12. Ink
"It's official now," Leo told her as he held up the document. "You're stuck with me."
She laughed, taking the page from him, running her fingers over the ink printed words. "Our marriage certificate." She said. "It's so… flimsy."
Leo rolled his eyes at her. "It's paper, Reyna, what do you expect?"
"I just…" She trailed off before shrugging. "I don't know. I thought it would be more… withstanding. But anybody could just come and rip this up."
"Umm… are you proposing something? Should I be worried?" Leo asked jokingly, but with a serious look in his eyes.
"Of course not." Reyna said as if he was being stupid, which he was. "I just mean… this could catch fire," she sent a pointed look his way, "or be shredded. It could end so quickly."
Leo looked up at the vulnerable tone in her voice and his eyes softened. "Even if that happens," he said, taking her hands. "At least we'll still be together." He said. "This piece of paper… it doesn't mean anything. If it gets destroyed it doesn't mean we will too."
"I know that." She pulled away in annoyance, but averted her eyes, a sure sign she was lying. "But- it shouldn't be so easy to break something so important."
"Hey," Leo cupped her cheek and made her look in his eyes. He smiled. "It won't be easy to destroy." He promised. "Because if you really want, we can guard it with our lives."
"Our marriage certificate?" She asked, unconvinced. "I wouldn't want you to die for something like that."
"Exactly," Leo said. "We don't need this piece of paper." He took it from her and held it up. "Because we don't need to prove anything to anybody. In fact.." He looked at his with his brows furrowed before his hand caught fire.
"Leo!" Reyna shrieked, watching as the certificate burned up. "What are you doing?"
He laughed at her. "Calm down." He told her. "This is just a copy. I made it before you could see. Our real certificate is in our bedroom."
She glared at him. "I am going to kill you!"
He just shook his head. "I can't believe you thought I'd burn our marriage certificate… Gods, I'm not Percy."
"Percy dropped his in the canoe lake," Reyna said absently. "The ink ran. Annabeth almost killed him. If it had been me he would have gotten a lot worse."
"I know." Leo said. "Which is why I didn't burn ours."
Reyna just shook her head and smiled.