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"Do you want to be my mate?"
The question was sudden, and Nero didn't fully register that it was directed at him at all. "Huh?"
"Do you want to be my mate?"
"Your . . . mate?"
"Yeah." Dante looked over at him, not smiling, but not unhappy, either. He had been this way since their conversation over the journals he and Vergil had kept as children. Not to mention how he'd explained that he would watch all of his friends and family die before he would finally die alone long after others had forgotten their names. It had been heavy to say the least.
Nero decided to approach his cautiously. "What do you mean by that?"
"Demons take mates like humans and angels get married. And, since you and I are both partial demons, it only makes sense that we do that as well."
"What are you getting at, old man?"
Dante's flinch was in his eyes. "I want you to be my mate."
"Like . . . your lover?"
"Well, kid, demons mate for life. The bond is mental, physical and emotional, the binding of two souls together. It can't be broken or reversed."
"Wha-? W-well, augh, why me? I mean, of all people, why me?"
Dante shot him a look, head cocked and mouth tilted down in an uncomprehending frown. "Why not you? What more could I want?"
Nero started fingering the Order rings on his good hand that he'd never had the heart to remove. "Well, don't you want children or something?"
"No."
Nero really wanted to argue, to find out why, but the darkness and distance on Dante's face stopped him.
"Do you, kid?"
His response was immediate, but still tinged with the sadness of a life lost. "Not anymore. Not since Kyrie."
Dante nodded, sympathetic if not quite understanding exactly what happened. "I had a feeling you liked men more anyway."
Nero shook his head and nervously flicked his nose. "Yeah. Learned that the hard way."
Dante chuckled and stood up. "Well, you don't have to decide right now. I'm gonna go get pizza."
Nero knew Dante was escaping the situation, but that was okay. Nero needed time to think, and Dante needed to recuperate the courage that he needed to even as the question.
Nero had never been in Dante's room. Not that there was any rule about it, Dante's door was just always shut. Not to mention that Dante was an unpredictable insomniac, made so by many years of customers calling at all hours. He didn't sleep much more than three hours at any given time.
However, this morning, Nero was leaning against the door frame of Dante's room, watching the elder hunter dress.
"I have a condition, old man."
Dante looked at him out of the corner of his eye. "Oh yeah? For what?"
"For your mating."
Dante stood to full height then, face passing into seriousness semi-masked by nonchalance. "Okay. Name it, kid."
"I expect to see a ring."
Dante outright laughed at him. "Sorry to disappoint, kid, but demons don't wear rings. I do, however, have another big shiny rock I can offer you."
"Oh really?" He looked dubiously at the sparse, but tidy furnishings of Dante's red, black oak and white linen room.
Dante turned to the small bedside table where a small red velvet jewellery box rested. Dante handled the gold-inlaid piece carefully, as if it was a newborn or priceless. He opened it, turning back to Nero. Inside were a teardrop diamond bracelet and a massive blood-red diamond with a gold clasp on a looped leather necklace. "The, ah, bracelet is an option. I know you don't like people seeing your demon arm, so this beauty will cast a glamour on it. Looks and feels human. The necklace belonged to my mother as a gift from my father. She gave it to me to wear before she died." Dante got quieter. "I want you to wear it."
"Holy crap, Dante." Nero breathed. "You're serious right now?"
Dante nodded without Nero actually needing a reply.
"You put a glamour on it . . . my arm would . . . But, I-I don't have anything for you! Dante, I . . ." Nero breathed out a huffed laugh in wonderment. "You're something fucking amazing." He rolled his eyes at Dante's nervous grip on the box. "And of course I'll wear the fucking necklace."
Dante beamed, smiling unlike anything Nero had ever seen. He stepped forward and took the necklace out of the box, gently looping it around Nero's neck before tying it in a complex, but comfortable knot. He held the bracelet in the other hand, but didn't move to put it on, holding the Devil Bringer tenderly in the other, thumb stroking over the sharp and scaly knuckles. "Eh, it's not that much. Trish helped with the spell and it took a few times for me to get it right. Apparently I possess some kind of stronger magical field than her, so the spells I cast are stronger or something, I wasn't really listening. I didn't mean for it to be so small and thin, but that's the shape it turned out. I'm glad you like the necklace." His fingers tightened around the Devil Bringer. "And Nero, I don't want anything from you. Just you."
Nero shuffled nervously and pawed at his nose again. "Heh, ya know, it's not fair. Here you are, offering me everything, and all I have to offer pales in comparison. I'm sorry it's just me you got out of the whole deal."
Dante cocked his head, puppyish in his confusion. "Huh? How is it unfair? What more could I possibly want? And, God, this is far from everything, kid. This is just an heirloom." He tapped the blood-red diamond with a fingertip. "My father gave this to my mother like my grandfather did to my grandmother. It passes from lover to lover, and parent to child, then lover to lover. That necklace has seen my whole family line, which isn't too much to be proud of, considering they were demons." He chuckled to himself before stroking over Nero's bony knuckled once more and clasping the bracelet together. Immediately, red scales and blue ethereal flesh melted back down into pale, smooth skin and diligently trimmed nails.
Nero bit his lip to keep back his tears when he touched it with his own hand to find the skin warm and soft, smooth and malleable. Immediately, he wrapped both arms around Dante's neck, his not-Devil Bringer fisting in Dante's hair. "Thank you. Thank you so much."
Dante chuckled, wrapping his arms around Nero's trim waist and holding him close. "What kind of a mate would I be if I let you get hurt because of something I have the means to control? All I ask is that you take the bracelet off at home and on missions."
"Yeah, yeah. You got my yes all the way around. Dante, I'm just . . . happy, excited . . . nervous. I don't really know what to think.
"Good. I'm excited too, to be honest." Dante nuzzled into his neck. "I'm looking forward to waking up with someone in my arms." He hummed wistfully, lightly kissing the juncture of shoulder and neck. "Sleepy, lazy Sunday morning sex, then breakfast . . . followed by long, hot showers and more sleep."
Nero chuckled. "I'll make sure to be there."
"Mmm . . . I can imagine it already. You're skin's a lot softer than mine and I know you use the coconut vanilla shampoo and body wash set. One half of my bed will smell like it, won't it? Coconuts and vanilla to match the soft, snowy hair it's coming from . . ."
Nero smirked. "Who knew you're a romantic? Just something I'll have to get used to, I guess . . ."
Dante smiled into his skin. "I've been told I do a lot of talking during sex, sometimes dirty, sometimes romantic. Seems to carry over."
Nero barked a laugh. "I'll keep that in mind. Though, I'm sure I could find a lot of other good uses for a mouth like yours."
"Ooh, I'd like to see how filthy yours can get. Unfortunately for you, we have a mission this morning." Dante kissed his skin once more before pulling away. "C'mon, Nero."
"Lead on, Dante."
The next morning, Nero woke up to a raging case of morning wood and Dante nuzzling the already-healed mate mark on the back of his neck. Dante had a matching one around his Adam's Apple.
"Mmm." He rolled over in Dante's arms, taking his mate's lips in a slow, searing kiss that was all thick passion and dense tension. "Feel like fulfilling that fantasy of yours for morning sex?"
"Oh, absolutely." Dante pulled Nero's leg up over his hip, grinning wolfishly as he did so.
Trish smiled from Dante's desk as she heard Nero's low moan echo through the still shop. She dropped a letter, addressed to Nero, on the desk and carefully made her way, silently, from the building.
Dear my little Nero,
First of all, congratulations on the mating. Dante doesn't seem like it, but he'll make a great mate. I also wanted to warn you, since I'm sure Dante left this out, that once one half of the mating bond dies, the other follows. So, in short, do be careful. I want you two to live a long and happy life together. Best of luck. Oh, and pass on my regards to Dante would you? I'm happy he won't be alone anymore. Be good! I'm off the Caribbean for a month, so don't go burning down the shop!
With love,
Trish