Okay, so it's actually August 1st when I live, but I stayed up after doing my homework for my online course to finish this. So that's gotta mean something, right?

I reeeallllyyy wanted to finish the second chapter of The Lost Praetor, but I literally have no inspiration for anything. I've got online summer school, work during the week, and a brother that hogs the computer. AFTER he poured soup onto my laptop.

So as you can tell, I have very limited time to write now. But I really wanted to write something Jayna after my reeeeaaallllyyyy long hiatus, so this was born! The ending's kind of weird, but yeah...if you've read some of my other fanfics, you should know that all my endings suck.

Alas, I should talking and let you read this. Sorry if the characters are a bit OOC, but I haven't written them in a long time, and I also haven't read the series in a while too. And nope, I STILL haven't read The Mark of Athena yet. I probably never will.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I didn't spend my hiatus buying the rights to HOO and PJO; I spent it crying about my grades and sleeping.


Wise People Once Told Me


if you're never scared or embarrassed or hurt, it means you never take any chances.
- julia sorel


Scared I


"Say, Reyna, I don't think I've ever seen you look so concerned for anyone before," Gwen notes, raising an eyebrow as she lays her shield on the table. All around them, legionnaires are sharpening their blades, polishing their shields and reviewing war tactics.

Reyna stands in front of the tactic board, her hand slightly trembling as she continues to draw lines and scribbling Latin words and names every so often. When she draws an arrow straight towards Jason, her hand suddenly freezes, and she caps the whiteboard marker, turning around to face Gwen.

"I don't want to lose to Kronos and the Titans, that's all," Reyna replies curtly, struggling for once to keep the emotion from clouding her stony expression.

The older girl chuckles, trying to lighten the mood. "Come on, Reyna. Don't underestimate Jason Grace. After our saving grace's done with him, Krios will end up resembling one of Dakota's Kool-Aid spills."

"I was hoping he will be sucked into the pits of Tartarus, spill and all," Reyna says dryly, absently observing her fellow legionnaires before a flash of orange catches her eye. "Kasim, what news do you bring?" she calls out, waving the son of Mercury over.

Kasim's eyes widen when he sees Reyna, and he immediately runs over, nearly knocking Gwen down. "My apologies," Kasim says, rubbing his elbow where the skin is red from hitting the edge of the table.

"S'okay," Gwen answers, shuffling to the other side of Reyna.

"Watch where you step," Reyna says, frowning slightly. "We cannot have injuries caused by our own." When Kasim nods, Reyna continues. "So, what is it?"

Kasim clears his throat. "Well, the Third-Fifth Cohort has successfully defeated the monsters at Exit III, leaving the Third-Fourth Cohort to defend while they go find Trivia."

The dark-haired girl narrows her eyes. "That son of-mehercules, what does he think he can accomplish, marching around with no plan?"

Gwen snorts, shaking her head slightly. "You know Jason; he doesn't need a good plan to win."

The daughter of Bellona glares at the whiteboard. "Then why the Pluto do I come up with them for him to follow?" Reyna grumbles. "Besides, does he honestly think walking around like the stupid puer he is will attract the attention of Trivia?"

No sooner were those words spoken that a crash could be heard a few doors down, and a group of voices calling out, "HELLO TRIVIA!" in equally wary and confident voices.

Reyna could just see Jason confident grin as his golden coin flips in the air, switching into a sword while legionnaires from the Third and Fifth Cohort clash their shields together, waiting for Jason's command.

"Maybe you should help them out, Rey. I can keep guard here," Gwen suggests, seeing the conflicted expression on Reyna's face.

Biting her lip, Reyna shakes her head. "Kasim, see if the First-Second Cohort can spare some people." He nods, leaving the two girls by the table.

"Maybe-" Gwen starts to say again, but Reyna cuts her off.

"Why do I need to? They're fine without me," Reyna mumbles, her eyes drifting back to the boards. "I'm not scared for him, godsdamnit Gwen! He's Jason Grace, after all."

Gwen only shrugs. "I know. Just giving you a chance to see your boy in action. Not taking it?" When Reyna shakes her head again, she sighs. "I guess there's always next time."


Embarrassed II


Reyna is momentarily dazed as she watches the remains of Krios disappear into the pits of Tartarus. Her hand still clutching onto her pugio, she sneaks a look at Jason, and sees that he is just as dazed as her, only he seems to have grasped the conclusion to the fight much quicker than she had, but he had thrown the last punch though. Literally.

All the Romans stand there for a while, quietly watching Krios crumble and slightly cautious as to whether of not the battle was really over. Once the last of Krios disappears out of sight, Bobby grins widely at the legion around him.

"I think that's the last of them..." Bobby trails off, slapping the Romans beside him on the back as a congratulatory pat. "Awesome!"

It only takes a minute for the legionnaires to cheer loudly and throw their weapons in the air, celebrating their victory.

Gwen laughs loudly, throwing her arms around Reyna. "You guys did it!" she cheers, her eyes sparkling with happiness.

Dakota nods, exchanging fist pumps and manly hugs with Jason and Bobby. "We couldn't have done it without our Saving Grace and his Queen of Rome."

Jason smiles at his and Reyna's nicknames as he turns to face her, shrugging off Bobby and Dakota. Without thinking, Jason automatically starts to open up his arms for a hug when Reyna quickly thrusts her outstretched hand in his face, clearly preferring a handshake instead of an embrace.

Deciding that he will have time later on, he reluctantly drops his hands and settles for the handshake.

"There's always a next time," Dakota whisper-says, much to the annoyance of Jason.


Hurt III


"Come on, Reyna. You can't just sit in here all day," Gwen complains, snatching the pen from Reyna's hand. "The principia is sick of your presence," she adds teasingly.

Reyna gives Gwen one of her deadliest glares, but the effect isn't what she's expecting because due to her inability to sleep well well recently and her determination to bury herself into her work, the exhaustion has finally caught up to her.

You look like a zombie," Dakota notes, taking a swing of Kool-Aid from his bottle. "You haven't looked this dead in months."

"I'm fine," the praetor snaps, flicking her braid to the side. "There's just a lot more work now that the graceus have come to visit." She pauses, turning around to glare at the, ahem, innocent looking boy who was trying to hide the jelly beans in his hands. "First of all, don't touch my jellybeans," Bobby immediately drops the jellybeans as if they were hot coal, "and second of all, there wouldn't be so much work if you didn't go around causing trouble!"

Bobby pouts, crossing his arms. "But the gold paint was just sitting in the shop all alone! I had to put Project BAGS into action!"

Reyna sighs exasperatedly. "Why don't you guys just go now? I really need to finish this."

"Why don't you just talk to him?" Gwen blurts out.

"Who and what are you talking about?" Reyna asks, but deep down, she knows exactly who Gwen's referring to.

"You know exactly who I'm talking about," Gwen says, a concerned look on her face. "I think you guys need to sit down and talk."

"There's nothing to talk about when he has that Venus girl on his arm," Reyna spits out, turning back to the papers again. "Can we stray away from this topic already?"

"Take the chance, Reyna," Gwen advises quietly. "You never take the chance."

The pen stays frozen in her hand. Reyna knows that she has to take a chance now or she will never know. But what awaits her is not something she wants to deal with. However...

The dark-haired girl stands up. "Fine," Reyna relents, resulting in the people in the principia to break out in grins and smiles.

"That's my girl!" Dakota exclaims, toasting the bottle of Kool-Aid for her. "Ah, they grow up so fast..."

"You're not my father, Dakota," Reyna retorts, cocking an eyebrow.

"But I'm your fatherly figure," he replies, grinning. "Therefore, I can say what a father would say."

"So Dakota's Reyna's fatherly figure, and Gwen is Reyna's motherly figure...I see what's going on," Bobby says, wagging his eyebrows suggestively.

Reyna cracks a smile as Dakota and Gwen both fidget, blushing.

"W-why don't you look for Jason now?" Gwen asks, changing the subject.

"No worries, I already called him here," Bobby says, looking out the window. "There he is now!"

Dakota rolls his eyes. "Sons of Mercury," he mumbles. "So godsdamn sneaky."

knock, knock

Gwen rushes to the door, smiling at the clearly nervous Jason. "Hey there, Jay-Jay. We'll be outside if you need us," she greets him, dragging Bobby and Dakota outside.

Jason slowly walks in, closing the door quietly behind him. His memory was still really foggy, and for some reason, he really wanted to eat the jellybeans in the bowl by Reyna.

"Hey," he says, looking over at the daughter of Bellona. "How are you?"

"Fine," she replies shortly, tapping her fingernails on the table. "How are the gr-Greeks liking their accommodations?"

The blonde nods. "They really like the baths," he answers, shifting from one foot to the next. He could feel the tension in the air, and he knows why. "Um, Bobby said you had something to discuss with me...and I am almost certain it has nothing to do with baths."

Reyna resists the urge to glare at him as he tries to lighten up the mood. "So Piper's a charmspeaker?" she asks, trying to divert the conversation to the Venus girl.

"Um...yeah..." he trails off, not knowing what to say to her.

"You like her a lot, don't you?" Reyna asks, knowing the answer already. But she wants to hear it from him. When he doesn't say anything, about to nod his head, the praetor laughs bitterly. "Of course. Who wouldn't prefer a daughter of love over a daughter of war?"

"Reyna, honest to Jupiter, I don't remember anything about you and I, and I know that hurts, but it's the truth. And then I woke up with Piper as my girlfriend, and then I went on a quest with her, and it just..I don't know...clicked," he tries to explain, but it's no use.

Reyna's hands are balled up into fists as she tries to stay calm. "Do you know how many months I spent looking for you? How many quests I have gone with you before you disappeared? I never believed you were dead, even after Octavian convinced half the legion that you were. I always thought you would come home to Camp Jupiter, but I never thought you would have changed so much." She swallows with difficulty. "Jason Grace, do you know how much I l-"

"Just stop, okay?" Jason interrupts her because for reasons unknown, he doesn't want her to finish. It makes him feel uncomfortable because he cannot remember the last time Reyna poured her emotions out like that, and he doesn't want to start the love triangle problem again in his head when he already figured it out. At least, he thinks he has. "I'm sorry, but I really don't remember much about you...or us, and besides, Piper and I make a really good team together," Jason says, repeating what Piper has said to him before. The sentence makes sense in his head but feels strange coming out of his mouth, almost wrong sounding, but that's the only truth he knows and remembers, so that is what he will live by.

Reyna realizes that there is no use talking to him anymore because he doesn't remember who he truly is anymore. Shoving her emotions deep down within her, she coldly addressed him. "I understand, son of Jupiter. Since this conversation is done, please escort yourself out the door. You are dismissed."

Jason bows slightly before turning to leave. From the corner of his eye, he catches sight of the bowl of jellybeans, and for some reason, the colours give him a throbbing headache on his way out, similar to when he remembers a memory...

When the door is shut, Reyna allows one tear to slip down her face. "Well, I took the chance," she whispers to herself, wiping the tear away with her sleeve, but Reyna can't help but think how things would have been different if she took the chance earlier.


Chances IV


"Great job guys! Same time tomorrow!" Jason shouts, waving goodbye to his class. He has been living in Camp Half-Blood with Piper for a few months now, and teaching sword fighting was one of his favourite past times.

Actually, it is pretty much his only favourite activity to pass the time. When he had first moved here, Jason was excited to be living with his girlfriend at a camp where everyone was more free to do as they wished and took everything less seriously.

However, nowadays, he's itching for strict rules to break, meetings that didn't happen around a ping-pong table, and accommodations that lacked a creepy statue of his father staring at him when he was trying to sleep at night.

Jason misses Camp Jupiter. But he couldn't tell anyone that. And chances were, Reyna wouldn't accept him back anyway.

Piper is too happy that he decided to stay at Camp Half-Blood with her, and Leo is glad to have a buddy to test his new inventions on, but Jason knows (now, anyway) that this isn't where he truly belongs.

It also doesn't help that his craving for jellybeans have come back and there isn't a certain dark-haired girl to share them with.

He is snapped out of his thoughts when someone clears their voice. "You al- Jason blinks rapidly, staring at the person in front of him. "Reyna?"

Reyna doesn't look too pleased (maybe because she had bad experiences with puddles?) as she regards him with wary eyes. "I asked for Jackson, but somehow, I got you..."

Jason kneels down so he is more at level with the puddle. "He's there by the bleachers," he answers, jabbing his thumb to the right. "And I guess this was the only source of water soo..." he stops talking, his eyes greedy for the scene behind her. "What's happening?"

Reyna shrugs. "Bobby is trying to throw a surprise birthday party for Julia and wanted to know if you and the Greeks wanted to come."

Jason couldn't stop the smile from appearing on his face when he notices she didn't refer to him as a Greek. It confuses him because he thought he wanted to become Greek, but lately, his thoughts have been so strange, he stopped questioning them.

"Jason?"

Said boy shakes himself out of his thoughts as he nods towards the puddle. "Yeah, Percy was definitely interested when Julia told me before. Is that all?"

The daughter of Bellona nods her head slowly. "Yeah, that's all," she replies. "I guess I'll see you all next Monday. Goodbye Ja-"

"Wait!" Jason cuts her off, startling Percy, who was watching from a distance. Jason mouths, "Reyna," and the son of Poseidon nods in understanding, taking Annabeth by the hand and walking towards to the basketball court.

"Yes?" Reyna says, cocking an eyebrow.

"I...can I come visit Camp Jupiter?" Jason blurts out, surprising both himself and Reyna.

"Well, you are coming to Julia's birthday party, right?" the praetor points out, crossing her arms across her chest. "I think that classifies as 'visiting,' am I correct?"

The blonde shakes his head. "No, I mean, can I stay for a week or so?" When Reyna doesn't say anything, an unreadable expression on her face, Jason continues softly, "I'm starting to miss home."

"I thought you liked the freedom Camp Half-Blood gave you," Reyna retorts. "Didn't you feel like Camp Jupiter was too strict for you?"

Jason scratches the back of his neck. "Well, it's always been more fun to break strict rules." Reyna remains silent. "Come on, Reyna. One week starting from Julia's birthday party, and if it's too weird to have me back, then I promise I will never ask you to come back again, unless it's a Camp Half-Blood invited event."

"...fine," the daughter of Bellona replies finally, biting her lip. "I better not regret this," she mumbles under her breath before looking back at Jason. "Now I must go now. There are papers to sign and a legion to run."

A wide grin stretches across Jason's face, and he doesn't care how stupid he looks. "See you next week," he answers, noticing the bag of jellybeans in her hand. Reyna doesn't say anything else as she plops a yellow jellybean into her mouth and with a wave of her hand, the connection is broken.

He knows it's a little too late to fix and have what they had in the beginning, but at least he took the chance to try. He's almost positive that the next week will be one of the best he has had for a very long time. And yeah, it'll be difficult to gain Reyna's trust again and rebuild their relationship, but she did agree to let him come without too much of an argument.

It's a start.


This is rreeeeaaaallllyyy long for a drabbleish thing, but it is separated into four parts, so I guess that's okay?

I will definitely continue writing the second chapter for The Lost Praetor, and that will be out by the end of August, I will promise you that much. Or on September 1st, depending on how much I procrastinate. And maybe Second Nature II? Or something? I don't know yet. Or maybe I'll finish writing Project BAMBOO...

Well, I really need to go now because I only have two hours to sleep now before my shift. :(

Please read and review! I am still alive, and will try my best to stay active on this site!

-DOTE