Here's a little holiday pep for you! Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson or the song "Tied Together with a Smile". Rats.

I loved December. Growing up at Camp, it meant that I had the whole place to myself since those few campers ago stayed on for the winter went home for the holidays. But nowadays, it meant that the school Percy taught at was on winter break, and I could take personal time off at the architecture firm I worked at. Which meant no clashing schedules, no early mornings, no work, no stress, no more of me walking out the door when Percy walked in.

Finally, time for us.

I was perched at the counter with a book and a mug of tea when Percy came stomping into his apartment. He immediately threw his briefcase on the sofa, chucking an armful of AP Greek Mythology papers after it which ended up in a puddle of melted snow that had been tracked in.

"Weren't those your student's finals?" I inquired as the walked over to me.

"Screw finals," he said and, hooking his fingers through my belt loops, he pulled me in for a kiss. Unlike the blizzard that was attacking Manhattan at the moment, his lips were warm and inviting. He ran his tongue across my lower lips, and I happily allowed him in.

He pushed me up against the counter top and we broke apart long enough for him to grin and say "Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas, Seaweed Brain," I smiled back. He closed the space between us once more, his hands resting on my hips. As I tangled my hands in his hair, we made it over to the couch, where Percy began to unbutton my flannel shirt, his mouth working on my neck. I moaned with pleasure as his hands worked their way to the bare skin of my lower back.

"So, I was thinking..." Percy said in between kisses.

"Hmmm?" I should have started to worry as soon as Percy had said that he was thinking, but I was too distracted to process what he was saying. I my fingers fumbled with Percy's tie.

"The holidays are coming up," he said. He had successfully taken my shirt out of the equation, and his hands on my stomach was making my head whirl.

"I'm pretty sure the holidays are here," I said breathlessly as I started clawing at the buttons on Percy's dress shirt, determined to not to be the only shirtless one in the room.

Percy chuckled, a deep, sexy sound. "You know what I mean."

"Mmmm..." Percy, now on top of me, had returned to kiss me on the lips. Running his mouth down my jaw line, he said,

"I was thinking you could meet my family this year." Our hips ground together.

"Percy, I talk to Sally and Paul all the time." I was a little perturbed that he was thinking of his mother while we got hot and heavy together.

"I meant," Percy said, hands running up and down my thighs, "My extended family."

"What!"

My head shot up, cracking into Percy's. Per y rolled off of me as I stared at him in in utter horror.

"Your extended family? Like grandmas and cousins and uncles?"

"Uh... Yeah."

"Percy..." I whined.

"Wouldn't it be nice to spend Christmas Eve together for once?" I but my lip. It would be, I suppose. Ever since Percy and I had graduated from college, Percy got together with his Mom's and Paul's families on Christmas Eve and spent Christmas Day with me in his apartment. I had never attended any of his family's functions; considering my experience with family, I didn't know how well I'd be able to handle seeing a perfect happy family. Percy understood. Over the past few years though, I had developed a sort of phobia against families. I literally went out of my way to avoid them- and I had all but vowed to never have children. I was convinced that I would be just fine with Percy for the rest of my life, and though I knew he disagreed, he allowed me to hold my grudge in peace. Up until now, he hadn't ever tried to get me to meet his family.

"You're going to have to meet them sometime," Percy said. Knowing it was the truth, I groaned.

"What if they don't like me?" I asked in a small voice.

Percy looked at me incredulously. "How could they not like you?"

"Hey, my own family didn't like me- I'm sure it wouldn't be hard for someone else's not to either."

"Your family don't dislike you, just your stepmom, and she's even warmed up to you in the past few years!"

"Percy... I don't knowing I an even handle this."

"You can."

"What if I freak out? What if I have a breakdown?"

"You won't."

"What if a monster shows up?"

"We kick ass."

"What if-"

"Annabeth!" Percy said exasperatedly. "They know about you. We've been dating since high school, and now we're 23. You need to come."

I looked at him and sighed.

"Plus," he said, "how bad can it be? This is the mortal side of my family- no ones going to blast you to pieces if they disagree with you."

We had a mini stare down contest.

"Fine. I'll go." Percy's face split into a grin as he kissed me on the lips.

/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\

We drove up to Paul and Sally's with a meat tray, several wrapped presents, and butterflies in my stomach.

"Ready?" Percy asked cheerfully.

No.

"Yes," I said, putting on my most winning smile. It must have come out more as a grimace though since Percy gave me a sympathetic kiss on the forehead.

While I walked up the front door, I found myself giving the same pep talk I had delivered mentally before entering the Titan War. You can do this. You're strong. As long as you have Percy, everything with be alright. I left out the part about that if I died that it would be for an good cause... That definitely was more relevant for the Titan War. Though terrified, I was fairly certain Percy's family wasn't about to attack me with celestial bronze.

At least I hoped not.

The snow crunched under my boots as I climbed the steps up to the red front door with its evergreen wreath hung merrily on it. Taking a deep breath as Percy turned the knob, I stepped into the holiday hubbub.

Besides Percy, I didn't know anyone in the room. About 30 or so smiling faces filled the room, laughing a talking and drinking. There were a handful of younger kids and a considerable amount of teenagers. I quickly concluded that Percy and I would either be the oldest at the kiddie table or the youngest at the adult table. Nobody seemed to notice our arrival until a small girl who looked to be about four with cinnamon colored pigtails popped out from behind the tree and shouted,

"Percy!"

Grinning, Percy stepped forward and held his arms out as she galloped over to him and launched herself into his arms.

"Hey, Lulu!" he said as he spun her around.

Little Lulu's excitement turned to confusion. "Who's that?" She pointed at me, still frozen in my spot in the doorway, probably looking like an idiot. The rest of the family fell quite as they turned to look at me, eyes wide with curiosity. Percy cast his most encouraging smile at me. "Everyone, this is my girlfriend, Annabeth."

I waved meekly.

After a moment of awkward silence, Percy's family seemed to break out of their mini trance, most smiling and saying hello, though I noticed several of Percy's older cousins swapping money.

"Told you she was real," one girl said smugly as several boys handed her bills.

Just then, Sally came bustling out of the kitchen wearing an apron and a holiday sweater. "Why so quiet out here? We have plenty more eggnog back in the kitchen. Don't forget, kids, the gingerbread-" Mrs. Jackson stopped short as she saw me standing there on her welcome mat.

"Oh, Annabeth!" She rushed forward and hugged me, her tiny frame squeezing the life out of me. "Oh sweetheart, I'm so happy that you've come! Have a seat! How are you? How's work? Is Percy still acting like a gentleman? Here, I'll go get something for you to drink." Having finally moved me from my perch in the entryway, she seating me next to Percy by the fireplace and fussed over me, eventually departing for the kitchen to go tell Paul of my attendance. At this point, I was feeling quite embarrassed as the family sized me up.

"Hello, everyone," I said shyly.

"Hello" echoed back at me from everyone besides Lulu, who said, "You're pretty!" Everyone laughed as I blushed and thanked the toddler.

Cozily arranged in the family room, I went through the whole family and was introduced. Sally's mother, much to my embarrassment, gushed over me and demanded to know why Percy hasn't brought me home earlier. Uncles teased Percy and I, Aunts cooed at us, and cousins asked me how much Percy was paying me to pretend to be his girlfriend. The girl who had won the bet was named Nicole, who grinned at me and complimented me on my sweater. Despite all of the friendly folks, I was feeling more and more sad about my own family situation. When two little boys broke a plate, I was reminded so strongly of Bobby and Matthew that I almost broke down. I was tied together with a smile, but was coming undone. Quickly.

While the Christmas ham was being carved, I found it more and more tiring to keep my smile up. I was losing it. However, Percy's family seemed to love me; they wanted to know all about me, where I worked and what college I had attended. All of the attention was starting to make me feel uncomfortable, so I was very grateful when the Christmas ham diverted their focus.

Dinner was lovely, the only thing out of the ordinary was Percy's usual mischief. About every 3 minutes Lulu would pull Percy's sleeve and whisper, "Do the water trick!" and every time she did, whoever happened to be taking a drink at the time would have their beverage promptly smack them in the face. Not knowing of Percy's way with water, everyone chuckled and concluded they just be a little tipsy if they couldn't drink properly. Though Sally pretended to laugh and kept up the false pretense of not knowing why people's drinks were going haywire, she cast her son a look that vehemently said, Behave yourself!

By the end of the meal, everyone was positively fawning over me, oh-so-impressed with this and that. It was physically exhausting for me to continue to smile and seem genuine. All of this family togetherness was becoming increasingly harder for me to handle. Every little thing was dragging up memories of my own wrecked family, and I was becoming antsier by the second.

After desert, I excused myself to use the bathroom and instead slipped into Percy's old bedroom. Flopping down on the bed that during our teenage years I had so many times cuddled with Percy, I stared at the ceiling as I finally let go of the tears that I had been holding in all day.

I knew it was going to be hard to see a real, functioning family. But I don't know it would be this hard.

The click of the door snapped me out of my trance as I looked over to see Percy entering my sanctuary, a sympathetic look on his face. He gathered me into his arms and for a moment, I could have sworn we were seventeen again.

"I'm so proud of you, you know," he said, his lips resting in my hair.

"Why?" I whispered. "Everyone thinks I'm so great, so perfect- the golden one."

Percy just smiled. "Because you are, silly."

"No I'm not," I said miserably. "I'm a mess."

"A beautiful mess," Percy whispered in my ear. "Ok, that was cliché," he said after a moment of silence. "But I mean it. You walk around here thinking you're not pretty, but thats not true. Believe me- I know you. Just go out there and be you. I love you. And I'll bet my family does too."

I looked deep into those green eyes that I loved so much and saw nothing but the rawest, truest form of love in the depths of his eyes.

"I love you, Percy."

"I love you too."

Standing up, I took Percy's hand and we left his room. When we walked back into the family room, we found very one seated as they chatted and enjoyed coffee and hot cocoa. We hadn't been in the room for three seconds before Lulu had noticed our presence.

"Percy! Percy is here! Can we open presents now? Please please please!?" The enthused girl ran about the tree, dancing over what was presumably one of her presents. Her festive hair bow had been jostled sideways in her excitement.

"Alright, everyone," Sally said. "I think we'd better start on these gifts or Lulu might burst!" There was a great rustle as presents were passed around and paper being ripped. Just as the first calls of "Thank You" began echoing about, a tiny, petrified scream came from the corner of the room. There, Lulu stood clutching her brand new seahorse stuffed animal, frozen in place in horror. I spotted a speck of black looming in the corner with eight angular legs.

In a split second, Percy was over there with a shred of wrapping paper to deal with the party crasher. Having done the deed, he scooped Lulu up and gave her a kiss on the cheek and said, "All better?"

Suddenly, realization came crashing down upon me. It was as if someone had flipped a switch. As I watched Percy, my wonderful, wonderful Seaweed Brain carry Lulu around and soothe her, I came to the epiphany that I wanted this. I wanted family. I wanted me and Percy and a daughter for him to protect and a son for me to teach. I wanted to take them to camp and teach them their heritage.

All my life I had wanted to build something permanent. Never in a million years would I have ever considered a family permanent. But now, this family that had taken me in as if I was one of them, who laughed and hugged and celebrated, they had changed my mind completely. I saw myself and Percy, sitting happily on a love seat surrounded by our children and our children's children. I wanted this.

I looked down to make sure I was drinking hot chocolate rather than wine. Nope, this feeling definitely wasn't alcohol induced.

The rest of the evening was the most fun I'd had on Christmas Eve in a long time. Percy, idiot that he is, began to make the snow morph into a snowman that greatly resembled Frosty. While the adults weren't looking, he would parade his pal across the bay windows of the Blofus house, causing the kids' eyes to widen in shock. When they called the adults' attention though, the snowman would disintegrate into snowflakes, only to reassemble again after the parents lost interest.

I simply enjoyed the newfound feeling of contentment I gained from being in a family. I laughed and talked with Percy's aunts and was a good sport when the uncles started giving me a hard time- though some were quite thoroughly drunk by now.

As we walked out the door, Lulu came up to me and whispered, "You should marry Percy. I think he likes you." I merely smiled and gave her a hug and kissed Horace the seahorse on the head.

When I woke up on Christmas morning, my legs were tangled in Percy's as he drooled slightly on his pillow. Some things never change.

But I certainly had.

I whistled while I bustled about the kitchen making blue pancakes in one of Percy's old sweatshirts. I carried a stack in the bedroom were I shook Percy awake.

"Merry Christmas, Seaweed Brain."

"Merry Christmas," he said groggily, grabbing a pancake. "Mmmmm..." He said with satisfaction.

Laying there with his blue pancake and green eyes, I couldn't help but hope my baby someday would look like him.

Awww! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW! I'm really not getting much feedback, so I need your opinion if I am to continue this story! Thanks!