for philosophy_20: infinity (with four_too_long)

[heroslayer]

The wind from this height was nothing short of frigid, but he supposed that was nothing surprising. The weather in Colorado was oftentimes fickle, particularly where winters were concerned, and the air here had long since cleared of any smog that might have held warmth to the city. Couple that with the fact that lightning had struck here years back, burning down a fair part of it - this building seemed to be the only thing with any height, still standing - and well. What remained of Denver was all too willing to hold a chill.

Sylar, however, seemed nothing short of unconcerned.

It didn't matter. His skin would heal itself - was healing itself - from the wind burn, and there was no way he could die of hypothermia or anything along those lines. Not anymore. Not for years. Not since Adam had offered him his gift, decades ago.

At the time it had been everything he'd ever wanted, his fear of death forever banished. He wouldn't have to lust after the cheerleader and her power from afar, because he wasn't allowed to take it. He'd never have to worry about any injury, which was something that was a distinct possibility, from fixing the power in New York to the wild dogs that had come with that first spring. He'd never have to grow old and die. He was immortal. Eternal. Infinite. Forever younger than thirty and loving every second of it.

And he'd been so high on power at the time that he hadn't seen the one hitch in his plan. His attachment to Mohinder.

It had taken him years to notice, really. He'd been so blind that he'd ignored the fact that the geneticist had taken to wearing glasses when he read or the gray hairs that had started appearing in his hair. He hadn't noticed, still saw him as the man he'd met in Virginia Beach all those years ago, until Suresh had gotten sick. And by then it was far, far too late. Mohinder had fallen apart in his arms, succumbing to old age, and he'd come to the city in the wake of his love's death to try and find a way to end his own life.

So far, it hadn't been going very well. All he'd managed to do was throw himself off of a building, this building, three times. He'd broken every bone in his body, every time. And while he knew how to work his ability far better than Adam did, so much so that he could turn it on and off at will - usually when he wanted to keep the marks the Indian left on him after they slept together - his body revolted every time he hit pavement. It was like putting too much weight on wet rice paper. He sustained a mortal wound, even when the ability was off, and it snapped back on to ensure his continued survival. It was turning out to be more curse than gift.

He sighed at the thought, breath caught in frigid air for a moment, before shuffling towards the edge of the roof. Did he really want to throw himself off the building again? The pain wasn't doing much for him, not taking the edge off the ache in his chest in the least, and he clearly wasn't going to die, so why bother? Why bother.

Another sigh, and instead of throwing himself off the roof a fourth time, he settled down on the ledge, feet dangling down over the remains of the city. He'd stay here awhile and think. About what, he didn't know, but that was what he had done when upset, once upon a time.

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[four-too-long.livejournal.com]

The words had not long been out of Sylar’s mouth before Adam had closed the gap between them, lips warm and hopeful against the other’s cold, almost stinging touch. To say he had been waiting for this moment for a while may have been an understatement. It had been many years they had developed their relationship, acquaintance to alliance to friends, and at that point it remained for times longer than lifespans. But Adam waited, he could be patient.

He had loved others in the past, looked back on them, trying to hold on to the fond memories rather than the sour ones. But they weren’t forever, they held no promise of being around the next day, or the day after that. Peter was as forever as they were, but he never could understand. Peter could never relate, even in painful times, there was an air of naivete surrounding him that he could not shake off. Sylar already knew what it was like, to lose and find and lose again, to be lost so utterly without someone’s guidance. Adam no longer needed to follow. Now he leads.

How much time had passed, the blond had lost track, preoccupied in giving Sylar the heat he possessed. It was awkward footing, leaning over to kiss Sylar, one that he realized he would lose, if they did not move soon. Not entirely too concerned with that, but rather more with Sylar’s reaction, Adam finally pulled away, just barely, breath puffing out faintly across the other’s face.

[heroslayer]

Sylar had been surprised, when Adam had leaned to kiss him. He should have expected it, he knew, for between what the other man had asked of him and his own need to connect, all the clues had been there, but still. It didn't change facts. And as such, he sat entirely too straight for a moment, breath drawn through his nose, sharply, not bothering to kiss back.

The surprise was quick to pass, however, and then he was kissing back.

He was more delicate than he had ever been with Mohinder, almost hesitant. Not that he didn't want this - the connection, the warmth - more he had gotten used to having his things fall apart in his hands. Breaking like china dolls, no matter how careful he was. He knew that Adam wouldn't crumble to dust as surely as everything else in his life would, could still hear him ticking to confirm this, but he couldn't help it.

It didn't stop him from looking almost disappointed when Adam pulled away, though.

[four-too-long.livejournal.com]

He had been concerned for a moment, Sylar unresponsive and straightening, until the dark haired man had reciprocated, scarcely touching him at all. One didn’t need to be a mind reader to tell what he was thinking, his action had made that clear enough. Sylar—Gabriel didn’t want to be left behind by the world. It had all moved on without him, due to Adam’s gift, fractured into pieces and shattering into even smaller fragments, too small to be put back properly. Things would never be the same, Adam knew this for a long time, but only now had the other finally noticed. Only when his last connection to his old life was gone.

“I won’t break.” Adam murmured against Gabriel’s lips, his hand that had wrapped itself around his friend’s squeezed just slightly to emphasize his words. “You don’t have to be alone.”

He moved his hand from the other immortal’s jaw to behind his neck, and began playing with the very tips of hair that lay there. Using that small gesture to drag him gently downward for another kiss, Adam tilted his head and parted his own lips to encourage Gabriel further.

[heroslayer]

That seemed to be all the reassurance Sylar needed. Fisting his hand in the fabric of Adam's shirt, he pulled the other man close hard, their chests coming together jarringly. His lips were sudden hard on his, wanting and needing, desperate and angry.

Why hadn't he told him it was going to be like this? Why hadn't he warned him that everything he loved, he'd have to leave behind? Could he fix it? Make the cold that had fenced in his heart go away? Was this plan all along? He didn't know. And as he traced his teeth roughly over Adam's lower lip, he decided that right now, he didn't care.

[four-too-long.livejournal.com]

Apparently his words had done their work in convincing Gabriel, he thought as a gasp escaped him for an instant when hit with the swift tug, bringing them together. The mood swing was sudden, although not completely surprising, Adam knowing the other to be prone to them. Accustomed to wild actions just as much as delicate ones, the immortal meshed against Gabriel’s lips, attempting to match the other in fervor.

If the teeth on his lip was an indication of anything, through a quick decision, Adam opened up to them. He figured Sylar would want dominance in this. As did he, but if this would guarantee Sylar’s stay, then this would be but a small sacrifice in return for what he would gain in return. Someone to spend eternity with.

[heroslayer]

Briefly, Sylar considered throwing the two of them off the building, just like this. Death, albeit temporary, in a mess of arms and legs and lips. For a moment, it seemed like such a good idea (payment for Adam doing this to him, letting him take his ability, knowing what it would mean), but he thought better of it.

Adam wouldn't break, true, but he still felt. He'd feel Sylar throwing the two of them off the building more than just physically, and then what? Would the other immortal consider that a betrayal of trust? Would he decide that he just simply wasn't worth his time, if he did something like that, and leave him behind? He didn't know, and he really didn't want to find out.

So, instead of trying to murder them both, he pushed his tongue into Adam's mouth, surprisingly gentle when compared to the fury of his lips. And, curiously, he set to work tracing the ridges along the roof of his mouth.

[four-too-long.livejournal.com]

When he grazed a hand through hair dark enough to be mistaken for black, Adam was not surprised much at the familiar feel of dried blood now frozen to the other’s skull. When one throws themself off a building, their appearance tends to be the least of their worries. He ignored the blood and continued to brush through his hair with his fingernails, making a small sound when another tongue met with his.

Even with eyes closed, Adam managed to pick up Gabriel’s hand that still lay in the snow, and positioned it on his hip, then taking his own hand, and mirroring the gesture on Gabriel’s hip.

From there, he pulled the other immortal man closer to him, and in the slowest of movements, began drifting away from the ledge, hoping to bring the other along with him. The further away from the edge, the better for the both of them. That small bit of concrete now meant something symbolic, it was the beginning of an endless cycle of dying, reviving, and repeating. Distance would put a stop to the cycle, but Adam would put an end to it.

[heroslayer]

Sylar let him lead, either not noticing or not caring for the moment that they were in motion. Just so long as he had something (someone) warm to stay close to. Just so long as he could continue to kiss him, drawing life from him to fill the hole in his heart with each passing second.

Eventually, however, as they swayed away from the ledge, nearly dancing, he either came to his senses or curoisity got the better of him, and as such, he pulled away. He didn't stray too far, though, fingers not on his hip still curled in his shirt, lips still ghosting his, as if he was trying to catch his breath and make his own, and the vague distance would help.

"Where are we going," he mumbled against his mouth.

[four-too-long.livejournal.com]

“Backwards. Just over there,” Adam replied with no sarcasm intended, eyes flickering over Sylar’s expression, and let it his explanation end with just that in favor of tugging Gabriel back onto his lips.

He continued dragging the other along with him, until his back was finally against the outer wall of the small room built solely for the purpose of sheltering the roof access stairwell. Far enough away for now, and although they should go inside, out of the cold, and somewhat more solid than what they were dealing with now - a frozen, likely deteriorating wall – but Adam wanted this without any further distractions. The longer you leave someone alone in their thoughts, the more doubt can cloud their minds. He didn’t want there to be any doubt or regret in this.

[heroslayer]

Sylar seemed content enough with this answer (or maybe he just didn't care), as well as the fact that Adam's mouth was on his again. And, with a sigh, he gave himself to the kiss, returning it steadily but not violently as he had before. It seemed his passions had burned out again, but at least he wasn't kissing back as though the other immortal was going to fall apart in his arms, anymore. Whatever Adam was doing to fill the gap in his heart was, apparently, working.

"We should go inside," the killer offered, when he finally pulled away. And then, as if this was news to him, "It's snowing."

[four-too-long.livejournal.com]

“So it is.” Adam replied, briefly raising his eyes to the sky, as if the already landing pieces of ice weren’t evidence enough. But Gabriel had already pulled away - that vague sense of yearning whenever he lost the heat of another with him, on him, beneath him, kicked in - and so the decision was already made. The blond immortal nodded, and placed a hand on the other’s shoulder lightly, almost as if he hadn’t intended to do it at all, before moving only a few feet to the door that lead down another floor.

[heroslayer]

Sylar shoved his hands in his pockets, making a face when he found they were filled with half-melted snow. He supposed it wasn't something he could have avoided, considering how he'd had to play contortionist to pull himself back together after each and every fall. The ice had just snuck in, and dead more than alive, he simply hadn't had the body heat to melt it.

He turned out his pockets, snow falling to meet its fellows on the ground in sick, wet thumps, and tried not to think of how he was fairly sure he'd made the same sound when he'd jumped. Tried and managed, mostly, as he followed Adam into the building without so much as a word.

And, where realization of just how freezing he was had been a dull one, when they'd stood on the roof, he was so very aware of it now. Mostly, he figured, because it was warmer, down here. Not warm by in any sense of the word, since the heating had died decades ago, but warmer, away from the wind and the snow. He couldn't help but shiver.

[four-too-long.livejournal.com]

The room itself lacked anything particularly useful, clearly just another room built as an office for some corporation that no longer existed. Desks and chairs ravaged by nature and weather until the point where they were hardly recognizable, wood already decomposed, but even plastic starting to show signs of breaking down. Everything perished eventually. Nothing humanity could create by hand or machine would ever be eternal, even if it did outlive its creators.

But the room didn’t matter right now, only the individuals inside of it, Gabriel shaking enough Adam thought the other might collapse. “You probably aren’t doing yourself any favors by wearing a wet coat,” He commented, holding his eyes on Gabriel and watching him to see if he even had enough warmth for his breath to be visible in the surrounding frozen office.

[heroslayer]

"I think I have hypothermia," he pointed out, when it occurred to him that Adam's breath was staining the air, but his wasn't. That and, of course, the fact that he suddenly couldn't stop shivering, despite how heavy his limbs felt. "It's--I'm healing, but not fast enough."

Probably because of all the trauma from killing himself again and again and again. Or, maybe, as Adam had pointed out, because he was still wearing his coat, wet and cold and not helping.

He made a face, reaching up to peel it off sluggishly, only to drop it on a long abandoned chair a moment later. His clothing was still wet, but no where near as saturated as the coat had been, and even if that was making things worse? It wasn't as though he could simply strip--then the cold would bite at him, just as surely as the wet had been, a moment before.

[four-too-long.livejournal.com]

“You’re still conscious and thinking. It can’t be too severe.” Adam said while he took off his own overcoat, a lined sweater on underneath that. The removal of his own coat caused a brief shudder to run up his spine, but nothing in comparison to Gabriel’s own constant movements, the dark haired immortal being something of a priority at the moment to Adam. He stepped close enough to hold the relatively warm and dry overcoat to Gabriel, “But we can’t have it getting any worse.”

If Sylar was to go unconscious on their way back home, without any form of transportation, it would quickly become a lengthy journey Adam would rather not make. Not if he could keep the other awake long enough before his body shut down into a temporary sleep.

[heroslayer]

"Thank you," he mumbled, taking the coat from him.

Shrugging into it, he was amazingly grateful for an instant that he and Adam were relatively the same build. Mostly. The coat wouldn't quite close over his chest, when he pulled it close, trying to draw the lingering body heat it held into himself, but it was good enough. It was dry and warm, where he wasn't, and it was--hopefully--giving his body break enough from the cold to save him from death and rebirth from hypothermia.

He hadn't stopped shivering, though. Not just yet.

[four-too-long.livejournal.com]

He watched intently at Gabriel as he drew the coat on, and then continued to shudder. With that, Adam sighed very quietly. His coat was too small for Sylar, but it must have helped for at least a moment. Hopefully. If he hadn't underestimated the level of hypothermia Gabriel was undergoing. “You won’t get any warmer by just standing there. You need some sort of movement.”

Even if Gabriel didn’t know that already, it gave Adam the excuse of there being reasoning behind pulling himself closer to the other. Along with the second time he pushed his lips against Gabriel’s, not forceful, but certainly sudden.

[heroslayer]

As far as hypothermia went, Sylar didn't quite classify this as appropriate movement to cure it, but it didn't stop him from returning the kiss. Nor did it stop him from pressing his chest against Adam's, slowly--near deliberately--as he did. Adam was warm where he wasn't, after all, and he was suddenly desperate for some kind of physical connection--even more so than he had been on the room, when the frost around his heart had started cracking.

[four-too-long.livejournal.com]

He was almost surprised that Sylar didn’t question him for this, either time for that matter. Perhaps it was that his heart already warmed to Adam through friendship over the years, but either way, Adam wasn’t complaining. He grinned to himself as Gabriel responded a little more fervently than their previous kiss, returning the press of chests with equal push.

He raised his hands to Gabriel’s arms to grasp the fabric lightly, and began to move them in a slightly rhythmic pattern along the other. An appropriate cure for hypothermia was friction, which is exactly what Adam planned on.

[heroslayer]

He shifted a bit, twisting into his hands on his arms for heat as much as for contact in such a way that nearly broke the kiss. Somehow, however, he managed to hold onto it for a moment more, before pulling away willingly so that he could drop his head to Adam's shoulder--something he couldn't do with Mohinder, unless they'd been sitting. It was nice almost, if not for the comparison he'd been all but forced to make by his mind, and clearly it was doing wonders for him, as his breath was suddenly visible in the air. It was still a ghost of what it should have been, not as obvious as Adam's, but still. It was a start.

He sighed, eyes fluttering closed slowly, and wrapped his arms around the other immortal. Again, whether it was for warmth or attention, it was hard to tell, but considering he was holding him like a child with a favored stuffed animal? A guess or two could be ventured.

[four-too-long.livejournal.com]

Once the other’s head was on his shoulder, arms wrapped around him almost possessively, Adam laid a chaste kiss along the bit of Gabriel’s jaw that was still exposed to him. Part of him wished they could take this elsewhere, that Sylar had developed the ability of teleportation, and instantly, location wouldn’t be an issue… But there were still merely human in that aspect.

One arm remaining on Gabriel’s arm, the other dragged it’s way to take place on Sylar’s hip once again, fiddling with the fabrics that separated skin from skin. Adam’s own fingertips felt burning when he touched the comparison, if only his angel wasn’t so cold…

[heroslayer]

"You're warm," the killer pointed out, throat humming under the immortal's mouth. Not that this was news to either of them, but it still struck him as somewhat of a surprise, for some bizarre reason. And it only served to remind him of how cold he really was, in comparison. At least he'd stopped shivering, for the most part, but still.

"I've got a car. Downstairs." That would be warmer still with the heat on, even if he didn't particularly feel like moving. As was evidenced by the fact that, well, he didn't seem to be budging an inch.