Chapter Text
Pollux felt like he was in a fairyland . Bright blue, red, yellow, and white lights flashed around him and his twin like a kaleidoscope. Snow covered everything, like a crystal wonderland. It was just a ( Probably ) mortal village decorated for Christmas. But it looked so pretty.
Luke Castellan, a son of Hermes, chuckled behind them. "Haven't you ever seen Christmas lights before?".
"We have, Larry . They're just pretty." Pollux replied, though he didn't think Luke heard him over the scarf.
"Not that you'd know anything about prettiness," Pollux's twin brother, Castor, said.
Castor always made it clear if he disliked someone by making sarcastic remarks or insults.
And Pollux liked to be sneaky, like being passive-aggressive or tripping someone while they're carrying something with a vine.
To put it mildly, neither he nor Castor liked Luke Castellan. Sure, there was nothing wrong with the guy. He was nice enough to them. He doesn't talk badly about their dad like the other campers (at least Pollux has never heard him do). But since he came back from his quest, there was a feeling at the back of Pollux's mind, like a gut feeling, that gets stronger by the day.
"Hey, wait up!" Annabeth called from down the street. Her blonde curls bouncing under her grey woolly hat like a halo as she ran to catch up.
Annabeth had been him and Castor's friend since —well, not since they met her. In fact, they were kinda very mean to her when they first met when they were eight. But they're ten now! They've matured now and become best friends.
He even made space on the sidewalk for her.
"The Christmas lights are so pretty," she said, walking between them, Castor on her right, Pollux on the left.
"Yeah," Pollux said.
"Can you believe what Leonard quoth to us?" Castor said, putting an annoying amount of emphasis on quoth .
Annabeth giggled. "It's Luke, Cast. And what did he quoth to you?"
Pollux sighed, "Don't encourage him, Owlbrain."
Castor discovered Shakespeare a week ago, and he's been hyper-fixated on it ever since. And Pollux isn't sure how much longer he can take hearing about symbolism in Romeo and Juliet in the middle of the night before he starts thinking he's in a Shakespearean tragedy himself.
"O, speak to me no more. These words like daggers enter my ears." Castor annoyingly grinned as he quoted Hamlet. He turned to Annabeth, "Lenny here," He gestured to Luke, "thinks we've never seen Christmas lights before".
Luke put his hands up in defence, "Hey, I was just saying, you guys seemed so amazed by the lights; it's like you haven't seen Christmas before".
"Probably 'cause me and Cass don't celebrate Christmas," Pollux said.
"Dad has beef with Jesus," Castor explained, scooping up snow in his gloved hand.
"And Mom's relatives come over around Christmas, and Dad says they're a bunch of—"
"Pollux," Chiron chided, rolling up behind them in his wheelchair, "Language. And Castor put that snowball down."
Castor stared at Chiron. The snowball he was about to throw at Luke dropped to the pavement. "I wasn't going to do anything!"
"I don't celebrate Christmas either, though not because of that," Annabeth said.
"Then why?" Pollux asked, kicking a ball of snow as he walked.
Annabeth hesitated, "...Because of how it's about family and how great it is. And since I ran away from my 'family'. It's kinda a sore subject."
"Oh," is all he said.
It was all he could say; one of the only downsides to having your godly parent at camp was that you'll never understand your fellow campers.
Annabeth laughed, "Guess neither of us are getting Christmas presents this year."
Pollux giggled. "Yeah," he said.
But he was lying. He had already made up his mind.
Annabeth was getting a Christmas present.
A laugh rang out, and Pollux heard Chiron say, "Don't."
He and Annabeth whipped their heads around to see what was going on.
Luke was standing behind Castor, who had lagged behind and was too distracted by a red robin nearby to see the giant ball of snow Luke had looming over his head.
Pollux scooped up some snow, and Annabeth did the same.
"Cassie, look out!" he yelled, throwing a snowball as hard as he could at Luke's chest. Unfortunately, Pollux was never much good at being a marksman, and instead of hitting the much bigger son of Hermes, he hit the much smaller Castor's left arm.
Annabeth on the other hand, was a better shot than him...unfortunately, not better by much.
Her snowball sailed over Castor's head and past Luke's chest.
Hitting him in the armpit.
Luke dropped the snowball in mild shock...directly onto Castor's head.
'Whoopsie' was all that went through Pollux's head.