Necessary Indiscretion

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“What are you doing sleeping at four in the afternoon, Peter?” Nathan Petrelli demanded, shaking his brother awake vigorously. “Here. Coffee. Wake the hell up.”

Peter Petrelli rubbed his eyes and grumbled, “I haven’t seen you in almost three weeks, and now you just show up whenever you feel like it. How the fuck did you get in here?”

“Window was open.”

“You flew in my fucking window?”

“No, just kidding. I have a copy of your key, remember? I let myself in. Profanity this early in the day? Jesus, Peter, you don’t even have a nice word to say to your favorite brother?” Nathan handed the mug of coffee to him.

“I thought you said it was four in the afternoon.”

Nathan laughed. “No, I‘m just kidding about that too. It’s noon. I brought your suit to the dry cleaners, they’ll have it ready by two. I cleaned your kitchen up a little, and brought you some groceries. You didn’t have anything edible in the fridge.”

“What--why did you bring my suit to the cleaners? It was already clean! You don’t have to clean up after me, I can take care of myself, Nate. If I wanted someone to take care of me, I’d be living at Mom’s.” Peter kicked off his blanket and sat up, and Nathan sat down next to him.

“Ma doesn’t pay your rent, Pete. I do. I brought your suit to the cleaners because I need you to look nice tonight. Be grateful I didn’t make you an appointment for the haircut I keep telling you to get. You’re such a grouch when you first wake up. Come here.”

Peter embraced Nathan and murmured, “Where are we going tonight?”

“Ma’s. She’s having a dinner party and half of New York’s invited. She wants us there early.”

Peter pulled away from him and rolled his eyes. “Oh, no. I’m not going. I’m not talking to her right now, Nate--“

“Oh, yes you are. Now drink your coffee, and then get in the shower, shave, get all pretty for me, whatever you have to do. I’ve been busy since seven o’clock this morning, now I finally get a chance to relax. At least for a little while.” Nathan turned the television on and flipped off his shoes, loosened his tie.

“Screw you, Nate. Stop fucking hitting on me, I’m not in the mood,” Peter groaned, resting his head back against the wall. “Why do you have to do this to me?”

“Because our mother misses her younger son, that’s why. She hasn’t seen you much since Dad passed. Now get a move on, Pete.” Nathan patted Peter’s cheek, and implored, “Come on, do this for me.”

“All right, all right.” Peter stood up and stretched briefly. “But after the dinner party I’m going to the bar. I’m meeting someone there.” He set his empty mug down on the table in the kitchen and went into the bathroom.

Nathan felt a little twinge of jealousy, knowing Peter was meeting someone, but he was too impossibly exhausted to care that much, what with his kids, and taking care of Heidi, and all the time spent at the campaign headquarters. He settled himself into the warm place in the bed that Peter had vacated, and pulled the blanket up. Peter’s apartment was always somehow freezing cold. He flipped through a few channels, but nothing of any interest was on the TV, so he flicked off the power button on the remote control.

It didn’t take long for the white noise of the running shower to put Nathan to sleep.

***

Peter walked into his bedroom, toweling off his hair as he went, and stopped short when he saw Nathan sleeping in his bed, having totally forgotten he was there.

Nathan’s arm hung off the bed, and he was snoring a little, his mouth partly open. He wasn’t kidding when he said he was tired, Peter thought.

“Nate, wake up, come on, I just gotta get dressed and we can go to the cleaners.”

Nathan’s eyes opened halfway, and his brother stood there, wearing just a white bath towel around his waist. Nathan grumbled, “Five more minutes, Pete, gimme five more minutes.”

Peter said, “Okay, okay, five minutes. You’re drooling, by the way.”

Nathan teased, “That’s ‘cause you’re so goddamned sexy, Pete.”

Peter laughed, “Don’t you know it. Four minutes.”

Peter stepped into a pair of jeans and a white T-shirt, put his sneakers on, and then shrugged into a blue hooded sweatshirt. He combed his hair in the mirror over the dresser, and went back into the kitchen. He turned off the coffeemaker, put the non-perishables that Nathan had brought for him into the pantry, and grabbed his keys off the kitchen table. “Okay, Nate, five minutes is up, let’s go.”

Nathan stood up reluctantly, stepped into his shoes, smoothed the wrinkles out of his slacks, and ran his fingers through his hair. He gave Peter his best Elect Me To Congress smile. “Okay, I’m ready. We’re gonna have a good time tonight, Pete. I can just tell.” He slung an arm around his brother’s shoulders and they left for the cleaners.

***

At the Chinese laundry, the diminutive woman behind the counter watched as Peter and Nathan came into the store, a little chime jingling as the door swung shut behind them. Nathan handed the woman the tickets, and noticed his brother had a worried look on his face.

“Jesus Christ, Nathan, I don’t have my credit card,” Peter swore, fumbling through his wallet.

“Don’t worry about it, Pete, I got it.” He slid his American Express card across the counter, thanked the woman and grabbed the four hangers, which contained two dress shirts and two suits, all Armani.

The two brothers returned to Peter’s apartment, where they began to dress for the evening. Peter rummaged through his closet for a couple of ties, and to his confusion, saw that his best suit was hanging in the closet, still in the plastic from the last time it had been cleaned. “Nathan, I told you my suit was clean, I never even wore…” If his suit was here, what did Nathan bring to the cleaners?

“You got me, you got me. I went to the liberty of buying you a new one. Now get dressed,” Nathan said, thrusting the suit into Peter’s hands. Peter didn’t take it.

“Jesus, Nate, you didn’t have to do that, this must have cost you a fortune!”

“Stop complaining, Peter, and put it on, see how it looks. Anything for my favorite little brother.”

Peter scoffed, “I’ll bet you took my credit card too, you sneaky bastard.”

Nathan laughed as he fanned two slim plastic cards between his fingers. “Both of them. Save your money, Peter. I have plenty.”

Peter tried to keep a straight face as he said, stripping down to his underwear, “Why are you making me feel like I’m a cheap whore, Nate?” He couldn’t finish the sentence without dissolving into peals of laughter.

Nathan started laughing too. “A ‘cheap whore’? Here, put the damn thing on before I change my mind, you ass.” Peter tossed him a tie, and Nathan handed him the suit and shirt.

When Peter finished dressing, he spun around in a circle and asked, “All right, how do I look?”

Nathan debated whether he should answer that honestly. I’d like to tear it off you right now, you look so good. No, probably not. “Stunning, Pete.”

“I bet you would,” Peter said, putting on his cufflinks.

“Fuck you, stop listening to me think.”

“Sorry, Nate, couldn’t help it, you virtually thought it at me. Okay, ready to go?” Peter swiped the comb through his hair, watched Nathan watching him in the mirror, a covetous smirk on his face. “Stop it, Nathan. Seriously. I don’t want to have to sit through Mom’s dinner with a hard-on, okay?”

“All right, all right, I’ll quit, for now. But you do look good. Fits perfectly.” He slapped Peter affectionately on his ass.

Peter took Nathan in a close embrace. “Thanks. Thank you for the gift,” Peter whispered into Nathan’s ear. He then gave Nathan a gentle kiss on the side of the neck.