Devil May Cry (Dante/Lady)
Date: October 2, 2007
Pairing: Devil May Cry Dante/Lady
Title: Road Trip
Author: Dmcladyinred
Rating: PG for language and concepts
Word Count: About 1, 938
Summary: Dante joins Lady for a road trip. He suspects something is wrong.
Author’s Note: This is horrendously late. I do apologize. Sometimes real life gets in the way. Not only is it late, it’s unfinished. For that circumstance I apologize even more. I start out to write a short, short story, and the blasted thing becomes determined to be a novel. Anybody out there have any good advice or suggestions?
Disclaimer: I don’t own Devil May Cry, Dante or Lady (damn it!) Capcom does. I’m not making any money off this, so please don’t sue.
Prompt: Traveling the open road together - “Can I go nowhere with you?”
The moment he stepped through the garage doors she knew it. Mary Arkham, who more commonly went by the nickname “Lady,” continued to tighten the straps on her motorcycle’s saddled bags in a nonchalant manner. She stilled the trembling in her hands. It would never do to have Dante Sparda think she might be nervous.
She concentrated on the senses that warned her of his presence. The tiny scrape of his boot against the concrete, the subtle shift in the quality of the light, the minute change in the air flow as his body momentarily blocked the door, and most of all, the rich, spicy fragrance of the aftershave he had specially blended just for him in the herbalist’s shop on fiftieth street that emphasized the unique underlying scent that was undeniably Dante. There was one other thing as well; the faint, odd vibration that always told her when a devil was close by. That vibe kept her alive more often than not, and it helped make her one of the best, most deadly demon hinters in the business.
She whirled, drew her .45s and pointed them at him, just to let him know she was not in the mood to be toyed with. For an instant she saw both approval and male hunger in his ice blue eyes before he veiled them with the lazy contempt that suckered demons and humans alike into believing he was too stupid to be a threat to them. Her traitorous body responded to that hunger, sending a jolt of heat straight to her feminine core. The bastard sensed her response. His lips curved in an insolent half-smile and he said, “Hey Lady. Where you going?”
“Nowhere.” She holstered her guns and turned her back on him.
“I see.” He came to stand beside her. “Must be a long trip from all the stuff you packed. Can I go nowhere with you?”
She didn’t want him to accompany her, and he knew it. If she told him no, it would only fuel his determination. Lady pulled on her helmet, slung Kalina Ann over her shoulder and swung her leg over the bike.
“Suit yourself,” she said, “but don’t blame me if you can’t keep up.”
Kicking over the cycle, she gunned the engine, spun it in a half-circle and roared out of the garage, leaving him standing in the shadows. Like a swift, buzzing bee she darted in and out of the rush hour Metropolis traffic. When Dante appeared behind her on his massive hog she noticed he, too, carried the baggage for a long road trip. Lady laughed a wild and bitter laugh and threw caution tow the wind. She increased her speed and cut off other drivers with reckless abandon.
Dante clung to her tail like the annoying burr he was. Once he even got close enough for Lady to see his impudent grin. It spurred her on. She made the city limits in record time, and once she reached the highway she opened up the bike’s engine and flew down the road. The wind that whistled around her felt sharp and good against the skin of her face. Freedom burned inside her, sending a dreamy euphoria to ease her aching heart.
Dante continued to trail her, hanging back and following her lead. That fact alone disconcerted her and raised her suspicion. The damned canny devil knew or guessed something about her destination or her reason for going there. It pissed her off when Dante presumed he could insert himself into her private business without so much as a by your leave.
At midmorning Lady pulled off the road into a filling station. She parked her bike, swung off it, pulled off her helmet, and took a long stretch. The she walked over to the vending machine a bought a cola and a strawberry soda. Dante roared up on his massive red and black bike, parked it next to hers and killed the engine. Before he could even get off the bike, Lady lobbed the bottle of pop at his head.
With a quick, casual grace his left hand shot up and snatched the bottle out of the air. He examined it, cocked his head slightly and raised his eyebrows. She said nothing, so he shrugged his shoulders, opened the cap and downed the drink in an unbroken series of swallows. Lady watched the movement of his throat and burned.
She wanted him with all the passion in her, and the thought that she would never have him now hurt worse than all her other pains combined. Maudlin, self-pitying tears rose up unbidden, making her breath catch a little. She fought them back, determined Dante would not see anything wrong.
A swallow of cola washed away the last of the treacherous tears. Dante finished his pop and sank the bottle in the trash can twenty feet away. He leaned forward on the handlebars and said, "We're unquestionably down in the boondocks, but I don't think this is 'nowhere' yet. It's not quite desolate enough."
Lady showed her teeth in a small, feral grin. "Mind like a steel trap. A rat trap."
Dante's half-smile returned. "You ought to treat me better, babe. I've always done right by you."
"Oh, yeah. Mooching meals, refusing jobs, borrowing money...."
"Hey, I pay you back. When I feel like it."
"The only time you feel like it is when I badger it out of you. What do you want, Dante? Why are you following me?"
His face fell into solemn, straight lines. "I had a dream. I saw you falling into a dark place. Maybe it was prophetic. Maybe it was memory. Maybe it was just the damned olives on the pizza. It doesn't matter. Friends don't let friends go into the dark alone."
A chill sense of fatality swept over her. "I can't stop you from following me." She limped to her cycle and mounted it. "Let's go."
Engines roared to life and they peeled out of the lot, winging down the highway like a pair of fierce predatory birds. At midday they rolled into a fast-food drive through, grabbed meals and rolled out again. To Lady's amazement, Dante paid.
The road drew them onward. Lady jacked up their speed, risking the wrath of state troopers and local cops alike. Dante made no protest only matched her mile for mile. At dusk they stopped at a little cafe in a small town. Their outfits drew a lot of stares as they walked in and slid into the worn red plastic seats of the booth. A little boy of about four with fair hair and apple cheeks waved his chubby hands at them and crowed, "Trick or treat!"
Dante grinned. "Smart kid." He flipped open the menu and read aloud, "Number Six. Genuine, imported, old-west style mountain oysters. I think I'll have those. You like oysters, Lady?"
She had to work hard at keeping a straight face. She'd been here before and asked about number six. The waitress, a pretty girl of about seventeen, came over at Lady's gesture.
"Would you explain to the gentleman about the oysters?"
The girl blushed, then leaned over and whispered into Dante's ear.
His ice blue eyes went wide in shock, and he blurted, "I'll just have a steak sandwich and fries. And a beer. Two beers."
Lady and the girl burst into laughter. Dante’s cheek bones colored and he glared daggers at them.
“Damn it, I’m a city boy,” he muttered. “How the hell was I supposed to know they were a bull’s balls?”
The women continued to giggle on and off as Lady ordered a Cobb salad and iced tea. The waitress departed and Lady excused herself to go to the restroom. On her way there, in a narrow hallway next to the kitchen, she came across the waitress delivering their order.
Catching the girl by the arm she said, "Do me a favor. My friend is too embarrassed now to ask, but he likes olives. Would you have the cook add them to his steak sandwich?"
"Sure. Black or green?"
"Oh, both. Lots of both. Add it to my tab."
"Okay."
Lady dallied a long while, washing her hands and face and combing her inky hair. She returned to the table to find Dante grousing and flicking olives off his sandwich on to his plate. He cast her a filthy look.
"You're a wicked, cruel woman, Lady."
She picked up a rubbery black ring, downed it and smacked her lips noisily. "M-m-m. Good."
He narrowed his eyes. "Disgusting. Did I mention wicked?"
Lady widened her eyes and batted her lashes as if to say, "Who, me?"
He shook his head, slinging his tattered bangs across his eyes. Those eyes danced with merriment, however, and he muttered, "Evil...."
They finished the meal, paid and walked out of the cafe. As Lady passed by Dante's bike she came close to his sword, Rebellion. Agony shot through her. She staggered, almost doubling over. Cold sweat dappled her skin.
"Lady, what's wrong?" Dante placed a gentle, steadying hand on her elbow.
Forcing herself upright, she jerked away and hissed through clenched teeth, "Nothing. Stomach cramp."
Dante raised one eyebrow in a gesture that would have made Mr. Spock proud. "A stomach cramp that makes you limp?"
"You know why I limp. You were there on Temen-ni-gru."
He said nothing in reply. Lady mounted her bike, fighting against the hurt. Her vision swam as her inner thigh settled against the saddle of the cycle. Without hesitation she turned the key and kicked over her machine. Revving the engine only once, she moved out of the lot at a sedate pace. Lady kept her speed down even after she left town, torn between the urgent need to reach her destination in time and the pain that still made white spots dance before her eyes. For long hours she drove them onward through the darkness until the repeated drifting of her ride across the center line forced her to call a halt. She stopped at a roadside park that had a circle for making a campfire in it.
Dante looked around and said, "I got to admit, this is nowhere."
"This? This isn't nowhere. This is plumb."
"Plumb?"
"Plumb out in the country."
Lady unslung the corded bundle of firewood she’d brought with her and went hunting tinder and kindling. She cleaned the circle and laid the wood. Pulling out her matches, she was about to light her paper starter when Dante grinned and made a quick gesture. Fire danced around his gloves and boots. With a casual flick of his pointed, clawed forefinger her woodpile burst into roaring flame.
She startled and he laughed. Composing her face into a mocking mask of a frozen smile and lifted brows she drawled, "That's new and special."
"Just a little something I picked up on Mallet Island. Called 'Ifrit.'"
"Ifrit, huh. Cute. Does it work for anybody or just you?"
"Don't know. I'd let you try it, but I'm not in the mood for toast."
"Just what are you in the mood for?"
"Hot cross buns."
Lady pelted a chunk of wood at him. His teeth, showing a hint of fang, flashed white as he incinerated her missile in mid air.
"Paybacks are a bitch, Lady, and I've only begun to fight."
"You're in for a rough time then. You've already used all your ammunition."
Weariness assailed her as she turned away from him and tugged her sleeping bag off the back of her bike. When she turned back he had vanished into the darkness.