A Light Snowfall and Brown Eyes

"We already got Aurum and Argentum." Reyna said sternly from across the living room as she made her way to the kitchen, where the aroma of something savory was starting to brew. "Are you telling me you have a problem with them?"

Percy flopped down on the beaten up leather couch and tousled with his messy hair. Their kids had been begging for a dog for the past two years, and naturally Percy was the first to fall. He had spent his entire childhood growing up in a tiny New York City apartment, where owning a dog had never been an option. The closest thing he ever had was Mrs. O'Leary, but she was effectively Tyson's at this point. It was hard to disguise the fact to his boys that he wanted one too.

But when it came to manners like this, Reyna always had the final word. And she held her ground stubbornly, making sure to remind everybody that Mama was always right.

"No," Percy answered. "But they aren't… real dogs. And I think it will be nice to have something that isn't related to our world."

He couldn't see Reyna's face because her back was turned to him, but he knew that she had a frown on her face. It was the way her shoulders tensed up that gave it away. She was cracking.

"Who's going to train it?" Reyna continued as she tied her hair back in a bun. "Both of us have jobs now and the kids are at school all day. You do know that having a puppy will be like raising a baby all over again, right?"

Percy rose up from the cushion instead of responding, and joined Reyna in the kitchen. She already had some of the ingredients for the chicken paella out, which was everybody's favorite. Percy grabbed the meat tenderizer from the drawer and went to town on the defrosted chicken breasts.

They worked in a comfortable silence until a genius idea popped into his mind. "Maybe we get an older dog instead? One that's already potty trained and stuff."

Reyna paused what she was doing for a split second to take in what he said. "It took you that long to come up with that? Unbelievable."

Percy took the now tenderized chicken and set them down on the cast-iron skillet, before wrapping his arms around Reyna's waist and leaning in, much to her adamant dismay. "Very funny. I'm being serious though."

Reyna pretended to ignore his persistent advances and busied herself on seasoning the cooking vegetables. "Dogs poop and shed, who's going to be cleaning that up? Me?"

"The kids will, they're old enough to honor their promise. Plus, having a dog will teach them responsibility and stuff."

Reyna switched off the burner, set the pan of veggies off to the side, and grabbed the large bowl of rice. "Our kids, who I'll have you know are both adolescent males, don't even lift the toilet seat when they piss."

Percy groaned obnoxiously, earning himself a hard slap from his loving wife. "Just think about it at least, it's almost Christmas."

"I will." Reyna responded with a faintest hint of a smile. "I will."

-Ω-

"If we get a dog, I want it to be a big one." Isaac said out loud as the four of them dug into their dinner. He was their first born, and was a carbon copy of Percy, save for his dark eyes, which he shared with Reyna.

Noah, who looked and acted a lot more like his mother, nodded his head in agreement with his older brother. "I want a husky, or maybe a retriever."

Percy stared at Reyna across the table, and raised his eyebrows up and down in a playful manner, but Reyna wasn't having it.

"Boys, what if a monster attacks us? It might get hurt, or get in our way. We don't know how it will act."

It was a damn good point, one that Percy had never thought about.

"Well, that's why we have Aurum and Argentum." Isaac countered fast, with his mouth stuffed full with paella. "They can take care of the monster. Plus, Noah and I can fight."

Isaac had been attending Camp Half-Blood for three years now, and Noah had been going for one. But Percy and Reyna had been training them in swordsmanship for much longer, without the boys truly realizing it. The countless hours their family had spent in the backyard at night, sparring with glow-in-the-dark lightsabers, had prepared the boys well enough. But despite all of that, they were still raw and inexperienced. Isaac had only one monster encounter to his name, and Noah had none.

"I'm going to have to agree with Mama on this one." Percy admitted shamelessly, to the boy's horror. "The last thing I would want is for a dog to get hurt because of us."

The conversation ended after that, and the topic changed to what they did during swim practice and the boring homework they had to finish later.

Once the dishes were put away and the boys were out of earshot, Percy and Reyna shared a brief glance.

"How long until Christmas?" She asked nonchalantly.

Percy did the tough mental calculation in his head. "Three weeks? It's on a Saturday I think."

"Ok." Reyna's frown had reappeared, and her fingers were tapping against her jeans.

Percy gave her a weird look. "Ok, what?

"Nothing." Reyna said absentmindedly. "Just thinking."

-Ω-

Percy hopped out of the driver's seat of the car with the biggest smile on his face, and waited impatiently for Reyna to do the same. There was a light snowfall coming down, dusting the parking lot with a white fuzz. The animal shelter was only a couple footsteps away.

"Not a word, Jackson." Reyna muttered through her patterned woolen scarf. "Remember, we are here to look. We are not coming home with a dog today."

Percy stuck his tongue out stupidly and held the door open for her. "I know, I know."

Slowly but surely, Reyna had softened up to the idea of getting a dog. And now it was clear as day that she wanted one too.

They were immediately greeted by the sound of barking dogs, and an older man behind the counter who probably could pass off as Santa himself. The name John was printed on a bone-shaped name tag. "Good evening folks, how are you today?"

"Good." Percy answered. "Yourself?"

"Always a blast this time of the year. What can I do for you two?"

Reyna nudged Percy in the rib. "It was his idea to come here."

Percy grinned and wrapped his arm around Reyna, who pushed his arm away out of spite. "We've been thinking about getting a dog for a while, and we decided that adoption is the way we are going to go."

"But we aren't adopting today." Reyna added quickly. "Just looking. That's all."

John let out a heartful laugh and grabbed a keychain hanging behind him. "I totally understand, if you can follow me I'll show you our fluffy friends. Is there any particular breed you are interested in?"

"A bigger dog, something that our boys can wrestle with." Reyna said.

John unlocked the door, and the sound of the dogs got even louder. "I must warn you, all of our puppies have already been adopted. You know how it is during Christmastime."

"We actually wanted a bit of an older dog anyways, one that is hopefully already trained."

"Sounds good." John led them through a short hallway that opened up into a massive room with large metal cages that held dogs of all shapes and sizes. Most of them rushed forward with their tails wagging and their tongues hanging out, but some were a little more reserved. It was a lot to take in at once.

John gave them a bag of treats to give to the dogs. "Take as much time as you want, and let me know if you want to get closer to any of them."

Reyna had already begun to move down the line, taking the time to greet each dog. She seemed pretty excited for somebody that didn't want to adopt just yet.

Percy took a handful of the bacon-flavored niblets and approached a cage that had four dogs. There were two greyhounds, a dog that looked like a labradoodle, and a rottweiler. They gobbled up the treats instantaneously, and three of them immediately went back to horsing around with each other, but the rottweiler stayed behind and continued to lick his fingers.

John reached through the cage and patted the rottweiler on the head. "This is Kobe, he's four years old. Definitely a big boy."

Kobe soon lost interest in them and rejoined his friends in whatever they were doing.

Reyna then asked the same question that Percy had. "How long have these dogs been here?"

John shrugged his shoulders and crossed his arms casually. "I'd say two to four months on average. But as I mentioned before, puppies tend to go much quicker."

They moved on to the next cage, which held two identical looking grey Scottish terriers. Although they weren't the big dog they were looking for, Percy and Reyna made sure to give them some love.

"You said you had boys, how old are they?" John asked.

"Thirteen and eleven." Reyna responded while feeding the terriers.

"Ah," John paused, like he was reminiscing about his past self. "Old enough to do all the dog chores themselves."

Reyna stood back up and wiped her hands off. "That's the plan."

Their trio continued down the line, repeating the same general process until they reached the last cage. So far, none of the dogs had made any lasting impact.

In the last cage was only one dog. A yellow lab, who had been sleeping up until they arrived. The dog took its time, making sure to get in a good stretch and yawn before trotting over to them. While doing so, Percy noticed a healing scar running across its underbelly.

"This boy's name is Giggles. We think he's about two years old. Super friendly and fully trained." John pointed to the white line on his stomach. "That scar is from a surgery we had to perform when he first got here, there was something wrong with his intestines."

It was unexplainable, but there was something about Giggles that gave off a good vibe. He had the aura of being a very chill dog. Reyna seemed to share the same sentiment. "Can we get a little closer to him?"

"Sure can." John selected the right key on the loop and inserted it into the simple padlock. Giggles made a beeline straight for Reyna as soon as they entered, and began to sniff her private part intensely, making her uncomfortable and Percy laugh.

Percy gave Giggles a good scratch behind the ears after pulling him away. "Is there more to his story?"

"His previous owner served for the US Navy, but passed away. The friend he had taking care of Giggles couldn't do it permanently, so Giggles ended up here. He's been with us for about a month now."

"Giggles," Reyna said as she held his adorable face in her hands, soaking in his tender brown eyes. "That's a funny name."

She couldn't hide the fact that she was succumbing to the yellow lab, who had positioned himself on top of Reyna's feet and was now falling asleep again. Another mama's boy for the house.

Reyna turned her attention from Giggles to John. "How does the adoption process work?"

Percy's eyebrows disappeared into his hairline, but he remained silent. However, fireworks were starting to go off inside his head.

"Gotta fill out a bunch of paperwork and do some basic identity checks, usually doesn't take more than thirty minutes. Afterwards, you are free to take him home whenever you want."

"And what about his health?"

"He's completely healthy now, has all his vaccines and everything. I can give you a copy of his most recent report from the vet, it's the one located on Miller Grove."

Reyna nodded her head and then met Percy eye-to-eye. "Well, what do you think?"

"I think he's the one." Percy said with a smirk. "And I think he's already chosen you too."

Reyna looked back down at Giggles, who was fast asleep, and smiled. "Yeah, I guess so."

Thirty minutes later, the two of them exited the animal shelter with a promise to John and Giggles to come back on Christmas Eve.

"Not going to lie, I can't believe you followed through." Percy teased as he started the car.

Reyna sighed as she laid her head back on the headrest. "Me neither. He just seemed like…"

"A break from reality?" Percy finished her sentence and put the car in reverse.

"Yeah, somebody that we can come home to and just relax with."

Percy was already having daydreams about the places they could bring him. "The boys are going to be so happy."

"I hope so." Reyna's strict mother voice was back in full force. "They are never getting a Christmas present again."

Author's Note:

Hope you enjoyed. Thanks for reading.