I don't own Percy Jackson. I do own Max and Bryan.

Pancakes, Jerks and Fireworks

Thalia loved waking up in Nico's bed. Not just because of what it implied they'd done the night before, but because it was just so damn comfortable. Nico had a huge bed. It was soft, with more pillows than any human being could ever possibly need in their lives, and because it was July there was nothing more than a sheet covering her. Of course, it helped that she usually woke up with Nico's arm around her.

But not this morning. This morning she woke up alone in Nico's unfairly comfortable bed. She frowned until the smell of bacon hit her nose. Then she smiled and began getting out of bed. Nico was an amazing cook, and breakfast was his specialty.

"Morning," she said when she entered the kitchen.

Nico turned around for a second to say, "Morning," and then turned back to the stove.

Thalia leaned back against the wall to admire the view. Nico wasn't wearing a shirt, which was always appreciated – in fact the shirt he wasn't wearing was currently covering her own body. The pair of sweatpants he was wearing were black, like most of his clothing. Thalia didn't know how he survived it. It was so damn hot in New York. She was a fan of black, but during the summer she steered clear of it as much as she could. Which wasn't to say that her summer clothing was bright and cheerful. She still kept her bad ass look. Just without the black.

"Thalia."

She blinked to see Nico smirking at her. She scowled. "Shut up."

"I only said your name!"

She rolled her eyes. "I could hear you thinking."

Nico snorted and shoveled pancakes onto her plate. "That's a pretty scary thought," he said, shaking a can of whipped cream.

"Your mind's a scary place."

He sprayed some whipped cream on the pancakes and set it on the counter in front of him. Thalia went around and took a seat on one of the stools on the other side of the counter. She picked up her fork to take a bite, but stopped when she saw the pancakes.

"Nico?"

"Hmm?"

"Why do the pancakes have faces?"

Nico grinned (looking more like a five year old than Thalia'd ever seen him look) and pointed. "Strawberry, blueberry, and whipped cream."

"I can see that. Why?"

"Red, white and blue!"

Thalia gave him a blank look.

"It's almost the Fourth of July!"

Aah. That explained it. Sort of. A little. But she wasn't going to let that stop her from having a little fun with him.

"But it's not. It's the third of July. Last I checked, that's not a holiday."

Nico rolled his eyes. "That's beside the point."

"And you're Italian, anyway. Why are you celebrating Fourth of July?"

"Thalia, I was born in America."

"Whatever. It's still not the Fourth of July, so why are you defiling my pancakes with fruit?"

"There's nothing wrong with fruit in your pancakes!"

"There's everything wrong with it. It's just…just…it's just wrong."

"Because it's healthy?"

"Shut up. Where's the damn syrup?"

Nico collapsed on a stool and wiped his forehead. He hated summer. Well, not summer, just the heat. He'd never been one for hot weather. When he'd been younger, he'd spent the summers locked in his room with four or five fans all pointed at his bed with the lights off. If Percy insisted that they go do something, they would spend an afternoon at the pool, where Nico would cake himself in sunscreen and still get burned anyway.

He hated the sun, too.

But these days he had a job to go to.

He rested his head on the counter and groaned, trying desperately to fan himself with his shirt.

"Would you stop complaining?"

Nico restrained himself from flipping off Max, reasoning that there might be customers in the store, but it was difficult. "It's too damn hot."

"I know, I know. Shut up already," Max grumbled.

Nico lifted his head from the counter. "Do we have a fan?"

Max shook his head. "AC's on."

"No it isn't."

Max snorted. "Yeah, it is. You can check if you want."

"Does it involve moving?"

"No shit, Sherlock."

The old woman on the other side of the store started and turned to glare at them. Max turned bright red. He hated the idea that he might offend someone with his language, which Nico thought was a bit ironic, because Max had the mouth of a sailor.

They were silent for the five minutes that it took the old woman to decide that she didn't actually want to buy anything and leave the store.

"So how's Thalia?" Max asked. He'd only met Thalia a few times, and mostly it was because Thalia had come to the store for one reason or another.

Nico shrugged and began fanning himself with his shirt again. "She's fine."

"She's always fine." Max wiggled his eyebrows. That was another thing about Max – he had zero boundaries.

Nico clenched his fists and restrained himself. Max was a good person. Sometimes. Once in a small while. When he felt like it.

"Alright, alright, calm down," Max said, waving his hand in Nico's general direction. "I'm not about to steal your woman."

"She's not my woman, she's my girlfriend."

"Same thing!"

"Calling her my woman makes her sound like something I own."

Max rolled his eyes and muttered something about Nico being a damn feminist.

The door swung open to reveal a young man with blonde hair and chocolate colored eyes and a wider smile that Nico had known was possible before meeting his second coworker, Bryan. "Hey, guys!" Bryan squealed. Nico didn't think any man should squeal, even if they were gay as a unicorn jumping over a rainbow, which Bryan was. Nico had nothing against it, so long as Bryan didn't come on to him, which had happened more than once before Thalia had come into the picture. Now Bryan "shipped" them (his words, not Nico's), and would do just about anything to help if Nico needed it.

Max groaned in relief. "Thank God," he said, grabbing his jacket and heading toward the swinging door that separated the main store from behind the counter. He pushed past Bryan and out of the shop without saying goodbye.

"Hey, Nico!" Bryan said as he took Max's place on the stool next to Nico.

"Hi," Nico grumbled back.

Bryan frowned. "What's wrong?"

Nico shook his head. "Nothing."

"Come on, tell me."

He sighed. "Just Max."

Bryan rolled his eyes. "What did he do this time?"

"He was being a jerk about Thalia."

"Oh, I'll kick his ass. What did he say?"

"He didn't really mean to…"

"Well, he never means to, that's what makes it terrible."

Nico chuckled. "He called Thalia 'my woman'."

Bryan gave a dramatized gasp, and Nico laughed. Bryan always knew how to make people feel better.

"He's such a jerk!"

Nico shrugged. "Yeah, but I think when I tell Thalia she'll probably laugh."

Bryan laughed. "Probably. Hey, how is she?"

"She's good. She got a raise, which is nice."

Bryan rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, but what about the two of you? Have you asked her to move in with you yet?"

"No," Nico mumbled to his lap. His hands stilled, clenched around his shirt, as he forgot about the heat.

"Why not?! Don't you want her to move in with you?"

"We haven't been dating for that long."

"Six months is plenty long enough."

Nico rubbed the back of his neck. "Seven, actually, but still, that's not long enough!"

Bryan stood up from his stool and began pacing behind the counter. "It is! And I've seen you with her, you two are so in love! You're going to move in together, and then get married, and then you're going to have little mini-Thalias and mini-Nicos and it's going to be totally adorable."

Nico's cheeks burned red. He couldn't believe that Bryan had planned out their future. Actually, he could. In fact, he thought, he should have expected it.

"Bryan, I don't want to ask her to marry me."

"Well not yet. But you can still ask her to move in with you. Why don't you want to ask her?" He raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms. "Is the sex bad? Because I can help with that."

Nico's blush spread from his cheeks to his neck and ears. "I really don't need your help, Bry."

"Don't call me that," was Bryan's automatic answer. He huffed. "You do need my help, Nico, if you didn't you'd already have asked her."

"Maybe I want to take it slow!"

Bryan rolled his eyes. "Nico, you're not in high school. Not even close. You're kinda running out of time here, babe."

"Don't call me babe. And I'm 25, I'm not running out of time."

"I know people who have kids by the time they're 25."

"Yeah, and they work at McDonalds for minimum wage."

"Not all of them! One of my friends is going through law school, and she has a kid."

Nico sighed. "It doesn't matter, Bryan, I'm not having a kid. Not yet, anyway."

"No, but you are going to ask your girlfriend to move in with you. Hell, I asked Sam to marry me after six months, and look how that turned out." Sam was Bryan's husband. They'd met when Sam answered the ad that Bryan had put in the paper looking for a roommate. They'd been married for three years, and were talking about adopting.

Nico sighed. "I guess." He really did want Thalia to live with him. He loved her, and she spent enough time at his apartment anyway. She even did his grocery shopping, which was good, because he hated shopping. He'd rather just run down to the store and pick up some ramen.

Bryan squealed again and clapped his hands. "Okay, how are you going to do it?"

"Um…just…ask her, I guess."

The smile melted off of Bryan's face, and he looked horrified. "Are you serious? You can't just ask her. Oh my God, this is why you need my help."

"Well what else am I supposed to do?"

"You're supposed to woo her."

Nico snorted. "Woo her? What is this, the Middle Ages? Medieval times, or something?"

"D'you know what 'medieval' means?"

"Um…it's like…knights and castles and stuff."

"It means 'Middle Ages'. Literally. They're the same thing."

Nico waved his hands. "Whatever! Wooing my girlfriend, you're helping, remember?"

Bryan grinned.

"Hey."

Nico smiled and pulled Thalia in for a kiss. "Hi," he said when they'd both leaned back.

"Can I come in?"

He shook his head. "We're going out." He grabbed his jacket and shut the door behind him before Thalia could protest.

"Where?" she called after him as she jogged to catch up.

Nico pressed the button to call the elevator and smiled, but didn't answer.

Thalia heaved a dramatic sigh. "Another one of your surprises?"

"It's a good one."

"You said that last time, too, but I don't remember it being that great."

"It wasn't might fault that the monkeys all got out!" They had stepped into the elevator. "And the park gave us a full refund!"

"And my favorite shirt?" Thalia raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms. "Which was ruined by the damn monkeys."

"Just be glad it wasn't bananas they were throwing."

"Why?"

The doors slid open and they left the apartment building and climbed into Nico's car. "I'm allergic to bananas. I wouldn't have been able to help you get the shirt off to change if it'd been bananas."

Thalia laughed. "Somehow I don't think you would have had a problem getting my shirt off."

"Or it might have just given me an excuse to keep your shirt on." He smirked without taking his eyes off the road.

"Was that supposed to be insulting?"

"I'm under pressure."

"What pressure?!"

Nico grinned at her and gripped the wheel harder. The closer they got to their destination, the more his hands shook. "Can't tell."

Thalia shook her head and leaned her seat back. "How long is this going to take?"

"Couple hours? Depends on traffic."

She sighed and closed her eyes. "Wake me up when we get there."

Nico didn't complain. He'd honestly rather have had silence then have had to talk to Thalia. He risked blowing everything if he had to talk to her. And she might have guessed what he was going to do.

The ride took closer to three hours because of the Fourth of July traffic, but finally Nico was stopping and turning off the car. He reached over to shake Thalia. "Thalia," he sing-songed.

She stirred and turned over, then sat up to look out the window. "What the hell?" she said quietly, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

"Montauk." Nico opened his door and went around to open hers. "Percy's dad bought a house here when we were kids. We used to come up every summer. Now we just come when we've got the time. It's a great place for fireworks."

"Nico!" came a shout from the little house, and they looked up to see Percy standing in the doorway with an American flag stuck behind his ear. "And Nico's entourage."

"I don't think I count, Percy," Thalia said as she stood up and stretched. "But good vocabulary."

"Ten bucks says Annabeth used it on him and he had to look it up," Nico whispered.

Thalia smacked him on the chest and began walking towards Percy. Nico was probably right, though.

"Come on, we have chips and soda and we're going to have a barbecue later…" Percy stepped into the house and began leading her towards the kitchen.

Hours later, they were sitting on the beach, empty plates, bottles, and cans strewn across the sand. The sun had begun going down. It was almost dark enough to begin setting off the fireworks, but not quite.

Nico and Thalia had spread a blanket, trying to avoid getting sand all over themselves. As sand often does, however, it had crept onto the blanket and was slowly but surely making its way onto and into their clothes. Percy and Annabeth were curled up together close by on a similar blanket. The barbeque they'd cooked dinner on stood a few feet away, the coals still smoldering. A small fire had been built, and for a while they'd roasted marshmallows and made smores, but now the fire had been put out with the bucket of water that sat, now empty, next to the pit of blackened wood.

"So are you going to tell me why you were so nervous in the car, or should I guess?" Thalia asked, effectively breaking the silence they'd all fallen into.

Nico swallowed.

"Nico? Nervous? Can't imagine," Percy said from their blanket, and Annabeth chuckled.

Thalia looked over her shoulder at Percy. "He was, I swear I thought the steering wheel was going to break, he was holding it so tight."

"You were asleep!" Nico said.

Thalia rolled her eyes, just barely visible in the darkness. "No one sleeps for that long in a car."

Annabeth stood up. "Percy, we should go get the fireworks set up."

"But…" Annabeth grabbed his hand and pulled him up. Nico and Thalia could hear her whispering to him as they went towards the house.

Thalia sat up and wrapped her arms around her knees. "So?"

Nico sighed, sat up, and crossed his legs. "Um, I was going to wait, but I guess…" He cleared his throat. "We've been together for a while, and…I mean, we spend a lot of time together…and we stay at each other's apartments…and I thought…maybe we could…share?"

"Share what?"

He didn't look up, and so he didn't see the grin on her face that proved she knew exactly what he was asking.

"An apartment." Nico put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a small package. "Bryan said I should give you something when I asked you. He helped pick it out."

"Gotta love Bryan," Thalia said, still grinning. From behind them, they heard hushed whispers, and they knew Annabeth and Percy were watching.

She took the package from him. "Maybe if the present's good enough," she teased, and tore open the paper. Then she laughed. "Oh my God, where did you find these?"

Nico shook his head, grinning. "I can't tell you. Do they pass?"

Thalia nodded and hugged him. "They pass. I'd love to move in with you."

"Ready? Ready?" they heard Percy whispering from behind them. Annabeth shushed him.

Thalia slid the earrings off their little card and put them on. "Am I stylish?" she asked, striking a dramatic pose.

Nico laughed. "If anyone can pull off gummy bear earrings, it's you."

The first fireworks exploded, red and sparkling, in the sky as they leaned in for a kiss.

I said in Stars and Soldiers that I'd get this up on July fifth. I'm really sorry that I didn't, I was planning to go to the library to do it, but my dad was away on a business trip and my mom needed me to do the grocery shopping. By the time I got back, the library was closed. And it's not open on Sundays. I would have uploaded earlier today, but I had to go to an oral surgeon (just for a consultation, I'm not getting my teeth out until August 18th). So I'm really sorry I was late.

I'm also really sorry if this sucks. I sort of went through this phase of "Oh my God, I'm such an awful writer, why the Hell am I doing this?". It's not the first time it's happened, and usually I just wait for it to go away. That's what happened during The Sadness of Mistakes, when I took a seven month break. But I'd set a deadline for myself for this story, so I just wrote through my phase because I didn't know how long it would last. It's pretty much over, I think, although it might come back if I start writing anything else. Does anyone else get this, or is it just me?

This series officially has a name! I decided I can't just keep calling it "the holiday series", so it is now Celebrations with Gummy Bears. Because those damn gummy bears keep sneaking their way into my stories.

I also learned what happens when you put gummy bears in potassium chlorate. It sets the gummy bear on fire. It's so cool. I also saw a video of someone who filled a five pound gummy bear (which, wait, they make those?) with solid potassium chlorate, and then set it on fire. It was so cool. If you have a minute, go look it up.

If you haven't read Stars and Soldiers, you definitely should. It was my birthday story (I'm 16!). I kept finding soldier stories about men who come home from war and find their one true love, and I got kind of sick of it. So I wrote one about a girl who comes home from war and meets a high school French teacher. It's Thalico, of course.

I have a few other stories that I've been digesting, but before I start writing them I'm going to do some more work with Black and Gray. The next chapter of that will be up soon.

Review and go read Stars and Soldiers if you haven't already!