Dante was sulking in a corner of the Devil May Cry glaring at everyone nearby. Lady, Trish, and Patty had teamed up to decorate his shop for Christmas. He wouldn't have minded a few decorations, but they were drowning the place in them. He preferred pizza boxes as decoration over the kind of stuff Patty was using. Lady picked up a pizza box and tossed it in the trash. "Hey! That still had pizza in it!" Dante complained.
"It was probably a week old, not to mention there was only one slice in it," Lady said.
"What's your point?"
"You're hopeless," Lady said while shaking her head. An hour later, they had finally finished decorating. Everybody looked happy except Dante.
"Couldn't you have used normal decorations instead of this crap?" he whined. Patty had picked out the most garishly colored decorations she could find.
"Stop whining, as soon as Christmas is over you can remove them," Trish said.
"But what if customers see them? They'll think I have terrible taste!"
"At least the Devil May Cry is clean right now, normally it's a disaster," Lady pointed out. Dante grumbled something under his breath, but everyone ignored him.
On Christmas Day
Dante was sleeping peacefully on the couch when someone started shaking him awake. "What're ya doing?" he asked drowsily.
"Wake up, lazy!" Patty shouted.
"Why should I?"
"Cause it's Christmas, stupid!"
"It is?"
"How could you forget!?"
"I finished my shopping weeks ago, so there was nothing to remind me," Dante said.
"I never remember you going Christmas shopping. And nothing to remind you? What about all the decorations!?" Patty exclaimed.
"My shopping trip was very short, and I did it while you were with your mother. As for the decorations, I was trying my best to ignore them," Dante replied.
"Whatever, just come open presents with us," Patty said impatiently.
"Fine."
"What are you hoping to get?" Patty asked.
"Maybe some cash to pay off my debts and, of course, some pizza."
"You're boring," Patty complained.
"You're annoying," Dante retorted.
"Could you please stop arguing? The rest of us would like to enjoy Christmas without you two giving us headaches," Lady said with an annoyed frown.
"Whatever," Dante said. They all sat around the Christmas tree.
"So who's gonna pass the presents?" Trish asked.
"I volunteer Dante," Lady said.
"Why me?" Dante complained.
"You're the host, so it's only right that you act as Santa," Patty declared. Dante opened his mouth to respond but Lady cut him off.
"Stop complaining and pass some presents."
"Fine..." Dante grumbled as he crawled under the tree. He handed out everyone's presents before gathering his own.
"This is a beautiful dress! Thanks so much, Trish!" Patty exclaimed.
"You're welcome, and thank you for the clothes," Trish said cheerfully. Patty received a doll from Lady, Lady received some nice clothing from Trish, and Trish received some clothing from Lady.
"What's this? More clothing... from Dante?" Lady said skeptically.
"Yep," Dante said with a grin.
I've got a bad feeling about this... Lady thought. She unfolded the clothing only to see one of the skimpiest outfits she'd ever laid eyes on. "I'll kill you!" she shouted as she started toward Dante.
"Wait! That was just a joke! Look at my other present!" Dante said quickly. She glared at him before sitting down and opening the other one.
"Keys?" she asked.
"They're for a new motorcycle," Dante said.
"Thank you, although you already owed this to me," Lady said. Trish opened the present she had received from Dante.
"Some jewelry? It's beautiful! But how did you manage to afford it?" Trish asked.
"I asked one of my female clients to give me her jewelry as payment," Dante explained.
"I should have known," Trish said with a sigh.
"Hey, give me a break, I am in debt you know. It's a miracle I got you jerks anything," Dante said. Meanwhile, Patty was opening her present from Dante. She was expecting the worst. It was a kit for making your own sundaes.
"That's... nice," she said.
"That way you won't have to steal mine, you can make your own now. Another upside is that it'll give you something to do other than bug me," Dante said.
"You jerk!" Patty exclaimed. She then stormed out of the room.
"Dante!" Lady exclaimed in anger.
"What? I don't see what her problem is," he grumbled.
"She came here to have Christmas instead of with her mother. She said she felt bad when she thought of you all alone on Christmas day!"
"I didn't ask her to come," Dante said defensively.
"I'm taking my present back," Lady said.
"I doubt it was any good," Dante jeered.
"It was a letter saying I freed you of all debts to me," Lady said with an evil grin as she snatched it.
"No! I'm sorry, I'll go apologize to her right now!" Dante begged.
"Okay, it's a deal, you apologize, I'll give back my present," Lady said. He growled at her and then ran off to find Patty. "There's three presents left."
"One is from me to Dante, another is from Patty to Dante, and the other is... From Dante to Patty. That's not good," Trish said with a sigh. Meanwhile, Dante had managed to catch up with Patty.
"Wait up," he panted as he ran up to her. She ignored him and kept walking. "I'm sorry, okay?" he said. She continued to ignore him. "Look, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings, it was just a joke," he pleaded.
"Did Lady force you to apologize?" she asked.
"Um, well..." he said slowly.
"I was right! You don't care at all!" she sobbed. She tried to run away from him but he grabbed her.
"I really am sorry. Please, just come back and open your other presents!" he begged her.
"Shut up jerk!" she screamed. She tore away from him and ran off down the street. He sighed and then headed back toward his shop.
"So how did it go?" Lady asked.
"Horrible, she wouldn't even let me apologize," he said.
"Well I guess I'm keeping this then," she said as she waved her present around.
"Hey, I tried my best!" he exclaimed.
"Well your best wasn't good enough," she said with a grin.
"It's not my fault she overreacted!" he growled.
"We saw your second present to her," Trish said. He didn't reply. "You need to trick her into opening it."
"Leave it at her house," Lady suggested.
"She'd probably throw it out a window," Dante muttered.
"You've got a point," Lady said.
"Before we worry about that, open my present," Trish said.
"Okay," Dante said. He unwrapped it and then just sat there staring at it.
"It's an amulet just like your mother gave you, only without the magic."
"Trish..." Dante said as he stared at it.
"All I want in return is some jewelry you yourself picked out next year," Trish said.
"Thank you," Dante said sincerely.
"Oh, Patty had a present for you," Lady said. He opened it to find a coupon for some pizza.
"Well that was nice of her," he said with a yawn. "I'm going to sleep now," he said as he plopped down on the couch.
"You're not going to try to get this gift to Patty?" Lady asked.
"It'll work itself out, she'll come back eventually."
"You're just too lazy to do anything," Lady complained. But Dante had already fallen asleep.
Several Hours Later
Patty walked into the Devil May Cry and glanced around. Sure enough, Dante was asleep. I'll just sneak in and see what my other present was she thought. She crept over and grabbed her present and then snuck back out. She went back to her house to unwrap it. She noticed it had been hastily re-wrapped. She opened it up and let out a cry of shock. Inside was the most beautiful necklace she'd ever seen. It was a locket with a picture inside of her and her mother together. How did he get this? She wondered. Her mother walked into the room with a big smile on her face.
"I had the picture copied into a small enough size and I paid for the locket to be made. Dante came up with the idea and what the locket was to look like," she said.
"I can't believe I called Dante a jerk and was so mean to him!" Patty wailed.
"Do you really think you hurt his feelings? He was probably glad you didn't open it while he was there. He would've hated you getting all mushy like this," she said with a grin.
"I'm going to apologize right now!" Patty said as she headed for the door.
"Don't bother, you'll just make him uncomfortable," she said.
"Well, okay..." Patty said uncertainly.
Our plan worked perfectly, Dante her mother thought with a smile.
