"Booooooooored," Sirius sang in the most grating way that he could muster.
"Well, I'm terribly sorry that none of the rest of us feels like celebrating our imminent doom…" Marlene rolled her eyes at him as she examined her cloak.
"If we really knew we were doomed then what would be the purpose of being miserable?" He argued. "I'd much prefer celebrating. I'd much prefer anything to this, really."
Watching other people cry and be ill upon a boat was worse than boring. It was outright unpleasant. Sirius liked to think he saw the pleasantness in all situations whenever he could, but this whole thing was just a dearth of pleasing sights.
Marlene heaved a sigh, "I'm sure we'd all much prefer anybody to you, but here we are."
Except one. Marlene, daughter of Fate was an endlessly pleasing sight. He could have looked at her like one does a clear night sky. There was never a moment where you decided 'well I've seen this sky, that's quite enough.' Marlene only got more profoundly beautiful every time he looked at her.
He hated it and felt almost as sick as the poor idiot retching violently off the deck.
Marlene glared at him before standing and walking to the said retching young man. She placed a hand on his back and whispered in his ear. Much to Sirius' surprise, the man stood and looked like he hadn't just spent the last several hours vomiting over the side of the ship. But it struck Sirius that the lad also looked quite frightened of Marlene. That didn't make any sense.
Marlene walked back with a touch of sadness in her eyes.
"So you aren't so dreadful after all." Sirius taunted as she returned to sitting next to him and running her fingers over her cloak. "What'll the captain have to call you now?"
"I'd prefer he just refrain from calling upon me at all." Marlene pressed her palm to her forehead. "That poor boy was miserable, and it was in my power to help. So I did. Anyone would."
She was even worse when she went and said things like that. Sirius felt short of breath. He was dangerously close to actually admiring her. That would not do… not even a little bit. He could not let himself consider the content of her heart or her mind. It was hard enough to contend with the undeniable attraction to her more surface qualities.
Why couldn't she have been Hephaestion's daughter? Demigoddess of ugliness and also big hulking tools that could be used as weapons against the thing they were supposed to subdue. That would have been very helpful. How were they meant to do that anyway? She couldn't exactly kill a great horrible death-beast by being excessively beautiful.
"You're staring at me," she didn't even look over at him as she said it, and Sirius quickly looked away.
She might kill him in exactly that manner… Sirius felt like he would probably die. It was so unbelievably embarrassing. He didn't want to look at her. He didn't like her. He had no idea what good she was doing him on this whole quest and it was entirely possible she'd work against him rather than with him. It was more than a little inconvenient that he felt his stomach flip over upon itself every time she looked him in the eye. Her blue eyes could pin him against a wall if she'd wanted to.
He didn't know what to do. He never did. He'd almost certainly inherited his father's ineptitude in the way of planning.
All he could think to do was to antagonize her. It was weak, but it was his only shield against the flutters in his chest. If she hated him it would be easier to get a hold on this horribly ill-advised infatuation. Unfortunately, all his unpleasantness seemed to only make her bored with him.
Perhaps he could try something else. The first idea in his head was the first out of his mouth. That was usually the way of it, for Sirius.
"So your betrothed… you must miss him as much as I miss fun by now."
Marlene gave him a quizzical look. "I'm not yet well enough acquainted with him."
Sirius stared at her, "You mean you don't actually know the man you're supposed to marry?"
"Well, of course, I know him," Marlene rolled her eyes. "I've met him once, a week or so ago."
Sirius could not process what he had just heard. This was not what he intended to learn. No… this was bad and he immediately wished he hadn't asked. He'd expected to hear her gush on about some mortal she was in love with and for that to serve as some sort of reminder to him to stop staring at her like a hopeless puppy. He was a full grown dog dammit! Not a puppy. He had some dignity. Maybe.
Or not. He couldn't help but poke his cold wet nose at the metaphorical snake.
"Do you even know anything about what he's like, really?" He was genuinely perplexed as to why a woman like this would be so certain that she wanted to marry a man she'd met once. That in and of itself was strange but there was also the fact she was going to give up a part of who she was for this man? Why? Perhaps, either through her own powers or through her mother's telling, she knew this match was fated. That would explain it better than anything else Sirius could think of.
"He's handsome," she shrugged, "and he's kind. If memory serves me he makes and sells pottery."
"You sound in the throes of passion," Sirius drawled with a sort of sarcasm that he thought must have been proof of his mortal heritage. The god of revelry was unable to produce such bitter notes with his eerily melodic voice.
He smirked at the look of annoyance that crossed Marlene's face. He could comfort himself in the knowledge that his mother had never in her life been known to smirk. She didn't smile at all, really, at least not in Sirius's memory. This part of him was all Father.
"Have you become demigod of interrogations now?"
"No I don't actually care or anything it's just that we're on this dreadful boring boat and I was trying to… you know… make conversation? Or is that beneath you what with all your foresight and all…"
Making petty low blows to her character was childish. But she'd already indicated that she thought he was childish and perhaps maximizing on that quality would be the thing to get under her skin. He had to create distance. Distance was the only way out of this. If he didn't get out of this he'd likely get eaten by a horrible beast thing because he would be busy staring moonstruck at the daughter of Fate.
"I'm not above conversation; I just don't appreciate having to prove to you my desire to marry." She glared at him.
Sirius felt some measure of pride that he was winning. "I'm not asking you to prove anything. I was just asking the normal questions one asks about another's betrothed. You know, normal things couples know about each other."
"Forgive me; I didn't realize that my attempt at some semblance of a happy life was any of your concern." She looked away from him and out over the water, but she didn't leave.
Sirius's eyes followed her annoyingly perfect face as she turned. She looked troubled. Not angry, but sad and worried. He didn't know how to deal with those sorts of feelings. His usual strategy was to avoid them altogether, but he found himself unable to walk away from Marlene.
He cursed that fact and considered apologizing for his rudeness. Even though it had been entirely intentional, it hadn't been designed to make her sad. He couldn't bring himself to say the words though. They stalled inside his mouth and he swallowed them back down. Perhaps she really would hate him now. He sincerely hoped that he hadn't been the cause for lasting sadness in the Dreadfully Beautiful Daughter of Fate.
He was no better with silences than he was with sadness. It was so unnatural for a son of Dionysus. He asked himself what his father would say in this instance to lighten the mood and then let the words fall out of his mouth.
"Did you know that Apollo can turn into a dolphin?"
She sighed, "...no, I did not."
"Well, it's just that we're on a boat and it reminded me of the tale my Father told me about Apollo being in dolphin form and saving a ship from a terrible storm by leaping aboard and guiding the ship to shore."
"That sounds very... heroic…I suppose." She finally turned to look at him wearily.
"Rightly so," Sirius smirked, "but I have to wonder why he did the whole thing as a dolphin."
He saw the corners of her mouth turn up just a hair, and then watched the smile grow into a real sigh of laughter. Even her teeth were perfect. Her smile was as blindingly bright as the very sun that Helios chauffeured around. Sirius was sure he would get burned.