Chapter Text
Annabeth Chase was standing outside of her dad's house eating a chocolate chip cookie fresh from the oven. Dinner was about to start and she was not thrilled to be at the children's table again. She was 25 and still sentenced to that darn table simply because she didn't bring anyone home for the holidays, again. Her step-mother, Lily, had already made a complaint that Annabeth was alone again. Lily was a kind woman who only wanted to see her step-daughter happy and Annabeth appreciated that, she really did, but she despised the comments about her being single and "always alone during the holidays." Annabeth looked at the night sky, the fresh snow falling through the air, and sighed. Practically everyone inside over the age of 18 had a partner in attendance for tonight's dinner, which did make her feel lonely a bit, but she was not the greatest in the dating department. Her ex boyfriend, Luke, was a awful human being. He was far too old and took advantage of a naive Annabeth. Their breakup was very negative and she was not in the mood to jump back into the dating pool. Annabeth walked back inside and felt much warmer immediately. She placed her jacket on the rack, slid her boots off and walked to the dining room where the tables for the evening were set and ready for dinner.
"Dinner is ready," Lily hummed as she walked out of the kitchen with a bowl of roasted sweet potatoes, placing them at the card table with all of the food.
Annabeth sat next to her young cousin, Ella, her plate full. They spent dinner catching up. Ella had many questions for Annabeth, not forgetting to ask about a boyfriend.
"No, I don't have one," she said nonchalantly before taking a bite of mashed potatoes.
Ella was silent for a second.
"Is that why you're at the kid's table again?" she asked.
"Yeah, but I like the kid's table more than the adult table anyways. You kiddos are more fun to be around, but don't tell your mom I said that," Annabeth smiled.
She wasn't lying. Being at the kid's table was more fun. The kid's didn't ask too many serious questions or make passive comments. The kid's table was filled more with conversations about what the kid's were up to and how school was going. She wanted to be at the adult table so badly so she didn't feel looked down on by the adults anymore. They didn't look down on her at all, but she was frustrated that she didn't have a seat at the adult table even though she was well established as an adult. She had finished grad school and was working at an architecture firm. Just because she was single didn't mean she didn't deserve a spot at the adult table. Her cousin Magnus, a couple years younger than her, was allowed at the table this year because his partner Alex came for Christmas.
"I have a boyfriend," Ella said.
"You do?" she raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, he even gives me his apple juices during lunch," Ella replied before taking a bite of food.
Great, even her 7 year old cousin had a boyfriend.
"Well that's great, Ella. He seems lovely," Annabeth smiled before taking a big swig of her red wine.
Eventually came time to exchange presents, Annabeth's favorite part. She had gotten everyone a gift, even a small gift for Alex as a welcome to the family. When it came time for her to open her gifts her excited feeling bubbled away after opening one gift. Pajamas, two sizes too big, clearly a regift. She made a mental note that she would be heading to the mall to return the pajamas and buy herself something she'd actually enjoy. The rest of her gifts were decent and she appreciated everyone for it but the night just felt... off. She imagined how the night would have gone had she brought a boyfriend. No comments about being single, at the adult table, someone to talk with when everyone else was with their person. Before she knew it, the night had come to an end and she was saying her goodbyes before heading home.
This year, Christmas fell during Hanukkah. While Annabeth showed up to Christmas alone, Percy Jackson showed up to Hanukkah alone. He showed up earlier than the dinner time so he could help his mom, Sally, do the cooking. Percy got his cooking skills from his mom. This year, his mom let him cook the latkes by himself, not that he needed supervision, but so she could focus on the brisket and matzoh ball soup. Percy wiped his hands on his blue apron, getting rid of the potato juice on his hand. He plopped 4 small piles of the shredded latke mix into the hot oil in the pan, making sure to avoid the oil that pops out. The brisket was in the oven, almost done cooking, and the matzoh balls were chilling in the fridge while the soup broth was on the stove to boil. So Percy was alone in the kitchen, humming songs to himself, when his step-dad Paul walked in.
"I see you've come alone again," Paul teased.
"Why are you assuming that I came alone?" he turned to face Paul, a spatula in his right hand.
"Why would you have invited a girl over for dinner and have her show up when the rest of the family shows up instead of having her meet your closer family beforehand? That seems like a dumb move if you ask me," Paul replied, leaning on the door frame.
"I'm not that old, I still have time to settle down," Percy sighed.
"Your mom and I just want you to be happy, Perc. We can tell you get lonely seeing everyone here have their partners. I don't know, I just figured this year would be the year you'd finally bring a girl around," he replied.
Percy turned around to flip the latkes so they didn't burn on one side. He smiled when he saw the golden brown color.
"I was dating someone but she broke up with me," Percy said quietly.
Rachel Dare. Her name left a bad taste in his mouth. He had met Rachel when they started college and had been friends for the longest time before a drunken mistake of a kiss. They ended up dating and Percy was really happy, but after 5 months he found out that Rachel was dating another guy at the same time. It was safe to say that Rachel was cut out of the entire friend group and his life. Now he was nearly 6 months single and had he been dating again, it was too early to bring her home for the holidays. He explained all of this to Paul as he continued making the latkes. The kitchen smelled heavenly.
"I'm sorry she did that. You deserve a much better girl and I have no doubt that you'll find her soon," he gave Percy a reassuring pat on his back before exiting the kitchen, leaving Percy alone to do the cooking.
Sally walked in a couple minutes later and gave Percy a kiss on his cheek. She worked on cooking the matzoh balls while she caught up with Percy. He didn't live too far from home but he was so busy with teaching that he usually spent the weekends relaxing at home and working on grading. Percy explained the whole Rachel situation to his mom while he cleaned up the dirty dishes from latke making. He conversed with his mom before she kicked him out of the kitchen. His new job was to help Paul finish setting up the tables and to greet people at the door. A decent amount of his family showed up and every single one of them made a comment about how he was single during the holiday season, a few offering to set him up with a nice Jewish girl they knew. He declined the kind offers and said he could do just fine in finding a girlfriend. Dinner was delicious. Sally made a fantastic brisket with carrots and potatoes. Percy lost track of how many latkes he ate, topping every single one with applesauce and sour cream. He sat next to his younger sister, Estelle, and made conversation with her between eating.
"Did you braid your hair or did mom?" Percy questioned, noticing her braids had a bunch of butterfly clips, a detail that Estelle would have added.
"I did!" she smiled. "Do you like the butterflies?" she said before taking a bite of her latke.
"I do, they're very pretty," he replied. "Can you do my hair for me next time I'm over?" he asked. Estelle was much younger than him so he liked getting any quality time with her that he could.
"Mhm, but I would like a payment of chocolate," she said. "Please," she gave him puppy dog eyes.
"How could I say no to you? Of course I'll bring you chocolate, munchkin," he chuckled.
Dinner came to an end and his family did their prayers and lit the Hanukkiah. Estelle used the shamash candle to light 4 candles since it was the fourth night of Hanukkah. The orange flames complimented the blue candles. Percy felt happy and warm in the moment. Seeing Estelle smile, his parents holding each other on the couch and his family being together for celebration were Percy's favorite things. After they lit the candles they did the family gift exchange. Percy gave out his gifts first. He saved extra money this year and was proud of himself for the items he bought. He handed Estelle, Sally, Paul and his grandparents their presents, all wrapped in blue or in blue bags. Yes, blue is one of the colors of Hanukkah but blue was also his favorite color so every time he gave someone a gift, no matter the holiday, it was going to be in blue wrapping. Estelle opened the big blue box and squealed. Percy had gotten Estelle an indoor pop up princess tent and items she can use inside, including some fairy lights and a blanket.
"Thank you, Percy!" she smiled before running to her parents. "Look what he got me, look!" she giggled.
"That was very kind of your brother, we will set it up tomorrow," Sally replied happily. "Were they out of blue?" she teased.
Percy faked a laugh in response. Sally and Paul opened their presents. He bought Paul a new black leather jacket, his current one was falling apart. He bought his mom a gift card for a spa day and had surfed on Etsy for personalized art. He bought an art piece that was a drawing of the family using Percy's favorite photo. They had gone to the beach with Estelle's friend and their family. They were sitting on their picnic blanket and all laughing at a little Estelle stuffing watermelon in her mouth, juice dripping down her smiling face.
"Perc, I love it," Sally said softly. "Thank you," she said with a big smile.
Paul thanked him for the leather sweater, saying he would be using it right away for the cold weather. The night continued with gift exchanges and games of dreidel. Eventually people started to leave, especially when the little kids were getting tired, until it was just Percy, Sally, Paul and Estelle. Estelle was off getting ready for bed while he helped Sally and Paul clean up from the night.
"I'm ready for bed," Estelle announced as she walked into the kitchen.
"Percy will take you to get you tucked in. Dad and I will be there in a few minutes," she kissed Estelle's forehead.
Percy picked up Estelle and carried her on his shoulder. She giggled the entire way to her room. He tucked her in and said his goodnight as his parents walked in. After they all said goodnight, it was time for Percy to bid his goodbye.
He was exhausted when he got home. The apartment would have felt lonely if it wasn't for his dog, Mrs. O'Leary, who gracefully greeted him at the door when he got home. He quickly got ready for bed after putting away the gifts, separating the one bag that he would be taking to the mall for returns, and was asleep a few minutes after his eyes closed.
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Fate is an interesting thing. Annabeth and Percy had wound up at the same mall at the same time. She just finished her errand at the store that the two sizes too big pajamas came from, successfully exchanging them for a cute lavender knitted sweater that was much more her taste. Percy had just finished returning his gifts from Hanukkah dinner a few days earlier. They were walking from opposite directions, both guilty of staring at their phones instead of looking where they were walking, and bumped into each other. Since Percy was a whole foot taller, it was Annabeth that would take a fall from the force of their bumping, but Percy caught her with ease before she could fall.
"I am so sorry, I wasn't paying attention," Annabeth groaned in embarrassment.
"It's okay. I wasn't paying attention either, I'm sorry," he replied sheepishly.
Once the woman in his arms was stable, he let her go. You'd think that either of them would have recognized each other's voices, or that Percy would recognize Annabeth's blond curly hair, but nope. It wasn't until Annabeth moved her hair out of her face and looked up to meet Percy's eyes that they were hit with the realization of who they were looking at. Annabeth blushed immediately. She could never forget Percy's sea-green eyes. He got even taller since the last time she saw him, and even cuter. She had been head over heels for Percy when they were teenagers and was heartbroken when they ended up losing contact years ago. She was thrilled to see him again. Percy was shocked when he realized it was Annabeth he had caught. They had been so close years ago and he was surprised to see her again. She looked even more beautiful. Her grey eyes looked into his and he wanted to melt. She was still short. She had a little streak of grey in her hair. He smiled at her, noticing a blush that had crept onto her cheeks.
"Hey, wise girl," he said softly.
"Hi, seaweed brain," she replied, a warm feeling running up her spine.
"Wow, I can't believe it's you. It's been so long," he said, taking a step back. "And look at you! You look great," he complimented her.
"Thank you, Percy," she blushed even harder. "You don't look too bad yourself!" She wanted to smack her forehead for that dumb attempt of flirting.
"I don't have anywhere to be the rest of the day. Would you like to grab some lunch?" he asked her, hoping she would say yes. For all he knew, she could have a boyfriend and would say no.
"I would love to, it'll be great to catch up," she spoke.
They were sitting in a booth at the diner in the mall, both extremely nervous. They took turns sharing about their lives. Annabeth mentioned that she was working at the architect firm and how she would like to start her own one day, which Percy said was a great idea, he had remembered how brilliant she was. She talked about high school and college, mentioning Luke since she felt so comfortable around Percy. She had updated him on practically everything. Percy told her about Estelle. Annabeth wasn't around when Estelle had been born. He also told her about his high school and college situation. He told her how he teaches marine biology at the high school a couple miles from his apartment. Annabeth wasn't surprised to hear that, she recalled how Percy is obsessed with the ocean and sea life. Percy mentioned Rachel since Annabeth mentioned Luke. He said he was over the whole situation but didn't have the energy to do the whole dating thing.
"I totally understand," Annabeth replied, taking a sip from her milkshake. "After Luke I haven't been able to jump back into the dating pool yet. I know I'm ready but I just don't want to deal with dating."
They talked about their recent holiday celebrations, both mentioning that their families complained they still didn't have dates for the family events. Percy chuckled when Annabeth said her young cousin even had a boyfriend.
"It's like, I want a date for the holidays but don't want it full time, ya know?" Annabeth said.
"Have you heard of a holidate?" Percy asked. Annabeth shook her head no. "It's basically that. A person who is your date for holiday events but like, platonically, and you guys don't date outside of the holidays. They're your plus one so you don't go alone," he explained. "Maybe you need one of those."
A light bulb went off in Annabeth's head.
"Percy, you're a genius!" she replied. He thanked her but he didn't quite understand what she meant. "You can be my holidate. Think about it. We both live in the city, were close friends once, our families know who we both are and it'll be like old times. We'd be going to events like we did as best friends. You wouldn't have to worry about getting a girlfriend, I wouldn't have to worry about getting a boyfriend and we can call it off once we find partners." Annabeth explained. "Plus, your mom loves me," she smirked.
"You present a good option," he replied. "I don't see why not. Like you said, it'll be like old times. Plus we've already connected so well during lunch. This will make everything so much easier," he smiled. He didn't want to seem too eager.
"Perfect. So, holidate?" she reached out her hand for him to shake.
"Holidate," he replied, shaking her hand.