There are always shadows one cannot avoid, yes? As beautiful as the bright summer sky might be, the seasonal thunderstorms are always lingering on the horizon. Most unpredictable, one is bound to be caught in the downpour eventually. Perhaps Claudius seeks out those storms. A casual observer might agree, with the way he resolutely faces the coming onslaught, as if he was born to weather every storm so that others may not have to. He is pensive in that way, though it does not show on his face. A serene flatness softens his eyes and loosens his lips. Yes, he thinks, I was born to see disaster. I was born to piece it back together.
Claudius has always known his father to be a storm and his mother to be the roof above his head. Sometimes, there is a roaring so loud in his chest that he feels as if he is both: simultaneously the sword and the shield. There's a burning hurt that beats in the cobwebbed corners of his heart, shadows that pulsate with a heavy darkness, demons he thought he defeated long ago. In the storm above, they await him. The starved spiders, the darkness with claws, the face of his father twisted into something wrong.
He is something wrong.
No sane creature peers into a storm such as this and thinks they are destined to defeat it.
Perhaps it is that insanity that keeps his serenity so warm and welcome. Dig a little deeper beneath that handsome, open visage, and one will find all his shadows burst forth.
Claudius offers Apothica a similar smile, though his is a little too wide around the edges. He studies her in passing, wondering what the pink of her coat might look like beneath a full, beaming sun. His eyes have strayed from her and back to the sky when she turns around. Claudius catches the movement, periwinkle eyes flashing back to the stranger immediately. Cocking his head, he studies Apothica a little closer after she makes her offer. The smile from before slowly returns to his face.
"Of course," Claudius answers, immediately falling into step with her.
"You often run from storms?"
@Apothica