I Submit No Excuse

I wrote this a while back for a fiction challenge. One song, three thematically connected drabbles, precisely 100 words each.

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Is this the way a toy feels when its batteries run dry?
I am the watch you always wear but you forget to wind

Dante stood outside his shop with the new sign, thinking bitter thoughts. Virgil had finally done it, hadn't he? Their lifelong rivalry was over. Dante had won, by virtue of being the one left standing. Funny how it felt like he'd lost, then. His body ached with the desire to turn to his twin with a serrated smile and tell him so. But Virgil was gone. No more rivalry. No more fights. No more someone who'd always understand without words.

He wondered if Virgil had known what they were throwing away. Why'd he named the shop after that fucker, anyway?

I submit no excuse
If this is what I have to do
I owe you every day I wake
If I could I would shrink myself
And sink through your skin to your blood cells
And remove whatever makes you hurt
But I am too weak to be your cure

Dante avoided the bathroom mirror. Since Temen-Ni-Gru, he'd found that he hated mirrors. He hated seeing his reflection. It was empty, nothing but an illusion. Hollow, just like Virgil's eyes the last time he'd seen him. Just like Dante's, ever since. He understood a little better now. What had his brother lost? Was it their mother? What had Virgil been so afraid of that he'd gone to such extremes? Dante wished he could have done something. In some obscure way, he knew Virgil had died for him. If only he'd been stronger, understood sooner…maybe his twin could've trusted him then.

I'm not letting you check out
You will beat this starting now
And you will always be around
I'm there to monitor your breathing
I will watch you while you're sleeping
I will keep you safe and sound

Falling, Virgil saw in Dante's eyes that his twin thought this was death. Reaching, trying to catch him… That's why Virgil was doing this. Dante didn't understand. Still so naïve, he needed a guardian angel. Others dismissed the Prince of Hell's return as myth, but Sparda's sons hadn't that luxury. If Virgil couldn't take Sparda's power to defy their father's enemy, then he would use guile. Dante would be waiting, he knew, when the time came. Between the two of them, they would make an end to this. He just had to ensure his brother was alive to see it.

Does anybody remember back when you were very young?
Did you ever think that you would be this blessed?