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At this point Nero liked to think he was something of an expert on demons. Sure he was still the least experienced hunter he knew, but on any given beastie that got spat out of the underworld Nero could identify which parts to avoid and which to shoot.
After the sheer volume he’s had to deal with, he barely registered what most of them were.
This one was covered in spines? Then he’d just avoid ‘em and be done with it.
The last one just got a lucky shot was all.
Right in his back too. Bitch.
“Shit, Nero!” His uncle’s voice called out.
Funny thing though, it barely hurt. Which maybe should have been a sign of something much worse. If a demon’s trying to numb you then it probably has something worse than eating you planned.
“I’m fine old man,” Nero reached behind himself and pulled the thick spine out. It was roughly the thickness of a pen and hollow with traces of something that was glowing green mingled with the bits of his blood.
Dante grabbed the needle. “Ah crap. You got doused with some nasty stuff kid.”
It couldn’t be that bad though. He felt fine. Great even. Better than he had since they had split with Vergil and V.
Even with the brothers getting along now, leaving them alone was still a bit of a gamble, sometimes they’d come back bickering, others one of them would be dragging a very bloody twin back.
Dante had been fine, but the stains were always a pain to get out.
When were they supposed to meet up again? There weren’t any other demons here….
Nero could practically see the little smirk on V’s face. Could practically taste it too. A job well done kiss sounded really good right now.
“Nero?” Dante was waving his hand in front of Nero’s face. “Buddy you with me?”
V was somewhere in these tunnels… swiftly dealing with demons and probably exchanging snipes with Vergil. Maybe they have arguments in lines of poetry.
V’s voice. He wanted to hear V’s voice.
That low whisper he used for his rhymes. The low rumble in his chest when he chuckled at Nero’s lines.
Nero’s hand twitched. He didn’t want V, no. He needed him.
(******)
V didn’t like working with Vergil. He tolerated it, in an effort to keep a semblance of peace between the four demon hunters.
Splitting up in pairs of two, Nero and Vergil had been a disaster the one time they’d done it. And V didn’t want to speaking of what happened when he had been left alone with Dante.
Keeping up with Dante would be hard even without a cane.
He liked working with Nero, but the inevitable mess of having to retrieve the brothers or somehow even worse, when the brothers felt they had to retrieve him and Nero only to find them in the midst of celebrating a victory.
Preferably with Nero’s talons caging them both in.
So Dante with Nero, V with Vergil it was.
Vergil sneered at the bodies of their prey this time. A nest of grotesquely twisted human forms. The spines growing out of their arms coated in a toxin.
V had no first hand knowledge of them, but knew what the poison did. The same way he knew what Eva would make when the twins were sad.
No specific memory, but an ingrained sense of knowing.
Luckly keeping his distance was something V was very equipped for. At least until it was time for the killing blow.
Getting hit with one of those spines was far more trouble than it was worth.
“I hope you’re smart enough to not get hit,” Vergil said.
“Only a reckless fool would let himself get incapacitated by something as base as a heat triggering toxin.”
But there was a worry, a lingering concern in the back of V’s mind. After all, he did know a reckless fool.
The tunnels rumbled around them. The next had crumbled to ash and dust, leaving very little supporting the rocks above their heads.
“I believe that is our que to leave. The others must have gotten to the heart before us.” V commented. He tapped his cane on the ground to ask Shadow to lend him enough speed for an exit.
“Don’t get buried.”
Vergil needed to be careful, he almost sounded like he cared. Or perhaps he wished to avoid Nero attempting to turn Yamato on him.
V kept pace regardless.
(******)
V knew something was terribly wrong the moment he saw Dante pacing back and forth without Nero.
The rumbles from the Earth hadn’t ceased.
“Verg, you need to take V and get him out of here.”
What? “Where’s Nero?” V asked.
“Busy for not much longer I would guess,” Dante then started to push V away from the cavern entrance.
“I am not leaving without him.”
“Trust me, you don’t want to be here when he comes out. Verg, help?”
“You left Nero alone in there?” Vergil accused and decidedly not helping Dante get rid of V.
“Kid got hit, isn’t himself. He’s stuck in trigger mode and is in his first heat.”
A shiver ran through V. Nero was in heat? His first heat? V should be by his side not running away! “Let go of me.”
“Nope. Look, I get it. But-”
“An artificial first heat is going to be much harder on Nero’s mind,” Vergil interrupted. “The boy likely isn’t capable of rational or human thoughts.”
“And if he comes to and finds he mauled V it’s going to be months of moping. Maybe years.”
“We cannot leave Nero here alone in his state.”
“The heat should die down when the toxin leave his system, right? I can take him in a fight for that long. And he won’t feel nearly as bad about ripping me a new one if that happens.”
“If we’re going by people Nero won’t mind bringing harm to, he’s refused to spar with me.”
“Because you secretly went easy on him.”
“I did not!”
“Then you’ve gotten so rusty that a kid can beat you?”
“The once.”
V didn’t care for their arguing. Nero was in heat. In pain. And alone in a collapsing tunnel. “What if Nero doesn’t make it out?”
“He’s tough, and I can dig him out.”
“I’m not leaving until I know he’s safe. We can worry about what to do with his heat after.”
“Look, your sweet kid. Disgustingly so, but if Nero sees you it’s going to get bloody. And not the fun kind.”
“I am not leaving Nero.”
There was a sigh just out of sight and then a moment of sharp pain in the back of his neck. V had just enough strength to stay conscious just in time to hear a familiar roar.
(****)
Nero hated the smells. And the dust. The crumbling rocks kept slowing him down. Where was he? Where had V been squirrelled away from him?
He wasn’t hiding, he couldn’t be. His mate loved him and wouldn’t leave him like this.
V won’t leave him. Never. He’d drag V back by force. Back to their nest where Nero would keep him safe. Safe and in his arms and unable to ever be apart from him again.
There! Light, an exit from this wretched place.
And there was V. Slumped in the arms of another, unconscious while the two men around him bickered.
Still but breathing.
And his.
And no one would take him away.
“Damn, he’s faster than I thought. Okay new plan?”
“If you’re still certain we can keep him away, I can hold Nero off for a time.”
No! V was his!
“Mine!” Nero growled as he launched himself towards his other half. In an instant, a flash of blue lightning, he had knocked the interloper to the ground. He was too winded stop Nero from taking his mate back. Cradling the unconscious body to his chest with arms while his wings readied to defend what was his.
The blue one sneered at him but removed the hand from his weapon.
Nero adjusted his hold on his mate while the other demon grabbed the red coat of the one on the floor and pulled him away.
Nero flapped his wings, kicking up dust and fragments of rocks and in a zap of power he took his mate to their nest.
(*****)
V had a headache. His limbs were sore and his body was stiff. The room was dark yet there was a familiar blue glow V could just see through the bleariness in his eyes.
He recognized the sheets beneath him too.
He was laying on his side, curled up on a bed he was no stranger to waking in.
“Nero?” V’s voice was cracked and dry.
A snarl near him. The source of the glow. Where?
V blinked slowly as the memories of what happened began to return.
He sat up suddenly.
The snarl turned into a growl.
There he was.
Covered in leathery scales, deep blue with red muscles, claws and horns, and an extra set of hands resting on his shoulders with wings attached.
A lesser man might have been afraid. V’s heart raced with a different feeling all together.
“Hello there,” V greeted. “My, don’t we look fearsome this evening?”
He got another snarl in return.
V moved slowly, settling himself onto his knees. His body complained about it, but a show of docility might bring out the parts of Nero more capable of speech.
“Did you steal me a way for a wicked purpose?” V asked. He didn’t expect an answer as Nero stood there like a statue. “I don’t mind you know. I wanted to see your wings more closely for a while now.”
It was true, they were beautiful.
V had wanted to touch them from the moment he’d seen them.
“I do hope so. It would be dreadful of you to tease me like this,” V continued. Not moving seemed to be what Nero, or more accurately Nero’s demon, wanted. The snarling had stopped.
V took stock of the room. There was a pile of what he knew were Nero’s unwashed laundry in the corner, shredded blankets and pillow stuffing from what looked like V’s room encircling him. Nero’s sheets below him, and blocking the door was the dresser from V’s room.
“You made us a nest,” V commented. “How sweet of you darling.”
His cane was nowhere in sight. A sign this Nero intended to keep him here? Like he’d run. His Nero needed him.
“I sleep better when you’re here anyway,” V smirked.
The claws at Nero’s sides twitched.
V reached out slowly, Nero’s stance at the foot of the bed, looming over him like some kind of grotesque, put him just in reach. “Come here darling.” V’s fingers just barely grazed the curled fingers before his back was flush against the bed. The wings reached up, claws pierced into the headboard above their heads. The body on top of him almost burning to the touch. The claws on both sides of him digging into the mattress and caging him in.
This was a confinement, yes. But one V did not find that he minded much.
Not when those horns were finally close enough to kiss and that hair falling and brushing his cheek.
“Sweetheart,” V called. He placed his hands on both sides of that face. Nero was bigger like this. Taller, broader, but there in that face were still the features V liked most.
Still no verbal response.
“You know, I was almost excited when I heard what had happened. I won’t deny the idea of you needing me fills me with the warmth of the upper layer of the underworld. I’m glad you whisked me away. Though I’m starting to miss our banter.”
The claws removed themselves from the bedding and V grinned as those same hands gripped his thighs.
The sooner Nero took what they both wanted the sooner this taciturn beast would give way to his beloved. V’s pants weren’t taken off in any kind of smooth move, no they were ripped and torn off. Shreds of black joining the nest’s lining.
He removed his hands to push himself upwards towards Nero’s ear. “Come on love, no use pretending to be shy now. Ravage me.”
V was shoved back down, the air in his lungs swiftly escaping. One of the wings, with its massive taloned hand gathered his wrists and held them above his head. Despite being plenty sharp they didn’t draw blood.
“Even like this darling, you would never harm me. I know that.”
Nero kissed him. Either tired of his mouth or whatever part of Nero’s rational thoughts grateful for the acknowledgement. Nero would never hurt him.
V struggled just a little in Nero’s grasp. He wanted to cling to those shoulders while that tongue seemed determined to try and taste his very soul. V moaned into it.
There was something pulsing between them. Something large and hardening and… oh. Oh gods and devils.
Nero’s length changed with the rest of him. An obvious observation. It was just as inhuman as the rest of him. Pulsing with energy glowing like Nero’s Devil Bringer arm.
“Fuck,” V swore as the realization that there was little way that thing was going to fit. His body could handle Nero comfortably, but the monstrosity threatening his insides now could very well be the death of him.
Nero was going to owe him for this. There was no way on this or any other world that he was going to walk tomorrow.
(*****)
When Nero first regained consciousness the first thing he noticed was the body in his arms. Instantly recognizable as his lover’s. Nero smiled into the dark strands of hair and nuzzled into V’s neck. Finding his hands to intertwine their fingers was easy.
Until a soft groan of pain hit his ears. Gentle and low.
Nero was alert instantly.
Wait. What happened to his room? Why was everything torn up?
Memories came flooding back. Yesterday. The mission. The spine poison. The attack on Dante and subsequent kidnapping of V.
Nero looked down at V’s sleeping form.
Bruised wrists, bite marks almost everywhere.
No blood, but other fluids were staining the sheets beneath him.
V’s face made it look like he was in pain, even as he slept.
What had he done?
V groaned those eyes blinking awake slowly.
Nero scrambled away. He’d…No. He should…
“Nero? Are you back to yourself?” V asked. Like this was a normal morning and everything was okay.
V asked him a question He should answer. “I…Yes.”
“The one benefit of artificial heats, they don’t last quite as long. A small mercy for both of us I suspect.” V moved to laying on his back to stretch himself.
The bruises on V were somehow more extensive than his markings.
V’s eyes were closed again. “Nero, I can’t read minds. Not even yours, if there’s something you feel you need to communicate, you need to say it.”
“I’m sorry,” Nero rushed out.
“What? What for? Besides probably being a bit reckless with your safety.”
“You look…does it hurt?”
“I look what? Like my very energetic lover decided to partially use me as a chew toy to satiate his lust and forcibly awakened demonic instincts? Please Nero, if I had ever been afraid of you doing real harm to me I would have had Shadow skewer you to the point of immobility. But yes, you brute I will need assistance and a bath.”
Right. He could do that.
Gently, slowly, giving V all the time in the world to skewer him if he wanted, he lifted V into his arms.
“You caried me like this last night as well. Which compared to being treated like a sack of grain is appreciated.”
“You’re…not mad?”
“If Dante and Vergil don’t have my cane I will be.”
“And you’re…sure it doesn’t hurt too much?”
“You de-commissioned my legs and lower back. I won’t be able to sit or walk for today at least. But I know you’ll be a good boy and help me, overblown guilt over things you couldn’t fully control or not.” V rested his head on Nero’s shoulder, close enough to his throat that he must have been able to feel Nero’s pulse.
“Whatever you need.”
“If the Sun and Moon should ever doubt, they’d immediately go out,” V quoted. “We both are there to help each other in times of need. You needed me last night, I need you this day. I call that a fair trade. And make no mistake, you did not force yourself upon me. They wouldn’t allow that.”
“I should probably apologize to Dante though.”
“Fool thought he could keep a demon from his mate. He’s lucky you didn’t remove his arms entirely. Vergil may not be much better, but even he knew to leave it be.”
“I used to think I was better than that.”
“In that moment you were a demon, yes. But you were also still Nero. You didn’t want to kill him, just have me. Which you then did, much to my enthusiasm.”
“I think I still prefer it when you’re in charge.”
“That can be arranged. We still don’t know if this body can have heats of its own, but perhaps we’ll find out someday.”
Nero could feel him smirking. If nothing else, they were still okay. And in the end, that’s all that mattered.