The Morning After Chapter 1: Happy Anniversary, a devil may cry fanfic

A/N: Ok, so there is really only one reason why I am writing this, and it is because there are simply not enough DantexLady parings here. I mean, don't get me wrong, I got nothing against Trish, I just don't see how someone could date (let alone have children with OO) a person that looks exactly like their own mother. That is just freaking creepy. So here I am writing a fic about the only paring that matters; DxL.

And without further ado, I give you. . .

Chapter one: Happy Anniversary

The moon shone brightly through the dingy shades of his office window, pale blue rays slithered through the swirling dust in the air as it fell in pools onto the practically rotten wooden floor. The night was quiet, like it had been for the last couple of days, as if the entire world was just sitting there, holding it's breath. He knew what it was though, he knew what day tomorrow was. And he wasn't entirely sure he was ready for it. He clenched his teeth and in his boots his toes curled; he tried with all of his demoniacally endowed might to control his emotions. He had once convinced himself that being a half devil, he should never have a reason to cry, never have a reason to be weak. It was funny, really, when he thought about it. It was him after all that always used to tell him to suck it up and not cry all the time. The object of his seemingly eternal sorrow.

His one and only twin brother Vergil.

And tomorrow would be exactly one year since the day he saw his brother literally fall into hell, never to be seen again. At least that's what it looked like to him. Vergil always was a stubborn bastard. Dante chuckled to himself at the thought. He sat at his desk, normally for once, both feet planted firmly on the ground instead of laying lazily on top of his desk. He let his head fall into one hand as he sighed deeply, moving to let his free hand fall against the blood stained fingerless glove that sat at one corner of his desk. He didn't actually have anything to act as a memento of that particular time, other than the devil arms he acquired and this glove. Nothing else really mattered, not to him. Memories were best kept in your mind anyway.

Sitting back in his chair he looked at his clock, it was approaching midnight. He briefly entertained the idea of doing something special for the occasion, but ultimately decided against it. He didn't want to dwell on the past, nothing good ever came from that. He wasn't sure how long he would actually live, possessing devils blood, but the last thing he wanted was to be tormented by a painful past for the rest of his years, however long or short lived they may be. He thought it would be better if he just slept the whole day through, not taking on any missions, not doing anything at all, just one big day off from living life. But he couldn't bring himself to do that either. If there were demons floating around somewhere then he couldn't just slack off, he had made a promise after all, swore on his mother's grave, that he would not rest until he had hunted them all down, rid the earth of any and all demonic presences, eventually, even his own.

With a grunt he pushed himself from his chair and began to walk towards the front door, his hand just touched the handle when his phone rang. Instinctively he froze and contemplated not answering, it was drastically after business hours after all. As the phone rang a second and third time he opted to just let it ring out. He took his trademark long red coat from the rack before quickly throwing it on his body and then proceeded out of his shop, but before he closed the door, he was again halted by the piercing sound of his phone ringing. Persistent, whoever it was. Coming back into his shop he quickly closed the gap from the door to his desk and gingerly picked up the phone, not giving the person a chance to respond he muttered a quick, "Sorry we're closed, try again tomorrow." before he tossed it back at the receiver. However before it reached its mark, the voice on the other end cause him to fumble it back into his hand.

"Dante! Wait!" He could hardly believe who that voice belonged to.

"Lady? That you?" He asked into the phone. Although they had vowed to work together, and they did on a few rare occasions, they had eventually stopped collaborating. It wasn't that they had just lost contact, but they always seemed to clash while out in the field doing their due. Dante would always just shrug it off, but Lady had, apparently, gotten fed up with it and opted to go in solo, only ever asking for his assistance, she was sure never to use the word help, whenever she had to. But even then, she had at least enough common decency to not call a man at the unholy hour of- - he looked to his clock- - twelve after twelve. So naturally he was a little curious.

He could hear her chuckle softly on the other end. "Yeah. . .I thought you weren't going to pick up." She laughed weakly again.

Dante nodded more to himself in an act of concentration, then to Lady, who couldn't even see the act. "Yeah, well, most people would be asleep about now."

"Oh!" Lady sounded surprised, almost embarrassed. "If you were asleep, I guess I could, you know, just call back another time. . ."

Now it was Dante's turn to laugh. "Relax, I was wide awake, though you caught me just before I left out for a few, lucky you." He said in such a way that she could hear his cheesy grin. And he almost felt her roll her eyes in response.

"Don't flatter yourself, Dante." She rebuked.

"Yeah, I got you to do that for me, right?" He said with a smile, which only broadened when he earned a sweet little laugh from Lady in response.

"Please, anyway, where were you headed this late at night?" She asked.

"It's not late at night, it's early in the morning." He corrected her.

"Yeah whatever, where were you going this early then?" Said Lady with a little more curiosity in her voice than she intended to have there.

"A bar." Was all the answer she got in return. He had planned to get in a few rounds before the day started, granted, not the smartest thing to do, but hey, he'd rather go through that day at least partially hammered than fully sober. It was just one of those days, he supposed. Lady was silent on the other end and he had a sneaking suspicion that she was nodding at what he said, in understanding. For about a full minute they just sat there in borderline awkward silence, until Dante simply couldn't stand it any more. "Say, what are you doing now? Wanna come with?"

Lady's reply was instantaneous. "Sure, I'd like that."

Dante, again nodded to himself. "Okay, so I'll see you in. . ." He trailed off letting her fill in the blank on her own.

"I guess I'll be there in ten."

Dante once again looked to his clock. "Okay then, I'm clocking you babe." Earning another laugh from Lady they said their goodbyes and hung up their phones.

After hanging up the phone, Lady made her way from her cozy little bed towards her humble wardrobe. For some odd reason, she couldn't get the smile off of her face. It wasn't that she was particularly happy that she would be spending a little time with the white haired devil hunter. She had just been restless for the last couple of days, or so she had convinced herself. Being honest with herself though, she knew what it was that was getting at her, like a tiny bug eating away at her from the inside. In only a few more hours it would be approximately one year from the day she had killed her father. Oddly enough, though, she felt this strange sensation in the pit of her gut, like a giant block of ice was embedded where her stomach should be. She didn't want to name it, because if she did, she was sure it would be something akin to guilt, and as far as she knew, she had absolutely nothing to be guilty about.

She shook her head in an attempt to clear her muddled mind, her hair bobbing back and forth wildly as she did. She snatched a few items out of her closet and threw them onto her bed as she silently debated on what she should wear. She pondered there for only a few seconds before realizing that she was going to a bar, and not only that, she was going to a bar with Dante. Suddenly she felt silly for thinking too much into this, almost as if it were an actual date with someone that was actually date-able, which Dante obviously was not. Sure he was handsome enough, and sure he had a great body, and sure he was as charming as the came, and sure. . .wait, this wasn't helping. In short, Lady saw Dante as nothing more than a grown child, not very mature, and had an ego big enough for the both of them.

Besides, she wasn't one to bother with one-sided romances, or any romances for that matter. She didn't really know much about his love life, but she knew enough about him to come to the conclusion that he though of himself as a lady killer, never one to settle for one girl for too long. After only a moment longer in thought she picked out anything, which happened to be a pair of form fitting black Capri pants and a red button up top, leaving the first two buttons undone. Although she didn't think she'd actually need it, she went ahead and equipped a side holster for one of her hand guns. She knew Dante wouldn't leave his guns at home, and she didn't want to be caught at a disadvantage, or maybe she just wanted to see if she could shoot him again. There was something so satisfying about shooting someone for no good reason, because you knew it wouldn't kill them.

As she walked out of her small one bed room apartment, grabbing a light jacket as she did, she couldn't help but feel a little anxious, nervous. . .giddy perhaps? She took in a few quick shallow breaths as she walked down the stairs of the cramped complex, trying to bring herself to a sense of calm once more. As soon as she exited the building she took a few nice deep breaths of fresh air, before making her way over to where she kept her new fully pimped out motor-cycle, the old one having been destroyed by the very person she was going to see at the moment. Though she had, grudgingly, forgiven him when he presented her with a brand new one only a few weeks later. As soon as she got it, she had wasted no time in souping it up, making it the best it could possibly be, and a little better if that were even possible. Her new bike was the all new, not even released Honda EVO6 Concept, rumored to be one of only two in existence, hell on wheels. Her modifications included the NO2 overdrive turbo system, which made this already monstrous vehicle fast enough to break the sound barrier, an enhanced breaking and shock system, and her favorite part, a glossy cherry red finish, complete with hot pink speed stripes along both sides. Truly her pride and joy.

She straddled the bike, stroking the handle bars as she purred at it lovingly, she didn't give a damn how creepy she might have looked, when her baby was involved, nothing was ridiculous enough. After only a few more seconds of cooing, she put the key into the ignition, placed her helmet on her head, and took off at a speed she was sure would land her in jail if she were caught. But, of course, she was too good to get caught.

After his call with Lady, Dante had sat at his desk and waited, more relaxed than he was earlier. Though he would absolutely die before he admitted it out loud, he was actually looking forward to this little outing all of a sudden. He had suddenly realized that he and Lady hadn't actually spoken with each other in a little over three months, and hadn't seen each other face to face even longer, so this was definitely something to look forward to. He smiled to himself when he thought about Lady, she was really something. She was smart, clever enough to go toe to toe with Dante in a battle of insults and occasionally come out on top. Despite all the scars she bore on her body, she still retained all of her natural beauty, natural, because she never wore make up, always preferring to wear her face the way it was given to her, that was something Dante could respect. It was a shame that she had a stick surgically grafted up her ass, though. She would actually make a decent girlfriend if she could shake that thing. Dante laugh as he thought of the hypocrisy of Lady being, well, a lady.

Though as he thought about it, he never really was the type of guy to go for the pretty-little-lady facade before. Girls that required more maintenance than he did, was not something he could tolerate in this lifetime. It's wasn't like he was interested in Lady in that way, but from all the girls he had ever known, she was the only one he would have ever even gave a second thought to. They just 'clicked' a certain way together.

So caught in his thoughts he barely registered the sound of the, surprisingly, silent purr of a rapidly approaching motorcycle. He glanced at his clock for the fourth time in half an hour. 12:22 AM. Dante nodded, moderately impressed. "So, she got here in eight? Not bad, not bad at all." He mumbled to himself as he heard the engine cut. A moment later, his front door opened to reveal the very person he had been thinking about. "Long time no see, eh, Lady?" He said, trademark grin plastered on his face. She returned the smile.

"I suppose so." She looked around at his 'office' space and frowned. "Do you ever clean this place?" She looked at a strikingly familiar pizza box laying in the corner, long forgotten. "And I'm pretty sure thats been there since the last time I was here. . ."

Dante rolled his eye. "Not." Although it was possible that it was, he had never been much for putting any effort into cleaning, he was at least sixty percent sure that that was not there for three or more months. "What kinda guy do you take me for?" He winked at her, and just as he predicted she would, she rolled her eyes in response.

"You haven't changed at all, Dante." She chuckled with a shake of her head.

Dante rose from his seat behind his desk and picked up ebony and ivory before he began to twirl them on his fingers idly. "You know you love it." He said as he stuffed his guns into the custom fitted holsters strapped to his back.

"Whatever." Lady said, suddenly feeling 'bare' without Kalina Ann on her back. "Where are we going anyway?" Lady asked, wanting to bring the conversation away from Dante.

"To. A. Bar." Dante said slowly, pronouncing each syllable with extra emphasis. He knew what she meant, but it had been awhile since he got to mess with her like this. It was nice after so long. As he watched her glare at him, he offered another of his cheesy grins as he explained. "Where going to Bob's."

Lady raised an eyebrow at him. "Bob's?"

Dante gaped at her. "You don't know Bob's?" At her blank stare he only shook his head. "Bobby's Cellar?" Another blank stare. "Jeez Lady, and here you are calling yourself a demon hunter, and you've never even been to Bob's. That's just sad. . ."

"Shut up! So I've never been to some bar you frequent, big deal. With you slaking off all the time I have to pick up after you. Someone has to hunt down the demons you know?!"

Dante snorted and walked to his door. "Whatever, Lady. Let's go." After they walked out of his shop, Lady began to make her way over to her bike, but Dante stopped her. "Leave it, we're not going that far. Besides, the people we might run into will try to take your shit. Especially if it's nice."

"Like I'd let someone steal my bike." Lady said, arms crossed under her chest which made her breast bulge some. Dante's eyes were magnetically attracted to the newly exposed cleavage.

"I didn't say they'd get away, but that doesn't mean they wont try." He said after bringing his gaze back up to her face.

With a sigh Lady relented. "Fine, let's just go already."

Although Bobby's Cellar wasn't far from Dante's home/office, it wasn't particularly close either, a good ten minute walk or so. They walked together in silence for the most part, Dante would occasionally throw in a sly, semi-flirting comment that Lady would either ignore or insult him over, just like old times. Before long they were standing in front of the entrance to what Lady now knew to be the infamous 'Bobby's Cellar', and it wasn't much. They walked down the small flight of stairs to the door, there was no signs, no neon lights, nothing. It seemed that the only way to actually know that this was a bar was if you had been here before, there was no way to tell from the outside. Dante held the door open and motioned for her to enter, much to Lady's surprise. She thought that proper manners were completely lost on him.

The interior was just as shabby looking as the exterior. The walls were a dull brown with various stains littered all over them. The floors, like the walls, were also brown and was sticky from spilled beer, at least she hoped it was from spilled beer. Most if not all of the tables were occupied by people that had a look to them that just screamed 'I am a criminal', though it didn't matter anyway because Dante was leading her straight to the bar.

"Hey, Gregie!" Dante shouted to a tall bald man behind the bar. He looked up from wiping the counter top and regarded Dante with a smile. "How's my tab looking?"

"Damn fine." The man, Gregie, said. He nodded at Lady. "Who's yer girlfriend? I ain't seen her round here before."

Lady's face immediately twisted into one of pure disgust. "I am NOT his girlfriend!" Dante just chuckled and shook his head.

"She's in the business like me." Gregie nodded in understanding.

"I get ya. So whacha havin?"he asked.

Dante thought about it for a second. "Everclear. Raw."

Gregie looked at him like he had two heads. "Kinda early ain't it?"

Dante only shrugged. "You got it?"

"Well, hell yeah I got it. How bout you lady?"

Lady hadn't really been following the conversation, she had been too caught up in watching her back. This place just seemed so shady, like everyone was planning to pounce on them at any given second. When the bartender called her name, she looked at him suspiciously. "How do you know my name?" This only made Dante laugh and the bartender raise a brow at her.

"I ain't said a name. Pick yer poison lady." Gregie said.

"Oh. . .Well, just give me what he's having." Dante laughed even louder and Lady turned to scowl at him. "What?!"

Dante rose his hands up in mock surrender. "Nothing, I just remembered something funny, honest."

Lady frowned at him but shrugged it off. After a moment Gregie set two tall glasses on the counter and poured in a clear liquid from an unmarked bottle into them. After both glasses were full practically to the brim, the man looked to both Dante and Lady. "Now yer sure ya want that, right? Ain't no going back after the first sip, I tell ya!"

Dante only grinned. "I'm good. Though, the little Lady may want to reconsider." For Dante, the die had been cast, the challenge set. He knew Lady was never one to resist a challenge, and that was what made this entire situation priceless. She had no idea what was in store for her. Unfortunately for him though, neither did he.

The sun was way too bright that morning, and his body felt twice as heavy as it should have been. Dante didn't know what time it was, but he was sure that it had to be at least noon. His head was on fire and the previous night was a complete blur. He knew he and Lady had went to Bob's but he couldn't remember anything else for the life of him. He groaned slightly and began to rub his aching temples. Why was he this hungover? Everclear has a very small amount of sugar in it, and he took it raw! He sighed and dug the balls of his palms into his eyes before attempting to sit up.

He made it about half way before he fell back to his bed. His muscles were still to tired to support him just yet. "I am never drinking again. It's tomato juice and strawberry sundaes from this day forward. . .aw who am I kidding." He mumbled softly to himself and was immensely shocked when his sheets muttered back incoherently. For the first time he looked down to his body. He couldn't see what was under the sheets but the bulge on top of him was a clear indication that something or someone was under there, laying directly on top of him, which explained the extra weight.

The mumbling came again and this time the figure shifted, as if to get into a more comfortable position, and as it did, the very top of it's head poked out from under the sheet. Brown hair spread wildly across his bare chest and Dante had to resist the urge to shout. Didn't Lady have brown hair? He suddenly became aware of how warm her body was against his, almost like they were. . .skin to skin. Slowly, painstakingly slowly, Dante lifted the sheet over the figure and confirmed Dante's fears, both of them. One, the person was most certainly Lady, and two, she was indeed naked, and so was he.

"Oh damn. . ." He threw the sheet back over her body, breaking his line of sight from her. . .shapely. . .curvy. . .extremely sexy, "Goddamnit, what am I thinking?! Oh shit oh shit, what the hell am I going to do?" And then it happened. She began to mumble again a little more loudly. She shifted her weight again as she slowly stirred awake. Dante held his breath and hoped that it would some how make him invisible, though he knew it futile. She stopped moving for a second and Dante though that maybe she had went back to sleep, and he could try to sneak away, but his rotten luck with women held true. Her eyes suddenly snapped open and she immediately looked her gaze to his.

For several seconds they just lay there, staring at each other, until Lady's eyes widened in shook. "What the hell are you doing?!" She pushed herself away from him as fast as she could before looking down at her state of dress, or undress as the case may have been. She snatched the sheet from Dante and wrapped it around herself. Blushing madly she looked back to Dante and became suddenly aware of his state of dress. . .or rather undress as the case may have been. Her mouth fell open as she saw his. . .his. . .equipment hanging out in the open. Her face burned red and she whirled around to face the wall as Dante tried to find some clothes. "What the HELL are you doing?!" Lady shouted at him again.

"Hell if I know! I woke up like this, same as you!" He said franticly as he slid on a pair of boxer shorts. "I guess we got smashed and. . ." He didn't finish his sentence, he didn't have to.

Lady could only stand there in pure shook. They hadn't? No. . .they couldn't have. . .could they? She would remember something like that wouldn't she? She didn't say anything to Dante as she looked around trying to find all of her clothes that were scattered throughout - - she looked around for a moment and realized where she was - - Dante's bedroom. Scooping them up she left out of the room.

Dante heard her mumble something before she slammed the door to his bathroom shut. And all he could do was stand there, and wonder, did they. . .really do. . .it? After a moment he heard his front door open and slam shut followed by the sound of a motorcycle pulling out from his driveway. And with that, Dante was left to himself.

Written and Created by Archimedes III

Characters based on the characters from Devil May Cry