Chapter 3: The Chariot

Reyna's POV

I woke up to find myself still lying next to Octavian. But I was also being cuddled by him. Looks like I replaced the teddybear.

"Huh, I thought Octavian would have a harder time with you. But I guess he cracked the nut." Apollo shrugged casually from a few feet away.

I nearly jumped, but then I remembered that I was being cuddled by Octavian. "What are you doing here? And what are you talking about?"

"I take an interest in Octavian. And the nut thing is a metaphor for your tough exterior." Apollo grinned.

"What?" I blinked the sleep out of my eyes.

"You do realize what's going on, right?" Apollo snorted. "Octavian likes you. In the more than friends kind of way. And I think you like him too."

"And I think you're annoying. Everyone has a different opinion." I countered.

"Oh, I love you two as a couple. You're going to be one of Aphrodite's favorite weddings." Apollo smirked.

"Was that a guess? Or..." I hoped to the Gods it wasn't a prediction.

"Looks like you'll have to figure out which one." Apollo wiggled his eyebrows and disappeared.

Octavian snored and suddenly started to wake up. I immediately removed myself from where we were laying and sat on the nearby bench.

Octavian blinked his eyes open. "Did we... did we stay out all night?"

"We fell asleep, remember?" I reminded him.

"Yeah, but... I'm just tired and confused." He said.

I knew the feeling. "Maybe... maybe we should get home and change into something else."

I was in my pajamas and he was still wearing yesterday's clothes.

"Good idea." Octavian agreed.

He got up and we headed back to my house. When we got there, my door was wide open and people were coming in and out.

"What's going on?" Octavian asked.

"I don't know. But I intend to find out." I said.

We walked inside, people not even noticing us as they passed by. They seemed focused on something.

"Where do you think she is?" Frank's voice came from my bedroom.

"I think Octavian did something to her." Jason said. "There was something off about her yesterday. And she was... hanging out with him. Like they were friends."

"I think she feels bad for him. She knows his punishment is well deserved, but... the other campers are taking it too far." Frank said. "I don't think he'd do anything to her."

"Hey, cool fork crown!" Percy exclaimed.

He and Annabeth were still here.

"Don't touch Reyna's stuff." Annabeth slapped his hand.

"If I may, I can shed some light on when she first went missing." A lare that helped me with housework said.

"Shed away." Frank turned to him.

I was watching the scene from my bedroom's doorway.

"You see, she wasn't sleeping well last night and suddenly woke up around midnight. She decided to go see Octavian in her guest bedroom and discovered he wasn't there. She searched the house for him and left when she couldn't find him. She was going to search the camp." The lare explained.

"And? What happened after that?" Jason demanded.

"I don't know. I didn't follow her. And she never came back last night..." The lare sighed. "But the thing is... the way she seemed concerned... it was almost as if..."

I cut off whatever he was about to say by entering the room. "I'm fine. Now get out."

The lare looked relieved—and so did everyone else. Then they stared at me curiously.

"What happened?" Jason asked.

"Where were you?" Frank questioned.

"Why are you wearing pajamas?" Percy laughed.

"I found Octavian and was too tired to come back home. Now get out." I said.

"So you're okay?" Annabeth checked.

"Perfectly fine. Now get out." I repeated.

Frank saw the annoyed look on my face and started herding people out of the room. Jason escaped Frank's herding.

"I'll be out in a minute." Jason said.

Frank sighed and herded everyone else out of the room. "I'll start getting people out of your house."

It was just Jason, Octavian, and I in the room.

"What do you want?" I sighed.

"What's happened? Why did you go out looking for Octavian? And why is he living in your guest bedroom?" Jason interrogated.

"He's living here because I'm protecting him from his cohort. And the rest is none of your business." I snapped.

Jason held up his hands. "Reyna, I'm just trying to understand..."

"That's the problem! You don't understand! And you don't need to anymore! You're not praetor! Frank and I are the praetors! Now get out of my room!" My voice cracked.

"Reyna, I'm your friend. I'm just trying to understand the situation." Jason backed to the door.

"But you never understood. If you understood... Piper wouldn't have become your girlfriend." I was starting to cry. "Now get out!"

Jason's eyes widened at what I said, but he just backed out of the room without further argument. I really started crying after he left. Octavian hugged me and I let him.

"Do you want to see something cool?" Octavian asked.

"Sure." I said. "Just let me change first."

Octavian's POV

After Reyna and I changed clothes, I led her to Temple Hill. I wanted to turn the sadness Jason caused her into amusement caused by what I was about to do.

"Please, Apollo. Please do what I ask." I mentally prayed.

"Why should I trust you with this? Do you realize how long it takes for Mars' children to be trusted with what you're asking?" Apollo countered.

"Please, Apollo! You're cooler than Mars! And how often do I ask for help from you? Almost never. Please!" I begged.

"I would say that flattery gets you nowhere, but I'd be lying. And you have a point about how you rarely ask for my help. Besides, Venus and I are betting on which of you will make the first real move." Apollo sounded like he was grinning.

"Hey!" I scoffed indignantly.

Reyna looked startled. "Hey, what?"

"Sorry, I wasn't talking to you." I laughed nervously. "Apollo was in my head."

Reyna rolled her eyes. "Yeah, he can be pretty annoying."

Luckily, what I wanted was there when we got to Temple Hill. Apollo's sun chariot.

"What's Apollo's chariot doing here?" Reyna asked.

"It's here on loan." I said. "I was hoping you'd want to fly in it with me."

"Won't that be like Icarus getting too close to the sun?" Reyna joked.

"We won't be too close to the sun. We'll be the sun. Besides, Icarus was a weak Greek." I grinned.

"That last part rhymed." Reyna teased.

"Come on. Fly with me." I got in the chariot and extended my hand. "Do you trust me?"

"Don't turn into Aladdin." Reyna rolled her eyes as she gripped my hand. "And yes, I do trust you."

I grinned as I helped her into the chariot and tried to get it going.

"Do you know how to drive this thing?" Reyna asked.

"The Greeks know how to do it, so it can't be that hard." I shrugged.

"You didn't learn how to drive it first!" Reyna exclaimed as we took off.

"Oh, well. It's too late to go back now." I smiled.

Reyna looked nervous for a few minutes after that, but she eventually smiled and grinned like she was having a good time. She stared at the sights of Camp Jupiter with wonder and fascination. "You know, I see this view of Camp all the time when I'm on Scipio. But... it's somehow different now."

"Well, you're not on a horse. You're in a chariot. And now you can take the time to look at the sights instead of preparing to go into battle or watch the War Games on Scipio." I said.

Reyna looked over at me with a smile that made me want to kiss her. I only resisted because I figured that would be a bit much this quickly.

"You know, we could have been friends a lot sooner if you'd acted like this before." Reyna pondered.

"I didn't have much reason to be nice before." I admitted. "No one liked me even before I was mean."

"I liked you." Reyna said. "It was refreshing to have someone around that wasn't constantly focused on war and competition. And I thought your teddybear was adorable."

"You weren't so bad yourself when I first met you." I said.

We'd met before she was praetor. She'd come to Camp not long before I did and was assigned as my tour guide. She'd seemed a lot more girly back then, but had eventually turned into the girl I knew now. It was an interesting change.

Reyna and I were smiling at each other fondly until the chariot suddenly crashed into the lake.