A Step Forward

[Ezra Cooper]

Ezra shook his head and smiled softly. He wasn't. He knew what Alex was capable of. He didn't say anything, though he nodded when Alex mentioned practice. He didn't know much about music but everything worth doing well required time and practice.

"Ooh. Gimme." He went over to their overhead cabinets to get two big mugs and set it on the kitchen counter. He cracked open a can and poured some into the mugs. "Oh but how much should the portion be?"

[Alexandra Lawson]

Sometimes Alex wished she believed in herself the way Ezra so obviously did. That was, of course, one of the reasons she had fallen so hard for him. He was always so supportive of everything she did and was truly one of the few people who could make her think she had the potential to take on the world, even if she didn't fully believe it herself. She smiled brightly to him. He hadn't replied, but the gleam in his eyes spoke volumes. She nodded to him. He didn't have to speak. She knew. She understood.

Eyes lighting up, Alex slid across the kitchen floor, ducking beneath Ezra's arm and bringing the bottle up to the counter. She unscrewed the cap and tossed it aside for the time being and began to pour the dark brown liquid into one of the glasses. "I don't know the exact ratio." She said, now standing in front of Ezra, between himself and the kitchen counter. Her head tilted upward, peering at him with her eyes bright. "How about just... 'a lot'?"

[Ezra Cooper]

Until Alex began to believe in herself, Ezra didn't mind doing it for the both of them. It wasn't as though Alex didn't do the same for him. He knew she supported everything he did. The past three years being with him despite not seeing too much of him and not complaining about the time they didn't spend together and really cherishing the time they did, it was more than he could ask for. He would never want to take that for granted.

The smile on her face warmed him over and once she started pouring, Ezra laughed and nodded. "Sounds good to me." He nodded and brought his glass closer to her.

"Aren't you eating first though? I wouldn't want you consuming alcohol on an empty stomach." He looked down at her with a mildly concerned look on his face.

[Alexandra Lawson]

"Lighten up, Ezra!" Alex said, her eyes gleaming as she poured the brown liquid into the glass. She understood his concern but he sometimes came off as a bit overprotective. There they were, neither if them going to be driving and she knew she didn't have to work until late the next day with dinner sitting on the table and he's looking her about eating before drinking. "We're eating now. That's good enough." And with that insistence, Alex flashed a bright smile up to Ezra and spun the cap back onto the bottle of liquor.

A plate and a half of dinner and a few strong drinks later had found Alex sitting idly in the living room while Ezra had ducked into the bathroom. Never one to sit patiently, even for a few minutes, Alex was struck by a sudden idea and leapt into action. She was certainly wobbly and more than a little giggly as she started pulling blankets off the bed and cushions off the couch. By the time Ezra emerged from the bathroom Alex had a solid start on a blanket fort. Unfortunately, Alex was, at first, nowhere to be found.

A muffled cry from behind the couch gave away her position and a quick glance would reveal the redheaded pixie tangled messily in one of the heavy blankets. A single arm jutted out, fingers grasping at air in hopes of finding some sort of relief. "I fall-ed... Felled..." The slurred, muffled words came wrapped in a series of giggles. "F-Fell! I fell!"

[Ezra Cooper]

"I'm light! Just..." he paused as he looked her over. It wasn't like they were going to leave the apartment. What was the worst that could happen? He shrugged lightly and grabbed the bottle from her and started pouring it into his mug.

Brushing his teeth after dinner, Ezra was nice and buzzed when he came out of the bathroom. At first, he wondered why everything was so quiet until he heard the giggling. Peeking behind the couch, Ezra couldn't help the snorting laughter as he walked over to the work in progress and tried to help Alex out.

Even buzzed, there was no denying that Ezra was adoringly gazing at the girl he had fallen for almost ten years ago. "You felled?" He asked with a low chuckle as he pulled her up. "A blanket fort huh?"

[Alexandra Lawson]

The slender hand gripped the nearest piece of Ezra it could find and pulled. Alex did little to help herself escape her blanket prison but Ezra's deceptive strength coupled with her slight stature made it easy enough to free her without much fuss. She let out another giggle as she slid out over the back of the couch, opting to remain where she was for a moment, arms and legs hanging to either side. before slowly tilting and flopping onto the cushions which only brought out a second burst of giggles.

"Yes!" Alex said, both arms jutting triumphantly upward toward the ceiling. "Blanket fort!" Came the proud declaration. Slowly Alex sat up, her solo rough housing on the couch had damaged her progress on the fort, though the foundation was still in place. Her idea was solid, her execution had been lacking though it was to be expected in her giddy state. "I just can't believe it!" She said, her eyes peering up to her hands as she waved them about in front of her. "I sang today, Ezra. I actually sang and it felt good."

[Ezra Cooper]

Alex's giddiness was contagious and it didn't take long for the buzzed Ezra to match it as he practically tackled Alex on the couch. He pressed a quick kiss on her forehead and helped out with the fort.

Her confession led him to smile softly. "Yeah? What'd you sing?" He asked, purposely messing things up just to get a reaction from the petite redhead.

There was a certain pride in Ezra that he couldn't fathom why he felt since it hadn't even been his idea to push Alex towards music again. It had always been a huge part of her youth. He didn't know why it hadn't been the first thought for him in the first place when she stopped humming to her favourite songs or even listening to music at all.

Here she was, beaming and breathless simply because she sang.

[Alexandra Lawson]

"Learn to Fly." Alex said, twisting around to lay in her stomach, head propped up in her hands as she watched Ezra start to work building on the foundation of the first she'd haphazardly started. "It was the first song we all knew. The guys are hella good. I guess their other singer left or something, I don't know." Alex lifted her feet and the swung lazily behind her.

"I know you and Addie are never going to tell me I suck but the people there were really cool. They want us to start practicing and do a few shows around he area to get used to playing together. That means they're... Interested." The word came out as if it was some big revelation. As if Alex had in no way believed it to be true. "You can use the small blanket to overlap that corner there." She said, pointing before she continued talking of her day. "It's weird. I keep thinking it's all a joke or something." Her eyes suddenly grew large. " Addie wouldn't set something like that up would she?"

[Ezra Cooper]

"Foo Fighters, right on." Ezra started to nod which ended up just being a headbobbing that wouldn't stop. He rolled his eyes at the girl's self-deprecating statement and responded. "Babe, I will tell you you suck when you start to. I'm not changing my tune until you start sounding out of it." He shrugged.

He simply chuckled when Alex continued being completely boggled by how her talent had managed to capture the proper audience. How could it not? She sang like an angel. And her range was ridiculous. She could sing anything put in front of her and Ezra knew that.

Alex's revelation had Ezra gasp. "Of course not!" He responded adamantly before crawling over to Alex on his knees, pulling her face up and squishing her cheeks in the process.

"Babykins. Babykins." He repeated it one more time before burping. "Sorry." He laughed before squishing her cheeks once more. "Things like this is too expensive to be a joke. Besides, Addie's weird, not cruel. And her ass is on the line as well with this. This is happening and I'm so proud of you!"

[Alexandra Lawson]

Alex's eyes stayed wide as Ezra's hands came out and smushed her cheeks together. She peered up to him, blinking a few times as he spoke to her. His words truly mattered and she really did take them to heart even if she wasn't fully capable of comprehending them just yet. Alex had always been her own, biggest and most vocal doubter. There was modesty and then there was Alex. She nodded as much as she could while her face was still held in Ezra's hands. The way he seemed to have such implicit faith in her was welcome and slowly chopped away at her insecurities.

"Yeah. Okay." Alex said, pulling herself from Ezra's grasp and sitting up on her knees so she could run at her cheeks with both hands. "I'll stop." She said with a slow exhale of breath and a nod. There was no use in going in circles. Neither what she or Ezra thought really mattered in this case. They were going to put her on stage and see what she could do. The truth, good or bad, would be revealed then.

[Ezra Cooper]

Ezra had to resist just mauling the redhead with her face all smushed up, making her expressive, big brown eyes even larger than usual. His thumbs started to play with her lips, making him chuckle.

When she reassured him that she would stop her negative thinking, he gave her a big smooch on her cheek and held his hand out to her. "Les' get in the fort. I'll switch off the lights and then we can use the torchlight and pretend we're at camp or something. I'll get the booze." He hurriedly tried to get her in before running off to the light switch and turned everything off. He almost tripped and fell on his way to the kitchen but managed to get the bottle safely into the blanket fort.

After his messing around, he didn't really know if it was stable or not but he was adamant in getting in. "Alex? Alex are you in there?" He called out playfully.

[Alexandra Lawson]

Alex smiled as well as she could with her cheeks mushed together as they were. Her lips may not have been able to convey the love and adoration she held for the young paramedic but her large, expressive brown eyes picked up the slack. They shone with a light even Ezra hadn't seen since the two of them moved out. She nodded at his words, hands coming up to massage at her cheeks (which were starting to feel a little numb from drinking) when Ezra pulled away.

"I'm here." Came the tiny voice from beneath the blanket structure. Alex had saved the heavy comforter her parents had sent them as an apartment-warming gift for the inside of the fort and, when Ezra pulled back the makeshift 'door' of the dwelling he found the redhead curled into a ball, buried within the blanket. The movement to the side caught Alex's attention and she shifted, turning her eyes to peer at Ezra in the darkness. "Come here." She said, her tone low as her arms snaked out from under the blanket and beckoned in an almost child-like manner for him to draw closer.

[Ezra Cooper]

Even hearing her voice, so small and sort of far away, made Ezra smile his goofy grin. Although that could probably also be the alcohol. Either way, he was grinning like a doofus as he entered their fort.

He could hear rustling from inside and didn't bother with the flashlight, crawling in and practically diving down to Alex's side, wriggling close and wrapping his long sinewy arms around his girlfriend and sighing, his heart beating hard and fast for some reason.

"Al...I don't say this often but I'm proud of you. I'm glad you're still chasing your dreams. I'm glad people are finally seeing what I see in you every day. What I've seen in you since day one. I adore you and I'm proud of you." He pressed his lips against Alex's forehead. "I love that you're getting to sing again. I've missed hearing your voice."

[Alexandra Lawson]

Slender arms slipped lovingly around Ezra as he drew near. Alex's eyes closed as she felt his lips softly touch her forehead. She hoped she never stopped feeling the flitting around of butterflies in her stomach whenever he was close. She melted into his embrace, scooting into him and holding onto him tightly. She clung to him as if she feared he'd float away if she didn't keep him grounded. Burying her face into his chest, Alex sighed contentedly.

"You always know the right thing to say." She murmured, her voice muffled by Ezra's shirt. "You're so good to me." Alex snuggled in tighter, her grip not loosening even as she spoke. "I don't know where I'd be without you." She pulled back just enough so she could capture those deep, brown eyes of his with her gaze. "Don't stop pushing me." She pleaded, her voice soft as she cupped his face. "Don't stop being my inspiration. I love you, Ezra, and I need you now more than ever."

[Ezra Cooper]

Ezra couldn't help but enjoy the fact that Alex fit so perfectly in his arms. And how she instantly molded herself into his waiting arms. He was so sure this feeling would never really go away. It had been three years and she still managed to surprise him with different ways he could fall in love with her, and that spoke volumes.

When Alex spoke, Ezra's breath caught in his throat. A part of him was so sure that this was because she was drunk. He still couldn't believe that Alex chose him. That she was the one who went to him in the end. She wanted to be his girlfriend. And here she was, saying things that made his heart beat a little quicker.

"It's only easy because it's the truth." He whispered back, pulling her closer. Her words washed over him, making him feel so wanted and needed and when she cupped his cheek, he looked down at her and his smile softened.

"I'll always need you." He pressed his lips against hers in a brief but exceptionally heartfelt kiss and smiled. "I love you, Alex Lawson. I always will."