This chapter was a lot of fun to write. I sat down to type a little on it and ended up writing it all in one sitting.

On a sidenote, I did use a flashback which is differentiated with italics.

Theme: Possession

It was days like today that made Nero want to pull his hair out. There was nothing to do. No calls had come in almost two days now, and he personally had no business to attend to. There was one thing that needed to be done that he had been putting off until the last possible moment- cleaning his room.

The elder slayer didn't really go into his room, but Nero had seen Dante give him a scowl when he once walked by and saw the mess in passing. He knew Dante would never say anything though; the old man's room was no better. The eternal bachelor's pad.

The white-haired youth knew that it had to be done. It wasn't so much that he was a messy person, actually fairly tidy, but when something gets so dirty and unorganized it becomes very overwhelming. It was so easy to put it off until 'tomorrow', except that it had been a few weeks and 'tomorrow' had never come.

He reluctantly went to the kitchen and retrieved a trash bag; he would probably end up coming back downstairs for another later.

With a sigh he opened up the door to his bedroom and let his shoulders slump a little at the sight before him. There were dirty clothes, empty drink cans, and CD cases everywhere.

Doing what he normally did he sauntered over to his CD player and popped in a disc. The music filled the air and he started tapping his foot. Music made everything better, even something as unpleasant as cleaning his room.

Knowing that taking it a little at a time was the best strategy he shut the door behind him and plopped down on the floor. Working small areas was less threatening- but just barely.

Nero began a system: throwing dirty clothes onto the bed, tossing CD's close to the desk, and placing the trash into the large trash bag from the kitchen. Like a well-oiled machine he set to work. After he cleared the area around him he would scoot over to another section. It was going fairly quickly.

There was, however, something daunting in the corner.

The floor was mostly clean, except for the CD cases that needed to be organized later. Knowing it had to be done he walked over to the corner and stared at the large box before him.

Inside the box were a few things that he had brought to Devil May Cry from Fortuna. It was all random things that weren't needed so they had stayed in storage.

He swiped the thin coat of dust from the top of the box and proceeded to open the flaps revealing its nostalgic contents.

The first thing he retrieved was a plain black book. He flipped it open. Inside there were sketches and drawings that he had done over the past few years. One page was a rough sketch of a motorcycle he had seen in a magazine, another was a blade that he had designed- it was pretty badass. Although he didn't consider himself an artist, drawing had been an important part of his life at one point- an outlet.

Setting aside the book he continued on.

The next item he retrieved was an old t-shirt.

'Aww man, I've been looking for this," Nero mumbled to himself with a grin on his face.

The dark blue shirt was soft and worn, one of his favorites. He pressed the fabric to his nose and immediately after threw it onto the bed with the rest of the dirty clothes.

A few other odds and ends came out of the box before his hands rested on a familiar sight. He slowly withdrew a heavy metal picture frame. His forehead creased as a slew of emotions washed over him.

The picture was of him, Kyrie, and Credo from about five years ago. They all looked so young…

Not really sure what to do with it he set the frame aside and allowed himself to deal with it later. Putting things on the back-burner was something that he was good at.

One of the last things in the box to come out was a brown leather book. It was sort of similar to his drawing book, except the leather one had lined pages for writing on.

Nero cracked open the book to reveal crisp unused pages.

The girl fumbled a bit with the parcel in her hands before shyly handing it over.

"I found this at the bookstore on the corner and thought that you might like it…." said Kyrie shyly with a tinge of pink coloring her soft cheeks.

The white-haired boy took the book and eyed it for a moment. He ran one hand over the cover, feeling the smooth leather beneath his hand before opening it.

Inside were lined pages with no words.

"Oh, it's a journal," said Nero, fully expecting it to be a book that she had liked. He flipped through the pages, fanning the smell of fresh paper onto his face.

"Yeah, I thought that maybe you could write some stuff down in there, you know to clear your mind." She had her hands behind her back and was looking at the ground now. "I keep a journal, and it really helps to keep you grounded when you don't know what you're feeling."

Nero felt like they weren't really talking about books anymore, but brushed it off as one of the mysteries of women or whatever.

"Thanks, I appreciate it," Nero responded. He felt kind of bad though, because he wasn't much for writing. It was a nice thought, though wasted on his lack of proficiency.

Kyrie gave a smile in return. It pleased her to give gifts to others and make people happy. Seeing her smile like that warmed his heart.

Nero took the journal and placed in the top drawer of his bedside table along with the metal picture frame. So much had happened lately, maybe it was time for him to start writing things down and clear his head for once.

After the large box was fully emptied he placed the trash bag inside with all the old cans and such from his now tidy bedroom. He took the box of trash downstairs and placed it by the front door. Since he was taking out the trash he decided to take the full bag from the kitchen on his way.

The trash had all been placed in the dumpster outside and it was now time to organize his CDs. That was going to take a while since he owned quite a collection. Maybe he should invest in an iPod.

At long last, the CD cases were all arranged on a shelf in his bedroom- categorized by artist. His dirty clothes had been carried to the laundry room on the first floor. Somehow it still amazed Nero that Dante owned a washer and dryer- despite how shitty they were.

After walking back into his room Nero took a moment and scanned his domain. The room fixed up well. His bed was located in the back right corner, with a couple of fluffy pillows on top. On the far left wall there was a chest of drawers. His stereo and desk area was situated on the right wall. The room also had a closet where he kept the majority of his clothes, when they weren't on the floor dirty.

Something about a clean room made him feel better. It felt cozier and more relaxed now. Despite not killing any demons, it had been a very productive day for him.

After scanning the room he went over to his bedside table and withdrew the journal. He took a seat at his desk and opened up the book. The blank pages were intimidating.

With a pencil in his hand Nero began to write.