Disclaimer: I only own the plot and my OCs. Anything you recognize as not mine belongs to Rick Riordan, Greco-Roman mythology, and/or their otherwise respective owners.

Author's Notes: Hi, everyone! Sorry for the delay. Health issues kicked my ass one week, and then the next week I had to travel every single fucking day for Thanksgiving break. Which, I mean, wasn't awful, I had fun, but it sapped up my time to write.

Anyways! This chapter ended up being a two-parter. The next one is much shorter than this one because there wasn't really a good place to stop at otherwise. Also, some set-up is going on in this chapter: much glory to the person who can figure out who has been introduced here. ;)

As always, I hope you enjoy. Until the next chapter,

~TGWSI/Selene Borealis

~The Finding Home Saga~

~Finding Home~

~Chapter 73: I Have Myself A Merry Little Christmas Pt. 1~

As you can probably imagine, I got in a lot of trouble for keeping the fact that Silena had been abducted by Dr. Thorn a secret when we got back home the day after the winter solstice, the 23rd.

I wasn't going to keep it a secret any longer, especially not when the secret would have been hard to keep in the first place, between how the entire quest had gone and how Silena and I both had grey streaks in our hair now from holding up the sky. Silena was spared from our parents' wrath, since we were all sitting in my mom's apartment, but neither my mom or her dad were happy with me. "Percy, this isn't like you," my mom protested. Her voice was all soft and gentle, not like Mr. Beauregard's – although I suppose I should be calling him his first name, Jean, from here on out – had gotten at one point when he'd came close to shouting, regardless of how quickly he'd calmed himself down. But somehow, the pitch of my mom's voice made what she was saying even worse. It made it more obvious how disappointed she was. "Keeping such a big secret? Really?'

You have no idea about the secrets that I keep, I thought to myself. I could tell that Silena was thinking something similar, but neither of us voiced those thoughts out loud. That would undoubtedly just make everything worse, to say as a hugeunderstatement.

I'll spare you the entirety of that argument. The most important two things that you need to know are that: one, I got grounded. Which, I will acknowledge here, was not as bad as most kids' groundings. All my mom made me do was clean the apartment from top to bottom on Christmas Eve, since we would be hosting a small Christmas party the next day for the Beauregards, the Blofises, Katie, and the di Angelos. My mom had told me to IM Katie at the last minute to ask if she wanted to spend the day with us instead of at camp, and since she'd need a ride of sorts she'd asked me if it was okay to have the di Angelos come along with her. I told her of course, because I knew what my mom would've (and did) say: "the more, the merrier."

...But, anyways. The other important thing that you need to know is that yes, my mom and Silena's dad revealed to us that they were, in fact, dating. They said that it'd only been going on for about six or so weeks now, but Silena was right. I could see in my mom's eyes when she and Jean talked to us about them being together that she really loved him. It was a different kind of look than the one she'd always gotten in her eyes when she'd talked about my dad before I found out that I was a demigod. A look that she hadn't even gotten a similar one to in her eyes the entire time she'd been married to Gabe.

And I was happy for my mom. As I'd said before, Jean was – is – a nice guy. Even when he was upset at me during this conversation, he also made sure to say, "Thank you for saving my daughter, Percy. I don't know what I would've done if..."

Silena made sure to give her father a reassuring smile. "I'm right here, Dad. Don't worry."

"I was willing to do whatever it took to get her back," I agreed. "She's one of my best friends, Mr. Beauregard." And it looks like she'll maybe become another stepsister of mine one day, too.

"Please," he spoke, his dark green eyes shining. "Call me Jean."

...And well, there you have it.

The Christmas party that we had was a lot of fun. I helped my mom with getting all of the food ready even though it wasn't one of the requirements of my being grounded, because she worked too hard and deserved all of the help that she could get. When I told her this, she laughed and placed her flour-covered hand from the rolls she was making on my cheek. "Oh, Percy, what did I ever do to deserve you?" she asked.

Tears burned in my eyes as I pulled her into a hug. "Nothing, Mom," I told her, my voice muffled by her shirt. "You deserve me just simply for existing. I love you. Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas. And I love you, too."

When everybody came, we had our meal of turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, green bean casserole, those rolls, and several other typical Christmas American sides. But thrown into the mix were a few more traditional things from my mom's mom's side of the family: creamy langoustine soup, pepper cookies (a type of gingerbread cookie), and Icelandic Christmas cake. My mom had made those latter two yesterday and woke up bright and early Christmas morning to make the former. My mom, Jean, and Mr. Blofis had a fun time in comparing notes on what it was like to raise demigods, much to the chagrin of me, Silena, and Callie. My half-sister in particular blushed all the way to the roots of her hair several times. But none of our friends seemed to mind: if anything, they were happy that some of us demigods, at least, had good (and/or living) mortal parents. I knew how many didn't.

After the meal was over, my mom brought out the stockings she'd made for all of us kids. I knew that she didn't think they were much, because she'd previously complained to me that they weren't: all they had in them were various candies, hot cocoa with marshmallows packets, some hand creams and chapsticks, and some socks. She'd gone out yesterday as soon as I'd told her that Bianca and Nico were coming along with Katie to get the stocking stuffers, fighting the hordes of other people doing last-minute Christmas shopping in the city.

I think she realized how wrong she was, though, at the reactions of Katie and the di Angelo twins to the stockings. All three of them were ecstatic and, in the case of Katie and Bianca, bordering on the edge of tears. "You have the best mortal mom in the entire world, Percy," Katie confided in me later as she wiped at her eyes.

This time, unlike that one with Thalia, I didn't try to deny her. I smiled and said, "I know."

But the entire time that we were having the party, and afterwards as my mom finally let me open the gifts she'd gotten for me and the cleanup following, my mind was never able to stray for long from the one person who was missing. Well, not missing for anyone else, but missing for me. Sure, it wasn't like I was expecting him to come during the festivities or even afterwards, not while my mom was still awake, it was just –

I knew that he was alive. I knew that fall hadn't killed him, that without a doubt he had survived because my father had told me so. And we had met up for the holidays – Halloween, at least – before, despite how that wasn't a guarantee that he would show up for this one. Plus, I had a Christmas gift for him.

Two Christmas gifts for him, actually.

Yet, by the time that it was ten o'clock, an hour after my mom had gone to bed, he still hadn't shown. Sighing as I noted the time, I turned off the TV, which had been playing Home Alone. I shoveled the last bits of popcorn from the bowl I had made into my mouth before I stood up and took the bowl into the kitchen to wash it out. Grabbing a glass, I filled it up with water and did the same with my mouth. I knew that I should probably wait to go into the bathroom and brush my teeth after eating such a crunchy food, but I was a little too deep into this bout of depression to care too much about that. So I went into the bathroom and did just that, along with flossing and using mouthwash, before I turned off all of the lights in the apartment and headed into my bedroom.

It was just after I had closed my bedroom door behind me that I heard a chuckle. "You're going to bed already?"

Luke.

He was sitting on my bed, looking like he absolutely belonged there. He was dressed ridiculously well – black pants, a nice light blue button-up shirt that complimented his eyes, his brown aviator jacket and a dark grey scarf around his neck. He was also holding a small, wrapped gift box in his hands.

It was the first time I had seen him since he had put on the whole show of him dying, that I had proof before my own two eyes that he was not, so I just about sagged against the door.

Unfortunately, all this did was concern him. His eyes widened. "Percy," he started to say.

I was on him in a second. Rushing over to him as quietly as I could, aware of the fact that my mom was sleeping just on the other side of the hall, I wrapped my arms around Luke's neck and pulled him into a kiss. And with this kiss, I gave it my all. It was hungry, passionate – I thought I might've heard him make a small noise from the back of his throat.

When both of us finally had to breathe, I lifted my mouth away from his. We were both breathing heavily. I rested my forehead against his. "Hey," I said.

"Hey," he replied. I became aware of the fact that his hands were resting on my hips as he gave them a gentle squeeze. I didn't mind this in the slightest. "That was some welcome."

I shrugged. "Oh, well, you know. It's not too often that I see my boyfriend fake his death in front of me."

I meant it nonchalantly, but it didn't come out entirely that way. Luke winced. "I know. I'm sorry."

I pecked a kiss to his cheek before I moved to sit down on my bed next to him. "You're still here, that's all that matters. Merry Christmas, by the way."

"Merry Christmas."

I looked him up and down purposefully. "Are you taking me out tonight?"

He grinned crookedly. "I thought I might, if you don't mind."

"I don't," I assured him quickly, and I didn't. I mean, if my mom woke up and found out that I wasn't here, that would be problematic, but she'd more than tired herself out with today's festivities and plus, I did have a solution to quell her suspicions if she opened my door without turning on the lights: the age-old pillow trick. "Just let me find something to wear. Any dress code?" I asked the question as I opened up the bottom two drawers to my dresser, where my shirts and pants were.

"Semi-casual."

Great. That made my life a whole lot easier.

I turned around to look at him after I'd picked out the dark green button-up shirt my mom had just gotten me for Christmas, since I'd already put it away, and a pair of black dress pants to go along with his. Luke was now laying on my bed as best as he could, his legs dangling over quite a bit since he was just that fucking tall, his arm over his eyes to give me some privacy. It made fondness spark in my heart even as I rolled my eyes, because I appreciated the respect, even if I...didn't necessarily want it tonight.

Granted, I didn't necessarily want to do what I was thinking of here, either. If we did what I was thinking here and my mom discovered us, I thought I would just about probably die.

I changed my clothes as quickly as I could and then grabbed the present I had for him from the top drawer of my dresser, stuffed behind all of my underwear and socks. "Alright, I'm decent," I announced. Luke moved his arm away from his eyes and sat up. I walked back over and held out my present to him. "And this is for you."

"Trade you," he said, offering up the box that he had for me.

We exchanged gifts. I was the one to open up my gift first, and I let out a scoff as soon as I did. "Luke, you can't keep gifting me weapons," I complained. "I don't know how I'll explain where I got them."

"Your last gift was a shield, and it needs to be repaired," he reminded me. "This is a letter opener, that's all it is. No strings attached."

"...Oh. Okay, then. It's nice," I admitted. The letter opener was in the style of a small dagger. It looked like it was made of celestial bronze, but I could tell just from the feel of the metal that it wasn't. There was what looked to be an emerald gemstone embedded on either side of the hilt; I wondered if they were real or not. Knowing Luke, they probably were. I didn't know what I was going to do with the letter opener, since it wasn't like I got too many letters. Probably keep it in my desk until the day finally came that I got my own place and could display it out in the open without fear of the consequences. "Thank you. Do you like yours?"

"They're perfect," Luke reassured me. I'd gotten him a set of antique golden cufflinks with small sapphires in the center of them. We weren't exactly the kind of people who would be all fancy, given that we were demigods, but...I thought he'd might appreciate them. Yet, while he seemed to...there was a certain light in his eyes. "How much did they cost?"

I put a hand on my hip. "You told me to never worry about how much the gifts you've gotten me cost you."

Luke replied, "I also have more money at my fingertips because of the Titans than you do, Percy. I don't want you to have gotten me something that costs too much."

"Don't worry about it."

He smiled. "I won't...if you tell me how much these cost you."

I groaned. "Luke."

"Percy."

"No."

But then he looked at me with those glacier blue eyes of his and he said, "Pretty please?"

And...

I caved.

"Fine," I huffed. I threw my hands up in the air. "They cost me thirty dollars at the nearest thrift store. Neither the people who sold them to the thrift store nor the thrift store owners knew what they had, but I had them appraised. That's actualgold and those are actual sapphires. There. You happy?"

"Much," he agreed. He stood up and grabbed one of my wrists, pulling me close. I let out a squawk in surprise. "Now...let me take you out on a date."

The place that Luke took us to was some cafe that was fancier than I was used to, with luxurious and comfortable chairs and a nice view of the city since it was on the seventh floor of the building that it was in – not all the way up at the top, but still higher than most restaurants that I was used to going to. It was open all night tonight apparently as part of the Christmas festivities.

But there was something...off about the restaurant, and it didn't take me long to figure out what it was, even before we were sat down at one of the tables by the hostess and I saw that the prices the various items were listed under were decidedly not mortal.

"Luke," I said quietly. "This isn't a mortal restaurant, is it?"

He smiled at me abashedly. "No, it's not. But the deity that runs this restaurant has always been impartial: she didn't choose a side even back during the first war. And she's also very insistent that what goes on here, what people see here, stays here. Nobody's going to rat us out."

I eyed the other customers of the cafe warily. I could tell that at least two of them were deities. But besides a glance or two, they seemed entirely disinterested in us. The other customers appeared to be monsters who were similarly keeping to themselves and...a few demigods. Mia and Athana were sat at a table in the one of the other corners, since our table was also in one. As if she knew that I was looking at them, Mia turned her head and gave me a smile that was a lot like her half-brother's. But she didn't try to come over or anything like that.

"If you say so," I muttered under my breath, glancing back down at my menu.

"Oh, it's not him that says so, young man. I'm the one who does," a feminine voice suddenly said. I nearly jumped out of my seat; Luke laughed.

Standing in front of our table was a woman – a goddess, I corrected myself, who appeared to be in her mid-fifties. Despite the gap, she actually reminded me a lot of both of my parents. Her skin was tanned, as if she'd been outside in the sun for years and years, yet not overly weathered. Her black hair, which was pulled into a messy bun, was strange, in that instead of having silver streaks (like Luke and I both did now, as another reminder of that), it was the tips of her hair that were colored that way, if the strands which had fallen out of her bun were any indicator. She was dressed in a retro diner waitress outfit, one with a blue, white, and dark brown pattern, and an apron with a dark red border.

What reminded me the most about her of my parents, however, were her eyes. Her eyes were so similar to mine and my dad's, an almost sea green. Yet, with flickers, her eyes changed color even as I looked at her, becoming more ocean blue.

I felt like I should know her – and maybe I did. It was like her identity was almost on the tip of my tongue, remaining elusive and impossible to place.

She laughed too at what must've been the expression on my face. "Oh, I'm sorry, my dear. I didn't mean to startle you," she said – and damn, there was something familiar about her voice, too. "What can I get you two to drink?"

"I'll have my usual," Luke said.

The goddess hummed. "Oh, of course. The cafe au lait. And for you, Percy?"

I should've been as surprised as I was that she knew my name. "Umm..." I went, trying to shake off the feeling. It probably wouldn't be a good idea for me to have coffee this late at night, even with the different effect that it had on most demigods and even mortals who have ADHD. "Can I just have a hot chocolate?"

"Would you like it spiced or plain?" She winked at me. "I have my own spices that I put into the hot chocolate. I'm told that it's quite delicious."

"It really is," Luke agreed.

"Spiced, then," I said.

"And what about food? Have you decided on that tonight? I sense tonight is more of one for desserts, 'tis the season."

Luke ordered the lemon-blueberry tart, and I went with the first thing on the dessert menu that I saw, which was a "Victoria cake" (whatever that was) with a raspberry filling. It was a lot like the princess cake from our Michelin restaurant date in that sense, although this dessert also came with some raspberry and vanilla ice cream on the side.

The goddess took our menus and whisked them away after she'd taken our orders. As soon as she was gone, I hissed to Luke, "Who is she?"

Luke snickered. "You really don't know?"

"No!" I cried. Quietly, so that I didn't attract the attention of the rest of the cafe's occupants. "Am I supposed to?"

He was positively smug. "You know what, if you don't even have the slightest idea of who she is, I'm not going to tell you."

"I don't want to disrespect her!"

Luke's eyes softened. "She's not like that, Percy," he reassured me. "Really. She's...I think she's the best out of all of them. Even..." He faltered, obviously not willing to go that far out loud.

...Wow.

If Luke had such a high opinion of her as a goddess, then I supposed she really couldn't be that bad.

I tried to think about something else that we could talk about. Thankfully, on this night in particular, it wasn't hard for me to do. "So, um, I have to tell you: that gift I got you tonight wasn't my only one to you," I spoke. I gave myself a pat on the back that my voice wasn't nearly as shaky as it could've been; it wasn't shaky at all. "There is another one tonight."

Luke raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"Yeah. But, uh, I'll wait until later to give it to you," I said. I could feel myself blushing. Gods, I was going to give it away without even meaning to, wasn't I? "Here isn't...exactly a good place for you to open it."

Luke was suspicious, that much was obvious, but it seemed he wasn't too willing to press me about it right now. "Alright. Whatever it is, though, I'm sure I'll like it."

"Oh, you will. Very much," I agreed, feeling like I was about ready to spontaneously combust on the spot.

It didn't take too long for our food and drinks to come out, because the goddess brought them out to us at the same time. The Victoria cake was more like the princess cake than I'd realized – really, the only difference between them seemed to be that the Victoria didn't have a bunch of whipped cream on top like the princess did. "Does it all look okay?" the goddess asked.

"It looks perfect, as always," Luke told her. "Thank you."

...Ah, damn. He must've known that I was waiting for him to say her name after thanking her, if the way he smirked was any indicator.

The goddess smiled. "Good. I'm glad. And," she said as she patted Luke on the shoulder. She looked at me conspiratorially, "You should bring Percy around again sometime, Luke. Really, you should have brought him around sooner. You both are always welcome here."

She walked away after that, leaving us alone on our date. But, I wasn't going to complain about that. Not in the slightest.

I cut off a piece of my cake with my fork and took a bite. The second that it landed on my tongue, I felt my eyes go large. It was like a million different flavors exploded on my tongue, all at once. "...Man," I said. "She's a really good cook."

Luke snickered. "If you knew who she was, then it would make sense why."

"Does that mean you're going to tell me now?"

"Not a chance."

"Luke, I swear to – "

Word Count: 3,910

Next Chapter Title: I Have Myself A Merry Little Christmas Pt. 2