If I Die Young

It had turned out there was some work that needed to be done between the Greeks and the Romans. Of course one centurion from each cohort was chosen to meet up with a cabin leader from the Greek camp and carry on their assigned duties for that day. Corinne was the one who was chosen to go from cohort five. This meant that Christian was left with all the mundane tasks like drills and what not. That or he'd probably hand it off over to Lennie, one of their opitos.

Corinne continued to walk on hoping she could find the meet up point alright. Apparently she was supposed to meet up with a guy named Andrew Johnson. That was about all the information she was given about the guy. Not even his god parent or anything. Rinne, didn't understand the Greeks much. There wasn't much hierarchy or system there. It was just a 'lets all train and wander around camp' There weren't any ranks besides something called a cabin leader.

The brunette finally hit the spot. As far as she knew that was.

"No, think of it!" Andrew insisted. He was on a rant with Netha, who faithfully listened, even if she sometimes regretted it. The pair was on their way to meet up with a Roman. Specifically, a Roman leader, but Andrew had no idea what they were even called. The forest was supposed to have a clearing up soon, and Andrew figured that he didn't need to be silent. They weren't hunting, and they'd have to find a Roman. They weren't the most sly people.

"Evolution is the process of living things changing in order to survive. Or, something like that, I'm not a scientist." Andrew continued, "So, what's the deal with wood then? Why are there so many types?" Andrew brought his main point forward, as they walked, but he was aware that Netha's expression was blank. If not, annoyed.

"Trees are just like any other animal, right? I mean, sort of. So, why did they change so much? It's not like they cross-breed like canines- no offense." Andrew quickly corrected. Just then, a rustle was heard, and Andrew notched an arrow on his bow and Netha positioned herself to pounce. A small hare sprinted through, in front of them. Neither attacked. "Yeah, you wish." Andrew said to Netha, with a grin on his face.

"I'm just saying. If they grew different by weather conditions, wouldn't there be like eight different types, tops? But there's not, there's like, possibly hundreds. How the hell does that happen? There isn't even that many races of humans, and we breed with other races!" Andrew felt his rant was actually very valid, and he didn't stop there. "Also, why are they called 'hard wood floors' anyway? As opposed to what? Soft wood floors? What's soft wood- shut up." Andrew caught himself, but not in time.

"You know, I'm seriously glad I'm the only one you know how to talk to. Otherwise, I'd be in deep..." Andrew's voice drifted when he saw the girl in the distance. No way that was her. "Check it out, she looks smaller than me." Andrew noted. It was nice to see a normal sized person, in a world full of massive demigods. Of course, it also meant that she certainly wasn't taking hits all day.

Netha surprised Andrew, however, when she stopped in her tracks and stared at the girl. Andrew and Netha shared a glance at one another, it was an anomaly in her usual behavior. What the hell did she have in mind for this girl? The two approached, and Andrew didn't say anything. He just watched Netha approach slightly further from him, but remained feet away from the girl.

"Netha knows you."

As Corinne stood there in the clearing she began to hear a voice ring out through the forest. She figured that it was likely to be the Greek she was waiting to meet up with. As the voice got closer she could make out the conversation more. It sounded like he was talking to someone, but who would he be talking to? Corinne got her pilum out. She was going to be ready to fight if the situation called for it.

The topic was rather unusual though. Was this guy seriously talking about wood? Did people normally talk about wood in this fashion? The Romans didn't, but maybe wood mattered to the Greeks. She listened to it until he got into view. That must be Andrew, but Rinne noticed a canine with him. A wolf by the looks of it. As they got a little closer, Corinne felt like she knew the wolf that was with him. It wasn't until they were within a good that she could make out certain features. She knew the wolf that was with Andrew, she was certain of it. At that point she put her pilum away.

The first words he had said confirmed this for her. She nodded, "I know Netha too." The daughter of Chione said firmly as her eyes shifted to the boy in front of her. She extended her hand out, "Corinne Giroux, Cohort five centurion, you must be Andrew Johnson."

"Centurion." Andrew repeated. He looked her up and down. The title of "centurion" sounded like it belonged to massive people with hundreds of kills on their backs. Of course, Andrew took it with a grain of salt. He noticed that it was always the pretty girls who turned out to be vicious killers. This girl, Corinne, which was totally a guy's name, definitely had the look of a potential vicious killer. "Yeah, some people do call me that sometimes."

He decided to take the formality from her. She had been kind, which was good, but sometimes the people who made conflict were the better ones. Probably not the best idea to do that with a partner during potential danger, sadly.

"You might be French." Andrew made the comment, but the same enthusiasm and care-free attitude wasn't there. "How do you know her? She's been with me for years." Andrew asked. He had to know.

"I'm French-Canadian." She confirmed for Andrew when he said she might be French. Although the question of how she knew Netha came up and she sighed. She didn't like to tell a lot of people how old she really was, but it was just starting to become easier to tell people instead of make them think she's been living under a rock her whole life. Which even then, people wouldn't be wrong.

"Well, back about a hundred and so years ago, Netha and I ended up on a quest together. There were three Romans including myself, two hunters, and one of the hunters had a wolf. That'd be Netha. You weren't even thought of yet in that time." Rinne said and then looked around at their surroundings.

"So if some people do call you that, what do other people call you?"

"No shit." Andrew said. It wasn't sarcastic, or even harsh, more like it was awe inspired. Andrew didn't know Netha was older than your average grandpa. Netha sat between the two, but more close to Andrew. "You probably don't know this, but her sitting in front of people doesn't happen a lot." Andrew stepped forward to be just behind Netha. He squatted down to give her a gentle pet on the back.

"Classified." Andrew answered, and then let silence take over for a moment. "No, literally, I know someone who calls me 'classified.' 'You jerk' is also a common one." Andrew replied, he wanted things to go well with this person, especially given Netha's endorsement, but it wasn't enough that he would act like he was at a charity dinner.

"Surely you have other names too. You're not who I expected to find." Andrew stepped a little bit closer. "Listen, we live in a pretty screwed up world here. So I'm not going to just touch you to test a hypothesis. But, your hand is cold. Like, silk sheets in the winter." Netha glanced up at him. "She's lying. She likes silk sheets."

Corinne looked at Netha and watched as she had sat between her and Andrew. Looking at the wolf, Rinne didn't notice much difference in her appearance at all. She looked back to Andrew, "You know, my memory could just be bad, but Netha looks the same as when I last saw her." The daughter of Chione mentioned. "I didn't know that. I assume if it's rare, it's a good thing."

When he mentioned one of the names he got called with Classified, she tiled her head to the right a bit and looked at him a bit. "Classified? What landed you that name? I take it with being called 'you jerk' you aren't liked too much at your camp?" Corinne asked, before she thought about all the names she had ever been called.

"Well, I mostly go by Rinne, I've been called Snow Queen, but the weirdest one I've heard by one person was Crayola. I still don't get it." She said shaking her head. Then she looked at him quizzically before she asked her next question, "What do you mean I'm not who you expected to find?"

Rinne noticed that Andrew hadn't reacted from their handshake. Most people upon touching her skin, asked questions fast. Unless they were another half sibling or something. Usually they understood or had it themselves. About two minutes after that thought she heard the question and she smiled a bit. "Well, first, I'm a daughter of Chione. Second, I have a thin layer of ice covering my body, so in situations of fights or lets say car accidents, it takes a good chunk of the force or damage, but it's fairly breakable if I'm being honest."

"Depends who you ask." Andrew replied, honestly. "It's very easy to get under people's skin. Not in the way they like, by the way, in the way they don't like." He shrugged. "I spend my time getting better, we get better, and when my time is done, I'll move on. No point in trying to make as many friends as possible when they're going to die later anyway." Andrew still sounded indifferent.

"I got called classified because I said my name was classified. Guy's a genius." Andrew was still a little salty that he got his ass kicked during that fight. "A lot of demigods are less subtle. More massive or pronounced or obnoxious." He said. "Ice. Huh, it's ironic." Andrew remarked.

"Could have fooled me. Your skin sure as heck doesn't look like it's covered in ice. Must be a blessing during the summer." Andrew admitted. That'd be nice, to go to bed at night surrounded by a blanket of ice. He wondered if Netha would cuddle her because of that, instead of making 5 years of waiting time. "Word of the wise; and believe me, I'm not that wise. But don't advertise that your cool ice armor is easy to break."

"Well, I don't think anyone truly likes it when another person is under their skin." Rinne said with a bit of a shrug. When he began to talk about how he didn't put the effort into making friends because they'd die later anyways, she couldn't help but understand what he meant. "You know I don't blame you. I really don't. People die all the time. The two other Romans I was with on that quest ended up dying. Everyone I knew died. But that happens when you miss out on about a hundred and twenty something years of life." Corinne said rather laid back.

"Sounds like it. Going to nominate him for a Nobel Prize?" The daughter of Chione said as stupid smile started to spread across her face. It wasn't her usual manner to crack jokes like these, but she did find a little bit of humour in it.

"Oh, I see." She replied to his comment about a lot of demigods being big and obnoxious. "I can be obnoxious if you'd like, although I'm not sure how good at it I'll be."

Andrew began to comment on her ability to have an ice shield of sorts. Honestly, Rinne had never told anyone about it before. "No one really knows about it to be honest. So the part of it being easily breakable doesn't come up very often." After a few moments of silence, she spoke up again. "I guess summers do get hot for others, huh? Well if you ever need help cooling down in the summer time, come find me, and I should be able to help."

"Yes, it does." Andrew replied, haphazardly. She reminded him of Abigail, strictly in the again way. Absolutely nothing else about her reminded him of Abigail. "Well, not everyone, apparently." Andrew glanced down at her. What secrets lied in Netha? What had she seen, and why was she here? Yet, he hardly thought about it. How was she supposed to tell him that? If it ever became relevant, they would handle it together.

"I guess most of the winners of the Nobel Peace Prize are pretty violent, so, yeah, maybe I will. He has a good shot of winning it too." Andrew said, with an unknowing shrug. Ptolemy would probably be one of the better recipients, the acceptance speech would be phenomenal.

The jab about her help in the summer gave Andrew a puzzled look, and Andrew and Netha shared a glance. Of course, Netha was looking at Andrew like he was an idiot. He glanced back up to Corinne. "What do you mean by help me, exactly?" Andrew asked. He wasn't sure how to feel about it.

"Is the guy who calls you Classified violent?" Corrine asked. Were the people who won Nobel Peace Prizes violent? That'd be a bit ironic wouldn't it? The daughter of Chione was a bit curious as to what he meant. She hadn't really been around to know many winners of the Nobel Prize, but it was established roughly around the time she had gotten frozen.

"Well, I literally have a thin layer of ice on my body and even without it I'm still cold to the touch. On top of that I'm a daughter of Chione, I could create a cold environment if needed. I will say using my powers like that takes energy, I rather just use my body he-er, well body cold?" Rinne said with a shrug of her shoulders. She looked up at the sky and noticed the sun was out and not a cloud in sight. There wasn't much of a breeze either and she looked back to Andrew, "Is today a warm day out?"

"Very." Andrew mused, with a waggle of his eyebrows. "Dude's one of the witty ones too. I hate it. People usually don't challenge me in that way." People usually just got angry and either attacked or left. Nobody did a mixture of both. "Kid of Ares. I don't really know how that translates to Roman, and while I would seriously love to mock a fake name, you're oddly accepting for an authority figure."

Netha looked at Andrew, leaving just a moment of eye contact. She'd never reacted to temperature. Her fur was thick, which was great for the cold and the heat. Her sense of temperature wasn't as sensitive as Andrew's. The question was, how hot was it actually today? "It's pretty hot." Andrew said with a shrug. He was proud that he wasn't lying about it too. "You worried I'm going to overheat?"

"Did you challenge him in a fight? Did you win?" Corinne asked him. Whether the boy had won or lost, it didn't really mean a huge deal to the daughter of Chione. Everyone had room for improvement. Especially she did. Sure she had been around before and made it to Centurion before she was frozen and did it again afterwards, but she still had a long way to come until she was as good as many other Romans in the legion.

"Mars is the name we call Ares, I believe. " Rinne answering his question. Some of the major gods she knew the counterparts for, but that was about all her knowledge held int hat aspect.

"Maybe I am, and maybe I'm not. Who knows." She said with a slight shrug of her shoulders as he asked about if she was worried he'd overheat or something. "If the heat gets too much though, let me know. Don't want you having heatstroke or anything."

"Win is a relative term." Andrew said. "Like, very relative. Relative enough that I want to say broad, but then it sounds like I lost." Andrew finished. "Okay, I did lose, but it was because I didn't take advantage of the situation when I knew I could have. For the record, I could have had my foot in his ass."

"Maybe you aren't accepting at all." Andrew put a shrug of his own on the field. "Maybe you're just indifferent. I'm assuming you're indifferent. Or insane. That's always the kicker of possibilities." Andrew said, skeptically. He couldn't read her angle. She seemed sincere. Yet, how many people in the world were truly sincere?

"Y'know, talking about my ass being kicked isn't the most attractive thing in the world. Not even the most attractive thing here. What does sound attractive right about now is heatstroke." Andrew said. Whether he meant it because it would get him out of the job or it would get Corinne's offer, was only to be guessed.

"No shame in losing, Andrew. Everyone has room to grow. Losing helps us figure out where." She said sharing a little bit of her beliefs with the demigod in front of her. Although, she would admit sharing too much with someone she just met could get her in danger, but she'd like to be able to trust the Greek's and that they'd send good people.

"Maybe I am insane, you'll just have to wait and see. I hear the world's a little bit more fun when you're crazy." Corinne said in response to him. She wasn't sure exactly where this conversation was going, and in a way she wasn't entirely sure how they got to it, but there was no reversing on the subject now. The daughter of Chione had completely blanked about why they were out there in the first place.

"What would you say is the most attractive thing here?" She asked him. Rinne wasn't sure if this was one of those things boys said to flirt with a girl now a days. Was it? If it was, was she okay with that? She didn't have the urge to want to beat him up like other boys who make comments in her cohort. But maybe that's because she felt like she had a duty to do at all times. The girl wasn't entirely sure.

"No, seriously, you might think I'm just making excuses. I could have capitalized on the chance, really hit him. I had the pocket sand, and- Uh, never mind, this doesn't seem like a Roman thing." Andrew gave up on the subject. He knew it was a sore spot for Netha. Not to mention, it seemed Corinne already made her judgement on Andrew. And then, it looked different again, with the way the conversation was going.

All he could do was look her up and down again, after her comments. Really look her up and down efficiently, and not necessarily the way you would look at a target. Her comments intrigued him. He didn't even look down to Netha like usual. He was caught in a questionable trance for the moment.

"I don't know. I thought I was looking at her." Andrew said, a rarity for him to give the satisfaction to a girl. She was Roman, surely, he wouldn't see her again. "Depending on just how crazy you are, I know I'm looking at her. So, how crazy are you, then?"

When Andrew mentioned pocket sand, Corinne was very curious as to what he meant by that. Did he carry sand around in his pockets? Was that a tactic to use in battle? Was this something new? Rinne would have to ask him later about it. If not, maybe just try it for herself. Although, apparently he lost the fight, so maybe it didn't work. Or maybe he didn't use it effectively. Then there was the possibility he used it too well.

Rinne's thoughts snapped out of it when the conversation had shifted and she couldn't help it from having a sly grin on her face. "Depends, how much crazy do you like?" She asked in a suggestive manner.

The face on the Roman shifted, her expression went from displaying utter innocence and genuine nature to suddenly sounding low and flirtatious. He wasn't here to flirt. Furthermore, why was she? It made no sense to Andrew. He couldn't begin to make sense of it.

Yet, his feet carried him a step further. He supposed she could be here to kill him. Mythology was packed full of pretty women luring clueless men to kill them. Even being aware of that thought, he still didn't back away.

"Surprise me." Andrew mused. What was going on?

Corinne knew in the back of her mind that she was here on business and that's what she should be doing. However, that wasn't stopping her from behaving the way she was. It wasn't typical of Rinne, maybe she was just rebelling from how she usually was. She never did get the chance to have a rebellious teenage phase, was this it now? Not following orders to handle the task she had been given to flirt with a boy instead? Was she even flirting properly? She wasn't sure.

In the few moments Andrew mentioned to surprise him, she spoke up "I heard your conversation before you made it to the clearing." Rinne said while the sly grin stayed plastered on her face as she took a couple steps closer to him and there was only a small space between them. The daughter of Chione leaned in a bit, she had never really been this close to another person's face before, but at last minute she moved her face slightly so her cheek was resting against his before she whispered in his ear, "I have to say, I prefer hardwood."

Andrew stood and waited. For such a unique situation, he couldn't help it. All of his bonds since camp had been made with rough foundations. Even the good ones always started with arguments. Yet, this one was going differently. Different in a way that Andrew didn't even comprehend. She approached him, and he could feel the gentle breeze from her body. The sensation was interesting, even alluring. Then, he felt her cold check press against his warm one.

The transfusion was unlike anything Andrew had experienced.

Then, she whispered. Her voice sent shivers down his spine, and it wasn't even from the cold. Netha wasn't even on his mind. Then, she mentioned the rant from earlier. Andrew realized that this was over. Then, suddenly, it wasn't. Suddenly, it was just beginning. "Why don't you take one last step further then?" Andrew whispered back to her.

She could feel the little bit of warmth radiate from his cheek onto hers. It was nice to be in contact with someone who was warm. There wasn't many times she had this chance. It made her feel more human at times when she could feel the warmth off of someone.

When he whispered his own pair of words, despite already being cold, she didn't think it was possible to feel a cold shiver run down her spine like electric. Instead of just willingly taking a step forward, Rinne chuckled softly before she whispered back to Andrew. "Why don't you make me?"

The moment was frozen, which really, was ironic. The girl stood there now, and gave him the challenge. He soft words felt cold, as did the feeling radiating off of her. They had a job to do, and maybe it wasn't the smartest idea. But Andrew shrugged his worries off. He hadn't gotten this far from smarts.

His hands rose up to her upper body and slid down to her midsection. Then, he used a power, something that probably wasn't the best idea. Enough of it would make him tired. But for now, he wasn't even thinking about that.

His hands warmed up on both sides of her midsection, as he pulled her into him, so that their bodies were making full contact. "Your move." He whispered.

Corinne felt his hands on her and they slid down to her midsection. She could feel the heat from his hands. It was a more intense heat that she had felt from any other human before. The sensation against her cool skin was almost breathtaking. Soon she was pulled in closer to him so that their bodies were touching. At that point Rinne's breaths grew shallow.

It was a few moments later that Andrew had declared it to be her move. She moved her cheek away from his and brought her face just a few inches from his own. In a couple of seconds Corinne ended up pressing her lips against his his as her arms reach up and wrapped around his neck.

Nothing about his day pointed to this happening. Yet, here he was. Soon, the sensation against his cheek left. He waited for the few patient seconds, and then, it came. He lips pressed against his. Her lips were the most fascinating sensation. They radiated a lifting cold. It made no sense whatsover. He still pressed his lips back against hers. His breaths were quick now. He couldn't believe it.

The feeling of her body against his was unique, even through multiple layes of clothes. Corinne took heat from him and he took cold from her. His hands, while they generated heat, still felt a constant breeze. Words wouldn't do it justice. His lips were busy, as the kissing intensified. He kept his hands at her waist, allowing his hands to heat a greater area. He also pulled her into him, with more force.

Corinne could feel the heat from his body and the feeling was something she couldn't deny. It was giving her life in a way and she hadn't felt more alive than this point in her life. Nothing like this has happened for her before. To be fair before she had a father that'd forbid her from see any boy, but no one was here to stop her now.

Her heart was pounding in her chest and her breaths got quicker. She could feel the heat from his has grow and she was amazed by it. The heat was almost spreading out in that section of her body as she felt him pull her into him with more force as they continued to kiss. Rinne's fingers began to run through his hair as she parted her lips upon instinct.