Fic: Out of Time Redux (Hiro/Adam)

[guanin]

Summary: Hiro goes back to change history and actually gets it right this time.
AN: I got this idea from a comment likeahobbit made in her journal about the latest episode. Most of it is quite silly. I threw in a line from The Princess Bride because I couldn't resist. It starts right during that scene in “Out of Time” after Hiro teleported Yaeko out of the battlefield.
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own words.




"Hiro, do you love me?"

Hiro was about to answer when time froze. He turned around and nearly screamed when he saw himself standing two feet away. Not future, creepy, all-black wearing him, but present him, as if he'd spontaneously cloned himself in some freakish time lapse. Before the phrase "What the fuck?!" could form in his brain, the other him grabbed him by the shoulder, saying, "You can't be here," and started dragging him away.

"I come from the future," he continued, "Present. From two days after you go back to the future, which is four months after you left, but that's not the point. This can't happen."

Hiro felt like he’d been thrust into another dimension. True, he'd met a future version of himself before, but at least then the other he had had the courtesy to look and act differently enough so that Hiro could think of him as another person. This was just too weird.

"What can't happen?" he blurted out. "What's going on?"

The other he finally stopped walking and turned toward him with a face so dark and filled with doom that he freaked out even more.

"Let me explain,” the other he began. “No, there is too much. Let me sum up. I kissed Yaeko and Kensei saw us and got jealous so he betrayed us to White Beard and turned evil and in the future he kills Father after he helps him and a bunch of other people with powers form a Company that creates a deadly virus that could wipe out human civilization and Kensei is going to release the virus and kill us all."

Hiro stared. At some point, his brain had frozen like an overloaded computer monitor. The words "Father" and "killed" and "evil" hopped around his mind like demented bunnies but he seemed to have lost the capacity to process language.

"Huh?"

The other he looked like he might to elaborate, but then he didn‘t.

"Never mind," he said and started marching again, faster than before. His hand dug painfully into Hiro's arm, but he was too terrified to even think about shaking it off. "It's better that you don't think about it. The point is: evil. And you don't really love Yaeko."

"I don't?"

"No. You're just infatuated with her because she's the mythical princess you've been reading about your entire life. It's all an illusion. The person you should be with right now is him."

He stopped and pointed to a man frozen in space about five meters away, who Hiro quickly recognized as Kensei.

"Kensei?" he asked. "Why him?"

"Just go talk to him. There's something he wants to tell you but is too afraid to ask. You'll see. Or at least, I hope you do, or I'll have to reverse time and do this all over again. Go."

He shooed him away, pushing him toward Kensei. Hiro took a few tentative steps forward, glancing over his shoulder with more than a little fear. Not a single word spoken in the last five minutes made any sense at all, but he really didn’t want to argue with this strange him. As he approached Kensei, he felt the breeze stroke his face again. Leaves started fluttering on the tree branches and Kensei fnished the step he'd started to take when his doppelganger froze time.

"Kensei!" he called out, insanely happy that time was actually moving again.

Kensei saw him and quickly changed direction, rushing toward him.

"Carp!"

He smiled that radiant grin Hiro loved so much. Wait, he loved it? When did he start loving it? But he had no time to dwell on it before Kensei caught up with him.

"I was worried about you," Kensei said. His face was flushed, giving his eyes a special sparkle. "You were right behind me and then you were gone. I figured that you did that trick of yours, but still."

"I'm fine.” A mad laugh started to climb up his throat at the absurdity of that sentence. “I think I teleported a little further away than I meant to, though." Something suddenly struck him as odd. "Aren't you going to ask about Yaeko?"

Kensei's face went from overjoyed to confused to slightly chagrined in moments.

"Oh. Right. I figured you'd taken her with you. Where is she?"

"She's back that way." Hiro pointed at the direction from where the other him had brought him. "Somewhere." He frowned, realizing that he wasn't really that bothered that Yaeko was in some indeterminate location by herself.

"Well,” Kensei said, “I'm sure she'll find us eventually."

Hiro wasn't sure if what he felt should be called confusion anymore. It was too large and all-encompassing.

"Kensei?"

He really didn't want to ask. Bad things might happen if he asked. Of course, it seemed that bad things had already happened, would happen, one of those. In any case, the other him was guaranteed to appear again and that just too scary.

"Is there something you want to tell me?"

Apprehension crossed Kensei's face, but he quickly smothered it behind another smile, which didn't look half as genuine as the former one.

"What about?"

"I don't know. I just get the feeling that there's something you want to tell me but you might be afraid to say."

Kensei lost his smile completely. He shuffled his feet, something he never, ever did and Hiro started freaking out again, but then he saw the open vulnerability that had suddenly gripped Kensei's face and an entirely different feeling started growing in his belly.

"I thought you hadn't noticed," Kensei said, not quite looking at him. "There is something, but I didn't want to risk losing our friendship." He stopped to take a deep, long breath. "I'm not really in love with Yaeko."

Hiro's breath caught in his throat. It all made sense now. Completely insane sense, but sense. He felt shocked, amazed, astounded even, but the most surprising thing of all was the sudden surge of emotions he'd never realized were there, though part of him had always known they existed, blinded and befuddled by "should be"s and childhood mentalities.

"Kensei?" His throat tightened a little as he spoke. "Do you love me?"

Kensei looked as frightened as he probably felt, which was all the answer Hiro needed. Grabbing him by the shoulder, he pulled him down and kissed him. It was clumsy and tentative, but warmth spread through his entire body as Kensei kissed him back, clutching at his back to bring him closer to the man who he just might have had a crush on his whole life.

"Does this mean that you love me, too?" Kensei asked as they separated, that brilliant smile shining on his face again.

Hiro returned the smile. He wasn't confused anymore.

"Yes."

Sometimes madness could be a very good thing.

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