Hey there! Two Leyna requests, so what could I do but oblige? Request couples!
New Rome was surrounded by hills. Nice, tall ones with grass and flowers. They provided a lovely view of New Rome and the battlefields, were a nice place to catch a breeze, and were considered the most romantic spot in the city. It was the footbridge (1) of New Rome, and the place where Reyna both received and returned her first kiss.
The place had a reputation to rival Reyna's but she loved it.
The grass was tall and thick, and although it would have been proper to trim it, she liked the peacefulness of being hidden by the grass.
Unfortunately, the grass could also hide things from her, which is how she ended up stepping on a boy's nose.
"OW! HOLY HEPHAESTUS!"
Reyna screamed and whipped out her dagger, staring at the boy draped across the grass. He didn't seem like a threat, and he wasn't a monster. Just plain old-human- black curls and swarthy skin. Probably Hispanic.
Instead of sending him off to kitchen duty, she dropped next to him, because despite the fact that she almost had jumped out of her armor, he was writhing around in pain and clutching his bloody nose.
Besides, a praetor always took care of her people.
"Are you alright?"
"Just peachy, sweetheart." The boy groaned. Then Reyna recognized him, and she yanked him off of the ground, holding him by the collar of his shirt.
"You." She snarled, and the boy gulped.
"Hello Reyna, your highness." He whimpered the last part, eyes wide, blood gushing down his face.
"You started this war."
The boy's expression hardened and he ripped himself away from her grasp.
"No. It wasn't me. It was Gaea. Why can't you stupid Romans see that it was Gaea all along! Gods!" He waved his arms around like windmills, twitching his eye and stomping his foot and she remembers his name.
"Leo."
"NO! Why can't you guys just see that all we want to do is make friends? Why can't you guys realize that friendship works in war even better then ally's?"
"Leo."
"I almost gave up my life to close the doors! I killed my own mother trying to get rid of Gaea. I gave up friends and a social life to build a flying warship! But no. Once I come back home, it's still the same. I bombed the camp."
He stops when she puts a tentative hand on his shoulder.
"Leo." He sighs.
"Right, right. Whatever." He mumbles and blinks his eyes like he's exhausted.
She smiles weakly.
"If its anything to you, I feel properly abashed."
Leo grinned, rubbing his eyes, and wiping his nose.
"Point one for-Oh. My. Gods." He's staring wide eyed at the horizon. She whirls around to see hundreds, thousands of monsters, marching toward them.
Her mouth goes dry and her ears ring.
"Go!" She screams at him, and they flee, alerting any other demi gods they can find, racing toward their weapons.
It's time for the battle.
...
It's surprising, but they pair up for battle. She's flying Scipicio and he's in his big sleek warship, and they fight together.
She'll keep anything small from getting to him, and he'll keep anything big from getting to her.
Somehow he's laughing, yawning maybe, but with a definite laugh in their somewhere. She laughs too.
...
Leo can't remember how he ended up on the ground, but here he is, bashing in brains and shouting out insults, in a high pitched fervor.
He doesn't register the deadly duo consisting of Percy and Annabeth. He doesn't see Piper knock one of Gaea's officers to the ground with celestial bronze baked hams. He definitely doesn't see Hazel riding an elephant, although he would have liked to.
He's a whirl of blades and she is too, and he wouldn't have a problem with being trapped in alternate universe with her, as long as there was chocolate.
All this is in the back of his mind as he fights.
...
The sun is beating down, and for the first time, Leo can feel the deadly glare of heat. His side burns too, and he would kill for a sparkling water with a paper umbrella.
But no. He had to get himself slashed with a sword, he had to be in the farthest reaches of the battlefield where no one would come for ages.
So much for luck.
He thinks of Reyna in those final moments. Of their short meeting, and of her sparkling, Imperial Gold demeanor. If anything, he'd be the Celestial Bronze, strong and good for work. But she'd be the gold. She'd always be the gold.
...
Reyna doesn't know of this young boy's last thoughts, but she will always remember their meeting, his brown eyes, and the charge in his name that won the war.
Maybe their love was never spoken, but love is love, no matter what the game.
(1) Music Man reference.
Peace!