Author's Note: 2 years and 18 chapters later, I finally get to write the scene I've been waiting for. And more to come! This is the product of horrible fangirl writing, everyone!

Previously on Finding Paradiso with Dante at Kat's Headquarters...

Dante had no clues to where they, Vergil and Kat, could be or where Gemma was. Nothing in the hideout helped. The research papers he found only led to the understanding of Gemma's demise. He left the destruction of the headquarters and strutted down the alley infuriated. It was going to be a long day, and he was exhausted. He didn't have a minute to sleep.

But he didn't need to now. There was no way he could. Whether it was a hallucination or reality, a streak trail of long, black hair and pale, fair skin caught his eye at the main street. Was he seeing things? The long black hair could have belonged to anyone, but for some reason, he wanted to believe it was someone he knew. No one in this hellhole had paler skin than one person he knew. Dante ran to the road and looked in the direction of the running figure. It was a female. She was jogging at this point. He sprinted for her, and she intently turned her jog into a sprint as well. She heard him running behind her. Dante's breath was rough and hesitant. He didn't want to get the wrong person mixed up. He wasn't hallucinating, like he thought. He couldn't help but to yell.

"Gemma!" He called out. The woman stopped. There was no doubt. He walked forward to stand at an arms' reach. From behind, she looked like she was shaking in fear. It wasn't the cold air, but the nerves in her body.

"Dante?!" She turned around, revealing her pale face, distinct brown eyes with triangular pupils, and her black bangs hanging over her eyes. She brushed them to the side. Her eyes peered at the white-haired man, bruised and tired, but his dark jacket and blue eyes were all she needed to recognize him. Her eyes watered.

Chapter 18: Reunion

Gemma couldn't take her eyes off of Dante. It felt like a century since she last saw him, and joy filled in the form of tears. She wiped them away before he could see, but he knew. In the long hours since seeing him, she tried to find a 'woman' to kill, just to get trapped and separated from her daughter by a crazy 'Dante' doppelganger, traveling through Hellfire Prison to confess to the woman she killed and coming back, it was a very exasperating time. Dante stood there, looking upon this woman, this demon who had her flesh renewed.

"You're alive..." Dante mumbled out while seeing her in one fleshy piece, "What happened to your …" He wasn't sure if he was happy or mad; he was glad to see she was still alive, but seeing her in new flesh disappointed him deeply. He wanted to ask, but it had to wait. Gemma gave him an awkward grin and crossed her arms. She felt uncomfortable.

"Please believe me, when I say it, but I didn't kill anyone! A blue demon gave me this skin! I swear, I didn't hurt any humans, Dante!" She told the truth, but it was a lie that she killed someone. Claire, the woman she met in the prison, was her victim. She was a lost soul that needed salvation and she served it to her. Dante shrugged, glanced away, but he didn't care. Finding her this fast was a relief off his shoulders. Seeing her again gave him peace.

"Alright… I believe you." He said with a smirk. The sound of her voice was relaxing to his ears. It sounded the same, husky and strong-willed, but she expressed concern and worry through her tone. She was a mother after all. It was normal of her to act that way. The moment their eyes met, Gemma couldn't resist his smirk. She couldn't resist. She ran up to him, hugged him tightly around his neck, and planted her lips against his. Time stopped between them.

Dante, shocked and stiff, didn't know what to do. A demon in human flesh was kissing him. A woman he knew in a short period of time was locking lips with him. His hands were confused. He didn't know whether to push her away or hold her. It was so sudden. But her lips against his decided for him. He put his hands on her and kissed her back. It was tender, but the second he reacted, she pulled away, with her hands over her mouth. He stared at her face, seeing it was embarrassed and confused. She stepped far from him, at least at an arm's reach. Her eyes were scared.

"I-I'm sorry! I did not mean to do that…" Gemma stuttered and let go of him, "I-I don't know what came over me, Dante. It won't happen again." Her voice trailed off. Her brown eyes drifted away from staring in his direction. She didn't know what came over her. She knew she liked him. He gave her a temporary home, support, and care for her and her daughter. He gave her fun and he gave her hope. She was grateful, yet she didn't realize she had feelings for him that extended to this point. Her cheeks warmed up from pink to red. She didn't dare try to look up; she did something that she felt was one-sided. His breath was on her now, from approaching her so closely again. She wasn't ready for what he was going to do. Smack her? Yell at her? Tell her to go away? She didn't know...

Until his hands pulled away hers from her face, he kissed her. His hands held hers tightly, so she wouldn't move them. She returned his favor quickly. She wasn't going to let this one go. She thought she did wrong by making the first move, but it seemed to have good repercussions. She didn't mind. And neither did he. The kiss became intense suddenly, famished for attention. To feel his lips hunger for hers, she felt butterflies in her stomach. This was strange to her, to feel passion like this in her current state.

He didn't let up and didn't want to. He let go of her hands and cupped her face, savoring her in his grip. He never thought her lips would feel so soft and tender. This was new to him. His dedication to finding her and trying to help her with her issue behind her knowledge had him riled, and doing this to her felt like a pleasurable punishment. Maybe he felt this way because he hadn't been desiring flesh for himself for a long time. He didn't know. All he wanted was her for the moment. He let her feel his anger, his stress, his everything into the kiss.

She held his wrists firmly during the lip lock. She didn't think of any desire to end this moment. But she had to. She couldn't let them carry on in a public setting. There were more problems in stored right now. She pressed hard against him and pulled away, gasping for air. She let go of him as he did with her. They stared at each other, awkward and confused.

"Dante, there's more important things happening right now. We need to talk." Gemma cleared her throat in a huff. They needed to regroup and discuss so many things, that they may need the night or two to re-calibrate, she thought. A solid night of sleep and another night of leisure attention seemed fit. She felt so much tension in their kiss, she felt more consideration was in order suddenly. She then ignored the idea. It wasn't a time to think about that. She looked up at Dante, who was staring at her. His eyebrows wrinkled down when he frowned in a crooked manner. She returned his frown with an obstructive lip pout.

"Where's Braith? Where is she?" Dante asked, which snapped her out of her focus. Her eyes grew weary.

"She was separated from me… by a man that looked like you!" He remained silent and stared at her. He vaguely remembered Vergil taunted him with Gemma and Braith during their fight. He understood that he would have to understand more about this soon.

"…'Kay." He replied and grabbed her hand to walk back from where he came from. She obeyed, yet was reluctant to do so. She was hindered by his short reply and by his changed behavior. Her thoughts of a night together was a dream of hers now. It was far from reality. As the two walked down the alley, the same one Dante left the headquarters, he let go of her hand; thinking she was following, Dante coughed and glanced back to see she was still there. They had a handful of subjects to talk about and starting them in a place no one knew about was the best. It was their only option at this point. Gemma saw the debris while following him. She wasn't surprised until she saw the bodies on the ground. She looked up at Dante, to see he was casual about it. She figured he was the one who did it, but that was far from the truth.

"Where are we?" She asked.

"We're at my partner's headquarters. She was attacked and kidnapped from here by my brother." He didn't hesitate to explain.

"What did you say?" Gemma was confused, "A she? And your brother?!" Dante continued walking down the hall after the rubble without saying another word. Gemma didn't know where to start. She wanted to ask more, but she remembered the man in black's face. It did look like Dante, but it made sense to her now that it was his brother. They looked so much alike, it was no wonder she mixed up the identity between them. And when he said it was a female partner, she constricted her thinking it. He never told her about anyone he knew. Her face shifted to a scowl.

"Is she an ex-lover? Your partner, I mean." She stumbled her words. She felt uncomfortable with this newfound information. She grew nervous.

"No… not really. She's just a friend. Her name's Kat. She helped me defeat Mundus. We'll meet her soon though." Dante assured her, "Are you jealous?" The snarky attitude was showing again, although from her expression, she looked skeptical rather than amused. Gemma then completely dismissed the gender identity and the whole idea. She just shared a special moment with him. She couldn't ruin it for future reference.

"No!" She protested and changed the subject, "What's your plan for this mission?" She looked back at him to see he sat down on a rolling chair and shook his head. His body, his eyes, they were all heavy with fatigue. Seeing him like this reminded her of her stamina. It was gone. The last of the energy she released was wasted on the lady she stole her clothes from. She saw a concrete block lying on the ground across from Dante and took it as a seat. She squatted low and her knees could barely touch her chin. It was unnatural sitting in the position she was it. Dante gazed at her.

"I need to find my brother. Finding him means I'll find Kat. A long time ago, the bastard thought he could use me and her to get what he wanted. Now, he's back for revenge and commanding those fucking assholes from Limbo for an army. I don't know how, but he's gone crazy for power."

"I think he is the same man that divided me and Braith. I thought I found someone to… take their skin from, but it turned out to be, I assume, your brother. He was using a recorder to trap demons like myself. But I saw the angel in him."

"Well, he's no angel." Dante coughed, "And you're no human. Yet. But I think I know how you can be." Gemma, awed by this, felt excitement and curiosity in her chest. If there was a way for her to strip her demon blood humanely, she would take it. She didn't want to repeat her fight with Dante and hoped it was the last time it happened. She didn't want to leave again. She leaned forward, showing she was intently curious.

"I found an article that had some idea about how it works." He turned around to grab the documents from the table that he placed and handed it to her. He assumed it was easier for her to read it instead of him giving her the basic idea. He was concerned about how it had to be done, and he honestly didn't want to see her die. What if she didn't come back? He watched her read and when she flipped the page to the front, her behavior changed. He took note of it. She was shocked. Her eyes looked watery again and she was about to burst. She looked up at him and back down at the paper. She didn't want to believe what she read. However, it wasn't exactly the research that scared her, but the researcher's name. She intently raised her eyes to Dante.

"Where did you get this?" She asked with a shiver in her throat, "Is Trent Richards a common name?"

"Do you know him?" Dante asked with curious eyes. He remembered pondering on the name earlier, but he thought nothing of it. Apparently, it meant something to her. Gemma couldn't answer. Her tears, instead, spoke.

Author's Note: Cheese and crackers, Gemma. Get a hold of yourself and stop crying! ... Then again, I can't blame her since she seems to only know how to express herself through tears.