ATE: Hey everyone! I decided to try my hand at a Devil May Cry story that I've titled Hold My Hand. Originally the idea for this story originated from wanting to see if I could write Dante's character the right way from how I viewed him (I have played the Devil May Cry games and watched the anime as well to help with this), but then it kinda evolved into this idea when I started writing it in school around 2 months ago. This is also a sort of warm up for when I have to write Dante's character for a crossover story a friend of mine requested me to write for her, which is a crossover between Devil May Cry and Bullet Witch. I hope you all enjoy this story and any other chapters I will post in the near future.
Declaimer: I don't own Devil May Cry or anything related to it. I do, however, own the OC in this story.
Hold My Hand
Chapter 1
Sarah's mind slowly returned to consciousness as the sound of being reached her ears. She became aware that she was laying in what felt like a bed, but when she opened her eyes all that greeted her was darkness.
"H-hello?" She asked hesitantly, her voice sounding somewhat hoarse and her mouth feeling so dry.
She suddenly heard movement off to her far left, which caused her to turn in that direction. She squinted her eyes in an attempt to make out any shapes in the darkness, but it did little to help her. Sarah heard whoever it was quietly sigh, as if slightly tired or something.
"I-is anyone there?"
No answer.
"Can you turn on the light? Please?"
Sarah heard the person's footsteps making their way around the bed she was in before walking away.
"Wait!" She cried, causing the footsteps to stop. "Please turn on the lights."
She didn't hear anything to indicate that they moved at first, but then she heard the door open and shut, causing her to hang her head sadly. A few minutes later Sarah heard the door open again and shut.
"How are you feeling?" A kind voice asked, a feminine voice.
"Fine, I guess. Could you turn on the lights? I can't see anything in this dark room."
"The lights are already on and perfectly lit in this room."
Sarah's breath hitched and the beeping seemed to start picking up speed to match her anxiousness.
"Then what's wrong with my eyes? Why can't I see anything?" She couldn't hide the fear in her voice.
"I'm, sorry, but you lost your sight in whatever accident you were involved in."
"I-I'm-! I'm blind?" She chocked. "What about my parents? Where are they?"
"We don't know where your parents are, but maybe the man who brought you here knows what happened." She heard the sound of paper being moved around. "Can I ask you what your name is?"
"It's…it's Sarah Jones…"
Sarah was shocked with the fact that she was now blind. How could this have happened? Sure the woman had told her that she lost her sight in the accident, but how exactly had the accident affected her eyes so badly? She also told him that a man brought her here. Could it be that it was the same man she saw before she woke up here?
In the backseat of the car Sarah's green eyes widened in fear, the screams of her parents fading until all sound was silenced. Everything seemed to be in slow motion after the monster grabbed the car they were in and flung it in another direction.
It was when the car flew through the air that Sarah spotted a man who had white hair despite his young appearance wearing black clothing and a long red jacket. Holstered on both sides were two guns while he wielded a large sword. At first his piercing icy blue eyes showed little emotion as he brought his sword up in front of him, preparing to block the oncoming attack. But then they widened in shock when he spotted the people inside the vehicle.
For a second Sarah thought she saw his eyes bore into her own, but before she could get a better look time seemed to return to normal and the sound of something crashing was interrupted when she was knocked out.
She then heard the footsteps from earlier enter the room before the door was shut.
"You're the one that brought me here, right?" She asked quietly, turning in the direction she thought the man was in. "Are you the one I saw before…this?"
"It wouldn't make any difference if I wasn't, now would it?" Answered a male voice, somewhat deep, yet pleasant to the ears.
"You are!" She felt hopeful, knowing that this was the man she had seen before she lost her sight. "What happened to-?"
"They're dead." He interrupted. "Both of them."
Sarah felt like she was hit with a ton of bricks from what he said.
"…W-what?" Had she heard right?
"Your parents are dead. I can't exactly save something that's already dead. You should feel lucky that you even made it out alive at all."
Sarah turned away from the man and hung her head. Even if she couldn't see anything she squeezed her eyes shut, trying to hold back the tear that were already starting to form in her eyes. How could this man tell her that her parents were dead as if he was telling her what the weather was like outside? She heard him sigh quietly.
"Look. I'm not trying to be mean or anything, but what I am trying to tell you is that if I had been able to, I would've saved your parents. All you can do now is move on."
"How?" She asked quietly.
"Well, for starters you could find yourself a job. It's not that hard to provide for yourself."
"Not that hard?! How can you say that without knowing my own situation?! I may have lost my vision, but that's not the reason why it's not going to be easy for me!" She snapped, having turned to him.
"You make it sound like this is a huge deal—!"
"Get out! I'm done talking to you!"
"But-!"
Sarah heard the door suddenly open and the woman that had come in to see her was telling the man that he had to leave the room. It was when she was breathing heavily that she realized the beeping noise had sped up when she got angry at him. However, she was unable to stop the tear that escaped her eyes.
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As soon as the door closed behind Dante the doctor then turned to him.
"I can't believe you said that to her." She scolded him.
"Tell her what? That she's perfectly capable of taking care of herself?" Dante retorted.
"That's the thing: she's not able to."
"And why's that?"
"She has Asperger's Syndrome."
"What's that supposed to be?"
"It's…a mental disorder. I looked up her medical record and found that out."
"I don't see how that could affect me." Dante stated before leaving.
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"Dante, you're such an idiot!" Patty yelled, chucking the broom she was using at him, to which he easily dodged. "Not only do you tell her that her parents are dead, but she's also BLIND!"
"I don't get why you're yelling at me for being honest." Dante said.
"There's nothing wrong with being honest, Dante. It's the fact that you were being completely blunt with this girl." Morrison stated. "Are you even aware of what Asperger's Syndrome is?"
"Not a clue." Dante leaned back in his chair, propping his legs up on his desk. "All the doctor told me was that it was some sort of mental disorder."
"That's true, but calling it a mental disorder is putting it loosely. Asperger's Syndrome is a form of autism that, for the most part, works for a person that has it rather than against them."
"'For the most part?'" Patty asked.
"Even though people with Asperger's Syndrome can be successful in life and are smart, there's the fact that their progress of learning is slower than others and their social skills could be considered underdeveloped, especially when it comes to social cues. It can be a struggle for them when it comes to them living on their own as well."
After having heard Morrison's brief explanation on Asperger's Syndrome Dante recalled that girl's words when she yelled at him. If what he learned was true then that girl would've had a hard time with the death of her parents, but add in her loss of sight she was practically helpless on her own. No wonder she got mad at him.
Apparently Patty came to the same conclusion and turned to him, but what she said wasn't what he expected.
"Have her live here!"
"What?"
"You heard me, Dante!" Patty stated. "She doesn't have any way to provide for herself, especially now that she's blind!"
"So put her in an orphanage. I'm sure they'll be perfectly capable of taking care of her."
"That would've worked if she wasn't older than 17!"
"Even I have to admit that was a stupid idea and not one of your better ones." Morrison added.
"Well, unless you have any other suggestions for me, then I'm fresh out of ideas at this point."
"The only idea I can think of involves me agreeing with Patty, and I think you should have that girl stay with you. It might help you learn some responsibility."
"Responsibility?" Dante questioned. "This has nothing to do with responsibility, Morrison, and even if I agreed to have her stay here I wouldn't be able to support her. Financially, I'm barely able to support myself, seeing as I'm neck deep in debt. Scratch that, I might as well be considered 6 feet under in debt. I'm surprised that this place hasn't been shut down yet."
"You can thank me for that, Dante. I may be your agent, but that doesn't mean I can't help you out with keeping your business open while finding you assignments to do in the process. However, that's as far as my charity will go until you can afford to pay your bills without having to deal with your debt."
"And here I was hoping your charity would've covered pizza and strawberry sundaes." He joked.
"If you're so worried about your debt then I'll make you a deal!" Patty exclaimed. "I'll only have you owe me 8 ice creams if you let that girl stay with you!"
"How about you allow me to owe you only 3?"
"Fat chance! 5 ice creams, and I'm not going any lower than that!"
Dante sighed, knowing that was the best he would probably get from Patty.
"Okay, fine."
Patty suddenly stuck her hand out to him waiting, causing Dante to raise an eyebrow.
"Shake on it!"
Dante resisted rolling his eyes at this and humored Patty by shaking her hand to seal the deal.
"And so you finally take the first step in responsibility." Morrison mused.
"Yeah, whatever."
"You do know that you might get a few benefits for having that girl stay with you, right?"
"Get to the point. You know I don't like being kept in suspense."
"Since this girl has Asperger's Syndrome and you're taking care of another person besides yourself, Lady just might show you some sympathy and decrease whatever amount you owe her."
"And when that happens I'll be looking outside my window to see if there are any flying pigs or monkeys that day."
"So you're going through with it?" It was more of a statement than a question.
"At this point I don't really have a choice, now do I?" Dante replied. "I'll go pick her up tomorrow."
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Sarah merely sat up in her hospital bed staring down at her lap despite the fact she was now blind. In front of her was a tray of what was supposed to be her breakfast, but was left untouched for the past 2 hours or so. Maybe even longer than that. To her time seemed to move slower than it usually did now. Time was more drawn out within her own personal darkness only her dull eyes could see.
Her ears picked up the sound of the door opening and at first Sarah thought that it was one of the hospital employees coming by to check up on her or something, but that thought was immediately diminished by the heavy sounding footsteps she heard walking into her room.
"So you're back." She said suddenly.
"How did you know it was me?" The familiar male voice asked her, followed by the sound of chair legs slightly scraping against the floor as he sat down.
"Aside from you just telling me yourself? It was the sound of your footsteps." She lifted her head up slightly. "I spent an entire day in this very room with the hospital employees coming in to check up on me and all that stuff. And despite them being different people every few times their footsteps all sound the same. They're footsteps are lighter than yours and sound different than whatever shoes you're wearing at this moment."
"Impressive." Dante couldn't help but smirk slightly at this. "But what if I suddenly decided one day to wear different shoes and walk more lightly than I normally do?"
She laughed, although it was more like she was trying to disguise it as a quiet sneeze.
"I highly doubt you could walk lightly regardless to whatever kind of shoe you wear."
Despite trying to lighten the mood a bit his smirk fell as he knew that he had to get down to business with her.
"So…how have you been?"
He watched as the girl's dull eyes narrowed into a glare.
"I think you already know how I've been since the last time you were here."
"Why don't you humor me?"
Dante waited for her to say something. A few seconds went by, followed by a minute, and then almost three minutes. He slouched slightly in the chair he was sitting in and sighed quietly.
"Okay, listen. I'm sorry for what I said yesterday, and I wouldn't blame you if you were still mad at me for that. But I have a proposition." The girl's green eyes stopped glaring at him. "You can come stay with me at my place for free."
The girl's eyebrows furrowed as she thought about this.
"What's the catch?" She asked him.
The catch? Dante didn't even bother with coming up with that originally, but this girl was apparently did a good job at considering that part of the deal…if there was any. And seeing as she was expecting him to give her an answer he could probably tell her anything.
'And Patty never did say anything about adding anything on the side.' Dante thought.
"You're pretty clever." For being blind, he added mentally. "You can work for me as a sort of secretary or assistant, or whatever I'll need you to do for my business. You won't get paid since you staying at my place would be considered your payment for working for me. At least you won't have to find a job or a place to stay on your own."
She nodded.
"Deal." She replied.
Dante was surprised with how fast she agreed.
"Just like that?"
"Mmm-hmm. Beggars can't exactly be choosers, but I probably wouldn't have found a better deal than that." She tilted her head to the side. "So who are you, anyways?"
"The name's Dante."
"Sarah. Sarah Jones."
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Dante got Sarah discharged from the hospital after she agreed to his offer (Patty's offer, he reminded himself). He was more than grateful as soon as he was outside since the sterilized smell of the place irritated his nose, and it didn't help his demon side heightened his senses. He was about to walk off but stopped and turned around to see Sarah still standing in front of the door. He sighed, remembering that she was blind and went over to her. Dante grabbed her hand which caused her to turn her head to face him in confusion.
"What are you doing?" Sarah asked.
"Come on. You don't have any idea where we're going and I need to guide you properly." Dante stated.
"I don't need help, and I don't need you to hold my hand."
"I'll be blunt with you, as insensitive as this might sound. You're blind and you're going to get lost if I don't help you."
Dante watched as Sarah's facial expression changed and he was slightly surprised to see that her green eyes still expressed her emotions despite being dulled by her blindness. Her emotions were apparent to him.
"How do I know you're not lying to me?"
"You don't. It's a little something called trust." Her expression didn't change and he sighed. "I understand that you're having some trust issues now that you can't see anything. It may be hard right now, but if you're going to be staying with me you're going to have to learn to trust me a little."
Sarah just stared at him, but after awhile her face and eyes softened slightly before the hand he was holding grasped his slowly, as if hesitant to place her trust in him.
'It's a start.' He told himself.
Dante turned away from Sarah before dragging her away from the hospital. He could feel her hand shaking very slightly and the way she was walking slower than usual showed just how uncertain she was on where he was leading her. He might've gained a little bit of her trust, but with her blindness she was practically in a world without light and that must've scared her. Normally he would've just rushed back to his place, but with his new charge he tried to be patient with her and give her time to get her bearings. Her footsteps became a little surer, but they were still very much hesitant by the time they reached Devil May Cry.
"Well, look who's back." Morrison said when Dante walked inside with Sarah.
"Was that supposed to be a joke, Morrison?" Dante asked.
"It was a statement."
Sarah felt scared and lost, and that feeling only increased when Dante let go of her hand. She didn't dare move away from the spot she stood in fear that she wouldn't be able to find her way. If only she wasn't blind, that way she wouldn't be as scared as she was.
"So this is her?" The voice of a little girl asked in front of her.
"Yep. Miss Sarah Jones reporting for duty." She heard Dante say, but he sounded like he was far away from where she stood. That was when she noticed the sound of what seemed to be a chair scraping against a wooden floor, followed by a thumping sound on a wooden surface.
"Dante! That wasn't part of the deal!"
"She agreed to it. And it's not like I'm going to give her anything hard to do."
"But before she can even start working around here she needs to be able to know the layout and adjust accordingly." Patty declared.
Sarah heard Dante sigh from where he was.
"Whatever."
She was taken by surprise when a small yet warm hand grabbed hers. What surprised her was that it was a firm hold, but gentle at the same time.
"I'm Patty, by the way, and it's nice to meet you." She told her.
From where he sat at his desk Dante watched as Patty led Sarah around the place, along with saying something about how many steps it took to get from point A to point B.
'Clever.' He thought, giving the little girl credit for her idea.
It was apparent that it was going to take some time for Sarah to adjust and know her way around her new h—
He stopped himself there. This wasn't her home. She was just living here after Patty had insisted on the idea. But for some reason he couldn't shake the feeling that he was in denial over something, but what?
'I'm not denying anything here, so why should I be thinking that?' He shut his eyes.
"It's amusing to see how determine Patty is with settling her in." Morrison mused. "Wouldn't you think so, Dante?"
"At least she won't be nagging me about not allowing her to stay."
"That's beside the point. But seeing those two like that is somewhat heartwarming."
"What makes you say that?"
"They may not be related to each other, but if I didn't know better I would've assumed they were sisters. But it seems Patty acts more like the older sister to Sarah rather than the other way around."
Dante glanced over to where Patty and Sarah were and to his surprise Morrison was right. They looked like they were sisters and Patty did act like the older sister to Sarah despite her young age. But something he noticed was that Sarah was quiet. Now that he thought about it she hadn't said anything since entering Devil May Cry. One good thing was that she wouldn't be nagging him like Patty and save him the curse of a headache, but one bad thing was that she might be too quiet for his liking. Maybe that was part of that Asperger's Syndrome Morrison talked about.
Sarah didn't know what to make of the whole situation after Patty and Morrison left, and that left her with Dante. It was really quiet in the room and Sarah could only assume that he was still seated at his desk (from what Patty told her earlier) from where she sat quietly on the couch. Compared to both Patty and Morrison there was something about Dante that left her with a weird feeling, like an aftertaste from something new you just tried but weren't sure if you liked the taste or not. For lack of better words, he was different than any person she'd ever met in her life.
It didn't help that the only time she had seen him was right before she went blind from the accident that claimed her parents and changed her life. She hung her head in slight defeat. Sarah knew that it was going to take her a long time to be able to fully adjust without being able to see the world around her. Not only did she feel dreadful, but she was scared. Completely and totally terrified. She wasn't sure if she'd be able to trust Dante or Patty or Morrison despite having known them in such little time. How did she know they weren't going to do her any harm? How did she know that they weren't lying to her?
"You don't. It's a little something called trust."
Sarah lifted her head up slightly upon recalling what Dante said to her.
"I understand that you're having some trust issues now that you can't see anything. It may be hard right now, but if you're going to be staying with me you're going to have to learn to trust me a little."
Dante had a point when he told her that. She wanted to fully trust him, but…why couldn't she? Was she too scared that putting her trust in someone she had only met would only end up with her getting hurt in the end? Why was it so hard to trust someone? Was it because she didn't fully trust herself to be able to trust someone else?
'If only mom and dad were still alive.' She thought sadly. 'I probably wouldn't be living here with some stranger I barely know and they'd be able to help me fully adjust to being blind.'
Sarah knew she had been somewhat clingy to her parents when she was forced to be by herself in a new environment, like how she had been on the first day of school back when she had been little. Now wasn't so different, but this time her parents weren't around. She had nothing familiar to fall back on and that scared her.
The sound of something scrapping against the wooden floor caught Sarah's attention and it turned out that it was Dante getting up from his chair since she heard his footsteps walking over to her location. But what she didn't expect was for him to plop down beside her on the other end of the couch. She heard him left out a long sigh, sounding as if he'd been working all day or was tired.
'But he hasn't done anything except for sitting at his desk.' Sarah thought.
Dante watched, no observed Sarah as she just sat there. But what he noticed was that she had tensed up as soon as he sat down on the couch. Was she really uptight about the whole arrangement of her staying with him? Maybe it was the fact that they were the only ones here after Morrison and Patty left Devil May Cry? Then again Dante was aware that Sarah didn't fully trust him, if anything she probably trusted Patty more than himself!
'Then again, Patty has more of a knack for making friends since she's younger. Plus she's trying to make Sarah feel more welcome here.' He mused.
It was completely quiet and none of them said a word, and it was apparent that Sarah wasn't going to be the first one to talk, so he might as well try to start a conversation.
"You gonna say something, kid?" Dante asked.
"I'm not a kid." Sarah stated.
"And she talks!"
He couldn't help but slightly smirk when he saw Sarah's face turn a bit red from what he said before she bowed her head and started twiddling her thumbs. He had a feeling that this was going to be a regular occurrence.
"Why do you talk like that?" She asked, lifting her head up.
"Like what?" He asked.
"Like you're always tired or bored. And you sound like you sigh too much."
Dante sighed at this.
"Another story for another time, kid."
"I'm not a kid, I'm 20 years old. And I've already told you my name, so why don't you use it?"
Dante stood up from the couch and took a few steps towards Sarah until he stood in front of her.
"C'mon, time for bed." He said before grabbing her hand with his.
He watched Sarah's face express confusion and she looked as if she was carefully thinking about what she'd say next.
"…Where am I sleeping?" She asked.
"With me."
Sarah's face turned red at this.
"W-what? Y-you mean I have to sleep with you in the same bed?"
"Hey, it's either you sleep with me or on one of the couches. And trust me, you don't want to sleep on the couch. And I don't exactly have a guest room established at this place yet."
Before Sarah could even protest Dante was already leading her away from the couch and up some stairs (that seemed to be made out of metal due to the clanking sound she heard from their footsteps). It was then that she noticed how small her hand was compared to Dante's; his hand had a firm hold of hers and completely encompassed her, reminding her of how small her hands had been when her dad used to hold them when she was very little. But what she also noticed was that he wore gloves made of leather, at least from what she could tell without her sight.
She heard the sound of a door open before she was led into a room and Dante letting go of her hand before the door was shut behind her. She heard his footsteps going off somewhere away from her and something sliding open and the sound of rummaging. Suddenly something was thrown at her head and her hands shot up to grab at whatever it was, only to discover that it was something made out of fabric. Feeling the fabric with her fingers Sarah found out that it was a shirt, one that happened to be too large for her size.
"What's this?" Sarah asked, somewhat uncertain.
"Your temporary pajamas, at least until we can get you ones that are the appropriate size."
Sarah felt her face heat up and looked away from the direction Dante was in (at least she thought she did).
"No peeking."
Not waiting for his response Sarah felt her way around the room, but found that she was near what she assumed was a bed. She crouched down close to the floor, using the side of the bed as a sort of hiding place as she changed out of her clothes and into the large shirt she had been given. She felt a little self-conscious about wearing the large shirt since it only came down halfway past her thighs.
Dante couldn't help the smirk that formed on his face from seeing Sarah hiding behind the side of the bed despite the fact that she told him not to peek (like he was NOT going to look despite what she said). Sadly, he didn't get to see anything since she was smart enough to hide. And now there she was wearing one of his shirts that was too large on her and made her look like a little kid. She was already pulling the covers of the bed back by the time he was finished getting ready for bed and he allowed her to be the first one to get in before getting in himself. He wasn't the least bit surprised when he saw Sarah tense up again, proving that he was right in assuming that it was going to be a regular occurrence.
Sarah felt somewhat anxious as soon as she felt the other side of the bed sink due to Dante's weight. She had never been in this kind of situation before and like so many times today she wished that her parents were still alive and she was back home in her own bed.
"You still didn't answer my question." Sarah blurted out without realized it until it was too late.
Sarah felt the bed shift and had a feeling that Dante had turned around to face her.
"But I already told you that it was another story for another time." Dante stated.
"Can't you give me the cliff note version or a really condensed one?"
Dante sighed.
"Let's just say that I have a huge debt and owe a few people a lot of money."
Dante watched as Sarah seemed to stiffen at this and looked down at the mattress as if to avoid his gaze. Well, that would've been the case if she still HAD her sight.
"I'm sorry." She said quietly. "I wish there was a way for me to help you out."
"I can think of one thing you could do to help." Dante said.
At this Sarah's gaze lifted up to where she thought his face was while there was a slight hopeful look in her dull eyes.
"And what would that be?" She asked.
"You can start by going to sleep."
Sarah looked surprised by this and didn't look like she knew what to make of his response.
"Oh. Uh, goodnight."
"...Night." Dante rolled onto his back and gazed up at the ceiling.
"Sleep tight."
"...Whatever." He closed his eyes, hoping that it'll help him fall asleep faster.
All was quiet, until…
"...Don't let the bed bugs bite."
In an act to get his message across Dante sat up before using his pillow and lightly hitting Sarah over the head with it. He wasn't trying to hurt her, just trying to get her to understand that not only did he need sleep, but she did as well.
"Just go to sleep already!"
He held back a chuckle from seeing how mortified she looked before she rolled over so that her back was facing him. Despite her age she kinda acted like a little kid at times. He had to milk this one for all it was worth so he added one last thing to make sure that she would go to sleep.
"You'll start working tomorrow, so I'm expecting you to be up early."
And just like he thought Sarah tensed up. Good. Now he was sure that she'd get her sleep.
ATE: That's it for this chapter. As you might have already guessed, I'm basing this story off of the Devil May Cry anime, so this chapter takes place before Episode (or Mission) 5: In Private. I know it might be confusing to tell the difference between Dante's and Sarah's POVs, but here's how you can tell: Dante's POV tends to cover what he sees and anything else a normal person can due with all there 5 senses (or extra senses if you want to be technical when i comes to Dante, being half demon and all), while Sarah's POV deals with her auditory and textile senses due to her being blind. She has no sight so she has to learn to rely on her other senses.
Speaking about Sarah, she's a little more unique than my other OCs due to the fact that I wrote her to have Asperger's Syndrome, which is something I happen to have. After having read more than a few stories with some OCs having Asperger's Syndrome, it has encouraged me to actually write a character with such a trait.
So what did you all think? Was I able to keep Dante and the others in character? Should I continue this story? Please leave a review and let me know.