A/N: Lets be real, things that are free taste ever so slightly better.

'And then suddenly it's Christmas.' I looked around. New York looked like the Christmas elves had dropped a bag of joy over it.

Will looked at me. 'Not to scare you, but the city has been looking like this since Halloween.'

'I try to ignore that.'

Will sighed and laughed at the same time. 'Sure. Come now, you needed to buy Christmas presents, we should get to buying them.'

'Yes, of course... hey!' He grabbed my arm and pulled me along, further into the heart of New York.

'They really were just too lazy to name these streets.'

Will sighed. 'No.' He looked at his phone. 'It is way easier to find out where the streets are. You just follow the number.'

'I guess. Which street are we on now?' I looked around, but I didn't see a number anywhere. Will narrowed his eyes, while still looking at his phone. 'If I am correct, we are on thirty-third.'

'Ah.' I took a step back when two screaming children ran past me, followed by a tired looking mother. 'We need to go to Jackson village, too. I don't mean Sally Jacksons' place, but the actual, physical part of town.'

'And why is that?'

'Free drinks at Denny's.'

Will grinned. 'Those are always welcome. Also, Google Maps gave me the directions I asked for. Let's go.'

I had to give Will some credit, he chose his boring chocolates rather quickly. Why he had to go to all the way to New York for them was beyond me, though.

Will handed me a tiny felt box. 'Alright. We should go with the subway, then maybe we can actually reach Jackson village before Christmas. Here, eat.' I opened the box. It had two heart-shaped chocolates in them.

'Will, that is kinda sappy.' I put the bonbon into my mouth. 'And I like sappy sometimes. Alright. Can we get out of the subway a few stops earlier than necessary? I am not entirely sure what to get people, so I want to see a few shops.'

'I mean, I was thinking of going to a dollar store to buy things for the Camp gift exchange, and we could go to an outlet if you wanted something for Reyna, Hazel or Percy…'

'Hm. For camp a dollar store is good, and maybe I can even find some fun things for my friends as well. For Hazel I already bought a knitted raccoon hat, though. And I will not buy your present while you are standing right next to me.'

'Anything else?'

'Perhaps.'

'Alright. Come, I see a subway station over there.'

Even though they are probably the grossest and busiest places in New York, I kind of liked the undergrounds. Kind of stupid, but well, they were under the ground.

We got out and went up to street level again. Lo and behold, there was a dollar store right across the street.

'I always wonder how they can stuff even more garbage into stores like those then they can into IKEA,' I thought out loud, while we crossed the street. Will shrugged.

'Talent, I guess.'

'Talent? Oh, what. At least I will be able to find something Percy will go absolutely insane for that costs me nothing more than a measly dollar.'

'Last time I was in the dollar store, they had dolphin shaped candy boxes.'

'If they have those again, I'll take two. Otherwise Percy will complain that his dolphin-shaped candy box is lonely.'

Maybe it was all trash, but it was easy trash. Packed with presents for almost everyone we cared a little or slightly more than a little about, we got out of the dollar store.

'So, that was quite productive,' Will mentioned. He was carrying the plastic bag with our stuff.

'Yes.' I looked around, at the other stores. Somewhere, they were bound to have something.

'What I did not say before is that I am actually looking for something for Dionysus. I do not know if he celebrates Christmas, but I do know it is his birthday.'

'The 25th of December?'

'Yes.'

'So, basically, Jesus just took over his birthday?'

'Yes. I don't know how he feels about it.' Maybe I'll ask.

Will hummed. 'I think it is pretty difficult to find something for a god, though. That being said, I do think Dionysus will be happy no matter what.'

'Maybe...'

'Oh, here is a thrift store!' Will pointed . We stopped walking. 'Do you mind if we go there for a second? I need something they might have there.'

'Are you entirely sure what that thing is?'

'You never do with thrift-stores.' I sighed.

'Yeah, true.' I wrapped my arm around his waist while we went in.

It was a pretty big thrift store and it clearly didn't just sell regular mortal junk. I wandered off, while Will searched through the old books.

I ended up in the jewelry section. It looked as if both an old grandma and her six year old granddaughter had just given away all of their jewelry. All I saw was ancient-looking pearl necklaces and pink fairy rings.

I looked in a few drawers of an old cupboard. It was all clearly not worth much, otherwise it would not be laying out in the open, but it sure looked shiny.

In one of the drawers, I found an earring. I could not find its better half, but it did look a lot like something Will had shown me that he wanted to buy but could not find anywhere.

I let it roll from one hand into the other. Was it dangerous to gift your boyfriend jewelry from a thrift store that radiated weird energy? Maybe. But the earring itself did not do so.

I dug slightly deeper, looking around for more stuff the people who were worth more than dollar store gifts would appreciate. Now that I took a good look at it, the jewelry cabinet was kind of a goldmine, no pun intended. I even found a small, gold necklace for Reyna (Probably fake-golden, otherwise it would not be lying around in a random cabinet-drawer, but still).

Eventually, I looked up and saw a small glass cabinet. There was a brooch on display that made me unable to stop looking at it. I did not recognise the gemstone they used, if it was even a real gemstone, but it was a deep purple. The brooch was shaped like, vines running past and over each other.

The thing cost only five dollars. It was as if the universe was pushing me to get it (But I could have imagined that).

In the background, I heard Will say something to the seller (Who did not sound entirely like human to me). Slowly, I walked past the shelves, hoping I could somehow buy what I wanted without Will noticing.

After a few seconds, I felt a tap on my shoulders. I turned around. There was a second not-entirely-human seller standing behind me.

'You want what you are currently holding and the purple brooch without your boyfriend over there noticing , is that right?' He asked, in a coarse voice.

'Eh, yes,' I whispered.

The seller grinned. 'I get it, youngling. You saw the prices. Twenty dollars and it is all yours.'

I had no idea whether those were the actual prices, but twenty dollars was not super expensive, so I handed it to him. He unlocked the glass cabinet, got out the brooch, I put everything into the pocket of my coat and joined Will again.

The seller, who Will was just done with, looked exactly like the seller I had spoken to had. Will grabbed my hand and we walked out. I looked over my shoulder as Will opened the door. The seller winked at me.

'Sad that you did not find anything ,' Will said, while we made our way over to Denny's.

'Oh well,' I answered, while I squeezed his hand.

'Nico!' Mary smiled widely when she looked at us. 'Is that your boyfriend?'

'Yes!'

'Well, he is adorable.' She winked and gave us two free hot chocolates. 'As promised.'

I was not above getting free hot chocolate, so I thanked her and we sat down one booth further from the booth I usually sat with Dionysus. The Denny's was busier around this time.

Will looked around. 'There is a Dionysus-vibe here.'

I nodded and took a sip. 'Oh yes. There always is.'

Will smiled and pulled his legs onto the couch. 'I think that was a productive day, Nico. I think I've got almost everything I need. '

'Me too.' I grinned, which left Will eyeing me suspiciously.

A/N: Fun Fact: there are barely any subways in the Netherlands. We have busses, trains and trams (In some cities), but no subways.

It has never been academically proven that the 25th is Dionysus birthday. There is no proof whatsover. Don't go around quoting me on that, because it is a Tumblr thing, NOT PROVEN!

Aside from maybe a little general magic, the jewelry is not cursed. Just calming you down there.

Tell me how do you all see Dionysus? Because during writing I have constantly had the young, mythological version in my head. Long black hair, purple eyes, frail, basically not what Rick Riordan described. That is why I have been calling him Dionysus and not Mr. D, because that ain't him to me.

This isn't really a therapy chapter but shhh it shows Nico is healing.