we will be everything
"So her roommate is basically out of Phoebe's league in every way, and judging by her attitude, she's totally aware of it." Fluffy Reyna/Phoebe college roommates AU.
I hope you brought your toothbrushes because this is going to be pointless and fluffy.
P.S. Phoebe is 1000% upset that she's not listed as a character in this database. She's literally been around since The Titan's Curse, and she's cool.
She pushes open the door to her new dormitory and immediately smiles. Sweet. He roommate isn't here yet. This means she gets to claim the better half of the room - which is crucial, considering she's going to live here for the majority of her freshman year in college. She absentmindedly twists the ring on her left hand as she appraises her surroundings: the gray scratchy sheets on each bed, the pushpin holes on the right wall, the wobbly leg of the left chair. Right side it is.
She shrugs off her backpack, sets down her two oversized suitcases, and dumps her silver bedroll on the right bed.
She's just unzipped her suitcase when the door opens behind her. Phoebe turns around to see a girl about her age, with glossy black hair that rests in a braid over one shoulder and dark eyes. She's dressed simply, in jeans and a purple t-shirt. And unlike Phoebe, who brought mountains of luggage with her, the girl only has one small gray suitcase trailing behind her. Ah. That must be the roommate.
Phoebe stands up, quickly wiping her hand on her pants before stretching it out. "Hi! I'm Phoebe, your new roommate. Nice to meet you!"
"Reyna," says the other girl, firmly shaking her hand. "Nice to meet you too."
/
Phoebe quickly learns that Reyna isn't the most open of people. She doesn't initiate conversations, she responds to questions with short, straightforward answers, and she doesn't appreciate small talk in any way, shape, or form. It's not like she's unfriendly: she's perfectly cordial in every way. In fact, she's pretty much perfect in every way.
For example, every morning Phoebe wakes up at 8 am to go to her morning English class, her hair a mess, her eyes glazed over, and her body in dire need of caffeine. Meanwhile, Reyna lies fast asleep in her bed, curled under the gray sheets, because she was actually smart enough to not sign up for any morning classes.
And it's not just that. Phoebe had come back from her last class one Wednesday afternoon and seen Reyna casually sitting in her chair, whose wobbly leg she had fixed with a wad of clay, reading Cicero - in the original Latin. Reyna's apparently also on the school basketball team and, according to rumors, was some kind of record-breaking legend in high school. Not to mention Reyna's, well, rather pretty, in a regal, intimidating sort of way.
So her roommate is basically out of Phoebe's league in every way, and judging by her attitude, she's totally aware of it. Phoebe's torn between being in awe of her and being annoyed by her.
/
It's a rainy Saturday about two weeks after school has started, and Phoebe lies down on her bed, staring at the bumpy pattern on the ceiling. She could be doing homework. She should be doing homework - gods know she has enough of it. Instead she tries to make constellations out of the ceiling bumps, taps her foot to an imaginary beat on her silver sheets, and plays with her ring. She checks her watch. 3:23 PM. She has plans to go watch a movie with her newly-made friend Naomi, at 4:30, but until then, she still has an hour to kill.
She lifts her head and sees Reyna crouched over her desk. Studying, of course, like the perfect model student she is. Phoebe sighs. She really should study too. With great difficulty, she forces herself out of her bed and towards her own desk so that she can pick up her books.
Reyna's still crouched over her desk. Now that Phoebe's closer, she notices Reyna's furrowed brow and tense iron grip on her pen. It takes a moment for Phoebe to realize that Reyna is, in fact, struggling.
"Aha! I knew you weren't perfect," Phoebe blurts out, without thinking.
Reyna looks up, and her glare gives Phoebe shivers up her spine. "Pardon?"
Phoebe takes a moment to calm herself down. She's not scared of Reyna. She's faced way more than Reyna. She takes a step forward and peeks at whatever is giving Reyna such a hard time: it's math. Phoebe almost laughs; math is her best subject, after all. So the almighty Reyna isn't so almighty after all! "You're not very good at math, are you?"
"I'm dyscalculic," Reyna says.
"What's that?" Phoebe asks, confused. Well, it was nice feeling smart while it lasted.
"I have dyscalculia. That's like dyslexia, except instead of having trouble with words, I have trouble with numbers."
"Oh, right." She feels stupid, especially since she's supposed to be a pre-med student. "My friend Thalia is dyslexic. She's really good at Greek, though. She always jokes that she's dyslexic because her brain is hard-wired for ancient Greek. Maybe it's like that for you too."
Reyna looks unamused. "My Greek is passable, at best."
Point two for Phoebe! She's excellent at Greek, after all. "I meant with Latin," she says, gesturing Reyna's makeshift bookshelf on the top of her desk. "Your brain is probably hard-wired for Roman numerals. That's why you're dyscalculic."
"I don't think it works that way," Reyna says, but Phoebe thinks she sees the hints of a smile tugging at Reyna's lips.
/
She helps Reyna with her math homework until 4:20 arrives, and then she invites Reyna to go out to the movies with her and Naomi. To her surprise, Reyna agrees. Maybe the girl isn't as closed off as Phoebe initially thought.
By then, the rain has cleared, so Reyna suggests that they walk to the theater. Phoebe was going to take a taxi or something, since she doesn't know the streets of San Francisco very well, but Reyna assures her that she does.
"You know, this is the first time I've been so far away from home all by myself. I grew up in New York, around the Long Island area," Phoebe says, as they walk together. "I traveled a bit, but always with my friends and family, and I never really got off the east coast. But I felt like I could use a change of scenery for college. Not to mention this is a really good school. Where are you from?"
"I've lived here for the past few years," Reyna says. Phoebe notices that Reyna didn't quite answer her question, but she decides not to push it. It's none of her business, after all.
"Oh cool, so you live kind of nearby?" Phoebe asks. "Why aren't you visiting?"
For a moment, Reyna is silent, and Phoebe panics, wondering if she's touched on a sensitive topic. But the corners of Reyna's lips quirk up with just a hint of a smile again, and she merely says, "It's like you said. I could use a change of scenery."
/
She begins spending more time with Reyna after that, tutoring her whenever they have the time and occasionally spending time out on weekends, and she adds more facts to her mental picture of Reyna.
Reyna is left handed, although her dominant basketball hand is her right. She's a pre-law student. Her full name is Reyna Avila Arellano-Ramirez, although she'll maim anyone who calls her that. She's ADHD and needs breaks every thirty minutes, otherwise she can't focus. She used to lose her pencils a lot when she was young, which is why she now places them on her ear or through her hair. Her go-to study snack is an oats and honey granola bar with hot chocolate. Also, Reyna was exaggerating when she said her ancient Greek was "just passable." It's actually very impressive, although not quite as good as Phoebe's.
/
"What's the ring for?" Reyna asks on one of their study breaks. She points at the silver band that encircles Phoebe's left ring finger.
"Oh, it's just something I've had since I was really little," Phoebe explains, fiddling as she speaks. "It's kind of silly, really, but it's to show that I'm in the Hunters of Artemis."
"You're in a cult?"
"The Hunters of Artemis isn't a cult!" Phoebe insists, a bit insulted.
"Do you actually believe in that whole Greek mythology thing?" Reyna asks.
"Not really, but it's kind of cool. Do you?" Phoebe asks.
Reyna only shrugs.
"The Hunters of Artemis is just a club me and my friends were - are - in," Phoebe continues. "We practice archery together, and we learn combat, and we travel sometimes, although we generally don't go very well. Like more intense, more awesome Girl Scouts. Oh, and we swear to be eternal virgins. I've literally been in it since I was like, five."
Reyna takes a bite of her granola bar. "So, it's kind of like a purity ring?"
"Well, it's more than that," Phoebe explains. "The whole celibacy thing is just a part of it, you know?" There's a crumb on the corner of Reyna's lip that she wants to wipe away. She manages to control that urge, but she can't stop herself from blurting out, "Girls don't matter."
"What?" Reyna acts confused, but the slight flush on her face tells Phoebe that Reyna knows exactly what she meant. It's the first time Phoebe has seen Reyna flustered, and well, she looks adorable.
Phoebe bites her lip, unsure of what to say and what to do. It's not like Reyna's the first girl she's been attracted to. There was that cute brunette that she met a party and dated for like three weeks. And she made out with Thalia a couple times, although that never went anywhere; they mutually decided that they were much better off as friends. But something about Reyna makes her feel different. She twists the ring on her finger. "Let's just go back to studying."
/
It's another rainy Saturday afternoon, and Phoebe is sitting at her desk, trying to focus on her biology homework. Reyna lies on her stomach on her bed, wrapped up in her new black bedsheets. Phoebe had forced Reyna to go out and get some better sheets than the scratchy gray ones the university offered, just the day before.
Phoebe turns around and sneaks a glance at Reyna. Her back is turned to her, but Phoebe thinks she's reading Cicero again, judging by the empty space on her bookshelf. Her hair shines in the sunlight and rests in a loose braid on her left shoulder, leaving the soft skin of her neck exposed.
She goes back to studying biology.
/
When she receives Bianca's emoji-laden email that they'll both be in the San Francisco area, her face almost splits open with its smile. Thalia's visiting her brother, Jason, who lives in the San Francisco, and she thinks they'll have time for a quick movie and lunch together.
She invites Reyna to go meet Bianca and Thalia with her. She refuses at first (something about studying for midterms, which are coming up in two weeks. Midterms? Haha, what are those?), but eventually she gives in. Phoebe knows that it's good for Reyna to get out; that girl pushes herself way too hard. Plus, she wants all her friends to meet each other and get along.
She waits for Thalia and Bianca at the same theater where she and Reyna watched their first movie, a silly film about Greek mythology or something. They'd both had a good scoff over the inaccuracies of that movie afterward.
Bianca sees her first, of course. "Phoebe!" she exclaims, giving her a big hug. Bianca's exactly as Phoebe remembers her, all smiles and excitement. "I missed you! It's so good to see you again!"
She squeezes Bianca back. "I missed you too." And she really did. She came to San Francisco because she wanted to see more of the world and needed a change of scenery, but the one thing she regretted was leaving her sisters behind. Text messages and Skype calls aren't enough.
Thalia too gives her a hug. "It's really good to see you, Phoebe." She's dyed her hair again - black with electric blue tips this time.
"You too. And I like your haircut," Phoebe says. "The color matches your eyes."
"You look nice t - Reyna?" Thalia gently pushes Phoebe away, staring at the girl standing behind her.
"Thalia Grace," Reyna says, her tone difficult to read.
"You two know each other?" Phoebe asks, trying to ease some of the tension.
Reyna sighs. "I should have known. Thalia. Hunters of Artemis. Of course you'd be the same one. Never thought I'd run into you again, though."
"Same to you, Reyna."
"So... how do you know each other?" Phoebe tries again.
"I went to high school with her brother," Reyna says, and this time Phoebe gets a better read on her tone. She and Jason were definitely more than just casual classmates. But that's none of her business, so Phoebe doesn't say anything - merely raises a skeptical eyebrow.
"Let's just go watch that movie!" Bianca interrupts, waving the tickets in her hand. "It's supposed to be really good! And my brother gave me this gift card for my birthday, so we can buy as much popcorn as we want! Come on, guys." She pulls on Phoebe's hand.
"Yeah, yeah," Phoebe says enthusiastically. "Let's just go watch a movie and have a great time."
/
Phoebe sits between Thalia and Reyna in the theater, just in case. She knows that Thalia and Reyna are both mature enough to be civil even if they dislike each other, but better safe than sorry. Also, she wants to sit next to Reyna, but that's irrelevant. The movie's about a boy and his dog or something.
"I bet five dollars that the dog's going to die," Thalia whispers.
"Nah, I'm not going to be against that. I agree," Phoebe whispers back. Dogs always die in these kinds of movies.
"The dog's not going to die," Reyna says. "His younger sister is going to. Just watch."
Two seats away, Bianca chimes in with, "You're all wrong. I bet they're both going to die."
Thalia opens her mouth to say something, but some irritated person nearby shushes them. Phoebe forces a handful of sour gummy worms - Thalia's second favorite movie snack - into the other girl's mouth instead.
Bianca ends up winning the bet. Both the dog and the younger sister die in the movie. It really was a depressing movie. Phoebe's not one to cry at movies, but she couldn't help but to tear up at a couple parts. Bianca's a mess of used tissues and emotion. Thalia and Reyna exchange dry-eyed looks, and Phoebe thinks her earlier worries on the two not getting along were unfounded.
"You guys all owe me five dollars," Bianca says, wiping her cheeks, as they leave the theater.
/
Phoebe regrets the outing two weeks later when she's elbow-deep in textbooks and notes and highlighters. Why didn't she start studying for midterms earlier? It's one AM. She's hungry, and sleep deprived, and stressed, and none of this information is clicking at all.
She feels a light tap on her shoulder, and she looks up to see Reyna offering her a cup of hot chocolate and a chocolate chip granola bar. Reyna never buys chocolate chip granola bars; it's always oats and honey, or sometimes trail mix. She must have bought the bar specifically for her.
She reaches out to accept the treat and drops her pen in the process. Before she can crouch over to pick it up, Reyna gives her the pen perched on her hair - a blue Pilot G2 .05, which happens to be both Reyna and Phoebe's favorite kind of pen.
She's too tired to properly express gratitude right now, but she tries her best to put all her emotions into her tired smile. Reyna gives her a tiny smile back in return, and it gives Phoebe the strength to carry on.
/
It's Wednesday night during midterms week, and Phoebe feels like a drakon chewed her up and spit her out.
Reyna's fast asleep on her bed. She looks so peaceful - well, apart from the fact that her cheek is pressed against her math textbook, and she's surrounded by a mess of color-coded papers. Phoebe stands up, picks up a cozy brown blanket, and tucks the girl in. Reyna would probably kill her for not waking her up, but the girl seriously needs sleep. She always pushes herself too hard. She's going to do great on her exams anyway.
She thinks about their first meeting and how she'd thought that Reyna was this cold, emotionless girl that was way out of her league. Well, she still thinks that Reyna's way out of her league, but now she knows that Reyna's one of the most kind and loyal people in the entire world. Like just now, even though she's the one tucking Reyna in, she feels a bit more calm and less muddled.
The world's not going to end if she, too, decides to go to sleep. More than anything else, she needs rest. She's going to be okay.
/
She miraculously survives midterms. In fact, everyone does. Well, she heard a story about how one boy fainted, but she's pretty sure that's a rumor. And even if it's true, it could have been a lot worse.
Phoebe celebrates the end of first semester with several bottles of liquor, smuggled in via mail, courtesy of Thalia. She's not sure how Thalia did it, but she's not complaining. Reyna raises an eyebrow at the alcohol, and at first she thinks Reyna disapproves, but then she asks her for a shot.
It's Saturday night, finals are over, and they probably should be partying with all the other students. But instead she and Reyna are alone in their dorm, sitting on Phoebe's bed, streaming Breaking Bad on Netflix and getting drunk.
Reyna is surprisingly lightweight, and within a few drinks, she's lying on Phoebe's lap, talkative and rambling. Phoebe doesn't mind at all. She braids and unbraids Reyna's hair and tries to think about something apart from how adorable Reyna is.
Okay, they're both really lightweight. And really drunk.
"Let's play truth or dare," Phoebe suggests, closing the laptop playing Netflix because no one's paying attention anyway. "Actually, no. Let's play truth or truth. Because I want to know all your secrets."
Sober Reyna would probably disagree, but Reyna is an agreeable drunk. "Okay. Let's do it." She sits up and takes another shot. Then she places herself across from Phoebe. "You can go first."
"Okay, okay," Phoebe says. She tries to think of a good question apart from Tell me a secret, but her mind is moving too sluggishly, and Reyna looks distractingly beautiful with her hair loose and mussed around her shoulders. "Uh, where are you from?"
"Puerto Rico, easy," Reyna says. "Okay, my turn. What's your family like?"
Oh. That's a hard question. She grabs the bottle from Reyna and takes a large gulp before answering. "My mom died when I was little, my dad ran away and left me in an orphanage, but it's okay because then the Hunters of Artemis adopted me. They're my real family." She claps. "Now it's my turn!" She tries to think about a suitable question to ask Reyna, but she's run out of intelligent thoughts and simply says, "Tell me a secret."
Reyna pauses for a second, her forehead scrunching in this adorable way. "Oh, okay, I have something. You know how you asked me once if I believed in that mythology stuff? Yeah, well, I don't, even though I practically grew up in this Roman mythology themed camp. Except once, when I was really young, I ran into this crazy fortune teller lady who claimed to be Venus - Aphrodite, I guess, if you're thinking Greek - and she told me that I would be unlucky in love, and no guy would ever heal my heart or something. Crazy, right? And I don't really believe in fortune telling and stuff, but I think she was right on the boys thing." She pauses, sits up, and takes another shot.
"What about girls?" Phoebe asks, forgetting the game for a moment.
Reyna looks at her, and her cheeks redden - although that might just be the alcohol. "Girls don't matter."
Later she'll blame the alcohol for what happens next, but she knows that she's in control of her actions. And later she'll claim not to remember anything, but she knows that she'll remember every bit of this moment: the softness of Reyna's hair, the warmth of her embrace, the feel of her lips moving against her own.
/
Phoebe wakes up with a splitting headache. Reyna's already awake, her hair back into its neat braid, sipping water and thumbing through a copy of Reader's Digest. She's seemingly unperturbed by mortal ailments such as hangovers.
She looks up and offers Phoebe a cup of water and an Alka Seltzer pill. "Took you long enough. It's almost noon."
Phoebe groans, rubs her eyes, and accepts the cup. "Shut up. It's Sunday, and midterms were just two days ago. I can sleep as much as I want."
Reyna says nothing and goes back to reading. She acts like nothing has changed. Phoebe opens her mouth. She fiddles with her ring. She should bring it up. She should say something. Communication is always key with these sort of incidents. Besides, when has she ever backed down from anything?
She loses her nerve at the last minute and flops back down onto the bed. She's going back to sleep.
/
Luckily for her, winter break is soon after that, and she's going back to Long Island. So she won't have to face any awkward moments with Reyna. Logically, she knows that she's blowing everything out of proportion. Reyna obviously isn't letting one drunk kiss ruin her relationship, so Phoebe shouldn't either. Heck, Reyna probably doesn't even remember the kiss. They're still friends and roommates.
The problem isn't the kiss itself, but how the kiss made her feel. Because well, she liked it. She liked it a lot.
She likes Reyna a lot.
Maybe seeing Thalia and the other Hunters of Artemis will clear her mind. Maybe if she steps away and gets some space between her and Reyna, her stomach will stop bursting into butterflies every time she sees the other girl's face.
/
She's horribly wrong. She goes back to Long Island, to the cabin that houses the other Hunters of Artemis. She doesn't think about Reyna too much during the day time (well, unless she sees a dark braid or a thick Latin text or a purple t-shirt) when she's with her other friends, but it's impossible not to miss Reyna when she can't sleep at night. The fact that she's jet-lagged and still on the wrong timezone doesn't help. Her body is still in San Francisco, and her heart is still with Reyna.
She misses Reyna. She wonders if Reyna thinks about her too, thousands of miles away. She thinks not. Reyna's has some job as a counselor at Camp Jupiter, and she's going to meet all her childhood friends, as well as Jason Grace, and she probably isn't thinking about Phoebe at all.
Eventually Thalia pulls her aside. "Phoebe, seriously, what's on your mind? Or should I ask... who?"
She knows. Well, of course Thalia knows. But that doesn't mean Phoebe's going to hand over information easily. She fakes innocence. "What are you talking about?"
"You know exactly what I'm talking about, Phoebe. You can't fool me. I'm your best friend."
It was worth a shot. Phoebe sighs. "IthinkI'minlovewithReyna."
Somehow Thalia manages to understand that. (It's a best friend thing.) "Are you serious? Well, I mean, I can understand why. Reyna's only flaw is that she has bad taste. But she's got to be smart enough to know you're a catch." She nudges Phoebe encouragingly.
"Bad taste?" Phoebe asks weakly.
"Don't tell her I told you this, but she used to have a crush on Jason. Like, come on, Reyna could do better. Jason's my brother. And he tried to eat a stapler when he was two," Thalia says with a laugh.
Phoebe thinks of Reyna's drunk confession and wonders if Thalia's really right. Then, naturally, her mind turns to their drunk kiss. "Used to?" she asks. "What makes you sure she used to?"
"Because Jason has a girlfriend now, and Reyna and Piper are both on good terms. And anyway, that was a couple years ago," Thalia explains. "Phoebe, you should tell her. If you're worried about the eternal maidenhood thing, you know that girls don't matter."
She looks down at her ring. "It's not that," she says.
"Then what's stopping you?" Thalia asks. "Come on, Phoebe, when do you ever back down? I expect full details in our next Skype call, right?"
/
She spends the rest of winter break practicing archery and competing in snowball fights and thinking about how she's going to tell Reyna how she feels when she gets back. She considers being a coward and just telling Reyna via text, but no, she has to do this in person. Still, her fingers itch to say something more every time she texts Reyna - which is fairly frequently.
She pushes open the door to her dormitory. Reyna isn't here yet, and she's suddenly reminded of the very first time she stepped into this dorm. She looks at the silver sheets on her bed and the black ones on Reyna's, the the white board that covers up the pushpin holes on the right wall, and the lump of clay that stabilizes the wobbly leg of the left chair.
She's just unzipped her suitcase when the door opens behind her. Phoebe turns around, and there she is: Reyna, wearing a snow-dusted purple cap and a black coat. She wants to say something, but her heart jumps into her throat.
Reyna speaks first. "Hey," she says. "It's good to see you again."
Phoebe had this big speech planned - what she's going to say, how she's going to say it, and her responses to each possible outcome - but it all flies out thee window because Reyna is standing right there, and there's a tiny bit of snow on her nose, and her mind has turned into absolute mush.
"Do you want to go on a date?"
Her mushy mind is still trying to reform itself and piece together the parts of the speech she had planned when the question comes out of Reyna's mouth. "What?"
"Do you - "
And then it clicks. "Yes, I mean - yes!" she blurts out. She must sound embarrassingly enthusiastic. She doesn't even care because at that moment, Reyna smiles. And it's not just one of those smiles where her corners of her lips quirk up into the hint of a smile: it's a real smile, happy and wide and beautiful.
/
Later, Reyna lies on Phoebe's lap, and Phoebe braids and unbraids Reyna's hair and thinks about how adorable her girlfriend is.
"I'm glad girls don't matter," Reyna says.
Her heart is overwhelmed, and there are so many other things she wants to tell Reyna. She thinks of the speech she had been rehearsing only a couple hours ago. But in this moment, she simply tells her this:
"You matter."
Wow. It's been over a year, hasn't it? (If you don't count the crack fics on my alt.)
I was originally going to have this set in canon!verse but then I remembered that in canon!verse Phoebe is dead. Then this degenerated into OOC AU trash. I'm sorry.
Also, I know nothing about college and stuff, so sorry if I didn't get it right. My excuse: this is set in my random fictional university in San Francisco, and that's how things work in my fictional university, okay?