April 10th, 2040
Why was he so nervous? Atlas had longed for this moment for the past three years. They were his parents, he should be bouncing with excitement, not sick to his stomach. Maybe it was that he wasn’t sure what to expect. What if they had moved on and were perfectly content living life without him?
“Are you okay?” Leon asked him. Atlas had asked Leon to come with him because he thought it would be easier to have someone else his parents knew there with him and to have someone there for him in case things didn’t go the way he hoped.
“I…I don’t know if I can do this. What if…what if they’re happy on their own and…and they don’t want me around anymore?” He confessed. Leon stopped walking and looked him in the eyes, putting his hand on his shoulder.
“Atlas, your parents have missed you every day since you’ve been gone. They want you back. Trust me.” He reassured him. Atlas nodded, hugging his chest.
“Can you talk to them first? I don’t want to give my mom a heart attack.”
“Of course.”
They started walking again and stopped when they reached his house, Atlas stopped, taking a deep but shaky breath. It was actually starting to feel real. Leon walked up the stairs to the front door and rang the doorbell. Atlas stayed on the sidewalk, trying to stand where he couldn’t be seen from the door.
“Leon, what a nice surprise.” Hearing his mom’s voice brought tears to Atlas’ eyes and resisting the urge to run up from the sidewalk and hug her was getting harder and harder. Any emotional protections he had built up during his time with Kaori were coming crashing down. “You just came back from France, right?”
“Yeah and I brought something back for you and ajussi.”
“That’s sweet. You really didn’t have to do that.”
“I saw this in a gift shop and it reminded me of Atlas, so I thought you’d like it.” Atlas knew what Leon was giving his mom. They’d picked it out together with Persephone. It was a Christmas ornament of a dog wearing a beret.
“Dogs were his favourite animal. Thank you, dear.”
“I’m glad you like it but don’t thank me yet, there’s one more thing.” As soon as Leon said this, he turned around, gesturing for Atlas to come over. He began to walk towards the door but as soon as he saw his mom and the shocked expression on her face, he ran into her arms. She hugged him and he started sobbing, having fully realized how much he had missed her embrace. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Leon go down the front stairs, giving him and his mom some space.
“Oh my god…”
“Eomma, I’m so sorry. Joesonghamnida.” He held tight onto his mother and apologized to her, using both English and Korean because the English just didn’t feel like enough. He never wanted to let go of her. “Joesonghamnida.”
“What’s going on?” Atlas looked up to see his father, whose eyes filled with tears as they made eye contact. This was the first time in his life that Atlas seen his father cry. “Atlas?”
“Appa.” Atlas said as his father joined the hug between him and his mom. He moved one of his arms around his dad. “I missed you so much.”
May 15th, 2040
Atlas had spent the last few weeks settling back into his life in Beryl. It was strange. Even though he had stopped pretending to be someone else, he didn’t fully feel like himself. He had been surprised to find out that his space in his friends and family’s lives hadn’t been completely filled. That he hadn’t been forgotten or left in the past. Ezra and the rest of his hockey teammates had insisted on throwing him a little ‘welcome back’ party. Evelyn had threatened him within an inch of his life to make sure he never attempted it again but as p-ssed off as she seemed, Atlas could tell that she had been worried about him at one point or another. He felt guilty. He had never intended to be gone this long. To make people mourn him.
Well, some people.
Adonis clearly hadn’t.
Not that Atlas was expecting him to. Adonis had made it very clear that he didn’t like him while he and Leon were together but he had never understood why. Apparently, ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’, while it seemed to have kind of worked for Evie, hadn’t been the case for Adonis.
“Nice to see you too, Adonis.” He quipped, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. He resisted because Leon was standing right next to him although the thought had occurred to him that since he and Leon weren’t together anymore, he didn’t necessarily have to get along with his other friends. “And no, I don’t have a doppelganger. It’s me, Atlas Choi, in the flesh. Sorry to disappoint.”
“As much as I would love to stay for this lovely impromptu reunion, I have somewhere important I need to be, so, um, Evie, Sebastian, make sure no one dies.” Leon quickly informed them before turning and leaving. Atlas froze for a second, watching him walk away.
“Wait, what?” He questioned as he processed what just happened. “Napoleon!” He called after him, trying to get him to come back but he was already too far to have heard him. “Ya! Park Nam-Il! K*esaekki.” He scolded, lowering his voice for the last part, cursing Leon for ditching him. There was one plus side to him leaving. He no longer had to censor his thoughts or words towards Adonis.
“So, Adonis, did ya miss me? You can be honest.” He taunted. Evie swatted his arm from next to him. He looked at her in an innocent ‘what did I do?’ manner with a cheeky grin on his face.
@Kristi - Adonis
Translation
Ya! - Hey!
K*esaekki - son of a b-tch/jerk