[ He grins instead of answering her, not wanting to ruin the surprise. And it's a surprise that she can probably begin to guess as he takes her up and up and up the stairwell at a slow enough pace that she won't get tired but his excitement betrays him in the way his hand tightens in hers as they approach the clock tower.
Maybe she doesn't have the best associations with this place, but for him... at the very top of the tower is the open room, walls of glass and giant clock hands that cast an unceasing flicker of shadow across the room. In this space, in the deepening night, the moon grows full and the stars are out, hundreds upon thousands of pinpricks of light that make him feel small, insignificant, but never powerless. Instead, it's the opposite. Instead, it fills him with hope, even in a place like this. ]
what's the point if we can't be soft
Maybe she doesn't have the best associations with this place, but for him... at the very top of the tower is the open room, walls of glass and giant clock hands that cast an unceasing flicker of shadow across the room. In this space, in the deepening night, the moon grows full and the stars are out, hundreds upon thousands of pinpricks of light that make him feel small, insignificant, but never powerless. Instead, it's the opposite. Instead, it fills him with hope, even in a place like this. ]