"Hey Thalia, are you ever afraid of dying?" Nico asked his cousin as they relaxed in the afternoon sunlight, up on top of Half-Blood Hill.
Thalia turned her head to look at him, but he kept his gaze fixed on the sky.
"No, not especially," she responded thoughtfully, "I guess I don't think about it much, now that I'm a Hunter."
Nico nodded his head as best he could while lying flat on his back. "You'll go Elysium for sure."
"Most Half-Bloods do, in the end. I thinks it's because we all have to defend what's important to us at one point or another, risking our lives in the process." The black-haired girl reasoned.
Nico frowned. "Do you think it's possible to counter the good deeds with bad ones?"
"I don't know. You're the death expert."
"Yeah..." The dark haired boy agreed distractedly.
Thalia looked at him, confused. "What, Are you afraid of dying or something?"
"Not of dying. Of what comes afterwards." Nico admitted. "It's so unsure for me. My father might take me in briefly, or I'll go to the Fields of Asphodel, or I'll go to Elysium, or I'll be sentenced to the Fields of Punishment. Have I done enough good to counter the bad?"
"That's deep." Thalia smirked, but dropped it when she realized that her younger cousin was being completely serious about this. "You shouldn't worry about it. Just enjoy life while you can, and you can deal with that stuff when you're on your deathbed."
Nico rolled his eyes, but grinned at her, and the two of them went back to talking about less serious topics.
.
Months later, as Nico sat alone in a closed jar and placed the first pomegranate seed on his tongue, his last coherent thought was, "Can I worry about it now, eh, Thalia?"
.
.
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A/N sorry for the long wait, I was busy writing a multi-chapter WWII PJO fic. Which may be up in the not-so-near future.