So someone asked me (numerous times) to write more Jason and Reyna. So this is the shortest and possibly pointless (although it kind-of has a punch...) one you will ever find, but it's to say 'I didn't forget!' (Katie Gardner I am looking at you) and because I still kind-of like it.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Pants on Fire
Maybe it's because he grew up in the fort of Camp Jupiter. And that any attempt to even try to lie was punished heavily and mercilessly no matter how old he was. Maybe it's just that his instincts are to take care of people and lying does not fit into that. Either way, Jason Grace cannot lie for his life.
Reyna, on the other hand, mastered it. From a young age she only had a big sister as parent/tutor, and big sisters are a merciless band of people one should avoid crossing. But it's Hylla, and she just had to do it every now and then, and so she lied herself in and out of stuff all the time. 'Yeah, Circe said I could come', and then going back to Circe, 'yes, Hylla said it was okay with her'. She's not a bad person, she doesn't lie left and right like certain children of Mercury, but she is good at it.
And then she was a captive on a pirate ship, and so what else do you do but lie? She coughed and moaned and pretended to be sick and weak. To keep her alive, she got bigger rations that she'd then share with Hylla. Bread with less mould, more water to pour into Hylla's cup. And when the two of them finally got their hands on weapons, she had to lie about that. Lying was the first part in her survival plan; although now she's an honest girl, she's learned better ways to defend herself, and she goes with the second part which is 'charge!'
But she's always ready to pull out whatever trick or plan she's got, because that's Reyna and how her brain slips into first mode, 'Survival' whenever there's danger. It makes her pretty terrifying to watch when she's fighting.
So when Gwen asks her if she likes Jason as much as he likes her, her self-preservation and survival skills kick in.
"No."