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Dante cut down the last demon of the group that had tried to take on him and his brother. He whirled around to face Vergil, to make sure that demon had been the last, to see his brother calmly wiping the gore from Yamato.
“17,” his brother said, not looking up from his blade.
“No way!” Dante’s objection wasn’t as fierce or angry as it once would have been. The pair had been through so many things together, even just counting their current adventure in Hell – which had, at Vergil’s suggestion and with Dante’s enthusiastic agreement, included taking out Mundus permanently – that there was little to no animosity left between them. Aided, somewhat, by Vergil’s time spent around Dante as V. That didn’t stop them from being competitive with each other, probably nothing could change their competitive natures. It just meant that the competitions changed. They still sparred with each other, but they were no longer aiming to actually cause permanent or serious harm. Instead, their competitions mostly revolved around these demon fights and who could kill the most.
Vergil’s mouth ticked up into a very familiar smirk, though he still didn’t look up from his blade cleaning. “I assure you, 17.” He made a vague gesture meant to cover the blackened marks where those 17 demons had fallen. One of the best things about these competitions was that, when demons were killed in Hell, they very briefly left a mark behind. It made counting easier.
“Damn it!” Frustrated at having lost the last three competitions, Dante turned and threw his devil sword, which disappeared, recalled back to him, before it hit anything.
“Dante.” The first time Vergil had said his name in that particular breathy tone, had been right before he’d pushed him against a wall in the Temen-ni-gru and had his way with him. Much as he’d never admit it out loud, Dante knew he’d do absolutely anything Vergil asked as long as it came after saying his name in that tone. He turned to face his brother to find him standing much closer than he had been seconds before. He knew battles sometimes had an effect on both of them, so he wasn’t the least bit surprised when Vergil fisted a hand in his shirt and tugged him forward.
Dante grinned into the kiss, equal parts thrilled that this was something that happened regularly and that Vergil had been the one to move first this time. More often than not, it felt to him like he was the one initiating their more amorous activity. The air was knocked from his lungs as Vergil used his distracted state to sweep Dante’s feet out from under him and he hit the ground hard. Before he could so much as think of protesting, his brother joined him on the ground.
Dante lost himself in the feeling and movement of his other half, not caring in the slightest how exposed they were. Most of his thoughts revolved around Vergil’s hands or mouth or tongue or dick, leaving hardly any room for anything else. But the one thought that he tried to avoid but that kept coming back to him, cropped up then too. Looking up at his brother, he knew he’d have to tell him the truth about Nero, knew he should have already done it. Then Vergil moved his hips in such a way that all thought flew from Dante’s mind.
~~
“Ha! Finally!” Dante pumped his fists in celebration.
“Such a gracious winner,” Vergil rolled his eyes. Though there was no definitive way to tell, it felt like two more days had passed, with Vergil winning every demon-killing competition in that time.
“Yeah, ‘cause you’re such a gracious, subtle winner yourself, Verge.” For the past two days, Dante had been nearly constantly thinking about Nero and how he would tell Vergil the truth. A truth he knew the kid deserved to know too, but he had less idea on how to tell him than how to tell his brother.
“What is it?” Vergil asked.
“What is what?” Dante’s focus snapped back to the present.
“You keep drifting off into your thoughts. Not a usual state for you, and I am becoming concerned.”
“Har har,” Dante rolled his eyes.
A small, genuine smile ghosted across his face before Vergil grew serious. “I mean it, though. You are… distracted. What is it?”
For the briefest moment, he considered asking Vergil to swear not to get mad at him, but dismissed the idea with a snort. That would never work. “Yeah, alright. Let’s make camp somewhere and I’ll tell you.”
Not too far away, they found an empty cave where they were reasonably well protected. Making himself as comfortable as possible, sitting with his legs outstretched, ankles crossed, and leaning against the cave wall, Dante stared up at his brother who stood propped against the opposite wall. For a moment, he let himself be distracted by the play of the light and shadows on his face.
“It’s about the kid.”
“Nero? We are going to make it back to him. And your friends,” he added as an after thought.
“I know. That’s not my issue. It’s uh… the kid’s parentage.”
“I told you, I do not remember his mother.” Within hours after dropping into Hell together, Vergil had made a comment about not knowing who Nero’s mother could possibly be. Dante hadn’t commented at the time.
“You do, actually,” he looked down and away from his brother as he answered, staring at the cave wall beside Vergil’s hip. “It’s uh… me. I’m his mother. Or well, I gave birth to him at any rate. Clawed him right out, all by myself.” Dante raked his nails over his lower abdomen, claws flashing for just a second, long enough to draw blood, before returning to his normal, human, fingers. “Did you know I could get pregnant? I didn’t. Had no idea what was happening for months. Thought I was sick, like I’d caught something from being in the Temen-ni-gru. Guess I kinda did. Then I gained weight, which made sense since I ate like I was starving all the time. But then…. Baby kicks are pretty hard to miss. The little fucker had a solid kick, even then.” A fond smile ghosted over his face. “It was so wild, once I realized what was going on. Read a whole lot of pregnancy books. Even went to the old house and found Mom’s journals. Figured they might help more than regular human pregnancy books. Mom called it a nesting instinct, said Father said that demons use nests because they’re safe. Something about walls you made around where you and your baby are. He made her one. I dunno. It helped though. Built myself one upstairs at the old building. It’s gone now.” Dante was aware he was rambling, but Vergil hadn’t made a sound or even twitched and he couldn’t seem to stop talking.
“Stayed in that nest together for probably a month after he was born. He was so damned cute. Born with a full head of really soft hair. Barely cried but when he did, he had a powerful set of lungs. Screamed loud enough for the neighbors to hear. If I’d had neighbors at the time. I told him about you, about what happened and how we lost you. Talked about Mom and Father some too. Wouldn’t let Lady anywhere near me or him. Stopped hanging out with her or accepting jobs from Morrison when I couldn’t hide the pregnancy anymore. Didn’t think I could face telling any –” Dante stopped dead when Vergil slammed his fist against the wall, little shards of rock coming loose from the ceiling and dropping over both of them.
Dante looked at his brother finally, seeing the rage seethe in his eyes while his face remained as impassive as Dante’d ever seen. “You allowed me to believe I did not recall sleeping with some human woman and impregnating her rather than tell me the truth.” Vergil’s voice was almost monotone with how carefully controlled he was keeping himself.
It wasn’t a question, but he felt compelled to try to explain himself. “I wanted you to get to know him first. Damn it! When we first got down here, we were still at each others’ throats. I wasn’t…. I didn’t want you to reject him because of me. He doesn’t know either. He only just learned that you’re his dad.”
“You could not face telling your friends,” the impassive veneer dropped long enough for him to sneer the word. “that you were having my child.” He wasn’t all that surprised by the pair of summoned swords that suddenly pierced his chest. Rather than move or try to get them out, Dante just lay there.
“I was never ashamed of that. Maybe others would be, but not me. I couldn’t face Lady’s disgust and confusion. She’s human, our relationship,” Vergil hissed at the word, but Dante pressed on anyway, “isn’t allowed by human standards. Not to mention the whole being a man and getting pregnant thing. I decided that was too much for her or Morrison. I kept imagining the way either or both of them would look at me, or worse, at Nero and I couldn’t tell them. I couldn’t bear it. They were the only friends I had, but Nero was all I had left of you. Him and my glove you slashed.” When Vergil didn’t say anything, he continued, hoping he could make him understand his choices. “I was…. Well, wasn’t in a good place at the end of pregnancy and after he was born, honestly. Most times, I couldn’t bear to put him down for more than a few minutes. Even when he was sleeping. Other times, it was… hard to be around him. He looked so much like us. And he had this way of looking at me when I’d burn my dinner, or I’d fuck something else up, that looked so much like you. Like you when you tell me I’m an idiot.”
Baring his soul like this felt like scraping a cheese grater against every inch of his skin, but also oddly relieving. It felt so good to finally tell someone about the early days with Nero, added that that someone was Vergil, and it almost made it easy to keep talking. “I didn’t wanna give him away. Figured I’d eventually figure something out, some way to raise him. But between demon hunting and searching for a way to rescue you, I just couldn’t. I had to –”
“Rescue me? Why?” Vergil finally interrupted, the impassive mask dropping just a bit as surprise leaked through the rage in his eyes.
Dante raised his eyebrows, shocked himself. “Are you really surprised I was trying to get you back? Seriously, Verge? And wh – how is that what you’re focused on right now? How are you not surprised I got pregnant and had your kid?”
“Demons don’t have sexes like humans do,” he shrugged as if it was no big deal. “Technically. The higher level ones can make it look like they do, like Father did. But any demon can get any other demon pregnant regardless of what sex they appear to be. I didn’t know that could happen with us too, but I am not that surprised by it.”
“But you are surprised I would try to rescue you?”
“I had thought I made my feelings on the matter clear.” Vergil brushed his finger across his own palm, mirroring the place he’d sliced Dante’s hand open when he’d tried to grab ahold of him before the first time he’d fallen into Hell. They hadn’t really addressed that, this conversation about Nero was the closest they’d really come to even acknowledging what happened in Temen-ni-gru. They hadn’t really addressed a lot of things about their shared past yet, both choosing to focus on the present and future.
“Fucking really? You expected me to what – just give up on you? To go on not knowing if you were alive or dead? Even without Nero in the picture, you’re my twin. My literal other half. And I was supposed to give up on you after learning you were still alive when I thought you’d died with Mom?”
Vergil strode over and Dante braced for more of the anger he’d been expecting. Instead, his older twin propped Yamato against the cave wall beside him and knelt over then sat on his thighs. “You were looking for me.”
He wasn’t sure what it was, probably the slightly awed look on his face, but Dante realized then that Vergil really had expected him to move on without him. He reached up, cradling his face with a palm on each cheek and softly said, “Yeah. I’d rather fight with you every day than lose you.” He tilted his face up and gently pulled Vergil’s face closer so he could kiss him properly.
Quickly, and only partly because Dante was still pinned in place by the summoned swords, Vergil took control of the kiss. He dug his thumb into the soft spot of his chin, just behind his jaw bone, using the leverage to tilt Dante’s face up and to the side. Vergil kissed down the side of his neck before quickly sinking his teeth into the muscle where his neck and shoulder met. Dante gasped, then groaned, fists clenching in both Vergil’s hair and on his shoulder.
Some time later, sweaty and spent, they lay curled up, facing each other on top of their coats, Dante running his fingers over Vergil’s chest, feeling his heart beat slowing to normal.
“How old was he? When you realized you couldn’t keep him?” Vergil asked after a few, silent, minutes.
Dante sighed and rolled onto his back. Staring at the rock ceiling, he answered, “Six months, two weeks, five days, and about 13 hours.” He glanced back over at Vergil before elaborating, telling him what exactly had made him realize he couldn’t keep Nero. “A few Hell Lusts broke into the shop, nothing unusual about that really. He was on his blanket by my desk, babbling and playing with his toys when they got in. He was fine, not a scratch. Didn’t cry, or even seem scared actually. But I realized being a demon hunter made me too big of a target to keep him safe. And I’d figured continuing to hunt them would be my best way at finding anything on you. Anyway, I took him to an orphanage outside the city. Away from me. Checked on him in between jobs, as often as I could. Then, one day, when he was a little more than a year old, he was gone. I assumed he’d been adopted. I guess it was actually the cult I told you about.” In an unusual show of affection, Vergil scooted closer, resting his head on Dante’s chest and slinging his arm over his waist. Dante, more than a little pleased at the display, being the one of the pair that was usually the clingy one, wrapped his arm around Vergil’s back and settled into the embrace.
~~
Instead of focusing on the feeling of the barrier between planes in order to find a weak spot to get out, like Vergil could thanks to Yamato, the two of them were searching for gatherings of Hells. They figured out early on that it was less strain on Vergil, meaning they could move faster, if they did it this way. Because the seven different Hells were among the lower ranked demons and therefore had an easier time passing through the thin parts of the barrier, they tended to congregate around the thin places. However, finding the type of gathering they needed was turning out to be easier said than done. It’s not like there was a whole lot of signage in Hell to direct lost hybrids to the way out.
What felt like a week after the initial discussion about Nero’s parentage, they were experiencing a slow few hours. They’d not seen any demons in a while and the landscape was sloping, slightly, upwards. Dante was hopeful this meant that they were reaching a thin place. Or at least one thin enough.
Dante turned to face Vergil, intending to ask his thoughts on that hope, and recognized the possessive and horny look in his brother’s eyes. The look was unusual enough when it came out of seemingly nowhere like this, that Dante couldn’t help but goad him a bit. He cocked out one hip before asking, “Whatcha thinkin’ about, Verge?”
“Nero.”
“Sorry? Our son,” Dante noted that Vergil’s pupils expanded just the slightest bit more, “put that look on your face?”
He hummed an acknowledgment. “Our son. I did not get to see you the first time. But I can picture it. You, large and rounded with my child. Dante,” his name came out in the breathy tone Dante loved. “I want to see you like that. I want to watch my baby grow in you until you can not fit in your clothes anymore. I want to feel the evidence of our love kicking inside you.” Dante watched as Vergil’s eyes took on a demonic blue glow.
There was a part of Dante, the part that still screamed out at the loss of Nero, that wanted to strip down and bend over right where they were and not leave until he was sure Vergil had gotten him pregnant again. That part, now that he was willing to pay attention to it, was larger than he’d realized. He craved another child, one he could watch grow up, who he’d get to teach to walk and talk. That same part clamored inside his mind, screaming desperately to see Vergil holding their baby. Reflexively, his hand clenched against his lower abdomen. He watched as Vergil tracked the movement then looked back up at him with a look that could only be called feral.
He didn’t object in the slightest when his brother all but pounced on him, taking them both to the ground.
Later, Dante lay curled into Vergil, feeling his brother’s heart beat against his cheek. Vergil gently carded his fingers through his hair for a minute before speaking.
“I am not sure what came over me there.” The implied ‘sorry’ at the beginning of that sentence was something Dante was used to. Neither of them verbally apologized for things to each other whenever they acknowledged times when they messed up or thought they did.
“Don’t even think of apologizing for that,” he countered.
“You want another baby?” he asked softly.
Dante sighed, knowing this was a conversation that actually needed to happen, rather than just be implied, if they were really going to have another kid. “Yeah, I do. I want a baby that I can watch grow up, I want to see you holding that baby,” he nuzzled his nose against Vergil’s chest before continuing. “And this time we have each other, Nero, Lady, Trish, even Kyrie to help us. Like, I still…. I still want to hunt demons, think I need to actually. Keeps the devil in me calm. But with you back with me, it wouldn’t be my main focus. And when we do go out, Kyrie and Nero’s place is totally safe. Lady, Trish, and Nero can pick up some of my jobs. You can come with me on others so they’ll go faster. And we can raise a kid. Take it to the first day of kindergarten, play at the park, ya know, normal shit.”
“You want that? With me, I mean.”
“I want everything with you,” he confessed softly.
Vergil’s arms tightened around him and they just breathed against each other for a few minutes. “Come, we can not have a child down here,” he swatted Dante’s bare ass as he disentangled himself.
“Flight? Just for a bit?” Dante suggested as he finished tugging his clothes into their proper place.
“Mm-hm. There’s been nothing around recently so there is likely a thin place coming soon.” They’d avoided flying too much as it had attracted quite a lot of attention in the beginning and they weren’t looking to battle every demon on their way out, that would take too long.
The pair took to the sky, such as it was in Hell, and kept heading in the direction of the upward slope.
“That only counts as one!” Dante objected as the Hell Wrath exploded from Vergil’s summoned sword, taking out most of the group of Prides around it.
“Absolutely not!”
“Yes!” he sliced the head off the Lust in front of him and whirled to engage the Greed behind him. “You killed the Wrath, but it killed the others.” The Greed fell beneath his blade and he continued on through the gathering of Hells they’d been searching for.
“Where’s this gonna drop us out anyway?” Dante asked, leaning against his devil sword, keeping an eye out in case anything was coming that would try to follow them, while Vergil worked on pinpointing the exact weakest spot. Together, they’d made quick work of the Hells and the landscape was once again, for the moment, quiet.
“We can not know until we are out. I can not choose where the thin spot manifests in the human world.” To Dante’s eyes, Vergil was just running his hand through the air. But if he focused he could, slightly, feel the barrier himself so he knew his brother was physically testing for the thin spot. “Here,” he said after another minute. Dante watched as Yamato sliced cleanly through the barrier and he could hear the sounds of a human town on the other side.
Gripping each others’ arms, they dove through the hole. Quickly Vergil made sure to seal the portal behind them.
“Hang on,” Dante looked around him. “We’re…. Verge, we’re in Fortuna! Why was there a thin spot in Fortuna?”
“The Gates you told me about, I assume. They would have left enough residual to create a natural weak spot after a time. The one I just closed.”
“Excellent, c’mon,” Dante grabbed Vergil’s wrist, tugging him along.
“Where are we going?”
“Right,” he stopped and spun to face his brother. “Nero still lives in Fortuna. His apartment isn’t far.”
Vergil stilled completely for a few moments and Dante didn’t bother trying to decipher where his thoughts were. “Okay. Let’s go.” They headed off again, Dante leading. “Are you going to tell him?”
“Probably best to do it here,” he said after a moment, “he won’t want to destroy his own apartment. Probably.”
Hearing noise from inside as they passed by, Dante headed into Nero’s garage before they reached the apartment. Nero’s back was to the open garage door as he worked on something the twins couldn’t see.
“Hey honey, I’m ho –” Dante was cut off by a shot to the throat from Blue Rose. “Rude,” he croaked out as his throat healed.
“Nine months! You’ve been gone nine months and that’s the first thing you say to me?” Nero angrily strode over to the pair of them.
“We’re not fighting each other anymore?” Dante tried.
“That’s good, great even. How long have you two been back?”
Dante gestured to his own torn up, dirty clothes. “Literally just got back, kid. Realized where we were, came to find you.”
“What were you expecting the first thing he said to be?” Vergil wondered.
Nero opened his mouth to respond, stopped, closed it, then said, “I actually don’t know. You’re really not fighting anymore?”
“Just for fun,” Dante explained. “Listen, we’ve gotta talk about something. Can we go inside?”
Nero holstered Blue Rose and was quiet for a moment before answering. “Kyrie’s at the orphanage. C’mon.”
Sitting on the couch in Nero’s living room, Dante and Vergil explained their relationship then told him that Dante was his mother. For his part, he’d stayed sitting in the armchair and listened without visible judgement until learning that Dante had carried and birthed him. Then he got up and started pacing.
“I didn’t know you were you when we first met. What with the ceremony interrupting and priest shooting and your feet in my face.” A proud smile flitted across Dante’s face. “I mean, I suspected you weren’t completely human at the time. When I saw how Yamato responded to you, I knew you had to be Vergil’s. Figured that probably meant you were mine, but your birthmark, behind your ear,” Dante tapped his finger behind his own left ear, “sealed it for me.”
They watched as Nero paced silently for another few minutes.
“How did I end up in Fortuna?” he asked finally.
“I really don’t know. This isn’t where I left you. Goddamn, that…. I hate the way that sounds. I didn’t just casually leave you anywhere, like dropping off fuckin’ dry cleaning or something. It…. Look at me when I tell you this, it’s important.” Dante waited until Nero came back and sat on the coffee table in front of him so they were on eye level again. “I did not want to give you up, Nero. I wanted to keep you and raise you and hope you turned out better than we did. But I couldn’t. It wasn’t safe for you to be with me. I believed you would be safer without me. I thought, maybe if I could find Vergil, I’d be able to come back for you. I checked on you at the orphanage as often as possible. But one day you were just gone. I didn’t know where or who had taken you, but I figured you’d been adopted.
“I didn’t expect to find you here, of all places. The odds of you ending up in a town that worships Sparda was just… not something I considered.”
Nero nodded and got up to start pacing again. “I need…,” he sighed and turned to face them, though Vergil noted he didn’t look at either of them, looking at the empty space between them instead. “I think I need some time to absorb this. Are you going back to your shop?”
When Dante didn’t answer, Vergil spoke up, “Yes. If it is alright with you, I would like to portal us there from inside.” Surprised that he’d ask and not just do it, Nero did look directly at Vergil, the first time he’d done so since they’d shown up at his garage. He nodded once and that was all the permission Vergil needed. He tugged Dante up and portaled the two of them to the front room of the office.
“Ow! Shit! Oh, hey Lady. How’s it going?” Dante shrugged off the bullet wounds from the pair of handguns Lady had just fired at the two of them. “Brought this back for you,” he held out the Kalina Ann II to her.
“TRISH!”
“I heard the guns, I’m coming!” Trish’s voice came from somewhere in the back of the shop.
“Really? You hear guns firing and it’s taking you this long?” Dante countered. Then he heard her pick up speed until she ran into the room.
“Why do you keep getting shot?” Vergil wondered quietly, but was ignored except for a quick shrug from Dante.
“Those were warning shots, not battle shots. See you two made it out in one piece. How’d it go?”
“Mundus is dead,” Vergil announced.
“Dead? Seriously?” she collapsed to a seat on top of the desk. “Explain.”
Together, the pair explained how they’d agreed to go after Mundus for everything he’d done, how it had taken a long time as he’d had time to accumulate power since the last time either of them had seen him, despite being sealed away, but he’d still not been at full power so they’d ultimately been successful together, and how they’d then had to rest and recuperate for what felt like a couple of weeks in the Demon King’s castle. When they finished, Vergil passed Yamato to Dante then asked Lady to follow him to the back.
Trish and Dante were wary, but Lady followed him, guns still drawn.
Once in one of the back rooms, which could be a functioning library if it weren’t such a mess and the books weren’t piled so haphazardly around, Vergil took a seat in a worn armchair and waited until Lady made up her mind about where she wanted to be. She stood facing him, guns still in hand but not pointed at him.
“I told you once that I did not convince your father to do anything, and I think, given what happened, that you believe that. However, he would not have been able to do what he did without me. We… mutually aided each other. Dante told me you were the one to finish him off. That you shot him?” She nodded once. “I want to apologize for my part in that. I can not change what was and, truthfully, I do not know that I would if I could. I… like who I have become and am becoming and, thanks to my brother, I know my experiences have shaped that. That does not change that my choices helped lead to you shooting your father. So, I am sorry. I am also sorry for the things Urizen did to you, making you the core of a demon creation. I have been that before and I am truly sorry for making you live that as well.”
She was quiet a moment. “Why are you apologizing to me?”
He thought a moment, trying to find the words that always seemed to so easily come to Dante, even if at least half of them weren’t always relevant. “You are important to my brother, he is important to me,” Vergil shrugged a shoulder. “He and I have reached an understanding about our pasts, I think. We have not spoken in detail about any of it, but he is my twin, we understand each other without words. You are… more complicated than that. I am going to be here with Dante for the rest of our lives. I do not want him to think that I do not want you around or that there are lingering problems between us. I thought an apology would be the way to start.”
“Well, you were right about that at least. As for Urizen and that shit, Trish explained a bit about dividing your soul and what it had to have done to you,” she tapped her temple. “I don’t forgive you for it, but like you said, Dante’s important to me so I’ll accept your apology. But I still don’t trust you. Betray him, and I’ll get Trish to help me kill you.” He nodded and stood. “Who was Mundus?" Lady asked before he could start for the door.
"Dante didn’t tell you?”
She shook her head. “For a guy who talks a lot, he has a habit of not saying much.”
A small smile ghosted across his face in acknowledgement. He took another moment to decide how much detail to give, then said, “Mundus was a King of the Underworld. He is who Sparda rose against. As such, he hated my father, mother, Dante, and myself. He is responsible for the deaths of my parents. After the Temen-ni-gru, when I fell into Hell, it was Mundus who found me, nearly immediately. He… remade me into a useful servant to him and, among other things, set me after Dante. He created Trish to use against Dante. Dante overcame him and sealed him away again. Now, he is dead and we are alive.”
“So you’ve avenged your parents, and yourself.”
“And kept my son safe from him,” Vergil added. Lady nodded, then holstered her guns as the two of them made their way back into the main room. Trish and Dante were idly chatting, leaning against the pool table, Dante catching up on some of the jobs the others had been on while he’d been gone, when they walked back into the room. “That library is atrocious, Dante.” Vergil commented immediately.
“Help yourself, it’s all yours.”
“I will then.”
“Have an interesting chat?” The pair nodded. For a few minutes, none of the four of them said anything.
“What about Nero? You gonna call him?” Lady broke the silence.
“Already talked to him. We ended up in Fortuna when Verge got us out of Hell,” Dante explained. He barely lifted his hand, silently beckoning his brother over. Dante squeezed his hand hard enough that at least one bone broke then reknit itself in Vergil’s hand as soon as he joined him. “Speaking of the kid – actually, you should probably sit for this, Lady.”
“Yeah, that’s not concerning at all.” Still, she took his suggestion and sat on the couch facing the pool table. Trish took the spot beside her. “Alright, go.”
Dante flashed a grin, then just spit it out, like ripping off a band aid. “He’s my son. Nero, I mean. I uh, I gave birth to him.”
“I thought Vergil was his dad?”
“He is.”
The phone rang before anyone could say anything more. Trish vaulted over the back of the couch to answer it. “Devil May Cry. Oh hey, kid. We were just talking about you. Which one? Yeah, I’ll ask.” She tilted the mouth piece of the phone away from herself. “Dante, Vergil, Nero wants to know if you’re cool with him telling Kyrie?”
Dante strode across the room, Vergil still holding his hand and trailing after him. He took the phone from Trish. “Hey kid. Yeah, tell Kyrie as much as you want. You can tell Nico too if you want.”
“I take it you’re telling Trish and Lady?”
“Just started to, yeah.”
“I might have more questions later.”
“Call anytime. Or bring Kyrie and you can both ask questions at the same time.”
“You’re being very… chatty about this.”
“Yeah, well, I spent the last… well, your whole life basically, worried about how people would react so I’m kinda ready to just get it out, ya know?”
“I can appreciate that. Hey, babe. No, it’s Dante, they just got back.”
“Welcome back!” Kyrie took the phone from Nero. “We should do something to celebrate, don’t you think?”
“Yeah, alright.”
Nero took the phone back before Kyrie could start planning some sort of family dinner or something. “I’m gonna tell her, maybe call Nico too so I don’t have to repeat myself. I’ll, uh, call later.” He hung up without saying more.
Dante stared silently at the phone for a minute more. The part of him that he finally acknowledged in Hell, the part that constantly mourned the loss of his son, was wildly unhappy with the limited contact. But the rest of him knew he had to let Nero set this pace, he couldn’t force anything or he’d lose him again.
“Anyway,” he cradled the phone and turned back to the couch where Trish had rejoined Lady. “Where were we?”
“You were telling me that you and your brother had a kid together.”
“Demons don’t have that kind of taboo,” Trish explained quickly. “Siblings aren’t really a thing the way they are for humans.”
“Alright, fine. I’ll… deal with that myself later. D, you said you hadn’t seen your brother in like six or seven months before Temen-ni-gru, and not for years before that. Then he fell into Hell. So, uh, care to tell me when Nero happened?” Lady was no where near as good at hiding her anger as any of the people around her were.
“I don’t think I should,” he hedged. “Maybe ask another question.”
“Dante.”
Beside her, Trish chuckled. “Do you really have to ask a question you already know the answer to?”
Lady narrowed her eyes at her. “I was hoping I’d been lied to about the last time they’d seen each other, seeing as how he definitely wasn’t pregnant in that damn tower.” She then turned that narrow eyed gaze back to Dante. “But he did start avoiding me and Morrison like six months later.”
“That. Yeah, I uh, I didn’t know I could get pregnant. That was when I first felt him kick.”
“So you hid from me? Dante, I am your friend.” The anger gave way to hurt, before she smothered it with anger again.
“Okay, yes, and maybe I shouldn’t have hidden it from you. But this was early days. Like you said, it was only six months after everything with the tower and how was I supposed to know how you were going to react?”
Lady silently accepted the point. “How did you get pregnant?”
“Well, when a daddy demon loves a mommy demon –”
“Trish!” Lady cut her off with a punch. Trish just fell back on the couch, cackling. Dante bit his lip to suppress his own grin.
“Demons don’t have sexes the same way humans do,” Vergil explained it to Lady the same way he had to Dante before.
“How’d you get him out?” Lady asked, wide-eyed at the end of Vergil’s explanation.
“At home c-section,” Dante answered, flashing his claws.
“Gross. And dangerous – couldn’t you have cut him?”
“Absolutely not. I was very careful.”
“It’s instinct,” Trish explained again. “He wouldn’t have cut too deep, demonic parents are very protective of their children.”
“So then, why did you give him up? And when?” Lady asked questions for a while longer, ignoring Dante and eventually Vergil shifting around in their uncomfortable, still very grimy, clothes.
“I thought they’d never leave,” Vergil said as soon as Dante turned the lock behind them.
“Can’t blame her for being curious,” Dante shrugged as he made his way back to where Vergil was standing at the base of the stairs. “I was just about ready to kill for a shower though.” As soon as he got close enough, Dante pressed himself against Vergil. “Join me?”
“As if you have to ask.” Vergil leaned in to capture Dante’s lips. Quickly enough that it threw him off balance, Vergil gripped Dante’s thighs, just beneath his ass, and lifted him up. The move pulled a surprised laugh from Dante, even as he wrapped his legs around his twin’s waist. “Where’s the shower?” Vergil asked, pulling just far enough away to ask.
“Second door,” Dante nodded up the stairs.
~~
Thrilled to be finally clean after so many weeks of being covered in dirt and demon blood, Dante sighed contentedly, turning his head to nuzzle against Vergil’s neck.
“He’s told Kyrie, probably Nico. That has to be a good thing, right?” Vergil asked softly.
“Noticed, did you?”
“Your reluctance to leave his apartment and to hang up the phone after he did? Yes, I noticed.”
Dante sighed. “I know it’s hoping for too much to just… I dunno, for him to be okay with a ready made family. Especially considering, well, everything. And I’m trying – remember what you said about being able to distinctly hear V and Urizen separately now sometimes?” Vergil nodded. “It’s sorta like that. Like the demon part of me is screaming for our son to get over his hang ups and just be our son, and the human in me knows it’s not that simple.”
Over the next two months, they all got used to what was becoming their new normal. Morrison knew if he sent a job Dante’s way, odds were good that Vergil would be going too. He’d also managed to find jobs specifically for Vergil, though they often entailed identifying, and neutralizing when necessary, demonic artifacts rather than killing anything. Vergil sorted out the library into a space that he was comfortable with and everyone knew it was his territory and not to disturb him if the door was closed. Not that that ever stopped Dante, but it did keep the others away. Kyrie had put together a welcome back dinner and it was as awkward as Nero had feared it would be.
For his part, Nero hadn’t spoken to Vergil or Dante for a week after their return, claiming he was still adjusting to the information he’d been told. Then he showed up in the office one afternoon, but didn’t ask any questions or treat them any differently than he had treated Dante before they went to Hell. Instead, it seemed like he just wanted to be around them. Neither Vergil nor Dante objected, though they did question it later, when it was just the two of them. They decided that it was likely him trying to get to know them better, and allowing them to do the same, while not outright talking about it. After all, under normal circumstances, it’s not like any member of their family was great at communicating. Still, both Dante and Vergil felt like they were starting to have a more familial relationship with their son.
Lady, Kyrie, and Nico asked questions seemingly whenever they popped into their heads, calling at random hours of the day and night, except asking whether or not they were together now. Dante wasn’t sure if that was because they didn’t want to know or that they were being as obvious about it as he thought. Trish teased them some, but otherwise took everything in stride.
On a sunny afternoon in early June, Dante hurried through the apartment above the office, clutching a piece of plastic, searching out his brother. When he wasn’t anywhere to be found, he figured he had to be downstairs in the library.
“VERGIL!” He shouted, vaulting over the stair railing when he was about halfway down. He hesitated to continue after he landed, unsure if he should have done that. Then shrugged and moved on, too late to change it. “Verge!” He found his brother, unsurprisingly, cozied up on the couch that he’d positioned ‘just right’ in front of one of the large windows reading a book. A quick look at the cover told Dante it was one of the romance novels he pretended he didn’t absolutely adore. “Verrrgil! Verge, Vergil!” Dante called his name as he made his way toward him in what Vergil called his ‘petulant-child-begging-for-attention’ tone.
Vergil didn’t look up from his book, but Dante knew he was paying attention because his eyes had stopped moving over the words in front of him. When he reached him, he slipped the, dry, piece of plastic over the book, making sure the word ‘pregnant’ on the test was clearly visible. The second the word registered, Vergil was off the couch, book and positive test falling to the cushions.
“Are you sure?” he asked, gripping Dante’s hips.
“I started looking at nesting materials in the supercenter two days ago. Yeah, I’m sure.” Since their time in Hell, Dante’s demonic instincts were closer to the surface than ever before. He hadn’t tried to temper or tamp them down because he’d found that it helped him on jobs and now it apparently translated to his demonic nature knowing when he was pregnant.
Vergil grinned, an almost childlike joy lighting up his face, wrapped his arms around Dante’s waist, lifted and spun him around. Without setting him down, he carried Dante upstairs to their bedroom to celebrate.
Approximately 10 minutes later, Nero strolled into the office. “Hey guys, you here?” He looked around the office and caught sight of light flooding through an open door in the back, which was unusual since those doors were usually kept closed. “Dante? Vergil?” he called, making his way to the open door. “Vergil?” He peeked into the library door.
Concerned when he saw the discarded book, he strode across the room. There hadn’t been any signs of a fight, but still he kept alert. He picked up the book, marking the spot with the nearby bookmark. Then he noticed the other thing on the couch. He stared down at it for a moment, uncomprehending. When it clicked what it was and what it had to mean, he fled.
More than an hour after they’d gone upstairs, Vergil headed back into the library, Dante trailing behind him. He stopped short when he noticed his book was moved. Dante peered around him then tilted his head and sniffed the air.
“Nero. Not still here though.” He pulled his new cell phone out of his back pocket and tapped on Nero’s contact. “Hey, everything okay?”
“Yeah. Busy, did you need something?”
“No, we just noticed you’d been here, but we hadn’t seen you.”
“Yeah, I uh, was gonna hang out but then Kyrie called. Um, one of the orphans got sick and she needed another pair of hands. Listen, I gotta go. Talk later.”
Dante stared at the phone after Nero hung up. “That was weird, right? I mean, even for him.”
“He is not a very good liar. Or at least, not very good at lying on the fly like that,” Vergil agreed.
“You don’t think he heard us and freaked out, do you?”
Vergil smirked. “You were not that loud.” Dante stuck his tongue out at him and Vergil playfully snapped his teeth at him. Then he grew serious. “No, I think if he had heard us, he would not have answered your call.”
Over the next week, Dante and Vergil cleaned out one of the rooms that had previously only been full of dust and cobwebs to use as a permanent nest room. They knew, from their mother’s journals and Dante’s previous pregnancy, that they were going to want this room ready before a nursery. Once the room was cleaned to Vergil’s standards, they began building a wooden platform that took up half of the floor space but was in the center of the room. The platform, with it’s raised sides, was large enough to fit a memory foam, Alaskan king sized mattress, which is what Vergil ordered to serve as the soft foundation. While they waited for the mattress, Dante began gathering whatever materials struck him. Soft blankets, pillows, a couple of stuffed animals, even a large swath of velvet to cover the wooden platform with, under the mattress, were bought and brought into the room.
He wanted to add the scents of his family as well. Adding his and Vergil’s was easy. Trish and Lady would probably readily agree to hand over a shirt or two each, as soon as Dante told them. But first, he’d wanted to tell Nero. Unfortunately, he was no longer taking his calls. He’d tried several times, as had Vergil, he’d even checked with Morrison to make sure he wasn’t out on a job. But Nero didn’t answer. Kyrie answered the few times they’d called her, but told them that he wasn’t available and she’d tell him to call them back. He never did.
Vergil did his best to distract them both. And admittedly, the beginning of building a permanent nest was distracting. But every spare moment, Dante thought of his oldest kid. He’d really thought they were making strides into becoming a family. Maybe not the close fathers/son relationship he’d wanted, but something. Despite trying to play it cool, and telling Dante that Nero would reach out to them when he was ready, Dante caught Vergil frequently pulling out his own phone, finger hovering over Nero’s contact, before he’d sigh and tuck the phone away again.
Then, late one evening, two people burst through the front doors of Devil May Cry.
“Kyrie! I don’t want –”
“I don’t care, you’re going to. I’m sick of this moping. Dante! Vergil!” Kyrie dragged Nero into main room of the office. She was only able to because Nero allowed it. Despite not wanting to be there, he didn’t want to hurt Kyrie on accident, so he allowed himself to be pushed around.
Vergil leaned over the banister on the upper floor. “Come on up,” he called down. “I have a feeling we are going to want some more privacy than the main office provides. Would you be so kind as to lock the door behind you, Kyrie?”
“Absolutely. Go!” she shoved Nero toward the stairs as she turned the lock on the front door. She prodded him all the way up the stairs by digging a finger into his back, between his shoulder blades.
“You’re okay,” Dante was relieved to note as soon as Nero crossed into the room they’d fashioned into their living room. “We were worried when you stopped taking our calls.” He tried, unsuccessfully, to keep the ‘disapproving-dad’ tone out of his voice.
“Like it matters,” Nero rolled his eyes. “I saw the test, I know you’re replacing me. And I –”
“How dare you!” Dante exploded. “I have been holding back every instinct I have in order to give you time to adjust! Let him come to us when he decides what he wants from us, we decided. Don’t push him, don’t scare him away! I have wanted nothing more than to cart you up here and keep you here until my home smells like mY SON AGAIN AND YOU HAVE THE NERVE TO THINK YOU’RE REPLACABLE?! YOU. ARE. MY. SON!” Dante grew so loud, the demonic quality of his voice becoming so apparent, that furniture started to shake and dust fell from the rafters.
“Our son,” Vergil put in, grabbing Dante’s arm. “Calm down, Dante mine.” Dante turned and growled at him. “Yes, I know. Look,” he gestured back to Nero who was standing stock still, silent, and wide-eyed with Kyrie, who was mostly hidden behind him.
“Shit.”
“Mm-hm.” Vergil moved to stand in front of him, making sure Nero was still visible to him. “Put it away,” he reached forward, taking Dante’s clawed hands into his own grasp. When Dante looked confused at his own hands, Vergil said, “Only a little. Just claws and some scales. And your eyes are glowing orange. Pull it back. Nice and easy, there you go,” he talked his brother through it, despite both of them knowing he didn’t actually need the help. But Vergil talking was soothing them both.
After a moment, Dante calmed enough to step back and sit on the couch facing Nero and Kyrie. It took another couple of silent minutes before anyone spoke again.
“Why didn’t you tell me before? I get why you had to give me up, I get not realizing who I was right away. But why not tell me I’m your son when you figured it out? Do you have any idea how much I –” Nero cut himself off, taking a deep breath and closing his eyes. After a moment, he opened them and said, “I figured out we had to be related, during the whole thing with Sanctus and all that. I mean, not right away, but still before the thing with the Savior. I have wanted a family to belong to my whole life, and you kept that from me after we met again.”
The hurt in his son’s voice pushed Dante out of his seat and had him wrapping his arms around Nero before he made the conscious decision to move. He considered moving away, sure that Nero wouldn’t welcome the touch, but then he gripped the sides of his t-shirt and Dante swore he heard him purr, just a little.
“I’m sorry,” he said softly against his son’s hair. “I kept swearing to myself that I’d tell you, I just wanted you to get used to me and used to being part devil. But I kept putting it off, telling myself you weren’t ready or that knowing would somehow chase you away from me. And I didn’t – couldn’t – risk that, not when I was able to have at least part of you.” Nero peeked over Dante’s shoulder at Vergil, who took that as permission to come closer. He wrapped his arms around the two of them as much as he could as Dante continued. “I’m sorry that not telling you made you feel unloved or in any way unwelcome. I swear you’re not, you never were.”
Nero let go of Dante’s shirt with one hand, enough to reach out and grip Vergil. Dante felt him take a deep, shuddering breath before finally easing back and letting go of them both. As soon as Nero took a step back, Dante ducked around him.
“Thank you,” he said, cupping Kyrie’s face and pecking a kiss to each cheek, “for making him come over. We heard you when you came in,” he explained to her confused look, stepping back and letting his hands fall from her face.
“You’re welcome,” she smiled up at him. “Should’ve made him come sooner.”
Vergil rolled his eyes fondly. “The men in this family need to be poked and prodded, or trapped in Hell, to start to talk to each other. So, thank you for the poking and prodding.” Kyrie laughed, accepting the kiss to her temple from him.
“So, I know he’s been moping, and you two have been calling a lot. What did you actually do here?”
Dante grinned and grabbed her hand, explaining how demons needed nests when their children were born, as he tugged her down the hall to the nest room they’d been working on, Vergil and Nero following. The memory foam mattress was already in place and some of the blankets and pillows they’d gotten were already arranged, with others scattered on the floor waiting for Dante to decide where they needed to go.
“When it gets closer, I’m going to want clothes from both of you. Scents of family in the nest,” he explained. The demon in him purred in contentment when Nero toed off his shoes and sat cross legged in the unfinished nest without prompting.
“You bought a baby blanket already?” Nero asked, tugging a knitted square of fabric into his lap.
“That’s yours.”
“Mine?”
“Mm-hm.” He sat down beside him, leaning close so Nero could lean into his side if he wanted. “It was… about a week after I’d felt you kick for the first time. I was out for groceries and passed this yarn shop. There was a window display, apparently a bunch of the knitters had gotten together and made a bunch of baby blankets. I dunno, I didn’t ask for details. Anyway, the lady behind the counter was commenting to one of the knitters how that one wouldn’t sell because the red and blue clashed, not to mention she thought the pattern was terrible. Couldn’t help myself, had to have it for you.”
~~~
A year later, Dante and Vergil were standing in Kyrie and Nero’s living room. “You should have enough premade bottles, we won’t be long on this job. She’s teething, so please make sure to keep your fingers away. It feels like she’s getting a mouthful of fangs rather than normal teeth. I’ve left a couple teething rings for her, she’s already chewed through one. Diapers, toys,” Dante riffled through the diaper bag just to make sure Kyrie and Nero had everything.
“Dad!” Nero put his a hand on his shoulder and shook him a little. “We’ve got this. Besides, it’ll be good practice for us when ours gets here.”
“Yeah, I suppo – what did you just say?”
Kyrie laughed and presented him with an ultrasound photo. “You’re pregnant?” Vergil stepped up behind Dante, peering over his shoulder, down at the photo.
“Found out three days ago. When you two get back, we’ll talk about what I need for a nest, yeah?”
“Sure. Yeah, yeah, we can do that,” Dante stared down at the little black and white photo in shock.
“Here, I made extra copies. These are yours.” She handed one to each Dante and Vergil. Vergil leaned around Dante to press a quick kiss to Kyrie’s temple in thanks before sliding the photo into the inner pocket of his coat that also held the family photo they’d taken shortly after their daughter was born.
“Come, Dante mine. The sooner we take care of this job, the sooner we will be home.”
“Good point. Daddy loves you, Aura.” He smiled, leaning in to kiss the forehead of the little girl snuggled in Nero’s arms. “Love you too, Nero. We’ll be back soon.” He pressed a kiss to Nero’s forehead then stepped back so Vergil could do the same.
“Take care of your brother, Aurelia. Make sure he does not cause too much trouble, hm?”
“Hey!” Vergil and Kyrie both laughed at Nero. Dante and Vergil started off toward the RV where Nico was waiting for them with weapons she wanted them to test out, Nero and Kyrie waving from the door.
“We’re gonna be grandfathers!” Dante exclaimed, stopping suddenly and grabbing Vergil’s upper arm. Nero laughed, closing the door behind them.