WARNINGS:
-fear of drowning/big bodies of water
-implied drowning (in the past, but only very brief,, like a single sentence)

James showed him the forge, which wasn't really Regulus' thing, but he still listened as James told him about the many things he knew about the forge – apparently mostly from this Remus guy – and then they continued on to the armoury. The armoury looked a little like an old garden shed, but then the brown-haired boy stepped forward to open the wooden door that was making an uncomfortable screeching sound as it swung inside, revealing the cramped room.

"Oh, the Hephaestus cabin should fix that. I should inform them about the issue," James mumbled absentmindedly as he walked inside, his fingers gently brushing over the end of a few arrows in a quiver in a corner. Regulus wasn't sure what that part of an arrow was called, but luckily the author had done some research for the arrow-experts in the audience. The part he was talking about is called "Nock", apparently.

Letting his gaze wander, Reg spotted many different kinds of swords, daggers and bows and shields and whatever else there was that counted as weapons, and, well, armour. They were in an armoury, after all. Bronze metal shimmered from every corner, the sunlight peeking in through the open door hitting a rhombus-formed shield in a way that almost turned him blind when he accidently looked at it. To be honest, when they were approaching it, he'd half expected to find garden supplies like a shovel and a hoe and some dirty gardening gloves in it. Meanwhile, James was still standing next to the arrows by the left wall, staring down at a bow that had been stored next to the quiver.

For some reason, he was being unusually quiet in comparison to before they had entered the armoury. Regulus thought about asking him about it, but then again he barely knew the guy. Maybe he'd be overstepping lines or something. Before the curly-head could suggest they continue their tour, James suddenly opened his mouth, talking without Regulus asking him to.

"You know, I used to want to be really good at archery." After that, he stayed silent again, but Regulus could tell he wasn't done yet. Just then, James continued talking, his eyes finally setting on Reg again. His hand never left the arrows, though. "You know, with Apollo being the god of archery and whatnot. But I didn't have it in me. I'd never hit any targets, not even close. I gave up."

"Oh," was all the black-haired boy could force between his lips. "I'm sorry." He didn't even know why he was apologising.

Something snapped, James pressed his eyes closed, before opening them as he huffed out a laugh. "No, I'm sorry. Dunno what came over me there. It just...," the boy trailed off, his gaze landing on a pair of katanas next to Regulus, who was feeling a little helpless at the beaten-up look on James' face. "Nevermind. Do you have a weapon? Or do you need one?"

"I've got a dagger made of Imperial Gold, I think I have what I need, thanks," Regulus responded, his words somehow making the light in James' eyes return.

"Imperial Gold? Is that a Roman thing? Do you use that for all your weapons?" he asked excitedly as he and Reg left the armoury. They stepped back out into the green grass, the bright sun almost surprising the curly-head after having stood in a rather dark room.

With a nod, Regulus confirmed the walnut-skinned boy's suspicions. "If you'd turn up with one of those bronze swords at Camp Jupiter, you'd be the odd one out."

As they walked towards what looked like stables, James continued talking. "Interesting. At Camp Half-Blood, we use Celestial Bronze for our weapons," he explained.

Then they arrived at the stables. Regulus wanted to say more, but then he heard a voice coming from inside, quietly murmuring to themselves. At first, he couldn't make out the words, but when he listened more closely, he understood parts of it. "Remember all the times you were someone," they said. "To someone who felt something and when their life was rough."

Nearing the sounds, Regulus spotted the one talking in one of the boxes, sitting on the partition between two boxes. They held a bright yellow pen in their right hand, writing into a notebook. Their hair was a nice shade of violet, reminding Reg a little of his Camp Jupiter shirt. Next to them stood a tall, black pegasus. It almost looked like the pegasus was watching the human write.

"Hey Olly!" James greeted the stranger, waving at them. That action turned out to be a mistake, because he startled them so much, they fell backwards into the other box, followed by multiple groans and "ow"s and then Olly let out a string of words in a language Regulus assumed was Greek. And those words were probably curses. James slightly grimaced at the words, so he was very likely right. "Sorry, Olly."

"Get off me," a new voice complained. The horrifying sound of quacking followed – only horrifying because it didn't sound like real ducks. More like it came from a bad horror game.

"What are you even doing here, Raya? And you're sitting on my duck pen!" Olly exclaimed, then finally got up so that Regulus could see them again. A teenage girl with chin long, dark hair followed, holding out the yellow pen Olly had been holding just a minute ago. Only now he noticed the tiny orange ducks painted on it, as well as the top of it being in the form of a miniature version of a rubber duck.

Instead of answering the question, Raya turned to him and James, smiling at them. "Hi James! Fancy seeing you here." It was then that Regulus saw that Raya had cut off the bottom of her orange Camp Half-Blood shirt right underneath the black print on the front, turning it to a crop top. "And you're the new guy, right? I'm Raya, daughter of Ares. What about you?"

In his mind, he translated the word Ares to Mars, nodding at the girl politely. "Regulus, son of Venus," the curly-head replied, because why would he say Aphrodite if that wasn't the truth?

Olly looked up from where they were patting the hay from the stable's floor off his notebook. "Venus? Like the planet?"

Blinking a little surprisedly at that reply, Regulus shrugged. "I mean, yeah. But also like the Roman goddess."

"Roman? How cool is that! That means there's a high chance Shiva is real too! Awesome!" Raya beamed, to which James immediately replied with,

"That's what I said about Indra! Imagine hanging out with a kid whose dad is Indra, wouldn't that be really cool?"

While Raya and James exchanged their knowledge about Indian gods, Olly played with their duck pen, and the creepy quacking sounds came back. Regulus decided to just ignore both and instead focused on the pegasus in front of him. "His name is Blackjack," Olly suddenly provided, looking at the curly-head with a smile.

"Cool name," is what Regulus settled for, hesitantly returning the smile. Though, his probably looked more like a grimace, considering he barely smiled and therefore didn't have any practice in pretty smiles.

There was a bit of an awkward silence – well, kind of, James and Raya were still talking to each other in another language that most likely wasn't Greek – and Reg almost wanted to ask Olly about his notebook, if it wasn't for James to finally switch back to English, addressing them all. "Anyways, I wanted to show Regulus here the camp, so we'll continue with that now. It was nice chatting with you. See you around," James said, smiling at all of them and then took a step back, looking at Regulus expectantly to follow him, which he did.

They made their way to the Sword Fighting Arena now, where Marlene was fighting a guy with dirty blonde hair and an average body type with slightly muscular arms. His aura was anything but nice and Regulus could already tell he was the type of guy Snape would want to hang out with. Feeling a disgusted shiver run down his spine as he thought about the son of Victoria, he shook himself to chase the guy out of his mind. It was clear that Marlene was going to win, her bronze sword swivelling around swiftly. The way her opponent was struggling to keep up was obvious, his facial expression strained; eyebrows furrowed as his own bronze sword kept crossing with Marlene's.

"Avery keeps challenging her for duels. He probably thinks he'll beat her one day, but she's just too good for him. I think he's mad at her for taking his head counsellor of the Ares cabin status last year," James explained, looking at the two fighting in the arena.

Regulus nodded in reply, watching Marlene making Avery back up enough for him to stumble and fall on his back – sword clattering out of his reach – her weapon pointing at his chest. "Give up, idiot," she grumbled, the grip on the sword not weavering.

The boy on the ground looked up at her, his features tightening. "This is not the last time," he promised, getting up and picking up his sword. On his way out, Avery clashed with James' shoulder fully on purpose.

"Rude," the boy mumbled, then looked at Marlene, who was coming towards them.

"You think he'll ever stop?" she asked, directing the question at James.

Shaking his head, he replied, "Probably only over his dead body."

With an exasperated sigh, Marlene's shoulders slumped. "Urgh. I hate him. He was the worst head of the Ares cabin and I definitely won't give that position back to him. I'd rather have Sirius take over and he's not even a kid of Ares. Or a good head of cabin, for that matter."

"And he doesn't remember shit," Regulus mumbled, letting his gaze wander across the empty arena.

Next to him, James flinched, as if someone had hit him. The curly-head looked over to him, just soon enough to see him grimacing, before he hid it all behind a mask, plastering a smile on his face. But this time, it didn't reach his eyes, a sad look lingering in them that made Regulus want to hug him; shield him away from the pain and take care of him until he was okay again.

He almost apologised for his words, but then James distracted from the subject, "So I've been showing Regulus around the camp, would you like to join us?"

Marlene shook her head, smiling apologetically. "Sorry, I'm gonna meet Mary at the Strawberry Field now. You guys have fun, though. See you at lunch," she said, waving at them before taking off to the Strawberry Field.

"Bye!" James called after her, then turned back to Regulus. "We'll go to the climbing wall next, does that sound good?"

"Lead the way," the curly-head replied, gesturing to the exit – which also was where they came from.

The older boy led him outside to a climbing wall (wow, surprising). The wall was out of stone, but there was lava coming from the top, which confused Regulus a little. Then James explained it was for the challenge and the boy shrugged. It seemed like a fair enough handicap.

Next stop was the Archery Field, which James announced to be the second-last stop. They met Madeleine there, as she was in the middle of teaching a few younger campers how to handle a bow. Regulus asked James to keep going soon after, because he noticed the way he was getting more sad, which he couldn't watch happening. The Indian boy led them to a small shop, and Reg had never been so happy to see trousers in his life.

"Here you can buy all essentials you might need for your stay at the camp. And a little more. Do you need anything?" James asked, his head tilting to the side just like the day before. Regulus resisted the urge to push his glasses back up for him.

"Yeah, but I have all my money in the Aphrodite cabin, together with the rest of my stuff. Can we come back later?" the curly-head asked, ignoring the twitch in his fingers as they itched to fix James' glasses for him.

But the one in front of him shook his head. "I have money. I'll pay," he offered, together with one of those room-brightening smiles.

Immediately, Regulus mirrored the shake of his head. "What else would I do with my père's money if not spend it? That'd be useless."

James bit his lip, head finally turning back to its original position. As he used his pointer finger to push his glasses back up his nose, James said, "Fine. But let me at least buy you a camp shirt, you should have one. What's your size?"

"I don't want your money, James," Regulus refused, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

The boy sighed, then just turned away to look at the orange shirts hanging on the clothes rails. Ignoring Regulus' questions about what he was doing, James stepped closer to the shirts, examining them, before taking one off the stand and turning around to the curly-head to see how it looked next to him.

"James? Stop ignoring me, fuck's sake. What are you doing?" Regulus asked, following the idiot to the cash desk where a girl with pretty blonde locks and green eyes took his money in exchange for being allowed to keep the camp T-shirt.

Finally, James turned back around to Regulus, holding the shirt out to him. "Here you go, it's yours now."

At that, Regulus frowned. "No. I told you I didn't want your money."

Rolling his eyes, James held the shirt even closer to him, "See it as a welcoming gift. I can't wear it anyways, it's too small to fit me. Now stop being stubborn and keep it."

Letting out a grumpy sigh, Regulus finally accepted the shirt, throwing it over his arm to hold it there. "Fine. Now we go where?"

James smiled, satisfied. "Well, there's still the beach and the woods, but those aren't usually included in the guide tours, and since we're leaving tomorrow anyways, I've decided not to include them today, either. Also, you already know the mess hall from today's breakfast so it'd be useless to show it to you again for no reason. This leaves only one spot for us to check out, which is the Canoe Lake. I kept the best part for the end."

"Alright," Regulus nodded, remembering when James had told him about the lake earlier that day.

Now beaming at the curly-head, James announced, "Great! Let's go!" And started walking into the direction of the lake.

When they finally arrived at the lake, Regulus spotted a canoe out on the water; the ones inside the boat seemed to be fighting, but they were too far away for him to hear what it could've been about. All he knew was that their canoe was dangerously dipping to the side as they stood up and started lightly shoving each other around. Then it happened: the canoe made a 180 turn, throwing its passengers into the water with loud splashing. Reg flinched, pressing his eyes closed. But then the quiet sound of laughter flew over to him like a breeze, making him slowly open his eyes again, just to see the laughter of the passengers die down, before they held onto each other as their lips clashed. Oh.

A little embarrassed at watching them make out, Regulus turned to the side, only to see James looking at him. "You okay?" the walnut-skinned boy asked, smiling at him in a way that made Regulus want to melt.

Swallowing, he replied simply with a "yeah". In the corner of his eye, he saw the couple turn the canoe back around and swim to the shore while also pulling the canoe with them. He probably should've expected the Greeks could swim, especially with a canoe lake.

"Do you want to try?" James wondered, looking at the curly-head with big, curious doe eyes.

It made Regulus look away in shame as he quietly confessed, "I don't even know how to swim." Plus, he actually was a little scared of drowning. But he didn't tell James that.

"Oh. Well, it'd probably be safer if you knew how to swim. I could teach you how to swim. I mean, we only have today but maybe if you come back to Camp Half-Blood after the quest, we can go canoeing then. Do you want to?" the boy offered, not even slightly looking like he was judging Regulus for not being able to swim.

His first instinct was refusing the offer. He might've been calm about getting close to the water when he had been cleaning his wounds, but even then his heart had threatened to jump out of his chest. The memory from his childhood still somewhat fresh in his mind, Regulus opened his mouth to decline. But then he imagined bragging about being able to swim to Barty, the look on his face when he told him about not being scared of bodies of water anymore and he kind of wanted to do it, He kind of wanted to overcome his fear, learn something he was sure no one else in Camp Jupiter was able to do. Without realising, the letters tumbled over his tongue, the word slipping out of his mouth. "Yes."

Just for the whisk of a second, in the blink of an eye, he saw black curls disappearing underneath a big wave and not resurfacing again immediately after and Regulus regretted his decision right away. But then the small, constant smile lingering on James' face widened and his eyes twinkled in the midday sun and Reg felt like all air had just been punched out of him, but in a good way. "Awesome! We should have lunch first, though. And then get our stuff ready for tomorrow."

Only managing to nod, Regulus followed James to the dining pavilion to have lunch, where James quickly explained to him that he had to go sit at his own cabin's table for lunch and dinner, whereas it didn't matter where you were sitting at breakfast. After having eaten (and sending an offering to his mother) he went back to the Aphrodite cabin, grabbing his rucksack before going to buy a few pants and some other essentials he spotted at the camp store that he thought he might need. When he'd finished re-organizing the things in his rucksack – Snuffles got his own part of the bag – and putting on bathing shorts instead of his other ones, he met James by the Canoe Lake.