Guess whose back with another update. I'm pretty surprised how fast this one came out especially since while part way through this chapter I got an idea for another fan fiction (a DMC crossover fic) and had to stop to write down a brief outline since it was not going to let me go until I did. But don't worry I'm not going to even attempt to start another fan fiction story atm since I really should be working on my orignal stuff more and I feel I'll have enough trouble just keeping up with this one lol.
I'd like to thank everyone who read the last chapter, the amount of vistors was really surprising and I even got two reviews in the short time since I wrote it Yay! I'm going to reply to them both here since I find it easier than PMing.
reddevil47-Thanks for commenting. I'm glad you like the story and yes I'm sure I'll get used to the realistic models. Honestly as long as the story is good I'll be fairly happy since my big and only real requirement for all my games is that they have a good story.
ZER0HER0-Thank you so much for your comment, it really made my day. I'm glad you like how I'm writing Vergil considering he is the one I have the most trouble with (since I've only played DMC, DMC 4 and about 2-3 missions of DMC3, so I'm relying on what I've pieced together about his character from others and fan fics). Please let me know if I make anyone too OC since I want them to be fairly in charcter with a little breathing room for personal growth of course. They have to develop a little otherwise we'd still have DMC3 Dante shirtless and all :P
Okay moving on, this chapter was really fun to write and was one I've been looking forward too. I actually re-read my previous chapter before starting on a new one and noticed how many spelling and grammical mistakes where in chapter 6 (I'm so sorry *cries*). I will go back and edit it one day along with my other chapters that I reread before starting chapter 6 (It had been a year since the last update and I kinda forgot where I was up to *sweat drops*). When I do I will make note on each one in the A/N somewhere of it been edited, the date and the reason why.
Anyway hope you enjoy the new chapter.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Devil May Cry or any of it's characters as I would have made Dante crave pizza with pineapple on it *Muahahah* But it's really delicious no matter what anyone says.
Devil Children
Chapter 7
The mood in the beaten up red camera could best be described as a cold war that would be ready to ignite into a blazing inferno at any moment.
Nero had pretty much crashed as soon as he gotten into the car. Too worn out from the events of the past two days and his injuries to keep his eyes open.
His head had unconsciously made itself comfortable on the red devils shoulder, who upon seeing how exhausted the kid looked decided to cut him a break for once and leave him in peace.
Every now and then he caught the angry looks Lady shot him in the rear view mirror while the blonde devil beside her didn't glance at him once, her gaze firmly fixed on the road in front of her.
The only sign that she was just as infuriated was the tight grip her hands had on the steering wheel.
The red hunter could only hope she didn't break it before they got back to the shop.
It would be a long walk otherwise.
Even his twin was giving him the silent treatment and while his brother wasn't talkative much at the best of times he knew trying to get him to start a conversation now was pretty pointless and likely result in him been stabbed, shot or electrocuted by one if not three of the people in the car.
So all he could do was try and adjust himself in the back seat in an effort to get himself more comfortable without jousting the kid to much and settle in for the long drive back.
Upon reaching Capulet City the tense emotions in the car had mostly cooled off, though it wasn't like Dante thought they had let him of the hook yet.
Gently reaching out and giving the teens shoulder a shake to wake him as opposed to his usual style of startling the kid awake.
Nero blinked and rubbed his eyes accidentally jabbing the red hunter in the eye with his elbow in the process.
"Oww! What the hell kid? That's what I get for waking you up nicely?"
The red devil swore as he rubbed his now stinging eye with his fingers.
"Hmmm, yeah sorry old man," the teen mumbled still half asleep, "so where are we?"
Lady was the one to answer, "Capulet City, we're nearly at the shop now."
The ex-order member nodded and rubbed his neck trying to ease his muscles that had gotten stiff from the cramped and awkward position he had been in for the past few hours.
At least he didn't feel like death warmed up now.
His wounds from the fight mostly healed, only the one on his leg still feeling a bit stiff and the weird stitch like feeling in his side that should go away by tomorrow.
At least the damned infernal ringing in his ears had stopped.
As Trish pulled up in front of the shop the guys in the back missed the small blonde eyebrow she raised and the nudge she gave the odd eyed huntress in favour of escaping from the confining hell that was the back seat.
Vergil was the first to exit, brushing down his coat and giving his hair that customary sweep back in case any strands had fallen out of place during the trip.
The teen was the next to hop out stretching until he finally managed to crack his back giving a grunt of relief.
The red twin been the last to exit catching the keys the blonde female had tossed to him with the hand that had been previously rubbing his eye that had stopped stinging a while ago but did little to stop his plans to 'get back at' the teen.
"Uh, Dante isn't that your couch over there?" The blonde female asked pointing to a pile of furniture stacked in a corner next to the Devil May Cry building.
The red devil quickly looked that way and had to admit that it really looked like his worn out rugged red couch the springs of which would occasionally jab you depending on how you sat on it.
And that there looked like his coffee table which only had three legs but was still good as long as you had some books stacked under the leg less corner.
Another piece looked like one of his pool cues which had been snapped in half by Vergil after he had gotten drunk and challenged Lady to a game where if he won she'd clear his debt and pay double if he lost.
Not one of his better decision made while drunk that was for sure.
He started to get a bad feeling as he realised that this pile of furniture didn't just look like his, it was.
Eyes swinging to the front of the building he saw his heavy, much kicked open and shot at front doors were gone and instead two big white sheets were taped to the door frame blocking the view to the inside.
"Shit, fuck, damn," he swore running to and through the make shift 'door', wondering if his landlord had finally gotten fed up with rent always been late, or unpaid and kicked him out.
The four behind him looked at each other the girls amused, the teen worried and the blue twin seemingly expressionless, before following after the panicking devil.
Entering the building the odd eyed huntress whistled, "wow you've been reverse robbed."
The moody and dusty floor that was usually covered in beer cans and pizza boxes was spotless and even waxed, while the walls which still had the grisly trophies and devil arms had been dusted and de-cobwebbed.
The furniture had been replaced with brand new and obviously not secondhand or dumpster gotten pieces that had previously been acquired and was now obviously tossed outside.
The only pieces that seemed to have still remained from before apart from the devil arms and trophies which no sane person would have tried to touch anyway, was the juke box in the corner that was no longer dented and seemed to have been fixed given it was currently playing some heavy rock song and the massive desk the red hunter liked to rest his feet on most of the time.
It was at this desk Dante had ran to first upon entering the building breathing a sigh of relief at seeing Eva's photo untouched and in it's usual position next to the antique phone that was their lifeline for business and take out deliveries.
Nero gapped in shock for a few moments shocked like the rest at the sudden fairy godmother like magic that had currently taken place in the Devil May Cry office.
"I never knew this place could look so…so…"
"Clean, normal, functional?" The blue twin supplied wiping a finger along the new coffee table and raising a slightly impressed eyebrow when it came away dust free and that the wood was even lemon scented. "Not like the cesspool of alcohol, food, dirt, mold and filth it was previously."
"Uh, yeah," the teen replied giving the cushions of the new plush red leather couch a nudge only barely able to contain a breathy moan as his hand sank into it and wasn't immediately stabbed by a rusty spring.
"Seems like whoever's moved in has better taste and manners not to mention work sense then unlike someone else we know," the blonde said noticing some of the few additional details that had been added to the room like the filing cabinet near the desk a wooden notice board above it and at near the front of the shop.
Dante snorted at that, "hey my style is perfect thank you, and the place wasn't that bad."
Four sets of eyes gave him 'are you serious' stares, which the red devil ignored for all of 5 seconds before caving.
"Okay so maybe it wasn't the most well kept but it's not like any of you did anything about it."
The others shrugged at this, "I wasn't going to clean up after you old man."
"Same."
"You're not a child, learn to deal with you own mess."
The teen, blonde and blue twin replied.
"I would have just burnt the place down," Lady grumbled.
She'd attempted once to pick up some of the trash the slob of a hunter left lying over the shops floor but after witnessing not one but three cockroaches scurry out of the old pizza box she picked up she'd given and a girlish squeal and back away in a rush.
There had been many bullet holes added that day, and she hadn't gone back to the shop for a month until the nightmares of black brown creepy crawlies had finally disappeared.
From that day she never made a move to clean the place again choosing to ignore the carnage around her if it meant she didn't disturb the hiding place of anything better left unknown about.
Trish gave her a comforting pat on the shoulder.
She'd heard all about the horrors of that day and even she would admit that she'd probably have wanted to burn this place to the ground if that had happened to her to, devil or not.
The red hunter pouted at the lack of sympathy he received and sat in the new office chair behind his desk which was 'damn' comfortable he had to grudgingly admit.
Resting his feet on the desk he went to reach for a magazine that usually littered it's surface so he could ignore the pair of harpies talking crap about him when he realised something was off.
Sitting up with a huff he scattered the neatly arranged pens and papers from the desk as he attempted to find what should have been there but wasn't.
The blue twin scowled as his younger twin managed to reduce the once tidy desk to an utter mess in mere moments.
"What is it now Dante? Is it biologically impossible for you to not trash a room in minutes of entering it?"
"My mags! My magazines are gone!"
"Magazines? You mean that mix of firearms and scantily clad women you used to use as an eye mask?"
Vergil asked confused as to why his brother seemed to care about such worthless attempts at literature.
No, you couldn't even call that garbage literature.
The red devil nodded eyes still scanning the desk in case there may have been something he missed. "Yeah and some of them were pretty old too, I'll never find them again. Maybe they're outside with the rest of the furniture."
He stood up getting ready to tear apart the stack of furniture outside when a voice said, "In the desk draw, sorry I can't show you at the moment, I'm a bit preoccupied. Oh and welcome back."
Pausing slowly taking in what the mysterious voice had said he turned back round and opened up the top draw.
Nope, nothing but spare notepads and office supplies.
Closing it he moved onto the second draw.
Zilch, this one just had spare ammo, clips and the tools he used to clean and maintain his guns.
Third times the charm he thought and opened the third draw.
Bingo!
In all its holy or unholy glory depending on how you thought about it, was his magazines.
Sighing with relief for the second time in the past few minutes he curiously realised that not only were the magazines sorted by type but by genre and date too.
'Wow, never knew you could sort porn mags by kink' he thought not sure whether to be impressed or creeped decided to settle on amused, closing the draw now that he had identified that his collection was safe and lookedto the back room where the voice had come from.
The others followed realising that with everything that had happened during the mission and afterwards they'd forgotten what happened before and who must have really fixed the place up.
Nero rested his head in his hands.
How had he completely forgotten his long lost and previously unknown about twin sister was here.
He was totally failing as a big brother, not that he had any prior experience since even with his adopted family he was the youngest.
The girls gave him looks of pity before pushing past him to see what was occupying the newest devil to have joined the office.
Dante grabbed the teen by the shoulder and nodding at his brother to follow which the blue twin reluctantly did, went after the girls.
"Sorry about not saying hi when we came in Shrimp, but looks like you managed to keep yourself busy," the red devil said before freezing in shock along with the others in the room at the sight in front of him.
It wasn't the fact that the kitchen was spotless, sporting what appeared to be a new stove, microwave, toaster, kettle, fridge, freezer and other appliances he didn't know the name off.
Or the lavish eight seater dining table that took up much of the previous empty space that had once filled the dining portion of the room.
It wasn't the sweet smell that filled the air and actually caused his stomach to rumble reminding him he hadn't eaten anything since those sandwich's at the kids ex's house.
No none of this was what had rendered them speechless.
It was a girl covered with a sleeveless red hoodie, now also wearing a frilly pink apron over it, long white hair tied up in a loose messy bun, humming along to the music coming from the jukebox as they rolled out what seemed to be cookie dough on the kitchen counter, a streak of flour across her cheek.
Before any of their brain cells started working again the oven dinged, which was something the red devil was unaware they could do until then.
The female teen wiped her hands on a table cloth lying close by and placing an oven mitt on her human hand opened the oven door, pulling out a hot tray of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies.
Using her devil bringer, as she had decided to refer to it now given that was what her twin called it, to remove the still hot treats from the tray and place them a a plate to cool.
Done she set the tray aside and placed the plate of scrumptious snacks in the middle of the kitchen table.
Taking off the oven mitt she looked at the group gazing at her in stunned amazement.
Tilting her head to the side she wondered what could have caused them to make that expression.
Trish managed to snap out of it first.
"Sorry it took so long, the job was a bit more complicated then we originally thought. Looks like you managed to keep yourself busy though."
The white haired huntress shook her head, "no that's fine, things tend to go a bit unexpected when it comes to demons. I didn't do too much, just some…Ah…."
Shiro stopped speaking a look of realisation crossing her face.
"S-Shiro? What is it?" the ex-order member asked concerned that something bad had happened while they hadn't been here.
Could demons have attacked?
Or had she decided she no longer wanted to stay here?
Was she going to leave?
No that couldn't happen, he may not have sorted out how he felt about this whole situation yet but he didn't want her to go either.
Worse case scenarios running through his head he nearly missed her next words.
"I know it was rude and I'm only a guest here and thus overstepping my boundaries. And it's not like I'm ungrateful for your hospitality and for providing a roof over my head. I know you're busy with your business and eliminating demons which is a benefit for all human kind and is a most important job and should be your primary focus and I respect you for that….but…"
"But?" Dante supplied looking the teenage huntress in the eyes.
"…but some of the stuff looked like it would break at any moment and others obviously had and it was just so messy and stuff was growing that didn't look natural and small creatures were wandering around and before I knew it I… I sort of ended up cleaning and fixing up the whole place. I just couldn't stand the idea of those things been here," the white haired girl continued, shuddering.
Lady nodded symyptathically, she could totally relate to the girl.
A burst of laughter filled the room and the red twin quickly walked towards the slightly dead eyed teen who flinched expecting to be yelled at but instead ended having her hair ruffled by the elder devil.
"Seriously? Don't worry about it small fry. In fact you did us a big favour, so thanks."
Still fairly amused at the fact a part demon could be traumatised by some cockroaches, he gave her hair one last rub before deciding to heed his rumbling stomach.
Grabbing one of the still warm cookies he shoved it in his mouth.
"Ah hot hot, but mmmm it's good. Haven't eaten anything in what feels like forever. I should ring up a pizza or six."
He quickly grabbed another cookie about to head to the phone as the girl in front of him raised a hand to her head still a little confused by his actions.
"Um your welcome…I have some food from last night in the fridge if you don't mind me reheating it."
Before the red devil could reply or leave the room he had been grabbed by his coat and hauled to a stop by Trish who turned to smile at the white haired girl.
"That would be lovely sweetie. We're all a bit famished since we haven't really had time to eat anything since we left."
There was only so much pizza she or any of them could take and if she had to listen to a certain devil complain about how the pizza guys had it out for him because they had put olives on his pizza despite been told not to one more time, she was liable to shoot him.
"Nah, don't put yourself out shortie, pizza will be fin….." the red twin started saying before a gun barrel was pressed to his head.
"Shut up, sit down and god's above if you even attempt to leave this room and pick up that phone receiver you will be shot," the blonde devil told him darkly.
Dante glanced at the others to see that they were giving him the same looks and even had their hands on their own weapons, ready to use them if he made even one more step.
Nodding he quickly did as he was told.
Shiro looked at them curious as to what that had been about for a second before nodding and grabbing some food from the fridge and heating it up in the microwave.
Leaving it to heat up she went back to her cookie dough starting to cut out some shapes in it, on eye keeping an eye on the food been reheated.
Still scowling at his previous treatment the red twin reached for another chocolate chip snack to ease the ravenous void that was his stomach currently, only for his hand to be slapped away by his twin.
"Manners, it is rude to snack before a meal," Vergil replied snidely, taking a small amount of pleasure as the indignant look his brother gave him.
Sitting back in his chair with a huff the red devil crossed his arms refusing to look at any of them until a plate of steaming lasagna was placed in front of him.
Barely able to keep from drooling at the delicious scent that wafted from the food he looked up to Shiro placing one full and one quarter full tray of lasagne beside the plate of cookies.
"It's not much but I hope you're okay with it. Feel free to help yourself to seconds if you wish. Oh? What drink would you each like? I almost forgot to get you some." The female teen said looking at them expectantly.
"Um some beer, if you don't mind," the red hunter sheepishly replied still startled by what was probably the first real home cooked meal he had had in years.
Nodding the girl went to quickly get him a beer from the fridge even popping the top for him before placing it down.
Dante took a swig from the beverage trying to ease the dry feeling in his throat, blinking as he realised that this was the same brand he usually got.
The girls thanked Shiro as she placed water in front of them having been immediately shot down when they told her they would be happy to get their own.
She turned her eyes to the blue twin who had been silent this whole time.
"Nothing for me," the blue devil said without removing his gaze from the food in front of him.
While it couldn't be called five star or even restaurant quality it was a welcome change from anything his brother had provided.
He had taken to eating out or settling for some fruit or toast the ex-order member would occasionally offer him.
He'd been surprised when the boy had offered after the first day until he had explained that if you didn't want to have pizza morning, noon and night, you'd have to source your own food.
The blue twin had briefly wondered how long he'd been forced to put up with his brothers eating habits until finally buckling under the trauma before taking the teen up on his offer.
Occasionally if he had eaten out he would bring some food back for the young devil in exchange, much to the boy's relief since his meals usually were either cereal, toast, some kind of sandwich, fruit or some kind of instant food.
Which was still better then living solely on pizza.
It must be the demon genes the red devil had that hadn't caused him to die of malnutrition or cholesterol poisoning long ago.
Shiro kept looking at him for a moment, the blue hunter about to snap before she gave a small hum and went to the liquor cabinet.
She soon returned with a whine glass and a bottle of red before she uncorked the bottle and placed a filled glass in front of him.
The blue twin frowned and stared at it like it was a demon head she had placed in front of him before reluctantly picking it up and examining it.
Raising the glass to his nose he raised an eye brow before taking a tentative sip.
Looking at the girl still holding the wine bottle in her hands and watching apprehensively the blue devil placed the glass down and took his knife and fork in hand.
"This will be fine."
The female devil nodded and set the bottle to his side before turning to the last person at the table.
"Anything's fine, thanks Shiro," the ex-order member said swiping his nose with a tinge of embarrassment.
Any other time he'd be tempted to try and swipe some of the old man's beer but he couldn't really ask her for that now.
"The kid drinks soft drink," the red devil supplied already halfway through his piece of lasagna.
Nero turned to glare at the elder who poked a tongue out at him.
Damn old man was totally making fun of him.
"Here you go nii-san," the young huntress said placing a can of coke in front of him.
He took a sip of the drink and seeing the smirk the old man sported gave him a swift kick under the table.
The red devil cursed and rubbed his now tender shin as the teen gave Shiro a smile, "thanks."
Dante rubbed his stomach happily having just finished his fifth helping.
Everyone had seconds with the half devils having had thirds.
All in all the meal had been delicious and the stress left over from the mission had rapidly faded leaving them all in a currently good mood.
The long haired teen was in the middle of washing up arms buried in a pile of bubbles from the sink.
"See old man, pizza isn't the only food group out there," the ex-order member said poking fun at the red devil.
Taking another swig of beer the elder hunter shrugged, "yeah sure kid but it's still up the top of the best foods of all time."
Everyone just rolled their eyes at this, knowing that nothing would ever change the red devil from his ungodly obsession with said food.
"Hmmm, if you really want some pizza I can make it for you sometime," Shiro told him scrubbing a plate.
The red twin turned his head towards he so fast it was a surprise his neck hadn't snapped.
"You can make pizza?"
"Uh sure, though it may not be quite the same as what your used to and I might need to look up a few things. I'm pretty sure traditionally a stone oven is best but you can use a normal one to," the girl replied thinking she might need to check out a few recipes since she hadn't made one before though she did know the basic concept and it should be too hard to do.
Dante had stooden up at this point.
"With everything but olives?"
"Um yes," the young huntress said putting the dish in the rack and giving him a bewildered look since it was so simple to do as she just had to not put any on the pizza.
Much to the girls surprise the red hunter walked over and hugged her and when she tried to get away to avoid getting any bubbles on his clothes but his grip was like a vice.
"You mini angel. Never ever, ever, ever leave," the red devil said choking with emotion.
The others at the dining table just watched in amazement.
Just how much did the illustrious second son of Sparda hate olives for him.
Didn't he realise the reason every pizza place still put them on his order was harassment for never paying his tab.
"Um….okay?" Shiro replied questionably not sure what was going on with the elder hunter who squeezed her tighter.
If the pizza was as good as the lasagna the girl had cooked and didn't have olives he would never ever have to call for another one again.
Okay so thats chapter 7. Like I said in the top A/N this was a real blast to write. It somehow ended up the second longest chapter after the previous despite it having no fights or real drama involved at all. It may seem a bit fillery (yes I made that word up) but it is kind of important to the plot in developing a place for Shiro among the gang and setting up some key points of her character that will be touched upon and explored in more detail in future chapters. Plus in all honesty I love writing the guys all interacting with each other and the shop really needed a make over. It'd be really sad for a girl to live there in it's usual state don't cha think?
On another note I'm thinking of having a status note for my work (and any others I may cave in to and start writing) so you can see how far I'm into the next chapter and have a rough estimate when it should be up. I'm never going to promise to have any chapter up and out by a set date or time because I feel it's really mean when it isn't plus the pressure and stress isn't something I want to deal with. I write for my own enjoyment and while I do want to make a career out of it someday I don't want to feel like a student who has a deadline for an assignment and rush out something I won't be happy with. Thats not to say I don't mind people commenting and saying they can't wait for the next update or when will it be out since it really does motivate me to write it faster. I just like working on my own schedule. Anyhoo...
So basically what the status will be like is something like this.
Example:
Devil Children: Chapter #-Plotted/started/halfwritten/almost done/done but getting one last check before posting.
Or something along those lines. Pretty basic but at least it will give you some heads up. And this feature will be more useful for when I'm working on more then one chapter at a time anyway. That been said I have got the plot for Devil Children written up to Chapter 15 (with some ideas for future chapters I have to somehow fit in to some sort of timeline) so it's mainly just be sitting down and writing the next few chapters at this point in time. Though I have no idea how long this story is going to be so could be interesting *sweatdrops*.