A/N: This doesn't follow the exact storyline 100% perfectly, as there are some things omitted and changed slightly. Thanks for taking the time to read this and I apologize for any spelling and grammar mistakes.

"There's something I need to get off my chest."

—

When Dante told you about his newest job that had to deal with the massive looming tree that popped up over the city, you weren't sure what to think. Deep down you knew that he should be able to handle it. He was a legendary devil hunter for a reason, right? He told you not to worry, that he had it all under control and would have Trish and Lady there, along with Nero. It still made you anxious like crazy though. Having Dante as one of your best friends meant that your life was always full of worry as you constantly wondered if the smart mouthed half-devil was okay.

Now was one of those times and you chewed your nails absentmindedly whilst pacing around the Devil May Cry office. He and the others had left several hours ago, yet it felt longer than that as your feet followed the same steps that you'd been walking for nearly an hour. If you paced any longer, you were sure that you'd wear holes in the floor, and instead you opted to sit at Dante's desk. You laid your head down over your arms as you stared at the doors, waiting for them to come walking back in at any moment.

Your eyelids grew heavier the longer you stared ahead, unblinking. Just as you felt them begin to droop, the sound of the doors crashing open jolted you up. Quickly, you stood to greet the group but your excitement quickly turned to dismay as only two of the five seemed to have made it back. Your eyebrows furrowed in concern as you took in Nero's heavily bloodied form, and you reached out to touch his shoulder lightly. He raised his eyes to you and you could see a mixture of anger and guilt swirling within them. You now looked to V, who appeared relatively unharmed.

"What happened?" You asked, feeling a tightness in your chest at the absence of the others, "Where's Dante, and Trish? And Lady?"

"We... seem to have underestimated Urizen." V said slowly as his emerald gaze locked with your own. With each word he said, you felt your heart sinking lower and lower.
"Dante stayed behind to buy some time." You nodded, whilst biting back the tears that were sure to rise. You wanted so desperately to believe with all of your being that he would be alright, he just had to be, and so you held onto hope that was slowly beginning to diminish as the days turned to weeks, and those weeks into a full month.

By now, the city was nearly completely overrun by masses of demons. You made a choice to stay with Nero and Nico; someone had to look after the guy and Nico certainly wouldn't take it as seriously as you would.

"I'm sure he's okay," the mechanic would tell you whenever she caught you thinking about it too hard, "I've heard he's been through worse shit." You would only nod each time and plaster a small fake smile to your lips.

There wasn't exactly much you could do in the
ways of helping Nero or V with fighting the demons, but you would always be there to patch them up if they needed it or to help Nico with whatever her newest project may be. The hours were dragging on as you waited for Nero to return. Nico said she would go out and look for him, saying that you could stay in the van if you'd like. You agreed to her suggestion, and you were now simply sitting in the passenger seat, drumming your fingers on the dashboard. The sound of the door squeaking open caught your attention and you turned your head to welcome the two back, only to realize there was a third.

"Holy shit," you exclaimed as you stood, "is that Lady? What happened to her?" She was knocked completely unconscious as Nero carried her inside the van, laying her down across the small makeshift couch of sorts.

"She just kinda fell out of a demon that I sliced open in a library." Nero replied, fetching a blanket to drape over her nude body that was covered in some kind of viscous looking fluid. If this were anybody else, the explanation would have sounded totally ridiculous, but in this case, it gave you a reinvigorated sense of hope. If Lady was here, then Trish and Dante could still be okay as well.

"Now what?" You asked, gazing down at Lady's peaceful face; you were more than glad that she seemed uninjured, yet it piqued your curiosity as to how she came to be placed inside a demon in the first place.

"Well, now we wait for V to come back and then make plans to keep moving forward." You heard Nero's response from somewhere within the van. You said nothing else, but only moved to crane your neck to glance upwards at the tree, still standing tall and proud. V had called it the Qliphoth, but the name didn't matter to you, you just wanted it gone and for Dante to return to you. The more you thought about the white haired devil hunter, the more something had begun to click with you.

Oh my god, I'm in love with my best friend.

For the sake of the job that was at hand, you reluctantly pushed that thought aside for the moment, willing to bury it until you knew for certain that Dante was alive. In the meantime, you took your mind off of it by chatting with Nero until Nico's voice broke you both from the conversation.

"Hey guys, Lady's awake." She called and quickly you stood to check on the black haired woman. She seemed out of it, but otherwise no worse for wear.

"Are Trish and Dante... are they okay?" You couldn't stop yourself from asking and Lady turned her half lidded gaze in your direction.

"I remember Trish being captured," she recollected, pausing for a moment to try and think, "but I don't know what happened to Dante." A small frown crossed your lips and you felt a hand on your shoulder, rubbing gently.

"Damn it." You heard Nero cuss lightly.

"Alright, well you should get some rest." You said, and turned away as the door opened and V now stepped into the van. You took note of the slightly glowing, blue object that he held in his hand, which he soon presented to Nico.

"I found this, if it's any use to you, it's yours." The poet offered and you saw Nico's eyes light up like a kid on Christmas Day as she hurried to take the object from him.

"Wow! I can make something truly awesome out of this!" The mechanic's excitement knew no bounds when it came to being able to create something new. You admired that passion and creativity that she had and you couldn't help but giggle as she already began setting to work behind her desk. As quickly as you all were reunited however, V and Nero took off again, leaving you with Nico and Lady.

"So when were you planning on telling him?" You heard Lady ask, a knowing look in her eyes as she managed a half smile. There was no beating around the bush and you sighed, taking a seat next to her. She had realized how much you cared about him in more than just the best friend kind of way before you ever did.

"Well, I guess I was probably gonna tell him when all of this was over, if he's still alive that is." You replied, feeling a tightness grip your throat. You hated thinking about all the possibly horrible things that could've happened to him over the past month.

"I'm sure he's okay. Takes a lot to bring him down." The woman did her best to comfort you and you gave another small sigh.

"Yeah, I know. That's what everyone keeps saying and I'm trying to believe it too. Just seems like it's been a long time since Dante met his match like this."

"I agree, that demon... he's more powerful than we originally thought." Lady was leaning into the couch more as she talked, closing her eyes and tucking her chin to her chest.

"That's what V said too." You replied softly, patting her knee lightly as you stood again, preparing to move to the passenger seat once more. "Now get some rest like I said, you look like you need it." As you settled into the front seat, while thinking over the rapidly paced events of the day, you found yourself beginning to doze off as well. All of the excitement of the past few hours was beginning to wear off and you found yourself longing to sleep as well.

It didn't seem like a significant amount of time had past before you felt yourself being pulled from the depths of sleep. In front of you, through fuzzy vision, you saw Nico. Her hands were on your shoulders.

"We gotta go now," you heard her say as you were sitting up fully, "this house plant is pissed off." Still rubbing the remnants of sleep from your eyes with one hand, you held onto the dashboard of the van with the other. The van shook violently as the Qliphoth itself trembled. Nico jumped into the driver's seat, quickly swerving the van back the way you all had come, only to turn to the tree once more.

"Umm, Nico?" You glanced over at her, seeing her clutching a cigarette between her teeth as her hands tightened on the wheel and she practically floored it forwards.

"Hold on guys!" You barely heard her voice over the sound of the tires screeching as the van careened off the ledge it was on and towards the base of the tree. The van landed with a thud and a bounce on the demonic tree. Now wide awake, you stared between Nico, who looked rather proud of herself at her quick maneuver, and the Qliphoth towering immensely high above you.

"So," you trailed off, pointing upwards, "can you get us up that?" You heard a scoff from beside you, as if you had just insulted her skill with driving the van

"Duh, who do you think you're talking to? Just hold on." As Nico made her dangerous and bumpy drive up the tree, your heart pounded the further up you all got. This was probably the last chance you had to see if Dante was truly alive. You could only hope that either Nero or V had found him and that you would meet them all at the top of this thing. So many thoughts filled your head of what you could say to him. Would you chastise him for being reckless and making you worry? Or would you just hug him and clutch him to you, telling him how you felt?

Nico arrived at a large opening at the top, and it appeared you all were the first. As she stopped the van and relaxed into her seat with a long exhaled breath, you stood on shaky legs. Lady was already up as well, pulling on the clothes of her signature outfit. She didn't look too shaken up from the sudden drive. You said nothing as you pushed the door open and stepped outside. Immediately you plopped yourself down on the ground, rubbing your face with both hands. You looked up as you heard footsteps beside you, and saw Lady standing over you with her arms crossed, giving you a sympathetic gaze.

"What if neither of them found him?" You asked, voice hardly above a whisper.

"Well you can't be too sure just yet. Look!" You glanced in the direction that she suddenly pointed in. "There's Trish and V." Sure enough, stumbling towards the van with his cane, was V with the blonde demon walking at his side. You stood quickly, giving a brief smile to Trish as you wrapped your arm around the struggling poet, helping him to sit down on a large rock.

"Where's Nero?" You questioned, but the black haired man seemed too out of breath at the moment to answer. He soon sat up straighter with a few labored breaths.

"He should be here soon." Was all he said in reply. You could tell there was more that he wanted to say, judging by the slightly mischievous glint in his eyes, yet he didn't. You studied him suspiciously, but didn't say anything else. The minutes seemed to drag on as you began pacing around again, the nervousness of waiting was weighing on you.

Suddenly, a gasp and grunt caught your attention, along with the sound of a body hitting the ground. You immediately whipped around and was faced with the sight of a certain white haired devil hunter standing and brushing himself off. Your breath caught in your throat and you found your body moving towards him before you could realize what you were doing. The man gave a soft "oof" as you collided with him, his arms wrapping around you to stabilize you both.

"Hey," his voice was like heaven in your ear, "miss me or something?" He joked and you could hear quiet snickering behind you, but ignored it. You pulled back, hands brushing across his chest and sliding up to his face, seemingly making sure that it was indeed him.

"Dante..." You could only breath out his name as your hands ran through his hair, brushing it out of his face. Your hands came to cup his cheeks, savoring the feeling of his warm skin beneath your fingers.

"You're okay." You finally smiled up at him, though so many emotions raged in your chest. "You worried me sick, you know that?" You didn't even notice the tear slipping down your own cheek until a thumb brushed it away.

"I can only imagine," he mused, his thumb continuing to idly stroke your soft skin, "but you know, I'd almost say that you really do care about me." You smacked your palm against his chest and rolled your eyes at him.

"Of course I do, you idiot. I guess... there's something I have to get off my chest." You lowered your voice and leaned your face into the crook of his neck.

"I love you, Dante. More than I could probably describe, and I was just so worried when you didn't come back to me for a month. I kept holding out hope that you were okay, and you are, you're here right now, and I'm so happy." You felt both of his hands slide down to your waist as you spoke, holding you tight against him. The half-devil nuzzled his nose into your hair and hummed softly.

"I love you too and I'm sorry for making you worry about me so much," he apologized, "I'll always come back to you, haven't I said that before?" One hand lifted from your waist to rest against the back of your head as he pressed a long kiss to your temple. The sound of clapping behind you, made your face flush with embarrassment. Dante soon pulled away from you a bit, but lifted your chin to him, chuckling at the deep pink color in your cheeks.

"Now, I think I have a demon's ass to kick. And then I'll be all yours, babe." A grin was on his lips, as he turned his attention to the others briefly. You gave a bashful smile and looked back to Lady and Nico as well, who both gave you a thumbs up, although Nico herself seemed to practically be bouncing where she stood as she waited for her own chance to talk to Dante.

"I'm going to hold you to that." You whispered to him before fully breaking away. You felt immense relief swell within you as you watched Dante walk to speak with V and Trish, and then Nico. You didn't know how much longer the craziness would last involving Urizen and Qliphoth, but knowing that Dante was alright and that he accepted your feelings brought a warmth to you. With a newfound sense of solace, you leaned against the van, eagerly waiting to set off again and finish up the job. Before the trio of men went off on their way, Dante turned back to you, giving you a smirk and a salute as he leapt down off of the edge you all had been on.

Even though you two had only been reunited for a few short minutesc, it still made you feel infinitely better, putting a bigger pep in your step. You smiled to yourself as you swung your body inside the vehicle once again. God, you couldn't wait for all of this to be over.