Beautiful and yet broken.

If he’d had any sense to put it all together, Atlas would have realized the kind of creature he’d stumbled upon amid the plain of stars. He would have pressed her to heart like the stitches he bore there and tickled the fine threads that bourgeoned between them. Of course, his affections, too child-like and inexperienced, went unstated, weeds drifting into the wind. He watched as they spiraled before him, only to delight in the way they perished shortly after. Who was he to kid anyhow? He wasn’t a man made to marvel the feminine attitude, but one more beset by their physical charms… Was that a behavior that had become apparent since meeting Lena or was she still as blissfully unaware of the rogue’s intimate preferences? It was that surmounting self-damnation that compelled him to pull away, briefly, both emotionally and outwardly as well. Atlas had come to abhor those parts of himself and yet couldn’t find reason enough to dispel his outlandish amenities, at least not presently. Perhaps it was a feat better left to old age when at last his demons came to collect their retribution.

On a dime, that seeming carelessness, childishness, and foolhardy sense of wonder became shrouded in the mists of doubt. He had reached for the very mountain caps in hopes of revealing something otherworldly about the fair Lena, but she thwarted him at every turn, too witty and perhaps too clever to fall for even his best antics. There was something she guarded, a secret or two that could not be unwedded by his playfulness alone, but something more-- something less desirable on his part and clearly anticipated on hers. Whatever the motive, Atlas bore it little mind… He was just as quiet as the heavens that most of Helovia prayed to. His contemplation was easily defined in the narrowing of his gaze and the tilting of his chin—he didn’t expect much from the mare, but he hadn’t thought she’d render him nothing at all. Perhaps it was just that he then stood all too indifferent, a boy being tricked by a sly maid.

Was it any wonder that he could be swayed so easily from the momentary addiction caused from her touch? She was like a snare, wily and yet lovely, dangerous and yet so very beautiful. One had to be careful around such brilliance, for Lena was not common by any means. She was a creature well-crafted for the destruction of his kind, a weapon that could not only break his heart, but his mind, and that was an idea that stirred the man from pursuing her… just yet. The woman he’d taken up company with was one that required all or nothing, his whole, but never just half. It was something that he’d learned in the short time at her side and appreciated for its singular value. Whether or not Atlas was up for the task was certainly debatable however, because he’d never been too tethered to any one thing or any one agenda. That was not typically his nature. Yet, Lena left with him more than just a pleasant taste, but an overwhelming, delightful sensation.

She spoke of second chances and of lives that Atlas himself had not yet lived, but there were still answers upon his tongue that wanted nothing more than to be heard by her ear. Was that a friendship, a relationship, which the man now desired? Was that a part of the second chances she spoke of? He wasn’t sure—it felt like a trap somehow, another circle in which she twirled around him while he fell easily under her spell. “You’re looking at it,” he stated while staring intently at her face, her eyes,and her lips as they curved. In truth, he didn’t know what to make of second chances so much as new beginnings, and Lena was just that, a new and wonderful beginning that he feared would make all beginnings dull by comparison. Her puzzle-like framework had betwixt and beguiled him, ensnared and utterly overwhelmed him. If second chances were as empowering as he’d made them seem, then certainly Lena would understand the brevity of his answer. This was his attempt at friendship and whatever lurked beyond. This was his new beginning.

"And what of you? How will you spend your second chance?"