Nico di Angelo sat on his seldom used bed at Camp Half-Blood, feeling more depressed than he ever had. As he was sitting, and trying not to cry, he was also looking at a photo album that Annabeth had put together for him. It was filled with pictures of him and his ex-girlfriend, Erin. He would do anything to get her back. He flipped to the next page and saw a picture that they had taken together the first day they had ever met. She was a photographer, so she took pictures of everything and everyone. He remembered that day clearly.

Exactly one year, seven months, and eight days prior

Nico watched his friends playing around in Central Park from the shadows of the trees. Percy was giving Annabeth a piggy-back ride, Tyson and Grover were looking at some fish in the pond, and Travis and Connor were pick-pocketing a woman's purse. They had continuously tried to get him to come and join them in the sun, but he preferred to stay in the dark.

"Hey, do you mind if I take a picture of you?" A girl asked from behind him. He turned to see a girl with purple hair and brown eyes wearing a Guns N' Roses t-shirt and holding an old Polaroid camera looking at him expectantly with a small smile.

"Why?" He asked, more curious than anything.

"Well, I'm taking a photography class and our latest assignment was to take a picture of a dark and mysterious stranger and you fit the criteria perfectly." She said with an even bigger smile.

"Um, sure, why not?" He said smiling. He stood up and followed the girl out into the sunlight. She told him where to stand, how to stand, and what expression to use for the picture.

After that, they just sat on the grass talking. She took many more pictures, mostly of him, some of them together, and some of other people. The rest was history. They started dating three weeks later, even though she was mortal and Nico wasn't.

Today- Next picture

He came to another picture she had taken of them. This was on their one year anniversary, which almost made him spill all of his tears. They were in Central Park, at the exact same place they had met. Her purple hair had turned green and she was wearing a Motley Crue shirt. They were sitting on the ground. She was smiling and he was kissing her cheek. That memory came back sharply too.

Exactly seven months and eight days prior

"Happy anniversary!" She exclaimed, handing him a little box wrapped in black paper.

"Um, you might want to keep that. Especially after what I'm going to tell you. Sit down." He said, gesturing to the tree under which they had first met. She looked confused, but sat down anyways. He followed.

"What's going on? Are you breaking up with me?" She asked, a worried look in her eyes.

"No, of course not. You'll probably break up with me though." He sighed and ran a hand through his shaggy black hair. She grabbed his other hand and looked at him expectantly. "I'm a demigod." He said outright.

"A what?" She asked, more than a little confused.

"A demigod. Basically, the Greek gods are real. Sometimes, they come down to earth and have kids with mortals. I'm one of those kids." He said with a completely serious expression on his face. He wasn't surprised when she snorted.

"Yeah, and I'm having lunch with the Tooth Fairy on Wednesday." She said in that ever so sarcastic manner that he had grown to love. She saw the serious expression on his face and her smile instantly dropped. "Oh, you're serious…"

"Yeah, I'm serious. I'm a child of Hades. He's the god of the Underworld and of riches." He said monotonously. This is where he assumed she would run screaming.

"You think I would break up with you for that?" She asked with an amused expression on her face. "No, Nico, I wouldn't. You're way too important to me."

"I love you." It was the first time he had ever said it. It just came out on a spur of the moment thing, but he meant all three words.

"I love you, too." She said smiling.

Today- Third picture

He flipped to his favorite page. One was a black and white picture of them sharing their last kiss. Another was of them when they were at the pet store, holding her puppy, Duff, which she had named after Duff McKagan. Another picture was of them dancing at her school prom. Everyone was looking at them like they were freaks, but they didn't care. They were way too in love. The last two items were her funeral obituary and a picture of her in her casket, as beautiful but artificial as he had ever seen her.

In funerary tradition, she was dressed in her best clothes, the outfit she wore to prom. A purple, black, and cream vintage, Victorian styled dress, purple feather earrings, a heart locket with a picture of them in it, four rings on her right hand, four on her left (including the promise ring he had given her), purple bangles on one arm, various bracelets that meant something to her on the other, and leather combat boots. Her hair was purple, as it had been the first day they met. However, her face was distorted. She was wearing more makeup than she ever would have been comfortable with, and if she had seen this, she would have said she looked like a clown and poked him for being so depressed.

Out of all of the memories that came out of this page, there were two that just had to come back.

Four months prior

He kept on asking himself why he hadn't run in there and got her out. Apparently, it was because he hadn't arrived on the scene of the burning building until a few minutes too late. He was so panicked he forgot that he could've just shadow travelled inside. By the time he remembered, she was stumbling out of the building carrying a screaming child of about six in her arms. She was coughing, and her clothes were steaming and dirty. Her face was smudged with ashes. A fireman rushed to her side and returned the small child to his crying mother. The medics rushed her over to an ambulance where they got her hooked up to an oxygen machine and carried her away to the nearest hospital.

He ran as fast as he could, barely keeping up with the screeching ambulance. They pulled up to the hospital entrance way and rushed her out on a gurney. She was barely breathing. He picked up the speed, despite his burning lungs and legs and made it all the way up to the front desk. They told him that he would have to wait. Her family showed up minutes later, crying. Even her dad was. Nico could feel the tears forming. If he hadn't have been so panicked and worried, he would've cried too. What seemed like an eternity later, the doctor came out from wherever he had been with Nico's angel. His expression was grim.

"Is the family of Erin Williams here?" They all ran up to meet the doctor. "I'm sorry. We tried everything, but she wouldn't respond. She inhaled too much smoke in the building. If it's any consolation, she died a hero. She stayed in the building just to find that child and make sure that he got out okay. She was an amazing person."

He left them to grieve. Nico stood there, not believing that the love of his life was dead. Even though he could probably find her if he wanted to in the Underworld, chances are she wouldn't remember him. Even though she died a hero, the judges normally reserved Elysium for demigods, so she would probably go to the Fields of Asphodel. The thought was the last straw. The tears spilled over, letting go with them all of his anger, sadness, and frustration. He could've saved her, he thought angrily. But, he didn't. It was his fault. All his fault.

Three months prior

In the month between her death and her funeral, he hadn't returned to the Underworld. He wasn't ready for that. As he looked in the mirror of his bathroom at Camp Half-Blood, he reflected on their relationship. He really, truly loved her. And he lost her. He hated the world. He hated Thanatos for taking Erin away from him, he hated the Underworld where she would most likely live an unhappy eternity, he hated the building for burning, he hated himself for not saving her, and he hated the stupid suit that he had to wear to her funeral. In all of his anger and frustration, he punched the middle of his mirror, shattering it into tiny little shards and cried. He didn't even care about his bleeding knuckles or the pain that came with it. Anything was better than the pain he was feeling on the inside.

Annabeth and Percy walked in and upon seeing his bleeding hand, Annabeth took some nectar from her purse and poured some over his hand. After the wound had healed, they led him to the camp van where Argus drove them to the place where the viewing was to be held. They saw people that they knew, and people that they didn't know, but one thing they all had in common was Erin and the fact that they were mourning the loss of one of the people that made their lives shine so much brighter. They walked into the room where the casket was held, and lo and behold, there she was in all of her natural beauty turned unnatural. The tears came back to Nico's eyes and they poured down his face, making their return one with a vengeance. After several minutes of staring at her, they all moved into the next room for refreshments.

Don't Cry and November Rain by Guns N' Roses was playing on repeat from a stereo somewhere nearby. Guns N' Roses was her favorite band, and they were some of their softer, more meaningful songs, so Nico found this choice of music highly appropriate. After two or three hours, they moved on to the funeral procession. Like one of the cheesy movies Erin liked to watch, it was raining. It started when Nico was giving his speech that they had asked him to do. He stood silently next to Annabeth and Percy as they closed the casket forever and lowered his true love into the ground.

Today- After the pictures

Nico decided that he was going to suck it up and go to the Underworld. He didn't care if she remembered him or not, because he needed to see her. He needed to see her very, very badly. When he made it past the gates, after finding that she had already passed, he headed toward the Fields of Asphodel, but he found her essence pointing in a different direction, towards Elysium. His spirits were lifted very slightly, but he hightailed it into Elysium and towards where he felt her essence. He found her in one of the smaller mansions. It was Victorian styled, just like she had always wanted her house to be. He threw open the door and stormed his way into her living room, where he found her sitting on a couch with her feet propped up on a coffee table, reading a book. It was out of the Harry Potter series. She looked up upon his loud entrance and immediately, her face broke into a smile.

They ran towards each other and when they hugged, he picked her up off the ground and spun her around in a circle. Most people wouldn't be able to do that, but he was a son of Hades, so it worked for him. Other than the fact that she had a bluish tint to her now, she was exactly as he remembered her.

"Erin… Oh, my gods, I missed you so much!" He exclaimed, grabbing her ghostly face and kissing her. She pulled back with a sad look on her face. "What's wrong? I found you! You should be happy…" He said uncertainly. She twirled the end of his shaggy hair around her finger.

"I missed you too and I am happy… It's just… you should be trying to get over me." She said with that said expression on her face.

"What? What are you talking about, I should get over you?" He asked, suddenly getting very flustered. They were together again and she tells him he should be over her? He didn't think so!

"Nico… Sit down." He sat down on her couch, and she sat beside him, holding both of his hands in his. "Nico… I'm dead. And, you're still alive." She said, stating the obvious.

"Yeah, so?" He asked, oblivious to what she was trying to say.

"I don't know how to put this to you, but… You should try seeing other people, you know? You should try to find a nice girl, who is alive and breathing. Who you could marry and have kids with and raise a family with. Then, when you both get old, you can sit on your front porch and watch all of your little grandchildren run around the front yard. Get it?" She asked softly.

"No, I don't get it. That was supposed to be you and me, not me and some other girl. That was supposed to be our life." He said sadly, looking at her with big brown eyes.

"But, I can't give that life to you anymore. What I'm trying to say is that you should find somebody who can." She repeated.

"I will never find anybody that I love as much as you. Never." He declared.

Epilogue

Nico di Angelo died four years later after he fell off of a Pegasus in midflight. He joined Elysium immediately, taking up residence in Erin's house. They did eventually get married, in the way that only people in Elysium and the Isles of the Blest could. His father married them and Hera came and blessed the marriage. Although they can't have children for obvious reasons, they're living out the rest of eternity almost exactly the way they had wanted it to. Despite the fact that they were dead, they had never been happier.