Reynarter (private)

ooc: 3 weeks after the events of the training/romance topic

bic:

Carter and Reyna had just finished sparring- Carter sat down to take a drink of water. He took a sip.

"I see great improvement in you, Optio," he said, impressed. "I think this training has helped you." Carter, after their kiss the first day of training, couldn't help but to develop feelings for Reyna, but he knew it was wrong, it was a professional level thing. He was a Centurion and she was an Optio, and he was simply helping her become better at combat through training. He had the urge to ask her out, though, but wasn't sure how'd she feel about that. "So, do you have plans after training?" he asked, for the first time going outside of the sparring partner zone. "I mean, if you feel comfortable telling me."

Reyna had spent the day training fiercely with her sparring mate. She earned more cuts and bruises, but they were all worth it in the process of enhancing her combat abilities. Eventually, they got to sit down, and she sipped from the bottle of water, her body filled with sweat and exhaustion.

Carter then began asking about her plans. After training. Honestly speaking, she had nothing to do. But she had seen this happen before. She chuckled, and sat closer to him.

"Carter, if you like me and want to ask me out, just say it." She shared her deduction abilities with Rick. The demigod could tell what people were going to say before they even say it.

"I...I don't know, Reyna. I do like you, but I feel like it'd be inappropriate for me to ask you out. You're my student, you help run the First Cohort with me. It'd be unprofessional for us to date, I've done it before. Besides, do you feel the same? If you don't, this whole conversation is useless in the first place, and quite frankly, I feel embarrassed," Carter said, looking at her.

Reyna smiled. "I can't really say, Carter, but I'm willing to give it a shot. You shouldn't be embarrassed. At all." she took his hand in hers. They were both bloodied with bruises and cuts.

"Thus, my answer is yes, Carter. I will go out on a date with you, then we can see where this goes."

"OKay, sweet. I guess this'll be a fun experience, either way it goes," Carter said, talking himself into it. "Where do you want to go? I'll let you choose. My suggestions, though, would be eating out somewhere, like there's this really good Italian place my family always go to, and sometimes we hold Centurion meetings there. It's a bit expensive, though, and formal, do you have anything to wear? I could buy you something," he explained, and let go of her hand. It felt good, but it didn't feel right, like they shouldn't be doing this. The truth was Carter was still a bit skeptical of dating, after Ainsley's death two or so months ago, and after dating fellow Centurion, Aquila, a year or two ago.

She nodded. "The Italian restaurant sounds great. As for my formal clothings, I'd say I have none. You will help me choose then?" Reyna had never been to formal meetings. Not much anyway. She always sported comfortable clothings, but now that she was out for dinner with Carter, perhaps she should put on a dress for change.

"Yeah, of course I will. Do you want to go shopping, or would you prefer for me to just give you the money and you can go? The only other scenario would be you wearing one of my sister's dresses, but they're probably too small."

"The first option, please. I could use a good judge." Reyna was bad with clothing tastes. Carter could possibly know better, and as such, she was ready to trust him with finding her a nice outfit.

"OKay, cool. I'm not the best at fashion, however, unless it's formal, so I should be okay at this. Do you want to hit the shower- not together- and then meet up in New Rome in like, half an hour? We could go shopping tonight."

"That would be great." she said. "I'll see you in half an hour."

She picked up her staff and left, rushing until she returned to the confinements of her barracks. Everyone was out--good. Reyna enjoyed a hot shower that day, which was always refreshing after an intense training. Afterwards, she put on a Camp Jupiter t-shirt, shorts, a pair of Nike, all the while braiding her hair and applying bits of makeup here and there.

As she began to leave, the one person she didn't expect the most turned up.

"Whoa. You look like you're ready to bang, Reyna. Who's it this time?" said Rick.

"None of your business." she grunted, fixing her hair a bit more

"We'll see about that. Meanwhile, I need my book back."

The demigod tossed it across the room, which Rick quickly took and fled with. Reyna, all ready to go, quickly sprinted down to the rendezvous point where Carter told her to wait.

Carter met Reyna at the spot in New Rome. He took a shower and put on his best smelling colognes, and deo- almost like the shopping was the date. He wore a white shirt and jeans. He smiled at her, studying her. "You look really good," he complimented, grabbing his wallet. "I brought a decent amount of money, but it's not the price of the dress that matters, it's only what you like." He walked into a nearby store. "I feel weird being here, this reminds me of the time my brother and I were clothes shopping, and ended up in a bra store. Long story. But, yeah, let's start over here." He went over to a few dresses. "What colors do you like?"

She looked at the outfits. There were so many, she didn't know what to choose from. Eventually, Reyna decided to take a random dress: a black sleeveless V-neck, which went with a pair of high heels.

She entered the changing room and stripped down, then proceeded to put them on, looking at herself a bit through the mirror, before exiting for Carter to see.

"So--what do you think?"

Carter waited on a bench outside of the dressing rooms, playing on his phone. He looked up to see Reyna. "I think it looks beautiful on you," he said, getting up. "Is this the one you want me to buy?" he asked, checking her out a little. "Sorry. How much is it?" he asked, getting out his wallet.

"Thanks!" she folded her t-shirt and jeans, then stuffed both into a small bag she got from the store, along with her sneakers. Reyna had to admit that she did look like a genuine lady, wearing a dress with a pair of high heels. She kept the arm bindings on, however, to conceal the arm that was burnt.

"Even though it's the cheapest, it's still 150 dollars." she looked at the price tag. "I can pay for it if you want to."

"It's good, I offered to pay, it's my deal. My mom would understand, as long as I tell her. We always get expensive clothes to look nice for meetings, especially me. She'd be less understand if I spent 150 bucks on like, alcohol or something." He got out his money. "You're wearing it home? OKay," he said. After paying for the dress, he turned to Reyna.

"Well, we could go chill at my house while I make reservations for the Italian place. I mean, legit chill, not Netflix and chill. I could show you my sword collection in my bedroom...damn it, that sounded weird too," Carter said and laughed.

"Yeah. I'll wear this for a while, see if it's comfortable enough. If not, we can always get a refund." Reyna shrugged. "Chilling sounds fun. I kinda hoped we could watch Netflix, since I've never watched it. You see, Rick pirates all of the movies he needs. Sometimes he does it for me, so we don't watch Netflix. But sure, the sword collection sounds cooler."

"Yeah, we can watch Netflix, just not...nevermind. Let's go," Carter said, starting to walk. "My car's just around the block, so we should be able to grab it and go." He walked that direction, admiring her dress. He went to where his car was, finding Randall Sherman leaning on his car.

"Hey, Carter," Randall said with a grin. "Looky what we got here," he said, pacing around Reyna, giving her some unwanted touching.

Carter pushed Randall away. "What do you want, Randall? Where's your goons, hiding around here waiting to shoot me?"

"Nah, I'm here alone. I think after what you did the other night, it's time for some payback, and it's great that your new girly friend is here to see it," Randall punched Carter and kicked him in the no-nos. "How's that one feel, Virgo?" he asked, pulling out a gun. He placed it against Reyna's throat.

"You're going to leave, girly, or you're going to die. Go back to the kitchen where all women belong, stay safe, watch the children, and let me handle this with Carter, man to man, babe," Randall said.

She raised an eyebrow. Reyna had been through worse.

"Really? Alright, Randall. First off, is it a coincidence that you were named after one of the most famous Pixar villains? Secondly, I'm going to keep it plain and simple. I'm going to give you to the count of ten to pull your gun back and walk away, and we shall never speak of this again, for which I will reward you with a quicker death. Or, alternatively, you can go ahead, and I will pull it from you, shoot you with it and leave you to die a painful death. Thirdly, I doubt that you're truthful about your goons being around, so tell them to scram along, or I will kill them all and put them next to you. One." With her monologue finished, she began counting.

"OKay, you're dead," Randall said, before Carter got up and bashed the back of Randall's head.

"Really, Randy?" he asked, wiping some sweat from his forehead. "That's all you got? C'mon, you gotta do better than that," he said, kicking away the gun. Luckily, the parking lot was vacant, but them, so no one really noticed what was going on.

Randall got up, blood coming from the back of his head.

"I think you need to spend some time thinking about touching me, my sister, or Reyna," Carter said. "Now, I'm going to have to confiscate this gun and turn you into the Legion, but I will give you a few days to live in freedom again."

Randall grinned. "You would do that, Virgo. Go ahead, put me away behind bars, punish me. It just shows you're too p***y to fight me, one on one."

"Randall, cmon, man, we all know how our last 897 one on ones went. What makes you think you'll ever be able to kill me?"

Suddenly, one of the other Shermans quietly approached the scene, holding a gun. He aimed at Carter's back.

"Told you."

Reyna quickly intercepted, grabbing the Sherman's gun and diverted upwards, who's firing deafened her. The demigod twisted his hand and flipped him 360 in the air, before pinning him down on the ground. He tried to aim at her, but she struck his arm, ultimately causing the gun to turn downwards and shot his leg.

Reyna leapt backwards, covering her mouth in horror as the Sherman groaned in pain.

"I didn't mean to--wait, nevermind. This sh!t is old, and these guys always survive. Therefore,"

She turned to Randall and threw a powerful punch that knocked him unconscious instantaneously. Her hair was wild enough, and her dress was already tattered.

"That's for ruining our date. Go back to your kitchen, stay safe and watch the children, you patriarchal @sshole." she cussed. Few times had Reyna been that angry, but when she was, she'd swear a lot.

Carter looked at Reyna, surprised. "You saved me," he said, shocked. If Reyna hadn't been there, he would've been shot from the behind. He looked at the two guns. "I'm going to get these to the Senate and Legion as soon as possible. For now, we should probably take these two to the infirmary, we unfortunately can't leave them to die here." He sighed. "It's okay, the date's not ruined, we can always just chill at my house. We just have to deal with these brats first." Carter called a nymph-run ambulance number, where they would almost immediately show up and take the injured Shermans.

Carter looked at Reyna again. "Not gonna lie, you look kinda hot crazy," he said and laughed. "Let's get back to my place," he said, thanking the nymphs again. He got in the driver's seat, and when she was in, drove to his house.

When they were there, Carter got out and opened the door. "Hello? Who's here?"

"Just me," Grandma Virgo said, walking to the kitchen. "Your mother is out, Emmetts at a skating park, and Sophia's on that mission, obviously. Who's this? Another girl?"

"Oh, this is Reyna. Reyna, this is my grandmother."

"Pleased to meet you," Mrs. Virgo said with a smile.

"We're going to chill here, we were going to go out, but we got attacked by the Shermans," Carter explained.

"I hate those rotten Sherman boys," Mrs. Virgo scoffed. "I hope they rot in the Fields of Punishment!"

"Grandma!" Carter said, walking in.

"Sorry," she said. "She's cute, by the way," she whispered to Carter.

Carter blushed a little.

After they left the Shermans to the ambulance, the duo came to Carter's place. Reyna was greeted by his grandmother, whom she smiled to when she was greeted.

"Nice to meet you too!" she said. They passed Grandma Virgo, and the demigod followed Carter to his "sword collection". It sounded cool, but Rick had always said he preferred a 9 gauge plasma pistol. A clean shot. Swords can keep you alive for a bit for rescuers to get you.

"So--will you show me this collection of yours?" she raised the question, while fixing her hair, which was messed up in the fight.

"Yeah, of course." Carter went into his room. It was a pretty plain room, with grey walls, a poster of a Roman symbol, his family crest, and his bed. There was a closet, a dresser, and a TV, and that was about it, except for his sword collection, of course. "These are all swords that were famous at one point, or at least used." He grabbed one. "This was my mother's, back when she was Centurion of the First Cohort. Here's the dagger she used to defeat a monster on a quest- long story." Carter looked at her. "It's kind of nerdy, but I just find it really interesting."

Carter went over to his closet, and grabbed something. "This was my mother's Centurion badge," he said, showing her it. "I have some other stuff, but my mom keeps it locked up downstairs, more valuable stuff. I'm not even allowed to go through most of it- old records, letters, armor, videos, that type of stuff." Carter looked at his reflection- he had a bruise from being punched by Randall.

"Feel free to take a shower," Carter said. "I think I'm going to do the same. If you want, we can both shower, like, seperate showers, get all this blood and stuff off, and go watch a movie downstairs."

A loud snort, resembling a wild animals cry could be heard from Emmett's room. He was reading one of those Greek tragedies. "Why would anyone do that." he asked himself, eating leftover pizza.

The boy was covered in scars and wounds. They were either from the fight today or the fight from yesterday..or the day before. Emmett had a knack of getting himself messed in trouble. He was the disgrace of the Virgo family, not that he really cared. "Another damsel in distress." he exclaimed out loud and stuffed his face with some more pizza.

Reyna didn't flinch. She'd jumped plenty of times before: stalkers, peeping Tom's, one even had the courage to peek on her showering, and she Judo-flipped him until his teeth was no longer with him. His presence was unsurprising.

"Yeah. Our surprise guest is right, though, Carter. We just showered before we came. And I didn't even sustain that much of an injury. You have, though." she looked at the newcomer. "Hi, I'm Reyna. Who might you be?"