Hello everyone!
I wanted to post something for Christmas Eve and then Christmas Day, and since I have been neglecting this story I decided to post it here. BUT worry not. I have not been idle. I have been working on some very, very, very . . . very long Solangelo stuff, and am now trying to do all my Snowbaz stuff in one go so I can get back to working on it. There is, however, a lot of Snowbaz stuff. Like, a lot. Which is good for those of you who like it, and not so much for those of you who don't. Especially since I'm trying to finish the stories before posting anything.
But fear not! Percy Jackson remains my number one, and I don't see it going away anytime soon. I've got a lot of opinions about these characters, and I plan to inflect them on you without mercy!
Big thanks to AbbieDabbie who, despite being irrevocably incompatible with computers in general, has selflessly corrected this.
Also, I own nothing.
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve was a Very Big Deal in the Jackson household.
First there were the decorations. Everything was covered in pine wreaths and garlands, and Percy ran around throwing shiny blue tinsel on whatever he could reach. There were bowls of oranges and cloves, and ceramic Santa and reindeer knickknacks set all over the apartment. A giant Christmas tree, fresh from the earth and way too big for the corner it had been shoved into, stood proud and glittering with multicolored lights. Strings of wooden cranberries, gold stars, ornaments and baubles weighed down every branch, including the silver baby rattle Sally had bought for Percy's first Christmas. Annabeth sat on Percy's shoulders and they wove tipsily around the living room, trying to get close enough to the tree to hook the star on top. Four stockings embroidered with snowflakes, penguins, snowmen and Santa Clause were hung over the electric fireplace, waiting to be stuffed.
Then there was the food. Candied fruits and chocolates had been purchased. Percy and Annabeth helped with the Christmas cookies, and they ended up with frosting on their noses, sprinkles in their hair, flour everywhere, and four batches of gingerbread and sugar cookies. Sally and Paul spent the whole day in the kitchen, preparing a mountain of food that would probably be lasting them well into the New Year. A salad with dried cranberries and walnuts, winter squash, creamy blue mashed potatoes, pumpkin bread, banana bread, and pies, pies of all kinds: winter fruit, mincemeat, apple, and blueberry. And to top it all, a spiral-cut ham the size of Percy's whole torso, caramelized with brown sugar.
Sweaters were a must for everyone. Sally and Percy had green and blue Christmas sweaters patterned with waves and whales that they had worn for years. Paul had a new knitted maroon jumper Sally had bought him last year and Annabeth wore a soft grey turtleneck that made Percy keep tucking his face into her neck and nuzzling her shoulder. Every visitor was required to wear some sort of sweater while inside the house at all times, as informed through the group email Percy sent out to everyone he knew, inviting them to drop by on the twenty fourth.
Piper and Jason stopped in on their way to the McLean mansion, wearing matching red and green reindeer sweaters, and ended up staying for most of the evening. Frank and Hazel flew in from New Rome dressed in purple SPQR sweaters, trailed by an uncomfortable Reyna, who apparently had refused to do any kind of celebrating until Hazel promised to convince her brother to come along so they could suffer together. Hazel was wearing a brooch of glass holly, and Reyna had a surprisingly feminine white cardigan over her armor, which she admitted she had borrowed from Gwen.
Rachel blew in for a short while, declared everyone would have wonderful holiday full of surprises and pancakes, and then blew out after winking at everybody separately and conspiratorially, leaving them all more than a little confused. Grover came over for several hours and sat down with Sally to make vegan brownies and fudge, trading embarrassing stories about Percy and wishing everyone happy holidays.
Clarisse had sent back a very rude email in response to Percy's invitation, but everyone else who couldn't make it seemed happy to just have been invited. They were even graced with Thalia's presence for about five minutes while she yelled Merry Christmas! so loud the neighbors complained, hugged almost everyone, and punched Percy a little too hard on the shoulder, before disappearing into the snow.
By that time it was really coming down; there were several inches of thick white powder and more still falling outside. They passed around hot chocolate, eggnog, cider and cookies. They sang along to Sally's Christmas playlist, belting carols out at the top of their lungs and dancing wildly to Jingle Bell Rock.
Nico showed up at the last minute, right behind the Roman delegation. He was wearing a Christmas jumper with skulls that Hazel had clearly insisted on. Sally showered him with food and it took him several minutes to politely extract himself. He skulked around Reyna for the rest of the evening, occasionally talking to Hazel and Frank and alternately swallowing food like he was sucking it into a black hole and texting on his phone. No one was sure where he had gotten a cell phone, but it had a very realistic bone cover and no one dared ask.
It was almost midnight, and Piper, Jason, Frank, Hazel and Nico were the only ones still there. Reyna had finally excused herself, but Nico had stayed, slumped next to Hazel on the couch with his phone in one hand and three blue chocolate chips cookies in the other. Frank and Hazel were snuggled cozily on the other side of the couch while Jason and Piper slow danced in a small circle to I'll Be Home For Christmas and Percy and Annabeth played with the little toy steam engine that ran around the whole apartment.
There was a knock at the door.
"Expecting anyone else, Percy?" Sally asked, going to open it.
"It's Hazel's Christmas present," Nico said through a mouthful of cookie, not looking up from his texting.
Sally opened the door. "And who are you?" they heard her say.
"I'm Supreme Commander Leo Valdez, Señora. And this is my smoking hot girlfriend Calypso. And that's my automaton dragon, Festus. Don't worry, he's harmless as a suitcase. We went to Camp, but then we found out everyone was here. Mind if we come in?"
Leo Valdez stood in the doorway, covered in snow that was slowly melting away in curls of steam off his shoulders, suitcase Festus in hand. He brightened when he saw them.
"Hey guys! Merry Christmas."
Piper screamed and punched him in the face.
"Aye, Beauty Queen, no need to ask if you missed me – mmff!" He was abruptly cut off in a chaos of surprise, disbelief and finally joy as everyone realized that yes indeed, it was the real Leo Valdez standing in the Jackson's apartment. Piper kissed him, Hazel kissed him, Jason kissed him, and Frank wrapped them all up in a giant hug.
"Nice going, young firebender," Percy said, joining in on the hug and pulling Annabeth in with him.
"Flameo, hotman!" Leo squeaked.
When he introduced Calypso, Hazel and Piper kissed her too, and Jason and Frank shook her hand warmly. Percy tried to say 'Hi!' but it got stuck in his throat and he just kind of mumbled wordlessly to his feet, unable to even meet her eyes until Annabeth kicked him in the back of the knees and put one foot on his back to keep him down.
"Hi, I'm Annabeth," she said, shaking Calypso's hand firmly. "It's nice to finally meet you. I'm so glad someone finally got you off that island."
She pressed Percy's face a little harder into the floor.
Calypso laughed a little wryly and admitted that she had bought her first pair of high heels just to stamp on Percy's foot, but since Leo had explained that Christmas was a holiday of love and forgiveness, she would refrain from using them.
"But how are you back?" Annabeth finally demanded of Leo, cutting past the joyful reunion and getting right to the point.
"The Physician's cure worked a miracle, just like we planned," Leo said. "But we had some trouble getting back. It was di Angelo who finally tracked us down and told us where to find you, and by that time it was December and it seemed like a good time for a Christmas surprise . . . hey, where'd he go?"
Everyone looked around, but Nico was nowhere to be seen.
"He was definitely here when you showed up," said Hazel.
"I saw him shove the last of the cookies in his mouth and get up while everyone was hugging Leo," Paul volunteered from where he was standing a little to the side with an arm around Sally and a mug of eggnog.
"I saw him slip out behind Calypso," Sally said.
"Um." Frank held up an empty cookie platter, with a little piece of paper sitting among the crumbs. "He left a note . . ."
Percy took the sticky note, held it up to the light, and rubbed his chin. Then he handed it to Annabeth. She read aloud.
"Dear Hazel & co. Glad firebug's death was fixed, but quite frankly I have better things to do than hang around watching Percy and Jason compete to see who can drink the most eggnog. Sally thanks for the food, Merry Christmas Reyna, love you Hazel, the rest of you can suck it. Nico."
"How sweet," Piper said dryly.
"What better things does he have to do?" Percy demanded. "What's better than a friendly eggnog challenge between bros?"
"Many, many things," said Annabeth, "but I suspect this particular thing is cute, blonde, and freckled even in the middle of winter."
"Who cares?" Leo said, throwing his arms around Piper and Jason's shoulders, forcing them to hunch down to his level. "It's Christmas! Let scary-boy do what he wants, we have some partying to do! Calypso's never celebrated Christmas, so let's show her the way we commemorate Old St. Nick. And forget eggnog - let Papa Leo take over and make you some authentic ponche con piquete. Come on, Christmas stories, carols, Jesus, Rudolf; let's go!"
He grabbed Calypso's hand, and they celebrated. Mostly with food. And Leo Valdez's special solo rendition of Feliz Navidad, complete with very dramatic dance moves and Calypso's tuneful harmonizing.
"Feliz navidad
feliz navidad
faliz navidad
prospero ano y felicidad
I wanna wish you a merry Christmas!
I wanna wish you a merry Christmas!
I wanna wish you a merry Christmas from the bottom of my heart!"
Nico appeared on the snow covered hill behind Will, and for a moment he just stared at the back of his head, watching him look out over the park, waiting for him.
He cleared his throat.
"Hey."
"Hey!" Will spun around, beaming. He was wearing a puffy yellow coat and some truly ridiculous fluffy pink leopard print earmuffs with a knitted scarf and mittens. Nico shoved his bare hands into his jacket pockets self-consciously, not because of the mittens, but because his hands were cold and his face felt dangerously hot and that couldn't be healthy, could it?
"You came. I mean, obviously you came, I just mean . . ." Will bit his lip to stop himself talking, but he couldn't keep the smile from spreading across his whole face. "You came. Are you cold? You look cold. You just have a jacket. Here."
"I'm always cold," Nico tried to say, but Will was taking one of his hands and slipping one of his own mittens on it, and then he was unwinding his scarf. It was red and white reindeer, and it matched the mittens. Nico let him wrap it around his neck, but only because Will was smiling so happily and his jacket collar was too low to hide his own smile in.
"So, cinnamon rolls or pancakes?" he asked, when Will had tucked everything in its place and took taken Nico's mittened hand in his own bare one.
"Pancakes," Will said immediately. "Cinnamon rolls are for daytime or at home. When you're sneaking out in the middle of the night, pancakes are the only way to go."
"Then to the Original Pancake House we go," Nico said, and they started down the hill, Nico occasionally waving his free hand as he regaled the amazing tale of Leo Valdez's triumphant return. It had not actually been that exciting, but he allowed himself a few moments of embellishment to see Will's knowing smile and hear his delighted laugh.
Will glowed. They both did, like the shadows and their reflection unclear, like the sun and moon, and the stars danced down from the sky and melted on their tongues.
The Pancake House was in Wilmette, so regrettably, Will had to hold on to Nico very tightly as he shadow-traveled them across the country. He kept holding on until they got there, for warmth's sake. Neither of them took any pleasure in the closeness; none whatsoever.
They entered the low white building with cold noses and were greeted by a rush of warm air that smelled like hot syrup, sausage, and the giant Dutch Baby that was being carried past their noses by a waiter in a puff of golden brown dough and powdered sugar. Inside was polished wood, beautiful stained glass windows and lamps and cozy close set booths where they sat down closer together than was strictly necessary.
And then they talked. Will had chocolate chip and banana pancakes that melted fluffy sweet in his mouth while Nico ordered an apple fritter bigger than his head and they shared the bacon. They talked, and ended up stealing more than half off each others' plates. They talked, and drank dark roast coffee with sugar and cream. They talked, they laughed, they talked.
They talked so much they didn't notice everybody else leaving until the waiter was forced to go over and tell them it was closing time. They walked out into the swirling snow and stumbled along laughing and bumping shoulders, pushing and knocking together until their fumbling hands found each other and they couldn't stop grinning like they were the only two people in the world.
That's all, folks! Unless, of course, you want to make my Christmas and leave a nice, long, thoughtful review . . . or just a smiley face would be good too.