Sweet and Salty

Things were rather quiet recently and this gave some of the demon hunters a lot of free time.

Dante and his crew visited his nephew's DMC branch ("To hang-out--", "To save up electricity bills..." Reese cuts off the older man) and so far, nothing major has come up yet. Work is going slow, not a single call for the day (and the past few ones before today), so everyone just went ahead and did things on their own to entertain themselves.

Reese and Tasha were in one corner, watching Nero teach Dante and V about the intricacies of the internet, while Nico was somewhere with Aradia, Trish, and Claudia in the garage, doing who knows what. Lady stayed in the kitchen along with Kyrie, presumably to get some snacks at the entertainment that is Nero's lost look towards explaining to V and an awfully amused Dante what internet humor is.

He hasn’t even begun explaining what memes are to the two but judging by Dante's extremely interested expression, Reese's phone would probably be filled with dumb memes soon enough. The very thought of him sending Reese memes made Lady and Tasha quietly snicker as Reese huffed, knowing that her phone won't be safe once Dante finally understands all those references that the children kept saying.

“Just know, one ‘ok, boomer’ meme and I am throwing his stupid coat out the window.”

“Wouldn’t it be more practical to sell it for money instead?”

“Kyrie, you’re absolutely right!”

"Hey, so, where are they at now?"

"V just asked what a meme is!" Tasha sighed fondly at her boyfriend's confused expression. Kyrie and Lady simply laughed and Reese snickered at Nero scratching the back of his head awkwardly, trying to correct both Dante and V's pronunciation of the word.

Everything was fine until a huge slam of the door where the garage was startled everyone, followed by muffled laughter and someone attempting to placate the fuming girl. Claudia gripped her phone tightly, her pink eyes stopped at the surprised form of her boyfriend. She marched towards him with the rage of a scorned lover while everyone stood back and watched the show about to unfold.

"H-Hey, what's up with you, Lame-dia--hey--!" Nero tried to joke, calling her out with their usual nickname-bantering but all he got was a handful of his girlfriend burying herself onto his chest. This made Nero flustered as he had never seen Claudia react this affectionately in public before. Not to say that he didn’t enjoy the feeling of her body pressed so closely against his, he certainly likes this side of Claudia a lot. However, he does need answers as to what overruled her apprehension against PDA with him.

And quite frankly, Dante's whistling and the loud guffawing from Nico and Lady wasn’t really clearing up anything.

Nero tried to ask Claudia if something was wrong but all he got was a mess of ‘it’s not fair’ and ‘no more grinding’. He switches to patting her head and rubbing her back as the stumped devil hunter looks at the other three for answers.

"Oh man, I'm--hahaha--!" Aradia wheezes, half-laughing and half hanging onto Trish who just shook her head in amusement. Claudia mumbles something incoherent in response as she simply buries her head further onto his jacket.

"Right, anyone mind telling me what got my girlfriend looking like she’s about to murder someone?" Nero raises his eyebrow in interest. “Cause I thought I’d done something to make her angry again.”

"And when exactly have ya not done something to make her mad, dumbass?” Nero glared at V who nodded without another word at Nico's comment. “‘Sides, ya ain't tellin’ me that yer not actually enjoying yerself." Nico smirks as the others made noises of various forms of agreement. Though Dante's not quite whisper of 'she has a point' and V's eye roll made definitely takes the cake as it made Aradia's laughter even louder.

"Nico… I think Claudia's also probably getting embarrassed from this." Kyrie added, a sympathetic smile making its way onto her face. The girl in question was unresponsive though Nero could tell that she was just hiding her face to avoid retribution at this point.

“You mean enjoying it?” Reese raises her eyebrow in amusement as Lady munches on her popcorn without any care.

"I say, let her be. Anyway, I'm sure Nero's not going to let her live this down." Tasha replies, failing to hide the mirth in her voice as Lady loudly agrees, letting Reese take a nice scoop of the popcorn she procured earlier.

"Okay, so, we were playing a, ahaha, game. And Claudia kept getting really, really, unlucky." Aradia explains, as she lets herself be manhandled by Trish. "Like the cursed luck you get when you try to scope out a bar and you only end up with assholes, that kind of awful luck."

"Anyway, so, she was aiming for this rather familiar and stunning young man that she really wanted but until the last of her tickets, she didn't get him. Which is what got her running in her real man’s arms."

"She technically did get someone..." Trish quips, amusement fluttering her face.

"She got the character's brother instead--Oh man, have you ever seen a woman’s face fall so bad when she saw who appeared? Imagine her waiting for Nero and she got some random look-alike instead… AHAHAHA--I can't breathe--" Aradia laughed once again, nearly falling over if Trish wasn't holding onto her. Nero looks helplessly lost, as he pats Claudia's grumbling form holding onto him tightly.

"Yeah, big deal, it's just a game. How come Nerdy's acting like someone stole her boyfriend or something?"

"Did she perhaps spend money...?" V looked a bit hesitant, not really understanding how someone could be so mad towards a leisure activity. His comment made Dante nearly fell off his chair, knowing the implications of carelessly spent money.

"Oh don't worry, it was all free. She's not irresponsible like someone here." Trish rolls her eyes, as Reese nods her head, muttering something about an $8000 dollar coat.

"Well, what does the character even look like that she wanted him so bad?" Lady jumped the gun and asked the question everyone wanted to know. That set off another round of laughter from Aradia, who was tearing up at this point as Nico takes out her phone and shows everyone the character portrait.

"Huh, okay... Silver hair, blue eyes, ragged old blue coat, nothing too--"

"D-Doesn't he look a lot like Nero?"

Everyone paused and suddenly all eyes were on the still hugging couple. Pink spread on top of the young devil hunter's face as the implication finally sets in.

Suddenly, the quiet room bursts into laughter.

“W-Wow Claudia… Wow…”

"I can't believe this, it wasn't enough she has the real deal, but a fictional version of Nero too?"

"It’s in our genes, Kid. Nerdy is definitely someone special to see it through... Don't let this one go."

“D-Dante--!”

"I... Can't tell if this is worrying or if this is sweet... Is Dia okay?" Tasha looks towards her two friends’ direction and asks Nero how Claudia is doing. Thanking Sparda that the attention finally shifted from him, he tries to adjust himself and his still clinging girlfriend as he was about to answer only to pause as he realizes something.

Claudia is asleep.

"She's... sleeping." Nero answered, surprise laced in his voice before sighed fondly, letting his hand brush over the strands of hair on top of Claudia's face. He slowly gets up as he carries the sniper in bridal style, earning some quick cat calls from Dante and Nico. He excuses himself from the room as he heads towards her bedroom.

"You have the real deal here, babe, but you still wanted me in a game..." He whispers softly as he lays her down gently. “That’s honestly kinda flattering… But also insulting..” Nero leans down and kisses her forehead as he heads back out to help clean up the mess everyone is sure to have made.

When she wakes up, he’ll make sure she’ll stop wanting any other versions of him except the real one before her.

---

“Hello, Devil May Cry--Reese?” Tasha’s eyebrows shot in surprise as Claudia looked at her friend questioningly. On the background, Tasha could make out voices of Aradia and Trish laughing and someone who suspiciously sounds like Lady holding back a screaming Dante.

Tasha just shrugs her shoulders at Claudia’s look making the sniper go back to whatever it was she was doing.

“Hey uhh, Tasha… Was wondering if any of you guys are interested in an $8000 dollar stupid red coat.” Reese ignores Dante’s plea for forgiveness and Trish mocking voice as she hears Tasha question the others.

When Reese hears Kyrie’s laughter and Claudia’s brief ‘serves him right’ through Tasha’s inquiries, she smirks and holds the offending red thing up high. Her gold eyes look over at Dante’s own nervous blue ones before smiling as triumphant as possible.

“Bingo, bitch.”