ONE LAST TIME . . . heroes of olympus

20.5

IT WAS CHRISTMAS eve — Katerina's birthday.

She wanted to spend the entire day sleeping, but she woke up to a knock on her door. Again.

"I swear to all of the fucking shits above, if it's them again," she muttered, rolling out of bed, her body flaring with pain, blindly reaching for the square of ambrosia on her nightstand and yeeting it into her mouth. She'd missed, and it clattered to the floor and broke in half. She just sighed and popped one half of her floor ambrosia into her mouth. Her body was steaming, which definitely meant that she'd been eating too much ambrosia. Whoops. She put the other half of the floor ambrosia on her nightstand and stumbled to her feet and to her front door.

However, instead of seeing Piper and Jason, she saw a large package with a note on the top. Happy birthday, idiot, the note read. Why haven't you called or texted, bitch? Love, Julia.

Katerina rolled her eyes, but she dragged the package inside her apartment, putting the note on her counter. She had literally sent Jules a chain of texts while she was at the New York Amazon HQ so she didn't know why the note said that, but oh well. She didn't try to understand Jules's brain. Too complicated.

She opened the package with a kitchen knife, revealing a small Christmas tree that she put on her countertop, holding Jules's note down. She was going to decorate the tree while eating a breakfast made up of the charcuterie board she'd made right after she got back from Amazon when someone tried to open the door and succeeded.

"Kat!" Piper sighed as she walked in, carrying a fucking giant bag. "Why is the door unlocked? I thought you were a master thief and all that shit."

"That was a title that you and Jason gave me, not anyone else in the world," Katerina rolled her eyes. "Alright, maybe some other people have given me that title — like people on the news 'cause they don't know my name — but still. Besides, Jules gave me a package every Christmas Eve like she usually does. I guess I forgot to lock the door."

"A package?" Piper frowned down at the box that was on the ground. "With what?"

Katerina nodded toward the tree on her countertop. "She gives me one every birthday," she explained. "I keep it up till, like, June or something. Mostly because I don't have the energy to get rid of it. And I'm not home to get rid of it. Where's Jason?"

"You don't think I would come in on my own volition?" Piper pouted, putting her bag down on the couch and walking over to pluck a cracker from the charcuterie board, popping it in her mouth. She then gave Katerina a tight lipped smile because she was eating. "I wanted to wish you a happy birthday, Rina," she said.

"You remembered?" asked Katerina.

Piper snorted. "Of course I did, it's your birthday. I would be a poor human being if I didn't remember the day my favorite girl was born."

Katerina felt herself flush at the 'my favorite girl'. "Well, thanks," she said, barely managing to not stumble over her words. "But I know when you're lying, malyshka." She mentally cringed as Piper grinned at the nickname, trying to save herself by asking, "where's Jason, Piper?"

"Here." Piper walked over to her giant bag, and Katerina finally found out why she'd brought the bag; she'd bought her a cake. It wasn't the biggest one she's seen — she and Jules had bought a giant four-tiered cake for headquarters for their five year anniversary, that was wonderful to eat through — but it was still a decently sized cake. It had her name written on it in green frosting.

"You got me a cake?" Katerina's voice cracked.

"Red velvet's still your favorite, right?" Piper's expression was concerned, studying her face cautiously. "You told me that one night at the Wilderness School, and we got it for you for your birthday that year, but—"