#been different

Thanks for the ask, Romy!! I’ve been struck with inspiration today, so I wrote up a short thing. Hope you like it (◡‿◡✿)

Tiki and Nesty were Dante’s first commitment to the act of raising a child, of course, with Jessica and Grue there, he was not shouldering all the responsibility. He started to get the hang of it over the years, and Tony Redgrave was good with kids, he knew how to take care of a small baby like Nesty, how to calm her crying, and feed her, or hold her while Grue was busy. He learned how to entertain Tiki when she was busy asking a million questions.

Tiki was seven, and Nesty was two, when Grue and Jessica died. Jessica was fifteen at the age of her death, and Grue was fourty-two, respectively.

Dante was never technically their family, nor would he be under any legal documentation to become a caretaker. Grue’s wife had died shortly after Nesty was born, which was what drew their father to mercenary work to begin with. It was what eventually led Grue and Tony to meeting.

Tony spent a good chunk of what money he had into forming Tiki and Nesty a bank account and filling their savings with his funds. When the kids were eventually taken by child protective services, they were taken in by Sally, a woman a bit younger than Grue who knew about his mercenary work. Sally was a mercenary herself, but after the events of that dreaded winter, she quit, and sought more legitimate means of raising the daughters. She had a lot of help from Morrison, who continued his job as a broker, but also decided to keep his distance from Bobby’s after what happened that night. While Sally and Morrison were not married, both of them remembered Grue and wanted to help out.

Dante continued to send money to their bank account, and in very rare instances, he visited Tiki and Nesty, when Sally was out and Morrison would allow him. When Devil May Cry was formed, Dante left them his phone number. They always called to talk to him, never to ask for his services, and that was fine. Dante was grateful that they were not in the pursuit of demons.

(While human blood is often not distinguished, all of it considered to be the same thing, rare for a demon to distinguish one blood line from another. This proved to be an exception, however, unbeknownst to Dante, the daughters blood carried Grue’s scent, and after the horrible drawback Grue caused Vergil, which resulted in his full transformation to Nelo Angelo, Grue’s blood was considered dangerous. 

Nelo Angelo gave explicit warning to the demons he commanded to never pursue it. [Vergil doesn’t remember this, and most likely probably wouldn’t want to, given how embarrassing it is.] Nelo Angelo’s irrational fear of Grue left an impression in the many demons that fell under Mundus’s army, including even Griffon and Phantom. This inadvertently made the girls demon repellent, to a degree, although by now this scare has mostly faded off of the majority of demons, the legends of this human man still linger, now more like an urban legend for demons to scare each other with.)

When Patty Lowell entered Dante’s life, he had reached a very low point. When Patty was age 8, Tiki had matured to age 21, and Dante had spent some time funding her educational pursuit in mixology and culinary. Tiki had decided to try and pay for things her own way, and was suggesting repaying “Tony” for everything he’d done for her and Nesty.

After defeating Mundus, Dante had been in a bad spot, and after Tiki began wanting to give to Dante, he began to shy away from his connection to her. He didn’t want anyone to give anything to him. He wanted the opposite. He wanted to let go of so many things, as he struggled to find a reason to keep holding onto most of everything. His weapons, his money, his office… he fell into a confused depression, questioning why he was alive.

Needless to say, Patty was not what he was looking for, but maybe part of something he needed. Keeping her safe was something Dante did begrudgingly, but he continued to do it anyway. Morrison noticed quite plainly that Dante definitely had more of a change in himself. While Morrison was close, and had spent a lot of time with Tiki and Nesty, he noticed so clearly how badly Dante was affected during this time in his life, and started to  have a more personal relationship with him, outside of being an info broker.

Patty’s constant scolding of Dante didn’t please him, but it encouraged him to want to do better – not immediately, sure, but he wanted to try more and more, and her cleaning of his place made him guilty at times. He didn’t want her to have to suffer on his behalf.

After everything was said and done, much like with Tiki and Nesty, Dante pushed Patty away as well.

He says he does this for their benefit, so they aren’t hurt because of his line of work, and the general dangers in his life. While this does hold some truth, it’s known full well by Trish, Lady, and Morrison that Dante is not actually keeping them at arms length. Patty, as the ‘baby’ of the three, definitely gets a bit more attention, and Tiki has always been considered the more responsible. Although Dante has not actually had Patty meet Tiki and Nesty, it’s so very clear that he considers all of them important to him.

While going as far to say he is a father figure might sound like nonsense to him, it’s not necessarily true for the girls. Tiki and Dante often had several talks in her adult years. Dante could identify more with Tiki and Patty, for they both lost their parents around the age of eight, as did Dante. Nesty was somewhat oblivious to this at the age of two, only hearing the tales once she grew up.

Whether Dante considers himself a father figure or not, the girls definitely have him wrapped around their little finger. Although they never take advantage of him, if they are ever in need of money, Dante will drop everything to focus on raising the money they need for whatever purpose it is. If they want to talk, Dante will usually make time to call them. If they want him to visit, it may take a bit of coaxing, but Dante will usually relent and find a day to stop by.

By now, Patty, age eighteen, is finishing up her education, and possibly thinking of pursuing higher education. Tiki, age thirty-one, has recently opened her bar with Nesty, age twenty-six. Sally is also there to help out. Dante initially gave a lot of resistance for building her bar where Bobby’s Cellar once stood, given the old bar’s reputation, and the horrible tragedy that befell the place. Tiki disagreed, mentioning the area had changed, for the better, and it was time people moved on. “Tony Redgrave” was still a dirty word of a name, and she hoped to change that for her dear friend.