Despite its magical weather controls, it was an unbearably hot night at Camp Half-Blood. The air in the Ares cabin was sticky and oppressive and Clarisse La Rue threw off her blankets and cursed the heat. It was impossible to sleep when the air around you was so thick it felt like a solid, all-encompassing monster swallowing you whole.

Clarisse didn't need any more monsters. The gods knew she had seen more than her fair share at only sixteen. And those didn't include the monsters she saw inside her head. Clarisse knew that if she closed her eyes and somehow managed to sleep, far more dangerous thoughts than any Cyclops or drakon would invade her dreams. She wasn't scared of the monstrous beasts that roamed the woods outside or that stalked the New York subways and streets. Those she could take down with her spear in a few quick moves. Her thoughts were fanged beasts with razor sharp claws that she could not escape. Time and time again, her worst memory, replayed in her mind. Her best friend, Silena Beauregard, fell to her death and Clarisse was never there in time to save her. Silena was dead because of her. It wasn't something she would ever shake off or forget.

Staring up at the ceiling, Clarisse wished she could tell someone about it. She wished she could tell Chris about it. But lately they had barely hung out. Now that there was talks of war between Camp Half-Blood and the newly discovered rival camp, Camp Jupiter, Clarisse was in charge of planning for the inevitable fight as the strongest daughter of Ares. The thing was, Clarisse was good in a fight – one of the best – but she'd rather be out there doing the battling rather than planning for it. That was more up Annabeth Chase's street. But Annabeth was gone on a quest and it fell to Clarisse to plan for the war. Between that and her councillor duties, she barely got a chance to even see her boyfriend.

She realised that she missed him. Even though she saw him every day, it was never for more than a few minutes. A couple of minutes between archery practice and swordplay. A quick hug while she was running between war meetings and he was on his way to a chariot race. It was never enough.

A loud creaking outside on the porch snapped her out of her thoughts. She lay still, listening for the sound again. Nothing but silence. She must have imagined it; no one would dare pull a prank on the Ares kids in the middle of the night. They had more weapons stashed under their beds than in the whole of the armoury.

Creak, creak.

Clarisse sat up, rolled out of bed and grabbed her spear in a flash. She turned back for a second to make sure her brothers and sisters were still sleeping and tiptoed toward the door. She could hear someone shuffling around outside the door.

"Not today, punk," she muttered under her breath.

As silently as she could, she unlocked the door and swung it open.

A dark shape tumbled into the doorway, landing with a loud thud and yelp of surprise. "Ow!"

The shape, once it had sorted itself into a sitting position, resembled a tall, skinny boy with floppy hair and eyes which glinted mischievously even in the dark. Clarisse would know them anywhere.

"Chris?"

"Hey," Chris grinned as if it were the most normal thing in the world for him to be sprawled on the floor of the Ares cabin in the middle of the night. "Thought I'd drop by."

Clarisse swallowed a laugh. It was breaking the rules to be in someone else's cabin at any time of day, never mind at night, and they could get in a heap of trouble. But right then she didn't really are. She didn't dwell on whether or not it was a coincidence that the one person she had been wishing she could talk to had fallen on to her doorstep – literally. She was insanely happy to see him.

She motioned for him to step outside and followed him after carefully checking none of her cabin mates had noticed the intrusion and setting her spear down.

"What are you doing here?" she asked once they were outside. She tried to sound like she was annoyed but she wasn't fooling anyone. A smile that hadn't been seen in far too long lit up her face and the worry lines that had started forming around her eyes disappeared as she looked up at her boyfriend.

"I couldn't sleep," Chris shrugged. For a split second, his grin slipped a little and Clarisse wondered if there was more than just the heat keeping him awake. But before she could even decide whether she'd really seen it, his smile was back in place and he was looking at her in a way that made her want to forget about bad dreams and wars and monsters. "So I thought I would come to see my favourite person in the world. You know, that slow kid that always comes last in the chariot races?"

Clarisse laughed, "Hey, that's my brother, you jerk."

"Forget him, come here." Chris reached out and closed the few inches between them, pulling her into his arms.

Clarisse's heart skipped a beat at the way her head fit perfectly in the space between his shoulder and neck, and the way his arms felt like the walls of home around her.

"I miss you," Chris whispered into her hair. "It's like we never see each other anymore."

"I know," Clarisse mumbled. The words got lost in the material of his T-shirt but she knew he understood. She'd only been thinking the same thoughts just minutes before.

"So let's do something," Chris said, suddenly animated, "Now."

"Now?" Clarisse echoed hesitantly, "But it's so late. And if we get caught, the harpies are definitely not going to be happy."

"We won't get caught," Chris insisted. He pulled away from her, just enough to be able to look down at her. His eyes were sparkling in the way that Hermes' kids' did when they had a brilliant idea that would no doubt end in trouble.

"I don't know," Clarisse bit her lip. She couldn't afford to get in trouble, not right now when the camp actually needed her to be responsible. There was a part of her that wanted to kiss Chris goodnight and go back into the cabin. But there was another part of her that wanted to spend time with her boyfriend like she deserved, no matter what the consequences would be.

"Come on, Clarisse," Chris whispered conspiratorially, "Who's going to catch us? It'll be just you and me and it will be perfect."

They were so close Clarisse could feel his breath against her skin and could see the way his brown eyes shone as they looked at her. He was hers, this beautiful boy, with his crooked smile and tousled hair. She could reach up and touch his face or kiss him and no one could stop her because she was his, and he was hers. And she wanted to. She so, so wanted to.

"It's a bad idea," she said, trying to convince herself more than anything.

"We'll be alone."

"We'll get caught."

"We've covered this already. Stop trying to talk yourself out of it."

"Okay, fine."

"Okay?" Chris was genuinely surprised and she laughed at the way his eyebrows shot up at her response.

"Yeah, Rodriguez, okay," she grinned.

It felt good, knowing she would be breaking the rules. She felt happy. But more than that, she felt alive, like a kid. The past few months had weighed her down and she hadn't even realised until now when it felt like the weight was being lifted off her shoulders. She wanted to do something crazy, something fun, like she used to when there had been no Titans or Roman camps and missing demigods.

The smile that lit up Chris's face chased away any lingering doubts Clarisse may have had about sneaking out. When he smiled at her like that, she would go to the ends of the world for him. Her mind flashed back to a couple of years ago when she had found him near her mom's house in Phoenix, delirious from being inside the now-destroyed labyrinth of Daedalus. He had come so far from being that scared, lonely kid and he had chosen to be with her in his new life. Sometimes she still couldn't believe it. She couldn't imagine life without him, not after all they'd been through.

She stood up on her tiptoes and kissed his nose. "Let's go."

He was a grin, a kiss, and a shot of pure adrenaline in the dark.