Disclaimer: My only children are my beloved scalpel and two tweezers. Heroes of Olympus is entirely up to Rick Riordan.
A/N: Oh gods. I am so terrible, aren't I? The only thing I can say in defense is that the first year of medicine at my uni has been one hell of a time-consuming perfect place on Earth, you know..? ;) (Please don't kill me if I have written that a thousand times already, I really am in love with my life right now! XD) Ah well. At least it's twice the length of the last update… Please enjoy! :)
CHAPTER 13
The day had come. The one that would be the breakthrough Leo had been craving for for so long. The very nervous, yet equally determined young male exhaled, deep and slow, eyeing himself in the bathroom mirror with the strictest beauty eye he could muster and, for what time already, he had lost count, tried to do the impossible and rule over the mess of his hair with a hopeless weapon of a completely usual plastic comb. No positive outcome, it had been to be expected.
The Latino came out of the bathroom, defeated but still not lacking the energy that made him wake up half an hour before the alarm, a phenomenon that had never, ever occurred before for as long as he remembered. More out of the habit than any actual need, his eyes wandered in the direction of the kitchen, but after a moment of a quick analyze, he shook his head in silent disapproval and turned in the other direction to make his way to the front door. His stomach was too tight of a knot to try to eat anything more than a granola bar for breakfast, anyway.
If it all came out well, he'd get something extra for himself at the time for lunch. On that day, he had a strong feeling it would be all extra cream and double chocolate when the Laboratory Science class was over…
In the mirror to the side of the hallway, he could see a very appealing smirk of self-confidence paired with the mischievous gleam in the eyes he'd known forever. "Looking good, Mr. Valdez," he complimented himself, grinning when the reflection-Leo undid one more annoying button of the simple white shirt he got from somewhere in the far back of his wardrobe. Casual yet classy, he liked that!
One last glance and one throw of the bag at his shoulder and he was closing the door, careful not to wake Jason and Piper up with the noise while his thoughts already wandered elsewhere, to the halls where he would finally make Reyna fall for him for good!
X
The woman in the mirror frowned, her features disturbed with tense wrinkles and her lips pouted with fierce criticism. Unlucky, she'd recently been too busy to apply eyeliner every morning, and so on that day one of the lines was a tiny little tad oddly drawn, which annoyed her greatly… Actually, why hadn't she stuck just to the familiar touch of mascara and had had the fantasy to try and make her makeup somewhat unusual, a little bit more special..?! And that wasn't even the worst symptom of her madness…
"This is so stupid…" Reyna mumbled, shutting the door to the wardrobe with some more force than necessary to hide the embarrassing picture of herself in the biggest mirror her household possessed. Fingers of one hand tapped on the other arm while she thought over, for the fourth or fifth time already, if she wouldn't take that ridiculous dress off, in the end! The piece of clothing was very pretty, it was the knee-length, white summer one with little red flowers scattered all over the material, one of the things she'd got from Hylla but hadn't worn more than once or twice in total. And although she couldn't deny she looked quite pretty in it…
Reyna looked at her hand watch and sighed. By then, it was too late to try to come up with another outfit for the day, so what she had on at the moment would have to do… What bothered her more than the clothes itself was the ridiculous impulse than had made her care so much about the effect of how she looked would have on everybody, or – if she were to be 100% frank with herself – on that one specified person…
Since when did it matter what Leo would think of her looks?!
Trying to push the nagging dilemma away, she managed to get out of the house (as soon as she gave her spoilt animal companions a quick petting and they allowed her to go) and walk all the way to her car without any serious interruptions, apart from a few impressed stares from a group of high school boys when they saw her dress flap with a stronger blow of the wind... She threw her bag on the passenger's seat and pulled out to the street hurriedly – though she would have never had it in herself to break any driving laws, as the situation wasn't yet so important to make it worth for the strongly righteous side of herself to be risking a ticket!
The journey, as an activity needing quite a fair amount of concentration and focus, appeared to be a real savior when it came to Reyna getting distracted from thinking about her own bizarre behavior and the challenge that was yet to be faced by her in the afternoon. She really liked travelling by car, with her as a driver and nobody else around. It was her own secret way of getting a quick mood boost anytime needed – she just took a quick ride there and back, using the time in between to get away from her problems, and was ready to get going with anything that she had hold back for then!
When it was finally the time to turn off the engine, Reyna, just for a few seconds, left her fingers clutching the steering wheel and closed her eyes, taking a few extra deep, refreshing breaths. You can do this, she reminded herself. No, you definitely will… And with a small smile she felt forming on her face and cozy warmth filling her chest with strength, she grabbed her bag and reached for the door handle only… Before she could touch it, the door opened up for her and though who behind that was should have been long expected, it still came out as a mini shock to her system.
"Hola, reina," Leo was flashing his teeth at her while wind was playing with the bouncy curls of his and the sleeves of his white shirt, rolled up to his elbows and exposing the firm body-built of his forearms that was so unlike the rest of his scrawny body... Not that she paid any special attention to..! She sighed quietly (just to herself, so that he wouldn't hear), giving up the nonsense denying that one stubborn part of herself still fought for sustaining when it should have been long dead for it not to become too hopeless. She'd had enough of that already. Instead, Reyna focused on trying to calm her stirred heartbeat down…
"Hello," she got out of the car and it was only when a bolt of awe jumped through his face that she realized it had apparently become natural for her to smile at him whenever they met. Fortunately, Leo was just closing the door with his back to her face and so nothing of her momentary surprise about her own subconscious doings could have got to him. Reyna pushed the key button and after hearing two high-pitched squeaks of approval from her black Honda Accord, the two of them moved alongside one another without any further negotiations needed to get to a silent agreement about whether or maybe not they wanted to go together.
The bright Californian sun accompanied them on the way, for some time being the only one speaking its words of light and allowing them to bathe in its warmth while more or less coherent mixtures of thoughts raced in both of the two's heads. Reyna risked a quick glance at Leo but quickly looked back straight in front of herself, her eyes stinging from the lack of blinking, but she couldn't get rid of that nonsense fear of hers that if she closed them, she'd probably see clearly the image of the shape of his pouted lips and the furrowed eyebrows to add to the set of, come to think of that, brown orbs in the deepest shade she'd ever seen in a human being (bears and wolves or other wild beasts – of course! But belonging to a person..?). Was that little romance game of his getting weirdly insanely difficult to resist, more and more every day, every minute spent with him? As much as she craved denying, Reyna just wasn't able to lie at all, even more so when it was about lying to herself..!
"And so it's on Saturday, huh?" Leo simply couldn't hold it in any longer, it was totally against the rules of the extravert part of the absolutely unique mind of his, a nowhere-to-be-found composition of crazy and clever. (At least that was what he believed on the good days… The bad ones? He hoped for them not to remind him about themselves too often…) When he looked at Reyna, his hands twitching in his pockets but he had nothing to play with to distract himself (neither he wanted to do that not to spoil the good impression), she was putting a strand of her hair behind her ear and it was impossible not to let his stare wander a bit when her fingers paused for a moment at the perfection that was the column of her neck… If only he could…
"The contest, I guess? Yeah, just five days to go…" it was Reyna's response that saved him from digging deeper in the lane of thoughts that, unfortunately, wasn't all that innocent not to make his ears burn at the realization of just what he had almost allowed himself to be day-dreaming about with the object of his fantasies walking just beside him and certainly not (yet) approving of themselves having that close of a relationship! Leo cleared his throat and focused on the dirty tips of his favorite sneakers, but before he could have had enough time to do appropriate internal penance for his sin and resume the talk without feeling at all embarrassed, a very inconvenient occurrence came to life, the one in the person of a visibly annoyed Annabeth Chase that had come out of nowhere to grab Reyna's hand and drag her away from him!
"Hey, Leo! I'll be kidnapping Reyna for awhile, ok?" she asked, as if there even was a real possibility that she would respect his eventual objection! "I need her to kick some reason into that big-headed Octavian's ass, ok?" she then went on with the grumbling while guiding her beside herself through the lawn, though Reyna was able to make out anything of the angry speech of her friend's only when Leo returned her apologetic gaze with a small, regretful smile of his and a rise of his hand that asked, I'll see you there..? and there was no other way for her but to nod her head and let her mouth curve at the sight of his whole face lightening up in response.
Of course he would meet her again. It was completely mad and irrational, but something inside of her, she knew not a way to ignore it anymore, was more than just mildly interested in how more fun that day could become, spent with him…
X X X
She was late. Leo tapped his fingers on the table and watched in anxiety as the hands of the clock moved to point at the impossible that was Reyna running six minutes late already… Maybe Mrs. Lupa had meddled with the mechanism..? There was no way his queen would have missed the class, it just wasn't like her at all! What was holding her back..? Nothing bad could have happened, could it..?!
"Hello, everybody, today we're going to- Valdez, where's Reyna?" the teacher came to the class and checked the list in her head, like she always did, stopping at their table and piercing him with confused eyes which would have probably made him uneasy if it wasn't for how long he had known the infamously fearsome woman. When the only answer she got from him was a noiseless shrug, Mrs. Lupa shook her head and frowned, mumbling, "I hope she's not taking the contest lightly, I've seen so many talented ones like her ruin their chances…"
Leo gulped, trying not to let the gloom of the words take him over and make him suffer from the tiniest panic attack. "Don't worry, I'm sure she'll get here any minute," he quickly assured the teacher, who came up to the blackboard to write up their tasks for today's experiments. Wasn't it actually more convincing himself not to give in to dark thoughts..?
"I hope you're right," was her only reply before Mrs. Lupa took a piece of chalk and started using it, speaking to the class at the same time, yet though Laboratory Science was one of the few things in the world that could have ever hold his ADHD in place and make him able to focus and fight any offence of boredom, that time, Leo was way more concerned with the clock above the teacher's head. Seven minutes… Eight… Nine…
"I'm sorry I'm late!" Leo's head jerked up automatically in response to the sound of the well-known voice, like the finest instrument that played the song of relief to his trembling heart. Reyna stood in the doorway, shutting the door behind herself and immediately looking for forgiveness in Mrs. Lupa's eyes with pleading mixed with guilt filling those of her own. The student's breathing was slightly quicker than usual, but that was the only sign of her hurry, as everything else from the neat clothing to the carefully braided, glossy hair to the gleam in her obsidian orbs was absolutely untouched and perfect. He almost sighed from the overwhelming feeling of adoration. Gods, that girl was more like a modern goddess and not another one of female specimen of the human kind…
And the best thing? She did notice his presence!
When Reyna looked at him next, it was a natural reaction to grin at her, feeling as if his chest had been pumped up to be twice its normal size and a few dozen butterflies had occupied his stomach. He motioned for her to get to their table and so she did, saving that breathtaking small smile of hers just for him while she got ready for the class, putting on her lab coat and fetching a pair of protective goggles from her bag.
"Looks like I made it…" she mumbled, not entirely sure if to excuse herself or try to engage him into a friendly small talk before they would get straight to work. She didn't have any need to further explain the reasons for her momentary absence – he was the one Annabeth had taken her away from, anyway. He would have surely understood that it was that unpleasant issue that had prolonged itself and disallowed her to be on time. When she looked back at him, it was as obvious as bright the Sun was that Reyna had just caught Leo red-handed - staring. She cocked her eyebrow in slight amusement and watched him struggle to return to the cool attitude from before.
"Well, yeah..!" he choked out in a voice of a slightly higher pitch than usual, and her eyes stuck just for a little bit too long at his lips while he licked them sheepishly... Then he seemed to have regained some of the flirty composure and added, looking sideways but straight in her eye with an enigmatic smirk curving his mouth ever so slightly, "The heroine is the last one to appear, isn't she?" Reyna had to take full double seconds to comprehend the compliment, he could clearly see the shadow of confusion take over her calm features, and when it finally got to her, the woman of his dreams treated his efforts with a scolding snort and turning to the side to observe Mrs. Lupa shouting at an inattentive couple sitting to their right. The best proof that it had worked but she didn't want him to see! Leo mentally high-fived himself and gave her a moment needed to cool off, though he himself was getting even more pumped up with every single minute of that wonderful day.
The day that was going to become even better with Reyna coming to his house in the afternoon!
X X X
Romantic, dim lighting from a set of candles of a sweet aroma scattered nonchalantly all over the table? Leo couldn't stand the smell of those, but an old, infallible burner would surely do! A bouquet of colorful flowers fresh and delicate, but still not even close to matching those traits of Reyna's? No, those were too impractical, anyway - unlike a whole home lab of chemical substances glistening cheerfully, itching to finally be used! And what about touching violin music playing quietly to add to the atmosphere? Oh no, there was nothing better to work to than a good old playlist of The Rolling Stones - matched with a few classic calypso hits, of course!
Leo judged his creation for yet another time in those few minutes left until his meeting with Reyna (that should have been used for numerous other preparations, like paying any more attention to the necessary hygienic treatment, but whatever!) and as his eyes wandered through the well-known scene, quiet moan of dull pain in the corners of his mouth turned upwards for quite too long only grew in strength.
That was it. The scene for another leap forward. On that day, he wasn't going to rest until he reached a brand new level of tireless effort to convince Reyna that it was worth it to try and let him inside her invisible cloak of interpersonal distance. Not screwing it all completely with her starting to hate him and punching him in the dirt (which he was sure the difference between their fitness would have been able to pull off) would also do, but...
No. It was going to be perfect. It had to.
Leo sighed shakily, smiling to himself and thoughtlessly pulling somewhat harder on the familiar mass of locks being messed up while he made his way to the bathroom, finally, where it took him exactly seven minutes and thirty seconds to throw a bucket or two of ice-cold water over his head (taking a shower) and struggle not to cover every possible surface available in toothpaste (brushing his teeth) - as Reyna would most likely excuse herself to calm herself down due the overwhelming effect of his charm on her and he was so not failing because of poor housekeeping! That, plus he changed his shirt into a plain, red T-shirt, not to send destruction upon one of the finest pieces of clothing he owned, during experiments. Who knew how soon he would have to dress smart next time, like when his future date would no longer oppose an invitation to a restaurant any fancier than Taíno's!
One or two more calming breaths and a cautious inspection of the promising gleam of determination in his eyes. Leo watched as familiar grin spread on his face.
He was ready.
X
Reyna stepped out of her car, parked neatly along the pavement just in front of the address Leo had scribbled down for her earlier. It was rather surprising to find herself in a less busy neighborhood like that, as it wasn't actually that far from the city centre. That piece of Earth would just never stop having its secrets to be discovered by her, would it? Out of the habit, her fingers clenched the strap of her bag as her eyes wandered over the house painted a reasonable shade of blue. She now understood perfectly why Jason had chosen that place, out of any other location his dad's money would have allowed him to live in – if there were anybody that matched that warming calm just about perfectly, that were the youngest child of the Grace family…
Oh no, she knew exactly where that kind of thoughts would take her to! Reyna forced herself to stop going soft on her past – because anything more than friendly liking, any other feelings she had once had for him, it was all a closed chapter and she had no intention of casually remembering that chilly cold of rejection that had not even been quite it, he had never even realized she… No. She wasn't going to be that pitiful little girl anymore.
Funny how life finally made her come to see his new apartment for the first time, but it had absolutely nothing to do with Jason. Leo was waiting for her inside.
The door bell rang soundly when she pressed the respective button cautiously, and she could soon hear muffled rumbling coming from behind the door, most likely hitting a few pieces of furniture on his way there and following those with a spit of curses under his breath coming from Leo. Before she fully realized, a small smile curved Reyna's lips, and just in time for her host to turn the knob and let the two of them pause in awkward silence for an appropriately long while before he got a hold of himself and nearly shoved her inside, not quite meeting her eyes in the process. She didn't mind. What if he had, and that had allowed him to see that nasty blush she felt had crept its way too high up her neck?!
"Soo… This is it. My kind of kingdom," Leo cleared his throat and moved to the side to let her enter his home lab. Gods, he surely had actually come out quite smoothly of that weird situation at the door, hadn't he?! And it wasn't even that he hadn't seen her earlier, yet it had turned out that his encounter with Reyna at the university had made him no better prepared for what it would feel like to greet her in a place much more private, more intimate… It was his territory right now and somewhat, a part of him must have felt endangered, like she had come too close and the ugly side of him had been exposed accordingly... Gods, Leo really hated it when his self-consciousness tried kicking-in out of the blue, depriving him of slightest chances for success!
But no, he closed his eyes for a second and when he opened them, they automatically found their way to Reyna's back, the braid curving alongside the line of her spine and responding almost unnoticed to the slight movement of her head as her eyes scanned the equipment and the rest of the room. One way or another, staring at her like that made a new spark of determination ignite inside Leo's chest and when he walked up to meet with her at the edge of one of two tables present there, the best of his friendly smirks was back in place, ready to sweep the floor in the dance of affection!
"How do you like it?" he asked when Reyna returned the expectant look she felt Leo was giving her, motioning for the bottles in front of her. Truth be told, she was impressed. She had no idea how much time and money it took for him to collect everything that she had yet noted – from acids to bases and organic compounds, no crucial element was missing, with the addition of a few extras she herself had only had the occasion to use only a few times throughout her scientific career. And as she found no convincing contraindications to openly signaling her awe to him, the student sent her companion a gleeful smile, only somewhat able not to reveal the full force of the warm flame of excitement that had been growing inside of her. It didn't escape her attention how his dark orbs glistened with new light when hers didn't leave them for a while she prolonged subconsciously… Or maybe Reyna actually was at least half aware of the fact..?
"I love it, actually," she informed him, simple as that, but it was enough to make Leo's heart make a double front flip finished with perfect landing somewhere way above its proper placing and more in the direction of his throat. But it had probably more to do with how her eyes narrowed so sweetly when she was smiling at him like that… Reyna's beauty was already too tough to handle when she was being serious. When she was happy, even if only that much and when it most likely had to do with his belongings and not Leo himself – it was simply impossible to stay calm. And yet there he was, having to force his brain not to give up right away, which would most likely leave him completely vulnerable to sure defeat - that was absolutely out of question, of course.
It was way too unbearable to break their eye contact just yet, especially when it was her who had started it, but if he were even to dream of another stage, casualties had to be suffered! Leo reached for his coat lab and swiftly threw it over his back.
"Can I have this reaction then, señorita..?" he joked and when Reyna responded with a snort, Leo couldn't help but find himself grinning one more time.
X
"We're almost done with that one, I'll just fetch a new flask from out there and…" Leo trailed off, bending down to reach the lower cupboard and she had no idea why that happened or what The Fates were so stubbornly trying to prove to her, but it was yet another time Reyna's eyes found themselves glued to a… well, specific part of the back of his body… And the worst part of it all was that, like with the mass of his hair bouncing while Leo's shoulders cheerfully gave in to the rhythm, or the strength of his arms brushing accidentally over hers when they worked together so well, like she had long not been able to create physical pieces of pure chemical knowledge with anybody else – she was slowly finding herself not caring about those, at all, enjoying still felt like a way too bold of a word to use, but…
The time they had been spending together, the shorter and longer talks they had had, his poor jokes and more and more frequent times she had actually found them funny… Reyna was gradually beginning to realize how much more comfortable she had been becoming around him and how pleasant that feeling actually was…
Leo straightened his back and put the container he'd been searching for on the counter, casually wiping his hands in his coat. He surely had noted her lack of spontaneous reaction, and with a single eyebrow risen, he prompted, amusement coating the tone of his voice, "It's only you I'm waiting for, Reyna..?"
The woman in question smiled to herself. "Yeah…" she muttered, taking a leisure, yet firm step his side, "I know…"
ZJeM, 31.07.15-26.03.16
From author:
For this update, please thank the fabulous o Mischief Managed and her absolute perfection of "Amber Ashes" I have been catching on. And if you haven't swallowed that masterpiece whole in one sitting already, GO AND BATHE IN THE WONDER OF MARVELOUS LEYNA!
Anyway, if it all goes the way I see it in my head now, the next chapter could get pretty interesting… Or the second after that, we'll see. ;) Let's just keep our fingers crossed that it won't be another year until we meet again for a new chapter, right?
THANKS FOR READING!
