Chapter 2: Guess Who?

Dante has been driving for about an hour already. He was making his way back to the office from one of the harder missions he gets every now and then when hordes of demons decide to show up along with their boss. It's not like he wanted to take the job, he was downright forced to do it.

Lady came storming into Devil May Cry the previous night, waving the paper with the customer's information in his face.
"Dante, seriously. Get off your ass and start taking some of these already. How do you expect to get paid if you don't do your damn job?" She slapped the paper on top of his desk.

Dante jumped up from his relaxed position in his chair, his eyes wide open. He put his hands in the air in a surrender pose.
"Alright, jeez … Can't a guy get some time off around here?" He said, eyeing the paper lazily.

"It's a horde of basilisks, Dante. Their boss decided to join the party, too. I would if I could, but I can't take this one. I'm still only human, remember?" She folded her arms in front of her chest.
"The number is too high. Plus, I've never encountered one of these moth-like demons before. Not going to risk it. I'd ask Trish to join, but she's already taking one of these out two towns over. You might want to leave first thing in the morning too unless you want everyone dead by the time you get your lazy ass over there?"

Dante rolled his eyes and laid back on his office chair, his legs crossed on the table.
"Fine. I'll get it done. Just … go do whatever it is you do when you plant the hard ones on me."
He closed his eyes, shooing her off with one hand, the other behind his head.

Lady shook her head and made her way outside. "See you when you get paid."

Dante couldn't quite sleep that night. He kept thinking about a particular someone too much. Not just that night either. He kept dozing off lately, thinking about what Nero's been up to after he left Fortuna. He hated that they parted the way they did. I mean, Nero even asked him if they'd meet again, but Dante was just too entitled to make a dramatic exit for them to actually exchange any contact information. He hated himself for it, but maybe it was for the best. He couldn't shake the thoughts, though.

'What's he doing? Is he still with that girl? Still killing demons? How did the people accept him? If he truly does have Sparda's blood, is he Vergil's son? Did Sparda have another son? No, Nero wasn't as strong. The old shithead said he was a descendant of Sparda's blood… and not quite in my league. Whatever the hell that means. He couldn't possibly be mine, could he? No. No way. When the hell did Vergil have the time to make a goddamn kid!? And him, of all people … It's hard to imagine. Scratch that, this isn't something ANYONE wants to imagine.'

He could feel a familiar aura around Nero, and he didn't exactly know if he should feel good or bad about it. The thoughts then led to Vergil and he ended up becoming genuinely upset. He kept going back and forth on these thoughts and by the time he snapped out of it, a couple of hours have passed.
He shook his head and made his way to his bedroom upstairs, determined to at least try to get some actual sleep.

So earlier that day, though still tired as hell, he took off at the direction of the basilisk horde. He really wanted to take his bike for this one, he loved riding on long, straight roads when it came to distant missions. Tough luck, it has been raining for two days straight. He had no choice but to take the car. He didn't mind taking the car, but he preferred driving with the roof of his convertible open. It made him look twice as badass as he already was. No arguing there.

He got there in a couple of hours, took care of the horde of basilisks first and the larger moth-like demon after all the lesser demons were down. He didn't even work up a sweat with this one, he simply knew the location since the man explained it in good detail and figured a moth-like demon would be less powerful during the day as it would be at night.

"I didn't even have to figure this one's weakness out. Huh," he said, dusting off some of the dust the moth had blown his way as it blew up upon death.

He made his way to the car and started driving home. It was still raining heavily. The weather was expected for that time of the year, but he still hated rain. It just made long distance driving that much more boring.

He was driving down the road of a city in which he usually sells the unwanted devil arms he obtains on missions. The traffic was crazy, they were moving slowly down a one-way road. '

Next time, I'm taking the other road. To hell with this.' He was getting frustrated, leaning his head on his left hand. The rain had only just stopped a moment ago.

While looking at the people who were closing their umbrellas on the sidewalks to distract him from the traffic, he noticed something familiar. A familiar bright red hood and a long blue coat, just as familiar…

'Great. Not only in my dreams, I apparently also see him everywhere while I'm awake.'

He wanted to believe it was really him, but he couldn't see clearly because his red hood was covering his entire face, so Dante carefully drove up to him as the cars in front of him slowly moved forward. He wanted to see if he could get a glimpse of his right hand. If the kid's demonic arm was there, he would know it was Nero for sure.

Then, he noticed the sword case he was carrying in his left hand. It had The Order's sigil on it. Not just that, but the familiar rings Nero wears were enough for Dante to know it was him. His eyes widened, a grin on his lips. Oh, that was it. It was him, for sure. He could feel it, literally.

"Well, I'll be damned…" he said to himself, rolling down the window.
"Hey, kid!"

Nero's eyes widened, looking at the direction of the familiar voice.
"…What the-?" He said, stopping in surprise.

Dante threw him a grin, he was genuinely happy to see him again.
"What the hell are you doing out here? You're soaked, get in!"
Dante said it just loud enough for Nero to hear him, closing the window and opening the door for him to jump in.

Nero walked up to the car to close the door again, shaking his head.
"I'm not getting in your car like this. Besides, I don't even know where I'm going yet, so…Thanks, anyway." Nero said, looking away and frowning a bit, wanting to close the door. Dante pushed the door out stronger, preventing Nero from closing in.

"Just get in, I don't care if you're wet. Come on, hurry up, I gotta move." He said with a reassuring look on his face, pointing his thumb at the car that was honking behind him.

Nero hesitated for a bit, not wanting to destroy Dante's car seats. He has been walking in the rain for more than a day and was clearly drenched to the bone.
He shook his head mentally. It was Dante. He didn't really know where he was heading in the first place, but he knew he was going to find Dante eventually. He knew Dante would give him advice on where to go, or even offer him a place to stay. He helped him out before, he would do it again. So he threw his belongings at the back seat and jumped in at the passenger seat.

"There you go. Was that so hard?" Dante teased him with a big grin on his face.

Nero gave Dante a soft smile briefly but looked down quickly after.
"Yeah, well, you insisted."
He frowned, not really knowing what to say or do. He didn't really want to talk about Fortuna, but he knew he was going to have to explain why he was right there, in Dante's car, eventually.

Dante started driving as the road cleared again, but he still threw glances at Nero's direction.
"Hey, lighten up, will ya?" He paused. "You look like hell." He said, not meaning his overall appearance, but the look on Nero's face.

Nero straightened his back and started taking off his soaking coat, placing it on the floor of the car.
"Yeah… I just didn't wanna ruin your seat, that's all. Haven't slept in a few days either so, there's that."
Nero ran a hand over his face.

Dante smirked. "I already told you, I don't give a damn about the seat getting wet. I mean it, stop worrying about it."
He threw Nero a light smile and looked back at the road. He flicked on a turn signal.

"We'll stop here for a bit. Got any spare clothes in that bag? You must be uncomfortable in these." He said, parking the car at a diner parking area.

Nero nodded in Dante's direction.

"Alright then, get changed. Here, lock the car and meet me inside when you're done." Dante threw him the car keys and headed for the diner entrance.