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“So, Ms. I-Plan-Everything, tell me, how are we tackling the absolutely important job of decorating our apartment for Christmas?” Percy asked his girlfriend as they walked into the store. Annabeth walked over to the area where they stored the carts and grabbed one before taking Percy’s hand.
“The plan is simple and involves one thing: buying cute things that’ll look good. We also need a tree that’ll fit in our tiny ass apartment,” Annabeth responded. Percy watched as she easily navigated them to the décor section of the store, holding the cart with one hand and his in the other.
“Annabeth, those are two things.”
“Technicalities.”
Percy snorted. “Hopefully we’ll find some good stuff on sale. We should stock up on more stuff around New Year’s when they’re clearing all this stuff out.”
“Honestly? At the bare minimum I just want stuff that’ll match, but we absolutely need a tree.”
Once in the appropriate aisle, they were surrounded by Christmas décor, and they stood in front of the wreaths first, and as much as it sucked that they had to check the price eight times, they were on a budget.
Living in New York City right after graduation was absolutely so expensive, especially simply six months out of university, and Percy was so utterly thankful for Annabeth’s dad who had gifted her the apartment they lived in as a graduation present (and probably a gift to apologize for ignoring her all those years) , but they still had to pay bills. Not to mention the fact that Percy went back to school for a master’s degree in education while Annabeth was working her way from the bottom in an architecture firm nearby.
It was safe to say that their budget wasn’t very high.
Annabeth reached out for a small wreath that had a big red ribbon in the center on the top with small gold, green, and red bells along with pine cones dispersed through the rest of the wreath. It was small enough that it would fit in their kitchen window, and it was connected with another bigger wreath as well. The bigger wreath had a similar design except the ribbon was on the bottom of the wreath, and there were more bells and pine cones.
“This is great for the window and the front door, no?” she asked, turning to look at him. Percy took it from her hand and put it into the cart.
“I approve.” Annabeth beamed at him, and he laughed quickly. Going out to shop for Christmas decorations had made him feel like he was a ten year old going out to get a few new ornaments for Christmas with his mom, and it was clear that Annabeth felt the same way.
She wandered off, leaving the cart to Percy, and he trailed behind her, looking at all the things she stopped to show him, only to realize that they didn’t really fit in their apartment or they were too expensive. Eventually, she came across a rotating stand with Christmas accessories. He watched as she quickly grabbed a reindeer headband with jingling bells and grabbed him to put it on her.
“Oh my god, Annabeth please stop manhandling me,” he whined as she tugged on his collar to pull his head farther down.
“You’re just a big baby,” she retorted, setting the headband on his head. She let him go and stepped back slightly, a big smile gracing her face as she bit her lip. “You look adorable.”
Percy shook his head slightly and flinched when the loud tinkling of the bells reached his ears.
“God I’m going to be so obnoxious if I just roam around with this on my head.”
“More so than you already are?
“Can you not.”
“I can’t not.” Percy squinted at her as he took the headband out of his head and threw it in the cart. Annabeth watched him with a curious look on her face, silently asking him why he put it in the cart.
“You can’t expect me not to put it in the cart when you were so excited to put it on me, Annabeth,” he responded in a matter-of-fact tone, and he relished in the fact that he had succeeded in making her smile. “Come on,” he laughed, “we still have a lot of stuff to get.”
He pushed the cart around the aisles, picking up small packs of white and blue ornaments under his insistence. Growing up, everything was blue, and he had to carry the tradition on in his own apartment.
Annabeth had argued that it wasn’t just his apartment anymore, but he knew that she was more than willing to get white and blue ornaments, so he just grinned and put the pack into the cart. They had even managed to find a really pretty garland that came with red and gold ornaments, and despite the fact that the ornaments for the tree didn’t match the garland, Percy found himself not caring. If anything, their apartment would look amazing with the different colors while keeping the color scheme individualized between the tree and garland.
Plus, after asking around for a bit, they found a four foot Christmas tree that came with multi-colored lights strung already through it, so it saved them money having to buy the lights separately.
“Oh, Percy, look!” Annabeth exclaimed, pointing at a pack of two throw pillows, one white and one red. The red one had white snowflakes patterned onto it on both sides, and the blue one had a gold reindeer outline on one side, the other being completely solid white. “These are just what we need to tie together the colors.” Percy happily watched as she picked up the pack and looked at the price tag, only for her face to fall slightly.
“What?” he asked.
“It’s $25, Perce,” she responded in a dejected tone. Percy bit his lip and quickly did the mental calculation. He had gotten in extra hours teaching swimming at the local gym this past week, so he did have a bit of extra cash at hand that he was going to use for spending on food, but this seemed more important.
“Get it,” he spoke up. She turned to look at him like he was crazy.
“It’s too much for throw pillows,” she responded, shaking her head and beginning to walk away.
“Annabeth,” he stressed, catching her wrist. He moved his hand down to lace his fingers through hers. “We saved some money on the tree, and I have some extra money from working this week.”
“But we don’t need this.”
“We don’t need any of this, but if it’ll make you happy, it’s worth it.”
She looked at him carefully, pursing her lips and furrowing her eyebrows. Her gray eyes searched his face, and he made sure that he left his expression completely open for her to read. She could read him easily, but he needed her to understand that he wanted to get this for her. Because it would make her happy.
They were decorating their home, and if she was happy, that was more than enough for him.
“Are you sure?” she whispered. He nodded, and he cupped her jaw with his free hand, rubbing his thumb across her cheek. “Okay. Thanks,” Annabeth answered, a beautiful smile gracing her face. He grinned and threw the pack of throw pillows in the cart. Annabeth took over driving the car as they walked out of the aisle.
“Okay, let’s go roommate. It’s time we decorated the apartment,” Percy announced, pointing towards the registers.
“Oh wow I got demoted from girlfriend to roommate real fast.”
“Eh, it happens,” he shrugged, laughing as he wrapped an arm around Annabeth’s shoulders.
~~~
“Percy! The gold and red ornaments are with the garland .”
“Oh Jesus, woman, why are they with the tree, then?!”
“I don’t know? You put them there!”
“Annabeth, you took the stuff out of the bags while I made lunch.”
Annabeth scowled at him as she responded, “You moved everything off the couch so we could watch a movie while eating.”
“You pushed it all to the side while dragging me to the bedroom, Annabeth,” he responded, mocking her tone.
“The whole reason we even got the blue ornaments for the tree was because of you, asshole,” she answered, smacking him in the bicep as he got down from the chair to put down the box of ornaments and switch it with the red and gold ones.
“First of all, ow . Second of all, you could help me instead of staring at me.”
“Staring at the help is the best part of decorating, though,” Annabeth answered, smirking slightly as she crossed her arms over her chest.
“Well then, how about you do the decorating so I can do the staring?” he responded, holding out the box of decorations towards her. He beamed at her, hoping that he could break her, and he watched as she glanced between him and the box.
In the end, she sighed and took the box from him, climbing up the chair.
“You know, that’s really not fair,” she spoke up as she took an ornament out of the box before setting it down on the chair by her feet. She reached up to hook it through the garland, a bit of skin showing as her shirt rode up with the stretch of her arms.
“What?” he asked, his eyes transfixed on the small bit of skin without him even meaning to look there.
“The fact that you can just look at me and get me to do things.” That broke him out of his stupor as he barked a laugh. She shuffled around on the chair, turning to look at him with her hands on her waist. He walked over to her and grabbed her hand, tugging her down the chair. Confused, she moved down. Percy gave the box of ornaments to his girlfriend and stood up on the chair, holding a hand out.
She still just stared at him, completely lost, and he made grabbing motions towards the ornaments.
“Oh!” she exclaimed, handing him one. He hooked it into the garland before speaking.;
“You have the same effect on me so we’re even.”
Thirty minutes later, the wreaths were hanging on the window and door, the tree was assembled and twinkling under the dimmed lights of the living room, and the garland was hanging from the doorway between the kitchen and living room. The throw pillows were set on either side of their sofa, and Percy felt intense happiness for the life he had finally managed to get for himself.