84. Rain
"Reyna would you just wait and listen-"
Reyna whirled around angrily when he tried to grab her arm, yanking it back to her body as if his touch burned.
"Listen to what?" She yelled back at him, ignoring the fact that they were both getting drenched from the pouring rain. Her clothes were already soaked through and any other time Leo would have found that extremely hot. "What can you possibly say to make this better? Leo, she told us! She told me, and she's never been wrong! She's Venus, for Jupiter's sakes!" Thunder boomed loudly above them but neither of them looked away from one another. "I will never find love with another demigod." Reyna repeated quieter, her gaze boring into him. "Neither of us can change that so- so we might as well stop trying to pretend-"
"She's wrong this time." He said. "Reyna, she's wrong. I know she is, and you're the only one who can convince me she's not. But don't let it be because of her, I won't believe it until you tell me you feel- that you don't feel for me what I'm feeling for you. Tell me that you don't see us being absolutely amazing together, fights and all. That you don't feel this attraction or this passion." She glances away and he keeps talking. "Tell me that the past few days haven't changed things between us. Just because Piper's mother stops by for a visit doesn't mean anything! I'm not ready to let the gods dictate everything in my life, especially not if it means never knowing what could happen between us. Because us together? Gods, that would be incredible."
She's breathing heavily, her cheeks are flushed and her eyes burn as they look at him, and he can't stop staring because she's so beautiful and because if she really does walk away he wants to remember her like this.
But then she takes a breath and he meets her eyes once more and she shakes her head again. "Leo, I can't." Her voice sounds broken. "Eventually you'll wake up one day and realize how messed up everything around me is. You'll want someone beautiful like Piper or fearless like Annabeth, or steady like Hazel, and I will never be them. I've been alone for so long-" Her voice cracks, "it's like I don't know any other way to be."
"You're not them," he agrees, stepping closer. "Reyna you are so much more. I don't spend days thinking about Annabeth's lips, or what Hazel would think if I went up to her and kissed her. I don't have the almost irresistible urge to grab Piper and make her moan and scream my name. No, I think about you, and your lips and your thoughts and what it would be like to have you under me, above me, just with me."
He doesn't waver as he speaks. "I want you. I don't know what not wanting you feels like anymore, you've erased everything else and-"
He would have continued- he has a whole speech planned in his head- but Reyna's grabbing him and kissing him before he can finish.
The kiss is wet. And cold.
They're both shivering, but when they're lips touch it's like fire burning through them from that point. It's heated and messy and wonderful.
He pulls away.
"Tell me this isn't real." He demands. "That you don't feel this," he pulls her hand to cover his beating heart.
She squeezes her eyes shut. "I can't."
"Then damn the gods," Leo says, kissing her again. "We'll make our own destiny."