Most Reyna and Jason and Piper stories are about someone's heart getting put through the shredder, ocasionally one of them going %?&/ on the other, depending on the author's personal bias. Can't we just all hold hands and sing Kumbaya? I was thinking of that, and of why Jason and Reyna just fit each other more (because I believe that Jason and Piper were thrown together a bit like Percy and Rachel, to use a couple not many people like)... And, well, this. This will be OOC for Reyna because she is of action and beating some butt, not of words. But its the only way this will work, so work with me here.

Dedicated to: The people on the HoO Fanpop spot. You guys rock, and I'll get back to you guys as soon as I can!

Disclaimer: Me no own.

Four Years

She tried not to be mad. She really did. It wasn't anybody's fault that this whole mist-relationship had popped up. She really shouldn't be made at the girl giving her the tour. But some part of her kept shouting out that it wanted Jason to look at her like her memories told her he did. That it would be amazing if he slipped back into that Jason. It was selfish, it wasn't who he was, not even who she was as a matter of fact, but Piper had never said that she was proud of that part of her. She was mad at it too, which made about a million really good targets for archery practise, now.

She wasn't particularly thrilled when she had to get a tour from that girl, though. She already didn't trust this place- there's something about walking off a ship and getting a sword in your side, and your hands thrust behind your head that does that to one. And Reyna… Well, she didn't look like the most friendly and trustable person right now, and Piper was already plenty paranoiac.

She saw Jason leading Leo to the mess hall, Leo looking around and probably making Caesar Salad jokes.

"Skip the loose step!" Reyna yelled after him.

"When in the last four years have I forgotten that?" He yelled back at her, as Leo stepped onto a loose step and fell face first.

"When in the last four years have you forgotten where you were from either," Reyna mumbled under her breath.

"Four years?" Piper asked her as they rounded the corner.

"Yes," Reyna said. "It's how long I've known him for."

"That's a long time." Piper said.

"Hmm- maybe." Reyna said. "But it feels like nothing. And everything at the same time. I don't know how to say it; I guess I feel like he's just always been there. Like he's always been a part of my fighting style, a part of my battle routine to check on him, part of my day to scrimmage or lie under the stars with before I go to sleep, or wait for him at meals... But at the same time it never gets old to watch him scrimmage, land from a flight with his hair all windblown, pick the olives off his pizza, his scar curve when he smiles, or curse the dartboard…"

"Dartboard?" Piper wondered if that was a safe question to even ask. She'd found out that some things you just didn't want to know. Thalia had been a tree the same summer Percy was a Guinea pig and Grover nearly got married? That was something she shouldn't have asked, but if there was one way to learn in the demigod world; there was the hard way.

"He has horrible aim," Reyna clarified. "It's hilarious."

"I didn't even know he hated olives," Piper said. She didn't even know he had a problem with olives- screw his aim!

"He mans up when he's in new places or quests and eats whatever he gets. It's a reflex of 'in case there's no next meal'"

"Even at Camp, though." Piper said.

"He's a die-hard Roman of instincts," Reyna shrugged. "He knows in his mind that he's safe, but not in his gut."

"Sort-of like he knew about you," Piper said out loud. She froze and tensed up. "I'm sorry I shouldn't have-"

"Don't worry about it. I like to think that. But I'd also like to think love is more in the under-the-throat area than the gut." Reyna said. Piper laughed and Reyna smiled. Hmm, what do you know... Part of her was a 16 year old girl good for laughs too. There was always something under the armour. Jason had probably discovered that four years ago.

"But you still know him really well."

"Only four years," Reyna said. "But then again; in demigod years, you multiply by ten, so I suppose it's been a while. Especially when you're as close as we always were. Whether we knew it or not."

"Whether you knew it as opposed to..?" Piper was confused, but Reyna kept explaining.

"We hated each other." Reyna said.

"Hated each other?" Piper interrupted.

"He found me." Reyna said. "He was on a quest, and I'd just escaped from Blackbeard's ship. I was alone since my sister had stayed behind with the Amazons. I'd been smuggling my way from Seattle, police and monsters were after me... I was a bit of a wild child, for lack of a better word. I saw them before they saw me, and I attacked. What paranoia does to you when you see three guys in the woods with swords, I suppose. Now… Well, I can look back and appreciate that I didn't behead him."

"But if you hated him… And now you're both…" Piper was lost.

"Nobody gets it," Reyna said. "I'm not sure I get it. But I used to watch everything he'd do and hate it all. Then one day… I kind of just realised I watched it because I liked it. And our cohorts kept pinning us together for quests and jobs, so I guess they'd realised it too..." She looked lost in a corner of her mind that most people thought she was born without. The part that thought sweetly on boys and fed off of crushes and littler perfections and inperfections and side way smiles during serious moments. Then she turned to Piper.

"Admit it, he has a cute smile." Reyna said.

"Yeah," Piper said. "The scar." And for some reason that wasn't a bitter comment. She was caught by surprise by Reyna. She'd always thought of Reyna as the other girl. The Roman girl. Jason's girl. The old girl before her, that Jason was going back to.

It was looking at Reyna, and how she seemed to hold four years in the bottom of her palm and at the freshest spot in her mind that she realised who Reyna was. The girl who'd waited eight to nine months for him. The girl that had beat the odds and had thrown back the suitors and pretendors waiting for him to come home without knowing if and how he would. The girl who'd known him forever. The girl who would know him forever.

And maybe… Well, maybe four years were just worth more than four weeks of alterated school memories.