chapter seven!
007. merry-go-round

claire

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    CLAIRE HAS not thought about her mother in a long time. 

    That was a deep, dark and black hole she knew better than to let herself get dragged down into. It never ended well. It always ended up with her struggling to breathe, falling further and further down until someone dived in and pulled her back up to the surface before she drowned. The story was always the same: her mother had left her in that street in Maimi when she was just five years old▬and that was the last time she saw her. She waited until morning, and she waited still, even after Luke and Thalia found her. She had been waiting for her mother to return until it turned into a desperation to swim after her, clawing for a grip on her so she wouldn't leave again▬even though she never showed up again in the first place. 

    Claire had a pattern. She knew she had a pattern. It was her fatal flaw. 

    It happened with her Mom. It happened with Luke and it happened with her brother Jay. It happened with the pictures she took with her from Camp and the hoodies she stole from Percy's drawer in his cabin. Claire couldn't let things go. She clung onto them▬and she clung onto them tight; even if they hurt her and broke her down and nearly destroyed her. She did not let them go. And when she was forced away from them, she was dragged with her feet skidding on the ground, screaming and crying▬begging for them not to let go of her, too. 

    But they always did. 

    She had clung onto Timmy like he was that little boy that she didn't get to say goodbye to. She had held onto him▬ screaming and crying and begging for him to not let go of her, too, as fire rained down on New Rome...

     But he was not that little boy anymore. Her brother had let go of her▬he had thrown her aside and left her there ... and Claire had been that scared little five-year-old girl all over again, sitting there and waiting for him to come back to her until Hazel found her and had to pull her away before she drowned, all over again. 

    She was feeling much better now. Even though she used a good amount of her energy by muttering a prayer to her father to help Jason recover, Claire no longer felt that cloud of sickness weigh over her. But it didn't take away the rock that seemed to just sit there on her chest and not move, slowly crushing her until she forced herself to breathe. 

    It was strange how much a child remembers and what a child doesn't remember. Claire's memory of her early childhood was fuzzy▬part of it because she was so young, but there was this other part of her that wondered whether she didn't remember because it was better not to remember. It was easier to think that her mother was happy all the time. That she smiled and sang as she baked cookies and gave them to Claire while she coloured in at the coffee table. But that apartment was always dirty. There had always been a strange smell in the air that still haunted her, now. And the cookies were always burnt. 

    But Claire remembered them to be the best cookies at the same time. Warm, soft and fresh out of the oven▬they would melt as soon as they touched her tongue. 

    Little Claire remembered nothing except the fact that her mother loved her and it destroyed her to question what had changed. Older Claire now knew that wasn't the truth, at all. Maybe some part of it had been her father's influence, but most of it, she knew, was because her mother just couldn't handle having her around▬and what Apollo told her was just the excuse she needed. She had left her there and ran off with her younger brother. Claire had always wondered what had happened to him▬had nightmares about it. Grew sick, some nights, when the thought haunted her. 

    And now she found him. She had found him at Camp Jupiter. Alive, grown-up and ... and not who she remembered.

    Which was silly. Everyone grows up▬and Claire knew that if his experience was anything like hers, the person they grew up into wasn't exactly the cheeriest. But still, children remember some things differently, and Claire liked to cling to those rose-tinted glass memories until they shattered at her feet. 

    Claire lied back on the pillow of her bed in her cabin on the Argo II, lost in her thoughts as she waited for everyone to return. Her eyes were fixed on the pictures she brought from Camp. She pursed her lips at the bright smile she had on her face when she was six, squished in between Thalia, Luke and Annabeth back when they were on their own. Behind that smile were traumas little Claire did not even know she had. 

    Her eyes wandered to the photo she taped up next to it. She managed a little smile, despite everything, to see herself try and push Percy out of the frame he forced her into. Katie Gardiner had a Polaroid camera, and somehow he had managed to convince her to let him use it. Immediately he had found Claire▬all grumpy and pretending to be annoyed▬and took as many photos as he could. Most of them were blurry with her struggling and them wrestling each other. Others, like this one, capturing them at just twelve after they found the Lightning Bolt and stopped a war ... Well, Claire loved and kept them all. 

    Claire couldn't let go of things▬her past, most of all. It was her fatal flaw. All demigods had one. Percy's fatal flaw was his loyalty▬and it was that loyalty that dragged her from the deep end and saved her from drowning. Percy never gave up on her. To the point that he was Claire's link to the present▬to life as it was right now, and what it could be like in the future. He kept her focused on reality. He kept her warm.

    She wished she had gone with him. After losing him, she didn't ever want to leave his side again. But she knew she couldn't have▬but that didn't change how anxious she already felt not having him around again. What if he didn't come back? What if he disappeared again? What if something happened? What if she lost him ... forever? 

    He didn't have Achilles's blessing anymore, which meant he was more than vulnerable▬he was raw. He could be stopped with just the nick of a sword at any place, instead of just the small of his back. 

     Percy had survived so much more without bathing in the River Styx, but Claire supposed that thought of him being almost invincible had given her relief the past six months▬that no one knew his weak spot except her. Now, after just finding him again, he was gone, and she was alone here in her room, and she was thinking about her Mom and about Timmy and ... and she just wanted him nearby. She just needed something to pull her back up. 

    Maybe this picture was enough, for now. 

    But even still, it didn't stop the memory of the way Tim's face dropped▬the absolute horror and anger he held in his eyes when he realised what had happened. The look of betrayal and disbelief▬and so much fury that it didn't matter that it was his sister that he left there. She had some memory of him as a child, he had none. Timothy Moore had no loyalty to Claire▬they were nothing but strangers to each other. One Roman and the other Greek. They were on opposing sides▬and her brother considered the act from her side one of war. 

    ("Greeks and Romans were never supposed to get along," he had told her when they had walked through New Rome. "That's why we had to be separated."). 

    He was fourteen, now. He was his own person, with his own life and his own memories, experiences and a home at Camp Jupiter. He had a life that Claire did not belong in, at all. 

    There was some part of Claire that wanted to see whether she could catch Thalia on an Iris Message▬now that Jason had been introduced to Camp Half-Blood and the truth of his origin was out in the open, Claire had many questions. It seemed that Thalia had an experience very much like hers, and she didn't know what she wanted to ask her, but ... she supposed she just wanted somebody to talk to. But she knew her friend would be busy▬tremendously busy as the Luitenant of Artemis. 

    Claire soon came to the conclusion that she couldn't just lie down and wait any longer. She needed to move. She needed to stop thinking about her mother, about Timmy, Luke, Jay▬anybody and just focus on something else. 

    She found herself wandering up the hallway towards Jason's cabin, wanting to check on how he was doing. Claire knocked on the ajar door and glanced inside, expecting to see Jason still out cold and Piper hovering at his bedside▬but she felt some relief and positive hope to find his eyes glance over, wide awake.

    Claire stood up straight, pleasantly surprised. "Hey," she chuckled, glancing between him and Piper who smiled and sat up in her chair. "You're awake▬that's great."

    Jason managed a chuckle, rubbing a dull pain still in his forehead as he sat up against the head of his bed. "Uh▬yeah, I think...? Um, thanks, by the way. Pipes told me you helped."

    "Yeah," Claire stepped inside and was glad for the distraction. "Surprised my dad listened▬the Gods haven't been speaking to their children."

    Piper watched her for a moment. "Have the others made it back yet?"

    Claire shook her head. She took a deep breath and glanced at the door, trying to hear for any noise outside that might suggest their friends' return. "Not yet ..."

    Jason closed his eyes and groaned to himself, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Ugh▬I can't believe everything that happened ..." A sad look washed over him as part of him realised what all this meant▬how he must be branded a traitor amongst his friends; his first home. He chose not to say anything, though and instead muttered: "Getting knocked out by a brick ... That has to be in the book of: 'Most Embarrassing Demigod Defeats'."

    Claire tried to make him feel better. It wasn't her strongest suit: cheering people up. "Uh ... yeah, well▬I mean, it's not the most embarrassing I know of ... I mean Percy got himself turned into a guinea pig when we were thirteen, so..."

    Piper scoffed out a short laugh. "Wait, what?"

    Claire managed a weary smile. "It's a long story."

    The daughter of Aphrodite grinned and leaned forward, propping her elbows on Jason's bed. "No, hang on▬I gotta hear this. What happened?"

    Claire chuckled and found herself ready to tell the story when the sound of hooves clopping above deck made them glance up. Moments later, Leo, Savreen and Hazel stumbled to a stop in the doorway, carrying a large sheet of hammered bronze between them. 

    Claire, Piper and Jason all stared, dubious at the sight of Leo. 

     Piper gaped. Then, she exclaimed: "Gods of Olympus! What happened to you?"

    What did happen? Leo Valdez looked completely different▬and maybe not in the best way. His curls were spiking up in a very rushed manner as if they had been styled with grease. They were pushed back and off his forehead with welding goggles, there was a lipstick mark on his cheek and tattoo's all over his arms that read: HOT STUFF, BAD BOY and TEAM LEO! (Written inside a well-drawn love heart). 

    "Long story," he was breathing heavily. The three of them looked equally flushed as if they had sprinted the entire way here. "Others back?"

    Claire shook her head. "Not yet."

    Leo cursed. But then he noticed Jason sitting up and his entire face lit up. "Hey, man! Glad you're better. I'll be in the engine room▬" and then he ran off with the sheet of bronze, leaving Savreen and Hazel in the doorway.

    Claire crossed her arms and arched a brow. "Wanna explain?" she asked, feeling as though she was standing in front of two disobedient children. 

    "We met Narcissus," explained Hazel, though it didn't really enlighten them much. "Also Nemesis, the revenge goddess."

    "And Echo," added Savreen quickly. "We met Echo▬she's really nice, by the way."

    Jason sighed and slumped back. "I get knocked out by a brick once and I miss all the fun."

     Savreen grinned at him and rushed inside to quickly round the bed and hug her close friend gently around the shoulders. Jason managed a smile and lifted an arm to hug the daughter of Harmonia back. "You can have all the fun next time," she promised him. 

    Above them, something went THUMP, as if a heavy creature landed. Claire's chest lifted with a breath and she rushed over to poke her head out of the door. Her smile turned to a dubious frown when she saw Percy, Cain and Annabeth all run down the hall. Percy was carrying a steaming five-gallon plastic bucket that smelt worse than Polyphemus's sheep. Annabeth had a patch of black sticky ... stuff? ... in her hair. Cain had it all over his hands. Percy's shirt was covered in it.

    Claire made a face at him as he passed her. "What did you do?" she demanded.

    Percy stopped running with the bucket of tar to stare at her with a breath of exasperation. She turned her nose up as the smell hit her. He set down the bucket of tar and immediately, Annabeth pinched the bridge of her nose. "Why do you always think when something happens it's my fault?"

     "Because it usually is!"

    "Since when?"

     "Are you seriously asking that▬?"

     Cain cut them off by looking inside the cabin door almost at the exact same time Annabeth did. She was taller than him and could glance over his head. "Jason, you're alive!" he said then moved on very quickly. "Where's Leo?" As he asked the question, Frank stumbled up behind them, which made the hallway very jam-packed with demigods. Frank had a big smear of tar down his face. 

     Claire stopped halfway through listing all the times situations they had to get themselves out of had been Percy's fault to point down the hallway. "He's in the engine room▬"

    She made a squeal she wasn't proud of when the entire ship tilted to port. Claire's knees would have knocked into Percy's bucket of tar if he hadn't steadied them both. Cain fell backwards and Annabeth only just dodged his wayward body, catching him before he tripped. 

     "Uh, what was that?" demanded Percy. 

    Savreen flushed with embarrassment. "Uh ... Well, long story..."

    Hazel looked very similar. "We ... may have▬sort of▬angered the nymphs who live in this lake."

     "Only some," quickly added Sav. There was another lurch of the ship and she winced. "Or ... you know, all of them..."

     Percy didn't even waste the energy to ask what had happened. He picked up the bucket and handed it to Annabeth who made a face at the smell as she hugged it to her chest. "Great. You guys help Leo. I'll hold off the water spirits as long as I can."

     He squeezed Claire's shoulder in passing as he ran back up the stairs to the deck. As he did, Frank called after him. "Got it!"

     Annabeth, Cain and Frank all ran off, leaving Claire and the others at the cabin door. The ship listed again and Hazel hugged her stomach like she was going to be sick. Claire knew the feeling▬she wasn't far off, either. 

     "I'll just ..." she swallowed and pointed a weak finger down the corridor before running off. 

    Claire gripped the threshold of the door, groaning as the ship rocked dangerously▬at the yell above, it told her it was Percy's doing. "Ugh▬I hate the ocean."

    Despite the situation, Piper pursed her lips and muttered to Jason and Savreen. "That's crazy ironic..."

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    DEALING WITH angry nymphs was surprisingly something Percy has done more than once. He subdued them very quickly with a few angry shouts and whirlpools. But it felt as if it took him far longer with his shouts, Coach Hedge's vicious yells at the lake, Festus breathing fire several times and Hazel's miserable moans in her cabin. In the engine room, it sounded like a wrestling match between a wrench and metal was happening. But eventually, the engine started up again and Leo emerged with a crazy grin on his face▬the tattoo on his bicep had smudged off and now read: AM LEO! 

    After they had all cleaned up, Coach Hedge took the helm and the group of demigods came together below in the mess hall for dinner. It was the first time they had all sat down together▬all ten of them, and Claire felt like she was sitting at a council meeting back at Camp, or some estranged demigod conference. Despite it being summer, she pulled the sleeves of Percy's jacket she had brought with her over her fingers and hugged her arms around her stomach. She had started to wear his clothes▬his jumpers, his jackets, and even some of his camp shirts when he went missing, just as a way to keep him close to her. To help her remember everything she could about him, scared she'd forget. And now, she couldn't live without them. 

    She supposed it stemmed from when she had returned from the dead, just thirteen and terrified out of her mind about all that has changed. She was always cold, barely had an appetite and knew she didn't quite belong▬everything reminded her that she wasn't really alive, but not entirely dead, either. But when Percy had handed over his Nemean Lion coat, she had felt the first breath of warmth since she returned ... and even though she was fully back to the living now, his warmth was always a comfort. 

    Claire was yet to truly understand why he had been a source of warmth▬her connection to life when no one else, and nothing else worked ... but she supposed the gods and the Fates were funny that way. 

    Even though they were finally all here, there was a severe breath of tension that hung low like storm clouds over their heads. In seeing all ten of them in the same room, it was a gut-wrenching reminder of what they were about to face▬of why they were here in the first place. 

    There was an awkward moment when both Percy and Jason tried to sit in the same chair at the head of the table. Leo had to lean away, startled when sparks literally flew from Jason's hands. Both stared at each other for a long few seconds▬a silent stand-off that made Claire slump back in her chair, not sure whether she was exasperated or not even surprised. In the end, they were too busy frowning at each other to notice Annabeth had just taken the seat instead without blinking. They both glanced down, pursed their lips, and then silently agreed that neither was going to try and fight Annabeth. That chair was her's now. 

    Percy flopped down in the seat beside Claire at the same time as Jason did opposite him in between Piper and Savreen. So in sync that the entire table shared looks, watching the son of Poseidon and son of Jupiter with bated breaths. An electrical storm seemed to brew in the tense clouds hanging over them.

    Claire pursed her lips and took Percy's hand under the table without a word. Some part of the storm fell away the moment her fingers linked with his and he squeezed her palm tight▬not wanting to let go. 

    They all compared stories. Both were equally crazy. Percy, Annabeth, Frank and Cain had gone toe-to-toe with angry tar monsters disguised as department workers and Leo managed to roast Narcissus into leaving his reflection. But neither tale was enough to cheer them up. 

    Claire's eyes found the live video of Camp Half-Blood. She watched her siblings play against the satyrs in volleyball with an ache in her chest. Suddenly, she lost her appetite. 

    "So, where to now?" Leo spoke up again, swallowing a mouthful of his pizza. "I did a quick repair job to get us out of the lake, but there's still a lot of damage. We should really put down again and fix things before we head across the Atlantic."

    Percy was enjoying his piece of pie▬completely blue; filling, crust, whipped cream and all. Claire stared at it for a moment, and that ache she held lifted enough to fill a breath of warmth, feeling like she was just sitting eating at the camp pavilion, and not on another dangerous, deadly quest.

    (She really couldn't express how much she had missed him▬everything about him. The big things and the little things. Everything).

    "We need to put some distance between us and Camp Jupiter," said Percy. "Frank spotted some eagles over Salt Lake City. We figure the Romans aren't far behind."

    This didn't help the mood▬it only just made it worse. Claire picked at her salad, having barely eaten any of it as she frowned to herself. She thought of her brother, and how he was back at Camp Jupiter▬she wondered whether he felt anything; any hesitance ... or whether he felt nothing at the thought of going after them with malice. Whether she meant nothing to him.

    ("I don't even know you," his voice from their chat pained her ears. "I don't remember you, at all ...").

     It made her take a soft breath and speak up, her voice sounding more fragile than she wished it would. "What if ... What if we go back and▬like▬try to reason with them?" Claire glanced up from her food, admittedly hopeful as she glanced at them each in turn. She lingered her gaze onto Percy, locking with his. "If I could speak with▬with my brother then maybe...?"

    She could see Percy was hesitant to say anything. He took a breath, as if to speak, but couldn't find the right words to say to her▬not here, with everyone around. She remembered all those times she had desperately tried to think that she could somehow save Luke; that the boy she knew who had taken her under his wing was still there. Claire looked away and frowned back at her plate, wondering whether she was disappointing Percy by falling back into the same patterns all over again; still stuck on that merry-go-round, unable to get off.

     She felt him rest his hand on her leg under the table, silently offering her some comfort. 

     Noticing the look on Claire's face, Piper quickly stepped in and offered: "Maybe we could. I▬I mean, I could even try and reason with them again? Try harder with my Charmspeak."

    Jason shook his head. "It wasn't your fault, Pipes. Or Leo's▬" he added quickly, meeting his friend's gaze on the other side of Savreen. "Whatever happened, it was Gaea's doing, to drive the two camps apart."

     Piper was still uneasy. "But maybe if we could explain that, though▬?"

    "With no proof?" Annabeth frowned. "And no idea what really happened? I appreciate what you're saying, Piper. I don't want the Romans on our bad side, but, until we understand what Gaea's up to, going back is suicide."

    Claire set her jaw and swallowed the harsh bile down her throat. She stabbed her salad with her fork angrily. 

    "She's right," then said Hazel, still looking a little pale. The rim of her plate was embedded with rubies▬Claire was sure they hadn't been there at the beginning of the meal. "Reyna might listen, but Octavian ... and▬" she glanced anxiously at Claire, "▬and Tim won't. The Romans have honour to think about. They've been attacked. They'll shoot first and ask questions posthac."

    Claire stabbed her salad again with more aggression this time. The clang! of her fork missing her lettuce and hitting the plate made Cain wince. She cursed when her carrot sticks flew off the side. "Dammit!" she grumbled and quickly snatched them back up, ignoring everyone's looks with festering anger boiling in her chest. Especially Percy's. Getting more frustrated, she dropped her fork onto her plate and threw her hands up. "What can Octavian do anyway?" she snapped, hating how she had a lump in her throat. "Throw his stuffed teddy bears?"

    Percy was the only one that seemed brave enough to speak to her like this. "Hey," she met his gaze, and she hated how she really didn't hate the way her anger lifted the moment she locked in his eyes. "Octavian doesn't seem like much, but he's great with his words▬after what happened, he would have found it easy to grab support over Reyna."

    Claire huffed a breath. She clenched her jaw. She wanted to argue, but she didn't. There was no time for it, and deep down, she knew Percy was more likely to be right▬he knew Octavian. 

    Piper fiddled with her fingers. "Percy and Hazel are right," she decided after a moment. "We have to keep going. Not just because of the Romans. We have to hurry."

    Hazel nodded. "Yeah. Nemesis said we have only six days until Nico dies and Rome is destroyed."

    Cain frowned. He turned his plate around, thoughtful. Until he stopped▬as if only just realising what she said. "Six days?" The grim look on the daughter of Pluto's face confirmed his question. 

    Jason looked nervous. "You mean Rome Rome, right? Not New Rome?"

    "I think," she said. "But, if so, that's not much time."

    "Why six days?" wondered Percy, leaning back in his chair. "And how are they going to destroy Rome?"

    No one had an answer. Claire scowled, moody at the rest of her food. She didn't bother finishing it. She pushed it aside, having lost her appetite. Her mother crossed her mind again and she told her to go and drown. 

    At the silence that followed, Piper scratched at her cheek. She tucked her hair behind her ears, hesitant to say something else that was on her mind. But after a short breath, she spoke up: "There's more. I've been seeing some things in my knife."

    Percy blinked, taken aback by this statement. "You ... can see things in your knife?"

    "She has Helen of Troy's knife," explained Annabeth quickly. 

    "That doesn't help me at all..."

    Frank froze with his fork of spaghetti halfway to his mouth. He stared, mouth agape at Piper before he swallowed hard and managed: "Things such as...?"

    "They don't really make sense," said Piper, holding her hands up slightly at some of the alarmed looks across the table. "Just garbled images, but I saw two giants, dressed alike. Maybe twins."

     Annabeth's grey eyes turned a darker shade. Her eyes fixed on the visuals of Camp and Claire wished she didn't follow her gaze. She felt her heart squeeze at the video of the living room at the Big House: she almost could feel the cozy fire through the screens and wished more than anything that she was sitting in front of it. She and Percy. Away from everything. Just having some peace in their lives for once. 

    "Twins," murmured the daughter of Athena, troubled. "Like in Ella's prophecy. If we could figure out those lines, it might help."

    Percy's leg bounced as he remembered off the top of his head: "'Wisdom's daughter walks alone. The Mark of Athena burns through Rome...'" He glanced at Annabeth. "That's got to mean you," he told her. "I mean ... Juno▬well, Hera▬told me ... well, she said you had a hard task ahead of you in Rome. She said she doubted you could do it. But I know she's wrong."

    Claire met her best friend's gaze, and they shared a secret that no one else knew. Claire took a deep breath through her nose, a fresh fear rising up inside her. Annabeth once again silently reminded her not to say anything about the coin in her pocket. 

    Her friend then looked away and set her brow, determined. "Reyna was about to tell me something right before the ship fired on us. She said there was an old legend amongst the Roman praetors▬something that had to do with Athena. She said it might be the reason Greeks and Romans could never get along."

    Savreen, Leo and Hazel exchanged nervous looks. 

    "Nemesis mentioned something similar," Leo decided to say. "She talked about an old score that had to be settled▬"

    "The one thing that might bring the gods' two natures into harmony," Savreen finished without a thought, flowing off his sentence with ease. "Something like ... 'An old wrong finally avenged'?"

    Claire watched Percy draw a sad face in his blue whipped cream. "I was only praetor for about two hours. Jason, you ever hear a legend like that?"

    Jason seemed to hesitate. "I ... uh, I'm not too sure," he said eventually. "I'll give it some thought."

    Percy narrowed his eyes. He could tell the son of Jupiter wasn't being entirely truthful. Claire frowned at him, too. She wondered why. "You're not sure?"

    Feeling the tension rise once again, Savreen quickly tried to shift the conversation along. "What about the other lines?" Claire could feel the breath of harmony she had forced out with her words, desperate to calm the churning waters between the son of Poseidon and the son of Jupiter. "'Twins snuff out the angel's breath, Who holds the key to endless death'."

    "'Giants' bane stands gold and pale,'" Cain continued, rather quiet. "'Won through pain from a woven jail'."

    "Giants' bane," muttered Leo. "Anything that's a giants' bane has got to be good, right? That's probably what we need to find. If it can help the gods get their act together, that's good."

     "Yeah," agreed Percy, giving Jason one final look out of the corner of his eye before moving on. "We can't kill the giants without the help of the gods."

    Jason shuffled forward in his chair so he could turn to face Frank and Hazel. His eyes were more stormy than a clear sky blue right now. "I thought you guys killed that one giant in Alaska without a god's help, just the two of you?"

    "Alcyoneus was a special case," said Frank after he swallowed his mouthful of spaghetti. "He was only immortal in the territory he was reborn▬Alaska. But not in Canada. I wish I could kill all the giants by dragging them across the border from Alaska into Canada, but..." He shrugged. "Percy's right, we'll need the gods."

    Claire's eyes wandered back to the enchanted walls, and she tried to imagine she was just sitting at the edge of the lake to calm her nerves▬but it didn't work. 

    "So ..." Leo pushed his chair away from the table. "First things first, I guess. We'll have to put down in the morning to finish repairs."

    "Someplace close to a city," suggested Annabeth, "in case we need supplies. But somewhere out of the way, so the Romans will have trouble finding us. Any ideas?"

    No one had any ideas. But then Piper pursed her lips and ventured. "Well ... How do you guys feel about Kansas?"

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    WHEN THEY went their separate ways after the meeting, Percy stopped Claire before she could leave. His hand clasped around her arm and gently pulled her towards them as the rest of their team stepped back out into the hallway. Piper poked Leo in the back to get him moving when she realised very quickly Percy wanted a moment alone.

    Once everyone was gone, he turned to Claire and squeezed the grip he had on her arm. "Look, I ... I wanted to tell you about your bother, I swear. I just ... I just wanted to do it when we were alone."

    Claire shook her head. She was too exhausted to be angry, really. And besides, it wasn't his fault. "I know." She met his gaze again, and there was something about it that was pained. It made her pained, too. It was such a strange feeling. For six months, she had been missing him▬trying desperately to find him, and then trying to not forget all the little things about him. The way he smiled, the way his brows knitted together or the way he sounded when he laughed. She had been terrified that she would. And now that they were back together ... it almost didn't feel real. Claire almost didn't know how to act around him and yet at the same time felt as though nothing had even changed. "It's okay."

    Percy closed his eyes, as if frustrated. "I just▬" he took a sharp breath through his nose. "I just didn't want..."

    "What?" she asked him.

    Her boyfriend sighed and told her. "I just ... After everything, I didn't want you to get hurt again. I don't want to see someone hurt you again."

    Claire's gaze softened. The frown on her face lifted and her breath seemed to be lost. 

    And she was reminded at this moment just how much Percy meant to her. Of how he was always there for her. How he had always been there for her. Nearly every person that meant something to her had left her ... He was the first one to find his way back. And now, Claire never wanted to let him go. She knew she never would have to let go of him. He was going to be at her side, through thick and thin. 

    She took a deep breath herself and murmured. "We'll figure it out," decided Claire. "I'll figure it out with my brother. I didn't give up on him before, and I won't give up, now▬not after I finally found him." 

    Percy was hesitant. He seemed to hold back in telling her something and instead rested on: "Just ... Be careful, Claire, okay?"

    "I'll be okay," she found herself smiling at him. "I've got you back, Seaweed Brain."

    Percy's frown softened, too. And there was a glint in his eyes that made Claire feel like they were twelve all over again. He arched a brow and made a ridiculous face. "What was that, Sunshine?" he joked and she rolled her eyes. "I'm sorry, I didn't▬" he shook his head and gestured to his ear, leaning in sideways. "I don't think I heard that right. Did you just admit that you enjoy having me around?"

    She chuckled. And her chuckles turned into a laugh. And she missed the sound from her lips. Percy's grin brightened into a smile to hear it as well. She shoved her boyfriend, playful. "Your head is full of kelp."

     "You haven't denied it..."

    The only different thing was, that unlike when they were twelve, Claire Moore didn't punch Percy Jackson. These days, she just grinned and gently pulled him down for a kiss. 

    And it was a real kiss. A real, proper kiss without anyone else watching. A kiss where she was on the tips of her toes, her arms resting over his shoulders and his hugging her around her waist. A kiss where when they pulled away, they just kissed each other again, holding onto each other for as long as they possibly could. Claire hugged Percy for a very long time afterwards, and when she smelt the fresh air of the sea, she knew she was home. 

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    a/n: i missed them so much. (they've grown up so much nope-)

    also, guys, cain pov finally next chapter!!!! 

    sav and jason are such precious platonic soulmates.