InsaneJournal

Substitutes [Cat & Nero, Devil May Cry, NC-17]
Title: Substitutes
Author: jlsigman
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: language, violence, dub-con drug use, wall!sex
Word count: 3395
Prompt: Nero and Cat: "I'd hate to ruin the surprise."
A/N: Takes place 50 years after Devil May Cry 4. Don't ask where this came from, I have no idea...


Nero was surprised to see Cat sitting on the steps outside of the Devil May Cry. This time of the evening she would normally be inside, either on Dante's knee while they listened to a client or in Dante's lap if they had nothing else to do. Her posture was not at all relaxed or languidly aware, but tightly still, as if she was holding some great anger inside. If it wasn't for the fact that she had obviously noticed him, he might have turned and left before she could: he had seen her anger unleashed before, discarding gun and sword for 4 sets of claws that dealt death faster than anyone he'd ever seen.

But she was already sitting up from her slouch. “Dante's not here,” she called out as a greeting.

“Uh, OK,” he said, pausing at the bottom of the stairs. “When's he coming back?”

“Fuck if I know.” She tried to sound casual about it and failed. “He's chasing some rumor Trish teased him about in a call.” Now the claws were out in her voice.

Considering the personalities involved, it was rather smart of Dante to keep his old girlfriend and his new one apart. Although which was Trish and which was Cat could be debated at this point. But not by Nero... he may not use them much these days, as Kyrie was getting frail in her old age, but he still liked his balls where they were. “Actually, you might be more help, since you know the city better,” he said.

Cat smirked at the obvious attempt to appease her temper, but stood up. “Come on in, then, and show me where we're heading.”

Once inside, Cat unrolled a large map onto the floor. It showed the city streets, the subway routes, the swathes of destruction, the parts belonging to a Tang or the Yakuza or the Family, and some odd demonic characters that meant something to her and nothing to anyone else. She smoothed the corners flat the looked at him expectantly.

Nero fished a scrap of paper out of his pocket and tossed it at her. “Some group of well-armed thugs busted up an old temple in a town near Fortuna. They killed a few old people who kept the place nice and took a little figurine that had been hidden there.”

“Demonic, of course?” she asked, squatting beside the map. There was a crease of concentration between her eyebrows, and she kept turning the scrap of paper in her hand.

He kneeled beside her and reached around her shoulders to set the paper the right way in her hand as he continued. “What else?” She grinned at him and he quickly removed his arm, and tried not to notice that she looked vaguely disappointed when he did. “This was on a gun clip found there. I traced it here, but people seemed to forget an exact address when asked.”

She was frowning at the paper again. “I've seen this before, somewhere,” she muttered, tilting her head slightly. Her eyes roamed around the room, then landed on a pile of magazines on Dante's desk. She stood up in one fluid motion and strode over to it, her long gray coat brushing the back of his neck as she went by. He rubbed it hard to calm the goose flesh as she flipped through and tossed aside the first few issues. Then she folded one in half with a satisfied noise and walked back to give it to him. “It's a something Club,” she said with a sarcastic grin.

“The Smoke Club – Now Open” the magazine ad proclaimed in bold letters. The symbol he had shown her seemed to be it's logo. “What will you see through the Smoke?” another caption read. He looked up at her. “You have got to be kidding me,” he said incredulously.

She shrugged. “Wouldn't be the first time.” She crouched in front of the map again. “Where does it say it is?”

He scanned the ad. “It just says something about the end of the valley.”

Her eyes widened in surprise. “Really?” She moved to a part of the map that was pristine, lacking any signs of destruction or demonic scribblings. She reached out and tapped a building with an extended claw. “This one, then, or next to it. Gonna be a pain in the ass to get there, though, that's the nice part of town. They don't like swords and guns and crazy half-demon types like me.”

Nero waited while she traced a route with her finger. He looked at the ad again, then looked up when she sighed. “That bad?”

“The subway part is easy, but we'll have to get off around here,” she indicated a part of the map halfway between Dante's shop and the club. “After that we'll have to walk, either low or high depending on the crowds.”

“Low or...?”

She grinned. “Either by sewer or roof.”

He groaned as he stood up. “That'll take forever! Why can't we stay on the subway the whole way?”

She was still grinning as she pointed to the Red Queen strapped to his back. “Can you tuck that thing in that demon hand of your's?”

“It's not a storage locker,” he said with a glare.

She just laughed at him.

**

Nero was thankful when Cat decided it was dark enough to “take the high way”. They made good time until they were half a dozen blocks away and had to dive out of the way of a spotlight's insistent beam. They huddled on a fire escape until the pattern was clear, then in bursts of movement approached the target building. A building which had it's own obstacles to overcome.

“How the fuck do we get in there?” Cat whispered.

Nero barely refrained from snapping back a completely unhelpful answer. The front – and so far only visible – entrance was preceded by a line of people that snaked backwards for two whole blocks. The door was narrow and short enough to make most men passing through it duck their heads. It was also flanked by a pair of hired muscle and lit bright enough to rival the noon sun. “There's got to be an emergency exit somewhere,” he finally ventured.

She shook her head. “Not if they really didn't want one.”

He looked at her incredulously. “But... permits and fire codes and...” He trailed off as she gave him a mocking, haven't-you-figured-this-out-yet? look. He thought for another minute before turning to her again. “A service door. They have to be able to bring in supplies for the club through something.”

“Let's start around back,” she said by way of agreement.

Carefully, hyper aware of the crowds close by, they snuck through the alleys that surrounded the complex until they found one that led to where they were headed. But no door, service entrance, or opening of any kind could be found in the wall or on the ground around it. Cat's eyes were almost glowing as she glared at the smooth wall, but she didn't intimidate any answers from it. Nero noted that his demon hand was glowing as he got closer to the wall, but its light didn't reveal anything useful.

A sudden burst of loud cheering startled them both into a defensive crouch. When nothing more ominous than an increase of spotlights scanning the sky happened, Nero tried to relax again. “Now what,” he muttered.

Cat was looking at the sky, eyes narrowed. Without looking at him she pointed up. “Can you reach the roof?” she asked.

“Reach...” he trailed off as he followed her finger. Whoever was inside the building really wanted to keep out robbers and bums, because four stories above her fingertip was a contraption that looked very much like a window washer's platform. “The roof, huh? Shouldn't be too hard.”

“Just don't drop meEEE!” Her admonishment ended with a swiftly muffled shriek when he grabbed her around the waist with his human arm and reached out to the roof with the demonic one. The sudden jerk of acceleration had her wrapping her arms around his neck. “You'll pay for that,” she said in his ear, and he almost couldn't control his shiver.

She gracefully tumbled out of his arms when they got to the roof and rolled into a crouch, gun out and cocked. Nero's demon arm was glowing brighter, but it seemed to be related to the building in general. He quickly rolled his coat sleeve down to cover as much of it as possible and nodded towards a door in the opposite corner.

“Wait,” she said, trying to speak softly. The crowd noise was quieter up here, but was still a threat because it continued to cover up things they needed to hear to stay alive. “I think someone's - “

The door opposite clicked loudly.

They froze for a heartbeat, then sprang into motion, diving behind the lift's controlling mechanism. Two men came through the door and looked around briefly, with the boredom of ones who had responded to too many false alarms. “Come on, there's nothing up here,” the first man complained.

“Yeah, just the damn cat again,” the other agreed as they turned to go.

Cat's grin showed sharp teeth. As soon as both men had their back to the demon hunters' hiding place, she quietly ran forward, covering the distance before they could close the door again. One turned with a gasp when she unsheathed her sword, almost shrieking, “What the hell is that?!?”

“The damn cat,” she said, still showing teeth.

Both were dead by the time Nero caught up, and he dragged the bodies into the shadows under the nearby spotlight stand. “Any surveillance?” he murmured as he rejoined her.

She shrugged. “Not that I can see or hear, but that doesn't mean much.”

“Enough for me,” he said with a quick grin, starting down the stairs. He heard the sigh and imagined the eye roll.

They came across an room full of security monitors one floor down and quickly dispatched the one guard left. The screens, however, only showed the packed dance floor, the crowded bar, and the VIP suite filled with pro athletes and their hangers-on. They were about to turn away when one screen showed a bouncer escorting a happy couple towards a curtained wall. They all disappeared, and a few minutes later the bouncer returned alone.

“Think you can find that door?” Nero asked.

Cat nodded. “Looks like it's around the bar. Let's go.”

The main area of the club was another two floors below them, but as soon as they stepped into the service stairwell the pounding bass could be felt through the floor. Cat's nose twitched as they descended, and about the time Nero could also smell something oddly sweet in the air she sneezed.

“What is it, pot?” he asked, trying to pull his collar around his face.

“Among other things,” she said with a wry grin. His raised eyebrows got a shrug in return. “I won't know for sure unless I see it,” she responded, “But it could make things... more interesting.”

He sighed. His idea of interesting and her idea of interesting tended to not intersect. “Great...”

Her grin turned mocking. “You're the one who had to have the damn thing now,” she teased as she opened the door to the club proper.

“Yeah, but - “

His words were lost when he stepped out from the stairway. The smoky-sweet smell was much stronger here, penetrating his attempts to block it. He also couldn't keep his demon hand hidden, his collar over his face, and his hands over his ears at the same time. The bass throbbed in his bones, pounding out a rhythm his heart had to race to keep up with while a squeaky female voice screeched Chinese lyrics with a Southern accent over and over. He looked for Cat in the sudden crush of bodies. When he had a glimpse of her stunned face he started to plow his way to her side. If the noise was deafening him, he couldn't image how it felt to her demon-enhanced hearing.

There were too many people crowded in this place, or the smoke had completely ruined his sense of proportion, because it took much too long to get to the place where he thought he had seen her last. He found her near the bar, a man behind her nuzzling her neck and another beside her with one of her fingers in his mouth. He could see the man's tongue roll around it and gaped, too stoned and too turned on to do anything more than whisper her name.

The man behind her looked up, then glared. “Whatcha lookin' at?”

The woman opened emerald green eyes and dismissed Nero with a glance. “It's nobody, honey,” she moaned, “Just ignore him.”

“I'm,” Nero stuttered as he back away from the woman who now looked nothing like his temporary partner. “I'm s-sorry.” There were too many people, too many women who had the same slender body, and with the lights flashing hair color was impossible to really tell. He couldn't hear anything but his pulse in his ears.

There was a touch on his demon hand, and while his brain tried to flail away his body didn't, recognizing a familiar feeling. He turned his head and Cat was weeping and pulling him to the other side of the bar. He followed, fingers laced together, behind the curtained wall and through a door. When it tightly closed it was as silent as a tomb.

Cat all but collapsed against his chest, gasping for breath. For a moment his head was too heavy to hold up, and it drooped until his forehead was almost touching hers. Her dark copper eyes opened and blinked a few times before they would stay focused. “Sorry,” she whispered, untangling her fingers from his.

“Don't be,” he whispered back, wiping one last tear off her face.

They both slowly pulled away at the same time. The air here was clearer than the dance floor, but still had traces of the smoke, and it seemed to get thicker again at the bottom of the last staircase. “Let's go,” Cat said shortly, pulling her gun out of her thigh holster.

“You gonna be OK?” Nero asked as he rolled his sleeve up.

She shot him a glare. “Someone's gonna pay for this fucking headache.” They grinned at each other and stormed down the stairs.

The smoke-filled air rang with screams both human and not as the demonic cultists were cut down.

In the aftermath they stood next to the altar, Nero prying the statue out of the niche it had been jammed in while Cat dumped the smaller of the braziers and started picking through the contents. “Pot... basil...” she said, tossing greenery aside and scattering ash with a claw.

The statuette finally came free, causing Nero to stagger backwards a few steps. “What're you looking for?” he said when he had his balance again. The larger braziers that supplied the dance floor with it's smoke were still smoldering, making the room a little hazy.

She grinned slyly. “That would ruin the surprise,” she said, holding a gray-green leaf to her nose. She shrugged and tossed it aside, still picking through the greenery. “Ah, here it is,” she said, holding up an oily-looking yellow-green frond. She found several more and bunched them together before sniffing the plant, and then the oil on her fingers.

He leaned over from the other side of the altar she had scattered everything on. “What is - “ His question was cut off when she playfully stuffed the bunch into his open mouth. A taste that was sweet and spicy and warm coated his tongue and mouth before he could spit it back out. She licked her fingers and laughed.

With an incoherent growl he tried to grab her wrist, but she was too quick and pulled away, causing him to slam his knee against the stone in front of him. His curses caused her to laugh even harder. He pouted and limped a few steps.

“Awww,” Her hips swayed as she walked over. “Poor babEEEE!”she shrieked as he grabbed her arm and pulled her closer. She stumbled a little, turning it into a dancing step that spun them both around, and then her back was against the wall and he was pressing her against it with his chest. Her eyes had darkened to a color he couldn't name, the vertical pupils wider than he'd ever seen them.

Her tongue was eager and rough, her mouth demanding, their teeth scraping together as the kiss went on. Her fingers quickly undid the buttons on his shirt and he finally had to pull his mouth away to breath when she brushed on of his nipples. “What...” he said between gasps, his demon hand cupping her firm backside. He groaned when she lightly licked his ear and tried to remember how to speak. “What was that stuff?”

She chuckled, low and throaty, and his hips ground against hers. She hummed her pleasure before speaking. “I don't have the mouth to say the demon name,” she teased, lightly rubbing his back with her fingers until he shuddered. “You can't find it here on Earth, you have to get it from some demon place.” He pushed her coat to the floor and started sucking on her exposed neck. “It, ah... It makes a demon mellow, calm, it'll do what you want...”

He nibbled his way to her ear and then gently sucked on the pointed tip, which made her wriggle against him. Her hands were working on his belt buckle. “What does it do to humans?” he asked before sliding his human hand under her shirt.

She laughed again, then cooed when his rock-hard erection came free in her hands. She stroked him almost too gently as she worked one of her boots free. “To humans, it's a very nice aph-ro-de-si-ac...”

His mouth crushed hers then, sealing the deal. She helped him get her pants untied and then jammed his demon hand against her wet clit and thrust against it while she pulled her bootless leg free . When she wrapped that leg around his waist he needed no guidance to lift her and slide into her with one smooth motion. Their moans filled the room as their battle cries had earlier, freely and without any thought of tomorrow.

Everything was fast and hard, the stone wall putting bruises on her back that she matched on his with her claws. He slammed into her tight heat as fast as he could, dizzy and high and gasping. She urged him to go faster, harder, until she tightened and came with a scream that he answered with a growl as he ground into her once, twice, and then shuddered and pushed as much of him inside as he could when everything seemed to explode.

He was almost crushing her again, but she couldn't be bothered to care. She felt filled and sated for the first time in too long and could hold on as long as he wanted. After several moments he stirred, nuzzling her neck as he softly slid out and stood her upright. When he started to say something she covered his lips with her finger. “Just don't,” she whispered in his ear. After another minute he nodded and helped her get dressed.

“Besides,” she continued, giving his cock a friendly squeeze before slowly zipping him back up. She grinned at the twitch she felt under her hands and the whimper he couldn't quite stop in time. “If you're really nice to me on the way to the subway, I'll sit in your lap all the way.”