No Real Meaning
A/N: I'm doing this thing on tumblr now, where I'm trying to collect all the leyna drabbles I wrote as ask requests and stuff like this and organize them on a fic dump here. Someone yesterday, however, suggested I wrote a "Leyna in the morning after" story and I was fond of the idea though my approach to them having a sexual relationship turned out way more angsty than what I usually write and this came out rather long for a drabble so it turned into a one-shot.
I don't think is as much "out of character" as it is an angsty AU sort of set in the future kinda thing. I've tried to maintain their main traits but I also had to handle with a more serious approach on their issues. Or maybe I'm just feeling this is a little OOC because Leo doesn't have any lines? Haha, probably that.
Anyway, I hope you like it. I don't usually write about sex so this is sort of an achievement? I'm rather fond of certain parts, to be honest.
Love,
Thatu
P.S.: I've rated it T since there's no real graphic description or anything. Also, this has been written in two hours and it's now six am, so, grammar mistakes and typos are very likely to lie ahead. I'll proofread it later, when I wake up so sorry in advance.
No Real Meaning
Reyna sat up on her bed abruptly as if waking from a nightmare, her breath caught on her throat as her shoulders heaved and her eyes suddenly became very alert. Something was not right. Something was definitely not right.
And then, of course, it occurred to her that she was naked.
She coyly pulled the sheets to cover her chest as locks of her hair framed her head. She pulled whatever was left of her side braid and started stroking her fingers through the streaks as if combing her hair would somewhat help her regain her poise - she was pretty sure it wouldn't.
It was not that she was bothered by sex, that wasn't in her. Growing up in Circe's Island she had been taught that men were no good and that a woman should not waste her time on silly things such as attaching the idea of feelings to something as simple and natural as sex. Even in her naturally reserved way, Reyna had no real concerns about the matters of a man and a woman being involved physically.
She had, however, just found out that she could be very concerned about the idea of herself and Leo Valdez being involved physically.
Her fingers, without her really noticing it, were already busy braiding her dark hair again as she let her eyes fall to the, she sighed, to the boy lying under the sheets of the unknown room she was in. He was sound asleep, looking as if he had not a care in the world.
She wondered if she had ever seen him make that face before. He had been one to joke a lot, driving her mad with his habit of never taking things seriously so she was somewhat surprised to notice he looked way less bitter in his sleep. She pondered on whether or not to wake him and decided - fairly quickly - that she'd rather not do it just now.
"Wow, togas come out, like, really easily." She was suddenly reminded of his joke and felt her blood rush to her head in an unpleasant way. She covered her face, partially tempted to chuckle and mostly trying not to die from embarrassment. She shook her head and tried to remind herself that sex was not a shameful act.
So why was she blushing?
She looked down at him again and watched his chest go up and then down very slowly, a mass of dark locks all over the pillow – he looked even younger like that but there was also something that made her want to raise her hand and touch him, something she couldn't really place but that filled her heart with something warm. Without the scornful grin on his lips, he looked like someone else. Even his naturally curvy eyebrows looked harmless. The person sleeping next to her would never hurt anyone. She fought a smile just in time to snap her wrist back before daring to run her hand through his hair.
He must have been a heavy sleeper because she moved a lot as she looked for her so called "easy to come off" toga. It was when she found it that she first noticed the marks.
First, of course, she noticed the little singes on the nice purple fabric she usually wore around her shoulders, then she realized there were brown marks on the bed as well and, finally, blushing furiously, she noticed herself. All her feelings of fondness were exchanged by an anger she had to contain simply for knowing it was, technically, not really his fault.
As some sort of sick signature, she had been marked all over. She could see the clear fingertip shaped marks on her wrists; she could feel them on her neck and collarbones. She dropped the sheets and, trying not to close her eyes in shame, studied her legs and torso. She touched the corner of her mouth and traced a tiny mark on her upper lip. She brushed her fingers past all the marks she could find and let out a calmer cloud of air when she realized, with less surprise than expected, that none of those bruises hurt. She held her legs and placed her head on her knees, not bothering to cover herself again. Next to her, Leo's breathing had turned into a little humming.
The tiny window on the high corner of the room let her know she was probably inside his flying ship and she had to retell herself the events of last night so things could make sense. She absentmindedly wondered whether or not they were flying right now.
There had been a party. Another party. Another reunion so both camps could feel more at ease with all the pushing and shoving, all the forced "getting-to-know-each-other". She had seen the Greek break plates, she had seen the older Romans get a bit too tipsy, all while she had had to sit there and watch the whole thing as the prophecy kids – or whatever was left of them after the horror of war – told tales and tried to smile as if all they were feeling was joy. She had smiled at Jason and he had smiled back. She watched as his fingers locked around Piper's and she noticed her own smile had not flickered for once. She was happy, she was safe. However, she couldn't feel satisfied.
He had approached her at some point after the party had long lost its initial purpose as a celebration of a somewhat official character and sat next to her with his usual shower of silly comments. She laughed at none of them but let him speak. She had grown fond of his childish ranting about nothing for it made her feel younger. As if she could be her actual age.
And then it got late and then it got later and he was still there and it was windy and they talked about that one time he almost destroyed camp, so she reminded him that he had also saved it and he brushed it off with a joke like everything else. And then, maybe because the sky was very clear and there was no angry thunder from the gods, they exchanged stories about home and what it felt like to never have one. They leaned closer as he told her jokingly about how he still never felt like part of the group and she rolled her eyes as she explained that that was because he was the type to always stand out. He smiled and said nothing except that she was being too nice.
It was about the time when everything went quiet that he decided to spur just how nice he thought she really was. She had no way to respond especially since, for some reason, his hands were sizzling with light smoke. She let him end and told him she was not nice. He shook his head and laughed.
"I'm sure you don't think so. You can be pretty oblivious."
The big bonfire was dying when she whistled for her dogs and he told her upfront that she was pretty. He told her he knew it was a dumb thing to say but he really felt like saying all the dumb things he thought after he had almost died a thousand times. Her dogs barked really loudly and she considered answering him that saying all the dumbs things in his head must take a lot of his time but she ended up kissing him instead. She hadn't been called pretty in a long time and, though she never really missed it, somehow, when he had said it, it didn't sound like he meant she was nice looking.
Leo made it sound like pretty meant a lot of things.
She kissed him and at first he didn't really kiss her back because he had to pull away and ask if she was drunk. She laughed and rolled her eyes and failed at not making any jokes about his insecurity because she suddenly felt very young, like a teenage girl who was not ruling a small country on her own. She kissed him again and this time he only pulled away to ask if she was hungry.
He took her to what was left of his ship and she studied the now empty rooms and messy furniture. She could see the marks left by combat and the thing felt very alive to her, like it was breathing as it squeaked. She made that remark to him as he passed her a cup of coffee after they shared cake and he kissed her again without saying a word.
It was later that he joked about how easy the toga came off. It was long after she told him tales of pirates and right before he commented on how the golden armor, as opposed to the clothing, was a bitch to come off.
He was quiet after that. Funny how someone who can look so carefree and be so talkative could get so serious and so focused in certain situations. She had gotten to know a lot of different sides of him over the course of the war and most of them were either terrifyingly annoying or surprisingly charming but this new person she had met the night before was nothing but passionate and serious and she had no idea how she felt about it.
She grabbed her singed toga from the ground and let her feet touch the cold floor as she wrapped herself using the purple silk to make a knot around her chest as if she had just gotten out of a long bath. She took a step forward and her heart almost stopped when she felt him pulling lightly on her improvised dress.
She calmed down when he let go, still fast asleep. He didn't even know he tried to stop her. She tried to roll her eyes but smirked instead.
She walked lightly, like a cat, without making any noises and managing to dodge all the pieces of heavy armor that were lying on the ground. On the tip of her toes, she could see the view from the window – they were not flying after all. They had never left the ground and seeing her camp felt way too much like being slapped in the face.
She stared at him again as she got dressed, mostly waiting for him to wake up with all the noise but he never even moved. She could shake him, say something but she felt torn about it.
In the end, she just sat on the bed again and watched as he snoozed soundly. If she left now, she'd have the opportunity to act like it never happened. If she stood there and woke him up, she'd have to talk to him and ask what he wanted to do. She raised a hand again and watched her marked arm as it floated above his head, trying to make up her mind.
Last night, as he made little rings of fire and smoke in the air with his fingers, he had kissed her head and laughed out loud, his face red. He told her stories about foster homes and learning very inappropriate stuff with some really damaged girls and, when she made a remark about how she was damaged too, he pressed his still hot finger on her forehead as his free arm wrapped itself around her shoulders.
"Oh, you totally are." He kissed her heavy lids when she closed her eyes, trying not to fall asleep too soon. "But I'm probably more. Let's not turn this into a competition 'cause you look like a sore loser."
She retrieved her hand as she remembered their conversation about running away and sleeping on sewers.
"Staying alert is the key when you're running away", she remembered him saying, "I could never relax or people would steal my food, my clothes…I slept with one eye open all the time."
She smiled knowing that no foster kid would be that much of a heavy sleeper and silently thanked Leo for the option of running away. She didn't know for how long he'd been up but she knew it couldn't have been after she started putting her loud armor back on.
The stingy pain on her chest, though, felt a lot like offense but, since she didn't really know why, she just repeated to herself all she knew about sex and about how it was not supposed to always mean something.
And then she wondered that, if by saying "not always," they weren't actually just implying that sometimes it meant a lot.
She left without a word but slammed the door as loudly as she could on her way out.
A/N: Please, be a sweetie pie and leave a review because this was a whole new thing for me and I'm not sure how it turned out.