Coming Back [A ReyNico FanFic]

Under the Streetlights

=*=*= FIVE YEARS LATER =*=*=

Reyna
It completely sucked, but Reyna actually found herself dressing up for a date.

And not just a date, it was the date.

Why on Tartarus did she agree to do this again? Oh, yeah. It's because of her amazing but actually kinda crazy roommate, Lianne Parr. That girl was more than a match for Reyna, no kidding.

Reyna still couldn't believe how she got convinced by her. Lianne might've not meant to push her into something as stupid as a date, but still, the memory of that little bargaining moment never failed to make her wonder grudgingly.

It happened on an ordinary, unsuspicious day. It always does. Reyna and Lianne were packing their bags to go on this trip to New York, where all the kids in their year would come and spend New Year's Eve. In their university, the students always liked things like that.

Lianne had already spent her summer on one of those adventures, in North Carolina, where they built shelters.
She said it was fun, so she decided to join this New Year thing and convinced Reyna to go. It was Reyna's first time, actually, to go on one of the trips. She still didn't know what to feel about it. . .

And of course, it was her first time going back to New York after what happened years ago.

Reyna was busy folding up her clothes when Lianne, who was clearing up their study tables, squeaked like a mouse being stepped on. She turned to Reyna, her face flushed with excitement, holding out a small square of shiny paper.

Reyna recognized the paper immediately. It was Nico's photograph. The one she herself had taken when they were on the beach in New Year. It seemed so recent, like it happened just hours ago. . .

Her heart constricted, but she forced a smile and asked, "Where'd you get that?"

Lianne wasn't listening. She was bouncing excitedly on her heels, staring at the photo. "Reyna, you sneak! You didn't tell me!"

"Tell you what?" Reyna said in a fairly even voice.

"That you have a boyfriend!" Lianne squinted at the photo. "He seems so young, though. How old is he? Fifteen, sixteen? Oh, Reyna, I had no idea that you're quite a pedophile --"

"Lianne!" Reyna chided, but her lips were twitching from trying not to laugh. "That picture was taken years ago, okay? And I'm not a pedophile."

"Okay," Lianne muttered, sitting beside Reyna, still staring at the photo in awe. "He's quite a stunner, isn't he? What's his name? I want to know everything about him!"

"Nico di Angelo." Reyna smiled, looking over Lianne's shoulder to see the photo. And there was her Nico, smiling. Care-free. Forever alive. "He's Italian, and. . ." She fumbled for words. Found none. "That's pretty much it," she decided.

Lianne rolled her eyes. "You don't give much away, do you?"

"Hey, you know me," Reyna protested. "I don't like talking about things like this. It makes me uncomfortable."

"Oh, you say a lot of crap, Reyna. Just get on with it, how 'bout that?"

Reyna pressed her lips together and sighed. "Alright, then. I, uh, met him in a boot camp in California. And. . . I was the leader there, and he was sent by his dad. He came there with his sister, and that's when he talked to me."

"Did you hit it off right away?"

"Oh, hell no." I had him at knifepoint for the first five minutes of our talk. "Uh, we even sort of became enemies at one point. I thought his group was going against mine, but I realized that it wasn't actually the case. Then we got in a trip together, and we became friends. And besides," Reyna added with emphasis, folding her arms, "What kind of people hit it off right away in their first day seeing each other?"