35. Determination
The first time she had known nothing about him beyond his name and that he had a humor she found funny, despite herself. Really, what else was there to know about the boy who became possessed by a demon/monster, blew up the only home you'd ever really known, and then went on to save the world from a goddess more powerful than the Olympian Council put together? (Not that Reyna would ever dare utter a word of that in front of Jupiter.)
"Will you go out with me?"
Reyna looked up from the new cohort's building plans to meet the eyes of the boy Jason had brought from Camp Half-Blood to Camp Jupiter. "Excuse me?"
He had grinned a playful grin, but his eyes held insecurity- the only thing that stopped Reyna from regarding him as little more than a bug to be squashed and sending him on his way. "Do you want to go on a date with me?"
Reyna didn't know what to do.
She had never been asked out before. Boys her age found her intimidating, men older than her set their sights elsewhere, and Jason and Percy… well, the only two boys she had ever envisioned a future with had already found their soulmates.
And Leo Valdez, this scrawny, elf-like Hispanic, was asking Reyna out on a date when she barely knew him.
How could she accept when every time she looked at Jason with Piper her heart ached? How could she honestly tell him she would like to go on a date with him when seeing Percy and Annabeth together made bitter jealousy fill Reyna's mouth? When Aphrodite's words, 'no demigod or mortal shall heal your heart', rang in her ears.
So she tells him, with regret lacing her tongue for reasons unbeknownst to her, no.
But Leo is nothing if not determined, and Reyna soon discovers that his determination is something to be rivaled.
He keeps asking in random , intensely, it doesn't matter, he asks and there's something she hears but doesn't know in his voice as he does. Yet she keeps saying no.
But during the time he stays at Camp Jupiter he takes up her time, creeps into her thoughts and, eventually, makes his way into her heart. He seems to always be around and eventually Reyna stops reminding herself to be annoyed.
He makes her laugh and when they hang out with their friends he's one person she can count on to be alone, not in a relationship, like her. They gravitate towards one another.
And one night, after a particularly emotional talk about lost loved ones, wishes, dreams, family and friends, Leo asks her again.
Reyna hesitates before shaking her head and saying, 'I can't."
"Why?" He asks. "I know you like me."
She nods, because she's admitted it to herself by now. "Aphrodite told me once I would never find love with a demigod."
She tells him the story and to her surprise he doesn't look disappointed or sad. He just raises his eyebrows and shakes his head.
"What?" She asks when he hasn't said anything after several moments of silence. "What is it?"
"Reyna," he meets her eyes seriously- perhaps for the first time in his life- and takes her hands as they sit by the water's shore. "If I've learned one thing about you, it's that you are stubborn. If you're determined to do something than you can."
Reyna shook her head. "It's not that simple-"
"I've also learned," Le interrupted her. "That even gods make mistakes."
Finally Leo's determination pays off and Reyna says yes.