Chapter 19
MEG POV
(A/N I own zip, except the plot, Meg's crippling indecision about Robin and the dude himself. I've started another multi-chapter project, (which is why this is a day late sry) it's based on Star Wars Rebels, but this will still be my primary project, if I can manage to get through this writer's block.)
Meg awoke to the smell of iron and charcoal. That wasn't necessarily the bad part, waking up to the smell of a nice home fire. The bad part was realising how she was smelling it, and what position she was in. She had her hand covered by Robin's, and her head was resting on his shoulder. She looked across the isle, face as red as her tomatoes, to find Chris, barely suppressing his mirth. "I take it you had a pleasant sleep?" Meg glared at him.
"I take it you'd rather keep your head than have me roll it down this corridor like a bowling ball?" Chris raised his hands in surrender and came over to expertly disentangle the young demigods. "Hmph. As thanks, I won't decapitate you." Chris made an over-exaggerated bow.
"I appreciate your kindness."
"How long were we… like that?" Chris grinned.
"Long enough for a waitress to come by and assume you were together." Meg groaned and put her head in her hands. Surprisingly, the notion that people thought she was with Robin didn't put her off as much as people assuming who her significant other was normally did. She supposed that it was because she wasn't fully awake yet and her brain wasn't operating at maximum function. But as she became more alert, and joined Chris in scrutinising every passenger on the train, the thought oddly elated her. Meg had spent her life at camp as the single one, the one everyone tried to find a match for but she shot them all down. She had barely considered a partner, and when she did, she could never conjure the image of another half. Now, when she thought about it, all she could see was light brown hair and earthy eyes. (A/N For clarification, when I say light brown, I'm talking like Jeremy Renner, not like Chris Evans. Dark brown would be along the lines of Logan Lerman.) Realising she had probably been staring into space, she quickly fumbled for a question that would break the silence.
"So, how long is this journey going to take?" Chris considered the question, then dug around in his pocket for the train guide.
"Well, we're somewhere in south Maryland right now, I'd say we've been going for two, three-ish hours? (A/N Don't quote me on this, the longest train ride I ever went on was around Glasgow, which lasted an hour and a bit, and that was because it was a slow train going from the city centre to the outskirts. Also I've never been to the US, this distance measuring is based off google and the train ride in the Lightning Thief.) Should take us another day on the train to get to Miami." Wake up one of the others, I need some rest." Before he settled back in his seat he looked over at a sleeping Robin and winked, clearly indicating who she should choose. The blush that Meg had managed to keep down suddenly shot up again, covering her cheeks in a cherry colour. Chris winked again before closing his eyes. Meg waited until she was sure that the blush had dissipated before gently shaking Robin's shoulder. He opened one eye and smiled at her.
"You know, he put us in that position. I pretended to nod off to see what he would do." All the effort Meg had put into stopping her face flushing suddenly seemed as if it had never mattered.
"Sneaky." Meg didn't bother with anything more. She was too confused about her internal turmoil to botherabout social interaction, and so opted to look out the window on the other side of the isle.
"Hey, did I do something?" Robin sounded genuinely concerned, and Meg cursed her soft heart as she turned back to him, and asked a question that was completely off-topic.
"Have you ever had a girlfriend? Ever been in a relationship, had a significant other?" Robin blinked, as he processed the blindside of a question.
"No, not exactly. Girls were kinda throwing themselves at my feet at school though." Meg snorted, and Robin rolled his eyes. "There was a few, anyways. Probably 'cos I'm sporty and stuff. Could've gotten with one of them, but I didn't. Wanted to keep my focus on school, on my training. Can't exactly do that now though. Why the sudden question?" Meg shrugged, it had kind of just leapt out of her mouth unbidden.
"You just seemed so at ease when Chris was teasing us, I figured you would have had some past experience." Robin laughed.
"Nah, just good at weathering it." They lapsed into a comfortable silence, until Robin responded. "Have you?" Meg snorted.
"Nope, not really a lot of chances to have dates when six years of your life were taken by Nero. I think there's a guy with a crush on me at Camp though." Robin scratched his chin with a small smile.
"I bet there's a lot more than one guy, jien inkluż." Meg sat up in her seat.
"What?" Robin smiled wider at this.
"I said-"
"No, I heard what you said. What language did you say it in?" At this Robin looked confused.
"What do you mean? I said 'I bet there's a lot more than one guy'." Meg started getting impatient.
"Right, you said that in english, correct?" Robin nodded. "Alright, now say the bit after that. 'Jen klutz' or whatever." Robin blinked, then laughed.
"I think we've found my language. Now we need to figure out which one it is." Meg grinned, then held her hand out for a high five. Robin obliged, then brought it back to where they were positioned before Chris had disentangled them. Meg let out a small squeak of surprise, then settled for glaring at Robin, who had the audacity to looked fairly pleased. "Just so you know," He leaned towards Meg's ear. "You can still use my shoulder as your pillow." As he drew back, and she placed her head on his shoulder, Meg wondered, would it really be that bad to be with him?
(A/N So a few small things about this chapter. First, Jien incluż is me included in Maltese, so Robin is probably glad that his language skills kicked in there. Second, I wanted to have Robin speak Sicilian, but the language is too similar to English to be confusing for the others to understand. So now he can speak Maltese. Third, the reason I wanted him to speak Sicilian is because of his father. Adranus has one major temple in the entirety of the Mediterranean, which is in (you guessed it) Sicily. In ancient times, there was a thousand dogs stationed at the temple, something about wild dogs being his sacred animal. Also, it was always exactly one thousand. One and three zeros. If one died, then they would bring a new one in. If one gave birth, then the pups would be taken to a nursing station on Italy. I've been through Wikipedia, greekgodsandgoddesses, pretty much any mythology-based website and I have found no more than three legends. Seriously, this guy is less prominent than Khione. (Don't smite me, Boreas.) Other stuff, sorry about the short chapter, it fitted really well there. It's becoming more of a fun puzzle, writing Meg x Robin (Reg? Mobin? Should have given this guy a better name) and trying to keep it realistic. I personally, have never been in a relationship, plus I'm writing from the perspective of the opposite gender, so this is like running a race. I need to pace myself, to not let the relationship run away with itself, but I also don't want to write in serious conflict so I accidentally ruin it later. Pls give me feedback in reviews, and this A/N is getting to be around a quarter of the chapter itself, so I'll see you later.
Vaya con Queso,
DamaSENDhimafriend
