Disclaimer: I don't own PJO nor HoO, they are the beautiful children of Rick Riordan.
CHAPTER 2
She hadn't known keeping her word would have been so easy and so impossible at the same time.
It was simple because her object of observation seemed to magically appear wherever she went and was near even when she didn't move a step from the Principia or her villa. There was just no day that she wouldn't come across him.
What was difficult about her task were Leo's female... acquaintances. Moreover, they were all her Roman soldiers. Their behavior, however, made her doubt her subordinates' parentage time and time again.
First time she'd met him and one of them together was as soon as after the welcoming dinner in honor of Camp Jupiter's Greek guests. She was walking out of the dining pavilion, her chin high and her fearsome dog automatons pacing next to her legs, when she heard a muffled giggle just around the corner. Of course, that wasn't enough of a reason to catch her attention for longer than a few seconds, so she almost ignored that and walked away, when suddenly a following sound stopped her in her tracks.
"Your supervisors wouldn't like what I'm doing..." a familiar, mischievous voice murmured, dripping with indecent insinuations that should have had no place in public life of anybody. "But you know, baby..?" Another giggle, that time sounding a little deeper, almost concealing a sigh, resounded in the air. "This has never stopped me before..." the tone of the low almost-whisper the line was said in made her feel an unfamiliar thrill in the small of her back, something like tickling the softest, most sensitive flesh with clouds of hot steam. And Reyna hated her body's reactions which appearance she didn't understand. That show had to be stopped, right then.
"Leo, what-" she swallowed back a curse that almost made its way up her throat "What are you doing?" she spat out in a dangerously quiet voice, coming straight into a scene violently disgracing Rome's esteemed name. Her narrowed eyes met completely chickened-out, blue orbs and blond waves of unnaturally messy hair belonging to Tracy of 3rd Cohort, who was being pinned to a wall by Valdez' strong arms on the both sides of her soldier's head. If anybody still had doubts, that wasn't a common sight among Camp Jupiter troops.
The said guy only chuckled, a sharp sound of arrogant self-satisfaction that annoyed her almost for her to reach her breaking point. Instead of losing her cool and dealing with him in a way that wasn't matching for a Roman praetor, however, she kept her composure and froze Tracy with her stare. "We... Me..." the girl stuttered, her face in the color of parchment just mere seconds earlier switching into crimson red faster than traffic lights.
"We were tightening the bond between our camps" Leo interrupted, the mocking smirk on his lips seeming to actually want to try and make Reyna run out of her patience which resources were already dangerously weakened. The praetor sighed a quick, shallow breath and turned her attention to the Greek. Aurum and Argentum started circling around her, sensing their owner's annoyance.
"If you really do want it so badly, find a better place" she said slowly but in a form of an order, not breaking their eye contact despite having trouble maintaining her calm. Leo's grin widened when he made a strange movement with his upper body and arms that was probably supposed to look like an old-style bow.
"Yes, ma'am!" he exclaimed rakishly before Reyna suppressed the urge to roll her eyes, turned around in one harsh motion and resumed the walk to her villa.
Pacing forward, she took her time to think the situation she had just taken part in through. Just what Jason found unusual about Leo, she wondered? To her, he seemed the same he had been all those times earlier when she had met him: brisk, loud and flirty, with love of bad jokes and overly dramatic behavior... True, his contacts with girls she had witnessed had been slightly different than the one she'd just seen but wasn't Leo allowed to try out new ways of doing things? Maybe his best friend was just overreacting..?
Something stung in her heart but she quickly waved that sensation off, focusing on the mere concept of what it'd brought. Reyna herself knew all too well how it felt to grow further apart from the person one found the closest, she'd experienced that feeling not only with him, with Hylla too... Maybe Jason was just afraid of not being able to understand Leo anymore and losing him, in the end? If so, then there was nothing really wrong with the son of Hephaestus himself.
However, her theory still needed to be checked and proven right or been found complete nonsense. Whether she liked that or not, she'd have kept Leo under her close watch, and he'd better didn't try to play any tricks like the one with Tracy. Be it Jason's friend or not, she wouldn't tolerate anything that Camp Jupiter's bylaw said had to be punished.
X X X
A few days had gone by without any interruptions. The Greeks were having their sweet free time at Camp Jupiter, spending time with their friends or just wandering alone through the streets of New Rome, tending to their relationships and maintaining the calm of their minds. No drama, arguments or conflicts she had to solve.
Perfect.
Reyna leant back on her swivel chair, yawning and stretching her weary muscles bit by bit, from the tips of her toes to the tenseness in her nape. Aurum and Argentum were quietly keeping watch at the both sides of her desk and no unwanted sound (like shooting at her home or fighting giants, which had both happened in the past) was disturbing her peace. The stock of the done papers on her right was already significantly larger than the to do one on her left and she was just considering going to the baths when she was finished, as it appeared it would be one of the rare evenings when she wouldn't have to work. Just several minutes and she'd have been able to get rid of her toga (clearly not the most comfortable thing to wear there was), her bowl of jelly beans was still almost full and she hadn't seen Octavian the whole afternoon...
In such moments, she really thought her job was the best one could get.
She wanted to return to her task to have it done soon and let herself get the relax she deserved, when a strange sound caught her attention, something like a stock of heavy objects falling onto the ground. She frowned, standing up swiftly, her warrior instincts getting the better of her. She was sure there was nobody else beside her in the Principia at the time... "Let's go" she told her dogs shortly and the three walked out of the praetor's office to check just what was going on.
They paced noiselessly through one of the marble corridors, their threefold alert senses looking out for any signs of intruders. The setting sun painted the white walls in orange and red and everything seemed completely normal until Argentum suddenly lifted his head fiercely, locating the probable source of the sound from earlier. Confusion painted over Reyna's face when she heard that too.
Panting?
Instinctively, she slowly took out the Imperial Gold dagger she never left behind, the blade glistening in the last rays of the star falling asleep, the praetor listening out for further data as she and her dogs slowly approached their target, her hand clutching the weapon hard. Step by step, deft motions in complete silence, she sneaked closer to the disturbing unknown that had to be put under thorough examination until she decided if it was to be taken care of on spot or could be left untouched... for then... The odd sounds from earlier didn't stop and kept adding new tones to the strange melody that made Reyna's frown deepen with every second of her fragile operation.
When she heard a desperate muffled moan and an all-too-known, throaty chortle as it's follower, something told her that she finally knew what the hell had been messing up with the precious calm of her camp. What or who, to be exact... She took a deep breath and hoped she would still have at least as much patience as to not slash the throat of that guy open the second she took his personage in her sight...
She reached the ajar door to one of the many storerooms in the Principia and walked in without a second thought. The darkness of the room was being lightened only by the thin streak of sun she'd left behind and her dogs' glowing ruby automaton eyes.
"Ah!" Reyna felt a spark of slowly yet steadily growing anger run through her spine when the particularly loud whine made its way out of the disgusting mixture of whimpers, short, quick breaths, hands pawing parts of the bodies one shouldn't even think about in such places and mouths... - she tried to swallow but the dryness on her tongue made that impossible - mouths doing things to one another...
"Do you want me to use it..?" her breath hitched when she heard him mutter the words, her head jerking into the direction the strangely choked, intriguing (she hated to have to acknowledge that) sound came from. Once again she was surprised to find the unfamiliar thrill tease the nerves of her back, but this time, she also found it more difficult to take in a deep, decent breath out of a sudden. Why that was, she still had no idea, but she knew one thing for sure: he had to be stopped before she completely lost understanding of her own body and it's weird reactions. "Everybody keeps saying how dexterous my hands are..." the mumble similar to the one from earlier had snapped her out of the weird trance its sister had caused her mind to sail toward.
She walked into an alley of shelves for all types of unused things, like old documents or broken equipment waiting for the day somebody took them to the children of Vulcan, having left her automatons by the door, to keep watch or just out of habit, she didn't care to decide. Him and her still hadn't noticed her presence (what a disgrace to their reputation as soldiers!), even though she didn't particularly try to conceal her presence interrupting their... Ugh.
She could hear pulse pounding in her ears (why was that?) when she was coming to the darkest corner (of course) the sounds she wanted to put an irreversible end to came from. Just a few more steps... The Imperial Gold dagger glistened in contact with a lost golden gleam...
"What did I tell you, Leo?" Reyna snarled viciously, like a predator that has found it's prey. Judging from the look on Samantha's face, the soldier of 4th Cohort didn't find the current situation that much off that description. Her emerald orbs had immediately locked themselves with the stern look in Reyna's pitch-black eyes, the girl seeming to be pleading for mercy. Well, if her shirt had still been on and her hands had been somewhere else other than inside Leo Valdez' pants, maybe the praetor would have considered easing up on the punishment that was sure as Pluto going to come... But wait, Reyna's eyes narrowed slightly, wasn't that Tracy the first time..?
Her eyes snapped to the Greek when her sight caught a movement of him turning to face her. It was much easier to focus on him, at least, because his frame covered petite Roman girl's one almost whole, trapping her between the wall and his... (Reyna had to blink a few times to clear her mind, that was apparently clouding from anger...) Well, his body...
Her breath caught strangely in her throat when she fully took his personage in her eyes... His jeans hung low on his sharp hip bones and his chest was hugged tightly by the black undershirt he was wearing, revealing the curves of the strong, dusky arm muscles, oddly highlighted by the shadows ruling over the place. But it wasn't just that that caused her to react so queerly.
His eyebrows were drawn together and nervousness he wasn't able to conceal that time shone in his orbs, his features asking for her not to be too harsh on her judgment and maybe she would have even showed them mercy but what was happening with his mouth... She didn't anyhow get why a single condom sticking from his teeth drove her body's bizarre reactions over the edge (mouth dry, breath quickened, palms sweating) and the fear that came from the lack of understanding caused her to snap.
"I was asking, what did I tell you, Leo?!" she growled, her fingers clutching the dagger to the point of the pressure causing pain. Good, maybe it would be enough to cool the damn fever down... Samantha's palms quickly left their previous destination and Leo pulled his pants up to their original placement. The girl reached desperately for her shirt crumpled on the floor, her hands shaking, and tried to cover her chest with the piece of cloth, not being able to look her praetor in the eye. Ha, as if that was supposed to help them! Not when they'd already crossed the Rubicon...
All of that Reyna saw out the corner of her eye as not only she still had her eyes fastened on the rubber, her lids squeezed so tightly from the irrepressible anger that she was afraid they would close completely. "Oh" Leo muttered, taking the irritant black square away from her sight. Well, that was certainly an extenuating circumstance. However calming that was, that didn't mean his sorry butt was suddenly safe and sound, did it?
The one to try to defend the two was Leo, how gentlemanly of him. "I... Look, I'm sorry" he began, forcing a nervous smile but not breaking their eye contact despite her intimidating stare. "I remember what you told me but... I didn't think there'd be anyone here at this hour, we just-"
"For your information, saying a better place, I meant not a public place" Reyna snarled, interrupting his defensive speech and making Samantha jump up in surprise, terror or a mix of them both. Once again, the praetor froze the girl with her stare. If she did nothing to make her own situation any better, it would have been expected of her not to disturb Leo's desperate attempts. The soldier literally hid behind her would-be (at least when it came to that time and place) lover, sticking only her eyes out from above his shoulder.
"Understood, Miss Praetor" it seemed Leo was becoming to feel safer now than a few moments earlier, as the smile on his face widened and his stiff form relaxed. Not that she was paying special attention to his body whatsoever, it was only natural for a well-behaved Roman like herself not to take her eyes off the whole of the opponent.
"And you think that is going to be enough to avoid punishment..?" she pronounced dangerously quiet, lifting her chin a bit out of habit and exposing the dagger in silent threat. Leo's eyes left hers for a moment to examine the weapon, then came back. He gulped loudly.
"No, of course not" he muttered uncertainly, however still standing her glare. "You're too hardcore to just let us go like that, aren't you? The best leader Camp Jupiter could get" he smiled weakly, while her eyes narrowed more with every word. Was he trying to buy his way out with compliments?!
"Thank you. This is not going to affect my judgment, of course" Reyna replied coolly. What was she going to do with the two..? Samantha wasn't even seen at all at the moment, hiding behind Leo and disgracing her Roman honor. The praetor clicked her tongue quietly in annoyance. Why was that the camp had been completely fine just a few days ago, but it had taken only one Leo Valdez and his charm to destroy any balance she'd been doing so well to maintain..?
"Reyna..." she heard a soft whisper that, she had to admit with surprise, belonged to Leo. She sighed deeply and returned her attention to him. Her eyebrows travelled up despite the efforts to keep a straight face at the sight of the seriousness of the look in his dark-chocolate brown eyes. "Please spare her, I mean..." he tried calmly, and the tone of his voice was (she didn't want to admit it, but couldn't deny the ugly truth), strangely, loosening up the tense muscles of her back... No, she mentally slapped herself, don't let any sweet talk get to you! "Sam is going to take part in the preparations for the official meeting between representatives of both camps, please let her go. Please punish me, Jason and Piper are going to be fine on their own" Leo finished, determination shining in his orbs.
She felt bizarre warmth fill her chest, a sensation she hadn't felt for... Something told her it was seven years, but why exactly that many..? She didn't understand that feeling, didn't get where it was coming from. It was mere seconds later that her stomach clenched in anxiousness, she tried to swallow, but found nothing in her dry mouth. Reyna cleared her throat and slowly hid her dagger, deciding she was going to finish tending to that matter, if it was because she had finally found a solution or... to get away from those weird things she was feeling..? No difference.
"Fine, I'll let Samantha go" she announced smoothly, making Leo jump up a little and his face light up in surprise - so he hadn't actually been expecting her to agree? She was curious of his reaction to the following words, then. "You too, Leo. I'm not going to punish only one of you when the delinquency was the job of two" she added, watching his eyes widen and hearing a deep exhale coming from behind his back. "Just don't you dare do that ever again, then there will surely be consequences and I'm not known for forgetfulness" she growled one last time, treating the Latino with the hardest stare she could manage and making him nod hurriedly a few times. She turned to the side and was preparing for a leave when his response stopped her in her tracks.
"I'd jump up and hug you but that's definitely throwing me into a torture chamber, right?" Leo called after her, having regained some of the usual cheerfulness of his tone. Unruly he truly was, but she didn't have it in herself to call him bad.
Reyna smirked and replied, not turning around anymore "Yes, that's not the best idea" And she walked back to where Aurum and Argentum had been keeping watch, aiming back for her office and the paperwork that was yet to be done, hopefully, with no more interruptions.
Had she known just how Leo would show his bad boy side the next time, she would have never kept her eyes off him.
ZJeM, 18.04-14.08.14
From author:
Ba-dum! A cliffhanger! ;)
Leo's outfit from the time with Samantha was copied from a scene from "Teen Wolf". Because Tyler Posey's just too damn hot to resist.
And the condom thing... I dunno, this sight in my head was such a weirdly amazing turn on, but I don't know if it was for you..? Anyways...
Seven years because that would have been before Jason was taken away... In case you were wondering.
THANKS FOR READING!
