Work Text:
Hours after their initial descent into hell, the twins sat in the center of a crater, about thirty feet apart from each other and panting. It was round 43 and Vergil was up by one. Groaning, Dante started to shuffle closer to his brother, allowing his sword to dissipate for the moment. He was exhausted, out of breath, and preferred not to yell in order for Vergil to hear him.
He barely got within fifteen feet of his twin before Vergil was on his feet, the gap between them instantly re-established. Dante blinked at the unsheathed tip of the Yamato, pointed square between his eyes despite the distance.
“Uh, I was going to suggest a breather actually…”
Vergil just glared at him, shoulders tense.
“I'm no fool Dante. If you want a fight, attack outright. Deception is unbecoming of you.”
“...What?” leaning back on his palms, he stared up at his brother with mild confusion. “Verge, I literally just wanted to sit closer so we didn't have to yell in order to have a conversation.”
His twin just scoffed, not lowering the Yamato. “If you have energy for conversation, you have energy to fight. On your feet, Dante.”
Well, who was he to decline an invitation like that.
—
Dante became a lot more observant of his brother after that, watching him carefully when he knew Vergil wasn't looking. The two couldn't fight forever, they had a job to do after all, and as they trekked closer and closer to the base of the Qliphod, Dante began to experiment.
It started small, inching slowly closer to his brother as they made their way through the wasteland. Dante could usually manage about ten feet of proximity before Vergil began edging away from him.
That permitted distance immediately shrank whenever demons appeared, allowing Dante to stand nearly back to back against Vergil, only sparing a few meager inches of distance to prevent contact. After those fights were over however, Dante was lucky to get within twenty feet of his brother.
There was something in the way Vergil walked as well, tense and actually twitchy, a word that Dante would never have dreamed of using to describe him. He never lowered his guard, and at times Dante caught sight of knuckles actually going white on the hilt of the Yamato, ready for combat at even the slightest noise.
Dante quickly stopped experimenting after that. It was pretty easy to figure out what was going on after all, especially now that he was paying attention.
His brother didn't trust him, and honestly that was fair. Hell, he probably hated Dante for what happened on Mallet Island. He was a fucking idiot for thinking that fratricide was something Vergil could forgive.
Fine. He'd give Vergil his space. It was the least he could do.
—
Despite their inhuman endurance and the constant energy boosts supplied by the demons they killed, even the twins needed rest eventually. Staggering and huffing for breath, the two found their way into a ravine with a small cave system at its base.
“Good enough,” Dante wheezed, sliding down one of the walls to sprawl across the floor. “Damn, everything hurts.”
He glanced up at Vergil, who still stood at the entrance, jaw clenched as he stared into the alcove. “You just gonna stand there, or are you gonna come in?”
No answer.
“Vergil?”
His brother's gaze snapped down to look at him.
“You good there, bro?”
A scowl formed on Vergil's face, and he turned on his heel and started stalking back out into the ravine. “I will patrol the area while you rest. You get one hour.”
Dante frowned and got to his feet. “Hold on a minute, you're just as fried as I am right now. No way am I letting you wander around alone!”
Vergil just kept walking, refusing to look back at him, “you're the one who insisted we rest. I have plenty of strength to continue.”
“No you fucking don't, you idiot,” Dante griped, stomping after him. In his annoyance, he didn't realize how close he was getting.
“You're just as shaky as I am! If you got your head out of your ass maybe-” he reached out without thinking, a gloved hand closing around his brother's wrist as he argued.
A split second later and he was slammed into the wall. Yamato stabbed through the center of his palm and pinned him to the stone. He let out a loud curse and Vergil leaped back, wrenching his blade free and teleporting 20 feet further down the ravine.
Still spitting curses, Dante clutched his hand to his chest, the bleeding already starting to heal. He should have seen this coming. His brother finally had enough. He was going to ditch Dante in hell and vanish off on his own again, and-
Oh…
Vergil still had his blade out, shoulders heaving for breath. His hair had fallen into his face, not quite obscuring eyes that were filled with… fear?
Dante backed up a few steps, holding his hands up in a placating gesture. He may have horribly misunderstood the situation.
“Do. Not. Touch Me.” Vergil's snarl filled the air, quiet and deadly as it reverberated through the ravine.
“Got it. No touching, can do.” He took another step back for good measure. He tried to stay casual, but a terrible nausea had begun to fill him.
Vergil didn't just hate him, he was afraid of him
Finally the Yamato was sheathed and Vergil turned his back once more. “You can rest later. We need to keep moving.”
For once in his life, Dante did what his brother asked without an argument, following 50 feet behind him as they made their way forward once more.
—
Eventually, despite his insistence to the contrary, Vergil began to flag. An Empusa got a hit on him that he normally could have dodged without thinking. He was summoning fewer of his glowing blue blades, relying more and more on his physical weapons. He actually tripped on a small rock, and even though he only stumbled for a moment, it was enough for Dante to finally break the silence he had held since the ravine.
“Vergil, we need to stop.”
He received a mocking laugh in response. “What, can't keep up with me, brother?”
Dante dragged a hand down his face with a sigh. “Yeah, you got me. You win this time. Now can we please take a nap?”
“Fine.” Vergil snapped, stalking off in the direction of a large outcropping. “If you absolutely cannot continue.”
Dante, in an incredible show of self restraint, did not rise to the bait.
They ended up underneath a long, thin overhang, the twenty feet of space maintained just as before. Dante sat with his blade propped against his shoulder, watching out over the landscape before them. “Sit down already, take a load off.”
Vergil froze, then shot him a glare. “No, I will keep watch. You were the one who insisted on stopping after all. Get your beauty sleep.” The last words were mocking, filled with a venom that wasn't enough to hide the dark circles under his eyes.
“Please Verge, I don't want to argue.” Dante winced, fidgeting with the torn edges of his gloves. “You need the rest just as much as me..”
“Either you rest, or we keep moving.” Vergil snapped, starting to get to his feet once more, the Yamato gripped tightly in his hand.
“Fine, fine. Sit down then and keep a lookout.” Dante relented, settling back against the wall. He should have expected it. After everything that happened, Vergil probably hated the idea of being asleep where Dante could potentially hurt him. His stomach rolled painfully at the thought and he winced, shaking the idea away.
At the very least he could pretend to sleep for a few hours, giving Vergil time to sit down if nothing else.
—
Dante must have dozed off at some point despite his intention to stay up. He woke to a pebble bouncing off his head, thrown by his brother who now stood at the ready nearby. He looked better than before, the few hours of rest obviously did him some good, even if he didn't sleep.
“We must keep moving.” He didn't even give Dante the chance to reply, striding off into the wastes towards the tree. It was getting closer, slowly but surely, and Dante was getting worried about what Vergil would do once it was cut down.
—
Inevitably they ended up fighting again. Hours and hours had passed without incident from demons, so Vergil had turned on his brother, as usual.
Dante wanted to leap into the fight with glee like he had just a few days before, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. Guilt weighed his strikes down, and he found himself relying on royal guard more and more as the fight went on.
His brother had been scared of him that day in the ravine, and god if Dante wasn't sick of hurting him by now.
Vergil won three rounds in a row, becoming more and more angry at each victory.
“What is this, Dante? He snarled, impaling his twin yet again. “Do you think me weak enough to let me win out of pity?
Dante spat out a mouthful of blood, yanking himself backwards off the blade and widening the gap between them once more.
“Never,” he hissed.
“Then why aren't you fighting back?!” Vergil roared, sending a wave of translucent blades at his head.
“Maybe I just don't want to fight right now!” He dodged to the side, narrowly avoiding the blades before swinging his sword upwards to block a second volley.
“Lies do not suit you, brother. You've always wanted to fight!”
“And look where that got me!” Dante snapped back. He parried Vergil's next attack with a well timed royal guard, and with an angry yell he hurled his own blade away, panting.
Vergil pulled up short, Yamato raised for another strike. “Why would you do that???” He looked at Dante as if he had grown three heads.
“I fucking told you, Verge!” Dante collapsed to the ground, looking up at his twin with exhaustion. “I'm sick of fighting you, all right? I'm sick of the fact that every time we've met for the last 25 years, I've walked into our fights thinking I would have to kill you!”
The tip of the Yamato dropped to the floor as Vergil stared at his brother, abject confusion on his face
“And the worst part is, now that I don't have to kill you, you want to fight me anyway, even though you're scared to even get near me!”
An immediate snarl formed on Vergil's face and his blade was lifted once more, “Scared? You dare to think that I-”
“Ten feet.” He buried his face in one bloody hand. “Thats the closest you've let me get. Unless we're fighting, then you get near enough for us to stab a demon or each other before running again.”
Vergil went silent, and Dante couldn't bring himself to raise his gaze up again. “I grabbed your wrist the other day, and you looked fucking terrified! And… and I know it's my fault, and I know you hate me for it. I've tried to kill you every single time we’ve seen each other, and I even managed to succeed on Mallet!” He heaved in a shaking breath. “I'm just sick of hurting you, okay?”
Still his twin remained silent, and Dante finally forced himself to lift his head. His brother stood stock still, confusion and anger warring on his face.
Vergil let out a slow and shaky breath. “Dante… I don't understand…”
He just shrugged. “I don't know what else to tell you, bro.” He dragged himself to his feet, picking up his blade and allowing it to vanish. “Let's just go, okay?”
He started trudging off towards the Qliphod once more.
“Wait-”
Dante paused but did not glance back.
“We're supposed to fight.” The confession was awkward and hesitant, like Vergil was confused by his own words. “I… I don't know what else to do.”
Dante shrugged. “Cut down the tree, then… I dunno. Whatever you want. I won’t stop you.”
His brother's grip tightened on the Yamato, and they continued on in silence, Dante keeping the distance himself this time.
—
It took countless hours and dead demons for Vergil to speak up. He watched Dante from across the gap, quick glances from the corner of his eye. “I did not realize I was… keeping away from you.”
The twins stilled, and after a moment Dante shrugged. “Yeah?”
“I am… unaccustomed to this”
A derisive snort. “No shit.”
Vergil took a step closer. Nineteen feet away. Dante inched one back. Twenty.
“And I am certainly not scared of you. I just…”
A few more steps. This time Dante didn't move, and Vergil began to tense.
“I believe I have forgotten what it is to be around people....”
Fifteen feet.
Dante let out a slow exhale and shifted into a more relaxed stance, carefully avoiding eye contact as he did.
“I figured… doesn't change what I did though. You don't have to come closer just for my sake.”
Vergil shook his head and moved closer again. “No. Nelo Angelo's death at your hand was the greatest mercy you could have given me.” His hand trembled just slightly on the hilt of the Yamato. Ten feet.
Dante’s breath hitched and he widened the distance once more.
“I wouldn't… if I had known…”
An involuntary snarl filled the air and Vergil stalked forward again. “I would have asked it of you, had I been capable.”
Dante flinched but did not move. Five feet.
“I do not blame you, brother. And I do not fear you.”
They stood face to face now, both tense as a tightrope wire.
The guilt did not ease, but some of the tension did, and Dante nodded. “All right.”
Blue eyes met each other. A long pause reigned, minute after minute seeping past.
Eventually Vergil glanced away, breaking the silence.
“How old are we, Dante?”
“Fourty five.”
His eyes closed and his breath hitched. “We were nineteen, that day at Temen-Ni-Gru.”
“Yeah Verge, we were.”
“It seems I am very unaccustomed to people.”
Dante huffed out a laugh. “Like I said, no shit.”
“That would make Nero twenty-six…”
His twin cracked a grin at that. “Yep. Twenty-six years of child support you gotta pay up.”
He was rewarded with an amused snort. “So it would seem.”
—
They were almost to the heart of the Qliphod, and had chosen to take one last break before the ordeal of bringing the whole thing down. The tension between the two had eased up considerably, and the two now walked side by side, even if Vergil still avoided contact.
The break had been at Dante's insistence once more. He was doing all right, but Vergil definitely wasn't. His aim was getting sloppier with every fight, and a minute shake was developing in his hands.
“You need a damn break, Verge” Dante glared, “You haven't rested once the entire time we've been down here, and I know the ‘blood of your enemies’ sustains you and all that bullshit, but even you need a little sleep!”
Vergil scowled, stationed firmly by the entrance to the ruins they had chosen to camp out in. “I am fine Dante. One of us needs to keep watch, and I have not needed sleep in years.”
“Because you haven't had a body in years! Now sit down, I'll keep watch for you and everything, just get some damn sleep!”
Vergil blinked at him in surprise. “You'll… keep watch?”
“Well obviously! Who else is gonna? Want me to whack the head off an Empusa and stick it on a pike to play lookout instead?”
Vergil just kept staring at him, despite the obviously hilarious quip. Not even an annoyed glare. Dante must be losing his touch.
“All right…” Vergil murmured, and shuffled inside to sit down, looking almost shell shocked.
Dante blinked down at him, “Huh… honestly I expected a bit more of a fight than that.”
His brother just shrugged, curling himself into a corner. “You will wake me if anything happens?”
He sounded nervous. A word Dante never thought he would use for his brother.
“Yeah, of course.”
“And you will not leave?”
That question shot a bullet right through Dante's gut. He walked over and plopped down next to his brother, close but careful not to touch.
“Not going anywhere, Verge.”
His brother nodded, pulling his knees up to rest against his chest. The tension present since they first got into hell was still there, Dante doubted he could sleep like this. Hell, let's see if this would work.
His blade vanished and he cleared his throat.
“Verge, can I touch you?”
His brother froze, tensing up even more than before. “Why?”
“Thought it might help. Then you'll know if I leave.”
His brother shot him a glare that reminded Dante all too much of an animal in a trap. “I can sense your demonic presence. Why would this be necessary?”
“Just thought it would help. Dante held a hand out, palm up, no weapon in sight. “It won't hurt. I promise.”
Vergil stared at it, every muscle in his body tensed and waiting. Slowly but surely he reached out and pressed the tips of his fingers to Dante's hand, flinching at the initial contact. His brother didn't move, letting him take as much time as he needed.
A shudder wracked through Vergil and he curled up tighter, face buried in his knees. Slowly his hand flattened out to press against Dante’s palm.
“See?” His brother mumbled, “Doesn't hurt at all.”
A quiet keening noise drifted up from his twin.
“I know… been a long time, hasn't it?”
Vergil nodded, face still firmly hidden.
“Get some sleep. I’ve got everything handled.”
—
Vergil did not sleep well over the ensuing hours. Every tiny shuffle and snap had him jolting back to consciousness, his hand tightening around Dante's palm each time.
But he did sleep. And it gave his brother time to properly process the state he was in.
Over 25 years in hell. Alone.
No fucking wonder he'd gotten stabbed after grabbing Vergil's wrist. He still didn’t quite believe that his twin wasn’t angry at him but… honestly the fear made a hell of a lot more sense now that he thought about it.
And on top of the whole touch thing, his brother seemed so damn tired… Even after consuming the fruit, he'd fought at the top of the Qliphod with a carefully hidden exhaustion.
Even as V, he'd been hurt and sick, relying on a cane to get around.
And Nero, he’d described the cloaked figure that had taken his arm. How they had seemed ready to collapse despite the strength needed to rip limbs off.
Even now, sleep deprived, covered in grime, and obviously near the end of his rope, this was probably the healthiest his twin had been in years, and the thought was sickening.
He needed to get Vergil out of here yesterday.
—
Eventually the two rose once more, and descended into the heart of the Qliphod. Vergil seemed more rested, but the tension in his body soon returned to its usual spine snapping levels of vigilance.
The bloodbath through the Qliphod roots was truly magnificent. Hundreds of demons fell by their hands, red and green orbs propelling them forward to kill greater and greater foes. A few major demon lords had caught wind of the affair as well, and the ensuing melee landed the twins several new devil arms along with some nasty injuries. Dante lost an eye to one of them, reducing his aim to utterly abysmal levels, and Vergil's left leg was missing a chunk big enough that he had resorted almost entirely to teleporting rather than walking.
In the end they persevered, and with simultaneous swings of their twin blades, carved their way through the deepest core of the Qliphod. It fell with a world ending crash, hell itself crumbling around the great falling trunk.
—
Dante staggered through the honeycomb of caves that once contained the root system of the tree. Vergil was right behind him, V’s cane conjured to help keep him upright. The tunnels were caving in behind them, and even the demons that still remained were ignoring the two in favor of getting the hell out.
“Please tell me you can get us out of here!” He yelled, cleaving clumsily through a crowd of imps that were a bit too slow to keep ahead of them.
“Not until the tree falls completely!” Vergil gasped, “The impact should weaken the world barrier enough to get through!”
“Fuck!” Dante dismissed his devil sword and summoned Cavalier. “Get on then!”
“Absolutely not!”
“There’s no way we’re making it out at this rate! Get your ass on the bike!” Dante swung a leg over the seat and revved the engine.
Vergil swore, then sat down on the bike behind him, wrapping his fingers into the back of Dante’s coat and leaning as far back as he could. “Go!”
They careened off through the caves, mowing through hoards of lesser demons on their way through. Dante could hear his brother panting for breath behind him under the roar of the engine, could feel his hands shaking from where they were knotted in his coat.
Blinking blood out of his one remaining eye, he glanced back over his shoulder. “Hang in there, kay? Don’t go falling off on me!”
He got a scowl in return for his troubles, Vergil’s face pale and clammy with blood loss. “Just drive, you fool!”
Dante laughed, and in a giant cloud of dust they rocketed out of the tunnels and into open air once more. Turning the handles sharply, Dante performed a rather impressive (in his opinion) Akira slide, skidding to a halt to take in the sight. The underworld was caving in on itself, the colossal roots of the Qliphod withering away and leaving nothing behind to support the towering caverns surrounding it. The trunk itself was crashing through the layers of demonic crust, getting closer and closer to where they stood with every second.
“That collapsed enough for you?”
Vergil pulled away, staggering off the bike and leaning completely against his cane for support. “You didn’t hear me at all, did you?” He heaved for breath. “The slow collapse does nothing to help us. We need the impact.”
“...Fuck.”
“My sentiments exactly.”
Dante dismissed Cavelier, stepping in front of his brother and sliding into royal guard. “Not sure how long I can hold once it hits. You better work fast.”
Vergil nodded. “I always do.” He unsheathed the Yamato and Dante’s hands began to glow with familiar protective sigils. Battered and bleeding, they stared down the all consuming trunk as it collapsed on top of them.
Dante’s royal guard flared to life as it hit, a swirling matrix of runic circles pressing against the millions of tons of weight above him. His knees instantly buckled at the hit and the breath was forced from his lungs. The drain on his already depleted stamina was immense, leaving him shaking from the strain as he shoved back against the trunk.
Behind him, a cold blue glow began to emanate from Vergil. He stabbed his blade downwards, cutting into the fabric of the worlds and beginning to tear it open. Ripping a portal out of hell required an unimaginable amount of energy at the best of times, and much like Dante, he had almost none left to spare.
The few seconds it took for the portal to open fully was nearly the end of them, but finally a familiar snap rang through the air, and the twins collapsed into the yawning void that gaped open in the floor.
—
The office of Devil May Cry was an absolute train wreck. The crackling remnants of a slowly closing portal hovered up near the ceiling, and directly below it, in a crater that punched through the poor, bloodstained floorboards, were the unconscious bodies of Vergil and Dante.
A substantial pool of blood had accumulated around them by the time they came to consciousness, and through the haze of pain and exhaustion, Dante couldn’t help but be glad that no one had stumbled in on them in this state.
He peeled himself into a sitting position, one trembling elbow keeping him propped up. Reaching out, he gave Vergil a gentle nudge on the shoulder. His brother started awake immediately, blinking up at him with barely controlled panic.
“Chill, Verge. It’s just me.” He rasped, giving his brother a wry grin. “We made it.”
Vergil let out a wheeze and started to lift his head up. “Good… Now what?”
He got an exhausted smile in return. “Now, we scrape ourselves off the floor for long enough to move to the couch, then we sleep for as long as we want.”
“That sounds… very good.”
They don’t quite manage to get to the couch, Vergil crumpled to the floor between one of the arms and the wall instead. His leg had begun to bleed again, and his breathing had an ugly rattle to it as he tried to catch his breath. Dante staved off gravity just long enough to drag a blanket from the back of the couch, crashing down next to his brother soon after.
After a moment of fumbling he wrapped it over his shoulders and extended a shaking arm out to his brother. Vergil peered at him for a long moment, fingers tightening on the yamato’s scabbard. But Dante was patient, and eventually Vergil collapsed against his side, shaking and utterly spent.
“You rest…first. I’ll keep watch.” He croaked, twitching as Dante wrapped the other end of the blanket over his shoulders.
“We don’t gotta worry about that anymore...”
Vergil shook his head, pushing an elbow into his twin’s ribs as he tried to sit more upright. “The tree is gone, but we cannot let our guard down… especially injured like this-” He slumped back down as Dante’s arm pulled tighter around him.
“Like I said, don’t gotta worry about it.” His brother mumbled, eyes slipping shut. “We’re safe now, ‘kay?”
“Don’t be naive,” he hissed, pulling away from Dante’s grasp. “Just because we’re back on earth doesn’t mean-”
“Vergil.” His twin cut him off. “Ever since my place got wrecked with that Temen-Ni-Gru bullshit, I’ve kept it warded up to the eyeballs. Nothing can get in without my say-so. We’re safe. Okay? You can check ‘em yourself if you want.”
Vergil gave him an extremely sceptical glare, then reached out and knocked a bloody knuckle against the floor. Red sigils immediately flared to life across the shop, rings upon rings of warding and protective runes spread across the woodwork. It must have taken decades to build the protections up to this extent. He stared at the glowing shields with shock, eyes tracing over the lines until they faded from the visible spectrum once more.
“You weren’t lying,” he whispered. The exhausted tremble in his form began to intensify as he sank back against Dante. “I’m- We’re-”
“Safe.” His brother whispered, voice gaining a tremble of his own as he tucked the blanket more tightly around them. “No one except us can get here. Okay?”
He got a ragged gasp in return as Vergil buried his face in his shoulder. “Okay…”
The emotional drain was the last straw for the two brothers. They collapsed into each other, letting unconsciousness finally take hold.
—
Dante had no idea how long it took them to finally wake, and even when they did, it was more of a half conscious drift than anything. They huddled in their corner, fading in and out as their injuries slowly healed. Vergil stayed plastered against his twin’s chest, eyes unfocused and body shuddering as the weight of the last 25 years finally began to lift. Even when Dante had become properly lucid once more, he didn’t have the heart to move him, content to doze in their bloody little nest for as long as he could.
He only began to shift when true awareness started to show in Vergil’s face, hours or maybe even days later. Gingerly he sat up, still keeping an arm around his twin. His eye had finally grown back, and it looked like the massive chunk taken from his brother’s leg had filled back in.
“How does food sound?” His voice was scratchy as hell, he sounded like he’d been gargling gravel. Vergil gave him a mute nod in agreement, and the two limped their way over to collapse against the desk instead. Dante reached up over his head, fumbling around until he found the phone. He tugged the whole thing off the desk, receiver and all, thunking it down on the floor and punching in the number for Freddi’s.
Miracle of miracles, it actually began to ring.
Thirty minutes later and the two men were sprawled by the front door, a steaming stack of pizza boxes in front of them. Vergil had hung back when Dante opened the door briefly to retrieve their prize, but the moment it shut, all hesitation vanished and he ripped one of the boxes open, immediately shoving a slice in his mouth.
Dante gaped at him, halfway through opening his own box. “Uh… tastes that good, huh?”
Vergil gulped down another mouthful before giving him a deadpan stare. “Dante, how long do you estimate it has been since I have last eaten?” His voice was rough, but there was a tinge of tired humor to it.
Dante slid a second box over to him without protest.
Once the food was gone, the two trudged back over to the couch, managing to actually sit down on it this time. With a groan, Dante leaned over and began slowly peeling his boots off. “God, the hot water better be working just as well as the electricity is.”
He got a mild grumble in response from Vergil, who looked half asleep already.
“Yeah… shower can wait a little longer.” Dante agreed, slumping back against the cushions once both boots had been kicked away. “Food coma first.” With that, the twins drifted off once more.
—
When they eventually rose once more, the first thing they did was drag themselves upstairs to the bathroom. After a halfhearted slap fight, Dante relented and let Vergil go first, shuffling into his room to dig up fresh clothes for them both.
Soon they were both clean and back downstairs once more, standing around the phone and staring at it.
“Do you want to call him, or should I?”
“I do not know his number, Dante. You will have to do it.”
“Yeah, but I could dial, then hand it to you once it starts ringing.”
“Or you could just call him and not bother with childish trade-offs.”
“What if I just tell you his number and you dial it?”
“You’re being ridiculous, just call the boy and be done with it.”
“Fine, if you’re so scared to do it yourself.”
“I’m not scared, I’m simply being practical-”
“Sure you are, Verge-”
“Just call him already!”
“Fine! I’m dialing!” Dante groaned and picked up the receiver, plugging in Nero’s number. “And you say I’m being childish.”
He was saved from getting beaten over the head with Yamato’s scabbard by a click on the other end of the line.
“Hello?”
Vergil froze, and Dante held the phone up to his ear, grinning. “Hey kid, glad to see you kept everything in one piece while we were away.”
“...”
Vergil leaned closer and Dante's grin fell a little. “Nero? You there?”
“You absolute… fucking… assholes…” Ground out the voice on the other end of the line. “I’ll be at the office in fifteen minutes, and you had better be on your fucking knees begging for forgiveness once I get there!” His voice began to rise in volume. “And if you’re not, I’LL BEAT YOUR ASSES INTO THE DIRT UNTIL YOU ARE!”
With that final threat, the line cut, leaving the twins to stare at the phone.
“Maybe we should not have cleaned up…” Vergil mused. “If we were still covered in blood and pathetic looking, he may have spared us.”
“Haven’t washed our clothes yet,” Dante replied, “Could change back into them, then rough ourselves up a little before he gets here.”
“No, the deception would be dishonorable. We will face our end with grace, as we are in no state to defeat him.”
“I could at least order more pizza as a bribe?”
“That seems wise.”
—
Unfortunately for the brothers, the pizza did not arrive as quickly as Nero did, slamming the doors open and stomping through the entryway. His eyes scanned the room, taking in the bloody crater in the floor, the trail of gore leading to the equally bloody couch, and finally, the twins, who were sitting at the kitchen table. They were hunched over mugs of coffee that Dante had scraped together from the barren pantry, and froze as Nero spotted them. Several long moments passed, then Dante carefully slid a third mug of coffee across the table towards his irate nephew.
“Hey Nero.” He said cautiously, voice still rough with exhaustion.
Nero stomped over to the table and yanked a chair out, sitting down with a heavy thump and crossing his arms. He did not touch the coffee.
“What the fuck is wrong with you two?” He hissed, blue flames flickering between his teeth.
Dante cringed a little, but Vergil lifted his head, giving his son a tired stare. “Many things, it seems.”
“Don’t joke around, asshole. You’re lucky I haven’t shot you in the head yet.” Nero snarled, uncrossing his arms to slam a metal fist on the table. “Now one of you had better start talking.”
Vergil sighed, and sat back with a nod, draining the last of his mug. “Where would you like us to start?”
“How about the beginning. And if you try dodging answers like someone here tends to do,” he glared at his uncle, “I’ll slam your heads together so hard they split open like melons.”
Dante winced, nodding in assent. “All right, kid. Point taken.”
And so, the twins began to talk.
—
Many hours later the coffee had gone cold, the pizza had been delivered and promptly consumed, and the three men were still in their seats, finally silent as Nero processed everything that had been revealed.
“Fuck…” He said at last, slumping back into his chair. He ran a hand over his face, then looked between the two brothers.
“What’s the verdict then, kid?” Dante sighed, propping his head up with one hand. “Still gonna kick our asses?”
Nero shook his head. “Nah… Still kind of pissed, don’t get me wrong.” He tapped his metal arm pointedly, “But I think you two have been through enough at this point, and have hopefully learned your lesson about falling into literal fucking hell.”
He got to his feet with a groan. “I’m gonna head home, it’s my turn to pick the kids up from school.” Before he turned to leave, he reached into his coat and pulled out a battered old poetry book. “You want this back, you’re gonna have to show up at my place. We eat dinner at 6 every night. Kyrie is a good cook.”
Vergil nodded, quiet surprise on his face as the book was tucked away once more.
“I’m giving you a chance, don’t fuck it up.” With that, Nero marched out of the shop, the door shutting behind him. Dante let out a long sigh of relief, standing up and stretching.
“You tired, Verge?”
“Immeasurably.” His brother replied, climbing to his feet as well.
The two of them trudged upstairs once more, collapsing side by side on the dusty covers of Dante’s bed.
“I forgot to ask how long we were gone…” Dante mumbled.
“Does it really matter?”
He snorted, “Yeah, it lets me know how much interest I owe Lady by now.”
Vergil scoffed, rolling over to stare at him. “Of course you would be in debt.”
Dante gave him a quiet chuckle, scooching up the bed to collapse into the pillows. “You can bully me for my financial problems in the morning.”
“If you insist.” Rolling his eyes, Vergil shuffled around for a moment before curling up next to his brother, their backs pressed together. “You will come with me to dinner tomorrow.”
“Wouldn’t dream of missing it.”
And with that, the two fell asleep, safe at last.