Nico pouted as his cousins, Percy and Jason dragged him into another store. They had been at this for nearly five hours now and he was downright exhausted and pissed off at the indecisiveness of the two.

Percy the oldest out of the trio was 19, was in college studying marine biology and was engaged to his girlfriend a 4 years Annabeth Chase. The two hadn't got together until they were 16 but had been crushing on one another since they were 12.

His other cousin, Jason was the second eldest out of the three of them at 16, what's currently the Golden Boy athlete/ closet geek at his school. Him and his girlfriend Piper had been dating for just over a year now.

And Nico himself was the youngest of the trio although he was only younger than Jason by 2 years at the age of 14.

Currently his two cousins were bickering over what each other's girlfriends, or in Percy's case fiance would like.

" I think I know Annabeth by now to know that she would not at all like that.." he said to Jason pointing at the skirt that Jason was holding.

"And I think I know Piper well enough because how much you talk about her to know she would rather have a pair of well worn blue jeans then a pretty, cough cough, short skirt like that."

Nico shuffled his feet and looked out of the store and froze his breath catching which got the attention of his two cousins, they followed his line of vision and both got shyt eating grins on their faces.

"So have you thought about what you're going to get for your cute blonde doctor yet?" Percy asked throwing an arm over Nico shoulders. Nico Shrugged the older boy off.

"Get off me Percy, and Will isn't my anything. And he isn't even in medical school just volunteers at the clinic." Percy just smiled and terned and walked towards the front of the shop.

"Wait Percy, no stop." Nico ran after him.

"Hey Solace! Over here!"

The blonde who was standing with two others in front of the music store looked when his name was called. He flushed as he saw his Crush chasing after his cousin who was presumably the one who called him.

"Jackson?" He asked voice skeptical. "Hi Nico how are you today?" He ignored his two friends snickering.

Nico inwardly panicked but managed to mumble out. "Oh, hmm, I'm good just doing some Christmas shopping today. "

"Oh, Us too." He waved at his two friends who waved back.

" Hello Markowitz, Lou Ellen."

Markowitz grumbled. " why does she always get her name used and I get the last name treatment?" He was ignored.

"How much more shopping do you guys have to do? Would you guys care to join us? Maybe Lou Ellen could help me and Percy finally pick something for our girls?" Jason asked. Throwing both Lou Ellen and Cecil a smile as he caught the glances being thrown back and forth between Nico and will. Oblivious morons.

"Sure we love to." Lou Ellen said.

Sometime later...

"Amma? Where did everybody go?" Will asked as he came back to the table with his extra large pretzel. After they hit like three more stores they decided to go to the food court and get something to eat. After they ate they sat and talked for a few minutes but then Will decided he wanted to buy a pretzel. But now though he was wondering where everybody went. He looked at Nico.

Nico tried not to blush and grumbled at the fact that everybody had left him and Solace alone.

"I think I heard Markowitz and Percy say something about popcorn or socks, don't quite know they were muttering too much, they went off that way." He motion down the right side of the mall.

"I think Jason drag Lou Ellen off to help him find a present for Piper, I have no idea where they went to."

They stood there awkwardly.

"So have you bought for your Secret Santa yet?" Will asked.

"No." That was one of the reasons why he came to the mall with his two annoying cousins, to buy a gift for the class gift exchange. In fact the name he had drawn from the Hat what's the name of the blue eyed boy in front of him.

" is that why you're here shopping today? That's why I'm here shopping." Well took a bite of his pretzel.

"Hm." Nico grunted.

Will offered Nico a piece of his pretzel that Nico cautiously took with a small hardly noticeable smile on his lips.

"What does your person like? Do you have any ideas? Maybe I can help." Will ramble before stuffing another bite of pretzel into his mouth.

"Well, hmm. They like helping people and singing and... hmm. I don't really know what to get them, we've already been to several stores in the mall and I haven't found anything that caught my eye for them."

Will offers Nico another piece of his pretzel before saying.

"I'm not sure what to get mine either, want to go shopping together for a little while?" He looks around, " especially considering it looks like we've been ditched."

Nico looks around and agrees, Will brakes the last part of of his pretzel into and hands the other piece to Nico why he keeps the other, smaller piece. Once they finish they make there way to the nearest shop.

Unseen by the two their friends tracked their movements hidden behind the mini train that ran around the ground floor. Percy, Jason, Lou Ellen and Cecil all glanced at one another. Cecil and Lou Ellen didn't rig the Hat draw for nothing, they hoped their setup worked in the two would soon realize there was something there.