The Difference Between Impossible and Improbable
Summary: Reyna doesn't understand Annabeth Chase, but she's starting to.
Pairing: Reyna/Annabeth, Reynabeth
A.N: HAPPY REYNABETH WEEK! Yes, this is the last of the pjo alternate ship weeks! If you want to participate in one, I suggest you get to doing Reynabeth-y stuff soon. Sorry that I've put off writing the last chapter of Poetry of Time and Space, I just don't want to part with it and it is planned to be the last chapter. I will doing Reynabeth stuff all of this week, and I have a longer piece that I'm working on, but after this week I will try to get to that last chapter.
HUNTERS OF DARKNESS: (I know that you're reading this) I don't think that I've ever given you a shout out, but you deserve one! Your reviews always make me feel so good and your compliments help keep me writing. Plus, your PM had me just sitting there blushing for a solid minute because it just made me feel so happy. I just wanted to let you know that I love you and that you're appreciated.
Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson, Heroes of Olympus, or the quote by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle belong to me. This laptop that I am currently tying on belongs to me. And this story was partially inspired by Clara's story -arc in Doctor Who: The Impossible Girl.
Warnings: Femslash, Smut, Poor Writing
Annabeth Chase is an impossibility. Reyna can't believe that she even exists. She's a daughter of Minerva, or Athena, whatever you want to call her, who's also a virgin goddess. Virgin goddesses don't have children, especially not amazingly talented and beautiful blonde ones. That doesn't happen. That shouldn't happen. Annabeth Chase is impossible. She shouldn't exist.
But she does.
Annabeth Chase is an oxymoron. Annabeth Chase is brave and intelligent, a genius really. She is somehow both rash and calculating at the same time. Willing to run head first into danger, like Jason, but always with a plan, like Reyna. Reyna doesn't understand how she balances those two personality traits. Reyna doesn't understand much about Annabeth. She's as adaptable as a Greek, but as unmoving and strong as a Roman. She seems like a Roman, but she is too Greek for that. She's so Greek, the fluidity and the culture that the Romans admired, but also the strength of the empire and the strategizing that kept it alive. Reyna doesn't understand how she can be everything at once.
Impossible
Annabeth Chase is a survivor. She fought off monsters when she was a small child with Jason's sister and the satyr and that traitorous Greek that no one ever mentions. She led quests through the labyrinth. She survived the titans' clutches, an entire war, Tartarus, and yet another war. Annabeth completed a mission that no child of Athena has ever even survived. Let alone completed successfully. Annabeth not only survived, she thrived. She found herself through suffering and loss, like a phoenix reborn from the ashes, stronger and wiser this time. It reminds Reyna a bit of herself, but when Reyna says that she's been through hell she doesn't mean it literally.
Even as a proven enigma, Annabeth Chase is still surprising. After the war, she and Percy Jackson, her long-term boyfriend, go their separate ways on good terms and she stays at Camp Jupiter. That is almost as unbelievable as the rest: breaking up with Percy Jackson? The Greek's war hero? Though Reyna thought he was a bit of an idiot, the boy was attractive and certainly the most sought-after male at Camp Half-blood. And uprooting herself? Reyna knows that Camp Half-blood must have been Annabeth's home as much as Camp Jupiter is Reyna's.
Annabeth comes as an ambassador, to keep up good relations, but it still doesn't make sense. Annabeth never made sense to Reyna, but she made less sense in that moment than in the rest combined.
Annabeth Chase is also undeniably sexy, which, admittedly, is less surprising than the rest. With her beautiful golden hair, calculating stormy eyes, confident smirk and toned body, Annabeth Chase is anyone's dream come true. Reyna thinks that she looks much better in purple than orange, but maybe that's just the possessive part of her brain running amuck. As the two spar, Annabeth sends her that confident smirk and Reyna's more determined than ever to beat her, though when she ends up pinned for the first time in two years, she finds Annabeth smirking above her with her dagger to Reyna's throat sexier than it has any right to be and she makes a decision. Annabeth Chase might be impossible, but Reyna is going to make her hers. And some way or another, she is going to figure her out.
The thing that she is most determined to figure out isn't exactly an easy question to ask. How does one politely ask, "Why exactly do you stay at Camp Jupiter?" without sounded a. paranoid b. invasive c. insulting or d. all of the above. Reyna may have tact in political situations, but she's never been all that great with feelings. She has never been able to spit out the way that she felt about Jason when she had the opportunity, and when she tries to subtly flirt with Percy in order to coerce him into the praetor's toga, she hasn't exactly been able to pull off the subtle part. She knew that she had been about as subtle as a drunken Roman legion marching off to war, so this time she doesn't even attempt to be tactful.
"Why exactly do you stay at Camp Jupiter?" she asks the girl in the bathhouse one day after sparring.
"Oh," says Annabeth evasively, "you know, the architecture is amazing." Reyna doesn't think that is enough information, and she's already prying, so a little more won't hurt, right?
"I know it's more than just for the architecture," Reyna says, more gently than she'd expected.
Annabeth doesn't meet her eyes, which is strange. Annabeth normally seems so confident, though Reyna knows all too well that at least some of it was a façade. She has heard Annabeth speak of her travels and occasionally even her feelings. Reyna knows that Annabeth is broken too, but then again, they all are.
"It's stupid," Annabeth mutters, clearly hoping that Reyna will let the subject lie. Normally, Reyna would respect her boundaries, but clearly Annabeth is going to be talking to anyone else about this. It's unhealthy to bottle everything up, as Reyna knows well.
"Annabeth," she says, not faltering in her determination.
"It hurts there," Annabeth says, her voice cracking, "It's a constant reminder of everyone I've lost: Luke, Piper, and so many others. Everyone seems to wear their sadness as clothing. It's like dropping salt into an open wound the entire time. I just couldn't wallow in it anymore. I had to get away." Reyna wonders if that's the reason that Jason stayed at Camp Half-blood.
Reyna considers asking about Percy, but she thinks better of it. She's already pried enough. The Roman's not sure where the steam is rising from because they are literally the only ones currently in the bathhouse, but the room is steamy. She bites her lip, and wonders if she pushed too far.
"And," Annabeth says, "it has some perks."
Reyna raised an eyebrow in response, "Like?" And she secretly hopes that Annabeth will say you, or something else terribly cheesy.
And then Annabeth says, "You." Reyna smiles at her, a genuine smile and she lets out a small laugh. It is just as cheesy as Reyna expected, but it somehow just works. Don't ask Reyna why, because she couldn't tell you.
Annabeth kisses her in the bathhouse and Reyna kisses back with the force of all her pent-up confusion and the unresolved tension and mystery. The kiss feels like pop-rocks popping on her lips and all over her skin, a pleasant tingling spreading across her skin. Like the sound of wood crackling within a flame, electrifying but also warming, comforting. She continues to wonder how Annabeth could choose her and this life over Percy. She hears herself mutter impossible, under her breath.
Annabeth breaks the kiss for a moment and says, "Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth."
"Quoting Sherlock Holmes' is distinctly unsexy," Reyna says with a small pout, but she continues, "it's impossible to make it so."
"Nothing's impossible for a demigod," she says, shrugging.
"No," Reyna says, "not every demigod. Just you. Nothing's impossible for you." Reyna crashes her lips onto Annabeth's. Annabeth tastes like strawberry bubble gum and faintly of minty toothpaste and it's heavenly. Their lips move against each other like they're at war, the Greek and Roman that they are. Fighting over culture and military tactics and which is better but all Reyna can feel is her own personal need building. As Annabeth pushes harder against her in their standing position, Reyna knows that they need to move. She needs to move and she needs more. Now.
She grabs Annabeth by the waist and walks a few feet forwards. Reyna pins her to a wall of the bathhouse and gently unbuttons Annabeth's shorts. Annabeth lets out a moan and Reyna takes that as incentive to proceed. She slides her fingers into Annabeth's underpants and slips the tips inside of Annabeth. She's already wet, and Reyna makes circular motions. The Roman increases the pressure as she feels Annabeth thrusting onto them, and heightening the passion of the kiss. She can feel Annabeth's cool unraveling, the mystery fading away and unraveling like a frazzled old scarf. She can feel Annabeth moaning around her kiss and she pushes her fingers harder against Annabeth. She lets out a groan of pleasure and Reyna feels Annabeth's muscles constricting around her fingers.
Annabeth sighs in relief and continues the kiss, gracefully moving her fingers into Reyna's shorts where she starts to return the favor. Reyna has no idea how much she needed until Annabeth's fingers slide inside of her, rubbing against her in circles and causing her feelings to intensify. It feels so good but she needs more.
She digs her fingers into Annabeth's hair and whispers, "Faster." She supposes that it sounded more like the rasped cry of water by a man dying of thirst, but it got her message across. The speed of Annabeth's circles increases, and she can feel herself going faster and faster, over the edge. The brink is approaching and she bites her lip to keep the scream in as Annabeth sends her over the edge. She feeling of pleasure courses through her lower regions as her climax consumes her.
Annabeth smiles to her, her eyes glazed over, both their underwear soaking wet, "You look good like this, all debauched. It's nice to see you let lose, not so composed."
"You know," Reyna says, "I could say the same for you."
"Yeah, we're going to do this again," Annabeth says, not phrasing it like a question, but a statement. If it had been anyone else, Reyna might have protested solely for that reason, but for some reason, when it's Annabeth, Reyna doesn't mind.
"Of course," Reyna replies with a light smirk on her face, "I haven't figured out all your secrets yet." Annabeth laughs in response. Reyna wonders if she hasn't started to figure out this mystery she calls Annabeth Chase. Or maybe, just maybe, she wasn't quite that mysterious to begin with. Maybe Annabeth was just interesting in her own right, regardless of her improbablity.
"Improbable," Reyna thinks, "not impossible." Reyna finds herself enjoying it even more now that the mystery's been stripped away (at least a bit) and they're just Annabeth and Reyna. Just two girls who might end up making this work.