Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own any of the Devil May Cry characters in this fiction, if I did, Kyrie would have died in the first ten minutes of the game, very brutally and with lots of blood, Dante and Nero would be together...and Vergil would be shirtless in the third game...and Arkham would wear a frilly princess dress for my entertainment.

Rated Mature for Blood, Lots of Gore, Language, Angst, Future Hot Man Sex, Hurting Nero, and Hurting Dante.

Phew. This week has been very stressful and exhausting! Finally, I had to just say "Enough!" so I decided to write this chapter for a break from this terrible week. Hopefully my schedule will get more manageable soon. Until then, enjoy this slightly later than usual chapter!

Chapter Fourteen: A Pet Name

The first thing that hit Nero was how much his chest hurt, the heavy ache drawing him from his comfortable sleep without his consent. He shifted himself lightly, trying to move into a position that would not hurt as much but the pain would not dull even when he moved to lie on his back. He groaned softly, not wanting to wake up from the warmth surrounding him even with the insistent ache rippling through his subconscious. After a few moments, he sighed and opened his eyes, wondering why his chest felt as if it was on fire.

After a few moments of staring at the ceiling above him, Nero recalled being stabbed by Rabi several times. He even remembered seeing Dante tackle the demonic rabbit to the ground but everything after that was nothing but pitch black darkness. He did not know why he was suddenly in his and Dante's bedroom at Devil May Cry, not remembering how he got to the office in the first place. He could tell from the pain in his chest that it was not just a simple, realistic dream.

He turned his head to the side, his breath catching in his throat when his eyes met Dante's sleeping face beside him. Tear tracks that were still drying were running down the older man's cheeks. His brow was furrowed tightly as if he was having a bad dream or was forcing himself to sleep despite the events that had happened a few hours before. Nero blinked a few times while he was lost in shock, having never seen the older man cry even during the worst of times. The man beside him had never shed a tear even when his own sword was rammed through his chest. All Nero could think was whether or not the other hunter had really been crying over him.

Nero shifted himself again, trying to ignore the constant pain ripping through his ribs. He suddenly felt the arms around him tighten, as if silently begging him not to move or get up. The younger man glanced at Dante again, the tight grip pulling at his heart strings, knowing now that the elder had been worried about him.

"Fine. You win this time, old man." Nero muttered, facing Dante and moving closer so he could rest his head against the older man's chest. He felt himself blush lightly at the contact, wondering if that was the reason Dante had gone shirtless. The older slayer always did know what to do to make him blush despite himself. Nero let out a breath of laughter, wincing a bit as his freshly healed lungs objected to the action. He shut his eyes after a few moments of watching the other man's chest rise and fall as he breathed, about to fall back into the embrace of sleep when he felt the older devil hunter's hands move around him. Nero ignored it, wanting to go back to his peaceful sleep. That was, until he felt Dante squeeze his ass.

Dante found himself quickly awake and lying on the floor, his groin stinging and a few bleeding claw marks on his cheek. Both of his arms were tangled in the satin sheets of the bed, making it so he couldn't stop the foot that stepped heavily on his groin instead of kicking it again. He winced before looking up, seeing an enraged and snarling Nero towering over him.

"What the hell, old man? I decide to let you sleep a bit more and you grab my ass? Forget it! I'm just going to kick your ass next time." The younger man took his foot off Dante's aching crotch before storming off towards the bathroom.

The older man smiled even with the pain coming from his groin. Good to know that the ki-Nero is back. Still, he could have let me off with a warning. Dante groaned lightly as he untangled himself from the sheets, taking pity on himself and chuckling lightly as he waited for the pain to fade. Damn, he knows how to kick my ass even after nearly getting killed. I don't know if that's a good thing or not...

Dante walked down to the office after his groin stopped aching, catching Nero staring out one of the windows while sitting on the couch. The snow was starting to come down at a steady rate, the window sills already lightly frosted with the white ice crystals. The streets and buildings were colored a soft gray as the snow slowly piled onto them. Dante leaned against the wall at the end of the stairs, watching Nero stare outside as if it was one of the most fascinating things he had seen his whole life.

"First time seeing snow?" Dante questioned, seeing Nero shake his head and continue to watch the pure white snow fall gently to the ground through the foggy window.

"Second. It managed to snow once in Fortuna but it was too warm in the winter for it to stay around too long. Now, I can see it without it melting in two days." He parted his eyes from the city to look at the older man, giving him a half smile. Dante smiled back, sitting next to the younger hunter and putting an arm on the back of the couch behind him.

"So how are you feeling, Nero? You took a lot of damage yesterday..." Dante asked hesitantly, still not over the younger man nearly dying in his arms. Nero shrugged slightly, leaning back and deciding not to punch the older man for resting his arm behind his head.

"My chest hurts a bit but other than that, I'm fine. Even my arm doesn't hurt that much anymore." Nero said, looking down at the fingers of his left hand and moving them without so much as a pinch of pain where the broken bone had been. "But I have to admit, I can't remember how we got back here. I get as far as seeing you tackle Rabi before everything goes blank. What happen-Hey, Dante?" Nero stopped as soon as the older man stood up, walking wordlessly towards the kitchen. He got up and followed him quickly, not knowing why the elder was suddenly ignoring him. "Dante?"

"We can talk about this later, Nero." The younger man paused at the archway to the kitchen, raising an eyebrow at how often Dante was using his real name instead of one of his normal nicknames like 'kid' or 'punk'. Nero stepped into the kitchen, seeing the other hunter hiding behind the fridge door.

"Come on, old man." He said, crossing his arms over his chest and watching the older man take out an old box of left over pizza. Nero's eyes widened in shock when he saw Dante pass up the cabinet filled with plates, moving instead to dump the remaining pizza in the trash can. "What's the deal? You haven't called me 'kid' once today and you're hiding things from me. What happened that was so bad that you're even throwing away pizza? Every time I try to do that, you threaten to take me to Love Planet and show all the girls that I belong to you." Nero ignored the faint blush on his cheeks from the memory of when the elder had threatened doing that, pushing it aside in favor of learning why the other hunter was acting so different.

Dante gripped the edge of the counter with one hand, staring out the still broken window as the snow drifted in and coated the top of the sink in a layer of cold fluff. He really disliked Nero's curiosity sometimes, never finding it in his heart to say he hated it but the younger hunter never knew when to let something go. The older slayer sighed, figuring that he might as well tell Nero or risk making him mad for a second time in the morning.

"I didn't get to you quick enough." Dante looked over his shoulder, seeing the confusion in the younger man's face but he just could not bring himself to look Nero in the eye. He was afraid he would lose it again if he told him while staring into those azure eyes, so alike to his own but filled with a cocky spark that belonged to no one else he had ever met. The very spark that he had fallen for. "I let my anger at that stupid rabbit stop me from getting to you. By the time I managed to get a hold on myself, you were already dead for several minutes. I don't know how but I managed to get you breathing again but...I was convinced that I had lost you. I even snapped at Trish and Lady when they tried to tell me you were dead. I couldn't accept it if you died when I had even the smallest chance to save you, Nero..."

"But I'm here now, Dante. I'm standing right here and talking to you. I even kicked your ass this morning. What more proof do you want? Do I have to grab your sword and pin you to a wall with it again or what?" Nero asked, walking towards Dante and placing a hand on the elder's shoulder. "I'm fine, Dante. Don't beat yourself up for crap you couldn't avoid. That's my job." He saw the older man smile softly at the joke before turning around to actually face him. "Anyway, why are you throwing out your pizza over that? You can't go a day without ordering one and now you're deciding to quit all of a sudden?" He felt Dante grab him and pull him into a soft embrace, the elder being careful not to hurt the other slayer's chest.

"I kind of made a lot of promises to you when I thought you were dead. Maybe you were alive then but you sure as hell didn't look like it. I was going to quit pizza, calling you 'kid', and messing up the office just so I could watch you clean it all up like when you first got here. I was even going to stop drinking for a year until you could too. I don't know why I promised all of that but I just had to do something so you would come back to me." Nero blushed as Dante buried his face into his neck, kissing the faint mate mark there lightly as he held him. The younger man slowly wrapped his arms around the older hunter's neck, looking off to the side of the kitchen in embarrassment as he realized what he wanted to say to the more experienced devil slayer.

"You don't have to do all of that, old man. I don't really mind any of those things. They let me know it's really you. Though, I wouldn't mind eating something else once in a while, I don't hate pizza. Sometimes, I can get you to let me top when you're drunk enough but I don't know if you remember any of that when you wake up."

"Trust me, I do. I just acted like I didn't so you wouldn't be shy about it." Dante said, puling his face out of the younger man's neck and meeting his eyes. Nero looked away and scratched his nose in embarrassment, thinking over all the things he had done with confidence because he had thought the older man would not remember in the morning.

"A-Anyway...No one else calls me 'kid' either. In an odd way...I think of it as a pet name like 'sweetheart', except it doesn't sound like it was taken straight out of an unbearably cheesy romance film..." Nero heard Dante chuckle before the elder leaned down the few inches difference in their height to kiss him on the forehead.

"Then I guess I should call you 'kid' more often, kid."

"Shut up, old man." Nero seethed halfheartedly, punching the other hunter in the arm before he felt Dante hug him tighter in response to the light abuse.

"Damn, I love you, Nero." He muttered under his breath, pulling the younger man closer by his waist. Nero's glare dropped as he wrapped his arms around the elder slayer's neck again, sighing lightly before swallowing his pride.

"...Love you too, jackass."