A/N: My friend has been begging me to write this for the longest time, and I just finally gave in. So you can all thank her for this little one-shot. Enjoy!
Warnings: brief language, suggestive themes, slight Dante/Nero(YAOI)
Un-beta'd: I have no beta-reader. I proofread my work myself (if I have time), which means it is possible that I may miss mistakes. Please point any mistakes out that you see so that I can fix them.
To be updated?: No, this is a one-shot.
Disclaimers: I do not own Devil May Cry, its characters, environments, etc. I make no money from this story.
Dedicated to the friend who begged me to do this and, thus, made me write something.
Frosty eyes pinned Lady with a piercing glare, harboring a grudge. She fingered nimbly through a wad of crisp bills, counting each hundred as she pondered what sum to award Dante for all his hard work. The devil hunter was sick of taking all her shitty jobs. It wasn't that she was simply too lazy to do some jobs herself that annoyed him but how little she paid him. He used to bear her avariciousness because of the debt he supposedly owed her, but Dante had already paid that debt in full. Lady knew this, too, because she had been the very one to inform Dante when he finally handed her the final bill. And, yet, she continued to count out his "earned percentage" of the pay he made from her jobs. He was seriously considering never accepting another job offer from the greedy little harpy.
"What?" Lady asked, her voice strangely calm as her heterochromatic eyes became questioning. Dante seldom replied, for he was too busy nibbling on his half cold slice of pizza and analyzing the rare emotion in her eyes. It was a look the man received far too often to be oblivious as to what it meant. Lust—there was a dark and almost unsettling desire in her eyes. It was almost violent as if she had restrained herself for far too long, hovering on the edge of losing control. Dante couldn't think of a single argument to justify Lady ever feeling such a thing toward him. He thought that window in their relationship had been nailed shut years ago, but the halfbreed couldn't deny he was at least a tad curious, if not interested.
When Lady dropped the cash she was counting back into the briefcase and plucked an empty beer bottle resting next to her from his desk, Dante concealed the curiosity he felt. He watched as she twisted the bottle in her hand, scrutinizing it as if weighing a decision in her head. He half expected her to chuck it at him; the vixen was very prone to mood swings. Instead, she pushed herself up from her perch on the edge of the halfbreed's desk and sauntered into the middle of the room.
"I'm bored," she announced, garnering the attention of Trish, who was perched on the edge of Dante's recently purchased pool table he had bought to replace the one he destroyed in a demon ambush. The she-devil seemed to marvel her pink painted nails before tossing the long locks of blond that draped over her shoulder behind her. Her silver eyes fell on Lady, and she quirked a brow.
"And what do you plan to do with that?" queried the blond devil. Lady smirked at her and shook the bottle in her hand.
"How about we play a rousing game of spin the bottle?" she drawled, drawing the surprised attention of everyone in the room including Nero, who had been previously too distracted by polishing Red Queen's blade to notice anything else. His younger eyes were owlish, full of curiosity, Dante could tell, but also apprehension. As usual, he remained silent, waiting to see how Dante and Trish would respond to Lady's bold suggestion.
"That," the halfbreed began, tossing the half-eaten slice of pizza back into the open box by his feet and sliding his crossed boots from the surface of his desk, "sounds like a wonderful idea."
Lady watched Trish expectantly, prompting the blond for an answer. She finally shrugged, sliding from the mahogany edge of the billiards table.
"Anything to pass the time is fine with me," she stated matter-of-factly. Lady smiled triumphantly.
"Good," she chirped. "Then, everyone, get your asses over here. And that means you, Nero."
Nero shrugged and placed Red Queen to his side nonchalantly as if he hadn't expected to be included in the others' game, though Dante could see the slight pinkness in his cheeks even in the dark shadow that was cast on the corner where he sat. Both men rose near simultaneously to sit in a ring on Dante's dirty floor. Nero sat straight across from Trish and Lady from Dante as if it would increase the chance of her spin landing on him. Her hand hovered over the bottle as her eyes frantically scanned the floor around it, trying to plan the trajectory of her spin without being completely obvious. Dante wanted to smirk at the plan he knew she must have thought clever. He briefly wondered why she didn't just come on to him like the adult she was, but it then dawned on the half-devil that that would be admitting she wanted him. Lady would shoot herself in the foot before she would ever even imply such a thing.
"Here, Nero," Lady finally said, "you spin first." Lady rolled the bottle to Nero as if it had been scolding her hand, and the younger hunter caught it with a concealed glint of excitement in his eyes. Dante stifled a chuckle. The huntress needed to watch the bottle in action before she could ensure the accuracy of her spin. She's afraid she'll miss me.
Nero seemed to swallow nervously before he quickly twisted and released the bottle between his pointer and thumb, the claws of his Devil Bringer clinking on the glass as removed his hand. Everyone's eyes were glued to the bottle as it spun on the floor, becoming slower and slower until it finally stopped and everyone could breathe again. Whether it was fortune or misfortune was subjective, but their circle was so wide that the butt and rim of the bottle both pointed at empty spaces. No one bothered to question if the rules allowed such a thing to be disregarded or if the people closest to being chosen were to kiss anyway. The room was deathly silent until Lady sighed slightly shakily and reached for the bottle again.
"My turn," she declared in a singsong voice, though it was more void of emotion than anything else. She was resolute, dead set on spinning Dante that turn. Her hand fell on the bottle, and she positioned her hand to give it a twirl before Trish spoke up and froze her in place.
"Why don't we make this more interesting?" Trish proposed. Dante's interest was clearly piqued as he quirked a brow and his blue eyes shifted in her direction.
"You wanna bet," responded Lady, her voice not at all questioning. She knew Trish well enough to know that was what she wanted.
"Exactly," said the she-devil, her pink lips curling into a ghost of a smirk.
"What's your bet then, babe?" asked Dante, using his nickname for both ladies that had become banal long ago.
"Hmm," Trish hummed, thinking of the perfect bet to spice things up. She tapped her chin with a pink fingernail all the while.
"I got one," interrupted Dante, drawing every pair of eyes in the room. For that very reason, the devil took time for a dramatic pause. "I'll bet you girls half of the cash in that case that you won't kiss if the bottle tells ya' to."
"Fair enough," Trish answered. "Then we bet the same for you boys… Right, Lady?" The blond turned to Lady for confirmation, and the huntress made rather quick work of debating whether or not she wanted to chance having to give up that much money.
"Deal," Lady finally replied. She readied the bottle again for her spin, taking enough to time to predict when it would stop before she finally spun it. It whistled as it rotated around, the room growing tenser the slower it twirled. Lady had been utterly confident in her anticipation of the results, but her face fell when she realized she had clearly miscalculated. Nero's dismayed eyes looked like they would pop out of his head.
"No fucking way," the young man blurted without a thought. "Un-fucking-believable."
"You better believe it, kid," Dante breathed, " 'cause it just happened."
"There is no way I'm kissing you," Nero declared plainly, shaking his head.
"C'mon, Nero, I need that money."
"Never."
"Pretty please?"
"Go blow yourself, old man."
"I'll pay you."
"…How much?" Nero asked, narrowing his eyes at the hunter.
"30 percent," offered Dante.
"40," Nero demanded.
"35?"
"45."
"Ah, c'mon!"
"Do you want me to keep raising it?" Nero challenged to which Dante sighed.
"Fine, 45 percent. Now let's get this over with."
Nero tried to hide his blush as he crawled toward Dante, the hunter rising from leaning on his hip to kneeling on the cement. He could feel the huntress's eyes boring holes into him, and it did nothing to alleviate the coil of nervous excitement in his gut. Nero waited for Dante to move first. He had never actually played spin the bottle, only heard of it. He wasn't sure if he was supposed to place his hand on the back of Dante's head or what-not. He was sure that would make him look way too into it anyway, but the younger man was still unsure if the rules of the game addressed it. It clearly didn't matter as Dante braced his palms of the floor and leaned forward. Nero simply propped himself up by his fists on the floor, waiting for the other hunter's lips to meet his own.
When he finally felt the slightly chapped softness of Dante's lips brush against his own, Nero was nearly shaking with anticipation. The part-devil barely suppressed a gasp, refusing to look like the skittish little virgin of the group. Dante's tongue tapped his bottom lip ever so politely, and Nero parted his lips without remembering that no one had ever said they had to use their tongues. Nero felt Dante's slick muscle plunge into his mouth, prodding and exploring his mouth. A shameful moan almost escaped his throat, but the younger hunter managed to turn it into a sigh instead. He fleetingly hoped it hadn't sounded too dreamy, but Dante didn't give him long to worry when he tilted his head to reach even deeper inside the part-devil's mouth. Nero surprised himself when he sucked the other's tongue without a thought. Nero felt his cheeks heat up when the way the older man was almost thrusting his tongue into his mouth made him feel like his face was being fucked. Something about that thought made him shiver, though the images it evoked made the younger man nauseous. Or, at least, he wanted them to.
The two hunters finally pulled apart with a wet suck, panting air back into their lungs. Nero mused that they must have kissed a lot longer than he thought, for he felt as if he had just been drowning. He didn't want to look at Lady or Trish for fear of becoming even more embarrassed than he already was, but the piercing stare Dante was giving him was far less comforting. When Nero diverted his eyes, Dante did the same after licking Nero's taste from his lips. Trish was nearly smirking, though she seemed to be trying to hide it. Lady, on the other hand, appeared shocked. Dante had to smirk at the slight redness in her face. He knew what that meant.
"I believe you owe us some money, Lady," Dante drawled, breaking both the tension and the silence that had settled in the room. Lady's face soon became slightly exasperated and rife with disappointment. She pushed herself up from the floor and made her way over to the briefcase atop Dante's desk. It didn't take her long in her blooming anger to separate the wads of bills into two halves. She closed her own remaining half in the briefcase before turning to stomp begrudgingly for the door.
"Come on, Trish," she demanded as if said blond were her child. Trish, who would have stayed in Dante's guestroom, shrugged, figuring staying at Lady's apartment would be more comfortable and less filthy. Dante smirked widely and was at his desk in a minute, whistling in appreciation of the cash wadded atop his desk. Nero was still rubbing his nose to hide the blush on his cheeks when the door slammed behind the girls. Outside, the late autumn air was cold as death, but Lady was fuming enough to keep both her and Trish warm.
"I hate him," muttered the vixen like a petulant child. Trish uttered that warm and oddly motherly chuckle of hers, nearly prompting Lady to fly into a rage. "What?" she snapped.
"If you really want him that bad, why don't you just tell him?" questioned the blond, and Lady seemed insulted by what she seemed a rude assumption.
"What? !" she nearly screamed, though she was careful not to raise her voice enough for the two men inside to hear as the women still hadn't left the stoop. "Why in the Hell would you think I want someone like Dante?"
Trish sniffed, clearly humored. "Whatever… But you do know we were playing it wrong the entire time, right?"
"What?" blurted Lady, going from irritated to baffled in a split-second.
"Yes," Trish clarified. "They weren't supposed to kiss. It doesn't matter where the end of the bottle points. If we were really following the rules, you would have had to kiss me."
"Seriously?" Lady whined. "I bet that dog knew that, too!"
Trish watched with raised brows as the brunette whirled around to tug at the door handles. She bared her teeth when the door resisted.
"Yep, he's already locked the fucking doors!" Lady kicked the door, and Trish was thankful that her boots were steel-toed. She quickly went to drag Lady away, however, when she saw the huntress was about to blast down the doors. After all, Lady had taken money from her before, too. She truly sympathized with Dante.
"Come on, Lady. Just leave it. I'm exhausted."
Lady sighed, turning from the face of Devil May Cry to join Trish for their walk to her apartment. "So I guess you're shacking up with me tonight?"
"Well, considering that I'm locked out, I guess so," replied the blond in that gentle form of sarcasm she had mastered.
"Whatever—just don't think you're sleeping in my bed."
Trish chuckled not only at Lady's curt remark but at Dante's gleeful cackling she could still hear as they headed down the sidewalk.