shoot out all the lights
1/10 next
Riley didn’t even have enough time to breathe. “What in Hades was that for?” She wiped her face and spitted some water out. “You’re lucky I’m not a daughter of Poseidon, or you would’ve been dead by now.” She glared at him even more. “If you do that again, I will surely make you regret it. Understand, Mr. Martin?” She threatened as she fought the current. “You’re lucky the current’s not strong. What would happen to you if I drowned? I’m not sure you’ll be able to handle it.” She smirked at him.
“Well, I’ll give you CPR, in which case I’m not sure you will be able to handle.” CJ winked and laughed almost endlessly by the look in Riley’s face again. He fought so hard to grin and splashed her with water, liking that he was riling her up. “Don’t be too touchy, Riles. Have a little fun in your life.”
Riley squinted a bit and help up her hand to block the water that Cyrus just sprinkled. “I have more than enough water in my body, thank you very much.” She said as she held up both hands in defeat. “Shut up.” She smiled as she cupped some water with her hands and splashed him with it.
“Oh, I have. A LOT. It just so happens that you rarely catch me doing so.” She smirked at him. “So, why were you swimming at 8 in the morning?” She asked him as she kept throwing some stones, in the river, stopping only when she accidentally hit a naiad.
“You. Hit. A. Naiad.” For a second, CJ’s attention was caught by Riley’s actions and what’s going to be the consequence. When the naiad just rolled her eyes and dove right in, he released a breath and grinned. “Well, I just felt like doing so. Hasn’t it ever occurred to you I do things mostly on a whim?” He smiled at her.
“But contrary to what you said before, a person can never have enough water in her body.” And then CJ pulled Riley down the river so she has no choice but to swim. He laughed at her aghast face and began to swim away when it turned to a deathly glare.
Riley’s mind took a second or two to process the situation that she was in, but she quickly regained her composure. She raised an eyebrow at Cyrus in response to his previous question. “Sorry, but Aphrodite kids prefer to be stalked.” She smirked.
“So, skipping cabin inspection for swimming? That’s a first.” She remarked as she sat down on the side of the river, took off her shoes and dipped her feet in the water.
CJ very nearly forgot whose child Riley was until that moment again. Sure, he always thought her pretty - beautiful even, when she’s angry - and there’s something about her that pulls everyone in (or was it only him?) but he completely disregarded the fact. He chuckled and grinned at her, “Doesn’t seem like it in this situation, Riles.”
He pulled himself up on the riverbank and shook his head slightly at her to send her a little river water. “And throwing pebbles around for inspection’s a first too, you know. Haven’t seen you break much camp rules… ever.”
Riley’s next woke up a little too early and decided to skip Cabin Inspection, after all what’s the use of staying there if she had her sisters to clean up her mess for her? She decided to take a short walk in the woods. She kept walking until she heard the sound of a river flowing. She walked further and found a small river. She picked up a pebble and threw it into the water. Then she noticed someone swimming in the river. She squinted her eyes, just to see who it was.
As an Apollo kid, CJ was always too early to wake up and too easy to fall asleep at night. Today, he’s skipped cabin inspection like always and decided to take a dip in the lake where he and Riles canoed last summer. When he got there, however, he saw other people swimming already - which raised a question in his head, but the Poseidon kid present could’ve been the answer to that - so he took a detour and tried to find the river in the woods that he found last month in his ‘alone’ time. He took his shirt off, laid down his garments near the bank and went down.
It wasn’t many minutes before he thought he heard someone going there too. Riley, it turned out. He swam near the part of the bank she was standing at and grinned before remarking, “Stalking me, aren’t you?”
“I don’t have any place in mind and I’m not that hungry either. What about you?” She asked him. It was true though. In fact, she was never hungry. Ever. Now that she thought about it, she never knew why she never was.
“Nowhere either.” He smiled. For the summer, he’s been to all the places at camp and sure, he missed them when he left but he has a very, very long time to enjoy them now that he’s staying for quite a while. “Not too much, but you have to know I’m always hungry.” Which was quite true. Despite his being a little on the lanky side, he was still a guy. Ergo, always hungry. “But I can deal with it. So are you staying here all day alone like always?”
(Source: cj-martin)
Riley stared at him intensely, but decided to let the topic go. She could tell he was holding something back, but there’d be no point in forcing him into telling something that he didn’t want to tell.
“Shut up.” Riley punched his arm once more. “Do I look like I’ve been doing anything besides training?” She raised an eyebrow at him. It was obvious that there was nothing to do at camp besides that.
“Ouch.” He made a face at her punching him again. It hurt, yes, but only a very little. He just liked mocking hey. “I don’t know, Riles - any events I couldn’t have known about? Capture-the-Flag, party, monster attack, anything?” When Riley rolled her eyes again, he held his hands up in surrender. “Fine, I ain’t pushing it. So you hungry? Where you headed to next?”
(Source: cj-martin)
Riley narrowed her eyes and tilted her head, a few of her many mannerisms that showed whenever she thought about something intensely. Cyrus jarred her back to reality when he spoke.
Wait, what did he just say? Riley asked herself. Great. Now, she had something worse to think about.
“How can you say that? Cyrus, we’ve only known each other for three months or more. I don’t think it’s long enough to determine whether you can trust a person or not.” She said.
“Well, I just can.” CJ was probably one of the most easygoing people in camp - he did what his instincts told him to and he felt what he wanted to in the moment. No questions asked. No reasons required. This probably wouldn’t make sense to Riley’s mind as they were opposites in that field and others too, so it was best not to say it. “It’s just… I know you, yeah? Maybe it’s that I trust too easily, or…”
“…you just look too innocent and cutesy not to trust.” He ruffled Riley’s hair and huffed that out in between chuckles, breaking the serious matter. First day back and talking trust issues already? Felt odd. “So instead of training, anything remotely interesting here at camp that I missed?”
(Source: cj-martin)
“The ones I usually train with are Malia, Drew, Jace, Rae, Brent, Via, Parker, Charley - I think, and there’s these two new people named Nikolette and Brayan. Oh, and the Brayan guy is french, just saying. Well, there are some more, but I can’t really remember them.” She enumerated, as she tried to recall them and counted how many they she can still remember with her fingers.
“Why did you ask anyway? It’s not like you’re gonna stay as a year rounder. I mean, you’re just staying for a while right? A few days or so, right? Cause if you’re staying as a year rounder, it’ll be torture.” She asked him.
“Torture? Please.” He rolled his eyes, aware that he looked a little feminine but didn’t care. “I think I knew some of them from the summer, except for the two new people. Oh well, gotta meet them by dinner.” CJ passed off that thought but was actually eager to meet new friends.
“Maybe, yes and no. Still not sure about the year rounder thing but I am staying… for a while, quite a longer while at that. Surely not a few days.” He shrugged and began to shoot the arrows now himself. The thing was that the first week he returned to school, there came an immediate monster attack. And then another. His mom knew it was best he stayed at camp for a while and by that he knew something was quite wrong. CJ wasn’t a child of the Big Three and was never too pestered by monsters from very early on, just a few times here and there, so why now? He told Riley this story and could see her thinking about it.
A few seconds of silence passed (of her pondering its reason, perhaps) when he spoke again, this time a tone more serious than usual. “Figured I trust you enough to tell you anything now.”
(Source: cj-martin)
Riley rolled her eyes. She cannot believe the fact that Cyrus just said that. How could she possibly miss him? He who has always been teasing her and pushing her to her limits, he who was able to make her laugh…
Shit.
“You are so full of yourself, Martin.” She said as she slapped his left arm.
He winced from the pain as she hit his arm and rubbed it with his right hand. “Alright, I guess I deserved that…” CJ shrugged and picked up an arrow of his own, feeling its weight on his hands again. Several weeks is too long not to handle archery but he’s here now and he’s pretty sure he’d regain his skills in no time. “…but you don’t know your own strength, miss.” He teased Riley and dodged her hit this time, laughing again.
“So who’s staying as year-rounders this year? Aside from you, of course.”
(Source: cj-martin)
“Oh, how lovely. The person who left without saying goodbye is asking me what I have been up to. You don’t really need to know, do you? I mean, it’s not like you would care.” Riley retorted as she loaded another arrow and turned to face the dummy that hung by a rope. She released the arrow again and the arrow shot straight through the dummy’s head.
“You’re angry.” CJ stated matter-of-factly and held back a grin starting to form already on his lips. “No, not angry… I can’t quite put my finger on it.” He snapped his finger and smirked at her. “You missed me!” He put on a defensive stance in case she hit him but then he muttered quite softly, “I missed you too, you know.”
(Source: cj-martin)
