ROMANCE . . . oneshots

♡ first man ♡

safe mortal au ; briar's dad is home for once, and she realizes that he's really behind on her life. specifically, her dating life.
— probably ooc characters, especially briar's dad, but it's on purpose for this oneshot. lowercase intended.

❝ you held me so tight, now someone else can
but you were the first man that really loved me ❞

THE HALLMARK MOMENT that had been briar lovelace's life when her dad came back from his military term had been amazing. the video had been posted on news channels countrywide, everyone had been really happy for her, and, most importantly, she had her dad back.

now he was spending five months home before he was deployed again. she really was happy about that, though it took some getting used to living with him as well as her half-sister piper and her dad, who's a famous actor with a giant house. it was more like a mansion, but briar still saw her dad around the house.

something else she had to get used to? bringing him into the loop.

the school year started two months ago, but her dad was usually home in the summers, where they'd go on trips wherever they wanted. now he was home during half of the school year, which made it weird as she'd have to leave for most the day because of that, and basketball, and other clubs, and hanging out with her friends.

her friends. since going to high school, briar's friend group had massively increased. her two closest friends were jason and piper, and they still are, but their friend group grew to have so many people: percy, annabeth, grover, juniper, nico, will, frank, hazel, leo, rachel, tyson, calypso . . .

and reyna. but reyna wasn't just a friend; she'd become more during sophomore year. fall break, actually, during the group's trip up north to the estate piper's dad owned. briar had wanted to go to the fashion museum nearby to get inspiration for her art project, and reyna went with her, and things just happened from there.

they were good. really good, in fact. reyna's the kindest. and she's really funny — she doesn't show it a lot with jokes, but with sarcastic comments that make briar have to giggle into her hands to hide them. and reyna loves her, a lot. it's been hard for her to love after her shitty childhood, but she manages to keep being loving for briar despite that.

maybe . . . maybe reyna's the one.

it's a striking thought, one that's crossed briar's mind many times; but she's never thought about it further because she's scared, and she's scarred.

briar's mother wasn't there. she'd been born after piper, so close to the point where briar had had health complications. so had their mother, who had left under the guise of "health complications after giving birth", which probably was true, but then she hadn't come back. briar's dad met piper's dad, and they bonded, so briar had grown up with piper and her dad. and briar's dad had been there for all of her baby and toddler years, but then when she was five he enlisted into the army and barely came back.

briar knows what it's like to have a broken heart, and she was scared to give reyna hers because of that possibility. but so far reyna's done the opposite of break her heart, and briar was also down bad for reyna. like, it was really bad.

but her dad doesn't know this. she realized this right after she told him that she'd have a sleepover at her girlfriend's house.

"at your what's house?" he asked, stopping her right in place.

"i have a girlfriend, dad," she turned around to look at him. "her name's reyna, she's one of me and piper's friends that we made when we got to high school."