I just felt like doing this, don't ask me why. Just wanted to show Reyna and how she was struggling with expressing her feelings for Jason and Likewise for him.
Reyna might appear a little OOC, but that's because she needs to soften a little to fit the 'girlfriend' bit of the category.
They won't be an actual official couple yet though, because in SON, Reyna said given time they might have been, so yeah...What do you think?
Disclaimer: I don't own Camp Jupiter or anyone in them.
She didn't know what to do; Octavian was causing trouble for her at every turning. He was hounding her for an answer, waiting for her to stay speechless, thus extracting her consent.
He was close to succeeding right now. There was nowhere left for her to step. The election dates were just around the corner and knowing Octavian, he would probably make sure that all the odds were in his favor.
She couldn't afford any more mistakes. It wasn't as if she craved power, but she'd grown attached to her camp and wanted it to stay safe.
She didn't want a power blinded fool to lead her friends to their deaths. They were all family.
"Reyna!" Octavian said sharply, rapping his knuckles on the table, just like a school teacher disciplining disobedient children.
"Were you listening to what I said just now? I implore you to reconsider and issue a quest for the search of the Sibylline books.
Now that our own eagle is gone, I need very shred of evidence I can get to properly glean the will of the gods. We are getting weaker by the day, and most of our recent quests were drastic failures.
Without the books, I cannot accurately provide you with such information you require." His words were laced heavily with sarcasm and Reyna was unsure of how to reply.
Politely speaking, he was blaming her for every single misfortune that had befallen on the camp. He looked expectantly at her, knowing that he had almost won the battle.
If Reyna didn't find an answer for him soon, she would have to do as he asked. One of the unspoken rules of the Senate was that you couldn't keep silent for too long.
For a few seconds, it was fine. But, any longer than that, it would make her seem weak.
Her fellow praetor- who had been silent for most of the meeting- suddenly raised his hand, gesturing for silence.
The other senators were debating among themselves, whether or not to support Octavian, after all he needed a majority to win.
The room quieted down and everyone, including Reyna herself, looked expectantly at Jason. "Now Octavian, our resources are depleting and as you said yourself, our quests, as hard as I don't like to admit, are mostly failures.
What makes you think that this time we will succeed? A lot of resources will have to be pumped in just to fund this quest, and we do not even know where the books are!
It will be a wild goose chase. We will also need a lot of manpower and I cannot afford to send our best out and leave our camp virtually undefended.
An attack could come any time! As you know, the gods have withdrawn suddenly, there must be something wrong. Be rationale, you are Romans!
Now the matter is closed, we shall speak of this no further. Senate adjoined." After Jason had finished his long speech, many of the senators struggled to hide their smirks.
Everyone in room had suffered from Octavian for the past hour and was glad that someone other than the argur spoke.
Many of them shot up from their seats and hurriedly exited, probably thanking the gods that Jason had intervened.
Their backs were stiff, but they didn't want to give Octavian a chance at restarting the agreement again.
Octavian's face burned bright red as he turned around and hissed, "This is not over Grace!" Then, sweeping his cape almost majestically behind him, Octavian exited the Senate room.
Sighing with relief, Reyna said, "Gods, thank you Jason. I didn't know what to do there, he had me in a spot."
"No problem!" He replied bubbly, seemingly cheerful. Reyna felt hot, and her palms were tingling. She could almost feel herself blushing.
Stop, she told herself, you cannot show any emotion, Octavian will definitely make use of that. The silence between them was awkward as they stood staring at each other.
Reyna wasn't sure if she had imagined it but, did Jason look slightly disappointed? She didn't have a chance to confirm her suspicions, the look was already gone.
That was also one of the unwritten rules for those who accept the praetorship of Rome. They had to always set their emotions aside, for the Camp always came first.
"I guess I'll go back to my house then..." Jason said, pursing his lips.
"Sure, I need to go back to mine too." She replied as they walked out of the Pomeranian Line. Her arms tingles again and she could almost feel the heat radiating from Jason's skin.
The awkward silence settled in once more, and they just walked, glad to have something to focus on rather than stare at each other wondering what to say.
Reyna was never a person who could express her emotions easily, even when she was a child. She found it rather hard to believe what was happening.
The praetor's villa was quite a distance away from the main training area of camp and it was surrounded by lush greenery. One of perks of being a praetor.
The more she thought about it, the more she realised Jason actually looked cute when he was deep in though, the scar on his lip just emphasising it.
Argh! Stop, she though spoke to herself. She could feel something bad that was about to happen, and it would happen soon, a few months grace period was probably as long as they could have.
She could feel it, like there was an impending war just waiting for the right time to happen. Was it a sign from her mother? She didn't know, but she had to prepare herself.
They had reached the praetor's villa and the awkward silence had resumed once again. She was still thinking about the eerie suspicion about the war before Jason suddenly blurted.
"You know you look kind of sweet when you're scowling?"
"What?" she said, bewildered by his sudden confession.
"I.. Um.. I just think you kinda look cute?" He stammered, his face blushing red.
"I..." Jason continued, as if trying to search for a word to use.
In the end, he gave up. He stepped lightly forward and gave a swift kiss on the lips. It was warm and gave Reyna a fuzzy feeling inside, like she'd just downed 10 bottles of carbonated soda.
"I... just wanted to say hi."