She loved the stars far too fondly to be fearful of the night, which is why she loved him so desperately.
But Aquila, the Daughter of Nyx and a goddess of stars, cannot possibly fall in love with the Son of Hades, god of darkness.
And yet, she doe...
Aquila continued throughout the weeks, smiling and waving at Atlas whenever he came into view. Originally, he pretended like he didn't see her. Then, after the second week of pretending like she didn't exist, he saw how sad her eyes looked, and he felt guilty. So, he waved back.
And that was all it took.
Atlas and Aquila walked together after classes almost every day. He wouldn't admit it, but he waited outside for her class to end. He stood by the building awkwardly, pretending to be busy with brooding things, but he stood up quickly when she exited the building and would walk slowly in the other direction like he wasn't waiting for her, and every time, she would call for him to wait up and fall into step beside him.
Sometimes they wouldn't talk much. Just a few words back and forth were all, and then they walked in silence.
Some days though, Aquila talked the whole walk home. She would talk about classes, her friends, her mother, and her powers. Almost everything she thought of, she told Atlas. She told him about her favorite flowers, her insomnia, her art. Atlas hung onto every word, even when he told himself he didn't care.
Aquila would smile at everything around her, breathing in the air and enjoying the serenity. Atlas would keep his hands deep into his pockets and his shoulders hunched. He glared at everyone who would pass by and give Aquila a nasty look for being acquainted with him.
And then Atlas would go home and sit quietly for a while, wondering why he cared to protect her so much in the first place. And he couldn't come up with anything. He truly had no idea why he cared so much about this girl, but it just kind of, happened.
He told himself that it wasn't so much as caring about her, but he did come to the conclusion that he genuinely enjoyed having a companion. For his whole life, he simply went home to hell every day, staying in the solitude of his room or spending limited time with his mother. For the first time in his life, Atlas had someone that he could call a friend.
One day, Aquila walked alone. She waited outside the building after her last class ended, looking for Atlas as he walked away pretending not to be waiting for her like he usually did. She knew better, of course. His class was across the campus, quite a ways away, and his home too was on the opposite side. She knew he always waited for her.
Only, on this day, she was alone. She waited for a few minutes before realizing he wasn't there and began to walk home slowly, hoping that perhaps by taking her time, he would catch up to her eventually. By the time she had made it to her home, the sky was turning dark.
