MAJOR SPOILERS FOR HOUSE OF HADES PLEASE PROCEED WITH CAUTION.
of half-bloods and happenings
unrequited
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Coach Hedge was sleeping. As much as the shadow travel had taken it out on Nico, it seemed the satyr was the most exhausted of them all. He'd collapsed sometime in the immediate seconds following their second 100-mile jump, and was now snoring quietly. Nico and Reyna exchanged glances over Hedge's comatose form, before edging slowly away and sitting down side-by-side against the Athena Parthenos' sandalled marble foot.
"You should rest, too," Reyna said softly, and Nico knew she was right. He should sleep, get his energy levels back up - but with sleep came dreams, and with dreams came thoughts of Percy.
And after what had happened lately? He didn't think he would be able to deal with it.
The two of them sat in semi-companionable silence for a while. Nico liked Reyna. He liked her toughness, her hair that was as dark as Stygian iron, her ability to not ask questions and just be comfortable with not talking. In another life, maybe he would have tried to convince himself that he liked her in that way. But not here, and not now.
Now Nico was stripped bare to the very bones that kept his heart imprisoned, open for himself and all the world to see.
"I'm not going to pretend I know exactly what you're thinking," Reyna said, so suddenly Nico jumped. "But I know that look on your face. And it's fine, you don't have to tell me anything. Just -" She paused for a moment, looking unsure for the first time since she and Nico had met. "If they don't like you back the same way you like them, then they're probably not worth your time," she finished gently, staring up at the stars.
Nico's cheeks burned. How did she know? But of course, she didn't. She couldn't know about him, about his feelings, about Percy. If she did, surely she wouldn't be this kind, this gentle. He looked down at his hands and said nothing.
Reyna surprised him once more that night by laying a hand on his knee and forcing him to look up at her. Their faces were inches from each other's, but there was no sexual tension like there could have been. She was just Reyna, he was just Nico, and maybe they were building something that resembled a friendship.
"I know one or two things about unrequited love," she said seriously, and it wasn't the praetor of the Twelfth Legion speaking to him, it wasn't a demigod who had had blood on her hands more time than she could count. It was just a teenage girl, just Reyna, and Nico thought that he was the first person who had seen her like this since she'd first arrived at Camp Jupiter. "And I know it's not something that you can just give up on. But I also know one or two things about needing someone to talk to when things get tough. And I want you to know that I'll be here." She smiled sadly then, leaning closer. "Just in case you need me."
With that, Reyna pulled back and spread herself out on the rocky ground. She wasn't sleeping, Nico knew, but he was grateful for the space. For the silence.
But for the first time in his life, Nico knew that maybe, just maybe, he wouldn't mind talking to someone, if that someone was Reyna Avila RamÃrez-Arellano.
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Author's Note: Definitely not my best work, but I finished House of Hades yesterday, and absolutely HAD to write something. Expect some Caleo coming up sometime, too.