"So, what really happened with Reyna? We've been told this story that she went on a mission for Lupa, but that I think there is more to it than that," Hazel said. She glanced at Nico, and he did his best to focus on his sandwich. They were walking the streets of New Rome and had grabbed a sandwich from Hazel's favorite place.

When Nico didn't respond, Hazel stopped walking and gave him a concerned look. Hazel continued, "I saw her come back covered in blood and dirt. She didn't seem to be injured, but you know how she likes to hide stuff like that. Reyna hasn't said a word about it, not even to Frank."

"I don't know exactly what Reyna did," Nico began. He had a pretty good idea of it, and for the past week, he had been hearing all of Annabeth's theories on it. Annabeth was extremely upset about what had happened, and Nico only hoped that the two daughters of war could work their problems out. "I think she did something to protect Camp Jupiter. It had to be important."

"If you can't or don't want to talk about it, I can respect that," Hazel said. She smiled at Nico and gave him a nudge. "You should stop by and see Reyna. She's been distracted lately, and I think something might be on her mind. It would be worth checking out."

"I will," Nico promised. Hazel smiled at him and suddenly waved. After a small moment of confusion, Nico turned around and saw Frank walking towards them. Frank waved back and held a bag that belonged to the sandwich place they had just visited.

"You beat me to it," Frank commented. He looked at Nico and smiled. "How are you doing, Nico? I haven't seen you for awhile. Hazel kept telling me that you were avoiding me."

"I couldn't avoid you," Nico said. He smiled slightly and glanced at Hazel. "You and Frank should spend the day together. I know you both don't get a lot of time off. Where is Reyna at? I'll check in on her."

"Well, we were in the middle of a meeting, but they kicked me out," Frank answered. He took a small bite of his sandwich and stared to hand a bag over. Nico raised the bag that he had already gotten for Reyna. Frank smiled. "She'll be happy to see you. She's been distracted, ever since she came back from Lupa's mission."

Nico nodded and did his best to hide his emotions. He couldn't let them know that he knew more than they did. It would only lead to annoying questions. His thoughts moved to Reyna. It didn't seem like she was taking everything well.

"Is Arria still sitting in on the meetings?" Hazel asked. After taking another bite of his sandwich, Frank nodded. "Reyna has been almost staring down Arria since she arrived. I don't know if those two have had arguments before. Would Jason know?"

"There was a weird tension between the two," Frank commented. He frowned and lowered his sandwich. "I shouldn't have left the two alone. Arria can easily get under people's skin, and Reyna can't afford to have another argument, after the whole paintball thing. Reyna's at the Principia."

"I'll check on her," Nico promised. He started to walk away but turned back towards the two Romans. "Both of you have fun. I'll stop by before I leave."

"You better," Hazel warned. She gave Nico a look. He smiled it off, but he knew that she was going to hold him to it. Nico nodded towards the two of them and walked away.

As Nico walked towards the Principia, he allowed his mind to drift. The past week had been a weird one. At first, Annabeth had gone out of her way to avoid him. She wouldn't make eye contact with him and wouldn't mention what had happened. Once Percy had seemed to mention something to Annabeth, she went out of her way to say and do nice things for Nico. It was weird.

Reyna had been a different story. She had sent Nico two or three Iris messages, but they were all short and curt. Reyna had promised him that it was due to an insane amount of work and not what had happened. Hazel was able to confirm the story and almost seemed amused that Nico was so concerned.

Nico made his way towards the Principia and nodded at the two guards standing outside. Dakota gave him a small smile and playfully moved a sword in front of Nico's path. Dakota spoke, "According to my punishment, I'm not suppose to let anyone inside."

"He drank too much kool-aid, and then, he claimed it made him run around outside in just his underwear. We all know it's because you lost that bet," the other guard said. He looked at Nico. "Sorry. No one can pass."

"Can you let Reyna know I want to talk to her?" Nico asked. He held up the bag. "And, can you let her know that I got her something to eat? Jellybeans are not a substitute for dinner."

"If we see her, we'll let her know," the other guard said. Nico didn't recognize his voice or his face, so he assumed the guard was someone new. "We were told that no Roman can walk inside during the meeting."

"Nico's not a Roman," Dakota began. He nudged the other guard and gave Nico a smirk. The guard sighed and closed his eyes. He looked past the point of annoyed. "You're good to pass, Nico. Reyna will be happy to see you, and we'll just say that you slipped by."

"Thank you," Nico said. He walked past the two and into the Principia. His eyes instantly looked towards the large table in the middle of the room. His eyes moved towards Reyna, who seemed to be in the middle of a conversation with another woman.

The woman was close enough to Reyna that she was practically pressing Reyna into the table. There was a scowl set on Reyna's face, and her attention was focused solely on the woman in front of her. When Nico had first started being an ambassador for Pluto, he had met plenty of other ambassadors, spies, and agents for other immortals. He didn't recognize this woman though.

The woman had a few inches of height on Reyna, and she had short, brown hair. Tattoos covered the woman's right arm, and it almost seemed like a story of war. From just going by her looks, the woman was only a year or two older than Reyna.

"Who cares what the daughter of Minerva thinks?" the woman said. If Nico had to guess, the woman was Arria. He debated walking away, but he still wanted to check on Reyna and make sure she was okay. Arria made a laughing sound. "You do, don't you?"

"Annabeth and I are friends," Reyna muttered. Her eyes moved away from Arria and to the ground. "She has her own guesses on what happened, and if she ever learned that you were involved, she'll know exactly what happened."

"Who cares?" Arria asked. She grabbed Reyna's face and slowly lifted her head. Surprisingly, Reyna didn't fight. "We did what we had to do, and it was in the name of your mother. Is this because of the crush that you have on her?"

Reyna's face reddened, and she tried to look away. Nico stared at Reyna. She didn't really have a crush on Annabeth, did she? The two always seemed like they could be the best of friends or worst of enemies, and recent events had already confirmed that. Annabeth was also dating Percy and never seemed to be attracted to girls. Reyna finally spoke, "I don't have a crush on her."

"I totally believe you, Praetor Ramirez," Arria said. She moved her hand from Reyna's face to her belt. "All of this really got under your skin, didn't it? Yeah, we messed that kid up pretty bad, but we did it for Rome."

"I can't live in a world of black and white like you do," Reyna muttered. She closed her eyes and sighed tiredly. "Let's just finish this stupid paperwork and be done with this stupid meeting. My mother's done enough damage."

"She wanted me to check on you," Arria said. She moved her left hand to Reyna's face, but she kept her right hand to Reyna's belt. "You really need to relax, Praetor. How long has it been since you blew off some steam?"

"In which way?" Reyna asked. Arria chuckled, and she suddenly kissed Reyna. Arria shoved Reyna onto the table, and that was when Nico turned away. His shoes squeaked on the polished floor, and the Principia fell deadly quiet.

Nico took a deep breath and slowly turned back towards Reyna and Arria. He could feel himself starting to blush. Reyna was staring at him and had her own blush starting. Arria was studying Nico in interest and didn't seem to be bothered.

"I brought you lunch," Nico said. Thirty seconds of awkward silence passed. Arria finally laughed and pulled away from Reyna. It took Reyna a moment to push herself off of the table and slowly lean against it.

"Thank you," Reyna said. She swallowed painfully and looked at Nico. Reyna looked like she wanted the ground to open up beneath her and swallow her. "I didn't realize you were visiting today."

"I was checking on Hazel and thought I would stop by and say hi," Nico explained. He gave Reyna a small smile, but it disappeared as he looked at Arria. For the past minute, Arria's focus had solely been on him.

"This is the famous Nico? I have heard so much about you," Arria said. She turned towards Reyna and kissed her again. Arria whispered something in Latin and pulled away. She walked towards Nico and stopped it front of him. "It's a pleasure to meet you, son of Pluto. I'm sure I'll run into you later."

Arria winked at Nico and walked out of the Principia. Reyna slowly looked at Nico, and she cleared her throat awkwardly. Nico slowly walked towards his best friend and spoke, "You have some of her lipstick on your face."

Reyna quickly tried to wipe her face off, and Nico started laughing. He was punched hard in the shoulder a moment later. Nico winced and smiled at Reyna She still looked like she was hoping for the ground to open up and swallow her.

"How much did you hear?" Reyna asked. Nico lost his smile and didn't answer. Reyna sat on the table and buried her face in her hands. "Everything?"

"Yeah," Nico confirmed. He moved some notebooks out of the way and sat by Reyna. The two stayed in silence, until Reyna finally looked up. "You don't have to be embarrassed. It's not like Lupa walked in on you or anything."

"It wouldn't be the first time," Reyna muttered. She buried her face in her hands again. Nico stifled his laugh and rubbed Reyna's back. It took a minute of silence for her to slowly look up again. "Do you promise not to judge me, Nico?"

"Reyna, I know you're bisexual. I'm not going to judge you about that, and I never will," Nico promised. He grabbed Reyna's shoulder tightly. "You've never judged me for my sexual orientation, and I'll never judge you for yours. I told you last week that I have your back, and I always will."

"I know you won't judge me about that," Reyna muttered. She sighed and looked down. Nico glanced at Reyna. What was she so nervous to tell him about? "Arria's not my girlfriend, and she's not really a crush. She's a way to blow off steam, when sparring doesn't cut it."

"We all have to let off steam," Nico said. He nudged Reyna's shoulder. "You've got a lot of weight on your shoulders, and if she helps you relax, I won't judge. Just remember to be safe about it."

"Gods, you sound like a school teacher," Reyna said. She finally let out a shaky laugh. "We first met when I was fifteen and trying to figure out a lot of stuff about myself. At first, I was really weary of her, since she's one of my mother's agents."

"One of your mother's agents?" Nico asked. Reyna glanced at him and nodded. Nico looked ahead. It wasn't odd that Bellona would use Reyna to deliver an ultimatum one week and have someone check on her the next, but it did worry him. "What does she do?"

"I don't know," Reyna admitted. "She's not an official member of the legion, but she does a lot of business with Camp Jupiter. In turn, she does a lot of business with me. Arria deals with problems before they can become serious. She helped me with that child of Athena, but I think you heard that."

"I was surprised to hear that you had backup," Nico commented. Reyna hit his shoulder again, but it was much softer this time. "You and I both know that you love to go in alone. You still seem bothered though."

"If a Lar found out about the nature of my relationship with Arria, it would lead to a lot of trouble," Reyna muttered. She looked down. "The Lares think that any kind of intimate contact should only be done between two people that are dating. They don't care who you love, as long as you make it public. Gods forbid you don't want something like that."

"They claim that it reminds them of the old days of Rome," Reyna continued. "Rome started to fall, because it allowed its value to decay. It's a load of crap, but they could make my life terrible if they learned."

"Does Lupa care?" Nico asked. Reyna shook her head. "I'm sure the campers don't either. Who cares what the Lares think? They probably hate you for a lot more reasons than the fact that you want to have a physical relationship instead of an emotional one."

"When did you get so smart?" Reyna teased. It was Nico's turn to playfully punch Reyna in the shoulder. Reyna finally stood and sighed. "I have to finish up a little bit of paperwork, and we can hang out for a hour or so."

"Do you want to hang out at Camp Half-Blood tonight? You missed capture the flag, and Annabeth was really insistent that I be the one to take the flag across the boundary line. It's my cabin against the Hermes cabin next week. We can start thinking of strategies," Nico began.

"Arria actually said she would meet me at my place tonight," Reyna began. Nico opened his mouth, but it dawned on him what Reyna was implying. He closed his mouth and nodded. "I'm sorry."

"It's fine," Nico said. If Nico was being honest with himself, he was a little jealous. He knew that he shouldn't have been, but it was hard. Nico was so use to Reyna's attention being all of him, and she didn't really have anyone else that she hung out with. Other than Will, Nico didn't either.

"We'll hang out later. I promise," Reyna said. She nudged Nico and smiled. "There's this really open field that I like to take Aurum and Argentum too. It would probably have enough room for Hades the Hellhound to run around."

"That would be fun," Nico said. He handed Reyna the bag with her sandwich in it. "You can go back to your paperwork after eating this. I'll be eating your jellybeans while you do."

"You can have five and only five," Reyna stated. She sat down on the table and grabbed a file. Reyna opened it and sighed. Nico grabbed the bowl of jellybeans, and out of curiosity, he glanced at the file in Reyna's hands. It was written in Latin, but he was definitely able to see Chiron's name on a few different lines. That was odd. "It's nothing bad."

"How did you know that was what I was wondering?" Nico asked. Reyna smirked and didn't answer. She signed her name and closed the file. Reyna grabbed a handful of jellybeans and stuffed them into her mouth. "How can you eat all of them like that? You can't mix flavors."

"Not with that attitude," Reyna said, with a mouthful of jellybeans. She opened another file, glanced at it, and threw it onto a chair. There was a nice pile of folders collecting on the chair, and something told Nico that the chair belonged to Frank, and the son of Mars would be having a long night. "Frank can do the rest. I'm go to introduce you to the best dessert in the world."

"I'll have to tell Sally you said that," Nico commented. Reyna rolled her eyes and stood. She motioned for Nico to follow. Nico smiled to himself. It seemed like Reyna was beginning to forgive herself for what had happened and was beginning to get back to her normal self, and for Nico, that was all that mattered.