Quit Yer Daydreamin' (Red)

Ben pushed through the last of the brush and gazed happily at the stream in front of him. He peeled off his shirt and shoes before stepping into the calm water of the West Wind's river. Sighing happily, Ben allowed himself to relax into the cool water. It had been a particularly rough week at the infirmary- some creep named... Stiller, Stan, something like that... had been stalking around, there had been that whole ordeal with Charlie and Landon, and Torin had been too clogged with patients to pay him any attention at all. It was nice to finally loosen up. A small sound nearby caught hiss attention. His eyes snapped open. "Hello?"

Ben smiled warmly. "It's good to meet you, Mikayla. I'm Ben, son of Asclepius." He reached out and shook her hand. "What brings you down to the stream today?"

Ben sighed. "About the same. I work at the infirmary a lot. This has been a particularly stressful week." He gave an awkward smile. "My boyfriend and I haven't even been able to spend time together! He works in the infirmary, too."

Ben grinned sheepishly. "Normally I would have, but he had to stay in late last night. He was so tired when he got back. I didn't have the heart to wake him up this morning." He laughed. "Ol' sleepy head's probably will have woken by the time I get back." Thoughts of Torin filled his head momentarily, causing him to flush slightly. He blinked hard a couple of times. "So Mikayla, have you been here long? At camp, that is."

Ben nodded. "'Bout the same. I've been off campus more than that, though. Torin and I snuck off together for New Years. It was really, really crowded, though." He smiled at the memory. "Also, there are some Dionysus and Pan kids that host parties, on and off campus. If you haven't already been to a few of them, you should check one out. You could come with Torin and I!"

Ben laughed and gave Mikayla a pat on the shoulder. "That's fine. The guy who hosts a lot of them, Felix, is really friendly. I doubt he'd really mind, so long as everyone has a good time. He's a little older than us, assuming you're my age. 'Bout four years or so." He smiled. "I was a noob when I went to my first one. It was great!"

"Great! I'll find out when the next one is and bring the date to the Hectate cabin." Ben grinned. "Not a lot makes Felix happier than gettin' more people to his parties. Makes him feel loved or something." The blonde chuckled.

Ben's eyes lit up at the question, as they were want to do whenever his boyfriend came up. "Yeah, for about three months. I... I saved his life. That kinna sorta sparked things." He laughed, but left out one particular detail on Torin... People tended to react badly to it.

Ben laughed, and scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "I guess so. I really love him." At the question of Torin's parentage, he tensed up slightly. [color=white]"N-no, just a minor healing god."

Ben narrowed his eyes. He didn't necessarily like where this was going. "God." His response was curt. What was this girl up to?

Ben glanced around awkwardly. "No, it isn't Paean." He was getting a bit flustered. "W-why d you need to know?"

Ben tilted his head down. "N-No... It's fine... It's just that most people... well... don't approve." He glanced up. "I don't really care what other people think, but Torin is so self conscious... If people thought bad about him, about me, about US, it'd kill him."

Ben nodded. "Torin's.... He's.... He's my half-bro. Yeah..." Ben cringed slightly. He really didn't care if this girl approved or not, but it was still sort of scary to say out loud.