XV

NICO

Purpose.

Nico had realized the biggest differences between the Living and the Dead. The people live because they were driven by a purpose to continuously exist in this world whereas the Dead had nothing to fight for.

Nico walked along the busy street of Manhattan while observing the people around him. Some of them were in a hurry trying to get where they were going on time, some of them were talking to someone they were with, some of them were alone lost in their own thoughts and there was also a student reading a thick book while walking. He had also spotted a bald old man shouting to a seemingly drunkard guy while the old man was shooing him away from his shop.

That was right, purpose.

Whether it is to get a job, pass an exam, get a pet dog, build a house, to be with family and friends, travel around the world, get rich and to be successful, everyone was living for a purpose. That was why people wanted to live and why they were striving so much just to be in this world whether their intentions were good or bad. There was always a purpose behind them.

Nico had blended in the crowd as they walked along the pedestrian lane. When he had reached the middle, he paused and looked up. He was surrounded by towering buildings. It was noisy. People were rushing past him. Everything around him was pulsating with life.

And the funny thing was, it occurred to Nico that even though he belonged to the world of the Dead, a sense of purpose was starting to spark within him.

He resumed walking. He had reached the sidewalk. A man ran past him like a blur. Nico dodged him so he wouldn't get run over.

"Hey that man was holding my bag please go get him!" A lady in mid-forties shouted not from afar. She was panting from running trying to catch the mugger.

Nico glanced at the man running away and holding a bag. The man turned in a corner and disappeared. Nico had decided to ignore the lady. Instead, he turned and proceeded on his way. He was not even ten steps away when he faltered. He paused and took a deep breath. Suddenly he ran to the nearest alleyway and dissolved in black smoke. He reappeared in another alleyway and looked around. At the other end of the alley, he saw the same man holding the lady's bag passed by. Nico disappeared again.

Nico materialized on an empty lot connected to the alleyways. He waited. A moment later, the man rounded in the corner running in his direction.

"Out of the way!" The man barked.

Nico just shoved his hands deep in the pockets of his aviator jacket and walked calmly towards the mugger. The mugger slowed down, frowning confusedly at him.

"Just give me the bag and we're done here," Nico said as he continuously strode towards him.

"What the fuck are you talking about?" The man shouted.

"Didn't you understand what I just said?" Nico tilted his head, halting. "Give me the bag or else you're going to regret it."

"Cut the crap, kid." The man growled. He raised his arm and was about to punch him.

Nico moved in a blink of an eye. He materialized in front of him and punched him in the gut before the mugger could move a centimeter. A minute later, the mugger was tied on a nearby post and the bag was beside him. Nico vanished just in time the lady appeared with the police. They saw the tied mugger. They were simultaneously bewildered and relieved.

Nico had found himself watching a man and a woman crying over the body of a girl on the bed. He stood in the hallway of a hospital and right in front of the closed door, though he could still see everything through the transparent glass panel attached to the door. The doctor inside the room declared the girl dead a moment ago. The death angel wondered if the girl ever fulfilled her purpose in life before she died. Then Nico felt bad for the girl if she didn't even reach any of her goals in life just because her time was up and her time was so early.

"Hey."

Nico turned his head to the right and saw Will walking towards him. Will was smiling at him and so Nico couldn't help but smile a little bit.

"What are you doing here?" Will asked when he had reached the death angel. Then he turned his head towards the door and saw the scene in front of him. "Oh, you're going to escort the girl's soul?"

"No. Another death angel did it. The soul was gone now." Nico answered looking back at the door and saw the man hugging the woman in comfort as they both cried.

Will watched the death angel closely. "You looked. . . weird"

"Thanks." That was Nico's only answer not even bothering to look at Will.

"The little boy in Room 308, is he your patient?" Nico suddenly asked.

"No. Why?" Will asked back.

"Good. Because I am going to escort him now so I gotta go." Nico said. He started to walk away.

"Tsk. I wondered why it's not yet freezing here when he's so cold." Will mumbled shoving his hands in the pockets of his smock gown.

Nico heard it even though he was a little bit far away. He paused. Then he turned around and strode back towards Will.

"What? Why aren't you disappearing in black smoke?" Will asked a little taken aback.

Nico's eyes were trained on Will's face. When he was close enough, he held Will's neck and reached for his lips. The blond's eyes widened.

The kiss was deep but short. Nico pulled away leaving a dazed and wide-eyed Will. The death angel turned and walked away once again.

"H-Hey! What the hell!"

Nico ignored Will but his small smile broke into a grin. He dissolved in black smoke.

Purpose.

"I'm scared." The soul of the little boy whimpered as Nico led the little boy to the queuing of souls in the DOA Recording Studio. The boy was more or less 7 years old.

Nico looked down at the little boy who was hugging himself out of fear. The boy was on the verge of tears.

Nico knelt in one knee in front of the boy so they were both eye-level.

"Look at me," Nico ordered him. He obeyed reluctantly.

"Here. I am giving this to you." Nico held out the golden paper to the boy. "There's nothing to be scared of because that paper is your key to the paradise where you are going to be eternally happy."

The boy accepted the paper while sniffling. "I thought I was going to be judged first. How did you know that I am going to paradise? What if I am not?"

Nico smiled a little bit at him. "It's because I know that you are a very good boy, all good children go to paradise. In paradise, you are not going to suffer anymore unlike what happened to you in the living world. So you don't have to hide the fact that you're upset because you died."

"I want to be with my mommy and daddy." The boy started to cry and he hugged Nico that surprised the Hades out of him.

Reluctantly, he wrapped his arm around the tiny frame of the boy as his other hand was rubbing the boy's back soothingly.

Another purpose that hadn't been fulfilled. . .

"I know how much you love your mommy and daddy." Nico started. His voice was soft. "And I also know that they're thinking that you are happy now so you really should do that. If they found out that you are upset, they'll get upset too. You don't want them to get upset, right? Because even back in the living world, you hid the fact that you were in pain so you wouldn't see your parents sad and upset."

The boy pulled away from Nico and he stared at the death angel wide-eyed. Fortunately, he stopped crying.

Nico raised his right hand. "On death angel's honor, I solemnly swear that you are going to be happy in the paradise."

That made the little boy smile. He nodded determinedly. Nico ruffled the boy's hair and stood up. He waited until the little boy reached the end of the queue before deciding to leave. He was about to walk away when he froze. He saw someone up ahead. Nico's face hardened.

Not from afar, Charon was standing in his pristine Italian suit. Nico would have praised his choice of suit. But they were on both ends of the spectrum that Nico would rather talk to skeletons for eternity rather than talk to him. All death angels didn't like him. Charon had chocolate brown skin and bleached-blond hair shaved military style. He also wore tortoiseshell shades. He was the head of the death angels but he was always negligent on his job. He did nothing except to stress over on what suit to wear daily and complained about how underpaid he was.

But the thing was Charon seldom appeared at DOA Recording Studio. He hated the agitated souls of the studio so he was always at his office in the Underworld. If Charon came all the way there, something was up and Nico had a terrible feeling that it had to do with him.

Charon strode towards him. He was smiling but the smile was menacing and cold.

"Well, that was interesting." Charon greeted. "What you did to that little boy, I was watching from afar."

"Since when did you become interested in death angel's job, you don't care about us anyway," Nico said in equal indifference.

"Oh, it starts to get interesting now," Charon answered. "I may be down in the Underworld but some interesting gossips also traveled there so I came here to check myself if it was true. And from what I watched earlier, I couldn't help but start to agree to those gossips."

Nico fisted his hands, his knuckles turning white. "What gossip?"

"An advice from your superior, stop being too involved with mortals, especially to that mortal William Solace, if you don't want to regret it in the end," Charon said.

Nico's jaw clenched.

"Let's see." Charon looked around, hands clasped behind him. "The last time I came here at DOA Recording Studio, it was to give the same advice to a death angel named Sierra and that was long before you became a death angel Di Angelo."

"But of course," Charon continued. "She never listened and I have the feeling that you would do the same thing."

Nico's face remained impassive. "Why are you telling me this? I have done nothing wrong. It's not like it's a sin to talk to someone who is a clear-sighted."

"Done nothing wrong yet. And I might add, you also have an interesting choice of a mortal to talk to. I could say that mortal is one of a kind. But you know what. . ." Charon moved closely to Nico and leaned forward. Nico was unyielding. "I would love to hear an official report that you're breaking the rules, di Angelo. Oh! I would love to cross off another name on the list of death angels. Who knew, if there will be fewer death angels, the pay might start to increase. So if I were you, I will be really careful if you don't want to end up in the same place that Sierra landed on."

Charon stepped back and looked at Nico from head to toe. "My, my, the fierceness of a death angel was starting to fade in you and you're starting to look more . . . human."

Charon strolled past Nico whistling as if nothing happened. When Nico looked back at the direction that Charon had gone to, he was gone.

Purpose.

Nico vanished in black smoke. He reappeared on Will's bed in his apartment. Since Will was still at the hospital, there was no one around. The dimmed room was being illuminated by the light coming from the lamp post, cars and the building across. The light seeped through Will's window.

Nico fell back on the bed. He put his arm over his eyes. His next soul was due in the morning so he would just sleep off the tension he felt at that moment.

Nico stirred when he felt something heavy on his stomach. He opened his eyes and flinched from the harsh light coming from the window. This time the light was coming from the sun that brightened the whole room. He looked down to see a tanned arm draped across his stomach. He turned his head to the side. Will's sleeping face greeted him. The blond was lying on his side facing Nico.

Nico did not move. He put his arm under his head and looked up at the ceiling. There was just no way that he could turn away from the man beside him now. He couldn't turn away to the euphoric feeling of finding the purpose of his existence as if he was living again.

That was right, he had a purpose now and that was to stay beside someone he loved the most.

Nico closed his eyes.

It was good to live again.

Even if living meant that he would cease to exist soon.

He might have lied to Will about the trouble being with him.

But then, all Nico cared right then was to be with Will and nothing else.

He would never regret the choices he had made and would make because after all, it was going to be worth it.

Will Solace was worth it.