heroslayer | for whack_a

The door whined in protest as it swung open, the sound sharp in the silence and more than enough to tear him from thoughts that were half-formed and half-Nathan Petrelli's. He looked up, wide-eyed, then winced, turning his head away from the light that flooded into the dark living room from the hallway. And belatedly, as he watched Erin's silhouette from the corners of his eyes, it occurred to him that he hadn't bothered to turn the lights on when the sun had started sinking below the rise of the buildings. Probably in his best interests, he figured, as the neighbors most likely knew when the apartment should and shouldn't be lit, but the fact that he hadn't even thought about it -- about the lights of leaving them off -- annoyed him more than words could say.

A frown pulled at the corners of his mouth, and slowly he turned his head back, watching her back as she twisted to drop her bag in its place. She sighed, and then she was turning to close the door, fingers fumbling for the light switch at her side, either unaware he was sitting just a few feet off or ignoring him, too desperate to get the light before the glow of the hallway vanished completely. Either way, however, somehow the fact that she hadn't immediately noticed him the second she'd come in grated at him further, and scowling full on now, he raised a hand to kill the power to the apartment just as she found the switch.

Not that it stopped her from flicking it on and off uselessly a handful of times.

Another wave of his hand -- at least with all that he had lost, he still retained his mastery of his abilities -- and the door shuddered closed. And in the sudden dark, he could hear her breath catch at the back of her throat, sudden fear needling at her. Now he had her attention, and he got to his feet quickly and quietly, moving off to her side. He would have gotten behind her, but in all the times he'd terrorized her, she'd apparently learned not to put her back to him and had pressed herself against the door the second it had closed.

His expression one-eightied so fast it was nearly comical; he couldn't help but grin at her reaction. "All grown up and still afraid of the dark."

She shifted a bit towards the sound of his voice, her fingers curling into fists at her side. "I thought you promised we'd stop this."

"After you fixed me," he answered, coolly. Silence followed as he moved around her in a wide arc, putting himself on her other side now, his grin becoming all but feral as she jumped when he spoke again. "It's a pretty common fear, you know. People just over-think things and just sort ofassume there's something in the dark, waiting for them. It's why the Blair Witch Project worked -- you never really saw what was out there in the woods. It's all sort of -- " He tapped the side of her head telekinetically, and again she started, frightened. " -- up here. The mind is our own worst enemy."

"In your case, doubly so," she ventured after she'd gotten her feet back under her, and those five words more or less killed whatever fun he'd been having with this.

Huffing out a sigh that was more resigned than annoyed now, he made a soft, accepting noise at the back of his throat and marched back to the chair he'd been sitting in when she'd entered. Like a small child, wrongfully scorned, he threw himself back into it, and with a gesture, the lights sprung to life suddenly, leaving them both blind for an instant.

She stood there for a moment, squinting at him, and then stiffly, she was moving towards the kitchen. A moment later, she appeared with a cup of juice, and she leaned in the doorway of the room watching him, still not wanting to get too close, despite his sudden defeat. That was another thing she'd learned, apparently -- his moods were subject to change, no matter how he looked at any given moment. Though when it seemed he wasn't going anywhere, she wandered further into the room, taking a seat on the far end of the couch.

"So, what are you afraid of?" she asked after another few minutes. "Besides the ... " She made vague gesture that somehow got the point across. Besides the obvious.

His first reaction was to lie and and tell her nothing; his second was to huff out a sigh of a laugh, the sound straddling hysterical and bitter and quiet as always. He went for the latter. "I wish I could remember."

"Oh."

Immediately, albeit marginally, she softened marginally. He'd talked about going out to kill someone a few nights back in an effort to get his footing; this, she figured, had been something along those lines. Fear rather than death for the sake of familiarity. And maybe, he thought idly, that's exactly what it had been, even if it had seemed reaction to being ignored rather than anything else just a few minutes ago. Maybe his heart was starting to remember the things that brought him comfort. Maybe he wasn't quite as lost as he thought he was, anymore.

Muse: Gabriel Gray (Sylar)
Fandom: Heroes
Word Count: 884
Note: Erin is