Authors notes, i'm really not very good at them. Basically enjoy the story, be kind with the criticism, i'm a sensitive soul unconvincing sniff. None of the characters in this first chapter belong to me, they are all the property of some rich Capcom brain although if you're reading this you're probably already familiar with the characters. Hope I got them right, characters make a story.Mint choc chip is the greatestof all ice cream flavours.Bye, Skaye
The sun rose in a red wash over the high roofs of the city making the pavements steam from last night's rain. Lucia saw it every morning now from her window in the guest room of the Devil May Cry. She yawned, stretched, dressed in her customary blue and grey and pleated her hair to one side as she had for the past 10 months. She had moved here initially to wait for Dante and keep the place running in his absence. She didn't know whether to expect him to come back alive or not so it seemed silly to hope. Nonetheless she kept the fridge stocked, took jobs from any client who called and slept in the guest room out of politeness. It had been hard to accept at first that she wanted him to come back, longed every moment to hear his voice, knocking, crash of the door falling in but so far nothing and it had been almost a year. She went down for her breakfast, cold plain rice from last night and coffee like black syrupy turpentine.
Midway through a rather uneventful morning, she heard a motorcycle engine outside and her heart leapt. She grinned at the crash of a falling dustbin and the curse that followed in a familiar deep voice she'd had in her head ever since first hearing it. She collected herself but didn't move, staying in position sitting on his desk waiting. Dante walked casually though the unlocked door and nearly fell back out of it again when he saw her. He balanced again quickly and swept his hair out of hisface trying to look like his eyes hadn't just temporarily vacated his skull.
"Lucia? What are you doing here?"
She smiled at him teasingly and walked over to meet him.
"I'm here keeping your bankbook out of the red and the cobwebs out of your office, monsieur insouciant, besides which I had to return your coin."
Dante smiled at her and walked past to the kitchen to get a drink.
"There's nothing wrong with my bank books, I like cobwebs and what the hell did you just call me?"
"It's not important." She replied flipping the coin at him and pouring herself a cold coffee. "What I want to know is why you tricked me so you would be forced to go to seal the portal instead of me."
"That's real cute, Lucia, I saved your life by doing that."
Lucia looked up, her eyes flashing.
"Did you? I could have handled whatever was down there just as well as you did."
Dante failed to note her mood and carried on.
"Don't kid yourself, they would have been scraping you off the walls and pulling long red hairs out of the eternal river of fiery brimstone for months."
"And you think when you vanished that was the end of it? I'll have you know Arius wasn't as dead as you thought. He rose again, I had to face him alone and you know what? I was just fine. Since then I've been taking commission after commission to kill those crawling hell spawn. And the moment you return you condescend me like you're vastly stronger?"
Dante sighed realising there was only one way out of this that didn't involve violent and gruesome murder.
"I'm sorry, Lucia. I know you're strong I just thought I'd spare you that given that you'd had kind of a hard time of it already. Plus there's my father's little legacy to think about. I think it had to be me."
Lucia's expression softened and she nodded a kind of apology.
"Besides," Dante continued smiling again, "that coin was just made for a trick like that."
He flinched ready for the blow he expected in return but Lucia seemed to take it quite seriously and nodded gazing at the weapons on the far wall. They finished their drinks in silence. Lucia was the first to speak again, handing Dante two plastic cards and a small silver key.
"I've put the profits I made into accounts; you have $200 in your current account and $700 in savings. I also documented every case I investigated for future reference. The files are in the filing cabinet in your library in order of date."
She headed for the stairs leaving Dante a little stunned at her efficiency. It had never occurred to him to write down his cobs in such a way let alone to get a bank account. Cash in hand was safer, he figured. He got his brain back into gear and turned after her.
"Aren't you going to stick around?" he asked as casually as possible. She stopped on the stairs and turned smiling a little.
"I'll stay if I'm welcome."
"You're welcome as long as you help out like you have been and don't lose it at me too often."
"I appreciate it. I've been sleeping in the guest room anyway." She confessed.
"Cool, I'd hate to try and sleep practically choking on red hair." He replied with fake relief dodging easily the little burst of knives that sailed in his direction.
They lived for relative peace for the next couple of weeks although it soon became apparent that there were going to be a lot of misunderstandings regarding sense of humour. Lucia, it appeared, didn't have one. She was getting slowly better at telling when Dante was joking or not but she still took offence far too often at his easy chatter and casual insults and he grew quickly frustrated at her grumpiness and cold demeanour.
The end camejust over a month after Dante's return when Lucia had caughthim in a thoughtful mood fingering his amulet, feet up on his desk as the sun set outside. She came over silently still humbled from their fight the other night which had involved a shower with a broken lock on the door, a severely misunderstood commentand a lot of yelling. Now she was apologetic and eager to make peace.
She stood by the desk and gave him a slight smile he didn't return.
"What are you thinking about, Dante?" she asked cautiously.
"Nothing." He replied wearily, he hated being asked that. There was no simple sentence more certain to derail his train of thought so totally.
He glared at her icily.
"Which is now absolutely true thanks so much."
She was slightly nettled but remained calm.
"You were thinking about your mother." Sheobserved softly.
He started and focused on her now slightly riled.
"What the hell makes you think that?" he asked angrily.
She continued regardless without so much as a tremble in her voice in face of Dante's volcanic temper.
"That's what it means when you hold your amulet like that. That you're thinking about her."
Dante was on his feet now and truly smouldering.
"Who the hell do you think you are that you can just make assumptions like that? What gives you the right to talk to me about her?"
Lucia realised her mistake and back down a little.
"I just notice these things about you. I'm sorry I mentioned it."
"Just stay out of my past, Lucia. You can hardly get around your screwedup memorieslet alone go prying into mine."
Lucia's temper flared suddenly.
Her origins were a point of weakness she still wept about to herself late at night when her room was dark and still. To have Dante throw it in her face like that was intolerable.
Without a word, she turned savagely and stormed out snatching his keys from the desk as she left. The last Dante heard was the revving of his motorcycle engine and then silence and he was alone once again. He stood up calmly and carefully, took several deep breaths and then kicked his desk across the room.