A/N: I'm really sorry for the delay guys! Sorry doesn't even to begin to describe it actually; had a lot on my plate and it was a bad timing for a two-parter. So, here it is finally! Hope you enjoy this!

Mary's stomach churned as she watched Dante eat the "meal" they had made with gusto. How he could even consider the meal edible still left her head spinning, knowing exactly how she had cooked it.

"Failed to cook, more likely…", she swallowed mightily, seeing blood drip from the meat that Dante attacked heartily. She tried not to think about the various diseases one could get from eating uncooked meat.

"Taenia solium. The pork tapeworm."

She had heard of people waking up in the middle of the night to find that a live tapeworm three or four feet in length had crawled out of their noses. While her mother might have had good intentions in telling her that story, it had given her nightmares for weeks.

It still bothered her that he had to remember this reunion as the time when he gets at the very least, a lifelong memory of the evils of food.

She glanced over at her cohorts and they looked, well, terrible. Trish was biting her fingernails as she watched what was basically self-induced food poisoning taking place. One particularly large spoonful of her toxic soup had her drawing blood from her thumb as it went down Dante's gullet.

"Lady's gonna pay for this….", was the half-hearted thought. Dante would probably never forgive her if she hurt an old friend, let alone the one who probably co-owned the naming rights to the shop she called home.

Lucia was already deciding what penance she might have to do. What would poisoning the Legendary Dark Knight amount to? She throttled and beat herself in her mind for forgetting to wash the vegetables. Matier would probably flay her alive, being particular about that particular aspect of cooking. Lucia didn't understand at first why gifts from Nature needed to be washed still. Matier, patient as always, explained that it was human's own doing that needed to be undone in the matter; pesticides still lingered in the vegetable and could cause serious harm if ingested.

All three women knew that Dante was sturdy; hell, he was damn right invincible. He survived worse things than simple food poisoning. Mutilations, stab wounds and burns were probably nothing but scrapes and scratches to him.

Still, they all clearly remembered him saying that he did not enjoy getting mutilated, stabbed or burned. They still hurt like hell, just that they healed really fast.

Also, pain was something that should be expected from enemies, not allies! Least of all, in the form of a meal on the day of one's birth!

Dante let out a huge belch. His normally steely eyes were half-lidded and his posture was relaxed.

"He's going to throw up. Any minute now." Mary was prepared for the worst and began to look for the possible hiding place of the mop. She also took another mental note of the fire escape. She would probably be making use of it soon.

Several minutes passed without any ill effects whatsoever. Dante had already gotten up and put his dish and cutlery in the sink and was about to head upstairs for the night before he was stopped by Mary's voice.

"That was disgusting. How could you eat that?", she half questioned and half yelled. It sounded harsher than she had intended but the shock and guilt was still in her system. Trish and Lucia looked at him, begging an answer with their eyes.

Dante smiled and went towards the three and pulled them all in a massive bear hug. All three women were flushed as he released them.

"How could I eat that? Simple; it had the secret ingredient. I love the secret ingredient."

With that, he left to let them ponder his words.

"What did he mean by that?" Trish was confused. Was it the melted plastic?

"We did a terrible job." Lucia had her bowed, not knowing what Dante had meant.

Mary was deep in thought.

"He'd better freakin' appreciate this…."

"You know he does, Lady."

The seemingly pointless conversation she had with Trish earlier was beginning to hold something more of value. A rare, peaceful flashback of her mother eating burnt cookies made by her when she was six years old came up.

"How could you eat that, Mama? It's all black and yucky!"

"Because it has the secret ingredient, my little lady."

"What's that?"

Her mother kissed her on the forehead.

"Love? That's---it's not---"

Mary's entire face burned red as she walked stiffly towards the door. Trish stared at her strangely.

"Where are you going? What's that secret ingredient he was talking about?"

Mary turned to Trish, he face still burning and tried to smile.

"See you again in another ten years. Hopefully we'll all forget by then…."

Trish could only wonder what that meant as the door creaked to a close. Lucia had gone out through the fire escape a while ago.

As she started to wash up the pots and pans that they had used, Trish noticed that their supply of detergent powder soap had gone low.

"That's weird. I just bought some yesterday…"

DMCDMCDMCDMCDMCDMCDMCDMCDMCDMCDMCDMCDMCDMCDMCDMCDMCDMCDMCDMC

Dante's eyes watered as he threw up all the contents in his stomach. Food poisoning just got to him in ways that no other form of bodily harm could. At least the girls' feeling weren't hurt. Women were touchy that way.

He was about to exit the bathroom when he saw something that made him sick all over again. He jumped out the bathroom window and ran as fast as he could to the nearest pub.

Nevan glided around the apartment, her usual gaggle of bats holding up what seemed to be a noxious black stew in a cast iron pot.

Drops of the fluid leaked as it burned through the bottom of the pot and fumes surrounded it like a gas of death. It also smelled suspiciously of a flowery fragrance, used in soap.

She had her eyes out for the birthday celebrant who was currently MIA. She could've sworn she heard his voice a while ago though.

"Dante, sweetie? Where are you? I've prepared something for your birthday!"

END