They had reached the Montre City after minutes from driving. The Montre City is big, with the houses and buildings were architecturally designed with the gothic 19th centuries style. The churches and pillars were painted in white and intricately designed with gold. The houses are painted in white and dark green colors. It seems livelier than Fortuna. The people are staring at them, not with eyes full of disgust, but curiosity and amusement. It must be because the city seldom has a visiting individual from another city.

There was an old lady waving at them, as if telling them to stop in front of the shop. Dante and Lucy both stopped their bikes in front of the flower shop. The old lady smiled at them.

"Oh, welcome to our peaceful city." The lady said. "Are you from the Order? The crowning of the new pope will be in 2 weeks."

Lucy looked at Dante. He looked at the direction of the old lady.

"I'm from the Order, ma'am. They're special guests for the crowning." Lucy improvised. Dante and Nero's head turned at Lucy. Lucy turned around and winked at them, telling them to play along with his words.

"Oh, what a lovely, young lady you are. You look young, my child. " The old lady said. (Note: Lucy is still wearing his "Riselle" uniform. In any way, it doesn't matter, since he's wearing girl's dress anyway.) Lucy just smiled.

"Please, come in to our shop. You must have a tiring journey going all the way here." The old lady said, going inside. Dante and Nero stood up, the younger hunter carrying Leon.

"You guessed that right, old woman." Dante told the grandmother. Nero nudged on Dante that made the elder almost yelped and glared at him.

"Respect, old man, or do I have to teach you how to do that?" Nero whispered at him with cold tone and walked past Dante. The elder was left confused with Nero's action. They all sat down at the empty seats the table offers. Luckily, there are four seats available to every table at the shop. Nero placed Leon at the left side of the table and sat down.

"What happened to him?" The old lady asked, coming back with a tray with 4 cups of tea.

"Oh, you know hangovers. This kid couldn't handle many drinks last night and that's what happened to him." Dante answered. Lucy kicked his leg, he didn't budge.

"Is that so?" The old lady started placing the teas in front of them; she looked at Leon with pitiful eyes. "Poor thing."

"Ma'am, I'm really sorry, but I think after this, we should leave." Lucy said. "It looks like we're bothering you. Aside from that, we need to find some place to stay until the crowning."

The elder just smiled at them, chuckling at the statement.

"No worries, dear. If you're looking for a place to stay, I'm caretaking of a house few blocks away from here. The original owner died, leaving me that vacation house. You can use that." The old lady told them. "It looks like you're nice people; I'm okay with that idea."

The trio looked at each other, until Nero and Lucy eyed Dante. Dante was getting all weird with their action. The reason the two teens eyed the elder is because with Dante around, there's a big possibility that he can break some tools and objects in the house.

"What?" Dante asked the two. Their eyes narrowed.

OoOoOoOoO

They had accepted the offering of the old lady and walked their ways towards the house after the lady explained the way to the house and the rooms. Lucy's walking is going a bit wobbly. Nero is carrying Leon and Dante's eyeing the white-haired teen and the one he's carrying. He's starting to imagine if the two exchanged clothes and what will they look like. Now that he thought of it, he realized that it was a stupid idea since the two just look like each other; however, Nero seems cool in Leon's suit.

They had reached the house. The moment Lucy made his first step inside, he had lost his balance. Luckily, Dante caught him.

"Whoa, you okay, kid?" Dante asked. Lucy made an assuring side smile to him and stood up again.

"I'm okay. I just overused my demon eye, that's all." Lucy answered, turning them off. "I need a rest." That's all he said and went upstairs. Nero followed Lucy, going to the guest's bedroom to put Leon there. After he did, he was surprised as he turned around. Dante was standing against the wall. His arms crossed.

"And, what are you doing here?" Nero asked with a suspicious look. Dante grinned at him. Typical, Nero thought. Few seconds later, they heard a rush of water.

"Must be Lucy taking a bath." Dante guessed. Nero shook his head and went downstairs. He didn't notice that Dante was following him.

"Hey, kid." Dante called his attention. Nero turned around to Dante's direction.

"What? I'm hungry, okay? I just want to eat." Nero said and continued to go downstairs. The old lady told them that there's some food and ingredients stored there. Dante made a soft sigh and sat down to the sofa. He heard some clacking of the utensils from the kitchen. He stood up and decided to check on Nero.

"Hey, kid." He called his attention. Nero turned around and paused for a while before he placed the frying pan on the top of the table.

"What?" Nero asked. His eyebrows were furrowed, he's feeling suspicious. However, he can't see anything clear in those blue eyes.

"You should cook something that will go light with beer." Dante smiled at him before he walked away the kitchen. "I'm going out, buy the two of us some beer. Be sure to do what I told you."

Dante paused at the doorway.

"Much better, you wait for me and I'll help with cooking." Dante added. Nero's eyes widened.

"Are you serious?" He asked to make sure. Dante pouted.

"I'm not that mean, you know." Dante answered. He left the house. "Wait for me, okay?"

Nero shook his head and looked at the ground. He smiled for a while and then he started to giggle.

"Stupid Dante…" He said. Nero sighed and went back to the kitchen to find some ingredients.

OoOoOoOoOoO

Dante went to the nearest store and started to look around the place, finding the beer section or something like that. As soon as he spotted it, he immediately walked his way to it and took 20 cans of beer. It was on sale, so Dante thought it was such a sweet victory. He reached for his pocket and prepared for the counter. When Dante looked at the door, he saw two members of the Order. His eyes widened and immediately averted his eyes to look on the other way. Dante made his way to the counter.

"I thought Riselle came before us." One of them said. Dante couldn't help but listen to their conversation while waiting for his turn to the counter.

"What do you expect? She's rude; she doesn't care whatever happens to the Order. It's not surprising if we came earlier than her." The other member answered.

"Hey, I heard that the Order is keeping a guy in an alley." The other one told. "Isn't it weird? They usually tell us everything."

"Not all things are necessary for us to know about it. Even some information is kept hidden to us."

"You mean Riselle's mission?"

"That girl had a quick promotion. I'm sure there's something dirty behind that."

Dante was too focused on the conversation that he hadn't noticed it was now his turn.

"Ehem." The cashier cleared her throat. "Sir, your goods."

"Oh." Dante placed them in the counter and let the cashier scan the beers he bought. After that, he gave the exact amount after the cashier bagged the beers and gave it to him and left.

OoOoOoOoOoO

As Dante opened the door, he saw Nero with his arms crossed and his foot tapping on the floor. His eyebrow is raised for an inquiry.

"Took you so long." Nero said. Dante looked at Nero with surprise.

"Wow." He took a step inside. "Now, you're really like my wife."

Nero frowned and punched Dante on the shoulder.

"You said I should wait and I did." Nero answered. He looked at the plastic bag. "Wow, that's sure a lot of beer."

"Well, the store's in sale, so I grabbed the chance." Dante answered back. Nero shook his head and went back to the kitchen. Dante followed. He saw Nero washing the onions and potatoes. The older hunter placed the beers at the kitchen table and walked towards Nero.

"Whatcha gonna cook, kid?" Dante asked while smiling. Nero matched his smile.

"Fries and Onion rings. I thought they'll be good match for beers." Nero answered as he placed the potatoes and onions to bowl and moved to the counter. Dante followed. Nero prepared the chopping board and pointed the knife at Dante on purpose and smirked.

"You're going to help me, just as you said." Nero said. Dante shook his head as he took off his red coat and took the peeler and started peeling the potatoes one-by-one.

"Well, this is fairly easy." Dante commented. He suddenly heard Nero squirm.

"Ow!"

Dante immediately held Nero's left hand that made the younger blushed a bit. The elder saw blood dripping from the younger hunter's finger.

"Are you this careless when cooking?" Dante teased. Nero avoided his look and scratched his nose.

"I-It's just an accident." Nero answered defensively, avoiding to look so clumsy to the elder. He was surprised when Dante suddenly sucked the blood from the cut. Nero's eyes widened as his blush brightened and tried to take his hand away, but Dante's grip was tight.

"Dante! I have a demon blood running through my veins, for goodness sake! No need for this!" Nero almost yelled that made Dante loosen the grip and let go of Nero's hand.

"I was just helping!" Dante answered.

"There's no need for it! I mean, this can heal, this is just a simple cut." Nero reasoned.

"You're right." Dante agreed. And Nero's sure as hell that answer made him confused.

OoOoOoOoOoO

"And so, I reaaaally want to kill that bitch…" Nero started ranting. They're sitting at the floor of the living room with the onion rings and potatoes in the bowl. Nero had taken up 13 cans of beers that made him drunk. His speech is slurred and he's swaying. However, Dante didn't mind and just listened to the rants of the younger hunter.

"Even if you saved her from the past?" Dante asked. Nero laughed bitterly.

"Who cares about that? That's one of the things I regret." Nero's tears started falling slowly without him knowing. "For God's sake… I saved her petty little ass, and yet, she believed the Order. She didn't give me a chance to explain myself when he saw the moment… the moment I defeated Credo…"

"I should have known that back then…" Nero sighed. "I'm fucking stupid…"

From that moment, he cried. He was thinking of those moments he had saved the girl he thought he loved. He kept asking himself every single day back then in Fortuna what have he done to be hated. He felt he had lost everything after the Savior incident. Every passing day, he tried not to mind the people at Fortuna, but the truth, he want to shove in their faces how he saved their asses back then. It was painful.

Suddenly, he felt someone cupped his face and kissed him in the forehead. Dante wiped his tears using his thumb.

"If this is the effect of alcohol to you, I shouldn't have suggested this." Dante smiled.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Nero asked, his speech is still slurred.

"You lost your cockiness the moment you got drunk." Dante answered. Nero frowned and crawled to Dante's lap. Dante looked at him with surprise.

"Wha-"

"Shut up. I always want to try to rest here." Nero smiled as he closed his eyes. "You know, I admire you."

"Really? That usually doesn't show." Dante answered. If Nero's being brutally honest when he's drunk, he has to take note of making him drink if he's feeling suspicious about Nero. The younger hunter softly chuckled.

"Well, I don't want to inflate your ego." Nero answered. He snuggled more and curled his legs up and sighed. "But, you really make me feel safe and comfortable for some reasons."

"Wow, never thought I gave you a lot of impact in your life." Dante answered, he wrapped his arms around Nero.

"You sure as hell do." Nero looked up to Dante's face, seeing such gentle eyes from the older man. "You know, I really love it when you call me 'kid'."

"That's impossible! You always insult me back when I call you in that name or telling me to stop saying it!" Dante answered. Nero closed his eyes and chuckled.

"I can't help it. I know you're going to call me 'kid' for the rest of my life." He sighed. "But, then again, I really love those moments you'll call me by my name… They all sound so lovely…"

"Like this?" Dante slowly moved his lips to Nero's ears. "Nero…"

Nero felt his spine shiver. Dante called his name, in a very lovely tune. It was like music to his ears. He was beginning to fall asleep.

"Yeah…" He let out a small yawn. "Just like that…"

In seconds, Nero fell asleep in Dante's arms. The elder chuckled.

"Dante." Lucy called him. Dante looked up.

"Yeah?"

"I'm going to the Order tomorrow." He said. "That's all. Please don't do anything that could potentially break the whole house."

Lucy left and went to his room. Dante took a good look to the face of the sleeping Nero and smiled as he ran his fingertips on his face.

"It's sure lovely to see you like this sometimes." He muttered.

OoOoOoOoOoO

Author's notes: Yeesshh~! Update, at last! I was blocked and that happened.

SirenaLoreley: Uhm… Clarification: The demon that Lucy fought has no connection with him. However, they met long ago. I just want to clarify the confusion. I hope this does not offend you. ^_^

A drunken Nero! How many times have I imagined that?