Phew! I had a bit of a connection scare just now. My internet was limited! I almost had a heart attack when I thought I wouldn't be able to update it but here I am, crisis averted :)

My chapters are getting longer ever since I have that rant saying I couldn't make it longer...

Merry December 6th and happy reading!

A very Percy Jackson Advent

December 6th

"How did you do it?" Calypso asked. Leo was in the control room doing gods know what with his sphere. He'd been working for the better part of the morning whilst everyone else had been relaxing and just doing whatever. In their defence, Leo was the only one of them who actually knew how to do... whatever it was he was doing.

"Huh?" He looked up, his face streaked black with machinery oil forcing Calypso to have to stifle a giggle.

"How did you do it?" she repeated.

"Do what?" he asked, putting down the sphere carefully and giving his full attention to Calypso.

"Free me," she said simply.

Leo shrugged. "Oh you know... I just used my awesome Repair Boy skills... and the sphere helped too."

Calypso smiled. "You really like that sphere, huh?"

"You have nooooo idea," he said, dragging out his 'no', "It's helped me out so much and I've only just seen the tip of the iceberg of all the things it can do!"

"Just be careful, Leo," she cautioned. For all the insults and bickering, she truly cared for Leo and didn't want him or his friends – her friends – to get hurt.

"I'll be careful," Leo said.

"Promise?"

Leo held up his hand. "Scout's honour." When Calypso looked confused he took both of her hands and looked seriously in her in the eyes. "I promise."

At the other end of the ship, Frank was approaching Nico's cabin. He couldn't deny the fact that the kid sort of scared him but he also felt responsible for him in a brotherly way. Maybe it had something to do with how Hazel was always worrying about her brother around him.

When he knocked on the door there was a long drawn out silence before Nico said, "Who is it?"

"Frank," he said.

"Come in." Frank hesitantly entered the room. Nico had decorated his Christmas tree with skulls and other creepy things that Frank didn't really want to look at. His whole room was dark except for the green glow of the Greek fire that lit the candles on the chandelier above them.

"I uh," Frank began, "I wanted to just uh... let you know that you can talk to me about anything... I'll just listen and I won't tell anyone, I promise."

Nico frowned. "Not you too."

"What?" He was only trying to be nice. In all fairness, he'd expected a worse reaction.

"I already had this whole talk of 'I'm here for you bro; any time you wanna talk about it, just come to me' speech with Jason. I don't want to talk about it and nobody needs to know. Some secrets should just stay secret," Nico fumed.

That was closer to the reaction Frank had been expecting but at least there were no armies of ghosts this time. "Fine if you don't want to talk about it then don't talk about it," Frank said with a shrug. "I just don't want you to withdraw from everyone because of it, we're your friends and it's Christmas."

Nico's frown deepened. Frank was never very good at reading people but Nico proved practically impossible. The two of them stayed in silence for a few incredibly long minutes before Frank tried to start some sort of conversation. "So yeah... I just wanted to tell you that you can talk to me about anything."

Nico chuckled but it wasn't a happy sound. "Yeah, you said that already."

Deep in his heart, a small part of Nico was screaming at himself to just tell Frank everything and then go out there and tell the rest of the crew. He didn't need to tell anyone about his crush, just the gay bit. But he'd been hiding his secret too long and now it just made him shy toward those around him and angry at himself and the gods, especially Eros.

Seemingly out of the blue, Frank turned into a cat just like he had on the day Calypso had joined them. "What in the name of Hades are you doing?" Nico asked as Frank crawled onto his knee and curled up into a ball. Animals always kept away from him because of the whole smell of death thing so this was the first time a cat – or at least, frank turned into a cat – had been anywhere near him never mind curled up on his knee. Frank Mewled at him in response and Nico felt himself relax as he allowed himself to forget the fact that it was Frank curled up on his knee, not a cat. He scratched Frank the cat behind his ears and marvelled at how soft his fur was and then grinned when he started purring.

Suddenly, telling Frank – in cat form – didn't seem so bad. He told him about how he'd first found out he was gay before he knew of his parentage or anything about the world he now lived in and how he'd had to keep it secret but Bianca had always been there for him and supported him.

He told Frank how he'd started crushing on Percy when he'd saved them from falling off the cliff at his school and then how betrayed he'd felt when he broke his promise to keep his sister safe.

Now he'd opened a dam and everything he'd been keeping locked up inside came pouring out. He told him how he'd have panic attacks when he woke up alone behind a dumpster in New York and how he'd had to scrounge for food. He explained how he'd summoned his first ghost and then how much that'd helped him but also messed him up.

He told Frank the cat everything.

When he'd stopped talking he had to scrub his hand across his face to get rid of his tears and then he sat, scratching Frank's ears until he jumped down from his knee and turned back into Frank.

Nico found himself unable to meet Frank's eyes. He didn't want to see the pity mixed with poorly hidden disgust that would surely be there.

"I had no idea," Frank said before pulling him into a hug. Nico tried to push away but Frank's new physique made it quite impossible for him to escape.

Just as Nico allowed himself to accept the hug and the feeling of safety and belonging that came with it, there was a knock at the door and Hazel came in. Her whole face lit up at the sight of her boyfriend and brother hugging. "Good to see you two finally getting along! Leo's making us all watch really bad Christmas films and I've been told you have to join, or else."

Nico tried to pull back his mask of grumpiness but after telling Frank pretty much his whole life story, it was a little harder than usual. He and Frank agreed to go and watch the films and followed Hazel out of the room and toward the Rec room.

"Why did you turn into a cat?" Nico whispered as they followed Hazel.

Frank shrugged. "People tell cats everything."

Goddess Timtam: Don't be embarrassed! I hope your information helped many confused souls. and your review has helped many people (well... it made me happy) Merry christmas to you too :) and it looks like you're not the only one who Nico can't push away, hope you liked this chapter.

expa: yes there are many secrets within this story, some are more obvious than others ;)

Isabella Frida-Marie Cullen: glad you like it and thanks for the review x

Ana-DaughterofHades: thank you for your review :) I really liked the idea of them all sitting down and watching christmas films together but I had a lot of ideas for this chapter so I only got the chance to mention it. Still, there are 19 days to christmas which means there's still as many chapters to go.

HolbyCityFan13: happy to here it, thanks for the review :)

Guest: I'm glad you think so, Nico is one of my favorite characters, I'd hate to get him wrong.

butterflygirly99: Really? nobody's ever told me they like my writing style, I always thought it was a little confused and all over the place so it's good to know you like it :) you knit jumpers? that's so cool! I'd love to learn to knit but I don't have the patience and yeah...

randomosity4arty: Yeah, I felt the same way which is why this happened with Frank in this chapter. Although, Jason being friends with Nico did make me like his character a little bit.

Remnant of Life: It wasn't Hazel doing the cheering up but I hope you still liked this chapter :) I'm glad you like it and thanks for reviewing :)

HaileeStoll0330: haha, I didn't think you sounded like you were 7 - all the 7 yr olds i've encountered were annoying as f*dge! thanks for the review :)

samm10: glad you like it, thanks for the review!

Thank you EVERYONe for reviewing! I can't believe how many reviews this has! I've never gotten this many reviews so fast before, I was practically hyperventilating all day. reviewers get their own weird virtual christmas tree like this one

... i said it was weird...

see you all tomorrow :) x