Husband material

Atlas concentrated on the dance as the participants moved in sync. They were good. They had props too: ribbons and fabric and a hundred little things to imitate objects and elements. Where they presented their dance was strategically facing a transparent glass where the view of Trenox's second sun setting, amplified the aesthetics of the performance. Skilled dancers in a background of the purple-pink setting of Trenox's bigger sun...Atlas had to admit that it was well-done.

He told Onyx DiCaro that and Onyx looked pleased with himself. 

They finished dinner and soon, Atlas was ready to talk with Dione. She led him down a pathway that led to a garden for them to discuss.  Night was drawing closer and lamps lit the paved path as Atlas and Dione walked down. For minutes, they did not talk as they made their way to the garden. 

Atlas's gaze roved the environs as they walked. "Trenox is very beautiful," he commented. 

Dione shrugged slightly. "You'd have to be unconscious to not notice. It is no big deal."

"Probably," Atlas said. " You might be used to it...But I bet it gives you pleasure that an outsider admits such a thing. It must mean the planet is that beautiful, isn't it? Your planet. "

"I am not the same as my father, dear Emperor," Dione said. "He gets excited by little things; your complementing his arrangements...your marriage proposal. Not me though. So why do you want to marry me?"

Atlas hadn't envisaged this response. "I would have assumed you would have jumped on this offer."

Dione scoffed. "Because you're the Emperor? Because you have the empire under your thumb? I would like to marry a husband and not just a ruler. "

"What, you don't think I am husband material?" Atlas asked, surprised.

"That is not where this conversation is headed. Why did you choose to meet me with this proposal?" Dione asked again. 

"Supernova ignite, it is because I find you beautiful," Atlas said desperately. "Your planet is doing so well too- it won't be a marriage birthed out of political expectations. That is why. Do you like my unbridled and brutal honesty? Is that what you wanted?"

 "If I weren't all of this- if I didn't have any of these things, you would overlook me?" Dione asked. 

Atlas furrowed his brows in annoyance. "Can we focus on the present? I want you and that is where this conversation lies. If you become my empress, as you know, you will lack nothing. You will have respect like you've never had. And you will have me. I assumed this would be an easy 'yes'."

Dione shook her head. "It actually is not. This means I will give up finding love to marry you."

"What, you don't love me?" Atlas asked.

"I don't. Do you, me?" Dione said. 

"Of course," Atlas said. "I love you. I mean, I don't hate you-"

Dione laughed quietly. She shook her head. "No. Are you in love with me?"

Atlas looked confused for a moment. "Does it matter? It's not my job to fall in love. I just have to be Emperor and give heirs."

"We are incompatible," Dione said. 

"How did you come to that conclusion?" Atlas asked testily. 

"It's easy," Dione said. "We don't want the same things from life. We won't last. I won't last in such a relationship. Marrying an Emperor is a long-lasting vow. We can't separate and create a scandal. I would be miserable with you."

Atlas felt insulted. In all his life he had never experienced what he presently went through with Dione. Anger boiled from somewhere in his conciousness.

Atlas shook his head. "You are such a child," he said then. "A kid. You know nothing. You have lived a too-pampered and too-sheltered life and that is why you have the effrontery to fill your head with such frivolities. Love? Really? You must be waiting for your true love then. You forget that for elites, there is no such thing as that."

Dione watched him steadily.

"You have responsibilities- strategic responsibilities. When you are an elite, you don't live for yourself anymore. Heck, do you think I chose you at random? I had a list where I carefully crossed out unlikely options for some political reason or the other. But the essence of this discussion is that I had limited options. I am the emperor of the TPG and still I can't just choose whoever I want to marry. It has to be someone from the ruling families of the planets, someone with noble blood- an elite.  With such a limited choice range, do you think falling in love and all the nonsense you talk about would be my primary concern?"

Dione looked surprised and annoyed at his words.

"Yes, you talk  lot of nonsense," Atlas said, abandoning all ounce of politeness. "You must feel conceited because I chose you out of several other options and that is why you are proud. Find love. Let's hope it's looking for you too," Atlas said, turning to go back the way they'd come. 

The conversation had gone downhill. They didn't need to reach the garden anymore to talk and relax. To think that it took only ten minutes. 

Dione watched him quietly. "I expected a greater deal of maturity from you," she said. "Becoming embittered because a woman rejects you? You must not be used to rejection or your ego is just too huge."

 "Yes and yes," Atlas affirmed, stopping in his tracks, his voice hard. " Don't you know your ego proportionally rises with the amount of power you wield ? You made a terrible mistake."