Work Text:
When the twins returned from the underworld it was clear that they needed time to adjust to pretty much everything – from being back among humans to sharing living space without tearing at each other’s throats – and that adjusting to each other presence seemed the hardest part for both of them.
Trish was genuinely surprised when she saw that Vergil had followed Dante through the portal, she was almost sure that he’d much rather stay back in the underworld - where he was considered a king - instead of choosing to live in the human world.
Apparently, she was wrong, and that dumbass had finally understood what really mattered in life.
That, however, didn’t necessarily make things easier because, while Dante had never been particularly territorial, his inner demon was not too pleased with having to share his space with another powerful demon – especially if this demon was his brother.
Vergil on the other hand was extremely territorial and the fact that he had no claim on his twin’s territory drove him up the wall with barely contained rage.
After stopping them 3 times right before they could seriously start fighting, Trish realised that maybe they needed just that – one big fight to get all the pent-up aggression out of their system so that they could move on and actually talk about the issue at hand.
So, she left them – her only warning was not to tear down the entire building.
She told the others that it was better to leave them alone for some time, it wasn’t easy stopping Nero from going there and rip them a new one, but Trish serious tone when she told him it would be a very unwise choice was enough to deter him.
Trish expected many things when, after a month and half, she decided it was time to see if both twins were still alive. She expected to see a wreckage of furniture, splatters of blood on the walls and the likes. She knew that two powerful demons like that could not share a territory, so she was curious to see who had come out victorious and who had been chased away to lick at his wounds.
Trish had seen her fair share of weird stuff in her life and she was pretty sure nothing could surprise her anymore, but she was sorely mistaken because the sight of what she found when she entered Devil May Cry left her speechless.
She expected many things, but what she did not expect was to find both twins, not only still in the same building, but also sharing personal space and looking utterly relaxed while doing so.
Dante was sprawled on the couch reading one of his magazines while Vergil lied on top of him, his face hidden in the crook of Dante’s neck, and judging by his even breathing he was sleeping.
“What is it Trish? Cat got your tongue?” Dante had dropped his magazine on Vergil’s back and was looking at her upside-down with his head hanging from the end of the couch and he had a stupid grin plastered on his face.
The demoness still couldn’t quite believe the sight before her – they couldn’t be comfortable, the couch was far too small to accommodate the two of them and yet they were willing to rest like that, with one of Dante’s legs dangling from the side and both of Vergil’s feet pulled up awkwardly on the armrest.
She was brought back to the present by Dante’s laugh. “What? Are you disappointed by the lack of bloodshed?” The demon hunter joked.
“This is …” she paused, looking for the right words “Unexpected.”
Trish could not take her eyes off Vergil, who was still sound asleep – she never thought he’d ever let himself be so vulnerable in someone else’s presence.
The elder twin had always been Dante’s enemy and Dante’s enemies were her enemies – she was a full-blooded demon and she couldn’t help the instinct to exploit another demon’s moment of weakness.
Dante noticed her gaze and brought a hand up to curl around his twin’s neck protectively – making it clear that Vergil was not, in fact, defenceless – he trusted Dante enough to let his guard down, sure that his brother would watch over him and protect him if necessary, and Dante would do just that.
“Come on Trish, he’s not so bad when you get to know him.” Dante gave her a toothy grin, showing a mouth full of sharp fangs. Trish could easily read the not-so-veiled threat behind his friendly mask ‘if you want him, you’ll have to fight me’.
Trish took a step back and raised her hands in surrender, but she was smiling. She walked up to Dante’s desk and sat down on it.
“So, tell me about him.”
“It’s a long story.”
“We have time.”
“All right, all right” this time it was Dante who raised his hands in surrender, “What do you wanna know?”
“First of all, how did you two get from clawing at each other’s faces to this.”
“Well it was not immediate, nor it was easy. You know me Trish, I’ve never been particularly territorial, but Vergil … well Vergil is another story, so we had to work through that first”
“I imagined. If I must be completely honest, I thought I’d find only one of you here. Never seen two equally powerful demons share the same territory.”
“Yeah we had one big fight over this. As I said I’m not territorial but, instincts are a bitch and I felt always on edge because I perceived Vergil as a threat, which makes sense given our history. And my dumbass brother took any sign of hostility as an excuse to attack me, which made everything all the worse. We’ve never been good at talking but I couldn’t take the continuous fighting anymore, so I just told him that it had to stop.”
“That’s it? You told him and he agreed?” Trish stared at him with a raised eyebrow.
Dante chuckled “I don’t think Vergil has ever agreed with something I said” he shook his head and continued “He told me he’d leave so that I could go back to my life, no more fighting needed. That was his solution. Of course, that’s not what I meant when I said, ‘no more fighting’ so I did one of the stupidest things I’ve ever done in my life – I hugged him.”
“YOU WHAT?”
“I hugged him.”
“And he didn’t stab you?”
“He didn’t. Well not immediately at least, only when I made fun of him for being soft.”
“You’re unbelievable.”
“Anyway, turns out my dear old brother” Dante paused and patted Vergil’s back “was missing some love too.”
“How is he still sleeping?” Trish was genuinely perplexed at how Vergil didn’t wake up with them talking and Dante moving around under him.
“Oh that. Vergil always slept like a brick when we were little. I could literally jump on his bed and he’d sleep through it. I don’t think he got any peaceful sleep since then.” Dante expression clouded over at the thought and Trish felt a pang of sadness for him.
“He seems at peace now. He must feel safe with you.” She tried to cheer him up a little.
“I hope he does.”
“Anyway, I can’t believe you just resolved everything with a dumb hug.”
“I did not. It was just the first step in the right direction. As I said he’s pretty territorial, so he had to claim at least one bathroom and a room, that room being the library of course. Then he bitched for a week about how everything was a complete mess and proceeded to maniacally clean everything up which pissed me off to no end because having him moving around MY stuff like he owned the fuckin place drove me up the wall”
“That’s exactly what being territorial means, you know that right?” Trish teased him and Dante huffed “You know I’m not like that Trish, I’ve never minded having you or Lady messing around here. It’s his fault for being – ugh – I don’t even know.” The devil hunter glared at his still sleeping twin and raised a hand.
For a second Trish thought he would roughly wake Vergil up and start another fight, but Dante’s gaze softened, and he lowered his hand to rest on his brother’s back. He let out a breath.
“It turns out that while I was okay with sharing living space with my brother, my demon instincts were not completely on board with the whole living together thing which made me snap at everything he did and of course he did not take my aggressiveness well. We had another bad fight after a while and Vergil did leave after that – only for like two hours – but it was enough to send me into full panic mode.” Dante chucked, but Trish could see that his smile didn’t quite reach his eyes.
“It’s natural, you know? You were not acting strange, it’s normal to react like that when there’s an equally powerful demon in what you always considered your space. But it seems you managed to work through your differences. I just don’t really understand why you went against both your instincts and common sense to have him live with you.”
“I realised then that I could live with him writing his name on things like a fuckin five years old or taking my stuff without asking but I didn’t want to live without him anymore. We’ve been separated for so long, I just wanted him close.”
“Mmh.” The honesty in Dante’s tone left Trish unsettled.
“When he came back, I punched him in the face, but from there things really started to get better. We started to actually talk and well … turns out he used to take my stuff because he didn’t have any.”
Dante laughed, genuinely this time and Trish followed him.
The devil hunter proceeded to tell his friend everything that happened since then, Trish didn’t interrupt him and let him rant for as long as he needed, he joked around and told the rest of the story with a smile on his face.
“I’m afraid you forgot to tell me when you two went from trying to kill each other to screwing each other though.” Trish taunted with a knowing smirk.
“EXCUSE ME?” Dante screeched, jumping up.
The sudden movement was enough to rouse Vergil, who groaned without opening his eyes “Why do you always have to be so loud.” He muttered, but Dante ignored him.
“Why would you say that?!” He half-screamed at Trish.
“Oh please. I can smell you. And it’s not like I’m shocked or anything, just curious.”
At that Vergil woke up enough to realise there was someone else there – a demon – his senses were immediately alert. In a flash he was standing in front of the couch, putting himself between Dante and the possible threat.
Trish looked at him unimpressed and the elder twin snarled.
The demoness had to stifle a laugh, she knew Vergil could be extremely dangerous, but she could not take him seriously when he was snarling at her wearing lounge pants and a baby-blue t-shirt.
It was Dante who laughed.
Vergil whipped his head back to glare at his brother, who was stretching out his limbs. Once he was done Dante reached out and patted Vergil thigh trying to calm him and get him to sit down.
The elder twin turned around to stare at Trish, unconvinced, but sat down beside his brother.
“Care to explain brother?” asked Vergil, his voice controlled
“Well Trish came to see if we were still both alive and she asked me to fill her in on the latest … developments.”
“Very good, now that she acknowledged our health status she can leave.” Vergil moved to get up – most likely to show his unwanted guest to the door – but Dante grabbed his arm and pulled him back down. The elder twin didn’t come without protest this time, he growled at his brother in warning, but Dante chose to ignore him.
He draped an arm around his shoulders, that way he could easily stop him if he tried to get up again, “Now now, there’s no need to be so mean Verge.” Dante nudged at Vergil’s head with his own – a playful gesture – trying to make his brother understand that there was no need to be on guard, Vergil grunted but nudged his twin back. And just like that his stance relaxed, Dante let him go and he leaned back into the couch.
Trish watched amused the interaction, she still did not trust the elder Sparda but Dante did and she decided that that was enough, at least for now.
“Seems like things are … good now.” Trish said a bit tentatively, she knew that just because Vergil let Dante have his way now doesn’t mean next time he’ll be as kind. He seemed relaxed now, but his eyes never left her, she was a stranger to him – a stranger in his territory. But he let her stay because Dante wanted so, and that was enough for Trish to believe that maybe one day they will be able to almost get along.
“I told you! We fought a bit at the beginning, but we’ve settled our differences now and it’s all good! We even learned to share you know?”
“The only thing we managed to share so far is a bed, Dante.”
Dante gaped at him.
“And believe it or not, I’m not the problem here. He hisses if I accidentally use his socks.” It took a moment for Trish to realise that Vergil was talking to her, she didn’t expect him to even acknowledge her, let alone speak to her.
“Oh I do believe you, he told me a few things while you were playing sleeping beauty– ” Vergil narrowed his eyes at her but he didn’t seem actually mad at her for making fun of him, or if he was he didn’t let it show. “And poor Dante doesn’t even realise he acts upon his instincts.”
Dante stared unbelieving between his brother and his friend, feeling like he was caught in the crossfire. “Okay stop this, you two can go back at not talking to each other thank you.” Vergil snorted and Trish smirked, she was starting to appreciate the elder twin.
“And I do not hiss.”
“Yes, you do.” Vergil sneered, Dante rolled his eyes and groaned putting a hand in his brother’s face to push him away. “It’s unbecoming to lie to your friend little brother.” The elder twin taunted, “Oh my god shut up!” Dante let out an exasperated sound, grabbed a pillow and tried to smother his brother with it. Vergil snorted from beneath the pillow but didn’t seem particularly bothered by his twin’s antics.
Trish covered her mouth to avoid laughing out loud, she didn’t want to push her luck with Vergil, but she was honestly glad that they forsake the fight for territory in favour of brotherly squabble, at least for now. She knew the issue was not yet entirely settled, but they could worry about that another time.
‘I’m glad to see you finally happy’ she thought, “Please keep your clothes on.” She said instead.
“Trish what the hell?”