A/N: Back to a little bit of light-heartedness, back to life from Dante's point-of-view.

[Love Is Difficult For A Half Demon]

"I've told you a million times before, Dante. If you want to woo me, then change your lousy insensitive attitudes. I have had enough of guys like you flirting with your honeyed words, but none of you have ever shown your sincerity with your actions before." Diane, Dante's newest target expressed knowingly, her arms crossed.

Diane didn't ask to be born with beautiful features, and she definitely didn't ask to be chased by countless of guys who only wanted the pride and bragging rights of saying that they were dating her. After the many relationships that ended up with either Diane being dumped for not being the standard outgoing, boy-loving stereotypical beautiful woman, or her dumping her boyfriends after realising that they were only interested in her for bragging rights, she had learnt to ignore the sweet words and avoid the very obviously women-loving men.

And Dante had had the worst luck to fall in love with someone like Diane on first sight.

"How am I going to change if you don't give me an example of what I'm supposed to do?" Dante asked, chasing after the woman despite the fact that she had already turned and had been trying to walk away as if their conversation had reached a satisfying end.

"I don't know, but I'm not going to let you use that as an excuse for you to spend more time with me in the hopes of increasing your chances. Go find an example yourself, study him carefully and don't bother me until you are sure you have changed for the better." Diane answered, adamantly turning her head away from her chasing suitor. Dante had the face and body that many girls would want to have the bragging rights to be dating, but not Diane. Diane was fine with a guy not having any looks or charms, but what mattered most to her was that he needed to have a sensitive, sweet and soft heart.

Dante was the furthest away from that, and Diane could see it clear as day.

"For starters, if you want an example of what I meant by being a man sensitive to the needs of a woman, you should stop following me and stop bothering me." She said in a voice full of warning, and Dante –dense as he was to most of her words most times –finally got the hint as his footsteps stopped, allowing the woman to walk away from him and eventually away from his sights.

"What kind of an answer is that...?" Dante grumbled as he looked at the bouquet of roses that he still had in his hands. The least the woman could do was at least to accept the flowers that he had spent his pay to buy. If he knew that Diane would be so heartless, he would have just saved the money and spent it on pizzas instead. "Where am I going to find an example of a sensitive boyfriend? I'm not a girl."

Dejected and grumbling about his bad luck at not being able to get a feisty woman like Diane out of his mind, Dante left his bouquet of roses in the bin and trudged his way home, running through the list of men he knew in his mind. The list itself was short since he always had more female friends than male ones, and selecting those who were attached made it even shorter. Cutting away the ones who he knew changed girlfriends faster than changing clothes, Dante was annoyed to find himself with a list smaller than the number of fingers on one hand. None of those that remained were still in close contact with Dante, and the one with the highest chance of offering Dante a lesson was in a country all the way at the other side of the globe.

It was not an understatement to say that Dante was still in bad mood at his situation when the main door to his apartment opened, and he looked up (with a dark scowl) as his twin brother walked in.

"Which demon bit you in the ass?" Vergil asked at the sight of his scowling twin, removing his shoes and leaving them neatly at the side while still balancing the paper bag in his arms.

"A human woman who doesn't appreciate my money spent on roses for her." Dante answered with a growl and though Vergil was technically not in the position who had pissed him off, Dante still felt irritated at his brother.

"The one you met a week ago? What was her name?" Vergil asked conversationally, ignoring his brother's childish irritation as he walked through the living room where Dante sat on the couch, making for the kitchen.

"Diane. She said she wasn't even going to give me a chance unless I become more sensitive to a woman's needs, but she doesn't want to give me any examples of what I should do. That woman's driving me nuts." Dante complained as he laid down along the length of the couch, burying his face in the cushion.

"She makes a point. You are already 30. It's high time for you to start looking for someone to be serious about instead of viewing them as sex objects." Vergil's voice drifted through the open doorway, the sound of grocery being placed wherever they were supposed to be drifting as well.

"I'm serious about Diane." Dante retorted. "I haven't been so serious about someone like this before. She's the one, but she doesn't want to be. What am I supposed to do? Nobody taught me how to be a nice guy like you!"

Dante's own words only sank in a long moment later as he replayed them in his mind silently, realising with a shock that he had unintentionally found the example he needed. Why was he even considering taking a holiday overseas to find that friend when he could just observe his twin brother at home? Then again, the name Vergil hadn't appeared under the list exclusively for friends, so it made some semblance of a sense that he didn't consider his brother previously.

"Stop creeping me out. I am the last person you can call a nice guy." Vergil's answer to the conversation came naturally, completely unknowing of the fact that the man's own girlfriend of 3 years had been telling all her friends and acquaintances that her boyfriend was the sweetest guy that she had ever met in her life.

"Yeah, you are the worst guy who has ever been born in this unfortunate world." Dante answered sarcastically as he made his quick decision, sitting up and jumping to his feet to rush to the kitchen as soon as his decision was made. "What did you get?"

"Groceries." Vergil replied. "Rain told me to you were clearing things out the fridge without putting anything back, and she was getting annoyed."

"I paid my share of grocery fees. We agreed that if I pay, I get to eat whatever that appears in there." Dante answered guiltlessly, but was surprised when after the vegetables came out a type of snack that he had never assumed his brother would ever buy. "When did you ever start to like chocolates?"

"Never." Vergil answered, looking up to see Dante leaning against the door frame and watching him unpack. "These are for Rain."

"For fattening her up so that other guys won't be looking at her?" Dante asked as Vergil brought the goodies to the refrigerator and began putting things in their respectively places.

"Fattening her up is just a side effect." Vergil answered after he was done, moving back to the paper bag and reaching to the bottom to retrieve the last item that had been the only one that was not a food product. He set the small package on the counter, folding the paper bag and moving to the bin while Dante's perked curiosity made him move closer to the counter to get a look at the package that he had never seen before.

"Rain even makes you buy her sanitary pads?" Dante asked with surprise, picking it up from the counter. As a man, he had never had the need to walk to the aisle for feminine goods, and thus had no idea what they looked like inside the package. How in hell his brother had managed to walk through that warzone and picked out a single (and presumably the correct) one for his girlfriend was something that Dante was 100% sure that he would never be able to do in his entire life.

"She didn't make me, but her period is starting in a few days, and she mentioned that she was running out of those last month." Vergil answered, picking it out of his brother's hands. "Is falling in love with that woman named Diane making you suddenly interested in the female reproductive cycle?"

"At this moment, I'm more surprised by the fact that you remember the dates of your girlfriend's biological cycle. Do you count the days so that you can have sex without the rubber and worries?" Dante followed Vergil with his surprised revelation when the elder twin walked out of the kitchen with the pack in his hands.

"That is essentially the secondary reason why I do this." Vergil admitted, opening the door to his girlfriend's room. At this point, both Rain and Vergil were past the point of keeping each other out of their rooms. Soon, they might end up just sharing one room since they seemed to spend so much time together and leaving stuff in each other's room anyway.

"Then what's the primary reason?" Dante remained by the doorway since he hadn't received the same permission to step into Rain's room like Vergil had.

"She gets real bad cramps during the time of the month, and her mood gets affected way more easily. If helping her stock up on these things and keeping chocolate in the fridge makes her happy, then I'm going to keep doing it."

"You are really working hard for your boyfriend points, aren't you?" Dante observed. He had never really thought so much about how his brother treated Rain, but now that he had decided to pay more attention on Vergil, he was already being terribly surprised at how much effort his brother was putting in the relationship. Dante had always assumed that Vergil didn't treat Rain very much differently from the way Vergil treated him; comfortable enough to live with and be a part of his life. "When are you going to cash in the points and buy yourself some husband points?"

"When you really fall in love with someone, you will eventually understand." Vergil answered, pushing his brother out of the doorway, then closing the door to his girlfriend's room behind him firmly. "It isn't for the points. In fact, there isn't a point-keeping system, because when you do things for her, the both of you gain points."

"That's a pretty messed-up system, then." Dante answered.

"That is why your Diane refuses to give you a chance." His brother answered evenly, no hint of amusement or joke in his voice. "Until you understand that keeping a point-system between yourself and someone you truly care about it utterly pointless, you will get nowhere with someone like her."

Dante scoffed, letting their conversation drop as Vergil turned to his own room to collect clothes for a shower, and Dante returned to the living room. Vergil was speaking like he was a master at this whole relationship thing. Sure, his brother had been dating the same woman for the past 3 years, but that didn't mean a thing. Dante knew that Vergil had once been a scary-ass bad boy that even risk-loving and crazy women were terrified of.

Dante knew that Rain was a miracle worker who had gotten into Vergil's heart, but there was an extent to which Dante could believe exactly how much his brother's character had switched within the past 3 short years just because of her.

________________________________________________________________________________

"I told you this a million times before, but you can't glare at people on the train just because they take the seat beside you. They paid for the tickets too; they have the rights to sit there just as much as you do." Dante sighed as he trailed after his brother while the both of them made up the stairs to their apartment.

What had been an innocent trip home from his successful mission had been ruined when Dante had met his brother by coincidence on the train. Meeting Vergil on any public transport was always a time bomb waiting to detonate anytime because his elder brother was always the weirdo on the bus or train who glared at everyone as if they had pissed him off. Dante knew that it was born from Vergil's intense hatred for anyone invading his personal space, and unfortunately that personal space also included the seats in his immediate surroundings. There had been too many times that Vergil had been approached by bus captains and/or train attendants to be politely (and fearfully) asked to get off the bus/train because he was scaring the other passengers too much with his intense glares of hatred.

This time had been no different, and Dante had had to step in before someone could try to call the police on Vergil simply based on how murderous his glares had been on the poor pregnant woman sitting beside him on the train.

"I value my personal space highly." Vergil answered, unrepentant.

It was always situations like these that made Dante remember that his brother had never had a proper childhood or teenage life. Vergil had moved at his own pace almost his whole life and had never stopped to consider about social manners for a single moment. Dante had thought that his brother was becoming a little bit more socially aware after dating Rain, but this issue of personal space on public transports was still something that needed loads of improvement.

"The woman was pregnant!" Dante pointed out. "There were no other free seats other than the ones near you –which you cleared because of your glare, by the way."

"Someone would have offered her a seat if she stood for a little while more instead of rushing to take the seat beside me." Vergil defended himself, but Dante didn't bother himself arguing back anymore when they reached apartment and Vergil opened it for the both of them. There was really no point keeping the conversation because neither side would ever win the argument in which Vergil remained adamantly insistent on protecting his unnaturally large perception of personal space.

"Rain is home?" Dante asked as they removed their shoes at the entrance, him having spied the woman's heels left haphazardly. Vergil made a sound of acknowledgement as he silent rearranged both his pair of shoes and Rain's. Dante's ones remained strewn at the entrance but neither of them cared as they walked in.

Half an hour later, Dante looked up from his magazine to see Rain walking into the living room, fresh after her shower. Water droplets hung on the ends of her long hair as she rubbed them absently with her towel that was draped along her shoulders, walking closer to where Vergil sat in the armchair, reading intently. Wordlessly, Dante silently watched the woman reach Vergil's immediate area, then sat cross-legged on the floor close to his legs, still rubbing absently.

It was not an uncommon sight; Rain had the habit of drying her hair while sitting on the floor, thinking absently about the many things that floated in her mind. Dante would have let this scene fade away into the background like he usually did, but a movement from Vergil –one that Dante had always known his brother would make but had never really paid close attention to –kept Dante's eyes on the scene. Dante made sure that he still pretended to be reading his magazine, though his eyes were silently on his brother and his brother's girlfriend.

Vergil closed the book he had within his hands, left it safely on the low coffee table near the armchair that sat only him, then moved his ass down from the soft cushioning of the armchair. Dante watched quietly as his brother slid from the armchair down to the floor so that he sat behind Rain. There were no words or instructions passed, but Vergil's gentle hands came up to stop Rain's ones. Finger plucked the semi-wet towel from Rain's hands, and Vergil began to take over the job of rubbing and drying.

A small serene smile drew across the face of the woman who had her only job taken away from her, and Dante watched as she closed her eyes, seemingly to enjoy the tender attention that her boyfriend was paying on her hair and scalp.

Dante had to admit that it was a nice picture drawn; his brother sitting behind his girlfriend and helping her to dry her hair. But what galled him to the max was that this was his brother that he was talking about. Vergil Sparda. The man who killed demons for a living. The man who up until 5 years ago Dante had assumed was dead because he had been chasing after their father's power. The man who had been ready to turn his human heart into stone just to be stronger.

Dante hadn't been aware of how it had happened, but now that Diane had told him to study an example of a sensitive boyfriend carefully, Dante was now suddenly very aware of exactly how much Vergil was not the brother he thought he knew anymore. Rain had made Vergil into something that Dante wasn't sure he recognised. Not exactly a docile lamb, but a man who kept careful consideration of the woman who had infiltrated his icy, stone cold heart. Was that what it meant to become a man sensitive to the needs of a woman? To help her dry her hair?

Loud thoughts of pondering filled Dante's mind as he kept a careful secret eye on the lovebirds displaying their affection in front of him. Vergil took a short while to be done drying his girlfriend's hair, and instead of leaving the floor to a more comfortable place, Dante watched as Rain silently lean back into the warm chest and body of her boyfriend, sitting safely between his legs. Vergil himself leaned against the side of the armchair he had just previously been sitting on, reaching back to the coffee table for his book and resuming his reading as Rain whipped out her phone and began to scroll.

Dante blinked, this time not even pretending to read his magazine anymore.

"Verge." He couldn't stop himself from calling out his brother, because the question could not wait to be asked. "I thought you valued your personal space very highly?"

The surprised, curious eyes from both Vergil and Rain tagged on Dante, both in wonder at why he had sounded so shocked.

"Yes, I do." Vergil answered evenly. "Why are you bringing it up all of a sudden again?"

"Then why does Rain get to lean on you like a teddy bear and you don't glare at her like how you did that pregnant woman just now?"

The couple exchanged surprised, confused looks before Vergil looked back at his brother, not understanding where Dante's shock was coming from.

"Rain is welcome in my personal space anytime." Vergil replied. "How do you expect me to be dating a woman if I do not allow her to sit close to me?"

"But you don't even like it when I sit beside you sometimes!"

"Are you jealous, Dante?" Rain asked with an amused raise of brow. "Do you want to lean on Vergil like this too?"

"No." He was disgusted at the image that had been unconsciously drawn in his mind. "But I don't understand why he is okay with you sitting so close to him and even leaning on him when he clearly has never allowed anyone in his personal space before. Not even me, and I am his twin."

"Rain likes cuddling." Vergil answered honestly, and the woman in topic nodded in agreement. Both of them still looked distantly amused at Dante's confusion and shock. "Personal space doesn't matter to me if she likes to stay close to me."

"But you said that this personal space thing was a matter of your character. You hate people in your personal space."

"I don't hate Rain in it." Vergil answered. "It just happens that I feel comfortable with her close to me, Dante. Why are you so shocked?"

"Because I don't understand how you can be so different outside and inside." Dante answered with a frown.

"It's because of love." Rain answered in her boyfriend's stead this time, thoroughly amused at her boyfriend's brother. "It's because your brother loves me."

Rain guessed that Dante was really trying hard to learn about being the sensitive guy for the woman that he was chasing. She had laughed when Vergil first told her about it, but she did find her boyfriend's younger brother watching them a little more carefully these few days as if he was studying them. Dante was learning hard, and Rain didn't mind them being an example. It felt good that Dante considered her and his brother a good example of a couple.

"I still don't understand. How can someone who lived 27 years of his life hating anyone who steps into his personal space suddenly allow someone to lie on him?"

Rain struggled to keep her laughter at the lost-boy tone in Dante's words and expression. The man currently looked like someone had just told him that Santa didn't exist.

"It's love." Rain emphasised, looking up at her boyfriend with a serene smile. "It's difficult for you to understand now because you haven't had that serious love yet, but when it happens, you're going to just understand it, no matter how difficult it is."

________________________________________________________________________________

It was raining heavily.

Dark clouds hung overhead and let loose their load indiscriminately, the rain covering everyone in its embrace. The water only touched those who had been foolish enough to attempt going out from shelter without an umbrella, and on the road walked one such idiot clad in his famous red duster that was already soaked.

Dante kept his head down so that the rainwater would not flow directly into his eyes, distracted. He had observed his brother around his girlfriend for one whole week, and if Dante had assumed that he would pick up a thing or two eventually, he had thought wrong. No; all Dante had learnt from observing Vergil and Rain carefully after the whole week was that his brother had turned from one type of monster that he thought he knew Vergil was, into another type of monster that Dante couldn't recognise. This new type of monster was one who was so human that it was scary; a monster who always had Rain swimming somewhere in his thoughts, whose rules never ever applied to Rain, and who would easily be willing to burn down the whole world if Rain asked for it. In other words, Rain had created herself a perfect weapon in his brother by holding his heart, and if the woman were actually to begin to foster terrible thoughts against anyone or anything, Dante would have a damn hard time getting things back together.

One conclusion was made for sure, though: Dante would never be able to be like his brother. Even if he had found someone that he truly wished he could change himself to a better person for, he was 100% sure that the result would not be even relatively close to where Vergil stood right now.

The whole purpose of the observation had been for Dante to study what to do, what do change. But now for some reason the result was him silently worrying about his brother, and wondering if he dared to even change for fear of being as blinded as Vergil was. Was Diane really worth him trying to change into something like Vergil? Thoughts of the sort filled his thoughts as he kept his head down, journeying on automatic home after having finished yet another mission.

He stopped on auto at the red man signal, leaning against the wet pole as he waited. Finally looking up a little, he blinked in surprise to find a familiar figure walking on the road opposite him.

Vergil was smart enough to carry an umbrella with him and thus was largely spotless as he continued down the road away from the signal where Dante stood waiting and staring in surprise. There was good reason of Dante's surprise: he had never seen his brother out on a rainy day in the past 5 years that they had been living together.

While Vergil was a very efficient man and could finish any type of mission easily on a clear day, the man absolutely abhorred going out when it rained outside. Dante had gotten into a few useless arguments with his brother previously about forcing Vergil out the door for various reasons during rainy weather, and he had never won. Vergil had never stepped out of the door of their apartment during rainy days.

In fact, that hatred was so unexplained and so intense that Dante had thought it godly irony that Vergil eventually found a girlfriend aptly named after the weather phenomenon that he hated so much.

And yet apparently Vergil was no longer holding such hatred against rain?

Dante decided to change his route home immediately when the lights turned green and he rushed across the road, careful to keep a safe distance away from a brother who still remained nonchalant to his stalking. Dante could not think of something that could demand his brother's attention so much that Vergil would be required to get out of the house during wet weather, and assumed that stalking him would reap some results at any rate.

Thus, ignoring the cold and wishes of warm shower upon reaching back home, Dante keep his hands hiding in the wet pockets of his duster and strolled after Vergil's pace. He was alert, and thus hid quickly in the alley next to him when he saw his brother turn.

A second later, Dante peeked back out on the rather empty road to find that his brother had disappeared while a door closed. It didn't take much to assume that his brother had gone into the shop that sat by the road, and thus crept closer to the shop. What was so pressing that Vergil needed to buy personally? New swords? Information about a mission?

Comforting yellow light met Dante as he advanced closer to the shop that he had seen his brother turn in, and he made sure he kept most of his body out of sight as he peeked through the large windows of the shop, only to realise that it wasn't a shop at all. It was a café, semi-filled with people seeking shelter from the rain and being engaged in their own lives as Dante's twin stood at the counter clearly after having ordered something.

Instead of getting more answers, Dante found himself gaining more questions as he watched his brother wait for his order to be done. His brother had gotten over the hatred of going out on a rainy day, walked all the way here... just to get a cup of coffee? What about the coffee they had at home? Didn't Vergil always claim that coffee tasted the same no matter where they went?

It didn't take long for Vergil's order to be done, and Dante watched with only more confusion as the innocent cup of coffee was passed over. He had given Vergil the benefit of the doubt by thinking that maybe there was some secret order and Vergil was doing something in relation to a mission at the café. But the coffee cup clearly looked as normal as any and there didn't seem to be any common secret shared judging by the polite service of the barista who passed the drink with a normal smile.

Still confused, but determined to get answers, Dante made sure he had hidden himself well when he watched Vergil come out of the café back onto the road, this time one hand holding his umbrella and the other holding the cup. The journey resumed away from the direction of home confirmed that Vergil hadn't come out of the house with only coffee in mind, but it didn't answer many other questions as Dante continued to dog his brother's steps silently.

It was another short walk into the business district of their town. Higher and bigger buildings gave Dante more chance to hide himself, and he was safely hidden when his brother finally stopped in front of an unfamiliar building. This time, though, Vergil did not turn into the entrance nor try anything funny. All the man did was turn to face the glass doors of the entrance, still holding the umbrella over his head, and wait.

Was Vergil meeting a client? A new mission?

The guesses came as Dante waited for Vergil waiting for someone unknown, and he quickly got impatient. Deciding that maybe he wanted to be a little closer, Dante sneaked as close as could while still keeping a safe distance away from his brother, crouching low beside a bush and making sure that from Vergil's vantage point he wouldn't be seen.

The glass doors to the building opened, and a few well-dressed men stepped out, caught in conversation amongst each other. They were clearly not the ones Vergil was waiting for, as they opened their umbrellas, still engrossed in their conversation, and left without giving Dante's twin a single look. A few more men and women appeared and disappeared in similar fashion; all of them dressed in similar office attire. Dante came to the quick realisation that it was already the end of the business day, and in a few moments the street was filled with workers done for the day.

It seemed like Vergil's intended target was not aware of his waiting, because Dante waited along with his brother until the crowd on the street began to thin again. Still, the rain continued to beat down on them, and Dante began to finally feel the irritation at the cold soaking his skin. The cold finally got to him, chewing his fingertips and his toes and he began to wonder if he should give up trying to sneak around and just approach his brother to ask what the heck Vergil was thinking buying a cup of coffee –which he had yet to drink a single drop –and wait in the rain for someone who seemed to not be coming out.

Yet, just as Dante decided that he had had enough of waiting, the door to the building opened again, and suddenly everything made sense.

Vergil's face hung a gentle smile as he stepped closer to the entrance of the building, extending both the coffee and the umbrella.

"I know you forgot to bring an umbrella to work today." Dante was close enough to hear his brother's words. "And some coffee to warm you up. Though I'm not sure if it is hot enough anymore; I have been waiting some time."

"You could have called! If I knew you were waiting for me, I would have just wrapped everything up immediately." Rain answered, accepting the coffee happily, then dug through her bag for her handkerchief to dab the droplets that had somehow gotten onto Vergil's face despite the umbrella during the wait. "Poor you; have you been standing out here for hours? You're almost soaked through."

Dante mentally grumbled about him being the twin that was soaked through, but he couldn't come out of his hiding spot now that it was clear that Vergil had been waiting for his girlfriend.

"Every minute waiting for you was worth it." Dante's twin answered, and it was such a cliché phrase that Dante almost felt like vomiting. Vergil was capable of saying something as mushy as this? When Dante used it on women at the strip club, it felt natural and okay. But hearing his brother say it with truth in his voice was... Dante felt like he needed a shower with strong holy water.

"Let go home quickly and get you out of those wet clothes. You will catch a cold if you stay out here any longer." Rain urged, and joined her boyfriend under the umbrella large enough to be shared. Dante remained hiding where he was as the couple sharing the umbrella passed him unknowingly, sharing conversation normally as he suffered in his miserable cold.

Rain was worried about Vergil catching a cold? Dante was going to be the first one with the cold, considering how he was feeling all miserable and sour inside. The rain wasn't the only factor that was making him so bitter; it was also the fact that his twin of capable of being so devoted and having a woman who loved and cared for him back while Dante couldn't even start a relationship like that even if he really tried. Was it because their traits had not been divided equally?

Dante had never assumed that he had received a different amount of traits from their parents as compared to Vergil, but what if that was the case? What if Vergil had inherited more of their mother's gentle genes, and Dante had been left to scrape with their father's happy-go-lucky ones? Wasn't that a little unfair, if so? Dante was also a man. He might have enjoyed chasing after many girls and bedding them during his younger years, but he was turning 30 soon.

Even if he didn't want children at the moment, Dante had to admit that he was becoming jealous of his brother for having been able to find a woman who not only could forgive Vergil's past, but also understand their circumstance as half-demons. Rain had even taken the step further and burrowed her way into Vergil's heart, warming up the previously stone-cold organ.

Dante wanted someone like that. Diane was supposed to be that woman, but...

"The jealous look doesn't fit you."

The statement, paired with the sound of raindrops hitting plastic lightly made Dante blink in realisation that someone had crept up on him while he had been in his mental monologue. Looking up but still not straightening from his crouch, he was instantly confused to see a familiar woman; the woman of his thoughts.

"Your brother and his girlfriend is already long gone. Shouldn't you be, too?" Diane asked with a raise of her brow, looking down with a slight smile at Dante's confusion.

"What... Why are you here?" Dante was quick to jump to his feet, and it was only when he had regained his full height that he was aware of how close Diane was actually standing, sharing her umbrella with him.

"I caught sight of you stalking someone who looks exactly like you. I distantly recall you mentioning that you have a twin. Anyway, I was curious as to why you were stalking your twin, so I waited for you while you waited for him, and he waited for his girlfriend. We were a waiting chain, really." Diane answered with a small chuckle at her observation. "Why aren't you moving? Don't you live with them?"

"I'm giving them some time to go home first. I don't want to interrupt their twosome walk home, not particularly after Vergil came all the way here to pick her up." Dante admitted. Now that he had observed how much effort Vergil had put in just to pick his girlfriend up, he felt a little bad if he were to try to interrupt their journey home.

"I'm surprised. I thought you wouldn't care." Diane answered.

"Vergil hates going out in rainy days, and now that he has come out in such a shitty weather just to pick her up... I'd feel bad if I ruin the moment." Dante replied with a sigh, sliding his hands back into his duster's pockets. "Do you want me to walk you home? I don't have anything to do while I wait for them anyway."

"I think I will be doing you the favour of keeping you company and away from lonely thoughts if I agree, so yes."

"You don't have to share the umbrella with me. I'm already soaked." Dante said as they started walking, him ducking out from underneath the portable shelter back into the rain. "Don't let yourself get wet trying to protect me from the rain. I've been under it for hours; a few more minutes isn't going to make a difference."

"A few minutes could be the difference between you getting pneumonia or not." Diane insisted, stepping back close and bringing the umbrella over Dante's head again. "Don't insist, or I won't talk to you again."

Dante didn't understand why the woman was treating him so nicely when she had all but told him to stay out of her life the last time they met. Still, he wasn't going to remind her as he closed his hand over hers holding the umbrella, and pushed it gently, forcing her to tilt the umbrella so that it covered her fully and him only partially.

"I'll stay under your umbrella as long as you keep yourself dry." He replied, ignoring the fact that one shoulder was still exposed to the rain.

"I assume you took my advice from the last time we met, and studied your brother?" Diane began their conversation as they journeyed down the street.

"Yeah, I tried." Dante admitted. "But all I learnt was that he has really changed into someone I don't know anymore. I didn't think he had changed that much, but when I really paid attention, I don't even recognise him anymore."

"Real, sensitive love does that to people." Diane answered. "When you put your partner's needs into consideration at every moment, when you think for the best for the both of you in every decision you make, and wonder what small things you can do for each other to make each other's day much brighter... that is the kind of sensitivity that I have been trying to find someone I can share with. Just watching your brother making such small efforts made me jealous of his girlfriend."

"It wasn't small for him; he hates the rain." Dante replied, then paused their conversation as he smoothly did a few sidesteps. Diane was quietly confused as she changed the hand holding the umbrella so that it remained between them. "I don't know if you would have made an impact like his girlfriend did on him, but if you really could, you will really love the Vergil that I see right now. I've just realised that he thinks of her so much that I don't know if he has any thoughts other than her."

"I'm jealous, but I am not looking to steal him from her." Diane laughed. "I want a man who thinks for me because he wants to; not because he was forced to."

"You'll find someone like that." Dante's answer held a soft edge of bitterness. "But I don't think I can do it. I'm never going to be even remotely close to Vergil."

The cars that zoomed by beside them brought up sprays of road-rain water, puncturing their soft silence that had settled into the conversation.

Diane silently made her observations in her head as they completed their journey to her doorstep, and Dante stood outside, waiting for her to go in as she closed the umbrella.

"Do you want to come in and have something warm first?" Diane offered, but watched as the man shake his head.

"I don't want to trail rainwater all over your place. I'll just go home. Vergil and his girlfriend are probably back home by now." Dante said. "Go in. I'll leave once you are through the door."

"Thank you for the walk, Dante."

"Not a problem."

Diane turned to open the door, but paused after a short while, still not turning the knob. Her decision was made quickly, and she spun around, not surprised to find Dante still waiting for her there. His eyes were a sad dull blue and she was almost disappointed to find that his brother had somehow instilled a sense of insecurity within a man who had previously appeared super confident.

"You can take your brother as an example, but don't follow him so strictly." She informed, watching as the tired confusion draw across his face. "What you said about never going to be remotely close to him; it's true. But you don't have to. I don't need someone like him, but you can continue to try to learn some things from him, because I like your progress so far."

"I don't quite understand you...?"

"You've changed since the last time I met you, Dante." Diane smiled. "If you were still the same, you wouldn't have offered to walk me home without expecting something from me. You would have refused the umbrella no matter what just to protect your ego. You definitely wouldn't have changed your position and walked closer to the road to block the cars from splashing water on me. And when I offered for you to come in, you would definitely have taken it as open invitation to do something funny, and you wouldn't have thought about anything else and come bringing all the rainwater into my place."

"I think you are thinking too much into these." Dante replied. "I wasn't thinking at all when I did all those things. I just did and said as I like because I felt like it; I wasn't really thinking about you."

"That's what it means to love, Dante. To do these things not because there was a very active conscious effort to. You have learnt a lot from your brother, and I like your progress. You are very much lesser the insensitive man who was chasing me."

"But I'm not even close to Vergil's level."

"You don't have to." Diane stepped closer to where the rain-soaked man stood on her patio, then tip-toed to give him a quick kiss on his cheek. "You can't reach his level so easily, but I'm not asking for it too. If you can do just a quarter of it, I will be happy."

"Do you mean that you will give me a chance?" As the question was asked, Diane was glad to see a spark come back to the dull blue eyes.

Life was finally returning to a dejected Dante, and Diane liked the look of that.

"Yes." She pronounced. "But only if you continue to try learning from your brother. It will be difficult for someone to learn about love, but work hard and you will get me fully one day."

"I will." Dante's grin was like a little boy who had won his favourite toy. "Thank you for giving me a chance, Diane."

"Do I have to remind you that it is still only a chance? You have to keep at it, and try to learn more about how to love truly."

"I know. Rain says that love is difficult for normal people, but for half-demons like Vergil and me, it's even harder. But I will show you I can do it."

"I'll be waiting." Diane smiled, glad that she had been the one to revive the enthusiasm that she had almost missed from the old Dante. "Love is difficult for humans and half-demons."