Heroes fic: Matt being a dork

[triedunture]

While waiting for the crosswalk light to change, Molly looked up at Matt and said, "Are you and Mohinder in love?"

Matt blinked, swallowed, and worked his jaw in a silent gaping fish sort of expression. Luckily, the white walking man lit up and he tugged Molly across the road by the hand. It was a good distraction for about twenty seconds.

"Well?" Molly insisted. "Are you or aren't you?"

"Why would you ask such a thing?" Matt said, recovering admirably. "Of course we're in love. With our little princess!" And he tickled the back of her neck with his free hand to make her giggle.

Once the giggle-fit passed, though, she glared up at him. "You know what I mean. With each other." She adjusted her backpack straps on her shoulders. "You've been sleeping in the same bed. I always know where you are, remember?" She tapped the side of her head, indicating her power.

"Oh, sweetie, Mohinder and I just share because it's easier to sleep that way," Matt said. A block ahead, Molly's school building loomed, a huge square of red brick.

Molly stopped short, forcing Matt to stop as well. She scowled. "I'm not an idiot. I know what people do in bed together."

"Uh." Matt glanced over at another parent leading her child to school. The mother didn't offer any sympathy, just breezed past them on the sidewalk. Matt checked his watch; Molly didn't have to be in her classroom for another twelve minutes. "Okay. Hold on."

He ushered her over to a wooden park bench. Matt sat down so that he was eye-level with Molly. "First of all, I don't think you're an idiot. Second, how do you know what people do in bed together!?"

Molly counted off on her fingers. "One: you could've fooled me. Two: cable."

"Your TV time is so cut in half," Matt said, rubbing his temples with his thumb and forefinger.

But Molly was like a dog with a bone. "You never answered my question."

"Mohinder and I are friends," Matt sighed. "I'm not lying to you; we don't do the things that...the things you will never see on television ever again until you're thirty." He poked Molly in the ribs, eliciting a small smile. "And if that ever changes, I promise you'll be the first to know." He grasped her tiny hands in his. "Okay?"

A thoughtful frown now replaced the grin. "I hope Mohinder doesn't ever love you."

Whoa, Matt thought. A punch in the gut from such a small package still hurts. "Why do you say that?" he said, trying to keep his smile on his face.

"Because Mom used to tell me she and Dad were very special, and that most people don't love each other forever," she said. "And if you and Mohinder stopped loving each other after awhile, one of you would go away. Or you both would go, and you'd leave me behind." There were tears in her eyes now, and they spilled over her red cheeks.

"Honey, no, no, no," Matt murmured, drawing her into a hug and stroking her long hair. "We'd never do that. No matter what happens. Aliens could take over, the sun could explode, and it wouldn't matter. I'd never leave you. I love you, and so does Mohinder."

"Really?" Molly whimpered against his shoulder.

"Yeah, really." Matt heard the final bell ring in the distance; Molly would be late, but he couldn't stop holding her until her tears were dry. He finally left her in Mrs. Jensen's classroom with a ton of murmured excuses about a quarter hour later.

Matt made his way to the nearest subway station at a slow pace, hands in his coat pockets, lost in thought. God, he'd had no idea that Molly was so worried over his potential relationship with Mohinder. And, he supposed, not without good reason. Molly was right. Love never lasted. Janice had taught him that. And the people you're supposed to count on often leave you. His father, for one.

What had he been thinking, entertaining the notion of wooing Mohinder? Of showing him how he felt, of making love to him in the dark? Of starting a whole new life from scratch with a neurotic scientist and a little girl who could tell you where Cher was at any given moment?

He'd been playing with fire just sharing a bed with the man. He'd meant what he'd said; he would never leave Molly as long as he was still breathing, but having relations with her other surrogate dad? It was too risky to contemplate.

Matt walked down the steps to the Rockaway Ave station, patting his inner coat pocket for his subway pass. When he came up empty, he paused on the stairs, letting the early morning commuters rush around him as he checked his pants' pockets. Nothing.

"Crap," he muttered. He didn't have his wallet.

"Hey, Parkman," a cheery voice called. "How you doing?"

Matt turned to see another detective from his precinct coming down the stairs. O'Dell. Young guy. Pretty good, he'd heard, but he'd never worked with him.

"Hey," he offered. "It's been a weird morning. I'm going to be late..."

But then another familiar faced appeared right behind O'Dell. "Matt! I'm glad I caught you." Mohinder stepped around the crowd with nimble feet before stopping on the stair above Matt. "I saw your wallet on the kitchen table."

Mohinder held the worn brown leather wallet out for Matt, and he took it after his brain caught up with events. "Thanks. I was getting ready to run back home for it."

"No problem. See you after work." Mohinder waved goodbye to Matt and offered a polite smile to O'Dell before running up the stairs again.

"That your roommate?" O'Dell asked, watching him leave.

"Yeah. Mohinder," Matt answered without thinking. He was too busy staring at the wallet in his hand, his thoughts whirling with Molly's earlier statements and the way Mohinder looked when he was out of breath. Matt made his way to the turnstiles, sliding through them with the other detective.

"He's pretty hot."

Matt looked up sharply then. "Huh?"

O'Dell gave a sheepish shrug. "Do you think he'd want to go out sometime?" O'Dell asked. He rocked on his heels as they stood on the platform.

"Um." Matt blinked. O'Dell was a good-looking guy. Clean cut, blond sort of good-looking. A good job. Lived nearby. Hadn't known he was gay until just now, but that wasn't Matt's business, of course. And if the rumors were true, he was a good cop. The kind of guy who would be just right for someone like Mohinder.

"I, I guess," Matt said.

"Great." O'Dell shouted over the approaching train. "Do you have his number?"

So when Matt finished his shift, he returned home to find Mohinder sitting at the kitchen table and staring at the cell phone in his hand. Molly sat at his elbow, scribbling away at her homework. "I just got the strangest phone call," he said. "It was a co-worker of yours. He wanted to know if I'd like to get some coffee."

"And?" Matt hung up his coat with a little more force than was necessary.

"I hadn't realized that my father's death was still under investigation," Mohinder murmured. He rubbed at his forehead as if he was developing a headache.

"What?" Matt sputtered. "Is that what O'Dell told you?" Molly looked up from her multiplication tables and glanced between the two men.

Mohinder blinked. "I just assumed that's..."

"It's not part of an investigation. It's a..." Matt trailed off, his eyes falling on Molly. She stared back.

"A what?" she asked deliberately.

Matt blew a large breath from his nose. "A date."

"Oh." Mohinder and Molly echoed.

"He asked for your number, and I figured," Matt gestured expansively, "that you would just say no if you weren't interested."

Mohinder flipped his phone open. "I suppose I should call back and..."

"Is he nice?" Molly interrupted.

Mohinder paused in his scrolling through menu options to look up at Matt as well. He rubbed the back of his neck; his muscles were tired all of a sudden.

"He's okay, I guess."

"Is he cute?"

"Really, Molly!" Mohinder gasped. "What have I told you about vanity?"

Molly rolled her eyes. "I asked if he was nice first," she argued.

"He's a good-looking guy," Matt said. He went to the fridge and grabbed a can of Pepsi. "You should go. Have fun and all." He cracked open the top and stifled a curse as foam ran over his fingers.

Mohinder kept looking at his phone. "You think so?"

Molly nodded eagerly. Matt shrugged and wiped his sticky hands on the tea towel that hung on a nail above the sink.

So the next night, which was the Friday night of the slated Coffee Date, found Matt and Molly in their pajamas playing about eight thousand hands of rummy 500 on the floor of the living room. Molly kept glancing at the clock.

"It's still early," Matt finally said. He picked up a card from the discard pile. "Don't worry about him."

"It's his first real date since forever." Molly frowned. "And he was nervous when he left. Didn't he seem nervous to you?"

"That's normal," Matt said, but he didn't share the details of the stream of agitated thoughts he'd picked up from his roommate before he'd left.

Molly chewed at her lower lip and watched Matt lay down a set of sevens. "I changed my mind," she said.

"About?" Matt arranged the cards in his hand, putting the six of diamonds close to the four of diamonds, just in case that five popped up.

"I'd rather have Mohinder fall in love with you." She picked up a card and immediately discarded it. A jack. "If he fell in love with someone else, they might want to move in with him and then where would you and I go? That would be even worse than you two getting together, because the odds of me being left out are, like, way higher."

Matt hummed thoughtfully. "I see you've been weighing the options very carefully," he said with a smirk.

Molly wrinkled her nose. "I just didn't like him. That O'Dell guy. When he came to the door, I could smell his cologne from the hallway."

"He does lay it on a bit thick," Matt agreed. He discarded a three. "But it's just coffee. It's no big deal."

"Coffee turns into dinner, which turns into the theater, which turns into ice skating at the park and before you know it," Molly waved her hands in the air, dislodging the playing cards from their neat fan between her fingers, "they're picking out wall colors and getting a dog!"

Matt leaned back and laughed, unable to hold it in. Molly just looked so frazzled.

"A little yappy dog!" she continued to shout. "With a stupid sparkly collar." And she joined Matt in rolling on the floor, laughing hysterically. When the giggling slowed, a tickle fight renewed it. The playing cards were now scattered all over the living room.

"You wouldn't get a dumb dog with Mohinder, would you?" Molly finally gasped, still breathless.

Matt stretched out beside her on the oriental rug, hands folded behind his head. "If he really wanted one, how could I say no?" He reached over and ruffled her hair.

"See? That's why I think you'd be better," Molly said, wriggling closer. "I just want what's best for Mohinder."

"Yeah." Matt let his girl rest her head on his shoulder. He stared up at the cracked paint on the ceiling. "Me too." But Molly was already snoring on his arm.

After awhile of listening to her sleep, Matt scooped Molly up and carried her to bed. He collected all the cards from the floor and put them away. He turned the TV on, then turned it off. He considered waking Molly and asking where Mohinder was, but it wasn't even eleven and he knew he shouldn't pry. He put some water on for tea, but then couldn't remember how to make it. Mohinder always made the tea with lots of milk and some weird powder. Matt turned the stove off and filled his mug with tap water instead.

He heard footsteps coming up the stairway and listened with his mind. It was Mohinder, wondering which pocket held his key. Matt went to open the door for him, but then thought better of it and sat at the kitchen table, sipping at his water in a casual way.

"Hello," Mohinder said as he walked through the door. He unwound his scarf from his neck and glanced in the direction of Molly's bedroom. "She's sleeping?"

"Yeah. All tuckered out, poor thing." Matt grinned. "Did you have a good time?"

Mohinder turned to hang his scarf and coat on the rack, so Matt didn't catch his expression. "It was pleasant," he said. But his mind thought, Fairly dull.

Matt sipped at his mug again. "You and O'Dell hit it off?"

"Timothy was a very charming man." Boring as drywall.

Matt restrained himself from giving a cheer. "You going to see him again?"

I don't think so, Mohinder thought. "I don't think so," he said. He craned his neck to peer down into Matt's cup. "Are you just drinking water? Shall I make some tea?" And before Matt could answer, Mohinder was already pulling the milk out of the fridge.



fin.