Chapter Text
Getting Vergil, and themselves, off of Mallet and home to Capulet is a right pain in the ass. The strange future twins leave them behind soon after the demons are dealt with, disappearing into a remarkably unstable cut from the Yamato. That rip is so volatile it leaves bright searing spots in Dante's vision just looking at it.
He knows how reckless he can be, but going through that just seems inadvisable even to him.
Of course, he only remembers that that same portaling method could have gotten them back to the shop when it's already gone. He makes a mental note to search for the Yamato later, curses himself out for his own garbage humour that has no doubt resulted in this situation, and goes to rope the newly very friendly Trish into helping him figure out how to sail the dilapidated boat back to shore.
The road trip back home is cramped, even in the largest car they find. Can't be helped, though. It's not like there is another way to get back to Capulet with Vergil in tow and no one calling the cops on them. Certainly not public transport. So going by cramped car it has to be. With the exception of Lady, every one of them is ridiculously tall and Vergil's weirdly stretched out body does not help at all. Dante shoves down any and all feelings he has on this matter, or about how very much his twin's body hurts to even look at right now. It's fine. He is fine. Future twins promised. He shoves it down and concentrates on driving instead, keeping his eyes peeled for a van or something equally roomier, that they won't feel too bad about stealing. So far no dice.
They also loose quite a bit of money along the way. Mostly because many an official has to be bribed to look away from the unconscious, unnaturally tall and very blue man getting lugged across half the continent. Lady grouses so much about it, but at least it's not getting added to Dante's debt, it seems. Something about pricey alcohol getting liberated that Dante is just going to pretend he hasn't heard. He makes another mental note to restock, though. He will no doubt need it to cope with this whole situation once it properly hits.
With some creative cursing they get the integrated navigation thingy to work for them, Dante very happily has no input in this, they manage a slight detour to rural Italy. Specifically Fortuna. It takes them a few days, but it's worth it.
Lady and Trish are the only ones actually sent into the orphanage, though. Lady, because she knows how to interact with other human beings. Trish, because she got curious and wants to go along. Dante himself is not going to leave his twin alone and is therefore out. After all said twin, occasionally waking up during their travelling and clearly not quite there yet, takes great offense when Dante leaves his sight and is more than happy to do something about it. So no dice of him going, if they don't want to have to deal with terrified children on top of everything else.
They wait for the ladies to return at a nearby parking lot instead. Dante only resists gnawing his way through the steering wheel with a nauseating mix of emotions because he is too distracted by not-quite-Nelo-Angelo-not-quite-Vergil discovering that there are people milling about and having very demonic opinions about this. Thankfully he manages to calm his brother by giving him both amulets to hold, blinding all the windows save the wind shield and blasting music at full volume for distraction. It earns him dirty looks from the said people for the commotion, but they are alive to do so, so Dante counts it as a win. Vergil falls asleep soon after, obviously still so distressingly weak. Dante is not going to cry about this. He is not.
Thankfully that's about the time the ladies come back with a teeny tiny, fluffy haired, cute enough to be lethal kid. That curses like a sailor after a long moment of awkward, silent staring between them.
Amazing. Dante likes him already.
The meeting goes amazingly smoothly after that. As does the continued drive home.
The kid comes with them.
Dante wasn't originally planning on it. He just really needed the kid to know there was someone out there and admittedly didn't think past that. Too many other things screaming in his head for attention right now.
He knows very well how complete strangers can become just like family to a lost little kid, and he isn't going to mess that up for others, especially his nephew. Dante has no illusions about his own fitness as a guardian. Add the frequent demon attacks on the shop and the fact Vergil will need time and space to recover enough to be even passably human again, and it just seems like a recipe for disaster to add a kid into that whole mix. For everyone involved but the boy most of all.
But that's before he learns about the shitty situation the kid lives in right now. As if an incredibly careless orphanage is not enough, there is a cult. A Sparda worshipping cult. Dante forces this knowledge out of his mind with great prejudice and swears to never ever think about it again.
Once the kid nods off in the backseat, carefully separated from Vergil-Nelo-Angelo-Vergil by Dante sitting in between them, Lady assures him she will take care of that. Trish is currently driving but the way she smiles a blood thirsty smile into the rear-view mirror means his friend won't be alone in that. Dante nods thankfully and swallows down nausea. He lets his head fall to the back rest and stares blankly at the roof of the car. This will be a shit-show, won't it.
....
Oh god, he will have to childproof the shop.
----
Having a formerly brainwashed but steadily recovering brother and a suspicious but clingy little kid suddenly filling the shop is certainly a change, to say the least. His shop has never felt quite so cramped as during the adjustment period of the two new inhabitants. Talk about a lot of big personalities sharing a small space. Dante is blisteringly happy with the way this is turning out, but could really do with less shouting from Devil Arms, skulls and human-demon hybrids alike.
Ouch, the sensitive ears.
A few weeks after they have made it back Lady and Trish take a 'vacation' and come back markedly more tan, dripping with smugness and smiling gleefully. Dante resorts to never ever ask any questions. He does not want to know more about anything to do with Fortuna save for that one family, whose girl Nero really really likes. And thankfully they have decided to leave their former home and move closer to Capulet, so play dates are an official go and therefore a regular part in Dante's life now. It's kind of mind-boggling but he is not going to refuse the parenting help his new friends give him. They are surprisingly good at it, considering the whole cult thing.
And he desperately needs it, too. There is a teeny tiny child and an overly demonic brother both following him around everywhere he goes now, after all. He can sure see the family resemblance, actually. It's hilariously cute to watch them eye each other mistrustfully, both similarly reluctant to let Dante give his attention to the other. Like father like son, indeed.
Which all leads them here.
Dante squaring off with his little nephew about the importance of eating his veggies.
The irony is not lost on him.
"NO!" Nero declares, with great finality.
He looks exactly like Vergil did when he refused to eat broccoli as a child. Dante's chest aches.
"Yes," he counters. "You gotta eat the veggies, Nero, or you don't get the ice cream. That's the deal."
God, he feels like his mother. Dante has not had much thought about the future, before, but certainly he didn't imagine himself parenting a child.
The actual parent in this situation is currently sitting beside the kid, mechanically eating his vegetables like a good boy. Even the broccoli. Which Dante admittedly may have forgotten he disliked before being so abruptly reminded just now, but Vergil shows no preference in food nowadays, so hopefully it's fine.
Nero scowls mightily and demonstrably shovels the veggies over onto his father's plate. He is very careful not to touch the things with his bare fingers all the while, as if they are violently toxic substances instead of benign vitamin sources or whatever. Dante swallows a laugh, pressing his lips together against it. He is pretty sure he isn't supposed to encourage these kind of shenanigans but by god, they are hilarious.
"Nero," he warns but his mouth is twitching into a helpless grin despite his best efforts and as such, the effort is utterly lost on the stubborn boy.
Nero, plate now empty, points triumphantly at it, then at Dante, and hops off his chair to run to the kitchen. Presumably in search for the said ice cream. Dante laughs after him, stuffs his own leftover veggies into his mouth -he is supposed to be a good role model, right?-, and grabs the three now empty plates. Vergil having eaten the additional food with no complaint, of course.
He sure does love to eat, this twin of his. Dante marvels a bit about how much food he can pack away. The fact that it's probably because Vergil didn't get to eat much in the last decades is not lost on him and dampens his good mood a bit. But it's fine, Verge can eat as much as he wants now, Dante is more than happy to fork all his food over to him, after all.
He brings the dirty dishes into the kitchen and watches Nero struggle with the fact that Dante has placed the ice cream on the highest shelf of the freezer, way out of tiny little children's reach.
He learned that one fast.
"Problems?" he asks with a grin, laughing even more when the sprog turns to scowl at him.
The kid is standing on his tiptoes, hand stretched up as far as it will go. It just about brushes the underside of the shelf.
"I want ice cream now. I ate all the yucky things, so I get ice cream." Nero scowls mightily, familiar sulky expression on his face.
The kid isn't even ten yet and already big on the teenage rebellion. Dante finds it far more endearing than he probably should.
"You didn't eat your veggies. You gave them all to Verge, is what you did."
"But it got eaten. So there."
So there, indeed.
He reaches out to ruffle the kid's hair and gets incredibly sharp little teeth buried in his hand for his trouble. He snorts at the kid. Nero has taken to expressing himself a bit more demonically since he has gotten to the shop, his infernal blood slowly settling and properly integrating from the repressed chaos it was when they picked him up. It's good, but ends with many a scratch and teeth marks on people and furniture in the shop. Kinda feels like having a tiny little bloodhound around, really. Dante vaguely remembers something similar from his and Vergil's own childhood, so doesn't worry about it.
As such he knows very well that the kid won't let go until he gets ice cream now. With another laugh he lifts him off his feet and swings him back and forth for a few minutes, Nero holding on admirably well.
"Hah, did you get stronger, little man?" he asks gleefully. "You are holding on better than before."
His nephew's jaw strength is improving. Dante barely managed to lift him off his feet the first time before Nero had to let go and fell back to the ground, but now the cute little teeth are buried bone deep and not letting go.
His nephew is such a funny little boy, Dante adores him.
"Well, good job, kid."
Vergil wordlessly sticks his head into the kitchen, clearly not willing to wait any longer himself. Impatient sugar maniacs, the both of them.
God, Dante loves them both so much. He just has to stand there for a moment and uselessly try to come to grips with how much better his life is now.
While being cursed at and tugged about for just standing around doing nothing, of course. Neither father nor son like inactivity all that much. And they want their ice cream.
----
Nelo Angelo likes waking up like this, wrapped all around the kind demon that has taken Nelo into his den. He buries his face into soft hair, arms tight around the sleep warm body to pull him even closer. He inhales deeply and purrs contently at the familiar scent filling his lungs.
Home.
It is the first thing he smelt when he woke up that first time. When this demon took off the painful, suffocating armour and set him free. And as if that is not enough, as if Nelo is not already deeply in debt, the demon took him here, into his nest. Gives him food and shelter and allows Nelo to be in his presence, share in his power. He even gave him his own magic charm to hang around his neck. Nelo likes to hold it in his hand while something deep whithin him slowly but surely wakes up to its calming presence.
Everything here is infused by the demon's power. Nelo merely has to reach out for it, if he wants to brush the comfort of it, twisting it with his own. It is a feeling vaguely familiar, but he does not remember it yet, no matter how much he reaches. Still, something stirrs in his mind, getting closer and closer. Nelo does not mind not understanding for now. He knows that he is safe here and that nothing can touch them with both of them here to protect the den. That is all the knowledge he needs.
He tugs the demon closer, wraps himself tighter around the smaller form -the fact he is taller always sparks a strange feeling of smug pride in him-, intent to give the same sense of security back as best he can.
It is early yet, so he settles down, eager to sleep away his time as long as he can. Sleep is good. He likes sleep. He likes it best when the other demon is there with him, wrapped in his arms. The demon always smiles when he wakes like this and laughs loudly when Nelo refuses to get out of bed or let the other leave.
This is good.
Of course, with the little nestling running around the den, peace does not last long.
Vergil's eyes fly open as a loud crash echoes around the house.