A/N This is my second fanfic, and my first PJO. I love Nico as a character, but was trying to thing of things he may do that break character. I then thought of my fanfic account, and wanted to write a fanfic about it. I will probably cover about two things per chapter, except for the first one. That is just one, plus the intro.

Intro

If one walks around inside of the safe-house of greek demigods, Camp Half-Blood, they will see many amazing things. Rolling hills, large trees, beautiful shorelines, and, strangest of all, a weird assortment of cabins. There are large ones made of marble, one made of stone and shells, one that is completely made of steel, and many more.

However, one cabin in particular sticks out from the rest. It is made of dark stone, reinforced with a black looking metal, stygian iron, and has torches, lit with green fire, casting a dim glow outside of the cabin during the night. Another feature of the cabin is that it seems to radiate death. Everyone who goes near, be them a demigod, nymph, satyr, or very lost mailman is suddenly uncomfortable and cold.

There is only one exception to this, and he goes by the name Nico di Angelo. He is a teenage boy, with long, straight black hair, and pale skin. He generally wears tattered jeans, black, skull related T-shirts, and his aviator jacket. That, and his skull ring, a gift from his father, Hades, the lord of the dead. Although this ring may appear normal at first glance, under closer inspection, one twist of the skull will turn it into a wicked looking stygian iron blade.

This boy is known as many things. A loner? Yes. A brave warrior? Yes. A normal teenage boy? Definitely not. And most of the time, these things were true. But every once in a while, this boy exhibits behaviors that somehow make him seem more human. Some are just weird, some make him seem like a normal teen, and some make him seem more like the 12 year old nerdy kid he was when his life was stripped of any normality it once may have held, when his sister was ripped away from him, when he thought he had been betrayed by his hero, when he had discovered his powers and his heritage.

These are the things nobody but Nico di Angelo knows, the only things that tie him to the mortal world.

1-Christmas

As a child, christmas was always Nico's favorite holiday. Everyone, from Hades, to Maria di Angelo, to Nico himself (once he discovered his heritage) thought this was strange. Being a son of Hades, he was supposed to like Halloween, if anything. Being a demigod, he wasn't even supposed to celebrate mortal holidays, especially religious ones. For reasons he could kind of understand, the gods didn't like people celebrating holidays about God, or other gods. Yet despite their warnings, and their rules, every year, in december, Nico found himself stocking up on candy canes, and santa hats, and buying christmas music off of the iTunes store. Sometimes, when his dad wasn't paying attention, he would dig up a willow tree from the fields of Asphodel, and put it up in the Hades cabin, decorated with little skulls (I just had to let his Hades-ness show some), reindeer, and little elves, forging the sword of hades (from the Demigod Diaries).

He would even buy some of the other demigods presents. not that he gave them out, (at least to the living ones) as that would let them all know that he celebrated christmas. But instead he would go to his summoning ditch that he dug in the woods, and dump in eggnog and candy canes. He found out one day, that if you do that, it summons spirits of children who died some time between december 24 and 25, waiting for their christmas presents. he would then allow them to eat and drink out of the pit, and would hand out the presents. Sometimes, demigods he once knew, like Beckendorf, and Selena Beurgaurd, would show up, even though they didn't die near christmas. He always bought special presents for them, and they were often there to receive them. It wasn't quite Santa, but at least it was something.

In fact, he loved Christmas so much, on multiple occasions, he had pleaded with Zeus to make a christmas-like holiday that celebrated Boreas or something, but Zeus had repeatedly said no. In fact, each time he did, he was told to stop celebrating christmas, and sent off of mount olympus on a strong gust of wind, and landed (somewhat painfully) in the camps lake. Often, Percy would catch him with water, as he was down at the lake a lot, but sometimes he was at a meal, or the campfire, or his cabin, or off somewhere with Annabeth.

He remembered once, at the Lotus Casino, they had this awesome christmas party. They had converted most of the skateboard park floor into a giant skiing course. They had these really good christmas cookies, and this delicious peppermint ice-cream. They had also changed the paintball floor into the best snowball fight ever. One floor, which was usually empty, was full of life sized gingerbread houses, all for the people staying there to eat. He and Bianca had played there for what felt like days. although, looking back on how time worked in the casino, they may have played for weeks.
Maybe it was the memories, maybe it was something inside of him, or maybe it was the feeling of coldness he had grown used to in the underworld but for some reason, even the thought of christmas was calming to him. That was why, sometimes when it was so hot that he couldn't sleep, he would lie awake at one or two in the morning, thanking himself for coming up with the idea of soundproofing his walls, so that no one could hear his blaring christmas music.