[Heroes] Bunnies hate flying (but little brothers don't)

[scandalinbohemia]

Title: Bunnies hate flying (but little brothers don't)
Fandom: Heroes
Characters: Nathan, wee!Peter
Rating: Gen
Word Count: 1047 (W)
Thanks to: snopes_faith, the rabbit beta.
Note(s): Pigwacket is back, and he needs so much love. The title is courtesy of eryslash.



When he's four, Peter realizes for the first time that people can get hurt. And it's not the passing pain of a skinned knee (he's got both skinned and shows them around with pride), nor the stomachache when he stuffed himself with chocolate (once he filled his pockets while Ma and Nathan weren't watching), nor the pain of that single, unforgettable slap Nathan gave him when he jumped from the seesaw to show him he could fly. (Nobody, nor Nathan nor Ma nor Pigwacket, will ever convince him he can't fly.)

Maybe the ladder is rusty or a screw got slack, Peter can't know. When it happens, Peter's eyes are fixed on the little Pigwacket trapped between the pendants of the chandelier, lying on his back with a plush paw stretching up into the void between the crystal stalactites. At first it seems funny - Nathan's flight follows a strange line, and at the moment it doesn't seem at all that the step cracked under his foot, but that Nathan let his body fall backwards and that he's going to land on his feet to make Peter laugh. It's afterwards, when Peter sees him collapse on the floor and yell, that Peter realizes something's wrong.

Nathan never yells.

It's so strange that Peter even forgets to go and rescue Pigwacket, who flew to the floor twenty steps from the ladder, and he doesn't care if the bunny will cry and say that Peter doesn't love him. Nathan is sick. Nathan is never sick. Peter looks at him with his wide open eyes and Nathan's got his face all wrinkled and such a grimace on his mouth that makes it look almost as crooked as Peter's is.

"... Nathan?" whispers Peter, feeling something warm and wet starting to burn behind his eyes. "What is it?"

With effort, Nathan raises an angle of his mouth, spitting out a moan. "It's alright, Peter. Call Mom."

But Peter doesn't manage in time, because Ma's heels are already behind the door and in a moment she's there, with an expression on her face that Peter thinks doesn't look worried nor surprised enough, and surely it doesn't seem like her eyes are burning like Peter's. He doesn't understand it and it doesn't reassure him, because if Ma's not surprised that means maybe it's not the first time Nathan gets hurt? Peter knows that Nathan lived for a while without him, before him, but it doesn't seem fair that Nathan got hurt when Peter wasn't there to make him feel better.

"I think... the leg is broken," says Nathan, with a strange, hoarse voice. Peter didn't know legs could be broken. He wonders if it's like when he broke his action figure Superman's arm. Maybe people are all like action figure Supermen.

Nathan tries to raise to his feet, but his mother orders him to stay still.

"Peter, honey, take your doll and go to your room," says Ma, lifting the phone's receiver.

"Ma, Nathan's sick?"

"I'm fine, Pete."

"Yes, Peter. Now go to your room."

Instead Peter stays in the salon, curled in a corner without even hugging Pigwacket, because it's all his fault, Pigwacket's of course, if Nathan got hurt, and when Ma and Nathan leave and Peter remains alone in the room, he can't help but throwing Pigwacket furiously on the floor.

He's happy Nathan left, because Nathan doesn't like it when Peter cries.


+ + +

Later, when Nathan comes back home, he's got his leg plastered and he walks with a pair of crutches, hopping on his healthy foot. Peter goes and visits him in his room, dragging Pigwacket behind him by a paw.
He stops by the bed's edge, lifts the bunny and puts it on the mattress. "Tell him," he mutters. He shakes the plush toy a little. "Tell him."

Nathan frowns. He looks tired, but not angry. "What?"

Peter crosses his arms on his chest, darting a nasty look to Pigwacket. "He says he's sorry you're sick."

Nathan smiles lightly. "Jump in," he says moving Pigwacket to the other side, and he encircles Peter's waist with his arms to help him climb on the mattress.

(Despite what his brother usually says, Peter always thinks it's impossible one day he's going to be as big as Nathan is. Two Peters piled one upon another wouldn't be enough. And Peter has no idea where the spare material could come out from.)

"It hurts a lot?"

"No, not much."

Nathan scratches Peter's nape under his dark hair, and Peter hugs him. "Now you can tell me. How did you manage to put Pigwacket up there?"

Peter opens his eyes, casting a look to his right and one to his left.

"You threw him?"

"I flew."

Nathan smiles, watching him in that way, that one that Peter doesn't like because it makes him feel small. "No, really, Peter. How could you?"

"I flew," Peter repeats, stubbornly.

"What did I tell you about telling lies, Pete?"

"I didn't..."

"If you really have to tell them, they have to be believable. Try again."

Peter sinks his face in Nathan's sweater and mutters something confused, but that sounds just like: "But it's true".

Nathan sighs. "Fine," he concedes. "And Pigwacket can fly too?"

"No." Peter rubs his cheek against Nathan's shoulder. "He makes people do things. Like Ma," he adds after a moment.

He doesn't notice that Nathan's face now is all twisted in a grimace, and it's better this way. He would think that Nathan's leg hurts, and he would feel guilty even if it's Pigwacket's fault.

"I'll lend him to you," Peter declares instead, reaching out over Nathan's waist to grab the bunny's paw and put him on Nathan's belly. "Until you're better. Okay?"

Nathan lifts Pigwacket from one ear, staring at him for a couple of seconds. Peter watches them both, nervously, wondering what they're talking about. He's never found it fair that Pigwacket has known Nathan for longer than he has.

"Okay. Thanks, Pete," says Nathan, eventually.

When he smiles to Peter he's not making that face anymore that makes Peter feel small, but the one that makes him feel warm around his stomach and makes the soles of his feet tingle.

Peter shows his tongue to Pigwacket, but Pigwacket remains impassive.