It Gets Better

They walked down the isle.

This isle had blue dresses. It was better than the last isle they had spent in hour in…the purple isle. Peter now knew that when Claire meant a little while, it actually meant all day. They had been at the store for three hours already, picking dresses, trying them on, but no luck yet on finding the ideal prom dress.

Claire was finally graduating from school, and prom was a few months away. So like any normal teenage girl, she wanted to have the perfect dress for that night, Peter understood that. What he didn’t understand though, was why she couldn’t have taken Heidi or even Angela to shop for dresses. They would have enjoyed looking for ‘the one’. They were girls, shopping came natural.

Yet, when Peter had suggested the very idea to Claire, she had been quick to toss it out. She stated that he and only he was the suitable person to accompany her to look for her prom dress. Peter had not known that having a niece, meant giving in to whatever Claire said. He had never had problems denying Monty and Simon something they wanted, but when it came to Claire, he just couldn’t do it.

Every time Claire smiled at Peter and asked him something, it weaken him. Only he knew why she had that affect on him, he wasn’t sure when would be the right time to tell her though. How could you explain to a seventeen year old that it was destiny that they meet? That they would be together until they were the last ones left alive?

It was getting harder for Peter to keep the information he knew to himself, especially now that prom was approaching for her. It would be time to tell her the truth, only he didn’t know how she’d take it. Many years ago, the blonde haired girl had that had met him outside his house on his prom night had told him that they would meet in the future, and had explained in detail the exact moment in which he would know it was time to tell her.

He sighed as she looked through the never ending isle of blue dresses, he was just waiting for her to get to the pink section, her dress would be pink, he knew that. He wasn’t allowed to tell her that it was pink, or pick out her dress for her, she had to do that on her own.

Peter yawned and took a dress from Claire’s hand that she was going to try on. For a second her hand lingered on his and she smiled at him bashfully. He could see that she was still shy over the kiss they had shared on his birthday, but it had been months since that, and he still couldn’t bring himself to even hug her.

Through Claire’s eyes though, he could see that she already yearned for more than just a simple light kiss. Knowing Claire, she wouldn’t ask him, she was reserved about the whole ordeal, even if she did want to sleep with him.

She had told him years ago, that he would have to be the one that made the move, and he had, he’d kissed her, but he couldn’t bring himself to purposely sleep with her. Even if it was destiny, she was still his niece, and he would always be her uncle. That was something that they were going to have to live with the rest of their lives, once they began to live in sin. Sometimes he asked himself if it was already sinful to know that ultimately he’d take her virginity away and she his. By knowing this information was he already condemned to hell?

Part of Peter cared, but that part was by far less significant than it should have been. The desire of that time to come upon him won over, and in the end all he wanted was for her to find the dress, the dress that would set things on course, and ensure their life together.

“So how did you spend your prom?” Claire’s inquisitive eyes looked at Peter, and dived into his own, searching for something to grab hold of and connect them even more.

Peter swallowed, he hadn’t been expecting that question. The only thing he thought of was moving his bangs out of his way and laughing nervously. Suddenly his mind was back ten years ago, when himself had been 17. The girl had strictly told him not to tell her until the right moment, they couldn’t change the course of action, he wasn’t allowed to deviate.

That’s when he saw it, the dress. It was hidden between two other short blue dresses on a rack. There was no harm in a mild suggestion he told himself. Plus, Peter didn’t know how much longer he could take shopping with Claire. He involuntarily moved forward and took the dress from the rack. It was a short metallic pink dress. It would come a few inches above Claire’s knee. It had no straps to confine her arms, and he remembered all too clearly how her skin would feel soft to his touch.

“That’s the one Peter, isn’t it beautiful?”

Her hand quickly went over to where he was holding the dress and took it from him, looking at it clearly. Peter saw as her hand caressed the dress, feeling the satin fabric over her fingertips. It was the material he himself had run his fingers over, he remembered his arms being around her waist. They had been sweaty and hot as he danced with a girl that seemed like an angel. The dress had been tight around her waist and chest, accentuating her breast, and lifting them up.

Peter cleared his throat and tried to sound normal, “Yes, it is”

There was no more looking after that. Claire tried it on, but didn’t let Peter see, he didn’t mind though, he had already seen her in that dress, even undressed her from it. The only thing that unnerved him now was that it was almost time, they had found the dress and she was going to get it, it was time to tell her about their past.

Claire stood at the counter leaning slightly against Peter as they waited for the salesgirl to run the credit card that Nathan had given her.

‘When we leave the store, I’ll tell her’ Peter mentally told himself. As he was handed the garment bag though, and they turned around to leave the store, fright overtook him. Every step that brought the closer to the doors made his heart fasten. Once they got through those two glass doors, he was going to have to tell her.

As Peter opened the door and felt the wind gust through him, it was as if it was a sign telling him that he could not alter fate.

“Do you want to get something to drink?” he asked, holding his breath.

It was possible that telling her the news, over some cold icy water would help ease his nerve. Besides, he began to realize that he was parched, and water was just what he needed before telling her the news she’d demanded to know all so long ago.

Claire gave him a quizzical look, and a half smile that told him she knew something was up, “Sure”

….

It was once they were both seated on uncomfortable wooden stools, overlooking the busy streets of Manhattan, that Peter new it was the moment. The way that her lips hugged her straw sucking up the refreshing water from the cup, it just all was coming together. He knew he had her attention, he knew that she was watching him, and he knew that she was waiting for something, maybe another kiss? Who knew, but only Peter knew what awaited for her.

He inhaled deeply one last time and brought his eyes up to hers, with a small smirk, “Claire, what did you think about the first time you saw me?” He knew he’d have to tell her, but didn’t want to jump in all at once, he would slowly ease the life changing news on her, yeah that’s exactly what he’d do.

Her brows furrowed and Peter could tell that she was confused by the randomness of the question at hand. Claire’s lips parted away from her straw and spread a wide smile, “I thought, I’d just contradicted myself by thinking an emo guy was hot”

Peter let out a tensed laugh, Claire always went on about how his hair was emo. Truth be told, he hadn’t even known what emo meant until she’d kindly explained it to him at a Sunday brunch, in the Petrelli mansion. He remembered she’d had to explain it a couple of times, because he really hadn’t grasped the meaning of it, but he did not what so ever think of himself as emo, especially at the age of 27.

“Claire…if I told you something., would you try and understand? I mean…would you try and believe me? Even if what I’m asking you to believe is-” at this point, Peter knew he was rambling on, and not making much sense, but he had to let her know that it was true, and he didn’t want to scare her away.

“Peter, I think everything’s believable now. Of course I’ll understand”

The words formed in his head, and he was ready to let them out, but his mouth wouldn’t open. When it came down to it, he was a coward now, nothing of what he’d been at, at the age of seventeen. He found it kind of funny how it reminded him of the song, seventeen was a very good year for him, good and bad.

Peter shook his head, knowing it must have looked crazy to Claire, but he told himself he couldn’t put it off any longer, this was the moment…

February 14, 1997

Being the little brother of Nathan Petrelli was huge, especially since Nathan had been pretty much a celebrity at his school ten years ago. The way that teachers raved about him annoyed Peter, there wasn’t anything really remarkable about him, but the way that he sucked up to his Parents. In truth, Nathan was the golden boy of the family.

Peter had known that going to the same high school as Nathan was going to have its drawbacks, which was why he’d repeatedly asked his parents to send him off to boarding school, anywhere, just not West Village Prep. Unfortunately for Peter, his parents hadn’t succumbed to his many ideas, and he had ultimately been sent to the school that was eagerly awaiting the presence of Nathan Petrelli’s younger brother.

The first day of school for Peter had been horrible, with all the questions and the way that all the professors had winked at him. It was as if being Nathan’s brother had giving him a VIP pass, to pass all his classes without really any effort. When it came down to it, it was all about who you knew and what family you came from. Which was why Peter had decided the first day after school, that he was going to defy all the expectations everyone had for him.

It was a horribly sunny Monday morning, a Monday morning like any other. There was nothing remarkable about it at all, just the fact that he had a hangover from the previous night. Simone Devauex had held a party at one of the apartments in a building that her parents owned. The Devauex’s were family friends, which had been the only reason why Peter had actually been invited. Simone was the most popular girl in school, and had it been for the fact that she was nice, Peter would have had a boring Sunday night.

Peter wore his old Ray-Ban sunglasses that his grandfather had given him from the sixties. They were suppose to be some type of vintage sunglasses that were suppose to be taken care of, but Peter didn’t’ fuss about that, he just used them for what they were for. He used them to cover the fact that yes again, he had a hangover, and didn’t really want to hear the complaints from his brother, the only one that could ever tell when Peter wasn’t exactly himself.

He gave a slight groan as his driver pulled up to his school, he only four months to go and he would be out from the prison. Peter fumbled trying to open the door, but as he was about to push, the driver opened it, only making him stumble as he got out. Again, he gave another moan, he hated Mondays.

“Sorry Mr. Petrelli”, the driver apologized profusely. Peter waved his hand back, motioning for him to leave, he didn’t have time to say it was ok or get mad. All Peter wanted was to get the school day over with, so he could go home and fall on his bed to sleep. Yet, eight hours in school was going to be excruciating, he could already start feeling the nausea making him want to throw up.

He walked into the entrance of his school, and found his way to his locker, through the overcrowded hallway of kids in their uniforms. All the voices around him weren’t helping the pounding that his head was feeling, and at that point he wished that he’d just slept in, and dealt with his mother instead of all the chattering.

While he put all his books in his locker, but his history textbook, Peter couldn’t help at get the feeling that he was being watched. It struck him, because he was Peter Petrelli, normally know one would have taken the time of day to look at him. He was the renowned bad boy of West Prep high, girls were warned about him. Not that he was that much into girls, he was into getting the hell out of that institution.

When he looked around, and didn’t see anyone particularly looking in his direction, he shook his head, which was a mistake, only nauseating him more. With a thud, he shut his locker, and turned to see Alex, one of his friends approaching. He gave him an acknowledging nod, and they began to walk to their history class.

“You go to Simone’s?” asked Alex, turning to wink at a girl as they walked down the hall. Peter took the opportunity to roll his eyes, under his sunglasses, at his friend’s flirtatious tendencies with any girl.

“Yeah. It was alright,” he mumbled, swaying his bangs away from the front of his forehead. It was the one attribute his whole family despised, his bangs, which was why he kept them. His mother would often pester about how they were getting ridiculously long, and made him look uncared for, but that just made him like them all the more.

As they turned the corner to walk into their class, Peter felt that nagging feeling again that he was being watched. He turned his head in all directions, but he couldn’t see anyone. It actually scared him that he couldn’t see anyone but felt like he was being watched. Peter swallowed, and walked into his class, taking his seat all the way to the back. He thought it was idiotic that they never used the heater, especially when his parents paid twelve thousand dollars a semester for his tuition. Had they known of the current state of the classrooms, they would have for sure complained, along with the rest of the parents.

Peter lay his head on his arms, and covered his face, history was his resting class. Their professor was seventy-five and thought Peter was the most productive student in class, even if he slept through it all. That wasn’t to say that he didn’t try his best in the rest of his classes, he did, he just didn’t have any enthusiasm for any of it.

But this class was another story, in this class, Peter could rest, he was sure of it. There weren’t ever any changes in the routine of their teacher. She would read from the textbook, and hand out a sheet, which Peter would finish in five minutes top, and resume his slumber.

Yet on this very Monday, there was something weird in the air, it was unsettling, and he couldn’t find himself drifting into his much needed sleep. It could have been the fact that it was valentine’s and hormones were racing, with lust between the whole school body, but that wasn’t the feeling that he was getting. It came as no surprise to him when a seat that had been empty the whole year, suddenly had been filled with a girl.

He slowly moved his eyes up her legs all the way until he met her face, and for a moment, Peter Petrelli was breath taken. It was only a instant though, because the next, he turned his head over and closed his eyes, completely ignoring the blonde to his right.

Inside his head though, her face played like a still shot. Gray-green eyes, luscious lips, a few freckles on her nose, and straight blonde hair that came slightly past her shoulders. Peter was certain that she was new, for he would have noticed her before, he would’ve definitely noticed her before.

When she poked at his back with a pencil, Peter turned, and gave her a bizarre look. He couldn’t for the love of god, figure out, why a girl he’d never spoken to before in his life, was poking his back. Especially a girl, that would soon be popular because of her good looks, and completely ignore him in the future.

“I’m Claire” her smile was even more stunning.
Claire. A name that would have previously gone unnoticed to him, now held a new significance. She sat there just staring at him, causing Peter to uncomfortably look around the classroom, hoping that she was talking to someone else, but him. But Claire’s eyes were only on him, and Peter sighed turning his head thinking it best to just ignore her. He didn’t need some blonde playing with him, especially on a Monday.

“Stop being an ass”

The fact that the blonde not only was addressing him but also now getting angry at him, made his head snap over to look at her. It was frightening to know that a girl he had never met before, was speaking to him as if they were old friends. He frowned a bit, and licked his lips, “Do I know you?”

Claire rested her elbow on her desk, and her head upon her hand, and gave Peter another smile, “Now you do”

Peter licked his lips again, he wasn’t use to being flirted with, especially not with a girl like Claire. His lip involuntarily twitched, and he let out a tiny smile, “Is today your first day?”

The blonde’s head nodded in response to him. Peter’s eyes drifted from her eyes to her jaw line, it was so accentuated, and sexy. And it only helped, that Claire seemed to know all of this and shined with confidence, as if she knew that he was already attracted to her in those few minutes that they had spoken to each other.

“I’m Pe-”

“You’re Peter Petrelli, I know” She reached over and moved his bangs out of his eyes, apparently not concerned for his personal boundaries. Peter could see that Claire was very comfortable touching him, and wondered what she really wanted, and if it was just a prank from Simone’s group. It was valentine’s and completely possible that they were trying to play games with Peter.

Peter moved away from her a little and swallowed, “How do you know my name?”

The bell rang for class to begin, and Claire scooted her seat back to its original spot, leaving Peter in insufferable questioning. All the while, he kept stealing looks at her, but at this point Claire was pointedly just looking in front of her and listening to their near-death professor talk about world war 2. On any other occasion Peter would have fallen asleep by now, having his odd futuristic dreams that he was use to having, but not on this day. This day Peter’s attention had been stolen by Claire, who he still didn’t know anything about, but felt like she knew him.

At some point during the class, Peter stole another look at Claire, who still had her full attention on their teacher. When he’d been staring at her for a few minutes, was when Peter took no notice that there was someone behind him. Claire turned to face him, and giggled, but he just gave a tense smile back. After a couple seconds though, he noticed that the whole class had turned to look at him.

Peter frowned, and turned his head to see that his old bifocal wearing teacher, was standing right behind him with a textbook ready to drop it on his head. Before his teacher had a chance to drop the textbook on him, he managed to get out of the way and fall onto the floor, making him look like a complete idiot in front of his classroom.

“Mr. Petrelli, can you inform the class what year Hitler’s reign fell?”

Fortunately, Peter was well educated on history enough to know the exact date on which Hitler had committed suicide. Yet, he swallowed and took his seat again, not daring to look at Claire. What would happen if he told the correct answer? Would he look like a nerd? Or just the opposite? On any other day Peter would have automatically responded with the right answer, but today was a different story.

“I don’t know”

The whole class laughed as their professor rolled her eyes at him, and picked up the textbook, walking back to the front of the class. Peter had once again, taken his seat and laid his head down, avoiding the looks of everyone around him, he didn’t care, he just wanted to get his rest, or try to at least.

“Mr. Petrelli, stay after class”

And inaudible groan escaped from Peter’s lips, and he sighed, he hated Mondays…

Later

After profusely apologizing to his history teacher, and promising to stay awake and pay attention in class, peter had finally left the classroom. He held his textbook loosely at his side, and put his sunglasses on his head letting his eyes finally adjust to the natural light. As he turned to start walking out on the hall though, he was surprised to see a certain blonde waiting on the other side of the hallway, clutching her textbook in her arms, and smiling.

Peter only looked at her momentarily, then shifted his gaze towards the end of the hall. The bathroom seemed to be the only place where he could escape from the stalkerish, yet beautiful blonde. She sped up, and started walking by his side, and at this point, Peter couldn’t ignore her any longer.

“I’m sorry, but is there something in particular that you need? Did Simone and Isaac send you? Is this some type of joke?”

At the mention of those names, was when Peter finally got another expression out of Claire rather than just amusement, she had a frown.

“Simone…Deveaux? And Isaac Mendez? They go here with you?” she asked him incredulously.

By the look on her face Peter could tell that she hadn’t been sent by either of them, she was just shocked to hear their names. So his next question was, how had she known his name? better yet, why had she been flirting with him?

“Yeah, they go here…do you know them?”

Claire quickly shook her head while looking straight ahead to the empty corridor, “No, Yo-I mean, my friend has told me a lot of stuff about them, but I didn’t know they went here”

There was just something about Claire that Peter couldn’t put his finger on, but she sure wasn’t normal. In fact, he was starting to wonder if Claire herself had any idea who she was really speaking to. Did she know she was committing social suicide by being seen with him? Probably not.

As peter took a step forward to push open the door to the bathroom, Claire somehow managed to get in front of him, blocking him from the entrance of the boys bathroom. This was the first time that Peter noticed any edginess to Claire, only for a moment though, and then regained her confidence and smiled, “Do you know what today is Peter?”

Of course he knew what day it was, it was the day that many of his peers used to have unprotected sex. Sex that would lead to secret abortions that would be done months later as prom inched closer. It was just the way things were done at West Village Prep. Valentine’s though, was also a day were people let loose out of their comfort zone, and lost the better half of themselves, making them prone to heartbreak. Yet, Peter knew better, he would not follow in the path of his peers and succumb to a lusty emotion he might be feeling on this very day for any girl.

His indecisiveness was really starting to bug him. One minute he wanted to turn around and run away from this girl he hardly knew, yet the next he wanted nothing more than to return the flirtatious looks she gave him. Peter prided himself with being smarter than the rest of the kids who walked around with the false mentality that you could find love at first sight.

“Yes I do know what day it is”, he countered, mirroring her intensity. He wanted to make her feel just as tense as she had made him. Looking into those gray-green eyes though, Peter could see that Claire was too confident to get uneasy that easily.

A smile spread on Claire’s face once more, and Peter knew too clearly where this was headed. Again he asked himself how a girl like Claire with lustrous plump lips and beautiful deep gray green eyes, would be even remotely interested in someone like him. She had to know that he was a nobody, that he was just Peter Petrelli.

“Well then Peter, I think we both have a problem at hand,” the worry in her voice was too obviously fake, and her frown just an act. One thing Peter could tell, was that Claire was not a good actress, or maybe she was, he really didn’t know.

“What would that problem be?”

Claire gave a slow, soft singular giggle, and trailed his tie down to the end of it, until her finger was pressed right against his bellybutton, “I believe we are both without a Valentine Peter, and that’s an awful thing to not have on this day.”

Peter looked down and took notice of her fingers. Just like the rest of her, her fingers were different from any other girl in the school. Simone and her followers all wore fake acrylic nails, they were popular, only meaning that they had to have them. Not Claire though, her nails were visibly her own, and well cared for. She had a light coat of pink clear nail polish, and that was all, it looked natural. Peter frowned, and scratched the back of his neck, he was trying to figure out when nails had become so attractive to him.

After a long sigh, he looked back up to face Claire biting her bottom lip, “How do you think we should do about that?” he found himself saying. It wasn’t an answer like him at all, in fact, none of which he was doing was normal. On any other day Peter would not have been standing in the middle of a hallway talking to a girl between classes with the possibility of being late to class. No, this Valentine Monday was a strange, strange day.

As all these thoughts and more surged through Peter’s mind, it was easy to see why when Claire’s lips touched his, he jerked. She was standing against the door of the boys bathroom, and his arm had somehow manages to get to the wall, putting them in a very casual position, a position that he had promised himself he’d never be in. Her lips felt just as soft as they looked, which didn’t help his resistance against her. Peter found himself at ease kissing a complete stranger he had just met in his history class.

He parted away from her a few seconds into the kiss and frowned, realization dawning upon him, “I have no idea who you are”

Claire let a small sigh escape her lips and she rolled her eyes, not in a way other girls at his school had rolled their eyes at him, but in a soft, gentle caring way that made no sense to him. The more thought he gave her though, the more he realized Claire didn’t make any sense at all.

“Yes you do. I’m Claire, and I’m your Valentine”

Present Day

They had just time traveled back the first time. Claire still hadn’t said a word to him, and he didn’t know whether that was a good thing or not. Her face was emotionless, as if just in thought. A deep thought that not even his mind reading could break through to read. Claire had finally met the young him for the first time, he was nervous trying to figure out what she thought, after so many years, he wanted to know what it was like for her that day, meeting him at his worst.

He let go of her hand as he brought them to a nice bench in central park. She sat down, surveying her school girl shoes that had been mandatory at West Village Prep. Claire didn’t look like that confident girl he had met on Valentine’s so many years ago, she looked scared, and overwhelmed. Peter hated himself for having to throw her into his messed up world, but she herself had asked him too.

“So…how did it go?” he cleared his throat, taking a seat next to her.

Claire turned her head to look at him, and made a completely saddened face. He could see that tears welled up in the rims of her eyes, as she fought not the let them out, “You’re horrible Peter, that’s not you at all”

The vulnerability that the saw in Claire broke him. Slowly, he embraced her in a hug, and she rested her head against his chest, letting his protective arms go around her, connecting her to him. Peter brought down his mouth to her ear and softly whispered, “I was like that before I met you Claire. You have to understand, I was a completely different Person, before you came along and saved me”

He could feel her shudder, and shake her head, “I don’t like that you, you were so impartial to anything I said. I had to basically throw myself at you Peter, its like you didn’t care about me at all”

His fingers moved a lock of hair away from Claire’s face, and she turned to look at him with her mournful face. It wasn’t fair to her that she had to put up with him in those years. Those days had been difficult for him, he had been figuring out he was the black sheep of the family, and had taken his bottled up emotions with anything and anyone around him. It was cruel that Claire had to be part of that.

“I wont be like that first day for long, I promise Claire, you’re going to change me. Without you…I don’t know who I would have come to be”

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