Happy endings

"Huh, this is heavier than I expected." said Luke while grabbing the broken shield Christina carried around in her backpack, it wasn't actually heavy per se, but it was heavier than he thought it would be. "You have been carrying it around all this time?" he asked.

"Yes." replied Christina while nodding. "It might be broken but it is too valuable to leave behind."

"Because of the material I assume?" asked Luke while taking a closer look. "Indeed, Celestial bronze weapons are hard to come by, like really hard, but it doesn't mean it is worth it to get killed for them."

"I know, but it is something that could save our lives eventually... I just need to fix it or turn it into something else, but so far I haven't found a place to work the material properly so it has been impossible." explained Christina.

"I see... well I am sure you will eventually get it, we just have to find a forge or something similar." said Luke while smiling.

"Yeah... the problem is forges aren't exactly common." said Christina slightly sad. "Besides I am sure it would require a lot of time to even figure out how to work it, much less actually do something with it. We don't ever have enough time to spend staying in the same place." continued Christina while sighing.

"I am sure we will eventually find a place perfect for it... we just have to keep looking for a bit." said Luke trying to comfort her. "Besides even if we can't stay in the same place long enough, you could work on it on different places, maybe one day you figure out how to work it and the next time you actually do something with it?"

"I guess it is the best option." replied Christina while smiling. She had began to realise how... dependant she was growing on the other three, but it was only natural. When it was just Annabeth and her, they had too many things to worry about, so they supported each other while being forced to act maturely, with Thalia and Luke around however... she could relax, enjoy, she could take a break.

Sleeping had become easier, having four people made it easier to prevent monster attacks after all, besides, the nightmares lessened, feeling more and more fulfilment despite literally living in the streets. Her days were filled with laughter and hugs regardless of how hard things got or how little they had.

"Hey! Get over here for your training you two!" called Thalia from outside the small shelter.

Christina and Luke looked at each other before Luke smiled and ruffled her hair. "Let's go little genius, time to train."

Christina pouted while straightening her hair a bit, it was usually very messy but that didn't mean he could just mess it even more!

Standing up and following Luke, Christina headed outside and pulled her dagger out. Luke and Thalia, while still inexperienced, knew more about fighting than either Christina or Annabeth, so they started giving them tips about how to kill monsters more efficiently.

As the 'class' began, Thalia started explaining why cyclops were usually the hardest monsters to deal with, while Luke started cleaning and sharpening their weapons. Annabeth and Christina agreed that cyclops were the worst, not only were they the most common, they were also much bigger than them and went in groups. The worst part about cyclops however was their special ability to imitate someone's voice, though they usually were too arrogant to use it on two helpless little girls. Thalia started warning them that the monsters might no longer underestimate them, after all they were now part of a group of four demigods.

Eventually, Thalia's 'class' finished, and it was Luke's turn to explain a bit about combat. Luke used a dagger sometimes so he had more experience on the subject than Thalia. As he started showing them some basic movements that should be useful, Annabeth started repeating them with her spear-point dagger, while Christina was copying them with the dagger Luke gifted her.

Once they practised for a while, they proceeded to the part they hated the most... fighting Luke. Luke insisted that fighting him was the best way to improve and gain more experience, and both Annabeth and Christina knew he was right, but it still hurt having to fight your family. At first it took a lot to convince them, eventually though it became a part of the routine.

As nightfall fell, it was Thalia's and Christina's turn to take watch, which meant braiding time!

While Thalia was braiding Christina's hair, the little girl talked about her life before running away. They realised how similar their families were, both daughters of a famous actress who fell out due to... familial problems. In Thalia's case it was her mother's obsession with Zeus, in Christina's case it was the drug consumption, product of the stress having a daughter at a young age and being an actress imposed.

Thalia told Christina about her little brother Jason, repeating every night the story about how he tried to eat a stapler and ended up with a small scar on the corner of his lip. Christina would repeat over and over that time when she and her babysitter Jasmine accidentally burned a kitchen cloth while trying to cook pasta.

It was true neither one had many good memories of their families and ended up repeating the few stories about their childhoods that were happy, however none commented about this, instead they kept hearing the same stories from each other over and over again with a smile, trying to ignore, or to perhaps forget, that everything else beyond those memories held nothing more than pain.

Eventually it was Christina's turn to braid Thalia's hair. After that they always compared braids and laugh at how poor the results were. Neither one had actual experience braiding hair, but it was fun playing around, pretending everything was normal in hopes that it eventually became that way.

"Thalia..." said Christina in a low tone. "Do you believe in happy endings?" she asked.

"Happy endings?" asked back Thalia with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, happy endings." said Christina while nodding. "Like at the ending of a movie, where the princess marries the prince and they live happily ever after. Do you think there are happy endings in real life?"

"Hahaha. Of course there are!" answered Thalia while laughing. "And if there aren't, then we will simply make one ourselves."

"You promise?" asked Christina.

"I promise."