(no subject)

[ladyfirestarter]

It's the same hallway as the last time he came through. The drawings have changed; one of them is a careful pencil sketch of two hands in repose, fingers halfway overlapping.

Charlie stands aside to let him pass, studying him carefully as he crosses the threshold.

Comments

[ladyfirestarter]

(peace safe comfort)

Charlie's drawn her legs up to curl in the armchair, and she's watching him very closely. Him, and the kids.

(home)

[walk_ins]

"Go with the wind," Zillah agrees softly. "Whirl and return."

[thisfatefulhour]

(the winds with their swiftness along the path)

"As God is my witness," he murmurs, but doesn't seem inclined to finish the quote.

"I didn't mean to bring him in here." He glances between Zillah and Avi, and down at his hands. "I'm not sure I realized he'd . . . stuck with me."

[walk_ins]

"A fiend, if fiends speak truth --"

Her eyes narrow. "Afraid, aggressive, and American."

[thisfatefulhour]

That startles a not-very-amused laugh out of him.

"Precisely." He brushes his hair out of his eyes. "But I haven't seen him since then. Or heard him."

[ladyfirestarter]

Charlie's leaning forward a little now.

"Who, Charles?"

[thisfatefulhour]

He glances over at her, blue eyes shadowed.

"He called himself Sylar. He -- he sounded like almost no one I've ever heard before. And he was very . . ."

He frowns, searching for the right word. "Perceptive."

[ladyfirestarter]

"But not sympathetic."

[thisfatefulhour]

Swallowing,

(who hunts you, Charles?)

he looks away.

"No."

[ladyfirestarter]

Charlie's nodding.

Zillah's nodding too, and Avi bites his lower lip and brings his arms up around himself as though cold.

Perceptive, but not sympathetic; they know -- they all know -- what that's like.

[thisfatefulhour]

"You could say it set me back," he murmurs, mostly to himself.

Then his head comes up, turning towards Avi; he looks distressed, part his and part a reflection of the boy's.

[walk_ins]

"No," Zillah says impatiently. "It was no fault of thine."

And then, softer: "Forgetting if, remember yes."

[thisfatefulhour]

Shaking his head -- "How children are apt to forget to remember--"

[walk_ins]

"Only a few," she says, stubbornly.

[thisfatefulhour]

"Yes," he agrees, still looking at Avi.

[walk_ins]

Avi looks from him to Zillah; his glance flicks to Charlie, and then to the apparently empty air, and then down.

"Won't find him here," he says softly. "Safe."

[thisfatefulhour]

Charles' glance echoes his -- Zillah, then Charlie -- then up, through the swirling dust specks, and out to someplace else.

(peace safe quiet)

"Okay."

okay, echoes the good-mind, and Charles smiles again, just a little.