Telenovelas

"But Carmen, I love you."

"We cannot be, Enrico. You know that as well as I do. They'll tear us apart."

"Carmen –!"

"I love you with all my heart, but I cannot do this."

It was a strange sight to see the most ADHD demigod he had ever met completely transfixed by the drama unfolding on the TV. It was an even stranger sight to see his fellow Praetor sitting there looking just as sucked in.

Then all the other weird stuff that had ever happened to Percy Jackson in the span of seventeen years came back to haunt him in the matter of seconds. And that's when he realized that the two completely different half-bloods sharing breathing space let alone liking the same telenovela? Well, that's not so strange at all.

Leo Valdez began muttering something under his breath, but Reyna shushed him without taking her eyes from the screen. It looked as if the two actors were dramatically looking at each other, as if they would never see each other again. The guy, whom Percy assumed was Enrico, was holding Carmen's face tenderly, as if he couldn't bear to see her leave.

"You cannot fight, even for me?"

"That's a big blow to Carmen's confidence. She hates feeling weak, especially after what happened with her dad and brother." Leo casually ran a hand through his hair. "She's gonna lose it."

Leo was right… sort of. Percy guessed Carmen didn't lose it in the way he had anticipated. Instead of going on a rampage, she began to cry.

"I don't want to do this to you! Why are you making this so hard for me? I have to let you go!"

"Because I don't want you go, Carmen! I can't live without you!"

"He's going to guilt trip her."

"I think he's going to propose," Reyna said thoughtfully, hand hovering over the bowl of jellybeans that was sitting between their laps. "Perhaps they'll elope?"

"Enrico!"

"You are the most beautiful person and I can't imagine my life without you. If you leave me, Carmen, I will die. You're the thing that makes my world bright. I need you with me! I can't bear to see you leave!"

"No, don't say these things."

"I need you in my life. Please say you'll stay."

"I… I can't."

Enrico's face seemed to fall for a second, before quickly hardening and looking back into Carmen's eyes.

"Don't you love me?!"

"I do, I do!" Carmen's mascara had gone runny, and it reminded Percy of gorgons for some reason. "But… my father has promised me to Fernando and I'm… I'm pregnant!"

Reyna dropped the two jellybeans she had just been about to eat as she gasped and put her hands over her mouth. Leo whistled lowly, shaking his head.

"Didn't see that one coming. Did you, Queenie?"

"Who's baby is it?! I mean, we all know about her and Enrico, but didn't she have that fling with Fernando because her father said? Oh gods, what if she's going to raise Enrico's baby as Fernando's?"

"Is it his?"

Enrico looked devastated, but it wasn't his face that it focused on for about five seconds. It was Carmen. She looked terrified, like the answer was having trouble coming out of her mouth.

"La próxima vez, sobre el Corazón de Oro…"

Characters that didn't look like Enrico or Carmen appeared on the screen, and a shriek of Latin, Spanish and Greek curses filled the air as Leo and Reyna made their anger known.

"Stupid cliff-hangers! I wanted to know if Enrico was still going to marry her!"

"Forget that, I wanted to see what his reaction was when she says it's Fernando's baby."

"It's not going to be Fernando's baby. It's most likely Enrico's."

"Yeah, still. She's going to lie about it, I'm telling you."

"Will not. Maybe she'll tell him the truth or say she'll die if she runs away!"

Reyna and Leo began to argue again, something that Percy was used to. Leo began moving animatedly, and Reyna's hardened expression made its reappearance. It had been nice to see them different than they usually were, but it was going to be easier to interrupt them when they were like their normal selves.

Or at least, as normal as he thought they were.

"Uh, hey guys." Reyna and Leo's heads snapped towards him, and Percy pretended he had just walked instead of being there for the past five or ten minutes. "Annabeth wants us to have a meeting in the board room. She said you guys were going over some war strategies or something?"

Leo looked rather flustered, but Reyna just said, "Yeah we were. I think we got rather carried away. We'll head up there now, shall we? Come on, Leo."

When they arrived in the room, Annabeth looked like she was ready to chew out Percy for taking so long to get them, but she must've taken his subtle shakes of the head and dropped the subject. He was so in for it afterwards. He could barely concentrate on what they were talking about. Not only was he fearing the Wrath of Annabeth, he was also trying to process what he had seen.

It wasn't the strangest thing he had ever seen, Leo and Reyna watching telenovelas without any pick-up lines or glares. But it was definitely up there.

That's why when Annabeth lectured him and asked him what the hell had happened ("I'm pretty sure you know as well as I do we don't have the time for this, Seaweed Brain! It doesn't take that long to navigate the Argo II!"), all Percy said was, "I know this sounds crazy, like something I would make up when I've drunk cordial or something, but I swear it happened."

Hello everyone!

It's been ages since I posted on here, welp. So, I'm back! Leo/Reyna are one of my new favourite ships from The Heroes of Olympus series, even if it isn't canon. I was supposed to write this ages ago, as a challenge which ninja-curry-girl also did (yes, I was the friend sending those texts, if you've read that), and this is my... well, challenge accepted, I guess. It's not my best work, but I think I'm rather happy with it, since it's supposed to be a joke and all.

I've got a few more Leo/Reyna stories up my sleeve, so I'll post them at a later date and after they're revised. Anyway, hoped you enjoyed and remember to review!

Tash x

Disclaimer: I don't own the Heroes of Olympus series.