The Winter Solstice

Christmas time around New York was always interesting. The giant Christmas tree would be put up in Times Square, and store fronts would be decorated with all sorts of decorations. It would always snow and cover the roads. The streets would be full of mortals carrying Christmas gifts home or walking with their families to do some Christmas shopping.

Even Olympus was in a festive mood. Sure, the Greek gods didn't believe in Christmas, but they did like the whole idea of giving gifts to their children as well as receiving gifts from them. Some of the gifts, they'd never use but it was the thought that counted, right?

That's how all the demigods from Camp Jupiter and Camp Half-Blood were gathered on Olympus during the winter solstice. The war with Gaea was finally over, that meant everyone was in a happy mood. Well, everyone except Octavian.

Zeus had already finished melting everyone's brains with his boring speech that some of the gods would swear was the same exact one he had given last year. The rest of the gods were happy though to finally be able to get off their thrones and hang around their children. Even Hades and Ares were somewhat happy.

Poseidon found Zeus near a bowl of punch. He'd been meaning to talk to him. He slapped him on the shoulder, "Guess what Percy got me!"

"A smaller ego?" Zeus said.

"Look who's talking." Poseidon retorted, "Anyways, no. Look at this thing!" He pulled out a whole statue that was made of gold and about the size of a house cat. The eyes were emeralds, which had to be expensive. Apparently, Percy had to bribe a few Hephaestus kids to get it made.

"He got you a statue." Zeus said. If Poseidon's hearing was still working right, Zeus almost sounded jealous.

"Yeah, what did your son get you?" The sea god asked.

Zeus pulled out a stack of playboys, "These. Evidently, Jason has a sense of humor."

Poseidon chuckled. Zeus did not seem impressed at all, and neither did Hera who was standing a few feet away. Then Hades showed up

Hades walked by wearing a whole white fur coat. It didn't fit him at all. Normally, he'd be wearing black, but today he was wearing a white fur coat and golden sunglasses.

"You look like a pimp." Zeus noted.

"At least I don't act like one." Hades said as he started pouring himself a cup of punch.

"I disagree!" Demeter called from across the throne room.

"Quiet, crazy woman!" Hades yelled. He shook his head, the few times he visits this place and that crazy cereal goddess is always after him. How could she even hear him from that far?

"Who gave you that stuff?" Poseidon asked, pointing to the coat.

"Oh, Nico did. Said something about my style being boring." Hades said, "I don't know about you, but I rock this coat."

Apollo walked over to the punch line, his face pale and his shoulders tense. He looked like he was told that he was going to have to become a mortal and work his way to become a god again. Surely, that would never happen, right?

"Hey, what'd you guys get your kids?" Apollo asked.

"I got Thalia a leather jacket and Jason a mini lightning bolt." Zeus said. Mini lightning bolt sounded cool. Poseidon and Hades however, looked like someone had stolen their thunder.

"That's funny. I got Percy a trident." Poseidon said, "Tyson kind of ate his gift. I mean, at least it was a peanut butter cake so, he'll be fine."

"What about you?" Apollo asked Hades who was busy snapping a selfie.

"Oh, Nico's got this really cool hat, sort of like mine. Imagine being able to shadow travel without getting tired. Hazel asked for me to lift the curse on her gems, so I did that." Hades said, turning back to his picture.

Meanwhile, across the throne room, three sons of the Big Three were busy talking to each other and showing off their new toys.

Percy was twirling his trident around, much to Jason's and Nico's awe. He looked like he'd been using a trident forever, even though he didn't have a trident up until ten minutes ago.

"Check this out." Percy said, pushing a button on the staff. The trident expanded into a sea-green surfboard with Percy's name underneath it. Percy wouldn't be surfing in the winter, but it'd be awesome to use during the summer.

"That's cool but look at this thing." Jason said as he showed off his new lightning bolt. Percy looked a tiny bit nervous. That bolt looked almost exactly like Zeus's master bolt, just smaller and it radiated less I'm-going-to-end-the-world energy.

"That thing's nice." Percy said, "You gotta let me try it someday, dude."

"Sure, just let me use your surfboard." Jason said.

The two demigods turned to Nico, who was rocking his hat with pride. Hades didn't bother to mention the fact that he kind of made the hat a beanie with a picture of Mrs. Dodds stamped on the front.

"Why do you have my math teacher on your hat?" Percy asked.

"Alecto helped make it!" Nico defended, "Anyways, this thing is warm. I like it."

Other children were relatively happy about their gifts. Not that many gifts were as epic as the ones that the Big Three kids got, but either way, some of the campers were happy to get gifts at all.

Some of the gifts were almost considered not even gifts if you asked Percy or the Stoll brothers. Annabeth for one got a limited-edition architecture book which she was defending with her life. Percy did not see the appeal of getting a book for Christmas but he never questioned it.

The muses started to play festive music and disco lights started to flash through the whole throne room. Jason's lightning bolt glowed which only drew more attention. Connor Stoll seemed oddly fascinated by it, but to be fair, a lot of demigods were.

The gods were bickering instead of dancing like their children, but there was something oddly light-hearted about their arguing. No one felt like fighting during a party anyways.

The party lasted for hours. While the New York streets were quieting down and people were heading home, Olympus was still partying. The demigods were sore from dancing so much, but some were still going. A few had passed out all throughout Olympus. Jason was underneath a table, sleeping like a cat while clutching his lightning bolt tight to his chest. Percy was leaning against a pillar in the throne room with Annabeth sleeping on his shoulder. Nico was busy watching Nightmare before Christmas on his phone.

No one knew however, that those gifts could lead to one of the biggest demigod conflicts.


A/N (So, this story is a bit different form my other one. There's going to be a little bit less humor, but there will still be some. I hate writing depressing stuff.)