Trusting By Twizzlers

It was edging on midnight as Jason looked up to the clock on Reyna's wall.

He felt like an old man.

It was Friday night and the middle of July.

July in New Rome was a big deal, it was the partying time of the year. Everyone was getting wasted and getting ready for a long year of working in the army. Jason was supposed to be one of them, out with the guys. It was the only time of the year where he wanted to and could get away with partying until dawn.

But Jason felt like he was about to fall asleep on a pile of paperwork in front of him this July.

He couldn't understand how Reyna was able to function so well without sleep.

Reyna had once thought that about the Praetor that had trained her.

He survived on blueberry Poptarts and coffee alone, telling her that you could train your body to do anything. Though she still didn't quite like him, she admired him and thanked him for all that he had taught her.

If it hadn't been for his teachings, Reyna would have collapsed from exhaustion her first year on the job.

Jason tried to remind himself that Reyna had been doing this for two years and had been training for it before then, but it still annoyed him that she could power through all of the basic human needs that limited him, like hunger, thirst, and exhaustion.

Reyna came back into the office, tapping her foot on Jason's side to wake him up, and, as he snapped out of it, she plopped down on the floor across from him.

"Are you not tired?" Jason asked.

He hadn't really slept in days.

From training to working, he just needed to sleep for the next year or two.

Jason had always thought that Reyna didn't have much of a life, but he saw now that she kept up an amazing social life considering how busy she was.

Whenever he got to his house, he didn't want to call up the boys for a game of late-night basketball. He just wanted to turn off the lights and pass out on the soft bed.

"Of course I am," Reyna admitted, taking a long sip from her can of root beer, and she bit into a green apple Twizzler, her all-time favorite.

They were her secret addiction.

She kept them in the house at all times, and, when she could get away with it, she kept a little baggie of them in her armor when she knew she wouldn't be around ants.

Every Praetor had a secret food addictions.

The Praetor she trained with was addicted to blueberry poptarts.

The first girl who served with him had a problem with Monster Energy Drinks.

And the boy who trained her was obsessed with Kit-Kats.

And Jason hadn't realized it yet, but his Praetor-addiction was coming in the form of grape Gatorade.

"Then how do you do it?" Jason asked, almost pleading to find out.

Reyna shrugged.

She honestly wasn't sure.

She was just used to it by now/

"Well, what do we have left?" Jason asked, ruffling his blonde hair.

The war was another year away, but that was a blink of an eye when you were leading New Rome and the Roman army. Reyna didn't dare get behind on her work for it, and Jason didn't dare question her on that either.

"Orders for swords, which design did you say you liked best?"

"Uh… the pointy one?"

Reyna tried not to crack a smile as she looked up from a status report on the armory.

"The one with the SPQR. With the thinner body. We'll need to have more sword classes though to teach them how to use it though," Jason told her quickly, trying to work through his brain fog, and Reyna nodded.

"I'll get in touch with Emmanuel in the morning, see what's possible," Reyna nodded, taking another bite of her Green Apple Twizzler.

Jason kept his eyes on her and the Twizzlers, and she peaked over the report to look back at him.

She often did this, though she usually didn't know why, but she was shocked to see that his crystal blue eyes were watching her, too.

He was often referred to being just as handsome as the gods they share their DNA with. His blonde hair was always a perfect boyish mess, and those cheekbones had caught the attention of plastic surgeon's everywhere, wondering how they could give that to their clients. And, even if he hadn't had the definition of facial perfection, his body alone could have made him loved by all.

Though he basically did the same work outs as the others in the Roman Camp, it had just kind of stuck to him. People had often said that he should have been Adonis, not Jason. But he had never really thought about it. He always thought they were joking, not that they were serious.

Reyna hated when she noticed it, how absolutely perfect he was.

It was only natural it happened, but she wished it wouldn't.

"What?" she finally asked, and he moved his beautiful blue eyes to the Twizzler.

"You like Twizzlers a lot, huh?" he smirked, and she shrugged, biting into a new one.

"I like them."

"Like shareable like them? Or Touch-My-Twizzler-and-Die kind of like?" Jason asked as he took a swig of grape Gatorade, and Reyna decided to go ahead and give him the warning.

"The latter. Definitely. I don't even share them with Hylla."

Jason raised his eyebrows, and Reyna nodded.

"If you had to choose between dating and Twizzlers, which one would it be?"

"Twizzlers," Reyna didn't even have to think about it, "No one gets between me and my Twizzlers."

XXXX

Jason grew on Reyna, though she didn't care to admit it. And Reyna definitely grew on Jason.

He was slowly becoming a Praetor.

It was actually pretty fast, but it felt like a snail's pace to Jason.

And he didn't realize it, but Reyna took notice of all of it.

Breaking up fights in the dining hall just by one look. Opting to work out a deal with a trainer and be late for breakfast, even though they were serving his all-time favorite food. Finally telling Octavian that, as his superior, he actually did have to do what he said. And everything in between.

If anything, she was actually proud of him, though she never told him that.

Instead, she showed her pride in herself from taking Jason Grace, playboy son of Jupiter, and turning him into a Praetor.

Juno was the only one who made her feelings clear on the subject.

She loved what Jason had become thanks to Reyna, and she especially loved how close they were getting.

Though there were a million other girls that were probably a better choice, Juno had always wanted Reyna and Jason together, and she had been trying for years. But, for the same reasons Juno wanted Reyna to be with Jason, she wasn't with him.

This was a job.

And Jason was her co-worker.

Maybe they could be something later, when they have finished their work and actually had time.

And, anyway, Jason didn't get with girls like her.

He got with girls like Lauren, leader of the Venus girls. Or Becca, who was one of the most beautiful girls in the world. And Reyna…

Well, Reyna was Reyna.

And she knew that.

She was pretty, yes, but she didn't take the time to be pretty like them. Or to be as sweet as them.

So, for now they were friends. Not close friends but friends.

Jason was thinking about that as Reyna quickly wrote off a reminder on her frig to go grocery shopping.

It was almost the end of July, and he had given up any chance of partying this year.

Maybe next year, he told himself, but he highly doubted it.

Reyna didn't even seem to notice that it was Party-July though.

She had gone out with her friends once or twice, but she had never been one to take notice of Party-July.

Reyna felt her stomach grumble as she got on her tippy-toes to reach the hidden stash of junk food that she kept around for times like this.

With New Rome wanting a huge security change, they had been working all the time. And, like many nights before, they had quickly eaten at dinner and didn't realize they were still hungry until their stomach rumbled at midnight, when the dining hall closed.

And Reyna hadn't taken the time this morning to replenish her low supply of food.

Jason grabbed a strawberry Gatorade and a box of saltines before they both started back to the office, which was littered with papers.

"What did Levi say?" Reyna asked as she sat down on the floor since the couch was currently holding a spear.

"He said that he wanted to talk to you about it," Jason rolled his eyes, and Reyna moaned.

"Crap."

"What did Suzie say about keeping the Venus girls in line?"

"You know she hates me. She just kept acting like I was being a jerk about them and everything," Reyna shook her head, pushing her hair behind her ears, "You probably need to talk to her tomorrow."

Reyna's problems with the Venus girls happened way back. They first didn't like her because she didn't quite care how she looked, but it had grown as the years went on. Reyna a good friend, Natalie, who was a granddaughter of Venus and one of the most tomboy girls she had ever met, but some of the Venus girls didn't seem to care about that.

They just assumed that since Reyna gave Vivie and her gym coach (AKA father of her daughter, Mona) full punishment when Lucas, who Vivie said was the father, ordered a blood test because Mona had blue eyes and the genetics said she should have had blue.

"She's the blonde one, right?"

"There are ten blonde ones, Jason."

"Right…" Jason hit his head against the wall, "Do you have something sweet in your stash?"

"Here," Reyna didn't even think about it.

Jason's blue eyes widened as he looked at Reyna.

Her Twizzler.

She didn't even share those with her sister, who raised her.

Jason couldn't believe it.

But Reyna didn't even notice, she just kept working.

It felt…natural.

Right, even.

"Thanks," a soft smile spread on Jason's lips, and his blue eyes softened towards the brunette as he took the candy. Reyna still didn't notice.

But, as Reyna reached for another Twizzler and Jason took a bite of his, Reyna froze as she realized what she had done.

Not even Gwen had earned the right to have her Twizzlers.

But Jason had…

Jason.

Pretty Boy Jason.

The boy she didn't like.

The guy who hadn't had the confidence to become Praetor.

But that wasn't Jason anymore…

Or, at least, not to her.

Jason was…

Well, he was Jason.

The real Jason, or the Jason he became when he was around Reyna.

Reyna still couldn't believe it though…

Jason had been right.

Jason had been able to get the Praetor Reyna to like him.

But, strangely, Reyna didn't care.

She didn't want to get attached to him because she didn't like getting attached to anyone, but she found that she already was. And it was too late to do anything about it now.

Because it was at this moment that Jason and Reyna became friends.