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 Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2023 7:40 am
Elliot laughed, with love and adoration. His own ice cream was melted enough that when he dipped his cone, he could drink it. He’d been lucky to have a strong cone; nothing had leaked out. Yet. Even Julian’s had started to drip some. He wasn’t going to give his ice cream a chance to get away, so as soon as he could, he took a large bite of his cone, and finished it off only seconds later.
Elliot was proud of Atticus and drew him close so he could give him an affection squeeze. If his mouth wasn’t full of ice cream, he would have peppered his face with kisses.
Julian watched him briefly, but he hoped that Atticus understood his silence was not out of discomfort or disagreement.
He wished he could have been more honest. Wished he understood how to talk about some subjects that just seemed best left alone. There were things that he waa afraid to say out loud, like if he did he might make them real and he might lose any hope he had of ever getting his family back together. He had doubts and worries about things but he didn’t want to speak them into existence. Didn’t want to think them into existence.
He looked away, just to give them a few seconds of privacy while Elliot seemed to be smitten with his boyfriend, but his little smile never faltered.
Julian never wanted to ask more from Atticus than he was comfortable sharing, and he seemed to have no intention of pressing the matter. He respected that Atticus wasn’t comfortable talking about anything and let the topic end there.
There wasn’t anything interesting about him. He was a good listener because he didn’t have much to say. He didn’t share these thoughts because he thought Atticus might think he was being too hard on himself, but Julian was comfortable with this truth. He couldn’t imagine interrupting Elliot and Atticus, especially knowing that Atticus had already been through so much. He deserved every ounce of happiness he could find.
Elliot seemed determined to give him just that, and seemed to recognize that Julian had already settled back into his quiet nature. He spoke when he was sure that Julian didn’t intend to. “We should get ice cream more often. I like talking with you both. You’re easy to be around. And you both are really kind.” And like they needed a friend who wanted to look after them. “I’m glad we all got to meet. And I’m not just saying that to be cheesy, I mean it. Especially with all of the extra stuff we have to deal with. I like knowing there are people who get me. I don’t feel like I have to prove myself to any of you. I feel like I can just trust that you'll have my back and I’ll have yours. And we’ll make the world a better place, one day at a time, yeah?”
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Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2023 10:08 am
It was really hard not to just lean back against Elliot and watch him with wonder and adoration like he was the only person in the world. He was always so sweet and kind to him, and to everyone. Elliot could have easily made anyone happy, but somehow Atticus found his way into his heart first.
“Would you be comfortable hanging out with the others, too? I mean… I don’t know about, um… a couple of them,” he chewed on his lip because he didn’t know what the two knights of Ganymede were up to. “But Maisie is my cousin. I didn’t know when we all first met,” he explained. Of course he would be happy to just hang out with Julian, too.
“I think my dad wants to build us something in the backyard. Like a clubhouse kind of thing. Just so we have a place to go without adults to hover over us. You’re welcome at our houses, though. If you don’t mind adults in the meantime. But they’re all really nice, I promise.”
He certainly needed to get away from the adults in his life a year ago. And now he was happier than ever.
“But yeah, I like that I feel comfortable around you, Julian. I can be myself and that’s… really nice.”
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Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2023 10:40 am
“She is?” he asked, briefly surprised by that. It wasn’t that it was odd, it was just a small world! “Oh–yeah, I’m comfortable hanging out with them. I mean, we get along while we’re out doing things.”
He was just significantly less interesting like this. Not that he was even that great of a Lysithea Page, but still! It just meant that he had a lot of ways to improve, so he could only get better from here. Hopefully. He was going to keep working at it and doing his best.
“A clubhouse would be neat.” Julian didn’t know where they lived, but he liked the idea of it. It wasn’t really practical for him to be planning big trips or anything; he didn’t have much of a means of transportation. He smiled anyway, because even if he couldn’t make it over to visit it was still nice to be invited.
“I hope I never make you uncomfortable. Oh, but if I do, you can tell me. I’ll do my best to fix whatever I’m doing wrong.”
He liked being around them. Ever since he’d become a Knight, he felt like there was something he could commit himself to. Even if he was always comparing himself to other people, or measuring how far away he was from accomplishing anything, he still had a connection with them. Lysithea was an amazing world and he knew he’d only scratched the surface of it all. He wanted to make Brooklyn proud, and Talia.
He didn’t want everyone to have to worry about him all the time.
He knew he wasn’t much of a fighter, and without magic it was hard to tell if there was anything else he could do.
But, this was nice. This wasn’t them being powered up and trying to save the world–this was just them talking, and eating ice cream, and–
Well, being friends.
Julian smiled again, and kicked his feet just a bit. He didn’t know what the future held, but he hoped there would be more moments like this.
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Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2023 10:59 am
“Same,” Atticus nodded, because he didn’t want Julian feeling uncomfortable, either! He would certainly try to fix things if there was something he was doing that was wrong. He was still trying to figure out social things after being on his own for so long.
“We’ll figure a way to get together, one way or another.” Because he knew that the other boy said he didn’t really want to reveal his identity, and Atticus wanted to respect that. They could still be friends without knowing each other as civilians. But he also liked doing this -- eating ice cream and hanging out -- a lot.
Elliot was right, though. They would have to make the world a better place, one day at a time. And if that meant figuring things out so they could all get together for ice cream or hot chocolate in the cooler months, then that’s absolutely something Atticus wanted to do.
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