GO FORWARD AND BE EATEN.
GO BACK AND REGRET IT FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE.
NOT MUCH OF A CHOICE, IS IT?
Heh heh, hey you guys! (dodges knives) Wait, wait! Don't kill me! I know this is really late but . . . Okay I have no excuse but the fact that I'm lazy as hell and couldn't think of anything until this came up, and then for some reason I just never wrote it! But it's here now, so take pity on a poor writer who has been suffering from chocolate withdrawl and read the freaking chapter!
Leaving behind the loud and noisy dining hall, Reyna walked down towards the Little Tiber and the Greek's battleship. As she did, the cool night air washed over her, and with it came the sound of someone playing the guitar. Badly. Very badly.
Looking up at the humongous ship, she could just make out the form of someone sitting on the top of the dragons head prow. What was stranger still, was that the dragons head appeared to be moving.
"Hey," Reyna called, "Who's up there? The Greeks won't be pleased you're on their ship!"
"Actually, I don't think they'll mind," a cheerful voice called down, "But if you really want to talk to me that badly, come up here yourself!"
Cursing, Reyna climbed up to where the mysterious person sat. It turned out to be Leo Valdez, guitar in hand and a mischievous smile permanently stuck to his face.
"So," he said in an overly cheerful voice, holding out his hand to help her up, "What are you doing wandering around at this time of night?"
"I could ask you the same thing," she snapped, knocking away his outstretched hand and climbing up to sit beside him.
"Well I'm getting away from all the couples down there," he said matter-of-factly, not in the least offended, "And I'm sleeping here anyway."
"What, on this thing?" Reyna asked, shocked.
"Yes! I built it, it's my baby, and you don't go dissing Leo Valdez's baby! Besides, Festus is probably my least annoying friend."
"Festus?"
"The dragon head. Querida, let me introduce you to Festus, a ten ton, celestial bronze, dragon head that still breathes fire. Festus, Reyna. Reyna, Festus. Now say hello to each other."
Festus made an odd clicking noise and steam came out of his ears. Leo quickly took a small hammer out of his tool belt and bonked him on the top of the head.
"I'm, uh, still working out a few kinks. Well go on, say hello."
Reyna stared at him in disbelief.
"There is no way I'm saying hello to anything named Happy the Dragon."
Insulted, Festus tried to twist around and bite her, nearly knocking both humans of his head.
"Festus," Leo cried, "You cut that out! Parar, por favor!"
Festus snorted, but was still.
Leo glanced sheepishly at Reyna, who glared at him.
"I'm getting off this thing right now. I don't know why the Greeks brought someone as crazy as you, but I'm glad I'm not coming."
She started to climb down.
"Wait!" Leo cried frantically and grabbed her hand.
Reyna snatched it back as his fingers burned her wrist.
Leo looked stricken.
"I'm sorry," he whispered, "I'm so sorry Reyna. I didn't mean to hurt you."
He scooted back so she could only see the top of his head.
"You should go now."
She rubbed her wrist, shocked.
"Did . . . Did you do that? You burned me?"
He nodded miserably.
Reyna hoisted herself up so that she could see the rest of him.
"How?"
Leo held up his hands and a tongue of flame danced on each of his finger tips. Reyna reached out her own hands to touch it, her eyes fixed
on the flickering fire. But Leo closed his fist suddenly.
"Don't touch it, you'll get burned again." Then he nodded at the blisters on her wrist. "You should put something on that. Here, pour some of this on it."
He handed her a canteen with a strange golden liquid.
Reyna took it doubtfully.
"What's this?"
"Nectar, drink of the gods," Leo answered with a quick smile. Then he sobered again.
"It really will help. Just don't use too much."
After hesitating for a second, she handed it back to him.
"Thanks, but no thanks."
"What? Why not? Don't you trust me?"
"About as much as I trust Festus over there."
"Why!"
"You're a Greek. For all I know that could be poison."
"Well you're a Roman! That doesn't mean I don't trust you!"
"You trust me?" Reyna asked, surprised.
"Yes!" Leo said exasperatedly. And he realized that it was perfectly true, he didn't know what it was about her, but he knew she was trustworthy.
After and awkward silence, Leo sighed.
"Are you sure you don't want some of this? I'll swear on my life it's not poison."
Reyna hesitated again, but shook her head.
"No. I'm a Roman, I can live with it. Besides, it's nothing to some other burns I've gotten"
"Like what?"
She showed him her tattoos.
"Wow," he muttered, examining them, "That must have hurt a lot."
"It did. But it's part of being Roman. See these lines underneath? That's how many years of training I've completed."
"Wow. Again. At CampHalf-Blood, we get a bead that will remind us of the past summer. We get one of those every year. It's a lot less painful."
"But you only have one," Reyna said, surprised, "Are all campers so young when they come?"
"No, I'm special."
"Can others do that fire thing?"
"No, that's just me too."
Reyna looked at him curiously, but didn't press the point, seeing it made him uncomfortable.
"So, you said you built this ship? All by yourself?"
"Yep!" Leo said, brightening, "This was all me! Well, most of it. My siblings and the Athena cabin helped, but I designed it. Sort of. I drew a crayon picture of it when I was little. The real blueprints were drawn way before I was born."
Reyna gave him a weird look.
"Never mind. Please change the subject."
"You are not very good at the guitar. Why do you try?"
"Weeeeelll . . . My mom used to play the guitar. I thought it would be nice to be able to do it and play her favorite songs. But it seems I haven't inherited that bit of talent. My mom could do pretty much anything to do with her hands."
"I see . . . I think. What do you mean she used to?"
Leo's face hardened, but he forced a weak smile.
"She died in . . . in an accident. I was about seven."
"Oh."
"Oh?" he snarled suddenly, "What do you mean, oh? Do you feel sorry for me? Do you pity me? Well don't! I don't want it!"
He glared at her so fiercely, she leaned back slightly, frowning.
"I do not pity you!" she snapped back at him, "I said oh, because you told me something I hadn't known before. I save my pity for people who need it. Why in the name of the gods would I waste it on you?"
Leo just looked at her.
Disgusted, Reyna stood up again.
"I don't even know why I came up here," she muttered, "You obviously don't need anyone, and I have much better ways to waste my time."
She climbed down and walked away, muttering things under her breath like, stupid graceus, and, don't know why I even bothered.
Reyna was almost to her house when she heard running footsteps behind her. Looking back, she saw Leo stumbling after her and waving his arms like an idiot, trying to get her attention. So she stuck her nose in the air and kept going. Right outside the Praetors house, he caught up and grabbed her arm.
"Don't touch me, graceus!" she cried angrily.
Looking hurt, but annoyed, Leo pulled his hand back.
"Okay, numero uno, I don't know what 'grachus' means, but it probably wasn't nice. Second, dos, I won't burn you again if that's what you're afraid of."
"I am not afraid!" Reyna growled.
"Y tres, I did come here to apologize, if you will let me."
Reyna looked at him suspiciously, but he seemed sincere.
"Fine," she huffed, plopping down on her doorstep, "You have ten seconds. Impress me."
"Ten seconds?" Leo yelled.
"Eight seconds now."
Leo took a deep breath.
"I'm sorry I burned you, and then made you stay when you didn't want to, and wasted your time, and then got mad at you for no good reason and it's not really my fault because my dad said, not good with organic life forms and he was right, and I just wanted to talk to someone who wasn't so caught up in all that lovey dovey stuff, and I'm sorry but my mom is touchy subject and it's my fault she's dead so don't talk about her or my powers because it's their fault too and this would all be much easier if you were a machine, but you're not, so I don't know how to talk to you without feeling like I want to run away, but at the same time I want you to stay, and I think that my ten seconds are up I'll just go know . . ." and he trailed off awkwardly and started backing away.
Reyna made an odd sound and covered her mouth, her shoulders shaking slightly.
"Uh, what? What is it? Are you okay?" Leo didn't know what to do.
"I-I'm s-s-s-sor-r-ry," Reyna gasped, "You-You just spoke s-s-so f-fast and . . ." she had to stop because she was laughing too hard.
"Wait, that made you laugh? I've been trying to be funny since I met you, but you're laughing at that?"
Reyna nodded, unable to speak.
Then Leo started laughing too.
"W-wait, why are you laughing too?" she asked, giggling weakly.
"Sorry," Leo chortled, "But you look funny when you laugh. Your face gets all red. It's really cute."
Reyna blushed harder, and they finally muffled their snickers.
"Thank you, Leo Valdez," she said suddenly, "I haven't laughed in a long time."
"Really?" Leo asked, shocked.
"Well, there hasn't been much to laugh about lately. And I'm the only consistent Praetor right now. They need to know their leader's strong, not goofing off all the time."
"What's wrong with goofing off?" Leo cried indignantly, "I probably wouldn't be here if it wasn't for goofing off!"
"It's weak."
"The world isn't separated into bad and weak, and good and strong."
"If you just make jokes all the time, you'll never be able to face your problems head on. You're just running away from them."
"Fine, you're right, I'm a coward. You caught me. Happy? I've spent my whole life running away, why should now be any different?"
"Don't you feel a connection to anything? Isn't there someone or someplace you can't leave, something you'd give up anything for?"
Leo blew out a long breath.
"Well, kind of," he said, running a hand through his curly brown hair, "I mean, I love my siblings back home at camp, and all my friends. And I'll go to any lengths to defeat Gaea and avenge my mom. But if all that disappeared, I guess I'd just move on, find another something else. To tell the truth, this is the longest I've ever stayed in one place."
He looked over at Reyna who had been still while she listened.
"What about you? Would you leave, if you had the choice? To escape from all the responsibility and pain? To be able to laugh as loud and hard as you want, without anyone else caring?"
Reyna was silent, and then said, "Even if I did leave, the responsibility wouldn't just go away. This is my home, I'm not losing it again. I'll do whatever it takes to save it, even if it kills me."
"That won't do you any good."
"I'm not going to be as selfish as thinking about myself."
"Aaaah, I'm not good with organic life forms. Too bad you aren't a machine."
"Would you like me better if I were?"
Leo looked her up and down as he leaned against the house. Eyes flashing as she glared at him, dark hair glistening in the moonlight, eyebrows arched.
"Hmm. Maybe not. But if you were, I would probably be able to fix you. I'd like that."
"I never asked to be fixed."
"But when something is broken, I've got to repair it. It's kind of my job, or maybe my life style . . .?"
"Sticking your nose in other peoples business, and messing with their lives for your own amusement, is selfish."
"Thinking about yourself isn't always selfish. We're only human."
"You are selfish."
"You have no proper emotions."
"You are a coward."
"You are cold."
"This argument is getting us nowhere," Reyna huffed, "It is obvious we can't agree on anything, so I'm going to bed."
"Now who's running away," he muttered, but softly, so she wouldn't hear him.
"Good night, Leo Valdez."
"Good night, Reyna," Leo sighed.
He turned away but-
"Leo?"
"Hmn?"
"You really are terrible at the guitar."
And she closed the door in his face.
Stunned, Leo walked back to the Argo II, wondering if it was advisable to fall for your best friend's ex-kind of-girlfriend, and silently cursing his dad and stepmother.
Sould I delete the last chapter? Have I lost my touch? Please give me your opinion. I think this one is much more up to my usual standard, more than the last one, anyway. Hope you like, GO LEYNA!
And PLEEEEEEEEEEEASE review. I'm seriously down on my knees here.