Disclaimer: Characters not mine. (sigh) Characters all Rick's (sigh)
It spread like wild fire and almost all of the campers from Camp Half-Blood knew of the fact that somewhere in the 6 months where the Hephaestus cabin were in frantic making of the Argo 2 and everybody else's worry for the upcoming war, Clarisse la Rue daughter of the God of bloodshed and war Ares, took Piper Mclean and Leo Valdez under her wing –or under her tight deadly headlock, courtesy of the Stoll brothers.
The reason behind was probably related to the two's (Piper and Leo) connection to the past counselors of the Aphrodite and Hephaestus cabin during the second titan war. Other campers would speculate this odd occurrence and form theories while listing down similarities of the past and present counselors. Though all speculations came to a stop when they've realized that there were so little similarities; sure Piper Mclean is beautiful and witty just like Silena Beauregard but Piper hated dressing up and putting make-up and cute clothes and getting attention like Silena did. Piper goofs off at times –especially when she's with the elvish son of Hephaestus, but she usually remains serious and a bit mature for her own age when interacting with the others while on the other hand, Silena knew every bits of rumors and issues inside the camp and tries to help everyone when it comes to love related things and barging into someone's life to help out with her radiant smile and easygoing attitude. Then there's Charlie Beckendorf and Leo Valdez, besides their inventive nature everything else was totally different. Charlie was quiet and calm and composed and mature while Leo was fun times and nerves, and puns, and flirting and childishness.
So when their 'investigations' got into a dead end the campers stopped and just took things as it is and reasoned it out that it's the beginning of Clarisse's change of heart –not really, after a few many 'accidents' occurring in camp involving almost being maimed by spears and javelins in areas that are far away from the arena the campers finally got the message. Besides, Grace was getting a bit cranky when his girlfriend is being compared to the previous Aphrodite counselor (not Drew) who had romantic relationship with Leo's-his best friend, previous cabin counselor and also the ideas of some campers that Jason was the third-wheel in the relationship just made his mood worse (though Leo had a field day hearing about this, of course he had to agree it was weird and gross -no offense pipes; none taken, since Piper was like his sister and incest is just not cool man, despite what Greek myths(gods and goddesses) say and do otherwise.
No one even dared to ask Clarisse why on the sudden claim of apprenticeship (she trained the two dragging them into the arena and teaching survival lessons, in which some campers thought were more like death preparation training) even her siblings were mystified about their sister's decision. And so they went to the safer person to ask, which was Clarisse's boyfriend, Chris Rodriguez. Though the latter wasn't much of a help either, he'd either laugh at the campers' faces, answer with a 'her internal clock must be ticking, say do you think Piper and Leo's too old to get adopted?' or some pregnancy joke that would end up with a smack to the head by something Clarisse threw at him to shut his mouth. And with a cold case like that none of the campers continued, much to Clarisse's entertainment.
See as much as annoyed she got with all the buzzing from the other campers her plan worked to distract them even for just a while and forget that they were going to be facing a war much bigger than the previous ones they encountered. A small amount of peace experienced can equal to a lifetime amount of motivation to continue on living, well that's what it's like for them or her anyway. If they'd think more on war every day and the casualties it will bring it'd lead to more frantic actions, half-baked plans, conflict in between cabins and as well as the idea of fear. Sure, Clarisse knew that fear can as well be a huge factor to help them win the war either by creating fear or holding fear but too much fear consumes a person. If they'd drown in their fears everyday waiting for the dreaded war to start then by the time that it does all of them would be too deep to get back up.
And so she decided to create a diversion even for just a while. At least with that they'd all be dragged to working together to help solve the 'case' and as well as a bit of training from heightening their senses to avoid danger -duh, what else did you think the throwing spears and javelins were for? And Clarisse had to admit the imagination of the campers almost hit the reason why she took Valdez and Mclean 'under her wing'. Sure it kind of had to do something with Silena and Charlie and here's the thing why the campers didn't get the right answer or conclusion, they've separated the attributes instead of combining it.
Mclean and Valdez reminded Clarisse of Silena and Charlie because, Mclean's attitude was somehow like Charlie's, she was calm, composed, takes things seriously but could still take a light joke once in a while, she may not seem like it but the same with Charlie they were both natural leaders, they resolve conflicts between team members quickly not waiting another second till the conflict backfires and they keep everybody's head to what is important. She was also like Silena because of their beliefs on what it truly means to be a child of love, how feelings aren't objects to be toyed or played with, that love as much as it is beautiful is as scary as any nightmare could be, heck they even stated out almost the same opinions relating love to war and why Aphrodite was so taken in loving Ares.
On the other hand, the Valdez boy was the same as Silena in a lot of ways (as disturbing as that thought can be), he's playful and carefree, they always prefer to see smiles and hear laughter from other people, they (Silena and Leo) like attention and not want it at the same time, they were hopelessly crazy romantics, and they always try their hardest to put a smile on their faces endure the pain they are carrying just to cheer everyone up and give hope to others. Valdez is similar to Charlie especially when it comes to their inventive nature. Sure, they're both great inventors but it's more that they treated the things they invented with such care like it's a newborn baby. They don't just throw away pieces; they reuse it over and over again recycling it to create something new out of the destroyed parts. And most of all, their characteristic to never give up to the things they are making and applying the same thing to the people they care.
If you'd ask Clarisse –and that she would actually answer back, how she came to such conclusion, she'd probably just roll her eyes; say something offensive to you with a slight threat (okay maybe a lot) then would say:
'The two of them look close that one would probably mistake them as lovers but the fluidity of the two's relationship flows more along the lines of siblinghood, they tease, they support, they care, they love, they hate, they forgive each other like it had happened before and probably would in the future as well. And at first I couldn't help but compare them to Silena and Beckendorf's relationship but Valdez and Mclean's would just show as not romantic (must be a relief to that Sparky boy) which made me think that if Silena and Charlie was able to get out of camp, go to college together, build their home, have a family of their own Leo and Piper would fit in the role as their children perfectly without a hitch. The four of them would go have picnics at different parks, prank each side to no ends, share secrets and ask for advice from their parents, have a Friday night talent show at their own home every Saturday nights, build robots, make potions together, and when Christmas would come and family friends would visit those two little brats would ran to their parents' many siblings asking to be spoiled rotten till Charlie would give a talk or two then him and Silena would give their kids a dog -it's Rudy, short for Rodriguez but if you want you can outright call it Chris; hey! to make them a bit responsible and so on.
Those were the things that helped me create that connection. So when the two (Piper and Leo) ended up being one of those 7 demigods in the prophecy I thought that if Silena heard about this she would come crying to me like the old days and ranting out how reckless they were being but how proud she was of the two, I couldn't help but spoil the rotten kids even if it still was not Christmas time.
I don't know, maybe Chris' cooties were infectious and it's making me go bonkers -hey!; oh shut up Rodriguez but I treated them (Piper and Leo) as if they really were my friends' suppose children, I trained them so that Silena wouldn't deafen me with her never-ending worrying, I let them pick up their messes so that Charlie won't fuss about being responsible and I threatened them that if they won't come back home after all of it ends I'd hunt them down and ground them for the rest of their lives and I'll let Chris take their responsibility off of Rudy.
Of course they didn't understood what I was talking about, but Valdez just smiled so widely and let out a giggle for zeus' sake while jumping up for joy and chanting silly idiotic things about how I care, while Mclean just grinned, clamped her hands together at her back while her eyes showed with such delight and happiness like I just gave them their dog back.
I couldn't make them swore on the river styx because of the prophecy, well not that I care, but the two distracted me with hugs, hugs of all things, and promised with their lives on the line –which earned a few smack on the head, that they will come back home alive, breathing with all limbs intact –well except for a few bones you already cracked Tia Clari- ow!, and I swear Leo even swore with a hot girl climbing me like a tree –nuh uh she'd probably just smack you always Leo; no way jose, she will so be head-over-heels over me; children shut up before I decide to crack a few more bones in relation to that mortal quote 'break a leg'; yes ma'am, but whatever I don't really care, it's their lives, so long as they get back for a few more training 'm fine with that.
Of course the doofus had to take it from his father making everything explode as a finale.'
Okay so like this is my first ever fic here in ff, and I apologize if there's a lot of grammar mistakes there since I'm not really good with English. And hope you enjoyed the story :D