Chapter Text
Reyna was having an admittedly very average day. Right up until Annabeth entered the room she was staying in at the Big House and whispered very seductively in her ear, "Come spar with me." Reyna coughed, nearly falling off her bunk. She could feel her face flushing bright red as she turned to stare at Annabeth with wide eyes. Annabeth's wild grey eyes stared back at her. She felt herself getting lost in them, wondering what it would be like to be able to stare at those eyes for forever. A snap pulled herself from her thoughts and she flushed as she realised she actually had tried to stare into Annabeth's eyes forever.
Annabeth grinned cockily. "Come on. You've done all your praetor business for the day. The camps aren't going to merge in one day. Now, come spar with me."
Reyna was still frozen. She couldn't make herself move. "Uh..." She was fairly sure Annabeth was still dating Percy. She couldn't remember if Annabeth had been this flirty the last time they had met. Reyna was almost certain Annabeth had been composed. She had definitely been much more in control of herself.
"Say yes," Annabeth said as if Reyna had already said no. "Sparring with me can be really fun." She winked, leaning in closer. "If you let it."
Reyna snapped out of her stupor and fought down the blush that was rising. "No, thank you. I have to get through this mountain of paperwork. Maybe some other time." She knew that if she gave in to whatever game Annabeth was playing, she would be the only one getting burnt.
Annabeth scowled and sat down next to Reyna, arm draped over her shoulder. She played with a few loose strands of her hair as she tried to convince Reyna why sparring with her would be such a good idea. Reyna did her very best to ignore her, but ever since Annabeth had kissed her cheek after they'd beaten Gaea, she couldn't get the other girl off her mind.
"I have paperwork to finish," Reyna repeated before she could make a fool of herself.
There could have actually been a mountain of paperwork. It had been building up on her desk for months and she had thought that while she visited Camp Half-Blood, she could finish some of it. Unfortunately, she had been caught up in meetings with Chiron for the majority of her stay. Now, she was trying to figure out how to arrange transport between the two camps that wouldn't involve boats or trekking across the country. The only option she could really see working was driving, but there wasn't enough space in the cars and they didn't have enough money for the amount of petrol that would take. There were also the letters she had to answer from questioning legionnaires about her decision to merge the two camps, and not destroy the Greeks.
"Reyna," Annabeth said flatly. "Get off your arse and come spar with me."
Reyna ignored the other girl, writing out a response to an ex-legionnaire stiffly. Her shoulders tensed when Annabeth leaned into her. "Annabeth," she warned. "Get off me."
"Only if you spar with me," Annabeth bargained.
"Why don't you go bother Percy," Reyna grumbled, shoving her. "I'm sure he'd love to entertain you."
Annabeth snorted, covering her mouth with a hand. "Reyna!" she exclaimed delightedly. "And here I thought you were some uptight, prudish ass." She sighed. "Anyway, we broke up last month."
Reyna raised her eyebrows. That was news to her.
"Oh, don't look so surprised. I still love him, but not like... He's like a brother to me," Annabeth shrugged. "Also, he's questioning whether or not he's ace. There was a lot of pressure for us to get together. Maybe it wasn't for the best. And to help with that, I'm not sure I'm straight. It's a mess. We're a mess."
"Agreed," Reyna smirked, looking back at the letter in front of her.
"Hey!" Annabeth protested. "Unfair. Now you really have to spar with me."
"If I spar with you," Reyna sighed, "Will you leave me alone for the rest of the day?"
Annabeth nodded. "Absolutely. You can trust me."
"I wouldn't trust you more than I could throw you," Reyna muttered, stacking her papers neatly and setting them to one side.
"Please, you could probably throw me across Long Island," Annabeth snorted, taking Reyna's hand in hers.
Reyna stared at the hundred or so demigods that were sitting in the stadium. "You know, when you said we were sparring, I wasn't exactly imagining half of the camp watching on."
"This isn't half the camp, Reyna, don't be ridiculous. The gods aren't that horny. This is almost our whole camp," Annabeth said with a grin.
"This is your whole camp?" Reyna said in disbelief. "I remember there being a lot more than this during the battle."
"That's because we're so fast," Annabeth smirked. "We run like the wind." She winked. "We also die a lot."
Reyna snorted. "That's an awful thing to say."
"But it's true."
Reyna refused to let a smile on her face. Annabeth was not funny. She was not cute and she was definitely not girlfriend material.
Annabeth rolled her eyes at Reyna's stoicism. "So, Roman, choose your weapon and get out here and fight me." She walked away from Reyna, drawing her dagger from its sheath.
Reyna smiled. This would be too easy. She launched forward, gripping Annabeth's shoulders and forcing her down to the ground, making sure she didn't land on her dagger. She landed with her knee pressing into Annabeth's back, keeping her pinned. Annabeth laughed as she tried unsuccessfully to escape. The crowd cheered wildly, beating their feet against the stone to voice their approval.
"Disappointing," Reyna mocked, trying to keep her smile out of her voice. "I didn't even need a weapon."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Annabeth grouched good-naturedly. "Let me up and we'll go again."
Reyna stood up and offered Annabeth a hand. "Pull me down and I swear to Pluto, I will make you regret it."
"Oh yeah?" Annabeth's eyes sparkled in challenge. "How?" She grasped Reyna's forearm and pulled hard.
Reyna wasn't stupid enough to think that Annabeth wouldn't try to get back at her after being so easily defeated. She was, however, unprepared for the amount of strength put into the tug. She stumbled forward until she got her feet braced.
"Okay, Chase," she smirked. "Nice try. Get up and we'll do it properly this time."
Reyna's heart pounded in her chest as she ducked under Annabeth's sweeping arc with her dagger. If it had been a monster, Reyna would have had no problem slicing their arm off. Since this was Annabeth, Reyna only hit her arm with the flat of her sword. Annabeth let out a pained hiss as she shook out her arm.
"Giving up so easily?" Reyna taunted, chancing a jab at Annabeth's unprotected side.
Annabeth side-stepped and replied with a kick to Reyna's gut that she wasn't expected. She grunted and went with a feint to her left that she was surprised Annabeth fell for. She smacked the hilt of her sword against Annabeth's wrist and the dagger clattered against the ground. Reyna kicked it away and pressed the tip of her blade to Annabeth's throat.
"This is almost embarrassingly easy," Reyna laughed as she let Annabeth up.
"Oh please, I'm going easy on you," Annabeth smirked, bending down to pick up her dagger.
"I'd love to see you try harder," Reyna said. "Are you ready this time?"
Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Don't get too cocky just yet."
"Give me a reason not to be."
Annabeth was slightly slower than Reyna, but she was able to manoeuvre around Reyna fast with her shorter weapon. This didn't stop Reyna from slicing Annabeth's limbs open a couple of times. Not deep enough to do any damage but enough to cause annoyance. Annabeth limped away from Reyna, who was unsurprisingly unhurt, just sweaty. Reyna followed, pressing in close to give Annabeth no chance to catch her breath. She was about to smack Annabeth's feet out from underneath her with the flat of her blade when Annabeth punched her smack in her nose. She blinked, tears coming to her eyes. She could feel blood dripping down her chin and she was reminded of how Annabeth had told her how Percy had awoken Gaea with his nosebleed.
The campers cheered at the sight of Reyna's blood, feeling a little more confident now that their lead strategist wasn't getting knocked around quite so much. In the next few minutes, Annabeth ducked under Reyna's sword and grabbed her ankle, pulling it up and holding it tight beside her side.
"This is more like it," Reyna cheered, hopping back to keep her balance.
Annabeth dodged around Reyna's sword and left a rip in Reyna's t-shirt. Blood appeared around the edges of the frayed fabric. She tried to kick Annabeth away with her captured leg, but it was kept trapped tightly.
"Still feeling cocky?" Annabeth snickered. She tried to hold her dagger against Reyna's neck but Reyna batted it away with her sword.
Reyna distracted Annabeth with a poke to the side. Annabeth didn't react and Reyna groaned.
"Not ticklish, Arellano."
"Ramirez-Arellano," Reyna corrected.
She fell backwards suddenly, bringing her other leg up to land a solid kick to Annabeth's kidneys. Annabeth grimaced but she swiped her dagger wildly and succeeded in nearly blinding Reyna.
"Hey!" Reyna protested. "Too far." She wiped away some blood from the cut about her eye but more replaced it.
"Sorry," Annabeth apologised as she pinned her, straddling her stomach and leaning forward to grip her wrists with both hands. "Guess I win this time. Yield?"
Reyna tested her strength and found, much to her dismay, that Annabeth was quite able to keep her like that unless she yielded. Still, she found herself trying to escape simply by squirming underneath the other girl which was something she rarely did. She bucked her hips up, trying to unbalance Annabeth but Annabeth simply adjusted her weight and waited for Reyna to still.
"You're not going anywhere until you yield," Annabeth grinned, finding Reyna's stubbornness amusing.
"I'm not yielding to you," Reyna said distractedly as she attempted to find another way to escape the girl's hold. Annabeth on top of her was dangerous for many reasons, the main one being she was attractive and Reyna may or may not have been harbouring a secret crush.
Annabeth laughed, the sound delighting Reyna - or it would have if it hadn't been at her expense. "You will."
Reyna brought her knees up to Annabeth's back and tried to roll over again.
"I'm beginning to think you just enjoy being under me," Annabeth said with a very Percy Jackson-like smirk.
Reyna flushed beet red. "I do not."
Annabeth shrugged. "Then yield."
Reyna couldn't really see any other option. "Fine. I yield," she said reluctantly.
Annabeth beamed. "Excellent. Now I can kiss you."
Reyna's shocked eyes met Annabeth's wild ones. "What?" she managed to get out.
Annabeth slowly bent down and gently touched their lips together, much to the approval of the crowd.
"Go out with me?" she asked, looking unusually shy when she pulled away.
"I, uh... Um, yeah," Reyna stammered. "I'd love to."
"Good," Annabeth said, pulling Reyna in for another kiss.
Reyna grinned against Annabeth's lips as she felt the arena floor vibrate from the noise the Greeks were making.
Annabeth pushed herself up, knees either side of Reyna's stomach. She punched the air and beam in triumph. "Vae victis!" she shouted to the roar of the crowd.
Reyna leant up on her elbows and laughed. "They don't know what that means."
"They know I won," Annabeth beamed. "And that's enough."