Chapter Text
Reyna woke as usual: no gentle moments between sleeping and waking, just her eyes opening and her mind snapping to attention. What was new was the pain of light stabbing in her eyes, and the general feeling of torture. Immediately, her hand went to the knife she always kept under her pillow.
It wasn’t there.
She took the time to actually note her surroundings -– thanking all the gods she knew, and some she didn’t, for the blessing the darkness was on her eyes -– and realized she was in the Hades cabin. Sure enough, Nico was sleeping soundly in the bed opposite her.
She still didn’t know why she was here. While at Camp Half-Blood, she was usually offered a room in the Big House, or bunked with the Ares or Athena kids, since they were the closest Greek equivalent to her mother. Nico had offered a bed in cabin 13 before, but she’d never taken him up on it, and she couldn’t remember taking him up on it last night.
At least until memories of last night filtered in, and Reyna winced. Oh. Oh.
When Nico woke up, she would definitely be able to convince him to shadow-travel them to New Rome.
A groan emanated from Nico’s bed. Things weren’t looking good on the shadow-travelling front.
“Please tell me I haven’t been tortured,” said something that sounded like Nico, if Nico was currently smothering himself with a pillow.
Reyna quirked a smile. “Depends on your point of view.” She couldn’t imagine how Nico must be feeling. She’d had alcohol before -– it was difficult not to, even in an underage army -– but even she’d never had this much, or felt this awful afterwards. Nico was a little kid. This was probably his first drink.
There was a squawk. “Reyna! What the fuck!” Nico said, pushing himself up. His skin, already pale and clammy, turned a green that dryads would be jealous of. He slowly lowered himself back down.
“Yo.” Reyna nodded at him, then wrinkled her nose. “We’ve both been spending too much time around Thalia,” she said, even though it hurt a little to say her name. From what she could remember from yesterday, Thalia hardly looked her in the eye.
Nico was pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes. “Dad, I know we don’t always get along, but if you could just kill me now, that’d be great.” There was no answer, and Nico remained. He scowled. “Well, fuck you too!”
Reyna kept half an eye on him as she rummaged through her clothes to check what she still had on her. The rest of her things must still be in the Athena cabin, where she’d been staying after one of the Ares kids attacked her. She found staying away increased their fear and made them more pliable. If she kept at it, she’d have them on the same level as the Mars kids in a week, tops.
There were at least ten bottle caps in her pocket. Reyna frowned and reached deeper, past another few bottle caps, and then – Oh, good, she had at least one knife on her.
“What even happened last night?” Nico asked, apparently over his mercy-death jag.
Reyna placed the knife out of his eyesight, in case he wasn’t. “What do you remember?”
“Not much. There was the liquor store, and then we came back and started drinking, and after that is a blur. I think I…” His throat bobbed as he swallowed. “I thought I saw Bianca.”
Reyna didn’t comment. One day, Nico would have to talk to somebody about it, but Reyna wasn’t the right person. She’d lost her older sister, too, but that had been her choice. It wouldn’t comfort Nico to hear it.
“Well, I’ll tell you what I remember,” she said instead.
Nico listened intently as she told him of their conversation, and then nodded wisely. “I remember the pan thing. The Pan thing. Whatever. And your thing for Graces.”
“Yes,” Reyna grimaced. “I’d hoped you’d forgotten that.”
Nico carefully rolled his eyes. “As if the gods are ever gonna do something that helps you. What happened then?”
Reyna thought, long and hard. “For some reason Will and Thalia were there, I think?”
There was a strangled sound from Nico’s side. “While we were blackout drunk? That is not good. You didn’t maybe dream it?”
“No, Nico, I didn’t. How did you think we got here?”
“We sleepwalked?” Nico asked hopefully.
“And didn’t choke on vomit? And remembered to leave some water and aspirin out?”
“Damn,” said Nico, and lay his arm over his eyes.
“Anyway, they got us here, left, came back, and then left again. I think Thalia came back, but I can’t be sure.” Something -- something was missing. Something important, too. “Thalia was pretty upset, you know why?”
Nico finally managed to get himself into an upright position, though he still kept the arm over his eyes. With his other hand, he grappled for the water, except he missed it completely. Leaning over, Reyna nudged it closer to him, and he lifted his arms to give her a grateful smile.
“I’m not sure,” he said, looking like he was struggling to think. “All I know… is…” He stared, unseeingly, in front of him. If it wasn’t for his slowly tightening grip on the water bottle, Reyna would think he was falling asleep. “Reyna, we made a terrible mistake.”
“What? What’s wrong?”
Nico hesitated. “Look, I’m not 100% sure about any of this, but it’s probably reliable enough. And don’t, like, tell anyone, okay?”
“You know I wouldn’t,” Reyna answered, a little stung.
“I know,” Nico said, smiling a little. “Still have to make sure you know. Okay, so, Thalia and Jason’s mom is Beryl Grace, right? 80s starlet and beautiful enough to attract both Zeus and Jupiter. Except she knew who they were, and I get the idea she wasn’t prepared for it. She wasn’t ever abusive, I think, but really neglectful, and she was definitely an alcoholic.”
Reyna rethought a few things from last night. “Oh.”
It was no wonder Thalia had reacted like that. They all had their triggers. Reyna, who had been in an abusive home, hadn’t been able to fully relax in the legion until she was elected praetor, where no one other person had control over her. She still stopped breathing when someone shouted. Reyna could understand that alcohol was one of Thalia’s.
And yet she’d been forced to see her two drunk friends -- if their friendship survived that -- and had to use her knowledge to help them. It couldn’t be called a betrayal, because Reyna hadn’t known, Nico hadn’t known for sure, and neither of them had thought Thalia would be there, but it was a little too close for comfort. None of her friends knew of her triggers, but Reyna imagined one of them shouting at her, or trying to overpower her. How would you get over that?
She was feeling queasy again, except now it had nothing to do with her hangover. She grabbed the thoughtfully placed trash can anyway, and vomited.
“In the interest of transparency,” Reyna said, once she’d recovered, “it would be great if you never shouted or tried to take control away from me.”
There was something painful in Nico’s expression. “Please don’t ask me about Bianca or try to get me into small spaces, and I don’t handle losing track of time or forgetting something well.”
He wasn’t asking, so she wouldn’t either. “You okay with yesterday?”
Nico blew a breath out and looked at his bangs. “Yeah, I guess. Thanks for telling me.” He took a deep breath, like he was about to dive underwater. “I trust you to tell me the truth.”
The only reason she didn’t get up and hug him right there was because her head still hurt. “That… that means a lot to me. Thank you.”
He nodded, a little rapidly, but he was getting better at his emotions than he had been.
“I trust you, too.”
That startled a laugh out of him, though he winced immediately after. “Thanks. Don’t know if I deserve it, though.”
Reyna rolled her eyes at him -- damn, that hurt -- and said, “Get over here, di Angelo.”
He groaned but complied, settling down next to her so she could sling an arm around his shoulders. They just sat there, breathing together for a minute. Then a previously hazy memory suddenly cleared, and Reyna sat up straight. “Oh. Huh.”
“What?” Nico asked absentmindedly.
“You made out with Will last night.”
“What.” Nico sprang up so quickly, he almost tumbled off the bed. Reyna grabbed his arm and dragged him back. “Are you -- Will? And me? And I made the first move? Are you 100% sure?”
“Yes to all of the above,” Reyna told him dryly. “He was -- checking up on us, I think? And he was next to you, and you sort of grabbed his face and made out with him, and then fell asleep.”
Nico, already buzzing with nervous energy, looked mortified. “How did he react?”
He hadn’t really, from what Reyna could remember. He’d gone a bit pale once Nico drew back, and he and Thalia had left, and only Thalia had returned again. But Reyna couldn’t tell Nico that, because it’d give him the completely wrong idea, and Reyna had seen Will’s face after the kiss, alright, it was not the pinnacle of disinterest.
Instead she said, “Well, why don’t you find out? I think I fell asleep around the same time as you.”
Nico made it off the bed and to the door before turning back. “You think I should?” he asked, wringing his hands.
Will’s expression after the kiss had been a sort of hopeful, wistfully sad look that Nico now perfectly mirrored. Gods, they really were meant for each other. Reyna hated them, except that she loved them too.
“Go,” she said, and Nico did, the door slamming behind him. Reyna winced at the sound.
Barely a minute later, Thalia entered in Nico’s place, significantly quieter than him. “Why’s di Angelo running around like he’s got a drakon on his tail?”
“Cupid, actually,” Reyna replied, around the guilt clogging her throat. Thalia’s eyebrows bunched together. “He’s gone to find Will. He can’t remember much from last night, but I helped fill in the details.”
Thalia flung herself onto one of the beds, heaving a long sigh. “Well, I sure hope they figure it out. Will was being a dumbass, but if Nico kisses him enough, maybe he’ll forget about it.”
“Or they could actually communicate,” Reyna suggested.
“A good idea.” Thalia snorted. “Though all know how likely that is.”
It was quiet between them, but not the comfortable one Reyna was used to. Or maybe it was just on her side. “Sorry,” she blurted, graceless in a way she hadn’t planned it to be.
Thalia raised her eyebrows, straightening up from her sprawl. Some of the little light that filtered in caught on her circlet, and Reyna wondered why the sight felt so surprising. “What for?”
“The drinking. I didn’t --”
“It’s fine. You didn’t know.” Thalia looked suddenly tired in the same way some veterans in New Rome did. Like they’d seen too much.
Not that that didn’t apply to every demigod, these days.
“It’s not fine.” The sharpness of her voice surprised even her. “Yes, I didn’t know; that does not make it less awful for you.” Through some effort, she managed to soften her tone. “You can tell me. If you want.”
Thalia looked a little wild-eyed, like a trapped animal, but as Reyna kept herself carefully still, she relaxed in increments. “She wouldn’t have been fine, even if Zeus left her alone. Things… things were rough in Hollywood back then, and she was young. But the whole god thing? It just made her crave more attention, and when that didn’t work, something to escape it all.”
She wouldn’t look Reyna in the eye, instead worrying at her nails, so Reyna looked at the far wall. She could afford Thalia that small bit of privacy.
“I think she started before I was even born. I wouldn’t touch alcohol anyway, but I keep wondering… Would I turn out like her? Would Jason?”
Reyna shook her head, even as she knew neither of them was looking at the other. “He never drank. There were some opportunities, at celebrations and such, where even I would, but he never did.”
“Good.” Thalia’s voice sounded a little hoarse. “I taught him something then, before she took him away.” A pause. “He was two. She did it to get on Hera’s good side.”
Reyna kept her attention carefully on her fists.
“She never spent a minute of her life raising him. That was all me! He wasn’t hers to give away!” From the corner of her eye, Reyna could see Thalia grabbing at her circlet, before deliberately lowering her hands again. “I had to take care of her for years. Did she ever even love me?” Her voice broke on the last words.
“I don’t pretend to completely understand, but my home was abusive, too,” said Reyna. “It’s better not to wonder about that question. You can never decide which answer is worse.”
An awful little laugh came from Thalia. “If you join me and Percy, we’ll have enough people to start a club.”
“I think you’ve started enough clubs,” Reyna replied, and hesitated. “His mother…?”
“Gods, no. She’s probably the best mom anyone can have. No, you know how the more powerful a demigod’s parent is, the stronger their scent? I ran away before that became a problem, but Percy’s mom married this guy who smelled so bad, he masked Percy’s scent. Only he was an abusive asshole. Hit her, and probably Percy, too. He doesn’t talk about it.”
“What happened?”
“Percy, Annabeth and Grover defeated Medusa in their first quest, He gave his mom the head, and she turned Gabe into a statue.”
Reyna turned to Thalia, aware that she was gaping. “Did she?” That would explain a lot about Percy Jackson. She was starting to suspect most of his heroism came from his mortal side. “Do you think I could meet her?”
“Easy with the hero-worship there,” Thalia laughed, waving her hands at Reyna. “I got to meet her once,” she added, a little wistfully. “It was amazing.”
“Sounds like it,” Reyna replied.
Thalia’s gaze sharpened on her. “What about your -- dad, I’m guessing? What happened?”
Reyna took a deep breath, before slowly releasing it again. She’d told Nico, and that weasel Lawrence had overheard. What if it happened again? Camp Half-Blood was nosy, and while she didn’t think any of the Greeks would condemn her, she couldn’t be sure someone wouldn’t accidentally slip it to a Roman. Even without Octavian trying to usurp her power, she couldn’t afford that.
But… it was the Hades cabin, and the middle of the day, when everyone was busy with activities. And maybe she should focus on the real problem, which was that she didn’t want to talk about it.
She’d told Nico, though. She could tell Thalia.
“The Ramírez-Arellanos have always worshipped my mother, and in turn been blessed by her. My father… he was special, to have attracted her personal attention, and twice at that.” She slanted a look towards Thalia. “Well, you would know about that. Anyway, according to Hylla, he was fine until I was born, and he came back from Iraq.”
It had kept her up some nights, wondering which one had been the catalyst. That was unfair -- what was she to a war? -- but he’d been a soldier when he had Hylla, and he’d been fine.
“I think it’s the same as with your mother. He would’ve been different, even if it hadn’t been for Bellona. It was a war. We all know how those work out. I just… I can’t help thinking; surely she would’ve known it would change him like that? And -- would she have minded? She’s the goddess of war. It would be like a tribute.”
Reyna closed her eyes and listened to the sound of Thalia shifting. It hurt, to reveal that much of you to someone. She felt like some part of her was naked, but Thalia had bared herself, too. It was only fair.
“She didn’t have another child with him, though,” Thalia said, her voice soft and cautious. It was a strange sound on her, but Reyna appreciated it. “If she liked him more like that, then -- Well. Not necessarily. But you know how gods are.”
They both did. The world would at the same time have so much less trouble and so much more if gods didn’t consider babies a proper token of affection.
Reyna smiled a bit. “I suppose. I hadn’t considered that before. But she didn’t do anything to stop him, either, so… I don’t know. Maybe she felt she couldn’t intervene, or that it would make us stronger. Or maybe she just didn’t care.”
“I suppose it would make you stronger, but is the additional trauma worth it?” Thalia remarked drily. And then, with a definitive hint of a storm brewing under her calm tone, “What did he do?”
“He saw enemies everywhere. Something Bellona told him stuck with him, until he was suspicious even of Hylla and me. He stockpiled weapons. He never hit us, really. But he’d have us training without pause until we nearly passed out. He would do these petty little things to make sure we knew he was in control. He screamed at us, a lot.”
Thalia, when Reyna looked at her, had paled dramatically. Her eyeliner and freckles stood out, stark against her white skin. Funny, Reyna had never noticed if Jason had freckles. “Jesus fucking Christ.”
“Didn’t know you were Christian,” Reyna quipped, trying to cut through the remaining tension. Her leg jumped up and down.
“Greek curses just didn’t feel strong enough,” Thalia replied, but she was still pale and hadn’t smiled, as Reyna had hoped. “What happened? I mean, something must have happened for you to end up here.” She hesitated. “If you want to tell me, that is.”
“What happened was he threw a chair at Hylla, and she wasn’t moving.” Reyna didn’t look at Thalia; she didn’t want to see the look on her face. There was a chasm in her chest that sapped her emotion, until she was empty of everything but her breath. Her body felt cold, and she was tired.
She’d grown up with it, and for all that Hylla told her differently, she’d never thought it was anything but normal. But even she had known that Hylla’s still body wasn’t normal.
She’d been raised on violence. She’d been listening to stories of war before she could even walk, and then she listened to her father’s rants and met his suspicious gaze. Was it any wonder, then, that she went for the saber when she thought her only ally in that house was dead?
It was what he had taught her, after all.
She looked at Thalia’s eyes, at the mix of horror and curiosity in them. She couldn’t even dredge up a note of apology when she said, “I can’t talk about what happened after that.”
Maybe Thalia would read between the lines, or she’d think they’d simply escaped. Right now, Reyna couldn’t find it in her to care.
Thalia must’ve realized the conversation was over, because she nodded slowly and said, “Greasy food will take care of the hangover,” and walked out. She paused at the door. “We’ll talk again later?”
“Yes,” Reyna replied, without having to think about it. One way or another, they would talk again. She just hoped this conversation would strengthen their relationship, like it had with Nico, and not completely destroy it.
Later didn’t happen for a very long time. The rare times Reyna came to Camp Half-Blood hardly ever overlapped with the even rarer times the Hunters visited. It was nearly a year after their conversation, in the middle of an exchange with Camp Jupiter that Reyna accompanied, when news reached Camp Half-Blood of the Hunters’ imminent arrival.
Around her and Nico, the Apollo cabin groaned; Reyna had gathered that they saw the Hunters as something like their bratty little cousins, even though they weren’t Artemis’ by blood. And they had the best aim at camp, along with the Apollo kids. For all their competitiveness, the Apollo kids didn’t like getting beaten.
For her part, Reyna stayed quiet and pretended to be unbothered. It might even have fooled most of the campers, but Nico and Hazel were watching her with identical shrewd expressions, and over from the Athena table, Annabeth didn’t seem to buy it either.
After dinner, but before the Hunters were expected, Annabeth cornered her. Her hair was in a loose bun that was already starting to disintegrate, a bruise from an unexpected monster attack stood out on her chin, and her general aura was of sleep-deprivation and rage. The look in her eyes would send a lesser camper running. Even Reyna felt a strong sense of unease, though it was more than a little overshadowed by sheer awe.
“Listen, Reyna,” and wow, okay, Reyna was pretty exclusively interested in Thalia but that didn’t mean she couldn’t fantasize a little about Annabeth’s rough voice -- “I respect you as a fellow leader and really admire your capabilities and, if Percy didn’t exist, I have a strong feeling we would be dating.”
“Thanks,” Reyna replied, blinking a bit at the last bit. It was unexpected, but that didn’t mean it was untrue.
“But Thalia is the oldest best friend I have that didn’t turn evil and/or die, so if you hurt her in any way, be prepared for me, the entire Athena cabin, and likely the entire Camp Half-Blood to eviscerate you. Just something to remember.”
“Duly noted,” Reyna replied. It wasn’t a half-bad threat. She should keep it in mind, the next time one of her friends starting dating someone. Will had paled satisfyingly at the talk they had after he and Nico finally got their shit together, but she hadn’t been completely happy with her speech. “Though I feel my first reason not to hurt Thalia would be because I don’t want Thalia to be hurt.”
“Good answer.”
“What if something happens that hurts us both? Or if I accidentally hurt her, trying to take care of myself?”
Annabeth tilted her head. “Self-care is important. I guess we’ll take it on a case-by-case basis. I’ll keep my cabin and Camp Half-Blood reined in.” She stuck out her hand and Reyna shook it, though it felt a little too aggressive and lingering for a proper handshake.
“Y’all are terrifying,” Nico commented from beside them. He had his arms crossed and an eyebrow up high as he looked at them. “Putting terms into a shovel-talk. And,” the eyebrow went higher, “you’re supposed to do your best-friend duty, Chase, not steal her girl.”
Annabeth sighed in disappointment, letting Reyna’s hand go, and flapped a dismissive hand at Nico. “You don’t get to talk about best-friend duty until you perform yours, di Angelo.”
“I’m waiting until after they talk. Unlike some people. Speaking of which, Reyna, Thalia’s here.”
“…Oh.” It wasn’t remotely what she wanted to say, but Reyna found her throat had dried up too much for anything else.
“That’s my cue. Later, Reyna,” Annabeth said, turning away after giving a mock salute. Like boyfriend like girlfriend, Reyna supposed, or vice versa.
“She’s talking to Will,” Nico told her, as he started to walk in the direction of the cabins. Cabin 1, Reyna soon realized, though going from the lights, the Hunters were already set up in the Artemis cabin. It was probably better that way. Thalia and Will liked their privacy, and the Hunters weren’t overly appreciative of boys in any case.
They weren’t in the cabin, but standing on the porch and talking in low voices. The moon’s light touched their figures and caused Thalia’s white skin and Will’s golden hair to glow. They looked like Artemis and Apollo incarnate, too beautiful and powerful for this planet to contain.
Reyna didn’t need to look at Nico’s face to know it conveyed the same thoughts, but she did anyway. His black eyes were wide and he was smiling in the absent-minded way he always did when he was thinking about Will. He looked so young, and he was. Younger than she was during the war against Gaia, and yet he was older than her and Will and Thalia combined. Reyna loved him so much it hurt.
Because she wasn’t sure how to say that without making it awkward for both of them, she bumped his shoulder and said, “I’m so glad you’re my friend.”
Nico looked at her, smile still on his face (and oh, so it wasn’t just for Will, then). “Your best friend, you mean.” He curled an arm around her waist and gave her a side-hug, leaning his head on her shoulder. “And I love you, too. That’s not gonna change, even if you mess this up.”
“I’ll try my best not to,” Reyna replied drily. She cupped his head. “Love you.”
He stood up straight again, but kept his arm around her, and she lowered her hand so her arm was slung around his shoulder. They walked on to the Zeus cabin.
Will and Thalia had turned to face them as they approached, and when they reached them, Nico gave Reyna a final squeeze before slipping out from under her arm and over to his boyfriend. Will was watching him with the same awe that Nico had, barely two minutes ago, and grabbed his jacket to pull him into a gentle kiss. After months of dating, their kisses were somehow more chaste than that first drunken makeout. They would never cease to amaze Reyna.
Thalia, however, wolf-whistled until they had to separate because of their laughter. “I heard I have you to thank for this, Death Breath?”
Nico rolled his eyes, but he didn’t let go of Will. “You’d know all about it, huh, Pinecone Face?” He cut his eyes over to Reyna and, oh, she was going to murder him --
Except now Thalia was looking at her, and there was no way Reyna could look away from those blue, blue eyes, even if she wanted to.
She didn’t.
“We’ll get going, I guess,” Will said, and that was definitely laughter in his voice. “The campfire, and all that. It was great seeing you again, Thals. See you in the morning?”
Thalia dragged her gaze away. “Yeah, see you then. Bye.”
When Reyna looked over at him, Nico shot her a thumbs-up and a smile. “Bye!”
As they left, brushing past Reyna, Will grabbed her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze, before letting go. Funny, how she could give strength to others, but now that she desperately needed some, there was no one to give it to her. Still, she felt a bit calmer after Will took her hand.
“We’re not allowed alone in a cabin,” Thalia said, hands in her pockets and eyes downcast. “You wanna…” She jerked her head in the direction of the volleyball courts, and at Reyna’s nod, they started walking towards them.
Not towards them, she soon realized, but past them. Towards the edge of Camp Half-Blood. Towards Thalia’s pine tree.
When they reached it, Thalia took the extra step past the dragon and rested her hand on the trunk of the pine. Reyna hung back. Something about seeing Thalia with her tree was strange, in a way she couldn’t define. She only knew the general story -- and found herself wondering if the tree was Thalia’s former home or her former self -- but there was an eerie resemblance between the two. It was like looking at a dryad that had been away from their source for too long.
And then there was the Athena Parthenos statue next to it. Reyna could hardly think about that quest some days without flinching, but she wouldn’t give up the building of her friendship with Nico and Coach Hedge or the chance to save both camps for the world.
She wondered if Thalia was also thinking about the signs of their sacrifices, standing side-by-side.
Thalia patted Peleus’ head and turned back to Reyna. Her eyes were dark as the night sky above them. “There’s a storm coming.”
“You can tell?”
She held her hand up and stared at the lightning that began playing around her fingers. “It affects my powers, makes it easier to summon but harder to control.”
Reyna nodded, though she had no hope of understanding. Her powers depended on her and her alone. The only thing that affected her ability to give strength was her own energy levels.
“I used to be afraid of storms.” It wasn’t a secret she meant to let slip, though it was far from her worst ones. It just revealed a weakness, something she’d always abhorred.
“Yeah?” Thalia said, but she didn’t ask why. Maybe she could guess -- if a man saw enemies in even his own daughters, how much worse would that become with lightning and thunder added? -- or maybe she just thought it was a normal childhood fear. Mortal children were frightened of storms, weren’t they?
Reyna wasn’t sure. She didn’t know many.
“What about now?” Thalia asked. She lowered her hand, and the lightning faded.
“Now I know there are much worse things in this world than storms.”
Thalia stared at her with wide dark eyes, just like Nico. “I’m scared of heights.”
Reyna’s first reaction was disbelief. A daughter of Jupiter, afraid of heights?
But Nico’s fading had frightened him. She had the feeling Percy wasn’t quite comfortable with water anymore. Hazel still didn’t trust the riches she summoned.
Even Reyna had sometimes felt a surge of strength -- a blessing from Bellona, likely -- and was afraid of the ease with which she killed.
Maybe having control of your godly parent’s domain didn’t necessarily mean liking it. Exposure to such powers could make you more comfortable, or less. And it wasn’t as if Thalia was afraid of everything that Jupiter represented, though Reyna couldn’t blame her if she was.
So Reyna simply nodded, and tried not to read too much in the relief that crossed Thalia’s face.
They stood there in silence for a little while longer, and Reyna soon noticed the chill in the air without the heat of exertion or Nico pressed to her side. She was too well-trained to show weakness by shivering or hugging herself, but Thalia still managed to pick up on it.
“Oh, are you --” Her hands went to her jacket and made as if to take it off, but she paused and laughed a little. “I was about to offer my jacket, since I don’t need it, but that’s not really true anymore, is it?”
Reyna snapped her eyes to Thalia’s face and frowned, uncomprehending. For the first time the night, she really looked at her. The circlet was gone from her brow, which meant -- “You aren’t lieutenant anymore.” But it was more than that. Thalia moved less quickly and less surely now, though Reyna had at first dismissed it as nerves. The sharp brightness of her eyes, which Reyna had never known her without, was gone. Earlier, only the moon had illuminated her skin, and now, in the shadows, Thalia lacked the glow that surrounded every Hunter. “You aren’t a Hunter anymore.”
Thalia shrugged and released a little huff of laughter. “Yeah, I’m not. I talked to Artemis about it, and she was really nice. Didn’t turn me into a cow or anything. She even let the Hunters escort me here one last time, to say goodbye.”
“I thought the oath only forbade men?”
“No, it’s…” Thalia darted her eyes to Reyna and then quickly down again. “It’s all types of, uh, romantic love. Or sexual, but most of us are too young for that. Which is why becoming a Hunter is such a great option for aro/ace girls. In any case, Artemis doesn’t mind too much if we leave her service, so long as we don’t do anything before we leave. And I think she respects you.” She ducked her head, cheeks flushing red.
But Reyna wasn’t in the mood to be endeared. Panic was settling in her chest, cold like a blade. However much she’d craved the control of being praetor, personal matters had been something else entirely. Her tentative relationship with Jason had only began after he, too, was elected praetor, and her foolish offer to Percy Jackson was only made when she was sure he would take Jason’s place. She’d taken no other lover in her army, because as much as she hated control being taken away from her, she didn’t want her romantic relationships to come with a power imbalance in the opposite direction, either.
She didn’t want the control inherent in forcing someone to step down from a position they loved, merely to pursue a relationship with her.
“I didn’t ask you to.” Her voice emerged cooler than she’d intended. At her words, Thalia reared back, shock and hurt passed briefly over her face. Just as soon, a mask of anger took their place.
“You didn’t -- Excuse me, I never said that was why I quit! Gods, Reyna, not everything’s about you! Sure, alright, I thought we could try a date or something -- well, obviously not, anymore -- but mostly I don’t want to lose my little brother again!”
Reyna’s next breath came easier. If Thalia’s primary reason was Jason, then Reyna could hopefully not mess this whole thing up.
She stepped closer, gently taking Thalia’s wrist. “I’m sorry for overreacting. I didn’t mean to reject you or assume too much. I was afraid that if you left the Hunters because of me, you would miss it and grow unhappy. I don’t want you to be -- trapped.”
Thalia rolled her eyes. “Not everything’s about you, Reyna,” she repeated, but her voice was softer and she twisted her arm so that she held onto Reyna’s wrist, too. Up close, Reyna could clearly see what had disappeared with Thalia departure from the Hunters. She wasn’t quite as pale, and she was a bit clumsy. Her eyes really were darker. As a whole, she was -- well, not quite softer, but less primordial, less wild, less raw. Reyna wasn’t quite used to her like this, but she looked forward to getting to know her.
“Is that date still available?” she chanced, and was rewarded with Thalia’s deep laughter.
“Guess it’ll have to be. But we’ve already had ones, haven’t we? We watched a movie for the first, talked about our childhood traumas for the second, and now, for our third, we’re taking a moonlit stroll.” Something in her expression changed. She brought her free hand up to trail up Reyna’s neck. “Do I get a kiss on our third date?”
“I’m not sure if it counts as our third date if the first two weren’t stated to be such --”
Thalia rolled her eyes again, slid her hand the final few inches to rest at Reyna’s nape, and Reyna allowed herself to be pulled into the kiss. Thalia’s lip-piercing took some getting used to, and they quickly had to let go of their clasped hands before it made the position awkward, but overall, Reyna would rate it the best first kiss she’d ever experienced. From the fervor with which Thalia kissed, she probably agreed.
Next to them, Peleus grunted, and Thalia startled so badly that only Reyna’s arm around her kept her from falling over. She grimaced. “Normal senses are going to take a while to get used to.”
Even after she regained her balance, Reyna couldn’t quite force herself to let Thalia go. She didn’t seem to mind. “The actual first date is still going to happen, though?”
“Of course it will, who do you take me for?” Thalia hesitated. “I’ve been thinking about going to New Rome. Studying there or staying for a bit. What d’you think?”
“I think I would love that,” Reyna replied. “Annabeth and Percy are studying at the University of New Rome, if you’d like to join them. And as a former lieutenant of Artemis, your experience would be important for the army. We’d be grateful if you gave a few lessons or helped out.”
“I’d like that. And if we’re both in the same place, we have time to practice being more sickeningly adorable than Will and Nico.” Thalia thought it over and wrinkled her nose. “On second thought --”
“No,” Reyna agreed. Will and Nico had a sweet relationship, but it wasn’t her or Thalia. “We’ll see how it goes.”
“We’ll see how it goes,” Thalia echoed. Lightning flickered in her eyes.
In the distance, thunder rumbled.
fin.