I tried to make yesterday's chapter not-so-Nico-centric but that just resulted in today's chapter being more Nico-centric than any other!

sorry, not sorry.

Merry December 10th and happy reading!

A Very Percy Jackson Advent

December 10th

"All I'm saying," Frank said slowly as he carefully considered how to say his next words, "is that... The tree... I-it's kinda creepy."

Nico laughed. "That's the point Frank. I was forced to celebrate Christmas so I thought I'd honour my father at the same time."

Frank opened his mouth to say something about Hades and then shut it again – Hades (or Pluto) wasn't the kind of god that you wanted to upset. "But it's Christmas, Nico," he sighed. "Just... I don't know; add some glitter to it or something."

Nico turned slightly pink and then sheet white and then back to normal before settling on a very angry expression. "Why do you think the tree needs glitter, Frank? What are you hinting at?"

The two of them were sat in Nico's room. They'd finished their game of Mythomagic and had been disusing their favourite Mythomagic gods until Frank had finally had enough of the creepy vibes he was getting from Nico's tree.

Frank held his hands up in defence. "Hey, I wasn't trying to hint at anything, Nico, It's a Christmas tree! Put glitter on it, I have glitter on my tree."

Nico's shoulders relaxed. "Sorry..."

Frank gave Nico a friendly shoulder punch. "Don't worry about it. You just need to loosen up. You're always thinking strategically and making more backup plans than even the English and Greek alphabet can account for before you're even eating breakfast. You need to just let go and have some fun."

"We're in the middle of a war, Frank," Nico reminded him.

"No, I know that, I know that," Frank said. "But I just think you need to... you need to just let go."

Nico still didn't look convinced and then Frank lost his chance to persuade him any further as Annabeth walked into the room. The few walls that Nico had let down around Frank instantly went straight back up at her appearance. Frank noticed how he even sat up a little straighter – his relationship with Annabeth was comrade a war unlike his now quite brotherly relationship with Frank.

"Sorry," Annabeth said, sensing that she'd interrupted something. "I just wanted to tell you that the training arena's free now. You told me to tell you." She looked directly at Frank whilst she was talking. It wasn't because she didn't like Nico or that she wanted to exclude him in anyway. But ever since Nico had found out she knew his secret, he'd fixed her with murderous glares every chance he'd gotten and so, Annabeth had thought it best to just wait until he'd calmed down to address the subject.

"Thanks," Frank said. Annabeth left shutting the door softly behind her. "Why won't you just be nice to her, she didn't purposely find out and she's promised not to tell anyone!" Frank complained to Nico.

Nico narrowed his eyes and considered Frank's complaint for a moment. "I don't not like her; I envy her."

"Oh." Franks said simply and then dropped the subject.

Nico but his hand on the hilt of his stygian iron sword and stood up. "Shall we go train then?"

Frank hesitantly nodded his consent but secretly wished Leo hadn't mineralised the Christmas celebrations in light of Reyna's ranting and told them that everyone should do at least an hour's training a day or else he wouldn't make any Christmas cookies. It was as if he was turning into his grandma. "Sure, let's get it over with. I'd rather play more Mythomagic... it counts as training right?"

Nico nodded. "Strategic thinking will only get you half of the way."

"Merry Christmas to us," Frank said sarcastically as they made their way toward the arena.

expa: Glad you thought so, I love writing Frank and Nico together :)

Guest: I can only guess that you are Goddess TimTam but you forgot to put the name in?

Ana-DaughterofHades: I'll definitely have some Nico with his hades figurine moments at some point :)

thefangirlthatwon'tshutup: Yeah I really liked that about Nico in the books, it was only right that I included it in this :)

Isabella Frida-Marie Cullen: You're very welcome! It's a pleasure to write :) thanks for reviewing.

ddddddd: I honestly don't have a clue if you spelled that right. I have problems spelling everything which is why spellchecker is my best friend.

Remnant of Life: I'm glad you liked it, hope you liked all the Nico and Frank-ness in this chapter :) thanks for reviewing.

LeeOfHermes0330: I wasn't sure about the security cameras but then I thought what the heck and went with it so I'm glad you liked it :) thanks for the review.

eaglewings2peace: I don't know, I've read my fair share of good pjo fanfics, it's hard to find good one's that update quickly though...

Thanks everyone for reading, hope you're simply having a wonderful Christmas time (brownie points if you sang that) see you all tomorrow x