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“We’re partners now, got it?” Dante murmured into the moonlight as his eyes peered into Alto’s, the other man being slightly taken aback by the sudden glance.
“Could you repeat that, Dante? I don’t think I heard you,” the blue haired man inquired back as curiosity stained his yellow pupils, eager to listen to the Harbinger’s muttering.
“Hmph, I won’t repeat it again,” the Harbinger responded back, shifting back to his usual expression.
“Please?”
“Nope.”
…
Hildegardia was cold.
No matter how long Dante lived here, the frozen winds and bleak snows always sent a chill into his spine; not that he had minded, this was Hilda’s territory after all.
Although, he couldn’t find himself getting used to another presence of warmth slowly encroaching onto him.
“D-Dante! I-it’s so cold!” Alto jittered as he hugged himself, arms rubbing all over his chest to combat the frost.
“Hmph, you’re the one who decided to follow me all the way out here. Is the cold really enough to take down the commandeer of the Tuning Knights so easily?” The redhead teased, his face flashing teeth as he smirked at Alto’s vulnerable state.
“No way! I-I can totally stand this cold, yep!”
“Good. Now let’s get going, those angels aren’t gonna wait for us you know,” Dante remarked as he turned and marched onwards in the snowy terrain, uninterested in looking back to see if the other man would follow.
“Dante!” The commander yelped as he quickly gave chase, inciting a laugh from Dante.
The snow silently crunched as the pair walked together in Hildegardia, with only footsteps in the snow leaving any trace of the two behind.
…
“Mmm mhm! This roast meat is absolutely amazing Dante!” Alto chimed as he helped himself to the meal the Harbinger prepared for the day.
A consequence of a bet gone awry, the loser of their competition to take down the most angels had to cook for the day.
Dante unfortunately had barely lost to Alto by one angel, although he supposed he should be content with the fact they put all those bastards back into their place six feet underground.
Finally deeming the dish within his hands as finished, the red haired man laid the completed meal near the campfire and watched Alto devour to his heart’s content.
It reminded him of how he and the rest of the harbingers would eat together on rare occasions.
Hilda would often sit at the table, briefly chatting with Hrodulf while Dorothy pestered him into letting her help him. He had always refused her help; there’s now way he’d let the girl into the kitchen with the same chainsaw she used to pulverize angels.
“Is something the matter?” The blue haired man questioned as he noticed Dante’s piercing gaze. “I promise to leave some for you, I swear!”
“Tch, it’s not that, it’s just…”
“It’s…?” The conductor asked as he lowered his bowl to listen to the other.
“I er, don’t know,” The Harbinger grumbled, unknowing of how to express the emotions brewing within him.
“Well if you don’t know, then I’m going to keep eating! The soup you just made smells incredibly delicious!”
“You’re damn right it smells good!” Dante added with a pleased grin, prideful of his cooking and the other’s praise.
“Haha! Welp, I better start digging in, can’t let the food get cold now right?”
“Hey! Just because you won today’s contest doesn’t mean you can take it all for yourself,” Dante retorted as he quickly grabbed a bowl and partook in the meal.
It wasn’t dinner with the Harbingers but, he supposed that Alto didn’t make for bad company either.
…
Alto was a quick sleeper, the man managed to fall asleep the moment his head had hit a pillow. He almost put Mordimort to shame, although Dante had seen that girl somehow fall asleep in the middle of battle.
Glancing at his sleeping face, Dante gazed at the serenity that was plastered all over him.
His small snores, the way his arms tangled over everything and sometimes caught onto Dante, the gentle smile he made as he dreamt of whatever fantasies that occurred within his mind; it all caught Dante’s eyes.
He was in complete contrast to himself, with how Dorthy described his sleeping as “a totally un-cute and awfully silent hedgehog with a permanent scowl” which had made Hrodulf spit out his drink and Hilda giggle.
Whenever he saw Alto, his mind always wandered to the other Harbingers, always when they were together. Laughing, eating, making jokes…
It was as if they were like family.
Shaking the thought from his head, Dante immediately plopped his head onto his pillow.
Alto and him were partners, nothing more and nothing less. After all the angels were eradicated, the two would part ways.
He’d go back to Hilda, and Alto back to his village.
And yet, he couldn’t explain the inexplicable feeling that throbbed within his chest at the thought of that.
…
“Hey Dante, why do you look so grumpy?” Alto asked as he caught up to the other man, keeping pace with his agitated speed-walking. “I didn’t do anything to upset you right?”
The harbinger answered back in silence, his eyes directly focused onto the area ahead of him and away from the boy next to him.
“Dante please, talk to me,” The conductor stated as he looked at Dante with a confused expression, his lips curved into a frown and his eyebrows tightened.
“What?” Dante snapped, turning his head towards Alto with an irritated expression. “I just don’t feel like talking right now, something wrong with that?”
“I get waking up on the wrong side of the bed sometimes but it feels like you might just bite my head off,” Alto responded with a huff as he shrugged off Dante’s aggression. “But alright, sorry for bothering you. I just wanted to check up on you, that’s all.”
“Hmph.”
Marching in silence, the pair allowed the frozen breeze and blue skies of Hildegardia to engulf them.
It was the norm for Hildegardia, yet Dante felt all but normal today. His head stirred, his pulse quickened, and he felt heat rise to cheeks whenever Alto came near him.
Why did he feel this way?
However, a certain echo within the nearby foliage alerted the pair.
“Hey Dante, do you think what I think it is?” Alto quipped as he immediately unsheathed his blade from his scabbard; a maneuver ingrained into his very body from the many battles the pair fought.
“Get ready,” Dante grunted as a dark smirk graced his face as he tightly grasped the spear within his hands. “These damn angel bastards won’t even know what hit them when they’re done with us.”
…
“Huh, it’s a tie today,” Alto curtly commented as he sheathed his blade back into its compartment.
“So it is,” the crimson haired man replied back with disinterest as he retrieved his weapon from the ground.
“Okay, there’s something wrong with you today Dante!” Alto stated as he looked towards the other man with a serious expression.
“Huh? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“What I mean is that you’re incredibly moody today, you woke up ready to fight me, and now you’re completely uninterested in the competition that may I add, you started!”
“Well, I uh…” Dante uttered as he was taken off-guard by the other’s comments. Dante knew he wasn’t the best at hiding his emotions, but getting exposed by Alto of all people was salt on the wound. “Y-you just wouldn’t get it!”
“Then help me get it then! We need to talk Dante, please.”
“…”
He felt conflicted, he didn’t want to fight with Alto, but he didn’t know what to say.
How could he explain this burning sensation within him? Or how he thought of the other harbingers when he was with him? This nameless pain he felt whenever he saw Alto smile when they talked or ate meals together.
Like as if he longed, yet despised what he felt.
“…we’re partners, aren’t we?” Alto muttered as he looked at Dante sadly, his golden eyes glimmering brilliantly against the Harbingers' dull pair.
Partners.
Hearing Alto say it back made him feel light, yet terrified. He wanted to hear him say it over and over again until he would get sick of hearing it, but also couldn’t stomach the word ever leaving the conductor’s lips again.
“…yeah, we’re partners aren’t we?” Dante admitted as he let out a pained smile.
“You know Dante, that face you’re making, it reminds me of the Witches. Especially when they need to be tuned.”
“You want to tune me?” The Harbinger asked with a bemused expression at the other man’s suggestion.
“N-no not at all, er not that it would work on you anyways,” the blue haired man replied back while shaking his head frantically. “But it’s just that, you’re probably just having a lot of difficulty saying what you want to say.”
“I thought that’d be pretty obvious considering the situation we’re in right now.”
“Since I can’t tune you, I need you to tell me how you feel outright. I promise not to judge you any less for whatever you say,” the Conductor spoke with a small smile, pleased by Dante’s unusual vulnerability.
“Hmph, thanks for the honesty,” Dante scoffed with an eye roll.
“What’s been bothering you? The angels? Hildegardia? The food? Our contest?”
“You.”
“Ouch, but I guess that makes sense. What about me bothers you then?”
“Everything.”
“Be more specific!”
“Argh, this is a waste of time!” The Harbinger groaned as he carried his weapon and turned away to leave.
Alto immediately reached a hand forward to stop the other man.
“Hey! You can just treat your partner like-“
Dante instantaneously turned and grasped onto Alto’s hand, causing the other man to wince from shock.
“You want to understand how I feel so bad?” The Harbinger spat as he placed the conductor’s hand onto his chest, allowing the other man to feel the stammering pulse of his heart and the inferno that blazed within him.
“I do.”
“When I’m with you, it feels like I’m going to melt. I hate how whenever I see you smile, eat the food I make, or win our stupid little contest, I feel happy. I hate liking the fact I always want you by my side, that I can feel like I can rely on you entirely, and that maybe, just being your partner isn’t enough for me anymore,” Dante stated with fervor as his words indulged the conductor’s very ears.
“W-what do you mean Dante?” Alto muttered as a mad blush spread upon his complexion, his hand placed tightly upon Dante’s chest still. The blue haired man felt the erratic sensation within his hand, adding to his furious flush on his face.
“I don’t want to be partners anymore.”
“Huh?”
Dante took a breath, and slowly faced Alto fully; gray eyes interlocking with luminescent gold.
“I want to be more than partners. I want to be the most important person in the world to you just as… you have become to me,” the Harbinger let out as his face closed near Alto’s, staring at his bewildered face and the flush he had that probably paralleled his very own.
Dante felt like he could die at his very moment, it was liberating and yet also humiliating being exposed raw to Alto, unknowing of how he felt back.
“Dante I…”
He felt as if all the air within his body vanished, how he had to resist crumbling at this very moment to hear the other’s answer.
“…feel the same,” Alto confessed, his complexion even more vibrant than Dante’s hair.
“What?”
“I feel the same way too Dante.”
“So does that mean?”
“Yes, I also want to become more than partners with you too. I also… want to be the most important person in the world to you, just like you are to me.”
Seeing Alto repeat his own words back to him, a sense of solace flooded Dante’s body.
Watching the visible shift in the other’s demeanor, a fit of laughter erupted from the Conductor.
“W-what’s so damn funny Alto?!” Dante yelled at the other man’s abrupt giggling.
“I just realized that this whole time, you couldn’t stand being near me because you realized you had feelings for me,” Alto laughed as he glanced at Dante’s irritation, thankful to see him return to his usual self.
“S-shut up! You felt the same way too!”
“I didn’t have an entire temper tantrum about it though.”
“Hmph, well you better get used to it! You signed up for having this emotionally constipated Harbinger by your side,” Dante stated grunted with a huff as he turned away to avoid Alto’s gaze.
“Is it bad to say that I kinda like that aspect about you?”
“…you’re a real masochist, you know that?”
Laughter and teasing could be heard throughout Hildegardia, alongside the cold winds and blue skies that surrounded the pair, with only the soft crunch of their footsteps leaving behind the tale of the two.