A/N: I have always been amazed at how authors can put so much emotion and personality depth to characters whom we haven't even read about much in the series, so I thought I'd give it a shot and I really hope that you enjoy reading this as much I did while writing this piece.
Disclaimer: Me no own. Go annoy Rick and tell him to write faster!
Because he lost too much, too soon, in too less time. Because he would still think from time-to-time, no matter, how much he would try to deny it, about how he missed the childhood he never had. Because, in his mind, he, and he alone, bore the weight of death, despair, loneliness and loss- complete and utter loss- upon his young shoulders and at an age so tender too. Because he learned to live in the shadows and never came out. Because he forgot how to smile before he even learnt it's true value.
Because, when his life took away from him, everything he had, he took himself away from life itself. He hid himself away in the shadows of despair for as long as his tender, young self could endure, and when he wanted to come out, he found that he'd lost his way, that his soul was still in the shadows. It was sucked out of him, and no matter how hard he would try, he wouldn't ever be able to retrieve it.
Because - unlike the rest - when he needed it most, the flickering light of hope, in the midst of total chaos and utter darkness, had died. Because in his moment of truth he'd had to lie, and to no one else, but to himself he thought that he needed to believe that he he was immune to any kind of pain to actually survive in the real world.
Because he lost himself - and his life - to things worse than death. Much, much worse than death.
And most of all, because he lost it all to reasons he never could understand. Because of all this, Nico Di Angelo is, the purest form of innocent there is.