[AnnualAffair]

When the Sparda brothers stepped out of the cab after paying their dues, it was still in the early afternoon. As the afternoon sun bore down on the top of their heads, their clean white hair almost reflecting the brilliant whiteness.

It had been long since the last time Dante's hair had been this white. While he did take showers every day, he had never truly paid attention to scrubbing out all the dirt from his hair. But specifically, for today, Dante had spent a full two hours in the shower washing out the dirt that had collected over the past year, restoring his white hair back to its full glory.

Neither man talked to each other as they paused to scan the area spread out in front of them. There was only a single woman standing in front of a tombstone by herself in the bright weekday afternoon, shedding silent tears for a loved one passed. Vergil quietly tapped his brother on the shoulder, directing Dante's attention to acknowledge the presence of the woman standing at the far corner of the graveyard. Wordlessly, Dante nodded.

Behind them, the cab rumbled away and returned a still silence to the graveyard.

Summer had blown past in a wink, and the temperatures were slowly falling in the recent days. Even with the bright sun overhead, Vergil still felt dry coolness on his face as they started to make their way opposite from where the woman stood. The only sounds that both men made was the small crunch of dead leaves beneath their boots, slicing through the silence like a recently-sharpened knife.

The grave for Sparda and Eva was separated from the rest of the graveyard, atop a small slope beside a tree that had grown solid and sturdy over the years, providing a comfortable shade against the sunlight during the hot summer days, and a good shelter against cold wind in strong summer rains.

The brothers exchanged no words as they scaled the small slope to reach the peak, Vergil setting his bag down in front of the tombstones that held his parents name and year of death. Sparda's tombstone had no year of birth because nobody knew how old he had been when he died. Vergil had only found about his mother's age (upon death) a few years back and had her tombstone changed to accommodate that information, and so it appeared to be newer and relatively cleaner than his father's tombstone.

Vergil aimed a light kick at his brother's side when Dante plopped down unceremoniously on the floor beside his bag, bending to unzip it, then retrieving the cloth that sat on the top of everything that he had brought along. Throwing it at his brother's face, Vergil's only instruction was "clean everything" before setting about his work pulling out the items he had brought along with him.

A picnic mat was set up in front of the tombstones, and then an empty tray. A container of packed sandwich left by a grateful client following a successful hunt followed the tray, and with those things removed, Vergil held the bottom of his bag lightly, and upturned it over the tray.

"If the lights run out at the joint, you're going out to get candles." Dante commented after looking over at the sound of heavy things landing on the tray made out of malleable aluminum foil.

"Just clean." Vergil answered shortly, standing the candles that had fallen out from the bag upright. He counted nine of them, not nearly enough to last for the whole afternoon. Still, he had requested for backup and had to make do with what he had at the moment as he began to arrange them according to size.

Dante was done wiping down the tombstones quickly in his haphazard fashion, but both Sparda men doubted that anyone would seriously bother about the state of cleanliness of two blocks of stone erected on the soil. Even the owners of the tombstone had not bothered, and thus the cleaning process had been more of manners than any real need for hygiene.

"Do you want some food in you first?" Vergil asked when Dante returned to stand beside him, shoes off on the picnic mat in front of the tombstones and the rag discarded.

"Nah, I had leftovers for breakfast." The man lightly patted his stomach to gesture accordingly to the meaning of his words. "And if I ate anything more, she might make me puke from listening to her non-stop nagging."

"Don't let her hear these words. You will never get the end of it." Vergil warned, removing a lighter from within the folds of his coat. "You ready?"

"Wait, wait." Dante stopped Vergil. A moment of silence passed between them as Dante drew in a deep breath, and held it in his chest. Vergil found himself doing the same unconsciously, and there was a strange moment of coincident unison as they let their breath go together slowly. There was a special type of emotional preparation to be needed.

"Okay, I'm ready." Dante announced as he stuffed his hands in the pockets of his faded red duster. "At least, I hope."

Vergil did not give Dante any more chances to chicken out before he stepped forwards, knelt down and careful lit the biggest and fattest candle of the lot –which was not particularly huge in the first place. It took a short while to get the wick lit steadily owing to a brief gust of wind, but it was soon that both brothers stood side by side watching as the small flame flicker on the wick.

"Prepare yourself." Vergil said in a signal that he was about to move on to the next stage, and out of the corner of his eyes watched as Dante raised both hands to plug his ears with his forefingers. It was an honestly wise move, something that he might have done as well if he was not the one in charge of conducting the next step.

From the pocket of his coat, Vergil brought out a flask, twisted the cap open and tilted it lightly over the fire with accurate aim. Grainy sand poured out steadily, free-falling into the tiny flame dancing on the wick, and disappearing quickly in a wisp of small white smoke. Once there was enough smoke coming from the abused flame, though, it began to gather in an unnatural manner. The smoke continuously rose, but instead of dissipating, only seemed to simply gather to fill into some sort of invisible humanoid container.

This unnatural scene had happened enough time for both men to no longer feel surprised at how fast the whole process took, and it was less than a minute that passed before colors began to fill in on the mist that was solidifying and taking on a solid figure.

"COME TO ME, MY BABIES!" The loud cry pierced through the serene silence of the graveyard, and despite having already expected it, both Vergil and Dante still jerked in surprise when the humanoid figure suddenly rushed towards them with open arms.

"Mom, I thought I told you to stop doing that before you're completely filled in. It's nightmare material when something white suddenly comes screaming and rushing at you." Dante complained as he reached up to ease a bit of space between him and the figure that was becoming more and more distinct as the seconds passed.

By the time both men had removed themselves from the figure's tight embrace, she had already been formed completely: even with her soft red shawl spread around her shoulders and arms, and the brilliant straight blond hair that could make any woman jealous.

"Come, let your mother see how the both of you have been since last year!" Eva declared happily, not allowing her son's complain to destroy her one-sided, clearly unbalanced amount of happiness.

"It has been a quiet year, Mother." Vergil reported, suffering in silence as Eva started with him, sandwiching his head between her palms and tilting it up, down, left and right to carefully inspect for any tell-tale wounds, scars or anything new that had not been there for the entire year that they had not seen each other.

"Things will never be quiet with the both of you." Eva answered knowingly, satisfied with what she had seen from his face, and quickly moving on to run her hands down his shoulders, arms, hands and waist to measure (very roughly) if he had lost any meat anywhere. "But at least growing up is making you care for yourself better. You're in good shape, Vergil."

"Thank you, Mother." He answered despite the fact that he didn't actually need her praise or assessment. Still, it was nice to hear her acknowledging his actions, praising him freely and honestly. At his current age, the only person who would ever be willing to give him such compliments without expecting anything back or without holding a hidden meaning, was his mother.

"Come here, Dante." Eva was done with her assessment of her eldest son and quickly beckoned the younger one over, who did so reluctantly. Vergil knew the secret behind that reluctance –instead of losing weight, Dante had instead gained more over the past year. It was the result of Dante's undying love for pizzas, the lack of care about a proper diet, and slowing digestive system thanks to old age.

"Hello, Father." Vergil greeted out of pure manners at the man who remained standing in front of his own tombstone, a distant smile drawn across his face at the sight of the family reunited.

"Vergil." Sparda nodded in acknowledgement of his son's greeting, beginning to scan up and down for his son's well-being. Like Eva, Sparda clearly did not find any issues with well-groomed and well-dressed Vergil, who remained silently accepting the quiet concern of a father. The first few times this had happened the previous years, both Vergil and Dante had protested that they were all grown up and perfectly capable of taking care of themselves. But parents had their ways of forcing their children to listen, and eventually the two men who were already well into the forties and reaching fifty had resigned themselves to concerned parents' health-checkups.

"Mom, stop it!" Dante's whine temporarily took everyone's attention, to which both Vergil and Sparda turned to find Eva standing in front of her son, lifting up his shirt to reveal the belly beginning to show. The expression that wrote on his mother's face was funny to say the least.

"You're embarrassing me, Mom!" Dante complained, stepping back and smoothing his shirt back down over his belly.

"There's nothing embarrassing about showing your family your bare skin. We've all seen you in your most natural state, especially when you ran around the house in your stark nakedness and waving your butt at us when we tried to dress you up." Eva answered dismissively, bringing up a memory of an image that Vergil did not want to remember. "But if you're embarrassed, good for you. You're fat, Dante! How did you let yourself become so fat?"

"I'm not fat." Dante protested despite reality having shown exactly how much he had put on. "I'm huggable."

"That's not something I want to hug." Eva's reply was relentless, immune to her son's look of horror. "The limit to fatness that I accept is your father."

With his wife's finger pointed at him, Sparda proudly thrust his chest out and showed off his body devoid of any excess, unwanted and unneeded meat.

"No fair. You or Dad don't have to eat to survive, so it's only natural that he's not going to get fat." Dante complained. "You can't compare me to a dead person."

"Fine, then I compare you to your brother. Vergil hasn't become fat, so why have you?"

"That's because he-" Dante sighed heavily, rolling his eyes. "Can we not talk about this, please?"

Vergil rolled his eyes as well at his brother's lack of persuasion skills.

"Mother, Father, let's take a seat. There are many things to cover." Vergil invited, gesturing to the picnic mat set out beneath them.

As spiritual embodiments of dead people, Eva and Sparda did not actually need seats, but still they did as invited, sitting themselves casually. Eva made sure, however, to sit between both her sons, holding one hand each in both her hands as if they were about to jump up and run away like five-year-old boys.

Then, like how they had done for the past ten years, the siblings began to update their parents on everything that had happened in their lives for the past year. It was honestly not much that Vergil could update his parents about.

The year had started off quietly: there was a 2-week-long demon hunt in the neighboring country for the both of them, and they had spent 14 days trying to track the elusive demon and 5 minutes to actually be done with it. Then, in the next month, somebody had dropped a box of chocolates on the doorstep of Devil May Cry on Valentine's Day, and launched Dante into a mystery case of finding out who the intended recipient of the chocolates was. That case had kept Dante entertained for two months before Vergil revealed that a young boy had come knocking on the joint door the day after the chocolate was found, requesting to have it back because he had dropped it on the way home. Dante had proceeded to sleep through the entire summer holidays with the excuse of not wanting to be outside and witnessing the youngsters in their prime. Then, like a bear waking up from hibernation, Dante had proceeded to spend every waking moment stuffing his stomach and mouth full of food. This continued for a full month before debt-chasers came knocking on their doors, to which Dante answered by disappearing for two weeks before coming back to attend another large-scale demon hunt session with a few other demon hunters, lasting another full month and thankfully clearing his debt.

Throughout Dante's routine year, Vergil had simply gone about his own routine: waking up every day, accepting a mission that sometimes-lasted hours, days or weeks, occasionally dropping in to visit his son and coming home at the end of the day to face a brother who intended to waste the rest of his life away.

"And that covers everything that your sons have been doing." Vergil concluded after long, not surprised to see his mother with an expression of disgust. Eva had expressed herself clearly that she wanted to hear about the presence of a female figure in either of her sons' lives the next time they talked, but it appeared that none of that had happened. From Vergil's recounting, there didn't seem to be a single effort put in the area of skirt-chasing.

"Have the two of you become infertile, or did testosterone turn into estrogen? What happened to your promise that you would go out looking for a woman to spend the rest of your lives with?" Eva demanded seriously, alternating her gaze between her sons, both of whom managed a look that conveyed a mixture of resignation and nonchalance.

"You might have forgotten this, Mother, but we are no longer the young boys you continue to view us as. Much as Dante hates to admit it, we're already old men by all rights. There aren't many women who are looking for old men as romantic partners, much less penniless ones like Dante." Vergil answered honestly, to which Dante appeared to prepare some sort of protest, hesitate for a moment to actually process his brother's words, then closed his mouth upon the realization that Vergil had been speaking nothing but the honest truth. Well, and also the fact that neither of them had actually been going out with the intent of getting a woman to marry and settle down for the rest of their lives with.

"But don't you want to make your own families? Your father and I had such a wonderful time bringing you two up." Eva's words might have been a little more believable if her husband was not shaking his head slightly while sitting at her side, a twisted look of disgust written on his face.

"I have a family." Vergil clarified. "Dante and you and Father."

"You know I don't mean that. What about a woman who will understand and bring out your softer side? Children to play with? Sons and daughters to bring up and watch them grow to be the cutest little things ever to have graced your lives? Stop shaking your head, Sparda, I know you and I have different views about our sons, but at least go with me on this." Eva's speech about the goodness of children was comically interrupted when she finally had enough of her husband's undermining her by shaking his head desperately to refute her words. The domesticity of a demon who had once been feared and terrorized all other lower-level demons could now be clearly seen in the way Sparda quietly shrugged his protest away, giving in to his wife without a second word.

"I think you're forgetting the fact that Vergil had a son, and Nero is the furthest away from a 'cute little thing'. If anything, he's the most disgusting and mouthy devilish being that has come into our lives." Dante put in. Vergil wasn't sure if he should feel affronted at his brother's insulting of his son, but he could find no real evidence to refute the truth.

"Pot calling the kettle black, Uncle Dante." The intrusion into the conversation made everyone in the small family circle turn around to find the man in topic, his wife and the newest little addition to the Sparda family coming up the small slope. "And I never thought that the two of you were the type to go on picnics in graveyards. Have the two of you finally lost your minds and gone senile to the point that I'm going to have to stick you in retirement homes?"

"Nero, you shouldn't be saying that to your elders." The quiet admonishment from the gentle Kyrie was enough to make the man stall any more insults he had prepared.

Vergil and Dante struggled not to wince at the high-pitched scream of joy that their mother gave at the sight of the small family approaching them. Out of the corner of his eyes, though, Vergil did see his father break out into a wide smile. For some reasons, the smile that Sparda had given upon seeing his sons had been much dimmer than the one written on his face now.

"If anyone is to lose their minds, it's far from me. You'll be in a mental institute faster than you can try having me in a retirement home." Dante's reply to the challenge from his nephew was not much better, but Kyrie thankfully controlled the situation well by landing a warning hand on her husband's forearm. The couple took their time removing their shoes to step on the picnic mat –Nero carefully fussing over his wife –and the Sparda siblings moved to open the circle up to allow them to sit, Kyrie juggling the load between her arms carefully.

"How have you been?" Vergil could not help but ask as he looked over at the pile of chubby flesh dozing off in the sunlight. The baby had been wrapped up tightly by a careful mother, and enjoying his nap time with a tiny thumb inserted between wet, sleep and nibbling lips.

"I'm coping well. Thank you for asking." Kyrie's answer came with a brilliant smile that honestly did not looking anything like the haggard and tired faces of new-mothers that Vergil had associated post-pregnancy with. "Damon just fell asleep on the cab ride here, so let's do our best to not wake him up."

The warning was very well given, and Vergil gave a pointed look over to his mother, who had already immediately come up close to the mother-and-son pair, making all sorts of strange noises and sounds that only women gave to the sight of young babies. It was a very good thing that neither Kyrie nor the young one could hear Eva right now, because the baby would no doubt be startled awake if he could hear the strange sounds his great-grandmother was making.

"What? Bite me, Vergil. I didn't get to see Nero when he was a baby, so I get to make stupid noises at my great-grandson." Eva clearly caught the look from her son, and Vergil immediately raised his hands up in defense without offering any protest. At the very least, the woman knew that she was making stupid noises.

"So, are you going to explain to me why you called us here? And if this is another one of your funny ideas, I'm disowning you, Dante." Nero demanded, looking between his uncle on his left and father to his right. He had been confused when his father had directed him to sit on their side, forming a strange partial circle with two missing spots and a burning candle in a tray half-filled with already melted wax.

"We're inviting you to a family affair." Vergil interrupted sharply before Dante could air his protest about being disowned, and wanting to be the one doing the disowning instead. "We have wanted to invite you into this for a while, but Kyrie got pregnant with Damon, and we didn't want to scare her or the baby."

"A family affair that's going to scare her?" Nero clearly had his guards up following his father's words and it did not take an idiot to see him leaning closer to his wife and child.

"Look at that; he's so protective! He reminds me of you, Sparda." Eva squealed happily, to which Vergil did his best to ignore.

"It is heartening to see that at least someone in the family inherited this protectiveness and love for his family –even against his own elders." Sparda's compliment from his deep voice full of approval stung Vergil a little. Was that a subtle dig that his father had made at him about getting a woman pregnant with Nero, then leaving and not even realizing that he had a son until Nero was already 20?

"It isn't anything bad, but there might be a little shock first." Vergil reassured quickly. "Did you bring the candles that I told you to?"

"Yes." Nero said as he brought out the items from his bag, lining them up in front of them. "And before you suggest anything crazy, fires and babies don't mix. Damon doesn't light up well."

"Nero!" The startled exclamation from Kyrie made the man chuckle, grinning. Vergil struggled not to react to his own father chuckling along. There were some serious suspicions about Sparda clearly favoring his grandson way more than his son despite the fact that Nero had never met Sparda in person before –at least until today.

"I have no intention of lighting your son on fire." Vergil clarified carefully, ignoring his mother's nag at him to get him to move the process along faster so that she could officially be introduced to her grandson and granddaughter-in-law. "But do light up one of the candles on the tray."

"In the middle of broad daylight?"

"Yes." Vergil did not allow the skepticism of his son's question affect him. Shrugging to himself, Nero did as he was told, and soon there were two candles standing side by side, flickering flames dancing and almost touching at times.

"Before we start, the two of you should take in a deep breath. And Kyrie, please remember to hold on to your son." Vergil announced, pointedly ignoring Dante's stupid grin as he awaited for Nero's and Kyrie's expression. Sparda had thankfully dragged Eva back to her spot, where the excited grandmother did her best to compose herself in her most elegant state. Truly, Eva looked like the most sophisticated woman who had graced the surface of the earth with her existence –as long as she wasn't nagging the heads off her husband and sons, or going mad over the sight of a baby.

"I usually don't extend this to you, but if this is also a crazy idea from you, Dad, I'm disowning you too." Nero forewarned, but Vergil paid no heed as he brought out his flask full of sand again, and poured it over Nero's fire. The same mist that had crafted the image of Vergil's parents crept from the small flame and seemed to be magically attracted to the two of them sitting peacefully on the picnic mat, gentle smiles written across their faces. Vergil could see that his mother was struggling really hard to stop herself from exploding in her excitement and joy.

The first indication that the couple could see something was a small jolt of surprise, and Nero's face of confusion as he took in the faces of the two people who had appeared out of nowhere all of a sudden.

"Trish? And some old guy?" The first question that dropped from Nero's lips made Dante's grin grow even bigger. Vergil himself struggled to hide his own mirth at the sight of his father's smile turning brittle. 'Some old guy' was clearly not what Sparda expected himself to be described as by his grandson.

"Oh, my god." Kyrie's exclamation was soft and gentle, and Vergil wondered briefly if he should volunteer himself to carry the sleeping Damon at the sight of the woman beginning to tremble very obviously, her face full of shock and... was that fear?

"What's wrong?" Nero was quick to ignore the newcomers as he turned back to his wife, confused at her trembling. Vergil caught a small threatening glare made his way, as if promising a very bad ending for him if anything else were to happen.

"It's them, Nero..." Kyrie's usually soft voice was even softer now as she practically whispered to him. "It's them!"

"Them who?" Poor Nero Sparda was clearly not catching the ball.

"It's them... the Legendary Dark Knight!" Kyrie's words reminded Vergil of the fact that not only had Kyrie grown up in Fortuna where there had been a very ridiculous religion followed, but she had also been a songstress for the church of that ridiculous religion, which perhaps had made her a little too religious for the current situation.

"Please, don't kneel down to us!" Sparda burst out at the mad scramble that his granddaughter-in-law tried to do with the baby still in her arms. "There is no need to pay your respects or whatever to us. We are not gods or holy beings; merely spirits."

"Yeah, you'll startle Damon awake." Nero was clearly on the side of whoever who could calm his wife down. "Calm down, Kyrie. We can talk things out."

"B-But..."

"Everything will be fine, darling. We are nothing special, really. Just a pair of grandparents who have been dying to meet you since the day Vergil told us about you!" Eva's excitement was practically leaking from her voice by now, which probably was not a very good idea for Kyrie's mental state of health.

"Mother, Father, please give them some space." Vergil spoke up, smoothly scooping the thankfully still-sleeping baby out from a shocked mother's grasp. He distantly remembered one of Dante's lady friends saying once that babies could feel the emotions of the people holding on to them, and he certainly didn't want the baby to wake up crying because of his mother's shock.

"There really isn't a need to treat them like gods. Dad's a demon and Mom's a... well, she's a demon too where it counts." Dante's interjection was not timed very well as Sparda gave his son a hard knuckle to the head for his rude words.

"Dad and Mom? Mother and Father?" Nero demanded, looking as if he was inches away from grabbing his son and wife and going running away from this place. "You can't expect me to believe that these two people are Sparda and Eva?"

"That's exactly what I expect you to believe. They are your grandparents, and they have been wishing to see you since a long time ago." Vergil introduced with a gesture over to his parents.

"They're supposed to be dead?"

"They are." Vergil nodded, distracted temporarily at the sight of Dante opening his mouth to put in another inappropriate interjection. Fortunately, this time, Sparda saw it coming and wrapped an unforgiving hand around Dante's mouth before any words could come up. The struggle between father and son was comical at best, but it also showed the young demon hunter exactly how strong this man who his grandfather was. Dante was a Legendary Demon Hunter himself, and Nero had gone up against Dante enough times to know that even though they both had demon blood running through their veins, Dante's years of experience and training made the older man an unbeatable target for Nero. And this person named Sparda was overpowering Dante effortlessly without even breaking into a sweat. "They are spirits right now bound to this earth for as long as we are."

"Okay, whatever they are, they need to take a seat back and let Kyrie breathe. And keep Damon away from them until I'm sure they're friendly." Nero warned with a pointed look to his father still holding on carefully to the sleeping baby.

"We're always friendly until someone threatens the safety of our family." Sparda answered evenly, but didn't attempt more to allow silence as Nero did his best to calm his wife down. It took five minutes to get Kyrie calm enough to receive Damon back in her arms, to which Vergil was surprised to find his mother able to sit calmly and wait instead of exploding in her excitement to meet and talk to her grandson.

"She reminds me of myself back in those years." Eva's comment was made with a kind, elegant smile over to Kyrie who was jumping the baby up and down lightly when Damon stirred a little during the changeover of hands. "And baby Damon reminds me of the two of you."

"I'm sure I was a cuter baby than that ball of fats." It was a bad idea for Sparda to have already removed his hand from Dante's lips, because the inappropriate comments came up again.

"I cannot comment on appearance, but that one is already a hundred times quieter than you were. You made all sorts of annoying noises all the time. Even when you were asleep." Sparda's honest facts was spoken with such a tone of normalcy that Vergil could not decide if his father was trying to be insulting or simply just factual.

"Whatever it is, Damon is cuter than any one of you right now." Eva interrupted irritably. "Stop talking, or you'll wake Damon up."

"I bet that one's a demon when he wakes up too." Dante continued, but in a much quieter tone than before to avoid being nagged to death by his mother. This time, though, he was thankfully ignored as attention turned back to the young couple.

"I-I'm sorry about my freak out, Lord Sparda. I never thought that I would be able to meet the Legendary Dark Knight in person..." Kyrie apologized softly, her face a fair shade of red.

"Darling, you're already doing a lot better than our sons. They ignored us the first time we appeared and pretended that we were figments of their illusions until their father knocked their heads together." Eva answered sweetly, clearly taking a very doting view on the only other official woman of the Sparda family. In the male-dominated family, it made sense that Eva was delighted to finally meet the only other addition who did not have a male organ swinging between legs.

"I'm honestly still having a hard time believing that I'm seeing my grandparents right before my eyes." Nero interjected. "It makes it a lot harder to forget the fact that I'm the grandson of the Legendary Dark Knight."

"Why will you want to forget that you are my grandson?" The beginnings of a frown drew across Sparda's brow. Many years before, back when his parents were still very alive and well, Vergil had been scared of that frowning expression that meant his father's silent displeasure.

Now, he could not be less bothered at his father's displeasure. He had gone through many years without a proper guide because Sparda had not been there to guide his path. The man –no matter how 'Legendary' he was –had no rights to be disappointed about Vergil's choices in life.

"Because you're so legendary you became a god-like figure in our religion in Fortuna. And I'm supposed to be related to someone who was powerful enough to become a god? It was a little too hard for me to accept it, so I just chose to forget the fact that I'm supposed to be your grandson. It is just easier to accept that I am Vergil's son, and leave it at that." Nero confessed. "But you two standing here in front of me is forcing me to accept that fact, and it's honestly a little hard right now."

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't you also have a title the same way the humans attached one to me, Vergil? If I'm supposed to be the Legendary Dark Knight Sparda, then aren't you the Legendary Dark Slayer? And aren't you the Legendary Demon Hunter, Dante?" Sparda received nods in affirmation. "Your father and uncle have 'Legendary' in their titles too. Why aren't they god-status for you?"

"Because it's Dante." The straight answer implied many things that strangely enough, everyone in the family understood without further explanations. "As for Dad, it has more to do with the fact that I served his ass to him on a platter once when we were fighting. It takes the god-like feeling out of the equation if I could kick his ass."

"Nero! Language." Kyrie warned quietly, lightly covering Damon's ears despite the fact that the young one was still too young to try speaking, and too asleep to even process that an unfriendly word had been spoken.

"You managed to kick your father's ass?" Sparda ignored the soft disciplinarian hush. "What the hell were you doing, Vergil, to get your ass served by your own son?"

"Sparda! Language!" Eva's warning was much less gentle as she applied a hard knuckle to her husband's temple, then rushed to the baby and covered Kyrie's hands with her own as if double-coverage was going to help. If anything, Vergil supposed that Eva's action could only possibly serve to disturb the sleeping boy more than actually protect his ears from unwanted words.

"I was exhausted from Dante." Vergil explained. "And I was still getting used to myself again after recombining from V and Urizen."

"Excuses." Dante interjected unhelpfully. "He's just embarrassed that he got his ass beat."

"DANTE! Language!" Eva had somehow mastered the ability of softly hissing her displeasure to convey the same amount of anger but in almost a whisper.

"Mom, you know Damon is not old enough or even awake enough to learn how to use that word." Dante protested, but was silenced from more protests by a murderous-looking glare from the overprotective mother.

Eva settled herself down comfortably beside Kyrie, smiling at the sleeping baby with a face so full of love that the younger mother could not help but forget that Eva was supposed to be the wife of the Ex-Feudal Lord of Fortuna.

"Do you want to hold him?" Kyrie offered quietly to her grandmother-in-law, watching as beautiful expressions wrote across Eva's face. Eva did not bother playing the game of manners by politely declining –she gladly scooped the baby into her arms, once more cooing and making soft noises and rhythmically rocking to keep the young one asleep.

The men watched the scene, smiles of varying degrees drawn all across their faces.

"Seems like all you need to bridge your mother and your daughter-in-law is a baby." Sparda nudged his son's shoulder.

"What am I going to need to bridge you and Nero, then?" Vergil answered, looking evenly at both men in topic.

"Me, of course." The proud declaration came from the grinning Dante, and all three men experienced a moment of shared epiphany as they exchanged looks.

"Of course. Dante. Our best bridge." Sparda nodded, standing up. There was a small flash, and a familiar sword appeared in the spirit's hand.

"I'm sure you will put in all efforts to connect them." Vergil agreed, following his father's suit and summoning Yamato.

"I'm still new to this, but do give me pointers, Granddad." Nero followed his father's suit and suddenly men of three different generations of the Sparda bloodline stood towering over a confused and increasingly suspicious Dante.

"Of course, my grandson." Sparda declared happily, and Dante understood everything from the jovial smile spread across his father's face.

"Oh no."

"Yes." Vergil nodded, the slight hint of a smile tugging at the corner of his lip. "Run."

And Dante ran. He ran like his life depended on it, because his father, brother and nephew had all come after him all of a sudden.

________________________________________________________________________________

The day had to end, and the signal of it was the candle flames flickering, wick barely surviving above the pool of wax that now filled the tray to the brim.

"Let me hold Damon one last time." Eva begged, to which Kyrie rushed to obey, depositing the now-awake and noisy little boy into her grandmother-in-law's gentle arms. Damon spluttered and blubbered, but he clearly recognized family in the way he smiled and laughed in Eva's arms, grabbing her long blond hair and her red shawl in his tiny fingers.

"He is really lovely." Kyrie had never known that she craved it, but her grandfather-in-law's compliment of her son filled warmth in every corner of her heart. The Legendary Dary Knight Sparda, her husband's grandfather, had expressed that Damon was a lovely baby.

The baby in question laughed loudly when Sparda leaned over his wife's shoulder to bop the baby's round little nose, then hiccupped, to which Eva turned quickly to give an accusative protective glare to her husband. The mannerisms of the couple had spoken of nothing but a married pair who had learnt exactly which buttons of each other's to press and which to avoid like the plague over many years that had been spent together. Watching the best example of a family created out of love in front of her, Kyrie could only pray that one day, she would share the same connection with Nero like how Eva shared with Sparda.

"Mom, Dad, I think you're forgetting you have to say goodbye to use too." Dante spoke up, waving his arms to catch attention.

"Just this morning you were praying that Mother would be distracted by something enough that she wouldn't nag the life out of you, and now you are inviting her attention?" Vergil leaned into his brother's ear to whisper.

"Yeah, but I feel weird seeing her all gentle and stuff. She's a demon!"

"She's your mother." Sparda glared, but softened his expression when he turned back to his wife to convince her to return the baby.

Nero received the boy this time, though there seemed to be a little struggle as the young one tried to twist and return to Eva's arms. Nero knew that if he were to accede to his son's demands to be held by Eva, then there would be no end to the cries. He thus held back Damon's struggles until the young one accepted the fact that he was not about to return to the soft breasts of the woman smiling lovingly at him. Briefly, he wondered if his son understood the significance of the couple standing in front of them, but what could a nine-month old like Damon possibly know? All Damon could do was cry, drink his milk, sleep and make noises or a mess of things.

"Well, then we will see you next year again, Mother, Father." Vergil announced, standing on the correct side of the undrawn line separating the spirits from the living beings.

"Bring Kyrie and Damon again next year!" Eva exclaimed with tears brimming in the corners of her eyes.

"Mom!" Dante whined.

"She means you and your brother and Nero too." Sparda added in support, then turned seriously to his grandson. "Stay strong and protect your family. Don't be like your father or uncle; they learnt all the wrong things from me and each other. If you have any worries about Damon's growing up process, don't be afraid to ask me next year. Your father knows nothing because he didn't watch over you growing up like how I did him, or how you're going to do for Damon."

Vergil would have liked to offer a protest, but there was really nothing he could protest about. Sparda had been speaking nothing but the truth –even if it didn't sound very nice in his ears.

"Thanks, Granddad. It's cool between us now." Nero grinned at the only man –spirit –who could so fearlessly put Vergil in a spot without even trying.

Goodbyes were said one last time before Vergil blew out the last of the flame on the candles, and the darkness of the night descended over the graveyard. The Sparda family had been talking and sharing food that Vergil and Kyrie had prepared all through the afternoon and well into the night. By the time Vergil had thumbed a torchlight on to allow Kyrie better sight, the spirits had already dissipated into the air. He remained silent at how Damon seemed to at home in the darkness –the baby had not made a single fuss at being thrown in the pitch darkness like how usual babies would.

"Bring Damon back again to see his great-grandparents." Vergil instructed his son and daughter-in-law. "it's an annual family event, and I think Sparda and Eva has more words for the two of you than they have to their own sons."

"Honestly? I'm fine with anything that gets Eva off my back. Now that I think about it, I'm going to like it when you two are around for these events." Dante agreed with a happy grin. "And make sure you bring Damon back when he can speak, because his great-grandad is going to color his vocabulary up great."

"What?" Kyrie demanded, but Dante's grin was guiltless and unrepentant.

"Where do you think I learnt my language from?"