Lady slipped into her new dress with a rustle of silk and held it against her as she looked at her reflection.

It didn't look bad, but she was worried at how much it accentuated her bust line, she didn't really want to deal with any men at the ball staring at her cleavage all night. It wouldn't just be gross and annoying; it would make looking for Alexander's invention difficult.

Sighing, Lady hoisted the dress up a little further, trying to disguise her chest more "You can open your eyes now, Dante" She said blandly.

Said half demon did so and felt his breath catch in his throat at the sight of the elegantly dressed huntress before him;

The dress clung to every curve of her athletic body and she had applied a hint of subtle make up to her face. She never needed makeup, but it served to accentuate her features.

"You look… nice, Lady." He said, scratching his head nervously.

She blushed, but not from his words, she just felt so uncomfortable in his presence now, after his ill-timed stunt in the clothes shop.

"Could you do up the back for me?" She asked quietly, facing away from him.

Dante gulped, he really had blown it, she was cold-shouldering him rather than beating the shit out him. It could only mean she was through trying to make their rocky relationship work.

"Yeah…" He replied softly, approaching her and beginning to do up the silk ribbon laces at the back of the dress. He caught her eye in the mirror for a second and both quickly looked away.

This is stupid! Dante was yelling in his head Just tell her how you feel, you idiot!

"Gahh" He accidentally said out loud.

Lady frowned "I'm sorry? What was that?" If ever she had heard something that confused her….

Dante groaned, normally in the battlefield when he said something that served to embarrass him, he'd shake it off with some cool move and shoot a demon through the skull.

But this was an entirely different kind of battlefield.

"Lady… Please, would you just talk to me? Would you just tell me how you felt today? About what I did…" His hands rested on her bare shoulders and he gripped them tightly.

She stiffened as she stared at his eyes in the mirror; they looked dull and tired as he waited for her reply.

"I… I don't want to talk about it." Lady said as bluntly as she could, desperately trying to make him back off.

His nails dug into her skin.

"I just want to forget about it!" She said, almost wincing at her venomous tone.

"Don't give me that shit!" He practically yelled, spinning her around to face him properly.

"What is it, Lady? Is my demon blood why you won't let yourself be interested? You know I'm not like the scum that we kill, I know you know that! So why? Why do you keep telling yourself it's not true?" The words came out of his mouth in an angry rush and Lady looked shocked; his eyes were no longer dull, they were a fierce and vibrant blue.

She couldn't look away.

"I… It's not…' Lady's words had completely abandoned her; she wasn't sure what to say in the face of what his angry, desperate voice had pounded into her ears.

"I want to understand what you're thinking, Lady…' Dante's voice was soft as he pulled her against him "Make me understand…"

Lady squeezed her eyes shut as his knee pressed against her silken skirt and then pushed between her legs.

"Dante… Please don't…" Lady didn't want it to happen; she knew in her gut that if he wanted to give her a repeat performance of the dressing room incident, she wouldn't resist him... Even though she knew she would hate herself afterwards… And that she would hate him too.

How could she be content with hating him again?

But what was it? What did she truly want from him?

"Then make me understand." He said in a growl, sending shivers up Lady's spine.

"I don't know how!" She moaned, frustrated as he began unlacing the ribbons he had done up.

"What's your soul telling you, Lady?' His voice had shifted to a husky whisper "You of all people should be able to understand what your soul is telling you." Now only his hands held the dress in place, if he let go...

"W-Wait! Dante, please!" She hated the weakness in her voice, hated him, hated herself. She was just too overwhelmed.

"I have been waiting, Lady... For ages." Lady couldn't stand that his voice sounded so stricken and desperate.

"I promise… I will tell you exactly how I feel, but not now. I'm not… I'm not sure right now. But after the mission... By then, I swear I will have an answer."

Dante paused, his hands almost slipping from her body.

He'd been waiting so long… He could wait just a little bit longer.

His took his hands away, and Lady yelped as she grabbed the dress to stop it revealing more than she wanted it too.

"Okay." Dante said softly, turning away.

"Dante…"

"Yeah?"

"The dress."

"…. Oh."

It was going to be a long night.

And next time… Next time is the ball… And the "dancing."

Yes. Bwahahahaha!

I'm sorry they have gone a little emo, but this story is half romance and we all know that this kind of thing makes stupid people smart, smart people stupid and rough, tough and scary people emo. It's a given. BACK TO THE HUMOR! NEXT CHAPTER! RAWR!