Light and Fire (Leo Valdez)

3. Ship's tour ended in genocide

Julia, Octavian and Leo walked towards the flying ship.

Leo was next to Julia, his curly hair bounced as he struggled to keep up with her quick pace. She was an inch shorter than him, so his posture was kind of slumped to match her height. Of course, he was also making poor attempts at flirting with her. "So, you're related to Aphrodite? I mean, I see the resemblance..."

She ignored that. "To Venus to be exact, but yes. I'm also a daughter of Apollo though, that's how i got healing powers.". She walked faster

Leo whistled "Ohh, that's why you're hotter than the sun!"

Octavian, who had been weirdly silent until then, joined the conversation "Oh no! Don't get Apollo into this! He doesn't deserve to be used in a cheesy, bad pickup line!"

"Cheesy and bad? Dude, i'm the god of pickup lines!"

Octavian gasped, and looked at Julia "That was a blasphemy! Of course, the mighty Apollo is the god of poetry, and therefore of pickup lines! He needs to be persecuted!"

Leo scrunched up his nose "Man, i don't know what a blasteam is, but i swear, if you don't shut up-"

Staying between the two was like being between two fires, with one of them hitting on you and the other trying to arrest you.

At that moment, fortunately, they got to the base of the ship. It was huge, nothing like Julia had ever seen, and had a bronze hull and a flaming dragon head at the top of the mast. The mast head was a... bronze dragon's head? That absolutely terrified Julia. She was afraid of any animal bigger than a medium sized dog. The dragon seemed alive, glaring at her with his red, evil eyes. It definitely wanted to eat her. He was definitely going to eat her.

"Are you looking at Festus?". Leo's voice scared her so much she almost jumped. Almost. Instead, she let out a nervous laugh, and scratched the back of her neck, looking away. "If you mean the bronze drAgon, yes it's really coOl..." .Of course her voice had to crack, as she couldn't make it more obvious she was shitting her pants.

"I know, right?" Leo smiled and started climbing on the ladder.

Julia was confused for a moment, but then she just shrugged and climbed after him. Thank gods this guy's eq is the same as a bronze shield's.

Octavian struggled to get on the ship. He looked so offended as his feet and hands slipped on the cord. "A ladder? That's so barbaric... only a greacus could live like this... embarrassing..."

Leo ignored his annoying remarks and led the way for their little ship-tour. "And then, there are nine cabins- well eight if you don't count coach Hedge's. Have you met coach Hedge? Oh, of course you didn't meet him! He's not so friendly at first, but don't worry- He'll love you eventually ! You know, we have a love-hate relationship at times, well, sometimes it's a hate-hate relationship because he makes me do push ups, and i'm not the sporty type of guy, but he laughs at my jokes and-"

Saying he was long-winded was an understatement.
And not in a nice way. Like, he talked the girl's ears off, quite literally since Julia considered grabbing a kitchen knife and slicing them.

Octavian, obviously had to make stupid, bitter remarks at everything Leo showed, like "Why does the mess hall have camp half-blood's images streaming? Why didn't you make the tables the roman way, with large sofas and short tables?", and that just made Leo talk more.

That was Julia's personal definition of Tartarus.

Octavian had run outside because the cabins "triggered his claustrophobia" and was provably studying every inch of the ship to better attack it in the future, but this Julia couldn't tell.