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The girl seemed nice and that made Celeste smile. She was also very talented and when she started in on the next tune the flower child gasped in surprise. “Oh I know this one. I really like it too.” Celeste didn’t normally get excited about much of anything but she did like old music especially when that music was coming from an acoustic guitar. So when the girl kept playing and invited her to sit Celeste didn’t hesitate to join her by sitting down cross-legged beside the girl where she had indicated.

“Really? You would play something I suggested?” Celeste said as she took the beer can without really looking at it. The daughter of Ceres was not much of a drinker but she didn’t really think anything about it as she popped the tab and leaned back to take a swallow of what she suspected might be soda. It was not soda. In fact, the beer was not much like soda at all and the big swallow she took nearly made her gag at the taste. She sputtered a bit as she finished clearly showing her inexperience but somehow managed to keep it down perhaps because she didn’t want to end up tossing her dinner all over the poor redhead.

Celeste was left with a bit of a quandary. She knew that she didn’t particularly like the beer but she also knew that it would be kind of rude to refuse the redhead's hospitality especially after being so nice in offering to sing her a song. Ultimately though it was her desire to please that won over her more rational side. As the girl mentioned something about the sky Celeste nodded and very cautiously took another sip of her drink. Hopefully she would be okay if she just took things slow. “Yeah it really is.” She said trying to make up for her newbie mistake earlier. “Do you come out here often?”

Isla seemed really adamant that Celeste wasn’t to blame. The purple haired girl didn’t know if she could believe that or not but she had many years of experience in pleasing others and knew that when someone was that adamant it was best not to argue with them. Besides, Celeste would probably keep on thinking it no matter what the girl said anyways so it was better to just drop it for now. What Isla didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her after all.

What Celeste was really concerned about though was the poor girl’s hands. Even though Isla kept telling her that she was alright here was a small way that Celeste could help, at least she thought she could anyways. Sure the girl wasn’t in any real danger but jumping in to action gave Celeste something to do and that meant she could stop thinking about her own inadequacies for a second which would go a long way to calming her down.

“It’s okay I know something that will help. Just wait here okay?” She said with a confident nod and hopped up with a sudden purpose. Like Isla suggested neosporin would have been fine but since they didn’t have any here and they were away from camp they needed an alternative. Fortunately Celeste’s abilities told her that there was some Roman Chamomile near her mother’s shrine that would work just fine for this situation. Ducking off behind the shrine Celeste was gone just moments before returning with a handful of white and yellow flowers.

“Here.” She said as she came back over to Isla gently taking the girl’s injured hands and pressing the flowers into them. “Squeeze these into your palm. They have an oil that will clean the scraps and soothe the pain.” Celeste gave her a flash of a warm smile and closed the girl’s fingers in over the flowers. “It’s not much but it is just as good as Neosporin. Plus you won’t need to go to the infirmary later except maybe to get a Band-Aid or something.”

That task completed Celeste seemed a little more at ease. The nervousness was still there but it seemed as if providing this small service did genuinely do something for her. “Sorry, I hope you don’t mind. I just knew that might help and wanted to try.” Celeste smiled again hoping that her homemade remedy was having an effect and then remember she hadn’t even answered the girl’s question from before. “So you’re from the fourth right? I’m from the first...I guess I should have told you that when I introduced myself huh? I just forgot about it in the rush and everything. Umm...How are your hands feeling?”

Celeste relaxed visibly as Danielle seemed to drop the issue. She also was happy that the girl had agreed to her suggestion and was letting her do something to rectify the situation. It wasn’t much, just a cup of hot chocolate, but Celeste liked to be liked and if it took a little coca to win over one of her cohort mates then she didn’t mind.

“I could go for hot chocolate.” She said as her face lit in a slow smile. Celeste didn’t really make it over to that side of New Rome much but who could say no to hot chocolate? Even though she was still a little tired the thought of doing something kind of relaxing with someone else for a change seemed like a fun idea and served to give her enough energy to slip off the bed on to her feet. “I don’t think I’ve ever been over around the ice rink before so this will be new. Oh and I’m Celeste by the way. I wasn’t sure if you knew that or not…”

Celeste wasn’t really sure what it would feel like to have an elephant sitting on your chest but as the air rushed out of her that’s what she thought. It was a crazy heart stopping moment to feel like you couldn’t breathe and as Celeste gasped for air she had the thought that this might really be how it ended for her. Not out on the battlefield where her relatives would remember her name but here in the dirt in front of her mother’s temple mouthing like a fish out of water. Fortunately she calmed down and as she did her breath began to come back but it was a scary moment nonetheless.

As she started to regain control of herself Celeste glanced up to see the person that she had run into, a girl about her own age, was already up and offering her a hand. Celeste bit the corner of her lip nervously but took the offered hand even as the other girl began apologizing. “No, it wasn’t you’re fault.” The purple haired girl replied anxiously as she got to her feet. “I should be apologizing to you…I wasn’t watching where I was going.” She mentally kicked herself for letting this happen. Why was she always being such a klutz? If she would just slow down and watch where she was going then this wouldn’t happen.

“I think I’m okay now. I just couldn’t breathe for a second. I think I was just going too fast.” It wasn’t a good excuse. Stuff like this always seemed to happen to Celeste. She was always messing things up somehow but it was worse when she got other involved. “I really am sorry…” She said as she looked up at the other girl after examining herself for injuries. It had been a hard fall but the only thing that would take lasting damage was her pride and she was pretty used to that by now.

“I’m Celeste.” She said and smiled a little as Isla introduced herself with a little pun. She didn’t seem mad and that was good. If Celeste was going to run into another legionnaire up here at least it was someone who seemed nice. “I don’t usually run into many people up here either this early in the morning. It’s pretty quiet most of the time.” Celeste was still a little wary of the other girl, she didn’t like causing trouble but despite that reservation she was always stepping in it. Granted Isla wasn’t yelling at her so that was good but Celeste felt like she needed to do something besides just apologize. That was when she noticed the girl’s hands.

“Oh your hands…” Celeste went back to biting her upper lip. The injuries didn’t look serious but she could bet they hurt and here Isla was talking to her like it was nothing. That made Celeste feel pretty bad. She should have been more concern about Isla and noticed her injuries but as usual she was spending too much time thinking about herself. “Are they okay? You aren’t hurt anywhere else are you?”

Celeste wasn’t good at this standing up for herself thing. She knew that she was going to pick up her gear eventually but now with Danielle standing over her and looking like a terror her desire to please others and not disappoint them was kicking in big time. The blonde girl wasn’t hurt at least but simply picking up after herself wasn’t good enough. Danielle had a lecture for her and Celeste took it like a shamed puppy that had peed in the wrong corner.

“I am really sorry. I didn’t mean to leave it in anyone’s way. You uh aren’t going to tell the centurions are you? I really don’t want to get in trouble…” Getting in trouble was so embarrassing. There were usually some menial tasks to perform but that really was second to the fact that everyone would know what you had done and look down on you. Celeste didn’t want that and in fact, she was looking to avoid it at all cost. “Please don’t tell. I can do something to make it up to you. I promise.”

Celeste watched as the Catherine set down at the table and began to situate herself. She tried to be polite and ignore the girl’s efforts so as not to make things more awkward but she recognized it for what it was immediately. It was hard to get away from the Roman social etiquette that was drilled into the upper crust of society and no one knew that better than the constant embarrassment to her aunt and uncle, Celeste.

The problem was that her father had never put much emphasis on forcing her into the Roman box. When he died and she went to live with her aunt all of a sudden she had to eat right, talk right, even breathe right, and for Celeste with her wildly colored hair and her reserved nature she quickly became a black sheep of her family. Celeste hoped that Catherine was one of those that could juggle the responsibility better than herself but she did know that it wouldn’t be polite to talk about here so the daughter of Ceres wisely kept her mouth shut and attention averted.

When Catherine spoke up again that was Celeste’s que that it was okay to continue. She glanced back at the other girl as her small smile returned and gave her a little embarrassed nod. “Yeah…Sorry about that. I guess it’s just kind of hard to talk in the barracks sometimes.” Now that it was out in the open Celeste felt a little bad about not making more of an effort to talk to her fellow cohort members. She tried to be a useful team member, tried to make her presence known but so often she fell short. There was nothing she could do about it now of course but she just hoped Catherine wouldn’t hold it against her. Fortunately as the girl continued that didn’t seem to be the case.

“Yeah I guess you’re right.” She said with a giggle at the thought of children of Neptune suddenly deciding to give them all a dunk. “The centurion wouldn’t be able to boss us around even if he was here. At least I don’t think…” Celeste really didn’t want to test that theory. In all likelihood she would probably jump if someone shouted an order right now even if it came while she was having her coffee. “But it doesn’t look like we’ll have to find out.” Casting a glance around just to be sure she relaxed a little. “So uh what brings you to New Rome today?”