Just keep swimmin (Julia)

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Ronan pulled his swim trunks on, not that the son of Vulcan and Legacy of Neptune actually could swim, but he pulled the surf shorts on none the less. His muscles ached in protest as he reached down to get something, a water bottle, this ache was good feeling to him. Earlier that day, he had pushed the fifth cohort and really put them to the test, making sure that his friend Josh was able to keep close tabs on the ones that decided to make a joke of training. So he punished the whole cohort for what the few did. They would learn quickly that they needed to stick together and police each other, keeping them in check when he wasn't around. He's talk to Remus about recommending Josh as a centurion. He was worried about his friend ever since he came home from the quest. Edmund never came back, but deep down, Ronan knew what had happened. He blamed himself for his brothers disappearance. Then there was the meeting with his father. That was so awkward, it was weird and never before had Ronan wanted to take a swipe at a god before. Not that his father had done anything wrong, he just invaded his personal space, put his hand on his desk and came into his forge. But at least Ronan knew that he was there and despite him not being able to deal with carbon based life forms, he knew his father cared about his kids. There was a lot on his mind right now. So after working those pathetic teams to the bone, he fed Jadis in the forge before grabbing his toiletries bag and heading into the baths.

Of course he could hear the girls in his cohort whining and complaining as he passed by the spa section of the baths. HE passed the pool, shaking his head as he watched a few kids splashing and screaming in delight. He bet they were enjoying the heated pool. If he had jumped in he was sure to make it even warmer. Once or twice when he was younger, a few boys had blamed him for peeing in the pool due to his warm spot. No he hadn't peed in the pool, it was his naturally high body temperature. Someone had even recommended that he go to the spa and get the callous scraped off of his hands and feet with that cheese grater they used in those things. The thought of nineteen years worth of roman callous build up from working in the forge and training, it was enough to make him shudder. So he grabbed a couple of water bottles and headed for the sauna. He felt rather good about sitting in the sauna for a bit. His home town was on the boarder of Russia, near Finland, so the tradition of the sauna had somewhat seeped into the towns culture. Ronan didn't bother to use the outside thermostat to heat the pile of rocks in the middle of the sauna. He took his lighter and pulled the flames to his hand. The fire licked at his skin, not hurting him in the least. Ronan personally put the flame to the stones to heat them. They glowed white hot before he doused them with water, flooding the sauna with steam.

He took in a deep breath of steam. He could feel everything opening up, his lungs and breathing pathways. Ronan gently closed his eyes as he laid against the wooden benches. Again, another breath. It felt as if all his worries were washing away. He didn't think about his little sister and how he was going to murder Lance, the little cretin that was too friendly with Nova, he didn't think about the meeting with his father, or about his brother. He didn't think about his cohort being the butt of every joke nor did he think about how much he was going to torture them the next day. He had three boxes of duct tape waiting for them. They didn't know how to work together so he was going to duct tape them so they could learn to work as a single unit. Then they would have to fight someone who wasn't encumbered by another person. He inhaled again before letting out a sigh of contentment.

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There was an internal debate raging on in Julia's mind as she gathered up her toiletries. On the one hand she understood that training was important. They were Romans, it was what they did. Blah blah blah. The same stuff she had heard for nearly the past ten years. But she couldn't write it all off. People had gone missing during quests. People had died. As much as she hated to admit it, Julia knew she needed to learn how to fight. Well, to get better at it. She already knew how to fight, and to be honest she was a better fighter than most people gave her credit for... But on the other hand: the spa. And plus, she had pushed herself quite a bit during her last few training sessions. It wasn't like she was even skipping a session or anything, she just wasn't adding one in where it wasn't scheduled. Still, she felt a twinge of guilt as she closed the jacket over her bikini and headed out towards the baths.

She hadn't quite decided what decided exactly what she wanted to do there. A couple of laps in the pool would be considered training, right? Maybe then she wouldn't feel as badly about being there... Unfortunately this bathing suit wasn't actually meant to be in contact with anything chlorinated. A bit counterintuitive for a bathing suit but at least it looked good. So the pool was out. There was always the spa... but what did she need from there? It wasn't like she needed them to give her a manicure or a pedicure; her nails were immaculate. She was still pondering as she took her jacket off and draped it over her arms, just looking around in an attempt to find inspiration. The shrieks and screams coming from the pool cemented that on the 'no' list; even if she went back and got a different suit she had planned to come here and relax, not be surrounded by screaming kids on all sides. No, she wanted some seclusion and peace and quiet.

The sauna. That would be perfect. She had gotten completely disgusting during training, and despite a shower she still felt like there was a layer of grime that needed to be melted away, that her pores just needed to open up, for all of her stress to just float right out. Julia pulled open the door to the sauna, fully aware that there was someone else trying to relax but also fully prepared to Charmspeak them right out of there; until she noticed who it was through the steam. Ronan Redpath. One of the few people in the Legion that she could count on to raise her spirits just by being around. "Oh, Ronan. I didn't realize it was you in here." Her scowl quickly turned to a smile as she looked at the son of Vulcan. "You don't mind if I join you, do you?"

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Ronan sat in the steam just thinking, trying to clear his mind. He wasn't going into the forge today, though there was no doubt in his mind that the work that needed get done would be done. He could thank little Nova for keeping everything in shape while he was away doing Centurion things. He had to do another long night in the file room. Even though he had gone through the files and sorted them the other day, he would have to once more go through them. This particular time it was to sort out the files of those that had gone on and left the Legion for other endeavors. He would be turning of age soon, but he wasn't about to leave the legion in dire times like this. THey needed all the experienced soldiers that they had, he wouldn't let them down. He had made centurion and a centurion was an important position. He never had people depend on him or look up to him. Even little Nova had looked up to her big brother, not just literally, figuratively too. But he wiped the thoughts of evil and maliciousness from his mind of all the things he was going to do to that little Lance kid if he ever so much as broke Nova's heart. He'd have to leave the melting barbed wire out of it. Or maybe he'd take some ideas from that Gunnar guy that Charlie had talked about. If anyone knew how to get at someone it would be the camp torturer.

Ronan tossed some more water on the rocks he had heated up, more steam rushed into the small and wooden room. He inhaled the steam and it felt like his stopped up nose was going to open up enough he could shove a rock in his own nose. Not that he would, Ronan had experienced someone trying to do that once before and he was not going to attempt something of that nature. He ran a hand over his chin, he'd have to go to New Rome and pick up a new razor kit. He was a bit old fashioned, he preferred the strait edge razor. While he probably could have made one himself, and he did at one point, it wasn't the same as the one he got from the New Rome pharmacy. He'd also have to pick up some more after shave and some more cologne. Not that he used the latter fairly often, but it was nice to have in case someone important came along. He didn't much care for smelling like a sweaty ash tray. He could only stand a smell for so long before he felt the need to scrub himself raw with a Brillo pad. Which he had done once before, so the idea wasn't totally out of question. One time before someone had thought it was a funny prank for them to douse him mud and ashes from the forge. Some stupid mercury kid had done it, but Ronan had gotten him back. Revenge was a dish best served cold, or in Ronan's case, it was served piping hot with a side of flaming underpants. No one liked for their tighty whiteys to be strung up the flag pole and set ablaze in the middle of the night.

Ronan had closed his eyes, taking in more deep breaths as he tried to let his problems ooze out of his pores with the sweat. But it was hearing his name that he sat up from his reclined position on the bench. The voice was ever so sweet, but he recognized it anywhere. It was Julia. He smiled at her. "It's alright." Ronan said with a smile. "You're more then welcome to come on in. It's a public place after all." He said, speaking in his heavily Russian accented voice. He had been so busy for the past couple of months, he hadn't really had much time to do anything of the social nature. If it wasn't about training or fixing things, he really didn't do much else. Even his own personal projects had fallen by the wayside. Camp was gearing up for war after all, and whether or not the Mars kids liked to admit it, New Rome and Camp Jupiter were built upon the backs of the Vulcan children. They were the builders, the weaponsmiths, the armorsmiths, they were strong soldiers. "What have you been up to lately Julia?" He said with a tilt of his head.

((ronan muse is over flowing, and look she made him smile))

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She could tell there was something on Ronan’s mind, but she wasn’t about to ask him about it. Who at the Legion didn’t have something huge on their mind these days? There was a war coming. He was a Centurion; with that added to the looming war and helping to run the forge she was surprised that he could get up in the morning with all of the stress he had to be under. Sometime she just wanted to Charmspeak him and get him to take the time to relax… But deep down she knew she could never do that to him. Well, finding him in the sauna was better than finding him in the forge. It meant he wasn’t spending absolutely all his time training or making weapons or doing his Centurion duties. You had to respect a guy who took care of his body and his mind.

Julia just watched him through the steam for a moment, more of a smile playing over her face. When he finally moved she blinked, having been lost in her thoughts. Hearing him speak, his accent, it made her smile again. ”I just wanted to be sure I wasn’t interrupting anything.” She moved further into the sauna and took a seat on the bench near the young demi-god, just happy to be spending some time with him. Time with a friend was so rare these days, anything social was rare these days. She understood that there was an impending war, but they couldn’t all drive themselves mad with work, could they? And how were they to trust each other on the battlefield if they didn’t know anything about each other? Well, yeah, a lot of them had grown up together, but that was different than actually hanging out with someone and truly getting to know them.

”Not all that much. The usual, you know. Training; I’ve been trying to get better with something that isn’t a dagger. And trying to convince some more people that gymnastics are an advantage on the battlefield. You would be surprised how many sons of Mars have ended up with a dagger against their throat because they’re too thrown off by the flips and spins, yet they refuse to learn it.” She shrugged; if they didn’t want to learn a new skill that was their fault. Her balance was impeccable, and so few people ever expected half of the moves she came up with and that was thanks to her gymnastics training. Heck, if she could get some of the guys to learn cheer tosses she was sure she could find a way to work those into attacks if they were needed. ”How about you? I’m sure the forges have been running like crazy… I’m sorry I haven’t made it over there recently. I hope you haven’t been spending too much time in there by yourself. We demi-gods are part human, after all, and humans are social animals.”

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Ronan peered across the steam, looking at the beautiful woman that had decided to grace him with her presence. What he wouldn't give to have a day to himself, to do something with someone he cared about. Ronan had a stray thought cross his mind but he pushed it to the back of his brain as he opened his mouth to say something but closed it instead. There were things that he had never done before and a few things he actually wanted to do. He thought about a few other things, but his attention right now was at the beautiful blond headed woman standing here. But there was so much more preparation of war and training that had to be done, there were weak links that he had to weed out of his cohort, but everyone needed some time off didn't they? Didn't Tessa always preach about needing to take a break every now and then? With as hard as he was pushing his cohort these days, they would need a break. Not that some of them cared to partake in the training that Ronan had set forth. Some of them had excuses, like being in the infirmary or on guard duty, but there were others who blatantly disregarded his authority. Everyone at one point probably had problems with people disrespecting their authority, Gods only knew how much crap Charlie and Chris took for doing 48 hour drills.

Ronan smiled as she sat down beside him. If it wasn't for the sauna and the fact that he was already at a higher temperature, he would swear he was blushing. Maybe he was, he couldn't tell. He couldn't see his own face. "I always have time for you. All you have to do is ask. Or I can make more time for you." Okay now he was starting to sound like an idiot, or at least in his mind he did. Ronan had never gotten the hang of carbon based life forms, so talking about feelings and emotions, it wasn't his forte. Maybe he should talk to his best friend later on, Chris shouldn't be doing anything later on right? Well he was the centurion of first so he probably was making his cohort pay out the nose. "If you have some time later on would you like to get eat? I mean food for eating, wait what?" Ronan frowned as he tried to allow his brain to catch up with his mouth. He blushed deeply, trying to wait for his brain to process the fact that he really just asked the most beautiful woman in the world out on a date. "I'm sorry that was too forward, I mean you don't have to come with me if you want or if you're busy or if you don't like me that's alright too...." Ronan cursed in Russian, stupid tongue, he thought.

He really felt like a moron. Ronan frowned as he looked at his feet. If she had any sense she would probably turn him down. But she started talking about gymnastics. "I've seen you practice with it, you're amazing." She was very good at it, Ronan had seen it first hand. She was lithe and built full of coiled muscle, something akin to panther waiting to pounce. She was beautiful and deadly at the same time. "My little sister's been keeping me company in the forge, but she's got her a little boy who's not worthy of her affection." Ronan shook his head at that all too flameable boy who wanted to stalk his little sister. "I'd really like to spend some more time with you if that's alright with you." Ronan said nodding in agreeance with what she was saying. Even if he didn't do carbon based life forms, he would rather have a few to be around.