"Hey." Thea walked through the door of Atlas' apartment that he held open for her,

"Hey." Atlas's gaze followed her with a frown as he shut the door, "What's up with you?"

Atlas followed Thea to the kitchen and sat at the kitchen island. He watched her rummage through his fridge.

"Nothing." She dragged as she took out a tub of ice cream and closed the fridge before she joined him at the kitchen island,

Atlas watched her suspiciously,
"You seem to be in a good mood."

Thea looked up at him, her hand slowing as she frowned,
"Why? Do you want me not to be?"

"No. No." Atlas rushed, "I just...I'm happy to see you this way." He smiled,

Thea smiled slowly,
"Well, I just left Killian. It's thanks to him."

"No, don't do that." Atlas shook his head in disapproval,

Thea looked at him, concerned,
"Do what?"

"Base your happiness on someone who isn't you." Atlas looked her dead in the eye,

Thea blinked and stared at him as the silence stretched,
"Is that what you did with Emily?" She said quietly,

Atlas was gobsmacked as soon as it left her mouth. Thea wasn't one to breach things that weren't meant to be talked about. Yes, they hadn't verbally agreed not to talk about it, but it was one of those unspoken understandings.

Atlas blinked a few times, as the shock started to wear off. He clenched his jaw and looked away from her, unable to answer.
"No." He replied honestly, not able to get the rest of the truth out without choking on his words.

When he looked at Thea, she still had her gaze on him,
"You're going to have to talk about it sometime."

No. I have to deal with it. Not talk about it.
Atlas thought,

Thea went back to eating her ice cream,
"And I think you're wrong."

"About?"

"Not basing my happiness on someone else." She looked from her ice cream to him, "Killian said something earlier about my tendency to see the good in every situation."

Atlas smiled to himself, knowing how true that was.

"I think being happy because of someone else, and choosing to see the good rather than the bad are pretty great ways to do life." She licked the ice cream off the spoon, "If I did the opposite, I'll be a recluse who's bitter about the world. That's not how I want to live life."

Atlas shook his head as he watched her,
"When did you get so wise?"

Thea shrugged,
"Somewhere between you chasing away all the boys and basically raising me."

How far they had come from the little kids they were to this moment.
Atlas thought.

"How's Mac?" Thea interrupted his thoughts,

"Uh, she's fine, I guess."

Thea looked at him,
"You did see her earlier, right?"

"Yea." Atlas nodded, "That's why I need to talk to you."

Thea frowned,
"About Mac?"

"Uhh..."

"You already made yourself pretty clear on where you stand with me hanging out with her."

"Not exactly." Atlas stopped her, "But, I asked her to help you."

Thea paused and stared at him,
"I wasn't aware I needed helping."

"It's a 'two birds with one stone' type of situation."

Thea narrowed her eyes at him,
"What did you do?"

"It's what you're going to do that matters."

Thea placed the spoon in the tub of ice cream and then placed it on the kitchen island,
"Spill."

"Mac's agreed to teach you self-defence."

Thea tilted her head,
"Oh-kay?"

"And all you have to do is be yourself."

Thea studied him, waiting for him to go on but the silence said he was done.

Thea shook her head,
"I'm not following."

"After last night..."

Thea blinked a couple of times and Atlas winced inwardly.

"Sorry."

"That's fine, go on." Thea knew to get over it, she needed to air it out.

Atlas studied her before he obliged,
"I thought it would be a great idea for you to, you know, have Mac teach you some defence techniques."

Thea nodded, thinking it was a good idea. If Atlas hadn't brought it up, she would've eventually thought about it herself.
"I'm all for it."

"Good." Atlas said, "In doing so, I discovered that Mac has a soft spot for you."

Thea smiled.

"I'm almost certain she cares about you."

"I'm not surprised." Thea said proudly with her chin lifted,

"While she's helping you, I think you could also help her." Atlas said softly, "Rub off some of your positivity on her."

Thea studied his face and a smile formed so slowly and soon turned into a full-on, wide grin.

"What?" Atlas asked when he noticed the look on her face,

"What I'm surprised at is seeing that you care about her."

Atlas' expression morphed to complete disbelief,
"What?!" He laughed, "You think I care about Makenna?"

Atlas laughed some more and Thea watched him quietly with no trace of humour on her face.

"Yea. You're completely, totally right." He said in obvious sarcasm, and with a straight face said, "That's complete shite."

Thea smiled again and picked up her tub of ice cream,
"We'll see."

Atlas frowned at how easily she gave up but said nothing.

"Also, I should point out that you're basically plotting for me to help Mac by hanging out with her, yet you hang out with me almost every day and don't use the same opportunity to get some of that positivity." Thea thought it was the same case for Makenna and Killian,

Atlas opened his mouth and closed it, not sure how to respond to that,
"Maybe I just don't need it."

"Maybe you didn't see it," She said, "Until someone you care for needed it."

Atlas chuckled without humour as he waved a finger at her,
"I see what you did there."

Thea's eyes went wide in like an 'I know!' type of look.

"We're just friends."

Thea leaned in,
"That's what they all say." She whispered and went back to eating her ice cream as though nothing happened,

"No, I'm serious. We really did just become friends." He thought about it, "Sort of."

Thea shook her head with a shrug and didn't even bother to look at him,
"It's not me you're trying to convince."

Atlas opened his mouth and chose not to say anything else. Clearly, Thea wasn't going to believe anything he had to say.

He watched her and reached for the ice cream and the spoon,
"Give me that."

She glared at him and reached for it as he took a bite,
"Get your own!"

"This is mine."

"Maybe, but I got it from the fridge." Thea took it back from,

"And I bought it from the store."

Thea shrugged,
"Tomayto. Tomahto."

"What?!" Atlas frowned in confusion and Thea laughed.