Warnings: Eventual D/L, Violence, Blood/Gore, Strong Language

Disclaimer: I do not own DMC, and I make no money from this story.

Well, it's been nice knowing this place.

Lady gave one last look around the apartment that had been her home for the past year and a half—or what was left of it, anyway. Shards of broken glass, tufts of cotton stuffing, and splintered wood littered the floors. The walls were severely cracked in several places, white dust from the smashed plaster powdering the carpet. An enormous splatter of reddish-black painted one wall; it looked like a large ink pen had exploded, which is the rather poor excuse Lady gave the landlord. It wasn't as if she could say it was blood from the demon she killed the night before. She had come back from a job across town to find a vengeful devil that it had been her misfortune to let escape trashing her apartment. She had put a bullet in its head when it soon lunged for her throat, but that couldn't undo the destruction surrounding her. Almost everything she owned and several items she didn't, unfortunately, were utterly mangled beyond repair. And the pay for that job? It all went to paying her furious landlord for the damage. She stared dejectedly at her broken coffee and end tables and her couch with its frame snapped in two and springs poking out of the ripped up cushions. She knew it would be a long time before she would be able to replace her beautiful furniture, and she had been so proud when she had earned the money to buy it all, too.

"Hey—are you gonna get outta here, or do I have to call the cops? I've already got someone here to take care of this damn mess, so get lost!"

Lady turned around to the podgy, greasy form of her landlord. She simply rolled her eyes, though he wouldn't be able to see behind her glasses, and stepped out onto the catwalk with her luggage in tow. She had managed to stuff all her clothes, which the demon thankfully hadn't touched, toiletries, and anything else she deemed valuable that wasn't totally disfigured into a few suitcases. She loaded the bloated bags onto the back of her bike and strapped them down, along with Kalina Ann, hesitantly throwing her leg over and plopping down in the seat. She didn't want to leave; wasn't it human nature for one to grow attached to a place they have lived in for quite some time? Her apartment and all its previously intact contents had been a source of pride and comfort for many months. The poor woman felt utterly crestfallen.

"There's no point crying over spilt milk, I guess," sighed the dark-haired woman, jamming the key into the ignition and turning it with a bit too much force. The engine roared to life beneath her, and she made quick to speed off down the street, wanting to put the past behind her, though it was a little painful to see it go. It was a bit more painful, however, to think of where she would have to go next. With little money left in her pocket and no other friends, Lady would have no choice but to shack up with a certain devil hunter and all his trash and cold pizza. Devil May Cry was a dirty, disgusting bachelor pad. She was sure the guestroom hadn't been cleaned since Dante bought the place, and knowing that horny pervert, who knew what all could have happened in the guest bed? The very thought of staying there for more than one night made the dark-haired woman cringe, but it was that or sleeping on the streets.

I'm sure the sanitary conditions are basically the same.

Lady muttered curses under her breath. The only thing worse than staying with Dante was asking Dante for help. It wasn't that the man cared to help her; no, Dante was terribly generous when it came to helping his friends, surprisingly. In fact, she would probably have to deny taking any offered financial assistance from him numerous times during her stay. However, Lady was a proud and confident, independent woman. The only thing she hated more than asking for help was asking Dante for help. She liked to feel superior toward him, and the debt she had held over his head, which he just recently paid off, unfortunately, gave her that feeling. Without it, her independence and the life she had made for herself were what kept Lady feeling as if she was a step, or several steps, above Dante the Devil Hunter. Now she would be indebted to him, and she could only hope he wouldn't hold it over her head.

The drive across the city was fairly quick. Traffic wasn't very bad at this time of day; everyone was working. Lady's bike also allowed her a bit more room to maneuver around obstacles than driving a car would. In a way, she wanted to prolong her travel to Devil May Cry, but at the same time, she was a little eager to see Dante again. With how busy she had been lately, she hadn't seen the man in months. As much as she hated to admit it sometimes, he was her best friend, her only friend. She couldn't help but wonder if he had changed at all in their time apart.

As she approached the devil hunting agency, Lady could see no difference in the storefront of that all-too-familiar building. That garish neon sign still hung on the front and Dante's convertible was parked by the curb in its usual spot. What was new, Lady noticed as she slowly came to a stop out front, was the shiny, black bike parked in the spot usually reserved for her during her visits. Arching a curious brow, Lady wondered if Dante had bought himself a new bike. Without her debt to be paid, Lady supposed the devil hunter had more financial freedom. The woman couldn't help but smile fondly. Dante and his toys—she supposed he did deserve a new one.

Parking her own bike in a new spot a little farther down the sidewalk, Lady unstrapped her items and lugged them along with her as she headed for the shop. She would have liked to leave them on the bike until she could find Dante and explain the situation, but she knew Dante's neighborhood quite well. If she wanted all her stuff stolen, she could leave her bags unattended for maybe five minutes, and half of her things could be missing by the time she came back. Lady wasn't too keen on the idea of losing any more of her possessions at the moment. Pushing one door open with her elbow, Lady squeezed inside and dropped all her heavy luggage with an exerted sigh. Carrying her enormous bazooka at the same time had made the task all the more difficult.

Looking around, Lady noted that not much had changed inside either. Strangely enough, however, it appeared that Dante had been trying to keep the place cleaner. Trash no longer littered the floors and there was only a thin layer of dust on everything, hinting that the man had tidied up about a week ago. And there was only one pizza box setting on his desk, rather than a tall stack of empty boxes and some whose contents were far past edible. Lady still doubted that Dante really cared all that much about how his place looked; it was probably all his extra time. The demon population had waned off a little recently and the man probably had more time on his hands. Time to be bored, that was. He wouldn't have cleaned otherwise, the woman was certain.

Well, this is a pleasant surprise.

Lady smirked, a little happier knowing that she wouldn't have to clean Dante's sty for him. Speaking of which, where was he, anyway?

"Dante?" Lady called softly. There was a good possibility that the hunter was still asleep. In fact, Lady doubted that he would be awake this early. Rolling her eyes but with an odd sense of fondness that she really thought she needed to smack herself for, Lady made her way up the stairs to the devil hunter's bedroom. It was rather fun to drag him out of the bed. Like some lazy lion taking a catnap, he hated to be woken up. Lady smiled wickedly as she remembered several different techniques she had implemented to get him out of bed. Screaming in his ear, using an airhorn, tossing a bucket of ice water on him—you name it, Lady had probably done it. She had tried jerking the covers off him one morning, but upon discovering that Dante slept in the nude by her sudden view of his naked butt, the woman had decided against using that method in the future.

Slowly turning the knob of the hunter's bedroom door, Lady peeked inside, expecting to see a snoring lump under the red comforter. She furrowed her brow when she saw that the covers were thrown down and the bed was empty. Dante's clothes littered the floor, though his pants and boots were missing from the mess. He couldn't have gone on a mission in only his pants and Lady was sure he would have answered her back when she called. There was no way the man didn't hear her; with heightened senses and acute alertness, he couldn't have missed it.

"Dante?" Lady called out a little louder just to be sure. "You better not be playing some stupid trick on me!" Lady waited a few moments, expecting Dante to jump out behind her or something to try and scare her. However, several seconds tick by, and she received absolutely no response. She could hear no boots thumping down the hall, no responding call, no rustling from a hiding place, nothing.

Where did that devil go?

Shrugging, Lady headed back downstairs and gave the office another onceover. She felt the pizza box sitting on Dante's desk and discovered that the cardboard was still slightly warm. It hadn't been long since he had ordered it, and there were still two untouched slices inside, so he had to be nearby somewhere. One thing Dante never did was take off without finishing his pizza. Lady sighed and sat utterly stumped for a moment on the front of the devil hunter's desk, wishing she had Dante's ability to scent the air and follow people's trails. That was before she heard a rather loud curse from outside, followed by some muttered expletives.

I knew he couldn't have gone far.

Lady quickly made her way back out the door, expecting Dante to be standing right outside. She didn't see him at first glance, however. It was only when she heard an odd, metallic cranking noise that she thought to look under the front of Dante's car. Sure enough, the hunter's lower half jutted out from under the red vehicle, grease smudges mottling his waist where it appeared he had scratched his stomach with dirty fingers.

"Well, well… Long time, no see. Is your piece-of-shit car messed up again?" Lady teased. Dante chortled from under the car, and Lady watched his stomach muscles work as he made the sound. Just as she had suspected from seeing the state of his bedroom, he was only in his pants.

"I was wondering when you'd find me," she heard from under the car. Nothing got past this devil. Lady gave him a slight kick to the hip for that. He only chuckled.

"Why didn't you say something? I looked all over for you."

Dante wiggled out from beneath the car, grimacing at the damage the asphalt had done to his back. He hopped up from the ground, dropping the wrench in his hand into a toolbox sitting nearby before briefly taking in the state of his greasy hands. There was even a little grease smudge on his cheek, and Lady had the ridiculous urge to wipe it off. It drew her to notice, however, the stubble growing on his jaw. It made him look a little older but not in a bad way. Definitely not in a bad way.

"What's with the whiskers?" She asked, playfully scratching his chin with a gloved finger. The man snorted and framed his jaw as if in thought, smiling in humor.

"You like it?"

"It'll take some getting used to, but it looks pretty good on you," Lady commented thoughtfully.

Dante smirked. "Thanks , babe. You don't look bad yourself," said the demon hunter, looking her over and seeming to spend a little more time on certain areas than Lady would have liked.

"My eyes are up here," Lady said with a scowl and slight irritation lacing her words.

"Yeah, but the party's down here," Dante purred, licking his lips and staring harder.

"Do you want to get shot?" The woman barked. It was a real threat; she had shot Dante plenty of times before and she would do it again. The man laughed and brought his attention back to her face.

"Chill—I'm just joking. I was just admiring your new wardrobe." Dante gestured to Lady's new attire and the woman smirked. She had recently bought herself a new uniform. It was about time as Dante had also bought himself some new clothes to hunt in. That was another thing she got to keep, at least.

"So what are you doin' here, anyway?" Dante asked rather curtly as he made his way back inside. Lady followed behind, used to Dante's less than polite behavior. "You need money, or did you really miss me that much?"

"Don't flatter yourself," Lady replied. "I'm only here because a demon wrecked my apartment and got me kicked out. I had to pay for all the damage done, so I obviously have nowhere else to go."

Dante seemed to make the same assessment as he saw her luggage sitting inside. The hunter nodded as he walked over and sat himself back behind his desk, grabbing a slice of cheesy, greasy pizza from the box still resting there before kicking back in his chair. The halfbreed nibbled on the slightly warm piece of pizza, frosty blue eyes focused on Lady as he seemed to wait for her to say more.

"So you don't mind at all?" Lady asked to be sure. She needed a place to stay, but that didn't mean she wanted to intrude. Dante had a life, too, after all.

"Why would I?" the hunter replied passively, just as laidback and careless as ever. There was a brief moment of silence before Lady turned and grabbed one of her bags.

"I guess I'll be taking these upstairs then."

She heard Dante's chair fall back onto all fours and turned to see the man gathering her luggage into one arm while balancing Kalina Ann on the opposite shoulder. She thought about telling him she could carry her bags by herself, but Lady then decided it was nice to have someone helping her. She smiled slightly and lead the way up to the guest bedroom. Dante let her things drop rather carelessly to the floor for which she gave him a brief scolding. He handled Kalina Ann with care, however, which attested to his appreciation of fine weaponry. Lady rolled her eyes a little at that but was glad he acted with more caution toward her most prized possession.

Not quite feeling like unpacking at the moment, Lady followed Dante back downstairs, where the hunter resumed his previous position. Lady took her usual seat on the front of his desk, fiddling with her skirt for a moment to have something to do in the sudden silence that overtook the room. She started slightly at a scraping sound, twisting to her right to see that the pizza box had been nudged in her direction. Smiling with a small chortle, Lady opened the box, taking the last slice. She thought she should be honored if Dante was willing to give her his last slice of pizza. That had to mean she was special.

For a quiet few moments, the two hunters ate in a comfortable silence. The room felt rather warm and familiar, and Lady realized that she had missed this—missed teasing and joking with Dante and dining with him at his desk. The golden sun shone through the windows, and Lady looked around at all the demon heads nailed to the walls, remembering how disgusted she had been when Dante first skewered them up there quite a few years back. She thought briefly of their time in the Temen-ni-gru but not of the bad times. She thought of meeting Dante there and how they walked out together once everything was over. Now they sat sharing pizza together, silenced by that similar awkwardness that had kept them distant when they first met.

Just like the good old days.