hackthis_archive | Heroes - The Definition of a Hero is Someone Who Gets Other People Killed, PG-13

This is –- yeah, okay, it just is. The idea came from

fryadvocate and my comments in this post.

Heroes/Torchwood
Spoilers for 2.08 'Four Months Ago'
Peter/Nathan/Adam/Jack Harkness (PG-13)

The Definition of a Hero is Someone Who Gets Other People Killed

The 21st Century

It takes Peter a little while to realize that he's not aging. One birthday passes and then another and then another. He's 38 and looks 26. It takes him a little longer to realize Nathan's not aging either. Peter doesn't know what he thought would happen when Adam gave Nathan his blood transfusion, but he doesn't quite think it was this.

Or maybe that's a big fucking lie.

Peter has always wanted Nathan's undivided attention. He's always wanted Nathan for his very own, and now he has him. Forever. Peter's just so glad to be alive and glad to have Nathan alive; he's just glad for everything. He's glad that he's not alone. He has Nathan and Adam, and Adam has plans. Adam says they need to prepare. They need to get ready.

Nathan is skeptical, but he's alive, so Peter begs him to bear with them. Just for right now. Peter is trying the save the world; they're trying to save the world, but people keep dying off anyway.

First it's the disease. And then it's the wars. Peter sees his mother die in an ambush three days before her 80th birthday, but Simon and Monty die of old age. In 2271, Peter sees Claire get her head chopped off and nobody can recover from that. In the end, she's a victim of good old fashioned Darwinism like most of them, and Peter starts to realize that forever is a lot longer than he thought it would be.

Peter doesn't want to be the last man on earth, or even one of the last three men on earth. Adam's been doing this for 400 years; he has a lot more experience than they do with living forever.

When Peter asks him how he does it, Adam just shrugs. "You do what you have to," he says. "I haven't figured out how to die just yet."

The 28th Century

The first time Adam disappears for a few years, Peter goes crazy. He has Nathan, but Nathan is Nathan. That's the problem. Nathan is Nathan and Peter is Peter and they love each other madly, but mostly they just drive each other mad. When Adam comes back, Peter almost cries in relief, but instead he tries to kill Adam. It's not like it actually works. Eventually Peter gets used to Adam disappearing for a couple of decades. It's not like he has any place else he can go.

The 32nd Century

Captain Jack Harkness has a coat that swirls behind him when he walks, and he dresses from an era that existed before Peter was born. His brown hair is graying at the temples and his eyes crinkle at the corners when he smiles. He's not the last man on earth, but he's certainly one of the best looking. Peter doesn't pretend not to stare, even though it's clear that Adam has laid some sort of claim on Jack. Judging by the way Jack stares back, he's not fettered by things like claims.

Jack tells Peter than he's waiting around for some doctor to come and pick him up, only Adam found him instead. When Jack says he's waiting for the 51st century, Peter just laughs and says he'll wait with him. It's not like Peter has anything else to do.

The 33rd Century

Adam is not impressed when Peter shows off yet another of the 312 powers he's acquired to Jack, and when he stalks off to find Nathan, Peter ignores him.

Peter doesn't know how long Nathan and Adam have been fucking -- a part of him really doesn't like the thought -- but after twelve centuries a man can start to get tired of the same thing, even if that same thing is Nathan. A little variety is important, and Peter tells himself that this is why he flies Jack all the way to New Britannia to fuck on top of the crumbling remains of Buckingham Palace.

Jack just pulls up his pants when they're done and turns around with a wry look on his face. "New America wasn't big enough for you to escape?"

Peter frowns. "I dunno what you're talking about."

Jack looks at Peter speculatively, and Peter's tempted to turn invisible to get away from the way Jack seems to be stripping him bare.

"Adam's been around a long time," Jack says blithely. "I get the idea that his ideas of commitment aren't the same as yours." Peter says nothing, so Jack keeps talking. "I don't think he'd care if we had sex, which only leaves Nathan."

Peter's so used to exploding at this point that, afterwards, when he and Jack are climbing out the wreckage of what used to be Buckingham Palace, Peter doesn't even apologize. He is who he is. It's not like he can kill Jack. It's not like they can die.

"Don't talk to me about Nathan," Peter says before flying off.

"I'll see you around," Jack calls.

The 47th Century

Adam was the first man. He is the one with the extraordinary mutated gene. He is the one that started it all. He is the father of everyone. It's the oldest story in the entire world, and it takes Peter twenty-odd centuries to figure it out.

Somewhere along the line Adam slept with someone's mother and they had a child who got the gene, and then there was another child, and another and another. All over the world Adam spread his seed, and this is how they've ended up here.

Peter's been fucked by his brother and fucked his ancestor and it's all really fucked up. In short: the 47th century is just like all the others before it. There's less greenery and fewer people. The animals are more evolved. Everyone is more evolved.

Peter, Nathan, Adam and Jack live on a fortress in the Pacific that used to be Hawaii and is now New Cardiff. Jack named it. Nathan wanted something more historic like Plymouth or Westchester. Adam didn't really care. Every now and then they get visited by this doctor in a blue phone box and Jack goes off for a while, but inevitably he comes back.

Jack's getting older. It's happening slowly, but everyone else is staying the same. Jack's brown hair is now almost peppered with white. He's still fucking hot, but now he and Nathan fuck in the house instead of slipping off to one of the islands around New Cardiff. Peter knows this because he watches.

Sometimes Peter's obvious about it, sitting in a chair in the corner and jerking off, his noise muted by theirs. Sometimes Peter hides. Sometimes he joins them, and every now and then Nathan and Jack do nothing more than sleep. Peter thinks he's supposed to be jealous, but he's had Nathan for thirty-five centuries now; he's learning how to share.

The 51st Century

War breaks out in New New York like it does every couple of decades, and Peter and Nathan fly Adam and Jack to the mainland because they don’t really have much else to do besides sit and watch and occasionally draw maps about how this war looks just like all the others that have come before it and will come after.

While they're there, Jack takes them to visit his home on the Boeshane Peninsula, and that's where Adam meets her. 'Her' in this case being Eve. Eve has brown hair and huge blue eyes, and Peter knows what's happening before Adam sneaks off in the middle of the night. This is the night that Jack's being conceived. This is Jack's century. After 3000 years everything is changing, but it's still all the same.

In the morning, when Jack is gone and Nathan's lying by his side, Peter isn't too sad. This is what Peter has always wanted.

This is where living forever gets you –- eventually you get back to the beginning in the end.

-end-

Title from Serenity, because Zoe is just that awesome.

HAHAHAHAHA! Bitches!: Modesty is for people who didn't call Matt Damon being People's Hottest Man Alive last fucking year. Yeah, Ari and George and I so covered that shit last year.

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