Being Civil for Once

Tanzania was sitting outside of a café in New Rome, sipping a glass of wine and reading up on some current events throughout the world. She was wearing a half way white shirt, a skirt that stopped at her knees, and a pair of two inch boots that came up to her thighs. Today was gonna be relaxed and nonstressful. She would decide on going back to the arena for some practice, but first she had to meet up with her meat head friend, Damien.

After my azure eyes scanned the lovely mocha-skinned girl with the glass of wine and newspaper, I decided to walk ever so silently, towards her. I wanted to surprise this beautiful woman very much since she and I had a bit of history together, and because we had not seen each other in nearly six months. In fact, the last time I saw her I had taught her the basics of my swordsmanship before I left for my six month mission on that liberal, stress-free cradle of lily-livered slackers in Camp Half-Blood. She had grown out her hair a bit and had it in a funky afro, which made me smirk a bit. Calmly but surely I walked to her and once I was next to her behind, I placed my hand in her shoulder, gave her a friendly kiss in the cheek, as I always did to my female friends, since being Spanish and all had the subtle implication of being overly affectionate sometimes, and then smiled at her with the warmest grin I could. I had dressed in my usual casual outfit, which consisted of a black tank-top with dark blue jeans and a black belt with dark leather shoes and my dark black hair styled in a short, yet messy style that i personally enjoyed and preferred over that annoying buzzcut we at Camp Jupiter had to have sometimes. TO make matters fun I decided to surprise this woman by putting on something hat would scare her. I put on an black eyepatch so she would think I lost my left eye during my mission. I had no idea how she would react, but I was hoping for worried or shocked. Though, slightly insulting would be most like her since she, like me, enjoyed a good snark once in a while. I allowed the black tribal tattoo in my shoulder to be visible since I thought it looked good on me.

"Missed me, Afro-bee?" I said to her in my old, traditional and slightly smoky accent-heavied voice of mine. I chuckled slightly as I called he by that nickname that I used on her oh so frequently before I left Camp.

Tanzania was about to take another sip of wine when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Her first instinct was to flip the person over her shoulder and put a dagger that was strapped to her thigh to his throat, but she had to realize that she was at the cafe not the arena. Then she felt lips on her cheek which made her face turn a dark red, almost purple. The Roman turned her head and raised an eyebrow. "Oh, look who it is, Damien. Is that an eyepatch?" She asked him placing the newspaper on the table in front of her. "Aw, did a little Greek pole your eye out?"She asked teasingly, crossing her legs underneath her dress. To be honest, she had some feelings for him, but quickly repressed them after she heard about his Greek girlfriend.

The way Tanzania poked fun of my eyepatch made me laugh a bit. She looked amused by my accessory and gave me a strong stare with a half-opened smile. I didn't waste anytime and pulled up the chair directly in front of her table and snapped my fingers twice. Immediately a waiter crushed to my side with a small notepad in his small trembling hands. He seemed to be somehow shook up by my appearance. I guess it didn't helped that I shot killer daggers at him with one of y blood-thirsty demented smiles at him. Barely moving, barely standing, barely supporting, the waiter mumbled around trying to take my order. I sighed and then soften my face at him. Leaning against the chair I placed my hands on the back of my head and kept him in agonizing anticipation until I made a loud popping sound with a smack of my lips and turned again to him.

"Give me a bottle of Spanish rum. I need something that tastes like home." I said to the waiter before I turned back to him after turning my visage to Tanzania.

"I also want a bushel of old, plump apples while you are at it. Oh and make it snappy kid!" I ordered as I dismissed the guy with a flick of my hand and returned my attention to Tanzania. I leaned in on the table and placed a hand on the cold, metal surface. I tapped the surface three times with my index finger before I smirked at her.

"Honestly, and if you would forgive my boldness, Greeks are nothing to be jealous about. They loaf around, harking back and forth between sleep or eat, doing nothing to salvage their decaying and crumbling military. I would not be in any way disrespectful in surmising that they are no longer nay threat to Rome as rivals or enemies. However, as a people, they are quite the partiers. as for my eye, well let's just say that I had a bad encounter with a Hydra." I said with a smile in my face. I liked being around Tanzania, but I was anxious to hear about her.

The daughter of Bellona and legacy of Venus frowned a bit at the way he treated the waiter. The guy already looked half scared without Damien barking orders at him. To try to counter the Roman War god's son's hostility, Tanzy smiled up at him and touched his arm gently when he came back to the table. "And I'll just take a fried chicken sandwich with cold slaw." Her voice seemed more lighter, and nicer than if she was talking to someone else. "Thank you." Tanzania gave a quick glare at Damien as the waiter walked off. "Could you be a little more civilized to the working class? Great Ops."She exhaled and fixed her stylish glasses on her face.

"And I'm not jealous of the Greeks, just don't like them all that much. Minus a group of them." The Roman cleared her throat and scanned over the forum, hoping to get a glimpse of Romulus. However he could not be found so she looked back at Damien. "Have you gone to see Horace yet?"

"Sorry Tanz, I'm still a bit out of touch with being nice. I'll apologize when he comes back ok dearie?" I told Tanzania as I scratched the back of my head and frowned a bit. I had to admit I was a bit rude to the poor guy. Guess I'll make it up to him by giving him a nice tip and an apology. I decided to sit upright like a proper gentleman and then placed my arms to the chair's own arms. After a few minutes, the shaking waiter came back with the rum I asked him. It seemed as though the food had not been done because he came back with just my rum. The poor guy was shaking at my sheer presence. I soften my face to him and tried to smile to him as warmly as I could.

"Apologies for being rude, my friend. I shouldn't have been so abrasive upon yourself. Please forgive my attitude my good man." I told the waiter with my voice lowered in offense and presented in a much kinder way. It seemed that my apology relaxed him a bit more and he smiled hally to me after placing the bottle of Spanish rum on the table. After he left I thanked him for bring my beverage and he bowed in a courteous way.

"Guess I can be Mr. Manners when i want to huh? Anyways, if I may speak candidly, I have to say that Horace hasn't even said hi to me since I arrived. It wounds my heart to know that my own blood brother doesn't want to acknowledge me after six months. Did he, by any reason or fate of course, been forced to look down on me as someone so distant?" I asked Tanzania as I looked down at the table with my voice becoming a bit sad and serious.

Tanzania just rolled her eyes, now a bit irritated which didn't wasn't a good thing. She watched as Damien apologized to the waiter. Hopefully the poor New Roman wasn't too scared. Damien is a good, intimidating dude...well to must anyway. "Well I'm sure Horace is running around, doing something fun." She said with a exhale, relaxing in her seat with a glass of red wine in her hand. The daughter of Bellona looked at her reflection in glass. She frowned a bit and nodded her head forward. Her hair changed magically, now straightened, almost down to her back. The female Roman smiled to herself and turned her attention back to the son of Mars. "Down on you? Why would he do that?"