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February 26 - February 29, 2024
Infinities consume her whole life.
Atlas Hale resembles a fallen leaf, caught in the wind and constantly drifting.
The world is a fortress to the damned
“Tomorrow,” she corrects. “If we are going to be friends, I insist you say tomorrow instead of goodbye. Those are too final.”
My grandpa used to say this
Grief is a friend, a haunting, laughing, and taunting friend.
Don’t fall in love with me or something because I’m doing this with you.
“No falling in love with you—got it.”
He agrees to alter his life and perception of reality because Nova has hope.
Sometimes, family was far more than blood. Far more than titles.
He wants to kiss her. He wants to touch her, devour her.
She craves love in its simplest form.
Sometimes, the days are bad, and that’s okay.
He’s shaking slightly, but he holds her so gently like she’ll break or worse, disappear.
“Besides, anything that put you in my life can’t be that bad, can it?”
“You like me.”
“You actually like me, Atlas Hale. And here I thought you despised the mere thought of me.”
For a moment, a brief second within her presence, Atlas feels as though perhaps God is real to some capacity.
If Nova Hawkins exists, so must all things that breathe life and share love.
you are known in all the ways that count, Nova. You love purely, loudly. You’ve suffered through loss and pain, but yet, still smile.”
“You would be a star. The brightest star in the sky. You wouldn’t be able to go unnoticed.”
“Are you…ticklish?” His smirk is mischievous.
“Give in,” he whispers, though this time Nova is unsure of what he means. His left hand reaches up slowly, his fingers threading through the hair at her neck, the slight pressure causing her chin to tip up.
“Wrenning Bird—you’re a wren bird. My wren bird. Small, but you, Nova Hawkins, have a heart that is utterly loud and consuming.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone quite like you, Atlas.”
“You’re getting pretty good at this,” she notes as the man leans his chin against her shoulder.
Atlas has slowly, if only slightly, began to accept hugs,
His legs are parted slightly as he pulls her to stand between them.
When she stiffens, Atlas rolls his eyes and yanks her closer. His sudden bout of movements jerk her forward until she’s nearly flush against his chest. Atlas hums softly and wraps his arms around her waist, pulling her into a hug.
“You’re my Wrenning Bird.”
you’re more than enough.”
his entire life he believed that home was a place. But instead, it is a person. Perhaps it would one day be Nova.
But I do know that whatever it is that I feel for you is real. I know that when I’m with you, it feels like flying;
“I don’t believe much in God,” he murmurs into her hair, “I’ve never cared much for the philosophy of religion.” His lips press softly against her temple, trailing whisper-riddled kisses across her forehead, “But you, Nova Hawkins, have somehow managed to exemplify the heavens. If there is a God, which there must be, then I think he lives so deep within you that his love shines from you and out into the world.”
At times, he can pinpoint the exact moment when he realized friendship was out of the picture for them. He knows the exact millisecond. It was the day he had held her when he realized he had been afraid when he received the call from Indie. When he realized how sad it had made him that she was alone in the park somewhere, crying.
Kissing him felt like falling.
They’re two souls wandering, searching for a place to call home, and somewhere along the way they had found it among each other.
“You askin’ me to kiss you, Hawkins?”
“Kiss me,” she whispers, though it’s nearly close to a whimper.
“Tell me that we’ll still be us after this. I can’t lose you.”
He kisses her fervently like there is an ocean length of time written between their two lips.
Atlas kisses her with passion as though she might slip from his embrace and this kiss would be their ruination.
Atlas kisses her, and he feels like he’s falling. But for once, someone will catch him. Nova will catch him. And for once, he isn’t afraid anymore.
This alone is love in its simplest form.
“I fear I am completely mesmerized by you.”
“Hi, baby.”
“You and me?” He holds his pinky up. It’s childish, but he doesn’t care. “I like who we are now. I don’t ever wanna wake up and not have you in my life. So promise me, Nova, that it’s us for as long as we can keep it that way. That we’ll be us until something tears us apart.”
“Happy birthday, baby,” he murmurs into her hair.
“Grief isn’t one size fits all,
How much he loves her.
“You’re a once-in-a-lifetime sort of thing, Nova.”
