Title: Lost time
Day/Theme: Aug. 29 / without sense of time lost
Character/Pairing: Oz, Alice, Gil
A/N: I was attempting for heartwarming and this is what came out...
Summary: If Oz closes his eyes, those lost years aren't quite so lost.
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If Oz closes his eyes, he can ignore reality. Those ten years that passed slip back, sands travelling up the hourglass, and he can picture it clearly. There is a shop nearby, selling baked treats, and a beggar singing for spare change. A child runs by-he can feel the bump-and his mother is yelling at him to return.
If Oz opens his eyes, it's all there, still. The shop is putting out new treats and the beggar is tuning his guitar. The boy, a mischievous smile on his face, is dodging in and out of crowds. The sky is still the bright, cheerful colour, and the sun is always a little too hot.
It's all there, this past that he missed, waiting to be reclaimed. He just has to reach out and touch it-
"Oz, I found her."
-and it all comes crashing down, in the blink of an eye.
Gil-oh, but he's not Gil, he's Raven. He's taller and smarter and can handle any fight. Alice is frowning, a meat bun in her mouth, as Gi-Raven drags her by the cuffs of her sleeves. Ada has changed as well, his once little sister now barely older than him. His home is covered in vines, and that shop, with the tasiest sweets, now just sells loaves of bread.
It's not really the same at all.
"Hey, hurry it up," Alice grumbles, pushing him as Raven glances down at him worriedly.
(Then again, that isn't a bad thing. Raven is still Gil, only a little more put together, and Alice wasn't here all those years ago.
This is a present he doesn't want to lose.)
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