Prompt: Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, Dante/Futomimi: Bonding over loss - Nothing you can lose that someone else hasn't lost before.

Dies Illa

It was as if the air of the entire Vortex had stilled, Futomimi thought as he walked away from Shura's mourning party. Kagutsuchi's light still waxed and waned, slowly, but it failed to make him feel any different, failed to make any of Shura's army spring into action. They were all too stunned, even him. It just... couldn't happen.

He was so lost in thought that he tripped over a leg clad in red leather and fell face first into the acrid dust.

"Hey, watch it," Dante warned as he nudged Futomimi's hip with his boot, but his voice and his gesture lacked his usual exuberance.

Futomimi picked himself up and dusted his rough robe, then, from lack of places to go and will to find another, he walked to Dante's side and sat by him, leaning against the piece of concrete wall standing at an angle that Dante was using as a backrest.

"'nother one bites the dust, huh?" Dante commented after a few minutes of silence. Futomimi nodded, paying no attention to Dante's scrutinizing gaze. "Bet you saw it coming too, asshole. Why didn't you say anything?"

With a sigh, Futomimi looked up at Kagutsuchi, a hand stretched out to shield his eyes from the intense light. "Have you ever heard of a self-fulfilling prophecy, Dante?"

Dante answered nothing, preferring to take Ebony out, aim and shoot at Kagutsuchi.

That made Futomimi smile despite himself. He had not known the hunter for long, and yet, already he could tell this was typical of him. Brash, petulantly childish, and somewhat useless in the end, but soothing for a moment at least. "Do you think you got it?"

"I've never missed a shot," came the answer as Dante holstered Ebony again. "This sucks out loud," he added as he slouched a little more.

Futomimi nodded as he looked back at the ground. What now indeed? The Demi-Fiend supposed to decide the outcome of the warring Reasons was no more. He could not conceive one, as much as he yearned for it.

"We should make a break for it, you and I," Dante proposed.

A strong shiver crawled up Futomimi's spine as he tried to picture what kind of Reason Dante would conceive.

Dante snorted, misinterpreting Futomimi's reaction. "Hey, don't be like that, preacher," he said as he wrapped an arm around Futomimi's neck and pulled him closer, "I'm a nice, smooth guy." He then appeared to think for a second. "Unless that was just that shakey-shakey thing you Manikins do. In that case, forget what I said. Except the nice and smooth part of course. We could even try to do your hippy world reason... thing."

Futomimi supposed "hippy" was not supposed to be a positive thing, but he chose to ignore it because, after all, Dante had offered to try to do it for him. Last time Dante had offered to do something for him, it had involved beer and advice on picking up "chicks", so this was actually an improvement in taste, if not in feasibility. "What world would you want?" he asked, looking at Dante's face.

Dante snorted. "If I knew this could happen for real, I would have thought some more about this! Booze, chicks, guys, pizza, fun..."

Futomimi let out a soft snort.

"... my brother..."

He blinked at that one in shock, though. He had not seen that one coming, funny enough. Surely two Dantes would rip the world apart in search of "fun". "Oh. I am sorry about your brother."

Dante shrugged. "It was a while ago. Man, that's why this sucks out loud. I finally meet some sort of half-devil human guy again, and he goes off and gets himself killed too! I feel like I'm in a shitty Highlander movie and I'm stuck being The One all the time." Seeing that Futomimi was trying very hard to decode that last sentence, he added in a low voice, hoping Futomimi wouldn't catch it, "I kinda hoped to find him here though..."

It took several minutes of silence only broken by Dante grinding one heel in the dust out of boredom before Futomimi answered. "Maybe you will. There are possibilities here... for those who can pay the price."

An eyebrow raised, Dante looked at Futomimi. "Anyone ever told you your crystal ball visions shtick is creepy?"

Futomimi actually let out a chuckle, which was creepy in itself. "Yes."

"... good. Because it is."

"That wasn't a vision, though." As Dante looked at him interrogatively, Futomimi continued. "I sincerely hope you find him... and maybe the Vortex can give him to you. Losing loving family is hard. I know."

Dante snorted, wanting to protest it wasn't very loving, wanting to tell Futomimi how they tore each other apart in the end, except it wasn't true. It wasn't true because when Dante would pull Vergil out of Hell, it wouldn't be just to kick his goddamn ass all the way home and kick him around the head once he'd make it home. It wasn't true because beyond the sword duels and the shoot outs and the trying to rip each other to shred with their bare hands, he loved that stupid bonehead of a twin brother of his with all his human heart, with all the soul a half-devil like him could possibly have. It was fucked up, and wrong, and probably a sign that something was seriously wrong with him, but Dante had never been one for introspection. He just knew that even after all these years, he just couldn't let go.

A gentle arm wrapped around his shoulders. "There's hope."

Dante shook himself from his personal melodrama before he started sniffling like a girl. "Thanks for the wish, preacher."

"That one was not a wish."

Sighing heavily, Dante slapped his hand down hard on Futomimi's shoulder. "Can't you give out a disclaimer or something when you make an actual prediction? Like, 'WARNING: I have foreseen this here shit!'?" Seeing Futomimi's confused look, he snorted and ruffled his top knot. "Aw, forget it." He leaned back against the wall as Futomimi fixed his hair, his arm never leaving Futomimi's shoulders. "I'm gonna miss the smart-mouthed little shit."

"So will I," Futomimi agreed as he tied up his silky smooth hair, "although I will not remember him as being a little shit."

"You're too forgiving."

"Maybe." Futomimi settled against Dante's side, since his arm pretty much prevented him from taking any distance from the half-devil. It was not uncomfortable, honestly... he could almost let himself go to sleep here, guarded by a strong arm.

"We should go kick some ass and take names in his name even if it's just the two of us. He'd love it."

Futomimi nodded in agreement. Sounded like a better course of action than waiting for the end here, even if they could only make Fate take a detour as it marched inexorably toward its ultimate goal. He was no stranger to lost causes, anyway.