Title: meet-cutes are only for the movies (2/5)
Fandom: Percy Jackson & the Olympians/Heroes of Olympus
Word Count: 668 words
Characters/Pairings: Mainly gen-Reyna, with slight Jason/Reyna, Leo/Reyna, Percy/Reyna, and background Percy/Annabeth
Summary: Five occasions, given time, Jason and Reyna might have been something more.
Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or the Heroes of Olympus.
Notes: Each part varies in style and AU-ness, from "could be pre-TLH if you want it to be" to "indulge me by suspending your disbelief as you read this crack!fic where everyone happens to be in the same place at the same time instead of opposite seaboards." Nothing super spoilery, though it makes reference to The Lost Hero and The Son of Neptune.
two. in which juno chose annabeth and reyna to be switched
When Reyna jolts awake, she's holding the hand of an unfamiliar boy that grins at her. "Whoa, whoa, Sleepy Head, it's just me." It takes her a moment, then two, to get a sense of her surroundings but it all seems wrong, like she's been living in a dream and hasn't really woken up just quite yet. The boy looks at her expectantly and she thinks, "I should know you," and it's only when another girl calls them that she gets a sense of her name and his. "Reyna, Leo, come on!"
Then everything happens much too fast with Dylan and Coach Gleeson and the sword she doesn't realize she's been carrying, and especially the boy on the flying horse that tells her to keep steady. His name is Percy Jackson and she feels a sting of familiarity but can't quite place it, and when she tries to speak, her tongue gets stuck and all she blurts out is peanut butter. He's nice enough not to laugh, though she thinks he wants to, even when his face is etched with worry over Annabeth. (That's another name she can't quite place and it eats at her.)
Things don't get much better from there. She's an amnesiac, a demigod, and an unclaimed Roman at that. Leo finds his calling and Piper gets her blessing, but she, daughter of someone gets free lodging in Cabin 11. That is until Ares, god of war, makes a surprise appearance and she is nothing less than mortified when he announces that while they're not related, he's doing a favor for a friend and so all the campers better treat her right. The head counselor glares at her as though she's an enemy, and for just a second she thinks she might have preferred evading the Stoll twins' pranks as Clarisse La Rue seems decidedly more dangerous.
Thalia, though, Artemis' lieutenant that has no reason to reassure her, tells her not to worry. "You have a sister?" she asks.
"I can't remember. Why?"
The Huntress shrugs. "You just look like someone I've come across in my travels while we've been searching for Annabeth. No chance you're from Seattle, is there?"
Reyna shakes her head. "Someplace warm, originally. Maybe Hawaii?" For some reason, she wants to ask if this girl has any siblings too, and when she does, Thalia turns her head away. "I used to." They don't push the conversation much further than that.
The quest happens, and despite the awe she should feel at the success of their rescue of Hera, it's Medea's taunt that lingers. ("We're alike than you know.") Reyna wants to laugh, because really, at this point everyone knows more about her than her, but she feels a pull towards something - or someone - instead.
The memories trickle back slowly, just names at first, but soon enough she can start to remember some of her friends. Her childhood, though, remains distant, an untraceable island floating in the sea. And there's a boy, just one, that eludes her, that makes her feel guilty about the way Leo looks at her and the way she wants to look at Percy, even when he spends day and night focused on finding his girlfriend, a demigod she's come to respect from all the stories she's heard. She wants to meet this girl, wants to shake her hand, and say, "You are so lucky to be so loved."
It's nearly summer when Percy tells her about the fireworks and she smiles at the fact that he's practically asking her to watch them with him. She's all about honor, knows they're only friends, and good ones at that, but it's nice to know she's appreciated, that he considers her one of them despite her questionable lineage. The colors streak across the sky, the explosions booming like thunder, and it's only then that she can finally put a name to the face that's been haunting her dreams, that curved smile with the tiniest scar. "Jason," she breathes.
