23. Mystery
She's a mystery right from the start; and Leo has never been able to resist a mystery.
It's why he had to recover the Archimedes Sphere, even when it put him in danger along with Frank and Hazel. It's why he stayed up all night the first time he met Festus and let the dragon take him to Bunker Nine. He's curious by nature, and when something interests him he has to figure it out.
Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano is a puzzle and the moment Leo first laid eyes on her at New Rome he knew he had to figure her out, no matter how long it took him to do it.
Of course the blowing up New Rome thing was a bit of a setback, but they've overcome that now. Now they're back on track.
She's a mystery because she is absolutely beautiful. But she's not warm, like his beautiful friend Piper is, she's cool, reserved and guarded. Where Piper is emotions and warmth and shy smiles, Reyna is calculations and rare smiles- but when you get one it's absolutely genuine and lights up the room.
Reyna is a mystery because she never tells Leo anything about her family, but from what he gathers she has an older sister who is Queen of the Amazons. He wonders why they're not together, the way he's always pictured family should be, and every time he brings it up Reyna shuts down the topic with a look.
But he keeps trying, because he's persistent and he needs to know.
He learns things from different people. Jason, for one. And Percy has the occasional insight. Hazel gives a woman's perspective and even Leo's new friend Dakota helps him understand Rome's praetor, piece-by-piece.
Until finally he feels like he's figured her out- at least enough to break down her first wall, to shatter it to pieces of brick and specks of dust. He tears it down with stupid jokes and occasional moments where it's just the two of them talking about things like their friends or family. Of responsibility and pressure and how hard it is to be the outside when everybody around you is so perfectly in love with one another.
Jason has Piper, Percy has Annabeth and Frank has Hazel. Leo has nobody but Festus.
And Reyna has no one except Aurum and Argentum.
They're similar in that way, but Reyna would stab herself before admitting it to anybody but him.
Then, on a completely random night at Camp Half-Blood, Leo kisses her and he breaks through her second, weaker wall, like a wrecking ball through wood.
She admits she doesn't get close to anybody because she's scared and used to being alone, and for a second Leo curses Jason and Percy and anybody else who was too stupid to realize what they had in Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano.
Finally one night she fully gives herself to him and there's nothing unknown between them anymore. Leo learns every secret, every piece of her, and he breaks down her third and final frail wall like a clenched fist through the thinnest of pieces of paper.
That night there is nothing but lips, tongue, teeth, and breathy whimpers. Deep groans and pleas that no one but they hear.
The night there is freedom and exultance, the likes of which they've never known because they've never been like their friends and fallen in love before.
But now they have, and even though Reyna is no longer a mystery to Leo he is no less infatuated with her than he was the first second they met.