Chapter Text
Steam filled the air, curling around Dante’s face and rising off his wet skin. It felt nice and even made him a little sleepy, but he couldn't quite nod off.The steaming water lapped with sinful heat at his waist as he clung to the edge of the bathing pool and he sighed in pleasure despite the turmoil of his thoughts.
He’d told Belial that he wanted to bathe alone and though he could more than tell that the archdevil wasn't particularly happy with being told to leave him be for the moment again the archdevil hadn't argued.
Dante was glad for it for the most part.
Belia had wrung him out their last go-around and left Dante aching in places he hadn't realized could ache because (and despite) his healing factor.
With a groan, Dante pushed away from the edge of the bathing pool, the stone smooth beneath his palms. The entrance to the bathing pool was sloped and mimicked a beach in many ways. It was kind of like one of those tide pools that they had at amusement parks or whatever, not that he'd been to one of those to actually have any fun.
He folded his arms at the edge nearest the slope and cradled his head in the crook of his forearms before letting himself drift again.
He just wanted to drift but it was difficult.
The feelings of Belial at the edge of his senses was heavy and Dante felt as if he was all but teetering at the edge of a precipe. The depths were unknown but they called to him all the same and he knew that it wouldn't take much to just fall right in…but would he be able to crawl back out?
Would he still be himself at the end?
The wall to his left was almost entirely a mirror, edge with reliefs of demons and angelic creatures twisting and curling around one another.
Even from where he was, Dante could see that his shoulders were absolutely littered with slowly healing bruises and marks.
The impression of teeth stood out against his pale skin in multiple places and some of the marks were already turning colors.
Soon the marks would turn dark and then pale before finally fading away all together.
All except one.
Shuddering in remembrance, Dante pressed his fingers to one of the marks that adorned the left side of his chest. He bit his bottom lip as the clear impression of teeth circling his nipple sent pleasure shooting up his spine.
He had learned first hand over the past several hours that sometimes Belial could get the marks he left on Dante's body to last a bit longer if he injected a bit of his own power into them when he bit down.
Thinking about it almost made him moan and Dante’s head started to go all fuzzy and warm all over as he swept his thumb over his own nipple once…twice...
What the hell am I doing?The thought battered around in his head and the fact that he couldn’t quite get himself to stop had his mind reeling. It was his own fault though. He was a fucking idiot.
Teeth flashed in his mind's eye, pearl-white, fine-points glistening with saliva.
Whenever Belial bit him it pulled noises from Dante’s mouth that he still couldn’t quite believe were actually coming from him. Teeth sliding into his skin. It wasn't suposed to feel so good.
It was so embarrassing and yet he really didn't know if he wanted it to stop. Not anymore.
Because Belial was so…adoring about it. It made him as uncomfortable as he was aroused. Like he wanted to run away from the feeling lest he melt into a puddle of nothingness all together.
He kept catching it on the edge of his senses, the heat flaring up in the back of his head. Like he was caught in the dregs of the edge of The Season.
The bond pulsed with liquid warmth in the back of his mind and Dante groaned in begrudging pleasure. He was still in denial, but the proof of what he’d done continued to brush against his mind over and over again.
He closed his eyes imagining the taste of Belia's blood and the look on the archdevil’s face as the towering demon took Dante over and over again. He tried to push the image away again, but ultimately failed, burying his face in his arms and squeezing his thighs together beneath the water, his erection already standing at half-mast beneath the water.
What had he done?
His head was pounding.
A ravenous hunger gnawed at him.
Burying his face even more into his arms, Dante dug his fingers into his arms, squeezing until he knew that deep bruises would bloom upon his skin.
How could he have been such a fool?
How could he let his own petty territorial jealousy push him to make such a rash decision?
Even though you like it? A phantom of his imagination crooned.
The voice of Vergil, mocking and cruel in a way he wasn't sure his brother had ever sounded in life even at his worst.
It doused some of his arousal but not quite enough he was ashamed to admit even to himself.
He had to be crazy.
”Don't you see?” continued the phantom, always lingering in the corner of his mind, waiting to pull him back to agony, ”You've already lost yourself.”
Dante turned his head and peaked out from beneath his bands at the mirror. His eyes were glowing faintly like dying embers and bared his teeth at his reflection, grinding his molars as he warred with his sudden urge to bite something until it bled.
”You could still kill him…” His fractured thoughts whispered to him, desperate and yet crueler still.
Kill Who?
Kill Belial?
Yes, He could.
He should...
”But can you now?” whispered his treacherous mind, something like laughter hiding just beneath the surface, threatening to spill forth and drown him in doubt.
The answer was…yes...but as Dante raised his hand to press against the mark upon the curve if hjs neck and shoulder, dark and tender as it was from attention, he realized that he might not be the same afterwards…
”Kill him. What is another dead devil?”
Dante buried one of his hands in his snowy locks and tugged until the pain turned just the side of too sharp.
He needed to escape Hell, but what would happen when he did? Would Belial just...let him go? Be content to only see him here and there or possibly...never again?
Not likely.
The possessiveness he could feel radiating from Belial’s end of the bond honestly scared Dante when he really stopped to think about it, a roiling, writhing mass of pleasure and reverence, adoration that made one half of Dante want to hide away.
The archdevil felt like a cat that had got the canary, rumbling with phantom pleasure and daring Dante to let him in to devour him.
Dante didn't know how to unpack any of it, wanted to lock it all up in a box and throw away the key.
It was terrifying and pleasing all at once and Dante knew he should have been running for the hills, but instead he was soaking naked in a stone and marble bathing chamber, water lapping at an incline in the floor like a false beach.
Wanton.
That's how he felt when he thought of Belial.
And angry because the devil had complicated everything so badly.
And there was something else. Something Dante absolutely refused to examine too closely because ut represented something that Dante never realistically thought he could ever truly have with the life he lived.
Flirting and carrying on was one thing but a at his core a life of hunting and killing demons was supposed to be all he’d ever have. All he’d ever need.
Blood splattered across a stone floor and phantom screams assaulted his mind and Dante pressed his forehead against the glass, struggling to clear it all away again.
He didn't want to hear her screams, didn't think he could take it.
And how pathetic was that?
Suddenly his head began to hurt and in the next instance he could feel Belial prodding just at the edge of his senses. Dante warred with himself. He wanted to be comforted, but he didn’t want to let them in just yet.
Still, he couldn’t muster up the will to shoo them away like usual.
The feeling they gave off was that of a prowling beast at the other side os a sealed door.
He could taste affection and the concern for him.
The sense of restless pacing intensified and Dante hesitated, his head tilting as he stared in the mirror without really seeing himself.
Apparently Belial’s patience was growing thinner by the minute and the archdevil pressed into the bond as if in question.
Dante groaned.
HIs body felt too warm all of a sudden and he gasped, leaning further into the stone before him, noting that though it was warm it was also much cooler than the water by a mile and therefore quit soothing. What the hell have you done? Dante thought desperately, cursing himself while his inner devil paced in the back of his mind like a restless beast.
It had taken to mirroring Belial and pushed Dante to indulge the cavernous warmth of their newly completed bond, the feedback warm and welcoming shelter from the chaos of his mind.
Dante wondered what would happen if he simply let himself descend into the depths of pleasure and warmth.
Would he disappear?
For how long?
Whatever the case, Dante had no doubt that Belial would welcome it with open arms.
Dante forced himself to breathe through the force of Belial's pure unadulterated need.
His pure unadulterated want.
Dante didn’t understand it.
Just what the hell had he done to deserve all that focus…all that…adoration?
Slowly, painfully, Dante forced himself away from the bond. Belial was not pleased in the slightest, though to his credit he still did not come to find him. Dante knew he wanted to. Wanted to cross the threshold into the bathing chamber despite Dante’s request to bathe alone. He could feel them.
Waiting.
Dante could.
Come to me…
Dante couldn’t tell if it was his thought or theirs and the lack of knowing scared him even more.
Belial was pacing, growing more impatient by the minute, but Dante grit his teeth and buried his face further into the crook of his arm. He refused to call out to them again. He couldn’t. He was just too embarrassed.
By the time the door finally slid open in a spiral, the air displacing and making Dante flinch visibly, Dante was practically trembling against the stone.
“I told you, I wanted to be left alone.”
And yet the tugging on the bond said otherwise. Everything was so confusing and Dante noticed how wrecked his voice still was with further embarassment.
Belial paused in the doorway and Dante hissed as he felt their eyes rove over his form. The archdevil didn’t speak immediately, but eventually they walked across the floor of the massive bathing chamber towards the slope near where Dante had settled himself.
Dante could feel them hovering, towering over him and looking down on him. It made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end but still he didn’t move to raise his head.
The older devill kneeled at the edge first and then, slowly, carefully reached out to slide his long fingers through Dante’s hair.
He was obviously displeased about Dante trying to distance from him again, but the archdevil eventually moved to slide his own massive body into the water beside the young devil hunter. His presence burned against Dante’s form. Belial stepped behind the devil hunter and curled his massive hands around Dante’s waist before hooking his chin over Dante’s shoulder, the sharp armored part of their chin digging slightly into his skin.
Their scent was entoxicating and Dante grabbed one of Belial’s forearms with his right hand, his thought churning with questions and choices. He buried his teeth in his bottom lip as he considered telling them to fuck off or deciding letting them stay.
He didn't know what he wanted.
Belial started up a purring in his chest and Dante shivered, but once the older devil began to nuzzle into the crook of his neck Dante finally sagged against the edge of the pool like a puppet with its strings cut.
He just didn't have the energy to fight at the moment even if it agitated him to feel so weak.
“You fret too much, pretty thing.” Belial muttered and slowly began to nibble at Dante’s throat.
Dante bit his lip a bit harder in order to stave off the moan trapped in his throat. Belial began to chuckle low in his throat at his attempts to stay quiet. “The hell are you laughing about you asshole?” Dante sneered, baring his teeth and clenching hisjaw to keep himself from moaning like a whore.
His eyes narrowed as he felt Belial lips twist in amusement. “Nothing at all, pretty.”
He called bullshit, but even as Belial wrapped their muscular arms about his waist and pulled him flush against their chest he couldn’t be bothered to argue.
Belial began to chuckle and Dante cursed them under his breath, but he still didn’t pull away.
_____________
Dante...
Found himself straddling the archdevil’s broad waist hours later, glaring down at them as they reclined smugly into the lush surface of the inside of the nest. Their nest, because Dante didnt seem to be able to tolerate any other classification even if it made him was to hit something.
And Of course Belial knew it, even if Dante hadn't said anything. It was just obvious and Dante hated it.
They looked so smug and a large part of Dante wanted to wipe the look off their face even if he couldn't help but find the lanquid way they lounged, their wings spread out until the tips spilled out of the edge of the nest and onto the smooth floor.
Belial really was a massive son of a bitch despite not being the biggest hell-bound creature that Dante had ever seen. It was more about their presence really. The edges of their senses bled together and Dante got lost in the feeling as he eyed the bredth of their shoulders.
Dante trailed his gaze along the length of one arm to the edge of a wing, the ends tipped in black curling claws that Dante knew could tear through stone like a knife through butter. Thinking of his own miniscule wings in his devil form and Dante felt the faintest twinge of envy before brushing the thought away like pale smoke.
The undersides of Belial's wings were much lighter than the outside, but darker along the outer edges and Dante wasn't been able to resist the growing urge to press the pads of his fingertips to the inside.
It was warm and untextures, satin smooth and almost hot to the touch. A bit of faintly glowing purple light flared up from within wherever he put just a tad more pressure than strictly necessary and the display was absolutely fascinating to Dante for some reason.
When Belial made a slight breathy noise at the placement of Dante’s fingers, the devil hunter licked his lips and the flick of pick muscle was clearly caught in the archdevil's gaze if the narrowing of their eyes was anything to go by. It was funny how quickly they could make Dante feel almost hunted.
They shifted beneath him, seemingly restless all of a sudden, and Dante was intrigued.
Dante dug the pads of his fingers into what was apparently a sensitive spot and was rewarded with a groan that made his spine tingle.
HIs stomach swooped. Dante needed them to do that again.
Before Dante knew it he was fighting back a grin as he pressed his fingers into Belial’s wings and pushed outward in a sweeping motion that made Belial’s wings glow and the archdevil moan.
He wasn't sure how to describe what he was feeling
It scratched some foreign itch Dante didn't even realize even needed to be scratched…but it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows.
Half the time he still just wanted to rip their heart out for wrapping him up in this mess between them and then other times he wanted to crawl into their fucking skin.
All of this because deep down you couldn’t stand the thought of some other asshole taking your place,he thought, tone harsh and grating in the back of his head and he tasted blood again.
How protective.
Dante clenched his teeth on a laugh that threatened to come out sounding just a little too unhinged.
There had to be some kind of catch.
Belial offered no answers, staring up at him with those fathomless glowing eyes.
Again, Dante considered fleeing from both Belial and this place altogether. He imagined just...running...getting as far away as he possibly could and hoping for the best. He could probably find some way of getting home out in the sprawling infernal landscape.
Probably.
Maybe even find out where they—/p>
Dante dispelled the train of thought with a viciousness that surprised even himself, a figure falling into nothingness cutting through his thoughts not moments after. It made him pull away from Belial finally, his eyelids fluttering as he quickly folded the edges of pure unfiltered grief down into a box and tucked it away.
Belial brushed against his senses at the other end of the bond and Dante shivered at how wrong-right it felt.
He could feel how possessive they were.
How ravenous.
Dante understood in that moment that if he asked to leave the archdevil would simply not take it well at all.
Belial rubbed circles into his skin with their thumbs, the motion more calming than Dante would like to admit as the arch devil waited patiently for Dante to make a decision.
Why did they know how to do that so well, Dante wondered, distrust trying to rear its ugly head even as he inwardly reveled in their touch despite also trying to ignore how good it felt.
He almost wanted to yell at them, make them fight him again…but he didn’t. “What's mine is yours and what's yours is mine.”Belial had said those words to him before, but when is the other shoe going to drop?
Because it always dropped.
So when?
This loss of certainty?
Was this the other shoe dropping?
This near constant loss of composure?
Before he could spiral too far, Dante felt a calm that he knew wasn’t his own wash over him and shuddered because of how unnatural he still found it.
He knew that if he didn’t get his head together he’d have trouble organizing his thoughts again and he didn’t have time for that. He couldn’t just keep letting himself get sidetracked again.
He needed to stay focused but it was so difficult.
There were still things he needed to do, dammit!
His amulet, more than just being the half of a key he did not want in the wrong hands even if it was technically useless, was his and only his.
"Give that to me."
"No way. You've got your own."
That necklace was one of the last pieces of his family and Dante wanted it back. He could worry about the rest later.
“Stop doing that!” He snapped, leaning forward and gnashing his teeth like he might bite a chunk out of them.
He pressed his right hand down against Belial's broad chest as if that alone could keep Belial at bay. As if it wasn't a fact that the archdevil wanted nothing more than to press them both chest to chest once again and lose themselves in a haze of sex, Dante probably wouldn't stop them.
Dante narrowed his eyes as Belial fixed him with what Dante assumed was supposed to be an innocent expression.
Bastard.
Their head, with its crown of wicked horns, tilted in feigned confusion and Dante scoffed because the gesture was both unsettling and strangely endearing.
Another thought plagued him. If Belial didn’t know where his mother’s amulet was then and the hell hounds of whatever the fuck they were didn't have it, then which one of the loonies living in this living fortress did? How many layers did this place even have and had he even scratched the surface? He wondered how much longer it would take him to get back home. He had so much more work to do again. The thought was daunting.
But that wasn't an item to just leave laying around Hell.
It might not be the complete key but gods only knew what kind of shit someone or something could get up to with even half that kind of power even if the thing was technically useless on it's own.
Dante didn't even want to think about the kind of shenanigans creatures could get up to with what linged inside it, a sizeable power source for spells and other shit.
“And you think the trio have it?” Belial questioned, his large hands smoothing over Dante’s thighs now, the grip of them warm and surprisingly grounding.
They pulled Dante down by hips, causing him to grind down onto their body and Dante jolted at the hardness of their body beneath him. He sucked his a breath and caught his bottom lip between his teeth, the pain sharp as he nicked himself on his own fang. Dante shook his head in an effort to not let the noise sitting in the back of his throat escape, but it was a near thing.
His thoughts were scrambled and he directed a stream of pure irritation through the bond toward Belial through the plasure, his form shuddering as he fought not to do unspeakable things to them. Kiss them, fuck them, bury his teeth into their flesh and never let go…
....
Shit, he needed to focus.
Dante stilled and glared down at Belial pointedly, eyes flashing with pale orange light at the amusement he felt directed back at himself. He beared his teeth before he next spoke, something dangerous in his tone.
“Those little shits…are the only onces I've seen in this place that like to blatantly dig through my stuff and take off with it…and they keep running whenever I see them.” Dante sneered, ignoring the way Belial’s hands slid back up his lower back before returning to his hips once again.
Belial was also a likely suspect but Dante didn’t really feel like he needed to say that outloud and they didn't even seem upset that he thought so.
“They just want to play, pretty thing. They want you to chase them.” The archdevil replied, almost protective.
Dante scoffed, growing more and more agitated by the minute. A faint dusting of pink swept over the bridge of his nose, but his lips were lifted in a sneer, fangs on display.
He had grudgingly come to accept that those three menaces didn’t mean him any harm exactly, but they were annoying as fuck and entirely too intelligent with their lolling tongues and glittering green eyes. They reminded him of dogs even if a lot of their behavior was also pointedly cat-like.
Something like endearment brushed faintly at the edge of his mind and Dante sucked his teeth, agitated. Whatever. He still hadn’t forgiven them for playing keep away with his stuff so while he didn't feel like he needed to kill them, he still might put a bulled in one of their skinny asses just so they were even. Something told him they could take it.
“Tell your pets to keep their slobbering mouths off my crap, Belial.” Dante demanded.
He watched the high-devil’s lips pull back into a sharp-toothed grin and hated how handsome it made them look even if he still kind of wanted to throttle them.
The demonic side of himself wanted to bite. Pure lust lapped at the shores of his consciousness and made him uneasy, but he didn’t pull away.
Bastard Dante thought for what felt like the hundredth time, watching a smirk curl at the corner of the archdevil's mouth.
Oh, he was so fucked.
Dante flushed, reeling again from the way the smirk on their face made his stomach swoop. He didn't even notice their hands move from his hips to his face and the cradle of them was huge and warm in a way that pulled a noice from his mouth that was very different. Belial drew him in and Dante lips parted instinctually to meet them.
He felt their lips brush against his own and shuddered as he opened his mouth for them, the flash of tongue making him gasp. Belial licked his way into Dante's mouth and Dante beat his fist against their chest in retaliation. He didn’t pull away, even found himself pushing closer. Their tongue slipped against the roof of his mouth and Dante actually let it happen, the slick heat making his eyelid slip closed.
Liar.
The thought was sharp but Belial was already kissing the feeling away the slide like a trail of fire. Of course.” Belial murmured between kisses, pulling back for a moment and leaving Dante’s head had so fuzzy it took him a moment to remember what he’d been talking about. “But you know…you are a vision when you are agitated.”
The amusement in their voice when they said it ticked Dante off immediately all over again
"Oh, now you’re just trying to piss me off!" Dante snarled, snatched from the haze with a flash of glowing eyes.
The archdevil's shoulders shook with laughter only adding to Dante's irritation.
Dante felt movement behind himself and didn’t have to turn his head to know that Belail’s tail had lashed exactly once with amusement.
Bastard.
“Belial—”
“Yes, yes, pretty thing, I understand.” The elder devil’s tone was laced with obvious amusement, but even with that Dante could tell somehow that Belial wasn’t mocking him or dismissing him as a threat.
Before Dante could dwell any further on how that made him feel, Belial sat up a bit more so that he was resting on his elbows.
The arch devil caught Dante’s pointing hand in a vice-grip while Dante’s opposite hand remained planted firmly in the faintly glowing center of Belial’s chest for balance.
Their grip was firm but gentle and Dante wavered.
He watched the archdevil press their lips to his palm, clearly enjoying the way that the half-devil went even redder in the face at the show of affection.
“Yes, pretty thing, I will locate your amulet and it will be returned to you as soon as possible.” Belial rumbled. “I will take care of it personally. You have my word.” Something in Dantes’s chest felt…funny. Strange.
Wrong.
(Right.)
Oh, these were dangerous waters to tread.
Way to fuck yourself over, Dante, he thought somewhat hysterically, cursing himself for letting his instincts rule him.
He still had obligations as a devil hunter. He still had debts to pay and yet for a moment Dante wondered what it would be like to just toss all of that away and stay exactly where he was.
What would that be like?
Dante hadn’t forgotten about how his literal home had crumbled apart before his very eyes as the demon tower sprouted from the ground, tearing the city asunder.
He was not always consistent in Hell. In fact, sometimes it wasn't even linear.
The idea losing hundreds of years made him nauseous.
All that time and money and effort just to drop back to square one?
Really?
He drew his bottom lip between his teeth, for once obviously struggling with what he wanted to say. He might have laughed at himself if he didn’t feel so damn unmoored.
Just a few words and everything would before even more of a nightmare, right?
Danted gulped as a thought came to him, feeling oddly high and uncharacteristically nervous.
He took in Belial’s intimidating form and for just a moment...just for a moment, Dante had thoughts of times long past.
He thought of his mother’s smile and wisps of golden hair laying over a pale slender neck. He wondered about things he’d never gotten to ask, memories eroded by time and pain and grief.
A coiling mark that looked like the color had been sucked out of it peeking out the collar of her nightgown.
“You fret so much, pretty thing.” Belial whispered, staring into Dante’s narrowed eyes. “And yet you will not unload any of the mental burden on me.”
Dante grit his teeth, prepared to tell him to mind his business even as his own mating mark throbbed again in pleasure.
He hissed sharply, sucking in air between his clenched teeth and sounding much less human than he was prepared to deal with.
To his shame he avoided Belial’s gaze for a moment as he reached up to cover his own mark with his unoccupied hand, the spot feeling feverish and frankly sore to the touch.
“It-...the bond. It wasn’t like this before.” He admitted, voice rough with emotion and tone laced with a lingering question because why would anyone want their head to be this much of a mess regardless of the pleasure that it brought with it?
“Of course not.” Belial chuckled, moving to lay a kiss at the center of Dante’s palm, slow and deliberate as if intentionally allowing Dante time to gather his thoughts.
Dante could only shudder as the archdevil kissed from his wrist to his palm all the way to the tip of his middle finger.
“It will get better with time.” Belial reassured. “ It’s fragile and new right now. You need to let me take care of you”
“I can take care of myself.”
“I never said you couldn’t.”
Dante had to literally bite his tongue to keep from cursing.
Belial sat up completely in the next moment and Dante was forced to slide back into the cradle of their hips, his head tilting up so that he could look them in the eyes.
He felt like Belial could see right through him down to his very core.
“I have trouble understanding your reluctance.” Belial murmured.
Dante arched his brow in disbelief and a chuckle rolled through the archdevil’s frame once again. “You’re kidding”
The feeling of their laughter left Dante shivering from the vibrations on the insides of his thighs. “...Fair. History aside.”
Belial leaned closer, watching him with those ageless, far too intelligent, hooded eyes.
“You need not fear me.”
Truth.
Terrifying in itself.
There was a stretch of silence and then finally Belial pulled Dante’s hand from his lips and placed his palm against the smooth stone-like curve of their cheek.
Dante swallowed audibly as the archdevil leaned in to murmur directly into his ear.
“I could show you.” Belial’s voice was a low rumble in Dante’s ear, almost a whisper. “I can show you there’s nothing to be afraid of. There is little I would not do to see you content.” Belial pressed ever closer.
Fed and fucked and pampered.
That's what Belial wanted for him…but at what cost?
Dante’s vision went a bit unfocused as the archdevil nipped at the curve of his ear with needle-sharp teeth. “
Dante’s breath stuttered and he reeled with the understanding that if he allowed them to continue, there was little doubt that they would soon be right back where they were a few hours ago, naked and writhing within their nest.
The feelings rushing through him left him flushing all the way down into his collar and he quickly reached out to press his palm to their face with one of his gloved hands and push them away.
“Belial-”
The archdevil rumbled with low laughter and pulled away from Dante’s grip, sporting a decidedly shit-eating grin all the while.
“I will only hurt you the way you want me to…never more…never less...”
“Not on purpose.” Dante replied pointedly and then literally bit his tongue right after because what the fuck?
“Not any more than you’d like.” Belial waited a beat and Dante felt the tension skyrocket.
“Do you want me to?” Belial questioned, voice like silk as they continued to watch as Dante stiffened and then stuttered from behind the palm of their hand.
“Do you want me to hurt you again like I did after we fought amongst the sands?” Belial's voice has gone low and rough as they leaned in to speak and Dante had to fight not to tremble in their arms.He felt hunter, his blood boiling hot and racing in his veins
“Do you want me to make you bleed and bleed, pretty thing?”
Dante went to put his hand back over their face, but Belial caught him by the wrist before her could fully cover their expression and hide form their gaze.
Dante turned away at that, but he could feel their lips upon his skin oonce agian, warm at the center of his palm and slowly growing wet as their tongue slipped from between their lips. That fially made Dante shiver.
With a sharp breath, Dante cleared his throat with the intent to get back to his original concern. He really needed to find his amulet and the rest of his shit back.
“Enough, that's anough-”
Belial hummed as he placed one more final kiss against the inside of Dante’s wrist, holding the appendage close to his cheek and nuzzling at his palm like a cat.
“We will find your Amulet.” The older devil stated sounding as if they actually didn’t look like they wanted to fuck Dante back into a stupor again. “...However, there is something that I must attend to in the meantime.”
Anger and disappointment flashed through Dante’s being like white-hot lava, the sudden charge so jarring he froze.
He wanted to be calm, but the truth was he was inches away from cursing them out for thinking that they were going to be able to just make him hold-up somewhere while they went off and did their thing without him.
“Would you be willing to accompany me, pretty thing?”
That pulled Dante up short and he narrowed his eyes at Belial in hesitation, waiting for them to attach a condition or something, ready to argue his point.
But no conditions ever came forth.
Instead, Belial reached out to cradle the back of Dante’s head and the young devil, grudgingly, hunter allowed it. He let them tilt his face up and after a moment of glaring, he closed his eyes as Belial pressed their lips to his forehead.
.
Dante's breath caught in his chest, but he didn't pull away.
Ye, he still needed to figure out how to get out of the fortress and Hell in general for good, he still ouldn't help but wonder.
Whatever happened, he was going to have to brace for things going bad.
Real Bad.
Because they always did eventually. Lady Luck didn't seem done kicking him in the head just yet and He’d made a promise to himself that he intended to keep no matter what happened.
Dante swallowed audibly and eventually raised his hand in an attempt to hide the redness gathering in his face once again. Judging by the sound of Belial’s quiet chuckling, it wasn’t effective and he grit his teeth again, feeling like a fool and hating himself for it.
He ignored the low chuckle in the back of his mind that sounded suspiciously familiar.
A voice...whispering words that made his heart turn to ice and dread pool low in his belly.
“Foolish Little Brother…”