Please feel free to put on the cutest slow dance song that you can think of.

Music echoes from the dining hall. Pipes and lyres play in the distance and the lights from New Rome glisten on the water of the Little Tiber. The smell of dry grass fills the air.

Jason Grace should be inside and enjoying the party. It's a celebration for Camp Jupiter in honor of winning the war with the Titans. Instead he stands outside, looking up at the stars. Along with the crescent moon, they are bright enough to lighten the dark streets of the camp.

He breathes in the cool night air. It relaxes him, and he's glad to have some time to himself. Everyone's been swarming around him. Asking to dance, introducing themselves, and shaking his hand. Some people have even asked for his autograph. He can't say he hates the attention. He loves it. But Bobby reminded Jason that fame doesn't last forever.

It's been one day since they scaled Mount Tam and destroyed Saturn's fortress. But it feels like it's been weeks. And that's perfectly fine with Jason. He'd like to forget about the past, and start thinking about the future.

He's so lost in his thoughts that he doesn't hear Reyna's footsteps behind him. His muscles tighten and he flinches in surprise when her hand touches his shoulder.

Jason turns around and finds himself smiling like a lovestruck idiot. Reyna stands before him, looking beautiful. Everyone's dressed in their best. So it shouldn't surprise Jason that Reyna's wearing a white dress that falls to her ankles. He also thinks that he sees silver high heels under her dress, but he could be mistaken.

Her hair is glossy and falls down her back in ringlets. Her dark eyes look even more noticable and fearsome with eyeliner and mascara. The contrast of her pale dress and cream colored skin with her satiny black hair and smoky eyes makes Jason's heart go crazy. He feels dizzy and lightheaded.

"Why aren't you enjoying the party? It is for us, you know." Reyna says.

It takes Jason a minute to find his voice,"I know. I was just getting some fresh air. I mean, you know how the ladies are. Everyone wants to dance with the saving grace of Camp Jupiter."

"Would you turn me down if I asked, then?" Reyna muses, taking a step closer to him.

"Of course not. Why? Were you thinking of asking?" Jason replies cooly.

"Maybe I was." Reyna's voice drops to a whisper. She winks at him, then fixes the collar of his electric blue dress shirt and straightens his storm gray tie.

Jason laughs, trying to shrug off his blush. Oh, the games they play with each other. Where does the teasing end and the flirting begin?

Reyna takes his hand and drags him inside. It's hot and stuffy and packed with people. His claustrophobia sets in and he squeezes Reyna's hand tightly as they wade through the mob. They go to the center of the dance floor. It's much less crowded there, to Jason's relief. They slow dance arms length apart to an upbeat pop song for a while.

"I didn't know that you owned a dress this..."

"Elegent? I do. It was my sister's, from the island."

"Oh. Was it special to her?"

"I guess. It didn't fit her anymore, so she gave it to me. You look nice tonight. The gray suit and tie really brings out your eyes."

"Thanks."

Jason wants to tell her how beautiful she looks. He almost does, but a sudden fear overcomes him and he's afraid to speak because he knows he'll mess up. But Jason suddenly gets distracted and nods a few feet in front of them.

"Look at Julia." Jason whispers.

Reyna turns and bites back a laugh. Julia is slow dancing with Jimmy, a legacy of Pluto and a son of Mars. His black hair is slicked to one side, and he looks like he's pretending not to have a good time. There's a scowl etched on his olive toned face even though his steel gray eyes shine with joy.

If you've ever seen two little kids slow dancing, well, it's extremely adorable. Almost sickeningly adorable. Julia, who is trying to show Jimmy how to dance, guides his hand to her waist. He rolls his eyes and does as she instructs. Then, he holds her hand with his free one and tries to keep his steps the same as hers.

"Reminds me of someone I know." Jason says to Reyna.

"How? I'm-"

"A total bump on a log when it comes to having fun?"

"That's only if I'm stressed out. But those days are far, far behind us. Now we can sit back, relax, and enjoy the rest of our lives."

"Yeah. The dark days are over. I feel bad about the generation that has to deal with the Prophecy of Seven."

"We'll be there to help them out, though. Even if we're in our nineties. They won't be all on their own."

"We were."

"No we weren't."

A slow song comes on. Jason's about to bolt from the room as the couples around him hold each other and sway on the dance floor. Except for Julia and Jimmy, who have gotten the hold of slow dancing together.

Reyna grabs his wrist, as if sensing his flight or fight instinct. They find themselves slow danging together. His hand on her waist and hers on his shoulder. Their free hands are laced together. Their steps are the same and keep in time with the music. She twirls underneath him. They dance as seperate people, but as if they are one being. Gracefully they glide across the floor and follow in each other's steps.

"I thought I was going to lose you, Jason." Reyna whispers so low that he has a hard time hearing her.

"You did?" Jason asks dumbly. His brain feels fuzzy.

Reyna twirls gracefully. Her dress fans out around her feet. She then pulls herself closer to him again.

"Yeah. I did. When I was fighting, and saw all that lightning and those bright bursts of light at the top of the mountain I thought to myself, 'I hope I get to see Jason Grace's face one last time.' and I thought I wasn't going to."

"Did you cry?"

Reyna takes a second before answering with a slight smile in her voice,"Only a little."

"I knew that you'd have survived, even if I didn't."

"How?"

"Well, if you saw me die, you'd probably have killed Krios yourself to avenge me and be driven by adrenaline or something. You're more powerful than you think, Reyna."

"No I'm not. My mom's a minor god. What good is detecting weapons? Or -"

"Throwing a dagger at it's target from a hundred feet away? Or having enough bravery to volunteer to lead the attack on Mount Tam? Or always beating me in duels? Or-"

"Sshh," Reyna snaps, placing her warm fingers on his lips. "Just shut up, would you? You're ruining the moment and seriously starting to make me regret asking you to dance with me."

She rolls her eyes and leans her head on his shoulder. She smells like lavender and jasmine. Jason sighs contentedly and looks down at his feet to make sure he isn't floating, because he feels light as air. Luckily he isn't. Jason closes his eyes and drinks in everything about her. How heat radiates from her in the already hot room. How her arms fit around him, or his shoulder creates the perfect headrest for her. Reyna. Reyna. Reyna.

He could have lost her yesterday. If he had, he would have turned down praetorship and... And what? Without his best friend that he might be in love with, what would be left for him? Friends there to support him, a family with open arms. But far too many memories of her. Wherever he walked. When dueling, or participating in War Games.

All he would see was her. Scipio would probably be passed down to Jason. He wouldn't be able to ride the pegasus without feeling Reyna's arms wrapped around him, or thinking about his arms wrapped around her.

"Ego amare te Reyna." Jason whispers so low that he can barely hear himself. I love you, Reyna. It's true, he does. She knows he loves her. As a friend, of course.

All the blood rushes up into his cheeks when Reyna replies,"Ego amare vos mea salva gratia."

I love you too my saving grace. Jason repeats her words over and over again in his head.

Reyna wraps her arms around his neck and looks into his eyes and- Oh gods he can't breathe. He can't breathe and Reyna's eyes are paralyzing him. Freezing Jason's bones and turning his blood to ice in his veins so he's incapable of moving a muscle.

She reaches up, as if to brush a stray strand of hair behind his ear, but pauses. She instead wraps her arms around his neck again.

Reyna steps on his feet, and he starts to dance again. His feet feel like lead because of the extra weight on them. If Jason leaned about eight inches closer, they'd be nose to nose. If he moved an inch closer than that, he'd be able to kiss her. Why not? What's stopping him from doing so?

Fear. Fear of ruining something that took months and months to build. Fear of losing her friendship. Fear that she won't feel the same way. No, there's something else stopping him too. His reputation.

Everyone would know about the two praetors seen kissing on the dance floor. Octavian would use their relationship against them. Maybe there'd even be a column of them in Nova Romae Times, the daily paper of New Rome. Which is un Latin, of course.

And, now that he was praetor, he couldn't risk that. A reputation like his wasn't built overnight. It took years. Besides, they weren't supposed to be together. Praetors weren't supposed to be together. Jason's heart sinks sadly. He brushes a lock of Reyna's dark hair behind her ear. How could he not be with her?

"Reyna, I want to tell you tha-" Jason starts but is interrupted by someone tugging violently on his pant leg. Jason looks down quizzically. Julia jumps up and down. Her corkscrew curls bounce when she does.

"'Xcuse me. Can I dance with you? Jimmy had to go home 'cus it was past his bedtime."

Great, now Jason forgot what he was going to say to Reyna.

"Sure you can, Jules," Reyna says, then jokes lightly. "Just make sure that you get him home by nine thirty, okay?"

"Yes, ma'am." Julia replies, smiling brightly.

"Goodnight, Jason." Reyna kisses him on the cheek and steps away. Her hand slips from his. Jason's about to tell her goodnight, but she's lost in the sea of people.

"Goodnight." He mumbles. Jason doesn't want her to leave. He wants her to stay.

He feels the ghost of her arms wrapped around him. Jason shakes off the feeling and looks down at Julia, who jumps up and down and reaches her arms out for him to pick her up.

Jason smiles and does so. He balances her on one arm and holds her small hand in his. She puts her free arm around his neck for support as they begin to dance.

"You know that Jimmy likes you, right?" Jason asks, smiling when her face turns as red as her dress.

"No. He hates me. I try to be his friend, but he doesn't want me to be." Julia frowns and he thinks he sees tears in her eyes.

"Oh, that's not true. He likes you. Do you see the way his eyes shine when he looks at you?"

"He was frowning, though."

"Was he? I didn't notice," Jason says."I know someone who did the same exact thing to me when I was twice as old as you are now. The key is to be nice to them. But don't get offended when he starts throwing nicknames out there. You have to be ready to call him nicknames back. Then he'll start thinking that you're not afraid to back down. Kids of war like it when you're competitive."

"Really?"

"Cross my heart."

Jason hums along to the song, which is familiar to him.

"Are you and Reyna boyfriend and girlfriend?"

"What? Uh... I- I don't really know. It's complicated right now."

"Why? All you have to do is kiss her, then everything will be perfect. Or you can make her love potion. Then she'll be in love with you and have to be your date."

"It's not that easy, Julia. Besides, if she likes me I want her to like me for me and not because of a love potion."

"Then kiss her why don't ya? What's the worst that could happen?"

"A lot of bad things that would give you nightmares."

"You don't know until you try, Sparky Sparky Boom Man."

Jason chuckles,"Sparky Sparky Boom Man?"

"Yeah, because you're all BOOM! I defeated a titan with my sparky zapping powers!"

"Okay, now the nickname makes sense."

Julia gasps and tugs on his tie, choking him. He swears he can feel his face turn blue.

"What?" Jason wheezes.

"Put me down. Mommy and Daddy are looking for me and they look mad!"

"Okay, okay."

Jason puts Julia down and she runs away but yells behind her,"Don't forget to kiss her!"

People look in his direction and Jason rubs the back of his neck, blushing, and fixes his tie.

"Thanks for the advice!" He yells back.

He wades through the crowd of people and doesn't breathe until he's outside. Jason takes gulps of fresh air, happy he's not breathing hot condensed molecules of sweat anymore.

Not wanting to go back to his house, he wanders around New Rome. Enjoying life and thinking about what Reyna had said and wondering what it means.

I love you too my saving grace.

She didn't mean that literally. She doesn't actally love him. But she was flirting with him. If she meant it literally, she would have kissed him.

Then why was she flirting with you? A little voice inside his head asks him.

She wasn't flirting with him, just teasing him. Right? Grrr! Girls are so confusing! One moment they're flirting with you, the next they've got their dagger whipped out ready to slice you to bits.

Besides, Reyna doesn't trust guys because her home got destroyed by them.

Jason looks up at the stars, his eyes drifting to The Huntress constellation among the hundreds of other stars. Reyna couldn't love me... Could she?

I know Reyna's OOC and all affectionate, but I figured both her and Jason would probably be high on life just after the second Titan War and stuff.