “So the sociopath likes me, I’m flattered”.

Elle wiggled a finger back and forth, “Don’t get too cocky, you might make me reconsider”.

“You don’t have your powers Elle, kind of takes the bite out of your threats”. Elle had momentarily

forgotten about that little tid-bit, but decided not to bring up the gun pressed against her body,

as she didn’t want Claire to call her bluff. Instead she took it out and laid it on the table softly.

Then she walked to the window and looked out, contemplating what was happening to them,

“Arthur was sketching the eclipse” she murmured softly, “So maybe its something to do with

that?” she said hopefully, “Superman gets his powers from the sun, maybe we do too” she smiled

trying to lighten the situation.

Claire looked crestfallen, “So it’s not permanent?”.

“No. You should be back to your crash dummy self soon enough” Elle replied with a shrug. “At

least then I won’t have to worry about you”

“Why do you care what happens to me. And don’t give me that ‘I owe you’ bullshit” Claire zeroed

in on her once again, but this time Elle didn’t move, “Did you feel something that day on the

plane?” she prodded.

Elle shook her head quickly, but couldn’t stop her heartbeat from accelerating, “You’re crazy,

midget” she said smoothly.

“Look me in the eye and say that”, Claire challenged her, “Because according to you once this

eclipse is gone I wont be able to… that day on the plane there was something there, and I feel

something now between us and I don’t want to let it go….it might be my last chance”

“Claire…” , Elle felt nervous, exposed. She didn’t have the upper hand, they were equally

powerless, and Elle didn’t like feeling that way. She needed to regain control of this situation, and

quickly.

She strode towards the girl and kissed her fiercely, she ran her tongue over her lips forcefully,

barely waiting for her to respond before she deepened the kiss and pushed her hands in to her

hair.

Claire moaned against her and Elle smiled, she liked being in control. It was short lived, however,

as Claire pushed her back on to the bed forcefully, straddling her as she did but never breaking

the kiss.

Elle let her hand roam over Claire’s curves, appreciating how they were rounded in all the right

places; this was how a body should feel, she thought as the cheerleader shivered under her touch.

Claire was not one to be one upped, however, and as she pushed down with her strategically

placed leg causing Elle let out a moan of her own as all her blood rushed south. So they were

going to play this game, she thought mischievously.

Elle pulled off Claire’s shirt and helped her with the jeans, before doing away with her own

clothing. As she looked in to the younger girl’s eyes she was momentarily paralyzed. Claire took

the opportunity to place kissed all down her neck softly and she murmured softly, “I should

probably tell you that I’ve never done this before”

“We don’t have to…” Elle started, not really knowing if she could stop even if she tried.

“I want to” she heard the husky response and let out the breath she wasn’t aware she had been

holding. Claire’s legs were smooth and perfect as they straddled her sides, her kisses becoming

softer…more delicate. Elle pulled her down tightly in to her body, she felt her breasts on her chest

and placed a trail of kissed her way down her neck as she undid her bra, disposing of it

somewhere around the room.

Claire’s hips started grinding against hers as she arched up in response. For someone who had

never done this before, she really knew how to torture a girl.

Elle slid her hand under Claire’s waistband tentatively, making sure it was ok with her, and

received an eager sigh in response. She moved slowly, suddenly very aware the girl pressed

against her was now every bit as delicate as she looked.

She slid her middle finger in to her slowly watching her eyes for a reaction. Claire rocked against

her and threw her head back, as Elle moved rhythmically. She wrapped her arms around Elle’s

neck for support as she thrust her hips faster, and Elle was surprised when she suddenly slid off

of her and faced her on her side, sliding her fingers under Elle’s waistband and mirroring the

motions she was making.

Elle’s head flew backwards as she tried to control herself, and Claire’s free hand slowly brought it

back to face her kissing her lips hungrily, passionately. She dug her nails in to Claire’s back to try

and steady herself, to pull herself back to reality.

But Claire moaned which pushed Elle further towards the point of ecstasy, she growled as their

movements became faster and more intense and she pushed back the pain her hand was trying

to tell her to feel because every other sensation was more intense at that moment, until she

finally gave in and felt her inner muscles begin to tighten and constrict and her body slowly numb.

She knew that Claire was right there with her as her walls her tightening around her fingers.

Panting and resting their heads against one another they didn’t move for a few minutes, just

staring at each other and enjoying the light buzz that was coursing through their heightened

senses.

They finally moved and Claire gathered up Elle’s hand and started playing with it, tracing

patterns, “So that was what everyone was on about” she smiled, “I can see why they are all so

obsessed”.

Elle shook her head, “No that was something else”; she said softly, “It’s not always like that”.

Claire turned to face her once again, “Its not?”.

Elle laughed, “Don’t get all cocky on me, but no”.

“So I’m good at it”.

Elle grinned in spite of herself, “You’re perfect”.

Claire flashed her a dazzling smile, before snuggling in to her, twisting so their bodies were

molded together, but she never let go of her hand.

“I’m scared” she heard Claire murmur quietly, almost so softly she didn’t hear. Elle hesitated,

“Scared of what?”.

Claire sighed, “That ill get my ability back that I won’t be able to have this ever again. That I

won’t be able to have you”.

Elle answered honestly, despite everything she had ever learnt about never giving away your

hand, “You can have me for as long as you’d like.”

Note: I wrote this on impulse after watching the episode. Could be a one shot, or if someone actually reads it I can extend it. Let me know! xo

Fix Me: Chapter Six (Claire/Elle)

Sat, 15 Nov 2008 00:28:25 GMT

Title: Fix Me

Fandom: Heroes

Pairing: Claire/Elle

Rating: Little bit more this time guys, beware! MA+

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

Summary: Bed time!

Authors note: Thanks for the reviews everyone, and sorry about the lag in update....exams etc. And also thanks to ~ Dragynflies ~ for being a beta for this chapter! xoxox

Claire couldn’t believe that she had just said that.

“There’s nothing wrong…with her,” the words were off her tongue and out of her mouth before she had processed them; before she had thought of the implications. Once again her overwhelming need to let Elle know how special she was had trumped everything else, even if the older girl had no idea it was her she was referring to.

After a few minutes the mounting silence began to make Claire uneasy and she wondered if she had made the right choice, but at least Elle had yet to move from her position curled around Claire’s body, and that had to be a good sign, right? She wasn’t recoiling in horror, so that was at least something.

If she had run from the room screaming, she didn’t think her heart could take it, but fortunately for her, Elle never developed the tendency to operate on the side of the more melodramatic. It was one of the more favourable traits that had been developed in her lack of contact with regular teenagers.

Elle finally found her voice. “Her?” she asked.

Claire nodded and suddenly felt silly; Elle wasn’t looking at her and sometime in her pensive moment Elle had let the little ball of electricity go out, undoubtedly so that Claire couldn’t read what she was thinking. The one thing she had on her side was that she could now read Elle’s face pretty well, and she hadn’t timed this well to utilise this talent.

She was freaked out, nervous and down right embarrassed, but she was gripping on to Elle’s hand, which gave her a reassuring squeeze in return, which gave her a little glimmer of hope, maybe everything would be ok.

# # #

Elle was stunned, and had no idea what she should say. She had always thought that it was boys and girls, and that’s what she had been told so she never really over thought it beyond that.

Daddy had told her she would marry a boy and she had built a lot of her understanding on how the world works around that information. The thought that people didn’t have to stick to what they were told baffled Elle. She knew that she would get in trouble if she broke the rules, and wondered if the same applied in this instance.

Hearing Claire say that she had feelings for someone else, and opened up something inside of her, and frankly…she was jealous.

She didn’t like that someone else could come in and take Claire away from her, but she figured that was where she had been this week. With her. And Elle didn’t like the way it made her chest constrict and her blood boil.

She squeezed Claire’s hand softly, partly to let her know she was still here and partly to try and control the ball of energy that was aching to make its way out of her hand. She hoped this girl wouldn’t be around very much or she is not sure that she could control herself, and she isn’t sure Claire would be that impressed if she electrocuted her new girlfriend.

She shook her head and tried to clear her thoughts. She wondered if this meant that she was giving up the person who made her heat flutter like Claire said it should to this unidentified mystery woman. She felt devastated. Not only for the loss of her someone special she should be holding on to but also her best friend.

If Claire was already pulling back from her then she could only imagine that it would get worse, not better, as time went on. And she didn’t know how to survive without Claire ever again; frankly she wasn’t sure how she had done it the first time. She isn’t even sure how she made it through the whole previous period of her life without Claire. Sighing, Elle gently let go of the younger girl’s hand, sure that she wasn’t allowed the same privileges anymore.

She thought it was selfish of the girl to make her want her this much…to make her need her this much and then jut take it away. She didn’t know what she was supposed to do but she was guessing that she could no longer touch or talk to Claire whenever she wanted to. She had seen how these things go in the movies, and she was sure that Claire wouldn’t mess up her dates, she would be perfect and they would disappear in to happily ever after together.

Once this girl saw how special Claire was she would never let her go. Elle was nostalgic before she had even had to stop, and she decided that she would never move from this position. She would stay in Claire’s bed, clinging to her and then she could never leave her. It sounded like a brilliant plan.

Elle leaned her head on Claire’s chest so she could hear her heart, which was beating wildly and she wasn’t sure why. Maybe she thought Elle would be angry at her for breaking the rules?

She picked up her hand which was now limp at her side and began playing with it so she knew she wasn’t angry, but Claire’s heart just increased to an even more rapid pace. Elle wasn’t sure why. But she wanted her to know it was all ok.

She didn’t want to have to say it because she was scared that her voice might betray her, so she did what Claire had always don’t to make her feel better, she tried to find her cheek to kiss in the darkness.

She moved her face up in the darkness and aligned it with where she thought that Claire’s cheek would be, but her lips clumsily found the edge of her lips and she mumbled an apology, but before she could explain her mistake, Claire’s lips found hers in the darkness and they connected. And it was like nothing that Elle had ever felt before. It was perfect.

It was soft and tentative, and it made goose bumps appear all over her body at once, she could suddenly feel every nerve ending in her whole body, even though only it was only their lips that were touching. She didn’t know what this would mean for the girls, nor the rules they were currently breaking, and she didn’t care. She didn’t want this to stop, so she deepened the kiss and flicked her tongue over the younger girls bottom lip, asking for access and praying not to get turned away.

# # #

Elle had taken the first move, deepening the kiss, and that was all the encouragement that she needed. She opened up claimed soft lips in a tender kiss, she was excruciatingly careful not to rush things as quickly as her body wanted her to, because she didn’t want to scare Elle off. The trail of fire kisses she felt fluttering over her collarbone told her she had nothing to worry about, as Elle had somehow manoeuvred her way on top of her.

It was all a blur of tingling sensations, of fiery touches and swollen lips as Claire desperately tried to keep her voice down so as not to wake Sandra and Noah. She wasn’t sure she could stop even if they had walked in.

It was getting harder and harder to maintain her self control, especially since somehow flesh was now touching flesh, and Claire’s hands were wandering with a life of their own. The air was thick and the satin sheets had been kicked to the ground long ago, in a desperate attempt to free their limbs from any restraints.

After what seemed like minute but could have been hours they pulled away slightly, their foreheads leaning on one another, refusing to break contact completely, now that they had found what they had been looking for this whole time…their whole lives. Elle’s hands remained tangled in her hair, gently playing with the curls.

Almost simultaneously, they leaned in for another kiss, back to the gentle velocity that they had begun with. It was all the permission that Claire needed, and she gently rolled Elle over and pushed her back down, so that she was now in the lead. She heard Elle’s breath hitch as she placed kisses down her neck, and across her body. Not wanting to leave any part untouched. A soft moan slipped past Elle’s lips and caused Claire to grin.

She felt alive, and every nerve in her body was screaming. She may not be able to feel pain, but she could feel this. And this was more than enough.

Hands were dancing across skin and the painful, delicate slowness that had been used was done away with as the tempo rose and the stakes were raised.

# # #

Elle could hear Claire breathing heavily and she smiled wickedly in the dark, she liked that she had that effect on her, and she let sparks fly out of her fingertips as she moved them across her flesh, liking both the way they made Claire moan and the glimmers of flesh that she was able to see in the otherwise darkened room. Claire slid off of her and they settled in to position, lying side by side, bodies pressed together in the dark.

Elle stopped being so cocky when Claire’s fingers moved under her waist band, and it was all she could do to focus, wanting Claire to feel what she was too, she mirrored her movements, pace for pace reigniting the ball of electricity with her free hand as they lay side by side facing each other, staring in to desperate eyes.

Elle had never felt this before, never experienced what she was now, and as her eyes closed involuntarily and her body shuddered, she was glad that it was with Claire.

“I love you,” Elle heard in the darkness but she couldn’t be sure if she had said it or Claire had. Maybe it was both of them as they moved in-sync.

# # #

Claire felt Elle’s tremors which set her off on an equally unfamiliar sensation. And when the movements and changes and sensations in her body finally subsided all that was left was heavy breathing, intertwined limbs and a satisfied grin. Claire was happy lying here, no matter what tomorrow brought, she knew that as long as she had Elle it would be okay. Nothing seemed like it was that bad now that she had Elle wrapped up in her arms.

Her skin sill burned in every place that Elle had touched her, and she didn’t think it would ever fade, she reached out and touched her in the darkness, caressing her skin and letting her know that she belonged here, that the belonged to each other now.

Elle burrowed in to the crook of Claire’s neck in response, and when she finally spoke her voice was husky, with not a trace of sarcasm, “So who is this girl you like?” Claire giggled and groaned as she placed a kiss on Elle’s swollen lips, thinking maybe she would have to show her again.

Fix Me: Chapter Five (Claire/Elle)

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:08:18 GMT

Title: Fix Me

Fandom: Heroes

Pairing: Claire/Elle

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

Summary: AU: The Aftermath of the date/ Revelations?

Authors note: Thanks for the reviews guys! As long as they keep coming I’ll keep updating, and the more reviews the more motivated I will be ;) And this is, as I said my first fiction, so constructive criticism is great. And if anyone is willing to beta, that is excellent! xox

5.

It had been almost a week since Elle went out with Todd, and things were still a bit strained

between the girls after their conversation in the living room. Claire knew that it was completely

her fault and she really did feel bad about it, but it had caused her actual physical pain to hear

about those two together and she couldn’t bare to put herself in that position again until she

thought that she could handle it better.

She really did believe that it might not be so bad if Elle was with someone that was at least

worthy of her…someone that would appreciate her in the way that she deserved be. In any

event, Todd was certainly not that guy, so it was hard for Claire to drum up any enthusiasm for

the new couple.

Elle had sensed that something was off and she has been giving Claire space, people may

underestimate her aptitude for general social norms but when it came to the important stuff she

was very intuitive. She knew that she was hurting Elle but there didn’t seem to be much she

could bring herself to do about it ….she wanted to be a bigger person, but she was jealous and

she was needy and she knew that she could not bare to hear about how happy they were

together.

Claire had been using any excuse to get out of the house lately, which was why she was

currently meandering through the shopping mall, wasting time and avoiding any more awkward

or painful situations.

Sipping out of her over sized soda container, she was content to people watch, liking the fact

that this little trip had reminded her that there were people more screwed up then she was. She

may be in love with the girl sleeping in the next room, but surrounded by cheating husbands and

surgery junkies, her falling in love with a girl hardly seemed like a blip on the radar.

She was so wrapped up in revelling in others misery, that she almost missed Todd walking hand

in hand with some bimbo a few paces ahead of her. Her stomach boiled in anger as she watched

him grope her in front of the theatre, and Claire walked up to them without thinking.

“What do you think you are doing?!”, she spat out, her fury coming off her in waves. Todd raised

his eyebrows in disbelief, “Excuse me?” he said, looking genuinely confused.

Claire didn’t miss a beat, “You were out with Elle, what, two days ago, and now you’re already on

to some new skank?”. She shook her head, “I knew you weren’t good enough for her”.

Todd regained his composure, “We went on one date, after which she made it pretty clear that it

wouldn’t happen again…and I am pretty sure she tasered me when I kissed her good night!”.

Claire’s anger dissipated immediately, “She said she didn’t want to see you again?”, she

repeated confused. Todd grabbed his date by the wrist and began to stalk off, “Yeah she did, I

was actually scared that I would I’d have Noah knocking down my door, I didn’t think I would

have to worry about death by cheerleader”, he spat out as he stalked off and Claire stood there

for a moment longer, unsure as to why Elle would keep this from her.

# # #

Elle and Lyle sat out in the dining room together as she helping him to build a bridge from

popsicle sticks for his science class. She was unaware how this would improve his education at all

but it was fun, and learning had never been enjoyable when she was growing up so she liked

lending him a hand.

They were putting the finishing touches on their masterpiece when Claire walked in looking lost in

thought, and Elle was careful not to say anything as the younger girl had been easily annoyed for

the last few days.

She did not have to wait long because Claire spoke to them first, “Hey”, was all she got out, but

it was enough to make Elle beam. Lyle, however, did not seem as impressed. “Oh you’re talking

to us now, how gracious of you”. Claire rolled her eyes, “Don’t be a bitch”.

Lyle glared at her and then picked up a can of spaghetti and held it above their creation, “If I can

get this bridge to hold the weight of this can. I pass my class. A moment please”, Elle bent her

head solemnly with Lyle; they had spent all afternoon and well in to the night on this wretched

thing.

His hand and the attached can were hovering over the bridge, and Lyle finally placed it on top

carefully. They held their breath as the bridge groaned under the weight, but it seemed to be

holding, “Yes!” Lyle beamed, high fiving Elle and doing a little dance on the spot.

They had celebrated too soon though, it seemed, because the bridge suddenly gave out, much to

their dismay. Lyle fell to his knees and clutched at the broken popsicles, and Elle looked on

apologetically, “I’ll help you build one tomorrow. And your dad! He can help too”.

Claire raised her hand a little in the air, “Yeah I can pitch in”, Elle looked at her quizzically and

wondered what had happened to the moody girl that had occupied that body only hours earlier.

Lyle showed no response and Elle began to move, she had heard it was appropriate to allow a

respectful distance during mourning periods.

Claire reached out and touched her arm as she made her way past her and out the door, “Can

we please talk for a second?” Elle nodded dumbly and Claire continued, “Up in your room? We

can leave Lyle to his…..” she didn’t finish the sentence and simply waved at the boy sitting in the

middle of a mess of cans and Popsicle sticks.

Once they had made their way in to the room, Claire clicked the door shut behind them and

walked across to the bed, sitting down. Elle stayed standing, hugging herself tightly.

“I ran in to Todd at the mall earlier”, she blurted out not looking at Elle, who tried to maintain her

composure, even though her heart beat sped up wildly, “You did?” she asked softly.

Elle felt sick, she hadn’t wanted Claire to know that she had messed up. So she just stood there

and studied her shoes, hoping that the ridicule would be over with soon. She always got a stern

talking to when she messed things up.

Claire stood up and made her way towards her and stopped when she was standing inches

away, and Elle could now see her shoes moving back and forth as she rocked on the balls of her

feet, she spoke again first, “Why didn’t you tell me?”. Elle finally looked up and straight in to her

eyes, “I wanted you to think that I was good at it”.

Claire smiled softly, “At dating?. Elle no one is good at dating. It’s awkward and its stressful and

more often then not it ends badly”. Elle shook her head, completely confused, “Then why do

people bother?” she asked.

Claire broke eye contact and went over and resumed her seat on the bed, picking her words

carefully, “They bother because every one is waiting for that time it isn’t any of those things,

when it’s easy and fun and perfect...waiting for that person who makes it those things”. Elle let

the knot in her chest loosen slightly, “So It wasn’t me, I didn’t screw it up?” She asked hopefully.

“No”, Claire shook her head and then grinned, “But he said that you tasered him” Elle was

mortified, “He deserved it!”, she quickly replied, not wanting to get in to trouble, “He kissed me

without asking! And he had wandering hands! He is lucky he only got a little shock!”, she said

crossing her arms tightly over her chest. Elle knew that Claire wouldn’t tell Noah, but she still

couldn’t control the dread that rippled through her body. Claire smiled reassuringly, “It’s ok, he

deserved it” Elle let out the breath she hadn’t known that she was holding.

“I’m glad that was not what it was supposed to be like’, Elle stated, truly relieved as she made

her way to sit by Claire on the bed, “I was worried it was, I may not know a whole lot, but I knew

he wasn’t the one for me”.

Claire nodded understandingly, “There is someone for you out there Elle, don’t worry. It just isn’t

him” She poked her teasingly, “Though I could have told you that and saved you all the trouble”

Elle looked at her intently, “Then why didn’t you?”.

# # #

Claire hesitated, “I did try, I gave him the dinner excuse…”, Elle shook her head, “I’m not talking

about that, you know I trust you and I wouldn’t have gone if you had told me that I shouldn’t”.

Claire’s heart flip-flopped, “I’m not sure, maybe I thought that you needed to figure that out for

yourself”.

Elle looked at her, “Figure what out for myself?” she asked desperately. Claire fidgeted, but

stopped when Elle interlaced their hands and gave her a squeeze. Claire finally looked up,

“Figure out what you want.” She gulped and steadied herself, the tingles from the contact made

her heady and she said more then she wanted too, “To figure out who you want”.

Elle nodded, “And what if I am not sure what I want?”, Claire sighed and smiled softly, “I can

wait…I mean it can wait. It can” She whispered in a fluster as she stood up and broke the

contact. She walked out of the room and shut the door behind her, leaning back against it she

softly hit her head against the wood, “Idiot”, she whispered to herself.

Walking in to the bathroom her mind raced as she continued to beat herself up and she quickly

got changed and slipped in to bed, hoping a deep sleep would take over her so she wouldn’t

have to think.

She was so busy chastising herself she didn’t even initially register her door sliding open, but she

defiantly noticed when the bed dipped to signal a new arrival. “Elle?”, she asked softly as she felt

a body curl around hers in response.

“What’s wrong?” Claire asked, trying desperately to steady her heart beat before it leapt out of

her chest. She felt Elle cling to her tighter, “You broke your promise once this week, I figure if I

stay with you at all times, you wont be able do it again”. Claire furrowed her brows; “I broke my

promise?” she asked and felt the girl next to her hug her even closer. “You promised that you

wouldn’t ever leave me” she prompted softly and Claire replied swiftly, “I never left you!”.

Elle took a moment to reply, “Yes you did, you wouldn’t talk to me for days, you wouldn’t look at

me or touch me…and it hurt…”, Elle hesitated, “It hurts even more to not know why. But if you tell

me what I did then I will make sure to never ever do it again, I swear”.

Claire felt her insides slump, she truly was an ass, “I am really sorry Elle, it wasn’t you…I just had

a lot on my mind. But I meant it, I wont ever leave you….I don’t think I could even if I wanted to”.

Claire felt Elle release her iron grip ever so slightly before she responded, “You had better not”

she said as she began to slowly trace circles on Claire's skin.

Claire struggled to focus on the conversation at hand, Elle’s proximity and the touches, the

familiar prickling sensation on her skin was burning a trail following Elle’s fingertips and she did

her best to keep her breathing steady. Her control was nearly lost when the girl next to her

spoke again, in a voice bordering on a whisper, “What’s it supposed to feel like when you kiss

someone?”.

# # #

Elle waited for Claire to reply, which took longer then she thought it should have “Supposed to?”

she croacked out, in a voice that was considerably more husky then usual for some reason.

Elle nodded, “Usually when I kiss someone, or touch them, it fees nice… But then occasionally it

feels different, like it makes my heart flutter or my skin burn. Is it supposed to feel like that? What

does that mean?” Elle desperately needed to know what her body was trying to tell her about

the way Claire touched her, but she didn’t want to upset her so she left the true logistics of her

current predicament out.

She felt Claire inhale deeply before she answered, “It is supposed to feel like that for someone

special. When you find that you should hold on to it…..to hold on to them”, Elle wasn’t sure but

she could swear that Claire was talking more to herself at this point.

Elle nodded and sighed, “That’s unfortunate”, she said slowly, knowing full well who her special

someone was. She knew that her liking Claire that way was not something that she should do.

She is pretty sure that would be breaking Noah’s key rule. A good girl would not fall in love with

his precious Claire – bear.

She heard a giggle from next to her and she lit up a small ball of electricity as she sat up so that

she could see Claire’s face. “That’s not funny!” she protested. “I’m sorry”, but a grin still was

plastered on her face. Elle pouted and Claire placed her hand on her fore arm, “I’m sorry I'm not

laughing at you it is just…very true.”

Elle raised an eyebrow at the cheerleader, “How could that possibly be true for someone like

you…you’re perfect”. Claire’s features softened and she shrugged, “No…I’m not. And you can’t

help who you love…who you like”.

Elle felt queasy, “You like someone and they don’t like you back? What’s wrong with them?.”

Claire smiled again, “Nothing.”. Elle shook her head, “Well obviously there is something wrong

with him” she whispered as she nestled back in to Claire but kept the small ball of electricity

simmering so the room had a faint glow. It was a long time before Claire finally answered.

“There’s nothing wrong…with her”

Fix Me: Chapter Four (Claire/Elle)

Sat, 08 Nov 2008 13:31:35 GMT

Title: Fix Me

Fandom: Heroes

Pairing: Claire/Elle

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

Summary: AU: Silly boys, and broken hearts.

Elle stared uncertainly at the plate sitting in front of her, crinkling her nose up and the food that sat neatly in its centre. The blonde haired boy had insisted in ordering for the both of them and Elle had somehow ended up with this smelly pile of goo. Boys are silly, she could have told him she didn’t want this if he had let her. ‘Claire would have known what to order me’, she thought absentmindedly as she stabbed something brown with her fork.

Looking up she saw Todd’s lips moving rapidly as he droned on about some game she knew nothing about, but he didn’t seem to mind that she wasn’t joining in. He seemed content for her to nod sporadically and mirror his smile at appropriate intervals. She took this time to stare at him, without fear of breaking a social taboo; it was polite to look when people were talking to you.

He had a very square face and square shoulders that gave him a harsh look, and she wondered if he could still breathe normally without any neck to speak of, but considering he wouldn’t let her get a word in even if she had wanted to, she thought that he should be fine. Unfortunately this boy did not make her stomach go gooey nor her heart thump, and although she didn’t know much, she did know what both of those felt like.

Sighing, Elle stabbed something else on her plate and mashed it around trying to make it look as though she had eaten it and considered zapping it to make some of it in to dust particles, but figured she should wait until he took a bath room break before she did. Although maybe that would make him stop talking about silly sports.

This wasn’t what her first date was supposed to be like. It was supposed to be magical, with laughter, stolen glances and lingering looks….and a silly little violin quartet…..they always have those in the movies and she wanted one dammit!

Maybe that’s what this date needed to improve. She looked around hopefully but there wasn’t one here, ‘Figures’, she thought. He seemed to have chosen the dullest restaurant in town.

When the waitress came to get the food, Elle could have sworn she threw her a pitying look, and was hopeful that maybe this wasn’t how it was supposed to be on a date after all….hopefully it was just him…..or maybe it was her.

More likely her really, she has probably made it very hard on him. She fought down a sudden wave of guilt as she realised that it was because she couldn’t do this properly that he wouldn’t let her talk. He was trying to help her.

She sat up in her seat and rededicated herself to the date. She would make herself enjoy this, no matter how difficult that might be, and no matter how much her gut was telling her that this wasn’t who she was supposed to be on her first date with.

# # #

Claire re-read the same paragraph for the fourth time and sighed as she slammed the book shut, this wasn’t working. Flopping back on the bed she glanced at the clock which read 11:15, and flung her arm over her eyes dramatically. What could those two possibly have been doing for three hours, a groan escaped her lips as her dinner threatened to make its way back up her throat but she swallowed it down and sat up.

Walking over to the window, she pushed the curtain back, hoping to see Todd’s oversized car turn down her street, but luck wasn’t on her side tonight. A knock at the door made her jump and step away from her vigil by the open window.

Sandra walked over and kissed her on the forehead, “Just wanted to say good night honey”, Claire nodded and looked away, “Yeah, good night mom”. Sandra looked at her for a moment and sat down on the bed, “You’re unhappy about Elle and Todd going out tonight aren’t you?”.

Claire shook her head in denial lamely, but Sandra continued, “I think I know what this is about honey, and it’s just going to make things complicated for everyone so maybe you should just let it go”.

Claire’s heart beat like a jackhammer in her chest as she tried desperately to think of what she could say to her mother, but Sandra continued, “I mean Todd is a handsome boy but now that he has been out with Elle it might make things awkward…”. Claire let out a low laugh unintentionally and cut her mother off before she could continue, “No mom, defiantly not interested in Todd, you have nothing to worry about”.

Sandra furrowed her brow and Claire continued quickly before her mother asked any more questions, “You know it’s just that I care about Elle, and I don’t want to see her get hurt”. Sandra smiled softly, “Yes, I have seen you two getting along lately, I’m really happy about it too. Elle’s a nice girl, just a little misguided”. Claire smiled and lifted her eyebrow, “A little?”. Sandra shrugged and rose to her feet before planting a kiss on her daughters head.

“She is a big girl, I’m sure she isn’t doing anything she doesn’t want to”, and as Sandra walked out the door Claire’s heart seized once more as she realised that she was right. If Elle wanted to kiss Todd and touch him, then there was nothing she could do to help her because she didn’t need helping. She did not need Claire to save her.

Claire decided that she wasn’t going to be able to sleep any time soon and she did not really want it to be painfully, embarrassingly obvious that she has waited up for Elle, so she made her way downstairs with blankets and a pillow, grabbed some comfort food and turned on the television. She did not have to wait long to hear an engine pull in to the drive way and cut off abruptly, and it was probably under four minutes between the engine cutting and the door clicking open but it felt like longer. It felt like so much longer.

Claire saw Elle poke her head in to the room from the corner of her eye but let her eyes leave the television screen. She did not trust her voice…..or her emotions not to get the best of her. Elle didn’t seem to mind; she just shrugged off her jacket and threw it and her bag on to the chair before settling in next to Claire on the couch. She stayed silent, and Claire had never been more grateful that Elle didn’t feel the need to fill in elongated silences when they were together.

After the fifth infomercial had finished Claire finally decided she would be an adult about this, and spoke up quietly, “How was your date?” she said, her voice coming out rougher then usual.

###

Elle had no idea how to answer Claire, but she didn’t seem terribly interested in what she had to say anyway so Elle thought she might be able to get away with lying so that Clare would not think that she was weird….well weirder than she already though her to be.

The thought of Clare thinking less of her made her insides funny so she lied. People had told her little white lies were ok if they were to hurt someone’s feelings. And Elle was someone.

“It was good”, Elle said softly, careful not to exaggerate too much because she knew Clare would see right through her. She saw that Clare wasn’t going to reply so she decided to go to bed, the way Clare was ignoring her was making her feel distressed and she was hoping if she went to bed and woke up then it would all be back to usual, that’s how she had been told to deal with nightmares. She figured this was more or less the same thing.

Carefully lifting her body weight so as to not disturb her best friend Elle began to reach towards her things to make her get away but Clare grabbed her arm, “Sorry, I’m just really tired tonight. Tell me about your date”. Elle raised her eyebrow and cocked her head to the side quizzically, “You want to hear about it?”, and Clare nodded unenthusiastically, “Yeah of course”.

Elle sucked in a breath and was trying to decide on what to tell Clare. Apparently there was a fine line between what people said they wanted to hear and what they actually did. When people asked questions like ‘How was your date’ or ‘How was your day?’, they only really wanted to know about certain parts….she had learnt that the embarrassing way, after telling one of Lyles friends how her day was right down to how her cereal had tasted. He looked at her funny now.

She finally let it all out in a breathe, sounding more like one extra long word then a sentence, “He took me to dinner, he ordered for me, he talked and he opened my door, he kissed me”.

‘Wow’ , Elle thought, she hadn’t meant to say that last part. Darn Claire and her magical best friend skills, she didn’t want her to not know anything, she wanted to share everything with her.

Claire turned and faced Elle rather slowly, kind of like a robot, it made Elle feel uneasy. “He kissed you?”, Elle nodded, “He also ordered me dinner and opened my door”. Claire nodded and smiled a tight smile, “And you had fun?” Elle nodded back meekly and Claire stopped looking her in the eye.

She reached over and squeezed Elle’s hand, before standing up abruptly, “I’m really not feeling great…I’m really tired, good night Elle”. Elle waved and smiled softly.

She didn’t know what she had said wrong. He had ordered her a dinner she didn’t want, he had talked without letting her get a word in and then he had kissed her without asking her if he could”, she didn’t enjoy any of it and she is not sure he enjoyed the last one as she got a little zap in to get him away from her.

She defiantly wasn’t going to tell her that …. Maybe she wasn’t great at choosing which pieces of the story to tell. Perhaps she should have told Claire her favourite part of the night was coming home to see her.

She would have to work on that, she mused as she stared at the screen and settled back on to Claire’s pillow, liking the way it smelled of her.

Authors note: Reviews are awesome and this story is open to suggestions .

Fix Me: Chapter three (Claire/Elle)

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 09:15:06 GMT

Title: Fix Me

Fandom: Heroes

Pairing: Claire/Elle

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

Summary: Backyard parties and accidental dates.

Elle felt trapped as she stalked back and forth across the room, trying to find something, anything, to give her a

brilliant escape plan. Nothing was coming to mind, and her insides squelched at the thought of what was waiting

for her downstairs, and sparks flew from her fingertips in anticipation.

A soft knock at the door startled her out of her thoughts and Sandra popped her head in, “Elle, honey, you have got

to come downstairs now”, but Elle shook her head vehemently, “No way, you cant make me. Back off lady.”

Sandra let out a soft chuckle, “The visitors all think it’s a little weird that our new house guest won’t come down

and mingle, come on sweetheart, do me a favour.” Elle sighed and shook her head…it was a nasty human trick

when people said that, it was impossible to turn her down. If only she had come at her with something a little

more violent she would have know how to handle it, but a please and a puppy dog look always made her

surrender.

“You owe me”, she said softly as she took the hand that Sandra had extended and accompanied her downstairs.

Elle felt her heartbeat quicken as she made her way down from the second story with Sandra, still clinging her

hand. It was unfortunate that she was, as had she not been then Elle could have turned around and run back to

her safe haven upstairs, and away from this nightmare, but as it was Sandra had an iron grip on her hand, and

she pulled her the rest of the way.

Elle hated this, they were staring at her. They all knew she didn’t belong here, that she couldn’t pull this off, she

was barely human, some freak of nature. Hugging herself tightly she scanned the faces that were all turned in her

direction, studying her, judging her. She gripped herself tighter. “Everyone this is Elle!”, Elle unhooked one of her

hands from her grip on herself to give a strange half salute, half wave jumble and sighed. She couldn’t believe

she just waved…this was going to be a long night.

###

Claire watched the scene unfolding in front of her with a hint of amusement, a splash of tenderness and an

unhealthy does of jealousy. Elle was obviously struggling with the atmosphere that Sandra had just pulled her in

to, she confusion and fear danced across her face and made Claire want to reach out and touch her, to reassure

her that she belonged here. At the same time she was ready to open fire with every male in the room who was

appraising her appreciatively. Elle was obviously confusing their stunned admiration as condemnation of the new

party guest.

“Who is that?”, one of the boys standing with her asked as his eyes studied Elle enthusiastically. Claire pushed

down the urge to harm him that that sparked in her gut. “Elle” she said quickly, hoping his attention span would

match his IQ and he would let it go. He raised an eyebrow at Claire, “No shit, that’s what your mom just said, what

I mean is will she be sticking around long and is she single?”, Claire spoke through gritted teeth, “She isn’t

available”. Mr Douche bag sighed, “Is she seeing someone?”, but Claire didn’t get a chance to answer, or to lie

because Lyle who had seemingly appeared from no where answered before she had to, “Look man, she is

spoken for.”

Todd, the aforementioned Mr douche bag, let out a soft chuckle, and shook his head, “Come on Lyle she is too

old for you, she needs a man,” Claire raised an eyebrow and Lyle huffed, “You are only two years older then me…

dick”. Todd and Lyle continued their macho banter softly as Elle made a bee line for the group as soon as she

broke away from Sandra.

Elle grabbed Claire’s arm as soon as she reached them and whispered in Claire’s ear, “Holy crap, save me

pom-pom”. Claire smiled and looped her arm through Elle’s, “Come on”, Claire walked away from the boys, who

were to enthralled to realise the girl they were fighting over had been and gone and led Elle outside to the slightly

less crowded backyard and they sat at the table.

Claire smiled softly, “I can’t believe my mom got you down here”, Elle shrugged, “I think she has voodoo mind-

trickery skills”, Claire rolled her eyes and stood up, “I’ll just grab us a drink”. Elle nodded rapidly, “Great

idea!...maybe a champagne will sooth my nerves”. Clare smiled and chook her head, “I’ll grab you a soda!” and

weaved through the masses towards to snacks table.

###

Elle drummed her fingers against the table nervously, careful not to look at anyone. Seeing a little spark

appearing on her palm she quickly darted her hands under the table, and clasped them together closing her eyes

and willing herself to calm down, she could handle this… “Just breathe”, she whispered to herself.

“Are you ok?” a boy asked as he slid in to the chair next to her and a smile danced across his lips. Elle looked

over her shoulder and saw Claire had gotten trapped talking to some great haired lady and sighed, she had come

to realise that old people always took much longer than usual to talk. Claire would be awhile.

“Yeah, I’m fine”, Elle said a little too brightly and shrugged, “Just waiting for my friend to come back…with my

drink”, the boys extended a plastic cup to her, “Well it’s a good think I thought ahead and got you one”. As he

handed her the drink, she sipped from it eagerly. Trying to use the four seconds it would take to think of

something she could say to the boy sitting and staring at her.

She coughed and gasped slightly as the liquid burned its way down her thought and the boy chuckled, “Sorry, it

has a little extra kick in it. I’m Todd by the way”, he said extending his hand to her. She smiled and took it, but

kicked herself when she inadvertently gave his hand a small shock from the left over electricity which had been

dancing on her palm seconds earlier. He only smiled, so she was hoping he didn’t really notice.

Thankfully at that moment Claire returned to the table with the drinks, placing them down in front of Elle and took

the only free chair next to Todd and pulled it over to Elle. “I see you two have met”, she said staring straight at the

boy, with her tone a little colder then usual, and Elle wondered if she had done something wrong.

Todd answered, “Yes, we were just getting acquainted, weren’t we ?”, Elle shrugged and smiled, “Uh, yeah, we

were”. Todd looked Elle straight in the eye and continued, “In fact I was just about to see if Elle would like to have

dinner tonight?”.

Elle scrambled for what to say, of course she wanted to eat dinner, what an odd question, she didn’t think that this

boy was that bright , “Uh, yes I would like to eat dinner…tonight”. Todd grinned widely and stood up, “Great I’ll pick

you up at eight, I knew I felt a spark”.

Elle’s eyes darted up and she felt her heartbeat quicken, as she fought an internal battle “Oh no, he felt the spark,

Noah is going to kill…..wait”, she shook her head and looked at the boy quizzically, “Pick me up?”, he shrugged,

“Or I can meet you somewhere if you’d prefer?” Elle repeated his words again uncomprehendingly, “Meet you

somewhere?”.

###

Claire watched the scene with a simmering feeling in her gut but she couldn’t really be angry because Elle

obviously had no idea what she was agreeing to, the look on her face was completely blank as Todd tried to

arrange the date which Elle had unintentionally agreed to.

But the thought of those two together made her queasy. Elle was easily led when it came to people telling her

what was expected of her and Todd was a sleaze so she could only assume what would happen if they were to

be left alone. She knew nothing could happen between the two of them but she also knew that less then nothing

should happen between her and Todd.

“Actually Todd, its family dinner night tonight so Elle cant make it”, Claire said her tone a little higher in pitch than

she had intended. But unfortunately Sandra had chosen that moment to pop up with a tray of dips, “Elle can’t

make it where?” she said her voice not even attempting to hide its excitement. Todd played with his cup dejectedly

as he answered Claire’s mother, “I asked Elle out to dinner but she had plans for dinner with the family”, Sandra

raised an eyebrow at Claire who suddenly felt her face flush.

Sandra patted Todd on the shoulder, “Well you know what?, just this once we will let her out of it…you two have

fun now!”. Todd’s stupid, annoying grin made its way back on to his face as he touched Elle’s shoulder and told

her he would pick her up at eight o’clock.

Claire felt sick as she looked over at Elle who was looking desperately back at Claire, “Why is he picking me up?”,

Claire smiled softly and put her hand over Elle’s, “I think you just got yourself a date, Elle”. Elle’s eyes nearly

bulged out of her head, “A date? A real one? Oh god, I’ve never been on a date….I mean I’ve done things with

boys back at the facility like when we….” Claire held up her hand quickly, “Seriously Elle, not something I need to

hear about right now” Elle nodded and then smiled devilishly as she pulled Claire out of her chair, “You need to

help me get ready!”.

###

Elle studied herself in the mirror and then sighed and ripped off the umpteenth shirt she had tried on, as Claire

silently played with one of her stuffed toys on the other side of the room distractedly. Elle huffed and turned around

to face her, “You are not helping me at all, this is really important you know!”.

Claire looked up to reply, her mouth half open and then she snapped it shut quickly and looked away. Elle looked

down and realised she was barely clothed and rolled her eyes, “Its not like you haven’t seen more before”, she

said slipping on another top and grabbing a jacket, “What about this one?”.

Clare nodded, “Yeah that one looks nice”, and Elle rolled her eyes and ripped it off, “Less enthusiasm pom-pom,

please”. Claire shrugged, “I didn’t know you liked him this much”, Elle shook her head and jumped on the bed

next to Claire once she had put on the first choice from an hour ago, “I don’t” she shrugged.

Claire’s head snapped up and her brows furrowed, “Then why are you going to all this effort?”. Elle looked at her

and wondered if the cheerleader was as normal as she had thought, “He likes me….and its my first date, I

thought I had missed out on most of the normal stuff like high school, prom and science club, but this is one that I

can actually get to come true”.

“Science club?”, Claire smiled widely, and Elle held up her hand and let a spark fly out, “Yeah, I would have rocked

those nerds worlds”, she said with an eyebrow wiggle. “Oh, or I could have been a cheer-bitch! I’m awesome at

waving my hands around and yelling so I would be great at it”, Claire feigned mock-hurt, “Cheerleading requires

a lot of skill, ill have you know”. Elle looked at her and shook her head before jumping up on the bed and raising

her arms in to a C, “Give me a C”, she jumped and clasped her hands together, “Give me a L”, but before she

could go on Claire had pulled her down by the legs so she fell back on the bed in a fit of giggles.

When she stopped and looked at the cheerleader she smiled, “I think we would have made great friends if we

went to high school together”. Claire nodded in agreement and her eyes drifted from Elle’s eyes to her lips. Elle

didn’t know why her heart skipped a beat or why she was suddenly aware of Claire’s hand on her arm, but it

confused her.

“I think…that shade isn’t right on you”, Claire said motioning to her lips and Elle nodded dumbly as Claire moved

away and to the makeup stand to being rummaging through the lipsticks.

Elle sat for a moment longer, wondering what had just happened. But before she could ask Clare if that was

normal, the doorbell rang and Claire turned around and shoved a different shade in her hand, “Here you go”, she

mumbled as she began to shuffle off.

Elle grabbed her arm to stop her, “Wish me luck?”, she asked softly, and Claire sighed and turned around to face

her. “I hope you find what you’re looking for”, she said giving Elle a kiss on the cheek that burned much like the

previous touch and not like anything she had felt before. Before she had gotten a chance to ask her what she

meant, Claire was out of the room and Elle, with nothing else to do, grabbed her bag and walked down the stairs.

Suddenly she was a lot less excited then she had been before.

When she reached Sandra and Todd she smiled, and it hurt her lips, but she wanted to enjoy her first date. The

boy returned her smile and kissed her fleetingly on the opposite cheek to the one which Clare and previously

kissed. It felt damp and hard, and not as nice as Clare’s had. She wondered what that meant.

Authors note: Thanks guys, the reviews are really nice! And if you keep reviewing ill keep updating, as I know someone is actually reading it! xo

Fix me: Chapter Two (Claire/Elle)

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 14:41:38 GMT

Title: Fix Me

Fandom: Heroes

Pairing: Claire/Elle

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

Summary: Bonding time

Elle was happy. Well she thinks this is what happiness feels like, she has nothing to compare it to so she could only assume. It had been a week since that night in the park and Claire had stayed true to her word and made an effort to hate her less, and Elle thought that she had even begun to like her. The younger girl wouldn’t admit it of course, but she would let Elle paint her nails and earlier that night she had broken off half of her candy bar and handed it to Elle without a word. Elle guessed that they were already best friends, and it was nice.

Elle had never had someone hang around her willingly without an ulterior motive, without expecting something in return. But Claire did, and it made her smile…a lot. Noah and Sandra were happy because it made life around the house a lot easier without having to tip toe around the two girls, afraid to upset one of them.

She had overheard Noah telling Sandra that Claire had smiled more in the past week than she had in the past six months, and that was nice too. Elle like that she could make someone smile, rather than grimace or glare, and she liked that it was Claire.

As much as she hated Claire in the past for having everything she wanted, she couldn’t help but appreciate that the girl didn’t take it for granted as much as Elle had previously thought that she did. In fact she seemed to completely appreciate her family and their little place in the world, and this perfect little house on the perfect little street with the perfect little family suddenly weren’t as sickly sweet as she had previously judged them to be.

They still weren’t hers but she was happy that they had each other, and she would help Noah keep it that way, no matter what she had to do to keep them safe, to keep her best friend safe…her only friend.

It made her smile, as she looked at the younger girl lying on her bed reading from a text book with her legs swinging in the air. Claire looked up and caught her, a smile mirroring Elle’s appeared on her lips, “What?”. Elle jumped up on to the bed and lay down against Claire’s side nuzzling up to her, and sighed “I like having a friend, its nice.”

Elle felt Claire momentarily stiffen in reaction to her sudden movement and she internally chastised herself, she forgot that people had rules about where and when to touch, and these rules were annoyingly hard to decode, to understand, to follow.

She didn’t understand why she couldn’t touch Claire when she wanted to, human etiquette was bizarre. Elle’s mind was put at ease when Claire softened her rigid posture and looked down at her from her position leaning on her elbows above her, “Yeah, friends are nice”.

Elle nodded fervently and brushed a stray hair off of Claire’s face, seeing how much she could actually get away with touching her friend and when Claire didn’t stop her she smiled widely and then looked her in the eye and solemnly telling her, “You can’t leave me…ever. You promise”, Claire didn’t look away like she sometimes when she answered her, but if they hadn’t been so close she wouldn’t have heard it as it was barely above a whisper, “I promise” and Elle smiled and relaxed back in to her position next to the girl.

She liked this, she liked being this close and she traced her fingers down Claire’s arm softly, and without thinking she let off a few sparks as her finger glided across the surface. Claire’s head snapped as she looked down at her, and Elle smiled meekly, “Sorry it was an accident, old habits die hard”.

Claire furrowed her brows as she looked at her for a second longer before returning to her text book, and Elle sighed, she had promised to be a good girl, and she didn’t think Noah would appreciate that. Good thing best friends don’t tell on each other, she thought as she lay her head down and closed her eyes.

###

Claire’s heart was beating fast, as she stared blankly, unseeingly at the page in front of her. Her heart was fluttering in her chest and her hands were shaking ever so slightly, she

had suppressed a gasp when it happened because she had felt it but it wasn’t pain.

It was like a prickling sensation and her skin burned in every place that Elle touched her, but she knew enough to know this wasn’t the type of sensation her body was equipped to protect her from.

She didn’t think it would have been appropriate for her to tell her that it was ok, that she liked it. Suppressing her mounting feelings for the older girl was difficult enough without adding to it, and she didn’t think she would want to stop if Elle started again. And they were friends, and it was great, as unlikely as it might seem.

The only downside was that it was easier to bury feelings when you were only stealing fleeting glances and minimum contact with someone. When they are innocently, unknowingly snuggling in to your side and moulding their body in to yours, it is slightly more complicated.

But she couldn’t tell Elle to stop, partly because she knew the older girl got embarrassed when she broke some unspoken social rule she had never been privy to, and partly because… well she didn’t want to. It was nice to have contact when you knew that it was all you were ever going to get, all you were ever going to be able to have from someone you so desperately want.

After a moment Elle yawned sleepily, and began moving away. She brushed her lips across Claire’s face softly, “Sweet dreams pom-pom”. And Claire could only nod, not trusting her voice to stay steady if she attempted to use it.

As soon as Elle left the room, Claire flopped back on to her bed and brushed her lips ever so softly with her fingers, smiling softly. Sighing she shook her head, if only Elle realised how she was indulging her little crush, maybe she would stop….but maybe that would be more unbearable then this.

Fix Me: Chapter one (Claire/Elle)

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 17:27:08 GMT

Title: Fix Me

Fandom: Heroes

Pairing: Claire/Elle

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

Summary: AU: Elle had nowhere to go, and Noah thought she could be of use to him so he offered her a place to stay.

1.

Elle was tired. She doesn’t deny that she always wanted this, the perfect family, the perfect life. But this wasn’t her life, these weren’t her people. They needed her, needed her powers, but they didn’t want her. No one wanted her, not even her own father.

Looking around the table she wondered what it must be like to live like this, the smiling and the banter and the inside jokes. She knew she wanted this, but she wasn’t naïve enough to think that she would ever have it. They think she didn’t know that she was bizarre, they didn’t know that she appreciated that her brain worked differently to theirs, but it wasn’t her fault, she thought she had turned out pretty well considering her upbringing.

She had kept the promise she had made to Noah when she moved in, and she was being a good girl. As devastatingly boring as that was she had kept it up. Smiling when she was meant to and saying her niceties when they past the potatoes, but it didn’t seem to be working, she still didn’t fit here.

“Elle, did you hear me? Or are you off in another world?”, Noah watched her over the top of his spectacles, studying her with a small smile playing across his lips. The fiery blond sitting directly across from Elle rolled her eyes and let out a sarcastic laugh, “I wish”, Elle flinched slightly at the bitterness in her tone.

She really didn’t know why the little cheer-bitch had it in for her. Granted she may have made a few teensy weensy mistakes in the past, but what’s a shock or two between friends, and anyway she had apologized. It wasn’t her fault Claire could hold an epic grudge.

“Claire”, Sandra warned softly. This was a regular occurrence during these forced meals together. Elle really didn’t understand why they felt that she had to be there with them. She would happily eat in her room, or in the lounge or not at all, to keep from the perky, perfect, prissy little shit.

A ball of blue sparks started forming in the palm of her hand and she had to calm herself down. The moody girl doesn’t even feel pain these days, so the satisfaction wouldn’t be there. Plus it’s rather humiliating being sent to your room for electrocuting someone. There may have been an incident with the nosey neighbor. But, really, anyone snooping on someone else’s property deserves a zap….or two. Elle had done Noah a favor.

Elle glanced over at Lyle and sighed. There was only one thing more annoying than a girl who hates you, and that’s a boy that loves you. After all his protest and pathetically lame threats, he had done a complete turn around within the first month, and all it took was him and his sister catching Elle sun baking naked when they came home from their family shopping excursion early. Boys really were too easy, it was almost sad. So Lyle had been a stuttering blushing mess since, and Claire had been even more of a bitch. If that was even possible.

Elle looked up and realized that the conversation had come to a blithering halt since Claire’s comment. Not adoring the awkward silence that was filling her ears she smiled politely, just like she had been told to do in situations like this, and pushed herself back from the table, “Thank you, dinner was…..good”. Sandra smiled back at her, and she thought that she really did like Sandra.

She walked out of the room with her dish and piled it in the sink, as she walked back out past the kitchen she peeped in and what she saw made her die a little inside. They were all laughing, Noah had one hand over Claire’s and he ruffled Lyle’s hair. Like he was trying to show gratitude for something they had done…..like make it through a dinner with a psychopath.

Elle hugged her arms to her body as she suddenly felt cold, and there was a knot in her stomach. Cheer-bitch chose that exact moment to lock eyes with her, and Elle hated her for catching her looking vulnerable, like she cared that she was alone. And she was sure Claire was already planning to use it against her, to humiliate her for thinking that she would ever be anything more to this family than a necessary nuisance. The flash in the younger girls’ eyes was unrecognizable, but Elle didn’t try to decipher it, she had to get out of there.

Taking long strides she opened the front door and walked out, closing it behind her with a soft click. The fresh air suddenly making it a little easier to breathe. But the perfect little house on the perfect little street with the perfect little family suddenly made her feel nauseous. So she kept walking, but she wasn’t putting enough distance between her and them, so she kicked off her heels and ran, stopping when she reached a park with a playground.

She made her way over to the swing set and sat down, resting her head against the cool metal chains and sighing, her breathing slowly returning to its normal rate. When she finally opened her eyes she grinned at where she was and begun to swing her legs back and forth slowly, and suddenly the need to get higher and higher was overwhelming.

As she gathered more momentum she leaned back in to it, enjoying the feeling, and the wind against her face. She really did wish her daddy had brought her to a place like this when she was younger.

# # # #

Claire absent-mindedly dried the dishes her father was handing her as she thought of Elle and the look on her face moments earlier. She hated that the flash of hurt had marred her delicate features, and that she had hugged herself like she always did when she was upset.

Claire wasn’t even sure if she knew she did it….it was probably just a left over habit from her childhood, clinging to herself because no one else would. Claire shook her head, she couldn’t care this much, it was weird. She didn’t even understand when or why it had started, but she did know that her initial hatred had been chipped away at and then replaced completely.

It was hard to hate someone who was so obviously naïve, so obviously out of her depth. She was so confident when she was in the field, putting her life at risk, but hand her a platter and ask her to hand it out at a party and she will look at you like you have just asked her to pet the nice little wild lion, the fear in her eyes was unmistakable.

And Claire had to admit that small talk was not Elle’s forte with several of her mothers book club members asking if English was her second language or if she was a bit special, or both. But Claire found it annoyingly endearing.

Then there was the incident. Before her and Lyle had found Elle sun baking out the back and looking like a goddess, she had known that she had started to care about Elle’s feelings, and that was infuriating enough. But the heat she felt spread through her body when she found Elle lounging and covered in a layer of lotion making her skin shimmer and glow was devastating…and confusing.

She had always gone through the motions with the boys she had been with; moaning at appropriate intervals and making sure she faked a climax. But just seeing, Elle glistening in the sun made her body react in a way that it never had when she was in the throws of ‘passion’ with the boys in her life.

The sly smirk that crossed her lips and the sparkle in her eye as she winked at the two of them and shrugged before closing her eyes again, made her snap back to reality. And the reality was that Lyle was also staring open mouthed at the naked girl in front of them, and Claire was pissed. Pissed that she wanted Elle, and more pissed that Lyle did too.

Grabbing his arm and mumbling obscenities Claire dragged the slack jawed teen in the house, but he wriggled free and ran to his room, undoubtedly to get a better vantage point.

Shaking her head slightly, Claire brought herself back to reality as she realized she was done cleaning up the dinner dishes. She walked upstairs to Elle’s empty room and her heart fluttered softly. Walking at a brisk pace she made her way out the door and looked around, “Elle?” she called out cautiously.

When there was no reply she sighed, but she spotted a glimmer up on the road to her left so she made her way over, and as she got closer she saw it was a shoe….Elle’s shoe. Puzzled she picked it up and called the older girls name again, when silence greeted her she kept walking and sure enough she found another shoe further up. Following the clothing trail, whilst fighting an internal battle over whether or not she wanted to find more of Elle’s clothing strewn on the floor movement on the swing set at the park across the road captured her attention.

As she got closer she finally saw that it was Elle. She had her eyes closed and a blissful smile on her face as she propelled herself up and down, swinging freely and looking like…a girl. Not a menace, just a carefree girl. Claire was unsure how to proceed, and wasn’t sure if she wanted to intrude on this moment, but her feet seemed to have a mind of their own as the made their way closer to the older girl whose hair was flowing freely in the breeze.

Elle obviously saw the movement or heard her clumsy fumbling steps because she stopped her movements and clutched at the sand with her bare feet, willing the swing to stop. Claire halted softly, not knowing what to say and suddenly feeling foolish for following her out here.

Elle tilted her head to the side and stared at the girl through narrowed eyes, “What do you want?”, Claire shuffled uncomfortably. ‘I want you’, her mind screamed but she shook away the thought with a violent start and Elle let a smile play across her lips, “You are so odd, little one”.

Claire nodded in agreement and slowly moved to the second swing and let herself fall in to it softly. She took a moment to gather her thoughts, and her breathe and she finally looked at Elle, to find the blonde still staring at her, obviously having no idea about the normal eye contact etiquette because Claire pulled her gaze away, with a flush. “I actually came to…I wanted to….I thought that we should...”. Elle sighed, “Look Claire if you are going to give me lip about not being welcome in your house so don’t have to worry, I have already got the message. But I don’t have anywhere else to go”.

Claire bit her lip and sighed, “That’s not what I wanted to say”. Elle shrugged as she started to play with the sand at her feet, making circles softly and looking like a vision against the glittering night sky.

“I actually wanted to say that I’m done…”, Elle’s face flashed in hurt and embarrassment and Claire fought the urge to reach out to her, “No, I didn’t mean done with you. I meant I’m done shutting you out and making your life harder than it has to be. You are a part of my life now and I am just going to have to get over the past, as hard as that may be.” She met the older girls’ eyes once again, and caught the brilliant smile forming on her lips, “You mean we’re going to be friends?”.

Claire held up her hands, “Whoa, I just said I am going to try not to hate you, I think you are jumping the gun a little bit here Elle.” Elle shrugged, “Well you not hating me is good its less one sided then the rest of my friendships already!”. Suddenly Elle grabbed her hand and took off towards the house, “Come on pom-pom we can paint each others nails and have pillow fights, that’s what friends do right?”. Claire was glad it was too dark for Elle to see the blush that covered her features.