REYNA- This is Why We Can't Have Nice Things

As the primary defender of Nico, Coach Hedge, and a priceless ancient Greek statue of Athena, Reyna knew that sleeping wasn't part of her job description. And yet, no sooner than they had touched down from Nico's first segment of shadow traveling, Reyna had conked right out. She knew Nico would be passed out, too, leaving the world's fate, however momentarily, in the hands of the faun. But there was nothing to do about it now; she was already dreaming, wandering aimlessly around a dark, damp forest. The moon left her just enough light to see a few feet in front of her.

"Reyna!" A voice behind her shattered the still night.

She whipped around and tried to draw her sword, before she remembered that this was a dream. Then she registered the voice, and laughed in relief. "Jason!"

Reyna briefly wondered if Jason always approached so quietly because he was just naturally a silent walker, or if he was really hovering a millimeter above the ground, cushioning his steps with the air. Achieving the silent hunter's walk had taken Reyna years of conscious effort.

"I'm sorry." Jason stood before her, looking a little uncomfortable, though Reyna supposed she couldn't blame him. "Hazel helped me out with this dream thing, and I'm not sure how long it'll last, so if I get cut off early, I wanted to say that first."

Reyna frowned. "Hazel?"

Jason pursed his lips. "Long story."

Reyna hid a grimace. A year ago, she and Jason didn't have secrets from each other. And as long as the story might have been, Jason would have been able to tell it in a few short sentences. Reyna would have understood.

That was the way they'd always been: one cohesive unit. Maybe not in the way Reyna had wanted, but they were a team nonetheless. But now with a girlfriend and a sister both from camp half blood, Reyna had felt that bond stretch to the point of snapping, never to be mended again.

"Hey, is Nico or Coach Hedge awake right now?" Jason asked.

Reyna shook herself out of her reverie. "Not Nico. Hedge should be, though. Why?"

Jason looked uneasy. "I'm not sure exactly how this works. Since no one's woken you up yet, maybe you can't be woken up until I do."

Reyna shrugged off his worry. "I still have some of Circe's magic, you know. What was it you came to say?"

Jason shifted his weight uncomfortably, but finally looked her in the eye. "I'm sorry. For disappearing on you. And for firing on your city. And for not trying to contact you sooner. Well, for everything, really."

Reyna sighed. She flashed back to a similar exchange, but with Percy Jackson. Still, if I hurt you, I'm sorry, he'd said. And Reyna had replied: An apology? Not very Roman at all, Percy Jackson.

She had to work to refocus her attention on the present. "You're not coming back, then?"

Jason shook his head. "We're still friends, though… right?"

Straight to the point. A year ago, Reyna never imagined that they'd be in a place where their friendship was called into question by either of them. But here he was, telling her he'd found a new home, and asking for her forgiveness. No, more than that. For her blessing.

She managed a small smile. "Of course."

Jason sighed in relief. "Right." He smiled hugely. "Ok, good. Listen, have you thought about how you're going to cross the ocean? Nico can't do it in one trip."

Reyna bit back a curse. Truth be told, no one had planned for this trip, and unfortunately, she didn't get the feeling that either of her companions excelled at thinking ahead. It wasn't her strong suit, either.

"I'd say build a boat, but I don't know how much Nico can tow with him, and I guess it would take too long, anyway," Jason said. "You'll probably need immortal help."

Reyna nodded. "Not Neptune, of course, though I have no clue who else we could ask."

Jason spoke hurriedly, as though he was worried Reyna would cut him off. "What if you did ask Neptune? Well, Poseidon, really. Aside from Athena, he changed the most. Maybe we could unite his aspects, too?"

Reyna recognized more emotion than she would have expected attached to his plan, but she couldn't quite place it. "We'll try." It was a general understanding, though, between the two of them what try meant, and it definitely wasn't a promise of success.

Still, Jason nodded. "Thanks. And one more thing…" He hesitated long enough that Reyna had to prompt him to continue.

"Nico's a good guy. I know we had our reservations about him, but at the palace of Diocletian, we ran into Cupid. And he- well- it didn't sit well with him. Cupid forced him to talk about something that he wasn't ready to face. But I get the sense that there was something more that he didn't even tell me."

Reyna frowned. It sounded like Jason was saying that Nico had been forced into some sort of confession about which girl he liked, but she couldn't see how this was in any way relevant. Her patience was wearing thin. What she'd originally hoped would be a comforting word from Jason was turning out to be something entirely different. "So… what are you saying?"

"That Nico's important. Cupid singled him out for a reason, even if no one knows what that is yet. But he's going to need a friend, a guide, to succeed in his part. And aside from Coach Hedge, you're all he's got."

Reyna understood the implication clearly, whether or not Jason meant her to. He's all you've got, too.

She smiled wryly. "Don't worry, I'll be nice."

"Awesome."

"So that's it?" Reyna was starting to have a hard time holding herself together, and found herself wishing that Jason would leave. Instead, he hesitated for just a second before he walked forward and hugged her.

"Everything's going to be ok," he said fiercely. "I can feel it."

Reyna couldn't believe his nerve. "Don't you have a girlfriend?" she asked pointedly, shrugging out of his grasp.

Jason was bemused. "I'm honoring a friend."

"Well, you can't just do that," Reyna finally snapped.

"What?"

"You can't just come back here after gods know how many months and expect everything to be fine between us. I know it wasn't your fault, ok? I know that you didn't ask for any of this, and I never doubted you a second the whole time you were gone. But do you have any idea what it was like for me?" She furiously wiped a tear. "Do you have any idea what that looked like when you left when you did?"

Jason rushed to his own defense. "It wasn't my fault, you said so yourself!"

"Juno didn't take you right away, though, did she, Jason? You left without an explanation that night, and it wasn't fair." Reyna could hear the hurt and betrayal in her voice, and she hated herself for it.

"And you think getting ripped from my own life, transported across the country without my memories, and being forced into a quest to save the goddess who stole me was fair?" Jason laughed derisively. "You have got to be kidding me."

Reyna threw him a withering look. "Spare me. You regained your memories a full eight months before you came back. You could have contacted me, could have pulled me aside when you finally did come back, you could have warned me. But I guess you were too busy playing boyfriend to that charm-speaking witch you're consorting with," Reyna sneered. "I hope you're happy, Jason Grace, because you know something? I just might be better off without someone like you in my life."

Jason kept his cool with ease. "Well then I'm glad I didn't stick around." He turned to leave, but stopped for a second to look back, a small smile playing on his lips. "You know, for someone who claims to be so in love with me, you don't know me very well at all."

Reyna kept her shock hidden. "I couldn't agree more. The Jason I knew would never abandon his home like that."

"Hey, I'm on this quest to save your home. And if you honestly think that I'm the kind of guy that would run away from everything I know just because a co-worker had an silly insignificant crush on me, then you've got another think coming."

Reyna felt like she'd been slapped in the face. She'd already said too much, argued for too long, and she could tell she was seriously about to lose it, so she pulled herself out of the dream without another word.

When Reyna awoke, she was sweating, though she could see her breath, which was a strange combination. She didn't want to move. She'd had less than a day to recover from her solo trek halfway across the world, and she was starting to feel the effects creeping up on her. Nico's voice, rough but strangely muted, startled her.

"You look like you could have slept better."

"You have no idea," Reyna said darkly. She was sitting up, wincing as she felt the bruises on her ribs that ambrosia had only half healed, when she first caught sight of Nico. He held a rag to his nose, which was bleeding freely, and he had a large purple lump above his left eyebrow. His face was stained with tears, though he was thankfully no longer crying. His arm shook as he held the rag to his face, as though the effort was almost more than he could muster.

Reyna hurried over. "Gods, what happened to you?" Had she slept through a fight? Reyna took the rag- which on closer inspection turned out to be one of his shirt sleeves- and held it for him.

"Vivid dreams." Nico started to slump, so Reyna dragged her pack over and propped him up against it.

"What do you mean?"

Nico looked up, confused. "I thought it was happening to you, too."

Reyna frowned. "What was happening?"

"The dreams. I dreamed I was holding the weight of the sky with a bunch of ghosts. But they turned out to be Hazel and all the demigods from the quest. As soon as I would recognize one, they would vaporize, and leave me alone. These rocks kept flying around in the wind- I guess they were falling from the sky, maybe- and finally, one hit me on the forehead, and knocked me over."

"How much ambrosia have you had?"

"Two squares. I don't think I should risk any more just yet."

"I agree."

Nico's story disturbed Reyna greatly. It was common for demigods to dream prophecies, communicate with others in their sleep, or witness scenes from the past. But she'd never heard of anything like this. It was a particularly bad situation because Nico would be unable to keep himself awake after shadow traveling, opening him up to new injuries every leg of their journey.

"How come your nose is bleeding?"

Nico shrugged. "No idea."

"Probably from your head wound. I bet you had a concussion."

"The thought crossed my mind. It's lucky it woke me up, so I could treat it as soon as I did. Coach Hedge said I'd be fine."

Reyna rolled her eyes. "I'm sure. Where is he, anyway?"

"Guarding the statue." Nico gestured to the bottom of the hill they were resting on. "It rolled down when we landed, but we both conked out, so he's been down there keeping watch." Reyna saw that the faun- no, satyr- was swinging his baseball bat threateningly at the surrounding boulders and trees. "We should probably go help him."

"Yeah, I don't think you're physically capable of walking right now."

"Fine. How'd you get off so easy, then?"

"Oh." Reyna hesitated, not really wanting to talk about it. "Right. Jason put me to sleep so he could talk to me."

"You spoke to Jason?" Nico asked furiously.

Reyna definitely was missing something. "Yeah, so?"

Nico scrutinized her carefully. His anger seemed to evaporate as quickly as it had flared up. "Well… nothing, I guess. If it was just Jason, why were you so upset?"

Reyna sighed. "Oh, we argued. It's not an uncommon occurrence."

"Anything else?"

And here it was, the reason she and Jason never felt like they could trust Nico. He was always trying to find out as much as he could, but he refused to give anything away. He wasn't very good at it; he was no Octavian, and so neither of them had given it much thought. But now that Reyna knew how powerful Nico truly was… well, it rubbed her the wrong way. Like he didn't trust her yet.

Had Reyna grown to trust Nico? Truthfully, she still hadn't made up her mind. She wished she had Aurum and Argentum with her, but it would hardly have mattered. Nico wasn't really a liar, so to speak. He mainly concealed. But they were working together now, and what kind of praetor would she be if she started keeping things from him? A normal, sane, responsible praetor, she thought to herself. But if she wanted Nico's trust, he deserved to be treated as an equal. So she caved.

"Jason's not coming back to Camp Jupiter when the war is over," Reyna told Nico bitterly. "So I accused him of running away and told him New Rome would be better off without him."

Nico chuckled. "And?"

"Well, he called me selfish, and told me I didn't know the first thing about him. So I left."

"Typical," Nico snorted. "He'll get over it. Besides, if we all survive the war, it's not like you'll never see him again. Greek and Roman demigods will be working together, visiting each other's camps all the time. It won't be the end of the world."

"What makes you so sure it won't actually be the end of the world? We might all be dead in a week."

Nico shook his head. "I don't buy that. Not anymore. Things tend to work themselves out, haven't you noticed?"

Reyna shot him an incredulous look. "Where's this coming from? You've had some really rotten luck."

"Not me," Nico hurriedly qualified. "No, people like you and me don't tend to have happy endings. But people like Percy and Jason?" He smiled bitterly. "The universe practically bends to their will. There might be some ups and downs- that's an understatement, I know- but they have happy endings. So, no, I'm not too worried."

It was an interesting way of looking at the world, Reyna supposed. She decided to go ahead and like Nico.

Author's Note:

Thanks for reading! Feel free to leave a review with a comment, question, or suggestion :)
Sort of a slow start, but I wanted to set up the foundation for the Nico/Reyna friendship. Don't worry, there will be plenty of action later!
As far as points of view go, there will definitely be Reyna, Nico, and Piper. I haven't decided on the rest, but all nine main characters will definitely have a part to play in the story.

PS. This is also posted to Archive of Our Own under the username WhatBusinessDoYouHaveOnMars