His favorite candies are sour patch kids. Sour on the outside, sweet on the inside. Just like her.
Before he met her, it had been swedish fish, sweet through and through. Life is sweet, they said. Savor it. But that was before he met her.
He had been puzzled by her behavior. She never smiled, laughed, or joked. Once, he had seen her smile. It was more like an upward twitching of her lips, but it was enough for him to decide she was like sour patch kids. And he was determined to get past the sour sugar.
Sour.
"Hi, my name is Jason!"
She gave him a blank stare and a nod, before going back to adjusting her armor.
A few more moments passed in an increasingly awkward silence, before he asks her name.
"Reyna." Is the answer, and then she's gone, leaving him alone with piles of armor and weapons.
He only realizes later that he doesn't know her last name.
"Hey, what's your last name?"
"Why do you want to know?"
"I'll tell you mine!"
"Why would I want to know that?"
"Uh, because!"
"I already know it, anyways."
"Nuh-uh!"
"Yeah, it's Grace."
"..."
Sweet.
"Ugh. How are you not tired?"
Reyna shrugged.
Lifting his head over the mountain of paperwork, he groaned before slamming his head into the table.
"I wouldn't do that. You don't have the brain cells to spare." Reyna said, lifting her eyebrow. Nonetheless, she handed him her hot chocolate.
Sighing, he took a gulp and picked up his pen.
Back to work.
Jason stared at the sky, panting.
They had won.
Where was Reyna?
His heart dropped as he saw a flash of purple and gold.
He raced towards it.
Reyna was limping towards the tents, a gash in her leg.
"Reyna!" He calls.
She turns towards him and smiles. An actual smile, one that lights up her whole face.
And then she falls to the ground.
Jason woke up on a bus.
You know this part, everyone does.
Gone.
When he walked into New Rome, something felt wrong.
Like their was someone he was supposed to meet.
To walk through New Rome with.
But it was not his Beauty Queen.
And Reyna watched from the sidelines, her mask cracking.
Just enough to show the hurt.
That was when everything exploded.
There was nothing but flames, shouting and screaming.
And he lost sight of the dark braid in a sea of chaos.
Sour.
Sweet.
Gone.
The war was won.
They had won.
And he had a dizzying sense of deja vu as he twisted his head back and forth, looking for something.
And everything came crashing back.
And he was there just in time to catch her.
To see the look that flashed through her dark eyes.
"I don't need your help."
She says.
And then her world goes black.