Cadere
by Meirelle
Chapter Four: Normal

DISCLAIMER: Poor, dammit! Poor! No own!

Just 19 and dream obscene with six months off for bad behavior
-Placebo, "Special Needs"

Dante slowly awoke to the sound of rain hitting the window. It seemed strangely different; it sounded far away, muffled, and wrong. The shoddy windows in his apartment were drafty little bastards, and they didn't block out any noise from the outside. This sound was different. It was quiet.

It was disturbing.

Dante cracked an eyelid.

He was in a strange place- a hospital, maybe. It had that distinctive sterile smell, and the walls were white. Only hospitals had white walls. He'd been in them enough to recognize that they all looked the same.

The room he was in was dark, and he couldn't make out much. His vision was still a little blurry. Still? Harsh, florescent lighting spilled through the open doorway. He squinted, turning his head away from it.

A window was to his left. The curtains were drawn, letting in the murky grey light of a rainy afternoon. The grey clouds outside were oddly calming, took his thoughts away from a nagging something in the back of his mind.

A rustling sound brought his attention back to the room. He looked to the foot of the bed where a woman was sitting in a previously unoccupied chair. She was idly flipping through the pages of a National Geographic that was probably swiped from one of the waiting rooms.

Dante tried to sit up, and he immediately regretted it. He felt like he was going to puke. The feeling was worse than the hangover he got a few weeks back when Enzo challenged him to a drinking contest. And that was a bad hangover. He let out a tiny whimper and held his breath. No big deal. If something tries to come up, I'll just swallow it.

"Dante?"

He shifted his gaze to the woman in the chair.

"You're awake." She must have noticed something in his expression. "Are you okay?"

He knew that voice. "Lady? Is that you?"

"Yeah, it's me." She moved the chair up to the side of the bed and stared at him with concern. The emotion looked odd on her face.

Dante frowned, finally realizing why he didn't recognize her at first. "You look weird- dressed funny."

She looked at him in disbelief. "This is called looking normal, Dante. You should try it sometime."

"Yeah, I..." He realized after it left his mouth that it was a rather stupid comment. Lady was dressed in blue jeans and a hooded sweatshirt. It was normal. "Yeah."

Lady's frown deepened. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine," he lied. He gave her a small, faltering smile.

Her response was to cross her arms defiantly.

Dante sighed. "Not all right. There. You happy?" He swore it was that woman's mission in life to make him suffer. He squinted his eyes shut in pain as he felt bile rise in his throat. "Hey, Lady," he said in between clenched teeth. "Can I borrow your jacket?"

"What for?"

"So I can puke in it."

It took a moment for it to sink in, but as soon as she noticed the pallid color of his face, she dashed towards the trash bin and held it under his face just in time for him to throw up in it.

She curled her nose up. "Can't you ask for something to puke in like a normal person?"

"I did." He rolled over on to his side. "I was just gonna swallow it, but-"

"Ah! Not another word."

"Okay, okay." He buried his face in the pillow. He took note of the plastic bracelet around his left wrist. Sparda, Dante. Adm: 9/22.

He stared at it in morbid fascination. Sure, he'd been in a hospital before, but he was never on this end. He was never the patient.

"My head hurts," he mumbled. "And I want to go home. Where am I?"

"At the hospital on the far side of town."

"Oh." He paused. "My head hurts."

Lady sighed and stared out the window with a mix of concern and annoyance.

A nurse walked into the room and paused, taking in the situation. "Oh, you're up."

Dante groaned in response.

"How are you feeling?"

Dante buried his face further into the pillow and mumbled something incoherent.

Lady held out the soiled trashcan, which she realized with disgust that she was still holding.

"Oh," the nurse said simply, taking it away. "That answers that." The nurse didn't seem to be irritated. In fact, she seemed somewhat amused. Dante decided that Lady probably liked her.

"He also has a headache," Lady supplied.

"I thought as much," the nurse answered. "I'll be back with some painkillers." She shot a sympathetic glance at Dante.

"I never been this sick before," he said in a small voice. "Ever."

Lady shot him a worried glance. Dante sounded so vulnerable- scared, even. It wasn't like him at all.

"What's wrong with me?"

The nurse gave him a worried smile. "You're suffering the effects of a moderate concussion. The symptoms- you know, confusion, vision problems, headaches, slight amnesia-" she paused and looked at the trash can- "vomiting. They usually last around 48 to 72 hours."

Dante took in a sharp breath. "That's-" he laughed, tried to appear amused, but it made him look nervous instead. "That's weird."

"Actually," the nurse said, "it's quite normal." She walked over to the bed on the opposite side of the room, jotted down some notes and left.

Normal. Dante's eyes wandered over to the other bed, and his breath caught in his throat. "Vergil?" He squinted. The pseudo-light pouring through the window wasn't enough for him to make out the features of the person in the bed, but the white hair was a dead giveaway.

"Yeah," Lady answered. "That's him."

"Is he- is he okay?" He tried to focus on Lady, but his eyes kept on wandering to his incapacitated brother.

Lady followed his gaze. "He's a little banged up, but he'll live."

He watched the uncharacteristically prone form of his brother. Vergil looked like a different person. His features were relaxed, peaceful. He looked boyish and innocent. And he was injured- they both were. He'd never had a concussion, and he'd never had a cut that didn't heal within minutes. He felt weak, and it scared the shit out of him.

Dante turned away from his brother and stared at the ceiling. He tried counting the pockmarks in the tiles, but his vision became blurry. He just closed his eyes instead.

Beside him, Lady sighed. "What happened out there?"

It was a question neither one of them wanted to think about, and Dante did his best to avoid the subject. "Hey," he said weakly, "Nice weather we're having, huh?"

"Something happened," she said flatly. "What?"

Damn. "Nothing." He opened his eyes and gave her a withering look.

"Would you like me to shoot you in the head again?"

"Oh, yeah." Dante laughed. "I'm sure they really let you in the hospital with your monster grenade launcher."

Lady smiled. "No, of course not." She stretched her arms, and the bottom of her sweatshirt lifted up in the front just enough for Dante to spot part of a holster strap. She smiled, knowing he spotted it.

Dante stiffened. "You wouldn't." At least, he didn't think she would. One never knew with her.

"Of course I wouldn't," she said, and she leaned over him to look directly in his eyes. "Somehow, I get the feeling you wouldn't survive it this time."

Dante tore his eyes from her to look out at the rain pounding the window. "I don't know what happened." He watched a rivulet of water snake down the center until it merged with the outside ledge. "When the portal closed, I felt like I was being drained- torn apart. And I got weak, lost concentration, and I fell." He turned his gaze back to her and smiled. "And I think I hit my head on a rock."

Lady fought to hold back a smile of her own. "Oh, I don't think that's the first time you hit your head." Her smile grew wider. "You were probably dropped on it as a child."

"Hey!" He narrowed his eyes and frowned in mock offense, pouting. "I didn't get dropped on my head."

"Oh, you had to have been."

"No, I-"

"He was," came a reply from across the room.

Both stopped, confused, before turning to the source of the new voice- Vergil. He hadn't moved, but his eyes were now open.

Lady put her hands on her hips. "Do you make it a habit of eaves dropping while you're pretending to sleep?"

"Forget that!" Dante glared at his brother. "I was not dropped on my head, you lying bastard."

Vergil let a ghost of a smile grace his face, and with his hair down, it made him look frighteningly like his brother. It only provoked Dante even more.

"Dude," He muttered, "I'm gonna beat the shit out of that smirk."

"You do, and I will kill you."

"Oh, yeah," Dante taunted. "We're in a hospital, and you can hardly move."

"I'll kill you when I recover."

Dante paused, searching for a comeback. Then he found it, and he smiled. "With what?"

Vergil's expression hardly changed, but Dante noticed it.

"Yamato's sealed away in the underworld. I left it there."

Apparently, Vergil could move more than he had thought, because a few seconds later his twin's hands were around his neck.

"That was a mistake on your part," Vergil sneered.

Dante's eyes went wide, and he frantically pulled at his brother's hands. He started to see black spots before Vergil was yanked away, presumably by Lady. He leaned on his side, trying to take in deep breaths in between coughing fits.

He heard the sound of a fist hitting its target, and a thump. He rolled over and saw his brother, furious, sitting in a guest chair across the room. Vergil, wiping blood from his mouth, stared up at an equally furious Lady.

"That will never happen again," she ordered. "From you." She pointed to Vergil. "Or you." Her finger moved in Dante's direction. "Do you understand me?"

"Hell yeah," Dante replied. "'Cause, you know, I'm the one who tried to kill him."

"Dante!"

"What!"

"Head! Bullet!"

"I'll never do it again!"

She smiled. "Much better. And you?" She turned to the other twin.

Vergil frowned, considering his options. Finally, he nodded. "Very well." Dante knew his brother wasn't stupid. Right now, Lady could beat the shit out of either one of them. It was a serious wound to his pride, but Vergil knew when to pull his punches... well, most of the time.

"Now." Lady sat back down in her chair with a sigh. "You'll both be released soon- probably tomorrow, since Dante, you're not out of your wits anymore, and Vergil, you've been able to walk since yesterday without much pain."

"Yeah, Lady," Dante grumbled. "Thanks for telling me that part."

Lady ignored him. "But for right now, you're stuck here. And since I'm a nice person-" Dante snorted at that "-I'm here with you." She took a deep breath and sighed. "What happened to you out there? Your injuries aren't healing."

"Yeah, I know." Dante held up his bandaged hand. "This itches like a fucking bitch." He tried to peek underneath the bandages.

Vergil narrowed his eyes. "I think," he said, "I may have an answer." The others stared at him, waiting for him to elaborate, but he didn't.

Eventually, Dante cleared his throat, and Lady raised an eyebrow.

But Vergil said nothing more of the matter.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I changed the name of the fic, yet again. It's Italian. Translate it.

Also, I love the beginning of the chapter, but by the end, I abhor it. I read over it a few times, but if you find any inconsistencies, please tell me, and I will fix them.