Hey~

So yes, this is the final chapter/epilogue if Happy Birthday From Nico. So for this final chappy/epi, a special Happy late Bday! and an early Welcome Home! to JadedofMara!

Anyway, thank you to everybody for reading, reviewing, and supplying content to the story! You all are amazing folks! I hope you all have a nice summer! To kick it off, I put up a new poll, so if you want you can go check it out! Later today or tomorrow, I plan on posting a new story, so you could also check that out... If I actually get it done...

Epilogue

It was early Christmas morning. I was nice and cozy, wrapped in my covers… with somebody poking me. "Is he awake yet?" The voice asked. "He kind of looks dead."

"Nah, he's alive and drooling. I don't know if we should be waking him up. It is pretty early," a second voice said. Both voices were trying to whisper, but were failing horribly; I could here them loud and clear.

"Well, of course I knew he wasn't dead. Just who do you think I am, again?"

"Nico, are you challenging my intelligence?" Oh gods… It's Nico.

"No, ma'am."

"Didn't think so." And that is most likely Annabeth…

"Yes, well I think I am going to wake him up now. I'm getting tired of waiting." Holy Hades, here it comes, I thought, bracing myself. "Wake up, Percy! We didn't come all the way over here at 6 o'clock in the morning to watch you drool!" Ugh, I knew what was happening all too well. Déjà vu, anyone?

Obviously, I wasn't going to get to sleep in… again, so I got up. At the same time, they both cheered, "Merry Christmas!" I rubbed my eyes to make sure what I was seeing was right. Evidently it was. Staring at me from either sides was Annabeth and Nico in extremely cheesy and strange festive-wear.

Annabeth's blonde curls were pulled up into two ponytails on either sides of her head, tied with Christmas colored bows. She was wearing a red sweater and plaid flannel pants. Nico was a reindeer. It really seemed like he was trying to dress like a reindeer. He was wearing his usual aviator's jacket, but instead of black or blue jeans he had on brown corduroy pants. Over those pants he wore oversized brown cowboy boots. They looked about two or three sizes too big for him. On his wrists he used leather straps with jingle bells attached as bracelets and a choker/collar thing. Finally, to top it off, the son of Hades accessorized with a sparkly brown antler headband. That was what gave away the fact he was trying to be a reindeer.

I looked at them. "Uh…" I said, trying to think of something real to say in response to… them. I felt out of place in my T-shirt and sweats.

"Well? Are you going to get up so we can open presents or not?"

I was still a little dazed from having just woken up. "Uh… yeah. Sure," I said, and we headed for the main part of my apartment.

Even though we don't live in a swanky big house like some people, my mom insists we get a live Christmas tree every year. So we always have. This year, like always, it wasn't a very large tree, but the smell of pine filled the apartment. Underneath it was about no more than five boxes, each a humble size. Two were from Nico, and one was from Annabeth. The other two were from me to them. All the other gifts to and from various people, satyrs, cyclopes, etc. came (or were sent) in an envelope in the wreath on the coffee table.

As I expected, Mom and Paul were still asleep. "I'll play Santa Claus," Annabeth volunteered. She took her box from under the tree. "I want you guys to open mine first. All four of yours are in there. You two, your mom's, Percy, and Paul's." I let Nico unwrap and open the box for the four of us while I made some hot chocolate. When I got back, Nico had four scarves hanging from his fake antlers. "Yeah, um, I tried out knitting. It wasn't actually that hard, you know with weaving being Athena's thing."

"Hey! Is that why scarves all of the sudden became the newest rage back at camp?" Nico asked.

"Uh, yeah," she said, blushing. One by one she took them off his antlers, and 'assigned' them to us. She handed me a blue and green striped scarf, and Nico a Black one with a few thin white stripes. For Mom, Annabeth used a pretty red, brown, and blue yarn. Paul's had a green and brown yarn. She put both scarves back into the box for them later.

"I like the colors," Nico commented.

"Yeah," I agreed, "they're cool."

She laughed. "Thanks, I'm glad you think so. I just about gave Thalia a heart attack when she saw her electric blue scarf. She said that it reminded her of the Fates cutting her string before she died. That was an odd sentence to say. Anyway, I assured her that it wasn't the same yarn and showed her the silver strings intertwined with the blue. She calmed down a bit, but I still think it freaked her out. Then Grover tried to eat his and claimed the colors reminded him of his favorite enchilada can label. Then lovable Drew flat out said she despised the color magenta."

"Eh, forget Drew. I like 'em," Nico said.

"Me, too," I agreed again.

"Thanks."

"You're welcome," we both said. She smiled and took the next box from the tree.

"From Percy, to… oh, me." She tore the paper off the package and laughed. It was a T-shirt that said, "SMART BLONDE" on the front. "Thanks, Seaweed Brain. Glad to know I'm not being stereotyped."

"You are very welcome," I replied.

Then out of the blue Nico said, "Ohhh! I get it, now! Smart blonde instead of dumb blonde! That's funny."

Annabeth took the other box from me out from under the tree and handed it to him. I admit that it wasn't the best gift ever, but I thought he'd get a kick out of it. I wrapped the box about three or four times, first off. Once he got all the layers of wrapping paper, he then had to dig through old newspaper (in place of tissue paper), but eventually he got to the gift itself.

A Red Bull with a $10 bill wrapped around it. I remembered on my birthday he really seemed to like drinking it all throughout the day. The ten buck was just there because what kid didn't like getting cash.

The thing was, though, with this plan, I expected him to get all happy about it. Instead, he said, "Ew. Red Bull is gross."

I think I dislocated my jaw, because it must have hit the floor. "Dude, I thought you liked loved it."

"Well, yeah, that was during the summer. Later in life, a heard this quote, 'Monsters are like Red Bull, only twice the size, sugar, and awesomeness'." Then out of nowhere he drew a green Monster drink from his jacket, and waved it at me.

"Who told you that?"

Annabeth laughed again, and raised her hand. "Guilty is charged," she said with tears in her eyes from laughing so hard.

"Hey, it's pretty true," he said.

And why am I not even surprised that Nico's super amazing Christmas presents to us were also Monsters. "Yeah, I just boxed up a six-pack and took one for me. That way there's one for each of us and another one for me!"

What the heck? I thought. He's so weird. But then I thought, Why not?

Poor Mom and Paul had to deal with three hyper teenagers when they woke up on Christmas morning.

It was later in the evening- about eightish- so it was dark out when Nico and Annabeth left to go back to camp. They left the way they came, via the fire escape outside my window.

"You came up this way…?" I asked.

"Yeah, why?" Annabeth said.

"Uh… nevermind…" Why couldn't they have come up through the main lobby and through the front door? I wondered.

"Okay," she said back. Then she kissed me and disappeared onto the fire escape and into the darkness, leaving me blushing. "Bye, Percy!" She called.

"Yeah, bye Percy!" Nico said, as he hopped out my window and onto the fire escape. "Oh shoot! I almost forgot. Er, um… here! I keep forgetting to give this to you." He handed me a paper strip.

"Uh, thanks?" I said, but it sounded more like a question.

"Welcome. See ya around, Percy!" And with that he was gone.

"That kid sure is a strange one," I said to myself, though I did have to admit this was one of the best Christmas days I've had. It was really fun. I closed the window, and took a good look at the strip of paper. It was a photo strip, like the ones you get when you take pictures in those photo booths. In the four pictures on the strip were Nico and me. Well, actually only three of them, because in one of them Nico practically had his face shoved up the camera. On the back of the strip he wrote in this horrible chicken scratch that I could barely read, "To Percy- Thanks for letting me follow you around today. It was stellar. Happy Birthday! -From Nico"

It took him this long to remember to give this to me? That was like four months ago. I had to laugh. Nico really was weird sometimes.

Though I did have to wonder… When did we take pictures in a photo booth?

The world may never know...

Anyway, thanks again to everybody out there! Honestly, I think this was the best (by 'best', I mean not psychotically weird... still weird cuz I'm a weird kid just like Nico ;D) chapter thing I've done for the story. Kinda sad, but whatever. Anyhoot, I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Red Bull, or Monster (which totally IS way better). Monster quote actually came from my cousin, haha! So yeah...

Um... I think that's it... [watch I'll remember something else half way through new story...]