𝙸 𝙲𝚊𝚗'𝚝 𝙲𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚘𝚗𝚜

𝚂𝟺𝙴𝟼: 𝙷𝚘𝚠 𝙻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚕𝚢 𝚒𝚜 𝚃𝚑𝚢 𝚂𝚗𝚊𝚔𝚎 𝙿𝚕𝚊𝚗𝚝

Inspired by Community S4E10: "Intro to Knots."

Percy POV

"Alright Percy Jackson, you are going to be an awesome host, eat some awesome cookies, and you're not going to itch too much in this sweater."

"What was that?" Percy's roommate Frank yells from the kitchen. Shoot. He wasn't supposed to hear the mirror affirmations.

"Uh, nothing! Just finishing up the decorations!" He throws a wad of tinsel into the snake plant Frank rescued from the Mars Coed Fraternity house. Perfect. The halls have been properly decked.

"What do you think?" Frank says. He is such a holly jolly Christmas celebrant in his form-fitting reindeer sweater. He's holding a tray of those instant Pillsbury sugar cookies in a pair of extra large oven mitts.

Percy reaches for the tray and snatches a cookie with an image of reindeer on it, receiving a disdainful look from his roommate. He stuffs it into his mouth, only to be greeted with the burning sensation of a cookie fresh out of the oven instead of the wonderful nostalgic taste he expected. He chews anyway and gives Frank a thumbs-up because he is not about to admit the karma he just got.

Frank frowns even further if that's possible and then spills the cookies onto a tray shaped like a Christmas tree.

Percy applies some peppermint-scented hand sanitizer and arranges the reindeer cookies amongst the Christmas tree ones and snowman ones, all instant Pillsbury brand of course. They can't afford anything better, not in terms of money, but in terms of time. After spending the last week taking finals and working on projects, he and Frank just didn't have the energy to make anything homemade, which is a shame because Percy thinks he might be close to earning the rights to his mother's chocolate chip cookie recipe.

"Why, Frank!" Percy says in a perfect I'm-hosting-a-Christmas-special voice. "I do believe I hear a knock at the door!"

Frank cocks an eyebrow and simply shakes his head in reply, taking off his oven mitts to answer the door. When he sees his girlfriend on the other side, the redness in his face deepens and he leans in for a sweet kiss. "Happy Christmas, Hazel," he says.

She giggles. "Happy Christmas, Frankie."

Nico pushes his way into the apartment and makes eye contact with Percy. His face says, ugh, straight people.

Hazel drags a wagon in behind her and then shuts the door. "I know we said no presents, but I couldn't help myself."

"I also brought a little something for everyone," Nico says.

"That's okay!" Frank says. "Here, you can put them under our... tree... Percy, can I ask you a question?"

"Yes?" Percy asks, taking Hazel's perfectly wrapped gifts and placing them under the snake plant.

Frank shakes his head. "Never mind."

"Hey, hey, hey," Piper says, barging into the apartment with Jason and Leo in tow.

"Hey!" Percy says.

Jason sets his giant shopping bags from Macy's down on the floor and greets his bro with a bro hug.

"Okay," Leo says. "I know we said no presents, but we all had some ideas and then one thing led to another, and the Black Friday sale at Target was decent..."

Frank facepalms. "Put 'em under the snake plant."

"The Christmas tree," Percy corrects. "Can I take your coats?"