So I wasn't planning on posting this until I finished TSOF and WAM because gosh dang it I feel so bad about not completing those projects yet...

But (okay I know I'm very inconsistent about what I ship, I can't help it) the more I've been looking at posts about Calypso and Leo, and the more I've been thinking about their relationship, the more I started to realize that they have a lot more problems than the fact that Calypso is (was?) immortal and trapped on an island—and the more I lamented the fact that Riordan could have had Leo and Reyna form a much more meaningful, much more plausible relationship if he'd chosen to go that route. And that got me to wondering if there was any way I could stay true to canon and still make Leyna plausible . . . and then this thing happened.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: There are BoO spoilers in this! Be warned! (Except pretend that Percabeth went to college in NYC, not New Rome, because I wrote parts of this before BoO came out and I'm not in the mood to change it now, sorry. [And maybe they tried college in New Rome for a year and Percy missed his city too much, especially since he'd missed out on it for so long while sleeping and experiencing amnesia and flying around Europe, and Annabeth got tired of hearing about how great Roman architecture was all the time because hey, Greek building wasn't bad either, so they transferred to NYU their sophomore year.] :))

Anyway, this may be stupid and pointless... but I hope you enjoy it anyway! :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Heroes of Olympus.

Part One

Leo was twenty-one when he first realized that this whole Calypso-was-his-girlfriend thing wasn't going to work out forever.

First of all, she was still immortal. Sure, she made herself look like she was aging along with him—perk of being a goddess, Leo supposed—but they both knew it was an illusion. At heart, she was still a fifteen-year-old immortal. And what about when he was sixty? Would she still be aging with him then? Would she choose to look old and wrinkled? Leo doubted it. No one would choose that.

Also, they still fought—like, all the time, over the stupidest things. Whoever started it was usually quick to kiss and make up afterwards . . . but the fights still happened. They happened to the point that Leo was sick of it. He knew that wasn't how great relationships should work—he saw Percy and Annabeth. He saw Piper and Jason. He saw Hazel and Frank. They fought sometimes, sure—all couples did—but they spent way more time being in love than arguing. With Calypso, Leo was pretty sure it was the other way around.

Worst of all, Calypso just didn't have any experience with long-lasting relationships. Of course, neither did Leo, but he didn't have any relationship experience, so it was different. Calypso was so used to people leaving that she expected Leo to do the same at any moment. That wasn't entirely her fault—after all, he had died once, so Leo couldn't exactly blame her for shaking him awake in the middle of the night because she thought his physician's cure had somehow worn off. And it made sense that she feared for his life every time he told her that a monster had attacked him earlier that day. His previous death reminded Calypso of his mortality all the time, which only made the fact that she was still immortal that much harder to bear. That alone was understandable. Leo couldn't fault her for worrying that he could die at any time.

But the real problem was, death wasn't the only way Calypso thought Leo might leave her. She also believed he might walk out on her at any moment, no matter how many times Leo reminded her that she had been his first priority after coming back to life. It had been a mistake to tell her about all the foster homes he'd disappeared from—because now, instead of understanding that he'd rather not talk about that part of his life (like a decent girlfriend would), Calypso constantly brought up those times as evidence that he was going to run away from her someday too. It was one of the things they fought about most.

Still, Leo stuck it out—because he had moved heaven and earth to get back to her (destroyed them, actually, in Gaea's case) and because she was a goddess, and he figured it'd be pretty hard to top that—until the day Calypso came up to him while he was at work and said they really needed to talk. Tearfully, she told him that she just couldn't handle knowing that she would outlive him by a thousand lifetimes.

Despite all her fears about him leaving, she ended up being the one who broke it off.

For a few weeks, Leo alternated between working at his mechanical engineering internship until he was the last one in the building, ignoring all other communication with the outside world, living off microwave pizzas because it took less effort than cooking, and camping out in his garage as he modified his car for the fourteenth time and made other awesomely unnecessary projects. But then one day, Nyssa called him for the fifth time in half an hour, and Leo realized that she might actually have something mildly interesting to say. Reluctantly, he picked up the phone. "Gods, Nys, what could be so important that you would—"

There was a pause.

"HE DID WHAT?!"

Leo stormed into the Big House's infirmary, bypassing the kids who were getting splints or holding ice packs to their heads and marching over to the last bed in the wing. "What the actual hell, Harley?!"

"Language!" Katie scolded him as she went to the back to grab some bandages from a supply cabinet. "There are kids in here, Valdez!" She didn't live at camp anymore—in fact, she was going to graduate college next year—but Katie still helped out in the infirmary during the busy summers. And whenever she was around, she was as protective of the youngest campers as ever.

Leo grinned at her apologetically. "Sorry, Katie. I've been spending too much time in college, I guess. It won't happen again." He waited until she walked away and then crossed his arms and hissed, "But really, kid. What the actual hell?"

Harley looked indignant. "First of all, I'm not a kid, Leo."

He snorted. "You're twelve, Harley. Last time I checked, that still qualifies you as a kid. Now stop avoiding the question."

Harley kept his mouth shut for about fifteen seconds and then sighed. "Remember that epic, building-sized, self-firing, collapsible crossbow that was supposed to shoot flaming bolts?"

Leo frowned. "The one that Nyssa decided was impossible and gave up on before she left camp, like, four years ago? That crossbow?"

Carefully, Harley tilted his head down to look at his sheets. "Um, yeah. Well, I was looking at the blueprints she made, and I thought I might be able to get it to work if I made a couple adjustments, so I pulled it out of our Hopeless Projects storage locker and was playing around with it in Bunker Nine, and . . . well . . . it kind of exploded."

"It did WHAT?"

Harley winced. "Yeah . . . that's how I ended up here."

Leo stared at Harley. The kid was covered with casts and bandages—freaking wrapped from his shoulders to his feet. "Gods, Harley," he said eventually. "I know you've always thought Jake was the coolest engineer ever—before you met me, of course," he added with a grin, "but that doesn't mean you have to copy everything he does. You look exactly like he did the first time I met him—after Festus almost torched him to death." Leo sobered. "What were you thinking, Harley? You're only twelve! You shouldn't be messing around with stuff that dangerous!"

Harley glared at him. "When Percy was twelve, he killed a Minotaur with his bare hands!"

"Yeah, and he also fell off the St. Louis Arch!" Leo reminded him. "Dammit, Harley, you could have died!"

"No, I couldn't have!"

"Of course you could have! The thing exploded! You're not fireproof like I am—"

"I was then," Harley protested.

That pulled Leo up short. "What are you talking about?"

"I was wearing one of those fireproof suits you had Calypso make for us," Harley explained. Leo resisted cringing at the mention of his ex-girlfriend's name. "They worked perfectly—I'm not even a little burned. I broke a couple—okay, maybe more than a couple—bones because the explosion threw me against the wall, which is why I'm in here, but my skin's fine."

Now that Leo thought about it, that would explain why Harley's face wasn't covered. "Oh," he said. "Well, I guess one good thing came out of that relationship, then."

"What are you talking about—?" Slowly, Harley furrowed his eyebrows. "Wait. Leo, why are you here?"

"To visit you, idiot," Leo snorted. "Nyssa told me you got hurt, and I drove here as fast as I could. Why else?"

Harley hesitated. "Well, I . . . I guess I kind of figured you drove up here to visit Calypso, and then found out I was in here when you arrived."

"Nah, this trip was all about you, ki—Wait. Calypso's here? Calypso's here?"

Harley laughed, then winced and stopped abruptly. "She didn't tell you? She showed up here a couple weeks ago and has been hanging out with some campers—Hecate kids, mostly." His eyes gleamed. "Now that you know, I guess you're going to run out and find her and forget all about me, huh?"

Leo gaped at him. "I, uh . . ." He sighed and dropped into a chair next to Harley's bed. "Actually, Harley, I think I'm going to stick around here and keep you company. Calypso's not important."

Harley stared. "'Calypso's not important?'" he said incredulously. "Says the guy who flew to her after coming back to life and didn't even take a moment to flip a drachma into a rainbow to let us know he was okay first? Says the guy who wouldn't stop talking about his girlfriend for an entire year after getting her here? Who are you, and what have you done with my brother?"

"Shut up, Harley," Leo mumbled. "You said you thought you could get the crossbow to work? You said it just needed a couple of adjustments? Well, where did you go wrong? Maybe we can get that thing built after all. After all, that would make a freaking cool weapon." Leo mustered up a blinding grin. "Did those blueprints burn up in the explosion, or do you still have them?"

Thank the gods, Harley knew a good subject change when he heard one. He didn't bring Calypso up again, and Leo managed to avoid his ex-girlfriend for seven full days. When he wasn't discussing plans and measurements with a recovering Harley, Leo was banging away in the forge or in Bunker Nine—after all the work and broken bones Harley endured to get this crossbow made, Leo figured the least he could do was build it for him. By the time Harley was released from the infirmary, a Celestial bronze, building-sized, self-firing, collapsible crossbow that shot flaming bolts was waiting for him in their cabin. Leo even remembered to stick a bright red bow on top.

Harley whistled appreciatively. "And it works?"

"Who do you think you're talking to?" Leo laughed. "Of course it works! I tested it this morning, and it's awesome. Do you think Chiron will let you guys use it in Capture the Flag? Because you would cream the other team."

"I hope so," Harley grinned mischievously, "but I don't know if he'll go for it, seeing as you're the one who built it and you won't be playing—"

"Oh, come on, I just followed the plans you came up with!" Leo proclaimed. "This is your invention, kid, and if Chiron wants to argue with that . . ." He winked. "Just play the 'oh-poor-injured-me' card, and he'll be helpless."

Harley cracked up. "True. Or, you know, you could just stick around until Friday and play Capture the Flag with us."

"That doesn't seem very fair," Leo said. "I mean, I'm one of the legendary members of the seven now, right? I freaking died to save everyone and then came back to life. If the other team found out I was joining in, they'd probably be too afraid to even try."

"That's kind of the point."

"Nah, Harley, this is your show now. I've got to get back to my job. My boss is already mad about giving me a whole week off. If I take any more time, the glowing recommendation she's promised me might be tarnished by a 'However, his work ethic sucks'." Leo felt kind of bad about lying to his brother—he actually had a great boss who had told him to take all the time he needed when he explained his little brother had been in an accident, especially since "you've probably put in the equivalent of ten workdays in overtime alone over the past few weeks"—but he didn't really feel like getting into details about his breakup with Calypso. And he especially didn't want to risk running into her at camp.

"Well . . . if you're sure . . ."

"Yeah, I'm sure," Leo said, forcing a grin. "Give me a call on Saturday, and you can tell me all about how great this baby performed, all right?"

"Oh, come on, Leo. You know cell phones still attract monsters."

Leo snorted. "Yeah, and I also know that Cabin Nine engineered a way around that problem a year before I ever got to camp. Nice try, kid. I'll talk to you on Saturday." He ruffled Harley's hair. "See you later, Harley Davidson." He smirked.

"You're never going to get over that, are you?" Harley complained.

"Never," Leo promised, laughing. "The fact that it's your actual name makes the pun that much more priceless. Your mom's sense of humor is golden, kid."

He didn't stop grinning until he was halfway out of camp with his duffel bag slung over his shoulder. That was when he passed by the canoe lake . . .

And saw Calypso. She looked about fifteen again, which was weird after seeing her age for the past five years, but that wasn't why he stopped smiling. And it wasn't because she saw him or anything like that. He actually stopped smiling because she didn't see him—because she was too busy sitting with some guy on the dock, laughing, looking up at him adoringly, and blushing through her freckles when he leaned forward and kissed her on the cheek. And then tilting his head with one gentle hand and kissing him straight-on.

Leo's hair caught on fire, but he didn't even bother putting it out.

He was back in his car in forty-five seconds flat.

"How did you do it?" Leo demanded, bursting into Reyna's off-campus apartment as soon as she opened the door a crack. Reyna took a step back in confusion—she hadn't even known he was in the state. As far as she knew, his summer internship was in New Jersey.

"Do what?" she asked cautiously, taking her place back on the couch and picking up her textbook.

Leo didn't seem to hear her. "I mean, it was one thing when she broke up with me because she knew that—that whatever we had was impossible, but I didn't expect her to, to go back to camp—and I certainly didn't think that when I went there to visit Harley, I'd find her falling in love with another demigod already." He sounded more bitter than Reyna had ever heard him. "Although I guess I shouldn't be surprised; I've heard the myths before. Calypso has always fallen in love easily—it's the staying in love that's hard for her."

Reyna stared. "Calypso broke up with you?"

"Yes, gods-dammit, keep up!" Leo fumed. "I'd been ready to break up with her for months because we fought all the time, and it was dumb and ridiculous and totally not worth it, but I didn't want to walk away because I knew that she'd think it proved what she'd been saying all this time, that I'd leave her too eventually, so I stuck around until she finally had the sense to end things herself, but dammit that doesn't mean she can just get over me in under a month and flirt with another guy and kiss him like we never even happened. Like I didn't date her for five freaking years. Like I didn't free her from that STUPID island! Hell, she could at least have the decency to wait—I don't know, to wait longer than she did! Five freaking years, and she tosses me aside in under a month! Did she ever even love me, or did she just love that I saved her?"

At those words, Reyna saw all Leo's anger leak out of his body. He slouched and dropped onto the other end of Reyna's couch, as far away from her as possible. "Lo siento, Reyna," he muttered. "We barely even, like, know each other. Out of everyone I could have gone to—dammit, I'm sorry I bothered you about this. It's not your problem."

He made as if to stand up and leave—and even though she had a pile of homework to catch up on before school started again, and even though her summer job had left her exhausted, Reyna found herself putting down her highlighter and asking, "Why did you come to me, then?"

"I just thought . . ." Leo shook his head. "Nothing. It's stupid. That was a long time ago . . . Forget it." He got up.

Reyna rolled her eyes. "Sit down, Valdez. You're obviously a mess right now, and letting you go out on your own seems pretty irresponsible on my part. What made you come over here, of all places?"

Leo sighed. "I don't know. I guess . . . There's no chance Annabeth is going to show up while I'm here, is there?" Annabeth was Reyna's roommate. They were both organized neat freaks who went to NYU and understood if the other came home covered in golden dust or sporting a couple nasty cuts and bruises; as Annabeth put it, it was only logical that they would be roommates as underclassmen and share an apartment as juniors. And the fact that they'd become close friends after the war didn't hurt.

"No, she'll probably be out with Percy until after midnight," Reyna said. "They're getting in as much quality time as possible before classes start up and Annabeth buries herself in work again. Now what did you mean by 'how did you do it'?"

Leo shrugged helplessly. "I don't know, Reyna. I guess . . . I wanted to complain to someone, and I know Piper lives somewhere around here too, but as cool as she is, she's still got Aphrodite tendencies every once in a while. If I showed up there, she'd either be overly sympathetic or try to joke about it—and her jokes suck. Plus she'd try to give me terrible advice. Jason would give me even worse advice. Hazel finished her meeting in Camp Half-Blood two weeks ago—she went back to California to meet back up with Frank and resume her praetorly duties already. I wasn't about to talk to any of my siblings about this—they're about as good with organic life forms as I am, and Nyssa's probably even worse—and I can't exactly explain my godly ex to my college friends. That . . . well, as sad as this sounds, that leaves you. Besides . . . well, I saw your face when Jason showed up holding Piper's hand in New Rome six years ago. I figured that if there was anybody who could tell me what the Hades I'm supposed to do now, it's you."

Reyna couldn't help but smile wryly. "Wow, you really are desperate. You realize people described me as 'the hardass praetor' when Jason and I were working together? And when Frank and I were working together too, of course. I'm not exactly known for being the most sympathetic listener, Valdez."

"Good," he said. "Then tell me how stupid I'm being. Calypso and I broke up. I was relieved when we broke up. I shouldn't be upset that she's moved on. After all, I've been ready to get out of that relationship for ages, so I shouldn't be complaining. This is a good thing—it means she's not interested in trying to get me back. I should be happy, right?" He shook his head and looked at her, forcing his mouth to curve upwards into a crooked grin. "I should be happy."

Reyna sighed and stuck a post-it inside her textbook before closing it and setting it aside. "Well, sure," she said. "If that was the only thing bothering you, then of course you should be happy." She paused. "But I know it's not."

Leo's ears reddened. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Right," she said sarcastically. "What was it you said? Five freaking years, and she got over you in under a month, right? And what came after that? Oh yeah." She lowered her voice a little and imitated, "'Did she ever even love me, or did she just love that I saved her?'" She looked over at Leo just in time to see him freeze his crooked smile in place. "If I had to guess, Valdez, I'd say that's why you're really here."

Leo shook his head forcefully. "She's just an ancient bratty goddess who's had a million men leave her over the last few millennia. Obviously she's not all that special. Why should I care what she thinks of me?"

Reyna raised her eyebrows. "Maybe because you made an oath on the Styx to come back for her, and you kept that oath, and you did impossible things in order to get her back, and now that you two aren't together anymore, you're starting to wonder if part of her just used you to get her freedom? Maybe because if doing all that wasn't enough for you to keep a girlfriend, you can't possibly imagine what could be? Maybe because if even an ancient bratty goddess who's had a million men leave her thought leaving you was a good idea, you think that any girl you meet will eventually come to feel the same way?"

Leo's frozen smile slipped. "Damn, Praetor. When did you become a psychologist?"

"About two minutes ago," she said. "But I . . . I know where you're coming from. Jason and I overturned a corrupt praetorship together. We fought sea monsters and drakons and a Titan's army together. We ran a legion together. I'd known him for years. And then . . . well, Piper came into the picture out of nowhere, and I found out that they'd only known each other for a few months before they started dating, and it made me think. It was that simple for her to get Jason to like her? They'd gotten together that easily? Then why hadn't Jason ever shown any interest in me? Was I . . . was I just that unlikable?" She shrugged. "I thought no guy would ever want to date me. But I realized pretty soon that Jason never showed any interest in me because we just made better friends than dates. That didn't mean I would never date anyone." She smirked. "And then I started my freshman year at NYU, and Blake Lanchester happened."

Leo's mouth dropped open. "You have a boyfriend?"

She snorted. "Thanks for sounding so surprised."

He turned red. "Sorry. No, it's just that . . . I mean, we might not be close, but I have held conversations with you before, and I've hung out with the rest of the seven a bunch of times, and no one ever mentioned that, not even Annabeth. I thought it would have come up in conversation—"

Reyna decided he looked flustered enough and cracked a smile. "I'm not surprised," she said. "Blake Lanchester wasn't anything worth talking about—we barely dated a month, and he avoided me after that. But he did show me that it was possible for a guy to actually like me."

"Oh." Leo got over his embarrassment quickly. "You can't compare us, then! At least you dated someone who didn't owe you anything, even if it was only for a month! I was rejected a thousand times before I started dating Calypso—and I did spring her from Ogygia, after all. Maybe she only started dating me out of a sense of obligation! In fact . . ." His eyes widened. "Maybe that's why she kept picking fights with me all the time! She was hoping that if we argued enough, I'd stop liking her, and then she could break up with me without feeling bad!"

"My gods, Valdez," Reyna sighed. "Now you're being ridiculous. That raft picked you up in Ogygia, didn't it? Doesn't that mean that she loved you, at least at one point?"

"Ogygia's magic was unstable by then," Leo said dismissively. "That raft was probably just luck, coincidence, or Aphrodite being a jerk. Face it, Reyna. I'm unlovable."

"Self-pity doesn't suit you, Valdez."

Leo ignored her. "Girls have been telling me how scrawny and useless I am ever since I asked Amanda Yankovski out in fifth grade," he muttered. "I thought dating Calypso proved them all wrong, but now I'd doubting even that. Obviously, I have no hope of having a lasting relationship." He looked at her with wide eyes. It would have been comical, if he didn't look so distraught. "I have no potential as a boyfriend, Reyna. I'm going to live my entire life alone."

"Leo, you and Calypso dated for five years. I'd sure as hell call that a lasting relationship—"

"I told you, Reyna, that could have just been out of obligation!" Leo repeated. "That's not proof! One fluke-that-might-not-even-be-a-fluke isn't proof. A thousand rejections are proof."

Reyna stared at Leo Valdez, his left leg banging up and down furiously, his hands fiddling nervously in his ever-present toolbelt, his curly hair sticking out in all directions. Then she did the only thing that she thought might possibly make him feel less sorry for himself. She scooted closer to him on the couch.

Leo frowned at her. "Reyna, what are you doing—"

She grabbed onto his shirt, pulled him forward, and pressed her lips into his.

The kiss lasted approximately 2.5 seconds, and then Leo toppled backwards, almost falling off the couch. "You . . . I was . . . and then you just . . . What the Hades was that all about?" His face burned bright red—which matched his smoking hair quite nicely, Reyna thought.

She smirked. "I decided to test out your boyfriend potential," she told him, "and I've confirmed that you're a decent kisser, even when you have no idea what the heck is going on. That, at least, proves that you shouldn't feel completely hopeless. Being a good kisser ups your relationship potential substantially."

He just looked at her, still smoking slightly. "Um, thanks?" he said eventually. "But a relationship is about more than just making out."

Reyna censored the first response that came to mind—Not all people see it that way, Valdez—and replied, "Well, then how am I supposed to help you out? What do you want me to do?"

"I don't know," Leo said. "You're the psychologist."

"Fair enough." She thought about it for a moment. "Well, you could—"

"If you're going to tell me to walk around Manhattan carrying a sign that says 'Would you date me?', I refuse," Leo cautioned. "Because that kind of evaluation is based solely on attractiveness . . . and I already know that I'm not going to get many positive comments in that regard."

Reyna cracked a smile. "Whatever you say, Valdez. So you're saying that you don't think relationship potential should be judged just on kissing or attractiveness. You want a well-rounded assessment. You want to know if overall, you would make a good boyfriend. Am I right?"

Slowly, Leo nodded. "Yeah, I guess. That sounds about right."

She thought about that for a moment, and then her smile widened into a grin. "Okay, then that settles it. You are going to take me on the most cliché, overdone first date ever, and I'm going to observe your behavior throughout the night, and at the end of it I will rate your boyfriend potential on a scale of 1 to 10. Deal?"

Leo laughed suddenly, his mouth splitting into the first genuine smile Reyna had seen from him all day. "That's the weirdest therapy idea I've ever heard of, my personal psychologist praetor."

"Well?"

He shrugged. "Oh, why the hell not?" The corner of his mouth slid upwards. "Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano," he began dramatically, "would you like to go on a date with me?"

Reyna found herself smiling. "I would love to, Leo Valdez," she replied. "As long as you're paying for dinner."

"Of course I will," he grinned. "Otherwise, your rating of my potential would probably drop, like, 500%."

"I think that's a statistical impossibility, Valdez."

"Nothing's impossible where I'm concerned," he claimed. "I already found an island that doesn't technically exist."

She rolled her eyes. "Whatever."

And just like that, the conversation petered out. Leo glanced over at her. She eyed him back. Suddenly, she was painfully aware of the fact that the two of them didn't really know each other all that well, and they were about to spend several hours together. Was it going to be this awkward the whole night?

Oh, gods, she couldn't let that happen. It would be torturous—and if she was going to slack off on her college work, she had to at least enjoy herself while she did. "So—" she began.

"You know—" Leo started at the same time.

They both stopped abruptly. Leo was the first to crack a smile. "By all means, Praetor, you can speak," he said courteously. "Don't let me interrupt you."

"I see through you," Reyna retorted. "You're just using manners to raise your boyfriend potential, and it won't work. You've got to act exactly like you always do, or what's even the point of going on this fake-date? Be as rude and annoying as usual, Valdez, and go first."

Leo snorted. "Glad to see you think so highly of me," he shot back. "Just for that, I'm going to force you to go first."

After a beat of silence, she sighed. "I was only going to say, 'So maybe we should get this fake-date started.'" She paused. "So, maybe we should get this fake-date started?"

Leo looked at her carefully for a moment, and then laughed. "Sorry, Praetor," he said. "Guess I should have gone first after all, because I was planning on saying, 'You know, if we want to make this realistic, I'm going to have to change clothes before we get started. I'm not exactly date-ready.'"

"Oh." Reyna looked him up and down and had to agree. His jeans were oil-splattered—although really, when were Leo's jeans ever not oil-splattered—and he was wearing a shirt that read "The Flaming-Hot Mechanic" and (ironically) had a hole burned into one sleeve. His hair was a wild mess. Still . . . "You don't have to do that," she said, rolling her eyes. "It's not like we're actually going on a date—"

"Well, of course not," he said. "But the casual observer will think we are. And I don't want to make any bad impressions, especially when it comes to our waitress. Who knows? She might be cute. In which case, you can feel free to leave, and I'll pour out some sob story about how I was having such a nice dinner with my cousin and then she got annoyed by my sense of humor and stormed out, and wow, that crowd two tables over seems loud and obnoxious, are you the one who's stuck serving them, that's too bad, here, maybe you should sit down and eat some of the appetizer I ordered and I'll put on your apron and pretend I'm your assistant and I'll be taking care of them from now on. You've probably been working long enough already. I'm sure you could use a break."

Reyna shook her head. "That would be sweet," she said, "if the whole thing didn't start out with a lie about your 'cousin'."

"Oh, come on," he said. "I'd only say that because it's easier than explaining that I was on a fake date. If someone I was actually dating left in the middle of dinner, I would still strike up a conversation with my waitress and let her take a break while I took care of her tables, but I would make it very clear that I was doing it out of the goodness of my heart and not because I thought she was cute."

Reyna just barely kept herself from laughing. "Of course you would," she said. "Now go and change clothes."

"Yes, ma'am." He was still chuckling when he closed the apartment door behind him.

The next time Reyna opened the door for Leo Valdez, she couldn't help but stare. "You know," she said, "when you told me you were going to change clothes, I figured you were just going to grab a pair of pants that wasn't stained. Now I feel underdressed."

Leo pushed the sleeves of his white collared shirt up to his elbows and grinned. "The bow tie's a nice touch, don't you think?"

"Maybe," she admitted. "The suspenders are a bit much, though."

"Aw, what are you talking about?" he smirked. "Suspenders are the coolest things since magic toolbelts."

"Which, I notice, you're still wearing. It ruins the whole high-class vibe you're going for."

"Yeah, probably. But I'm not walking through monster-infested Manhattan without my bag of tricks."

"Can't say I blame you." Reyna studied his outfit again, glanced down at her jeans, and sighed. "All right, I can't have you outshining me, Valdez. Give me a minute to change again."

Leo looked at her with open astonishment. "Nice dress, Praetor," he said appreciatively.

"Piper's been forcing me to get some," she said with a shrug, sweeping her braid over one shoulder. "She claims I'm going to have to stop dressing so practically eventually. But don't worry, Valdez. I've still got a knife down each boot."

"Oh, yeah, now I'm not worried," he said sarcastically. "Gods, Reyna. Forget your rating of my potential. I'm going to make sure I don't screw this fake date up, just so I don't end up stabbed at the end of it."

Reyna grinned. "Good. Now what are we doing first?"

This will be a two-shot, so keep an eye out for another chapter at some point! (Hopefully soon, although I'm not making any promises. :))

Feedback is appreciated!