Ocean sized Love (Cicero)

[ARISTA SPRUIT]

Today was one of those quiet but good days. For most, it was far too cold on the beach but Arista found it wonderful to walk the beach when the weather was anything but peaceful. The roaring sound of the waves crashing on the beach reminded her of home and of what she loved and lost. She thought of her mother and her half brother as the sea called to her. She couldn't traverse it, out of fear that Poseidon would strike her down for crossing into his territory. Still she loved the ocean and had swam in it regularly in her youth. Everybody back home knew how to swim, it was obligatory and part of classes in primary school. It felt like forever since she'd last taken to the water herself though. Not in years, mostly because her heritage had stopped her from doing so. Daughter of the Underworld and of shadows.

Yet today she'd worn shorts and had taken off her shoes. She stood on the edge, her feet wet as the waves kissed her ankles. She smiled then, happy to feel the peace of all those years. She did not currently fear drowning as she was barely in the water. She had done nothing to anger Poseidon that she knew of, except for being born. Maybe she'd consider taking a career in music so that she might work at the recording studio where her dad kept the entrance to his world. It somehow seemed as though that was one of the few more realistic paths to thread. Where else would she fare? Her ability to travel was limited with both sea and sky being a travel risk to her due to her father. Well, maybe if she actually went with a child of the parent that would smite her that would safeguard her.

Yet ever since her first visit to camp Jupiter, Arista had started to think that maybe the future could be more interesting than she had imagined before. She'd met this guy and instantly gotten a huge crush on him. It was a problem, as she now worried about making a fool of herself every single time she went to the other side. It hadn't crossed her mind that her own camp was not by default safe from embarrassment since he too could travel between the camps. Well, she was about to find out that her quiet day at the beach was about to paint her cheeks red and set her heart on fire, as she vaguely heard footsteps in the sand behind her...

((Sorry that this is a horribly bad starter! ))
CICERO TORQUATUS

[CICERO TORQUATUS]

It was always odd to walk around Camp Half-Blood. Cicero had visited once or twice before becoming centurion, but since his appointment he’d made a point to go more often. Every visit went the same way. Stop by the Athena cabin and shadow them for some of their activities, walk around to inspect some of the different facilities, meet a few of the various cabin leaders. Every excursion was meant to be informative, so Cicero worked hard to maximize his limited time wisely.

So this day started like any of the others. After leaving the Athena cabin, Cero was in the middle of doing a rotation around the cabins. Camp Half-Blood was disorienting to him. There was clearly some sort of organization – the cabins were mismatched but clearly thought-out, and he’d seen how they spent their days together in a similar fashion to the cohort system. Even so, it was nothing like the strictly-regulated Camp Jupiter, and the Greeks had a lot more freedom in their daily schedules. It was odd to watch individual campers just walk around.

Two Greeks passed by him, clearly returning from the beach. That was one area of Camp Half-Blood that Cero had never been to – Romans weren’t such a fan of water, and he’d assumed there was nothing interesting to see anyway. But he changed his trajectory and started walking towards the Long Island Sound. One quick visit wouldn’t hurt anything. New York beaches were nothing like California’s, and Cero shivered a little as he navigated the sandy terrain. Sure, both camps enjoyed good weather, courtesy of the gods, but ‘good’ was a relative term. He clearly wasn’t the only one who thought so, as the beach was much emptier than the rest of camp. Cero had just mentally made the decision to turn back when he froze. It was her. Standing in the water, looking unbothered by the relative chilliness.

Cero felt his face turn red and his brain stop working. She hadn’t noticed him yet – turn back? Quickly or quietly? He hadn’t been able to stop turning over their last meeting in his head since it had happened. He’d acted like such an idiot – it was embarrassing how quickly he’d gone from suspicious to plainly confused in the first five minutes, and he’d spent the rest of the tour trying to make up for it by being as in-control and Roman as possible. And then he’d left her with Mia, and he knew from here to the Underworld that that was a bad idea – the things she could share about him! So he was sure he hadn’t made the best first impression, and that was always a tragedy when it came to cute Greek girls.

He took exactly 30 seconds to compose himself before he dared to move closer. “This is a surprise. The Long Island Sound seems like the last place to expect a daughter of Pluto or ambassador to the Romans.” He sighed mentally at himself – it sounded like he was chastising her. But the words came so naturally after a life of military discipline. At least he hoped his mellow tone could cancel out the words.

ARISTA SPRUIT

[ARISTA SPRUIT]

She'd been staring at the edge of the water for such a long time. She longed to swim but she was worried and far more scared than she'd ever been before. She blamed now knowing her parentage and the fact it meant that Poseidon and Zeus would probably not be too fond of her for the sake of her dad. It scared her, as she'd loved swimming when she was younger and she didn't really want to have to stop now that she knew who her real father was. She wriggled her nose.

Then the voice behind her had her heart skip a beat as she slowly turned around. Equally terrified and instantly intrigued. He had a point, but it didn't explain why he was at the sound either. She blinked a few times, trying in vain to steady her heart beat. She then found a smile creeping on her face. It was a shy one but a smile nonetheless. She'd made a fool of herself last time by the word vomit she'd produced but she felt a little more at ease in her own territory. Well, sort of. This was the closest she'd gotten to home in a long time. "I could say the same about a Roman on the Greek beach but I think you're quite aware of that." She said teasingly as she walked up to him, feeling her toes curl in the sand.

She stopped in front of him, looking a little bit confused but all in all happy. "I didn't really expect to see you again. I figured my word vomit last time would have made you want to avoid me permanently." She admitted, looking down with a blush building on her face. She wanted so desperately to look cool but today wasn't the day for it, or so it would seem.

CICERO TORQUATUS