A/N: Bet you didn't expect to see this update again! I hope you enjoy this final installment of The Rumor of Us - a peek into Reyna and Piper as they are once they've gotten together. I appreciate all my readers so much - this story is so important to me, and the fact that others have enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it warms my heart. And now, the finale.

The car ride is hell. Reyna's antsy and uncomfortable and overly excited just thinking seeing Piper again for the first time since the semester ended.

Piper invited her over for a week since her Dad was gone ("I just don't want to be alone in his giant house, okay?" "We're dating now, you idiot, you're allowed to miss me." "Oh. Right.") and Reyna was pretty sure they weren't going to be leaving the house for the five days Reyna was there.

She parks her dad's sedan in the driveway of a pseudo-mansion (Piper had to literally buzz her in – what the hell is she dating, anyway?) and takes a deep breath as she gets up and grabs her bag to walk into Piper's house.

"Hello, stud," says a very familiar voice from behind the door. It swings open on its own, revealing Piper in a very interesting little elf outfit that leaves absolutely nothing to the imagination.

"Holy sweet god," says Reyna, and she finds herself forcing her eyes away from Piper's chest, only slightly covered by this bright red and green lace bra. It's basically see through.

Also, it's basically awesome.

Piper grins at Reyna. "Merry Christmas. You order a –" All of a sudden, she yawns so wide she almost loses her balance. " – an elf o gram?"

Reyna can't help but laugh, leaning in to kiss Piper lightly. It's weird how she can call Piper her girlfriend now. A few months before, she always was thinking she'd call somebody boyfriend in the future.

Just goes to show how much things can change when you meet an idiot like Piper McLean. Fucks with your whole sense of self in the best way imaginable.

Piper makes a small sound of contentment as she kisses back. Reyna can feel her smile against her lips.

"I missed you," says Piper. "A lot."

Reyna's eyebrows go up without intent. "Really?"

Piper nods. "Gimme a break," she says, rubbing her hand against her neck, "this is my first time having real feelings, okay?"

Reyna drops her bags to the ground and wraps her arm around Piper, hugging her close. "I missed you too," but she can't keep herself from adding, "asshole."

Piper whacks her on the back. "No fair!" she exclaims. "You don't get to call me asshole."

"Of course I can," says Reyna, waving it off, "I'm your girlfriend now. But I also get to do this, which I think you'll appreciate more."

Piper frowns at her. "Huh?"

Reyna grabs Piper's thighs and hoists her up, and Piper's legs automatically wrap around Reyna's waist. "See?"

Piper stares at her. "I'm half convinced you just came here to get laid, Reyna."

"You opened the door in Christmas themed lingerie," says Reyna as she kicks the door closed, "I think you had this planned from the start." She walks up to the door, pressing Piper up against it so she can reach her hand up and unhook Piper's bra.

"I mean, maybe," says Piper, tilting her head back to let Reyna's lips reach her neck, "but, like, you didn't say no or anything, so –"

Reyna interrupts her by pulling off her bra and throwing it to the ground and wrapping her lips around Piper's nipple.

She laughs against Piper's skin as she hears her gasp, and following that hears the thunk of Piper's head against the door.

"Okay," says Piper, "I totally planned this."

Then she yawns again, and Reyna feels like it's her duty to move up and figure out what she's doing wrong.

"What is up with you?" chuckles Reyna. "That's the second time you've yawned and I've been here for, like, five minutes."

"Nothing," says Piper, but even as she speaks, her eyelids flutter shut. She snaps them back open. "I'm fine."

Reyna steps back, holding Piper gently until she lands on the floor.

Piper's so much tinier than Reyna, and it's only in moments like these that she realizes it.

"I'm fine," says Piper, and she drops her head against Reyna's chest. "Totally," she yawns again, "awake and stuff." She wraps her arms around Reyna's waist lazily.

"Piper," Reyna says slowly, "did you sleep last night?"

"Sure," says Piper, "go back to kissing me."

"Your head is squashed in my boobs," Reyna replies, "your lips are kind of nowhere accessible."

"That's my plan," mumbles Piper, "face in your boobs and all that."

Reyna laughs. "Come on, Pipes, talk to me," she murmurs, pressing her lips to the top of Piper's head.

Piper sighs. "Canzleep."

"Excuse me?"

Piper groans like Reyna's the incoherent one, and looks up at Reyna. "I can't sleep without you."

Reyna frowns. "Huh?"

"At school, we always sleep next to each other," says Piper, "almost always, at least since that first time in October. And that's when I can sleep." She drops her head back to Reyna's chest, wrapping her arms a little more tightly. "I like it when you're there."

Reyna does her best not to react, but she drops her lips to Piper's head again, pulling Piper closer. "I'm here now," she says quietly.

Piper yawns so loudly Reyna can feel it against her jacket.

"We're going to take a nap," announces Reyna. "Or just go to sleep. It's six at night, I've been driving for three hours." She lets go of Piper and backs away. "We are sleeping."

Piper shakes her head. "No!" she exclaims. "I put on a freaking elf costume! I got into the holiday spirit!" Her voice goes dangerously quiet. "I do not do holiday spirit for just anyone."

"You'll fall asleep before I even get my coat off."

"That would be your fault for having such a difficult coat," and the way Piper says it is so matter of fact, so ridiculous, that the only thing Reyna can think of to do is to kiss her firmly and then swing her up into her arms.

"We're going to sleep."

"I'm not sleeping!"

"We're sleeping."

Piper just pouts. "Fine," she says, "but I'm putting on pajamas or something. I don't think I can sleep in these stupid fucking elf shorts."

Reyna snorts. "Yeah, they look a little uncomfortable."

Reyna goes to take Piper up to her room, and then suddenly realizes just how big the house is.

"Holy crap," she says, looking around. "This place is huge."

"Uh, duh," says Piper, rolling her eyes, "dad's a movie star. They like to compensate for their emotional distance by buying expensive things. When I was ten I got a custom made Rainbow Brite comforter set because my dad forgot my birthday."

"Aren't we a little young for Rainbow Brite?"

Piper shrugs. "I hung out with my nanny's kids. They were, like, twelve years older."

Reyna just stares at her. "You have a lot of issues."

Piper nods. "I'm a wreck. I once stole a car by asking nicely just to get my dad to talk to me for five minutes. And even that didn't work." Piper seems to register the confused expression on Reyna's face. "I am also babbling, and apparently I am much more tired than I realized."

"You do have a tendency to go on when you're drowsy."

Piper halfheartedly hits Reyna in the shoulder. "Now carry me to my room, you heathen. Or probably put me down, because I'm on the second floor and the stairs are really long."

Reyna sets her down and kicks off her boots, grabbing her two bags. "Come on," she says, "let's go."

"Nope," says Piper. "We take off our coats and put them in the coat closet." She scoffs. "Ugh. Peasants."

Reyna stares at her. "Who are you?"

Piper laughs. "I'm sorry!" she chokes out. "I just had to see your face. Nah, throw it anywhere. I don't care."

Reyna takes off the coat and steps to the stairs to drape of over the handrail, and they make their way up to Piper's room.

"I'm going to get lost at least twice," says Reyna, trying to take in her surroundings. She's answered by a yawn as Piper collapses through a door and throws herself into her bed.

The room is covered in photographs. Reyna couldn't even guess the wall color if her life depended on it. She sees her own face, covering a place on a wall across from Piper's bed.

It makes her heart do a bit of a backflip.

She sees Annabeth's face, a moment Reyna's never seen, with her hair all over the place and a pair of green glasses on her face and her tongue sticking out. A photo of Percy, his hands half tugging at his hair as he studies a book in front of him. Jason and Nico, their fingertips slightly entwined, and their expressions so subtly for each other that Reyna feels like she's there.

And again, there she is, half asleep but smiling up at Piper from the bed, with an expression on her face that she feels herself making at that same moment. She doesn't remember the photo being taken, but it's a feeling she's familiar with.

"Oh, yeah," says Piper, waving it off, "I take pictures with my phone enough that I can use them for wallpaper."

"They're awesome," says Reyna, stepping closer to them. "Any reason they're all in black and white?"

Piper shrugs, stretching her arms above her head, and Reyna is made acutely aware of the face that she's wearing lingerie on the bottom and nothing on top. Piper catches her eye and smirks. "I was going to say because I like how it looks," she says, "but I think you understand liking how something looks."

"That didn't even make sense," says Reyna with an eye roll, "go to sleep."

"Not unless you're here." Piper pats the bed next to her.

Reyna makes a big show of rolling her eyes, but pulls off her jeans, damp from the snow she'd walked through, and crawls into bed next to Piper. She considers pulling the big, chunky sweater off, but Piper doesn't have a particularly thick and she's already not wearing pants. She keeps it on.

Reyna reaches out to hold Piper. Immediately, Piper rolls over out of her reach.

"Hey!"

"Oh, calm yourself, I'm getting a shirt," Piper says. She pulls something out of the drawer.

"Jerk," says Reyna. "That's mine."

Piper flashes her a brilliant, sleepy smile. "Yeah," she says, looking at it, "only thing that makes it so I can get a few hours of sleep."

"Sappy, sappy, sappy," says Reyna, pulling the covers up over her.

Piper throws the shirt over her bed and pulls the frilly lingerie off. "Shut up and cuddle me, jackass."

"And there's my Piper," Reyna murmurs.

Piper cuddles up with her head on Reyna's chest, with her arm thrown across Reyna's waist. "Yeah," Piper murmurs, her voice muffled by sleep, "yours."

Reyna falls asleep with Piper in her arms again for the first time in ages. It's the best sleep she's had in weeks.

She's dreaming of Piper's lips against her neck, her cheek, her lips. She kisses back in the dream, reaches up to hold Piper's face, and –

"Ow! Hair, hair, Reyna, ow, that's my hair!"

Reyna's eyes snap open to see Piper's eyes half an inch away. She's wincing.

"Oh," Reyna says, a little disconcerted. "That wasn't a dream."

"Nope," says Piper, rolling over. She props herself up on her elbow, grinning at Reyna. "That was my real, actual hair you yanked."

"In my defense," Reyna says, brushing some hair out of Piper's eyes, "I was going to kiss you in my dream."

"Well why don't you kiss me now?"

So Reyna does. There's something about Piper in Reyna's shirt, big and baggy on her and still so much hotter than Reyna could have ever imagined, that gets her rolling on top of Piper and sliding her hand under that shirt without even a second's preamble.

"Well somebody's got morning wood," Piper says, her voice breaking a little as Reyna taps her fingertips along the insides of Piper's thighs.

"That," says Reyna, pressing her lips to Piper's neck, working in a bruise, "would make sense, if I were a guy."

Piper starts to say something, but she chokes herself off with a gasp as Reyna's fingers brush over her clit.

"Hah," laughs Reyna against Piper's skin, "let's see those witty comebacks now."

"Shut up," whines Piper as Reyna slowly moves her fingers, "Oh, shut up, please, please."

Reyna drags her lips from Piper's neck to her collarbone, shifting to get a better angle. Piper begs beautifully as Reyna works her fingers.

"Oh, god, Reyna," Piper cries out, and Reyna feels her clench around her fingers. Piper's back arches off of the bed, and then she collapses back onto the sheets. "Holy fuck."

"Was that your first time or something?" Reyna says with a smirk, and Piper smacks her shoulder, the drags her down to kiss her firmly.

"Shut up," she mumbles against Reyna's lips. "I told you. I missed you."

"How much?" Reyna asks, and Piper kisses her again, hard and rolls them over so Piper's straddling Reyna's hips. Piper moves to pull the shirt off, but Reyna catches her wrist before Piper can move it.

"No," says Reyna, "you should leave it on."

The look Piper gives her makes Reyna pretty much sure that Piper's going to drag this out for as long as possible. "Oh really now?" Piper says. "You like me in your clothes?"

Reyna rolls her eyes. "Of course I do," she says, "you know that."

"Well then merry Christmas to you," says Piper, "because I've stolen a lot of interesting things from you."

"I know you took my purple underpants."

Piper pouts. "Aw," she says. "You ruin all the fun."

"Not really," says Reyna, gently running her fingers up Piper's thighs, "I think I'm a lot of fun."

Piper tilts her head back and laughs. "God, I've missed you."

"Missed you too." And Reyna pulls Piper down to kiss her.