Title: Helpless
Characters:
Dante, Tess (OC), Roy (OC)
Word Count:
1.656
Summary:
"This isn't about you being human!" Dante barked, stomping closer to her. "This is about you not thinking before jumping in to fight a demon you can't handle! I can afford to be reckless-but not you! I was right there! Why didn't you call me to help you?"
Warnings:
Some mild language.
Disclaimer:
Devil May Cry and all related characters belong to Capcom. Original characters belong to me.


"Ow!" Tess tried to tug her arm from Roy's grip. "Ow-Roy, now you're just poking it on purpose!"

"Don't move!" the djinn protested. He tightened his grip around her wrist. "Keep your arm still, I'm not done!"

The middle-aged man shook his head, muttering irritably. His gaze looked nervous behind his narrow sunglasses and he put up his hand to lower them on his nose; he wanted a better look at the burn on the woman's shoulder. As the shades uncovered his eyes, they also uncovered the large scar that blighted his left eye-socket, sealing it shut. He dipped his fingers in a thick balm from a small jar on the coffee table and spread it over the nasty burn along the redhead's arm.

"Tess, this is not a simple burn; it's almost burned your skin off the muscles," he said strictly.

She looked away with a huff, shaking her head abruptly to move some of her hair off her face. She stared at the floor of Dante's office, green hues fixed on the floorboards and her lips pinched together stubbornly.

"Yeah, well, it'll heal. Not the first time I burn myself because my fire goes out of control," she said dryly, pulling her cut shirt up over her chest better. Roy had to cut the scorched sleeve open to expose her burned arm in order to take care of it, rather than hurting it more by trying to drag it through the sleeve.

Roy sighed, shaking his head at her perpetual stubbornness.

Dante was watching the whole scene from his desk, legs propped up on the surface with an irritated look on his face. He had that look from the moment he dragged her back to his office after that huge fire demon finally croaked it. She had protested, saying she could take care of her arm by herself but Dante had growled at her angrily and nearly hauled her back before he called her own familiar. He had told Roy to get himself to his office so abruptly that the shape-shifting djinn had nearly felt offended.

"Look, you're just fussing over nothing. It's just another burn," she told Roy.

She watched him wrap the large burn with a length of bandage. Her skin was red and blistered, and in places it was peeling and exposing raw under-skin. The splash-like pattern spread from below her elbow to a few inches below her shoulder. It looked very painful despite not being her first serious burn.

Dante scoffed at her comment. "Oh yeah, just another burn that you got from trying to stop a demon only four times your size, Twig."

"I could handle it," the witch snapped with a sharp glare. "I was doing fine, the burn was just an accide—ow!" she winced as Roy tied the bandage up.

"Yeah, the fuck you were," Dante snapped back, returning a scowl. "You were gonna get yourself barbequed."

"Save your breath, you suck at lecturing people," she interrupted. "I don't always need you to jump in and save me. I'm not some weak little girl, alright?"

Dante released a sarcastic scoff, as if mocking her statement. Roy rolled his eyes at her attitude and got up from the sofa. "Tess, you're not in the right this time," he said in a sigh and headed for the bathroom to wash the balm and disinfectant off his hands. "Dante's got a point. You're skilled, but you do have your limits. You're lucky he was there and things didn't get worse."

"Oh bite me!" she snapped, indignant that he was taking Dante's side. She got up and pulled her shirt upwards again to keep her chest covered. "This is just your usual shit about humans being unable to fight demons whatsoever! You're a fucking hypocri-"

Dante slammed his feet on the ground as he pushed the chair back from the desk and stood up angrily. "This isn't about you being human!" he barked, stomping closer to her. "This is about you not thinking before jumping in to fight a demon you can't handle! I can afford to be reckless—but not you! I was right there! Why didn't you call me to help you?"

His shouting startled her, but not nearly enough to stop her from answering. "I didn't need any help!" she shouted back.

"My ass you didn't!" he growled, glaring at her and gritting his teeth. "If I hadn't turned that corner and seen you, you would've been a pile of ashes now! You've got to get this into your head Tess: You're not invincible! You're a freakin' witch, I know you're good—but you're still no match for demons like that! For fuck's sake, do you have get yourself killed before your stubborn little head gets that?"

"I know my limits," she returned with a growl. "Nobody asked you to come running after me every time! I'm not made of glass, as you might think!"

He seemed angrier now than before. "Well fine! Next time I'm gonna let you get burned to a crisp or mauled to pieces or crushed. That'll keep you happy!" he snapped, throwing his arm up in an exasperated, angry gesture, turning away from her and pacing over to the window.

Tess returned the angry scowl and then looked away abruptly. She realized that he had a point, that she did have much smaller limits than him and trying to fight every demon in her path without help was stupid. But it really bothered her all the time. Tess bit her lips together in a frustrated, irritable manner; she hated troubling others with her affairs and she hated having to turn to him so often for help. Even though he was indeed there, just a few feet away while she faced down the massive fire demon, she still hadn't called for his help.

"I know I acted a bit stupid and I'm sorry for getting you upset—but that doesn't give you the right to lecture me," she said stubbornly. "Whatever, I'm going home."

She swiped her keys off the coffee table and stormed out of his office, leaving the door to swing shut slowly in her wake.

"Yeah, good riddance," Dante snarled, returning to his desk, as Roy emerged from the bathroom, wiping his hands in some tissue paper.

"Ah, heh-heh...she's gone off eh?" he half-asked, half-observed, tossing the crumbled tissues in the wastebasket.

"She's fuckin' stubborn. It's gonna get her killed someday," Dante snapped, landing in his chair and throwing his legs up onto his desk with loud thuds.

"Yes, that much I know," Roy sighed, picking the small jar and the disinfectant bottle from the table. "But you know how she is. She's going to fume about it all evening, but she knows you're right. Sooner or later she's going to call you just to mutter an apology and hang up, haha." He made a small, dismissive wave with his hand.

Dante snorted. "Yeah, sounds like her," he said. "Why's she always gotta be like this, old man?"

Roy chuckled, shrugging and pushing his glasses up his nose. "She can't help it. Not used to depending on others, not even me, and I've nearly raised her. She just hates the idea we might be leaving her behind so to say..."

Dante just scoffed again, shaking his head. "Sounds just stupid to me."

Roy cackled. "Stupid, yes. She's been like that since she was a toddler. Way before you met her, even. Remember the old neighborhood?"

Dante nodded. "Yeah. Rough ghetto, a really shitty place to live: Junkies, crooks and perverts in every corner." He gave a lopsided smile, remembering the old days with a certain fondness. "You know, before the demons rolled in and fucked it up even more."

"Yes, exactly. I think you remember how she used to be, a little stone-cold bitch."

"An understatement," Dante said heavily.

"Yes. Years before you showed up, there used to be more people living in the neighborhood, the building even. Used to be actual kids around. Tess always got into fights; I suppose she couldn't help it, being that different as she was. But same then as now; she'd never ask for help, never back down…"

"Sounds like her. Surprised you never killed any of 'em for that," Dante scoffed.

Roy waved his hand in a dismissive way. "Bah, I don't do that sort of thing. I used to shout at her, pretty much like you just did."

Dante scoffed, rolling his eyes and even Roy chuckled at the memory. "My God, I think about it now and it's almost comical. I'm sitting in the kitchen wiping blood and spit from her bruised face, this skinny little girl…She had this serious, icy look on her face—"

"The Tess look," Dante chuckled. "She's always had that."

Roy laughed. "Yes, you're right! I was telling her the same thing that you did. Ask for help when she needs it. But she just looked at me and said 'but this is my problem, why do I have to throw it on you?' Aah, I wanted to spank her then. She made me upset and then had the nerve to tell me she didn't like throwing problems at me…"

Dante just snorted, nodding. That was indeed Tess to a fault; her own silly pride. He understood it, because his pride made him do other, equally idiotic things but it still made him angry because she was a lot more fragile than him-and then he figured that she'd sooner kick him in the nuts than even let him think of that. "Always used to dealing with things on her own, huh?"

"You said it. Been like that since always," Roy sighed. "Well, I'll be going now; I think we both bothered you enough today."

Dante just shrugged, relaxing in his chair. "Whatever. Just keep her out of things until her burn heals. Tie her up if you have to—or I will. Not in the mood of having to scoop up her pieces if she gets killed."

Roy just smirked at him, waving over his shoulder as he shut the door behind him. Dante exhaled deeply, relieved that her burn was just a superficial one after all, and the whole storm had blown over.

Dammit Twig...don't know if you're completely crazy or you got a fuckin' death wish, he thought with a scowl. I hate it when you make me worry, crazy woman. And it always gets to me.


NOTE: It's an important part of Tess' character, to define that she is really human despite her powers, and that she really does hate it when people get loaded with her problems. But it's also an important flaw of her personality that she sometimes gets so sidetracked by that sense of independence and she'll go and do something stupid. I wanted to emphasize that somewhat stone-headed part of her character with this scene and how it makes others feel-particularly people who care about her.