~The Cave~

'You four have some explaining to do.'

Annabeth's voice rang through the air. The silence was deafening, the surprise unnerving, the shock not quite registering.

Lou, Clarisse, Drew and Rachel remained silent.

They were an odd bunch. A daughter of Hecate, a daughter of Ares, a daughter of Aphrodite and the Oracle.

Although that did explain how everything happened. The disappearances required magic, what Lou was good at. The note required cunning and creativity; Rachel's speciality. Clarisse and Drew manipulated the campers. Those Aphrodite girls who helped them find the snowmen must've been charmspoken.

'Answers, anyone?' Piper said. 'Start talking.'

Her charmspeak washed over them, including Drew who could've countered it with her own, but choose not to.

'I was bored,' Clarisse said. 'And I was talking to Rachel and we had the idea to set up a puzzle for you guys.'

'But we knew you'd never just do it,' Rachel took up the story. 'There had to be something at stake. So we got Lou in on it and she said we could, like, kidnap you guys one by one.'

'But we'd never want to hurt anybody,' Lou added quickly. 'Which is why, when we found this cave, I spelled it so it was safe. Then I enchanted the table so it never ran out of food.'

'But we needed food first,' Clarisse explained. 'So we got Drew to help us since she's a daughter of Aphrodite and they can naturally cook. Strangely.'

'So I cooked all the food,' Drew ignored Clarisse's jibe. 'And set it on the table for Lou to work her magic, literally.'

'Then we came up with the riddles,' Rachel took a piece of paper out of her pocket inscribed with words and scribbles. 'And Clarisse hid the first one in the star. After that, Lou simply sent the note wherever with magic.' 

'And you thought kidnapping us was okay?' Nico asked with a frown, obviously confused.

The four girls remained silent.

'It was supposed to be something fun to do,' Clarisse said glumly. 'You've all done pretty much nothing interesting since the Giant War ended. We thought ... I thought it could be fun.'

They all fell quiet. Nothing was said. What could you say to four friends who'd just kidnapped you?

'I had fun.'

Everyone stared at Leo like he dropped from out of space. Come to think of it, people looked at him like that a lot. But that didn't matter.

'What did you say?' Reyna asked like she'd misheard.

'I had fun,' Leo repeated. 'I never realized it, but it was kind of fun working out the riddles. Yeah, it was scary. Yeah, it was terrible when our friends disappeared. But I kind of had fun.'

The other demigods still stared at him.

'I had fun too.'

'Percy,' Annabeth hissed. 'What are you doing?'

'Telling the truth,' he said. 'What Leo said. I kind of had fun too.'

'I guess it was fun working out clues,' Piper grumbled.

'And the food was great!' Travis added excitedly. Connor chuckled.

Annabeth relented, 'I guess, it wasn't so bad.'

She looked up at the four girls with a resigned smile, 'I suppose we forgive you. It was very clever.'

Rachel laughed and tackled her best friend in a hug. Percy yelled, 'Group hug!' and everyone piled on. Jason flew up in the air and sat on top of the pile.

'Whoa!'

Everyone screamed shrilly as the tower of demigods and an Oracle came tumbling down. As they hit the ground, they burst into fits of laughter. The stress of the last two weeks finally being released in the arms of friends.

~The Amphitheatre (the next night)~

'Christmas dinner is always excellent,' Annabeth confirmed for the group.

Percy sat with his arm around his girlfriend, pulling her in tight. Hazel and Frank sat next to them in the same position. Jason and Piper simply held hands, staring into each others eyes and barely paying attention.

The other single people-Reyna, Connor, Nico, Thalia, Rachel, Drew, Lou and Leo- rolled their eyes at the couples. Clarisse and Travis were also present, but their dates had gone home for the holidays.

'It was,' Percy murmured to his girlfriend. 'When are you wrong?'

Annabeth smiled and kissed him. They stayed like that. Eventually Thalia pushed them away and sat between them.

'Let's keep things PG,' she smirked and the two rolled their eyes.

As usual, the campfire flamed in the middle of the amphitheatre where it would grow and change colour with the mood of the campers. Tonight, it was nearly thirty feet high, flashing green and red for Christmas.

Chiron announced that they would be handing out presents from camp that were stashed underneath the Christmas tree that they'd hauled from the Mess Hall to the Amphitheatre. There weren't a great many presents because there weren't many campers straying for the holidays.

Apart from the group there were five Aphrodite kids, two Apollo girls, seven boys from Hermes, two girls from Athena, one each from Dionysus, Ares, Demeter, plus Will, Jake, Nyssa and Malcolm.

The Hunters were opening their presents to each other back in the Artemis cabin, grumbling that the Amphitheatre was too full of boys for their liking. Only Thalia remained at the campfire.

Chiron handed out the presents with the help of the five Aphrodite kids. The group opened theirs with bashful faces.

Percy got a waterproof watch with a trident on the face.

Annabeth received a bronze seeing shield like the one Beckendorf had made her.

Jason was given a sword that changed from Greek form to Roman.

Piper opened hers to see a simple bracelet with a heart charm that said love.

Frank got a basket of chocolate brownies with peaches.

Hazel received a bracelet laced with diamonds, rubies, sapphires and emeralds.

Leo (being Leo) had made himself a strange machine and wrapped it.

Thalia got a new silver bow from the Hunters and a special Camp t-shirt from camp.

Nico was given proper, black-as-night sheath for his Stygian Iron sword.

Travis and Connor both received a prank set that would probably be put to use soon.

Reyna was given a Pegasus foal in place of her Scipio. They had promised the father, Blackjack, the foal would be taken care of and could be visited.

As everyone opened their presents, shouts of joy and excitement were heard all around.

Percy tried on his watch, Frank dug into the brownies, Leo pretended to be excited at his own gift and Thalia tested her new bow. Leo yelped as the arrow tore a hole in the side of his shirt. Nico put his sword in the new sheath and attached it to his belt. Reyna started crying.

Annabeth and Percy watched the chaos side by side, with no place they'd rather be.

'We got them all back,' Percy said. 'We found each other in the end. Like we always do.'

Annabeth nodded, 'And we found out who was behind it all; Clarisse, Lou, Drew and Rachel.'

'And it was nothing but a complex game,' Percy agreed.

'Look at you,' Annabeth nudged him. Complex; such a big word.'

'You must bring out the best in me, Wise Girl.'

'I'm sure I do, Seaweed Brain.'

Just then, the Hephaestus cabins surprise went off. Fireworks launched into the sky, spreading colour. They formed no pictures like the 4th of July fireworks, the just provided joy and laughter. When they fireworks burst, they started singing what could only be Leo's version of We Wish You A Merry Christmas.

We wish you a campy Christmas. We wish you a campy Christmas.

We wish you a campy Christmas, and a safe, happy year!

Awesome presents you bring to Leo your King.

We wish you a campy Christmas, and a safe, happy year!

The song ended to huge applause. Leo got up and took a bow only to be shoved aside by Nyssa and Jake who gave him a lopsided smile. The cheering grew, not just for the Hephaestus cabin, but for Christmas in general. The holiday had turned out to be the best in a long time.

'Its a perfect Christmas,' Annabeth whispered with a smile.

They kissed gently. Then Percy shook his head and corrected her.

'No. It's a demigod Christmas.'

The demigods spent their Christmas holiday chasing down what they called keys, following riddles that would take them to their friends. They found the culprits, Clarisse, Lou, Drew and Rachel. I watched them do it, the whole way. They had it all figured out.

All except me. It wasn't Clarisse who was bored, it was I. And one day, I will reveal myself to them. But for now, let them be. I mean them no harm. I mean all fun and games. Its what I live for, its what I am. By bring fun to them, I brought fun to myself.

One day, they will know. But for now, more fun to let them mislead themselves. More fun to let them believe what they think they know. One day, I will tell.

But not today.

Because today is too soon. I haven't had enough playtime. I'll mess with their demigod minds again. It's exciting, its intoxicating, its obsessive.

It's all in fun.