I don't own Chris, Clarisse or the other characters of PJ

...

It has been a month since the Titan War was over and Clarisse wanted to punch Chris in the face.

The guy was avoiding everybody, including her.

Clarisse never ran away from a fight or an awkward situation, so after an entire week where Chris didn't return to his normal behavior, she confronted him.

She found him in the woods, sitting under a tree near the Zeus' Fist. She didn't have to ask what was the matter with him. Seeing the look on his face was enough to understand everything.

If at first she wanted to punch him in the face, at that moment she wanted to hit his head against the tree he was under. Better yet, against Zeus' fist.

Sometimes Chris's face could be like an opened book, a book that Clarisse learned how to read several years ago. And she could read the guilt, the pain, the shame and the repentance all over his face.

That stupid, obtuse, dull-witted guy... she was going to kill him, someday, she was sure.

After all this time she still couldn't understand why if the whole camp forgave him, he could not forgive himself.

"Chris..." Chris looked away, while Clarisse sat down beside him.

"Chris." She tried again, but he shook his head.

"You cannot understand how much it hurts knowing that, after what happened, after all the deaths, after all the pain, the gods and the camp are still moving on, trying to survive and fix all of their mistakes as a family is supposed to do after an argument. Knowing that you all gave me another chance because I gave this up, all of this." Chris extended his arms gesturing to the whole place, his voice trembling.

There was a moment of silence, and then, resting her head on the tree, Clarisse spoke, "We are all supposed to do that. Fail. Make mistakes. We aren't completely human and we can't say 'We are humans. Humans aren't perfect and make mistakes', but we are demigods,Chris, and all of us are flawed. Today or tomorrow, or perhaps in ten or twenty years, but we are all going to fail. Some mistakes will cost our lives, with others we'll lose people we love.

If you don't believe me, just think about the old heroes. Didn't Hercules kill his family? Didn't Theseus forget to change the color of his stupid ship's flag? Didn't Phaeton die because he didn't listen, and tried to fly the sun? And–" She took a deep breath. "And didn't Silena take a bad decision with Luke and Kronos? We can't blame you or anyone for doing something that heroes did and are still doing and will keep doing. It's our destiny. To die and fail"

Chris remained silent, the sounds of the monsters could be heard in the distance. They didn't move for a while and then Chris said, "Such a happy thought, isn't it?"

Clarisse snorted.

"Life isn't about happiness all the time, you know. But we take what we must take and this is all. Now come on, dinner's gonna start soon." She stood up and after a moment Chris followed her.

"So, are you happy?"

Clarisse looked at him in confusion. Who would ask that when they were fighting in a war not long time ago? Because, with all they have suffered, a month is nothing. And how could this guy be all depressed in a moment and in the other be relaxed as if nothing had happened?

"What?"

"Are you happy right now?" he repeated.

She stared at the sky and thought about it. A small grin, but a grin, after all, appeared on her face.

"Yeah, I'm happy right now." They were out of the woods when she spoke again, "What about you?"

He didn't think about it.

"Some days I feel like I didn't deserve to be here, but...but I learned my lesson when I left camp; after all, at the end of the day, everything's fine, or as fine as a demigod's life can be. And...and at those moments I can say that I'm happy."

...

I'm back! And I want to say thank you to all of you that clicked on the Favorite/Follow button, and thank you for the reviews, too!

But also I wanted to thank especially Tgfmcom, who although is in exams is helping me to correct the chapters.

In another point, the reason that I didn't update until tonight it's that I was editing the other chapters.

But anyway, I hope you like it, and thanks, again.

~Lectio out

Pd: if you see any mistake, say it! don't be shy, I'm here in order to learn, so I'm not going to offend.