I'm hoping you guys are liking Seb as a character!

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters portrayed below.

What about Angels

VI

I Don't Care About Fair

"That could have gone worst," a tiny voice croaked.

Seb turned around. He'd fallen asleep on the armchair, himself. The irregular hospital hours were messing with his system, but usually he was able to keep Reyna from noticing.

"Talking with your friends?" Seb said switching to Spanish, a much more comfortable language for an uncomfortable situation. "I suppose."

Reyna closed her eyes and sighed deeply. "I didn't know Jason was going to react that way."

"You've known him since... my God, I don't even know how long you've known him since," Seb said. "I don't even know how deep this friendship runs. But he's not going to just be okay with this kind of news."

I wasn't, Seb thought.

"I mean that I didn't know that he'd try saving me within ten seconds of finding out I was dying." Reyna said.

"Why are you so surprised?" Seb said. "You'd do it for him."

"I didn't think he'd make the link between the gift and this," Reyna said. "I hadn't. And now he's going to go and do something idiotic and I'm going to have to stop him…"

"You'd never told me about it," Seb said. "About the gift."

"We never told anyone," Reyna said. She took a deep breath and her eyebrows fluttered. "Romans don't like magic."

"We don't have to talk about it, it's exhausting you," Seb said.

"Babe, everything does," Reyna said. She smiled and reached out for Seb's hand. Surely, it was a reassuring smile. But Reyna didn't smile for shits and giggles and appearances, so to Seb the smile was vain and just another sign of how tired and sick Reyna really was.

Seb still wasn't sure how he was reacting to the news of Reyna's illness, or how he was supposed to react, period.

For months he'd watched Reyna spiral and he'd thought that he'd be relieved when they finally found the right doctor that would put the right name on her problem. Of course, now that that Dr Solace had intervened, Seb's entire life had become a routine of Reyna doing something that was either so endearing or so familiar that anxiety shot through Seb as he wondered what he'd do without her one day. But he wasn't sure he rather not know either. At least now he knew that he had to condense years and years of treasuring Reyna into a few weeks.

He was definitely doing worse than Reyna was at any rate, which was ironic since she was the dying one. Then again, when Reyna had told Seb about her half-blood status, she told him that every single day she died a bit since every single day she got closer to the one monster she couldn't beat, the attack she wouldn't see coming... He wondered if she was disappointed that that attack came from within. That maybe she was upset about being told to lay down her arms and settle into her death instead of having them pried out of her cold, dead hands. Seb wondered if it was some kind of disgusting relief to be sure, now, of what her life would bring.

These were the kinds of questions that Seb had about Reyna, in his neverending quest to understand the woman who had somehow wandered into his life.

"We can't just put off conversations because they exhaust me," Reyna said.

"Okay," Seb said. "Here's another one you didn't finish last time I asked. Will you marry me?"

Reyna's fake-smile dropped.

"You don't have to be gentle with me," Seb said. "I want the Reyna I know, and that girl didn't lie. Ever."

"Fine. Then I won't marry you," Reyna said, "because you'd be a widower weeks after. That's not fair."

"I don't care about fair," Seb said. Truly, he didn't. He'd done his time in the marine- he'd seen things and heard things. He ran a dog rescue and refused to believed that beaten up, abandoned, starved, blood-lusting animals weren't a sign that humanity was going downhill. 'Fair' was overrated and he hated using it. He always felt like a child when he shouted into the void to demand his share of happiness or success or peace; a child who hadn't quite figured out that he was asking for something impossible from a fake Santa Clause and a stuffed Easter Bunny.

But he wished that maybe he'd have gotten the chance to hold onto Reyna for a bit more time. He certainly couldn't blame Jason for wanting to keep Reyna alive. When he'd seen pictures of Jason and Reyna for the first time, he'd been sure that they were brothers and sisters. They went too far back- Seb didn't even know how they'd met, but he knew that much. It was easy to tell just by watching the way the two of them were glued at the hips, the way that Reyna was loose and goofy as she posed for the camera with him near, the way they tilted their smiling heads one against another... Seb didn't have any brothers or sisters, but he did love Reyna as deeply and as strongly as he could. When you loved each other like Jason and Reyna did, that kind of hurt had to be similar. Seb understood the look on Jason's face when he'd heard Reyna list off the medical details about her disease, the few extra seconds it took for him to process that it was Reyna in a tangle of tubes and wires.

But he believed what he'd said. Seb didn't care about fair. Seb cared about Reyna and about what she wanted and what she needed- and these were things that she told him, not things he should guess about.

"How's this," Reyna said. "I wouldn't make me any happier to be married to you as I died. I don't think that would make us any closer that we are now. I don't think that's possible."

"That I care about," Seb said. "About you."

"Were you were going to ask me anyways?" Reyna asked. "Before I got sick."

"Possibly," Seb said.

Reyna arched an eyebrow and Seb smiled and kissed her forehead.

"I'll show you the ring another time," Seb said.

"I'm going to hold you to that," Reyna said.

"I wouldn't expect it any other way," Seb said taking Reyna's hand. She managed to squeeze his fingers weakly- but it felt like the tightest bear hug to Seb.

"Try not to worry about that," Seb said. "Try not to worry about Jason."

"I don't know what I'm going to do about him," Reyna asked. "He doesn't listen to me like you do."

"Jason's scared of losing you," Seb said. "That's all."

"I'm glad you're not," Reyna said rubbing her thumb against Seb's palm.

Oh, but I am, he wanted to say. I'm terrified. I'm scared out of my mind, you know,

It was like she knew. Her fingers curled up against his palm.

"We don't have to be scared of the known," Reyna added quietly. Seb could tell by her voice that her body was shutting off for now and she was dozing off. "I'm glad you know me well enough not to fight."

"That I do," Seb said kissing the top of her head. "That I do."

"I'm glad that it means you're with me," Reyna said sleepily.

Jason may have known Reyna longest, but Seb knew how she took her coffee, which side of the bed she slept on, exactly what shampoo she used, which songs she hummed on the radio, what she liked to eat after a long and frustrating day, which sweater had holes in the elbows that needed constant mending, where she'd leave her keys if she forgot them, what kind of ice cream he should buy at the grocery store if it was on sale... He knew Reyna like the back of his hand and the bottom of his pocket and the beat of his heart. And he knew well enough that he didn't know any better than her about the way the world worked and the things her body was doing and the finality of it all. Knowing that was another way of knowing he was in love.