Leo Valdez didn't know what he'd done, but he did know that, whatever it had been, he was paying for it. Ever since he'd gotten to the Roman camp, he'd been doing chores. More chores than he'd ever done in his life had been shoved into the three days he'd been at Camp Jupiter.

And, frankly, both his body and his mind were ready to complain.

So, like the brilliant person he was, he went straight to Jason.

"And it's like, I'm pretty sure that I'm the only one doing anything around here. Also, I haven't had a bath in days. Well, I was in a bath, but it was after the water was out, because I was cleaning that, too!"

Jason, who he'd managed to peel away from Piper for thirty seconds, shrugged. "Maybe you should talk to Reyna about it," he said. Leo shivered. "What? There's nothing wrong with Reyna."

"She's terrifying."

"She's better than Octavian, who's probably the one who's been making you do this."

"Yeah, I dunno why he hates me so much," Leo said. "He's probably jealous of my incredibly fantastic body and personality."

Jason raised an eyebrow. "I'm sure that's it," he said, completely deadpan. He clapped Leo on the arm. "Talk to Reyna. I'd take a bath first."

With that, he wandered off to find Piper again and Leo decided that he would probably take a bath.

About half an hour later, freshly clean and smelling vaguely of vanilla, Leo Valdez stood in front of Reyna.

She looked up from her desk, quirking one eyebrow.

"Hey," Leo said, managing an awkward smile. "I, uh, was wondering if you'd maybe. Control your psycho teddy bear murderer."

She sighed and leaned back. "What did he do now?"

"I've been, um, cleaning. For three days straight. I just had my first bath in seventy-two hours. I literally clean from the minute I wake up to the minute I pass out from exhaustion, usually on some street where I wake up to nearly getting run over. After which I start cleaning again."

Reyna rubbed her temples. "You're not even a Roman."

"Yeah. Greeks suck at cleaning."

"No, that's not what I- alright. I'll talk to him. And you don't have to clean anymore. Now please leave."

"What, so I got all cleaned up to just leave?" Leo asked, spreading his arms. "You need a break, too. Let's hang out."

"No."

The dogs growled. Leo took a nervous step backward. "C'mon! It'll be more fun than watching your metal dogs eat me."

"Doubtful."

"If it's not more fun, I'll go back to cleaning."

With an almost disturbing gleam in her eye, Reyna accepted. Leo wondered if he'd made a mistake, but at least she was cute. He told himself that as she stood up, stacked her papers, and headed out the door. He followed her, but if he got within a foot of her, the dogs paid more attention to him than he'd like to happen, so he stayed fairly far away.

"So, Valdez," Reyna said, crossing her arms. "What are you going to have me do that will be more fun than watching my dogs eat you?"

"Uh, wow," Leo said. "This was actually a really bad idea. Uh. What about. Come with me."

He headed into New Rome with the full intention of making up his plan as he went along. He had no money and no plan and only one sock, but he would make Reyna happy if it killed him. Even if it meant letting her dogs devour him.

Which would be better than cleaning, honestly.

So, they walked around, eventually circling around to a park. It looked as good as anything, so Leo headed in.

The first thing he noticed was the trees. Huge, old, and probably great for climbing.

"Hey, I'll race you," he said, jumping to grab the first branch of one and hoisting himself up. Reyna's shock lasted about ten seconds and her pride lasted until Leo was halfway up the tree, panting and sweating a little. It took her about thirty seconds to catch up to him, and then she left him in the tree-dust, climbing without any trouble whatsoever. Leo muttered something under his breath about Romans and their stupid climbing abilities, and managed to clamber the rest of the way up to sit on a branch across from her at the top.

"It was entertaining to think that you thought you could beat me," she relented. She smiled, sort of – her lips curved up, and it had sort of looked more like a smirk, but he could pretend that it was a smile.

"More entertaining than your dogs eating me?" he asked, hopeful. She studied him as if contemplating it, and he felt his face get a little hot under her gaze. Then he felt his hands get a little hot.

Then he felt the tree branch catch on fire.

He cursed, putting out the fire in his hands as quickly as possible – the tree was gone, and his pants were a little bit on fire now, too, and after flailing around a bit, he ended up falling down a few branches. The fall put out the fire on his pants, though the branch above his head was still on fire.

The two of them stared at the branch for a few moments, both of them totally frozen.

"The tree's on fire," Reyna said eventually.

"Yeah," Leo said. "Yeah, sorry about that. That happens when I get nervous. Excited. Angry. Really anything, actually."

They sat for a few more minutes. Leo thought that Reyna was most likely in shock – and the fire burnt out on its own, thankfully, before they decided to actually put it out instead of sitting there and staring at it.

"I think I broke something," Leo said. "On the way down."

Reyna made a sound that could, maybe, if someone were to think really hard and delude themselves a lot, sound like a laugh and swung down from the tree. Leo followed her, managing to do it without killing himself. Once they were both on the ground, she studied him.

"Watching you flail around up there was pretty entertaining," she admitted.

"More entertaining than watching your dogs eat me?"

She seemed to consider it. Then she nodded. "Alright," she said. "I'll give you that. Watching you flail around in a tree while on fire was more entertaining than watching my metal dogs maul you."

"That's an achievement I'll probably never be able to claim again," Leo said. He grinned. "But we could always try. Are you free at some point tomorrow?"

This was requested by an anon on Tumblr, who wanted a Leyna. I haven't written PJO in forever, and I'm not so sure about Reyna here… but, it turned out okay?

This is post-Blood of Olympus with the most optimistic look out there, which is nobody is going to die shut up.