The Job Description

A/N: I've only just started watching Heroes (I'm a bit late, I know) but absouletly adore Nathan and Peter's relationship. This is pre-series, set when Peter is 17 and Nathan is….lets say 28-29. This may not be accurate or entirely in character but as I said, I'm new to the fandom so please don't kill me. I don't own Heroes.

Nathan had been enjoying his quiet, peaceful lunch with his beautiful wife in this new little sushi bar in the centre of Manhattan. It was the perfect afternoon, that was ultimately, doomed to end because this was Nathan Petrelli.

He didn't get uninterrupted afternoon lunches with his wife.

That was far too much to ask, apparently.

When his phone started blaring in his pocket, his jaw clenched, his eyes rolled and Heidi gave him the look.

Nathan seemed to be getting that a lot lately.

"It'll stop in a minute."

It didn't.

The phone just kept ringing, so Nathan pulled it from his pocket, avoiding his wife's glare as he did so and checked the caller.

"It's Ma, shall I take this outside?" Nathan questioned, although he was already half way to standing up.

"No, no, it's fine." Heidi sighed and tugged his sleeve, and then returned to her forgotten fish.

"Hey, Ma. How are you?"

Enough with the pleasantries Nathan, I need your help.

Nathan raised a single eyebrow and snorted in exasperation, a retort balanced on the tip of his tongue.

"Help with what?"

Peter's gone.

There was a pause, a heavy silence in which both Petrelli's hesistated, unsure of what to say. That was until something clicked within Nathan, what his mother had actually said slotted into place and rush of heat, of panic clutched momentarily at his chest.

Then he skilfully composed himself, but Heidi, being as perceptive as she was, had already seen the anxiety lingering in her husband's eyes and she frowned.

"What do you mean he's gone?!" Nathan hissed quietlty.

He argued with your father last night –

"That's hardly a rare occurrence, Ma."

This was different, Nathan. Things were said. And Peter ran up to his room and we all assumed he stayed there.

"And he didn't?"

I went up to check on him before me and Arthur leave for Dallas and he's obviously been gone all night. He's ignoring his phone.

Nathan sighed and pitched the bridge of his nose between his finger and thumb, a headache suddenly began to radiate behind his eyes.

"So you've got no idea where he went?"

What do you think? Angela Petrelli snapped curtly and Nathan could imagine her pulling her gloves up sharply. We have to leave for the airport soon and I know that Peter's a smart boy so I'm not worried about him –

"Hey, wait – " Nathan spluttered, a hint of anger in his tone, "you're still going? Even though he's been missing all night?!"

Heidi opened her eyes wide at that, shaking her head softly.

Don't start, Nathan. Why do you think I called you? Just find Peter and keep him with you for a few days. The boy isn't acting like himself.

"Don't I know it," Nathan began to shrug on his coat, and Heidi had already beckoned the waiter to pay the bill, "I'll call you when I find him. He's probably in one of his usual haunts."

Hm. Okay ,I'll speak to you later, Nathan.

"Bye, Ma. Have a good flight."

And then she was gone and Nathan was furious – partly at his parents for being so obviously neglectful of Peter and also at Peter himself. That kid was going to be the death of Nathan one day, he knew it.

As he and Heidi exited the restaurant, she grabbed one his hands in hers before reaching up and planting a kiss on his cheek.

"Go find Pete and then bring him home. God knows that child needs a hug." She smiled softly, before hailing a taxi.

Nathan achingly watched her leave.

Lunch was officially over.

The first thing Nathan did was ring Peter, the call was ignored, obviously.

Although, it took Nathan no more than an hour to locate the kid – after checking central park, he went straight to the library and after exploring no more than two sections, he found Peter behind one of the vast shelves, his nose buried in a book.

Peter saw his brother coming, but after a small flicker of acknowledgement, he said nothing.

"Peter."

Nathan spoke lowly, perhaps gravely, and Peter gave one of his overly dramatic teenage sighs.

"Nathan."

A curt silence and despite the anger bubbling in the pit of his belly, Nathan bit his lip and dropped down to sit beside his baby brother, shoulders touching.

"Are you alright?"

Peter blinked at the question, his eyebrows shifting in surprise but he made eye contact with the older Petrelli for a small, grateful moment.

"I guess."

Nathan snorted softly in response, before tilting the cover of the book Peter had been reading towards him, "A Christmas Carol?"

"Yeah."

The one syllable response, in a monotone no less, threw Nathan off kilter for a moment. When it came to books, Peter usually opened up and talked about characters, plots, ideas that Nathan didn't really care about – although he adored the light that would blaze in his little brothers dark eyes when he spoke endlessly about such stories.

"Okay, Peter, what's going on with you?" Nathan decided that being blunt was the only logical tactic when dealing with a clearly very upset seventeen year old.

"Nothing."

"Cut the crap."

"It's nothing!" Peter hissed, eyes flashing darkly and he slammed the book shut before biting down hard on his lip.

Nathan swallowed thickly, hating the waver of his brothers voice, "It's Dad, isn't it?"

"Actually, for once, it isn't." Peter sighed, pulling his knees up tighter towards his chest as his messy black hair flopped back over his face.

Nathan knew there was something going on with the teenager, and it went deeper than the normal teenage mood swings and an overbearing, disappointed father. It hurt Nathan, more than he cared to admit, to see his sibling so lost and yet so distant – when had Nathan lost that trust? When had Peter decided he couldn't always, always depend on Nathan?

Nathan was a big brother and it was his job to protect the kid.

Peter had apparently forgotten that.

Nathan decided to try a different tactic, and stifle the concern that had lingered within him from the moment his mother said Peter had been gone all night.

"Okay, where did you stay last night?"

"In New York." Peter quipped curtly, stubbornly.

Nathan decided he wasn't going to rise to the bait.

"Where in New York?"

"With friends."

"Peter, you don't have any friends." Nathan realised, the moment the words left his lips, that that comment was unnecessarily harsh and he saw the pang of hurt flicker across his brother's pale, drawn, milky white face. The dark moons beneath Peter's soulful eyes suggested the kid hadn't slept at all, wherever he'd been.

"Thank you for that, Nathan. I can always count on you to remind me how loved I am," Peter said through clenched teeth, his tone laced with the bitter sarcasm that seemed to plague everything he'd been saying lately.

"Oh for heaven's sake, Pete, you're loved more than anything in the world and you know it."

Nathan blinked at that because he honestly hadn't intended to say it (though he meant every word) and something in Peter's babyish face changed. He looked a little less tense, a little less sad and the pale pink flush on his cheekbones betrayed his embarrassment.

A tiny, hesitant smile graced the seventeen year olds chapped lips before it vanished again, replaced by the usual scowl.

But Nathan had seen it, and it warmed his heart.

They lapsed into a comfortable silence and the older Petrelli frowned at the numbness spreading through the lower half of his body – he was basically thirty and that was too old to be sat cross legged on the floor.

"Come on, kiddo, get your stuff." Nathan winced as he dragged himself back to standing, his hand brushing through Peter's dark hair in passing, "you're coming back to mine."

"Will Heidi mind?" Peter asked as he began shoving books into his backpack, and the blanket he'd had since he was two, Nathan noted.

Nathan chuckled in exasperation as the kid was finally stood beside him, still a few inches shorter (and a hell of a lot bonier) than his big brother, "She's probably already made up your room and baked those gingerbread men you like."

Peter grinned his smile that made others smile – though it just aggravated their father for reasons Nathan understood, but could never fathom. So Peter wasn't like other Petrelli's – he wasn't a fighter, a lawyer. He was sensitive and delicate and spend far too much in a dream world than what was considered healthy, but that was just Peter and despite the grief of the fights between Arthur and his son, the tension, Nathan wouldn't have it any other way.

He slugged an arm around the kid's shoulders and steered him out of the towering shelves of the library, coolly acknowledging the way Peter leaned into his touch and seemed to let go of all the anger he'd shown earlier.

"You didn't have to come find me, Nathan. I was going to go home soon." Peter whispered, mostly too himself, "once I knew they had left."

"Well, actually, Ma rang me and left me strict orders to haul your ass home."

Peter's face seemed to fall at that, so Nathan continued.

"But I would've come anyway, Peter. Now, I don't know about you – but I'm starving. Turns out I don't really like sushi."

"What?"

"Never mind. Shake Shack?"

"Yeah… thanks Nathan."

"Don't mention it, Pete. That what us big brothers do. It's in the job description."