#loveslabourlost

[ladyanywhere23]

Day 54 and 55: #openingnight #loveslabourlost #orlandoshakespearetheater #selfie #lipstick #wetnwild #videovixen

[balance-in-spirit]

Love's Labour Lost || Oz and Lexie

Oh I’m home alright… We just don’t exactly have a front door at the moment. Just be careful when you move it. Faith managed to somewhat put it back on it’s hinges.

Oz stared at his mobile, trying to understand exactly what was going on. He kept trying to add two and two together, and ended up with something that possibly resembled four, but nothing close to any of the fours he liked. There was some old, daft, saying, about hoping for the best and preparing for the worst. From the little he knew, he knew the worst didn't involve Lexie being dead, nor did it involve Faith being dead. So worst was probably Lexie getting pretty depressive and then some demon attacked and Faith saved her, hence the broken door. Best case was she'd hit a rough patch and had like punched a door or something. No, Oz really had no idea how Faith fit into that. Wasn't sure why Faith was there at all.

But he'd let Lexie down again. He'd not been in town when it had gotten difficult again. But it wasn't like it was the first time he'd gone out for a gig. Every other time she'd been okay. Maybe that was the issue, that he was gone so often that Lexie felt he couldn't confide in him? Or maybe he was asking too often, maybe he was smothering her. But Oz knew what losing someone you loved that intensely was like, he still felt the black pit in his chest burning him every day. So it was understandable that he was asking so often. But then during his entire trip to Jersey he'd only asked once, and that hadn't been a positive answer. Oz took a deep breath. He could keep going over it and over in his head but none of that would help Lexie get through Lucy's death if he didn't calm down. Deep breath. Not that breathing deeply was particularily a good idea on the bus.

So there was his stop. Oz hopped off, adjusting his guitar case strap on his shoulder. Already, a strong sense of foreboding was swimming in his gut. He could definitely smell Lexie, as well as Faith, and both were recent smells, which was good, but linked in with that were some extremely intense emotions that he couldn't quite decipher from a distance. Oz hurried.

The smell of bad got intenser and worse, and it started mixing with the stench of vomit and something more medical. Which could just be people living on the floor below, but Oz knew instinctively that it wasn't. When his eyes fell upon his front door, his eyebrow flickered up a little in surprise. It was bent, long splinters protruding for the general wood. Obviously, someone had tried to bend it back into shape, had pushed it hard onto the hinges. The door handle had fallen off, too. Oz might have been moderately alarmed by the sight if he hadn't been forewarned. Instead he was just alarmed by the smell of sickness that trailed through the halls, originating in their flat. He pushed the door, but it was stuck against something, so Oz slammed his shoulder into it. He could repair it later. Or Xander could.

"Lexie!" He called, his eyes flicking around the room. Faith had definitely been here recently. A lot of both girls' scents came from the bathroom, where the acid stench of sick and medicine was clearest too. Oz just had to swing his head around the door to figure out what happened.

"Lexie!" he called again, Oz's stomache churning faster and faster with fear. He'd almost been too late, had almost come home to a cold body with no one to blame but himself, again. And Lexie too, but if she'd been dead he couldn't really blame her. She wasn't, he knew that. Well, Oz hoped he knew that. Nervously, he swung open Lexie's door, and sighed in relief as he  saw her. Wordlessly, he sat down opposite her, and reached out for her wrist, not breaking eye contact. 

Oz waited for something. Anything.