Percabeth

Christmas Day

Annabeth was twenty-six. She was thriving in her architecture firm and was close to getting a big promotion, and lived in a really nice apartment in the flatiron district in New York City, she did not deserve to be sitting at the kids' table at her family Christmas dinner. Even Magnus, her youngest cousin, had been moved to the adults' table after he brought his partner Alex for Thanksgiving. It had been humiliating sitting with Emma's three kids and Aubrey's two-year-old, while her twin brothers annoyed each other next to her. Now it was almost Christmas time and Annabeth was determined to sit with the rest of the adults, and that's why she had told aunt Caroline she was going to bring her boyfriend to their family Christmas dinner. The only problem? She didn't have a boyfriend.

"You know you're going to owe me," Percy said over the phone, "Like big time."

"You're getting fed and I'm going to spend the whole dinner saying how amazing you are." Annabeth put her laptop on the bed next to her and took off her glasses. "What else do you want?"

"I'm getting on a train on Christmas day, Annabeth. I'm going to be stuck for four hours on Christmas day, you know what that means?"

"It means nothing to you jerk, you're part Mexican and you always mention how your family celebrates on Christmas Eve and Christmas is just a random day for you, besides this was your idea."

Percy chuckled on the other end of the phone and Annabeth smiled. "You got me there."

They stayed in silence for a while. She could hear the sounds of Percy baking in the background and Annabeth smiled at the mental image of her best friend in his kitchen, wearing the overly pink, fluffy apron his little sister had given him a few Christmases ago. When Annabeth had lied about having a boyfriend she started to panic, she couldn't believe she had promised her family they would meet someone who didn't exist. Magnus's smirk told her he didn't believe her at all and that he was going to have fun watching the drama unfold without helping her, the little shit was going to fight for his spot at the adults table since Alex wasn't coming for Christmas this year.

She had confessed to Percy her stupid proposition after a few cups of wine, Annabeth was tipsy and annoyed at herself and Percy had laughed, bouncing ideas of how to get a fake boyfriend or reasons why her 'amazin' boyfriend couldn't have made it to dinner after all. It was after a while that Percy joked he could pretend to be her boyfriend, tipsy Annabeth had thought the idea was hilarious, sober Annabeth actually thought it over and realized it hadn't been a bad idea at all. She spent the whole day putting together a compelling case and invited Percy over for dinner to explain why he needed to help her. She had figured how to reply to his objections and she wasn't above pulling the best friend card on him, she had been surprised when it hadn't taken that much to get him to agree with her plan.

"Are you going to bring me cookies?" Annabeth asked after a few minutes of silence.

"Nope," Percy said happily.

"I hate you,"

"Oh no, I think I might have lost my train ticket for Boston," Percy joked.

"You are the worst," Annabeth looked at the clock in her hotel room. "Ugh, I have to go now, grandma's forcing the whole family to go to church." Annabeth started collecting her stuff around her room, realized she probably needed to clean it before Percy's arrival tomorrow. "Do you want me to go and pick you up at the station tomorrow?"

"Only if it's not snowing," Percy told her and Annabeth smiled, she hated to drive in the snow and usually made Percy drive if he was available.

"You sure? I can pay for your uber then," Annabeth left her room and started walking towards the elevator.