The Awakening

They had barely sat down, when the train started moving. Nero felt his phone vibrate in his jeans, taking it out he saw that it was from Kyrie ‘love you. Please be careful!!!’
The replied that he loved her too and not to worry, and put the phone back into his pocket, trying to reassure himself that she would be fine.

He looked up out the window and saw the outskirts of Fortuna rolling past.
An announcement came over the PA, about the stops and times of the journey, Nero ignored it until he heard ‘final stop, Teivel, 14:02’, even though he knew it was eight hours, he felt something die in him at the final part of the announcement. He wished he could avoid Teivel altogether.

Akira looked over at him, “guess you didn’t get much sleep?”

Nero shook his head and rubbed his face, the feel of leather on his skin was odd, the people of Fortuna might be used to his arm now, but he could do without the staring and whispering from everyone else, no point in attracting unnecessary and unwanted attention. He was glad it wasn’t summer, he had no idea how he would hide it then, the coat, hoodie and biker gloves get up would probably have the opposite effect, standing out instead of blending in, they still wouldn’t know about his arm though. He sighed, far too early to be thinking about this shit.

“How about you?” He didn’t care either way, but he was trying to be polite. Kyrie would be happy he had attempted to be interested.

“A few hours” He shrugged and left it there, it seemed Akira wasn’t much of a morning person either, Nero was thankful.

After about ten minutes of silence, Nero could feel his eyes burning with tiredness, he had many questions about the job, and about Akira, but he couldn’t be bothered asking. He looked over to the other man next to him, Akira eyes were closed. Nero breathed a sigh of relief, he folded his arms over his chest and scooted down the seat, attempting to get as comfortable as possible. He glanced around the other near by seats, most of the car was empty, he shifted again and closed his eyes, praying to whatever was out there, that he would get some sleep and that it would be dreamless.

***

He could hear indistinct chatting and muttering, when he opened his eyes, the car was full, from his vantage point, every seat was taken. Pain and discomfort was shooting up his neck and stabbing his lower back, he sat up and rolled his head trying to work out the tightness and kinks in his neck then stretched out his back as much as he could in the seat.

Next to him, Akira had headphones on but his eyes were still shut. Nero looked at his watch, it was nearly 12:30, he’d managed to sleep for six and a half hours, he still felt like shit, but understood why his neck and back were killing him. They had just over 90 minutes to go, that brought a surge of dread with it, then they would be in Teivel, Nero wasn’t sure if he should go find Dante, call him or lie to Kyrie, make up something, like he forgot or ran out of time, they were shit excuses and Kyrie wasn’t stupid, he didn’t want to lie to her anyway, they had enough problems. So that left the other two options.

He decided he would call from the station while they both waited for the next train, at least he wouldn’t see him and if he was super lucky, as if, Dante wouldn’t answer, someone else would or maybe he’d get an answering machine. And if he couldn’t do that, at least he could say he’d tried. Sorted, awesome.

Akira shifted, “your awake” He removed the headphones and turned off his player.

They sat there neither one attempting to speak, both aware that it was for the best not to talk about what they were going to do once they got to Kerberos, freaking out or upsetting any of the other passengers could complicate their journey, no point running the risk of getting kicked off or creating interest in themselves, besides you never could be sure who or what was listening.

“So, what were you listening to?” Nero asked hoping to get some kind of rapport going, or the time left would drag.

“Just some music” Akira didn’t offer up more.

“What kind?”

“All kinds, it was on random”

“Oh” and Nero couldn’t think of anything else to add or ask, resigning to the fact that he was going to be bored as fuck for what was left of the journey.

He looked past Akira out the window at the passing scenery, there were many houses interspersed with blocks of grass or fields, nothing was built up yet but it was obvious they were getting closer to the city. Nero’s mind started to wander, he’d never been to Teivel before, the name of the city had become synonymous with Dante, he hadn’t seen nor heard from the older demon hunter in a long time, Nero could find no reason why he was suddenly staring in his dreams recently. And why was he is ‘those’ kind of dreams. At least he wouldn’t see him in person, the risk of anyone finding out was low over the phone, he mused.

Akira turned and stared at Nero, then asked, “So who’s Dante?”

“huh?” Nero was snapped out of his thoughts, realising Akira was staring at him again. He shifted facing his whole body forward towards the front of the train car, unamused at being caught off guard.

“Who’s Dante? And why are you worrying about him?”

“The fuck are you talking about?” Nero tried to sound confused.

“You were thinking about him” From the noise of the other passengers, Nero barely heard him, it was almost a whisper.

“And how the fuck would you know that?” Nero kept his voice low despite his anger, feeling like he’d been caught out doing something wrong.

“I already told you, I can look at someone and I just know things.”

“So what, are you psychic? See the future and shit?” Nero huffed out aggressively.

Akira bit back,“No, I just know stuff...feeling, memories, secrets, thoughts, stuff.”

“If you already know it all, why are you even asking?”

“You’re difficult for me to...” Akira waved his hand around, trying to find the right word “...read. I can only get, bits, like what you are currently thinking about”

Nero was not at all happy about the idea of someone knowing all the weird and fucked up shit that was floating around in his mind, he was pissed, starting to regret ever agreeing to this job. They were both quiet again, the tension in the air between them refused to lessen with the passing of time.

“So.... Dante then?”

Nero wished Akira would let it go.

“Is that who you were texting this morning?”

“Hell no!..That was my girlfriend, all right!” Nero whispered harshly.

“OK. No need to flip out. Seriously just, chill.” Looking around the car, checking to see if they had any unwanted attention.

“I’m not flipping out” Nero’s whisper was charged with anger.

“Sure, whatever you say....I was only curious why you were feeling, concerned when you were thinking about him, OK...I didn’t know it was a touchy subject.”

“I’m not concerned or worried about him, OK, so can you drop it already?”

“Fine. Suit yourself. Oh, by the way, you say that, but we both know your lying”

“Why are you even interested anyway?” Nero was exasperated, there was no way in hell he would admit what he had been thinking about to Akira, he struggled to accept it and he had no idea how to deal with it, but saying it out loud and talking about it, no fucking chance.

“I came to you for help, and it’s not for something stupid like changing a god dammed light bulb. It’s serious, this isn’t a run of the mill...situation. You. We, both need to be on the fucking ball when it comes to this. What help will you be stewing over some personal problem at home? I have a right to be interested, I did ‘hire’ you, remember?”

Nero was shocked at the sudden quiet rant but if the demon in Kerberos turns out to be a nasty fucker, he could see the other man’s point. He tried to subdue his anger.

“Look, it’s nothing, OK....Dante is like me, but different.” He gave the other a pointed look, hoping he would get his unspoken meaning “Kyr..my girlfriend ask me to stop by his place, while we are passing through the city, to let him know that I wouldn’t be around for a while and to basically keep an eye on the town while I was gone. But I can’t be bothered, I don’t wanna deal with him, OK, but I feel a bit, I don’t know, bad for not doing it, happy?”

Akira gave him a look stating he wasn’t convinced.

“How long will it take?”

“What? How long will what take?”

“To get to Dante?”

“Well, I don’t know, I’ve never been to his place. I didn’t have time to check, I was just gonna call him from the station, leave a message or whatever..” He shrugged, hoping Akira didn’t pick up on the partial lie. He had the address for the original Devil May Cry, stored in his phone, somewhere.

Akira sighed “Well, I was thinking we should leave the station to get some food, we have plenty of time to kill between trains...And you say this Dante guy is kinda similar to you, so I can probably find him... if he’s near-ish, we’ll stop by, you ask him to babysit, you can tell your girl she’ll be fine, and we’ll get some food and head back to the station...”

“No, look, I can just call, it’s fine...”

“If you see him, then you’ll know that he knows, and if he will do it or not. If he’s too far away or he’s not in, then you call. Besides, what else are we gonna do in Teivel train station for four hours?”

Sitting fuming for ten minutes and still unable to come up with anything to counter the other’s argument, Nero was resigned to agree with him “....fine!”. Too busy desperately hoping that Dante would be anywhere else but in Teivel, he missed Akira smile.

Akira started going through the seat back pocket in front of him and making sure the backpack at his feet was zipped up. He look over at Nero, “you got everything, we’re due to arrive in ten minutes”

Time sure flies by when you want it to stop.