Disclaimer: I don't own Devil May Cry: The Animated Series, sure wish I did though…

Movie Night

By General Zargon

Running through the gently falling rain and splashing through puddles towards the welcoming doors of Devil May Cry, Patty Lowell couldn't contain her bright grin as she clutched the backpack she was holding close to her chest and finally made it to the shelter of Dante's office.

She entered the building, shaking her head and sending water droplets flying as the door swung closed behind her, leaving her standing inside the doorway and dripping water everywhere. She knew she was going to have to mop up the puddles she was creating, but that did nothing to dampen the bright smile on her face as she trotted to the table that held the T.V. and set her only slightly damp backpack on it before she moved away to the center of the floor and began wringing out of her long blonde hair, grimacing when a veritable waterfall resulted from that action, and she began to dread mopping up after herself.

You have to set a good example for Dante, Patty reminded herself, and began wringing out her dress (this time it was a simple peaches-and-cream number without a lot of frills), slightly put out when she saw that there was actually less water in her dress that there had been in her hair. She pouted, but then perked up when her eyes landed on the backpack she had brought with her, and not even the fact that she would have to mop up a lot of water was going to dampen (pardon the pun) her cheerful mood.

She quickly located the apron she always left at the office and slipped it on, tying the bows with the ease of practice, and then she set about hunting down the mop and bucket, actually finding them in the closet instead of someplace weird, like under the couch or something.

It was only after she'd started mopping up the water she had tracked in that she noticed that Dante hadn't said anything, and a quick glance revealed that he was sitting in his chair behind the desk, as usual, with his legs propped up on the desk and surrounded by pizza boxes and strawberry sundae dishes, again as usual, but what wasn't as usual was the fact that he was holding his magazine like he was actually reading it, and he was staring at her like she had sprouted a second head.

Patty blinked at Dante before shrugging and going back to mopping up the water she had brought into the office, humming a song she had heard Dante playing a lot on the jukebox under her breath and looking forward to showing Dante the things she had brought inside the backpack. She didn't see Dante raise his eyebrow and look slightly worried before he put the magazine he was holding back over his face to take a small nap while he waited to find out why Patty was in such a good mood.

The devil hunter knew it was only a matter of time before the other shoe dropped, and he intended to enjoy the peace and quiet (with the exception of Patty's humming, which actually wasn't that bad) while it lasted. He just hoped whatever it was that had the Lowell heiress so happy wouldn't cost him money that he didn't have.

The blonde ten year-old continued humming under her breath as she finished mopping up the water she had tracked in almost a full hour after she had started the chore, but even that didn't bring her good mood down. After stowing the mop and bucket back where they belonged, she started clearing the trash off of Dante's desk, ignoring the devil hunter himself with the ease of practice as she cleaned around his legs, which were still propped up on the desk.

She threw away the empty pizza boxes, the empty Budheimer beer cans, and she gathered up the empty sundae dishes to either take back to the restaurant or wash them herself so that they could be used again. Patty decided to exercise her good mood once again, so she didn't so much as grumble at Dante for making a mess of his office and not cleaning up after himself. She didn't want to make her chances of getting Dante to agree to what she had planned any worse than they already were, and she was hoping to rack up some brownie points that she could use to her advantage.

If push came to shove, she figured that she could always challenge Dante to a game of cards and have that as the reward if she won instead of the usual ice cream cone bet. Now that she had a plan, her good mood got even better and she started humming even more, not knowing that her good mood had been making Dante suspicious.

Patty finished her routine cleaning of Dante's office, and then decided to do something else in order to get on Dante's good side and increase her chances of getting what she wanted: she walked over, picked up the antique phone on Dante's desk, and dialed the pizza place that Dante usually called. It only took a few minutes to place her pizza order (an extra large pizza with extra cheese, stuffed crust, and everything on it except for olives) and she hung up feeling satisfied that the pizza would be there in fifteen minutes or less. The pizza delivery boys apparently knew the address of the Devil May Cry office by heart, and it wouldn't take them long to deliver the pizza.

She paused when she noticed that Dante had lifted the magazine off his face and was eyeing her suspiciously, and she grinned at him before she practically skipped over to her now-dry backpack. She grabbed a spare rag and mopped up the water that stained the table and floor under the backpack, then tossed the rag in the general direction of the closet before she unzipped her backpack and began digging around and pulling stuff out.

The blonde young girl set the box of microwavable popcorn, the bottles of soda, and – most importantly – at least three stacks of various movies. It had taken her a while to decide which movies she should buy, and even longer to save up the money to buy the movies, since she had spent the money she had gotten from the other Patty Lowell on clothes and toys for herself and the other kids at the orphanage.

Patty hummed another song she had heard Dante play on the jukebox happily as she neatly arranged the stacks of movies, and then practically skipped over to the small cabinet where Dante kept his small stock of dishes, rummaging around until she gave a small cheer when she found what she was looking for, holding up the large popcorn bowl triumphantly. She set the popcorn bowl on the counter, retrieved the box of microwavable popcorn and set it next to the popcorn bowl, and then began the task of making enough popcorn to fill up the large bowl on the counter.

She followed the directions written on the box and within fifteen minutes had a large bowl filled with warm, buttery popcorn. She was grinning ear-to-ear as she picked up the bowl and carried it back to the table that currently held the T.V. and the stacks of movies, along with the bottles of soda. She set the popcorn down beside the T.V. and perked up when someone knocked on the door and she heard a voice saying pizza delivery and repeating her order before she grabbed the money she'd set aside to pay for the pizza and ran to answer the door.

The ten year-old girl handed over the money, received her change and the pizza itself, and the pizza boy left looking stunned and confused after having actually been paid for the pizza.

Patty grinned happily as she practically skipped over to the table, set the hot pizza box next to the bowl full of warm popcorn, and then looked over to where she'd last seen Dante, behind his desk taking a nap with a magazine over his face, only to blink when he wasn't there. She looked around, letting out a small shriek when she turned around and there he was, standing right behind her and looking curious and wary at the same time.

The devil hunter looked from Patty, to the pizza, to the popcorn, to the stack of movies, back to Patty, and then back to movies, the dots beginning to connect themselves in his head, and he had a sneaking suspicion about what Patty wanted that had her in such a good mood. Of course, this time it had the added bonus of not costing him any money and he got pizza, popcorn, and soda out of it…Dante shrugged one shoulder before he fell backwards to land on the sofa, resting one foot on the opposite thigh in a relaxed position as he threw his arms across the back of the couch, his blue eyes holding an amused glint as he waited for Patty to say what she wanted to say and to ask what she wanted to ask.

The blonde girl looked sheepish as she looked at her feet and idly scuffed one shoe against the rug as she began, "Dante, I was wondering if you would – you know – mind watching some movies with me? I promise you can pick some of the movies, and I even got your favorite pizza!" Her wide eyes looked hopeful, along with her wide grin, since she knew that it was highly unlikely that Dante would refuse free pizza, soda, and popcorn.

She was proven right when Dante pretended to think about for a minute, then smirked before he said, "Sure, why not?" and reached for the still-warm pizza box.

Patty grinned widely as she grabbed the movie on top of the first stack and quickly set up the T.V. so that they could watch the movies she'd brought. The first movie was Bolero in Summer, a movie based on her favorite soap opera and one she thought would be perfect for kicking off her and Dante's movie night, even though the devil hunter always complained about having to watch anything 'girly' or something like that.

The next hours flew by as she and Dante sat on the couch eating popcorn and drinking soda, and she was especially happy since she had managed to fight off Dante long enough to snag a slice of the pizza. Of course, what made the movie night really great were the comments that Dante made about certain movies when he wasn't making gagging noises at sappy romance scenes that even she thought were over the top…

"…Wait, so if Alice is sleeping with Derek, who's sleeping with Amanda, who's sleeping with Greg, then who's that in the bedroom with Tiffany?"

"…You know, I once killed a demon that looked exactly like that guy…oh geez, I hope he doesn't have a brother…"

"…Seriously, did that guy just get buried under a pile of fish?..."

"…Okay, why did that idiot just go outside when he knows there's a murderer running around?"

"…That is so stupid, I actually can't think up anything sarcastic enough to say about it…"

"…No, don't do it! There's a dead body in there...Damn, he did it….I wonder how he's going to get out of prison without the pickaxe under the bed?"

Were only a few of Dante's comments that had her laughing so hard her sides hurt and she had to pause the movies to catch her breath. The devil hunter himself was smirking as he tossed popcorn into his mouth and snickering under his breath as he leaned back and took a swig of soda, surprised that he was actually having fun watching movies with Patty, though he had to admit that a lot of them were pretty funny, especially the low-budget monster flicks.

The night practically sped by in fast forward, and both Dante and Patty were so busy laughing and commenting on the movies that they only became aware of the fact that it was 3 o'clock in the morning when the phone on Dante's desk rang and he glanced at the clock when he reluctantly got up to answer it, though it turned out to be a wrong number and Dante couldn't decide if that was a good thing or a bad thing…

After the last movie ended (it was an action movie with a lot of explosions that Dante liked, and the finale had the devil hunter on the edge of his seat cheering) there was a minor battle over who slept where, but somehow they both wound up sleeping on the couch, a smile on their faces while the blue T.V. screen provided a small amount of light to illuminate the dark room.

Of course, the following morning they got into a fight over who's turn it was to fix (or in Dante's case, order) breakfast, which resulted in Patty hitting Dante in the face with a glob of whipped cream and Dante upending a bottle of ketchup over Patty's head…

But that's another story entirely.

Hey all! This is my first foray into writing for the Devil May Cry fandom and I hope I did alright! I think Patty is an underrated character (she doesn't even have her name on the character list, which I think is majorly unfair) and there need to be more fics with her in them, and I'm glad that I was able to help out in that regard. ^_^ I hope you all enjoyed reading this story as much as I enjoyed writing it, and as always constructive criticism is welcome! Please review and tell me what you think!

I would like to thank Night Companion and Sin Oan for encouraging me to write this fic, and I highly recommend you check out their stories, since they are both amazing authors.