Disclaimer:
I do not own any Dante, Nero, or any other characters of the Devil May Cry series. These characters are the property of Capcom. I do not garner any profit from this work of fiction, save the personal profit of self-satisfaction.
Nero continued on her walk after her fight with the demons.
Taking a look around, she realized she was near where Kyrie had gone to after she moved out. She decided to pay a visit to her best friend, and hopefully get a shower.
Hitting the intercom button for Kyrie's apartment, she waited patiently for the brown-haired woman to answer.
Thirty seconds later, the intercom picked up, and the sweet voice of Nero's childhood friend came through the speaker.
"Hello?" Kyrie asked.
"Hey Kyrie, it's me." Nero replied while holding down the button.
"Nero? What are you doing here? Do you need something?" Her friend asked worriedly.
"Yeah, umm… Dante and I had a bit of a fight, so I was hoping you could help me out a little." Nero said honestly.
"Of course!" Kyrie chirped happily. "Come on up!"
The door buzzed as it unlocked, and Nero walked into the building. She climbed the stairs and knocked on the door of apartment 4C.
Kyrie opened the door and hugged Nero tightly.
"It's great to see you!" She exclaimed.
"Whoa! Kyrie it's only been like a couple weeks since you last saw me." Nero said, confused.
"Yes, but that doesn't mean I can't miss you." Kyrie replied.
Kyrie stepped back and took a good look at Nero. She noted the matted blood in her snowy hair with distaste, and grimaced at the thought of what could have put it there.
Nero swiped at her nose when she noticed Kyrie's look of disgust, and sheepishly asked her if she could use her shower really quick.
"I just want to get this gunk out of my hair finally, then we can talk. I don't want to be flaking demon blood all over your apartment." She finished.
"It's no trouble, I'll go get you some fresh towels." Kyrie said as she walked off.
Nero headed towards where she remembered the bathroom being. Once inside she stripped off her clothes and started up the hot water.
When the water had reached a pleasing temperature, there was a gentle knock at the bathroom door.
"Nero? I brought you a couple towels and a washcloth." Came Kyrie's voice from the other side.
Nero cracked open the door just enough to reach through and take the burden from Kyrie's hands.
"Thanks." She said to the brunette through the crack.
"There's shampoo and conditioner in the shower you can use. Just don't use the dandruff shampoo. It's William's." Kyrie instructed.
"Okay, I got it. See you in a few minutes." Nero said before closing and locking the door.
Nero placed the towels on the edge of the sink, and entered the stream of water.
Quickly and thoroughly washing out her hair with Kyrie's gardenia scented products; Nero found herself thinking about Dante and their fight today.
Recalling her fight with Dante earlier that day, Nero felt the burning shame of her bodily reactions well up inside her.
Heat prickled at the corners of her eyes, and she told herself it was just the shower.
She was NOT crying.
There was no way she would be crying over that asshole.
She was stronger than that.
But then she thought about his rough fingers, calloused from years of swordsmanship and battle, touching her skin. And she felt the heat well up inside her again.
Her eyes seemed to burn harder at that.
She refused to allow her body to act this way, and quickly swapped the hot water of the showerhead out for cold.
After a few seconds she turned the water off completely and stepped out.
Towel drying her hair, and wrapping herself up with another, she wiped the condensation off the bathroom mirror.
She checked to make sure all the blood was out of her hair, and glared fiercely at herself when she noticed the moistness of her eyes.
Getting redressed quickly, she exited the bathroom and made her way to the living room.
There she saw Kyrie setting down a tray laden with tea onto the coffee table.
Flopping onto the couch, Nero stared at her friend and waited for her to begin asking questions.
After several minutes of silence between them, save the clinking of Kyrie's mug on the table, Nero finally gave into the quiet.
"Aren't you going to ask me?" She said in an uncharacteristically small voice.
"About what?" Kyrie replied calmly.
"About the fight I had with Dante." Nero stated plainly. "Don't you want to know about it? And about the blood in my hair? I noticed you staring when I came in."
"I know how the blood came to be in your hair." Kyrie said with her eyes closed. "It got there when you were fighting demons right? I don't need to know the specifics. I know what your job is, and to be honest I do worry about you."
She opened her eyes and looked straight into Nero's.
"However, I believe in you and trust you to keep yourself safe." She said with an unwavering voice.
Nero felt a sudden wave of happiness at her friend's words. She found herself smiling shyly while scratching at her nose, her heart swelling with pride.
"As for your fight with Dante, I figured that if you wanted to talk about it, you would." Kyrie said as she leaned back into her seat.
"Thank you Kyrie." Nero said with genuine relief. "You're a great friend, you know that?"
Kyrie just smiled at her.
Dante had been staring at the wall across from his desk for the past thirty minutes. He hadn't moved since Trish had left his shop, and for the entirety of that half hour, Dante had been thinking about Nero.
He thought about how they had met, back in Fortuna, during the incident with The Savior.
He recalled how he took an almost immediate liking to the kid. She was independent, cocky, and feisty as hell.
She reminded him of himself in some ways.
He shook himself from his thoughts and got up from his seat. He walked over to Blue Rose, which was still lying on the floor, and picked up the gun.
Turning it over in his hands, he examined the engravings Nero had put into the metal.
A blue rose, an impossibility, something that does not naturally exist in nature.
Nero had built this gun by herself, with no one to help her, and only a few scattered tomes on firearms to base her design off of.
In a society that disapproved of using any other weapon besides the sword, she had gone against the grain. She had resisted their teachings, and she was the better for it.
He placed Blue Rose back on its proper rack, and stepped back.
Looking fondly at Nero's weapons, he finally came to decision about how to deal with his situation.
He would wait for Nero to make the first move.
Nero was a smart kid, and she was old enough to make her own decisions. She deserved to be absolutely sure about moving forward.
Dante turned around, picked up the extra ammo scattered on the floor, and placed it on his desk.
With nothing left to do, he decided he was hungry, and picked up the phone to dial his favorite pizza place.
"Carducci Pizza, how may I help you?" Came the bored, monotone voice on the other end of the line.
"Yeah, I'd like to place an order for delivery." Said Dante.
Nero was lying down on Kyrie's couch watching television when she heard the lock on the door unlatch.
She watched as William walked through the door, not even noticing her right there on the couch.
He put down his briefcase, closed and locked the door behind him, and hung up his coat on the coat rack.
When he turned around, he finally noticed the silver haired woman on his couch, and jumped in fright.
"Oh! Nero! Goodness you gave me a fright." He said while massaging his chest in an attempt to soothe his startled heart.
"Hey William. Classes over?" Nero said in reply, not really caring about startling him. He may be Kyrie's fiancée, but she only put up with him since he made the woman so happy.
"Yes. I'm done for the day, and I don't have any classes scheduled for tomorrow, so Kyrie and I are planning on going out." William said as he made his way to the kitchen, where Kyrie was preparing dinner.
Nero lost interest, and turned back to the TV.
William slid up behind Kyrie and wrapped his arms around her waist while placing a chaste kiss her neck.
"Welcome home William." Kyrie said without loosing focus on the steaks she was trimming of fat.
"Hello love." He said with love shining in his eyes.
"Nero is joining us for dinner tonight." Kyrie said while slipping out of his grasp, to the sink, where she washed her hands.
"That sounds fine. I'm glad you got to see her, I know how much you miss her since we moved in together." William said with a gentle smile on his face.
Kyrie smiled back at him, and wrapped her arms around his neck to pull him down for a quick kiss.
"Have I said I love you lately?" She whispered to him.
Nero tired to ignore the sounds of ongoing affection coming from the kitchen. Turning up the volume on the TV, she hoped the din of pirates clashing swords would prevent the heaping amounts of awkward she was starting to feel.
Throwing all of her focus into the images displayed on the electronic screen, Nero let time pass her by without regard as she lay there.
This was how Kyrie found her about an hour later.
Gently shaking her friend's shoulder, she watched as Nero's consciousness resurfaced from the mind-numbing effects of the television set.
"Dinner's ready Nero." She said with a small smile.
"Okay, Let me go wash my hands and I'll be right there." Nero said as she stood up and turned off the speeding car chase.
After doing just that, Nero entered the dining room and sat at the table.
Kyrie came in with two plates, while William followed behind with the final plate and a basket of bread.
They set down the plates and took their seats.
Nero fidgeted awkwardly as Kyrie said a small prayer of thanks, then immediately tucked into her steak.
"So Nero, how's work been going for you?" William inquired of his guest, attempting to make conversation with the woman who soon would basically be equivalent to a sister-in-law.
"Fine." Nero answered curtly as she continued to eat.
"And your boyfriend? Dante, was it? How is he?" He asked as he cut his steak.
Nero choked on her food, and wheezed as she struggled to bring air to her lungs.
"Nero? Are you all right?" Kyrie questioned as her friend fought with the food lodged in her windpipe.
"Dante is NOT my boyfriend." Nero rasped as she reached for her drink, attempting wash down the offending food item.
After chugging the entire glass, Nero faced William and looked him in the eye.
"Dante is my boss. Nothing more. In fact most of the time I hate the man's guts, and want nothing more than to punch him right in the face." Nero said with a serious tone.
Nero glared at empty space as she thought of the aggravating man. She really did hate his guts at times, but she knew deep down, she was glad she had met him.
He had helped her save Kyrie, the woman who had been like a sister to her since she was a child at the orphanage. Without his help, she knew she would have failed to rescue her, and both she and Kyrie would have been absorbed completely by the False Savior.
She would never admit any of this in front of him though. The man already had a big enough ego, no reason to go adding to it.
"Nero?" Kyrie's voice interrupted Nero's thoughts about Dante.
Nero shook her head to clear it, and stood up from the table.
She decided it was time to leave.
"Sorry Kyrie, I gotta go." She said as she left the room.
"Wait! Nero!" Kyrie called after her as she moved to follow her.
Nero went to the door and grabbed her coat that was hanging from the rack.
"Nero!" Cried Kyrie as she attempted to stop her friend from rushing off.
"Kyrie. I'm sorry I couldn't stay. It's just I don't like it when other people try to pry into my private life." Nero said as she looked to her best friend.
Kyrie looked at her with an apology watering in her eyes.
"Don't apologize Kyrie. It's not your fault. You know how I can get a bit hotheaded at times." Nero said as she maneuvered the girl into a hug.
"I'll see you soon. Don't be angry with William. This was my decision to leave." She said softly.
For all her bravado, Nero truly loved Kyrie, and she wanted her to be happy. She couldn't let her temper tear a rift between Kyrie and William.
"Bye." She said as she went out the door.
I'm looking for a Beta reader if anyone is interested.