Holiday Inn, Limbo City, Friday Evening

[not_every_mage]

Anders had booked and paid for the room, ignoring the clerk's dirty look at the blood and muck on their clothes. They wouldn't be the only people caught in the day's devastation looking for someplace to sleep tonight

He'd silently followed Dante through the hotel halls to their room, and placed a quick order for pizza before he took off his boots and crashed out on the bed. The thousand bruises and scrapes of the battle stung his skin.

He should shower. He didn't want to move.

He turned to Dante, still registering faint surprise at the newly white hair. (He supposed they were lucky if that was the worst permanent change Dante saw.) Words failed him when it came to addressing the true horror of the day, but he should at least say something

"They said the pizza should be here in about half an hour," he said. "I'm actually impressed it's not longer, considering."


[OOC: For one, NFB.]

Comments

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante hadn't made it all the way to the bed. He was tired, and he'd been tired while Anders placed the order, and halfway through the call, his knees had just given out.

So he was sitting on the floor now, back to the door. "Limbo City, man," he said, tilting his head up. "Anything that'll earn a buck."

[not_every_mage]

"I think the hotel doubled its rates," Anders nodded. "Disaster rates, you know. Plenty of people need a place to stay. So, at least you helped their bottom line."

He lifted his head and frowned over at Dante. "Want to come over here?"

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante sucked in a deep breath. "Yeah," he said, "Be there in a second."

He remained where he was for at least another thirty of those seconds. Then he got up, managing the few steps to the bed, and practically faceplanted.

[not_every_mage]

"If you die after all that, I'm going to kill you myself," Anders muttered. (Logic wasn't his strong suit at the moment.) "Dante? Are you hurt?"

[rebelseekspizza]

"I'm fine, just tired," Dante said.

He pushed one hand against the bed and turned over onto his back. "And I'm hungry."

[not_every_mage]

Anders relaxed, resting his hand against Dante's back. "No wonder," he said. "You were throwing around a lot more power than you normally have to."

Honestly, he was still awed by the powers Dante and Vergil had put on display. Awed and a little frightened, but mostly awed.

"I'm glad it's something you can sleep off."

[rebelseekspizza]

"I'm not about to die on you yet," Dante said, a sigh in his voice as he shut his eyes. "Not today. Not tomorrow."

First time he could say that for sure.

[not_every_mage]

"Probably not for a very long time," Anders agreed, curling against Dante as if he still needed protection. "I'm glad. You get a future. A real one."

And if it had taken tearing down half a city and almost killing Vergil to get that ... Anders couldn't feel very bad about the losses at all.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Yeah," Dante said.

He didn't shift out of Anders' way at all. Snuggling had never been his thing; it'd always been uncomfortable. But the warm weight of Anders' body against his held a kind of comfort right now he wasn't going to turn down.

"Just gotta figure out what the hell that means," he said. "You feel like this when you got out of your tower?"

[not_every_mage]

"A little," Anders conceded. He knew Dante wasn't a snuggler, but he needed to hold onto someone right then, and he appreciated that Dante was indulging him. "It took a while to believe I got to make my own choices, let alone to make them. I still had an awful lot to worry about ... but I suppose you do too. "

[rebelseekspizza]

"Everybody's got something to worry about," Dante pointed out lightly. He opened his eyes, staring up at the ceiling. "Didn't actually think I'd get here, though."

[not_every_mage]

"Does it seem real yet?" Anders wanted to know. "I'm not sure it does to me, and I was mostly watching."

[rebelseekspizza]

"No, not really," Dante said softly. "Maybe after pizza. Or something. Don't feel like much is solid."

[not_every_mage]

Anders reached over, running a hand down Dante's arm. "You're solid," he said. "I'm solid. The bed's solid. I can't swear to anything else."

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante chuckled softly in spite of himself. "Point," he said, smoothing back a few stray, loose strands of Anders' hair. "'s good enough for tonight, for me."

[not_every_mage]

"Good," Anders said, smiling at the touch. "Because I'm almost as worn out as you are. I think that was a lot for all of us. I'm glad you didn't try to take it all on yourself."

It was strange, that the gentle boy touching his hair was the same person who'd been red with demonic energy a handful of hours before. Anders wasn't sure what he thought about that.

[rebelseekspizza]

"I didn't want people to get hurt if they didn't need to," Dante said quietly. "Vergil caused enough of that."

[not_every_mage]

"He did," Anders agreed. "Maker, that was bad. Somehow even after what happened with Kat, I didn't think he was as -- broken as he turned out to be."

[rebelseekspizza]

"I don't know--"

Dante bit down the end of that sentence.

"Why?"

[not_every_mage]

"Why didn't I know?"

Anders was surprised, had to consider the question for a moment.

"I guess because he's your brother," he said simply. "I hated everything he did the other weekend, but I had to believe there was some plan there, something I couldn't understand. Stupid me, I didn't think the plan might be ruling the world."

[rebelseekspizza]

"I mean... why would he go there? What the fuck happened to him?" Dante said, sounding vaguely helpless. "'Cause-- I was the same. Figured he had a plan, at least."

[not_every_mage]

Anders made a frustrated little gesture of his own with the hand closer to Dante. "Bad childhood? Something he ate? You'd have to ask him," he said. "I wish I could guess, but I can't."

More quietly, he added, "I'm just glad you didn't go along with him."

[rebelseekspizza]

"Didn't even think about it," Dante said - and he didn't hesitate this time, either. "I didn't fight Mundus so I could replace him as the guy fucking everyone else up. Everyone deserves to be free."

[not_every_mage]

"Absolutely," Anders said, not needing to hesitate either. "But there's never been a shortage of people with power who don't know that."

[rebelseekspizza]

"I know, it's just..."

Dante frowned at the ceiling. "She did everything for him," he said. "And he just blows Kat off like she's nothing."

He was circling around to the core thing that was bothering him.