Part 12

“Hey, get your lazy ass out of this god-forsaken place!” I whacked the head of white hair a good one on the head, standing beside him with a hand on my waist to show that I wasn’t playing around.

I was having another rare day off, and this time was even more precious because Trish had nothing lined up for the day. Lady had specially dropped over our place to give us an all-important mission –to drag Dante’s ass away from the office on a job. Trish and I agreed that we needed to spend today, a very important day, to gossip about everything that we’d missed between us, and there was no place better than to do it at Dante’s office, where we could leech off his never-ending stock of beer and order pizzas, placed on his bill.

That explained why both Trish and I were here, waiting for the lazy bum to get his ass moving so we could start our gossip session.

“No. I’m sleeping in today and that’s final.” Dante shifted, turning his back on me, cuddling against the hard high-back chair as if he was going to just fall asleep in that uncomfortable position.

“Hell no. Final is when you have your ass out there. Go.” I protested, trying to push him off the chair, but Dante wasn’t a half-demon for a reason as he resisted my strength like it was nothing. I tried hitting him, but he just swiped it off and continued to ignore me. I would have doubted anyone could fall asleep with the disturbance I was raining down on him, but this was Dante we were talking about. He could sleep spontaneously quite literally anywhere, in any uncomfortable position.

“Maybe you need a little encouragement from my guns, Dante?” Trish asked from where she sat at the couch, watching me puke metaphorical blood amusedly.

Sometimes, I wonder why I even bother talking to Dante. Coming here to Limbo had really made me see the futility of Dante’s life How was it possible that this man was the exact same man that I fell in love with while I watched him through my television screen?

How could I rely on this man to get me back home? The futility of getting him to do anything was casting serious doubts on my determination to get home, but I wasn’t about to let it affect me too much at the moment. I needed to stay positive here.

“Maybe you need encouragement from Rebellion to get your and Leah’s ass out of here, Trish.” Dante growled, still refusing to open his eyes as he grumbled.

“Trish, just lend me the god-damned guns!” I gave up trying to push him from the seat, giving him a final kick at his side to feel a little satisfied. The man in topic merely just rubbed the sore spot for a short while, then returned to his uncomfortable position as I stalked away.

I was making back for Trish, but I found something even better on the way to her. Ebony and Ivory sat on their stands beside where Rebellion was resting on the mount on the wall. I ran there and grabbed Ebony, feeling a comfortable weight sitting in the palm of my hand. Trish laughed softly at the evil look in my eye and I positioned myself standing right in front of where Dante faced.

“Oh, Dante sweet darling.” I called in a sickly honeyed voice, as if I were a hooker calling him to bed. “Look at what baby I’ve got here.”

He stirred a little, and I could see he was trying to fight against his urge to open his eyes and interrupt his sleep. He lost his fight with his instincts, because his eyes opened quickly afterwards, widening quickly when he saw the barrel of his own gun staring back at him.

“You little bitch!” Dante exclaimed, reaching forward for his gun to wrench it from my grasp, but I had stepped a safe distance away from him so that he would just narrowly miss me no matter how hard he tried to reach -unless he wanted to fall out of the chair, that is.

“Now, be a good boy, Dante, and go.” I taunted like a pet owner speaking to her dog.

Dante didn’t even give any sign. True to his half-demonic speed, he lunged towards me so fast that I couldn’t even react in time. His hands pushed me down and I found myself pinned on the floor with his hands holding my wrists down to the floor, his weight on me and his legs straddling me. A triumphant look dominated his face, but I tried my best not to notice how close his crotch was to rubbing against my leg.

“Get off me, Dante!” I struggled against his grip, but he is not a half-demon for no reason. Seemingly to revel in his newfound position of power, he leaned closer to me and purposefully blew a breath of pizza and beer in my face.

“Not if you promise to get your ass out of here and stop annoying me. If not, I’ll treat you so bad that you’ll be running away from me in fear the next time.” He whispered, and I tried not to think how erotic it was to have him whispering, his breath brushing my neck as he deliberately made his intimate move on me, dipping his face to the crook of my neck as he just let his breath brush my sensitive skin.

“Get off, you perverted creep!” I yelled, struggling harder, but my desperation was probably more turn-on for him. Dante was never really one who used his sexuality to sidetrack a woman, but I guess he would resort to anything if he knew it would get him away from working. I never really expected him to try seducing me, but I must admit that I was getting thoroughly seduced.

“Hey, are you guys doing a quickie behind the desk? I don’t hear moans yet.” Trish’s amused voice drifted from where she sat, and I groaned with the exasperation of having my best friend teasing me about this. Trish knew of my initial crazy attraction to Dante. She would be teasing me about this to no end, I swear.

“What if I do as Trish suggests? Maybe you’ll stop annoying me.” Dante ventured, his hot breath brushing my ear now in a strangely super-erotic movement. He hadn’t even tried to make contact with his lips yet, and I was starting to feel really hot. Damn, I was really bad at this.

For my defense, not many people were so upfront in seducing me so I had very low tolerance for this kind of thing.

“Maybe I’ll just ram my knee into your balls and crush them to tiny bits.” I tried to threaten, but I was starting to get breathless. I hoped Dante’s half-demonic hearing did not include hearing blood rushing, because I most definitely was having a blood rush right now.

“You wouldn’t want to. You’ll be amazed at the size it can get, especially inside you.” Dante replied, leaning in closer, and I bit my bottom lip to stop the moan from escaping my lips. Dante really needed to stop being so…

I couldn’t complete the mind-thought before the pressure holding me down stopped and I blinked to see Vergil looking down at me with his usual poker face. I was pretty sure I saw some judgment in those hard blue eyes, but at least he wasn’t looking at me like he wanted me dead, so I guess I had made some improvement somewhere.

I blinked again, realizing that Dante was gone. A moment later, I heard his loud cursing.

“What the hell, Vergil! I was just getting to the good part! Her pants were almost wet!” Dante yelled, and I flushed in spite of myself. What the hell, man, Dante. I don’t want to know how he was so accurate, but I don’t want to ask either. I just… wanted to forget this ever happened.

Vergil looked at me for a second longer, not even bothering to offer a hand to pull me up, before he stepped away from me, towards where I sat up to see Dante was, close to the front of the shop. Vergil must have thrown his brother in that direction when he wrenched his twin off me.

“I seem to recall that you have not done a single job throughout this week.” Vergil changed direction towards where Dante kept his weapons and took Rebellion off the mount.

“Hey, that’s mine-” Dante started to protest, but was cut off when Rebellion came flying to him. He caught the sword quickly, but less than a second later, Ivory came bouncing off his chest, landing into his free hand. Vergil walked quickly back to where I had picked myself up at the desk, picking up Ebony from the floor and throwing it to his twin who caught it quickly.

“What are you-” Dante started to ask again, but Vergil had made it to the coat rack by now. Without so much a preamble, he took off Dante’s red trench coat off the rack and pitched it to his brother, trusting Dante to catch it. Dante did, and more on instincts than anything, put it on, tucking his guns quickly on the holsters attached to it.

“You’re all prepared and dressed up now.” Vergil said, finally walking to stand in front of his twin. I sensed a little more evil eye going on between Vergil and his brother, but I thanked the gods that all I could see from my point of view was the back of Vergil’s head. “Now GO.”

“Hey, when did I said I-” Dante began to protest again, but Vergil must have given him the intense no-nonsense evil eye, because his twin quickly lost words.

“Go, Dante, and don’t come back until you’ve finished your job.” Vergil ordered, and for once, Dante didn’t dare protest. Mumbling something incomprehensible about a demon, his brother and how his life was cursed, Dante trudged reluctantly out of the shop, slamming the door close behind him.

Vergil didn’t bother waiting for more as he turned on his heels and walked back up the stairs to his room. Trish and I followed the impressive man with eye power, exchanging the same look of extreme awe when the door shut behind the older son of Sparda.

“That… was by far the most effective way in getting Dante to move his lazy ass.” Trish announced, and I couldn’t agree more. Even though I technically hadn’t done the job, Trish and I could claim the credit of chasing Dante out, and now we had the entire office to ourselves. Well, Vergil was still around, but he tended to ignore us like we ignored him, so it was all fair and square.

Finding my seat beside Trish on the couch quickly, we launched into a long-awaited gossip session, in which we breezed through two cans of beer each, ordering a round of large pizza on Dante’s bill. Hours flew by quickly, and I was thoroughly satisfied by the hours wasted while we talked our saliva dry. There was reason why Trish was my best friend here in Limbo, and it could literally be attributed to how alike we were, and how alike we thought.

At one point of time, Vergil had shifted himself downstairs, taking Dante’s seat behind the desk. We pretty much didn’t care about his presence, considering that his head was hiding behind some book that he must be studying. I wasn’t sure what Vergil could be studying with his current position in life, but shrugged it off. Perhaps he was reading up on black magic or something. Vergil always found something to do in his life, and Trish and I would rather share gossip than provoke the volatile, emotionless and generally less welcoming son of Sparda.

“Hey, I forgot to ask.” Trish ended our previous conversation topic about annoying, ugly demons, starting quickly on another one. “How are things going on between you and Dante?”

I made a face at the amused expression hanging on her face. She was going to say something about the ‘intimate moment’ between Dante and me, I was damned sure of it. Trish never got over the kick of reminding me that at one point of time, I had been head over heels for Dante. I mean: Yes, Dante was still as handsome as I remembered him on my plasma TV screen, but there was a fine difference between the Dante I saw on my TV screen and what I saw here in Limbo. If anyone understood exactly how exasperating this man is, they would instantly forget any crush in a single moment.

“There’s nothing going on between us.” I said slowly, trying to tell her to skip this topic, or I was going to get disturbed. But Trish wasn’t my best friend for nothing. She knew to push boundaries, and she knew when I was going to totally lose my top –which wasn’t now.

“It sure felt like something was going on when he was straddling you just now. The temperature turned up when you guys disappeared behind the desk. You know, I was quite tempted to remove the desk for a free show.” Trish continued on as if she were discussing about the weather, a grin hanging on her face to show me exactly how much she enjoyed my discomfort.

“There’s nothing going on between us.” I repeated again more forcefully, trying to threaten Trish into silent submission, but it was obvious that she didn’t care for my forceful tone. “Dante and I are platonic friends.”

“Who will jump each other’s bones when you get the chance.” Trish added teasingly, and despite my rejection of Dante being anything more than a friend, I blushed up. I hadn’t really told anyone about my V-card yet, but it seemed like my best friend had assumed that I had been taken before. I couldn’t really blame her. I sometimes wondered why I wasn’t taken yet. Maybe it was because of my strange shyness about the topic of sex. I mean, many guys had suggested it to me before, but I keep getting the strange thought of wanting to save myself up for my true love.

The problem is that I probably would never know for sure who my true love is.

“I will not have sex with Dante.” I declared. “That’s just… crazy.”

“Oh yeah, crazy mind-blowing sex.” Trish teased, and I blushed further. Gosh, would she just drop this subject? Though I was pretty sure that Vergil wasn’t interested the slightest bit in our topic of conversation, it was still awkward to talk about having sex with his twin while he was around.

“Even if he were to have sex with anyone in this room, it would be you.” I thrust out my chin challengingly, trying to change the topic back to her. “You’re the one who looks like his mother.”

Trish’s grin only got even wider, as if she knew exactly what I was trying to do.

“Oh, darling, you should look at yourself in the mirror! There’s nothing Dante’s more attracted to than a pale woman with silky black hair, a woman with the right ratio of boobs to butt! You’re his mental angel, Leah. You have the eyes that can get any man you want, if you would just flutter them a bit more. Those lips… mmm, if you would just pucker them a little more, I would totally get a hard-on if I were a guy.” Trish gushed, and while I knew she was exaggerating my features, I couldn’t help but feel a little touched that my best friend thought so much of the plain ol’ me.

“Stop it!” I giggled, hitting her lightly, “You’re making me sound like some sort of superstar. And you really sound like some perverted lesbian for a moment there.”

“Leah,” Trish said with her tongue playfully licking her lips, “You make me want to be a lesbian. You know, you could be a really good succubus if you were demon.”

I rolled my eyes at how Trish was fluttering her eyelashes at me, as if she were trying to hook me in. Seriously, Trish was teasing me way too much. I needed a break –especially to calm down the furious blushing that was on my cheeks. I don’t even want to know what I looked like through the mirror at the moment. I must be red as tomato.

“But in all due honesty,” Trish continued, losing a little of her teasing grin and regaining a little more seriousness that had me a little curious and a little less embarrassed. “You are quite a special one. Dante usually don’t even bother putting on the charms on anyone. You don’t see him trying to seduce me or Lady. He has never tried. But look at today. It must really be the first day that I’ve seen him ever try to put the moves on anyone.”

Whatever words I had ready in protest was stolen from my lips when the sharp sound of a snap came from the other side of the office, and I jolted. Turning to see the source of the snap, I saw Vergil placing his book on the desk with an especially stony face, as if someone had somehow pissed him off. He stood up without looking towards us, and walked to the back.

Trish exchanged a confused look with me for a moment, but we shrugged it off quickly, just placing it all down as Vergil’s strange suddenly angst moments.

“I’m not that special. I’m sure Dante puts his moves on the strippers he picks up.” I argued, resuming the topic of conversation quickly.

“Trust me, I’ve stalked him to the Love Planet once and watched him ‘put his move’ on. It involves sliding a fifty dollar down her bra, cupping a good feel. She was obviously happy at the business proposition, and he made things better sliding another bill down her panties. I suspect a little bit of stroking there –you know how perverted Dante can get. But that’s all the ‘moves’ he puts on, Leah. I didn’t really see him sliding bills down any part of you, so…” Trish trailed off, leaving the second part of the sentence up to imagination, but it didn’t take the brightest of person to know what she was trying to imply.

“Hey, I’m not a stripper.” I replied crossly, trying to avoid the topic of exactly how ‘special’ I was to Dante. Much as I was honored to be ‘special’ to a son of Sparda, the fact that it was Dante we were talking about having sex with kind of disturbed me. And I totally didn’t have to know how Dante picked up strippers at the strip club. There were a million things I could imagine Dante doing there, and I didn’t belong there.

“Yes, that’s quite exactly my point.” Trish replied, escaping my glare by turning away and watching Vergil emerge from the back with a wineglass full of red wine. I don’t even want to know how the man managed to stash wine in Dante’s office without the owner of this run-down shop finding out. But this was Vergil we were talking about, so I guess it made sense. “The fact that Dante doesn’t treat you like a stripper, doesn’t treat you the way he does me and Lady, speaks for everything.”

“It speaks for nothing. Maybe he just treats me actually like a friend.” I brushed it off quickly, refusing to see things the way Trish saw it. She was reading too much into things. Dante couldn’t be attracted to me. Just the thought of it made me feel…strange.

“Lady and I are his friends. Dante would never try to put moves on his friends.” Trish pointed, but I shook my head.

“He wasn’t trying to put moves on me. He was just trying to get out of doing any job.” I protested, but the teasing grin had regained its position.

“It seemed to me that he was trying to get you upstairs and throttle you something good.”

“You’re reading too much into this.” I refused to admit it, and I wasn’t going to start doubting anything. Dante wasn’t attracted to me.

“Maybe you’re reading too little into this, Leah. In all truths, you really are a beauty. You just need a whole load more of self-confidence and be less shy about approaching matters of the physical body. You’re 21, darling. You’re not a shy teenager.” Trish advised, and from a teasing friend, she suddenly became my soul sister. This was exactly why I loved her. Trish could just switch anytime she wanted, and she cared very much for me.

“Yeah, but I want to save up myself until I’m sure.” I replied, then realized exactly what I’d leaked.

Trish was equally quick in coming up to the conclusion as her eyes widened. A sharp crack sounded as Vergil placed the wineglass on the desk a little too forcefully, but I ignored it as I tried to squirm away from Trish’s stare of realization.

“Oh my god. You are a virgin?” Trish screeched, and the flush came back immediately as I cast a quick look to Vergil, who seemed –thankfully, and blessedly –reading his book again.

“Shhh!” I hushed her quickly, passing a warning glance. “Don’t say it so loud!”

“That’s why you always blush up such a pretty pink whenever we talk about sex! You’re still a pure flower!” Trish exclaimed as if she had made a revolutionary scientific-discovery.

“Trish!” I hissed. “Quiet!”

Being my best friend, she took the hint and made a conscious effort to calm down.

“This is the biggest news I’ve heard the entire month, Leah. You don’t know exactly how long the guy living across us have been asking about your V-card.” Trish resumed her usual volume, but it was my turn to raise my voice in a shriek.

“What!” I screeched, “You’re telling me that Kyle’s been asking if I’m a virgin?”

“Hey, calm down.” Trish advised, pulling me to sit back down where I’d jumped up in shock. “If you really want to know, it’s not only Kyle.”

I groaned. Exactly how many people have been asking about me? Seriously, was my being a virgin such an interest to everyone? Kyle had seemed like such a nice guy!

“Then who else?”

“Well, for starters, Kyle and Paul asked me about your virginity. Ian, Kurt, Adam and Alejandro asked if you were single and up in the market. I met this guy in the café opposite our place who asked if ‘the hot lady living with me’ was single.” Trish ticked down every man as she spoke as I reeled in shock.

The sound of shattering glass made both Trish and I jump. Vergil stood at Dante’s desk, a fuming expression on his face while he stared at the glass shards embedded on his hand. I didn’t understand why he was so pissed off, but when his eyes came back up to glare at me, I lost the words to ask. There was something in those blue eyes that told me he wanted to say something, but he never said anything. I don’t know what about me made him suddenly so pissed off, but if he was glaring at me, then something was wrong.

I remained silent and docile, watching as he clenched his hand into a fist despite the fact that it would push the glass shards further into his palm. I fought down the urge to rush to him for medical attention, reasoning with my instincts that he was a half-demon. The blood trickled from his palm and dripped to the mess of broken glass and half-drunk wine on the table.

“Careful, it’s going to be a pisser if your skin heals over the glass. I wouldn’t care on a normal basis, but be clear that you’re cleaning that mess.” Trish said, as if she couldn’t sense Vergil’s sudden bout of hatred. His eyes snapped to her for a moment, then retreated back to stare at his fist and his blood dripping on the mess.

He unclenched his fists, then clenched it again as if to see if his hand still worked. I was having a harder time fighting against the concern within me now as I saw the state of his entirely bloodied hand. I wasn’t sure what made him so angry enough to crush the wineglass in his hand, but if it was me, maybe it was for the best that I left.

“Um… maybe I should go.” I said, coming to my feet quickly in case Vergil decided to heck everything and just kill me now.

“No.” He spoke so sharply that I flinched at his tone of voice.

“No.” He repeated again, this time more gently. I guess if he was trying to be a little gentler meant that he wasn’t so pissed off with me, right? “You don’t have to go. I’ll clean this up.”

He turned away quickly before I could reply, but stopped mid-step towards the back door –presumably to the bathroom to remove the shards.

“I’m sorry for the disruption.” He apologized, and hurried away quickly, slamming the door behind him as he did so.

“My god, Leah. You are a miracle worker!” Trish exclaimed, pulling me back down to sit on the couch.

“What?” I asked, a little dazed. Vergil had… apologized? That was pretty unexpected.

“I swear, it must be your charms. I told you; you’re just too beautiful beyond words! Watch out, darling. I’m going to get jealous soon.” Trish teased, forgetting the tense atmosphere almost immediately.

“I-It’s not that…” I tried to protest, but Trish put a finger on my lips to shut me up.

“Don’t give me that! You’re just so charming that you get Dante putting moves on you, and Vergil apologizing! You must be a miracle worker!” Trish declared, and I sighed. There is just no convincing Trish that I was just a normal girl.

“But I could have sworn, though, that Vergil was kind of overreacting. I mean, it’s understandable that a hot woman like you has seven suitors looking to chase you, right?” Trish frowned a little, as if she couldn’t understand something.

“Um… he wasn’t listening to our conversation. He doesn’t care, remember?” I tried to remind her, but she only laughed it off.

“Trust me, Leah, I know when he’s listening or not. Vergil was most definitely listening. Do you think he’s jealous?”

“J-Jealous?” I spluttered. “You’re crazy!”

Trish shrugged. “If you say so. But he looked like he was going to kill some guys for a moment there.”

I didn’t say anything in reply, because that had been the truth. Vergil had looked like he was ready to kill some people for a moment there, and damn the consequences. But it was impossible.

Vergil couldn’t be jealous. Whatever would he be jealous for? It would be the craziest thing to think that Vergil was attracted to me like the seven men were.

For one, he already had a loving family (which Trish didn’t know about).

For two, Vergil definitely wasn’t interested in someone like me. He liked someone strong like Sasha.

And most importantly, Vergil definitely didn’t like me.

I would just be glad if he didn’t hate me.

Yes, Vergil most definitely wasn’t interested in me.

Or so I thought.