July 16th

Last week, the men left Fortuna in the hopes of finding Aglæca's brothers. After Jack returned to the motel with the rental car, and after bickering over who was going to sit where, they headed straight towards a very small Italian town that Aglæca had said his brothers might be at. The long, boring drive there was made even more boring after Nero shut off the radio in frustration when they couldn't decide on a station that they all liked. According to Nero, he did it because he wasn't going to spend the next however-many-hours arguing over what music to listen to. Jack, however, figured shutting off the radio was Nero's way of getting revenge on him, since it was Jack's idea to stick Nero with the job of being the driver.

With no significant problems during the drive, they made it to their destination on time. To add to their good fortune, they found a somewhat larger town with a hotel that was relatively close to the town Aglæca suggested they investigate first. Their luck quickly ran dry after that. After spending days searching every inch in and around the city, interviewing every citizen, and generally working their asses off, they found nothing to indicate Aglæca's brother were in, or had ever been, in the town. Realizing the town was a dead end, the group of four repacked their bags and headed towards their next destination.

"It was a total bust. Absolutely nothing there but farmers and barn animals." Nero spoke into his phone. Dante had wisely decided it was best for him to drive this time, rather than making the irritated teenager drive again. Nero sat in the front passenger seat, while Aglæca and Jack have the backseat to themselves. There was a large map spread out across Aglæca's lap; he had taken the job of giving out directions.

"What? No, we can't come home yet. We've barely started." Nero paused to listen to the person on the other line. "We'll be back as soon as we can. Hey, listen, I promise you, once we're back, you and I will go out to that favorite restaurant of yours. I know you've been wanting their famous double fudge mint chip sundae bowl lately." He smiled as he spoke, as if the other person could see him. "After that we can go down to the park and walk around, then we could – " His smile abruptly faded. "– Huh? Oh, alright... I'll call you tomorrow then." Dante glanced over at Nero, surprised by the sudden end to his conversation. He observed him press the on-screen button to hang up his phone, looking dejected, before looking at the road ahead of them.

"You're such a doting boyfriend. Can I date you?" Jack teased Nero, having eavesdropped on his and Kyrie's conversation.

"Maybe in your dreams." Nero bantered back, losing his previously depressed expression due to this distraction.

"Aww..." Jack said, faking disappointment.

"We're nearing our destination." Aglæca informed them. "Take a left onto this road." He told Dante, who did so. A few seconds of silence ticked by.

"..Hey, I know you said no booze, but-" "No." Nero said firmly.

"C'mon, Nero. It's been a rough week, can't we just get a couple drinks? Please?" Jack begged, holding his hands together as if he's praying. "There is no such thing as 'a couple drinks'." Nero retorted. "You'll drink until you're drunk."

"I pinky promise I won't!" Jack held out his pinky to him, who responded by firmly shaking his head 'no'. Jack then proceeded to stare at Nero with a puppy-dog eyed look with his bottom lip pooched out. A last ditch effort to getting him to agree. Looking back at Jack, he saw his desperate attempt to get him to say yes, and so sighed deeply.

"Fine." Immediately, Jack began doing a little happy dance in the back of the car. "But! No more than a couple drinks." Jack frantically nodded his head up and down. "Do you think you can control yourself?" Nero questioned Dante, glancing over at him with a skeptical look.

"Of course I can. I'm an adult, right?" He said after looking over at Nero and realizing he wasn't joking. Just as Nero was about to voice his objections to Dante's self-proclaimed statement that he is an adult, and therefore of sound mind, Jack interrupted.

"Turn here, turn here!" He said, excited.

"What? The map doesn't say to turn here..." Aglæca rechecked his map frantically, just to make sure he didn't miss a turn.

"No, there's a bar here!" Jack exclaimed, gluing himself to the car window so that he may, in theory, be closer to the bar.

"There's no way we're stopping now! I thought you meant you'd go get some drinks after we got to town!" Nero protested, though Dante was already in the process of pulling off the highway.

"Aglæca said we're close to town, so that's good enough, right?" As soon as Dante parked the car, Jack quickly hopped out and ran to the bar's doors without so much as a second glance at them. Nero groaned and crossed his arms in irritation.

"You not coming?" Dante asked as he undid his seat belt, noticing that Nero didn't look like he was going to budge anytime soon.

"I'm not much of a drinker." He muttered. "And somebody has to stay out here with Aglæca." Nero said more loudly, as this is his "real" excuse for not following them.

"Do not concern yourself with me, my eyes could use the rest with a quick sleep." Aglæca yawned widely shortly after speaking.

"See, he's fine." Dante concluded. "C'mon, you don't have to drink a lot. A bit of alcohol actually helps you relax, something you clearly can't do by yourself." He teased as he got out of the car, though Nero obviously looked like he still had no intentions of going inside. "We'll be inside if ya need us." He told him before leaving the car and going inside, giving up without much of a fight and leaving the younger behind to seethe. Following in the path Jack took, he entered the bar. It wasn't anything particularly spectacular, it looked exactly how you'd expect a roadside bar to look. There were only a few other patrons inside as well, likely locals that've been going here ever since their ma and pa took them here years ago as kids. With Jack nowhere to be seen, Dante sat himself at the bar, ordering himself a neat glass of whiskey. He cared not for the specific brand, he only requested for the highest proof whiskey the bartender had. This is likely the only glass the kid will allow him to have, so he oughta get something with a kick to it! Just as the nice man slid the glass to him, he could hear the double door entrance swing open. A quick glance-back confirmed his suspicion.

"Hey, look who gave in." Dante teased as Nero neared him.

"I didn't give in, I just... decided not to stay in the car anymore." He said defensively as he sat down in the bar stool beside Dante.

"Right, so you gave in." He smirked before taking a sip from the glass that's in his hand. The bartender wasted no time in walking over to the two of them.

"What can I get for you, sir?" The bartender addressed Nero with the biggest, friendliest, and likely most fake smile he could muster.

"Oh, um.." Nero looked around the bar frantically. Not being much of a drinker, Dante knew didn't really know the names of any alcoholic drinks. However, he also knew that Nero didn't want to admit this in front of him. He looked down at Dante's glass briefly before looking back at the bartender. "I'll have what he's having." The bartender nodded before grabbing and placing a glass from beneath the bar to in front of Nero.

"You sure about that, kid?" Dante's tone was that of a warning to Nero.

"Yeah, it can't be that bad, right?" Nero said as the bartender poured a dark brown liquid into his glass. Visibly hesitant, he picked up the glass and slowly brought it up to his face. Sniffing the glass's contents, Nero immediately cringed, though he tried to casually play it off. Dante just smirked as he watched him, knowing that he had no idea what he just ordered. The brave young man took a deep breath before he brought the glass to his lips and unintentionally took a larger swig of the liquid than he had actually wanted. As soon as the alcohol touched his throat, he began violently coughing, though he somehow managed to will himself to swallow the drink without spraying it across the bar counter. Dante patted him on his back to help him get past the coughing.

"There there, it'll be alright." He said as though comforting a child. "Got a bit of a sting to it, huh?" His smirk grew wider.

"What the hell is that? Venom milked from a snake?" Nero managed to say after his coughing subsided, though his voice sounded raw and hoarse now as he looked at the glass still in his hands with disdain.

"Close, but no. That's whiskey. Burns at first, but you get used to it after a while." He took another sip from his glass as he watched Nero recover.

"Ugh... That's awful.." Nero said as he rubbed his throat, as if it'd actually help the pain.

"You don't have to drink it if it's too strong for you."

"No, no it's okay, I can do it." Nero now felt like he had to finish it, seeing it as challenge now since Dante suggested the drink was too much for him to handle. If Dante can handle it, then damn it, so can he! Taking another deep breath, he drank another, much smaller, swig of the whiskey. Dante just sat back and watched with amusement as Nero eventually downed most of his drink within the next 45 minutes, something that usually takes Dante maybe 15 minutes. He observed that Nero was acting much different now and the burn didn't seem to affect him anymore. He had been quiet for a while now too.

"Dante... I... I think something is wrong with Kyrie.." After hearing his slurred and slow speech, there was no doubt in Dante's mind now, he's definitely drunk. He didn't think that less than one glass of whiskey would get the kid drunk, but, in hindsight, he probably should've figured Nero wouldn't have much of a tolerance for alcohol, especially given how high the proof is of the whiskey they're drinking.

"Oh, really?" Dante said mindlessly. Having been around plenty of drunk people before, himself included, he knew Nero would start rambling on meaninglessly.

"Yeah... when we left... she said she wanted to... to talk to me everyday... but... she hasn't been in these last couple of days..."

"Whaddya mean?"

"Today was the first time in.. in a couple of days that I've talked to her.." Dante looked over at him, sincerely paying attention to what he's saying. "I left her lots of messages... but she never answered them.. and today we only talked for.. um.." Nero tried hard to think of how long they talked. "...for about 15 minutes before she had to go.."

"She's probably just busy, I wouldn't worry about it." Dante tried to reassure him.

"She's never been too busy for me before..." Nero slurred. He sadly looked into his glass, swirling its contents mindlessly, before throwing his head back and downing the last of his whiskey. An awkward silence fell for the next few minutes since Dante didn't know what else to say. Then, for no apparent reason, Nero looked over at Dante with a big, goofy smile on his face.

"You know, you're... you're a good person, I duncare what anybody says 'bout you, you're a good person.."

"You're not half bad yourself, kid." Dante returned his smile. Nero's eyes lit up brightly, this half-compliment apparently struck a chord with him. Before he could stop him, Nero had wrapped his arms around him from his side in a big bear hug. Slightly grimacing at this unexpected and sloppy hug, mostly because Nero had put almost all his weight onto him and nearly tipped them both over, Dante eventually gave in and put an arm around him once it was clear the drunk wasn't going to let go.

"Don worry, your secret is safe with me."

"My secret?" Dante looked down at the drunken child clinging to his side with an eyebrow raised in confusion.

"Yah, your secret. How you're supposed to be this big, tough demon hunter, but underneath all the muscle," Nero tapped his finger on Dante's chiseled chest "you're just a big softy." Dante laughed heartily at this.

"Oh no, my secret's out now!" He joked. By this time, Nero had let go of him and was attempting to shift his weight back onto his bar stool. "I doubt you'll even remember you have a secret to keep by tomorrow, though." He said to himself as he watched Nero desperately grab onto the bar itself as he balanced himself. Unknown to the both of them, Jack was walking up to them from behind.

"It's getting kinda late, we might want to start heading out so we can get a motel before they're all booked." While walking up to the other side of Nero, Jack noticed his erratic and unbalanced movements. "Whoa!" Jack exclaimed after sniffing the air around Nero's face, smelling for alcohol. "Dante, how much did you let him have?"

"Just one. I told him to just take a few sips, but he insisted he could drink it all." Dante smirked as he looked up at Jack. "I suppose he proved he could." Jack sighed and shook his head in disapproval at Nero's actions.

"C'mon, you outta know you're too much of a light weight to drink whiskey." Jack grabbed Nero's arm and put it around his shoulders. He then put his own arm around Nero. With reluctance, Nero stood up from his bar stool and was able to stay standing thanks to Jack's support. He slurred incomprehensible phrases as they exited the bar. After paying his and the kid's bill, Dante joined them outside the bar.

"Noo... I want to sit up fronnttt.." Nero whined. By the time Dante made it outside, they had somehow already made it to the car. Jack had opened the back car door and had sat Nero down in the seat next to Aglæca.

"Only those who're not drunk can sit up front." Jack told him before closing the back door.

"Who's drivin'?" Dante asked as he approached the car.

"I suppose I will, I didn't drink anything hard and I only had a couple drinks." Jack responded after thinking over it for a few seconds.

"Sounds good to me." He said, secretly relieved that he doesn't have to drive again as he walked over to the passenger side door.

"I'm afraid we may have to set up a tent rather than stay in a hotel." Aglæca told them, his voice sounding tired. He had woken up shortly after Jack and Nero exited the bar, due to Nero's noisiness.

"What? Why?" Jack questioned, peering back at Aglæca as he got into the car.

"It would be more time efficient if we were to set up a tent somewhere nearby, rather than going into town and looking around for a motel that may have a room left." Aglæca looked over at Nero. "And since he's inebriated, it would be better to find somewhere to sleep for the night sooner rather than later." Jack groaned to show his distaste for sleeping in a tent.

"I was really hoping we weren't going to have to use those damn tents..." He muttered before driving them out of the parking lot. They drove around for about 10 minutes before coming across an area off the road suitable for them to set up a tent. It was a wooded area off of an old dirt road that came off of the highway. Certainly not legal to set up camp here since this is likely someone's land, but it'll have to do for the night. While Aglæca gathered the sleeping bags and pillows from the car's trunk, Jack and Dante set up the tent. Jack figured it'd be best if Nero was out of the way and in a safe place, so he had locked him in the car while they got everything set up. Though, he was already clunking out in the backseat.

"Nero, c'mon, get up, the tent's ready." Jack shook Nero as he spoke. Nero, who had half-fallen asleep by now, moaned his complaints as he sat up in the car. With Jack's help, he was able to get out of the car without falling over. He allowed Jack to take him most of the way there without any protest, but then immediately stopped and leaned all his body weight on him once they got near the tent. "What the hell, Nero?" Jack asked, now irritated and struggling to hold up the man's weight. He was pretty exhausted too by this point, the alcohol he had drank having relaxed him enough to where his body finally accepted the strain of the past week's annoyances.

"My feet feel funnny…" Nero complained as he attempted to use his legs, though he only succeeded in fumbling around and causing more strain on Jack. Looking over at Dante, who had been watching them from a few feet away, Jack pleaded for his help by the expression on his face. Nodding at him, Dante made his way over, quickly switching places with Jack so as to not allow Nero to fall flat on his face. The half-drunk looked over at Dante, confused with what's going on as his brain struggled to understand how Dante has suddenly appeared where Jack once was.

For a few steps he attempted to lead Nero to the tent, but could see it was no use. It was annoying trying to move the dead weight in such an awkward position, so he smartly came up with an alternative plan. Scooping him up in a quick, fluid motion that likely nauseated the man, he tossed Nero onto his shoulder on his stomach. "Put me down!" He half-begged half-shouted as he clawed at Dante's back in a feeble attempt at gaining freedom - it was the only thing he could reach in this position without having to twist his body about, something his stomach was telling him he wasn't capable of doing.

"This is what happens when you're being difficult." He told him. It only took Dante a few seconds of resisting his struggles, firmly pinning the wiggling body onto his shoulder using one arm, before he accepted defeat. "You calm now?" He assumed Nero's lack of resistance meant yes, quickly taking him inside the tent while the half-breed would still allow it.

The tent wasn't very tall, so in order to maneuver around, Dante had to get onto his knees. He let go of Nero, causing him to gracelessly fall off of him and onto one of the sleeping bags below with a padded thud. Not expecting him to fall off like he did, Dante was initially worried Nero might've hurt himself in the fall, but his concern was erased once he noticed the kid was knocked out already.

"Hopefully he won't be too hungover tomorrow." Jack commented as he zipped up the tent's entrance. Dante nodded in silent agreement as he got into the sleeping bag beside Nero, rolling his eyes with a smirk at him for a brief moment. He knew he only did it just to keep up with him; or, possibly, to impress him. Aglæca was already asleep on the other side of Nero, and Jack had claimed the sleeping bag next to Dante's. Given their close quarters, Dante only took off his shoes before settling into his sleeping bag for the night.

Thanks for reading, see you in the next chapter!