Chapter Text
Chapter 1
“Are you gonna take care of the kitchen too?”, Dante asked while munching away on a piece of pizza.
“You know that I’m doin’ you a favour when I’m cleaning this shithole, right?”, you raised an accusing eyebrow in his direction. “You don’t get to make demands.”
Shoving the dustpan back into a closet you let out a deep sigh and fought a laugh from erupting when you noticed how Dante was picking chopped up olives from his pizza with a big scowl.
“And I told you before”, you added, stretching your arms over your head, “you have to clean your bathroom and your dishes yourself. We’re not that good friends.”
“We are not?”, Dante asked mockingly, sniffing at his fingers and scrunching up his nose. “What would I have to do for you to clean my crapper?”
You rolled your eyes at him and snorted a laugh. “Forget about it, you are just a big fat child”, you yawned heartily and took a look at your watch. “I gotta go home, I also have my own place to take care of. See ya later, you punk”, you blindly waved at the red devil’s direction over you shoulder.
“Bye bye, kid”, Dante called.
You pushed the door to the shop open with your foot, eyes already glued to your phone to check when the next bus was gonna leave in the direction of your home from the bus stop around the corner.
You looked up just in time not to collide with the velvety clad shoulder of Dante’s brother.
A yelp escaped your mouth and the phone slipped from your stiff fingers. Instead of colliding with the hard pavement however, Vergil swiftly caught it mid air without even flinching.
You stared up at him with wide eyes, never quite knowing what to say to the older twin.
“Uh… thanks”, you mumbled when he offered your phone with an outstretched arm, leaving as much distance between the two of you as possible.
He simply replied by saying your name, no more than a mere acknowledgement of your existence before walking up the few steps to the shop and disappearing behind the double doors.
You didn’t realise that you had been holding your breath until you released it in a rush as soon as he was out of sight.
Your friendship with Dante was weird enough as it was, with him hunting devils and all, but since his brother had rushed back into Red Grave with a vengeance it had all gotten a lot weirder.
You wouldn’t admit it to Dante, but you had started to avoid the shop since Vergil had taken up residence in there, feeling way too uneasy about the blue devil.
The things Dante had told you about Vergil were just something that you couldn’t possibly fathom. A man so calm and reserved as the older brother, being so full of arrogance and hatred that he had almost thrown the entire world to hell. Twice.
A shiver ran down your spine when you unlocked the door to your apartment.
No, you didn’t know how to deal with Vergil. Despite the obvious features, like the hair and the eyes and the bodies, him and Dante were as different from each other as night and day.
Were Dante’s attention could be completely occupied with picking olives from a pizza, nothing seemed to escape Vergil’s notice. His eyes followed every movement, his ears picked up on any sound. The first few times you had been in the shop at the same time as him, he had sneaked up on you all the time, moving as quietly as a ghost, but always knowing where you were.
He didn’t say much either. The two of you had not exchanged as much as five words together, at least that was how it felt.
What bugged you the most was that you didn’t know exactly what made you feel so uneasy about Vergil. Was it his past? No, Dante had promised all of you that he would keep an eye on Vergil and make sure that something like that wouldn’t happen again.
His stoic demeaner? Why should that bother you? Despite the fact that his taciturn behaviour often bordered on being rude, there was a certain chivalry in his silence.
The way he looked? No, he had that scary, demonic aura that Trish also had. The kind that was intimidating but also drawing you in. When he stood in front of you, he somehow seemed much taller than Dante did in comparison to you, just by the way he would hold up the posture in his body, hold his head up high.
Maybe you should give Vergil a chance. You couldn’t possibly play scared rabbit every time you saw him, Dante and yourself were too good friends for that.
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You scrunched up your nose as you picked up one of Dante’s dirty socks from his bedroom floor.
Good lord, if he didn’t have jobs that saved countless human lives coming out of his ears by now, you would never have agreed to doing his laundry. However, the consequences of the Qliphoth incidence were still running around in certain corners of the city and Dante as well as the rest of his family had been working their asses off to get it all cleared.
The least you could do was help a little, right?
You sighed deeply, dropping the sock into the laundry basket you were balancing on your hip. The fact that everyone in and around the Devil May Cry was working practically day and night was probably the reason why everyone was so stressed.
And that, in turn, was probably the reason why you could hear yelling downstairs.
You hesitated when you exited Dante’s bedroom and stood on the top of the stairs.
“Don’t act all high and mighty, Verge”, Dante called angrily. “I managed to run this shop just fine before you came along, so don’t march around here looking down on me because of paperwork and bills and stuff. I get the job done, the rest is just trivialities.”
You could hear that Vergil was answering something calmly, but couldn’t make out what he said.
“So, what, I didn’t pay the gas bill? I was busy, because of the mess you made! You know what, why don’t you take care of all of this shit –“ you could a loud bang, probably Dante slamming his hand down on all the job offers littered across his desk – “and I just take a break. Huh, how does that sound, you big old smartass?!”
Muttering curses underneath his breath Dante stomped up the stairs, almost shoving you out of the way and slammed the door to his bedroom like a pouting child.
You swallowed the laugh that was trying to fight its way up your throat. Dante was doing that a lot lately, picking fights with his brother. Your theory was that he enjoyed the feeling of childhood nostalgia when he was sparring with his brother – either verbally or physically. It was what they had done to bond in hell, but due to Vergil’s stoic nature it took more and more effort of Dante lately to rile him up.
You shook your head with a slight grin.
Men. As if Dante couldn’t simply say: Hey Verge, how about it, wanna do some sparring with the swords with me?
Well, knowing Dante, he probably couldn’t. They couldn’t fight for fun, it had to be a real fight.
As lightly as you could you descended the stairs, laundry basket still in your hands, and rounded the corner of Dante’s desk to get to the kitchen and the washing machine.
Vergil was leaning against the side of his brother’s desk, his back to you, and you hesitated for a second?
Should you greet him? He had come in when you had already been upstairs, so you hadn’t had the chance yet to say hello. Maybe you could –
“Do not provoke me further, brother, I warn you”, Vergil said in a quiet, but deep tone, making the hairs on your arms and neck stand on end immediately. Within the blink of an eye, he had unsheathed the Yamato and whirled around, pointing it in your direction.
You blinked sheepishly at the tip of the sword that hovered only half an inch away from your nose. “Uh…”, you made stupidly, eyes slowly travelling up the sword, over his arm to Vergil’s face.
If he had been surprised by his confusing you with his brother, he did not show it or had already schooled his cool expression back into place.
Yamato stayed in its threatening position for a few moments more, as if he wanted to gauge your reaction. You just kept staring at his blank face, impressed by the fact that he could keep his entire body so still.
Had his eyes always been so pale? His lips always so full?
Your cheeks flushed a furious red and you quickly averted your eyes back down his arm, just now realising that he wasn’t wearing his coat.
Oh, good lord, that were some seriously toned arm muscles…
Your face grew even hotter when he finally lowered his sword. You cast a quick glance up into his face again and saw that he opened his mouth, as if to say something, when Dante came back stomping down the stairs.
Vergil quickly sidestepped around the desk and squared his shoulders with his back to you, as if to shield you from his brother’s anger.
“Aha, so we are drawing swords now, alright!”, Dante yelled and stretched his arm out, calling for his devil sword.
You swallowed thickly when you heard Vergil’s deep groan of annoyance as his brother’s body collided with his and pushed him in a flash of blue and red out of the door.
They landed on the street in front of the shop, swords connecting immediately. You had often heard them fighting, outside the orphanage in Fortuna, outside and inside the shop or anywhere really, when the mood arose.
But now, realising that you had never seen the brothers fight, you carefully put the basket down on Dante’s desk and chanced a glance through the open double doors.
They were both light on their feet, fast and supernaturally strong. But where Dante was brutally slashing down his sword, Vergil moved with an incredible elegance. Yamato was moving between his hands as if it had a mind of its own but was working strictly in favour of its master.
For a second you drowned out the existence of the red twin and admired the superior arrogance with which Vergil fought, the flexing of his muscles and the beauty of his sword.
The way he would grunt when an especially hard blow from his brother’s sword would hit his own chased a tingle down your spine.
Their fight was over way too soon and quite abruptly. Suddenly, Dante was laughing and clapping his brother on the shoulder and there was actually something close to mirth in Vergil’s expression, even though he was not smiling.
When Dante let his sword disappear and winked at you cheekily, mumbling “enjoying the show?” as he pushed past you back into the shop, Vergil calmly sheathed his sword.
You realised too late that his eyes had landed on you, too busy with admiring the light sheen of sweat glistening over his neck and biceps. You just noticed that his eyes were on your face when you looked back up at his to stare in awe at the few loose strands of hair that had fallen against his forehead.
Oh God, he was staring at you. And there you stood, wide eyed and blush still high in your cheeks admiring him.
Oh. God. Realisation hit you like a wall of bricks. You didn’t know how to deal with Vergil because he was super hot.
Well, shit.
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Uneasiness settled on Vergil’s shoulders after you had hurriedly left the shop, promising his brother that you would take care of the laundry, which was still standing abandoned on the desk, soon, but that you had forgotten something you had to do at home.
There was something about you he couldn’t quite place. You were by no means a fellow hunter of the Devil May Cry, but rather a maid to his brother. A housekeeper.
A friend.
Vergil sat down on the couch, finally able to enjoy some silence now that his little brother had blown his steam off.
Not that Vergil had any mind to concentrate on his book. You were still standing in the entranceway of the shop in his mind, one hand gripping the door tightly while the other was curled into a fist. Your eyes had been as wide and blank as those of a small bunny staring back at the poisonous snake. Staring back at a predator. Your cheeks at been flushed a deep red. Flushed by shame of your own inferiority? By fear?
Vergil sighed internally. There were a few things that he had noticed about you over the time. That you were quite small, for example, standing next to his brother and always having to crane your neck the entire way back to look at him. That you were extremely smiley, always willing to cheer the place up. Well, usually. Not around him of course.
There was something about you that was so extremely light-hearted, so fragile, that he, despite the fact that he didn’t really care about you, did not want you to fear him.
No matter how much he might despise the action of addressing such things, his honour demanded that he would set the record straight. He could not simply intimidate a confidant of his brother in such a way, especially one so far inferior to himself in physicality.
It wasn’t what an honourable warrior would do.
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It’s okay, you told yourself repeatedly as you shoved the dirty laundry into the washing machine.
You had had two days to deal with it. So, Dante had a hot brother. That didn’t have to change anything.
You swallowed thickly. All this would have been way easier as if you had never found out. But now it was as if the glass inside your mind that had functioned as a border had shattered and Vergil was all you could think about.
How pleasantly extraordinary his voice was. How good he smelled. How royal his posture seemed. How soft his lips looked. How beautiful his eyes were.
How tall he was in comparison to you, how broad his shoulders. How you wanted to be crushed beneath his body, feel the firm muscles, taste that sheen layer of sweat and…
“Argh, no”, you hissed angrily and bumped your forehead violently against the washing machine.
You had to get a grip on yourself, remembering that time that you had forced Dante to watch Dirty Dancing with you, telling him that it would help him learn what girls wanted from men. And well, halfway through when Johnny was grinding against Baby to Cry to me Dante had shot you a mischievous look, letting you know that he could tell how excited that scene made, suggestively wiggling his eyebrows. How the hell should you have been able to know that devils could smell arousal?
Anyway, Dante had suggested to help you with your situation, you had hit him right into the face and that was the only time he had ever tried anything with you.
And you had vowed that you would never get turned on in his presence again. Not only would it be embarrassing enough if Dante found out that you were having dirty thoughts inside his home, but if he were to know who you were lusting after, he would never let you live that one down.
You bit your lip tightly as you started the program on the machine, trying not to think about the way Vergil would draw his sword so confidently. What the hell had happened to you?
You rubbed your thighs together as you got up to your feet, trying to ease some of the delicious discomfort there. The small kitchen was starting to get filled with the smell of laundry detergents at least, so no one should be able to smell your situation. Hopefully.
You flinched violently when someone called your name behind you.
“Hey, Vergil”, you mumbled as you turn around, bracing your arms against the kitchen counter above the washing machine.
“Hello”, he replied curtly.
“What’s, uh…”, you swallowed again, staring at a point on his right cheekbone, “what’s up?”
You hadn’t known that Vergil was in the shop. Even worse, you knew that Dante had left on a job ten minutes ago.
You were alone with Vergil in the shop.
“I wanted to speak with you”, Vergil said calmly and took a long stride into the room. His eyes dropped to your hands immediately as you gripped the counter more tightly.
“Okay…?”, you replied carefully, trying to fight the blush in your cheeks. Man, he was intimidating, the way his tall frame seemed to fill out the entire room immediately.
“About what happened two days ago.”
Your face fell for a second before you could get it under control again. Well, shit. He knew.
“If I scared you, that was not what I intended”, he finally bit out, eyes trained on your face. “I apologize.”
Oh. That was not something you had expected. “I… what?”
“I should not have pulled my sword on you”, he stated calmly, as if he was talking to a child. “To scare you was not something I wanted.”
Being the mindless idiot that you were, you immediately said: “I’m not afraid of you.” Damn, it would have been the perfect excuse for your behaviour! The facepalm you wanted to give yourself would have to wait.
Vergil quirked a half amused, half inquisitive eyebrow at you. “Is that so?”
“I … I was just surprised”, you said, fighting for confidence. “I mean, you guys are really fast for a normal human like me.” An uncomfortable smile broke out on your face.
Vergil took another step closer to you, invading your personal space, and stared down at your face intensely.
He was testing you, you realised. Looking up at him through your lashes, you bit your lower lip, hoping that he would not realise how turned on you were.
The washing machine was vibrating beneath your fingers. If he gripped your waist now and lifted you onto the countertop, you would be able to feel the vibrations on your…
Quickly averting your eyes, you cleared your throat awkwardly.
“Ah”, Vergil simply made, turning away from you. “I see.”
The firm set of his jaw and the tension in his shoulders whispered to you that he did not believe. That he thought you were afraid of him.
And knowing that somehow left a deep, sad pit in the depths of your gut.