Reyna's POV

Call it a cruel twist of fate that I would wake up to find Thalia curled up against me. Arms and legs wrapped around me in a full body hug so to speak. Face inches away from mine, lips slightly parted, perfectly kissable. I tore my eyes away and would have sat up except for fear of waking her.

I noticed I was the only one awake and sighed, I didn't even have an excuse to get up. Closing my eyes I tried to wipe the image out of my head but it stayed their like it was glued to the back of my eyelids. Sighing I tried to think of anything else but her. But while I had closed my eyes my brain awakened and picked up on her scent.

Pine needles, and an open sky with a fresh breeze, and damp earth. Groaning I opened my eyes again and glanced back at her. There was no escaping it. I'd already fucked up twice. I mean honestly what was with the whole gentle stroke of the cheek thing? Or resting my hand on her hip? I was being reckless and stupid.

So here I was again being reckless and stupid. I carefully pulled her hair from the messy ponytail she now wore. Her hair was draped over her face in a thin curtain. I hesitantly brushed it out of the way and ran my hand through it.

She always said it was ugly and coarse but it wasn't. It was soft, a little thick, but smooth none the less. I studied her features for a brief moment. The way her expression softened when she rested peacefully, no nightmares or thoughts to plague that little brain of hers. Or the freckles under her eyes.

After nothing more than a moment I looked away. No use in getting hung up over it. I peeled her arms off of me and sat up shifting her leg off as well until I could carefully move freely. Standing up I straightened the borrowed shirt I wore and sat at the table.

It was a while before the others started to wake as well. Piper yawned and laughed lightly. She took Jason's glasses off and sat them down on the table having walked over to me.

"Always forgets to take them off." Piper said sitting down across from me. "I see we are both about to participate in the classic, awkward wait until everyone else wakes up which happens at all sleep overs."

I laughed and rolled my eyes. "Yes because I'd know so much about that."

"What do you mean?" Piper asked.

"I never went to sleep overs as a kid." I said with a shrug. "They never appealed to me. "

"Right," Piper nodded.

"Sorry, I know I'm not exactly that interesting. But I didn't fit in very well at New Rome."

"No way," Piper said in surprise.

"Yes." I nodded. "I was odd. See I was never officially claimed. I only figured out my parentage because of the ring I had since I was little and when I got my first legion tattoo."

"That's rough." Piper said. "Yeah me? I got claimed in front of everyone and my mom made into some Barbie Doll."

"You can borrow my Death to Barbie t-shirt then." Thalia said groggily walking over. She looked to still be half asleep.

"Thanks but no thanks." Piper laughed.

"Your loss." Thalia smiled dorkily. She frowned for a moment and brushed her hair out of her face. "What happened to my hair tie?"

I slipped my hand off the table and rested it on my leg. I'd slipped the hair tie onto my wrist on instinct.

"Must have fallen out from what I have been told by your brother you are a wild sleeper." Piper said. Thalia rolled her eyes and kicked her under the table.

"Not really." I said automatically. "She's actually pretty normal. Accept she likes to latch onto people."

"Oh you're a cuddler how cute." Piper teased.

"I hate both of you." Thalia glared and slipped lower in her chair hiding from us.

"Hate?" Nico asked.

"Of course that's what you'd here," Piper sighed.

"She has a point." I laughed. Nico rolled his eyes and sat down.

"So what are we waiting on?" He asked.

"Food." Thalia piped up still invisible.

"Well you know you can be useful and actually cook some right?" Nico said looking down at her.

"I can't cook at all." Thalia said.

"Well you must have basic experience if you kept Jason alive." Nico shrugged.

"Reyna can cook." Thalia said. "She freaking stole the flour from last night."

"Yeah!" Piper said indignantly. I held my hands up in defense. Nico laughed slightly.

"Fine then Reyna and I will cook breakfast." Nico said and with a shrug I stood up.

"What are we making?" I asked.

"Easy. Everyone always has stuff for pancakes so that is what we are going to do." Nico said already looking through the pantries pulling out what he needed. Soon enough we had all of the ingredients lining the counters. "Put this on."

"Why?" I asked looking at the apron Nico held up. The front of it said Kiss the Cook as expected. "You're the one with the boyfriend. And I'm assuming that's Percy's apron."

Nico shrugged and put it on anyways. Going back to cooking.

"Now all you need is a cute little hat." I joked patting him on the head with the spatula. Nico grumbled and pushed me away.

"Shut up and start flipping pancakes." He said.

"Sure thing." I laughed.

There wasn't a better way than to wake up a large group of teenagers than the smell of food. It was like the calling card of all adolescents. So the crowd at the table steadily grew until even Sally and Paul came to see what was going on and were surprised that there was already breakfast on the table.

Will of course thought Nico was rather adorable in his little outfit and kissed him on the cheek every time he got the chance.

"All you need is a little hat." Will said.

"That's what I said! See! I know what I'm talking about." Nico just grumbled and sat down while Will and I high fived.

"Great minds think alike," He laughed.

"More like stupid people." Nico said but he didn't mind it that much anymore.

Breakfast was fun and went by rather fast until it was time to clean up. We split off into groups boys in the kitchen this time girls cleaning up the table and sleeping area.

"I just want to sleep again that was nice." Thalia said flopping onto the ground and sprawling out like a star fish.

"Me too." Piper agreed. Hazel laughed and nudged her.

"We have to clean up that's our job." She said.

"I need motivation." Thalia frowned. Annabeth smirked grabbing a pillow and smacking her with it. "Ow."

"Get up." She laughed.

"Idea!" Piper declared. "Music!"

"Music?" Hazel asked her eyes lighting up.

"Music." Piper nodded. "Percy do you have a radio?!"

"Uh yeah but we don't really use it." Percy called back from the kitchen.

"Doesn't matter. Where is it?" Piper asked but he didn't have to answer as she located it on her own. After a bit of experimenting she finally figured it out and soon she was blasting music throughout the apartment.

"Okay I'm motivated." Thalia said standing up and grabbing a pillow. "But first. Payback."

Annabeth smiled and took the hit before smacking Piper who immediately stopped smiling and put her game face on. A full blown war had erupted in a matter of ten seconds. Hazel the once innocent girl took my legs out from under me laughing the whole time while she and Piper teamed up on me.

"Hey this isn't fair!" I laughed curling up into a protective little ball. 

"You are supposed to be cleaning." Frank reminded. "I am highly disappointed."

Hazel smiled and shrugged. "We were just having fun."

Frank smiled lightly. "Alright but no body smack me!"

"Yeah or I'll kick your butt," Hazel promised. And while it sounded like a harmless threat I'd seen what Hazel did to people who were rude to Frank. It wasn't pretty.

Everyone started to clean up for real this time until the room was pretty much spotless. And instead of a pillow war the guys decided to start a dance party.

Needless to say I wasn't the best dancer and opted to sit out thankfully I wasn't the only one. Unluckily enough the only other person sitting out was Thalia. She looked rather bored but smiled every now and then when someone did something stupid.

"Why are you sitting down get over here!" Jason said pulling her to her feet. "I know for a fact you can dance."

"Uh no I can't," She argued.

"Yes you can." Piper said. "Do the worm! That's always awesome."

"No it's embarrassing." Thalia laughed. But she wasn't getting away from Jason anytime soon. "Ugh fine! You piece of sh-"

"Little ears!" Percy yelled covering Hazels ears while Annabeth covered Frank's.

"Crap." Thalia corrected herself. "If I injure myself again I'm blaming you."

"Me too." Will said looking pointedly at Jason. But Thalia did infact do the worm perfectly fine. I couldn't help but laugh because for some odd reason I never expected her to be the type of person that could do that. But she didn't just do the worm, turns out she could break dance pretty well as could Percy.

"Okay I'm done." Thalia said out of breath. I noticed she was limping a bit more than usual, and had probably over worked her leg...again.

Once everything was officially in order we said good bye to Sally and Paul and made our way back to camp where as Piper and Nico put it. More boredom awaited.

As it turns out they were right. The originally scheduled capture the flag game was canceled, everyone just needed a good long break from fighting.

Me on the other hand, it was pretty much the only way to get away from my thoughts. So I reluctantly switched into training clothes and headed to the arena. Hylla was there messing around with all sorts of weapons and things I didn't think she knew how to use exactly. It didn't matter though she seemed to be having fun with Kinzie who was just shaking her head at the idiot standing in front of her.

"Do you even know how to use that?" I asked.

"Oh this?" Hylla asked holding up a mace. "No idea but it's fun to hit things with."

"Can you hit me with it? Preferably on the head?" I asked.

"That's a little dark," Kinzie winced.

"She hangs out with death boy too much. Is his emoness rubbing off on you?" Hylla asked smiling playfully.

"He's not emo," I corrected. "And no it's not."

"Then what's your problem? You've been grouchy lately. Are kids giving you crap again? Do I need to beat them up?" Hylla asked glancing at the mace she held.

"First of all put that down it makes me nervous with you holding it." Smoking a bit I gently placed my hand on here to keep her from waving it around. "And second of all no. I'm just thinking too much."

"About what?" Kinzie asked being a lot more helpful than my older sister.

"You can't laugh at me okay?" I said already wanting to just run away.

"Fine," Hylla groaned. Kinzie smacked her arm and gave her a serious look. "Fine I won't laugh. I'm here for you as your big sister please tell me everything I need to know about your problems."

"No it's fine I'll just go." I shrugged.

"I'm kidding Reyna. In all seriousness what's up?" Hylla asked putting the mace down.

For a moment I didn't say anything but taking a deep breath I rushed it all out as fast as I could and waited in anxious silence.

"Awe Rey." Hylla's face dropped to a look of sadness. "Not again."

"I know." The disappointment in my voice was loud and clear. "I can't help it. And I know it's not fair. But it's... I can't explain it."

Kinzie and Hylla shared a look and Kinzie nodded before leaving. Hylla pulled me into a tight hug.

"I'm sorry." She sighed. "But it sounds like staying here isn't gonna be the best option if it just upsets you. But I also know that Thalia and the others are leaving later today after dinner. So, theoretically you could stay a little longer. Just to hang out with me if you wanted."

"They're leaving?" I asked in surprise.

"I thought you knew that," Hylla frowned.

"No one told me," I insisted, shaking my head. "I mean I have other Huntress friends too. Like Zuri, and Becca, and Sam."

"Then you better say good bye," Hylla sighed. "Before they leave."

"Okay. Thanks for letting me know." Turning curtly on my heel I got half a step in when Hylla caught my arm.

"Hey little sis, I know it's probably not going to help buteven if you never find anyone to like you back you've always got me." Hylla said sincerity clear in her words.

"Thanks." I smiled. "That means a lot."

"I also hope you know I'm gonna purposefully mess around with every single weapon I can find just to annoy you." Hylla grinned, not one to be overly sappy for too long.

"Yes well when you come to me because you're missing a limb I'm going to laugh first and then help you," I replied.

"Wouldn't expect anything less," Hylla laughed as she turned back to what she was doing before and I left her be.

I found each of the girls I'd mentioned previously who I'd come to know as a friends through our quest and but then farewell. Each one smiled happily wishing me luck in whatever my next endeavor was. They were as kind and funny as ever, good people in a tough world just like the rest of us.

But their was one hunter I couldn't bring myself to say goodbye to. It didn't seem right. Because for some reason it felt like saying bye to her meant forever. Partly because I wouldn't know what happened on her trips and what stupid and reckless shit she got herself into. That was sort of scary to think about. Because with her track record death seemed to like her.

But then again if I was going to say goodbye, by hell she was going to remember it and that's when I got my idea. It wasn't a big gesture, maybe a little stupid but it was something that would hopefully grab a certain someone's attention. Something neither of us had thought about since the beginning of this hot mess.

And so that's what I did. I made my way back down to the van with an idea in my head and a feeling in my heart. If anything I'd be back before dinner. If not...well what did I have to worry about? I would have avoided my good bye.