Wolfe: Next update! I don't know what else to say outside of that. *sweatdrop*

Disclaimer: I own nothing! Back! Back foul lawyers!!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

13- Disgusting

Patty gaped at the mess that was the Devil May Cry office. Pizza boxes stood in precarious towers here and there and pyramids of beer cans sat proudly on either side of the desk. Where the king of the most disgusting (in Patty's mind) kingdom, was fast asleep. He snored so loudly that she feared the beers cans would topple to the floor at any second and make her job all that much more tedious and annoying. She stormed up to the desk, broom and mop already in hand. She dropped the mop and raised the broom above her head, swinging it down hard and fast. Right onto the sleeping devil hunter's head.

Dante jerked awake with a shout, falling out of his chair with a resounding "Bang!" and Patty let a mocking smile spread across her face. In the years since she started cleaning the office she figured out that she needed to be able to fend for herself. And she had learned. And well, as Lady and Trish had told her. "I'm sorry Dante. Did I wake you?" Dante seemed to notice the vindictive note in her voice because he just blinked and stood, rubbing his aching...well everything now. "This is seriously the most disgusting thing I've ever seen in my life Dante! I go on vacation for two weeks and you manage to make the place look like a bunch of savages lives here." She continued to rant at him.

As he stared at her he said the first thing that came to mind. "I didn't think it was that bad." As she growled and raised the broom above head again, Dante couldn't help but think he really needed to learn how to keep his mouth shut.

14- Nosocomephobia

Creepy. That was the only word they could use to describe the wing of the hospital they were now in. Trish, Lady, Dante and Kyrie stayed close together as nurses eyed them warily as they searched frantically for the room number that would lead them to their injured friends. And enemy, if you were Trish and Lady considering they were here to see Vergil as well as Nero. Dante had been right. Trish had been able to limp out of the castle while assisting a barely-conscious Lady. Vergil had required assistance and had used Dante as a crutch(much to Vergil's chagrin, 'I am not that weak!') who had also been carrying the unconscious Nero in his arms. At first Dante had been worried by the amount of blood that was seeping from the wounds on the kid's back and the fact that his demon healing had not begun to close them.

But Trish had quickly deduced that the poison was probably preventing such an action. Which meant that Nero would have to be checked into a hospital so he could be stitched and bandaged up. But that's where the snag had been created. Nero had been rushed off to someplace further back in the hospital right away. But as the doctor had turned back around to tell them what was happening, he caught sight of Vergil and Lady. He'd demanded that they both be checked in right away, and Trish and Dante could tell that this sturdy old man of a doctor wasn't going to take no for an answer. Lady had agreed readily enough and was set up in the in-patient care ward for a night of observation.

Vergil had been more difficult. He'd stubbornly refused at first, trying to not let his fear show through his mask of petulance. But once Dante had stepped in as his next of kin and signed all of the necessary paperwork, he'd openly started to fight the doctors and nurses. Even though Vergil logically knew that he was no longer in the castle, the cold white interior of the hospital was reminding him. After fifteen minute of fighting and panicked refusal, Dante finally gave permission for them to sedate Vergil, having seen enough of his twin's terror. And that had been successful, even though the whole ordeal had resulted in bumps and bruises for the whole medical team, plus a black eye for Dante, who had jumped into the fray.

But as they crept into the shared room of Vergil, who was alseep, and Nero, who was still unconcious and on a nasal cannula, they all knew that they were leaving here with one thing only. A pathalogical fear of hospitals.

15- Money

"You still owe me Dante!" Lady shouted at him as she pounded the table harshly and glared at the other man across from her. Dante let the magazine slide off his face, much in his usual fashion, as he glared at her hotly. "And how do you figure that? Because I could have sworn that last time I took a job for you, you said it was payed off when the owner of that hotel gave us ten grand eachand you took most of it out right away!" He growled. "Yes, you were payed off. Until you broke my eight thousand dollar bike yesterday!" Dante winced. He was caught. And he'd covered the evidence so well too.

"What makes you think I crashed it and not some punk whole stole it or something?!" He questioned. He would not go back to working for her after he's just payed her off less than two weeks ago. "Because I found your wallet next to the remains of my flaming, brand-new Honda!" Busted! "Alright alright! So I took your bike! But it was so that old man's fault that we crashed! He had his power chair in the middle of the frickin' road! I couldn't see because of the car in front of me and I kinda.... rear-ended the car. But again, it was the old man's fault!"

Lady sighed heavily and angrily. "Damn you Sparda. Just....damn you." She sighed again as she pinched the bridge of her nose.

16- Safety

Vergil sighed wearily as he leaned back against the chimney of the Devil May Cry office, wincing and holding his stomach as he pulled on his many stitches. He had no idea what had attracted him to the roof, only that he'd been up here for a little over four hours now. Dante had come up twice to "make sure you hadn't fallen asleep" to which Vergil had given him a barely perceptible nod and returned to his star gazing. He'd been, well he guessed he could call it home, all things considering, for a little over a week now and by now he could already tell how certain people were going to treat him during his stay there.

Lady and Trish treated him with polite coldness or outright indifference. Kyrie treated him like a lost puppy that her family had adopted and, while he really didn't want her to, he found himself unable to protest her actions, for he knew that she meant well. Dante treated much the same as he had when they were younger, like a brother, teasing him but with his own subtle nudges here or there when the still tangible panic would set in. But that boy, Nero was his name, caught his interest. They'd brought him home from the hospital just two days ago and the boy had slept most of that time since then. But the times he had cast his gaze on Vergil, his eyes had been filled with alert curiosity and questioning.

Vergil was cast out of his reverie when thee subject of his train of thought hobbled over to where he sat, moving gingerly through the pain of his wounds. "Was wondering where you were." He heard Nero say quietly as he levered himself down and next to the other man. Vergil honestly didn't know what to think. No one but his brother had actually gone looking for him. But as Vergil began to, slowly and insecurely at first, converse with Nero, he found him to be a very good listener. So good, that Vergil accidentally let something slip he hadn't meant to. "I-I just haven't the slightest clue what this feeling could be. I figured that I would be jumping at every noise, every shadow I saw. And though I have been, it's not nearly as bad as I thought it would be." Nero seemed thoughtful as he stood again, staring at his Devil Bringer.

In a brilliant flash of blue and white light he had in his hand Yamato, in much the same condition it had been when he had first absorbed it. He laid the katana in Vergil's lap and his human hand on Vergil's shoulder. "I think you should have this back." With that said he turned and began to walk away. Just at the edge he stopped and, in a moment of insight, said; "Oh, the word you're looking for, is safety." With that said, Nero slid down the latter in Vergil settled back further on the chimney, Yamato in his lap.

Safety, what a wonderful feeling it really was.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Wolfe: Well there it is. More to come soon. A friend of mine suggested I do a side-story, focusing on the whole Vergil thing I've had going so far. Any suggestions? Until next time!