Disclaimer: I don't own the Percy Jackson or Heroes of Olympus series, RR does.
(Little dictionary for Spanish in A/N at the end!)
A Remedy
And so, they'd defeated Gaea. They'd closed the Doors of Death. They'd saved Annabeth and Percy. They'd even given the child of the first prophecy a chance to repair what he'd destroyed and to apologize to whom he'd hurt. They'd come home safely and prevented the biggest demigod bloodshed since ancient times from happening. They were celebrating now. It didn't matter who was a Greek and who was a Roman anymore. One big, loud family. Yeah, maybe except for him. Cause no matter how many times they'd told him he was part of the gang, he'd always feel somewhat out. Especially when Apollo's kids decided to play a bunch of slow, lovey-dovey songs. Everybody paired, everybody looking in their loved-ones' eyes. Everyone but him. He didn't even have anybody to make fun of his friend's absent-minded gazes with, as every solo player'd disappeared in strange circumstances (damn you, Nico di Angelo!). So Leo Valdez walked alone in the dark forest, heading toward his little kingdom, Argo II, and his machine friends (at least they paid attention to him). He climbed the rope ladder and slowly approached Festus' head shining in the moon's light.
"Hey there, buddy..." Leo smiled humorlessly and petted the metal dragon. Festus answered him with a bunch of mechanical clicks and cracks. The boy puckered his eyebrows in confusion.
"What? There's somebody in the engine room? Are you sure?" Another portion of the dragon's screeches.
Leo sighed. "I guess I'll just check it out, huh?"
The inside of the ship was dark but Leo didn't bother to turn the lights on. He'd built Argo II and spent most of his recent life there, so he knew it's every corner. He moved deftly, not making any noise, listening to the expected sound of the intruder. He heard it when he reached the corridor that ended with the engine room's doors. Sobbing. Probably a girl. Who could it be? Leo approached the door and opened it slowly, praying to his father that they didn't make a sound. Of course, the old one didn't listen. Loud squeak made a figure Leo's eyes noticed in the dark jump up nervously. As far as he could see, Reyna's eyes were swollen and she was breathing rather desperately. What was she doing there? Was she the one to make that noise? Suddenly, Leo was hit with this situation's incongruity and he withdrew hastily.
"I'm sorry..." he mumbled, feeling himself getting even hotter (all da ladies luv Leo, right? Yeah...) from the embarrassment.
"NO!" Her unsteady cry made him froze in the place. He raised his head and looked at her. She drew out her hand in his direction with terror in her eyes.
"P-please... Please don't leave me alone..." she muttered, lowering her head and examining the floor. Leo swallowed, hesitating. Her eyes were somehow familiar to him, like he'd seen them before, like they were his. It felt as if she could feel what he had felt all this time, even surrendered by all this close-to-him people. Loneliness. Not having a place to come back to. Missing somebody who would understand. He closed the door and approached her slowly. She looked at him, pain not disappearing from her eyes.
"Ok... I'm not going anywhere..." Leo said softly and tried to make his smile look encouraging. Her eyes widened as they stood one step from each other in awkward silence. To Leo's surprise, she made that step and looked him in the eyes with pleading.
"Will you be with me tonight?" she whispered. Leo shivered as he understood what she really meant by that. Her gaze showed what she longed for in that moment. Intimacy. She needed someone to be close, somebody she could stop acting so tough in front of. And, he thought he was crazy, but he was going to give her that. He, on the other hand, needed to be needed. And she made him feel that way, right there, right grabbed her hand, his hot fingers against her cold and stiff ones, and moved to the door firmly. They traveled through Argo II, quickly reaching their destination. Leo looked at Reyna again, to confirm that this was what she wanted. She smiled at him weakly and squeezed his hand.
"I... This is my cabin, if it's..." he started feeling somehow nervous and his tongue wanted to prove it. "It's perfect" she assured him and waited as he opened the door with his shaky hand. They walked in and stood over neatly made bed (Leo hardly ever slept there, so he didn't have an occasion to destroy Annabeth's pedantry) in silence.
"Soo... If you already regret what you wan-"
"Leo. Look at me" she ordered and he caught her stare immediately. Nothing changed in her eyes. Still sad, still longing, still viewing him as a remedy. Leo stopped shaking and felt his own determination forming. He was going to make her feel better, no matter what the costs were. Even if it was going to break his heart afterwards.
"Alright..." he heard his own hoarse voice "Let's do this" He started shyly, grabbing the hem of her purple Camp Jupiter T-shirt tenderly and moving it up slowly. She shivered when his fingers dabbed her ice-cold skin, leaving awaited warmth behind. He tossed the cloth away and looked at her with enchantment in his eyes.
"Wow... I... You're just... Me Encantas..." were his last, mumbled words before she made him fall silent by kissing him, hard and greedily, pulling him close by his neck and looking for stability in his black ringlets.
Leo and Reyna. The mechanic and the praetor. A Greek and a Roman. Fire and ice. All got mixed and forgotten when they united in that small cabin. His proficient fingers travelling on her skin, mapping it's every piece and examining her curves. Her body imbibing his warmth and adhering to his in desire for more. Their broken pasts and sorrows finally uncovered, because both of them felt it was the right thing to do. Because they understood this sadness better than anybody else could. Because they both knew how it felt to feel like you're at the very bottom and have no one to raise you up. Hot kisses left and lustful snuffles filling the air. Sweat covering themselves when they caressed each other, both wanting to give the other one at least one moment of blissful oblivion. Speechless communication of two lost souls that had finally found each other. Exchange of soft touches, fight of agile muscles, hair pulls and squeezes of hands, harmony of his hard strokes and her smooth moves. And then, the final act of godssent, when they both felt like world could end in that moment and they wouldn't even care. They fell on the sheets, still joined and not wanting to split, panting and snuggling tightly into each other, feeling their burdens lifted and not so bothered by them for this little while.
X X X
Leo woke up, feeling that something was not how it'd used to be. He looked at his own chest and understood what it was immediately. Reyna slept calmly, her breath steady, cute, quiet snoring escaping her slightly parted lips. Leo smiled at the view but felt a sharp pain in his heart reminding him that this would be over soon. He knew it from the beginning, that he'd suffer when she wouldn't need him anymore, but... he had this little hope in the corner of his mind, that maybe how they had been last night could last longer?
"No, Valdez... She's not for somebody like you..." he sighed. Reyna breathed out restlessly and he fingered her almost undone braid.
"I'll miss you, belleza..." he whispered.
X X X
Reyna woke up, remembering the most beautiful dream she'd ever dreamt - a dream about finding somebody she needed for so long. She yawned and looked around, not recognizing her surroundings. She gasped when the truth got to her. It wasn't a dream. He'd really been there for her. But now he was gone, the only sign of his past presence being her folded clothes that were strewn around the room when she'd last seen them. Reyna stood up clumsily (so not like her normal self) and fell back immediately. She sat up and started doing her hair with her shaky hands. Tears falling from her eyes when something deep inside her kept saying: "Nobody wants to be close to someone so fucked-up like you, he not being an exception. You should've known that.". And she had, but it didn't stop her heart from breaking.
X X X
"Do you think we should talk to her?" Thalia heard Luke's whisper right next to her ear. They were sitting under one of the trees growing at the edge of training grounds, her laying comfortably on his chest, his back facing the tree.
"About what?" she asked lazily.
"About Leo!" he answered nervously.
"And what would you say to her?" she said, opening her eyes and looking up at him.
"Well... I don't know, you'd be better to talk with a girl!" he told her with a shy smile. She rolled her eyes.
"You're the one who made that comment to Leo, it's your job to talk to her" she said with a sweet smile. They'd met Leo some time ago, when he had been coming out of Argo II and going past Thalia's Pine Tree.
He'd looked as if something had troubled him, and stupid, blind Luke absolutely had had to ask: "Hey! Had fun with Reyna last night?", just because they'd been the only ones absent on the firework show the night before. And he'd hit the bull's eye, as Leo's hair had started burning when he'd tried to escape the blond, mumbling something about Jason needing him. The only question was, why had Leo looked like he was going to cry on the mention of the praetor's name? And why did Reyna look like something terribly sad had happened?
Thalia sighed. "All right, hero... I'll talk to her" Thalia started getting up but Luke's thank-you-hug stopped her.
"You don't even know how grateful I am" he said.
"All right, all right, Luke. And you'd better find out where Leo is in that time, 'kay?" He nodded fervently.
"NOW LET ME GO!"
Reyna looked at her soldiers training, not really paying attention to them at all. She tried to, but all that she could think of was Leo Valdez.
"Oh stop, act like nothing happened!" she mentally scolded herself.
"Hey! Have a minute?" She turned to see Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus, approaching her.
"Y-yeah... What's up?" she asked, double-checking her emotionless mask that was annoyingly lucid that day. Thalia stood next to her, observing other demigods for a while.
"Soo... You know the story about me and Luke, right?" she suddenly asked. Reyna puckered her eyebrows.
"Yes, I was there when you met him again after Argo II landed and saw the whole thing with Artemis... Like every other camper" she said, confused. Thalia laughed quietly.
"So we're famous, huh? And do you know why I fought so hard with my Lady for Luke? Why I forfeited my immortality to be with him?" she looked Reyna in the eyes. The praetor shook her head.
"Love, Reyna. It's worth opening your heart with all your weaknesses to the whole world. Why not make sacrifices if they can change our misery into happiness?" she smiled brightly.
"I... I still don't get what it has to do with me" Reyna mumbled, lowering her eyes. Thalia sighed.
"I'm just saying... Maybe it won't hurt to take that mask off and talk to Leo?" Reyna froze but Thalia kept talking "I don't know what happened but maybe weighting the difficulty of a honest talk could make you both feel better? At least..." Reyna looked at Thalia with widened eyes, like she couldn't believe something that simple would work.
"THALIA'S PINE TREE!" a call enchained the two's attention. Luke was running towards them, stopping in front of them with a visible difficulty to take a breath.
"That's... That's where Leo was last seen..." he finally gasped out. Reyna looked at Thalia with a desperate question in her eyes. The Hunter smiled.
"Go" she said. She and Luke - trying to stop his hyperventilation ("Being dead... doesn't help... with running abilities..!") - then watched as Reyna run to the camp's borders.
X X X
"Only a talk... Don't get your hopes up... Just a talk!" she kept reminding herself, running towards the mentioned tree. She noticed him sitting under it and stopped abruptly, sudden nervousness hitting her.
"Calm down, Reyna... Just a talk... It can't be that bad..." She took a deep breath and went out of the trees. Leo still hadn't notice her, as she quietly approached him. In his brown orbs, she saw the same pain she'd seen in her own eyes that morning. The seriousness of this look and the thought that she could be it's cause (was it a good or a bad thing?) scared her. She froze and started making a runaway-plan, but it was already too late. Leo raised his head, looking at her with a mash-up of fear, happiness and embarrassment. She took another deep breath and walked near him.
"May I... sit here?" she asked, her voice shaky. Leo's eyes widened.
"Y-yeah..! Of course..!" he moved to make a place for her, blush covering his face.
"Thanks..." she said, sitting down and hearing her heart race. They sat in awkward silence for a while until Reyna decided to make the sacrifice and start a talk.
"I... I..." she tried to make another sound but ended up staring at him with her mouth open. Leo turned his head and locked his gaze on her eyes.
"I don't want it to end like that" he started quietly, Reyna's pulse going past the safe limits a long time earlier "I know I'm nothing compared to you, but-"
"No. You're ideal" she broke his speech "You're... so ideal that I don't believe it could've happened to me" Leo looked at her with disbelief, Reyna not being able to fight back tears.
"I... I don't deserve you-"
"Not true" this time it was Leo who interrupted her heavily. She tried to notice his features behind the water's curtain and felt his warm hand touching her cheek.
"You're the strongest, the most clever and the most beautiful girl I've ever seen in my entire life, Reyna" he whispered, wiping her tears off "Soo... If you're even as gorgeous as to accept my little, not-so-glorious self..." She opened her mouth to protest, but he put his other hand's finger on her lips.
"Then please let me call you mi reina..." he grinned. She looked at him with amazement. Next thing Leo knew, she was kissing him. Actually, kissing, sobbing and making his T-shirt look even more messy by holding it and pulling him close, all at the same time. He smiled and kissed her back, making a note in his mind to never let her cry again. Maybe his jester side would finally come in handy?
ZJeM, 28.08.13
From author:
First, a little dictionary: "Me Encantas." comes from HecateA's ffic Fluency and means (if she and Google didn't trick me XD) "You amaze me.". Thank you, HecateA! :D Yup, I don't know any bit of Spanish, too bad for my Leyna stories. XD Oh, and, if I'm not wrong, "belleza"means "beauty" (both for term and person). And, classic for Leyna stories, "mi reina" = "my queen". :D
Also, I have to thank conniehdez for her Fire and Ice fic that made my love for this pairing bloom and was running through my mind while I was writing this piece. And the other ff writer I need to thank: Clichesbullet for her No real meaning. My story is somewhat similar to hers, only with a happy end. :D (I also adore her - Thatu on dA - PJO fanarts. ^^)
If anybody's still confused - yup, Thalia's a Hunter in that piece. That's the most genius solution for Thaluke I've come up with till now - Luke coming back on Argo II and apologizing, Thalia forgiving him and Artemis allowing her to stay a Hunter with Luke only for the price of her immortality. :D
A bit of self-congratulation - it's so cute! 3 Even though I've made it into drama at the end. sigh -_-' Fortunately, Leo's coolness saved the day, thx, Leo! XD And I even managed to put Thaluke into it! Wow, sometimes I'm such a good writer! Sometimes. ;P
And the song that played in my head almost all the time: Trying Not To Love You by Nickelback. And, at the end, the end of Don't Ever Let It End, also by Chad Kroeger & the guys!
RR, CAN YOU FEEL THE LEYNA (and Thaluke) MAGIC?! ;D
THANKS FOR READING! :D