Disclaimer: Do Not Own PJO/HOO

Enjoy.

There were only a few mistakes – horrible, horrible mistakes – that Jason Grace had to suffer through as the boyfriend of a certain praetor of New Rome. Well, technically, he wasn't even her boyfriend yet but whenever he talked with Gwen or Dakota, he often found himself referring to the daughter of Bellona as his girlfriend – don't mind the thunder that roars above whenever he thinks of Reyna as his girlfriend – and their many problems as a "couple."

What's in a name, anyways? Actions spoke louder than words.

But Reyna was Reyna and she wasn't a little princess that needed a boyfriend to constantly lean on. She needed a partner, another human being to stand next to her as she commanded the scariest bunch of teenagers in the entire universe. So, therefore, they definitely were not going to be boyfriend/girlfriend until they both could walk around in New Rome without the entire legion cowering in their presence (well, Reyna's presence), ready to take orders at a moment's notice.

And that was strike one.

Not ten minutes after their passionate, mind-blowingly amazing reuniting kiss, did the entire camp become aware of the ice queen's new status as Wonder Boy's girlfriend. It had, of course, all been thanks to one of Dakota's KoolAid driven rampages across every cohort, spreading the news faster than the plague. Originally, Jason had told him in confidence, somehow thinking that his best friend wouldn't spill the beans.

But he had. He had told everyone and when that many Romans know something very personal about Reyna – you'd be sure to watch your back because she would be out for blood.

Unluckily, that was Jason Grace's blood and strike one.

After receiving a nasty kick to the shins and a punch hard enough to rupture his spleen, plus a public statement saying that No, Reyna and I aren't dating, strike two was soon to follow.

After many cups of hot chocolate and officially submitting letters of apology – with emphasis on the fact that Reyna was not Jason's girlfriend– Jason and Reyna had returned to their normal 'Yes-I-Like-You-But-We-Have-A-Camp-To-Run-So-Meet- Me-Outside-The-Arena-At-Ten-So-We-Can-Make-Out-And -Drink-Hot-Chocolate-And-Make-Out-Some-More' routine.

It wasn't a particularly notable day, just another November, just another Friday, just another day as praetor, when Jason decided to surprise Reyna at her villa with an evening of scary movies and pretending to be frightened in order to cuddle even closer (all on Jason's part).

Noticing the lights were out in the front of the house, Jason crept around back, hiding in the shadows so no young campers caught sight of one of their leaders crawling through the window of the other. It would be worse than that time Jason had to explain to two twelve year old campers why Praetor Reyna was attacking Praetor Jason's neck… with her mouth.

So that was probably strike two, but, technically, that was Reyna's fault. Not his.

Anyways, so, here he was, slowly making his way across Reyna's kitchen. She probably would have heard him and had him begging for mercy as she pressed the closest kitchen utensil into his throat, but there was some Latin music blaring, filling the room with enough music to make Reyna sway a bit as she prepared whatever was for dinner.

Making sure there was no knife or extremely hot spice in arms' length, Jason made his move, placing both hands on her hips. Which, considering that she was the daughter of the war goddess Bellona, was actually a pretty bad idea, cause although there was no knife or deadly spicy pepper on hand, Reyna was still extremely quick to respond and Jason found himself still pushed against the wall with a forearm pressed into his wind pipe.

But just wait for it, this was far from the second strike.

"What the hell, Grace?" He was used to this nickname whenever she wanted him dead. "Why are you here?"

"It's Friday night!" Jason tried to wheeze out, trying to get the feeling in his arms in order to ease Reyna always from killing him. "I thought we'd spend time together."

Reyna sighed, pulling away and rubbing her temples.

"This isn't the right time for you to be here." Reyna went back to the counter. "So leave."

Jason smirked a little, allowing himself to play along. It was almost every day that Reyna played hard to get and Jason just loved going along with it.

"But, Rey, come on," Jason put a lot of whine into it, not all acting because, hey, he did genuinely want to spend time with his not-girlfriend, "We haven't spent time together all week."

Putting his hands once again on her waist, Jason turned her over and pressed himself against his not-girlfriend.

"Please?"

"Jason, seriously, this is really not a good time for you to be here –"

Being able to shut Reyna up was not an easy task when she had that determined look in her eyes, but kissing her always seemed to do the trick.

"Please?"

"Jason, honestly, you need to leave –"

Another kiss, for good measure.

"It looks like you can't even keep your hands off each other for two minutes," A voice from the doorway, "I thought you weren't even dating."

Jason flew away from Reyna as fast as he could because if there's one person in this world that scares him more than Reyna, it was the eldest daughter of a certain Puerto Rican and war goddess.

Hylla: the fucking Queen of the Amazons.

Strike two. For the second time in the past few months, he had to issue a 'I'm-Not-Dating-Reyna-My-Fellow-Praetor' statement because the Queen of Amazons decided to run her mouth to Dakota, who in turn ran his mouth to the entirety of New Rome. Again.

After apologizing again about a million times to Reyna, strike three was surely overdue.

"So, Percy, Annabeth, Valdez and the rest will be here tomorrow at around ten, Praetor Reyna."

"Yes, thank you, Hazel." Reyna said over a document concerning a quest that had turned out to be more trouble than it should really be worth. "You may go."

Jason watched as Hazel waltzed out of the room, probably on her way to meet with Frank before turning back to Reyna, whose eyebrows were still vigorously scrunched together in concentration.

"So, Rey?"

"Hmmm?"

"The Greeks are coming tomorrow."

"Hmmm."

"You know Leo has a huge crush that one daughter of Venus, right? Maybe we could –"

"Shut up, Grace." Reyna sighed, setting down her paper, "And I'm not setting Valdez up with any Romans. It would be bad for his health."

That's for sure.

"Okay, so if we're not busy setting him up, why don't we dip out of the welcome feast early tomorrow and –"

"I can't." The paper was back in her hands and her eyebrows were focused again.

"You can't be serious! Paperwork while we have –"

"It's not paperwork."

Silence filled the room. Jason felt his jaw go slack. Not paperwork? Not paperwork? Not paperwork? Was this not the queen of paperwork herself? There wasn't a night when Jason had to tear Reyna away from the various reports she had to filter and read before reporting to Lupa, even when they had planned a flight to the moon and back with her totally awesome not-boyfriend, ehem, son of Jupiter.

What in the world was going on –

"I have plans."

"Huh?" Jason shot to his feet.

"I have plans, is that so shocking?" Reyna asked, still not focusing on anything else but the paper in front of her. And before he could even ask with whom, Reyna finally looked up, a little smile on her face. "I promised Percy that we'd have a Pegasus race."

So, naturally, here was Jason Grace, son of Jupiter, hanging from a tree limp by the moonlight, watching as Percy and Reyna met up for their little – dare he say it? could he bare it? – date. He couldn't help that he was curious; I mean, this was Reyna, his not-girlfriend, his not-girlfriend! The one person that actually knew that he liked cloudy days, or listening to Shakira, or eating so many pizza pockets that he felt physically unable to carry out his duties as a not-boyfriend.

Percy Jackson was stealing his best friend, fellow praetor and not-girlfriend right on his own turf.

"You know you're going to lose right?" Percy was teasing her now, his head held high and proud, as he patted Blackjack on the side.

"You're joking, right?" Reyna flipped her braid over her shoulder, "I know you can't be serious because I never lose."

"We'll see about that."

And with that, they were off, riding off into the distance.

And as they sped off, so did Jason Grace, flying off after them, already preparing himself to intervene and kicked Percy Jackson's ass if he even laid a finger on Reyna.

But the thing about Pegasi (it probably had something to do with their riders as well) was that they were really, really fast. Now, Jason Grace wasn't one to toot his own horn, but he was pretty darn fast himself, but compared to Reyna and Percy on their Pegasi… Well, let's just say he found himself eating their non-existent dust.

Alone, and convinced that – although Percy had a girlfriend, a real girlfriend – those two were out there making out and planning to overthrow Jason's entire world. Jason spun around throughout the sky, trying to catch a glimpse of his two friends, as well as trying to keep his temper in check so he didn't unleash any unwelcomed lightning and thunder storms. After only a few minutes, however, Jason found that he felt defeated.

And the fly back to New Rome was quite lonely.

That was, however, when he came across the two Cheater McCheatCheats' Pegasi grazing in an open field usually reserved for Capture the Flag battles.

Jason lowered himself gently, careful not to startle anyone or anything into action against his spying operation. However, as it were, the bases were loaded, two strikes, and it Grace wasn't feeling at his best.

"Looking for someone?"

Jason was literally startled out of the air; his butt hit the ground with a thud and he felt his cheeks go hot with embarrassment.

Strike three.

This time there was no apology letter to camp, no explanation to the younger kids, no begs of mercy to the Queen of the Amazons. There was only Jason and Reyna (Percy had laughed for a good ten minutes straight, finally pulling himself together enough to shake his head and wish Jason all the best of luck with a face that read 'Dead Man Walking'), only the two praetors, the not-boyfriend/girlfriend, the two best friends, the two strongest and bravest people in all of New Rome.

And this was hard.

Because, before, there was others that Jason could act in front of: a shake of the head, an embarrassed grin, a wink that meant he wasn't really that sorry for blowing their cover. But, now, there was just Reyna with a look of disappointment on her face, like she couldn't believe her not-boyfriend didn't trust her enough to hang out with an old friend, regardless of the macho-rivalry thing that they had going on.

"Rey, listen, I was just –"

"Spying on us?" Reyna had her arms crossed: a bad sign.

"No, well, listen –"

"I'm listening, Grace."

She was mad.

"I know it looks like I was spying –"

"You were jealous?"

"Well, yes… Wait!" Jason felt himself blush across his face to his ears and down to the tips of his chest (curse his European ancestry – Reyna never had to worry about blushing like an idiot because she was as that lovely as hell mocha color), "Wait, wait, wait! Jealous?"

"Why else would you follow us." That look told Jason that Reyna was anything but mad; instead, the way her eyes heated up, with a fire that came out only when battle was on the tongue, her feet light against the grass, her step quick, determined, ready to pounce at the first sign of lowered guards. Reyna wasn't mad, no, she was amused.

"I'm not jealous of Jackson!" Jason defended, feeling himself melt under Reyna's smirk as she came closer and closer. "How could I be jealous of him?"

"Oh?" Reyna circled him, her hand tracing his bicep, his back, around to his chest before poking him. "Then what are you?"

Jason gulped, afraid of the girl in front of her. Although she wasn't mad, and perhaps this wasn't exactly strike three, Jason realized there was more to their relationship than messing up with Reyna. She was more than just this girl he worked with, fought against, kissed on a daily basis. She was more than an unforgiving daughter of Bellona and praetor that wouldn't open her door every time Jason came around.

Reyna played another type of game, one that Jason was afraid of. It was played by her own rules – rules that Jason never really understood until he struck out.

But, actually, as he was pulled down to be kissed right there, under the stars, under the moon, under the eye of New Rome, he didn't mind playing this game as long as it was with Reyna, his not-girlfriend.

Preparing for HOH and any heartbreak that may bring with cute Jeyna stuff.