I don't own Percy Jackson, Green Day, Evanescence, Halestorm, or Mulan.

It's the Thought that Counts

"God, will you shut up?" Percy yelled from the kitchen.

Nico lifted his head up from the pillow. "You don't have to be here, you know. I didn't invite you."

Percy came into the kitchen eating a pink cookie. "Grover's away and I was bored," he said around a mouthful of cookie.

"So why didn't you bother your girlfriend?"

"She's visiting her parents." Percy stepped closer and held out the cookie in his hand. "Want one?"

Nico raised an eyebrow. "Do I want one of my cookies?"

Percy shrugged and retracted his arm. He looked down at the cookie. "Why do you have pink cookies?"

Nico flipped over and the couch and rested his hands on his stomach, staring up at the ceiling. "Leslie still thinks she can get me to go out with her."

"The creepy girl who works with you? She knows you have a girlfriend, right?"

"It wouldn't be the first time she'd gotten a guy to cheat on their girlfriend. Did I tell you she's the reason my boss divorced his wife?"

Percy burst out laughing. "Seriously?"

Nico sighed and picked up the pillow from behind his head and pressed it against his face without answering. He groaned into the pillow.

"Wait, are they still together? Like," Percy laughed, "can you imagine, you leave your wife for some younger girl, and then the younger girl breaks up with you?" He took another bite of the cookie. "Well, at least she can bake."

Nico pulled the pillow away from his face and glared. "Your best friend is having a crisis and you're talking about cookies?"

"Oh please," Percy said, rolling his eyes. "Nico, having pretty girls throw themselves at you is not a crisis. Even if you do have a girlfriend. If you actually did something with the pretty girl, behind your girlfriend's back, that's a crisis." He narrowed his eyes. "But I won't help you with that. You dig your own damn holes, you get yourself out of them."

"I didn't cheat on Thalia!" Nico exclaimed. He sat up and put the pillow on his lap. "And if I was going to, it wouldn't be with Leslie. And she's not throwing herself at me, she's baking cookies for me. And she's the only one."

Percy rolled his eyes again. Nico had never been good at telling when someone was flirting with him, and he'd never noticed when people stared at him. Percy didn't understand why people were so into Nico. He supposed it was the whole "dark and depressing" thing his best friend had going on. But it was amazing that Nico was so oblivious. Once they had gone to a bar and the bartender had dropped a napkin with her number on it in front of Nico, and Nico had handed it back to her, smiling and telling her she'd dropped it. He hadn't even noticed the number.

Although that was the last time Percy had ever gotten him to go to a bar, so maybe he had.

Percy sighed and sat down on the couch, starting on the second cookie. "So what's your crisis?"

"It's Valentine's Day."

"Dude, that's your crisis? This is your twenty-fifth Valentine's Day and it's just now becoming a crisis?"

"No, you idiot." Nico put his hands up to his face. "It's my first Valentine's Day with a girlfriend. I have to get her a present."

Percy started to laugh.

"It's not funny!" Nico snapped, smacking Percy with the pillow. "I've never had to get a present for anyone! I didn't even get cards for kids in elementary school. What am I supposed to do?"

Wiping his eyes, Percy answered, "Dude, it's just not that big a deal."

"Well not with Annabeth! She probably doesn't even realize it is Valentine's Day! She's not exactly the romantic type."

"Neither is Thalia! Just, take her out to dinner or something. She'll be fine."

"Well what did you give Annabeth on your first Valentine's Day?"

"I took her out to dinner."

"That's it? And she was okay with that?"

Percy paused. "Yeah," he said after a second.

Nico narrowed his eyes. "Don't lie to me, Jackson, or I'll tell Annabeth about the time in eleventh grade when you were dissecting that frog, and it fell off the table and all of the guts spilled all over your pants, and you had to take them off in front of the entire science class."

"Blackmail."

"There's more where that came from."

Percy humphed. "Fine. The only reason she didn't like it was because I forgot my wallet and she had to pay. And I paid her back the next day anyway." He leaned his head back on the couch, wishing he'd brought more cookies with him but not wanting to get up and go into the kitchen. "You probably don't even have to take her out to dinner. Thalia would be okay with, like, flowers. Or maybe something less mushy. I don't know, she's your girlfriend!"

"I'm terrible at this! We've only been dating for two months, I don't want to get her something too big 'cause it'll be weird, but if it's too small then she might get offended."

Percy snorted. "Nico, she's not going to get offended if you get her a little gift. She'll probably love it no matter what you get her. Hell, she's put up with you for this long."

Nico smacked his best friend with the pillow again. "So've you," he retorted.

Percy just shook his head and walked back into the kitchen. He picked up his coat from the stool he'd left it on and called, "I'm leaving, Annabeth's waiting for me. Sort out your own problems."

"Big fuckin' help you are!" Nico yelled back as the door slammed.

He lay on the couch for a few more before hauling himself up and going into the kitchen to grab a cookie. He jumped up onto the counter to eat it. After sitting for a moment, he decided it was too quiet and turned on the radio.

Nico smiled when he heard 21 Guns coming out of the speakers. It was Thalia's favorite song.

He hopped off the counter to get himself a glass of milk (he thought it should be against the law to eat cookies without milk, no matter what Annabeth said). Pulling the milk out of the refrigerator, he started singing along.

He had just put the milk carton back in the fridge when he had an idea. A perfectly brilliant, wonderfully amazing idea.

He stuffed the rest of the cookie into his mouth and gulped down the milk before nearly throwing the glass into the sink (but he didn't, because Annabeth would have killed him, even if she didn't live there) and rushing back into the living room to pick up his cellphone, which he'd left on the counter.

He tapped his foot impatiently as he dialed and the phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Hey Leo," he said, beginning to pace around the room.

"Hi Nico, hey can you make this fast? I've got a million things to do. People like metal roses this year." Metal roses were an idea Leo had come up with a few years before. He took the scrap metals from his shop (he owned a few auto shops around New York) and turned them into roses. They'd become very popular, much to the surprise of all his friends.

"Yeah, yeah, I just need a favor."

Leo sighed. "What favor?"

"I'll tell you when I get there. Are you at home?"

"Hey!" Thalia said when he opened the door. She was wearing the same leather jacket she'd been wearing the day they'd met. It still looked just as good on her. Her t-shirt was gray with a black heart in the middle. The heart was split by a jagged line down the middle. It was very Thalia.

Nico grinned, trying to hide his nervousness. He leaned in to kiss her. He didn't think he'd ever get tired of that.

"You ready to go?"

She gave him a confused smile. "Go where?"

Nico picked up his coat and stepped out the door, closing it behind him. "It's Valentine's Day," he said, as if that explained everything, and led her down the hall.

"Nico, just because it's Valentine's Day doesn't mean we have to do something. We can just stay in and watch movies. And avoid all the disgustingly sweet couples."

Nico laughed, but shook his head and pressed the call button for the elevator. "This is my first Valentine's Day with a girlfriend. I'm gonna do it right."

Thalia chuckled, but secretly she thought it was the sweetest thing anyone had ever done for her, and for the hundred millionth time she felt incredibly lucky that she'd met a guy as great as Nico. Then she contemplated shooting herself for thinking something so unbelievably sappy. "Is this really the first time you've had a girlfriend on Valentine's Day?"

"Thals, I can count the number of girlfriends I've ever had on one hand."

They walked out of the elevator laughing. "You know that's kinda sad, right?" Thalia asked as the climbed into Nico's little black car.

"Yeah, I know."

"So where are you taking me?"

He smirked at her. "It's a surprise."

"Worst surprise ever."

"What's better than pizza and ice cream?"

Thalia laughed. "Nico, you're supposed to be romantic on Valentine's Day. Pizza and ice cream isn't romantic."

"But it's your favorite."

She laced her fingers in between his and leaned over the table to kiss him. "It's perfect."

He groaned. "Now you're being sappy."

She laughed and slapped his arm. "I thought you wanted a perfect, cliché Valentine's Day. Last time I checked, that involves being disgustingly sappy and sweet." She smiled innocently. "I'm only doing what you wanted."

Nico gave her a serious nod. He picked up a box from under his chair. Thalia had seen him carry it in with them, but he'd refused to tell her what it was. It was wrapped in black wrapping paper covered in pink skulls with heart shaped eyes, and on top was a blood red bow. "I even got you a present."

She grinned and pulled the box towards her. "I thought very hard about what to get you," Nico continued. "I brought Percy over to help and everything."

Thalia nodded and took off the bow, then tore the paper. She laughed when she saw what was inside. "Oh yeah, I'm sure you worked really hard to choose this," she said, picking up the box of chocolates.

Nico laughed with her. "Don't worry, that's not your real present."

"I still get to keep it, right?"

"Only if you share." He reached into his pocket and pulled out two packages. Both were square. One was smaller, and thicker. The other was very thin. They were both wrapped in the same wrapping paper as the chocolates. He handed them to her. "Open the little one first."

She took the wrapping paper off and opened the little black box inside. "Oh my God," she whispered.

"My friend makes them. I needed his help for the other present, but he said he'd only do it if I bought one. I mean, that's not the only reason I got it…I thought you'd like it…" Nico groaned and covered his face with his hands. "I'm terrible at this."

Thalia smiled. "It's beautiful," she said. Inside the box was a little metal rose. It was dark silver, and on the back was a pin. She picked it up and pinned it to her leather jacket. Then she picked up the other square. Nico uncovered his face to watch her open it, but she could see his blush getting deeper and deeper.

The second package was a CD in a case. On the paper in the case it said "Thalia's Mix 2014".

"I know it's totally a high school thing, giving someone a mixed tape, but, I don't know, I thought…"

"I love it." Thalia laughed. "No one ever made me a mixed tape in high school."

Nico grinned. "I put some Green Day on, and some Evanescence, and then I put some Halestorm, too, 'cause you won't go look them up."

"I told you, I've been busy!"

Nico rolled his eyes.

"Oh, I got something for you, too. But I left it at my apartment. Come on." Thalia stood up and held out her hand. Nico took it and followed her out to the car.

When he'd started the car, Thalia put the CD into the player. She looked at the back of the case as a sort of creepy guitar part started playing. "Familiar Taste of Poison."

"Halestorm. People say it's about a bad relationship, but it's really about overdosing."

"Nice." She scanned the other songs. When she got to the last one, she frowned. "21 Guns Special Edition?" She looked up at him. In the light of the other traffic, she could see him blushing. "What's that?"

"Listen to it," he answered. Thalia shrugged and skipped to number 19. A few guitar chords played, then a man started singing.

"Wait, is this you?" she asked. Nico blushed harder and nodded. Thalia's mouth almost fell open. "Nico, you're really good."

"That's the favor I needed from my friend. He has a recording studio at his house. Well, he has a few chords that plug into his computer, and a mic, so I asked him if I could borrow it to make a CD for you."

Thalia nodded and they sat in silence, listening to the CD play. By the time the song was over, they'd reached Thalia's apartment. They got out of the car. Nico was trying to hide his blush (and failing miserably) when Thalia came over and took his hand. "Come on, I have your present upstairs."

He followed her to the elevator, still trying to hide his blush, and they made their way into her apartment. It was smaller than Nico's, but no less messy. Nothing seemed to have a place, even though Thalia insisted that she had a system. Nico believed her, because his own "system" was similar.

She led him into the kitchen and picked up a plate of pink cookies. "Here, I've got tons. This guy at work seems to think he can get me to go out with him by appealing to my 'feminine side'." She rolled her eyes.

Nico laughed and took a cookie. "I have the same problem. Except for the 'feminine side' part."

Thalia set down the plate and led him into the living room. She pushed some things off of the couch and gestured for him to sit. When he had, she handed him a box wrapped in what looked like black construction paper.

He took it and slowly tore the paper open, if only to torture Thalia, who was practically bouncing on her feet in front of her. Finally he got the paper off. When he saw what it was, he leaned his head against the back of the couch and said, "I fucking hate you."

Thalia laughed and sat down next to him. "I know," she answered. "But you said you liked them so much, so…"

"I said they're my favorite Disney movies, not that I love them. They're better than the other romantic shit Disney makes."

"I agree. That's why I got them for you." She took the movies out of his hands and held up both of them. "One or two?"

Nico sighed. He wasn't going to win this battle. To be honest, he wasn't sure he wanted to. "One. In two she loses him and gets all mopey, and then he comes back shirtless and saves the day, even though he fell off a cliff and into the river and should have died."

Thalia stood up and put the first movie into the DVD player, then came back to lean against her boyfriend's chest. Nico immediately wrapped an arm around her. "One is definitely better," she agreed. "I like it when she dresses up like a girl."

"Mushu is best, though."

"Absolutely. And the cricket. And the horse."

"Mulan's grandmother is awesome."

"Almost as good as Mushu."

"Absolutely."

They fell silent as the movie began playing. After about half an hour, Thalia said, "Hey Nico?"

"Hmm?"

She leaned up to kiss him. "Best Valentine's Day ever."

"Even though I took you for pizza and ice cream?"

She chuckled. "It's the thought that counts, right?"

"Right." Nico kissed her again, and she settled back down against his chest.

"Nico?"

"Yes."

"Did you know that Billie Joe Armstrong's birthday is coming up?"

"Is it?"

She nodded.

"We'll have to celebrate."

"I propose a day of pajamas and Green Day music."

"And gummy bears?"

"And gummy bears."

Again with the gummy bears. Sorry about that, guys. They're both addicted.

Someone reviewed Mistletoe and Gummy Bears asking if the vodka and gummy bear thing actually works. Yes it does. In fact, and I just learned this recently, there's a game people play where they put a gummy bear in the bottom of a vodka bottle, and the person who gets it fastest wins.

This is dedicated to Fiona Siona, who inspired the entire one-shot.

I'm sorry, this was supposed to be up on Thursday, but there was a snow storm on Thursday and Friday, and then I worked on Saturday, and the library wasn't open on Sunday, and it was a holiday yesterday so it wasn't open then either.

Review and go read Along the Way and White Rose!