A/N: Hey guys! I know Im posting this a day after Christmas, but I was busy, and who says you cant enjoy some fluffy Christmas fic any day of the year? Anway, I love to imagine Leo reunion situations, and this seemed to fit perfectly. the idea came to me while I was Christmas shopping with my dad and my mind was wandering. Also, please note, I know it seems weird for the demigods to celebrate Christmas because they now the Greek Gods are real, but hey, if Greek and Egyptian Gods can exist within the same universe, why cant all the religions? And a lot of their families probably celebrated the holiday before the kids went to camp. Anyway, that's it. I hope you enjoy it! Expect lots of feels.
The doorbell rang in Percy's apartment. He rushed to the door and opened it. Annabeth ran to him. He wrapped his arms around her and lifted her into the air before pecking her on the lips.
"Merry Christmas Seaweed Brain" she said.
"Merry Christmas Wise Girl" They kissed again, slower this time and walked into the apartment laughing, their arms around each other.
"Annabeth sweetie!" Sally exclaimed, walking in from the kitchen. "Merry Christmas!" The two embraced.
"Merry Christmas Sally"
"Now Percy exactly how many people can we be expecting again?"
"Well" Percy began "There's you and Paul, me, Annabeth, Piper and Jason, Hazel and Frank, Nico, Thalia, Reyna, Grover, Juniper and the baby. So in total, about 14. And that's all depending upon whether or not Nico brings Will"
Sally sighed. "It's going to be a lot of people in one little apartment, but we'll make it work." Just then, the doorbell sounded again. Percy opened the door to reveal Piper and Jason, carrying bags of presents.
"Merry Christmas!" They exclaimed. Greetings and hugs were exchanged, and soon everyone was settled down in the living room.
"Piper are you sure you don't mind coming here?" Annabeth asked. "I figured with your dad and all…" Piper cut her off.
"No its fine! He's on location filming so it was just gonna be me and a frozen TV dinner" She looked down solemnly. Jason placed a comforting hand on her shoulder
"What about you?" Piper asked, addressing the question to Annabeth. "Don't you have a family to get to for Christmas?"
"Oh I did Christmas with them a few days ago. My dad was never really that big on Christmas, even when I was a little girl. Besides, you guys have been more of a family to me than they ever were." There was no sorrow in Annabeth's voice. She had made peace with her family situation a long time ago.
"Anyway" Percy said, attempting to break the awkward silence. "It's so great to have everyone together for Christmas."
"Well" Piper said "Not everyone"
No one said a word. Everyone's heads were bowed. Tears began to well up in every eye. In the three years that had passed since the battle with Gaea, not a day had gone by that any of the demigods didn't think of Leo.
Piper still found herself crying every night. The past July, the group had attempted to attend a Fourth of July Fireworks show. Not one of them could last five minutes. Leo's death had touched each of them individually, and they still lived with the pain every day. You never forget the loss of a best friend.
The silence of mourning filled every corner of the room, but it was soon broken by a loud crashing sound.
"What was that?!" Annabeth exclaimed. Paul and Sally came running into the room.
"It sounds like it was coming from the roof" Sally said.
Grabbing Katoptris from her bag, she never stopped carrying it, Piper slowly rose up, and walked through the door of the apartment that led to the roof.
The remaining demigods waited in the living room nervously, ready to rise at any moment. They heard Piper scream, followed by the unmistakable sound of sobs. Jason was on his feet and out the door before anyone could blink an eye.
Piper, holding her dagger in a ready position to attack, cautiously climbed the stairs to the roof. Slowly, she pushed open the door and peered through. When her eyes fell upon the scene that lay before her, she dropped her knife and screamed.
Piper bolted from where she stood. She was hugging him and crying before her lips could form his name: Leo.
"I thought you were dead" she sobbed.
"I know" Leo said. She could barely register the shock of hearing his voice again. The two squeezed each other, not wanting to let go.
Jason flew up the stairs, literally, and came crashing through the door, his sword already in hand. He was fueled by the will to kill anything that had hurt Piper, and the fear of what state he would find her in.
Jason was so ready, that he never would have expected to drop his sword. He expected that he may scream himself, but not like this, not with utter joy. He saw Festus seated on the roof, and in front of him was his girlfriend hugging his best friend.
Jason came charging forward, still screaming.
"LEO!" he shouted in pure shock. He couldn't tell if he was going to burst, cry, or throw up. Maybe it would be a combination of the three.
Piper turned around, though she and Leo never let go of each other. He could see tears on both of his friends' faces, and soon he felt them on his own as well.
Not a word was spoken. No one knew when it happened, but suddenly there was a smile on every face, and all three demigods were laughing. Without thinking, Jason walked forward. Soon the trio were all hugging, their arms wrapped as tightly around each other as they could possibly be.
The strangely cinematic moment was eventually broken by the sound of a girl clearing her throat.
"Leo" she said. The group separated and turned toward the sound to see a girl about their age standing with her hand on her hip, yet smiling. "Aren't you going to introduce me to your friends?"
"Oh right!" Leo exclaimed, his face lighting up all over again. He walked over to the girl and grabbed her hand.
Jason looked at Leo, and saw the way he was looking at this girl. From there he didn't need to hear anymore words. He knew who this girl was, because he looked at Piper the same way that Leo looked at her. Unashamedly feeling full of love, he put his arm around Piper and pulled her close.
"Guys" Leo continued. "This is Calypso. Calypso, these are my friends Piper and Jason"
"Oh my god" Piper whispered. "He actually found her"
"It's nice to finally meet you" Calypso said. "Leo's told me so much about you"
"Likewise" Piper said, smiling.
Just then, another crash sounded, this time bringing Percy and Annabeth running on the roof.
"How many of you are there?!" Leo joked.
Percy and Annabeth's jaws were on the floor. They too were soon screaming. Percy pulled Leo into a hug.
"Dude!" he exclaimed. "How…what happened?"
Before Leo could say another word, Annabeth judo flipped him, and pinned him down to the floor.
"LEO VALDEZ" she barked. 'HOW DARE YOU LET US THINK YOU WERE DEAD! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW CRUSHED WE WERE?"
Calypso began to jump forward, but Piper held out an arm to hold her back.
"Don't worry" she said. "She did the same thing when she reunited with Percy" At the mention of his name, Calypso's eyes grew wide. It was only then that they fell upon the boy with the curly black hair and focused, realizing who he was.
Meanwhile, Leo, pinned to the floor, was laughing.
"Classic Annabeth" he cracked. "I missed that" She helped him up and suddenly pulled him into a tight hug.
"Don't do that again" she whispered, now crying herself.
"Percy Jackson" The voice cut through Percy like a knife. It ripped through him and dragged the memories from all those years ago right to the front of the brain. Her voice was serious, angry, confrontational.
"Calypso" he muttered. Calypso stepped forward.
"You know" she began, hurt creeping its way into her voice now. "I would think that someone as smart as you, who has as much experience with the Gods as you do, would think to make sure that they didn't go back on their word. You know that they can't be trusted"
"Calypso" Percy attempted to interject.
"No" she said, cutting him off. "I get to talk now. You said that you couldn't stay with me, because you had to get back to Annabeth, but you said that you cared. So why, how did you forget about me?"
"Calypso" Percy said again, guilt cutting through him like a knife. "I am so sorry. I'm not going to make excuses or pretend that what I did was anything but completely rotten. All I can do is apologize"
"Well" she began. With her next words, she surprised Percy as the anger disappeared from her voice. "It's okay. Leo told me about how upset you were when you found out I was still on Ogygia. I know that you really did care, and that it was an honest mistake. You're just lucky you have such great friends" She grabbed Leo's hand, then looked at Percy again, Annabeth's head now resting on his shoulder. "And they're lucky to have a friend as caring as you"
"Well" Percy said, smiling now. He looked around "Guess that's two more place settings my mom has to set up. She's not gonna be too happy about that. Oh well! Let's go inside, it's cold."
"Wait" Leo said. "Two more place settings. Seriously how many of you are there?!"
"Well" Percy said. "Just us for now. But there's going to be about 16 total after everyone gets here."
"16?!" Leo exclaimed. "Why so many people Jackson?"
"It's Christmas!" Annabeth said.
"Really?" Leo's eyes filled with wonder. "I didn't know. Wow! What a day for me to get here."
"Um" Calypso interjected "This is lovely and all and I'm very happy to be here, but as you said its cold and…"
"Of course" Percy said "Let's go inside"
The group soon arrived back in Percy's living room. Sally was already waiting at the door.
"What happened up there?" she asked Percy
"Nothing bad" he said. "But were gonna need two more place settings"
"Who's here now?" Sally sounded exasperated. Percy, Annabeth, Piper, and Jason stepped to the side to reveal Leo and Calypso waking down the stairs.
"Mom" Percy said. "This is Leo"
"You told me your friend Leo died."
"Well apparently he didn't so…here he is! Oh and this is Calypso his…" Percy wasn't sure how to introduce her.
"She's my girlfriend" Leo said. "It's a pleasure to meet you" Leo said, shaking Sally's hand.
"The pleasure is all mine" she replied. At that moment, the doorbell rang again.
"Ooh can I answer it?" Leo asked mischievously "Please let me answer it. It'll freak them out like they've seen a ghost or something" Calypso giggled.
"Slow down Leo" Annabeth said. "We don't need anyone having a heart attack on Christmas"
It was Percy who eventually opened the door for Hazel, Frank and Nico.
"Merry Christmas!" they exclaimed.
"We're not late are we?" Hazel asked.
"Not at all." Percy said. "Only two other groups got here before you" He smirked.
"Why are you smiling like that?" Nico asked.
"So who here is on team Leo?" An all too familiar voice rang through the apartment. The three looked at Percy in shock. He simply nodded and stepped aside, so the group was now staring at Leo Valdez.
Hazel was the first to start crying. She immediately walked up to Leo and pulled him in close. "You're actually okay" she said.
"Is that really you?" Frank asked.
"In the flesh" Leo replied.
"But dude you were dead!" Nico said. "I sensed that you were definitely dead."
"I was" Leo said. "Technically" Hazel jumped back
"Then how are you standing here?"
"Ya" Piper said. "You never told us how you got here, how you lived."
"Well" Leo said. "Remember the Physician's cure?"
"Yes, but we had it, not you"
"You thought you had it, when in fact, you had a fake. I installed the real one into Festus right after we got it, and used a stone from Ogygia to program a compass. After I died on top of Festus, he injected the cure into me, and I woke up right before arriving on Ogygia"
Hazel hit Leo in the arm and the rest of the group laughed.
"Why on Earth would you take that risk?" Hazel asked.
"Well I was gonna die anyway if I didn't get to Ogygia. I swore to Calypso on the River Styx that I'd come back for her. So, if I had to die, I thought it best to do it saving the world. Go out with a bang you know? The ultimate feat for the world's favorite scrawny hero"
The group looked at each other and broke down into hysterical laughter. Finally, they were all together again. The 7 of the prophecy, reunited once more, now with two new additions, who fit right in. At last, they were home.
Five minutes later, the group was all sitting around, discussing what had been going on during the holiday season.
"Did you get Hedge's Christmas card?" Piper asked, sipping hot chocolate.
"Ya" Annabeth said. "Chuck's grown so much, and Mellie is glowing. Do you know when the baby is due?"
"Whoa whoa whoa hold up" Leo said, before Piper could answer. "Chuck grown? New baby? Guys how long was I gone?" He sounded concerned. The remaining demigods looked around at each other, trying to decide how they were going to tell him.
"How long?!" Leo shouted slightly this time.
"Leo" Frank said gently. "It's been 3 years" Leo's head fell into his hands.
"I'm sorry" he said. "I didn't want you guys to suffer that long. I guess I was being selfish when I left."
"Give me a break idiot!" Calypso spoke this time. "You were not selfish. You just told us that you died, which by the way I did not previously know thank you very much. Besides, you got me off of Ogygia. No one has ever been able to do that before" Leo smiled
"Even if it had been selfish" Hazel said. "Which it wasn't, it doesn't matter anymore. It's over. We're all back together"
"Ya" Leo said. "I guess your right"
Percy raised his glass in the air. "To our crazy little family" he shouted. "May we always be together" The rest of the demigods raised their glasses, and everyone drank. They were all filled with the warmth of family, and the magic of Christmas.
Later that night, all of the guests sat in Percy's living room. With every one that had come, Leo had been met with the same warm response. It was perhaps the best Christmas miracle any of them had ever seen.
Wrapping paper littered the floor. Grover and Juniper's daughter lay asleep in her father's lap, wiped out from the Christmas excitement.
Hazel too, was drifting, her head rested on Frank's shoulder. Paul had his arm around Sally, and Percy the same with Annabeth, who now sat at the piano. Jason and Thalia sat together, while Reyna conversed with Nico.
Piper stood in the center of the floor. The group was fooling around, simply enjoying the time. Annabeth played the piano softly, and Piper sang along.
Have yourself a merry little Christmas, let your heart be light
From now on our troubles will be out of sight.
Leo had his arm around Calypso. He could never have imagined how wonderful it would feel to finally come home. It had happened by accident, but it happened at the perfect time. Perhaps it really was a Christmas miracle.
Fateful friends, who are dear to us, gather near to us once more
Through the years we all will be together, if the fates allow
Hang a shining star upon the highest bow
Calypso fell asleep and Leo kissed her on the forehead. Now, after being so warmly welcomed home, having his friends around him, with Calypso sitting beside him, Leo had never been happier. He had never felt more loved. This poor little orphaned boy, always the outcast, had finally found his place. He had finally found his home, and it was more perfect than anything he could have hoped for.
And have yourself a merry little Christmas now
THE END