fracturedtime (fracturedtime) wrote in parabolical, @ 2009-01-18 04:58:00 |
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Entry tags: | charlie andrews, hiro nakamura (future), peter petrelli (future) |
WHO: Hiro Nakamura (future), Peter Petrelli (future), & eventually, Charlie Andrews
WHAT: Saving Charlie v.2.0
WHERE: The Hyperion
WHEN: January 17th
RATING: PG
STATUS: Log; COMPLETE
There had been more than one night in the last month that Hiro had ended up leaving the training room in shambles after hours of taking out feelings that he couldn't otherwise express on the dummies used for sparring practice. Anger, grief, frustration, resentment all came pouring out in a torrent of thrusts and parries that often left parts of the dummies littering the floor instead of intact on the stands like they were meant to be. He'd replaced the dummies each time he'd destroyed them, but as it went, such hours spent did very little to actually solve the problems that were swimming in his mind. He was still as angry, as grief-stricken, and as frustrated as he had been when all of this had started. Yet he persisted in the occupation, and this night found him in the same place that he had been most nights since mid-December.
Takezo Kensei's sword was settled solidly in his grip. Five years had given him more than enough time to learn all of the intricate details about the balance and handling of the blade and had allowed him the opportunity to become as skilled with the blade as he'd have imagined that Kensei would have been. But there was only much that one could really do against a stationary target. Even a moron who didn't have any idea how to wield a sword could take down a dummy on a stick.
Somewhere in the last month, if not longer, a breach had been growing between Peter and his best friend. A man that had shared experiences with him that neither one could bear to speak of, a man that had saved his life countless times. The chasm was more than upsetting - it's existence was staggering. It was wrong not to have that bond with Hiro, and the more Peter tried to think of how to heal it, the more he had ended up avoiding it. Avoiding Hiro.
He couldn't anymore. He missed his friend.
It had always been easy to hide his presence from Hiro. It took a bit more effort with him than others, since Hiro had become quite attuned to Peter's tactics, but it was far from impossible. He watched the master and his blade, and considered much the same thing the warrior was thinking: anyone could take down a dummy on a stick.
So, all at once, the dummy shifted, throwing up a hand with a metal pole for a 'blade' in defense and blocking Hiro's strike. It would take some concentration to get the dummy to move just right for a fair battle, but at least it would be more exciting than just beating an immobile foe.
Most people would have had an immediate shock reaction to an inanimate object suddenly jumping to its own defense, but in the years that Hiro and Peter had spent working to make sure that anyone like themselves were safe from the government, he had seen quite a few things that had, in the end, canceled out that "I'm crazy" second guessing reaction. If you second guessed yourself, you ended up dead.
So the only thing that Hiro did when the dummy "came to life" was readjust his stance to compensate for the new situation that he'd found himself in. This was no longer a passive verses aggressive strategy. It was a back and forth give and go. And Hiro had every intention of being the one giving.
He wasn't going to lose to a sack of straw.
A metal pole was a far cry from a katana, but a telekinetic puppet wasn't exactly a seasoned warrior, either. The dummy position in a traditional fighting stance, a beginners opening stance. It was easier to control the dummy with simple moves, but simple moves wouldn't beat Hiro.
So a complex feign and lunge followed, a heartbeat after the stance had settled, far sooner than an attack should have come.
To Hiro, these moves were the type of thing that he might have entertained when he was still young, crude and yet effective against people who weren't prepared to defend against them. Hiro, however, was, his blade angling across his body to block the lunge, knocking the dummy backwards and putting some space between them. Even if the dummy was only pulling beginner moves, it was better than a static target. Hiro could have easily ended this.
But where was the fun in that?
It was just a game, meant to be entertaining, not something that Peter honestly wanted to give a chance to hurt Hiro. He had enough trouble doing that on his own; attempting it with a puppet of straw would be next to impossible. He kept it going a while longer, giving feigns and lunges, a few parries, but the dummy's limited movement capabilities made it difficult for the puppet to dodge several of Hiro's blows.
Until the dummy stopped, dropped the pole, and out from the padded and stitched area that indicated the dummy's mouth came several bits of straw that flickered in unison, giving Hiro an effective straw raspberry.
For the first time in as many days, Hiro actually laughed, bright and sincere, as he lifted his sword and sheathed it, bowing for a moment to the dummy in a display of a fight well fought before looking around him slowly. Peter had to be here somewhere, but that blasted invisibility power always made it so hard to be sure exactly where, even if Hiro had spent quite a long time learning how to recognize the signs of working with an invisible man. One of the many things that Bennet had actually taken a long and agonizing time to make sure it was drilled into their heads.
"Real mature, Peter," Hiro said, a hint of amusement in his voice. "Are we going to play hide and seek next? Because I think you have several rather unfair advantages when it comes to that game."
Peter released the invisibility, letting himself laugh aloud now that he had been called out. "I couldn't help a little improvisation there at the end," he said. "And no. I'm never playing hide and seek with you again. You may ignore what you did with those paint cans. I won't."
Still, he was grinning. Seeing the smile on Hiro's face was wonderful. He hoped that he could help it stay there. He hoped the plan he'd been considering could actually work.
"That was just my own brand of improvisation," Hiro said, chuckling to himself at the memory. It was one of the more pleasant ones in among all of the mess, when they had actually had a moment to turn training into goofing around. "Besides, I had to find some way to get the upperhand, and you got it all out of your hair eventually. No harm, no foul," He said, stepping over and clapping Peter on the shoulder.
"So. Here for a reason, or did you just decide that you missed my pretty face?" Hiro asked, only half teasing. It had been quite awhile since they had actually managed to run across each other. What with everything that had been going on, Charlie disappearing, and their disagreements over how to handle the whole Gabriel situation, things had been strained close to a point that they had been after Peter had told Hiro that he was staying in Vegas with Niki. Close, but not quite that bad yet.
Peter shrugged lightly. "Can't it be both?" After a momentary hesitation, Peter took another step, closing in on his friend, and then reached one arm to hug Hiro. "I have an idea," he said, holding on so Hiro couldn't back away from him. His voice was soft, not to hide it from anyone else, but because he worried that saying it too loud might disrupt the plan. "And you probably won't like it. But you need to hear it."
He waited again, shutting his eyes and holding onto Hiro. Peter counted to ten, silently, and then said the words that would cause the reaction he was waiting for.
"I want to bring Charlie back."
Hiro's internal reaction was one that was difficult to describe in the simplest terms. Happiness, sadness, grief, surprise, confusion, and anger all mixed into one incomprehensible mess that tightened his expression into something judgmental and annoyed as he stared at Peter. Why would he even bring that up? Hiro thought he had taught Peter enough about the workings of the space-time continuum to avoid having these sort of conversations, but it seemed like he would have to say it all again as much as even thinking about it pained him.
"As much as I would love to, Peter, I also enjoy reality intact. Reality enjoys reality intact. It isn't going to allow us to do things that will create, oh, I don't know, huge fucking rifts."
Peter shook his head. "Listen for a moment, Hiro. Just... bear with me a moment and listen." He relaxed his grip once he was sure Hiro wasn't about to run off, and took a deep breath. "She was brought here. Here, before she died. So she was out of the loop. Outside of our realities, because she was in this one."
He clenched his jaw for a moment, remembering how he'd felt when Charlie had gone. What they all had gone through. "If she never left here, there's no rift. Then all she'd do is move forward in time."
If she never left here. If. If. If. "But she did, Peter. She did leave here. Or did you forget?" Hiro asked, a slight bark in his voice, his eyes sliding closed as he took several deep breaths in order to calm himself. He couldn't just have a gut reaction to this. He had to actually think about it. There was too much emotion in the situation for him to be objective. As much as he wanted to, he really, really wanted to, he needed to put those urges aside. He needed to put the anger aside as well as the happiness because both would lead to the same sort of disaster even if in different ways.
"I want to, Peter. I want to, but I don't see... Do you mean we stop her before she leaves?"
Peter nodded. "We find her, here, before she gets called back or leaves or however it happens. We find her first. And bring her back here." Peter worried at his lower lip. "It's not going to be easy. To be honest, it's going to be hard, and it's going to be painful. We shouldn't be in that time, and this world doesn't like it when things are out of sequence." He hurried on, hoping that Hiro wouldn't think too hard about why Peter would know that. "But it's the only way I can work it out. We bring her here, to this time. And she's still here."
"That..." Hiro stalled, as all of the possible complications turned in his head until...he realized that there were none. The way this place worked, it seemed to be able to pick people out of their times at will and drop them back into them without effecting the timestream whatsoever. Them bringing her here wouldn't upset anything. No unbalance, no loop, no rifts. It would just delay her return to her own time that much longer. Of course.... Hiro's countance suddenly sank from the hopeful glow that it had taken on before looking over at Peter.
"What if it just takes here again once we've got her here?"
That was the question Peter had been hoping to avoid. It was the one that he couldn't answer with any certainty, just with the usual grit and determination he usually carried. "I don't know why they get sent back. I don't know who decides it. But I'm not going to stand by and just let it happen. No one ever sees anyone leave. They just... vanish. And I know you won't let her go anywhere."
He put his hand on his friend's shoulder, and squeezed. "But we won't know unless we try."
Even if it only gave Hiro the chance to say goodbye.
And if they didn't, Hiro would regret it for the rest of his life, or at least, for however long he was still here. He wasn't about to just allow this opportunity to slip through his fingers, to turn his back on his because it might end badly. There was also the chance that it could work out for the best, and that... That they would get the chance that they deserved. "We won't," Hiro echoed as he looked over at Peter before nodding slowly, a very hopeful smile crossing his face.
"And there's no reason that we shouldn't."
Peter grinned. It was a good smile, one that was clearly pleased that Hiro wanted to take this chance, and glad that he had thought of something to try and help his friend. "We're gonna have to be careful, going back. Since..." He stopped, and snickered. "Never mind. You're the one who taught me the rules. But we should be quick. It's not going to be very pleasant for either of us."
"At least we've got a good gauge of when to end up there," Hiro said, clapping a hand on Peter's back. "That way, we can be quick about it. Almost an hour before Nathan's post about Charlie disappearing, somewhere in the kitchens." Hiro could still remember every horrible detail about that post. Even if he hadn't replied to it much after realizing what it meant, the details were burned into his brain from when he'd thought he'd lost her again.
Peter nodded. He took a deep breath, and then held out his hand to Hiro.
"Are you ready?"
He didn't need to say more than that. They both knew the risks as well as the potential benefits. Them against fate. Not an unfamiliar equation.
"More than," Hiro said as he took Peter's hand. The odds were stacked against them like they had always been, but they had beaten the odds more than a few times. He could only hope that this wouldn't be any different than then. Glancing over at his best friend, Hiro offered him an encouraging smile before nodding and focusing his power in a way that he hadn't in several months, aiming to transport them through time and not just space.
Peter shut his own eyes in anticipation of the teleport. Even though he was prepared for it, the full-bodied tingle as they slid through time was uncomfortable. Though not so much as the feeling as though he'd left his stomach back in the future. Along with half of his brain. He had to admire Hiro's ability to keep his concentration in order to get them through. But Hiro had always been the stronger teleporter. It made sense for Hiro to be the one to lead them here, since it was always harder to leave your native time to jaunt along to another.
The discomfort had only grown when Peter felt solid tile under his feet again. He kept his eyes shut a minute longer, rubbing his temples to try and ease the headache forming.
The solid ground underneath his feet was a relief as Hiro's head had began to swim, his eyes opening as he took a sharp breath, trying to ground himself in more than just a physical sense. "You weren't kidding," Hiro said quietly, shaking his head to try and clear the ringing that had formed in his ears. Luckily, he had been able to stave off a headache for now. But they still had to get back. "Do we hide or just wait?" Hiro asked, glancing over at Peter.
The question was answered for both of them when there was a click of heeled shoes on the tiles, and then a familiar, Texan-accented voice spoke. "Now what in the hill are you two doin' here? I hope ya'll weren't tryin' to make a new batch of coffee. I got dibs, an' if Nathan's gonna get those briefs filed anytime this year, I need one hell of a cup of coffee to keep me on it."
Peter forced his eyes open, and went still at the sight of her. This was what they had planned, this was the goal of the whole trip, but to actually see her again felt close to a miracle.
Charlie raised her eyebrows at Peter's stunned stare, but then patted his cheek gently. "You, Mr. Married Man, ought to be resting. Your wife only just got you back, and I'm sure she plans on keepin' you to herself for a bit longer."
With a slight turn, Charlie lifted herself onto her toes, and gave Hiro a kiss on the cheek. "And no more distractions, you. I've got work to be doin'."
"Just one more," Hiro said, unable to keep his voice from cracking like it did as he wrapped his arms around her waist and pressed a kiss to her forehead before throwing a glance over her shoulder at Peter, motioning his eyes to the side to signal Peter to come forward. He knew that Charlie wouldn't allow him to keep her like this too long if she really had things that needed to be done, so they had to ball together and jump forward as quickly as they could manage.
"And you can forgive me later," Hiro said as he tightened his arms around her, prepared to jump as soon as Peter was with them.
Charlie leaned against him when Hiro put his arms around her. The break in his voice made her frown, and she furrowed her brow a bit, tilting her head up at him. "Something wrong, hon?"
Peter had caught the look from Hiro, however, and stepped in, taking hold of both Hiro and Charlie. Hiro had taken the brunt of the effort in bringing them here. Now it was his turn. "Charlie?" he said, taking a deep breath.
Charlie's brow furrowed a bit deeper, clearly confused at how the two of them were acting. "Yeah?"
Peter tightened his grip on the pair of them. "Hold on." He latched onto that spot in the space-time continuum that he and Hiro had just departed from, and pulled the three of them back to it.
By all appearances, it would seem that they hadn't moved at all as the kitchen floor of the Hyperion settled beneath their feet. But the headache that was clearly pounding in Hiro's temples now and the intense crush that had been exerted on his body from their return that had left him gasping for breath were more than enough evidence to him that they were back. His arms still woven around Charlie's waist, his cheek leaning against hers, Hiro breathed slowly in and out in order to try and clear the dizziness that had settled on his shoulders before cracking on eye open.
"Did we do it?" Hiro croaked over at Peter, fear spiking in his chest that Charlie would disappear against in a second now that they'd gotten her here. He didn't care right now if they wanted her or not. If they were going to try it, they were taking him, too.
Charlie was tense, and just a touch frightened by the discomfort and nerves she could feel coming off of the two men holding onto her. And even though she was still in the kitchen, the light was different, the sounds different. There was a flare of pressure in her head, and Charlie squezed her eyes shut.
At the same moment, Peter flinched, also raising his hand to his temple. For an instant, barely a fraction of an instant, he seemed to flicker. He hadn't moved, but he had. His expression was different, his features lit in victory, and a wide grin on his lips. He looked back at Hiro, and nodded. "We did it, my friend. We did it."
Charlie opened her eyes then as well, any look of discomfort gone now, replaced by confusion and a hefty dose of the sort of determination that lesser men had fallen in the face of. "Hiro Nakamura," she said, "you tell me right now what it is you've gone and done."
At which point, Peter began to laugh. "She's all yours," he said to Hiro. And added silently, for his friend's benefit, No one's going to take her again. Not anytime soon.
"Welcome to January?" Hiro suggested quietly, a sheepish smile on his face as he looked down at Charlie, his eyes soft and willing her not to hurt him too much as he lifted one of his hands from where it was resting on her waist to touch her cheek as he leaned forward and kissed her, a hesitance in the action that came from still wondering whether she was going to disappear despite Peter's reassurance. "I couldn't lose you again," He whispered as he pulled back from the kiss. "I just couldn't."
Go and tell Sarah and Nathan, Hiro told Peter, his attention still focused on Charlie. Tell them they can have her to fuss over in an hour or two.
Charlie stared at him while Peter made his escape. Stared, and tolerated the kiss, as she was reeling just a bit from his words. It felt like her veins were struck with icewater for a moment, and she looked back up at him. The anger was gone, replaced with confusion, concern, and just a hint of fear. "Hiro? Did I..." She didn't know how to finish the question. She didn't know if she even wanted an answer. So instead, she wrapped her arms around his neck and held on tightly.
"You won't lose me," she said, pouring all of herself into the words. "Not ever, Hiro. I love you."