I do not own Devil May Cry, its characters, Hollywood Undead or its song "Bad Town."

Nero slowly opened his eyes, surrendering to the morning light filtering through his blinds and glared daggers at his alarm clock.

Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he reached for the device's off switch with his free hand. After the cursed machine was quieted, he stretched out from the curled position he had woke in, folding his arms to rest behind his head. The high schooler lay still, staring at the lazily rotating ceiling fan, and mulling over the stray, groggy thoughts floating in his head. The vague light from the clock reminded him of the time. If he didn't hurry, he'd make himself late for class.

With a soft sigh, the sixteen-year old pushed himself up from the fluffy depths of his comforter. Nero slowly padded across the room, stopping at his dresser. He grabbed a pair of boxers, jeans, and a red shirt from the messy drawers before heading to the bathroom.

The teenager haphazardly tossed his clothes on the counter before stripping down and taking a fast shower, scrubbing at his hair and body with haste. After a few minutes, he turned the water off, stepping out to towel himself down and dress. Wiping away the layer of condensation on the mirror, Nero scowled at how utterly tired he looked.

He shook the excess water from his hair before toweling it half-dry. The high schooler tossed the towel in the general direction of the laundry hamper and didn't bother himself to pick up the discarded cloth when it missed. The teen exited the bathroom, turning off the light, and shuffled into his bedroom. He glanced at his bed-side clock and swore.

Nero rushed downstairs, slinging his backpack over his shoulder. The teen shouldered through the tight dining room where his foster father sat, reading the newspaper.

"Good morning, Nero."

"Yeah." Came the half-hearted mumble of a reply as he continued on past the kitchen to the front door.

"Honey, I made you breakfast."

Nero completely ignored his "mother" and stepped out. She watched his retreating back, frowning and wiping her hands gingerly on her brightly-colored apron as the door was carelessly slammed shut.

He trudged through the streets, in a particularly foul mood, with his hands shoved into his pockets.

"Nero!"

The teen slowly sought through the crowd for that sweet voice. He sighed in frustration, his features twisting into a frown. Where is she?

Suddenly a pair of arms wrapped around him from behind, startling him. He felt his heart slow considerably as the familiarity of the curves pressing warmly against his back settled in.

"Hey, Kyrie."

The brunette giggled, releasing her friend, "Good morning!"

He almost grimaced at her cheeriness, "Morning."

She was treading by his side now, smiling widely at him. The girl was really Nero's only friend. Even though he wished she'd- one day- become more than that, and the teen occasionally found himself laying awake, fantasizing of what they could be; he was fine with the status of their relationship now.

"So," He cleared his throat, "Why didn't Credo drive you to school this morning?"

Her beaming face had the high schooler adverting his gaze, a light blush dusting his cheeks, "I decided it wouldn't hurt to walk with you every now and then, so I asked him to drop me off at your house. You must get lonely, being by yourself the entire walk."

Nero swallowed with embarrassment, rubbing his nose. "Nah, it's not too bad."

He watched her bobbing pony-tail as she trotted in front of him, spinning around, "I won't be able to walk with you after school, though."

He quirked a brow, "Why?"

Kyrie's beam intensified, "I have choir practice this afternoon!" She paused, her glow suddenly muddied with worry, "Oh, you'll come, won't you, Nero?"

He nodded, promising, "Yeah, sure."

Once they arrived at the school, they parted, going to their separate classes.

Nero quickly went to his locker grabbing his World History textbook. At least it'd give his teacher one less thing to bitch at him about. The bell rang, causing the teen to curse under his breath as he rushed down the hallway.

The high schooler flopped into his desk with a sigh of relief, their teacher was late. After a few minutes of listening in on near by classmate's conversations, class started, and he nodded off.

Nero woke with a start- courtesy of the bell- gathering his things heading off to his next class.

For a Monday, everything was going pretty smoothly. He had successfully slept through Art and Spanish; he was going to try to work a bit in Algebra, but zoning out for a week and a half had gotten him completely lost on the material. He had sat with Kyrie and a couple of her friends at lunch, listening to their uninteresting gossip. Thankfully, they didn't have to do anything in gym, allowing Nero some time to himself to zone off and think. His sixth period was a computer class, which he couldn't stand. Technology wasn't the teens best friend, per see, and could be exceptionally boring. Alas, the day was still going fairly well, as his computer only froze up on him once. He had managed to not blow anything up or spill any dangerous chemicals in the chemistry lab, and in English he actually wrote his name on a blank page that was meant for literary work. Oops. There goes the zoning out again. Nero seemed especially good at doing that.

After school had ended, the teen found himself walking alone, suddenly missing his brunette companion. A smirk suddenly broke across his face, he had heard of a shortcut to his neighborhood through a near-by alley. Kyrie almost always walked home with him, and she was always too iffy of the idea to let him go that way, but now that she wasn't...
Nero scoffed, shrugging his shoulders, it sure didn't seem like it would hurt to go that way. For a moment he remembered his friend mentioning something about gangs. He dismissed it. Really, what harm could it do? It was probably just a rumor anyway. That was it then, his mind was made up. With that, he turned into the alleyway.

He plundered along the dirty, unpaved paths between the city's buildings. For being a shortcut, it sure did seem that it was taking a long time to get home. The teen was starting to loose his patience, almost ready turn around and go his normal route. He sighed, stopping in a littered lot. As he turned around to head back, he heard a small click. His heart started to pound, and he slowly turned to face two gang members. Panic flooded his senses when he realized what he heard had been a switchblade, which was now being pointed at him. Maybe if he had noticed the gangsters' slouchy posture and lazy demeanor, it would have been a bit less threatening.

"Are you a new member 'round here or somethin'?" The first slurred, dropping his weapon to his side.

The second wore a confused expression, "Does the boss even know 'bout you? There hasn't been any news of a new one..."

The teens hands were starting to tremble, he clenched his fists in a vain attempt to cease them. "H-Hell no, I'm not one of you!"

The blade was trained on him yet again. "Then you're tellin' me it's a complete coincidence that your on the Devil's territory, wearing our color, huh?"

Nero finally had the sense to take a close look at their clothes. Red.
His eyes slid to the other. Red.
To his horror, he glanced down, at himself:
Red.

A/N: ...I hope I can remember everything I wanted to say here. xD
My first serious multi-chapter fic. Hopefully it'll do me some good since all I seem to be able to write is drabbles lately. OTL
Sorry, I know this chapter is extremely slow and boring, but I promise- plot next chapter! The chapter titles are all based off of Hollywood Undead songs, as their song "Pain" inspired this. I really don't care for "Bad Town," but I really couldn't find a song that would relate to this chapter. I'll try harder for future chapters... Oh, and if you find any errors tell me, please! Expect an update, err, eventually. I have been lazy lately (Ultimate MvC3 is not helping!). After checking this over a couple times... I realized, why would Nero be worried about getting to class on time if he's just going to fall asleep anyway? I mean, it's knda ovbious he doesn't well, maybe he has too many tardies, who knows? :/
Yeah, M-Rated stuff comes with plot... later on. x]
If you didn't happen to notice, nothing's wrong with Nero's arm here. ;)

Thanks so much for reading! Please review! :3