Disclaimer: I don't own DMC. Or Nero.. Or Dante.. Or Trish. OR ANYONE accept the people that he meets along in this journey, not knowing them at first. *nod* Carry on.

BANG!

That was the first thing Nero heard as he was pulled from his dream. Reaching over, fast as lightening and grabbing Blue rose he got up, sneaking down the hallway silently.

THUD!

Nero cocked his head, What the hell.. Some faint grumbling could be heard from over the cardboard boxes. Not daring to look over to what was over there. It sounded like Dante but he'd be asleep right now, unless.. A demon got in again. Nero kept his ground, still listening, but keeping Blue Rose at eye height and pointing at the ceiling.

"Fucking, little bitch. S'gunna.. *THUD* OW! PISS!" Dante's voice boomed throughout the place. Nero blinked. W-was he talking about me? Nero slowly leaned his head around the corner to see what Dante was doing.

The red-clad man had his jacket off as well, his own black colored vest covering his torso. He had thrown the pizza box across the room, and had a death glare on his face.

As if Dante was psychic or something he just looked up, right into Nero's eyes.. This caused the younger demon-slayer to jump a little in response. Dante was the only thing that Nero was truly afraid of, demons.. Death.. Those were inadequate to him as long as Dante didn't kick his ass. It's the three D's. Demons, Death, Dante. All fairly terrifying.

The man in the dark colored vest pointed at Nero, causing him to blink sacredly, and then pointed the ground in front of him. Nero knew what he meant. Okay.. Don't be scared, Nero.. He can hurt you, you can.. Run. YEAH, run. He swallowed his pride, making his way over before Dante who still wore a menacing glare.

"Kid." He started, Nero gulped. "Did you take a slice of my pizza while I was on the ground?" He asked in a deadly tone.

Should I lie.. And say I didn't.. or just admit to it? Either way the bastard will know, he's got eyes on the back of his HORNS. Nero was shaken out of this thoughts by Dante yelling into his face.

"DID YOU TAKE MY DAMN PIZZA!" His face almost went to a demonic like frame. Nero felt like passing out on the spot.. That or running. Very very quickly.

"Y-yes.." He said softly, "It was just one slice! You have like 4 boxes over there!" He pointed to the desk where 2 lay open and half eaten.

Dante's face went to a smile, a very small.. Faint smile.. But a smile-none-the-less. "I figured you did." He said in a strangely happy tone.

Nero's scared features softened to a slightly happier face. Why was the old man acting so.. Happy. I took his pizza.. Well, only a slice.. But, his pizza.. Maybe Trish was wrong, maybe Dante didn't care about his pizza that much.

"I'm very glad you owned up, or else I would have found out the hard way.." Dante said while walking over to sit behind his desk again.

Nero turned, but stayed in the same spot. "Yeah.." Was all he could manage. If he said he was sorry, it would show that Dante had that over him.. But if he didn't say anything it would probably get him murdered on the spot.

Dante laughed, "Yeah is right, cause if I had to have found out on my own.. Woooh.. The punishment would have been way worse." He reached over to take a bite of a slice sitting closest to him.

The younger devil-hunter raised a brow. "Punishment?" He asked with an almost disbelieving tone.

The elder nodded, "Yep. Punishment."

Nero raised his finger up in front of him and folded one arm beneath his elbow. "W-what makes you think you can 'punish' me?"

The elder shrugged, "Well, either that or I'll kick ya out.. And shoot ya. A lot." He laughed again, taking another bite of Pizza.

Nero slouched over. The last thing he needed was to be on the streets again. "You can't do that.. I don't have anywhere else to go! And you still owe me pay for the last call we got about that shack outside Mitis." He said defensively.

Dante rolled his eyes, "Yeah, that's part of the punishment, Kid." He scoffed, "Hey, don't give me that look.. You're getting off fairly easy on my account. I coulda done something way worse."

Nero breathed heavily, getting angry, "Wh… what IS my punishment or whatever anyway?" He shouted.

Dante smiled in that familiar smile again, "Well.. I was gunna make ya sleep on the roof.. Too easy on ya. Ummm.. Then I was gunna make you walk around Fortuna in just your underwear." Dante stopped to laugh at the idea.

Nero folded his arms again, "That's not funny, Dante.. But cut to the chase.. If you didn't choose those then what DID you choose?" He asked.

Dante finally stopped laughing enough to grab some papers from his desk and reach out to hand them to Nero who took them, beginning to read them over.

When he started, his eyes widened and his face went pale.. Looking up to Dante who was trying to hold back a smile. "…PUBLIC SCHOOL?" He shouted.

Dante lost his shit right there and just started smacking his desk with the palm of his gloved hand, laughing.

Nero pursed his lips, "Dante, you can't make me go."

The elder looked up, "Yes, I can.. And I already set you up for it too. Tomorrow, you'll be going to Fortuna High school, Kid." He nodded, "I got the idea to send ya there if you ever pissed me off enough when we got done with the Port Caerula monster case? Yeah.. I saw it along the way back and I figured it'd work if you ever DID piss me off enough.. And whaddya know." He laughed a little again.

Nero's mouth was slightly agape, "DANTE.. You cannot make me go there!" He defended.

Dante nodded, "Yes, kid.. I can. If you don't go to public school.. It's walking around town indecent for a week straight… that I will enforce.. Cause if you wanna act like a kid and ask questions over and over.. You'll be treated like one. Public school it is." He smiled deviously.

Nero didn't know what to say. His fate had been sealed just like that.. He let out a sigh, maybe school wouldn't be too bad. He went a long time ago when he was younger, with Kyrie and Credo. But.. That was then, and this was now. Kyrie and Credo had gotten out of school actually only 3 years ago. But Nero had at least 6 years ago because his devil arm started to manifest then. He hid it from Credo and Kyrie and eventually just ran away from them. Then years later, joining the Order of the Sword he found that Credo served them as well… and found that Kyrie was the church's songstress. They'd both graduated with flying colors.. But Nero was just the freaky kid who went missing one day and never returned.

Another sigh escaped his lips.

"How will I be able to attend anyway, I think there's an age limit.." Nero hoped to god that there was an age limit.

Dante snatched the paper from Nero's hand and read over it, "It says here, Nero is Age: 17." He stated.

Nero winced one eye, "I'm not 17."

The elder shrugged, "Tell that to the paper, apparently, here.. You are.. And you'll be going by that too by the way."

Nero wanted to start swearing loudly but figured it would be immature and the last thing he needed was more.. 'punishment' added to his list. With a clench of his fists he just huffed and shifted his weight. "Well.. When do I have to start?" He said with the most pissed off look possible on his face.

"Tomorrow." Dante stated.

Nero laughed, "You're kidding right?"

"Nope."

"Fuck." And with that Nero just walked off in search of something to ease his mind but Dante spoke up, catching the kid's attention again.

"I gotta go patrol, aight kid? I'll be back soon." He got up to leave, headed for the door. "Oh and, don't try hanging yourself while I'm gone." He smirked, walking out.. Slamming the poor abused door behind him.

Death by hanging wasn't such a bad idea right about now.. Nero said to himself.

Nero knocked on the ONLY bedroom's door in the entire DMC building which had been given to Trish. Yes, she lived with them too. She was like the mother of the group, who strangely resembles Dante's real mother anyway and that always caught Nero's eye.

"Come in." A strong, but feminine voice could be heard from inside the room. Nero reached out with his demonic arm to turn the knob and walk in. Another thing his 'room' lacked was a door.. Well, that's obvious because he was bunked in the supply closet. But Dante tried to convince him otherwise, saying it was just smaller due to budget cuts. Nero knew that he was lying from the moment he walked in and saw all the crates and shelves.

Trish was standing near the window watching Dante walk off down the road.

Nero smiled seeing her graceful form, "I need to talk to you.. Someone who actually has common sense around here."

Trish seemed to smile and turned her head back to glance at Nero, "Let me guess.. It's about Dante." She said with that motherly.. I-know-everything voice of hers.

Nero nodded and frowned slightly, "Yeah.. He's still mad about the pizza." That sounded so ridiculous in his head but even worse when he said it out loud.

Trish laughed, "Well, he certainly never held a grudge about something like that for this long before."

Nero held up a finger and slowly curled it back to his palm, trying to figure out how to tell her this.. "I kinda.. Well.. Took a slice of his pizza.. When was.. On the ground." He winced one eye a little.

Trish's brows raised slightly, "Well that explains it.. I'm just surprised you're still all in one piece." She nodded.

Nero looked up at the ceiling. "Honestly, I would have rather been ripped limb for limb instead of what he did to me instead."

Trish let one eyebrow fall while keeping the other raised, "Oh? What exactly did he do?"

Nero let out a sigh, "He's decided that I'm a child and need to go to public school.." He said with a slight annoyance to his voice.

Trish tried to stifle her laughter, "That's what's got you so worked up? Honestly I would have thought that, knowing him.. He'd do something way worse."

Dropped his arms by his sides limply, "Worse? How can public school get any worse?" He asked incredulously.

Trish walked over to closer, sitting on the edge of her bed. Her golden hair swaying behind her as she walked. "Nero.. Really.. Whats with you and public school? You make it seem so bad.." She said with an earnest look on her face.

Nero looked at her, "Can I sit down?" He asked, knowing that this would be a long story and would be liable to face palm during said speech of his.

Trish patted the spot next to her, near the edge of her bed. "Sure."

He came over and sat next to her, slouched over some, his hands folded between his knees.

"It started when this.." He glanced down to his right arm that was glowing faintly between Trish and him. Her eyes went down to it as well but back up to him.. "..started to happen.." Nero went through telling her about how it was getting so bad he had to keep his sleeves down and just eventually ran away feeling like such an outcast. He was adopted by Credo and Kyrie anyway, so even then he felt left out.

When he was done he wanted to cry from it all, but just kept a hardened face.

Trish felt a pang of sympathy go through her. This poor kid.. However old he was had a bad childhood and just kept his happy-go-lucky attitude most of the time to mask it. She reached out and slowly pulled him into a hug. "It's okay.. Everything's alright. It won't be that bad this time. I'll also talk to Dante about this.. I know he won't let up on this punishment of his.. But he'll shorten it hopefully."

Nero wrapped his arms around her in the hug, thankful someone had a heart around here at least. "Thank you.." He said softly. She smiled while hugging him, patting his back once.

"Anytime." The two pulled back from the hug.

"I should go now.. I need to check something out." Nero spoke, standing up and walking to the door. "But. Thanks again, Trish. You're the best." He smiled at her who returned the favor.

"You're welcome. Take care, Nero." She said before getting up and heading over to her desk to grab something, but Nero didn't stick around much longer he made his way out into town. Being stealthy he reached the School where he'd been by multiple times in the past but never really paid it much attention since he left.

As the sun set, Nero sat atop the building watching a few kids lingering around the front talking. Maybe it won't be that bad.. I'll finally get to witness what it's like to be back too. He trailed off in his mind, thinking. I wonder if any teachers will remember me? They might have retired by now though. Nero sighed staring out at the lemony-tangerine colored horizon. But as he lay back on the roof of the school he looked straight up into the sky where it was a deep indigo, speckled with tiny stars here and there. A faint smile graced his lips. "I hope.." He said aloud.

Chapter 3 is being written RIGHT after this because I am on a ROLL today! WOO! I HAVEN'T SLEPT FOR 20 HOURS NOW AND I DON'T PLAN ON IT! WOOOOOOO!

*passes out cold in her chair, her dog behind her.. Keeping her bum warm.*