"Hazel, you need to sleep. We just came back from hunting demons a few hours ago and you've been reading the entire time, plus the car ride home."

"I'm fine, Vergil." She said waspishly. Over the past two weeks, she had been obsessing over that damned book.

Vergil frowned and whished again that it was in his power to be able to read spell scripts as well as he could Demonic or English. "What's even in that book that's so riveting?" He sat down on the couch next to her, gently scratching Noah's head.

Hazel sighed and placed her marker in it before carefully placing the book down. It was a book of pictures off of the walls of ruins, most of which were glyphs or sigils that held meaning in the arcane language. "It's a history of how the different species came to wield magic. I'm not surprised that the Greeks knew about it all, considering they were obsessed with building the perfect man an all that." She sighed and Noah climbed out from under Vergil's touch and onto Hazel's lap, rubbing his head against her in an affectionate manner. "Why I've been obsessing is because the writing isn't clear. These are bad pictures and the writing worn anyway."

"We can find better pictures."

"I'm not sure if that'll help any." Hazel sighed and ran a hand over her cat. "It's not like regular reading, you know? I can't really do a translation of it, it's more along the lines of a…" She scratched at the side of her head, ruffling the strands that were starting to grow out. "Like a transfer of knowledge. A picture of that… doesn't hold the same magic, forgive the pun."

"So you think you need to go to the ruins and see them?" He asked and she nodded, before rubbing at her eyes. "Alright," Vergil stood and pulled her up gently by her arm, the cat jumping off before it fell to the floor. "You go to bed, I'll see to booking the travel. It may be that the walls were excavated, but they were of little historical importance, so I doubt it. But you need to go to bed."

"Alright," Hazel resigned and scooped up her cat, walking to her room. She walked back into the living room a moment later, still holding the whelp of a kitten under her chin. "Thank you, Vergil." She smiled at him before going back to her room, the door closing gently a few moments later.

V***V

"Dante," Vergil began stoically when the phone was picked up.

"Uh, no." Lady replied before yawning. "He's upstairs sleeping still. I'm just about to head out, I have to do a job today."

Vergil swallowed a sigh. "Just as well, I'll be over there soon enough anyway."

"Alright. Another time, then." Lady said distractedly and hung up the phone.

"So what's going on?" Hazel replied while turning onto the highway off of Vergil's street.

"Lady informed me that Dante was still asleep."

"Oh. Why was she over?"

"I didn't ask."

"Do you think they're going together?" Hazel asked in a conspiring tone.

"You want to sink down to Dante's level with idle gossip?"

"Um… yeah. We all know that Dante flirts with anything female. And they've been best friends for what like ten years?"

"She was probably just getting an address for a job."

"Right." Hazel tapped out a beat on her steering wheel. "What's the speed limit? Sixty?"

"Fifty five." Vergil corrected.

"Right…" Hazel chewed on her lower lip. "Dante is going to tease us endlessly about this."

"I am unconcerned. Dante always manages to find something about which to prattle on endlessly."

"Well, yeah, I guess." The silence hung in the air for a few minutes. "What if this doesn't even work?"

"Then we will be out of a potential information source and will have to find other ways to gather the in tell we need."

Hazel rolled her eyes at him, but otherwise the drive continued on silently. She pulled the car over in front of the shop and then stuck her head out the window, almost climbing through it. "I think I'm double parked." She climbed back in and sat down. "I'm definitely double parked," She sighed and fixed the car before putting it into park and climbing out.

"I still don't understand why you insist on driving." Vergil caught the keys she threw to him. "You're not good at it. And if you were to be pulled over, you don't even have a license."

"So why do you let me drive?" Hazel asked as they were walking into the shop.

"Because the risk is worth quelling you of your inane prattle," Vergil answered and looked about. "It appears as if Dante is still sleeping."

"I'll go get him." Hazel offered and climbed up the stairs. She knocked on Dante's door lightly, before calling out. "Dante? You have to wake up now." She waited three counts. She didn't hear any response, so she opened the door, wondering how Dante was such a heavy sleeper with his heightened senses. Hazel walked over to the bed and placed a hand on his shoulder, gently shaking. "Dante, wake up. Vergil and I need to talk to you." She shook him harder. "Dante!" She called out loudly.

In a flash, Dante was up, striking a knife into her stomach. The iron of the blade punctured through Hazel's spell that she threw up sloppily. She held a hand to her stomach as Dante cursed and gave an apology, shouting for Vergil. Hazel pulled the blade out, it fell out of her with a sick wet sound and she held both of her hands to her stomach, her glyphs glowing through her shirt and her eyes slowly starting to turn black as she muttered a spell. Her glyphs on her stomach cut out as her hands started to burn in a soft pink light. Soon enough she wasn't bleeding. Vergil handed her a green orb and she drank it even though she knew that it wasn't necessary. It was the first time she had used a healing spell of any nature and was grateful that Dante had missed her kidneys.

"How did you know to do that?" Vergil asked her while gently touching where she had been stabbed, her glyphs were returning and the skin was smooth, leaving no trace of what had happened even before she took the orb.

"I had read about the spells before, but it never seemed to make any sense to me. I guess it's like how I needed to get cold before fire and ice would make sense to me. I needed to get hurt in order to heal."

"I'm uneasy about how much of this is instinct versus how much you can legitimately explain."

"Well you can't explain any of it, so I'm still ahead of you, Vergil."

"I wasn't the one who was just stabbed, so perhaps you're the one behind." Vergil flicked his eyes up and down, eyeing her and trying to quell to anxiety that hit him whenever she was hurt. "Go downstairs, Dante and I will be down in a minute."

Hazel's face contorted at the quick change of subject, but she just shrugged and walked away, rolling her eyes at the ever less than pleasant Vergil. "The fuck is this all about?" Dante asked as he pulled on a tee shirt.

"Why did you strike her?" Vergil made his point known as soon as he was sure Hazel was out of ear shot.

"I was having a bad dream and she woke me up." Dante rehashed the story quickly. He hated that his first instinct was to kill, but at least he wasn't successful. "You didn't think I did it on purpose did you?" Dante looked over his shoulder at Vergil while jumping into his jeans. "She's weird and can be kind of annoying- but she helps us. And even if she didn't, she doesn't harm people, bro. Put your protection away, she probably wouldn't like it anyway."

They made their way down the stairs, seeing Hazel pluck at the blood stain on her shirt idly while lounging on the couch. "Hey." She saw them and sat up, making room for Vergil as Dante took a seat in the chair across from her.

"Yo. Sorry again for stabbing you." Hazel shrugged. "Anyway, what're you guys doing here? You need a job or something?

"No, nothing like that. We think we may have a lead on more information about the ritual that gave me magic."

"Cool, where is it?"

"Greece." Hazel answered simply. "So we're going to Greece- we're not sure how long we'll stay, but at least a week. The ruins are rather large and the script small, so it will take some time for me to read it all."

"Why don't you go by yourself?"

Hazel shot out a teasing smile. "Vergil is worried about me."

"When you the study the language, you go into a trance. You forget to eat or sleep and you are easy to sneak up on. You are likely still being hunted and it is Dante and I who hold them off. To leave you alone in such circumstances would end disastrously for you."

"Yeah, yeah." Hazel waved a hand at him. "Anyway, we're leaving in a few days. Do you think you could watch Noah?"

"Is that the cat you found?"

"Yeah."

"Uh, okay, I guess. I'll try to keep him away from the weapons."

Hazel's easy smile fell off. "If you let my cat get hurt while he is under your watch, I will hunt you down and hurt you, Dante." She said in a dark tone, her eyes level with his.

"…Okay, then. I'll keep the little guy safe while you two go off and play in ruins." Dante answered dutifully. "When are you two leaving?"

"This Friday." Vergil spoke up. "If she requires more than a week to finish her reading, the flight we'll take will be in three weeks."

"You're just going to stand around looking at walls the whole time?" Dante gave a small chuckle. "Have fun. Are you gonna be able to call me?"

"If we require extra time, we will contact you."

"Alright, enjoy your honeymoon" He said with a goofy grin, expecting a quick and witty retort from one or both of them. Vergil shifted his lapel and cleared his throat while Hazel blushed slightly and looked towards the window and decidedly away from Vergil. The teasing comment was meant to annoy one or both of them, but the reactions made him think there was some truth to it. "Hey, Vergil, are you looking for a quick job before you go?" A few things had hit his desk that needed to be dealt with.

"I'll see what you have." Vergil stood and walked over to the desk and shuffled through Dante's notes.

"They're all pretty low-key. If you wanted to go and come pick Vergil up once he has the information, they're nothing exciting." Dante walked over the desk as he spoke to Hazel over his shoulder, wondering if the obvious ploy to get his brother alone would work.

"That's not a bad idea." Vergil answered while looking at the desk. "You have some errands to run that would be trivial to take me on. You'll find the keys in my jacket pocket."

Hazel bit the lower corner of her lip and raised half an eyebrow at the two. "Okay. I'll be back in about an hour. Does that work for you Vergil?" Vergil looked up at her and gave a small smirk and nod to portray his consent. "Okay. Bye, I guess." Hazel got the keys from Vergil's pocket and Dante noticed that Vergil's eyes flicked to her for a moment when she wasn't looking.

"Are you two fucking?" Dante asked after he heard the car pull away.

"…no." Vergil responded uneasily and hesitantly.

"But you want to be." Dante asked his brother and was unsurprised when Vergil looked back to the notes about a case.

"Why must you be so crass?" Vergil asked after clearing his throat, a light blush beginning on his ears.

"Because I'm fucking right." Dante laughed slightly as he laid down on the couch. "She is pretty cute, so I'll give you that. And she's smart, too. Aww, Verge, I hope you two are happy together."

"Shut up."

"She likes you too, ya know."

A moment stretched out as Vergil took the seat behind the desk. "How can you tell?"

"Because I'm a fucking genius." Dante laughed. "No, it's pretty obvious if you know how to look. She sat up for you just now, or she got all embarrassed when I teased you two. She probably sits close to you and maybe even touches you a lot." Dante saw his brother scowl at him. "I didn't mean like that, thought that does happen to be another give away. I mean like your hand or arm, maybe your knee?"

"Yes… I suppose she does."

"Right, she doesn't touch Lady like that and she sure as hell doesn't with me."

Another few minutes went by, Vergil processing the information as he shuffled around Dante's notes. "So what do I do about it?"

"You could kiss her. Or fuck her." Dante sneered. "Wait… you have been with a woman before, right?"

Vergil played with his lapel again. "Yes. Once when I was very, very, drunk right after we partnered up. And another time a year or so back."

"You dog." Dante teased. "Well, so you wanna go for that with Hazel, or do you wanna have a relationship and all that?"

"We are already friends, I believe."

"You know that's not what I mean, bro." Dante watched his brother sigh and lean forward on the desk. "All right, I won't make you say it." He intervened after a moment. "Look, I don't have the best of luck with women, but from what I understand, it starts out with friendship. Lady or Trish could give you better advice."

Vergil leveled a glare at his brother. "You will not tell anybody about this."

Dante held up his hands. "Alright, fine." A few tense moments passed. "Maybe kiss her on your trip. Try to be gentle- she's had too many demons force themselves on her, and you don't want to be another one of those or scare her off. Do something romantic or sweet, and then lean in and plant one on her. It's cheesy, but it'll work."

"And if it doesn't?"

"It will, dude. Trust me. You have to admit I've been with a lot of ladies."

"You admitted less than ten minutes ago that you're not the luckiest with women."

"Well, sometimes, it's less about luck and more about fate."

V***V

Hazel had been gone for exactly sixty-three minutes when Vergil started to check his phone. After two minutes of watching the numbers move, he called her. "Hey, what's up?"

"You said you would be gone for an hour."

"I said about an hour. What is Dante really that bad? You volunteered to hang back, don't resent me for that."

"I can resent who ever I choose to resent." Vergil said in a playful voice.

"Oh, you're not nearly as grumpy as I expected, did you beat Dante into his floorboards?"

"Somehow, I've resisted the nagging urge."

"Hah. Well hold out for a little longer, I should be back in ten minutes."

"Alright."

"See you soon." She said cheerily before hanging up. When she pulled up in front of the shop, Vergil was outside waiting for her. "What did you get bored?"

"I heard you coming down the street." Vergil corrected. "I have a job to do tomorrow."

"Just you?" Hazel sounded mildly disappointed.

"Yes. It'll be quick. I would like you to take the day to pack all of your things. Bring enough clothes for three weeks and make sure that Noah will be ready to go on Friday."

"Yes, yes, I'm not a child, Vergil. I know how to pack for a trip."

Though Hazel indubitably did know how to pack, they were still scrambling that morning. Noah was hiding under Hazel's bed, clawing at the carpet and shaking. Hazel herself was an odd mixture of excited and nervous, unable to stay still or hold her hand out straight.

"Vergil, it's no use. He's not coming out, what do we do?" Hazel called down the hall to him. Vergil walked in quietly and lifted her bed easily with one hand. "Oh." She picked up the fluffy little kitten. "Thanks, Vergil." She walked away, cooing to the cat as she got into the car.

By mutual agreement, Hazel was too shaky to drive, so she instead soothed Noah the whole ride. "Poor, baby. I got so excited; he's probably all wound up. He's knows I'm leaving, too." Hazel kissed him on the head and Noah kneaded into her shoulder. "I wish we could have taken him."

"I wish you would stop babying him. Perhaps being away from you will turn the creature into a noble beast of his lineage."

"Oh shut up. He is still a baby, you know, I'm allowed to coddle him." Hazel ran her hand down him. "His little heart is beating so fast." She pulled Vergil's non-occupied hand from the console and put a finger against the cat's chest.

Vergil ignored that his hand was also pressed against her chest, and instead scratched the cat atop his head when Hazel let go of his hand.

V***V

"Do you really think Noah will be okay? I mean, Dante isn't the most nurturing person in the world, you know. Or what if he gets sick? He was very worked up on the way over there. Noah is normally such a calm cat. He's actually rather lazy." Hazel added with a chuckle. "I've tried to play with him before, but most of the time he just prefers to cuddle."

"Noah will be fine. He'll get over any anxiety. Lady stops by nearly every day, she'll make sure that Dante feeds him. And if Noah is wanting for attention, he'll bug Dante enough with his meowing. It won't be so terrible."

"Well, the next trip we take, we're bringing the little guy with us." Hazel crossed her arms and leaned back into the seat.

As the minutes turned into hours, Hazel's adrenaline ebbed away, leaving her tired. She nodded off once, only to snap back awake when her head lolled. "Vergil," she began quietly. "Is it okay if I put my legs on your lap? I was going to try and catch a nap."

Vergil nodded and Hazel folded up the arm rest before awkwardly shuffling until her head was on the seat and her legs were on Vergil's lap. She curled up into herself and fell asleep quickly. "Hazel," he said quietly to her and shook her shoulder gently. "Hazel, you need to wake up, we'll be landing soon."

She lifted her head groggily and blinked at the lights. "Why do I have your coat?"

"Your marks were glowing and you were shivering. Sit up now, we're landing and the flight attendant said you need to buckle in."

"Right." She sat up and buckled in before placing his jacket over her once again, the marks still glowing through her shirt. "If I had really thought about it, I would have worn an undershirt."

"No harm has come of it." Vergil dismissed.

"I am rather excited. The more I think of it, the more sure I am that this will help. With something, at least, you know?"

"Yes. When we land, we're going to check in at the hotel and then we can go down to the ruins. The walk should take us less than hour."

"Or we could go get food and then go to the ruins."

"…Alright."

"I don't suppose you know Greek, do you?"

"Conversational- or enough to get by for this week."

Hazel smirked at him, "You learned Greek just for this trip?"

"The alternative was to rely the locals to translate, which would be rude and foolish."

"Right. I just… I don't know, I just find it amusing."

The first few hours of their time in Greece were utterly uneventful, save for a tasty meal that made Hazel rethink her stance on lamb. When they finally got to the ruins, Hazel squealed in delight and walked to the far left side. "They're not in terrible condition. The writing is a little cramped, however. This is going to take me a while."

"We have a while for you to take." Vergil took a seat at one of the benches and began reading a book.

"I just hope poor Noah is okay with Dante for that long."

V***V

Noah and Dante's First Day

Dante was writing down finances for the records when Noah jumped onto his desk. Noah stretched on the records and meowed loudly. "Shut up, cat." Noah rolled onto his side and blinked twice before meowing again. Dante shut the book before Noah could scratch it or anything as Noah sat up and stared at Dante. "What do you want?" Noah meowed again. "I already gave you food and water." Noah meowed once more.

Dante leaned back in his chair and stared at the cat, wondering how Vergil hadn't killed it. Noah pounced onto Dante's chest and pressed his face to the half-devil's nose. He started to purr loudly and knead into Dante before the hunter scratched him gently behind the ears. "Ya know, most animals just hiss or bark. A lot of them run away." Noah purred louder. "I guess, you live with another half devil and you're owned by a witch, so you don't balk easily, huh?" Noah put his head in Dante's neck and fell asleep. "What a weird little guy." He said while he started to pat him.

Later, Lady would walk in to see Dante snoring away in his chair with unfinished paperwork and Noah basking in the sunlight on a windowsill.

V***V

"So apparently, magic for humans is a genetic trait. Not everybody can sense it, and fewer can wield it. It can go through a bloodline for generations before it sparks up again, terrible pun intended. It's said a couple of times that it's dying out. I'm hoping there's going to be something about waking the latent magic in a bloodline, but I haven't found it yet."

"Four days and that's all you can say?"

"Well… I'm only like two fifths done with it. I'm taking notes, and I can give you a list of everything I've learned, but unless you wanna talk for four days, I can't help you." Hazel answered through the bathroom door. She poked her head out, her body covered by the door and a towel. "Do you think those archaeologists are going to be there again? Because honestly, I was only at like half capacity yesterday."

"Well then, I hope they aren't." Vergil responded dryly as she ducked back into the bathroom.

"Oh, you're trying to translate these, too. Good luck, I've been here for a month. The university has been here for three months, and we've not even started with the words yet." Hazel said in a mocking tone. "I was half-tempted to start reading it aloud, but then they would only ask more bloody questions."

"If you'd like, I could knock them out for you." Vergil finished packing them a lunch and smiled when he heard her chuckle.

"Maybe that'd best. We'll see."

V***V

Dante and Noah's Sixth Day

"Hey, bro." Dante picked up the phone. "How's Hazel doing with her research?"

"She's making headway, but we are going to stay for another two weeks."

"Alright. Tell her Noah is an ass. He just follows me around meowing all day. I think he just likes to fuck with me."

"She dotes upon the creature, he likely misses his mistress."

"Well be safe. Remember humans can break easily, and all that." Dante was answered by Vergil hanging up the phone. "Looks like we're stuck with one another for another two weeks." Dante poked the white ball of fur of his desk as he pulled on his coat.

As Dante was walking out of the door, Noah ran outside. "Oh shit. Cat. Noah. Come back here." Dante tried to catch him, but the cat was too quick and too small for Dante, even with his advanced reflexes. Noah ran out of his line of vision and then Dante was left scanning the area and trying to pick up the scent of cat. Unluckily, he reeked of the beast and it was raining outside, leaving only tiny hints of the smell.

An hour later with no luck, Lady pulled in to see Dante looking frantically through the area. "What the hell are you doing? We were supposed to meet at the bar over an hour ago, Dante."

"I was held up waiting for Verge to call me, and then the stupid cat ran outside, and I can't find him."

"Why the fuck did you let him outside, Dante?"

"I didn't see him until he was already out."

"You're telling me that you were bested by a fucking kitten? Oh, this is too good." Lady laughed.

"It's not funny."

"It really is, though."

"You're a dick."

"And you're a dumbass." Lady countered and placed a hand on her hip. "Did you try luring it with food?"

"No."

"Well, what does he eat?"

"Whatever I'm eating. And cat food."

"Well put some at food on the step, he'll be back." Lady went back to her bike.

"Wait, no. You have to help me find him."

Lady sighed dramatically. "Fine, but when we reschedule our drinking night, you're buying the fucking booze."

"Deal." Dante usually paid anyway, Lady bringing up all the stupid things he owed her for.

It was Lady who found the cat, covered and half-burrowed in mud by where Dante used to have plants. "Hey, is this the cat?" Lady held him gently against her chest and Noah meowed pitifully and cried. "Aww, poor guy."

"Hey, he ran out here." Dante walked over. "Yeah, that's definitely him. Stupid little bastard." Lady smacked him in the chest. "Hey, what was that for?"

"Look how scared he is, you monster." Lady walked back to the porch. "It's okay, we'll clean you up."

V***V

Hazel's eyes were straining to read in the low light. She rubbed at them more and more as the sun began to set. "Hazel," Vergil gently placed a hand on her lower back. "We'll come back tomorrow, let's go back to the hotel."

Hazel leaned into his touch slightly. "Alright." She sighed reluctantly. As the path got darker, she lightly rested a hand on Vergil's arm, still unaccustomed to the rocky path even after two weeks. When they got to the beach, Hazel dropped her hand and turned to the water. "Look how pretty it is." The stars were starting to show as the last of the sun disappeared, throwing the water into golds with specks of diamonds. "It's supposed to be a full moon, right?"

"Yes."

"Let's go swimming," Hazel offered on a whim, her green eyes shining with the idea.

"We should eat."

"Fine. But we should eat outside, it's so nice out."

"Alright. The restaurant next to the hotel has an outside deck."

"Perfect, let me go run up to our room and change and I'll meet you there in five, okay?"

Vergil smiled slightly at her enthusiasm. "Go ahead, I'll get us a table."

"Yay! Okay, I'll see you soon." She jogged back to the hotel as Vergil continued onwards, thinking about what Dante had told him. He was becoming rather fond of the witch and of her company, despite how often he told himself that it was an ill advised idea to do so.