Dedicated to @Oliveo5ever

PART I

A LITTLE black-haired boy and a(n) E/C-eyed girl ran hand in hand along the hallways of a lavishly decorated building - although the two of them were giggling far too much to stop and admire anything.

"Let's go!" You grinned and tugged Nico's hand.

"Wait!" he cried. "We have to ask Bianca first."

You started dragging him along to the main part of the lobby, where the two of you began frantically combing through the ranks of bulky arcade machines that you'd never seen outside of this hotel: they seemed to be unique to this hotel and this hotel only.

You heard Nico call out your name. "Y/N! Found her!" he yelled gleefully. You raced towards the sound of the voice, mumbling apologies to whoever you managed to bump into on the way.

Skidding across lavishly decorated hallways and richly furnished rooms, you darted towards Nico.

Beaming toothily at her, the two of you chorused in unison, "Can we go to the gift store, please?" You blinked innocently.

"All right, all right." she laughed quietly. She held out a hand to each of you. You grasped her left just as Nico took her right, and the two of you dragged the older girl out towards a large shop. Dragging her towards the display, you pointed. "Look!"

She shook her head, pretending to be disapproving, whilst a smile tugged at her lips. "Mythomagic again?"

Nico groaned. "Bia, it's not just Mythomagic! It's the Africanus Extremus expansion deck! C'mon, Bia, please?"

The olive-skinned girl chuckled. "Okay, mio caro."

Marching in the shop, you immediately darted away and grabbed the pack from the store window. Moving to the register, Bianca handed the man at the till her card, who promptly swiped it through a credit card register. She frowned at it. "That's new." Dismissing it, she let herself be tugged out of the shop by the two eager children, who had no idea of the trouble looming on the horizon.

***

THE FOUR of you were causing quite an uproar in the hotel. Nico was screaming and crying and Bianca was looking at you with misty eyes. You stood there, lip trembling.

Only the lawyer remained unaffected. She glared at you. "We must be leaving, you two! Say your goodbyes and let's be off!"

"But -" and here a single tear dripped down your nose. "Can I come too, please, miss?"

She gave a short growl of frustration. "Mortals."

Muttering in some foreign language that you didn't know, she tapped your head with her gnarled, ancient hands. "There. Now you will age, but you must remain here. If they survive, they may come back."

Realizing that this was the best deal you were going to get (even though you had no idea what she was talking about) you slowly stepped forward and hugged a crying Bianca, who's shoulders were shaking with her attempts to repress her sobs. Nico joined in two, although his arms barely fit around the two of you.

Maybe you would've stayed there, like that forever... maybe you would've stayed in Bianca's arms, who smelled like vanilla and home; maybe you would've stayed grasping Nico's hands like the two of you were the only things tying each other to the earth; maybe you would've stayed with your only friends ever - but with a flick of the lawyer's wrists, your best friends were gone, and you were hugging thin air.

***

PART II

"NICO, I support you, but are you sure you want to do this?" Reyna's dark eyes were worried and tense, her shoulders set like she was expecting a blow.

"I have to." he insisted. "She's the only link I have left to my past, Reyna. You don't have to come, but Hazel and I are going." He squeezed Hazel's hand.

Reyna scoffed, her cape glittering in the sunlight near Thalia's Tree. "Pluto knows I'm not going to let you do this without me, di Angelo. As much as I trust our centurion Hazel -" the aforementioned girl's badge winked in the sunlight as if responding to her question - "You still manage to get hurt. You're particularly good at that, Nico."

Nico managed a small smile, although his stomach was churning and twisting into knots. "Thanks, Reyna. Everyone ready? he added as an afterthought. When the girls both nodded, Nico gripped Hazel's hand tighter and reached out for Reyna. His eyes met Hazel's in a silent question - You ready? - and when she nodded the affirmative, he closed his eyes, dissolving into shadows.

The darkness writhed and whispered to him, reminding him of his darkest moments.

Where's my sister?

You promised!

Hazel's grip tightened on his arm. I have a sister to get back to, he reminded himself. And maybe... He allowed himself to hope, for once, that he might be able to Y/N back.

The shadows spit them out right near the Lotus Hotel and Casino, its' neon lights glittering.

Nico brushed himself off. "Hazel?"

She frowned, molten golden eyes assessing the building. "Powerful things are at work here. Just concentrate on our goal."

He couldn't wait a second longer. He surged forward and pushed open the door of the casino, letting the music and light wash over him like a second skin, leaving the light of the stars.

In the years that he had been gone, the interior had expanded. Probably the Mist at work, because the outside was much smaller than this interior was.

Waving aside a bellhop who tried to offer him a card, he pushed through the hordes of people, offering no apologies as they cried out in outrage.

His head swiveled around, searching for a familiar head of H/C hair. Light glinting off gold caught his eye and he swiveled, turning -

Only to bump into an all-too-familiar girl with H/C hair and E/C eyes.

Y/N had grown up.

She started to go around him. "Sorry, sir." Her voice was just the same as ever, albeit a bit deeper.

"Wait!" He caught her hand as she was moving by.

She turned back. "How can I help you?"

Her voice was glacial, distant: it sent shivers of unpleasantness up his spine.

"Do you - don't you remember me?"

She tilted her head, and the gesture was so familiar, so Y/N, that it made his heart ache. "Should I? I'm sorry, but..." Here she frowned, as if something in her mind wasn't quite right. "I don't think I know you."

Before he knew it, he was moving, barreling backwards the way he came. His hand ripped out of hers, and although every fiber in his body wanted to go back, to be near her, he kept going, running past a startled Reyna and a concerned Hazel before they could even react. He burst out of the building and he saw that the night had grown cold, the bone-chilling kind. The only light came from the distant headlights of cars, far and few in between now because of the time, and the neon lights of the cursed hotel, artificially bright. The stars were gone, any real hope he had harbored was gone because she didn't remember.

Nico di Angelo sank to the cold, rough pavement and closed his eyes. And if a single drop happened to be present on his face, he told himself it was just rain - for it was indeed starting to rain, a light, misty kind.

Strange, though: most rain wasn't salty.