Who: Livwell What: Lowell's temporarily gay. Liv's temporarily a sex expert. When: Early December Where: Lowell's apartment Warning/Rating: None/low
Now that Lowell had been a zombie for a few weeks it was easier for Liv to talk to him. Open up about herself and all her ‘personality quirks’. Now that he was experiencing it for himself there was a better chance he’d understand. Now that Lowell was on his second brain Liv wanted to talk to him about it all, explain things better, find out what it meant for them. And then maybe not talk.
She arrived at his apartment with a brain smoothie in hand, containers of hot sauce in her purse. Liv knocked on the door shifting from foot to foot anxiously.
Lowell had spent a lot of time since talking with Isabela thinking about Liv. The night before he’d turned into a zombie, he’d thought about sitting down and talking with her again, but then his entire life had been turned upside down. He’d been strangely optimistic about it all when it happened, but it was still a lot to adjust to his unexpected craving for brains. The euphoria had worn off after a couple of weeks, which still left him with the question of how exactly to deal with Liv. He knew he still cared for her, but suddenly the thought of being with her was a little repulsing. He couldn’t figure it out until he’d caught himself admiring the backside of one of the interns.
This taking the personalities of people he ate was a little inconvenient.
He’d been working on a new song when he heard the knock on his door, and quickly went to answer the door. “Liv!” he said, glad to see her. “Come in.”
“Thanks,” Liv replied with a smile stepping inside. Ideally she’d like to greet him with a kiss, that led to other things. It had been way too long for Liv. But things were a still a little off with them. Even if he now got why she had been so crazy their breakup still stung a bit and she wasn’t even sure what he wanted anymore. “So how are you holding up?”
“Oh, just dandy,” Lowell said, playfully sarcastic. “Who wouldn’t aspire to be a zombie?” Honestly, zombiedom wasn’t exactly what Lowell had expected. There was less groaning and shuffling involved, for one, and a lot more confusing personality shifts. But he still missed the small things. Like being able to taste anything that wasn’t spicy.
“I don’t know. It’s always been a dream of mine,” Liv shot back just as playfully. “I’d love to tell you it gets better but it doesn’t. You just sort of get used to it more?” Because yeah she wouldn’t want to be a monster surviving on brains.
“It could be worse. I could have to go through this alone,” he said. Like he was in his dreams. Blaine was the only other zombie that Lowell knew, and while he was friendly enough, he really wasn’t the kind of guy Lowell wanted to cozy up with to discuss the pitfalls of being a zombie. It was comforting knowing he had Liv here to help with everything. “Can I get you a drink?”
Liv had in both dreams and real life. It wasn’t fun. At least she got to know Lowell eventually in the dreams, and he did help with the whole zombie thing. Made it more fun. It was one of the things she liked about him. As for Blaine? He just made everything worse and Liv didn’t even know about him until months later.
“Glad to be your friendly neighborhood zombie,” she joked. “But really, anything you need I’m happy to help.” Figuring it all out was tough and she wanted to be there for Lowell. Even if it was in a strictly friend way. “Sure,” she didn’t even add the as long as it’s spicy part. Lowell knew her tastes by now. Even had the same.
Lowell did, indeed, know her tastes by now, and so when he made the Bloody Marys, he made sure to add extra tabasco sauce to both of them. He finished them off with a stick of celery, and then brought them to Liv, holding one out to her. “Is that a fact?” Lowell asked, grinning. “Because I have a whole pile of laundry that needs to be done.” He was joking, of course. He’d never expect Liv to do his laundry for him. “Though if we’re being honest, just you being here is enough for me.”
“Sorry,” Liv replied cracking a smile. “Laundry is the only thing I don’t do. Now if you asked for furniture building, that I could have helped you with.” It was nice getting back to jokes with Lowell. Not just because of everything that had happened between them, but it was also a good sign that he was adjusting. Not entirely bitter now that the optimism brain had worn out.
“You know,” Liv said stepping closer to him her confidence growing. “I can be here for you in more ways than one.”
Lowell had thought before of all the ways Liv could be there for him. Hell, when they’d been going out, there wasn’t much else that he had thought about. But now here she was, probably coming onto him, and try as he might, he could not bring himself to be excited by the prosepct.
“Oh good,” Lowell said, casually taking a step back before turning and heading toward the living room. “How are your music critic skills? I’ve been working on a new song and I thought you might like to give it a listen.”
That wasn’t exactly what she had in mind. Not to mention the huge step back Lowell took from her. Clearly they weren’t on the same page. Liv couldn’t help but frown. She honestly thought once he understood why she went through all those personality changes he would want to pick up where they left off.
Apparently not.
“Uh sure,” Liv finally said following him into the living room. “Go ahead.”
Lowell’s living room was large and open, with a sliding glass to his substantial balcony taking up nearly the entire wall. The view through the glass was beautiful, Lowell had always thought, with a view right out to the ocean. It seemed especially so tonight, with the light reflecting off the snow that now coated his balcony and furniture.
It would have been almost romantic, if Lowell was feeling particularly romantic. He picked up his acoustic guitar, and sat down on his ottoman, strummed it once to make sure it was in tune, and then started playing a very simple, folksy tune. “I’m sorry for being a twat,” Lowell started, and continued singing a rhyming, joking apology.
Even though he had rebuffed her advances or well the one move she had attempted so far and bruised her ego a bit, Liv found herself smiling and even laughing at his song. She burst into applause once it was done. “Bravo,” Liv commented a smile still present on her face. “You definitely have to play that one at your next gig.”
“I was thinking so,” Lowell said, pleased that Liv seemed to enjoy his apology. “I was thinking it would fit nicely between Wrong Number and Ordinary Days.”
“I’m sure your band members will agree,” Liv quipped. “Is that all?” Should she go now? Or did Lowell have something else in mind. Something that was definitely on her mind and finally possible now.
“Well, that’s all I wanted to show you,” Lowell said hesitantly. He didn’t particularly want Liv to leave. He rather enjoyed her company. “But if you’d like to stay for dinner, I can get that started. I can make a mean brain stir fry.”
Staying for dinner sounded promising. And of course she wanted to spend more time with Lowell. “I don’t know about that. I have been cooking brains longer than you,” she teased. “I guess I’ll just have to judge for myself.”