Title: This Is Where We Begin
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2,000+
Characters: Jason/Reyna with Percy/Annabeth
Summary: It's not like she won't settle down, but that's what New Rome is for.
Note: I love this pairing. They're pretty much on par with Percy and Annabeth for me, and I may just cry myself to sleep if they don't end up together.
This Is Where We Begin
It feels like it's been forever since she's stepped out of Camp. Even after being raised in Puerto Rico and spending so many years on Circe's island, the cold Bay Area weather looks so beautiful and inviting right now, and she can't help but find the crisp temperature and gentle touch of the fog against her skin so relaxing.
For a fleeting second, she thinks about having a life here.
It comes as quickly as it goes (as if she could just drop all of her duties at Camp Jupiter for someone to screw up), but she can't help it. It wouldn't be the first time she's thought about attempting a normal life.
But she knows that it would probably be dreadfully boring for her, eventually, when the glamour of normalcy wears off. The fact of the matter is, as much of a toll it takes on her most of the time, she loves being a praetor. She's the kind of person who always needs to be challenged, who needs to call the shots and be responsible, and she gets great satisfaction when she can think on her feet and make things happen rather than hope they will come on their own. She likes making the impossible a reality. She's quite good at it.
And it's not like she won't settle down, but that's what New Rome is for. She'll be able to hold a seat on the senate if and when she retires from being a camper and raise her kids with her husband. That, for her, would be the best of both worlds: bringing together duty and domesticity.
She laughs, shaking her head as if to shake the thoughts away.
It's too early to think of those things right now.
"What are you laughing at?" a voice beside her asks, and she turns her head to see Percy looking down at the cookbook in her hands. Then he looks up, grinning, and she rolls her eyes, already anticipating the teasing remark that's sure to come.
"Shut up."
"I didn't even say anything!"
"You thought it, and that was enough. You forget, Percy," she tilts her head, giving him a smile that she's been told looks dangerous, "that I can read people."
"Everything about you is totally scary, Rey," he tells her with a laugh. She glares. "You know, you're only proving my point."
She opens her mouth to retort when another voice says, "Watch it, Jackson," in a way that somehow manages to be teasing and completely serious at the same time. Jason drapes his arms across her shoulders from behind, pulling her so that her back is pressed against his chest. "We both know that she has no problem dislocating your arm in public."
Annabeth has an amused smile as she appears at Percy's side, and Percy automatically reaches for her hand, threading their fingers together and squeezing lightly.
"No," Reyna corrects, a glint in her eyes. "I only attack my boyfriend like that."
They all laugh.
"What were you teasing her about, anyway?"
Percy grins at Reyna again, causing her to scowl as he answers Annabeth's question. "She was looking at a cookbook. It's just so domestic of her! Oh, you know I don't mean that in a bad way," he adds when Annabeth arches her eyebrow at him. "She was also laughing to herself."
"Are we done with this conversation yet?" Reyna demands. Jason chuckles into her ear.
"Let's go before she feeds you to her dogs," Annabeth laughs, tugging Percy away. Percy stops her, squeezes their joined hands lightly as he presses a kiss to her lips. Jason and Reyna are all but forgotten to them now. "I want to show you this book Jason and I found on Roman architecture," Annabeth adds as they disappear behind a bookshelf.
"You should've seen her face," Jason tells her. "Her eyes totally lit up."
Reyna smiles at that. It'd felt like so long ago, but she still remembers how Annabeth's eyes had been shining when they'd first walked around Camp Jupiter together.
"That looks good." She blinks, giving Jason a strange look until she realizes that he's looking down at the cookbook that's still in her hands. There's a large picture of a gourmet cheeseburger with garlic fries and a milkshake on the page.
"You're so American," she laughs.
"What?" He sounds amused, and turns her in his arms. "Did you just call me American?"
"Well, considering that you grew up with the delicacies in New Rome, it's just strange that you like such American food."
"I feel like I should be offended or something."
She shrugs her shoulders innocently, looking at him from underneath her eyelashes. His lips curve upward in a smirk. He's always found it amusing when she pretends to act like a typical teenage girl, because she's just nothing like them at all. And she loves that he likes that about her.
"You need to expand your tastes. Obviously I was right thinking that buying us a cookbook would be a good idea."
And she realizes exactly what she's said as soon as it's left her mouth.
Oh, Pluto.
She fights off a blush, looking down as she occupies herself with flipping through the recipes. "Us?" he echoes, but she keeps her eyes down, staring as if the pictures printed on them are the most fascinating things she's ever seen. He grasps her chin with his fingers, tilting her head up so that their eyes meet. "Reyna?"
"It's stupid," she says, but he just gives her that look of his. Honestly, if he weren't so stubborn and confident, he never would've survived working with her. "I was just thinking…"
"About us?" he guesses.
It could just be wishful thinking, but she swears his tone sounds hopeful. She shrugs one shoulder. "I want to be able to be that kind of wife, you know? Someday," she rushes to add, feeling her cheeks flaming even more with every word. "I know I'm mostly about the job right now and all, but I want to settle down eventually. And when I do, I don't want to totally suck at being a wife and a mother because just I spent so much energy focusing micromanaging the Camp and everyone else.
"You are not going to suck at being a beautiful wife or wonderful mother."
"And how do you know that?" she asks.
"Because you're Reyna," he answers simply, as if it should be obvious. "You're so passionate about everything you do that it's impossible for you to be bad at anything!"
She laughs at how ridiculous yet sweet that sentence was, unsure of why she feels her eyes beginning to swell as if she wanted to cry. He brings his hands up to cradle her face, his fingers brushing hair from her forehead, and she closes her eyes and hums contentedly.
After a moment, he asks, "And when were you thinking about the future, did that happen to include me?"
She opens her eyes to meet his. "Yes," she admits.
"Was it the first time?"
"No." He smiles brilliantly at her, and she can't help but return it with the same amount of affection. "I know it's way too early to be thinking about that, but—"
"I like that you did," he interrupts. "I didn't want to say anything and freak you out, because we're still young. But I've thought about us, too."
She laughs a little, though not entirely sure as to why. Then she's closing her eyes as he brings their lips together in a kiss, feeling one of his hands slide down her arm and grasping her elbow, running the pad of his thumb across her skin. It sounds silly, but she loves the way Jason kisses her. It doesn't feel possessive or desperate like she knows some of the other girls around Camp go weak in the knees for. He just seems so sure of himself and of his feelings towards her that he takes the time to savor every moment they're together.
When he finally pulls away, she feels dizzy in the best way possible.
"Gods, guys, do you have to do that in public?"
They both laugh, neither moving an inch away from each other as they turn their heads to see Percy and Annabeth standing where they'd been before, only now Annabeth is carrying a large book in her hand.
"That's ironic coming from you, Percy, since you two are always flaunting it in everyone's faces," Jason reminds.
Percy's smiling as he rolls his eyes, and he tucks his hand behind Annabeth's neck, pulling their lips together in a kiss that nearly makes Annabeth drop her book. Her cheeks are flushed when Percy breaks it off a few seconds later, and though she tries to glare at him, she's smiling too widely for it to be effective.
"You're both going to get us kicked out," Annabeth says, though it's slightly breathless. "Come on, Reyna," she adds, handing Percy her book before he can react and then taking Reyna's hand and pulling her from Jason's grasp before he can react.
"Where are we going?" she asks.
"To get hot chocolate while Jason stays here with Percy so he can pay for that," Annabeth replies.
Reyna smiles, and as Annabeth begins tugging her towards the front of the store, Jason pulls the cookbook from her arms. When she looks over her shoulder, he winks at her before ushering Percy towards the registers, tucking the book into his elbow as he reaches into the back pocket she knows he keeps his wallet in.
She laughs.
... ...
When they get back from taking Aurum and Argentum out for a walk (which pretty much turned into a race), the first thing they hear when they step into the apartment is the sound of the girls laughing coming from the kitchen.
Aurum and Argentum trot into the living room and plop themselves onto the floor, and Percy pulls a towel from the hallway closet, tossing one at him before grabbing one for himself and swiping it over his forehead. They got a good workout running around the crowded streets of the city, and he lost count of how many people scowled at them when they burst through the crowds. He felt bad, of course, but that obviously wasn't going to stop him and Aurum from beating Percy and Argentum back to Sally and Paul's apartment.
It was a tie, but whatever.
Tomorrow is their last day here. Paul and Sally went away for the long weekend and told Percy that they could stay there while they were gone. It took some convincing of Annabeth and Reyna to leave their duties behind for the four days, but neither could deny how badly they've wanted a break.
When he and Percy walk into the kitchen, they find the two girls standing at the kitchen table with rice and fish kind of everywhere.
"Whoa," Percy says. "What's all this?"
"We're making sushi," Annabeth tells him, still giggling a little, and he gives her an amused look as he presses a kiss to her cheek and then to her lips.
Jason winds his arms around Reyna, feeling her relax against him as he drops a kiss onto her temple.
(She'd asked him, once, why he always seemed to have his arms around her, and he'd just told her honestly that even though he knows she's more than capable of taking care of herself, he's still Roman and it's just in his nature to be protective. He likes to think that when he's with her, she'll be safe.)
(And she'd told him – between kisses – that she has always felt safest with him.)
Then he pulls out the pen he knows she keeps in her pocket and puts a check next to the page number of the sushi recipe in the open cookbook on the table, as they've done with every other recipe they've tried so far. They're more than halfway through the whole book, and he already plans to get another before they return to Camp Jupiter tomorrow night.
"So, what's next?"