It's finally here! Thanks to slayer1002 for the prompt and thanks to everyone who reviewed and favorite for the motivation to write this thing.

TWACK!

My spear slashed at the tree, creating a fairly large gash in the bark. I kept walking, not even bothering to check and see if I had just mortally wounded a nymph. I swung my spear at another tree, missing by a few inches. A nymph popped her head out of a hole in the trunk, glaring at me with as much animosity as a woodland spirit could summon. I stared back, silently daring her to make a move. After a minute of our mutual stare down, she ducked back into her tree. I turned and stomped away, not caring about the fact that I would probably find maggots in my bed tonight.

I scowled as I travelled deeper into the woods, hoping that some monster would be stupid enough to jump out of the brush. I could really use a fight right now. Sadly, the only things I had to attack were the trees, and they didn't put up much of a fight. I sighed and plopped myself down on a boulder that was half submerged in the ground. What was the point of fighting these monsters? I'd been looking for fights in these woods for years, and it hasn't made me any better. Sure, I could go up against a hellhound and beat it into dust, but no one cares about that anymore. They would only care if I drowned it with a tidal wave, or talked it into impaling itself on my sword. Maybe they would care if I got another blessing…

A bush rustled in front of me. I leapt off the rock, landing in a defensive stance with my spear at the ready. Of course a monster would attack as soon as I let my guard down. Then again, with my luck it could a whole horde of monsters looking for a poor, defenseless camper to prey on. If that was the case, they would be sorely disappointed.

A figure stumbled out of the brush, clad in the dirtiest armor I'd ever seen. It was sliced up, caked in dirt so thick it had weeds sprouting from the breastplate. The guy didn't seem to notice me, too intent on shaking mud out of the plume on his helmet. I raised my spear and snarled at the kid, "Are you looking for a fight or did you just lose one?"

The kid whipped his head up and his eyes found mine. I drew in a breath. It was exactly who I was trying to avoid at the moment.

"The second one, I guess. Although I doubt you could call all the nymphs in the forest jumping me a real fight." He removed his helmet and walked over to me, plunking himself down on the rock that I was previously sitting on. I turned to face him.

"Why did the nymphs attack you?"

"Dunno." Chris shrugged nonchalantly, "May have had something to do with you beating up all their trees. Or maybe they just didn't like my outfit." He gestured to his grimy armor, "But hey, I think the plants add character."

I forced out a laugh that sounded fake even to me. "Well, you might want to go clean that up. If Chiron sees you with armor that dirty, he'll give the whole camp a lecture on the proper treatment of celestial bronze." I turned and took a couple steps away from him, fully intending to make my escape. Maybe I could find some of those nymphs…

"Clarisse"

The name stops me in my track. Chris never calls my by my real name, not even when I punch him at the use of his stupid nicknames. Even when we're alone he'll call me some sort of idiotic pet name in Spanish. It starting as him being annoying, but after a while became a habit.

"Clarisse, I know something is up. You wouldn't just demolish a forest for no reason. So please, just talk to me."

I stayed where I was, keeping my back to him. He sighed.

"I also know that you've been avoiding me. I'm pretty sure I haven't done anything terrible enough for a cold shoulder lately, but if I did, please tell me so I can apologize."

"It's not you I'm trying to avoid." I spun to face him and saw him tilt his head up so he could see my face. Aw crap, he had that dejected puppy dog look on his face. How am I supposed to yell at that?

"I just… I don't want to see anyone right now. It's not you, it's… everyone."

"Did something happen?"

Try someone.

"Just having a bad day. I'll get over it."

"What kind of bad day makes you hate all humans? And nymphs?"

Any day I have to deal with them.

"Bad sword fighting class. It was nothing, really, some kid just nicked me on the arm."

Chris picked himself up off the rock and slowly walked towards me. When he reached me, he clutched my arm and rolled up my shirtsleeve, revealing a bandage wrapped all the way around my forearm up to my elbow. A long stripe of crimson bled through at the top. Chris grimaced, "That doesn't look like a little nick. Who were you fighting?" After a pause he added, "I thought you were teaching the Aphrodite cabin today?"

That was it. I snatched my arm out of his grasp and held it close to my body. I hissed, "Yeah, I was doing a demonstration. They fight dirty."

He tentatively reached out his hand again but settled it on my shoulder once I pulled my arm in closer, "What do you mean they fight dirty? I don't think they've even fought before."

"They don't fight," I turned my face away to look down at the bandage, "they just talk."

Chris's face screwed up in confusion, "How does that make you lose?"

"Well," I snapped, "Drew was the one doing the talking."

He stayed silent. His hand tightened on my shoulder and he used it to maneuver me over to the rock he was sitting on before, then gently pushed down until we were sitting side by side. Moving his arm down the bandage, he wrapped his fingers around mine and held on. He didn't say anything, but everything still came pouring out of me.

"I was teaching the class and trying to get some of the Aphrodite kids involved because, you know, they were just sitting in the bleachers and checking their reflections in the shields. I asked for a volunteer to help me with a demonstration, and some first year decided to try it out. Of course, Drew had been insulting me the entire class, when she wasn't busy using her sword as a mirror. I ignored it like I usually do. But then…" I took a breath, "It's that dumb charmspeak. Once I started sparring with the volunteer, she got really close to me and started whispering stuff under her breath. I could barely hear what she was saying, but it made me miss every time I got near the kid. He got in a couple blows, but I just kept swinging and missing by a mile. None of the other Aphrodite kids knew Drew was using charmspeak, so they were really confused at first. But after a while, they started laughing at me." I raised my head to see Chris's reaction. He was stony-faced, but I could feel his hand tightening around mine, "Those little punks were laughing at me, while none of them even knew how to hold a sword. The only reason I lost that fight was because Drew got some stupid power from her mother. Why don't I have a power like that?"

"You did get the blessing of Ares after killing a monstrous drakon with nothing but a spear and bandana. I think that's pretty impressive."

"Yeah, that lasted for a whole ten minutes, until I got frozen by a hyperborean giant. Everyone's scared of Drew because she can say a few words and make people embarrass themselves. I lead a cabin full of kids who's idea of fun is breaking their knuckles on people's faces. And those Aphrodite brats still have the gall to laugh at me." I replied through gritted teeth. I could feel Chris's gaze on the side of my head, but I couldn't turn to meet it.

"Clarisse, no one's laughing at you. Sure, the Aphrodite kids can be jerks, but it doesn't mean that they don't respect you. Drew didn't have to work to make people scared of her, but that's the problem. Everyone's scared of her, but nobody respects her. All the campers know how hard you've worked to get where you are, and they respect you for it. They might be a little afraid of you, but like Machiavelli said, it's better to be feared than loved."

I finally peered at him with narrowed eyes. "When did you start learning about philosophers?" I asked jokingly. He grinned.

"Oh, I've always been big on philosophy. The meaning of life and all that. Machiavelli, Locke, Calvin and Hobbes." He quipped. I tried (and failed) to hold back a laugh.

"Damn, pretty soon you'll be having an existential crisis." I joked. Chris chuckled, then wound his arm around my shoulders.

"I don't need to wonder about why I'm on this Earth. As long as I'm here with you." He breathed, still smiling. I rolled my eyes and made to move a bit farther from him on the rock, but he just tightened his arm around me.

"No need to be mushy, Chris" I muttered, obviously joking. Or at least I hoped it was obvious.

"Why not? We're here, all alone, in the woods. Unless those nymphs come back for round two, we can be as mushy as we want." He murmured next to my ear. Shuddering, I glanced around. He was right of course. Nobody ever went this deep in the woods unless they were playing capture the flag or doing coupley things very similar to what Chris and I were about to do. Turning my body to face his, I finally met his eyes. He dipped his head, meeting my lips with his and moving his arm from around my shoulders to rest his hand on the back of my neck. My hands flew to his face, drawing him nearer still. Of course, being a couple, kissing was not an infrequent occurrence. But usually we only saw each other before dinner or at the campfire, where every other camper would always be in attendance. If we did manage to find some free time or sneak away from our activities (which was much harder for me than it was for him) we would only be able to find privacy in weird places like the armory shed. Being here, alone with Chris was a rare blessing. And unless the nymphs decided to exact their revenge-

"Well, what do we have here?"

Chris and I sprang apart and bolted to our feet. I grabbed my spear from where it was leaning against the rock, and Chris dropped into defensive stance.

Oh, give me a break.

"It looks like two teenagers breaking camp rules. Clarisse, I'm especially ashamed of you. As a cabin leader, you're supposed to set an example for your siblings. What if they had walked into the woods and seen..." Percy waved his arm around in an exaggerated gesture, "…this?"

I could feel a blush creeping up on my face, "Piss off, Jackson." Percy tutted, then turned to Annabeth, who was standing behind him. I don't know whose face was redder, hers or mine. "Annie, I believe that this is a definite breach of camp rules. Two campers, alone together, doing gods knows what in the abandoned woods? I think we're obligated to report this."

Annabeth rolled her eyes, "Oh, just leave it Percy."

I stepped up, not bothering to put down my spear just yet, "You heard your girlfriend, Prissy. Go on and leave."

"Oh, I don't know if I can." He smirked in a super annoying way, "This is such a serious violation, as a responsible cabin leader, it would be wrong of me to just let it go"

Chris, of course, picked that moment to start humming "Let it Go" quietly. I chose to ignore him.

"Oh yeah? If you're so responsible, what are you and princess doing out here in the woods? Alone?" I shot back. Annabeth's face was definitely redder than mine by now. Percy's face started to color as well.

"Um, we…"

"Were just leaving." Annabeth cut in. She grabbed Prissy's arm and started dragging him back the way they had come, leaving Chris and I standing together with an awkward silence hanging over us. He cleared his throat, attempting to relieve some of the tension, "So… do you want to…"

DOMMMMMM

The conch horn sounded for dinner, and I mentally cursed. Chris looked positively dejected, and I felt about as good as he looked. There goes our great afternoon. I sighed, walked a few steps towards him and took his hand in mine. If we couldn't act like a couple in the woods we could at least look like one when we showed up for dinner.

And that's that. The third installment of my supposed one-shot. Since a lot of you guys seem to want me to continue this story, feel free to PM me with prompts. I may have some free time coming up, so I'll try to write some more. As always, thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed!