Disclaimer: I don't own Devil May Cry.

This is one of those things where I said someone has to write this but thought it shouldn't be me. Well, I need to start editing, but I'm writing this now.

AU: According to the manga, Lady saw Dante fight the demonic Alice. What if she had gone to him to be trained?

This is manga Lady, not fanon catholicschoolgirl!Lady. Manga Lady hangs out in the wrong part of town and has a friend who gets drunk often enough she's matter-of-fact about it.

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Professor

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The first time they slept together, she wasn't especially surprised.

Years ago, she'd been a good girl, but in high school she'd run with a crowd her mother wouldn't have approved of if she'd known. It was her friend's fault, really, but she'd needed Mary to look after her.

She'd gotten used to finding her a place to sleep off being drunk, she'd lost her virginity because she'd felt like the only one who still had it. She'd been drunk a few times before she'd run in here and Dante had to coax her story out of her, giving her the alcohol she demanded because she needed to be drunk out of her mind just then, she didn't want to contemplate what her father had done sober.

He'd been flippant at first, asked her if she needed to use the bathroom (which, she'd realized, she did, and when she'd seen herself in the mirror she'd splashed water on her face to wash away the tear tracks).

She'd thought at first he wouldn't believe her, but he'd handled that, that thing that had fooled her into thinking it was a girl, so she'd told him, trembling with fear and rage, daring him to call her a liar, and he'd softened just a little and she'd known she wasn't the only one something like this had happened to, old anger in his eyes as well as compassion.

She'd demanded he show her how to fight them, and he'd agreed, she hadn't even had to offer him all the money in her private account (she'd gone to the bank the next day, hoping her father hadn't froze the account: why hadn't he?).

The next day, and the next, she was doing exercises and learning to shoot. He wasn't a very good teacher, actually. It was that which assured her she'd found the right person. It was so easy for him, he made it look so simple, did it so fast, that she had to ask him to slow down while demonstrating, give longer explanations… he was willing to, though there were a few token taunts about her being slow that were so clearly jokes he managed to get her to smile.

He understood vengeance.

She'd given him directions to her father's mansion and he'd gone there to find it deserted. Part of her had hoped he could handle it, the rest of her wanted to kill him herself. And he didn't laugh at that ambition, didn't call her a little girl.

He worked her into exhaustion every day for a week, forcing her to go beyond what she thought was possible, and she didn't dream.

Then one day he had a mission, and she'd needed a break, so she'd slept in, and she'd been punished for her lazyness with a dream.

She'd woken up thrashing in his arms, reality merging with the dream so she'd thought her father had caught her, but it was just him, and she'd apologized for hitting, kicking, biting him and he'd shrugged it off like it was nothing.

He'd held her, lying there in the early morning and she'd kissed him.

It was inevitable, really.

He was the only one who understood, he'd helped her so much, he was so beautiful…

And he was so gentle, instead of just trying to get off he'd paid attention to her, never let himself loose. A considerate lover, and just a few years older than her. She wondered how young he had been when he'd started training.

Part of her thought she was being disloyal, falling in love when she should have been utterly dedicated to vengeance, but her mother wouldn't have wanted her life to just end.

She didn't visit her old friends anymore, they seemed so shallow now.

Her first real action was when demons, small dragons with only two legs, burst into the shop, and she avoided getting injured more than once: the blue orbs Dante had given her worked.

It was then she realized just how good Dante was.

So strong, so powerful, and he didn't seem to get tired, even though they just kept coming. She forced herself to go on, glad of her endurance training, and eventually it was over.

He'd laughed and high-fived her at the end, and smiled at her while she was grinning at him like a fool, and then he hugged her and she'd felt like she might be able to do this, might be able to defeat him.

Four more months, Dante's agent Enzo's mob connections unable to track down her father and Dante's brother Vergil. So Vergil was the one he hated. Family.

Another month after that, and she didn't want to leave but they both knew she had to, she had to go and track him down, even though she had no leads. She was killing demons here, but Dante didn't need her.

Even though he wanted her, she wanted him.

They'd kissed each other goodbye, and he'd told her to come back if she ever needed anything, to call him so he could help her out when she found her father, though he knew Arkham was her own to kill. He wanted to help her, he always helped her.

In the lonely nights on the road she missed him, missed how he'd made her practice even when she had the flu, because demons didn't wait for you to be healthy, missed how he'd touched her, missed how he'd guided her hands while she was learning how to aim.

And the journey ended back where she started, tracking her father back to the city, back to the scene of the crime, and she'd visited Dante.

Her father escaped after bringing the demons to attack Dante's shop, but they pursued him to the tower. Son of Sparda?

She'd missed fighting by his side.

And when it was all over, she'd held him while he cried, assured him that she didn't mind he was half-human. She didn't care. Her father had once been a human, and he'd had to be put down like a mad dog.

Dante… was Dante.

And he touched her like he worshipped her.