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Dante sat alone in front of a pile of impaled demons. Each had a sword pierced through them mere seconds ago after another long day of wandering. Sitting down and just taking a breather was all Dante felt like doing at the moment. It wasn’t everyday he didn’t have to worry about bills, paying Lady whatever he owes her for, watching Trish spend all his money on who knows what, and Patty nagging him for something or to clean his place. No Morrison to get him up and out to face a new job. This would’ve been heaven if he wasn’t in hell. But, there was also that part of him that missed all of the noise and nudging coming from every which way. This place was too predictable and boring.
It was noisy with demons but then it go quiet once they were all eliminated. Days could go by before they ran into more. Dante couldn’t begin to imagine how anyone could voluntarily give themselves up to this kind of life. It lacked all of the living world’s luxuries. Strawberry sundaes, magazines, lively cities, and pizza. The moment he thought of the word, his stomach growled. How had he managed to go months without pizza? Was he even the same person he was back in June? The devil hunter sighed, lifting up a limb from one of the lifeless demons before him.
“This is the quietest you’ve ever been.”
Dante smirked, hearing the voice of his brother, Vergil. He wasn’t wrong but if talking is what he wanted, the devil hunter was more than happy to oblige. Peering upwards to Vergil, he opened his mouth but was instantly covered by a gloved hand.
“No. Don’t talk. Don’t rob me of my joy.”
There was this slight hint of sarcasm leaking from Vergil as he spoke. It had been too long since Dante heard such a tone from his brother. Really, it had been too long since he last saw him or had a genuine, nonviolent, conversation. Their time in the underworld was definitely something he never would’ve anticipated. Like a dream. A good dream. The kind you try to go back into but can’t because you’re wide awake. Only, Dante was definitely wide awake and Vergil was very much with him. So this wasn’t a dream.
Removing his brother’s hand, Dante stood up, dropping the cold demonic limb back into the pile. He wiped his hands off against his pants and rolled his neck after being slouched for a couple of minutes. Vergil, just examining the motions of his brother, extended his balled fist and opened it. On his palm was a small cocoon of some sort of creature. It was a weird, spherical shape and green in color. It looked slimy for the most part though the shell was hard as the devil hunter touched it. There was a point to this thing on his brother’s dirty glove, he was sure of it. And when Vergil didn’t say a word, but instead chose to raise his hand up toward Dante’s chin, he got the message.
“Hell no. You eat it.”
The younger twin quickly moved back a couple of feet. There was no way he was eating that. He may have been desperate, just not that desperate. What he wanted was real food. Pizza, of course. It’s a real food with real flavors. Who knows what that thing tasted like? Probably along the lines of rotten stuff. Whatever rotten stuff was. Vergil still insisted and closed the two feet of space between them. Still not speaking, he lifted his other hand, opening it as it got closer to his own mouth, and quite possibly ate the same thing he was trying to force Dante to eat.
“That’s disgusting. I hope you know that.”
Vergil nodded in agreeance but swallowed what he chewed on. A drip of green colored fluid flowed down his bottom lip. Immediately he licked it clean then spit out part of the hard shell of the cocoon. Dante shook his head, turning his back to Vergil and journeyed a few more feet away from that atrocity of a meal. It was like their mom trying to get him to eat vegetables. It wasn’t going to happen.
“You need to eat.”
Though Vergil pursued, Dante didn’t care to turn around. Not while he still had that demonic bug thing. Never, in a million years, did Dante think his brother would eat something like that. This is why he’s no good at throwing parties. As he continued away from that demonic insect thing, Dante sprang his pistols out from his holsters, noticing a group of demons emerging on the path he walked. Nothing like a little target practice to make him forget about the possible food poisoning in Vergil’s hand.
Each bullet hit the heads of every empusa that emerged before him. It didn’t take long for Vergil to join, quickly dispatching a line that had formed after the first batch was shot down. They handled the small fry with ease and disappointment. They were too easy. The twins stopped, taking a good look at the job well done. The demonic bodies sank back into the grounds of the underworld. Dante sighed in boredom which earned him a curious look from Vergil.
In silence, he offered the demonic delicacy once more to Dante and this time, he took it. He quickly threw it in his mouth, chewing it up with a couple of chomps, and spit the shell out like his brother had done earlier. It was absolutely, one hundred percent, disgusting. The green fluid was sludgy and thick. Nothing at all like his favorite food. Dante, after swallowing what had remained in his mouth, took pressing his cheek against his brother’s coated shoulder, and wiped the small amount of green residue that gushed out from the creature.
“That’s for the sucky food.”
Vergil shook his head only agreeing on the fact that the demonic cocoon was, indeed, sucky. “Right.” Was all he said as he examined, up and down, the other worldly environment. He had been away from human living for an unreasonable amount of time. This kind of place, these settings and smells, were the things he was used to now. Getting that short experience in just human flesh on the outside of this realm was refreshing. There was no doubt he wanted to go back up there again.
He touched a greyish, tree-like, plant growing tall but nothing compared to the Qulipoth. A couple of crystalized blood, red orbs hung from thin branches that curled into themselves. The way it grew, resembled certain types of trees he remembered from the human world. The braches were long and thick at the bottom and became shorter as it grew higher. He slid his fingers across the trunk of the tree, taking in the rigged, bumpy texture of it. It didn’t have leaves or needles- it was simply bare save for the orbs. Vergil closed his eyes, thinking, trying to remember, what the tree was reminding him of. What was its significance?
“You all right, Verge?”
Dante squeezed Vergil’s shoulders but didn’t get much of a reaction from him. His brother gave a small nod and opened his eyes. He faced Dante, in hopes he might remember what kind of tree grew similar, in shape, to this one.
“Was there not a tree that grew like this one on the surface?”
The devil hunter, at first confused, looked at the demonic plant from top to bottom. Its triangular motion did look familiar though not at all what he pictured when he thought of similar trees from back home. He though, and thought, unable to come up with a specific species of tree. So he sat down, legs crisscrossed and head resting on the palm of his propped up hand. His eyes never loomed away from the tree. The next set of empusa were easily handled by Vergil. A pile of summoned swords dropped from over them, dispersing them instantly.
Vergil remained by his brother’s side, taking a seat beside him. He had his back to the devil hunter’s shoulder, knees coming up toward his chest. His wrists rested over his knees, hands clasped as he patiently waited on whatever Dante came up with. It should’ve come easier to the younger twin but, perhaps because of the time away, he may have forgotten as well. Dante yawned, and for a moment, found himself sleepy as he pondered on the plant some more.
“It’s just not coming to me.”
Both of them didn’t bother on the matter any longer. Instead, they chose this time to just rest and reflect on whatever they could think of. The two men were silent save for whatever noise they made when they’d shuffle about on their spots. Vergil picked up a thick, rock of sorts that had been kicked up from the previous skirmish with the empusa. There were more around him of various sizes, some with flat bottoms, and others too pointy and edgy to lay still. Vergil sorted them out, neatly, keeping the balanced rocks to his side. After a minute of reviewing their sizes, he kept three and stacked them up, largest at the bottom and smallest at the top.
As he did this, Dante stood up, hearing more demons approach. A few small empusa and one empusa queen. The devil hunter had a quick, refreshing stretch, popping a couple of bones. He took one the handful of demons on his own as Vergil had handled the last batch himself. The regular empusa were stabbed and thrown around by the Dante’s devil sword. As for the queen, it took a little bit more time but nothing too consuming. He was in and out, dashing away from the empusa queen’s angry jabs toward him. Dante was toyed with the demon for a bit. Having nothing else to do this whole time was starting to get the better of him. Months of repeated fighting and walking around aimlessly was torture. Had Vergil not been here, Dante wasn’t sure what he’d do.
The empusa queen’s reckless swings eventually sent one of the smaller, lifeless demon’s at Vergil’s direction, just a few inches ahead of his hip. His eyes wandered in its direction, a few blinks covering the light blue eyes that sparked with an idea. Before the demon could begin to crumble away, he took hold of its limbs and tore them off its body. Some blood sprayed about on his lap, on the ground, and even on the rocks that had been stacked. No problem though, as Vergil continued dismantling the demon of a few more parts. Some of the pointy teeth it possessed were pressed against the top rock, being glued to it with the sticky residue leaking from the empusa. He did this for four more of its teeth. Lastly, he took discolored parts of the body, areas that looked red, another looking orange, and stuck them onto the top rock as well.
On the middle rock, he used the Yamato to carefully make two holes wide enough to stick the arms he removed from the corpse. They went in kind of funny but, he wasn’t looking for perfection. Once he was done, he simply shoved the decaying empusa body away and resumed his previous seated position. When the noise and action died down, Dante returned, back to crisscrossing his legs wiping any blood that attached itself to him.
He turned in Vergil’s direction, recalling movement from his brother as he was fighting with the empusa queen.
“Bored too, huh?”
His brother gave a nod, recognizing his own boredom that had set in some months ago. Dante examined the structure created by Vergil. A smile formed on his lips as he admired what could’ve been a make-shift snowman. That’s when it hit the devil hunter. His head swung back in the direction of the underworldly tree in front of him. They wondered what it reminded them of and now he knew.
“I remember now. This thing here-“Dante waved his hands in front of the tree, snapping his fingers as he tried not to lose his words. “It’s like those damn trees. Those fir trees people use around the holidays.”
Vergil looked at the tree. He reexamined it from top to bottom, seeing the red orbs form off the curled up tips. He could see it now. The trees used by humans to celebrate a certain holiday.
“That’s right…”
The older twin kept staring at the plant. Had he seen one for himself before? Turning to Dante, the man had a big grin on his face. Did he remember a time they may have had one?
“Did we have a tree back then?”
Dante, still holding that grin shook his head as it had been a long time.
“I usually see them around the city. People buying them, trying to haul them on their small ass cars… a bunch of families.”
His grin grew softer, seeing those light hearted images in his mind. They were things Vergil missed out on. Maybe because their father was a demon, they didn’t celebrate silly holidays like that. For those first years, Dante missed out on it too until he could fully grasp what it was people were celebrating. It didn’t have to always be about a specific worship or about the amount of money one had to show off by buying a number of gifts. It was the family aspect. Those get-togethers that sometimes made Dante feel sad or a hint of jealousy.
Vergil didn’t say anything. He heard that change in Dante’s voice. Had he not been the foolish one his brother wouldn’t have that hurt and neither would he. But what’s happened had happened and there was no changing it. All that could be done now was salvaging the life he was given. No matter where they were or where they ended up, he would make it all up somehow.
The older twin turned around to see his younger twin slouched in his spot like a pouty child. The sight made him snicker. Dante had his moments of sensitivity, that, Vergil remembered. He also remembered how big of a pain he could be when he was trying to read a book in peace. The little memories made him smile.
“There’s a first for everything, is there not?”
Vergil’s words were on the surprising side. Dante did not expect him to say a word. Really, he didn’t expect anything at all. So when Vergil gave him a, slightly awkward, hug, he was taken off guard completely. Was this really his brother or just some weird ass dream that suddenly took over? The more Dante focused on the comforting warmth of his brother’s arms, the more he knew this was real and something he never knew he needed. Coming from Vergil, it was a miracle. A truly, terrifying, hellish, welcomed miracle.
The devil hunter did his best not to show any water works flowing down his cheek like a river. To hide it, he turned his upper body into Vergil’s hug that became less awkward from Dante’s embrace.
“Wherever you were, Vergil- Wherever we are now- I’ll never let you go. I won’t make that mistake twice.”
Dante’s words had Vergil close his eyes. Though he didn’t shed a tear, he felt every syllable jab at his heart with power. He felt things he abandoned so long ago and love was one of them. The love of his family to keep him safe. And it was that feeling he’d give him in return.
“You know what they say around the holiday season, right?” Dante questioned.
“No.”
“Merry X… No, that’s not right.”
Vergil detached himself from his younger twin and smacked him upside the head.
“Don’t talk anymore.” Vergil sighed with a great feeling of annoyance.
“Some people write it like ‘X-mas’ so… Merry X Mas.” Dante continued, unmoved by Vergil’s hit.
“I liked you better when you were quiet.” Vergil rubbed his temples, knowing he’d get no relaxation from that.
Dante continued on and on and on, well passed an hour. Much to Vergil’s dismay.