seekevolution | Summer

That touched Matt more than he knew to express, so he decided to joke about it. "Well, you pretty much marked your territory anyway." It was teasing, but there was a softness behind it that showed pretty clearly in how he let go of Mohinder's hand to place his on his lower back.

He too watched the children get to know each other, quite a distance away.

Molly looked at Simon for a moment, not sure if it was all that okay to say that she knew. She'd never forget watching Nathan fly his brother away and the way the sky lit up. Peter had been kind to her and she knew both Matt and Mohinder liked him, and she also knew he could do all kinds of things, but saying that she knew because she'd seen didn't seem right when she'd seen the older brother collapse on TV.

"Yeah", she said, and left it at that for a tiny moment, unconsciously picking up on some of Matt's mannerisms in the choice of word. She picked up a rock and threw it out across the water. It only skipped once. She tried to find a flatter one. "My dad froze things. He's dead, too."

It was the straightforward show of both comfort and understanding children possessed in a much simpler fashion than adults would ever hope to remember.

"Sucks," Simon offered, looking down and not quite watching her select her stones. "Did you like him? Like, was he nice?" Simon had a lot of questions, but Molly didn't seem to be too talkative about it. It wasn't too long ago, after all. For Simon, it was even less. At least he still had a family. Monty was a pain but... His mom was still here. Grandmother too.

Molly just had those guys they were living with. Uncle Peter said that they were her new dads. He didn't get how that worked unless they were gay. Sometimes the bigger kids would call him that too but he didn't care. They were stupid.

And now he didn't have to see them again. Mom was going to let them go to school up here. Suited him just fine since Molly might go too.

"Uh... Hey, wanna see a trick?" Simon turned around until he spotted a sparrow in a twig by the boat house. "Hold out your finger okay?" A few moments passed and that little bird glided from the branch to Molly's finger and chirped at her.

Molly nodded, kicking at the ground with a frown at the lack of good skipping stones. It was a way to avoid looking too upset, too. She'd accepted that her parents were gone. That didn't mean she didn't miss them sometimes.

"He was really nice. And funny. Sometimes he made it snow over the dinner table for us."

Having located another flat stone, she threw it across the water. It skipped better this time and she felt satisfied enough, so she went up to where Simon had gotten a little bit ahead of her.

She was met by a seemingly weird request, but she just looked at him curiously and then did as he said. When the bird fluttered over she looked amazed, eyes widening and a thrilled little smile surfacing.

"Can I pet it?" At the confirmation, she ran a careful finger along the soft feathers, looking at Simon again. "Is this your power? It's so cool!"

"Yeah. I mean, can't make em do what they don't want, but the birds like you. They think you're pretty." Oh, his mother would say he was just like his father. His grandmother would agree with a knowing smile he never really liked. She knew all sorts of things he didn't really want her to but she gave him nice stuff too. And she was really nice to Monty... Like he was her favorite. Well. He didn't get too upset over it. Monty was still a little kid.

Simon wasn't exactly a repressed child, but he'd been brought up to always be neat and always be on his best behavior. He owned too many suits for a person his age. They had too much money, his dad was too ambitious and hadn't really been around. Figuring out that he could talk to animals and have them sometimes listen to him had been a real boon.

He never felt lonely then.

The bird started to sing as Molly stroked it and a little rabbit hopped out from the bushes as Simon led her around back. "But you can't tell my mom, okay? Peter says she might be upset and Monty would cry like a baby."

Molly giggled, looking both excited and a little shy. "They do? You talk to them?"

Surprised by the birdsong, she held out her other finger to the bird so it'd change hands, so that she could hold it a little more comfortably while looking entranced with the bird and impressed by Simon.

When she spotted the rabbit she lit up even more, the "Aw!" loud and clear. She'd always wanted a pet and found rabbits adorable, and while she wouldn't consider picking an animal out of its environment, she was already a little bit in love with the one that had emerged from the bushes and was watching them with a twitching nose and upright ears.

She looked to Simon with a more serious expression though, when he wanted her promise.

"I won't tell. Do you think they're scared? Of what you can do?"

A few other creatures joined them on their walk. Another rabbit, smaller still, a few more birds and one very fat bumblebee. No one else was that interested, though Simon extended the invitation to everyone that could hear him. 'Speaking' to animals wasn't quite right. He could just understand them, but not telepathically. It was more like this silent scent of a conversation, where they could just understand each other. He had no way of explaining it. Peter understood though.

Peter could do the same thing now that Simon showed him how. It was easier that way. Peter just...didn't really find joy in it like Simon did. He generally just flew around or teleported here or there. Some powers he liked more than others.

"I guess. I mean, Monty would be scared. And mom. People that don't have abilities don't like us," he said. Yes. He knew about Molly. Or knew that she had an ability. Peter whispered it in his ear and told him to cheer up when the SUV came up the driveway that morning.

"That's not true", Molly said, immediately. "Mohinder likes us. He saved me."

She knew he liked them because he told her all the time that he loved her, and she could tell that he loved Matt too, even though Matt was scary sometimes without really realizing it. So she also understood why it would be easy to be scared. It was easy to be scared when you had an ability too since things kept happening, so maybe it was the same kind of fear. A big one that things would happen that might hurt you.

She took great care to not step in the way of any of the animals and after a moment the bird on her finger took flight to fly alongside them with the other birds, and Molly turned to walk backwards for a moment to look at all the animals.

"There were some people who wanted him to help me get my power back, but I don't think he would have tried so hard if he didn't like me."

Actually, Simon knew exactly why. He just wasn't sure how to say it. He'd overheard sometimes when his dad was speaking and he'd learned at a very young age just to keep his mouth shut. Mohinder might like her, but he might have liked the money too. And the people wanted to give her her power back to use her. In politics, it was always about who owed who a favor. Simon didn't want to be sour. He was already a little too serious and he didn't cry a lot when his dad died. He was trying to be the man now.

Even if Uncle Peter kinda took that over. That was fine. Listening to his mom cry was terrible. Listening to Monty cry made him want to ask ravens to carry his baby brother off. Man, it sucked having a little brother.

"I guess. Well that's really nice then. It's cool to have a new family any way. And I'm sure Mohinder's really nice. But he doesn't understand." Simon, attempting to be cool, was sort of being cold. He waved his hands and the animals all went back to what they had been doing. He offered his hand to Molly instead, an attempt to win her back. "Wanna see the coolest thing?"

Molly was different even if she didn't know it. She'd never been surrounded by obligations or neglect. She'd been loved and hugged and joked with and played with, and that had scarred her really badly when it had been taken away, but then she'd gotten it back, just with different people. She was for the most part at least still a girl where Simon was trying to be grown up.

She could see that from the way he acted, but she didn't understand why. She frowned at him. She didn't like that, that Mohinder might not understand because he wasn't like them, because even if he didn't he could still be there for her and love her, couldn't he? She didn't see the problem but it was obvious to Simon that one existed.

With the way he made the animals scatter it seemed oddly ominous. Molly wasn't scared, but she was observant.

Still, she accepted his hand, even if slightly cautiously. "Okay."

Simon was all smiles as he half dragged her a long down the path away from the boathouse until they came to a clearing to the left. It was quiet there, the big house no longer in sight, and the woods were almost silent save for the chirp or two of birds and insects.

The clearing, however, was not empty. A large tree rose in the center with a two story treehouse nestled in it's branches. "My dad and grandpop built this for Uncle Peter. Monty's too afraid of it. But there's a rope ladder and a slide in the back!"

As ominous as Simon might seem, he was just trying to be nice here.

"It's kind of empty. It was too cold to be up in there until two weeks ago and Uncle Peter keeps saying he's going to help fix part of the roof but he's busy." Excuses. Adults like to give them. "Do you like to climb?"

... okay, forget ominous, at least for the moment - Molly was officially won over. Her smile returned as she tilted her head back to look up at the tree and the structure there and she let go of Simon to come up to the tree trunk and touch it, looking for foot holds. There were the usual pieces of planks nailed in at the base to help you get started before you got the branches and when she found them and Simon's question reached her at the same time, that smile grew into a grin.

"Yeah!" she said with a tone that could have just as easily sad duh. "Everybody likes to climb! Come on!"

Molly hadn't actually been too much of a tree climber back home because there hadn't been a ton of opportunity, but she was so excited to actually play a normal game again, do something normal just for fun. And she was curious and liked to explore, so why not a tree house? It looked really big, and like a lot of fun. She still thought talking to animals was cooler, but the tree house was a close second.

It was dark before the two got back, which had Mohinder a little bit on edge. Time spent just with Matt after a week long trek to the north in slow, leisurely fashion with an eleven-nearly-twelve year old hadn't given them a lot of time for closeness. Sex wasn't what Mohinder wanted most out of the relationship, just a little affection here or there along the way was so much better than that.

Well, maybe about equal. Sex was still amazing.

Molly was a little dirty when she came tumbling in with Simon and Monty wriggled down from the chair by Peter where he'd been playing one of his handheld games to join the other two. Molly's cheeks were red, her hair a mess and she looked exhilarated. That was enough to calm down Mohinder's immediate worry.

"No dinner until there are no dirty hands!" Angela admonished and Heidi went with the kids to clean them up while Angela actually smiled. "It's good to see the children getting along. If only Simon would include Monty a little more."

"When did Nathan ever include me?" Peter smirked. "It'll be all right, ma. Just let them have their fun."

Sex was pretty damn amazing, but that'd have to wait until later. There sure was a subtle promise about it in the way they touched and remained close to each other, but for the most part after that little discussion they stayed downstairs in a much easier mood, getting to know the Petrellis a bit more. Peter had given them a more thorough tour and there'd been some more small talk with Heidi, and Matt again reminded himself that he'd really need to apologise to Angela. Preferably tonight.

But it didn't seem right to do while dinner was cooked and they all helped pitching in in small ways.

When the kids ran in Matt had a moment of complete happiness, because Molly looked like just that, a kid. It warmed his heart.

"Hey, so what were you kids up to out there?" Matt asked lightly once the kids in question were back and they were all seated and salad was being passed around.

Molly and Simon shared a look before Molly answered, but she did, excitedly. "Simon showed me the tree house! It's really big."

"And still with a broken roof", Heidi said, giving Peter a look that was both teasing and halfway reprimanding.

"What? Roofs don't fix themselves?" Peter asked and Monty cackled uproariously. Mohinder himself couldn't help but grin. Simon...was more subdued. He smiled, but he seemed more of a quiet boy. That suited Molly just fine. During dinner, Mohinder noticed him leaning over from time to time to whisper in the girl's ear too and while he could have easily asked Matt to find out what it was about, even kids needed their privacy.

There couldn't be anything too harmful here and he just needed to let go a little before he truly was labeled the 'unfun parent.'

Thanking Angela for her vegetarian selections and making sure Molly had all of her food before dessert came out of the kitchen by their private chef, Mohinder settled back against the old, fine wood of the chair and ate as slowly as possible.

When was the last time they'd had a home cooked meal?

This. Was. Bliss.

Despite frequent outbursts of the kids, or Peter, the atmosphere was light and airy. And Mohinder couldn't have been more thankful.

Maine was beautiful. This plot of land was just isolated enough to make it seem like they were the only people alive. He and Matt had been living separate but very crowded lives and it was good just to reconnect, stress free.

After dessert, Heidi told Simon to take his brother and Molly to the play room and the kids left with Uncle Peter, a video game fantastic, trailing behind. "Such a good boy, but you'd think he was still fourteen," Angela said with a sigh.

"I don't", Matt said without really reflecting, and when eyes turned to him as a result, he almost clarified in a slightly reluctant way. "I wouldn't have lasted in New York without him. If he's acting like a teenager, I don't know. I'd say that's a pretty good sign after all of that."

It was said respectfully, but with a familiar dark undertone. Heidi gave Matt a long look, and then nodded.

"He wasn't the same for a while. He spent a lot of time ... out."

"Flying, dear, you can say it", Angela said, clearly sparing Nathan a thought.

Matt ran a hand over his neck, not sure about the solemn quality of the discussion, but knew it couldn't be avoided given all that had happened to all of them. He shared a brief look with Mohinder for no real reason other than the fact that Mohinder had quickly become one of the few stable things in his life, and he liked grounding himself by him.

"I should check on the children," Heidi said immediately and stood. Just that fact alone ought to have made her more comfortable around the thought of her husband and her brother-in-law with abilities but she was still nervous. Thus far, her two boys didn't show any sign at all of abilities and for that, she was grateful. Molly seemed like a lovely girl, but Heidi knew her story and it worried her too. Not that Molly would have a poor effect on her children, exactly, but simply that she wouldn't fit in with well bred and proper gentlemen. Heidi wasn't pretentious. She wasn't pompous. She was just being a mother.

That left Mohinder with Angela and Matt until he realised that Matt might want to have a conversation. He took his leave to walk around the footpaths leading to the empty stable. It no longer smelled of horses but the structure was beautiful. What he could see of it at least. There were lights all over the place and Mohinder could imagine what summers here might have been like for Peter.

It all felt magical.

Hopefully Matt would come out and join him soon, once he and Angela had finished having their say in things. That, however, wasn't going over so well. Angela did tell Matt that he didn't need to apologize, but made it perfectly clear that he was only there for Molly's and her youngest's sakes.

Matt was both grateful and scared when Mohinder left, but oh well - might as well get it over with. It felt like so long ago now that he'd caused the poor woman a nosebleed by making her do something against her will and although he knew she'd probably slap him for thinking of her in those terms, he still felt sorry. He felt bad. He felt justified still considering everything that had gone down, but he could have handled the situation differently.

"Maybe you don't need to hear it, but I need to say it, okay?" he found himself protesting all too early in the conversation for his liking. "I'm sorry about what I did to you. I shouldn't have. I get that now."

He hadn't really realized up until then how violating it really could be, to hear people's thoughts. To manipulate them. The worst part was really how easy it was, and he never wanted it to become as easy as it had been for his dad.

All that hopefully came through, even if Angela wasn't impressed with him. He told her that she didn't need to like him, that was fine, and that he'd steer clear of her if she preferred that, but that he hoped they'd at least manage to look past what had happened while they were both living under the same roof.

If she considered that or not wasn't clear. She gave him a raised brow and asked quite simply, "Was that all, Parkman?" and Matt nodded, said "I guess it is" and then he left.

Well, he'd tried. He felt better for it. And a bit tired.

It took him a while but he found Mohinder eventually and wasted no time in coming up to him to rest his chin on his shoulder and breath out a sigh as he wound his arms around his partner. He wasn't quite yet paying attention to how pretty the setting was, but other than a softly murmured "Hi", he was fairly quiet.

In a way, he was expecting Mohinder to ask what he'd talked to Angela about, and felt a little spooked by the notion. Because Mohinder didn't know that he'd made her do something. They hadn't really talked too much about that aspect of what he could do. They hadn't really talked about the things Mohinder had seen him do, either.

Mohinder didn't know at all what Matt had done to her, just that she'd been part of the investigation he'd been leading and that she obviously was angry at him. Honestly, Mohinder thought that the issue had been about Nathan's death. Matt had been right there with him when it happened. Mohinder had been called in after. Or perhaps something about New York? He honestly didn't know and... And he trusted Matt to have his secrets.

"Hi," he replied happily once Matt was back and the faint sound of children reached them even out here over the backlit tree tops. God, he could spend eternity out here, basking away in this bliss.

Or, at least a little while longer. He'd get bored, he knew. He'd want to get his hands into something more interesting. He could never just sit around and do nothing. Lacing his fingers over Matt's larger hands, Mohinder leans back against him now. "Is everything all right?" He just wants to make sure. Animosity is never good to have with one's hosts.

Matt didn't like the feeling of conflict that rose up in him at the question. He found that he wanted to lie. It would have been easy to be dishonest about something like that, just a detail, really. And he had that sudden thought that he could make Mohinder believe him if he wanted, or just make him forget that he'd asked.

But it was exactly that thought that made him realize he had no choice but to be honest. Mohinder could help keep him away from all those ideas. And while he didn't like his own reasoning, it was true that Angela didn't matter that much to him, and he still didn't think he'd been entirely in the wrong about what had happened, but if he could have thought like that about Mohinder, who did matter, a whole lot more ...

So he withdrew from Mohinder after pressing another sigh into his shoulder. That was the 'no' that went unsaid, and he was quiet for a moment. Leaned against a wall.

"I did something to her", he offered reluctantly. Reluctantly both because he still thought it would be easier not to talk about. But that's only because he was scared of what Mohinder would think, same way he'd been scared enough to not tell him he could do these things at all until back after Odessa.

Something to her made Mohinder think 'immediate' though it was ridiculous. Matt could have caused her to forget about Nathan, or about his role in it, but he doubted Matt would go that far for something so seemingly minor. And still, he was nervous, nervous enough to swallow and tilt his head down and wait for the verdict.

"What sort of something did you do?"

Each potential answer was dismissed because Mohinder knew in his heart, in his mind that no. Matt could never hurt someone purposefully. And if he had to, it would be because he had no choice at all. Or someone was being hurt.

Sort of like what he'd done to that man in New York when he nearly dragged Mohinder off, nothing but evil in his eyes.

Hesitant, he waited for the answer and as Matt explained it, there was no fear or disgust in Mohinder's eyes. Perhaps a little sadness, but not at the act. Because Matt was forced into the act. "You needed to do it," Mohinder said solemnly. "You had to in order to protect people. Some things are morally gray for a reason."

Suddenly, Matt was pacing again. He was agitated. It wasn't a good enough answer, because he'd not actually discussed part of the problem. He shook his head. "She said I was my father", he said. "That if I took that secret from her, I was as good as him. Or as bad as him, I guess. And what if I am?"

He paused, giving Mohinder that haunted, hollowed out look. He didn't look much like the person Mohinder had found in New York anymore. He'd gotten back some color and meat on his bones, had shaved and finally cut his hair, was wearing clothes that weren't bloody or dirty, but it seemed like that look would never quite go away in moments like these.

Moments of self-doubt.

"I'm not. Not yet. But I could be, and it's getting so damn easy ..." He trailed off, not sure how to articulate that. What was it that was easy? Oh, a lot of things. And he'd gotten good, too. Precise, stealthy, powerful.

He looked indecisive for a moment, then pressed his lips together rather than saying anything more.

Getting this out was important and so, even when Matt's voice broke, Mohinder let him prattle through it on his own terms. It was poison, those thoughts. It needed to be leached. And Mohinder was there to help him through it, right there, unflinching, right up until Matt said 'not yet.'

"Not ever," Mohinder replied, venomously himself. "You are not the man that locked our daughter in a nightmare. You would never, never hurt someone without reason."

Moments of self-doubt were fine, but Mohinder felt himself having to reach out over a cliff to keep Matt from falling. Perhaps he was being dramatic. The geneticist always was.

"It's easy because you can handle yourself. Your morals are in place, your desire is always to help someone. I know what you can do and I am not afraid of you." He waited for that to sink in. "And I will never be afraid of you." The corner of his lips tilted upwards. "Because you are a good man Matthew Parkman. And you know it in your heart as much as I do."

Matt had half a mind to protest - not because it was untrue that he'd never hurt someone without reason, but because he knew it would be easy to do it even without one. That's what rattled him most. Not so much what he did with his power but the knowledge of what he could, and the knowledge of what others had.

But when Mohinder said that he wasn't afraid of him, that's when Matt felt truly reassured amidst the surprise. He hadn't fully understood how much he'd wanted to hear something like that. His throat worked for a moment before his eyes dropped and a faint smile made itself known.

He remembered yelling that at his father, that he was a good man, needing to make himself believe just as much as him. Hearing someone else say it made him feel a lot better and he sank back against the wall he was leaning against with a soft laugh.

"Thanks. That's ..." Nah, he decided, trailing off. Nevermind. "What would I do without you, huh?"

In Mohinder's opinion, it was like being allowed to carry a weapon, or even drive a car. You could easily kill a person with each and yet, most people that carried guns did not go around blowing people apart with them. Matt's mind was a gun. His will could be bullets. But unlike a weapon, Matt could heal, could soothe, could diffuse as much as he could hurt.

And he'd proven, time and time again, that he was capable and willing to try that first. Mohinder said nothing at all that he didn't believe in any way. This wasn't ego stroking, just truth.

Matt's head lowering, the way he leaned back against the wall, just made Mohinder want to invade his space. And so he did, fingertips against Matt's chest as he smiled up at him.

"Well, for a start, you'd be eating a great deal more pizza and not spending a fortune in condoms."

Matt snorted, and reached out to hug Mohinder closer so that they were leaning together.

"Uh, sorry? You think we're up to a fortune?"

Not that Matt was particularly lewd by nature, but he raised his eyebrows slightly to mark the joke Mohinder himself had started. He was comfortable with the wall for support and Mohinder in his space and he felt pretty damn lucky at that moment. Moreso when he heard the kids laughing some distance away.

It was a temporary stay, and they all knew it, but the sense of peace it offered was a welcome one.

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