Demigod Journals (Percy Jackson FanFic - Blood Of Olympus)

Hugging, Touching, Kissing (Nico)

POV: Nico

((Somewhere in the sea of monsters, a love blossoms... =P))

I'm having the best dream ever. The Reyna-bear - a big teddy bear that Coach Hedge had given me in my dream - was so soft in all the right places and smelled so sweet and nice. I didn't know why I immediately thought of Reyna, but heck, this was a dream. Hay... It was almost like hugging Reyna herself! Ahhhh... A piece of heaven.

What's even better was I felt it embracing me back.

Hmm, maybe I should call my Reyna-bear, Ra-Ra. I chuckled to myself. Oh she would strangle me to death if she just heard that.

This was probably the strangest dream I ever had. At least there's no one dying or the world was not crumbling to ashes. Those were my usual dreams. I wasn't also being tortured nor was I back in the depths of Tartarus, so it's good.

Suddenly the teddy bear looked at me then with a deafening yell, it bellowed, "DI ANGELO!!!"

My eyes snapped open and I raised my head in surprise. What in Hades was that? Then I felt something was clinging on my waist and I watched as Reyna started to stir at my side. Her face rose from resting on my chest and looked around in confusion. Then her sleepy eyes met mine.

"Morning." She greeted with a warm sleepy smile.

"Good morning." I gladly returned the greeting back.

"GOOD MORNING, CUPCAKES!"

Both of us jumped from the loud holler coming from the satyr that stood over us with a megaphone in hand.

I was about to greet Coach Hedge too when I noticed the angry look he was giving us. Uhh, what did we- then Reyna suddenly yelped and disentangle her arms from my waist. "I-It's not what you think, Coach!" She stammered in panic as she tried to place as much as distance between us. Wow, she was so red that even her ears were blushing. How cute.

I was a slow person. A really really slow person.

It took the embarrassed look on Reyna's flustered face for me to get what was happening. I remembered my nice dream. Then Reyna's arms around me when I woke. My body heated up with mix embarrassment and tension. Jeez, now my chest felt hotter where Reyna's face had just been. My hands turned clammy. Ugh! Stop it, brain! Don't give me weird thoughts so early in the morning!

"You two are getting cozy..." Coach Hedge said with a gruff, suspicious voice as he continued to glare at us. The baseball bat that he held on the other hand was hitting the ground ominously.

A crackling sound came to the right of the statue and Fred the skeleton appeared behind Reyna. I could feel the curiosity emanating from the skeleton's aura.

"Uhhhh..." I seriously have no idea what to say. My brain just refused to work properly and kept on returning to that dream where the bear was now completely replaced by Reyna herself. My heart won't stop banging on my chest. Am I having a heart problem? This weird heart rate was happening too often than normal these past few days.

Reyna who seemed to have calmed down saved me. "It was cold last night, Coach. That's just it." She said but she was not meeting anybody's eyes.

Huh? She's lying?

Coach Hedge beamed. "Ahh, is that so. You should have said so in the first place. You know, cupcakes, my fur is really great for warming! I didn't even feel the chill last night." He laughed then ruffled both our hairs. 'It's breakfast time, cupcakes." The satyr said happily before striding towards our equipment at the side of the Athena Parthenos.

"Uhm..." I wanted to say something to Reyna but the words were stuck in my throat. She seemed to be lost in very deep thought.

Suddenly, she stood. "I'm going for a swim." She said then without even looking back she walked away to the beach.

I frowned. What's going on?

I stood up and followed her.

I went into the beach and took off my clothes too for a swim but unlike last time, Reyna was ignoring me. It was like a quick bath and we were silent all throughout even at breakfast.

Several minutes passed and we were just sitting at the foot of Athena Parthenos, watching the waves and the sea before us. It would have been a good time to relax before our next shadow travel but I couldn't do so with Reyna acting indifferently. Finally, I couldn't hold my thoughts any longer.

"What's wrong?" I asked while she was silently fixing her braid.

Reyna was a feet farther than usual from me though I tried to just ignore that fact. Did I do something wrong? "Nothing." She mumbled and started to comb her hair.

She's not looking at me again. Is it something I did? Is she getting tired of-

"Oh will you cut that out!" She suddenly exclaimed and pinched my cheek.

"Ow. Ow." I protested and held my abused faced after she let go of me. I shot her an irritated look. "Cut what out? You are the one acting so snub."

Reyna frowned at me. "You have that look in your face."

"What look?"

"You're thinking that it's probably something you did. That you did something wrong."

I matched her frown. Am I that obvious?! "Is it not?"

Her frown deepened. "You didn't do anything wrong."

"But it's because of me that you've gone all silent, right."

"No, of course not." Her gaze moved back to the sea.

"Liar." She pinched my cheek again for that. "Hey cut that out." Thankfully she let go of my aching cheek but she became silent again. "Do you hate me?" Words just slipped from my mouth without meaning to. Ugh. Now I felt nervous. I guessed that was what bothered me the most since she began treating me with a cold shoulder. I waited anxiously for her answer.

"Of course not." She said it this time to my face. I breathed a sigh of relief. "I just had some things to think about."

"What is it?" I asked, curious about what thought could bring such a vulnerable look on Reyna's often confident air.

It took her a while to respond. Then her shoulders slackened and she sighed. "Have you ever been in love before, Nico?"

I didn't expect her question. "I uh- I don't know." I said. My heart thumped as if it knew it was the subject of the conversation. My mind brought me back to the time I spent in Eros' place with Jason. I remembered Eros' every word. "Maybe. What about you?"

"I thought before that I did. But now... I'm starting to question myself." She has such a far away look in her eyes.

"Jason?" I asked feeling a bit displeased about something. Where is this irritation coming from? I don't particularly hate Jason. Actually, I'm kind of indebted to the guy. He tried to befriend me but I was mean to the guy.

Reyna nodded then laughed mockingly at herself. "Now's really not the time to talk about love, right?"

"Eros once told me that love is always where you least expect it." I mumbled then winced inwardly. Ugh. Where did that come from? I can't believe I was quoting Eros.

"You met Cupid before?"

I nodded. "He's a big bully." Before I knew it, I started to tell her my personal encounter with the Love God. I didn't even think of sparing any detail. Looking back, that was most weird of me. When did I become so talkative?

"So it was Percy huh." I tried to keep my face passive. Reyna's face was unreadable too. "I kind of know what you see in him. That guy is really something." She added.

Hearing Reyna say that made me frown. "I think I'm over him." I said calmly, even surprising myself when I didn't sound so defensive this time. Maybe it was just an infatuation. But I could deny that I did actually like the guy as more than a friend. He was for a long time, the most important person to me. Was... My gaze wandered to Reyna.

Reyna smiled a little. "You think?"

I shrugged. "I'm not an expert in all this love business, either. Most of the time, it just seemed that the gods were using and toying with me."

"That makes the two of us." She looked at me. "Tell me about your sister. The one you dreamed about on the isle of the sirens." My eyebrow raised at the sudden request. She gave me the usual nonchalant shrug of her shoulders. "I'd like to know more about you." She leaned back casually on the statue's foot, giving up on fixing her hair as the sea breeze was especially hard this morning. Her long black hair fluttered with the wind.

"Bianca is nice." I started slowly, trying hard to not be overwhelmed by all of the memories that's resurfacing in my head. Little by little, I told Reyna all that I could remember about Bianca. "She often seemed shy at first but don't be fooled, she's good at roughing me up especially when I did something stupid." Reyna laughed at that. "And she's always looking out for me. Always."

"She sounds like an amazing person."

"She was." Then I told her about the circumstances of my past to how my sister and I managed to get at camp half blood. I even told her the events afterwards.

Reyna nodded as if processing all that I've said. Wow, she really did listen? I never rambled about something for this long before. Well maybe except my mythomagic days. But that was long in the past now. "Now I get what you meant by not from this time."

"Yes. But I think Hazel has it worse with the time problem."

"Hazel's a strong kid. She'll get by."

I agreed. Now I'm kind of missing Hazel. She has been really kind to me and most of the time, I returned her concern with sulkiness. I needed to act better next time in front of her. "What about your story? Before Camp Jupiter."

"A fair trade. Very well." Reyna took in a deep breath. "Hylla and I were orphaned at a very young age. I can't even remember what father looks like. We lived in many orphanages on Puerto Rico for a time but eventually, we couldn't find a place that would take us in anymore. We were a bit notorious for finding trouble. Between my sister and I, thugs often found us and tried to rough us up."

"What happened then?"

"We were naturally good with weapon so we learned early how to fight because it's not only thugs that were after us but also monsters. After living in the streets for months, a gang recruited us to do their dirty works for them in exchange for food, shelter and money."

"Dirty works?"

Reyna's lips thinned into a grim line. "Mugging and stealing most of the time. We also carried drugs."

"Ohh."

Reyna's eyes hardened into a cold look as she stared far away into the sea. "Hylla and I both regretted that time. We have no excuse for doing that except that we were both young and still gullible at the time."

"You did what you had to survive." Reyna just shrugged. "Percy said he and Annabeth met you at Circe's island. How did you get there?" I didn't dwell much on the fact that I just just said Percy and Annabeth's name without feeling any conflict or difficulty.

"The gang soon gave us harder jobs. We drew the line at killing people."she continued. "So when we refused their orders, they tried to kill us to keep us from escaping and telling on them. We did escape those amateurs that were supposed to silence us and Hylla found a way into a cargo boat that would sail into the Atlantic. Our plan was to escape on another country, we had saved a little money, but the ship was caught in a storm. Then it accidentally passed by Charybdis. The next thing we knew, we were being treated back to health by Circe. She was horrible with men but she treated us kindly, even taught us as couple of things. In her island, my sister and I momentarily found peace." Reyna grimaced. "Then Percy and Annabeth arrived and the rest were known history."

"That was rough." I said, unable to think of anything else to say. I couldn't comfort her for the past. There's nothing that I could say to change that. So I did what she did to me before. I took her hand in mine and patted it in a gesture of offering comfort.

Reyna looked at me in surprise then her gaze dropped at our hands. But thankfully she didn't pull away, instead she gave me a light squeeze. Her hands felt good in mine. "That feels good." She muttered softly.

"Huh-err. What?!" Her bold words suddenly surprised me. In panic, I held her hand tighter. "Uhm, yes! Your hand feels good too!" I blurted the words like a babbling idiot.

Laughter filled the morning air as Reyna laughed so hard, tears formed on the corners of her eyes. Her fingers found my cheek once again and gave it a hard tug. "I'm talking about sharing my past with someone for the first time, silly death boy!" She beamed me a wide smile. "What are you thinking, huh?"

"N-nothing!" I stammered, feeling a flush creeping up my face. Schist! I totally misunderstood. Hades! I'm so embarrassed right now. What was I thinking?! "Is it true that I'm the only one you told your story to?" I asked. Change the topic tactic!

She nodded still smiling. "It's not really a good story to share and be proud of."

"I think it's a nice story. It showed how you and your sister managed against the odds. It showed how tough you were even when you were little. It's the story that shaped and made you who you are today, I think it's a wonderful story." I mumbled aimlessly but I meant every word.

Reyna chuckled. "Thank you for the compliment and for that I'm stopping with the hand issue." Ach, I knew she would see right through me. But dam, she's still holding my hand. Uhhhhh... "And for your honesty, I'll tell you something true too." Huh? What could it be? I watched as she leaned over to me and whispered on my ear. "You are the one who first embraced me last night."

Blood went straight to my head. "What?! No way?!"

One eyebrow rose at me in challenge. "Are you saying that I'm lying?"

Uh oh. Treacherous grounds. "But if I-uh did it first, then why didn't you wake me? You like embracing me, don't you?" Again, I didn't know where those words came from! My mouth just blurted them out!

My tactlessness received a punch from Reyna in the arm. I almost laughed when she blushed too and looked away as she muttered a string of protest. Ohhh gods. I couldn't stop the grin that stretched on my face. Why do I feel like I'm floating? Gods. I can't stop myself from smiling! "Oh of course not! It's just... Uh... Well, you looked so cute sleeping like that, I didn't have the heart to wake you." She said with a defiant frown.

"Stop calling me cute! I'm not cute. Cute is for puppies and kitties."

She made a face at me. Her cheeks were still red and I fought the urge to pinch them as she did mine. "Oh just take the compliment."

"No." I stood my ground. "Cute is not a compliment to me."

"I think both of you cupcakes are cute." Coach Hedge walked towards us after his daily morning exercise.

"Uhm..."

"Hi Coach." Reyna said with a polite smile.

"Anyway, I've decide to camp with the both of you later tonight. Especially if it's chilly. I prefer Athena's shoulder than the ground but I'll make an exception. I don't want my cupcakes to catch a cold." He said proudly and slumped on the sandy ground between us. It forced us to scoot away farther to make room for the satyr. "What are you two talking about? Hey why are your faces red?"

Coach Hedge continued to fussed over us while Reyna and I shared a look. She smiled and I could help but smile back. How I like that smile. Hmmm...

A crackle of clapping bones sounded from the distant and I saw Fred our skeleton friend watching over us. I could hear his thoughts. I flushed and tried to ignore him which made his squeaking laugh even louder. Argh. Even the skeleton was making fun of me.

Fred... Want me to shoot the satyr so you two could kiss? Ahehehe. Come on, Ghost king. step up your game! Heh. Heh. Heh. Mwah mwah. Tsup. (*insert kissing noises.)

Schist! Stop! Now the thought of kissing Reyna was permanent in my mind. Oh holy Hades! And I couldnt deny that I like the idea... Oh I'm now screwed. F* you Eros. F* you!

*****

The getting to know your past part is most essential in every blooming relationship...