Chap 13
Dante and Loona sat at a table in a small cafe, sipping coffees while they talked.
"So, you want to go out this weekend, there's this new club opening in north Imp City. You want to check it out?" Loona asked.
"Uh sure maybe. I'm thinking of just chillin 'at home honestly," Dante said, taking a big gulp of his coffee.
"Oh, come on, you don't want to do anything this weekend?" she asked, giving him an odd look.
"I've had to kill twenty people this week. Not all of us get to sit on our ass all day," he responded sarcastically. Loona was about to say something when she suddenly stopped, her face turning red.
Confused, Dante turned around and to his surprise he saw a big hellhound standing at the counter. He was a very large hellhound, clearly towering over everyone in the cafe, his fur was various shades of gray, he wore a dark gray vest, a black shirt, and gray pants. As he turned away from the counter, Dante noticed that he was blind in one eye.
"Wow look at that guy," he said to Loona pointing at him. Loona said nothing but continued to stare at the hellhound with an awestruck gaze.
The hellhound noticed the two of them and approached their table. At first Dante feared that this guy wanted a fight and he reached into his coat for his gun. But then noticed a friendly smile on the hound's face.
"Hey Loona, how's it going?" the hellhound asked, smiling.
"O-oh uh Vortex how- how's it going?" Loona stuttered, smiling nervously.
"I'm good. Verosika finally gave me some time off so now I'm just chillin with my girlfriend here in Pride," he said, seemingly oblivious to how flustered he was making Loona. Dante looked at Loona and noticed the mention of Vortex's girlfriend made her cringe.
Vortex looked over and finally seemed to notice Dante. He held out his hand as an offering.
"Hey I'm Vortex," Dante shook Vortex's hand.
"Hi I'm Dante, I'm-," before he could finish, he was interrupted by Loona
"My boyfriend! Dante is my boyfriend!" Loona shouted, grabbing Dante's free hand.
Dante looked surprised at this sudden shift from friends with benefits to full on in-a-relationship status. Dante was about to protest but Loona put his fingers in a vice grip, silencing him.
"Oh, really that's cool, hey why don't we double date me and my girl and you and Dante here?" Vortex asked.
"Oh, sure we'd love to," Loona replied laughing nervously.
"Don't I have a say in-Ow!" Dante shouted as Loona dug her claws into his hand.
"Yeah, that sounds fun," he said in a pained voice.
"Alright sweet! You're gonna love my girl she's awesome," Vortex said to Loona.
"Oh I am sure that I will," she said through gritted teeth.
Vortex turned away and headed out the door, Loona watched him go, with a dreamy expression on her face.
"Does someone have a crush?" Dante asked her cheekily.
"Shut up!" she yelled.
The van pulled up in front of the restaurant. It was a simple little pizza place, nothing super fancy, but still it was a nice place by Imp standards. As they stepped out of the van, Dante noticed Lonna check her make up for the 20th time.
"Loona, you look fine, as always," Dante said, giving her a pat on the ass, making her yelp.
"Shut up Dante," she replied, dragging Dante inside. Dante was not happy with this situation. It was obvious to him that Loona had agreed to the double date in an effort to make Vortex jealous.
They entered the Pizzeria, the warm smell of crust and garlic enveloping them. Sitting at a large booth on the right side of the restaurant was Vortex and his girlfriend.
The girl was a pink, furred hellhound about Loona's height. She wore a beanie on her head and glasses on her snout. Dante noticed she was wearing a small crystal around her neck. Vortex smiled and waved them over, but his girlfriend just scowled at them. However, when Vortex looked over at her face, she quickly replaced the scowl with a warm smile.
Dante and Loona both sat down across from them. Vortex gave them a warm greeting.
"Hey guys glad you could make it! This here is my girlfriend Gem," he said gesturing to the pink hellhound at his side. Gem greeted them both with an obviously fake smile.
"Hi nice to meet you two," she said in a cheerful tone.
"Hi I'm Dante," he said in a curt but polite tone.
"Loona," Loona said, barely hiding her disdain for the pink hound in front of her. The two women glared at each other, clearly already hating one another.
The two couples agreed to an order of a large pizza, half pepperoni half veggie, and as they waited on their food, they made small talk.
"So, how'd you two meet?" Vortex asked curiously.
"We met at work, I'm an assassin who works for Blitzo," Dante explained.
"Ahh cool, I met Gem here at one of Verosika's concerts, she was trying to get an autograph from Verosika and I was in charge of making sure no one got too close. We started talking and well, here we are," Vortex finished telling the story and he smiled as he leaned to give Gem a kiss.
"Love you too sweetheart," she said happily, discreetly sending Loona a smug look.
Loona suddenly grabbed Dante and pulled him into a big kiss, breaking away as she looked towards Vortex.
"Dante here is amazing! He's smart, kind, fun, and always makes time for me," she said, still clinging to Dante who cringed at this ridiculous display of acting.
Vortex sent them a warm smile, while Gem just rolled her eyes in disgust. Their pizza finally arrived, each one taking a slice. Gem and Dante had just finished their slices when Loona and Vortex had already eaten the rest of the pizza.
"Wow someone has an appetite," Gem said to Loona in a condescending tone. Loona growled and she was about to say something but she stopped when she felt Dante grab her hand and give it a squeeze. Gem noticed this and smirked.
"You know you two really are brave, going out in public despite being an imp and hellhound," she said in a condescendingly sweet tone. Dante and Loona glared at her, clearly feeling offended by the insult, until Vortex spoke up.
"Yeah, I know I'm actually really proud of you two. You move past the discrimination and persecution and are able to find happiness," he said in a happy joyous tone. Everyone at the table gave him a confused look.
Dante looked at Loona and noticed how uncomfortable she appeared to be. Gem's words had clearly cut deep. He always knew that relations between demons of different hierarchical positions was frowned upon. And this was a real sore point for Loona. Hell, when they first got together, she had assumed Dante must have been ashamed of her. Giving her hand a squeeze, Dante pulled her close and kissed her cheek.
"The hierarchy is all bullshit, remember?" he whispered in her ear. She nodded and smiled.
They continued to talk for about 20 minutes with Gem continuing to make rude and condescending comments whenever she could. Eventually Loona not being able to stand her rude remarks anymore got up and said she was heading to the bathroom. A few minutes later Gem got up and said she had to pee as well. Dante watched her leave worried, something bad was going to happen. Dante sighed reaching into his jacket he pulled out a cigarette, lit it, and took a long drag.
"Oh, hey mind if I get one?" Vortex asked, Dante handed him the pack and lighter. Vortex looked really satisfied as he inhaled the smoke.
"You look like you haven't had a smoke in a while," Dante said upon noticing how happy he looked with the cigarette.
"Yeah, Gem made me quit. She's really big on health and eating organic, I had to do a lot of begging just to come here, and not some crappy vegan place," he explained, shaking his head.
"No offense but she seems kinda demanding," Dante stated, giving Vortex a sympathetic look.
"Yeah, I know she can be a pain sometimes, but she's got a real soft side even if she doesn't always show it," he explained looking thoughtful. Dante just shook his head and took another drag from his cigarette.
Loona looked at herself in the mirror, adjusting her makeup but for the life of her didn't know why she bothered. Her plan had failed. She had hoped that by going on this double date, she would be able to impress Vortex, make him jealous and get him to leave that bitch and hook up with her. Sadly, for her, that didn't seem to be in the cards. Nothing she did caught his eye. He was so fixated on that pink little slut.
"Need to adjust your clown makeup?" Loona turned around to see Gem standing behind her, with a condescending smirk on her face.
"What the fuck do you want?" Loona growled hands balling into fists.
"Oh I thought we could have a little chat. Look I get what you were trying to do, but let me tell you something sister, he's mine and he doesn't have any interest in in some unoriginal, sluttly dressed emo." Her words cut Loona deep despite the warm tone of voice she was using. Loona could feel her anger rise. She felt ready to pounce.
"Your attempts were cute I'll admit, but they're not gonna work," Gem turned to head out the door, but not before turning back to Loona and saying;
"Oh, and if you're gonna get a fake boyfriend, you should stick to your own race," Gem left the room and headed back to their table.
Loona stood still, not moving a single muscle as she worked to quell her anger and hurt. She slowly turned to face the mirror and in a sudden move punched the mirror with enough force to shatter it. Loona whimpered, a tear running down her cheek.
The date had finally ended with both couples saying their goodbyes and going their separate ways. Dante was driving Loona back to her place glad that the night was finally over. He leaned over to Loona and smiled saying;
"Glad to be away from that bitch am I right," waiting for a response he looked over at Loona and the smile on his face quickly faded.
Loona was crying, and not just one or two tears, her makeup was running leaving long black smears down her face, Dante could even hear her silently whimper.
"Whoa Loona what's wrong?" Dante asked, worried for his friend and coworker.
"N-nothing!" Loona blurted out, turning away from Dante, sniffling.
Dante turned pulled over and stopped the car, unbuckling his seatbelt he turned to face Loona and asked again;
"What's wrong?" his voice was sterner this time denoting that she couldn't get away from this.
Loona gulped wiped her eyes, and without making eye contact asked;
"Is there something wrong with me?" her voice was meek and quiet, it hurt Dante to hear her like that.
"What? What are you talking about?" he asked, concerned.
"It's just… why does he like her over me, she's a mean, nasty, judgmental bitch, so why does he like her more than me!" she asked, Dante placed a hand on her thigh.
"The fact that he prefers her over me is just, it's just," Loona couldn't finish her sentence breaking down into tears.
"I guess I'm just another stupid emo bitch like she said," she cried.
Dante reached into his jacket and pulled out a cloth he lifted Loona's head by her chin and began wiping her eyes.
"Listen to me Loona, you are amazing, truly amazing, underneath your admittedly gruff exterior, you're one of the kindest, funniest, and sweetest girls I've ever been with," he said, voice filled with love and compassion.
Loona stopped crying and looked Dante in the eye, which glowed a dull red in the darkness of the alley they were parked in. In them she saw love and compassion.
"You… you really mean that?" she asked once again, feeling tears well up in her eyes.
"Of course, I do, and if Vortex is too stupid to see than then that's his fault not yours, you're amazing Loona you blow most girls out of the water," Loona smiled, grabbing him by his shoulders she pulled him into a deep kiss.
The two stayed in that embrace for a full 5 minutes before finally breaking away. Still holding each other Dante asked;
"You want to go back to my place?"
"You bet your sweet ass I do," she replied, Dante put the car in gear and pulled out of the alley.
Upon arriving at his apartment building Dante and Loona got out of the car and headed towards the front entrance. As Dante unlocked the door and let her in they made their way up the stairs to his floor as they did Loona reached out and grabbed Dante's hand. Dante was so surprised by this sudden act that he stopped and turned to face Loona.
"What's up?" he assumed she wanted to talk, why else would she be grabbing him.
"Nothing," she replied blushing, a warm smile on her face. Dante shrugged and continued on his way; his hand still entwined with Loona's who gave him a gentle squeeze.
The two made it inside Dante's apartment where they headed to his bedroom, hands still entwined.
Epilogue
Dante looked out his bedroom window, he watched as cars drove by. Why people were still up at this hour he would never know. He continued to look out onto the city skyline until the sound of rustling sheets made him turn his attention away from the window. Looking over his shoulder he saw Loona turn over so now she was facing him. Looking closer Dante realized she was still asleep, he sighed in relief not wanting her to see him contemplating.
The reason for his contemplation was simple, the sex he had just had with Loona. He and Loona had had sex plenty of times but tonight it was different. Previously when they screwed it was solely about pleasure, each one having an itch to scratch. Tonight on the other hand was more than about pleasure there was emotion in it, they were both focused more on enjoying and pleasing each other than themselves. He remembered how tightly she held onto him the feeling of being pressed up against her, feeling her heartbeat against his, the constant eye contact and just the joy he got from just being… close to her. It had been such a different yet enjoyable experience then from what he was used to, he hadn't felt that intimate with a woman since… her.
Dante had had many ladies in his time his body count was well into the double digits, which was something that brought him no small sense of pride but most of those women were flings or brief romances that where more for sex than love, but there was one woman that was different one woman he loved more than anything. Being around her brought him peace and happiness, ever since her death he had never felt that before from any woman, until now.
He looked back at Loona, a peaceful smile on her face as she slept and he felt… conflicted. While a part of him was happy to feel this way again another part was hesitant, afraid that he would lose her the same way he lost his first, and he didn't know if he could handle that. Looking back out the window he continued to watch the city until he felt a pair of furry arms wrap around his shoulders.
"You ok sweetheart?" Loona asked groggily, resting her head on his shoulder. Dante reached up and patted her arm.
I'm fine, let's go back to sleep," he said as they went back to the bed where they both got in and snuggled close, sharing one last kiss before drifting off to sleep.
Alright that's the end, another chapter down guys tell me what you think and any suggestions for later chapters. Thanks for reading :)