Fewer than four weeks have passed since the last update! I actually don't feel guilty about how long this took me! Are you surprised? Because I'm a little surprised. ;)

Anyway, thank you for all the lovely reviews, followings, and favoritings, and I hope you like the conclusion to this short story! I know several of you asked for more chapters, but I'm afraid this fic has run its course. Keep an eye out, though—I have at least one more Leyna story in the works that I will start posting eventually. :)

In the meantime, enjoy this chapter!

Disclaimer: I don't own HoO or any of its characters.

Part Four

Leo gaped at the door to Reyna's apartment, unsure of what had just happened. Did he really just . . . just ask Reyna for permission to kiss her? Had he really mustered up that much confidence? Even crazier, had she actually said yes? Had she actually kissed back? And had she actually rated his boyfriend potential at one hundred and ten?

Leo didn't remember lifting his arm, but here it was, poised to knock on Reyna's door. A few inches forward, and his knuckles would touch the wood. Reyna would hear the knock, no question—her apartment wasn't that big—and she was too proud not to answer. He could ask her why she'd kissed him back. He could ask her if she really thought he had that much potential. He could step forward and kiss her again, if he really wanted to. He could—

He could lower his hand and take a step away from Reyna's door.

Then he managed another step, and another, until he was running down the stairs and bursting out of her apartment building. He beeped his keys until his car unlocked and flung himself inside, gripping his steering wheel to pull himself back into reality.

"Come on, Valdez," he said out loud, ignoring his jittering knees, ignoring his whitened knuckles. "You're being ridiculous. So what if she kissed you back? So what if she gave you a good rating? She kissed you in her apartment so you'd feel less sorry for yourself. She went on this stupid fake date with you so you'd feel less sorry for yourself. She let you buy her a stupid stuffed wolf so you'd feel less sorry for yourself. That's the point of this whole night, isn't it? Of course she gave you a high rating. She probably thought anything else would turn you into a pathetic ranting mess again."

He shook himself, jerking his hands away from the wheel and untying his bow tie frantically. "She just doesn't want you feeling sorry for yourself," he repeated, hands shaking as he flung the strip of cloth into the passenger seat. "That's all this is."

He braced his hands against the dashboard and leaned his head against the steering wheel, doing his best to ignore his racing heartbeat. This was a fake date, he reminded himself. A fake date—and nothing else.

But if that's all this was, then why did his chest glow so warmly when he remembered the way Reyna looked when she laughed? And why had Reyna's voice wavered as she told him his rating?

Leo spit out a Spanish expletive, then sighed. At this point, he had no idea what was real and fake about tonight—but he did know he still had an engineering internship in New Jersey, and tomorrow was a workday. Besides, tinkering around with random Styx always helped him think.

After one last glance at Reyna's apartment window, Leo revved his engine and sped toward the state border.

The first week Reyna didn't hear from Leo, she was ticked. After what she said, didn't she at least deserve a visit? A grateful voicemail? Heck, she'd settle for a nicely-worded text message. . . .

The second week, she was worried. What if she hadn't been helpful enough? Was Leo floundering around New Jersey unhappily? Was he wallowing in self-pity or burying himself in work? Did she have to reach out, just to make sure he was still alive?

Then one day Piper mentioned that Leo had called about her car needing maintenance, and they'd spent about fifteen minutes in a heated argument about how recklessly she treated her vehicle, and Reyna relaxed. If he could talk to Piper for fifteen minutes without her noticing anything wrong, then he was probably okay for real. She just didn't understand why he hadn't called her as well.

It shouldn't bother you anyway, she tried to remind herself. It's not like you could ever start dating. There's no way your relationship would last. Venus told you no demigod would heal your heart, remember?

So as the third and fourth weeks slipped by and Reyna still hadn't heard from Leo, she tried to put him out of her mind. She had her own job to throw herself into, after all, and that textbook was still tucked un-highlighted into her bookshelf. However, every time she touched it she remembered that she'd been holding it when Leo knocked on her door . . . and that inevitably made her think of the strangely entertaining night they'd had, and the way his eyes had glinted whenever he got her to laugh.

Worse than that stupid textbook, though, was the stupid stuffed wolf that was still sitting on her couch. Reyna couldn't quite bring herself to bring it to the children's hospital, even though she knew that logically, she had no use for a toy. Annabeth kept teasing her about it too, so really, Reyna should just get rid of the thing. She should . . . but the weeks passed and the wolf stayed put, refusing to let her go back to being alone.

Reyna tried not to read into that too much.

"Reyna, please tell me you'll help me! Five years is a major milestone! And Annabeth's all about building permanent things! If I don't get her something she'll love forever, it'll be insubstantial and unworthy of this hopefully-permanent relationship thing we've got going for us!"

She laughed into the phone receiver. "College has certainly improved your vocabulary, Jackson."

"Reyna! This is serious!"

"I am acutely aware of that fact," she snorted. "You've only been freaking out about this for the last two weeks. But it sounds to me like you've already got ideas. What do you need me for?"

"I have too many ideas!" he whined. "Help me!"

"What even makes you think I'm going to be helpful? It's not like I'm bursting with relationship experience."

"Yeah, but Piper will be too busy making fun of me to actually give me any advice, Hazel will think all of my ideas are great, and pretty much all of my other friends are just clueless."

Reyna couldn't help but remember that Leo's list of reasons for coming to her were basically the same. "Glad to see I'm everyone's last choice for advice," she muttered.

"What?"

She sighed. "Fine, Percy, you can come over. But only because I know you'll just call me again if I refuse."

"Thanks!"

Reyna could practically hear Percy's smirk as he hung up, but she didn't mind too much. After the Giant War ended, Percy had spent months trying to reconcile his guilt over his past mistakes and his stronger-than-ever anger toward the gods with the normal(ish) life he wanted to forge in New York—for the second time. Not to mention that he had been doing his best to catch up on the approximately one hundred events that he'd missed while he'd been literally sleeping his life away, including the completion of the second draft of Sally's novel. And then he'd finally scraped his life together during the year, and Annabeth and he had gone off to college in New Rome . . . and it hadn't quite been the rosy dream he'd expected (too many regulations for Percy, not enough Greek-based architecture in the curriculum for Annabeth), and it had taken another year for him to admit defeat and apply to NYU with Annabeth. It was good to see him finally getting the college experience he deserved. It was about time the son of Poseidon's biggest problem was deciding on an anniversary present.

Reyna mulled over this while she waited for the kettle she'd placed on the stove to squeal, wondering if it was too hot outside for the tea she was craving. Maybe if she dropped ice in it, it would magically transform into iced tea without tasting disgusting . . . ?

Just then, someone knocked frantically on Reyna's apartment door. Percy had certainly arrived faster than she'd expected, but knowing him, he'd probably been strolling toward her apartment complex when he made the phone call. Idiot. Laughing, she pulled the door open without bothering to check the peephole . . . and Leo Valdez burst into her apartment.

"Leo!" she stammered, backing away and quickly smoothing down her t-shirt with one hand. She was painfully aware that she hadn't bothered to make her braid look nice this morning, and pieces were coming out all over the place. "What—?"

"Sorry for just showing up like this," he interrupted, running a hand through his hair until curls stuck out in all directions. "I was going to call, but then I didn't know what to say because I was only thirty minutes away and I didn't know what I would do if you told me you didn't want me coming over, and I was debating the merits of calling you for a while, and then all of a sudden I was at your apartment and calling you seemed redundant. You're not mad, are you?"

"Of course not," Reyna said, raising her eyebrows. "I've been waiting for you to talk to me for weeks! Granted, I wasn't expecting you to show up in person, but I guess you owe me at least that much after ignoring me for so long."

"Ignoring you?"

Reyna stared at him. "You left here at 11:00 pm on a Wednesday night, heading off to another state. Don't you think I would've liked a text? A 'hey, I made it into New Jersey alive' text so I wouldn't have to check local news for car accidents and clues of monster-related incidents?"

Leo's mouth dropped open. "Oh. Sorry, that didn't even occur to me."

"No, of course it didn't," Reyna fumed. "Gods, Leo, I can't believe—"

"Hey, isn't that the wolf I bought you? I thought I told you to donate that to a children's hospital."

Reyna stiffened, and all thoughts of yelling at Leo flew out of her mind. "Yeah, you're right," she admitted, willing herself not to blush. "I'll donate it soon. I just . . . haven't gotten around to it yet."

He frowned. "Reyna . . . it's been a month."

She crossed her arms and leaned back on one foot, looking pointedly away from her stupid couch and its stupid incriminating animal. "So did you have a reason for coming here, or did you just show up to take note of my tendencies toward procrastination?"

"Oh! Heck yeah, I have a reason!" Leo's mouth split into a astonishingly-wide grin, showing off too many teeth for Reyna's comfort. (For her heart rate's comfort, anyway.) "Hang on."

With another impish smile, he trotted out of her apartment. "Hey, Hazel," she heard him say, "you can come in now!" A few seconds later, a dark-skinned girl with curly hair wilder than Reyna remembered appeared in the doorway—and two dogs, one gold and one silver, raced around her and bounded into Reyna's arms. For the first time in ages, Reyna was happy to be overpowered and tackled to the ground. She didn't even mind when Aurum drooled oil all over her hair.

"You brought my dogs," she breathed, looking up at Hazel and hoping her expression properly conveyed her gratitude. "I . . . my gods, thank you."

"Oh, don't worry about it," Hazel grinned. "Leo's the one who orchestrated the whole thing. It's been a while since I visited this side of the country anyway; I was excited to come."

"Still, thank you."

"Save your thanks for Leo," Hazel repeated, winking at her. "Anyway, I'll go ahead and leave you two alone for a while. I heard Percy has an anniversary present to shop for, and he really wants my advice."

Reyna gaped. "But Percy—he said—"

Hazel just laughed and walked out the door. Only then did Leo poke his head through. He looked pretty shocked to find Reyna lying flat on her back, covered with mechanical dog slobber. "I, um, I guess you're happy to have your dogs back?"

"I'm ecstatic to have my dogs back!" Reyna corrected, patting Argentum's head. He let out a mechanical whine and rolled onto his back. Hoping for the same sort of affection, Aurum did the same, and Reyna was finally able to keep them off of her long enough to sit up. "But . . . but how did you sneak these past the landlord? Oh, gods, what if he hears them barking, and he comes upstairs and tries to take them away and—"

"Relax, reina," Leo interrupted. "You can't honestly think I'd bring your dogs back without taking some precautions! That's one of the reasons I asked Hazel to bring them, not Frank. She manipulated the Mist to make your landlord think these are just very realistic dog statues. And I added a button to their collars that you can press to limit the volume they can emit. They can still whine and growl and bark and all that, but not any louder than an average TV plays. Definitely not loud enough to be heard through the walls or anything like that. And then," he added triumphantly, "if you take them walking outside, you can press the button and they can howl to their hearts' content."

Reyna looked at the dogs humming contentedly under her fingertips. "They can stay here permanently?" she asked, just to make sure she hadn't misheard.

"That's what I said, reina."

"Dioses mis," Reyna muttered, and for once the Spanish didn't remind her of Puerto Rico. "You organized all this for me?"

Leo scratched the back of his neck, looking down at her with a crooked smile on his face. "Well, yeah. It's not like Annabeth jumped for joy when she found out that you're going to have two oily automatons sharing your apartment now."

"Wait. You told her about this?"

"Well, yeah," he repeated. "I had to make sure she'd be okay with it. If she came over and banished your dogs from your apartment, it'd be a pretty major letdown."

Reyna shook her head. "I can't believe you did all this for me. Why?"

"You looked so wistful when you were watching that ridiculous dog-walker. I couldn't just let that slide. Besides, you wasted a precious night to go on a fake date with me and help me solve a pretty big problem," Leo reminded her. "I wanted to return the favor."

Gently, Reyna pushed both dogs off of her and got to her feet. "Leo, that night wasn't a waste."

His ears reddened, but Leo just smiled cheekily. "Well, the time I spent wasn't a waste either. You should have seen your face when Aurum smacked into you; that made it all worth it. Besides, your dogs will need maintenance. Now I have an excuse to visit you sometimes."

"You don't need an excuse to visit me," Reyna blurted out, taking a step forward as she spoke. Then she bit her lip, like that would erase her words. What had she said that for?

Maybe because it was the truth. The possibility shuddered through Reyna's heart as Leo replied to her.

"Are you serious?" he asked. "You actually enjoy my company?"

That was enough to kick out the possibility in Reyna's heart and pour some sense there instead. "Yes, I enjoy your company," she groaned. "Don't tell me I have to make another speech about appreciating your self-worth ag—"

"No, no, no!" Leo cut her off. "I didn't mean anything like that this time. It's just . . ."

Reyna crossed her arms. "Just what?" And then she quickly uncrossed her arms again and took a step back because how the hell had they gotten that close together? Leo noticed the gesture and stepped backward himself.

Then he sighed and eyed her thoughtfully. "It's just . . . Reyna, are you ever going to donate that wolf to a children's hospital?"

"What?"

"Are you going to donate the stuffed wolf I got you?"

Reyna stared at him. "What kind of subject change is that?"

"Just go with it," Leo pleaded. "Are you or aren't you going to donate that wolf?"

Reyna hesitated. She looked at the wolf, and then she looked down at her dogs, and then she finally found the courage to look Leo in the eyes. "Maybe," she admitted. "I haven't decided yet."

Leo gulped. "Maybe," he muttered. "You can take a risk with a 'maybe'."

"Um, Leo? Why are you talking to yourself?"

"No reason! I was only . . . only . . . Oh, screw it." He jammed his hands into his pockets and leaned forward, closing the distance Reyna had created earlier. "Here's the thing. I didn't take four weeks to talk to you just because I was busy getting your dogs home to you—although that was definitely part of it. But another reason was . . ." Leo rocked on the balls of his feet, looking down at the floor as he spoke.

"Honestly, I couldn't believe it when you rated my boyfriend potential that highly. At first I thought you were just being nice because I was pretty upset when I showed up here last time . . . but then I remembered that you were the hardass praetor and you didn't do 'nice'. So then I thought maybe you actually meant it. And since I would have rated your girlfriend potential at about 110 too, probably even higher . . . well, if each of us thinks the other has high dating potential . . . then maybe it's not potential at all. Maybe it's just chemistry." At this point, his face was flushed darker than after their goodnight kiss. "And there's a joke about potential energy and physics versus chemistry that I could make right now, but honestly I'm too terrified to say it."

Reyna stared at him. "Hold on, Valdez. What are you—?"

He cut her off with a deep breath, hesitated, and then forged ahead, his words twisting awkwardly between his teeth. "Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano, will you go on another ridiculously cliché date with me? Uh . . . for real this time?"

In the emptiness that followed his question, Reyna considered several paths she could take: Brushing his offer off as a joke, refusing him harshly, letting him down easily, acting like she hadn't heard him. . . . All options that wouldn't make her seem clinically insane—because really, how could she date a guy as absolutely unlike her as Leo Valdez, especially one that had been in a serious relationship just a few months ago? It didn't make any sense. Besides, Aphrodite had told her no demigod would heal her heart.

Only . . . did her heart really still need healing?

Reyna considered this question, biting her lip. It wasn't like she was still pining after Jason—she'd gotten over that crush five years ago. And it wasn't like she felt alone, the way she had while running the legion by herself while Jason had been missing—she had plenty of friends here at NYU with her and plenty in New Rome as well. Most importantly, she didn't feel tainted by her past anymore, worried she would never get a chance at a normal life because of the things she'd done. As strange as it was, she had Blake Lanchester to thank for that. The fact that he had liked her for herself, if only for a month, showed her that she could be liked. She wasn't damaged goods. Even after they broke up, Reyna carried that realization with her everywhere she went, and it made her feel a hundred times lighter.

Apparently, a mortal had healed her heart after all. And now she was free to use it however she liked.

"A date, huh?" she mused, enjoying the slightly terrified look on Leo's face. "Where would we go?"

His eyes widened. "Uh, uh, wherever you want. We could go to, um—or maybe if you wanted, we could see—or no, you'd probably rather—no, never mind that's stupid, we should—"

As Leo spluttered, Aurum nudged Reyna's knee and Argentum pressed his nose to her palm. Their message was clear: You got your revenge for his not calling you, Reyna. Now put him out of his misery. He's suffered enough.

Slowly, Reyna smiled. "It's all right, Valdez. I'm sure we can come up with something. But only if you promise to tell me that joke about potential energy."

If Leo's face could get any redder, it would have. "Well, I mean, it's pretty dirty—" And then all the red drained from his face, and he gaped at her. "Wait. Was that a yes?"

She laughed. "It was."

"But . . . but you don't even call me by my first name—"

"That," she admitted, "is only because I was attempting to hold back my affection for you. Obviously, it didn't work."

"So then—"

Reyna stepped forward and grabbed Leo's hands, still laughing as he stared at her in shock. "Yes, Leo, I'll go on that date with you. How could I refuse, when we have so much relationship potential?"

Yes, Percy and Hazel were totally in on Leo's plan to ask Reyna out, and Percy totally asked her if he could come over just so she wouldn't be surprised when she heard a knock on the door. (But the rest of the Seven were also in it because as Annabeth said, if she let Percy try to deceive Reyna on his own, Reyna would see through him instantly. [What Annabeth didn't know was that Percy really was freaking out about what to get her, and Hazel really did help him pick out the perfect present later that day. ;)])

Anyway, thank you again for reading and (hopefully) enjoying this story, everyone! It's been great sharing this with you. :)

Until next time!

- Storm