RP for witnessof_fate - Visiting a friend (S3 spoilerish)

[youngerpetrelli]

Peter was concerned about what Adam had told him about Mohinder's experiments, and also about the quickly dropped side comment about things the Company had obviously been working on in the past. From what he had seen in the future that research had to be stopped -- or at least carefully protected -- or things would go so very wrong.

But that wasn't the issue at the moment. Mohinder was a decent man, and he was struggling with something Peter had gained an all-too-intimate understanding of recently. This was the least he could do to help, keeping an eye on the man so he didn't hurt anyone if he lost control. Adam was right -- he was perfectly suited to do so, between his telepathy and empathy he could sense if Mohinder was starting to lose control, and with his strength, telekinesis, and ability to stop time, he could stop the man before anything terrible happened.

He figured that most of the time Mohinder would actually be working on research and that he'd have to keep himself entertained, so he packed some recent nursing articles he needed to read, and the novel he was in the middle of. He wrote a quick note to Adam ("I have my cell, in case you need me for anything. Love, Peter"), then on impulse stuffed his sketchbook and pencils into his messenger bag along with everything else. He checked to make sure his phone was charged, although he suspected he could do that himself these days, then decided it was time to go.

Not wanting to startle Mohinder and start the day off badly, he teleported to the door of the loft that had been Isaac's studio and was now Mohinder's lab, and knocked.

Comments

[capableof-both.livejournal.com]

Mohinder's headache had finally gone away from the day before, thanks to Sylar's massage and dark and quiet in the room all night. By the morning, he was mostly calm again, and had told Sylar he'd be all right, though he was hoping rather fervently Baileigh would stay with Sark for the day. She'd come to New York at his request, been a very good friend, and miserable here, he knew, but he really couldn't stand another day of singing and cleaning around everything, moving things and...

So when the knock came his head snapped up, confusion and wariness in his eyes. After Bridget's "visit" a few nights before, he was far more paranoid about the Company, and he wasn't expecting visitors. When he saw Peter on the other side, though, he relaxed, at least marginally, and opened the door, taking in the bag, eyebrows going up.

"Peter. This is unexpected..." And thank god Sylar had already left.

[youngerpetrelli]

He gave Mohinder a slight smile, although the sudden realization hit him that Adam hadn't actually told him what, if anything, they had said to Mohinder about him dropping by. And he, in typical fashion, had gone off full-speed-ahead without even thinking to ask...

"Sorry to drop by without calling first -- I probably should have." An apologetic smile, then, "Adam told me about... things."

ooc: head has decided to hate me. I'm going to take some pills and go take a nap, then will be back on. *hugs*

[capableof-both.livejournal.com]

"I see," Mohinder said, after a moment. Whether Sark or Sylar had informed the immortal of the situation hardly mattered.

"You've come to replace Baileigh then?" he asked with a slightly rueful smile as he stepped back to allow Peter to come inside. "To be honest, I'm more worried about her than I am myself at the moment."

[ooc: no worries. I was trying to get some writing done myself.]

[youngerpetrelli]

And that kind of answered that. One of these years he'd learn to think before acting.

"Yeah," he answered, stepping inside and looking around. It was the first time he'd been there since it was Isaac's loft, and the look was decidedly different. "He mentioned something was wrong with her -- do you think we should have someone check in on her? I can text Adam..."

[capableof-both.livejournal.com]

"I'm fairly certain Mr. Sark is with her. He picked her up last night," Mohinder told him, moving back into the lab, expecting Peter to follow. He'd asked for help, after all. That people were going above and beyond--and that he'd managed to kill and watch another kill since that held had come--just showed....something? Either they were concerned for the innocent, or perhaps he had friends.

The cynic in him suspected the former.

But with the news Sylar had given him a couple of nights before, he watched Peter with curious eyes, thoughts carefully guarded. "What has Adam told you?"

[youngerpetrelli]

"Ah -- that's good, then." He followed Mohinder into the lab, recognizing some of the equipment but totally unfamiliar with other items. He stopped and met Mohinder's gaze, then softly said, "He told me you'd experimented with Sylar's DNA and gave yourself an ability, but it wasn't going exactly as planned..."

[capableof-both.livejournal.com]

"What a very nice way of putting it," Mohinder murmured. "But...yes, I suppose..."

He shrugged slightly, dropping Peter's gaze. "Physically, it's beyond my wildest dreams. I'm still adjusting, of course, learning control, but, that I expected. That there would be a learning curve. I had watched all of you long enough to know that it would be difficult to control at first, whatever 'it' was..." He ran his fingers along the top of his computer idly. "What I did not expect was a ... psychological component, the rampant mood swings that seem to have come with it, the sometimes....blinding aggression."

[youngerpetrelli]

"Yeah, learning curve is a good term for it. A steep one..." he murmured, thinking of his earliest lessons with Claude. "I... understand what you mean about a psychological component of it, though. Unfortunately. I can't help wondering if it might be related to the original source of the ability..."

[capableof-both.livejournal.com]

"It shouldn't," Mohinder said almost sharply, head snapping up again, fixing his gaze back on Peter's with a sort of burning intensity. He wasn't going to let that theory get out, not even to be debated. Sylar was already blaming himself enough.

"How the abilities manifest has nothing to do with the source. None of my abilities are ones Sylar has." Well, the hearing, but even that was different. "An individual's blood chemistry, the unique blueprint in his own DNA is what determines what abilities manifest, not the enzymes in the formula itself. Whatever caused the instability it is either...my formula or something in how the ability manifested in me, because of me, and he...I believe I got the formula correct, so. This is me. Something in me."

[youngerpetrelli]

Startled, his eyes widened for an instant before he could get his reactions under control. A deep breath in, a slow breath out, and how could that be? Maybe it was different for him because he had taken the ability directly from Sylar, including all of its drawbacks...

But-- "I... I'm sorry. I didn't mean any offense, it's just that... I'm having some of my own issues recently." This really wasn't going the way he thought it would.

[capableof-both.livejournal.com]

Mohinder took a deep breath of his own, trying to stop the internal trembling that had started.

"No, I'm sorry," he said quietly. How to explain to him the guilt that he could feel dragging inside of Sylar? Not for his victims, not for his crimes, but for what he thought he'd done to Mohinder. For thinking he'd broken him, was ruining him, dragging him down. To tell Peter that, he'd have to explain so much else, and he just....could not allow Sylar to believe that. It wasn't true.

"What sort of issues?"

[youngerpetrelli]

"I... have Sylar's full ability now," he said, as if that explained it all. If Mohinder knew the killer as well as it seemed he did, there was a chance he wouldn't have to say more...

[capableof-both.livejournal.com]

Mohinder's eyes widened slightly at that, breath catching. "You have the hunger..."

[youngerpetrelli]

He nodded, tilting his head and looking up at Mohinder. "So, when I say I understand trying to handle mood swings and... aggression... I really kind of do."

[capableof-both.livejournal.com]

"It's not the same," Mohinder said, though not to lessen Peter's struggle. He'd felt Sylar's hunger, vicariously, and the flavor of it was different. He needed to absolve him of that. "But...yes. That same lack of control..."

[youngerpetrelli]

"It's... yeah." He sighed and shook his head. "I'm sorry -- I didn't mean to come over here and dump more stress on you..."

[capableof-both.livejournal.com]

"It's all right," Mohinder said with a bit of a wry smile. "Might I ask...when did it start? You've been around Sylar several times and yet never seemed to exhibit a grasp of his intuitive aptitude?"

[youngerpetrelli]

"I know -- I actually thought I had it before. It seemed to be easier for me to control abilities and figure them out, so I thought that was it. But apparently not. It's kind of complicated, but I got thrown into the future by... future me. And he sent me to get Sylar's ability so I'd know how to keep that future from happening."

A roll of his eyes and a crooked grin, then he muttered, "I'm so glad you don't think I'm crazy anymore -- at least, not like you did when I told you about Isaac."

[capableof-both.livejournal.com]

"Yes, well. We've both come a long way since that first meeting," Mohinder said with a slight smile. Then he seemed to find his work bench fascinating again.

"You saw Sylar in the future?" Probably not the most relevant point in Peter's story, but somehow that's what he fixated on. The idea of Sylar, in the future, and Peter had seen him. "How...was he?"

He was hardly going to start asking about...them, without admitting there was a them, but. Right.

[youngerpetrelli]

He grinned at that and nodded. "That's a bit of an understatement..."

God -- what could he say about that? The guilt still weighed so heavily on him, but he was working to change that future; working to make sure it never happened. Maybe there was a chance... "He was well." Frighteningly domestic and happy, even, until he'd shown up to ruin it all...

[capableof-both.livejournal.com]

Mohinder managed a small smile, though Peter's lack of commentary on the situation still...struck him as worrisome on a few levels. They were both trying so hard.

"That's...good." A telling statement? Honestly, he was beyond caring. Peter was dating Adam Monroe, after all. He had no room to judge.

[youngerpetrelli]

They had to stop dancing around this -- it was absurd... "I know about you two, Mohinder," he said softly. "I am capable of putting two and two together. Most of the time, at least."

[capableof-both.livejournal.com]

Mohinder still braced himself for the vitriol, the horror and the "how could yous?" Matt...probably had to have figured it out by now, but wouldn't acknowledge it, couldn't, and Mohinder wondered how you explained to someone who was at least nominally a friend that you were in love with someone who had killed them once. And was, incidentally, their brother.

"You found out in the future?" he asked. "Or are we just that obvious?"

[youngerpetrelli]

He could feel the tension in the man, understood where it was coming from. Part of him did want to yell at him and ask him how he could be with the man. After everything Sylar had done, how could Mohinder accept him so readily? But he'd be the worst kind of hypocrite if he did that, considering what Adam had planned to do, with his assistance, even.

Instead, he raised an eyebrow, vague amusement curving his lips. "You're not that obvious, but I did suspect before I saw that future. I am an empath and a telepath, you know..."

[capableof-both.livejournal.com]

"Readily" probably would have been an inaccurate term, if Peter had used it. They'd walked a long and hard road to get to where they were, and it was still rocky some days. But Mohinder just met the wry smile with one of his own.

"I've gotten fairly good at avoiding the telepathy living with Matt. None of you speak Tamil." None, not both. Inadvertent, but he couldn't help forgetting most didn't know Sylar had acquired that one as well.

[youngerpetrelli]

"That's the advantage of the other part of it -- even if I don't understand the thoughts, the emotions behind them often help me figure it out," he explained. "And at other times, they actually make it easier to get into someone's head -- not that I've been prying in yours -- I really try not to."

[capableof-both.livejournal.com]

Mohinder gave him a slight smile, still uncertain of Peter's actual reaction and trying to gauge it, but even with the cues his senses gave him, he hadn't fully learned to use them to read people like he should.

"So, you know."

[youngerpetrelli]

He nodded and quietly answered, "I know." Then he gave Mohinder a slight smile in return and said, "Part of me wonders how you can be with him, and another part of me understands it very, very well..."

[capableof-both.livejournal.com]

Mohinder glanced down, breaking his gaze. "He..." He shrugged. "Before I knew who he was, we traveled together, as friends. I got to know another side of him, and as much as I tried to tell myself that he was lying that whole time...just using me, I never really convinced myself he was, I suppose."

[youngerpetrelli]

"Oh. Wow... I had no idea," he said softly. But he still couldn't condemn Mohinder for being with Sylar. The heart was rarely rational, and his own love life was a prime example.

[capableof-both.livejournal.com]

"I don't think anyone does," Mohinder said with a slight shrug. It hardly had been something he spoke about, as foolish as it had made him feel, to have trusted Sylar so blindly, but he couldn't deny that's where the seeds were planted.

[youngerpetrelli]

He nodded, still understanding so intimately. His own trust in Adam, his own eager compliance, even after regaining all of his memories. Adam had used him and lied to him, but he had still been able to forgive the man while refusing to forgive others who had done exactly the same.

"I'm sure you don't believe me, but I truly do know what you mean; how you feel. Although in my own case, I didn't realize I was being used until it was nearly too late..." And just why was he telling the man this when it wasn't his business, anyway? Empathy and understanding aside, Mohinder really didn't need to know. They'd come a long way from their trip to Isaac's loft, and he didn't need to prove anything to the scientist any more.

[capableof-both.livejournal.com]

Mohinder gave him a curious look, just a questioning tilt of his head that asked more than he would in words, necessarily. "I only know what Matt told me," he said quietly, without any judgment--look at him, with Sylar, being babysat for the people he'd killed, who was he to judge. "About what happened in Texas, I mean. I will admit that I was surprised when I heard about you and Adam...now. I know Sylar's fond of him..." Which didn't really lend itself to Peter being fond at all, and confusion flickered in Mohinder's eyes. He'd barely met the immortal, and found him a mass of contradictions, a puzzle he couldn't work out.