Surprise! I actually haven't dropped off of the face of the Earth and abandoned this story. Surprising?

I am so sorry for not updating but I haven't been feeling creative. All I have for you is excuses and I'm sorry, but I will be getting back into the flow of this story. I'm having Leyna feels for no reason at all, so might as well make use of them.

Enjoy! Love you all, thanks for sticking with this story guys!

47. Father

"Well, I guess compared to some of the other gods Hephaestus isn't that bad." Leo said, playing with Reyna's fingers, his head laying on her stomach as they relaxed in the Field of Mars. "I mean I understand that he's there for me and my siblings as much as he can be, you know? But he's not exactly social and it's almost easier if we keep a bit of distance between us."

Reyna turned her head to the side, away from him when he turned his eyes to look at her. She took a deep breath and the smell of grass and loosely turned dirt filled her senses. "Do you ever want him to be different?"

"What do you mean?"

"Do you ever wish… that you were closer to him, I guess. That he acted like a normal dad?"

Leo's eyes seemed to be boring a hole in the side of her head, she felt his gaze so heavily. Slowly she turned to meet his eyes and felt her breath escape her quickly. His eyes were so open and trusting, so filled with love…

It still shocked her. She had only been dating Leo for a month, the war with the giants and Gaea had been over for two, but she was still learning to open up and actually be honest with him. She did trust Leo, that wasn't the issue.

She was more scared that once he knew everything about her- about her sister, her feelings for Percy and Jason, and about her father- he would run screaming and never come near her again.

She wasn't sure she'd be able to handle that.

"Sometimes." Leo answered eventually. "But I guess- well, everything that I wish my dad would do for me helps me realize what I'll want to be like when I become a father."

Reyna's eyes shot up to his. "You think about that? Being a parent?"

"Sometimes," he said slowly, not exactly meeting her eyes. "Don't worry, it'll be far in the future when it happens, hopefully. But… yeah. With the gods as an example of a lot of the things to not do… I think of how I want to be there for my kids in the future."

Reyna smiled, picturing Leo with a little curly haired boy hoisted on his hip. Maybe- maybe even a boy with her eyes.

"I think you'd be a great father." She said honestly. "Any kid would love you."

He laughed, a bit uncomfortably. "Yeah, well… I guess I won't know for a while. I just- I want to be better. Not perfect, but better. Than the parents all of us here have. I actually want to be a part of my child's life, and try to understand anything they're going through. I want them to know that I love them, no matter what, and that I will always be there, even if they don't always want me to be."

Reyna took a deep breath. "Yeah." She said quietly. "Yeah."

She had taken him here to tell him about her father and what had happened with him. But she decided not now. She would tell him, she promised herself, but not now. Now she would be happy imagining Leo as a father and not ruin this beautiful afternoon.

Her father had nothing to do with her future anyway. And Reyna was starting to suspect that Leo had everything to do with it.

For now, she would leave it that way.