A/N: aww man, y'all are some lucky readers. Two long chapters in less than 24 hours! Don't get used to this pace!
Anyways, just a quick reminder that I did warn that this chapter was going to come a bit from left field, but this story idea has been haunting me for a while, so I figured I'd get it out there so you can all tell me what you think. There's not a lot of Reyna fanfic (poor girl) so I could be persuaded into writing one, but only if I know people are really interested. So anyways, read on, and let me know your thoughts!
You will not find love where you wish or where you hope. No demigod shall heal your heart.
That had been so many years ago, and still the words haunted her... Reyna sighed as she looked around the crowded coffee shop. It was a warm and beautiful day in Old San Juan, she almost felt that the gods were mocking her with this perfect weather.
After years of putting it off and trying to convince herself that everything was fine and she did not need to come back to her homeland once more, Reyna finally relented. She could no longer deny the constant pull she felt towards Puerto Rico, the need to see it one last time…the need to lay all her ghosts to rest once and for all.
She wasn't quite sure what she was waiting on, but she couldn't bring herself to walk the two blocks over to her old home just yet. She had arrived to San Juan earlier that morning and had spent plenty of time visiting some of her and Hylla's favorite childhood haunts—it was late afternoon and she had told herself that she'd duck into the coffee shop for a quick meal before she headed out. That had been over an hour ago. She could tell people were noticing by the slightly irritated glance the waitress kept throwing her way—the place was packed with summer tourists and she was sure they needed her table, but she reasoned that she had bigger problems than pissing off some customers.
Reyna was once again getting lost in her thoughts when a voice suddenly interrupted her, "Umm…permiso, me puedo sentar…?" she looked up to see a guy in his mid-twenties gesturing towards the seat in front of her, his voice was heavily accented, he was clearly an American.
"Yes, go ahead," she nodded to the seat, a little uncomfortable due to the fact that it was a small table meant for couples. She wasn't used to people being this close.
The guy set down his leather satchel at the foot of the table and sat down with ease, flashing her a friendly smile; he had green eyes and messy dark brown hair. He was dressed in khakis, with a sweater thrown over his button-up shirt, he had his sleeves rolled up and ink stains all over his hands. He looked every bit like a young, frenzied professor.
"Thanks, everywhere else is taken." He extended his hand, "My name's Remus."
"Reyna," she shook his hand and quirked and eyebrow at him, "Remus as in—"
"Yeah, yeah," he interrupted with an eye roll, "Remus as in the Harry Potter character."
Reyna chuckled, she'd never really had time to read those oh so famous books, "I meant to say Remus as in brother of Romulus." I mean, come on, she was a Roman! And names like that were a big deal to Romans.
Remus perked up at her comment, looking genuinely surprised, "Wow, no one's ever picked up on that. I feel like no one appreciates ancient mythology anymore."
Reyna smiled mysteriously, she could think of just a few people that appreciated ancient mythology, "I guess you could say I've always found the subject fascinating."
"Really?" he leaned forward eagerly, "Do you know a lot about Classical history and mythology?"
"You could say that," she grinned. When had she started grinning at people?
He looked strangely at her, as if he was trying to decide whether she was pulling his leg or not, "What's your favorite classical figure then?"
"Diocletian," she said with certainty, waiting for him to give her a horrified stare. According to Hazel, he was painted as a bit of a villain in mortal history books.
Remus laughed, "Of all people you pick Diocletian? Interesting, how come?"
"His parents were slaves; he worked his way up from nothing to become Emperor. Yes, he might have been a bit vicious towards the Christians, but he was a good ruler overall. Plus he was the first emperor to retire peacefully. I think he was a great example of Roman virtue."
Remus stared at her silently for a few seconds, "You really do know your stuff, huh?" he smiled at her once more and Reyna tried to ignore the butterflies in her stomach, "You know I think I read somewhere that there was a legend that he was a son of Jupiter."
"How interesting."
"…but I have a feeling you already knew that."
She smiled, "Most likely."
"Multum scis auguror?" ah, so he knew Latin, then?
"Recte vos divinamus."
He looked at her silently once more, and it stretched out long enough that Reyna was beginning to get uncomfortable. She opened her mouth to say something when he spoke again, extending his hand out to her once more, "Hi, I'm Remus and you're perfect. Will you marry me?"
Gods above was she blushing? Never in her entire life had she actually felt her face turn red. What kind of person says things like that? Clearly, she hadn't spent any time around mortals, and for good reason! For Olympus's sake she was a praetor, she was supposed to be treated with respect and reverence—no one ever tried to flirt with her like—well like this!
Remus laughed heartily at her obvious discomfort, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" he chuckled once more, "I swear I'm not always so forward."
She rolled her eyes at him in exasperation, but couldn't help the reluctant smile that slipped out, "I'm sure" she said with sarcasm.
"You're not like other girls, are you?" he asked.
"Well I definitely don't get marriage proposals on the daily, so I suppose not."
He laughed and waived off her sarcasm, "Okay, fair enough. So what are you doing in San Juan?"
She tried not to let her face slip into a frown, "I grew up here."
"Nice! It must have been awesome to grow up in such a nice place."
"…it was interesting." She conceded, "What are you doing here?"
"Me? I'm researching, for my doctorate," he wiggled his ink-stained fingers at her. "I've been stuck in my hotel room for days trying to finish up this thesis I'm working on."
"What are you getting a doctorate on?"
He grinned, "Isn't it obvious? Classics!"
A part of Reyna was fascinated, she didn't realize mortals still pursued PhDs in something as outdated as the ancient Greek and Roman cultures. "But then why are you researching in Puerto Rico?"
There was a spark of eagerness in his eyes, "It's actually pretty interesting. I've been pursuing this theory for a few years now that there are several key families that migrated from Rome to the Western hemisphere. You see, Rome took over much of the ancient world, so of course they have roots and influences all over the place. But there are legends that suggest that back then, some families were favored by the gods, sometimes for generations and generations!"
Reyna stared at him wide-eyed, how much did this guy know? "So do you believe in the ancient gods?" she asked with a bit more force than she intended.
Remus chuckled, "No, of course not! I'm just saying what all the legends seem to suggest."
"So you think there's one of those families in San Juan?"
"Yes, exactly!" his voice came out rushed and excited, "I think I've finally figured it out. I've been tracing this bloodline for almost a year, but all my sources indicate that the trail ends here. I even found an address and everything! I just came here to get a coffee and still my nerves before I went knocking on their door. I wonder if they even know how far back their roots go?"
A family of Roman decent in San Juan? She hated to break it to the guy, but there were no Romans in Puerto Rico, no one of Roman decent except for… "Say—what's the name of this family?"
"Oh, right, you're from here, so you might know them, right?" he said eagerly, "Their family name is Ramírez-Arellano, do you know them?"
Reyna shut her eyes tightly and breathed out, 'Of course.' "Yes, I know them."
"Great!" Remus looked about ready to bounce off his seat, "Do you think you could introduce me? It would mean so much to me. I can't wait to prove to everyone that my theory was right!"
Well, in all fairness, his theory was right, and Reyna had been meaning to go out to the old house anyways…She might as well take him. If anything, she figured he was so determined he'd go there with or without her.
"Sure, let's go." She pushed her chair back and gathered her things about her, fastening Athena's aegis (which she always carried with her) around her shoulders. Remus looked at it strangely, and Reyna realized she'd never found out what it would look like to mortals through The Mist…for all she knew it was a fuzzy sweater with bunny ears. But he seemed to shrug it off and stood up after her, eagerly leading the way out of the coffee shop.
Reyna hadn't realized how long they'd been in the shop, the sun was already beginning to dip low into the horizon. She just hoped they wouldn't be stuck in the house for too long, the darkness tended to encourage the lares to come out, and it's not like she had Nico around to tell them to leave them be.
They walked down the street at a relatively sharp pace, but if Remus had any issues with it he kept silent. The more familiar the territory became and the closer they got to the house, the more nervous Reyna grew. Much too soon, Reyna's childhood home stood looming in front of them; the paint was chipped and the plant life was outgrown and wild, but it still had those tall, proud arches that suggested old money had once lived there.
"This is it." Reyna said as she pulled up right in front of the doorway, "The Ramírez-Arellano residence."
"Wow," Remus's voice was muted as he inspected the state of the house, "it's a beautiful home. It looks like no one has been here in years though…"
She turned to him, feeling a bit sorry to see him go so soon, "I'm sorry, I should have told you. The Ramírez-Arellano's haven't lived here for years." It wasn't exactly a lie, so she didn't feel too guilty about it.
He sighed in disappointment, "Has anyone else lived here since?"
"No, the house has been abandoned," she said firmly.
He glanced back up at the house and looked up and down the street; it was oddly empty for this hour. "Well in that case…" he grinned at her and before she knew it had grabbed a hold of the doorhandle and pushed it open, "come on, before someone sees us!" he whispered frantically at her as he waved her inside.
Not wanting to be recognized by any of her old neighbors, Reyna didn't see another alternative but to step inside the house after Remus. "What do you think you're doing? You're trespassing on private property, you need to get out of here!" she hadn't thought the guy would actually break into her childhood home!
"Oh, come on! Where's your sense of adventure? Besides you said so yourself, no one lives here, and no one saw us come in. We'll be fine!" he waved off her objections as he stepped further into the house, looking up at the high ceilings with their opaque skylights.
Something twisted in Reyna's chest as she watched this relatively unknown person look around her home with so much interest, "Remus, I really don't think this is a good idea…"
"Don't worry, I know some self-defense," he winked at her.
'Hah!' she thought, 'as if you would ever need to defend me!' the mere thought of it made her roll her eyes.
"Not big on decorations, were they?" Remus muttered as he looked at the stark white walls, "Holy sweet Jesus Christ, is that Imperial Gold?!" he'd spotted an old spatha lying about and picked it up with reverence, "This thing must be thousands of years old, and it's just lying here like it's nothing! This belongs in a museum! And it's in such good state too, Reyna do you see this?" he held up the weapon eagerly, "I wonder if anyone would notice it was missing…." He murmured to himself.
"You should take it, they won't notice," she said curtly, "now we should really get out—"
But he had already found something else to distract him, "Oh, man, look! A pila! They have so many ancient weapons here. This must be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. How could they just leave these lying about? Do you know what some collectors would pay for this?" He held up the spear, "This looks like it must be from the late Bronze Age, but this, this must be from the early second century A.D., see the markings on the side? That fashion was very popular at the time."
She was sure that had she not been so nervous she would have found his fascinated ramblings incredibly endearing, but Reyna had just caught a glance out the window and saw that the sun had finally set; it wouldn't be long now until the lares came out. While Remus would be safe from the ghosts (mortals couldn't even see them), she knew very well that they could attack her and he could be caught in the crossfire. Furthermore, as praetor, it was sort of her duty to keep mortals safe from these sorts of things…
"Remus, please—"
"Wait this makes no sense," he interrupted her once more as he picked something out of the pile of weapons, "this looks like it must have been from the early 19th century, it's much too new to be amongst these."
Reyna's blood ran cold, no, he couldn't have—but he did. There in his blissfully unaware hands, Remus was holding Pirate Confresí's saber. The very one Reyna had used to murder her own father. It was too much.
"Remus," she said firmly as she snatched the saber from his hand, "We have to go. Now."
Remus finally stopped his excited treasure hunt and looked at her with wide eyes, most likely shocked by Reyna's sudden frankness. "Reyna I'm sorry if I upset you, we can leave if you're really that uncomfortable."
She wanted to say something to assure him that she wasn't truly upset at him, but it would have to wait until they were safely outside of the house. "Come on," she turned to face the door and froze as she heard a much too familiar voice from behind her.
"Where are you going, mija?"
A/N: dun dun duuuuuuuuuuuuuun! As I said before, this chapter may seem a bit off left field, but I've really been wanting to write a story about Reyna but don't want to do so if there's no interest. So if you guys like the idea let me know, this chapter is just a little scene from it that I had thought up.
Leo and Calypso will make a stunning appearance in the next chapter, so don't think I just threw this in here for kicks! (Well, I sort of did, but it ties back, I swear!)
Anyways, please let me know what you think, I hope to have the next chapter out by the end of the week, but we'll see.
Also GET EXCITED because Leo and Calypso will finally get to Camp Half-Blood by Chapter 17. I promise. (Okay, maybe Chapter 18, but most likely 17).
As always, thanks for reading and drop me a line to let me know your thoughts!
******I swear reviews make me write soo much faster. Y'all get me pumped to write when you tell me nice things :D