Chapter Text
Reyna could say, firmly, that she was content with her life after the wars. She’d done well, earned respect even from gods, and her role as praetor had consequently gotten easier, since most of the senate hesitated to actually go directly against her in the senate right after she’d proven to have earned her well carved spot in the world. The city was back up again, and running better than ever, and their allyship with the Greeks proved to be quite fruitful.
She’d even had a nice morning, since it was one of her rare days off, woken up lazily with Aurum and Argentum slowly pulling her off bed and encouraging her to get ready to meet up with Frank and Hazel, co-praetor and praetor in training, respectively.
Unfortunately for her, all that’s well, ends… in Percy Jackson. Somehow, there was always something new or odd happening around him, and though they were neither as close as they could’ve been nor had the type of relationship she may have once wished with him, he was always a great friend she knew she could rely on, and a fun time all around.
From what she knew, he and Annabeth had broken up a couple of months ago, supposedly on friendly terms even though nobody had seen them together after their somewhat-sudden breakup, and not even a month after that, Percy had announced he was dropping out of college, saying that he really wasn’t sure what he wanted to do after everything happened and had even gotten some therapy from Bacchus himself.
She could respect that, wanting to figure out where your place in the world was after being pulled back and forth between wars and camps and having broken up with his long time girlfriend. She’d even started to bump into him sometimes during her morning runs. Being in peace times didn’t mean letting yourself become indisciplined, after all, even if she had a distinct memory of Percy complaining to her about how much he hated jogging and how he’d “never understand people who did that bullshit”.
Apparently, running from monsters in New York was enough for him, though he was apparently growing to miss even that.
Anyways, her mind had drifted to Percy only because of Hazel’s good natured concern for him. Reyna understood some of her worries, but liked to take on a more hands-off approach to friendship, particularly when she hadn’t seen anything worrying from him at all.
Then came what would come to be the bane of her existence for the next few months. Well, not exactly, it was just Nico, who’d dropped by to give Hazel the papers she’d forgotten at her house, and had overheard Reyna telling Hazel about her morning bumps with Percy, and was currently looking at her as if she’d murdered.. Not his entire family, since that was a bit impossible given the circumstances, but perhaps his dog, or like she’d just stated her ardent belief in aliens coming to New Rome in the following weeks.
“... I’m sorry, what did you say?”
“I said that I’ve been bumping into Percy during my morning jog sometimes.”
“Alright, so I don’t have an ear infection,” he said, performatively putting his finger in his ear, like the little shit he’d grown to become. “But like… that’s not Percy. I’ve quite literally seen him borderline crying when we had to do runs at camp. You sure it was him?”
“I did speak to him, Nico,” she clipped.
“I mean…” Hazel intervened, “he was awfully fussy about the morning routine here, are we sure he’s alright? I mean, after everything that happened with Annabeth…”
By the gods, it was just running, it wasn’t really that serious was it? Reyna hadn’t been part of a cohort by the time Percy had arrived, so she wasn’t sure about how big of a deal it was, but it seemed insignificant enough and a good sign that Percy was doing fine, wasn’t it? Why did she ever say anything?
And though the questions grated Reyna’s nerves a bit, she couldn’t help but notice Frank’s odd silence. Looking over at where he was sitting, she noticed a certain nervousness about him that she associated more with him before the war, back when he was still an unclaimed probatio.
As she analyzed him, Nico and Hazel turned their eyes towards him, noticing where Reyna’s attention was focusing. Frank, in turn, became an interesting shade of red down to his collarbones.
“Frank? Has Percy told you anything? Is everything alright?” Hazel asked, concerned in a way Reyna couldn’t quite get. They were just runs, it wasn’t like the man was hooking up with a god to get over his breakup, for fuck’s sake.
“I mean— um, I may have… seen something. I’m not sure.” He finally said.
Nico frowned, “Something like what?”
Shifting on his chair a bit, he spoke, “Well, I decided to get a shower in the communal showers the other day after training for a bit, sort of out of habit, y'know? And apparently Percy had had the same idea, and I really didn’t want to say anything, because that’s his business y'know? And it still isn’t but—”
“Frank” Reyna interrupted. “Get to the point, please.”
Frank flushed even deeper, clearly uncomfortable with whatever he was about to say and cleared his voice before speaking, nervously looking at their expectant faces.
“Well, um, he sort of… On his neck, y’know”, he said, gesturing vaguely at his neck and making a quick grabbing motion at the air.
“What about his neck?” Questioned Nico.
“He had an… Um…”
Frank fell silent, while Nico narrowed his eyes at him before his face suddenly lit up.
“I—Are you trying to say Percy had a hickey or something?!”
“I— yeah? And if it wasn’t, that must’ve been one nasty wolf.” he said shyly.
Hazel for one, looked completely horrified, while Nico’s jaw found itself a nice spot down on the floor. Reyna, personally, regretted having mentioned anything at all, and was currently wondering if it wasn’t too late to ask for an irish coffee instead of an americano.
Hazel used the brief moment of silence to pull back her chair and fully face Frank. “Are you telling me Percy’s been sleepin’ ‘round and you didn’t tell me nuthin’?
Frank flinched, looking like a deer caught in the highlights, “I, not really? I asked him how he got it and he just told me he’d been hanging out with a new friend lately and things had gotten a bit rough?”
Nico’s eyebrows seemed eager to play hide and seek with his fringe, while Hazel looked outraged at what Frank was implying as Reyna tried to catch the bartender’s eyes to get his attention and properly ask for something stronger.
That’s what I get for speaking, Reyna thought.
“So, you mean to tell me Percy has someone new, and when I asked him just yesterday if he was seeing someone, and he told me he wasn’t lookin’ and wasn’t gonna be for a while, you knew it was a lie and decided not to say anything at all? Not even after he left?” Hazel asked, sounding slightly outraged.
“I mean, he did sound genuine! And I wasn’t really sure with how casual he was about it, and it really isn’t Percy’s style is it?”
“Hold up, how big a bite are we talking?” Nico asked, a touch of Hazel's Southern drawl in his words.
“Like, human, but big. Bit deep.”
Reyna would rather not know anything at all about Percy’s hookups, but she was already in this deep, she supposed.
Nico frowned, “Damn, but, also, I don’t think Percy would hide sleeping with someone, if he was. It also just doesn’t seem like him, sleeping with someone but not dating them, and if he were dating, I think he’d tell at least one of us.”
Hazel frowned as well, showing a remarkable physical similitude between siblings, different as they looked, “It really doesn’t. Percy doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who’d go all over someone but not tell anyone. How long you been’ seeing him on your runs Reyna?”
Great, now she was back in the conversation.
“Maybe two or three months now? I’m not sure.”
Hazel’s frown deepened.
“We would’ve heard about it by now.”
“Well…” Frank slowly started, “Maybe he doesn’t want us to find out for a reason.”
His suggestion hung tensely in the air, silence stretching out between them. Why would Percy hide this kind of thing from his friends? Maybe Reyna wouldn’t have heard of it, but surely Nico or Hazel would’ve known something. What reason could he—
“Oh my gods,” Nico gasped, slightly horrified. “It’s a god.”
“Wha—” Hazel started, before being interrupted by Nico.
“It’s a god, Haze. Percy’s been sleeping with a god.”
As the siblings shared horrified looks between themselves and Frank, Reyna couldn't help but think that next time, she would also be keeping her thoughts quiet.