SAFE . . . reyna ramirez-arellano

39 - talk that talk

BRIAR FELT LOST.

She didn't hate Camp Half-Blood, per se, but as she got more and more of her memories back, it was getting harder to enjoy it. Especially because she felt Reyna's absence more and more.

Currently, she was sitting on Thalia's tree, watching the camp from afar and thinking. She'd used her charmspeak to convince Peleus the dragon to let her sit on top of a branch, and she'd brought a sketchbook with her so she could draw Reyna. That was her make up work for not being at arts and crafts.

She didn't have the energy to go to arts and crafts, let alone lead her cabin through it. She needed a break, which she hadn't gotten since before her memories were wiped. Between leading her cabin, getting them out of trouble, helping Leo with the Argo II, and the holidays just ending, she needed time to think that wasn't during the nights in her bed.

Her memories slowly coming back didn't help — every time Briar's body made her fall asleep, she had dreams of her past life before she came to Camp Half-Blood. She remembered fighting Koios, the fucking smartest Titan, with the dumbest shit she'd ever done in her entire life. She remembered Reyna telling her that as she woke up in the medical ward after passing out during a victory speech.

"You are the most idiotic person I've ever met!" Reyna yelled, and Briar felt a shit ton of pain, but as she stared at her girlfriend, pacing back and forth with her adorably angry face, she swore that the pain didn't exist and it was replaced by pure adoration. "Instead of, oh, I don't know, calling someone for help, you decide to take on the smartest Titan on your own? You could've gotten killed, Briar! Don't you understand that? Don't you think about the consequences? What if you were gone? What if—"

"You're so pretty," Briar couldn't resist saying. She admired how her girlfriend looked in her armor, as if she hadn't left the battlefield. "Take off the armor, though. We're not fighting a war anymore, Rey."

Reyna stared at her in disbelief. "Briar, did you hear anything I just said?"

"I have ears, Rey, thanks," Briar rolled her eyes. "We won the war. We don't have to fight anymore. You don't have to protect me anymore."

Reyna laughed, half happy, half not. "I'll always have to protect you, Bri," she said softly. "Especially from yourself. If you had gotten killed, I would've gone to the Underworld myself to revive you and kill you."

"Noted," Briar smiled, even though it hurt. She'd really gotten beat up in that fight. Falling off a ledge tended to do that to you. "But you know the gods wouldn't kill me. I'm their favorite, remember?"

Reyna rolled her eyes, but she leaned in to kiss Briar's forehead, so Briar counted that as a win.

"You need to make it up to me as soon as you're better," Reyna threatened.

"Deal," Briar said. "Can you lay down with me and talk?"

"You need sleep," Reyna sat down in the chair next to Briar's bed.

"I want to look at you," Briar pouted. "You're hot."

Reyna raised an unimpressed eyebrow at her.

"Fine," she said. "But I do enjoy looking at you, just so you know. You're very pretty, mon amour. Lay down next to me."

Briar scooted over on the bed, wincing in pain. Reyna's face scrunched up into something akin to worry, but Briar brushed her expression off. Slowly, Reyna got settled onto the bed. Her warmth was comforting to Briar, and once she'd found a comfortable position ( which took forever, mind you ), she immediately fell asleep.