What You Wish For CHAPTER 9
Kendecia: Yeah, sensory or body memories haven't been wiped at all :3 Thanks for reviewing! *gives cookies*
Sw0rdfi5h: Nero is adorable, poor kid is so mixed up though! Thanks for reviewing! *gives cookies*
surrendertome: Yeah, Dante needs his arm twisted literally or figuratively to admit to anything truthfully :3 Hopefully this chapter answers some of your questions! Thanks for reviewing! *gives cookies*
SirenaLoreley: Yeah, Nero is still a little mixed up. He's trying to get it all sorted out, but being tired gives you some added courage sometimes XD Thanks for reviewing! *gives cookies*
Devil Fan: That's a bit of the point :3 If Dante really loves him then he has to make him fall in love again :3 Thanks for reviewing! *gives cookies*
STIXandMANNY: Yeah it sucks when you're trying to sneak into bed with someone and they wake up! XD Dante's a little burned that Nero won't just take him back, but he's willing to work with it, there's not much else he can do, short of kidnapping him or something XD Thanks for reviewing! *gives cookies*
Nefarious Seraph 13: Yeah, I didn't even notice the irony of that until you mentioned it! XD I like how insecure Dante is being too, he's always so full of bravado that it's weird to see him that way, but I always feel like he is extremely insecure under all that he shows. Thanks for reviewing! *gives cookies*
Biganimefan2: Yeah, the last scene was really cute :3 It was fun to write! Thanks for reviewing! *gives cookies*
Blood of Dusk: I can truthfully say that this chapter would have been a LOT different without your review :3 I'm not grinding chapters out so fast just to please you guys, it's really because I have a lot of free time :) and I was pretty happy with my last chapter, I was actually sitting on it for a few days because I got it done right after chapter 7. I can see what you mean about them being out of character if they were restarting at square one, but that's not quite where they're at, so that means I didn't do enough to show where they are so I took that on in this chapter :3 Thank you so much for reviewing! *gives cookies*
Wow! This is the most reviews I've gotten for one chapter of this so far I think! :3 So thanks a lot you guys! I do not own Dante or Nero or Fortuna! Enjoy!
Nero's dreams were full of memories that had him up way before Dante and into an icy shower. He almost yelped as the cold water pelted his skin and clenched his teeth as it tightened the sore muscles in his back. He stood there shivering for a few moments before twisting the knob and turning it to a more bearable temperature. The warm water seemed to caress his skin and he just stood there, letting it rain down over him, tilting his head down and watching the droplets drip off the end of his hair.
He didn't know what to think. He was trying not to think, but he really needed to work this out his own way. He had no idea what possessed him to climb into Dante's bed last night. It just…wasn't like him. He was just so tired, he was so confused. He wasn't lying yesterday. Something was wrong with him. There was something just…off. His head was fine-except for the four month gap with singular events all tossed together with no semblance of a timeline. Most of those were with Trish and Lady and then the rest were what he had gotten back through dreams or other modes of unconsciousness. The rest of his body just…felt weird, it wasn't right. He couldn't put his finger on the physical problem, but just knew he felt different.
He shook that away and decided to focus on his mental issues. He thought about everything Dante had told him last night. It was hard to swallow, sure, but…it made sense, it fit with all the pieces he currently had at his disposal. It explained why he felt the need to sleep in the elder hunter's bed, when one got accustomed to sleeping one way it was hard to change it. It explained the strange dreams and visions of intimacy with a man, he didn't consider himself gay, but if he was going to sleep with a man he supposed he was going to be picky about it. He smirked slightly at the thought, Dante wasn't the worst person he could have slept with.
It also explained how he had learned how to fight so much better, his body remembering things his mind couldn't recall learning after being magically wiped. It wasn't as though everything had been wiped completely clean however, Dante wasn't back to square one with him, though he wasn't sure why that was possible. His memory was gone, but a soft spot remained for the man, he liked it when he called him 'kid' and the way he smelled like gunpowder and old leather. The way his calloused hands felt on his skin and the sweet taste of his lips. These things all stayed with him, as though they were in a different part of the brain and therefore exempt from the spell, magic was funny like that sometimes.
He had loved Dante, he was sure of that, he could feel that warm feeling in his chest when he pulled forward the memory of waking up to the older man's gentle kisses. He'd loved Dante and he'd loved Kyrie too. He sighed, he didn't know what he was going to do.
The two got going without a whisper about the night before. Dante figured that there was nothing he could say that would do any good, though he was terrified about the kid seeing Kyrie again. He had no idea how he was going to react to seeing his childhood love. Their spark could rekindle automatically, or it could just be really awkward. Only time would tell anyway.
The car ride was carefully silent as Dante zoned out staring at the road yawning out before him. He was thinking about the first time he and Nero had been together, trying to remember what had brought it along. Nero being around for a few months had made them tight. Sure, they fought, but all roommates did at one point or another, and it kept them from actually tearing each other's throats out.
Four moths ago something had happened…something that pushed them past friendship into 'friendship with benefits' territory. It was so hard to remember though. That whole night seemed so fuzzy to him. He'd gotten home from a mission and…something had happened that caused Nero to kiss him and after that something just consumed him. There wasn't an appropriate word to describe it, it wasn't really his demon, it wasn't full on lust. He supposed maybe then it was just something human, some part of him fed up with only feeding that sexual need with no attachment or tenderness connected to the act. That would make the most sense. He'd been doing it so long, only feeding the demonic over the human, that his other half had gotten tired of it and taken over. He remembered there wasn't anything too demonic about their first mating, he was completely in control. He had known exactly what he was doing. Perhaps he'd simply seen a mirror image of himself in the kid and decided on taking a lover, one that was stronger than all the other women he'd ever bedded and more human than any other lady he knew, less breakable physically, but less so mentally.
The quiet dragged on for the first hour before Nero dared say anything. He figured he had to, the silence felt heavy enough to crush them. It was so unusual too what with Dante always having his gums flapping.
"So…how long have we been sleeping together?" he asked aloofly.
"About…four months maybe." he answered. "You sucked it up and slept on the couch until the first time we…did it." he finished lamely, a half-smirk on his face.
Nero chuckled and they lapsed into silence again for a bit. "Why are you taking me to see Kyrie?"
"Because you wanted to."
The kid examined his profile, the older man keeping his gaze firmly out the windshield. "What if I want to go back to her?"
"That's your choice kid." he said, a steely edge undercutting his voice as if trying to convince himself that this was true.
"What about you?"
"What about me?"
"What will you do, if I do that then?" he asked, looking out the side window.
"What I've always done. Hunt demons."
Nero detected an undercurrent of bitterness in that statement, or was it loneliness? He had Lady and Trish…
'Lady and Trish aren't lovers.' he thought to himself.
They dropped back into that heavy silence and stayed that way.
They arrived on the island without further delay or fanfare, paying a local fisherman to take them across to the secluded island. With both of them fully armed once again the man didn't refuse.
The scent of tangy saltwater and dead fish met their noses as they stepped onto the dock. Nero stood there, a feeling of nostalgia as well as foreboding settled in his stomach, making it flutter around eliciting a feeling of lightness as well as nausea.
"Well, we're here. Where to?" Nero turned to see the older man standing right behind him watching him expectantly.
"Right. Well, Kyrie is either at home or the church," he hesitated. "Hopefully she's at home," he said, "Um…follow me and stay close." he instructed, pulling his hood over his head and plucking at his sleeve so that his bringer was as covered as possible. He paused. "And…try not to be too conspicuous, okay?"
The sun was sinking quickly in the sky casting everything in long shadows, Nero carefully made his way over to one of the buildings and climbed a ladder up the side and onto the roof. Dante followed him, curious as to what he was up to. When the younger male started going across the rooftops the older man had to pause.
"Why are you doing this?"
"Doing what?" he wondered, glancing over his shoulder.
"Going on the roofs?" he explained in an 'isn't it obvious?' tone.
"Because I don't want anyone to see me. I don't feel like most of the people would give me a warm welcome back."
"Then why are you coming back here kid? I don't get it."
"Because there's one girl who will." he answered simply and they continued their way over the buildings. Nero navigated them with an air of ease that told Dante he'd been using these routes long before he'd been banished. It seemed a little…sad really. He felt bad that Nero felt so alienated in his own town that he avoided everyone completely.
They landed on one roof and the young man held out his hand to stop his counterpart. He walked to the back of the house where there was a small vegetable garden as well as a trellis with vines creeping up it attached to the wall. Nero grabbed the sturdy wooden structure and climbed down. He knew it would hold his weight, he'd built the thing. Once on the ground he motioned for the red half-devil to follow and they made their way to the front of, what Dante now assumed, was Kyrie's house.
I'm hoping that this clears up where Nero and Dante are standing in relation to each other :3 And I also managed to pull off another chapter without getting Kyrie involved! YAY! I'm not looking forward to it much XD Until next time!
Ja ne!
~Bitbyboth March 10, 2012
