Secret Santa

Part 5

The above picture is there to remind everyone of the general mood of the campfire. In case you forgot.

_+~+_

Percy and Annabeth had made it back to camp and finished the gift exchange. There were some pretty crazy and hilarious gifts given, but none matched Leo's.

The rest of the demigods there begged Percy and Annabeth to tell them where they'd brought Leo, but Percy told them to "wait and see for yourselves," which was the most frustrating answer ever.

After dinner, the visiting and year-long demigods sat around the fire, bundled up in blankets and sweatshirts to watch the annual demigod Christmas movie, which was filmed and directed years ago by a few of Dionysus's kids. Every year they projected it on the wall of Zeus's empty, marble cabin (with permission from him, of course).

After a dramatic battle scene with real live hellhounds lying dead, everyone clapped. As the applause died out, a noise overtook the movie projector, getting louder and louder.

It sounded like a plane, except the magical barrier around camp redirected aircraft and weather alike so that was impossible. Campers started looking to the dark sky, finding nothing but the stars shining back at them.

Suddenly, Clarisse sheds her blanket and gets to her feet, drawing her sword. Her cabin mates follow her lead, drawing a variety of weapons as something shot down from the sky, landing about 40 feet from the fire.

By now every camper was standing, as was Chiron. In the dark, only a glint of metal could be seen reflected from the flames. The figure stood, humanoid yet clearly not human. Percy squinted from his spot next to Annabeth, capped pen gripped in his hand.

Breaking the tense silence, he started laughing so hard he doubled over, using one hand to find Annabeth for support so as not to fall over. When she realized why he was laughing, she gave a snort of disbelief and smiled broadly at the unidentified figure.

The thing came forward with a mechanical clanking marking each step, its face a literal mask of indifference. Then, the helmet slid up, revealing the cackling face of Leo Valdez.

"Oh, man," he said, after he managed to stop laughing. "The look on your faces!" He framed them like he was preparing to take a picture with his fingers. "Priceless. And look at this thing! Percy, Annabeth, I kind of tinkered with it and then flew out before Stark could really do anything, so just don't go back in that building again and you'll be fine. I think."

Pinwheeling his arms as one of the gears in the leg got stuck, Leo regained balance and grinned again as Clarisse scoffed and returned her sword to her sheath. Everyone started sitting down again, most focusing back on the movie with the occasional glance back at Leo.

Percy ran over and laughed again, helping Leo stay upright. He shook one leg until it popped and he could move it again.

"Whoops, maybe I should have done a bit more work on the legs before I put it on. I almost crashed into the Chrysler building on my way over here," Leo said as the rest of his friends made their way over.

"Leo, what- what happened?" Hazel asked, her face mimicking the rest of the demigods' confused expressions.

"Yeah, you've been gone for hours," Piper said, sounding worried. "Percy and Annabeth said not to worry but, where have you been?"

"In a workshop, working on this sweet thing," Leo said, gesturing to the metal suit he was wearing.

"Do you think Stark will be able to track it down?" Annabeth asked him.

"Oh no, I ripped out the tracker when I was messing with the arc reactor and rewiring the helmet to play better music. Honestly, that guy's taste is so old." Leo did a little twirl and almost fell over.

"Thank you for the gift you guys, seriously. This is better than anything I could have ever expected, except maybe like a giant red cake with sparklers and music coming out of it. That would be pretty awesome too. But I frickin love this," Leo amended, flexing his fingers which made flames come out on either side of him.

"Can't you... already do that?" Frank asked, gesturing to the flames.

"Yeah, but it's so much cooler when I can do it with this sick armor on, while flying, and listening to some awesome tunes!" Leo said excitedly, his eyebrows catching on fire which he had to ask Piper to put out since he couldn't reach them himself.

"I'm going to go drop this off at Bunker 9, see you guys later!" And the son of Hephestus left before anyone could speak.

"Should we be worried?" Hazel asked no one in particular as Leo shot off into the forest, leaving a trail of fire behind him.

"The forest has seen much worse than fire, it'll survive," Nico said assuringly.

"I meant about Leo having to walk back in the dark during December, but that's also a valid concern."

"He'll be fine," Piper said decisively, turning back to the movie, which was ending. "Let's go get some more hot chocolate before they run out."

Overall, it was a Christmas to remember, and effectively distracted Leo for months as he rebuilt and perfected his stolen suit, going so far as to repaint it.

Tony had stopped searching for the strange trio who had stolen his old suit. He never used those things anyway, and as far as he knew Leo hadn't used it for anything nefarious, though Tony would keep an eye out.

And Percy knew that no matter what happened now, he had screwed himself over; he could never top that present next year.

The End.

Hope you comment if you liked it, and I also hope once again that you all have a wonderful winter and the happiest of holidays. 

~Weavle