December 8th
It was four days until the first Secret Santa gift was due and of course, Frank was panicking. Leo and him hadn't really been friends and he still felt a bit wary of him. It wasn't that he thought the Latino was bad, they just were very different.
Because of their differences, Frank had no idea what he would get Leo.
It was one P.M and Frank was sitting in a chair, in the house Hazel and he shared, in Camp Jupitar. He was thinking about going back to his Praetor-ing the next day when someone walked through the door.
Piper walked through the door and stomped off the snow on her boots before noticing Frank.
"Hi, Frank," Piper said warmly.
"Hi," Frank greeted as Piper took of her coat and hat. "Hazel is in her room."
"Thank you," Piper sighed and she walked off to the room where Hazel was apparently wrapping her present.
Hazel had been acting weirdly since she went shopping a few days previously. She had come home and seemed a bit in a daze, when Frank asked what had happened, she had brushed it off.
Frank checked the time. He was going to meet Percy at the cafe in New Rome at one-fifteen but there was no harm in going a little early. So, he told Hazel and Piper he was leaving and put on his winter clothes and walked to the cafe.
He got inside the warm cafe and breathed in the delicious smell of hot chocolate. He got a table for two and ordered two hot cocoas with whipped cream and candy canes.
As he sat there, waiting for his drink and Percy, he thought. At first, he thought about Leo. He liked machines, fire, and his dragon, Festus. He had always been working and he liked to talk a lot. He wondered if he would be happy with just a bag of scraps he could fiddle with. Then his mind went to Hazel. What happened that day? He didn't want to pry but he wished she would tell her. Could a god have come to her? Maybe she was telling Piper and he could ask her later.
After that, his mind started to wander to all of his friends. Who were their Secret Santa's? Were they having a hard time too?
"Frank!" Frank looked up and saw Percy walking towards him, coat in his arms.
Frank smiled. Percy had flown on Blackjack across America to come see him. He had once found Percy scary but as he got to know him, he found that he was just a guy who loved his friends and his girlfriend.
Percy walked up to Frank and he stood up to greet him. "What's up, my dude?"
They did they're little handshake/fist bump and sat down just in time for their hot chocolate to be served.
"Dude! You ordered my hot chocolate already?" Percy said in disbelief.
Frank chuckled, "Of course."
"You're the best," Percy smiled and cupped the mug of cocoa in his hand, lifting it up to his lips, and shivering at the warmth as he took a sip.
Frank laughed at his friend's love for the chocolatey drink.
"So," Percy said, wiping his mouth. "How's life."
Frank paused at the question. He had never been one to lie, but he didn't know if really wanted to talk about some of his problems.
"It's pretty good," Frank admitted, taking a sip of his drink. "We got a few new campers and they are a bit of trouble but they will learn."
"Every place has to have a trouble maker," Percy said, smiling.
"True," Frank replied, rising in eyebrow in humor and taking another sib of his warm drink. "What about you?"
Percy sighed, "It's been well, but I did get into a fight with the Gorgon sisters again."
"Really?" Frank exclaimed. He shouldn't really be surprised that Percy got attacked but, he was concerned.
"Yeah," Percy laughed. "I was shopping for Jason and they cornered me in an alleyway."
"So, Jason is your secret Santa?"
"Oh," Percy apparently hadn't noticed the slip up. "Yeah, yeah. I guess I wasn't supposed to tell you that."
"That's fine," Frank assured him. "Mine's Leo and it's kind of stressing me out."
"Ooh," Percy said, giving him a little sympathetic look. "You two haven't been the best of friends."
"I know," Frank groaned. "I don't hate him but we just have such different lives-"
"No you don't," Percy said nonchalantly, taking a big gulp of cocoa and whipped cream.
"Huh?" Frank asked.
"Well," Percy swirled the remaining contents of his hot chocolate around in his mug. "You both lost your moms and didn't grow up in the best places. You were both wary of your powers too."
Frank hadn't really thought about it that way.
"You were also both very insecure," Percy said, laughing to himself like he was remembering a funny memory.
"Leo? Insecure?" Frank asked, astonished. "Isn't his catch phrase 'all the girls love Leo'?"
Percy shrugged. "Some people are really good at acting."
Frank shook his head. It hurt his brain to add that new information to everything else.
"So, how's Annabeth?"
Frank and Percy talked idly for another hour and a half before Leo came back up but in a slightly more helpful way.
"I'll help you shop for him," Percy offered, probably bored sitting still for so long.
"You would do that?" Frank asked.
"Yeah! Let's look around New Rome," Percy was already standing up from the table.
"Johnvinsky!" Frank called to the waiter.
He walked over and nodded to Frank and Percy while grabbing their mugs.
"Thank you," Frank told him.
The two friends walked out into the cold streets of New Rome and started looking at some shops.
They first walked into a shop that sold explosives. They got to use some tiny Greek fire bombs since they needed testing. There were multiple other explosive things that Percy and Frank had a ball using. There was explosive arrows that Frank found intriguing, underwater bombs Percy almost bought (that was before he realized he had no money on him), and sticks that flickered lights which the shop keeper called 'sparklers'. They stayed for at least half an hour before they realized that giving Leo something explosive might not be super smart.
The second shop they walked into was a tool shop. There was a little station Percy insisted they tried where they were allowed to build things. They tried to use a drill but after Percy went flying into the wall, they stuck with hammers. Percy and Frank ended up with a pretty good bird house but there didn't seem to be anything in the shop that Leo couldn't just summon with his tool belt.
After the third shop of finding nothing (it was a game store) Frank started to loose hope.
"Why don't we just IM him?" Percy suggested. tabasco sauce
"And say what?" Frank asked.
"Don't worry," Percy assured him with a wink, taking out a drachma.
Frank was very worried but he decided to trust him anyway. He was desperate.
Percy stepped out to where the sun was peaking out and a thousand rainbows were littering the ground.
"Oh, Fleecy," Percy said, "do me a solid and show me Leo Valdez at Camp Half-Blood."
Who was Fleecy? Frank thought. He didn't have much time to question it before eh had to stepped away from Percy as Leo's form came in.
He seemed to he holding something in his hand but Frank couldn't see what from the angle he was looking.
"What's up, Valdez?" Percy asked.
Leo looked at Percy and smiled, "what's up Water Boy?"
Percy rolled his eyes. "What are you doing?"
"Festus brought me some stuff yesterday," Leo explained, "actually, that reminds me I have to get some Tabasco sauce soon. He's running out."
Percy glanced at Frank who was already brainstorming ways to get the sauce.
"Well, it was nice talking to you, pal," Percy said.
Leo smirked, "'ice' talking to you too, Snowman Bender."
Percy shook his head and laughed as he ran a hand through the message.
"Where is Tabasco sauce usually found?" Frank asked as soon as Leo disappeared.
"We can get some at Kwik Trip," Percy said confidently.
"Let's go."
It took twenty minutes to get to the Kwik Trip from the entrance tunnel. Frank and Percy walked inside and searched the aisles until they found the one containing Tabasco Sauce.
"How much should we get?" Frank asked.
He looked to Percy and an understanding came between them.
They appeared at the checkout with the all the sauce they could find, plus four bags of some kind of chips called 'Talkies'. The casher looked at them questioningly for only a second before she just went with it and scanned the items.
Percy and Frank walked out of the store with a plastic bag full of chips and Tabasco sauce.
"Thanks for this," Frank said to Percy.
"No problem, bro," Percy said with a smile.