A/N: Hey! This is my first Leyna chapter story :-) I know the beginning is mostly about my OCs, but I assure you, after a little while it switches so it's completely about Leyna. My OCs are just there at the very beginning in order to get Cupid there so he can...yeah, Imma shut up now and let you read the story. XD Hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: Me no own Heroes of Olympus. It belongs to Rick Riordan.

/*\*/*\

Traci Morgan wanted to put an arrow through Michael Alesuis. Her crush of two months. Also the most blind boy in all of Camp Jupiter, or so Traci had decided.

She had already tried many times over to get his attention: she had deliberately bumped into him when they walked by each other, she had tried striking up conversations to no avail, and she had even sent him a note like 10-year-olds did when they liked somebody; "'I like you, do you like me? Check 'yes' or 'no'."

Of course, it hadn't helped that Octavian had intercepted the message rather than Michael. Nor did it particularly boost Traci's ego when Octavian promptly turned her down.

No matter what the 15-year-old legacy of Venus tried, Michael remained seemingly oblivious to her attentions. Which frustrated her beyond relief. After all, she was practically perfect in every way: pretty, sweet, pretty, nice, pretty...what more could he possibly want?

Marie, Traci's best friend, watched Traci's attempts at gaining Michael's attention with dry humor, even giving her sarcastic suggestions occasionally ("Why don't you try jumping off of Reyna's pegasus in midair so he has to catch you? Don't worry, I'm sure if you have good aim you won't break too many bones. And even if you do, I hear the legion gets good health benefits.").

This went on for quite a while. Until, however, Marie made one suggestion that was a bit too realistic for Traci to wave it aside.

"Why don't you get Cupid to shoot him with a love arrow?" Marie said with a yawn, stretching out on her bunk contentedly. The deep blue evening sky was visible through the window across from her, and she gazed out at the stars, only half paying attention to Traci's moans of frustration. She had heard the rant before, too many times to count. So many, in fact, that she had been mouthing the familiar words as Traci had been saying them. But the other girl had been too distraught to notice.

Marie had only meant the remark as a bit of wit, hoping to calm her friend down so maybe they could talk about something /other/ than Michael Alesius. However, when Traci's face suddenly lit up like a Christmas tree and a radiant smile spread across her face, Marie knew that there would be trouble to come. She quickly backpedaled.

"I was just kidding, T. I mean, how would you even get Cupid to do that?" Marie questioned, hoping to discourage the thoughts she could practically see swirling through Traci's head. It clearly didn't work, because Traci was swift to tell her exactly how she would manage the feat.

"I'm a legacy of Venus, Marie," the girl said eagerly, her eyes shining as she sat up, apparently unable to sit still because of the new revelation. "I bet I can call in a favor from Venus. She can make Cupid shoot Michael with a love arrow, and I can be there right when it happens so I'm the first person he sees when he looks up..." Traci trailed off, staring into the distance with a dreamy expression on her face. Marie groaned and buried her face in her pillow.

"You are so hopeless, T," she said into the pillow, her voice muffled so the other girl couldn't understand exactly what she said, but she must have heard something, although she probably misheard because she said, in the same dreamy sort of voice she used when talking about Michael:

"Yes. Yes I am..."

/*\*/*\

"Hey, Venus!" Traci said sweetly, smiling up at the statue of the goddess that stood in the middle of a temple on Temple Hill. The statue of Venus described a beautiful woman with long, flowing hair that reached far past her waist and bright eyes that gazed down at you as if they were trying to determine who you would look cute paired up with. A small smile played at her lips teasingly. All in all, she was awe-strikingly beautiful. And not the sort of woman you would want to mess with unless you wanted to suddenly be head-over-heels in love with a monkey.

The statue did not respond to Traci's greeting, of course, but she continued cheerfully anyway.

"I'm Traci Morgan, and I'm, like, you're great great great great-"

"Many times great," Marie cut in impatiently.

"-many times great granddaughter," Traci finished. "And I kinda sorta maybe need a favor. See, there's this guy I like, and he apparently is blind because he hasn't noticed me yet, no matter what I do. I mean, I have tried everything but-"

"Okay, long story short, she wants Cupid to come shoot her lover in the butt with an arrow so they can live happily ever after and I can stop having to listen to her whining every night," Marie interrupted again.

"Yeah, pretty much," Traci agreed. She clasped her hands behind her back and rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet as if she were waiting for the statue of Venus to start talking.

Which it didn't, of course.

However, the statue began to shimmer as if it were made of diamonds, and the air surrounding it blurred like air around open flames. Traci looked at Marie, excitement written all over her face. Marie was staring at the statue with wide eyes. A blinding light filled the temple and Marie had just enough of her wits left to tell Traci to look away as a god in his pure form arrived in the middle of the temple, right in front of the statue of Venus.

When Traci and Marie sensed the blinding light disappear, they turned slowly, lowering their hands and un-shielding their eyes.

The first thing the girls noticed about Cupid was that he was wearing a diaper and nothing else. Which was rather disconcerting considering that he looked to be about forty years old, with long, curly blond sideburns that extended far beyond his ears and a saggy face like a basset hound. He was a short man with a potbelly who overall looked nothing like the adorable cherubs on the fronts of Valentine's day cards, except for the bow he clutched in his hand and the diaper secured around his waist.

Traci gave a squeal of excitement and looked at Cupid in awe while Marie only barely disguised her gag as a cough. Cupid, meanwhile, studied them both with a look of bored indifference as he reached his free hand up to scratch at his mop of shaggy blond hair. He yawned.

"Mom said you two wanted me to shoot somebody?" Cupid said. His voice held traces of a Valley accent that was cringe-worthy.

"Yes, sir," Traci said quickly, getting over her amazement at the god. "Michael Alesuis."

Cupid yawned again and gave a bob of his head. "Yeah, 'kay. Lead me to him," he ordered. Traci was only too happy to oblige, skipping out of the temple giggling with delight with Cupid on her heels. Marie, who brought up the rear, spotted tiny little white wings sprouting out of his bare back. She shuddered.

"This will not end well," she grumbled to herself.

/*\*/*\

"That guy?" Cupid asked a bit too loudly, pointing at Michael. Traci nodded, shuddering compulsively and ducking a bit to escape the tree leaves that stuck down her shirt and tickled her. The girl and the god were hiding out on the edges of the woods surrounding the mess hall, where the son of Bellona was hanging out with that graceus, Leo Valdez.

Nearby, Marie was watching, completely un-hidden, with slight amusement, unable to take her eyes off of the scene. It was like watching a train wreck: she wanted to look away, but she just couldn't.

"Now, remember, kid," Cupid told Traci, "if you want him to fall in love with you and not some random passerby, ya gotta be the first person he sees after this arrow hits his rump. Got it?"

"Got it," Traci said. She looked relieved to duck out of the foliage and make her way over towards Michael until she was barely ten feet from him and right in his line of sight. There was no way he would see anybody but her after the arrow "hit his rump".

Marie locked her eyes on Cupid as he retrieved an arrow with a bright red tip from the completely-subtle hot pink quiver slung on his back. He fitted the arrow into his bow and raised his arms, drawing back the string. Marie held her breath, cringing as Cupid released the string and the arrow began to fly towards Michael.

'Well,' she thought sourly, 'I guess Traci gets her guy.'

Except, that wasn't what happened. Because just as Cupid released the string, he stumbled, his foot caught on a tree branch that had broken off of a tree and was laying on the ground, and fell over, crashing into the bushes nearby while the arrow flew off target and, much to Traci and Marie's horror, hit a brown haired girl sitting directly to the right of Michael.

/*\*/*\

"Reyna?" Leo Valdez cried. his expression full of panic. He knelt down and frantically turned her body over so she was laying on her back while he leaned over her face, peering down at her. Her face was pale, her eyes closed. He guessed she was passed out.

"What the heck?" Michael demanded. He gazed down at his half-sister's crumpled figure, his face masked with horror.

"Get help," Leo commanded. When Michael made no move to do so, Leo raised his voice. "Now!"

Michael raced off the get help. Romans began crowding around, talking amongst themselves, staring and pointing.

"Isn't that that one of the Greeks?" somebody asked in a hushed voice.

"Is that praetor Reyna?" somebody else demanded.

"What is he doing taking care of her?" a /lar/ shrieked, looking at Leo like he were disease-ridden vermin.

Leo ignored them all, focusing on Reyna's face, her eyes, the bridge of her nose, anything but the ugly arrow protruding from her leg. But finally one of the whispers caught his attention:

"Why is there no blood?"

Steeling his nerves, Leo shifted his eyes down to her leg. His jaw loosened and his face went slack. Where he was sure there should have been a wound with blood slowly dripping out of it was nothing. Just the tip of the arrow stuck into her skin like nothing more than an abnormally large splinter. No blood. No nothing.

Leo barely had time to wonder at this, though, because Reyna's eyelids were slowly fluttering open. Their eyes met, hers so dark and unreadable, making him want to look at them forever until he understood what lay behind them. He waited for her to make some sort of movement or say something, but she just kept staring at him.

And then she started giggling.

/*\*/*\

"What do you mean, nothing's wrong with her?" Leo said incredulously, staring at the Roman doctor. After about a minute of non-stop giggling, Reyna had promptly passed out cold. Leo and Michael, who arrived a heartbeat later with a doctor, had carried her to a clinic in New Rome. She had remained unconscious while the doctor, a woman of about 30 or so who's name tag read Dr. de Grue, pulled out the arrow and inspected the wound closely. She had declared that the arrow looked to have barely pierced Reyna's skin, and that Reyna would be same as always within a day or so. Dr. de Grue didn't even know why Reyna was unconscious, but she assumed that it was due to shock.

"I mean, nothing is wrong with her," Dr. de Grue repeated. She took off her square-shaped glasses and cleaned them on her sleeve.

"But she's passed out," Leo insisted. "And she just got shot with a freaking arrow."

"Language," Dr. de Grue said sternly, reminding Leo strangely of an old foster mother of his who was probably the strictest woman in the world when it came to dental cleanliness.

"Oh, whatever." Leo rolled his eyes.

Dr. de Gure sighed. "I really don't know."

"What about the arrow?" Michael piped up from in the corner. He was sitting on a stool, staring intently at the red tip of the arrow that Dr. de Grue had set aside. "Who would have been shooting at anybody in Camp Jupiter? Especially Reyna?"

"Maybe someone just had very bad aim when practicing archery," Dr. de Grue suggested.

"No way," Michael argued. "The only people who do archery in Camp Jupiter are the Apollo kids and that Frank Zhang guy, and they all have perfect aim."

"May I see the arrow?" Dr. de Grue asked. She held out her hand and Michael handed the arrow to her carefully. She held it close to her face, peering at it and angling it so she could see every side. Suddenly, her eyes widened and she released a sharp hiss of breath. "Oh, my..."

"What?" Leo asked immediately. He looked up from Reyna, who he had been gazing at blankly as his mind raced.

"This arrow..." Dr. de Grue sank into onto another stool, setting the arrow aside on a table.

"What about it? Is it poisoned, or something?" Michael asked, looking horrified at the very thought.

Dr. de Grue ignored the question, instead looking at Leo with wide eyes. "Who was the first person she looked at when she opened her eyes?" she demanded seriously. Leo thought back, picturing the events of earlier. The arrow flying out of nowhere, Reyna laying un-movingly on the ground, Leo crouching down beside her and panicking...and then her eyes opening and meeting Leo's own for a brief moment before she began giggling insanely.

"Me, I think," Leo said in answer to Dr. de Grue's question. Was it just him, or did the corners of the doctor's mouth twitch upwards in a grin?

"Well, then, Mr. Valdez," she said slowly, "I do believe that you have yourself an admirer."

"Umm...excuse me?" Leo raised an eyebrow at the woman. He shared a bemused look with Michael as Dr. de Grue chuckled quietly.

"The arrow," she explained when she finally stopped laughing, "is no ordinary arrow. It is a love arrow, from Cupid's own quiver."

"Reyna got shot with a love arrow?" Realization washed over Leo like a tidal wave.

"Yes," Dr. de Grue confirmed. "And since you were the first person she saw after she was shot..." she trailed off, but Leo didn't need her to finish the sentence in order for him to understand.

"Holy crap," he whispered. "Reyna...is in love with me."

/*\*/*\

"It's not real love, Leo," Dr. de Grue assured him for the thousandth time. "It's artificial love. More like raw adoration than anything developed over time like real love usually does."

"Yeah, that makes it so much less complicated," Leo snapped. He closed his eyes while leaning against the side of the clinic building, blocking out the sun and the sight of the streets of New Rome. Blocking out Dr. de Grue's sympathetic and yet amused expression. Blocking out Michael, who wasn't bothering to disguise the laughter that convulsed his body.

"Oh, shut up," he was told by Leo, who sounded very much like a whining child. Michael ignored the order and continued guffawing over Leo's predicament. He apparently found it quite hilarious.

"Don't worry," Dr. de Grue told Leo. "It won't last forever."

"It won't?" Leo looked up hopefully.

"No," Dr. de Grue assured him. "For one thing, the arrow was barely inside of her system; it practically only grazed her skin and lodged itself in the edge, away from any major veins and arteries. For another thing, there are ways to make the magic wear off."

"Like what?"

"Like staying away from Reyna for very long periods of time," Dr. de Grue suggested. "If she's not around you, the magic will begin to fade. Granted, it will take time..."

"How long?" Leo asked, his heart sinking again.

"Er..." Dr. de Grue smiled sheepishly. "Somewhere around, say...three to five weeks?"

"Three to five weeks?" Leo repeated in disbelief. "I-no! Reyna's a praetor! She's in charge of all sorts of stuff. What will happen if she's being completely unlike herself?"

"You'll just have to find a way to cover for her." Dr. de Grue shrugged helplessly. "I might suggest telling somebody else about this - somebody you trust. Somebody smart."

"Somebody smart..." Leo thought hard for a minute and then nodded. "Alright. I'll tell my friend Annabeth. She's smart. She'll help me."

"Good." Dr. de Grue offered him a small smile. "Best of luck, Mr. Valdez."

/*\*/*\

Leo found Annabeth outside on Temple Hill, where she was inspecting the temple to Minerva, who was the Roman counterpart of her own mother, Athena. She looked up when she heard him approaching and waved in greeting.

"Hey," Leo said. His hands were jammed in the pockets of his jeans, fingering a few random screws he had stuffed in them at one point. The warm metal felt strangely comforting to the son of Hephaestus's touch; familiar and soothing. "What's up?"

"Checking out the architecture on these Roman structures," Annabeth replied. "It's interesting to see the differences and similarities between their style of building and the Greeks'."

"Oh. That's, um, nice," Leo commented. Annabeth tucked a blond piece of stray hair that had escaped her ponytail behind her ear.

"Yep. What's up with you, Leo?" she asked. Apparently her amazingly smart daughter of Athena senses had told her that Leo was stressed out and in need of her help. Or maybe she just noticed the slump of his shoulders and weary look in his eyes.

"I need your help, Annabeth." Leo poured out the entire story to her. She listened attentively, not commenting until he had finished and was waiting for her to speak.

"Wow," the girl said lightly.

"Yeah. Wow," Leo agreed with a sigh.

"What do you need my help with?" Annabeth asked. Leo felt a wave of relief crash over him. So she would help him, then.

"I need you to keep Reyna way from me," he told her. "Dr. de Grue said that if Reyna stays away from me for long periods of time, then the love magic or whatever will start to wear off."

Annabeth nodded. "Okay...but, Leo, you do realize that Reyna is praetor, right? Who's going to take over for her until she's back to being herself?"

"I don't know." Leo leaned against the side of the temple to Minerva, closing his eyes tight and screwing up his face while he thought. He could only see one possible conclusion, short of Octavian being elected praetor.

"It'll have to be Jason," he decided. "After all, he was the praetor before he got sent to the Greeks and Percy replaced him, right?"

"Right," Annabeth agreed. "Jason will be fine as praetor until Reyna is back to normal. But what will we tell the Romans is wrong with Reyna? I have a feeling you don't want them all to know that Reyna is in 'love' with you." She grinned slightly. Leo rolled his eyes at her.

"Umm...we can tell them that she..." Leo shrugged desperately. "Hey, you're the genius. You come up with some lie."

"We'll tell them that Reyna got a weird allergic reaction to something she ate, and that she'll be out of commission for a while," Annabeth said decidedly. Leo gave her a look of grudging admiration at her ingeniousness.

"Thanks, Annabeth."

"Anytime, Leo."

Leo waved goodbye and walked away down Temple Hill, leaving Annabeth to her architectural stuff.

"This," he muttered to himself, "is going to be a long few months..."

/*\*/*\

A/N: R&R?

-Hyper