Disclaimer: Yadayada, I don't own Devil May Cry or anything belonging to Capcom.This is suppose to be a cute brother story (not a shounen-ai story) and although I am also a fan-girl that likes the two of them together, their brotherly love is so much cuter. D:
-The story is kinda AU considering this is supposed to take place after DMC 3. Ah well.
Sick
Dante couldn't help but snicker when he heard his twin's coughing all the way from his bedroom. As payback for all the times that Vergil had mothered him about wearing more clothing when they went out, Dante decided that this was better than the usual "ordering pizza for three nights in a row" to piss him off. The demon hunter was at the stove now, heating up something from a can that they had in the refrigerator. Vergil called it soup, but Dante called it water with oil and food coloring; he never liked the stuff much. His older brother hadn't asked for any, but Dante figured that he needed something to eat after he had lain in bed all morning.
Vergil sniffled and pulled the covers over his head when he heard Dante knocking at his door. "Leave me." he demanded. It was one thing to be sick, but it was entirely different when he was so sick that he couldn't even get out of bed. The last thing he needed was Dante taking care of him. It was like giving him free black-mail. He mentally cursed Lady for going on vacation at a time like this. Vergil probably wouldn't have called her over anyway (he wasn't keen about the idea about a woman taking care of him, it made him appear weak), but if it was between Dante and Lady, he would have picked up the phone in a heartbeat.
"Oh come on, bro. I made some soup for you." Dante complained, holding in the desire to laugh at his brother's overly nasal voice. He would have waltzed right in (Vergil couldn't get up to open the door anyway) if not for the fact that his twin would have killed him for it later.
"I don't want any. Besides, whatever you make isn't ever edible." The older twin retaliated. Dante knew that for a fact, but he was hoping that Vergil was sick enough to not remember things like that. As ill as Vergil was, he wouldn't be able to taste how horrible the soup was anyway.
"It has alphabets in it."
Vergil rolled his eyes and groaned. "Oh shut up and leave me alone."
Dante sighed in defeat and placed the tray on the floor and slumped to the ground in front of his brother's bedroom door. Vergil still hadn't changed from when they were young. Every time he was ill, he refused to let anyone take care of him. He would retrieve his own medicine, make his own comfort food and retreat to the safety of their room and slept the entire day. Dante was often forced to sleep on the couch because of his un-willingness to open the door. Of course, Sparda would try to convince his son to let his mother take care of him, but in reality, he asked him only in respect. Dante knew his father had the keys to every room in the house. Whenever night fell, his mother or father would sneak into the room to make sure Vergil was alright.
Although that was one of the qualities he admired about his elder brother, most of the time his refusal to let any take care of him was downright annoying. Unpleasant memories of his brother crying after their father's death alone in his bed and his uncomfortable silent nature after their mother was murdered flashed in Dante's mind. When they were younger, it seemed that Dante was the only one who was allowed to cry and be comforted, while Vergil was forced to suppress any kind of weakness and play the "big brother" role. He'd change that this time around.
"Hey, Verge. Do you remember when I got sick and made you stay home and take care of me?" Dante asked, smirking.
Vergil turned on his side to stare at the ceiling. "Yeah…"
"Come on Dante! We're going to be late for school!" a young Vergil shouted as he walked towards the front door, slipping on his shoes. Instead of the usual obnoxious reply from his younger brother, silence filled the house. Puzzled, he turned around and stared back towards their bathroom and bedroom. No movement, no Dante. He sighed, annoyed, and started to head back towards their bedroom, peering into every single room along the way. When he reached the doorway, he saw a large lump on Dante's bed.
About to clock Dante for not getting up, Vergil paused when he heard his twin coughing and sniffling. He twitched. It was just him and Dante, alone, in the house, and Dante had caught a cold. Vergil wished his mother were home, but she wouldn't be back until the middle of the day. Pretending he saw nothing, the young demon turned and swiftly walked out of the room. When it came to his little brother, taking care of him when he was sick was a whole other challenge in itself.
A young Dante poked his head out from the covers. "Vergil." he whined from the room as loud as he could. Upon hearing his name he hesitated before putting on his shoes again, but Vergil knew his mom would be back in a few hours. No need to stay home from school and take care of…
"Vergil!" Dante whined again. "I'm sick."
"I can see that, stupid. Just wait until mom comes home, you'll live. I'm going to school." Vergil claimed, reaching for the front door knob and planning to leave as fast as possible before…
"Big brother!" Again, he paused in his tracks. The door was half-open, Vergil had almost made it to freedom until his twin dropped what he called his "secret weapon." Dante knew that his older twin couldn't leave him alone when he addressed him that way; it went against Vergil's brotherly instincts. Cursing under his breath, he closed his eyes and slammed the door shut in front of him. The sound echoed throughout the quiet house. Sitting down for a moment to contemplate his loss (again), he heard some louder sniffling when he started to take off his shoes.
Upon reaching their bedroom, Vergil peered in and noticed the lump on his brother's bed was shaking. He sighed and leaned against the door frame. "Are you crying, Dante?"
Obviously, his twin had no idea that his older brother was in the room and nearly jumped out of his bed. Vergil observed that sure enough, his eyes were wet and some of the tears had escaped down his cheek. Dante quickly tried to hide them, however, sniffling and vigorously wiping his face with his sleeves. "I thought you left…" he explained, more tears threatening to spill from his cerulean orbs. Vergil grabbed some tissues from a nearby box and handed them to Dante.
Instead of taking the tissues, his younger brother leaned over and wrapped his arms around his twin's waist, which earned a yelp from the young demon. "Dante, let go of me!" he demanded. Dante didn't seem to be listening and nuzzled his face deeper into his older brother's stomach. Pissed off that Dante was trying to rub his germs onto him, Vergil tried to release himself from the deadly grip with little success.
"Dante!"
"I want a hug."
"You're suppose to say that before you hug me, idiot!"
Some time later (after he successfully escaped Dante's clutches), Vergil was on a stepping stool, glancing through the various medicines in their bathroom cabinet. He grabbed the thermometer and two bottles of cold pills and set off to the kitchen to make Dante something to eat. When asked, his younger brother claimed that he wanted pizza, but Vergil had smacked him on the head for that so he settled for some chicken soup instead. Carrying the tray filled with Dante's needs into the room, he set it gently down on the dresser next to the bed and picked up the first item to be used.
"Here, stick this underneath your tongue."
Dante obeyed, trying not to snicker. "Yes, mom."
Ignoring his brother's comment, he took out the thermometer when it started beeping and read the numbers on the screen. So he had no fever; that was good. Next, he handed the soup bowl and a spoon to Dante. His twin frowned but took the soup anyway and drank it as quickly as he could while scrunching up his face. Everything went smoothly until Vergil opened the bottle of cold medicine, which Dante absolutely refused to take.
"What now?"
Dante frowned. "What happened to the liquid kind?"
"We ran out, just take this instead."
"I never took pills before. What if I choke and die?"
Vergil rose an eyebrow. "Your breakfast cereal is bigger than these things, you won't die." Staring at the medicine on the tray like a menacing enemy, Dante grabbed the pill and threw it into his mouth and drank from the glass of water on the tray. Vergil smiled. "See, it wasn't that bad." he said.
Dante begged to differ, however, when he sheepishly opened his mouth and revealed the white medicine still sitting on his tongue. The elder twin twitched and grabbed the glass from his younger brother and forced him to chug water until the medicine tablet was safely down his throat. Dante choked back tears afterwards, claiming that he never gagged so much in his life and that Vergil was an abusive sibling. After about an hour of back and forth story-telling (mainly Dante rambling on about weird dreams he had after he ate spaghetti for dinner), Vergil closed the book that he was reading and turned to his side to see Dante curled up in his blanket, fast asleep.
As annoying as his little brother was, he was actually somewhat cute when he didn't talk, Vergil thought to himself. Stifling a yawn, he glanced at the red numbers on the digital clock. It would be at least two more hours before their mother returned home. He wondered if he should take a nap as well since he wasn't going back to school. As Vergil stood up to climb to his own bunk-bed that was above Dante's, he felt a grip on his sweater.
Dante was shivering. "I'm cold." His little brother complained, barely opening his eyes to see that Vergil was paying attention to him. Vergil hadn't noticed it, dressed in his thick sweater, but the temperature of the house had dramatically decreased. Their mother probably set the thermostat on low heat since everyone was usually gone from the house during these hours and Vergil had no idea how to adjust it. He looked up to his own bed and grabbed an extra blanket hanging off the edge of the mattress and tossed it underneath to Dante, who immediately snuggled into it.
"I'm still cold." His younger brother said his breath visible from the cold.
"You'll get warm soon." Vergil explained as he climbed up to his own bed. He stopped half-way up the ladder, however, when he heard Dante coughing and looked down towards his twin. He wasn't complaining about it, but Vergil could see that the cold temperature affected Dante more than usual. Even buried underneath two blankets, he showed signs of discomfort as he shivered and tried to sleep. The young demon sighed and jumped from his position onto the floor.
"Move over."
"Huh?"
"Just scoot over." Vergil ordered. Dante obeyed and rolled to the other side of his bed as his older brother slipped into the covers where he was once laying. When Vergil saw his twin staring at him with a dumb look on his face, he scoffed and rolled on his side to face the bedroom door.
"Now you won't be cold, right?" he asked. A gigantic smile spread across his younger brother's face and the next thing he knew, Dante had tackled him from behind and given him one of his famous "teddy bear" hugs. Vergil jumped and squirmed, trying to get Dante to release him.
"Dante!"
"Mmm…You're warm…" Dante mumbled absent-mindedly.
"Let go of me or---" Vergil lost the will to scream at his younger brother when he turned around and saw him already fast asleep. As he gazed at Dante's face, he sighed heavily to himself and snuggled into one of the pillows. He would sleep and let Dante hug him until his mother came home, just this once, he decided. Vergil closed his eyes and suddenly felt very, very exhausted…
"What's this?" Eva wondered when she saw that both of her son's shoes were still neatly in place. She removed her own boots and jacket and walked slowly down the hallway to her children's bedroom.
"Dante? Vergil? Why aren't you at---?"
She blinked as she rounded the corner to the room. Both of them were snoring, sleeping serenely upon Dante's bed, curled up in the blankets. Eva spied the dresser with the miscellaneous items on it and deduced her on conclusion, smiling. After quickly checking Dante's temperature with her hand, she carefully gathered everything back onto the small tray and stood up, chuckling. When they woke up, they would definitely be hungry. Eva decided she would make the two of them some of her home-made pizza and walked out of the room shutting the door gently behind her.
Vergil coughed vigorously after he finished his statement about how stupid Dante was back then for not being able to swallow a pill and the demon hunter took that as his signal to try again. He picked up the tray with one hand and knocked with the other.
"Feel like having some soup now?" he asked.
Silence filled in the space between the two of them for while. Vergil coughed again. "I really don't want any of your soup… get me some medicine instead." he demanded.
"Tch. Whatever you want, bro." Dante strode back to the kitchen sink and dumped the un-touched broth down the drain, snagged a bottle of cold medicine from the cabinet in the bathroom and filled a glass of water for Vergil. Upon opening the door, Dane saw his older brother sitting up in bed wearing his favorite sleeveless outfit and coughing into his hand. Vergil hadn't bothered to push back his hair so he looked exactly like Dante, only with a slightly rosier complexion on his face. Dante tossed the bottle to him and set the water down on the desk beside him. Within a matter of seconds, Vergil downed the pill and slumped back onto his bed, his arm covering his eyes.
"…Thanks."
Dante laughed a little. "No problem." The demon hunter stretched and yawned, staring at the scenery from Vergil's bedroom window. Outside it was snowing, and it was coming down pretty quickly. If any day, today was the perfect day to stay inside and pretend that there weren't any demons to slay. "I think I'm going to hit the sack too." he announced stretching his arms into the air. Vergil choked on his own saliva. He stared bewildered at his younger brother. Dante blinked in confusion.
"What?"
"You aren't seriously thinking about sleeping in the same bed with me are you?" Vergil asked rather hesitantly.
"Hell no!" Dante exclaimed, chuckling at his twin's un-necessary concern. He sighed and dropped the floor with his back against the bed. "I think I'm just going to sleep right here. Somebody has to make sure you don't die." he claimed, closing his eyes and resting his head on the mattress. Vergil laughed.
"Whatever. Do what you want."
The front door of Devil May Cry rattled and opened. Lady, wearing a brand new black leather jacket, stepped into the office as she brushed off the last shivers of the cold and pocketed the keys to her new motorcycle. The bag of groceries she was holding (filled with celebratory items for her return) was dumped on the kitchen table as she peered around. She was half-expecting Dante to be sitting at his desk or playing pool with Vergil or something like that, but she saw no one. Curious, she walked around to the back hallway where Vergil and Dante's rooms were located.
"Hello? Dante? Vergil?" she called. "I'm back!"
She opened the door to Dante's room and found no one, then walked up the hall and rounded a corner to Vergil's open door room. She paused, a little shocked by the scene, but she quickly shrugged it off and leaned against the door frame. They both were sound asleep, Vergil sleeping peacefully on his bed with one arm over his stomach and Dante on the floor, his head titling to the side on the mattress.
Lady grabbed a blanket from Dante's room and laid it gently across the demon hunter's shoulders. She stepped back from the scene and looked towards the kitchen. She decided she would make the three of them supper and prove to Vergil once and for all that she had some feminine qualities (he once claimed that she had no such thing). Holding the doorknob, she glanced smiling at the two of them one more time before heading out.
"Sweet dreams, Sparda brothers." she whispered.
So it's a short fic. More, less? Review?