A Past and Future Secret

Author's Note: My angsty Pylar fic which I've been dreaming about for awhile now. Ever since I watched Chance, in fact. Not total angst of course since I have to have some humour but yeah, prepare yourself.

Disclaimer: I do not own Heroes.

First day of high school.

Okay, Peter, you can do this. You can go sit with complete strangers...who will probably tease you mercilessly until finally you are forced to relocate to the library where you will eat your lunch alone for the rest of your high school existence. God, he couldn't do this.

He took a deep breath – repeating the mantra 'I can do this' in his head – and, clutching his lunch tray, moved into the crowded cafeteria. He looked around for an empty table. There were none.

His deep breaths were now shaky to the extreme. Nathan had definitely lied. He'd said everything would be fine, that he'd make friends instantly. But he'd already had three classes and no one – count that, no one – had so much as spoken to him. And he'd been in groups where people were supposed to talk to him. But...nothing.

He spotted an almost empty table – there were only two other people sitting there, a boy and a girl; everyone else seemed to avoid the table like they would the plague – and made a beeline for it. Hopefully they would let him sit there.

He set the tray down gently. The girl was reading, staring at the pages intently as she bit her nails absentmindedly. The boy appeared to be enjoying his chocolate cake – Peter didn't remember there being chocolate cake! Had he missed it? – his eyes closed in rapture. Peter tried not to make any noises as he sat down and pulled the chair in.

The girl immediately bookmarked her page and put it away in a bag near her feet. She smiled at him rather cheerfully. Peter felt himself blush. Dammit. Girls rarely smiled at him. And why did he have to blush so easily whenever they did? Heidi thought it was cute but she really didn't know how terribly embarrassing it was.

She stood up. Oh god. He was so hideous girls immediately left tables whenever he appeared. Her grin widened at his discomfort. "This is Gabriel," she said, pointing to the boy who began choking on his chocolate cake the instant she said his name. He waved hastily. "I'm Rosie and I'm leaving." She turned to the boy. "Gabriel, you have English with Mr. Thompson, don't you?"

The boy swallowed painfully, most because his throat was now a bit raw. Choking did that to you. "Yeah?"

She handed him a note. "Give this to him, will you? I have a doctor's appointment." She sighed in way that said that she was both annoyed and rather relieved at this. "Mum is always doing this." She shrugged. "Well, see you later." She bounced away.

Gabriel and Peter looked at each other.

"So, um, I didn't notice they had chocolate cake," Peter began, pushing his bangs out of his eyes. Nathan and his parents were pushing him to have them cut off but on this topic he stood his ground. No one was cutting them off.

"They don't," Gabriel replied. "My mom makes the best and she always goes all out on the first day of school." He paused and then said hesitantly, "Do you want some?"

"Uh..." Peter stuttered for awhile until he was finally able to say, "Sure, if you don't mind."

Gabriel grinned. "I wouldn't have asked if I did." He handed him a piece of chocolate cake (his mom always gave him at least five pieces to take to school and he'd only eaten three of them), asking as he did so, "What's your name? Mine's Gabriel, as I'm sure you already know."

Peter smiled shyly. "Yeah, I did. I'm Peter." He took a deep, supposedly relaxing breath. "Peter Petrelli."

Gabriel's dark eyes widened and he pushed his glasses up his nose (something he did when he was excited or anxious). "No way," he breathed. "Not Nathan Petrelli's brother?"

Peter shifted nervously. Why did his brother have to be so damn popular? It was very hard to live up to. "Um, yeah." He waited for inevitable questions that always followed the revelation that he was Nathan 'The Perfect One' Petrelli's brother.

It didn't come.

Eventually Gabriel said, "Do you like sports then?"

Peter looked at him, the astonishment clear in his eyes. "Uh, no. Why?"

He looked relieved. "Because sports suck."

Peter tried not to feel too giddy. Finally he found what Heidi would call a 'kindred spirit.' He'd never met anyone in his life who thought sports sucked. "As does any form of physical exercise." He grinned. Gabriel grinned right back.

High school might not be that bad after all.

"Look, the nerd's found himself a friend," a harsh voice said from above.

Then again, maybe not.

They looked up at the group of boys who looked like they didn't think sports sucked. In fact, Peter could go out on a limb and say they thought sports rocked. Physical exercise in all its forms probably rocked too.

Gabriel, a sullen look on his face because he knew what was coming, said, "Hey, Will. How's it going? That rash clear up yet? I'm sure if you just put some -"

He was lifted up out of his chair and held above the ground from his shirt collar. "What did you say, freak?" the guy addressed as Will hissed.

Gabriel rolled his eyes. "God, are you deaf?" he said in a tone that Peter thought highly inappropriate considering how far his feet were from the nice solid ground. "I said, before you so rudely interrupted, that if you just put some ointment on it, it will clear right up." He shook his head at Will's deafness.

Will's eyes – angsty girl poetry had been written about them but Peter thought they looked a bit beady – narrowed. "Do you have some sort of death wish?"

"Hey, leave him alone!"

Every eye in the cafeteria, which had fallen silent as Will terrorised Gabriel, turned towards Peter, who gulped. What the hell was he thinking? Had he gone insane?

"Who the hell are you?" Will said, still managing to keep Gabriel up in the air.

"Peter Petrelli," he said, his voice incredibly loud in the hushed cafeteria.

Will's eyes widened and he dropped Gabriel instantly. "Right," he said, trying to maintain his dignity. "So...yeah. Let's go, boys. Scaring the nerd was getting a bit boring anyway."

As the cafeteria slowly regained its noise level, Peter helped Gabriel to his feet.

"It's only the first day of school and you've already got the school bully after you," Peter said as he watched Gabriel straighten his glasses. "What did you do that pissed him off?"

Gabriel sighed and stared mournfully at his chocolate cake. He wasn't that hungry anymore. He decided to wrap it up and give it to Rosie later. "I'm one of this school's charity cases. Will Tremain and his idiot buddies make it their mission to terrorise the charity cases."

Peter frowned, perplexed. He'd heard about charity cases, which was when the school offered scholarships to above average students who were financially handicapped. "Why?"

Gabriel looked at him sympathetically. "Didn't your brother tell you anything about this school? They don't think I belong because I'm," he lowered his voice, "poor."

Peter blinked. "Um, so?"

Gabriel laughed scathingly although, Peter thought, not at him. "You really have a lot to learn about the world, kid."

Peter frowned. "Don't call me that. I'm not a kid."

"Whatever you say...kid." Gabriel grinned cheekily. A piece of chocolate cake hit him square in the face. He laughed in amazement.

Peter looked innocent. "I told you not to call me that."

Silence reigned awhile as Gabriel grinned rather stupidly and Peter finished his piece of chocolate cake (he'd decided not to waste it all on throwing it at Gabriel) and then the rest of his lunch.

"You know," Gabriel said thoughtfully. "I think you're pretty lucky. I mean, all you have to say is your brother's name and they run like the wind. I wish I had something like that."

Peter watched him. "I'll protect you, Gabriel."

Something about that made him laugh. "Will you, now?"

"Of course." Peter nodded, as if to emphasise his point. "You're my friend." He realised what he'd said and blushed.

Gabriel was suddenly serious. "Really, Peter? You want to be my friend?" This thought confused him for some reason. He frowned. He'd never had a real friend before. Of course he had Rosie but she was friends with everyone.

"Um, yeah?" Peter said, shaking somewhat from nervousness. God, he was such a loser.

Gabriel smiled. It was a sweet smile and made Peter's heartbeat quieten just a little. "Okay."

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Rosie is not based on me, okay? She's been in my head for days albeit under a different name which I will not use here because then a certain someone will think I stole it from them. So there.

Anyway, review please.