He couldn't believe his eyes.
Vergil was back.
Really back.
Not as Urizen or V, no,... as his brother Vergil.
They had fought together in the Underworld against numerous demons like a well oiled machine. As if they had always been a team.
Of course they had fought each other in between the demon attacks, (because...well...there was nothing else to do down there and talking was... not exactly their thing),but it had felt like friendly sparring and not like Vergil had been intent on killing him. He seemed to have taken Nero's words to heart. And Dante...well...he knew that deep down, he never had had the desire to kill his brother, not intentionally anyways, not even when facing Urizen. Stopping him, yes, but killing him, no. He was his brother after all, misguided and power hungry, but still... And so they had fought each other and the demons for weeks until Vergil had casually mentioned (after Dante had sort of dropped that he was bored of the whole fighting demons thing) that there was a way out of the Underworld.
Only then had it occurred to Dante that, yes, of course, Vergil had left this place once before, without the Yamato, so obviously he knew how to.
Vergil had asked him, if he really wanted to go back to the human world, because this way of his was, and to quote him: "a bit unpleasant" but Dante would've done anything to go back to "Devil may cry".
He had been bone-tired.
Would've never admitted it, of course, but it had been the truth and he might have missed Lady and Trish a bit, maybe the kid as well.
So he had told Vergil that he could handle 'unpleasant'. But he should've guessed that if Vergil used a word like unpleasant it actually meant freaking disturbing and harrowing.
When they had finally reached the human world, Dante knew immediately that suppressing those horrendous memories was the only way to be able to go on in life.
Yep, he had promised himself there and then to never ever talk or even think about this whole ordeal.

Ha!
And here he was...thinking about it.
Damn it!
Who knew that actively suppressing shit was this hard?

Now back at "Devil may cry", Dante stood next to the desk, phone in hand and about to call Nero when he was looking at his brother, who was sitting on the couch, reading.
He was here.
He was really here.
Vergil.
His twin brother.
He didn't stay in the Underworld.
When Dante had asked him to come back with him to the human world, he had said yes.
It was hard to believe but here they were.

Come to think of it...this had been the second time Vergil had taken the 'unpleasant' way back to the human world, right?
Sooo...twice.
He had done this TWICE?!
For the love of...! Dante gagged.

"Are you alright?", Vergil asked, his voice devoid of any real concern.
"Yeah, sure", he said, looked down at the phone and dialled Nero's number.
"Twice", he mumbled and shook his head in disbelieve.
"What was that?", he heard Vergil ask but thankfully Nero picked up the phone quite quickly and thus giving Dante the perfect excuse to ignore his brother's question.
He wanted to tell the kid a.s.a.p. that they were back.

Nero had been thrilled to hear that they had made it back from the Underworld and immediately paid them a visit, together with Kyrie and Nico of course.
As luck would have it, Lady and Trish had returned from a job and were now at "Devil may cry" as well.
So Dante had seized the opportunity and had ordered pizza for all of them.
Why not have a little welcome-back party, right?

Sure, the mood could be better.
Lady and Trish were glaring at Vergil with rage and hate.
Which was understandable, really.
Urizen did turn them into his puppets and used them to fight for him.
There is no denying it.
They had every right to be angry at Vergil.
And Nero...ah yes, he was torn between ripping his father's arm off (see how he likes that!) or firing questions at him.
It didn't look like he was able to decide anytime soon though.
So, yeah, bad atmosphere.
And Vergil glaring back at everyone in defiance wasn't helping at all.

Dante sighed inwardly.
This party sucked.

"Hey, what's with the sour mood? Aren't you guys glad I'm back?"
Ah, this did the trick.
They were now looking at him instead of Vergil.

"You gotta tell me what I missed while I was on vacation in demon-land. But first, Nico, could you try and get the old jukebox working while I get some drinks form the kitchen?"

"Sure thing."
Nico replied with a grin and pretty soon the room was filled with nice music instead of awkward silence.

"There's pizza on the desk. Help yourselves."
Dante grinned and asked Kyrie if she could lend him a hand with the drinks.
When they had reached the kitchen, Dante immediately stopped smiling, got closer to Kyrie and whispered: "Now listen, could you please help me with my brother?"

Kyrie frowned and asked him in a hushed tone: "Help? How?"

"Lady,Trish and Nero are really pissed off. And I get it. Vergil did some pretty messed up shit to them. But he wasn't himself and...Well...just help me to keep an eye on those hot-heads, in case one of them decides to attack Vergil, yeah?"

"Okay, but your brother seems to be quite capable of defending himself in a fight?"

"Oh, I am not worried about Vergil."

"Ah, I see", Kyrie nodded and both returned to the office with various bottles in their hands.

There was beer, wine, ice tea and water.
Not much, but it could've been worse.
He was lucky that there had been anything at all in the fridge, in a working fridge even.
He made a mental note to thank the ladies for that.

"Now, who wants...?" Dante looked up from the bottles in his hands and got stopped in his tracks when he saw that Vergil was gripping Lady's throat with one hand and holding the Yamato in the other, ready to strike.

"Oh, come on! We were only gone for two minutes!" Dante exclaimed exasperated.

He put the bottles down on his desk and walked over to the two brawlers.

Seriously?!
He leaves the room for a few minutes and shit escalates.
Maybe this party wasn't meant to be.
He sighed again, but this time out loud and said: "Alright Vergil. Let her go."

There was no reaction.
His brother was still glaring at Lady as if he hadn't heard him.

"Okay, Lady, what did you say to him?"

Lady grinned and croaked: "I just told him what a great father he is."

Oh, great!
Dante rolled his eyes.
He put a hand on Vergil's outstretched arm and said: "Let go of her, Vergil. No killing in my office...except for demons of course, but Lady is human and my friend. So..."

A low frustrated growl escaped Vergil's throat as he let go of Lady and sheathed the Yamato.
He turned around and stormed off into the kitchen.

Dante blinked in confusion.
That went unexpectedly well.
His brother wasn't usually one to give in so easily.
But he wasn't complaining.
Nope, not even a little.

"Where was I? Oh, yes. Drinks and Pizza."
He got himself a beer and a slice of pizza and sat down on the couch.

"So? What's new? How have you guys been?"

The tension dissolved fast and soon Lady, Trish and Nero were telling him about the clean-up jobs they had taken on, after the Qliphoth had fallen.
Since most of the demons weren't able to find a way back to the Underworld after Vergil had sealed the portal, the three of them had been quite busy.
And Nico insisted that without her help they wouldn't have been this successful in killing so many demons.
She was always there to pick them up or repair their weapons.
This kicked a discussion off about Nico's driving and Nero always destroying the weapons she makes for him and so on.
But it was all just friendly bickering.

Dante listened to them and smiled.
Oh, how he had missed this, missed them.
He was so glad to be back.

After a while, Dante noticed that Kyrie was missing.
She had left the group to get something from the kitchen but hadn't returned yet.

Damn it!
Vergil was there!
Dante got up and had to force himself not to run towards the kitchen and in doing so alarming the others.
He didn't want any more fights tonight.

It was a relief when he saw that Kyrie was still in one piece, safe and sound.
She was standing next to Vergil, who was sitting on a chair with an odd facial expression, one that Dante had never seen before.

"Oh, good, you're here. I was about to ask you to have a look at him", Kyrie said.
She sounded worried.

"What's wrong with him?"

"Well, that's what I wanted to ask you. Is he sick? I found him like this when I entered the kitchen. He hasn't moved, hasn't said a word. He doesn't respond to anything I say or do. Is this some demon-thing that I don't understand?"

"Hm... no, not that I know of."

Urgh, Vergil looked seriously creepy.
Kyrie was one hell of a woman for not running away screaming and even more so, for showing honest concern.
Vergil's ice-blue eyes were wide open and glowing but he didn't seem to notice what was happening around him at all.
Drool was running from the corners of his mouth and dripping down onto his pants and the floor.
Even that didn't seem to bother him, which was probably the biggest sign that something was absolutely wrong here.

Dante grabbed his brother's shoulders and shook him.
"Hey, Verge, whatever you're doing, snap out of it."

No reaction.
This was starting to freak him out.
Anyone could've attacked Vergil in this state and rip him to pieces in no time.
His brother would've never let his guard down like that.
How odd.

"Well, gonna do the old classic and slap him in the face. Let's see if that gets a reaction out of him."
Dante shrugged. "You might wanna stand aside a bit, can't say what's gonna happen."

Kyrie nodded and moved over to the kitchen entrance behind Dante.

It was a pretty good slap.
Knocked Vergil right off the chair and threw him against a cupboard.
The reaction however was a bit anticlimactic.
No weird stuff happened.
The slap had done the trick though.
Vergil's eyes stopped glowing and a moan escaped his lips.
He ran a hand over his face and was confused when he felt the wetness on his chin.

"Yep, that's your drool, brother. Wanna tell us what the hell you were up to in the kitchen?"

Vergil looked down at his hand, his pants and the puddle of drool on the floor.
The sight seemed to unsettle him immensely.
Suddenly, Kyrie appeared next to Vergil with a cloth in her hand.
She knelt down and wanted to hand him the cloth, so that he could clean his face but Vergil tried to scrambled backwards, like a scared little kitten.
Dante almost expected him to hiss too.
He couldn't stop himself from laughing.

"What's the matter with you brother? Scared of humans? Or just women?"

The look that Kyrie shot him now made him feel ashamed of himself (damn that woman!) and he stopped laughing immediately.
But maybe she was right.
Maybe he should take this more seriously.
He walked over to Vergil, grabbed his arm, pulled him to his feet and handed him the Yamato.
"There you go."
The weapon had been lying on the floor next to the chair the entire time.
For a second Dante feared that his brother might topple over but he used the Yamato like a cane to steady himself just in time.
When he began to slowly walk out of the kitchen, Dante called after him: "Hey, where do you think you're going? You still haven't answered my question. What was that?"

"Nothing. Do not trouble over it. I'll be upstairs."

"To do what? Drool a bit more?"
Uhh...that look again from Kyrie.

His brother wasn't in the mood for a fight, not even a verbal one.
He simply said: "To rest", walked past the others and up the stairs, leaning heavily on the Yamato.
Why was this sight so strangely familiar?
Dante scratched the stubble on his cheek.
Ah, yes.
V and his cane.
That's why.
Vergil's demeanour reminded him of V.

For a second there, Nero thought that he saw V walking out of the kitchen.
But then he realised it was his father.
And holy shit, what had Kyrie been doing in the kitchen with them?
Was she alright?
She looked upset.
Nero got up and walked up to Kyrie and Dante.
Both stood in the kitchen entrance, their eyes following Vergil.

"Hey guys, what's going on here?"

"Beats me." Dante shrugged his shoulders and got back to his pizza and beer.

"Kyrie?" Nero said in growing confusion.

"Come into the kitchen with me. I'll tell you everything while I clean something up."

Clean something up? What the hell happened in there?

Of course Kyrie would tell Nero but Dante had hoped she would do that on their way home, or something like that.
Not right now.
It ruined his nice party completely.
Because Nero had to be loud and dramatic about the whole thing and so everyone in the office was well informed in the end.

And now Nero was sitting next to him on the couch, talking Dante's ear off about how he should check on Virgil and that this was a bad sign, something was up and he had to make sure that this was not going to be the start of yet another demon tree growing in the city and so on... and so forth... at one point Dante stopped listening to the kid.
He was repeating himself anyway and besides, Dante knew, of course he knew that he had to keep an eye on his brother, no one had to tell him that.

In the middle of fighting him on top of the Qliphoth, Dante had realised that something was off about Vergil.
Obviously, he didn't know if it was simply due to the many years they had spent apart, living in different worlds even, that his brother seemed different.
Or it was because his brother had split himself in two (must have had some sort of impact on him), or because there was something yet unknown the matter with him.
But whatever it was, Dante would deal with it.
He would always deal with it.

"He's got a point, Dante."
Great, now Trish was going to start lecturing him as well?

"Listen guys, I know my brother. If I am going to ask him about this, he's just gonna stab me. I won't get any answers."

"Fine. Then I'm gonna talk to him", Nero said as he got up and headed for the stairs.

Dante's eyes widened.
"What?! You?"

"If you're not gonna do it, then I will."

A nervous chuckle left Dante's lips.
"That's not a good idea."

"Why? Because he could stab me? I am not afraid of that...unlike you."

"Now, hold on! I am not afraid of getting stabbed!"

Trish smiled and said: "No, you are just afraid of having a serious conversation with your brother."

"Sheesh! Guys! What's the matter with you?!"
Dante looked at everyone in the room, quietly pleading for someone to back him up but no such luck.

He rolled his eyes and got up with a sigh.
"Alright, alright. You win. I'm gonna talk to him. Happy?"

He saw the satisfied smirk on Nero's face and really had to fight the urge to punch him, when he walked past him to get up the stairs.

Suddenly, someone grabbed his hand with a feather light touch and held him back. He turned around and saw that it was Kyrie.
With a pleading look on her face, she asked him not to make fun of Virgil, because it was probably embarrassing enough for him.

Aww...wasn't she adorable!
He smiled at her and said: "I'll be nice."

Guess his welcome-home party was over then.

When they had gotten back from the Underworld, the first thing Dante had to absolutely have, was a long shower.
He usually didn't mind dirt, blood, stench or bits of demon flesh in his hair or on his clothes but this time he had felt incredibly unclean (he blamed their 'unpleasant' way back for that) and he had been relieved to finally be able to wash everything off.

After he'd been done, he had told Vergil that the shower was all his now.
The raised eyebrow and the bewildered look on his brother's face had been a clear sign that his brother had no clue what Dante had been referring to.
It had been hilarious and worrying at the same time but Dante hadn't been able to stop himself from mocking his brother.

Vergil had forgotten what a shower was.
It had been too good to not make fun of him for that one.
Of course, all those years in the Underwold (without showers..hehehe...) and yeah, probably Mundus' torture and the brainwashing as well, it all might have messed with Vergil's head a bit.
Perfectly understandable to forget what a shower is.
And a nice person would have simply told Vergil that it was fine and explained showers and their purpose to him but Dante wasn't...you know...a nice person.
Of course he had told his brother what showers were, he wasn't a complete asshole, but he might have enjoyed the moment a bit too much.

Dante grinned as he passed by the bathroom door and recalled the whole scene.
Ah, well, he had to focus on more pressing matters now.
The drooling.
Dante chuckled.
No!
He scolded himself.
He wasn't going to make fun of this again.
He was going to be all serious and concerned.

He heard footsteps coming from the room that was now Vergil's.
What was his brother doing?
Pacing around?
It sure sounded like that.
Maybe he should have a peek through the keyhole, before he knocked.
Just to...you know...

Ha!
He was pacing.
And...mumbling to himself?
Vergil was really loosing it, wasn't he?
And why was he always touching his mouth?
Oh, of course.
Wiping off the drool.
Dante chuckled but immediately stopped himself when he realised that his brother might be able to hear this.
Luckily, he hadn't and was still pacing around the room.
Dante sighed.

Ah, well.
He had to go in there at one point.
Might as well get over with it.
Should he knock?

Suddenly the loud voice of his brother made him jump. "Go away, Dante."
Damn it!
He must've heard him chuckle after all.

Dante ignored his brothers request, opened the door, stepped into the room and closed the door behind him again.
Because the others didn't need to hear them, right?

Vergil stopped pacing around and scowled at him.

"Didn't you hear what I said?"

"Oh, I did."

"And yet here you are."

"Yup."

Hm...Vergil hadn't wiped his mouth since Dante had entered the room but he did swallow a lot more than one normally would.
Also...was that sweat on his forehead?
The longer Dante looked at him the more it became obvious that Vergil felt like crap.
He even seemed to sway a little.

"Why are you here, Dante?"

"I gotta know what's going on with you."

"Nothing. I'm fine."

"Riiiight. Well in that case, why don't you come down and join us? Have a drink?"

Suddenly, a growl escaped Vergil's throat and quite a lot of drool welled over his lower lip, dripping down to the floor.
He pressed a hand over his mouth and turned around in an attempt to hide it from Dante.
Which was way too late, by the way.
He had seen the whole thing.
Urgh!

"Yeah, you seem to be really fine. No offence brother, but that's kinda disgusting."
What?
He wasn't mocking him.
He was just stating the obvious.

Vergil didn't say a word, he just stood there, staring at the floor, one hand covering his mouth and breathing heavily through the nose.

"Oh, come on, Verge. Don't make me drag it out of you. Talk. I promise I won't tell anyone if it's something embarrassing."

All of a sudden, Vergil's legs gave out from under him but Dante reacted in an instant and was able to catch him before he hit the floor.
He expected his brother to have lost consciousness but that wasn't the case.
This was getting weirder by the minute.
Such open display of weakness was out of character for Vergil, especially in front of Dante.
It reminded him of V again.

"I am losing the battle."
Dante heard his brother mutter when he helped him lie down on the bed.

"Battle? What battle?"

And finally Vergil started to talk.
Dante grabbed a chair that was standing next to the wardrobe, so he could sit as close to the bed as possible and would hear what his brother was saying, because he spoke in a low and weak voice now.

"The fruit I consumed..."

"The ugly dripping raspberry-apple?"

Vergil sighed and rolled his eyes (a good sign, he wasn't dying then, if he was still able to do that, right?) and continued: "Yes. It was made from undiluted human blood."

"Yeah, I know and it was suppose to give you incredible power."
And yet I defeated you, Dante thought but refrained from saying it out loud.
Because even mentioning the supposed power earned him a snarl.

"Did you ever drink human blood? Maybe accidentally?" Vergil asked and Dante frowned while thinking hard.
Hm...human blood...no.
..demon blood, yes, probably more than once...but not on purpose.
Sometimes in a fight you get drenched in that stuff and it sort of ends up in your mouth as well.
It was tasty and nutritious for demons and half-demons but he wouldn't go out there and actively hunt them for a drink.
But humans...nah...

"As far as I know, I never had human blood. Why?"

"Because you probably won't understand then. The fruit gave me power, it was an incredible feeling and when I was...a half-demon again, this power waned and I was left with but a taste of what human blood can do for a demon. That's why they all are thirsting for it. Killing humans one by one and drinking their blood can never be compared with what the Qliphoth fruit gives you in an instant but they all take what they can get their hands on. I know now. I know, because my demon side wants it, too. And I fear I'm losing this fight."

"Hang on a sec. I kicked Urizen's ass even after he had eaten that weird power fruit. He could drink the whole planet dry and he still wouldn't beat me. Doesn't this get through that thick skull of his?"

Now it was Vergil's turn to look confused. "Urizen?"

"Ah, sorry. Your human half called your demon half Urizen."

"I see. I have a faint recollection of Nero calling me that once."

"So you want to drink human blood. Is that why you are drooling all over the place?"
Dante still wasn't mocking him. Mind you.

Vergil looked appalled and said with a firm voice: "I don't want to drink human blood."

There was drool trickling out of the left corner of his mouth and he moaned as he wiped it off with the back of his hand.

"It's the only thing my demon half can think of. But I am trying to withstand this...urge...this burning need to...taste this warm and sweet..."
There was a very uncharacteristic soft smile as Vergil licked his lips and tried to get out of the bed.
Dante pushed him down again.

"Ah, no no no. You stay."
Like a good little puppy.
Hehehe...
No, this wasn't mockery.
It only counted as mocking if he said it out loud.

"So, ehm...just to make this a bit easier to understand: Urizen wants to drink human blood but V doesn't. And V is trying to stop Urizen?"

"If you want to put it that way, yes. But I am not V, nor am I Urizen as a single entity. I am both of them. Myself. A half-demon, fighting against the urges of his demonic nature."

"Alright. I just like to picture the miniature versions of V and Urizen inside your head, fighting over who gets to control your body." Dante chuckled.

"Do you still think it is a laughing matter when I rip your friends' throat apart? Or Nero's friends, what if I kill them? Will it still amuse you then?"

Dante raised one eyebrow.

"Why, brother?! This sounds like you've gotten a conscience, like you care about humans."

This earned him a scowl.
Dante decided to get serious again and asked: "But tell me this, what's the point? The drinking blood, I mean. To get more power again? You said it yourself, killing humans and drinking their blood won't be like the fruit at all. And it won't give you more power. Or maybe just for a few hours and it will never be enough to beat me anyway. It didn't work with the demon-tree-filtered-blood-cocktail-fruit, it won't work with the fresh stuff."

"I didn't lose. We weren't done fighting yet."

Dante shrugged and rolled his eyes.
"Riiight. Whatever. Tell your demon-side that human blood is off limits."

"Ingenious. What do you think I've been doing since those human friends of yours have entered the house? The crux of the matter is that my demon-side is considerably stronger than my human-side. And it is sort of futile to reason with my demon-half when the smell of human blood negates any attempt to form a coherent thought."

Dante sighed. He wished his brother would use normal words but hey...at least he wasn't talking in fucking riddles like V used to.
Guess he had to be grateful.

"So...how do we solve this then?"

"There is nothing to be solved. I have to go back to the Underworld. I don't belong here."

"Oh hell no! You'll just raise another weird tree. Maybe even to get another one of those raspberry-apples."

"This fruit can only grow in a few thousand years again."

"Good. But I still won't let you go. You're staying."

"Don't be childish, Dante. I am a danger to your friends, to the humans out there. I might have not seen it before, but I know now that my actions have caused a lot of suffering and I cannot erase those mistakes but I can stop myself before I make any new ones."

"You know...V knew he couldn't win against Urizen. That's why he came to me, to ask for help. Why not do it again?"

Vergil furrowed his brow. "Do what?"

"Your human-half and me against your demon-half. We won before and we will win again. Come on! You have nothing to lose, really. If it doesn't work you can still go and hide in the Underworld if you want to but I suspect that in telling me all this, you secretly hope that I will stop you. So? What do you say? I'll keep you in check, no humans will get hurt and who knows, maybe the urge will subside or you'll learn how to control it. Sounds like an excellent plan, doesn't it?"

There was only a hum in response but then Vergil added hesitantly: "If I kill someone..."

Dante didn't let him finish the sentence: "...then it'll be on me. Not your fault. I'll be to blame. But it won't happen. Trust me."

Another hum.
It seemed like Vergil was inclined to agree with Dante's plan.

Dante smiled. "Maybe you can join the AHBA."

"What is that?"

"The Anonymous Human Blood Addicts."

Dante laughed out loud when he saw the look on his brother's face.

"That is not funny, Dante."

"Oh, come on. Lighten up, brother."

Hi guys,

This was suppose to be a longer story but the energy to write sort of left me. U_U
Maybe I will write more later, maybe not.
I still hope you enjoyed reading it.
Leave a comment.
I love them

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