85. Fall
Reyna tells herself it's okay to fall in love.
She tries. She wants it so bad, she's desperate for it and she knows people notice sometimes, but she can't help it. She's been alone ever since Hylla left, has felt alone for longer than that even. She just wants someone.
She wants someone to pick her instead of Piper or Annabeth. She wants them to want her out of every woman in the world, to choose her, to not be able to go even a single day without hearing her voice. Reyna wants someone who will make her laugh and massage her feet and kiss her and make her yearn for things and-
She wants someone to make her feel not so alone anymore.
It's not a weakness, she tells herself, it's a strength. But she thinks after years of Hylla and her father telling her otherwise that she's conditioned to be alone.
But she wants it, she's sick of not having someone to just talk to and she wants someone to kiss and make her feel amazing and maybe leave her little things lying around occasionally.
She wants someone who will know to always keep her bowl of jelly beans full. To fill it when she forgets and who will get along with Aurum and Argentum.
So when she meets Leo Valdez she assumes he'll be like the rest. That he'll be one of those guys.
He'll want the Annabeth's and the Piper's of the world. The Hazel's and the Gwen's. The girls who know how to talk to guys, or at least know how to be within three feet of them without insulting, glaring or finding them stupid.
Reyna is not one of those girls.
(Luckily for her, Leo Valdez is also not one of those guys.)
Leo is persistent and slightly annoying but he's fun and he likes her and eventually, the longer he's around, the more he's there, she opens up, she trusts him and that's huge for her.
She hasn't trusted anybody in so long.
And when the war is over and done with and he comes back to live in New Rome with Jason and Piper Reyna can't say she minds. He's often the third wheel to those two so somehow the two of them become a pair and spend time together. They find solace in their afternoon walks, he teases her for having a jellybean addiction and she insults him but by now he knows it's playful instead of sincere. They bicker almost constantly and she rolls her eyes at him and he makes fun of her but eventually, when she forgets to, he starts to make sure her jelly bean bowl is full.
And eventually Reyna realizes they she likes him. A lot. And that when he's around she doesn't feel so lonely anymore.
Eventually she realizes she likes how he looks, that she wants to kiss his lips and lick his skin and have him between her legs and gods no, seriously, Leo Valdez? He's who she ends up falling in love with?
But then he makes her laugh and she can't look away from him for a second too long and she realizes, yes. This is what she wants, who she wants.
But she doesn't know what he wants.
So one day when they're training and they get a little to close she kisses him.
She can't help it.
Then he kisses her back and Reyna knows.
She's not alone anymore.