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Lady woke up in what appeared to be an underground ruin, completely confused as to how she got there. One second she’d been walking into Devil May Cry, the next she was there.
Before she could stand up fully, a pair of arms dragged her up and fired behind her. Lady stared at an extremely confusing sight.
“Dante?” she asked.
He looked away from where he was shooting and at her, and Lady realized this was not the Dante she knew. He looked about ten years older, and held such sorrow and weariness in his eyes. Instead of a jacket over a bare torso he wore a fitted leather shirt that exposed a fair amount of his chest. A chest that had filled out. His hair was slightly less in his face, although still rather carelessly done.
“Lady?” he asked, “How’d you get here?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted, “Where’s here?”
He narrowed his eyes. “Playing dumb isn’t cute on you. I told you I had a job I figured would take me to Dunmary Island. Could you not stand the thought of being left out?”
“Dunmary? Lady furrowed her brow in thought. Dante slowed down and glanced around. Lady found her eyes drawn that patch of chest, wondering why the hint was so much more distracting than the entire thing.
He caught her looking and asked, “Really Lady, now?”
His tone was so mundane about it, it caught her off guard. Sure, Dante often joked about her checking him out, but never like… they’d actually done something. It didn’t even sound like a joke, but more like he just actually didn’t want to do anything. Her cheeks heated and she pushed away from him, getting her feet back on the ground.
“You’re not my Lady, are you?” he asked after a moment.
She shook her head.
He scowled, “Great. Just what I needed.”
That had Lady scowling as well. “Excuse me? I didn’t ask to be sent here!”
“Of course you didn’t.”
“Why are you acting like an over-serious jerk?”
“Over-serious jerk?” he asked, “Just where are you from?” he paused and then said, “No, let me guess, you’re nineteen.”
Lady hated that he was right. She’d just turned nineteen a few weeks ago.
“Well young lady,” he started, “Will I need to hold your hand through this? Or can you be a big girl?”
“Shut up!” she snapped, “You’re what? Thirty and you think you’re more mature than me? You’re the one antagonizing me for no reason!”
Dante regarded her with strange eyes. Intense, but underneath that, so much sorrow. “Fine. If you’re not a hallucination, try and keep up.”
“Like you could get away from me.”
As they walked though the tunnels, fighting demons when they popped up, she registered his statement. “Why would you hallucinate me?”
“Scariest thing I could think of.”
“Good!”
His smile after that was as sad as the rest of him.
She frowned and commented, “I’ve never seen you so neutered.”
“You should learn when to stop talking.”
“Oh, like you apparently did?” Lady couldn’t help but snap back.
Dante opened his mouth to say something, but they were interrupted by more demons.
Fighting with him, despite his weirdness, was as fun as it always was. It was nice to have someone she could trust to have her back.
“How long have we been apart in this time line?” Lady asked, as they finished up. “We can’t shake each other in my time.”
Dante didn’t say anything. Lady furrowed her brow and pushed his chest with her finger. His very firm chest. “Why are you such a sad sack? You weren’t even this sad at Vergil went to the underworld.”
“I thought you always wanted me to be a bit more serious?” Dante asked.
“Now you’re just mad at me for things I haven’t done yet.” Lady couldn’t remember ever telling him to be more serious. Not recently at least. Most of the time he was a ton of fun.
He blinked and admitted, “Probably right.” He sighed and dragged a hand down his face.
“What happened?” she asked as gently as she could.
“A lot,” he replied, unhelpfully.
Lady suddenly felt a tug from the past. She wasn’t sure how she knew what it was, but that was what came to mind when she noticed it. “Did I do something?”
After a long moment, he said. “I think you left me.”
Lady furrowed her brow. “I mean, I don’t plan to be by your side 24/7.”
“You said you were tired of me and you were taking a mission of undetermined length so you wouldn’t have to deal with me.”
“Did I say all that?”
“No, but I know you.”
“Oh, and I do things just to spite you?”
“Sometimes.”
“Like you aren’t doing the same thing,” she burst. “What is this but running away first so I can’t leave you? How do you think I’m going to take that?”
Dante smiled, but it was one he used to hide his feelings. “You really are Lady. I was worried for a if you weren’t a delusion, you were a demon.”
Lady spun and couldn’t help but smile. “Unfortunately you got stuck with the real deal. Although I would like to go home sooner rather than later.”
“You’ll return,” Dante said, “If it’s what I think it is, it’s just a matter of time.”
That was one relief. “How do you know that?” she asked.
He shrugged.
They continued through the temple, not struggling too much until they reached a throne room and faced a skeleton with a spear and its two pet wolves.
“I’ll handle the wolves,” Lady said, drawing her guns.
“They’re fast,” he warned her, and drew his sword.
The wolves were fast. Lady’s shots kept them back for the most part, but she had to remain vigilant. The strategy was working until the demons wised up to it.
One wolf finally fell to Lady’s bullets, and the other attacked Dante, while the skeleton lunged at her with his spear. Dante cut the wolf in two, and Lady flipped out of the way of the spear, shooting while in the air. Dante attacked, while the skeleton was occupied, pulling Lady out of the next spear thrust while he dispatched the demon.
The two breathed heavily, Lady glancing up to meet Dante’s eyes. The moment they made eye contact, Dante pulled her completely against him, capturing her lips in a passionate kiss. He did it so naturally that Lady didn’t realize what was happening until his tongue was sliding over hers.
His body was warm and solid against her, and despite his serious demeanor, his lips were affectionate and treated her with familiarity, as if this was how they usually ended up after a fight.
Lady couldn’t help but melt against him. The minute she tried to kiss back, he pushed her roughly away, terrible scowl returning. He glanced to the side and saw a door and started walking towards it like nothing had happened. It took Lady a moment, and she flushed red and stomped after him.
“What was that?” she asked.
“A kiss,” he replied and then stopped and asked. “Was that your first--”
“No!” she said. It was her first kiss with tongue, but she wasn’t going to tell him that! “So are we like that in your time?”
“What do you think?” Dante replied, starting to move again.
“I think we are,” Lady decided, not as upset with the idea as she thought she would be. “If you’re my boyfriend you should apologize to me.”
“I’m not your boyfriend."
She couldn’t help how her mouth twisted in displeasure. Were they less than that? She assumed if something did happen, he’d be serious about that. Maybe he just meant he thought they were broken up.
“I’m sure I’ll take you back if you’re nice enough.”
“If I’d know a kiss would seduce you, I would have tried again sooner.”
“That’s not what I’m saying!” She almost stomped her foot. Why was he being so obtuse? “You love me and--” she loved him. But she couldn’t tell him that. “I’m worth fighting for. Girls want to be wooed, you know?”
“I am well aware,” he said, and fixed his hair. “And I’ll keep that all in mind. Fortunately or unfortunately, I need to see this job through, so I guess you’ll have to wait.”
Lady felt the tug from her time get stronger. Her eyes went wide.
“Take it easy on me,” he said, “You’re going through it right now, but he’s…”
Lady surged forward and hugged him, hating how defeated he seemed. “I’ll probably be waiting for you to be waiting for me,” she whispered, “so please don’t give up.”
After a moment, he placed a hand on her back. “I won’t,” he promised.
…
Lady woke up on the ground outside of Devil May Cry, a strange demon staring at her. Lady started firing on it without another thought. With it killed, she walked into see Dante passed out on his chair, and was overwhelmed with relief at the familiar sight.
Only to grow confused why she was relieved. He often napped there. ..
Although with that demon, maybe it had hit him too!
She poked his cheek, hoping he’d wake up without too much trouble. She wasn’t sure if there was anything she could do if he needed medical help.
But then he opened his eyes and spoke about all sorts of nonsense like a strange dream. Lady furrowed her brows and recalled that she had had a strange dream as well. The details besides a flash of Dante’s sad eyes. It was probably just the demon creating some bizarre nightmares.
It couldn’t actually be the future. As what could possibly make Dante so sad? The only thing she could think of would be Vergil dying or something. But Vergil was way too hard to kill for that to make sense. Even if Vergil did die, he’d probably come back to life from pure force of will. The freak.
But it stuck with her, so when he asked her some invasive questions, she tried to answer honestly instead of just brushing him off.