AN: Thank you for the reviews/alerts. Oh and TwWereWolf, I listened to that song after I read your comment and my face looked like this O.O I was like "It goes with the it so well!" I love when music goes with a story, it makes it so much better to me. Anyways, I really struggled with this chapter. I spent about two days just thinking about what should happen. Even right now I'm not 100% about it because I have never written a story with such complicated personalities. I'm trying though, I only hope that I can do this series justice.
Are you sure about that kid?
The sentence kept repeating in his head, each time it repeated becoming louder. Nero wasn't sure if it was really the voice in his head that was becoming louder or the blood that was now coursing through his veins so fast now that it was pounding in his head.
The voice coming from behind Nero was deep, the word kid came with a rougher tone coming from deep within the throat. A few seconds passed, all the while Nero was running thoughts through his head. The dilemma if he should turn around, to see if the voice is was coming from the person who he thought it was.
Nero was sure that he would never hear it again. The voice that just came from behind him was different than the one he had been replaying in his head for the past year with the uncontrollable flash backs that he seemed to receive. Was this new voice wrong? No, the one that Nero had been hearing was distorted, he almost felt like what he had been hearing didn't even do this voice justice. He still knew that he would have recognized it anywhere.
Nero turned around slowly, his eyes closed in the process. Almost as if this small act were preparing him for something. His boots twisted on the street, small pieces of loose gravel in the alley crunching beneath the worn leather.
Underneath the orange glow of the street light leaned a dark figure leaning against the lamp post, one foot propped up behind him. The figure's head was looking down towards the ground, a full head of white hair falling to cover the eyes of the shadowed man. A long red leather coat formed perfectly onto the man's body, the leather broken in to conform to him alone.
Nero bit back a grin, something that he noticed he had been doing more of lately. "I'm sure I don't know him." A soon as the words came out of his mouth, a silver object went soaring through the air towards Nero. He reached out his hands to grasp the object, thinking from a distance that it was Blue Rose being thrown to him.
Ivory rested in Nero's hands now. He moved the cool metal object through his hand, turning it over in the faded light of the alley. The light caught on an engraving, one that Nero had never seen before. He knew that the gun had Ivory etched onto one side, but he had just looked at that lettering a second ago. Nero ran his hand over the engraving, rough etching of the metal under his fingers. Nero titled the gun into the light, to see the lettering better.
For Tony Redgrave.
Nero kept his eyes fixed on the lettering, maybe if he kept looking at it the whole scenario would start making more sense to him.
"Its an alias I used a very long time ago, probably before you were even born and not something I tend to share." He moved out of the light and down into the alley to where Nero still held Ivory in his hands, his thumb still running over the letters, the metal turning warm in his hand.
"Then why tell me Dante?" The name caught in Nero's throat, fighting its way to get out. Nero was hoping that the older man didn't notice. He tried to collect saliva in his mouth to swallow it, hoping to subdue the coarse feeling in his throat. Nero moved his tongue around in his mouth, his usually smooth tongue feeling harsh in his dry mouth.
Nero looked up at Dante who was now standing directly in front of him. Dante was close enough that even in the dim lighting of the alley Nero could still all of his features clearly. His white hair, a little bit longer than the last time they saw each other, lose strands of those white lochs falling into Dante's face no matter how many times in the passed few minutes he kept pushing them back. Stubble growing on his face, indicating that it had at least been two days since he last shaved. His eyes, as clear as ever even in the dark of night. The light of the moon catching the frozen ice color of his eyes as he turned his head to the side looking away from Nero for a brief moment, bright white flecks fighting their way through the darkness. Nero noticed the tired worn look to his eyes too, the tight skin around his eyes.
Dante looked down at Nero, just a few small inches between their height. The silence began to weigh down on Nero, not knowing how long they had been standing there like that. It seemed like minutes to him, each second becoming much longer in time to him the longer that they were quiet. One second turned into a minute, the next second turning into two minutes.
"You looked like you have a rough day kid, especially being hassled over something you had no idea about. I guess I thought I owed it to you." Dante's voice was a little quieter by the end of his sentence. Nero tried not to notice it, just as Dante had ignored the catch in Nero's throat earlier. The exchange between them was becoming awkward, both men standing barely a foot from one another but neither one looking directly at one another.
"Well thanks, you could have at least jumped in and helped though, I would have found that sufficient enough." Nero walked passed Dante shoving Ivory into Dante's chest then going for his tossed aside bag and the long case that held the katana. Nero paused for a moment, his hand resting on the case before he threw the strap of it around himself. With his belongings on him Nero began searching the street for his discarded gun.
"I don't know, it was kind of interesting seeing you stumble around. I was trying to decide if you had just been out of the game for that long or if you were just drunk. I went with the latter of the two and just decided to watch you gracefully try to kill that thing." Nero could hear the playful tone in Dante's voice, something that Nero was more familiar with. This type of banter came a lot easier to the both of them. Especially Nero, the awkwardness fading away along with the fire in his dry mouth.
Nero kept looking around the street, hoping to catch a glimpse of the sleek metal of Blue Rose in one of the heaps of trash along the curb of the street. "I'm also assuming that in your drunken stupor you couldn't properly fire your weapon so you carelessly threw it to the side." Nero stopped kicked over one of the bags of trash, an empty paper cup rolling out into the street. He looked over at Dante who was now standing there with Blue Rose dangling off of his index finger, swaying slowly back and forth. Nero could feel a frustration building up inside of him. Nero didn't know if it was the alcohol that he could now feel rushing through his veins full force, the adrenaline from the fight just jump starting the effects of the liquor that much faster or if something else was trying to claw its way out of him wanting to snap at Dante. It has to be the liquor, I only had two glasses…maybe I shouldn't have picked something so strong.
Nero walked over to Dante, part of him wanting to stomp his feat to show his aggravation but decided otherwise. Nero snatched Blue Rose out of a smirking Dante's hand. "If you must know, the bullets weren't having the best effect, I went to charge it up but realized that I couldn't." Nero said waving his covered Devil Bringer up in the air. The smirk that had been playing on Dante's features fell quickly.
He slid the revolver back into its holster attached to his left thigh. Red Queen was dangling loosely from his Devil Bringer, Nero had almost forgotten he was dragging the large weapon around out in the open, drops of demonic blood in a trail of loops from where Nero had been walking. Nero held the sword as far away from him as he could, shaking the weapon as blood droplets when splattering the wall and surrounding items. It wasn't much of a difference from how the alley already looked.
Getting the blade as clean as he could get it, Nero slid it back into the holster attached to his back. The unsettling silence fell back between them, weighing down harder the second time making the noise of the streets more profound, the rustle of trash sounding more like a car crash than a light breeze over a few papers. The pounding in Nero's head kicked into overdrive, even the sound of the blood rushing through his head was almost deafening. Nero couldn't keep his eyes on Dante, his eyes flickering back and forth between the older man and the side of the bar. Dante's eyes never once left Nero though, making the whole thing more unsettling. Nero began to move his right leg, tapping it slowly then moving it more rapidly almost as if his body was willing him to move but he was fighting with himself not to.
The battle finally won out and Nero turned away from Dante walking out into the main road. "Where are you going kid?" He could hear Dante ask, followed with the sound of footsteps behind him. A sound so soft that if it would have been any human they would have not heard it.
"A place to stay for the night, as you said I've had a rough day." Nero looked up and down the street, trying to decide which way to go. As if looking just left and right would ultimately show him where a hotel would be.
"There's a hotel, a few streets over. Take a right when you get to the intersection that doesn't look as seedy as this, trust me you'll be able to tell." Dante stood just a few feet away from Nero, waiting to see if he was going to head where he told him. Nero did just as Dante said and began walking away from the alley out into the street which seemed even more deserted than it did earlier.
Half way down the street Nero turned around to look at Dante who was walking away in the opposite direction. Nero stood there watching the red leather move in almost a liquid way in the night. Dante was walking at a slow pace, almost too leisure to be walking through this part of town. Nero opened his mouth to say something, the burning in his throat and mouth had quickly come back to him. Nero closed his mouth, not even knowing what he wanted to say, even if he did he didn't know if he could get the words to come out. One thought came to his mind; Will I see you again? So similar to what Nero had asked Dante a year ago.
Almost as if Dante knew what he was thinking, he lifted up his index and middle finger and moved them in a type of waving gesture as he kept on walking. Nero shook his head lightly before turning around to continue his walk to the location Dante had given him.
Nero found the hotel with out much trouble, only heading down a wrong street once. The hotel was out of the part of town that he was just in, but not quite in the part of the city that offered sky high buildings. Nero slid the electronic key into the door of the room that he bought for the night. A green light illuminated indicating that the door was unlocked. A soft click and Nero opened up the door to the room, the light inside turning on by his presence. With the door shut and locked behind him Nero began to set his things down, noticing that his body seemed a little sore from the evenings events, the muscles stretching and burning with every movement he made. Even the work outs that he did every did didn't seem to compare to an actual fight.
The room had a large bed in the middle of it, covered in an all white thick duvet. The rest of the furniture in the room was black, most of it with points and severe corners. The furniture looking strange to what Nero was accustomed to. Nero stripped himself off most of his clothes, except for the lose black fabric of the boxers that hung from his skin. He knew that he should take a shower but couldn't find the energy to do it. The soft fabric of the duvet ran across the backside of his skin on his arms, wrapping itself on his back and legs. Nero took in a deep breath, the burning in his throat seemed to have subsided.
The night kept replaying in his head, the whole day really. Even the day before seemed like something that happened months ago, nothing something that was just hours before. Every time his mind made it back to Dante, the burning flared up again, flames licking their way up his throat and into his mouth. Nero clinched the duvet in his hands, he couldn't feel the soft fabric through the cloth covering his demon arm. The burning in his throat grew to where it felt like someone had lit a fire inside of him, a pain that Nero had never experienced before.
The fire inside of him seemed to have a connection with Dante. Nero struggled most of the night to not think about it, tossing and turning with his mind not making any sense of what was going on.
AN: Fun fact, Tony Redgrave is in fact an alias of Dante. It was a name he used before he came to terms with being Dante. The engraving is on the side of Ebony and Ivory from the person who made the guns for him, Nell. This is mentioned in the novel and very briefly in one of the episodes of the anime. I figured I should explain it because I personally thought what a random fucking name for an alias. Then again I also heard it was the name that was suppose to be used in Resident Evil 4 before they decided that the game was too far from the franchise to make it and thus turned the game into Devil May Cry and Tony Redgrave into Dante.