This chapter is mostly character development and delves more into Dante and Nero's personal lives. I couldn't really(and didn't want to) skip doing this kind of a chapter, so to those who aren't interested in that kinda stuff, the next chapter has has more action content. Don't forget to tell me what you think of this chapter! It doesn't have to be this in depth analysis, just something to let me know you liked or disliked this chapter. I love reading what you guys think!
"I was kinda expecting blood all over the floor, guts hanging on the walls... Ya know, the way movies portray demonic rituals?" Dante pretended to be disappointed. He's come across enough cultists in his lifetime to know that Hollywood immensely overexaggerates for shock value.
"Maybe they're nice enough to clean up the mess they make."
Soon after the boys had discovered what the tunnel led to, a couple Order members came in behind them. "By Sparda, what is this...?" The elder of the two members commented.
"Well, I'm no expert, but I'd say some kind of cult worshiping area." Nero couldn't help but add in some sarcasm. After all, the combination of items in the area made it pretty obvious what the place was used for.
"Everybody search the room for anything identifiable as to who might have done this and why." He ignored Nero's smart ass remark, likely because he's used to it and knows not to indulge him by reacting.
They scoured the area for anything useful. Samples of the long-ago burnt remains of frankincense and sage were taken, though the water was left undisturbed, it was clear it was simply water that had been prayed over. At first it seemed like there was absolutely nothing else in the room. There were no false walls or floors, no identifying marks on the statue, nothing. Then, Dante spotted something shiny just barely poking out from the ground near the statue. Kneeling down, he brushed away the dirt covering and surrounding the object with his hands, soon finding that he had uncovered a gold-colored necklace chain. After some more digging, he found what the chain was attached to. It was a crucifix amulet attached to a chain. The crucifix was made of gold with the crucified Jesus on one side, much like any other crucifix. It's design was simple and otherwise unremarkable. Standing up, Dante lifted the amulet from its dirt grave to study it better.
"Hey, come look at this." He said, causing the others to immediately stop whatever they were doing to come and observe Dante's findings.
"What's a crucifix doing in a place like this?" The elder member wondered out loud. He collected the amulet from Dante, with his permission, and placed it within a sealed plastic baggie. "Looks like we'll have to do paperwork night another day." His statement was followed with an audible sigh of relief from Nero. "Instead, we're going to figure out what exactly this place is."
"What do you mean? It's just a place where crazy demonic cultists worship. What's the big deal?" Nero hated doing paperwork, but the idea of wasting his time on something that isn't that important wasn't appealing either.
"Nero, are you not in the least bit curious to find out why this place reeks of evil, yet there's a crucifix buried in the ground? That doesn't sound odd to you?" The place did have an unusual, unexplainable aura about it that didn't inherently seem dangerous, but it was a tad bit unnerving.
"Well, yeah... but-" "It's either this or paperwork. You can either help us try to find out if this place is anything special or you can do paperwork. Your choice."
Nero crossed his arms and pouted like an angry child who didn't get his way. "Fine."
Dante watched the dispute with amusement. Nero is generally very adult-like, but occasionally he'll show that he's still a teenager. These slip ups were usually pretty entertaining. "Aw, don't worry kid, I'll help ya out."
"Thanks.." He muttered seemingly sarcastically, but was actually really thankful somebody else would be helping. More people helping means less work each person has to do.
"We should get back to headquarters. The quicker we get started, the quicker we finish." The elder member swiftly went back into the tunnel to leave without getting the opinions of the others first.
"God, he can be so anal. Do this, do that…" The younger, named Jack, commented. "C'mon, if we don't hurry he might get pissed and cover up the entrance." With that being said, they all began their ascent back to civilization.
It took a while to get back to the surface, and even longer to get to headquarters. However, once they got there, they were immediately greeted by stacks upon stacks of books that gave off a nasty mold smell.
"Perfect timing. This crucifix looks like it's been in the ground for quite a while, so I pulled out all the books the Order has dating at or before 100 years ago." The elder member had just sat down one of the stacks of books that are in the center of the room. How he got back here so quickly and had time to find all these books before they got here was a mystery to the others.
"Ugh.." Nero groaned with disgust at the odor the books put off. "We can't find out a more precise date? It'll take forever to read through all these books."
"I tried, but gold doesn't show age like other metals. So I just had to go off of what the crucifix itself looks like. It's design is older, at least 100 years I'm guessing, but figuring out just how old is almost impossible."
Nero picked up one of the books topping one of the stacks, flipping through it briefly. "Guess we outta get started then.." He had finally accepted that there was no getting out of this. He sat down on one of the sofa's in the room as he began reading. The room looked as though it's the Order's "hang out" area. It had a few sofas, chairs, a tv, and other objects you'd expect in an area meant to be relaxing. Nero was soon joined by Dante, with a book in hand, on the sofa. The others grabbed a book of their own and settled into their own spots.
"What's up with you? You've been really quiet." Nero conversed as he read.
"You do enough talking to talk for the both of us. No need for me to say anything if everybody's having to focus on your jabbering, eh?" Dante smirked.
Nero, without having to look at him, knew he was smirking and punched the side of his arm as punishment. Dante rubbed his arm, pretending as though it actually hurt, though he still had a smug look on his face.
"Violent and a chatty Cathy." He flinched as Nero raised his arm again, but Nero seemed to have a change of heart and put his arm back down. Instead, he had settled on briefly glaring a playful warning at Dante.
Read books were tossed into their own pile carelessly, away from the unread books. Nobody was fully reading anymore, that idea was given up long ago, now they were just skimming to get a brief idea of the book's contents. If it mentioned nothing useful, it was tossed aside. Hours ticked by until it was dusk. Other Order members had come and joined their binge reading session as word spread around of their discovery. At some point, Kyrie had come into the headquarters building. Nobody realized this until plates full of delicious, home-cooked food suddenly started appearing in front of them.
"You made us dinner?" Nero had torn himself away from reading to look up at the woman standing beside him, her having just placed a plate of food on the coffee table in front of him.
"Of course. I figured you would all be busy, so the least I can do is make sure you don't go hungry." Her smile that she often wore as she spoke was drenched with innocence.
"Thanks." Nero returned her smile with his own. He turned his attention to the food in front of him.
"Don't exhaust yourself with reading, okay?" Her tone was liked a worried mother speaking to her child as she gently stroked his bangs out of his face. She bent over and kissed Nero's cheek, and, before leaving the building, gave him a goodbye smile. He, still smiling, waved her off and watched her leave, like some sort of lovestruck puppy.
"Oooooo!" The handful of Order members who had apparently been watching cooed at Nero with knowing smirks the very second Kyrie left. Dante had also been watching and was also smirking at him, but did not partake in the cooing.
Nero, who had forgotten he wasn't alone, looked around at the others. His face flushed when he realized he really wasn't alone. "Oh shut up." He managed to murmur, though clearly incredibly embarrassed as he downcast his eyes, grabbing the plate off of the table and moving it onto his lap to preoccupy himself from his embarrassment.
"No need to be embarrassed, Nero! You should feel proud that you're finally getting laid." Jack teased, purely just to make him more embarrassed.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! It was just a kiss!" He began fidgeting in his embarrassed state, messing with his fork more than what was necessary.
As Dante watched him, he realized just how adorably cute Nero looked whenever he became flustered. He looked like a school girl trying to talk to her crush while fumbling over her words and refusing to look him in the eyes. Wait, cute? No, that can't be the right word... He looked child-like. Yeah, that sound better.
Jack eyed Nero with suspicious looks. "Are you telling me you two have been together for three months and the most you've gotten is a kiss?"
"My personal life is none of your business." He defended, suddenly becoming very interested in only looking at his food while he ate.
The room fell silent for a minute. "Oh, shit, you're still a virgin! Oh Nero, why didn't you tell us before? We can help you, you know! We're here for you, buddy!" Jack didn't actually care if Nero does or doesn't have a sex life, but, considering their friendship, he couldn't just let something like that slide without some playful teasing.
"Help me? What the hell are you going to do, stand in the corner and cheer me on?" This statement actually surprised everybody into silence. Nero? Joking about 'intimate activities'? Impossible. "Besides, she wants to get married first. I'm not going to argue with that. And I don't really mind waiting anyways."
"Really? Not at all? Are you sure you're a teenage boy?" Another member, Willow, chimed in. He seemed to be older than Nero.
Having had finished his meal, Nero leaned back into the couch with his arms crossed defensively. "Not really. I don't want to turn into this guy." He gestured his thumb towards Dante.
"Huh-? What did I do?" Dante was genuinely confused. He had taken an odd interest in listening in on the conversation and wasn't really prepared to be thrown into the conversation himself.
"If he's not hunting demons, he's chasing women. I mean, I'm sure um-" He cleared his throat nervously. "-the experience is enjoyable, but I don't want it to take over my priorities."
Dante laughed at this. A genuine laugh, not a sarcastic one like usual. "Aw, you wound me kid. You really think I run around that much?" He spoke rhetorically. "I haven't even done anything in over three months. I mean, I know I'm gorgeous, but I do have things I have to do that aren't women."
"Three months? Wow. No time or all the good ones left town?" It was Jack who spoke up this time.
"Nah, just haven't been very interested lately. Not sure why."
"You? Not interested? Has Hell frozen over?" Nero had gotten past his own embarrassment by now and decided picking on Dante would help him recover his pride. "Maybe your old age is catching up with you."
"Hey, I'm still in my prime! But ya gotta take breaks every now and then. You can't be a lady killer all the time, ya know."
Nero just shook his head in disbelief as he chuckled. Within a few minutes, with all the food devoured, everyone now having empty plates and full bellies, they had resumed their original task of reading.
It was now 1 am. Most of the Order members had passed out by now, unable to read even another sentence. The ones still awake were fighting a losing battle with sleep as their eyelids constantly drooped down, only to suddenly open again with a start.
Nero was no exception. He kept finding himself slouching over to his side as his eyes blurred the text he was reading incomprehensively. Once he realized what he was doing, slipping into sleep, he would suddenly sit up straight and continue reading like nothing happened. Within a few minutes of him trying to fight off the urge to sleep, Nero had fallen asleep sitting up. His body, unable to go against gravity now, slowly slouched towards its side. Though, an object blocked his body from actually falling onto his side and, instead, he slouched onto the object. Nero had woken himself up a bit from the impact and figured the couch's arm rest had caught him. Too tired to fight back sleep anymore, he resigned to cuddling up to the arm rest to at least make sleeping in this position a bit more comfortable.
Unknown to Nero, that 'arm rest' was actually Dante's side. Another thing unknown to Nero is that Dante was still awake. He was more than used to staying up late, so he had no issue being awake at 1 am. Dante had watched as Nero had fought sleep and watched as he gave in and fell onto his side, his head on Dante's shoulder. At first Dante was going to wake him up so Nero could lay down onto the other side of the couch instead of on him, but figured waking him up in his sleep-deprived state would only piss him off. Besides, being cuddled up to felt kinda nice.
I should mention that these Order members can get a bit crude. I figure a bunch of guys who specialize in killing things won't have the most innocent of minds. No offense is meant if something does offend somebody.
