"Do you think he'll remember me?" Alisa asked, swirling her spoon around in her cereal.
"You're pretty hard to forget!" Lady laughed, joining the young girl at the table.
"How do we explain her presence?" Vergil asked, leaning against one of the kitchen counters as he waited for the coffee to finish brewing.
"We're minding her for Nico," Lady replied. "That's not so strange is it?" Lady seemed a lot happier this morning than she had been last night, and Vergil couldn't help but feel a little relieved. By the time she'd returned, Vergil had fallen asleep on the sofa, and she was already up when he awoke this morning. Part of him wondered if she had even slept.
"And your excuse for being here?" Vergil asked, somewhat teasingly.
"To make sure you don't accidentally kill the kid?" Lady answered with a shrug.
"In that case, why not just leave her with you?"
"We're just excited to welcome Dante back, that's why we're here, right?" Alisa proposed, grinning at Lady.
"Yeah, that's it! Good job," Lady said, giving Alisa a thumbs up.
"Dante is going to notice if we're not careful…" Vergil said, turning to stir the coffee.
"If you're that worried, then why not just tell him?" Lady suggested. "I only said not to because I wanted to save you the embarrassment." She watched as Vergil's shoulders tensed up and his grip on the spoon he was holding tightened.
"...No," he said at last. "Not yet."
Lady let out a sigh of relief and walked over to him. "You have no idea how happy I am you just said that," she said, prising the spoon from his grip before he ended up snapping it in half.
"But you just said-"
"I lied," Lady grinned, twiddling the spoon. "I wanted to check how you really felt about the matter. Truth is, I'd be happy if he never found out."
"What's wrong with people finding out?" Alisa asked. "You guys are so cute together!"
"Gross," Lady said, pulling a pretend expression of disgust. "We're anything but cute, right Vergil?"
"Cute certainly isn't the word I would use…" Vergil agreed, blushing slightly. "As for why…" he glanced over at Lady, who looked back at him expectantly. "Well, I can't say for certain why Mary doesn't want to let him know, but for me it's because I feel that the endless teasing from Dante would be far too much to bear. That and…"
"And?" Lady asked.
"...I'm concerned about how Nero would react," Vergil said seriously. "I feel like he would not take too kindly to the idea."
"I dunno, Nero's usually pretty chill," Alisa said. "Except for when he's telling me off that is…"
"I think Vergil's got a point," Lady agreed. "Honestly, I was mainly worried about upsetting Dante, but now that Vergil's mentioned it, I'd rather Nero doesn't find out either."
"I'm glad we're in agreement," Vergil nodded. Upsetting? he thought. Interesting. "Let's just keep things natural and everything will be fine."
"Sounds good to me," Lady said. "In that case…" she glanced around quickly. "Hey kid, turn around for a sec would ya?"
"What is it?" Vergil asked as Lady reached up and snaked her arms around his neck.
"I just figured I'd better get a few more of these in before I can't do it anymore," she said, pulling him into a kiss. As she moved away from him she stood on her tiptoes and whispered into his ear: "I'm sorry about last night. I should have said something sooner."
"...Don't worry about it," Vergil said, embracing her tightly. "I... should have realised."
"The heck happened in here?! " a familiar voice suddenly called out from the direction of the shop's entrance. Vergil and Lady pushed each other away faster than Alisa could drop her spoon in surprise.
"Dante?!" Lady responded, straightening her shirt and hoping she didn't look too flushed.
"What did you do to my shop?!" Dante asked, looking around at the fresh paintwork and newly fitted kitchen. "You better not have touched my room!"
"Welcome back, brother," Vergil said coldly, stalking over to him. "You're early."
Dante's eyes finally came to rest on his slightly disheveled looking sibling. "Yeah sorry about that - I kinda forgot time differences were a thing," he grinned.
"Give it to me," Vergil demanded, holding his hand out.
"Huh? Oh, right," Dante rummaged around in his coat. "Here ya go!" he exclaimed, placing a small snow globe into Vergil's extended palm. "All the way from the down under," Dante added with a smile. Vergil angrily tossed the plastic trinket aside before punching Dante in the stomach. Hard . Alisa let out a gasp behind them as Dante doubled over and started coughing, trying to catch his breath.
"I see spending yet another year in Hell has done little to humble you," Vergil growled, grabbing the sheathless Yamato as it clattered to the floor. He let out a horrified gasp as he saw how dirtied its blade was.
"I see spending a year without your powers has done little to make you less of an ass," Dante retorted once he had steadied himself.
"Welcome back Dante," Lady sighed, walking over and helping him to his feet.
"I have not been without my powers," Vergil growled. Not entirely anyway... He walked over to the other side of the office and retrieved his beloved sword's sheath from beneath the desk. Lady had still had it with her when the portal had closed, and he had been longing to reunite the two halves of his weapon ever since.
"Whatever you say," Dante said. He raised his right hand and watched with satisfaction as the sheath was yanked from Vergil's grasp moments before the Yamato slid inside.
"What-" Vergil asked in confusion. He looked up to see Dante holding the sheath in the air
"By the way, a few things have changed since I've been gone," Dante grinned, throwing the covering back to his brother. Lady slowly stepped away from him and went to join Vergil next to the desk.
"What are you talking about?" Vergil asked, finally sheathing his weapon.
"Remember all that demonic energy we were trying to get rid of?" Dante started to explain. "And how we figured it had to go somewhere after destroying the building?"
"No way…" Lady said quietly, looking Dante up and down.
"That's right!" Dante said, pointing at himself. "Given that most of it was stolen from the Sparda bloodline anyway, I guess it just felt more at home in-"
"Impossible!" Vergil called out angrily. "You wouldn't even look human if that were the case!"
"And I… we didn't," Dante said seriously. "Why do you think it took us so long to come back?"
"Nero…" Vergil muttered. "Is he…?"
"He's fine," Dante said. "He went straight home to Kyrie, just like we discussed."
"I don't understand," Lady said, frowning slightly. She realised that she was standing too close to Vergil and moved away a little.
"To cut a year long story short," Dante said, glancing over at Alisa who he had only just realised was sitting in the kitchen, "We pretty much stayed in Devil Trigger form the whole time in an attempt to burn off all the excess energy. I won't lie and say it was easy, but it seems to have worked. Plus I ended up with some extra powers, so I'm not gonna complain too much!"
"Devil Trigger for an entire year…" Vergil said, shaking his head. He walked over to his brother and reluctantly held his hand out. "You made it back faster than I fear I would have in a similar situation," he said as Dante took his hand and gave it a firm shake. "...Congratulations on your return."
"Maybe the old you would have struggled," Dante said seriously, patting his brother on the shoulder. "But with how you are now, you'd have been back in six months, tops."
"Perhaps…" Vergil said reluctantly, pulling away. He cleared his throat. "Thank you for... looking after Nero."
"Hey, if anything he was the one looking after me!" Dante chuckled. "I don't think I'd have made it without him and his constant nagging about getting back to Kyrie."
Vergil smiled slightly, an unexpected sense of pride welling in his chest. He would have to make sure to visit Nero as soon as dealing with other commitments allowed him to do so. Plus, given how desperate Kyrie had been for Nero's return, now didn't exactly seem like the right time. "Speaking of looking after ," he said at last. "Do you remember Alisa?" Vergil pointed towards the young girl that was still sitting at the kitchen table, staring wide-eyed at the trio.
"You bet I do!" Dante said, walking over. "It's not often you lose your entire armoury to a toddler."
"Hey!" Alisa protested. "I'm eight years old ya know!"
"Whatever, kid," Dante replied, yanking open an overhead cupboard and grabbing a pack of biscuits. "So what, you guys adopted her or...?" Dante asked, shoveling a handful of custard creams into his mouth.
"No!" Lady and Vergil both protested simultaneously.
"Nico adopted me," Alisa explained. "These guys are just watching me while she's busy."
"Is that how it is?" Dante asked, eyeing the pair with suspicion as he continued to empty the packet. "Watch you together a lot, do they?"
Lady opened her mouth to say something, but Alisa butted in with her explanation before Lady could get a sound out. "It's normally just Lady," she said. "But we were so excited to see you again that we decided to spend the night here."
"Uh huh…" Dante continued, downing one of the mugs of coffee that Vergil had been preparing. "Seems like it would have been easier to just come over in the afternoon if ya ask me, but who am I to judge?" He started rifling through the cupboards again, muttering about things being out of place.
Lady walked over and slammed the door of the cupboard he was currently looking through shut. "How about we prepare you a proper meal?" she offered. "You must be starving."
"Thanks for the offer, but I'm beat," Dante said, stretching. "I think I'll sleep first, I can always eat later. I was just looking for something to take the edge off."
"You sure?" Lady asked, looking up at him. There was definitely something different about him, and it made her feel mildly uncomfortable. That and she was slowly beginning to realise that he smelled pretty bad. "Maybe you should start with a shower…"
"I'm good," Dante said, ruffling her hair, much to her irritation.
"Hey, what the heck?" she asked, trying to straighten her bangs back to normal. Behind her, Vergil tensed up slightly at the unexpected contact between them.
"Sorry," Dante apologised. "I started doing it to Nero a while back. Hard habit to break I guess!" He looked over at Vergil and grinned. "He's a great kid, you should be proud!"
"Do not do that again," Vergil said coldly, his hand resting on the hilt of the Yamato.
"It's fine…" Lady said nervously, looking between them.
"Alright, jeez… I'm heading to bed," Dante said, trying to read Vergil's expression. "Sorry for being a bore, I'll play with you guys later if you're happy to stick around..." The brothers continued to maintain eye contact as Dante made his way over to the hidden door leading to his bedroom. "It's good to be back," he said, before slipping inside.
"Great job at being subtle," Lady grumbled as she started to clear away the dishes from breakfast.
"Hm?" Vergil queried absently. He was inspecting the Yamato closely, trying to work out if there were any chips in its blade, or if it was all just grime.
"Don't do that again ," Lady said mockingly. "What kind of reaction was that?"
"I didn't want him touching you with those filthy hands," Vergil said, not looking away from his beloved sword.
"We both know that's not how it came across," Lady huffed.
"It doesn't matter," Vergil said, glancing up at last. "He can't prove anything."
"That's not-" Lady sighed. "Maybe I should just take Alisa back to my place for now."
"But Dante said he'd hang out with us when he woke up!" Alisa protested.
"Knowing him, that'll probably be tomorrow," Lady said, helping Alisa down from her chair. "C'mon, get your coat. We'll let Nico know where to pick you up."
"...Have I upset you somehow?" Vergil asked, blocking the pair's path as they tried to leave the kitchen.
"No more than usual," Lady said, playfully sticking her tongue out when Vergil looked down at her with a hurt expression. "It's fine," she clarified. "I just don't want to draw any more suspicion than we already have."
"But Dante-" Vergil paused and cocked his head slightly. Lady looked up at him quizzically. She was just about to ask what was wrong, when Vergil suddenly whipped his head towards Dante's bedroom door and sent a spectral sword flying towards it. There was a muffled grunt from the other side as the blade dissipated. Vergil marched over and yanked the door open. Dante stood crouched over slightly, leaning against the wall. "I do not appreciate eavesdroppers," Vergil growled.
"I wasn't eavesdropping," Dante said, straightening up. "I just forgot something…"
"And what was that?" Vergil asked.
"My… uh…" Dante glanced around frantically. "My snowglobe!" he said, his eyes settling on the small ornament that was still lying on the floor next to the desk.
"I thought that was for me?" Vergil said, crossing his arms.
"Well you clearly didn't appreciate it, so it's mine now," Dante retorted, pushing past his brother. He glanced over at Lady and Alisa as he bent down to retrieve it. "Leaving already?"
"We thought it would be best to let you rest," Lady said, heading towards the front doors. "The last thing you need is a kid running around."
"How very thoughtful of you, thanks!" Dante said, walking over and pulling Lady into a tight hug. "I've really missed you guys, you know."
"Um… It's no problem?" Lady said stiffly. She was frozen in place with her arms pinned by her sides, unsure how to react. Over Dante's shoulder, she could see Vergil glaring at them, the slightest hint of a blue flame visible in his eyes.
"Seriously," Dante said, pulling back but still resting his hands on Lady's upper arms. "We should go out for dinner sometime. To catch up properly, y'know?"
"That's -" Vergil began to growl behind them.
"A nice idea!" Lady interrupted. "We should invite Trish too, and maybe the others! You'd better find a way to pay for it though!" she said, laughing nervously.
"Alright then, it's a date!" Dante said, winking a bit too obviously at her. He turned to face Vergil with a smug grin. "I suppose you're invited too, if you feel like it."
"...We'll see," Vergil said, removing his hand from where it had been gripping the Yamato's hilt. "Perhaps you should focus on resting first."
"Oh yeah, that was a thing," Dante nodded. "All right then, I'll catch you later!" He gave Lady and Alisa a quick salute before running back to his bedroom.
"That wretch," Vergil hissed as Dante's door slammed shut.
"He was just trying to be nice," Lady said, shivering slightly.
"You know damn well that's not what he was doing," Vergil said, walking over to Lady. "When has he ever behaved in such a manner before? He was clearly trying to trigger a reaction."
"And it worked," Alisa piped up between them. "You guys need to relax more, 'specially you," she said, jabbing a finger at Vergil.
"Silence, child," Vergil said, pushing her hand away. He looked into Lady's eyes. "If he does anything that makes you uncomfortable, you should do something about it," he said seriously.
"I do," Lady replied. "I've known that dumbass for years, I can handle myself around him." She glanced over at Dante's door. "Normally a move like that would have resulted in a bullet through the forehead," she whispered. "But first of all, there's a kid here, and second of all, he has just returned from Hell - I figured I should probably cut him some slack for a while."
"That's no excuse," Vergil stated. "You weren't so lenient towards me when I came back from Hell."
"There's a difference between hugging your friends and trying to stab someone at every opportunity," Lady retorted, placing her hands on her hips. "Or did you forget the first year we spent together after your return?"
"Was Dante like this back then, too?" Vergil asked. His memory of his first year back on Earth was somewhat fuzzy.
"Well, no," Lady admitted. "But people change, you know? I mean… just look how far you've come…"
Vergil tutted and looked away in embarrassment. "My point still stands," he said at last. "If he bothers you again, don't just take it. You can…" he huffed. "...You can always ask me for assistance if you need it."
"I'll think about it," Lady said, smiling slightly. "For now, I'm outta here. I'll call you later."
Vergil just grunted in response and gave a slight nod before heading towards the stairs. He heard the front doors of Devil May Cry slam shut behind him and sighed. He checked over his shoulder to make sure they were definitely gone, then headed to his room.
A/N - Dante has returned!
Hope you enjoyed chapter two! There's slightly more plot progression next chapter so that's something to look forward to haha~
I have a few more chapters done already, so I'll try to update fairly regularly when I can. I do start a new job next week however, and have to finish writing the rest of the story, so if updates slow down I do apologise - please bear with me! Thanks for reading! ^_^