Leo knows something is wrong when Skippy returns back to his apartment in New Rome.

Skippy is about two hours early.

Skippy is neighing at him very urgently. Percy isn't here to translate, but Leo gets the gist.

Reyna is nowhere on the pegasus.

His pizza rolls just dropped on the floor, which he totally hadn't meant to. You'll probably drop yours too if a winged horse banged it's head on your window and neighed at you very loudly, what the hell. They were really special pizza rolls. Reyna and Leo were supposed to be eating them later.

"Fuck," He breathes, gets on Skippy's back. Later he'd get complaints for his shitty Pegasus driving, because he'd never bothered with Pegasi riding or whatever. Still, it's urgent, so it doesn't matter that he almost left hoofprints on a bald guy. Maybe it'll matter later?

Maybe. (It totally does.)

When he arrives in the infirmary, a bunch of kids in togas are crowded around one bed. Since Reyna isn't in the other beds, he quickly makes way to that area, smelling of smoke. The demigods part for him, as people normally do when someone's hair is almost on fi- oops it did catch fire.

It's only an appropriate reaction when he sees Reyna's right side, the purple garments dark with the red of her blood. Someone is feeding her Nectar, someone gathering powdered unicorn horn, and someone else preparing some… something.

"What the fuck happened?" He squeaks, moving close, hands running through his hair, both out of frustration and to put off the tiny flames. No one answers him. "What happened? For the love of all gods, will someone tell me," He goes ignored as another passed, scissors in hand. She moves to cut off Reyna's toga when Leo protests. "Hey!"

"Look here, Vulcan. I'm try'na save your girl, and I can't do that when I'm in danger a' burning, gods. You'll be a lot more helpful disembowelin' teddy bears with Octavian," She turns around, does what she originally was supposed to do- oh gods. Whatever fight Leo was planning to stay, it quickly dies when he sees the wound, a cut running on her side.

"Well, it's not too deep," Someone mutters, gathering some of the power.

"Oh, Hephaestus," Leo says, before getting the fuck out of there.

:][:

Leo, in fact, hadn't gone to Octavian. If he'd disliked Octavian the first time a syllable came tumbling out of Octavian's mouth, he is beyond hating Octavian now that they've exchanged more than one syllable.

Really, Octavian was a nasty guy enough but when he keeps on trying to sabotage your girlfriend… Sigh. Anyway, It's been hours since he's left the infirmary. He'd come back occasionally, but Reyna was still unconscious. He went out to get himself some chocolate drink, idly making a list to keep himself occupied and not think of other things, like hey, is Reyna okay will she di-

A list of reasons why Leo and literally anyone else should hate Octavian.

He sacrifices innocent teddy bears to gods, for some shit or another. But seriously, teddy bears? It doesn't matter that you'd rub them to your junk, teddy bears shouldn't be treated like that. Why doesn't Octavian use other alternatives? Like his limbs? Maybe they're not as worthy as teddy bears? Leo wouldn't be surprised.

Leo has spotted him hiding his face behind his toga during many meetings. He's probably hiding a knife in there, or conspiring against the praetors. Or he's just picking his booger, which is also likely, as he's always sniffing before.

He sniffs a lot. Really it's like someone should just shove some pencils up his nostrils.

He hates cheese, for some reason. How can a person even hate cheese. That's definitely a sign someone's evil.

One time he thought Jason was allergic to peanuts, so he went on a crazy and force fed Jason all these peanut butter. It was both hilarious and terrifying.

He speaks in this terrible accent, says his vowels clipped and other weird stuff Leo can't explain. Maybe he's trying to impersonate that one character from Harry Potter? Not that Leo is a Harry Potter person, he really hasn't got time for that with all the running an-

"Yo, Vulcan!" The medic is back again, her short hair specked with red, oozing things Leo doesn't wanna think of. Her black hair helps. Also she just seems to appear randomly there, what the fuck. Maybe she's one of those magic goddess' child? "Vulcan. My eyes are up here."

"O-oh, yeah. I-I was just um… checking if- um, nice pendant…?" He motions to the pendant, dangling on her neck, one full moon, flanked with two crescent moons on either side.

"Yeah," She snaps. "Reyna calls for you, so…" She motions to the direction, and walks off toward it without checking if Leo followed, which he won't, because he hasn't gotten his chocolate drink yet, and also he's asserting his power, he's not giving to peer pressure, thank you very much.

"Hurry up, Vulcan." She calls when she notices Leo isn't following her.

Leo makes faces behind her back, almost sloshing down his much-awaited chocolate drink in a hurry to catch up.

:][:

The air is still filled with the sharp smell of powdered unicorn horn. Reyna eyes him from her bed perched on mounds of pillows, an amused smile on her face as she nibbles on a square of ambrosia.

"Got clumsy," she says as a greeting. "Almost cut m'self in half."

"Holy Hephaestus," he exhales, moving to take a seat near Reyna. "Lousy child."

Reyna beams at him, wagging her fingers. "I know! The sword was there and whoosh!" She adds a little action with her hands, sounding way too excited with the prospect of almost dying. She giggles.

"Wh-"

"And there was so much blood!" She squeals. "Purple don't look great with red, though, Leo."

"What's going on?!" He almost yells, scaring a passing medic.

"Oh, she's probably high on ambrosia or something, should be out of it soon," he says, going on his way, hopefully without pissed boyfriends this time.

"O-kay," he says, turning to look at Reyna again. "I made pizza rolls but I dropped them because of Skippy. They're probably still on the kitchen floor."

"Noooooo!" She wails, "I love your pizza rolls!"

"Erm. I could make some again…?"

"That'll be great, Leo. Gimme some more of this brobars."

"Brobars? Oh, um, right… I don't think you're supposed to eat more…?"

"BROBARS!"

"Reyna, for the love of your mom, shut up. Christ."

"Brobars, Leo. Give me."

"Wow, no. I don't have any." And she's saying Brobars! again, and he's saying, no, jesus christ, no, and what the fuck are brobars, and that's how the whole conversation turned really useless. Both turning more and more annoyed, until Reyna is telling him to get me fucking pizza rolls, gods and Leo is more than happy to oblige.

:][:

Soon Leo is back with his pizza rolls and Reyna is fucking sleeping.

Oh well, more for him. He settles himself on one of the chairs, munching on a roll. He studies Reyna with the dim light. Night had fallen, and he should probably be back soon to his (occasionally their) apartment.

The shadows do things to her face, making it more angled, sharp. There's a faint smile on her face, eyebrows smooth. He likes her best like this, like she's not holding a camp together, like she doesn't have a huge responsibility on her shoulders, like she doesn't have to carry all these problems to herself, because she has someone to house her and all these problems and-

Just.

Wow.

Leo is filled with an intense fondness as he watches Reyna, gets himself lost in the sound of her even breathing and he'd find it funny that he's having these feelings while eating pizza rolls they were supposed to eat together, damn. He just… really, really loves Reyna it almost makes his heart burst with all these feelings he's feeling and he can't categorize them to words that tell you what each feeling really is, gods.

"What are you doing?" Leo knows whose voice that is. There is literally only one person who uses the same sharp, snappy tone in their voice, like they're trying to knife you using their words to cut you. Her eyes are bright against the dim light.

"Eating pizza rolls. Hell yes, the same pizza rolls you were asking for just hours ago." His smile is smug.

Reyna glares at him, lifts up her palms towards him, "Sacrifice for your Dark Lord Reyna."

He snorts, but places a roll on her hand anyway. He sets the rest aside.

"C'mere," Reyna says while she nibbles, patting the space next to her. She's still laid down on the bed, but there's still a big space next to her, perks of being a praetor.

And so Leo lays down beside Reyna on his side, leaning on his elbows for support. It would just be his luck if he falls on the roll on Reyna's hand.

"Um. How's your day?" He asks.

"Just got skewered and stuff. You?"

"Jesus Christ, how did that even happen."

"Told you, I got clumsy. Was an accident." She sighs, a warm puff of breath on his nose. She asks again, "How's your day?"

"Pizza rolls, mostly. Almost died of heart attack when I saw your fuckin' Pegasus on the window."

"Skippy?"

"You have other Pegasi?"

"No…"

"I'm glad for that."

"Hehe. You're not too friendly with animals, Leo."

"You're not too friendly with Leo, Reyna," he mimics in an overly falsetto voice.

"Fuck off."

"Woah, lady, watch your goddamn language," he laughs, a soft breathy sound, moving his hand towards her face, running his thumb 'round her cheeks, "No need to get too aggressive."

"Fuck off," she repeats, only a little put off when Leo leans over and kisses her cheek, and the other, and the tip of her nose, and her forehead, and each of her eyelids and a short, sweet peck on her lips. Reyna gets a little laugh before Leo is leaning forward and his lips are on hers again, moving in a languid manner, lightly nipping. She can feel his lazy smile.

"I realized something," he says between kisses, moving lower to her chin and to her jaw, "While I was eating pizza rolls."

Reyna lets out a breathy, uninterested hmmm?

"I really, really, really, I mean, really," Leo murmurs, nipping on the spot where Reyna's neck meets her shoulders, earning him a breathy moan, "I really love you."

Reyna laughs. "I thought you were having some heart-stopping, mind-blowing revelation that'll change the fate of the whole humanity." Snooping in for a kiss, she breathes against his lips, "I love you, too."

A/N: will I ever stop writing pointless Leyna fanfics? no. do I want to? no.

enjoy! v(nvn)v