Chapter 8: Everything you need

The sound of the bathroom door opening made Nero look up from the newspaper and what he saw made him look right back down in a blink. Dante was walking out of the bathroom, his black zip-up shirt nowhere to be found, red denim pants still unbuttoned and unzipped, drying his hair with a towel as puffs of steam followed him from the open bathroom door. Something about it was making Nero feel a bit shy. He wasn't expecting Dante to be so… carefree around people.

Trish rolled her eyes as the sight of Dante, knowing him well enough to know he was trying to impress someone, and it definitely wasn't her. She decided it was probably best to give the boys privacy.

She counted and took some bills from Dante's part of the money that was still on the table from before. "I'm taking what you owed me, we're clear for now. Call me if you need anything." Trish waved at the boys and made her way ever so elegantly out the door. "Have a lovely day, boys."

"Yeah, yeah." Dante dismissed her, walking over to the desk. As he was buttoning and zipping up his red jeans, he noticed that Nero's money was still there. Glancing over at his direction, he saw Nero looking at the adverts, looking as busy as ever. He knew the situation immediately so he walked over to the couch and dropped the small deck of money on top of the newspaper.

Nero looked up at Dante, the sudden surprise and the sight above him making his heart race. He didn't know why he was reacting the way he was on the inside, but it felt strange and new. Their eyes met, and Nero's cheeks were suddenly a few shades darker than before.

"You should probably keep your cash off the desk. Or it's gonna start disappearing, like mine did just now." He smiled at the sight below him. Nero looked down at the money in front of him. "And you should put on a shirt." He smirked at his own snarky remark, regretting saying it already.

Dante noticed Nero's flustered expression immediately. Although Nero tried his best to appeared chill and not give a damn about Dante being shirtless and still somehow wet right there in front of him, Dante read his embarrassment clearly. And yes, he was enjoying himself way too much. He wanted to get that exact reaction out of the younger hunter.

'What the hell am I doing,' he thought to himself. He wasn't acting like himself around Nero, and it was becoming pretty apparent.

He chuckled at Nero's remark about being shirtless and ran the towel that was hanging around his neck through his hair once again and let it slide back to his shoulders. He approached the couch, ready to sit down.

Nero noticed Dante's move so he scooched over a bit and gave him space to sit.

"Stop looking at apartments, you already have a place," Dante added and sat down next to Nero on the couch. They sat there for a moment and Nero finally took the money from the paper into his left hand, examining it.

"Dante, I can't take this. I didn't come here for your cash. This is your job, it's your paycheck."

Nero took the money and held it in front of Dante, waiting for him to take it back. He felt really intrusive again, he didn't want to give Dante the impression that he was there to take his paycheck. He already felt bad enough for staying there, let alone getting paid.

However, Dante didn't take the money. He lightly pushed Nero's hand with the money back at Nero and crossed his legs, taking the newspaper from in front of Nero. "In that case, congratulations. You're hired," Dante said in a bit of a joking manner, but he fully meant it.

"..What?" Nero took a moment to reply as he was overrun with all sorts of emotions again. This wasn't at all what he was expecting out of this whole situation. He stared at Dante in disbelief, waiting for an answer.

Dante noticed the confused look on Nero's face but he looked back down at the paper, flipping through the pages. "You're staying here, we might as well be working together and splitting the paycheck. It's only fair, right?"

Nero thought about it for a moment. "You do realise you're already letting me stay here, right?"

"Yeah."

Nero wasn't sure how else to tackle the situation. "You gotta stop being so generous. I should be paying you, not the other way around."

Dante turned his head back to face Nero. "What else were you gonna do? Find a nine to five job with that?" Dante pointed at Nero's devil bringer.

Nero looked down, hair covering his eyes so Dante couldn't tell if he was upset over his wording. He didn't respond to the question.

Dante continued in a softer voice. "You gotta relax a bit, kid. Stop taking everything so seriously." He paused for a moment and collected his thoughts.

"Here's the deal. You're gonna be coming with me on jobs when you feel like it, and when you do, you'll get your part of the paycheck. Having you around isn't gonna cost me anything, so stop worrying about that. But, if you feel that bad about it, you can make it up to me in other ways."

Nero still didn't reply. Since it was getting a little awkward, Dante clarified.

"You can do some work around this place, keep the place and the weapons clean, take some calls and so on. We'll figure something out when the time comes."

Nero nodded, his head still facing the ground. Dante couldn't read his expression.

"You can pay for the pizza when I run out of cash eventually," Dante joked, laughing.

"You know there's other food than pizza out there, right?" Nero said, noticing the other evening that the place had a surprising amount of only pizza boxes and beer bottles littered around, and Dante's plan sounded like Pizza was the only thing he had in mind for the future as well.

"Yeah, well. Pizza's good, and relatively cheap."

"Making your own food isn't exactly expensive either."

"Hah. Making your own food." Dante cackled. "Do I look like I know how to cook?"

Nero's head shot up as he figured out the best way to make it up to Dante in the long run. "I can."

Dante raised an eyebrow and gave Nero a look of surprise.

"I'm not the best at it but, I've lived on my own cooking this far so it can't be that awful."

Dante was surprised, seeing Nero's mood change so fast. "Sounds like we've got a plan."

Nero smiled. "Yeah."

"Great." Dante smiled and closed the newspaper he wasn't actually interested in, to begin with. He placed it back in the coffee table and stood up from his chair, looking back at Nero. "I'll get dressed, you set up the pool table."

And Nero did just that. Dante ditched the towel and put on a fresh black button up. They ordered some pizza, played pool and poker late into the evening until they closed the office and decided it was time to catch some sleep. Nero headed for the shower and Dante upstairs. It was a good day to start their new business partnership.