NPOV:
"Okay, Leo, you first." Jason holds out the santa hat, which contains slips of paper with our names on. Leo draws a name, grins, and then a sits down on a bed. We're in the Zeus cabin, organising a secret santa. Personally, I think it's kinda pointless, as a lot of us are getting each other stuff anyway, but hey. I guess it might be fun.
Annabeth and Percy are spending the holidays with Sally and Paul, but everybody else is at Camp Half Blood. Jason, Piper, Leo, Hazel, Frank, Reyna, Rachel, Will and I are all involved in the secret santa.
One by one, everyone else goes up and picks out a name. Finally, it's my turn. I feel around in the hat and pull out a name. I take my seat on a bed beside Reyna before unfolding it and reading Will Solace.
"Damnit." I whisper, too quiet for anyone but Reyna to hear. She glances at the slip and smirks.
"Hey, at least it's somebody you like." She wiggles her eyebrows suggestively. I playfully elbow her in the ribs, feeling myself turn red.
"Shut up!"
Then, "who did you get?"
"Leo." She grimaces. "I'm gonna ask if I can switch with somebody."
"Just buy him some tape to put over his mouth to shut him up." I suggest. Her eyes light up.
"Oh, that's brilliant."
"Yeah, now if only I can figure out what Will might like."
~~~
Once everyone has selected a name, we go back to our own cabins. As Reyna is staying at Camp Half Blood over the holidays, as that's where a lot of her friends are, and there's not yet a cabin for the children of Bellona's obscure greek counterpart, she's staying in my cabin. Hazel is also staying here, and she now sits down on the bed opposite mine and starts brainstorming what to get Rachel.
"Seriously, what can I get Will?" I sigh, flopping onto my bed.
"How should I know?" She retorts, sitting down on the bed beside mine. "You're the one obsessed with him."
"I'm not obsessed with him." I reply quickly. "I just... Like him."
Will and I have been friends since the summer after I spent a week (it was supposed to be three days) in the infirmary after the battle with Gaea. However, I've been developing feelings for him for months. Only Hazel and Reyna are aware of that, though. (Jason and most of the Aphrodite cabin suspects. Annabeth practically knows, but I haven't confirmed anything.)
"Well what does he like?" Hazel prompts me. I shrug.
"Helping people. Archery, though he's not very good at it. Music. Sweet foods."
"Buy him chocolate, then?" Hazel suggests.
"I don't want to be generic." I sigh.
"Stab somebody and have him help them." Reyna deadpans.
"Uh, no."
"What else does he like?"
"I don't know!" I whine. "Puppies, sunshine, rainbows and smiles!"
"So buy him whatever you hate most." Reyna smirks. I pull a face at her.
We discuss ideas for another twenty minutes or so, then suddenly it hits me.
"I've got it." I announce, reaching into my chest of drawers for some drachmas. "I'm going to the camp shop. Does anybody want something while I'm there?"
~~~
I spend the next two days making Will's gift, then on the third day, Christmas Eve, I just spend the day having fun with everyone else. Chiron lets snow into the camp, and we have a whole-camp snowball fight rather than playing capture the flag, in which the Athena and Hephaestus kids made a snow fortress, the Apollo kids melted any snow that went near them, and the Ares kids got a bit too excited and put a
quarter of the camp in the infirmary, despite Clarisse insisting she didn't mean to put rocks in the snowballs, it just happened somehow.
On the evening, I go to the campfire with my friends, taking the wrapped gift for Will with me. When I reach the campfire, the group of us who were involved in the secret santa all group together and give our gifts to Piper, who then hands them out.
I know that Hazel has gotten Rachel a set of watercolour paints, and Reyna has actually gotten Leo duct tape, as I suggested. I'm not sure what anyone else got, though, as we're not opening them until tomorrow.
~~~
"Nico! Wake up!" Hazel shakes me. I mumble incoherently and bury myself further into my bed, until Reyna rugs them off me.
"Up, Death Boy." She says. "It's Christmas. Open your gifts."
I groan and roll out of bed, then remember that the others all slept over in my cabin. Most of them are already awake. Rachel and Frank, in bulldog form, are also awoken by Hazel, and then that's all of us.
All of us still in our pyjamas, we open our presents. I open my gifts from Reyna, Hazel, Jason and Percy (given to me before he went home), then get to my secret santa gift. I unwrap it and face-palm.
"Okay, who got me this?" I lift up the bright rainbow t-shirt, with I'm So Gay, I Can't Even Think Straight emblazoned on the front in black font.
Jason chuckles, and I turn to him. He holds his hands up.
"Not me."
"Uh, that was me." Somebody admits. I look around and see Will holding his hand up meekly. I blush and smile.
"It's a bit colourful for my taste, but thanks." I say. The others open their gifts, but I keep my eyes on Will.
Finally, he opens his. It's a home-made gift. A notebook from the camp shop, with different favours written in each page, as a sort of coupon book. There are multiple sheets with the same favour written on them, such as me helping out in the infirmary for a day, bringing Will a coffee or a snack, et cetera. Some are things I'd happily do, but some are things I'd never offer to do otherwise, such as clean up his cabin.
I wrote "Happy Christmas, From Nico" on the inside cover. He opens it, flips through it, and smiles my way.
"Thanks."
We sit and chat for a while, then the others start to go back to their cabins. When almost everyone is gone, Will pulls me aside.
"Hey, uh, I actually got you something else as well. "He says quietly, looking at his feet. He hands me a small box. I tentatively open it, then pull it out. It's a necklace, with a heart-shaped pendant on it. It spins slightly, dangling from my hand, and I see that on one side, it's black, and on the other it has the colours of the rainbow, a bit more toned down than the shirt, thankfully.
"Oh, wow, thanks." I smile, blushing furiously. "I kind of feel bad for not getting you anything else, now."
"Oh, it's fine." He replies. "And hey, you can always give me this." He hands me a slip of paper, and I see its from the coupon book. Except...
"I did not write this." My face can't possibly get any redder. "This- this is Hazel's handwriting."
"Oh." He says. "Well, that does explain a lot."
One free kiss. I'm going to- well, not kill...- I'm going to be very cross with Hazel for the next hour.
"Is it still good to use?" He asks sheepishly. I stare at him.
"Are you serious?"
"Sorry." He cringes. "I shouldn't have even said anything, I just-"
"No, Will. I mean, are you serious? Do you actually want to kiss me?"
A blush is steadily creeping into his face.
"Uh... Well, yeah, actually. I... I've wanted to for a while now..." I laugh.
"Seriously? I've wanted to kiss you for months!"
"Wait, really?" He asks, eyes wide with shock.
"Yeah!"
"Oh... Oh, wow." He grins. I lift the slip of paper up.
"Okay, how about this: you take me out on a date, and then maybe I'll kiss you." I joke.
"Okay, how's tomorrow afternoon for you?" He asks.
"Wait, really?"
"Sure... If- if you want to, of course, I mean you don't have-"
"I'd love to." I smile bashfully. Will beams at me.
"Okay, see you then, I guess."
"Yeah."
He leaves, both of us smiling, then Hazel approaches, a shit-eating grin on her face.
"I'm still mad at you." I tell her unconvincingly.
"Sure, Neeks." She replies sarcastically. I shake my head, smiling.
"Thanks, though."
"No problem." She nods. "And merry Christmas."
A/N: Merry Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or anything else you might celebrate! And if you don't celebrate anything at this time of year, then have a great random Monday tomorrow!