hey guys!

thanks for all the support on this fic, i love you all. also this chapter is for a special someone who's birthday i missed im so sorry :3

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"Please, Reyna, you know you want to," Percy pleads, stumbling behind the daughter of Bellona in the villa.

His pleas fall on deaf ears as Reyna ignores him. He follows her, hoping she'd see how much this means to him, and then maybe she could acquiesce to his request.

A crash sounds behind him and he cringes. He's sure it's his Atlantean armor collapsing to the floor- his dad's gift to him- but he painfully ignores the strewn mess of silver on the ground and struts behind Reyna. His hand grabs her shoulder and Reyna turns, her eyes narrowed and eyebrows raised in warning.

Percy has a very brief sweat-drop and hurriedly recoils his hand. "Please, Reyna, you know how much I want this."

"Percy, no," Reyna says furtively. "Absolutely not. I can't agree to this."

"No one cares if that's what you're thinking!" Percy shouts. "They're too scared of you to say anything. Just please listen to me for once."

"I already said no," She snaps before turning around and heading towards the staircase, brushing past Percy. The son of Poseidon narrows his eyes in challenge and follows her.

Determined to make her see the fallacies of her ways, Percy increases his speed before the Fates show precisely why they hate him. His toe stubs into the corner of the couch and his eyes nearly bug out of his head.

He shrieks.

Cursing and screaming up a storm, the hero of Olympus falls onto the ground, clutching his toes and wailing in agony.

"Oh, gods the pain," He cries, rolling on the ground. "Oh, the horrible, agonizing pain. It burns. It's not supposed to burn!"

Reyna pauses in her step before glancing behind her and blinking. She shakes her head in dismay seeing the praetor of Rome writhing in pain over a fucking stubbed toe.

Why did she have to end up with this guy?

She stalks towards her fallen boyfriend and looks down. "You know, you can get into a pretty big acting college with that performance," she says.

Percy buries his face in his t-shirt. "I'm not acting!" His muffled voice sounds indignantly. "It actually hurts so fucking much."

"Sure it does, you big baby."

"Excuse you," Percy goggles at her. "Stubbing your toe is one of the worst pains known to mankind. Lord Hades uses it in the Fields of Punishment more often than you'd imagine, Rey. Dare I say it might be even more painful than my stint in Hell."

"Do not call me Rey."

Percy sulks. "You're no fun. We'd both be making out by now and I wouldn't be in a state of absolute agony if you had just listened to me."

"And risk losing the respect of everyone I know?"

"That sounds like a stretch."

"Is it?" Reyna raises her eyebrow, offering her hand to the still sprawled form of one Percy Jackson. "Care to repeat me what you wanted, Percy."

Percy grabs her outstretched and hoists himself up, brushing specks of imaginary dust from his pants.

"I wanted pizza," He says defiantly. "New-York pizza. And you tried taking my choice away from me. Which is both unconstitutional and-"

"No one took your choice away in anything. I asked you if we could get Roman pizza, instead," Reyna stresses, looking terribly unimpressed. "Because we are in New Rome and I refuse to get a cold, greasy slice of pizza when I can get something much better and healthier."

Percy squawks indignantly. "How very dare you," He wags his finger at his girlfriend. "Pizza is not supposed to be healthy, it's supposed to be good! And New York style is the best. Don't you dare tarnish its name by comparing it to that thing."

"We ordered that last Sunday," Reyna grits. "After we had this exact same argument."

"An argument which I won," Percy says smugly before realizing that, crap, he is trying to convince Reyna, and annoying her is not the way to go.

"No, you didn't," Reyna says quickly. "You ordered the food before I could make you change your mind. I would crush you in an actual argument."

Percy pauses as if he disagrees with that statement before taking one look at Reyna's face and then deciding to keep his mouth shut.

"Doesn't matter," He waves his hand dismissively. "The point is that New York pizza is the best and we should order that."

Reyna narrows her eyes and glares at him. Determined to not back out and prove his love for his home city for the final time, Percy meets her eyes with equal intensity. What follows, is a staredown with excessively raised eyebrows and narrowed gazes.

"Let's battle it out."

Percy blinks. "What?"

"You heard me," Reyna smiles conspiratorially and Percy is suitably worried now. "It's still noon and there's an hour till lunch. Let's head on to the Field of Mars and have a spar. Whoever wins decides where to eat in the city."

Percy looks at her suspiciously. "What are you playing at, Reyna? I don't trust you."

The daughter of Bellona rolls her eyes. "Nothing, you paranoid oink. Just a simple bet. Now, are you in or out?"

Percy stares at her some more before he slowly nods.

"Good," Reyna says, pleased. "This will be fun."

"Can I ask for a kiss to seal the deal?"

"You absolutely can."

uh, if you thought that the chapter was sub-par, i can't blame you. i whipped this up in two hours cause i did not have any time to do any writing in the past couple weeks. also, the next chappie will have 'em fighting over their choices of pizzas, which might be a common occurrence in naples, i'd presume.

anywho, thanks to everyone who followed, faved and reviewed, i love you all.

please join my discord and the Emerald Library, both link are on my profile. also please review.

bybye