This is forever and a day late; however, it is finally here! Next chapter is mostly finished, and as promised, I won't give in. I plan on finishing. Side Note: I started this before reading Mark of Athena or House of Hades, so any inaccuracies in the story related to those two books most likely cannot be fixed due to the nature of the story. However, I imagine most of them are minor or technicalities. Sorry!

Disclaimer: If only, if only... Granted, if I own Percy Jackson, it would be a Percy and Leo fest.

Leo often dreamed of better times. Before his brief time in the world of mythology, the dreams only included his mother and himself. Afterwards, though, he dreamed of new friends and acceptance and a new home—something he hadn't even thought to consider until he found one. However, the son of Hephaestus often wished he could forget his time fighting monsters next to the other members of the Prophecy of Seven, if only so he could move on from it… if only so he could find something else to be happy about.

Yet, he dreamed of the bad times too, moments he'd like to think made him stronger, but really just leave an empty feeling inside his chest. His mother dying, the final battle against the giants, Hazel…

But no matter what type of dreams plagued his mind during unconsciousness, he always woke up the same: drenching in sweat and panting, and maybe just a bit wistful for the life he used to have. It's funny how both the good and bad memories can do that to you, Leo sometimes mused.

Today was different though. His dreams were filled with a dark haired girl with a stern smile, and though he still woke up with a feeling of uneasiness, it seemed to spark a change in the monotony, if only a little bit. It reminded him of the first time he met Reyna; like any girl he ever found attractive, she was out of his league and the definition of terrifying. But what could Leo say, he like girls with a bit of, well, fire in them. (Leo often found his jokes way more hilarious then he ought to.)

And somehow, between his usual commute to work and the bagel he was shoving in his mouth as he rushed out the door, Leo ended up in the same coffeehouse where he saw Reyna the other day. He blushed when he realized his unconscious desire to see the daughter of Bellona again, and almost left, embarrassed for even coming in the first place.

Yet, guilt ebbed away at him too. He had suggested they sit down and talk. He had given her his number. And he had left her sitting at the table, leaving with only a nonchalant goodbye in his wake. It had been two years and Leo couldn't even give the girl a proper conversation. Leo doubted it was his place to come back here again in the hopes that she would be too.

If anything, he shouldn't be here at all. His thoughts were a jumbled mess from his dreams last night and even if Reyna was here, Leo was most likely just going to embarrass himself. Besides, what would he say? How would he act? What if she told the others back at camp that she had chanced across him, and they're all just waiting for him in there? (However unlikely the last option seemed, it still made him sick to his stomach and practically wrecked his confidence.)

Still, even with his mind tugging him in two different directions, Leo couldn't shake the feeling of wanting to see an old friend. Steeling himself with the last of his resolve, Leo pushed through the door with a level of apprehension that shouldn't have been possible for an action as simple as walking in a coffeehouse.

However, his internal battle proved fruitless anyways. A quick scan around the warm interior of the café bore no signs of the daughter of Bellona. Disappointed (a maybe just slightly relieved), Leo debated if standing in line and getting a coffee was even worth it. Yesterday's events had no change on how Leo felt about the overpriced, bitter drink.

Sighing and shoulders sagging, Leo exited the coffee house and hailed a taxi, giving the driver the address to his work. As the car was pulling away, he failed to notice a girl with reddish-brown hair nervously enter the café, a napkin filled with messily written scrawl clutched in her hand.

~Line Break~

Once at work, Leo entered the small building with a feeling of apprehension. The company he worked for was tiny; however, it recently had a change in ownership.

His former boss, who hired him and absolutely adored him (something about how Leo reminded him of his son back in Italy), sold the company in order to pursue his real dream: owning and maintaining a vineyard. It was a little cliché, but the man had shown him friendship when he was feeling low, so Leo encouraged him to move out to California, even if it meant losing one of the only real forms of human interaction he had (clients not included). Suffice to say, Leo hadn't made many friends in New York.

His new boss Dr. (and Leo doubted he was actual doctor) Henry ran the place like a well-oiled machine (pun absolutely intended). Granted, the company had experienced a large amount of growth under the new management, but it also lost a lot of the charm that Leo had come to love about the place.

"Ay, Valdez. The boss is looking for you. Something about changing your hours again," Randy, a lighthearted coworker of his, shouted across the small office. There was a smile on his face and gleam in his eyes that made Leo wonder if Randy was somehow an unclaimed son of Hermes.

However, the thought of Randy's words made Leo suppress a groan. While Dr. Henry wouldn't fire him (partially in fact that he has yet to find a valid reason, and partially because Leo is one of his best mechanics), he had no problem trying to make Leo's life at his company a living hell. It was rather tiring, dealing with mortals.

Trudging towards his boss's office, Leo attempted to put a charming smile on his face. No doubt it wouldn't have any effect on Dr. Henry, other than to upset him further. But Leo was already in bad books with this mortal, so the son of Hephaestus saw no reason not to go ahead and push the envelope.

A smirk on his face and a witty retort on the tip of his tongue, Leo knocked on the door of Dr. Henry's office, bracing himself for the yelling that was waiting for him on the other side.

A curt, "Come in," cut off Leo's knocking rather quickly. Opening the door, Leo quirked his eyebrows; Dr. Henry had a thing for making him wait outside his office for ages, usually.

Leo's tyrannical boss was seated at his desk, a cup of coffee in one hand and a random report in another. Though his posture didn't change, Dr. Henry acknowledged his presence with the slight upward glance of his eyes.

"Sit down, Leo," Dr. Henry ordered, though the usually bite in his words was missing. "Do you know why I called you in here?"

"Uh… something about changing my hours?" Leo answered, shifting nervously in his seat.

He felt the back of his neck heat up, sweat collecting at the back of his collar. Despite Leo's claims to have no anxiety to anything in the mortal world (due to his face off with Giants, Leo figured it would be rather sad if his boss was deemed anything other than an annoyance), something about this man just put Leo off…

"Well, in a manner, yes." His boss replied, lifting the formerly-discarded folder off his desk, "This is a report from a number of your previous customers. It appears," and it seemed as though his boss was having a little trouble getting the next part out, "that customers are finding the state of appliances of your workings left in better condition than that of before the original instance of damage."

"Uh, sir?" For whatever reason, Mr. Henry had a way of speaking that made Leo's head swim. Maybe it was the nervousness he always felt around the man, maybe it was his natural instinct to be witty with a man who didn't get "witty".

"You're one hell of a mechanic, Valdez," Dr. Henry finally said, the barest trace of smile flicking across his face, "so I'm promoting you."

Leo gaped. He had the slightest inclination to pinch himself, though he managed to shake himself out of the urge before he got the chance to (besides, his never dreamed of anything this strange). "P-promoting?"

"Why, of course," cue his I'm-the-boss voice, "here at Jimmy's Mechanics, we value effort and customer satisfaction."

"So, what exactly am I being promoted to?" Leo questioned, torn between excitement and suspicion.

"A head mechanic, as a part of the new system I'm incorporating. You'll have an apprentice assigned to you, who will be with you at all times for repairs. We're working off some new research; apparently, two man teams are more efficient... a balancing act, if you will. Anyways, I'm leaving it up to you for how you handle your apprentice, though I ask you treat them with the upmost respect and dignity. For you, Valdez, I was thinking of Randy… or maybe Shawn…"

Dr. Henry started to trail off in thought, waving Leo out the door with one hand, the other hand groping around in a drawer for a pen.

Once outside of the office, Leo sighed. He wasn't much accustomed to long periods of exposure to his boss, and while he was being extremely nice, Leo was unable to shake the feeling of hurt he got whenever he'd walk into his old boss' office, only to see someone else sitting in his favorite chair.

Sighing, Leo pulled a silver phone out of his pocket, checking the time. However, a missed call from an unknown number appeared on screen. Thinking nothing of it, Leo hit the call button on his screen, putting the device up to his ear.

As the phone on the other end rang, Leo entertained the idea of giving his phone some modifications. Leo had recently bought it at the request of Dr. Henry, who preferred all of his employees had a phone on them at all time, something about "liabilities" and "safety regulations".

Because of this, Leo's phone happened to be the cheapest he could find on the market, making it rather obsolete. Though the demigod already managed to fix its wonderful ability to attract monsters in a way that even rivaled Percy Jackson himself, Leo figured it wouldn't take much to trick out his phone into something worthy of rivaling the latest iPhone.

Finally, a slightly static-filled voice answered his call with a pleasant, "Hello!"

"Um, hi?" Leo answered in bemusement, unable to recognize the female voice of the other caller.

"Look," all notions of pleasantness from the mystery caller gone, "Reyna says she doesn't like you that way, but as you and I both know, denial ain't just a river in Egypt. So when I meet you, and I will meet you Leo, you better be everything my girl deserves, got it?"

"Uh… you know Reyna?" Leo's head spun, trying to keep up with the girl's rambling nonsense.

"Why of course! I live with her!" the voice assured, "Oh, I forgot to introduce myself, I'm Ashley. Currently a student at Columbia, majoring in Politics and minoring in political justice. Pleased to meet you… over the phone, that is."

"Well that's… great," Leo tried not to sound surprised; he really did. The demigod knew that Reyna was smart… but Columbia? Leo's whistled. Wow. "And so you and Reyna… are roommates?"

"Indeed we are, which means Reyna and I share a very close friendship. You know what happens to people who hurt my friends, Leo?"

And really, Leo shouldn't be scared of the words this girl was spewing at him. No doubt she was less threatening than most other mortals, let alone the creatures Leo came across during his adventures as a demigod. Still, girls (Human or otherwise) were scary. With this thought in mind, Leo decided it was about time to cut the conversation short.

"Um, this conversation has really been great," Leo rushes, fumbling over his words, "but I'm afraid I have forgotten to… feed my cat. Yeah. So I gotta go. Talktoyoulater."

"You bet we'll be talking later Leo. And remember, the name's Ashley. Don't forget it." Leo wondered how a mortal could sound so terrifying over the phone. Finally, her voice chirped a chipper, "Bye!" before Leo hung up.

"Yeah… um, bye," Leo finally said, staring down at his phone perplexed. Leo wouldn't be above calling that the most confusing conversation of his life, all mythology and prophecy related conversations included. Somehow Ashley managed to be both friendly and petrifying, reminding Leo of a certain Piper McLean (and if that thought made Leo's chest twinge in hurt, well then, he'd do his best to ignore it).

The demigod tried to think if Reyna ever mentioned an Ashley in their brief conversation and (upon drawing a blank) decided that if the girl managed to steal his number from Reyna just to try and get a feel for what type of guy Leo was, then she couldn't be all that bad.

Who was Leo to call someone out for trying to be a good friend? His actions a few years ago didn't really leave Leo with much room to judge anyone on how they handled their friendships.

Still, Leo tried to sort out the confusing conversation in his head, walking towards a company van in the process. Distracted, it was no wonder Leo didn't see the monster approaching until it was already upon him.

Oh snap, what has Leo gotten in to? Also, I realise there are a few OC; I do not intend to give them any real focus in the story; I just needed Reyna and Leo to both have non-demigod friends.

Thanks for reading, and any comments or other concerns, well, you know what to do. Thanks :)