#arellashid

 -

reyna grows up in a family blessed by bellona. her and her older sister are the goddesses children, but her family has always been favoured. flowers are not unheard of and prized, but they are also hidden. a soulmate could be a weakness, a soulmate is unheard of for mortals that do not know of the gods. when she and her sister escape and find themselves on circe’s island a scarce handful of the women have flowers. those that do keep them on display. 

when the men take over the island, reyna thinks very little of flowers and thinks much more of trying to escape. 

it’s in the after, when she finally settles in new rome, that she thinks of soulmates. 

not everyone in new rome has a soulmate, after all not everyone falls in love or stays in new rome. most people in new rome have a soulmate. 

reyna comes to new rome alone with flora free arms, and no one minds. she meets jason when they’re both twelve and she starts to know she’s in the right place as he laughs with her and fights with her and somehow they both know to very carefully avoid skin to skin contact. soulmates are something special. what she has with jason is special - he’s her best friend. and neither of them want to know if being best friends isn’t enough. 

they go to the movie theatre in the city and carefully separate the popcorn into the extra bag they asked for, they go to the cafe and they never grab the others drink first to pass it to them, when they spar the winner doesn’t pull the other onto their feet. reyna knows the legion and the city thinks the two of them are being silly, that they should just touch and the flowers will be there waiting. 

but reyna’s lost more than she should. and all jason knows is the legion. neither of them are ready to risk it. so they shove each other in the winter when they are bundled up in layers, and keep space between each other when they sit and watch the sunset. 

they make it two years. at fourteen reyna falls off scipio and jason saves her. it should’ve been a moment of relief, instead they both freeze at the sight of their still empty skin. jason finds reyna after the mess of it all. 

  “i don’t care if we aren’t soulmates,” jason says, sitting next to her on reyna’s bunk. 

  “i do,” reyna tells him. she hasn’t met his eyes since he held her and nothing showed on their skin. now, she turns her head to meet his gaze. “i care that we aren’t soulmates. but, you’re still my best friend. and you aren’t going to stop being my best friend just because we aren’t separate halves. your girlfriend can be your second half, or something.”

  jason opens his palm to her and she takes it. he smiles at her and she smiles back. “well,” jason says. “i can hug you now.” and then he throws his arms around her and they fall of reyna’s bed and reyna doesn’t even mind that much that their arms aren’t covered in flowers. instead, she laughs and laughs and squeezes jason tight. 

  after that, if they’re within two feet of each other some part of them is touching the other. when people ask reyna ignores them, jason smiles with his too sharp teeth and claims they’re making up for the two years of their friendship when they always kept apart. 

  they aren’t soulmates, their connection isn’t enough for vines to grow around their limbs, or for sunflowers to sneak across their faces, or for bluebells to be found hiding between their fingers as they hold hands. reyna cares, but only because she cares about jason. reyna doesn’t mourn a half she’s still going to find, instead she teases jason about who’ll be brave enough to come close to the wolf boy. 

  and then she meets venus in charleston and the words she hears swim around in her head, promising a life so barren no child of ceres could heal it. no demigod will heal your soul. she will never know her other half. reyna will never be blessed with the sight of her flowers on another’s skin. her touch will never cause life to bloom. she takes venus’s words and she buries them in the half of her soul she will never know how to fill. reyna might live her life without a soulmate, but no one else has to know that but her. 

-

reyna sees soulmates find each other more times that she can remember. new rome is a garden of souls finding their missing half. reyna tells herself half of a soul isn’t soulless. 

by the time they give her praetor there a few members of the legion her age that are never seen with flowers. reyna thinks of the women on circe’s island and she does not cover her arms. she is not lesser without a soulmate to be found. 

she drives the legion forward, she hugs her friends and doesn’t ache for petals she will never know. she rides scipio and from the sky she can’t see the gardens growing on skin. she takes care of those she loves and she is reyna avila ramirez arellano. no one mentions that she has not found anyone. she is 16 and she has time, in their eyes. more importantly, reyna makes herself into the perfect praetor. 

and then jason grace goes missing. 

-

even perfect praetor’s are not able to rule alone. she does her best. she does everything right. reyna dodges octavian's touch, even though she’s felt his slimy fingers on her arm before. he wants to fill a space that belongs to her best friend, the boy who could’ve been her soulmate. soulmate praetors are a dream in the eyes of many. reyna couldn’t care less. 

instead of wallowing she searches for jason. and after months of looking, percy jackson arrives as a saving grace. part of her would prefer the grace she knows, percy jackson comes with faded flowers he traces everytime his eyes catch them. he is a mystery and reyna has no idea how to solve him, nor the time to try. instead she watches him leave on a quest and breathes easier when he comes back. 

someone who has already met their soulmate taking the place of praetor eases reyna’s worries. reyna doesn’t need to feel bad about not being his soulmate if he already has one. 

except it can’t be that easy. 

-

there’s a war. there’s seven to answer the call, and only six to come home. reyna finds herself with a new praetor by her side and her best friend across the country on a semi-permanent basis and he doesn’t even remember her well. 

reyna’s been having a very bad year. but she lives with it. she adjusts. she hugs frank and laughs when he asks if it’s true that she and jason are secretly soulmates, and then he helps her set that rumour to rest. 

there are meetings with camp half blood and jason becomes a liaison, and when he visits camp jupiter again they watch the sunset. it’s another sunset of so, so many for reyna. but she watches jason’s face more than the sun as it drifts down through the sky, because it’s the first for him. 

reyna and frank raise the ages of when demigods start their service and lower the number of years needed significantly. she goes to a game of capture the flag and is thoroughly surprised when the greeks beat her team of romans. she shakes the hands of all of piper’s siblings as piper watches hopefully, she is patted on the back slightly aggressively by the children of ares and she gets pulled into a very awkward group hug by a cabin lead by two almost identical boys with mischievous smiles. 

flowers never sprout. reyna lets it go, she’s had time to learn to let it go and learn to not care and she’s gotten very, very good at it. 

what she cares about is being happy, now. and she has that. She’s had that since she first found camp jupiter and the son of the camp’s namesake welcomed her with a smile better fit for a wolf.

-

and then, reyna starts to grow up. at seventeen she surprises two camps and a hidden city and chooses to go to a university other than the university of new rome. she goes to fucking harvard. 

“harvard?” frank asks her as she slings her bag over her shoulder. 

 “yeah,” reyna says smirking. “fucking harvard. being the mayor of a small town looks really good on college apps, i think. and i’m getting the legion to bankroll it. imperial gold is a lot more in mortal currency.”

  “okay,” frank says. “but like, did you do high school? Because i haven’t really been doing high school since before i got here.”

  reyna laughs at that. she puts her bags back down and pulls out her phone to text frank some links he really should’ve had, “i do night school and online school. the entire legion should be? I guess you can go bother them all to start while i’m at harvard.”

  frank shakes his head, but then he pulls a hat out from behind his back and reyna starts laughing again. it’s maroon and in big lettering on the front it has the harvard logo. reyna asks him where he got it, but he pays her no mind.  he puts it on her head and pulls it down too far in front of her eyes. before jumping back out of her range. “well, i guess you’re going to harvard. stay away from frat parties!” he smiles at her and reyna rolls her eyes at him and pulls him in for a hug. flowers don’t grow, but reyna doesn’t need them to know that frank was the best co praetor she could’ve asked for. 

  and then he walks her to the bus and she sits at the back of a bus no one else gets onto. it stops in new rome and no one ever gets on or leaves, reyna doesn’t know why but she’s always like the idea of how confused the bus driver must be. she certainly startled him when she stepped on and paid her fare, and reyna smiles at the driver when he makes eye contact with her in his rearview mirror. he doesn’t make eye contact with her again for the rest of the trip, not even after other passengers filter on. 

-

  harvard, for the most part, is easier than being praetor and (probably being the only roman demigod) doing high school. her classmates are mostly awful and reyna would like to show some of her professors why monsters fear her name almost as much as percy jackson’s, but she shows restraint. all those years with octavian finally come in useful. 

  no one at harvard has flowers that came from their other halves' touch. reyna thinks there are one or two greek demigods also on campus, but she doesn’t see the telltale flowers anywhere. so either they’re very good at avoiding her gaze or the other demigods at harvard are also bloom free. 

  it’s nice. she gets to laugh at her own jokes and she goes on dates with girls that aren’t watching for petals as their fingers brush and none of the friends she makes try for touch too much or too little. reyna can’t remember the last time that skin contact didn’t mean something. she entertains getting a tattoo of a dead plant on her shoulder, but she lets her roommate talk her out of it pretty quickly. 

  when she goes back to new rome for the summer in the tiny apartment she gets for her service as praetor she teases her friends who are stuck in summer school because they never thought about high school until frank made a big fancy assembly after reyna left in september. frank and leila have grand plans for high school education - even though neither of them have finished high school yet - and reyna sees construction ongoing for a school behind one of her favourite parks. it makes her smile. 

  there’s a reunion for the seven and company when reyna’s in town, leo makes a crack about how she’s been missing longer than he was and reyna’s eyes soften as she she’s the red camellias and hyacinth jason’s touch leaves on leo as he puts his arm over leo’s shoulder. they weren’t there until after leo came back from death, but no one knows why. then, leo tugs piper close and reyna is properly surprised when she sees geraniums and asters grow on piper’s arm. (later she will find piper and get the story out of her. once she has the story she’ll go to hug jason and tell him how happy she is for them all)

  she’s forgotten the way it feels to be around soulmates. but there’s frank and hazel who are as free of flora as reyna remembers, like her. nico covers the flowers of the boy he’s been seeing he’s trying to keep a secret from her she thinks he’s worried she’ll threated the mystery boy. he’s not wrong) and percy and annabeth will never be found without each others jasmine, thyme and chrysanthemums. reyna finds it hurts less, even knowing that it’s likely one day frank and hazel will find flowers too. 

  reyna has a life where no one knows of souls that make their mark with blossoms. 

-

  reyna joins the harvard climbing team her second year for kicks and also out of spite. she goes to her program’s societies events and has been known to drop by the chess club to and make the members cry. she’s involved. but, as dakota had pointed it out with far too much glee, she’s not on any sort of athletic team or club. 

  so she picks up climbing. if she’s going to fucking harvard she might as well join the fucking harvard team. 

  later, dakota will say she owes him. reyna will offer to spar him for credit when he mentions it and he’ll back off. 

    in reyna’s second year when she joins the climbing team, a first year named zia rashid joins too. zia’s originally from egypt, but she did high school in brooklyn where she was staying with family friends. she’s majoring in history and has a minor in earth sciences and is planning to do her masters in archaeology. she’s a little addicted to smoothies and reyna is going to fall off the climbing wall one day because of her. 

  their friends, really, just friends. they spot each other on the wall and zia is one of reyna’s few friends at harvard that knows she was the “mayor” of a “small town”. reyna really, really wants to go out with her. 

 they’re getting lunch together after they leave the gym when reyna finally gets up the nerve to ask her out. she’d been teasing zia for ordering a smoothie even though she’d had one as they walked over to the cafe. 

  “uh,” reyna laughs as she watches zia’s mouth maybe a little too closely. “how many smoothies is that today?”

  zia sighs at her, “well i didn’t know we were coming here. the restaurant next door - i wouldn’t have ordered a smoothie there. but this place is my favourite.”

  reyna raises an eyebrow, “you didn’t give me a number.”

  zia pulls her straw out of her mouth and sighs. “here try this,” she says. “it’s the best thing you’ll ever taste. try it!” she starts waggling the drink at reyna and reyna grabs it when zia’s smile turns soft and teasing. 

  she tries it. “okay,” reyna says, still holding onto the drink. “maybe you have a point.”

  zia gives her a knowing look and then reaches for her drink back, but reyna moves it out of zia’s reach. zia’s mouth drops open, “i. you.”

  “i like it,” reyna says with a shrug. and then she steals herself and goes for it. “let me take you on a date and get you another one.”

  the hand zia had in the air that was trying to get her drink back freezes. for a moment, reyna worries she read their quiet moments and late night perfect grammar text chains wrong. the hand drops to her side, though, and zia’s face turns warm. “yeah,” zia says. she pushes her hair back behind her ear and reyna thinks she just got a hint at one of zia’s little gestures she’d been curious about. “yeah, that sounds good.”

  for a few moments they just smile at each other across the table. eventually, their hands find each other under the table and reyna gives zia her drink back. in those few moments though, reyna is reminded of sunsets with jason and nights with nico after shadow jumping across the ocean and horseback rides with hazel and calls with her sister.

  they don’t let go of each other’s hands until they have to pay. all reyna can see is zia’s eyes and they wander out from the cafe bumping into each others sides and reyna can’t remember the last time she was this close to someone. 

  zia pulls reyna down to a bench and reyna bumps into zia softly, her heartbeat faster than normal in her ears, but it doesn’t sound like it’s racing. nothing needs to be a race with zia. reyna brings their linked hands up to her mouth to kiss when she sees it. 

  she’s never seen roses bloom when soulmates touch before. she could’ve sworn she’d bumped into zia before in some way that would’ve had their skin touch, but reyna had grown used to being kept apart and carefully not getting close enough to be disappointed. 

  zia’s eyes are wide and reyna’s mostly confused as to how she didn’t know. 

  “i haven’t seen you in any nome, though,” zia says. 

  “um,” reyna says. and then she realizes what nome means as she remembers a story from percy and annabeth about magic and a different pantheon. “oh. that’s because i’m roman.”

  zia blinks, and then understanding flashes through her eyes, reyna giggles lightly and zia squeezes their still linked hands. “we both have long stories to tell, i think,” zia says. 

- But then some dude decides to go mess with Zia because he’s a creep and she looks like she’s drunk

- Really she’s just woozy from using so much magic, but the result is the same; she’s sitting and holding her head and trying not to vomit, and then here comes this guy to sit in the seat right next to her (which he doesn’t need to do, plenty of others are open) and make kissy noises and ask for her number, and usually she would fuckin blast him rather than put up with this, but she’s just fought off a god and she can barely keep her eyes open

- He keeps sitting there, boxing her in (cuz she’s got the corner seat) and not leaving her alone, getting bolder, acting more and more aggressive; she’s furious and humiliated and scared, and furious at herself for being scared, and it seems like everyone else in the car is just ignoring it, just doesn’t want to intervene

- But then some girl from a few seats over goes, “Dude, you dropped your wallet”

- It’s this really tired-looking chick in a purple hoodie, and she’s pointing to a spot just out of sight, like around a little corner

The dude gets up to go look for it, and while he’s doing that, Purple Hoodie Girl picks herself up and moves over and plops down right where he was sitting, next to Zia. Zia gives her a surprised sideways look, but the girl’s already leaned back and closed her eyes, like she plans to take a nap. She’s got dark brown skin, bags under her eyes, a bit of dirt in her hair, a tattoo on her forearm; she looks tough, and she also looks like she’s been in a fight recently. Meanwhile, the dude realizes his wallet’s been in his pocket the whole time, comes angrily back, “you took my spot!”

- Purple Hoodie Girl opens one eye and points at her own old seat. “There’s another one right there.”

- Dude gets angry and tells her to move, uses some language he shouldn’t, sticks a hand in his pocket - Zia tenses up without meaning to, wonders whether she can summon just one more fireball if things get ugly ...

- But then Purple Hoodie Girl opens both eyes and gives the guy the longest, blankest, most menacing stare you can imagine, and stands slowly up, and looks down at him. She’s taller. The guy freezes, and after a few seconds of tense eye contact, he seems to shrink a little. Quietly now, he goes and sits down elsewhere

- Purple Hoodie Girl sits back down like nothing even happened. She glances at Zia and mutters just a “you okay”

- Zia nods (even tho it makes her nauseous) “yeah, you?”

- “Oh, sure.”

- Purple Hoodie Girl proceeds to kind-of nap for a bit, while Zia slowly recovers her strength. Eventually Purple Hoodie Girl wakes up and starts digging through her pockets, looking for something; eventually she turns up some kind of empty food wrapper and just sits, looking at it sadly

- Zia remembers she’s got a Pop Tart in her bag, pulls it out and offers it to the other girl, gets declined

- “Dude, you might as well, I’m too nauseous right now to eat anything and I don’t like strawberry”

- “Thanks,” Purple Hoodie Girl says finally, taking it, acting reluctant but then basically wolfing it down

- exhausted greetings - “I’m Zia.” “Reyna.” “Thanks for - y’know.” “No problem. Thanks to you too.”

- Someone at the end of the car who is actually drunk starts yelling shit about immigrants or sth, and both of them just like sigh as one

- Zia pulls out some headphones to block out the bullshit, and on impulse hands one earbud to Reyna; the other girl takes it. Zia kinda nervously puts on some of her music - it’s mostly Sadie’s music, really; Zia never had much time to cultivate a musical taste of her own at the First Nome, so she just listens to the playlists Sadie makes for her - but to her relief, the first song makes Reyna grin a little, like she recognizes it. For the next several stops, they both just block everything out and listen to Zia’s music

- Then it’s Zia’s stop, and when she gets up, Reyna takes one look at the guy from earlier - who’s been glowering at them the whole time - and gets up with her. It’s close enough to her own stop. They leave the car together, not saying anything, just tired understanding. The guy isn’t stupid enough to follow.

- Outside the station - “You got a way to get home?”

- “Yeah. You too?”

- “Yeah.”

- “Take care, Reyna.”

- “You too, Zia.”

- Both of them think about asking for the other’s number, but are too exhausted to follow through. Besides, they’re probably never going to see this girl again, anyway. Each of them takes off thinking that they’ve just met an exceptionally cool mortal, and feeling a little angry that their respective demogodly/magicianly lives leave no time to explore a relationship like that

- They both go back to their hardass jobs and don’t see each other for several months, don’t think about each other except to wonder occasionally whether that one girl they met on the subway is doing ok

- But then finally Annabeth decides that it’s time for the Egyptians and the Romans to meet, and to know about each other. She’s a little wary about how it’ll start out, since there was the whole Egypt/Rome debacle back in Cleopatra times (way more potential for conflict there than there ever was for Romans and Greeks tbh but whatever @ Rick I’ll keep my mouth shut) but she thinks she can introduce them to each other in a way that won’t start a war

- Her biggest worry honestly is that maybe Reyna and Zia will clash, because they’re both strong personalities who don’t trust easily

- She arranges a meeting between Reyna & Frank and Carter, Sadie, Zia & Walt. She’s really on edge leading up to it, wondering how this will go down, getting ready with some fire extinguishers and that kind of shit; but as it turns out, she need not have worried. They all meet and get along just fine, even Reyna and Zia. In fact, Reyna and Zia both start grinning the moment they see each other, and the way they greet each other makes them sound almost like old friends ...

- (They’ve both got good enough poker faces that they don’t let on too much about having met before; they go through the whole diplomatic meeting and learn about the other camps and do their jobs)

- (But Annabeth is watching Reyna’s face, and she can tell her friend is smiling more than she usually would for something like this ... and Sadie likewise can tell that Zia’s a little distracted ...)

- Afterward they go up to each other and try to act casual, but they’re both secretly really pleased to see the other again - and they also both know a few things by now about fate. The odds that they would have met before are really slim, but they did ... and it looks like they will be seeing each other again, neither of them being quite as ordinary as they had originally believed ...

- And gee, wow, I guess it’s necessary to ask for your number, since our camps will have to be in contact in the future, damn what a hassle ...

- (Annabeth and Sadie are already in the background talking like “Do they ...? Is Reyna flirting ...? I’ve never seen her flirt before ... wow ... holy shit they just exchanged numbers ... This meeting went so much better than I could have expected, amazing, I’m a genius, see you at the wedding Kane”)