Red Hot Moon

Chapter 2: Sweet Surrender

Hiding in a dark alleyway of a vacant city block, Nico and Nero patiently wait in the Devil May Cry van on a stake out. They're surveying an abandoned building hoping for any sign of life. Nico's puffing away at her cigarette while reading a magazine. Nero fans plumes of her cigarette smoke out of his open window.

Cough! Cough!

"Could you cool it with smokes already?" he says, slightly annoyed. "I'm sending out smoke signals over here."

"Calm down, Nero. It ain't like it's gonna kill ya."

Nero groans, "We've been out here for 3 hours. You sure this is the right place?"

"According to Dante's directions," she says as she flicks the excess ash from the cigarette. "It's not like I can--!"

"--Hey, shut up! You see that?"

Nico looks up and sees Bayonetta approaching the building. She casually walks in through the front doors.

"Who do you think that was," he asks.

"Dunno, but she sure does have a nice ass."

Nero rolls his eyes as he gets out of the van.

"Hey, wait," Nico shouts. "What are you doing? You can't just walk in through the front doors."

"Why not? 'Nice ass' just did."

"Nero!"

"Nico, second hand smoke will kill me before anything or anyone in that building."

Nero slams the door and heads for the building. Nico scoffs then goes back to her magazine.

The abandoned building is partially dark, with the moonlight as a primary light source. There's no sign of life when Nero enters. He hears two people chatting in the distance at the end of the hall. He follows the chatter, which leads Nero to an office. He sees Bayonetta and his mark, some fat, balding gangster talking. She suddenly knocks him into a wall then pins him there.

"Listen, bitch," the man screams. "I don't know anything 'bout some fuckin' medallion!"

He struggles to break free and fails.

"It's very rude to call a lady out her name."

"What's even ruder is touching things that aren't yours."

Bayonetta turns around and sees Nero nonchalantly leaning against the door in the doorway. She cuts her eyes at him with a devilish grin.

"My apologies," she says and promptly releases the man. "I didn't see your name on him."

"It happens," Nero says as he casually strolls into the office. "You see I'm here to protect this guy."

"Oh, thank god," praises the man.

"Funny," Bayonetta says, adjusting her glasses with Love is Blue. "I'm here to kill him."

"Looks like we got ourselves in a situation," Nero draws Blue Rose and casually rests it against his shoulder.

The tension's overwhelming between the two of them. The gangster decides to break it.

"Well, I'll leave you two to hash this out," says the man trying to sneak away.

Bayonetta quickly aims her pistol at him and fires. She purposefully misses to prevent him from escaping.

"You need to stay put," she says to the bald man, but her eyes never leave Nero.

Intense silence fills the room. Bayonetta looks Nero over, she notices his white hair. Her eyes go back down to Nero's crotch and she stares at it for a bit. Nero notices, and shamefully shifts his hips out of her line of sight. Bayonetta has a smug look on her face.