Sunburns (Dakota)

[Dakota King]

"Umm..." Dakota muttered as her face went a light pink. She wished that she could play it off as a sunburn starting, but she knew better since she slathered on that sunscreen. Never in her life has she been caught so off guard by someone offering something as special as a green diamond. Then again, this was the only green diamond in the world that she knew about. She thought about refusing the offer, because she figured it was probably valuable. However, she couldn't help but think that it would dazzle in certain settings. "It would be pretty in a necklace," she said with a bit of a shrug as she tried to play it off.

She giggled a bit as Dunstan looked so shocked that she knew about the different color of sapphires. "I guess my mother is part of it, but I've read in magazines and stuff that celebrities have different color sapphires for their engagement rings." She giggled a bit as she nodded her head and shrugged. "Only a little bit," she said as she held up her hand to demonstrate how much. There was barely any room between her fingers as she giggled a bit more.

[Deleted]

Dunstan nodded and pocketed the diamond, "I'll make one for you. Or ask an Hephaestus kid too, I know one whose pretty good with small things like that." He smiled, not even realizing that this could count as flirting. Such an oblivious fool, Dunstan is. He noticed her face turn pink but he didn't think anything of it. Probably just the sun or... his eyes widened, "I- I didn't mean to-i'm not trying to-" he stuttered trying to get his words out.

He laughed along with her, "Well, that makes sense. Those celebrities have so much money they can probably find whatever precious jewels they want... lucky." He muttered, he leaned back onto the sand with his hands behind his head, "I guess some people are just meant to have things easier than others." He shrugged.

[Dakota King]

Dakota pressed her lips together as she glanced off to the side while taking deep breaths. It was official, this was the first time a guy wanted to give her a diamond necklace the first time meeting him. Not that she had gotten a diamond necklace from any of her other suitors; she never let the relationship progress that far. "No, no no no no," she quickly said as she shook her head as she head up her hand. "You're not... trying... anything..." She scrunched up her face as she was having trouble trying to find the right words to say. She took a deep breath as she reached up to run her fingers through her hair. "It's very nice of you," she said as she looked back at him. "I'm just a little caught off guard because nobody has done anything that nice before." She smiled a bit as she took another deep breath as she looked at him lounging on the sand. "It's a nice offer, but I won't be heartbroken if you had other plans for it."

[Deleted]

It was official. This was the first time Dunstan had ever made a girl act embarrassed and awkward because of something HE did. He put his face in his hands before she revealed that she thought the gesture was nice. Then he pulled his hands away and smiled at her, "That's all it was meant to be, a nice gesture." He propped ety himself up on his elbow and shook his head, "No, I want to give it to you. I have more than one," truth was he had two total, "and i'm going to make you something as soon as I get some other colors." His smiled grew wider as he spoke, "Call it a gift of gratitude for you listening to my boring rock chatter. Deal?" he held a hand out to her.

[Dakota King]

Dakota could honestly count on one hand the number of awkward situations she had been on. This sadly was one of them and her mind was racing trying to think of ways to recover it. The solutions she was coming up with would only make everyone more awkward, especially with him laying on the ground with his hands over his face. She glanced over at the sea and took a deep breath before he started talking again.

A small smile crept onto her face as she nodded her head. "Okay," she said as she giggled again at his last statement. "So I'll have a rainbow necklace?" She nodded her head a little bit more before she reached out to grip his hand. "Deal." She shook it as she noticed he had soft skin. She blushed slightly as she pulled her hand out of his grasp.

[Deleted]

"Well, maybe not RAINBOW," he smiled, "I hear that's not really... in style anymore?" he found himself questioning the idea and shrugged. "Honestly, I wouldn't know. You can just pick whatever colors your want when the time comes," he found himself sounding more confident than usual, which was weird because most girls, especially Aphro-girls, usually gave the opposite affect. When she took his hand in hers for the shake he couldn't help but notice how well her slender fingers and his meshed well beside one another. In other words, if they were stones or rocks he would definitely fuse them together.

Her cheeks colored as she pulled away. He tried not to let his turn red in return, but they did anyway. He could feel his skin growing hot. It was bad enough running into French girls back in the day, but American girls? Worse. He was even more scared out of his mind here. At least his accent had subsided a little, that was embarrassing enough.

[Dakota King]

Dakota shrugged as she chuckled a bit. "Rainbows are always in style. It's just a matter of if it's your taste or not." She smirked a bit before she nodded her head. "That definitely sounds like a plan." Once her hand was out of his grasp, she couldn't help but notice it tingled a bit. She rested it against the towel she was sitting on as she gripped it a couple of times. Her hand wasn't going numb as far as she could tell, but she never had it feel like this before.

She took deep breaths as she felt herself starting to get flustered again. "So..." she said as she tried to find something that would relieve this awkwardness. "Do you do any other work with geology besides mixing gemstones?"

[Deleted]

Dunstan noticed her take a few deep breaths. Was she getting cold? No, that couldn't be it. He tried not to think about it too much as she asked her next question. Her eyes reflected the ocean in front of them and lit up with the sunlight. How did that work? They looked like diamonds. Eyes that looked like diamonds. He realized that it had taken a moment before answering, "Oh sorry, yeah. Everything. I study mineralogy, seismology, petrology the works." He smiled, "it's easy to get carried away. And distracted. There are so many other things I need to work on as well but I can't stay focused on one thing for a long time, Il commence juste à se vraiment compliqué avec toutes les choses que je veux apprendre. Comme je veux en savoir plus sur les Olympiens, je ne les vois pas vraiment comme des dieux. Pas trop parler, je n'ai aucune idée de la façon de- Oh my Gods," He stopped and turned bright red, "I just started blabbing in French, didn't I?"

[Dakota King]

Dakota slowly nodded her head as she listen to Dunstan speak. She didn't understand what he was talking about with the petrology and seimology, but she could understand that they were science-related fields. She kept listening to him, not noticing the change in language until he pointed it out. She knitted her eyebrows together before she asked, "Vous parliez en français?" ("You were speaking in French?")

Her eyes widen as she slapped a hand across her mouth. In all her years of schooling, Dakota never once took French. How was it that she was able to speak a difficult language so fluently. "How... did I do that?" she asked as she took her hand away and made sure she was speaking English. She was shaking a bit as she was trying to decide if this was a freaky demigod thing or not. "I've never taken French once. Only a little bit of Spanish so I can speak to patients."

[Deleted]

"Yo-You speak french?" he asked slowly. He had no idea about the whole 'romantic languages' gig that the Aphrodites had. In fact, he didn't know much about Aphrodites at all. He let his jaw drop and didn't notice that his face had turned beet red. There was nothing like hearing a girl speak french, especially a cute, funny, empathic listing, sexy- he blinked. No need to get carried away.

He saw her pull her hand away form her mouth and she was shaking, he moved forward in order to clasp her hands in his, "Hey, hey. You okay?" He said quickly. He didn't want her to have a panic attack or something. "I don't know how you... Spanish is similar but not similar enough to be able to understand everything I just said." he contemplated.

[Dakota King]

Dakota took deep breaths as she tried to prevent a panic attack happening over the fact that she miracously could speak French. She heard stories of patients with brain injuries doing things that they've never done before, but Dakota was pretty sure she hadn't had a brain injury recently. Dunstan grabbed her hands and Dakota couldn't help but squeeze them a bit, making sure that he was still in front of her. "I... I... I don't know," she said as she looked up into his eyes. "And I don't know how I just spoke it so fluently."

"It's because you're an Aphrodite," one of Dunstan's siblings spoke up with a bit of a smirk as Dakota glanced over. "French is the language of love. Aphrodite is the goddess of love. You put two and two together." The group laughed as Dakota blushed a bit as she looked over at Dunstan. "I think that solves it," she said with a bit of a sheepish smile.

[Deleted]

"Well, it was lovely. I can tell you that. You could've easily passed for a French-born girl with that delivery." He said quickly. He held her hand tightly as she squeezed back. He'd probably be freaking out too if this happened to him. Being college age and just now figuring out some new ability that you had never studied.

He froze as his sibling spoke. He had completely forgotten who he had come to the beach with in the first place. He felt his shoulders tense up as they started laughed. He didn't think it was funny. Whats so funny about mocking someone just because they didn't know about some random power they had? And they had made her look like a fool. That wasn't cool either. "Know-it-alls," he muttered. He made eye contact with Dakota. She looked so she and embarrassed. That little smile nearly took the breath out of him.

"It sure does!" he agreed, now there was another thing he'd have to study. Demi-God powers. Apparently his siblings new everything. "Hey, ignore them." he said softly, "nothing to be embarrassed about."

[Dakota King]

Dakota could still feel her heart beat in her chest as she tried to take deep breaths to calm down. However, Dunstan's compliment made her blush a bit. Maybe there was good in this new found ability of hers. In any case, she could now speak to more people if a French person happened to be her patient. But the other Athena kids making her? That didn't bode so well for her.

She smiled a bit when Dunstan called his siblings know it alls and told her to ignore them. She took another deep breath before she nodded her head and squeezed his hands a little bit more. "What about you?" she asked as she raised an eyebrow at him. "Did you study French in school? You sounded pretty fluent there."

[Deleted]

They still hadn't let go. Dunstan tried to convince himself to pull away, but he just couldn't do it. Maybe that was another Aphrodite power. Once you touched them, you were doomed to stay that way. But Dakota didn't seem vindictive or rude at all. Nothing like that he had seen in other kids. She was kind and loving. Maybe that's what being an Aphrodite was really about. That and making out with a bunch of people. Dunstan had never done that before. Now way.

Dunstan was caught. He had grown up in Paris until he was fourteen but easily learned how to master an American accent. He didn't want people asking him questions and making him speak French 24/7. He had told his siblings that he had studied it a little, but most didn't believe him. Why did he want to tell this girl the truth? He sighed, lowering his voice. "I'm French actually. Born and raised." He shrugged, embarrassed.

[Dakota King]

Dakota raised both of her eyebrows at Dunstan while both of her eyes widened. "Really?" She did a quick once over at him before she looked back into his eyes. "I really wouldn't have pegged you for being French. You must have perfected your American accent." She smirked a bit before she realized that they were still holding hands.

"Um," she said as she quickly pulled her hands away from his as her blush heated up on her face some more. "Sorry..." she muttered as she looked over at Dunstan sheepishly. "I was figuring that you were getting tired of holding them... but thanks."