For my first time writing in this fandom, I've decided to take a look at one of my favorite characters and one of the stranger friendships in PJO. With a dash of Chrisse and a side of Percabeth, because Percabeth makes almost everything better.

Disclaimer: If you recognize it, it probably belongs to RR.

Clarisse La Rue was a daughter of war. She knew and accepted that war had a cost. But she had never experienced it as viscerally and personally as in the battle she'd just fought. For everything that had been saved, something had been stolen from her. Her boyfriend had made it through unscathed, but four of her siblings had not. Her dad finally gave her the approval she always wanted, but it had been brought about by the rage and desire for revenge she felt at the death of her best friend. Figures.

She clenched her jaw and shifted, her arms folded so tightly that a voice in the back of her mind told her that she was probably going to lose circulation soon. As she often did, she ignored that voice and just kept staring out over Long Island Sound, like she had been ever since they'd finished burning the shrouds of the fallen. Footsteps crunched the sand behind her.

"Hey." It was Chris, like she'd figured it would be. He sighed when she didn't respond and moved around to stand directly in front of her, blocking her view. He dipped his head down to her eye-level. "Clarisse—"

"I'm fine," she growled, making the mistake of meeting his knowing gaze.

He gave her a look like, Really? This is me you're talking to, and after a few seconds of glaring her shoulders dropped and she let herself lean into him. Forehead pressed against his shoulder, exhaustion swept over her, and she emitted a quiet noise between a sigh and a groan.

"I know," he murmured, placing a hand on her back. If anyone else had said such a stupid platitude, Clarisse would have pounded them into the dirt, but Chris really did know. He had been friends with Silena too, and he'd lost siblings just as she had. Besides that, the son of Hermes just understood her far better than she was usually comfortable with. At times like this, though, she had to admit it was kind of nice.

"Hey, Clarisse, Chris, check it out!" Clarisse's eyes automatically narrowed at the sound of the Stoll brothers, and she turned to find them standing at the edge of the sand, one of them whisper-shouting while the other gestured frantically. "C'mon, you have to see this; it's Percy and Annabeth!"

Without waiting for acknowledgment, the brothers turned and sprinted back in the direction from which they had come. She exchanged an annoyed look with Chris, hoping he knew what was happening, but he just shrugged, so she rolled her eyes and they followed the other sons of Hermes.

As they approached the dining pavilion, Clarisse's eyebrows rose at seeing nearly half of the camp crowded behind the bushes nearby. Sure enough, Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase sat at Cabin Three's table, utterly oblivious to the rest of the world and especially to their friends and fellow campers watching with rapt attention and amusement just twenty feet away. They seemed to be having one of their typical semi-flirtatious, semi-bickering conversations, but this time a memory tugged at Clarisse's mind at the sight of them.

Clarisse sat at the arts and crafts table, absentmindedly pounding a lump of clay. She had long forgotten what she was supposed to be making, but she didn't care. She thought all of the activities except those relating to combat were useless anyway, but Chiron insisted her cabin attend every rotation. Punching the lump of clay was as good as anything, and much more therapeutic than making a bust of some Greek hero. Next to her, Silena wasn't even pretending to work on her project. Instead, she rested her chin on her fist and gazed off in the direction of the canoe lake. Until she spoke, Clarisse had figured she was daydreaming.

"Aww, look at them," Silena sighed happily. "It's so cute how they're totally in love with each other and don't even know it."

Clarisse didn't bother looking up. She knew very well who Silena was talking about, because in the last year they had become the daughter of Aphrodite's favorite topic of conversation.

"You know, I don't really care if Prissy and the Brain have finally gotten their acts together." She barely noticed that the nicknames held none of the venom they would have had three years earlier. After a moment she realized the only noise at their table was the sound of her fists thudding into the stupid chunk of clay and she finally looked up.

Silena had spun around on the bench to face her, her eyes wide, looking as if Clarisse had just insulted her favorite outfit (and Clarisse would know that expression, because she'd done exactly that, several times).

"How can you not care?" Silena's voice came out strangled.

The daughter of Ares shrugged, hiding a smirk. "It's not too difficult."

Clarisse thought she had actually managed to enrage the other girl into silence, but after a moment Silena smiled triumphantly. "You seemed to care about love when it was you and Chris."

Clarisse instantly turned red. "Yeah, well…shut up."

Silena gave a surprisingly indelicate snort. "Great response. Clarisse, even you have to realize that love is the most important thing in the world."

At that, Clarisse couldn't stop herself from rolling her eyes. She tried to turn back to her "art project", but Silena grabbed her arm with unexpected strength.

"No, listen. Think about the people you love—No, don't you dare interrupt me to say that love is for sissies; I am a daughter of Aphrodite and I know that there are people you care about! Think about them—Chris, on very rare occasions your siblings, and me, of course, your BFF—" Clarisse was pretty sure she physically cringed at the term "BFF"— "Even your mom. You might say that you hate her, but I know you don't. Why else would you keep going back, keep trying even when you don't always get along?"

Clarisse swallowed thickly, but Silena wasn't finished.

"Doesn't that right there kind of prove my point? Wouldn't you do anything for them? Anything to protect them, help them? Percy and Annabeth, they're best friends, and they care about each other so much. We've already seen what they would do for each other. And, well, all of us love this camp, too, right?" For some reason, maybe just the emotion of her speech, Silena started to tear up. "We're going to fight to save it. Because we love this place, and because there are people here we love, we're going to fight. Love—love is strong, and it gives us strength.

"That's why it's so important," she finished quietly. To say Clarisse was stunned would be an understatement. She knew Silena wasn't the vain airhead she sometimes appeared to be, but this was something else entirely. She had never looked at it that way, but what Silena had said was completely true. It wasn't like Clarisse didn't already know that if anyone threatened the people she cared about (loved), she would make them regret it, but she had simply never made the stupidly simple connection that it all came down to love.

She was brought out of her epiphany by the realization that Silena was still crying. Never having dealt with a weeping daughter of Aphrodite before (well, never having helped a weeping daughter of Aphrodite, that is), she tentatively scooted closer and awkwardly patted the other girl's shoulder. "Uh, there, there. Don't worry, I get it. Love is important and all that."

"Plus, Annabeth and Percy would look so cute together!" Silena squeaked through her tears, and Clarisse couldn't help but laugh. She figured that if Silena was already matchmaking again, she would be just fine.

Now, watching Silena's favorite couple as they finally did what everyone at camp had seen coming for at least a year and kissed, Clarisse smirked. The morons finally got it together like you always wanted them to, Silena, and you kick the bucket just one day too early to see them. Demigods really do have horrible luck. Despite the macabre turn to her thoughts, she found that for the first time that day, she wasn't miserable. Maybe it was just lack of sleep or something, because instead she felt like doing something crazy, like feeling happy for others, or smiling.

"Follow me, all of you." Clarisse stepped around the bushes. Ignoring all of the whispered, "What?"s and "Huh?"s, she strode briskly across the grass to the dining pavilion. After a beat she heard the others trail behind her. She went up right behind Percy and Annabeth, inwardly rolling her eyes as they didn't even notice. She would remedy that.

"Well," she growled loudly, trying to hide her grin, "it's about time!"

The pair broke apart. Annabeth looked annoyed and Percy confused, but both were blushing fiercely. By now, the rest of the campers had caught on, and they surrounded the table, alternatively teasing and congratulating them. Percy whined something about privacy which everyone happily ignored, hoisting the couple up onto their shoulders.

Amused at the looks on Percy and Annabeth's tomato-red faces, Clarisse called out gleefully, "The lovebirds need to cool off!"

The crowd roared.

"The canoe lake!" one of the Stolls yelled. The crowd roared again, and as one they carried Percy and Annabeth down the hill to the lake. Everyone, even Percy and Annabeth by then, was laughing and it just felt good.

Of course, it also felt good to toss the pair into the water. When Percy and Annabeth didn't immediately resurface, the crowd quieted down rather quickly and dispersed all around the lake. Clarisse remained where they had dumped them in, satisfied with her work.

"Ah, Clarisse," the younger Stoll approached and made a motion to throw a companionable arm around her shoulders. "That was classic. I've never felt so close to you—"

Without even looking at him, she replied, "Back off, loser."

He froze in place and then immediately began to retreat. "Backing off."

Alone again, Clarisse breathed in deeply, and realized that she felt something like peace, if that was possible for children of war. Then she heard someone else approaching. This time, however, the intruder was much more welcome.

"Hey." Chris peered down at her with a mock stern expression. "Threatening my brothers again?"

She raised an eyebrow. "That a problem?"

His serious look melted into a grin. "Nope, they deserve it." From somewhere behind them, they heard a faint, "Hey!", but both ignored it. Together, they turned to look out over the lake, his arm pressed to hers.

Moonlight rippled across the smooth surface. Percy and Annabeth showed no sign of reemerging, and Clarisse really didn't want to know what was going on in that lake, but when they finally did appear, she would be there waiting. Not to congratulate them, of course. No, she wouldn't be doing her job as their personal tormentor if she didn't tease them mercilessly.

She knew Silena would have told her to leave them alone, but it just wasn't her style to do so, and really, in the end, Clarisse knew that wherever Silena was now (and it had better be Elysium or she would have to break some heads) she would be happy simply knowing there was more love in the world. And just this once, in honor of her fallen friend, she didn't immediately shake the sappy thought away.