This is the seventh out of seven oneshots I have for Aro Spec Awareness Week.
It was night, on the beach of Camp Half-blood. Nico and Reyna were sitting next to each other, talking.
"I had a crush on Percy for the longest time," Nico admitted.
"Yeah," Reyna said, who had already picked that up when she had seen some of his memories. "You're not the only one."
"You too?"
"I don't know." She paused, thinking over her thoughts. "For a time, I thought so, but I'm not so sure anymore."
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"Just that. I think I was trying to rebel against what Aphrodite told me. I didn't want to accept that I would never find the love of my life or whatever, so I didn't. But looking back, I don't think I felt anything romantic for him. I'm not sure if I've ever felt romantic feelings for anyone. I think I might be aromantic," Reyna admitted, knowing that there was no one else in the world she would be this vulnerable to.
"Don't look so ashamed of it."
"What?" She didn't look ashamed. She had good control over her expressions and body language, and she was not letting that emotion leak through. She did not look ashamed. But maybe Nico knew her better than she realized.
"Do you know that there are other aromantic people in this camp?"
"Really?" She knew aromanticism was relatively uncommon, so she hadn't expected to ever knowingly meet an aro.
"Yeah." He smiled bitterly. "I wasn't the only kid who different and isolated in this camp."
"They feel like that?" Reyna asked, concerned.
"I don't know about everyone. I only know Lacy. She's the daughter of Aphrodite."
"Oh." Because what could be harder for someone who didn't fall in love than being the child of the goddess of love?
"Yeah. A few weeks ago, the Aphrodite cabin tried setting me up with uh, a girl from Demeter's cabin I think? Anyway, I said I wasn't interested in girls, and Lacy said she wasn't interested in anybody."
"So you bonded over your shared hatred of heteronormativity?" Reyna teased.
"Pretty much," Nico said, smiling a little.
"I don't want anyone to feel alone like that," she said suddenly. "I can't help every person, some people have to find their own place, but I could do something. Like maybe set up a club for aros so they don't feel alone in this camp where everybody is dating someone else."
"That's a good idea. You should set up fliers."
"Can I even do that? I'm just a visitor here."
"It doesn't have to be official. Just something that says if you're aromantic, meet here at this time."
"Okay. I'll do that," Reyna decided.
...
The next evening, Reyna sat, again, by the ocean, waiting for people to show up.
"Hey there," Thalia said, as she settled herself next to the Praetor.
"What are you doing here? I thought the Hunters were still in Texas."
"We finished that hunt. I dropped by here to visit, and I saw the fliers and fit the description, so I thought why not?"
Someone (maybe from Athena's cabin?) appeared, a little uncertain. "This is the aromantic meet, right?"
"Yeah." Reyna gestured to a spot on one side of her in invitation. He sat.
Will and Cecil showed up soon after. "Is this the aro gathering?" the latter asked.
As Reyna nodded, Will said, "We're going to need a better name than that. What about the Quiver? Because we're all aros. Like bow and arrows. Get it?"
Cecil rolled his eyes. "Of course you would chose an archery related pun."
"Are you trying to imply something?" Will asked, mock offended.
"We should wait until everyone shows up before deciding anything," Reyna told them.
"Who else is coming?"
"I don't know-" she started when Gwen, quickly followed by someone from the Aphrodite cabin (Lacy perhaps?), arrived.
"There's a lot more people here than I expected," Reyna said to Thalia.
"I bet this isn't even half of all the aros here," she responded. "But lots of them probably don't even know that they're aro. When are you going to begin the meeting?
"Well, it's seven," Reyna answered looking at her watch. "I think we can start now."
"Wait! Sorry I'm late!" Leo ran onto their part of the beach, panting heavily. "I was working on this new machine and then I lost track of time..."
"What are you doing here? Don't you have a girlfriend?" Cecil asked.
Leo glared at him. "Did I say Calypso was my girlfriend? Did you ever hear me state that I romantically loved her? No. Because I don't. So stop assuming things. Also, the flier did say spectrum so even if we were romantically together, that wouldn't mean anything."
"Oh. Sorry," Cecil said sheepishly with a hint of indignance. "I was just curious."
Reyna stood up, ending their conversation. "Hello. Welcome to this gathering of aromantic spectrum people."
"The Quiver," Will interrupted.
"We didn't agree on that!" Cecil protested.
"Shut up!" Thalia hissed at them.
"Anyway, I know most of you know each other, but we should introduce ourselves first because not everyone knows everybody. I'm Reyna RamÃrez-Arellano, the Praetor of New Rome, daughter of Bellona, the Roman goddess of war." She sat back down.
"I'm Thalia, the lieutenant of the Hunters of Artemis and daughter of Zeus."
"Are all the hunters aro ace?" Leo asked. "Because that would be pretty cool and a great pun."
"Some of them are, but not everybody. A lot are one but not the other. Like I'm aromantic and pansexual."
"Okay. I'm Leo Valdez, son of Hephaestus. You may know me as that guy who flew a mechanical dragon at Gaia and shot fire at her."
"I'm Malcolm, son of Athena, and second in command of the cabin."
"My name is Gwendolyn, but you can call me Gwen. I'm a Roman demigod, retired from the Fifth Cohort. I was here to write a paper comparing Greek and Roman culture for my college history class, and I saw the flier," she explained. Malcolm looked interested in the paper, but said nothing.
"I'm Cecil, son of Hermes and WTFromantic."
"Me too!" Thalia exclaimed, "Though I prefer the term quoiromantic. It sounds more serious."
Possibly-Lacy raised her hand. "Um, sorry, I don't mean to be ignorant, but what does that mean?"
"Don't worry," Reyna said. "We shouldn't expect everyone to know everything, we're here to learn too."
"For me, it means that I can't tell if I'm feeling romantic or platonic attraction so I don't really know where to place myself," Thalia said.
"It's more confusing and complicated than that for me," Cecil added. "That's why I use WTFromantic. Because it really describes how I feel about the whole thing."
"I'm Will Solace," he said, after it was clear the others were done speaking. "I'm head of the Apollo cabin and aro-flux. That means my feelings for someone might shift between romantic and platonic and odd combinations of the two."
"And I'm Lacy, daughter of Aphrodite."
"That can't be fun," Cecil said, as Thalia muttered, "Yikes."
"Yeah," she smiled shyly. "It's tough at times, but I like romance, I just don't feel it."
"I would probably die. I'm pretty romance repulsed," Gwen admitted
"I'm more like Lacy," Malcolm said. "I like it in fiction, but I don't really get it."
"I understand it in theory," Lacy said thoughtfully, "and I've seen movies and stuff, but I don't actually know how it feels like to fall in love.
Leo looked at Will. "Hey, what is it like?"
Will shrugged. "I'm pretty sure my experience isn't the same as most people's. And right now I'm feeling pretty aro. So, like, I remember getting it, but I don't actually get it right now either. But I guess it's more floaty than platonic feelings? And louder too. Platonic feelings are like 'Hey, I strongly exist,' but romantic feelings are like 'Pay attention to me! Think about me!' If that makes sense."
"That's interesting," Gwen said. Everyone was quiet for a moment; no one had any comments to add, and so did not speak, leaving them in a short awkward silence that was broken by Reyna.
"Do you want this meet up to be a regular thing?" she asked the group. Everybody quickly answered affirmatively.
"It's a needed break from the romance that constantly surrounds me," Lacy added.
"We haven't been here for a long time but I know that this is the only place where this part of me can be understood," Malcolm said.
The others nodded and made sounds of agreement.
"How often then? I can't come here on a weekly basis, and I doubt Reyna and Gwen could either," Thalia pointed out.
"But a month would be too long. I don't want to wait that much," Cecil said, and many of the others from Camp Halfblood agreed.
"Maybe every two weeks?" Will suggested.
"Or we could not have a schedule but just decide on a time that would be convenient for everyone for the next meeting," Leo proposed.
"But when are our lives that predictable?" Cecil argued.
"He has a point," Thalia said.
"What if we do have a weekly meeting?" Gwen wondered. "But we don't expect everyone to show up every time. Maybe the first meeting of the month we could all gather, but then the rest of the time, it's just whoever can make it? There will be different people each time, but it's interesting that way."
To Reyna, that seemed like a decent idea. "Are there any objections to that?" There were none.
"So then what about a name?" Will asked. "I vote we go with Quiver of Aros."
Thalia laughed. "I second the notion."
"I am more than fine with a punny name," Leo grinned.
"If everybody likes it..." Reyna trailed off. No one disagreed, though Cecil did roll his eyes. "I guess we can call ourselves that."
"Sweet!" Cecil exclaimed.
"Then I guess this club is official," Reyna said, feeling more than a little proud at making a safe place for the other demigods.