[private] and when I break it's in a million pieces, Elio

[elio]

elio

Elio reminds her of secrets but--oh!--does Hourglass remind him of a clear sky above an open plain. Glittering with stars, endless, inspiring in beauty. Envious and shy, Lio doesn't know what to say in his admiration. Uncertainty ties his tongue in knots and simply peering at her is almost too much. He feels as a child would in the face of a confident, playful stranger.

But Elio is an adult and a father. Within the center of his tongue's knot hides bitter darkness. The secrets Hourglass dreams of.

"Hourglass," the man finally says, golden face barely glowing in the last remnants of daylight. "You must be kind to want to keep a stranger warm. I'm Elio," he adds with a mouth curling into a sweet, small smile. He wonders if she wants to keep him warm because the glint of her skin is so, so cold. And he wonders if he brushes his nose against her fragile side, will his lips come away with frost? He doesn't dare venture a touch, no--though he wants to, he certainly, seriously wants to. Elio will tuck her frost away like their secrets and perhaps he'll think of her on another cold, burdening winter's night.

"Are you cold?" Lio finally asks, turning his head ever-so-slightly to glance at Hourglass. "I mean, with your glass?" this he adds as the quietest murmur.

"You can come closer if you are."

Perhaps he'll venture into that wide, star-spangled plain.

i don't think i could stand to be
where you don't see me

@[Hourglass] grammarly called this anxious but he's just trying to be nice >