53. Lock

"So," Leo's voice comes from the chair in the corner of the dim room, low and slightly shaking, and it makes Reyna's heart squeeze tightly in her chest, so tight that tears come to her eyes, because he sounds so incredibly resigned. "You're leaving."

"Leo."

She doesn't know what else to say, no other words even enter her mind because the only thing she can think is him, him, him.

The door to her room closing behind his entrance woke her up, and she probably looks like a mess because her hair is a rat's nest from nightmares. He's angry because he just heard of her plan to go to Camp Jupiter tomorrow, and she's on the verge of breaking because she loves him and it's unraveling her.

She gets the nightmares from sleeping in this room of the Big House. From being on enemy territory.

So now they're talking and watching with only the light of the moon from the small window in this room to show each other the absolutely desperate looks they're reflecting back at one another.

"If you wanted to leave so bad," she sees him clench his fists and then release them in a second. "All you had to do was say so. You didn't have to stay here for months, letting me think we were happy-"

"I was happy." She interrupts him sharply. "I- you make me happy. Being with you."

"But you're leaving."

"This isn't my home. No matter how much we both want it to be, I can't stay here." Her tone is pleading, she's begging him to understand. To forgive her. "I'm still sleeping in a guest room in the Big House, for Jupiter's sake, Leo. I don't fit in, I'm not comfortable, the others don't get along with me-"

"Reyna."

Now his voice is cutting. Cutting through her empty excuses which are half lies and half exaggerations which they both know.

"Camp Jupiter is my home. It's where I'm needed and wanted."

There's a sharp intake of breath from where he's sitting. "I thought that I was your home."

She flinches.

"We're too different, Leo." She says after minutes of silence, broken only by the wind outside and the sounds of leaves blowing on trees. "I'm Roman, you're Greek. We can't work, it's against our nature."

"You know that's not true." He says. "Reyna, you've seen Frank and Hazel."

She raises an eyebrow that she doubts he'll see. "One couple out of hundreds? That's nothing. Less than a percent."

"Jason and Piper."

"Name one other couple. One other Roman and Greek couple that are meant to be together."

He's silent for too long.

She closes her eyes in resignation.

He breaks the silence. "Us."

She shakes her end. "Tonight is the end of us."

He stands up so abruptly she starts and reaches for her knife, never quite comfortable with this camp's lack of security towards monsters.

But the only monster in this room, she surmises as she breaks both of their hearts, is her.

"Fine. Your mind is made up and I can't change it. I see that now." He walks towards the door and opens it, pausing long enough to say his last words to her before she leaves. "I hope you have a safe trip home and meet a Roman boy who you find in your nature to be with."

The door slams behind him.

He doesn't come and say goodbye to her the next day.

She plans to lock away the memories and throw away the key, never to be opened again.

(It doesn't work.)