~You Are An Exception ~

You wake up to tapping on your table, surprised to find the hilt of a familiar katana tapping the table. Suddenly, you were instantly reminded of where you were, and jerk awake, staring up at the stern man with a placid emotion.

“Asleep on the job again. I never understand why Dante hires you at all.” He, dressed up in a neat black button-down tee and fitting jeans, stood before you with strict, hard aquamarine blue eyes and you wondered why he even cared at all.

He never really seemed to care about his brother anyway, so you didn’t understand why he cared about you sleeping on your job. You were sure your boss didn’t exactly care at all.

After all, you, in Dante’s eyes, were only considered a free labor since you were the one who actually went up to Dante and asked for employment. He naturally told you that he had no money to pay, so you took this as a sort of internship. You had wanted –from young –to work as a demon hunter like him, and you had thought the job would be interesting. Killing demons had to speak for something, right?

You were totally wrong. All the famous demon hunter of Devil May Cry tasked for you to do was to guard the office when neither he nor his brother was around, use your own pocket money to pay for his pizzas, and clean up his mess. You weren’t allowed to touch his weapons, and you weren’t allowed to get your own. You trained yourself on the sly, but Dante refused to give tips to help you improve your lousy, self-taught skills.

Sometimes, you wanted to just throw in the towel and tell him you wanted to quit, but something just made you stay. Something you couldn’t name pulled you back every time you thought of leaving, and thus you were stuck here, the gloomy four walls sucking your life away.

“You know what, Vergil? I actually want to quit. In fact, I should do it now.” I replied the stern man standing before the desk, standing up, and making strong resolute to not fall prey to the stupid unnamed feeling.

Vergil snorted rudely, and turned around, as if he didn’t believe you. Vergil didn’t believe anyone easily, but that didn’t prevent you from trying to persuade him. You naturally liked it when people actually trusted you, so when Vergil showed disbelief, your conviction was set on convincing him that you would quit.

“I’m not kidding! I’m going to write the letter to Dante now. I’m quitting.” You insisted, standing up when Vergil began to walk away from the desk, as if he was going to rest his case.

“Congratulations, then. You have officially wasted five years of your life being a nothing behind Dante’s pathetic desk, and learnt nothing as an intern while your friends or anyone your age is out earning millions right now.” Vergil’s voice was so sarcastic you could almost imagine swords forming from his words, piercing right through your skin.

“At least I’m not dragging it longer!” You protested, confidence deflating. What Vergil said had been the truth, but it had been hard, painful truth. You had wasted five years of your youth here, and Dante had given you nothing worth learning. You felt like you wanted Dante to pay, but how could he return you any time lost?

The thought of the years you had wasted made you flare up, but there was nothing you could do. You were pissed at your own stupidity, for having stayed here for so long. Why did it take you so long to realize that you were on a one-way track to be a useless bum like Dante?

“It does not make up for five years gone. What are you going to do if you quit? Find a job? Because I’m so sure a Degree in Martial Arts Studies is really going to get you somewhere when you can’t even hit a fly without trying to feel sorry for it.” The sarcasm in Vergil’s words was almost over the top, but one thing about staying five years under the same roof as this pair of brothers made you immune to their painful digs and insults.

“I’ll do something! At least I’ll get paid!” The only reason why you could be so carefree and live five years without bothering about getting paid or not was that your parents had left this world and left you a large fortune of inheritance, most of which you left one side to pursue your dream of becoming a demon hunter. You knew instinctively that it would have been better off if you approached Lady, but you had wanted to know about the lives of male demon hunters –hunters like Dante and Vergil.

Of course, the prospect of working with Dante had been interesting since Vergil proclaimed that he would never work with anyone. You hadn’t expected Dante to be such a bum, and even so, you hadn’t expected him to refuse to bring you out for even one of his hunts.

“Yes, because going through university to get a degree is going to get you a job as a waitress down at the pizza place Dante loves.” Vergil’s sarcasm was characteristically unfaltering, and you partly hated him for making things so blunt. You knew that you were at the horrible crossroad of your life, in which both led down to horrible roads, but you didn’t need someone as skeptical as Vergil to help you point it out, for you could see it perfectly yourself.

Even though you were already five years into knowing Vergil and Dante, you couldn’t help but feel hurt at those emotionless words. You would think that after five years, Vergil would have come to accept you in his life, grudgingly or not. But at this very moment, you felt as if your five years had really been for nothing, and your presence would not be missed by anyone. Not even Dante or Vergil.

You feel rage at your own stupidity bubble up, gripping your heart in a squeeze. You could not believe that you took so long to see –to see exact how much you were needed here. All you had when you came here was a dream. All you gained here was nothing, and you lost your dream. Buried beneath these two men who kept on baiting you, but showed you nothing at all.

“Fine! You hate me being here, don’t you? I’ll go! You don’t have to tell me all that! I know when I’m not needed!” You shouted, suddenly letting the rage pour forth. You were quitting anyway, weren’t you? It did not hurt to shout at Vergil for the first –and last –time.

Your sudden outburst gave Vergil cause for surprise and you watched as he turned around, eyes with slight surprise and amusement turning to look at you for your spur-of-the-moment insolence.

“If you knew that sooner, you would have left five years ago.” He pointed out, and it was the last straw. You hated the way he always spoke to you like that, like he viewed your presence with contempt, like he loved nothing more than to have you fired from Devil May Cry. You had always hated how he talked to you like you were always lower than him, and that no matter what you did, you would always be the one serving him. You used to take it in biting your lips to stop insults from coming back out, but now you were free. Free from these two men who tortured you, and wasted your youth.

“Well, I’m sorry for being five years late! But you can regret no more, Vergil! I’m leaving now!” You shout your anger at him, and strangely, with those anger came hurt tears. You had initially wanted to write a letter to Dante and make your silent departure, but talking to Vergil, hearing him being unfalteringly sarcastic had been the last straw for you. You did not expect the brothers to see you like their sister, but at least you had expected basic respect for you –even as a fellow secretary-cum-cleaner-cum-servant.

You grab your bag from the side of Dante’s desk, shoving everything on the desk that belonged to you back into your bag. You grab the mug that you had been using for the past five years from the table and slammed it to the floor, letting it shatter with a loud crash. The tears had down made their tracks and you didn’t bother to wipe them away as you continued in your enraged outburst. You threw the letters that you were helping Dante to write –helping him to plead for a longer deadline for his loans and bills –to the floor along with the shattered pieces of porcelain that was once your mug.

“There! I’m done here! I’m never going to clean up for you two pigs again!” You declared fiercely, and before Vergil could say anything about your intense reaction, you ran towards the door, brushing by Vergil roughly as you did so. The door opened before you reached it, and in stepped Dante.

“I’m back-” He announced, but was cut off when you shoved him aside.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” You heard him shout as you ran out the door, down the street and disappeared around the corner. Neither of the brothers chased you.

Back at Devil May Cry, the two infamous demon hunters looked at each other without sharing a single word. The younger twin tried to extort information out of his older brother, but the man with the katana didn’t reply. Shrugging, Dante took off his coat, hung it on the rack, and went to place his sword on its mount, waltz to the couch and spread himself comfortably on its length.

“Whatever happened between you and her; I don’t care. Just say some soft words, get her back here, or I’ll make you take her place.” Dante yawned as he spoke to his brother, and without waiting for Vergil to say another word, the man turned his back on his twin. All too soon, snores erupted from the demon hunter.

Vergil took a look at the mess on the floor, and then thought back on everything that he had said to you. He admits that he had been feeling under the weather when he woke you up from sleep, but he was perplexed by your reaction too. Your reaction, to him, was too explosive to be part of your character. Vergil had always studied you carefully, when you didn’t think he was caring at all about you. He had always watched as you bantered with Dante, studying the limits Dante could pursue until you began to get irritated. He had studied you when you set to your work, no matter how degrading a work Dante put for you.

Heck, he had even wondered why you let yourself go through everything, just to be a demon hunter. Vergil held silent admiration for you for your determination, but Vergil was no expressive man. The way he wanted to help, the only way he could help –in his opinion –was to chase you away from the doors of Devil May Cry.

When you proclaimed that you wanted to quit, he didn’t believe his luck. He had been trying to do that for the past three years, and you had deflected his hints and sarcasm with no problem. At first, he started out with subtle hints, but when he saw that you ignored it all, he began on outright sarcasm. You had not given quitting a single thought, and you took it that Vergil didn’t like you –or your presence here. To help you, Vergil was willing to put up with that.

Or so he thought. When he saw your angry tears when you shouted at him –for the first time –he had suddenly regretted his determination to drive you away. You had always been gentle to him, even when he insulted you outright or made distinct proclamations that he didn’t want you around. But you had shouted at him today, and it made him feel horrible inside –a feeling Vergil never thought he would feel at all.

Vergil stepped to the mess that you had made on the ground, picking up the porcelain piece of what used to be your mug. He had known you so well that he knew which was the area where you always drank from, and took extra care to pick it all up. As he did so, a jagged edge caught him on the forefinger, and the sudden pin-prick of pain came as a jolt to him.

As if he had just woken up, Vergil stared at his already-healing finger, staring at the red bead of blood resting on his fingertip. He watched as the red liquid roll down the side of his finger, and was immediately reminded by your tears rolling down your face.

He suddenly knew what to do.

Vergil straightened, left his sword on the desk, and ran out of the office, in search for you.

He found you afterwards at a nearby café, where you were staring absently at your cup of coffee, wondering what it was that you had done out of impulse. You were officially jobless now, and you knew you should start looking for a job. But the memory of how you left still left a haunting image in you, and you didn’t know how to escape from that. You weren’t even aware of the arrival of the half-devil spawn of Sparda until he stopped and took a seat across you.

You looked up, and jerked when you saw him staring down hard at you.

“You are stupid for having left like that. Now we have no one to clean up that mess.” He stated blandly, and you stared at him, not sure if he was here to kill you, or just to tell you that it was a mistake for you to throw your temper at him.

“Then get someone else.” You tried to say fiercely, but you sounded mousy and weak.

“He wants only you.”

“Who?”

“Dante.”

“Impossible.”

“He wants you back.” Vergil insisted, but you shook your head.

“I don’t want to go back. I’m not doing anything there, and I’m not going to waste my life anymore. I’m going to find a job, make sure I have a stable life, and start on my dream again.”

He stares at you for a very long time.

“I’ll help you.”

“What?”

“You heard me. I’ll help you.”

“Help me what? Waste my life again? Help me see how ruined I am in life? You don’t have to, Vergil. I can see it for myself.” You reply bitterly, remembering how ruthless he had in replying you back in Devil May Cry.

“I’ll help you achieve your dream.” He corrected, face still expressionless.

You laugh humorlessly. “You don’t have to play around with me. I refuse to be toyed by you or your brother again.”

“I am not toying with you. I am serious.”

“I am serious too. I know you will never do it. You don’t work with anyone, you don’t teach anyone.”

He merely stood up, still holding on to your eye contact. He reached out a hand, offering to you.

Suddenly, you saw a different side of Vergil you had never seen before. You should have seen this side three years ago, when he first decided to help you out. Instead, you had always been blind to this side of Vergil. But this time, you saw him perfectly.

You saw the man for what he wanted to do. He wanted to help you.

“You are an exception.”