2008-03-22: Glasses Are For Losers

Starring:

Hiro_icon.gif Rochelle_icon.gif

Summary: Rochelle finally goes to see Hiro about Future Peter and what he says. There's a little bit of awkward and more paving of the Badass Road from Rochelle. Oops!

Date It Happened: March 22nd, 2008

Glasses Are For Losers


Deveaux Building

Okay, so maybe it takes Rochelle longer than what might be 'right' to have things sink in and actually seem like emergencies. She's broken bones and tried to 'walk it off', so maybe future Peter's warnings were preemptively done early. Who knows. Either way, she only finds herself carting over to the DeVeaux building almost a week later, mentally fretting enough for several people.

Making her way skywards, Rochelle is quick to find her feet planted at the penthouse door, and one finger on the buzzer outside of the entrance. Bzzzzzzzzzzt. A pause. Bzzzzzzt bzzzzzzzzzt. Outside, her winter coat has been shed for a denim jacket, one shade darker than her jeans. Bzzzzzzzzzzzzt.

Hiro has actually been enjoying a sleep in which is decidedly rare for him given all the missions he's taken on. But he's been so tired lately that sleep was probably the best thing for it all. He does hear the buzzing, though, and begins to shamble in the direction of the door across the apartment that practically takes up the whole top floor. Captain America pyjamas, for the comic-literate. Opening the door, his glasses are askew (and taped together, it seems) over some fading bruising about his nose and eye-sockets. Like he was punched.

"Rosherru?"

The absurdity of Hiro's pyjamas is nearly lost on her, because Rochelle immediately concentrates on the familiar sight of an injury on his face. Most of his face, no less. The expression of 'ready to start talking' switches like a button has been pushed- and Rochelle's face furrows into mild discontentment.

"Who popped you in the face?" Then, realizing- and taking a look at his now surprisingly (still)absurd choice of sleepers: "Oh, I'm sorry- did I wake you up?"

"No," Hiro lies, shaking his head and immediately moving on to answer the question, "It was somebody working for Pinehearst but … not really working for them. She had to pretend she killed me so they would not think she was working against them. Come in, come in." He steps out of the way to allow Rosherru entrance.

"About that. Pinehearst-" Rochelle sidles into the room, her eyes on him and at the same time- slightly suspicious as to the origin he claims. Not that she thinks he is lying- but who would really think he was dead? Jean Grey always 'dies'. "I got a visitor last week. I wasn't sure what to do- but I figured I should listen to him and talk to you, seeing as he was from the future." It feels to strange to just casually say such a thing.

"He came back to tell me about the formula." Though Rochelle has not yet said Who. Her hands make vague gestures in the air in front of her. "I think I should start learn to take all of this more seriously."

Naturally, Hiro kind of assumes that the future visitor Rochelle got was him. Future Him. The scary one. His brow furrows, obviously he's wondering why Future Hiro didn't come to see him and why he would risk things by coming backwards through time. It never occurs to Mister Nakamura that there are other people out there who can travel through time. Non-Hiro People.

"What did I say?"

Wandering a few steps further inside, Rochelle turns her attention when she does realize she never said who. "It was Peter. Only future Peter. He had some bigass scar on his face. Like the guy from Final Fantasy Eight." For her, it is easier to relate things to Hiro if she does compare them to things he is probably more familiar with. "I bet he's a jerkoff just like Squall, too." But that has nothing to do with anything-

"He said Pinehearst is going to commercialize the ability formula, not just test it. And that's not good."

"I have met him," Hiro says with a nod of his head, perhaps agreeing that he is indeed a jerkoff. But what Rochelle says next causes him to pause, mouth agape as he points, "I knew it! They have the formula! The speedster must have stolen it for them!"

"He said that I need to help you destroy it. Then something about Ando being important." What comes next, Rochelle doesn't sound entirely sure about. "And he told me that I might be one of the only people who can stop the guy in charge of Pinehearst. I don't really… know what that means. Maybe he's Lex Luthor from Krypton, I dunno." She shrugs, looking at Hiro for some sort of leading reaction. Rochelle came, she talked(albeit all of a sudden), and now she seems to be quietly searching for an answer on Hiro's forehead above his broken glasses.

"Peter Petrelli's father!" Hiro may seem dumb at times, but when it comes to putting the pieces together he's practically Batman at times, "He steals powers! He stole Peter Petrelli's healing ability so he could not use it anymore." He pauses, frowning as he thinks about it - it is times like these that he needs a HiroComputer, "If he is the one in charge, then it would make sense that you would help stop him. He would have many powers as well as the ability to take them … but you could turn them all off!"

A pause, there is still a loose end, "But I don't know what he meant about Ando … "

His father? That reaction gets a startled blinking, features contorted in enough confusion to seem relevant. "His father runs Pinehearst? And steals powers? Stole Peter's? Talk about keeping it in the family. And I'm supposed to keep Pops from making a ruckus?" Rochelle snorts lightly, her fingers curling around the cuffs of her jacket arms.

"I don't think Ando will know much about that either. I get that feeling. Not that he's always clueless, but sometimes he's worse than a blonde with attention deficit. Me too, actually." Hiro attracts those types, apparently.

"I don't know if he runs Pinehearst," Hiro admits, his shoulders slumping a little, "I only know that he steals power and that he works there."

"Well- Peter said I could stop the one in charge. And you said he stole Peter's healing ability. It would make sense if he were in charge, because I would be the only one able to-" Rochelle's thoughts audibly slow down. "-stop him and not have to get in a headshot."

"…Shit, does that mean we have to kill him?" Murder was never on her menu! But they can't just lock him up and expect him to stay put, right? But murder? That's a line she's not sure about even thinking about crossing, and the look on her face mimics her shock.

"I don't know," Hiro admits yet again, shaking his head before he decides, "You don't have to kill anyone, Rosherru. I promise." Of course, that just means that if it comes right down to it … Hiro will do it. He can if he has to. He's sure of that.

They say that once you do it- it gets easier. The Rochelle that future Peter knew would just as easily pump out a twelve gauge into an unsuspecting villain as easily as she could take a breath- this one, however- not so much. She very well would hurt someone if she had to, but there's no coming back from the dead thing for ninety-nine percent of mankind. "I hope not. This is already a bit much- the whole 'formula that will give people abilities ends the world as we know it' thing. I wish I was as adaptable as you and Peter. I'd be better at it."

"You'll be alright," Hiro says, attempting to be reassuring, "I do not think you will have to kill anybody." Okay, so maybe he isn't great at reassuring, "There are people inside Pinehearst looking for the formula. If they can find it, I can steal it back and destroy it."

"Do you really think it'll be that easy? If they've tried making it, they must have basements full of hard drives with the information on them." Genetics is complex- and despite what is in cartoons and such, there is never just one copy of something important. People back things up these days. "He told me about people that'd help, but no names. I hope those are some of them."

Rochelle finds a section of wall with her hands, leaning back onto it and closing both eyes for a few moments. The stitch between her eyebrows signals the loss of concentration first. "And what if they've already started testing?"

"If we didn't have a chance of stopping them," Hiro reasons, pausing to look out one of the windows of the cavernous penthouse he now occupies, "Then why would Peter Petrelli come back and tell us we could?"

"He was saying he hoped he came back in time. I hope he did." Rochelle rolls her neck back, sighing away the harried 'gotta tell Hiro' frame of mind. "I really hope he did, because I can't imagine people getting abilities as easy as getting a vaccination. It's not right. Playing with evolution is wrong."

"They won't," Hiro promises, because destiny should dictate that this cannot happen until he's had a chance to try and stop the world from ending, "I promise."

"I guess a promise from a time traveler is worth more than a normal guy when it comes to saying something won't happen, huh?" Rochelle seems ready to laugh, but it escapes her and she lifts a hand to tug at the corner of her jacket's collar, eyes on Hiro's bruised up face and skewed glasses all of a sudden. There's a new frown again.

"You should get new glasses, if we're liable to be doing all this. Ever consider contacts?" Who could punch him in the face and seem like they meant it? That's just horrible, honestly.

"Contact lenses?" Hiro says quietly, reaching up to adjust his taped-together glasses thoughtfully, "I think that might be a good idea, Rosherru … "

"Yeah. I mean- I see you pushing up your glasses all the time…" The topic change is welcomed, and now Rochelle gestures between the two of them. "And when you're in the middle of something, you don't want to be pausing to do that, right? I know guys from work that wear contacts to fights, and they don't fall out." And goodness knows, wrestlers move around more than Hiro really does.

Hiro does plenty of moving around! It just happens in the moments between seconds that nobody but him ever really gets to see. All the same, Rochelle raises a good point and he nods his head thoughtfully.

"I was thinking of putting a sofa there," Hiro says, pointing at an empty space by the wall as he scratches his head thoughtfully, "But … I do not know. I am not much of an interior designer. Kitty wants to help."

"Don't look at me. I haven't moved my furniture in years." Rochelle crosses her arms, a bemused expression on her face. "There's a dust bunny colony under the couch." And then, realizing a new name halfway between her sentence, she tilts her head. "Who's Kitty?"

Hiro blinks a couple of times, realizing that that particular name just slipped out and now he really has no way or getting out of an explanation. He clears his throat, hands falling down to his sides, "I … I am not sure."

"You're not sure?" Rochelle repeats, blinking her eyes into a small squint. "What, does she switch faces or something?" Well, considering their company- it might not be so far off, right?

"No," Hiro answers, shaking his head, "No, nothing like that. I think she's just a friend of mine but … " He's doing a lot of trailing off today.

She's not entirely sure how to take that- but at the least, Rochelle can see how far she can pry into it without seeming too bad. She peers down at Hiro, somewhere between confusion and curiosity. "But what? Speak up."

This is so far from what Hiro had planned to talk about, and further still from what he is comfortable talking about. He sighs, speaking in a very low murmur and looking down at his feet as he says, "She kissed me."

When he looks at the floor and starts muttering, at first, Rochelle thinks that it might be something revelatory, but when it turns out to be an alarmingly and deceptively adorable problem- she has to hold herself back from laughing even just a little bit. Because then she feels a bit sorry for him.

"Oh. I see. Is that all?" Her voice isn't very loud, as to not seem mocking- in the end, Rochelle isn't processing this as a problem, so her confusion lies in why Hiro does.

"Well, yes," Hiro says, perhaps surprised that Rochelle isn't as shocked as he was when it happened - he didn't really expect people to go around kissing him, after all, "But I haven't seen her much since then. I am worried she was not in her … right mind. Some bad people caught and released her. The Company, I think."

"…" Hiro finally gets some attention, and he thinks she wasn't in her right mind? Ouch. "So… is she crazy?" Rochelle's not sure what else to say, and the glance to either side lets it be known. "Well, Hiro- you see- sometimes girls around here-" How to put this? "-sometimes they're just kinda freewheeling. Especially with… relationships. So if she never calls you back or never commits, don't feel too bad."

"She says she's not," Hiro answers, wringing his hands in front of him like he's being told off, "She says she's feeling better and I don't have to worry about her. She wants to throw a party." He sighs quietly when Rochelle explains the whole freewheeling deal, "Ah."

They never know if they're crazy. "You look like I just popped your balloons, Hiro." And that's just sad, and it makes Rochelle sad. "But not all of them are like that. Just- I dunno how girls across the Pacific… do things. Just making sure you know it's probably different. If it doesn't work out, then it doesn't. Don't let yourself get bent out of shape. You're making me feel bad that I brought her up." The woman chuckles, but just barely.

"It is okay," Hiro says, shaking his head, "I just … was confused. I didn't know if we were going out or not."

"If it stays on your mind, you should probably just ask her." Look at this- Rochelle, dispensing relationship advice. It is like a math professor trying to tell someone how to sheer a llama. At least she means well.

"I should," Hiro agrees with a nod, leaning against the wall, "Thank you, Rosherru."

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