A/N: although Arow helped in parts and it is part of the BIA series it is mostly my work, so sorry about the poor quality of writing, but Arow hasn't been on the writing field lately and I couldn't think of much to write.
Disclaimer: Morwen owns Vergil, Arow owns Dante, Capcom owns us all.
Summary: Set shortly after BIA1, Vergil has been back a short while, will a white christmas be the start of the final icebreaker of his more distant attitude toward his twin?
Vergil was abruptly woken from his sleep, feeling a heavy bouncing on his bed; he slowly opened his narrowed away and glared at the clock that was flashing 3 am. He growled and rolled back over, but the bouncing continued.
"It's snowing, it's snowing," Dante exclaimed like an over excited child, "Come on Verge its snowing."
"Go away," Vergil muttered and kicked his twin off of his bed
Dante was not taking no for an answer, "Come on," he started pulling Vergil from the bed. What he didn't count on was Vergil kept Yamato at the side of his bed, just out of sight, and it was now pointed at his throat.
"Let. Me. Sleep." Vergil growled darkly.
Dante pouted,"Fine," he sulked off from the room, leaving Vergil to sleep again.
(1 hour later, 4.am)
Vergil was woken this time, not by his brother's excited voice, or his incessant bouncing, no, this time it was a prickling on the back of his neck and a creeping suspicion that he was being watched; his hand creeped around to Yamato 's hilt and he tensed. He turned to see his brother's grinning face, he faltered, the next thing he knew, his vision was filled with white and Dante ran from the room yelling; "It's still snowing."
Vergil growled and wiped the snow from his face, Dante would pay for that. He got up and followed his brother, meeting him at the foot of the stairs, Yamato drawn and he pinned the younger to the wall, "One hour," he announced and stalked back up the stairs.
Dante blinked at him, at least he was up, "Till what?" he asked his retreating brother.
Vergil smirked, his back still to the younger, "Until war," he replied darkly and went to his room to change.
Dante grinned at the tone in his brother's voice, he grabbed his coat and made for the doors and out into the snow.
(1 hour later 5.am)
Vergil was across from his brother, hiding behind his snow built barricade, checking over everything one last time and peered around the corner to see Dante shuffling around his mini snow fort. He hurled a series of snowballs at him signalling the start of the fight, each hit Dante's back, he moved back behind the snow covered rock he was using as his shelter and readied the next balls of snow.
Dante had not expected the first barrage of snowballs so soon, had it been an hour already? He dodged behind his snow fort and launched his own projectiles at the area his twin was hiding behind.
Vergil ducked behind his rock and readied his next volley and peered over the top of his fort, his hair was down over his face camouflaging him better in the snow. He waited for Dante to turn his back and launched an attack to destroy Dante's defences.
"I never knew your aim was that shit bro," Dante called, oblivious to Vergil's tactics and he attacked Vergil again.
Vergil smirked, Dante seemed completely ignorant to the fact that he was now completely open to attack, and Dante had realise why one part of Vergil's defences was not being broken down by the bombardment.
Vergil kept returning the snowballs, dodging the ones Dante fired at him and using his speed, he surged forward pinning Dante in a snow drift behind.
Dante had not expected the attack and he grabbed some snow from under him and threw it at Vergil, who just tensed slightly at the icy feeling before shoving the snow over Dante's bare chest. Vergil wondered momentarily why Dante was stupid enough to just come out in the snow half dressed.
Dante kicked Vergil off him and launched at him but Vergil flipped him over and a loud crack echoed in the yard as Dante's head connected with a snow covered rock and faint red droplets stained the snow under Dante's now unconscious form.
Vergil winced a little but thankfully the gash was already healing, he sighed and took his brother inside and lay him down.
The older twin looked around a moment and a small book caught his attention, he moved over to it and opened the photo album and smiled seeing various pictures over the pages. There were several photos from various points in their lives, from their first Christmas, to their last, he looked sadly at the smiling picture of their mother; this was the first year without her. He gave a soft, sad sigh, it still seemed like only yesterday when he was running to her, trying to save her, but he hadn't. He had failed her, but he wouldn't fail again, he wouldn't let anything to happen to the last of his family. Vergil looked over to Dante, to see he was still unconscious and after a moment he took Yamato and went out.
Dante opened his eyes a while later, his head was still hurting from the blow, but it was not as bad as it could have been. "Verge?" he called, but there was no answer, he frowned a little and looked around but he could not find his twin.
The clock showed it was 7am, still early, he wondered where his twin would have gone but seeing an open page of the photo album he had put together as a present for Vergil, he smiled sadly seeing the last photo they had got of their mother staring back at him, and he immediately knew Vergil's destination. He took his guns, just in case of attacks and headed out to find his brother.
Dante gave a small sad smile as he saw his brother kneeling in the snow by their mother's grave, his head bowed in silent meditation "Verge?"
Vergil's eyes opened slowly and looked to Dante with a small smile, "You alright?"
Dante shrugged off the concern, "Yeah, you always said my skull was too thick to receive permanent damage," he commented with a grin, which widened when Vergil mirrored his expression, albeit with a little less enthusiasm. "I miss her too."
Vergil sighed softly and nodded silently and slowly stood. Vergil looked to her grave once more, he had been feeling guilty over her death for so long, but spending more time with Dante was easing that guilt and pain, but he was reluctant to accept the fact that his grief was lessening because of his little brother; but as he had sat in silent thought, and after looking at the photos, he knew that he could not hold onto that pain forever, nor could he close himself off from Dante as he had tried to; not after Dante had tried helping him in any way he could, and especially Dante's older self had gone back in time to save him from the path he would have chosen at the cost of his own existence. He smiled sadly, he would finally let go of the past; ultimately he knew that his mother wouldn't want him to dwell on his pain.
Dante watched him a moment and moved beside him, "Its ok bro, I know you're still trying to work through it."
Vergil had not been back long, things still felt awkward between them, like there was a thick wall of ice separating them, but lately, Dante found the ice was starting to melt and Vergil was slowly becoming more of the brother he remembered; the earlier snowball fight was definitely the biggest breakthrough so far, hopefully not much longer and things would be more normal between them, he hoped.
Dante smiled to Dante hesitantly, "if you ever wanna talk about it…ya know…"
Vergil return Dante's smile softly, "Thanks," he said, "Shall we go back home?"
Dante nodded, "Heh, was having too much fun in the snow, I forgot to wrap a present for you."
"The album?" Vergil looked at Dante a moment.
Dante nodded, "Yeah, I managed to find old photos, thought it would be a nice thing, ya know, to remember the good times we had in the past…"
"And room for more in the future?" Vergil finished for him with a knowing smile.
Dante gave another nod, sometimes Vergil read his thoughts too well.
Vergil looked to the grave once more, I'm sorry mom, I love you, but I can't hold to the past forever. He thought.
A small breeze seemed to pick up and Vergil could have sworn he heard a reply, nor would I want you to son, it was never your fault, I love you, go and be happy.
Vergil looked and blinked as he thought he saw his mother watching them both, leaning against a tree; he blinked and the vision was gone.
"You ok?" Dante brought Vergil from his trance.
"I'm fine," Vergil smiled to him, "Lets get home."
Dante shrugged off Vergil's sudden change and followed his twin home.
"Get me anything?" Dante asked hopefully, his childish excitement growing again.
Vergil shook his head, "You'll have to wait and see."
"Verge," Dante whined and pouted.
Vergil just smirked at him a moment and swiftly bent down and scooped up more snow and hurled it into Dante's face before running from his twin's yelled threats.
Vergil shut the door to their home and winced hearing a thud, Dante had skidded into said door.
Dante picked himself off the floor and went inside and gave Vergil a half hearted glare, noting mentally to pay his brother back for that stunt.
"Is the door alright?" Vergil asked grinning, "don't want to have to replace it."
Dante just grumbled at him in response and looked to see he was holding a small wrapped package.
"For you," Vergil said and he handed it to him.
Dante ripped the paper opened and grinned seeing one of his favourite films that evaded his collection as of yet. The Rocky Horror Picture Show, he grinned big; he loved that film so much and looked to Vergil who was opening a card.
"Who's it from?" Dante asked.
Vergil looked to him, "Your older self actually."
Dante snatched the card off him and read it.
'Dear Mini Me and V, hope you two are keeping out of trouble and still looking after each other, I'm still around for now, have a great Christmas, Dante.'
"Mini Me?" he repeated indignantly.
Vergil just laughed at Dante's peeved expression and went back up to his room.
Dante smiled, Vergil seemed to finally be coming round at least, that was the first time he had heard him laugh in a long time. He shrugged it off and sat down then put his new film on.
A while after that all that could be heard was Dante's awful decimation of the Time Warp; Dante saw Vergil's expression as he walked into the kitchen, Dante grinned big feeling Vergil's annoyed look, oh yes, revenge was so sweet.
Merry Christmas from Morwen and Arow.