wishes from years ago (christmas made them true)
Annabeth Chase was six years old when she asked Percy Jackson to be her boyfriend, 20 years later they are still best friends who have zero memories of that moment. With Christmas around the corner and with Annabeth stranded in NYC, maybe Christmas with the Jackson is all she and Percy need to ignite some memories.
You can also read it on ao3
Six-year-old Annabeth had never been as concentrated as she was in her life. Making a gingerbread house with her older cousins was a very important task and she wanted to impress Emma and Aubrey, even more now that Magnus had decided to just eat the frosting instead of helping them.
“Do you have a crush, Annabeth?” Aunt Caroline asked from the kitchen. She was in charge of supervising the kids since Aunt Natalie, Uncle Randolph and her dad were having the very important task of cutting out Christmas themed cookies.
“Mmmm,” Annabeth said, focusing on putting the little gumdrops on the roof. “Percy is my boyfriend.”
“Does Percy know he’s your boyfriend?” Annabeth turned and faced her dad, he had put down his cookie cutter and was looking at her, a bemused smile on his face.
Her dad fixed his glasses and accidentally ended up covering his face with flour, making Annabeth laugh. “Well dear, you can’t keep going and saying he’s your boyfriend if he doesn’t know.”
“Yeah sweetie,” Aunt Natalie added, “you have to ask him first.”
“And if it’s up to Fred then probably wait like twenty years until you can date him.” Randolph teased his brother.
Annabeth blinked a few times at her dad and aunt. “Okay,” she said and went back to her gingerbread house.
Days later Annabeth and her dad were back in their New York City apartment after celebrating Christmas with their family in Boston. Sally had dropped Percy off with them for the afternoon and once she was back from work, Annabeth and Percy were going to exchange Christmas presents. In the meantime, they were coloring while Frederick was on a business call.
“My dad says I can’t say you are my boyfriend unless I ask you first.” Annabeth put her crayons down on the table, she was really proud of how her purple snowman was looking. “So, do you want to be my boyfriend?”
“Okay!” Percy smiled at her but just as quickly the smile disappeared. “But oh, um I think I have to ask mamá first.”
It was the first Christmas since they lost Uncle Randolph to a car accident and for the first in Annabeth’s life, the Chase family was not reuniting for the holidays. Emma and Aubrey were flying to Hawaii for Christmas with their families and had taken Aunt Caroline with them, while Magnus was still in Sweden and was planning to propose to his partner, Alex, by New Year. So it was only Aunt Natalie, her dad, and her for Christmas or so she thought.
“It’s a lost cause,” Annabeth told Percy on the phone, she was pulling things out of her suitcase and throwing them on her bed. “Everything is closed, not a single train is going to Boston. Dad was lucky to leave early in the week.”
