Chapter Text
Leon really was too distracting for his own good. Dante always wanted to just openly ogle him, eat him up visually as he thought of ways to entice his hubby to let him eat him up in other ways. Sure, when they were alone, he could give just a little to those possessive, innate demonic instincts that had barbarically decided that Leon was his ‘mate’. Openly staring at him, sliding up to place hands on him, maybe kiss and nibble his neck while Leon laughed and told him ‘well hi to you too!’. Dante became all too aware of Leon’s breathing, his heartbeat, his scent, the many little sounds of his body when Leon was home at Devil May Cry, always able to tell if Leon was feeling sad based on the tired shuffle of his normally graceful movements, or when his heartbeat started picking up because he was excited about something, or those even more minute sounds of injured muscles twitching and shifting out of rhythm as Leon tried to function like everything was normal after a hard mission.
It was why he could not function now, staring openly at Leon as his husband leaned over the pool table, lining up a shot as some blonde little girl wandered his shop.
“Are you listening to me, Dante?”
“Studying something important,” Dante waved off his sort of agent.
Dante absolutely did not miss the sweet little stutter to Leon’s heart-rate, the sweet pink color of his ear, cheeks and nose as he absolutely did not miss the flirty quip. The pool cue struck one of the balls with a hard ‘crack!’ and Leon stood up to give him a goofy little endeared half smile before moving to make another shot.
“Besides that, I don’t have any desire to babysit a kid,” Dante said, still shamelessly staring.
“Kid?” The kid muttered.
“Sorry, young lady,” Dante sort of corrected, reluctantly tearing his eyes away from Leon to look at her. Something about her outfit seemed to be purposefully ‘covering’. No desire to babysit and no desire to get caught up in whatever was making a kid hide who they were. No thank you. And seeing the rather soured look she was aiming at both him and Leon, Dante shrugged, “In ten years or so, you’ll find a guy and get it.”
She stuck her little nose up and gave him a scathing side eye.
“No way. I’ll date a nice, younger guy.”
The implication that Dante was neither nice, nor young. Kids these days and acting like someone in their thirties had one foot in the retirement home and one foot in the grave. As Leon would attest, age had not slowed him down in any regard.
“Listen Date, she may be a kid but-- uh,” Morrison started after sitting down with one of Dante’s drinks from his fridge. He corrected when he caught the kid pouting at him, “Oh, I’m sorry. My apologies, but the young lady standing before you is not just any girl. She’s Patty Lowell. The Cinderella girl who’s heiress to the Lowell family fortune.”
“Sure doesn’t look like it,” Dante quipped, egging for why an heiress to a fortune needed a demon hunter.
“That’s because all this time she’s been living as an orphan downtown,” Morrison said.
“So like Cinderella after the magic wore off,” Dante snorted, but wilted when Leon stood up from making another shot to give him a look. Patty also pouted at him as she circled his desk that he was sitting at, Dante’s nerves and demonic side tensing as she looked at the two pictures that he kept on his desk. The one pristine picture he had of his mom, all pretty and made up and smiling in that soft and gentle, almost not way that she did. The other of Leon, an absolutely stunning picture that Dante of all people had nabbed, Leon tucked up underneath his coat on the couch, face soft as he smiled at Dante grabbing the pic, one hand at the collar of his coat meaning to move it, so the low and warm lighting of that afternoon caught just right on the wedding band on his hand. The golden light had made his hair, his handsome face and his wedding band glint gold. Dante’s golden boy, captured in a way to really show it. Dante’s favorite blondes, the ones that made everything worth it, even if his mom was not here anymore.
“Actually it’s the opposite. The head of the Lowell family passed away. When the will was read, the existence of an illegitimate child came to light,” Morrison kept going.
“And the lucky winner was the young lady, Patty,” Dante finished.
“Precisely. In other words, the magic is just about to begin,” Morrison said.
“If you like, I could always hire you as my very own personal servant,” Patty said, antagonizing.
“Right,” Dante drawled as she finally circled around his desk and went back out into the main floor of Devil May Cry.
“Dante,” Leon said, gently chiding.
Right, cause she was like, eight, and he was thirty four and did not need to stoop to her level or start a fight with her.
“Basically it’s been requested that you escort Miss Patty back to the Lowell mansion by six pm tomorrow,” Morrison said, finishing the can and setting it aside as he tried to pin Dante with a hard look that suggested that the guy had probably already accepted the job and his cut. If Dante backed out, he would need to pay it back. “Think you can handle that?”
“That’s all?” Dante grunted.
“That’s all.”
“Then I won’t do it,” Dante shrugged as Leon gave him a fretful look and Morrison’s jaw ticked. “I don’t mess around with crime families anymore, Morrison, and I don’t take any babysitting jobs. You got demons, sure, I’ll take the job, but escorting a kid while some rich jerks try to stop her? No.”
“Alright then,” Morrison said, before turning eyes on Leon, “Leon.”
“Hey!” Dante snapped, standing up so fast his chair shot out from underneath him and slammed into the wall behind him, making Patty squeak in fright as she jumped back, staring at the chair and then up at him. Not that he cared, because he was currently trying to not throw something at Morrison, “What did I tell you about trying to pawn jobs off on my husband?!”
“It’s a simple job that needs done. Leon’s background in USSTRATCOM, protective services and fighting with biological weapons should make this easy,” Morrison shot back, not as easily cowed by the flickers of Dante’s demon wrath. But he lifted his hands at Dante’s continued glaring. “She’s just a kid, Dante. One who’s life is about to get so much better if she can make it to the estate. I need someone to do this.”
Well yeah, Dante was not heartless. But he still did not mess around with crime families anymore, not when Leon was so achingly human and breakable. Shoot him all day every day, but the thought of someone with more money than sense eyeing Leon in a way to get back at him? Dante might just break his oath to protect humanity as a whole to protect one human.
“Easy tiger,” Leon said, casually dropping the pool cue to come over to him, slipping an arm around his waist and leaning over to give his cheek a kiss. Dante’s rage was smoke on a strong wind, endlessly pleased that Leon was now in his space and touching him, filling his nose with his scent and his ears with that sound of his calm heartbeat and easy breathing. The things this man did to him. Dante wanted to eat him up sweetly and snuggle all day with him, like a dragon luxuriating in its treasures. But Leon was better than any diamond or gold coin pile. Dante would trade all the pizzas and strawberry sundaes in the world for him.
“You know,” Leon murmured in his ear, that handsome nose brushing his jawline, “We have talked about getting a better bed and bed-frame. And getting some work done on the kitchen…”
Dante grunted, hating how he knew he absolutely was about to say yes to the job. Since Leon had walked into his life and slotted himself so perfectly into the empty and hollow spot in Dante’s soul, Dante had been taking a lot more jobs, human side and demon side so very eager to please this man, make a home with him. Dante could live without food, water or shelter, but Dante would be damned if Leon did not have a warm and very comfortable home and good food and water in his belly.
“And we can go on it together. You know they put me on leave after that one mission,” Leon said, lips grazing Dante’s ear in a way that had excited goosebumps breaking out underneath his clothing. The things this man did to him. “So I’m all yours, big man.”
Leon pressed the softest and most teasing of kisses to his ear, before turning to Morrison with a flat and authoritative look.
“Ninety percent cut,” He stated.
“Saw that coming from a mile away,” Morrison sighed, but nodded his assent, so clearly he was making a lot of money that even a ten percent cut was worth it to argue and fight with them. “Deal. Get moving you two, you’re far too expensive to dally.”
Dante rolled his eyes, but turned to peck a grinning Leon on the cheek, reluctantly parting from him to grab his coat and slip it on with Leon grabbed his own as Patty pitter pattered up to walk between them.
“Dante, you forgot something,” Morrison said, Dante turning around at the doors to see Morrison holding out the ‘guitar’ case that usually hid Rebellion, so Dante was not out walking around with a broadsword in public. The public tended to get antsy when someone was out and about walking around with a broadsword. Why could everyone not be cool like Leon, who had asked him why he had one before quickly throwing away his question and just helping him find his wayward sword? Everyone could do with being cool like Leon. “You got a show to play, right?”
Oh shit, there were probably demons on this job. Actually, scratch that, there were almost certainly demons if Morrison of all people was pushing his sword on him. Maybe a massive paycheck was not the only incentive here. Well shit. Leon gave him a knowing look as he took up the case and slung it over his shoulder as he ushered his annoying agent out.
“Don’t forget, I’m counting on you,” Morrison said after getting his coat and hat, leaving Dante with an address and to lock up and walk two blondes to his car.
Because Leon was the hubby, he got shotgun privileges, and also, he was almost sure that Patty was short enough to warrant a booster seat. Dante did not need some bored cop pulling them over to yell at him for having a too short kid in shotgun, Dante did not need a cop in general, but especially when his mood was not great like it was now. Patty complained about it, but when it was clear that no one was budging, she sat in back with her arms tightly crossed over her chest and frowning at the back of both of their heads as Dante pulled out of the garage and started driving.
The drive was quiet, except a few murmurs between himself and Leon as Leon and him hashed out the quickest way to get there. A deadline, his least favorite kind of mission, he would need Leon’s more focused mind to keep them all on track to get them there on time. But at one point in the drive, apparently done pouting, Patty spoke up.
“I could come and see your show,” She said, speaking up over the lovely purr of his car’s engines. “I mean, there must not be anyone who comes to see you otherwise, right?”
“Sorry, but my shows are for adults only.”
“So only the blondes on your desk are coming?” Patty asked, and wow, the kid just kept hammering on all of Dante’s nerves and sensitive spots! It was almost impressive as it was agitating! Leon reached out to grab his thigh and give it a comforting squeeze, giving him a look that said ‘Yeah, she’s unintentionally being rude and mean, but she’s like eight’, and Leon was right, but wow Dante wanted to grind his teeth together.
When Dante did not respond, Patty talked about something else.
“Well, whatever you do, you should buy yourself a new car,” She continued, “I don’t see any romance happening in this car, that’s for sure.”
Leon coughed, snorting as Dante briefly fought a smile. If only she knew how many times Leon had shimmed into his lap in this car, or how many times there had been slow and tender makeout sessions on the hood during star gazing dates. There was plenty of romance that happened in this car.
“It’s dirty, it stinks and it’s falling apart,” Patty rattled on. “Don’t you know? What’s important isn’t where you take them, it’s how you get them there. How do you stand it, Leon?”
“He’s got plenty of perks that make up for his not stellar car,” Leon smiled at him.
But before Dante could be all warm and mushy from the compliment, Dante stiffened as he felt demonic nerves suddenly fire off, vision sharpening into almost painful detailed accuracy, ears ringing as they took in far too many details and his skin breaking out into goosebumps. Leon, about as hyper-aware of him as he was of Leon, quickly glanced between him, the cliffs at one side of the road that they were on and then the road ahead of them. There was a semi-truck coming from the other way and Leon’s eyes snapped onto it. Bingo. Leon gave him a look, before twisting around to yank Patty’s hat over her eyes, momentarily blinding the kid as she yelled out indignantly, but gave them a moment to draw a gun each as they trained their gazes on the truck. Dante saw it first, but Leon was the first to get a shot off, both of them landing six shots all together on the demon that clung to the side of the semi, easily dispatching it.
Patty screamed about the indignity of it all as Dante swerved to drive around the other side of the semi, checking for more as the red faced trucker blared his horn at them. But there was no demon on that side, and not any on the back when Leon twisted around to look. By that time, Patty had managed to escape her hat, yelling at both of them as they both settled into their seats. They gave each other sideways glances.
Demons. Great. This job just got so much harder.
Dante freed one hand from the wheel, reaching down to grab one of Leon’s hands, Leon squeezing him back and quickly and awkwardly slotting their fingers together.
Good thing he had his golden boy with him.