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Autumn Sweater
by Glossolalia

Now that it's colder, Oz wears his blue lambswool sweater every day.

V-neck, dense and blurred with pilling, snagged stitches. Holes in both elbows, his gray thermal shirt poking through. Dickensian, small, and bright.

Blue like Buffy's eyes, cigarettes' smoke, gelled stagelights.

Sharp elbows, sharper twist to his neck, white tendon against twilit wool, when Oz (Daniel) looks over his shoulder. Giles swallows drily. Oz's eyes are dark and shifting as fallen leaves on the forest floor. Radiating need, appeal, questions.

Giles tries so hard to smile his face aches. He'll try hard, always, ever. Used to be so effortless.