So my main Christmas story this year was in the Harry Potter fandom, but as per usual I can't leave PJO out of this so here is a oneshot! Merry Christmas readers, and happy holidays if you celebrate another special occasion!

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or universe portrayed in the story.

Blue Christmas

For Christmas Annabeth was nearly locked into Camp Half-Blood. The Pegasi had been warned not to let her leave camp, even –especially not- Blackjack. Everyone was keeping an eye on her, trying to push some of the faint holiday joy Camp Half-Blood had managed to produce down her throat and into her bloodstream. But none of her 'Merry Christmases' were very honest and they were definitely not merry. She was having a rather blue Christmas -no pun intended- to go with the blue days that's been weighing down on her over the last week.

She did the usual Cabin Six Christmas routine. In the morning the children of Athena swapped books with Secret Santas instead of giving out presents –a cabin tradition as old as time itself-, and Annabeth gave away an old, nearly original, copy of 1984 and ended up with a copy of A Tale of Two Cities that had been annotated by Harvard's literature professor.

On her way to the dining hall for the first of three Christmas feasts, she slipped out as per usual (though Malcolm tried to stop her with promises of bacon and cinnamon buns and other favourite Christmas morning foods) and went to investigate Cabin Three.

She tried not to take too long, but she swept the cabin, looking in all corners for any detail, any piece of information that could let her know anything at all.

She checked for marks on the beds and floors, ruffles in the blankets that hadn't been there before, changes in the piles of clothes littering the floor like islands in the Pacific… She opened his drawers to check for Riptide (gods forbid he may not have it with him wherever he was) or a camp necklace. She was half expecting the clothes at the top of the pile to have changed overnight, like Percy might decide that he hated his shirt and wanted to get a new one before going back to being MIA- which was stupid. Desperation wasn't exactly great for rationality.

Sometimes she even found spots in the cabin that hadn't been checked prior. For example, today she checked some spare drawers, those in which Tyson kept his things when he was around. The top three were empty and Annabeth quickly pulled them open and then shut, but she froze when she opened the bottom one. There was a present in it, wrapped in blue paper peppered in snowflakes with red ribbons and a bow. A little tag had been handwritten and decorated with an owl wearing a Christmas hat.

To Annabeth, Love Percy

She passed it around in her hands and felt it, wondering what in the world he could have possibly gotten her for Christmas. Of course, she'd gotten him a present too (and it made her sad to think of the blue present that would have to wait a long time to be unwrapped, stashed under her bunk with dust bunnies and the occasional stray piece of notepaper as company) but she hadn't been expecting anything.

She took a deep breath and put it away gently, closing the drawer.

Whatever it was, it must be special. Percy had picked it out and wrapped it and written a note and made a bow- for Zeus' sake he'd made a bow! It was the first Christmas present he'd given her as a boyfriend, so it would wait for their first Christmas as boyfriend and girlfriend.

And that was, clearly, not going to be today.

Annabeth was nearly crying.

"Stop it, stop it, stop it!" She said.

"Stop it what?" Percy said, kneeling over her and running his fingers over her ribs and tickling her. She might be wearing a grey sweater and a white blouse, but even in full armour Percy managed to tickle her and make it torture-like.

"Stop it please Overlord Jackson," she managed to breathe out through shrieks of laughter.

Percy smiled and backed away.

She swung herself upright and caught her breath.

"What in the world was that?" Sally asked coming in holding two more presents to tuck under the Christmas tree, which glittered with the cheesy handmade ornaments that Percy had concocted in childhood.

"I was making a point," Percy said.

"Sounded like Chinese Water Torture to me," Paul said coming back in with a camera whose batteries were freshly changed.

"Well yes, that was the next step."

"Percy!" Annabeth said gently hitting his arm with the back of her hand.

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding," he said kissing her hair.

"Well enough kidding, you've got last year's presents to open too." Sally said. "Let's start with one each and then hand them out one at a time."

Percy's gifts came in two categories. Goofy presents - sets to make a Moose head bust with cardboard- and clothing: t-shirts with cartoons (like astronauts on the cartoon moon with the caption "Finders Keepers") and hoodies and shoes since, as Sally put it, "you do not respect the natural order by which teenagers stop growing at a certain age".

He was just happy to just be home for Christmas, quite obviously by the way he was trying to start a fight by throwing Annabeth balls of crumpled up wrapping paper.

Sally and Paul's ranged more in the literature area. Books- all the books, and all the anthologies and all of the books about books or books about people who'd written books, and notebooks that Sally would hopefully turn into books- were under the Christmas tree. Sally had found Paul some transparent bookshelves and Paul had gotten a very nice family ring with blue stones, which Annabeth and Sally approved of so much; Percy asked for tips.

Annabeth was surprised to find her name on packages. They were "To Annabeth" and "from" Sally and Paul, fher parents, her brothers, and even a few of her camp siblings. This was a conspiracy that Percy had no doubt been chief of. Copies of classics, a pair of Inuit gloves with white fur and beads (from her stepmom), a collection of audiobooks of the autobiographies or biographies of politicians (which had "Dad" written all over it), pocket-edition Trivia games from Sally and Paul (the later had told Annabeth to call him if there was a question in there she didn't have an answer for so he could let the news channel know), an owl phone charm that Matthew and Bobby had gotten from a vending machine (and had probably spent many quarters getting).

And that wasn't even mentioning the Christmas stockings- which were just hilarious and personalised to perfection.

Sally went to get the table ready and Paul helped out, and Percy slid up to Annabeth and pulled her closer.

"I dibs giving you your present first." Annabeth said with her head on his shoulder.

"How do you know I even got you something?" Percy asked.

"Jason said." Annabeth said.

"Damn it."

She laughed. "Here it is." She said handing him a package she's stashed in her purse.

He ripped it open, his arms still wrapped around her. He discarded the wrapping paper and turned the book in his hands before deciphering the title.

"'Saving the World 101: The Illustrated Guide'," he finally made out. He spun her around and gave her the most unimpressed and sassiest look before bursting out laughing. Annabeth laughed along with him, it was that contagious.

"Wow, this'll come in handy," Percy laughed. "This is proof right here that you got your Christmas shopping done before December. I'll see if I can make some improvements to it." He cracked up again, just as she hoped he had. "Thank you, Wise Girl."

"Open the first page," she said. He did and out fell a gift card for his favourite store.

"I know your favourite hoody got ripped in November, but they were out of your size when I tried to find you a replacement." Annabeth said.

"It's not your job to shop for me," he said kissing his head.

"No, but I feel bad because I'm the one stealing your other good hoodies." Annabeth said. "And here is this year's present, because I am not cheap."

He tore the next package she gave him open and out came a brown hoody.

"You found a replacement this year," Percy laughed.

"Yes I did," Annabeth said.

"My gods, so much changed since last year…" Percy picked up the other thing that had been there- packs of Post-It notes.

"What?" He asked confused.

"Just read them," she said.

Each post-it had a reminder on it.

To remember:

My name is Percy Jackson.

I am 17 years old. My birthday is on August 18th.

My parents love me to death. They are Sally Jackson, Poseidon, and my stepfather Paul Blofis.

My brother Tyson loves me (Tyson had drawn a self-portrait with Ella in the opposite corner)

My best friend is Grover Underwood, but a ton of people care about me. It's basically raining people who care about me. (With signatures from Jake, Will, Clarisse, Hazel, Jason, Piper, Leo, Reyna and Frank)

I live in New York. 25 Bedford St. New York City, N.Y. 10014.

My favourite colour is blue (she'd drawn a blue cupcake there)

I am courageous and brave

I am strong mentally, physically and emotionally.

I am a leader, and I am caring

I am sassy and hilarious and the best person to have around on a bad day

I am smart despite what my girlfriend says on her bad days

I am funny. I will make you pee your pants with my sass and sarcasm.

I am laid-back and relaxed and fun

I am impulsive (but I'm smart and good enough to get myself out of it- not that I should get cocky)

My girlfriend is Annabeth Chase and she loves me very much, and there is nothing that will ever change that.

She would do anything for me just like I have always done for her, and she will always be there for me. She wants me to know this.

However if I disappear again she'll kill me to save herself some trouble.

It's Christmas, and I should have a merry one.

He looked at her with warm eyes.

"In case I forget again?" He asked. "Like, in the event that there's an Egyptian camp or academy or something? Or Hogwarts?"

"Not necessarily Seaweed Brain," Annabeth said. "Just in case there are days where for some insane reasons I'm not telling you these things myself."

Percy pulled her closer and held her in his arms, kissing the top of her head. "You are priceless, and I love you and thank you so much."

"No problem Seaweed Brain," she said. "I'm just happy that we're together for Christmas."

"Me too. I've been scared that you'd accidentally find these for the last five months," Percy said pulling his presents out from under the couch they sat leaning against.

"So I realise that this is a lot less meaningful since it was supposed to be last year's present, but here is it." Percy said handing her the package she'd spotted in Tyson's drawers last Christmas.

"Of course it'll be meaningful, Seaweed Brain." Annabeth said shaking her head.

The bag was creamy beige with a blue and a grey line wrapping around it, a buckle decorating the strap.

"You broke your book bag last year," he said. "A week before Christmas, remember? And I told you not to get another one, that I'd personally help you carry your books instead…"

"Yeah, I remember." She smiled, recalling how he'd helped her pick them all up in the subway and had dragged half of her books back to her dorm for her. She'd had bragging rights over all the other girls for weeks, and they knew it and accepted it and wanted a Percy Jackson for themselves. But Annabeth wasn't willing to share. "Thank you Percy, it's great. It's beautiful, I had no idea your taste was so good."

"Okay and here's this year, because I'm not cheap either." Percy said handing her a much smaller package. She leaned back against him after shooting him a skeptic and curious look, and tore the wrapping paper.

It was a small jewellery box. She popped it open and smiled. Two golden Chinese characters were hanging on a thin chain. Annabeth's thumb brushed over the charm and she looked at the paper square glued to the top of the box.

It was a translation for the characters. "Permanent"

Grandmother Zhang had probably helped Percy with that, but Annabeth wasn't exactly thinking about that. She was just starring at the gorgeous necklace.

"You know, when the doors of death opened in China and all we saw was Frank summoning them by burning the stick and…" Percy shook his head.

He dropped the lines he'd obviously been prepping in his mind.

"Jason described to me what the heck happened after that fight, but I just remember seeing the brightest light in the world. And it ended up just being the sun. We'd just been in the dark for so long that the sun was a miracle- after going into Tartarus I just started to appreciate things that I didn't appreciate enough more. And then I remember looking at you and your eyes were so bright and I hadn't seen your face in Tartarus for so long… that was also a miracle, and I treasure you even more now. And that second I also knew for sure that we were going to be okay. That we'd live and get a life and however that miracle goes; I'm hoping that we'll have the chance to build something permanent."

Annabeth's heart melted like butter in the sun and the memories flashed back to her. Mostly it was the crew members trying to get fluids and food into them, answers out of them, checking their fevers, new clothes on their backs, and them holding onto each other for dear life, out of habit.

"I love it, Seaweed Brain." She said. "I… I just..."

She turned around, sitting on her legs, and leaned in to kiss him and made it good.

Their noses were pressed together. "Thank you."

He helped her put the necklace on.

For a while they just sat there cuddling, listening to Paul and Sally fretting in the kitchen where a radio was blaring Christmas carols and to each other breathing, holding onto each other, watching the twinkling Christmas tree.

Christmas had some kind of healing quality to it. For the last few months Annabeth had known that Percy was as safe as he got, but this was the first time she felt calm. In his arms, the new necklace cold on her skin, surrounded by wrapping paper and happy memories.

"Supper's ready," Paul said popping in. Percy and Annabeth didn't even scramble to pretend that they hadn't been holding each other when he came in; they just got up and walked into the kitchen.

Annabeth stifled a laugh when she saw the table.

The mashed potatoes were blue, like cartoon clouds. The napkins tucked under the plates were blue. Whatever kind of punch Sally was serving was blue. Sally had made homemade buns with blue dye in the dough, and the stuffing hadn't been spared.

"Is everything okay, Annabeth?" Sally asked with a smile on her face. "It's a force of habit to have the blue dye out at Christmas."

"Everything is great Sally, it looks delicious." She said sincerely.

"Amen," Percy said pulling out her chair for her. Annabeth sat down and Percy swept all of her hair over one shoulder before sitting down next to her, giving her a peck on the cheek.

It looked like one way or another: a Christmas with Percy Jackson was going to be blue.