Chapter Text
Reyna followed Nico up the steps, and through into the grand entrance of the hotel. The glass doors creaked open in front of her, reflecting the streetlights and the clouds of a slightly hazy evening. The wheels of her case clattered loudly against the hard, white tiles of the lobby, punctuating the thump of Nico’s heavy boots, and announcing their entrance to anybody who was paying attention. Nobody was.
Reyna scanned the crowd. It was a large lobby, but still a fair proportion was taken by the queue at reception; bags were scattered haphazardly around the loose cluster of people, and poorly-concealed mutters of annoyance filled the air. The receptionists looked bored; nodding and smiling at the rowdy customers, though Reyna was sure they weren’t hearing a word anybody was saying. She thought it served the guests right: from where she stood they sounded rude, impatient, and Reyna was glad she wasn’t the one dealing with them. The too-bright fluorescent lights that hung from the ceiling in long bars on thin wires reflected off the shiny black counters of the reception desk, showering the stark-white vases and glaring red flowers in a stark glow. The gold-gilded picture-frames adorning the walls displayed knock-off city skylines and vague geographical wonders, and overall the hotel gave Reyna an impression of cheap, overproduced class. Annabeth had said it wasn’t the best place to stay, but it was the closest to the venue. “Swings and roundabouts,” she’d summarised, and Reyna had agreed. She was glad Annabeth and Percy were only going to be here one night – they had travel plans after that – but as for herself and the rest of the wedding party, they were unfortunately here for two. Reyna scowled slightly, before turning her gaze to the bar on her left.
A wide arch, which barely partitioned the rooms, did nothing to block the noise. The clatter of glasses on hard surfaces was clearly audible, along with indistinguishable chatter and the occasional rowdy yell. The staff were in green and gold waistcoats with white collard shirts, and the guests drinking in the bar were clearly dressed-to-impress, with faux-fur jackets and outrageous dresses, playing cards and giving off an air of store-bought grandeur. The flutter of cards being dealt, and the sighs of games being lost, invaded the lobby, and Reyna moved away.
She was trying to identify her friends from the rest of the crowd, but she wasn’t having any luck. Reyna sighed. As happy as she was to have been invited to Percy and Annabeth’s wedding, and as much as she’d wanted to support them, it had been really hard not to bail-out and claim Praetor duties to escape. She just wasn’t made for these kinds of social gatherings. A quick coffee with a few of her friends at a time was more her style; only the Gods knew how she was going to handle them all at once. Her breaking point had been when Nico had said he was going to attend. They’d been sipping hot chocolate in Reyna’s favourite café in New Rome, and she'd almost spat out her drink in surprise. Reyna had decided, then and there, that if Nico could get over his aversion of large crowds and social gatherings, then she damn well would too.
A crash! bought her out of her reverie, and, deciding she’d just have to (literally) face the music and get-on with it, Reyna turned her attention to the source of the disturbance. Towards the far wall, near the lounge area, Reyna managed to make out Leo, sprawled across a pile of cases, his curly hair even more unruly than Reyna could ever think possible, and a faint line of smoke coming from his ears. It took Reyna approximately two seconds to do the math (a laughing Piper; an embarrassed looking Jason; a shocked Frank), to work out Leo had undoubtedly been pushed into the presumably previously standing cases, and was therefore responsible for the racket. Smirking to herself and nudging Nico, who grinned back at her, they finally made their way over to their friends.
“Hey! You made it!” Annabeth called, as Reyna approached.
Reyna could see Leo take the hand Piper offered him, both still giggling, and Nico making his way over to Will.
Before she could reply, Reyna was pulled into an enthusiastic hug by the blonde, though the moment somewhat was ruined by Jason and Percy’s bickering.
“See, I told you she’d come!”
“I didn’t say she wouldn’t!”
“Oh you so did!”
“No I didn’t-”
“Ok, ok, guys. I’m here; I made it.” Reyna said firmly, returning Annabeth’s embrace and patting Percy on the back. Though their assessment of how close she’d gotten to not coming was rather accurate, she didn’t need them to know that.
Jason just laughed, smiling at Reyna as he swung his arm around Piper. They looked tired. Jason was wearing baggy jeans and a hoodie, and Piper was practically already in pyjamas and ready for bed, what with the leggings, hoodie, and the hot-chocolate she was cradling. She was Annabeth’s Maid of Honour, and Reyna wondered what that was like, planning something as stressful as a wedding for Annabeth. She could only guess, but judging their appearances, she assumed there was a lot of knit-picking, a great deal of trying to keep-up with Percy, and probably more than a little coffee. At least Reyna knew there couldn’t possibly be a better planned event.
Leo seemed unfazed by his earlier… collision, with the cases, and was chatting in depth to Percy about something, looking characteristically jittery. Percy was laughing, though, and Reyna took that as a good sign. As much of a handful as the curly-haired mechanic could be sometimes, he was good at heart, and was very clearly trying to ease Percy’s nerves.
Nico and Will were next to them, and Will was talking to Calypso about something Reyna couldn’t quite catch, though if she had to guess she’d wager on some kind of doctory-stuff. Nico rolled his eyes at a joke Will made and wrapped his arm around the other boy. Reyna smiled. She was glad her friend had finally found somebody. It wasn’t that Reyna thought everybody needed a somebody – she’d successfully ridden herself of that notion after her meeting with Venus all those years back – she was just pleased that Nico was beginning to accept himself more than either of them had ever thought possible. If that wasn’t something to smile about, Reyna didn’t know what was.
Frank and Hazel were chatting amicably, though Frank was looking slightly nervous and seemed to be asking Hazel a million questions. Hazel just laughed, her bushy hair bouncing around her, and looked at Frank like he was her entire world. She was the flower girl, and Frank was one of Percy’s Best Men, along with Leo, Jason, and Grover, who Reyna understood would meet them at breakfast tomorrow. Tyson and Ella, the ring-bearers, would be meeting them at the reception. Nobody had wanted to deal with a Cyclops and a talking Harpy in a hotel, and Reyna was relieved. They were surely drawing enough attention as it was, five children of the Big Three, six other Demigods, and a literal Goddess all in one building.
Reyna had been asking Annabeth polite questions about how she was feeling; whether everything was ready; if she could do anything to help; when she saw Annabeth notice something out of the corner of her eye. Reyna followed her gaze, and her breath hitched.
Thalia was just entering the lobby, a leather jacket hung over one arm, a rucksack over her shoulder, and car keys in her hand. She was wearing her typical black jeans and leather boots ensemble (anybody would think her and Nico co-ordinated outfits), and Reyna absolutely did not notice how good Thalia’s arse looked in those skinny jeans. She sauntered over confidently, a habit Annabeth had once told Reyna Thalia had had even before her experience with the Hunters. She grinned when she saw Reyna, who promptly blushed and cursed under her breath as Thalia tossed the keys to Annabeth, who deftly caught them, as she approached.
“’Sup,” Thalia greeted, popping the ‘p’ as she draped an arm around Reyna.
Reyna tried not to stiffen at the not entirely unwelcome touch, or sink into it completely and make a fool out of herself, and gritted out a friendly ‘hey!’ as she tried not to blush. Again.
“Got everything from the car?” Annabeth directed at Thalia, who nodded. “Right then,” Annabeth continued, “let’s roll!”
Taking Percy’s hand she shepherded the group towards the elevators, trying not to laugh as Piper nearly tripped, thanks to an entirely innocent looking Leo.
“Don’t we need to check in?” Reyna asked. “Nico and I haven’t been to reception yet.”
“We did it for you,” Annabeth replied, always the planner, before adding as she stepped into the elevator “you’re rooming with Thals, hope that’s alright.” Reyna swore she saw Percy wink at them, the little shit.
Fuck, Reyna thought, before replying “Yeah, cool.” in the most nonchalant voice she could muster as the elevator doors closed, leaving her and Thalia standing in the lobby.
It’s not that Reyna didn’t want to room with Thalia; quite the opposite, in fact. It’s just that she was already going to be driven to distraction by Thalia all weekend, and she was hoping to catch a break in her room. She should’ve just booked the damn place herself, Reyna thought. And not fallen for your friend, her brain added unhelpfully. But shit, it wasn’t Reyna’s fault that Thalia looked hotter than Venus herself, or that she knew how to push Reyna’s buttons so well during her frequent trips to New Rome, or so often rewarded Reyna with a shit-eating grin that made her insides go to mush and caused her brain to stall when she called Thalia out on it. No. That certainly wasn’t Reyna’s fault.
“Stairs?” Thalia asked, looking at the key card. “I think we’re only one flight up.”
“Sounds good,” Reyna murmured, lost in thought.
She tried not to stare at Thalia’s ass as they went up. She didn’t succeed.
“Which number are we, anyway?” Reyna asked as they traipsed along the corridor.
“Uhhh… this one!” Thalia exclaimed triumphantly, as she pulled the card out of the cardboard case.
Unlocking the door, Thalia turned to Reyna and gave her one of those grins.
“Oh, by the way, did Annabeth tell you?”
Shit shit shit shit this can’t be good shit-
“Tell me what?” Reyna tried to appear calm.
“There’s only one bed.”
Fuck.
…………………………
Fucked, that’s what Reyna was. Absolutely, thoroughly, fucked.
Or, at least, she wished she was.
She was in a hotel, hundreds of miles from home, sharing a room with the girl she was hopelessly crushing on, and there was only one bed. There was no way Reyna was going to survive this. Not with any dignity intact, anyway. Not with Thalia smirking at her like that.
The room had the same colour scheme that seemed to grace most of the hotel: a striped emerald green wallpaper, gilded with glaring gold, adorned the lower half of the walls, complemented by a, thankfully plain, cream paint on the upper half. The bed was almost grotesque in its attempt to be luxurious. An obnoxious collection of cushions were arranged on the four-poster bed, which was, shockingly, green also; only broken by the gold lining of the pillows and the dark wood of the frame. Even the carpet was green, Reyna noticed with disgust. Why they couldn’t have continued with the cream theme, she didn’t know. At the moment, the sterilised white reminiscent of a waiting room sounded more appealing than the forced grandeur of this hotel.
Reyna sighed. She was shattered. She’d had a long day running the camp – she refused to leave it to DaKota for any longer than she’d had to – and by the time Nico had arrived to shadow-travel her to the hotel, she’d wanted nothing more than to sleep. Reyna did not currently have the energy to be dealing with shitty hotels, pretty demigods, and the eternal embarrassment she was sure she’d be facing after spending the night with Thalia.
“So, what are we going to do?” Reyna asked warily. She was trying to sound nonchalant about the situation, but she could already feel a headache brewing. “I could take the sofa?...” she added as an afterthought.
Thalia raised her eyebrows at Reyna in a are you stupid? kind of way, and Reyna followed her gaze to the object in question. It was small; a horrific shade of army green; and there was no way Reyna would manage a comfortable night on it. The prospect of two nights there was dismal.
“I mean, I thought we’d just share the bed, Praetor,” Thalia threw a grin in Reyna’s direction, “unless you’re opposed to sleeping with me?”
Reyna breathed through her nose. Thalia had to be fucking with her, with those choice of words.
Quite the bloody opposite was what Reyna wanted to say. “Not at all,” she muttered instead, smiling at the huntress – or, ex huntress – as calmly as possible.
“Cool.” Thalia said unaffectedly, and turned to her case, rummaging through and pulling out her pyjamas with a satisfied “ah-ha!”
Reyna located her own nightclothes and, toiletries in hand, she made to retreat to the bathroom. She didn’t get very far. Thalia had started to divest herself of her clothes seemingly without a care that Reyna was still in the room. Thalia was completely exposed, standing dead in the centre of the room, and she was casually undressing herself as if it was no big deal. Reyna thought it was the biggest deal since… well, her brain was too muddled by Thalia and undressing to finish that comparison, but the point still stood. She tried not to stare – really, she did - though frankly Reyna had lost all ability to see anything other than her roommate since she’d started unbuttoning her jeans. At this point, looking anywhere else might’ve been literally physically impossible, Reyna was so rooted to the spot.
Not trusting herself to make it past Thalia without doing something really stupid, like helping Thalia out of the jeans and onto the bed, Reyna went back to her case under the pretence of rooting around like she was searching for something. From the corner of her eye she could see Thalia finally slip off her jeans, exposing her long legs and taking all the time in the world to fold up the trousers carefully in her case. When Thalia started pulling off her shirt, Reyna could take it no more. It was rude to stare, after all, and she made a dignified – if not hasty – dash to the bathroom. As Reyna closed the door, she just caught Thalia’s back in the mirror. Reyna could see every inch of pale, freckled skin, and her brain made quick deductions about what she would see if Thalia turned around. If Thalia walked towards her and pulled Reyna so close that she could feel the pale skin and count the freckles on her nose and-
Splashing herself with cold water and giving herself a moment to breathe, Reyna changed into her pyjamas and finished in the bathroom efficiently, Praetor habits serving her as she went about the routine on autopilot and waited for the heat around her face to dissipate. As she exited the bathroom, Thalia was going through her case. She threw Reyna a grin as she located her toothbrush, and walked to the sink, slightly brushing against Reyna as she did so.
Reyna fought down a blush for the millionth time that evening and, giving herself a stern mental talking to, asked Thalia what side of the bed she wanted.
“Whatever one you’re not using, I guess. Though maybe I might just insist on having your side anyway. Just to be pedantic.” Thalia jibed, toothbrush still in hand, leaning against the doorframe.
Thalia couldn’t have looked more smug if she’d won the bet of the century, Reyna thought, but still the insinuation of being that close did nothing to stop the flutter of her heart. She scowled slightly, before suggesting innocently:
“Perhaps I’ll take the side by the window, then?” Thalia nodded. “Then, if I get really annoyed at you, I can take the sofa after all!” Reyna added, half teasing, tilting her head towards the offending green item by the window.
Thalia just grinned, quipping “fine by me, Rey,” as she walked back into the bathroom.
“Don’t call me that.” Reyna deadpanned, glaring at the closed door. Secretly, the nickname might not sound as bad coming from Thalia’s mouth as it did from anybody else’s. Reyna might even like it, the way Thalia says it. Though not even at gunpoint would she ever admit it. That embarrassing detail would follow Reyna to her grave, if it had to.
Sighing, Reyna got into bed and tried to get comfortable. She considered making a barricade of overly-ruffled pillows, creating a hers and hers side of the bed. At least then she might be able to pretend Thalia wasn’t actually there. Shaking her head, Reyna rolled her eyes at herself. That would just be too ridiculous. It wasn’t as if her and Thalia didn’t get along, and friends have platonic sleepovers all the time. She was just being stupid over nothing, Reyna decided. Even if Thalia had just walked out the bathroom wearing not much other than an oversized t-shirt. Tearing her eyes away, Reyna tried to think of something to do before Thalia noticed her staring. She spotted the bundle of cushions still on the bed, and grinned.
“Oi!” Thalia yelped, laughing, as one hit her square in the face.
“Oops?” replied Reyna, attempting to feign innocence despite the smirk working its way onto her features, before throwing another one.
This time, Thalia managed to duck.
“Oh, you’ve done it now, Praetor!” she threatened, picking up one of the cushions off the floor and launching herself at Reyna on the bed.
Reyna barely had time to grab one for a shield as Thalia attacked her, Reyna trying to defend herself as they rolled around the bed, attempting to get the upper hand. After a particularly sound whack on Reyna’s midriff that sent Reyna spluttering to the floor, they both collapsed in a fit of laughter.
As they calmed down, Thalia leaned over and held out a hand for Reyna, pulling her back onto the bed. Settling down into the covers, Reyna gave Thalia one last hit with the cushion, albeit far more gentle than earlier, before throwing the last of the pillows onto the floor. Snickering, Thalia gave Reyna a half-hearted shove before rolling over and looking at the time.
“We should get some sleep now,” she stated, and Reyna thought Thalia almost sounded disappointed.
“Yeah. Gotta get up for this stupid wedding.” Reyna agreed, before snapping bolt upright. “Shit, no, wait. That’s. that’s not what I mean. I-” she stammered.
Thalia laughed. “No, you’re right, it is a bit much over nothing,” she agreed. “I swear if it wasn’t Percy and Annabeth’s I wouldn’t be here. I swear the whole thing could be over and done with in ten minutes if there wasn’t such a fuss.”
Reyna hummed in agreement.
“Too many damn people at these things, that’s for sure.”
“At least we can get hella drunk though. Just got to get through mush in the ceremony.” Thalia added, pulling face.
Reyna laughed.
“Sit with me and we’ll power through together… assuming you don’t start crying, Grace.” She jibed.
“Grace’s don’t cry, Reyna.” Thalia defended. “But that sounds good to me.”
Reyna tried to supress a sigh of relief. Friends sit together at their friends’ weddings all the time. And drink to oblivion at the bar together. And share hotel room beds together. It’s normal. Perfectly platonic. Thalia agreeing to sit with her doesn’t mean a thing. So why is she suddenly filled with anticipation like a schoolgirl who gets to sit next to her crush in class?
Oblivious to Reyna’s turmoil, Thalia yawns, stretching out like a starfish before settling down and rolling over to face Reyna.
“Night Rey,” she says, fluttering her eyes closed.
“Night,” Reyna replied softly, not bothering to correct her.
Rolling over, she looked at Thalia. The moonlight filtered in through the thin blinds, casting a silvery glow and illuminating Thalia’s face. She must’ve already been asleep; Reyna could make out the gentle rise and fall of the duvet and could hear her steady breathing. She could almost count all the freckles on Thalia’s nose.
Preparing for a long night, Reyna closed her eyes and tried to get to sleep.