Chapter 7: Take it

It ended up taking them a few hours to find all the nests spread across town and to take them out one by one. It ended up being a pleasant job. It wasn't too much work, yet it was just enough to give them a bit of a workout. Both of them enjoyed fighting side by side and figuring out each other's techniques. They finally arrived back at the office after collecting their payment for the job they did.

Dante opened the double doors carelessly, counting the cash they got. Nero followed closely after him.

"Finally. I was waiting-" Trish began and paused as she was hit with a surprise she was not expecting. She did not anticipate a second figure to follow Dante through the office doors. She was sitting on the edge of Dante's desk, her neck tilted a bit to the side so she could get a closer look at whoever was approaching her. "Oh."

She smiled when she realised who it was.

Dante didn't bother to look up at her, still counting. "What do you want?" He didn't really seem to care about the answer.

Nero stepped out from behind Dante, feeling a little bit embarrassed. He subconsciously hid his already covered devil bringer behind his back and out of her sight. He nodded Trish's way in greeting, but being Nero, he didn't make direct eye contact with her for longer than a moment, his eyes trying to focus on the space around him. He didn't expect anyone but Dante to be around the office.

Trish folded her arms as Dante sat down on the chair by his desk, mumbling something while trying to recount his cash. Her eyes moved from Nero to Dante. "I didn't know you had company." She gave a devilish look and waited for him to reply.

Dante raised an eyebrow her way, something about the look was telling him Trish has been picking up on his recent thought regarding the younger hunter. She did have a sense for that stuff, she always read him like an open book with massive bold letters despite Dante never expressing his true thoughts to anyone. He wasn't expecting Trish to care about Nero's presence, but she seemed a lot more interested than he thought she would be. He sighed, splitting the deck of cash into two approximately even parts and beckoned to Nero to come over to the desk.

He finally answered Trish. "Yeah, well, now you know."

Nero came over as asked. When Dante slid one of the decks of money along the desk's surface over to him, he gave Dante a questioning look. "Wait, what? No, I'm not taking it."

Dante looked up at him, their eyes met. "Of course you are."

He didn't really give Nero time to complain as he stood up and headed straight for the bathroom, giving Trish a vague look of acknowledgement. "This can wait." He said to Trish, motioning towards the bathroom door.

Both Trish and Nero followed Dante with their eyes, an awkward silence surrounding the room as Dante disappeared behind the door.

Trish turned back to Nero, an intrigued look on her face. She looked him up and down in amusement. "Nero. It's been a while."

Nero left the money on the table, not wanting to just take it without discussing the situation with Dante once he was done in the shower. He knew Dante did this just to avoid confrontation by leaving Nero alone with Trish.

"Yeah, I don't believe we've properly met," he remembered the way he dismissed her daring introduction last time.

Trish looked at Nero's demon arm he was trying to keep out of her sight. "You don't have to hide your arm around here. I'm Trish. Gloria wasn't working too well for me," She jokingly said, offering her right hand and waited for Nero to shake it this time around. And after a bit of hesitation, he did.

"Yeah, well, you had me fooled," he admits as they broke the handshake after sharing a smile.

"I am good at that." Trish shuffled her position on the edge of the table a bit, crossing her arms. "So. What brings you here?"

Nero wasn't sure how to respond to her question, looking at the floor and scratching the tip of his nose, starting to feel a little bit nervous. "I had to get out of Fortuna and, uh... I happened to run into Dante on the way and, well. He insisted I come with him."

"I see. Interesting." She couldn't help but smile at the thought of Dante being lucky for once, accidentally running into the person he's been thinking of non-stop for the past few months, and bringing him home all at once.

"That explains why he wasn't around when I stopped by yesterday."

"Yeah, we got here pretty late."

She hummed back in approval, silence drawing between them again. She thought about what to say for a bit.

"Judging by the lone bag over there by the couch, I'm assuming you're staying here?"

The question made Nero even more nervous and embarrassed. He really didn't like having to explain that he's sleeping on Dante's couch because the stubborn, caring older hunter absolutely wouldn't let him stay at a hotel. Everything about that was awkward. He wanted to stay here, hell, it was his plan since he left Fortuna, he just was not going to admit it in any way, shape or form. Not happening.

"I'm only crashing here until I find a proper place to stay, shouldn't take long." He tried to play it off cool, heading over to the couch and sitting down. He started flipping through the newspaper that was on the coffee table in front of him, looking at the page containing all sorts of advertisements. He was searching for any apartment listing, trying to give the impression that he was eager to get out of this place as soon as possible.

Trish smirked at the sight, seeing right through the boy. Her demonic senses were picking up his nervous feelings despite his chill facade. She liked him already.