Disclaimer: Yeah, I'm (big surprise here) not Rick Riordan, Lin Manuel Miranda, a producer, actor, or publisher.

A/N: Hello, everyone. I hope you had a great Mother's Day if you did something for that, or an awesome random Sunday last week. Anyway, I just wanted to say that I am so amazed by how long this is, and how much people seem to like it. I thought it would be about 20 chapters long, but we're at chapter 23 and still going strong! Thank you! I do have a (ish) plan, so expect many (by that I meant like 12 or 15) more chapters before this ends.

Just fyi, I am thinking about summer and next year and how that'll work. Basically, you can expect pretty consistent updates until around late June.

Quote: "America, you great unfinished symphony, you sent for me. You let me make a difference. A place where even orphan immigrants can leave their fingerprints and rise up." —Alexander Hamilton, The World Was Wide Enough (not 100% sure on that one. Maybe it's from Hurricane?)

Percy POV:

As Christmas slowly (too slowly, in Percy's opinion) neared, Percy began to get ready for the holiday. While Percy was most definitely a summer kind of guy, Christmas was, in Percy's opinion, the best holiday ever. What's not to like? Presents, family, food, decorations. It was even more fun when you had a family like Percy's that went all out.

One year, Percy had nearly sprained an ankle because he had tripped over a new package of decorations that hadn't yet been added to the tree. He'd spent the rest of the day hobbling around on one foot, but it was worth it because the tree looked so dam good.

Anyway, Percy was preparing to host a big cast Christmas party at his apartment. He'd already picked up three boxes of Christmas decorations from his mom's house, but he needed to buy a Christmas tree and actually decorate.

Percy recruited Annabeth, Jason, Piper, Leo, Frank, and Hazel to help him. In fact, they were all supposed to arrive in about ten minutes.

Soon, people start trickling in. First Annabeth, then Piper, Frank, Leo, Hazel, and Jason.

"Hey, guys," Percy greeted once everyone was there.

There was a murmur of greetings from his six friends in his apartment.

"Merry very early Christmas! Anyway, I'm going to host a Christmas party over here in a couple of weeks, and I need your help. We need to put up decorations, and get the tree. I'll be getting the tree, and everyone else can pick an option," Percy explained.

There was a general murmur of assent from the group. A few minutes of discussion later, it was decided that Leo, Jason, Annabeth, and Piper would decorate, and Frank, Hazel, and Percy were in charge of getting the tree.

Before long, Percy, Frank, and Hazel had pulled up at the store. They spent the next several minutes trying to find the perfect tree.

"Let's do this one!" Hazel suggested, gesturing to a small, round tree. It was good, Percy supposed, if you didn't have two huge boxes of lights and ornaments to put on it.

"Nah, Hazel," Percy said, "I mean, it's an awesome tree, but we have a ton of ornaments to put on. We need something big."

"Percy, your apartment is, like, ten feet tall, and not that big. How are you supposed to fit a huge tree in there?"

"We'll figure it out," Percy said absentmindedly while searching for a tree. Then he found it. It was at least eleven or twelve feet tall.

"Let's do that one," Percy said, pointing to said tree.

"Oh, Percy, no, it's huge!" Frank exclaimed.

Fast forward thirty minutes later, and they were struggling to lift the huge tree out of the car into the apartment building. Finally, Percy grabbed one end, Frank grabbed the other, Hazel secured it and helped it balance in the middle, and they all staggered inside. It attracted some stares in the elevator and lobby, but otherwise went without a hitch.

Percy yelled into the apartment, "Guys, it's us. Can you open the door? We've got our hands full over here."

Soon, the door was opened by Annabeth who took one look at the tree, and said to Frank and Hazel, "I blame Percy for this one. You guys are too smart for that."

"You know you love me," Percy pointed out.

Annabeth sighed, "Somehow." He leaned down (which was, in retrospect, not the greatest idea since he was holding the front of the tree. Percy thought he could hear Frank being smacked in the face by a tree branch. Whoops) and gave her a kiss.

After a moment, he heard a cough from behind him and pulled away, his face red.

"Can we go in?" Percy asked.

"Uhh, yeah, just a sec."

Annabeth ran back inside and moved some things around, telling the three others in there to, "Move it, or you'll be disemboweled by Percy's ridiculously big Christmas tree."

"All clear!" She called out.

Percy, Hazel, and Frank walked inside, and (none too gently) set the tree down in the living room corner, showers of pine needles raining down in the process.

"Guys, this looks amazing!" Percy exclaimed, looking around the room. It was true. They'd managed to find a place for every decoration, and do it in a way that actually looked good, rather than random stuff thrown around in clumps. Except for one corner that had a bunch of fake pine cones arranged so they spelled, "All Da Ladies Luv Leo."

That probably couldn't be helped, considering the text he'd gotten from Annabeth while Christmas tree shopping that informed him Leo was planning to spray paint one of the walls bright green and red. Thankfully, it seemed Annabeth, Piper, and Jason had managed to put a stop to that. Hopefully.

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Annabeth POV:

"Guys, this looks amazing!" Percy complimented. Annabeth smiled as he looked around, feeling proud. Honestly, keeping Leo from going insane on Percy and Grover's apartment could be a three man job on it's own. Somehow, they'd managed, and Percy was right. It looked awesome.

"So, are you ready to decorate the tree?" Percy asked the group. There was a chorus of "yeah's!" in response.

Soon, the decorating began. The bins of ornaments were opened, and people were hanging them up on the tree.

If her life were a movie, Annabeth thought, this would be the part where they do a montage. They'd speed right through the moments like this with a couple clips, and skip to the action. Annabeth was glad her life wasn't a movie. For obvious reasons, of course, but she'd also miss out on the happy moments like this, spent with the people she loved.

The tree looked awesome. There were delicate, glass ornaments scattered carefully around the tree, with all shades of the rainbow. There were sky blues and sea greens. Like Percy's eyes, Annabeth noticed. There were light violets and deep reds. Tangy oranges and sunny yellows.

"Percy, where did you get these ornaments?" Annabeth asked.

Percy grinned, "My mom's friend owns a store that sells all sorts of these kinds of things. She hand paints all of these. We've been buying from her for years."

"Anyway," Percy said, "Who wants dinner?"

Annabeth hadn't noticed, but the sky had fallen dark as they'd been working. It was later than she'd realized, probably around seven or so.

They all agreed to staying for dinner.

"Alright," Percy called from the kitchen, "I've got spaghetti, some meat, and a pasta sauce recipe. How does spaghetti bolognese sound? And about," Annabeth heard Percy opening cabinets and moving around in the kitchen, "Four loaves of garlic bread?"

Everyone cheered in agreement.

Sometimes, Annabeth supposed, Percy was a lot smarter than it seemed. For example, he'd known that a) it would take long enough for people to decorate that they would want dinner, b) everyone loved spaghetti bolognese, and c) They needed about twice the amount of garlic bread they'd really needed because who doesn't love garlic bread?

As Percy cooked in the kitchen, the delicious smells wafted over to the living room. Someone found a Monopoly board, and they began to play. So far, Annabeth was winning.

"Annabeth, I have Park Place and Boardwalk!" Jason complained, "How are you winning?"

"I've got all the oranges," Annabeth explained, "Statiscally, they're the most landed on space in the whole board."

By the time Percy announced that dinner was ready, they were deep into the game. Annabeth was leading, then Jason, Frank and Hazel were each nearly broke, and Piper and Leo were only in because of deals they'd made (well, Piper had made, and Leo piggybacked onto). They were practically drowning in debt. In Annabeth's opinion, Leo had long since been out. He'd been cheating the whole game. ("Leo, we can see you stealing from the bank.") However, that did nothing. ("Maybe I'll just stay in jail. It's rent free)

However, when they smelled Percy's cooking they all scrambled to the table. It looked -and smelled- absolutely delicious. Percy had clearly inherited his mother's talent for cooking.

"Thank you, Percy. This looks awesome," Annabeth said.

"No problem," He replied.

After devouring the food, they went back to the living room and, a half hour later, finished the Monopoly game.

That night, Annabeth smiled as she went to sleep. It had been an awesome day.

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A/N: Right, so, that was a horrible chapter. Let's not talk about Chapter 23. Chapter 23 is the dark side of fanfiction. I apologize. Thanks for reading! Follow or favorite if you want to read more, and leave a review to tell me what you think!

Recommendation:

Heart By Heart by Luna-Incendia-14

I love this story!

Annabeth left letters in her highschool library six years ago to anyone who found them. Percy was that anyone. The last one told him to live for her. And so he did. Percy is now a famous musician and Annabeth's an aspiring author. What happens when these two meet for the first time by accident and realize just how much those letters impacted them? Is it fate? Or something more?

Link:

s/9994056/1/Heart-By-Heart