Note: This is a sequel to my other songfic Breakeven, but can stand alone :D It's thanks to all those who reviewed and told me to write a sequel that this was born!

He sat by my bedside silently, clouded chocolate eyes intense in their stare. I could feel his wrinkled hand clutching my own...he was trembling.

"What're you so scared of Ghost Boy?" I teased, my voice rough and scratchy from lack of use. A ragged cough wracked my body; Gods it's been getting harder to breathe lately. "I'm the one dying not you."

A dry chuckle escaped him as he dragged his chair closer. He leaned his elbows on my mattress and raised my hand to his lips. Taking a deep breath, he whispered fondly: "Only you'd say something like that on your deathbed."

A familiar tingle ran through me as his breath tickled my paper thin skin and it had nothing to do with being a daughter of Zeus. Warm wetness trickled down my hand and I turned to face my sappy husband. Oh Styx, he's crying. "Come on di Angelo; don't make my last memory of you be this."

Defiance shined in his eyes as he sniffled. "Your soul doesn't die when you do. You'll make Elysium, I guarantee it. I dare my dad to send you anywhere else. You can even try for the Isles of the Blest!"

More coughs, I better make this quick. Closing my eyes I murmured, "I don't think so. What if you die and I've been reborn already? Nope, I think I'll wait for your sorry butt to meet me in Elysium."

Cold claimed my body as I felt the world slip away. He must have known what was happening, being a son of Hades and all. I heard the shadow of a sob in his voice as he said his last words to me, "Good bye Thalia, I'll love you forever and for always."

I held onto the sound of his voice with my dying will, as sappy as that sounds. "Good bye Nico, and ditto."

I'm so tired of being here
Suppressed by all my childish fears

No, no, no, no, this can't be happening.

"I'm sorry son but it's true," my father said solemnly. He shifted in his thrown, inducing stifled moans from his flowing ebony cloak. "She's going to die. In fact, she's dying slowly right now."

I didn't want to believe him; my brain REFUSED to believe him. But some logical part of me knew he was right. Who doesn't believe the freaking DEATH GOD when he says someone's going to die? My powers of speech seemed to desert me as I choked on my words. After Zeus knows how long of gaping like a fish I muttered a quiet question. "How sure are you?"

"As sure as Zeus is proud and Poseidon is pruny," he assured. "If you don't believe me, you can take her to a mortal doctor. They'll tell you the same thing."

"...how long does she have left," I asked.

"I'm not in a position to tell you that," he replied.

Frustration built up in me as I snapped. "What the HELL do you mean you can't tell me?"

"You forget your respect Nico," Father's face grew stony at my outburst. He raised a pale hand banished me with a snap of his fingers.

I snapped awake, shooting up in bed. My breath was heavy and laboured as I surveyed my surroundings. Just my room...had it all just been a dream?

"Nico?" a sleepy voice called. Thalia's dimly lit face came into view as she squinted at me. "Hey Deadbeat, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," I replied. It had to be a dream; I couldn't lose her, not after everything we've been through. Planting a soft kiss on her lips, I lied back down and pulled her close to me, breathing in the sweet scent of ozone. "Nothing at all..."

These wounds won't seem to heal
This pain is just too real
There's just too much that time cannot erase

THUMP

I dropped my duffel bag unceremoniously onto the slightly worn carpet of our new apartment and sighed. It smelled like dust and feet. Suddenly, my elbow jabbed backwards as I sensed someone sneaking up on me. My eyes widened in realization as I recognized that pained grunt. "Oh, sorry Nico didn't see you there."

"Well duh," my Ghost Boy groaned. "I was trying to be romantic and sweep you off your feet, seeing as we're entering our new home together. But obviously that's not happening."

"I'm sorry, I was too busy breathing in the sweet scent of our glorious 'practically brand new' apartment," I countered. Turning to face my whiny fiancé I frowned, "How exactly are we going to get rid of this smell? Great deal you got on our new house, di Angelo."

He smirked and replied, "Don't you know that a house is not a home when someone's not living there?"

...I stared at him blankly. Dear gods he actually looks proud at that statement. "You do know that that's an old, and I mean our-parents-listen-to-it-old, bar song right?"

"Nuh uh! Glee brought it back last season!" he exclaimed.

Oh no, not Glee anything but Glee. It's almost as bad as his old Mythomagic obsession. I wrapped my arms around him and kissed him full on the lips before he could get into his Gleek mode. Zeus almighty he could be such a pain sometimes. Between the two of us, our kid's going to grow up to be some kind of freak of nature.

When you cried I'd wipe away all of your tears
When you'd scream I'd fight away all of your fears
And I held your hand through all of these years

The sounds of battle filled the air in surround sound. I leapt over a slithering demon's open maw as it snapped at me, stabbing it in the neck as landed. Styx, that Harpy carried me off way too far from the main battle. I spotted Aegis through a gap between a few hydra heads and ploughed towards it.

"Thalia!" I cried once within earshot. Her face appeared in another gap, bloodied and bruised. Panic bubbled in me as I tried to move faster. "Thalia! Thalia! THA—"

THUD

My face met dirt as I tripped on...what was either a tree root or a monster toe. I looked up to see a hand, extended to help me up, and a very amused daughter of Zeus. "Hey Ghost Boy, how's the view from down there?"

Ignoring the jibe I pointed to her head as she pulled me to a stand. "What happened with that?"

"A Cyclops got lucky," she responded, touching a hand to the still wet blood. "He reminded me too much of Tyson. Don't worry, head wounds always bleed a lot."

"Oh, good then," he mumbled, humiliated at his stumble.

"If you've got time to yell my name out, then pay more attention to where you're stepping," she advised.

I huffed at the advice and retorted, "Well I'm sorry you're stuck with me then."

"Don't be," she smiled. "I wouldn't have it any other way."

But you still have
All of me

"This trial is now over," Lady Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt, declared. "Concrning Thalia Grace's brazen abandonment of the oath, I have decided that—"

"WAIT!" commanded a voice. Nico came stumbling through the undergrowth into the valley that the Hunters were gathered in. Panting and out of breath, he continued, "You can't do this! She's your lieutenant! She led the Hunters against Kronos! She's a daughter of Zeus! She, she..."

"Nico calm down!" I shouted, wanting so badly to run to him and tell him everything would be fine.

"Yes, di Angelo, listen to your...girlfriend," Artemis said. She waved her Hunters away from where they stood, spears pointed at Nico's throat. "There is no need for you to plead for her. I have intended to release her from the oath for a while now."

"W-what?" Nico stuttered. I don't think he thought things would turn out this well.

"Milady," I addressed. "You're saying I'm free to go?"

"Yes Thalia you are," the Goddess sighed. "You are no longer immortal, no longer a huntress and no longer under oath."

Disbelief and happiness welled up inside me as what she said registered in my brain. I raced towards a gobsmacked Nico and tackled him with a back breaking hug. It took him a while, but he finally wrapped his arms around me and kissed me awkwardly on the lips. That's when I noticed, he was trembling.

"Deadbeat," I laughed. "You're shaking like a leaf."

"I was afraid...," he admitted, hanging his head.

"I suppose you're allowed to be scared," I said. "It's not every day you challenge a god."

He shook his head in denial. "I wasn't afraid of that. I was afraid she'd say no."

"No?" I parroted.

Nico gulped and looked me straight in the eye. "I was afraid she'd take you away from me."

Amazingly, even when my heart seemed to be filling my entire body with the sound of its pounding, I managed to hear Lady Artemis mutter one last thing before she left. "I knew she'd be useless if she wasn't with him..."

You used to captivate me
By your resonating light

"You can't come," she said, her electric blue eyes commanding I obey. "I mean it, Nico."

Wow, she must really mean it to use my first name. "But I might be able to help!"

The air crackled around us as she repeated herself. "I said, NO."

"Thalia, why the hell not?" I yelled in frustration.

Tiny sparks of blue lightning danced around her feet as she yelled back. "Because! What if she decides to punish you too! Huh? What're we going to do then?"

"Then we'll at least go down together!"

"You're going to let yourself get done in because of me? No, nuh uh, NO WAY."

"I don't have to take orders from you, Thalia Grace!"

"You have a life Nico! You can't just throw your life away because of me!"

"And why NOT?"

A single note pierced the air, halting our conversation. It was a wolf's howl. Others joined it as they formed a withering crescendo that called the Hunters and demanded they heed. Thalia gave me one last haughty glace before turning tail and running into the forest.

I waited a few moments, because I knew if I followed right away she'd shoot me in the foot with an arrow. Counting silently to ten, I steeled my resolve and raced after her.

Now I'm bound by the life you left behind

We stared into each other's eyes, like some cheesy moment in a movie. I couldn't believe what he'd just said. He was going to wait for me? For violent, arrogant, hot-headed, me? I joined the Hunters because I didn't think anyone would be stupid enough to fall for me anyway. You know, I normally hate it when I'm wrong. But this, even though the gods would disagree, even though I've sworn to be chaste, even though I'm the Sky's daughter and he's Death's son...this just might work.

Note: Sigh, worming my way back into the romance genre.

EDIT:

There's now a sequel up for this.

Please follow the link on my profile if you're interested :D

~Thanks for reading~

~tsubasa95~