OMIGOODNESS HI GUYS I'M BACK

first of all i want to say thank you for all the reviews and favourites and follows and everything! i know it's been forever since i updated bc school asdfghjkl but i'm taking major exams this year so my updating will probably be 10000x slower.

thank you guys for everything omg i know i don't often reply reviews or anything but they really mean a lot to me okay okay

hope you guys like this chapter!

She thinks she'll miss the pizza nights.

Oh, she'll miss more than that, to be sure – she'll miss the way she could just sit down and not be useful for once, she'll miss the way she and Tadashi will watch Hiro climb up onto tables and over computers and clamber onto shelves because he's too short otherwise, she'll miss listening to conversations she doesn't understand and doesn't have to understand, she'll miss just being a normal – or at least somewhat normal – teenager.

But she'll miss pizza nights most of all, because it's fun and carefree and ridiculous and she's a part of something that isn't Roman, that isn't Greek, that isn't demigod-related, and she can smile and laugh and she's free.

It's the night before the showcase, and Hiro's panicking. He's staring very hard at diagrams and drawings and calculations and his neuro-cranial transmitter and a handful of his microbots, and he's muttering to himself rapidly.

"Will he be okay?" Reyna asks Tadashi, sliding onto the sofa next to him with a cup of hot chocolate from the café. Cass has told her that they've hardly eaten, and so Reyna's loaded with a tray of sandwiches and donuts and other assorted pastries, which she places on the table nearby.

"Probably not," Tadashi admits. "I'm guessing he's going to spend the night down here at the garage."

"You're going to let him?"

Tadashi shrugs: "Can't stop him, so I'm gonna stay down here with him." He grins, then makes a face. "Probably should have brought more pillows."

"Probably," Reyna agrees, drily.

There's a slight pause, and then Tadashi clears his throat, a little awkwardly: "D'you wanna come over for breakfast tomorrow morning? Before, you know, the showcase?"

She blinks.

"I mean, you know, you could help with the microbots," Tadashi jabbers on, aware that his face is probably turning bright red: "And then, you know, you really calm Hiro down a lot, he feels a lot calmer around you, and I know you love Aunt Cass' donuts, and it'd be great to have you, and we could sit at the back of the truck and everything and it'd be really fun – "

"It sounds great," Reyna tells him, and no she is not blushing like some lovesick daughter of Venus; "Sure."

"It's okay, I understand, I bet Fred's breakfasts are really good – whoa, wait, what?"

He stops, blinks at her in something a lot like disbelief.

"I'll come," Reyna repeats.

"Are you – really?"

She smiles: "Yeah."

She turns to look at Hiro again, reaches out to snag a donut from across the table, and Tadashi mouths to himself: unbelievable.

The next morning is spent with Hiro freaking out, Tadashi trying very hard not to laugh his head off and to calm his brother down, and Reyna raising her eyebrows in disbelief.

It's utter chaos, really, complete and utter chaos. Hiro's so nervous that he can't sit still, and it's all Tadashi and Reyna can do to force him to eat something. Somehow, it's Reyna who convinces him that he'll need to swallow something or else he'll get speared into little pieces and get eaten up for breakfast himself.

"Funny way to motivate him to eat," Tadashi tells her, though he can't help but smile as she eyes his little brother like a hawk, making sure that he swallows his food.

Reyna only smiles: "Works whenever I use it."

She doesn't mention, of course, that most of the Roman demigods she uses those very same words on are quite literally faced with the prospect of being torn into pieces and munched on during snack time, or face her wrath. Not many of them can face her on an empty stomach.

Somehow they manage to get through breakfast, and Hiro is munching on a new pack of jellybeans that Reyna's brought for him. Wasabi and Fred have come over to help load up Cass' truck, and they stop inside for a donut before they start.

"You planning to officially ask her on a date any time soon?" Wasabi wants to know, as he and Tadashi watch Fred tell some kind of ridiculous story to Hiro, with Reyna rolling her eyes at the side. Well, Wasabi's watching Fred tell the story. Tadashi's just watching Reyna.

Tadashi flushes red.

"What? No, I – Wasabi!"

Wasabi shrugs: "Hey, man, it's pretty obvious."

"I don't – "

"Don't lie to yourself," Wasabi advises. "Not very healthy, dude."

Tadashi chooses to ignore him.

Wasabi and Fred are helping him load the microbots onto Aunt Cass' truck when Hermes appears. He's a pretty familiar sight around the Lucky Cat Café now, usually dropping by for supper and late-night movies and endlessly talking to Aunt Cass and making her laugh. He's funny and likable enough that even Hiro's warmed up to him.

He's introduced to Wasabi and Fred, and Tadashi tells him that Aunt Cass is in the kitchen making sure Hiro doesn't come down with his shoes on the wrong feet or his shirt inside out.

"You're not up there with your brother?" Hermes wants to know.

Tadashi shakes his head: "Nah, I've got a friend up there checking up on him."

"Friend," Fred sniggers.

"Real mature, Fred."

Hermes helps them hoist up the last of the huge garbage cans of microbots up into the truck, just as Aunt Cass sails out the door.

She stops short, grins: "You made it!"

"Of course I did," Hermes tells her. "Besides, the showcase sounds pretty cool. Can you imagine all those cool gadgets? I bet it'll be amazing! That kind of technology, can you imagine – "

"I know, you'll be like a little kid at Christmas," laughs Aunt Cass. "And I thought I was supposed to be looking after Hiro, not you!"

"I'm a grown man, thank you very much – "

"And you certainly act like it!"

"Your aunt's boyfriend?" Wasabi hisses to Tadashi.

Tadashi nods, and it's then that the door to the Lucky Cat swings open again, Hiro being prodded out the door by Reyna. Hiro's almost lost the panicky look on his face, and is instead eating more jellybeans – seriously, Tadashi thinks, he's probably going to have to put his foot down and ban Reyna from buying the kid any more jellybeans. That much sugar has got to be unhealthy.

But Reyna's smiling, laughing almost, as she shuts the door behind her and tugs at the sleeves of her leather jacket, grinning widely, and she raises her eyes to meet Tadashi's gaze.

Instead, she catches sight of Hermes talking to Aunt Cass, and her expression changes completely.

She's not smiling anymore. Her face is different, almost dangerous, calculating. She looks – wary, almost guarded, a cautious look in her eyes.

Reyna's not the only one to have changed noticeably. Tadashi notices that Hermes is standing up straight as well, watching Reyna carefully.

Hermes manages a smile. "Praetor."

Praetor. There's that word again.

"Reyna," she corrects, pushes a strand of hair behind her ear. "It's nice to see you again, Lo – Hermes."

Aunt Cass blinks: "You two know each other?"

"She's a close friend of some of my cousins," Hermes says, smoothly, just as Reyna says, "He's a friend of my mother's."

They stop short, exchange a look.

"Well, both," Hermes admits. "But I really actually know her because of my cousins." He turns to her: "I didn't know you were in San Fransokyo."

"Percy and the others know. I just met Jason and Piper the other day."

"Hmm." Hermes nods, but his smile looks a little strained. Reyna looks as if she'd rather be anywhere but here.

Hiro pops another jellybean into his mouth.

"So!" Tadashi claps his hands: "I was thinking, Wasabi could give the three of us a ride in his car, and Aunt Cass, we'll meet you and Hermes at SFIT?"

Almost immediately, Hermes breaks out into a huge smile: "Do I get to drive?"

"What? No! The last time I let you drive my truck it was a disaster!"

"I didn't hit anyone – "

"You nearly did – "

"Escape while you can," Tadashi whispers, and they pile into Wasabi's car, Tadashi and Reyna and Hiro stumbling into the back.

"So you and Hermes looked pretty tense just now," Tadashi says.

Reyna smiles, a thin smile that doesn't quite reach her eyes: "I wasn't exactly expecting to run into him here."

No, of course she wasn't. She's here to get away from everything, and somehow everything still seems to keep finding her. Gwen. Her past – her fights, her battles, her history. Jason and Piper. And now Hermes.

Of course, she'd rather Hermes than any of the other gods. Percy and Annabeth have mentioned to her how he's probably one of the most likable gods – and she's far more used to seeing the god of travelling and messengers in his Greek form than in his Roman form, especially from her frequent visits to Camp Half-Blood. (The Roman side still chose not to interact much with their children.) And she's spoken with him on more than one occasion, and he's easy enough to talk to. But simply seeing Hermes here – it's a different thing altogether.

"Hey." Tadashi's hand, large and warm, rests over hers: "You okay?"

Reyna shrugs her shoulders, slides into her seat and gazes out the window: "Think I will be."

She doesn't push his hand aside.

It's like a dream, a wonderful dream. Reyna can hardly remember ever feeling so happy for someone before (at least, not for something that isn't a life-and-death situation. Usually her feeling so happy has something to do with people making it out of deadly battles or situations alive.) But she feels over the moon right about now, as Hiro waves his acceptance letter into SFIT excitedly, jumping up and down.

"He deserves this," says Reyna, when she feels a presence next to her, a presence she knows, without turning around, is Tadashi: "I'm so happy for him."

"I'm so proud of him," says Tadashi.

"You should be," Reyna tells him, punching him lightly, grinning when he winces: "He wouldn't be here if it weren't for you."

"Oh, he would've found his way eventually."

"Maybe not. He needs you more than you know."

Tadashi smiles. "I need him too."

"So, praetor, what are you doing in San Fransokyo?"

"Not praetor," Reyna corrects, as Hermes materialises next to her, where she's standing in front of some display for yet another project. "Not anymore. I resigned."

"Ah, yes, I did hear about that." Hermes nods. "But the role and title of praetor seems to suit you nonetheless. It's not something you can just walk away from."

"I find myself agreeing with you."

"Ah, well I'm not often wrong." Hermes grins. "But really, what are you doing here? I thought you'd be at college in New Rome or something."

Reyna shrugs. "I had to get out. Get away from everything."

"I understand how you feel."

Reyna can see his gaze flicker over to Cass.

"She's a very wonderful woman," she says. "Cass Hamada."

Hermes nods almost absentmindedly, and smiles, a wide smile: "She is."

It's later that night when Reyna realises that she never can fully get away from being who she is – a Roman, a soldier, a praetor, a daughter of Bellona, and most of all, herself.

She's walking through the grounds with Fred, who is eagerly telling her about some ridiculous fantastic new theory or some brilliant idea for a comic book series, and they're heading to the parking lot, to pile into Wasabi's car and wait for Tadashi and Hiro to show up.

It's then that the fire alarm blares out, loud and shrill and never-ending.

Before she knows it, she's running, flying through the grounds, skidding along the pathways with the wind in her face and screams echoing through the air, and she's reminded of battles of endless fights of fires of dying of blood of death –

She can hear Fred yelling something behind her, but she can't stop, not now, not when there are people who are screaming, not when there are people who may be hurt –

She comes to a halt a fair distance away from the showcase hall, pushing her way past people running in the opposite direction, shoving her way up to the building.

"Reyna!"

Fred's voice is faint, faraway.

It's a fire, a blazing, burning fire, and panic overcomes her – what if there's someone inside, what if there's someone going to be hurt –

She should go. She should turn away, walk back to Fred, because there is nothing she can do.

This is not Camp Jupiter, this is not her battle, there are no monsters or giants, there is no ancient evil, it is just a fire and everyone is probably on their way out, safe from harm, and what can she do? She doesn't have Guido, she doesn't have her legion, she doesn't have anything –

Then she sees the two familiar figures – a short one with a large mess of hair, a taller one with a baseball cap –

She sees them turn to each other, argue –

And then she sees the boy with the baseball cap turn to face the building, run into the blazing inferno, his cap flying off his head and onto the ground behind him.

He won't make it out of there.

The world seems to come to a stop around her, everything unnaturally slow and loud and defined, like someone's turned on the HD, a blaze of colours and a roaring sound in her ears and her heartbeat, loud, deafening, pounding in her chest.

Tadashi.

Nonononononononono –

And the next thing Reyna knows, she's raced past Hiro, raced up the stairs, and she throws herself headfirst into the burning building.

so...what do you think? haha