Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own any of the Devil May Cry characters in this fiction, if I did, Kyrie would have died in the first ten minutes of the game, very brutally and with lots of blood, Dante and Nero would be together...and Vergil would be shirtless in the third game...and Arkham would wear a frilly princess dress for my entertainment.

Rated Mature for Blood, Gore, Language, Angst, Future Hot Man Sex, and Fluff.

Happy Holidays, everyone~! I love December. It's my favorite month. ^-^

Hope you enjoy this and the holidays~!

Chapter One: Let it Snow

The cool air stilled over the small city as the night sky loomed overhead. The black streetlights flickering on as dusk swallowed the day, illuminating the stone streets and few areas of construction dimly. Not many people were out and about at the hour, making the city as quiet and dull as usual. Not a decoration littered the buildings even with it being the first days of December, the city not having any real holidays besides the festival of the sword.

The devil hunter sighed deeply, not understanding why he had to come in the first place if there was no reason to in the city's eyes.

It had all started out innocent.

It was a simple mission by the docks where the ferries departed for the small islands off shore. It was the dead of winter, snow fell in such heavy sheets that it was nearly impossible to drive in the icy weather. The mission had turned out to be only a few Frosts that had taken to nesting by the warm sea, nothing to difficult to take care of and the pay was not too bad. It was when the old ferryman had offered a free trip on one of the ferries in the 'spirit of the holidays', he had said, that the innocence started to break. A free ride to one of the warmer islands did not sound bad with the melting snow piling thick inside the bottom of his black boots, so he accepted it.

Only a day later had Dante found himself in the cool air of Fortuna, leaning on a streetlamp outside of a closing cafe that sat on the corner of an intersection. He pinched the bridge of his nose, knowing that he should not have come to the city but he could not help it. He would have been alone back at the office, Lady and Trish having left for warmer weather together at his expense so it only felt fair that he leave for somewhere a bit warmer as well. That was what Dante wanted himself to believe, the truth being that it was not much warmer than back at the office on the island despite the lack of snow on the ground. No. He had wanted to see Nero again.

The last time the two had spoken to each other was several months ago on the very same day they had met but Dante could not get his mind off the younger man. He found himself wondering how the ex-order member was when he sat behind his desk, never seeing the magazine he held in front of him as he recalled the all conversations and fights he had with the punk from Fortuna. Dante found himself actually missing Nero and that had led him to taking the offer of the trip to Fortuna without hesitation. The devil hunter felt like an ass the second he had stepped foot on Port Caerula. It had been far too long since he had been on the island. What if Nero had forgotten him? The last pestering thought that made Dante wonder if he had enough money to leave the island that night was that even though he was alone during the holidays, that did not mean Nero was. He still had that girl from the Savior incident and Dante visiting may bring back a few unwanted memories for the red haired girl. He never did like that girl very much but he really did not want to make things harder for the younger man.

Dante sighed and straightened himself from leaning against the streetlight, moving to head back to the docks as he made his decision. He stopped as a shimmer of sliver caught the corner of his eye, turning his head to see what it belonged to. A smile tugged at the corner of his lips as he saw the familiar dark blue denim coat and jeans, the silver hair brushing against a large sword on the back of the coat the same length he remembered it being. The older devil hunter was elated to see the younger slayer but he still did not call out to him, not wanting to startle the other man with his sudden return. Instead, Dante followed him as Nero crossed the intersection and headed in the opposite direction of the elder man.

That's when it started. It was not intentional, but soon the older man found himself stalking Nero.

Dante buried his hands inside his crimson leather coat's pockets as he felt the temperature drop a few more degrees, ignoring the visible puffs of heat exiting his lungs and into the cold air as he watched the younger man walking away from him nearly half a block away. Nero was wearing his normal hunting gear, a navy scarf wrapped tightly around his neck as he tried to look as if the cold did not effect him in the slightest. The older man let a small smile cross his lips as he noticed a shiver that made it past Nero's facade even from the long distance.

In the past few days, Dante had learned a lot about the younger man. From the location of the shabby apartment the ex-order member lived in to Nero's apparent fascination with Chinese food, the elder had seen it all. Today, he was following the other man back from a small hunt of a few fire demons seeking a warmer environment to reside in for the winter. Unfortunately, Nero had found them and quickly dispatched them before they could even make a nest near the edge of the city. The younger man had stopped by his favorite restaurant afterward before heading on the repetitive route back to his apartment in the quietest part of the city, holding a bag containing dumplings sprinkled with garlic chives and a new mixture of noodles each day he went to the restaurant. Dante could see the steam of the hot meal floating slowly out of the top of the bag just before Nero turned down a small street that lead to his apartment building.

The older hunter stopped at the corner and waited about two minutes before turning the corner himself, stepping up to the first building on the right. He counted the windows, quickly finding the fourth one on the first floor and ducking beside it before Nero could enter the single bedroom. Dante sat under the windowsill, listening to the soft click and seeing the flood of light flow through the small window into the dusk lit world. A sigh and rustle of the bag the meal sat in could be heard through the old stuck window, a small crack that could not be closed in the bottom allowing Dante to hear everything easily but made the cheap apartment nearly freezing in the winter. It worried the older hunter that, by the way the younger man was living, he was poorer than he was and that was saying something with how Trish and Lady mooched as much money off of the elder as possible.

Dante leaned back against the wall as he heard a few thunks and the small television inside the bedroom finally click on, odd notes of a holiday song filling the room before the ex-order member was flicking through the limited news channels for any sign of unusual events that may have been demon activity. He listened for a few moments, knowing that Nero was enjoying his dinner without looking as he just listened to the younger slayer living his somewhat normal life. The elder closed his eyes, thinking that he should probably start heading back to the inn he was staying in before nightfall but he did not want to leave the younger man's side just yet. He would head back after Nero fell asleep, get a few hours of sleep while waiting for the ex-order member to wake up at seven and be back following him around eight in the morning.

He gave a soft start as he suddenly felt a small cold touch on his forearm, opening his eyes to see a small flake of ice slowly melting on his skin. Glancing up, he saw a few others falling gently from the darkening dusk sky. A gasp came from inside the apartment, making Dante draw up his legs out of sight as the younger man approached the window.

"Snow? That's unusual. The last time it really snowed here was fifteen years ago." Nero muttered under his breath, just barely loud enough for Dante to hear. A few minutes past in silence before the older hunter heard a chair move across the cheap carpet inside the apartment, knowing that Nero had moved it so he could watch the snow easily. Dante glanced up, taking a small risk as he shifted to see the younger man's face. He took in the sight of the small and almost shy smile on Nero's lips, noticing just how much he liked that expression on the young slayer's face. The elder smiled back even when he could not let Nero see it, leaning back again and deciding that it would not hurt too much to sleep outside the window for a night. So long as he could see that look on the cute man's face for most of the night.

It was nearly pitch black by the time Dante stirred from his light sleep outside the window, the light flooding out from the apartment being the only way the devil hunter could see. He straightened himself, shifting his legs under the light blanket of snow that had collected onto him before carefully peering up to see if the younger man was still there. His breath caught in his throat at the sight just inside the window.

Nero rested his right cheek lightly on the makeshift pillow of his arms, his soft breath puffing out through the crack in the window and faded into a white cloud of sleep. The fiery eyes that had once glared hard in his direction enough for him to feel it, were closed in a deep relaxation, the soft eyelashes resting against the nearly flawless pale skin under them. The gray-blue nightshirt the younger man had changed into went well with the silver shimmer of his hair as he shifted and brushed his cheek gently against his arm in order to warm it and gain a more comfortable position.

Dante swallowed the lump that had somehow made its way into his throat, slowly moving to stand before looking at the ex-order member a bit closer. He let himself take in the sight until he could easily remember it even when those eyes were glaring at him again, a smile forming on his lips before he decided to take another risk. Carefully, he slipped his fingers through the small crack in the window, touching the pale skin of the other hunter's human arm. Dante's smile faded slightly at the freezing feel of the skin, a bit of worry making itself known as he wondered if Nero would wake before he could get frostbite. He let his fingers linger a bit longer than he intended on the younger man before finally withdrawing and slowly walking back to the inn he was staying in.

He knew he should have stopped stalking Nero. The cold wind that whipped against him while he followed the younger hunter and the freezing snow that covered him as he watched the other man inside his apartment seemed to try and force him to stop but in the back of his mind, he rebelled against the cold storms. He should have stopped and headed back to the office to spend Christmas at a bar somewhere in the sleazy city he lived in, spend the holidays watching the women strip at Love Planet or New Years at the Bullseye bar downing drink after drink on someone else's tab. But none of those appealed as much as spending time learning about the little punk from Fortuna. Before Dante could stop it, before he could even recognize it, he was enraptured by the little fireball that managed to keep him warmer in the chilled air without even knowing he was there.