Hello! Quick favour to everyone: my multi-chapter stories tend to get less reader attention or reviews than my one-shots, so I'm often not as comfortable with them. If you guys were willing to leave constructive criticism in your beautiful reviews, that would be amazing. Am I in character, too cheesy, is the plot too slow, are the memories intercepting the story good at all..? Thank you and enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters portrayed below.
What about Angels
Chapter X
We're Not Fighting the Same Monsters
Reyna had been ecstatic to see Jason when he'd appeared after he'd finished tutouring at Good High School, where he taught two physics classes as a student teacher until January, when his teaching license would be his.
"Solace's shift is over for the day, there's a chance I can escape. I want to go to Central Park before it starts snowing and gets too cold." Reyna said.
"Alright," Jason said. "I know the way."
"Not even a born New Yorker and look what they've done to you," Reyna joked.
"I still hate the snow and I don't like the Yankees," Jason said. "But at least I faced my fears instead of going from California straight to Puerto Rico."
Reyna made her face and opened and closed her hand twice and tapping her foot. "Give me" and "walk" in their secret language.
Jason passed her the pair of crutches leaning against the wall by her bed and despite Jason's waiting arms, she managed to stand on her own without stumbling. She was wearing a black sweater, a long coat borrowed from Annabeth, a scarf, and worn jeans that were grass-stained. Aurum or Argentum's pawmark had been imprinted on the thigh with motor oil.
"Alright slowpoke, let's go," Reyna called once she got her footing right.
They squeezed into the elevator with a gaggle of medical students lead by a pretentious looking doctor who greeted Reyna in a slow, patronising voice when he recognised her. The medical students took notes, which made Jason uncomfortable. The second they stepped out of the elevator, he heard the doctor say in what was probably meant to be a subtle and sensitive voice: Our first case of dynamaryphagosis syndrome in years. She only has a few months left, at most...
Jason hoped that Reyna hadn't heard. His teeth were on edge for the both of them.
Someone gave Reyna their seat in the subway and they had the misfortune of getting off at a station with no working elevator, which meant that they spent twenty minutes scaling the steps. Now that he watched and helped Reyna painstakingly climb every step one by one, he realised just how long these staircases were. They'd always been effortless to Jason, something to be juggled along with a cup of coffee, a phone call, a good book, a game on his phone maybe. Watching Reyna struggle made everything more real to Jason.
"You okay?" Jason asked once they got to the top.
"Of course," Reyna said. "Also I forgot to mention that we're going to a coffee place while Dr Solace is off my back. He can smell coffee on my breath like a bloodhound, but it'll be gone by morning."
"Let me guess. Not supposed to have coffee with your medication?"
"No caffeine of any kind- including chocolate," Reyna said. "The cafeteria ladies recognise Seb now, and they won't sell anything to him because Solace told them. This man's crazy. I'm already dying."
"Reyna, I'm not going to help you disobey the doctor's orders," Jason said, a bit disbalanced by the joke. This soon? Jason wasn't even ready to start figuring it out how to pronounce the stupid syndrome's name. He'd tried in the bathroom while shaving last night, carefully making one syllable at a time in his mouth- like when Reyna had cracked and told him her last name.
"Listen, you and I could go out and be cute in a quality coffee shop with real beans and everything, or I can bribe a first year medical intern for a cup of Dunkin Donuts dish water whose gain won't be worth the pain," Reyna said.
And so they swerved into a coffee shop where Reyna ordered a crazy sounding drink with hot cocoa, coffee and chocolate shavings. Will Solace would have a barn. Jason didn't stop her but she did smile at his disapproving glare.
"You're no fun. And aren't you the one who spent two years with the Greeks?" she asked.
"Someone has to make sure you don't drink yourself into a coffee coma."
"My self-control is perfect, thank you very much," Reyna said. "I'm choosing to disregard it at the moment."
He carried their drinks and they talked and talked and talked about everything and nothing and Reyna's dogs back home and Jason's classes and the last news from New Rome until Reyna slumped against her crutches. Jason caught her before she hit the ground, though the crutches clattered against the cement. Luckily they weren't too far from a park bench, so Jason spread his scarf on the wooden surface and helped Reyna settled down.
She was pale and her eyelids looked heavy. He knew that walking would tire her out, but the full-on fatigue, the single moment where standing became too much… that came out of nowhere. They always had lately, but even Reyna seemed frazzled and dizzied as she leaned back into the wooden bench, taking deep breaths. Jason squeezed her hand until she pulled hers back and promised that she was okay.
Jason went to gather the crutches and carefully leaned them against the bench before sitting down next to her. He was promptly promoted to a head rest. He could feel Reyna crash against him, and she didn't even want her coffee when he asked.
"We're not kids anymore," Reyna said looking at a stream coursing across the park. Jason turned away. He'd even hated the Little Tiber back in New Rome, a side-effect of his hatred of water in general. He'd never appreciated how calm it was.
"That's for sure," Jason said.
"No more adventures and spontaneous trips and sparring or any of that. We're not fighting the same monsters," Reyna said. He took her hand. They were so cold, he wished he had a pair of gloves on him.
Reyna had always been a woman of little words, but Jason had always been able to latch on to the few precious syllables and the half-ass sentence fragments she managed when she was angry. He always knew what she meant. He hoped. He always knew Reyna, at least.
"Unfortunately no," Jason said. He squeezed her hand. "Those I know how to kill."
Reyna's cheek digged into his shoulder.
"I don't know what I'm doing either Jason," Reyna said. "I don't know how to die, I never have. I'm improvising right now. Trying to cut our losses."
"Unfortunately, we don't calculate loss the same way," Jason said. "At least not this time."
"Not this time," Reyna agreed. She closed her eyes. "I'm just afraid that we'll both lose this way. You know, the way you're on."
"I'll lose you no matter what happens," Jason said. "There's no good way out for me, I hope you know tha- hey, stay awake, Rey. Is it time for me to bring you back to the hospital?"
"No," Reyna said. "I'd just forgotten how comfy you were... But seriously, Jason," Reyna said. "You need to stop calculating and scheming, here. That's now why we're friends."
"I'm not scheming," Jason said. "Far from it!"
"You're trying to do something I don't want you to do for reasons I don't see any value in," Reyna said.
"You're kind of biased."
"Aren't you?" Reyna fired back. "Let's keep things simple. Let nature take its course without our intervention."
"You're the one who intervened first when you saved my life," Jason said. "Now it's all hands on deck, the way I see it."
"Then get your eyesight checked because that's not how it is, and that's not how we're playing this," Reyna said.
"We're not playing with anything Reyna, this is serious."
"Which is why we should be talking about it instead of sulking in our corners and forgetting how to talk to each other," Reyna said. "That's like a shadow forgetting how to follow- it can't happen, Jason, it really can't. Not now, not ever, but especially not now. Please. I've only got a bit of a life left"
Jason starred at the creek.
"I just don't want to be the reason you die," Jason said.
"Me neither," Reyna said, smiling sadly. "But this is the crossroad we're at."
They were both starring at the coursing water. Jason could feel his heartbeat in his ears. Part of him wanted to tell Reyna to leave him alone. To let him read up and make his choices because anything she was a part of, he was involved with too. This wasn't any different.
Reyna also looked two seconds away from telling Jason to fuck off, but she took a deep breath.
"Okay," Reyna said. "Neither of us are budging. Arguing won't help in this case, and I don't want to go into offense every time I see you from now on. That's what killed us when we were kids. The fact that we couldn't be friends unless the world was on fire, that there was always something more important than messing around. From now on, let's ask each other before bringing this up. In our secret language."
It was nearly cruel to Jason that something so familiar could be assigned to such a horrible purpose.
Her hands were shaking but Reyna's fingers twisted into the approximate question mark they'd devised as their word for: question.
"Okay?" Reyna asked.
"Okay," Jason said. She was right, as per usual. "You're falling asleep again. It's cold out, too cold. You're not dressed right!"
"I'm always cold in New York," Reyna said. "But I am crashing. Right now I want to go back and lie down and watch a horror movie and laugh at white people making bad decisions."
"Okay," Jason said. "Bonus points if it's a middle-aged white dude who's trying to give his family a fresh start."
"Extra if a foreign neighbour warns them that the house is haunted," Reyna added.
"What if a girl takes off her top for no reason during the movie?" Jason asked.
"You know the rules," Reyna smiled. "That's double the points."
The banter continued as they made their way back to the hospital.
New monsters, same old... He wasn't sure if that was comforting.