Ebony and Ivory Queens CHAPTER 36
Theme: Health and Healing
Lotus Butterfly: I'm glad you liked the last chapter and how I used the water :3 Wet bleeding Nero…hmm, yes, I believe that would snap Dante out of anything XD My bookcase is coming out pretty well-almost finished sanding XD it takes forever! Thanks for reviewing! *gives cookies*
Kendecia: yeah, I haven't heard from you in awhile! XD It's all good though. If you have an idea, throw it out there, I love to hear what other people have for me :3 Thanks for reviewing! *gives cookies*
HikariNoTenshi-San: XDDD OMG! That's so funny. Rice dinner with seaweed soup and fried squid and I use a seaweed squid as the monster XD That's so odd, but kinda cool! I agree, Dante hurrying away like Nero is pregnant and must be answered to NAO! Is a funny image XD Thanks for reviewing! *gives cookies*
Blood of Dusk: Yes, you pretty much never have to worry about serious character death in any of my stories, I feel like it's a cop out because I think it means that you as an author have dug them in so deep that you don't know how to get them out again. Nero might have wished he died after a wound like that though XD I prefer Dante to be his carefree happy self than when he's all emo, a wet bleeding Nero is the best way to snap him out of such a state! XD Thanks for reviewing! *gives cookies*
Asile3762: Uh, I have to admit the first part of your review I couldn't really figure out. What was the bbs. org? I tried going there, but I can't log in. So, what is the pocket game? It sounds interesting and I'd like to do a chapter about it if I could for you, but I need some more explanation. PM me if you need to :3 I love writing Lady's parts XD Thanks for reviewing! *gives cookies*
SirenaLoreley: Yep, Nero has all the troubles, he has to almost get bitten in half for Dante to come around :3 I love Lady, I try to get her in as much as I can I assume she's not so bitchy all the time XD Thanks for reviewing! *gives cookies*
KookieMeow: I'm glad you liked the action, I try to mix up genres and such when I'm doing these oneshots :3 Thanks for reviewing! *gives cookies*
Zadikall: Yeah, I'm bitbyboth on deviant art as well :3 That picture actually reminded me of a chapter in this story that I did, it's chapter 32, Exploration. Nero is waiting for Dante in bed XD I made that chapter before I saw your picture, so it was cool :3 Thanks for reviewing! *gives cookies*
.rain: I love Lady, so I like to use her as much as I can :3 Yeah, Dante does need to stop moping it almost got Nero killed! Thanks for reviewing! *gives cookies*
L. K. Heinrich: Oh, I see! Yeah, Nero is pretty young in comparison to Dante so the way he sees things has to be different, they don't see eye to eye all the time :3 Actually I didn't even think of Dante drowning his sorrows in alcohol until you mentioned it XD Thanks for reviewing! *gives cookies*
Semjaza: Yes, Vergil is fun to use from time to time, it's hard for me to write him though :3 I like the idea of Nero working with Lady too. He's more levelheaded than Dante so I think she would like working with him better XD Thanks for reviewing! *gives cookies*
Background: established DantexNero relationship and Trish and Lady know about it at this point :3
Nero writhed against the sheets, his body covered in a thin layer of sweat. He was utterly burning up like an inferno. He sat up and coughs wracked his frame, before he sniffed, looking over at the older man sleeping beside him. The blankets were kicked off his body as he laid sprawled out. He looked pale other than his flushed cheeks.
"Dante?" he mumbled rubbing his nose on his arm
The older man grumbled in his sleep until Nero shook him with his devil arm until he opened his eyes.
"You feeling okay?" he asked.
"Not really, damn I feel like shit…did I get smashed last night or what?"
"Uh-uh," Nero shook his head before turning away to sneeze into his arm.
"You don't look so good either."
"Thanks." he sniffed. "Goddamn. Can devils catch the flu? I had it once before but that was before the accident."
"I've never caught anything like this and I've been around Lady when she was real sick before."
"Damn it, then what's going on?" he grumbled rubbing at his sore arms. He wasn't sure why they were sore. It felt like he had worked them too hard or something.
Dante sneezed then and put his hand on his forehead. "Ow, my head. I'm gonna call Trish." he stated getting up before immediately falling back to the bed.
"I'll call Trish. You stay here." Nero muttered, getting up, vertigo rushed through him and he gripped the side table and pushed it away until he could walk, stumbling out of the room and down a few steps before stopping abruptly when the doors to the shop opened Lady strode in pausing at the sight of him.
"You look like shit."
His look turned flat. "Thanks a helluva-" he sneezed hard enough to almost knock himself off his feet. "UGH! This sucks!"
Lady giggled. "You catch a cold?"
"I don't know." he sat down heavily on the stair he was on and bowed his head forward, resting his forehead against his bringer. "Dante told me to call Trish."
"While he's asleep in bed? That's nice of him."
"No, he's sick too. I'm afraid something's wrong with us." he grumbled miserably.
She frowned. "Dante's sick too…?" she sighed. "Get back into bed. I'll call Trish."
Nero nodded and coughed as the turned and climbed back up the stairs. Her mismatched eyes watched him as he disappeared into the bedroom, then she sighed again. Dante was sick? She didn't think that was possible, he'd never been sick before. He used to tease her, telling her that when he and Vergil were kids they never got the whole experience because they didn't catch colds or anything like the other kids, but they would pretend sometimes. Would he be pretending now?
She shook her head. It didn't matter, Nero was definitely sick so she needed another devil's experience on the matter. She headed over to the rotary phone and started putting in numbers all the while swearing under her breath about Dante's choice in phones.
After a few rings Trish answered.
"What Dante?"
"It's me."
"Oh, hi Lady." her voice took on a smirking tone.
"I need you to come to the shop."
"Well…I'm kind of busy, what for?"
Lady sighed. "The guys have some kind of bug. I've only seen Nero so far but…he looks pretty bad and he said that Dante is sick too."
"Dante doesn't get sick."
"I know."
"I'll be over in fifteen."
"Thanks."
"Yeah, get out of there and go to the store, get whatever you think we'll need and don't go anywhere near them."
"I know." Anything that could tear up a half-devil would probably wreak murder on her human body.
"Okay, see you later."
Nero collapsed back into bed with Dante who had a pillow covering his face to block out the eye-stabbing light. The younger slayer grabbed the blankets that had been knocked mostly off the bed and wrapped them around himself as chills wracked his frame. His lover reached out blindly and pulled the bundle of blankets that was Nero next to him.
"You call her?"
"No…Lady is here, she's going to call." he whispered and both of them went silent, other than the occasional cough or sneeze and they drifted in and out of sleep, their bodies achy, cold and hot in a recurring pattern.
After awhile heels clicked on the bedroom floor and they both looked over to see Trish standing there holding a cloth to her mouth and nose.
"Wow, you two really do look bad."
They both groaned.
"So what did you guys do? Piss off some minor deity or something?"
"Don't know." Dante managed to reply.
"You went on a mission yesterday didn't you?"
"Yah." Nero grunted.
"What were the demons?"
"Bloodgoyles," Dante offered.
"and weird little imps."
"What did they look like?"
"Big red bloody bir-"
"Not the bloodgoyles! The imps."
"Green," Dante.
"Little," Nero.
"Annoying," Dante.
"Imps."
"Could you be more specific?"
"They were little green shits,"
"With pitchforks." The younger slayer pitched in.
"And they smelled like sulfur and death."
"That helps."
"You think they're why we-we're-AH-CHOO!" Nero sniffed miserably. "sick?"
"I hope so, that's the only thing I have to go off of."
"So what are we going to do?" the young man asked.
"You're going to lay right there while I try to figure this out."
"Sounds good to me." Dante mumbled.
"Sit here and think healthy healing thoughts?"
Trish shrugged. "If it works, it works. I'll be back when I have something."
Dante quirked an eyebrow. "Healthy healing thoughts?"
"I been sick before okay? That's what Kyrie told me, there's not much else you can do about a cold or the flu. Got to ride it out."
"Ah, I see then." he nodded.
"Ride it out or die because we really still have no idea what's wrong with us."
"Point taken."
"So wait, what are we doing here?" Nero asked quizzically looking around at the kitchen that he and Dante had walked into, the only clue being a cake on the table with 'happy birthday!' and sprinkles on it.
"I dunno. I thought we were on a mission." the older man replied.
"Holy crap you came!" Bitbyboth seemingly launched herself out of a cupboard to hug Dante, knocking him over.
"Holy shit!" Nero reached for his revolver hesitating at the sight of what seemed to be human, his devil arm wasn't pulsing any brighter which sort of lent to the assumption.
"See kid, ladies love me." Dante pointed out with a smirk.
Nero scowled and drew his gun. "Come on, get off him. What are you doing here?-Better question, what are we doing here?" he demanded.
"Well, you're here because it's my birthday today." she stated getting up off of the red-clad hunter.
"Really? Turning legal?" Dante grinned causing Nero's look to turn flat and a few bullets to impale themselves into the half-devil's thick skull. "Oww! Nero!"
"Twenty-one actually." she continued unperturbed making the younger slayer quirk an eyebrow, what was up with this girl?
"Does that mean there's gonna be booze at this party?"
"No, I'm broke."
"That makes three of us." Nero sighed. "Why aren't you freaking out or anything? I just shot him in the head."
"Because, I know who you are. I know everything you're going to do before you do it, I also know everything you thought about doing before picking that direct action."
"…That's cool." the red hunter said slowly.
"How do you know that?" the younger hunter asked.
"Because, I am your author in my own personal universe."
The two exchanged looks.
"But enough about that-who wants cake! ?"
XD okay, I hope you guys liked the little short, it was my birthday when I updated this so I wanted to do something fun :3 This chapter was interesting to write, it's hard to imagine both of the boys incapacitated so thoroughly, isn't it? Hope you guys liked it! Until next time!
Ja ne!
~Bitbyboth September 19, 2011