So.
HoO never happened.
Yeah, getting in the Christmas mood. :P Merry Christmas!
Music, out. :)
(3rd Person POV)
A word about demigods: They're natural procrastinators. Given that information, is it a surprise when I say that on Christmas Eve, the tree still wasn't decorated? Most families had a tree up and decorated as soon as December hit. Then again, Camp Half-Blood's not exactly the first image that comes to mind when you think of normal.
The few campers still at Camp had decided to just decorate Thalia's tree. It was much more fun decorating a giant, dragon guarded, Golden Fleece houser than a regular Douglas Fir.
Christmas at Camp Half-Blood was special. For one time a year mortals could enter Camp and gods were given the day off to spend with their children(at least, the ones that had children) Demigods who didn't have a mortal parent could spend the day (well, they can try if they had a more common parent *cough*Hermes*cough*Apollo*cough*Aphrodite*cough*) with their immortal parent.
Dionysus had been forc-decided. Dionysus had decided to make snow fall for the past couple of weeks and by now, the snow had piled to an impressive height.
Everyone had just given up on outdoor activities(which was most of them)and just started hanging out in the rec room.
Half-hearted attempts to bring Christmas cheer could be seen around the room. Christmas lights were strung sloppily on the walls and high ledges, mistletoe had been hung by the Aphrodite children(who else?), mini trees decorated with candy canes and ornaments rested on the tables, cookies invaded every plate, and through out the room, hot chocolate wafted deliciously into the nose whenever a breath was taken(the last one was unintentional). The perfect Christmas picture.
People, having nothing else to do, lined up to play ping pong. Every now and then, the Hermes children would place bets and exchange money. Many people were just sipping hot chocolate, lounging in Snuggies.
Which is exactly what Percy and company were found doing.
As a precaution, Nico had gotten a PDA air-horn so if Annabeth and Percy started making out to kill bordom, he'd be prepared. And, no. That is not paranoid. It is completely nessacery.
Ami, Percy's sister(My OC. Yes, I put my OC in here. Suck it up.), sat next to him, frowning at the poker cards in her hand.
"Two pair." Nico laid down his cards, showing two sevens, two threes, and a two.
"Straight." Ami replied, revealing a line of 3,4,5,6, and 7.
Percy scowled, "High cards," he grumbled.
The other two held back silent laughter.
"Sucker." Ami said, gaining her composure. Since they had no money or drachmas on them right them, they were just playing for satisfaction, not money. Besides with all the Hermes kids in the room, it was probably better they didn't.
"Ami wins again," Annabeth lazily drew a tally mark under her name on the piece of paper they were using as a scoreboard.
Nico scowled, "Rematch!"
Ami smirked, "That's what you've been saying for the past three rematches."
Nico rolled his eyes, "Yeah, but the first rematch was because Percy won."
"You're not very good at poker, are you Nico?" asked Annabeth.
"Hey, it's not my fault Bianca wouldn't let me go near the poker involved stuff at the Lotus casino. Otherwise, I would be a master at this."
"I'm sure you would." Ami rolled her eyes, shuffling the deck of cards.
"You know, I can detect sarcasm."
"Can you really?" Ami questioned sarcastically.
"Yes." He scowled again.
Ami reached into the giant popcorn bowl they were eating out of and discovered it was empty.
"Popcorn bowl's empty." she announced.
"That's a shocker." Annabeth mumbled, engrossed in her architecture book.
Ami ignored her, "Who's gonna fill it up?"
All at once, almost as if rehearsed, they shouted, "Not me!"
Grover lifted his head from his enchilada, "You guys need to chill."
At least that's what Ami thought he said. With his mouth stuffed full of enchilada, it sounded more like, "Ooh gy eed ooh ill."
For those who have never seen an enchilada, it resembles a burrito. Cheese enchiladas are basically extremely cheesy burritos with no meat.
"Grover!" Ami smiled, "You can fill up the popcorn."
The others snickered at his clueless expression.
"Umm...what?"
Ami sighed impatiently, "Go into the kitchen, get three packets of the popcorn you heat in the microwave, and heat them up."
"Umm...ok?"
"Go!" they yelled.
"Ok, ok. I'm going." grumbled Grover. He goat-walked towards the mess hall.
Nico unhooked a candy cane off of the tree that sat on the table and took the plastic wrapping off. Ami hiked up her green Snuggie sleeves before dealing out cards with the flick of her wrist, everyone's cards landing in a messy pile.
Just as the three picked up their cards, Grover came back with three bags of popcorn and a red lines on his cheek, looking suspiciously like a hand.
Annabeth stifled her giggles, "What's with the lines Grover?"
He gazed at her soberly, "The nymphs did not appreciate me taking their popcorn."
"Then why did you take their popcorn Grover?" Nico asked, curious.
The half-goat in question poured popcorn into their giant, mega, super-sized popcorn bowl. "Because they wouldn't let me use their microwave."
"Grover," Percy looked at him strangely, "You do know you could have heated in the forges, right?"
Grover smacked his forehead with his hand, "Are you serious?"
Ami broke off the half of Nico candy cane's that wasn't in his mouth, popping the broken half into her mouth before speaking, "Yeah. They have a microwave there."
"Hey!" Nico cried indignantly.
"Yes?" she replied, making the word sounding sweeter than sugar.
"You ate my candy cane!"
"Only half."
"Still!"
"Do you want it back?" Ami took it out of her mouth.
He glanced at the spit covered candy, "...No, I'm good."
"Then I don't see why you care."
"It's the principle of it."
"Mhm."
"Flush! 9-high." Nico announced victoriously.
"Three of a kind," Percy scowled. "What about you Ami?"
"Flush. Jack-high." Ami grinned so manically Nico was sure the candy cane(his candy cane)was going to fall out any second.
Nico slapped the table so hard, drops of their hot chocolate jumped up past the mug's walls before settling back inside. "Fu-"
"Children Nico." She warned.
"-Dge McNugget you."
A tinge of laughter creeped into Ami's voice, "Fudge McNugget you too."
"I bet you're cheating."
She raised an eyebrow, exasperated. "How, in Ha-" Seeing his face and remembering the hour long lecture she'd gotten for using his dad's name, she switched hurriedly. "-Heck am I cheating?"
He shrugged, "You're the one dealing the cards." He said like it was the most obvious thing in the world and she was supposed to know that right off the bat.
"So, you're saying if Annabeth deals then I'll lose?" A hidden challenge in her voice. She didn't say anything outright, but Nico could detect a hidden challenge in the way her tone became playful-her way of saying he was going down, down, down.
They had approached the point of no return. If he gave even the tiniest form of agreement, there would be no back downs, no chickening out, no redoes.
Nico didn't even hesitate. "Yup."
And then it was sealed.
Annabeth dealt out cards, not once looking up from her architecture book.
Thanks for your interest, Ami wanted to say.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the Stolls watching them in interest. She heard Travis murmur the words 'Ultimate Poker Showdown'. They must have attracted some attention when Nico had his little tantrum. She casually ate a fist-full of popcorn.
She closed her cards so Nico could only see the intricate design of one card's back.
Nico put his cards down. Three sixes and two eights. "Full house." He didn't say anything else, but his face clearly said 'Beat that.' and then a choice word I can't reveal due to the little children reading this.
Ami fanned her cards out with her thumb, showing them to him. Four Kings and a three. "Don't mess with the King fool!" she said gleefully.
The 'King''s brother gulped down hot chocolate noisily.
"Seaweed Brain," Annabeth chided, "You're ruining her moment." He stopped. Mostly.
Nico groaned and plopped his face in his folded arms. Conner gave Travis a couple of dollar bills.
"I'm bored now," Ami said abruptly, "Who wants to help me decorate Thalia's tree?" The others agreed. It was high-time someone did it anyway.
Annabeth was the only skeptic among them. "We're supposed to decorate the whole thing by ourselves?"
Ami stopped, "Hmm...good point..."
Suddenly, Ami stood up and cupped her hands around her mouth, "Hey!" she shouted, "Who wants to help decorate Thalia's tree?"
There was a simultaneous sound of chairs scraping the ground as everyone stood up, desperate to escape the mundane room.
Ami grabbed Nico's arm and Percy's arm who, in turn, grabbed Annabeth, rushing to beat the sea of teens out the door. Poor Grover was almost trampled as he attempted to finish his third enchilada.
They all rushed into Percy and Ami's cabin, collapsing on the bed. "I feel like we've forgotten someone..." Percy mumbled.
Ami sat up quickly, making the bed tip a little from the movement. "Grover!" she cried, "We forgot Grover!"
"Woops." Nico said, lieing on the bed sheets.
With Annabeth's help, she tugged the boys off the bed. They landed on the ground with a thud."Now," she said, ignoring the glares they sent her way. "Where are we gonna get Christmas ornaments?"
Percy dragged out a big box from under his bed. Under their questioning gaze, he explained.
"My mom packed these, just in case I spent Christmas at Camp."
"Speaking of which, are we spending Christmas at your place or what?" His sister asked.
"Well, you two basically live there already, and Annabeth was invited to spend the day there by my mom so...morning at Camp, rest of the day at my place?"
"Wow Seaweed Brain, you actually came up with a good idea!" Annabeth bumped him with her hip, laughing.
"Thank-hey! I can come up with good ideas if I want to!"
"Name one."
"Umm...I can't come up with one off the top of my head..."
"Why does that not surprise me?"
"I have no idea." Percy replied absently, busy trying to keep the giant box in the air.
The others took the remaining three sides. Nico grunted, "How did you fit this under your bed?"
"A better question would be how he get it here." Ami groaned.
Ami bumped into the door painfully, opening it.
The four stumbled to the tree, barely making it before dropping it to the ground. Everyone ignored the crash that followed. After all, Percy had assured them all the fragile ornaments were in boxes.
Will Solace and the rest of his cabin were shooting tinsel wrapped arrows at the tree when Ami staggered upright. She was amazed when the arrows veered off to the right, circling upwards around the tree, leaving tinsel in its wake.
The Hecate cabin muttered short incantations and twinkling orbs of every color flew from their fingertips, floating and settling in the tree's branches.
Hermes children produced masses of Christmas lights, hanging them anywhere they could reach, occasionally mock-murdering by strangling each other.
Percy and Annabeth dumped the contents of the box and just hung up whatever was inside.
The Hephaestus kids came back from the forges to see what all the commotion was. Ami explained it to Jake Mason. They all rushed to the forges and came back, loaded down with containers. When Ami peeked into one, she saw finely crafted porcelain dolls, glass animals, and here and there, symbols of the gods.
At her incredulous stare, Jake chuckled. "What do you think we were doing when we missed being at the campfire for the past weeks?"
The orbs the Hecate cabin made were double-hooked. One to hang onto the tree, and at first, Ami wasn't sure of the purpose of the second hook until the Hephaestus cabin started putting their detailed crafts on the hooks.
To everyone's utter surprise, the Aphrodite campers pitched in. To everybody's non-surprise, all they did was put up mistletoe.
At one point, she saw Malcom and a bunch of other Athenaians(Athens?)using their brainy powers to stratagize where to rearrange things and enable everything to fit.
Not to be outdone, she held out her hand and concentrated. Soon enough, a ball of water congregated over her palm. She snapped her fingers. The ball broke into smaller clusters. Some were shaped like raindrops, some: tridents, the rest were just smaller spheres. She pointed a finger at the tree and they made their way over to it. Something she and Percy had perfected last Christmas.
Nico asked if it was acceptable to put Greek fire in the tree. Ami remembered replying 'Just don't, under any circumstances, burn the tree down'.
Snow dislodged from Thalia's pine and showered people whenever someone put something in the wrong place. Travis and Conner were climbing around and hitting branches, creating snowfalls on unsuspecting demigods.
Ami was one of their poor victims. Too absorbed in making water tridents, she didn't notice the Stolls until too late. She gasped as the Stolls doused her in snow.
"Travis and Conner Stoll, when you came out of that tree I'll beat-" She stopped yelling unexpectedly.
When the two peeked out from their tree branch, they found her examining her miniature tridents, which were covered in snow, giving it a pristine, White Christmas look.
"Hey you guys," She said slowly, "Can you do that again?"
At first, Travis thought she was off her rocker. Just a few seconds ago, she was yelling at them for dumping snow on her, and now she wanted them to do it again? From the way Conner was staring at her, he thought so too. Travis shrugged, might as well humor her.
He beckoned with a hand to follow him, already scampering onto the next branch, searching for another snow gathering.
He found one. "You ready?" he asked.
He heard a noise of agreement.
Moving the branch to the side slightly, he allowed snow to pour down where Ami was waiting with an army of water ornaments.
After a moment, snow globes and spheres sprinkled with snow floated up, blocking his vision.
"Nice job with the snow globes." Nico's voice sounded in her ear.
Ami jumped a little. "How'd you know it was me?"
"Well, the little tridents might have been a giveaway."
She smiled a bit, "Might."
"Mhm."
"I'm still impressed you didn't burn the tree down when you put Greek fire in it."
"Psh. I got skills."
"I'm sure you do."
A pleasant buzz of chatter could be heard as all the demigods stepped back to admire their handiwork.
Ami noticed someone, the Athena kids probably, had weaved a dozen or so wreaths together, and had placed it on Pellus's head.
The majority of demigods being totally ADHD, they couldn't stay in one position for long, and soon people seated themselves around the pine's wide trunk.
Ami and Nico chatted animatedly about anything and everything.
"From the way the Camp looks right now, we might as well call it Camp Christmas. But-"
An Aphrodite girl-Sandra-stopped and giggled in front of them.
Ami broke off from her sentence, "Yes?"
Sandra pointed up to a branch hanging above the two. A white-berried plant, tied to the tree with a red ribbon, was dangling not three feet over Nico's head.
"But...but, h-how," Ami stuttered, "I swear, that wasn't there when we got here."
Sandra giggled again, "Well, you still have to kiss him."
Ami blushed a furious red. Even Nico looked uncomfortable.
"Well," Sandra prodded, "Go on!"
When Ami reached for his cheek, Sandra stopped her. "Not on his cheek, his lips!"
Ami sputtered, "Why?"
"Because that's how the mistletoe works," Sandra replied cheerfully.
If possible, she turned an even darker red.
A red tint had worked its way onto Nico's cheeks.
"Dear gods of Olympus, this girl is impossible." Ami muttered.
She met Nico's gaze, and immediately noticed his tinted cheeks. She probably wasn't any better due to the fact her face felt really hot.
She leaned in, knocking off some of the space between their lips. He did the same.
Their lips met.
Ami wasn't some thesaurus. She wasn't sure how to describe the kiss any better than someone could explain the universe. But she was sure of something.
It. Was. The best. Thing. Ever.
Fireworks exploded in her brain, overloading her with bright colors, and his smell, and tastes. Oh gods, the taste. He tasted really good, like peppermint. Vaguely, the part of her that was still able to think straight, wondered if that was because of that candy cane he ate. If so, then she thanked whatever ingenious god that had come up with candy canes.
Sadly, humans need to breathe, and while that isn't a problem to Ami in water, there under Thalia's tree, it was a bothersome necessity.
They broke apart, panting heavily. Ami's lips tingled strangely.
Sandra had disappeared, but in her place were two familiar faces.
Percy and Annabeth.
They wore horror-filled expressions.
"Umm...mistletoe?" Ami said weakly.
Percy snapped out of it and pointed a finger at Nico. "You sir, are a frickin' hypocrite."
Ami snorted. Out of all the things he could have said, he chose that.
Nico blinked at the finger pointed at him, still a little out of it. "How?"
"You get a PDA horn for me and Annabeth, yet I find you here, sucking my sister's face off?"
Ami blushed.
"I blame Sandra." They said in unison.
Percy viewed them with a raised eyebrow.
Out of nowhere, a snowball flew at Ami's face. She dived to the right, so it smacked against bark.
"Oh, I know you did not just throw that at me!" She yelled at...Katie Gardner? What the Hades? Was she in some alternate universe where Katie Gardners throw snowballs at innocent people?
"Sorry!" she yelled.
Then Ami noticed Travis standing a little off to the side and she knew that she was in fact not in an alternate universe where Katie Gardners threw snowballs at innocent people. Well, unless you counted Travis Stoll as an innocent person.
"It's okay!" she yelled back.
But, some time later, Travis intentionally pitched a snowball at her, and Camp Half-Blood ensued in the most epic snowball fight known to mankind.
Later, in bed and halfway into slumber, Ami touched her lips and the tingle from earlier returned.
She smiled, drifting off to sleep.
Little did she know, a certain Son of Hades was doing the same.
Wow. Long one-shot. I might actually make this a two-shot and put the actual Christmas day.
For those who don't know how to play poker, wiki it. I only know how to play because my teacher taught me. Twisted, I know.
Sandra is just a random Aphrodite girl I made up.
So, again, Merry Christmas! :)
Music, out. :)