ANTI-HERO, j.grace

TWENTY NINE

Perhaps the one person on the quest that Klein Maddox didn't expect to be comforting, was Piper McLean. And she felt sound in that expectation, for the two girls had been so far from the lines of friendliness the entire quest that it was as if they were on different maps.

Yet there she was, standing on the edge of the runway where they were sending Tristan McLean off, with the daughter of Aphrodite sobbing into the front of her shirt. She hadn't volunteered for the position, and when the girl had turned around Klein had expected her to go right to Jason.

To everyone's surprise, Piper all but collapsed onto Klein.

"Oh, sweet Jesus." Klein nearly yelped, barely keeping the McLean girl from dropping right to the ground. She looked to the two other demigods with a look of complete and utter 'what the fuck?'.

What did I do to deserve this?

Jason held his hands up as if to say 'I got nothing'. Leo pulled a Kleenex out of his tool belt to keep at the ready and offered the Maddox girl a thumbs up.

After deciding she was most likely going to kill the two boys, Klein awkwardly patted the other girls back as she continued to cry, offering an almost laughable "There, there."

At that, the two boys were looking at her and wondering what the hell the girl was doing. In Klein's defense, she really had no idea. The Maddox girl, no matter how sweet and nice she had been before the war, had never exactly been the comforting type. She was the one who cheered someone up, who restored the smiles and the laughs, but she was scarcely the one who was there to stop the tears.

Besides, she hadn't exactly been kidding when she told Piper she wanted to do a hell of a lot more than just yell at her when the McLean girl revealed that she had been lying to everyone the entire journey. And considering the way her and Piper had gone back and forth (especially since the sewers post-Cyclops attack), it was almost laughable that Klein was the one of the group that was in the current consoling position.

Piper choked back a breath, "I'm terrible."

Ah, nuts.

Fighting every urge she had to agree (which was many), Klein pulled back and put a hand on either of Piper's shoulders. "You're not terrible."

"You definitely think I'm terrible."

"Okay... well, maybe a little bit." Klein didn't need to turn around to see the faces the other two were making. "But not for this. You saved your dad."

"But did you see him? He was... he looked-"

"Alive. Safe. A little distraught, but I think that's a given. He's gonna be okay."

"I don't know... I just can't believe-"

"Just listen, okay? What happened on that mountain was totally insane, and we went in without a plan or any idea of what the hell we were gonna do. You could have just turned us over to Enceladus, grabbed your dad, and dipped, but you didn't. And you still managed to save your dad. That's pretty badass, yeah?"

Whatever solace Klein's words gave were nothing compared to Piper's next though. "Oh gods, we sent him off with Coach Hedge."

"Your dad's in good hands, Piper." Jason spoke up from behind the duo, the blonde almost letting out a sigh of relief because oh thank gods, tag you're it. "And Klein's right. You saved him."

The daughter of Aphrodite sniffled, nodded, and then looked like she wanted to drop dead because it just seemed to register who she had sobbed to.

"Oh gods." She groaned, a pained look overtaking her face as she looked at the Maddox girl. "I'm... sorry."