String Theory: An AU of an AU by sasskitten (NC17)

[lakester.livejournal.com]

Fandom: HEROES
Pairing: Claire/Niki
Length: ~8300
Author on LJ: sasskitten
Author Website: sasskittenfics
Why this must be read: Because the characters intersect with each other in so many combinations that it's really kinda interesting to throw together two who haven't met. In another take on the Five Years Gone AU Niki survives Kirby Plaza due to Claire's intervention, they flee to Vegas, hide and - isolated - start to heal and rebuild.

Both characters are well shown in their different shellshocked reactions an there's a real feeling for the practicalities of their life without their support networks. There's a steady build to their closeness and relationship, as much as it's slow and tinted with melancholy. This how Niki and Claire would be if this would have happened - Claire determined and Niki protective and angry - and plausible growth for them both.

Claire had passed out again during Niki's sprint and when she came to she was on an unfamiliar bed, the taste of smoke heavy in her mouth and a searing pain everywhere as she grew herself new skin to replace that which had been burnt off.

"And I thought I was a freak," Niki's first words had been to her, as she stood now wearing a white robe, shower fresh, in the doorway between the bedroom and the bathroom of the motel room she had taken Claire to.

Claire quickly pushed herself up into a sitting position as she began to choke, coughing up what looked like black charcoal, but what she suspected with horror might be her lungs.

"You were dead, I checked myself," Niki told her, moving to sit slowly, cautiously, on the end of the double bed and handing Claire a bottle of water.

String Theory: An AU of an AU