"You haven't stepped out of line with my sister," Jason pointed out. "When you do, though..."

"You're assuming a bit much there," Seth said, frowning just a little. "Let's not have the furnace ready to toss me in just yet, please."

"I'm just making sure we're on the same page," Jason replied. "Looking out for my sister and everything."

"Yeah, I can get that." Seth shrugged and pushed the last of his food into the fire. "I'm gonna head to bed and sleep for about twelve hours." He suddenly grinned. "Good luck with Nika."

Jason pointedly ignored that last comment, not willing to admit he was still fascinated with Nika.

Dawn was relaxing on the roof of Cabin Seven, just laying back and enjoying the quiet. Every so often, one of her brothers would pop up onto the roof, but one look from her would send him scurrying back down into the cabin, except for Kevin. He lived with her, so he wasn't intimidated.

Seth made his way back to his cabin, pausing briefly to look at Dawn up on the roof before he shook his head, going back inside and flopping down on his bed.

Nika, having snatched about an hour nap, got out of bed again and slipped out of her cabin.[/color]

Dawn sat up when she heard one of the nearby cabin doors open, and she saw Nika.

"Feeling better?" she called down.

"Yeah," Nika called back. "How about you? Feeling better?"

"He took my car," Dawn replied. "There's this gold thing sitting in my parking spot wearing my plates, and it's not my junky little green car."

Nika tilted her head back and laughed. "Oh, sweetie, you should have seen me after Ares replaced my car. I'd had my own car before this one, and even though I brag about it a lot I threw such a bitchfit when he replaced my old one with this."

"Yours isn't gaudy," Dawn pointed out. "The thing in my parking spot has to be the cheesiest thing ever." She sighed. "It's even called a Sunfire."

Nika snickered at that; she couldn't help it. "Oh, that is too good," she said with another snicker. "You'll get used to it."

"So says the one with the sensibly-colored car," Dawn retorted. She shook her head. "I can't even look at the thing yet. I can't tell if I'll get used to it, or if I need to insist on a different color."

"Well, if you insist on another color, make sure that color is sensible and something you'll like. He won't make too many adjustments to it, if any at all." Nika shrugged.

"Any color would be better than what it is now," Dawn replied. For the moment, though, she would leave it. She would rather stare at her gold monstrosity than have to talk to her father again right now.

Nika snickered. "I was about to go for a little swim. You want to come with?" She surprised herself with the offer. She hadn't been thinking about asking, but now that she had asked, it felt right.

"Sure," Dawn replied. "Let me change into something more water-friendly." Getting up, she went back into her cabin. Apparently, her brothers had been called out for training, so she had the cabin to herself to change. She put her clothes back on over her bathing suit once she was changed and grabbed a towel.

"Didn't mean to take so long," she said when she met Nika outside.

"It's fine." Nika was wearing long swim shorts and a t-shirt over her top, with her towel over her shoulder. "Come on. I know this nice little hot spring. It's private and I'm pretty sure no one else knows about it. Plus it's a lot warmer than the ocean. And no gods-damned jellyfish."

"Sounds great," Dawn replied. Soaking in a hot spring sounded amazing after what happened over the last few days.

"I thought so." Nika led the way through the trees until they were a little ways away from camp before she stopped and slid her shoes off.

A few feet away from them was a hot spring about twenty feet long, the size of a swimming pool. Nika pulled her shirt off and jumped into the water.

Dawn stripped down to her bathing suit and slid into the water with a sigh.

"This is wonderful," she said.

"Mmhm." Nika relaxed into the water with a blissful sigh.

"It's weird, but it's kind of nice to be back," Dawn said. "I kind of miss camp when I'm not here."

"I guess I can understand that," Nika said slowly. "Mostly I'm just glad to be somewhere I don't have to watch myself and everyone else constantly."

"Living on the outside has its ups and downs," Dawn said. "I get to be independant, and have my own apartment, but I have to pretend to be a regular mortal. When I'm here, though, nobody thinks its weird when I get up at the crack of dawn or when I randomly start humming some song I've never heard before. And I really miss my bow when I'm on the outside."