#anonymous3cho

Nina

would be super into it

Excited for the chocolate inside

If she was in charge of hiding the eggs, she would definitely forget where she put a few

She would force Inej to look with her, even though Inej isn't really into the hunt

She would hold the eggs in the front of her dress as she found each one

Matthias

Wouldn't be super into it, but also happily participates.

If he found one, he'd give it to Nina to eat, not understanding the rules that if you found the most you'd win

(He's just using the hunt as an excuse to be close to Nina)

Nina made him find eggs for her, and at some point he accidentally steps on one (Jesper made fun of him for missing a bright, colourful egg right in front of him for weeks after)

Eventually gets super into the hunt because of how fun it ended up being, and his winning spirit

Inej

Not very into it at first, but Nina drags her into participating

Uses her acro skills to get to high places, ends up doing way too much because she's doing flips and stuff to get an egg that was in reachable height for Jesper

Ends up being quite competitive, even snatching eggs from other crows' hands

She doesn't necessarily need the chocolate, she just wants to win the egg hunt (ends up winning because she can reach higher places than everyone else)

Kaz

If he hid the eggs, he would definitely make it way too hard

He does not know (or stick by) the rules of boundaries and would definitely send a bunch of eggs on a mercher's boat or something

When Nina or Wylan would complain that he made the hunt too hard, he would just say they weren't looking hard enough

If he wasn't hiding the eggs, he would think the hunt is stupid at first, but then see Inej's eventual competitive spirit about it and warm up to the hunt

He would try and find eggs extra hard after he saw her hunting too

If she tried to take one of his eggs, he would do some sleight of hand and make the egg disappear, rage baiting her until she eventually gave up

Wylan

Wylan definitely loves easter

He probably painted eggs with his tutors when he was a kid, and jumped at the idea of an easter egg hunt with the other crows

He would be super into the hunt, and takes it very seriously

Has the most fun searching for the eggs and really tries to win

But Inej's acro skills and the rest of the crows' pickpocket experience and Nina and Matthias lowkey teaming up, ends up in him not winning

Like he'd definitely be so confident about winning, and then show up at the end with almost the least amount of eggs (it's okay he still had fun though)

Jesper

Would not be into it that much at the start, but at seeing Wylan's excitement for it he wanted to be apart of it too

Would just follow Wylan around, bothering him entertaining him with witty remarks and comments

Wylan would try to focus, often sending Jesper to try and find an egg for him, just to have a little bit of peace and quiet

Jesper would find one, then come back, and the cycle would continue

𝒞𝓁𝒶𝓇𝒾𝓈𝓈𝑒 𝐿𝒶 𝑅𝓊𝑒 𝒳 𝒮𝒾𝓁𝑒𝓃𝒶 𝐵𝑒𝒶𝓊𝓇𝑒𝑔𝒶𝓇𝒹

summary: little exposition for this ship, and Clarisse tries to train Silena in some sword fighting. They aren't dating Chris or Charles yet.

contains: fluff, swearing, NOT PROOFREAD

word count: 2.1k

--✮ ⋆ ˚｡ ⋆｡°✩--

Clarisse grumbled to herself as the blaring hot sun beat down on her shoulders, her fingers digging into the roots of what felt like the millionth weed she'd pulled that afternoon. After one too many (just the right amount, she felt) run-ins with brand new kids in the Hermes cabin, Chiron felt the need to step in. He had changed the schedule so she would be in the strawberry fields this week as her chore, whereas she would typically be training campers in spear throwing or sword fighting.

She looked around at the Aphrodite campers who carried baskets lined with cotton, gossiping with each other and occasionally clipping a weed, shaking her head. Looking to her left, further down the strawberry fields some Demeter kids laughed and pulled the weeds from the ground while barely lifting a finger, having the time of their lives. Clarisse frowned extra hard as she assessed that she was severely out of place.

"Clarisse!" a cheerful voice yelled at Clarisse from a few rows over. Clarisse recognized her voice in an instant, frowning even harder than before, if that was even possible. Silena Beauregard.

"Clarisse!!" Silena's voice rang over the fields again, her arms waving, as if Clarisse could have missed her. Of course, she was pretending to ignore her.

Staring at the weed she was preoccupied with, a pair of pink converse stepped into Clarisse's eyeline, and a shadow covered the ground.

When Clarisse looked up, she met a towering Silena Beauregard, her hands on her hips, wearing a pout. "Clarisse! Are you ignoring me? Be honest."

"I'm just," Clarisse held up her pair of clippers and a thin smile. "Focused."

Silena didn't look satisfied with Clarisse's answer, but continued on anyway, "Well you need to be covering your hair. You're gonna burn your scalp. Here. I brought you this." Silena was holding a dark green scarf in her outstretched hand.

Clarisse tentatively took it, rubbing the soft fabric in her dirty fingers. Looking back up to Silena, she took in how her soft dark waves were covered in a white scarf, tied at the nape of her neck, creating a triangle against her hair.

"I brought you this colour because I feel like it matches your army aesthetic you've got going on." Silena said with complete seriousness.

Clarisse gestured with the scarf. "You know what, thanks Silena."

"Anytime." Silena nodded. "You have to be taking care of those curls and your skin now that it's sunny."

"Will do." Clarisse said, before Silena promptly skipped away, joining her giggling Aphrodite sisters the next few rows after. Clarisse's smile quickly dropped.

She didn't hate Silena or anything, but Silena found a way to get under her skin in so many different ways. She had kinda just always been there.

It hadn't been quick before Clarisse had been claimed by Ares, but there were a few days between her crest of Half Blood hill and her move in to the Ares cabin where she was a very angry kid in the overcrowded Hermes cabin. Silena had came up to her one afternoon, with a basket of welcome strawberries, and an eager smile. She had been sent by the head Aphrodite counsellor, a customary tradition of welcoming the Aphrodite cabin insisted on attempting when Clarisse was younger.

"Hi!-" Silena approached the Hermes porch while Clarisse was going up the steps, a huge smile on her face.

Clarisse quickly cut her off of whatever her next sentence was going to be, by whirling around and slashing the basket out of the girl's arms. "Leave me alone!"

Silena gasped, as the strawberries spilled everywhere in a mushy mess on the ground. She stepped forward, and said "Well...screw you!"

Silena picked up the wicker basket from off the ground, and promptly stepped away, but Clarisse had been watching her. Awe had crept onto her face, as she was surprised she had stood up to her. She didn't know much about the Aphrodite kids, and she didn't want to, but she had thought they were just supposed to be love-crazy kids who liked flowers or something. But this girl had matched her anger in a way she hadn't expected. Shaking her head, she had stepped inside the cabin.

After that, Clarisse had expected Silena to hate her. That's what she would have preferred anyway, she didn't need anyone to like her in this bizarre place. But the next day she was offering her sunscreen at the archery range and marshmallows at the campfire. Clarisse had been confused at first, but then it just started to bother her. Why couldn't this girl just get the hint?

"I'm Silena. By the way." she had shrugged as she sat next to Clarisse on the log she had been sitting on alone just moments before. "Marshmallow?"

Clarisse stared at the bag. She couldn't help but appreciate the flames flickering on the campfire, and took one. "I'm Clarisse." she said, to be polite.

When that first summer was over and everyone left to go 'home', Clarisse was stunned to find Silena was a year-round camper, just like her. Clarisse had been looking forward to having some peace and quiet when everyone left, she actually liked the idea of being a year-round camper. It meant she could go to the arena whenever she liked to work on target practice or scale the lava wall with no Hermes or Apollo campers not taking it seriously. However, her peace and quiet was always shattered when Silena would come and bother her, either by stomping into the Ares cabin with an insistence to do face masks or try to bond over some boy-band.

"I don't know what you're talking about Silena."

"Well, what kind of music do you listen to?"

"I don't know. Maybe rock, I guess."

"mhm. I don't really know any rock bands."

Silena would eventually leave, but after overstaying her welcome by at least an hour.

It continued that way for years. Silena just would not leave Clarisse alone. Whether it was trying to give her makeup tips, or asking stupid questions during a capture the flag game, or trying to fish out if she had a crush on any boys at camp (Clarisse never did).

Silena had a reason she wouldn't stop bothering her though. She was overtly friendly, but eventually, Clarisse found herself making her way over to the Aphrodite cabin during the winter months to drink hot chocolate or listen to music on Silena's secret CD player. It was never Clarisse's kind of music, but she liked trying it out.

Clarisse would never admit it, but Silena was her friend. Her constant nagging and questions bothered her, but she appreciated that someone cared about her.

Running her fingers over the green fabric, she attempted to tie the scarf in her hair the same way Silena had. She had made a mess of it, but her hair was covered now.

"Cute!" Silena yelled across the field.

Clarisse flashed an awkward smile at the giggling Aphrodite campers, before continuing to pull at the weeds beneath her.

--✮ ⋆ ˚｡ ⋆｡°✩--

"Come on pleaseeeee" Silena was in the doorway of the Ares cabin, talking to Clarisse through the cracked door. The dark green scarf from the few days ago was tied around Clarisse's neck.

"You had a free hour today, why didn't you just do it with Luke?" Clarisse asked. Despite it being dark and just thirty minutes until curfew, Silena was trying to convince her to go to the arena with her, to teach her some sword fighting. "It's not even my best skill."

"You know." Silena looked at her with bright eyes, trying to say something with them instead of words.

"No." Clarisse just looked at her, wishing she would just spit it out.

"He's too cute! How can I focus on sword fighting when-"

"I get it." Clarisse held up a hand. She didn't need to hear anymore about any of Silena's crushes.

"I'm just more comfortable with you." Silena pleaded, wearing a hopeful expression. "Come on, you're my friend."

"I'm not your friend." Clarisse responded with a straight face, before letting a smile break loose. Silena smiled too.

Clarisse rolled her eyes, but before she knew it they were headed down the hill and through the path in the trees, to the arena.

They both grabbed the wooden practice sword, Clarisse adopting a sword fighting stance. Silena tried too, but a few things were off.

Clarisse told her to make the changes, and they were ready to practice duel.

When they began, Clarisse had disarmed Silena within an instant.

"No fair." Silena pouted.

Clarisse chuckled, before saying; "I could teach you how to do that?"

"Okay." Silena breathed out. Her black waves were tied back into a ponytail, but she still looked perfect.

That was another thing that irked Clarisse out sometimes, is just how beautiful she was. She was a daughter of Aphrodite, but even then it seemed that the whole camp felt she was the most beautiful girl in cabin 10. When they got older, boys started to take note, and so did Silena. Even when they were picking strawberries the few days prior, the dirt under Silena's fingernails and in the lines of her palms looked nice at least.

It's not that Clarisse was jealous of her looks, she never paid much attention to the image that looked back at her from the mirror for that matter, but something had shifted one summer with the way the boys treated Silena and it gave her an icky feeling she was never able to place.

After Clarisse had taught her the move, Silena successfully disarmed Clarisse on the first try.

"Okay." Silena's shoulders sagged. "Come on, I know you let me win there."

"Okay, yeah I did." Clarisse admitted, shrugging. "But I just wanted you to get the feeling of actually doing it!"

Silena rolled her eyes. "Come on. Fight me for real, I actually want to learn." her tone had taken an air of seriousness that wasn't there before.

Clarisse was slightly taken aback. "Okay." she stared at her with wide eyes.

They assumed fighting stance once again. Silena made the first move, Clarisse easily parried her wooden blade. Clarisse made a slower than normal arc with her blade, and Silena surprisingly parried as well. Clarisse was still going easy on her, but not explicitly letting her win. They both looked surprised, and Clarisse cocked her head, impressed by Silena's okay swordsmanship.

They continued fighting, not going farther than a parry and deflect each time. Clarisse going easy, and Silena not knowing how to do much else.

"Come on! I can tell you're still going easy on me!" Silena was out of breath.

Clarisse saw an idea flash in Silena's eyes, and was ready for her spin. She was clearly trying to do some sort of move and try to pin the blade against Clarisse's neck. Probably something she had picked up and wanted to try out from when they watched The Princess Bride on one of the movie nights Chiron had put on during a long winter break. Clarisse was ready for her, and as she was spinning, she hooked her foot under her calf, got her on the ground, and hooked her hips on either side of Silena's, holding the wooden blade against her neck. Silena's blade slipped out of her hand and lay on the wood next to them.

They were both out of breathe, but Silena more so. Clarisse stared into her blue eyes, letting herself get lost in the impossibly blue pool of them for a moment.

Silena broke the silence by chuckling. "Okay, I am never trying to recreate something I saw on the TV ever again."

"Hey, it could have worked. I can teach you that move for real some time." Clarisse said.

"Yeah, but we better get back." Silena said, glancing at the dark sky.

They stared at each other for a beat, before Silena started chuckling again.

"You want to let me go?" Her eyes gestured to Clarisse's wooden blade, still pinned to her neck.

"Oh, shit, yeah, sorry." Clarisse leapt up, a rush of warmth spreading across her cheeks.

They both laid the swords against the rack, and began stepping up the steps, back towards the trees.

"Do you like this nail polish colour on me? I feel like it's too pink." Silena was trying to show Clarisse her fingernails in the dark light.

"Something can be too pink for you?" Clarisse jokingly wondered.

"Well, like, I don't know! Silena's voice echoed off the trees, as they made their ways back to their respective cabins.

Clarisse's face still felt warm, but neither of them were saying that what had just happened was weird. So it was normal right?

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𝒞𝓁𝒶𝓇𝒾𝓈𝓈𝑒 𝐿𝒶 𝑅𝓊𝑒 𝒳 𝒮𝒾𝓁𝑒𝓃𝒶 𝐵𝑒𝒶𝓊𝓇𝑒𝑔𝒶𝓇𝒹

summary: Clarisse comes back from the Labyrinth, and new characters are introduced 👀

contains: Chris Rodriguez, Charles Beckendorf, implied trauma, tiny amount of angst - immediate comfort, NOT PROOFREAD

word count: 2.1k

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Placing her hand against the wall, she tried to steady herself. She could barely see anything, her small flashlight actually only illuminating a few paces in front of her at a time. Looking down at her hand, at where the red string tied around her middle finger was cutting into her skin. Blood was dripping onto the cavern floor, her blood. At least Clarisse thought it was a cavern.

The rooms in here never stayed the same for too long. Even looking behind her now, the square room she had just exited, was now circular. The red string snaked across the round floor and exited out of one of the 8 doors that were back there. Clarisse couldn't remember being in a circular room last, but the string was illustrating otherwise.

Deciding to keep going where she was already planning to, she turned her flashlight on and forged ahead. Turning a corner, a large swarm of dark birds clouded her vision. They started charging her, pecking at her hair, her clothes. Looking down at her arm, she saw one about to sink it's razer sharp beak into the flesh of her bicep-

She awoke with a start. Pushing her hair away from her face, she got up to see she had fallen asleep while sitting next to Chris. Her hand was in his.

Removing it to stretch, her stiff back made a satisfying -crack- noise as she got up. Squinting her eyes, she looked at her surroundings; she was in one of the rooms in the basement of the big house.

Not back in that place.

Ever since she had gotten back, she'd been having nightmares about it for what felt like every time she fell asleep.

Her eyes landed back on Chris sleeping. He still hadn't woken up.

When she was in the labyrinth, she hadn't expected to find him. He had scared her at first, finding a man with a shaved head lying on one side screaming out in anguish. But she had looked a little closer and recognized him. He was a camper, Chris Rodriguez. She more knew of him and not really knew him. She knew in that moment, it was time to go.

She somehow managed to get him across the camp border, but that's when he collapsed to the ground, his eyes fluttering shut. And now, 3 days later, he remained asleep.

Clarisse didn't know why she kept checking up on him, why she kept finding herself down here every time she had a minute of free time, just to sit next to him or replace the jug of water on the bedside table. It didn't matter anyway, he wasn't able to drink it. But there was just something, not necessarily about him, but more the situation, that just drove her to keep caring for him.

It read 10:00 PM on the ticking clock on the wall, so Clarisse decided it was best for her to walk back to her cabin and sleep in her own bed. Yawning and getting up from her chair, she began to ascend the wooden creaky steps.

As she reached the ground floor, she could swear she heard some quickly shuffling feet on the creaky floor, but when Clarisse looked around, she saw no one. Suddenly, a silver Diet Coke can dropped on the ground with a large -thunk- , and some profanities were heard. The figure was around the corner and out of sight, but Clarisse could easily identify the voice belonging to Mr. D. Clarisse just shook her head and kept heading towards the front door, not having the energy to investigate that tonight.

As she stepped off the porch, she quite literally ran into-

"Silena" Clarisse breathed out.

"Clarisse!" Silena flashed her signature bright smile at her, just as always.

Her brows quickly furrowed, "were you just talking to Chiron more about what you found?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah." Clarisse responded. It's not like she was hiding anything. She just knew that Silena would turn it into a bigger deal than it was, that Clarisse was sitting by Chris' sickbed hoping he would wake up. It's not a big deal, is it?

"Okay. Nice." Silena breathed out.

There had been an air of awkwardness around them ever since she's been back. When Clarisse had come back, there had been a tearful reunion on Thalia's pine tree hill, right after Chris had been whisked away to the big house by Chiron and Will Solace. Silena had been crying, but not Clarisse. Clarisse had just felt numb. She knew it was cruel, but she cut her reunion with Silena short and just wanted to head to her cabin. She said a few short sentences about how she's glad to be back, and did her best to comfort Silena, before quickly shoving past and heading straight for her cabin.

She knew Silena was going to have so many questions, and she just couldn't bear to talk about it. She of course hated reliving it in any way, but it went deeper than that. What Clarisse had experienced in there, what she'd gone through, she just couldn't imagine putting that onto Silena. Silena represented everything that brought Clarisse joy, from their laughs that they've shared and all their memories together from growing up. She couldn't imagine tainting that with what she's just gone through. She knew Silena was strong, but there was a delicate side of her that Clarisse always wanted to protect.

Stepping forward so the big house porch light cast shadows from Silena's long lashes across her face, she whispered;

"You know I'm always here for you."

Clarisse nodded. She could feel her eyes turning shiny. "I know."

"You know, whenever you're ready to talk." Silena responded.

Clarisse swallowed a lump in her throat. She didn't know how to process her feelings, let alone articulate them "I-"

All of a sudden, a large guy ran up and scooped Silena into his arms from the side.

Beckendorf

Silena had already burst into fits of giggles, as he planted a small kiss on her cheek. He turned to Clarisse and his expression turned very genuine and serious.

"Clarisse. How are you?" Beckendorf asked.

He is 'quite the gentleman', as Silena had put it when talking to Clarisse in private just a short time before her quest began. Though it was cheesy, she was right. Charles Beckendorf was a nice guy, liked by everyone at camp. Sometimes his attention even made Clarisse feel warm, but she would never admit that, not even to herself.

"Yeah, I'm good, thank you." Clarisse responded.

"Lovely to hear." Beckendorf said, nodding with a big smile.

Clarisse felt awkward now, and stepped past the both of them. Silena's attention was still on Beckendorf, and his on her.

She grumbled walking back to her cabin. She felt no ill will towards Beckendorf, more what he represented. He hated how she had just become invisible when he was around. She knew she was icing Silena out by not talking to her about the quest, but she had still wanted Silena to focus on her. Also, Clarisse left for about a week, and all of a sudden Silena and Beckendorf seemed to be a couple? It made her feel upset, but she wasn't quite sure why. She should be happy for Silena and Beckendorf, they had been silently crushing on each other for awhile. But trying to be happy didn't make the pit in her stomach go away.

Angrily entering the Ares cabin, she brushed her teeth and quickly went to sleep.

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The next day after breakfast, Clarisse found her feet taking her towards the big house without her even thinking about it. On her way, she saw Percy walking back to his cabin with his stupid face. She was still wired from last night, and seeing him made her even more angry.

"Out of my way, Jackson." she grumbled, but kept walking.

"I wasn't even doing anything!" she heard him respond, but she was walking so fast, his voice fading quickly.

She stepped into the big house, wanting to head downstairs immediately, but she heard voices coming from the sun room that intrigued her.

Stepping around the corner, but trying to remain sneaky, she saw Chris, sitting up, and playing a round of Uno with Mr. D. Mr. D's back was to her, so Chris immediately made eye contact with her, and smiled.

"Clarisse!" he started to move to get up. "I believe I owe you a huge thank you."

Clarisse's mouth stood agape. She made an effort to close it, as he came around the table and gave her a hug.

"You saved my life. I owe you a debt." he was smiling.

Mr. D was turning around in his chair, but making no effort to get up. "Oh! Chiara! I was just telling Chris here how you were in here basically every night tending to his bedside-"

"I wouldn't say every night." Clarisse shook her head and felt warmth spread across her cheeks.

"Well, it felt pretty often-" Mr. D continued.

"Well I'm grateful." Chris interjected.

It was quiet for a few moments, before Mr. D threw his hands up in the air.

"Well don't you kids have morning activities to get to?"

Chris laughed. "I suppose I should let my siblings know I've woken up. Clarisse? I'll see you later?"

"Oh, yeah. For sure." Clarisse responded.

Chris left the big house, leaving Mr. D and Clarisse alone.

"Mr. D? Thank you." Clarisse said softly.

"For what?" Mr. D was already focused on the cards again.

"Just..." Clarisse shook her head smiling, and just decided to leave the big house, ready to check which morning activity she had today.

--✮ ⋆ ˚｡ ⋆｡°✩--

Clarisse stood grooming one of the horses in the stables with a brush. About two weeks had passed since Chris had been cured of his madness by Mr. D, and they had spent almost every evening together. They would just go on long walks and talk. She found him easy to talk to about the Labyrinth because they had gone through it together.

She heard branches crunching under feet behind her, so she turned around.

Standing in the doorway of the stables stood Silena. She looked beautiful as ever, her hair glinting from the sun. She was wearing a pair of overalls over her Camp Half-Blood T-shirt that she had cut the neckline out of.

"Hey, what's up?" Clarisse smiled at her.

Silena just looked at her, a mischievous but curious look on her face. She pointed her finger at Clarisse.

"Are you dating Chris?"

"What! No!" Clarisse got defensive.

Silena just raised her eyebrows at her.

"It's just...it's nothing. We've just been...getting closer I suppose, after our shared experience in the Labyrinth." Clarisse responded.

"I knew it! I knew it!" Silena got excited now and ran over, putting her arm over Clarisse, bringing them closer. "I can't believe this!"

"Yes, I suppose it is exciting." Clarisse said.

Suddenly, Silena stepped away. "Why haven't you told me though?"

Clarisse just looked at her. "What do you mean?"

"We've always told each other about our boy stuff!" Silena said, now a little exasperated.

"You were always talking about the boy stuff, I've never had any. And I still don't!" Clarisse responded.

Silena raised an eyebrow.

"Well, I suppose, he is cute. And we have really great talks." Clarisse said.

Silena was quiet for a moment. "Okay, but seriously. I feel like we have been distant lately."

"I mean. It did take you awhile to even notice something was going on between Chris and me." Clarisse mumbled.

"What was that?" Silena said quickly.

Clarisse repeated herself, louder this time, causing Silena to look at her feet.

"I will admit, I have been a bit distracted by Charlie lately." Silena said in that soft voice of hers.

"I'm happy for you though." Clarisse said.

"Thank you. I appreciate that." Silena smiled softly.

They stared at each other for a moment.

"Let's do face masks in my cabin tonight or something. And no boys!" Silena said.

Clarisse smiled. "I'd like that."

"I love you." Silena said.

"I love you." Clarisse said back. It came out quite naturally this time. "Which activity are you even supposed to be at right now?"

"Ugh. I don't know, like archery or something." Silena responded.

"Hey, that's a useful skill!" Clarisse said, smiling.

"Okay, okay, I'll go back!" Silena held her hands up in defense, and left the stables smiling.

Clarisse smiled to herself and went back to softly brushing the horse.

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Oh my goodness, sorry for the pause. But thanks for reading if you made it to the end!

𝒞𝓁𝒶𝓇𝒾𝓈𝓈𝑒 𝐿𝒶 𝑅𝓊𝑒 𝒳 𝒮𝒾𝓁𝑒𝓃𝒶 𝐵𝑒𝒶𝓊𝓇𝑒𝑔𝒶𝓇𝒹

summary: more time at camp, and Clarisse tells Silena she's going into the Labyrinth for her quest.

contains: a little fluff, a little angst (with comfort), NOT PROOFREAD

word count: 1.7k

--✮ ⋆ ˚｡ ⋆｡°✩--

After their training session, Clarisse had been a bit of a nervous wreck. She was weirdly put off by the whole situation, but she didn't dare talk to Silena about it.

Right when she was going over the situation in her mind, she was standing over the fire at the pavilion during breakfast, about to burn some food for offering. Suddenly, Silena came up next to her with so much enthusiasm her plate bumped into Clarisse's shoulder.

"Oh my gosh, have you tried the waffles the nymphs made this morning? There's like this strawberry syrup, I'm totally burning one for my mom-" Silena spoke quickly, before stopping mid sentence and staring at Clarisse's plate. It was heaped with nothing but boiled eggs, bacon, plain oatmeal, and cucumbers. "Oh right. I forgot you're into like that fitness stuff I guess."

Clarisse gave a grateful smile. "I mean, yeah. I don't want to be having a sugar rush on the lava wall this morning."

Silena rolled her eyes, but smiled. "Whatever." She pushed a waffle into the fire, as Clarisse slopped some oatmeal into the flames.

"Oh come on. You choose to eat boring stuff for breakfast, but at least burn something nice for the Gods." Silena complained.

"Hey, just because you don't like it doesn't mean others won't." Clarisse offered.

Silena just smiled. "I'll see you later."

They both stepped away to their respective tables, Clarisse smiling as well. See, nothing is weird, she thought to herself.

And nothing ever was. When the other campers left for the year, they continued their friendship that seemed odd to others, and still sometimes felt odd to Clarisse.

When Luke betrayed the camp and poisoned Thalia's tree, Silena silently cried to Clarisse behind the Ares cabin that night. Clarisse was unsure of what to do, and eventually settled for patting her shoulder. Soon enough, Silena was crumpling into a hug and they stayed like that for about a minute. Clarisse was stiff, but Silena didn't say anything about it.

Pulling away and wiping her tears away, Silena hiccuped. "I'm scared, Clarisse."

"I know."

They kept on with recommending music and Silena trying to style Clarisse, (which she always said no to), and watching movies when the year-round campers went home.

When Clarisse had come back to camp with the Fleece that one summer, Silena had been sun tanning and swimming with the naiads and her Aphrodite siblings, that she hadn't seen Clarisse right when she arrived back at camp, and she had missed her placing the Fleece back on Thalia's tree.

Wading beneath the waves in a pink and white paisley bikini, Silena heard a rumbling of footsteps and Travis Stoll's loud voice saying "Glory to Ares!"

Silena tipped her sunglasses to her nose, and saw a loud crowd of almost all of camp, Clarisse in tow, almost as if they were parading her.

"Clarisseeeeee!!" she screamed, jumping towards the shore and running to her.

She enveloped Clarisse in an embrace, much to Clarisse's protest about Silena's dripping skin with water getting all over her.

--✮ ⋆ ˚｡ ⋆｡°✩--

Clarisse hadn't expected to be on another quest that Winter. When Chiron told her about the mission to the Labyrinth, she felt nerves in the pit of her stomach. After the mess that happened with the Golden Fleece the previous summer, she needed another quest to please her father who was never happy enough. However, after going on her first real quest, she now knew it wasn't all glory. It was messy and scary, and she had no idea why Chiron was sending her alone.

Leaving the big house after Chiron had told her about the quest, Clarisse went over the information in her mind. With Kronos' power rising, Chiron had wanted her to enter the Labyrinth, to try and gather some knowledge of the twisting corridors and shifting rooms. He had told her about a secret entrance she must go through, but Chiron was keeping things heavily veiled. She carried herself like a soldier, and though she had some questions, she was the type to take instructions and just do them. She had wanted to ask "why just me?" but she knew why. The mission was urgent, and with Luke gone, she realized she was probably the best fighter at camp currently. The Stolls would probably get themself killed in the first five minutes, and Silena was too delicate for a place like that. She really was the best one fit for the job.

Her brows furrowed, she was walking quickly to her cabin, determined to get packing right away. Chiron instructed her that she had to leave that night.

"Clarisse!" Silena was suddenly in front of her, almost running to keep up with Clarisse's quick pace. "We need to form an alliance tonight! The Stolls want to watch some stupid movie I don't want to watch, The Big Lebowski?-"

Movie night. Clarisse had forgotten about movie night, but she supposed Chiron had forgotten too. He put them on for the year-round campers, but he had failed to consider that sending Clarisse on a dangerous quest when they had originally intended to just chill and watch a movie that night might disappoint her.

"But look what I found." Silena was holding up a DVD in front of Clarisse's face. 10 Things I Hate About You. "It sounds so good, here let me read you the back, gosh why are you walking so fast-"

"Go away." Clarisse had just said coldy.

"Come on this is important." Silena smiled, half-joking.

"No it isn't!" Clarisse snapped.

Silena's smile dropped quickly, her brows furrowing. Clarisse's ability to push Silena away was always in a fun nature. But this had been different.

"Okay, I got it." Silena turned to step away.

"Uh, wait." Clarisse started.

Silena turned around, wearing a hurt expression. The setting sun glinted off her blue eyes, casting her in golden hour orange.

"Look, could you come with me? To my cabin."

Silena crossed her arms. "I guess." she said monotonously, but followed anyway.

Once inside the Ares cabin, Clarisse sat on her bed, her head in her hands. Silena stood in the doorway, uncrossing her arms at the sight of Clarisse unraveling.

They both said nothing for awhile. Clarisse eventually broke the silence,

"Chiron is sending me on another quest."

"Really?" Silena's brows softened in worry.

"I've never said this out loud before but, I-I'm scared. He's sending me to the Labyrinth."

"What? A-Alone? That doesn't make any sense!" Silena was growing angry now. Clarisse hadn't seen this intensity from Silena from maybe the first time they met.

"It's fine, I'll just deal with it." Clarisse said softly.

"No, he can't just do that!" Silena started.

"Chiron has been training demigods for centuries, he knows what he's doing." Clarisse was defending him now. "Do you not believe in me or something?"

"No, that's not what I'm saying at all, and you literally just said that you're scared-" Silena said.

Clarisse regretted ever being vulnerable now. This is why she never was, it was hard for her to articulate her emotions before just getting angry. "Just get out. I need to pack."

"No!" Silena spluttered. "And, I don't know why we're fighting!" she was close to tears.

Clarisse let out a long sigh. "I'm actually sorry." her voice softening.

Silena breathed out too. "It's okay. I can't imagine going on a quest right now." she moved over to sit next to her on the bed.

Clarisse stared at her hands.

"I was scared for you last time too. But then you came back. And I know you'll come back this time too." Silena said.

Clarisse broke down in tears. She had never cried in front of anyone, even Silena was taken aback even though she cried almost every day.

Silena pulled her into a hug. The sky was black now, they had been preoccupied with fighting that they hadn't noticed the sun had set fully.

Silena wiped away her tears when she pulled away. "Oh, man. I should probably get to the movie night."

"I need to pack. And leave, I guess." Clarisse said.

Silena stood up, a sad silence filling the air. Everything that needed to be said had been said, and Clarisse didn't want any more crying.

Silena turned around in the doorway, leaning against it. "I love you."

Clarisse froze. She had never had a friend say I love you before. She knew that Silena was her closest friend, maybe her only friend other than her Ares siblings. They had grown so close, and Clarisse hadn't even really realized.

She knew they looked like an odd pairing to the rest of the camp. Silena was truly beautiful, and that's what gave her status. She was friendly to literally everyone, so she was extremely popular. Nobody disliked her, no one feared her, all the things Clarisse wanted people to feel about herself. She had always been beautiful but Clarisse knew that there had been a shift when others started noticing. The shift grew larger when Silena had told Clarisse about her first...rendezvous with a Hermes boy. Clarisse had been a little uncomfortable, it was all moving so fast. But Silena had demigodly beauty, her mother was literally Aphrodite for that matter.

Clarisse recalled the one time Clarisse and Silena were in the lineup for the burning fire at dinner one time, when she heard a murmur from the Apollo table, "I don't even know why Silena's friends with her."

Clarisse had wanted to smash that Apollo camper into their plate of sausages and mash, but thought better of it. Because that would be admitting insecurity. She scooped some salad into the fire and moved on, taking note that Silena hadn't seemed to have heard because she had no reaction.

Clarisse knew they were an odd pairing, and other people knew this as well. But none of the other people at the camp were hearing "I love you" from Silena Beauregard, representing how close their friendship was.

Lost in her thoughts, Clarisse realized she had just been staring at Silena. "I love you too." she said.

Silena just nodded with a sad smile, and stepped out of the door. Clarisse had suspected she was crying again.

Ugh I'm so overwhelmed with the studies for it so I haven't been writing basically :( but at least I get to read fanfiction to comfort me through this 😭

I also just read in The Lost Hero that all cabin 10 campers speak French so like 👀 I need to lock in. Any cabin 10 mutuals speak French?

Thank you everyone for any support on my page, even if it was just a like, it always means the world to me.