Disclaimer- I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or the Heroes of Olympus Series. (One can dream though) All rights go to the proper parties.

Note***- Will be boy x boy. (I promise, it is coming) Don't like? You don't have to read.

ΩΩΩ

December 23rd

Percy POV

The party had ended earlier then I had expected it too. I shouldn't have been surprised though. Piper, Will, and Nico were all tired from the trip. Jules-Albert may have been driving but still, 40 hours in a car not including stops for gas or food is a very long drive.

Even though Apollo and I had slept in so late, the god of the sun was still exhausted by the time we got home. He decided to crash on the couch again since it was still so cold outside. It wasn't quite as cold as it had been the day before, but it was still well below freezing.

Normally I didn't have a problem sleeping, but I wasn't tired yet. Sleeping in till noon always screwed up my schedule. Instead of sleep, I grabbed a piece of the ambrosia Apollo found for me, turned off the kitchen light, and went out to see what I could find to occupy myself.

ΩΩΩ

It was very quiet outside. With snow still falling, the streets were completely empty. I didn't really have anywhere to go; I just didn't want to stay inside. Part of it was that I was tired of being stuck inside, but a larger part was that I didn't want to keep Apollo up. He had tried playing it off because he had slept in so late but I knew that even with sleeping in till noon, he hadn't gotten enough rest.

Walking down the street with only the sound of the snow crunching under my shoes, it was surprisingly peaceful. I couldn't see the stars behind the thick clouds of snow, but I didn't mind. The streetlights gave off more than enough light.

I decided to head up and check on my father's temple. It had been a while since had been there. It was a little dusty but I spent a few minutes cleaning it up. Before I left, I broke off a piece of my ambrosia for an offering.

By the time I left the temple, the wind had picked up. I shivered a little and pulled my coats tighter around me. I was extra glad that I had decided to steal Apollo's coat for my walk to wear over top of my own.

I headed back down the hill to one of the smaller parks that I had found since I had come to New Rome. It was one of my favorite ones in the city. Neptune may not have been a very popular Roman god, but Venus was. The center of the park had a fountain that was supposed to be built to the goddess of love. However, since the fountain was in the shape of a large shell, it made me think of my father.

I sat on the edge of the fountain to eat my ambrosia. I had eaten some yesterday night during our training, but I still found myself craving another piece of the godly food. I guess going 4 days without any ambrosia when you're a god was a little like going a day on only water as a human. You need a bit extra when you do decide to eat again.

As I watched the snow falling over the park, I couldn't help but smile. The fact that the fountain was still spraying water made it rather obvious that Aphrodite must have liked the fountain. Otherwise it would have been frozen like most of the other bodies of water in New Rome.

While I was staring at the fountain, not really paying attention to anything, it occurred to me that the lamplight was causing a rainbow in the mist. I realized that it had been over a week since I had last talked to my mom. I usually called her every Saturday. She would probably be worried since I had missed our last call.

I patted my pockets, checking to see if I had any drachmas on me. I felt one in back pocket. I pulled it out and had to laugh. My last drachma and it had the face of my best friend on it. I couldn't help but wonder if it was weird seeing ones face on currency. I'd have to ask Apollo sometime.

I shook my head with a smile and tossed the coin into the rainbow. "Oh Fleecy, do me a solid. Show me Sally Jackson, New York City."

I knew that it was late, but I was hoping that by some miracle it would get through. The rainbow darkened for a moment before it lightened up again to show a very familiar room. I chuckled at the scene before me. My mom was sitting at the kitchen table, her laptop pushed off to one side. Her head was resting on her arms as she slept. I didn't want to wake her but I knew from experience that if I left her sleeping like that, she would wake up with a neck ache.

"Mom..." I saw her take a deep breath before her head nuzzled deeper into her arms. "Mom..!"

She sat up and looked around in surprise. She yawned and brushed the sleep out of her eyes. It wasn't until she went to look at the clock that she noticed me. I saw her eyes widen and she sat up straighter. "Percy!" I could hear the relief in her voice.

I smiled, "Hi mom."

Her relieved smile faded as she gave me a serious look. "Percy, I was expecting you to call me on Saturday."

I gave her a guilty wince, "I'm sorry mom."

"I was worried about you."

"I know. I couldn't call though. I accidently turned on my godly form. It took me a few days to learn how to turn it off again."

Her eyes widened in shock. "What happened? Something bad must have taken place to cause that."

That was one of the many reasons that I loved my mom. She never stayed mad at me. All she cared about was that I was safe.

I rubbed the back of my neck. "I got in a fight with Annabeth."

Her face immediately became sympathetic. "Oh Percy, are you okay? Do you want to talk about it?"

I shook my head. "No."

She sighed but nodded. "Alright, I'm here if you need me though."

I smiled, "I know mom. Thanks." I cleared my throat and felt the need to change topics. "So did I tell you I'm staying at Fred's apartment for a while?"

She looked surprised. "No, you didn't."

I nodded, "Ya. Piper needed a place to stay so I offered her my room."

My mom gave me an inscrutable look. "Doesn't Fred only have one bedroom?"

I shrugged. "Ya, but the couches in his living room are amazing. I think their even better then my bed at the house here. I hadn't slept as well as I have the last few days since before I went to Olympus. If he had a TV, I think I'd be moving in."

I laughed at the inside joke I shared with the sun god but my mom didn't join in. She simply tilted her head and gave me the same type of indecipherable look that Piper had earlier.

Our conversation drifted onto other things like how we were, the fact that it was snowing in California, and how her book was going. I noticed that I was getting a lot more talk time out of my one drachma than normal, but I wasn't going to complain. I would have to remember to send Fleecy a thank you card.

Our conversation was just coming to a close before my mom brought up the topic of the fight again.

"I love you Percy, and tell Fred I said hello."

I smiled. "I will. I love you too mom." I raised a hand to dispel the call before she called out.

"Oh, and Percy," I lowered my hand and gave her a searching look. "Don't worry about your fight with Annabeth. Those types of things always have a way of working themselves out. It just might not always be the way you originally thought."

I nodded. "Okay. Good night mom."

"Good night Percy." With that she waved her hand and cut off the call.

I smiled. Somehow just talking to my mom had a way of making me feel so much better. The only other person who seemed to have the same strange gift was Apollo.

I was slightly confused by her parting statement though. She may not have been quite as good at predicting the future as Rachel was, but she usually knew what she was talking about. It made me curious as to what she thought was going to happen, if she even had any concrete ideas or if it was just a mother's intuition.

ΩΩΩ

December 24th

The day dawned bright and sunny. Sometime between getting back from my walk and waking up, the snow must have stopped. I stretched my arms and went to look out the window. I made sure to stand a little closer to the fireplace then I normally would have. It may have stopped snowing, but that didn't mean it was any warmer.

Outside, I could see both kids and adults alike, bundled up in their warmest clothes, playing in the snow. It made me wish that I had brought a pair of winter gloves with me. In all fairness, how could I have guessed that it would snow? Even if I didn't have gloves, that wouldn't stop me from going outside.

I left the window to go find Apollo. I had assumed that he would be in his office like he normally was, but I was wrong. It didn't take me very long before I discovered that he wasn't in the apartment.

I frowned and headed back to the living room. I had been hoping to convince Apollo to join me in an epic snowball fight, but he must have had something else he needed to do. I sat back down on the couch and debated with myself over whether or not to head out anyway and see if anyone else was interested in a snowball war. Before I could come to a decision though, the front door opened and the god of poetry walked in.

The sun god smiled when he saw that I was already up. "Oh good, your awake." He tossed me my coat from the coat rack. "Come on, we have something we need to pick up."

I raised one eyebrow in confusion. "What are we going to get?"

He laughed. "I will give you a hint." He cleared his throat and I groaned. "What out of doors is found, yet inside friends gather round, no house is complete, without this decretive feat, and lights all around it are wound?"

I raised one eyebrow in surprise. "That wasn't a haiku."

"Nope, it was a limerick."

"I've never heard you recite anything but haiku's before."

The god of music rolled his eyes, "Just cause I don't, doesn't mean I can't. I am the god of poetry after all. I've just been on a haiku kick for a few decades. Anyway, that's beside the point. Come on, we have somewhere to be."

I chuckled as I got to my feet, "Fine. But can I put on real clothes first?"

ΩΩΩ

We left the apartment about 10 minutes later. I wasn't 100% certain where we were going, but I did have a guess. I would have shared it with Apollo, but he seemed very excited by the thought of surprising me.

He led me down towards the Little Tiber. I was very tempted to stop and at the very least make a snow angel, but Apollo's mood was contagious. It made me want to reach wherever we were going that much quicker.

We were almost to the river before he called out to me. "Wait, Percy."

I stopped and looked back at him in surprise, "What, why? I thought you were rushing to get there as quickly as humanly possible."

He rolled his eyes at my less than subtle joke, "Very funny Perce."

I winked, "I thought so."

He chuckled, "Anyway... close your eyes."

I frowned in confusion, "Why?"

He sighed. "Just do it." When I didn't respond fast enough, he stepped forward so that he could cover my eyes himself. "Come on."

With one hand covering my eyes and his other hand on my arm to steer me, he led me around the corner. He pulled his hand away and stepped back. "Okay, now open them."

I opened my eyes and couldn't stop the smile that spread across my face. My guess was correct. It was the one thing that I had been missing most about celebrating Christmas at home with my mom. He had brought us to a Christmas tree lot. I wasn't certain when they had set it up but I was glad they had.

I looked at him only to see an answering smile on his face.

"Fred, you're the best."

Apollo laughed. "I know." He grabbed my arm and started pulling us towards the lot. "Now come on, let's go pick one."

ΩΩΩ

Apollo POV

Watching Percy run around the lot like a 5 year old was adorable. I had known that the tree was a good idea.

It was kind of a last minute plan. I had woken up at a more normal time. When I saw that it was sunny, I went to the window to see the sky. As I was looking out I saw a pair of people carrying a tree down the street. I had never bothered to decorate a tree before but it occurred to me that Percy probably had. It made me wonder if that was something that he would like to do.

I had decided why not? I was willing to try anything once. I grabbed my coat left the house. I quickly sent off a letter and started asking around about where to buy a tree. It didn't take too long until I found someone who knew where to get them.

Even if I hadn't tried it before, I was rather excited.

"Hey Fred," I shook off my thoughts and turned to see the youngest god motioning me over to where he was.

I smiled and walked over to him. "I take it you found one you like?"

He nodded, "What do you think of this one?"

I looked at it and raised one eyebrow. "I think it's green and looks like a tree. If you like it, then it's good enough for me."

"That's not how it works. My mom and I go together to pick out our tree every year. Part of the fun is that both of us have to agree on it." I raised one eyebrow but before I could question it he was already pulling me further down the row. "What about this one then? And don't just say yes, you have to actually look at it."

I chuckled but obeyed. "There's a spot missing branches on this side."

He tilted his head to see what I was talking about and frowned. "You're right. Okay, do you see any you like then?"

I looked around, "What about that one?"

He followed my finger and shook his head. "No, that one has a broken top branch."

I raised an eyebrow and frowned. "Hum. This is more difficult than I thought it would be." He just laughed. I continued down the row until I got to the very end, "Hey Percy. What about this tree?"

He came down to see the one I was looking at. He walked all the way around it before he looked at me and smiled. "It's perfect."

I laughed at his enthusiasm. "Well I guess we found our tree then."

ΩΩΩ

Getting it home was definitely harder then picking it out. It really made me wish that Percy had already learned how to teleport. A tree might not be heavy for the first block, but after 20 plus minutes of carrying it, it certainly becomes so.

Eventually, we got it back to the apartment building. We did have to take a break though before I could help Percy wrestle the tree up the stairs. I found myself thanking Zeus that I only lived on the third floor.

As soon as the door closed behind us, I kicked off my shoes and coat and went to collapse on the couch for a few minutes.

"I'm going to guess that you're a little tired?" I glared at the son of Poseidon but he just laughed. "Why don't I make us some hot chocolate?"

I nodded my agreement before I closed my eyes and leaned back into the couch. I certainly hoped that the Christmas traditions Percy celebrated weren't all so exhausting.

After a few minutes, I heard the kettle go off. I felt the couch move when Percy sat down and I finally opened my eyes. I accepted the hot chocolate with a smile and took a large sip.

"Thanks Perce." I looked over at him and chuckled. "By the way, I like the colour of your drink."

The son of the sea god clutched his blue hot chocolate closer to him and stuck out his tongue. "It tastes better this way."

I shook my head fondly but didn't comment further. Honestly, some of Percy's quirks were just too adorable. We lapsed into silence as we finished our drinks. It wasn't until I placed my empty cup on the table that he broke the stillness.

"Hey Apollo, I have a question for you." I looked over at the young god beside me and raised an eyebrow. "It's great that we have a tree and everything but I just realized something, what are we hanging on it?"

Before I could answer, there was a flash. When I looked over, there was a large box in the middle of the coffee table. "Don't worry about that Percy. I'm guessing that this is Artemis' response to my letter."

"What letter?"

I shook my head and stood up to examine the parcel. On the top of the box was a stamp that said 'Olympian Postal Service'. I pulled off the letter that was attached to the top of the box and opened it. I immediately recognized my sister writing.

Apollo,

I got your letter. Before you open the box though, I should give you a heads up. You can go ahead and blame Hermes. He decided that the best time to deliver it was right before a council meeting. As soon as he said it was from you, everyone insisted that I had to read it aloud.

Our father had no problem with me sending you some ornaments for the tree. The downside is that everyone else wanted to send you some too. It's not every day that one of us decides to celebrate Christmas. You had never been interested in the holiday before, I'm curious as to what changed your mind and put you in such a festive spirit this year.

Speaking of which, I have a present for you. Hermes told me he would deliver it some time tonight to make your Christmas all the more traditional.

Artemis.

"You asked your sister to send you Christmas ornaments?"

I jumped and looked over my shoulder to find Percy standing right behind me, reading the letter.

I shrugged, "It's not like I had any decorations. My sister always celebrates the holiday since so many of her huntresses do. I figured she would have some that she could send me."

"Makes sense," He went back to reading the letter. His eyebrows pulled together and he had the most adorably confused look on his face. "What does she mean by everyone wanting to send some?"

"I don't know. Let's open the box and see."

I went around to the other side of the table so that both of us could see clearly. I ripped off the tape and looked inside. There was a tree stand sitting on the top with a couple strings of lights. As soon as I set those aside, my sisters warning made a lot more sense. I couldn't hold in my laugh as I drew out a minute statue of Hera.

"Suddenly I can see why she thought to warn us."

Percy joined in my laughter. "I'm guessing that Ares sent this one." He reached into the box and drew out a miniature gun.

I smiled and shook my head. "Well, I guess our tree will be very Greek then."

ΩΩΩ

It took a while to set up the tree. Before we could put any of the ornaments on, Percy had to hang the lights. Once we actually got around to hanging the decorations though, it was a lot of fun. Both of us had a good laugh over some of the ornaments.

Percy was highly amused when we discovered that Hades must have added a few of his own to the box as well.

He smiled as he hung the black skull on one of the top branches. "We're probably one of the few people to ever hang skulls on a Christmas tree."

I laughed as I hung a miniature box of cereal from Demeter. "I don't know, I think it's rather festive."

The son of the sea god was very happy with the blue shell ornaments that his father had sent. Out of all of the strange decorations that were in the box, those were definitely his favorites. Though he also seemed to enjoy the marching mechanical toy soldiers Hephaestus sent.

I could tell which ones Artemis added. My sister and I may have enjoyed teasing each other ruthlessly, but the golden music notes she found for me reminded me of why she was my favorite sibling.

In the very bottom of the box, we found the tree topper. I raised an eyebrow at it but didn't say anything. Percy insisted that we had to hang all of the ornaments before we could put it up though.

Once everything else was on the tree, he finally allowed me to put up the angel, or in this case, the heart. It wasn't too hard to guess which goddess had sent it. If the pink glitter wouldn't have given it away, the fact that the heart had two doves intertwined at the top of it would have.

"Aphrodite sure likes pink doesn't she?"

I chuckled, "What gave that away?"

He flashed me a smile and went to plug it in. We stepped back to appraise it.

There was no question that the decorations were mishmash. It wasn't like the trees I had seen in most stores. However, I found that I liked the fact that none of them matched. It made the tree look less perfect and more natural. Like something that one would see in a normal home.

It was a lot of work but I could understand why mortals did it. Decorating trees was a lot of fun. All in all, I was quite proud of my first ever Christmas tree.

"You know, I kind of love it."

I smiled at the son of the sea god and nodded my agreement, "Me too."

"There's something missing though." He went to dig through the empty boxes. I looked at the young god in confusion. Before I could ask, I heard his exclamation of triumph.

He pulled out the piece of blue and gold material that I had seen earlier. I had been wondering as to why they would send me what looked like a cape but when Percy climbed under the tree to wrap it around the tree stand, it made a lot more sense.

He came back out to stand beside me. He threw a friendly arm around my shoulders and smiled. "Now it's perfect."

I couldn't help but agree. The circle of material made it look all the more finished. I wasn't 100% sure who would have sent it though. Everything else that the council had sent had been rather obvious. The blanket however, was made of a shimmery fabric. The outer edge was blue material that shimmered green. The blue part looked to be in the shape of waves. The rest of the material was a gold that flashed red at a certain angle. If I looked closely, I could see that there were suns and music notes embroidered in scarlet thread.

"Thank you Hestia."

I looked over in surprise at the youngest god. "How do you know it was Hestia?"

He shrugged and bit his lip, "Just a feeling. After all, we've had the fire lit for the last three days. And who else would have known I was staying here?"

I looked back at the tree we decorated and had to agree.

I smiled. "Thank you Hestia."

ΩΩΩ

Once the tree was finished, we only had just over an hour to kill before we were supposed to go to my half brothers house for Christmas Eve. It was hard to think of it as Percy's house. He had stayed with me for just under a week but I already had grown accustom to his presence. It wouldn't feel the same when he went back to his house. I tried my best not to think about it.

We both showered and got changed. By the time we had picked up the decoration boxes, it was time to go over. Before we left, I saw Percy add two small boxes to his pocket. When he saw me looking he shrugged.

"I went out for a walk last night. On my way back, I found a store that was still open. I didn't know Will and Nico were coming, I thought that I should get them something. They are just small gifts but I think they will like them."

I had to smile at that.

Percy was one of a kind. He always seemed to go out of his way to make everyone feel included, to make everyone feel accepted. He's surprised by two extra people coming over for Christmas and he goes out of his way to find a store that was still opened so that they would have something to open on Christmas morning.

"Come on Apollo, we should be heading over."

I shook off my reverie and nodded. He was right. "Let's go then."

ΩΩΩ

We were the last people to arrive. I had to endure my son joking about, how can I be related to the god of the sun when I sleep in? I tried not to laugh but Percy was more than willing to do it for me. No one else got the joke though. More than one person looked at the son of the sea god like he was losing his mind.

On the plus side, showing up a little late meant that everything had already been set up. Hazel had apparently really wanted to make gingerbread houses. I wasn't sure what we were going to do with seven gingerbread houses afterwards, but who was I to kill the Christmas spirit?

Frank and Hazel decided to make one together. I was surprised by how nice it was. It looked like the ones that you see in pictures. Hazel told us that she and her mom had made one every year growing up. It was her favorite part about the holidays.

The entire surface of Jason's house was covered in white icing. He finished it long before anyone else and so he made some yellow and gray icing and starting drawing thunder clouds all over it.

Annabeth's gingerbread house was more than a little over the top. I suppose that I should have expected it considering she was an architect but it had 4 levels. Who is that energetic?

Piper's house looked exactly like the one on the box her kit had come from. She had even specifically picked out the same colours and types of candy to decorate it.

Reyna's house had no candy decorations on it at all. I was fairly certain that the only reason she had made one was because Hazel told her she had to.

Nico sat next to Reyna. He really didn't seem to be the gingerbread house decorating type and no one tried to make him. But in order to make his half sister happy, he did decorate a gingerbread man. No one said anything over the fact that his gingerbread man wore black robes and carried what was unmistakably a skull.

Will's house was almost as good as Hazel's. All of his decorations were perfectly placed. Though I wasn't surprised by his artistic gifts, he was my son after all. Being the child of the most awesome Olympian god does have its advantages, like being good in the arts. True it wasn't quite painting, but it was close enough to classify as an art.

No one was surprised when all the icing and candy on Percy house was blue. He had gone through every bag of candy on the table and picked out the blue ones. I especially liked his blue candy cane door. Though, even I couldn't help but chuckle when he made a pond in the yard complete with gummy whales and sharks.

I didn't want to make my own house, so I just helped Percy. And by helped, I mean ate candy.

It was a lot more fun than I had expected. By the time we were done the gingerbread houses, it was time for dinner. I snagged the spot between Percy and Will.

It was nice talking with my son. It wasn't often that I was really allowed to interact with my children. I could watch over them, but it was nice being able to talk to them and learn things about their lives that I wouldn't have otherwise. Being mortal may have sucked, but it had its perks too.

We had just finished up dinner and drifted to the living room to visit. Everyone was debating as to whether they should open one present the night before, or if they should save them all till Christmas morning.

Frank, Jason, Nico, and Percy were all for opening one on Christmas Eve since it was their family's tradition. Hazel, Annabeth, Piper, and Will wanted to wait. Reyna refused to pick sides. I was only half paying attention until I heard my name.

"What's your opinion Fred?"

The daughter of Athena was giving me an expectant look.

I shrugged. "I don't know. My family doesn't have any Christmas traditions. We don't really celebrate it normally."

The son of Jupiter looked surprised. "Oh, do you celebrate Hanukah then?"

I couldn't help but chuckle. "No. We don't celebrate any winter holidays, just the winter solstice. This will be the first Christmas I've ever actually celebrated."

Before anyone else could question me the daughter of Bellona spoke, "If this is your first Christmas, then I say we should open one tonight. Fred should try all the common Christmas traditions."

I shrugged, "Sounds good to me."

ΩΩΩ

Percy POV

Piper jumped to her feet, "If we're giving out one gift, can I give Annabeth hers? I've been excited for her to open it since I bought it."

I smiled. Piper had told me yesterday what she had gotten her. I knew Annabeth would be excited. There was a general murmur of consensus. Before the daughter of Aphrodite could get the gift though, there was a knock on the door.

I frowned. "Are we expecting anyone else?"

Jason shook his head, "Not that I know of."

The knocking started again. Apollo jumped to his feet, "I'll go see who it is."

The god of the sun went and opened the door. I heard him gasp. It was too quiet for anyone else to hear, but it made me wonder who it was. I couldn't see anyone, but I could hear footsteps coming around the corner. When the person came into view, I felt my jaw drop.

The entire room fell silent. The person standing in the doorway just laughed.

"Hey guys, did you miss me?"

The house was silent for exactly 7 seconds before Hazel said what we were all thinking.

"LEO!"

ΩΩΩ

The next twenty minutes or so were a complete blur. Everyone was running up to see or hug the son of Hephaestus. Everything was so loud; it was difficult to pick out a single voice from the group. Sometime during the chaos that was Leo's greeting, I saw Apollo and Calypso slip into the room. I wondered where they had gone but there was no way I could ask.

Once everyone noticed Calypso, they went to introduce themselves. She seemed a little surprised to be at the center of so many people's attention but once Leo went to stand beside her, she seemed much more at ease. I couldn't help but smile.

I was immensely happy. Not only that my friend had survived, but that Calypso was freed. She really deserved it.

I went up and hugged the goddess. She was surprised to see me but she returned my embrace.

"It's good to see you again Calypso."

I pulled back and looked at the son of the smith god. I smiled and flashed him a wink. He blushed in response and wrapped an arm around her. They looked happy together. I was very glad that Calypso had at last found her hero, the one who would always return for her. Even from death.

ΩΩΩ

It took a while for things to calm down but eventually, Leo was able to tell us what happened. How he had taken the physicians cure and how he had attached the astrolabe to Festus who had been able to find Ogygia. Once he had rescued Calypso, they had returned to the modern world. With an exception of a stop in Paris, they had come straight here. Chiron had told Leo where everyone was.

The son of Hephaestus was upset about having to leave his mechanical dragon outside the boarders to the city but Terminus refused to let him come within the city walls. Still, even not having Festus with him couldn't dampen Leo's mood. His excitable nature was even more contagious with his joy at seeing all of his friends again.

It wasn't too long before Leo was suggesting a snowball war. I was more than agreeable to it. I had wanted to have one since the morning. Besides, it was hard to argue with Leo's enthusiasm. Even those who originally said they didn't want to have a snowball fight gave in.

Apollo was the last holdout. When Leo failed to win him over to the idea, I gave him my puppy dog face. When even that failed, I just said that he must not want to have a snowball fight because he was worried Will would be a better shot. That worked.

Before we all went outside, Annabeth reminded us about the one gift we were going to open. I didn't know why she had said anything until she said that she wanted to give out all of her gifts right then. Once they were all passed out, she told us to open them. As soon as I had, I understood.

She had bought all of us a set of gloves and a toque. She had figured that the gods would give in and freeze the valley so she thought it would be a good idea.

I smiled as I put on my blue gloves and hat. It was exactly like a child of Athena to buy practical gifts for everyone.

Now I was ready for that snowball fight...

ΩΩΩ

Apollo POV

I really didn't like the intense cold. Snow wasn't so bad when you had a fire to curl up in front of or, even better, someone to curl up with. Staying out after dark, in the cold, to chuck snow at each other, really didn't sound like my thing. I really wished we had done this first, before it got dark and even colder.

On the other hand, Percy and I wouldn't have had the toque and mittens if we had done it earlier. I knew enough about son of Poseidon to know that he wouldn't let a little cold stop him from enjoying the snow. Though, there was a high likelihood he would jokingly complain about it after.

I was surprised that Annabeth had gotten me a set as well. I hadn't expected gifts from any of Percy's friends. I felt more than a little guilty about not getting them anything. I decided that I would have to see if any stores were still open after we left so that I could get them something as well. I may not have celebrated Christmas normally, but even I knew that typically mortals giving gifts received them in return.

What shocked me even more then receiving the red toque and gloves though, was that Annabeth had bought the same set for Percy as she had for everyone else. He didn't seem to mind. In fact he looked very pleased, though I had a feeling that was mainly due to the colour. Still, I was surprised. I was not well known for my long term relationships, but I did have a lot of dating experience in short ones. It seemed to be common place to do something extra special for your partner. Maybe it wasn't the same in all relationships, but I had always known people to treat their significant other differently than they treated their friends. Make them feel more special...

A snowball smacking me in the back of the head pulled me out of my thoughts. I shook the offending matter off of my head and glared at the perpetrator. The son of Poseidon smiled and winked.

I reached down and packed some snow into a ball. "I hope you know, this means war."

The son of the sea god stuck his tongue out at me and laughed.

I was going to have to pay attention to the fight now. If he was going to take cheap shots when I wasn't looking, then I wasn't going to give him any mercy either.

Besides, I wasn't certain what thinking about it would accomplish. If Percy didn't have a problem with it, then who was I to say anything?

ΩΩΩ

I can honestly say that it was the most intense snowball war I've even been in. Alliances were made and broken so often that you never know if the hits you took were from the 'enemy' or if they were friendly fire.

It only got even more extreme when the son of Hephaestus decided to build a snowball throwing robot. It worked for a while, before it went haywire and started shooting everyone. Most of us took cover rather quickly after that. Those that were left in the open were swiftly buried to the waist.

After that, it was all of us vs. the out of control device. It kind of reminded me of some of Hephaestus less successful inventions. If it had originally been designed to replace an opposing team, then it would have been very impressive. As it was though, seeing its inventor trying to melt his way out of the snow prison while his invention continued to make it even larger was rather hilarious.

It took Percy, Nico, and I teaming up together to take out the machine.

Since Percy's power had increased with his godhood, he was using the water in the wet snow to slow the robots actions. Nico was shadow traveling from place to place to keep the thing occupied while I attempted to get a clear shot. It took almost five minutes and eight arrows though it's motherboard before the thing finally collapsed. You had to give Leo some credit. It may have gone crazy, but his machines were definitely tough.

While Nico, Frank, Reyna, Percy and I were digging Jason, Leo, Piper, Will, and Hazel out of the snow, Calypso and Annabeth went inside to make some hot chocolate for all of us.

By the time we had freed those of us it had imprisoned, we were ready to head back inside. We were cold and exhausted, but it had been a blast. Looking around at everyone's faces, I could tell they felt the same.

I could see why Percy liked his friends so much. Life around them was exciting.

We left our wet coats and shoes in the entryway to dry and went back to the living room. The two girls joined us a few minutes later with the drinks. Calypso met my eye when she handed me my cup.

It was a little strange seeing her out in the modern world. She had been locked on the island since long before I was born. However, I was glad to see her freed. Whenever I decided to go visit her, she had never been anything but polite. I knew that she had supported the titans in the first war but, if my mortality had taught me anything yet, it was that Zeus' punishments weren't always fair to the 'crime'.

She smiled at me and continued handing out drinks to the others. I was glad that I had a chance to speak to her before anyone else had. I had never really known Leo. He had invented the Valdezinator, but that was the only interaction that I had with the son of Hephaestus. So his return from being supposedly dead didn't shock me half as much as Calypso's freedom did.

While Leo was greeting his friends, I had taken the goddess aside to explain to her why I was there. The mortals may have easily been able to mistake me for one of my children but the goddess had known me much longer. My mortal guise didn't fool her. Her very first question had been why I was in New Rome when I should have been on Olympus.

I quickly told her what had happened and that I needed her to keep my secret. She had willingly agreed though she did tell me that Fred was a weird name. I decided not to correct her on that...

ΩΩΩ

After our hot chocolate, everyone decided that it was time to head home. It was already ten at night and everyone would be coming back the next morning.

Leo and Calypso were staying at the house. Piper had offered to share a room with the goddess and Leo was going to sleep in the living room with Will and Nico.

On our way home, Percy and I did manage to find exactly one store that was open. It was just a little convenience store but, since it was Christmas Eve, I was surprised that we could even find that much.

Considering I didn't really know all that much about most of them, I ended up buying 9 boxes of chocolate. The only person I bought a personalized gift for was Calypso. Next to the maps, they had a book of the best places to visit in North America. I figured, after being stuck on the same island for eons, she would appreciate seeing new sights.

Percy also ended up buying two more gifts, one for Leo and one for Calypso. He bought Leo a huge bag of assorted candy. I had talked to the son of Hephaestus exactly twice, and even I knew I would be mad at Percy for giving that boy extra sugar. Though, considering I had bought him chocolate, I couldn't really talk.

Percy also ended up buying one of their limited selections of books for Calypso. He chose to get her a book of flowers native to the U.S.A. I didn't understand why he chose it, but he seemed certain she would like it. Since I knew that Percy had met her before, I figured he probably knew something I didn't.

ΩΩΩ

By the time the two of us actually got to bed, I was practically dead on my feet. It was already 11:30 PM and I had been up since 6 in the morning.

I had been all for going to bed as soon as were got home, but the son of Poseidon insisted that we needed to wrap the gifts. It sounded like a lot of work but Percy helped me. Once we put them under the tree, I could see his reasoning. It did look better then it would have with just a bow stuck on top and a name written in sharpie.

I decided to sleep in the living room again. Half because it was still cold out, the other half was because I was too tired to bother brining my blanket and pillow back to the other end of the apartment. I threw myself onto the couch and pulled the blanket up to my neck.

The glow of the Christmas tree was quite relaxing. I was glad Percy convinced me to leave it on. On the other couch, I could see that Percy had already fallen asleep. That boy should have been a child of Hypnos with how quickly he could fall into a deep slumber.

I chuckled to myself and closed my eyes. I knew it wouldn't be very long till I followed his lead. I could already feel sleep tugging at my mind.

I was just slipping under when I thought I saw a flash of light, the kind that usually signalled a god popping in and out, but I was too tired to bother checking. Whatever it was, it could wait till morning.

ΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩ

Authors Note

Well that was a long chapter... It wasn't supposed to be. I don't really know what happened. It just kept on getting longer and longer. Then suddenly, it was 4 times as long as my normal chapters. It's officially the longest chapter I've ever written. However, I'm sure you guys will forgive me. ;-)

Do you know what the hardest part of updating on a set day is? Having the chapter finished in advance and not posting it. I always want to post it as soon as it's done. It's killing me to wait.

Also, how did so many people guess my spoiler? I left it open so that it could have been anyone. How did everyone know it was Leo? I guess I'm just too obvious. On that note... Yay its Leo! I couldn't leave him out of this story. :-) I like him too much.

Next update will be on July 5th. Here's a little sneak peek.

Next Chapter:

When I realized what I was seeing, I felt my heart begin to swell in my chest. I looked up at the god of the sun and my face burst into a smile.

"Apollo..."