AN: After much deliberation in my head and many hours of going through notes that I have been scribbling down I think I finally decided on the plot to this(yeah I didn't have one before this, I was just kind of writing). But I sat down and went through a lot of ideas and finally am very happy with where I am going to take this. It makes me giddy cause only I know :D
Thanks for the reviews/alerts! I do not on Devil May Cry. If I did I would turn the whole franchise into a yaoi fangirls dream.
Dante watched Nero as he laid on the couch, lying completely still. Beads of sweat rolled down his forehead as his body tried to fight off a fever. Dante paced back and forth across the office, his mind too occupied for him to even pretend to read one of his magazines. Dante stopped pacing, he walked over to the couch. There was a small space on one of the cushions near Nero's waist. Dante carefully sat down on the couch, not wanting to risk disturbing Nero's body. Dante looked down at the younger man, the beads of sweat more prominent on his features now. Dante moved his hand up to the zipper of Nero's red vest. His hand lingered on the cool metal, hesitant to take the clothing off of him but knowing that in order to take care of the wounds he was going to have to move the younger devil hunter.
The sound of footsteps outside of the office caused Dante to stand on his feet, waiting for the front door to open.
After Nero had collapsed in the park Dante had thrown him into the back seat of his car, speeding home through the almost empty streets of the city. The second he had made it back to Devil May Cry he called Trish.
"I need you here, now." His voice was strained when he called her. It was enough for Trish to know that she needed to be there as quickly as possible.
At the time that she received the call, Trish was back in town staying at her apartment on the upper east side. Within minutes so was over at the office, ready to deal with whatever Dante was about to throw at her as she walked up to the front door.
Trish now stood in front of the couch looking down at the younger man. His skin looked pale and tight as it was pulled against his bones. The only true color to his features were his burning cheeks flushed a deep red. "I never thought I would see the kid again." Trish leaned down next to him, the back of her hand immediately touching his forehead. The heat radiating off of him telling her what she already knew.
"Neither did I but I just happened to run into him the other day." Dante continued to slowly pace between the staircase and the area by the kitchen. Not knowing what else to do with himself.
"I'm a little surprised that you called me. You've seen enough wounds to know how to bandage them." There was a small irritation to Trish's voice, something that Dante hadn't heard from her in a while. She hadn't spoken to him in weeks, even though most of her time was spent as his place. She was hoping that when he did choose to speak to her that it would have been under different circumstances. Trish sighed, knowing that she couldn't hold it against Nero.
"Wounds, yeah but you know just as well as I do that he should have healed already." Dante stopped walking aimlessly across the room to look over at Trish who was on her knees leaning over Nero.
"I'm going to need you to lift him up so I can get his shirts off of him." Trish looked up at Dante who was now standing right next to her. Dante moved his hand back onto the metal of Nero's red leather vest. His hand paused for a moment before finally pulling it down. He could feel Trish behind him, watching his every movement. He assumed it was because she was trying to see if he was capable of doing this since he hadn't been capable of much else lately.
This is Nero. Dante looked down at the younger man once more before finally unzipping the vest. He bent down next to Nero. Dante moved his arms underneath Nero's warm body. He kept one arm under his back, giving him a few inches of elevation off of the couch. Dante used his free arm to carefully peel away the vest from Nero. The fabric slid easily down his loose arms. Dante discarded the fabric off to the side as he continued to keep Nero elevated. Trish moved next to Dante as she worked on taking off Nero's thin black shirt. She began slowly to peel away his shirt that was sticking to his chest with a mixture of sweat and blood. She moved the shirt up his body, pushing the fabric up to his chest. Dante had to reposition his arms so Trish could get the shirt the rest of the way off of Nero. He moved his hands down onto Nero's toned stomach. His callused his felt smooth against Nero's lithe body. Dante quickly moved his hands to rest against Nero's back. Dante's body inches closer to Nero's now as he held the man close to him, his arms now underneath his back once more. The bandage that Nero had placed on his arm earlier that day was also covered in the same mixture as his shirt. His bandages held a more sickly color to them, green and yellow stains on the gauze were the only difference. Dante looked at the cloth covering Nero's arm, a small sick feeling coming over him. It wasn't from the discoloration of the fabric but more of the thought as to why he was even wearing it. With his shirt completely off of him, Dante carefully laid Nero back down onto the couch. He moved away quickly, back over to his desk. Trish looked at Dante for a moment, a small flash of confusion passing over her at his sudden abruptness. Trish let it go as she focused her attention back on Nero.
Trish started to pull away the long strip of gauze, she pressed one hand down to his devil arm as she slowly started to peel away the fabric. Pieces of the cloth were getting caught into the worse part of the wounds. "There's a really bad infection in his arm, but it looks as if the infection has been here for a while." With the rest of the gauze pulled away Trish looked at his devil arm, patches of peeling away flesh covered his arm. A large gash embedded Nero's shoulder, deep crimson still flowing out of it.
"What bit him?" Trish asked as she pressed a fresh hot cloth to Nero's shoulder, applying pressure to stop the bleeding.
"A mortous demon. It was in a transition of shedding a new human skin." Dante replied to her, his eyes still fixed on Nero who was now letting out a soft groan of pain.
"So the demon was looking for Nero's skin as a new one to walk around in. Well the parlays poison is working its way through his body. Within a few hours he should completely stop moving, give him two to three days and the poison should be completely out of his system. His arm though… it needs to be taken care of. I don't know why it isn't healing its self. I'm assuming he has kept this bandage on it for some time, the arm hasn't been able to breathe. I would have thought that it wouldn't have mattered though. You'll need to keep cleaning his arm, its going to be leaking fluids while he is in this state and I'm not going to cover it back up." Trish took a second cloth and wiped at Nero's infected devil arm.
"Clean his arm?" Dante asked, his eyes moving from Nero to Trish who was looking up at him from the floor.
"Yes, obviously he can't do it himself." Trish continued to clean up Nero's arm, wiping away hours of dried blood mixed with fresh flowing crimson. The flesh on his chest was tinted with dark blue and black veins spreading from his shoulder, down his chest and across his neck.
"I just thought that…" Dante moved his hand behind his head, his arm up in the air as he tried explaining to Trish what he thought was going to happen.
"That what? I would be here to take care of the both of you? I have a job that I already said I would take in the morning." Trish didn't bother to look at Dante as she kept dapping away at the irritated flesh.
"Well…yeah. I mean I don't really think that I'm qualified to be taking care of anyone."
Trish tried not to roll her eyes, a habit she had been picking up from Lady more often than she wanted to admit. "You'll be fine." Trish knew there wouldn't be a problem leaving Dante alone with the boy, even if Dante hadn't really even been taking care of himself lately. "It will be simple. All you need to do is check on him every few hours, make sure his fever doesn't get worse. It should break within a few hours though. You'll just need to clean up his arm, the only bandage I want him to have on is one up on his shoulder. I'm hoping with some fresh air and medication that he'll be able to heal himself a lot faster."
"He shouldn't even have to take medication. What the hell am I suppose to give him Trish? Its not like I keep this stuff just lying around the place." Dante gestured around his cleaned up office, the only disturbance was the clutter on top of his desk.
"You think that I don't think of these things? I keep it in my car, I'll go grab it." It was rare that Trish has any type of argument with Dante that didn't revolve around a job. Arguing with him felt wrong to her but there was something about the situation and how Dante was acting that was getting to her. She racked her brain trying to place what it was that she felt was so wrong about it but nothing was coming to her.
Trish walked back into the office a moment later to see Dante standing in the same exact spot that she had left him in. His arm still behind his head as he looked down at Nero on the couch. "Do you see the veins that are darkened around his arm? The infection has made its way into his blood stream, its slowly spreading underneath his skin. The venom from the demon has sped up the process because its weekend his body even more than it already was. Just give it a few days, if his condition really does worsen just call me. I'll try to make it back as soon as I can."
Trish walked out of the door with no more further explanation to Dante. A few moments later a small medical kit laid open on the coffee table next to the couch. Dante sighed as he looked down at Nero who's face was perfectly still. Sweat was still sliding down his face. Dante wondered if the boy could feel any pain with the venom pumping its way through his veins. The only movement he could see from Nero now was the rapid movement of his eyes behind his eyelids.
Nero could faintly hear words breaking through his consciousness. He couldn't place the voices for they sounded nothing more than muffled noise to him. The pain that he had been feeling earlier was starting to creep its way back into certain parts of his body. He was aware of the pain of his heart moving slowly behind his chest. Each beat felt as if he was bruising his ribcage. All of the feeling on the right side of his body was gone now, the rest of the numbness inching its way through his body.
The real fight he had been waging was with his mind the past few hours. The pain of his body was a welcome from the place that his mind had been taking him when his body decided the pain was too excruciating. He could feel his consciousness slipping from him once again. He wanted to thrash his body in attempts to stay awake but he could only feel the movement of his fingers on his left hand. The pain coursing through his body slipped away as his mind took him to a different place.
The setting was completely different, from a different time. The edges of his dream seemed to be covered in a layer of haze. The rest of the dream was clear. Too clear for Nero's liking, mostly because he knew he was reliving a memory.
A very young Nero ran through tall blades of grass. The long blades grazing his exposed ankles as he ran. The white lochs that covered Nero's head were a dark chocolate brown, his eyes not the dark blue that he was used to seeing now but more of a emerald. Nero ran around the grassy yard of the house that he grew up in. Kyrie was in the backyard with him, playing on a small swing that was handing from a tree branch of a large tree that grew near the end of the yard.
"Lets play dress up! I can play a bride and we can get married!" Kyrie giggled as she swung lightly back and forth.
"Kyrie, we're eight. You do know that right?" Nero said as he stopped running through the backyard. The imaginary friend he had been chasing disappearing completely from his sight.
"Of course silly! Its only pretend. We'll get married when we're older, this will just be practice." Kyrie smiled as she jumped down from her swing heading toward the back entrance to the house. Just as she was about to open the door Credo stepped out onto the patio. His black hair hanging down in front of his face, something that changed after he joined the Order. Kyrie stood in front of him, looking at the two members of the Order standing behind him.
"Nero, you're needed for you're appointment." Credo looked over at the young boy who was standing still in the middle of the tall grass. The sun rays catching his dark brown hair giving it dark golden hues. Nero remembered that they had been telling him about his important appointment coming up. Nero didn't think much of it at the time, every time that they had told him he had been too preoccupied in his own world. Nero realized the reality of it when he saw the two Order members step out from behind Credo. Nero's heart starting pounding against his chest. The blood flowing through his veins making his hands start to tingle.
Nero walked over to where everyone was standing, taking slow cautious steps. Kyrie could see the hesitation and fear mixed in his eyes. Kyrie ran over to Nero, placing her small hand in his. She walked with him the rest of the way across the yard.
"Can we walk him there?" Kyrie asked as she looked up at Credo, her eyes pleading with his. Credo looked down at both of the children, a fear clearly hanging over both of them.
"Of course we can." Credo reached down, taking Nero's other hand in his own. His small fingers clasped around Credo's hand. Nero's hand was clammy, something that Credo wanted to wipe off of his own hand. Instead Credo clinched Nero's hand in a tight reassuring way.
They walked a few blocks through the city. The two members of the Order walking in front of them the whole time. The walk was silent as they weaved in and out of city blocks. Nero recognized the building, even at his young age. The lab research facilities stood out against the old structures of Fortuna. The building was pure white, a simple one story building. The building ran long though to make up for what it didn't have in height. The lab facilities were a newer addition to the city. A place where they were trying to bring more modern medicine and technology to the city. At least that is what the city was told when the labs were being built.
One of the Order members held open the glass door to the facility. Nero looked up at Credo who gave him one last squeeze of his hand. Nero looked to Kyrie who was now looking at him with a clear fear in her eyes showing. He couldn't let her feel that way, he couldn't bare to see her afraid. Nero threw on a smile, hoping that it was enough to dissipate the same look of fear that he had been wearing.
"It will be ok Kyrie. Its just an appointment…a small check up really." Nero flashed her a quick grin. The small act was enough to change her mood completely. A smile quickly appeared on her face as Kyrie threw her arms around Nero embracing him in a tight hug. Nero wrapped his arms around her, hugging her back in reassurance.
I need to be strong for her.
The only thought Nero had before walking into the building, leaving his family behind.
The next images passed through his mind quickly. Never staying long enough for him to grasp on to the memories of the day. They images seemed to slow though as he came to the one memory that stood out more vividly than the rest.
Nero laid on a cool metal examine table. Countless doctors and surgeons working over Nero, white lab coats mixed with sea foam green scrubs. He remembered before hand the doctors talking about not using a anesthetic for fear of it medication working against the procedure. At the time Nero had no idea what they were talking about, using words and terms he had never heard of before.
He laid on the table, remembering that he wouldn't show fear. Not even as one of the surgeons picked up a pristine scalpel, making a long incision into Nero's right arm. Nero bit the inside of his mouth, copper tasting liquid rushing against his tongue. He could feel a pressure on the inside of his arm, his eyes wandering to where the pain was coming from. Metal needles pinned the skin to his arm open as the surgeons continued to work over him. Nero's eyes opened wide in fear as he saw the man reach into his arm with metal tools pulling away at muscle tissue. Nero screamed loudly, the pain in his arm stinging. He told himself that he would be strong for her but the pain was becoming unbearable. Nero screamed again, this time tears streamed down his face. With his screams he could hear the familiar ones of a girl.
She must have stayed.
"Kyrie run!" Nero couldn't bare the thought of Kyrie still being in the labs, hearing the things that were going on behind these closed doors. I have to be strong for her. Nero repeated to himself as he once again bit the inside of his mouth to stifle his screams. The pain eventually became so unbearable that he could feel himself fading from the procedure and out of the operating room. He just kept repeating to himself the only thing he could to help he get through this.
I have to be strong for her.