No Strings Attached

10

The hands on my ears disappeared, just in time to catch the little "If your ears are still ringing in an hour you should get that checked in the infirmary!" followed by the most wonderful laugh I've ever heard and I can't help but smile at the sound of it.

After all this I finally get the chance to look at my savior, and if I wasn't slightly blushing before I certainly was now.

She was beautiful, H/C hair loosely fell around her head, a bright smile gracing her features, E/C radiating warmth and... was she glowing? Like, seriously? Or was that just my imagination? No, no, she definitely looks like she's glowing.

"Sorry 'bout that, are your ears okay?" I've never been good at talking to girls, let alone pretty girls, so all I could do was nod. The tall and fearless stature she seemed to have put on while facing Drew slowly melting away as she dragged a hand through her hair, clearly waiting for me to actually speak.

"So eum, wha-what just happened?" I wanted to slap myself in the face. Yes it was the first thing I thought of asking, but how dumb must she think I am?

Seemingly reading my mind she quickly reassured me, "I get it, all of this," she said while gesturing to everything around us, "camp life and all the godly stuff can be quite confusing at first. Gods, my first week was a disaster!" The animated way she used to speak made me smile.

"Basically, Drew is a daughter of Aphrodite-"

"Wait, Aphrodite, like, Hephaestus', my dad's, wife?" I said internally cringing.

"Yeah, it would be best if you don't try to think about that kinda stuff, it's... a lot? I guess that's the best way to describe it. But gods don't really have DNA, so except for your direct siblings, the ones you share a cabin with, you aren't really related to anyone here. I know it's weird but just ignore that, that's what we all do anyways."

"Okay, I'll try to do that then. Then who's your parent?" I didn't see her earlier when I was meeting everyone in cabin nine so that means I'm not related to her, right? Does that make this fair game?

"Gods I completely forgot! I haven't introduced myself yet! My name is Y/N L/N."

I shook her extended hand for a few seconds to long before I realized, oh, this is where I'm supposed to speak again! "Valdez-, I-I mean Leo, Leo Valdez!" thankful to my voice for not breaking for once. After making contact with my hand, worry seemed to flash over her face though.

"Wow your heartbeat just went up by a lot, everything alright?" she asked, the question flustering me even more, how could she tell? Am I that easy to read?

Seemingly noticing the worry on my face she immediately shot me an apologetic look and quickly retracted her hand, "That must sound so weird," she laughed again, the last of my unease drifting away with the sound of it, "I'm a daughter of Apollo, upon contact I can sense things like heartbeat or blood type."

"No way! I might be pretty new to this whole 'demigod' thing, but there's just now way that's possible!" A pretty dumb thing for me to say now that I think about it, I mean, I'm basically fireproof, this doesn't seem so weird compared to that.

She deadpanned at me, "B-, not so impossible right?" I mumble a 'sorry', eyes focusing on my feet in embarrassment.

"Hey it's fine! Like I said, takes some getting used to! But back to Drew. Some children of Aphrodite have this special 'skill' called charmspeak, which they can use to get you to do almost anything they say," my eyes widened at this, "yeah I know, pretty crazy right? And as you could probably tell just now, it's a power that can be easily abused."

"But it lost its effect after you showed up, why's that? Can it only work on one person at a time?"

"Not really, it can work on as many people as the user want's it to, the intensity of it just depends on the power of the user. The reason it went away is because I touched you," a light blush spreading over her cheeks as she spoke, "I mean, us apollo kids have the ability to take over injuries or pain from other people and place them onto ourselves, as long as we're in physical contact with the affected person. So I just rerouted her charmspeak from you onto me, since it doesn't have quite the same effect on me as it does on you. But then she tried to curse me so I had no other choice than to give her a little headache."