Disclaimer: I don't own PJO nor HoO, they are the beautiful children of Rick Riordan.


A/N: Hello..? It's me… But I wouldn't be if it weren't for the wonderful, encouraging reviews of yours! I hope you'll enjoy this chapter, this one's for you! :)


Suggested listening: Don't trust Ricky Martin. It's all candy and glitter before you can't stop your hips from dancing with every damn step you take.


CHAPTER 7


"It's ok," Reyna suddenly said, before she could even fully comprehend the fact of the words actually coming from her and not anybody else - not that there was much of a choice, really, with only the two of them on the stools and the bartender out to somewhere in the back, out of sight. And when it actually truly got to her and there was no denying anymore, the actual knowledge of the fact didn't make it any easier to understand, at all!

Reyna realized with slight delay that she was, in fact, frowning, staring at the remains of the colorful liquid in her glass and trying to focus. Why had she said that? Why had she forgiven him and let the terrible guilt of his let go so easily?

Leo seemed to be dealing with the same killing confusion. "What..?" he croaked out hoarsely, swallowing the dryness that was his throat and struggling with clearing it before adding, "Why..?"

Before she knew it, her body had already disobeyed the dizziness of her mind and Reyna shrugged sluggishly, emptying her glass in one go and shooting him a quick side glance before resting her eyes on a wall of bottles of all shapes and sizes in front of them, her hands folded together on the counter, neat, crimson red manicure that was as new to her as it was to anybody else (it had been Piper's idea)!

"I... Don't know..." she answered in a whisper, even more so to herself than to her bemused companion. A single sigh left her right after and with the last bits of air she let out of her lungs, Reyna was suddenly hit with the awareness of just how tired she felt. Tired of the famous professional reserve that was her trade mark to be proud of, but that also weighted upon her like lead armor. Tired of the way her beloved rank sometimes tended to create distance between her and other people, making it awkward to try and force any friendlier interactions. Tired of the cold nights alone in her bed, nobody there waiting for her to praise and soothe after she'd finally got back home from the praetor's office, countless hours of hard work that she couldn't imagine her life without but that was simply too much, sometimes, even for a demigod like herself and not a regular mortal...

Reyna didn't know if it was the intoxication making her imagine weird things or if it was the other way round, if it actually allowed her to let the thick curtain of usual unbreakable demeanor slip off, maybe..? She couldn't know for sure, but...

It made no difference. She didn't care, anymore. She'd reached the breaking point and was just running in the direction of the final line - after that, there was no coming back.

Just for those few moments, all she longed for was forgetting all about the tension, the hardship and just how much strength it took to bear with those. She would most likely regret a thing or two of that evening afterwards, but... Just maybe...

Her tongue flicked upon Reyna's lower lip (Go screw yourself, make-up!) in anticipation of what it felt there was to come, a rare unknown she still couldn't quite name, while the praetor struggled to catch at least a glance of the guy in charge of the bar that could give her more of his helpful fun liquids. Maybe if she'd loosened enough, even her memory would go easy on her, when she woke up in the morning..?

"Well... Thanks... I guess..?" It was funny how quickly the poor state of her mind at the time made her lose the full acknowledgement of Leo still sitting at the bar, next to her... Or maybe it just seemed too unusual that he hadn't yet left when he had been done with what he'd come to her with in the beginning? Either way, when his words reached her ears and went in for a quick, undisturbed tour straight to her brain, it took every last bit of the willpower she possessed not to jump up at the sounds being made merely inches to the left of her. Not to mention that just how confused he seemed, as well, made the two of them a pair of two equally awkward suckers.

How could she have fallen for the image of a heartless playboy he'd been working on for that whole time? Gods, she was falling behind in psychological analysis so much..!

There was sudden snort heard nearby. While Reyna turned and scanned the room for the person in question, it got to her at one moment that Leo was openly staring at her. When she looked at him one more time, hoping to force a challenging, intimidating look of her features, the earlier creases had retreated from his forehead and there was something like a half-smile evidently playing in the corners of his mouth. She had to mentally scold herself two times more for not only letting her sight wander just a little bit too long at a pair or two of curls sticking just about the eyes of his gleaming some in the dim lightening but also urging to examine the curves of that damn pair of lips more thoroughly… Slightly chappy, possibly tasting of alcohol and… What else could they taste like..? Damn.

"I don't quite get why that made you laugh, but… You see, I'm funny!" the Greek troublemaker said in preview to the chuckle that left him before he nearly sucked everything of the remaining volume of his bottle at once, leaving her all too vulnerable to the picture of every annoying cartilage of his voice box that moved in sync beneath the tan of his skin (glistening with little driblets of sweat) to force its contents deep inside his body… Somebody please remind her just why she was still not fighting the weirdest urge of hers to admire Mother Nature's (or Prometheus') genius of human body creation right in that spot and that time, even worse, with him being the subject of her observation?!

With difficulty, Reyna finally turned away from her unwanted distraction, shooing away nasty quiet voices inside her head that longed to make her feel guilty for having reacted so (as it turned out, she hadn't actually been aware of that when it had happened, after all) positively in response to what he had said…

Because why would she keep sulking like that? She was no stubborn kid anymore! Roman soldiers like her were proud and fiercely disliked defeat but when it actually came down to losing the fight, they accepted it without further drama. She had to admit it, she'd lost that one battle. The most random mixture of kindness and positive approach to others (how truly double-edge swords they were!) plus (there was simply no way to deny it anymore, however much she'd have wanted for that to be possible…) Leo's pretty (innervating) fine physique and her own collection of raging hormones… - it all charged her guilty for that good-for-nothing dream and how it affected her seeing of the fire-ruling demigod and there was nothing in that situation that would justify disposing of her frustration by acting so low, being so disgracefully, simply and brutally mean to him!

And anyway… Wasn't it actually quite nice to have a pair of ears to open your mouth to and say all the embarrassing drunk-head details that would become a pack of silence just between the two of them, afterwards..? At least that was what she was hoping for, for once taking the chance without overthinking the decision she made.

"Jason and Piper are worried about you," words left her mouth before she even fully comprehended the fact of them forming somewhere in the back of her head. At first, she thought Leo hadn't heard her, as there was no response from him, not even a slight move or any sound of acknowledgement. When he finally spoke, however, it sounded so natural and friendly, giving off the expression of a laid-back, confident young man denying his friends' overreaction any reasonable source. Of course. It was just way too perfect for her to believe it.

"Really? I wonder why, I'm doing just great!" when he laughed, gleeful amusement filled their ears with the sound of his snicker, but there was no doubt for her that it was just yet another superficial fill-in. Once she'd got the crucial part, Reyna wasn't going to be fooled by his games anymore.

With the stubborn, open gaze of hers, she forced him to look straight into her eyes, onyx black meeting deep chocolate brown halfway and piercing it deep, as far as they could only do without a need for his permission. What she saw there, what laid out there in what was believed to be the windows to at least the outward part of his heart… There was no way to guess just with those few unmeaning moments of eye contact, without knowing him as well as she should have to be able to as much as try to decipher the code to which her access was obviously denied at the moment, but… Something out there seemed to be drawing her in, attracting her attention way more than just a pair of prettily colored irises would have been able to…

Her mouth felt completely dry when she spoke on an unknown impulse, "I think you're ly-"

"Gods, I love this song!" Leo looked away, out of the blue, jumping off from his stool and throwing his arms in the air. One swift turn made them almost perfectly face-to-face, and when his hand reached out to stop in front of her upright form, alarmed with the hasty movement of his, it was more of a parody of gentlemanliness than actual classical elegance, with his back bent all too much and the wide grin on his face killing any of the remaining hope for keeping it truly serious. "May I have this dance..?" he asked in a gentle, husky voice that would have probably made a girl or two's knees go weak and fall straight into his arms (very well-trained!) but it wasn't so easy with Reyna! (It was only an annoying blush, that much she could cover up with the firm grip on his fingers and her chin held high…)

She didn't know why she was doing that. Or why she was suddenly putting off her self-proclaimed duty of getting to know the truth about Leo. Maybe it were the drinks filling the smallest of her blood vessels with every beat of her pounding heart. Or the vibrant Latino rhythm that was just playing. And maybe his primary purpose was to put her off the scent by changing the subject, but that time, the sincerity of his enthusiasm and the amount of newly found energy coming from him made it impossible for her to be able to keep resisting, which would most likely only end up with her being left alone and him off to anywhere more fun than the praetor's upsetting boredom.

"I'll show you how it's done," she challenged, an amused note betraying the strong tone of her voice and making him laugh when he guided her to the dance floor, holding her close to keep her slightly shaky balance from crumbling down and forcing their way through the crowd until he found that one single spot out there perfect for the probably most bizarre dance in Reyna's life - not that there were all too many, she remembered, before pushing the thought away to focus on her companion that was just shamelessly pressing the praetor's frame to his and adding one firm hand in the small of her back to the other's fingers intertwined with her own. She tried very hard not to take a notice of the hollows and hard edges of Leo's collarbone and shoulder under her fingers, nor have a care in the fire in his bones sending warming shivers as far as to the tips of her toes... At least with her high heels on, she was taller than him!

"Estás hermosa…" he purred in a low voice, but before she could react in any way cooler than not having a say to her eyes widening, plastered onto his that were staring her down in a way too disgraceful (only why did it make something whirl in the inside of her stomach?), Leo had had enough of the preparations and pulled her in even closer in sync to the hips and the legs and the everything of him showing off dance skills like she had never even suspected him of having. Maybe she wasn't actually such a great dancer, after all..?

They whirled and moved from side to side, starting off not without any trouble to synchronize two bodies in one form, their shared stubbornness soon kicking in, however, with the two of them both equally determined to prove the upper hand over the other that neither refused to give up. Their eyes didn't leave those of the other's for the shortest moment, but this time, Reyna was so not going to let the passion of his audacious gaze abash her! It was no casual social interaction with a guy she'd, subconsciously, had had the darkest thoughts about, anymore. It was a duel of sensual movement and a fight, no matter of what kind, was just the field for a daughter of the goddess of war!

And so she did her best to be as smooth and tempting as she had long not wanted to seem. It was crazy, a part of her kept screaming somewhere distant inside, but the music kept playing, drilling deep into her brain, and his rough hands kept doing their outrageous job of maybe being a little bit too straightforward in the way they slid almost too low and how they made her spin one time after the other to return to the start – where his smug grin was making her go nuts and only further irking her ambition. Not ever wanting to be any worse, Reyna opposed Leo's wannabe-dominant attempts with those of her own, the curves of her teasing, wreathing and marking his body with their seemingly unintended, prolonged touches matched with the hard look in the dark eyes of hers that she hoped were as much appealing as they were dangerous.

Judging from the rising temperature of his that was not possible to be only due to the physical activity, it was one hell of a good job from the bold Roman soldier!

Still some intoxicated, lost in the beat speaking straight to the core of her, or simply curious what would have happened if she had crossed the line just a step further - when the music slowed down a bit, Reyna found herself unable to stop the words from spilling from her mouth, "You know, it seems that something inside of me actually thinks you're quite… fine, I guess…" Leo's eyebrow rose and if she'd thought that the width of the dirty smile of his had been the limit, she was undoubtedly proved otherwise.

"Fine, you mean..?" he prompted carefully, hopefully getting the meaningful look of hers so that she didn't need to even say those words out loud, the ones she'd given so much time and effort to try to erase from existence. With another flash of easily every tooth he possessed and a courageously low dip that got her off her track for a second, he pulled her close again in the time for the song to change, that time, to accompany them with a slower, balanced piano melody that made it possible for the pair to finally have a decent breath after the crazy dance competition in which the main prize had been found out to had been only the honor of theirs the two had both been lucky enough not to lose.

But who said there was no extra time in that game..?

Reyna refused to look Leo in the eye, and though her arms had found themselves wrapped around his neck, somehow, this wasn't a good enough reason for letting him cuddle completely into her, oh no, she would still oppose the tight embrace of his even then, after everything that had been happening for those past minutes! She could feel the heat of his breath on her skin, her own chest struggling to return to its normal activity, pressed to the messed-up material of the lush shade of red. The daughter of Bellona maintained her pride, not twitching one bit when he slowly leaned forward and whispered in a voice hoarse with fatigue, "What makes you think you feel this way..?"

They were making slow circles in one place, almost not moving at all, and it only got to her like through thick fog that there were probably only loving couples left right then on the dance floor… Not enough to stand down from the encounter of theirs that was not yet finished.

"Oh, you know…" she answered calmly, in a tone as indifferent as she could manage with glimpses of her dream craving to invade her mind one more time, in a time as inappropriate as when she desperately needed to keep all the cool-headedness she could possibly gather not to make his impression of her shatter, reducing her to just another weak girl Leo Valdez The Great had succeeded in turning into his feeble admirer. "Sometimes, when you fall asleep, your brain shows you those crazy things, you know..?" with the last word she spoke so quiet that nobody else but him would have been able to hear, Reyna turned to the Greek demigod, that time, with an innocent, kind smile gracing her features, fiercely opposed to the murky feeling of just what she was making him aware of.

Looking into the warmth of his eyes was strangely calming, she noted for whichever time already, she couldn't remember - like gazing at the flame of a fireplace on a quiet night in the cozy inside of one's house covered in snow. She almost didn't feel it physically how Leo's body was so close to hers, so intimate in the way his thumb rubbed short lines up and down along the line of her spine. The grin of his was reduced to a little mischievous smile, making him seem like a young kid that had broken auntie's favorite vase but that was going to get away with it anyway, that child being just all too aware of the aunt's soft spot for him.

"Dreams, huh..?" he murmured and she was sure his sight had been travelling to the side of her exposed neck even more frequently than before (Somnus had allowed her to get to know that one look very well, after all…). "That makes the two of us, reina…" the last word was spelled with exaggerated care, lazy, thick letters feeding her with all too familiar soft roll of his tongue. She didn't manage to suppress a smile, the image of it paired with her eyebrows raised at him making his cool pose crack, those cute crinkles forming in the skin of his cheeks that, to her, were so much better than dimples and eye crinkles all together. She felt the most urgent need to touch them, and run the tips of her fingers over every imperfection on his face that made him so amazingly human… So magically alive

What she heard in her head were the strained moans and loud grunts, and that well-known hoarse chuckle of self-satisfaction…

Reyna looked away from Leo's face and let her sight wander over the crowd, not really seeing anybody, anyway, sensing the confusion of his in the way his grip on her waist loosened some. She smiled, all of a sudden, and though she could have been easily accused of that, it wasn't, in fact, a truly sad smile. It had only been to be expected, after all…

"How many have you wooed with that one?" she asked quietly, but to no response. They kept making small, slow steps in the teary rhythm, when the Roman decided she'd had enough of beating around the bush and went straight for a direct question that she had the feeling would have been the key information in the case of the promise she had made to Jason. "Leo… What happened between you and Calypso?" Reyna asked in a firm whisper, giving him space and not pushing the answer too much, yet making it clear there was no way she would surrender, with the blank tone of her voice and the reinforced care in keeping her back ideally upright, once again.

For a second, the question surprised him, she knew that from the way his body tensed over hers. Leo was quick to rebuilt the barricade, however, and when he began, his voice was as clear and amused as ever. "She told me she didn't love me, that's all," the words he spoke sounded like another joke he told, unable to keep himself from laughing for as long as to when he was done. It was like an icicle into her heart. "I guess, the loved ones are supposed to leave her, huh? Guess the Fates didn't like me coming back, in the end," Reyna heard him chuckle right next to her ear, and if she hadn't known better what it meant to grin and bear it (or put on a brave face, in her case), she would have surely been fooled by the masquerade of his.

Compassion washed over her in a chilly wave, facing off the radiation of his body that had been greedily taken in by hers. "Leo, I…" she tried to say, but was interrupted right away, with a finger pressed into her lips and a half-mouthed, dirty little smile that didn't make in fully into his eyes. She wondered briefly just for how long he had been practicing that expression for it to be only a tad away from spotlessly fooling.

"Shh, it's no big deal, my queen. Don't make a face like that or you'll make me cry!" the sound of his laughter filled the air and when another lively rhythm welcomed the dance floor, Leo grabbed Reyna more firmly and made the two of them spin abruptly, steadying their stance and leaning in one more time to whisper into her ear, "I just don't seem to be lucky in romance… Maybe it's a curse or something..?"

Reyna's jaw tightened but her companion was lucky enough to notice that something was not right in time to shut up before she would have surely, unintentionally and much too unwillingly, revealed something of the unpleasant secret of hers to him. Maybe they had been having a nice evening together and maybe she had no other way than to admit that he wasn't so bad, after all, but it didn't mean she was ready to trust him enough to tell Leo about the words of the goddess of love that had been weighing upon her ever since she had first heard them those years earlier in Charleston.

"I… I'm tired. I guess I'll get going," she forced herself to smile at him, ignoring the slightly puzzled look she got, and not even having to give it so much to free herself from his tight embrace. (A part of her missed the warmth of his right away. But it wasn't anything she couldn't fight and overcome.) Reyna focused on searching for familiar faces in the mass of dancing demigods, laughing with their friends or fusing with the affectionate arms' of their partners. "I'll just say bye to Piper and-"

"I'll walk you home," Leo interrupted her and she gave him a questioning look to which he answered with a smile so bright she couldn't help but return the expression, "There's no other way than to honor your victory, nimble Dancing Queen!" Leo announced, overly serious, clapping furiously and nodding his head in awe with such a ridiculously puffed up look on his face that she didn't even notice when she started laughing. She didn't know how long it had taken for her to finally calm down, wiping small tears away from her eyes and refusing to validate the right for the haughty, proud smirk of his. She was so not going to give that one to him!

"C'mon, Mr. Agile Hips, let's get it over with," she teased, drinking in the sight of the dropped jaw of Leo's when she walked past him and out of the disco lights.

X

It wasn't actually that far from the pavilion to Reyna's house and the only reason she had agreed to have a completely unnecessary, much too extravagant ride with Nico and Will at the beginning of the night had been because she had missed them so terribly when they'd been away. And so, after a short walk side by side with Leo, who seemed to had completely got back to his usual impish self, with a whole new set of silly puns, smutty implications and smooth compliments in hand, they were standing at her doorway, insects buzzing loudly in the neat fields of grass nearby and a majestic silver shield of the moon shining brightly above their heads.

Leo had his hands in his pants' pockets but his feet made up for the lack of movement, tapping some vigorous rhythm in the stone that built the floor of the entrance. He was most likely admiring the fine construction of Roman architecture, wondering what measures had been needed to complete it – there had obviously had to be some pretty cool machines used! His forehead slightly furrowed and lips parted some, probably getting by not noticed at all, his eyes carefully scanned the columns and marble walls. One sleeve of his shirt had slid almost completely back down, his whole body the best type of weary, the one that only came after having a really fun time. And while his fatigue only added to the ridiculous feeling of some of his actions (she wasn't going to rub it in how many times she'd rolled her eyes at him on their way there), what still drew her to him and what she'd just realized not that long earlier, was the positivity about him, the energy he most likely wasn't even aware of sharing with others.

Easy to guess, with so much time that had passed while she'd been resisting, plus the alcohol giving back it's comfy placing in her vessels to normal, reasonable measures of clean blood, it was becoming significantly harder for Reyna to keep the thought out of her mind how her companion had an impact on her sense of aesthetic… And to make it even worse, it wasn't only about the looks of his.

(She couldn't fall for another demigod. But Aphrodite had never said anything about befriending one.)

Reyna forced that wave of thought to stop and cleared her throat. "So, we're here," she informed him, smiling despite herself when he blinked a few times in confusion and took a while to return her gaze. Almost like in slow motion, she could clearly see every little stage of the famous smirk of his forming, making him return to his usual saucy, flirtatious self. And that fire-like glint in his eyes could only mean one thing…

She had to brace herself!

"You know…" Leo murmured in a voice so low she'd never even suspected him of having the ability to produce, it was almost like a wave of vibration itself, no sound included. He took a slow step forward, then another, until the gap between them was reduced to only a few dozen centimeters. But even the annoyingly loud heartbeat of hers wasn't making Reyna make a single step backwards! Leo's mouth widened into that unmistakable smile of his and if the heat in his eyes could truly burn, anybody not fireproof would have been in serious trouble!

Remembering their not quite decent game and gathering her last, the praetor smiled as sweetly as she only could, letting her eyelids droop ever so slightly and even tilting her head to the side a bit… "I know what..?" she purred, hardly able to keep herself from grinning at the sight of him swallowing hard. Leo shifted even closer, the heat and the smell of his hitting her senses, almost enough to make her lose it... Almost.

"I was thinking…" the man just in front of her tried again, he was so close right then that she couldn't not notice how thick and dark his eyelashes were, and how his chest seemed to be picking just a little more lively rhythm up to match to the frequency of warm breaths she could feel clouding over her cheeks. "Maybe you'd like to see what else my hips could do..?" he half whispered, half growled, finally, and the shivers that run down her spine were probably the most vicious, dangerous enemies she'd had to fight in a long time… If she had moved her head to the side a bit, and lowered her chin just some more, she could have… They could have…

But she had the final counter prepared for the spell of his.

"I'm sorry, Leo…" Reyna took the steps back up to the wall, never once breaking their eye contact and not missing the slightly sulky look glinting in his eyes when she reached out for the knob, opening the door. "You're like a shuttlecock, flying here and there, from one to another… Sadly…" The praetor didn't hurry in her return to him, majestic walk of triumph, just for a moment long enough to whisper carefully in his ear, letting the words sink into the depths of him with the silky voice of hers, "I don't really like badminton…"

It took some time for him to recover but when he finally left Reyna's porch, Leo wasn't able to wipe a grin off his face.


ZJeM, 12.09.15-17.01.16


From author:

To make you realize just how long parts of this chapter have been in my head, I'll write that I thought up Reyna's final pun during an English lesson back in high school, whereas I have been now a proud med school student for almost five months. Adding another five of exams plus holidays… You do the math. ;)

As always, if there are any mistakes in Spanish and any of you could tell me how to make it right, please do, I'll be more than happy to learn something new! :)

Did you like it? Did you hate it? Reviews are like Leo's little happy smiles, you just can't get enough of those! ;)

THANKS FOR READING!


BONUS:

[Just a short draft I found on my phone, the first few sentences regarding the final scene of this chapter. Which I have completely forgotten about. XD Enjoy!]

(19.02)

"That's it," she announced with a tone of regret in her voice, gathering all of what was left of the famous self-control not to show her dissatisfaction any further, however clearly a chilly gunk it formed in the pit of her stomach. The ounces of alcohol she'd got into her system hadn't been enough to make her vulnerable and do anything stupid, or anything she would regret the following morning. And it made no difference how much she'd already opened up to him, it was always the wisest to reveal too little than too much.

She shooed the train of thoughts away and turned her back on the front door, noticing with an inconsiderable delay that her fire-using companion hadn't moved a tad, which was obviously a symptom not to go unnoticed, when it came to Leo. She looked straight into his eyes, almost daring, and cursed herself the moment she did so at the odd desirability to turn away the moment she saw him stare. Not searching for her face in the dim light a small lamp on the wall provided, not simply acknowledging the fact of her presence with his vision. Leo Valdez, the demigod worth calling "The Half-Blood Casanova", was literally drinking in the view in front of him, melting every spot of her that his bottomless orbs wandered over, as if he could already see himself rip those pieces of clothing off her while she would beg him to proceed with choked moans.

And the worst thing? However small and deeply hidden, she could sense a part of herself get a little bit too excited at the thought...

She cleared her throat and straightened, a classic technique of hoping to seem more self-confident than she actually felt at the moment. She hoped to fool herself that her heart beating steady, firm pace and the way her head spun just a tiny little bit were the results of an alcoholic intoxication and not the feeling of his body heat radiating straight to her in the chill of the night.