InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Hell to the No"

Noah Gray (sonofanangel) wrote in colligo_threads,
@ 2009-05-16 23:27:00

Entry tags:

gabriel 'sylar' gray, noah gray

WHO: Noah Gray and Gabriel "Sylar" Gray [Nathan Petrelli]
WHAT: Noah finally gets to meet his "Uncle Nathan".
WHEN: Early morning
WHERE: The rooftop of Housing Building B.
RATING: TBD
STATUS: In Progress

Although his dad still hadn't showed up, Noah was settling into his new life at Colligo pretty easily. He was enjoying spending some one on one time with his Mom and, while Noah was smart enough to realize that there was something slightly off about his Mom, he was young enough that he didn't worry about it too much. Instead he just focused on the fact that he was getting to spend time with not only her, but also a few other family members he didn't get to see nearly often enough. Like his Grandmother and Uncle Peter.

Okay. So he hadn't actually seen his Uncle Peter yet. But he had spent time with his Grandma and she'd even given him a few things. Presents, of course, were one of the very best things ever as far as the four-year-old was concerned, and he immediately fell in love with the metallic slinky most of all. It was tricky trying to use it in a first floor apartment, though, so Noah had finally come up with a place that would let him see just how far his new toy would go.

The roof.

The idea came to him as he was brushing his teeth shortly after waking up. His Mommy was still asleep in her bed and Noah briefly considered waking her up before deciding he'd let her sleep. He'd be back soon enough - it couldn't take that long for the toy to go from the roof back to the first floor after all. So after slipping on some shoes and a light jacket to wear over his pajamas, he left their room and made his way to the elevator that offered rooftop access.

It was a relatively quick ride to the top, Noah grinning in excitement the entire way. As the doors slid open he padded silently out and, holding his toy tightly to his chest, glanced around for the door that led to the stairs that would take him all the way back down. He found it easily enough but he also spotted something else that made him take pause. Or, rather, someone else.

A man, standing close to the edge of the roof. Noah didn't think the man had noticed him yet and briefly considered just continuing on his way without disturbing him. Eventually curiosity won out, however, and he made his way closer. Pausing a few feet behind the man he studied the stranger's back for a long moment before finally asking in a soft, inquisitive tone, "Whatcha doing?"

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unsureidentity
2009-05-16 11:41 pm UTC (link)

Nathan had come up here early. He was pretty sure that it had still been dark when he had, but the sky had brightened on the same sight that he had had for the last hour and the same thoughts as well.

Should he jump or shouldn't he?

It had worked for Peter in a sense, but it had been different for Peter. He had had his big brother there to catch him, to make sure that he wasn't going to crash into the ground below and crack his skull open. Nathan didn't have anyone like that. Technically, he shouldn't need anyone like that, but with the way that his ability had been acting up, there was absolutely no way to tell whether that was still true or not.

In the end, he had hesitated on the thought for so long that the second that he finally took a step towards the edge of the ledge to drop off, a voice stopped him, causing him to turn his head and step away from the ledge, blinking at the child that was standing behind him.

"Just thinking," Nathan said finally after a brief stunned silence. Where'd the kid come from?

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sonofanangel
2009-05-16 11:51 pm UTC (link)

"Oh," Noah replied, glancing past the man to gauge how close he was to falling over before turning a solemn expression back to him. Rubbing at an eye with a tiny fist, he blinked rather owlishly before offering a small, hesitant smile.

"My Grandma gave me this," he announced, holding up the Slinky with both hands and offering the stranger a smile. "I'm gonna see how many stairs it can go down."

Giving a nod, he turned and took a few steps toward the door leading to the stairs before stopping. Noah glanced over his shoulder at the man and added softly, "You should be careful. You could fall an' you don't wanna get hurt 'cuz I don't think there's a doctor here nowhere." He paused before adding, "Though I think my Uncle is something like a doctor. He could probably make you better. But just to be safe you should still be careful, 'kay?"

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unsureidentity
2009-05-17 12:02 am UTC (link)

Nathan's expression softened almost immediately, a very slight smile replacing the stunned look. Nathan might not know where this kid came from, but he was a welcome distraction from the thoughts that were circling in his head. Even if he reminded Nathan that he missed his own boys so much more than he was willing to admit out loud. Glancing back over the edge of the building, Nathan stepped down, offering Noah a wider smile, "I'm not too worried about getting hurt. If it happens, my brother and my daughter will probably be on fixing it before I even have any idea what's going on," He said, chuckling as he stepped over to Noah and farther from the edge of the building and his thoughts about jumping to see if he could still fly.

"They fuss too much, if you ask me," Nathan said with a teasing smile before crouching down so that he was on the boy's level. "My name's Nathan. What's yours?"

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sonofanangel
2009-05-17 12:55 am UTC (link)

As the man stepped off the ledge, the little boy's lips turned downward into a mild frown. "But they wouldn't know you were hurt. They can't help if they don't know," he pointed out with as much logic as a four-year-old could muster. As the man came closer and introduced himself, however, the slight frown began to fade into an awed expression. He didn't snap out of it, either, until Nathan was crouching in front of him at eye level.

Noah blinked away his shock at that point, his brow furrowing a bit in mild confusion. "I'm Noah," he said slowly. "And I know who you are. You're my Uncle Nathan. I used to watch you when you were on TV but then Daddy'd change the channel cuz hearing what the President had to say wasn't something for little kids and I'd understand when I got bigger."

He gave a matter-of-fact nod before shifting a bit and toeing at the ground with the tip of his shoe. He gave Nathan a small, somewhat shy but nevertheless sweet smile as he added, "I never met you before now 'cuz you were so busy being President I guess but it's nice to meet you."

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unsureidentity
2009-05-17 01:04 am UTC (link)

His Uncle Nathan? And his Uncle was some sort of doctor. That had to be Peter with his nursing and EMT training, but... One, two. That was all of them. And he certainly didn't have any friends close enough to be called uncle. Matt, maybe, but wasn't the son that he had had named after him? Not that this kid looked anything like Matt at all. And President? Him? All right. Now he was really confused.

Despite the flurry of confusion in his head, Nathan mustered up a smile at the boy's awed expression before chuckling to himself. It was always amazing the sort of things that kids found staggering, but he supposed if he had an Uncle who was supposed to be President, he'd be staggered, too.

"It's nice to meet you, too, Noah. I don't see how I let so much time get away from me that I couldn't make room for family," Nathan said, even though he knew exactly how he could do that. It was just the same thing that he had done during the campaign when it came to Pete. He had an imagine to protect, and there were certain people that weren't part of that image that his PR directors would do anything to keep underwraps. "Course, I've never had the best priorities," He said before offering Noah a slight grin.

"Now. You said something about a Slinky? I haven't seen a good Slinky drop in years."

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sonofanangel
2009-05-17 01:23 am UTC (link)

"What's that word mean?" Noah asked almost instantly. "Pri-ori-taries? 'Cuz everybody used to just say you were busy when I used to ask," he answered honestly. Pausing briefly he amended, "Well, Daddy used to say that and Mommy used to say that. Grandma would just talk about something else and Uncle Peter would get this frown-y face like this." Doing his very best frowning!Peter face, he then gave a brilliant smile and held up the toy for Nathan to see as he nodded enthusiastically.

"That's why I came up here," he explained. "I'm on the bottom floor an' it's nice an' all but I can't really do much with it there so I thought if I came up here I'd have lots of stairs to use instead of just one or two." He looked at the Slinky with an excited expression before peering back up at Nathan.

"You wanna do it with me?" he asked shyly. Part of him expected the man to say no, of course. After all the President should have lots more important things to do than watch a Slinky go down stairs. So as a means of hoping to entice him, Noah added, "You can count lots better than me I bet so you can help me know how many stairs it goes down..."

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unsureidentity
2009-05-17 02:00 am UTC (link)

"Priorities are what you consider to be important," Nathan said, smiling at Noah. "If I was thinking that work was more important than family, I definitely didn't have my priorities in the right order. Family is definitely more important," He said before chuckling at Noah's explanations of his family's reactions to him being busy, the last one especially striking a chord as he smiled somewhat sadly. "Yeah. That sounds like Pete all right."

Noah's question provoked a wide smile from Nathan as he reached out and ruffled the kid's hair affectionately (the images that hit him were like a ton of bricks that he had to pick up off his chest and toss to the side), "I'd love to, kiddo. Though, I'm sure you can count just fine without my help."

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sonofanangel
2009-05-17 12:24 pm UTC (link)

When Nathan agreed to play with his Slinky with him, Noah's entire face erupted into an enormous smile. "Yay! This'll be fun!" he exclaimed happily. "But I'm really not so good with counting. I can count to this many-" He held up one hand with all five fingers spread and, hugging the Slinky to his chest with his forearm, did his best to hold up the other hand in the same manner. "-and I can count to a little more if I 'member to start back at my thumbs but I can't get much higher but Mommy says that's okay 'cuz I'm only four and most little kids can't count much higher and I still have a whole year before I start school anyway so I'll learn."

Pretty sure he'd repeated his mother's words well enough that it'd make sense to his uncle, Noah bounced a bit from foot to foot and glanced toward the door that led to the stairs. "C'mon!" he exclaimed as he looked back to Nathan. "I really wanna see how many it can go down 'fore I gotta go wake Mommy up." And with that he took off toward the door, naturally assuming that Nathan would follow.

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