D is for Death
Nico Di Angelo is surrounded by darkness, by death. His father is the Lord of the Underworld, after all.
He wasn't always dark and depressed and emo-like. There was once a time when Nico was happy, light, a carefree kid.
Those days are long gone now, and sometimes, when he reminisces about the past, he wonders how he could have possibly been that alive, when now all he has are the ghosts and whispers of the world, following him. Now, death and destruction and loneliness are not the problems of people in Africa, but the day-to-day life of a little boy grown up too fast.
That all changed when Nico met Percy Jackson. Yes, at first he was angry. He was angry at Percy, at Bianca, at his father, at the world. Percy made a wonderful scapegoat. But when the Seaweed Brain came after him, to protect him, even though everything Nico had ever done to him was bad, Nico's vision of the son of Poseidon drastically changed. Soon, Percy became Nico's best friend. His only friend, who stuck by him even when the world seemed to hate him.
And soon, Percy went from being a trusted friend, to a big brother. And although at first, Nico felt as though he was betraying Bianca's memory, he soon realized that he was making the right choice. Percy was a fantastic big brother, and for once, the boy who lived in death didn't see it as an inevitable scary end. He saw it as hope.
