I now have a new charger thanks to my wonderful friend! She writes fanfiction here so I'm giving her a shout-out since I love her so much for saving my poor baby laptop's life - check out her fanfictions if you like Sherlock! (be nice, she's new) her user name is Loki-of-221B ( u/4594365/Loki-of-221B) she also had some input into the making of yesterday's chapter.

happy reading :)

A Very Percy Jackson Advent

December 17th

When Percy awoke in his own bed with his arms wrapped around Annabeth he couldn't help his audible sigh of relief.

"Yesterday was weird," Annabeth said in response.

Percy nodded. "Waking up as Nico was possible weirder than anything ever."

"You think that's weird," Annabeth laughed, "at least you were still the same gender!"

He shrugged, Annabeth definitely had a point... even if waking up in Nico's room to see darkness and the creepily decorated Christmas tree had freaked him out more than waking up in Tartarus. "The worst thing was waking up without you."

Annabeth grinned and snuggled closer to him. "Aw I never took you for the softy type, seaweed brain!"

Percy scowled. "Am not!"

"No," Annabeth comforted him with a small smile, "Just the slow type." Percy's scowl deepened and then with a calm expression, he pulled the covers away from Annabeth making her fall out of bed and onto the floor with an unceremonious thud. "Ow," she exclaimed and then followed it up with a string of ancient Greek curses as she dusted herself off and walked away to get ready for the day.

Over in the dining hall, the others were gathered together eating their breakfast as usual except there was an awkward atmosphere about them.

"No but really though," Leo said after finishing his bacon sandwich. "How do you think it happened?"

The others shrugged.

"I think it could have been a curse from the gods," Reyna said. "They're not exactly in control of themselves; it might have just been an accident."

Everyone shrugged again.

"Can we please just not talk about it," Nico asked. He seemed a little more pale than usual and the dark circles around his eyes seemed more prominent.

"Sure," Hazel said. "Are you feeling okay?"

Nico shrugged. "I couldn't sleep at all last night," he admitted.

"Was it the thing with the ghosts?" Leo asked with an out of character seriousness about him.

Nico shrugged again. "I don't think so."

Nico's tone told everyone to just drop it and so they did, they all knew that Nico was quiet and half of them were sort of frightened of him.

Calypso stood up; she was wearing her usual jeans and a Christmas jumper with a cat in a Santa hat on. "So Christmas is getting closer and closer," she announced happily just as Percy and Annabeth entered the room. "But we haven't done anything really Christmassy in a while."

Leo pointed at her with his coffee mug as a sign of agreement. "That's true, what do you suggest we do?" he paused and then added with a laugh, "Hey that rhymed!"

Calypso rolled her eyes. "I was thinking we could have a Christmas cake baking competition."

"I like that idea!" Piper said. "But I think we should work in pairs... that way it's a little more fun."

Percy instantly grabbed Annabeth's hand as if he were back in kindergarten and wanted to be in a group with his friend. Piper subtly linked her arm around Jason's and Leo excitedly bounded up to Calypso like a puppy whilst Reyna, Frank, Nico and Hazel all looked at each other awkwardly. Frank and Hazel would have been Justas happy to go with either each other or Nico. Nico didn't really want to take part and, whilst Reyna was happy to take part, she didn't feel close enough to any of them to outwardly ask to team up. It was Hazel who eventually smiled at Reyna and teamed up with her. Frank punched Nico on the shoulder with a friendly smile and then Nico retaliated. The two would have most probably spiralled into all out play fighting if it hadn't have been for Nico noticing the watchful eyes of his peers as they smiled at his antics.

"Okay... should we ask coach to be the judge? He's the only impartial person and surely we'll be able to get him out of his room for the sake of Christmas cake," Hazel said.

Piper shrugged and then went to Coach Hedge's room to ask him. When she came back, she was followed by a very grumpy looking satyr. "I was promised food," he grumbled. "Don't disappoint me." He then sat himself down at the table and set about the task of eating the cutlery.

"Okay. We have until 5pm," Calypso said, "Coach Hedge will decide which one's the best and the winning team get... uh..."

"A prize of their choice," Leo finished for her.

"Yeah," Calypso agreed.

The next few hours that passed by on the Argo II were filled with cries of anguish, sudden clouds of flour, people slipping on butter, stepping on eggs and grating fingers. Leo burnt his and Calypso's cake twice despite his previous cooking prowess resulting in the pair of them becoming covered in soot and choking on smoke.

By 5pm, they all filed into the dining hall with their cakes and set them down nervously in front of the grumpy looking Satyr. All of them looked surprisingly well made, even Frank and Nico's. Coach Hedge's expression didn't change from his scowl whilst he ate his way through each cake.

"Well?" Jason asked nervously as Coach finished eating the last cake.

"Hmm," Coach said. "They were all pretty good. I'm surprised... I think the best one was Reyna and Hazel's."

"Really?" Reyna exclaimed excitedly. "We won!" she grabbed Hazel's hands and started jumping around. Hazel seemed confused but happily joined in. Reyna eventually composed herself and then stood still, staring at the ground in embarrassment.

"So what do you want as your prize?" Leo asked.

The two girls shrugged, then they looked to each other and then they said together, "Tell us what you've been practicing."

They boys all looked toward each other and simultaneously shook their heads. "You'll all find out soon enough," Leo said.

"No, we've won this," Hazel said defiantly.

"Fine, I'll whisper it to them," Frank said.

He whispered it to Hazel who, with a deadpan face, whispered to Reyna.

"Seriously?" Reyna sighed.

"Do you have to?" Hazel asked.

The boys grinned and nodded leaving Annabeth, Piper and Calypso looking incredibly worried and puzzled.

"You'll all find out soon enough," Leo repeated.

Ana-DaughterofHades: Ok, I don't think i'll include birthday's though. Does Rick ever actual mention them in the book?

ddddddd: It's never bad to show your inner fangirl!

Bluecupake12: Yes! have all the Reyna and Percabeth x

sonofthetrigod: Yay! I have to say, it wasn't the easiest of chapters to write, I didn't quite know hoe to make it clear who was saying what and with my laptop's life span getting progressively shorter it was a stressful time for me.

Goddess Of Idiots: Yeah I guess even twister can get overplayed... I don't want to think about being body swapped with my schoolmates...

Lily: haha! she sounds slightly like a mix between Merida from Brave and Elsa from Frozen! I'll see what I can do but I won't be able to write anything maybe until February because of this story and I have mock exams in January...

thefangirlthatwon'tshutup: Up until half way through the house of Hades Percabeth was my number one OTP ad so I don't think I'd be able to do any kind of Percico story justice. I just don't see Percy with anyone else so, it's all in Nico's head...

The Eighth Demigod: Thank you xxx

Remnant of Life: I think everyone worries about Nico more than they worry about themselves and the real life people around them tbh...

butterflygirly99: Yes, I had to have Jason waking up next to Nico since Jason knows all about Nico's little crush hehe (I'll stop being mean to my baby eventually)

Percabethlover 1: THANK YOU XX ! I'm crying. no seriously i'm crying! tears of joy! how can you say that... i'm just a girl trying to celebrate Christmas in a world where none of my friends are being festive.

Percy'sSisterSPQR: haha, glad I made other people's day happy yesterday... my laptop went into a coma as soon as i'd uploaded the chapter... it's all sorted now though :)

PursuerofNovels: Thank you :) though I can't take full credit, my friend came up with the initial idea (go check out her fanfiction page - Loki-of-221B)

ArianandXaia: Yes Nico will be fed at any possible moment.

annoyinreindeer: aw thank you so much! x

see you all tomorrow xx