The Edifice

32. Taking Your Vitamins

OLIVIA

I'm starving by the time we return to Lee's unit, a weariness weighing down my veins like I'd just run a marathon. Despite my supposed access to the immense reserves of power Otis has at his disposal, learning to teleport on a whim was more exhausting than most of my nursing placements put together.

"I need a coffee. Or candy," I moan as I collapse against the breakfast bar, hearing Lee clatter around in the kitchen behind me. "Mmmm... Both..."

"I can make you tea with honey," Lee offers. "Or you can wait for dinner. Do I look like I eat sweets?"

My nose crinkles at the thought. "You don't like sweet things? Aren't you the same Lee who abuses prescription painkillers?"

"Prescription medication," Lee specifies as if it could not possibly be any clearer. "You're a nurse. You should know that if a doctor gives you something then it's obviously good for you. Besides, I'd actually be able to cook if you both weren't fucking vegetarians. I don't suppose either of you can just teleport to Wholefoods and get some tofu?"

Otis takes a seat beside me, looking as worn out as I feel. His face has gained some color to it, his body somehow more substantial from head to toe. It's as though exerting such a constant barrage of his magic while training me has robbed him of some of his superhuman appearance. Now he's... almost normal.

"No? Really?" Lee asks with a scowl as we both shrink away from the idea of any further exercise. His eyes narrow as they note the distance between Otis and I.

"I can go for you," Otis offers. "But I don't actually have any money to buy anything."

Lee takes a moment to weigh up the choice of sending Otis out with his credit card against letting me run off alone in the Edifice again.

"No. I'll go get some. But don't you guys trash the place or whatever while I'm gone. Also keep the hell away from my bedroom drawers." Lee sends a last, lingering look my way as he puts his jacket back on. "Are you OK if I duck out, Olivia?"

I nod, watching the arch of his back as he shrugs into the ripped sleeves and pockets his keys.

Otis waits until Lee's out the door before cooing, "Oooh, so protective."

Fighting to hide my smile, I grab a glass of water and return to my seat. "It does scare me to think what's in that drawer, though."

Otis twists his head at an inhuman angle to peer up into the ceiling with glassy eyes. "Huh."

"Sex stuff?"

"Sex stuff," he confirms, rubbing his eyes as they return to focus. "Gosh, between having a human soul tethered to me and using all that magic today... I think I could actually sleep. I'm not sure that's ever worked for me before..."

"You're not at all like you were when we first met," I agree, and I don't entirely mean physically.

"In all fairness, I was trying very hard to convince you that I was chic and popular," he says. "Usually that's what people want to think and refuse to believe that I'm really just some guy."

Really just a dork.

I'm grateful for this side of Otis, though. The soft, sad side that makes me realise that he wasn't exaggerating when he noted how similar we are.

Despite how incredibly different our circumstances at birth, he knows the same bone-deep loneliness that I've spent the last decade with. A very different story to self-imposed isolation Lee has built for himself.

He hangs his head low, leaning into the cool countertop for respite, looking almost peaceful if not for the way he worries at his lip with a singular, sharp incisor. Hesitantly, I reach out and nudge his shoulder gently. "You're still worrying about your brother?"