This oneshot is dedicated to the lovely MarinaEverlasting,who is an awesome writer and a good friend ^^ I hope that this is decent, it's kind of the first time I ever write these two interacting together like this.

Title: Gratitude to the Ungrateful.
Timeline: Three years after DMC3. AU where Vergil returns to the human world.
Characters/Pairings: Vergil, Lady and finally, Dante.
Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Friendship?
Summary: Dante was the reason they didn't like each other, but he was also the reason that made them acknowledge each other eventually.

Gratitude to the Ungrateful

The moment Lady saw the older Sparda twin in the Devil May Cry, she shot him.

Vergil, of course, was not amused by such act, so he unsheathed Yamato and Lady aimed Kalina at him in response.

If Dante didn't get between them a second after, Lady would've been sliced to tiny pieces and the shop would've been reduced to ruins.

"We need to talk," Lady said, sending death glares to Vergil who, in return, sneered at her.

"Why is he here?" Lady couldn't believe that Dante was letting him stay at his shop, couldn't believe that he even put any amount of trust in him after what he did in the past.

But Dante just smiled at her, assuring her that she had no reason to worry. "He's still a cold bastard, but he's Vergil."

But he hurt you! Lady wanted to protest in return, but she kept her mouth shut; saying it would just remind Dante of old sorrows.

So she just sighed and nodded in acceptance, and left the shop after telling Dante about a job she had for him.

Dante might be convincing himself that Vergil turned sides because he wanted his family back, but Lady wouldn't trust that bastard.

I'm not letting you hurt him again, she vowed.

As the times passed by, the grudge between her and Vergil deepened even more. Every time Lady visited the shop, she would exchange hateful glares with him until Dante would finally get sick of both of them and decide to cut off their hate-fest.

"I'm getting tired of this shit." He would sigh, not that any of the two gave him any attention, for they would start insulting each other at that point.

Things between them didn't change.

Until one day, Lady burst through the doors of Devil May Cry, looking clearly troubled.

"What do you know about the Dead Zone?" she immediately asked him, face deathly pale and hands shaking.

It didn't take long for Vergil to know what happened.

Dante...

The Dead Zone was some sort of a demonic prison used to seal off powerful demons who couldn't be easily killed. It was a dimension that only one kind of demons called The Zonias knew the way of.

That was what Vergil informed her of when she asked what he was looking for in one of the forbidden libraries he liked so much.

"It's your fault," Vergil coldly accused, skimming through a spell book with blinding speed.

Lady didn't want to hear that; she was already tired from the guilt that was weighing her down ever since Dante pushed her out of that Zonias's spell range, so she muttered quietly, "Shut up..."

"There's a reason why I told Dante to stay away from humans and not get attached to them; they're weak..."

She really didn't want to hear it. "Shut up..."

"They will only hurt you and use you to survive."

She rose up from her seat and pressed her gun at his chest. "Don't you dare compare me to you! You're the one who wanted to use him for your mad quest! You're the one who nearly killed him! You're the one who rejected his attempt at saving you! You're the one who strolled back into his life expecting to be forgiven after everything you did!"

His eyes looked pained as he gazed silently at her for a seemingly endless amount of time before he finally whispered, "You won't understand..." and walked away.

"I understand enough. You hurt him," she called out after him, causing him to stop for a moment.

"I know," he replied, and continued walking to another section of the library.

After a long while, Vergil found what he was looking for. He quickly started doing the summoning of the Zonias, not bothering to tell his annoying companion about it. It didn't take long for a black fog carrying sinister whispers along with it to appear around him.

"My, what a surprise!" the demon exclaimed upon seeing him, "I didn't expect to ever see a Sparda summoning me, how delightful~!"

However, Vergil didn't have time for chit-chat. "Open the Dead Zone," he ordered, pressing the sharp edge of Yamato on the demon's neck.

"And why would I ever do that? Isn't this what you wanted all along?" the demon asked, looking utterly amused despite being threatened. "Your brother took everything you wanted from you, your mother's love, your father's power..."

"Isn't better if he was out of the way? Forever...?"

"No..." Vergil replied slowly.

"Are you sure? You can pretend that he doesn't even exist. You won't have to live with the guilt anymore."

"He said no the first time, are you deaf or something?" a female voice asked, and Vergil realized that Lady was there and pointing a gun at the demon's head. "According to this book I have here, it's not necessary to wait for you to open the Dead Zone, we could just kill you and the gate will open itself."

"But you do realize that my kind are not going to take this lightly if you do that," the Zonias tried to reason.

"We'll manage." Vergil smirked before he killed him.

It took three hours of fighting an army of The Zonias, another two to navigate their rather confusing realm to get to where Dante was held captive.

The bastard was sleeping all this time.

"Why do I even bother?" Vergil asked himself out loud, causing Lady to laugh at him.

"So, why did you say no?" Lady asked, dragging the still sleeping Dante to the shop (Vergil refused to carry him because the drool would ruin his *stolen* fancy coat).

"Who will pay the rent if I said otherwise?" he asked in return.

Lady translated this in her mind to: I love him, he's family and I'm a cold-hearted bastard who won't ever admit that.

"Sure..." she said instead, opting not to voice her thoughts.

"You're alright," Vergil suddenly said after a moment of silence, "you're one of the few humans that I won't dream of murdering at night."

Lady didn't know whether to be flattered or terrified. "Uh, thanks?" She was confused when he stopped.

"No, thank you," he smiled a real smile for once, and Lady was amazed at how he and his brother looked like each other at that moment, "for being his friend."

Lady just smiled in return after getting the shock of what just happened.

"And thank you for being his brother."

"Lady."

"Yes?"

"You will forget about this conversation ever existing."

"Okay..."

"I mean it, one word to Dante and I swear I'll murder you."

"You're not good at talking to people, are you?"

"Pizza again? When are you going to change your disgusting eating habits?" Vergil asked.

"I agree. Can't you switch to something else, Dante?" Lady said.

Dante blinked as both his brother and best friend lectured him, wondering what the hell was happening.

Okay, when I asked for the two of them to get along, I didn't mean this.