A visit to Paris
Trish was flicking through a holiday brochure. She looked longingly at the pictures in the magazine and wished that she could go and see some of the places they were showing. But who would she go with? Dante? That was laughable. Dante wouldn't even take her to a restaurant because he was afraid she would do something silly. So what if she had ended up making a couple of mistakes? Dante obviously didn't see it in the same way as her.
Dante slammed the door shut and clomped into the kitchen. He practically threw his sheath off his back before he collapsed into a chair, grumbling and complaining.
'Goatlings…I hate goatlings. You'd think they'd bleat when they die! But no! They moo instead! Goatlings…damn I hate goatlings.' He slammed his head several times against the kitchen table as Trish sipped delicately from a mug of coffee.
'Giving yourself a headache won't make them stop mooing.' Dante took the hint and stopped. He looked at Trish at that point and then blinked. 'What?'
'You're looking at a holiday brochure.' Trish took another gulp of coffee.
'Aren't you the clever one today?' Dante folded his arms and rested his head on them.
'I think we need to take a holiday,' he said at last. Trish put down her mug and watched him, her eyes alight.
'Really?'
'Yes. I want to go somewhere where there aren't any mooing goatlings. I'm tired of killing mad cats! I'm tired of constantly acting like Jiminy Cricket to a bunch of puppets! I'm just so tired…' Dante's voice faded away and he was left staring at the brochure in depression. Trish flipped back a couple of pages.
'How about we go to Australia?'
'There might be possessed kangaroos out there. Or even worse! A platypus type demon which eats dogs! Or maybe even a koala bear that wants to make all teddies alive!'
'Germany?'
'Hitler.'
'Japan?'
'Pearl Harbour. Hiroshima. I don't want any stress!'
'Paris?' Dante looked up at her at that point and then grinned.
'Yeah…I like the sound of that. I love Pizza!'
'That's Italian. And anyway, I already decided against going to Italy because you'd just eat pizza all day and you wouldn't want to try anything else.' Dante scratched his head ruefully.
'It's not as if they won't have Pizza Hut in Paris…' he grumbled.
And so it was settled. Trish and Dante were going to Paris for three days. It was a short break, but they knew that it would be well worth it. Dante had never thought that he would be forced to pack so much stuff just to go to Paris for a weekend. Clothes in case it was hot, clothes in case it was cold, different clothes for every single day, smart clothes in the evening-the list was endless! Dante didn't understand why Trish would not let him take his normal clothes. Trish had simply told him that she did not want to be seen with someone who looked as though he had just been in a bloodbath. Trish wasn't even going to let him take his sword or even Ebony and Ivory, his guns.
'What are you going to do with it, Dante? Slice a baguette in half?' Trish had jested. Dante had not seen the funny side. 'You're not the only devil hunter out there you know. Some French guy can handle the demons while we have fun!' Trish looked at him coyly at that point. Dante couldn't help but grin.
The flight was a disaster. Dante had been forced to sit in front of two annoying brats. The two were obviously fighting over some toy or something. Anyway, whatever it was, they kept kicking his seat and making it jerk forward. At last he growled and snatched the toy away from them. Trish looked at him witheringly.
'Give it back to them, Dante.' Dante growled but said nothing. 'I said give it back to them.' Trish wrestled the toy car out of his grip and threw it back over his seat, ignoring it when one of the kids yelped with pain as the car hit him on the head. Soon the fighting began again. Dante turned around, a pencil in his hand.
'Look, kid! If you kick my seat one more time, I'll do to you what I'll do to the pencil.' He held it up for both of the kids to see. Using only his thumb, he managed to snap it in two. Both of the kids sat back, frozen with fright, their eyes wide. Dante grinned smugly as he turned back around. Trish shook her head.
'I bet you think you're so smart.' Dante nodded.
'I am a Godsend!' Trish rolled her eyes and then moaned as the plane started pitching forward violently. Her eyes flickered over to the display panel that was closest to them. The seatbelt sign was on. The pilot crackled out over the speakers.
'Good evening ladies and gentlemen. Could you all please sit down and fasten your seatbelts securely until the symbol disappears. We are entering a zone filled with turbulence. Enjoy your flight,' chirped the pilot. Trish moaned again and turned a violent shade of green as the plane bucked again. Dante held out a bag towards her. Trish grabbed it shakily and opened it up. Dante averted his eyes and shook his head in mock pity.
'Maybe we should have gone by Ferry,' he said softly. Trish coughed some more and then looked up. 'Are you okay?'
'I haven't been sick…' she said feebly. 'But I think I'm going to soon.' Dante smiled at her and then allowed her to rest her head on his shoulder.
'It'll be okay soon. Trust me.' Trish said nothing but raised her eyebrows. This was the nicest mood Dante had been in for a while. They hadn't even landed in Paris yet and already he was beginning to look a lot happier. She smiled back at him but then frowned.
'My ears are blocked!' she squealed. Dante continued chewing his gum and grinned.
'Forgot to warn you I guess. Want a piece? It will stop your ears from getting blocked!' Trish sat up straight and sulked. She said nothing else to Dante until they had finally landed.
For a minute, Dante had wondered whether they wouldn't be able to find their luggage. He looked down at the clothes he was wearing. A pair of normal denim jeans with a white shirt, topped off by a green jacket. He didn't look too bad-but still, nothing could beat his red coat. He sighed wistfully as he thought of it back home. Trish suddenly slapped him on his back, trying to get his attention.
'Hey! Look! There's one!' Dante shifted his stance slightly.
'Go get it then,' he said. Trish merely started examining her nails.
'No…you get it!' Dante grumbled something under his breath and then pushed through the mob of people that were standing around the conveyer belt. At last, he forced himself through and made a grab at his suitcase. He grinned as he lifted it easily off the belt with one hand and walked out, shoving several people unceremoniously out of his way. Trish groaned as she saw the people who were giving him dirty looks. Most of them were on the floor because of Dante's strength. Trish moaned again. If the rest of the trip was going to involve feeling sick and barging people out of the way, she wasn't too sure whether it was going to be as great as she had imagined.
Dante grinned as he returned to her side. She caught the disturbed look on her face and looked around the airport. He shrugged.
'They should've known better than to get in my way,' he said. He suddenly had a thought. 'Hey Trish! Do you know how to speak French?' Trish blinked and shook her head. Dante groaned. 'That's just great.'
'Excusez-moi, je peux vous aider, monsieur?' Dante wrinkled his nose.
'Wha-?' Trish elbowed him in the side and smiled.
'Uh…wee!' Dante gave her a withering look and then turned back to the woman who stood in front of them.
'Can you speak English?'
'But naturally.' The woman flicked back her red hair and peered out at them through one green eye. 'You would be ze Son of Sparda, yes?' Dante and Trish looked at each other.
'…yeah…' Trish saw the grudging manner in which he admitted to his identity. She sighed.
'But we're on holiday!' The woman's eyes brightened up.
'Ah bon! As I am too! My name ees Lucia!' Dante backed away, at the same time thinking that her accent was kind of cute.
'Great.'
'Son of Sparda, eet ees a great honour to meet with you! You will be needing some help, yes? You don't know French, no?' Trish saw an opportunity.
'No we don't. Could you show us around?' Lucia nodded, looking absolutely delighted.
'Oui, oui!' Dante frowned at Trish but then followed the two girls grudgingly as they made their way out of the airport. It looked as though his holiday alone with Trish had become a holiday with Trish and a complete stranger who he had never met before. Great…
'Je reste avec Maman, et toi?'
'Speak English!'
'I meant, I am staying with my mother, and you? Where are you staying?' Dante said nothing. Trish decided to try out her French. Grinning inanely, she cleared her throat.
'Je reste avec un cochon dans une hôtel!' Lucia looked amused, as did Trish, who was looking extremely satisfied with herself.
'Wha-?'
'She said that she ees staying with a pig in a hotel.' Dante blinked and looked hurt for a split second. Trish saw the look on his face and then smiled apologetically.
'I'm sorry. It was just a joke.' Dante shrugged.
'Whatever.' Lucia appeared not to notice the tension surrounding them. She continued to smile.
'Tomorrow, we shall visit ze L'arc du Triomphe! I know ze way.'
'Great…' This deserved another elbow in the side. He rubbed his ribs ruefully as Trish thanked their new friend. The three parted ways, Trish and Dante heading in one direction, Lucia in the other.
'Can't you try to be a bit more polite?' hissed Trish. Dante shrugged.
'Oink.' He saw the upset look on Trish's face. 'Hey calm it. I'm kidding about with you. Jeez…'
The next day saw Dante and Trish sitting at a table in a café. Dante stirred around a coffee absentmindedly and looked up at Trish, who was staring about with great interest as people sped by on bikes and cars.
'What are you looking for?' Trish slumped back down.
'Paris isn't what I had imagined it to be,' she said at last. Dante laid down his spoon and looked at her curiously. 'I was expecting people with berets on their heads.' Dante rolled his eyes.
'You've got to learn that lots of people are stereotyped. I mean, well, I already know that. Take us for example. We're related with bad guys all the time. Kind of ironic since we've saved the world a couple of times.' Dante sat back in his chair and then stood up.
'Where're you going?' Trish looked up at him as he walked off.
'Nature calls.' Trish watched him go and then smiled as she took a sip of coffee. Lucia bounded over out of nowhere, wearing a pair of faded jeans and then a green V-necked top. She smiled.
'Been waiting long? Sorry for the wait. There ees so much traffic recently.' She sat down at Dante's place. Trish suddenly noticed that she was carrying two small sword with her. Her jacket covered up her belt in which they were kept so then no one but the most observant could notice.
'Where ees ze Son of Sparda?' She suddenly asked. Trish shrugged, wondering why she was so bothered anyway. She suddenly looked up as she felt a strange presence in the air. Lucia also sensed it. She sighed. 'Eet appears as though ze demon has returned.'
'What demon?'
'This café has a problem with demons. For some reason one decided to make eets favourite haunt ze men's toilets. I got rid of eet before but eet keeps coming back. Looks like I'll be having another job tonight.' Trish shook her head.
'How on earth will you be able to go in when it's in the men's room?'
'After closing hours.'
'Oh…' Trish suddenly jumped to her feet. 'Dante!' At that moment, he came back over to the table, looking completely shaken. Trish tried to look innocent, finding the whole incident hilarious.
'What's up with you?' Dante shook his head and sat down, pulling up a chair from a different table.
'I told you I should have at least brought my guns along.' Lucia suddenly understood what had happened and burst out laughing. Trish tried to stop a smile from crossing over her face. Dante glared at them both.
'I'm guessing there was a monster in the bathroom!' said Trish, giggling. Dante frowned and pretended to look at a menu, his face impassive. Inwardly, he was embarrassed. 'So what did you do?'
'Well what else?' snapped Dante. 'I didn't have any weapons of any sort! What was I supposed to do? Rip off a door and slam it over its head?' Trish raised her eyebrows.
'You ran?' Dante glared at her but said nothing. Lucia got up.
'Come on. Let me show you some of ze sights.'
If Dante had a choice, he would have preferred being locked in a toilet with a demon for company. He was bored out of his mind. Or he had been until he had been forced to fight another couple of demons. Apparently Shadows loved Dante so much that they had decided to follow him along. Not only that but it seemed that even the birds had wanted to have a bit of fun. So it was unsurprising that by the time Dante and Trish returned to their hotel room, Dante's muscles were tense from stress. He tried to sit still and watch some TV while Trish tried to decide on something to wear. However, his eyes kept shifting to move out of the window, as though he was expecting something to crash through and start attacking him.
Trish sighed in despair and then saw how uneasy Dante was. She sighed and sat behind him, slowly moving her hands over his back, massaging him. Dante wriggled in protest and turned to look at her from over his shoulder.
'What're you doing?' Trish smiled at him.
'Lie down for a minute. You're so tense.'
'But-'
'Now.' Dante complied, grumbling. At last he stopped muttering oaths to himself and grew silent as Trish continued to administer her gentle treatment. He turned slightly rigid as her hands slipped underneath his top but then relaxed. His eyes closed dreamily. Trish was so gentle and soft. She imagined her hands running elsewhere on his body. He wondered what the rest of her skin felt like. He slowly rose and reached behind him so then his hand wound around her wrist. In one fluid movement, he rolled over onto his back and pulled Trish close to him. Trish blinked up at him in surprise.
'Dante?' He made no reply but ran his hand through her hair. Trish found herself resting her head on his chest, not really minding this new softer side to Dante. Her eyes grew slightly wider as she felt his lips working against her neck and his arms wrapping around her body, ensuring that she remained pressed against him. Dante moved so then his lips passed fleetingly over her own, taking her breath away.
'Dante…' she murmured again. She felt his hands slip under the blouse she had pulled on, touching against her bare skin. Trish wriggled slightly; his touch tickled her. Dante pulled away as he heard the door knocking. He growled out some kind of curse and looked at Trish longingly before going to open the door. It was Lucia.
'Bonsoir, monsieur!' she said cheerfully before passing a parcel to him. Dante looked at it suspiciously and frowned at her.
'Yeah whatever,' he said.
'Maman told me to give you these. She thought you might like them! I was going to give them to you tomorrow, but zen I thought, why not now?' Lucia smiled again, her eyes hovering over Dante appreciatively, taking in his build, his height. Her eyes focused on his lips at one point. She tore her eyes away from him and grinned somewhat sheepishly.
'Bonsoir,' she murmured again. Dante slammed the door shut and threw the parcel on the bed, so then it landed next to Trish.
'Talk about bad timing,' he said grumpily. Trish smiled slyly.
'Well I'm still here,' she said somewhat impishly. Dante returned her smile and then slipped his arms about her waist. The two seemed to melt into each other as they fell backwards onto the bed. Just then, Dante's phone rang. Trish sighed and then looked at him regretfully.
'Maybe we should leave this for another time…when it's more…'
'Peaceful?' Trish nodded. Dante rolled off her, eyed the parcel with distaste and then picked up his mobile. Trish flopped back down on the bed, thoroughly annoyed with life. She carefully unwrapped Lucia's parcel and looked at the assortment of croissants and baguettes that were in the pack. She looked curiously at some other things that had been thoughtfully included. Dante had finished talking on the phone and picked up something from the parcel.
'Hey this isn't too bad!' he said happily as he munched away. 'What is it?' Trish looked at him, trying to stop herself from laughing.
'Frogs' legs.' Dante stared at her and then turned pale. Trish giggled as he spat it out in a tissue and then flushed it down the toilet.
'What I would give for a decent pizza!' he moaned.
Going to see the Eiffel Tower wasn't as bad as Dante had thought it would be. Until Lucia had suddenly realised that she was scared of heights when she had unwisely looked out of a window when they were on one of the higher floors. She had promptly turned pale and her eyes had become slightly dimmer. For the rest of the time, she kept away from the windows, and kept her eyes firmly averted from the floor. It seemed as though her fear was contagious.
'Wouldn't it just be terrible if it fell over while we were eating?' Trish had started shuddering at the thought and had looked pleadingly at Dante. Dante had been more than happy to leave without eating; he hadn't understood any of the words on the menu and he wasn't really ready to take his chances again. God knows what he might have eaten next, snails? The thought alone was enough to put Dante off eating for at least a week.
Trish opened her eyes as Dante lay down beside her on the bed. She looked drowsily at the time and was shocked to find that it was ten o' clock at night. She never usually got that tired. Her fatigue vanished magically as Dante wrapped his arms around her again, hugging her close.
'This hasn't been the best holiday, has it?' he whispered in her ear. Trish sighed.
'So much for seeing the magic of Paris,' she said. Dante chuckled.
'We've got to see some things though. That arc thing and the Eiffel Tower…'
'And both of our trips were spoilt. First by those demons and the second by Lucia.'
'Maybe next time we'll do what I want to do.'
'What? Go to Disneyland?' Dante nuzzled against her neck.
'Euro Disney…' he corrected. 'I always wanted to punch out Mickey Mouse.'
'Why?'
'I don't know…but it would have been fun…' Dante grew silent as he started sucking at Trish's neck. Trish purred with pleasure and allowed her hands to reach the small of his back. He seemed to vibrate under her touch. Suddenly he moaned and rolled away from her, nursing his stomach. Trish looked at him in disbelief.
'What's wrong?' she said moodily. Dante made no reply but curled up into a foetus position. 'Don't tell me you're still feeling sick?'
'I thought I'd got over it,' he groaned miserably. He scrunched himself into a ball and screwed his eyes shut. Trish sighed with exasperation and turned over onto her side, dragging the sheets off Dante and onto herself.
'Some last magical night in Paris I'm having…' she growled. Before long, Dante poked her gently in the shoulder.
'Trishie?' Trish's eyes snapped open.
'What?' she snarled.
'Can I have some of the covers?'
'No…' Trish snuggled down deeper, annoyed.
'Please…'
'Nope.' Trish giggled. 'And since when have you started calling me Trishie?'
'Since now.' Dante grabbed for some covers, causing the two to fall off the bed in a jumble of sheets. Dante pinned down Trish firmly and chuckled again in her ear.
'I thought you had a stomach ache,' pouted Trish. Dante grinned but said nothing.
In the morning, it was Trish who woke up Dante by gently massaging his back again. He had still been lying on the floor, the sheets wrapped tightly around his body. He blinked blearily and then yawned.
'I wore you out last night, huh.' Trish leered at him. Dante grinned.
'I was up hours ago,' he said.
'Yeah…right…whatever…that's why when I woke up you were snoring like a hippo.' Dante stretched himself out and pulled her down so then she was on top of him.
'Trishie.'
'Will you stop calling me that?' Knocks on the door. Trish opened the door in a rush, taking Lucia by surprise.
'Bonjour!' she cried. She gasped as she saw Dante on the ground wearing nothing but a bed sheet around his waist. Her face turned red and then she averted her eyes, so then she was looking at the doorpost. Dante glared at Trish before he gathered up some random clothes and went into the bathroom. Trish folded her arms and leant casually against the door.
'Ye-es?'
'Maman asked me to give you this. She thinks we might need your help sometime in the near future.' Trish looked at the slip of paper that Lucia presented her with. 'Eets a map to my island, Vie de Marie.' Trish nodded and pocketed it. 'Eet was a pleasure meeting you. Au revoir, madame, monsieur!' Lucia practically ran down the corridor, her face still flushed with embarrassment. Dante emerged out of the bathroom. Trish turned to him.
'If we ever have to go to France again, then you're taking the job. The only time I'll ever come back here again is if I'm dared to! And even then I'll only come after you've done the job!' This didn't really make much sense to Dante, but he agreed to her strange set of conditions anyway. It wasn't as if they were really going to have to travel here again anyway…
Dante grinned as he boarded the plane back home. He was still grinning when he kicked the door to Devil Never Cry open to be greeted with the trash in the kitchen and the old pizza boxes. He continued to smile as he picked up the phone. Until he heard the reason for the call.
'There's a huge goat-like creature with wings on my garage!' Dante slammed the phone down and took the holiday brochure from the kitchen table where they had left it.
'You might as well keep your clothes packed. I have a feeling that we might go on another holiday pretty soon!'
End