𝓕𝓲𝓷𝓮 𝓛𝓲𝓷𝓮 // Clarisse La Rue

𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻 𝓢𝓲𝔁

Florence has to hold her tears in as she helps Annabeth pack.

"This is it." She breathed. "Your quest."

"Florrie, can I tell you something?" Annabeth seemed unsure.

"Anything." Florence replied, putting a fresh set of clothes inside Annabeth's backpack.

"I'm scared." Annabeth admits, her voice barely above a whisper.

Florence wraps her arms around the blonde.

"Oh, Annie." She mumbles into Annabeth's hair.

"There's just so much at stake, what if I fail?" Annabeth looks frightened.

"But you won't Annabeth. You're the best person for this quest and don't you forget it." Florence says. "You're going to go out there and make us all proud."

"I will, I promise." Annabeth says, looking stronger now.

"Oh, and don't you dare die or I will go to the underworld myself just to murder you. Trust me, I'll make it more painful for you than any monster could have." Florence warns her.

"I love you, Florrie." Annabeth says, hugging her tighter.

"I love you too." Florence says, wiping a stray tear from her cheek.

꒰🕊꒱

The trio left early the next morning. Florence holds onto Silena's hand for dear life when she finally sees Annabeth step further than Thalia's pine tree. She's ashamed to say she couldn't control her tears. They fell silently across her cheeks.

She tried not to worry too much. No one else knew exactly what was at stake and Chiron had asked her not to tell. This worry was her burden to carry and she would do so gracefully.

At night she was plagued by dreams. Visions of a bus catching fire, three women knitting at a gas station and a garden full of stone statues flashed in her mind the whole night. But another vision confused her even more. She saw Annabeth and Percy, except they looked older, maybe in their late teens. They were falling, holding onto one another. She woke up sweating cold and gasping for air.

She should have been used to it by now. Most demigods had odd dreams, prophetic dreams, taunts from monsters, bad memories. Their nights weren't very peaceful. Morpheus had never been kind to half bloods.

This time when she makes her way to the pier to watch the sunrise there's no one to sit besides her.

꒰🕊꒱

Florence is in desperate need of a distraction. She's been a little out of it, since Percy and Annabeth left two days ago. Not able to focus on her Spanish lesson, slower in her training, Clarisse slips through her defenses quickly and Florence loses every single sparring match that afternoon.

Something which she doesn't fail to rub in Florence's face.

"Afraid of breaking a nail, princess?" She'd say. Or something even worse.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I should've gone easy on you since you aren't an actual warrior." Clarisse had spat, her face full of fake pity.

Florence had wanted to rip Clarisse's head off, but she refrained from doing so. Which is why when a new camper arrived Florence was the first to volunteer to give her a tour. She needed to put all of her anger and worry into something actually productive.