Response to challenge #2
Title: Trail of Tears
Pairing: Oz/Xander
Rating: PG
Notes: This is set about a year post-Chosen. No spoilers. This is unbeta'd. Hopefully it doesn't suck too much.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything. I seek only to expand upon so already amazing work.
This is in response to Challenge #2 - cartography.
Oz ran his fingers over the map on Xander's wall, pausing over circles drawn around the cities he'd been to. “Addis Ababa?”
“Yeah.”
Oz noticed the darkness on Xander's face, the hesitancy to speak. Over the last few months together, Oz had noticed how much quieter he was since high school. Since Anya. Since Sunnydale.
Oz stared at Xander as he raised a finger to the map and with the gentlest touch, traced the path of his past year's journey. His words were slow and even. “The Sudan... Eritrea and Ethiopia... Kenya then back up to Somalia. All that was ground travel. Jeep.”
Xander closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. Oz reached under Xander's shirt and rested his hand on the small of his back.
“From there we took a boat... to Oman... Pakistan... India. Train and then another Jeep to reach Nepal.... Then finally got to fly back here.” His finger arced over Russian and Europe to land on London.
Oz made slow circles on Xander's back. “I've been there.”
Xander turned back to looking at Asia. “Nepal?”
“Yeah. Back when I first left Sunnydale. Nepal, Tibet, hung out with some monks. It was beautiful there. Peaceful.”
“Yeah. It was nice after... well, after everywhere else.” Xander turned and faced Oz. There was so much pain on his face. One eye dark and haunted, the other gone forever. Oz reached up and traced along the edge of the patch.
He'd made the same movement the week before. They'd just made love and were lying together in bed, enjoying the feel of each other, the comfort of simple touch. He'd traced the patch that Xander refused to remove in his presence the asked why he hadn't let Willow fix him. Xander'd simply looked at him and said, “It's easier to see the horrors of the world when the image is skewed.”
Xander cried silently and Oz didn't need to see his tears to know they were there. He leaned over and kissed his tears away and simply held the man he'd come to love. From here on out their travels would be together.
Pairing: Oz/Xander
Rating: PG
Notes: This is set about a year post-Chosen. No spoilers. This is unbeta'd. Hopefully it doesn't suck too much.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything. I seek only to expand upon so already amazing work.
This is in response to Challenge #2 - cartography.
Oz ran his fingers over the map on Xander's wall, pausing over circles drawn around the cities he'd been to. “Addis Ababa?”
“Yeah.”
Oz noticed the darkness on Xander's face, the hesitancy to speak. Over the last few months together, Oz had noticed how much quieter he was since high school. Since Anya. Since Sunnydale.
Oz stared at Xander as he raised a finger to the map and with the gentlest touch, traced the path of his past year's journey. His words were slow and even. “The Sudan... Eritrea and Ethiopia... Kenya then back up to Somalia. All that was ground travel. Jeep.”
Xander closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. Oz reached under Xander's shirt and rested his hand on the small of his back.
“From there we took a boat... to Oman... Pakistan... India. Train and then another Jeep to reach Nepal.... Then finally got to fly back here.” His finger arced over Russian and Europe to land on London.
Oz made slow circles on Xander's back. “I've been there.”
Xander turned back to looking at Asia. “Nepal?”
“Yeah. Back when I first left Sunnydale. Nepal, Tibet, hung out with some monks. It was beautiful there. Peaceful.”
“Yeah. It was nice after... well, after everywhere else.” Xander turned and faced Oz. There was so much pain on his face. One eye dark and haunted, the other gone forever. Oz reached up and traced along the edge of the patch.
He'd made the same movement the week before. They'd just made love and were lying together in bed, enjoying the feel of each other, the comfort of simple touch. He'd traced the patch that Xander refused to remove in his presence the asked why he hadn't let Willow fix him. Xander'd simply looked at him and said, “It's easier to see the horrors of the world when the image is skewed.”
Xander cried silently and Oz didn't need to see his tears to know they were there. He leaned over and kissed his tears away and simply held the man he'd come to love. From here on out their travels would be together.